NO. 257: THESE THINGS WERE TYPES

No. 257

The above heading is taken from Reprints 5267, July 1, 1913, from which article we shall use some in direct quotations, some paraphrase, and some additions of our own. Immediately under the subject we have this statement: “Now these things were our examples (Greek tupos – types), to the intent that we should not lust after evil things, as they (typical Israel) also lusted... Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples (Greek tupos – types); and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. Therefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” (1 Cor. 10:6‑12)

St. Paul’s words carry great weight with all who are “established in the Present Truth” (2 Pet. 1:12); and, while we may be deeply impressed with the King James version, its force is multiplied when we notice that in the Greek the word type is used – a type being a very exact pattern of the antitype, which is on a larger scale. Every antitype is greater than its type, as witness, for instance, the Atonement‑Day bullock, which typed the sin offering of our Lord Jesus. The gravity of St. Paul’s statement should be recognized readily when we notice that the ends, or harvests, of the Ages are referred to, considering that we ourselves are now in the final years of the Gospel‑Age harvest. “The harvest is the end of the Age” – Matt. 13:39, Dia. Literally, St. Paul says, “They are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages press down.”

Then the article proceeds to say, “A dear brother in the truth writes us at considerable length concerning the five different experiences referred to by the Apostle as ‘our types.’ The brother thinks he sees double fulfillment of these types during this harvest time.”

The first of these is mentioned in v. 6: “We should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.” The reference is to the actions in Num. 11:4‑35; and David comments thusly on the matter: “He gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.” (Psa. 106:15) Verse 7 gives the second type: “Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them,” the type for which is found in Ex. 32:1‑31. Then the third one in v. 8: “Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. The typical record is found in Num. 25:1‑18. Verse 9 describes the fourth: “Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents.” Num. 21:4‑6 gives the details on this episode. The fifth type is given in v. 10: “Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.” This type is recorded in Num. 15:37; 16:40.

SOME GENERALITIES

If “these things” were typical, as stated, then it would be of first importance to understand who is involved in the antitype; and we would say it involves the fully faithful among God’s people, the measurably faithful, and the fully unfaithful. In 1 Pet. 4:17,18, the Apostle emphasizes this conclusion: “Judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end of them be that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” The “us” in this text clearly reveals that St. Peter included himself in his query, and we are assured that he was among the fully faithful. Also, “the sinner” has reference to the measurably faithful, those that become involved in a “path of error.” (Jas. 5:20 – See Berean Comment: “He that was once a member of the Royal Priesthood.”) The third class is “the ungodly,” the fully unfaithful.

In this review we shall give only passing notice to “the ungodly,” our chief concern being with the fully faithful and the measurably faithful – the “sinner.” Before offering details, we would observe that one of the proofs of human depravity is the rise of corruption after a season of good development in most human movements. While this has been true in the world, we shall concern ourselves only with its action in the Church. And in this connection, we would say that all the Little Flock movements during the entire Gospel Age have been followed by more or less current Great Company Movements; and we have outstanding and compelling type for this in the case of Samuel and Saul.

In the Samuel‑Saul record Samuel is a type of the Little Flock, especially in its leaders; and we notice of him that he is one of the few Old Testament characters against whom no criticism is offered. Thus, he would be a fitting type for the Gospel Age saints, who also stand “unblamable and irreproachable” in the judgment of the house of God. “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.” (Rom. 8:33) And note the Berean Comment: “It is God... The firmness of whose justice can no more condemn the redeemed than it could previously excuse the guilty.”

However, the case of Saul is the opposite to that of Samuel. He went from good to bad, from bad to worse, his first important offense being his offering of a burnt offering without proper authority to do so. (1 Sam. 13:8‑13) Samuel’s rebuke of the offense was a mild one: “Thou has done foolishly.” But from “foolishness” he quickly went to rebellion and stubbornness. (1 Sam. 15:23); and in final desperation he sought counsel from the Witch of Endor – 1 Sam. 28:7‑25) Saul is a type of the crown‑lost leaders (the measurably unfaithful) up to Armageddon. In his first major offense he attempted to usurp an authority that had not been given him by the Lord; and this has been one outstanding transgression of crown‑lost leaders all during this Age. Note the comment on this in E‑4:277:

“Our Pastor once remarked that according to his observation 95% of the leaders who have fallen, fell through pride. In every case of Great Company leaders, they have been guilty of power‑grasping and lording. When we pass them one after the other in review we will see this to be the case. From first to last they want more than the Lord gives them; hence under Satanic temptation they grasp for power and lord it over God’s heritage, which makes them fall under God’s disfavor.”

A few outstanding examples of the foregoing – which we feel no well‑informed Truth person will question – are to be found in the Roman and Greek Catholic Churches. And both of these organizations claim foundation for their systems in the teachings of the Apostles and Jesus Himself – the Roman Catholic laying hold of the coattail of St. Peter, and the Greek Catholic that of the Apostle John. We now regard these perversions as more or less of ancient history; and in taking that position we are often prone to overlook similar performances that are proceeding in like manner in our own day. We have in mind specifically the case of the Society leaders after That Servant’s demise, who quickly ridded themselves of “the opposition” by whatever means seemed expedient to them. Their thinking was in exact duplication of the Roman Church when it was grasping for power: THE END JUSTIFIES THE MEANS! And descent into error has been much more rapid than either of the two Catholic systems. And true to their forerunners’ conduct, they are the loudest in consigning to destruction all who do not embrace them and their system of error!

The course of such individuals and systems is adroitly concealed in Psa. 75:6, 7: “Promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: He putteth down one, and setteth up another.” Here is outlined the course of the sun in its daily orbit – rising in the East, swinging to the South, and setting in the West. The sun was the visible representation of the God Baal, who is involved in so much of Old Testament doings. Baal means ‘lord or possessor,’ thus fittingly depicting those who would lord it over God’s heritage as power graspers. He is first mentioned in Num. 22:41, during the journey of the Jews from Egypt to Canaan. He is denounced by Jeremiah, and especially by Elijah in his encounter with the Prophets of Baal as given in 1 Kings Chapter 18. That engagement was a test between the true God of Israel, Jehovah, and Baal the sun god. And it will be noted that Elijah gave the Baal worshipers every advantage, allowing them to call upon their god at high noon, when the sun is brightest and warmest, and continuing until 3 p.m. And, when it was apparent that Baal was “either talking, or pursuing, or on a journey, or per adventure taking his noon nap” (1 Kgs. 18:27), and thus giving no answer to his prophets, that Elijah set up his offering, pouring thereon four barrels of water – to allow Baal every advantage – after which he called upon Jehovah, who sent fire from Heaven and consumed his sacrifice.

Baal is an excellent type of power‑graspers during the Gospel Age, who have striven for the preeminence – just as Lot sat in the gate of Sodom (Gen. 19:1), the place of prominence. It is such “sinners” who have built Big and Little Babylon, who have marred their characters and spotted their robes (1 Cor. 5:1‑13; Jude 23; Rev. 7:14); have fellowshipped with the world (2 Tim. 4:10; Jas. 1:8); have accepted and spread various false doctrines, as they were carried away by the “error of the lawless” (1 Cor. 3:12, 15; Matt. 25:3, 8); and have usurped the office and persecuted the persons of their faithful brethren. (Isa. 66:5) Ultimately they experience weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Such power‑graspers and their biased supporters are permitted to imbibe more or less of error; in fact, the Lord actually “sends to them an energy of delusion” (2 Thes. 2:11, Dia.). While the Truth is received through the mind, its purpose is to create in its possessor a “good and honest heart.” But unholy ambition for power works just the opposite, generating in such people “the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.” (Luke 12:1) Such a bad heart condition has a very deleterious effect upon the mind, so that such often accept error for “advancing Truth,” and pervert or lose altogether the Truth which once gladdened their hearts and minds and made them “clean.” Thus they pay a terrible price for deceptive present advantage.

Their lust for power is well given in the parable of the penny (Matt. 20:1‑16), wherein v. 11 tells us that they “murmured against the goodman of the house” for not giving them more than they had agreed to accept at the outset of their service; and v. 12 clearly reveals that such do not want others to be equal to them. While this parable applies specifically to the end of this Age, its principle has been operative all during the Age since the Apostles passed out of the picture. Any one with even a meager knowledge of church history has no difficulty in recognizing this evil in both the Catholic Churches. Their course has been one of much error and fall from grace, as they made fearful wreck of the Truth left in their charge. We shall present more on this later in this article.

THE SIX SLAUGHTER‑WEAPON MEN

In Ezek. 9:1‑11 we have the record of the man with “a writer’s inkhorn by his side” – clothed with linen (“fine linen represents the righteous acts of the saints” – Rev. 19:8, Dia.). Prior to 1914 it was the general impression among Truth people that this referred specifically and individually to Brother Russell; but a little analysis should convince us that such is not quite the truth. The “man clothed with linen” was told to go “through the midst of the city... and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.” The facts of the case are in direct conflict with the interpretation that this man was an individual, because it would have been impossible for any one man to do what was commanded to be done. And all of us know that Brother Russell did not accomplish that great task all by himself. Quite a few who came into the Truth during his ministry never met him at all; and of those who did make personal contact with him, many of them received the Truth through others before meeting him. Furthermore, the six men with slaughter weapons cannot possibly be identified as six individuals, but represented six classes of people; therefore, the logical conclusion comes that the man with the writer’s inkhorn must also represent a class. While Brother Russell did put the “Mark” (the Truth) upon many more than any other one person, yet it is also probably true that he did not put it upon even a majority of those in the Truth movement.

In the Bible the number six is used to reveal evil or imperfection. Thus, the six men with slaughter weapons in their hands would do an evil or destructive work; and the facts of the case prove this to be true. While the Apostle Paul names only five evils in 1 Cor. 10:6‑12, this is due to the fact that he was discussing only the period from 1874 to 1914; whereas, the sixth evil (the sixth slaughter‑weapon man) did not begin to operate until after 1914, and has been continuing even to this day. The procedure here is in keeping with the general course of the Bible on every important teaching: “Precept upon precept .. line upon line...: here a little and there a little.” (Isa. 28:10) None of the important features of the Bible are completely discussed in any one place; each subject requires substance from more than one – often from many more than one Bible writer to completely provide a clear understanding. Once this point is fully understood, it will discourage any group from attempting direct Bible study verse by verse in any book of the Bible.

“Now these things were types of us (upon whom the ends of the Ages have come – v. 11) to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.” (v. 6) In these words St. Paul points out, type and antitype, the first sifting in “the ends of the Ages,” which is typified in Num. 11:4‑35. Shortly after leaving Egypt the people received Manna for their food by Divine provision. (Ex. 16:1‑36) About a year later, shortly after leaving Mt. Sinai, the people began to weary of the Manna and to pine after foods they had had in Egypt. Although their ungrateful murmuring displeased Jehovah, He gave them according to their desire by sending them copious supplies of flesh in the form of quails from across the east arm of the Red Sea. But their gluttony brought upon them a plague – perhaps a heavy head cold caused by too much nitrogenous food – which wrought much distress and death among them.

Manna is used in the Bible as a type of food for heart and mind – the Truth (1 Cor. 10:3,4); and, as Christ is the Truth (John 14:6) it types Him, especially as the Ransom (John 6:31‑58). Just as the Israelites wearied of the literal Manna and longed for the fleshpots of Egypt, so antitypical Israelites “in the end of the Age” began in the Spring of 1878 to weary of the Truth, especially as respects the Ransom. Among Truth people Mr. Barbour was the first openly to display such weariness, soon joined by not a few Truth people. However, those who still retained the Truth vigorously defended it, refuting the disputants, thus causing them to reject one truth after another – until they were pushed into complete darkness.

The Second Sifting – St. Paul describes in v. 7, and relates to the making and worshiping of the golden calf, etc. “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.” The calf was an idol; and an antitypical idol is anything, apart from God, to which one devotes himself in active service – the chief one here mentioned being a creed idol. A creed idol is a false religious belief; and the one here in question first appeared among the Truth people in 1881, being sponsored by Messrs. Paton, Adams, Jones, etc. Their views were an infidelistic repudiation of the Plan of God and the substitution of a theory of self‑atonement without a Ransom. In this they perverted almost every important doctrine, and caused many to serve their golden calf.

Infidelism was also the second slaughter‑weapon of Ezek. 9:1‑11 – even as the Ransom deniers had been the first slaughter‑weapon man. With this vicious vagary they slew in the Temple (the Truth Movement of saints – 1 Cor. 3:16). They began this slaughter work just shortly after “Food for Thinking Christians” had been published – that is, “go ye after the man with the writer’s inkhorn by his side, and smite.”

The Third Sifting is outlined in v. 8. It began in 1891, and has to do with symbolic fornication. “Neither let us in the ends of the Ages commit (figurative) forni­cation, as (in the type) some of them committed.” The great Papal System is described in Revelation as the “great whore” because of that Church’s unholy union with the evil governments of earth – “the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication.” (Rev. 17:1, 2) Certain ones in the Truth Movement at that time started a drive to combine Truth and Babylonish methods into the Harvest work. This effort is described historically and thoroughly in the 90‑page booklet “A Conspiracy Exposed,” which detailed the offenses and refuted the erroneous charges of the sifters.

These perverters are well typified by Balaam (2 Pet. 2:15, 16; Rev. 2:14), the Berean Comment on these texts being, “Type of a class that teach error for profit.” And certainly at that time the great majority of the clergy in Babylon came under this condemnation, as they endeavored to unite the various denominations in a Federation of Churches; but more especially was this true with the World’s Congress of Religions at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893, as they sought to unite the Christian religion with the heathen religions of earth. Their argument was a most insidious one: The Fatherhood of God for all men; the brotherhood of all men; the equality of all religions; and the acceptableness of all religious service to God, provided it is honestly given. This contention was thoroughly excoriated in the 1893 Watch Tower, pp. 323‑349, under the caption, “Echoes from the World’s Great Parliament of Religions.” And we believe it is a fair appraisal that this spirit of Combinationism is more apparent and active today than it was then; so we would accent St. Paul’s admonition: “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” The third set of sifters is represented in the third slaughter‑weapon man of Ezek. 9:2.

The Fourth Sifting is described in v. 9, the same beginning in 1901: “Neither let us (in the ends of the Ages) tempt Christ, as some of them (typically) tempted and were destroyed of serpents.” Because the Edomites refused them permission, as a short cut to Palestine, to pass through Edom, the Israelites had to make their way around Edom. The journey was a dreary and trialsome one; and they began to assail Moses (type of Christ) by blaming him for their lot and adding to his difficulties, in punishment for which the Lord sent fiery serpents among them, and many of them died.

Edom types Christendom; and in the effort begun in 1901 many of the Lord’s people had become weary with the burden and heat of the day. Thus they were readily vulnerable to a plan whereby they could use Christendom’s highways as a short cut to gain the Heavenly Canaan without persecution. They readily forgot St. Paul’s conclusion: “All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” (2 Tim. 3:12)

And we observe that now this contagion is very widespread among the various Truth groups. During That Servant’s life the Morning Resolve was a morning resolve. It was a prominent part of the morning service in every home of Truth people; and its various parts were studiously considered, one outstanding part being “faithful to the Lord, the Truth, the brethren.” And those of us cognizant of the facts know “faithfulness to the Truth” usually brought plenty of persecution. The generation that has arisen since 1914 knows little or nothing about that; and it merely confirms the fact that the fourth sifting – the fourth slaughter‑weapon man – is yet accomplishing its purposes. “When the Son of Man comes, will He find this belief on the land?” (Luke 18:8, Dia.)

This spirit of reform also involved order in the Church. Some of the sisters resented Paul’s dictum, “Let the woman learn in silence (in the Church) with all subjection” (1 Tim. 2:11), and some of the brethren with more superficial gallantry than “the spirit of a sound mind” upheld them in their protests. But That Servant’s adamant stand on that subject caused bitterness among many. The “fiery serpent” of rebellion bit them, and many of them died. Thus the fourth slaughter‑weapon man “went after him... and defiled the house.”

The Fifth Sifting is set forth in v. 10: “Neither murmur ye (in the ends of the Ages) as (typically) some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer.” The antitype began in 1908 with the offering of the Vow. which elicited strenuous protest from men like Henninges, McPhail, Williamson, etc. No sound basis could be presented for their objection to the Vow, since it merely put into writing and repeated what every one of them had agreed to do at the time of consecration.

However ,the Vow was just the beginning. Extensive controversy was instigated over the Sin Offerings, the Covenants, the Ransom, the Mediator, etc., all of which they gave vicious twists to uphold their position, one of their arguments being that the Sin‑offerings’ doctrine contradicted the Ransom. But it was they who were guilty of Contradictionism; and, as is so often true in such situations, the errorists manifested much more zeal for their errors than they ever did for the Truth. However, those who retained the Truth on these subjects were more than a match for the murmurers; they refuted them thoroughly with sound logic and sharp pertinent Scriptures, clearly revealing them as those described by St. Paul in Heb. 10:29: “They counted the blood of the (sacrificial – Psa. 50:5) covenant wherewith they were sanctified (not justified) an unholy thing” – a thing not belonging to the altar.

When the uproar finally subsided in 1911 all the leaders among the murmurers had been driven from the Truth Movement. “The earth (the present social order) opened her mouth, and swallowed them up ... They went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them: and they perished from among the congregation.” So completely was this done that very little was heard about them after they left the Truth Movement. When the Vow was offered in 1908, its type was established in Num. 15:38, 39, 40: “Bid the children of Israel make them fringes in the borders of their garments... and put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue... that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the Lord... that ye seek not after your own heart, and you own eyes... that ye remember, and do all My commandments, and be holy unto your God.” Certainly the Vow said nothing more than is embraced in this Scripture; yet the fifth slaughter‑weapon man would do his destructive work in full measure.

The Sixth Sifting is not mentioned by St. Paul, for reasons already given, but we have a hint of it in Matt. 20:8‑16: “When even was come... they murmured against the goodman of the house.” The “even” in the parable is the evening of the reaping feature of the Harvest (in the end of the Age), which did not arrive until 1914; thus, could not be a part of the fifth sifting that ended in 1911. But it does coincide very well with the sixth slaughter‑weapon man, who did not begin his work until sometime after 1914.

In this parable of The Penny it was not the Fully Faithful that murmured against “the goodman of the house”; it was rather the Measurably Faithful. These latter wanted more than had been agreed, which revealed in them a wrong spirit. Such grasped for power, and attracted to themselves many partisan supporters, although this was not done by words, but by acts – after That Servant’s demise. The contest then became very animated as to which of them should be greatest. David says of such in Psa. 107:11: “They rebelled (revolutionized) against the words of God (those clear Truth teachings that had been brought to light during the forty‑year reaping period), and contemned the counsel of the Most High” (disdained the Church order, etc., that the Little Flock Movement had established).

Those of us familiar with the facts know that J. F. Rutherford, et al, had hardly usurped control of the Society until they began to do this very thing. They advised the various classes to establish a Sunday School for children, which would be taught by the sisters of those classes, etc., which in turn caused very sharp differences among them, eventually leading to a complete rupture of relations. This revolutionism – the sixth slaughter‑weapon man – was clearly “contemning the counsel of the Most High” as it has been given through That Servant. This revolutionism has continued unabated over the past 58 years, so that the Witnesses have perverted or rejected entirely most of the important doctrines that they had previously accepted from the Lord through That Servant, so that today they no longer know themselves.

And this has been true, but in much less degree, in other groups, so that they can no longer have class study of the six Parousia Volumes without much disputation among themselves. And since the Epiphany Messenger’s death, the same process has been developing in the Laymen’s Home Missionary Movement – although not nearly so pronounced as was true immediately after That Servant’s death.

Lest any of our readers presume that we have simply drawn upon our imagination in the foregoing statements concerning “these things as types,” we now quote from Parousia Volume 2, pp. 201‑204:

“God’s dealings with the nation of Israel were of a typical character; yet few have any adequate conception of how fully this was the case. It has doubtless been observed by many that the Apostles, particularly Paul, in instructing the Christian Church, frequently refers to some striking features of type and antitype in the Jewish and Christian dispensations... He calls up the whole Jewish system as divinely instituted... and shows that in all its features it was typical of the then dawning Christian dispensation...

“…The whole Jewish nation during that Age was unwittingly engaged, under God’s direction, in furnishing for our instruction (“on whom the ends of the Ages have come” – JJH)… a typical view of the plan of salvation... It is by drawing upon this storehouse of truth, so abundantly and specially provided for the Church, that the spirit of God feeds us and leads us gradually into a more and complete understanding of His plan... and is now supplying much of the special light and food needful to us in this harvest time at the consummation of the Age... How important in His estimation must be that knowledge to us, and how eagerly we should avail ourselves of it.”

CONCLUSION

“A just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again.” (Prov. 24:16) This text is better emphasized by Rotherham: “Seven times may the righteous fall and yet arise, but the lawless men (those that revolutionize against the Truth and its arrangements) stumble into calamity.” The “just man” here is the Fully Faithful Little Flock during the seven epochs of the Gospel‑Age Church. At the outset of each of these epochs the pure Truth was presented; but at the death of the reformers the “lawless men” (those who “rebelled against the words of God”) were quick to pervert or reject much of what had been given. Most of our readers know that this was pointedly true after the death of the Apostles; but it was also true as respects the various reformers. Of the 95 theses that Luther nailed to the church door at Wittenberg only a few now are advocated by the Lutheran system. And the same may be said for John Wesley and others. The workings of “the just man” in all these instances soon fell into disarray through perversion of “the lawless men,” who “rebelled (revolutionized) against the words of God.” (Psa. 107:11)

And surely those of us who view the happenings since 1916 with a critical but unbiased mind must recognize that this same situation has been pointedly true since the death of That Servant. Yes, while the evil features of the text are brought to mind, we may also take great consolation in the clause, “and riseth up again.” After the falling during the sixth epoch, the “rising up” was markedly accentuated during the period from 1874 to 1914 – more so than after any previous falling. But, though the falling is present with us, we may be certain that the “rising up again” is also sure of accomplishment. Thus we would emphasize that those “established in the present truth” (2 Pet. 1:12) will effect a sturdy and victorious endeavor that will not fall the eighth time. “The just man” falleth only seven times – not eight times – thus, the final rising up will prevail without defeat.

It is our hope and prayer that what has been presented herein will bless, comfort and strengthen the Lord’s people in the “things they have learned and been assured of.” (2 Tim. 3:14) “Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it; except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.”

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QUESTION OF GENERAL INTEREST

QUESTION: – If the Gate to the Epiphany Tabernacle Court was closed to new consecrators in 1954, does this mean that the Gate is permanently closed to all classes now?

ANSWER: – We do not teach that the Gate was closed in 1954, and that consecration is no longer available for prospective Youthful Worthies since that date. In harmony with That Servant and the Epiphany Messenger, we believe such opportunity will prevail so long as Tentative Justification is available. However, RGJ says the Gate was closed in 1954 – with no more opportunity for entry into it for prospective Youthful Worthies. His conclusion prompts quite a few questions – namely: Has he concluded that all the Great Company were cleansed by 1954? If not, does he plan to reopen the Gate for the return of their humanity into the Court after they are cleansed? Or will he leave their justified humanity in the Camp with his Consecrated Campers?

Also, he says the unjustified people of God are in his Camp, too. Does he mean his three classes are all mixed up in one conglomerate group, or does he have the Camp divided into various sections for each individual Class? Once the humanity of the Great Company is ejected from the Court, they are no longer able “to offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.” (Mal. 3:3) Surely RGJ should know that prior to his closed Gate in 1954 the humanity of the Great Company was returned to the Court condition once they were cleansed by their Fit‑Man experiences! So the question properly arises: Has that condition changed since 1954?

RGJ should consider it his duty to answer all these questions in order that his followers would be “ready always to give an answer – a reason for the hope that is in them.” (l Pet. 3:15) And while he is at it, he should also state whether Rev. 22:10, 11 applied before his “finished picture,” and to what Classes. Further, if it does apply to any Class before the “finished picture” arrives, then just what position does he ascribe to the various Classes now?

As Brother Russell has taught – and as we have so often stressed – A Place in the Tabernacle types represent a condition in the antitype; and we wonder if this truth has ever registered with RGJ. He is telling us now that his Campers Consecrated justified are in the Camp, and they have their justification there. He also has the unjustified nominal people of God in his present Camp. This means he has unjustified people in a justified condition – that is, if the Camp is now a condition of the tentatively justified. This is the first time that the nominal people of God – the unjustified – are in the same place – condition – with the Justified. It requires a very elastic imagination for pictures and types to produce such a visionary delusion. But let him show us now if there were ever any unjustified people in the Court from 1914 to 1954. He is telling us that the Court during that time is a “parallel” to his Camp now; and he says, too, that JJH is mixed up on this thing. Well, as the Epiphany Messenger would say: This is confusion worse confounded! The clear teaching of both Messengers is that all unconsecrated people lose their Tentative Justification once they are ejected from the Court; but they do remain in the Court so long as they retain that justification. They are in the tentatively justified condition in the Court for the very purpose of consecration; and the time of their stay there would vary with the individuals.

So we ask RGJ to make himself clear on all these points. We freely admit that we cannot do this for him; but it is our fond hope that he will produce a clear statement for the sake of all concerned.

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LETTERS OF GENERAL INTEREST

Dear Sir:

Please send the following articles: Nos. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 121. I hope I’m not ordering too many. I really desire to know. Thanks. Do you offer other literature?

Sincerely, ------- (VIRGINIA)

NO. 256: IN MEMORIAM

No. 256

It is now just sixty years since Brother Russell finished his earthly journey; but those few who knew him personally still hold warm and fragrant memory of his personality and scholarly understanding of the Bible and related subjects. And many of us who never met him hold fond memories by considering his record, and from the things told us by these who did know him personally. Thus, we shall endeavor to pass on some of such recollections, along with quotations from some of those who are no longer with us.

First, we shall offer 2 Tim. 3:16,17: “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” It will be readily noticed that this is a very poor translation as found in the King James version, because “is” after Scripture is in italics, telling us there is no corresponding word in the original Greek. But even if this were not so, we could easily deduce that the statement cannot possibly be true, because ‘scripture’ in the broad sense is anything written – including newspapers, magazines, books of fiction, etc. Certainly, no one would contend that such writings are given “by inspiration of God.”

In a more restricted sense, scripture may be applied to cherished writings of the various heathen religions, such as those from Confucius, Mohammed, etc. However, these likewise cannot be described as being inspired of God. It would seem that any one even moderately schooled in Present Truth should know this; yet the Jehovah’s Wit­nesses published a book as late as 1963, the title of which is “ALL SCRIPTURE IS IN­SPIRED OF GOD AND BENEFICIAL.” (Emphasis ours—JJH) And in their strenuous effort to be ‘different,’ they offer the word ‘beneficial’ for profitable; but of the leading Greek scholars – such as Doctors Young, Strong, Rotherham and Wilson – not one of them offers the word ‘beneficial’ as a good translation substitute for ‘profitable.’ Even Brother Russell himself – who was not a Greek scholar – saw the error in the text as early as 1897, and omitted the word “is” from the Manna Comments of May 21; thus, the Witnesses would not have made this blunder had they held proper regard for his excel­lent Biblical interpretations.

Following is an excellent translation of the text by Benjamin Wilson: “All Scrip­ture, divinely inspired, is indeed profitable for teaching, for conviction, for correc­tion, for that discipline which is in righteousness; so that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly fitted for every good work.” We have offered the detail aforegoing because some of those who knew Brother Russell intimately before his demise in 1916 often referred to him as “that wonderful man of God,” their substance being taken from this writing of St. Paul.

“A PROPHET UNTO THE NATIONS”

At the outset, we would stress that Brother Russell is shown in more Scripture and types than any other person on this earth, except our Lord Jesus; and it is our belief that one of such typical instances is the Prophet Jeremiah in his acts and words. In Jer. 1:4-6 there is this: “The word of the Lord came unto me, saying.... I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. Then said I, Ah, Lord God! behold I can­not speak; for I am a child.” In verse 1 we have “The words of Jeremiah” – the name meaning Jehovah is exalted. Certainly the name itself applies most fittingly to Bro. Russell, whose firm and repeated expression was “God first,” which attitude well ap­plied to him all during his entire adult life. Also, thestatement, “I am a child” points fittingly to him. At the outset of his ministry in 1874, knowing his ignorance of Hebrew and Greek, he considered himself but a babe in Biblical exegesis; and for seven years – to 1881 – he always tried to place those with superior education before him because he considered them better qualified. But the Lord knew what He was doing when He called Brother Russell to be His special mouthpiece – “the prophet unto the nations.” Note verses 7-9, “The Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I shall command thee thou shalt speak... The Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth ... said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.”

Looking back, it is very easy to discern the fulfillment of these words. That Ser­vant predicted the end of the Gentile Times (Luke 21:24) 25 years before 1914. During that 25 years he received much vilification and ridicule from various sources; and by 1913 – with the world then in seeming calm – some in high position said a general world war among the then friendly (?) nations was just so much nonsense. But, when 1914 came – with the great explosion on July 28, August 1 – great numbers began to have a differ­ent view and respect for what he said. In fact, a conference of Southern ministers openly stated that Pastor Russell had been right in his predictions.

To emphasize the strong parallel between him and Jeremiah we need only to consider the parallel dispensations: It was just 2520 years before 1914 (in the Fall of 607 B.C) that Jerusalem was taken by Nebuchadnessar, the temple was ravished and the gold and sil­ver vessels carried away to Babylon. That was exactly what Jeremiah had predicted – in the face of the severe criticism of the Jewish priesthood – just as Brother Russell had predicted against the disputations of the ministers of Christendom. Jeremiah had not predicted the beginning of Gentile dominion, because it was not possible for him to see that then; but Brother Russell, knowing that “seven times shall pass over thee” (Dan. 4 25,32), and understanding that those “seven times” would end 2520 years later, did not have much difficulty in figuring out when they would end, once he knew when they began.

Let us carry on now to Jer. 1:11-14: “What seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree.” As explained in Tabernacle Shadows, p. 122, the almond rod symbolizes the royal priesthood, elect and fruitful; and this fact was seen very clearly by Bro. Russell in 1879, when he wrote Tabernacle Shadows. “The second time, What seest thou? And I said I see a seething pot... an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.” This “seething pot” was the Time of Trouble, which would come with the end of the Gentile Times; and those of us who were living at that time still have most vivid memory of that holocaust. Even though the United States was not immediately involved (we did not enter the war until April 1917), the uproar was so great and the shaking of society in all the great countries of the earth was so severe that the New York Stock Ex­change was forced to close down for three months – “an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.”

This great conflict – up to then the world’s greatest calamity – was also typed by Elijah smiting Jordan. In that picture Jordan pictured Christendom; and its smiting portrayed how the various elements of society would be divided into two distinct classes – the conservatives and the radicals; and this has become more pronounced each year since 1914, with the radicals generally victorious – just as the Babylonians (who typed the radicals of our day) won victory after victory until the final one saw the complete collapse of Jerusalem, and the beginning of the desolation of the land for seventy years: “The word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate, she kept sabbath, to fulfill threescore and ten years.” (2 Chron. 36:21) The parallel desolation of Christendom began in 1914, and will con­tinue in full force until 1984, of which we may have more to say “in due time.”

God further instructed Brother Russell to confess the sins of Christendom over the head of Azazel’s Goat – “the house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel.” (Jer. 2:4) In the Old Testament the Gospel-Age Christians are never called Jacob; rather, Jacob almost always refers to natural Israel; whereas, Israel usually is used to designate the Christian Household. And of both these houses Jeremiah said: “I brought you into a plentiful country... but when ye entered, ye defiled my land, and made mine heritage an abomination.” (v. 7) This statement is indeed a true declaration of the Church history. Under Jesus and the Apostles “the people which sat in darkness saw great light.” (Matt. 4:16) But the intervening years up to 1874 had witnessed the distortion of that “great light” into all sorts of weird concoctions; with practically all of them – Protestant and Catholic – becoming infested with “their resemblance through all the earth.” (Zech. 5:6) The four great errors that arose during the Gospel Age are the Trinity, immortality, eternal torment and probation limited to this life. In these four great errors most Protestants and all Greek and Roman Catholics resemble one another – they are “their resemblance through all the earth.”

Once Brother Russell became fortified with the Truth against these great errors he employed all of his remarkable skill and energy in onslaught against them. His favor­ite address to the public was “Where Are The Dead?” For forty years he battled with all courage against the theory of eternal torment as the wages of sin, and so well did he analyze those Scriptures that treated of that subject, that toward the end of his min­istry one newspaper carried four stanzas of poetry, the last quatrain of which was some­thing like this:

There is a man in our town

Whose name I need not tell;

I’m sure you all must know him,

Because he put the fires out of Hell.

Today few educated ministers believe in the doctrine of Hell-fire, although some of them occasionally preach it, perhaps believing it to be a restraint upon evil-doers. All concordances and critical translations of the Bible clearly dispute the thought of eter­nal torment as the wages of sin.

Brother Russell received strong assurance from the Lord for the work he was to do, as told to Jeremiah in vs. 17 & 18: “Speak unto them (the people of Christendom) all that I shall command thee: be not dismayed at their faces.... I have made thee this day a defenced city” – immovable and strong as against society, against the various sects in Christendom, against the four prominent classes in American society: Rulers, capital­ists, aristocracy and labor, particularly against their leaders. These are the “four angels” – messengers of wrath – as set forth in Rev. 7:1-3 – whose destructive work was restrained “till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.” Although these all, some more, some less, waged controversies against him, God assured him of full victory: “They shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with the... to deliver thee.” Surely, as we look back, we are able to see how forcefully this was fulfilled in the work he did.

When the prophecy was made, “They (the gainsayers) shall not prevail against thee,” it was not an idle promise; God gave him the Parousia Truth as his “strong tower,” which proved to be impregnable against the combined attacks of all adversaries. The promise made to Joshua (1:5): “There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life,” certainly applied to Brother Russell with great emphasis. Those who attempted to engage him in controversy soon came within the scope of Rev. 16:10 “They gnawed their tongues for pain.” Many of them resorted to slander, which was their weap­on of last resort; but it may be said of Brother Russell that he never reciprocated in kind; with the strong and clear and Biblical system of truth he had, there was certain­ly no need to cheapen himself by using the tools of the “god of this world.” (2 Cor. 4:4) The Parousia Truth was indeed a “defenced city” for him. (Jer. 1:18)

Chapter 2 of Jeremiah carries on in much the same fashion as the first Chapter. Brother Russell was commanded to shout his message from the housetops, and it is a mat­ter of record that he did just that. “Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem (type of Christendom here in the end of the Age), saying, ‘Thus saith the Lord: I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth (when the pristine purity of Christianity was established under the guidance of Jesus and the Apostles), the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness” – “The woman (the true church) fled in the wilder­ness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thous­and two hundred and threescore days” (the 1260 years from 539 to 1799 A.D.) Verse 3 continues: “Israel (the true church) was holiness unto the Lord, the firstfruits of his increase.”

But that condition had become greatly changed “in the time of the end” (Dan. 12:4 – from 1799, and especially after 1874). Thus, antitypical Jeremiah was prompted to raise the question: (v.5) “What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?” The nominal church from 1874 is described in similar criticism to what Jeremiah said to the Jews before the fall of Jerusalem in 607 B.C.: “Thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” (Rev. 3:17) Following are some of the Berean Comments on this text: “Possessing little of the truth and the spirit of the truth... Cannot see afar off.... cannot see the high calling for the Church or restitution for the poor world... stripped of the robe of Christ’s righteousness by the clergy, in the name of Higher Criticism and Evolution.”

Having come to the condition of full complacency – “rich and increased with goods” – they poised the insolent question (Jer. 2:8): “Where is the Lord, that brought us up out of the land of Egypt (typical of the delivery of the Gospel-Age church, which had been delivered from antitypical Egypt, “this present evil world”), that led us through the wilderness.. the shadow of death (“the wages of sin is death”).. and (v. 7) I brought you into a plentiful country.. but ye defiled my land.. and made my heritage an abom­ination.” “We have need of nothing”!

The question carries on in v. 11: “Hath a nation changed their gods... but my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit”; and because of this they “be astonished... be horribly afraid... very desolate (v. 12).” During this “time of the end” nominal Christendom committed two evils – they gave up God as their God, though He is the only source of life-giving Truth; and they developed creeds: “broken cisterns that can hold no water.” (v. 13) “Their cities are burned without an inhabitant” – an evil which they brought upon themselves. “Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou has forsaken the Lord thy God, when he led thee by the way?” (v. 17)

“Yes I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed.” (v. 21) When we review the superb religious system which God had given Israel under Moses and Aaron, and the downward course they pursued in the following years, it is most difficult to understand how that could have been possible. Yet their course was but a forecast of the downward course of Christendom after the departure of the Apostles. Indeed, “A just man falleth seven times, but he riseth up again.” (Prov. 24:16) The words of Solomon in this text are a terse statement of the history of the Gospel-Age Church in its seven epochs, as outlined in Revelation, Chapters 2 and 3. Each of these epochs began with a virile mes­sage of Truth – first with Jesus and the Apostles, then followed with the ministry of the remaining “six stars” (Rev. 1:16); but in every instance those that came after the various stars quickly retrograded into much error and decay of morale – as their prede­cessors had done.

Finally in 1874 came That Servant (Matt. 24:46), faced with an accumulation of the colossal errors of the entire Age – a fact which would have discouraged any man who had not the encouragement of the Lord Himself: “I have made thee this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the priests thereof, and against the people.” (Jer. 1:18) But just as in times past, the finely-tuned system of Parousia Truth which he left was bandied about by some of his followers – particularly by the Jehovah’s Witnesses – so that if his writings and their writings are placed side by side now, no unbiased mind would believe they should he recognized as coming from the same source – which indeed they do not.

THE TRUE VINE VS. THE VINE OF THE EARTH

The “noble vine” established through Moses and Aaron was all that the expression implies; and all will surely agree that had the Jews adhered to the Law Covenant through their continuing priesthood they would have developed into a nation the likes of which the world had never known. On the last night before He was crucified Jesus had told the Disciples, “I am the true vine” (John 15:1), thus identifying Himself as the anti­type of the “noble vine” God had planted in Israel; and Christians generally would have done well to “continue in His word.” But instead, they developed the “vine of the earth” (Rev. 14:18,19); and the angel was commanded to “gather it... and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God” – the great Time of Trouble, which began in 1914 at the end of the Gentile Times.

“The vine of the earth” in these texts is the great Papal system which is slowly being consumed – much the same as are grapes that are pressed for their juice. And Paul tells us that this system is “the wicked one” (2 Thes. 2:8), whom the Lord “shall destroy with the brightness of His coming.” The word “brightness” in this text is from the Greek ‘epiphaneia,’ which is literally ‘bright shining’; and “coming” is from the Greek ‘parou­sia.’ Thus, the text properly stated should read, “whom the Lord will destroy with the bright shining of His Presence.”

This has been progressing slowly, but surely, since 1914 – in harmony with the state­ment in Dan. 7:11: “I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame” – just another expression for the Time of Trouble. And just as much of Jeremiah’s message is harsh condemnation of the Jews, so much that That Ser­vant wrote and preached was harsh condemnation of the “vine of the earth” – although he never resorted to reviling or slander in any of his statements; the Truth that he had was more than enough. And just as Jeremiah had been told, “speak unto them all that I command thee,” so Pastor Russell uttered the scathing message against nominal Christen­dom as it was revealed to him in the Word of Truth.

It is probably in order here to state that many features of the Gospel Age have been re-enacted here in the end of the Age, one of these being a little Papal System in the organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses. And just as the large Papal system “shall think to change times and laws” (Dan. 7:25), so this little Papal system has also changed times and laws; in fact, they have made so many changes in their chronology and in some others of their teachings that few, if any, of them know just what they do believe. How­ever, when we analyze big and little Papacy we assuredly do not include all members of those organizations in our criticism. It is our conviction that there are many noble and honorable people in both systems – some of whom are our good personal friends; but they have not given themselves to the research on the subject that we have done.

Jeremiah continues his castigation in chapter 2:21,22: “I had planted thee a noble vine: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?.... Though thou take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me.” Of course, such scathing denunciations aroused the sharp animosity of the Jews, who eventually did Jer­emiah to death by stoning him. He was a “speckled bird” (Jer. 12:9) – a man marked for contempt and persecution from early manhood, as was also Brother Russell. Yet the de­termination of both of them caused them to hew to the line to the end of life’s journey.

But, as some men are determined to declare the Word of Truth in purity and sincer­ity, so others are just as determined to go the way of Balaam, who was a type of those who teach error for profit. Thus they play the symbolic harlot with strangers. “I have loved strangers, and after them will I go.” (Jer. 2:25) “Have gone astray, follow­ing the way of Balaam.” (2 Pet. 2:15) “Thou hast them there that hold the doctrine of Balaam.” (Rev. 2:14) See the Berean Comment on both these texts – “Type of class that teach error for profit.” The Revelation text was directed to the Church of Per­gamos, the third epoch of the Gospel Age, which had its beginning about 315 A.D. when Emperor Constantine embraced the Christian religion and contaminated it with many of his former heathen beliefs.

The heathen beliefs and customs accumulated with each succeeding epoch of the Gospel-Age Church, many of which were discernible even to worldly men of good charac­ter. The nominal church had become clustered with hypocrites, as stated in Rev. 18:2: “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.” Many “jail” birds were members of some great religious system at 1914; thus, the call had gone out, “Come out of her, my people.” (Rev. 18:4) This is emphasized by the Prophet Jeremiah (2:26, 27): “As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed; they, their kings, their princes, and their priests and their prophets (many of the leading clergy at 1914 openly admitted they accepted only such parts of the Bible as suited their taste).. they have turned their back unto me, and not their face; but in the time of their trouble (which came upon them in 1914) they will say, Arise, and save us.”

At that time we were a faithful member of the Lutheran Church; and, when the preacher arose in the pulpit and urged the congregation to support the war in every way possible, we went to him to inquire how he could do such a thing, when the Lutheran Church had originated in Germany, with a large part of the population then members of that Church. Therefore, he was advising Lutherans to kill brother Lutherans instead of “we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 John 3:16) as we are instructed by God’s Word; and we left his house never to return. The same could be said of the Ro­man Catholics in Italy, who were pitted against the Catholics in Romanist Austria. Thus, Jeremiah continued his charge: “Where are thy gods that thou hast made? Let them arise if they can save thee in the time of thy trouble.. Ye all have transgressed against me, saith the Lord.” (Jer. 2:28,29) Wars always bring out the worst in people; and this was especially true of the 1914 conflagration. They had made dead churches their moth­ers, having rejected God; yet they called upon Him in their Time of Trouble. Thus, the accusation: “Your children have received no correction: your own sword hath devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.” (v. 30) These truths were boldly and repeated­ly proclaimed by Brother Russell; and he and his followers received much persecution from the nominal church; hence the charge, “In thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents.” (v. 34) This is repeated in Rev. 18:24: “In her (the nominal church) was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.”

Thus far we have considered only two chapters of the 52 chapters in the Jeremiah writings; and we hope to continue the book at some future time. However, we believe all our readers who have been even passingly schooled in Present Truth will recognize the pointed application to the writings and sayings of Brother Russell as he repeatedly set them forth. Briefly, Jeremiah was “the prophet unto the nations” for forty years before the capitulation of Jerusalem; Brother Russell was “the prophet unto the nations” for forty years before the collapse of Christendom in 1914. The former foretold the overthrow of Jerusalem, with the Tribes of Judah and Benjamin (the ten tribes had already been transplanted to Babylon 133 years previously by Shalmaneser, the Assyrian king – see 2 Kgs. 17:1-7 – and subsequently became the “ten lost tribes” of Israel); Brother Russell foretold the collapse of Christendom 2520 years later; and he gave his forecast about 25 years before the event occurred. The same conditions prevailed in both places before their collapse; and the current evils were repeatedly and truthfully castigated by both men.

In closing, we would say that much of the foregoing has been gleaned from the writings of the Epiphany Messenger, who left us on October 22, 1950 – 34 years almost to the day after Pastor Russell died. Thus we take this occasion to pay grateful tribute to both of them. We have made the major elaboration for Brother Russell, because his work and office in the Lord’s Household was much superior to that of Brother Johnson. And, just as there were no successors to the twelve Apostles, so there was no successor to That Servant – although since his death there have been faithful mouthpieces, of whom the Epiphany Messenger was foremost. But we would emphasize here that he did not set aside any of That Servant’s basic teachings; rather, he scrupulously defended the gen­eral structure of Parousia Truth, and used that Truth as a foundation for his own teach­ings in the Epiphany.

The same is true of us regarding the teachings of both of these faithful servants; we “continue in that which we have learned and been assured of (from them), knowing of whom we have learned them” (2 Tim. 3:14). However, we would stress that none of the faithful mouthpieces of the Lord since the Apostles fell asleep were infallible; they made mistakes, as Church history relates. The same may be said for the Parousia and Epiphany Messengers: They also made mistakes – especially as relates the time features concerning future events; but their basic chronology we accept exactly as they gave it, although we reject some of their conclusions which time itself has proven such expectations premature. We feel those faulty conclusions were permitted of the Lord for “the trial of your faith”; and we regard them in this light – although we believe that both of them come well within the Scripture: “The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance.” (Psalms 112:6)

Sincerely your brother,

John J. Hoefle, Pilgrim

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QUESTION OF GENERAL INTEREST

QUESTION: – Did the Ancient Worthies have a standing in the antitypical Tabernacle Court?

ANSWER: – To gain a clear understanding of this matter, we should first of all stress there wasn’t even a typical Tabernacle erected when many of the Ancient Wor­thies lived – as instance Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, etc. The typical Tabernacle was erected by Moses at Sinai. Therefore, we agree with Brother Russell’s answer to a sim­ilar question in the March 1910 Tower, Reprints 4579: “No. In their day the Priest had not yet come and the antitypical Tabernacle and its Court established; hence they could not be in it. According to their hearts, as expressed in their conduct, they must have been members of the Household of Faith.” In the eleventh Chapter of Hebrews St. Paul stresses that those named there did what they did “by faith.”

The Levites will occupy the Millennial Tabernacle Court – a “better resurrection” than the world, whose resurrection will be in the Camp. The Ancient Worthies were jus­tified by faith, and had a standing before God, even though they could not be in the anti­typical Court, which began to be erected for the Household at Pentecost. However, they had an anticipatorial standing in the antitypical Court – even though they knew little or nothing about it. We are told that “God calleth those things which be not as though they were” (Rom. 4:17); and in Gen. 15:6 it is stated that Abraham “believed in the Lord; and He counted it to him for righteousness.” This Scripture is substantially quoted three times by St. Paul in Rom. 4:3,9,22 – in his proof of a tentative justification for this Gospel Age.

In Rom. 4:6-8 the Apostle quotes from Psa. 32:1-5 to prove that David also had a reckoned justification, although in his case the typical tabernacle had been erected some five hundred years before he became king in Israel. Abraham and David both had the same kind of justification – a justification by faith – which gave them both an antici­patorial standing in the antitypical Tabernacle, which began to be erected by Jesus at Jordan, and was begun for His followers at Pentecost.

However, none of the Ancients could have anything more than a reckoned justifica­tion, because the merit of Jesus did not become available until His death on the cross. Even though many of them knew very little about the Plan of Salvation, they did look for a Messiah – a vague ray of hope was given in Gen. 3:15: “Enmity between thee and the woman... thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head.” As to Abraham, the father of the faithful, our Lord said, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.” So, even though the antitypical Tabernacle wasn’t established, and the Ancient Worthies could not be in the antitypical Tabernacle Court, they had the same standing before God as do the Youthful Worthies now who have their standing in the Court: BOTH the Ancient and Youthful Worthies had Tentative Justification. (See E-4:352, 355)

Note particularly Rom. 4:11,12 (Dia.): “Abraham received the symbol of circumci­sion as a seal of the righteousness (Tentative Justification) of that faith which he had while in uncircumcision; in order that he might be (1) THE FATHER OF ALL uncircumcized BELIEVERS (consecrated and unconsecrated), that the righteous­ness may be accounted unto them (ALL uncircumcised BELIEVERS); and (2) a father of circumcision, not only to those who are of circumcision, but to those also who tread in the footsteps of the faith of our Father Abraham, which he had in uncircumcision.”

Those schooled in Parousia Truth understand full well that there are only two types in the Old Testament that picture forth the sacraments that are obligatory on all who “follow in His steps” – Circumcision, which types consecration; and the Passover, which portrays the Lord’s Supper. But the words of St. Paul clearly and emphatically state that Abraham was counted righteous in uncircumcision; and he is the father of all the faithful. Therefore, it logically follows that all Gospel-Age believers would be counted righteous (have tentative justification) before they receive the antitypical cir­cumcision – that is, before they consecrate to do God’s will.

But those Ancients before Moses hold no relation whatever in their standing to Consecrated Epiphany Campers, because the antitypical Court is now established, and rep­resents the only place available for justification in this Gospel Age. Nor can these Campers be placed anticipatorialy in the Millennial-Age Tabernacle Court, because that Court will be occupied by the Household of Faith (See 1940 PT, p. 13) – the three anti­typical Tribes of Levites: Kohathites (Ancient Worthies); Merarites (Great Company); Gershonites (Youthful Worthies). The Consecrated Campers cannot be said to be antici­patorialy in the Millennial-Age Court because they will not be a part of the Millennial-­Age firstborns, as is true of the Worthies. All the Worthies have been anticipatorialy in the Millennial-Age Court, because that is where they will be resurrected. Their “bet­ter resurrection” (Reb. 11:35) will put them in that Court when they come forth from the tomb. The Highway of Holiness will be opened up in the Camp for all Restitutionists, including the quasi-elect. There will be no ‘narrow way’ in the Camp then, nor has there ever been a narrow way in the Camp – in the Patriarchal, Jewish or Gospel Ages ­no narrow, way in the Camp for Restitutionists to sacrifice at any time.

The marked distinction between the Worthies and Consecrated Campers is very clearly defined in Noah’s Ark – where the six saved classes of human beings are set forth. Noah and his wife type Christ and the Church; Shem and his wife the Ancient Worthies; Japheth and his wife the Great Company; Ham and his wife the Youthful Worthies; the clean animals the repentant and believing Jews and Gentiles; the unclean animals the remainder of the restitutionists. The marked difference between human beings and ani­mals reveals the sharp difference between the elect and the non-elect; no sane person would mistake one for the other. Yet RGJ is telling us that his Campers (consecrated Restitutionists) are so zealous of good works, serving the Lord, that it is almost im­possible to discern the difference in them and the Youthful Worthies! It is almost im­possible to discern between the elect and the non-elect, he is telling us – between the faithful elect and the Restitutionists. His claim makes a complete jumble out of the picture in Noah’s Ark. The quasi-elect have an anticipatorial standing in the Millen­nial-Age Camp, the same as all Restitutionists. The difference between the quasi-elect and the other Restitutionists is, they will be better prepared to walk up the Highway of Holiness than the residue of mankind.

NO. 255: JUSTIFICATION IN THIS AGE AND IN THE NEXT AGE

No. 255

The primary power of God’s real people is THE TRUTH; and their secondary power is God’s Arrange­ment for the proper use of that Truth. Thus, the counsel to “give attendance to doctrine” (1 Tim. 4:13) is sound advice for every time of the Age. And we believe it is proper observation that a clear and comprehensive understanding of the doctrine of JUSTIFICATION will enable us to “continue in the faith” – never to stray far from the general Truth structure.

There are two kinds of Justification taught in the Bible – Justification by Faith, and Justification by Works. Inasmuch as our present Bible is specifically designed for those of God’s people who “live by faith,” it should be only proper that Justifica­tion by Faith should receive preponderance of favor for the past, present and future ­until Justification by works gains the ascendancy. Our understanding that we person­ally are justified is purely a matter of faith with each of us. And, once one enters into Justification by Faith, his fellows will perceive little outward difference in him; such a faith operates in the heart and mind, without pronounced change in outward physical appearance. Time operates upon our bodies much the same as it does on those not so blessed – in due time the grave makes claim upon all. Just the reverse of this will prove true during the Kingdom reign, when a justification by works will actually make right, and all who attain that justification will no longer need fear the grave. But it is our purpose to treat only passingly of this latter; rather, we shall con­sider that justification that applies to all God’s people now and in the past – that which cometh of faith.

Since the time that “Christ brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel” (2 Tim. 1:10), Justification by Faith has had two component divisions – a tentative jus­tification, and a vitalized justification.  And it is herein that much controversy has arisen among God’s people, some claiming there is no such thing as “tentative justifica­tion”; others claiming it not only operates now, but will continue to operate even dur­ing the period of Justification by Works. It is our opinion that those who deny com­pletely a tentative justification for this Faith Age are thus forced to abandon large sections of that Truth which once made them clean. It forced JFR to discard completely Tabernacle Shadows of the Better Sacrifices, so that the Jehovah’s Witnesses no longer include that book in their course of study. And it is difficult to determine just what interpretation those people now give to Jesus’ words: “I say to you, Till Heaven and earth pass away, one iota or one tip of a letter shall by no means pass from the law, till all be accomplished (fulfilled)”—Matt. 5:18, Dia. Clearly enough, Jesus was thus telling us that the entire Law arrangement – of which the Tabernacle with its ceremonies was the central feature – was typical, and that all those types must continue until the antitypes appeared to fulfill them – fill them full to a completion.

In a flimsy attempt to justify his rejection of tentative justification, JFR made the false claim that Brother Russell rejected the teaching of tentative justifi­cation before he died; but this claim is directly disputed in the foreword of Vol. 6, Oct. 1, 1916. There Brother Russell sets forth tentative justification and vitalized justification as separate and distinct, as he also does in the 1909 Watch Tower, p.360; the 1910 WT, pp. 12-13,93 and 246; the 1911, p. 394; the 1912, p. 152; the 1913, pp. 92-94; the 1914, p. 67; the 1915, pp. 103-104 and pp. 292-293; the 1916, p. 281.

These citations leave no doubt about Brother Russell’s convictions about the teaching of tentative justification. Many others have joined JFR in the denial of tentative justi­fication; and, since this teaching is a fundamental part of the Old and New Testaments, we are justified in concluding that those who once accepted it before October 1916, but now deny it, must come under the classification of 2 Thes. 2:10,11, Dia.: “They admitted not the love of the Truth... And on this account God will send to them an energy of delu­sion.” In our Lord’s announcement of the sentence upon the “unprofitable servant” (the Great Company) of Matt. 25:30, Jesus stated that he would be “cast into outer darkness” ­the “darkness” meaning in this text, as it also does in 1 Thes. 5:5,6 and other Scrip­tures, “giving them over to error.” (See especially the Berean Comment on 2 Thes. 2:11)

Jesus had told the Disciples, John 15:3: “Now are ye clean through the words which I have spoken unto you”; and the conclusion must automatically follow that those who re­ject “the words” which once made them clean would then self-evidently become unclean – ­they become afflicted with antitypical leprosy – “he shall be defiled; he is ‘unclean’” (Lev. 13:46). And this uncleanness will remain with that Class until the full end of the Gospel Age – “until the even” (Lev. 14:46). The cleansing will be accomplished with such in “the great tribulation” of Rev. 7:14, at which time they shall experience “the weeping, and gnashing of teeth” of Matt. 25:30. And until this cleansing is accomplished, we may reasonably expect such unclean ones to cast out (refuse to fellowship) God’s fully faith­ful people who resist such rebellion (revolutionism). Let us keep in mind that it is always THE TRUTH that produces the separation between the Fully Faithful and the Measur­ably Faithful. Thus, the “hail” (the hard convincing Truth) sweeps away “the refuge of lies,” revealing those who have received the Truth in the love of it, and those who re­ceive the punishment of “outer darkness” – ERROR and REVOLUTIONISM – LEPROUS UNCLEANNESS. Thus, we should “think it not strange” as we see this separating influence operate to a completion – “until the even.”

BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES

While we have great respect for the teachings of Brother Russell, yet we believe that a doctrine so weighty as tentative versus vitalized justification should also be taught in the Bible, and that we should be able to produce a clear “thus saith the Lord” to substantiate our position – and not by one text only, but by at least two or three witnesses. And it is the failure to consider all that is written on various doctrines that has produced the great falling away since Apostolic times. Therefore, if we find our thoughts disputed by even a single text, we may be sure of three things: Either the text is spurious; we have a faulty translation; or we ourselves have the wrong in­terpretation. “it is impossible for God to lie”; and, since the Bible is the inspired word of God, it likewise cannot lie – cannot contradict itself.

The first “witness” we shall consider in proof is 1 Cor. 7:14, Dia.: “The unbe­lieving husband is sanctified in the believing wife, and the unbelieving wife is sancti­fied in the brother; otherwise, indeed, your children were impure, but now they are holy.” The word “holy” in the text is from the Greek word ‘hagios,’ which means set apart, separate, holy. It is the same word that is translated saints more than sixty times. Clearly enough, a newborn infant could not possibly be a saint, but they receive a reckoned saintly standing because of their saintly parentage; and, since their parents are in the antitypical Tabernacle Court, their children would self-evidently have to be there with them until such time is those children reach an age of accountability and can determine for themselves whether or not they wish to retain their faith justification and continue in the saintly footsteps of their parents.

Sometime ago a booklet came into our possession, in which the writer is very posi­tive that there can be no tentative justification, because, says he, justification must be an instantaneous work. This brother also claims – as did JFR – that Brother Russell changed his mind on tentative justification. This contention is simply a ruse in a shab­by attempt to gain support for his error – an error that will be clearly exposed and re­futed in full, as our further comments herein will demonstrate. Surely no one with the faintest understanding of faith justification would claim that the justification of infants is vitalized! Therefore, 1 Cor. 7:14 indisputably proves a tentative justifica­tion; and it is well to note in final summation that we are also clearly faced with two kinds of tentative justification – one acquired by the intelligent desire and coopera­tion of the recipient, and the other by infants acquired through no will or cooperation of their own. Also, it is that justification described in Rom. 5:1, Dia.: “Having been justified, therefore, by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ; through whom also we have been introduced into this favor in which we stand.” This tentative justification – standing – is our “introduction” to God, which gives us “peace with God,” but does not give us the “peace of God” until we offer ourselves in accordance with Rom. 12:1 – to do the will of God, which, if accepted, then gives to us “the peace of God which passeth (human) understanding.” Only after that do we actually possess a “living” (zeal-inspiring) faith.

As our second “witness” we consider Romans 4, starting with verse 3 (Dia.): “What say the Scripture? Abraham believed (had faith in) God, and it was accounted (reck­oned) to him for righteousness.” Here again, it is clearly stated Abraham’s faith jus­tification did not actually make him right; it merely accounted, or reckoned, him right­eous. Thus, v. 7 – “Happy are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered” – no longer held against them because of their faith justification. Certainly no one who was ever in Present Truth would contend that Abraham and David had justifica­tion similar to the justification held by those of this Gospel Age who had come into the Body of Christ – vitalizedly, through a real imputation of Christ’s merit. But note now par­ticularly vs. 10 and 11: “How then was it accounted (to Abraham)? When he was in cir­cumcision or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. And he received the symbol of circumcision, as a seal of the righteousness of that faith which he had while in uncircumcision; in order that he might be the father of all uncircum­cized believers; that the righteousness may be accounted (reckoned) to them.”

All who were ever schooled in Present Truth are well aware that ancient circumci­sion was a type of the Gospel-Age consecration, the physical circumcision typing that figurative circumcision of the heart that is made when one offers his heart and will to God in consecration. But St. Paul clearly states that Abraham’s righteousness was ac­counted, reckoned, to him before circumcision – that he might be the father of all who believe – all who experience a faith justification before they present themselves to God in consecration – before they experience the antitypical circumcision of the heart. St. Paul was truly a great logician, and his reasoning is so clear and direct in this fourth chapter, that it seems unbelievable that any who were once in Present Truth could cast it aside; and then attempt to besmirch Brother Russell by saying he had also cast aside these compelling Scriptures.

Following his clear exposition of a tentative reckoning, St. Paul then proceeds to say in Rom. 5:1 that this faith justification arranges our “introduction” to God – not an intimate close family relationship, but merely an introduction, which will enable us to gain real intimacy of soul with our Heavenly Father if we follow his appeal in Rom. 12:1 to “present your bodies a living sacrifice” – in consecration, which we are now in position to do as a result of our tentative, reckoned, faith justification – to “trans­form yourselves by the renovation of your mind.” (12:2, Dia.)

As our third “witness” we offer what we consider the most compelling proof for tentative justification, the same being the Atonement Day type of the wilderness Taber­nacle as given in Lev. 16. The pattern given to Moses in the Mount was emphatic that all the animals used in that service must be “without blemish” (Lev. 1:3) – no visible flaws of any kind. But we now ask, did those animals have their physical perfection as a result of their presentation to Aaron in sacrifice, or were they offered up that day because they were previously found to be perfect? The answer needs no elaboration: They were already “without blemish” when they were selected from among the children of Israel, and were brought into the Court, before they were tied at the door of the Taber­nacle – their being tied there representing the consecration and presentation of those who were about to enter the Holy “in newness of life” through an instantaneous vitalization of that reckoned perfection which was already theirs before consecration. And it is this tentative faith justification, this reckoned perfection, that is our “introduction to God” (Rom. 5:2) – enabling us to enter into the Holy – into the Divine sanctum – in vitalized justification – a condition exclusive to this Gospel Faith Age, and exclusive to those only who are “begotten to newness of life” through a direct imputation of the merit of Jesus.

Reverting to earlier statements in the above paragraph, we also point out that every antitype is pronouncedly greater than its type. Thus, Jesus as the antitype of the Atone­ment-Day bullock was infinitely greater than was the type, requiring only the one sacri­fice of Himself to cleanse from all sin forever all those who come to the Father by Him. And the members of His Body were also far greater than their Atonement-Day type as repre­sented in the Lord’s goat. Therefore, if those animals in the type must be “without blemish” (typically perfect) before presentation at the door of the Tabernacle, how much more must this be true of their Gospel-Age antitypes? God cannot look upon sin with any degree of allowance, thus could never enter into a “covenant by sacrifice” with fal­len beings unless the sin barrier were first removed. Therefore, it should be self-­evident that He must first provide a way – an “introduction” – for fallen man to come to Him; and this He has accomplished by arranging for a tentative, a reckoned perfection ­a tentative justification by faith.

NO MAN COMETH UNTO THE FATHER BUT BY ME

But no fallen human being could arrange for this “introduction” to God by his own skill or merit; it must come through an intercessor, through one who could give him a reckoned perfection – and this He arranged through Jesus – “that He might be just, and yet be the justifier of him who believeth on Jesus.” (Rom. 3:26) And here again the Tabernacle type gives clear confirmation of this by the linen curtain which surrounded the Tabernacle structure and its surrounding plot of ground. The Divine Presence was portrayed by the Shekinah Light and shone forth from between the Cherubim in the Most Holy of the Taber­nacle; and none could ever reach that presence except through Jesus – by first coming through the Gate into the Court, and inside the linen curtain, there to be reckoned perfect, righteous (“the fine Linen is the righteousness of saints”—Rev. 19:8), to provide proper “introduction” to God at the first veil, and for progress through life’s pilgrimage through the Holy to the Most Holy, where “we shall be ever with the Lord.”

Some may ask how such arrangement could be true of Abraham, who lived before the typical Tabernacle was erected at Sinai. We answer, It was reckoned to him, and to all with “the faith of Abraham” from Abel to John the Baptist. “Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and He saw it, and was glad.” (Jno. 8:56) And, while none of the Ancients ever had more than a tentative, a reckoned justification, all that they did have came to them through a reckoned standing inside that linen curtain – which gave them a righteousness they could never attain of themselves. “Mine own righteousness is as filthy rags.” (Isa. 64:6)

With this picture clearly in mind, it should now be apparent to all that the RGJ-JWK claims of a faith justification in the Camp, outside the linen curtain, which (curtain) represents Christ, must be errant nonsense, regardless of how they classify such people in the coming Kingdom arrangement. The “faith of Abraham” is a faith-age faith. Even when the Mediatorial reign begins, and justification by works become operative, Jesus’ words will be as true then as they are now: “No man cometh unto the Father but by me.” There will be no imputation of His merit then – no more justification by faith (although a certain amount of faith will certainly enter into that arrangement, but not the exact­ing faith for Restitutionists as for those who must exercise faith when sin is in the ascendancy in this “present evil world”) – but He will be the “everlasting Father” until such time as men have regained the Edenic perfection which will enable them to speak to God, as did Father Adam, without an intercessor.

Let us consider also Brother Johnson’s direct contradiction to the RGJ-JWK twosome in E-4:406:

“The Youthful Worthies, from the standpoint of having ‘the faith of Abraham,’ are, of course, like him, Of the Household  of  Faith. They are, however, somewhat different from the tentatively justified who do not now consecrate. The latter during the Epiphany cease altogether to be in the Household of Faith, having used the Grace of God in vain.”

Let us remember that the only thing wrong with those who eventually lose their standing in the Household of Faith in the end of this Age (in the “finished picture of the Epiphany”) is their failure to consecrate.  Thus, when they are forced from the Court into the Camp, they are in every way identical in character, if they maintain what they have gained, as they were in the Court – “truly repentant and believing, but not consecrated.” (E-10:209) They are not forced from the Household because of character degeneracy – the only fault against them is their failure to consecrate, which in due time forces them from the Court into the Camp.  Yet RGJ offers a direct contradiction to Brother Johnson’s teaching when he declares in his Present Truth that his Campers are of the Household of Faith. And let us not forget that the real issue in this instance is a proper understanding of Tentative Justification as taught by Brother Russell and Brother Johnson, but which is now cast aside by RGJ. “He that is able to receive it, let him receive it!”

After That Servant’s death JFR denied the doctrine of Tentative Justification alto­gether because it stood in the way of his “new light.” The Epiphany Messenger clearly refuted his “new light,” and established the doctrine of Tentative Justification in the Scriptures so unmistakably that no Epiphany-enlightened brethren need be deceived now. But shortly after the Epiphany Messenger’s demise RGJ perverted the doctrine of Tenta­tive Justification to accommodate his “new light” – the non-existent class of Epiphany Campers Conse­crated. We must remember, too, that RGJ calls his “new light” (?) ‘Epi­phany’ Campers Consecrated, thereby attempting to palm off his “strange fire” as faith­ful Epiphany teaching – and at the same time offering the “strong delusion” that we are now in the Basileia! The Epiphany as a period of time (beginning with World War in 1914 and ending with Jacob’s trouble—E-4:55, bottom) is the last special period of the Gospel-­Age, with which all faithful well-instructed Epiphany-enlightened brethren will agree – ­all who still accept Brother Johnson’s teaching on the subject. RGJ’s perversion of Tentative Justification also causes him to set aside the faithful teachings of both Mes­sengers on Youthful Worthies. In Epiphany Volume 4, p. 342, Brother Johnson says that “those faithful consecrators from 1881 until Restitution sets in, for whom there are no crowns available, and hence no Spirit-begetting for Gospel-Age purposes possible, will be the Millennial Associates of the Ancient Worthies in reward and service.”

In RGJ’s repudiation of this Truth, and in his perversion of Tentative Justifica­tion, he in effect now tells the brethren that the above quotation from the Epiphany Messenger (and the teaching of That Servant, too) IS NOT THE TRUTH, but that his Camp­ers Consecrated are privileged to walk “a narrow way” with the Great Company and Youthful Worthies without a reward of the heavenly inheritance, or of a Kingdom “Better Resurrection” in fact, he says, there’s no reward at all other than Restitution in the final analysis! They will be closely associated with the Worthies in the Kingdom, he says, and will have opportunity to make great progress up the Highway of Holiness. But do not all the quasi-elect (unconsecrated Class) have that same opportunity? Yes, in­deed, his perversion of the doctrine of Tentative Justification is causing many to go into error. It has forced him to pervert the doctrine of Youthful Worthies as set out in the above quotation by the Epiphany Messenger, as he now denies the privilege of such Youthful Worthy hope to his converts. Great is the responsibility of such ‘mis’leaders! When one does violence to one feature of the Truth, then he must also do violence to other features in order to support his previous error. We would not be faithful to the Lord, the Truth and the Brethren if we did not faithfully defend the doctrine of Tenta­tive Justification and attack the errors presented by such Perverters (our former breth­ren), just as did Brother Johnson have to defend this important doctrine against JFR, et al (his former associates).

BECAUSE THEY ADMITTED NOT THE LOVE OF THE TRUTH

It is grievous indeed to note the condition of those who have forsaken the Truth that once made them clean – it is a real ‘spiritual’ oddity, perhaps peculiar to this “evil day.” But we “think it not strange,” as we are forewarned of these things: “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come... But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them.” (2 Tim. 3:1,13,14) Some contend they have become “supremely happy” – have ob­tained a “Peace of mind” never before experienced by them after forsaking the Truth that once made them clean. This seems to be pointedly true when they cast away the Truth on Tentative Justification.

But by far the most extensive example of all is the group known as the Laymen’s Home Missionary Movement. Several times since 1950, the Truth on Tentative Justifica­tion has been sorely besmirched by this group in its relation to the Tabernacle Court and to their Campers Consecrated. Yet in those very Conventions in which this was done, quite a few have arisen to testify loudly, “This is the grandest Convention I have ever attended!” And we refer now to those who attended Conventions under Bro.  Johnson, and some even who have attended Conventions under Brother Russell. We hear such people proclaiming that the Conventions supervised by the last two Principal Men of Micah 5:5 (the Laodicean Star) were not nearly so inspiring and elevating as those now provided and supervised by a self-admitted Crown-loser – Conventions where the Truth on Tentative Justification is bandied about by the “unstable and the unlearned” in dis­graceful and disturbing manner.

In summation, we would observe that the full import of St. Paul’s words comes to us more forcefully with each passing year, “Because they admitted not the love of the Truth.... on this account God will send to them an energy of delusion.” (2 Thes. 2:10, 11, Dia.) And once more we quote the Berean Comment on these texts – “Giving them over to error, which they prefer to the Truth.  Great delusions are just before us, and some of these may come closest upon those possessing the most light of Present Truth.” The brethren in the LHMM who had the supervision of the Epiphany Messenger, had more exhaustive proof on Tentative Justification than any other group on earth to­day; thus, now “strong delusion” has come upon those “possessing the most light of Present Truth.” Their ‘peace of mind’ at rejecting the Truth is undoubtedly some of the “strong delusion.” We know of quite a few in Big Babylon who are satisfied with their leaders: they, too, have ‘peace of mind’ as they sacrifice time, energy and money to uphold their ‘quarter.’ (See Isa. 56:11)

And in conclusion let us consider that advancing Truth does not set aside the Truth already established, as some deceivers seem to think; all advancing Truth must be based upon the Truth already established from the Good Word of God.

THE “END” OF 1 COR. 15:24

In the April 1976 Bible Standard, p. 28, col. 2, RGJ presents some rank confusion on this Scripture, which has some bearing on Justification, so we offer the following comments on it: “Then cometh the end.” We cannot give the exact date for the “end”; we can only generalize, because we do not know the exact “end” of the Little Season; but E-17:124 clearly states:

“Then cometh the end (the end of the Little Season).... The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death (thus we see that not only persons are these enemies, but also things). The Adamic death in the sense of the dying process is this last great enemy.” See also Berean Comments on Rev. 20:14.

That the “dying process” is the specific thing meant here is clear when we con­sider Isa. 65:20: “The sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.” If we accept this text for just what it says, then the last person to be delivered from the grave (the Adamic death state) must be resurrected at least by 2774 – a hundred years before even the beginning of the Little Season – but probably much sooner than 2774.  However, the Adamic death process will remain in the goats until the last one of them is destroyed – which will not be accomplished until the full end of the Little Season.

This is further confirmed by the fact that the Adamic death process will be fully purged from the sheep by the beginning of the Little Season. Those that become His during the Mediatorial reign will not only have physical perfection, but will also have “sin and error” eliminated from their minds and hearts by the benevolent rule of The Christ by 2874. (See E-15:214,215) All who survive the Little Season must enter it with perfect characters at 2874. “Each one must appropriate by faith and works for himself in their entirety Christ’s perfect humanity, His right to life and His life rights before the Little Season sets in. If he leaves any part of these unappropriated, he enters the Little Season with an imperfect character and thus will fall in the final trial of that time.” (E-8:616) And we are told in Parousia Vol. 5, p. 380, top of 381: “In that day he that dies shall die for his own sin. ‘The soul that sinneth it shall die.’ Though such will have weakness of the Adamic nature from which they will never re­cover, for refusing to use the means and opportunities placed within their reach during The Millen­nium by the Mediator of the New Covenant, yet under that New Covenant inher­ited weaknesses will not be counted against them, being fully offset by their Redeemer’s sacrifice.

We know, too, that the willful sinner who is “cut off” at 100 years old, even though he has the Adamic death process still present with him, will not die the Adamic death! And this same condition applies to all who are outwardly obedient and live until the begin­ning of the Little Season, but still have the Adamic death process in their unholy heart’s condition: they too die the second death in the Little Season. The Adamic death process is what is meant in Rev. 20:14: “And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.” in Rev. 22:3, “There will be no more curse,” the Adamic death process is included in the ‘curse.’ Please see Berean Comments on Rev. 20:14 and Rev. 22:3.

However, despite these clear statements, RGJ once more repeats his old error on this subject by telling us that “the end” is the beginning of the Little Season. Says he: “Then cometh the end (the Little Season, after the thousand years are over).” of course, the thousand years will be over in 2874 – at the very beginning of the Little Season. Then he continues: “Christ’s reign is thus intended to destroy all the works of Satan – sin, error, sorrow, pain, sickness, death and the grave.” While the goats will be fully perfected physically, they will not be relieved of sin and error. This is cor­roborated in E-17:125, par. 1: “Those who will reform externally, but without a heart reformation (thus retaining some features of the Adamic death process—JJH) will live throughout the thousand years and attain human perfection; but by the trial during the Little Season, their unholy heart’s condition will become manifest, and they will per­ish in the second death.”

The foregoing is actually corroborated by RGJ himself further down on p. 28 of this same Bible Standard: “The last enemy that shall be abolished (destroyed) is death (not the death state or the grave, which by the awakening of the dead will be destroyed before sin, error, pain, sorrow and sickness, but the dying process – the imperfection brought by the Adamic sentence upon all; the annihilation of its last vestiges will complete the work of the Millennial Kingdom; therefore, death will be the last enemy destroyed).”

This clearly disputes the preceding paragraph, which seems to have escaped RGJ’s notice when he proof-read what Brother Johnson had set out on this subject: “The Adamic death in the sense of the dying process is this last great enemy; and, because of His faithfulness, Jesus became the one who will after the close of the Millennium finally destroy it.”

Justification in any Age is an instantaneous matter. The tentative justification of the Gospel Age comes instantaneously – which one must have before his consecration can be accepted. The perfection of this Age is only a reckoned one, of course; but in the next Age it will be a gradual process – resulting in actual physical perfection of all who live to the beginning of the Little Season. Some restitutionists will un­doubtedly reach physical, mental and moral perfection in a very short time; but God will not accept them until He justifies them – at the end of the Little Season.

We had hoped that our efforts had “turned back the sinner (RGJ) from his path of error” (Jas. 5:20, Dia.) on this subject of “the end” in 1 Cor. 15:24, as well as his errors on Cornelius, tentative justification all through the Millennial, etc.; but he now comes back with his original error – disputing his own statement right on the same page. He does this in the face of the true teaching on the subject we have pre­sented from Brothers Russell and Johnson – upon which we have elaborated in great de­tail. When we consider the grand antitype of the Sheep and the Goats (Matt. 25:31-46), we would be “foolish” indeed to reject the correct Biblical teaching. However, we should make some allowance for “foolishness” from the uncleansed Levites, as Brother Johnson tells us: it is difficult for them to discern between Truth and Error.

To the enlightened observer it is clear enough that many who accept the errors explained above, are very, very drowsy, if not completely blind. Therefore, the words of Deu. 27:18 are pointedly applicable: “Cursed be he that maketh the blind to wander out of the way (the way of Truth they once accepted).”

“Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children. And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us; and establish thou the work of our hands.” (Psa. 90:16,17)

Sincerely your brother,

John J. Hoefle, Pilgrim

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LETTERS OF GENERAL INTEREST

To: John J. Hoefle –

Someone gave me a pamphlet #246 written by you. You don’t seem to like Jehovah’s Christian witnesses. Is it because you know that they are people who belong to the true God today. True witnesses of Jehovah goes back to Abel. Cain was jealous of him because he offered up true worship to Jehovah, so Cain killed him – and true witnesses of Jehovah have been persecuted and killed ever since. For instance, today in Malawi, etc., true Christians are being tortured and killed by the orders of the President of Malawi.... who happens to be an elder of the Methodist Church. I never heard of Epi­phany Bible Students Assn. Were you a witness of Jehovah at one time? I had heard there was a group of brothers in Bethel back around 1919 or thereabouts, that fell away and formed their own way of religion. I would also like to know if you are up in N.J.? A group that’s on the radio called “Frank & Ernest”? I am, Mrs. ------- (FLORIDA)

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ANNOUNCEMENT OF GENERAL INTEREST

We suggest Sunday, October 17 through Sunday, November 14 for our Fall Special Effort in antitypical Gideon’s Second Battle in the good fight against the two King Errors – Eternal Torment and the Consciousness of the Dead – antitypical Zebah and Zalmuna.

All who wish to join with us in this good work, please order the pertinent lit­erature in time to participate. Our tracts, Where Are The Dead? What Is The Soul? The Resurrection Of The Dead are especially designed for this good work – also The Divine Plan of The Ages, Life-Death-Hereafter, etc., are timely.

The Special Effort in the Fall was arranged by the Epiphany Messenger in honor of That Servant – and we now do honor to both these faithful Messengers by continuing in the Truth they so valiantly taught and upheld during their entire lifetime. So let us continue in the Truth and its Arrangements as given to us by these faithful Mouth­pieces. We invite all like minded brethren to join with us in the prayer  God bless their memory!

NO. 254: THE GOSPEL AGE TRUMPETS

No. 254

My dear Brethren: Grace and peace through our Beloved Master!

“If the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?” (1 Cor. 14:8) This query by St. Paul is undoubtedly prompted by the record of the two silver trumpets which the Lord told Moses to make (See Numbers 10), and which typify the Old and New Testament Bible messages. That these would be typical is evidenced by the fact that they had to do with the Law and the Tabernacle arrangements and the march of the Israelites from Egypt to Canaan. They were to be blown “for the calling of the assembly, and for the journeying of the camps.” That these trumpets served more than one purpose is clearly stated in v. 5 – “blow an alarm”; and in v. 10 – “in your day of rejoicing and in your appointed seasons.”

While the main purpose of this article is the feature of v. 5, we first offer some comment on the second feature – the “appointed seasons.” Chief of these was the sounding of the Jubilee Trumpet every fiftieth year, which was to proclaim a special year of rest for man and land; and to set at liberty such of the Israelites whose im­providence had forced them into a state of slavery with their brethren. This Jubilee trumpet year was typical of the great year of Jubilee, the great thousand-year day, the reign of the Christ which is to free mankind from the slavery of sin and death now more than six thousand years gone. This is described in Revelation 10 and 11 as the “sev­enth trumpet,” whose sounding began in 1874 and will continue throughout the entire thous­and-year day during which Satan, who “has the power of death” (Heb. 2:14), is to be bound that he may deceive the nations no more. Thus, we ourselves are now living dur­ing the sounding of this trumpet.

In Num. 10:6 it is stated that “the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall blow with the trumpets”;  and it is worthy of note that in each of the seven epochs of the Gos­pel-Age Church it was the priests – the leaders in the Church, the Star Members – who began to blow the trumpets. In the first epoch (the church of Ephesus) it was the Lord and the Apostles; and they were quickly joined by the lesser lights in the Church as they embarked on their march toward the Heavenly Canaan. And this same condition prevailed with each Star Member during the Age. When Luther began to trumpet “Justi­fication by faith” (early in the Philadelphia – sixth – epoch), he was soon joined by many capable brethren. This was pointedly true also after 1874 (when the Laodicean period began), when the seventh trumpet began to sound. That Servant soon attracted to him quite an assembly of able men and women – some of them skilled in Hebrew and in Greek, and other branches of secular learning. This situation is clearly emphasized in Josh. 3:6: “Joshua spake unto the priests, Take up the ark of the covenant, and pass over before the people.” This typified the final march of the Church into the Heaven­ly Canaan during the sounding of the seventh trumpet.

And, since we are so directly concerned with the seventh trumpet’s sounding, it is well that we consider a few of its more important messages. Among the first of these is that given in Rev. 10:6: “There should be time no longer.” This statement has been accepted literally by the great bulk of Christendom, even to using the hymn, “When my work on earth is ended, and time shall be no more.” Just a little reflection must im­press us that time must continue so long as there is any intelligence remaining to note and be influenced by time; and, since Jehovah Himself is without beginning or ending, so also time itself must be. Therefore, the hymn is a self-evident inanity.

That Evil Servant also offered a perversion of this text almost equally ludicrous when his “Millions Now Living Will Never Die” and his 1925 deadline were time–proven er­ror. To divert attention from his colossal blunder on that date he proposed the inter­pretation that, since so many mistakes had been made on time interpretations, therefore, no more consideration should be given the subject. This also caused him to cast aside the Pyramid with its many time-feature truths.

To answer this revolting perversion we direct attention to the proper translation of the text from the Diaglott: “The time shall be no longer delayed” – that is, the long-awaited “manifestation of the sons of God,” for which the slave-burdened human race has been waiting with groanings and travailings, would begin to be made manifest by their proceeding to establish the Mediatorial Kingdom in power and great glory for the “bless­ing of all the families of the earth.” And among the first blasts of the Seventh Trum­pet was That Servant’s declaration that the Millennial morning had most certainly ap­peared to eliminate the rule of sin and death; and he began to sound the seventh trumpet with great clarity and energy.

Although the seventh trumpet began to sound in 1874, it will continue until the com­plete separation of the sheep and the goats has been accomplished at the end of the Little Season. This will probably extend then over more than 1040 years. Over such a long period of time it should be evident that the message of “Present Truth” will not be the same at all times. Immediately after 1874 the cry went forth “Behold the Bride­groom,” which not only began the Gospel-Age Harvest message and work, but also thundered forth the message that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. This was accompanied by “voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.” (Rev. 8:5) These identical words are repeated in Rev. 11:19 and 16:18, with the last text adding the words, “there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty and so great.” Some of these things have been in evidence now for a hundred years, with other parts still to occur – some in the immediate future, and some many years beyond this time.

Another of the initial features of the Seventh Trumpet is given in Rev. 10:7, “The mystery of God should be finished” – that “mystery which was kept secret since the world began” (Rom. 16:25) that the Christ is not an individual, but a composite company (See Berean Comments). It was this text that furnished the name for Volume Seven, “The Fin­ished Mystery,” and which caused the sorest of trials upon God’s people in 1917–1918. That book, which was made a test of fellowship by the Society then, has since become “ex­purgatus,” with the present–day Society adherents forbidden to read it. Those of us who became involved in that grievous trial should have learned well the lesson that we should approach with much trepidation and minutest scrutiny any new publication by crown­lost leaders; but, sad to relate, so very few profited by the experience. At that pe­riod were there not only “great voices in Heaven, but the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead that they should be judged.” (Rev. 11:15–18)

THE CALL TO BATTLE

But, not only did the seventh trumpet announce “your day of rejoicing,” it also gave out the call for all spiritual Israel to gird themselves for the battle of this Great Day, and to wholeheartedly respond to the Harvest message of Present Truth, to proclaim the controversial messages of the Harvest time – the Truth against Error. “And if ye go to war in your land (the sphere of the Truth and its spirit)... ye shall be remembered before the Lord your God, and ye shall be saved from your enemies.” (Num. 10:9) Here, then, is the promise of victory to all those who wholeheartedly respond to the Trumpet’s call – “saved from your enemies” – the same being sin, error, selfishness and worldliness.

And the rules of the conflict are the same for all – “Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger (the Youthful Worthies), as for one of your own country” – the Church of the Firstborn. (Lev. 24:22) Typical of the conflict in the beginning of this Millennial day is the record of Gideon and his fully faithful band of three hun­dred (Judges 7:15-23), wherein the Truth people went forth to do battle with the antitypical Midianites (present–day errorists). And in that type it was Gideon blowing his trumpet (v. 18) that signaled the others to blow with their trumpets, which brought consternation and complete demoralization to the Camp of Midian. The blowing of the trumpet was the call to Battle.

While the sounding of the Old Testament trumpets called Israel to actual physical combat, the New Testament trumpets have been a call to spiritual combat – by the “sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God.” (Eph. 6:17) And the same Apostle tells us that “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal (not intended to do bodily harm), but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.” (2 Cor. 10:4) But this change in Gospel-Age technique is in no sense to be interpreted as teaching a calm complacency, an indolent satisfaction with any belief we are inclined to accept. Complaints occasion­ally come to us about our controversial writings, so we consider it in order here to quote what That Servant had to say on the subject in Reprint 735:

“So error of every kind wants to be let alone. The Scribes and Pharisees and dev­ils of Jesus’ day, all wanted to be let alone; but Jesus and the Apostles would not­ let them alone. They exposed them, and declared it to be part of their mission to bear witness to the truth and let the light shine which reproved the darkness of error. Every member of the body of Christ should be controlled by the same spirit of opposition to error from love of truth and of those who are made to stumble by the errors.”

Also our Lord warns us – “Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you: for so did their fathers to the false prophets.” (Luke 6:26) And That Servant warns in Re­print 2163: “Beware when all men speak well of you, and when multitudes are ready to line up with your work and your methods.”

A letter in the Sept.-Oct 1973 Present Truth describes such errorists: “Last Sun­day, I had a visit from a representative of the ‘J.W.’s’ the ‘little Roman Catholic church,’ who, true to the big version, gave me a very rude and threatening warning to lay off his sheep!” The writer of this letter was a former Jehovah’s Witness, and self-­evidently was of the opinion the L.H.M.M. did not use such methods. But the leaders of the LHMM are just as fearful of those who oppose their “strange fire” (false doctrine) with the Truth as the Jehovah’s Witnesses are of those who oppose their errors with Truth. RGJ manifests the same characteristics of the ‘little Catholic church’ when he tells his followers “not to read the ‘sifter’s’ literature; keep your eyes closed, as well as your ears – don’t speak to them and don’t open your mouths to them.” When RGJ was under the benevolent influence of the Epiphany Messenger he outwardly manifested the same attitude toward the errorists that we do today. He wasn’t afraid for any of the brethren in “present truth” to read what JFR and others presented – just as we are not afraid for any of our readers to investigate anything he presents now. We know that those who are “of the truth” will not be stumbled – that reading such literature, if they have the time and inclination, will only strengthen their faith in the Truth. “But ordinarily, under what circumstances is it that Truth progresses? As our Pastor has fre­quently pointed out, it usually is amid controversies.” (E–8:668, bottom) Also, “How vast is the amount of Epiphany Truth that has become clarified through the Great Company and Youthful Worthies controversy!” (E–8:669, top 670)

The same may be said of the controversies since 1955. RGJ is the only group that emanated from Brother Russell that has invented a new Class of believers here in the end of the Age. And what the Epiphany Messenger has said about JFR may be aptly applied to RGJ in his frenzy to uphold his “newly invented” class of Campers Consecrated: “More­over, his desire to shine as the inventor of ‘new views’ continually leads him to pro­pound errors against which the faithful are duty bound to contend in the interests of the Lord, the Truth and the brethren (Jude 3); and thus he is the cause of much strife among God’s people. Blessed are they who contend against him earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints, which is now being corrupted by him.” (E–6:313, bottom)

However, we rest assured in the following: “Those who have been teaching errors will soon be ashamed (Isa. 66:5), while the fire of this day will only manifest the truth to all. No power, no tongue, no pen, can successfully contradict the truth, the great Divine Plan of the Ages. It is strong before its enemies and before all who make as­saults upon it, and ere long the folly of its foes shall be made known to the whole world. ‘There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’” (Reprint 5916, July 1916)

Also the following from Reprint 4826, col. 2 of the June 1, 1911 Watch Tower 0n controversy is noteworthy:

“When Christianity dispenses wholly with controversy it will be like a sleeping man – harmless and helpless; it will be a sad spectacle.

“We were entertained at the house of a friend in New Hampshire, where Henry Ward Beecher was spending a day or two. It was his birthday and he was jubilant.

“He conducted prayers, and his utterances were equal to any of his published prayers in beauty, simplicity, and comprehensiveness.

“Immediately after he arose, he called the writer to him and pointed to a large picture hanging on the wall, representing a huge mastiff sound asleep with a piece of meat placed before him, and a lap-dog quietly drawing it away. Said Mr. Beecher, point­ing to the sleeping mastiff, ‘That is Orthodoxy,’ and to the little dog, ‘That is Heter­odoxy.’

“So it is and ever will be. Controversy was the life of Paul’s works – polite controversy, brotherly controversy; but strong in exposing error and building up the truth. The Epistles are full of controversy. Moreover, many of Christ’s sayings were strictly controversial.

“It is more than a fine art to combine in one sermon the forcible overthrow of an error and a heartfelt appeal; but it is possible to attain unto it.”

It is most pertinent to this discussion to note that Truth has always been more generous with its opponents than has error when contradicting the Truth. As instance, That Servant was preached into eternal torment by the errorists of his day; whereas, he himself not only held a generous view of their ignorance: they will eventually come to a knowledge of the Truth, he said, and thus have full opportunity for salvation – except in the case of those who sinned against the Holy Spirit.

The same may be said for the Epiphany Messenger. Great numbers of his opponents in the Society and other groups had him in the second death – which was giving him the same fate as did the hell-fire preachers of the Parousia time. However, he himself repeatedly said there were many saints in the Society, although some of them honestly be­lieved he was in the second death. And he was also generous with others who were not saints, contending that many of the others would eventually come to a knowledge of the Truth.

And the same comparison may be made of the Jehovah’s Witnesses today – being even more extreme in their conclusions: All who do not accept their errors will certainly go into the second death, even though they do not gainsay their errors. Such a doctrine was counted extremely ridiculous by their founder, Pastor Russell; and the same may be said for the Epiphany Messenger. Some of the Witnesses have openly told us that we are “a dead man” – beyond hope of recovery – although we are always courteous and cordial in our conversations with them.

And what shall we say of Jesus and the Apostles? Of those leaders who were thirst­ing for His blood Jesus said: “Hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of Heaven.” (Matt. 26:64) Clearly enough, He was granting them further opportunity for reformation and salvation.

AS “GOOD SOLDIERS”

And be it remembered that it was only after very minute instructions that Gideon and his three hundred proceeded to that battle against the Midianites – typical of the fact that the fully faithful in the end of this Age would also be thoroughly instructed in the cause, the method, and the art of the battle of the Great Day – “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal,” but are the “sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God.” Thus is stressed the necessity for knowing the Truth and imbibing fully of its spirit – and emphasized in the Manna comment for December 20, “Only the studious find the nar­row way to the Divine approval and acceptance.”

It is well that we bear in mind that our Lord, “the Captain of our Salvation,” never sends forth His soldiers without sufficient instruction to gain for them complete victory, so long as they are faithful. None are ever asked to do more than they are able to do. We recall an instance that was told to us very early in the Epiphany, where­in it was related how Brother Russell on a certain occasion was assigning some symposium topics to various brethren. One of them, receiving a subject which was difficult and new to him, begin to make excuse, whereupon Brother Russell asked if he were going to whimper and whine his way out of the battle, or if he would be a “good soldier.” The brother accepted without further protest, and gave an excellent account of himself for the service! Apropos to this incident are the March 28 Manna comments; “The true sol­dier does not debate his cause. He is rightly supposed to have settled upon its justice and righteousness before he enlisted to serve it.” Therefore, we may properly conclude that we must first learn the rules, then resolve to obey them in every circumstance, whereupon we shall certainly be able to “endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” (2 Tim. 2:3)

Nor does “hardness” come in a day, a week, or a year; it is the result of “pa­tient continuance in well doing – perseverance in good works” (Rom. 2:7, Dia.) – just as the successful boxer must do miles of ‘road work’ in training for a bout, skipping rope, etc., to develop hardness and stamina in his legs, back and arms if he would eventually prevail. And by similar comparison must we engage in persistent study of the Truth if we would be “weaned from the milk” (Isa. 28:9) and become “skillful in the word of right­eousness” (Heb. 5:13), if we would see victory as “good soldiers.” And it is by the victories of such good soldiers who “endure hardness” that the Truth progresses. Most of us have been witness to this, retrospectively or actively, all during the Parousia-­Epiphany days. It is the controversies with error that have advanced the fully faith­ful in Grace, knowledge and privilege of service – even as those same controversies have scattered and discomfited the errorists, so well typified in Gideon’s victory over Mid­ian. It is during controversy that the Truth comes out – much the same as necessity is the mother of invention.

A “BAD SPIRIT”

And all during the Gospel Age, but particularly now at its close, when the error­ists have been so badly routed that they become speechless, they have then embraced the battle cry of last resort – Those who wield the Truth against them have a “bad spirit.” To this day the foremost argument of the Roman Catholics against Martin Luther is that he showed a “bad spirit,” because he stunned them with the unanswerable truth against their many errors. It needs no argument that dear Brother Luther did not assail his op­ponents with ‘kid gloves’; in fact, his wording was at times so rough and uncouth that some of the present-day good friends have questioned his saintly standing – have found it difficult to understand how any one using the language Luther did could be of the Elect Church. But, clearly enough, he had the Lord’s approval, because the times then prevailing required such a person as Luther to make his message effective with the people of that day. Respecting Luther, it seems clear enough to us that he must be included among “the seven stars,” which the Lord has “held in his right hand” during the Gospel Age (Rev. 1:16) – regardless of his ‘bad spirit.’

And in 1917 the same retort of “bad spirit” was hurled at those that differed with “The Channel.” When H. J. Shearn, of England, was described as the most cunning hypo­crite ever, that trickster gave answer, “You see, brethren, the ‘spirit’ that he shows.” Others of the discomfited Levites embraced the same weapon, as their errors were smit­ten hip and thigh, and they were sent into demoralized retreat, yelling ‘bad spirit’ back over their shoulders as they ran. In answer to a letter we sent That Evil Servant, he said among other things, “Paul S. L. Johnson is vilifying me.” Yes, JFR was really being vilified – by the Truth, poor fellow!

Be it emphasized that the errorists have always been good runners, instead of “good soldiers” – just as the Midianites ran over each other that night in the valley of Moreh in their effort to separate themselves in haste from the small handful of men who were blowing their trumpets in no uncertain sound. Moreh means “teacher,” in allu­sion to the fact that so many errorists set themselves up as Pastors and Teachers in de­fiance of God’s faithful mouthpieces. Instance the case of Arius when he boldly faced the overwhelming odds at the Council of Nice – “the Midianites like grasshoppers for mul­titude” (judges 7:12). And against that horde came one old man, supported by but two others, to do battle as “good soldiers” against about 380 opponents. Arius, then al­most 75 years old, was banished from the Roman Empire, a sentence sufficient to crush even a young vigorous man; yet this “good soldier,” who blew the trumpet message that “THERE IS BUT ONE GOD,” accepted that trying edict, not as a runner, but as the good sol­dier that he was; went to North Africa, and there organized a virile group of Christians in the remaining eleven years of his life. And what did they call themselves? Why, Arians, of course! Having responded to the trumpet’s call, Arius was a good soldier to the last. Some of the present-day encyclopedias say that he was a man of clear intel­lect.

Thus, it does not surprise us that we ourselves have had similar experience since 1950 especially in recent years. At times, since 1955, some whose errors we oppose, have been profuse with their accusations of “bad spirit,” even as they confuse and con­tradict each other—in like manner as did the Midianites at Moreh. Note the similarity here with Mark 14:56: “Many bear false witness against Him, but their witness agreed not together.” But in all of this our accusers have been excellent ‘whisperers’ about the “bad spirit” of JJH.

The feature of response to the trumpet’s sound throughout this Gospel Age may be stressed in the good fight against sins of teaching and practice in entrenched strong­holds of error. The fight against sin, selfishness and worldliness, individually consid­ered, has been more of the head and the heart within the “good soldiers” themselves; but the conflict with errors of teaching and practice is the phase of battle that has made voluminous record in the pages of history. It was Jesus’ faithful “witness to the Truth” against Jewish priestcraft that cost Him His life—John 18:27 (See Berean Comment). It was exposure of errors by the faithful against the papal system that brought upon them the excruciating persecutions, indescribable for their heinous cruelty, and which spilled “the blood of the prophets and of saints” (Rev. 18:24). It was That Servant’s attacks against the Midianite strongholds of eternal torment and inherent human immortality that brought upon him the venom and slander of Christendom – so much so that when one brother once said to him, “Brother, you are the most loved man on earth,” to which he replied, “Yes, and the most hated!” The same may be said for Brother Johnson. When he discom­fited the crown-lost errorists, and put them to complete silence, they then proceeded to whisper, “He hath a Devil – He is Satanized – He is an insane usurper.” And, since “The Disciple is not above his Lord,” need it concern any of us if we receive the same treatment, we who are counted among His disciples? All thus abused have the strong as­surance of our Lord’s interceding prayer on our behalf, “Rise up, and let thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate thee flee before thee” – let the errorists do the running, as the faithful “good soldiers” do the pursuing with the Truth at their disposal – as their shield and buckler.

“GIVING ALL DILIGENCE”

When St. Peter appeals to the Fully Faithful to “give all diligence” (2 Pet. 1:5), he also offers the appealing assurance that those who do as he counsels “shall never fall” – even though we have need of reminder, though we know these things and “be established in the PRESENT TRUTH.” It is also the counsel of the worldly sage that “Diligence is the mother of good fortune” – to which may be added the words of Solomon, “Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings.” (Prov. 22:29) And the chief striving of every “good soldier” who answers the trumpet’s call should be diligent to put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil” (Eph. 6:11 – the especially deceptive false teachings of the errorists, the antitypical Midianites). And to all such who give such diligence in response to the trumpet’s call, to all such the promise is sure, “There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling” (Psa. 91:10) – no sifting error can possibly contaminate our abode.

Sincerely your brother, John J. Hoefle, Pilgrim

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LETTERS OF GENERAL INTEREST

Dear Friends:

The Bible Students Manual arrived yesterday, and I am so happy to have it. I had placed a question mark beside several verses in the Bible that seemed wrong to me – and now with the help of the Manual and the Diaglott I should be able to find more explana­tions. Many thanks for your thoughtfulness in sending it to me.

Have just finished reading the March and April editions – and they are excellent. The various methods used in celebrating the Lord’s Supper and the method used by the Truth people was most enlightening – and the Three Worlds was written in such a manner that I felt I was living right down through the Ages of history.

The enclosed check for the Manual and the remainder for the Lord’s work. Again many thanks.

With Christian love, ------- (OHIO)

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Dear Mr. Hoefle:

I have read with interest Number 249 and your discussion of the date of the Lord’s death. I am wondering if you could elaborate, however, on the date of the Lord’s birth. I note on page 2 you state that the correct date is the 10th day of the 7th month. I am wondering how this date for Christmas has been determined. I will appreciate any more information you can send me on this interesting subject.

Pastor ------- Christian Church (FLORIDA)

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Dear Brother Hoefle: Love, joy and peace to you!

We so often pray God’s mercy upon you that you may be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in these last times. We can in good feeling believe that the Lord is so lovingly using you to help us in our journey toward the whole of the land of rest. These are not easy days, Brother, from Captain to Lieu­tenant, nor the soldiers: It is no easy day for us, Brother. So we cannot forget you in our prayers.

Send us one or more parcels of tracts for us to serve. Of late one or two people will ask something toward God. We will have to serve them the best we can till their eyes are opened. Please give my love and good wishes to Sr. Hoefle and the others in the Bible House. You will note my address is a new one.

Yours by the Grace of God, Brother ------- (JAMAICA)

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Dear Brethren in Christ:

Your No. 247 – “RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT” – was given to me by a friend, and I found it very interesting – in fact so interesting I would like to send copies to a few other people in various parts of the country. Would I be asking too much if I asked for about 6 copies? I am always afraid of imposing, but this is such a re­vealing paper I would like to share it with friends and relatives.

I have never heard of this Bible Class before, and I join with the South Dakota reader in expressing my interest.

May God bless all who join in His work and endeavor to the best of their ability to serve Him.  May He open our minds to more understanding of His plan.

Yours in Him ------ (CONNECTICUT)

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Dear Brother Hoefle: Greetings in our Master’s dear Name!

It was indeed a pleasant surprise to receive your letter... I trust all in your household, as well as the friends on your side, are enjoying the best that is per­mitted at this time – you and Sr. Hoefle, especially so.......

Dear Brother, you and all there, are constantly in our thoughts, prayers and con­versations – never a prayer said, be it short or measurably lengthy, but you all are commended to our Loving Savior for your continued growth and success.... Love from the friends, as we continue to ask the Master’s tender care and guidance.....

Your brother by His Grace ------- (TRINIDAD)

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Dear Brother Hoefle: Christian love and greetings!

I hereby acknowledge ––lbs. from Brother... I have also received the papers, which are ever to our appreciation and satisfaction. The refutations given to RGJ’s errors are certainly crushing – but will he take it? He is so persistent in his wayward course that we fear for him. As for his adherents, they are given strong delu­sion, so they believe the lie and reject the truth. What a sad state!

We are thankful for your faithful service to the Lord, the Truth and the breth­ren. God will not forget your labor of love. God will give strength to His people. (Psa. 29:11).... Thank the Lord all here are still striving together as a little band of pilgrims receiving and enjoying the Master’s Grace.... I wonder if RGJ at any time looks back into his “Basilia” Kingdom teaching and compares it with the world condition now. If we are now over twenty years in the third stage of our Lord’s pres­ence what a wishy-washy Kingdom that is!

Let us look to the Lord for wisdom, knowledge and understanding, and with faith­ful eye look for the revealing of His plan in His due time.

With this comes my sincere good wishes for you, Sr. Hoefle and the others at the Bible House. Hymn 93.

Yours by His Grace, Brother ------- (JAMAICA)

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Dear Brother Hoefle: Grace and peace!

This is a very much overdue letter to thank you for the circulars which arrive so regularly, and are always absorbing and encouraging....

Next time you write perhaps you would let me know how much I still owe you for the volumes, as it might be a good idea to order a few more while the going is good or should I say, not so bad.

When one contemplates the world situation, the groaning creation not knowing which way to turn for relief from the sicknesses of society, how mercifully the Lord is breaking it gently to all that there is no escape, no remedy: the proud must be humbled! We continue in fairly good health, which goes for Brother and Sister -------, whom we saw at the week-end. They are both 80 now and do very well all things con­sidered. The eyesight is the main disability.

I have been looking back on my early copies of your circulars and find that my earliest was date March 27, 1956. If you have any copies previous to that date I would like to have them.

Recently we had a visit from Brother ------- of Darlington after a lapse of 25 years, and we were most impressed by the spirit manifested. The various points of difference were freely discussed, and he may see his way to give us another visit in due course. This meeting was brought about providentially, involving Brother ------- et al. “The Lord moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform!”

Brother joins with us in sending Christian love to you and yours.

By His Grace ------- (ENGLAND)

NO. 253: THE JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES AND THEIR PREDICTIONS

No. 253

Over the years the Witnesses have attempted to interpret some of the time proph­ecies in the Bible, having been very emphatic about some of them; but with every one of their efforts ending in complete failure – with time itself offering indisputable proof of our statement.

The first of such bunglings was their announcement that the High Calling would close at Passover 1918; but they themselves subsequently changed that statement sev­eral times; and even now they do not have a firm date for that event. However, their first real debacle toward the world (the 1918 date was something discussed among them­selves, and never received general publication) was the “Millions Now Living Will Never Die” – none need die after 1925, they emphasized – which they proclaimed in almost ev­ery meeting to the general public, with a very positive date of 1925 as the exact time for that great event to arrive.

Their main Scripture for this conclusion was 2 Chron. 36:21: “The land had enjoyed her sabbaths.... to fulfill threescore years and ten.” The “sabbaths” mentioned here are the 50-year jubilee-cycle sabbaths, of which there was to be one every fifty years. The first of these occurred in 1575 B.C.; and that would place the last one 3500 years later – in 1925. The installation and method of operation for the 50-year jubilees is given in the 25th Chapter of Leviticus; and we shall not go into detail here, other than to say their 1925 date was based upon a miscalculation of the overall operation of the jubilees – type and antitype. But 1925 came and went without the slightest hint that their predictions had been sound.

The humiliation for their President, J. F. Rutherford, was so overwhelming – and the dissatisfaction among his “dedicated devotees” was so tense – that he had to pro­duce something to offset his colossal failure. So what did he do? He seized upon Rev. 10:6, “There should be time no longer,” and interpreted this as meaning they were no longer to consider time prophecies in their teachings. Of course, that conclusion was self-evident nonsense, because the text in the King James version is a rank mistransla­tion. The Diaglott states it thus: “The time should be no longer delayed”; that is, “the secret of God should be completed” (see v. 7) – “no longer delayed.”

Nevertheless, the large majority of his followers accepted his erroneous conclu­sion on this mistrans­lation, and said almost nothing for some years about the time fea­tures of the great Plan of the Ages as outlined in the Bible. But after JFR’s death in 1943 his successors began again to nibble at time prophecies – all the while emphasizing imminent Armageddon and the subsequent destruction of all those who failed to join in with them. But in these hallucinations they lost one more essential teaching left them by Pastor Russell – they no longer have the truth on the chronology, the chronology they so ably defended against erroneous attacks by some people who had left their Society shortly after Pastor Russell’s death in October 1916.

However, more recently they have come up with the date of 1975 as the time for Armageddon’s occurrence; but that date has now come and gone – and once more they are publicly manifested as “false prophets,” in accordance with the counsel given in Deu. 18:22: “When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.”

For the past year or two, seeing that conditions might not produce Armageddon by 1975, they were “suggesting” more than they were being positive; although we are informed that one of their English represent­atives came on the radio in the Spring of 1975 and vehemently and positively declared 1975 as the time for Armageddon – warning that all who did not join up with them would suffer annihilation in the approaching holocaust.

However, at their American’ headquarters, this another total failure on their part has manifestly been causing them to “sweat”; so they have come up in several of their papers with the words of Jesus: “Of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the an­gels of heaven but my Father only.” (Matt. 24:36) This causes us to wonder if they have just now discovered that tent! During the early Parousia – from 1874 to 1914 ­that Scripture was the shibboleth of Babylonian errorists whenever the second coming of Christ was mentioned by the Watch Tower. They had no other answer to the subject; but it satisfied a large segment of their gullible followers. Now the Witnesses are using it as a crutch – just recently; and with them it goes a little deeper than meets the eye. With 1975 now a proven hoax, it leaves the Witnesses without any firm chronology; they are now floating around in space; and it remains to be seen whether their “dedi­cated” devotees will once again swallow this myth as readily as they have their many other revolutionisms against the finely-harmonious system of Truth that Pastor Russell left to them.

Their aberrations of the true chronology are finally making them an open spectacle, and revealing the unsoundness of all their dates. It is now impossible for them to produce any clear-cut compilation of time features, so they tell us that “no man know­eth the day or the hour.” This text does not say that no man ever would know; and we know from clear Scripture that Jesus came to know definitely the day and the hour ­even though He did not know it when He spoke Matt. 24:36. And we know, too, that Pastor Russell pinpointed 1914 as the end of the Gentile Times; and he did that more than 25 years before 1914.

MORE RECENT CONTENTIONS

During the “Millions” uproar in the twenties the Witnesses (then known as The Soci­ety – they did not adopt the Witnesses name until the thirties) did not offer the dire distress that would come upon those that did not accept their teachings. In fact, their intention was then to impress the general public with the appealing message of the ap­proaching Kingdom, which would eliminate all their physical and financial worries. Thus they placed great emphasis upon the comforting words of Rev. 21:14: “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain.” This is the very antithesis of their present mes­sage, in which they are proclaiming the total annihilation of all who do not now accept their errors – and they do this boldly, just as though they have been giving the truth in their publications over the years past. Thus, the words of Solomon concerning the lewd woman well apply to them: “She wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness.” (Prov. 30:20)

It is well to recall here that shortly after 1918 (after their leader J. F. Rutherford and seven others were released from Atlanta Penitentiary in 1919) they published the claim that the “Lord came to His temple in 1918”; and there was fulfilled Mal. 3: 1-4, which made them a “clean” organization “as in the days of old.” But, at the same time they were making that claim, they also were starting the proclamation “Millions Now Living Will Never Die,” which time itself proved that message to be one of the most unclean teachings of the entire Gospel Age; there was not one word of truth in it.

All the errors they have concocted in recent years are a direct contradiction to the teachings of Pastor Russell. They are telling us that God’s Kingdom was set up on earth in 1914, but a short review of the parallel dispensations will easily reveal the folly of this contention. The Jewish harvest and subsequent destruction of Jerusalem’s temple and dispersion of the Jews was a small picture of the trouble that was to come upon Christendom since 1914. Note now what Pastor Russell has to say about this in his book “Thy Kingdom Come,” p. 149: “After telling of the burning of the tares (the parallel of the burning of the chaff in 70 A.D.—JJH), the parable further declares ‘Then shall the righteous (the wheat) shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father.’ What better testimony than this could we have, that the true church is not set up in power, as God’s Kingdom, and that it will not be thus exalted until this harvest is ended? Then shall this sun of righteousness, of which Christ Jesus will always be the central glory, arise with healing in his beams, to bless, to restore, purify and disin­fect from sin and error the whole world of mankind (not just the Jehovah’s Witnesses—­JJH), the incorrigible being destroyed in the second death.

“Let the fact be remembered that in the typical Jewish harvest Israelites indeed and imitation Israelites constituted the Jewish or Fleshly House of Israel; that only the true Israelites were selected and gathered into the gospel garner, and honored with the truths belonging to the Gospel Age; and that all others of that nation, ‘chaff,’ were not physically destroyed, though many lives were lost in their trouble, but were cut off from all Kingdom favors in which previously they trusted and boasted. Then trace the parallel and counterpart of this, in the treatment of the tares, in the present burning time.

“Not only has the Lord shown us what to expect in this harvest, and our share in it, in being separated ourselves and in using as ‘reapers’ the sickle of truth to assist others to liberty in Christ and separation from false human systems and bondages, but in order to render us doubly sure that we are right, and that the separating time of the harvest has arrived, he provided us proofs of the year the harvest work began, its length, and when it will close. These, already examined, show that the close of 1874 marked the beginning, as the close of 1914 will mark the end of the 40 years of harvest; while the minutiae of the order and work of this harvest were portrayed in that of its Jewish Age type.”

This “Kingdom” book then proceeds to give details to substantiate the foregoing; and our readers would be well advised to read them. However, at no time during his life did Pastor Russell arrogate to himself any Kingdom powers, such as the Witnesses are now doing. They now feature headlines such as “Divine Sovereignty Assemblies,” etc. And in their October 1, 1975 Watchtower they say this: “Indeed, it was in 1914 that Jehovah enthroned Christ Jesus in the heavenly kingdom, on heavenly Mount Zion, with possession of the kingdom of the world... From 1919 on, a spiritual paradise under Christ’s head­ship was restored for God’s anointed remnant on earth. (It was about that time that the “Millions” hoax began to be preached with vigor—JJH) And beginning with 1935 a ‘great crowd’ of other humble worshipers came into evidence, joining with the anointed remnant of Jehovah’s Kingdom class in singing Jehovah’s praises throughout the earth. Now more than two million of these servants of God look forward to passing through the fast-­approaching ‘great tribulation’ into a cleansed earth, where a literal paradise will be restored throughout this globe, and for all eternity.”

Be it noted that since 1914 – when the Witnesses’ counterfeit kingdom was estab­lished – there has been more volume of error, more variety of error and more crime and disorder than ever before existed in the history of the human race. The Apostle Paul tells us in 2 Cor. 4:4 that “The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel should shine unto them.” Apparently, the Witnesses do not even know what this “glorious gospel” is, or they would not be teaching what they do. St. Paul gives us a clear answer to this question in Gal. 3:8: “The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached be­fore the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.” From this statement it should be clear enough to any sound mind that the blessing of the nations could not possibly mean that the great majority of those now living are to be annihi­lated in Armageddon! Had they continued in the sound teachings of Pastor Russell, they would know that at this particular time there would be fewer and fewer people who would be able to “endure (embrace) sound doctrine.” (2 Tim. 4:3)

With the uproar that we see all about us today, the corruption that is being ex­posed in high places, etc., it is clearly evident that the “god of this world” is still doing a real good job of “blinding the minds” of the great majority – and this is just the reverse of what will prevail when the true Kingdom is established. “He laid hold on the devil (the god of this world)... and bound him a thousand years... that he should deceive the nations no more.” (Rev. 20:2,3) If a man is deceived, defrauded, can he justly be held responsible for his actions?

There is no Scriptural evidence that God is now judging the individuals of the world – although we are told that the great systems of error have been judged and marked for destruction. And, while their judgment has already been set, it is evident that their punishment has not yet come to the full. “When thy judgments are in the earth (when the true Kingdom is established), the inhabitants of the world will learn right­eousness.” (Isa. 26:9) When that time arrives, “The earth shall be filled with the knowl­edge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” (Hab. 2:14) At that time, “Will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve Him with one consent.” (Zeph. 3:9) Then we may be sure there will not be any erroneous predictions making the rounds, such as “Millions Now Living Will Never Die” after 1925; no false predictions of Armageddon in 1975, and no false interpretations of God’s Word. The language of the true Kingdom will be a pure language – free from every vestige of error – published by perfect and flawless teachers.

The results of that Kingdom, “There shall be no more curse (the evils that now af­flict the human race)... no night there (no error of any kind)... for the Lord God giveth them light” (Rev. 22:3-5) – He who “balances the clouds... of Him which is per­fect in knowledge.” (Job 37:16) And the “good news” of the Kingdom – “glad tidings of great joy which shall be unto all people” – include the billions living today who fail or refuse to join with the Jehovah’s Witnesses: they will be privileged to receive the blessings of the Kingdom, and will also be privileged to experience the glorious results of that Kingdom if they so choose. Nor does this blessed privilege exclude the Jehovah’s Witnesses – many of them will come to a “knowledge of the Truth” at that time, and they will rejoice to know that their relatives and friends did not suffer annihilation in Armageddon because they refused to join with the Witnesses before Armageddon.

It is certainly sound appraisal that the general public is more confused religious­ly than they have ever been before. We see Babylon (confusion) at almost every street corner, which is Bible proof that we are now in “the evil day” (Eph. 5:16) – that day of which St. Paul wrote in 2 Tim. 3:13, Diaglott: “Evil men and impostors will make prog­ress for the worse, deceiving and being deceived.” Yet the Witnesses are telling these “deceived ones” that they must now “rightly divide the word of truth” – which means, of course, accept their teachings and agree with them and their errors, or be annihilated in Armageddon.

This idea of having a monopoly on God’s favor reaches back for many centuries. God had told the Jews: “You only have I known of all the families of the earth” (Amos 3:2); and, basking in this favor, the centuries eventually confirmed in them the be­lief that all others were “dogs,” without God and without hope in the world. The same attitude was eventually adopted by the Christians, and many of them narrowed it down to their particular sect. The Roman Catholic Church (of which the Witnesses are a small replica) branded all as heretics who would not agree with them; and the histories are replete with crimes that were committed through that false belief.

The Witnesses are now saying substantially the same thing – even though they have eliminated the eternal torment theory from their belief, they consign all who oppose them to Armageddon annihilation: In other words, those who oppose them are “dead men.” Even assuming that all of their claimed two million converts will inherit the Kingdom, that is a mere handful compared to around four billions now living. When we consider the words of the angel in Luke 2:10 – “good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people” – it requires quite a perverted twist of the mind to interpret that as meaning the merest handful of Witnesses now living. These people join well with the sayings of Solomon: “Of making many books there is no end.” (Ecc. 12:12) And the fact that some of their books directly contradict what is found in other of their books doesn’t seem to bother them at all.

Of all the groups that have emanated from the movement established by Pastor Russell the Jehovah’s Witnesses are the only ones who condemn all that do not join with them. The larger groups that have been formed since 1916 are attempting to give a comforting message of Truth to the general public, and for this they are to be commended. Some of them are distributing thousands of copies of The Divine Plan of the Ages; and it is well in order here to cite what the writer of that book said in his Foreword in 1916 – just be­fore his death: “The Author and the publisher desire publicly to acknowledge the favor of God which has permitted them to be identified with the circulation of this volume, and with the results – light, joy, peace, fellowship with God to many hungry, thirsty, bewil­dered souls. The first edition in its present form was issued in 1886. Since then, one edition has followed another in rapid succession and in twenty different languages, until now there are nearly five million copies in the hands of the people all the world over....

“The reader of THE DIVINE PLAN OF THE AGES at each step finds a strengthening of faith and a greater nearness to the Lord, and therefore a confidence that he is in the right way. After seeing the Truth, the errors are more and more seen to be absurd, worthless, injurious, and are gladly abandoned.” We add here that that is the response we personally have received from many thousands of people to whom we have presented this excellent book. The various groups that are now engaged in its distribution are cer­tainly doing a good work; and are attempting to live within the scope of Isa. 52:7: “How beautiful upon the mountains (the present great governments of earth) are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation (not annihilation in Armageddon—JJH).”

It is well that our readers keep ever in mind that only about ten thousand of the Witnesses two Million adherents are of the elect – the “great salvation” (Heb. 2:3); all the others are destined to receive the “common salvation” (Jude 3), and constitute the “great crowd” that has been garnered since 1935. Yet these heirs of the “common salva­tion” are required to sacrifice time, money, and many modern conveniences to receive this reward; whereas, the Bible tells us that when the true Kingdom is established, the glad call will go forth: “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)

Certainly this text is teaching just the extreme opposite of what the Witnesses are now telling to the general public, and to their own “dedicated” adherents; and we might add here that another so-called Truth movement is also preaching sacrifice and a “narrow way” to present consecrators – although they do not consign to annihilation all others who do not join their ranks. Nevertheless, they also are doing violence to Rev. 22:17 when they urge their newcomers to great sacrifice, although they eventually will receive nothing more than “the common salvation.” The teaching of this second group also finds no lodg­ment in any of the writings of Pastor Russell – just as the Witnesses also can find no support in his writings for their present contentions.

When the Witnesses emphasize that Armageddon will destroy completely “this present evil world,” they are again rejecting the clear Teaching of Pastor Russell an this sub­ject, based upon the Scriptures in 1 Kings 19:11-12 and Jer. 30:7. These Scriptures clearly indicate four great spasms in the destruction of the present order; namely, War, Revolution (Armageddon), Anarchy and Jacob’s Trouble. Or, if we merge Jacob’s Trouble with Anarchy, we still have three upheavals if we accept the prophetic vision of Elijah in the Kings episode. Here is part of the Berean Comment on 1 Kgs. 19:11: “An earth­quake – Symbol of revolution – God’s Kingdom will not follow the epoch of revolution (Armageddon—JJH) which is to follow the great wars.” It is our firm conviction that time itself will also prove the Witnesses wrong on this Scripture, which their founder explained so clearly and logically. Of course, when their present prediction of Arma­geddon is revealed as gross error, they will undoubtedly invent some “new light” (actu­ally mud splashes of error) as a cover-up – just as they did in 1925, after that predic­tion ended in total failure. In this we recognize that the Witnesses are prophets all right – FALSE PROPHETS; but they certainly are not earnest, sincere and reliable stu­dents of prophecy. Their entire course since 1917 (when J. F. Rutherford assumed lead­ership) has been confusion worse confounded, just as Papacy was in its hey-day – one con­tinuous stream of error after error; and their “dedicated” followers continue to cleave with the Witnesses as did the sectarian adherents with Papacy.

It is well to stress here that the Witnesses have long since abandoned The Divine Plan of the Ages – as they also have done with the other five volumes of Scripture Studies that the same author published at various times after 1886. Thus, they have lost the Truth on the real Plan of the Ages, and to that extent it may also be said of them: “blinded by the god of this world.” However, in rejecting these excellent Stud­ies in the Scriptures, they have at the same time produced many volumes of their own make-up, along with their numerous magazine publications; and they forbid their loyal adherents to question any of their writings.

We have been closely associated with quite a few persons who were expelled from their organization because they dared to question what they publish. Thus we would quote some more from p. 145 of Vol. 3 of The Studies in the Scriptures: “While indivi­dual liberty must outwardly be regarded as never before, we see that really there was never a time when the bands were so thoroughly drawn, to bind all wheat and tares into the many bundles. There never was a time when arrangements were so close, and so restrain­ing of all personal liberties, as now. (Written in 1891—JJH) Every spare hour of a zealous sectarian is filled by some of the many meetings or projects, so that no time for untrammeled thought and Bible study can be had. The principle design of these meet­ings, entertainments, etc., is sectarian growth and strength... Some wheat and many tares constitute these bundles, from which it daily becomes more difficult to get free.”

The foregoing is such an exact description of the present-day Witnesses that one might easily conclude that the writer was describing them. However, we would emphasize here that we are discussing the Witnesses as an organization, and not as individuals. It is our firm conviction that there are many – a minority of their two million, of course – conscientious Christians among them, who verily think that they do God service ­and which they do when they avoid the grossly sectarian supervision of their leaders. Sectarianism always warps the judgment of any individuals – whether with the Witnesses, or in other organizations. This same condition prevailed in the various sects of Chris­tendom prior to the beginning of the Harvest in 1874; but the true saints among them took a generous view of things, many of them admitting that there were Christians in other than their own group.

Rabid sectarians always rely upon the spirit of fear as one of their strongest crutches. Thus, the Roman Catholic Church, during the Dark Ages, when they were in their hey-day, threatened eternal torment to all who did not join them. Today, the same spirit motivates the Witnesses, who preach annihilation in Armageddon to all who do not join with them. Note the decided contrast in the statement by St. Paul: “God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” (2 Tim. 1:7) And with such an armor St. Paul could honestly say, “I will not fear what man shall do unto me.” (Heb. 13:6)

It is a tragic commentary on the morale of the human race that so many of them are actuated by fear; and many of the religious leaders, being good psychologists, have used this weakness to their own advantage. The Roman Catholic Church, even now, makes great boast of their superior numbers; and the same may be said of the Witnesses. They also display their two million “dedicated” followers as their strength; but their ‘founder’ Pastor Russell said of Great Papacy (as we now say of Little Papacy): Their numbers reveal their weakness. Yet, while they have the largest following of any of the groups that have come from them since 1916, they have rejected and revolutionized against more of the Truth given by Pastor Russell than have any of the others.

In their mad scramble to be ‘different,’ they have also ‘made’ their own Bible – ­made it to fit what they are now teaching. As one instance, Rev. 18:4 states in the King James Bible, “Come out of her (Great Babylon), my people.” So the Witnesses have translated this text, “Get out of her.” Here is the way Pastor Russell treats that text:

“The command is Come, not Go; because in coming out of bondage to human tradi­tions, creeds, systems and errors, we are coming directly to our Lord, to be taught and fed by Him, to be strengthened and perfected to do all His pleasure, and to stand, and not fall with Babylon.”

The Torture Stake – Another change the Witnesses have made is the translation of the word ‘cross,’ which they now translate as “torture stake.” Be it noted that all of the ablest Greek scholars use the word cross in their translations of the New Testament; not a one of them ever uses torture stake, instead of cross. Just to mention some of them – Young, Strong, Cruden Concordances, and Wilson’s Emphatic Diaglott translation of the New Testament. And Pastor Russell accepted the work of these eminent intel­lects, never once using the expression torture stake in referring to the manner of Je­sus’ death. (Please see our No. 155 for further elaboration on this subject. Copy free upon request.)

THE LORD’S SUPPER

This year 1976 the Witnesses celebrated this event on the evening of April 14 ­two days from the correct time. In doing this they stress the full moon after the Equinox as the proper date, but in this they show a confusion somewhat after the Jew­ish custom. In no place in the Bible are we told to celebrate the Memorial at the full of the moon. The only influence the moon has on the determination is to establish when Nisan 1 arrives. Once that is done, the Bible clearly and directly tells us it should be on Nisan 14, regardless of the condition of the moon on that date. Here again they set the Bible aside when it seems to suit their convenience.

The New Covenant – On p. 75 of their Feb. 1, 1976 Watchtower they tell us that “the little flock are the ones taken into the new covenant... the eleven faithful apos­tles... the nucleus of those later to be taken into the new covenant on Pentecost day of 33, C.E. (Luke 22:20).” This is what Pastor Russell had to say about that text:

“The New Covenant cannot become operative until the cup of the Lord’s sufferings which are left behind (including all faithful Christians of this Gospel Age—JJH) has been fully drained by the members of His Body.”

It seems that the Witnesses have now gone back to that vicious error that precipi­tated the 1908-11 sifting – the Murmursome-Contradictionism fifth sifting that caused the severest controversy among Truth people of the entire Harvest – from 1874 to 1914.

New Covenant – New Mediator – In Heb. 8:6 we are told, “Jesus is the mediator of a better covenant”; and Heb. 12:24, “Jesus the mediator of the new covenant.” The entire context of Hebrews 12 is describing the overthrow of Satan’s empire and the es­tablishment of the Mediatorial Kingdom. Thus, any one being under that new covenant (the contrast here is with the introduction of the old Law Covenant) would necessarily have to be under the Mediator of that covenant. Now the meaning of mediator is “middle man,” which means a go-between for parties that are at enmity with each other. Thus, to carry the comparison to a logical conclusion, the Witnesses’ “little flock” are now at enmity with God; whereas, St. Paul tells us that God’s true followers in this faith Age have peace with God. (Rom. 5:1,2)

On p. 76 of this same paper they summarize the subject with the following: “It is always a joy to see so many new ones attending the Memorial celebration. After the pro­gram, an occasion for happy fellowship is enjoyed with the new ones and with one another. This joyful fellowship is truly upbuilding and encouraging to everyone. The evening’s program, if it is reflected upon, always give much food for thought with grateful appreciation to Jehovah, reminding us of all that He has done out of love for us through the Ransomer, Jesus Christ our Lord... Upon arriving home after the program a family of Jehovah’s Witnesses may spend time discussing the meaning of this significant occasion.”

The teaching of Pastor Russell is in direct contrast to the foregoing, as the following from p. 478 of his Scripture Studies, Vol. 6 reveals:

“The service being thus ended (after partaking of the bread and the cup—JJH), we advise that the course of the Lord and the Apostles be followed to the end – that a hymn be sung in conclusion, and the congregation thus dismissed – without any concluding prayer. We advise that on this occasion the usual greeting, inquiries for health, etc., be dispensed with, and that each go to his home avoiding as far as pos­sible, anything that might disturb his reflections and communion, and that so far as possible each seek to continue to commune, not only on that night, but during the fol­lowing day, having in memory the Lord’s experiences in Gethsemane, and his need of sym­pathy and help, and the fact that each member of His Body may also have Gethsemane oc­casions, and need the comfort and help of fellow-disciples.”

The above is exactly in keeping with the words of Jesus Himself in Matthew 26:38: “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.” Then, if we add to this the pray­er of Jesus, and the things He said to His disciples that last night, as given in the Gospel of John (Chapters 13-17), we find not the slightest hint of the “happy fellow­ship” now recommended by the Witnesses. In fact, this is just one more confirmation that they have lost great quantities of the Truth and the Spirit of the Truth. It is little wonder that their predictions have consistently failed of performance, because we need not expect the Lord to give advancing Truth through such mouthpieces. And it con­firms our conclusion that they have not only lost many important doctrinal truths as given by Pastor Russell, but their conduct has also suffered accordingly – as we should expect.

Thus, they have not only revolutionized against the Truth, but against its arrange­ments also. Therefore, Psalms 107:10,11 pointedly applies to them: “Such as sit in darkness... Because they rebelled against the words of God (revolutionized against the Truth which once made them clean—John 15:3), and contemned the counsel of the most High” (rejected the arrangements given through the Lord’s faithful mouthpiece). Here St. Paul’s appraisal applies directly to them: “Ever learning (one new error after another), and never able to come to a knowledge of the Truth.” (2 Tim. 3:7)

In conclusion, we would advise our own readers to accept the counsel of St. Paul as given in 2 Tim. 3:14, Diaglott: “Do thou continue in the things which thou didst learn (from Pastor Russell, the founder of their organization) and wast convinced of, knowing by whom thou hast been instructed.”

Sincerely your brother,

John J. Hoefle, Pilgrim