NO. 272: REVIEW OF QUESTIONS - PRESENT TRUTH JULY-AUGUST 1977

No. 272

On pp. 61-62 of the July-August Present Truth are questions regarding the teach­ing position of the Ancient and Youthful Worthies. These questions are designed to offset our annihilating paper, The Pastor and Teacher. As we all know, RGJ is a self-­admitted crown-loser. In E-2:122 there is this: “It is also true that some others fa­vored with the same opportunity (of crown-retainers—JJH) have been so largely, though not totally, overthrown by Satan that they have made shipwreck of membership in the Seed, viz., the Great Company.”

Any self-admitted crown-loser should realize that Satan overthrew that Class to such an extent that they were no longer acceptable to God as members of the Very Elect; and this knowledge should sober RGJ enough for him to seek to “do justice (righteous living) and judgment (true doctrine, and correct instruction).” They should fear lest the same malady might overtake them again: they should not be boasting of their “high” class, but humbly “work out their salvation” with fear and trembling, realizing they could also lose their standing as Great Company members. They lost their standing in the Body of Christ, driven out of the Holy into the Court, and their humanity deliv­ered to the fit-man and wilderness experience to destroy their fleshly minds. (See 1 Cor. 5:5 and Berean Comments.) They will have to “wash their robes in the blood of the Lamb” if they receive the palms of victory. (Rev. 7:9) When they were in the Holy they were being tested as crown-retainers; but as Great Company members their testing is for life itself – eternal life.

In the entire history of the Gospel Age, never did God appoint a crown-loser to be Pastor and Teacher, although many of them usurped that office. But in every instance God sent them “strong delusion” (2 Thes. 2:11), and they ended by presenting gross er­ror. Surely this observation should have a sobering effect upon RGJ! But it seems that nothing has sobered him thus far: he continues to arrogate to himself the office of Pastor and Teacher, and boasts of his “higher class.” All crown-losers should real­ize that despite all the help that God gave them to retain their standing, they were unfaithful enough to lose their Very Elect standing. Does he think the Youthful Wor­thies should accept the errors of such crown-lost leaders? Especially would we ask regarding the Witnesses: Should the Youthful Worthies accept their leaders’ false doc­trine (“strange fire”) of “Great Multitude – a non-existent class?

All during the Gospel Age the Ancient Worthies (a class lower than the Little Flock) have been teaching the Little Flock; and not only the Little Flock, but Jesus Himself at His first Advent. Note the following from E-15:672 (middle): “Our Lord was not nourished by His Little Flock brethren; but He was nourished by the Old Tes­tament writers, who are a part of antitypical Sarah, as we will later show.” Then more from p. 673: “During Sarah’s time of barrenness and practical forsakenness the faithful of the Old Testament were the personal, ministering part of the Sarah Cove­nant, whose sorrows, ministries and sufferings are described in Is. 54; Heb. 11; 1 Pet. 1:10-12.” Emphatically does Heb. 11 describe the Ancient Worthies – and no other class.

All during the Gospel Age crown-lost leaders were very prominent – outshone the faithful Little Flock. But all these crown-lost leaders perverted the Star Members’ teachings, developing the various sects as they did so – and gained great prominence as developers and leaders of those sects. The Epiphany Messenger taught that the Epi­phany would re-enact the Gospel Age on a small scale; and verily we are witness to that Truth – witnesses to the last prominent crown-lost leader perverting the Star Members’ teachings. RGJ not only has perverted the Epiphany Messenger’s teaching, but also has perverted That Servant’s teaching – namely, That Servant’s teaching concerning the Youthful Worthies to be won “between the Ages – and “until restitution sets in”; Cor­nelius not being “repentant and believing” (although consecrated and converted – a blatant piece of eisegesis if there ever was one) – and anything else Brother Russell taught that might militate against his present errors – such as treatment of disfellowshiped brethren, and the like.

“To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.” (Prov. 21:3) And the comment on this text in the October 14 Manna is this: “By justice right­eousness, and by judgment true instruction are here meant. Sacrifice ordinarily means the good works of love; but here sacrifice means good works done contrary to Justice and Truth.” We can say of the Great Company leaders what the Apostle Paul said about natural Israel: “For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowl edge.” (Rom. 10:2)

All of an “honest heart,” and grounded in Parousia and Epiphany Truth, know that RGJ has not only perverted much of the faithful teachings of the Star Members, but has also “gazed” and brought forth teachings of his own, contrary to the warning we have received from the Epiphany Messenger. Not only are the Great Company forbidden to man­ufacture new doctrines, but the general members of the Little Flock are also forbidden to do this – all other than the faithful Mouthpieces who were appointed by God, “as was Aaron.” (Heb. 5:4) But, according to RGJ, we are to accept his teaching in preference to “continuing in the faith once delivered unto the saints” (by the Star Members). He tells us to discard their teachings on Youthful Worthies and accept his non-existent class of Campers Consecrated; to discard Brother Russell’s teaching on Cornelius, and accept his views – views that support his “strange fire” of Campers Consecrated, as well as other teachings that militate against his new views’ and errors.

His teachings are very much like those of J. F. Rutherford, although he has not yet reached the depravity of JFR: he still has the Parousia and Epiphany books and sells them, even though these books refute his revolutionism and “strange fire.” If the breth­ren study the chapter on Youthful Worthies in Epiphany Volume Four, they will have to set aside large parts of it to “continue” in RGJ’s teaching on Youthful Worthies and Tentative Justification. They would have to do this the same as other groups have had to do with Parousia Volume Two when they repudiate that Servant’s chronology.

We are living in a period (Epiphany) when the light is becoming clearer to the faithful and more unclear to the measurably faithful. We are in the day when “they will not endure sound doctrine.” (2 Tim. 4:3) Berean Comments on 2 Tim. 4:3 follows: “The time will come..... particularly in the latter part of the harvest of the Gospel Age, as illustrated by the closing days of John the Baptist .... Now the Spirit speak­eth expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith .... Desires for something new .... Be not many teachers ... Having itching ears ... For the praise of men .... For a new Gospel of education, refinement and wealth.” Also, Berean Com­ments on 2 Thes. 2:11: “Shall send them .... All, in the end of the Gospel Age, who having been favored with the Word of God, have failed to appreciate and use it........ ‘Strong delusion’ ... That which, from certain standpoints, has the appearance of truth ...... Great delusions are just before us, and some of these may come closest upon those possessing the most light of Present Truth.”

RGJ would have us believe that all those who refuse to accept his ‘new light,’ revolutionism, etc., and refuse to set aside the Parousia and Epiphany Truths, are the ones who have ‘strong delusions.’ Certainly all crown-losers in the Truth Movement possessed the most light of Present Truth. Some of them possessed more light than some of the saints – but none of the saints are included in these “strong delusions” – only the measurably faithful, the crown-losers. All of them were persuaded by Satan to sin sufficiently to lose their crowns. The crown-losers are in danger of the Second Death. See James 5:20 and Berean Comments. The Little Flock were in danger of losing their crowns.

We have been asked, Don’t you believe RGJ is of the second-death class because of his treatment of the brethren who held to their High Calling hope, and because of his cruel treatment of you – disfellowshiping you, calling you a sifter, the Devil, etc.? We answer No. While these people are in Azazel’s hands they very often persecute the faithful who resist their evils of teaching and practice. During the Gospel Age the prominent crown-losers were foremost in persecuting the faithful, and of inflicting cruel punishments upon them. They had to repent, of course, and cleanse themselves, if they retained their standing in the Great Company. We have no record of such re­pentance, but the Lord does. He will “deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” (Heb. 2:16 – See Berean Comments) In the hope it may turn him back from his “path of error,” once more we quote from E-11:342:

“These two (Brothers Russell and Johnson—JJH) can do and have done such study with­out its being speculation, because they therein work with and under Jesus as His eye, mouth and hand (with thee). If, however, they should attempt to open an undue Scripture, they, too, would make mistakes therein and produce error, as both of them in minor details have done. The privileges of these two none others were to have; for if any of the other Priests or those of lower orders among the Lord’s people should attempt to break over this barrier prohibiting for the Parousia and Epiphany personal and direct Bible study (let not the priests and the people break through to come..... Lord), they would be in danger of experiencing their being cut off from their respective classes (lest he break forth upon them). Accordingly, Jesus gave His attention to this subject (Moses went down, v. 25) and warned, especially by the Parousia Messenger during the Parousia, and by the Epiphany Messenger during the Epiphany, against this dangerous practice, other brethren joining with them in sounding out the warning (spake unto them). Some heeded the warning and thus were saved from the evils of speculation. Others, heady, refused to heed the warning, and thereby forfeited their several standings before the Lord, e.g., the six sifting classes and the fully willful siftlings. Therefore, we earnestly caution all of the Lord’s people of all their classes to refrain from speculation, lest God make a breach – a separation from their class standing – upon them!”

According to his own admission in his November 15, 1910 letter in the Watch Tower, RGJ did some of this speculating during the Parousia. Whether this was the cause of his losing his crown then, we do not know – but self -evidently, it is one of his beset­ting sins. So far as we know, he did not attempt to speculate while Brother Johnson was with us. But after Brother Johnson’s demise all barriers were removed from him, and he could – and did – speculate and bring out new doctrinal errors – errors accord­ing to his fancy (his ‘strong delusions’). We now follow with comments and references along this same line:

None but Star Members can produce a new doctrine. (See E-9:134, middle). “The advancing Truth does not set aside the Truth formerly received, as some deceivers teach.” (E-9:19, bottom – Such as Campers Consecrated now replacing Youthful Worthies “between the Ages... until restitution sets in.”) “They who dash the doctrines of the Truth against the sects of Big and Little Babylon will be favored by God.” (E-13:744, par. 1, bottom) “All” would certainly include the Youthful Worthies, although RGJ teaches that they are not privileged to “dash the doctrines of the Truth” against the errors of a “higher class”! “Moreover, his (J. F. Rutherford—JJH) 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 the most strife among God’s people. Blessed are they who contend against him earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints and now being corrupted by him.” (E-6:313, par. 1, bottom) “Now are they (the Great Company—JJH) to seek to discover ‘new light’ and spread it before the Church, as this would be attempting to go into the Holy, from which they have been excluded, and would result in their offering strange fire, as the Society, et al have done.” (E-7:138)

RGJ is now offering “new light” on the two and one-half tribes given their inher­itance East of the Jordan. He tells us that the other half tribe of Manasseh are his Campers Consecrated and other Epiphany Campers. Brother Johnson tells us this half tribe west of Jordan stands for a whole tribe, ten being the number of perfection or completion for natures lower than Divine. This is just another of his speculations to “shine as the inventor of ‘new views.’” Brother Johnson was aware of a quasi-elect class, and he didn’t identify them with any particular tribe. The quasi-elect and Epi­phany Campers Consecrated, by whatever name RGJ calls them, are restitutionists in what­ever tribe they may be pictured. So we have no ‘desire’ to speculate about it – bring forth a new view in an effort to “shine before the brethren.” See Epiphany Vol. 4, p. 450 for the Epiphany Messenger’s teaching on the subject.

That Servant was asked the question: “What do you mean by the expressions ‘earthly phase’ and ‘spiritual phase,’ in relation to the kingdom? Answer: There is only one king­dom per se; and that is, the Church; but it will have servants and representatives which to the world will be its kingdom or direct government. Though all will be instructed to recognize the overruling spiritual kingdom of Christ and the Church and the still supe­rior kingdom of the Heavenly Father, yet this spiritual phase will be represented by the Patriarchs and other overcomers of past Ages who will constitute the ‘earthly phase’ of the kingdom. (Luke 13:28; Heb. 11:39,40) The ‘great company’ do not belong to the kingdom at all. They will be associated in some way not explained, but will not be part of the kingdom real, nor yet of the earthly or representative kingdom.” (Reprints 2052, col. 1)

At first we could not accept the statement that the “Great Company do not belong to the kingdom at all”; but when we consider the fact that the spiritual phase is The Christ, the real Kingdom from which the Great Company has been remanded; and when we consider that the earthly phase, or representatives of the Kingdom Class, are the Wor­thies, the Great Company will have no part in that phase either. The earthly phase will consist only of the Worthies.. The Great Company will be spiritual. As Brothers Russell and Johnson have taught, the Ancient Worthies will be higher in office than the Great Company in the Kingdom, although lower in nature. However, they will have an honorable place as guests at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. (Rev. 19:9) It was also brought up later that the Great Company would be ‘nobles’ in the Kingdom, as a sort of spiritual police force. Their wilderness and fit-man experiences will qualify them to fill the po­sition in such an office. The Great Company will not be “more than conquerors” (Rom. 8:37), but they will be conquerors.

Note the Berean Comments on Rom. 8:37: “We... The little flock only, not the Great Company.” And it would seem reasonable and proper that they would not be teach­ers in the Kingdom, for as teachers in this “present evil world,” they have perverted God’s Word – although quite a few of them are recognized by the world for their brilliant performance and talents – teachers in this present evil world, but teachers of much er­ror. Most of the Little Flock have been unnoticed: “We are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.” (1 Cor. 4:13) The angels were teachers in the first world – up to the flood; but they, too, were “sinners” ­because of disobedience to God; so God has not used them as teachers in this present world, nor will He use them in the world to come: He will use The Christ as the spiri­tual phase – the Kingdom Real – and the Worthies in the visible earthly phase, as rep­resentatives of The Christ.

However, the Great Company will be a “high” class when they are cleansed; and when they are cleansed they will have a humility similar to the Little Flock, who never boasted of their “high” class; and we opine that the crown-losers when cleansed will do the same: they will not boast as though they had attained, but will gratefully and thankfully accept the Truth from any one who has it, whether of a ‘higher’ class or ‘lower’ class. It will be the teachings of the Star Members, and the inspired writings of the Apostles and the Ancient Worthies that will be the means of instruction for their cleansing – all the various Truths necessary for their individual needs; and no matter who upholds and brings these Truths to their attention, it will be the Truth that will free them from their bondage (Heb. 2:15). The Truth makes us free. The fully faithful are under liberty; but so long as the Great Company is uncleansed, they are not chil­dren of liberty. But they will be under liberty again when cleansed: “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:24) Even though while in bondage they were striped for their disobedience, but in their trial for life – their test for faithfulness and loyalty – it will be their choice: eternal life will not be forced on any one. When they are cleansed they will be able to claim Prov. 4:18: “The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” The works of the Great Company will be “burned... but he himself shall be saved so as by fire.” (1 Cor. 3:15)

“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” (Isa. 1:18) If the good Youthful Worthies are privileged to know the Truth, except such truths as are limited to the Priests, and the Great Company will be privileged to come to a similar knowledge of such Truth when cleansed, it stands to reason that the Youthful Worthies would be better qualified than any one else to impart such knowledge to the Great Company. We have quoted from the Epiphany writings in this paper, which is especially designed to bless and help the crown-losers in the LHMM, as quite a few of these Truths have been revolutionized against by the Executive Trustee; and we trust it will serve to awaken him to his “path of error.” (Jas. 5:20) “If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel (revolutionize), ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” (Isa. 1:19,20)

During the Jewish Age many of the leading Jews memorized the whole Old Testament. And with the perfect mind that the boy Jesus had, He would almost certainly have memo­rized the Old Testament by the time He was thirty. In fact, at the age of twelve He was confounding the learned temple Jews with His questions about the Law, etc. Thus, the Ancient Worthies would have taught Him much before He was thirty, at which time the “heavens were opened unto him” (Matt. 3:16); that is, He began to understand what He had previously read and memorized. It is certain that He found no books in the wilderness during His forty-day stay there. During His youth He was certainly nourished by the Ancient Worthies.

However, during this Epiphany it has been quite different with the Great Company: they have revolutionized against the Truth they once accepted and believed – and have brought forth “strange fire” (false doctrine) that they manufactured themselves. Bro. Johnson tells us in E-4:129, that “the understanding of priestly matters pertinent to the fit man and abandoning him to Azazel, is withheld from them.” This was verified by RGJ at the 1955 Jacksonville Convention when the question was asked – “Did Brother Johnson ever withdraw brotherly fellowship from you?” His answer was an emphatic, No; which was the truth. But the truth he did not know was that in the abandonment process the priests must withdraw all brotherly help and favor from them at which time they are abandoned to Azazel. All Great Company members must be abandoned to Azazel before they can get their cleansing. This is clearly shown in the treatment of the sinning brother at Corinth. (1 Cor. 5:1-5)

As the sharp cutting truth became more pronounced against RGJ, and questions came to him that he could not answer, he came up with ‘new light’ on the Abandonment Proce­dure, for a strange and very weak alibi: the Great Company in the LHMM did not have to have the procedure outlined in E. Vol. 15:525; theirs was an “attenuated” abandonment ­they didn’t have to have brotherly fellowship withdrawn from them! Of course, he could not offer any proof for this because he had manufactured it out of thin air, and very impure air at that! Any one who cannot grasp the clear meaning of these quotations from Vol. 15 gives very convincing evidence that he is still in an uncleansed condi­tion. We now quote the following from E-15:525:

“As in none of the Great Company do these two forms of the rod prove sufficient.... He delivers them over to Satan ... Their delivery to Satan implies that they come into such a condition as the priests disfellowship them, and thus withdraw all brotherly help and favor from them. (Be it noted that Brother Johnson did not withdraw brotherly help and favor from the Great Company in the LHMM during his lifetime—JJH) It also Implies that God temporarily abandons them (God abandoned them by removing Brother Johnson from our midst in October 1950—JJH), and lets Satan buffet them.... Filling their minds with more or less error (such as justification outside the linen curtain, etc.—JJH)... he de­ceives them into believing they will accomplish great works (such as filling the Epiphany Camp with a great multitude of Consecrated Campers, with a narrow way in the Camp for them to walk—JJH), win great numbers, gain great favor. The upshot of it all, however, is great disappointments, troubles, losses, frustrations and failures.”

Also in E-4:209 (70): “We will summarize by defining the seven stages or steps in the exper­iences of Azazel’s Goat, in order that the dear brethren may have them together for comparison and contrast.

“(l) Confessing the sins: a declaration of the willful sins of organized Christen­dom by the World’s High Priest.

“(2) Loosing the Goat: The World’s High Priest giving the Great Company a measure of liberty: (1) by taking away certain truths through permitting errors to blind their for­mer understandings of those truths, and (2) by removing Providential hindrances to their measurable freedom of action. (We have witnessed the Truth of this teaching in the per­sons of J. F. Rutherford and RGJ: when “God temporarily abandons them” – after the re­moval of That Servant, who had restrained JFR during his lifetime; and after the re­moval of the Epiphany Messenger, who had restrained RGJ during his lifetime—JJH)

“(3) Leading to the Gate: The World’s High Priest resisting their revolutionism.

“(4) Passing it through the Gate: The High Priest withdrawing priestly fellowship.

“(5) Delivering to the fit man: The High Priest delivering them to unfavorable circumstances and persecuting persons. (By withdrawing brotherly fellowship and favor from them—JJH)

“(6) Leading to the wilderness: Unfavorable circumstances and persecuting persons giving them distress.

“(7) Letting go into the wilderness: Unfavorable circumstances and persecuting people putting them through occasioning them to commit willful sins, into a condition of utter loss of the favor and help of God’s Real or Nominal people, i.e., the loss of their brotherly fellowship, because of their coming in matters of faith and practice into the control of Azazel (such as inventing non-existent classes and spreading it before the Lord’s people—JJH), who uses them to further his purposes.”

It is clear enough that in 1955 at the Jacksonville Convention RGJ did not understand the matters “pertinent to the fit man abandoning him to Azazel” (E-4:129) – even though the teachings were there long before that time. Nor does it seem that he under­stands it yet. Brother Johnson tell us that “After the Levites cleansing, they will doubtless partake of the Epiphany truths that are for them; for then they will be somewhat like the good Youthful Worthies, who are privileged to see and appreciate every truth except such truths as the Lord may desire to be limited to the priests.”

So who would it be but the good Youthful Worthies to minister to them these truths, if they are to come to a knowledge of them similar to the Youthful Worthies? If RGJ be­lieves his own edict – “the last saint gone” – he thinks no other elect class is with us but the Youthful Worthies and the Great Company; therefore only the Youthful Worthies, who have retained these truths, would be qualified to minister them to the Great Company so they could “partake of the Epiphany Truths somewhat like the good Youthful Worthies.” The good Youthful Worthies, of course, have continued in the Truths they have “learned and been assured of,” knowing they have learned them from God’s faithful Mouthpieces; while the Great Company set aside and revolutionized against them. Practically all the Epiphany truths we have presented in our writings have simply been quotations from the Epiphany writings, even as we have presented in our writings herein; and the mere fact that RGJ up to now has not heeded them manifests that he is still in an uncleansed condi­tion. Although these truths – especially on the abandonment procedure – have been before him all during the Epiphany, they apparently never were grasped by him.

“Loyalty to the Lord and to His flock and to His truth, through whatever channel it comes, demands that it shall be heralded by each of us to the extent of our ability and in its purity and as speedily as possible, – consistent with the condition and interests of those for whom the Lord intended – His flock. Shepherds who feed themselves and not the flock are warned by the Lord of His displeasure, and could not be expected to thrive spiritually, or otherwise to enjoy the light of the Lord’s face.—Ezek. 34:2,7-10.” (Reprints 3138, col. 2, par. 1)

When, and if, RGJ is cleansed, he will have the humility to accept instructions of the Truth from whatever source it comes; and we will then hear no more talk from him about his “higher class.” Not only will the Great Company, when cleansed, receive the cleansing Truth necessary for them, they will also develop noble qualities similar to the Little Flock who worked out their salvation with “fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12) – with great carefulness. This condition is devoutly to be hoped for!

“I beheld the transgressors, and was grieved; because they kept not thy word. Consider how I love thy precepts: quicken me, 0 Lord, according to thy loving kind­ness. Thy word is true from the beginning; and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth forever.” (Psa. 119:158-160)

Sincerely your brother,

John J. Hoefle, Pilgrim

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QUESTION OF GENERAL INTEREST

QUESTION: – Will there be false religious systems in the Little Season, with siftings and false doctrines brought forth, as it has been in the Epiphany?

ANSWER: – The Little Season will involve a “trial of the faithful” the same at it has been in the Epiphany, so the minute details of that trial are withheld from the Lord’s people. However, Satan has always been able to control mankind best through false religions, so revolutionism against the teachings given by the Worthies during the Mediatorial reign will be his chief weapon, just as revolutionism against the teachings of the Parousia and Epiphany Messengers has been used by Satan in the Epiphany period. He has used the Measurably Faithful while in his clutches, and has also used the totally unfaithful. In the Little Season he will use the totally unfaithful only, as there will be no Measurably Faithful. There will be only two classes: the faithful and the unfaithful – the Sheep and the Goats.

However, it will be different in the Little Season, as all mankind will be physi­cally perfect, with perfect brain organs. The sheep will not only be physically per­fect, with perfect brain organs, but will be perfect in character. Therefore, they will not be deceived; only the “goats,” who are not perfect in character, will be deceived. All the sheep will be “rooted and grounded” in the Kingdom Truth – Present Truth far that time – and they will not be deceived. So all will know in the Little Season who are sheep and who are goats when they are manifested as revolutionists. The goats will be deceived by revolutionism and false teaching and thereby become manifest as such.

This has not been true of all the Lord’s people in the Epiphany, as none of them are physically perfect, with perfect brain organs; and some are less grounded in Epi­phany and Parousia Truth and can be deceived, even though they have good hearts. They will all eventually have enough Truth to work out their own salvation. So the Lord’s judgment in the Epiphany is not all “according to knowledge,” but according to character – altho, as Brother Russell has said, God holds us responsible for the knowledge we could have and don’t have. So that is a vast difference from the Little Season, as all the sheep will have knowledge and perfect brain organs to obey that knowledge; and with per­fect heart condition they will be in harmony with that knowledge.

However, there have been quite a few in this Epiphany ready to pronounce “their” judgment upon others: they have “cast out” the faithful – “they have lost their standing before      the Lord,” they say. But the Lord says, “He will appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed.” (Isa. 66:5) So it seems that some of these brethren who have done these evils will be “ashamed.” We don’t think those who have committed the sin unto death will be ashamed – only sorry that their evils were unsuccessful. So it behooves all of us to “wait upon the Lord” – wait for the Lord to make His judgments unmistakably clear and manifest. We know that so long as they are in the Household of Faith there is opportunity for them to become truly repentant. However, it is a fearful thing to offer “strange fire” before the Lord. (See E-11:190,191)

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LETTERS OF GENERAL INTEREST

Epiphany Bible Students:

Please send me the book – Life-Death-Hereafter. If there is any charge, let me know.

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

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Dear Sir:

Please send me your book – Life-Death-Hereafter. Also please send me a book list of other material that is available.

Thank you! Sincerely, ------- (VIRGINIA)

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Dear Epiphany Bible Students:

Please send me the book – “Life-Death-Hereafter” – and the article, The Rich Man and Lazarus.

Thank you! Sincerely, ------- (VIRGINIA)

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Dear Sir: Greetings!

I have read a few copies of the “Epiphany Bible Students Ass’n,” and I must say that I enjoyed having them in my home and to show my friends. I would be thankful if you can enroll me as a subscriber of the Epiphany papers – also, please send me three copies of No. 121 on the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the one on Seventh Day Adventists.

Thanking you, and hoping to hear from you, I remain ------- (TRINIDAD)

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Mr. Hoefle:

Would you please send me Nos. 11 and 130. Also, I would like information on how to obtain the “Divine Plan of the Ages.” My husband passed away recently and I would like to know if in God’s coming Kingdom I will see him again, and if he will know me. Any information you can send me would be appreciated.

Sincerely, ------- (NORTH CAROLINA)

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Dear Friends:

In your recent publication you offer a “collection of writings by Brother Russell” which we will appreciate your sending to us. Also, would you be able to supply us with a copy of “Comfort for the Jews” by JFR?....... Hope the enclosure is ample to cover. If in excess use it for postage.

Respectfully yours, ------- (CALIFORNIA)

NO. 271: RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT

No. 271

Looking back over 1977 we are once more awed by the tremendous scientific achieve­ments of the more enlightened nations. For instance, the French now have the fastest operational bomber – the Dassault Mirage IV – which can fly 1450 miles per hour at 36,000 feet, which is more than twice as fast as the speed of sound. The best commer­cial planes in the United States have a cruising speed of about 625 miles per hour ­less than half the speed of the bomber. Also, the world’s heaviest bomber – the Boe­ing B-52H Stratofortress – has a maximum takeoff weight of 488,000 pounds. Another com­mercial airplane now can go from the U. S. to England in 116 minutes; these figures stag­ger the imagination, especially so when we consider that the airplane was invented in 1903 – a little over 75 years ago. “In the time of the end many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased.” (Dan. 12:4) When we consider the great numbers of people who “run to and fro,” and the great increase in knowledge, this one item alone ­without any chronology, without any parallel dispensations, etc. – should convince any open mind that we are definitely “in the time of the end.”

The same applies also to agriculture. Note this news report: “What Mohammed Ali is to boxing, Roy Lynn of western Michigan is to corn, the champ Lynn claimed the title Wednesday (published October 20, 1977) after completing a harvest of 352.64 bushels of corn from a single acre of his farm just south of Kalamazoo.” When we were a boy on an Ohio farm we produced 50 bushels to the acre, and it was the admiration of the entire county.

A telephone company employee has told us they now have instruments so sensitive that if a telephone is tapped anywhere in the city, they will know it in thirty sec­onds; and will know whether it was tapped on the property of the user, or on the line out in the alley. These instruments are so sensitive that they are affected by smoke; therefore, no smoking is allowed in the room where they are kept.

IN FINANCE

The debts of the various nations continue to snowball at a rapid rate. Here in the United States some statisticians estimate the overall debt – national, state, city and private at something between three and four trillion dollars. All the large cities are hopelessly bogged down with debt, which prevents them from maintaining adequate po­lice protection, and proper maintenance of public facilities. Recently in Detroit all the street lights went out on a main street in the downtown area; and it was over three weeks before they were restored, thus exposing the citizenry to the mercy of hoodlum elements.

In New York City – “They turned the lights out in New York last week. (July 1977) They should have left them off! When they came on again a sorry sight was revealed. Large sections of the city were in a complete shambles. Looting and burning of com­mercial establishments was on a scale rarely, if ever, seen in any other part of the United States. At one automobile showroom, display windows were smashed and fifty brand-new cars were driven away. In another location, a four-story furniture store was completely emptied! Looters even took the light fixtures off the walls. On one street, forty out of forty-six stores were completely destroyed or vandalized. In some of the clothing stores, looters had not only taken all the clothing, but they stole the mannequins, too. Out of town papers have described sections of New York as war zones. It is little wonder! Policemen who were attempting to arrest looters en­countered organized sniper fires that prevented them from doing their duty. Older peo­ple in these communities are saddened and will be severely affected. One mother poi­gnantly summarized the impact of the looters when she stated, ‘They are destroying their own neighborhood and they think it’s a game.’

“Sociologists, television commentators and newspaper editors have been offering a variety of interpretations of the causes of these calamitous disorders. There are, of course, any number of sociological implications in any such catastrophe. I find it ironic that of all the analyses done so far none seems to have come to the heart of the problem – inflation.

“Century after century in one civilization or another it has been proven that when the value of money is destroyed the destruction of society follows. Order vanished in an inflationary environ­ment. The financial squeeze resulting from inflation forced nor­mally reasonable people to do the unthinkable. This has occurred throughout history and it is happening right now. Countries plagued by chronic inflation are continually beset by political disturbances. Even such civilized nations as England, France and Italy are being wrecked by unprecedented instability. The English policemen have never had to carry guns, so high was the respect for law and order in that country. Now they are con­sidering carrying weapons. The Bobbies are finding that their wooden truncheons are no match for angry mobs, anarchists, bomb throwers or the hardened criminals roaming the streets today. France and Italy have exorbitantly high inflation rates. The admini­stration of government in both of these countries is collapsing and the Communists are close to victory......

“An inflation-infected country finds the virus spreading into all aspects of soci­ety. There is a complete breakdown of moral conduct. Pornography and prostitution are thriving. The widespread breakdown of morality serves as the ultimate rationalization for the looter and criminal........

“No End In Sight – The news on the inflation front is not at all encouraging these days. Public officials are trying to persuade us that the 6% – 7% current inflation rate is something you can live with. But, even a 5% inflation rate doubles the price level in fifteen years. If you are in your fifties and planning for your retirement, do you think you will find it easy to set aside a cash reserve that will provide you double today’s living costs? Last year alone the price of an average new car rose $700 over 1975..... We are now told that this year’s and next year’s combined deficits will be over one hundred billion dollars. Think of it – a one-hundred-billion dollar deficit in just two years!

“There are already fifteen million people on government payrolls now. Their wages are $4000 above the average of all domestic industries. Government employees are earn 36% more than the guy working in the private sector. This continuous expansion of the public sector is precisely the route England has followed over the past thirty years. As more and more people are taken out of the profit stream and put on public payrolls, profits will not only shrink, but the burden an those working in the private sector be­comes even greater. They have to support a larger number on the public payrolls. It is very much like the situation in New York City, except an a much larger scale. The relief load and the public payroll in New York has grown so large that it creates an enormous tax burden on the few working people who remain. These taxes just drive more and more productive people and corporations out of the city and make the problem even more serious.

“The United States is not yet in the same predicament as England, Italy, France or the banana republics. However in 1975, agricultural exports from the United States peaked at $11.5 billion. The best guess is that, this year, agricultural exports will be around $7 billion. Merchandise exports have also been on the decline. The U.S, is gradually losing its competitive position.

“Finance Minister Hans Apel has been alarmed about the constant decline in the dol­lar. He stated, ‘a steady fall in the dollar would ultimately bring about serious worldwide currency unrest.’...... This could result in the destruction of many of the finan­cial markets as we know them today..... Many Germans clearly remember the great inflation between World War I and World War II. It destroyed the middle class and helped bring Hitler to power. They are well aware that inflation not only destroys capital, but society as well..... The U.S. is losing control of its people, prices and export markets.” (July 22, 1977 by BAXTER FINANCIAL Bulletin 29)

We have quoted much more than usual from the above because we believe it expresses accurate appraisal on finance in general. Following is a quotation from another writer:

“Our readers are not interested in politics. We just show them pictures of people getting bashed on the head. The sex market is saturated. Violence is going to be the next big thing in this field, and we are on the ground floor. Indeed – And the earthquake that is rumbling and that will bring down the building society that planted such a leaf will come down upon those denizens of the ground floor.” Another newspaper carries this story: “ROME – Two Fiat car company executives were wounded by leftest, and a night watchman was found shot dead, apparently by rightists, in gun attacks yesterday that followed a night of bombings........ The shootings came after bombings during the night in Bologna, Pardenone, Rome and Spoleto....... Fourteen people have now been the victims of such attacks this month......... The hitherto feuding Chris­tian Democrats, Communists, Socialists, Social Democrats, Republicans and liberals all agreed on a program to try to halt political violence, as well as curb rampant inflation and unemployment.”

In England there is an organization that has but three goals: Violence, sex and destruction.

IN POLITICS

Come January 20 of last year a new president took office in the United States. That he had made campaign promises prior to election that were just impossible for him or any one else to keep was apparent to some of us then; and it is now apparent to many people. He had promised to balance the Government budget; and what we quoted aforegoing about a 100-Billion-Dollar deficit for his first two years in office needs no further comment.

In keeping with this, we quote now from the Jewish Press, which fits in well here: “After spending nine days in Davos, Switzerland attending the European Management Sym­posium, where pessimism ran high, it is not too difficult to understand why President Carter rushed Vice-President Mondale to Europe to meet with each European Head of State. If the European leaders think and feel the way the politicians, industrialists, scholars and bankers attending this Symposium thought, it is not hard to guess what Mondale was told. Present at this Symposium were six hundred of Europe’s top executives, including chief executive officers of the largest industrial concerns and banking institutions, along with political leaders and university professors among which were several Nobel Prize winners. The participant American companies at the Symposium were multi-national in nature with extensive investments in Europe.

“I have been to Europe ten times since the Yom Kippur War, but only now is it appar­ent that the scholars and industrial leaders realize the true significance of what hap­pened that October day in 1973. The world can never be the same. It must recognize that we entered a new era and must face the new realities, economic as well as political that were created by the events of 1973-1974. Just as the end of World War I in 1918 ushered in a world totally changed from that which existed before the first shot was fired in 1914, raising dramatically the expectation levels of the newly created, as well as the old, freedom societies. Just as the stock market crash of 1929 brought a 12-year era to an abrupt end, forcing the advanced, developed societies of Europe and America to make abrupt changes in their personal and collective expectations.

“Just as these expectations developed and grew over the post World War II period, they parallelly developed into rights, claims against the governments and then to legal entitlements. Western Europe, Japan and the United States have entered a new era, which began that Yom Kippur day in 1973, in a world where the very high level of growing ex­pectation had evolved into a very legal entitlement. Now the free world is in a net deficit balance of payments. A huge amount of capital is flowing to the OPEC Nations. The demand for capital for expanding the economies to absorb the unemployed, under employed and the new entries to the labor market cannot be met due to the high level of claims against the remaining capital needed to satisfy those legal entitlements in the form of social services.

“The fact of the matter is that the free world, especially Europe, is faced with the problems of readjusting its expectations and local entitlements or face political disaster. The mood of the Symposium participants was bleak to say the least. The de­mands by the societies of Europe are beyond the ability of the present leadership to fulfill. The economic uncertainties created in Europe by this situation are causing European capitalists to cut down their investments in Europe, creating a large flow of capital from Europe to the United States. Billions of dollars are in the process of being invested in the United States by European investors. Couple that with increased flow of capital to OPEC, and the situation becomes most delicate indeed.”

The political marauders are truly on the march; and time has taught them some things – one of these being that the capitalist giant was much too strong for them to conquer. Therefore, they have adopted a different approach: Let the giant destroy himself; let the capitalistic burden become so great that it will topple over of its own weight. The Social Security system is presently insolvent, and the politicians are busy making such adjustments as will postpone the fatal reckoning – at least until they are out of office. Many industries today owe more to their pension fund than the mar­ket value of their stocks. As one workman said to another, “I just received a raise in pay; now I can afford to go a little deeper in debt.”

IN RELIGION

The religious structure is also much infested with “wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores; from the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it.” (Isa. 1:6) “How is the faithful city become an harlot! It was full of judgment (sound teachings); righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers. Thy silver is be­come dross, thy wine mixed with water: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after re­wards.” (Isa 1:21,22) Here is a paragraph from one publication:

“The University campuses and even the elementary schools are filled with teachers and professors who place no faith in spiritual values, and are teaching their students that faithless materialism is the solution of life. Even if they do consent to a form of faith, they almost invariably ridicule the Christian religion.

“To be an apostate is to betray the traditions of Christian faith which are sum­marized in the New Testament. These traditions recognize the virgin birth, the deity of Jesus Christ, the resurrection from the grave, the ascension to Heaven and the intro­duction of the Holy Spirit to lost mankind by the apostles approximately ten days after the ascension. Today we have thousands of clergymen in Protestant and Catholic churches who do not believe these fundamentals. Many of them dress like clergymen with reverse collars and black robes, others do not, but they accept the ordination and represent themselves as ‘Reverends.’ They have seized control of the bureaucratic and ecclesias­tical machinery of most of the denominations both Catholic and Protestant, and those of us who still believe in the great miraculous simplicities of traditional faith are be­ing made the objects of ridicule – not only in the materialistic educational institu­tions, but from the very pulpits that were built by the blood, sweat and tears of our believing fathers and mothers. When the late Bishop Bromly Oxham, the head bishop of the Methodist Church, died it was revealed that he had taken special training in Moscow and had at one time or another belonged to some 33 Red-front, pro-Communist and Commun­ist organizations.

“Hold yourself while you read this sentence. The clergy of America, both Catho­lic and Protestant, are saturated with the perverted crime of homosexuality, lesbianism, and sodomy. One Bishop of the Episcopal Church recently congratulated those who were giving sex perverts a warm welcome into the church without asking them to repent of sin. He pronounced them as a minority and said they deserved the cordiality of the church as much as any one. The Governor of California (a bachelor) recently signed a bill repeal­ing the laws against homosexuality, lesbianism, adultery and sodomy – even though he admit­ted that his mail from the public, before he signed the bill, was 100 to 1 against its repeal. A high official in the government of Los Angeles recently announced that he was naming a homosexual to his executive staff in order that that element of the public might be represented. As this went to press, the State of Connecticut was voting on a bill to legalize sex perversion and remove it from the criminal list, etc., etc. It is not difficult to see that this pervasive circumstance could drop us into the same pitch pit of satanic destruction that swallowed up Sodom and Gomorrah.

“Even though America has not voted itself into the Communist column, the Christ-hating materialism of Marxist Communism and Socialism is blighting every phase of our life, and we hear Socialism and Communism glorified in school rooms, on university campuses and from church pulpits. In California there is a Black woman by the name of Angela Davis who is one of the highest authorities in the Communist Party. She cannot keep up with her speaking engagements and is paid from $1,500 to $3,000 per speech to address students on American campuses where the whole expense of the campus is borne by the taxpayers of America.”

On the brighter side of things there is this refreshing statement: “A major church is changing its story on a fundamental ‘Christian’ doctrine – the immortality of the soul. The German Lutheran Evangelischer Erwachsenenkatechismus (Evangelical Catechism for Grown-ups) states that the source of this teaching is the ‘Greek’ philosopher Plato (427-347 B.C.), who contended emphatically that there was a difference between body and soul.

“This new Lutheran catechism states: ‘Evangelical theologians of modern times challenge this combination of Greek and Biblical concepts. They reject the separation of man into body and soul. Since man as a whole is a sinner, therefore at death he dies completely with body and soul (full death). The resurrection of the dead there­fore has no connection with man, it is a completely new creation by God. Between death and resurrection there is a gap; the individual continues his existence at best in God’s memory.”

The Baptists – “President Carter’s appointment last week (July 18, 1977) of a personal representative to the Vatican has infuriated the President’s fellow Baptists and has touched off a flurry of religious strife. The Rev. Jimmy Allen of San Antonio, newly elected president of Carter’s denomination, the 13-million-member Southern Bap­tist Convention, fired off a telegram to the President charging that the appointment ‘is in violation of the spirit and probably the letter of the first Amendment to the Consti­tution.’ The First Amendment provides for separation of church and state.

“Dr. James E. Wood of the Washington-based Baptist Joint Committee on Public Af­fairs, with a constituency of 25 million Baptists, raised a similar complaint in a tel­egram of protest to the White House. He added that the appointment of a Vatican en­voy ‘also officially underscores the special concern of this government for one relig­ious body to the point of preferential treatment not accorded any other church or re­ligious body anywhere else in the world.’” (From the Washington Post)

Episcopalians – Another newspaper: “Four Episcopal priests whose congregations voted to sever relations with the Episcopal Church after it accepted women as priests have been removed from the ministry. Bishop Robert C. Rusack of the diocese of Los Angeles took the action in the chapel of the diocesan headquarters Friday morning, it was learned Wednesday. Rusack had suspended the priests six months ago after their con­gregations had decided to break away from the denomination and exercise autonomous con­trol over their church property. The recent strife over women priests and a proposed new prayer book, changes traditional Episcopalians deplore, has caused unrest throughout the denomination. At least a dozen parishes have voted to secede from dioceses, and more separations are contemplated. Only one other priest – in Denver – had previously been deposed over the issue.”

Billy Graham – In another newspaper there are three columns about this man and his finances. It seems he has accumulated assets of 23 million dollars – in stocks, bonds and real estate. That would be the book value, of course, so the net worth could be very much more than that, or very much less. We quote one short paragraph: “Graham has written a 2500-word defense .... but what he did not say is that without knowing of the fund’s existence, there is no way to check with the IRS about it. And Graham and his associates have gone out of their way to make sure people didn’t find out about the fund.”

Roman Catholics – Here is a portion of what one newspaper printed regarding this group: “Since it lost the power to burn heretics at the stake 200 years ago, excommu­nication has been the Roman Catholic Church’s strongest weapon. Now its impact appears weak. Past pontiffs could and did topple kingdoms by excommunicating delinquent mon­archs, thus absolving their subjects from oaths of obedience.

“Bishops once could isolate a man from his friends, destroy his business and even drive him out of town with an excommunication decree. Excommunication instilled such horror in Roman Catholic Emperor Henry IV, for instance, that in 1076 he humiliated him­self on his knees in the snow to beg forgiveness from Pope Gregory VII. But for most of today’s 700 million Roman Catholics, excommunication – barring a Catholic from receiving the sacraments and thus inflicting a ‘spiritual death’ on the believer – it is a holy ter­ror no longer.

“In today’s pluralistic societies these kinds of penalties don’t mean much. You might say excommunication is going out of style. Because of its diminishing impact in the modern world the church has become increasingly reluctant to wield its most powerful weapon. But some excommun­ications are automatic and are thus incurred by the very fact that a person has committed a certain offense. The 40 grounds for automatic excommunica­tion include such obvious crimes as ‘laying violent hands on the person of the Roman pon­tiff,’ ‘casting away or keeping the host for evil purpose and stealing papal property.’ “Other grounds are surprising – not in the offenses they list, but in those they do not mention. Excommunication is the penalty for dueling, but not for premeditated murder. A woman who has an abortion is excommunicated, but a rapist is not. A woman who falsely accuses her confessor of attempted seduction is excommunicated, as is one who fails to report such an attempt. There is no excommunication, however, for the priest guilty of “solicitation” in the confessional, unless he pretends to absolve his accomplice in sin of the “impurity.”

“The most serious excommunication is one where the culprit is decreed “vitandus” or be shunned. But with the exception of certain vile crimes, such as doing violence to the pope, it is rarely inflicted. The crimes for which one can be excommunicated “vitandus” are so terrible that people don’t talk about them – and probably don’t do them any more, said a Vatican legalist.

“No one, not even the pope, can decide that a man will go to hell,” said one Jes­uit authority. ‘That is something that is between each man and God.’ He said excommu­nication is the way of saying you’ve got to change your ways if you want to call your­self a Catholic.

“For much the same reason that Britain’s King Henry VIII was excommunicated in 1533 for refusing to bow to papal authority, Cuba’s premier Fidel Castro was excommuni­cated for impeding the work of clerics in Cuba. The church has also tried to fight Com­munism with decrees threatening automatic excommunication for any Catholic who voted Communist. Under that ruling, ten million Catholics technically excommunicated them­selves by voting Communist in the 1976 national elections.

“The church has also used excommunication in the cases of ‘public outrage’ as a way of setting an example. In such an effort, Archbishop Joseph F. Rummel of New Or­leans in 1962 excommun­icated three Catholic segregationist leaders who had tried to block his school integration orders.”

Although excommunication is waning with the Roman Catholic Church, not so with the little Catholic Church – the Jehovah’s Witnesses. It seems that the Catholics have reformed somewhat when they say “No one, not even the pope, can decide that a man will go to bell. That is something that is between each man and God.” Not so with the Je­hovah’s Witnesses – they tell us that all who do not join with them before Armageddon will be annihilated in Armageddon! They are ever ready to cast out from their midst any and all who tend to question any of their atrocious errors. Thus they are now tak­ing up where the “mother church” has left off. The Laymen’s Home Missionary adopts much the same tactics, although in a more limited degree: they say those who actively oppose their errors are out of the Household of Faith. However, they are more generous with others who don’t agree with them – especially those who do not actively attack their er­rors. All during the Age strenuous efforts were made to crush any and all who exposed the errors of the “one true church”; but it only tended to invigorate the protesters. In this connection, it is well to stress here that the Witnesses are the only group emanating from the Harvest Truth of which we know that has forsaken the six volumes of Parousia Studies in the Scriptures.

Volume One – The Divine Plan of the Ages – is a clear and eloquent outline of the “Plan of the Ages, which he formed for the anointed Jesus our Lord.” (Eph. 3:11, Dia.) All the other groups with whom we have had any contact are distributing those books ­especially so The Divine Plan – and we ourselves never pass up an opportunity to dis­tribute this wonderful book. Regardless of what faults may appear in any of the groups, we feel they all should be warmly commended for their activity in the distribution of these books. We would also add a word here for Parousia Volume 4 – The Battle of Arma­geddon. It was written eighty years ago in 1897, yet much of it reads as though it were written in 1977. We emphasize especially pages 145-147; and we will gladly supply this book to any one who requests it.

Follows now another item re Catholics just ignoring Hell: “Hell has fallen so far out of fashion that it has even lost its oomph as a curse word, the Rev. James Breig said in the November issue of US Catholic magazine. Surveys show 70 per cent of Roman Catholics believe in life after death, Breig said, but only one-third believe in hell. And of those who do believe in hell, only one person in eight feels hell is a real threat to him, he said. Catholics are not so much denying hell as just ignoring it, he said. What we may have here is closing our eyes and hoping it will go away.

“For many, he said, Hell is sort of a whimsical place, more of a joke than an es­chatological reality. It is a fictional domain, created from one part Dante and one part Milton, with a dash of religious art thrown in. The effects of the ‘trivialization’ of hell extend even to the language, Breig said. Hell has become so trivialized that it has lost its force as a curse. ‘Go to hell’ is a suggestion friends share. ‘The hell it is’ is an exclamation of surprise and incredulity. “Damn it’ is something we utter when we stub our toes, and not an eternal sentence.”

GENERAL – It is reported that Communist reorganization has been done at the expense of more than one million lives, many of whom were slaughtered in an assembly-line fash­ion by Communist soldiers savagely stabbing their victims through the chest and in the back. This gruesome story has been written in detail by Reader’s Digest editors John Barron and Anthony Paul, who said the theory behind the “total social revolution” was to destroy traditions and culture surrounding Cambodian citizens and instill them with new values created by the Communist party. People desperately ill in hospital beds were ordered to get out and walk to the jungle, where many of them quickly perished.

“In every large society, the have-nots (Communists: A Communist is simply a capi­talist that’s broke—JJH), the need-mores, and the want-mores always constitute a major­ity. The trend to the left begins the day this majority discovers that, by virtue of the principle of majority rule, they possess the political power to elect governments that will provide them free services and benefits which will be paid for out of taxes levied on the have-more minority.” (Clare Booth Luce)

From another magazine: “The courts have consistently ruled in favor of pornog­raphy. America is being eaten up by this cancerous infection. It is satanic; it is evil. It is repulsive and it is taking on a more ominous toll each day, and we are likely to share the terrible fate of Sodom and Gomorrah.”

Another paragraph: “Arson has become one of New York’s plaguing crimes. In the last six months before the blackout, fire department officials counted 3,704 fires caused by arson, as well as another 27,196 structural fires, half of which are believed to be arson. During the 36-hour blackout period 1,037 fires were recorded, about 70% of which are estimated to be arson. In 1976 there were 6,776 arson and 56,127 structural fires recorded – a loss estimated at $200 million.”

Many thanks for the Holiday greetings of good wishes, love and prayers, which were appreciatively and gratefully received. We extend to all our warm Christian love and good wishes for your physical and spiritual health throughout 1978. “Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous; and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.” (Psa. 97:12) The Lord make His face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee.

Sincerely your brother,

John J. Hoefle, Pilgrim

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LETTERS OF GENERAL INTEREST

Dear Brother Hoefle: Grace and peace through our Beloved Master!

I am hoping you are always in good health – you and all with you. I am happy and glad to send a translation of your paper No. 260 – printed in French. It is a very good article! I am now translating some questions and Answers from your papers for another special paper in French. I trust the Lord will bless my labor for the brethren. But there’s one sure thing: He very much blessed me by the articles from you, my dear Brother! May our dear Heavenly Father continue to bless you and all the others at the Bible House in your labor of love for the brethren.

I am sending to you, Sister Hoefle and the others my warm brotherly love and my Christian kiss.

 Affectionately in Him, I am your brother, ------- (BELGIUM)

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Dear Brother Hoefle:

We are having a wonderful and studious time here in the Holy Land – have traveled much to see the many Bible sights. Your papers are proving stimulating and enlighten­ing. I’m sure you are doing a wonderful work for the Lord. Will be leaving for home tomorrow. God bless you and keep you!

 Your brother ------- (JERUSALEM)

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Gentlemen:

As per your offer, please send me The Resurrection of the Dead, Two Distinct Sal­vations, The Three Babylons, God’s Great Sabbath Day and The Great Reformer.

Yours truly, ------- (NEW  JERSEY)

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ANNOUNCEMENT OF GENERAL INTEREST

Our Memorial comes this year March 21 after 6 p.m., and we suggest Sunday March 11 through Sunday April 1 for our Special Effort in Antitypical Gideon’s Second Battle against Eternal Torment and the Consciousness of the Dead. All who wish to join us in this “good fight,” please order the pertinent literature in time. Our literature is free, postage paid.

NO. 270: OUR SAVIOR AND DELIVERER

No. 270

“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:11) Few babes in all Judea or in all the world were born in a more humble place than Jesus. Joseph and Mary had gone to their native city, Beth­lehem, for tax registration, under the imperial edict. The little city was crowded with others on similar errand. And so it came that Jesus was born in a cattle stall, where Joseph and Mary had been compelled to lodge for the night. Ah! we cannot wonder that it is difficult for many to understand why our Heavenly Father sent forth His Son for our redemption under such ignominious conditions! The Message of the angels was surely an inspired one, fully in harmony with God’s promise to Abraham – only an en­larged statement of the same – the same sense – the same to “all people” to be blessed – and it was still good tidings and it still meant great joy; but now, two thousand years later, the Message pointed out the very individual through whom the good tidings would have fulfillment – the Babe of Bethlehem. “And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice,” the angel of the Lord told Abraham. (Gen. 22:18) “And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs ac­cording to the promise.” (Gal. 3:29)

FEAR NOT! – GOOD TIDINGS OF GREAT JOY

The angelic announcement, “Fear not,” is interesting. All human beings realize that they are sinners and naturally have forebodings. They find it difficult to be­lieve that God is really gracious and loving. The gods of the heathen nations are fe­rocious, unloving and unlovable. But the God of all grace, the Father of mercies, is a God of love, who delights to use His Divine power for the blessing and uplifting of His erring children. There He was peculiar in sending the Message of “good tidings of great joy unto all people,” as well as in sending His Only Begotten Son at great cost to be man’s Redeemer – that He might be just and still be the justifier of those who be­lieve. (Rom. 3:26)

There is a special force or meaning in this word Savior – it signifies life-giver. The Syriac version is the language which was spoken by Jesus and others of Palestine at that time. And is there not a special fitness of appropriateness in this name life­giver? What had man lost, and what would he wish to have back? The Scriptures answer that Adam lost life and came under the penalty, “Dying, thou shalt die.” He did not lose heaven for he never possessed it. He lost earthly life, and Eden home, human per­fection. And Jesus declared that He “came to seek and to recover that which was lost.” (Matt. 18:11; Luke 19:10)

Hence, as we have seen, He was provided with a perfect human life, that “he by the grace of God might taste death for every man,” and that by thus suffering, the Just for the unjust, the penalty of the sinner, He might become the purchaser or the Redeemer of Adam and all his race, with a full right to restore to perfect life and all that was lost as many as would receive it at His hand – thankfully. Throughout His entire Messi­anic reign of a thousand years He will be the world’s Life-Giver, raising the willing and obedient up out of sin and death conditions to perfection and everlasting life and earthly, human blessings.

THE HALLELUJAH CHORUS

In Luke 2:14 we have a kind of Hallelujah chorus or angelic response to the Message of the angel already given. A heavenly host sang, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” How grand! How inspiring! But we see not yet this glorious condition achieved. The proper glory to God is not yet rendered on earth as it is in heaven. Nor does peace yet wave her banner – not even in so-called Christian nations. The glorious reign has not yet begun as is witnessed by all. It won’t be un­til the “fire” of this “Time of Trouble” has consumed this present “evil world.” “See­ing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness. Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens (the present ecclesiastial powers) being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements (the social order of which we are composed) shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless, we according to His promise, look for new heavens and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” (2 Pet. 3:11-13)

LIFE A GREAT BOON EVEN NOW

The question has been asked: How is the love of God to be seen from the standpoint of a deliberate arrangement beforehand which, in its outworking, has involved so vast an amount of sin, suffering and death? In thinking of this question, one should first rid himself wholly of the erroneous thought that sin, suffering and dying are only preludes to an eternity of woe. Then we are to remember that God is not in any way our debtor. We are His debtors, even for our existence; He owes the race nothing.

Suppose that we could disabuse all minds of the idea of eternal torture or of a purgatory of suffering after death, and should then say to them, Consider, now: Would you prefer to live on for a few years more, or would you rather die at once? Or, suppose we put it this way: Are you glad that you have an existence, or would you rather that you had never been born? We believe that the great majority would reply that they desire to live, that they prefer to live as long as possible. They do not wish to die, either to­day or tomorrow or next year; indeed they would never die if they could help it!

Those who feel that they would be glad to die, or who wish that they had never been born, are those who have had more than ordinarily evil and unhappy experiences; or else they are unbalanced in mind. Many have not so much money as they would like, not so pleasant surroundings and conditions as some have and as they would wish to have. still life is sweet; and they hold on to it with as firm a grip as possible. Love of life is inherent in man, and has survived even the sorrowful experiences consequent on the fall.

WHY GOD PERMITS THE PRESENT REIGN OF SIN

But why does God permit things to be as they are? This has ever been one of the perplexing problems to the minds of those who have still sufficient faith to believe in the existence of a Supreme Creator. We do not know that we can make it clearer than in our tract, “The Permission of Evil” (free upon request), but we enumerate a few points here. Putting ourselves in God’s place, we are able to see that He must create man either without moral faculties, like the lower animals, or ­else with mental and moral fac­ulties capable of appreciating the standards of right and wrong, of appreciating his Cre­ator, with power to reason and to choose between good and evil – between obedience and disobedience to that Creator.

Having previously brought into existence the brute creation, God wished to create a nobler order of beings, creatures in His own image and likeness (Gen. 1:26), on the earthly plane of life. He purposed to have a race of beings who were perfect like the angels, able to appreciate the same moral standards, the same principles of righteousness. The question might be asked: How could God so create these beings that they would not be in danger of sometimes falling into sin? Evidently, it was not God’s purpose so to cre­ate them. He desired that they should possess the quality of free moral agency, the power to exercise their own wills for either righteousness or unrighteousness.

At the time of the creation of man, Lucifer, Son of the Morning, began to cherish am­bitious designs, disloyal to his Maker. He realized that a race on a lower plane of exis­tence than himself might be induced to choose a course at variance with the expressed will of God – their Creator. Before man’s creation God had foreseen that Lucifer would deflect from the path of obedience, would become a rebel against his righteous government, and that as the result evil would break forth later in his empire. He foresaw that through the in­fluence of the rebellious Lucifer (thenceforth Satan – adversary, accuser, hater) man would become disobedient and fall from the condition of perfection.

Knowing this, and doing man no injustice, but creating him with full ability to resist temptation, God so arranged and timed the creation of man that he would be an ob­ject of attack by Satan, who would take advantage of the inexperience of father Adam and mother Eve and seek to capture the entire race of man. In other words, God purposed to permit this test to come to man, and knowing that Adam would fail in the testing and thus incur the penalty of death, He designed to make the experience of the race an object les­son to all His created intelligences, and at the same time to so overrule the matter that the human family would themselves eventually be delivered from the evil results of the fall and be greatly blessed, if they would profit by the lessons learned in their bitter experiences with sin, and would come back into harmony with righteousness.

TIME AN IMPORTANT FEATURE

God’s infinite wisdom could not approve any as worthy of everlasting life who would not prove themselves to be in full accord with His Divine law. The nature of sin is to propagate itself and to produce misery and degradation. With this knowledge God ar­ranged in advance to let man have his own way. He foreknew that intelligent beings with liberty of choice and of will would eventually, if untaught and unrestricted, fall into sin, even though a penalty was attached to disobe­dience. He chose not to restrain Lucifer.

The plan of God is so comprehensive that it cannot be viewed and judged from the standpoint of a few years – not even of a thousand years or six thousand years. It must be viewed from the standpoint of eternity. It was arranged, not for the well-being of creatures who would live for a few years or a few centuries, but for those who would live throughout eternal ages. His plan must, therefore, be laid so broadly as to include all time and all beings created in His likeness, for His glory and their own eternal good.

Our Creator is a God of infinite love and sympathy; but from the beginning He knew that man would fall, and that He Himself could overrule the entire matter for the ulti­mate blessing and instruction of men and angels – all his created intelligences; and He purposed so to do. We ourselves know that sin and death with all their direful effects have prevailed in the world for six thousand years. We also know that our God is at the helm, and that all things will be made to work out for good in the end. (Rom. 8:28) We think of the flood as a terrible overthrow, because so many lives were lost. Yet the calamity would have been far greater if one half had been left to mourn for the others. It is claimed that men do not suffer very much when drowning – that death by this means is comparatively easy.

Six thousand years of sin, sorrow and death seem a long while for humanity to suf­fer. Yet the majority of the race have not lived beyond the age of twenty years. Per­haps one-half have not lived to the age of five. Very few have reached the age of one hundred years. We all have seasons of comparative comfort, blessing and enjoyment; even under present conditions, God has been very merciful. And from the viewpoint of the glo­rious future, with its marvelous opportunities of blessing, its hope of eternal life for man, and its great lessons learned for all eternity by all of God’s intelligent creatures, the reign of sin and death presents an altogether different aspect from what could other­wise be had.

In permitting the long reign of sin and its train of evils, God has been showing forth the principles of His government, that all may clearly discern in time what are the inevitable results of disobedience to their great Creator. We are sure that Adam and Eve were glad that God did not instantly carry out the sentence of death pronounced against them – although they were not permitted to live beyond the “day,” as God told them: ‘For in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Gen. 2:17) “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” (2 Pet. 3:8) We are sure that they were glad to be permitted to continue their existence for many years, even after they had been driven out of the Garden of Eden; and we believe that they had many experiences of more or less happiness, in spite of the tears, the pain and sorrows that fell to their lot. Gen. 3:15 is an in­timation of the ultimate recovery of mankind from the power of Satan: “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”

So when we view the entire history of the race of Adam, and perceive that all the experiences with sin, suffering and death are to be caused to outwork God’s glorious purposes for the world, and are designed to prove a lasting lesson to all His intelli­gent creatures who now exist or ever will exist, we can see why He has permitted the reign of evil which to man has seemed so long. When we see, too, that God is now choos­ing a very select class, of very humble and obedient ones, to be used as agencies under His only begotten Son to recover and uplift to perfection and life everlasting all the human race who will accept the gracious provisions, we can understand why He has been pleased to call this class through the “foolishness of preaching,” by very imperfect in­struments. Thus He has manifested the humble ones, who will receive His message by any means which He is pleased to use, and who are glad to forsake sin and serve Him.

A SAVIOR AND A GREAT ONE

God might have said, ‘I will lift my curse from mankind and let them have another trial for life – an individual trial.’ But even if this had been in harmony with God’s Justice, it would not have sufficed alone. Mankind has long been floundering in the mire of sin. They were powerless to profit from any new trial granted them that would not include a Redeemer, a Savior, who was strong, not only to bring about the abrogation of the death sentence by a payment of their penalty but also to deliver them from all the bonds of sin and death in their members. He must be a savior having power to bind the great adversary who has so long held the race of man in slavery and blindness. He must heal their wounds, open their blinded eyes and their deafened ears, and lift them up up, into the light and liberty of the sons of God. Truly, man needs a mighty sav­ior; and such, praise God, has been provided in His beloved Son! (See Isaiah, Chapter 35 and Rev. 20:i-3)

As we trace the various steps of the marvelous Plan of the Ages, we perceive that to all who shall gain eternal life, on whatever plane of being, the path of humility is the path to glory. “He that exalteth himself shall be abased; but he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” (Luke 14:11; 18:14) None will be granted the inestimable blessing of life everlasting who are not thoroughly proven and found worthy under testing, who do not cheerfully humble themselves under the Mighty Hand (Jesus) of God. This principle applies to both human and spirit beings. Only those who gladly obey God, out of love for Him and for His righteous laws, will be permitted to live beyond the harvest time of the Millennial Age. All others shall utterly perish. Our Lord tells us that the first of all the commandments is, “Hear, 0 Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord; And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like it, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandments greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31)

“THE TRUE LIGHT WHICH LIGHTETH EVERY MAN”

Christmas-tide always brings some lesson associated with our Savior and the great salvation, the gift of God, provided through Him. “Unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:11) Isaiah 9:2-7 is prophetic of this great event. “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them the light shined.” (v. 2) Ap­propriately, the first verse of the chapter is omitted: in Leeser’s Translation it con­stitutes the last verse of chapter 8.

Our lesson had no local and immediate application at the time of its delivery: it is strictly prophetical, as are indeed the preceding fifteen verses. We cannot even apply the lesson to the people and time of the first Advent; its scope is far beyond the Jew­ish nation, and can only be applied to the worldwide blessings which follow the second coming of Christ and the establishment of His glorious kingdom in power and great glory. Nevertheless, there is just a bare connection with the past in the expression, “Unto us a child is born” – thus indicating the humble beginning and earliest manifestation of the great light, the Sun of Righteousness, which has not yet arisen, but whose day-star is now shining in the hearts of the faithful. (2 Pet. 1:19)

The two divisions of the first verse of the lesson in poetic form merely repeat the same thought with variations. The people that walk in darkness, who are to see the great light are practically all mankind, for “gross darkness covers the people” (Isa. 60:2) ­the exception, the very small minority, the church, as our Lord declared, is “not of the world.” (John 17:16) This broad thought is emphasized by the next statement, for the whole world surely is “the land of the shadow of death”: “The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together” (Rom. 8:22) under the sentence of curse of death which, with its accompaniments of pain and sorrow, casts a deep shadow in every heart and in every household.

Surely, the whole world needs this great light – the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, as it shines in the face of Jesus Christ our Lord – the very light which the Apostle declares the world cannot now discern, because the eyes of their understand­ing are darkened by the misrepre­sentations and deceptions perpetrated by the god of this world, the prince of darkness. (2 Cor. 4:4; Rev. 20:3)

The fact that this is expressed in the past tense does not signify that this light has already shined, even as the statement, “Unto us a child is born,” did not signify the birth of Christ at a time prior to Isaiah’s prophecy. It is merely a usual form of pro­phetic statement: the standpoint is taken away off in the future, and from that future standpoint the thing to be accomplished is stated as though already done. “God calleth those things which be not as though they were.” (Rom. 4:17)

Here, then, we have a prophetic assurance of the great light of the knowledge of God coming to all mankind: and this, be it noted, is in fullest agreement with the tes­timony of John 1:9, that Christ “is the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” The fact that every man born into the world has not yet been enlightened by this great light, so far from disparaging the statement, gives us assurance that the time is coming when to Him every knee shall bow and every tongue confess (Phil. 2:8-11), and all shall know the Lord, from the least to the greatest, and knowing Him have full responsibility or trial for everlasting life or everlasting death. (Rom. 14:11; Jer. 31:31-34)

Isa. 9:3-5 intimates the process by which the great change shall come, and the world be prepared for the shining of the great light – the Sun of Righteousness with healing in His beams. Scholars are divided in their opinions respecting a proper trans­lation of the first sentence of the third verse. The majority seem to favor the trans­lation given by the Revised Version, “Thou hast increased the nation, thou hast increased her joy.” Leeser’s Translation renders it, “Thou hast multiplied the nation, made great her joy.” In harmony with the context we must interpret this nation to be the world of mankind under the new administration of the Millennial Kingdom; for the kingdoms of this world will then become the kingdoms of our Lord, God’s Anointed, and many nations shall go and say “Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” (Rev. 11:15; Isa. 2:3)

Thus, instead of the Lord’s empire being a typical one over a little nation of Israelites, as in the day of Isaiah’s prophecy, it will be the antitypical one in which Immanuel shall be King over all the earth, and His name great to the ends of the earth.

It is the joy of this great people that is described: it will not merely be a quiet joy of satisfaction, but an hilarious joy, as of men who are in the midst of plenty, in a harvest season; and as men rejoicing when dividing the fruits of victory. But what will be the cause of the rejoicing? The answer is given, Because from off their shoulder the great burden has been removed: the burden of sin and its curse will have been removed, and the rod of the oppressor, Satan, will be broken, and He Himself then will be a captive, no longer permitted to oppress and deceive and blind mankind. (Rev. 20:2)

An illustration of the process of the deliverance is given: “As in the days of Mid­ian.” (Isa. 9:4) The suggestion obviously is that as Israel was delivered in the day of Midian by Gideon and his little band, armed with trumpets and pitchers with lights in them, – by the blowing of the trumpets, the breaking of the pitchers, and the shining out of the lights – discomfiting the Midianites, so that they slew one another with great slaughter, so likewise will be the deliverance by which the Lord will bring in the new dispensation. (Judges 7:19-25) Our Lord is the antitypical Gideon, and His “little flock” the church of this Gospel Age, the “elect,” are the antitype of Gideon’s little army. And it will be through the intervening of these (on the other side of the vail) that the hosts of sin and the present enginery of evil will be utterly discomfited and work its self-destruction through anarchy, etc., in the great Time of Trouble.

The great Time of Trouble is briefly yet graphically described in Isa. 9:5 as be­ing more severe, more intense, than all preceding troubles, for it is declared that all such victories are expected to be with tumult and bloody garments, but this shall be with a more furious destruction, best likened to a consuming of fuel in the fire. And it will be noticed that the fury of the final conflict of this Age, which shall trans­fer the rule to our Prince Immanuel, is everywhere likened to a fire – throughout the proph­ecies and in our Lord’s parables – evidently because of the intensity of the trouble and its destructiveness.

Then comes (vs. 6 and 7) the explanation from the Lord’s side of how all these things are of His provision and supervision – beginning with the birth of our Lord as the babe born in Bethlehem; next presenting Him as God’s Son, given on our behalf, – ­His sacrifice beginning at Jordan and culminating at Calvary. “Wherefore,” as the Apostle says, because of his obedience unto death, “him hath God highly exalted and given him a name above every (other) name” (Phil. 2:9-11) – honor, dominion and power above all others, next to His own.

The change of dispensation will be ushered in because the Father’s “times of res­titution of all things” (Acts 3:19-21) will have come, – the time for Christ to receive honor, glory and dominion promised Him, with which He shall fulfill all the gracious things predicted by God through the prophets: hence the declaration is that then “the gov­ernment shall be upon his shoulder” (Isa. 9:6) – the mantle of authority shall rest upon Him. And when He shall thus assume the control of earth’s affairs, His character of love and justice, His wisdom, and the all-power in heaven and in earth given unto Him, insure all the faithful that His reign will be a time of blessing, of peace and of joy to all who love righteousness and truth; and equally a time of burning destruction against all who shall sin willfully after having been brought to an accurate knowledge of truth. (Heb. 12:26; 1 Tim. 2:4, Dia.)

His names, His titles, representing the gracious things of which He is the repre­sentative, are brought to our attention; to all the world of mankind He will then be (and the Church, His Body, with Him) “Wonderful” – Great – beyond the power of human comprehension, as He is indeed the express image of the Father’s person. He will be the “Counselor,” whose instructions in righteousness will be satisfactory and respected by all the world of mankind seeking a return to Divine favor and full restitution. And it shall come to pass that whosoever will not hear that Teacher, that Counselor, shall be cut off from among the people. (Acts 3:23) He shall be called “Mighty God,” or Mighty Mighty one, for indeed in Him shall rest all the power and authority of the All-mighty One, Je­hovah. He shall be called the “Father Everlasting,” because in truth He shall be a Father unto the race, a Life-Giver to all who will accept life under the terms of the New Coven­ant, sealed with His own precious blood. Adam, the original father of humanity, through his sin and under its sentence, failed to give lasting life to his race, and death destroyed all his offsprings; but the restitution life which our Lord will give, to as many as will receive it upon His terms, will be an everlasting life, and hence He, as the giver of this life to all, will be an Everlasting Father. He shall be called the “Prince of Peace,” for although His empire will be established by a smiting of the nations with a rod of iron (Rev. 2:27), and breaking them to pieces as a potter’s vessel, in the greatest time of trouble the world has ever known, nevertheless, every blow will be struck in the interest of peace, and His entire reign will further the ends of righteousness and peace, even though to the very end thereof there shall from time to time be destruction of the incorrigible – the wicked. (Isa. 65:20; Rev. 20:9, 14,15)

Leeser’s Translation reads thus: “The Prince of Peace for promoting the increase of the government and for peace without end upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom, to establish it and to support it through justice and righteousness from henceforth and unto eternity: the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.” In Isa. 9:7 the Millennial king­dom is associated with the typical kingdom of David. We are to remember, however, the statement that David sat upon the throne of the kingdom of the Lord – he and his kingdom were typical. The name David signifies “beloved,” and our Lord Jesus Himself was pro­claimed as the real David – “This is my Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” God hath appointed Him heir of all things, and he is David’s Lord, as David himself testified. (Heb. 1:2; Matt. 22:41-45)

We fear that there are many Christians who have lost faith, not only in the pro­phetic promises, but in our Lord’s and the Apostles’ exposition of them, and that such frequently pray merely with a lip service, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.” But so much the more as we discern such blindness on every hand, such lack of faith, let us, the eyes of whose understandings have been opened by the Lord’s mercy, be the more faithful, the more circumspect, and the more confident, re­membering that an abundant fulfillment is assured, for “The zeal of Jehovah of hosts will perform all this.”

OUR SAVIOR’S BIRTH

Not until some time after Pentecost was the “middle wall of partition” between Jews and Gentiles broken down, as St. Paul explains. For more than eighteen centuries previous­ly all of God’s favor and promises were made to the Jews exclusively and only through their prophets did He speak, and only to them. Only their kings and priests were in any sense recognized by the Lord. This was not because there were not noble minds amongst other peoples, but because, in the working out of the great Divine program the seed of Abraham was specially selected – although declared by the Lord to be a crooked and perverse people. Because they had no special revelation from God, the nobler minds amongst the other na­tions gave special study to the starry heavens along the lines of astronomy or astrology. The stars were charted and certain lessons were said to be learned therefrom bearing upon humanity’s welfare.

At the time of the birth of the Savior, God made some astrological sign of the mo­mentous event, which the wise men of the East, described in our study, understood. Rev­erentially they followed the guiding star from their home in the East, possibly Persia. How the star led we are not informed, but apparently its leading discontinued when they reached Judea, and naturally they went to the palace of King Herod inquiring for “him that is born King of the Jews.” The mistake was quite reasonable. It required some time for us to learn that Divine favors and blessings are not always to the rich and the great, but oftenest for “the poor of this world, rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom.” (Jas. 2:5) The filled, the rich, the satisfied, are frequently less interested in the Savior than are the poor, because they do not realize so great need for Him and for the Millennial kingdom of righteousness and blessing which he is to establish. For that matter, however, only the comparatively few were interested at our Lord’s first Advent, as the Scriptures intimate that comparatively few will be longing for His second Advent and the establishment of His kingdom.

Herod affected an interest with the wise men in their search, but merely that he might thwart the Divine purpose by destroying the Child, and thus the kingdom of Israel might be preserved to his own family, as it was through his six successors who bore his name, Herod. As the announcement of Jesus the Babe troubled the great at that day, sim­ilarly, we may be sure, any announcement of Jesus as the King of Glory to take over the dominion of the world, if corroborated, would cause consternation amongst the rulers of earth today – financial, political, etc. All have unfinished plans more or less selfish, and all instinctively realize that the inauguration of a reign of absolute righteousness would interfere with their business, schemes and trusts and concerns, grafting and trick­ery, which are getting such a hold upon the highest civilization of our day.

The prophecies were searched and it was learned that the humble city of Bethlehem would be the honored place of our Savior’s birth. The crafty Herod feigned reverence and desire to worship the Heaven-appointed King, but only that he might subsequently de­stroy Him – as a little later he attempted to do in causing the slaughter of the inno­cents from two years old and under. (Matt. 2:16-18) But how foolish was his endeavor to thwart the Almighty!

The wise men who sought the Babe of Bethlehem with worship and gifts, symbolized, perhaps, the great fact that those are truly wise who ever since have sought the Divine­ly appointed King and who bring Him the incense of their devotion, and as gifts all their talents and powers. Such lay their very lives at the Savior’s feet, as St. Paul explains: “living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God.” (Rom. 12:1)

The name Jesus is the Greek form for Joshua, signifying Savior; and in the Syriac, Savior signifies life-giver. Therefore, the Babe that was born to be King of the Jews was to be the Savior, the Life-Giver of the world. He has not become the Life-Giver yet, nor the King. His great work is still future. It will be at His Second Coming that He will appear in His glory and become the King of Israel – on the spirit plane. Then, too, as the out-working of that glorious Empire which He will establish, He will be the world’s Life-Giver, its great physician, and all mankind will be blessed with the glorious oppor­tunity of becoming “Israelites indeed.” The Empire of Sin will be overthrown and the dark­ness, ignorance and superstition connected therewith will be dissolved in the glorious light of truth and grace which then will overspread the world.

GOD’S GLORIOUS CHARACTER REVEALED

Then the holy in every sphere of life, in every part of the mighty universe of God, shall ascribe glory, honor and praise to His glorious Son throughout the Ages of Eternity. All will then see and acknowledge how marvelous was Jehovah’s plan of redemption, how far beyond the power of fallen man to fathom. The majesty and glory of the Divine character will stand revealed – His unswerving justice combined with infinite compassion, His glor­ious wisdom, His marvelous love, His mighty power. Then all will bow before him and will adore!

“When all thy mercies, 0 my God,

 My rising soul surveys,

“Transported with the view, I’m lost

In wonder, love and praise!”

May all our readers have a blessed Holiday Season. “Thanks be unto God for his un­speakable gift.” (2 Cor. 9:15)

Sincerely your brother,

John J. Hoefle, Pilgrim

NO. 269: A MAGNIFICENT TYPE (PART THREE)

No. 269

Part Two of this subject is almost wholly devoted to a biography of Moses, which we hope gave considerable enlightenment to our readers; but we now return to a consid­eration of the Exodus account, beginning with Chapter 5, and continuing through to Exodus 12, where the tenth and final plague was visited upon the Egyptians, which brought Pha­raoh and his leading henchmen to a ready mind to allow the Israelites to leave Egypt with all their possessions, plus a large quantity of gold and silver from the Egyptians themselves.

Very shortly after the Lord returned in 1874 His faithful people began to pro­claim publicly by word and the printed page the philosophy of the ransom, the object, manner and time of our Lord’s return, the elect superior standing of the Church which is His body, restitution and future probation for the world in general, the overthrow of Satan’s empire in all its parts, the same being based upon a clear understanding of God’s perfect attributes of Justice, Wisdom, Power and Love, in which they refuted the opposing errors on these various subjects in a clear, logical and forceful manner ­which only the Truth could do. Among the leading topics in that great battle were the doctrines of eternal torment as the wages of sin, despite the plain statement in Rom. 6:23, “The wages of sin is death,” the consciousness of the dead, a clear definition of the judgment day, etc.

All of these subjects were vigorously disputed by most of the clergy, the politi­cians and aristocrats. Especially so was this true as respects the doctrine of eternal torment as the wages of sin. It was a dangerous teaching, they said, and would greatly minimize their efforts to win the world for Jesus. Of course, Satan was the invisible source of their efforts, just as Jesus was the invisible source of the truths that were proclaimed. In all of this the teachers of error indirectly denied God’s perfect wis­dom, justice, power and love by inferring these were insufficient to liberate the people. None of this was new to Satan because he had been a careful listener to Jesus, the Apos­tles and the general Church at the first Advent.

So well had he befogged the general truths, that the doctrine of Restitution was completely lost in the interim (Acts 3:19-23), with many of the other tenets of Chris­tian faith so sullied with error that no one could offer a successful defense of them. This is all well typified by Pharaoh and the leading Egyptians taking for granted the servitude of the Israelites. They had been in the land for a long time, so why should they create any uproar about it? Moses and Aaron were very polite and considerate in their first request – just as the Lord’s people after 1874 were also very gentle in their proclamations of the unfolding truth. The “sword” of Ex. 5:3 types the contro­versial truths that were hurled against the deeply–entrenched errors of that time; and, when we consider the enormity of the task, we can easily understand why Moses shrank from attempting to free the Jews from the bondage in which they were at that time.

Of course, the entrance of the Truth into the heart and mind of any one tends to liberate that person from the evils of sin, error, selfishness and death. “My son, at­tend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings ... For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.” (Prov. 4:20-22) Thus Satan has always been opposed to liberty; and, when we see any system resorting to oppression to keep their devotees enslaved, we may immediately conclude that that system is of Satanic dom­ination. This truth is as true today as it ever was! Especially would we stress this in this Epiphany Day. Up to 1916 there was great enthusiasm among Truth people to “stand fast in that liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” (Gal. 5:1) “Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” (2 Cor. 3:17) And, when we see any of the groups that have emanated from the Parousia Truth movement attempting to enslave their followers, we may be certain they are not being actuated by the Lord’s spirit. Quite a few of such people at this time are subdued to a blind gullibility which does not permit them to question anything their leaders tell them.

Concurrently with the proclamation of the Biblical Truth after 1874 there arose a tidal wave of reformers varied and sundry. In the political world there appeared such men as Gladstone, Musso­lini, Lenin, Debs, Bryan, et al; in the religious world Moody, Billy Sunday, Smith. (Almost sixty years ago Billy Sunday came to Dayton, Ohio – our home at that time – so we wrote him a rather thorough analysis of what the Bible says about Hell, and asked him to please answer it from the platform in one of his religious meetings. Not hearing from him, we wrote him again that we would publish in the Dayton newspaper what we had written him. The next day he said he had received a critical paper about Hell from a Daytonian; and the only answer he gave was, “He’s a big idiot!”) Similar characters in the capitalistic world were Ida Tarbell, Thomas Lawson, et al.

It is probably a fair appraisal that most of the above–mentioned were reasonably sincere in what they tried to do; but their efforts backfired, causing some of the re­formers much anguish. Bryan was known as the silver–tongued orator; and some of our friends told us the country had never heard a better one. He attempted to monetize sil­ver so as to make it in balance with gold. In that fight it was the gold men of the East versus the silver men of the West; and those men of the West were no match for the keen minds of the East. In 1859 the world’s first oil well was begun at Titusville, Pa., and that “black gold” quickly developed the Rockefeller fortune, John D. reputedly being the world’s first billionaire. It certainly emphasized the words of Solomon, “Mon­ey is a defense.” (Ecc. 7:12)

“Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest.” (Josh. 3:15) As most of our readers know, the River Jordan is a type of the human race under the curse of sin and death. The Harvest of the Gospel Age began in 1874; and it needs little argument that the curse in just about every direction in all its phases has been greatly magnified in the past century. Practically all of the alluring pleasures – the auto, the airplane, radio, television, luxury liners and the like – have all made their appearance since 1874, all of which have tended to whet the appetite of the masses for the entertainment that goes with them.

When the Jews complained to Pharaoh that they were being overworked, he accused them of being lazy; and in this he typed Satan claiming that the people here in the end of the Age wanted too easy a time in their service to the Lord. “Ye have been called unto liberty” says St. Paul in Col. 5:13; and all of us who have received that “call” know of a certainty that great freedom of heart and mind has come with it. However, the re­formers antagonized the conservatives by their liberalism; and this has tended to divide the human race into two separate camps – the conservatives and the radicals (the Reds) – ­and each group has accentuated its position more and more as the years go by. The situa­tion is so tense now that it could explode into Armageddon any day. Those of us who re­member the war in 1914 know only too well that the world never looked more serene than it did then, yet in one day the holocaust burst forth. There was no previous warning of what came in one day; and in the present conditions we need not expect any sounding of the trumpet beforehand. We shall wake up some morning and find it is upon us – probably starting in Italy first of all.

Pharaoh charged Moses and Aaron of using “vain words” (v. 9) – literally, ‘deceit­ful words.’ Sin, error and death can by no means be eliminated. The two sure and ines­capable things are death and taxes, they say. For the Church to teach otherwise is just rank hypocrisy! The single gold standard, first initiated in 1877, also added its por­tion to the oppression of humanity. As a result of the 1929–1932 depression the gold standard was given its death blow. When the Austrian Reichsbank failed in the Fall of 1931 it forced England off the gold standard; and substantially the same move caused the United States to discontinue the gold standard in 1933, making it unlawful for Amer­icans to own gold, and forcing them to deliver their gold to the Government at $20.67 an ounce, then immediately raising the price to $35 an ounce. At this writing (March 1977) the price is $150 per ounce, although it has been as high as $200 an ounce; and some of the pundits are predicting a price of $300 to $500 an ounce in the very near future. All of this tends to add to the insecurity of the general public.

This has resulted in abounding selfishness on all sides, which tends to aggravate the evils already here, and increasing new ones. The obstinate cruelty of Pharaoh even­tually led to the Lord sending the plagues upon Egypt by Moses and Aaron by the power that God gave them. The first of these is described in Ex. 7:20; then eight more in Chapters 8, 9 and 10; then the Passover in Chapter 12; and in 12:29 the execution of the tenth plague itself – the destruction of all the firstborn of man and beast throughout the land of Egypt.

A little reflection will impress upon us what a terrible calamity was contained in that plague No. 10 – dead animals throughout the entire country; and a dead person in every home. Certainly there were not enough undertakers to handle such a multitude, nor suf­ficient help to dispose of the dead animals. It is little wonder that Pharaoh and all his henchmen were overly desirous of ridding themselves of those pestiferous Hebrews. Get out! and as quickly as possible! “A great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more.” (v. 11:6)

“And it came to pass, that at midnight the Lord smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that sat in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle... And he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Rise up, and get you forth from among my people... also take your flocks and your herds... And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste; for they said, We be all dead men.” (vs. 12:29–33) The destroying angel’s work that night furnished visible proof that the Lord God of the Hebrews had sufficient power to accomplish His purposes; His words were not just idle talk. And His next move would almost certainly be against all the adults in Egypt. Thus the urgent anxiety to rid themselves of all the Jews in the country. That it did eventually work against the adults is emphatically shown by the destruction of the entire Egyptian army in the Red Sea, which we will elaborate under the caption of

THE GREAT DRAMA OF THE AGES

The accomplishment in the Red Sea, resulting in the destruction of the Egyptian army was indeed “A MAGNIFICENT TYPE.” Before inflicting the tenth plague the Lord had said, “About midnight I will go out into the midst of Egypt” (11:4), the antitype of which occurred in 1914, when the World War broke out in Europe, which at that time was in the very midst of Christendom. It will be recalled that shortly before the war came, the radicals were ready to destroy the capitalist structure; but the war cemented all classes in the various nations against what they thought was their common enemy ­the Central Powers. As the trench warfare gradually consumed the very vitals of all nations involved, so by the Fall of 1917 Russia collapsed under the Bolshevik Revolu­tion, which released a half million of seasoned troops on Germany’s eastern front. They were immediately sent against the allies on the western front in France, which almost succeeded in winning the war for the Central Powers, but the latter made a few bad mis­takes, which proved to be their undoing. One of these was by the crown prince of Germany, son of Kaiser Wilhelm, to take the fortress of Verdun in France. It resulted in complete failure, and cost the German army half a million men – which was just more than they could afford to lose, in view of the terrible drain that had already been made on their physical and human resources.

The start of the great tribulation in 1914 had been forecast by the Truth Movement some twenty–five years before the event occurred; and, while it was not in itself the tenth plague, it was the means of inflicting the tenth plague. The Russian Czar had been the titular head of the Greek Catholic Church, and this had tended to enslave the Russian laborer in close duplication of the Jewish bondage in Egypt. But when the Kerensky–Lenin combination seized the government, they immediately went to work on the Greek Catho­lic Church; brought the bodies of the dead saints – which had reputedly never decayed ­out on the steps of the various churches, picked them apart in full view of the Russian people, and showed they were nothing but cotton dummies. The “angel of death” gave the Church a crippling blow from which it has never recovered.

In Ex. 11:6, 7 Moses had predicted “there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt ... But against any of the children of Israel there shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast: that ye may know how that the Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.” This expression was antitypically carried out on Christendom – when they saw that many of their leaders – clerical and lay, shepherds and principals of the flock – would go into eternal extinction. While the German Kaiser is not fully included in this punishment, yet his abdication did cause great grief to many of the Lutheran leaders. Note the close similarity between v. 6 and the prophecy con­cerning Christendom in Dan. 12:1: “There shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation.” Then consider the words of Jesus in Matt. 24:21: “Then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.” (And we thank God for the assurance – “nor ever shall be.”)

As Moses forecast the humiliation of Pharaoh and his nobles in abject subserviency to him (“Come and bow dawn” – v. 8), as result of the tenth plague, so our Lord forecast the humiliation of Satan’s special representatives in church, state, capital and society through the loss of their special leaders throughout Christendom. Before proceeding to the Red Sea experience, we believe it is in order here to quote Ex. 12:41: “At the end of the 430 years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the Lord went out of the land of Egypt.” This reveals the care with which all of this recita­tion is recorded – this is link No. 20 of the true Bible chronology, this period extend­ing from the covenant with Abraham to the Exodus from Egypt.

The exodus of the Jews from Egypt until they had crossed the Red Sea occurred by stages, some of which is given in Ex. 13:20–22: “They took their journey from Succoth And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud... and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light... day and night.” In this they had fully separated themselves from every vestige of Egypt – typical of how true Christians during this Gos­pel Age completely sever relations with antitypical Egypt, the world in sin, error and death.

And this deliverance from Egypt is emphasized in the 13th Chapter of Exodus – in vs. 3, 9, 14 and 16; four times we are told, “With a strong hand hath the Lord brought thee out of Egypt.” And this was dramatically demonstrated by the Pillar of cloud by day and the Pillar of fire by night – all the while this same cloud was darkness for the Egyptian pursuers, but light to the Jews. Also, after they had crossed the Red Sea, and wanted to travel through Philistia on the way to Canaan, the Lord made it clear to them that they should not do this, because they were then no match for the warlike Philistines. However, a complete new generation was developed in their forty years, wandering through the Wilderness of Sin a much more rugged people, capable of battle with any of the fierce tribes of Canaan a complete change from the Jews that had left Egypt.

Much the same method has been used throughout this Gospel Age toward those who accept Christianity. This is very lucidly explained by St. Paul in 1 Cor. 10:13 (after he had enumerated the five crises that the Jews had experienced on the march to Canaan): “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation make a way of escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” As we look back upon our own personal experiences, each of us can recognize that this principle operated in our lives, as we were gradually trained to “endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” (2 Tim. 2:3)

The pillar of cloud that guided and protected the Jews in their journey typified for this Gospel Age the Truth as due, which certainly instructs us in the way we should go. The pillar of cloud represents the due Truth as found in the New Testament during the Jew­ish and Gospel–Age harvests – the day time (Psa. 91:5, 6); and the pillar of fire repre­sents the Old Testament Truth which was more prominent between those two periods, and again here in the extreme end of the Age. As these pillars led Israel to Canaan, so the Truth contained in the Bible has led, and will yet lead, spiritual Israel to the heavenly Canaan. To all who have received the Truth and the spirit of the Truth they have received their Gospel-Age Canaan inheritance, which is but a foregleam of the greater heavenly in­heritance which will eventually be their eternal portion. And as the typical pillars were not removed until Canaan was reached by the Jews, so the antitypical pillar (the Truth as due) will not be removed until the heavenly Canaan has been reached. Although we know that the true Christians throughout the Age had not nearly the Truth we have today, yet they had sufficient for their needs to do the Lord’s will at that time.

THE RED SEA

The march of Israel from Egypt to the Red Sea is typical of the march of the res­titutionists on the Highway of Holiness (Isa. 35:8); and their experience in the sea itself typified the great trial that will come during the Little Season (Rev. 20:7-9). “And it was told the king of Egypt that the people fled ... he made ready his chariot took six hundred chosen chariots – all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over every one of them. The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh... the children of Israel went out with a high hand. But the Egyptians pursued after them... overtook them en­camping by the sea... And they said unto Moses ... It had been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness... Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord... the Egyptians whom you have seen today, ye shall see them again no more forever... The Lord said unto Moses, stretch out thine hand over the sea and divide it; and the children shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.” (Ex. 14:5-16)

As stated previously, Pharaoh in this picture is a type of Satan; Egypt a type of the kingdom of darkness (“this present evil world” – Gal. 1:4); the children of Israel a type of all who eventually become God’s people; the Egyptians a type of the opponents of God’s people; the horses, false doctrines; the chariots, evil worldly organizations; the horsemen, of fallen men and angels; the Red Sea, type of the Second Death (Rev. 20: 6; 21:8). “Behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them, and I will get me honor upon Pharaoh ... and the Egyptians shall know than I am the Lord.” (vs. 17,18)

The Israelites going through the Sea on dry ground was due in large part to a peculiar­ity of the Sea, which was at that point about two miles wide; and when the tide ebbs, it allows passage through the Sea. It is of record that Napoleon sent his cavalry through the sea at this point – when the tide was out. However, when the tide comes in it does so with unusual power and suddenness – eight or nine feet deep. Also, v. 19 tells us, “The an­gel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; the pil­lar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them.” Thus, it was a “cloud of darkness” to the Egyptians all that night; they could not see the Jews at all. Nor could they see each other clearly, so that “they took off their chariot wheels so that they drave them heavily.”

“The Lord said unto Moses, stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians ... and the waters returned, and covered the chariots and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them.” (vs. 26-28) Thus the entire Egyptian army was completely destroyed by the onrushing tide. “The Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore.” (v. 30) Thus is typed the utter annihilation of every evil thing and person (the goats), leav­ing the earth and the sheep forever free from all evil. This is graphically described by Jesus in His parable of the sheep and goats (Matt. 25:31-46), the last verse of which we quote from the Diaglott, “These shall go forth to the aionian cutting–off (the goats); but the righteous (the sheep) to aionian life.” The footnote on this verse reads as follows:

“That is, in the fire mentioned in verse 31. The common version, and many mod­ern ones, render ‘kolasin aionioon’ everlasting punishment, conveying the idea, as gen­erally interpreted, of ‘basinos,’ torment. Kolasin in its various forms occurs only in three other places in the New Testament – Acts 4:21; 2 Pet. 2:9; 1 John 4:18. It is derived from kolazoo, which signifies – to cut off, as lopping off branches to prune; to restrain, to repress. The Greeks write, ‘The charioteer (kalazei) restrains his fiery steeds’; to chastise, to punish. To cut off an individual from life, or society, or even to restrain, is esteemed as punishment; hence has arisen this third metaphorical use of the word. The primary signification has been adopted, because it agrees better with the second member of the sentence, thus preserving the force and beauty of the antithe­sis. The righteous go to life, the wicked to the cutting off from life, or death – in harmony with 2 Thes. 1:9: ‘Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.’“

As Pharaoh’s chariots were not recovered, so will the antitypical chariots (evil organizations) never be brought back again from annihilation. The waters covering the Egyptian host (v. 28) types the complete and eternal disappearance in the second death of the post–Millennial wicked (the goats), who allowed themselves to be led into wicked­ness by their designing leaders. And as the Egyptian host did not return (“the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore” – v. 30), so will their antitypes never return from the second death. And the Egyptian horsemen not returning types the eternal annihilation of the antitypical leaders – the teachers that are instrumental in their deceptions. Not one Egyptian who entered the sea escaped that day, typical of the eternal annihilation of every one of the post–Millennial wicked. And the Israelites seeing the sea shore filled with dead Egyptians indicates that the sheep of the parable will have full knowledge of the second–death operation and those destroyed by it. This includes Satan himself and all his spiritual henchmen. (“Destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.”—Heb. 2:14) All of these will be stopped at the threshold of the Ages to come, none of them being allowed to enter those Ages of bliss following the final trial. Thus God will have a sinless world forever.

“Israel saw that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians.” (v. 31) Thus will the sheep recognize that it is God’s great power that has exterminated the evil persons and their works, which will instill great reverence into the hearts and minds of all the sheep. As a result, “the people believed the Lord and his servant Moses.” (v. 31) Thus, throughout all Ages will the faithful sheep class exercise full confidence in the Christ Company as to their persons, characters, words and works in their capacity of being God’s vicegerent to accomplish His good purposes throughout the entire universe.

Once this performance is seen in its tremendous implications, we believe our read­ers will agree with us that the deliverance of Israel from Egypt through the Red Sea is probably the grandest type in the entire Old Testament. And, as Moses led them from bondage of sin, error and death, free from “this present evil world” into that station where we “shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32)

The punishment that was meted out to Pharaoh and his host is typical of the punish­ment that will be visited upon the incorrigible at the end of the Little Season – as humane an ending as any one could devise for a hardened criminal. “The wages of sin is death.” No one ever asked to be born into this world – “The gift of God is life”; therefore, any abuse of that gift could justly demand nothing other than it be taken back by the Giver; and this is exactly what will be done. ‘‘What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy.” (Micah 6:8) And, if that is what is re­quired of us, we should certainly expect as much from the One Who makes the rules. The Red Sea in this type depicts the “second death” – a final punishment that will be meted out to all who will not “learn righteous­ness” when a full opportunity has been given. No good man would torment a mad dog; he would simply destroy it as humanely as possible. It is no good to itself, or any other creature. All of this is in full harmony with the God we worship – perfect in justice, wisdom, power and love. “Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.” (Rev. 15:3) Even in His justice He is merciful!

Lest we make believe that we are wiser than we are, in conclusion of the series of The Magnificent Type we would state that much of what is contained in these articles has been gleaned from the writers who have gone before us – much more capable men than we, especially is this true regarding the Parousia and Epiphany Messengers. We recognize a great debt of gratitude to the both of them for their help in enabling us to compose such a teaching as that contained in these three articles.

“The Lord shall judge the world in righteousness, he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness. The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.” (Psa. 9:8-10)

Sincerely your brother

John J. Hoefle, Pilgrim

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LETTERS OF GENERAL INTEREST

Dear Brother Hoefle: Grace and peace!

Your July and August letters came today, and I have read them with great interest ­especially the article on Exodus, as I have just finished reviewing E–Vol. 11. Also the article on the parable of Dives & Lazarus in answer to the JW’s was a wonderful article. As you have pointed out, they deny that the Jews are God’s chosen people instead of them­selves in the Millennium. You should not have too much trouble with brethren who still consider Brother Russell as That Servant, as Brother Russell surely laid down a good foundation for the Epiphany Truth in a good many areas...

There is not too much to report this time..... I am enclosing $–– as a small dona­tion to your work. Could you send me the May and June 1977 articles, as I could use them? I don’t like to loan out of my file, as I have a complete file of all your papers.

Give our Christian love and greetings to all there. May the Lord bless and keep you all! Rest assured that you are remembered in my prayers. Please do the same for me.

Sincerely your brother in Him ------- (MICHIGAN)

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Dear Brother Hoefle: Greetings of Love, Joy and peace through our precious Savior Jesus!

We are enjoying an early spring, and it is very welcome after last winter... We are all fairly well health–wise and busy with our jobs... We think of you often and pray God’s blessing upon you. Your presentations, together with the Parousia and Epiphany writings are a daily source of inspiration.

May God give you the needed strength and wisdom to continue with this good service to the brethren. God bless and keep you in your daily “good fight.”

Christian love, your brother ------- (PENNSYLVANIA)

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Dear Brother Hoefle:

I have been receiving your literature for almost a year now. I would like to com­mend you for some of the excellent articles that you have written. The two that I have been the most impressed with are “The Permission of Evil And Its Relation to God’s Plan,” and “The Rich Man and Lazarus.” However, there are some very important points which I feel would enhance the article “The Rich Man and Lazarus” should you ever deem fit to re­vise. Please allow me to interject these vital points.

To begin with, it is essential that you prove it is a parable. Matthew 13:10–17, 34 would do nicely for a starter. It is Christ Himself (first person singular) who is giving the parable. The parable was given before Christ’s death and resurrection. In Col. 1:18 it is written that Christ is the first born from the dead, the first born from among many brethren (Rom. 8:29), the first begotten of the dead (Rev. 1:5). And in 1 Cor. 15:29 it is further stated that he became the first fruits of them that slept. Christ the first fruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming (v. 23). How­ever, if you adopt a literal and not a symbolic interpretation of the Rich man and Laz­arus you will encounter some obvious contradictions. Christ had not been crucified at the time He gave this parable and if He is the first fruits from the dead then what in the world is Abraham and Lazarus doing in heaven and the rich man in hell. If Luke 16 is taken literally when Abraham and Lazarus are the first fruits, the first born from the dead, and not Christ. But if God’s word cannot be broken and it cannot, then all true worshipers must reject the literal interpretation. There is no contradiction – the symbolism is obvious. Luke 16:19–31 is without a doubt a parable. “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, “then” shall ye also appear with Him in glory.” (Col. 3:4)

I would very much like to receive the book containing the collective writings of Brother Russell – Life–Death–Hereafter, etc. Some of the points brought out in your ar­ticle were excellent. Also, could you please send me prints Nos. 259, 260, 263 and 264. Thank you very much for your helpful instruction. Yours in Christ, ------- (VIRGINIA)

NOTE: The above cited Scriptures and comments are well taken. We believe Matt. 13:34 proves Lazarus and the Rich Man is a parable: “All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them.”

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Dear Brother Hoefle: Loving greetings in the name of our Lord and Redeemer!

Recently I have been reviewing my Epiphany Bible Student Ass’n papers for 1977, and on reading the February issue, page 6, it brings to mind my parents’ experiences after the 1917 separation – how they read and compared the writings of the Watch Tower and later other Levitical publications with Bro. Johnson’s writings, and that on Bro. Johnson’s counsel and advice.

Now you say of present–day controversial writings, “We counsel our readers to place their writings along side ours, and then determine for themselves which they con­sider to be right.” This I have done since 1955, and continue at times to still do, and it is very clear whose writings are entirely loyal to the Lord’s Word and agree with the foundation principles of the Truth as brought out by our dear Pastor Russell and Brother Johnson. I am not sectarian “Hoefle” in the sense of supporting one regardless of what beliefs are brought out, but I am firm in my conviction that your writings are the only source of unsullied truth that is being presented today and I continue to test and prove them by the Seven Axioms for proper interpretation.

Our little Class is progressing in Parousia Truth studies and growing in grace, hopefully laying a good foundation for Epiphany Truth studies later on.

I am grateful to the Lord for your labor of love in the interests of all prospec­tive Youthful Worthies. May the Lord continue to richly bless you as you faithfully serve Him and us.

With Christian love – Your sister by His grace, ------- (KANSAS)

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NO. 268: IN MEMORIAM

No. 268

It is now sixty-one years since Brother Russell left us; and, as promised in our paper No. 256 of last October, we shall now continue with some observations con­cerning him as gleaned from the book of Jeremiah, beginning with Chapter three.

In Jer. 3:1 there is the emphatic condemnation of Israel for their evil conduct, the same being pointedly applicable to apostate Christendom prior to 1914. And see­ing this very clearly, Brother Russell just as emphatically flogged Christendom in like manner. “Thou hast polluted the land with thy wickedness.” (v. 2) And for this reason the showers of Present Truth were withheld from them, causing them to consider that Truth as gross error. (v. 3) “The water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood (error) upon the dry land.” (Ex. 4:9) “Thou gavest them also blood (er­ror) to drink; they deserve it.” (Rev. 16:6, Dia.) But they asked the impudent ques­tion, “My father, art thou not the guide of my youth?” (v. 4) Yet the accusation is thrust back at them: “Thou has spoken and done evil things as thou couldest.” (v.5)

During the period of 1874 to 1893 God asked Brother Russell whether he had seen the evil deeds of apostate Christendom as they approached the state in every great kingdom and every energetic leader – any one or anything that showed promise of in­creased power and wealth for them. “Thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing.” (Rev. 3:17) This conduct reached a climax in 1893 Chicago congress of religions, where the idea is promulgated that it makes no difference what one believes so long as he is sincere – Combinationism of the worst sort.  Today we have prominent evangelists preaching the same thing: Join any religion you wish, just so you join something – a far cry from the Apostle Paul’s teaching: “One Lord, one faith, one baptism.” (Eph. 4:5) “Neither let us commit fornication (illicit union of church and state), as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.” (1 Cor. 10:8; Num. 25:1-9) But in spite of that evil the invitation came yet once more, “Turn thou unto me; but she returned not.” (v. 7); but “defiled the land.” (v. 9) Yet the invitation came once again – through a world-wide ministry of Brother Russell and associates – “Return, thou backsliding Israel ... for I am merci­ful.” (v. 12)

“A PROPHET UNTO THE NATIONS”

In our paper of last October on this same subject we offered some detailed com­ment in applying Jeremiah 1:5 to Brother Russell: “I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.” So far as we know, Brother Russell never applied this prophecy to himself; but what he wrote, what he said and what he did clearly point him out as the antitype of the Prophet Jeremiah. Note the close similarity in many of the words, phrases and clauses in Vol. 4, The Battle of Armageddon, that are found in the book of Jeremiah. To substantiate this we now quote excerpts from Vol. 4 of the Scripture Studies:

“In this critical hour it is, alas! a lamentable fact that the wholesome spirit of ‘The Great Reformation’ is dead. Protestantism is no longer a protest against the spirit of antichrist, nor against the world, the flesh or the devil. Its creeds at war with the Word of God, with reason, and with each other, and inconsistent with them­selves, they seek to hide from public scrutiny.” (pp. 161, bottom, and 162, top)

And on p. 182, Brother Russell treats of The Great Parliament of Religions. “The Chicago Herald, commenting favorably upon the proceedings of the Parliament, said: ‘Never since the confusion at Babel have so many religions, so many creeds, stood side by side hand in hand, and almost heart to heart, as inthat great amphitheater last night. (in 1893) Never since written history began has varied mankind been so bound about with Love’s golden chain. The nations of the earth, the creeds of Christendom, Buddhist and Baptist, Mohammedan and Methodist, Catholic and Confusian, Brahmin and Unitarian, Shinto and Episcopalian, Presbyterian and Pantheist, Monotheist and Polytheist, representing all shades of thought and conditions of men, have at last met together in the common bonds of sympathy, humanity and respect.’

“How significant is the fact that the mind of even this enthusiastic approver of the great Parliament should be carried away back to the memorable confusion of tongues at Babel! What is not, indeed, that instinctively he recognized in the Parliament a remarkable antitype?

“The Rev. Barrows... spoke enthusiastically of the friendly relations manifested among Protestant ministers, Catholic priests, Jewish rabbis and, in fact, the leaders of all religions extant... He said: ‘The old idea, that the religion to which I belong is the only true one, is out of date. There is something to be learned from all religions, and no man is worthy of the religion he represents unless he is willing to grasp any man by the hand as his brother. Some one has said that the time is now ripe for the best religion to come to the front. The time for putting on any airs or superiority about his particular religion is past.’... Rev. Chalmers, of the Disciples church, said: ‘We cannot make out exactly what the Parliament proposes to accomplish... It is pos­sible, however, that the Chicago scheme is to get up some sort of a new and compound re­ligion, which shall include and satisfy every variety of religious and irreligious opin­ion. It is a big job to get us a new and eclectic religion satisfactory all around; but Chicago is confident.’

“It would indeed be strange if the spirit of Christ and the spirit of the world would suddenly prove to be in harmony, that those filled with the opposite spirits should see eye to eye. But such is not the case. It is still true that the spirit of the world is enmity to God (James 4:4); that its theories and philosophies are vain and foolish; and that the one Divine revelation contained in the inspired Scriptures of the apostles and prophets is the only divinely inspired truth.” (pp. 182, 183)

“The theme announced for the last day of the Parliament was, ‘The Religious Union of the Whole Human Family’; when would be considered ‘The elements of perfect religion as recognized and set forth in the different faiths,’ with a view to determining the ‘characteristics of the ultimate religion’ and ‘the center of coming religious unity of mankind.’

“Is it possible that thus, by their own confession, Christian (?) ministers are unable, at this late day, to determine what should be the center of religious unity, or the characteristics of perfect religion? Are they indeed so anxious for a ‘world ­religion’ that they are willing to sacrifice any or all of the principles of true Christianity, and even the name ‘Christian’, if necessary, to obtain it? Even so, they confess. ‘Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked and slothful servant, saith the Lord.’” (pp. 185, 186)

“The great religious Parliament was called together by Christians, Protestant Chris­tians; it was held in a professedly Protestant Christian land; and was under the lead­ing and direction of Protestant Christians, so that Protestants may be considered as responsible for all its proceedings. Be it observed, then, that the present spirit of Protestantism is that of compromise and faithlessness. This Parliament was willing to compromise Christ and his gospel for the sake of the friendship of antichrist and heathendom. It gave the honors of both opening and closing its deliberations to repre­sentatives of papacy. And it is noteworthy that, while the faiths of the various heath­en nations were elaborately set forth by their representatives, there was no systematic presentation of Christianity in any of its phases, although various themes were dis­coursed upon by Christians. How strange it seems that such an opportunity to preach the gospel of Christ to representative, intelligent and influential heathen should be overlooked and ignored by such an assemblage! Were the professed representatives of Christ’s gospel ashamed of the gospel of Christ? (Rom. 1:16) In the discourses Roman Catholics had by far the largest showing, being represented no less than sixteen times in the sessions of the Parliament.

“And not only so, but there were those there, professing Christianity, who earnestly busied themselves in tearing down its fundamental doctrines – who told the representative heathen of their doubts as to the inerrancy of the Christian Scriptures; that the Bible accounts must be received with a large degree of allowance for fallibility; and that their teachings must be supplemented with human reason and philosophy, and only accepted to the extent that they accord with these. There were those there, professing to be Orthodox Christians, who repudiated the doctrine of the ransom, which is the only founda­tion of true Christian faith, others, denying the fall of man, proclaimed the opposite theory of evolution, – that man never was created perfect, that he never fell, and that consequently he needed no redeemer; that since his creation in some very low condition, far removed from the ‘Image of God,’ he has been gradually coming up, and is still in the process of an evolution whose law is the survival of the fittest. And this, the very opposite of the Bible doctrine of ransom and restitution, was the most popular view.” (pp. 187,188)

“Said the Rev. Dr. Rexford of Boston (Universalist): ‘I would that we might all confess that a sincere worship, anywhere and everywhere in the world, is a true worship... The unwritten but dominant creed of this hour I assume to be that, whatever wor­shiper in all the world bends before The Best he knows, and walks true to the purest light that shines for him, has access to the highest blessings of heaven.’

“He surely did strike the key-note of the present dominant religious sentiment; but did the Apostle Paul so address the worshipers of ‘The Unknown God, on Mars Hill? Or did Elijah thus defend the priests of Baal? Paul declares that the only access to God is through faith in Christ’s sacrifice for our sins; and Peter says, ‘There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:12; 17:23-31).

“The Rev.  James Devine of New York City said: ‘We are brought now to another funda­mental truth in Christian teaching, the mysterious doctrine of atonement. Sin is a fact which is indisputable.  It is universally recognized and acknowledged... God cannot tol­erate sin or temporize with it or make a place for it in his presence. He cannot parley with it; he must punish it. He cannot treat with it; he must try it at the bar. He cannot overlook it; he must overcome it. He cannot give it a moral status; he must visit it with the condemnation it deserves., (P. 198)

“‘Christianity must speak in the name of God. To him it owes its existence.... It has no philosophy of evolution to propound.’ (p. 199) ‘It speaks, then, to other re­ligions with unqualified frankness and plainness, based on its own incontrovertible claim to a hearing... All this it does with a superb and unwavering tone of quiet in­sistence. It often presses its claim with argument, appeal and tender urgency; yet in it all and through it all should be recognized a clear, resonant, predominant tone of uncompromising insistence, revealing that supreme personal will which originated Chris­tianity, and in whose name it ever speaks...’ (pp. 201,202)

“In marked contrast with the general spirit of the Parliament was also the dis­course of Mr. Grant, of Canada: ‘It seems to me that we should begin this Parliament of Religions, not with a consciousness that we are doing a great thing, but with an humble and lowly confession of sin and failure. Why have not the inhabitants of the world fallen before the truth? The fault is ours. The Apostle Paul, looking back centuries of marvelous, God-guided history, saw as the key to all its maxims this: that Jehovah had stretched out his hands all day long to a disobedient and gainsaying people; that, although there was always a remnant of the righteous, Israel as a nation did not under­stand Jehovah, and therefore failed to understand her own marvelous mission. If St. Paul were here today would he not utter the same sad confession with regard to the nine­teenth century of Christendom? Would he not have to say that we have been proud of our Christianity, instead of allowing our Christianity to humble and crucify us; that we have boasted of Christianity as something we possessed, instead of allowing it to possess us; that we have divorced it from the moral and spiritual order of the world, instead of seeing that it is that which interpenetrates, interprets, completes and verifies that order; and that so we have hidden its glories and obscured its power. All day long our Savior has been saying, ‘I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people. But the only one indispensable condition of success is that we recognize the cause of our failure, that we confess it, with humble, lowly, penitent and obedient minds, and that with quenchless Western courage and faith we now go forth and do otherwise.’

“Would that these sentiments had found an echo in the great Parliament! – but they did not.  On the other hand, it was characterized by great boastfulness and to the ‘mar­velous religious progress of the nineteenth century’; and Count Bernstorff’s first im­pression, that it meant a bond compromise of Christian principles and doctrine, was the correct one, as the subsequent sessions of the Parliament proved. (pp. 203,204)

“The confident and assertive attitude of Catholicism and the various heathen re­ligions was in marked contrast with the skepticism of Protestant Christianity. Not a sentence was uttered by any of them against the authority of their sacred books; they praised and commended their religions, while they listened with surprise to the skepti­cal and infidel discourses of Protestant Christians against the Christian religion and against the Bible, for which even the heathen showed greater respect.” (p. 204)

“As evidence of the surprise of the foreigners on learning of this state of things among Christians, we quote the following from the published address of one of the dele­gates from Japan at a great meeting held in Yokohama to welcome their return and to hear their report: ‘When we received the invitation to attend the Parliament of Religions, our Buddhist organization would not send us as representatives of the body.  The great majority believed that it was a shrewd move on the part of Christians to get us there and then hold us up to ridicule or try to convert us. We accordingly went as individ­uals. But it was a wonderful surprise which awaited us. Our ideas were all mistaken.  The Parliament was called because the Western nations have come to realize the weakness and folly of Christianity, and they really wished to hear from us of our religion, and to learn what the best religion is. There is no better place in the world to propagate the teachings of Buddhism than America. (We observe here that some heathen religions – sat­urated with spiritism – are presently making great progress here in America, eighty years after Volume 4 was written.—JJH) Christianity is merely an adornment of society in America. It is deeply believed by very few. The great majority of Christians drink and commit various gross sins, and live very dissolute lives, although it is a very com­mon belief and serves as a social adornment. Its lack of power proves its weakness. The meetings showed the great superiority of Buddhism over Christianity, and the mere fact of calling the meetings showed that the Americans and other Western people had lost their faith in Christianity and were ready to accept the teachings of our superior re­ligion.’

“It is no wonder that a Japanese Christian said, at the close of the address, ‘How could American Christians make so great a mistake as to hold such a meeting and injure Christianity as these meetings will do in Japan?’ (p. 105)

“The closing sentiments of the great Parliament show how determined is this spirit of compromise an the part of Protestant Christianity.  So desperate are the straits to which the judgment of this day has driven them, that they hail with the greatest enthus­iasm the least indication of a disposition toward union even on the part of the very grossest forms of heathenism. (p. 233)

“But while the general impression created by the great Parliament was that it was the first step, and a long one, toward a realization of the angel’s message at the birth of Christ, of peace on earth and good will toward men, rightly viewed it was another man­ifestation of the faithlessness of Christendom. Surely, as saith the prophet, ‘The wis­dom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid., (Isa. 29:14) And again we hear him say, ‘Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries: gird (bind) your­selves (together) and ye shall be broken in pieces. Take counsel together, and it shall come to naught; speak the word (for Unity) and it shall not stand.’ (Isa. 8:9,10)

“With the Psalmist we would again propound the question, ‘Why do the people imagine a vain thing? (Why do they cry Peace! Peace! when there is no peace?) The kings of the earth (civil and ecclesiastical) set themselves and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure., (Psa. 2:1-5)

“When spiritual Israel now, like fleshly Israel anciently – abandon his Word and his leading, and seek to ally themselves with the nations that know not God, and to blend di­vine truth with the world’s philosophies, they take such steps at a peril that they do not realize; and they would do well to mark God’s recompenses to his ancient people, and take warning.” (pp. 238, 239)

SUMMATION

The foregoing is merely selected excerpts from Vol. 4, The Battle of Armageddon; but we continue now with a few paragraphs from the author’s foreword dated October 1, 1916:

“The first edition of this volume was published in 1897 (80 years ago, yet it sounds as though it were written this year – JJH). It relates to the closing epoch of this Gospel Age, the overlapping between it and the New Dispensation – a period which brings to the world wonderful blessings, which, in turn, because of unpreparedness of heart, more and more become causes of friction, discontent, trouble. If the blessings of the last 42 years (from 1874 to 1916) were to continue at the present rate of increase, the discontent of humanity would likewise increase (the evidence of which is presently about us in unmis­takable current events – JJH), and the very purpose of God in the establishment of Mes­siah’s Kingdom and the blessing of humanity through it, would be frustrated.

“Describing our day in the prophecy of Daniel, our Lord says, “Many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased. The wise shall understand, and there shall be a time of trouble such as was not since there was a nation.” (Dan. 12:1-4, 10) In other words, the increase of knowledge is responsible for the increase of discontent and fear which are bringing Armageddon, or the Day of Vengeance of God, upon the whole world.”

Even among the better intellects of men – not instructed in Present Truth – some see this sore developing; and some of them admit their helplessness to provide a cure. We ourselves know that the only cure will be the fruition of the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy king­dom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” As we say once more God bless his memory, we close with the quotation of poetry that was published in the Nov. 15, 1916 Watch Tower as a tribute to him!

ECCE HOMO!

“Loved and hated! Revered and reviled!

Spurned and courted! Flattered, defiled!

With never a falter and never a frown

He kept to his moorings, and laid his life down

In the place where God put him.  What more can be said

For soldier or hero? For living or dead?

He wept with the anguished; he smiled with the glad;

He lifted the fallen; he heartened the sad;

He pitied the sinner, inspired the saint;

He strengthened the feeble, recovered the faint.

God gave him a Message — he gave it to men;

He patiently told it again and again.

“When men’s eyes were blinded and ears could not hear,

And men’s souls were stunted by folly or fear,

When minds were beclouded by dullness or doubt

He maneuvered the Message and turned it about

Till ‘the wayfaring man, though a fool’, could behold

And hear the glad Gospel he patiently told.

And yet will like rabble as stood by the Cross,

Not knowing their folly, not sensing their loss,

Flouting and scouting and wagging their head

Stand by in contempt while we weep o’er our dead,

Dishonoring the prophet of this, their own time.

And crowning him saint when the World sees their crime.

“Behold now the Man? — Or wait world-old way

To pay him the tribute we owe him today?

Stand reverently now, with uncovered head,

And look at ‘that Servant’ and honor the dead!

A man has gone from us, leaving none in his place,

Yet his Message of Truth men can never efface.

He’d the mind of a master, the heart of a child,

The courage of Caesar, a soul undefiled.

He’d the love of a father, a shepherd’s kind care,

The faults of a human and sympathy rare.

He lifted a standard and held it up high.

He lived — ready to live and ready to die!”

While we consider the office and work of the Parousia Messenger were much more important than that done by the Epiphany Messenger, we would stress our warm approval and appreciation of his character and the work he did. He valiantly and tenaciously retained and defended the Parousia Truth as given us through Brother Russell, and built his Epiphany structure upon that Truth. He emphasized that advancing Truth is not intended to destroy fundamental Truth already established, but simply enlarges and strengthens the Truth we already have; and we know from our own personal and intimate association with him that he was fully sincere in that belief. We were close personal friends and co-workers together from early in the Epiphany until the day of his death and we are indebted to him for much of our understanding on Jeremiah. So we say of him also, God bless his memory! We honor these faithful servants when we keep the faith “once delivered unto the saints.” God honored them by making them His mouth­pieces, and it is our pleasure and privilege to honor whom God honors.

Sincerely your brother,

John J.  Hoefle, Pilgrim

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QUESTION OF GENERAL INTEREST

QUESTION: – Does That Servant teach that the Epiphany and the “Time of Trouble” are one and the same, as does the Epiphany Messenger?

ANSWER: – Yes, That Servant teaches the same as the Epiphany Messenger on the “Time of Trouble.” Both teach that “The Time of Trouble” began in its wide sense in 1874, but in its narrow sense the “Time of Trouble” began in 1914 when the World War started. In its “narrow sense” – beginning the destruction of Christendom and the Nom­inal Church – the Epiphany and the “Great Tribulation” are one and the same. As most Truth people know, Sodom types Christendom and the Nominal Church, and Egypt types the world of mankind – this “present evil world.” (Rev. 11:8—See Berean Comments)

In “The Battle of Armageddon”. Parousia book 4, is this: “Her destruction will have a beginning by the end of the appointed “Times of the Gentiles” – 1914.” And on p. 158 of this book: “These (the Little Flock—JJH) have no share in the judgment of great Babylon, but are previously enlightened and called out of her. (Rev. 18:4)” And from the Reprints we quote the following:

“To the very best of our ability we have endeavored to make clear that the parousia of our Lord is wholly different from His epiphaneia. Both of these Greek words are translated ‘coming’ in our common Bible, but in the Greek they have very different sig­nifications. The word parousia signifies presence, but does not signify any outward manifestation of that presence. It is used in respect to the first stage of the second advent, in which our Lord is said to come “as a thief in the night” to reckon with his own servants and to take the faithful of them with Him to the heavenly mansion or condi­tion prepared for them.

“Our Lord’s parousia and the gathering of the elect, we understand, has been in progress since October, 1874. It will continue until all of the “elect” shall have been gathered and glorified. In one sense our Lord will continue to be present as the world’s King to the conclusion of the Millennial Age; but His parousia, in the sense of secrecy of presence, will terminate when, as the Scriptures, declare, ‘He shall be revealed in flaming fire (judgments), taking vengeance on all who will not obey the truth,’ but enlightening and revivifying all who will hear and, to the extent of their opportunity, obey His message. The parousia is to the church and for the church only. The epiphaneia or apokalupsis of the Lord in power and great glory is not to the church, nor for the church, but to the world and for the world.” (Reprints 4543, bottom)

“Emphasizing the suddenness with which the calamity will overtake the world, Jesus said that on the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained down fire and brimstone from heaven; and He declared that thus it will be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. The Greek text shows a difference between the parousia, or presence, of Christ before the time of trouble, and the later epiphaneia, or revealing,” (Reprints 5456, top, col. 2, par. 2)

“The Scriptures indicate that the Gentile governments will receive from their own peoples their first notice that their lease of power has expired. The people will take note of the sign of the Son of Man in the heavens. The judgments of the Lord will be­gin to be manifest in the world, and will run counter to many of their interests. This manifestation of His presence is Scripturally called the epiphaneia, the shining forth, the revealment, of the King of Glory. ‘He shall be revealed in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ (2 Thes. 1:7-10) As a result, the nations of earth will be broken to pieces like a potter’s vessel.—Psa. 2:8,9” – (Reprints 5527, col. 1, top)

There is more from That Servant that will prove that the Epiphany Messenger simply elaborated on his teachings regarding the “Time of Trouble,” or the Great Tribulation, as the Epiphany period, but what we have given will suffice for now. Quite a few of the brethren have lost sight of this Truth – even the LHMM, founded by the Epiphany Messenger, now teaches that we are in the beginning Basileia since 1954 – the overlapping of the Epiphany – when three major stages of the Great Tribulation are yet future. one section of the Epiphany brethren teaches that there are four periods – the Parousia, Epiphany, Apokalypse (a separate period) and the Basileia – something never taught by Brothers Russell and Johnson; nor do the Scriptures support this claim. “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing (the Epiphany) and his kingdom (the Basileia).” The way the Apokalypsis brethren teach, this text should read: “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing (the Epiphany) and at his revealing, or Apokalypsis (a separate period from his “appearing”) and his king­dom (Basileia).”

To some extent the LHMM teaches four periods of the Lord’s Second Advent – the Parousia, the Epiphany, the “Overlapping,” which will witness three more severe stages of the Great Tribulation, as well as the annihilation of the Man of Sin (2 Thes. 2:8), and the Basileia. Their “overlapping” has no similarity to the overlapping of the Pa­rousia of 26 months (1914 to Nov. 1916).  As it is now more than 22 years overlapping, and we are not yet in Armageddon, the second stage of the Great Tribulation, with An­archy and Jacob’s trouble still future after that.

We are living in the day when “they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” (2 Tim. 4:3,4) Some of the Lord’s people who have received present truth are now setting much of it aside for opinions of their own.  Some now say the end of the “Times of the Gen­tiles” is still future, and we are not in the “Time of Trouble” since 1914 - although some of the thinking worldlings realize the world is in a “Time of Trouble” such as has never been before.  Some deny our Lord’s presence; the Jehovah’s Witnesses are teaching that Armageddon will destroy not only this present system of things, but also annihilate all who do not join with them before Armageddon.  This is “bad news” to those whose eyes are blinded (?) and do not accept their teachings.  They teach that the world is not so blinded today, as not to be able to recognize the truth (?) they are now teaching - that when they have had a chance to “learn of them,” and don’t accept them, it will be their last chance.  This is much the same as the Papacy has taught: You must accept us, or receive eternal torment!

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LETTERS OF GENERAL INTEREST

Dear Sir:

Please send me the following: 1. The Resurrection of the Dead; 2. Two Distinct Salvations; 3. The Three Babylons; 4. God’s Great Sabbath Day; 5. The Great Reformer.

Thank you! ------- (SOUTH CAROLINA)

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Dear Sirs:

I would appreciate receiving whatever information you can send me about your Bible Students. Thank you for your consideration in this matter.

  Yours very truly ------- (MARYLAND)

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Dear Brother Hoefle:

I do enjoy your bulletins, and am sending a small donation to help defray ex­penses. I will try to make my small donations more frequently in the future.

My best wishes to you and yours. Sincerely, ------- (PENNSYLVANIA)

PS – Please note change of address.