NO. 417: “WE SEE JESUS”

No. 417

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

Comes again the time of year that we consider the birth of Jesus. However, at the outset we would say that nowhere in the Bible are we told to remember His birth, although He emphatically told us to remember His death – “This do in remembrance of Me.” (Luke 22:19)

Most of our readers know that December 25 is not the correct date for Jesus’ birth. This date has been plucked out of thin air; the Atonement Day type and other Scriptures inform us that He was born on the tenth day of the seventh Jewish month – Tishri – ­Tishri being approximately our October. But we would not haggle about the exact date. We are persuaded that the Christian world does receive some moral uplift and spiritual encouragement through the observance of His birth; and we readily join with others in the observance. Many in Christendom reveal a milder and more pleasant spirit at that time. Quite often we have noticed people on the street humming some sort of Christmas tune; and we are happy to make this observation.

“WE SEE JESUS”

Coming to the analytical phase of this subject, we make note that if we ask many believers, Do you see Jesus? – That is, do you understand Him? from many we would re­ceive a ready answer: “Of course, we do!” So we would now offer our own analysis of how we “see Jesus.” And we would present some comment by the Apostle Paul in Heb. 2: 6-9: “One in a certain place testified (Psa. 8:3-9), saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownest him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands. Thou hast put all thing in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.”

To present a proper foundation for our analysis we would first quote from the Gos­pel of John 1:1-5: “In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was a god. This was in a beginning with the God. through it everything was done; and without it not even one thing was done, which has been done. In it was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shown in the darkness, and the dark­ness apprehended it not.” This is taken from the Emphatic Diaglott translation; and the following is a footnote from that same translation: “This term (the Logos) should be left untranslated for the very same reasons why the names Jesus and Christ are left untranslated. As every appellative of the Saviour of the world was descriptive of some excellence in his person, nature, or work, so the epithet Logos, which signified a word spoken, speech, eloquence, doctrine, reason, or the faculty of reasoning, is very prop­erly applied to him. See 1 John 1:1, for a clear and useful comment by the Apostle John on the proem to this gospel.”

And further from John 1:14, Dia.: “The Logos became flesh, and dwelt among us ­and we beheld his glory, a glory as of an Only-begotten from a Father – full of favor and truth.” Also, from Phil. 2:5-7, Dia.: “Christ Jesus, though being in God’s form, yet did not meditate a usurpation to be like God, but divested (emptied) himself, taking a bondsman’s form, having been made in the likeness of men; and being in condition as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”

Note now the exact language found in Psa. 8:3-9: “Made a little lower than the angels.” This description in both texts is identical, so we would apply the geometric theorem, “Things equal to the same things are equal to each other.” To make this very plain: two half dollars equal one dollar; four quarters also equal one dollar. There­fore, the four quarters are the exact equivalent of two half dollars – equal to each other. Here is clear Scriptural proof that Jesus was a man – “made flesh” – “a little lower than the angels.”

THE DUST OF THE GROUND

“The Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” (Gen. 2:7) Not the identical process, but a similar one, may be given for the Man Jesus. When He came to birth from the Virgin Nary, he began to partake of the foods common to man, and grew into a man – the exact du­plicate of Adam – when He was thirty years of age, when he presented Himself to John in the River Jordan on the day He was thirty, the age at which the Jews reasoned, with Scrip­tural authority, that their males reached full manhood.

To analyze this a little further: Presently, the grass grows from the earth – the dust of the ground; the grass is consumed by the flesh-producing animals, which in turn are eaten by man. All of these things are the direct result of “the dust of the ground.” Thus, are we all formed from “the dust of the ground” – even as Jesus was; and the record is clear enough: “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” (Gen. 3:19) Thus, at the age of thirty Jesus was in every detail an exact duplicate of Adam when “Cod breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.”

By this statement we do not infer that God was thirty years in producing Adam. But the moment he was animated, Adam was the exact image of Jesus when He was thirty. “The son of man came to give himself a ransom for many.” (Matt. 20:28) The word ransom is from the Greek anti-lutron, which means an exact duplicate, a replica; therefore, Jesus had to be an exact duplicate of Adam – no more, no less – that He could provide the ran­som for Adam, which none of the other human beings was able to do. “They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches; none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him.” (Psa. 49:6,7)

“That disciple whom Jesus loved” reveals the intimate acquaintance and understand­ing that the Apostles had of Jesus: “What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands felt, concerning the word of life (the Logos); and the life was made manifest, and what we have seen we also tes­tify, and declare to you the aionian life, which was with the Father, and was manifest to us.” (1 John 1:1,2 – Dia.) “Our hands felt” – here the Apostle reveals the intimate re­lationship which he had had with our Lord when He was on earth – a comradeship of the closest nature.

JESUS

“We behold Jesus.” It is in order to stress here that the Apostle does not say, “We behold Jesus Christ.” And there is good reason for this. When the angel was speak­ing to Joseph, the advice was given: “Thou shalt call his name Jesus; for he will save his people from their sins.” (Matt. 1:21) Here is one scholar’s comment on the name: “The name Jesus means the salvation of God. For Joshua among the Hebrews is salvation, and among them the son of Nun is called Joshua. The name Jesus is above every name.”

However, from birth to His baptism by John in Jordan our Lord was known by the single appellation Jesus, and not Jesus Christ. Christ means anointed; and He did not become the ‘anointed’ Saviour until He received the Holy Spirit without measure at His baptism in Jordan. Therefore, it was not Jesus Christ who was made “a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death”; because the Christ – the Anointed – was not sacrificed on the cross, but merely Jesus, the perfect man. Had Jesus the Christ been nailed to the cross, He would have offered much beyond what the man Adam had, because Adam was never anointed with the Holy Spirit; he was simply “a living soul” – a man from any view­point. Christ was not “lower than the angels”; and, when He said on the cross, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46), He was referring to the spiritual life that had begun in Him at Jordan, which was raised from the tomb three days later, when “God supremely exalted him, and freely granted to him that name which is above every name .... that every knee should bend, of those in heaven, and those on earth, and of those beneath; and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, for the glory of God the Father.” (Phil. 2:9-11) He now “sits at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Heb. 12:2)

VARIOUS NAMES AND POSITIONS

Logos – During His existence our Lord has held three positions in relationship to God; and these various positions are indicated by the various names He has had. Be­fore His first advent to the earth He was known as the Logos – the Word. And as the Word of God He was the principal agent of God’s creation; He was second to God, but above every other creature in Heaven or earth. As such, the Bible tells us, “without him was not anything made that was made.” (John 1:3) As such He was a spirit being, not capable of description with our limited knowledge. Before his deflection, Lucifer was described as The son of the morning” (Isa. 14:12); but the Logos was superior to that, because Lu­cifer came into existence through the agency of the Word.

Jesus Christ – When the Logos came to earth, and became Christ Jesus, the situation is vividly described by St. Paul: “Christ Jesus ... made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men ... became obed­ient unto death, even the death of the cross.” (Phil. 2:5-8) The Diaglott translates this in much finer style: “Christ Jesus ... divested himself (He laid aside His high position, much the same as a man might take off his coat), taking a bondsman’s form (a slave’s position), having been made in the likeness of men..... he humbled himself, be­coming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”

“In The Likeness Of Men” – He had the appearance of a man, although a most unusual likeness of men – so much so that Pilate exclaimed in admiration, “Ecce homo” – “Behold the man!” (John 19:5) And St. Paul writes of Him: “He was in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin.” (Heb. 4:15) although Pilate saw the excellent features of a most unusual man, he could not see that Jesus was “without sin.” Yet Jesus’ sinlessness had set Him apart from all men. All of us find description in the words of David: “Born in sin, shapen in iniquity.” (Psa. 51:5)

Express Image Of God’s Person – Presently, and henceforth forever, Jesus occupies a third position, described by the Apostle in Heb. 1:3: “the express image of God’s per­son ... the right hand of the majesty on high.” In Heb. 2:9 we have the subject of this treatise – “We see Jesus – a little lower than the angels”; but in Heb. 1:4 it is stated that He is now “so much better than the angels.”

Scores of names and titles are used in the Bible in discussing Jesus; but we shall offer just a few of them here: In Rev. 1:8 He is the “Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending ... the Almighty”; in Rev. 22:16, “The bright and morning star”; in Isa. 51:9, “the arm of the Lord”; in the Song of Solomon 3:1, “Rose of Sharon and The Lily of the Valleys”; and 5:10, “the chiefest among ten thousand”; In John 8:12, “the light of the world ... the light of life”; in Luke 1:78, “the dayspring from on high”-, in 1 Tim. 6:15, “the blessed and only potentate ... the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords;” and in Heb. 13:20, “that great shepherd of the sheep.”

Four Great Offices – The risen Lord is now the possessor of four great offices, in which He is to do a certain work for the human race. There are many sub­divisions of these four, but we shall not go into that detail. These offices are pres­ently operative only in a very limited way; but He will come into the full glory of them all when He establishes His reign on earth – “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth.” These offices are Biblically stated as follows: The world’s Prophet – “A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you..... him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you” (Acts 3:22); and the world’s High Priest – “Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchisedec” (Heb. 5:6); the world’s King – “Thou Bethlehem..... out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel whose goings forth have been from old, from everlasting” (Micah 5:2); the world’s Judge – “The Lord cometh to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteous­ness, and the people with his truth.” (Psa. 96:13) In treating of just these four, we do so be­cause each of them is close companion to God’s four great attributes – Wisdom, Justice, Love and Power; and we shall offer brief comment on each of these descriptive pairs:

World’s Prophet – The word prophet in Acts 3:22 is from the Greek ‘prophetes,’ from which the English word prophet is derived; and it has the meaning of public expounder, or teacher. And to be a good teacher, one must be endowed with Wisdom. Thus, the Lord’s office of Prophet is readily linked with the Divine attribute of Wisdom. In making this statement we should be alert not to confuse wisdom with knowledge, because wisdom is the proper application of knowledge. It is well stated, “Knowledge is power”; but this is true only if we know what to do with knowledge. Also, it is a sound observation that “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.” Knowledge in inexperienced hands often causes great disaster – in the laboratory, in construction, in the operation of intricate machin­ery, etc. But we have strong Bible assurance that our risen Lord will know perfectly what to do on every occasion, and how to do it. Thus, it is properly foretold of Him: “The government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor” (able to advise and counsel in every situation). (Isa. 9:6)

World’s High Priest – The office of a Priest is to forgive and bless. Therefore, we are counseled in Heb. 4:16: “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy (forgiveness of sins), and find grace (blessing) to help in time of need.” All of this is clearly an operation of LOVE: therefore, we team the High Priest with the Divine attribute of Love.

World’s King – “Of the increase of his government and peace (kingdom) there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom there shall be no end, to order it with judgment and justice from henceforth even forever.” (Isa. 9:7) In the operation of this kingdom the Divine attribute of Power is self-evidently coupled.

World’s Judge – “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation ... Judgment will I lay to the line, and right­eousness to the plummet; and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies.” (Isa. 28: 16,17) It needs no elaboration to declare that the Divine attribute of Justice is the fitting counterpart of the World’s Judge.

Analysis Of The Four Offices – Now further comment on the foregoing:

Teacher ­wisdom – He who discerns clearly teaches clearly. Of the Teacher it is recorded: “Jesus needed not that any should testify of man; for he knew what was in man.” (John 2:24,25) And His crushing answers to all the tricky questions of the Scribes and Pharisees offer ample proof that Jesus did know what was in man. Therefore, “He taught them as one hav­ing authority.” (Matt. 7:29) Concerning the Jews St. Paul said: “Israel hath a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.” (Rom. 10:2) Quite a contrast to the knowledge that Jesus had! The Egyptian proverb goes well here:

He who knows, but knows not that he knows, is timid;

encourage him.

He who knows not, and knows that he knows not, is ignorant;

teach him.

He who knows not, and knows not that he knows not, is a fool;

shun him.

He who knows, and knows that he knows, is wise,

follow him.

The great World’s Teacher knows, and knows that He knows. “By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many.” (Isa. 53:11) And the Apostles stressed this point concerning the true followers of Jesus: “We know of whom we have believed. We have known him.” (1 John 2:3) “We know that we are of the truth.” (1 John 3:19) And the philosophers, the comics, the ignoramuses all have had their play on this subject – some of it good and sound. As one of them has put it: “It’s not what we don’t know that hurts; it’s what we know that ain’t right that floors us.” This truth may be emphasized in pol­itics, religion, finance, patriotism, etc. One of our present-day philosophers said of Jesus: “He is the greatest teacher of all times.” Also, one of the poets has contributed an excellent bit on this subject:

Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne –

Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown,

Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own,

However, we know “When thy judgments are in the earth (when the Great Teacher supervises the teaching) the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.” (Isa. 26:9)

Priest-Love – The great love-work that Jesus will accomplish is well expressed in Hos. 13:14: “I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: 0 death, I will be thy plagues; 0 grave, I will be thy destruction.” Of Jesus, our Priest, it is written: “Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec.” (Heb. 5:10)

Of Melchisedec it is recorded that he was a Priest upon his throne; that is, he was not subservient to any earthly power – which is an excellent description of our High Priest Jesus. One author gives us this description: “Melchisedec, King of Salem (probab­ly Jerusalem before the Jews conquered that country after their Exodus from Egypt) and priest of the Most High God. Jerusalem means city or foundation of peace or safety, so that Salem is an appropriate abbreviation. In Salem also is God’s tabernacle (Psa. 76: 2), God’s dwelling place in Zion. Melchisedec as described in Heb. 5:10, was without father, without mother, without genealogy. This means that his pedigree is not recorded. He is further described as having neither beginning of days, nor end of life, of whom it is testified that he lives. It is not known whence he came, or whither he went; he is a type of undying priesthood. When thus our Lord was made a high priest after the order of Melchisedec, he held a higher office than the Aaronic priesthood.”

It is a sad record that all movements, religious, governmental, or political, have been relatively pure at the outset. And almost all of them have followed a very fixed pattern as the years have come and gone. Regarding religious movements, they have gone through three stages: Priesthood, Priestcraft and Priestgraft. The pristine purity of the early Christine Church under the leadership of the Apostles is a thing of beauty, earnest­ly striving for the welfare of its adherents. But the Apostle Paul said that already in his day “the mystery of iniquity doth already work ... whose coming is after the working of Satan... with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth.” (2 Thes. 2:7-10) Much the same could be said for the Jewish Church. When it was organized under Moses at Sinai, Aaron was the ideal priest. “No man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron.” (Heb. 5:4) But by the time Jesus had arrived the noble ideals of Aaron had dis­appeared; the priesthood had degraded to the bottom of the dirty barrel – priestgraft. “My house shall be called the house of prayer: but ye (the Scribes and the Pharisees) have made it a den of thieves.” (Matt. 21:13)

Judge-Justice – One of the classic Scriptures describing Jesus as Judge administer­ing quick and perfect Justice is found in Isa. 11:1-5: “There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots: And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: but with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.”

The most just and well-intentioned of our Courts today must judge according to the seeing of the eyes and the hearing of the ears. Thus, some guilty go free, and some inno­cent are convicted. That is the best we have today; but that will not be so when the Great Judge administers Justice. We have “the sure word of prophecy” to verify this con­clusion: “God hath appointed a day (the 1000-year day – shall “reign with him a thous­and years”—Rev. 20:6) in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.” Acts 17:31) Indeed, “man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” (1 Sam. 16:7) Often do our judges favor the strong, and burden the weak. A man’s face may be pushed out too far, or in too much; thus, our judgment is often based on the “outward appearance.” It is a recognized truth that the very rich, the very powerful, or the highly educated find it almost impossible for them to receive a fair appraisal of themselves from others, because their position strongly influences the judgment of their admirers, or their enemies. Let us consider the case of Pilate: He admired the fine physical features of Jesus; thus, he said to the Jews: “I find in him no fault at all.” (John 18:38 – repeated in John 19:4) But the “envy” of the Jews was so pronounced and clamorous that they prevailed. Thus the law is often decided through prejudice, trickery, oratory or brute force. And the doctrine “Might is right” often prevails. We close the Justice feature of “We see Jesus” with Isa. 28:17: “Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.

King-Power – As King over all the earth Jesus will exercise the Divine Attribute of Power. Since the time that historical records began to be kept men have striven to im­prove their living conditions; and, while some progress has been made in certain respects, yet the overall picture is well described by the Prophet Isaiah (1:6): “From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores; they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.”

It is a sage observation that beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. And the Bible emphasizes this in classic and emphatic fashion. In Dan. 2:26-44 there is portrayed the dream of King Nebuchad­nezzar’s metal man – head of gold, breast and arms of silver, belly and thighs of brass, and legs of iron. Here is given us a picture of the four universal empires as viewed through the eyes of man. And Daniel told King Nebuchadnezzar: “Thou 0, king art a king of kings... a kingdom, power, strength and glory. Thou art this head of gold.” (vs. 37,38)

But the seventh chapter of the same book these same kingdoms are described by four beasts: a lion, a bear, a leopard, and “the fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it.” (7:7) In both instances the four universal empires are described – Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome. The last of these ­Rome – is well portrayed by the iron legs, as history is replete with the records of “the iron rule of Rome.” But in Dan. 4:17 there is this terse summarization of all of them: “The Most High setteth up over it the basest of men.”

And as we consider Nero, Ivan the Terrible, the Pharaohs of Egypt, the emperors of Rome, etc., we recognize the truth of this statement. They were conquering heroes in their time; but they do not appear at all favorably when compared to The Prince of Peace! The shibboleth of the Roman rulers was: Without slaves there can be no leisure; without leisure there can be no thinking; without thinking there can be no progress. And his­tory bears sad testimony to the rough time many of those Roman slaves had. And one of the heads of our own Government made the remark not so many years ago: “The average man is so dumb you can tell him anything.”

It is a proper analysis that the human race is divided into three groups – the magnetics, the repulsives, and the neutrals. The magnetics are a very small minority, but so are the repulsives. It is seldom we see a human face of such disagreeable appear­ance that we instinctively turn away from it. But some secular writers – not overly re­ligious – have been caught up with the magnetism of Jesus; and one of them in his im­pelling way treats of the wife of one of the high rulers in Palestine at the time Jesus was being tried and led to the cross. She said to her husband: “O, Lodbrog, I have seen him; and I cannot forget his wonderful face. Save him, and I will go with you any­where to the ends of the earth.” But the husband answered, “I should save God!” Jesus was indeed magnetic, “The common people heard him gladly.” (Mark 12:37)

“We see Jesus” with the eyes of our understanding; and we can join with St. Paul in his superb exclamation, “Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift.” (2 Cor. 9:15) With this comes our warm wishes to all for a blessed Holiday observance.

Sincerely your brother,

John J. Hoefle Pilgrim

Reprint of No. 306, Dec. 1980

NO. 416: THE CONTINUING ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT – WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?

No. 416

It All Began With Abraham, Father Of Ishmael And Isaac, Father Of Esau And Jacob, Father Of The Twelve Sons Of Israel.

UNITED NATIONS – The ongoing debates in the Security Council and the General Assembly on the  troublesome question of Palestinian rights in the administered areas including Jerusalem have once again, as in ancient times, focused the attention of the world on the strategic Middle East crescent and on reborn Israel which, by an act of the Knesset, has proclaimed the Holy City its capital.

As this writer sees it, what is happening here at the UN in the struggle between cousins, the Jews and the  Arabs, seems clearly to be a continuation of the conflict that bedeviled their progenitors in the biblical period.

History does repeat itself. Once again, they are all here; the Syrians, the Ammonites, the Moebites, the  Egyptians, the Philistines in modern garb, vying with the Israelites for the rights and possession of the Land of  Prophets and for the City of G–d. Assyria-Babylon, seemingly, is also present as one of the superpowers aligning  itself, as in the past, with Israel’s antagonists.

To date, whatever is attempted here in this world organization, whatever positions the U.S. or the USSR may take, no matter what resolutions are adopted, there appears to be no solution in sight. Despite efforts on the part of some nations to reconcile the differences between the parties, the road remains closed and the gap widens.

Thus, while the UN stands deadlocked in a hopeless political struggle, surely, there must be some explanation and even an answer to this dilemma facing mankind. This writer, who had closely followed events here at the UN almost since its inception and having given his special attention the Palestine question before and after the Partition vote of 29 November 1947, holds the view that there exists only one source which can give both the explanation and the answer to this perplexing problem. That source is the Bible, the one document which both the Moslems and the Jews as well as the Christians accept or profess to accept as authoritative.

Two diplomats, one, Dr. Charles Malik, a former Foreign Minister of Lebanon, the other, Dr. Gunnar Jarring, a UN mediator for the Middle East, had agreed with this writer that “a Biblical-Koranic approach to the Middle East problem” may prove to be the sole avenue towards a genuine settlement.

Let’s see, then, what the Bible and the Koran say. It all began with Abraham, father of Ishmael and Isaac,  father of Esau and Jacob, father of the twelve sons who founded the house of Israel.

As we stated, to understand fully what is currently happening in the Mideast – in the life and death struggle  between the Arabs and the Jewish people – it is necessary to go back in history to biblical days.

Actually, the whole issue involves a family feud which, originating in Genesis, struck a high point in Abraham’s time when his herdsmen quarreled bitterly with Lot’s shepherds over territorial rights. The conflict was satisfactorily adjudicated by the wise father of the Semites. Said Abraham to his nephew Lot:

“Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee; if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right, or it thou wilt take the right hand, then I will go to the left.”

The Bible then tells us that “Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of the Jordan, that it was well-watered... So Lot chose him all the plain of the Jordan; and Lot journeyed east; and they separated themselves one from the other. Abraham dwelt in the Land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the Plain.”

In this event the world witnessed the first movement for partition. Although the Abraham-Lot feud appeared to be settled amicably, the real trouble in the family conflict had its origin in the age-old problem of sex.

Abraham’s wife, Sarah, who was barren and who wanted a child to perpetuate the line, beseeched her husband to take her Egyptian handmaiden, Hagar, to bear seed in her behalf. Abraham acceded to her appeal and Hagar soon conceived.

Thus blessed, Hagar the handmaiden, took on a new posture of superiority vis-a-vis her former mistress who, in distress, demanded her expulsion.

Reluctantly, Abraham heeded Sarah and sent Hagar away. As the time of pregnancy passed, Hagar bore a son and named him Ishmael who became one of the progenitors of the Arabs.

Fate, however, blessed Sarah and she, too, in her old age, bore a son whom she named Isaac. Remaining within the family lineage, Isaac married Rebecca, grand-daughter of Abraham’s brother Nachor.

It was at this juncture in biblical history that we are confronted with another basic and much more serious cause of family division.

When Rebecca conceived, she complained that “the children were struggling within her.” Making inquiries about this strange predicament, which greatly troubled her, she was told:

“Two nations are in thy womb, and two peoples shall be separated from thy bowels, and one shall be stronger than the other; and the elder shall serve the younger.” (Genesis 25:22-23)

When time for delivery came, Rebecca gave birth to twins. The first emerging ruddy and hairy, was named Esau (red); the second, holding fast on the heel of his brother, as if by instinct still in a struggle, was named Jacob (Jacob, from the word heel).

In appearance and in demeanor, the twins were diametrically opposed to and different from each other. All through their lives, Esau, in jealous hatred, sought to kill his brother who was favored by his mother. Esau, to spite his parents, married a Hittite named Judith, and the Bible tells us that both Esau and Judith “were a bitterness of spirit to Isaac and Rebecca.”

One of the strangest and most misunderstood episodes in the whole Bible concerns the question of the birthright’s of the twins who, while Esau emerged first, were born seconds apart. It is usually thought that Jacob and his mother Rebecca had, by ‘trickery,’ conspired to claim the ‘birthright’ so as to win the blessing of the firstborn. Actually, there was no trickery or fraud involved. For the Bible tells us clearly that Esau had sold his birthright to Jacob for a plate of “lentils.” “And Jacob said [to Esau]: ‘Swear to me first’; and he swore unto him, and he sold his birthright unto Jacob...” (Genesis 25:29-34)

Thus, Rebecca was fully justified in maneuvering Jacob into receiving her husband’s blessing for the firstborn, a blessing which carried this promise: “Let peoples serve thee; be lord of thy brethren, and let thy mother’s sons bow down to thee. Cursed be everyone that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee.” (Genesis 27:29)

When Esau got wind of what had happened – although he had sold his birthright and in the knowledge that his own mother had gone against him – he came crying bitterly to his father. “Hast thou but one blessing my father?” he frantically cried. Isaac, fully aware of the situation, and refusing to go back on the blessing he had given to Jacob, told Esau: “The fat places of the earth shall be your dwelling... but by the sword shalt thou live, and thou shalt serve thy brother; and it shall come to pass when thou shalt break loose, that thou shalt shake his yoke from off thy neck.” (Genesis 27:39-40)

Esau, dejected, bitter and downcast, hated his brother all the more. As time passed, the split widened. Esau, following in the footsteps of Ishmael, married into a Canaanite family related to Ishmael, while Jacob married into the family of Laban, his mother’s brother.

It goes without saying that here, in these early beginnings of family divisions, we have the basic cause of the conflict we are witnessing today at the United Nations and in the selfsame region between the Jews and the Arabs, between the descendants of Jacob, surnamed Israel, and the offspring of Ishmael and Esau, both sides of which laying claim to the possession of the land of Canaan from which region they sprung.

It is now understandable why all Moslems, like the Jewish people, venerate not only Abraham, Abrahim to them, but also Moses (Nebi Musa) and David (Dahood).

From the foregoing facts, it may well appear that the Arabs, being descendants of Abraham and Isaac, have an equal claim with the children of Israel to the possession of the Land of Canaan. It is hard to believe that the Bible, which stresses justice, righteousness and equality, would overlook or infringe upon the territorial right of any people.

The Scriptures are explicit on this issue. The children of Esau and Ishmael were allotted vast territories to the east and south of the land of Canaan, territories which the Bible holds inviolate – so much so that it even warns the Children of Israel against coveting any of them.

When Moses and the Israelites came out of Egypt and began their wanderings, they were told:

“Ye are to pass through the border of your brethren, the children of Esau, which dwell in Seir... I will not give you of their land, no, not so much as for the sole of the foot to tread on; because I have given Mount Seir unto Esau for a possession.” (Deuteronomy 2:3-5)

“And when thou comest nigh over against the children of Ammon, harass them not, nor contend with them; for I will not give thee of the land of the children of Ammon for a possession.” (Deuteronomy 2:19)

Again, when Abraham pleaded with G–d “that Ishmael might live before Thee,” he was told: “I have heard thee; behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation.”

This promise, however, was immediately followed by the statement: “But My Covenant will I establish with Isaac,” and preceded by: “Nay, but Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son; and thou shalt call his name Isaac; and I will establish My Covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his seed after him.” (Genesis 17)

The promise “for his seed after him” would, it seems, also include Esau who was Jacob’s twin brother and therefore the seed of Isaac. On that basis, the Arab’s claim to Palestine may appear valid since, according to the Bible, G–d told Isaac – and previously to Abraham – “unto thee and thy seed will I give the Land of Canaan as an everlasting possession.”

This view does not altogether obtain, because the biblical promises relative to the deed to Palestine as an everlasting possession narrowed down from Abraham to Isaac and then only to Jacob-Israel.

This is something that must not be overlooked.

In Genesis, chapter 21, “G–d said to Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad [Ishmael], for in Isaac shall thy seed be called... And also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed.”

And take note further. In Genesis 28, G–d told Jacob, “The land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it and to thy seed... that thou mayest inherit the land that G–d gave to Abraham.”

The question now arises: What exactly constitutes actual borders of the Land of Canaan, of Palestine, as promised to the children of Israel as an everlasting possession?

Chapter I of Joshua provides us with an answer: “Now therefore, [Joshua], arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give them, even to the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, to you have I given it, as I spoke to Moses. From the Wilderness, and this Lebanon, even unto the Great River, the River Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your border.” (Verses 2-3, 6)

And in Exodus 23, verses 31, we find this promise: “And I will set thy border from the Red Sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the Wilderness [of Sinai] unto the River [Euphrates].”

Moreover, Ezekiel the Prophet, whose closing chapters deal entirely with the future, gives us this picture of the territory which is to comprise the historic State of Israel in Messianic times:

“And this shall be the border of the land: on the north side – from the Great Sea, by the way of Hetlon, unto the entrance of Zedad; Hamath, Berothah, Sibraim, which is between the border of Damascus and the border of Hamath; Hazorhaticon, which is by the border of Hauran. And the border from the sea shall be Hazer–enon at the border of Damascus, and on the north northward is the border of Hamath. This is the north side. And the east side, between Hauran and Damascus and Gilead, and the land of Israel, by the Jordan, from the border unto the sea shall ye measure. This is the east side. And the south side southward shall be from Tamar as far as the waters of Meriboth-kadesh, to the Brook, unto the Great Sea. This is the south side southward. And the west side shall be the Great Sea, from the border as far as over against the entrance of Hamath. This is the west side.” (Ezekiel 47:15-20)

It may be worth while noting as we conclude this essay relating to the origins of the current conflict between the Jewish people and the Arabs – cousins in the full sense of the word – that the Holy Koran of Islam has recognized the validity of the Hebrew Scriptures. In Sura 87 we find: “This truly is in the books of old, the books of Abraham and Moses.” And Sura 2, followers of Mohammed are admonished to say:

“We believe in G–d, and that which hath been sent down to us, and that which hath been sent down to Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the tribes; and that which hath been given to Moses and Jesus, and that which was given from the Prophets from the Lord... No difference do we make between them, and to G–d are we resigned.”

Thus, on this basis, we must conclude that no true Moslem who believes in the Koran can honestly object to the promises contained in the Scriptures in relation to the children of Israel including those cited above concerning the boundaries Allah had allotted to the children of Israel as well as to the children of Esau and Ishmael.

What we are witnessing here at the United Nations and the world scene today, constitutes nothing but a further chapter in the history of the age-long family feud that began with Abraham, which struck a critical note in the strange births of the twins Esau and Jacob, and reached a new climax in the miraculous rebirth of the State of Israel.

(By David Horowitz, News Reporter at the UN – Sephardic Views International, Feb. 1990)

NOTE – Re Egypt and the Arabs, they have a common hatred for the Jews. Egypt was toppled from world leadership when their entire army was destroyed in the Red Sea as they pursued the fleeing Jews from their country; and they have not forgotten that. However, the reason they now negotiate with the Jews is because the U.S. Government is largely Jewish; and Egypt needs our friendship.

Hagar was an Egyptian and her son, Ishmael, was a half-brother to Isaac; both had Abraham as their father. Gen. 16:12 says of Ishmael, “He will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand will be against him.” Thus, the Jews and Arabs have hated one another for 4,000 years. In the first war the Arabs joined the Germans, and English General Allenby kicked them out of Jerusalem in December 1917. Although the Arabs had lived in Jerusalem for almost 2,000 years, they did nothing to improve the country. Now that the Jews have done something, they want it; but the Jews won’t give it to them. The details of the origin of this are to be found in Genesis 21:9-11. (Excerpts from our paper No. 287, p. 8)

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LETTER OF GENERAL INTEREST

Dear Brethren: Grace and peace!

You have asked for excerpts of my April 27, 1990 talk to the Jews at their Bethyam Synagogue on Hilton Head Island. Following are some of the comments made:

“Some friends are sure I’m a Jew who got switched at birth, but I’m a Gentile and a Christian – though I trust different from what you might expect of most Goyim. I feel a little like I’ve come to Newcastle to explain about coal and I hope you will forgive me for telling you what you already know better than I know.

“That my simple and innocent letter to the editor of the Island Packet (local daily newspaper – Editor) created such response, is astonishing. It appeared in the November 15, 1989 issue and I am still getting mail. Not only from islanders but from all over California, Memphis, Washington, D.C., New York City and even Israel.

“No, the circulation of the Packet is not that wide. Someone showed a copy of it with my letter to David Horowitz, editor of the World-Union Press, who is also a syndicated newspaper writer. He wrote a column about it which appeared in several English language Jewish newspapers.

“However, the extent of approval of the letter even by professed Christians is truly amazing! I never realized Israel has so many supporters; I thought I was in a minority. Out of several dozen responses that came to me, there was only one truly negative one. It came from an (former?) employee of the U.S. State Department who is a part-time resident of the island. For three years he was American Consul and Principal Officer at Jerusalem and seemed to consider himself an authority on the Middle East.

“I tried to answer all the mail I got, but never replied to this man. He was far too anti-Israel for me. I made some inquiries, though, and learned he is part of an anti-Israel clique in the State Department. This clique ought to be happy, as we now have the most anti-Israel administration since Israel’s declaration of independence in 1948.

“Since writing the letter to the editor, I’ve come to the conclusion that Israel has been too fearful of world opinion since their stunning victory of the six-days war. It is as if they are frightened by their own success.

“Isaiah 43:1 reads like this:

‘But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.’

“Then verses 5 and 6:

‘Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west; I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth.’

“Because Israel fears what the world might think, she has acted with considerable restraint in handling the Intifada. Aside from the loss of life, it has cost an enormous amount of money.

“In the last paragraph of my letter to the editor, I wrote:

‘Arabs living under the democratic state of Israel are far better off than they are in many of the countries mentioned above. The vast majority of Arabs living in Israel know this, have good jobs and are good citizens. As a matter of fact, the relationship with their Jewish neighbors is quite good.’

“I still think this is true, so far as it goes. Though perhaps I should have pointed out that those good Arab-Israeli citizens do not carry that citizenship with pride. These people are led to believe that, in time, they will be able to build another Arab state within the sovereign territory of the Jewish nation. They are waiting for the day when they can turn in their Israeli citizenship for membership in a sovereign state of Palestine.

“That’s fine, so long as their Palestinian state is located some other place than the ancient homeland of the Jews.

“Jewish leaders have been wrong to recognize a ‘legitimate Palestinian people.’ There is no basis for such recognition, which implies that Arabs have legitimate rights to Jewish land.

“During the insurrections of the Jewish people which lasted for nearly a hundred years from about AD 35, the Romans destroyed the Temple, and renamed Jerusalem ‘Aelia Capitolina.’ They made it a pagan city off-limits to the Jews.

“The Romans also changed the name of Judea to ‘Palaestina’ after the Philistines, a long time enemy of the Jews. They dispersed the Jewish people because they gave the Roman Empire more trouble than all the rest of the conquered people combined.

“You probably don’t know this but the Jews are a stiff-necked, rebellious people. Even the Creator had to contend with that.

“The Romans were determined to eliminate the Jewish people once and for all. The ‘Christian’ crusaders nearly 1,000 years later had essentially the same idea. So did Hitler 1,800 years later. You’ll be happy to learn that none of them succeeded.

“Without going any further into the complicated history of Israel, Rome became ‘Christianized’ a couple of centuries after the dispersion, and the name Palestine was institutionalized and came to be synonymous with the Holy Land. However, there never was a State of Palestine, and I hate to hear the name applied to any part of Israel.

“All the years since the dispersion, the land of Israel has been under a succession of foreign nations. When the surrounding Arab nations attacked the day after the Israeli declaration of independence, the attackers warned Arabs living in Israel to leave because the Jews would torture and kill them and rape their women and children.

“The Israelis didn’t force the Arabs out of Israel, or bother them in any way. They invited them to stay in their homes and on their jobs and declared ‘Let no citizen dare lay a hand on Arab property.’

“When Israel was attacked, the Arab nations increased the already high level of persecution of their native Jews, who then fled. 600,000 Arabs left Israel for Arab lands and 600,000 Jews left Arab lands for Israel. It was an even swap. Israel absorbed the Arab Jews. On the other hand, the Arabs who left Israel were interned in squalid refugee camps by their host countries.

“Because of their oil, those Arab countries are far wealthier than Israel, and could afford to absorb their people better than Israel could afford to absorb the Arab Jews.

“No money from the United Nations went to Israel to defray costs of absorbing Arab Jews, but Arab refugee camps are supported by the UN. These camps are maintained for propaganda to get world sympathy for the poor suffering ‘Palestinian refugees’ who were forced off their land and are persecuted by those terrible Jews. Although some of the camps are training bases for Terrorists, they still get UN money.

“Since there never has been a State of Palestine, there are no legitimate Palestinian people. The land of Israel, including those parts of Judea and Samaria now known as ‘Occupied Territories,’ plus other parts not now in Israel’s possession, belong to the Jews.

“Since the dispersion, the population of the land of Israel has always contained some Jews. Some of them hid in caves and such like to avoid the dispersion. Others through the years kept sneaking back to the promised land, frequently under threat of death if caught.

“The Jews would turn the desert into lush farmland and then the Arabs would claim it. Whenever Arabs occupied the land, it reverted to sand and rock in less than a decade and then the Arabs moved on. Ishmael was never as smart as Isaac and always has been jealous.

“Farming in Israel made one of the biggest impressions on me. I had never seen oranges, apples and bananas growing simultaneously almost side by side. It was astonishing! Israel, if it isn’t already, will become the bread basket of Europe. The desert in Israel certainly is ‘blossoming like a rose’ (Isa. 35:1) as prophesied. When I was there you could buy the most beautiful roses for $1.50 a dozen. Can you imagine!

“The second biggest impression Israel made on me was the energy, intelligence and beauty of its youth. I saw lots of children, even visited one of the ‘Youth Towns’ for children with disadvantaged backgrounds. I had lunch with about three hundred of them 11 to 15 years old.

“I kidded with them and found they were bright and quick witted, but respectful without subservience. They have an ‘I can do it’ attitude which is even more attractive than their physical beauty. Israel will be in good hands when these young people take over.

“If you get some spare money, the Youth Towns in Israel are a good place to put it. See me later and I’ll give you an address.

“Jeremiah 16:14, 15 read like this: ‘Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be said, The Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but, the Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers.’

“I’m a student of the writings of Charles Taze Russell, better known as Pastor Russell, and wrongfully known as the founder of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Pastor Russell was an early Zionist, even before Herzl. Pastor Russell spoke and wrote over a hundred years ago that the Jews would return to the promised land after 1914 and form the Jewish State of Israel.

“He died in 1916, leaving an extensive body of writing including six volumes of the Studies in the Scriptures, countless articles, sermons and Bible study helps. His books, pamphlets, etc., were translated into almost every language on earth, with a distribution second only to the Bible itself.

“He never coined the phrase ‘Jehovah’s Witnesses’ – a sectarian name – nor had anything to do with the formation of that sect. In fact, he spoke and wrote much criticizing sectarianism.

“At his death he left countless followers and adherents who still distribute his books to this day. His headquarters, which were in Brooklyn, NY, and London, England, came under control of a group who abandoned his teachings. They adopted the name ‘Jehovah’s Witnesses’ in the 1930s.

“Pastor Russell was widely known as a friend of the Jews. In 1910 when he was invited by Jewish leaders to speak to them at the famed Hippodrome theater in New York City, over 4,000 Jews showed up to hear him. He received standing ovations.

“Pastor Russell taught, and still teaches through his writings, that the Kingdom of God on earth, when established, will be represented by the Jews in Jerusalem in the State of Israel. The nature of the Kingdom will be Israelitish.

“‘And many people 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: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.’ (Isa. 2:3)

“Here is a small book about Pastor Russell written by David Horowitz, the newspaper man I mentioned earlier. Mr. Horowitz is the Dean of the Press Corps at the United Nations. He also publishes the ‘United Israel Bulletin.’ Anyone who would like to have this book, see me later and I will get you a free copy.

“Now I’ve told you all this to explain why I wanted to visit Israel. Of course, I wanted to see the Holy Places mentioned in the Bible. And I must say it irritated me that most of these are under control of some religious sect or other and maintained as their own little Disney Worlds.

“However, I loved my trip to Israel, all three weeks of it. It’s vibrant and exciting, and I love the Jewish people even if they are ‘stiff-necked, stubborn, querulous and rebellious.’

“They don’t know a stranger and you should be careful about asking a taxi driver in Jerusalem to take you to the best place to eat, or you might wind up at his mother’s house.

“After all I’ve said, maybe it won’t surprise you when I say, ‘Don’t convert to any Christian denomination no matter what the temptation; don’t assimilate, cherish the Torah, cherish your Jewish heritage and, of course, support Israel.’

“If you’ve never visited Israel – do so. If you have visited Israel – go again. I’ll guarantee it has changed since you were there. I’m going again as soon as I can afford it. It’s a painless way to support Israel. Regardless of what you read in the newspaper and see on television, you are as safe there as you are here – maybe safer. [This was given to the synagogue April 27, 1990, but things have changed in the Middle East considerably since then.]

“And speaking of safe, fly El Al. Israel needs all the money she can get – and El Al is the world’s safest airline. Invest in Israel. Buy Israeli government bonds. The return is good and they also are safe. After all, Israel is backed by the ‘God of Abraham and Moses.”’

The Bethyam Synagogue building is only a year old, though the congregation of some 80 families was formed a number of years ago. They have a Rabbi who comes once a month and all other services are conducted by their Elders. About 85 Jews and a few nominal Christians attended the meeting and the reception was excellent. A question and answer period followed which lasted longer than the talk.

With warm Christian love to all and may the Lord continue to bless you.

            Your brother, W. D. Dunnagan (HILTON HEAD, SC)

NO. 415: IN MEMORIAM

No. 415

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

On October 31 it will be 62 years [1990 – 74 years] since our beloved Brother Russell left us, and on October 22 it will be just 28 years [1990 – 40 years] since our dear Brother Johnson joined him. All our readers who knew these brethren even passingly well know they both had superior intellects. Brother Johnson graduated from Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, with the highest honors of any one who had attended that University up to that time. He was a Greek and Hebrew scholar, was well conversant with seven languages, and in his younger days he could give an oration in Latin, which very few college professors of Latin can do. He was so well educated in Hebrew and Greek that he would quote copious sections of the King James Bible, then quote the same passages from the Hebrew or Greek, as the case might be. We were intimately acquainted with him for 27 years, although we never had the pleasure of meeting Brother Russell.

However, we did know brethren who had known him well, one of these having been his private secretary for quite some time; and a number of these told us about him within a year after he died, which somehow gives us a feeling of having known him personally. He had none of the institutional learning of Brother Johnson, but we believe that none of our readers will dispute the fact that he was an educated man. In fact, one professor of English remarked that he considered The Divine Plan of the Ages as nearly perfect in English and grammar as any book he had ever read. But his enemies often hurled the slur at him, as they did with Jesus Himself: “When He was come into His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished, and said, Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works?” (Matt. 13:54) Also, “The Jews marveled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?” (John 7:15) His memory deserves to be kept fragrant among us; and we honor his memory more by abiding in the beautiful system of truth that he left us, and by not accepting the many errors of our day – errors that set aside the fundamental truth that he established. And with this brief introduction we now proceed to a discussion of

THE LAODICEAN STAR

“One like unto the Son of Man... had in his right hand seven stars.” (Rev. 1:13–16) The Finished Mystery offered the following explanation for this text, which that book quoted from p. 345 of the 1916 Watch Tower:

“This One whom we thus know, thus recognize, as the Instructor and Caretaker of the candlesticks, we are also to recognize as having in His right hand – in His favor as well as His power – seven stars, the angels, the messengers, of the seven churches. That they are in His right hand seems to teach us that these should be considered as in some special sense under the Master’s guidance, protection and care in the interest of the Churches which they represented.” We have offered this quotation from Brother Russell because it fits exactly our own understanding of the text.

However, the book then goes on to name the “seven stars” as St. Paul, St. John, Arius, Waldo, Wycliffe, Luther and Russell. This part of the book is not from Brother Russell, but is the private interpretation of the writers of the book which we believe is contrary to sound Bible analysis. We disagree also with most of their time predictions, because time itself has demonstrated them to have been nothing more than the imagination of the writers of the book – a sure proof that they were not qualified to write the book at all. Anything they have presented which is not directly from Brother Russell should be given very careful scrutiny. As instance, they say: “The chronology as it appears in the Studies in the Scriptures is accurate.” With this statement we fully agree, but the Witnesses themselves (those claiming to be the “channel” for Divine Truth at the time they wrote the book) are now in complete disagreement with their own teaching in 1917. We simply offer these few conclusions as an introduction to our own analysis of the “seven stars,” etc.

In Rev. 12:1 it is stated that “the woman,” the true Church, “had upon her head a crown of twelve Stars.” That these “twelve stars” are the twelve Apostles needs no elaboration; but we direct attention to the fact that there is just nothing in the statement to indicate that “star differeth from star in glory” – the twelve in the picture appear as equals. And the statement by Jesus to all twelve of them confirms this: “He that heareth you, heareth Me.” (Luke 10:16) They all received the miraculous gifts of the Spirit and they all were empowered to “bind and loose” on earth as occasion might require. Therefore, if the “star” to the Church at Ephesus contained more than one individual, we should be warranted in believing the six succeeding “stars” to the other six churches of the Age would consist of more than one individual.

It is our understanding that the “seven stars” are the same as the seven “angels” (messengers) of Revelation Two and Three. They are the same as the “seven shepherds” of Micah 5:5, and they are the same as the “seven pipes” and the “seven eyes” of Zech. 4:2 and 4:10. Rev. 1:20 directly states “The seven stars are the seven angels of the seven churches.” The Bible seldom uses different words just to be different; there is usually a specific meaning in the different words used, and this seems to be true here. “Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write.” (Rev. 2:1) This might be better stated, “Unto the angel of the church for Ephesus write.” The message to be given was not for the individual benefit of the star who delivered it; it was rather for that Messenger at that particular time to deliver to the  church. As the “seven shepherds” of Micah 5:5, these same persons would guard and protect the sheep – “take heed unto all the flock, over which the Holy Spirit hath made you overseers.” (Acts 20:28) As  the “seven pipes” of Zech. 4:2 they were the channel through which the Holy Spirit was administered to the  Church; and as the “seven eyes” they were God’s watchmen – “I have made thee a watchman unto the  house of Israel” (Ezek. 3:17), “The watchmen shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion.” (Isa. 52:8)

As the “seven stars” those shepherds not only gave enlightenment to the Church during the night of sin and death, but they also gave a measure of light to the Christian world in general – “you appear as luminaries in the world.” (Phil. 2:15, Dia.). Some of these “luminaries” such as the Apostles, Martin  Luther, John Wesley, and a few others, stand out prominently in the pages of history; but many of  them have received only passing notice in the records.

We instance particularly Arius, of whom many in the Christian world have never heard at all; yet  he is probably one of the very brightest of them all, aside from the Apostles. We give just one  example: When he was at the Council of Nice in 325 defending the Truth that there is but “one God,”  he was overwhelmingly out-numbered by the bishops assembled from the then Christian world. Yet  one of those opposing him shouted forth during the heated debate: “This man has the populace so  stirred up that if you go into a store and ask the price of bread, the answer you get back from the clerk  is, ‘The Father is superior to the Son; the Son is inferior to the Father.”’ While there is little mention made of him today, it is clear enough that Arius was “a burning and shining light,” a true “luminary” in 325. This, and similar incidents concerning the other “stars” give us a more vivid conception of Jesus’ words concerning all the fully faithful – “Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father.” (Matt. 13:43) Eventually, when the lives and works of such “stars” are skillfully written by capable writers during the Kingdom reign, we can see how the words of Jesus will then be fully understood and appreciated. But considering now the Laodicean Star, it is our understanding it contained two members, the first of whom we discuss as: 

THE PAROUSIA MESSENGER

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

It is pertinent to our subject to consider here Micah 5:5, as it pertains to Brother Russell: “When the Assyrian shall come into our land [The Assyrians were a very warlike and destructive people, well portraying the errorists of this Gospel Age]: and when he shall tread in our palaces [by devastating the Truth and the Spirit of the Truth among God’s true people], then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men.” The fact that there are “eight principal men” among the “seven shepherds” is additional proof that the seven shepherds were composite groups, and not seven individuals.

If we view the Bible as the origin of all spiritual Truth, then we must admit that it came first of all; but, if we consider those who have vitiated its teachings (the antitypical Assyrians – the errorists), then it is clear that the error came first, with the Lord sending deliverance through His stars, angels (messengers), eyes, shepherds and eight principal men – who have “wasted the land of Assyria with the sword,” (Micah 5:6) the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of Truth. If we consider Brother Russell as the seventh one of those eight principal men to appear on the Gospel-Age stream of time, all of us who are familiar with his teachings must admit that he did wield the “sword of the spirit” most mightily against the accumulated errors of the past.

It had been prophetically stated of him – “I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations” (Jer. 1:5); and his true calculation of the chronology, with 1914 as the end of the Gentile Times, put the finger of identification upon him as a prophet who had spoken in the name of the Lord. He had predicted the outbreak of a world war by the fall of 1914; and this had received much ridicule from his enemies, who had contended that civilization had advanced much too far to allow of such a conflict. We have been told that when the Gideon’s had their convention in Toronto in 1913 they there openly stated that such an expectation was simply beyond belief, what with the advances in science, medicine, art and culture that had been experienced in this generation. But when the war came exactly on time many of his critics openly confessed that he had indeed spoken the truth, and should receive due recognition for it.

But we here consider mainly two of his teachings that still vitally concern us Tabernacle Shadows and his refutation of Combinationism as it appeared in the Chicago Parliament of World Religions in 1893. When the Parousia Messenger began his ministry, the erroneous doctrine of eternal torment as the wages of sin was so deeply entrenched that it was generally considered sacrilege to gainsay it. Many were the prominent and forceful orators who appeared as evangelists in their crusades to save the poor sinner from such an awful fate, so that Brother Russell was faced with what seemed an impossible assignment. This is so graphically revealed in Judges 6:5 and 7:12: “The Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the seaside for multitude.”

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

He kept steadfastly at the subject and its pertinent errors, so that he was able to see certain victory ahead by the time he had finished his ministry. By 1916 it was considered by many intellectuals as a distinct mark of ignorance on the part of those who still regarded eternal torment as the wages of sin. This is probably best stated by repeating what Pilgrim Brother Sidney Morton once told us: He was spending some time at Bethel, as all the pilgrims  occasionally did. Brother Russell wanted all the brethren to keep abreast of current events, so he appointed two or three to peruse the leading newspapers each day, and give a resume at the dining room table. This saved the remaining brethren from spending valuable time with the newspapers. On one occasion one of the reviewers began to read:

There is a man in our town

Who thinks he’s wondrous wise;

He fell into a bramble bush

That put out both his eyes.

There were several more similar stanzas, and Brother Russell was beginning to show his annoyance at what seemed to be pretty much on the vaudeville side of things, when the final lines were read:

There is a man in our town

Whose name I need not tell;

I’m sure you all must know him,

For he put the fires out of Hell.

Certainly Brother Russell was the “principal man” of God’s Household in his day; he was the “angel” (messenger) to the Church in Laodicea. He had a message to deliver and he delivered it with telling force – until the very day his Great Captain finally said to him, “It is enough!” But his ministry brought upon him the most vicious attacks from the brightest lights of Satan, and they were legion. When they could not gainsay or resist the Truth he preached, they devised the most vicious sort of slander against him – he was grossly immoral, a thing he could deny,  but he could not disprove. The human mind being as it is today, the advantage was with the slanderers. Many were ready enough to believe the evil side of things. Others referred to him as “That braying Balaam’s Ass!” Here was indeed the antitype of Jeremiah’s being “let down in the dungeon ... where there was no water [truth], but mire [filthy  words].” (Jer. 38:6) All this he took in stride, being mindful of Jesus’ words: “It is enough for the disciple that he be as his Master, and the servant as his Lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of His Household?” (Matt. 10:25) The Lord Himself had called him “blessed”; and this more than compensated for the slanders hurled at him by “the workers of iniquity.” (Psa. 37:1)

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

Combinationism is Scriptural fornication – a combining of forbidden things. It finds its type in Num. 25:1-18, where some of the Jews were engaging in illicit union with the heathen round about in direct violation of the sixth Commandment. St. Paul pinpoints this situation in 1 Cor. 10:8: “Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them  committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.” And in v. 11 he states that those things happened to them “as types” and “are written for our [special] admonition and learning, upon whom the ends of the Ages are come.” We are in the closing “end” of the Gospel Age and the opening “end” of the Millennial Age (the “ends” of the Ages). But it was in the closing of the Jewish Age and the beginning of the Gospel Age when Paul wrote about it. 

Brother Russell was rigidly opposed to Combinationism, and he made his stand known in no uncertain terms. In this he is individually typed by Phinehas (Num. 25:7, 8), who was the chief underpriest at that time. Certainly, those of us who are familiar with the history of the Harvest will offer no argument against the conclusion that Brother Russell was decidedly the chief underpriest in God’s Household during his ministry. Phinehas means “brazen mouth,” and those of us who know the record know there was never any compromise of principles by Brother Russell. It was his unyielding stand against the Combinationist sifters that revealed him as “That Servant” of Matt. 24:46 for the first time to the brethren generally. For his uncompromising adherence to the “rules” many today still pray, “God bless his memory.” But this becomes only an empty and meaningless expression if we fail to follow the grand ideals he left. He was indeed that wonderful “man of God” – of and to the believers. And with Combinationism everywhere rampant today, we do well to take heed to ourselves lest we also fall under its deceptive lures.

To start from nothing against tremendous odds – as evidence the case of Gideon with his 300 – and to achieve the success he did, required remarkable ability. It could be said of him that he was versatile, efficient and immensely capable in whatever manner he applied himself. One outstanding business man once remarked that his services would be worth $2,000,000 per year to any corporation large enough to afford that kind of help. Another man once remarked to him, “Pastor Russell, you have put the standard of Christian living entirely too high.” His answer – “I didn’t put it there, Brother; the Lord did!”

While his great ability was essential to his ministry, another item contributed much to his success. When he appeared upon the scene there were many in the various systems who were longing for reform – “men in the midst of the City who sigh and cry for all the abominations that be done there.” (Ezek. 9:4) Thus, there were some who were not only ready to hear him, but they also joined enthusiastically with him in the work. Over a period of time he attracted to himself quite a number of the best minds in Christendom, and it is elemental to the success of any enterprise that its organizer surround himself with capable assistants. This That Servant did; and, following St. Paul’s counsel to “prefer one another in honor,” (Rom. 12:10) he freely delegated authority to any who showed the capacity to act accordingly. In this also he was a noble “example of the believers.” But he continued only to promote them so long as they also were uncompromising to principle and fundamental doctrines of the Bible. All during his ministry his shibboleth was, “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” (Rev. 18:4) He was a determined and unyielding foe to Combinationism to the end of his ministry.

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

He was engaged in “the good fight” until the very day he died, and it could be said of him as one historian wrote about Martin Luther: He fell peacefully asleep in Jesus. “Them that honor Me, I will honor, saith the Lord” (1 Sam. 2:30); and the Lord did honor him greatly. And if we wish to honor him, we can do so in no better way than to adhere to and uphold that Truth that was so dear to him. As Jesus said of Himself: “He who has my commandments [the Truth], and observes them, that is he who loves Me.” (John 14:21, Dia.) It is our hope and prayer that this brief review may prove a rich blessing to all our readers as we approach now the 62nd [74th in 1990] anniversary of That Servant’s death.

THE EPIPHANY MESSENGER

The second member of the Laodicean Star was Brother Paul S. L. Johnson, whom we style the Epiphany  Messenger because he clarified the Epiphany as an act and as a period of time in a manner never before done by any one else, so far as we know. He clearly demonstrated from the Scriptures that the Epiphany would follow the small Parousia, and would be the last period of the Gospel Age. This special period would manifest persons, principles and things with a brilliance before unknown. Of course, That Servant had predicted there would be an Epiphany following the small Parousia, which would begin when the Time of Trouble would begin (See Reprint p. 2979 and Pastor Russell’s Sermons, p. 420) – but he gave no elaborate details about it, although what he did say formed the foundation for what the Epiphany Messenger wrote about it.

While the Greek Epiphaneia occurs six times in the New Testament, we here select only two texts as pointedly pertinent to our present discussion. In 2 Tim. 4:1 it is stated that “the Lord Jesus Christ shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom.” The general concept throughout Christendom is that the “quick” in this text means those human beings still alive, and the “dead” are those in the tomb; but That Servant properly defined these classes as those quickened by the Holy Spirit and the fallen angels, with the dead including all other human beings – whether in the tomb or out of it; that is, those “dead in trespasses and sins.” “God hath appointed a day in the which He will judge the [dead] world,” (Acts 17:31) that “day” being the 1000-year day of His reign. That time was future when Paul wrote, and is still future for the great mass of persons, although the foundation for its operation began to be laid in 1874. But “the quick” were to be judged in His Epiphaneia. Thus, the text would be more clearly expressed in this manner: He shall judge the quick at His Epiphaneia, and the dead at His Basileia (Kingdom).

The various features of these great accomplishments by the Lord were given in lucid detail by the Epiphany Messenger. And the second text to have our attention is 2 Thes. 2:8 (Diaglott): “Then will be revealed the lawless one (whom the Lord Jesus will consume with the breath of His mouth, and annihilate by the appearing of His presence).” “The appearing of His presence” is literally, “the Epiphaneia of His Parousia.” The Epiphaneia (bright shining as an act and as a period of time) has been gradually eroding the very foundation stones of the Man of Sin’s [Papacy’s] structure, until today it is visibly falling over. But it has not yet fully done so, so we have here a sure proof that we must yet be in the Epiphany, and that this period will continue until the “annihilation” is fully accomplished. This feat is much nearer than many suppose, and it is our intention to say much more about it in the  near future.

Another feature of this period would, according to That Servant, be to reveal those who have built their “house upon the Rock” and those who have built their “house upon the sand.” (Luke 6:48, 49) So long as this revealing has not yet been fully accomplished, we have here another proof that we must now still be in the Epiphany. But the Epiphany is definitely a time of separating and a time of combining. Of His Parousia our Lord had foretold: “In the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares [combine them], and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.” (Matt. 13:30) Clearly enough, from this text Combinationism would be rampant before the harvest had been completed; and it offers explanation as to why both members of the Laodicean Star were so emphatic in their denunciation of it, and their warning for the faithful to have none of it.

The Epiphany Messenger had emphasized that the Gospel Age would be repeated here in the Epiphany on a small scale insofar as the Truth is concerned. The chief culprit of the Gospel Age in overthrowing the Truth has been the Man of Sin [Papacy] – that system having perverted or counterfeited every important feature of the Great Plan of the Ages. And in this Epiphany the Little Man of Sin (the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the self-styled “Channel”) has done the same thing with many important features of the Harvest Truth. Most of our readers know too, how determined was the Epiphany Messenger in exposing the errors of JFR and his cohorts in the Society.

Tabernacle Shadows was basic for a proper understanding of the Harvest Truth, and Brother Russell himself said that the Six Volumes of Studies in the Scriptures all had their origin in that book. The Epiphany Messenger elaborated considerably on that contention, and emphasized that every important feature of God’s Plan was revealed in the typical Tabernacle that Moses constructed. But hardly had That Servant been buried before the Society editors began to demolish the Tabernacle teachings, which brought forth determined exposures by the Epiphany Messenger – so much so that they eventually abandoned the Tabernacle completely. The heat of exposure became more than they could bear. The Epiphany Messenger contended, very logically, that if Tabernacle Shadows was basic for the Parousia Truth, it must also be basic for the Epiphany Truth. It was the foundation stones, and any superstructure must therefore be built upon that solid foundation.

Thus, it became his privilege, and duty, to defend almost every feature of the Harvest Truth – just as the Gospel-Age reformers were compelled to defend every feature of God’s Plan against the encroaching errors of the Man of Sin. This embroiled all of them in constant warfare – even as their Captain had also been involved in much controversy during His 3½-year stay on earth. This caused resentment on the part of many who had once been his bosom brethren, and “they walked with him no more.” (John 6:66) And many of those who resented him became ready candidates for the evil of Combinationism.

Combinationism is an illicit union or cooperation of God’s people with persons, principles, things and practices not fully approved by God. Examples of it are evident in the union of church and state (probably the worst form of it), of denominations with denominations, of Christian people with religio-secret-societies, of Christendom generally with heathenism. Of all the movements that originated from the Parousia Messenger’s organization, the Jehovah’s Witnesses have been among the most rigid against actually combining with other movements, but they have also been probably the most remiss of all of them in adopting the methods of those people they studiously avoid in actual contact.

After the death of Pastor Russell, J. F. Rutherford decided to “modernize” the organization Pastor Russell had formed, and he introduced a sales campaign to distribute their literature after the same pattern used by business organizations to sell their products. Lest we be misunderstood, we find no fault with secular businesses using their advertising and sales ingenuity to dispose of their wares – so long as they adhere to the truth. But the use of such methods to disseminate Christian principles, literature, etc., is violently contrary to the high ideals given by Jesus in the fifth, sixth and seventh chapters of Matthew. Nor would the Parousia Messenger adopt their technique. But JFR had some seasoned business salesmen in his group, and these he persuaded to go from city to city to teach their sales technique toward the sale of his literature. The ideals of his adherents immediately began to decline – until now the high ideals of the Parousia Messenger, based upon sound Bible principles, are almost gone from this group.

In a very short time the Epiphany Messenger – who had a strong love for the Parousia Messenger and the ideals he had established – saw the trend of things, and objected so strenuously that a complete and irreparable  separation resulted within a matter of months. Others joined themselves to him through the same motives – although the great majority, many of them not too well grounded in the Parousia Truth, remained with the Society. And in a very few years those who remained were so engulfed with the spirit of Combinationism in practice that the Parousia ideals were a lost asset. We ourselves say, God bless the memory of both Messengers, as we seek to “continue in the things we have learned” (2 Tim. 3:14) from both of them; and we abide in the conclusion of Solomon: “Better is a dry morsel, and quietness therewith, than an house full of sacrifices with strife.” (Prov. 17:1)

A fitting conclusion to the foregoing is to be found in Parousia Vol. 6, p. 658: “The Sword of the Spirit – the Word of God – is the only offensive armor of the Lord’s little band. The Captain prevailed in His ‘good fight’ against the Adversary, saying, ‘It is written’; and this is the battle-cry of His followers. Others than the true soldiers have fought for the Lord with carnal weapons, and with human philosophies and worldly wisdom and organization [the methods used by the Society], and decrees of councils and synods and presbyteries, but we must depend in the struggle of this ‘evil day’ upon the Word of God – ‘It is written!’ We must use no darts like Satan’s – anger, malice, hatred, strife. And ‘the sword of the Spirit’ can only be possessed by careful study and leading of the Spirit after consecration, after enlistment in this army.” And to the foregoing we would add another paragraph from Parousia Vol. 2, p. 361:

“We desire again to impress our readers with the fact that Papacy is the Antichrist, not because of its moral obliquity, but because it is the counterfeit of the true Christ and the true Kingdom. It is because of a failure to realize this fact that many Protestants will be deceived into co-operation with Papacy in opposition to the true King of Glory.”

The above was written over one hundred years ago, but it has the ring of yesterday; and persuades us all the more in our conviction that the Parousia Messenger was indeed “the prophet unto the nations,” and that he was That  Wise and Faithful Servant of Matt. 24:45. It should also now be given its true evaluation by all who “have an ear, let him hear what the spirit saith unto the Church” (Rev. 2:17) at this very time, and to avoid Combinationism for the evil that it is – lest we “receive of her plagues.”

“We are a sweet odor of Christ to God... not like the many, which adulterate and negotiate the Word of God for their own lucre and advantage; but really from sincerity, and as from God, in the presence of God, we speak concerning Christ.” (2 Cor. 2:15-17, Diaglott footnote)

Sincerely your brother, John J. Hoefle, Pilgrim

(Reprint No. 280, October 1978)

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JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES

The March 15, 1990 Watchtower, page 14, col. 2, par. 1, says that Matt. 24:46, 47 applies to their “slaves” and Governing Body. The Witnesses select texts and indiscriminately apply them to themselves, as they have done with Matt. 24:46, 47 and also their Comments on Revelation, a recent publication. These texts apply to an individual, and have no application to an organization or group of people. God appointed the Reformers during the Gospel Age to give the Truth due in their day, which was later perverted into sectarian organizations. After Brother Russell’s demise his organization was illegally seized and later the Truths he taught were perverted into a sectarian organization – now known as Jehovah’s Witnesses, a sectarian name.

Shortly after the demise of Pastor Russell, J. F. Rutherford extolled and lauded him profusely, and truthfully referred to him as That Servant of Matt. 24:46, 47. Brother Russell gave us the Truth on God’s Plan of Salvation for all mankind as no man has given since the days of the Apostles. It was “due time” for these truths to be revealed.

Gross error, like lies, if said loud enough and long enough, will be believed by many. Hitler and Papacy are examples of such lies and errors. The Witnesses (a counterpart of Papacy) is another example. “The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ... should shine unto them.” (2 Cor. 4:4) The Witnesses have a lot of these blind people in their organization.

In Christ’s Kingdom a “pure language” (Zeph. 3:9) will be turned over to the people. Satan will be cast “into the bottomless pit” where he can no longer deceive the people. (Rev. 20:3) The Witnesses pass judgment on the people today when the majority of the world is blinded by Satan. But in Christ’s Kingdom He will judge the world in righteousness (Acts 17:31). The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord (Isa. 11:9). “When thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.” (Isa. 26:9) The Witnesses pronounce dire consequences upon the unbelievers of their teaching. But in Christ’s Kingdom, He “has concluded them all in unbelief [including the Witnesses], that he might have mercy upon all.” (Rom. 11:32) People will not “endure sound doctrine” today. People will accept any hocus-pocus rather than the Truth. God “will have all men to be saved [from the Adamic death], and come to a knowledge of the truth [in the Kingdom].” (1 Tim. 2:4)

NO. 414: A MAGNIFICENT TYPE – Part Three

No. 414

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

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. This 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 and the overthrow of Satan’s empire in all its parts. These teachings were based on a clear understanding of God’s perfect attributes of Love, Wisdom, Justice and Power. The opposing errors on these subjects were refuted 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, the consciousness of the dead, an unclear definition of the judgment day, etc. The truth on these subjects was vigorously disputed by most of the clergy, the politicians and aristocrats. Especially was this true as respects the doctrine of eternal torment as the wages of sin, despite the plain statement in Romans 6:23, “The wages of sin is death.” 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 love, wisdom, justice and power 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 shine 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 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, and 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.” (Eccl. 7:12)

“Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest.” (Joshua 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 Gal 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.

Pharaoh charged Moses and Aaron with using “vain words” (Ex. 5:9) – 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, who then immediately raised 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. [In May gold was over $350 an ounce.] 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! “There shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more.” (Ex. 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 was 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.” (Ex. 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” (Ex. 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, sent 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. They 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 cloth 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 down” – Ex. 11:8), as a 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 four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the Lord went out from 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; to go by 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 fore gleam 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 shine hand over the sea and divide it: and the children of Israel 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 that I am the Lord.” (Ex. 14: 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, Ex. 14:19 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 crave them heavily.”

“The Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out shine 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.” (Ex. 14:26-28) 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 41. 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 Peter 2:9; 1 John 4:18. It is derived from kolazoo, which signifies, 1. To cut off; as lopping off branches of trees, to prune, 2. To restrain, to repress. The Greeks write ‘The charioteer [kalazei] restrains his fiery steeds.’ 3. 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 (Ex. 14:28) 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.” (Ex. 14:31) 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. As Moses led Israel from bondage in Egypt, our Lord (antitypical Moses) leads His people from the 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.” (Rom. 6:23) 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 cloth 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 love, wisdom, justice and power. “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

(Reprint No. 269, November 1977)

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LETTER OF GENERAL INTEREST

Dear Sister Emily,

Thanks for your letter, the copy of the UIWU Bulletin, etc. I’m looking forward to the time when the other copies of your past issues will be available... Here is an idea ... You could send me the articles and I would make as many copies of each missing issues as you need.

There is no doubt in my mind that the door to the High Calling closed in 1914, and that there are certain consecrators in the so-called “interim period” who are Youthful Worthies or Modern Worthies, as well as others who are of no elect class, but simply find themselves among Bible Students by inheritance or some other combination of reasons. ... I have met with other groups. They don’t usually want to hear anything about Epiphany truth. But many of them are still good friends of mine... I will meet with them at my own discretion, and I will maintain correspondence and relationship only with individuals who are broad-minded and have a generous spirit... If someone wants to know what I think then I will tell them. But I won’t force it upon them. I tried it a couple of times and it doesn’t work. Each one needs to be convinced in their own minds.

It will probably surprise you, but right now I am meeting with the local Jehovah’s Witnesses. Not because I agree with them, as I’m not studying with them, but rather I am studying them. They think I am a beginner and don’t realize that I actually know more than they do... Just upon first reading some of their material and by reading between the lines their errors are quite apparent.

Well, that’s about it for today. Best wishes for your welfare, both physically and spiritually.

Sincerely your brother ------- (MICHIGAN)

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MOSES THE SERVANT OF GOD

By Nebo’s lonely mountain,

On this side Jordan’s wave,

In a vale in the land of Moab

There lies a lonely grave;

And no man knows that sepulcher

And no man saw it e’er;

For the angels of God upturned the sod

And laid the dead man there.

That was the grandest funeral

That ever passed on earth;

But no man heard the trampling,

Or saw the train go forth;

Noiselessly as the daylight

Comes when the night is done,

And the crimson streak on ocean’s cheek

Grows into the great sun.

Noiselessly as the springtime

Her crown of verdure weaves,

And all the trees on all the hills

Open their thousand leaves;

So without sound of music,

Or voice of them that wept,

Silently down from the mountain’s crown

The great procession swept.

Perchance the bald old eagle

On great Beth–Peor’s height,

Out of his lonely eyrie

Looked on the wondrous sight;

Perchance the lion stalking,

Still shuns that hallowed spot;

For beast and bird have seen and heard

That which man knoweth not.

But, when the warrior dieth,

His comrades in the war,

With arms reversed and muffled drums

Follow his funeral car;

They show the banners taken,

They tell his battles won,

And after him lead his masterless steed,

While peals the minute gun.

Amid the noblest of the land

We lay the sage to rest,

And give the bard an honored place,

That ever breathed a word;

And never earth’s philosopher traced,

With his golden pen,

On the deathless page, truths half so sage

As he wrote down for men.

And had he not high honor?

The hillside for a pall!

To lie in state, while angels wait,

With stars for tapers tall,

With costly marble dressed,

In the great ministering transept

Where lights like glories fall,

And the seated choir sings,

And the organ rings

Along the emblazoned wall.

This was the truest warrior

That ever buckled sword;

This the most gifted poet

And dark rough pines like tossing plumes,

Over his bier to wave,

And God’s own hand,

In that lonely land,

To lay him in the grave.

In that strange grave without a name,

Whence his uncoffined clay

Shall break again – O wondrous thought!

Before the Judgment Day,

And stand, with glory wrapped around,

On the hills he never trod,

And speak of the strife that won our life

With the carnate son of God.

O lonely grave in Moab’s land!

O dark Beth-Peor’s hill!

Speak to these curious hearts of ours,

And teach them to be still.

God hath his mysteries to grace,

Ways that we cannot tell,

He hides them deep like the hidden sleep

Of him he loved so well.

NO. 413: A MAGNIFICENT TYPE – Part Two

No. 413

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

In our paper No. 412 we offered brief discussion leading up to the Passover, but we now go back to some of the things preceding that great event. The arrival of Moses in Egypt, when he was eighty years old, types Jesus returning at His Second Advent – to deliver first of all His faithful followers from antitypical Egypt; and the arrival of Aaron with Moses types the faithful followers of Jesus at the Second Advent in their capacity of mouthpieceship for Jesus. Knowing as we do that “the Lord is that spirit” (2 Cor. 3:17), it becomes readily apparent that He would speak through human agencies upon His return to earth; and in due course “That Servant” was maneuvered into the position of spokesman to declare the purposes of that return.

This is typically set forth beginning with chapter five of Exodus; and, since type and antitype must correspond in every detail, we should expect to glean a wealth of understanding from the things done typically by Moses and Aaron. Moses and Aaron went first to the elders of Israel to inform them that “the Lord had looked upon their affliction” (Ex. 4:31), which typified that the Church’s first work at the Second Advent would be with the leaders of the Church. The first public work done in the Parousia was the cry, “Behold the bridegroom” (Matt. 25:6) – from 1877 to 1878. In a literary way this was done through the magazine, The Herald of the Morning, by the small book, The Three Worlds, and with the tract, The Object and Manner of our Lord’s Return. All of these writings were augmented by public lectures, the literature being circulated by pilgrim speakers and by volunteers.

It was further greatly enhanced by gaining an understanding of the sixteenth chapter of Leviticus. The unfolding of this great type at first staggered even Bro. Russell, so he called together the leading lights of the time who discussed the interpretation for eight days, at the end of which time, having been unable to find any flaws in it, they put their stamp of approval on it and began to circulate it among the brethren. Pharaoh’s defiance of Moses – “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice?” (Ex. 5: 2) – typifies the attitude of the leaders in Great Babylon in refusing to accept the truths contained in those publications.

MOSES THE EMANCIPATOR

Inasmuch as Moses is the outstanding man in liberating the Jews from Egyptian slavery, it would seem in order here to offer some detail about this remarkable, ingenious and magnetic personality – details which may be gleaned from secular writings, but not found in the Bible.

The Bible does tell us that the baby Moses was rescued from the River Nile by Pharaoh’s daughter, but it is for the historian Josephus to tell us that her name was Thermuthis, and we quote from him further on the subject:

“Thermuthis was the king’s daughter. She was now diverting herself by the banks of the river; and seeing a cradle borne along by the current, she sent some that could swim, and bid them bring the cradle to her. When those that were sent on this errand came to her with the cradle, and she saw the little child, she was greatly in love with it, on account of its largeness and beauty; for God had taken such great care in the formation of Moses, that he caused him to be thought worthy of bringing up, and providing for, by all those that had taken the most fatal resolutions, on account of the dread of his nativity, for the destruction of the rest of the Hebrew nation. Thermuthis bid them to bring her a woman that might afford her breast to the child; yet would not the child admit of her breast, but turned away from it, and did the like to many other women.

“Now Miriam was by when this happened, not to appear to be there on purpose, but only as staying to see the child; and she said, ‘It is in vain that thou, O Queen, callest for these women for the nourishing of the child, who are no way of kin to it; but still, if thou wilt order one of the Hebrew women to be brought, perhaps it may admit the breast of one of its own nation.’ Now since she seemed to speak well, Thermuthis bid her procure such a one, and to bring one of those Hebrew women that gave suck. So when she had such authority given her, she came back and brought the mother, who was known to nobody there. And now the child gladly admitted the breast, and seemed to stick close to it; and so it was, that, at the queen’s desire, the nursing of the child was entirely entrusted to the mother.

“Hereupon it was that Thermuthis imposed this name Mouses upon him, from what had happened when he was put into the river; for the Egyptians call water by the name of Mo, and such as are saved out of it by the name of Uses; so by putting these two words together, they imposed this name upon him; and he was, by the confession of all, according to God’s prediction, as well for his greatness of mind as for his contempt of difficulties, the best of all the Hebrews; for Abraham was his ancestor, of the seventh generation. For Moses was the son of Amram, who was the son of Caath, whose father, Levi, was the son of Jacob, who was the son of Isaac, who was the son of Abraham.

“Now Moses’ understanding became superior to his age, nay, far beyond that standard; and when he was taught, he discovered greater quickness of apprehension than was usual at his age; and his actions at that time promised greater, when he should come to the age of a man. God did also give him that tallness, when he was but three years old, as was wonderful; and for his beauty, there was nobody so unpolite as, when they saw Moses, they were not greatly surprised at the beauty of his countenance; nay, it happened frequently, that those that met him as he was carried along the road, were obliged to turn again upon seeing the child, that they left what they were about, and stood still a great while to look on him; for the beauty of the child was so remarkable and natural to him on many accounts, that it detained the spectators, and made them stay longer to look upon him.

“Thermuthis, therefore, perceiving him to be so remarkable a child, adopted him for her son, having no child of her own. And when one time she had carried Moses to her father, and said she thought to make him her father’s successor, if it should please God she should have no legitimate child of her own; and said to him, ‘I have brought up a child who is of a divine form [“Moses was exceeding fair” – Acts 7:20], and of a generous mind; and as I have received him from the bounty of the river, in a wonderful manner, I thought proper to adopt him for my son, and the heir of thy kingdom.’ And when she said this, she put the infant into her father’s hands: so he took him, and hugged him close to his breast; and on his daughter’s account, and in a pleasant way, put his diadem upon his head; but Moses threw it down to the ground, and in a puerile mood, he wreathed it round, and trod upon it with his feet; which seemed to bring along with it an evil presage concerning the kingdom of Egypt.

“But when the sacred scribe saw this (he was the same person who foretold that his nativity would bring the dominion of that kingdom low), he made a violent attempt to kill him: and crying out in a frightful manner, he said, ‘This, O King! this child is he of whom God foretold, that if we kill him we shall be in no danger; he himself affords an attestation to the prediction of the same thing, by his trampling upon thy government, and treading upon thy diadem. Take him, therefore, out of the way, and deliver the Egyptians from the fear they are in about him; and deprive the Hebrews of the hope they have of being encouraged by him.’ But Thermuthis prevented him, and snatched the child away. And the king was not hasty to slay him, God himself, whose providence protected Moses, inclining the king to spare him. He was, therefore, educated with great care. So the Hebrews depended on him, and were of good hopes that great things would be done by him; but the Egyptians were suspicious of what would follow such his education. Yet because, if Moses had been slain, there was no one, either akin or adopted, that had any oracle on his side for pretending to the crown of Egypt, and likely to be of greater advantage to them, they abstained from killing him.

“War With The Ethiopians – Moses, therefore, when he was born, and brought up in the foregoing manner, came to age of maturity, made his virtue manifest to the Egyptians; and shewed that he was born for the bringing them down, and raising the Israelites; and the occasion he laid hold of was this: The Ethiopians, who are next neighbors to the Egyptians, made an inroad into their country, which they seized upon, and carried off the effects of the Egyptians, who in their rage, fought against them, and revenged the affronts they had received from them; but being overcome in battle, some of them were slain, and the rest ran away in a shameful manner, and by that means saved themselves; whereupon the Ethiopians followed after them in the pursuit; and thinking that it would be a mark of cowardice if they did not subdue all Egypt, they went on to subdue the rest with greater vehemence; and when they had tasted the sweets of the country, they never left off the prosecution of the war; and as the nearest parts had not courage enough at first to fight with them, they proceeded as far as Memphis, and the sea itself; while not one of the cities was able to oppose them.

“The Egyptians, under this sad oppression, betook themselves to their oracles and prophecies; and when God had given them this counsel, to make use of Moses the Hebrew and take his assistance, the king commanded his daughter to produce him, that he might be the general of their army. Upon which, when she had made him swear that he would do him no harm, she delivered him to the king, and supposed his assistance would be of great advantage to them. She withal reproached the priest, who, when they had before admonished the Egyptians to kill him, was not ashamed now to own their want of his help.

“So Moses, at the persuasion both of Thermuthis and the king himself, cheerfully undertook the business: and the sacred scribes of both nations were glad; those of the Egyptians, that they should at once overcome their enemies by his valor, and that by the same piece of management Moses would be slain; but those of the Hebrews, that they should escape from the Egyptians, because Moses was to be their general; but Moses prevented the enemies, and took and led his army before those enemies were apprised of his attacking them; for he did not march by the river, but by land, where he gave a wonderful demonstration of his sagacity; for when the ground was difficult to be passed over, because of the multitude of serpents (which it produces in vast numbers, and indeed is singular in some of those productions, which other countries do not breed, and yet such as are worse than others in power and mischief, and an unusual fierceness of sight, some of which ascend out of the ground unseen, and also fly in the air, and so come upon men unawares, and do them a mischief), Moses invented a wonderful stratagem to preserve the army safe, and without hurt; for he made baskets, like unto arks, of sedge, and filled them with ibis, and carried them along with them; which animal is the greatest enemy to serpents imaginable, for they fly from them when they come near them; and as they fly they are caught and devoured by them, as if it were done by the harts; but the ibis are tame creatures, and only enemies to the serpentine kind: but about these ibis I say no more at present, since the Greeks themselves are not unacquainted with this sort of bird.

“As soon, therefore, as Moses was come to the land which was the breeder of these serpents, he let loose the ibis, and by their means repelled the serpentine kind, and used them for his assistants before the army came upon that ground. When he had therefore proceeded thus on his journey, he came upon the Ethiopians before they expected him; and, joining battle with them, he beat them, and deprived them of the hopes they had of success against the Egyptians, and went on in overthrowing their cities, and indeed made a great slaughter of these Ethiopians. Now when the Egyptian army had once tasted of this prosperous success, by the means of Moses, they did not slacken their diligence, insomuch that the Ethiopians were in danger of being reduced to slavery, and all sorts of destruction; and at length they retired to Saba, which was a royal city of Ethiopia, which Cambyses afterward named Meroe, after the name of his own sister.

“However, while Moses was uneasy at the army’s lying idle (for the enemies durst not come to battle), this accident happened: Tharbis was the daughter of the king of the Ethiopians: she happened to see Moses as he led the army near the walls, and fought with great courage; and admiring the subtlety of his undertakings, and believing him to be the author of the Egyptians’ success, when they had before despaired of recovering their liberty, and to be the occasion of the great danger the Ethiopians were in, when they had before boasted of their great achievements, she fell deeply in love with him; and upon the prevalency of that passion, sent to him the most faithful of all her servants to discourse with him about their marriage. He thereupon accepted the offer, on condition she would procure the delivering up of the city; and gave her the assurance of an oath to take her to his wife; and that when he had once taken possession of the city, he would not break his oath to her. No sooner was the agreement made, but it took effect immediately; and when Moses had cut off the Ethiopians, he gave thanks to God, and consummated his marriage, and led the Egyptians back to their own land.”

Josephus has much more to say about Moses, but we leave him now to offer some comments from other capable writers, but we note here that one very prominent commentator refers to him as “this murderer” (presumably because he slew an Egyptian and had to flee to Midian – Ex. 2:15); and the two words we have quoted herein are all we shall offer from that particular source of information, the same undoubtedly being a higher critic.

It is recorded in the last chapter of Josephus above that he relates the marriage of Moses to the Ethiopian princess Tharbis. The Bible is entirely silent about this, except that it does tell us in the twelfth chapter of Numbers that Moses had an Ethiopian woman for his wife. However, both Brother Russell and Brother Johnson are also silent on this subject, although they both had considerable respect for the general content of the historian’s writings, yet they did not consider his dates reliable. We shall not attempt to analyze this tale, except to suggest that we do not have enough information, in our opinion, to state it as a fact.

Following are some comments by Doctor John D. Davis and Doctor Henry Snyder Gehman, who corroborate Josephus in much of what we have copied from him – although they omit much of the enlightening information quoted above:

“The adopted son of a princess required a princely education, and Moses became instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians (Acts 7:22), who were then unsurpassed in civilization by any people in the world. This was to fit him for the high office under the government, if not even for the Egyptian throne. But in God’s intention it was to prepare him for the leadership of the Hebrews. He was possessed of great natural ability, and the training which he received schooled him for the great work for which he was destined. He became familiar with court life and intercourse with princes, with the grandeur and pomp of religious worship and with ritualistic conventionalities and symbolism, with letters and the literary ideas of the time. He witnessed the administration of justice, and he acquired a general acquaintance with the arts which were practiced in civilized life. He remembered, however, his origin, believed the promises which had been made to the Hebrew people, and before the close of his sojourn in Egypt he had discovered the call of God to him to be the judge and deliverer of the Israelites.

“He fled from Egypt to the land of Midian... became intimately associated with a people who were descended from Abraham and perhaps worshiped the God of Abraham. (See Ex. 18:10-12) This period was likewise a time of preparation. He enjoyed close fellowship with a leading man of the Midianites, a man of sound judgment (Ex. 18), and a priest. Here Moses widened his acquaintance with religious thought and forms of worship. He learned the roads of the wilderness, its resources, climate, and mode of life of its inhabitants. Amid its solemn grandeur and its deep solitude he had opportunity for reflection.

“Moses took his wife Zipporah and his two sons to return to Egypt [He was then eighty years old]... Arriving in Egypt, he in conjunction with Aaron, repeatedly conveyed to Pharaoh the divine commands... When the departure from Egypt took place, it was Moses who, under divine guidance, led the people. At Sinai he was admitted to intimate relation with God – ‘He spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend’ (Ex. 24:9-11; 33:11-12, 17-23; 34:5-29); and he revealed his will to Moses from time to time for the instruction of his people, as he did afterwards to the successive prophets.

“On each of these occasions [in the mountain] he fasted forty days and nights (Ex. 24:18; 34:28), as Elijah afterward did (1 Kings 19:8), both in this respect foreshadowing the similar fast of our Lord. (Matt. 4:2)... When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, after the second sojourn of forty days, with the tables of the law in his hand, the skin of his face shone, sending forth beams (Heb. horns), and the people were afraid to come near him. (Ex. 34:30, RV margin)... He put a veil on his face; but when he went in before the Lord, he took the veil off, until he came out. (Ex. 34:33, A.V.) The RV and I.V., following the Septuagint and the Vulgate, and correctly rendering the Hebrew, say just the contrary: ‘And when Moses had done speaking with them, he put a veil on his face.’

“In the second year of the sojourn of the Israelites in the wilderness, Moses is mentioned as having married a Cushite woman (Num. 12:1). Zipporah may have died during the preceding year, although her death is not recorded. Among the later Jews the story ran that the Cushite woman was an Ethiopian princess named Tharbis, who had fallen in love with Moses on the occasion of his leading an Egyptian army into Ethiopia, while he was still a member of Pharaoh’s household. The tale is evidently a fabrication.”

PELOUBET’S SUMMATION

Next we offer some comments from Peloubet’s Bible Dictionary: “Now begins the third period in Moses’ life [when he was eighty years old]. He meets Aaron, his brother, whom God permitted to be the spokesman, and together they return to Goshen in Egypt. From this time the history of Moses is the history of Israel. Aaron spoke and acted for Moses, and was the permanent inheritor of the sacred staff of power. But Moses was the inspiring soul behind. He is incontestably the chief personage of the history, in a sense in which no one else is described before or since. He was led into a closer communion with the invisible world than was vouchsafed to any other in the Old Testament. On approaching Palestine the office of the leader become blended with that of the general or the conqueror. By Moses the spies were sent to explore the country. Against his advice took place the first disastrous battle at Hormah. To his guidance is ascribed the circuitous route by which the nation approached Palestine from the east, and to his generalship the two successful campaigns in which Sihon and Og were defeated. The narrative is told so briefly that we are in danger of forgetting that at this last stage of his life Moses must have been as much a conqueror and victorious soldier as was Joshua.

“His Character – Moses stands among the few greatest men in history. In every direction he was great and good.

“1. – As A Prophet – A prophet is one who speaks and acts under the direction of God, the medium through which God reveals his will to men.

“2. – As A Saint – Moses’ goodness shines as brightly as his greatness. He was unselfish. He devoted himself at every cost to the good of his people. He encountered every danger for their sakes. He was willing to die to save them. He was the embodiment of love to God and love to man. By seeing God face to face he was becoming transformed into his spiritual likeness.

“3. – His Meekness – Moses was in a sense peculiar to himself the founder and representative of his people; and in accordance with this complete identification of himself with his nation is the only strong personal trait which we are able to gather from his history. (Num. 12:3) The word ‘meek’ is hardly an adequate reading of the Hebrew term, which should be rather ‘much enduring.’ It represents what we should now designate by the word ‘disinterested.’ All that is told of him indicates a withdrawal of himself, a preference of the cause of his nation to his own interests, which makes the most complete example of Jewish patriotism.

“4. – His Imperfection – Two or three times some fault is attributed to Moses, as every saint has failed in some point at some time. There is no garden but has some weeds. But the most unjust thing we can do is to measure its value by its weeds and not by its fruits. ‘By their fruits ye shall know them.’ Moses’ few faults are such that they would never be noticed at all in a worldly man. They are like a broken limb on a tree loaded with magnificent fruit. All God’s works through men are done by imperfect instruments.

“5. – As A Statesman – Inspiration apart, Moses possessed all those endowments and qualities which form the consummate statesman and chief magistrate: an intellect of the highest order; a perfect mastery of all the civil wisdom of the age; a penetrating, comprehensive, and sagacious judgment; great promptness and energy in action; patriotism which neither ingratitude, ill treatment nor rebellion could quench, or ever cool; a commanding and persuasive eloquence; a hearty love of truth; an incorruptible virtue; an entire freedom from selfish ambition; an invincible hatred of tyranny and injustice; a patient endurance of toil; a courageous contempt of danger; and a greatness of soul in which he has never been surpassed by the most admired heroes of ancient or modern times. Comprehensiveness, grasp, force, sagacity were the predominant characteristics of his mind; magnanimity, disinterestedness, an enthusiastic devotion to liberty, and an ardent but rational piety, the leading qualities of his heart.

“6. – As A General – Moses delivered his people from the most powerful nation on earth; maintained them amid the perils of the desert for forty years, and led them in confidence against a country settled by fierce tribes, which they conquered.

“7. – As A Lawgiver – However much may have been added by the development of the people, like the amendments to the Constitution and laws of the United States, yet through Moses was instituted the great system of civil and religious law. [In all of this he was about 3,500 years ahead of his time.]

“8. – As A Poet – The two songs in Deuteronomy 32 and 33, and Psalms 90.

“9. – As An Orator – The great orations in Deuteronomy stand among the few greatest masterpieces of eloquence in the world’s history, if not at their head.

“Close Of His Life – The song and the blessing of the tribes conclude the farewell, Deuteronomy 32 and 33. And then comes the mysterious close. He is told that he is to see the good land beyond the Jordan, but not to possess it himself. He ascends the mount of Pisgah and stands on Nebo, one of its summits, and surveys the four great masses of Palestine west of the Jordan, so far as it can be discerned from that height. The view has passed into a proverb for all nations. ‘So Moses the servant of Jehovah died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of Jehovah. And he buried him in a ravine in the land of Moab, before Beth–peor: but no man knoweth of his sepulcher unto this day... And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days.’ (Deut. 34: 5, 6, 8) This is all that is said in the sacred record.

“Moses is spoken of as a likeness of Christ; and as this is a point of view which has been almost lost in the Church, compared with the more familiar comparisons of Christ to Adam, David, Joshua, and yet has as firm a basis in fact as any of them, it may be well to draw it out in detail. (1) Moses is, as it would seem, the only character of the Old Testament to whom Christ expressly likens himself: ‘Moses wrote of me.’ (John 5:46) It suggests three main points of likeness: (a) Christ was, like Moses, the great prophet of the people – the last, as Moses was the first; (b) Christ, like Moses, is a lawgiver: ‘Him shall ye hear’; (c) Christ, like Moses, was a prophet out of the midst of the nation – ‘from their brethren.’ As Moses was the entire representative of his people, feeling for them more than for himself, absorbed in their interests, hope and fears, so, with reverence be it said, was Christ. (2) In Heb. 3:1-19; 12:24-29; Acts 7:37, Christ is described, though more obscurely, as the Moses of the new dispensation as the apostle or messenger or mediator of God to the people – as the controller and leader of the flock or household of God. (3) The details of their lives are sometimes, though not often, compared. (Acts 7:24-28, 35)”

Because we have quoted so copiously from these various writers does not mean we approve of everything they say, as we believe all of them are slightly “off base” in some of their statements. However, we think they are to be warmly commended for the lavish rhetoric they have given about Moses, along with the great store of information concerning him; and we hope our readers will receive great blessing from what we have given. Moses is one of the outstanding characters of all history, and we rejoice with him in the great victory of faith that was his. He undoubtedly believed his own writings: “The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” (Deut. 33:27) The Jews have a saying that God kissed him there that last night before he died. “Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural forces abated.” (Deut. 34:7)

“But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord: he is their strength in the time of trouble. And the Lord shall help them, and deliver them: he shall deliver them from the wicked, and save them, because they trust in him.” (Psa. 37:39, 40)

Sincerely your brother, John J. Hoefle, Pilgrim

(Reprint No. 267, September 1977)

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CHRISTIAN LEADER PROMOTES FILM TOUTING ZIONIST IDEALS

The film shows a picture of Pastor Kenneth Rawson meeting with former Soviet refusenik, Yosef Begun. A point by Dr. Dana of the Israeli Ministry of Religion, who is a specialist on Christian groups, observed that the two points which put Bible Students outside the pale of Christian churches are the very points that so highly commend Bible Students to Jewish people. (1) Bible Students reject the Christian dogma of the trinity (three Gods in one) and believe in the sh’ma. (2) Bible Students have an historic position as pro-Zionist, non-proselytizing friends of the Jewish people.

There are over forty Messianic Jesus synagogues in Israel. Dr. Dana expressed deep appreciation for Pastor Rawson’s work, of telling the Jewish people not to convert to Christian denominations, not to assimilate, but to cherish the Torah and their Jewish heritage and support Zionism. He said the Ministry of Religion would cooperate in every way to make the Hebrew version of “ISRAEL: APPOINTMENT WITH DESTINY” a success in Israel. (The Jewish Star, February 23, 1990)

Notice: It has been reported that Brother Rawson’s hour-long historic multi-image stereo-production was received well with much enthusiasm both in Israel and in the United States.

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LETTERS OF GENERAL INTEREST

Dear Emily: Greetings in the Name of Christ!

Yes, I know it’s been a long time. No! I haven’t been ignoring you. It’s Just that I have been preoccupied running around getting myself together and haven’t had time to sit down and write you or anyone else for that matter.

I am in the process of moving. I’m living with my brother but won’t be able to move into my new place until next week some time...

Other than that everything else is going fine as much as this dying world will allow... I’ve been reading “The Time is at Hand,” and I really don’t see what all the commotion is about. I guess it’s the way one interprets it – just as the Bible. These groups split up and start their own groups. It seems that the Bible Student groups are like Christendom. They all believe the basics yet are divided among themselves... I see you have your hands full with ex–JWs, huh? I believe they are just lost souls, and not interested in finding the truth... Some of the JWs who leave seem to be interested in one thing – revenge! They reason, “I spent years in that organization, how can I make some money off of it?” So, off they go to a publisher: “I Was a JW,” “30 Years a Slave of the Watchtower,” “From Kingdom Hall to Kingdom Come,” etc., etc. As you say, the leaders of the JWs teach ‘some’ truth, yet when these people leave they not only discard their errors, but the basic truths they teach, and end up worse than they were before they left.

But enough about the JWs. As you say, “Those who are of the truth will search and will find it.”

I just wanted to let you know that I’m still alive and well and thinking of you. When I get some free time I’ll sit down and write you a nice lengthy letter, one I think you’ll enjoy and find interesting. Take care and Keep the Faith!

With Christian love, Your brother in Christ, ------- (NEW YORK)

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Dear Mrs. Hoefle:

Thank you for your letter and the accompanying information... I attend the local community college, working toward my degree in science (so far with an “A” average) and work a full-time job, as well as maintaining a marriage. So sometimes I get a little behind with reference to time.

Yes, I would like to be put on your mailing list. I am also interested in the books that are available through you. As to your question concerning how I got your name, I have been aware for many years of your movement. I first came across it, I believe, in Melton’s ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN RELIGIONS. I got your address, however, from the Saviour of All Fellowship, April 1989 newsletter, which was as usual examining the beliefs of various groups.

As to my religious background, let me begin by stating that in my younger days I attended a Baptist church. This was due to the fact that my parents were Baptists (though not very strict). My early upbringing, however, was not limited to Baptist doctrine. I have an aunt in Montana who is a Jehovah’s Witness and, consequently, I have read much of their literature. I even have a copy of the NEW WORLD TRANSLATION OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES, and a copy as well of the “Christian Greek Scriptures.”

Another relative was into the Worldwide Church of God. I have many copies of THE PLAIN TRUTH and other such literature made available to me. About thirteen years ago, just before I turned twenty, I encountered the Way International. Although I am no longer actively associated with this last group, I must say I learned much about the Scriptures, as well as something on how to study the Word of God. My really serious differences are more organizational then doctrinal in nature. This group, whose biggest crime seems to be an honest and Scriptural disagreement with orthodox, trinitarian churchianity. They have been accused of being many things that it simply is not. That, however, is another subject for another time.

Currently, I correspond with many Christian groups. I am always interested in improving my knowledge and understanding of God’s Word; that has always been a prime concern of mine. That is the basis for correspondence – to gain a better understanding of the Bible. Although I have a good many research books and copies of various translations and texts, I know that there are others who have studied the Scriptures longer than I have, and, therefore, have more knowledge and insights that I lack. This is why I have written you.

Thank you for reading this. May our Heavenly Father continue to bless you and your stand upon His Word.

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

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Dear Sister Emily,

Thank you very much for your publications. Please send your publications to my new address. If you would like a little help in the present most difficult times, this is possible in the small bank note enclosed in this letter.

Most sincerely, ------- (POLAND)

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