NO. 628: "WE SEE JESUS"

NO. 628

Again the time of year comes 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 honor, and didst set him over the works of thy hands: thou hast put all things 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 honor; 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 Savior 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. 2:6-8, 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 bond-man’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 Mary, He began to partake of the foods common to man, and grew into a man of thirty years of age ─ the exact duplicate of Adam. 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 “God 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.” (l John 1:1,2, Dia.) In “our hands felt,” 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 shall 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” Savior 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 of 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, Dia.) 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... because 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 bondman’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 2:1, “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, Counsellor [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, 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: “By this we know that we have known him, if we keep his commandments.” (1 John 2:3, Dia.) “We know that we are of the truth.” (l 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 Hosea l3:14: “I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O 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: “Mel-chisedec, 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. 7:3, was without father, without mother, without genealogy. This means that his pedi-gree 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 Christian 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 ─ priestcraft. “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 thousand-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, O king, art a king of kings… a kingdom, power, strength and glory... Thou art this head of gold.” (vs. 37,38)

But in 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 instinct-tively 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 Israel 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 unto God for his unspeakable gift.” (2 Cor. 9:15)

With this comes our warm wishes to all for a blessed Holiday observance.

(Brother John J. Hoefle, Reprint No. 417,December 1990)

QUESTION OF GENERAL INTEREST

QUESTION ─ “And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of [before the] due time.” (1 Cor. 15:8) How could Saul of Tarsus have seen Jesus, if he was personally in heaven, and was to remain there until the end of the age?

ANSWER  ─ The Lord evidently designed that Saul should have the opportunity of being the twelfth apostle, to take the place of Judas. In order to be an apostle, it was necessary that he should be a witness of our Lord’s resurrection. And so Saul of Tarsus was given a demonstration which made him an eye witness to the fact of the Lord’s resurrection from the dead. He tells of it in this way: after detailing how Jesus had been seen of above five hundred brethren at one time, St. Paul says, “And last of all, he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.”

The miracle that was performed to enable Saul to see Jesus was not sufficient to save his eyes. If Jesus had been a flesh being, Saul’s eyes would have been spared. But the fact that he was permitted to see, and with unveiled eyes (for it is not the natural order of things for a natural eye to see a spirit being), is a proof that some power was miraculously exercised which enabled him to see the Lord.

As to how this comports with the thought that Jesus went away, and that the heavens were to retain him until the end of the Age, we have this to say: He left the world, telling his disciples that in the end of the Age he would come in great glory to establish His Kingdom. But nothing in this statement indicates that he might not be present at some time previous to this. This may be illustrated in the typical Atonement Day sacrifices. The High Priest went into the Most Holy and offered the blood of the bullock; then he came out again and offered his second sacrifice, the goat. He then returned to the Most Holy.

(Pastor Russell, Reprint 5408, February 15, 1914)

LETTER OF GENERAL INTEREST

Dear Marjorie: Greetings and blessings from Israel!

          Thank you for putting my reflections on the Gaza War in your paper. It is a bit out-of-date now in this fast changing world, but since there is so much negative media still about the Gaza War maybe it will be helpful for someone to see another side of things.

          Hope all are well there, and thank you for your labors for the Lord.

          For us summer is really here with +105 degree days last week, and we have no rain in these months. We are now on strict water rationing for the gardens and as of July 1st we will be fined for any excess household water use. Our good rains at the end of February helped, but did not makeup for some four years of low rainfall. Please pray for the water situation here.

          Well, the new Israel government has been under tremendous pressure from the Obama government in these last months. It seems when we give in on one area then there is a press for giving in on the next point. So I think this pattern will go on no matter what Israel will do for the Arabs and desires of the nations. The only way to please them would be to disappear, but we are thankful that is not God’s plan for Israel. It seems that Obama has a lot of other problems besides us with North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. But Israel is on the top of the list! Pray for wisdom and strength to stand for Netanyahu and the leaders here!

          My Bed and Breakfast rooms were busy all spring, but now it is slower with guests. There are not so many tourists this year. I think it is mostly due to the financial problems people are having all over the world these days. Many who depended on their riches are seeing them fade away. So good to know we can trust in God through all times!

          Greetings and blessings to all there!                             Love, Hava Bausch       (ISRAEL)

NO. 627 MESSIAH'S KINGDOM FORETOLD - ISAIAH 11: 1-10

“The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” (Isaiah 11:9)

Only those who recognize the typical character of God’s Kingdom of old, and the typical character of the kingdom of Babylon which overthrew it, are prepared to understand the prophecies: because in the prophecies the affairs of Fleshly Israel and those of Spiritual Israel, and the affairs of literal Babylon and those of mystic Babylon, are so interwoven as to be unintelligible, absurd, from any other standpoint. There are some who fail to recognize antitypical Scriptural Israel, who, nevertheless, distinctly see that the Babylon of old, which perished more than two thousand years ago, was not the Babylon of Revelation ─ mystic Babylon ─ whose surpassing power and greatness were not even dreamed of in the days of the type. Many who distinctly discern mystic Babylon, and her approaching fall, have failed to discern that the natural Israelites were broken off from the root of Divine promise made to father Abraham, and that the spiritual Israelites were grafted into that root, and have become heirs of its chief promises and blessings, taking the chief place of the natural Israelites, so that when they are restored, it will be to a lower, an earthly favor. The proper standpoint of view from which the entire plan of God is clear and reasonable takes cognizance of both of these facts.

We consider the Prophet Isaiah at the time when he was commissioned to declare to his people their utter overthrow in captivity and that but a remnant would remain. There were three distinct climaxes to the complete fulfilment of the message: (1) It was about one hundred and seventy years from the time of his vision and the last year of King Uzziah, before Judah was carried captive to Babylon, from which only a remnant returned seventy years later. (2) The vision and the message were about eight hundred years before the final rejection of Israel by Messiah at his First Advent, when only a remnant was accepted into the Gospel Age, the house of sons, and the people as a whole were scattered into every nation. (3) Isaiah’s vision and message were about 2650 years before the rejection of nominal Spiritual Israel, preparatory to gathering out of the “Israelites indeed,” the Royal Priesthood, the Holy Nation, which, with Messiah as its Head, is now shortly to be invested with Divine power and majesty, as the Kingdom of God which shall rule and bless all the families of the earth.

The remnant of natural Israel, delivered from literal Babylon, was but a type of the remnant of God’s people now about to be delivered from symbolic Babylon, Christen-dom, and the fall of literal Babylon, at the hands of Cyrus, was but a foreshadowing of the fall of mystic Babylon as a result of the battle of the great day of God Almighty under the antitypical Cyrus, the Captain of our salvation. And the extravagant language used throughout the prophecies in respect to the fall of Babylon was made extravagant because the Divine testimony had reference to mystic Babylon, more particularly than to literal Babylon. Thus have the Divine purposes been hidden, and yet declared, throughout the ages. Compare Isa. 13:1-15 with Rev. 17 and 18 ─ the latter part of Isa. 13 evidently referring only to literal Babylon.

In harmony with the above suggestions, it will be found that Isaiah’s prophecies repeatedly mingle and commingle the events of his day with the events of our day ─ God’s providences toward his people then, and his subsequent deliverance of them to Babylonian captivity, and his later judgments upon Babylon, all of which were accomplished literally within two hundred and fifty years of Isaiah’s vision, are interspersed with declarations respecting Messiah and his everlasting Kingdom, and the blessing of the remnant of Spiritual Israel, and the eventual healing and recovery of all Israel to Divine favor. An illustration of this intruding of the Messianic Millennial Kingdom into the prophecies which specially related to natural Israel and the condition of things present in the Prophet’s day, is afforded in this lesson; also in chapters 2:2-4; 8:14-18; 9:1-7; 32:1-4; 33:5-24; 52:7-15; 60:1-5; 61:7-11; 65:17-25.

In the prophecy under consideration the Lord pictures natural Israel as entirely cut off, leaving nothing behind but the root of Divine promise, and yet he shows that out of this root shall ultimately come all the blessings origi-nally promised to Abraham, and confirmed unto Isaac, unto Jacob, and unto David, the last confirmation reading, “I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father and he shall be my son.” (2 Sam 7:12,13) This prophecy seems, indeed, to have a fulfilment in Solomon, but only because Solomon was a type of the greater son of David, who was also the son of God. Solomon indeed built the typical house of the Lord, but Christ, the antitypical son of David and Son of God is now building the true, the antitypical temple, the Church which is His Body, a temple of the Holy Spirit, a house of sons. David himself prophetically grasps the truth of this promise, saying, “Jehovah hath sworn in truth unto David; he will not turn from him; of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne.”  (Psa. 132:11) The Apostle Peter, moved by the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, refers to this same promise, and definitely applies it to our Lord Jesus (Acts 2:30).

In the prophecy our Lord is not spoken of as the root out of David, but as the root out of Jesse, David’s father; because David himself is a type of Christ, his name signifying beloved. Hence also the fact that in many prophecies our Lord’s Millennial reign is spoken of as the reign of David, the reign of the Beloved.

It is worthy of note that the Scriptures, in speaking of the Gentile governments, symbol-ize them as trees, and their destruction as the cutting down of those trees. Many trees do not sprout again from their roots when once cut down, as for instance, the cedars of Lebanon to which great Babylon was likened. On the contrary, the Lord speaks of Israel as a vine of his own planting; and one peculiarity of the vine is that it seems to thrive the better in proportion as it is pruned. Thus our Lord also speaks of Spiritual Israel, as branches of himself, the true Vine, and declares that the Father prunes the vine to the intent that it may bring forth more fruit. It is said that amongst the vine-growers of Palestine it is customary to cut back the vine clear to the roots yearly, in order to get fresh sprouts therefrom. And so we find that the Lord, with Fleshly Israel, frequently pruned them by disciplines, captiv-ities, etc., cutting off many of the branches, and preserving only a remnant. This process was followed at the First Advent in the cutting off of Israel from all further share in the spiritual features of the Abrahamic promise, except the remnant which received the Lord, and on this account were granted privileges to become members of the house of sons (John 1: 12). During this Gospel Age the Lord deals with his people not collectively, not as a nation, but individually: each branch is pruned, and every branch is expected to bring forth fruit, or else it will be entirely lopped off.

Here, then, we have the thought of the Lord, expressed through the Prophet, respect-ing Christ Jesus, our Lord, that he from the time of his baptism and anointing with the Holy Spirit, became the new spiritual shoot out of the Abrahamic promise, and out of the roots of Jesse. But they greatly err who see in this study our Lord Jesus only, and who fail to recognize the fact that he is the Head of the Church, which is His Body. The true vine is therefore the entire Body of Christ, as our Lord explains (John 15). This stem or new Vine had its start in our Lord Jesus, and has grown and prospered and had branches which have borne their fruit under the great Husbandman’s care in all these centuries of the Gospel Age. But neither the Vine nor its fruitage have been specially delightsome either to the Fleshly Israelites or to nominal Spiritual Israelites: on the contrary, our Lord’s prophet-ic declaration has been accurately fulfilled: “Ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake.” Our Lord and the Apostles were hated by the chief religionists of their day, not because they were evil, but because of their faithfulness to God; because that faithfulness, as a light, rebuked, as darkness, the unfaithful-ness of those who hated them.

The prophecy does not touch upon our Lord’s prehuman existence, nor upon his earliest experiences while coming to manhood, nor need we. It begins with our Lord at the time when he reached manhood’s estate, at thirty years of age, when he made his consecration, and was accepted, and the acceptance was sealed by the impartation to him of the Holy Spirit, of which John bare record (John 1:32). From that time onward the spirit of Jehovah rested upon him, and was in him a spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, making him alert in the use of his knowledge in reverence and submission to the Divine will. Thus it is written by the Prophet again, “By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.” (Isa. 53:11) While his perfection of being (in that he was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners) had undoubtedly much to do with our Lord’s obedience to the Divine will, yet his knowledge of God, based upon his prehuman existence, had also much to do with his implicit confidence and trust in Jehovah, that his every requirement and condition would be found eventually to be the embodiment of justice, wisdom and love ─ this knowledge undoubtedly was the main-spring of our dear Redeemer’s implicit obedience in all points to the Father’s will.

And the same observations are applicable in respect to the Church of Christ, the members in particular of His Body, of which he is the Head. Like their Master, each branch in the Vine is the recipient of the Holy Spirit, through him for the anointing oil (typical of the Holy Spirit) was all poured first upon the head of the High Priest and subsequently flowed down over his person. Those who are made partakers of the Lord’s spirit have that spirit as the beginning of their new life, for “if any man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of his.” (Rom. 8:9) And this spirit of Christ and of Jehovah, coming upon the Body of Christ, from the Head, is to each (as it was to the head) a spirit of wisdom and of understanding and of counsel and of power; and a spirit of obedience to the Father’s will, in proportion as this spirit dwells in them. And herein we see the distinction that our Lord Jesus, being perfected, could receive of the Father’s spirit unlimitedly, “without measure,” while we who are imperfect, blemished through inherited weaknesses, can receive the spirit only limitedly, by measure according to the capacity and condition of our “earthen vessel,” into which we receive this new treasure (2 Cor. 4:7). It is of course a part of our duty and privilege to do all in our power for the repair of the blemishes of the earthen vessels, to the intent that we may receive large measures of the Spirit of Holiness, and may be the better able to retain the same.

Suddenly passing from the perfecting of Christ, Head and Body, under the influence of the spirit of the Father, down to the time when these graces which are supplied in this present Age (and under which the Body of Christ growth unto a Holy temple of the Lord, by the fitting, molding, polishing and fashioning, of each member), shall have been perfected, the next suggestion of the prophecy is the exercise of these graces of the Divine spirit by the complete Christ in the Millennial Kingdom in judging, blessing, correcting and assisting the world of mankind, or so many as will avail themselves of their help, to return to Divine favor. The thought is that, as soon as the entire Christ (Head and Body) has been prepared for the work to be done, the work itself will be commenced. It is in full accord with this that the Apostle says that the prophets spake beforehand of the sufferings of Christ, and of the glory that should follow.

Not that the sufferings of Christ were completed more than eighteen centuries ago, and the glory failed to follow; but that the sufferings of Christ, which began in our Lord, the Head of the Body, are being filled up or accomplished in all the members of His Body, and, as soon as the last member of the Body has been made perfect through suffering, and been fitted for his share in the glory, then at once the glory shall follow ─ follow the completion of the sufferings. (Compare Col. 1:24) It is because there are some members of the Body of Christ still lacking to make up the elect and predestinated number, foreknown of the Lord (Rom. 8 :29), that the glory has not yet been ushered in. And fortunate this is for us who hence still have hopes of attaining to this High Calling of God in Christ Jesus, to become heirs of God, joint-heirs with Jesus Christ our Lord, to an inheritance incorrupt-ible and never-fading, reserved in heaven for those who shall make their calling and election sure.

The glorified Church, Head and Body, will be so filled with the spirit of Jehovah ─ his wisdom, his love, his power ─ that they will be fully qualified to do all the great work which Divine love and wisdom has purposed and arranged for, since before the foundation of the world.

Accustomed to the misgovernment, as the Israelites were, and as all mankind since have experienced it, it was necessary that they and all who would appreciate the coming Kingdom should be given some assurance that the new ruling power would not only have good and wise motives and intentions, but also possess superior power of knowledge and judgment. And this is what is pointed out: that the new King would not need to rely upon the common channels of information in the giving of his blessings, and in administering of his reproofs and chastisements, but will have a superhuman endowment of power, by which he shall know the very thoughts and intents of the heart, and need not to judge either by the hearing of the ear nor by the sight of the eye, as must all earthly rulers, however well intentioned. It was proper also that the Israelites and others should know that the new Kingdom would be an absolutely just and impartial one, for their experience had been that the very wisest and best of their kings had been governed largely by selfishness, so that they amassed wealth at the expense of their subjects, and made special friends of the wealthy, and granted them special privileges often times at the expense of the poor, the helpless, the despised. Hence, the Lord, through the Prophet, assures us that the special care of the new King will be to administer his office with equity toward all, and that the meek, the backward, the modest, undisposed to press their claims and to assert their rights, will have his special care; likewise the poor, that in the present time find few to sympathize with or to encourage or to help them, shall find in the new King a friend.

The ordinary idea of the method by which the Lord will introduce the Millennium is wholly at variance with all the testimony of the Divine Word, in that it presupposes that the world will be converted to the Lord through the efforts of the Church along its present lines of progress, and that thus the world will get better and better, until the full noontide of Millennial blessing is everywhere spread abroad. According to this idea, the Lord began setting up His Kingdom eighteen centuries ago, and at the same rate of progress it may require, according to the most optimistic view, thousands of years to reach the Millennial degree of blessing. But, according to the facts of the case impartially considered, we can readily see that the Kingdom, which God has promised, could never come as a result of efforts such as have been put forth during the past eighteen centuries. We mention but the one fact, known to all mankind from the published reports; viz., that the increase of nominal Christian pro-fessors annually is small, out of all proportion to the natural increase of the human family annually, so that if every Christian professor of today were a very saint, and if the same ratio of conversions continued for a thousand years as at present, or if the number were doubled or trebled, the result, at the end of the thousand years would be a much smaller  percentage of professing Christians than now. Those who cannot see so simple a proposition as this are evidently blinded by their love of error ─ their love of their own theory. Similarly blinded are those who cannot see that only a small percentage of the nominal Christians of today are true saints of God, and that, if the whole world were converted to the same degree as the best cities in the most civilized and Christianized countries in the world, it would still not be true that God’s Kingdom had come, in the sense that our Lord Jesus taught us to expect it: for in his model prayer he taught us to pray and to expect, not only that God’s Kingdom would come, and that it had not already come, but also to expect that, when it shall be fully established, God’s will would be done on earth even as it is done in heaven ─ absolutely, perfectly.

Those who expect the Millennial Kingdom to come as a result of present effort along present lines, and who believe that the world is gradually approaching that condition by an evolutionary process, should consider the Word of the Lord through the prophet, to the effect that, when Messiah takes the reins of government, his first step will be to judge the poor, and to reprove the rich with equity, in the interests of the meek of the earth. How could this be possible, if equity had already prevailed by a gradual process, so that there were no poor, and no rich, and so that all were meek? Other Scriptures, in harmony with this, show that the very object of the beginning of our Lord’s reign is to correct the wrong that will then be prevailing, and he himself implies that the earth will not be in a faithful and blessed condition at His Second Advent, by asking the question, whose answer is implied ─ “When the Son of Man cometh, shall he find the faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8)

The Scriptural position throughout is harmonious and consistent. It describes the present time of evil as “the present evil world” (Gal. 1:4), in which “the prince of this world” (John 12:31) rules, and in which the Lord’s people, “the body of Christ,” the heirs of the Kingdom, “suffer violence,” and that this violence, through suffering persecution, is working out for those who are rightly exercised thereby a preparation for the time when the entire Body of Christ, having been thus purified and prepared, will be given the Kingdom under the whole heavens, the said dominion of earth being wrested with force from the prince of this world, and the kingdoms of this world, and bestowed upon the Son by the Father’s power, and through the great Time of Trouble with which this Age shall end, and in which the prince of this world will be bound.

The Lord, through the Prophet, shows the means by which the righteous reign of the Messiah shall be inaugurated ─ the Time of Trouble such as was not since there was a nation, predicted by the Prophet Daniel ─ saying, “He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.” (Isa. 11:4) It is evident, then, that there will be not only poor, needing assistance and equity, but there will be wicked at the time the Kingdom is established. (Compare Mal. 4:1,6; Rev. 19:15) The rod of Messiah’s mouth signifies the judgments which he has already expressed, and which have very largely gone unheeded by Christendom. We remember his declaration, “He that rejecteth me and receiveth not my words hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.” (John 12:48) Christendom in general has admitted the righteousness of the Lord’s Word, but those who attempt to live according to that Word are remarkably few. Conse-quently, when the time shall come that judgment shall be laid to the line, and righteousness to the plummet, and when this judgment shall begin at the nominal house of God, the nominal system in general will fall ─ will fall condemned under that Word. Only the faithful few, the Lord’s jewels, shall be “accounted worthy to escape those things coming upon the world,” when the Lord shall smite the earth, Christendom, the present social order, with the rod of his mouth, when, as elsewhere described, “The Lord shall speak to them in his anger, and vex them in his sore displeasure” when he shall render vengeance to his enemies, and recompense to those who have known the Master’s will and have done it not. “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” (Rom. 12:19) “Wait ye upon me saith the Lord, for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indigna-tion, even all my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy.” (Zeph. 3:8) And “then will I turn unto the people a pure language that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him with one consent.” (Zeph. 3:9)

“Righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins,

Faithfulness the girdle of his hips.”

The girdle figuratively represents mercy, diligence, service, and the proclamation here is that the Messiah shall be a faithful, a diligent servant of Jehovah, in accomplishing all the work entrusted to his care.

The reference to the change of disposition in the animal kingdom, so that the wolf and the lamb, the leopard and the kid, the calf and the lion, will dwell in harmony, is in full accord with the general Scriptural outlines of the “times of restitution of all things.” (Acts 3:21)  Not only is mankind to be restored, or brought back to his primeval condition of human perfection, and harmony with God, like Adam before the fall (though with increased knowledge and experience), but the lower animals also, which have shared in the ruin and disorder resulting from the fall, will also share in the blessing and restoration of order to be accomplished by Messiah.

In the first account of the lower animals, furnished us in the Scriptures, there is nothing to imply that they were wild, vicious and at enmity with mankind; on the contrary, the implication is that they were all thoroughly in subjection to the perfect man. We may reason-ably suppose that when, under the influence of the sentence of death, mankind gradually lost more and more of the image of God originally possessed, he at the same time lost his power over the lower animals. The nature of the power possessed by the perfect Adam may still be imperfectly traced in the superior powers of certain of the fallen race in controlling the brute creation. Thus we see that some men can exercise mental force and control, not only over wild horses, but also over the most ferocious beasts of the jungle, so that they are known as horse-tamers, lion-tamers, serpent-charmers, etc. Adam was declared by the Lord to be the king of the earth, and as such he was recognized by the brute creation (Gen. 2:19,20). After mankind had lost the original mental power to control the lower animals, a warfare sprang up between them, in which mankind has been obliged to pit force against force, having so largely lost the power of mental control. The restoration of mankind to that condition which was lost through sin implies naturally, therefore, a restoration of the brute creation to primeval conditions, such as are suggested in the prophecy before us. The same thought is conveyed in the statement that “A little child shall lead” (Isa. 11:6) or control the wild beasts when brought into their proper relationship with mankind.

All of the foregoing, and, indeed, the entire Scripture testimony, shows that the heavenly rest and blessing which God has in reservation for mankind in general is earthly. It would be utterly and wholly unnecessary to change the disposition of the brute creation, if mankind were to be changed to another nature, and to become as the angels. Other prophecies speak of mankind in the restitution condition as perfect human beings, of the earth and adapted to the earth, and tell us that in the perfect condition they shall sit every man under his own vine and fig-tree, with none to molest or make him afraid, and that they shall long enjoy the work of their hand. These promises, which are the lights of the world’s hope during the Millennial Age, have nothing whatever to do with the hope set before the Gospel Church of this Age ─ a heavenly hope, the realization of which, our Lord and the apostles assure us, will require that all who would attain to it must of necessity be changed from animal to spiritual bodies, from weakness to power, from human nature to spiritual nature; because flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.

The difficulty with many is in the failure to discern that the Kingdom of God per se consists of our Lord Jesus and the Church, the Little Flock, to whom it is the Father’s good pleasure to give the Kingdom. These constitute the royal or reigning class or family of God. The world of mankind in general shall at first be the subjects of this spiritual Kingdom and afterwards become citizens or members of it, to the extent that they come into harmony with its rules and regulations, and are accepted back into reconciliation with God, and thus again become his children through Christ. Thus it is that the Scriptures declare that when this Kingdom shall be set up it will be but a small stone, a little flock, which in the end of this Age shall, with Divine power, smite the dominion of earth, and crush it to dust in the great Time of Trouble. (See Dan. 2:34,35,44, 45.) But after crushing present institutions under and connected with the prince of this world, God’s Kingdom will not remain small, but will gradually expand, until it shall fill the whole earth. This is the holy mountain men-tioned in the prophecy under consideration, a mountain being a symbol of a kingdom. Nothing shall be permitted to do violence or work injury throughout all God’s Holy Kingdom, as a result of its establishment. Love shall be the law, and Divine power shall be the force which will enforce that law, and all who will not conform thereto shall be “cut off from among the people," as the Lord has declared through the Apostle. (Acts 3:23) How evident it is that this Kingdom has not yet come, when we see that so far from love being the rule of mankind, selfishness is the rule, individually and nationally, and that there are many influences of evil, hurting and destroying throughout the world today. This is an evidence that God’s Kingdom is not yet ruling, and hence we continue to pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.”

The power by which the Lord shall accomplish the blessing of mankind, after he has crushed the power of evil and established the reign of righteousness is stated to us in this prophecy ─ it is to be by the spread of a knowledge of the Lord. The Apostle assures us (l Tim. 2:4) that it is the will of God that all men shall come to a knowledge of the truth that they may be saved. He assures us that there can he no salvation without knowledge (Rom. 10:14,15) consequently the knowledge of the Lord being very limited throughout this Gospel Age, only comparatively few of earth’s millions have come to such a knowledge of him as to permit them to exercise faith in God, and in the great sacrifice and pardon for sin which God has provided in Christ. But the fact that few in the present life have come to this knowledge shall not in any degree thwart the Divine Plan nor make the death of Christ on their behalf of no avail, for the Lord assures us that in due time the true light of the world, Jesus, shall lighten every man that cometh into the world ─ this includes all the heathen, all those of imbecile mind, who could not grasp the truth, and all the infants who die without a knowledge of the only name under heaven whereby we must be saved. God has thus made ample provision, first, in the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord, and secondly in the Millennial Age which he has provided through him, in which the knowledge of the Lord shall be caused to fill the whole earth.

Nor are we to suppose that this will be merely a little sprinkling of knowledge, such as has come to a very limited portion of the world of mankind here and there in spots during this Gospel Age. The Lord’s people have received these showers of grace and truth and sometimes appropriately sing and pray for more abundant showers for their refreshment, but the Lord’s provision for the world of mankind in general, under the Messianic Kingdom, during the Millennial Age, is that this knowledge of him shall be world-wide, and ocean-deep, so that none shall thereafter be able to plead ignorance or any other excuse for failure to avail themselves of the grace of God in Christ. Hence again it is written by another prophet, that whosoever dies in that Age will die not for Adam’s sin, but for his own sin; because the death of Christ has cancelled the Adamic condemnation, and has thus secured to every member of the human family a full, impartial opportunity for eternal life through faith in the Redeemer and obedience to his requirements. The Apostle says of the Jews that they are blinded; that a vail is over their hearts, that they cannot see, and he points us to the fact that in God’s due time this vail of ignorance shall be removed from Israel, and that they shall be saved from their blindness, and “shall obtain mercy through your mercy” ─ shall obtain mercy at the hands of elect spiritual Israel, the Body of Christ, now being selected, which will then be in power, as the kings and priests to bless and judge the world in righteousness (1 Cor. 6:2). Similarly, the same Apostle assures us that the god of this world is exercising a blinding influence upon the whole world of mankind (2 Cor. 4:4), and the prophets point us to the time when Satan shall be bound, and when all the blind eyes shall be opened, and when the vail of the covering of ignorance shall be destroyed from over the face of all the people, that all may look, with the eyes of their understanding, upon him who was pierced, and through whom all may have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

The last verse of our lesson points us to the Mil1ennial Day, and seems to suggest another root of Jesse, as connected with the blessing of the Gentiles, and as an ensign or standard for all the people to pattern after. We understand this to signify that after the spiritual seed of Abraham and David has been exalted to the Kingdom glory, then an earthly seed, out of the same root, shall come into prominence in connection with the heavenly, and be the agent and representative of the heavenly Kingdom in the blessing of the world of mankind. The Apostle Paul in Rom. 4:16, seems to imply that while Christ and his spiritual Church of the Gospel Age are the seed of the promise, nevertheless there is another subordinate seed, which shall be used of the Lord in the blessing of mankind. This latter seed seems to be referred to also in Heb. 11:39,40, where the Apostle, after mentioning the faithful worthies of the past as approved unto God, most positively states that they are not of the Gospel Church, not, therefore, of the Kingdom Class per se, but that they, nevertheless, having obtained a good report through faith, will receive a share in the original promise, and be participants in the work of blessing the Gentile world, but not with or as a part of the Church, “God having provided some better thing for us [the Messianic Body] that they without us should not be made perfect.” (Heb. 11:40) Under the ministration of the spiritual Kingdom, the Ancient Worthies, restored to human perfection, shall not only be the princes, the representatives of the spiritual, invisible, Kingdom, but shall also be the grand ensigns or standards set up before mankind, as illustrations of what all mankind may attain unto, if they will render faithful obedience to the laws of the Kingdom ─ the conditions of the New Covenant.

(Pastor Russell, Reprints 2372-2375, October 30, 1898)

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Comments: In 1898 when Pastor Russell wrote this article the High Calling to be of the Body of Christ was not closed. Also in the last paragraph of the article he includes only the Ancient Worthies as being princes, the representatives of the spiritual, invisible Kingdom. But in his Volume One, page 204 written in 1886 he writes: “An earthly calling was made, though imperfectly understood, before the heavenly calling, and we are told that it will be continued after the Gospel age. Life [for those restored as human beings] and immortality [the prize for which the body of Christ is running] have both been brought to light during this age. (2 Tim 1:10) Both the human and spiritual natures will be glorious in their perfection, yet distinct and separate.”

LETTER OF GENERAL INTEREST

Dear Marjorie: Kingdom greetings!

Really appreciate your keeping me on you mail list even though I’ve neglected to write to you. Was particularly blessed by pages 5-8 in July 2009 issue.

As you know, Jehovah telegraphed His passion for that tiny scrap of sacred real estate when He declared: “This land is MINE!” (2 Chron. 7:20) As a jealous God He tolerates no other gods before Him, and that includes Allah!

When “land for peace” and “two-state solutions” (so-called) are permanently abandoned, and Israel unanimously re-embraces the God of Abraham, stops leaning on the U.S. and stops fearing world opinion, and places their full trust in HaShem not only will He intervene with angels on the battlefield, but He will send literal showers of rainfall, and His miraculous rescue from annihilation and the dramatic destruction of Israel’s enemies during Jacob’s trouble will be comparable to Sodom and Gomorrah’s demise.

Then the Ancient Worthies will return from the grave and the wonderful prophesies of Zechariah (12:10), Jeremiah (31:29-34) and Isaiah (35 all; 11:6-9; 2:2-4) will be fulfilled via the gradual dispensing of Restitution blessings through the blesser nation of Israel, as the Gentile world learns to love Jews and chooses to conform to the requirements of the New Covenant.

Isn’t the Divine Plan marvelous! Won’t it be grand when peace on earth, goodwill toward men is a reality and the footstool of God is made glorious!

The GOOD NEWS we have to share with this frightened, anxious and troubled world gives them comfort for today and hope for tomorrow.

Keep up the good work.                        Shalom, Barbara Wilford      (NORTH CAROLINA)

NO. 626 PATIENT ENDURANCE THE FINAL TEST

“Let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” (James 1:4)

The Scriptures everywhere represent patience as an important element of character. In every phase of human experience we can see its need. To be just under present conditions, one must be patient, not rash; for it would be injurious to be impatient and severe with the unavoidable imperfections and weaknesses of our fellowmen. Therefore the spirit of a sound mind demands that we be patient in dealing with fallen humanity. God himself possesses this quality of patience, and has long exercised it. In dealing with the world in the next Age the Church will need to have much patience, and under our present environments we need it constantly in order to develop the character necessary for a place on the throne with our Lord.

Patience is closely allied to love and mercy. If God were unloving, unmerciful, he would be without patience. In man’s present blemished, fallen condition, patience is sadly lacking, although it is often exercised outwardly for policy’s sake. This Godlike quality, like all the other qualities of character inherent in God and in all perfect beings created in his likeness, has been largely obliterated in humanity by the fall of the first pair.

In the New Testament there are two Greek words translated patience. One of these words signifies forbearance, longsuffering. The other carries the thought of cheerful or hopeful endurance. The latter is the word used in our text, and has a much deeper significance than attaches ordinarily to our word patience. This constancy ─ the endurance of evil in a cheerful, willing manner ─ represents an element of character, and not merely a temporary restraint of feeling or of action. It signifies a development of heart and character which manifests itself in an endurance of wrong or affliction with contentment, without rebellion of will, with full acquiescence in the requirement of Divine Wisdom and Love, which, while permitting present evils has promised in due time to overthrow them.

It will surely be profitable for us to cultivate carefully this element of Christian character of which our Lord speaks in such high commendation and without which, his Word assures us, our character cannot be perfected. The Christian requires patient endurance to put on the whole armor of God, and having put it on, to keep it securely buckled. We need it in dealing not only with others, but also with ourselves, with our own blemishes. We should always take into account the various circumstance and conditions surrounding ourselves and others. As we look around, we see that the world is in a condition of blight, of sin. This knowledge should give us great sympathy with humanity, without which we would have but little patience. All of our brethren in Christ, like ourselves, are by nature members of this fallen human race. Therefore we should have a great deal of patient endurance with the Lord’s people, as we would have them exercise this grace toward us.

THE PATIENCE OF GOD

As the quality of justice will always persist, so will the quality of patience, though not in the sense of patient endurance of evil. God patiently works out his own glorious designs, in perfect equipoise of mind. At present this requires the exercise of patient endurance with evil, sinful conditions; and in the Ages of glory to come God will, we believe, still work out his purposes in perfect patience, probably in worlds yet uninhabited.

But in the exercise of patience under present evil conditions, wisdom must have a voice. God has declared that in his wisdom the time will come when he will cease to exercise patience toward the world. That is to say, he will no longer bear with the world in their present sinful, imperfect condition. That time has almost arrived. The great cataclysm of trouble, now about due, will sweep away the entire present order preparatory to the establishment of the Kingdom of God under the whole heavens. Then God will give men the fullest opportunity of coming into harmony with himself and righteousness before he will deal with them summarily.

The time is coming when there will be no more sin. God will have a clean universe by and by. But he will first give everybody an opportunity to rise out of sin. If they will not avail themselves of the opportunity, then God’s patience, longsuffering, will cease to be operative toward such. This will not mean that God’s patience has ceased, but that its activity has ceased in that direction.

God’s patience has arranged the thousand years of Messiah’s reign for man’s blessing, and his wisdom has decided that those thousand years will be sufficient for the elimination of evil. Whoever will not learn to live righteously under those favorable conditions would never learn, and it would not be the part of Divine Wisdom longer to exercise patience with such. Likewise also, in our dealings with ourselves and others, there is a limit to the proper exercise of patience ─ longsuffering. We should not be patient with ourselves beyond a certain point. There are circumstances in which we would properly feel that we should have known better and should have done better than we did.

LET US JUDGE OURSELVES

If a child of God realizes that he has been derelict with himself, he should say, I will not be patient with myself any further. I will take myself in hand and conquer this weakness which I have permitted in a measure to assert itself to the weakening of my own character and probably to the discomfort and pain of others. I cannot do this in my own unaided strength, but by the grace of the Lord I am determined to overcome in this matter.

Parents require much patience, forbearance, in dealing with their children. The limit of patience might differ in regard to different children. Therefore the wise parent will judge how nearly each child has been doing the right thing, and how well each has received and profited by instruction.  We are rather to be too patient, too sympathetic, than to have too little patience, too little sympathy. Remembering our own weaknesses, we are to exercise patience toward others who are seeking to overcome their imperfections, even as we are seeking to overcome our own. We all need that patience, forbearance, be exercised toward us.

OUR LORD’S LESSONS ON PATIENT ENDURANCE

Recurring to the word patience as used in our text let us glance backward to our Lord’s Parable of the Sower, as recorded in Luke 8. In verse 15 we read, “That on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart having heard the Word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience,” patient endurance, constancy. The thought here is that to be of the fruit-bearing class which the Lord will approve and accept in his Kingdom we must do more than to receive the Word of his testimony, even though we receive it with joy. It means more; for the stony ground class at first thus received it. For a brief time these seemed to give evidence of fruitfulness and vigor; but when the hot sun of persecution arose, they withered away, because of lack of depth of soil.

In this parable the Lord shows that patient endurance, constancy, is the final test of character. It follows after the receiving and the sprouting of the seed; it follows after love, hope, joy and faith have caused the seed to spring forth and begin to bear fruit. Patient endurance, then, is necessary in order that the fruit may be developed and thoroughly ripened, that the grain may be made ready for the garner. Ah, how important this grace is seen to be, in the light of God's Word! But remember that the endurance must be cheerful. We cannot suppose that he who judges the thoughts and intents of the heart would be pleased with his children, even when he saw them bearing much for his sake, if they endured it in an impatient or dissatisfied or unhappy frame of mind.

Those who thus endure surely would not be copies of God’s dear Son, whose sentiment found expression in the words, “I delight to do thy will, O my God!” (Psa. 40:8) All of the royal priesthood were sacrificers, as was our great Chief Priest; and God who accepts our sacrifices through the merit of our dear Redeemer, informs us that he loves a cheerful giver ─ one who performs his sacrifices gladly, with a willing heart. This does not mean that our bodies will never grow weary; but that our spirit will rejoice in the privilege of suffering weariness of the flesh in so noble and wonderful a service. But if our Father should see best to lay us aside from active work for a time, when our hearts are longing to serve, this too will be an opportunity to endure cheerfully his will for us. It may also be a test of our full submission of our wills to his, and thus be an important stepping-stone upward toward the Kingdom glories and privilege.

The other instance, in which the Lord used this word patience, or patient endurance, is recorded in Luke 21:19. He had just been telling his followers that they must expect tribulations as the result of being his disciples during the present time, when sin abounds, when Satan is the prince of this world. They must expect opposition from various quarters; but he assured them that nevertheless they would be fully under Divine care and protection, even though persecutions would be permitted to reach and to affect them. Then followed the words, “In your patience [patient endurance, cheerful constancy] possess ye your souls.” (Luke 21:19)

Our faith and our trust in the Lord and his gracious promises should be so strong and unwavering that they will far more than counterbalance the opposition of the world, of false brethren, and of Satan’s blinded servants. So implicit should be our faith in our Father’s love and care that all these persecutions will be recognized and rejoiced in as the agencies of his providence in chiseling, shaping and polishing us as living stones for the glorious temple which he is constructing, and which is now so soon, we believe, to be set up.

Viewing our trials from this standpoint, we can indeed rejoice and can possess our souls, our lives even amidst tribulations, with cheerful endurance. Yea, we may realize that the soul, the real being, to whom God has given the “exceeding great and precious promises” (2 Peter 1:4) of the future, cannot be injured by the persecutions of the flesh, or by anything that man can do unto us, so long as we are faithful to the Lord, accepting every experience that he permits to come to us as ministrations of his providence for our ultimate good and his glory.

THE NECESSITY FOR PATIENT ENDURANCE

Let us here examine carefully into the reason why it is necessary for us to develop this grace of patient endurance. It appears that the development of this quality is one of the conditions which God has attached to the call to joint-heirship with our Lord in the Kingdom, and one of the same conditions required of him. The wisdom of this is manifest when we consider the work to which we are called ─ the work of blessing all the families of the earth, as God’s Millennial Kingdom, in joint-heirship with the Only Begotten Son of God, our great Redeemer. That will be a mighty work; and it is eminently proper that Jehovah should require that those whom he shall account worthy of that exalted position shall not only appreciate his goodness and his glorious character, and prefer his service to sin and iniquity, but demonstrate their thorough loyally to the principles of righteousness and to his will to the extent of a joyful willingness to suffer on behalf of these principles. A transitory endurance of one or two or three brief trials would not prove the individual to have an established character for righteousness; but a patient, cheerful, endurance even unto death would be necessary to demonstrate such a character.

We might illustrate this with the diamond. Suppose that we were able to make diamonds out of some plastic material with the brilliancy of the real diamond; and suppose that they became hard, but not so hard as the genuine diamond. Would these imitation diamonds have the value of the true diamond? By no means. If they were subjected to severe pressure, they would be crushed. And so with the Christian. If we supposed him possessed of every grace of character that could belong to the sons of God, save this one of firmness, endurance, he would not be fit to be amongst the Lord’s jewels. Hence we see the necessity of the Lord’s demand that patient, cheerful endurance shall be a characteristic of each one who shall be accepted to a place in his Kingdom.

The importance of this quality in the Christian character is again emphasized by the Apostle Paul. In his Epistle to Titus (2:2), when enumerating the character-qualities of an advanced Christian, he declares that they must be “vigilant, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience.” The final test of patient endurance must be passed before we can be accepted.  

The same Apostle in writing to Timothy thus reminds him, “Thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, patient endurance.” (2 Tim. 3:10) We need this important grace more and more as we speed along on our race course and near the end of the way. Feet grow weary; trials and testings abound; therefore we need to “gird up the loins of our mind” and looking to our great Exemplar for the needed inspiration and strength, to set our faces like a flint for the home stretch.

TRIALS ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL

Our ability and strength to patiently endure should increase as we progress in the narrow way. We should grow “strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.” But we cannot possibly develop this essential trait of character without trials ─ experiences intended to call for the exercise of cheerful endurance. So let us not think it strange if we are called upon to pass through protracted trials which make necessary the nerving of ourselves to bear. But let us repeat that the virtue is not merely in the bearing; for the world has much to bear, but it is particularly in the manner in which we endure. At heart we must be sweet and submissive ─ in the fullest harmony with the Lord’s processes of development. This may be hard at times; but his grace will be sufficient, if we constantly apply for it. “Having done all,” let us “stand”!

Ah, yes! We can see a new reason for the Lord’s arrangement that we should have our trial as our Master had his ─ under an evil environment ─ that we might not only have all the necessary qualities of Christian character, but have them rooted, grounded, fixed, established.

The Apostle James likewise draws our attention to the importance of this quality. He says, “The trying of your faith worketh patience” (James 1:3); that is to say, if our faith stands the trial, it will work out in our character this patient endurance. On the other hand, if we do not attain this development, it will mean that our faith has not stood the test satisfactorily, and that we are not fit for the Kingdom. Thus we see clearly what a great mistake has been made among Christian people in general in supposing that religion is a thing to be gotten suddenly as an answer to prayer, or by going to the mourner’s bench, or by standing up for prayers, or in response to some Divine or human appeal ─ just as one would get a dollar and put it into his pocket. On the contrary, the step of repentance from sin and justification is only the beginning, and not the end, of the Christian way. The next step is consecration of ourselves and our all to God. But this also is far from the end. Not only must we go on and on, to the attainment of faith, fortitude, self-control, meekness and love, but having attained all these, we must patiently endure. We must “run with patience [cheerful endurance] the race set before us.” (Heb. 12:1) Or, to use another figure of speech, it is merely starting in the school of Christ; merely having our names enrolled as pupils, to be taught of the Lord.

“THE HOUR OF TEMPTATION”

The Church of the Philadelphia period were promised of the Lord that because of their faithfulness, because they had “kept the Word of my patience” (Rev. 3:10), they should be kept from “the hour of temptation” (Rev. 3:10) which was to come upon all the world a little later. The Church of Laodicea ─ the Church of our day ─ is not kept from entering into the “hour of temptation”; but we may be sure that we will be kept while in it, if we are faithful and true. Our dear Lord’s special message to the Laodicean phase of the Church has been, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh, will I grant to sit with me in my throne.” (Rev. 3:20,21)

Though we are not spared from this hour of temptation, we have a counterbalancing blessing as a result of living in the time of our Lord’s parousia. We may have his instruction, his dispensing to us of spiritual food, “meat in due season,” in a manner and to a degree never before enjoyed by his Saints. And, as we might expect, this great favor is offset by the subtle and severe trials and testings of this special “hour of temptation.” If there was ever a time when patient endurance was needed by the Lord’s faithful, it is now. If ever they needed the counsel, “In your patience possess ye your souls” (Luke 21:19), they need it now. Those who are able to patiently endure will stand in this evil day. All others will fall. As the Apostle forewarned us, the fiery ordeals of this day “will try every man’s work, of what sort it is.” (1 Cor. 3:13)

We find this quality of patient endurance lacking everywhere throughout Christendom today, even among the majority of the professed followers of Christ. It is becoming more and more scarce. Few wish to endure anything for righteousness’ sake, for Christ’s sake, or for anyone else’s sake; and if endurance of anything unpleasant is absolutely necessary, the trial is borne with much of impatience, complaint and chafing. Moreover, a spirit of defiance and rebellion against everything like self-denial or resignation, a spirit of intense bitterness, is daily growing in the hearts of mankind.

This general tendency of the civilized world today toward non-endurance, impatience and rebellion against restraint necessarily has its influence upon those who are seeking to walk in the narrow way. Only by Divine grace can this tendency be successfully resisted, and progress be made toward the development of the likeness of Christ. This special grace, needed today by the Lord’s children, will be withheld from those who are not walking close to the Lord, following in the footsteps of Jesus. It is because the professed followers of Christ are living so far from him that we see today the tendencies are developing which we have noted amongst those who profess His Name.

This spirit so prevalent is at the bottom of mob violence which is kept down largely by military force, in the outbreaks against law and order which we hear of so frequently. We may expect this spirit to continue to grow. There is a feeling amongst the masses that in the past they have been too patient, not sufficiently aggressive ─ the feeling that if they had taken things into their own hands long ago present conditions might have been averted. But those who have kept the Lord’s Word of patient endurance, who have sought from him the wisdom from on high, which is “first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy of entreatment, full of mercy and of good fruits” (James 3:17), have learned that he has a due time in which his purposes shall be accomplished and they are willing to abide his time patiently, knowing that it is best. They have learned that

“God’s plans, like lilies white, unfold;

We must not tear the close-shut leaves apart,

Time will reveal the hidden heart of gold.”

ONE OF SATAN’S SPECIAL DECEPTIONS

The Apostle counsels us respecting this “hour of temptation” which is now upon us. Its besetments and trials will be many, and some of them will be so subtle and deceptive that all who are not thoroughly rooted and grounded in the truth will be carried away by the false arguments of those whom Satan is now permitted to use as his agents in trying all those who dwell upon the face of the whole earth.

Amongst these subtle theories of the adversary, none seems more deceptive than Christian Science, falsely so called; for it is neither Christian nor scientific. Backed by the power of the evil one, it is able to promise its dupes that if they will affirm an untruth, and stick to it, they shall have relief and cure of certain ailments and bodily afflictions. Those who have not learned to endure patiently all that the Lord permits them to experience in the way of pain and sickness ─ all that cannot be relieved by rational and reasonable methods ─ will be ready to accept almost any relief which the adversary may bring to their attention. And as they learn to deceive themselves in respect to pain and sickness, and gradually to pervert words from their real meaning, and to ignore and deny facts, they become in time so confused in their minds that truth appears to them to be falsehood, and falsehood appears to be shining truth.

SOME BEING FREED BY THE TRUTH

These deluded ones are led into this deception partly through curiosity. 1t seems so strange to them to hear one say, “There is no death; all is life! There is no pain; all is health! There is no evil; all is good!” They say to themselves, “These statements are certainly very inconsistent, yet I am curious to know how people reason them out. What is their philosophy?” This is just what the adversary desires. He wishes thus to attract their attention, that step by step he may lead them from one falsity to another, until the whole brain and conscience are subverted. They have accepted darkness for light, lies for truth. For this they are rewarded with physical relief ─ small recompense!

This is the reward of selfishness, of unwillingness to suffer anything they could escape by any means. They preferred their own way, the way most attractive to the fallen flesh. They chose this rather than the truth, which did not appeal to their flesh. They were ready to exchange the testimony of the Lord for the sake of physical ease and comfort, or to satisfy morbid curiosity. Thus they escaped troubles and pain which, if endured patiently and joyfully, would have worked out for them blessing and strengthening of character. Some who have been thus enslaved by the great adversary, a very few, are being freed by the power of the truth at this time. But it is a very difficult task to be thoroughly accomplished. In some cases the experiences undergone in the efforts to break the bonds so tightly binding them have been very painful, and accompanied by buffetings from the evil one and his hosts, who have so long held them in bondage. But it is well worth the struggle and the pain to be free from all such slavery.

ST. PAUL’S PICTURE OF PRESENT CONDITIONS

The hour of trial is not coming alike upon all, for all of Christendom are not upon the same plane ─ mentally, morally or physically. The trial as it is coming upon Christendom in general, however, is pictured by the Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 3:1-5. He here enumerates certain characteristics of this “hour of temptation.” He says, “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come; for men shall be lovers of their own selves ─ covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers [enticers to strife], incontinent [not under restraint, impetuous], fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors [those who cannot be trusted, would sell out their best friends for selfish considerations], heady, highminded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.” 

This is a graphic picture of present-day conditions in the Christian world, so-called. Because they received not the truth in the love of it, therefore God has sent them “strong delusions, that they should believe a lie” (2 Thes. 2:11), and should be condemned thereby. This hour of temptation has not yet reached its greatest intensity, but we believe this stage will be reached in a very short time. Blessed are all they who have made the Lord, “even the most High, their habitation.” (Psa. 91:9) These shall not be moved; yet many of them will pass through most severe trials and temptations. Through the mails we learn of the struggles and prayers of many of God’s children ─ some because of their own imperfections and frailties, and some because of the imperfections of others; and still others are tried because of earthly cares and burdens which they seem unable to fully overcome or to cast upon the Lord.

LET US HAVE THE PROPER FEAR

We sympathize with these dear ones, and counsel them as best we can, remembering the Master’s words, “Blessed are ye that weep now; for ye shall laugh.” (Luke 6:21) Our heart is especially solicitous for those whose letters give evidence that they are in temptation, but realize it not ─ who are being swallowed up of ambition or business or other “cares of this life and the deceitfulness of riches” (Mark 4:19) ─ whose love for the truth seems to be growing cooler instead of hotter, and who seem to feel less and see less than they did years ago. These seem to be sleeping when they should be watching and praying; and this hour of trial, we fear, is finding them unprepared; while some who are weeping, praying and striving are more like our dear Master in Gethsemane; and like him, they will be strengthened for the final trial.

Let us each, dear brethren, be very solicitous for ourselves and for each other, and counting the prize held out to us as far dearer and more precious than all else besides, “Let us fear, lest a promise being left to us of entering into his rest, any of us should seem to come short of it.” (Heb. 4:1) Let us so love all the Lord’s dear children that their welfare will be our chief concern; and this will mean our own spiritual health. Yet we must not allow our love even for the brethren to hinder our fullest confidence in the Lord’s love and wisdom in the choice of his Bride, even though siftings should take from us some whose fellowship we have cherished.

Let us patiently hold on our way ─ this blessed way! Let us do with our might what our hands find to do. Soon will come the Harvest Home! Soon, if faithful, we shall gather, as a glorious company, to go out no more forever. We shall come with rejoicing, bringing our sheaves with us! But let us remember that “we have need of patience, that after we have done the will of God, we might receive the promise!” (Hebrews 10:36)

“How light our trials then will seem!

    How short our pilgrim way!

 The life of earth a fitful dream,

    Dispelled by dawning day!

 * * * *  

"Then peace, my heart! and hush, my tongue!

    Be calm, my troubled breast;

 Each passing hour prepares thee more

    For everlasting rest!”

(Pastor Russell, Reprints 5650-5652, March 15, 1915)

____________________________________________________________________

Comment: The above article by Pastor Russell was written to and for the Saints. We believe that what he wrote for the Saints to be helpful for those consecrating between the Ages who are not Spirit Begotten but make the same kind of consecration as the Saints without being on trial for life. Pastor Russell said in Reprint 5751, September 1, 1915: “It is our thought that with the closing of the ‘door’ of the Gospel Age there will be no more begetting of the Holy Spirit to the Spirit nature. Any afterward coming to God through consecration, before the inauguration of the restitution work, will be accepted by Him, not to the Spirit plane of being, but to the earthly plane. Such would come in under the same condition as the Ancient Worthies who were accepted of God.

IN MEMORIAM OF THAT SERVANT

On October 31, 1916 Pastor Charles Taze Russell received his reward for his faithful service to God as “that servant” of Matthew 24:46. He gave us the harmonious understanding of the general Bible structure in the Divine Plan of the Ages when it was due time to be understood. We give honor to him. Our Lord said, “If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: If any man serve me, him will my Father honour.” (John 12:26)

NO. 625 "TREES OF RIGHTEOUSNESS"

“As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk you in him, rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.” (Colossians 2:6,7)

The context from which our text is taken seem to show how that the Apostle is contrasting with the Gospel hope the various hopes which might go to establish one in some kind of faith, some kind of belief, some kind of course in life. But he is addressing those especially who have already accepted Jesus Christ as God’s Representative ─ those who believe that God has sent his Son into the world to be the Redeemer of the race of Adam and by and by to be the Deliverer of mankind from the power of sin and death. All those who are in Christ Jesus have received him with this understanding. This is the only message which God has sent; this is “the faith which was once delivered to the saints.”

DIVINE VS. HUMAN MESSAGE

The Apostle Paul urged those to whom he wrote to continue in this faith, and not to try to combine earthly philosophy with this heavenly message. As they had received Christ as God’s Anointed and their Sufficiency in all things ─ the One “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,” in whom “dwelleth all the fullness of the Deity bodily” ─ so they were to walk. As they had recognized him as the heavenly Teacher, so they were to continue to make progress in the same way ─ the path that leads to glory, honor and immortality. They were not to think for one moment that any human teaching could be mixed with the Divine message; for any other doctrine would serve only to confuse the heavenly message in the minds of the hearers.

This would not mean, however, that the teachings of the apostles were to be ignored, for the Master especially informed the Church that his twelve apostles would be his mouthpieces. It would, however, guard us against any supposition that there would be any other teaching or any other church to take the place of Jesus and his apostles. To these he declared that whatsoever things they would bind on earth would be bound in heaven, and whatsoever things they would loose on earth would be loosed in heaven.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE SPIRITUAL PLANT

Having stated the matter in this way, the Apostle then uses a forceful illustration to show how we are to progress in Christ. Turning from the figure of a man walking in Christ as a member of His Body, St. Paul gives us the picture of a tree, the root of which goes downward and the trunk of which reaches upward, to obtain that nourishment which will give it strength and stability. As the roots of a tree push themselves downward and imbibe the nutriment of the soil, while at the same time the trunk and the branches reach up into the atmosphere to obtain through the leaves the necessary elements of growth, so the mentality of the Christian takes hold of the great and precious promises of the Word of God, while at the same time he is building character through his heart appreciation of these promises, in connection with the experiences of life. The roots of faith push down deep into the knowledge of the Divine Plan, while the tree of character grows higher and higher, developing and maturing the rich fruits of the Holy Spirit of God; for instruction is a form of construction.

While the Christian is thus growing up in character-likeness to our Redeemer, and his roots of faith are reaching deep down into the deep things of the Word of God, he is becoming established, settled. A tree that is well rooted in the earth is hard to uproot. It has a wonderful strength, a wonderful hold upon the earth, and requires years to die out. So it is with the Christian whose faith has been properly established; he should be so fixed, so established in the promises of God’s Word, that no wind of doctrine could overturn his faith.

Whoever is continually looking around for something new is thus demonstrating the fact that he is not established in the faith. Having once made sure that the Divine Plan is the plan of God, we should not permit ourselves to be moved away from that position. On all Christians who are thus rooted and grounded in the Scriptures the theories of our day ─ Evolution, Christian Science, New Thought, etc. ─ have no effect whatever. No Christian growth will be developed nor spiritual life retained unless the soul becomes fixed and settled in the truth as it is in Christ Jesus.

ONE CAUSE OF SPIRITUAL DECAY

When once we have seen the plan of God as revealed in Jesus, and have given ourselves to God and the study of His Word, the only way to retain our spiritual life is to continue in this doctrine, to root ourselves in this soil and remain there. We are not to seek other fields with the thought that we can receive additional nourishment there, and that an admixture of other elements with what we have will be advantageous. No theories will mix with the Lord’s plan. It is complete; it needs no assistance from other systems of belief. Any attempt to incorporate with it theories and ideas of men will only destroy its value. We can never become rooted and built up in Christ by such a course; our spiritual decay, and finally our spiritual death, would be the result.

No child of God can be carried about by every wind of doctrine; nor can he indulge in a morbid curiosity as to what this or that new theory may teach. To do so is very dangerous to the spirituality of a Christian. For one who has never known the truth there might be some reason for such a course, but for one who has once thoroughly proven what is the truth in Christ to go hunting around for new pastures in which to feed, there is no excuse. Either he has never been established in Christ, or else he has fallen into a spiritual decline. There is an exhaustless field for thought and for mental and spiritual activity in the plan of God in all its varied features.

We believe that God purposed to have a seed of Abraham through whom a blessing would come to all the families of the earth. Those who look for the fulfilment of this promise realize that Christ is the seed of Abraham and that his work is to fulfill this promise. For this purpose he came into the world. Later on, the Church learn that not only Christ Jesus, the Head, but also the Church, His Body, are sharing in the same faith, the same promise made to Abraham. Each individual called has the opportunity of coming in, of exercising his faith, and of being built up as a member of the Body of Christ. By this time the Body of Christ must be nearly complete. The hour is at hand when this glorious seed of Abraham is to take hold of the affairs of earth and bring in “the restitution of all things spoken by the month of all the holy prophets since the world began.” (Acts 3:19-21)

As a tree does not breathe the same element at all times, and as it is not always flooded with sunshine, but needs also the rains and storms for its development, so the child of God needs varied experiences and sometimes change of environment to best develop all the fruits of the Holy Spirit. The great Husbandman knows just what experiences and surroundings each one of his “trees” needs ─ how much sunshine, how much rain, how much cold and how much heat, how much pruning ─ and he will supply just what is best adapted to each case. He knows how to vary these conditions, environments, etc., without disturbing the process of rooting and upbuilding, but developing it. This we do not know how to accomplish, but would bring upon ourselves spiritual disaster. So we need to keep ourselves continually under the care of the skilful Husbandman and earnestly cooperate with him, that we may grow and become strong and immovable ─ firmly established.

DEPTH OF ROOT SHOWN IN VIGOR AND FRUITAGE

The depth and the spread of the roots of a tree are shown by the vigor and fruitage of the

tree. A tree that is not deeply and firmly grounded can neither bring forth rich, luscious fruit nor furnish cool, refreshing shade to man. Depth of root is absolutely essential. So the Christian’s faith must be deeply grounded in Christ; and thus shall we also grow up into him, learning more and more what is the Divine will as expressed in him. The rooting process is unseen, and can be judged only by its outward manifestations. When there is luxuriant foliage there is good rooting. But the growth must not stop there; fruit must be borne. And so the spiritual life of the child of God will manifest itself more and more in its likeness to Christ. To vary the figure, the Christian will not only be a branch in the vine, but will bear rich clusters of fruit which should become more choice in quality and size year by year.

We sometimes see Christians who have little knowledge of worldly things and yet have deep spirituality, very deep rooting and grounding in Christ, a clear insight into the deep things of God, and a rich Christian experience. Perhaps their knowledge of the usages of polite society is less than that of many others of their brethren; they may have had fewer opportunities to learn all these details; and yet their ripe attainments in Christ may shame some who are more outwardly correct according to the social standards of the world. How careful we should be that our standards of judgment and our estimates of character are fashioned after the pattern of the Master; that we look beneath the surface; that we note rather the real, the essential traits, than any outward peculiarities of the flesh which in the sight of the Lord should have no weight in deciding the quality of the character or the place in the Kingdom.

SUGGESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

If we are to be the judges of the world in the next age, how shall we be fitted for this position, if we do not learn now how to take the proper viewpoint, the Lord’s viewpoint, in our estimates of our brethren? If our love and our esteem for them is gauged by trifles, yea, by matters even unworthy of notice in the eyes of the Lord, are we developing the qualities of character which will fit us to be the judges of the incoming age? How are we growing up into Christ in all things? Let us judge ourselves rigidly along these lines that we may indeed become like the Master and win his final approval.

The Apostle urges that we become established in the faith. This term refers to “the faith which was once delivered to the saints” ─ the one faith. This is to hold at all costs. Satan will attempt to divert our minds into other channels, to draw our attention to some new thing. But the plan of God, the truth of God, as revealed in Jesus Christ our Lord, is but one. It is given us for our instruction in righteousness, “that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto every good work.” (2 Tim. 3:17) It is not the truth of Geometry or Trigonometry or Geology or Astronomy or any other science that we are to be diligent to study and be grounded and built up in, but God’s Word (John 17:17). These other truths are very well in their way, but we have little time to study these now. We shall have all eternity in which to learn all the wonders of creation, but now we are to apply ourselves especially to the mastery of spiritual truth, the deep things of the mystery of God, revealed to his saints for a specific purpose.

AN ESTABLISHED CHRISTIAN NOT A BIGOT

The truth embraces all the scriptural teachings relative to Christ and his work, to our relationship to him as members of His Body, and to the brethren as fellow-members. We are to abide therein with thanksgiving. We should familiarize ourselves with the different features of this truth more and more. We should be clear in regard to what our Lord taught and why he taught it, and should know how to connect the different parts of the truth into a harmonious whole. We are to be thoroughly furnished. We are heartily to appreciate the loving kindness of our God in revealing to us these glorious things, and to realize that we did not originate them ourselves, nor was any man the originator of them, but the Lord himself. They are the gift of God to us, and we are to be most thankful for this great gift, to guard it jealously as a priceless treasure, and to let our light shine to the glory of God’s name.

The general sentiment among the teachers of false doctrine, and even among the world in general, who do not believe in the necessity or the advisability of being established in faith, is that to be established is to be bigoted. Those who are so unfair in mind as to receive and tenaciously hold what they have never proven, either by sound logic or by the authority of the Word of God, are rightly called bigots. But one who in simple, childlike faith accepts and firmly holds to what God has inspired, what he has caused to be written in his Word for our instruction, is not a bigot, but a strong, established character, and will stand when all the structures built upon the numerous theories and imaginings of men shall have fallen. The great day now upon us is trying every man’s character-structure, of what sort it is, and but very few, even among professed Christians, will stand the test.

The few who will pass safely through this crucial trial without loss are those only who have become established in the truth of God, “rooted and grounded and built up into Christ.” The difference between a strong and steadfast Christian and a bigot is that one is established in truth, and the other is established in error. The “fire” of this day will continue to burn and to manifest the great difference between the two classes, until all have been tested and tried and found worthy or unworthy.

IMPORTANCE OF SELF·SCRUTINY

The Apostle’s words in our text lead each child of God back to the time when he first made his own consecration. Under what conditions did we come into Christ? We recall that it required much humility on our part to acknowledge that we were sinners, utterly unable to save ourselves. Some seem to forget the way in which they started. They started with faith and humility and meekness, and with the desire to be truly built up into the Master’s likeness. But they seem by degrees to lose sight of this, and begin to grow in another direction than straight upward into the fullness of Christ. They like to make some show before the world. They come to neglect the first principles of Christian development, while still talking about the doctrine, or making up doctrines of their own.

Thus gradually these get away from the doctrines and the Spirit of Christ. The Apostle puts us on guard against these dangers: Are you sure that you ever really received Christ! Are you sure that you ever actually made a full consecration to God and became a New Creature? You should know this. If you did, then make sure that you are progressing in his likeness. Without careful scrutiny, you might think you are progressing when you are not. The narrow way remains narrow unto the end of the journey; a mere profession of faith and a certain round of observances are not sufficient. Remember that we are to confess the Lord by our looks, by our manner, by all the acts and words of life.

Only by continual scrutiny of ourselves in the light of God’s Word can we make real progress in the narrow way in which our Master walked. Truth is to become brighter and fuller and more luminous as we go onward. To this end, we must keep close to the Word and in line with his program. The Lord will not accept little, undeveloped sprouts for the Kingdom, but he wants those that have grown and matured ─ strong, sturdy “trees of righteousness.” (Isa. 61:3)

GOD'S WORD ALONE WILL UP BUILD

Delve into the promises of God more and more. As you do this, the roots of faith will draw up the nutriment and send it out into your life, and you will grow, just as a tree grows, because nourished, fed. Thus alone will you become established in The Faith, and not in your imaginings nor the imaginings of others. Our faith is to grow stronger and more vigorous day by day. It is not to be a faith in ourselves or in anything apart from the Lord. Faith is what we started with in the beginning, and we shall need it in increasing measure as we go on in our upward way ─ faith in God and in his sure Word. All that we know as children of the Lord has come to us through the channel of Jesus, his holy apostles, and the prophets of old, and we are to continue feeding at this same table with thanksgiving.

We are not to feel a spirit of bondage, and say to ourselves, “I would like to ramble outside; I do not like to confine myself merely to what the Bible teaches. I would like more liberty.” This disposition is not the spirit of a true son of God. Such sentiments encouraged would lead to utter spiritual disaster. All such temptations, if they come, must be promptly and positively resisted. Our spirit should be one of deepest gratitude and thankfulness that we have been granted this glorious Divine revelation. Following thus in the Lord’s way, we find the only true joy, and can make the only true progress. “If ye do these things, ye shall never fall, for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 1:10,11)

(Pastor Russell, Reprints 5557-5559, October 14, 1914)

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MESSIAH’S KINGDOM TO BE INVISIBLE

Luke 17:20-37

“Behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.” (Luke 17:21)

Our understanding of the Master’s words depends considerably upon the setting in which we see them. John the Baptist preceded Jesus and preached the Kingdom of God at hand. In due time he pointed out Jesus as the Messiah that should come, the Lamb of God. After waiting for months for Jesus to establish himself as an earthly king, and finding instead that his own work was closing, he was put into prison by Herod. John then sent to Jesus to inquire whether or not he was the one that should come or whether they should look for another. He was disappointed in not seeing evidences of the Kingdom, as he had expected.

The scribes and the Pharisees heard of the claim that Jesus was the long-promised King who would set up his Messianic Kingdom, and they derided him. They looked at his motley company of followers ─ publicans and sinners as well as honorable people, but none of special rank, influence or wealth. They considered Jesus a deceiver and his followers dupes. Our lesson tells how they attempted to expose what they supposed was a deception of Jesus, thus to turn away the delusion of his followers. Therefore they asked him in public the question, When will God’s Kingdom come? How long will it be before you set it up?

Doubtless they purposed to entrap Jesus; for if he should say, A long time, his followers would be disheartened; if he should say, A short time, they would proceed to query, Where will you get your army? How will you pay your soldiers? How will you supply them with food? Will you go to Rome to battle with the powers that be that our whole nation has been unable to cope with? etc.

But these Pharisees got only as far as their first question, because the answer to it confuted them, and no doubt perplexed them. Jesus answered that God’s Kingdom would not come with observation; that is to say, when the Kingdom should come, people would not see it. Proceeding, Jesus elaborated, saying that when the Kingdom of God should be established, people would not see whether it was here or there; for the Kingdom of God would be the power of God exerted everywhere in the midst of the people.

Our translation is faulty, though evidently not intentionally so, when it reads, “For, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” The translators, had they noticed carefully, would have been on guard against saying that the Kingdom of God was within those Pharisees that Jesus had designated hypocrites, whited sepulchres, etc (Matt. 23:27). A closer examination of the original would have shown that the text would better be translated, “The kingdom of God is in your midst.”

A kingdom is always represented by its king. Jesus, as the King, was present in their midst, but they did not recognize him. “There standeth One among you whom ye know not.” Similarly, all through the Gospel Age, the Church of Christ, his “body,” has been undiscerned by the world. “The world knoweth us not, even as it knew him not.” (1 John 3:1) For eighteen hundred years this has been true in this sense; but Christ and the Church in the flesh are not the Kingdom of God in the full, proper sense that the Bible promises it ─ a Kingdom of power and great glory. Christ and the Church have been only the incipient Kingdom, an embryotic Kingdom ─ the Kingdom class, preparing for investiture of authority in God’s due time, which we believe is now near.

The Kingdom is to be a spiritual one, and hence its rulers will be as invisible as are the angels and the heavenly Father. Jesus declared, “Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more.” (John 14:19) What was true of the Head will be true of every member of the elect Body of Christ, the Church. “Changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye” (1 Cor. 15:51,52), the world will see them no more; “for flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 15:50), and flesh and blood cannot see that which is spiritual.

During the Millennium, the Kingdom authority and power of God through Christ and the Church will be exercised amongst men; and yet they will not see it with the natural eye, but merely with the eyes of their understanding. All the blind eyes will be opened. Thus every eye will see that the kingdom is established; and every one will understand that he who suffered has entered into his glory, that the Church, His Bride, is with him in glory, and that the blessings of the Millennium proceed from them (Rev. 20:6).

“DAYS OF THE SON OF MAN”

Turning from the silenced Pharisees to his disciples, Jesus said, “The days will come when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and ye shall not see it.” (Luke 17:22) This was astonishing news to the faithful. Yet they were accustomed to hearing from the Master things which they could not understand; such as that they must eat of his flesh and drink of his blood, that he must be crucified, etc. They took all these things figuratively and wondered what might be the real interpretation. How could Jesus be the great King, as they had expected, and yet they not see him and his days?

Jesus continued to discuss the enigma, saying, “They shall say to you, See here; or, See there: go not after them, nor follow.” (Luke 17:23) In a word, do not believe anybody who will thus tell yon about my Second Coming; do not be deceived into believing that I will come in any such manner. I will tell you how I shall come: “As the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, and shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of Man be in his day." (Luke 17:24)

This astounding statement is better understood when we translate the Greek noun astrape as “shining” instead of “lightning”; for evidently it refers to the sun, which rises in the east and sets in the west, shining out of the one part of the heaven even unto the other. But how will this represent the Son of Man in his day? How will he be like the sun? We answer that the day of Christ is a thousand-year day, the Millennium; and our Lord’s statement was one of the “dark sayings” of which Jesus said, “I have many things to tell you, but ye cannot bear them now,” and promised that in due time the Holy Spirit would grant them all enlightenment, that all of his words might he clearly understood. This portion, now due to be understood, is therefore becoming clear to those of spiritual discernment.

Then, that they might gradually learn that these things belonged to a distant time, Jesus explained that first he must suffer many things and be rejected of that nation. Coming back to an explanation of what would be the signs of his presence, in answer to their question as recorded in Matthew 24, He declared, “As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man.”

Here we have something definite, concrete. We know what to look for at the time when the Kingdom will be due for establishment ─ the time when the Sun of Righteousness will begin to shine forth from one end of heaven to the other. The signs of the time will not be in the outward condition of the world; for on the contrary everything will be going along in as quiet and orderly a manner as ever, just as in the days of Noah, just as before the Deluge came, and just as in the days of Lot, before the destruction of Sodom ─ they ate, drank, married, built, bought, sowed, planted, as usual. These things are not signs of wickedness, but are mentioned to show us that there will be no outward sign to indicate to the world the time of the second presence of Christ, when he will begin to deal with the world and to set up His Kingdom.

THE DELUGE AND SODOM’S DESTRUCTION

Why introduce those two pictures ─ the Deluge and the destruction of Sodom ─ in conjunction, while talking of the establishment of Messiah’s Kingdom, which is to bless the world? The answer is that the Bible everywhere foretells that although Messiah’s Kingdom is the great provision of God which will lift the curse and bring in blessings world-wide, nevertheless it is to be established upon the wreck of our present institutions. And it is in this wreck of social, financial, political and religious institutions of the present time that Jesus illustrated by the Deluge and the destruction of Sodom. And his own presence preceding this Time of Trouble is to be unseen to the world, unknown to the world, unsuspected, unbelieved, until the cataclysm of trouble precipitates with suddenness.

This is not a charming picture. We are glad that we may turn from it, and note the silver lining of the cloud, and the glorious blessings which will speedily follow the establishment of the Kingdom on the ruins of our human failures. Emphasizing the suddenness with which the calamity will overtake the world, Jesus said that on the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained down fire and brimstone from heaven; and he declared that thus it will be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. The Greek text shows a difference between the parousia, or presence, of Christ before the Time of Trouble, and the later epiphania, or revealing.

The description of the revealing of Christ is given in the words, He shall be revealed in flaming fire (2 Thes. 1:7,8). Indeed, that Time of Trouble is frequently described symbolically in the Bible as a burning of the world ─ so much so, that all the creeds of Christendom express the thought that the earth is to be “burned.” They overlook the fact that the heavens are to be “burned” also.

In the symbolical usage of the Bible, the earth represents the social order of human affairs; the sea, the restless, discontented masses; the heavens, the ecclesiastical powers. St. Peter tells us that all these will pass away with a great confusion and that instead will come the new heavens and the new earth which God has promised (2 Peter 3:10-13). The new heavens will be the new ecclesiastical society ─ the Church in glory, joint-heirs with Christ in His Kingdom. The new earth will be the new social order which Messiah's Kingdom will establish.

SAINTS ON THE HOUSETOP

Again recurring to the period in which he will be present before being revealed “in flaming fire,” the Lord seems to assure us that all of his faithful ones will die, and be changed in the moment of dying, before the great trouble, the symbolic fire, will consume present institutions. In figurative language he says that in that day (of his parousia, presence, before his epiphania, revealing) those on the housetop, with their goods in the house, should not leave to take them out. What is here meant?

Briefly, we believe that the house represents the house of God, and those on the housetop represent the most saintly of the people of God. At that time such will come to realize the necessity for flight; and the question will arise, How much of their stuff, their valuables, will they seek to save? They are warned not to seek to save any of the stuff ─ considerations of social privileges, honor of men, sometimes titles of small offices; such as vestryman, deacon, elder, minister, etc. An attempt to save any of these things will mean disappointment. Everything must be forsaken, else the test of that time will not be successfully passed.

Likewise, any in the field must not turn back. The field represents the world. And any of the Lord’s people who have gone out into the world ─ who have left the church nominal ─ are not to go back; but learning the truth of the situation they are to flee to the Lord from the field.

St. Matthew’s account speaks of special troubles at that time upon such as are with child and give suck, which we believe is also symbolical, and refers to Christian people, seeking to convert the world and to teach beginners. These will be in special travail of soul, because of the change of dispensation and the call, “Come out of her, my people.” It will be especially difficult for such to hear and to obey that call.

In the flight from Sodom, Lot and his family were warned to make haste, and not even to look back to the things that were to be destroyed. So the Lord’s people are not to look back at the things to be destroyed. Give them no thought. “Flee out of Babylon!” “Deliver every man his own soul!” Lot's wife, disobeying, looked back longingly to the things of destruction, and failed to escape. The Lord applies this illustration to his people, and urges that their flight be with a full renunciation of the things of the present time. Whoever shall seek to save his life must lose it. Whoever will lose his life will thereby be preserving it ─ gaining the everlasting life.

(Pastor Russell, Reprints 5455-5456, May 1, 1914)

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GAINTS IN THE EARTH

“As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man.” (Luke 17:26)

In considering our Lord’s statement ─ that as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be at his coming [parousia, presence] in the end of this Age ─ it should be noted that the Lord’s presence will be unknown to the world; for this particular statement follows, that “As in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage...and knew not...so shall also the coming  [parousia, presence] of the Son of Man be.” (Matt. 24:37-39)

This statement, however, does not imply that there is anything wrong in eating and drinking, etc., but rather that there will be little in an outward way to disturb man, in the crisis at the end of the Age. At the time of the flood, at the end of the first dispensation, there was apparently nothing to indicate that anything unusual was about to happen. Evidently the Lord meant us to draw conclusions from this fact that as calamity was inevitable then, so it will be  inevitable now.

The end of the first dispensation and that of this present dispensation are wonderfully similar. Previous to the end of the first dispensation a superhuman influence had entered into the world. Power from an angelic source had produced very undesirable conditions, to the extent of bringing into unauthorized existence a race who were “men of renown” and “giant” in strength. (Gen. 6:1-4) Today we find a similar condition. Whatever portion of the spirit of the truth has entered in to an evilly disposed human mind evil conditions on a gigantic scale have often been produced. Where else in the whole world can we find more intellectual power than in those who have come in contact with the Spirit of the Lord, the spirit of the truth? But when this spirit of knowledge enters into an evil heart, evil will result.

This spirit has produced men of renown, men of mental acumen, men who are able to do wonderful things. The remarkable achievements of our time, the wonderful inventions of all kinds, would not have been possible except for the fact that the Spirit of the Lord is abroad in the earth. But the general tendency of this combination ─ the spirit of knowledge in an evil heart ─ has been to produce giants, who “walk up and down” the land and are known as the Sugar Trust, the Coal Trust, etc. As the giants were in control in the days of Noah, so the giants are getting more and more control of the situation now. Just as it was then, so today the giants are liable to capture the whole world. As the flood destroyed those giants, so at this time the great cataclysm of trouble will drown all trusts and other commerce agencies which oppress mankind. We read that they will be utterly destroyed; that there will be no hope of resuscitation.

(Pastor Russell, Reprints 4797, April 1, 1911)

NO. 624 THE AUTHORSHIP AND CREDIBILITY OF THE BIBLE - PART TWO

(Continued from No. 623, July 2009)

2 Timothy 3:16

RELATIVE VALUES OF ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS

As to the relative values of ancient manuscripts, we quote the following comments from the pen of that eminent German scholar, Constantine Tischendorf, who spent many years of his life in diligently searching out and comparing the various ancient manuscripts and translations of the Scriptures in many languages, and who has furnished to the Church the results of his investigation in a careful exhibit of the various departures of the English Authorized Version of the New Testament from the three oldest and most important MSS.

Mr. Tischendorf says: “As early as the reign of Elizabeth the English nation possessed an authorized translation, executed by the Bishops under the guidance of Archbishop Parker; and this, half a century later, in the year 1611, was revised at the command of James the First by a body of learned divines, and became the present ‘Authorized Version.’ Founded as it was on the Greek text at that time accepted by Protestant theologians, and translated with scholarship and conscientious care, this version of the New Testament has deservedly become an object of great reverence, and a truly national treasure to the English Church. The German Church alone possesses in Luther’s New Testament a treasure of similar value.

“The Authorized Version, like Luther’s, was made from a Greek text which Erasmus in 1516, and Robert Stephens in 1550, had formed from manuscripts of later date than the tenth century.  Whether those manuscripts were thoroughly trustworthy ─ in other words, whether they exhibited the Apostolic original as perfectly as possible ─ has long been a matter of diligent and learned investigation. Since the sixteenth century Greek manuscripts have been discovered of far greater antiquity than those of Erasmus and Stephens; as well as others in Latin, Syriac, Coptic, and Gothic, into which languages the sacred text was translated between the second and fourth centuries; while in the works of the Fathers, from the second century downwards, many quotations from the New Testament have been found and compared... One thing is agreed upon by the majority of those who understand the subject, namely, that the oldest copies approach the original text more nearly than the later ones.

“Providence has ordained for the New Testament more sources of the greatest antiquity than are possessed by all the old Greek literature put together. And of these, two manuscripts have for long been especially esteemed by Christian scholars, since, in addition to their great antiquity, they contain very nearly the whole of both the Old and New Testaments. Of these two, one is deposited in the Vatican, and the other in the British Museum. Within the last ten years a third has been added to the number, which was found at Mount Sinai, and is now at St.   Petersburg. These three manuscripts undoubtedly stand at the head of all the ancient copies of the New Testament, and it is by their standard that both the early editions of the Greek text and the modern versions are to be compared and corrected.

“The effect of comparing the common English text with the most ancient authorities will be as often to disclose agreement as disagreement. True, the three great manu-scripts alluded to differ from each other both in age and authority, and no one of them can be said to stand so high that its sole verdict is sufficient to silence all contradiction. But to treat such ancient authorities with neglect would be either unwarrantable arrogance or culpable negligence; and it would be indeed a misunderstanding of the dealings of Provi-dence, if after these documents had been preserved through all the dangers of fourteen or fifteen centuries, and delivered safe into our hands, we were not to receive them with thankfulness as the most valuable instruments for the elucidation of Truth.

“It may he urged that our undertaking is opposed to true reverence; and that by thus exposing the inaccuracies of the English version, we shall bring discredit upon a work which has been for centuries the object of love and veneration both in public and private. But those who would stigmatize the process of scientific criticism and test, which we propose, as irreverent, are greatly mistaken. To us the most reverential course appears to be, to accept nothing as the Word of God which is not proved to be so by the evidence of the oldest, and therefore most certain, witnesses that He has put into our hands. With this in view, and with this intention, the writer has occupied himself for thirty years past, in searching not only the Libraries of Europe, but the obscurest convents of the East, both in Africa and Asia, for the most ancient manuscript of the Bible; and has done all in his power to collect the most important of such documents, to arrange them and to publish them for the benefit both of the present age and of posterity, so as to settle the original text of the sacred writers on the basis of the most careful investigation.

“The first of these great manuscripts already referred to which came into possession of Europe was the Vatican Codex. Whence it was acquired by the Vatican Library is not known; but it appears in the first catalogue of that collection, which dates from the year 1475. The manuscript embraces both the Old and New Testaments. Of the latter it contains the four Gospels, the Acts, the seven Catholic Epistles, nine of the Pauline Epistles, and the Epistle to the Hebrews as far as ix. 14, from which verse to the end of the New Testament it is deficient; so that not only the last chapters of Hebrews, but the Epistle to Timothy, Titus and Philemon as well as the Revelation, are missing. The peculiarities of the writing, the arrangement of the manuscript, and the character of the text ─ especially certain very remarkable readings ─ all combine to place the execution of the Codex in the fourth century.

“The Alexandrine Codex was presented to King Charles the First in 1628 by Cyril Lucar, Patriarch of Constantinople, who had himself brought it from Alexandria, of which place he was formerly Patriarch, and whence it derives its name. It contains both the Old and New Testaments. Of the New the following passages are wanting: Matt. 1:1 to 25:6; John 6:50 to 8:52; 2 Cor. 4:13 to 12:6... It would appear to have been written about the middle of the fifth century.

“The Sinaitic Codex I was myself so happy as to discover in 1844 and 1859, at the Convent of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai, in the later of which years I brought it to Russia to the Emperor Alexander the Second, at whose instance my second journey to the East was undertaken. It contains both Old and New Testaments ─ the latter perfect without the loss of a single leaf... All the considerations which tend to fix the date of manuscripts lead to the conclusion that the Sinaitic Codex belongs to the middle of the fourth century. Indeed, the evidence is clearer in this case than in that of the Vatican Codex; and it is not improbable (which cannot be the case with the Vatican MS.) that it is one of the fifty copies of which the Emperor Constantine in the year 331 directed to be made for Byzantium, under the care of Eusebius of Caesarea. In this case it is a natural inference that it was sent from Byzantium to the monks of St. Catherine by the Emperor Justinian, the founder of the convent. The entire Codex was published by its discoverer, under the orders of the Emperor of Russia, in 1862, with the most scrupulous exactness, and in a truly magnificent shape, and the New Testament portion was issued in a portable form in 1863 and 1865.

“These considerations seem to show that the first place among the three great manuscripts, both for age and extent, is held by the Sinaitic Codex, the second by the Vatican, and the third by the Alexandrine. And this order is completely confirmed by the text they exhibit, which is not merely that which was accepted in the East at the time they were copied; but, having been written by Alexandrine copyists who knew but little of Greek, and therefore had no temptation to make alterations, they remain in a high degree faithful to the text which was accepted through a large portion of Christendom in the third and second centuries. The proof of this is their agreement with the most ancient translations ─ namely, the so‑called Italic, made in the second century in proconsular Africa;  the Syriac Gospels of the same date, now transferred from the convents of the Nitrian desert to the British Museum; and the Coptic version of the third century. It is confirmed also by their agreement with the oldest of the Fathers, such as Irenaeus, Tertullian, Clement and Origen.

“These remarks apply to the Sinaitic Codex ─ which is remarkably close in its agreement to the ‘Italic’ version ─ more than they do to the Vatican MS., and still more so than the Alexandrine, which, however, is of far more value in the Acts, Epistles and Apocalypse than it is in the Gospels.

“No single work of ancient Greek classical literature can command three such original witnesses as the Sinaitic, Vatican and Alexandrine Manuscripts, to the integrity and accuracy of its text. That they are available in the case of a book which is at once the most sacred and the most important in the world is matter for the deepest thankfulness to God.”

OTHER MEANS OF VERIFICATION

Another remarkable means for preserving and verifying the New Testament writings is their copious quotation in other writings. Origen, who wrote in the early part of the third century, quotes 5745 passages from all the books in the New Testament; Tertullian (A.D. 200) makes more than 3000 quotations from the New Testament books; Clement (A.D. 194) quotes 380 passages; Irenaeus (A.D. 178) quotes 767 passages; Polycarp, who was martyred A.D. 165, after serving Christ 86 years, quoted 36 passages in a single epistle; Justin Martyr (A.D. 140) also quotes from the New Testament. These were all Christian writers; and in addition to these, the Scriptures were largely quoted by heathen and infidel writers, among them Celsus (A.D. 150) and Porphyry (A.D. 304). Indeed the entire New Testament, with the exception of about a dozen verses, has been found scattered as quotations through various writings that are still extant. And if every copy of the New Testament had been destroyed by its enemies, the book could have been reproduced from these quotations contained in the writings of the early Christians and their enemies.

While the means for the preservation of the Scriptures have been thus remarkably complete, and in view of the unparalleled opposition with which they have met give evidence of Divine care in their preservation, the means for their verification, and for arriving at an understanding of them in God’s due time, are found to be none the less remarkable. No other book in the world has ever had such attention as this book. The labor that has been spent in the preparation of complete concordances, indexes, various translations, etc., has been enormous; and the results to students of the Bible are of incalculable value. And while we recognize the providence of God in all this, we should and do appreciate these labors of His children and their great service to us, though we utterly repudiate as useless the labor that has been spent on many so-called theological writings, which are nothing more than miserable efforts to support the vain traditions of men, the accumulated monstrous volumes of which would indeed form a monument of human folly.

Just in “The Time of the End,” when the prophet (Dan. 12:9,10) declares that “the wise [the meek and faithful children of God] shall understand,” we find these wonderful aids coming forward to our assistance. And parallel with these has happened the general spread of intelligence and education and the placing of the Bible in the hands of the people, thus enabling them to use the helps provided.

In view of these things, our only reasonable conclusion must be, that this wonderful book has been completely under Divine supervision in its preparation, and in its gradual and seasonable unfolding to the understanding; and yet it has all been accomplished through human agency. Those who are too careless, or too indifferent, or who permit themselves to be too much engrossed with the cares of this life to give it a studious examination, should not be expected to comprehend its weight of authority, and its full evidence of credibility. We are aware of the fact that in these days when the art of printing has flooded the world with literature of every description, good, bad, and indif-ferent, one might reasonably reply, We cannot examine everything. Very true, but this book has a claim superior to that of any other book in the world, and no man is as justifiable in laying it upon the shelf, as he would be in doing with the Koran or the Vedas.

The very existence of such a book, animated with such a spirit of justice, wisdom, love and power, and disclosing such good tidings of great joy to all people, having such a history and authorship, and containing such varied information ─ historic, scientific, and moral; and so remarkably preserved for so many centuries, though so violently opposed, is sufficient to awaken at least a suspicion of its value, and to claim the attention and investigation of every reasoning mind. The claims of this book upon our attention are by far superior to those of any other, and these reasonable claims appear on its very surface, while every systematic and properly directed effort at investigation rewards the diligent student with copious and abundant proof, both of its truthfulness and of its value.

THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE

The Bible claims to be a book written under Divine inspiration. The word inspire signifies to breathe in, to infuse, to fill, to inhale ─ as to inspire the lungs with air. (See Webster’s Dictionary.) Hence, when it is said that certain scriptures, or writings of godly men, were given by inspiration of God (2 Tim. 3:16), it signifies that those men were in some way, whether through miraculous or natural means, inspired by, or brought under the influence of God; so as to be used by Him in speaking or writing such words as He wished to have expressed. The prophets and apostles all claimed such inspiration. Peter says, “The prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” (2 Peter 1:21)

Through Moses we have the Law of God and the only existing credible history of mankind from the creation of Adam down to his own time, covering a period of about 2500 years. While Moses and the other Bible writers were holy men, inspired with pure motives and holy zeal, and while personal pride, ambition, etc., were no part of their spirit, we learn that Moses was inspired with the knowledge of God’s Law, both in its great principles and also in the minutiae of its typical ceremonials, by revelation from God at Mount Sinai, and of some points of duty at the burning bush at Horeb, etc.

As for his historical writings, Moses was evidently guided of God in the collation and presentation in its present complete and connected form of the history of the world down to his day, which was really in great part the history of his own family back to Adam with an account of the creation doubtless given by God to Adam while he was yet in fellowship in Eden. Nor does a correct handing down of family information, covering a period of over 2300 years, seem impossible, or liable, as it would now be, to have become polluted; for, aside from the fact that it was handed down through the God-fearing family line of Seth, it should be remembered that at that time the bodies, brains and memories of men were not so weak as they are now, and as they have been since the flood; and finally, because the long lives of two men link Adam with the family of Abraham, the family of covenant favor ─ with Isaac, the typical seed of promise.  These two men were Methuselah and Shem. Methuselah was over 200 years old when Adam died, and had abundant opportunity, therefore, for information at first hands; and Shem, the son of Noah, lived contemporaneously with Methuselah for 98 years, and with Isaac for 50 years.  Thus, these two living, God‑fearing men acted as God’s historians to communicate His revelations and dealings to the family in whom centered the promises, of which Moses was one of the prospective heirs.

In addition to these facts, we have the statement of Josephus that Methuselah, Noah and Shem, the year before the flood, inscribed the history and discoveries of the world on two monuments of stone and brick which were still standing in Moses’ time.

As for the writings of the prophets, their devoted, godly lives attest their sincerity; their lives were spent for God and in the defense of righteousness, and not for gain and worldly honor. And as for proofs that God acted through them and that they merely expressed His messages, as Peter declares, it is to be found in the fulfilment of their predictions. These we need not enumerate here and now, as they are elaborated in MILLENNIAL DAWN, Volumes I and II; and will be further discussed in Vol. III, now in course of preparation.

This brings us to the examination of the inspiration of the New Testament. Of the four gospel narratives and the book of the Acts of the Apostles, which are merely historic narratives, it might with considerable force be argued that no inspiration was necessary. But we must remember that since it was God’s will that the important doings and teachings of our Lord and his disciples should be handed down, for the information and guidance of His Church throughout the Age, it was necessary that God, even while leaving the writers free to record those truths in their own several styles of expression and arrangement, should nevertheless exercise a supervision of His work. To this end it would appear reasonable that He would cause circumstances, etc., to call to the memory of one or another of them items and details which, otherwise, in so condensed an account of matters so important, would have been overlooked.  And this was no less the work of God’s spirit, power, or influence than the more noticeable and peculiar manifestations through the prophets.

The Apostle Peter tells us that the prophets of old time often did not understand their own utterances, as they themselves also acknowledge (1 Peter 1:12; Dan. 12:4, 8‑10); and we should remember that the twelve apostles (Paul taking the place of Judas ─ Gal. 1:17; 1 Tim. 2:7) not only filled the office of apostles ─ or specially appointed teachers and expounders of the Gospel of the New Covenant ─ but they also, especially Peter and Paul and John, filled the office of prophets, and were not only given the spirit of wisdom and understanding by which they were enabled to understand and explain the previously dark prophecies, but in addition to this we believe that they were under the guidance and supervision of the Lord to such an extent that their references to things future from their day, things therefore not then due to be fully understood, were guided, so as to be true to an extent far beyond their comprehension, and such consequently were as really prophetic as the utterances of the old‑time prophets. Illustrations of this are to be found in the Revelations of the Apostle John, in Peter’s symbolic description of the Day of the Lord (2 Peter 3:10‑13), and in numerous references to the same period by Paul also, among which were some things hard to be understood even by Peter (2 Peter 3:16) and only partially then by Paul himself. The latter, however, was permitted to see future things more clearly than others of his time, and to that end he was given special visions and revelations which he was not allowed to make known to others (2 Cor. 12:1‑4), but which, nevertheless, influ-enced and colored his subsequent teachings and epistles. And these very items which Peter thought strange of, and called “hard to be understood,” are the very items which now, in God’s due time, for which they were intended, so grandly illuminate not only Peter’s prophecies and John’s Revelation, but the entire word and plan of God ─ that the man of God may be thoroughly furnished (2 Tim. 3:16,17).

That the early Church considered the writings and teachings of the apostles different from all others, in authority, is manifest from the early arrangement of these writings together and the keeping separate from these, as apocryphal, other good writings of other good men. And yet there were, even in the days of the apostles, ambitious men who taught another gospel and claimed for themselves the honors of special revelations and authority as apostles and teachers of no less authority than the twelve apostles.

And ambitious men of the same sort have from time to time since arisen ─ ­Emanuel Swedenborg and many less able and less notable ─ whose claims, if conceded, would not only place them in rank far above Paul, the prince of the apostles, but whose teachings would tend to discredit entirely, as “old wives’ fables,” the whole story of redemption and remission of sins through the blood of the cross. These would‑be apostles, boastful, heady, high‑minded, have “another gospel,” a perversion of the gospel of Christ; and above all they despise and seek to cast discredit upon the words of Paul who so clearly, forcibly and logically lifts up the standard of faith and points to the cross ─ the ransom ─ as the sure foundation, and who so clearly showed that pseudo‑apostles, false apostles, would arise and deceive many.

It not only required an inspiration to write God’s plan, but it also requires an inspiration of the Almighty to give an understanding of that revelation; yet this inspiration is of a different sort. When any one has realized himself a sinner, weak, imperfect and condemned, and has accepted of Christ as his Redeemer, and full of love and appreciation has consecrated his heart (his mind, his will) to the Lord, to henceforth please not himself but his Redeemer, God has arranged that such a consecration of the natural mind brings a new mind. It opens the way for the Holy mind or will of God, expressed through His written word, to be received; and as it is received into such a good, honest, consecrated heart, it informs that heart and opens the eyes of the understanding, so that from the new standpoint (God’s standpoint) many things wear a very different aspect, and among other things the Scripture teachings, which gradually open up as item after item of the Divine Plan is fulfilled, and new features of the unfolding plan become due to be understood, and from the new standpoint appreciated and accepted.

Just as with astronomers, the close observation of facts and influences already recognized often leads them to look in certain directions for hitherto undiscovered planets, and they find them, so with the seekers after spiritual truths; the clear appreciation and close study of the known plan lead gradually, step by step, to the discovery of other particulars, hitherto unnoticed, each of which only adds to the beauty and harmony of the truths previously seen. Thus it is that “The path of the just is a shining light which shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” (Prov. 4:18)

Of course the writings of all such as have their wills fully subjected to the mind of God, as revealed in His Word, must be also somewhat inspired by God’s spirit, received from His Word by their complete subjection to its leading. The spirit of the truth inspires and controls to a greater or lesser extent not only their pens but their words and thoughts, and even their very looks. Yet such an inspiration, common to all the Saints, in proportion to their development, should be critically distinguished from the special and peculiarly guided and guarded inspiration of the twelve apostles, whom God specially appointed to be the teachers of the Church, and who have no successors in this office. Only twelve were “chosen,” and when one of these, Judas, fell from his honorable office, the Lord in due time appointed Paul to the place; and He not only has never recognized others, but clearly indicates that He never will recognize others in that office (Rev. 21:14).

With the death of the Apostles the canon of Scripture closed, because God had there given a full and complete revelation of His plan for man’s salvation; though some of it was in a condensed form which has since expanded and is expanding and unfolding and will continue to expand and shine more and more until the perfect day ─ the Millennial Day ─ has been fully ushered in. Paul expresses this thought clearly when he declares that the Holy Scriptures are able to make wise unto salvation, and that they are sufficient.

As we consider, then, the completeness, harmony, purity and grandeur of the Bible, its age and wonderful preservation through the wreck and storms of six thousand years, it must be admitted to be a most wonderful book; and those who have learned to read it understandingly, who see in it the great Plan of the Ages, cannot doubt that God was its inspiring Author, as well as its Preserver. Its only parallel is the book of nature by the same great Author. (Pastor Russell, Reprints 1144-1149, September 1889)

“POPE’S PASS ON ANTISEMITE CLERIC ANGERS: That Jews are perplexed at what the Pope says and does could qualify as the Hebraiac understatement of the new millennium. Specifically Jewish leaders and Holocaust historians seem unable to reconcile Pope Benedict XVI’s quote that he feels ‘full and indisputable solidarity’ with the Jews and his Holiness’s decision the very next day to nullify the excommunication of a bishop who denied that Jews were gassed in the Nazi death camps.

“The Bishop in question, Richard Williamson, one of four traditionalist bishops whose excommunication were lifted, believes ─ contrary to historic documentation ─ that 6,000,000 Jews did not die in the Holocaust and none by being gassed. Leaders, including Nobel laureate Elie Wisel, and proactive Catholics say the Vatican’s decision has done irreparable harm to a half-century of ecumenical dialogue, which prompted Israel’s Chief Rabbinate immediate protest and suspension of official ties with the Vatican. Such outrage was expressed by organizations including the World Jewish Congress, that the Pope demanded that Bishop Williamson retract his Holocaust denial before being admitted to the church.”

“NEWS UPDATE… SPOTLIGHT ON DR. DEATH: Every time Nazi hunters got near the truth of the whereabouts or the fate of Airbert Heim, the monstrous physician who administered horrific deaths to his subjects as the Buchenwald, Mauthausen and Sachenhausen concentration camps ‘in the name of science,’ some obstacle arose either in South America (one of his likely known addresses) and now it appears in Egypt, said to be his final residence before his reputed death sometime in 1992. Why the Egyptians remain close-mouthed on this criminal and why he was able to elude justice could be one of the most enduring modern mysteries of Arab-complicit Nazi-sympathizing.”

“SYNAGOGUES UNDER ATTACK: World Jewry may not be shocked at the level of vitriol hurled at it, but the quantity and the levels of violence spilling over into the desecration and destruction of synagogues is indeed shocking. Synagogues in Europe and Venezuela have come under attack by armed men, fire-bombings and a hand-grenade, and the State of Israel and the World Jewish Congress have made their urgent concerns to the appropriate governments publicly loud and clear.

“The European Jewish Congress is calling on the EU to take action in the wake of assaults on synagogues in Paris, Brussels, London, Toulouse, and Helsingborg and unusually hateful rhetoric, protest chants and postings of ‘Death to the Jews’ and other inciting, offensive language. Venezuelan Jewish community president Abraham Livy Benshimol speaking at the WJC Plenary Assembly in Jerusalem recently said: ‘Where we live, anti-Semitism is sanctioned.’”

(The above 3 items are from World Jewry, April 2009)  

IN THE PRESENCE OF THE KING

If we could always feel each little thing

We do, each hour we spend

Within the presence of the King,  

What dignity 'twould lend!

If we could realize our every thought

Is known to Him, our King,

With how great carefulness would it be fraught,     

And what a blessing bring!    

If, when some sharp word leaves a cruel sting,

Our faith could know and feel

'Twas heard within the presence of the King,

How soon the wound would heal!

Oh, when the song of life seems hard to sing,

And darker grows the way,

Draw nearer to the presence of the King,

And night shall turn to day!