No. 658 THE REIGN OF CHRIST

The thousand-year reign of Christ, “whose right it is,” will be the most marked and eventful “day” in the history of the human race – a Mil­lennium “day” to be especially remembered through­out the ages to follow.

For more than six thousand years death has been swallowing up the race almost as fast as it has come into existence. The elements of deter­ioration and decay, physical, mental, and moral, are at work at the very conception of a new human life. But the seventh thousand-year day shall witness the revers­ing of this order and the undoing of all the work of sin and destruction. So thorough will be its work that when this New Day closes, no force or governmental power will be necessary to secure obedience to God’s will; for his will shall be “done on earth” as completely “as it is done in heaven.” (Matt. 6:10)

The great work to be accomplished by the Messiah during this Millennial Age is Resurrection and Restoration. It is not presumable that we shall be able to fully comprehend the philosophy of the resur­­rection or the re-creation. The work of creating a living, intelligent being is a work beyond our comprehension.

We can much less comprehend the re‑creation of a being who has been completely destroyed, and as the same person, brought back so that he will remember himself as having lived before, and that others will recognize as the same individual whom they previously knew. But when we remember that God created the first man, Adam, out of the dust of the ground “Why should it be thought a thing incredible that God should raise the dead?” (Acts 26:8)

The awakening from death will be one of the events of this Millennial Day though not the only, nor the first event. The dead will be awakened, probably in reverse order, after surrounding circum­stances are favorable to their return. The exception to this will be the Worthies who were reckoned perfect through their faith before Christ opened the door to the High Calling and after he closed it at the end of the “times of the Gentiles” when the prescribed number of His Bride had been selected.

For some of the names of the Ancients of before the Door was opened see Chapter 11 of Hebrews. These two worthy classes will come forth, already restored to perfection before the unbelieving world at the last of the “day of his preparation” (Nahum 2:3), which will have made the living nations ready to accept his Kingdom and righteous authority. The chief among these living nations, the Bible informs us, will be Israel restored to glory and prominence, exalted above all other nations – “the joy of the whole earth.” (Psa. 48:2) “For the Lord shall yet choose Jerusalem.” (Zech. 1:17) And next in position of favor will come other living nations in proportion as they appreciate and conform to the law of the reign of earth’s New Ruler.

Christ “day of preparation” will first consist of “a time of trouble” (Dan. 12:1) unlike any that has been since the beginning of the world (Matt. 24:21). He must first bind the strong man (Matt. 12:29), the god of this world (2 Cor. 4:4), “this present evil world.” (Gal. 1:4) The binding of this usurper and his minions both spiritual and fleshly will be by The Christ, who’s right it is by God’s anointment. The ensuing of the Time of Trouble is likened in Scripture to the travail of pregnancy with waves of pain, growing in intensity until the child (the New Kingdom) is delivered. The ferociousness at the end of this Time of Trouble will be such that all with even the slightest sympathy toward the existence of the empires of Satan will be removed. Those left at that time will be the sincerely willing for the new Kingdom to come when Christ will say “peace, be still.” (Mark 4:39) No one should presume that the dead would be brought back to be subjected to the same old environment, temptations and snares that made shipwrecks of him or her before. Satan will be bound, and there will be no licensed evils and no allurements to vice. All lines of business, which tempt humanity by seducing them through the weaknesses of their fallen nature and the un­balance of their mental and moral qualities, will be stopped. All greed inspiring, time killing and character depraving businesses will be eliminated. Moral reforms will be instituted along all lines, and financial, social and religious questions will be recast in harmony with both justice and love. Judgment will be “laid to the line and righteousness to the plummet.” (Isa. 28:17) All of earth’s affairs will be squared and plumbed and brought into strict conformity with righteous­ness. The nations will be ruled by irresistible force until a righteous order is established by a general submission, for “every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess.” (Rom. 14:11) Divine power and authority; and outward obedience will be compulsory. It is declared, “He shall rule the nations with a rod of iron.” (Rev. 19:15) The rod and power rule will continue throughout the Millennial Age, for he must reign until all opposition is “put under his feet.” As the personification of wisdom power and authority in the Millennial Age, the prophet, speaking for the New Ruler, declares: “Counsel is mine and sound wisdom; I am understanding; I have strength. By me kings’ reign and princes decree justice. By me princes rule and nobles even all the judges of the earth. I love them that love me; and they that seek me early [in the New Day] shall find me. Riches and honor are with me; yea, durable riches and right­eousness. My fruit is better than gold, yea, than fine gold; and my revenue than choice silver. I lead in the way of righteousness in the midst of the paths of judgment, that I may cause those that love me to inherit [the earth] a lasting possession; and their treasuries will I fill... he who findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favor of the Lord, but he that sin­neth against me wrongeth his own soul; all they that hate me love death.” (Prov. 8:14‑21,35,36)

It might be with serious apprehension that we would contemplate the establishment of the most autocratic government the world has ever known, in which the lives, property and every interest of mankind will rest absolutely in the hands of the King, without appeal, were it not that we have the most absolute and convincing proof that every regulation and arrange­ment of the Kingdom is designed for the benefit of its subjects. The King of that Mediatorial Kingdom so loved those over whom he is to reign that he gave his life to secure for them the right of an individual trial for everlasting life; and the very object of his Millennial reign is to assist them in that trial. As the Redeemer of man, it is he “whose right it is” to control that which he pur­chased with his own blood. When the living nations learn to be still and to know that Christ is Lord (Psa. 46:10), then the “preparation” work will be accomplished, and the glorious work of Resur­rection and Restoration “spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets” will begin, which work will consist in restoring mankind back to their “former estate” of human perfection and God’s image.

The awakening from death, as well as the restoration to health of those who are not completely dead, is the beginning of restoration, which work will not be entirely complete until the original perfection of body and mind, lost for the race by Adam, shall have been fully restored to all who are willing to accept the favor of God through the merit of his Son’s Atonement. An illustration of how a sick man may be restored to health is given in the book of Job (33:19-26):

“He [man] is chastened with pain upon his bed and the multitude of his bones with strong pain so that his life abhorreth bread and his soul dainty meat [choice food]. His flesh is consumed away that it cannot be seen [being so emaciated], and his bones that were not [originally] seen, stick out. Yea, his soul draweth near unto the grave [death] and his life to the destroyers [decay and corruption]. If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter [to explain the Atonement] one among a thousand [it is not many who believe in the logic of the Great Atonement to show unto man what is right for him then he [God] is gracious unto him [the man] and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit [the grave], I [God] have found [recognized] a ransom [for him]. His [the man’s] flesh shall be[come] fresher than a child’s, he shall return to the days of his youth. He shall pray unto God and he [God] will be favorable unto him, and he [the man] shall see his [own, youthful] face with joy, for he [God] will render unto man his righteousness.”

The Bible declares, “all these things are written for our instruction upon whom the ends of the ages are come,” “for whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning... that we might have hope.” (1 Cor. 10:11; Rom. 15:14)

The awakening from the sleep of death will find a man the same kind of person morally and intellectually as he was when his existence terminated; hence the raising to perfection will be gradual and will require training, education and discipline, and we are told that Christ must “reign until he has put all enemies under his feet [subdued all opposition].” (1 Cor. 15:25) When sickness and pain are no more; when all sorrow and sighing and tears are forever banished; when death is completely blotted out; when man is restored to the image of his Maker; then and not until then will the object of the Messiah’s reign be accomplished. And after accomplishing the “restoration of all things,” Christ will deliver up the restored empire to “God, even the Father.” (1 Cor. 15:24) And we are assured that the time limit for this restoration work is one thousand years (Rev. 20:1‑4). It follows then, that the Millen­nium, the thousand years of Christ’s reign, shall complete the great work of salvation beyond which there is no probation.

Any person who gains full light and knowledge, either now or after death and resurrection, and who spurns the favor of God extended through his Son, shall be deemed worthy of the “second death.” The Apostle Paul declares “the last enemy to be destroyed is [Adamic] death.” (1 Cor. 15:26) The “second death” is not an enemy, but becomes a servant of righteousness inasmuch as it effects the permanent removal from earth’s society of all those who oppose a righteous govern­ment. Then Christ, at the end of his reign, shall present his finished restoration work to the Father, a work which will make manifest the wisdom, power, justice and love of God to all his intelligent creatures, and which will lead men to honor the Son who executed the plan, even as they honor the Father whose wisdom arranged it. Then the language written in every perfect human heart shall be, “I delight to do thy will, O God; thy law is written in my heart.” (Psa. 40:8)

Thus it is declared that the righteous Ruler “shall not fail nor be discouraged; he shall set judgment in the earth, and the isles shall wait for his law.” (Isa. 42: 4) “All the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.” (Isa. 52:10) “All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all kindreds of the nations shall worship before him, for the Kingdom is the Lord’s and he is the Governor among the nations.” (Psa. 22:27‑28) “And when thy judgments are in the earth the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.” (Isa. 26:9) These are but a sample of the many prophetic utterances in the Old Testament concerning restoration, and the New Testament takes up the strain and carries it forward to its final consummation – “And there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away.” (Rev. 21:4)

Thus we see that the reign of Christ over the affairs of earth is for a limited time, the Millennial Age, and for a particular purpose, Restoration, and it will terminate with the accomplish­ment of that purpose. Man as we have seen, through rebellion, forfeited his God‑given rights – among others, self‑government in harmony with God’s perfect law. Jesus’ Atonement sacrifice redeemed all those rights and secured the right for man not only to return personally to his “former estate” mentally, morally, and physically, but also to return to his former office as king of earth. The human race is a race of ransomed beings against whom Justice has no claim, who may be restored to life at the will and pleasure of the Redeemer who proclaimed that in due time, all in their graves would hear his voice and come forth.

Earth’s New Monarch, Christ Jesus, figuratively the second Adam or second Lifegiver, is the “everlasting Father” inasmuch as the life he gives will last forever (Isa. 9:6). And when man has been fully restored to the mental and moral image of God, and to his original dominion of earth, every animal and creature under man will instinctively recognize him as its ruler and master, and thus will be complete the great work of redemption and restoration planned and purposed from the beginning of the world, com­menced at the First Advent of Jesus and finished with the close of his Millennial reign. This is God’s plan not only as evidenced by every statement of the Scriptures, but it is the reasonable and logical conclusion to be drawn by the giving of an Atonement‑sacrifice for original sin. Moses records the first dim ray of hope of redemption and restoration for mankind in the first book of the Old Testament (Gen. 3: 15) – “The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head.”

In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul tells us who the “seed of the woman” is, in the words, “God sent forth his son made of a woman.” (Gal. 4:4) And the Apostle John tells us who the serpent is – “That old serpent which is the devil.” (Rev. 20:2) So, then, Jesus, the Son of God, “made of the woman,” will bruise the serpent’s head – will “destroy him that hath power of death, that is the Devil.” (Heb. 2:14)

Jesus having given himself a “ransom for all” and abolished the legality of the curse of death, his next work is to take to himself his great power and reign and abolish it in fact. But to bring man back to mental, moral, and physical perfec­tion, as God designs, in the way best suited to impress the lesson of present experience, he will require man to put forth an effort toward his own recovery, and this will require a “rod of iron rule,” a strong and an exacting government. And the honor of completing man’s recovery, the right to which he died to secure, is conferred upon Jesus Christ; and thus “the gov­ernment shall be upon his shoulder.” (Isa. 9:6) When all opposition is completely subdued; when all willful rejecters of Divine grace shall have been destroyed, the re­mainder of the redeemed race shall then be turned over to the heavenly Father, perfect and complete, fully restored to his own image and likeness. The Bible expresses the matter in these words: “Then cometh the end [of Christ’s reign] when he shall have delivered up [surrendered] the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he [Christ] shall have put down all [opposing] rule, power and authority; for he must reign until he hath put all enemies under his feet.” (1 Cor. 15:24‑25)

Thus the great work of restoration will be finished. It will then be a world where thrones have crumbled; where the aristocracy of idleness has perished from the earth, a world without a slave; a world at peace adorned with every form of art, with music, while lips are full of words of love and truth, a world in which no exile sighs, no prisoner mourns; where the shadow of death does not fall; where effort reaps its full reward; a world without the beggar’s outstretched palm, without the miser’s stony stare; without the piteous wail of want, without the livid lips of lies, without the cruel eyes of scorn; without disease of body; a world where joy ever deepens, where love canopies the whole earth; where God’s will is done on earth as it is done in heaven.

All who understand the doctrine of restoration can readily discern the necessity for the Atonement; that there can be no restoration and blessing of mankind except by bringing them into absolute harmony with their Creator; and that such a restoration necessitated first of all redemption of the sinner – a payment of his penalty. Although Jesus paid the penalty, and “gave himself a ransom for all,” “all” gives no criterion by which we may judge the number who will by heart‑loyalty return to atonement with the Father. And there is neither suggestion on God’s part, nor any ground for supposition on man’s part, that Divine favor and life everlasting will ever be attained by any except those who come into full heart‑harmony with right­eousness. We rejoice, however, that oppor­tunities for salvation, far better than are now recognized by Christendom, shall, in God’s due time, be extended to every creature.

The Messiah, after having accomplished his mission as regards the restoration of all the willing and obedient, will abdicate the throne of earth and deliver the Kingdom to the Father, and mankind will deal directly, as at the first, with God, the mediation and Atonement of Christ Jesus having accomplished fully and completely its appointed and predestined work of restoration and reconciliation. The Kingdom, when delivered up to the Father, will still be the Kingdom of God on earth, and the laws of righteous­ness and obedience will always be the same. All mankind, then perfectly restored, will be capable of rendering perfect obedience in letter as well as in spirit.

When, in the end of his reign on earth, Christ delivers up the Kingdom to the Father, he does so by delivering it to mankind as the Father’s repre­sentatives who were designed from the first to have this honor. And so it is declared, “Then shall the King say, Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” (Matt. 25:34) From the very beginning of the world, God prepared the earth for man, and thus we read, “The earth hath he given to the children of men.” (Psa. 115:16)

Although God was glorified in all his original works on earth, in every creature, however insig­nificant, even though some of them could not render him thanks, appreciate him or even know him, we know that the great Divine purpose from the beginning was preparing the earth for man who was intended to be the masterpiece of his earthly creation. It was not said of man as of the lower earthly animals, “Let the earth bring forth,” nor as with the sea creatures, “Let the seas swarm,” but it is recorded, on the contrary, that man was a special creation by his Maker, “made in his image and likeness.” We are not to understand this “image” to be one of physical shape; but rather, a mental, moral and intellectual image of the great God, fashioned appropriately to earthly conditions and nature. And as for the “likeness,” it relates to man’s dominion; he was to be king of earth and its teeming creatures, like God is King of the great universe – “Let us make man in our likeness and let him have dominion.” (Gen. 1:28) Here is the battleground between God’s Word and so‑called Modern Science. The Gentile world, especially the leaders of thought in theological seminaries, and the ministers in prominent pulpits, are bowing down to the false god called “Evolution.” The two theories are squarely at issue: If the Evolution theory regarding man be true, the entire Bible is false from Genesis to Revelation. If the Bible is true, the Evolution theory is utterly false in all its deductions as respect man.

It is not alone the Genesis account of man’s creation in the Divine image that must determine the matter; the entire theory of the Bible supports the Genesis record, and stands or falls with it. For, if man was created otherwise than pure and perfect and mentally well endowed, he could not, truthfully, have been called an “image” of God; nor could his Creator have placed him on trial in Eden to test his fitness for everlasting life; nor could his disobedience have been accounted sin and punishable by a death sentence; nor would it have been necessary to have redeemed him from that sentence by an Atonement. And the result and outcome of the Atonement, the Bible informs us, will be a restoration to man’s “former estate” (Ezek. 16:55). But if the evolution theory were true, a restoration to a “former estate,” so far from being a blessing to the race, would be a curse and a crime against it. For, if by blind force or other evolutionary processes, man has been climbing up by tedious endeavor and laborious efforts, from protoplasm to oyster, and from oyster to fish, and from fish to reptile, and from reptile to monkey, and from monkey to lowest man, and from lowest man to what we are today, then it would be a fearful injury to the race for God to restore it to what it was in the beginning, or possibly to force the restoration further back – to protoplasm. There is no middle ground on this question. Men are so intent upon excluding God from the sovereignty of the universe; they degrade man and defraud him of the dignity of his origin.

To prove the existence of an intelligent God, one needs only to study the history of Israel. Analyzing the Chosen People, we find that among the relics of antiquity that have come down through the centuries to this day, there is no object of so great interest as the Jewish people. Searchers after ancient lore have untiringly questioned every inani­mate object that could give a mite of historic or scientific information in order to learn all that is possible to know of human origin, history and destiny. But the most interesting relic and the one whose history can be the most easily deciphered and understood is Israel. In them the world has a monument of antiquity of inestimable value upon which is recorded the origin, progress, and final destiny of the whole human race. They are the true Jehovah’s witnesses, living and intelligent witnes­ses of the gradual outworking of a purpose in human affairs in exact conformity with the predictions of their Divinely inspired prophets. God, having sent to them his prophets and committed unto them his oracles, led them up step by step from being a nation of slaves to be, as in the time of Solomon, a people distinguished and honored among the nations, attracting the wonder and admiration of the world. Then, because of their disobedience and offenses against him, he withdrew his favor and permitted them to be scattered, homeless, destitute and persecuted. Because of the evidence of Divine power over them, God, himself, declares, “Ye are my witnesses that I am God.” (Isa. 43:12)

Thus, an earnest study of the Jewish people will convince any sincere seeker for truth that there exists an intelligent Creator, one who is orderly in his dealings in behalf of humanity and most definite in the shaping of the destiny of his Chosen People. An earnest study will also reveal that Jesus Christ, the Messiah, is now taking unto himself his great power to reign over them, for the “set time” to return of favor to Zion is come. “Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion, for the time to favor her; yea the set time is come.” (Psa. 102:13) It was at the time of Jerusalem’s destruction by the Babylonians that Gentiles began their long domination of the earth and especially the Jewish homeland. This domi­nation was by Divine permission, and it was decre­ed to end at a “set time,” for no Gentile power ever was designated as “the Kingdom of God” or assured perpetuity of rule. Gentile powers were permitted to dominate the earth for a fixed and definite term as a punishment to Israel for unfaithfulness. At the appointed time, their rule will terminate, and the prophet Isaiah declares that forthwith God will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the Four Corners of the earth (Isa. 11:12). Then God’s original purpose for Israel will be resumed, and once more Israel’s opportunity to represent righteousness in the earth will return to them under the reign of their King who shall eventually have “dominion from sea to sea and from the river unto the ends of the earth” (Psa. 72:8); for “the uttermost parts of the earth shall be his possession.” (Psa. 2:7‑8)

Restoration cannot fail. It has the backing of the great Atonement‑sacrifice of Jesus and the promise of Almighty God. Those of Israel who are unsympathetic and unwilling to help in the rebuilding of the Jewish homeland do not have the faith of Abraham; they do not possess Jacob’s appreciation of God’s promises; but like Esau, they prefer the things of momentary comfort rather than claim their Divinely intended birthright.

We have evidence today that we are entering into the Millennial Reign of Christ. The things, which the Lord through the prophets, declares, will transpire in that day evidence this. The Lord, through the prophets, speaks of the Millennial Day in various terms; sometimes he describes it as “The Day of the Lord,” and sometimes he calls it “The Day of Judgment,” and often he refers to it as simply “That Day.” So, if we can discern the fulfillment of prophecy relating to the things, which the Lord said would happen “in that day,” we can then see that we are in the Millennium.

The Lord, speaking of the Millennial Day through the prophet, declares: “In that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and I will close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up the ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old. And I will bring again the captivity of my people, Israel, and they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their own land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord God.” (Amos 9:11,14,15)

Thus, the Lord, through the prophet declares that the re‑establish­ment of Israel is one of the events to be expected “in that day,” and this we see fulfilled. And, note the prophecy cannot be inter-preted in any spiritual or symbolic sense. It is not a land in heaven to which Israel will be returned, for the Lord declares that they are to be planted upon their “own land,” the land which he has “given them;” and this is the land which he promised to Abraham, saying, “Lift up now thine eyes and look from the place where thou art, northward, southward, eastward and westward, for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever... arise, walk through the land, in the length of it and in the breadth of it, for I will give it unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger – all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession.” (Gen. 13:14‑17; 17:8)

The Promised Land is usually thought of as being the comparatively small tract of territory known as Palestine, but in truth and in fact it is a much larger area. In Genesis 15:18 we read: “In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abraham, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river Euphrates.” This larger area forms a substantial part of what is commonly referred to today as “The Middle East.”

That “in that day” Israel would be established in their “own land” is a prophecy fulfilled today, therefore we are now in “that day.” It is also prophetically declared by one, speaking for the Lord Jesus, “I will return and will build again the tabernacle of David [the old Jewish polity] that has fallen down, and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up...” We see this today; therefore we are in the Millennium. (Acts 15:16; Luke 1:32; Ezek. 37:24)

Notice the literalness of the promised return of Israel to their “own land,” for, the Lord says the city shall be rebuilt upon her “own heap.” (Jer. 30:18) That Jerusalem is rebuilt upon her “own heap” cannot be questioned. A hundred other evidences might be cited as proof that we are in the Millennium, but what stronger evidence can we cite than the fact that “in that day” – the Millennial day, God, through the Prophet, declares, “I will bring again my people, Israel, to their own land, and I will build the taber­nacle of David, and they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them.” (Amos 9:11,14, 15) The waste cities are being rebuilt; the Jews inhabit them. Again the prophet declares, “And they shall plant vineyards.” According to an authority, one of the largest grape vineyards in the world is located in Israel.

When we reflect that the Jewish nation, and its polity, its political economy and regime was com­pletely overthrown, and has, for centuries, lain in the dust, its inhabitants scattered to the four winds of the earth, we see then that we are living in “that day” spoken of by the holy prophets, when the regath-ering of Israel and the replanting of them in their “own land” has taken place. It is evident that David and his throne, re‑established in the nation of Israel, will represent God’s earthly Kingdom. We have the Old Testament prophecy which declares, “I will raise up the tabernacle of David that has fallen down” (Amos 9:11, 14, 15), and we have in the New Testament a prophetic quotation of Jesus’ words, “I will return and will build again the tabernacle of David.” (Acts 15:16, Ezek. 37:24) David will be one of the “princes” to whom the Lord will entrust the physical operation of the earthly Kingdom (Psa. 45: 16).

The promised restoration of old Jerusalem implies not merely the reconstruction of the city and buildings, but a city in prophecy is also a symbol or representative of a government. Hence the promised reconstruc­tion of Jerusalem upon her “own heap,” upon her old foundations, implies a national reorganization of Israel upon a basis similar to that which it formerly enjoyed. The establishment and operation of God’s Kingdom on earth is the fulfillment of that prayer: “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth.”

The coming of Messiah’s Kingdom is gradual and not sudden. It is coming now into being, and as a result we see the re‑establishment of old Jerusalem – the Jewish polity “raised up.” The Lord declares, “In that day I will raise it [Jerusalem] up; I will raise up the ruins, and I will build it as in days of old.” (Amos 9:11; Acts 15:16) This does not refer to some kind of spiritual Jerusalem, for how a spiritual Jerusalem could lay in “ruins” and how could it be rebuilt as in “days of old”? Notice, the Prophet, speaking of the Millennium, declares, “At that time [in the Millennium] they shall call Jerusalem the Throne of the Lord.” (Jer. 3:17)

While we admit that the meaning of some Scriptures is not obvious, we contend that even if the prophecies couched in figurative and symbolic language be excluded, there still remains a broad
residue of Scripture in plain and unmistakable terms, the substance and effect of which is: that God has a plan for the world in which, of all nations, the Jews will play a most important part and that that part will be the sequel to the rejection of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, by Israel in AD 33. Prophecy examined point by point will show that we are now living “at that time;” in “that day” – in the Millennium, when God’s favor returns to Israel; when he literally plants them in their “own land” and they will be rebuilt as a great nation according to God’s multiplied promises to that effect.

“Thus saith the Lord, behold I will bring again the captivity of Jacob’s tents and have mercy on his dwelling places; and the city [Old Jerusalem] shall be built upon her own heap, and the palace [the temple] shall remain after the manner thereof. Their children also shall be as aforetime and their congregations shall be established before me and I will punish all who oppose them, and their nobles shall be of themselves [of their own kin] and their governor shall proceed from among them. And I will bring them from the North Country [Germany and Russia] and I will gather them from the coasts of the earth... Hear the word of the Lord, O ye [Gentile] nations, and declare it in the isles afar off and say, He that scattered Israel will gather them as a shepherd doth his flock; for the Lord hath ransomed them from the hand of them that was stronger than they. Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion... and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all.” (Jer. 30:18,20,21; 31:8‑12)

An interesting aspect of this Kingdom is that the Jews – the Israelites will become Christian – followers of Christ, their Messiah, Lord and Master; and the Christians will become Israelites indeed, and the Kingdom of God, both spiritual and earthly will become one common union – communion.

NO. 657 ACCOUNTED WORTHY TO ATTAIN RESURRECTION

“They that shall be accounted worthy to attain that world and the resurrection...” (Luke 20:35)

 Only the members of a “little flock,” are accounted worthy to “attain that world” and the “better” resurrection in advance of the Millen­nium. The great mass of man­kind will come forth unto “resur­rection by judgment” during the Mil­lennium in which they must prove themselves worthy of perfection. These alone will be permit­ted to endure beyond the Millennial Age into the ever­lasting ages of the future. The obedient only will be permitted to attain resu­r­rection, being lifted fully and completely out of death, a gradual progress. As we have already seen, those who will then walk on the highway of holiness must “go up there on.” It will be an ascending path, and require effort to overcome by those who would retrieve all that was lost – human perfection.

As we scrutinize this feature of the Divine Plan, we see how reasonable and consistent it is, and the advantages it will offer to those for whom it is provided. We can see any other plan would be to a dis­advantage to those for whom the Millennial is specially designed.

Take Nero for instance, suppose that he were given an instantaneous resurrection to life and “came forth” from the tomb perfect, mentally, morally and physically. It would not be Nero. That perfect being could not in any sense of the word identify himself with the Nero of the past; nor could those who had been his associates identify him. Neither could we imagine him to “come forth” perfect as respects human organism, and yet imperfect in mind and character. All who have learned even the first principles of the laws of physiology must see at once the absurdity of such a proposition. Those laws most distinctly teach us that character and organism are one; that a perfect organism would surely indicate a perfect character. But if we should, for the moment, assume either of these unreasonable propositions we at once would be met with the objection that a thousand years would be too long a period in which to test the obedience or dis­obedience of a perfect being. Adam as a perfect being, received a very brief trial, as we can judge from the Scriptures.

Further, if we could imagine the world perfect and on trial, we would be obliged to imagine them also as subjected to the perfect law. Without imperfections they would have no protection, or covering of blemishes, and in the very same position that Adam stood at the beginning. In this view there would be no necessity for Christ’s Mediatorial   Kingdom and reign of a thousand years; because the perfect law represents Divine Justice, the same that dealt with Adam in the beginning, and the same that must pass upon mankind in the end, at the close of the Millennium.  Before the world could be accepted by God to everlasting favor such views, we see there­fore, are entirely at variance with the Divine arrange­ment.

Let us notice the beauty, harmony, reason­ableness, consistency of the Divine Plan of a resur­rection by judgments. The world comes forth in practically the same mental, moral and physical con­dition as they were upon entering the tomb and at once would identify themselves per­sonally and in relationship to others. “As the tree falleth there it shall be” (Eccl. 11:3), and the awakening, or calling forth from the tomb, will be as the termination of a sleep, the very figure which the Lord uses not only in respect to the Body of Christ, but to the world in general, whose future awakening, being a part of his plan. The arousing is spoken of as from a pleasant sleep.

At awakening from sleep one finds himself in practically the same condi­tion as when he laid down, plus a slight invigoration. He speedily recalls the events and circum­stances that preceded his sleep, so we believe it will be so with the world in general, when they “hear the voice of the Son of Man and shall come forth.”

We do not mean by this that they will come forth in precisely the same physical condition as at the moment of dying, because this would involve an absurdity. For instance, the one whose lungs were decayed until the last breath was a gasp, we need not expect will come back gasping and without lungs; the one whose head had been severed from the body would not be awakened without a head, and likewise the one who had lost arms or feet or fingers or toes, could not rea­sonably be ex­pected to “come forth” without these members. In the absence of anything definite in the Scriptures to guide our judgments, we must suppose that the coming forth of the world will be with what would now be considered average health and strength; such, for instance, as the Lord was pleased to grant to those whom he healed at his First Advent. The healed ones were not made perfectly whole; else many of them might have lived for centuries, as did the perfect Adam. Rather, we are to presume that the restorations were to average health and strength, and that so it will be in the awakening time, when the same voice shall call them forth from the sleep of death, that they may hear his words and by obedience “attain unto” life everlasting and its per­fections of mind and body, for which he has arranged the times of restitution and the Kingdom disciplines, judg­ments and blessings.

The threads of existence are taken up just where they were dropped in death. The weaving of experience will proceed and rapidly adapt itself to the changed con­ditions; and meantime the individual will neither lose his identity, nor be lost to the world and social circles of which he had been a part. Thus past experiences with sin and selfishness will constitute a valuable asset of knowledge, helpful in proper estimations in the future. It will enable the revived one to appreciate the advantages accruing from the reign of right­eousness and life as in contrast with the previous reign of sin and death. It will be to his advantage that he must first of all accept Christ the King as his Redeemer and acknowledge his own imperfection and unworthiness. He must lay hold upon the Life-Giver before ever he can start upon the Highway of Holiness. It will be to his advantage, too, that he must take steps himself in the overcoming of his weaknesses, and in the attainment of per­fection set before him as the goal.

The lessons of experience gained will be deeply engraved upon his memory, his char­acter, and will prepare him for the final testing at the close of the Millennial Age, when absolute heart-loyalty will be required. Meantime, however, his imperfections will not work to his detriment or hindrance, for in propor­tion to his weak­ness or strength of character will be the requirements of the judges; all of whom are being now prepared by their own experiences with sin and weak­ness to judge sympathetically and truly to be helpful. Such experiences on the part of the judges would not be so essential were not this the Divine Plan of gradual recovery, “resurrection by judgment.”

Also, his view is in full accord with the Divine state­ment through Daniel the prophet respecting the resurrection: “Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to ever­lasting [lasting] life, and some to shame and everlasting [lasting] con­tempt.” (Dan 12:2) Here we see the same division of the awakened ones that our Lord more particularly explains. One class is awak­ened to life in its full, com­plete sense – lasting life; the other class is awakened, but not in life.

When awakened it is still in death, because not approved of God, not vitally connected with the Son. “He that hath the Son hath life; he that hath not the Son shall not see life.” The world in general, then, “come forth” that they may be brought to the knowledge of the fact that life and restitution have been provided by God’s grace through the great atonement sacrifice; that the Life-Giver has taken his great power and glory, as Prophet, Priest and King, and that by coming into him they may gradually, step by step, attain to life.

The prophet’s statement respecting this second class – those they are significant. If they came forth perfect they would not be in a shameful and contemptible condition, for per­fection is always admirable. These words, therefore, attest that they come forth imperfect, and our Lord’s added explanation assures us that they come forth in their imperfection that they may, if they will, attain resurrection, perfection, under the trials or judgments to which they will be subjected – rewarding their obedience and chastising and disciplining their disobediences.

We have already used Nero as an il­lustration; and as he surely will be one of those who will come forth to shame and to lasting contempt, we may as well use him in further illustration. When we remember that the awak­ening of the sleeping world will not begin until the present generation of the world shall have been brought under the Kingdom power, to a consid­erable measure of righteousness and intel­ligence, we will readily perceive that Nero, on coming forth, will find himself in the midst of very different social conditions from those prevailing when he died. He will find vices such as he practiced and cultivated very much dis­credited, and the virtues, which he shunned and per­secuted, he will find installed in power and in general favor. He will be utterly out of accord with all of his surroundings, much more so than others less willful, less profligate, less vicious, and less con­temp­tible. He will find himself well known through the pages of history, and in general contempt because of his abuse of his powers and opportunities; not only as the mur­derer of his own mother, but also as the persecutor and torturer of the Lord’s faithful ones.

Every good and virtuously disposed person is bound to hold such a character as his in “contempt,” and under such circumstances he will be bound to suffer great “shame.” However, he comes forth unto a resurrection by judgment – for the purpose of being accorded an opportunity of rising up out of his shameful and con­temptible condition to the full perfection of human nature; and to what extent he will attain unto life, to what extent he will attain unto resurrection out of death, will depend entirely upon himself. First of all, he must know the Truth; he must see himself in his true colors; he must see in contrast the perfect man­ as represented in the Ancient Worthies, the “princes” of that time. He must see in operation the laws of right­eousness in contrast with his previous knowledge of the operation of the reign of sin and death. If, then, he determinedly maintains an evil influence and hardens his heart and refuses obedience, he must die the Second Death, after having enjoyed and rejected the privileges and opportunities, which the Lord has provided for him and all mankind.

But if, on the contrary, he shall humble himself, acknowledge his sin, and become obe­dient to the laws of the Kingdom, he will thus at once begin his upward course toward life – his resurrection, or rising up, to­ward complete recov­ery from the fall. If he shall thus “go up” on the Highway of Holiness, he will at the same time be purging himself from the “contempt” of his fellows, and correspondingly relieving himself of “shame.” For we cannot doubt that if there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, there will be joy on earth amongst all right-minded people as they from time to time shall see sinners turning from the errors of their ways to obedience to the Lord; and the laudable contempt of the former for sin and its meanness must gradually give place to sympathetic appreciation of the efforts being put forth in the direction of right­eousness.

So that should Nero ever become fully obedi­ent to the Lord, and attain unto life everlasting in the “resurrection by judgment,” he will be highly respected and his past will be fully forgotten; just as now, when thinking of the Apostle Paul, we remember his noble self-sacrifices and faithfulness to the Lord, disas­sociating him from Saul, the persecutor whom he denominated “the chief of sinners,”

PUNISHMENT FOR SINS OF THIS LIFE

Will there not be punishments for the sins of the present time? We answer that justice is sure to mete out a punishment for every sin. Adam’s sin, as we all recognize, has been punished for six thousand years, and under that punishment the whole creation has groaned and travailed and sunk down into death. That sin and all additional sins influenced by the weaknesses and depravities resulting from Adam’s sin, are all included in the atonement accomplished by the great sacrifice for sins. The sins needing additional punishment would be such as do not directly result from the Adamic fall and depravity – such as have been to some extent willful. Such willful sins must all be punished; but we are evidently not at the present time competent to judge what would be a right or reasonable penalty for such sins – wholly or partially willful.

Doubtless this was one reason why the Lord instructed us to “judge nothing before the time.” Eventually the judgment will be in our hands, as it is written, “Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world?” (1 Cor. 6:2) Our Lord Jesus being the chief of these judges. The Lord’s declaration is that he who knew his Master’s will and did it not shall be beaten with many stripes, while he who knew not and did things worthy of stripes shall be beaten with few stripes (Luke 12:47,48).This indicates to us that the guilt of willful sin is to be measured largely by our knowledge of the Lord and of his will. Hence the Church, and those who have during this Gospel Age come under the light and influence of the Church, will be held responsible in a larger degree than others.

Nero, although not of the Church, not be­gotten of the Spirit, and therefore, less responsible proportionately than the Church, had, nevertheless, considerable contact with the children of the light; and hence, we may presume, had a large measure of responsibility in connection with his crimes.

“SOME MEN’S SINS GO BEFORE TO JUDGMENT”

In considering the punishments of willful sins on account of light enjoyed, we are not to forget the Apostle’s statement that “Some men’s sins go before to judgment, and some they follow after.” (1Tim 5:24) We know not to what extent Nero’s sins have already received some measure of punishment; we know not to what extent he suffered mentally or physically; we know not, therefore, to what extent punishment for his sins will come after and overtake him during the judgment age. For argument’s sake  let us suppose that he received no special punish­ments in the past, and that stripes for his sins will all follow after, and let us inquire what will be the nature of the record against him, and how will the stripes, or punishments, be inflicted upon him?

We are not competent to answer these questions without reservations or provisos, but we all recognize a general principle already in operation in every man, recording the results of  his own violations of knowledge and conscience. We see that in pro­portion as truth, light, knowledge and con­science may be violated, in that same proportion character is undermined; and to what­ever extent this proceeds, restitution will be the more difficult for him.

We can reasonably judge that Nero must have undermined his character and conscience to a very large extent indeed. If, then, in the awakening he shall “come forth” as he died, merely to an oppor­tunity for development, we can readily see that every downward step which he took in the past, every violation of conscience, every known op­position to righteousness, worked an injury to his character which, if ever overcome, will require proportionate effort to retrace his steps and to build again that portion of the character he wan­tonly destroyed.

 It is not for us to say that this, and this alone will be the punishment for the sins of the present time; but that this should be the case seems reasonable to us. We are satisfied, in any event, to rest the matter here, confident that the decisions of the glorified Church will have the full endorse­ment of all who have the Lord’s Spirit. We cannot suppose that our Lord will take pleasure in rendering evil for evil, or in causing needless pain even to the most villainous, but that the decision of the great Supreme Court already rendered will stand, viz.: “The wages of sin is death” – the Second Death. (Rom. 6:23)

THUS IS THE [CHIEF] RESURRECTION OF THE [SPECIAL] DEAD

(1 Cor 15:42)

The resurrection of the Church is designated the First Resurrection, not in the sense of priority (though it will have priority), but in the sense of being chief, best, superior. We have already seen that there are different orders in the resurrection, three of which are unto life, unto perfection, though on different planes of being; the Church occupying the first place, the “great company” and the Ancient Worthies following in order; and that subsequently, or last, will be the general resur­rection of the world, open to the whole world of mankind, so many as will accept the Divine provisions and arrangements, the resurrection by judgment to be completed only with the close of the Millennial Age. In this sense of the word it will indeed be a fact that “the rest of the dead” will live not “until the thousand years are finished” – they will not have life in its full, proper, complete sense; they will not be raised up completely out of death until then. Thus viewed, the spurious clause of Rev. 20:5[1] is found to be in full accord with the general tenor of Scripture. All these resurrections subsequent to the first, or chief one, will undoubtedly be under the power and control of the glorified Church, whose glorious Head has, to this end, received all power and authority from the Father.

Having considered the resurrection work of the Church for others, let us now consider what the Scriptures have to show particularly respecting the First Resurrection. With what bodies will the New Creation come forth? What will be some of their qualities and powers?

The Apostle declares, “As is the earthly so are they also that are earthly; and as is the heavenly so are they also that are heavenly.” (1Cor 15:48.) We understand these words to signify that the world in general, who will experience resti­tution to human perfection, will be like the earthly one – like the first Adam, before he sinned, and like the perfect “man Christ Jesus” was before his begetting to newness of nature. We rejoice with the world in this grand prospect of again becoming full and complete earthly images of the Divine Creator. But we rejoice still more in the precious promises made to the Gospel Church, “the called ones” according to the Divine purpose, who are to have the image of the heavenly One – the image of the Creator, in a still higher and more particular sense; to be not fleshly images, but spirit images. “We shall be like him [the glorified “changed” Jesus], for we shall see him as he is.” He is a spirit being, “the express image of the Father’s person,” “far above angels, principalities and powers, and every name that is named,” and hence, far above perfect manhood. If we shall be like him and share his glory and his nature, it means that we too shall be images of the Father’s person, “whom no man hath seen nor can see, dwelling in light which no man can approach unto”; but to whom we can approach and whom we can see as he is, because we have been “changed.” (1 John 3:2; 6:16; 1 Tim 1:17; Ex 33:20)

Lest any should misunderstand him, the Apostle guards the above language by adding, “As we [the Church] have borne the image of the earthly [one], we shall also bear the image of the heavenly [One].” It is not the Apostle’s thought that all shall bear the image of the heavenly One, in this sense, ever. Such was not the design of our Creator. When he made man he designed to have a fleshly, human earthly being, in his own likeness [mentally, morally], to be the Lord and ruler of the earth, as the representative of his heavenly Creator. (Gen 1:26-28; Ps 8:4-7) The selection of the New Creation, as we have seen, is wholly separate and apart from the earthly creation. They are chosen out of the world, and constitute but a “little flock” in all, called to be the Lord’s Kingdom class, to bless the world during the thousand years of the Millennial Age, subse­quently, we may be sure, occupying some very high and responsible position, and doing some very important work, in the carrying out of further Divine purposes, perhaps in connection with other worlds and other creations.

But the Apostle guards the matter still further, saying in explanation of the foregoing (1 Cor.15:50), “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.” Thus he distinguishes between our present condition in the flesh and our future condition as spirit beings; most positively declaring that so long as we are in the flesh we cannot constitute the Lord’s Kingdom in any actual sense, because that Kingdom is to be a spiritual one, composed of spirit beings. Our Lord himself, the Head, the chief, the leader, the example to his Church, is the glorious spirit being, a glimpse of whom was granted to the Apostle Paul (1 Cor. 15:8), and a vision of whom was granted to the Apostle John in Apocalyptic vision. “We shall be like him,”  not flesh and blood, like the remainder of the race from which we were selected, and whose restitution, or resurrection by judgments, will bring them back to the perfection of the flesh-and-blood conditions, as the same restitution times will bring the earth to the condition represented by the Garden of Eden in the be­ginning.

But the Apostle recognized the fact that it would be difficult for us fully to grasp the thought of so thorough a change of the Church from fleshly, earthly conditions to heavenly, spirit conditions. He perceived that our difficulty would be less in respect to those who have fallen asleep in death than in respect to those alive and remaining unto the presence of the Lord. It is much easier for us to grasp the thought that the sleeping ones will be resurrected in new spiritual bodies, such as the Lord has promised to provide, than to grasp the thought of how those of the saints living at the time of the Lord’s second presence, will be accepted of him into his spirit Kingdom. The Lord, through the Apostle, makes this very clear to us, saying, “There is a mystery connected with this matter, which I will explain: we shall not all sleep, though we must all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump [the seventh trumpet].” (1 Cor 15:51,52)

While the Lord, through the Apostle, did clear away a mystery to some extent by these words, nevertheless a considerable measure of mystery has since beclouded even this plain explanation; for many of the Lord’s dear people have confounded the word “sleep” with the word “die” and have supposed the explanation to be that the Saints remaining over until the presence of the Lord would be changed without dying, which is not at all the thing stated. Take the case of the apostles, for instance; they died, and from the moment of death they were reckoned as being “asleep” until the moment of the resur­rection. The dying was a momentary act, while the sleep, or unconsciousness, continued for centuries.

This thought of the word “sleep” must be attached to the Apostle’s words, in order that they may be under­stood, viz.: It will not be necessary that the Lord’s people who remain over until his second presence shalt sleep in unconscious death even for a moment. They will die, however, as is declared by the Lord, through the prophet, speaking of the Church: “I have said, Ye are gods, all of you sons of the Most High; yet ye shall all die like a man, and fall like one of the princes.” (Psa. 82:6,7) The world in general dies like Prince Adam, as his children, sharers of his sentence; but the faithful in Christ Jesus die with him, with Prince Jesus. (Isa. 9:6; Acts 3:15; 5:31) Justified through his sacrifice, they become dead with him, as joint-sacrificers. They “fall” under death sacri­ficially like the second Prince. “If we be dead with him we shall also live with him.” But, as the Apostle points out to us, the death of these will mean no sleep of uncon­sciousness; the very moment of dying will be the very moment of “change,” or clothing upon with the house from heaven, the spiritual body.

The “change” to come to those of the Church remain­ing until the presence of the Lord is thus set forth as being in every sense of the word a part of the First Resurrection. In no particular does it differ from the death experience that must be common to all the members of the one body.

The only point of difference between other members of the body and these will be that which the Apostle specifies, viz., they shall not “sleep.” These last members of the body will not need to sleep – not need to wait for the Kingdom to come; for it will then be set up. They will pass immediately from the activities of the service on this side the veil in the flesh to the activities of service on the other side the veil, as perfected New Creatures, members of the Christ.

“IT DOTH NOT YET APPEAR WHAT WE SHALL BE.”

Respecting the powers and qualities of the New Creatures perfected, the Apostle tells us that they will not all have the same degree of glory, though they will all have the same kind of glory, it will all be celestial, or heavenly beings. There will be one glory common to all these celestial beings, and another glory common to the human, or ter­restrial, beings. Each in its perfection will be glorious, but the glories of the celestial ones will be superior – transcendent. The Scriptures tell us that the Church as a whole shall “shine forth as the sun.” (Matt 13:43) This description by our Lord himself of the future glory is applied to all who are of the “wheat” class; yet in the light of the Apostle’s explanation (1 Cor. 15:41) we perceive that individually there will be differences in the positions and honors of the Church. All will be perfect, all will be supremely happy, but, as the Father is above all, and as he has exalted the Son to be next to himself, and as this indicates differ­ences of glory, majesty and authority, so amongst the followers of the Lord, all of whom are accep­table, there will be differences of station, “as star differeth from star” in magnitude and bril­liancy. (l Cor 15:41)

Our Lord, in two of his parables, intimates the same difference among his glorified followers.  He who had been faithful with five talents was to have special commendation at the Lord’s return; while the other faithful ones who had a lesser number of talents, would be dealt with pro­portionately.  He who had been faithful in the use of his pound, so as to gain ten pounds, was to receive ruler ship over ten cities; and he who was faithful over his pound to the gaining of five pounds would have proportionately increased talents, blessings, opportunities and authority  (Matt 25:14-30; Luke 19:11-27).

Nor need we wonder at this, for looking back we see that while the Lord chose twelve apostles and loved them all, there were three of them whom he specially loved, and who were on various occasions nearer to him and in still more confi­dential relationship than the oth­ers. We may be sure, too, that when the “Book of Life” is opened, and when positions closest to the Mas­ter in the throne are to be apportioned, those on the right hand and those on the left hand (nearest to his person), will be recognized by all as worthy of the hon­or and distinction accorded them (Matt 10:41).  It would not surprise us at all to find the Apostle Paul next to the Master, with possibly John on his other hand.  The thought is not that of location, or position, on a bench, throne, but closeness of rela­tionship in power and majesty of the Kingdom. We may be sure that all who will constitute the “little flock” will be so filled with the Lord’s Spirit as in honor to prefer one another; and we may know certainly that there will be no jealousies, but that the Divine judgment respecting worthiness will be fully approved by all the New Crea­tion. This is so in the present time, and much more may we expect it in the future.  In the present time we read that “God has set the various members in the body as it hath pleased him,” and all who are in accord with the Lord are continually seeking, not to change the Divine arrangement, but to recognize it and to cooperate there­with. So also it will surely be in the future.

Describing the differences between present conditions and those of the future, the Apostle says, “It is sown in corruption: It is raised in incorruption.” “It,” is the New Creature, whose existence began at the time of consecration and begetting of the Spirit. The New Creature that has been developing and seeking to control the flesh and to make it its servant, in accord with the Divine will – the New Creature that is said to have lived in the flesh, as in a tabernacle, while waiting for the new body. “It” was sown in corruption, in a corruptible body; “It” went down into death; and yet “It” is not represented as being dead, but as merely sleeping, while its earthly tabernacle was dissolved. It is the same “It,” the New Creature,  that is to be clothed upon with the heavenly house, the spiritual body, in the First Resurrection.

This spiritual body in which “It” is raised, the Apostle declares, will be an incorruptible one – one that cannot corrupt, which cannot die. The word here rendered incorruption is aphtharsia, and signifies that which is decay-proof, that which cannot corrupt, rot or fade away. It is the same word rendered “incorruption” in 1 Cor. 15:50,53 and 54, of this chapter; but the same word is wrongly translated “immortality” in Rom. 2:7, and again in 2 Tim 1:l0.

The declaration, that our spiritual bodies shall be incorruptible, immortal, is a most momentous one, be­cause we are distinctly in­formed that this quality of im­mortality belongs inherently to Yahweh alone; while it is declared of our Lord Jesus that, because of his faithfulness, his high exaltation consisted in part in his being granted life in himself, as the Father hath life in himself. The thought there is the same – that the glorious Head of the Church experienced just such a “change” to immortality, to incorruption, to par­tici­pation in the Divine Nature. It does not amaze us that the plan of God should be thus liberal toward our dear Redeemer; but it surely does astonish us that this quality of the Divine Nature, given to none other than our Master, should be promised to the members of his Body, who walk in his footsteps, and are seeking for glory, honor and immortality (2 Pet. 1:4; Rom. 2:7).

“It is sown in dishonor; It is raised in glory.” Here again the New Creature is referred to by the word “It.” During the present life the world knoweth us not; it realizes not that we are begotten of the Father, to be his children on the spiritual plane, and that we are only temporarily sojourning in the flesh, for the purposes of our trial, for the testing of our faithfulness to our covenant of sacrifice. “Now are we the sons of God.” But, unrecognized, we are disesteemed by the world; and because of our consecration to the Lord we may not occupy even as honorable positions amongst men as we might have the natural talents to occupy were they devoted to worldly pursuits.

In any event, both in­dividually and collectively the Church in the flesh is now, as the Apostle here declares, “in dishonor,” in disesteem; and, as he elsewhere declares, our body is at present a body of humiliation (misrepresented in our common translation as “a vile body”) (Phil 3:21). But what shall be the condition by and by? Will the dishonor all be past? Will the Church (Head and “body”) be such as both angels and men will appreciate and honor? Will the New Creation thus be “in glory”? Oh yes! This is the assurance.

The New Creature is still referred to, the weakness men­tioned being that of the present mortal bodies, their imperfections, which all New Creatures deplore, and which God graciously counts as not being the weaknesses of the New Creature, whose purposes, or intentions toward the Lord are pure, perfect, loyal and strong. That these weaknesses will not attach to the new resurrection bodies of the “elect” is most specifically stated.

“It is raised in power,” the power of perfection, the power of the new nature, the power of God.

“It is sown a natural body; It is raised a spiritual body.” The same It, is the same New Creature. It is a natural body now; the only tangi­ble thing is the flesh. Only by the grace of God are we permitted to reckon the new mind a New Creature, and to wait the time when this new mind will be granted a spirit body, suitable to it. The spirit body will then be It, in the same sense that the natural body is now It. What a glorious prospect this is! Truly, it is incomprehensible to us who have no experiences except such as are com­mon to the natural man, except as our minds have grasped by faith the promises and revelations of the Lord, and have entered into the spirit of “things not seen as yet.”

But if the very thought of the coming glories has lifted us up above the world, its cares, its trials, its follies and its pleasures, how much more will the realities mean to us when we shall be perfect and like our Lord and share his glory! No wonder our Lord said to Nicodemus: “If I have told you of earthly things, and ye believe not, how can ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things?”   (John 3:12)

          No wonder it declares that we must first be begotten of the Holy Spirit before we can even begin to comprehend heavenly things. Unques­tionably there­­fore, our ability to run the race set before us in the Gospel, our striving to overcome the spirit of the world and the besetments of the Adversary, will be in proportion as we shall be obedient to the Divine counsel, and love not the world, and lay aside every weight and the easily besetting sin, forgetting not the assembling of ourselves to­gether, and searching the Scriptures daily, and in every sense of the word making use of the priv­ileges and mercies and blessings confer­red upon us as children of God. If we do these things we shall never fail, but so an entrance shall be ministered unto us, abundantly, into the ever­lasting Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” (John 3:2,3; Rom. 8:17; John 3:12; 1 Cor. 2:14; 1John 2:15; Eph. 6:10-18; Heb. 12:1,2; 10:2; John 5:29; Acts 17:11; 2 Peter 1:4-11) 

           From Pastor Russell, Studies in the Scriptures, Vol. 6, Pages 712-729.

           It was written for The Little Flock but is profitable for Youthful Worthies. 

[1]We have already drawn attention to the fact that the clause, “The rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished,” is without any support from ancient MSS. of earlier date than the fifth century; nevertheless it is in full accord with what we are here presenting, for the term “lived not” should be understood to refer not to awakening but to full restitution to life in the perfect degree. See footnote, Vol. I., p. 288.

NO. 656 IN THE PARADISE OF GOD

“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, it is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God and he shall be my Son." (Rev. 21:1-7)

“And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory into it. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory of the nations into it. And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” (Rev. 21:22-27)

Paradise, the garden of God, was applic­able as a name to the Garden of Eden, in which our first parents resided while they were still in harmony with God, before their diso­bedience. The same term is scripturally applied as a name to the new earth. When restitution blessings shall during our Lord’s second presence (the Millennium); be brought to perfection as the fit abode of those who, under Divine favor, shall then prove worthy of life everlasting. It was to this paradise that the Apostle Paul was in vision “caught away” when given a glimpse of various features of the Divine plan, not then due to be understood by the Church in general; “things not lawful to be uttered.” (2 Cor. 12:4)

John the Revelator was similarly caught away in vision, and shows some of these wonders of the paradise epoch; but only in symbols, which he was per­mitted to report, and which have been comparatively misapprehended until now, in the Lord’s due time, the Holy Spirit guiding his people into the truth on this subject, as well as others, because it is now nigh at hand, and “meat in due season” for the “household.”

Our Lord refers to this paradise in language which iden­tifies it with the first para­dise of Eden, saying:

“To him that over­cometh will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God.” (Rev. 2:7)

It will be remem­bered that all the trees in Eden were trees of life, but the one in the midst of the garden was then a tree bearing forbidden fruit. The disobedient eating of which brought death on Adam and his race. That tree in the midst of paradise was called the tree of the know­ledge of good and evil, and our Lord’s promise is that the overcomers of this present age shall have full liberty to par­take of that tree of knowledge, and under most blessed and satisfactory condi­tions, when the knowledge will be of ben­efit to them under Divine approval, and not bring a curse. It is the same paradise of the future on this earth that our Lord referred to when addressing the penitent thief, he said, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee this day, Thou shalt be with me in paradise.” (Earthly)

This paradise, we recall, is elsewhere refer­red to by the Apostles as “the third heaven”—“a new Heavens and a new earth.” (2 Cor. 12:2; 2 Pet. 3:13) They are not referring to new worlds, nor to heavens ranged one above another, as many have supposed, but, as already shown,* what is termed the first heavens and earth or order of things, passed away at the flood; and that the heavens and earth “which are now,” the present order of things, are reserved of God to pass away with a great fire of trouble, revolution, etc., which shall utterly destroy them—the present spiritual powers and the present earthly or social arrangements. “Neverthe­less, we ac­cord­ing to his promise look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth right­eousness.” (2 Peter 3:13)

This will be the third heavens, and third earth, or the new heavens, and new earth, which will differ from the present condition of things in that it will be righteous, whereas the present is unrighteous, im­perfect. The “new heav­ens” will consist of the new spiritual ruling powers of the future, Christ and the glorified Church. The present heavens consist of the nominal religious sys­tems, which claim Christ for their Head. But in a very large degree bow to Antichrist, the god of this world, the prince of this world, “who now worketh in [through] the children of disobedience” and who is captivating and blinding the whole world with the exception of the few, the eyes of whose under­standing have been opened, who are under special blessing and leading, and are taught of God,—the “Little Flock,” “heirs of the kingdom.” (Eph. 2:2; 2 Cor. 4:4; 2 Thes. 2:9)

*Studies In The Scriptures, Vol. 1 pp.66-70, 318, 198-200

It is to this new heavens and new earth condition, this paradise, that our lesson intro­duces us. As the “new heav­ens” does not mean a new place of God’s throne, and a new throne of God, but new conditions, and signify the spiritual power and control of Christ and his Church in glory. So the “new earth” does not mean another planet, but a new social order on this planet. The declaration is that the former heavens and former earth (which are now) will then have passed away and be no more. All present institutions are to utterly perish in the great Time of Trouble with which this age is very shortly to end. “And there shall be no more sea.” (Rev. 21:1) As we have already seen, the sea is a symbol of the masses of people in a restless and unstable anarchistic con­dition, just as the land represents the social order, and as the moun­tains represent the kingdoms of the present time. As there is no reference to the physical earth and physical spiritual powers, the recon­structed social order will be so satis­factory, so complete, so thorough that there will be no more sea-class, no more restless people, no more dissatisfac­tion, no more anarchists. Everything will be reduced to law and order and law and order will under the new regime se­cure justice to every creature, oblit­erating the differences of wealth and power as they now exist.

THE NEW JERUSALEM

In the symbolism of Scripture a city represents a government; as for instance, symbolic Babylon is designated “that great city [govern­ment] which ruleth over the kings of the earth.” The New Jerusalem, as a symbol, repre­sents the new spiritual government of the Mil­lennial Age. It is not earth-born, it is not reared by men, but, as here pictured, it de­scends from God out of heaven—it is spiritual in every sense of the word—of God and not of men. It is for this kingdom, this government, that our Lord taught us to pray, “Thy king­dom come—thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.” The declaration that the city is adorned as a bride for her husband implies its grandeur and beauty and perfection, as a bride’s adornment on such an occasion is particular and elab­orates to the last degree. But additionally, to this it reminds us that in the government of the future, the judges of the world are the Saints, selected through faithfulness in trial and tribulation, and that these are frequently called the Bride, the Lamb’s wife and joint-heir in the Kingdom. The Revelator elsewhere strikingly brings this thought to our at­tention: the angel calls to him, “Come hither, and I will show thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God.” (Verses 9-11) We are not to think of this holy city as being composed of literal stones, coming down through the air; we are to remember, on the con­trary, that the Saints of this present time are “living stones,” as Apostle Peter explains. (1 Pet. 2:4-7) This glorious city will not be visible to the natural eye. Neither Christ nor the Saints in glory can be seen of men; only those “changed” from human to spiritual nature see these matters in the full; but the whole world will be quickly made aware of the fact that a new govern­ment has been instituted.

A government of righteousness, and with all power, and that thereafter whosoever doeth right­eous­ness shall be blessed, and whosoever doeth evil shall be punished.

THE GLORIFIED TEMPLE

The third verse of our lesson associates this city with the other figure of a symbolic Temple, which the Lord is now preparing, of which the Saints will constitute the “living stones” and “pillars.” For it is declared that the tabernacle (dwelling) of God shall be with men in this city (government or kingdom). God will dwell in this glorious city or government. It will be his Temple, and the world of man­kind will approach God in it to receive the Divine bles­sings, as Israel approached the typical Tabernacle and the Temple in their typical religious services. Thus God, represented in his Church (the Christ, Head and Body) will dwell with men (the world of mankind during the Mil­lennial Age) and they shall be his people. All mankind will be treated from the standpoint of reconciliation, the propitiation price for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2) having been paid at Calvary, and the due time having then come for the manifes­tation of Divine favor. All peoples shall be treated as the Lord’s people; none of them shall be treated as aliens, stran­gers, foreigners from God and his promises and his blessings.

While the Millennial Kingdom will be the Kingdom of God’s dear Son, it will also be the Kingdom of God, because God’s dear Son and his joint-heir, the Church, will be in absolute accord with the Father. All that shall be done under their control, fully and completely represents the Divine will re­specting men. Nevertheless, it will be a separate Kingdom from that of the remainder of the universe, as the Apostle Paul indicates. (l Cor. 15:24, 25, 28) “He must reign until he hath put all enemies under his feet... And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also be subject to him that did put all things under him. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father,”—at the close of the Millennial Reign.

Since God is the Author of all the blessings of redemption and restitution, and since every good and every perfect gift cometh down from our Father in heaven, it is with appropriateness that the record declares that “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes”—from the eyes of mankind. Though it will be Christ and the Church who will be doing it, never­theless, the heavenly Father will be recognized as the first cause, the fountain of every blessing. The wiping away of tears implies a gradual work, such as we see will be the process of that glorious time. Man will not be exempt from every weakness and trial and difficulty at the beginning, but if he will conform to the laws of the Kingdom, all cause for distress will gradually pass away, as restitution blessings will lift him out of death into perfect life. “They that hear [obey] that prophet [teacher, the Christ, Head and Body] shall live; but it shall come to pass that whosoever will not hear that prophet [not render hearty obedience to his require­ments] will be cut off from amongst the people [in the Second Death]” (Acts 3:23)

Other Scriptures show us that the work of the Kingdom will begin with those who remain over at the time of its establishment. These, under condemnation of death, will at once be blessed with the knowledge and opportunities provided through the ransom. If they accept these they will immediately be released from condemnation. They may at once go on and upward on the way of holiness to­ward perfec­tion. Subsequently those who “sleep in the dust of the earth” shall come forth to more or less of shame and lasting con­tempt, as they begin to realize their mental and physical decrepitude, the results of their depra­vity. However, these also, under the blessings of the Kingdom, may make progress up to perfec­tion, losing their sin-blights, and simultaneously losing the “shame and con­tempt,” whose last­ing will be only so long as their cause continues. Thus these may progress in the way of right­eousness, so that only those who sin willfully shall die, and then each for his own sins, not the father for the son’s sins, or the son for the father’s. (Jer. 31:20, 30; Dan. 12:2)

The whole work of the Millennial Age is summed up in few words, and we are brought to its culmination in the dec­laration, “There shall be no more death; neither sorrow nor crying; neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away.” What a glorious sun­burst of bless­ing is in these words! What a grand fulfill­ment will be there of the Apostle’s declaration respecting “times of restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets since the world began!”

This declaration, however, applies to the very end of the Millennial Age, and not in full to any previous time in that Age, for other ac­counts show us unmistakably that there will be imper­‑

fec­tions and chastisements and stripes throughout the Age, while mankind is being lifted up; or as our Lord expressed it, the raising up of mankind throughout the Millennial Age, step by step, will be a “resurrection by judgment,” chastisements, disciplines (John 5:28,29). And even at the close of that Age we are shown, in another pen-picture of that time, that there will be a severe trial and testing to demonstrate to what extent the enforced obedience of that Age shall have rightly affected the hearts of those who experience its bless­ings, so that their love will be for right­eousness, and that they will hate iniquity. (Rev. 20:7,8)

All who in that final test shall manifest that his heart contains anything aside from full loyalty to the Lord and the principles of righteousness will have his part in the Second Death.

“BEHOLD, I MAKE ALL THINGS NEW”

The fifth verse of our lesson comprehen­sively grasps the entire Millennial Age; our Lord Jesus, then in the throne of earth’s dominion, declaring, “Behold, I make all things new.” This expression does not relate merely to rocks and trees, etc., but to the great work which our Lord undertook; viz., the regeneration of humanity. So many of Adam’s race as would, under favorable conditions of knowledge, experience and assis­tance, develop characters in full accord with the Divine will.

The end of the Millennial Age will see the work com­pleted. All the wicked destroyed, all who will not hear the voice of that prophet, teacher, governor, cut off from amongst the people in the Second Death. All the willing and obe­dient made new, brought to the complete perfec­tion contem­plated in the original Divine Plan.

John was to write this matter, because the testimony is true, is faithful, as is the One who has promised. This positive affirmation of faith­fulness and truthfulness implies what we see to be the case. Present conditions seem so con­trary to all this grand restitution outcome that it cannot he fully believed and trusted by any except those who have. To all others these things will appear untrue, and God will appear unfaithful, and the matters which we are here dis­cussing will seem “idle tales,” as fables and golden fancies: but to us who believe these promises are precious, and he from whom we receive them is precious, cor­respond­ingly as we know him and trust him. (l Pet. 2:7)

The One enthroned (The Christ) declares at the conclusion of the Millennial Age, “It is done;” my great contract is ac­complished; “I am the Alpha and the Omega [the A and the Z], the beginning and the end.” It was the Father’s good pleasure that the blessed One, the Only Begotten of the Father, should accomplish the entire pro­gram of redemption and restitution; and that incidentally, by his obedience in the things which he suffered that he should prove himself worthy to be forever the associate and representative of the Father, through whom and by whom all things should con­tinue, as he was the one through whom all things were made that were made. It is this One who, during the Millennial Age, will extend to all the willing and obedient the water of life, everlasting life—the privilege of perpetual existence. But they must thirst for it, must desire it; and this desire must be manifest in obedience to the terms, the laws, upon which it will be supplied freely. Our Lord declared to Mar­tha, “I am the resurrection and the life,” and anyone  believing him, trusting him, though he were dead, yet should he live, attain to perfect life, escap­ing from death conditions, until at the close of the Millennium he shall have life in the full, unre­stricted sense. He who thus liveth (attains to life) and still believeth, trusteth in the Life-giver, and is obe­dient to his directions, shall never die.

Our Lord adds, “He that overcometh shall inherit these things, and I will be to him a God, and he shall be to me a son.” Those addressed are not the Bride Class, selected dur­ing the Gospel Age, but the sheep classes of Matt. 25, such of mankind as during the Millennial Age become the Lord’s sheep and obey his voice. To these at the end of the Millen­nial Age, in harmony with the Father's plan, he says, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” They are not invited to inherit the Kingdom prepared for those in joint-heirs with the Lord, the heavenly Kingdom. But they shall inherit the earth, the purchased possession—they shall come back into all the good estate of father Adam, which he lost for himself and his children through disobe­dience, but which Jesus re­deemed with his own precious blood, and will restore at the close of the Millennium to all the children of Adam who shall have accepted his gracious favors and been re­gen­­erated by him, and thus become his sons, and he their God—their “Father.”  (Isa. 9:6)

THE HEAVENLY CITY RESPLENDENT

Here our lesson turns to a consideration of the City, the glorified Church, the Kingdom Class, who, during the Millen­nial Age, will be “kings and priests unto God, and reign upon the earth,” “a thousand years.” (Rev. 5:10; 20:4) This City, Class, the glorified Church, it is declared will have no need of the sun or the moon. Nothing in this statement in­dicates that the world will not have and need both sunlight and moonlight during the Millennial Age, and subsequently, “as long as the sun and moon endure.” (Psa. 72:5) And while it will be true that the Church, as spirit beings, will not have need of literal sunlight and literal moonlight, nev­ertheless, this is not the thought. The sun and the moon here are symbolical, as in Chapter 12:l; the sun signifies the light of this Gospel Age; the moon signifies the typically re­flected light of the Gospel in the law and the prophets of the previous dispensation. The glori­fied Church will have no need of the light which in the present time she so much enjoys through the Word and Spirit, the law and the pro­phets. She will have, instead of these, a much more excellent glory to which the Apostle refers when he says, “Now [with all the light, privileges and oppor­tunities which we enjoy, both as respects the representations of God through the law and the prophets, and through the instruc­tions and leadings of the Spirit in the present] we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face; now  we know in part; then we shall know even as we are known.” (1 Cor. 13:12)

The Church, the Temple of God, will be so filled with all the fullness of God when made like unto the glorious Lord, nothing could add to their blessing of knowledge and Divine favor; will be so filled with the glory of God that from her, as from the Sun of Righteousness shall proceed the light of the glory of God, which shall heal and bless the world during the Millennial Age. This is the Sun of Righteousness to which our Lord referred in Matt 13:43, “then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father”—our Lord Jesus, the Head of the Church, of course being included. The same Sun of Right­eousness is mentioned by the Prophet, saying, “The Sun of Righteous­ness shall arise with healing in his beams.” (Mal. 4:2) Nev­ertheless, while so filled with the Lord’s glory we are not to lose sight of the fact which the Apostle impresses upon us saying that Christ is the Head of the Church, even as the Father is the Head of Christ Jesus. Hence the Lord Al­mighty and the Lamb will always be an inner Temple in this great Temple, which God has provided for the world’s bless­ing during resti­tution times (Verse 22).

When this Sun of Righteousness shall shine forth, its bless­ings of healing, refreshment and life, mental, moral and phys­ical, upon the world of mankind, the nations shall walk in the light of it. (The words “of them that are saved” are not in old MSS. Indeed, it is because they are not saved that they need this special light during the Mil­len­nial Age, in order to their enlightenment, their salva­tion, their restitu­tion.) “And the kings of the earth do bring their glory into it.” (The words, “and honor” are not found in old MSS.) The expressions “nations” and “kings” are not to be under­stood as signifying that the world of mankind during the Mil­lennial Age will be divided into nationalities and kingdoms as at present: the word “nations” here signifies peo­ples, and is intended to show that all peoples, and not merely the peo­ple of Israel, will be thus favored under God’s Kingdom. The word “kings” represents those princes or chief ones of the earth who, during the Millennial Age, will be the chief rep­resentatives of the heavenly, spiritual, invisi­ble Kingdom of Christ. These princes, as we have already seen, will be Abra­ham, Isaac, Jacob and all the faithful prophets of the previous dis­pensation, who, loving God before the call to the Kingdom and to the Bride Class, cannot be of it, but because of their faithfulness will be the princes whom the Lord will establish in all the earth—first making them perfect indi­viduals, and qualifying them for their office, as a reward for their faith­fulness to God in the dark times in which they lived—their manifestation of love for righteousness and trust in the Om­nipotent One.

The bringing into the City, the Kingdom, signifies their acknowledgement of the heavenly Kingdom, their rendering of tribute of praise, thanks, worship and obe­dience to it as God’s agency. And this rendering of glory to the King­dom will continue throughout the entire Mi­llen­­nial Age, as the princes throughout the earth will make known to the people that not in their own names or authority do they rule and execute judgment and establish righteousness, but in the name and as the ministers and representatives of the glorified Christ. The result will be that all the people will ascribe honor and praise and majesty and glory to the Lord’s Anointed, through whom their redemp­tion and resti­tution was and is being accomp­lished; and this is indicated in Verse 26.

What a warning against the slightest sym­pathy with anything un­clean, untrue, or in any­­wise con­trary to the Divine standard of holiness! If we appreciate the glorious things of the Di­vine provision for the Church and for the world, these prom­ises and offers will have their influence upon us, and under their influence we are expected to keep our garments unspotted from the world; to be without spot or wrinkle or any such thing; to hate every contamination of the flesh upon our robe of righteousness; and to seek immediately in prayer for the removal of any spot or wrinkle or any such thing from our wedding garment, that thus we may abide in the Lord’s love, and in the due time be “meet for the inheritance of the saints  in light.”

(Reprints 2832-2834 – June 15, 1901)

god’s children

The human race is God’s children by crea­tion, the work of his hands. His plan with reference to them is clearly revealed in HIS word. Paul says that the first man (who at his beginning was a sample of what the race will be when perfect) was of the earth, earthy; and his posterity, with the exception of the Gospel Church, will in the resurrection still be earthy, human, adapted to the earth (1 Cor. 15:38,44). 

David declares that man was made a little lower than the angels, and crowned with glory, honor, dominion, etc. (Psa. 8:4-8). And Peter, our Lord and all the prophets since the world began, declare that the human race is to be restored to that glorious perfection, and is again to have do­minion over earth, as, Adam, had before he diso­beyed God (Acts 3:19-21).

It is this portion that God has elected to give to the human race. And what a glorious portion! Close your eyes for a moment to the suffering scenes of misery and woe, degradation and sorrow that yet prevail on account of sin, and picture before your mental vision the glory of the perfect earth. Not a stain of sin mars the harmony and peace of a perfect society; not a bitter thought, not an unkind look or word; love, welling up from every heart, meets a kindred res­­ponse in every other heart, and benevolence marks every act. There sickness shall be no more; not an ache nor a pain, nor any evidence of decay—not even the fear of such things.

Think of all the pictures of comparative health and beauty of human form and feature that you have ever seen, and know that perfect hu­man­ity will be still surpassing loveliness. The inward purity and mental and moral perfection will stamp and glorify every radiant countenance. Such will earth’s society be; and weeping be­reaved ones will have their tears all wiped away, when thus they realize the resurrection work complete (Rev 21:4).

And this is the change in human society only. We call to mind also that the earth, which was “made to be inhabited” by such a race of beings, is to be a fit and pleasing abode for them, as represented in the Edenic paradise in which the representative man was at first placed. Paradise shall be restored. The earth shall no more bring forth thorns and briers, and require the sweat of man’s face to yield his bread, but “the earth shall [easily and naturally] yield her increase.” “The desert shall blossom as the rose”; the lower animal creation will be perfect, willing and obedient ser­vants; nature with all its pleasing variety will call to man from every direction to seek and know the glory and power and love of God; and mind and heart will rejoice in him. The restless desire for something new, that now pre­vails, is not a natural but an abnormal condition, due to our imperfection, and to our present unsat­isfactory surroundings. It is not God-like to crave restlessly something new. Most things are old to God; and he rejoices most in those things which are old and perfect.

So will it be with man when restored to the image of God. The perfect man will not know or appreciate fully and hence will not prefer the glory of spiritual being, because of a different nature. Just as fishes and birds each, for the same reason prefer and enjoy their own nature and element most. Man will be so absorbed and enraptured with the glory that surrounds him on the human plane that he will have no aspiration to, nor preference for, another nature or other condi­tions than those possessed. A glance at the present experience of the Church will illustrate this. “How hardly,” with what difficulty, shall those who are rich in this world’s goods enter into the kingdom of God. The few good things pos­sessed, even under the present reign of evil and death, so captivate the human nature that we need special help from God to keep our eye and purpose fixed on the spiritual promises.

That the Christian Church, the body of Christ, is an exception to God’s general plan for mankind is evident from the statement that its selection was determined in the Divine plan before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4, 5).

His Son, to be partakers of the Divine nature and to be fellow-heirs with Christ Jesus of the Mil­lennial King­dom for the establishment of univer­sal right­eousness and peace (Rom. 8:28-31).

 Taken from Studies in the Scriptures, Series One, “The Divine Plan of the Ages” first para­graph Page 191 through the first paragraph of Page 193.

NO. 655 THOUGHTS ON THE MEMORIAL FROM THAT SERVANT

“And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.” (1 Cor. 11:24-26)

It was in harmony with this type of the killing of the Passover lamb on the 14th day of the first month, the day preceding the seven days’ Feast of the Passover, celebrated by the Jews—that our Lord died, as the antitypical Passover Lamb, “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” At no other time was it possible for our Lord to have finished in death the sacrifice which he began when he was thirty years of age, in his baptism unto death. Hence it was that, although the Jews many times sought to take him, no man laid hands on him, because “his hour was not yet fully come.” (John 7:8:30)

As the Jews were commanded to select the lamb of sacrifice on the tenth day of the first month, and to receive it into their houses on that date, the Lord appropriately offered himself to them on that date, when, five days before the Passover, he rode into the city on the ass, the multitude crying, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord!” “He came unto his own, and his own [as a nation] received him not, but as many as received him [individually] to them gave he liberty to become sons of God.” The nation, through its representatives, the rulers, instead of receiving him, rejected him, and thus identified themselves for the time with the Adversary. Nevertheless, by God’s grace the blood of the New Covenant is efficacious for the house of Jacob also, and upon all who desire harmony with God, and they were partakers of the merits of the Lamb—yet they refused to eat of the antitypical Lamb—they lost the opportunity of becoming as a nation the first-born ones, the Royal Priesthood, the holy nation, the peculiar people of Messiah—they lost the opportunity of passing over and becoming mem­bers of the New Creation, with life more abundant in glory, honor and immortality; but we are glad to be informed elsewhere in the Scripture that they will, nevertheless, have a glorious opportunity of accepting the Lamb of God, of eating, appro-priating, his flesh, his sacrifice, and of thus escaping the bondage of sin and death, under the leadership of the Lord and of his faithful brethren, spiritual Israel, the antitypical Church of the First-born (Rom. 11:11-26).

It was at the close of our Lord’s ministry, on the 14th day of the first month, in “the same night in which he was betrayed,” and in the same day, therefore, in which he died, as the antitypical Lamb, that he celebrated with his disciples the typical Passover of the Jews—eating, with his twelve apostles, the typical lamb which represented himself, his own sacrifice for the sins of the world and the “meat indeed,” in the strength of which the life, the liberties and the blessings of the sons of God are alone obtained. The eating of this supper on the night preceding our Lord’s death, and yet the same day, was made possible by the Jewish custom, which began each day, not at midnight, but in the evening. The Lord evidently arranged all the affairs of Israel in conformity with the types which they were to express.

As Jews “born under the Law,” it was obligatory upon our Lord and his apostles to celebrate this type, and at its proper time; and it was after they had thus observed the Jewish Supper, eating the lamb with unleavened bread and herbs, and probably also, as was customary, with “fruit of the vine,” that the Lord—taking part of the unleavened bread and of the fruit of the vine remaining over from the Jewish Supper, the type—instituted amongst his disciples and for his entire Church, whom they represented (John 17:20), a new thing, that with them, as the spiritual Israel, the Church of the First-born, the New Creation, should take the place of, and supplant, the Jewish Passover Supper. Our Lord was not instituting another and a higher type of the Passover. On the contrary, the type was about to begin its fulfillment, and, hence, would be no longer appropriate to those who accepted the fulfillment. Our Lord, as the antitypical Lamb, was about to be slain, as the Apostle expresses it in the text at the head of this chapter: “Christ our Passover [Lamb] is slain.”

None accepting Christ as the Passover Lamb, and thus accepting the antitype as taking the place of the type, could any longer with propriety prepare a typical lamb and eat it in commemoration of the typical deliverance. The appropriate thing thenceforth for all believers in Jesus as the true Passover Lamb would be the sprinkling of the doorposts of the heart with his blood: “Having their hearts sprinkled from a consciousness of evil” [from present condem­nation— realizing their sins propitiated through his blood, and that through his blood they now have forgiveness of sins]. These henceforth must eat, or appropriate to themselves, the merits of their Redeemer—the merits of the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all. By faith they must partake of those merits, and realize that as their sins were laid upon the Lord, and he died for them, so his merits and righteousness are imputed to them. These things they eat, or appropriate by faith.

If, then, our Lord’s Supper took the place of the Passover Supper, yet not as a higher type—the antitype having commenced—what was it? We answer that it was a Memorial of the antitype—a remembrance for his followers of the beginning of the fulfillment of the antitypical Passover.

Thus to accept our Lamb, and so to commemorate his death for us, means expectancy regarding the promised deliverance of the people of God, and therefore signifies that those appreciating and memorializing intelligently while in the world shall not be of the world; but shall be as pilgrims and as strangers, who seek more desirable conditions, free from the blights and sorrows and bondage of the present time of the reign of Sin and Death. These partake of the true, the antitypical unleavened bread: they seek to have it in its purity, without the corruption (leaven) of human theory, blight, ambitions, selfishness, etc., that they may be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. They partake also of the bitter herbs of persecution, in accord with the Master’s word, that the servant is not above his Lord, and that if the Lord himself was reviled and persecuted and rejected, they must expect similar treatment, because the world knoweth them not, even as it knew him not. Yea, his testimony is that none will be acceptable to him whose faithfulness will not draw upon them the world’s disfavor. His words are, “Whosoever will live godly shall suffer persecution.” “They shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven.” (Matt. 5:11,12; 2 Tim. 3:12)

When our Lord instituted his Memorial Supper, called the Last Supper, it was, as above stated, a new symbol, built upon and related to the old Passover type, though not a part of it, being a commemoration, or memorial of the antitype. As we read, he “took bread, and when he had given thanks he brake it, and said, Take, eat; this is my body, which is broken for you [this represents me, the antitypical Lamb; it represents my flesh]. This do in remembrance of me.” Our Lord’s evident intention was to fix in the minds of his followers the fact that he is the antitypical Lamb to the antitypical first-borns and household of faith. The expression, “This do in remembrance of me,” implies that this new institution should take the place with his followers of the former one, which must now become obsolete by reason of fulfillment. “After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, this cup is the new testament [covenant] in my blood”—the blood of the covenant—the blood which seals the New Covenant. “This do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.” We would not understand this to imply the doing of it without respect to time and place, etc., but as signifying that when this cup and unleavened bread thenceforth were used as a celebration of the Passover, it should on every occasion be considered a celebration, not of the type but of the antitype. As it would not have been lawful, proper or typical to celebrate the Passover at any other time than that appointed of the Lord, likewise it is still not appropriate to celebrate the antitype at any other time than its anniversary (1 Cor. 11:23-25).

The Apostle adds, “For as oft as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye do show forth the Lord’s death till he come.” (1 Cor. 11:26) This shows us that the disciples clearly understood that thenceforth to all of the Lord’s followers the annual Passover celebration must have a new meaning: the broken loaf representing the Lord’s flesh, the cup representing his blood. Although this new institution was not laid upon his followers as a law, and although no penalties were attached for failure of its proper observance, nevertheless the Lord knew well that all trusting in him and appreciating him as the antitypical Passover Lamb would be glad to take up the Memorial which he thus suggested to them.

And so it is still. Faith in the ransom continues to find its illustration in this simple memorial, “till he come”—not only until our Lord’s parousia, or presence, in the harvest or end of this age, but until during his parousia one by one his faithful ones have been gathered to him, beyond the “Veil,” there to participate to a still fuller degree, and, as our Lord declared, partake of it “anew in the Kingdom.”

“WE, BEING MANY, ARE ONE LOAF”

“The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we, being many, are one bread [loaf]—one body; for we are all partakers of that one bread.” (1 Cor. 10:16,17)

The Apostle, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, here sets before us an additional thought respecting this Memorial instituted by our Lord. He does not deny, but affirms, that primarily the bread represents our Lord’s broken body, sacrificed on our behalf; and that the cup represents his blood, which seals our pardon. But now, in addition, he shows that we, as members of the Ecclesia, members of the body of Christ, the prospective First-borns, the New Creation, become participators with our Lord in his death, sharers in his sacrifice; and, as he has elsewhere stated, it is a part of our covenant to “fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ.” (Col. 1:24) The thought here is the same as that expressed by the words, “We are baptized into his death.” (Rom. 6:3) Thus, while our Lord’s flesh was the loaf broken for the world, the believers of this Gospel Age, the faithful, the elect, the New Creation, are counted in as parts of that one loaf, “members of the body of Christ”; and hence, in the breaking of the loaf, after recognizing it as the sacrifice of our Lord on our behalf, we are to recognize it, further, as the breaking or sacrificing of the whole Church, of all those consecrated to be dead with him, to be broken with him, to share his sufferings.

This is the exact thought contained in the word “communion” —common-union, common participation. Hence, with every annual celebration of this Memorial we not only recognize the foundation of all our hopes as resting in the dear Redeemer’s sacrifice for our sins, but we revive and renew our own consecration to “be dead with him, that we may also live with him”—to “suffer with him, that we may also reign with him.” How grandly comprehensive is the meaning of this divinely instituted celebration! We are not putting the symbols instead of the reality; nothing surely could be further from our Lord’s intention, nor further from propriety on our part. The heart-communion with him, the heart-feeding upon him, the heart-communion with the fellow-members of the body, and the heart-realization of the meaning of our covenant of sacrifice, is the real com­munion, which, if we are faithful, we will carry out day by day throughout the year—being daily broken with our Lord, and continually feeding upon his merit, growing strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. What a blessing comes to us with the celebration of this Memorial! What a burning of heart for further appreciation and growth in  grace and  knowledge,  and  for  further participation in the privileges of the service to which we are called, not only as respects the present but also as respects the future!

It will be noticed that the Apostle includes the cup for which we praise God. “Is it not the communion, [common-union, common-participa­tion] of the blood of Christ?” Oh, what a thought—that the truly consecrated, faithful “little flock” of the New Creation throughout this Gospel Age, has been Christ in the flesh; and that the suffering and trials and ignominy and death of these whom the Lord has accepted and recognized as “members of his body” in the flesh, are all counted in as parts of his sacrifice, because associated with, and under him who is our Head, our Chief Priest! Who that understands the situation, who that appreciates the invitation of God to membership in this Ecclesia, and the consequent participation in the sacrifice unto death now, and in the glorious work of the future, does not rejoice to be accounted worthy to suffer reproaches for the name of Christ, and to lay down his life in the service of the Truth, as members of his flesh and of his bones? What matters it to these that the world knows us not, even as it knew him not? (1 John 3:1) What matters it to these, though they should suffer the loss of the choicest of earthly blessings and advantages, if they as the body of Christ may but be counted worthy of a share with the Redeemer in his future glories?

As these grow in grace and knowledge and zeal they are everyone enabled to weigh and judge the matter from the standpoint of the Apostle, when he said, respecting earthly favors and advantages, “I count all things but loss and dross.” “I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.” (Phil. 3:8; Rom. 8:18)

Another thought is in respect to the mutual love, sympathy and interest which should prevail amongst all the members of this “one body” of the Lord. As the Lord’s Spirit comes more and more to rule in our hearts it will cause us to rejoice in every occasion to do good unto all men as we have opportunity, but especially unto the household of faith. As our sympathies grow and go out toward the whole world of mankind, they must grow especially toward the Lord, and, consequently, especially also toward those whom he recognizes, who have his Spirit, and who are seeking to walk in his footsteps. The Apostle indicates that the measure of our love for the Lord will be indicated by our love for the brethren, the fellow-members of his body. If our love is to be such as will endure all things and bear all things in respect to others, how much more will this be true as respects these fellow-members of the same body, so closely united to us through our Head! No wonder the Apostle John declares that one of the prominent evidences of our having passed from death unto life is that we love the brethren (1 John 3:14). Indeed, we remember that in speaking of our filling up the measure of the afflictions of Christ, the Apostle Paul adds, “for his body’s sake, which is the Church.” (Col. 1:24)

The same thought is again expressed in the words, “We ought also to lay down our lives for the brethren.” (1 John 3:16) What a brotherhood is thus implied! Where else could we hope to find such love for the brethren as would lay down life itself on their behalf? We are not now speaking of how the Lord may be pleased to apply the sacrifice of the Church, represented in the “Lord’s goat” as a part of the Atonement Day sacrifices. *(Tabernacle Shadows of the Better Sacrifices, p. 59.) We merely, with the Apostle, note the fact that, so far as we are concerned, the sacrifice, the laying down of life, is to be done in the main for the brethren—in their service; the service for the world belongs chiefly to the Age to come, the Millennium. Under present conditions, our time and talents and influence and means are, more or less, mortgaged to others (the wife or children or aged parents or others depend­ing on us), and we are obligated also to the provision of “things needful,” “decent,” and “honest in the sight of all men” for ourselves. Hence, we find comparatively little left at our disposal for sacrifice, comparatively little to lay down for the brethren, and this little the world and the flesh and the devil are continually attempting to claim from us, and to divert from the sacrificing to which we have consecrated it.

The Lord’s selection of the Church, during this time when evil prevails, is to the intent that surrounding circumstances may prove the measure of the love and loyalty of each to him and his. If our love be cool, the claims of the world, the flesh and the Adversary will be too much for us, and attract our time, our influence, our money. On the other hand, in proportion as our love for the Lord is strong and warm, in that same proportion we will delight to sacrifice these to him— not only to give our surplus of energy and influence and means, laying these down as we find opportunity in the service of the brethren, but additionally, this spirit of devotion to the Lord will prompt us to curtail within reasonable, economical limits the demands of the home and family, and especially of self, that we may have the more to sacrifice upon the Lord’s altar.

As our Lord was for three and a half years breaking his body, and for three and a half years giving his blood, his life, and only finished these sacrifices at Calvary, so with us: the laying down of our lives for the brethren is in small affairs of service, either temporal or spiritual, the spiritual being the higher, and hence the more important, though he who would shut up his compassion toward a brother having temporal need would give evidence that he did not have the Spirit of the Lord ruling in his heart in any proper degree.

THE MEMORIAL STILL APPROPRIATE

The original celebration of the Memorial of our dear Redeemer’s death (with the still larger meaning attached to it by the Holy Spirit through the Apostle, as including our participation or communion with him in his sacrifice) was, as we have seen, upon a particular date—the fourteenth day of the first month, Jewish reckoning.*

[The Hebrew year begins in the spring, with the first appearance of a new moon after the Spring Equinox. The 14th day is easily reckoned, but should not be confounded with Feast Week, which began on the 15th and continued for a week following it—the Jewish celebration. That week of unleavened bread, celebrated by the Jews with rejoicing, corresponds to the entire future of a Christian—especially representing the entire year until his next celebration of the Memorial Supper. With the Jew the sacrifice of the lamb was a means to the end; a start for the feast of the week, which had his special attention. Our Memorial relates to the killing of the Lamb, and hence belongs to the 14th of Nisan (the first month). Moreover, we are to remember that with the change of counting the hours of the day, the night of the 14th of Nisan would correspond to what we would now call the evening of the 13th.]

And the same date, reached by the same method of counting, is still appropriate, and will appeal to all who are inquiring for the “old paths” and desirous of walking therein. This annual commemoration of the Lord’s death, etc., as instituted by our Lord and observed by the early Church, has been revived of late amongst those coming into the light of Present Truth.

It is not surprising that, as more and more the real meaning of the Lord’s symbolical supper was lost sight of, the proprieties attaching to its annual observance were also neglected. This becomes plainer of comprehension as we come to understand the history of the matter, as follows:

After the apostles and their immediate suc­cessors had fallen asleep—somewhere about the third century—Roman Catholicism was becoming influential in the Church. One of its false doctrines was to the effect that while Christ’s death secured a cancellation of the past guilt, it could not offset personal transgressions after the believer had come into relationship with Christ—after baptism; but that a fresh sacrifice was necessary for such sins. On the basis of this error was built the doctrine of the Mass, which, as we have heretofore explained in some detail, was considered a fresh sacrifice of Christ for the particular sins of the individual for whom the Mass is offered, or sacrificed—the fresh sacrifice of Christ being made to appear reasonable by the claim that the officiating priest had the power to turn the bread and wine into the actual body and actual blood of Christ; and then, by breaking the wafer, to break or sacrifice the Lord afresh for the sins of the individual for whom the Mass is performed. We have already shown that from the Divine standpoint this teaching and practice was an abhorrence in the sight of the Lord—‘the abomination which maketh desolate.” Dan. 11:31; 12:11* [Vol. II, Chap. ix, and Vol. III, Chap. iv.]

That false doctrine did make desolate, and in its wake came the Church’s multitudinous errors, the great falling away or apostasy which constituted the Roman system—the chiefest of all anti-Christs. Century after century rolled around, with this view the predominating one, the controlling one throughout Christendom, until, in the sixteenth century, the Great Reformation movement began to stir up an opposition and, proportionately, began to find the truths which had been hidden during the Dark Ages under the false doctrines and false practices of anti-Christ. As the Reformers were granted additional light respecting the entire testimony of God’s Word, that light included clearer views of the sacrifice of Christ, and they began to see that the Papal theory and practice of the Mass was indeed the “abomination of desolation,” and they disavowed it, with varying degrees of positiveness. The Church of England revised its Prayer-book in 1552 and excluded the word Mass.

The custom of the Mass practically took the place of the annual celebrations of the Lord’s Memorial Supper; for the Masses were said at frequent intervals, with a view to cleansing the people repeatedly from sin. As the Reformers saw the error of this, they attempted to come back to the original simplicity of the first institution, and disowned the Romish Mass as being an improper celebration of the Lord’s Memorial Supper. However, not seeing the close relationship between the type of the Passover and the antitype of our Lord’s death, and the Supper as a memorial of the antitype, they did not grasp the thought of the propriety of its observance on its annual recur­rence. Hence, we find that amongst Protes­tants some celebrate monthly, others every three months, and some every four months—each denom­­ination using its own judgment—the “Disciples” celebrating weekly, through a misun­der­standing of the Scriptures somewhat similar to their misunderstanding respecting bap­tism. They base their weekly celebration of the supper on the statements of the Acts of the Apostles to the effect that the early Church came together on the first day of the week, and at such meetings had “breaking of bread.” (Acts 2:42,46; 20:7)

We have already observed [See previous Chapter] that these weekly celebrations were not commemorations of the Lord’s death; but, on the contrary, were love-feasts, commemorative of his resurrection, and of the number of breakings of bread which they enjoyed with him on several first-days during the forty days before his ascension. The remembrance of these breakings of bread, in which their eyes were opened and they knew him, probably led them to meet on each first day of the week thereafter, and, not improperly, led them to have together a social meal, a breaking of bread. As we have already noticed, the cup is never mentioned in connection with these, while in every mention of the Lord’s Memorial Supper it occupies fully as important a place as does the loaf.

WHO MAY CELEBRATE?

First of all, that none should commune who do not trust in the precious blood of Christ as the sacrifice for sins. None should commune except by faith he have on the doorposts and lintel of his earthly tabernacle the blood of sprinkling that speaketh peace for us, instead of calling for vengeance, as did the blood of Abel (Heb. 12:24). None should celebrate the symbolical feast unless in his heart he [See previous chapter.] has the true feast, and has accepted Christ as his Life-giver. Further, none should commune unless he is a member of the one body, the one loaf, and unless he has reckoned his life, his blood, sacrificed with the Lord’s in the same chalice, or cup. There is here a clearly drawn line of distinction, not only between the believers and unbelievers, but also between the consecrated and the unconsecrated. However, the line is to be drawn by each individual for himself—so long as his professions are good and reasonably attested by his outward conduct. It is not for one member to be the judge of another, nor even for the Church to judge, unless, as already pointed out, the matter has come before it in some definite form, according to the prescribed regulations.

Otherwise the elders, or representatives of the Church, should set before those who assemble themselves these terms and conditions:

(1) faith in the blood; and (2) consecration to the Lord and his service, even unto death. They should then invite all who are thus minded and thus consecrated to join in celebrating the Lord’s death and their own. This, and all invitations connected with this celebration, should be so comprehensively stated as to leave no thought of sectar­­­ianism. All should be welcomed to par­ticipate, regardless of their faith and harmony on other subjects, if they are in full accord in respect to these foundation truths—the redemption through the precious blood, and a full consecration unto death, giving them justification.

It is appropriate here to consider the words of the Apostle:

“Whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh condem­nation to himself, if he discern not the Lord’s body.” (1 Cor. 11:27-29)

The Apostle’s warning here seems to be against a careless celebration of this Memorial, which would make of it a feast, and against inviting persons to it in a promiscuous manner. It is not such a feast. It is a solemn Memorial, intended only for the members of the Lord’s “body”; and whoever does not discern this, whoever does not discern that the loaf represents the flesh of Jesus, and that the cup represents his blood, would, in partaking of it, properly come under condemnation—not “damnation” as in the common version, but a condemnation in the Lord’s sight, and a condemnation also in his own conscience. Before partaking of these emblems each individual, therefore, should decide for himself whether or not he believes and trusts in the broken body and shed blood of our Lord as being his ransom price; and secondly, whether or not he has made the consecration of his all that he may thus be counted in as a member of that “one body.”

Having noted who are excluded, and who properly have access to the Lord’s table, we see that every true member of the Ecclesia has the right to participate, unless that right has been debarred by a public action of the whole Church, according to the rule therefore laid down by the Lord (Mat 18:15-17). All such may celebrate - will surely desire to celebrate and surely desire to conform to the Master’s dying admon­ition, “Eat ye all of it; drink ye all of it.” They will realize that unless we eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, we have no life in us; and that if they have in heart and mind partaken of the merits of the Lord’s sacrifice really, and of his life, that it is both a privilege and a pleasure to memorialize and to confess it before each other and the Lord.

WHO MAY OFFICIATE

The false doctrine of the Mass, and the creation of a class in the Church called the clergy, to administer this and similar services, has created so deep an impression upon the public mind that Protestants even to this day generally hold that the presence of “an ordained minister,” to ask a blessing and to officiate in such a memorial service, is of absolute necessity, and that any other procedure would be sacrilegious. How utterly wrong this whole theory is will be very readily recognized when we remember that all who have the privilege of partaking of this Memorial are consecrated members of the “Royal Priesthood”—each fully commissioned of the Lord to preach his Word according to their talents and opportunities, and fully ordained also to perform any service or ministry of which they are capable to him and the members of his body, and, in his name, to others. “All ye are brethren,” is the Lord’s standard, and is not to be forgotten when we hold communion with him, and celebrate his redemptive work, and our common-union with him and with each other as members of his body.

Nevertheless, in every little group of the Lord’s people, in every little Ecclesia, or body of Christ, as we have already pointed out, the Scriptures indicate that there should be order, and that a part of that order is that there should be “elders in every Church.” While each member of the Ecclesia, the New Creation, has a sufficient ordination of the Lord to permit him to take any part in connection with the Memorial Supper, yet the Church, in electing elders, indicates that they should be representatives of the entire Ecclesia in respect to such matters as this. Therefore, the duty of arranging and ministering this Memorial would devolve upon them as a service to which they have already been selected by the Church.

Our Lord’s declaration, “Where two or three of you are met together in my name, there am I in the midst”—shows us conclusively that, wherever it is possible, this memorial should be celebrated in company with fellow-members of the body. The blessing attached was intended to draw the mem­bers one toward the other, not only in this annual gathering, but whenever possible. Wherever even two or three may meet to claim this promise, it being impossible or inconvenient to meet with a larger group, they are privileged to celebrate as a Church, as an Ecclesia, complete; and even where an individual may be so circumstanced that he cannot possibly meet with others, we suggest that his faith go out with sufficient strength to the Lord to claim the promise—regarding the Lord and himself as the two. We advise that such unavoidable isolation be not permitted to hinder any from the annual celebration of the great sacrifice for sin, and of our participation in it with our Lord; that the solitary individual provide bread— (un-leavened bread, if obtainable—such as soda biscuit or water cracker) and fruit of the vine (raisin juice or grape juice or wine*) and that he celebrate in communion of spirit with the Lord and with the fellow-members of the body, from whom he is of necessity separated.

*[So far as we are able to judge, the Lord used fermented wine when he instituted this Memorial. Nevertheless, in view of his not specify­ing wine, but simply “fruit of the vine,” and in view also of the fact that the alcoholic habit has obtained so great and so evil a power in our day, we believe we have the Lord’s approval in the use of unfermented grape juice, or raisin juice, to which, if convenient, a few drops of fermented wine may be added, so as to satisfy the con­sciences of any who might be inclined to consider that obedience to the Lord’s example would require the use of fermented wine. In this manner there will be no danger to any of the Lord’s brethren, even the weakest in the flesh.]

This entire paper was taken from Study XI, “The New Creation, Volume 6, Studies in the Scriptures. We know that Pastor Russell was That Servant, primarily to The Little Flock, the 144,000 Bride of Christ and the door to that High Calling closed a few years after his death. However, we know that he was aware of Joel 2:28 and Acts 2:17 “...your old men shall dream dreams and young men shall see visions.” He knew that the “old men” consisted of the prophets and some others from Abel to Abraham, Job and later to John the Immerser, who was the last of the Ancient Worthies.

   The Saints are invited to eat the bread of justification and drink the wine as participating with Christ in His suffering. To be broken with Him.

But the Youthful Worthies partake of the bread as their tentative justification. And the wine as their participation in following in the footsteps of our Savior - for His sake. They make the same kind of consecration that the Saints made, although they are not on trial for their lives - only for faith and obedience. They are typed by the strangers in Leviticus 24 verse 22 which says,

“Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger, as for one of your own country: for I am the Lord your God.”

This is one commandment of our Lord that we should keep annually, just as the type of the Jews deliverance from Egypt were to keep annually on the proper date - the 14th of Nisan. So we are to keep this annually just as the Jews kept it, as the Lord's Supper is the antitype of their Passover.

LETTER OF GENERAL INTEREST

Dear Sister Marjorie: Col. 1:2,3

            Enclosed is a few dollars to help you all. I don’t want to MISS one issue of the magazine, not one.

            I heard that the LHMM, Bible House has come out with a new idea. Not in line with the line with the truth as we know it.

            I send my Christian love to each of you.                                            Sincerely in Christ, ___  (TEXAS)

The Epiphany Bible Students will celebrate the Memorial on April 5, 2012.

NO. 654 PROSPECT

the battle of armageddon

"And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon." (Rev 16:12-16)

“And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” (Rev 17:5)

Babylon was built on the River Euphrates, which represents the People who built Babylon with their money and influence. The waters of this great river are a type of the people who, by their influence and money, support Papacy, from which Babylon the Great draws her revenues.

“...The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues.” (Rev 17:15)

These waters of that river signify revenues from all nations. Literal Babylon was built upon the river Euphrates. Its wealth, supplies and sus­tenance came largely from this source. It had immense walls and strong gates over the river.

The sixth plague is upon Great Babylon, the mother. While the other systems have other chan­nels or rivers, the mother of harlots system is built upon the “great river.” This is not the generally accepted interpretation, which refers to the Mus­lims; and the Ottoman empire, which is included under the sixth trumpet as “the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.” (Rev 9:14)

The river dried up, calling our attention to the typical Babylon when Cyrus’ army turned aside the river into a new channel, leaving the old channel dry and enabling him to march his army under the gates. While these events were occur­ring, the princes of Babylon, corresponding to the notables of Chris­ten­dom, were holding high carni­val, rejoicing in their security, boasting of the strength of their walls, the impregnability of their gates and the sureness of their waters. Mystic Baby­­­lon sits upon and is supported by many waters (peoples, nations), and its fall is predicted, through the turning aside of its supporters and sustainers, the people. The turning aside of the “waters” would represent the alienation of the people, and the alienation of the people would be indicated by their withholding of financial support.

The implication is a cessation of the revenues of Babylon, a decline in the contri­butions which heretofore have made her wealthy. The “drying up” will probably require many years for its ac­complishment. That Servant points out, there will be a large falling off.

Waters also represent truth. The truth will be turned aside and no longer will flow through Babylon, that is “the voice of the Bridegroom and the voice of the Bride” shall no longer be heard in her. (Rev. 18:23)

As the typical Cyrus encouraged the Jews to return from Babylonian captivity, so the anti­typical Lord, has already seen to Israel’s return to the land of Abraham. (Compare Jer. 50:38.)

Kings — The kings of Christ’s Kingdom, who are also priests, the Body of Christ, the Royal Priesthood of the east from the sun rising. They come, not to the sun rising, but from the sun rising. They come bringing light with them. The name Cyrus signifies “the sun.” In his name he reminds us of the prophecy of Christ; “The Sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in his beams.” (Mal. 4:2)

Three — The harmonious teaching in which these can all unite are the dogmas of “the divine right of kings,” “the authority of the clergy,” and the claim that mankind is bound to submit to these and be controlled by them. They are unclean spirits, impure and erroneous teaching. The spirit is a doctrine, an unclean doctrine, a false doctrine and each of these systems will utter the same things. The divine authority of the church, and the divine right of kings, aside from the church, will not be permitted to conflict. Satan will be forced to appear “as an angel of light” in order to perpetuate the delusions wherewith he has so long deceived the whole world by putting light for darkness, and darkness for light.

Like frogs, croaking from pulpits and plat­forms, and through the religious and secular press. The three most prominent characteristics of a frog are pomposity, an air of superior wisdom and knowledge, and a continual croaking. The spirit of all will be boastful; an air of superior knowledge and wisdom will be assumed; all will foretell dire results to follow any failure to obey their counsels. Indicating that when these systems give forth these unclean spirits it will be with boastfulness, an attempt to overawe with dignity and with contin­ual allusions to disasters which must attend any change of present arrangements.

We are not to think that these frog spirits, or doctrines, are all bad, but rather that they are doctrines of bombast and pomposity - doctrines of demons. The various “sectaries” have built little mud dams along the stream of truth, claiming this secured all the truth, so that what should have been a well of life became a veritable frog pond. Out of the mouth of – frogs came the utterances of the combined power of church and state.

It is the dragon or civil government espe­cially that which once constituted civil Rome. Practically all Bible exegetes agree that this dragon represents purely civil power. Political parties all declare that if any change should come, the direct cause of the drying will be the relationship existing between Papacy and the nations of earth. When tendencies produce a closer affiliation of religion and state, it will cause the people to throw off the yoke of the church as well as the state, since both will be in league against their cherished ideas of liberty and equality. And out of the mouth of the civil power, the Catholic Church and the Federation of Pro­testant Churches will go forth with the same teach­ings.

These classes influence and encourage each other with this impure doctrine of Satan. Were it not for this harmony, each of these classes would have felt the weakness of their claims, but in their union they find strength and hope for retaining their hold upon the people. The beast — Papacy. The same beast is mentioned in Rev. 13:2, where it is described as resembling a spotted leopard. It refers to the Papal system as a whole, on which the woman sat. The Catholic Church says, “Do not look behind! Do not question anything about the Church!” The Beast and Prophet are symbols of false systems which will be cast into a great consuming trouble in the close of this Gospel age. The false prophet is the religious element.

Another name for the system elsewhere called “the Image of the Beast,” a very exact representation of the Beast, which we understand to mean the Protestant Churches. Protestantism says, “We are great, we are wise, we know a great deal. Keep quiet! No one will then know that you know nothing.”

To prevent individual Bible study which seemed to them a loss of power, religious leaders planned a union of Protestants in a system called the Evangelical Alliance. Then and there they made an Image of the Beast.

Another representation of the Image, the vitalized product of the Evangelical Alliance, has taken the form of Church Federation. A new symbol takes the place of both the “two-horned beast” and “the Image of the Beast,” and represents all systems teaching error— “orthodox” as well as many considered heterodox.

It is the spirits of devils, Doctrines of devils, the devil’s theory relative to present evil governments. The spirit of revolution and anarchism in the world is generating a boiling, seething, condition of affairs. Working miracles and working signs. They will give evidences and seemingly plausible reasons for the rights of civil leaders and clergy.

Spiritualism has not yet reached the climax of its power. Its powers are to increase won­derfully.

Unto the kings, not only kings but princes, generals, also the financial kings and merchant princes, and the great among religious teachers. To gather them, the croaking of the frog spirits, or doctrines, will gather the kings and princes, finan­cial, political, religious and industrial into one great army. Ecclesiastical kings and princes will be gathered in solid phalanx—Protestant and Catholic. Political kings, financial kings and mer­ch­ant princes will join the same side.

The nations of the earth are already gathered together; associated by the modern methods of communication—wireless telephones, radio, com­puters, the world-wide-web and the United Nations. The gathering of the armies is plainly visible from the standpoint of God’s Word. They do not realize, however, that they are coming to Armageddon. To the battle — the general conflict between priest and people, rulers and ruled, capital and labor. Organized capital on the one hand and organized labor on the other are the two forces arrayed against each other in deadly conflict. The Armageddon forces have been mustering for both sides of the conflict.

In proportion as men are aiding error and wrong, they have been battling against the New Ruler; and in proportion as their tongues, pens and hands were used to support the right and truth on any subject, they have been fighting on the Lord’s side. It will end with the complete overthrow of earth’s present rulers. The battle has already commenced. The lines of battle are becoming more distinctly marked.

Prophecy requires a wealthy and prosperous Israel before the Armageddon crisis and we see it now. “Jacob’s trouble” in the Holy Land will come at the very close of Armageddon. This battle is the seventh plague, and is a result of the six plagues which precede it. To war, the conflict between right and wrong. The Millennium is preceded by the most terrible judgments on the nations; but in consequence of these judgments, the people are turned to a pure worship. It is typified by Gideon’s battle.

God Almighty — The omnipotent God.

“Behold I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.” (Rev 16:15)

The position of this declaration of the 15th verse is thrown in disconnectedly and it is signi­ficant. It teaches that our Lord will be present before the impure teaching begins to gather them to their destruction. I come – At the time when this evil doctrine will apparently be uniting all upon the side of law and order, our Lord will be present, but secretly and unknown except to the watching ones. He comes more than once. At the first advent “Behold, thy king cometh.” At his second advent: “The Bridegroom came” and he comes when he “returns from the wedding.” He comes for his saints, and he comes with his saints.

He will be present unseen, doing a work of which the world for a time will be unaware. His arrival, therefore, must be in a quiet manner, un­observed, and entirely unknown to the world – As A Thief. Such endorsements for truth as miracle-working power, so necessary in the Jewish harvest to the confirmation of truth, would be out of har­mony with the thief-like presence and mis­sion of the Lord here. This coming as a thief extends over the whole period from his coming until the judgments on Babylon are complete.

Blessed Is he – Any one of the Church who complies with the conditions. The other class [Great Company] is recommended, even under the sixth plague, to watch and keep their garments, lest they walk naked. That watcheth – Those believers who are taking heed to the sure word of prophecy, as to a light in a dark place, shall, because of its light, not be in darkness that that day should overtake them as a thief. And keepeth – The danger of losing it is implied in this statement, made after six of the seven last plagues are poured out. No man is absolutely above danger of falling until he is immortal. His garments – The robe signifies that share of Christ’s merit which has been freely appropriated to us by him with the Father’s consent. Since our sins were laid upon Jesus, and we by faith accept him as our Redeemer, his right­eousness has been laid upon us. His righteousness is our glorious dress. He – The Lord of hosts himself mustereth the hosts of the battle. God will be represented by the great Messiah. He will be on the side of the masses. “At that time shall Michael stand up [That is assume authority.].”(Dan. 12:1)

Gathered them together — The turmoil of speech and the conflict between classes are hur­rying us toward the vortex of the great Arma­geddon. Warring political factions, militant suf­fragettes, socialists, nihilists, anarchists, labor organizations, capitalistic combinations, the ec­cles­i­­as­tical system, all in opposition to each and all; are rushing headlong to Armageddon.

Armageddon – Symbolizing the great con­troversy between truth and error, right and wrong, God and mammon. Armageddon means mount of destruction; and this describes what will be the result of their doctrine. This signifies the Hill of Megiddo, which occupied a very marked position on the southern edge of the Plain of Esdraelon, and commanded an important pass into the hill country.

Megiddo was the great battle-ground of Israel. Many famous Old Testament battles were fought there: Gideon vs. Midian, King Saul vs. the Philistines, King Josiah vs. Pharaoh Necho; and there Ahab and Jezebel lived, Jezebel meeting a horrible death there.

It is pure speculation to attempt to say just when it will begin. We are not to expect any gathering of the people literally to the Hill of Megiddo. The Scriptures abound with allusions to Armageddon. Our Lord calls it “great tribulation.” (Matt. 24:21); Daniel describes it as “a time of trouble.” (Dan. 12:1)

GOD’S FOOTSTOOL MADE GLORIOUS.

“Thus saith the LORD, Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool.” “I will make the place [footstool] of my feet glorious.” “His [God’s] feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives.”― Isa. 66:1; 60:13; Zech. 14:4; Matt. 5:35; Acts 7:49.

God’s footstool has been far from glorious for the past six thousand years: sin, pain, crying, mental and physical suffering and death have made it one vast charnel house.

Now, conservatively estimated, at least twen­­ty billions of humanity wait for the time to come when the curse of divine justice shall be lifted; and the light of divine favor, shining in the face of Jesus Christ our Lord, shall rise as the Sun of righteousness­ ―

“Chase away sin’s dismal shadows,

Light the gloom with healing ray.”

To this end God has made abundant prov­ision. The ransom for Adam and all who suffered loss through him as his children, buys the whole world, and secures for each one of our race an opportunity of a trial for ever­lasting life under favorable conditions. It does more; it buys back Adam’s Paradise home (lost by his transgres­sion), and his dominion as earth’s king, representative of God, his Creator and Father.

Hence we read, “Thou, O Tower of the flock [Christ], the stronghold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion.” (Micah 4:8) Paul also, speaks of the “redemption of the purchased possession.” (Eph. 1:14) Our Lord in one of his parables referred to this also, showing that he purchases not only mankind, the treasure, but also the field, the world, the earth from under the curse: and that all who join with him, as members of the Kingdom class, share in that purchase of the field and the treasure. (Matt. 13:44)

The entire work of the Millennium will consist in or­dering and making glorious God’s footstool. Paradise, when lost through sin, was but a garden in a corner of the earth; but inasmuch as the race of Adam has multiplied to fill the earth, in accordance with the divine intention (Gen. 1: 28) and since they all have been redeemed, it will be necessary to provide a Paradise large enough to accommodate all. This will imply that the entire earth shall become as the Garden of Eden for fruitfulness and beauty and perfection. And all this is promised as the grand future consummation of the Divine lan. (Acts 3:20, 21; Rev. 2:7; 2 Cor. 12: 4)

But the richest jewel of the Lord’s glorified footstool in the close of the Millennium will be mankind, in whose perfection, liberty, and likeness to God, in moral and in­tellectual graces, will be reflected the very image of Di­vinity.

Most gloriously will the perfect man reflect honor upon his Maker and his wondrous plan for his creation, redemption and restitution. And with that wonder­ful plan will always be intimately identified first the Lord Jesus, GOD’S “Word,” and second the Bride, the Lamb’s wife and joint-heir in disbursing the blessings secured by the ransom.

This beautifying and glorifying of the Lord’s “foot­stool” will not be completed until our Lord Jesus, as the Father’s honored agent, “shall have put down all [con­flicting] rule, and all authority and power. For he must reign until he hath put all enemies under his feet,” before he delivers up the Kingdom at the close of the Millen­nium. (1 Cor. 15:24-28)

The period of the reign of Sin and Death is described as the time when God “remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger.” (Lam. 2:1) But following the start of the Millennium, the people are prophetically called upon to “Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his footstool, for he is worthy.” (Ps. 99:5.) And this thought, that the establishment of the New Jerusalem, the Church of God glorified, as the new government in the earth, will mean the beginning of the restoration of divine favor to GOD’S footstool, is clearly set forth through the Prophet Zechariah (14:4, 5)

The lord God’s FEET ON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES

This prophecy is generally misunderstood, and applied to the feet of our Lord Jesus, at his Second Advent. In­deed, those who thus err gener­ally go farther and assert that it will be the feet of flesh, pierced with the nails of Calvary. They fail to realize that our Lord gave his human na­ture, complete and forever, as our ransom; and that he was raised from the dead, by the Father’s power, a glorious spirit being, the express image of the Father’s person. A glance at Zech. 14:3,4 shows that the Prophet speaks of the return of God’s feet; for the verse (referring to the trouble by which the Kingdom will be established) is: “Then shall GOD go forth and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle [anciently for Israel]. And his feet will stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be divided in its center, from east to west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove northward and half southward.”

As soon as any see the fact that the feet mentioned are GOD’S feet, they will not dispute that this language is symbolic. It refers to the Lord’s re-establishment of his dominion in the earth, that has long been comparatively abandoned to the “god of this world” Satan. Except as the Lord was represented first by the typical Taber­nacle, secondly by the Temple at Jerusalem, and lastly by the present tabernacle condition of the Church of Christ, during this Gospel Age. Surely, no one will err and get the thought that GOD literally rests his feet upon this earth as a “footstool.”

And if the placing and resting of GOD’S feet is symbolic, and signifies the return of divine favor and do­minion to earth, so, we may be sure, other features con­nected in the same prophecy are symbolic. The Mount of Olives, its peculiar division, its valley, the flight of the people, the waters of life from Jerusalem (Compare v. 8 with Ezek. 47: 1-9), etc., are all symbolic statements – pictures of grand spiritual truths.

The olive is a meaningful symbol: in olden times it was the source of artificial light, its oil being generally used for this purpose (Ex. 27:20). Indeed, in the Hebrew the olive tree was called shemen or oil tree. Olive oil was also used as the basis of many of the precious ointments of olden time – such as that used in anointing the priests and kings, typing the Holy Spirit upon the anti­typical “royal priesthood.” (Ex. 30:25) And from time immemorial the olive branch has been used as a symbol of peace. (­Gen. 8:11; Neh. 8:15)

If then the olive will be the symbol of light, peace and divine blessing through the holy spirit, and if mountain be considered as elsewhere the symbol for a Kingdom, the significant hue of the term Mount of Olives is easily seen to be the Kingdom of Light, Peace and Divine Bless­ing. And the standing or establishment or fixing of GOD’S “feet” upon it, signifies that the divine favor and law will be reestablished in the earth by and through the holy Kingdom.

This application of the term Mount of Olives is in full accord with Paul’s statement (Rom. 11:17,24) in which he compares Fleshly Israel with the original cultivated olive tree, and Gentile converts to wild olive branches grafted in where the natural branches had been broken off. (Com­pare Jer. 11:16,17) He explains that the root of the tree is in the promise of God, the Abrahamic promise, that the seed of Abraham should finally bless all the fam­ilies of the earth, etc. This same root or promise will bear two kinds of branches, the engrafted wild olive branches, and the re-engrafted natural branches: when Israel shall have his blindness turned away, and shall look with the eye of faith on the Savior crucified and pierced eighteen centuries ago, a sacrifice for sin. We re­member also that fleshly Israel was God’s typical Kingdom or mountain for a long time, and that spiritual Israel of this age is called to be the real Kingdom of God. As Jesus said, “Fear not, Little Flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.” (Luke 12:32)

Further, from these two Kingdoms (even before THE LORD’S glory rests on them to make them his channels of blessings to all mankind) has proceeded all “the light of the world” during all the darkness of the past. These are the repre­sentatives of the Old and the New Testa­ments, the two parts of the oath-bound Covenant. Are not these related to the Lord’s two witnesses and to the two olive trees of Zech. 4:3,11,12, distinctly mentioned also in Rev. 11:4 – in that these two parts of the mountain symbolize the outcome of that covenant, the results of the witnessing – the Kingdom in its heavenly and its earthly phases?

Here we see, then, that the two halves of the Mount of Olives mean the two parts of the Kingdom of God, dis­tinctly separated according to a divine order or arrangement. The separation indicates no opposition between the two parts of the Kingdom. It is, on the contrary, for the purpose of making the “Valley of Blessing” between – to which all who desire divine aid may flee and find suc­cor under the blessed protection of both the heavenly and the earthly phases of the Kingdom.

The Prophet David (Psa. 84) seems to have been given a view of this great “Valley of Bles­sings,” close to The Lord God’s “feet,” when he sings first of the saints of the Gospel Age and then of those blessed in the next age, saying: “…no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.”

The Eighty-fifth Psalm also pictures the return of di­vine clemency and blessing under the Millennial Kingdom, the Olive Mountain (King­dom) of two parts.

The removal of one part of the mountain to the north and the other to the south is significant. The North is the direction of the Pleiades, the celestial center of the uni­verse, the supposed seat of divine empire. This would seem to indicate the “change” of the Gospel Church at this time, from human to spirit conditions as it partakes of the divine nature. The removal of the other half of the mountain would seem to signify the complete restitution, to perfect human condi­tions, of those Ancient Worthies accounted worthy to constitute the earthly representatives of God’s Kingdom.

The valley thus produced would be one full of light – free from shadows: for the sun would stream through it from east to west. This speaks pictorially of the Sun of Right­eousness and its full light of divine truth and bless­ing scattering the shadows of sin, ignorance, superstition and death, and healing and restoring the willingly obedient of men who will flee to this valley of blessings, the valley of mercy. The valley of mercy, between and under the care of the spiritual and human phases of the Kingdom of Light and Peace (the standing of GOD’S feet) will surely be a “Valley of Blessings” to all who enter it with broken and contrite hearts.

We must recall further, that while it is said to Israel only, “Ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains,” yet as a name Israel meant “The people blessed of the Lord,” “The people of God,” “The Lord’s people.” (2 Chron. 7:14.) While, as we have seen, the first or spiritual blessing of the Kingdom shall come to spiritual Israel, and the second or earthly blessing shall begin with Israel according to the flesh, yet it will not stop there. For who­soever will may become an Israelite: by exercising the faith and obedience of Abraham, all mankind may become Israelites indeed, “the people of God.” Hence the Prophet Isaiah declares that when Israel is called back to divine favor, at the establishment of the Kingdom, it will include “Every one that is called by my [MY GOD’S] name: for I have created him for my glory; I have formed him, yea, I have made him. [The name Israel will then apply to all who are God’s people.]” (Isa. 43:7; Rom. 9:26,33; 10:13)

“And [thus] will THE LORD MY GOD come in, and all the holy ones shall [thus] be [united] with him.” (Zech. 14:5.) When God’s time shall have come, when the lease of power to the Gentiles shall have run out, when the sacrificing of the Day of Atonement [the Gospel Age] shall have ended, when the High Priest shall have finished atoning, not only for his “body,” the Church, but also for his “house,” and for “all people,” and he shall come forth to bless all the people, then The Creator’s sentence of death shall be lifted from the earth. His footstool abode will again be recog­nized, and its beautifying in righteousness, truth and the holy spirit of love shall begin and progress, until, in the end of the Millennium, all the willingly righteous shall have reached per­fection, reunited with THE LORD, and all the unwilling shall have been destroyed. (Acts 3:23; Rev. 20:9)

Carrying the picture further, the Prophet declares, re­specting that day in which gradually the earth shall be made glorious as The Heavenly Father’s footstool:

“It shall come to pass in that day that the light shall not be bright nor the darkness thick; but the day shall be the one foreknown to the Lord – neither full day nor night: but it shall come to pass that at its close [eve­ning] it shall be [clear] light.” (Zech. 14:6,7)

Some confounded the “day” here described with the “day of Vengeance” which is “a day of clouds and thick darkness with no light in it” (Joel

2:2; Zeph. 1:15) and the translators have, seem­ingly, generally tried to harmon­ize the translations. But not so; the day here referred to by Zechariah as only partially bright is the Millennial day, though in it the Sun of Righteousness will arise and shine, to scatter earth’s miasma of sin, sup­erstition and death.

Yet it will be only partially bright, because it will through­out be dealing with generation after generation of the fallen race as brought from the tomb, “... many shall be last and the last shall be first,” and in various stages of restitution toward perfection. But how refreshing it is to be assured that in that day of the reestab­lishment of GOD’S feet upon his footstool, there shall be no more “thick darkness.” That at the close of the Mil­lennial Day, instead of growing darker, the world will only have reached the high noon of its “light of the knowledge of The Creator”; and that its sun shall never set.

The reference to the rivers of living waters flowing from Jerusalem, during this Millennial Day of the re-establishment of GOD’S feet upon his footstool: (Zech. 14:8,9) We are reminded of the corresponding testimony of Ezekiel (47:1-12) and of John’s Revelation (22:1,2). Under this same symbol of living waters proceeding from the throne of the Millennial Kingdom, we are shown the restitution blessings of “waters of life,” to which whosoever will may come and drink freely, and fruitful trees of life whose leaves will heal repentant peoples of earth of all imperfections.

Ah yes! “In that day the Lord shall be King over the earth”; his Kingdom shall have come as his faithful have long prayed; and by the end of that day his will shall be done on earth even as it is done in heaven. God’s foot­stool shall then be glorious indeed; as it is written:

“As truly as I live, the whole earth shall be filled with the glory of The LORD.” (Num. 14:21; Isa. 11:9; Hab. 2:14)