NO. 469: IN MEMORIAM

No. 469

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

Recently a biography of Brother Russell has come into our possession; and we believe our readers will benefit from reading some of it. The author does not give his name, so we cannot identify him, although he apparently is some one who was very close to That Servant. The book was copyrighted in 1923. We have tried to secure more copies of the book, but so far have failed.

We now quote from that book, and begin with some statements in the FOREWORD: “Our motive has been to do GOOD, as God has given us to understand what that means; therefore, we have no further explanation to make or apology to offer; merely pleading that we have earnestly and consistently striven to absorb the Truth and the spirit of the Truth which was so beautifully exemplified in the life of the subject in this book – our beloved Brother Russell, who labored so hard and earnestly to teach us how to walk as Christians should. God bless his memory!

“The Bible is THE BOOK of books in every sense; first, there is no other book like it in the world – for it is God’s Book or Message to the human family; second, it is a Book of Books for the reason that it is made up of many books, or portions, by many writers – sixty‑six divisions.

“In a complete and connected sense, this Book, though containing the Great Author’s Wonderful Plan of the Ages, was sealed to human understanding until our Lord’s PAROUSIA in 1874, when it was given him to ‘loose the seals,’ using a human instrument, ‘a chosen vessel,’ for this purpose.

“Charles Taze Russell was the one ‘chosen of God and faithful’ to this end; so he, under the Lord’s guidance, gave us ‘The Keys’ to the Scriptures – and to all sincere Christians these ‘Keys’ or Studies, have fulfilled the design of the author; for they have proved to be Helping Hands in the systematic study of the Bible. This book – MEMOIRS – tells you something about how and under what difficulties ‘That Servant’ attained the desired end – something of the discouragement he met and the obstacles he overcame. It is important to ponder well the revealments herein given pertaining to the Life, Works and Character of one of the greatest men the world has ever known.”

Now to the book proper: “Charles Taze Russell was born in Pittsburgh, Pa., Feb. 16, 1852, of consecrated parents who were of Scotch‑Irish descent... In private Pastor Rus­sell admitted his belief that he had been chosen for the great work he had accomplished, as ‘that Servant,’ from before his birth... Up to the age of fifteen he believed as gospel truth all and only such doctrines as had been taught him... The clergy usually discouraged individual Bible research, and the asking of questions was considered equiva­lent to doubting, and to ‘doubt was to be dammed.’

“By skillful questions, which were unanswerable by either minister or laymen from their sectarian standpoints and by the maneuvering of many seemingly paradoxical Scrip­tures, an infidel completely routed young Russell, who within a few months became an admitted skeptic.

  “At twenty‑one Mr. Russell was possessed of much knowledge and voluminous data on religion as believed and practiced in all parts of the world. Apparently these were to become of no value to himself or others, because of large business responsibil­ities that were placed upon him at the time. The question that here confronted him was, ‘Shall I try longer to find the truth on religion? Or, shall I smother the hope of finding it and strive for fame and fortune among the financial and commercial captains of the time?’ Fortunately, he decided first to search the Scriptures from a skeptic’s standpoint, for its own answer on hell‑fire and brimstone.

“Amazed at the harmonious testimony, proving an unexpected but satisfactory answer, he undertook systematic Bible research and was brought to a complete confidence in the Bible as being inspired by an all‑wise, powerful, just and loving Creator, worthy of adoration and worship. Thus a sure anchor for a fainting hope was found, and an honest, truth‑seeking heart was made glad.

“In 1877 Pastor Russell called a meeting of all the ministers of Allegheny and Pittsburgh, showed them the Scriptures which indicated our Lord’s presence and urged them to investigate and proclaim the message. All the ministers of the two cities were present and all of the ministers of the two cities refused to believe. In that same year he gave up his secular work to devote his entire time and fortune to the work indicated in the Scriptures as incident to the close of the Gospel Age and the change of Dispensations impending. As a means of determining whether his purposed course was in harmony with the Scriptures, and also as a means of demonstrating his own sincerity, he decided to test the Lord’s approval, as follows:

“(1) Devote his life to the cause; (2) invest his private fortune (about $300,000.) in the promulgation of the work; (3) prohibit collection at all meetings; (4) depend on unsolicited contributions (which must be wholly voluntary) to continue the work after his own fortune was exhausted. Furthermore, in 1881 there were distributed free 1,400,000 copies of Food for Thinking Christians to the Protestant Churches in the United States, Canada and Great Britain, on three consecutive Sundays, by A.D.T. messenger boys. This was said to have been at a cost of $40,000.00.

“Charles Taze Russell enjoyed the immeasurable advantages of good birth. His par­ents were Christian people of marked intelligence and refinement. His father was a suc­cessful retail merchant of Allegheny, Pa. His mother died when he was about eight years of age, leaving him to be thereafter the boon companion of his father. As such, he learned to keep the rooms in which the father and son lived, and developed the traits of neatness and precision so marked in after life.

“He began at a very early age to take great interest in his father’s store. At the age of fifteen, so great was his sagacity as a wholesale buyer of merchandise that his father often sent him alone on purchasing tours to Philadelphia. A young man of such commercial talents would not long be working for others. He soon started a store of his own; this rapidly increased to a chain of stores. He was one of the pioneers in the development of the marvelously successful idea of the chain‑stores, an idea which has since enriched many men. His wealth increased by leaps and bounds. This was in the early sev­enties of the nineteenth century. Rockefeller was then unknown, nationally. The known millionaires of that day could have been counted on one’s fingers.

“Still he yearned to know God; but the creeds of Christendom only confused him. The young man began to see what all the theologians of the ages had failed to see – the harmony of the Word of God and the beauty of His plan. At the age of twenty‑four this young Bible student became aware of the time features of the Scriptures. It was at this age that he began to see that the end of the Gospel Dispensation would be marked by a great world war. It was the unfolding of these features of the truth that swept his earthly goods onto the altar of burnt‑offering and took him out into the campaign of preaching which ended only with his death.

  “One truth led logically to another, and made it possible for him to become recog­nized as the only theologian of the Gospel Age who had been able to demonstrate the harmony of the Bible with itself. ‘Unto the Angel of the Church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true Witness’ (Rev. 3:14) – and the angel did as com­manded, and long since ‘reported the matter.’ ‘Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.’ (Matt. 24:45, 46, 47) [We believe our Lord found Brother Russell “so doing” – diligently searching the Scriptures and made him That Servant.]

“Concerning the phenomenal work he did, we offer just a few short statements from him: Many are the inquiries relative to the truths presented in my writings – whence they came and how were they developed to their present symmetrical and beautiful proportions... I claim nothing of superiority, nor of supernatural power, dignity or authority; nor do I desire to exalt myself in the estimation of my brethren of the Household of Faith, except in the sense the Master urged, saying, ‘Let him who would be great among you be your servant.’ And my position among men of the world and of the nominal church is certainly far from exalted, being ‘everywhere evil spoken against.’ I am fully contented, however, to wait for exaltation until the Lord’s due time... Presently overcoming many besetments, discouragement, etc., to press along the line toward the mark of our high calling, and claiming only, as a faithful student of the Word of God, to be an index finger, as I have previously expressed it, to help you trace for yourselves, on the sacred page, the Wonderful Plan of God – no less wonderful to me, than to you, dearly beloved sharers of my faith and joy.

“No, the truths I present, as God’s mouthpiece, were not revealed in visions or dreams, nor by God’s audible voice, nor all at once, but gradually, especially since 1870 and particularly since 1880. Neither is this clear unfolding of truth due to human in­genuity or acuteness of perception, but to the simple fact that God’s due time has come; and if I did not speak, and no other agent could be found, the very stones would cry out... Nor can I name all the little points of Divine Favor in which faith was tested, prayers were answered, etc., remembering that our Master and the early Church left no such example of boasting faith, but rather admonished otherwise saying, ‘Hast thou faith? have it to thyself!’ Some of the most precious experiences of faith and prayer are those which are too sacred for public display... The Reformation movement, or rather move­ments, from then until now, have all done their share in bringing light out of darkness. Let me here confine myself to the consideration of the Harvest Truths as set forth in the Scriptures and the Watch Tower...

“I soon began to see that we were living somewhere near the close of the Gospel Age and near the time when the Lord had declared that the wise, the watching ones of His children, should understand – come to a clear knowledge of His Plan. At this time, my­self and a few other truth‑seekers in Pittsburgh, Pa., formed a class for Bible study and from 1870 to 1879 was a time of constant growth in grace and love of God and His Word. We came to see something of the love of God, how He had made provision for all mankind; how all must be awakened from the tomb in order that God’s loving Plan might be testi­fied to them.

“But though seeing that the Church was called to joint heirship with the Lord in the Millennial Kingdom, up to that time we had failed to see clearly the great distinction between the reward of the Church, now on trial, and the reward of the faithful of the world, after its trial, at the close of the Millennial Age: that the reward of the for­mer is to be the glory of the Spirit Nature, the Divine; while that of the latter is to be perfection of the human nature, once enjoyed in Eden by their progenitor, Adam.

UNDERSTANDING THE RANSOM

“However, it was not until 1872, when I gained a clearer view of our Lord’s work, as our ransom price that I found the strength and foundation of all hope of restitution to be in that doctrine. Up to that time, when I read the testimony that all in their graves should come forth, etc., I yet doubted the full provision – whether it should be understood to include idiots or infants who had died without reaching any degree of understanding, beings to whom the present life and its experiences would seem to be of little or no advantage. But when in 1872 I came to examine the subject of restitution from the standpoint of the Ransom Price given by our Lord Jesus for Adam, and conse­quently for all lost in Adam, it settled the matter of restitution completely and gave me the fullest assurance that ALL must come forth from their graves and be brought to a clear knowledge of the truth and to a full opportunity to gain everlasting life in Christ.

“Thus passed the years 1869 to 1872. The years following, to 1876, were years of continued growth in grace and knowledge on the part of the handful of Bible Students with whom I met in Allegheny. We progressed from our first crude and indefinite ideas of restitution to a clearer understanding of the details; but God’s due time for re­vealing the clear light had not yet come.

“During this time, too, we came to recognize the difference between our Lord as ‘the man who gave himself,’ and as the Lord who would come again, a Spirit Being. We saw that Spirit‑Beings can be present, and yet invisible to men. We greatly grieved at the error of Second Adventists, who were expecting Christ in the flesh, and teaching that the world and all in it, except Second Adventists, would be burned up in 1873 or 1874; their time settings and disappointments and crude ideas generally as to the object and manner of His coming, brought more or less reproach upon us and upon all who longed for and proclaimed His coming Kingdom.”

Here we would inject some conclusions of our own. We are fully persuaded that the full and complete understanding of the Ransom enabled Brother Russell to understand and clarify many Scriptures whose meaning had not been understood at all by God’s people. We explain just one: “I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts. Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: and he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.” (Isa. 6:5,6,7)

The “live coal” in the above is Present Truth, and particularly the Present Truth upon the Ransom. While in Babylon we were all contaminated with the errors that prevailed there – and especially was this so about the Ransom. But once we came to a clear understanding of the Ransom, a great part of that error was purged from our minds. None of us could say this was true until That Servant had given us a clear explanation of the Ransom and kindred teachings. Then the words of Jesus assumed real meaning for us: “Thy whole body shall be full of light.” (Matt. 6:22)

In the text quoted above, the Prophet Isaiah pictures God’s people in Babylon be­fore the Harvest – “those that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.” (Ezek. 9:4) But it can properly be applied to Brother Russell himself, who was certainly much disturbed as he dwelt “in the midst of a people of un­clean lips” – those obsessed with much confusing error.

Now more from the book: “It was about Jan. 1, 1876, that my attention was spec­ially drawn to the subject of prophetic time, as it relates to these doctrines and hopes. It came about in this way: I received a paper called The Herald of the Morning, sent by its editor, Mr. N. H. Barbour. When I opened it I at once identified it with Adventism from the picture on its first cover, and I examined it with curiosity to see what ‘time’ they would next ‘set’ for the burning up of the world. But judge not a book from its cover! To my surprise and gratification I learned from its contents that its editor was beginning to get his eyes open on the subject which for some years had so greatly rejoiced our hearts in Allegheny – that the object of our Lord’s return is not to destroy, but to bless all the families of the earth; and that His coming would be thief‑like, and not in the flesh, but as a Spirit Being, invisible to men; and that the gathering of His Church and the separation of the wheat from the tares would progress in the end of this Age without the world’s being aware of it.

“I rejoiced to find others coming to the same advanced position, but was astonished to find the statement very cautiously set forth that the editor believed the prophecies to indicate that the Lord was already present in the world (unseen and invisible) and that the Harvest Work of gathering the tares was already due; and that this view was warranted by the time prophecies, which but a few months before he supposed had failed.

“Here was a new thought; could it be that the ‘Time Prophecies,’ which I had so long despised because of their misuse by the Adventists, were really meant to indicate when the Lord would be invisibly present to set up His Kingdom – a thing which I saw could be known in no other way? It seemed, to say the least, a very reasonable thing that the Lord would inform His people on the subject – especially as He had promised that He would not leave them in darkness with the world, and that although the day of the Lord would come upon all others as a thief in the night, it should not be so to the watch­ing, earnest Saints.

“I recalled certain arguments used by my friend, Jonas Wendall and other Adventists to prove that 1873 would witness the burning of the world, etc. – the chronology of the world showing that 6,000 years from Adam ended with the beginning of 1873, and that other arguments drawn from the Scriptures and supposed to coincide. Could it be that these time arguments, which I had passed by as unworthy of attention, really contained an impor­tant truth which they had misapplied?

“Anxious to learn from any quarter whatever God had to teach, I at once wrote to Mr. Barbour, informing him of my harmony on other points and desiring to know particulars why and upon what Scriptural evidences he held that Christ’s presence and the Harvesting of the Gospel Age dated from the Autumn of 1874.

“The answer showed that my surmise had been correct, namely, that the time prophecies – arguments – chronology, etc., were the same as used by Second Adventists in 1873, and explained how Mr. Barbour and Mr. J. H. Paton, of Michigan, a co-worker with him, had been regular Second Adventists up to that time; and that when the date 1874 had passed without the world being burned up, and without their seeing Christ in the flesh, they were for a time dumfounded. They had examined the time prophecies, which seemingly passed unfulfilled, and had been unable to find any flaw, and had begun to wonder whether the time was right and their expectations wrong; whether the views of restitution and blessings to the world, which myself and others were teaching, might not be the things to look for.

“It seems that not long after their 1874 disappointment, a reader of The Herald of the Morning, who had a copy of the Diaglott, noticed something in it which he thought peculiar – that in Matthew 24:27, 37, 39, the word which in our Common Version is rendered coming is translated presence. This was the clue; and, following it, they had been led thru prophetic time toward proper views regarding the object and manner of our Lord’s return. I, on the contrary, was led first to proper views of the object and manner of our Lord’s return, and then to an examination of the time, indicated in God’s Word. Thus God leads His children from different starting points of truth; but when the heart is earnest and trustful the result must be to draw all such together.

“But there were no books or other publications at that time setting forth the time prophecies as then understood; so I paid Mr. Barbour’s expenses to come to see me at Philadelphia, to show me fully and Scripturally, if he could, that the prophecies indicated 1874 as the date at which the Lord’s presence and the harvest began. This was in the summer of 1876. He came, and the evidence satisfied me. Being a person of positive convictions and fully consecrated to the Lord, I at once saw that the special times in which we were living have an important bearing upon our work and duty as Christ’s disci­ples; that being in the time of the Harvest, the Harvest work should be done; and that the present truth was the sickle by which the Lord would have us to do a gathering and reaping work everywhere among His children.

BEGINNING OF THE HARVEST WORK

“I inquired of Mr. Barbour as to what was being done by him and the Herald. He replied that nothing was being done; that the readers of the Herald, being disappointed Adventists, had nearly all lost interest and stopped their subscriptions; and that thus, with money exhausted, the Herald might be said to be practically suspended. I said to him that instead of feeling discouraged and giving up the work since with his newly found light on restitution (for when we first met he had much to learn from me on the fullness of restitution, based upon the sufficiency of the Ransom given for all, as I had much to learn from him concerning time), he should rather feel that now he had some good tidings to preach, such as he never had before, and that his zeal should be correspondingly increased. At the same time, the knowledge of the fact that we were already in the time of the Harvest gave me an impetus to spread the truth such as I never had before. I, therefore, resolved upon a vigorous campaign for the truth.

“So I determined to curtail my business cares and give my time, as well as my means, to the great Harvest Work. Accordingly, I sent Mr. Barbour back to his home, with money and instructions to prepare in concise book‑form the good tidings, so far as then understood, including the time features, while I closed out my Philadelphia business, prep­aratory to engaging in the work, as I afterwards did, traveling and preaching.

“This little book of 196 pages thus prepared was entitled ‘The Three Worlds’; and as I was enabled to give some time and thought to its preparation, it was issued by us both jointly, both names appearing on its title page, though it was mainly written by Mr. Barbour. While this was not the first book to teach a measure of restitution, nor the first to treat upon the time prophecies, it was, I believe, the first to combine the idea of restitution with time prophecy. From the sale of this book and from my purse, our traveling expenses, etc., were met. After a time I conceived of adding another har­vest laborer to the force, so sent for Mr. Paton, who promptly responded and whose trav­eling expenses were met in the same manner.

“But noticing how quickly some people forget what they have heard, it soon became evident that while the meetings were useful in awaking interest, a monthly journal was needed to hold and develop that interest. It seemed, therefore, to be the Lord’s indication that one of our number should settle somewhere and begin again the regular issu­ing of the Herald of the Morning. I suggested that Mr. Barbour do this, as he had had experience as a typesetter and therefore could do it the most economically, while Mr. Paton and I would continue to travel and contribute to its columns, as we should find opportunity. To the objection that the type had been sold and that the few subscrip­tions which would come in would not, for a long time, make the journal self‑sustaining, I replied that I would supply the money for purchasing the type, etc., and leave a few hundred dollars in the bank, subject to Mr. Barbour’s check, and that he should manage it as economically as possible, while Mr. Paton and I continued to travel. This, which seemed to be the Lord’s will in the matter, was therefore done.

NEW ADHERENTS TO THE WORKING FORCE

“It was after this, while on a tour of the New England States, that I met Mr. A. F. Adams, a young Methodist minister, who became deeply interested, accepting the message heartily during the week that I preached to his congregation. Subsequently, I introduced him to little gatherings of interested ones in neighboring towns, and assisted otherwise, as I could, rejoicing in another one who, with study, would soon be a co‑laborer in the Harvest field. About this time, too, I was much encouraged by the accession of Mr. A. D. Jones, then a clerk in my employ in Pittsburgh, who was a young man of activity and promise, one who soon developed into an active and appreciative co‑laborer in the Harvest work. Mr. Jones ran well for a time, but ambition or something eventually made utter shipwreck of his faith, leaving us a painful illustration of the wisdom of the Apostle’s words, ‘My brethren, be not many of you teachers, knowing that we shall have the severer judgment.’

“Thus far all had gone smoothly and onward: we had been greatly blessed with the truth, but not specially tested in our love and fidelity to it. But the Spring of 1878, the parallel in time to our Lord’s crucifixion, and of His statement to Peter, ‘Satan hath desired to have you, that he might sift you as wheat’ (Luke 22:31), the sifting began which has Continued Ever Since; and which must, sooner or later, test every one who receives the light of present truth. For this fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is – ­whether he has built his faith flimsily of wood, hay and stubble, instead of valuable stones of God’s revealed truth; or whether he has built it upon the shifting sands of human theories, or upon the solid rock, the Ransom, the only foundation which God has provided.

“They who build upon that Rock shall be safe personally, even though they have built up an illogical faith, which the fire and shaking of this day of trial will overthrow and utterly consume, but they who build upon any other foundation, whether they use good or bad materials, are sure of complete wreckage.

“The object of this trial and sifting evidently is to select all whose heart‑de­sires are unselfish, who are fully and unreservedly consecrated to the Lord, who are anxious to have the Lord’s will done, and whose confidence in His wisdom, His way and His Word is so great that they refuse to be led away from the Lord’s Word, either by sophistries of others, or by plans and ideas of their own. These, in the sifting time, will be strengthened and shall increase their joy in the Lord and their knowledge of His plans, even while their faith is being tested by the falling into error of thousands on every hand.

FIRST HARVEST SIFTING

The sifting began thus: Regarding St. Paul’s statement, ‘We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,’ etc., we still held the idea which Adventists, and indeed all Christians hold, that at some time the living saints would be suddenly and miraculously caught away bodily, thenceforth to be forever with the Lord. And now our acquaintance with the time prophecies led us to expect this translation of the saints at the point of time in this Age parallel to the Lord’s resurrection; for many of the parallelisms between the Jewish and Christian Dispensations were already seen by us, and formed one of the features of the little book ­The Three Worlds.

“We did not then see, as we do now, that the date, 1878, marked the date for the beginning of the establishment of the Kingdom of God, by the glorification of all who already slept in Christ (that is, the dead in Him), and the ‘change’ which St. Paul mentions is to occur in the moment of death to all the class described, from that date onward thru the Harvest period, until all the living members of the ‘body of Christ’ shall have been changed to glorious Spirit‑beings. When at that date (1878) nothing occurred, which we could see, a re‑examination showed me that our mistake lay in expecting to see all the living saints changed at once, and without dying, an erroneous view shared in by the whole nominal Church, and one which we had not yet observed or discarded. Our present clear view was the result of the examination thus started.

“I soon saw that the Apostle’s words, ‘We shall not all sleep,’ that the word sleep was not synonymous with die, though generally so understood; but, on the contrary, the ex­pression sleep, here used, represents unconsciousness; and that the Apostles wished us to understand, that from a certain time in the Lord’s presence, His saints, though they would die like other men, would not remain for any time unconscious, but in the moment of dy­ing would be changed and would receive the Spirit bodies promised. Thruout this Gospel Age death of the Lord’s children has been followed by unconsciousness – ‘sleep.’ This continued true of all who ‘fell asleep in Jesus’ up to the time when He took the office of King, which we have shown was in 1878 (Volume 2, Studies in the Scriptures, pp. 218, 219).

“Not only did the King at that time ‘awaken in His likeness’ all the members of His body, the Church, who slept, but for the same reason (the time establishing His Kingdom having come) it is no longer necessary that the ‘feet,’ or last remaining members should go into ‘sleep’ or unconsciousness. On the contrary, each now, as finishes his course, faithful unto death, will at once receive the Crown of Life, and being changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, can not be said to sleep, or to be unconscious at all. Here, then, 1878 is applicable, ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.’ So this re-examination showed further light upon the pathway and became a great cause for encouragement, as evidencing the Lord’s continued leading.

“But while I was thus helped to clearer views and brighter hopes, and while I diligently endeavored to help others, the Spring of 1878 proved far from a blessing to Mr. Barbour and to many under his influence. Rejecting the plain, simple solution presented above, Mr. Barbour seemed to feel that he must of necessity get up something new to di­vert attention from the failure of the living saints to be caught away en masse.

“But, alas! how dangerous it is for any man to feel too much responsibility and attempt to force new light. To our painful surprise, Mr. Barbour wrote an article for the Herald denying the doctrine of the Atonement; denying that the death of Christ was the ransom‑price of Adam and his race, saying that the death of Christ was no more a settlement of the penalty of man’s sins than would the sticking of a pin thru a fly and causing it suffering and death, be considered by an earthly parent as a just settlement for the misdemeanor of his child.”

As our beloved Pastor has so truly said, “How dangerous it is for any man to feel too much responsibility and attempt to force new light.” We have found this true in JFR after he became President of the Society. He disposed of Tentative Justification, and also replaced the “great multitude” as a spiritual class to an earthly class; and one error brought on other errors, such as “dividing the sheep and the goats” before the New Covenant is inaugurated. The Jehovah’s Witnesses now teach that there will be no resurrection for Adam, the Scribes and Pharisees or any of the wicked. Those who do not join them before Armageddon will not be resurrected, etc.

Another group has invented a new class because of the disappointment of 1954. They felt “too much responsibility” and attempted to force new light; and that new light (?) has forced them into many other errors – such as a narrow way in the Camp, perverting Tentative Justification, their newly‑invented class to be first in the Kingdom blessings instead of “to the Jew first” as taught by the Apostle Paul, etc. However, they still distribute the Studies in the Scriptures, which is a far‑cry from the Witnesses, for which we commend them.

It is our hope and prayer that what we have given may prove a rich blessing to our readers, and that the subject of That Servant has been magni­fied and strengthened in the hearts of all. God bless the memory of That Servant!

We also pay tribute to the Epiphany Messenger who faithfully upheld and defended the Truth given us by That Servant. We honor those whom God honors in keeping with 1 Samuel 2:20: “Them that honor Me I will honor.” In so doing we will grow in grace and knowledge of our Beloved Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and continue in “the faith once delivered unto the saints.” (Jude 3) God bless the memory of the Epiphany Messenger!

“Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favour my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, Let the Lord be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.” (Psa. 35:27)

Sincerely your brother, John J. Hoefle, Pilgrim

(Reprint 316, October 1981)

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NO. 468: WHY GOD PERMITS CALAMITIES

No. 468

“There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” (Luke 13:1-5)

Noble and good in the sight of both God and man are the generous impulses of charity and sympathy awakened by the great calamities of recent years, such as the Oklahoma City bombing. There is little more of good to be said favorable to these calamities or their influence.

These charities should not be misconstrued to signify that God’s consecrated are rapidly multiplying – for many of the charitable are not the consecrated, and some are even infidels. Yet, they are an evidence that at least some of the original God-likeness of our race remains. It has not been wholly obliterated by the degradation of the fall, nor wholly poisoned by the bad theology of the Dark Ages. While we live in the most selfish and money-loving period known to history, millions of dollars are generously poured forth to aid suffering humanity. Some who in times of calamitous distress show that they have a tender spot in their hearts, would and do at other times lend effort and skill to the arts of war and design the most horrible killing weapons and implements. On occasions when bitter passions are aroused, they relentlessly and pitilessly slaughter a thousand times as many as the accidents of nature and the terrorists of late. Yet, for all this showing of the two elements in the same people, we rejoice that the God-like element of sympathy exists as a partial offset to the devilish qualities of selfishness and heartlessness, which, under the degrading influence of man’s fallen state, have grown strong during the past six thousand years.

Preparatory to looking carefully, reasonably and Scripturally at the question of why does God permit calamities, let us note the absurd views of some Christian people, who should know God’s Word and character much better than they indicate. Some whose hearts overflow with sympathy and God-like love in the presence of great calamities (which proves their hearts better and more sound than their theology), declare that God is the director and cause of all disasters and troubles. Hence whatever men may do to alleviate such distresses would, according to this false view, be so much done in opposition to God; and whatever love and sympathy they feel, is so much sentiment opposed to God’s sentiments, which are thus made to appear malicious.

The hideousness of such a character, as is thus ascribed to the God of love, is intensified, when the same good, tender-hearted, but wrong-headed, deluded people, tell us what their faith in God is and their view of His character. This indicates that He not only looks without pity or sympathy upon man’s present calamities and distresses, and fore­ordained them, but that He has furthermore foreordained and made fullest preparation for engulfing the vast majority of His creatures in a calamity in comparison with which all the horrors of all earth’s calamities united in one would be nothing. Under this view these calamities are mere preludes to that most awful, indescribable torment, which would be wholly unendurable, but that God with fiendish cruelty will perpetrate life forever and forever, in order to have them suffer. He will never relieve them.

It is surprising that any who possess the spirit of God, to any extent, can thus blaspheme His Holy Name. It is surprising that they do not know more of the character of the Creator than this, even without the Bible testimony to His character of love and justice, to advise them of His plan in Christ for blessing all the families of the earth; the declaring of which plan constitutes the “good tidings of great joy [not of eternal torment] which shall be unto all people.” (Luke 2:10) Indeed, God is more vilified by many of His children than by the infidel world. How strange, the very Bible which declares God’s true character of love and justice, is considered as the authority for these devilish doctrines and false interpretation of our Lord’s parables and of the symbols of the Book of Revelation, originated by those who during the “Dark Ages” used to burn and torment Bible believers.

GOD’S LOVE – HOW SHOWN

When we declare that whatever there is of love and sympathy in man, is only the remnant of the original Divine likeness, in which Adam was created, not wholly effaced by six thousand years of degradation in sin, it at once raises the question: In what way does God manifest His sympathy and love in such emergencies, when even the hearts of fallen human beings are touched, with sympathy and love, to acts of kindness and succor?

A correct answer is, that God is represented in every act of kindness done, whether by His children or by the world; because their actions under such circumstances are the results, in some measure, of His character and disposition. And yet this answer is not full enough to be satisfactory. But, thank God, a fuller investigation, in the light of His Word, reveals a boundless sympathy on God’s part – providing also an abundant succor, which is shortly to be revealed.

But why does not God immediately succor His creatures from calamities? Or, to go still farther back, why does He who has all wisdom to know and all power to prevent, permit calamities – tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, destructive floods, pestilence, etc.? And while we are about it, we may as well include all the evils which God could, if he would, prevent – all the forms of sickness and pain and death; every form of destruction – wars, murders, etc.; everything which causes pain or trouble to those willing to do and be in harmony with God? The answer to one of these questions will be the answer to every question on the subject; for all human evils are related and have a common source or cause.

To fully comprehend this cause, we must go far back, to the very beginning of sickness, pain, death and sorrow – to the Garden of Eden, where neither famine, pestilence, tornadoes, earthquakes, nor death in any form was permitted; where man and his surroundings and conditions were pronounced “very good,” even by God Himself, and certainly greatly appreciated by man, who had to be driven out and prevented from returning by the fiery sword which kept the way of access to the life-sustaining fruits of the trees of the garden.

How came it that the Creator, who so graciously provided for the life and comfort of His creatures, and who communed with them and gave them His blessing and the promise of everlasting life upon the sole condition of continued obedience, should so change in His attitude toward His creatures, as to drive them from the enjoyments of those Eden comforts and blessings, out into the unprepared earth – to toil, weariness, insufficient sustenance, and thus to death?

We must remember that only the Garden of Eden was “prepared,” and fit for man’s comfortable enjoyment of the favor of life. The preparation of the whole earth for man, requiring in a natural way seven thousand years more to entirely fit it for the habitation of perfect, obedient, human children of God, the Creator specially or miraculously prepared the Garden of Eden in advance merely as a fit place for Adam’s trial. God foresaw the fall of His creature, and provided that the penalty for sin, “dying thou shalt die,” instead of being suddenly inflicted as by a lightning stroke, or other speedy method, should be served out gradually by conflict with the unfavorable conditions (of climate, sterility of soil, storms, miasma, thorns, weeds, etc.) of the as yet unprepared earth.

Adam and Eve, therefore, went forth from Eden convicts, under sentence of death; self-convicted under the most just of all judges, their Creator and Friend. The convicts esteemed it a mercy to be let die gradually rather than suddenly; while to the Creator and Judge this was expedient because of a plan He had for the future, in which such experience with imperfect conditions would be of great value – a plan for the increase of the race, and for its discipline and final redemption and restoration.

The death penalty, inflicted in this manner, God foresaw would furnish man, through experience, such a lesson on the exceeding sinfulness of sin and its baneful results as would never need to be repeated – a lesson, therefore, which will profit all who learn it to all eternity; especially when Christ’s Millennial reign of righteousness shall manifest in contrast the fruits of righteousness: God also designing that the exercise of man’s mental faculties in coping with the disturbances and imperfections of his surroundings and in inventing relief, and the exercise of his moral faculties in combating his own weaknesses, and the calls upon his sympathy should prove beneficial.

Had the sentence of God in addition to a loss of Eden’s comforts and experience with sin and death, condemned His creatures to an eternity of torment and anguish, as so many believe and teach, who could defend such a sentence, or call the Judge just, or loving, or in any sense good? Surely no one of sound mind!

But when it is seen that the Scriptures teach that death (extinction), and not life in torment, was the penalty pronounced and inflicted, all is reasonable. God has a right to demand perfect obedience from His perfect creature when placed under perfect conditions, as in Adam’s case. And the decree that none shall live everlastingly except the perfect, is both a wise and just provision for the everlasting welfare of all God’s creatures.

There is a depth of meaning in the Creator’s words, as He sent forth His fairly tried and justly condemned creatures, among the thorns and briars, to labor and pain, and sorrow, and disease, and to be subject to the casualties and calamities of nature’s unfinished work. He said: “Cursed is the ground FOR THY SAKE” (Gen. 3:17), i.e., the earth in general is in its present imperfect condition for your profit and experience; even though you may not esteem it so. Adam would have sought to retain continual access to the garden fruits, to avoid severe labor and to enable him to fully sustain his vital powers and live forever; but in loving consideration for man’s ultimate good, no less than in justice, and in respect of his own sentence of death, God prevented this and guarded the way back to the garden, in order that the death sentence should not fail of execution, in order that sinners should not live forever and thus perpetuate sin.

The children of the condemned pair inherited their fall, imperfections and weak-nesses, and also the penalties of these; for “who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?” (Job 14:4) The whole race, therefore, as convict laborers, have not only been learning what sin and evil are, and their undesirable results, but by their labor and skill they are serving to prepare the earth and bring it as a whole to the full perfection designed for it, and illustrated in the condition of Eden – ready for a further purpose of God of which none but His children (and not all of them) are made aware through the Scriptures.

We can see, then, that labor and toil were prescribed for man’s good. They have kept him so employed that he could not plan and consummate evil to the same extent that he otherwise would have done. Now, with modern conveniences and labor saving devices creating more leisure then the world has ever known, evil is proliferating in the minds of idle people. Knowledge (of evil) is increasing and people are running to and fro seeking sinful pleasures and devising plots and schemes to the detriment of their fellowmen. What a mercy in disguise present shortness of life is, under present circumstances.

God’s action, then, in exposing His creatures to death, pain and various calamities, it must first of all be seen, was one which related only to his present life on earth, and to no other; for of any continuance of life, in any locality, God did not give him the slightest intimation. On the contrary, the words of the penalty were, “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” – “dying thou shalt die.” (Gen. 3:19; 2:17)

True, God gave promise that, somehow and at some time, a son of the woman should accomplish a deliverance. But it was vague and indefinite then, merely a glimmer of hope, to show them that though God dealt severely with them, and on lines of law and justice, He yet sympathized with them, and would, ultimately, without violating justice or ignoring His own righteous sentence of death, bring them succor.

Paul tells us that God adopted a method for the recovery of man, from that original sentence of death which came upon all as a result of Adam’s fall, which would show the justice of His sentence and the unchangeableness of His decrees, and yet permit such as are sick of sin to use their experience wisely, and to return to harmony and obedience to their Creator and His just and reasonable laws and regulations.

This Divine Plan, by which God could remain just and unchangeable in His attitude toward sin and sinners, and yet release the well-disposed from the penalty of sin (death and disfavor), is stated by the Apostle in Rom. 3:24-26.

In brief, this plan provided that another man who, by obedience to the law of God, should prove His worthiness of eternal life, might, by the willing sacrifice of the life to which He was thus proved worthy, redeem the forfeited life of Adam and of his posterity who lost life through him; for it is written, “In Adam all die,” and “By the offense of one sentence of condemnation came on all men.” (1 Cor. 15:22; Rom. 5:12,18)

Since the condemnation to death was thus upon all men, and since another man newly created and inexperienced as Adam was, though just as favorably situated, would have been similarly liable to fall, God devised the marvelous plan of transferring His only begotten Son from the spiritual to the human nature, and thus provided a man fit for sacrifice – “the man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransom for all;” “who, though he was rich [though He was possessed of glory and honor and riches of wisdom and power above both angels and men], nevertheless for our sakes became poor [humbling Himself to a lower nature, even as a man, becoming obedient even unto death] that we through His poverty might be made rich.” (1 Tim. 2:5; 2 Cor. 8:9)

Thus the one first created, “the first born of all creation” (Col. 1:15), “the beginning of the creation of God” (Rev. 3:14), the One who had known God’s character longer, more fully and more intimately than any other being, the One in fact who had been Jehovah’s chief and honored, intelligent and active agent in the creation of angels as well as of men, the One by whom all things were made, and aside from whom not anything was made (John 1:3; Col. 1:16,17) this great being, Jehovah’s Prime Minister, and next to Himself in dignity, the Almighty entrusted with the work of redeeming and restoring mankind.

To redeem them would cost the sacrifice of His own life as their ransom-price, with all that implied of suffering and self-denial. To restore them (such of them as shall prove worthy ‑ whosoever wills) will require the exercise of Divine Power to open the prison-house of death, and to break the fetters of sin and prejudice and superstition, and give to all the redeemed the fullest opportunity to decide whether they love good or evil, righteousness or sin, truth or error, and to destroy all who love and work iniquity, and to develop and perfect again all who love and choose life upon its only condition – righteousness.

To know the Father’s plan and His privilege of cooperation in its execution, was to appreciate it and joyfully engage therein. Willingly our Lord Jesus laid aside the glory of the higher nature which He had had with the Father from before the creation of man (John 17:5; 2 Cor. 8:9). He was “made flesh” (John 1:14; Heb. 2:14), became a man at thirty years of age, and then began the great work of sacrifice, the sacrifice of Himself, a perfect man, for the cancellation of the sin of the first man, to recover Adam and his race by dying on their behalf, as their Redeemer. By giving to Justice the price of their liberty from Divine condemnation, He secured the legal right to cancel the sentence of condemnation to death against them, and hence the right to resurrect or restore to life and to all the lost estate and blessings, “whomsoever he wills.” (Rev. 22:17) And He wills to restore all who shall prove worthy. And to prove who are worthy will be the object of the Millennial reign (1 Tim. 2:4; 2 Pet. 3:9).

This fact that our Lord’s mission to earth at the First Advent was to undo for the race, legally, the results of Adam’s transgression, and to secure the right to resurrect them and restore them, is clearly stated by the Apostle. See Rom. 5:5-12, 16-19,21; 1 Cor. 15:21-24.

Though tempted in all points like as we (His “brethren”) are, He ignored His own will (Luke 22:42; John 4:34; 5:30) and all suggestions from others contrary to God’s plan (Matt. 16:23; Luke 4:4, 8-12) and obeyed God implicitly. And therein lay the secret of His success. Temptations did not overcome Him, as they did even the perfect man Adam, because of the fullness of His consecration to the Divine will and plan; and this fullness of consecration and trust was the result of His intimate knowledge of the Father and His unbounded confidence in His Wisdom, Love and Power. He had recollection of His previous existence as a spirit being with the Father (John 17:5; 3:12,13). Our Lord’s success, then, was the result of being rightly exercised by His knowledge of God; as is written: “By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, while bearing their iniquities.” (Isa. 53:11)

The suggestive thoughts here are two: First, that even a perfect man failed in trial because of the lack of full appreciation of God’s greatness, goodness and resources. Secondly the knowledge (as in Satan’s case) would be valueless, if unaccompanied by sincere love and consecration to God’s will. A lesson further, to Christ’s “brethren,” is, that knowledge and consecration are both essential to their following in the Master’s footsteps.

Among men He and His mission were not really known; even His most ardent followers and admirers at first supposed that His mission was merely to heal some of the sick Jews, and to advance their nation to the rulership of a dying world, and to be a teacher of morals, they saw not at first that His mission was to lay the foundation of a world-wide empire, which should not only include the living, but also the dead of Adam’s race, and which should insure peace and joy everlastingly to all the worthy, by eradicating forever, sin and all who love it after fully comprehending of its character in contrast with righteousness. Even His friends and disciples were slow to realize these grand dimensions of His work, though He continually repeated them, and bore witness, saying: “The Son of man came to give his life a ransom for many;” (Matt. 20:28) “Verily, verily, the hour is coming when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear [obey] shall live.” (John 5:25) “The Lord hath sent me to preach deliverance to the captives [of death] and recovery of sight to the [mentally, morally and physically] blind; to set at liberty them that are bruised [injured by the Adamic fall].” (Luke 4:18)

The sacrifice of the Redeemer’s all, as man’s ransom price, was offered at the time He was thirty years old – at His baptism. And there the offering was accepted by Jehovah, as marked by His anointing with the spirit. Thenceforth, the three and a half years of His ministry He spent in using up the consecrated life already offered; and this He completed at Calvary. There the price of our liberty was paid in full. “It is finished!” (John 19:30) It holds good; it is acceptable by the grace of God, as the offset and covering for every weakness and sin of the first man, and his posterity, resulting either directly, or indirectly, from the first disobedience and fall. All that is necessary since, for a full return to Divine favor and communion, and to an inheritance in the Paradise of God, which the great Redeemer in due time has promised to establish in the entire earth, as at first in the Garden of Eden, is a recognition of sin, full repentance, and a turning from sin to righteousness. Christ will establish righteousness in the earth by the Kingdom of God, which He has promised shall be established, and for which He has bidden us wait and hope, and for which He taught us to pray, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth even as it is done in heaven.”

Under that blessed and wise rule of Christ as King of nations, all the evil, depraved tendencies inherited from the fall and from the six thousand years of degradation, will be restrained, held in check, by super-human wisdom, love and power; and all being brought to a clear knowledge of the truth in its every phase, all will be fairly and fully tested. The lovers of righteousness will be perfected and given control of the perfected earth, while those loving unrighteousness under that clear light of knowledge and experience will, as followers of Satan’s example, be utterly destroyed in the Second Death. The First Death is the destruction to which all were subjected by Adam’s sin, but from which all were redeemed by the Lord Jesus’ sacrifice; and the Second Death is that destruction which will overtake those who, though redeemed by Christ from the First Death, shall by their own willful conduct, merit and receive death again. This Second Death means utter destruction, without hope of another redemption or resurrection; for Christ dieth no more. Nor could any good reason for their further trial be assigned; for the trial granted during the Millennial Age under Christ, as Judge, will be a thorough and fair and individual and final trial.

“YE SHALL ALL LIKEWISE PERISH” UNLESS YE REPENT

Death, in whatever form it may come, is perishing, ceasing to exist. All mankind, through Adam’s transgression, came under condemnation to loss of life, to “perish” “to be as though they had not been.” And only one way of escape from that condemnation has been provided (Acts 4:12). Because of Christ’s redemptive work all may escape perishing by accepting the conditions of life. During Christ’s Millennial reign those whom Pilate slew, and those upon whom the tower of Siloam fell, and all others of the race, sharers in the death penalty now upon us, will be released from the tomb, brought to a knowledge of Christ, His ransom work, and their privilege of repentance and full restitution to Divine favor, life, etc. Thus seen, the Adamic Death penalty was to perish; but it has been canceled by Christ’s Ransom, so far as it relates to those who, when brought to know the Redeemer, shall forsake sin. No longer should it be regarded as a perished condition, but as a “sleep” (John 11:11-14; Matt. 9:24; 1 Thes. 4:14; 5:10) from which the Redeemer will awaken all to give each who did not have it before being overtaken by Adam’s death, a full, individual opportunity to escape perishing and live forever. Yet, finally, all who shall fail to repent and to lay hold upon the gracious Life-giver shall perish; they will fail to obtain the full restitution provided; they shall never see (perfect) life (full restitution) for the wrath or condemnation of God will abide on them, condemning them to death as unworthy of life. As this will be their second condemnation, and an individual one, so the penalty will be the Second Death, which will not be general to the race, but only upon such individuals as refuse God’s favor of reconciliation and life.

As our Lord Jesus used the calamities of His time, as illustrating the just penalty against all who do not flee sin and lay hold upon the Redeemer and Life-giver, so we see them. We declare that destruction, perishing, is the just penalty of sin taught in the Scriptures. We denounce the eternal torment theory, so generally believed by God’s children, as unscriptural; as one of Satan’s blasphemous slanders against God’s character. And we proclaim that only by faith in the Redeemer, repentance and reformation, can the gift of God, eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, be obtained. Whoever hears the offer of life is responsible to the extent that he understands it; and according to God’s promise and plan all mankind shall, at some time, either during the Gospel Age, or during the coming Millennial Age, be brought to a full, clear appreciation of these conditions and opportunities, with fullest opportunities for repentance and life.

Calamities, then, are to be regarded, generally, as accidents, attributable to human imperfection and lack of experience, or to disturbances incidental to the preparation of the earth for its more quiet and perfect condition during the Sabbath or Seventh Thousand Years (the Millennium), and for its state of absolute perfection forever after the Millennium, which under Christ’s direction, shall give it its finishing touches and make it fully ready for the redeemed race, which His reign shall prepare also to rightly use and enjoy and rule the perfected earth. And man is exposed to these calamities and accidents, and not defended from them by his Almighty Creator, because, first, man is a sinner condemned to death anyway, and is not to be spared from it, but must be allowed to pass through it; and secondly, by the present experiences with trouble and sorrow and pain, all of which are but elements of death, mankind is learning a lesson and laying up in store an experience with sin and its awful concomitants, sorrow, pain and death, which will be valuable in that Millennial Age, when each shall be required to choose between good and evil. The evil they learn first, now; the good and its blessed results and rewards, but dimly seen now, will be fully displayed then – during the Millennium (Acts 17:31).

But some one inquires, If this be God’s Plan, for redeeming the world by the death of His Son and justifying and restoring all who believe in and accept of Him, and obey and love righteousness, why did not the Millennial reign of Christ with its favorable conditions and powerful restraints begin at once, as soon as Christ had given the ransom price at Calvary; instead of compelling those who would follow righteousness, to sail through bloody seas and suffer for righteousness’ sake? Or else, why not have postponed the giving of the ransom until the close of the six thousand years of evil and the inauguration of the Millennial reign? Or, at least, if the present order of events is best in the Divine Wisdom, why does not God specially protect from calamities, accidents, sorrow, pain, death, etc., those who have fully accepted of Christ and who have sacrificed and are using their all in the service of righteousness?

Ah yes! The subject would be incomplete were this point left untouched. The consecrated Saints, the Church of the Gospel Age, are a “peculiar people,” different from the rest of the redeemed race; and God’s dealings with them are peculiar and different also. Inasmuch as it was God’s purpose to highly honor and exalt our Lord Jesus far above all others, because of His faithful obedience even to self-sacrifice, so it was His purpose to select a “Little Flock” for His companionship in glory, who, after being justified by Christ’s sacrifice and reconciled to God by the death of His Son, should develop so much of a likeness to His Son, by intently following His words and example, that they, like Him (though far less fully than He because of weaknesses of the flesh), should likewise so love righteousness and truth, and so delight to do God’s will, that they would do it at any cost or sacrifice of earthly pleasures, or comforts, or esteem among men – even unto death.

The space of time between the giving of the ransom for all, and the establishment of the Kingdom which is to bestow upon mankind the blessings purchased, is for the very purpose of selecting the “Little Flock” of under kings and priests, Christ’s companions in the honors and work of the Kingdom, otherwise called, as a class, “The Bride, the Lamb’s wife.” The selection of this class must take place during a time when evil, trouble and sin, have sway in the world; for it is by the special opposition of evil and sin, to God’s plan and to all in harmony with it, that these are to be specially tried and tested; that only “overcomers” shall be selected and given this very honorable and responsible position.

Not only is this class required to follow after righteousness and truth, and to support them and oppose sin, to their present discomfort and loss, but they are required to do all this on the strength of faith, outward evidences being often contrary to faith. A part of their test is, that they must walk by faith and not by sight. They are to believe God’s promises though every outward circumstance seems to contradict it. This is part of their lesson as well as part of their trial.

They are to believe God’s testimony, that death and trouble entered the world as a result of Adam’s sin, and that a fall from perfection took place in Eden, no matter what speculations among scientists may suggest to the contrary – as that Adam was evolved from an ape, and that the Bible story of the fall, the condemnation and redemption are alike unscientific; that Christ, like Confucius, was a great teacher, but nothing more; that He accomplished no redemption and that none could have been needful or required. The Saints are to shun all such babblings of science and philosophy, falsely so-called, and to walk by faith in God’s revelation.

Though they see errors flourish and Scriptural Truths spurned and disregarded, they are to disregard numbers and human traditions and, by faith, hold to God’s Word. Though told by God that they are redeemed and no longer under His condemnation and disfavor with the rest of the world, they are to believe and walk by faith, nothing doubting, even though they are not the recipients of special earthly favors, and even though they, like others, have a share of sickness, pain and death.

Their advantages are often less than those of other men, and their course often much more up-hill and rough. They walk by faith and not by sight, however; they endure as seeing Him who is invisible, and the crown which is invisible, and the Kingdom which is invisible, and as though they already had everlasting life, though they die like other men. In all these things, yea, in everything, they are required to walk by faith and not by sight, if they would be crowned overcomers and made heirs in the coming Kingdom.

Their advantages are all invisible to the world, and are seen only by the eye of faith. Their peace and joy are dependent upon their knowledge and trust of God and His Plan, and their knowledge and trust depend upon their faith in His Word of promise. By faith they “know [even when outward evidences seem contrary] that all things are working together” (Rom. 8:28) for their ultimate good, and that the glories and blessings of the future shall far overbalance all the trials and troubles and wounds of the present; and so believing from such a standpoint, it is well said that these have a joy and peace, even amid tribulation, and which the world can neither give nor take away.

What advantage, then, hath a true, consecrated Christian in the present time? Much every way; both in the life that now is, and also in that which is to come. All things are yours; for ye are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s and ye are accepted of God in and through the merit of Christ.

“Soul, then know thy full salvation,

Rise o’er sin and fear and care;

Joy to find in every station,

Something still to do or bear.”

No matter how dark the clouds, no matter how unfavorable the circumstance on its surface, thou hast the heavenly assurance, that – “All must work for good to thee.”

Even those things which may seem to be, and to the world are, accidents, cannot be so regarded in connection with these so peculiarly precious in God’s sight. Nothing transpires without your Father’s knowledge – not even a sparrow falls, nor a hair of your heads. And since infinite wisdom, infinite love, and infinite power are pledged to their aid, and guarantee them against all that would not be for their ultimate good, with how much confidence and trust all such may free themselves from harassing care and anxiety, and with how much courage they may press on, committing their way unto the Lord, and engaging heart and hand and brain in His service; for we also “know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” (1 Cor. 15:58) Like their Master, such shall yet see results for all their travail of souls which will fully recompense or satisfy them. Such may rejoice in tribulation, knowing the results. Even the families of the Saints and all that concerns them, are precious to the Lord for their sakes.

Courage, then, dear family of God! Be strong! quit you like men! Endure hardness as good soldiers; endure as seeing the Lord and the prize, though they are invisible except to your eye of faith. Expect not to reign, nor to be exempted from trial and sufferings, until the battle is ended – until Evil (sin, as well as disaster, trouble and death, its accompaniments) shall be removed by our Redeemer, who soon is to take His great power and reign to deliver the groaning creation from all its present distresses.

“Behold, we bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be unto all people.” (Luke 2:10) Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord; for though for a little moment He hid His face and permitted calamities to scourge and destroy His creatures because of their transgression, yet in great mercy He hath provided our ransom price; yea, He hath highly exalted Him to be both Priest and King to cleanse from sin, and to rule to perfect all who will then submit their hearts to Him and obey Him. From such He shall wipe away all tears; and sorrow and dying, and every evil, shall be no more. “Behold, I make all things new.” (Rev. 21:5)

“Tell the whole world the blessed tidings;

Speak of the time of rest that nears;

Tell the oppressed of every nation

Jubilee lasts a thousand years.”

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NO. 467B: THE AUTHORSHIP AND CREDIBILITY OF THE BIBLE - PART TWO

No. 467B

OTHER MEANS OF VERIFICATION

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

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

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

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

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

THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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QUESTIONS OF GENERAL INTEREST

QUESTION – Are Consecrated Epiphany Campers represented in any way in Noah’s Ark?

ANSWER – No! And it would be essential for them to be shown in the Ark in some clear manner if they are a genuine class, because that Ark is a “Type of Christ and the power in Him which will replenish and reorganize society.” (See the Berean Comment on Genesis 6:19.) In other words, the Ark portrays the embodiment of God’s Plan.(Nor does Noah’s Ark portray the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Great Crowd.)

In elaborating this statement Brother Johnson gives us this in E-5-62 (59):”It will be noticed that there were four human pairs who went into the Ark, as well as at least one pair of every clean and unclean kind of animals. We know that there are four elective classes who in this life obtain a good report thru faith in the Abrahamic Covenant:(1) The Christ, (2) the Ancient Worthies, (3) the Great Company, and (4) the Youthful Worthies. Noah undoubtedly types our Lord, who is the Heir of righteousness which comes to us by faith (Heb. 11:7).These classes we understand to be typed in their respective order by Noah and his wife, Shem and his wife, Japheth and his wife and Ham and his wife, the males apart from Noah representing all the leaders of their respective classes, and the females the rest of these classes. We understand the animals in the Ark to represent the non-elect who will ultimately be saved, the clean animals to represent the Jews, as typically clean, who will be saved, and the Tentatively Justified as tentatively clean, who will be saved, and the unclean animals represent those of the present unclean world who will be saved; while those who perished in the Flood we understand to represent from one viewpoint those who have perished under the Adamic curse, and from another standpoint, the movements and systems of Satan’s Empire and the Second Death Class. Just as in the type the clean and the unclean animals occupied altogether different positions in the Ark from those of Noah and his family, so in the antitype, the Jews and the Tentatively Justified on the one hand, and the prospectively saved of the rest of mankind on the other hand, are quite differently related to the Abrahamic Covenant from antitypical Noah and his family. These animals were placed in the Ark to type that anticipatorily their antitypes would be included in the Abrahamic Covenant.”

From the foregoing, it is clear enough that the clean animals typed the quasi-elect – those “truly repentant and believing, but not consecrated, Jews and Gentiles.” (See E-10-209.)They are those who have “adhered to righteousness” and who accept Christ as their Savior – anticipatorily in the Jewish Age, and actually so during the Gospel Age. Note we have underscored the words “adhered to righteousness,” because this feature of the quasi-elect is definitely portrayed in the clean animals by all of them having the split or divided hoof, such hoofs typifying that their conduct has been acceptable to God and to man – they have practiced righteousness – have made “straight paths for their feet” – adhered to the Mosaic Law to the extent of their ability (even perhaps more so than the “measurably faithful” Great Company Class, and the “measurably faithful” of the Youthful Worthies – although “adherence to righteousness” does not admit the quasi-elect as one of the fully elect classes).Thus, it is apparent that the quasi-elect are clearly shown in the Ark; and it is equally apparent that the same Ark is completely silent about a consecrated segment of this class at any time during the Gospel Age in the embodiment of God’s Plan. Clearly enough, a consecrated division of the quasi-elect is an Azazelian perversion by uncleansed Levite leaders – whether they be designated Consecrated Epiphany Campers, Quasi-elect Consecrated or the Great Crowd. It is an arbitrary addition to “that which is written,” and without Scriptural foundation in the Ark, which reveals the “Whole counsel of God” in its generalized features – emphasizing the same six classes as are found in Joel 2:28, 29, but no more.

The LHMM tells us that their Consecrated Campers are so much like the Youthful Worthies that they can hardly tell the difference, we would present the logical question respecting the type: Did Noah and family have any difficulty whatever in noting the difference between themselves and the clean animals in the Ark?

(Our Reprint No. 359, July 1985)

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QUESTION – Are we to regard the Worthies as Restitutionists, and the first Restitutionists to be blessed under the New Covenant?

ANSWER – We are not to regard any of the elect as Restitutionists, including the Worthies. They are the first to be blessed under the New Covenant, as they will experience the “better resurrection” before any blessing can go to others. The first Restitutionists to be blessed under the New Covenant are the faithful covenant-keeping Jews. As we have repeatedly quoted from our faithful Messengers’ teaching and from the Scriptures, the New Covenant is Israelitish, and would naturally come to the Jew first.

We have also repeatedly contended that the salvation of the elect is in the Faith Age, and the salvation of the world of mankind is in the Mediatorial Kingdom. There are two salvations, and they are not to be mixed. Just as there won’t be any opportunity for the elective salvation in the New Covenant arrangement, so there is no opportunity for the non-elect, including the quasi-elect, Consecrated Campers and the Great Crowd to make an acceptable consecration to God during the Faith Age.

At one time JFR taught the truth on the two salvations being separate and distinct, but revolutionized against that truth when he invented a new class – Jonadabs or the “Great Multitude”; and the same is true about the LHMM. It was after they invented a new class – Consecrated Epiphany Campers – that they, too, revolutionized against the truth on the two salvations.

“The Youthful Worthies as a class are pointed out in various Scriptures... 2 Tim. 2:20 that ‘in a great house [the great house of the typical Aaron, Lev. 16:6; Num. 17:2, 3; 3:6-9, 17-20, consisted of his sons and three typical classes of Levites – the Kohathites, Merarites and Gershonites; accordingly, in the great House of our Great High Priest, there are four classes antitypical of these] there are not only vessels of gold [the Little Flock, Mal. 3:3], and of silver [the Great Company, Mal. 3:3], but also of wood [the Ancient Worthies] and of earth [the Youthful Worthies, who with the Ancient Worthies will be, during the Millennium, the human or earthly members of the antitypical Aaron’s House, as they were or are of the human nature also before the Millennium];and [additionally] some to honor [the faithful Restitutionists, the ‘sheep’ of Matt. 25:31-40], and some to dishonor [the ‘goats’ of the next Age, Matt. 25:41-46].” (E-17-39,40)

So when the LHMM groups the Youthful Worthies with the Restitutionists in their contention for the Consecrated Campers, by saying, “If God can make an exception of the Youthful Worthies, who are made up largely of Gentiles, in regard to ‘the Jew first,’ then He can make an exception of another class – Consecrated Epiphany Campers.” God makes an exception of all the elect. The Jews will be the first of the Restitutionists to be blessed under the New Covenant. As repeatedly said, the New Covenant is Israelitish, and simply replaces the Old Law Covenant, which also is Israelitish.

(Our Reprint No. 360, August 1985)

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LETTER OF GENERAL INTEREST

To Epiphany Bible Students,

Forgive me for not responding to your post card earlier. I have been traveling. Please retain me on your mailing list. I receive and read each issue of the papers you send me for which I am most grateful. Thank you.

Dr. J. Gordon Melton, Department of Religious Studies(CALIFORNIA)

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“IN THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW”

SISTER MINNIE CONDELL, Kingston, Jamaica, finished her course Sunday, February 19, 1995.Her funeral was conducted in Crofts Hill Sunday, February 26, by Brother Roy Mahoney. She was buried next to Sister McNeil in a family plot marked by Sister Minnie’s father, Brother Condell.

She believed in God and His promises, and was loved by all who knew her. This was attested by those who attended her funeral. Some of her friends came from the University of Kingston, and several of her nieces and nephews came from the USA to pay their respect and love for her. We mourn with her family and friends, but we rejoice with them in the blessed memory she left us. She had been ill for quite some time after several strokes which left her paralyzed so she couldn’t move herself without help. But her niece, April, gave her good care. We are comforted with the thought that she will have no more pain. She is now “asleep in Jesus,” awaiting that glorious Kingdom when she will receive the resurrection of the Just.

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NO. 467A: THE AUTHORSHIP AND CREDIBILITY OF THE BIBLE - PART ONE

No. 467A

2 Tim. 3:16

While the Bible is generally accepted by Christian people as of Divine authority, comparatively few are able to clearly state just why they so esteem it. The internal evidence of its truthfulness, and its grandeur of doctrine, are the principal evidences on which its testimony is, and should be, generally received; and truly these are strong and convincing of its Divine authorship and authority; yet the man of God who would be thoroughly furnished with the Truth, and armed against every attack of skepticism, should endeavor to know all he can of the time, manner, circum­stances, etc., under which it was written; whether it has been preserved free from corruption; and whether in its present condition it is worthy of full confidence. Let us, therefore, briefly consider what testimony we have to the credibility of the Sacred Writings.

From numerous expressions, references and quotations in the New Testament by our Lord and the apostles it is evident that a certain body of writings was at that time considered to be of Divine authority. The Sacred Scriptures then in existence are now characterized as the Old Testament Scriptures (the Scriptures of the Old or Law Covenant), while that which was added by our Lord and the apostles is termed the New Testament (the New Covenant) Scriptures.

No other book which the world has ever known has such a history as the Bible. Its origin and authorship, its antiquity, its wonderful preservation in the midst of the unparalleled and continuous opposition which sought to destroy it, as well as its diversity and teaching, make the Bible the most wonderful book in existence.

It is a collection composed of sixty‑six separate books, written by about forty different writers, living centuries apart, speaking different languages, subjects of different governments, and brought up under different civilizations. Over 1500 years elapsed between the writings of Moses and of John.

As no other reliable history dates so far back as the Bible, we are obliged to look mainly to its own internal evidence, as to its origin, authorship, and the reason for its existence, and indeed for its credibility in every respect; and further, we should look for such corroboration of its statements as reason, its own harmony with itself, and with other known facts, and subsequent developments furnish. And indeed this is the evidence of reliability on which all history must rest. To such evidence we are indebted for all our knowledge of past events and of all present events as well, except such as come under our own immediate observation. He who would cast away Bible history as unworthy of credence, must on the same ground reject all history; and to be entirely consistent, must believe nothing which does not come under his own personal observation.

If its statements thoroughly understood, are contradictory, or are colored by prejudice, or are proven untrue by a positive scientific knowledge, or if subsequent developments prove its predictions untrue, and thereby show the ignorance or dishonesty of the authors of the Bible, then we may reasonably conclude that the entire book is unworthy of confidence, and should reject it. But if, on the contrary, we find that a thorough understanding of the Bible, according to its own rules of interpretation, shows its statements to be in harmony with each other; if it bears no evidence of prejudicial coloring; if many of its prophecies have actually come true, and others admit of future fulfillment; if the integrity of its writers is manifested by unvarnished records, then we have reason to believe the book. Its entire testimony, historic, prophetic, and doctrinal, stands or falls together. Science is yet in its infancy, yet in so far as positive scientific knowledge has been obtained, it should and does corroborate the Bible testimony.

INTERNAL EVIDENCES

Those who will make a study of the Bible plan will be fully convinced of the conclusive evidence of the credibility of the Sacred Scriptures, which is furnished in the purity, harmony and grandeur of its teachings. Outside of the Scriptures we have nowhere to look for an account of the circumstances and motives of the earliest writers :but they furnish these items of information themselves, and their integrity and evident truthfulness in other matters is a guarantee in these.

Our first definite information with reference to the Sacred Writings is afforded by the direction given to Moses to write the law and history in a book, and put it in the side of the Ark for preservation. (See Exod. 17:14; 34:27; Deut. 31:9-26.) This book was left for the guidance of the people. Additions were made to it from time to time by subsequent writers, and in the days of the kings, scribes appear to have been appointed whose business it was to keep a careful record of the important events occurring in Jewish history, which records – Samuel, Kings, Chronicles – were preserved and subsequently incorporated with the Law. The prophets also did not confine themselves to oral teachings, but wrote and in some cases had scribes to record their teachings. (See Josh. 1:8; 24:26, 1 Sam. 10:25; 1 Chr. 27:32; 29:29, 30; 2 Chr. 33:18, 19; Isa. 30:8; Jer. 30:2; 36:2; 45:1; 51:60.) As a result we have the Old Testament Scriptures, composed of history, prophecy and law, written by Divine direction, as these citations and also Paul’s testimony (2 Tim. 3:15, 16) prove. These writings collectively were termed “The Law and The Prophets,” and the Hebrews were taught of God to esteem them of Divine authority and authorship, the writers being merely the agents through whom they received them. They were so taught to esteem them by the miraculous dealings of God with them as a people, in confirmation of His words to them through the prophets, thus endorsing them as His agents (See Exod. 14:30, 31; 19:9; 1 Kings 18:21, 27, 30, 36, 39.); and further by the establishment and enforcement of the Mosaic law.

The political interests and the religious veneration of the Israelites, under God’s immediate overruling and protection, combined to preserve and protect these writings from contamination. Religiously, they were rightfully regarded with the deepest veneration, while politically they were the only guarantee which the people possessed against despotism. The Jewish copyists regarded these documents with great veneration. A very slight error in copying often led them to destroy it and begin anew. Josephus says that through all the Ages that had passed none had ventured to add to, take away from, or transpose ought of the Sacred Writings.

In the degeneracy of the Jewish nation, under the idolatrous administration of the successors of Rehoboam these Sacred Writings fell into disuse and were almost forgotten, though they seem never to have been taken from their place. In the reformation conducted by Josiah they were again brought to light. Again, in the Babylonish captivity this book was lost sight of by the Israelites, though it appears that they were accustomed to meet together in little companies in Babylon to be instructed by the scribes, who either taught the Law from memory or from copies in their possession. On the restoration of the Jews to Jerusalem, the Scriptures were again brought out, and Ezra and his companions read the law to the people, commenting upon and explaining it. (Neh. 8:1‑8) This public reading of the Scriptures was the only means of keeping them before the people, as printing was yet unknown and the cost of a manuscript copy was beyond the reach of the people, very few of whom could read. At the time of our Lord’s First Advent, these Old Testament Scriptures existed substantially as we have them today, as to matter and arrangement.

 One of the strongest evidences of the authenticity of the Old Testament Scriptures is found in the fact that the law and the prophets were continually referred to by our Lord and the apostles as authority, and that while the Lord denounced the corruption of the Jewish Church, and their traditions, by which they made void the Word of God, he did not even intimate any corruption in these Sacred Writings, but commends them, and refers to and quotes them in proof of His claims.

 In fact, the various parts of the entire book are bound together by the mutual endorsement of the various writers, so that to reject one is to mar the completeness of the whole. Each book bears its own witness and stands on its own evidence of credibility, and yet each book is linked with all the rest, both by their common spirit and harmony and by their mutual endorsement. Mark, for instance, the endorsement of the account of creation in the commandment of the law concerning the Sabbath Day. (Exod. 20:11) Also compare Deut. 23:4, 5; Joshua 24:9; Micah 6:5; 2 Pet. 2:15; Jude 11‑13; Isa. 28:21; Hab. 3:11; Matt. 12:40)

THE NEW TESTAMENT

The earliest copy of the New Testament known is written in the Syriac language. Its date is estimated to be about the year AD 100. And even at that early date it contained the same books as at present with the exception of the Second Epistle of Peter, the Third Epistle of John, Jude and the Book of Revelation. And these omitted books we know were written about the close of the first century, and probably had not been widely circulated among the Christian congregations at that time. All the books of the Old and New Testaments as we now have them appear, however, in the Greek, in the Sinaitic Manuscript, the oldest known Greek MS., whose date is about AD 350.

The first five books of the New Testament are historical, and present a clear and connected account of the life, character, circumstances, teachings and doings of Jesus of Nazareth, who claimed to be the Messiah promised in the Old Testament Scriptures, and who fully substantiated His claim. The four accounts of the Evangelists, though they differ in phraseology, are in harmony in their statements, some important items being recorded by each which seem to have been overlooked by the others. These Evangelists testified to that of which they had positive knowledge. The Apostle John says: That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you – “that which was from the beginning [the beginning of the Lord’s ministry], which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the Word of life; for the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness.” (1 John 1:1‑3) They testify also that they saw Christ after His resurrection. The fifth book presents a valuable account of the doings of the Apostles after their anointing with the Holy Spirit, of the establishment of the Christian Church and of the first preaching of the good news to the Gentiles.

The Apostolic Epistles were written to the various local congregations or churches, and were directed to be publicly read and to be exchanged among the churches; and the same authority was claimed for them by their writers as that which was accorded to the Old Testament Scriptures. (1 Thes. 5:27; Col. 4:16; 2 Pet. 3:2, 15, 16; Heb. 1:1, 2 and 2:1‑4) These letters and the five historical books were carefully preserved and were appealed to as authority in matters of doctrine.

The letters of the apostles, claiming as they did, Divine authority equal to that of the Old Testament Scriptures, were treasured and guarded with special care by the various congregations of the early church. The New Testament was completed by the Book of The Revelation, about the close of the first century AD after which, these epistles, etc., began to be collected for more permanent preservation.

 The original copies of both the Old and New Testaments have, of course, long since disappeared, and the oldest manuscript (the Sinaitic) is reckoned to have been written about three centuries after the death of Christ. Those of earlier date were either destroyed in the persecutions under which the Church suffered, or were worn out by use. These oldest manuscripts are preserved with great care in the Museums and Libraries of Europe. During the Middle Ages, when ignorance and corruption prevailed and the Bible was hidden in monasteries away from the people, God was still carrying on His work, preserving the Scriptures from destruction even in the midst of Satan’s stronghold, the apostate Church of Rome. A favorite occupation of the monks during the Middle Ages was the copying of the manuscripts of the New Testament, which were esteemed as relics more than as God’s living authoritative Word – just as you will find in the parlor of very many worldly people handsome Bibles, which are seldom opened. Of these manuscripts there are said to be now more than two thousand, of various dates from the fourth to the fifteenth centuries. The quiet seclusion of those monks gave them special opportunities for careful copying, and years were sometimes spent in the copying of a single manuscript.

RELIABILITY OF PRESENT TRANSLATIONS

The idea exists in some minds that during the lapse of centuries the Scriptures have become largely corrupted, and therefore a very uncertain foundation for faith. They reason that this is surely to be expected of a book which has survived many centuries, and which has been claimed as Divine authority by so many different factions, and which can be read by the majority only from translations made by somewhat biased translators. And the late revisions of the book are supposed to be an acknowledgment of the supposed fact.

Those, however, who are acquainted with the manner in which the ancient manuscripts of the Scriptures have been preserved for centuries, carefully copied, diligently compared and translated by pious and learned linguists, whose work was thereafter subjected to the most learned and scrutinizing criticism of an age in which scholars are by no means few, are prepared to see that such an idea is by no means a correct or reasonable one, though to the uninformed it may appear so.

 It is a fact that the Scriptures, as we find them today, bear internal evidence of their original purity; and ample means, both internal and external, are now furnished so that the careful student may detect any error which might have crept in either by fraud or accident. While there are some errors in translation and a few interpolations in our common English translation, on the whole it is acknowledged by scholars to be a remarkably good transcript of the Sacred Word.

Before the invention of printing, the copying of the Scriptures, being very slow and tedious, involved considerable liability to error in transcribing, such as the accidental omission of a word or paragraph, the substitution of one word for another, or the misunderstanding of a word where the copyist wrote from the dictation of another person. And again, sometimes a marginal note might be mistaken for a part of the text and copied in as such. But while a very few errors have crept in, in such ways, and a few others seem to have been designedly inserted, various circumstances have been at work, both to preserve the integrity of the Sacred Writings, and also to make manifest any errors which have crept into them.

Very early in the Christian Era translations of the New Testament Scriptures were made into several languages, and the different factions that early developed and continued to exist, though they might have been desirous of adding to or taking from the original text in order to give their claims a show of Scriptural support, were watched by each other to see that they did not do so, and had they succeeded in corrupting the text in one language, another translation would make it manifest.

Even the Douay translation, in use in the Romish church, is in most respects substantially the same as the King James translation. The fact that during the “Dark Ages” the Scriptures were practically cast aside being supplanted by the decrees of popes and councils, so that its teachings had no influence upon the masses of the people who did not have copies in their possession – nor could they have read them if they had them – doubtless made unnecessary the serious alteration of the text, at a time when bold, bad men had abundant power to do so. For men who would plot treason, incite to wars and commit murders for the advancement of the papal hierarchy, as we know was done, would have been bold enough for anything. Thus the depth of ignorance in the Dark Ages served to protect and keep pure God’s Word, so that its clear light has shone specially at the two ends of the Gospel Age. (1 Cor. 10:11) The few interpolations which were dared, in support of the false claims of Papacy, were made just as the gloom of the “Dark Ages” was closing in upon mankind, and are now made glaringly manifest, from their lack of harmony with the context, their antagonism with other scriptures and from their absence in the oldest and most complete and reliable manuscripts.

RELATIVE VALUES OF ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To be continued in No. 467B, August 1995.

NO. 466: “THE RESURRECTION OF THE JUST AND THE UNJUST”

No. 466

The resurrection of the just could not mean a resurrection of those who had been perfect, for there are none perfect, none just, “no, not one.” “The resurrection of the just” (Luke 14:14), then, must mean the resurrection of those who have been justified; and the justified are those referred to in the Scriptures of whom Abraham was an example. Abraham believed God, and was justified by faith. It was the faith that justified, and the works corroborated the faith.

So with the Church of this Age. The Apostle says, “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” (Rom. 5:1,2) We are not only justified out of sin, but are also brought by operation of our faith into the glorious standing of members of Christ; and we may hope to participate with Christ in the glories of His Kingdom in the future. It is one thing to be freed from guilt, and another thing to be raised to the position of sons of God, heirs of God and joint‑heirs with Christ, our Lord.

The resurrection of the dead is similarly spoken of in John 5:28, 29, where we read, “Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth.” The Lord does not mean merely all the good, for He also includes in this all that are in their graves. We read in the context that they that have done good shall come forth “unto the resurrection of life”: those who have done evil shall come forth to “damnation [judgment – Dia.].” The word damnation, in the Greek, signifies a crisis, a turning‑point, a decision.

THE RESURRECTION OF THE CHURCH

Those whose faith enables them to stand through evil report and through good report, and who thus fulfil the Divine requirement, are character‑likenesses of Jesus. These now pass from under the condemnation condition to the life condition. As the Apostle says, “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.” (I John 3:14) This passing from death unto life is not in the full sense in the present time. By faith we are reckoned dead with Christ, counted members of His body. That future life is reckoned to us. We are counted as having it; and this is our condition because we have the Divine approval.

Since there is none good, the only sense in which one could “do good” would be by coming into accord with God by obedience, as under the covenant which prevailed with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, or under the still higher covenant that prevails with the Church in this Gospel Age. We have this testimony, that we are pleasing to God, who indicates His pleasure by begetting us of the Holy Spirit. In contradistinction, the world are aliens, foreigners. (Eph. 2:19) By this Holy Spirit, this “unction from the Holy One” (1 John 2:20), therefore, we have the evidence of acceptance with the Father.

The outcome will be, that those having this approval of God, having passed the trials and testings which they have received – for he receiveth no son whom He does not scourge (Heb. 12:6) – and having proved faithful to the end, will be raised by the Lord to the very highest place – glory, honor and immortality. This is the crown, or very highest pinnacle of life that could be imagined. So, then, those who will have part in this First Resurrection will reign with Christ a thousand years. This is the first class mentioned by the Apostle. They are approved; they shall come forth to “life resurrec­tion.”

What is the significance of “life resurrection”? We answer that these shall come forth to perfect life instantly. As St. Paul says, “It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: it is sown a natural body; it is raised a spirit body.” (1 Cor. 15:43) Thus instantaneously these blessings come to them. They have their trial in the present time and, therefore, theirs will be the chief resurrection.

THE RESURRECTION OF THE WORLD

But all will have a resurrection. How will the resurrection of the world differ from that apportioned to the Church? The world has not had the Divine approval; the heathen have not had the Divine approval. The Apostle says, “How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?” (Rom. 10:14) They are not fit for heaven. They are not fit to be with the angels or with the Saints, no matter how they came to be in this condition. They came into this condition because of heredity, as children of Adam. But they could not have the same kind of resurrection that those will receive who have God’s approval now, at the time of their death: “Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life.” (Rev. 2:10)

So with the majority of those in Christian lands. They could not be thought to be fit for heaven or to have God’s approval in any sense of the word. And they know it. They confess it themselves. Nobody could deny that nine hundred and ninety‑nine out of every thousand are living “after the flesh.” They are not Saints, but have the Divine disapproval, some having heard more of the Word of God, and some having heard less.

THE GENERAL RESURRECTION TO BE GRADUAL

“Those who have done evil” (John 5:29) will come forth to the resurrection of “damnation” (Greek, krisis), resurrection of trial, resurrection of testing. What kind will it be? The Scriptures show us that it will be a gradual resurrection. During the thousand years of Christ’s reign the people will be awakening from the sleep in the tomb. This awakening will be a preparatory work, not the full resurrection, which will require the entire thousand years.

But the Divine provision is that the account will have been settled for the whole world so that when they shall come forth from the tomb in the future they will be in the hands of the Redeemer, whose Kingdom will be world‑wide. They will have the opportunity of being raised again to that which was lost. Human perfection was lost, which includes not only perfect physical health, but perfect mental power; for mental power depends upon the brain, is affected by the brain, as well as by the body, so that men are now in a dying condition, mentally, morally and physically.

All will be fully raised, from imperfection to perfection, at the end of the thousand years. All who will respond to the beneficent arrangements will secure that which Father Adam enjoyed at first – ­perfect manhood. Those who will not be obedient to the requirements of Christ’s Kingdom will be cut off in the Second Death (Acts 3:23). They will be destroyed as brute beasts, having had the full measure of Divine favor. (2 Peter 2:12)

When the sentence came upon Father Adam he was thrust out of Eden. All of his children have been born dying, and are still in a dying condition. Therefore, the raising of man out of sin and death will be the bringing of him to full perfection – perfect life. This will be a gradual process. They will be made more alive and more alive, and less dead and less dead, as the thousand years progress, and none will get the resurrection life until they are raised to the condition of perfection – perfect life in the image of God, which was lost by Adam.

BURNING OF THE WORLD SYMBOLICAL

The Scriptures declare that “the earth abideth forever” and that “God formed it not in vain; He made it to be inhabited.” (See Eccl. 1:4; Isa. 45:18) It has not yet reached the blessed condition when it will blossom as a rose, although it is in process of completion. At the end of the thousand years of Christ’s reign, the whole earth shall have been brought to perfection. In the prophecies, mountains are symbolical of kingdoms. In 2 Peter 3:12 the Apostle’s words signify that there will be a great conflagration and that the heavens also will be on fire, but that, nevertheless, there will be a new order of things, to take the place of the old order; and under this new order of things there shall come a blessing to all in the earth. The word “fire,” in this sense signifies destruction of the present order of things, of the kosmos – not the geological earth, but the social system, society as at present organized.

We not infrequently hear people say, “Well, matters are getting pretty hot!” Yes, the battle between capital and labor is getting hotter, as is evidenced lately in the labor troubles, particularly in Great Britain and the United States. But the time of conflagration will be such a “time of trouble,” that it will entirely consume the present order of things, a Time of Trouble, therefore, that will be epoch‑making, and the new epoch will be introduced immediately thereafter.

MOUNTAINS SYMBOLIZE KINGDOMS

We remember riding over the mountains once with an Adventist. The Adventist brother said, “Do you not think it will be a glorious time when these mountains will be brought down to a level?” We said, “Dear brother, the mountains are very beautiful, very useful.” He said, “You cannot raise corn on this mountain. “Well,” said we, “go to the prairie if you want to raise corn.” Then he said, “What do you think the Scriptures mean when they say that the mountains shall be brought low, and when they speak about the melting of the earth”? We said, “Dear brother, the ‘mountains’ there are kingdoms. We read that ‘the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be exalted in the top of the mountains’; it will be the chief mountain or kingdom.” (Isa. 2:2)

THE RESURRECTION WILL LEVEL ALL CLASSES

The Psalmist tells us that “the mountains shall be removed and carried into the midst of the sea” (Psa. 46:2), mountains being symbolical of the kingdoms, of the governments of the earth, and society in general, the elements which support the governments. (Psa. 46) St. Peter also speaks as though the whole world will be consumed by fire. These things are symbolical, implying that the people who are now in a low condition will be brought up, and that those who are high will be brought low. Thus there will be a leveling process.

We remember the statement of the Scripture in Zephaniah 3:8, “Wait ye upon me, saith the Lord.” Here Jehovah is speaking to the Church, telling us that we should not be dissatisfied, that we should not be anarchists and strife‑breeders: I shall attend to this matter myself. You can rest with the present order of things. “Wait ye upon me, saith the Lord, until the day that I rise up to the prey: for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy.” That this fire is not literal is shown in the next sentence: “Then will I turn unto the people a pure message that they may all call upon the name of the Lord to serve him with one consent.” (Zeph. 3:8,9)

WHEN “THE SPIRIT AND THE BRIDE SAY, ‘COME’”

It will be the work of the thousand years of Messiah’s reign to thus make known the pure message of God, the pure Word of God. We all see, as we look back, that a pure message of God has not been declared to mankind, but creed contradicting creed, making confusion worse confounded. The Lord, however, will pour out His Spirit upon all flesh, and the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the great deep. (Isa. 11:9; Hab. 2:14) As the Revelator puts it, “the river of the water of life” will flow freely. (Rev. 21:6; 22:1,2)

We see that there is no throne yet established and that there is no Bride now. We are waiting for the time to come when the throne will be established and when “the water of life” will flow out. In the future it will be “a river of the water of life.” (Rev. 22:1) This cannot take place until the second coming of our Lord; conse­quently, it will be after that, in the glorious time of Messiah’s Kingdom, when the Spirit and the Bride will say, “Come!” The election of the Church of God will then have been completed; and every creature will come to a knowledge of the Truth and will have the opportunity of attaining to the full perfection made possible by the redemptive work of Christ.

THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE CHURCH TO EARTHLY SOCIETY

The spirit condition is spoken of as a heavenly condition in the sense that the words heaven and heavenly in the Scriptures are used to signify higher. So the heaven to which the Church will be taken is this higher condition. But the mission of the Church in the next age is in connection with humanity. We are, then, to understand that the Lord and the Church will be present, operating through human, earthly agents; supervising, over- ruling.

We have an example of this invisible power in Satan, who has been ruling here for over six thousand years, through his agents. His work is a deceptive work. He has ruled mankind through ignorance, superstition, etc. But the rule of Christ will be the scattering of error, superstition. The world shall know the Truth that the Truth may make them free. Those who will receive the Truth will receive the freedom and will eventually attain the liberty which belongs to the Sons of God. Men will be quite visible to The Christ, but they will be invisible to men. It is in respect to these that the Lord said that the twelve Apostles shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel – that the Apostles shall be associates with Him in judging and ruling the world.

Then there is another class: “Ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God” (Luke 13:28); but our Lord does not say a word about their seeing Himself or His apostles. He and His apostles will be in the invisible phase of the Kingdom. So it is written, “Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth” (Psa. 45:16) The patriarchs will be considered the children. A father is a life‑giver. While in one sense of the word Abraham and Isaac, etc., might be considered fathers, yet by virtue of Christ’s redemptive work He will give them life and they will be his children; for whoever gives life is the father and whoever receives life is the child. They will be princes in all the earth, not on the heavenly plane, but on the earthly plane, having obtained the “better resurrection” (Hebrews 11) because they were faithful. Each one of them will be a sample of perfect manhood; and each one of them will be a prince or ruler. Their wisdom will be a wisdom superintended by the Church in glory.

THE OBJECT OF THE INDIVIDUAL TRIAL OF MANKIND

Mankind will need to be put on trial to see whether or not they will accept God’s plan with the knowledge they will have received. If they accept they will be adjudged worthy of everlasting life. If they fail to come into harmony, they will be adjudged worthy of everlasting death. But this judgment will be passed by Christ and His Bride.

So, then, we see that there is a great judgment or trial coming to the world to give them the opportunity of deciding whether or not they will come into harmony with the arrangements of Christ’s Kingdom. In the work of judging, the Church will be associated with Christ. We read that God “hath ap­pointed a day, in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He hath ordained” (Acts 17:31) Christ, the Head, and the Church His Body. Again, “Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world?” (I Cor. 6:2) Therefore our own judgment or trial takes place in advance, that we may be prepared to try or judge the world; and by the experiences through which we have passed we may be assistful to them, as they shall be on trial and under the control of our Lord and the Church.

(Pastor Russell, Reprints 4989, 4990, March 1, 1912)

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DEGREES OF SIN AND THEIR PUNISHMENT

The question is often asked, “Is there any special punishment for thieves, murderers and other criminals, or will they, if repentant, be received into the Kingdom along with those who have tried to do right throughout their lives?”

This question can be viewed from two standpoints. God Himself is the great determiner of right and wrong. Everything that is right God approves; everything that is wrong God disapproves. The things that God approves are those things that are good, helpful and favorable for everybody. The things that God disapproves are the things that are wrong, unjust, injurious to every one. Therefore God has condemned certain things that are unjust or injurious to ourselves or to others. Whoever, therefore, commits sin, violates first of all, a Divine command, and to that extent has a certain penalty attached to him for that wrong doing.

We speak of certain persons as “sowing their wild oats.” What does this expression signify? It means that they are now contracting habits which are injurious not only to their own health and happiness, but probably to that of others. As a result of practicing sin they are sure to bring upon themselves a degradation of both mind and body. Thus sin brings its own reward in a natural way. Whoever sins will suffer, is the general law. But aside from that law, there is a God, who has given certain commands and certain penalties that go with those commands.

WHO ARE THIEVES AND MURDERERS?

God’s standard of righteousness is much higher than is man’s present standard. Our Lord gave very fine meanings to the words “thief,” “adulterer,” and “murderer.” He taught that anyone who is angry with his brother without a cause is in danger; that he who looks upon another’s wife with impure desire has committed adultery. (Matt. 5:22,28) These are very fine distinctions. Moreover, we must all admit, as Shakespeare has said:

“Who steals my purse steals trash…..

But he that filches from me my good name

Robs me of that which not enriches him,

And makes me poor indeed.”

Many people have been guilty of stealing the good name of others; many have been guilty of murder in the sense that they hate others. When it comes to the point of deciding who are the most guilty murderers and thieves, we are not competent to judge, for we are not able to know the qualities of mind and the weaknesses with which each person was born. God only could tell the degree of wrong in any of these cases. There are some people who are, we might say, naturally good; others seem to have been born with less patience. Some who, naturally, would not get angry with their brother, nor with any one, as soon as some one else would, may never be in danger of committing murder, either literally or figuratively; for they are born with the quality of forbearance.

As these may not manifest any special patience more than that with which they were born, so others may manifest special qualities because of the condition in which they were born.

The world has learned the necessity of restraining those who are injurious to others. The judgment of the people of the state of New York is, according to the law, that no murderer shall be at large. He shall be confined; for a murderer is not a safe person to permit in society. Therefore, he is put into prison or is executed. This is the general judgment, outside of God’s judgment. The best thing for him and the world in general is that he go down to hades, sheol – the great state of death, where he cannot murder anyone else. The Scriptures agree with the laws of the state of New York, that if a man commits heinous crimes he should be punished.

GOD IS TRAINING THE JUDGES NOW

But so far as taking the position of a judge is concerned, we are not capable of doing this. God alone, at the present time, knows how much more worthy of punishment some are who are in prison than some who are out of prison would be for something else. The offense of the prisoners might outwardly be the greater crime; that of those who are not confined might be just as great a crime from the Divine standpoint; for they might be sinning against greater light and ability. No one but God could tell. Therefore, “Judge nothing before the time.” (l Cor. 4:5)

When is “the time”? People are always glad to get the chance to judge others. Someone may ask, “When may we have the chance to judge? We would like to have it now.” We reply, “Yours is the wrong spirit. Get rid of it or you will never be a judge at all. God is selecting another class to be judges – a saintly class that will be fully satisfied to judge nothing before the time, but to leave everything to him. He says, “This is the kind I want. I will select them.” The Apostle says, “Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world?” – (l Cor. 6:2)

We shall judge the world, not now, under present conditions, but after we shall have been changed in the First Resurrection, changed in a moment. The Apostle explains what that change will mean to us – ­“Sown in weakness, raised in power; sown in dishonor, raised in glory; sown an animal body, raised a spirit body.” (1 Cor. 15:42‑44) When we reach that condition of bodily likeness, as well as character‑likeness to our Lord, we shall be His associates, His wife, the Royal Priesthood. Then there will be plenty of time for us to judge the world. All the lessons we get now will only develop us for that time. All the experiences we have with ourselves – you judging yourself and I myself – the better we shall be prepared for the opportunity which God will give us by and by.

A JUDGE MUST POSSESS PERFECT SELF‑CONTROL

Whoever has not learned to rule his own spirit, is in no condition to rule others. Whoever has not learned to judge his own heart motives and has not put a restraint on them to the best of his ability, is not prepared to sit in judgment upon another. Those who are now being selected of the Lord are not by nature free from imperfections, but have many of the same weaknesses that others have.

Nevertheless, they are seeking to judge themselves to be transformed by the renewing of their minds, to get self‑control, or as the Bible says, to “overcome.” All those who will be with the Lord in Kingdom glory and power and the work of the Millennial Age will be “more than conquerors through him that loved us” and bought us with his own “precious blood.” (Rom. 8:37; 1 Pet. 1:18,19)

Various qualities of murder, lust, covetousness, etc., are more or less seen in the unbalanced mental and moral conditions resulting from the fall. We see how this is operating in the whole world. Some are so mentally unbalanced they are put into asylums. Some are so morally unbalanced they are not permitted to be at large, but must of necessity be put into prison. Others are able to be about in the world and have their liberty, but they are not sound of mind. “There is none righteous; no, not one” (Rom. 3: 10), is the Bible declaration.

Since we have learned to appreciate the Bible teaching, to see that a great fall came upon our race six thousand years ago, and that all are born in sin and “shapen in iniquity and in sin did our mothers conceive us” (Psa. 51:5), it gives us a great deal of sympathy for many poor people; and as we have more strength of character, mentally and morally, than some of them, we thank God and say, “Who hath made thee to differ?” (1 Cor. 4:7)

We were, perhaps, born differently from many; and what we did not get by heredity, we got through grace; so our strength of character is not of ourselves. It is all by God’s grace that we are better than others; and it is not for us to glory, but to give thanks. So we have sympathy for murderers, thieves and vagabonds in general; and we believe the Lord has.

This does not mean that we have the kind of sympathy which would say, “Open wide the prison doors and let every one out!” No, no! Some who have received the Truth while in prison have asked us to intercede in their behalf, that they might be released; and we have answered that we were not sure but that they were better where they are; for in prison there is less temptation than in the world. Liberty is a good thing; but it brings a responsibility and additional trials as well.

SIN AND DEATH ARE HEREDITARY

As we consider the weakness and sinfulness of humanity, the question naturally arises, “Why is this so?” The Scriptures, not the Evolution theory, give us a satisfactory answer to the question.

When God placed our first parents in the Garden of Eden, He made this proposition to them: “If you do right, as I command, you may continue to live; but if you do wrong, contrary to my command, you shall die.” Our first parents disregarded the Divine command and were disobedient. God immediately sentenced them to death. Death was the penalty of disobedience. In other words, God said, “If you are a sinner I will not permit you to live. Those to whom I wish to “grant eternal life are those who will gladly obey my law.” For, as Jesus said, true worshippers will “worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship him.” (John 4:23)

But in addition to having the death sentence passed upon him – whether that death come sooner or later – Father Adam received other punishment, aside from that penalty. Ejected from the Garden of Eden, he was brought into contact with thorns and thistles; he labored with sweat of face; he had the sorrows and troubles that come with the decaying body. All these things were the result of sin.

But so far as God was concerned, the penalty of sin was the death sentence merely. In effect God had said, “You are not fit to live; you are not fit for everlasting life; you shall not have everlasting life.” But through the sacrifice of His human nature, Jesus, by the grace of God, has tasted death for the whole world of mankind – Adam and all his children, all of whom will ultimately be redeemed from God’s sentence. They will be redeemed from death in order that Jesus may, during His Messianic reign of one thousand years, lift them up out of sin and degradation.

THE TRANSGRESSOR MAKES HIS OWN WAY HARD

But do you ever think to what extent man degrades himself? To that extent he will be more degraded than is necessary; and whenever the time comes for his uplifting, the lower he is, the more difficulty there will be in getting him up again. Since God’s arrangement for lifting mankind out of the death condition is that he must help himself, each man must labor to rise from his degradation, and must be assisted in his labor. But by his own efforts he must get out of the difficulty. No man will get out by saying, “I would rather be out of this and have life.” The way back to perfection will be an uphill way. It will not be the narrow way of the present time – darkness on every hand, a strait gate, etc. – but a highway, an upward way, something favorable to the person going up. He cannot roll up. He will not be required to put forth so much effort in a month or in a year or in ten years, as we have to put forth, but he will have a good share of the thousand years of Christ’s reign in which be can gradually rise up out of his imperfec­tion.

We, on the contrary, are required to turn from sin to righteousness and to make a full sacrifice of ourselves to the Lord. Then we must walk in the Narrow Way to the best of our ability. In this we have the Master to help us; but ours is a short, sharp period of fiery trial; and if our trial is hard, we have the assur­ance that there is a great reward to those who come off victorious in this battle against self and sin.

In a word, then, when people die, that is the end of things, in one sense of the word, and not an end in another sense of the word. When a man is dead be has come under the full sentence of the law, for the law said, “Thou shalt die.”

THE WORLD’S HOPE IS THE RESURRECTION

A junk heap represents the condition of humanity, as well as it can be represented. Some people will go to a junk pile and find a great deal of value there; they can do something with this, that and the other thing. Our Lord is the greatest restorer ever known. When His Kingdom is set up, He will take over the world of mankind, approximately 20,000,000,000 of humanity – Adam and his children, all in their broken, fallen condition; and then the great work of refreshing and restoring will begin. The sawing, the hammering and the filing, if you please, will continue during the whole thousand years of the Millennial reign.

So, you see, the condition into which a man gets himself now has a great deal to do with his future. Many will be so degraded that when they come forth from the tomb they will have a very difficult time. Some of these are mentioned in the Scriptures. We are told that some of these will come forth to shame and lasting contempt. There are many people who will come forth to shame. After they had died, many have been found to have been defaulters; many people have been found to have indulged in very criminal acts; yet perhaps no one knew it while they lived. These things came out after their death, and some things may not have come out yet; but we may be very sure that when the Lord’s time shall come for the general opening up, there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed. Therefore, keep your records as clear as possible. Whatever is there will surely be made manifest, is the Lord’s declaration of the matter.

When the world’s history shall all be known, some that we have thought to be very honest, just people, we may find to have been just the reverse; and others who may have been thought to be dishonest may be found to have been very honest. The judgment of the world is not always right. This is one reason why the Lord warns His people not to judge at the present time. We are not competent now. The Lord will judge in the future. When that time comes and the whole world of mankind are brought forth to have their trial before the “Great White Throne,” the books will be opened. Then some will have shame, and some will have great contempt, which will last just as long as they are contemptible. How long will they be contemptible? Just as long as they remain in the wrong state of mind. But if they will obey the terms and regulations of the Messianic Kingdom they will rise daily out of their degradation and meanness, coming back more and more to the perfect likeness of God in the flesh, as represented in Adam.

As mankind rise from their fallen condition, so this contempt will pass away. At that time people will perhaps say, “Well, you know he was a very wicked man in his time. He suffered contempt when it was first realized what a degraded character be was.” Or, “She was a wicked woman, but now see what a change has come over her! See how well she has gotten along! See what effort she is putting forth! See what character she is developing!” And all will rejoice to see the change.

By the end of the Millennial Age, one who was in shame and contempt at the beginning will, if he has taken the right course, have been lifted up above it. We see the principle illustrated in the Scrip­tures. Saul of Tarsus was in shame and contempt because he was a murderer and blasphemer. But we do not hold him in contempt. Neither do we hold St. Peter in contempt because he denied the Lord. At that time it will be said of the world just as we say of the Apostles when we see what wonderful characters they were afterwards. When the world shall have been brought to a knowledge of God and His righteousness under the favorable condition of the Kingdom, restitution will take out of them all imperfec­tions and give them all the good qualities that God originally gave to the perfect man, when God said that he was “very good.”

WHO MAY ENTER THE KINGDOM

But do not the Scriptures say that no murderer shall enter the Kingdom of God? Yes. The Scriptures state that murderers will not be in the kingdom, that they will be outside – have no part in it­ – “without are murderers,” etc. (Rev. 22:14,15) This statement does not signify that a man who has once been a murderer might not reform and become a Saint and an Heir of the Kingdom. We have already referred to one murderer mentioned in the Scriptures, guilty of the murder of St. Stephen, Saul of Tarsus, who afterwards became one of the most notable Apostles. He was a murderer, the responsibility of Stephen’s death lay at his feet. He was a member of the Sanhedrin and approved of the stoning of Stephen, without which approval the latter could not have been stoned.

So when we read that no drunkard or murderer or robber shall enter the Kingdom, the New Jerusalem, how shall we understand it? In this way; that when during the Millennial Kingdom all mankind shall have the opportunity of coming into harmony with God, those who maintain a sympathy or love for unrighteousness of any kind will not have Divine approval. They will not be permitted to enter within the gate of the city, which symbolically represents the Kingdom and the Divine favor. Originally, Jerusalem represented the Church. “I will show thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife”; and “the wall of the city had twelve foundations [foundation stones], and in them the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb.” (Rev. 21:9-14) But into that city there would be brought the good only.

So all the world of mankind who will come into harmony with God will come into that city, into the New Jerusalem and Kingdom of God, and outside of that city will be found all impure characters. We have them pictured in this statement, that liars and murderers, etc., shall have their portion in the “lake which burneth with fire and brimstone.” This “lake of fire and brimstone” is as symbolical as is the city. As the city is not a literal city of gold, neither is the lake a literal lake of fire and brimstone. That city was pictured by Jerusalem, and the “fire” by Gehenna. As the offal of the literal city of Jerusalem was put into the Valley of Hinnom for destruction and for the purification of the city, so all the offal of the Millennial Kingdom will be destroyed and be kept outside of the Golden Jerusalem. That will be a glorious Kingdom, free from any­thing that would be a blight or blemish or sin; and all who love unrighteousness, in any sense of the word, will be destroyed in “the lake of fire,” which is, we are told by the Revelator, the Second Death. (Rev. 21:8)

(Pastor Russell, Reprints 4990-4992, March 15, 1912)

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