THE HERALD
of Christ's Kingdom
VOL. XIII MARCH 1940 NO.
3
Table of Contents
"Behold, The Man!"
Our Inheritance In Christ
Abraham and Lot-- A
Contrast
Baptism
Encouraging Letters
Out of Print
Recently Deceased
Psalm Twenty-two
Part I -- The Forsaken One
"The Prophets . . . prophesied,
. searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did point
unto, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glories that should
follow them." - 1 Pet. 1:10, 11, A. R. V.
THE most exact and intimate account of
the Passion of our Lord was written a thousand years before it took place. The
evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, have recorded, in considerable detail, the
testimony of eye-witnesses of His trial and crucifixion; and from these vivid accounts the
follower of Jesus may enter as deeply into fellowship with Him in His sufferings as such
an one's devotion, his temperament, and his own personal experiences permit. But the
account in the Twenty-second Psalm goes far deeper than the records referred to, and
permits the earnest student a still more profound compassion in his Lord's extremity of
pain. For this account purports to be the personal relation of the terrible ordeal of the
cross by the Sufferer Himself.
Its accuracy is substantiated in such
details as could be observed by. the eye-witnesses, in the. evangelists' accounts; and
Peter, in the passage from his First Epistle quoted above, definitely attributes the
authorship of this with other prophecies of "the sufferings of Christ" to
"the Spirit of Christ" -- that is, the Logos.
A Supernatural Message
The supernatural character of the
message is also confirmed by the one through whom it came, David, the Psalmist-king of
Israel, who declared on his death-bed: "The Spirit of Jehovah spake by me, and His
word was upon my tongue." The Psalm, therefore, cannot be understood to be merely an
idealistic or poetic description in general terms of the foreordained sufferings of the
world's Redeemer; it must be regarded as an exact narration of actual experience.
This Psalm contains, without doubt, the
most remarkable account of a man's death ever written, because it sets forth His
thoughts and sensations up to the moment of expiring, and picks up their continuity
immediately upon His reanimation, or resurrection, which we know was more than a day and
a half later.
It is also the greatest possible
demonstration of divine prescience, or foreknowledge, extending even to the "thoughts
and intents of the heart," of what a man would be thinking about a thousand years in
the future, when He was dying and when He was resurrected; revealed by the Father, through His Logos or Spokesman, the established
channel of "all things" concerning His earthly creation. - 1 Cor. 8:6; Col.
1:12-18.
Foreknowledge-Not
Predetermination
However, we are not to reason that
because of God's foreknowledge of these details of His Son's suffering, He had
predetermined that every pang must be experienced as He had dictated in the prophecy.
Rather, the proper view is that the sacrifice of a human victim was necessary to the
general program of the ages as planned by the Creator; the carrying out of this program
was willingly undertaken by the Son; and that while the details contingent upon His
fidelity and zeal in following this course were foreseen
by the Father, they were entirely dependent upon
the Son's own volition.
When we consider this psychological
dissection of a dying man's agony, and remember His innocence of any transgression, and
why and for whom He suffered, our awe increases to the point of horror, only to be
relieved by the joyful contrast in the record of the victory beyond the tomb, and in the
paean of universal praise with which the Psalm concludes.
The terrible conflict that raged within
the consciousness of our Lord and which is so vividly described in this Psalm, can be
appreciated only when we consider His characteristics and His former life. He was
"the only begotten Son, in the bosom of the
Father," "the beginning of the creation of God," "the first-born of
every creature." From the moment of that creation as the Logos, personification of
the Creator's wisdom, He declares "Then I was by Him, as a master workman; and I was
daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him." "All things were made through
Him [the Logos]" writes the Apostle, "and without Him was not anything made that
hath been made."-Prov. 8:22-31; Col. 1:15-18.
Life on the Spirit
Plane
The serenity, the beauty, and the magnificence of His prehuman
existence, may perhaps be inferred from the description of a spirit-being of a lesser
order or degree, given us under the figure of the King of Tyre, by the Prophet Ezekiel:
"Thus saith the Lord Jehovah; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in
beauty. Thou wart in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering: . . .
the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was in thee : in the day that thou wart
created they were prepared. Thou wast the anointed cherub that covereth; and I set thee
so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of
the stones of fire." The description of a spirit-being in terms of human
comprehension involves the brilliance of precious stones, the melodic capabilities of
instruments of music. Such beings go up and down among the gigantic sun-stars
("stones of fire") that seed the universe, upon errands for their Creator. Who
in this world, where "darkness covers the earth and gross darkness the
people," whose inhabitants "groan and travail in pain together until
now," can fully realize the peace, the splendor, the serenity, the happiness of the
Logos in full association and communion with His Father, prior to the commencement of His
great experience with sin upon the earth?
"He Emptied Himself"
In carrying out the Father's plan for man's redemption, the
Logos had suddenly plunged from the spirit conditions of royal ease and power into
intimate association with the degradation, sorrow, and suffering of man's estate. Of this
tremendous transformation the Apostle writes: "Have this mind in you, which was also
in Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality
with God a thing to be grasped [as did Lucifer], but emptied Himself, taking the form of a
servant, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, He
humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross." -
Phil. 2:5-8.
It was one thing for Him to view from a vastly superior position,
with compassionate pity, the misery and woe of man's estate; but quite another thing to
enter upon that estate Himself, to remain "holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate
from sinners," and yet to take upon Himself the full experience of the sinner's
utmost suffering.
The Logos came to earth determined, with all the strength of a
perfect mind and will, upon the carrying out of His Father's plan for man's salvation.
Prophetically Hosea had written of Him (Peter tells us, at the dictation of the Logos
Himself) : "I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from
death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance
[i.e., turning back] shall be hid from My eyes." So completely committed was He in
His own mind, and by the course that He had pursued up to that time, to the full
completion of the Father's plan by His own sacrifice, that in His spoken prayer just prior
to His going forth to Gethsemane, as recorded by John, He reported to the Father (as
though that sacrifice was complete) "I glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished
the work which Thou hast given Me to do." Perhaps He thus desired, as it were,
to burn His bridges behind Him; to strengthen His own resolution by so committing
Himself publicly and irrevocably to His determined course. And yet, se hard, so
repugnant was that course, and so fearfu' the conflict that raged within His bosom, that
later in the Garden He prayed: "If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me;
nevertheless not My will, but Thine be done"; but still later, just after His
arrest, He said: "The cup that My Father bath given Me to drink, shall I not drink
it?"
A Forsaken Sufferer
In this study of the Twenty-second Psalm we use the critical and
annotated translation of the Hebrew original by J. B. Rotherham, a devout and learned
Jewish Christian, who spent a long lifetime in the study of the Holy Scriptures --
particularly of the text of the originals. His introduction to this translation is
illuminating:
"Descriptive Title -- The Voice of a Forsaken
Sufferer--Loudly Lamenting His Lot, Minutely Describing His Pain and Shame, without
Reproaching God or Accusing Himself -- is Suddenly Silenced (in Death) ; and then as
Suddenly is Heard in a Strain of Triumph, in which Other Voices join, all Celebrating
the Praises of Jehovah as Sovereign Lord."
The Jewish theologian customarily seeks to find a fulfillment of
the prophecies of this Psalm in the sufferings of his persecuted race. To the contrary,
Mr. Rotherham says: "The Mysterious Forsaken Sufferer of this Psalm appears to be an
Individual; seeing that, in the course of His loud lamentation, He distinctly alludes
to His mouth, palate, tongue, gums, heart, bones, and clothing; looks back to His
childhood, and forward to His death. His situation is indicated with circumstantial
minuteness. He is exposed to public view; for He refers to all who see Him. He is
fixed in one spot; for His
enemies gather round Him. He has been deprived of His clothing ... and sees His garments
distributed to others.... And finally, inasmuch as such as would see Him, both look for
and gaze upon Him, it may be . . surmised that either He has companions in suffering from
whom the onlookers would desire to distinguish Him, or else darkness has gathered, making
it difficult to descry Him. He is either absolutely friendless, or His friends are so few
and feeble that they are powerless to help Him; hence His repeated cries for Divine pity
and succor. . . . Who is this Mysterious Sufferer? . . . It is notorious that
Christians see in this Psalm a wonderfully vivid and realistic picture of the
crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth. . . . All that is necessary is to take the Psalm as it
is written, and the story of the crucifixion of Jesus as it is written in the four
Gospels to lay them side by side, and then to look first on the one picture and then on
the other. Detail by detail, the striking similarity comes into view.. . As Dr. Briggs
well says: 'It seems to the Christian that the Psalmist indeed gives a more vivid
description of the sufferings of Christ on the cross than the authors of the
Gospels.'"
Why not, indeed, since Jehovah God
Himself, through His Logos, is the author of the account in the Psalm?
The Greatest Trial
The Psalm begins abruptly, with the
Savior entering upon His final trial. The despairing cry is in His heart, later to be
given expression from the cross:
1 My God, My God! why hast Thou failed Me? "Far from My
salvation" are the words of My loud lamentation.
The supreme agony of being abandoned by
His Father to the merciless hatred of His implacable enemies was no doubt first realized
by Jesus when, in Gethsemane, the Roman soldiers and servants of the High Priest laid
violent hands upon Him to lead Him away to His death. It was a new and bitter experience.
Heretofore He had had the full consciousness of His Father's approval and support, which
was essential to His peace of mind and confidence in His own great mission. This He
repeatedly declared, saying: "I can of Myself do nothing: as I hear I judge: and My
judgment is righteous; because I seek not Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent
Me." "I do nothing of Myself, but as the Father taught Me I speak these things.
He that sent Me is with Me, He hath not left Me
alone, for I do always the things that are pleasing to Him." His divine Protector
had repeatedly delivered Him from those who would do Him injury.
Now all was changed. He was
"delivered into the hands of sinners"; and although He sought to fortify His
resolution by reminding Himself that He still had the power to set aside the whole
procedure -- that "even now" He might beseech His Father, who would send twelve
legions of angels for His rescue-yet He remembered that He was the High Priest of the
"better sacrifices," as well as the sacrificial Victim; and if He drew back, as
He said: "How then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be? . . .
All this is come to pass that the Scriptures of the Prophets might be fulfilled. . . .
This is your hour and the power of darkness. . . . Then all the disciples left Him and
fled." Then indeed the darkness settled down upon His heart. He felt that He was
finally abandoned by God and men.
The Power of Darkness
Mr. Rotherham thus comments: "The
mental anguish so strongly indicated is due to the Divine permission that He, the Sufferer, should thus fail
into the hands of His enemies; and that His God should be so long in coming to His rescue.
The Sufferer feels Himself to be forsaken, or, rather, that His God has failed Him. . . .
His enemies have got Him into their power. . . Verse 11 suggests a connection between
the two; and verses 19 to 21 confirm it. The Divine forsaking consists in leaving Him thus
to fall into His enemies' hands. The converse, prayed for, shows this. These verses (11,
19-21) say, in effect: 'Return, come near; and rescue Me from the sword, from the dogs,
from the lion, from the wild oxen'; thereby implying that it was God's withdrawing and
holding aloof, that delivered Him into the power of these, His enemies. The Divine
withdrawing, the Divine holding aloof-this was the Divine failure."
That He should thus be delivered up to
His enemies was clearly anticipated and foretold by Jesus (Mark 10:33, 34; Luke 18:32);
and Luke declares (Acts 2:23) that it was "by the deliberate counsel and
foreknowledge of God." Why then should Jesus so despairingly and repeatedly inquire
the reason for His forsaking, and beseech His
Father for rescue? Only in this Psalm can we find a satisfactory answer to this
question.
Some have found in the cry, "My
God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" reason to conclude that God had "turned His
face away" from His suffering Son, because He is "of purer eyes than to behold
evil, and cannot look up iniquity" (Hab. 1:13); and since, as the Apostle writes (2
Cor. 5:21), "Him who knew no sin, He made to be sin on our behalf," God was
impelled to show His hatred of sin by momentarily turning away His face in disapproval
of Jesus on the cross.
It is apparent, however, that Jesus was
never a sinner, or evil, or iniquitous, as it is declared of Him that He was "holy,
harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners." He was never more pleasing to the
Father than when He hung upon the cross, the world's Redeemer. There He demonstrated His
complete obedience and devotion to the Father's will. For the Father to have deliberately made Him feel His disapproval or detestation, it that awful hour
of agony, for a purely legalistic reason, would seem to be cruel, unjust, and unlov ing.
Jesus was paying the extreme penalty for sin, namely, death (Rom. 6:23; Ezek. 18:4, 20) ;
what more of suffering could justly be imposed?
Comparison with a passage in Hebrews sheds some light on this
question. "So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them
that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation."
(Heb. 9:28.) Note in this statement the antithesis of being "without sin" in His
second advent, is His having been "offered to bear sins" at His first advent. He
was a sinoffering in His first advent; He will be without a sin-offering in His second
advent. It is entirely proper, therefore, to make this passage read: "Unto them that
look for Him shall He appear the second time without a sin-offering unto
salvation"-that is, by restitution, then in order. It is equally proper and in
accordance with the context to read in 2 Corinthians 5:21: "Him who knew no sin He
made to be a sin-offering on our behalf." In both these passages the Emphatic
Diaglott renders the word as "sin-offering and the translator adds the following
quotation from the noted commentator, MacKnight, as a foot-note to the Corinthian
passage: "There are many passages in the Old Testament where amartia, sin,
signifies a sin-offering. Hosea 4:6: 'They [the priests] eat up the sin [sin-offerings] of
My people.' In the New Testament, likewise, the word sin has the same
signification."
Hence, we conclude that we need find no mystic significance in
Jesus' lament, as revealed in the first verse of this Psalm, which would cause us to infer
that the Father assumed, even for an instant, an attitude of abhorrence toward the Son..
Later in the Psalm (verse 24) it is positively declared that the Father did not do so.
However, had Jesus gone calmly and triumphantly through His
sufferings and death without any apparent evidence of faltering or weakness, sustained
by a mental exaltation that lifted Him above all sense and feeling of pain and weakness,
His followers might well have admired and worshiped, but they could never have shared His
experiences and ultimate victory. No intent is evident in the record to indicate any such
superiority on His part to the normal reactions of a human being. Truly. "we have not
a High Priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities [or
feebleness]." "Surely, He hath borne our pains and carried our sicknesses."
"In patience as in labor thou must be
A follower of Me;
Whose hands and feet, when most I wrought for thee,
Were nailed unto a tree."
(Part II of this article will appear in the forthcoming
April issue of this journal.)
"Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us
meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." - Col.
1:12.
WE OFTEN think of Israel's inheritance in Canaan as being typical
in a general way of our inheritance in Christ. The glowing description of it given by
Moses in Deuteronomy, chapters 8 and 11, suggests the idea that the natural picture
might have in interesting detail, correspondencies with the spiritual. A close scrutiny
reveals seven parallels, each of which is capable of being identified by a single word
commencing with the same initial letter. When a multiplicity of ideas can be thus reduced,
it makes the subject more easily understood and remembered.
Here is Moses' pen-picture: "For the Lord thy God bringeth
thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out
of valleys and hills; A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig-trees, and
pomegranates; a land of oil-olive, and honey; A land wherein thou shalt eat bread
without scarceness, thou shalt not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are iron, and
out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass." "For the land, whither thou goest
in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst
thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs But the land, whither ye go
to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven: A
land which the Lord thy God careth for; the eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it,
from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year." - Deut. 8:7-9;
11:10-12.
The first idea suggested is that our inheritance is a land of
spiritual
Sunshine
While not stated in so many words in the passage, this feature
is left to be understood. In connection with an Eastern land, sunshine is taken for
granted. The other six parallels are stated in the text.
The source of life and well being to the earth, the sun is a
natural symbol of God in His relationship to men. Although only few, comparatively, have
as yet realized it, "the Lord God is a Sun." By and by the beneficent rays will
pour down upon all when "the Sun of righteousness" arises with healing in His
wings.
There was a time when the sun's rays were equably distributed
from the equator to the poles, as proven by the traces of tropical plants and animals in
the polar regions. Since the flood, some portions of the earth's surface are
much more greatly favored than others, according to the degrees of latitude in which
they are situated. So is it with the spiritual Sun. Concerning the race in general, they
are in darkness and death, like the polar night Only upon the inheritance of His own
people does the Lord now shine. Even amongst them, there are differences according to the
spiritual degree of latitude in which they dwell: Greenland's icy mountains and India's
coral strand offer a contrast which has a parallel in the spiritual life. The fullness of
the blessing is experienced on the equatorial line. There our Lord lived, when He was upon
earth, in relation to the Father.
The further from the equator, the more
uncertain the weather and the greater difference in the changes in the seasons. In our
northern climate there is a vast difference between midsummer and winter, or between a day
dull and heavy with clouds and one bright with sunshine. Our natural lot may be cast in a
land with very variable weather conditions. It is different with regard to our spiritual
lot. The Lord's portion for His people is in a land bathed in perpetual sunshine. We are
not living up to our privileges if this is not our experience.
Spiritual sunshine does not consist in
the possession of happy feelings, merely, but in the innerconsciousness of God's
approval. A headache or a touch of indigestion might upset our happy feelings, - but
nothing can interfere with the fact of our knowledge that there is nothing between us and
our Father. The Lord Jesus enjoyed constantly the sunshine of the Father's face, for He
could say, "I do always those things that please Him." Before his translation,
Enoch had this testimony, that he pleased God. Pleasing God brings the spiritual sunshine
of His smile.
Unlike Egypt, the land of Canaan was a
land of refreshing
Showers
This is our second point, and it is
enlarged upon by Moses. "For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land
of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills."
"Not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and
wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs; But the land . . . drinketh water of the
rain of heaven."
Egypt is a type of the inheritance of
fallen humanity, as Canaan is of the people of God. There is no rainfall in Egypt, and
the only source of water supply is the Nile. The contrast between the two countries is
very striking, and very aptly describes the difference between the Church's source of
refreshment and that of the world. The rain direct from heaven, on the one hand, forms
into little streams flowing down the hillsides, or bubbles forth as perennial springs with
here and there the water collected into deep pools. On the other hand, just the muddied
waters of the one great river, whence supplies could be obtained only with effort,
"working with the foot."
Speaking to the Samaritan woman, Jesus
said, "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again." The world has no
source of satisfying pleasure. "But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall
give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of
water springing up into everlasting life." The Lord was referring to the Holy Spirit
here, as in the parallel passage in John 7:37, where it is explained "this spake He
of the Holy Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive." Water is thus a
symbol of the Holy Spirit as well as of the truth, and it is in the former sense that we
take it.
In Isaiah 44:3 we read: "I will,
pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground. I will pour My Spirit
upon thy seed, and My blessing upon thine offspring." Again in Isaiah 32:15:
Until the Spirit be poured upon us from
on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a
forest." We have in these two instances the Holy Spirit symbolized by the rain.
All sunshine makes a desert. The sun
can be a, terrible foe as well as the earth's best friend. Moisture, as well as heat, is
essential to life. Without the Holy Spirit, God's presence, like a consuming fire, would
scorch and burn. "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living
God" if we are without this means of grace.
Ireland is called the Emerald Isle
because its herbage is so beautifully fresh and green, refreshed, as it continually is, by
the moisture-laden winds from the Atlantic. It is a sweet and restful sight to those
accustomed to seeing in their own country the green foliage of spring so soon turned to
brown by the summer sun. Of that better land beyond, we sometimes sing, "There
everlasting spring abides, and never-fading flowers." If we were possessing our
possessions, the land within would be an "Emerald-Isle," and we could sing, "Here everlasting spring abides!"
Moses speaks about rain, brooks, pools,
and springs, and in analogous ways God refreshes us by His Spirit. Like the rain from
heaven, it comes upon us direct from Himself; a wonderful, mysterious, life-giving
power. Like the brook, flowing in a definite channel, the Spirit is imparted through the
medium of the Word. Like the deep pool, when two or three meet together in His name and
there is a concentration of thought upon some portion of Scripture; or like the spring
welling up within the heart in seasons of quiet meditation, there is an infilling of the
Spirit during times of fellowship and individual study.
The third feature in Moses' delightful
pen-picture, with a spiritual correspondency, is
Scenery
He says, "A land . . . of
fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills," "a land of hills and
valleys." For centuries the children of Israel had dwelt in Egypt, a flat land whose
only hills were the man-made pyramids. For the previous forty years, they had been
wandering in the wilderness, where the only highlands were composed of gigantic masses of
barren rock. The love of beautiful scenery is innate in man's nature, and "hills and
valleys" clothed in verdure or adorned with trees are essentials in the loveliest of
earth's prospects.
The spiritual parallel to this aspect
of the typical inheritance is found in the extensive views of God's dealings with man,
afforded by the history and prophecy of the Bible. Hills, being raised up portions of
the earth, would, in the framework of the illustration we are using, fittingly represent
contact between earth and heaven, or God's dealings with men. The landscape of the
unbeliever, like that of Egypt, is flat, dull, and monotonous. Secular history divorced
from sacred has nothing to offer but a wearisome reiteration of injustice and oppression,
battles and bloodshed.
To the believer, history is "His
story." Like the peaks of the Andes and the Rockies, stretching almost from pole to
pole, he sees all the landscape of the past dotted over with the hills of God's contacts
with men. Furthest away in the distant past, rising in solemn grandeur, is the majestic
peak described in the two opening chapters of Genesis. Earth touched heaven in Eden.
Following that, we have a series of summits in God's dealings with Abel, Enoch, and Noah.
Then comes a group of three notable ones, commencing a continuous chain of highlands, with
individual peaks here and there raising their heads. It brings joy of heart to the
Christian to look back and see how God dealt with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and after
Jacob's death with the whole nation of Israel, with all the illustrious names with which
its history abounds. How much poorer our lives would be without the vision afforded by
"the cloud of witnesses" of Hebrews 11.
But grandest of all was when heaven was
joined to earth in the Lord Jesus. "Emmanuel," God with us, He was called. He
fulfilled the dream of Jacob's ladder, uniting God and man. We have in Him a figurative
mountain whose top reaches to the throne of God. Commencing with the Lord, our view of
"His story" reveals another continuous chain, this time so high that their
summits are coated with eternal snow. True to the Lord's promise and prediction, the gates
of hell have not prevailed against His Church. Immovable as the hills, it has stood
throughout pagan and papal Rome's persecutions, survived the storms of Reformation
times, and is with us today. Paul bridges all the distance between his day and ours and
indicates the continuous contact of God with men during the long interval between, when he
speaks about us "which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord."
The individual peaks of this mighty
range are not so well known to us, for, unlike the range of natural Israel, God has not
preserved a record for us. We have the Apostles, and the individual members of the early
Church whose names are recorded in the New Testament. We know a little about the early
fathers and more about Wycliffe, Luther, and all the other well-known faith heroes of the
Reformation. In more recent times we have such as John Wesley and C. T. Russell and all
the men of God of our own day and generation, and we thank God for the inspiration the
view of their lives ever affords us.
But that is not all, for prophecy
supplements history. The impenetrable mist blocking the view of the future from the
unbeliever, lifts from before the gaze of the child of God, and he sees, now in the very
near distance, the slopes of Mount Zion and all the wonderful things associated with it as
described in the twelfth chapter of the Book of Hebrews. He sees the mountain of the
Lord's house established on the top of the mountains, exalted above the hills, and all
nations flowing unto it, together with all the associated blessings described in Isaiah 2.
The bright vision does not end even here, for away in the blue distance beyond the
Millennium, peak after peak suggest themselves, as in the ages to come God will show the
exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness towards us. - Contributed.
"So then they which be of
faith are blessed with faithful Abraham."-Gal. 3:9.
ABRAHAM, THAT grand character of Old
Testament times, has been a never-failing source of inspiration to the true Christian, who
sees in this man of faith his own spiritual experiences exemplified. In his call, his
journeys, his mistakes, his obedience, it has pleased the Lord to show forth the life of
each follower of Christ. Well has Abraham been called the file-leader of a great spiritual
host. The study of his life is of great importance to all who have grasped the full
significance of the "exceeding great and precious promises"' and who are
endeavoring to "so run as to obtain." And since divine wisdom has seen fit to
record in juxtaposition the experiences of Abraham and his nephew Lot, this study is
devoted to the beautiful spiritual lessons obtained from contrasting these two characters,
who reveal two types of minds or dispositions which have been markedly manifest in the two
great spiritual classes of the Gospel Age. These two classes are shown in type by the
priests and Levites, and in the New Testament are referred to as the "little
flock" and the "great company."* In 1 Corinthians 3:11-15 we find a more
particularized description of both these builders on the true foundation; which, together
with other references in Scripture, are sufficient to reveal that two classes of believers
grow side by side, of which only one will become the "overcomers."
---------------------------------------------
*Note - For further consideration of the
Levites as a type of the great company see W.T., Jan. 15, 1911.
Abram's Call and Separation
"Now the Lord had said to Abram,
Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a
land that I will shew thee. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee,
and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless
thee, and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all the families of the earth be
blessed." - Gen. 12:1-3.
Thus begins the life of faith. As
Abrams (that is, in the walk of faith) we leave the land of Great Babylon, the ground of
false and perverted worship and self-exaltation. The spirit of faith awakes in this land
of confusion. God speaks, and, as at creation, great results follow. Babels may grow
from men's words to one another, saying, "Go to, and let us make." The walk of
faith begins not from man: the Word is its author and finisher.
The call was, and is yet, personal. God
says. "Get thee out, and I will bless
thee." And so we read in Isaiah 51:2: "I called him alone, and blessed him." Others may note something of the glory
of this manifestation and may witness some of the outward circumstances accompanying the
call, as did those who went with Paul to Damascus: but as Paul says, "They heard not
the voice of Him that spoke to me." (Acts
22:9.) For the natural man discerneth not the things of the Spirit and cannot heed the
call of God but continues to abide on the ground of sense; while the spirit of faith goes
forth, it knows not where, to finally stand in the strength of the Lord on the ground of
promise, a "land of milk and honey."
The call contains both grace and truth;
grace, in the promise, "I will shew thee a
land, I will make thee fruitful, I will bless thee"; truth, in the
separating word, "Get thee out," obedience
to which is the proof of faith in the "I
will." This promise is the gospel which was preached to Abram. (Gal. 3:8.) This
promise concerning future glory and inheritance is based on God's unfailing "I
will," for the Scriptures with one voice testify it is the Lord Himself who saves,
through faith, the simple and blessed means of salvation. Men are slow to apprehend this
truth, and often feelings or works, or something in us is looked for as the ground of
future blessing and salvation.
But the call is not only of promise but
also to separation. God purposes to separate His saved ones to Himself, so the word of
truth comes, commanding sanctification. Men often preach God's "I will"
without the accompanying "Get thee out," and the results will always reveal
their error. Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, said to the fishermen, "Follow
Me" -- here is separation --"and I will make you fishers of men" -- here is
the never failing "I will." So again, "Come unto Me, all ye that
labor"-here is separation, for He was "separate"-then follows the
promise, "I will give you rest." And so elsewhere, "I wilt dwell in them,
and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people; wherefore come out
and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive
you." (Matt. 4:19; 11:28; 2 Cor. 6:17, 18.) But at first, though "the spirit is
willing, yet the flesh is weak." Even faith may shrink from all that the separating
word claims from it. We are slow to believe that apostate things are to be forsaken and
not improved and would fain mend them rather than leave them. So let us note the way the
call was obeyed, for it reveals our steps also. The word was: "Get thee out of thy
country, and. from thy kindred, and from thy
father's house." Abram gat him out from
his country, and even from his kindred, but not from his father's house. He obeys, but
not wholly, and thus reveals how the spirit of faith in us, while able to leave the more
outward things, the natural pleasures and affections, cannot at once leave the more
inward things. Nature yet is strong, and so, like Abram of old, the spirit of faith in us
endeavors to take with it into the land of promise the "old man," which has
never truly known the call of God. Yes, it is written not that Abram took Terah but
"Terah took Abram" (Gen. 11:31), thus showing that the grand promises of God at
first stir up to activity even the old life in us. But Terah can never pass the Jordan;
his pilgrimage wearies him, and he can but reach Haran, and so "he dwells
there." "They went forth to go into the land of Canaan, and they came to Haran
and dwelt there." And there they are stopped until this "old man" dies.
Then Abram starts again, and now nothing stops him, for now "they went forth to go
into the land of Canaan, and into the land of Canaan they came." Stephen specially
marks this in Acts 7:2-4. We are slow to learn this lesson, but it must be learned. Even
faith cannot take the "old man" into the place of promise. It has often been
tried; a new bond draws us heavenward, but the old one as yet has claims on us, and so we
start with both, only to settle down short of the promised land. Eventually we are
freed; the "old man" is buried out of sight, the meaning of our baptism dawns
upon us the call is recollected, and we become once more pilgrims.
Abraham in the Promised Land
Having passed Jordan, the land of
promise, the "higher ground" is reached. And here the spirit of faith, as shown
in Abram, is introduced to new trials, which stumble some, who, though on the right way
through grace, yet find this "higher ground" so unlike that which flesh and
blood would have chosen.
True faith has now brought the believer
the long journey to the land of Canaan, and now the chief marks are pilgrimage and
difficulty and want, yet of communion with God and happy worship. Abram dwells in tents to
the end, possessing nothing abiding here save a burial place. He moves from place to
place, with "no certain dwellingplace." Others can dwell snugly in some
"city of the nations," but the Abrams of God go, not knowing whither. They are
what some call changeable, a common charge against the walk of faith. Men can dwell in
refuges of their own manufacture. We can tell where to find them even to the end,
because they take no forward steps, are never changed. But he who has heard the call of
God cannot be trusted with the care of this world's cities. The world has long judged such
as madmen, nor is its judgment wholly wrong. A madman is one who sees, or thinks he
sees, what others see not. The called of God see what others see not, and they walk
accordingly. Their pathway is ever unintelligible to the men of this world. Nevertheless,
the Lord knoweth them that are His; He knoweth the path of humiliation that His elect
trod, and when He hath tried them, they shall come forth as gold. How beautifully have all
these truths been exemplified in the life of our blessed Master, our forerunner!
Abram's Altar and Trials
But Abram has not only a tent, a
temporary abiding-place while he waits for that "city which bath foundations,"
but he now has also an altar, in worship receiving fresh revelations. "The Lord
appeared to Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there he builded an
altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord." (Gen. 12:7, 8.) In Ur,
God had said, "A land which I will shew thee." Now He says, "A land which I
will give thee." We now observe also that here "the Lord appeared." Before
this He had "called" and "spoken." The Lord now shows Himself, for
faith has brought Abram to new trials which need special revelations, and these are not
withheld. And thus it has ever been. As has been well said, "Angels' visits are only
few and far between, because we so seldom are in the place really to require
them."
The special trials of this stage are
first "the Canaanite" and then "a grievous famine" in the land. (Gen.
12:6, 10.) Canaan, the son of Ham, may figure the mere outward religiousness which has
ever been a trial to the true child of God. This and a period of seeming neglect by the
Lord in things necessary, leads to failure in trial. The Canaanite and the famine drive
Abram down to. Egypt. The faith which led to the ground of promise at first has not
strength to be steadfast there. It is ever thus. Peter had faith to step out on the waters
but not enough to walk far when there; he had faith to follow Jesus into the High Priest's
palace, but he lacked faith while there to witness faithfully. Every act of faith brings
us, into greater trials, where greater faith will be needed. Thus it is that many who
walk by faith have failures, which those know not who do not attempt so much.
Abram's trial leads him to Egypt, and
then Egypt leads him to deny his wife. One wrong step, if not immediately retraced,
requires another. A step was taken to avoid trial without asking the Lord's counsel. Then,
the Lord and His counsel and care being for the time forgotten, His promise respecting the
seed is forgotten also. And but for the Lord, those affections or principles of spiritual
truth figured in Sarah (which the spirit of faith ought to defend and cherish most
carefully, for from them must spring the promised fruit) would be defiled by contact with
earthly things, the human wisdom or reasonings figured in Egypt.
And thus are we warned that our
spiritual nourishment can never be obtained from the wisdom of this world (Egypt), but
that if we find ourselves while on holy ground (the place of separation) in a condition of
spiritual famine in the sense that we seem to lack, let us abide close to our altar; the
Lord is near. The cloud that hides. His sunshine is there to test our faith and obedience,
and we dare not leave this ground to lean on any arm of flesh. And having once made the
mistake, let us immediately, like Abram, return back to higher ground, "to the place
where his tent was at the first." (Gen. 13:3.) Still more trials await. The
long-looked-for fruitage must appear; yea, we shall have to climb Moriah and there offer
that which is most precious to us, yea, that which God Himself has said would be the very
means to accomplish His great promise to us; and yet we shall go forth as did Abram to
offer our Isaac in fullness of faith. Victory in small trials will but lead to greater and
greater trials, till God shall say, "Now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou
hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from Me." - Gen. 22:12
All this and more is the experience of
every true Abraham of God, though not always is it visible to our understanding, neither
is it always necessary that it should be.
Abram and Lot Separated
It is at this stage in Abram's
experience, when, having returned again to the place to which God had originally called
him (places to us would represent states of mind), he is now brought into direct
contrast with his nephew Lot. Hitherto they had walked together. "Abram walks with
God," but "Lot walks with Abram." Time and again this is brought to our
attention. (Gen. 12:4; 13:1, 5.) Lot represents those who live in religious outward
things, striving to please God and also man, and succeeding in doing neither. They take
right steps because others take them, and make sacrifices because others do so. They are
righteous souls but wholly unable to walk where the men of faith walk, leaving them as
soon as they resolutely press on to the best things. Only after Abram returns again to his
altar and his dwelling in tents does Lot find occasion for leaving him. "Flocks and
herds," various gifts, now become an occasion for manifesting the tastes and thus of
separating the inward and spiritual from the righteous outward man. The real cause is that
the one seeks heaven, while the other still lingers after the things of this world. One
looks ever on the hills of promise; the other has an eye turned toward the plain of
Jordan. For we read: "Lot lifted up his eyes, and saw the plain of Jordan, that it
was like the land of Egypt." (Gen. 13:10.) In this lay its attractiveness to him. The
excuse is found in the "herds" and "flocks," and he at once separates
himself and goes down Jordan-ward.
How often there have been strifes about
flocks! Neither numbers, nor an abundance of gifts can make brethren dwell together in
unity. Often gifts may be an occasion for strife, for schism is the growth, not of
spiritual poverty but of spiritual wealth. Even so, at Corinth, where "they lacked no
gift," there was strife among the herdsmen, the more because the gifts abounded,
while they were "yet carnal." (1 Cor. 1:7; 3:1.) Lot did not depart from Abram
in Egypt. It is when Egypt is left behind and the men of faith seek resolutely to go up to
the higher ground that brethren are thrown together in a way previously unknown. The lack
of outward things stirs up the outward men, who will always choose the lower ground where
their natural tastes find more that is in accordance with them. The things of time and
sense keep their, from discovering what they really are within, and outward things prevent
them from coming to themselves. For it is only when we are stripped of things around
that we really learn what spirit dwells within. The one fears to search out the evil
within and ever seeks to hide it from self and others; the other is content to learn
itself, if it may learn God, preferring to be weak with Him than strong without Him.
Lot's Steps of Decline
Unlike souls sooner or later must
separate. No bond or arrangement can long keep men together if there be not one spirit.
Few things search us more than collision with our brethren, and though for a while the
path of faith becomes more lonely, it draws the true believer ever closer to his God. As
outward men drop away from us, the Lord more and more reveals Himself.
Let us note the steps of Lot, which are
ever the same in all ages; the gradual degrees of decline have their lesson for the
spiritual man who will take heed thereto. First "Lot lifted up his eyes and
beheld"; then "he chose"; then "Lot journeyed east, the direction he originally came
from; next "he dwelled in the cities of the plain then he "pitched his tent toward Sodom"; then he "dwelt in
Sodom" and finally he "sat in the gate of Sodom," the official position
of an elder and judge of the city. (Gen. 13:10-12; 14:12; 19:1, 9.) Here we finally find
him trying to serve two masters, God and Mammon; still a righteous man, still
endeavoring to be pleasing to the Lord and yet dwelling in the place of his own choice.
Well does Lot picture those who though righteous and saved and holding the truth yet
never seem to apprehend the inward spirit of it. True believers dwell apart with God,
while the Lots, dwelling in Sodom (the world of the senses) strive by efforts to improve
it. And as they labor in the fire, they comfort themselves that while the Abrams are
uselesss to the world, they are doing something for it. But Sodom cannot be helped, much
less saved, by unchastened, outward men. Lot has yet to learn this; while therefore
Abraham is at Mamre, Lot is in the gate of Sodom, calling its sinners
"brethren." - Gen. 19:7.
- Contributed.
(To be continued)
"We are buried with Him by
baptism into death;
that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we
also should walk in newness of life." - Rom. 6:4.
BAPTISM is a vitally important part of
the Christian's belief and experience. - The last word of instruction given by our Lord to
His disciples was, "Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all
things whatsoever I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the
end of the world." It was by the authority of the Father, in and through His Son, and
in the power of the Holy Spirit that they were commissioned to make and to baptize
disciples from among all nations; they did not do this on their own initiative.
Some have understood from this
Scripture that the nations as a whole were to be converted and Christianized by the
disciples, but other Scriptures show conclusively that our Lord had no such thought. On
the contrary, they reveal that this Gospel dispensation was set apart by God, in His plan,
for the selecting and perfecting of the promised seed of Abraham, the Christ, Head and
body; and that when this is done, the world or age that now is will be terminated in order
that the new dispensation under the reign of Christ, Head and body, may bring the
blessings to all mankind.
Baptism Inevitable
It is evident that baptism, in some one
of its forms, will be the inevitable portion or experience of every one, regardless of
whether he be Jew or Gentile, Christian or unbeliever. It is also evident that many will
have more than one baptism. Jesus, for example, had at least three baptisms. He was
baptized in water by John in the river Jordan; He was baptized of God with the Holy Spirit
as He came up out of the water; and then, also, He was baptized into death. It was this
latter baptism to which He referred when He said, "I have a baptism to be baptized
with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!" (Luke 12:50.) Jesus' words
here indicate a very hard and trying experience in which it would be necessary for Him to
undergo great suffering. His baptism into death was in process for three and a half years;
from the time of His consecration, symbolized by water immersion in Jordan, unto His
last breath upon the cross, when He said, "It is finished," He was pouring out
His soul unto death; He made His soul an offering for sin.
Why Death is Prolonged
At the time Jesus made His consecration
at Jordan, He possessed in His perfect humanity the price necessary to redeem Adam and
his children from the debt they were paying to meet the requirements of justice. In so
far as the ransom price itself was concerned, Jesus might have been spared that three and
a half years of lingering death; but had He died at Jordan, there would have been no
opportunity for His own development as a New Creature, nor for His perfecting as a
merciful High Priest. It was necessary not only for Him to die in order to release
mankind from the sentence of death, but also for Him to be perfected and restored to life
as a divine being, having full power and authority, that He might also restore mankind to
perfection of being, and thereby place man in a position to receive the gift of eternal
life: And so we read that "He was put to death for -our sins, and was raised again
for our justification."
In His Steps
You and I, if we are true footstep
followers of Jesus, will also experience these three baptisms; but this experience does
not begin until after we make a full consecration to do God's will, for it is only after
we consecrate ourselves to do God's will that we are in a position to symbolize that
consecration by water immersion and start walking in the footsteps of Jesus.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit comes
upon us when we are accepted into the body of Christ -"accepted in the
Beloved," "made partakers of Christ" -- for it is only upon coming into the
body that this baptism can come upon us. In the Tabernacle picture of the inauguration
of the priesthood, the holy anointing oil was all poured upon the head of the high priest
and from thence ran down over his body members to his feet; likewise, in the anointing of
the antitypical priesthood, the Holy Spirit was given to Jesus without measure, and comes
upon us when we are accepted into the body of the Anointed. This is why the Apostle says,
"One faith, one Lord, one baptism." While it is true that there were two other
manifestations of the anointing or baptism of the Holy Spirit-one at Pentecost showing
that believing Jews were accepted in the body, and the other upon Cornelius and his
family, showing that believing Gentiles were also accepted -- still these were merely outward manifestations of that which each one who
comes into the body of Christ experiences, and so do not constitute a separate or a
different baptism.
Baptism into His Death
Then there is a third baptism in which
we must participate if we are to be followers of Him; and this is the baptism into His
death. Paul, in writing to the Romans, chapter 6, verses 3 to 5, says "Know ye not,
that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death?
Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised
up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of
life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness
of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection."
Sacrificial Death
We were baptized into Christ when we
came under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. This is the only way in which we can become
a part of His body. The word "Christ" means to anoint, and so when we are
anointed of the Holy Spirit, we are Christed, we become a part of the Christ. We do not
become a part of Jesus the man, but of the body of the Anointed, the Christ; and, as the
Apostle here shows, in being baptized into Christ, as new creatures, we are also, as
justified human beings, baptized into His death.
What is meant by "His death"?
Did He inherit death from Adam? was His life forfeited because of His own sin? No, He had
no sin, but was "holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. His death, as
a human being, was a sacrificial death; a death for the sins of others. In this
connection the Apostle says: "For in that He died, He died unto sin once [not
because He inherited Adam's sin, nor for His own sin, but for the sins of others]: but in
that He liveth, He liveth unto God. Likewise [as He died, so] reckon ye also yourselves to
be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Rom.
6:10, 11.) According to the Diaglott, the original Greek here, both as regards our Lord's
death and the death we are counted as dying, is "by the sin." Being justified
freely by His grace through Jesus our Lord, we are no longer under the condemnation that
is upon mankind because of Adam's sin; and if faithful to our covenant of sacrifice, will
not die because we inherit Adam's sin, nor because of willful sins of our own, but as a
sacrifice for sin. The Apostle makes this clear further along in this epistle, Romans
12:1, when he says, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that
ye present your bodies [plural] a [singular] living sacrifice, holy, and acceptable unto
God, which is your reasonable service."
Jesus knew what His baptism into death
signified; He also knew that His true followers would experience baptism in the same
way, unto the same end. This is shown by His words spoken to the two sons of Zebedee upon
their request that they might sit, the one on His right and the other on His left in
Kingdom glory. Jesus said to them "Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able [willing] to
drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am
baptized with?" And when they answered that they were able, Jesus said: "Ye
shall indeed drink of My cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with:
but to sit on My right hand, and on My left, is not Mine to give."
Jesus alone had the price necessary to
redeem Adam and his children from out the death sentence, and nothing could be added
thereto without upsetting the balance of justice; this He possessed when He offered
Himself at Jordan. You and I have nothing to do
with providing the price of redemption; first, because one perfect human being was
all God could accept; and second, because we as apart of Adam's race had nothing to offer;
our life and inheritance were forfeited. Jesus alone was the antitype of the Passover lamb
which typified this feature of the redemption.
Through faith and the imputation of the
merit of Jesus' blood to atone for our sins, we have reckoned unto us all the rights and
privileges which will eventually come to mankind, which were lost in Adam. No price Jesus
could give as a man would buy anything more for us than this; the price paid by Jesus
could never give us a heavenly inheritance, for all that was lost and all that He had with
which to buy back that which was lost, was a perfect human life.
God, however, was not so limited; but according to His predetermined
plan, centered in Christ Jesus our Lord, has made us an offer of glory, honor, and
immortality and a share in the atonement work together with our Lord if we will consecrate
ourselves fully to do His will, which, at the present time, means the giving up of all
earthly rights and hopes, and sharing with our Lord in sacrificial suffering and baptism
into death. These are things which only faith may grasp. If we cannot have faith to believe that God can accept
these bodies as a living, holy sacrifice, acceptable through Christ, then how can we have
the faith to believe that we will inherit the heavenly
promises? Manifestly, they must be taken together, for one is dependent upon the
other. "If we be dead with Him, we shall also live with Him." Once having
entered into this agreement, or covenant of sacrifice, there is no turning back; even to
look back with desire for earthly hopes would indicate unworthiness and a culpable lack of
appreciation for those things which God has promised to those who will walk in Jesus'
footsteps.
Psalm 82:6-8
In this connection we are reminded of
the words of God through the Psalmist where He declares, "I have said, Ye are gods;
and all of you are children of the Most High. But ye shall die like men, and fall like one
of the princes. Arise, 0 God, judge the earth; for Thou shalt inherit all nations."
This evidently refers to the Christ as a class, for it is stated in the plural. Here,
then, we have a class whom the Most High designates as gods and acknowledges as children;
but they will die, He says, like men. From the standpoint of the world, there will be no
difference between their death and that of any other man, but from God's standpoint there
is a great difference; they fall, in dying, like one of the princes. This class cannot die
because of inherited sin or condemnation as does the rest of mankind, because they have
been redeemed from Adamic death by the blood of Christ. They have entered into a covenant
of sacrifice, and their faithfulness even unto death on the one hand, or their
repudiation of that covenant on the other hand will be the determining factor as to which
prince they fall like. There have been just two princes: Prince Adam died for his own sin,
and Prince Jesus died for the sins of others. Likewise, those who repudiate their
covenant and count the blood wherewith they have been sanctified an unholy thing, will
follow in the steps of Adam and die for their own sin but those who remain faithful to
their covenant of sacrifice even unto death, as did our Lord, will not die for their own
sin, but, it must be, in some sense, for the sins of others; they will die as did Prince
Jesus. It is to this class, the Christ, Head and body, that the next verse will apply:
"Arise O God [not the Most High, but the Christ], Arise, O God [O Mighty One], judge
the earth; for Thou shalt inherit all nations." "Know ye not," says the
Apostle, "that the saints shall judge the world?"
Significance of Baptism
The root word for baptism means to
whelm or submerge. The Jewish nation had been submerged in the cloud and the Red Sea when
they followed Moses out of Egypt, baptized into Moses, who stood for them before God. Many
of these who repented at the preaching of John and later at that of our Lord and the
disciples, knowing that they had transgressed their covenant, were baptized in water for
the remission of their sins. Apparently, in so far as the Bible record shows, such Jews
could be transferred from Moses into Christ without any additional outward symbol being
required of them, and could receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit upon their acceptance
of Jesus as their Redeemer. At least, we infer this because we find no record of the
Apostles and other believing Jews being baptized again. Jesus' baptism at Jordan
symbolized His full consecration to do God's will; as was prophesied concerning Him
aforetime, "Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of Me) to do Thy
will, O God." Jesus seemed to think that, in His case at least, it was necessary for
Him to symbolize His consecration by water immersion, for He said to John, who objected,
"Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness."
All of the baptisms on record up to the
time of receiving the Gentile converts, with the exception of that of our Lord, in which
water was used as a symbol, are said to have been for repentance and the remission of
sins; but with Gentiles, this is not the proper thought, for they had never been in
covenant relationship.
In the nineteenth chapter of Acts we
read of Paul coming to Ephesus and finding certain Gentile Christians who had not received
any of the gifts of the Holy Spirit; they confessed not to know even if there be any Holy
Spirit. Upon learning this, Paul inquired as to what baptism they had received, and when
they said, "John's baptism," he commanded them to be baptized again into the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ; and when they did this, they received the gifts of the Holy
Spirit. In this incident we have portrayed for us the proper procedure for Gentile
converts and so are not left in doubt as to what our course of action should be.
Having accepted Jesus as our Savior and
having made a full consecration of ourselves to do God's will, even unto death, it
behooves us, as obedient children, to symbolize that consecration by water immersion. This
is plainly indicated by Jesus in His last word of instruction to His disciples just before
He ascended: "Go, preach unto all nations, and baptize them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all things whatsoever I
have taught you."
Baptisms of Holy Spirit and Fire
In the beginning of this article the
assertion was made that baptism, in some one or more of its forms, would be the inevitable
portion of every one. regardless of whether he was a believer or not. This is not just
supposition on our part but is definitely the teaching of the Scriptures. John the Baptist
said, as recorded in Luke 3:16-17: "I indeed baptize you with water; but One
mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose; He shall
baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire; whose fan is in His hand, and He will
thoroughly purge His floor and will gather the wheat into His garner; but the chaff He
will burn with fire unquenchable."
Those of that nation who were found
worthy were baptized with the Holy Spirit, and this baptism constituted an earnest of
the promised life on the spirit plane. Those who were not found worthy but who did despite
to the spirit of grace which was manifested in their midst, were forced to undergo a
baptism of fire, a time of trouble which came upon all Israel, and, in the meaning of the
word baptism, whelmed or submerged that people and destroyed them as a nation. While this
prophecy of John related primarily to the Jews, still we find that these two baptisms did
not end with the Jew, for believing Gentiles all down through this Gospel Age have also
partaken of the baptism of the Holy Spirit; and likewise, in the end of this age, those
who counterpart the unfaithful and unbelieving Jews will be made to pass through the
baptism of fire, "a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation."
Through the Prophet Zephaniah God says,
"The whole earth shall be devoured with the fire of My jealousy"; and through
the Apostle Peter we are told that "the heavens and earth which are now, by the word
of God are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of
ungodly men." So then, as at the end of the Jewish Age, all to whom the Gospel
message was preached were subjected to the baptism either of the Holy Spirit or of fire,
so at the end of this age, likewise we find that all to whom the Gospel has been preached
will partake of one or the other of these baptisms.
First the Gospel, Then Baptism
During the Jewish and Gospel Ages and
before. there have been millions who have lived and died who have not experienced either
one of these baptisms. Will they be deprived or, on the other hand, escape? No, God has
a like experience in reservation for them also; for Jesus declares in John 5:29, 29 that
"the hour cometh in the which all that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the
Son of Man and shall come forth"; and He says they come forth "to a
resurrection. Those who have done good in the past are to be restored to life immediately,
but the rest will have to experience their resurrection through the judgments of the
Lord. Those judgments, we are told, will take place during the thousand years of Christ's
reign; and Isaiah declares that through them the inhabitants of the world will learn
righteousness. We also find that during the world's judgment day, the Gospel will again be
preached, for John in Revelation 14:6-7 says: "I saw another angel fly in the midst
of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to
preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue,
and people saying with a loud voice, Fear God and give glory to Him; for the hour [time]
of His judgment is come."
Here in the time of judgment, then, as
during the Gospel and Jewish Ages, we find that the Gospel message will be preached, and
through the Prophet Joel we learn that it will be attended by the baptism of the Holy
Spirit, for there God says, "I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh." --
During this age and before, He has bestowed His Spirit only upon His handmaids and
servants, but then it will be available for all flesh. No one will be deprived of the
blessing of the Holy Spirit if he will give heed to the Gospel message.
As at the end of the Jewish Age and
during this Gospel Age, the acceptance of and obedience to the Gospel message determined
whether or not the individual would experience the baptism of the Holy Spirit or be
whelmed in the ensuing fire of destruction; so during the Millennial Age also, and
particularly at its close, we are told that fire will come down from God out of heaven
and devour those who at heart refuse to come into full accord with that Gospel message.
And so the prophecy of John the Baptist will come true even to the uttermost, for One
mightier than he has baptized or will baptize each and every one either with the Holy
Spirit or with fire.
Water immersion is designed primarily
as a public witness or declaration that the one baptized has made a consecration of his
all to the Lord to do His will even unto death. In so far as we are concerned, it means
that we have taken the step once for all that submerges our wills into the divine will and
purpose. In the case of those baptized by John, it was an outward indication of repentance
and remission of sins against their covenant vows. Burial in water signifies death to
self and to sin as well as the submergence of our will in the divine will, and the coming
up out of the water signifies newness of life.
This symbolism of water is not at all
out of harmony with the one generally used in the Scriptures, viz.: divine truth, for
God's will concerning us, into which we submerge our wills, is contained or revealed in
His Word of Truth. We sometimes speak of it as "the pure water of the Word" in
contradistinction to the muddy waters of tradition. Those who yield themselves to the
doing of God's will. seeking to know that will through His Word of Truth, experience the
"washing of water by the Word." When this experience of being submerged in
baptism is finished, these will be raised by the power of God to life on a higher plane of
existence; this, as well as the walking in newness of life, is pictured by the baptizer
raising the candidate up out of the water. Both the walk in newness of life and the birth
into a new life are here shown.
It will be recalled that Jesus said,
when speaking to Nicodemus (John 3:3-5), "Except a man be born again, he cannot see
the Kingdom of God"; and when Nicodemus questioned the possibility of such a thing,
Jesus went into the matter still further and said, "Except a man be born of water
and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God." This word
"born" is just as properly rendered "begotten" and from this
standpoint harmonizes with that other Scripture which speaks of those who are walking in
newness of life as having been "begotten by the Word of Truth."
It is through the pure water of truth
that the Spirit of God takes hold upon us, begetting us to that newness of life which the
Apostle calls "a new creature." This, if we are faithful, will eventuate in life
on the divine plane. As in nature it requires water and sunshine to quicken into growth
the germ of wheat or whatever grain it may be, so with us, as consecrated believers, it
requires the water of truth and the quickening and enlightening power of God's Holy Spirit
to quicken us into life as new creatures in Christ; and if we continually try to keep
these old wills and bodies in subjection to the will of God, His Spirit and truth will
eventually strengthen and establish those new minds to the point where they will be fit to
be clothed upon by the nature of God Himself.
Recapitulation
We see, then, that to baptize means to
whelm, submerge, or immerse in water or with the Holy Spirit or with fire as the case may
be. We see that baptism of one kind or another will be the experience of all men,
whether Jew or Gentile, believer or unbeliever; no one will be exempt. We see that water
baptism is merely a symbol, first, or that consecration which must have taken place in our
lives, and second, of the change, the newness of life which we experience from that time
on. Wt have seen that the baptism of the Holy Spirit emanates from God and is bestowed
through Christ our Head, and that it comes as an unction or blessing upon those who in
their acts of obedience have shown the right condition of heart. In this age this means
acceptance into the body of Christ through the begetting of the Spirit; in the next age it
will mean the restoring of God's image in the hearts and lives of mankind through the
mediatorial work of that great Prophet, Priest, and King. At the present time baptism
also means participation with our Lord in His sufferings, His crucifixion, His death.
We have seen that the baptism of fire signifies the destruction of those arrangements or
persons, as the case may be, that do not conform to God's will and arrangements. We have
seen that God's grace is for those who will accept and profit by it. May He help us so to
do.
- J. T. Read
Dear Brethren:
I am not much of a letter writer, hence
my silence when perhaps I should have said something. Last winter Brother Harvey Friese
came this way. I was unable to do much but appreciated the favor very much. I felt that I
should have written you at the time but just did not. May it be better late than never;
and I take this occasion to tell you that I value the "Herald" very highly. When
I first began reading it, somehow it seemed to lack flavor, or color, or however one might
wish to put it. At that time I had just dropped the . . . for obvious reasons; and the
"Herald," while I felt it to be in harmony with what I understood to be Present
Truth, yet seemed too mild. But now after a few years, I am just delighted with it, and
just wish there was more of it. Today I would not want it to be different. It's a sweet
fountain of truth, and I appreciate it as food from on high.
May the Lord overrule your efforts to
serve His people in the corning year, and may you be guided by His wisdom, is my prayer.
With much. Christian love, I am,
Your brother in Christ,
J. P. H. -- Ala.
Dear Brethren:
You may be interested to know that
religious liberty in Greece is more and more restrained. With the change of the form of
government here in the last three years, the Greek Church exercises great influence upon
the State. The result is that laws have been enacted almost forbidding the distribution
of printed matter dealing on religion. Also, no kind of meeting is allowed without special
permit from the Government. The meetings of the adherents of a certain religious
organization are forbidden entirely. We are thankful to the Lord that we obtained, for
the time being at least, through great effort, a permit to hold meetings here in Athens
and a few other cities. Public lectures on religious topics are strictly forbidden. We
would not be at all surprised should more open persecution start some of these days. The
sale of the Bible printed in modern Greek is not allowed! Too bad, the world is going
backwards. I hear that the British and foreign Bible society here is endeavoring to raise
this ban. May God keep all of us in the shadow of His might in these gloomy days of ours.
With much love in the Redeemer,
C. J. C. -- Greece.
Dear "Herald" Brethren:
You received a letter from me some time
ago from the . . "Class" asking you not to send Brother Boulter here. Now the
Class has been divided through that same sectarian intolerant spirit, all the young ones
so far staying with the brother who is now advocating that spirit, and all the older ones
meeting in the home of an older brother and sister.
We have not organized, but have four
good brothers, able to teach and have us use the Scripture more than we ever had in the
other class. I am sure you know we were all troubled about it but have become more quiet,
and I believe each of us has more faith in the Plan and its Author and the Savior than we
ever had.
We have read your last
"Herald," and I am sure we can understand the trials that others are going
through. Fiery trials to try us they are, but the Lord truly is with those of a
"broken and contrite heart." He promises to be with us in every hour of need.
"My sheep hear My voice, and another they will not follow." His voice was kind
and merciful. If I had it to do over, no brother on the face of the earth could force me
to write such a letter as I did to you.
Now this gathering of brethren wants
you to send us a brother to give us a discourse when you can, please. I am sure there is
no more danger of his hurting us than our misleading him. It may be we can "build one
another up in the most holy faith."
Your sister in Christ,
Requests are still unsupplied for
copies of Russell-Eaton Debates, "Reprints," "Berean" Comments and
Bible, "The Desolations of the Sanctuary." "Revelation" Vol. II, etc.
Perhaps you have or know of others who might have copies of some of these that are no
longer in use and that might be giving comfort to some of our brethren in these difficult
times.
Mr. A. Baldacci, Richmond, Va.-(Jan.)
Mrs. C. Boole, Winnipeg, Man.-(Aug.).
Mr. Thomas C. Bryant, St. Louis, Mo.-(Jan.).
Mrs . Grace L. Cummings, New Brunswick, N. J.-(Oct.).
Mr. Martin Foss, Chicago, Ill.-(Jan.).
Mrs. Anna E. Hazel, White Plains, N. Y.-(Feb.).
Mr. Henry C. Kruhm, Baltimore, Md.-(Jan.).
Mr. C. H. Wagner, Dallas, Tex.-(Feb.).
Miss Edna B. Williams, Lincoln, Nebr.-(Jan.).
1940 Index |