VOL.
LIX. May/June 1976 No. 3
Some Thoughts on 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
Jehovah's Footstool Made Glorious A Meditation for Whitsuntide
"The fruit of the
spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, DURING
the closing days of our Lord's earthly life he gave his disciples assurance
that after his departure they would not be left desolate. "I will ask the
Father and he will give you another helper ... the spirit of truth, which ...
abides with you, and will be in you."John 14:16, 17, Diaglott. This
gracious promise was confirmed to them during the forty days in which he was
seen of them after his passion. "John, indeed, immersed in water, but you
will be immersed in holy spirit after a few days." - Acts 1:5, Diaglott. For
the fulfillment of this promise they were to "wait" at Jerusalem.
"And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you; but tarry ye in
the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high" (Luke
24:49; Acts 1:4, 8). They had not long to wait. When ten days had passed -- as
soon as "the day of Pentecost had fully come," the promise of the
Father was fulfilled. - Acts 2:1. WAITING FOR THE PROMISEElsewhere
we have considered in some detail the typical significance of Pentecost. Here
we content ourselves with observing that Pentecost had long pointed to the time
when, in the Father's great plan of redemption, the offering of the Church as
"a kind of firstfruits of his creatures" would be made and God's
acceptance thereof manifested (James 1:18; Rev. 14:4). And now that time had
come, and to these early followers of the Master was to be given the privilege
of representing the whole Church in its anointing experience. The antitypical
Passover Lamb (Christ Jesus) had been sacrificed; the true Feast of Unleavened
Bread could now be kept. Already Christ Jesus, as prefigured in the Omer Sheaf,
had been raised "from the dead and become the firstfruits of them
that slept" (1 Cor. 15:20). They had conversed with him during the space
of forty days following his resurrection and had watched him ascend to heaven
(Acts 1:3, 9). What, yet remained ere they, too, though in lesser measure,
would be endued with that "power from on high" which had possessed
him so completely and had operated in him so mightily? What must have been
their thoughts and emotions as in obedience to his word they had waited at
Jerusalem? This we can only surmise. Their days and evenings, we know, had been
passed in "the" upper room in which they had last communed with him (Acts
1:13). Certain it is that such a company of sincerehearted ones, meeting
together thus, with "one accord," could not but have been blessed
(Acts 2:1). By prayer and supplication with thanksgiving they had sought to
prepare themselves to receive the "promise" (Acts 1:14). First,
perhaps, they would earnestly plead for its fulfillment. Next, perhaps, they
would recall some of the Master's teachings, the grace of his countenance, his
habit of thanks at mealtimes. Doubtless there would come at times a keen sense
of shame and regret at some of their own past conduct. Following quickly upon
this mood would come the happy memory of his grace in forgiving, and they would
be relieved of their compunctions. Then, perhaps, would follow a sense of
feebleness, of utter helplessness without the Lord -- as sheep, indeed, without
a shepherd (Zech. 13:7). As day after day followed without event or sign,
perhaps they would give way to a sense of disappointment at God's delay;
possibly, since they were men and women of like passions and frailties with us,
to a feeling of doubt that the promise would ever be fulfilled. Shame at their
doubt and disappointment would follow, and then -- a willingness to wait God's
own time and to accept God's own way. Perhaps, as God's time drew near, there
may have arisen in the hearts of some of them the thought: "The Feast of
Pentecost draws near; can it be that the Father will fulfill his promise
then?" THE SPIRIT DISPENSATIONThe
day came at last; they were as earthen vessels cleansed by prayer, emptied and
waiting for the outpouring of the spirit, when "suddenly" it came.
Just as at his baptism the holy spirit descended upon the Lord Jesus, so now it
descended upon all them that were his, and they were all filled with it. - Acts
2:1-4. In
the case of our Lord the descent of the spirit upon him was manifested by an
outward sign. To the Baptist it seemed "like a dove" (note: not a
dove, but the appearance of one) (John 1:32-34). So also, at Pentecost, the outpouring
of the spirit on the waiting Church was accompanied by outward manifestations.
A sound like a rushing mighty wind filled the place where they were sitting
(note: not a wind, but a sound like a wind). Tongues, not of fire, but
"like as of fire" sat upon them. Evidently these manifestations, as
also the "gift of tongues" (which seems to have been bestowed on the
whole company), were for signs. The appearance of a dove on the occasion of
our Lord's baptism gave the Baptist the confirmation he needed in identifying
and heralding Jesus as the long-promised Messiah. The "sound," the
"ton&ues of fire," and the gift of speaking with tongues,"
likewise served to call the attention of all to the great change of
dispensation then being inaugurated. Doubtless, too, when at the close of the
seventy weeks of Jewish special favor (three and a half years after Pentecost)
the holy spirit was poured out on Cornelius and his associates, some similar
gift was granted them as a sign, an evidence, that Gentiles, too, were now to
be privileged to share in the high calling of God extended to consecrated
believers of every nation during this Gospel Age. - Daniel 9:25-27; Acts
10:45-48; 11:15-17; 15:8, 9. How
eminently suitable these signs were for the purposes intended! The dove, the
emblem of peace and purity, fitly represented the fullness of Jehovah's spirit
of love in Jesus; as the tongues of fire fitly represented the mission of the
Apostles to be, under the holy spirit, that of testifying as
"witnesses." Nor
was the "gift of tongues" without its special meaning. It may well be
understood as a sign, we think, that the confusions of Babel are to be reduced
to order, that the separations induced by the various languages of men are to
be healed, as gradually men are drawn, some in the Gospel Age and others in the
Millennial Age, into the Kingdom and fellowship of Christ. On the plain of
Shinar, thinking to raise themselves above the reach of divine judgment, to
build a tower which no flood could drown, men had been smitten with a divine
judgment; their one language was broken into many dialects; they were divided
and scattered over the whole earth. This curse is to be conquered by the
powerful influence of the holy spirit poured out at Pentecost, which spirit is
yet to be poured out on all flesh. In the perfection of the Kingdom none is to
be unintelligible to his brother, or separated from him; the whole earth is to
be of one mind and heart. - Zeph. 3:9; Joel 2:28; Acts 2:16. "They
were all filled with the holy spirit and began to speak in other tongues,"
"the wonderful works of God" (Acts 2:4, 11). Ah! gracious omen! When
will it be wholly fulfilled? For let us not forget that just as the Omer
presented on the morrow after the Passover, setting forth Christ Jesus as
"the firstfruits of them that slept" was a pledge and earnest of the
two loaves presented on Pentecost, which prefigured the Church in its
elective character as the firstfruits from among men, so also the second
firstfruits are themselves a prophecy and a pledge of the fuller harvest yet to
be gathered in the coming Age, of which, in the Scriptures, all God's holy
Prophets have spoken since the world began. - Acts 3:19 Thank
God, though this glorious vision tarry, it will come; it will not fail of
fulfillment (Hab. 2:3). True -- we must "wait out" this promise of the Father; but
we may wait in the strength and patience of hope. THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRITMeantime,
while waiting the Lord's time and way, we are not to be idle, but to occupy
ourselves with those things which pertain to life and godliness (2 Pet. 1:3).
Our chief occupation is to be the cultivation of the fruit of the spirit.
Valuable though they were, the miraculous gifts vouchsafed to the early Church
were but transient. The gift of tongues, along with the rest, was destined to
pass away, as St. Paul plainly indicates (1 Cor. 13:9). Even when bestowed, it
needed to be supplemented by another gift, that of "interpretation"
before it could be exercised with profit and to edification. In discussing this
gift of tongues, St. Paul affirms that many could speak in a tongue who could
not interpret, and declares that for himself he would rather speak five words
with the understanding than ten thousand words in a tongue. Its chief
importance, he says, was as a sign, "not to them that believe but to them
that believe not." The brethren were not to despise any of these
miraculously bestowed gifts; on the contrary they were to esteem them.
Nevertheless there was a more excellent way -- expounded by St. Paul in the
13th chapter of 1st Corinthians --the way of love. Love (as the Apostle
observes, in the text quoted at the head of this article), with its component
elements, is the fruit of the spirit. While doubtless the gift of God, its very
nature precluded the possibility of its being miraculously bestowed; in every
case it must be developed personally by the individual who would possess it.
Moreover this gift, unlike those miraculously bestowed, is not destined to pass
away. It is to abide (John 14:16; 15:10; 1 Cor. 13:8, 13). We may, therefore,
well esteem it to be "more excellent" and earnestly cultivate it in
our hearts and lives. "FRUIT" NOT "FRUITS"How
shall we do this? The Apostle points the way in our text (Gal. 5:22). There he
enumerates nine elements of the fruit of the spirit, namely "love, joy,
peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness,* meekness,
selfcontrol." ---------------------------------- *That
the Revised Version "faithfulness" rather than "faith" is
to be preferred here is clear, we think, from the context, where relative
duties rather than faith in its theological sense are plainly in evidence.
Compare also Titus 2:10. It is to be noted that the Apostle speaks not of "fruits" (plural) but of "fruit" (singular), thus drawing our attention to the fact that the nine graces mentioned (the list is not exhaustive) are not to be separately cultivated, "love" in one Christian, "joy" in another, etc., but that all are to be developed together in the character of each consecrated follower of the Master. We may compare this passage with the Beatitudes (Matt. 5) where our Lord (in declaring the blessedness of those who are poor in spirit, they that mourn, the meek, they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers) is surely not describing various persons, but one person, namely his truly consecrated follower, from many points of view We
may also compare the wellknown passage, 2 Peter 1:5-8, where the one who
"has obtained precious faith" is exhorted to give all diligence to
furnish in his faith fortitude, and in fortitude knowledge, etc., and thus to
develop, not a one-sided, but a well-balanced Christian character. This
passage from St. Peter, moreover, should caution us against a disproportionate
inference from the imagery of "fruit" suggested by St. Paul in
Galatians 5:22 and by our Lord in the parable of the Vine (John 15). The ideas
suggested by "fruit" and "fruitbearing are not those of effort
and care in the fruitbearing branches; effort and care are the cultivator's
part. But St. Peter's exhortation reminds us that the analogy between the
impersonal fruit tree and the personal believer cannot be in all respects
complete. In the conscious and responsible man there is a place for "all diligence." But
when this is said, by way of balance and clearness, then without reserve we may
give our thankful attention to the blessed suggestions and significance of the
word "fruit." What does it tell us? It tells us, the branches of the
true Vine, that in us, but not of us, there is a mighty, fructifying principle.
It tells us that the Christian character is not something to be worked up by
weary efforts out of the material of self. Rather it is the result of growth.
It is not something to be manufactured. Nor is it to be acquired
from our surroundings; it is produced in the midst of them, not because of
them, but often in spite of them. "Contrast,"
says our Lord, "the glory of Solomon with that of the lily of the
field." Why was it that Solomon's glory could not be compared with but
only contrasted with that of the lily? Because the lily grew, and all
the colors of the lily came from within, while all the glorious raiment
worn by Solomon was a glory not his own, but put on him from without. THE THREE TRIADSCommentators,
generally, have suggested that the nine elements of fruit mentioned in St.
Paul's inspired analysis may be taken in three triads, or sets of three, corresponding
to three sides of the much diversified Christian experience. The first three,
Love, Joy, and Peace, find their sphere of operation in the inner life of
fellowship with God, which is known only to God and to the individual
Christian's own consciousness; Long-suffering, Gentleness, and Goodness
describe the Christian's character in his relationship with men; Faithfulness,
Meekness, and Selfcontrol manifest themselves in the personal character, which
interprets itself in words and deeds, yes, even in face and manner. In those
who possess it, and (if we may use the expression) are themselves possessed of
it, the spirit of Christ bears fruit in every region of human life. The
essence, then, of the life and character of one producing the fruit of the
spirit is Love, Joy, and Peace. These cannot be called duties; they
should not be thought of as virtues, even; they are simply the result of
communion or fellowship with God-the fruit of the spirit. The love of
God has been shed abroad in the Christian's heart by the holy spirit (Rom.
5:5). The exalted Head of the Church was anointed with the oil of gladness and
this anointing flows down upon the members of the Body as righteousness, peace,
and joy, in the holy spirit (Rom.
14:17). These three elements of the fruit are in the private, inner life which
God alone beholds. Nevertheless when love and joy and peace are within,
they cannot but find outward expression, and make their possessor loving,
joyful, and peaceful; loving towards God, the brethren and all men; joyful
with a calm but contagious and beneficent happiness; peaceful, with
a sense of rest which cannot but diffuse itself in the direction of those with
whom he comes in touch. Again, in his relationships with the brethren and with all men, the fruitbearing Christian is seen to be Long-suffering, Gentle, and Good. Long-suffering, it has been observed, is the capacity to present the same calm surface today, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow, in spite of anything and everything. It is long temper, as contrasted with short temper; the ability to "bear all things" (1 Cor. 13:7). Gentleness is to touch others lightly, and then only with a healing touch; to manifest a disposition at all times to be tender in one's treatment of others -- tender even in one's just reproofs. Goodness in this connection, is to be good to others; to pronounce benediction upon them; to be benevolent to them, to see that they benefit from their association with us Finally,
the true Christian character, as it develops, results in a practical, alert,
circumspect outward life. Bright with a secret happiness, long-suffering with
an infinite forbearance, the fruit of the spirit will be seen in Faithfulness,
Meekness, and Self-control. The truly spiritual man will be faithful in
every duty, loyal to every promise. He will be dependable in business. His friends
will receive faithful and careful counsel. His employers will get a service out
of him in which their just interests will be as his own. His employees will
find him watchfully equitable, considerate, courteous. He will take great care
to owe no one anything. The local ecclesia will be well and truly served by
him, be it ever so large, or small, or unresponsive. He will be known to be one
who will take trouble for others, and who is glad to be their servant indeed
for Christ's sake. He will be meek, avoiding a manner and habit of
self-assertion among his brethren in matters of opinion or of work. And with
and over it all he will be self-controlled. He will, for the glory of
the Master, his Master, and that he may be truly serviceable in his
ministry to others, watch and pray over his own acts and habits; over bed, and
board, and literature, and companionship, and recreation, and imagination, and
tongue -- over thought, word, and deed. Will
he progress thus, to perfection? No-not in this life. Indeed, as though to
caution against such a thought the Apostle immediately presents the case of a
brother overtaken in a fault, urging all, as they seek to restore the erring
one, to do so in the spirit of meekness, lest they also should be tempted (Gal.
6:1). No -- perfection in this life is not present to the Apostle's mind, here
or elsewhere, for them or himself. In Philippians 3:13, he emphatically
declares: "I count not myself to have apprehended." "THIS ONE THING
I DO"
But
he did not stop with that confession. His further words show that he had an
objective which reached beyond the present life. "This one thing I do,
forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things
which are before, I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling
of God in Christ Jesus." - Phil. 3:13, 14. Let
us follow him as he followed Christ. As the Apostle Peter declares: "If ye
do these things ye shall never fall." - P. L Read Some Thoughts on 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
"Let us not sleep, as do
others; but let us watch and be sober ... Putting on the breastplate of faith
and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation." FOLLOWING his unfolding to the Thessalonians of the hope of a resurrection of the departed saints at Christ's descent, and of their being gathered with those "which are alive and remain" to meet the Lord in the air, the Apostle continues: "But of the times and seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day ... Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober" (1 Thess. 5:1-6). So the descent of Christ, the rising of the sleeping saints, the departure of "we which are alive and remain," and "the day of the Lord," of "sudden destruction," are related events. But
the question arises: Who are the "they" that are concerned about
maintaining or establishing "peace and safety"? Evidently they are
those who see the weakening and gradual breaking down of erstwhile stable
society; those whose position and influence in this present evil world has
been beneficial to themselves but who now contemplate the possibility of its
utter dissolution, leaving them with no protection against the foreseeable
reign of anarchy and the uncontrolled passions of the angry masses. All signs
point to a coming climax in the affairs of nations and human arrangements;
men are perceiving that tremendous changes are taking place, undermining the stability
of ordered society. Old institutions are crumbling, rebellion against established
authority is on the increase, financial burdens of governments -- national,
state, and local -- are becoming increasingly a perplexity to those who have to
pay taxes, and to those who have to find sources of new revenue to pay current
bills and the interest on mountainous debts incurred to keep abreast with
modern progress. The
breaking up of this "present evil world" is but a necessary prelude
to the establishing of Christ's Kingdom. As Peter writes, "The day of the
Lord will come as a thief; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a
rushing sound, and the elements burning intensely shall be dissolved ..."
(2 Pet. 3:10-14, Diaglott). The change from this present world order into the Kingdom of Christ
will not be by a process of evolution--one kingdom (Satan's) changing or being
merged into another (Christ's). It will not be this present world system being
remedied and made over into a Kingdom of Righteousness and Peace; no sewing of
a new patch on an old garment. This would be contrary to the teaching of
Jesus, "No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment." It
just would not hold together! A DECAYING WORLD MORALITYThe
present closing age is rapidly giving way to open immorality, to unrestrained
sin and godlessness, wholly without remedy. It is ripening for destruction. It
is impossible to give up the idea and truth of God without ethical and moral
deterioration. This is well expounded by the Apostle in the 1st chapter of the
Roman epistle: "And as they did not choose to possess the knowledge of
God, God delivered them over to a worthless mind, to do improper things;
abounding in every iniquity .. " (Rom. 1:28, Diaglott). God does not coerce. To be
in harmony with the revealed truth of God is blessedness. To disregard and to
will contrary to the revealed truth works wrath-works all manner of uncleanness
and shame. The truth of this is evidenced in the decadence of society in our
day when open lewdness and wickedness run riot. Sinful propensities cling even
to us who have experienced redemption, ever reminding us that "we were
children of wrath, even as others" (Eph. 2:13). "We were once
darkness, but now are we light in the Lord" (Eph. 5:8). Seeing this is so,
how appropriate the exhortation of .Romans 13:12: "The night is far spent,
the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us
put on the armor of light." Notice that it is not "come out of
darkness into light," but "cast off the works of darkness . . . put on the armor of light." This armor
is not simply mental appreciation of God's Word and plan for the "fruit of
the spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth." - Eph. 5:9. Consistently
throughout the New Testament, the exhortation to watchfulness and constancy is
based on the hope that "the Lord is at hand." To the Philippians Paul
wrote, "Let your moderation be known to all men. The Lord is at hand"
(Phil. 4:5). This phrase may have been commonly used among the early Christians
as being designed to keep before the mind a lively impression which should
have the effect of being always aware of a relationship with Christ as the Lord
and the hope of his return. "Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for
the coming of the Lord draweth nigh," writes James (James 5:8). Patient
endurance is thus encouraged and stimulated by reflecting that Christ is
coming to render judgment in righteousness. So, also, Paul continues in 1 Thessalonians
5:5-11: "Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day ...
Let us who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and
love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us
to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us,
that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Wherefore
comfort yourselves together, and edify one another." THE HIGH EXALTATION OF CHRISTAt
his ascension Jesus told the disciples that "all authority has been
imparted to me, in heaven and on earth" (Matt. 28:18, Diaglott). This high exaltation of
Christ is attested to in many Scriptures: Ephesians
1:20: "[God] . raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the
heavenly places."' Hebrews
1:3: " ... when he had . . . purged our sins, sat down on the right hand
of the Majesty on high." Hebrews
12:2: "Looking unto Jesus ... and is set down at the right hand of the
throne of God." Matthew
26:64: "Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of
power . . . " Acts
2:34, 35: "The LORD said
unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thy foes thy
footstool." Colossians
3:1: "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above,
where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." Acts
5:31: "Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Savior ...
" Acts
7:56: Stephen testified, "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of
man standing on the right hand of God." Romans
8:34: " ... Christ, that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is
even at the right hand of God ... " Hebrews
10:12: " ... this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for
ever, sat down on the right hand of God." "Sitting"
or "standing" do not refer to posture, but position. To sit on the
right hand signifies not only a mark of honor (1 Kings 2:19), but also implies
participation in power and authority. Such was the thought of the disciples,
James and John, who asked of Jesus that they might sit "the one on thy
right hand, and the other on thy left, in thy Kingdom." They desired
positions of chief favor and influence, close participation in wielding the
authority of the Kingdom which they thought was soon to be established. There
is further attestation to the high exaltation of Christ in Revelation 5:6-10:
"The Lamb as it had been slain ... came and took the book out of the right
hand of him that sat upon the throne." As we are informed in succeeding
chapters of the Revelation, the book contained God's plans and purposes for the
future which it now became the exalted privilege of the Lamb to carry out. It
is the Father's authority Christ wields, the Father's plans he executes. And
although Revelation 6:16 does speak of the "wrath of the Lamb," it is
only in conjunction with the carrying out of the Father's judgments on this
evil world's systems. A DISTINCTION IN THRONESRevelation
3:21 makes a distinction between the throne (power, authority) which Christ
now shares with the Father and the throne (authority) which the Church will
share with him in his Kingdom. They are not the same. "To him that
overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame,
and am set down with my Father in his throne." What Christ's throne
(Kingdom) is to accomplish is revealed in Jesus' answer to the query of Peter,
"What shall we have" [as a reward for forsaking all to follow you]?
And the answer, "In the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit in
the throne of his glory, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the
twelve tribes of Israel" (Matt. 19:28). In 1 Corinthians 6:2, Paul writes,
"Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? ... Know you not
that we shall judge angels?" The term, "in the regeneration" is
that period of time set apart by God when the world will be judged in
righteousness; when the whole human race, raised from the dead (John 5:28, 29),
shall be regenerated and given the light of the knowledge of the glory of God;
and when the way to life will be made so plain that none need err through
ignorance (Isa. 35:8). The Church is to share with Christ, as Abraham's seed,
in bringing blessings to all the families of the earth. - Genesis 22:17, 18;
Psalm 72:1-17; Isaiah 9:6, 7; Psalm 2:8; Romans 8:17; Galatians 3:29; 2 Timothy
2:12; Revelation 20:4: 22:17. But
Christ's own throne, his reign, awaits the utter destruction of the last form
of Gentile world dominion before his investiture with "dominion, and
glory, and a kingdom." As we read in Daniel 7:11-14, 27: "I beheld
even till the beast [Gentile world dominion] was slain, and his body destroyed,
and given to the burning flame . . . I saw in the night visions, and, behold,
one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient
of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him
dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages,
should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass
away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed ... And the kingdom and
dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be
given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an
everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him." CHRIST'S REIGN NOT YETChrist's
own kingdom is not yet. Although the prophetic word declares, "Thou hast
put all things under his feet," we can observe with the writer of the
Hebrew epistle, "But now we see not yet all things put under him"
(Heb. 2:8). The idea conceived by some that Christ is now reigning, is an inference
due to misunderstanding some prophetic utterances. Note
the contrast between Micah 4:1-4 and Isaiah 2:2-4 and Joel 3:4-6: " . . .
in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain [Kingdom] of the house of the LORD shall be established in the
top of the mountains [Kingdoms] ... And he shall judge among many people, and
rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into
plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword
against nation, neither shall they learn war any more," a condition that
is not now prevalent. How much different from this is that which now prevails
among all nations, as depicted by Joel 3:9-14: "Proclaim ye this among the
Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw
near; let them come up: Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks
into spears: let the weak say, I am strong. Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen,
and gather yourselves together round about . . . Let the heathen be wakened,
and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the
heathen round about . . . Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision:
for the day of the LORD is
near in the valley of decision." For
years, students of the prophetic word have been aware that the progress of
events in the world is fulfilling predictions=predictions that have to do with
the end times of this Age. What the immediate future has in store for us we do not know.
But this we do know: "God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain
salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ." Let us watch and be sober. - F. A. Essler Jehovah's Footstool Made Glorious
"Thus saith Jehovah,
Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool." "And I will make
the place [footstool] of my feet glorious." GOD'S
footstool has been anything but glorious for the past six thousand years: sin,
pain, crying, mental and physical suffering, and death have made it one vast
charnel house in which now, conservatively estimated, at least fifty thousand
millions of humanity wait for the time to come when the curse of divine justice
shall be lifted; and the light of divine favor, shining in the face of Jesus
Christ our Lord, shall rise as the Sun of righteousness,
To
this end God has made abundant provision. The ransom for Adam, and for
all who suffered loss through him as his children, bought the whole world, and
secured for each member of our race an opportunity for a trial for everlasting
life under favorable conditions; but it did more, it purchased back Adam's
Paradise home (lost by his transgression), and his dominion as earth's king,
representative of God, his Creator and Father. Hence we read, "And thou, O Tower of the flock [Christ], the stronghold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion" (Micah 4:8). The Apostle Paul also speaks of the "redemption of the purchased possession" (Eph. 1:14). Our Lord in one of his parables referred to this also, showing that he purchased not only mankind, the treasure, but also the field, the world, the earth from under the curse: and that all who join with him, as members of the Kingdom class, share in that purchase of the field and the treasure (Matt. 13:44) The
entire work of the Millennium will consist in reordering and making glorious
God's footstool. Paradise, when lost through sin, was but a "garden"
in a corner of the earth; but inasmuch as the race of Adam has multiplied to
fill the earth, in accordance with the divine intention (Gen. 1:28), and
inasmuch as they all have been redeemed, it will be necessary to provide a
Paradise sufficiently large to accommodate all: and this will imply that the
entire earth shall become as the Garden of Eden for fruitfulness and beauty and
perfection. And all this is promised as the grand future consummation of the
divine plan
(Acts 3:20, 21; Rev. 2:7; 2 Cor. 12:4). But
the richest jewel of the Lord's glorified footstool in the close of the
Millennium will be mankind, in whose perfection, liberty, and likeness to God,
in moral and intellectual graces, will be reflected the very image of Divinity.
And most gloriously will the perfect man reflect honor upon his Maker and his
wondrous plan for his creation, redemption, and restitution. And with that
wonderful plan will always be intimately identified first the Lord Jesus,
Jehovah's "Word," and second the Bride, the Lamb's wife, and
joint-heir in disbursing the blessings secured by the ransom. The
beautifying and glorifying of the Lord's "footstool" will not be completed
until our Lord Jesus, as the Father's honored agent, "shall have put
down all [conflicting] rule and all authority and power. For he must reign
until he hath put all enemies under his feet," before he delivers up the
Kingdom at the close of the Millennium (1 Cor. 15:24-28). The
period of the reign of Sin and Death is represented as the time when God
"remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger" (Lam.
2:1); but following the beginning of the Millennium, the people are prophetically
called upon to -- "Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at his footstool;
for he is holy [worthy]" (Psa. 99:5). And this thought, that the
establishment of the New Jerusalem, the Church of God glorified, ass the new
government in the earth, will mean the beginning of the restoration of divine
favor to Jehovah's footstool, is clearly set forth through the Prophet
Zechariah (Zech. 14:4, 5). JEHOVAH'S FEET ON THE MOUNT OF OLIVESThis
prophecy is generally misunderstood, and applied to the feet of our Lord
Jesus, at his second advent: and indeed, those who thus err generally go
farther and assert that it will be the feet of flesh, pierced with the nails of
Calvary; -- not realizing that our Lord gave his human nature, complete and
forever, as our ransom; and that he was raised from the dead, by the Father's
power, a glorious spirit being -- "the express image of the Father's
person." But
a glance at the preceding verse (3) shows that the Prophet's reference is to
the return of Jehovah's feet; for the statement (referring to the trouble by
which the Kingdom will be established) is: "Then shall Jehovah go forth,
and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle [in
olden times for Israel]. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the
Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of
Olives shall be divided in its center, from east to west, and there shall be a
very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove northward and half
southward." As
soon as any recognize the fact that the feet mentioned are Jehovah's feet, they
will not dispute that this language is symbolic, and refers to the Lord's
reestablishment of his dominion in the earth, which has long been
comparatively abandoned to the "god of this world" Satan; -- except
as the Lord was represented first by the typical Tabernacle, secondly by the
Temple at Jerusalem, and lastly by the present tabernacle condition of the
Church of Christ, during this Gospel age. Surely, no one will err and get the
thought that Jehovah literally rests his feet upon this earth as a "footstool." And if the placing and resting of Jehovah's "feet" are symbolic, and signify the return of divine favor and dominion to earth, so, we may be sure, other features connected in the same prophecy are symbolic: the Mount of Olives, its peculiar division, its valley, the flight of the people, the waters of life from Jerusalem (Compare verse 8 with Ezek. 47:1-9.), etc., are all symbolic statements -- pictures of grand spiritual truths. If
then the olive be the symbol of light, peace, and divine blessing through
the holy spirit, and if mountain be considered as elsewhere the symbol for a
Kingdom, the significance here of the term Mount of Olives is easily seen to be
-- the Kingdom of Light, Peace, and Divine Blessing. And the standing or establishment
or fixing of Jehovah's "feet" upon it, signifies that the divine
favor and law will be reestablished in the earth by and through the holy Kingdom. This
application of the term Mount of Olives is in full accord with the Apostle's
statement (Rom. 11:17, 24) in which he compares fleshly Israel with the
original cultivated olive tree, and Gentile converts to wild olive branches
grafted in where the natural branches had been broken off. (Compare Jer. 11:16,
17.) And he explains that the root of the tree is in the promise of God -- the
Abrahamic promise, that the seed of Abraham should eventually bless all the
families of the earth, etc. Eventually the same root or promise will bear two
kinds of branches -- the ingrafted wild olive branches, and the reingrafted
natural branches: when fleshly Israel shall have his blindness turned away, and
shall look with the eye of faith upon the Savior crucified and pierced nineteen
centuries ago -- a sacrifice for sin. We remember also that fleshly Israel was
God's typical Kingdom or mountain for a long time, and that spiritual Israel
of the Gospel age is called to be the real Kingdom of God, as our Lord
declared, "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure
to give you the Kingdom." Moreover,
from these two Kingdoms (even before Jehovah's glory rests upon
them, to make them his channels of blessings to the whole world of mankind) has
proceeded all "the light of the world" during all the darkness
of the past: for are not these the representatives of the Old and the New
Testaments, the old and new Covenants? Do not these correspond to the Lord's
two witnesses and to
the two olive trees of Zechariah (Zech. 4:3, 11, 12) distinctly mentioned also
in Revelation (Zech. 11:4)? -- in that these two parts of the mountain
symbolize the outcome of those covenants, the results of the witnessing -- the
Kingdom in its heavenly and its earthly phases? Here
we see, then, that the two halves of the Mount of Olives signify the two
parts of the Kingdom of God, distinctly separated according to a divine
order or arrangement. The separation indicates no opposition between the two
parts of the Kingdom. It is, on the contrary, for the purpose of producing the
"Valley of Blessing" between -- to which all who desire divine aid
may flee and find succor under the blessed protection of both the heavenly and
the earthly phases of the Kingdom. The
valley thus produced would be one full of light -- free from shadows for the
sun would stream through it from east to west. This speaks symbolically of the
Sun of Righteousness and its full light of divine truth and blessing scattering
the shadows of sin, ignorance, superstition, and death, and healing and
restoring the willing and obedient of humanity who will flee to this valley of
blessings, the valley of mercy. The valley of mercy, between and under
the care of the spiritual and human phases of the Kingdom of Light and Peace
(the establishment of Jehovah's feet), will surely be a "Valley of
Blessings" to all who enter it with broken and contrite hearts. We
must remember, further, that while it is to Israel only that it is said,
"Ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains," yet as a name Israel
signified "The people blessed of the Lord," "The people of
God," "The Lord's people" (2 Chron. 7:14). And while, as we have
seen, the first or spiritual blessing of the Kingdom shall come to spiritual
Israel, and the second or earthly blessing shall begin with Israel according
to the flesh, yet it will not stop there; for whosoever will may become an
Israelite: by exercising the faith and obedience of Abraham, all mankind may
become Israelites indeed-"the people of God." And hence the Prophet
Isaiah declares that when Israel is called back to divine favor, at the
establishment of the Kingdom, it will include "Every one that is called by my
[Jehovah's] name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made
him." The name Israel will then apply to all who are God's people (Isa.
34:7; Rom. 9:26, 33; 10:13). "And
[thus] will Jehovah my God come in, and all the holy ones shall [thus] be
[united] with him" (Zech. 14:5). When God's time shall have fully come,
when the lease of power to the Gentiles shall have run out, when the
sacrificing of the great Day of Atonement (the Gospel Age) shall have ceased,
when the High Priest shall have finished making atonement, not only for his own
"body," the Church, but also for his "house," and for
"all the people," and he shall come forth to bless all the people,
then Jehovah's curse, or sentence of death, shall be lifted from the earth,
his footstool tabernacle will again be recognized, and its beautifying in righteousness
and truth and in the holy spirit of love shall begin and progress, until, in
the end of the Millennium, all the willingly righteous shall have reached
perfection, or been reunited with Jehovah, and all the unwilling shall have
been destroyed (Acts 3:23; Rev. 20:9). Carrying
the picture further, the Prophet declares, respecting that day in which
gradually the earth shall be made glorious as Jehovah's footstool: -- "And
it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be bright, nor the
darkness thick; but the day shall be the one foreknown to the Lord - neither
full day nor night: but it shall come to pass that at its close [evening] it
shall be [clear] light" (Zech. 14:6, 7). Some
confounded the "day" here described with the "day of Vengeance"
which is "a day of clouds and thick darkness with no light in it"
(Joel 2:2; Zeph. 1:15) and the translators have, seemingly, generally, tried
to harmonize the translations. But not so; the day here referred to by Zechariah
as only partially bright is the Millennial day, although in it the Sun of righteousness will arise and
shine, to scatter earth's miasma of sin and superstition and death. It will
nevertheless be only partially bright, because throughout it will be dealing
with generation after generation of the fallen race as brought from the tomb,
and in various stages of restitution toward perfection. But how refreshing it
is to be assured that in that day of the reestablishment of Jehovah's feet upon
his footstool, there shall be no more "thick darkness"; and that at
the close of that Millennial Day, instead of growing darker, the world will
only have reached the high noon of its "light of the knowledge of
Jehovah"; and that its sun shall never set. The
reference to the rivers of living waters flowing from Jerusalem, during this
Millennial Day of the reestablishment of Jehovah's feet upon his footstool
(Zech. 14:8, 9), reminds us of the corresponding testimony of Ezekiel (Eze.
47:1-12) and of John's Revelation (Rev. 22:1, 2) which, under this same symbol
of living waters proceeding from the throne of the Millennial Kingdom, show us
the restitution blessings under the symbols of "waters of life," to
which whosoever will may come and drink freely, and fruitful trees of life
everlasting whose leaves will heal the repentant peoples of earth of all imperfections. Ah
yes! "In that day the Lord shall be King over all the earth"; His Kingdom shall
have come as his faithful have long prayed; and by the end of that day his will
shall be done on earth even as it is done in heaven. God's footstool shall then
be glorious indeed: as it is written: "As
truly as I live, the whole earth shall be filled with the glory of Jehovah"
(Num. 14:21;
Isa. 11:9; Hab. 2:14).
- C.
T. Russell (in Scripture Studies, Vol. 4). Day of Grace
SINCE the Apostles
"fell asleep" a number of Christian scholars, particularly those
living during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, testified to their
belief in a hope which extended beyond the grave-that probation for eternal
life does not end for all mankind when this present earthly life ends. While such
scholars, in other respects, were not fully aware of the truths in the Divine
Plan which have been unfolded in the clearer light of our day they,
nevertheless, did see and preached this hope. Albert O. Hudson, editor of
the Bible Study Monthly, well and favorably known to our readers, addresses
himself to this subject in his new book Future Probation in Christian
Belief. With his permission, we present below the third of a series of
seven articles excerpted from that book. It
is laid down in the Gospels that Jesus Christ is the "true light which
lighteth every man that cometh into the world" (John 1:9). Unless every
man who comes into the world is at some time brought face to face with the
radiance of Christ that text has no meaning and Scripture is unreliable. Upon
one occasion Jesus said He came to seek and save that which was lost and upon
another that He had come that men might have life, superabundant life. (Luke
19:10; John 10:10). In his parables of the lost sheep and the lost piece of
silver He shows how intense is his endeavour to seek the lost among mankind and
give life to those who will to have it and this in turn demands that he leave
no stone unturned, as it were, to achieve his object. There is no warrant for
exceptions; in some way or another every human being ever born must at some
time in his experience have that enlightenment. In the final stage of mankind's
probationary experience before the ages of eternity begin, there comes a
broadcast invitation "the Spirit and the Bride say 'Come ... and whosoever
will, let him take the water of life freely'" (Rev. 22:17). That
expression "whosoever will" is a travesty if it does not imply that
every man has by that time attained sufficient of knowledge and opportunity to
realize what the invitation involves and is sufficiently free from the
external power and influence of evil and of the Devil to have ability to accept
it. If it is indeed the Divine will, as St. Paul in 2 Timothy 2:4 says it is,
to "have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the
truth," then quite obviously God has provided at least for all men to come
to that knowledge even although conceivably some may in the outcome refuse to
be saved. If
all this be true, it involves the obvious difficulty that many -- the greater
proportion -- of men have lived their lives, and died, without having so much
as heard of the Name in which alone they may find life. Even among those
nations to which Christ has been preached, there are the mentally sick, those
who have died before reaching years of discretion, and, too, so many to whom
Christ has been presented in so miserably distorted a fashion that by no
stretch of the imagination could it be said that they have heard the Gospel.
Despite all the efforts of all the missionaries and evangelists and Christian
workers for two thousand years past, the fact must be accepted that the
majority of men pass into death without in any sense of the word coming into
vital contact with Divine truth or knowing anything of the issues which are
eventually to determine their destiny. Of this second half of the twentieth
century in which we live, there are the teeming millions of China, over a
quarter of the entire world population, practically entirely without knowledge
of the Name; India, Russia, Africa, the Arab world, the greater part of whose
peoples know nothing of the Name; in this materialistic irreligious Western
world of ours how many of the contemporary generations have ever heard of
Christ except perhaps as a character in some film or musical feature in which
none of the vital attributes of the real Christ are displayed. One recent
estimate is that three-fifths of the living population of the earth have not
heard, and to their dying day will not hear, anything at all about Christ, that
He came to earth that "whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but
have everlasting life." And this is one generation only, the generation
which by reason of the tremendous increase in travel and diffusion of knowledge
characteristic of our day might be expected, of all generations, to have the
best opportunity at least to hear of his Name. Of the remaining twofifths, by
far the greater proportion have not had the claims and the call of Christ
presented to them in anything like a sufficiently adequate fashion to give
them a true impression of what it is all about. Of three and a half thousand
millions now living, over two thousand millions will never hear the Name in
this life, and will inevitably die without having made that decision and
profession which is the essential condition for entry into eternal life. What
is the Divine purpose for these, and others like them of past generations, all
creatures of God's hands, to whom He has given life and endowed with such marvellous
potentialities? Medieval
theology had a simple answer. These are the non-elect, born outside the purpose
of God and destined to be cast away as the wastage of his Creation. Later
thought rejected this callous dismissal of the problem and a number of
hypotheses have been suggested through the years and found acceptance in many
quarters although they are hypotheses only without Scriptural foundation and in
some cases are directly at variance with the basic principles of Scripture. The
greatest problem is concerned with those who never knew, the "unsaved
heathen," those who never had Christ preached to them, which includes not
only so many in all Christian ages but also the whole of the ancient world
before Christ came. His Name obviously could not have been preached to these
latter. All these, it is so often suggested, will be saved in their ignorance
provided they have lived good lives according to their own light and
understanding. Strangely, however, if at some time in their experience they
should have Christ preached to them, and, in the exercise of that same
understanding, fail to be convinced and so do not believe, they are lost
forever, having rejected the opportunity. That is the orthodox Christian
theology and constitutes much of the driving force behind missionary endeavor
and evangelistic revival efforts. One might be pardoned for suggesting that if
this be indeed the case and all that is necessary to salvation is a good and
honest life, with or without Christ, it were better that the Christian evangel
be not preached to the ignorant, for without it they would certainly be saved
whereas with it the issue could be in doubt! As
illustrating the abysmal ignorance of Christianity characteristic of the
modern western world, Rowntree, some twenty-five years ago, in English Life and Leisure, cites the case of one
observer who overheard a snatch of conversation between a young couple looking
into a shop window in which a crucifix was displayed. "Look at that little
figure of a man on a cross" exclaimed the girl; "I've seen them
before. There must be a story behind it. I wonder what it is!"
"Something to do with the Bible, I believe" her companion answered
vaguely, and the pair moved off. An ordinary young couple, probably looking
forward to all that life had to offer them, but a life in which Christ would
have no place because they had never heard of him. Not good enough for heaven,
certainly on that account; but, do they really deserve the alternative, without
first having a chance? A
somewhat related case is that of babies and children dying young before they
could be capable of understanding the Gospel, and of mentally deficient
individuals who are incapable of understanding it anyway. Are these also to be
accounted failures of the Divine creative Spirit, waste material not coming up
to standard and so discarded? Not so, say the hearts of Christian thinkers;
despite the conditions laid down by the Scriptures, these must be accorded
entry into the future felicity where they will no longer be immature or
irresponsible. Because of their innocence, or because of their deficiency,
they must be excused the necessity of believing into Christ and will thus be
saved nevertheless. Some old-time ministers used to enthuse over the early
demise of some sweet child on the ground that it had not lived long enough to
sin and therefore had ensured its eternal salvation. Here again it would
logically follow that the surest aid to the attainment of heaven is inability
to understand or fulfill the conditions laid down for entry! A
factor which is often slurred over is the position of intelligent professors of
other religious faiths -- the Jew, the Moslem, the Buddhist, and so on. None of
these faiths give Christ his rightful place even although the Jew and the
Moslem worship the same God as does the Christian. When one considers the
outstanding witness and faithfulness to God and his righteousness manifested by
so many sons of Israel in ancient times and the continuing witness preserved by
at least a remnant among them during this present Christian Age it would seem
illogical to deny such a place of some kind in the future Divine purpose; and
yet, these same stalwarts either never accepted Christ because they lived
before his Advent or, in the case of many who lived in later times, definitely
opposed and repudiated him. This, too, despite their loyalty to the God of
Israel who is also the God of the Christian. The dilemma here is, are they
admitted to eternal felicity because of their faithfulness to God despite their
denial of Christ, or are they doomed forever because of their denial of Christ
despite their faithfulness to God? Something
of the same kind applies to the sincere Moslem. It is sometimes forgotten in
Christian circles that the lifework of Mahomet was to replace idol and Nature
worship among the Arabs by the worship and service of the One true God, and to
Mahomet that God was the One also reverenced by the Jews. The excesses
committed by his followers have diverted attention from the higher aspects of
the Moslem faith and many do not stop to consider that so-called Christians
were doing much the same kind of things to fellow Christians or to Jews at
much the same time in history. It remains that through" the ages there
have been many high-minded men among the followers of the Arabian prophet who
have manifested a valid understanding of the ways of God and a sterling faith
in him. The Moslem differs from the orthodox Jew in that he holds Jesus of
Nazareth to have been a prophet sent from God although only ranking with Moses
and Elijah and Mahomet. The lives of many such men compare equally with those
of many sincere Christians and the only fundamental difference is their
refusal to accept the Divinity of Christ and to place their trust in him as Saviour
and Lord. They are sincere in their allegiance to God, but they will not accept
his Son. The same dilemma presents itself as with the Jew. Consider
also adherents to the faith preached by Gautama Buddha. Buddhism is a newer
faith than is Christianity, only some thirteen centuries old, but even so has
spread through most Eastern lands and to a great extent supplanted Christianity
in those lands. Even Western countries are being penetrated nowadays and a European
Buddhist is no longer a rarity. It is a gentle religion and many who espouse it
are good people, but they have no place in their philosophy for the redeeming
work of Christ. In the countries where it is the faith of the masses it has
become institutionalised and debased just as has Christianity under similar
circumstances, but the fact remainsi that a substantial proportion of mankind
-- some two hundred millions of the present generation alone -- are living and
dying in the Buddhist faith and without Christ. Yet in their lives and actions
and characters they are, many of them, amenable to the principles which Jesus
proclaimed when He was upon earth; they live his kind of life and practice his
precepts without knowing or acknowledging him. Like the lawyer of Jesus' day
who "answered discreetly," they are "not far from the Kingdom of
God"; but, will they ever get in? Faced
with this imposing array of candidates for eternal life or the reverse,
reluctant to endorse the old medieval certainty that they are all irrevocably
lost souls, and yet conscious of the New Testament insistence that without
complete profession of faith in Christ and the merit of his death on man's
behalf, and dedication of life to him, there can be no salvation, the problem
is usually tacitly shelved. It is very customary to meet with the suggestion
that God has not revealed his Will in these matters, that the "Judge of
all the earth" will assuredly "do right" and that we are best
advised to leave the matter with him. Now with all possible respect for the
sincerity of the oft-times eminent leaders of thought, and others, who speak
thus, this is simply not good enough! The whole basis of the Christian mission
is involved. The followers of Christ are commissioned --nay, commanded -- to
preach the gospel in all the world "for a witness" until the end of
the Age has come. The kernel and core of that witness is, "believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." It is vital that the
evangelist is not only informed, but positively confident, of the implications
both for those whom he does succeed in reaching and those whom he fails to
reach. The Christian worker or missionary who is admittedly uncertain or
ignorant as to the conditions upon which entry into the life of the future can
be had is not likely to be a very efficient representative of the Lord Christ.
In practice the trumpet gives an uncertain sound; the traditional evangelist
proclaims faith in and acceptance of Christ as essential whilst the modern
theologian increasingly holds that the ignorant, the immature, the incapable,
the honest devotee of a non-Christian faith, will be saved at the end by the
grace of God, and the merit of Christ's death, even though he has not
intelligently taken that to himself. The
logical inference from this increasingly generally held position would be that
the population of the future eternal realm when God has finished his work with
mankind will consist for the most part-by far the most part -- of people who
know nothing of the offering for sin made on their behalf by the Lord Jesus
Christ, nothing of his saving power, nothing of the Father -- Creator and his
love for man, little or nothing of the standards of right-doing which are the
laws of creation and by which their lives must henceforward be governed. They
will find themselves in a world they never expected to see and for which they
are totally unprepared, one in which the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory, is supreme and thus acknowledged by those
who did know him in the former life. They will be quite unable to join in that
acknowledgment and allegiance and worship because they do not know him. This
new world into which they have entered will be strange and alien and one for
which they are completely unprepared and unfitted. And there is no guarantee
that they, or at any rate some of them, are going to be willing to conform to
its standards. Unless the man is truly converted and from his heart desires and
accepts the ways of God, eternal life in the heavenly world could easily become
an intolerable burden. Faced with this situation in
the celestial realm one would expect the company of the redeemed, the community
of convinced and faithful Christians who have already attained eternal life, to
set out straight away on a massive campaign of evangelizing and conversion with
the object of enlightening these who had thus been admitted to Heaven on account
of ignorance, immaturity or incapacity, without having accepted Christ, that
they might eventually yield themselves in intelligent and willing allegiance to
him. In fact, if such a company of the unconverted is to be admitted to the
heavenly life it cannot be conceived that their unconverted state would be
tolerated to all eternity. It surely must be obvious that, if for any reason
any did attain the future life without Christ, they would not long be permitted
to remain without him; it has to be remembered that in the consummation every
knee will bow to Christ and every tongue confess him as Lord, to the glory of
God the Father. Christ will be All in All, and will fill all things. That
demands that the unconverted and the unregenerate will either become converted
and regenerate, or they will not remain there. So, if it is indeed that God
relaxes the conditions to allow the ignorant and so on into the heavenly land,
it is only because He purposes immediately thereafter to set about their
instruction and conversion. That is hardly the orthodox
idea of Heaven. And yet -- is it possible that the instinct of so many good
Christian people and serious Christian thinkers is rightly founded, that the
all-wise and all-loving Father of all has provided for the ignorant, the
immature, the incapable, whose disabilities are inevitable in the world as it
now exists and has been so made by the shortcomings of man, so that even their
untimely deaths do not debar them from all hope? Is it possible that the
Scriptures do justify the expectation of some such condition of things as has
just been described, reconciling Divine insistence that eternal life is only
through knowledge and acceptance of Christ with the apparent enigma that God
has not ensured that all men are given that knowledge and consequent opportunity
in this present life? Is it possible that the Day of Grace in which repentance
and conversion and reconciliation with God is possible, ends, not at the close
of the individual's life on earth, but at the bar of the final Day of judgment,
by which time the individual will have had a further span of experience under
conditions which ensure that he receives the knowledge and opportunity which he
only partially had, or perhaps never had, during his first earthly life? It has
been pointed out by many soundly informed preachers and writers that the
eternal destiny of the individual is determined, not at death, but at the Day
of judgment; this involves an intermediate period during which repentance and
conversion must still be possible. On such basis the problem of who shall be
saved ceases to be a problem; the New Testament insistence that salvation is
only through acceptance of Christ is upheld and there will not be one of all
earth's millions who will not eventually attain to the full knowledge of Christ
and make his decision accordingly. If any man fails to enter in at the last, it
will not be because of his ignorance or his incapacity to understand, but
because after being brought to a full knowledge of the Truth and understanding
clearly the issues involved, he deliberately and consciously chooses evil
rather than good, and reaps the consequences accordingly. A leading modern Anglican
theologian, R. H. Charles, has said (Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life) "the idea that forgiveness is impossible in the
next life has only to be stated in order to be rejected, for till absolute
fixity of character is reached, repentance and forgiveness, being moral acts,
must be possible under a perfectly moral Being." This is an important
principle; until a man has deliberately rendered himself incapable of
repentance .. . there must always remain the possibility, whether death has
intervened or not. The love of God and the appeal of the Gospel transcends the
grave. It is necessary therefore to distinguish between the position before God
of the individual at death and at the final judgment of mankind at the end.
This was stressed more than a century ago by the celebrated Methodist
theologian, Dr. W. B. Pope, who said "the fixed and unalterable state of
man is always associated with the Day of judgment and its issues, and not with
the day of death. We must not antedate these issues or interfere with the full
work of probation." When therefore Jesus spoke of the men of Jonah's Nineveh finding things in the Day of judgment "more tolerable" than the unrepentant generation of his own day; when Paul told the men of Athens that God had "looked beyond" the "times of ignorance" and appointed a Day in the which he would judge the world in righteousness; when Peter talked about the coming again of Jesus Christ to institute "times of restitution of all things promised by all the prophets since the world began"; and James at the first Apostolic Conference foresaw the time when the "residue of men, all the nations" would "call upon the name of the Lord," there was being laid the foundations of an understanding of the Divine purpose which envisaged a universal opportunity for the living and the dead to hear of' the grace of God in Christ. The Question BoxMatthew 10:28
Question: Will you please explain
Matthew 10:28, where we read: "Fear not them which
kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is
able to destroy both soul and body in hell." If we are a soul and do not
possess a soul, how are we to understand the use of "body" and
"soul" in this Scripture? Answer: For a proper understanding of
this text we must first ascertain the Bible answer to the question: "What
is man?" There are two general views
on this subject which, while each contains elements of truth, are, on the
whole, misleading. One is the socalled orthodox view; the other, the so-called
scientific view. Neither represents the Bible viewpoint, and those who hold
either are thereby prevented from securing the benefit which the Bible
teaching would have on their hearts and lives. The position of orthodox
theology, briefly stated, is that man is a composite being of three parts-body,
spirit, and soul. The body, it is believed, is born after the usual manner of
animal birth, except that at the time of birth God interposes and, in some inscrutable
manner, implants in the body a spirit and a soul which, being parts of God
himself, are indestructible, and therefore can never die. These two parts,
spirit and soul, orthodoxy is unable to separate and distinguish, and hence
uses the terms interchangeably. Scientists answer the
question, "What is man?" by stating that man is an animal of the
highest type yet developed. They offer no suggestion as to a future life for
any individual, but, believing they can trace an evolutionary development of
mankind in past ages, are disposed to the view that the race may by natural
processes (and apart from the power and purpose of a personal God) yet be
developed into a superior condition to that of the present. The Bible answer to the
question recognizes man as composed of two elements, body and spirit. By body
is meant the physical organism; by spirit, the animating power-the breath of
life. The union of these two elements produces the man himself, the sentient
being -- the soul. As we read in Genesis 2:7: "The Lord God formed man of
the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and
man became a living soul." The Greek word twice rendered
"soul" in our text is psuche. It
is frequently translated "life" and indeed is so translated a little
later in this same discourse of our Lord. "He that findeth his life shall
lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it" (v. 39).
This variation in translation has served to confuse, creating the impression
that "life" is one thing and "soul" another, and that a man
might lose his life without losing his soul. Such confusion is particularly
noticeable in Mark 8:35-37: "Whosoever will save his life shall lose it;
but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall
save it. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and
lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" In
this passage the word psuche is twice translated
"life" and twice "soul." Had the word been uniformly
translated the truth would not have been obscured. In the light of the foregoing
discussion let us return to Matthew 10:28. What does our Lord mean when he
says: "Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the
soul?" Does he mean that when the body is killed there is a mysterious,
invisible something called a soul, which men are not able to kill, and which,
therefore, escapes death at their hands and continues to live on apart from the
body? Such is the orthodox view, which, as we have indicated, we cannot share.
But even those who hold it should be on guard against embracing the further
error of supposing that such an escaped soul is possessed of the quality of
immortality -- deathlessness. The closing words of this very verse make that
plain. They speak of one (God himself) who has the power to destroy both soul
and body. But, if the orthodox view be
wrong, what is the proper one? I answer: Our Lord well knew that when men
killed the body, they then and there destroyed also the present life, the soul,
the sentient being. He was not denying this obvious fact. The disciples,
however, had hope of a future life-a life beyond the power of the killer to
harm, much less to destroy. This hope of life came to them through the
Gospel came as the result of the redemption provided by God himself, through
the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus. This hope of a future life was shortly to be
confirmed to them by our Lord's resurrection from the dead. Because he lived
they would have grounds for believing that they, too, would live. The present life they would
lose, whether men killed their body or not they would lose it in old age if not
sooner. But their future life, their prospect for eternity-this lay in the
power of God. He it is, then, and not men, whom they should fear. Benjamin Wilson, in the Emphatic Diaglott translation, by using the word "life" and by
supplying the word "future" has given us what we cannot but believe
is the true meaning of our Lord's words. We close this discussion by quoting
his translation, which reads as follows: "Be not afraid of those
who kill the body, but cannot destroy the (future) life; but rather fear him
who can utterly destroy both life and body in Gehenna." -
P. L Read Entered Into Rest
|
