POOREST and the
RICHEST
the
by Harry Bowling
talents on a futile crusade! Could one man set himself against the whole world? He had no organization to back him; no repre sentative committee to prepare the way for him; no learned societies to spread abroad the wonders of his new philosophy; no patrons of the fine arts, no recog nized religious bodies to arouse public curiosity in his personality or his preaching. In the wilderness without food, in the crowded city a homeless wanderer, in the halls of the mighty without honor. So he lived and loved and labored and prematurely went to his death. Accepted only by the low ly and the downtrodden to whom he offered no worldly prize or hope of ma terial gain, loved by a mere few who followed him without knowing why. Suspected at first, opposed always and finally feared by the constituted rulers of the land, he was sold for thirty pieces of silver, the price of a slave, delivered over to a foreign governor, condemned to a felon’s death and executed in potter’s field. There his life’s work ended in hopeless failure, as all but a chosen band of devotees firm ly believed. He was the poorest man who ever trod this earth. His name was Jesus of Nazareth. Today He sits at the righthand of God in the glory of the Father and His kingdom shall have no end. W ho shall say who is the poor man and who is the rich man?
H e w a s bom of poor parents in an obscure and despised hamlet. He did nothing to better his worldly position. He fitted himself for no definite trade or profession— spent no time in studying the useful arts or sciences— tilled no soil, raised no crops, sold no goods in the market place. He was careless where practical men are always careful. Apparently he held cheap all that the world holds dear: career, name, fortune, position, for which the best men of his time fought and died. Penniless he came into the world and penniless he left it. To the things of the morrow he gave no thought—to shelter or fuel or food or clothing. If the passer-by offered him bread, he accepted it; if not, he went hungry; or plucked some ears of grain as he walked through the cornfields. He had no fixed abiding place; he slept wherever night overtook him. Surely, according to the materialists, no fife was ever more foolishly frittered away. W hy should he have denied himself the blessings of ,a home? W hy had he no w ife to watch for his goings-out and his comings-in, no children to take up his work when he laid down the burden? He could have had all these things, the rightful heritage of his race. How, indeed, could he expect the world to honor him who cared nothing for the honor of the world? His disappointed neighbors must have shaken their heads ominously at his pitiable lack of ambition. So visionary, such a dreamer, wasting his heaven-bom
the Apocalypse. In Revelation, chap ter 4, the first rhomentous sign which greeted John after he was caught up upon the throne, was that of 24 elders into the presence of Him who sat crowned with golden crowns, clothed in white raiment and seated upon 24 thrones. We ask, Who are these glori ous and privileged individuals found in such close proximity to the throne of God? We look into the passage and see that they cannot be angels. Angels are not redeemed, nor do they wear (concluded on next page) 23
fore the revelation of the Antichrist. Now when we turn back to John 14, verse 16 and read that the Spirit will abide with the Church forever, we must conclude that the removal of the Church will be simultaneous with the removal of the Spirit. Since this will be before the manifestation of the man of sin, it follows that the time of the rapture cannot be post- tribulational. Further evidence for the removal of the Church before the Tribulation is found in a study of the 24 elders of
PROPHECY (cont.) Lord] shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalt- eth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” All of this will be fulfilled during the Tribulation, and Antichrist is that “man of sin.” The passage de clares that the Holy Spirit of God will be removed from this world be
AUGUST, I960
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