66
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
February 1930
degradation, the power to fill his soul with the knowledge and the peace of God. II. T he S even S upernatural F acts of C hristianity Seven great outstanding facts of a supernatural char acter constitute Christianity. These facts are not found anywhere else. And these great facts are in our day at tacked ; the attempt is made to set them aside. Modernism tries to strip Christianity of these supernatural facts and thus reduce our holy Christianity to the level of a com mon, man-made religion. We are fighting for this today. 1. First of all, Christianity has a supernatural foun dation upon which it rests. This foutidation is that part of the Bible which we call “ The Old Testament.” It is the historical and prophetical revelation of God. During sev eral thousand years we see God manifesting Himself in dealing with man; we hear God speaking by the prophets. All is a harmonious whole. There is no clash anywhere. God promises in prophecy how He will meet the need of His creature through the suffering and the glory of One who should come into the world. Such a harmonious revelation of God as that found in the Old Testament is unknown in the so-called Sacred Writings of the East. They are nothing but miserable productions from beneath, of this world. But in the Old Testament God speaks. The criticism and rejection of the Old Testament is therefore a very serious thing. It means nothing less than the destruction of the foundation of Christianity. Impeach the truthfulness of the Old Tes tament and you must impeach Christ and finally all true Christianity. This has often been demonstrated by men who started with the destructive criticism of the Word of God and ended as Christ and Gospel rejecters. 2. The second supernatural fact is the Person of Christ. Announced as He was to come, He came at the appointed time. What a wonderful fact it is that He spoke so often of “ coming into the world.” I came into the world! No religious teacher ever said this. This one word “ came” necessitates preexistence. And equally won derful is the fact that over and over again He spoke of being “ sent”— sent by God. He came; He was sent. Both statements but confirm His self-witness, “ I am from above; I am not o f this world.” And how did He come ? How was He sent ? Did He come as any other human being comes into the world? That would mean by the natural generation. If so, then He did not speak the truth when He said “ I am from above; I am not o f this world.” But He came in a super natural way. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit; He was born of the Virgin. They tell tis that the Virgin Birth has but slender support in the Bible. They claim that Matthew’s and Luke’s accounts are legendary and untrustworthy; that He never made a claim of Virgin Birth. He did not? Then what does it mean when He said “ I am frbin above—I am not of this world” ? How can we explain these words? There is but one way—He spoke of the supernatural way in which He entered His own world. And pray how can the wonderful person o f the Lord Jesus Christ be satisfactorily explained apart from His virgin birth? I wish some outstanding Evolutionist would explain Him by the laws of evolution. Here is this ma jestic figure, towering above the rest of humanity, living 1,900 years ago, displaying in that life an unsearchable and inexhaustible moral glory, doing deeds of mercy and power, speaking infinite wisdom; and never another one like Him. Please .explain!
" He Cares” (Ps. 121:3,4) B y G eorge H all Why limit God by our poor finite sense? God is not circumscribed by the small threads We seek to weave ’round His omnipotence. He holds the universe, controls the rolling spheres, He knows no time, this little span called years. I f God were dead, then might we well despair, Or were H e ill disposed to answer prayer, Then were there cause for apprehensive fear; But love hath conquered death and vanquished hell, ■'- Thus in a Risen Christ all things ARE well. presence of God. From that presence he carried in his bosom what still is found in every human breast. It is a threefold consciousness : God-consciousness, sin-con sciousness, and eternity-consciousness. Thus the race started with the knowledge of God. What happened is more ,fully revealed in that master document which Coleridge called “ the profoundest docu ment ever placed in human hands,” the Epistle to the Romans. Here we read in the first chapter : “ Because that which may be known o f God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it untò them. For the invisible things of him from the creation o f the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.” Just what we have said, man knew God. But furthermore we read r “ BeébàSe ‘that, when they knew God, they glori fied him nói: as' God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imagination, and their foolish heart zvas darkened. Professing. themselves to be zvise they became fools. And changed the glory o f the uncorruptible God into an imcCge made like to corruptible' man, and to four- footed beasts, fdnd' ’creeping things.” Here we have an inspired account of the origin and growth of religion. Man started with the knowledge of God. He turned away from God and the knowledge he had received. Then he tried, to find out God by searching, to know God by wisdom, to fifidj^a tyay back to God, to be reconciled, and tried to solve the'enigma of endless existence. He drifted from error to error. Thus the hundreds upon hundreds of religious systems and beliefs came into existence. They became idolaters and went down deeper and deeper, with a corresponding moral degradation. But listen ! All these religious systems, even the highest, like Brahmanism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, could not bring God to man; nor could they bring man back to God, nor satisfy the needs o f .the human soul. ■ Here then is our question: “ Is Christianity a reli gion?’’ Can Christianity be classed with systems which search for the truth? A thousand times, NO ! It is not a religion. It cannot be compared with the religious strivings of the race. Christianity is not from beneath; is not of this world ; it is a supernatural revelation. God comes to manpén and through the Person of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ; reveals Himself in Christ and reveals the truth which is unattainable by searching. And more than.that: Christianity has what no religion' has, the power to save man, the power to bring him back from sin and
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