What does all this mean? It means that only our Lord Himself can bring in everlasting righteousness and peace. It means that all the prophetic Scriptures, which tell us that He will one day do this very thing, following the greatest tribulation the world has ever known, will be literally ful filled. It means that only God Him self could have written such proph ecy, hundreds of years before it be gan to be fulfilled. It means that an intelligent person can believe the Bible. And it means that only those who do believe it, in its entirety, are really wise! MARVELOUS U N IT Y OF TH E BIBLE The marvelous unity of the Bible bears testimony to its inspiration by God’s Holy Spirit. It was written over a period of fifteen hundred years or more; it is composed of sixty-six books, written by at least forty different human authors, in three different languages—Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. These men, through whom God wrote the Bible, represented every walk of life; for among them were lawgiver, poet, judge, shepherd, king, fisherman. Such circumstances would ordinarily make for anything but unity; yet we have this one Book, with one mes sage, telling the story of the one and only Saviour of men. Prophecy and history, law and psalm, proverb, parable, and sermon, whether poetry or prose—all tell the story of sal vation from sin by faith in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us suppose, for a moment, that 1,500 years ago, a man went to a marble quarry, took five blocks of marble, and placed them in an open field. Many years after his death a second man came along and placed three stones upon the five. Then two hundred years later another man placed seven stones upon the eight; and so on for 1,500 years. Through the passing centuries, other men and still others, who never saw those who went before them, continued to bring blocks of marble from the same quarry, and placed them upon the same pile, until forty men had brought s ix t y -s ix blocks. What would you expect to see? Only a pile of stones. But suppose, instead, a perfectly chiseled statue stood before you? How could you explain that? Only in one way, that some great master mind had planned the work, and that each of the forty workmen had wrought according to the plan and under the direction of a known de signer. In just that way the Bible was constructed. The infinitely wise God designed it; the forty men who con-
come upon us . . . Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. . . . Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. . . . For the coming of the Lord draweth nigh” (James 5:1-8). “ But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them and bring upon them selves swift destruction” (I Peter 2:1; cf. verses 1-22). “ . . . there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming?” (II Peter 3:3, 4; cf. verses 3-18). “ Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets
these remarkable prophecies: “Wars and rumors of w a rs” (Matt. 24.6). “ Famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places” (Matt. 24:7). Hatred of the Jew (Matt. 24:9). “ False prophets” (Matt. 24:11). “ Great tribulation” (Matt. 24:15- 22), brought upon Israel and the whole world by the Antichrist (Matt. 24:15). Godlessness and indifference to spiritual things (Matt. 24:37-42). The true and the false professing Christendom at C h rist’s return (Matt. 25:1-30), Turning back to Daniel again, we hear him telling us that at “ the time of the end” many should “ run to and fro,” and that “knowledge” should “be in crea sed .” (See Dan. 12:4.)
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“How else can an intelligent person account for the present day fulfillment of things written so many centuries ago? Only God has the power to look into the future.”
are gone out into the world” (I John 4:1 ). “ But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; how that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own un godly lusts” (Jude 17, 18; cf. verses 1-25). Thank God! He always has a faith ful group of disciples in the world in every age! And today there are millions who give Him heart-alle giance, trusting in the shed blood of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, for their salvation. But the men who, not so many years ago, stood in our pulpits and declared that the world would get better and better until the church would “bring in the king dom,” have to admit today that the world is not better; that it is def initely in the worst condition known to man; and that the church is grow ing ever-increasingly cold, rather than more and more evangelistic.
What an up-to-date description of the rapid transportation, of the sci entific advancement, and of the in creased educational opportunities for millions in the world today! The apostles, also, foresaw condi tions as they would prevail at the close of the church age. Both Peter and Paul wrote of unbelief in pro fessing Christendom, of lawlessness and godlessness, of scoffers and skep tics. So did Jude and James and John. We quote just a few of their writings, which speak for them selves : “ . . . that day shall not come, ex cept there be a falling away (apos tasy) first . . .” (II Thess. 2:3; cf. verses 1:12). “ Now the Spirit speaketh express ly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doc trines of demons . . .” (I Tim. 4:1; cf. verses 1-13). “Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall
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MAY, 1965
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