APRIL • 1939
The Bible Family Magazine
H. Armstrong Roberts
“And with the grace of God bestowed, ’Tis springtime in my heart.”
A MISSION . . .
" T o " T h e
A
Life in Migrant Camps •
Bible Institute Plans an Evangelistic Mission to Dust-Bowl Derelicts STUDENTS TO SPEND VACATION IN ONE OF NATION’S
GREATEST MISSION FIELDS “Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.” Luke 14:23.
In California’s prairie slums lies a great challenge. “Squatting” in ragged tents beside the road, living in crude tin shacks in fields, lying uncovered beneath the trees, huddled in gipsy camps and community motor courts, or living in thirty-nine state relief camps, is an estimated population of one million migrants (Los Angeles T im es) who are eking out a precarious existence with out home or hope.
Dying—And Without The W ord o f God
A Golden Opportunity for Christian Work
The camp population offers a very real opportunity for Christian work. Men out of employment are in a mood to review their own lives and to listen to the Scriptures when God’s Word is presented in a spirit of humble com passion. Decisions thus made are for eternity.
m
meeting with singing of old-fashioned hymns and the presentation of the old- fashioned gospel message. All the members of the student teams will give special atten tion to personal work throughout each day. They will make earnest attempts to secure definite decisions. The distribution of Gos pels, Testaments, and tracts will be an im portant feature at each meeting. The students plan to keep careful records and to organize the whole campaign on a thoroughly systematic basis. An Appeal for Your Cooperation Money is urgently needed for beginning this work at the close of the Institute’s spring term on June 8. The young men will travel by cars and will sleep in trailers, when these can be provided. Thus easy movement from one migrant section to another will be facilitated. It is hoped that $3,000 may be raised to launch this venture. This sum must be paid or pledged without delay, and Institute students are praying daily that God will move upon the hearts of His stewards to aid in this work. Trailers and cars are as useful as money, but cash is essential for the purchase of tracts and Testamehts and for the unavoidable expenses of travel. It has been decided to call the fund set apart for this work the MIGRANT MIS SION FUND, and to accept cash or pledges based on a five-months’ basis, thus-enabling the whole sum to be collected between April 1 and September 1, 1939. Will you please make this Work a matter of special prayer, and if possible, add your pledge or gift at once? The number of teams will be de pendent upon the amount received for this purpose.
Bible Institute Students to Supply Need
Young men students of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles have volunteered to go out in gospel teams, four in each team, organ ized for preaching and singing. The work will be under the supervision of the Direc tor of Practical Work, S. H. Sutherland. An experienced instrumentalist in each group will aid in presenting the gospel mes sage in music. These team members will hold services and will go to deal with individuals in their roadside hovels as well as in the organized camps of the State Relief Administration. In this desolation of poverty and despair, they will present the Word of God to bring hope to the hopeless and life to the dying. “Man’s Extremity Is God’s Opportunity” The students will work in line with a defi nite plan. Each morning they will hold Bible classes for the mothers and other residents in the camp itself, with the object of stirring memories toward other and better days when the church was the heart and center of the community life. In the after noon there will be Child Evangelism meet ings with special services for the young people, and in the evening, a big gospel
A Fertile Field for Child Evangelism iMLUMttS,
Many Mothers Must Live Like This. What If It Were Your Mother?
M I G R A N T M I S S I O N F UND BIB LE INSTITUTE OF LOS ANGELES, INCORPORATED 558 SOUTH HOPE STREET, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA O I am enclosing $.....................................as my gift to the MIGRANT MISSION FUND which you are establishing. □ I will pledge $.......................................monthly for five months beginning April I, 1939, to the MIGRANT MISSION FUND that you are organizing. O I will donate the use of an automobile or trailer for your work among California migrants.
Name................____............................................................;......................_......... Street...........................................................„..r............tyt.;!,.','__________________
.State.
City.
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April, 1939
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
BIOLA
FOR STUDENT • TEACHER PASTOR •MISSIONARY SUMMER BIBLE SCHOOL
Louis T. Talbot, D.D., President
Kenneth M. Monroe, Th.D., Acting Dean
BIBLE INSTITUTE OF LOS ANGELES
Los Angeles, California
558 South Hope Street
COURSES OFFERED
BIBLE:
Bible Synthesis— John A . H u bba rd , D .D . Bible Exposition— Samuel H . Sutherland, T h .B . CHR ISTIAN EDUCATION : Biblical Pedagogy— N adine K . W a rner, B .A . Sunday and Vacation Bible School Organization Public Speaking— Wm . Harllee Bordeaux, B.A. English— lo n e Lowman, B .S. MUSIC: Conducting I— H erb ert G. Tov ey , M us.D ., D .D . Music Fundamentals— John B. T row bridge, M .A ., Mus.D. History and Appreciation of Music— Paul Hultman.
John A. Hubbard
Herbert G. Tovey
■Mrs. Gordon E . H ooker
Hymnology— D r. Trowbridge. Harmony I— M r. Hultman.
Mrs. G. E. Hooker
Nadine K. Warner
¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ P I I
lone Lowman
Paul Hultman
S. H. Sutherland
J. B. Trowbridge
W. H. Bordeaux
April, 1939
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
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Our Friends Write Us Concerning the "Widow's Mite" STRIKING OF SACRED COIN BRINGS APPROVING LETTERS Pastors and Sunday-School Workers Enthusiastic There are so few mementos of the earthly lifetime of our Lord. which the Bible Institute of Los Angeles has secured, authenticated, and is now circulating in faithful reproduc tions of the ancient coin.
To walk the paths that His feet have trod; to stand on the hilltops from which He gazed; to feel the fresh breath of the dawn over Galilee, or to watch the sunset over the mountains of Moab— these privileges are reserved for the fortunate few who can visit the Holy Land. But even to the traveler there are many disappoint ments. There are no buildings of Herod’s Temple now stand ing, and Jerusalem is completely changed. Only the sky and the sea, the mountains and the hills, the lakes and rivers—and, strange to say, the coins unearthed by the spade of the archeologist—remain unaltered by the slow passing of the centuries. We believe that it is the deep longing that all Chris tians everywhere feel to visualize some phase of the actual life of gospel days which has attracted the attention of many of God’s stewards to the tiny “Widow’s Mites”
Pastors, Sunday-School teachers, and personal workers welcome the opportunity to secure a replica of the little copper coin—now available for the first time, we believe, in nearly two thousand years—which in the hands of the widow of the Gospel records was commended by the Lord. It is the divinely appointed symbol of sacrificial giving. Personal workers find the coins invaluable in contact ing and interesting the unsaved. Pastors use them as aids in their budget planning. Sunday-school teachers distri bute these inexpensive tokens to their classes. Mounted in permanent form, they become presents that will be kept by the recipients as valued keepsakes.
But read a few of the many letters we have received from all parts of the country, and see how deeply the Christian conscience has been touched by these tiny pieces of bronze from the gospel days of old. L E T T E R S A C K N O W L E D G I N G T H E W I D O W ' S M I T E W IDOW ’S M ITE INSPIRES SUNDAY- SCHOOL CLASS SENDS £5.00 FOR W IDOW ’S M ITE Los Angeles, Calif. Feb. 2, 1939 PLANS TO GIVE W IDOW ’S M ITE TO SUNDAY-SCHOOL CLASS Rainier, Ore. Feb. 20, 1939 Dear Friends: Beverly, Kans. Feb. 23, 1939 ‘
Dear Friends: , I received the folder with a mite attached; so I am enclosing £5.00 to the Institute in the cause of the mite. I shall always cherish it, and I pray it will help me to sacrifice for the Lord’s work as it did her who of old put into the Lord’s treasury all she had. Yours sincerely, — Mrs. J . K. • PASTOR TREASURES W IDOW ’S M ITE Binghamton, N .Y. Feb. 10, 1939 Dear Biola Friends: I have received your letter and the widow’s mite it contained. I certainly appreciate the gift, and I consider myself to be fortunate as the owner of that famous coin that received the blessing of the blessed Saviour 1,900 years ago. Fraternally yours, — Rev. D. F. U. Dear Friends of Biola: I appreciated the widow’s mite you sent me, and I expect to use it in my message tomorrow, if the Lord so wills, as that is the day our church lifts their achievement offering for missions and church service. In other words we endeavor to “balance the budget.” Yours in the Master’s service, — L. W. PLEDGES MONTHLY CONTRIBUTION FOR W IDOW ’S M ITB Portland, Ore. Dear Sirs: I am grateful to you for sending the widow’s mite. It is a beautiful thing to own, and I am sending £1.00 now and hope to continue to send the same each month as long as I can. I shall be glad to shoW the widow’s mite to others, and per haps they will want the coin, too. In Him, — Mrs. M. H. PASTOR USES W IDOW ’S M ITE IN M ISSION COLLECTION Macdoel, Calif. Feb. 11, 1939
Dear Sirs: Enclosed find check for £3.25^ from the “Fidel ity Sunday-School Class” of this place. After I told them of the “mite” which you sent me, this amount was voluntarily given to be sent you for your work. May God use it as the loaves and fishes were used, and I pray that many more of my class may be awakened to the need of God’s work. W ISHES W IDOW ’S M ITE SET AS A PIN Phoenix, Ariz. Feb. 8, 1939 Dear Sirs: . . . As to the widow’s mite, I should like it set as a pin. It is quite an unusual gift, and I do appreciate it sincerely. Thank you. May the Lord greatly bless the work done in the Bible Institute, and also those who go forth to carry the precious Word. 9 In His Name, — D. R. J. • CARRIES W IDOW ’S M ITE AS POCKET PIECE Washington, D.C. Feb. 16, 1939 Dear Friends: I received your widow’s mite, and I do ap preciate it. It is not only a very interesting pocket piece, but a most significant one, too— a constant reminder of what we owe the Lord for His good ness and love. I am enclosing £2.00 as a “widow’s mite” gift toward the school and its needs. May God richly bless it and you. Yours in His Name, — Mrs. M. S. • GIVES W IDOW ’S M ITE TO FRIEND Walnut, 111. Feb. 16, 1939 Sirs: I received the widow’s mite and am sending £1.25. Please send me another widow’s mite, as I wish to give It to a friend for a souvenir. Sincerely yours, — Mrs. M. N.
. . . I want you to send me the widow’s mite for the enclosed dollar, please. I have a Sunday- school class, and I wish to buy one for each member when I have more money. God’s blessings, — Mrs. O. ASKS FOR FIVE W IDOW ’S M ITES Brooklyn, N.Y. Feb. 16, 1939 D earSirs: Will you please send me five widow’s mites, which I understand cost 25 cents each. The bal ance of the enclosed money order is to be used for the work of the Institute. I am glad to have this small part in giving my mite toward the great work you are doing. — Miss E. R. • USES W IDOW ’S M ITE TO ILLUSTRATE BIBLE STORY Dear Friends: I am indeed happy that I can send the enclosed gift of £2.00 to you for our precious Lord’s work, and I sincerely pray it may be the means of lead ing one soul to Him. Thank you for the widow’s mite. I do treasure it and I shall be happy to show it and use it in illustrating the Bible story. In His Name, — N. B. REQUESTS W IDOW ’S M ITE FOR A FRIEND Houston, Tex. Feb. 8, 1939 Dear — — : W ill you please hand this check to the school? I received the letter with the widow’s mite, and I appreciate it so much. I showed it t o ----------- and he asked me to send his name in for a letter and a widow’s mite. Perhaps he will send in a check, too. He is greatly interested in the Bible and wishes this letter and mite to use in a lesson sometime. In His service, * — Mrs. B. Kankakee, 111. Feb. 10, 1939
A replica of the Widow’s M ite will be mailed to any friend who will contribute $ 1 .00 or more to the work of the Bible Institute. Additional coins will be sent fo r 10 cents each— a dozen sent postpaid fo r 5 0 cents. THE B I BLE I N S T I T U T E OF L O S A N G E L E S INCORPORATED 9 558 SOUTH HOPE STREET :: :: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA %
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T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
April, 1939
“I Must Help the Jews”
LOUIS T. TALBOT, EdIter-la-Chlef R oy L. L aurin , Associate Editor M ildred M. C ook , Managing Editor
Official Organ af The Bible Institute ef Lee Angeles, Incorporated
®fte S id le T a m ils S f i a t i n e Motto: HUnto him that loved us, and washed us from our sms m his own blood." — R ev . 1:5.
“Everything I have seems going or gone— yet I Must Help the Jews/’ Thus wrote a child of God whose soul had been stirred to its depths because of the tragic con dition of the Jews throughout the world. “I Must Help the Jews!” Dear child of God, they are still God*s people, beloved for the fathers* sakes; and because you have been born again, you love what He loves; and you know that He still loves Israel with an everlasting love. “I Must Help the Jews!” Driven like cattle through the fields and forests of Europe; tortured, har assed, brutally beaten, Jewish girls mutilated by hordes of savage Arabs, the borderlands of Germany teeming with thousands of Jewish refugees who have stumbled their way through the bloody attacks of Nazi hate, to the emergency shel ters of Switzerland, Poland, Hol land, France— what a Christianity for the Jews to gaze upon I “I Must Help the Jews!” In the face of such a crisis, may God help His true Church to awake! May we who are truly His fill to the full our measure of duty in behalf of a people now facing the spectacle of a world civilization organizing in solid mass for the greatest outburst of Jew-hate the world has ever known 1 Dear Reader, will you sav ”1, Too, Must Help the Jews” ? Help us to tell them “These things "y011 have suffered are not things which Christians do I** This is an S.O.S. It is Israel's eleventh hour. So swiftly does the world cataclysm move, this may be the last call before the trumpet blows, and you will be face to face with a Christ who may look into your eyes and ask, “What have you done for these, my b r e th r e n ? ” Matt. 25 :40 . AMERICAN BOARD OF MISSIONS TO TH E JEW S, INC. 31 Throop Avenue Brooklyn, N. Y . I do want to help the Jews. Here is $___ ...___|................. Use it as God directs, to make known the saving power of the Lord Jesus Christ to Israel.
Volume X X X
April, 1939
Number 4
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Around the King’s Table —Editorial ............................................................132 The Emotions of Paul —F red erick P . W ood ............................................ 133 Daniel’s Prophecy‘of the Seventy Weeks —A lva J . McClain ............... 134 Views and Reviews of Current News —Dan Gilbert. ..............................135 ‘Two Life-changing Words — Vance H avner. ............................................136 Consider the Evidence, Part I I— I. H . L in ton ............................................137 Junior King’s Business —Martha S. H o o k er. ............................................. 139 International Lesson Commentary............................................................ ....142 Bible Institute Family Circle.......................................................................... 151 Christian Endeavor Notes —Mary G. Goodner .......................................... 153 Daily Devotional Readings.................................................. 158
I N F O R M A T I O N
F O R
S U B S C R I B E R S
SUBSCRIPTION RATES Note: THE KING’S BUSINESS re- sumed publication on a twelve-months’ schedule with the November, 1938, issue. THE KING’S BUSINESS is published monthly at the rates below, payable in advance, for either old or new subscribers, in the United States or its possessions. These rates include postage. #1.50—For one or two subscriptions, #1.50 each per year. (Twelve magazines). One two-year subscription, #2.50 (Twenty-four magazines). # .75—For one six-months’ subscription (Six magazines). 25 cents for one trial subscription for three months (Three magazines). 15 cents for a single copy. ALL-YEAR-ROUND CLUB OFFERS # .75—For three to nine subscriptions, either to separate addresses or in a pack age to one address, 75 cents each per year (Twelve magazines). # .70—For ten subscriptions, either to separate addresses or in a package to one address, 70 cents each per year (Twelve magazines).
Canadian and foreign addresses for all single and annual club subscriptions re quire 25 cents extra postage for each subscription. It requires one month for a change of address to become effective. Please send both old and new addresses. REMITTANCE: Should be nude b j Bank Draft, Ex press or P. O. Money Order, payable to "The King's Business.'* Receipts will not be sent for regular sub scriptions, but date of expiration will show plainly each month, on outside wrapper or cover of magazine. ADVERTISING: For information with reference to advertising in THE KINO'S BU SIN ESS, address the ADVERTISING MANAGER, 558 SOUTH HOPE STREET, LOS ANGELES, CALIF., or our eastern representative, Religious Press Association, 1108-10 Colonial Bldg., 13th and Market Streets, Philadelphia, i Pa. Entered as Seeond Class Matter November 7, 1938, at the Post Office at Los Angeles, California, under the Act of March 3, 1879. Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage pro vided for in Section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized October 1, 1918. MANUSCRIPTS: TH E KING’S BU SIN ESS cannot accept responsibility for loss or damage to manuscripts sent to it for consideration.
Name.----- ------ ----------- ---------------------- -------
Address.---------------
THE JONG’S BUSINESS
City.__ ....__......__ _
— State...
Lae Angeles, California
558 South Hop* Street
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April, 1939
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
Around the King's Table E D I T O R I A L
Mission to the Migrants In the broad valleys of California is to be found one of the most challenging miS' sion fields of the world. More than a million indigent migrants are making their homes in the Sacramento, San Joaquin, and Imperial valleys. According to state and federal authorities, another million persons are on their way from the stricken farm areas of the Middle West and the Southwest At present the state has set up some thirty-nine camps in an effort to care for this grave situation. But these camps house a very small portion of the great multitude of homeless and jobless people who are living in disorganized poverty and squalor. Here is a great opportunity for an evan gelistic mission. So far as can be ascer tained, nothing is being done to care for the spiritual needs of this great company of people. T o meet this need, We believe the Lord has given a vision to the leaders of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles. The Institute will conduct what is being called a " Mission to Migrants ." For this mission the school has available twenty-seven young men who have volunteered to devote their three vacation months for service in this needy field. Theirs will be a strictly evangelistic endeavor. The object of the mission will be to conduct Bible classes in the mornings and Child Evangelism classes in the afternoons. The evenings are to be given over to old-fashioned gospel meetings, and the whole program will be augmented by personal evangelism and tract distribution. A mission of this kind not only will serve as a great evangelistic and missionary enterprise to meet the spiritual needs of these shepherdless people, but it also will present by its very nature a strong antidote to the radicalism so destructive to the re ligious and political liberties of our nation. A Child’s Head and a Mother’s Heart "When you put your hand on a child’s head, you put it on a mother's heart." The thoughtful hand, so laid, does more. It not only reaches the mother's heart and glad dens her because of some one's thoughtful attention, but it also reaches the child's heart Great are the consequences of little things, and this little act of thoughtful friendliness to a child may change the course of a whole life. If we would pay more attention to our children and our youth, they would pay more attention to us. Genuine interest in them will give us entrance into their affec tions and attentions. They then will listen gladly when we speak to them about the Lord and about life. They will come to see Christianity as something more them a cold creed full of precepts. It will become a thing of life as they see Christ alive in us. With the spring and summer upon us, the children will be out in the great out- of-doors. W e will pass them on the street emd see them at their play. Let us remem
ber that we were once as they are, and let us consider that they will soon be as we are. They are our greatest responsibility. By a practiced Christianity let us do some preventive evangelism and win them to Christ W e will not then have need of cor rective evangelism to save them out of crime. Ours is a great privilege. Color or Character In the January 9 issue of Time maga zine, mention was made of the apparently increasing racial discrimination now current in our national life. The article referred to one of Chicago’s Negro pastors who had received, by mistake, invitations to join a certain club. The stationery explained that the club is for “white persons only.” The inference of superiority was in the color of the race. The pastor was so disturbed The many friends of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles and the Church of the Open Door will rejoice to learn of the rich blessing that is resting upon the min istry of Roy L. Laurin, recently elected Vice-President of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles and Associate Pastor of the Church of the Open Door. Through the gracious working of the Holy Spirit, Mr. Laurin’s sound, fervent preaching of the gospel and teaching of the Word each Sunday morning and evening have been a source of rich blessing to the three thousand people who hear him at the church services. Not only has the spirit ual life of believers been deepened, but also many unbelievers have been brought to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and have made public confession of Him at the close of the services. As Vice-President of the Institute, Mr. Lau rin has been used of God in making a spiritual contribution to faculty and stu dent body alike. It now gives me great plestsure to an nounce to our Institute family that at a recent meeting of the Board of Trustees, Mr. Laurin was appointed to the newly added office of Associate Editor of THE KING’S BUSINESS. Strengthened by his coming, the editorial staff continues as heretofore. This appointment will give our friends who live outside Southern California an opportunity to share in the blessing of Mr. Laurin’s ministry as it will go forth through the pages of this magazine. We feel confident that the Biola family will remember our brother very definitely in prayer as he serves in this threefold capacity in relation to the Institute, the church, and the magazine. Roy L. Laurin’s Call to a Threefold Ministry
that he wrote to the promoters and said: “Check your mailing list and remove my name so I will not receive any more such trash and insults. You have the nerve to say ‘white persons only’ as though being white was a badge of honor. “The enclosed picture of Mary Schuch from the Herald and Examiner is a white person. So was Dillinger and F. Donald Coster who wrecked the 80-million dollar McKesson drug chain recently. “Capone is white; so is ‘Machine Gun’ Kelly . . . In fact all the notorious and world renowned crooks whom I know are white. "Yet, you have the nerve to hold up ‘race’ as a means of evaluating personality.” W e applaud the rebuke as a justifiable reminder that character and not color is the true gauge of man. W e go further than even this evaluation to remind citizens of this nation that it is not race but regenera tion that is of paramount importance. .No matter what the color or the cultural qual ity, human character may be as beautiful as the tracery of frost crystals on a winter’s windowpane; but it is dead to God. What we need is life by the regenerating process of the new birth. This new birth comes by faith and grace through Jesus Christ. In this life there is an elimination of all the castes and strata of society. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28). There are no racial distinctions, no social distinc tions, and no sexual distinctions. It is a new order of society and a new civiliza tion destined to inherit the earth. “You’d Be Surprised” The above caption was the arresting title of a religious news item in Time on Janu ary 30, 1939. Scant notice should be given to what is a bizarre attempt of a university professor to rewrite the Bible into street vernacular, were it not for deeper implications involved. When Ptolemy II assembled seventy-two Hebrew scholars at the great Alexan drian library and the Septuagint Version resulted, there followed an ever-recurring habit on the part of scholars to "translate" the Scriptures. And now the latest is from the hands of a professor who is not even a theologian but claims as his special cre dential the gifts of a linguist. This literary colossus paraphrases the word “gospel” with this literary monstros ity: “You’d be surprised." The author jus tifies his translation by saying, “The orig inal ‘you’d be surprised’s’ were written as news flashes in slangy Hellenistic Greek and Aramaic.” In keeping with this bold type of paraphrase, other expressions are ■[Continued on page 141 ]
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April, 1939
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
To be stirred, like Paul, with the constraining love of Christ for the lost, the Sunday-school teacher needs to go back to Calvary. The International Lessons which are being studied around the world this month give opportunity for further insight into the Apostle Paul’s motives. The Emotions of Paul
By FREDERICK P. W O O D * London, England Illustrations by Ransom D. Marvin the heart of religion is religion in the heart. There can be no soul-saving work without emotion. Whoever saw a fire brigade or a lifeboat crew do their work without feeling the thrill of emotion? Yet a minister wrote to me the other day saying that when I came to his church for qn evangelistic cam paign, he thought I would find among his people “a nice, quiet enthusiasm”—what ever that meant! Paul is, perhaps, the outstanding evangel ist of the New Testament writers. W e do not think of him especially as an emotional character. W e rather look upon him as the man who was strong and virile, the master ful theologian, the cool, calculating logician, and yet there are sentences scattered throughout his writings which reveal great deeps of emotion in his nature. Let me men tion some of these. The Emotion of the Mourner In Romans 9:2, 3, we read: "I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren.” Further, in Philippians 3:18, he says: “For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ." “Great heaviness,” "sorrow in my heart,” “weeping”—these striking phrases describe the emotion of the mourner which throbbed and pulsated in his heart for all unsaved souls. Paul was not ashamed to weep, nor to tell us that he wept. He was like his Master, who with "strong crying and tears” “offered up prayers and supplications” (Heb. 5 :7 ), and who, gazing at Jerusalem, wept (Lk. 19:41). The word “wept” here, by the way, does not mean the ordinary shedding of tears as when He stood by the tomb of Lazarus. It is a word which really suggests that His whole frame shook with convulsive sobs. The Psalmist had the same spirit when he wrote: "Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law . . . Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law.” Now do we ever feel like that toward the lost? Paul saw the godless world as a mourner sees his loved one cold in death, in the. grip of the last enemy. And as a mourner with broken heart sobs over the dead, so Paul experienced heartache and heartbreak as he mourned over those dead
T HE CYNIC discounts the value of all evangelism because to him it is nothing but emotion; yet the real truth is that without emotion, evangelism is ineffective. After many years in the field of evangelism, I have no hesitation in saying that the most subtle temptation to all who are engaged in this work is the snare of becoming too used to it. Familiarity breeds contempt. The peril comes to us all to get stale, to lose our freshness, to become so accustomed to the telling of the message that we lose the glow of our early enthusiasm, to get so used to facing audiences that we forget they are lost souls. Then preaching becomes metal lic, forced, professional, unctionless. This was Paul’s dread, lest having preached to others he might become a cast away, and this is much more to be dreaded than the fear of being hyperemotional. Of course, emotion and excitement are not syn onymous terms. Excitement is dangerous in religion; emotion indispensable. After all, *Director, National Young Life Campaign. • As a mourner with broken heart sobs over the dead, so Paul experienced h e a r ta c h e and h e a r tb r e a k as he mourned over those dead in sin and in the grip of the archenemy of souls.
• A mother will suffer anything for the little one she loves. Thus it was with Paul in the poignancy of his yearning over the souls of men. in sin and in the grip of the archenemy of souls. J. H. Jowett used to say: "Tearless hearts can never be heralds -of the passion. When our sympathy loses its pang, we can no longer be -the servants of the passion." I heard of a church some time ago where the officers got together for prayer. One deacon in a prayer of confession said, “Lord, forgive me for my dry eyes. I have never shed a tear over the lost.” There was a revival in that church soon after wards. It has well been said, "Revival is not go ing down the street with a big drum; it is going back to Calvary with a big sob.” The Emotion of the Mother The apostle speaks of "my little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you" (Gal. 4:19). Here he is not mourning over the dead but is travailing like a mother, who will suffer anything for the little one she loves. Paul so loved the souls of men that he would en dure the pangs of childbirth to save them. He reminds me of David Brainerd who in his journal says: "I wrestled for the ingathering of souls. I was in such an agony from the sun half an hour high till near [Continued on page 164]
•
"Beware of prayerless tears, and beware of tearless prayers."
*
April, 1939
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I Daniel s Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks* I TH E F IR ST S IXTY -N IN E WEEKS AND TH E COMING OF TH E MESSIAN IC PRINCE
By A LV A J. M cC LA IN Akron, Ohio
into the land of Babylon. The armies of Nebuchadnezzar had utterly desolated the city of Jerusalem (2 Chron. 36:17-21). Ac cording to an earlier prophecy uttered by Jeremiah these “desolations” were to last for a period of seventy years (Jer. 25:11). The ninth chapter of Daniel opens with a reference to this very prophecy (9:1, 2). The prophet Daniel, now a man grown old in the service and court of the Babylonian kings, understands from his study of the "books” that the period of divine judg ment must be nearing its close; and he prays to the God of Israel for light as to the future of his “city” and his “people” (9:3-19). It is a marvelous prayer, but unfinished; for while the petitioner “was speaking in pray er," an angelic messenger came with the divine reply (vs. 21-23). And since the divine reply contains a prediction of the coming of Christ, it is wholly appropriate that the messenger should be Gabriel, the same angel who several hundred years later would announce His birth by the Virgin Mary (Lk. 1:2 6 ). Thus it was Gab riel, not Daniel, who first uttered the great prophecy of the Seventy Weeks. The pass age appears as follows in the Authorized Version, with the exception of a few changes selected from the American Stand ard Revised Version and indicated by par enthetical marks: “24. Seventy weeks are determined
this prophecy the whole case of the critics goes to pieces. For if even so much as one predictive prophecy is established, there remains no valid a priori reason for denying the others. A Key to Prophecy Finally, with reference to its importance, I am convinced that in the prediction of the Seventy Weeks we have the indispens able chronological key to all N ew Testa ment prophecy. Our Lord's great prophet ical discourse, recorded in Matthew and Mark, fixes the time of Israel’s final and greatest trouble definitely within the days of the SEVEN T IETH Week of Daniel’s prophecy (Dan. 9:27; Matt. 24:15-22; Mk. 13:14-20). And the greater part of the Book of Revelation is simply an expansion of Daniel's prophecy within the chronolog ical framework as outlined by the same SEVENT IETH Week which is divided into two equal periods, each extending for 1260 days or 42 months or 3J^ years (Rev. 11:2, 3; 12:6, 14; 13:5). Therefore, apart from an understanding of the details of the Seventy Weeks of Daniel, all attempts to interpret New Testament prophecy must fail in large measure. The prophecy of the Seventy Weeks was given to Daniel under circumstances which were most remarkable. Daniel and his people had been carried away captive
THE V ERY brief but famous proph ecy c£ the Seventy Weeks, recorded in Daniel 9:24-27, has always been a fo cus of interest to interpreters of the W or d, regardless of th e ir theolog ical bias. But today more than ever, in the face of signifi can t tend en cies
Alva J. McClain
both in the world and the professing church, the passage is attracting fresh at tention especially from those who still be lieve in the reality of “predictive prophecy.” Probably no single prophetic utterance is more crucial in the fields of Biblical inter pretation and Christian apologetics. In the first place, the prophecy of the Seventy Weeks has an immense evidential value as a witness to the truth of Scrip ture. That part of the prophecy relating to the first sixty-nine weeks has already been accurately fulfilled (as I expect to show), and in this remarkable fulfillment we have an unanswerable argument for the divine inspiration of the Bible, it being in fact nothing less than a mathematical demonstration. For only an omniscient God could have foretold nearly five hundred years in advance the very day on which the Messiah would ride into Jerusalem and present Himself as the “Prince” of Israel. Yet this is precisely what has been done in the prophecy of the Seventy Weeks. Again, this great prophecy is the infalli ble rock upon which all naturalistic theories o f prophecy are shattered. These theories deny the possibility of any “predictive ele ment” in prophecy. And since the Book of Daniel did forecast many well-attested his toric events, the critics sought to save their theories by denying to Daniel the author ship of the book and moving its date down to a point subsequent to the events de scribed. In this rather easy and summary fashion they hoped to get rid of the trouble some specter of “predictive prophecy." But no critic has ever dared to suggest a date for the Book of Daniel as late as the birth of our Lord. And Daniel's prophecy of the Seventy Weeks predicts to the very day Christ's appearance as the “Prince” of Is rael. Therefore, let the critics do their worst, no matter where they place the date of the book, the greatest predictive proph ecy of the Bible is left untouched. And on *All rights reserved. [This present discussion opens another series of prophetic articles by the President of the G race Theological Seminary. — E ditor .]
Photo by Adelbert Bartlett
THE M ESSIAH 'S GATE Jerusalem's present walls, built by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (circa A.D. 1540), are marked by the Golden Gate (central in the above picture) at the traditional point at which the Lord Jesus Christ entered Jerusalem in triumph. That the "day" of the procession was an exact fulfillment of a prophecy uttered five hundred years earlier is the view of the author of this present series of articles. The Golden Gate is now sealed, for the Arabs have a tradition that a conquering king will enter this gate. Yet it was the King of kings who wept over this very city "because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation" (Lk. 19:44).
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of the prophecy. And as we begin, it should be remembered that the period of sixty- nine weeks begins with the “going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem,” and that it ends with the mani festation of Messiah as the “Prince” of Israel. Our purpose will be to discover the nature and length of these “weeks,” to fix in history the dates of their beginning and end, and then to see whether the prediction fits the history from a chronological stand point. For the one point in the prophecy upon which all interpreters agree is that the first sixty-nine weeks have been fulfilled and are past. About four questions will cover the field of this investigation. [T o be continued]
upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make rec onciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy. "25. Know therefore and under stand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem, unto the Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. “26. And after (the) threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off (and shall have nothing): and the peo ple of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary? and the end thereof shall be with a flood, (and even unto the end shall be war); desolations are determined. “27. And he shall (make a firm cove nant) with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease: (and upon the wing of abominations shall come one that maketh desolate: and even unto the full end, and that deter mined, shall wrath be poured out upon the desolate)." Details of the Prophecy With the prophecy now before us, we shall begin the study with a careful analysis of its main features. Because of their im portance, and as an aid to the interpreta tion of the passage, the reader should note carefully and keep in mind the following points: 1. The entire prophecy has to do with a special people and a special city, the nation of Israel and the city of Jerusalem (v. 24). 2. Two different princes are mentioned, who should not be confused: the first is named " Messiah the Prince" (v. 25); and the second is described as “the prince that shall come” (v. 26). 3. The entire time-period involved is ex a c tly specified as “ S e v e n t y W e e k s " (v. 24): and these seventy weeks are fur ther divided into two lesser periods: first, a period of “seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks,” or sixty-nine weeks; and second, a period of "one w eek” (vs.25,27). 4. The beginning of the whole period of the Seventy Weeks is definitely fixed at “the going forth o f the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem" (v. 25). 5. The end of the first sub-period of six ty-nine weeks will be marked by the ap pearance o f Messiah as the “Prince” o f Is rael (v. 25). 6. At a later time, “after” the first sixty- nine weeks, Messiah the Prince will be “cut off," and Jerusalem will again be destroyed by the people of another "prince” who is yet to come (v. 26). (Verse 26 reads “aft er the threescore and two weeks,” but the preceding verse makes it clear that these sixty-two weeks follow the first “seven weeks.” ) 7. After these two great events, we come to the last or seventieth week, the begin ning of which will be clearly marked by the establishment of a “firm co v en a n t" or treaty between the Coming Prince and the
Jewish nation, and to be in force for the period of “one week” (v. 27). 8. In the "midst” of this S e v e n tie th Week, evidently breaking his treaty, the Coming Prince will suddenly cause the Jewish sacrifice to cease and precipitate upon this people a time of wrath and desola tion lasting to the “full end” of this week (v. 27, R. V .). 9. With the full completion of the whole period of the Seventy Weeks, there will be ushered in a time of great and unparalleled blessings for the nation o f Israel (v. 24). With this much by way of introduction to a study of the passage, I shall undertake to consider the first sixty-nine weeks
Views and Reviews of Current News By D AN GILBERT Washington, D.C., and San Diego, California
and taxation. It is pointed out that virtu ally all denominations now have retirement and relief plans which are more adequate than the government’s. Capitol observers believe that this inva sion of the rights of churches can be de feated if Christian public opinion makes itself felt with sufficient force. A RISING GODLESS GENERATION: The American Institute of Public Opinion, whose “straw” polls have been proved ac curate by subsequent elections, recently polled the generations on their opinion of the Bible. The results showed that, of peo ple under thirty years of age, the Bible was the favorite book of only 6%. Thus 94 young people out of every 100 place the work of some human author above the inspired Word of the Living God. Nothing so reflects the ghastly results of a system of education which, in most states, ignores or neglects the Holy Scrip tures, while exalting pseudo-science. In most cases, the young people have not "re jected” the Word of God: they simply have no knowledge of it—no opportunity to appreciate it. Young people today tend to mirror, in a mental way, the attitude of those who have had most to do with the shaping of their tastes and standards of thought. Some time ago, a questionnaire was sent to the most influential leaders in the realms of educa tion, science, and literature. Those who have the most to do with the intellectual or ientation of youth were asked to list the dozen or so books they would most desire to have, if they were cast ashore on a des ert island, cut off for life from access to all other literature. In their carefully pre pared lists, fewer than 10% of them even mentioned the Bible! The great body of young people today seem to be reflecting the indifference to the Scriptures so appallingly apparent among that little group of “intellectuals” who, though insignificant in number, have gained [Continued on page 152]
“CHURCH R IGHTS”: The issue of “state rights” has been raised frequently by those who are alarmed about the growing tendency to extend and increase the powers of the federal government. The current ses sion of Congress is the occasion for the emergence of a new issue: "church rights.” Like the states and the individual citi zens, the churches are guaranteed certain rights under the Constitution. Many ob servers believe that the rights of the churches would be seriously endangered, if not diminished, were Congress to enact into law the recommendation of the Social Security Advisory Council. The Council has recommended that the Social Security Act be so amended as to subject religious bodies to the regulations and tax levies of the law, from which they are now exempt. Under the amended Act, old-age pensions would be extended to em ployees of religious bodies, and taxes for this purpose would be imposed upon all churches having these employees. (Per sons receiving salaries of $3,000 per year or more would remain outside the provi sions of the Act.) The tax, which must be paid by the em ployee as well as by the employing body, would increase from year to year. In 1949, it would amount to three per cent of all salaries paid during the calendar year.’ Three per cent would be deducted from the salary of the employee, and an equal amount would be collected from the church. The taxing of the church would, of course, involve also the inspection and supervision of church financial accounts by the govern ment. In addition to the tax for old-age bene fits, many churches would be obliged to pay a tax for Unemployment Compensation Insurance. By 1949, the unemployment in surance and old-age pension taxes on the churches would total six per cent per year. Religious bodies and individual Chris tians throughout the country are flooding Congress with protests against the placing of churches under government paternalism
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Two Life-changing Words
By V A N C E HAVNER* Charleston, South Carolina
I N the second chapter of Ephesians the inspired writer sets before us a mar velous contrast. In the first three verses he describes our wretched state apart from the grace of God. He piles one phrase up on another to picture our lost and undone condition. W e were "dead in trespasses and sins"; we "walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of dis obedience”; we "had our conversation [lit., ‘manner of life’] in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind"; we "were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." Can you imagine a more formidable ar ray of words, a more terrible stacking of expressions to declare the state of mortal man apart from redeeming grace? Now, if the writer had stopped there, if no more could be said, if we were left shut up in those dismal phrases, then life would be but another name for death and earth but the anteroom to hell. God—The Saving Factor in Man's History But verse 4 opens with two words that spell the difference between life and death, between sin and salvation, between heaven and hell: “BUT GO IT-----”1 Sin was black, BUT GOD came in and God is light! Satan was powerful, BUT GOD came in and God is almighty! Man was lost! BUT GOD came in and God found him! Man was under wrath, BUT GOD came in and God is love! The course of history revolves around these precious words. There was a day when the earth was without form and void, BUT GOD said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. There was a day when “the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and . . . every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil con tinually,” BUT GOD chose Noah and gave the race a new start. There was a day when again men forgot God and walk ed by sight, BUT GOD called Abraham to set out not knowing whither he went, * Pastor, First Baptist Church.
There never has been an age so hopeless but that just when it looked as though the devil had had the last word and hell had turned the tables on heaven, the historian has always been able to turn a new page and write at the top, “BUT GOD—— . And although we live in the midst of world apostasy, the world’s Saturday night will turn into God’s good morning, for in that blackest hour just before daylight every thing may seem to be lost, BUT GOD is coming in the Person of His Son to receive from the world His own. When God Deals with Man's Extremity What is true in general has been true in particular in the experience of individual believers. In the darkest hour those who trust in the Lord have been able to turn from distress to Deity and say, "BUT GOD------ .” The Psalmist laments of ene mies who speak evil of him, who wonder when he will die and his name perish, who say an evil disease cleaves to him. But from such a sad plight he turns to cry, "But thou, O Lord ------ ” (Psa. 41:4-10). Again, he groans in affliction: His days are consumed, his bones burned, he is like a peli can of the wilderness, an owl of the desert, a sparrow alone upon the housetop. Thus he moans over his sad state, but he turns presently to cry, "But thou, O Lord, shalt endure for ever” (Psa. 102:1-12). Jere miah pines in his last Lamentation over the pitiful state of the land in eighteen verses of pure misery (Lam. 5:1-18), but he turns to rejoice, crying, "Thou, O Lord, remain- est for ever.” Micah paints a picture of times so dismal that he reminds us of Eli jah under the juniper: The good man is perished; the rulers are in sinful collusion, not even friends, not even wives, may be trusted. Then he turns upward with “There fore I will look unto the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me.” All else fails . . . BUT GOD! As you look back over your life, I am sure that you have occasion to thank God for the unnumbered times when everything else had failed, BUT GOD came to the rescue. Health had broken—BUT GOD! [Continued on page 165]
looking for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. There was a day when the chosen people lan guished under Egyptian bondage, BUT GOD called Moses to endure as seeing Him who is invisible. There was a day when the backsliding people hung their harps on willows in foreign exile, BUT GOD raised up Ezekiel and Daniel. There was a day when it seemed that heaven had ceased speaking to earth, BUT GOD re turned on the banks of Jordan to thunder through the voice of John the Baptist. And then there was the day of all days when man wallowed in sin without a Sav iour, groped in darkness without light, struggled in bondage without redemption, BUT GOD sent forth His Son, to live and die and live again, the Just for the unjust, the Sinless for sinners, God for man! Encouragement from the Past Since that glad day, no matter how low the clouds have hung, no matter how dark the night, nor dreary the age, just when everything has seemed hopeless, history has always turned a comer with those blessed words, “BUT GOD------ .” There came a day when the early church seemed to face an impenetrable Gentile world, BUT GOD struck down a rebel on the Damascus road to make Saul of Tarsus the spearhead of world evangelization. There came a time when the Bible was chained and supersti tion took the place of the gospel, BUT GOD called Wycliffe and Tyndale to loosen His Word in the language of the common people. There came a day when ecdesiasticism threatened to choke the church and when ignorance bound millions in the clutches of the law, BUT GOD touched a miserable monk, worn out with trying to earn his own salvation, and Mar tin Luther rose in the strength of the Lord to declare, "The just shall live by faith!” Again, there came a time when the notes of free grace were lost in an age of worldli ness and the church had lost the spirit of power in the lap of Delilah, BUT GOD woke up another groping preacher and John Wesley warmed his heart at Luther’s fire and went out on horseback to carry the gospel to a needy world.
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