‘Behold I have set before thee an OPEN DOOR” Rev. 3:8.
Its’ the Door o f Opportunity —Open to Every Christian Young Man and Woman The Bible Institute of Los Angeles
Offers You an Unparalled Opportunity to Obtain Thorough, Practical and Effic - ient Bible Training for Christian Service This long established and well grounded organization is con ducted for the sole purpose of training young men and women in the knowledge of the Bible and different forms of Christian service. It is a definitely practical aid in meet ing the growing demand for leaders in Christian work throughout the Church of Christ— an institution particu larly well fitted to initiate and carry on its chosen work.
Dr. Elbert L. M cCreery Dean o f Faculty
Dr. W illiam P. W hite President
The Faculty Comprises consecrated m e n a n d women whose personal qualifications, scholastic training and spiritual experiences ably equip them to prepare Bible Institute students for lives of Christian service.
The Strategic Location The Institute occupies its ________________________________________ ow n well constructed fire proof buildings— fitted with every m odern appliance and equipment, over 600 com fortably furnished room s for the stu dent body, a full quota o f class room s, and auditorium with approxim ately 4000 seats. Its situation in beautiful Southern California assures a congenial environm ent for study under the m ost favorable clim atic conditions, while its location in the rapidly grow ing m etropolis o f Los Angeles gives ample facili ties for Christian service.
Courses of Study
The courses are comprehensive and thorough, covering every branch of Christian training J * for Christian service— the practical and combined outcome of each teacher’s personal
experience.
Christian Education Course Evening Classes
General Course Christian Service Medical Music Course Missions Course
Correspondence School Post Graduate Course Other Activities A practical application of the classroom instruction is afforded through the assignment of — . students to various forms of Christian effort in the churches of their own denomination
throughout the city. TUITION IS FREE
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Roger W . Babson N ationally Known Statistical Authority says in his book, “ Enduring Invest m ents” : u give while you live É “ If the cause is worth while, there is nothing that so develops the spiritual side of a man's nature as whole-hearted, unselfish giving . . . we cannot afford to make poor investments for God any more than we can for ourselves."
W illiam P. W hite , D.D., E ditor J. E. J aderquist , P h .D., M anaging E ditor Motto: "I, the Lord, do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.” Isaiah 27:3. PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY AND REPRESENTING THE BIBLE INSTITUTE OF LOS ANGELES Volume XXI March, 1930 Number 3 Table of Contents Crumbs from the King’s Table—The Editor.......... .........................115 Editorial Comment ...........................:........................-.........-............... 117 The Fact of Christ’s Coming—:P. W . Philpott, D.D.,.... 119 Looking Backward over a Third of a Century of Prophetic Fulfillment—H. A . Ironsides......... ............:..121 A Changing World and the Unchanged Message —Rev. R. H , Glover...:.-:....... ............-................................:....:-124 Drawing the Fires o f Hell—Rev. John G. Reid, A.M., Ph.D.........1-26 Recent Progress in Palestine—Rev. Arthur W. Paÿnè............ .—.128 The Salvation of Scripture—The Nature—B. B. Sutclififë...... ,....130 Seed Thoughts from St. Mark Rev. Wilfred M. Hopkins.............. ..................... ......................132 Gleanings from the Harvest Field.......... ..................................... ....135 Heart to Heart with Our Young Reàders —Florence Nye Whitwell ......................................... — ............137 Radio KTBI .................. ...........................|....... ................................. 140 The Regions Beyond .... ............................---141 Alumni Notes—Cutler B. Whitwell........—- -•.......— .....—— 142 The Junior King’s Business— Sophie Shaw Meader.......... ...........143 Homiletical Helps for Preachers and Teachers........— ..........145 International Lesson Commentary..... ....................................... .......146 ' Notes on Christian Endeavor—Alan S. Pearce.........:..... ....:.........155 Our Literature Tablé......... I .—......... ..................... . .....................158 Daily Devotional Readings.................. ............................................... 160 :
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POLICY AS DEFINED BY THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE BIBLE INSTI TUTE OF LOS ANGELES (a) T o stand fo r the in fallible W ord o f God and its great fundamental truths, (b) T o strengthen the faith o f all believers, (c) T o stir young men and women to fit themselves fo r and engage in definite Christian work, (d) To make the Bible Institute o f Los Angeles known, (e) T o m agn ify God our Father and the person, w ork and com ing o f our Lord Jesus Christ; and to teach the transform ing pow er of the H oly Spirit in our present practical life, (f) To em phasize in strong, con stru ctive m essages the great foundations o f Christian faith. 536-558 S. Hope St., BIBLE INSTITUTE OF LOS ANGELES, Los Angeles, Calif.
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I Qrumbs
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tice safely, and be all the happier for our practice of them, but if to our brother they be fraught with peril, if they make it harder for him to do the right, then, for our brother’s sake, if we be Christians, we are called to the limitation o f our liberty.” There is no room in Christianity for the overscrupu- lous and worrying conscience. We are in Christ, and the Son hath made us free, and we are never to lose the glad ness of that freedom. All that the Scripture insists upon is this : That we are to use it in the bonds of love and never to'hesitate to limit it if by so doing we can help a brother. You say that is hard? I grant you it is some times hard ; the Gospel quite admits that it is hard. It may be irritating, when we want to live, to have to con sider also the weak brother. And then, flashing upon us in its glory, there comes the thought that Christ has died for him—and after that, we do not find it hard at all. Once we realize the sacrifice of Christ, all our little déniais are nothing. He gave up His life for that weaker brother, and shall we not give up our liberty ? It is thus that we come to have fellowship with Him, and to know Him better as we take our journey, for fellowship grows not alone by what.we get; it grows also by what we yield. T HE Gospel of a broken heart demands the ministry of bleeding hearts. If that succession be broken we lose our fellowship with the Lord. As soon as we cease to bleed we cease to bless. When our sympathy loses its pang we can no longer be the servants of the passion. We no longer “ fill up . . . the afflictions o f Christ.” The Apostle Paul was a man of the most vivid and real istic sympathy. “ Who is weak and I am not weak?” His sympathy was a perpetuation o f' the passion. What a broad, exquisite surface of perceptiveness he exposed to the needs and sorrows of the race. Wherever there was a pang, it tore the strings of his heart. Now it is the painful fears and alarms of a runaway slave; and now the dumb, dark agonies of people far away. The Apostle felt as vividly as he fought, and he lived to all he saw. He was being continually aroused by the sighs and cries of his fellow men. He heard a cry from Macedonia, and the pain on the distant shore was reflected in his own life. He was hearing cries every day. Wandering, pain-filled, fear- filled voices, calling out of the night ; voices from Corinth, from Athens, from Rome also, and from distant Spain. “ Who is weak and I am not weak?” He was exhausted with other folks’ exhaustion, and in the heavy burden someness he touched the mystery of Gethsemane and had fellowship with the sufferings of his Lord. Does the cry of the world’s need pierce the heart and ring through the fabric of our dreams? Do we “ fill up” our Lord’s sufferings with our own sufferings, or are we the unsympathetic ministers of a mighty passion? I am often amazed at the hardness and callousness of my own heart. I am amazed how small and insensitive is the sur- — o — x “ Fill Up the Sufferings’ ’
Liberty and hove jp^ggag^HE Holy Spirit, through the Apostle Paul, pic- jiS F / tures a Corinthian Christian invited to dinner by W i/Tb a friend. That friend is a heathen man and in comparatively humble life. Now, in the food yM-Vr that was set upon the table it was almost cer- r o l tain there would be temple meat—that is, meat of beasts that had been sacrificed, and then sold to the market by the priests. And the difficulty for the Christian was this: Was he at liberty to eat that meat? If it had been offered to idols in the temple, would not eating it mean fellowship with idols? It was about that difficulty they wrote to Paul, and his answer is supremely noble: “ Go to your dinner,” he says, “ and ask no questions. Eat what is set before you, and be thankful. I f you start worrying about things like that, you will d o . con science irreparable mischief. ‘ The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof.’ ” But now suppose that next to that Christian brother there is sitting another and a weaker Christian. He is struggling to be true to Christ, but the pull of the old heathen life is terrific; and he turns to his stronger brother by his side, and says to him, anxiously, “ That is temple meat. That meat has been offered to idols.” The question was: What was the stronger brother to do then? If he partook, his neighbor might partake, and that might be opening the gates to ruin for him. He would go home beset by the dark sense that he was again in fellowship with demons. But, on the other hand, if he did not par take, out of consideration for that weaker conscience, what became of his liberty in Christ ? So they wrote to Paul about that also. And I think you ■know how he replied. “ As a Christian man,” he said, “ it is your bounden duty to consider the weakness of your brother. Get into fellowship with Jesus Christ; you are called to the bearing of each other’s burdens. God forbid that you should use your liberty to offend one of these little ones.” There is no word here of personal safety. The stronger brother was perfectly secure. . For him, an idol was nothing in the world. He could eat and drink with good conscience. The only question was: How would this action tell on the tempted and weak Christian by his side? And Paul says that is to be determinative. It might be very annoying to be hampered so; one might regard his neighbor as a nuisance. It was hard that a man might not enjoy himself because he had a weakling looking on, and it is then that Paul, in that great way of his, lifts up the matter into such an atmosphere that the man who is tempted to fret at his restriction, bows his head in shame. “ Have you forgotten,” says the Apostle, “ that for that weak brother Jesus died? Have you for gotten that Christ for him endured the agony and the anguish of the Cross? Compared with that, how infinitely little is any sacrifice that you are called to make in the restriction of your Christian liberty. None of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. There are many things in life that are quite lawful and on whose lawful ness we must insist; there are things that we could prac
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face which I present to the needs and sorrows of the world. I am amazed that sometimes I can take my news paper—-which is oftentimes a veritable cupful of horrors —and peruse it at the breakfast table, without adding a single pang to my peace. I wonder if one who is so un moved can ever be a servant of the suffering Lord. Here in my newspaper this morning were columns of the crimes and misdemeanors of my own city. Here are columns descriptive of the hot and frantic doings of the race course; here is a small corner paragraph felling me about the awful conditions in China, in India, in Russia. I saw these things this morning as I was eating my break fast and the dark record has not haunted me all through the day with the mingled wails of the orphaned and the damned. I am sitting at my desk tonight looking at my self—my old sinful self^-with utter disgust. No Christian service can be fruitful if the servant is not filled with the spirit of a suffering compassion. How can we heal the needs we do not feel? Tearless hearts can never be the heralds of the passion. We must bleed if we would be the ministers of the saving blood. “ Unto you it is given in behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake.” A friend told me that he once had a dream. He dreamed that he died and went to heaven. He was so happy that he was shouting with very joy. Soon he saw a great tree and wondered if it was the tree o f life. Underneath the tree was a great crowd of people. He said to himself, “ I will go over and see if any of our folks are there.” He discovered that the crowd was listening to a little man making a speech. He was informed that the little man was the Apostle Paul and that he was just beginning a series of addresses, relating his experiences as a missionary of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. My friend said that he was overjoyed. He really had arrived in heaven and the first thing on the program was an ad dress by the Apostle Paul! As he stood there listening to the Apostle tell of his missionary journeys and his last trip to Rome, the Apostle often pointed to scars upon his body, and he would say, “ That is a scar that I received in the shipwreck.” Or, “ That is the scar that I received when I received the stripes.” Or, “ That mark on my ankles I received when my work was stopped down in the old jail at Philippi.” My friend said that his heart began to sink within him, and he was overwhelmed by a sense of shame in the presence of his Lord, and when he awoke he found him self crying out, “ Oh, oh, oh, I ani in heaven, but have no scars for Jesus Christ.” Dear Christian reader, what is Jesus Christ costing you today? Father God, fill me with a great compassion for a lost world, and teach me the meaning of the text, “I fill up that which is behind o f the afflictions of Christ.” The Fitness of the Gospel T HE Gospel takes into account the fall, nature, en vironment and destiny of man. It meets the condi tions of the problem it proposes to solve. The Gospel provides for man’s physical part. “Pre sent your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God.” Temperance, cleanliness, exercise and chastity are some of the bodily virtues enjoined. Have you ever thought of the dignity with which the Gospel invests the human body ? Materialism can see nothing in it but laboratories and levers and forcing pumps; but the Gos — o —
pel, with stern rebuke, exclaims, “ What! know ye not that your body is the temple o f the Holy Spirit?” The Gospel provides for man’s intellect. It furnishes him with the profoundest mystery in the universe to fathom, and on every page stimulates his intellect to the highest activity. Besides', it commands the complete edu cation of his intellectual powers. “ Gird up the loins of your mind.” It opens before him the universe of truth and gives him the right of way from beginning to end. The Gospel provides for man’s sensibility. “Let not your heart be troubled.” “Blessed are they that mourn : for they shall be comforted.” That is what the human heart needs. It wants comfort in its mourning. It wants light in its darkness. It wants peace in its turmoil. It wants rest in its weariness. The Gospel gives all this to man. It calms his fears, stimulates his hope, sweetens his joy, assuages his grief, purifies his love. The Gospel provides for man’s will. “Be ye steadfast, unmoveable.” It provides that man may yoke his will to the omnipotent will of God and thereby become omnipo tent himself, within the limits that God may determine. “ I f we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us.” The Gospel provides for man’s moral nature. It sets forth a conscience “ void o f offence toward God, and to ward man.” Its code of morals is acknowledged by its enemies to be above reproach, and is held by its friends to be so far above the highest ideals of the world’s best teachers as to justify its claim to superhuman origin. Besides all this, the Gospel provides for man’s spiritual nature. It acknowledges his instinct of faith, and gives him full room for its exercise. It recognizes his instinct for a personal God, and shows him His throne. It regards his instinct for immortality, and opens before him the possibilities of the soul in the unending future. Further still, the Gospel recognizes the tremendous fact of sin, and is the only agency that proposes an ade quate remedy. It does not soften sin into inexpediency or make a farce of human responsibility. It does not evade the question. “ What must I do to be saved?” by saying there is no need of salvation. It does not take a man out of the pit by telling him that he is not in it. It does not take away the sting of a man’s conscience by tak ing away his conscience itself. It does not mock men; it tells them the truth. It shows them their bondage, and brings the hammer to knock away their manacles. It shows them their nakedness, and brings them the gar ments of purity to cover it. It shows them their poverty, and pours into their laps the wealth of heaven. It shows them their sin, and brings them an almighty Saviour. Is there a bigger business on earth than the business of preparing young men and women to take the Gospel to the sons of men, that they may give it a trial, that it purify their bodies, that it stimulate their intellect, that it soothe their sorrows and heighten their joys, that it take hold on their will, that it quicken their consciences, that it exalt their faith, that it show them the Father with out stretched arms to receive them, that it show them the Comforter with His tender sympathy and compassion, that it show them the Cross and the uplifted Son of God, that it show them their destiny with its infinite possi bilities? May we not call upon you to become a partner in this great enterprise? There are five hundred students in the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, and still they come! We could take care of more than twice that number if we had the money to carry on. Have you any responsibility in this matter?
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The League of Christian Churches in China i T has been felt for some time that there was conservative churches, called The League of Christian Churches, was accomplished. Among societies represented by delegates at the meeting, or who signified a purpose to unite in the organization, were the Irish Presbyterian, Canadian Presbyterian, American Presbyterian (North and South), Christian Reformed, American Lutheran, Southern Baptist, China Mennonite Society, Mennonite General Conference, National Holiness, Christian Mis sionary Alliance, Bethel Mission, China Inland Mission and affiliated missions, Nazarenes, and Free Methodists. It is believed that before a year passes there will be more than a hundred thousand Christians in the League. The following- is a translation of the creedal basis of the League: 1. We believe that the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are all inspired by the Holy Spirit, and so are our only infallible rule of faith and practice. 2. We accept the Apostles’ Creed as being in perfect accord with the principal doctrines of the Holy Scriptures. 3. We believe in the one only God, who exists in three Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, these three being the same in substance, equal in power and glory. 4. We believe that our Lord Jesus Christ became man- by being born of the virgin Mary through the power of the Holy Spirit, and so had a perfect human nature. All His words and works were just as recorded in the Gospels. He died in man’s stead, and as our Substitute redeemed us from sin. He rose again from the dead and ascended into heaven as our Mediator, from whence also He shall come the second time both as Judge and the blessed Hope o f believers. 5. We believe that the Church, which is composed o f saints who have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit and redeemed through faith in Jesus Christ, is the body of Christ. This significant movement will surely be taken upon the hearts of all sincere Christians for prayer. It may be, after all, that the deliverance of Chinese churches from the blight of modern infidelity will come through the faith of the humble native Christians rather than through the foreign leaders. — o — First Things First I N The Record o f Christian Work for January, appears an article under this caption which contains the follow ing paragraph: We need to center our attention upon the distinguishing office of the Church. Sociology and political reform cannot replace religion. The Gospel is not a new catalogue of duties, but a source o f spiritual power. We can bring men to God by bringing men back to Christ. The writer of this paragraph is Dean Shailer Mathews, of Chicago University. Upon reading it one urgent need for an affiliation of Chinese churches and Christians who could not conscientiously enter the National Christian Council because it opened wide the door for many to enter who denied the very foundation truths of Christianity. On November 29, 1929, the organization of such a union of
might be puzzled and inclined to wonder, perhaps, when and how this man could write as he does since he does not believe in the deity of Jesus Christ as the Church has always understood that doctrine, nor in the Virgin Birth, nor in the Gospel miracles, nor in the physical resurrec tion of Christ, nor in the fact of Christ’s coming again. Has he begun to return to the old faith? Does he really say that men can only come to God through Jesus Christ, the Son of God? The question is answered when we go a little farther in his address. He says: We can bring God to man and man to God. Evangelism is more than revivalism. It is the evoking of new loyalty to Chris tian ideals and the application of spiritual power to human needs. This is our central task as churches. According to this, the program is to bring God to man and man to God by the “ evoking of new loyalty to Chris tian ideals and the application of spiritual power to human needs.” This is not bringing sinners to God through Jesus Christ the Redeemer. Indeed, it is not offering salvation through a Person, but through a philosophy. It is a preaching of Christian ideals and principles, not preach ing Christ: Some will say, perhaps, it is only a difference in terminology. This cannot be. Plausible and promis ing as it may seem to be, it offers an old method that has. never had any power to transform the individual or renovate society. It is not the Gospel which is “ the power o f God unto salvation to every one that believeth.” Let us indeed put first things first, but let us not put that first which is outside of and contrary to the Scriptures. — o -— Celebration of Anniversary of Pentecost T HE much-advertised celebration of the nineteenth centennial of Pentecost by Ohio churchmen is a matter of history. It is reported that more than five thou and celebrants came to Columbus from all parts of the United States. No doubt there was much about the pro gram to which true Christians could raise no objection. It is apparent, however, that there were some features which cannot but cause one to believe, to put it mildly, that the celebration utterly lost sight of the thing to be celebrated. According to press reports, the gathering was defi nitely modernistic in tone. One of the speakers was a Columbus layman who, if, he is correctly quoted, spoke somewhat as follows: I doubt if there is any other book which ranges from such sublime heights to such degrading depths as the Bible. The Bible was not written by God. If God wrote the Bible He would have done a better job of it. . . . All scholars agree that the trin itarian references in the Bible are pious forgeries. The question o f the divinity of Jesus is not worth a hill of beans................ We must scrap the Bible before we can attain church unity. It has no part in the twentieth-century civilization. Another speaker was Dr. Frederick William Nor wood, pastor of the City Temple, London. Passing over other things which betray his decided modernistic ten dency, the following statement may be. of interest:
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tine, and a modern rural picnic, the whole symbolizing the value of church unity. Due allowance must be made for the fact that these incidents represent the features most likely to be criti cized and not the celebration as a whole. It is fair to recognize, also, that there must have been many honest Christians present who did not endorse, but were rather grieved by, these doubtful, if not objectionable, things. Nevertheless, it is proper to ask, Did the celebration dis play the meaning of Pentecost, and was the program con ceived and carried out under the direction of the Holy Spirit? Was the “ play” in a theater a fitting reminder of the disciples’ prayer in the upper room? Could speakers who repudiated the Word of God and denied the basic facts of Christianity have any sort of resemblance to the Twelve whose uncertainties and doubts about the Scrip tures and concerning Jesus Christ, vanished completely with the knowledge of His resurrection? Do the con quests of Constantine and the compromised relation be tween Church and State which came in under his influ ence truly represent the Holy Spirit’s lifting up a stand ard against the enemy and carrying the Church forward to triumph ? Is it not evident, that there was another spirit and a different gospel very much in evidence at Columbus ? Clarified Christian Faith C AN there be finality in theology? Can the Church have an unchanging message ? Can the preacher have positive convictions concerning the truth, and preach with the assurance that he is giving a message that cannot be gainsaid? Some who' profess to be scholars, declare that there is need for an entirely new interpretation of Chris tianity. It is argued that a new and scientific age cannot be persuaded to accept a Gospel that is clothed in a medieval garb. By such specious pleading many a preacher has been made timid, fearful lest his former early con victions may prove antiquated and he be held up to ridi cule. This uncertainty as to Christian doctrine leads inev itably to loss o f zeal in soul-winning, for “when evan gelical faith loses its vitality, evangelistic work loses its vigor.” . In other words, a hazy theology leads to ineffi ciency in service. What, then, is the remedy? The editor of The Watchman-Examiner says ; Our fathers had no open question in their theology, and we have no settled question in ours. A wise man has said: “We congratulate ourselves on our tolerance, and we do well, pro viding that it rises from modesty about mysteries or charity toward our fellow man, but we do far from well if we are tolerant simply because we do not think that there is any cer tainty possible in religion or because we have no convictions to arouse our spirit. If we have doubts we must face, fight, and master them in secret, in the wilderness with God, but when we come before men it must be with unclouded face. The Chris tian is a prophet sent from God with a message to the world.” Our first duty, then, is to understand the content o f the message we are to deliver. This is the contribution of theology to our life work. Our theories are contributions to the clear under standing o f these facts o f our religion. When we have arrived at an understanding of these facts, then they will grip our souls, and men will be wooed and won to Christ and built ,up into His character. We must clarify our faith before we can have vital convictions. ||i See Inside Back Cover for Attractive Offer. THE TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY CAMPAIGN OF THE KING’S BUSINESS.
“ Borrowed ” They borrowed a bed to lay His head, When Christ the Lord came down. They borrowed the ass in the mountain-pass For Him to ride to town, But the crown that H e wore And the cross that H e bore Were His own. He borrowed the bread when the crowd He fed Oh the grassy mountain side. He borrowed the dish o f broken fish With which He satisfied — But the crown that He wore And the cross that H e bore Were His own. H e borrowed the ship in which to sit To teach the multitude — H e borrowed the nest in which to rest. He had never a home so rude— . But the crown that He wore And the cross that H e bore Were His own. He borrowed a room on the way to the tomb The passover lamb to eat — They borrowed the cave for Him a grave They borrowed a winding sheet — But the crown that He wore And the cross that He bore Were His own. The thorns on His head were worn in my stead; For me the Saviour died; For guiit o f my Sin the nails drove in When Him they crucified — Though the crown that H e wore And the cross that He bore Were His own — They rightly were mine. — Selected. In the eyes of the world, Charles Chaplin is a buffoon, but he is not really a buffoon. He has lived in the sickly, sentimental atmosphere of Hollywood, yet apparently cherishes the desire to do something really big. He wants to give the world a picture o f the Saviour. Yet the world says: “ No.” If-a bishop wanted to do it, all right; but a comedian? No! Possibly Mr. Chaplin could see some quality in Jesus that the bishops cannot see. It is safe to say, and it is said in all kindness, that Mr. Chaplin’s neighbors in California have not guessed that he was trying “ to do some really big thing” that would commend him to those who “ seek first the kingdom o f God and his righteousness." They will have to ask the London preacher for light. And they will be more than astonished when they get the news, via London and Columbus, that out of Hollywood has arisen a prophet— and they knew it not. It is said that the theatrical climax of the week of cele bration was a great pageant in which twelve hundred Columbus church members acted for four nights. It was called “ The Church Triumphant.” It showed many scenes of supposedly religious significance, including the dedication of Constantinople by the Emperor Constan
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The Fact of Christ’s Coming B y P. W . P hilpott , D.D.
. ^ (Notes o f a Sermon Delivered at the Church o f the Open Door, Los Angeles) | strongest possible incentive to enthusiastic toil for Jesus Christ. It always leads to separation from the world and to zeal in soul-winning. Third, I believe in the Lord’s return because of the many passages in the Bible that cannot be explained apart from this truth. O ld T estament P rophecies There are a great many prophecies concerning the Jewish people and their Messiah that were not fulfilled at “ We have a more sure word o f prophecy; whereunto ye do zvell that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts." — 2 Pet. 1 :19. AM well aware of The prejudice that exists in the minds of many regarding the teaching of the Church concerning the second coming of Christ. This has sometimes been due to the fact that godly and sincere men, in their enthusiasm for this truth, have pushed into forbidden territory, forget ting or ignoring one of the clearest revelations concerning our Lord’s coming again—that is, that the day and the hour of His return are just as uncertain as the fact of His return is cer tain. To one of the last ques tions asked Him by His dis ciples before He ascended, He answered, “ It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power.” Charles Spurgeon, speaking on this subject, referred to this statement of our Lord and in his own quaint way remarked: “ If I were to go into a room where there were a number of packages for different persons, and I knew that in that room there were some for me, and while going over them and look ing for my packages I should find one marked ‘This is not for you, Charles Spurgeon,’ I think that as a gentleman I would not try to investigate what was in that package.” As to the date of our Lord’s return, it is not within your power or mine to state when it it is to be. If you ever feel like trying to fix a date, it would the first coming of Christ. On Christmas morning I preached a sermon here on “ What Man ner o f Man is This?” I at tempted to show that we could hot explain Jesus Christ apart from the doctrine of the Virgin Birth. A day or two later I re ceived a letter from a man who criticized my teaching. He ar gued that Jesus was not the Jewish Messiah, and that He was not what the New Testa ment claimed Him to be, be cause He did not fulfill the prophecies of Isaiah concerning Him. He spoke particularly of those passages that refer to Christ as Immanuel, of the gov ernment r e s t i n g upon His shoulder, of the nations enjoy ing a long period of peace and righteousness under His rule, of their learning war no more, etc. He declared that none of these prophecies were fulfilled in the coming of the Babe of Bethlehem and in those thirty- three years of His life on earth. There was truth in what my critic said; these prophecies concerning Messiah were not fulfilled at the First Advent. It is a great mistake so to spir Satisfied B y H amilton W atts Come, Lord, our thoughts and wills inspire Our inmost beings purify; Give us that faith and right desire That Thou const satisfy. - We have no goodness of our own; In Thy sufficiency we hide; Not with ourselves, with Thee alone, Dear Lord, we’re satisfied. We have not always understood Thy ways, yet know, whate’er betide, They work together fo r our good; And we are satisfied, When we shall see Thee as Thou art, And join Thee as Thy spotless bride, And love Thee with a perfect heart, W e shall be satisfied. O Thou whose touch can make men whole, We would proclaim Thee far and wide, And share the travail of. Thy soul Till Thou art satisfied. be a good thing first to repeat the prayer of the Psalmist, “ Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins.” R easons F or T he B elief There are many Scriptural reasons why I believe that Christ is coming back to this earth in person. First, I accept this as a fact because of the large place given, to this truth in the Scripture. We are told that there are over three hundred references to the Lord’s re turn in the New Testament alone, which means that one of every twenty-five verses deals with this doctrine. Second, I am convinced He is coming back again because in the New Testament nearly every exhortation to purity of life, to fidelity in stewardship, and to sincere faithful Christian service is either bound up with or based upon this doctrine. Instead of “ cutting the nerve of mis sions” and paralyzing Christian service, it is rather the itualize Old Testament predictions as to make them refer wholly to the Church and a present spiritual kingdom. Jesus Himself explained to His disciples that these pro phetic statements were foregleams of His second coming. And just as surely as the predictions concerning His birth, His ministry of healing, His death, and His resurrection, were exactly fulfilled, so these other prophecies concern- ing His glory, His power, His rule of peace and righteous ness, must be just as literally fulfilled. In the fourth place, I believe this truth because it spans the midnight sky with the bow of heavenly promise, lighting up the gloom as nothing else can, and bringing consolation and comfort. To the bereaved, Paul said: I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring 120 T h e K i n g ’ s B u s i n e s s March 1930 with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive, and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent [precede] them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Where fore, comfort one another with these words (1 Thess. 4:13-18). T hree G reat P romises But the best of all reasons for believing that Jesus Christ is coming back, is that He said He would, in the most explicit and definite way. Have you ever noticed that just before He went to the Cross He made three great promises to believers ? The first was, “ Upon this rock I will build my church.” Notice that this promise is in the future tense: “I W ILL build” ; the Church was not yet in existence. The “ rock” upon which it was to be built was the profession of faith in His deity— “ Thou art the Son of God.” The second promise referred to the coming of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said: “ I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever.” The third promise was, “ I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” No one doubts that the first promise is being literally fulfilled; He is building His Church. Every true believer is a member of the Church, His body. The second promise was likewise fulfilled when the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost. He is still baptizing believers into the body of Christ. Why, then, should we doubt that the third promise is to be just as literally fulfilled? The testi mony concerning His return was given perhaps half a dozen times during the closing hours of His earthly min istry. He knew that He was going up to Jerusalem to die; but listen to His startling words: When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: and before him shall be gathered all nations; and he shall separate them, one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats. He had not been upon a throne, rewarding men accord ing to their works; but when He comes again all nations will be gathered before Him for judgment. It is not a heavenly, but an earthly, throne that He is here por traying. H is L ast M essage Remember, also, the last message of the Lord on that night when the hearts of the disciples were filled with gloom, apparently because of their bitter disappointment. They had hoped that He would restore, the Kingdom to Israel. This is clearly intimated by the explanation of their sadness which was given to Jesus by the two dis ciples on the Emmaus road. Thinking Him a stranger, they rehearsed the story of the happenings of those tragic days and said: We trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, today is the third day since these things were done. It was the blasting of their hopes concerning the Kingdom, crude and imperfect as that hope may have been, which caused such sorrow and gloom to settle upon them. To encourage and comfort them Jesus gave that farewell message in which He said: Let not you® heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house' are many mansions................ I go to prepare a place for you, And if I go. . . . I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. T he T estimony of P eter To the testimony of Jesus and of the Scriptures in general, can be added that of other competent witnesses. For instance, Peter said: We have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty . . . . when we were with him in the holy mount. I believe that in that transfiguration scene to which Peter refers we have a symbolic picture of the future kingdom of bur Lord. He is seen, not in humiliation but in glory. Moses is there, symbolically representative of the redeemed who have passed through death into the Kingdom. Elijah is present, representative of the re deemed who have entered the Kingdom by translation. T he T estimony of J ames You recall that James wrote about some of the social and industrial problems of the day, and o f the cries that were going up to the Throne from the downtrodden and oppressed. To all such he said: Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of. the Lord draweth nigh. How we need the testimony of James even in these days! Men are trying to solve the problems of which he speaks by means of legislation, and we are thankful for every measure of relief that can be brought in this way. But such improvement as is possible leaves much to be desired, and the final solution awaits the rising of the Sun of righteousness, whose beams will bring healing to the nations. At His appearing, and not till then, will social and industrial wrongs be righted. T he T estimony of J ohn John foretells the coming of false prophets, false spirits, foreshadowing the appearing of Antichrist. Fore seeing the danger to Christians by reason of these errors that might tempt many to go astray, he said: And now, little children, abide in him; that when he shall appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. T he T estimony of P aul It would be impossible to quote much of what Paul says concerning this truth. Two whole epistles, First and Second Thessalonians, deal almost entirely with this one subject. He calls this doctrine “ the blessed hope o f the glorious appearing o f the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” T he T estimony of the T wo W itnesses You recall that as the disciples looked up into the bright cloud that had received Jesus on the day o f His ascension, two men in glorious array stood by them and said: Ye men o f Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. We have reason to believe that these two heavenly wit nesses were the same who appeared on the mount of trans figuration to testify concerning the approaching death of Jesus, and then again testified to the resurrection of Christ on that first Easter morning. Were the heavenly messen gers right in their prediction concerning the death of Jesus? And were they correct in their announcement of His resurrection? There is no question as to their accu- March 1930 T h e K i n g ’ s B u s i n e s s 121 racy on these points. Then why should we doubt them when they tell us that this same Jesus is coming back to earth again? G race — N ot V engeance We may sum up all that has been said by reminding ourselves that we are living in the age of grace, which began with the birth of Jesus. He came then not to judge men but “ to seek and to save that which was lost.” In one of His first utterances He said: The Spirit o f the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recov ering o f sight to t'he blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. It is remarkable that when Christ quoted that passage from Isaiah He stopped in the middle of a sentence, omit ting the clause, “and the day of vengeance o f our God.” We are still living in “ the acceptable year of the Lord,” when Jesus waits at the door of the sinner’s heart plead ing for admittance, that He may give pardon and peace. That is the invitation of Jesus Christ today. He still waits to be gracious, to receive you, and to be a Saviour to you. One of the glorious things about the Christian faith is that no matter what may happen in a future day of disaster or judgment, all is well with the believer who is in Christ Jesus. It is a wonderful thing to know that we are ready for His coming, with all that means. It is no less wonder ful that by His grace we are able to meet all the trials and tribulations of life which are sure to come to us in this age. In all these trials of faith we are buoyed up with the hope of His return, which will mean healing for all the ills of life, the righting of all the wrongs of earth, the bring ing in of a kingdom wherein “ righteousness shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.” “ Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” •iS'-C- hand. Since this event has to take place first, as the prep aration for the glorious revelation of our Lord as King of kings, who can tell how soon we may hear the voice, the shout, the trump that shall summon us to meet Him in the air? I can not go into detail as I would wish, but I ask you to notice three lines of prophetic fulfillment, having to do particularly with the Jews, the Gentiles, and the People of God, the three classes into which the human race is divided, looking at it dispensationally. F ulfillment of P rophecies C oncerning the J ews Thirty-three years ago we saw from Scripture that when the Lord returns to set up His kingdom He will find the people of Israel a nation again, settled once more in their own land, apparently with a rebuilt temple, car rying on the ancient ritual. A remnant of the nation will be converted and ready to receive the King when He appears ; the rest will be given over to apostasy and to the worship of the Beast and the Antichrist. Now observe, until 1896 there was no evidence whatsoever of anything like this taking place. Then, like the sounding o f a silver trumpet, came the first Zionist proclamation. Theodore Herzl, like a modern Moses, lifted up his voice to summon the outcasts of Israel to return to Zion. But for years, in fact until 1914, to the rich Jews of Britain, France, and America, his was as the voice of one crying in the wilder- ness._ Judging him as a fanatic, they looked with disdain on his attempt to revive the national spirit in Jewry and to turn the thoughts of Israel toward their ancient patri mony. But to the poor Jew of northern and central Europe suffering under the curse o f anti-Semitism, the Zionist call came as the harbinger of a new day. Throughout the years congress after congress was held; but so far as getting possession of the land was concerned, their hope proved abortive. Then, in 1914, came the Great War, the most awful catastrophe of the centuries. Month after month the dreadful conflict dragged on. Nation after nation was drawn into the fearful vortex and the end seemed farther and farther away. life Jfe jfe Looking Backward Over a Third of a Century of Prophetic Fulfillment B y H. A. I ronside ^ (Notes o f an Address Delivered at the Bible Institute o f Los Angeles, Sunday, January 12, 1930.) y S "Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise o f his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning —2 Pet. 3 :3-4. E are undoubtedly living in the days of which Peter speaks. The voice of the scoffer, par ticularly in regard to the second coming of our Lord Jesus, is heard in the land. He insists that all things continue as they were from the beginning of the Creation. He is blind to the great changes taking place all about us, and he knows not that this is in exact accordance with the prophetic Word heralding the coming of the King. It is now just a little over a third of a century since the blessed hope of the Lord’s return became a very real thing in my own life and testimony. For over thirty-three years it has been my privilege to go up and down through the land helping to sound out the midnight cry, “ Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.” But lately, while looking backward over this period of testi mony, I have been amazed at the many evidences that the end-times are actually upon us. There are so many things predicted in the Scriptures as necessarily antedat ing the coming of the Lord to reign, that were all in the future a third of a century ago, dnd are now either alto gether in the past as actually fulfilled or else in process of fulfillment at this very time. In connection with these events I want to make it very clear that I do not know of anything which must neces sarily take place before the rapture of the Church. This aspect of our Lord’s return may take place at any moment. But many of us who are acquainted with the prophetic plan know that before the appearing of the Lord in glory with all His saints, which, takes..place some years subse quent to the Rapture, there are many stirring events to take place, many remarkable prophecies to be fulfilled. Now if it can be shown that many of these predictions are already fulfilled or being fulfilled, it will, I think, make it very evident that the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him must be very close at
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