December, 1938
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
405
Around the King's Table E D I T O R I A L
this blood-bought company will spend Christmas of 1939 in heaven. What ground have we for this belief? W e know that the church must be raptured before the man of sin, the coming dictator, can be revealed. Let us remember our Lord’s teaching that when tve see “these things”—these evi dences that are all about us in the world today—-we are to look up, for our redemp tion draweth nigh. Then will be ushered in the period of true righteousness and peace of which the Word of God clearly speaks, when all the world will acknowledge Christ as King, "God blessed for ever.” Let us so acknowledge Him now, in our hearts, this Christmastime. The Christmas Approach "And w hen th ey w er e co m e . . . th ey . . . w orship ed him: and . . . th ey p resen ted un to him g ifts” (Matt. 2:11). The approach to Christmas is far more important than the approach o f Christmas. W e become apprehensive about the ap proach o f Christmas lest we be found want ing in the amenities and proprieties of the gift season. Seldom do we become concern ed about the approach to Christmas. Yet it is this approach which gives Christmas its true importance to our lives and our day. The proper approach is not the economic approach nor the social one. These are too earth-bound and short-sighted. The true approach is the w orship one. It was the approach of the wise men. They saw . . . worshiped . . . and gave. How Christian- like and how Christmas-like! The first Christmas gift man ever made was to Christ. Every gift since then should reflect that first gift and be made in the same spirit. If we will be so minded this year, we may help to rescue Christmas from the stores and put it back into the manger where men "worship and give.” In all the lands of Christendom great will be the lament that on this Christmas, A.D. 1938, there is, as yet, no peace on earth. Many will be the pleas for peace. And yet, we venture to say that few will consider how peace can and will actually come. Peace will never come by treaties signed in solemn oath. It will never come through laws enacted in parliaments and congresses, and never through the armed might of dic tators. Nor will the socializing effect of Christian reforms ever bring peace. All of these efforts attack the problem from the Peace on Earth “On earth p e a ce” (Lk. 2:14).
L iberty and the Coming W o rld D ictator Very soon, carols in thousands of churches throughout the world will ring out in celebration of the coming of Jesus Christ to bring human liberty and good will to the world. But do these joyful messages ring true? Yes, they are gloriously true in in dividuals who have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour, but these songs bear no assurance for the nations of the earth. More than seventy per cent of the 500,- 000,000 people who are living in Europe do not enjoy personal or political liberty this Christmas season. There is less human free dom on the Continent than before the World W ar—that war which was fought for the purpose, assertedly, of making the world safe for democracy—the war which ended a full twenty years ago. By conser vative estimate, the great majority of the population in the Old World either has failed to achieve liberty of thought, expres sion, and action, or has lost the right to that freedom. Of the 500,000,000 people in Europe, almost 400,000,000 may be said to be living under the regimes which do not represent the choice of popular will. Political liberty is still the heritage of the total of 117,000,000 persons found in Great Britain, France, Belgium, Denmark, Nor way, Holland, Sweden, Latvia, and Ireland. But 381,000,000 Europeans live in lands governed by dictators and consequently have no opportunity for true popular gov ernment. In this group of nations are found Germany, Spain, Poland, Portugal, Ru mania, Jugoslavia, Turkey, Russia, Greece, Hungary, and Italy. Russia with 159,000,- 000 souls, Germany with 78,000,000 and Italy with 40,000,000 loom large in this ar ray of totalitarian states. Think of a political situation such as this! Twenty years after a war that was fought to end war! And yet the picture is not surprising or discouraging to the student of Bible prophecy. The Word of God shows clearly that in the end of the days of the Gentiles, a coming dictator, the Anti christ, will rise in Europe. The present dic tators without doubt are but the lengthening shadows of that coming world dictator de scribed in Daniel 11 as the “willful king.” He it is who will impose his will, not in one nation only, but upon the whole world as well. He will be the devil’s man—the one to whom Satan will give his great authority. Brethren, we are surely in the last days. In but a little while, we shall see the King in His beauty and glory. Even if the church of Jesus Christ should spend Christmas of 1938 on earth, there is great likelihood that
circumference; whereas it is required that we begin at the center. These methods take the multitude in hand when they should begin with the man. Peace can never be in stitutionalized. It will come to the world when it comes to the individual. Even in the use of the individual approach, there is no prophetic hope that universal peace shall be individualized through missionary and evangelistic agencies, but only with the per sonal advent of Jesus Christ as the Prince of Peace. These estimates are often heard about churches and people. How tragic a condi tion of life! The tragedy lies in a correct faith but a wrong purpose. Persisted in, this passivity will amount to what has been called “a saved soul and a lost life.” The failure to u se the truth is in many respects its greatest abuse. One cannot overemphasize the import ance of being sound in the faith. Unless one is sound here at the center, he will be un sound in the most vital posts and outposts of life. The surest way to nullify truth and virtue is to entomb it in selfish indifference and a certain kind of private piety where it is never exposed except on Sunday morn ing. Being sound in faith involves two things, according to the Apostle Paul. First— "Sound d octrin e" (Titus 2:1). • Here faith is given form. It is made something definite and unfluctuating. Second—“Sound w ord s” (2 Tim. 1: 13). Here faith is given expression. It is lived out from the creed , being put into the conduct. In these days of religious chicanery we must hold to “sound words.” In the hands of the liberalist, the old words are filled with new meanings until “divinity” no longer means divine, and “inspiration” no longer means inspired.’ Let us rescue these words from the abuse of the day and invest them with their original meaning. It can be done not only by being sou n d in th e faith but also by sou n din g ou t th e faith through lip and life. The precedent was established by the church at Thessalonica of which Paul wrote these words, “For from you sou n ded ou t the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak any thing” (1 Thess. 1:8). Sound “Sound—but sound asleep.” "Good—but good for nothing.”
# TWO EXTRA AFTER -MATURITY ISSUES fo r KING ’S BUSINESS subscriptions that • were dated BEFORE JULY 1, 1938 . SEE SPECIAL NOTICE PAGE 4 13
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