THE K I N G ’ S BUS I NESS
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When he. charges the Anabaptists with having believed that Christ would come “ in two years,” he engages in a trick of oratory, namely that of trying to dis credit a great doctrine by citing some exceptional and insane advocacy of the^ same. When he indicts this doctrine as being divisive, he overlooks two important facts— first, that every great truth is necessarily divisive. God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, Atonement, Regeneration, Sanctification— these all have produced bitter debate. Shall we discard them? Again— the opponent of truth— not its advocate— is the divisive one. Aesop ■tells of the clapper that complained to the town board against the crack in the bell. The board was quite impressed with the complaint, until the spirit of Diogenes, floating in, said, “ Master Clapper, cease your complaining. You cracked the bell; it is poor taste for you to complain of it.” But the climax of misrepresentation is reached when he affirms, concerning premillennarians, that “ they have re fused to assist in government or in social reforms because they believed that it was God’s will that the world should grow worse.” Historically, premillennialists have been as loyal to government as any com pany of people, and no intelligent one of them ever believed it was “ God s will the world should grow worse.” Man’s perverse way so utterly opposes God’s will that He will eventually overthrow man’s regime and give the world to the reign of His righteous Son!
A PROFESSOR’S I LOVELY LEAFLET | B? Dr.W. B. Riley, Minneapolis - llliiiinillliilllluliillliiiilillliiiiH liiiiiiiiiiiiH iM luiiiiiiiluiiiniii-,
LEAFLffiT sent out by a cer tain seminary professor charges premillennialism with being a propaganda “ now h e a y i l y
financed.” The author knows better! If there is any considerable sum of money provided by any man or company of m,en in America, or any other coun try, for the express purpose of teaching premillennialism, the leading authors of books and articles upon this theme have been treated with neglect by the pre- millenarian millionaire or “ Second Coming” Syndicate. The explanation of the flood of lit erature upon this subject is found in two facts: FirstW-The Sacred Scriptures inspire it. Second— The Christian pub lic demands it. Intelligent treatises upon this subject find such ready sale as to need no outside assistance! Again, he lays the origin of premil- lennarianism to apocalyptic Jewish lit erature, written between 175 B. C. and the time of the Apostles. Another has already challenged him to produce such literature, and the public will watt for him to meet that demand. He further declares that “ Whatever the New Testament records as having been the belief of early .Christians," “ the premillennialist accepts as infalli ble teaching,” and “ logically this ought to include a belief in a flat earth, the perpetuation of slavery, the submis sion to rulers like Nero, etc.” A careful reading of the New Testa ment will show that it never hints “ a flat earth,” that slavery is absolutely condemned, and was eventually abol ished by its influence, and that rulers like Nero are only mentioned by it in condemnation.
But again, the Professor asserts that “ the early Christians believed that Jesus would return during the life-time of their generation.” “ This hope is on almost every page of the New Testa ment,” he says. Let us thank him here for the admission that he means by “ early Christians” New Testament writers! It is well to know what he ASSURED AND INSURED INVESTMENTS
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