R. A. TORREY, D. D., Editor T. C. HORTON, J. H. HUNTER, W ILLIAM EVANS, D. D., Associate Editors A. M. ROW, Managing Editor
APRIL, 1918________________________No. 4
Voi. 9
E D I T O R I A L
R e su r re c t ion d a y .
Though this is the April number of T h e K in g ' s B u s in e s s , and Easter this year comes on March 31st, nevertheless this number will reach most of our subscribers before Easter Sunday, as the magazine is published a month in advance, so we are giving prominence in our Sermon Outlines and in other features of the magazine to the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Easter, or Resurrection Sunday, is the pre-eminently Christian festival of the year. We do not know the exact date of our Lord’s birth, and there is no conclusive reason for supposing He was born at Christmas time, but we know the exact day of His resurrection from the dead. We know that it was the first day of the week following the Vernal Equinox, which this year comes March 31st. We presume most of our readers know that the reason why Easter comes on different dates in different years is because the Jews observed a lunar year and not a solar year, and the Passover week was determined by the full moon, the Passover lamb being kept until the 14th day of the first month and then slain (Ex. 12:6), and the full moon of the first monfh in the Jewish year was the full moon following the Vernal Equinox.- So we know the exact,day of our Lord’s resurrection, and in celebrating Easter Sunday we are celebra ting the very day on which our Lord arose from the dead, not merely the day of the week, but the day of the lunar year. The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead was the central fact in the testimony and'preaching of the Apostles. When it became necessary to choose a new Apostle to take the place of Judas Iscariot he was chosen to be a witness with the other eleven, of the resurrection of Christ (Acts 1 :22). Peter’s ser mon on the Day of Pentecost centers in the Resurrection of Christ from the dead. He first proves the fact of His Resurrection and then witnesses to that fact, and then draws his definite conclusions from that fact. In every one of his recorded sermons he rang the changes on the Resurrection of Christ from the dead. The Apostle Paul did the same in all his sermons, and Paul explicitly tells us that there is but one thing that a man needs to believe in order to be saved, and that is that God raised Jesus from the dead (Rom. 10:9). Of course, believing this carries with it believing everything else that is fundamental and vital. One cannot logically believe in the fact of Christ’s resurrection without believing in His Deity. In accepting Christianity one does not accept a mere theological system that men have thought out, he accepts facts that are scientifi cally demonstrated. The “ Gospel” is not theory, but facts; not man’s opinion, but God’s facts* Gospel means' good news, and the good news is simply the news of two great facts: first, that “ Christ died for our sins according to the
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