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She üSible Tamil# Magazine February - 1931
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THE MAGAZINEWITH A PURPOSE FOR EVERY Family Community Church Land and Race
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SILVER TRUMPET
An Unforgetable Story of Life in a Christian College
FOR EVERY Missionary Pastor
S I L V E R TRUMPET ByJ. Wesley Ingles . Up through the tides of turgid fiction this remarkable book springs forth like ‘sweet water in the sea.’ Here is a beautiful love story, and more, in a college atmosphere, not raucous with the jazz of the day, or hectic with the spirit pervading cer tain groups of young people. There is no unreality about the book. The author thoroughly understands the modern ‘slanguage,’ and the book is tremendous ly effective in its contrast between the jazz spirit, and a thrilling, buoyant college life. . . . . Such a book as this will rightly be welcomed by thousands who cannot find today more than a very few books of fiction that they would like to give to young people, or to others. It opens up a fascinating view of a type of real life among young people that is altogether too little known in these days.” ■ Sunday School Times. AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION 3 5 9 PAGES CLOTH $ J .O O
Student Teacher
YOU CANNOT AFFORD TO MISS A rticles a n d e d ito rials w ritte n b y w ell k n ow n folks fam il ia r w ith th e p ro g re ss of p re a c h in g th e G ospel to every c re a tu re in ev ery lan d . T h e R EV IEW d escribes m ethods fo r aw ak e n in g in te re s t in c h u rc h e s a n d m issio n ary so cieties a s well a s giving in fo rm a tio n re g a rd in g th e late st an d b est m issio n ary books. T h e p ro fu se ly illu stra te d p ag es help to m ak e th e R EV IEW of lastin g in te rest. T h e re is n e v e r a dull o r u n in fo rm a tiv e issue. It is in step w ith th e tim es. Take Advantage of this Combination Offer T H E M ISSIONARY R EV IEW O F T H E W ORLD $2 .5 0 T H E K ING ’S B U S I N E S S ................................................$1 .5 0 BOTH $3.00 SAVE $1.00 A ddress your orders to either office: The Missionary Review of the World The King’s Business 156 Fifth Avenue N. Y. City
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c£>he K in g ’s b u s in e s s 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 XXII February, 1931 Number 2 Table o f Contents Crumbs from the King’s Table—The Editor......... ......................... 51 Editorial Comment................— ................ ..53 The Jew and a Future Tribulation—Keith L. Brooks......... ....—,.55 Structure in Scripture—Norman B. Harrison.................................,.56 The Sword of the Spirit in Central America —W. Cameron Townsend.............................. ................... .. 58 Making the Grade—Guy Edward Mark................................. ........ 60 Meditations on the Spirit-Filled Life—Milton M. Bailes...............61 The Just Shall Live by Faith—T. Marshall Morsey.......................62 Heart to Heart with Our Young Readers —Florence Nye Whitwell.—,......... ....... ................................- -65 Radio Results......... ......................... ....... ........ —......... .................. .....67 Alumni Notes—Cutler B. Whitwell............................ ..................... 68 Junior King’s Business—Helen Howarth Lemmel...........................69 Homiletical Helps...............—................... -.......................................... 71 Our Literature Table.....................—............ ^................. -................... 74 International Lesson Commentary.................................................... 76 Notes on Christian Endeavor—Milo F. Jamison.:.............................86 Daily Devotional Readings............................. :........................... ....... 90
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POLICY AS DEFINED BY THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE BIBLE INSTITUTE OF LOS ANGELES (a) To stand for the infallible Word of God and its great fundamental truths, (b) To strengthen the faith of all believers, (c) To stir young men and women to fit themselves for and engage in definite Christian work, (d) To make the Bible Institute of Los Angeles known, (e) To magnify God our Father and the person, worok and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; and to teach the transforming power of the Holy Spirit in our present practical life, (f) To emphasize in strong, constructive messages the great foundations of Christian faith. 536-668 S. Hope St. BIBLE INSTITUTE OF LOS ANGELES, Lo* Angeles, Calif.
G eorge W ash ington Extensive preparations are being made for the celebration in February, 1932, o f the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of George Washington.
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Rejoice, O land, in God thy might, His will obey, Him serve aright; For thee the saints uplift their voice; Fear not, O land, in God rejoice.
Glad shalt thou be, with blessing crowned, With joy and peace thou shalt abound, Yea, love with thee shall .make his home Until thou see God’s kingdom come.
He shall forgive thy sins untold; Remember thou His love of old; Walk in His way, His word adore, And keep His truth for evermore.
•—Yattendon Hymnal.
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| Qrumbs G^rom the K ing’s (K>able ! ¿ g , . _ —c , _ , >By t he Ed ito r —»—„—.„— o«»..—..-g
that on the cross He did something for man which man could never have done for himself, whereby man receives pardon and eternal life. We need to believe as they be lieved—that on the third day He rose again, bringing life and immortality to life. We need to believe that this Jesus is the one Redeemer of men, the one Saviour of souls, the one Intercessor between God and man, and,
Our Only Hope HE vicarious sacrifice of Christ is the only thing that meets the deepest needs of the human heart. It is at the cross where Christ died, the just for the unjust, that men find pardon and release. A minister learns much in the course of his ministry. I have learned some
that to Him men must come if they would have life. We need to believe all this as they be lieved it, so that we may preach it with the same passionate ar dor and conviction wherewith they preached it. When we have done that, power will come—victorious, irresistible, subduing power. For “this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” A C ontented L ife The Apostle Paul caught the secret, so rare and precious, of ■the satisfaction to be found in a contented spirit. It would be only the simple truth to say that his contentment was ideal, .fTi'K ' He had learned the lesson of
thing about the need of the hu man heart. I wasted some time in my early ministry by preaching politics and trying to clean up my town. I have denounced sin in no uncertain terms, and have set forth the love and fatherhood of God. But only when I have declared how Jesus suffered in our stead, how He bore our grief and car ried our sorrows, how the Lord' laid on Him the iniquity of us 511, have I been a channel through which God has brought perfect peace to the hearts of men. Do you ever “fore-fancy
Faith is a Living Power Faith is a living power from heaven Which grasps the promise God has given; Securely fixed on Christ alone, A trust that cannot be o’erthrown. Faith finds in Christ whate’er we need To save and strengthen, guide and feed; Strong in His grace it joys to share His cross, in hope His crown to wear. Faith to the conscience whispers peace, And bids the mourner’s sighing cease; By faith the children’s right we claim, And call upon our Father’s name. — L. 0 . Emerson.
your dying bed,” as old Samuel Rutherford would say, and ask yourself what will be your con fidence then? I do sometimes, and at such times I always think of one old hymn: “Just as I am, without one plea, But that Thy blood was shed for me, And that Thou bidd’st me come to Thee, 0 Lamb of God, I come! I come!” I have seen a picture which shows a cross standing erect while a strong sea lashes and surges all about it. Clinging to the cross is a woman, half drowned by the waves, but clinging to the cross—her only chance of safe ty. And that is what I will do; I will cling to the cross. “A guilty, weak, and helpless worm, On Thy kind arms I fall. Be Thou my strength and righteousness, My Jesus, and my all.” T he I mmediate N eed The church needs to take a fresh grip on the great and fundamental truths of our Christianity to quicken again our love to Jesus Christ. A church that has not some great truth which with heart and soul it passionately believes is a doomed church. Have we not seen it? The age in which we live has been an age of amiable opinions, of good-natured guesses, of a rosy but shallow optimism; and the result has been sterility and barrenness. We need a revival of faith. We need to believe again as our fathers believed—in Christ who is both very God and true man. We need to believe as they believed—
contentment so completely, he had come into such abso lute sympathy with the hand which guided him, and into such confidence in the wisdom which appointed his Joj,, that he was content wherever he was. He fell into ready acquiescence with his circumstances. He wasted no energy in fretting and chafing because things did not go more to his own liking. He was not all the time pro pounding riddles to his own heart and filling his brain with dismal questions as to why providence did not have a different shaping. The ear of the world was neither vexed nor moved to compassion by groans falling from his lips. He was content. If he abounded, he was con tent. If he was straightened and pressed to the point of want, he was still content. Wherever he was, whatever his condition and surroundings, he was content. He was content because his life was ensphered in the life of God. He was content because all the old heavy burden of guilt had been rolled off his soul. He was content because, as he stood front to front with eternity, he could feel that the opening of the gates of the world to come would bring him only new light and peace and joy. He was content because he knew that his life and all thè interests of his life were in the keeping of One who loves and cares for His own with infinite fullness of affection. He was content because it was clear to him that somehow the whole business fell into the plan of God, and, though his feet were in shackles and serious limitations were imposed on his movements and he could
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no longer range abroad at will, God could make use of whatever energy and influence and experience he might possess for the furtherance of the cause of Him whom he loved. He was content because his mind was stayed on the Lord. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.” Take a man of Paul’s energy and resolute temper and aggressiveness of purpose, but one who yet lacks the fill ing of the Spirit and intelligent and unfaltering trust in God, and shut him up in a prison and say to him that all his most .cherished plans and aims must be given up, and he will rage and storm like a caged lion. He will dash his head against the bars of the jail that holds him. There was nothing of this spirit in Paul. His weary limbs were bound in chains. He was advanced in life, worn and feeble in body. Circumstances seemed all to be pointed with affliction. There were apparently a hundred things to vex him to one to give him consolation. It is hard to think of a position more likely to take all the heart out of one and make him restless and possibly bit ter than was the position of Paul when he rolled out the words: “I have learned to be content.” A great many people know how to sow and to reap and to gather into barns, but they do not know how to be contented with their harvest. They know how to toil with their might, how to plan, how to organize success fully and work up to wealth and place and power, but they do not know how to walk in the serenity of well poised and unburdened souls. They know how to build houses and to lay their floors ankle deep in velvety softness, to tax up holsterers to the utmost that room may vie with room in dainty or dazzling elegance, to hang their walls with the rarest pictures money can buy. But, after they have got their houses built and furnished, they do not know how to settle back into them and get any satisfaction out of them. They have all that architects and artists and decorators and weavers and cabinet makers can do for them, but still they are without the choice blessing of contentment. What is the secret of such a life? “I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me.” Christ has the strength to impart to men to make them sufficient both for their duties and their burdens, and He both knows how and is willing to impart this strength. Who ever trusts Him, whoever loves Him, whoever obeys Him, whoever is in a condition to say, “For me to live is Christ” is open to this strength. Christ strengthens us by delivering our souls from that sense of guilt which is the most weakening element in our nature, by quicken ing and illuminating our mental faculties, by filling our minds with the great hope of a blessed immortality, by the inner girding of His Spirit, and by bringing us more and more under the power and into the fellowship of spiritual realities. God help us to take just what He, in answer to our wisest plannings and industry and prayers, sees good to send us; and let us rest in it rather than worry our own souls and make the world about us miserable with our discontent. How much better it is to submit uncomplain ingly to our misfortunes and chastisements in the sublime confidence that God does make all things to work togeth er for good to those that love Him, than it is to whine about how hard the way is made for us and to burden the air with our ungracious wailings.
Our Financial Condition Of course we are having financial problems at the In stitute. We do not know of any Christian institution not having special problems these days in connection with its finances. But we are far from being discouraged, because we are determined to live within our means and the Lord is greatly blessing us. We are opposed to the borrowing of money for running expenses. We have had to cut salaries and wages. We have had to dispense with the services of some members of our splendid facul ty. It is most difficult to do this, but we will do it until we can do better. We are holding our fine student body. We are giving them splendid training. The remaining teachers, with some strong men from the outside who will donate their services, will carry on, and our Bible Institute will be up to par in every respect. Our friends need have no fear. God is answering prayer. The Institute is safe, but we need money. We need it now. If each subscriber to T h e K ing ’ s B usiness would sign the Biola Honor Roll and begin at once to pay one dollar per month, we would have no thought of ever mak ing any curtailments in our program. Read carefully the Biola Honor Roll pledge and ask God about it. To help us prepare men and women to preach and teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Become a member of this great. Roll of Honor. The conditions of membership are— First: To pray daily for God’s blessing upon the Bible Institute of Los Angeles. Second: To give One Dollar each month for one year toward the support of the work. Third: To secure another Honor Roll member, if possible. Firmly believing in the importance of training Chris.- tian workers, I hereby request that my name be placed upon the Biola Honor Roll, and I express my willingness to cheerfully and faithfully meet the conditions of mem bership. Name ........................................... ....'............ A.i;ALLA Street No.............................. „............ ..... '........................ ___ C ity....................................................... .......... :....... ........ Amount enclosed.............1.................. '.............. Date.......I....... i ...... .................... ............ . Wanted: 20,000 Christians For Biola Honor Roll
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ßditoried Qomment
ligion is to bring all truth into question, to throw morals into confusion, and to bring about a naturalistic philoso phy of life, reducing man to the level of the beasts. But the Christian faith, said Dr. Johnson, with its confident trust in the revealing activity of God, can speak with authority to the modern world.
Crisis in Venezuela f CRISIS has arisen in Venezuela, which threatens to seriously interrupt all missionary effort. Some months ago, the government took umbrage at an article in a parochial paper written by the bishop of Valentia, stating that civil marriage was noth ing but recognized concubinage. The bishop was obliged to write another article retracting his statement and taking oath that he would uphold the constitution of Venezuela. He refused to meet this demand of govern ment and was deported. The archbishops and remain ing bishops tried to force his reinstatement under threats of trouble. But the government quite properly insisted upon the conditions it had laid down. What began as practically a political fight with the Roman Catholic Church was broadened at once by a ban being put upon all foreign priests entering the coun try. The Roman Church, too, protested that if the law was to be put into effect with relation to her priests, the same ban must also be put on Protestants. Guided by a sense of fairness, the government accepted this inter pretation. The law now says that any one connected with a religious society which has as its business to evangelize or pastor the people in Venezuela can in no wise enter the land. When foreign missionaries engaged in work made inquiry as to the method of enforcing this law, they were immediately told' there would be no exceptions. In a way, it is quite possible to have a measure of sym pathy with the government of Venezuela in its fear of the possible political intrigues by foreign priests. It is most unfortunate that the action which was taken works a hardship upon those consecrated foreign missionaries who have never had any thought of personal or political advantage, and whose one aim is to bring the true gospel to a people who very much need it. The situation calls for most earnest prayer on the part of the church of Christ that the ban may soon be lifted. —o— Supernatural Faith and Sound Morals C AN sound morals be found where supernatural faith is denied? Dr. William Halloek Johnson, President of Lincoln University, in recent lectures on “Humanism and Theism” at Princeton Seminary, answers the ques tion in the negative. He argues that, when supernatural faith is cast overboard, sooner or later morals will also be discarded. He does not hesitate to severely arraign his fellow citizens, saying that “prosperity and power have made Americans forget God.” In the lecture concerning morals, Dr. Johnson dealt thoroughly with Walter Lippmann’s “Preface to Morals.” Commenting on this, the Presbyterian remarks: Mr. Lippmann, in “de-coding” Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick’s non-supernatural religion, has shown that with out revelation there can be no authoritative morals. La ter writers, in “de-coding” Mr. Lippmann, have shown that humanistic morals are no morals at all, and that the ultimate result of discarding the truth of a revealed re
More Confirmation of the Bible from Archaeology
I T IS not so many years ago that destructive critics took advantage of the fact that a large part of Bible history before 550 B. C. could not be confirmed by any contemporary literature. Its own witness was not con sidered sufficient. Indeed, the critics thought they had good ground for discrediting all the history of the Old Testament before the date named. Sometimes they spoke of it as a “tale of oriental fiction.” They seemed very certain that many of the people and places of which the Scriptures speak had no real existence. The answer of God to all this denial of His Word has been coming from the buried civilizations of Bible lands now being uncovered by the archaeologists. The con firmations of Biblical history have been so numerous as to stagger the critics, and it is safe to say that no discov ery has in the slightest degree cast reflection upon the Bible record. Nearly every day brings some new con firmation. Two bits of news, appearing recently in the daily press, the one relating to the story of Belshazzar and the other to the conquest of Jericho, are of sufficient in terest to repeat. Sir Charles Marston, writing concerning the discover ies made by Dr. C. Leonard Wooley, of the University of Pennsylvania, at Ur of the Chaldees, states that there is definite confirmation that the book of Daniel was writ ten at the time of the events recorded. This is by no means the only confirmation that has appeared in recent years, but it is interesting because it deals with a new angle of the case. Sir Charles Marston says: Mr. Woofey has discovered the palace of'Pricess Bel Shalti Nanna . . . This princess is believed to have been the sister of King Belshazzar of Babylon, whose great feast was interrupted by the writing on the wall . . . Archaeology has proved that this sacking of the Holy City did take place, and it was quite possible for the cap tive Daniel to have seen Belshazzar’s palace. Many Biblical critics have doubted the authenticity of the book of Daniel, but this discovery does much to confirm the historical accuracy of the story of Belshazzar . . . I believe the fifth chapter of the book of Daniel ranks next to cuneiform literature in accuracy, so far as out standing events are concerned. J. Garstang, of the University of Liverpool, gives in teresting information concerning recent research on the site of Jericho. He states: Researches conducted last year on the walls of Jericho have established that these walls were constructed about 1,400 years before Christ . . . The date has been set through comparison of certain ceramics and methods of construction. It is of especial importance in enabling historians more accurately to estimate the date when the Israelites entered the Holy Land.
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I With all this abundant and conclusive evidence at hand, one wonders why the destructive critics have not acknowledged their error. Perhaps it is too much to expect. —o— Is The World Going Red? A SERMON by Dr. John F. Fraser appears in the Watchman-Examiner of recent date using the theme, “Faith on the Earth or Is the World Going Red ?” It gives a very fair and comprehensive survey of the situation con fronting the church in the present day. It is not pessimis tic; neither does it conceal alarming facts. It begins with a familiar quotation from Gilbert K. Chesterton who, when asked if he thought Christianity had been benefited by the World War, replied: “Christianity is fighting for its life; it thrives on persecution.” When.asked if Chris tianity should not therefore flourish in Russia, where it is facing fire and sword, he replied: “You can drive re ligion under ground, but you cannot destroy it; Chris tianity was never stronger than in the catacombs.” Dr. Fraser takes exception to Mr. Chesterton’s ob servation, for, he says: “It is not fire and sword that en danger Christianity in Russia. It is, rather, an atheistic system of education.” It is sometimes forgotten that the real danger to the Christian church in the world today is in the world-wide spread of the conditions that prevail in Soviet Russia. True, it has not yet come to pass that other national gov ernments are controlled by atheists and have as their one great aim the destruction of the knowledge of God. But the cunning method being pursued in Russia, that of des troying Christianity by the wide diffusion of rationalistic learning, has spread to all lands. In a survey of the conditions confronting the church in our own land, Dr. Fraser finds little to encourage or to cheer in any circle. Concerning the realm of science,' he quotes Dr. Henry Fairfield Osborn, an eminent scien tist but one who is not looked upon generally as an ortho dox Christian teacher, who says: “The contest of theol ogy with science has been fatal to the Christian code of morals . . . The revolution is sweeping with tremendous force among the young, and their moral sense is lost.” A teacher of philosophy in an American university is quoted as saying: “It is unusual to find a group of univer sity students in which the majority believe in a personal God . . . The rising tide of doubt is too evident to be ig nored.” In the field of journalism, matters are no better. Pop ular writers like Professor Harry Elmer Barnes, who “leaves man without a single star of hope beyond his little day,” like Walter Lippmann, the humanist, who renounc es religious standards of morals and finds none better, like Clarence Darrow, notorious infidel, who delights in his public denials of God and his attacks on constitutional law—these and others like them have a wide hearing and a far greater influence than many imagine. The search for religious faith in the realm of public education is no more encouraging. Dr. Fraser says: When we review the theories in educational method and look to the most prominent of our colleges in teach er training, we are inclined to suspect that the tree of knowledge is Red to the roots, and that seeds of an archy are being sown in our American schools. The whole method of education is designed to train the mind of youth in habits of skepticism. . . . Surely it is time to awake when so reliable a writer as Dr. William McDougall, of Duke University, states: “Never before the present century has sheer dogmatic materialism been
propagated by a vast system of public instruction and by universities of the highest standing, counting their stu dents by tens of thousands.” Professor McDougall is speaking of behaviorism, which is atheistic to the core, and he declares that the educational policy of our country is increasingly moulded by this theory. The time was, says Dr. Fraser, when the Christian minister “could defend his doctrine . . . behind the ram parts of revealed religion.” And, further, he could con tend “for the validity of an experience of the divine Spirit in his own life.” That refuge is no longer allowed him. Dr. Fraser says: Now comes into the field a youthful psychology to discredit the reality of the inward experience and re fute the believer’s awareness of God. Psychology does not attack religion with a sword; it approaches religion with a smile, and with the uplifted brow. It does not persecute religion; it examines, analyzes, and tells you how it all happens. These points are well taken by the preacher. We are not in the days of the catacombs. But we seem to be drawing near.to the days of the Antichrist. Every fun damental truth of Christianity is not only denied but is derided by skillful skeptics who have the ear of the pub lic. If human society is to endure, what remedy can be found, other than a real revival? It must be that or the coming of Christ to overthrow Antichrist and his host. Biola in China A FEW months ago, civil strife in China threatened to destroy missionary work or to greatly retard it. By the mercy of God, the valuable plant of Biola in Chang sha, Hunan Province, was spared from destruction at the hands of the communists. Our readers have been advised more recently that the Bible Institute has resumed its sessions, and that all of the evangelistic bands are out in the field. The latest word from Dr. Frank A. Keller, sup erintendent, written under date of December 12, 1930, is most cheering. He says: “God is filling our hearts with joy every day. The work along all lines was never more prosperous. We praise Him constantly for all His mer cies.” This brief word will be sufficient to call forth genuine thanksgiving to God and continued fervent prayer that the witness of Biola in China may be increasingly fruitful. Evangelical Students Convention T HE sixth annual convention of the League of Evan gelical Students will be held in Philadelphia, Febru ary 13 to 15, 1931. The League chapters of Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary, University of Pennsylvan ia, Reformed Episcopal Seminary, and Westminster Theological Seminary will be the hosts. Among the prom inent speakers at the convention will be: Dr. James M. Gray, President of Moody Bible Institute; Dr. Samuel G. Craig, Editor of Christianity Today; Dr. Harold Paul Sloan, Editor of Christian Faith and Life; Rev. R. B. Kuiper, President of Calvin College; and Dr. Robert H. Glover, Home Director of the China Inland Mission. Delegates from the thirty organized League groups are expected, some of them coming from points as far dis tant as Texas and Arkansas. —o— Note the special premium offer to new subscribers, on page 64; also to clubs of short term subscriptions, on page 75. Regular club rate, without premiums, 10 subscrip tions (U. S.) for $10.00.
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B u s i n e s s
The Jew and a Future Tribulation B y K e it h L. B rooks (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Some would take “this generation” to mean the Jewish race. But to do so seems not only to strain the evident meaning, but to be contrary to the thought of the context. It is not likely that our Lord would have ignored the larg er part of the disciples’ question, and talked entirely of events hundreds of y e a rs in th e future.
IBLE students have found it no easy matter to agree as to the best way of reconciling the two accounts of our Lord’s answer to the question of His disciples: “When shall these things be ? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the age” (cf. Matt.
Comparing the two chapters, it seems clear that a period known as the “times b of the Gentiles” is to come between __W, the destruction of Jerusalem and the second coming of Christ. During this time, the Jews are to be scattered throughout the world. The signs, spoken of before the mention of the scattering of the Jews, are plainly connected with the downfall of Jerusalem . They are all fulfilled. This should give us a key to the interpretation of Matthew '24. We should find, in this chapter, the answers to the . two main questions of verse 3. The preaching of the gospel in all the world for a witness (v. 14) corres ponds to the “times of the Gentiles” in Luke’s account.
24 with Lk. 21) ? There are several differ ent views taken even by those who call themselves premillenarians. While we need to guard against unlov ing criticisms, it is well that we earnestly seek light upon these problems of prophecy. Foretelling the terrible
events about to come to pass in connection with the destruction of Jerusalem, our Lord concludes with these words: “These be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled” (Lk. 21: 22). Here is our first prob lem. Is there still another “day of vengeance” in which the Jew will be in volved in the future? Paul says that wrath came upon them “to the uttermost” for killing J e s u s and their prophets (1 Thess. 2:16). Is there to be another out pouring of wrath in which they will share? The words of Luke 11: 50, 51 must be faced. They apply to the days of Jeru salem’s destruction. The blood of all the prophets from the foundation of the world was to be required of that generation of Jews. This teaching is also the background for the twenty- fourth chapter of Matthew, which some students seem entirely to overlook. (Read
I cannot see Why men should, turn from Thee, My Lord.
I f they could only guess Thy matchless loveliness, The beauty of Thy face, The richness of Thy grace, My Lord. •
T h e F uture T ribulation Will there, then, be a future tribulation involving the Jew? Or, is the “time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jer. 30) forever past, as some earnest students are now ? Matthew’s account that our Lord’s coming in glory will imme diately follow days of ter rible tribulation on earth (v. 29). Some say “im mediately” should be taken to mean “suddenly” or “unexpectedly.” Others say it may mean “next in or saying: tells us
I f they could only see Thee on the cruel tree! Nor pain nor death was stayed Till all our debt was paid, . My Lord.
I f they could only know That heart which loves them so, Their only thought would be How they might come to Thee, My Lord.
Matt; 23:33-36.) Jesus spoke to His hearers as the children of those who had slain the prophets and who were filling up the measure of their fathers in the rejec tion of Him and His envoys. He said: “Upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon .the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias . . . . All these things shall come upon this generation” (Matt. 23 :35, 36). It was then that the disciples came with their question: “Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world” (Matt. 24:3)?
der.” No less a student than Dr. A. J. Gordon believed that the great tribulation is the present age, ended by Christ’s return. What, then, shall we make of the words: “Except those days should be shortefted, no flesh should be saved” (Matt. 24:22)? How can it be said that the time of Jacob’s trouble is past when one carefully considers the context of Jere miah 30? God here promises to bring Israel back, in the last days, to the land of their fathers (v. 3). This surely is not a picture of the church. “Wherefore do I see every (Continued on page 64)
February 1931
T h e K i n g ’ s B u s i n e s s
56
Structure in Scripture The Entire B ible—A fter th e Divine D ispensa tiona l Pattern* B y N orman B. H arrison (Minneapolis, Minn.) All Rights Reserved
M a n ’ s R edemption Gen. 2 to Rev. 22 1. Creation and fall
E arth ’ s R eclamation Genesis 1 1. Creation and chaos
Old Testament
New Testament [Christ jospel—!Church
[Sun
2. Light versus darkness 5. Lights— 2. Good and evil 3. Government 4. Chosen people 5. [Christians 6. Waters—filled 7. Earth—filled 3. Waters 6. 7. 4. Earth (Land) a. Separated from a. Creature life a. Separated from a. Nature restored b. Man ruling seas nations b. Made fruitful b. Man over all b. Fruitful as a nation 8. God’s eternal rest 8. God’s rest day # UR last study gave us an introduction to Bible structure. We were led to the conclusion that Genesis 1 holds the structural key to Scripture; that the beginning of things in the material world, leading to and including the creation of man, was so ordered and recorded as to con stitute a divine pattern of that which God purposed to do in the entire range of human redemption. If this conclusion is at all warranted, the proof of its rightfulness will be found in seeking to carry the same structural plan on into the entire Bible. This we have done in the above tabulation, paralleling “Earth’s Rec lamation” of Genesis 1 with “Man’s Redemption,” i^hich is the story of the Bible. (The story, of course, includes the final restoration of nature as sharing in redemption just as it shared in the fall.) The placing of these two side by side, presents a num ber of points of parallelism that are at once suggestive and illuminating. To appreciate them we must first inquire into the typical meaning of terms used in this initial pat tern-forming chapter. S ign ificance of T erms There are in Genesis 1 three terms that are highly significant from a typical standpoint. That they are such cannot be doubted when we find Scripture constantly em ploying them in a moral and spiritual sense. It will be noted also .that they—light, waters, earth or land—are the three that, occurring in the first series, are repeated in the second. Light signifies something of heavenly origin and bless ing. It stands for divine truth as against worldly wis dom, evil, and error. So the psalmist says: “The Lord is my light” (Psa. 27:1) ; and he prays: “Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon Us” (Psa. 4 :6 ); and again: “O send out thy light and thy tru th : let them lead me” (Psa. 43:3). Moreover, as light is opposed to darkness in the Genesis account, so it is throughout Holy Writ. They are never to be confused. “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness” (Isa. 5:20). Water signifies human nature in its instability. It stands for the mass of humanity in its unregenerate and therefore undependable state. While water is meant to be an untold blessing and is frequently given this typical meaning, yet in its mass—the sea, brackish and uncon trolled—it refers to the nations (as distinct from the na tion, Israel, and from the true church) in their- state of unyieldedness to God. Jesus gives it this significance: “dis tress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring” (Lk. 21:25). So it is elsewhere in Scripture. Earth, or land, because that particular portion of it so often referred to as “the land” has been given to the one nation, Israel, has typical reference to this people. They were called to occupy this special portion of the earth; to them it belongs; to it they will yet return as their home. (A familiar use of sea and earth in prophetic language is the reference to the two beasts—Rev. 13:1, 11—inter preted to mean that they are of Gentile and Jewish origin respectively.) See, now, what we have in these terms: a reference to the threefold division of the entire human race as God knows and classifies it. Light foreshadows His heav en-born people, the church; water, the nations; earth, the nation, Israel. (See 1 Cor. 10:32.) . S ymmetry of A rrangement In our pattern chapter, the symmetry is self-evident. Following the introduction, we find two series of three days each. The two correspond completely; at the same time the second is a progression from the first and a com pletion of the first. When we trace this arrangement through the Bible story, we discover a symmetrical design that is beautiful to behold. The Old and New Testaments harmonize in their dispensational structure; the Old in a series of three, the New in a similar number, wholly correspondent and complementary. In equally complete correspondence are the introduction and conclusion (1 and 8) ; taken in their entirety, they tell the whole story. *Third in a series of articles to continue throughout 1931. 57 T h e February 1931 K i n g ’ s B u s i n e s s Here, then, is the beginning of a nation, the nation, as distinct and separate from the nations. It is a nation that in its very call, as above quoted, is associated ever and al ways with the land. Shortly the covenant promise is re newed in terms of the possession of the land; but, as we quote it, we must ask the reader to note how the further feature of the pattern, that of separation, is introduced; indeed, the promise seems to hinge upon Abraham’s step of more utter separation: “And the Lord said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee” (Gen. 13:14-17). Now we are prepared to see the double feature of Is rael’s national life, so strikingly set before us in the pat tern. In the. purpose of God they are to be: (a) a sep arated people, set apart to Him; and (b) a fruitful, pros pered people. Yes, and the prospering is in proportion to the separation. Really these two features, in their interplay of rela tionship, furnish us with the inside story of Israel’s his tory. When they refused to be separated to God and the land, in faith and worship, then came their failures—in Egypt, at Kadesh-barnea, in the times of the judges— till, under the kings, the principle breaks down and they become the captive subjects of the nations. Yet God ever appealed to them with such promises as these: “Trust in the Lord, and do good: so shalt thou dwell in the land . . . Wait on the Lord, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land” (Psa. 37:3, 34). Jehovah holds them in His heart as His vine yard, planted in the land and hedged about with His watch-care: “A vineyard of red wine. I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day” (Isa. 27:2, 3). 5. Gospel. This brings us to Christ, the great Light of whom all previous light is but the adumbration. Her alded with the light of the star and outshining the “glory of God,” welcomed as “a light to lighten the nations,” how often He referred to Himself as the light, saying: “ I am the light of the world, he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life . . . While ye have the light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light” (John 8 :12; 12:36). ,Of special interest to the student is the exact corres pondence between “sun, moon, and stars” in the pattern chapter and “Christ, church, and Christians” in the gos pel age. While the “Sun of Righteousness” is banished through unbelief, and a resulting spiritual darkness en shrouds mankind, we “are the light of the world”-1—the church as she walks in His light; believers who “were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord.” To us comes the command to “walk as children of light” (Eph. 5:8). In the interests of brevity we summarize the remain ing dispensations: ■6. Tribulation. The symbolism is that of water. The experience for the remnant of Israel will be the “waters” of the nations overflowing the “land” of Palestine in the mighty conflict that will culminate in the Valley of Je- hoshaphat, where the Battle of Armageddon is to be (Continued on page 61) It must now be noted that fidelity to the structural scheme of Genesis 1 requires us to deviate from our usually accepted designation of the dispensations in sev eral particulars: First, the word “conscience” is not the most natural or truly descriptive title for the second dispensation. The thought is duality. This, the fundamental feature of “two,” will reappear in all our subsequent studies. Second, the thought of the law is absent. It can be found in this scheme only by inference, as God’s fence to secure the separation of His people and their continu ance in that separation. Third, the tribulation takes its place as one of the dis pensations. This is an exceedingly important finding—a finding that receives unmistakable corroboration from our later studies in other scriptures. Fourth, the dispensations numbered four and seven, following the pattern of the double days in Genesis 1. partake of the same double character. Fifth, the eternal age finds its place as one of the dis pensations, the goal and climax of them all. S equence of t h e D ispensations As briefly as we may, let us follow through the suc cessive steps of God’s dealings with man in redemption, as set forth in the foregoing arrangement. 1. Creation, ending in the Fall. This is introductory and, taken with the so-called: creation account of Gene sis 1, constitutes the introduction to the Bible narrative. It shows man in his original estate of innocency, of fel lowship with God, and of responsibility to God. But man did not retain his original estate. In a simple test of obe dience to God, with its rewards and penalties, he failed and thereby fell into a state of sinfulness and1of conse quent separation from God. Thus the problem is stated, and the stage is set for God’s work of redemption. It will occupy six days, correspondent to the six work days of Genesis 1. 2. -Good and Evil. As in the material world dark ness set in, answering which God called for light, yet the darkness persisted in opposition to the light, so it was in the life following the fall. Satan deceived our first parents, promising that through the course he tempted them to take they should “know good and evil.” And they did, not only personally but in their posterity. Their first-born became a murderer. To this his evil heart was provoked by the “light” of the true faith and worship in his brother. But God raised up the good line of Seth, in the place of Abel and in opposition to the evil line of Cain. Thus Genesis 4 and 5 maintain throughout the duality found in the pattern. 3. Government, that is, of the Nations. Genesis 6 to 11 tells the story of the occasion for the flood, in the increasing wickedness that is traced to a coalescing of the “light” and the “darkness,” the “good” and the “evil.” The remedy is the narrowing down of the race to eight souls wherewith God would make a new beginning (Gen. 6 to 9). Then follows the story of how, in this new civilization, the nations sprang into being and spread over the earth, God placing them under a system of human gov ernment and regulation of life (Gen. 10, 11). This is the regime, the dispensation, that emerged from the “waters” of the flood, in strict correspondence to the pattern. 4. Chosen People, called to dwell in the Land. This was the call that came to Abraham: “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee” (Gen. 12:1).
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