King's Business - 1918-11

THE K I N G ’ S BUS I NE S S for many shall come in my name, say­ ing, I am Christ, and shall deceive many.” Matt. 24:4, 5. Thepe infernal deceivers steal the livery and nomenclature of Heaven to masquerade in. They not only profess to do what Jesus did, hut they appro­ priate His name. Bar-jesus the sorcerer, stands ready to discredit Christ Jesus the healer. It is “ another Jesus” and “ another Gospel” which as Paul says is not another but a different one. When Jesus comes again, how will His people know that it is He? How can He be identified among so many rivals, pretenders and impostors? Peter told the Jews, “ God hath made that same Jesus whom ye crucified both Lord and Christ.” The two men on Mt. Olivet assured the disciples, “ 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.” Everyone who has known the true Christ will recognize Him without fail. We may examine the Scripture portrait and exclaim with Philip, “ We have found him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth.” John 1:45. . We have another means of identifica­ tion, Christ has been formed in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. His image has been written there by the same hand that drew the picture on the page of Scripture. He will rather identify us and the Holy Spirit will gather us to Him because of our spiritual likeness and identity. “ We know that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” The Satanic trinity that is the coun­ terpart of the God-head is composed of the dragon, the beast and the false pro­ phet. As there is an anti-Christ who stands and counterfeits the Divine Christ, so there is an anti-spirit that opposes and simulates the Holy Spirit. The manifestation of anti-Christ

944 followers of worshipping weakness instead of strength. He affirms from the standpoint of psychology that Jesus was a neurotic and a degenerate. This criticism shows that the author gets his ideas from tradition and art instead of Scripture. We cannot understand the suffering of the Saviour, unless we see beyond the exquisite sensibility of the sufferer, the sublime courage and heroic resolu­ tion of his perfect manhood. We must balance and supplement our view of the patient, uncomplaining Sufferer by the Scriptural vision of the conquering and glorified Redeemer. Satan is too shrewd to attempt to supplant the truth with a lie and so he adulterates the truth with a subtle mix­ ture of error, that it may be rendered inoperative and powerless. He well knows he could not enthrone an idol in Christian churches, but if he can induce people to neglect their Bibles he can easily give them a different idea of Jesus than that which the New Testa­ ment presents. There are various methods of expos­ ing and detecting counterfeits in the banking and commercial world. Scripture furnishes our test and standard of judging all preaching and teaching. “ To the law and to the testi­ mony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because they are not of the morning.” Isa. 8:20. Satan is willing that any view of Christ shall be held except the true one. Men may believe Him to be a good man, a great teacher and a mighty prophet. They may co-ordinate Him with Confucius, Buddha and Moham­ med, but they must not believe Him to be the divine Son of God and the Sav­ iour of the world. As there is but one true Christ, so there can be but one true opinion of Him. When the disciples inquired con­ cerning the end of the age, Jesus said, “ Take heed that no man deceive you,

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