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T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
September, 1936
PROPHECY, the G ibraltar o f the BOOK B y LOUIS S. BAUMAN* Long Beach, California
I t is now almost thirty years since Glenn, our first-born, six and one-half years of age, spoke his “ piece” in an Easter program in the Sunday-school. His voice rang out in the large auditorium, strong and clear as a bell:
false g o d ! And the challenge is good. Who but God can “ declare the things that are to come hereafter” ? No man can do it. No false god can do it. It is possible only with the Omnipotence who can order the future to do all things according to the counsel o f His own will. Let men, if they can, tell us what will be the exact line up of the nations now marching in confusion to a world
Soon we will fly from your sight far away,. But there’s a land that shall ne’er know decay, Where reigns the risen One, new life to bring Unto His own in Eternity’s' Spring.
Little did we realize that his words were peculiarly true. Before another Sunday came, the dreaded diptheria had laid firm hold upon him and “ soon” indeed— in less than another week-—he called us to his bedside and said, “ I am only waiting for Him to come for me.” Then, as it were, h.e folded up his little tent, and flew from our “ sight far away.” As we stood there and gazed upon that little form, so silent, so cold, I made a terrible discovery. Doubt was enthroned within my heart! I had often stood by the casket wherein lay the babe of some other father, and had comforted him with the thought that “ there is no death—what seems so is transition,” and I had been sincere, at least in my words. But now our boy,
battle-field. They ‘ know not their opponents. They only know they are going to fight. Let men tell us who is to be the next President o f the United States. And, while they speculate, let them consider also the possibilities of death. Let them tell us who will suc ceed to this office four years hence. A great German statesman once said, “ In human events, it is the unexpected that happens.” The old Book itself warns: “ Go to now, ye that say, Today or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow” (Jas. 4:13, 14). Ah ! not for one day ahead can man know beyond all doubt where his footsteps shall lead. Is the old Book true ? “ Bring forth
my boy, was in the casket. And in a little historic Dunker cemetery on Germantown Avenue, Philadelphia, we laid to rest that little temple o f clay. For the first time in my life, I found myself asking: “ Are these things so? Is there another life? Is heaven an actuality, or is it only a dream born o f desire ? Did Jesus Christ die and rise again ? Will ‘the dead in Christ’ rise from their graves some day ? And will the living then be changed ‘in a moment, in the twinkling o f an eye,’ and ‘be caught up together . . . to meet the Lord in the air’ ?” “ Together !” Sweet word that, if only true! Above all, I wanted to know : “ Is this old Book, with its precious promises, true?” Doubt, I d id ! And doubt was robbing me of the promised “ comfort” : “ Wherefore comfort one another with these words” (1 Thess. 4 :18 ). Over and over I asked myself, “ Is it all true? Is it all true?” I came to one con clusion: “ I cannot continue in my ministry if I doubt these things. I cannot—must not— preach my doubts. I must not deceive the broken o f heart. They need assurance, not doubt.” What was I to do? Just one thing! I opened the Book itself. I fell on my knees. I begged o f the living God assurance— absolute evidence! And there in the old Book were the words: “ Produce your cause, saith Jehovah; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King o f Jacob .. . Declare the things that are to come here after, that we may know that ye are gods” (Isa. 4 1 :21, 23, R. V .). A C hallenge T hat H as N ever B een M et Ah, that is the challenge the living God makes to every
your strong reasons.. . . Declare the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know” ! And this infallible test, the living God, the God o f the Bible, alone can stand! Other “ gods” there have been. Other “ holy books” there are. But what “ god”— save the God o f Jsrael, what “ book”— save the Christian’s Bible, has dared to accept this challenge— or, accepting it, has stood the test ? Let men tell us how any but the God who sees the end from the beginning, could have written the history o f a people, a nation, for thirty-five centuries in advance. Read Deuteronomy 28. Then read your Gibbon, your Ridpath; yes, read your morning newspaper, and as you read them, think, and think deeply. Let the carping unbeliever, scoffing at divine inspiration,, read the book o f Daniel, and then explain how it was possible for a mere Jew to pick up his quill and to write the rise and fall of empire, true in its minutest details, for twenty-five centuries in advance! D aniel and E zekiel in F ulfillment It is beside the point to join the unthinking critic and say that Daniel never wrote Daniel— that some Jew wrote the book after the events had taken place. The book of Daniel, o f a certainty, was in existence before the fall o f the Roman Empire. How did the writer of that book know that a fifth empire, like unto any one of the four he had foretold, would not arise from the ambition o f some Char lemagne or Napoleon? The rise o f a fifth world-empire after Rome, unless the empire o f the Antichrist, or o f the Christ Himself, would have set the book o f Daniel outside the realm o f truth. But the old Book stands! How could Ezekiel have known in his day that the city
*Pastor, First Brethren Church,
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