December, 1935
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
450
God’s Plan fo r OUR AGE
. BAUMAN California
- T " "
B y LOUIS S Long Beach,
and all life has its source, made it impossible that the grave or Hades should hold Him fast. The flesh in which the Christ tabernacled came directly from the loins of David through the womb of Mary. That flesh was not permitted to decay! That flesh, nail-printed, will return from heaven, tabernacling the Son o f God and Son o f Man, even the Son o f David who is to reign on his throne. Never has there been an hour when God did not know where to find the legal heir to David’s throne. “ For thus saith the L o rd ; David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel” (Jer. 3 3 :17 ). That Jesus Christ, incarnate in the very flesh that came forth from the womb o f Mary, will some day return to this earth and reign on “ the throne o f his father David” (Lk. 1 :30- 33), is just as sure as the oath-backed promise of the eter nal God can make it. It is as sure as it is “ impossible for God to lie” (Heb. 6:17, 18) 1 God’s covenant with David stands: “ I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall pro ceed out o f thy bowels, and I will establish . . . the throne o f his kingdom fo r ever” (2 Sam. 7:12, 13). T he S upreme P urpose of G od for O ur A ge God’s purpose for the days between the time o f the as cension of the Son of David into the heavens, and the time when He should return to sit upon His throne in Jerusa lem, was assuredly made known in the first council of the church. This’ council was called in the mother church in Jerusalem. There it was set forth that, “ at the first,” God, through His ambassadors, would “ visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a-people for his name” (Acts 15:14). There, in a single sentence, is set forth unmistakably the supreme business of the church, the ecclesia, i.e., the “ Called-out!’ And when the ambassadors o f God shall have visited the nations, and shall have called out “ a peo ple for his name,” then " after this I [Christ] will return, and will build again the tabernacle o f David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up: That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things. Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world” (Acts 15 :16-18). A postasy , the D eath D am p of O ur A ge For what, then, do we wait ? Have not the Gentiles been visited ? Have not a people been “ called out” for His name ? Are not the dry bones of Israel stirring within their graves according to tbe prophet (Ezek. 3 7 :11-14) ? Do not events on every hand proclaim the twilight of Gentile dominion? Is not utter human failure— political, material, social, re ligious- . -to be seen on every side, human failure that has signaled the fall of the curtain for every previous age? The surest sign o f a closing age is always to be found in the apostasy, o f the organised group o f people chosen o f God to do His work in that age. The church is that organized group in our age. In the very beginning, God solemnly reminded the church that “ because o f unbelief they [the Jews] were broken off,” and that the church standeth by faith, and that “ if God spared not the natural
S ummar izing our previous article under the above cap tion, we now set forth the facts that, in “ the eternal purpose [of God] which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Eph. 3 :11 ), First, Jesus Christ was “ born King of the Jews.’’ Second, John the Baptist announced the kingdom of heaven “ at hand,” and presented to the Jews their King. Third, the King, having been presented, also announced that the kingdom o f heaven was “ at hand,” and presented “ The Sermon on the Mount” as the basic law, or the Con stitution, of the kingdom. Fourth, the King then sent His messengers “ two and two before his face into every city and place” (Lk . 10:1) wherein were to be found “ the lost sheep of the house of Israel”— expressly forbidding them to go “ into the way of the Gentiles” (Matt. 10:5)-—commanding them to cry as they went: “ The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Fifth, on the first day of the crucifixion week, Christ rode into Jerusalem on an ass, even as it was written (Zech. 9 :9 ), and by every possible token He once more, and for the last time, brought to the Jews the offer of Himself, the Kingdom and the King. Sixth, on that day, commonly known a s / ‘Palm Sun day,” the official heads of Israel definitely rejected the King o f the Jews, their action resulting in the postponement of the kingdom (Lk. 19:37-44). T he R ejection as R elated to >; the C ovenants of G od - The rejection o f their King at His first advent did not and cannot invalidate the covenants o f God. “ He came un to his own, and his own received him not” (John 1 :11). But, in “ the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of G o d l the Jews took their King, and “ by wicked hands .. . crucified” Him (Acts 2 :23 ). By this act o f rejection, “ the branches [Israel] were broken off” (Rom. 11:19), and be lieving Gentiles (the church) were “ graffed . . . into a good olive tree” (Rom. 11:24). However, even the almost in credible crime of Israel was not sufficient cause for Jeho vah to break His covenant with Abraham and David, and to cast their earthly seed away (Rom . 11:2). Israel will be some day “ graffed [back] into their own olive tree” (cf. Rom. 11 -22-27-, Jer. 3 1 :35-37; 3 3 :23-26). In his great sermon at Pentecost, Peter declared to Is rael that the “ flesh” of Christ, though it once had been laid cold in death in Joseph’s tomb, had received the ful fillment o f the promise that it would “ rest in hope.” The “ hope” of His “ flesh” was that Elohim (the Strong One) would keep His promise made to David—a promise which Elohim backed by His immutable oath. Why was “ his [Christ’s] soul . . . not left in Hades, neither his flesh did see corruption” ? The reason was that “ God had sworn with an oath to him [David], that of the fruit o f his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his [David’s] throne” (cf. Acts 2:25-31). And not only this promise of the living God, but also the fact of Christ’s character as the Holy One o f God, in whom life is inherent [This is the second article on this subject, prepared for K ing ’ s B usiness readers by the pastor o f the First Brethren Church, Long Beach, California.— E ditor . ]
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