December, 1935
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
451
branches” when they departed from the faith, neither would He spare the ingrafted branches if they should not continue in the faith. When the ingrafted “ branches” (the Gentile church) apostatize, then “ God is able to graff them [the Jews] in again.” That such apostasy on the part of the nominal church o f Christ is to be the signal for the opening o f the eyes o f blinded Israel, and the bringing in of “ the fulness o f the Gentiles,” is the sure Word of God (c f. Rom. 11:17-27). Moreover, to the Thessalonians the inspired apostle wrote: “ Brethren, touching the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto him; . . . it will not be, except the falling away [Gr., apostasia] come first” (2 Thess. 2:1-3, R. V .). Pertinent, indeed, was the ques tion of our Lord to His disciples: “ When the Son of man cometh, shall he find the faith on the earth?” (Lk. 18:8, R. V. margin). Apostasy ripening everywhere ! Surely the Gentile sun set is at hand, and God is about to remove from the church her true soul— believers who have been truly born from above— and to let His awful judgment fall upon the apos tate body that will be left behind !■ “ I tell you, in that night . . . two will be grinding on the same; the one will be taken, and the other will be left” (Literal rendering of Before us lies a recent (October 20, 1935) magazine section o f the Los An geles Times. Occupying more than two pages, prominently displayed, is an article entitled, “ Who’s Who in Heaven.” It was written by a “ Rev.----——, D.D.,” further ' designated as the “ President of the Feder ation o f Protestant Churches o f Los An geles.” He is a pastor in a denomination that in years past and gone has stood un waveringly before the world as believing in an inspired Bible. Yet, hear this apostate modernist: When I get to heaven I am sure that I shall find many of the great Bible figures there, among them Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses; Joshua, Ruth, Naomi, Esther, Samuel, Job, Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Daniel. But some of your evangelist preachers will tell you that only those who “know” Christ and accept the doctrine of the atonement in his blood can enter into God’s king dom. This sort .of preachment disregards the fact that those ancient Bible characters could not possibly have known anything whatever of ^Christ, as they lived ages before he was born. We do not desire to reflect upon his intellectual caliber, but if this modernist is honest, then his ignorance of the Scriptures is amazing. Imagine a man with even quite ordinary intelligence, reading the Scriptures and then say ing that those great characters named “ could not possibly have known anything whatever o f Christ” ! Was it Na poleon whom Moses saw when, “ By faith . . . he endured, as seeing him who is invisible” (Heb. 11:27) ? Was Isaiah talking in his sleep when he wrote: “ He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised. for our iniquities” ? Was Job anticipating Roosevelt when he cried out: “ I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth” ( Job 19:25) ? N o ! N o ! These holy men o f God looked forward with eyes radiantly illum Luke 17:35). Both working together on the same task, in the same “ church,” one will be “ caught up . . . to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thess. 4 :17 ), and the other will be left for judgment. A Los A ngeles A postate —O nly O ne of M an y
inated" by faith* and savy-and knew the precious Lamb of God in all the .glory o f His. redeeming power and saving grace. . , O f course; the whole purpose of the statement quoted from the Los Angeles Times is to repudiate “ the atonement in his blood” as being necessary for salvation, and even to go beyond that— to deny the necessity o f any knowledge whatever of Christ as'being-essential to fellowship with God. That this is the vidw of th is“ President of the Federation of Protestant Churchds o f Los Angeles,” is confirmed in an other amazing statement, as follows: When I consider this doctrine that only believers in Christ can enter heaven, and that the ancient and modern Jews, Buddhists, arid Moslems will have no chance to crash fhe! pearly, gates, ! feel free to say that such a doc trine has no Biblical foundation or justification whatever. O f course, it-is not to be expected that this, or any other modernist, could close his perversions o f God’s Word without striking a blow at God’s plan of salvation, denying the salvation that is “ by grace . . . through faith; and that not o f yourselves: ¡.but | it is the gift of God : Not of works, lest any man should boast” '-(Eph. 2:8, 9 ). He turns from Paul to' Edwin Markham for his plan of sal vation. Quoting the poem, “ How the Great Guest Came,)’ hd makes the gift of a pair of shoes to a beggar, a loaf of bread to a “ wrinkled crone,” and the leading of a lost child back to its mother, the full price of a ticket into God’s heaven. We do not deprecate these good works which are the sure fruit from the life of any man who has been “ created in Christ Jesus unto good works” (Eph. 2 :10 ). As a matter of fact, the evidence of human endeavor in all the ages past, proves:conclusively that such fruit is found only where the lives of men and women have been touched and influenced by the Spirit o f God. But if good works such as these furnish a sufficient price for salva tion, then Paul was surely right: “ If righteousness come by .the law, then Christ is dead in vain” (Gal. 2 :21 ). Further comment to show the utter apostasy of this “ Rev.” Infidel, should be unnecessary. But we quote him a bit further: Voltaire, Paine and Ingersoll . . . you need not worry about their eligibility to positions in the celestial world. Their place is secure. . . . Oliver Lodge and Conan Doyle . . . I . . . by no means would exclude them . . . Darwin, Spencer, Huxley . . . all great names to me and worthy of entry in the heavenly “Who(s;WI}o” . . . Ancient and mod ern Jews, Buddhists and Moslems , . . Unitarians? Yes. Need anything more be quoted to prove that this man, pastor of a Christian church, fulfills every demand o f our Lord’s figure—a “ wolf in sheep’s clothing” ? This Los Angeles apostate would not be worth the at tention he has been receiving, did he stand as an exceptional case of modernistic thinking. But his is a fair representa tion of the thinking o f most modernists. He simply be came a bit careless and let slip, and thought out loud, the real beliefs of modernists; or, as the Master designates them— “ wolves” “ in sheep’s clothing” (Matt. 7 :15 ). By the time these words are in print, it will be known whether or not the Federation of Protestant Churches o f Los An geles is, itself, cravenly apostate, or whether it still has the courage to stand for “ the faith which was once for all de livered unto the saints” (Jude 3, R. V .). If still loyal to Christ, it will not have continued to allow this infidel turn coat to continue longer as its head.
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