December 1927
T h e - K i n g ' s B u s i n e s s
779
A Prepared World “When the fulness of time was come, God sent forth His Son.” —Gal. 4:4. W E were struck by the words of Dr. John Marvin Dean, in a Christmas sermon: “When the fulness ‘of the time came—when Jew joined hands with Greek, jand Greek with Roman, and Roman with Jew, in prepar ing a civilization for the introduction of the divine revela tion, then—did the living ‘God send forth His Son.’ ” There is more wrapped up in these words than one at first realizes. At the particular time Christ carrie, three races controlled the civilized world,—Greek, Roman and Jew. Pilate recognized this in placing the inscription on ‘the cross in “Hebrew, Greek and Latin.” A century prior to that time no Palestine movement could have ¡spread beyond Palestine. But there had been a divine ¡shaping of bistory for Christ’s comipg. The world was strangely localized and divided. Rome had welded a lot of incoherent kingdoms into one. The Roman world-unity [meant everything to the spread of Christianity; as we see by the journeys of Paul. Another peculiar thing—there was one common lan guage to carry the Gospel to the world. The Greek played his part in preparing the world, for his flexible language was made the chief tongue of the civilized world. The many peoples with tongues as confused as Babel were compelled to learn Greek. „ Another feature- -the Jews were scattered throughout the known world at that time. They carried with them the Oracles of God containing the prophecies of the Sav ior’s coming. “Moses hath in every city them that preach him” ' (Acts 15:21). Shortly before Christ the Hebrew
now living, even if they should pass away, will never die. “Whosoever liveth and believeth in me,” said our Lord, “shall never die. . . . Though he were dead, yet shall he live” (Jn. 11:25-26). What the Russellites mean is that the Lord, who is supposed now to be present somewhere on earth, is soon to manifest Himself as King, and death will be done away. Millions will never pass through physical death, and so will enter with Him into the millennium. It may prove true—we do not know. Its advertising value, however, rests in the word “NOW,” and for the uSe of that word, we affirm that neither Rutherford nor any other man, has the slightest Scriptural warrant. No man living knows anything whatever about when our Lord is comirig. Of one thing we are certain—HE IS NOT ALREADY HERE (Mt. 24:23-27). Another thing we can state very positively. Millions now living are spiritually dead, “dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1). If Russell had given heed to the plain statements of Scripture concerning death, he never would have built up his erroneous system. Life is riot merely existence. All men will exist forever, whether saved or lost. A man may be very much alive, yet dead to God; and if that state is carried to the hour of physical death, ac cording to the plainest teachings of Scripture, it ruris into the state of eternal death, “the second death ” which is separation from God forever. (Rev. 20:14. Cf. v. 10. The beast and the false prophet had already been in the lake of fire 1000 years; proving it was not annihilation.) Death, to the Russellite, is annihilation. Yet in the very beginning of the Bible there stands the record of Adam and Eve, who because of the separating influence of sin, were pronounced “dead” the very, day they sinned, although they lived on for many years (Gen. 2 :17). The apostle Paul wrote of those who were thoroughly alive to the world but who were dead while they lived , (1 Tim. 5:6). The simple truth is that no one at all has life—the eternal life of God—who does not come to know Him Who is life (Jn. 5 :26). Jesus Christ has “tasted death for every man” (death in its widest sense, physical, spiritual,' eternal). He has removed “the sting o f death,” and it is now His will that “every one that believeth on Him might have everlasting life” (Jn. 6:40). No matter how dead the child of God may become physically, his, spirit, goes immediately to be, with the Lord in conscious bliss (Phil. 1 :23; 2 Cor. 5 :8), and his body will be raised up at the Lord’s coming (Jn. 6 :40). “This is life”— that we might have the conscious knowledge of God as' dur Heavenly Father, through His only begotten Son (Jn. 17:3). Millions through the ages, and perhaps millions now living, consciously possess that life and cannot die spiritually, regardless of what may happen to their bodies. It is also blessedly true that ,if our Lord should come today, everyone possessing that eternal life, would escape physical death and be changed “in the twinkling o f an eye” (1 Cor. 15:52; 1 Thess, 4 : 15-17). On the other hand, let no man base his hopes on the Rutherford slogan that he can escape death in its full Scriptural sense simply because he is now living. All who remain spiritually dead will enter upon double d e a th - physical and eternal, when Jesus comes.
The Spirit of Christ in Christmas
Made with FlippingBook Annual report