T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
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November, 1939
The Unfading Inheritance By ROY L. LAURIN
Los Angeles, California Illustration by Ransom D . Marvin turned into triumph or tragedy. Lf there is to be triumph for them—and for us today—it will be because they— and we—have prepared ourselves. The secret of triumph out of trial is given in the subject matter of these letters. Peter uses a particular adjective when he speaks of trial. He calls it “fiery trial.” He borrowed the word from the memory of a great conflagra tion that reduced two-thirds of the city of Rome to ashes and did not cease until it touched the bodies and homes of these believers to whom Peter found it necessary to write. Peter’s expres sion goes back to Emperor Nero. This cruel Caesar sits in the terraced gar dens of his magnificent palace over looking Rome. Overhead are great roll ing clouds of smoke. Embers and ashes Till the air. There is the sound of crashing buildings, the roaring of a racing fire, the hissing of leaping flames, the screarr - of incinerated men, the smell of seared flesh, the voices of fleeing refugees, but the Emperor is unconcerned. It is like a holiday—a sporting spectacle. The Emperor Nero, who, it is relia bly charged, fired the city, soon found suspicion pointing to him. As one writer states it, “to offset the charge and to minimize the popular disfavor caused by this grievous calamity, Nero laid 'the blame on the Christians.” They were henceforth persecuted with great fury, not only in Rome but throughout the Empire as well. The persecution [This is the first article in a series dealing with the Epistles of Peter. Oth ers in this group of messages are planned for forthcoming issues.~\
/ '" 'V UT of a rich and rather check- I 1 ered experience, Peter writes two great Epistles dealing with life. He writes out of purpose and at no time wanders in literary nonessen- tials. He writes to a group of people sorely tried and probably greatly per plexed, Christians finding it difficult to reconcile faith to apparent failure. Peter tells them there will be trial. He tells them further that this trial can be
had reached Pontus and Galatia, Cappa docia, Asia, and Bithynia. • Here indeed was a “fiery trial,” for the fires that ^burned Rome ignited the hate of men until every effort was made to exterminate Christians and Christianity-. Here were believers who had lost families, fortunes, and homes. They were “strangers scattered”, in alien areas undergoing grievous and heartbreaking trial. They needed en couragement and hope, and to them Peter wrote of an inheritance ever- living and imperishable. Certain things News fires could not touch. Seven things were true of these “strangers scattered.” I. Their Election (v. 2). The believers whom Peter addressed may have been strangers to the com munities from Pontus to Bithynia, but they Were no strangers'to God. They were God’s elect. Strangers on earth, they were citizens of heaven. Never to be found in Rome’s Who's Who, they were in the eternal remembrance of God, for they were His chosen ones. The elect are not an arbitrary num ber whom God has chosen to be saved, thus making all those excluded from this salvation the nonelect. It is my unshakable conviction that salvation has been provided for and offered to the 'entire world. The salvation o f,God is as broad and as inclusive as the sin of man. If as in Isaiah it says “All.,'. . have gone astray,” then it is equally true that for the sin of all, God laid on Jesus the iniquity of that “all,” And Peter adds support to this conviction when he says, “The Lord is . . . not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9). And Paul is equally emphatic. “Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the Knowledge of the truth” (I Tim. 2.4); ' The simple and profound difference between the saved and unsaved, elect and nonelect is this: The saved are those who validate God's sovereign choice of them by their personal choice of Him. The lost are those who invali date that choice of God by their per sonal refusal of Him. A,nd the reduc tion of the whole matter rests in our response to the external call of the preacher and the internal call of the Holy Spirit. If. Their Regeneration (v. 3 ). Christianity is a world-changing
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