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T H E K l N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
A Form of Blasphemy By Chas. F. Reitzel, Pastor, Author and Bible Teacher, Pennsylvania
OSSIBLiY -we had better have said, an old form of blasphemy in the guise of a new dress. But in either case it is blasphemy. Now there are many forms of blasphemy, but we have in our mind at this time but one particular form—the act of man in claim ing the prerogatives or attributes of the Deity. The Gos pels furnish us a striking illustration on this point. When Jesus by His word forgave the sins of the palsied man, the Pharisees protested and pronounced. Him a blasphemer, saying, “Who is this whilch speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins -but God alone?” ; The forgiveness of sins is the prerogative of the Deity. And if Jesus is not God, then His act was nothing short of blasphemy. Of course, Jesus is God. And it is to an instance or two of the above mentioned form of blasphemy that we desire to call the reader’s attention in the lines that follow. Our attention was called to this matter only recently in the reading of a number of declarations of Mrs. Winifred Mason Huck, Congress-woman-at-large from the state of Illinois. The declarations were given wide publicity by the daily press. Here are a few of them: - “The next fifty years will see an end of all war. Women and mothers will accomplish that.” -Now many untaught Christians would fairly go, wild over a statement of this kind, especially if it were made at one of our state or national Christian Endeavor or Sunday school conventions. We are in a position to know, for we were there and witnessed scenes of that kind. They would almost throw their hats into the air, thinking that Mrs. Huck had really said something. And she did say some thing—she uttered blasphemy. In all probability she did it ignorantly and in unbelief, as do many of her kind, but it is blasphemy nevertheless according to the foregoing definition. We have forgotten that the prerogative of end ing all war belongs only.to God—“HE (the Lord maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth” (Ps. 46:9). So, as already stated, this woman speaketh blasphemies. Who can make wars to cease but God alone? And speaking of mothers who from now on, as she de clares, “will be elected to aid in conducting the affairs of state,” she makes this shocking statement: “It is they (the mothers) who will usher in the millen nium.” We say, “ shocking” statement, for all blasphemy is shocking. Turn, if you will, to the ninth chapter of Isaiah and there you will find a picture of millennial conditions, and it is neither woman nor man who will bring those conditions to pass. Such work is the prerogative of the Lord alone. Says the prophet, “The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.” Again we say, This woman speaketh blasphemies. Who can bring in the millennium but God alone? Isn’t it rather significant, brethren, that one of the last pictures we have in the Word of world conditions shortly preceding the coming of the Lord to reign is that of a “woman” sitting on a scarlet colored beast. And thé beast is “full of names of blasphemy.”. The beast also had “seven heads and ten horns”- (Rev. 17:3). There were more “horns” than “heads.” The heads may stand for wisdom and the horns may be an expression of power. So you see there was more power than brains. That is ex actly the trouble today. The problems of the world are bigger and more powerful than the brains of our greatest statesmen. You resent this statement, do you? If so,
then conditions are even worse than what we have made them to be. If our statesmen can solve the world problems and do not (and we all know that they do not), then they are mere time servers and traitors to the trust that has been committed to them. They merely hold their jobs for what they can get out of them. The world needs a man, a supérman, who can solve its mighty and intricate problems. And, by the way, it is looking for him. But when He once comes He will not be the devil’s counterfeit, the beast with the “seven heads and ten horns.’’ He will be God’s Man, the Christ, who will be both the “power of God and the wisdom of God.”; And He is the only one who Is equal to the task; The situation in the world today reminds us of a story we heard a lecturer tell some years ago. He was riding along in a train when he noticed a little yellow dog leave a farm house and come running across the meadow at breakneck speed in the direction of the train. The lec turer turned to the man in the seat with him and said, “What do you suppose that little dog would do with this train if he did catch It?” Quite a job for a little dog to handle a ponderous locomotive with eight or ten heavy coaches. It is even so in the world today. What can puny man do with the present colossal problems that are facing him? Just what he has always done, we presume—make a fizzle of them. There is only one, the One who possesses both divine power and divine wisdom, who is able to bring order out in the present awful world chaos. Now, brethren, what this woman (Mrs. Huck) is claim ing has been and is being claimed by post millennialists everywhere. One of the dominant notes in the programs of our post millennial friends is that man will end all war and that man will bring in the millennium. And what is it? Nothing less than man assuming two of the preroga tives of the Deity. And such acts are forms of blasphemy. So, brethren, the difference between pre and post millen- nialism is not merely a difference of views or opinions. It is more serious than all that. It is the difference be tween blasphemy on the one hand and that of giving God and His Word their rightful place on the other hand. Think it oyer, brethren, and see if our deductions are not correct. We have all sympathy for our brethren among the post millennial ranks who have not yet been swept off their feet by the awful tide of modernism and who still believe the Bible to be inspired and that Jesus was born of a virgin and that atonement is by the shed blood of the Lord Jesus. We thank God for them. And may we not ask them to con sider seriously and prayerfully the sinfulness of attempt ing to bring to pass that which is the prerogative of God alone. If the claim of man (or woman too) to make all wars to cease and bring in the millennium is not blasphemy, pray, tell us, what, then, is it? And, beloved, you who desire to be true to your Lord* how can you, in the light of these facts, remain any longer a partner to such grave offenses? Moreover, the stampede of post millennialism in the direction of the apostasy is so rapid that it will only be a question of a short period of time until the true chil dren of God will be forced to do one of two things—either line up with the deniers of the faith o.r get out. May they get out and get out now while the getting out is still good.’
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