make our Lord a created angel, not the Creator. They teach that Jesus was a human being during His earthly ministry, but that in His in carnation He was not the spiritual being He Was before. They teach that at the cross, His humanity was anni hilated, that after His death, His body was either secretly taken away by God or “ dissolved into gases.” They teach that man is not saved by God’s grace tlirough faith in the Lord Jesus Christ alone, but by doing good works. Pastor Russell taught that Jesus Christ returned in October, 1874, and went into hiding with some of His disciples, and that in October, 1914, He was to be manifested with the living disciples known as “the true wheat.” The number of these disci ples was to be 144,000. (He took this number from the reference in the book of Revelation to the 144,000 Israelites.) Pastor Russell worked out a mil lennial dawn and kingdom-salvation program, because he could not un derstand what God would do with the heathen who had never heard the Gospel, and therefore, could not be held responsible for accepting or rejecting it. Pastor Russell taught, and most of his disciples still teach, that the time of Christ’s manifesta tion is to be determined by multiply ing 360 years by 7 (or 2,520 years) to the year that the Jews were taken away by the king of Babylon, about 600 B.C. They said that during the kingdom reign of Christ on earth the heathen and others who have died are to be brought back to the earth and given an opportunity to hear the kingdom message. Jehovah’s Witnesses teach soul- sleep, and are bitterly opposed to any and all orthodox teachings con cerning hell and the lake of fire. According to the plain teaching of the Word of God, no one can be saved who believes what is taught by Jehovah’s Witnesses concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, to say nothing of other errors in this system. There fore, we would warn our readers against it as a dangerous and per nicious perversion of the truth of God.
I believe the whole Bible, but so many discredit the stories of the flood and Jonah that I should like some scriptural proof of the facts of these events. The Lord Jesus verified the his toricity of both events during His earthly ministry. In Matthew 12:38- 42 He gave the Jews “the sign of the prophet Jonas” as typical of His death and resurrection. “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea-mon ster [Revised Version, marginal ren dering of the original Greek], so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matt. 12:40; Luke 11:29-32). And in Matthew 24:37-39, picturing the corruption that will be on the earth at the end of this age, He said, “As the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” Moreover, the apostles bore wit ness to the fact of the flood. (Read Heb. 11:7; 2 Pet. 2:5.) Again, archaeology and the leg ends of ancient peoples prove that they knew of the flood, although many of the stories handed down from history and legend are per verted accounts of the Biblical rec ord. Certainly the God who created all things was able to perform these miracles. They are to be classed with all other miracles as supernat ural; and, indeed, our whole Chris tian faith is based upon the super natural. What are the errors taught by Je hovah’s Witnesses who are carrying on the work which was begun by Pastor Charles T. Russell ? In the first place, the Russellites are Unitarians. They say that the doctrine of the Trinity was well suited to the Dark Ages, which, ac cording to Pastor Russell, produced it. Therefore, they deny the deity and personality of the Holy Spirit. They also deny the eternal deity of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. They teach, that He was a god, but not the God. They teach that, before His incarnation, He was none other than the archangel Michael. Thus they JUNE, 1947
You say we are baptised with the Holy Spirit the moment we are born again. Please explain why the dis ciples were baptized with the Spirit after they were sawed. The disciples lived both before and after the Day of Pentecost. And it was on that memorable day yearly two thousand years ago that the church began, when the Holy Spirit came upon believers with miracu lous power. That day’s experience was in fulfillment of our Lord’s ex press promise. Listen to such words as these: ‘‘The Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified” (John 7:39). “It is expedient for you that I go away,” He said to His disciples, “ for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you” (John 16:7). “And, behold, I send the prom ise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city Of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). (Cf. Acts 1:4, 5, 8.) So, you see, the disciples were al ready born agaip by faith in Christ before the Holy Spirit came on the Day of Pentecost. That is why they had the added experience of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. But all who have been born again after Pentecost have been baptized with the Spirit the moment they were saved. For proof of this, note that the three thousand souls _who were added to the believers on the Day of Pentecost did not have to wait at all for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. (See Acts 2.) In Galatians 3:13, 14 we read that Christ hung on the accursed tree, “that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” Dozens of Scriptures might be quoted to illustrate this fundamental truth. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is never the future experience of the believer in this day of grace. There is no salvation outside of the body of Christ, and every saved person becomes a mem ber of that body by divine baptism. Page Twenty-live
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