■ OD is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. There fore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though th e mountains be carried into the midst of the sea. PSA. 46:1-2
President Wilson, -when taking the oatk of office kissed the Bihle at these verses. America maj> count herself safe, so long as she makes God her strength and refuge.
SEPTEMBER, 1918
Bible Institute ofLosAngeles (INCORPORATED) LOS ANGELES, CAL IFORN IA , U. S. A . Free Training School for Christian Workers
DIRECTORS
R. A. Torrey, vice-president Leon V. Shaw, treasurer W illiam Evans J. O. Smith
Lym an Stewart, president J. M. Irvine, secretary T. C. H orton, superintendent H . A. Getz
. N athan Newby
STATEMENT Church as expressed in the Common Creed T he N ecessity of the New B irth. The M aintenance of Good W orks. The Second Coming of Christ. The Im m ortality of the Spirit. The R esurrection of the Body. The Life Everlasting of Believers. The Endless Punishm ent of the Im penitent. The Reality am | Personality of Satan.
DOCTRINAL W e hold to the H istoric Faith of the of Evangelical Christendom and including: The ^Trinity of the Godhead. T he D eity of the Christ. The Personality of the H oly Ghost. The Supernatural and Plenary authority of the H oly Scriptures. T he U nity in D iversity of the Church, the Body andj Bride of Christ. The Substitutionary Atonement.
SCOPE OF THE WORK
PURPOSE:
The In stitu te trains, free of cost, accredited men and women, in the knowledge and use of the Bible. DEPARTMENTS: (1) The In stitu te Classes held daily except on Saturdays and Sundays. (2) Extension w ork. Classes and conferences held in neighboring cities and towns. (3) Evangelistic. M eetings conducted by our evangelists. (4) Spanish W ork. Personal w ork among Spanish speaking people. (5) Shop W ork. R egular services in shops and factories. (6) Jewish Evangelism . Personal w ork among the H ebrews and mission for Jews. (7) Bible W omen. H ouse-to-house visitation and neighborhood classes. (8) O il Fields. A mission to men on the oil fields. (9) Books and T racts. Sale and distribution of selected books and tracts. (10) H arbor W ork. F o r seam an at Los Angeles harbor. (11) The Biola H all. Daily noon m eetings for men in the down-town district, w ith free reading-room privileges. Evangelistic service every evening. (12) P rin t Shop. F o r printing Testam ents, bopks, tracts, etc. A complete establish m ent, profits going 'to free distribution of religious literature.
T H E K IN G ’S B U S IN E S S MOTTO: v t the. Lord, do keen it. I w ill water it event moment, lest any hurt it, I w ill keep it night and day.” ............................... Isa. 27:3 " PUBLISHED B Y THE BIBLE IN S T IT U T E OF LOS AN G E LE S , INCORPORATED © Entered as Second-Class M atter November 17, 1910, at the Post Office at Los Angeles, California under the A ct of M arch 3, 1879 jXjjggf Copyright by R. A . Torrey, D . D ., and Bible Institute of Los Angeles, for the year 1918 Volume IX September, 1918 Number/8 ® THE “TABOO ” O N “MADE IN GERMANY” These are days when men are repudiating everything with the “made'in Germany” stamp upon it. There is a German-concocted theology which has of late years been permeating many of the colleges and seminaries of the world, and which has tainted a great deal of the denominational literature, especially that of the Sunday Schools. This teaching has been seeking to take away the Bible as the infallible Word of God, and has in the most subtle way denied the Deity of Christ, the necessity of His atonement and resurrection, and man’s need of regen eration from above. Hundreds of politicians as well as preachers are now awaking to the fact that German theology stands back of German morals and ideals. Someone has said that, if fifty years ago, the Christians of the world had made war on German theology, the present hideous war might have been avoided. Now is a good time to make war on the destructive criticism and to shake off the literature of institutions that deny the fundamental doctrines of the Word of God. Now is the time to get back to the Bible itself and to get thoroughly informed as to God’s program for the present age, for, without doubt, “the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.” That THE KING’S BUSINESS has been a champion of the fundamentals of the Christian faith, and has absolutely repudiated the criticism and religious hash of the times, is a fact known by many the world around. There should not only he a turning now to publications of this type, hut there should he an effort on the part of subscribers to interest others in sound, Scriptural reading. If The King’s Business has meant anything in your home, why not recommend it, or even donate it, to your Christian neighbor? If your Sunday School teachers are hobbling along with impractical lesson helps, why not call their attention to the thorough and safe treatment of the lessons in The King's Business? If you wish some sample copies or advertising literature, or if you would like to become a regular agent of The King’s Business, write to KEITH L. BROOKS, Managing Editor. O N L Y O N E D O L L A R A Y E A R S U B S C R IP T IO N P R IC E — In tke United States and Its Possessions and Mexico, and points in tke Central American Postal Union, $1.00 per year. In all otker foreign countries, including Canada, $1.24, (5c. 2d.) Single copies 10 cents. Receipts sent on request. See expiration date on tke wrapper. B I B L E I N S T I T U T E O F L O S A N G E L E S 536-558 South Hope Street ' - - - - - Los Angeles, California
Class of 1918 Bible Institute of Los Angeles
E D I T O R I A L
A fter vacation wkat? Most ministers and Christian Workeris in these days take a vacation, and, if they have worked as hard as they ought for eleven months in the year, they need to, and if they have used their vacation as they ought, they will be better and more efficient workers because of their vacation, and do better work, and accomplish more, in eleven months’ work than they would do in twelve months without a vacation. But with most of us vacation is ended. What next ?; Let us take up our work not only with new physicàl strength and increased spiritual power because of the physical and spiritual refreshment that wé have received during thèse vacation days, but let us take it up more intelligently, with more system. Let us lay more definite and carefully thought out plans as to what we purpose to accomplish the coming Autumn and Winter, and as to just how we are going to accomplish it. The average minister and mission worker does not give enough time to planning his work, and so he wastes a tremendous amount of time and energy. System and planning count immensely every where, hut there is no place where they count more than in God’s work. Set some morning or afternoon apart and get alone by yourself and give that morning or after noon up to prayerfully planning your season’s campaign. Write down what you wish to accomplish the coming church year, and then write down just how you are going to accomplish it. Among other things plan for some systematic Bible teaching in your church or mission. Plan for a class for the training of personal workers. Plan for a very definite soul winning cam paign in your community. Plan for the most Systematic and most effective visitation of your parish that you have ever had. Plan for getting your people to give for the home work and for Foreign Mission work as they have never given before. Plan for your pulpit work, that you may give your people orderly, coherent and well balanced instruction in your pulpit minis trations. Don’t preach to your people from Sunday to Sunday on any chance text or subject that may come to your mind, but have a plan and a purpose for the whole year: then you will get somewhere and you will have a, growing church, growing in more senses than one.
THE GREAT NEED of Our Church Bible Schools Is there a really intelligent course of Bible Study for our Sunday Schools covering a period, say, of seven to ten years, proceeding from that
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THE K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S which is really primary and fundamental fo that which is more advanced and on to that which is the culmination of all that precedes, and giving to the one who completes the course a comprehensive knowledge of the Bible as a whole, its books and their relations to one another, its doctrines, its ethics, its histories, its biographies, its characters, and above all of God and His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord? If there is, we do not know of it. We are somewhat familiar with the various courses of so-called “ Graded Lessons,” but while the intention was good the execution is exceedingly poor. As for the International Uniform Lessons they have gone from bad to worse, and the lessons for 1919 cap the climax of lack of intelligent system and order.: the hop-skip-and-jump system of Bible study has been carried to a madden ing extreme. Our Sunday Schools have accomplished, and are still accom plishing, immeasurable good; but they might do So much more good, if some competent person or persons would only take the time to map out a course of study for persons of all ages that would have a really intelligent begin ning and intelligent ending and intelligent progress from the beginning to the ending. In our secular grammar schools and high schools we have sys tematic courses of study that have a definite aim in view from start to finish: why not in our Sunday Schools, in the study of the greatest of all books and all subjects? It can be done, why not do it? The fact is that in many of our series of lessons we have oftentimes had more in view the pocketbooks of our publishers of Sunday School Helps than the needs of the scholars in our Sunday Schools. T he war problems of thechurch 1 The war is making great changes in our churches and presenting grave problems to the churches. Almost all churches are being depleted of many of their most enthusiastic and most effective members by their responding voluntarily or through the draft to the nation’s call to arms. Literally hun dreds of bright, energetic, efficient Christian young men have gone from some of our churches to do their bit. Of course they will have fine oppor tunities for service among their fellow soldiers, finer opportunities most of them than they would have found at home; but while they are not by any means lost to the Church as a whole, they are for the time being largely lost to the local church from which they have gone forth. Then many of our best and most effective ministers have heard the call from the front, and it is a very loud and insistent call, and they too have gone. Indeed it is very difficult for any really live minister to keep from going. They are not lost to the Church as a whole when they go: they will most of them accom plish more real and lasting work for God in a few months than most' of them ever accomplished in many, years at home, and they will come back if God spares their lives to do a better work at home than they ever did before: but they are in a measure lost for the time being to the church at home. Not a few are disheartened by the gravity of the problems confronting the church at home and the regular organizations of the church. But there is no suf ficient reason for that. We must simply organize our churches better and thus get more work out of those we have left than we ever got before out of our entire membership. And we must now make those who hitherto have
THE K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S 739 been shirkers to be workers: in this way the depletion of our membership will prove a very real blessing in disguise. And we must go to work to get those who are now outside of our churches into our churches, but we must be very careful to make sure that we get them converted before we get them into the church. War times have frequently been revival times: let us make the present war times revival times by getting down to such praying as we have never done before. I ispiB as» afr THE Old Man’s Day In these war times the old man is coming into his own again. We have been shelving^the old man. When a man’s hair and moustache began to show streaks of gray, the manager of the department store would call him up and suggest he must do something about that because they desired young men for clerks, and when he could no longer conceal the fact that he was nearing the half-century line he was dismissed. This had gone to such extremes that it was thought necessary to organize a “ Half Century Club” to see that the ageing man got work. Even in the ministry not a few men who had crossed the fifty mark found it difficult to compete with the callow young pulpiteer just fresh (oftentimes fresh in more senses than one) from the theological seminary. But now all is changed, the old man is wanted everywhere, provided he has ability, as he usually has. Riding a few days ago on the elevated railroad in Chicago,, we noticed that almost every sta tion agent was a gray-haired man. Elderly men abound in the stores, on the elevators, everywhere. The old man is certainly coming into his own. One solution of the urgent problem of supplying our vacant churches with ministers who are competent will be found in many of our ministers who still have years of good service in them, but who had retired because of the senseless craze for young ministers, getting back into the harness. In many ways the minister who is over sixty is more competent than the minister who is under, provided he has kept up his studies, and has kept fresh. Indeed, even before the war ate up our young men we received letters from churches asking us to suggest pastors, but stipulating that they must not be young men. The tide has been setting in toward the old men for some years, but now it has become a tidal wave.
A CAPTIVE Make me a captive, Lord,
FUEL AND FIRE A Christian preacher has said keenly, of spiritual fire and fuel: “Fire with out fuel has given us fanaticism. Fuel without fire has chilled us with form alism. But fuel on fire, harnessed and handled with heaven-sent wisdom by the Spirit, generates the forces to light and move the machinery of the church.”
And then I shall be free. Force me to render up my sword And I shall conqueror be: I sink in Life’s alarms When by myself I stand; Imprison me within Thy arms, And strong shall be mine hand. — G. Matheson.
SELECTED SENTENCES FROM MANY
Service
Jesus took more delight in finding a hungry soul than in partaking pf the daintiest meal. The way to get out of a humhle posi tion is to be conspicuously effective in .it. Many a little thing we cast to the ground is found to be a gem when another picks it up. A loafer in the church is of no more account than a loafer on the , street corner. A small man can make a big. job shrink to littleness, but it takes a big man to make a little job grow into a big one. A,doctor doesn’t fight the patient but the disease.' Don’t fight the sinner, hut sin. The man who does good cannot help but love his occupation. Count the days lost in which you have not tried to do something "for Jesus. It is better to do one little thing for God than to promise forty things you will never do. Always distrust a man whose love of humanity does not extend to Jesus Christ. Our grand business is not so much to see what lies dimly in the distance, as to do that which is clearly at hand. Service is love in working clothes. We shall have all eternity to cele brate the victories, but we have only a few hours before sunset to win them. Real service is working WITH the Lord, not FOR Him. Our blunders come mostly from let ting our wishes interpret our duties. He who would not serve God unless something he given him, would serve the devil if he would give him more.
He does much who does a little well. Secure not thyself in the conceit of not bringing forth evil fruit. A Chris tian is not defined by mere negatives. The talents with which the believer is entrusted are not to be laid up but laid out. Emotion is no substitute for action. We are saved to serve, but we never serve to be saved. - No one lacks for ways of doing good, but only for the inclination to do good. One day is as good as two for him who does everything in its place. Expect great things from God and attempt great things for God. Between the great things we can’t do and the little things we wont do, the chances are we will do nothing. When duty calls, some people are always out. A lot of church work is nothing but Chinese fireworks, warranted not to burn. If you’ve done no good that will live after you, you are not ready to die. God doesn’t ask for preachers for the harvest, but just for laborers. It is not a sin to work for one’s daily bread but it is a sin to work for nothing else. It is one of the beautiful compensa tions of life that no man can help another without helping himself. Some are so intent on looking for the big things that they do not see the little services that need to be rendered. It is better to say “This one thing I do” than to say “these forty things I dabble in.” . If we cannot do the good we would, we ought to do the good we can.
The Second Coming of Christ THE REAL TRUTH CONCERNING THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST AS REVEALED IN GOD’S WORD, AS COMPARED WITH THE BASELESS SPECULATIONS OF SHAILER MATTHEWS, AND OTHERS « Dr. R. A. TORREY Dean of The Bible Institute of Los Angeles
E LIVE in a day in which there is a more wide-spread and deeper interest in the subject of the Second Com ing of Christ than we have ever known before. Min isters of the Gospel every
the Bible, but the writers were extrem ists.” (2) “Paul taught the imminent return of Christ but he was in error.” (3) “Christ taught it also, but He was mis taken too”’ All we know about the Second Coming of Christ is what God has been pleased to tell us in His Word. There is no pur suit that is by any possibility more un profitable than that of uninspired proph esying. When this amazing twentieth century in which we are now living began, prophets arose on every hand, in pulpits, on lecture platforms,. in univer sity lecture rooms, popular magazines and elsewhere. These prophets told us what the first twenty years of this cen tury were going to produce. There was to be an end of all war, there was to be a universal brotherhood of nations. The German lion and the Belgian lamb were to lie down together. All heathendom was to become essentially Christian. There was to be a millennium, and riches and knowledge, scientific and philosophic progress, and universal liberty, freedom and equality were to have universal sway. All society was to be reorganized on lines of universal brotherhood. All this was certain of accomplishment, we were assured, within twenty years. Well, eighteen and a half of the twenty years have passed and things have not turned out at all as predicted, except that the Ger man lion and the Belgian lamb have lain down together, but alas, the lamb is inside the lion that has devoured it. It will tkrn
where are preaching upon this subject. But many in their preaching are follow ing their own speculations rather than going to the Word of God to find out what it teaches. While it is a time of great interest it is also a time when men are putting forth the wildest vagaries and utterly baseless speculations upon the question. On the one hand we have the vagaries of such persons as “Pastor” Rus sell who has apparently made a careful study and collation and conglomeration of pretty much all the heresies the church has considered and spewed out in the nineteen centuries of her history; and of Mrs. Eddy, the champion camouflagist, fake and grafter of the world’s religious history; and on the other hand we have the baseless speculations of Shailer Matthews, who betrays His Lord with a kiss, and his host of satellites. Three courses of addresses on this subject have recently been made in our city, in which, as far as I can learn, the only references the lecturers have made to the Bible have been in a futile attempt to discredit the plain teaching of that book. One of these three preachers is reported to have said: (1) “We will have to admit that the imminent return of Christ is taught in
742 out just so with these uninspired proph esies concerning the Second Coming of Christ which uninspired prophets are making today. We know absolutely noth ing about the Second Coming of Christ but what this Book tells us. What this Book tells us is absolutely sure. Any thing that we are not told iij this Bool# is absolutely untrustworthy. The proph esies of this Book have always proven true to the very letter up to date, and so we may safely trust that the prophesies not as yet fulfilled will be fulfilled to the letter. Some years ago, several years before the outbreak of this war or any indication of the outbreak of this war, the Christian Herald of New York sent to a number of men in this country and in England asking them what they thought about the various peace societies, peace movements and Hague conferences, ask ing them whether they thought that there ever could be another great war. One of these letters of inquiry was sent to me and I replied that I was in favor of any thing that made for peace even tempor arily, but that I knew my Bible too well to believe for one moment that there would never again be a great war, that I knew from my Bible that the greatest war of this world’s history was ahead of us. Many thought I was a fanatic for making any such assertion but here we are today. I was right because I went by the Book. Just so about the Second Coming of Christ: We know nothing about it but what God has been pleased to reveal in His Word. But the Bible tells us a great deal about the Second Coming of Christ. What the Bible tells us on this subject is plain, explicit, defin ite, full, satisfactory, gladdening and glorious. What does it tell us? I. T hat J esu s C h r ist h a s gone away FROM THIS EARTH AND IS NOT HERE AT THE PRESENT TIME IN THE PERSONAL WAY THAT HE WAS HERE ONCE, THAT IS TO SAY, HE IS AT PRESENT OUR ARSENT LORD and S aviour . «The first thing that the Bible tells us
THE K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S about the Second Coming of Christ is that J esu s C h rist ha s gone away from t h is EARTH WHERE H e ONCE WAS AND IS NOT HERE AT THE PRESENT TIME IN THE PER SONAL WAY THAT H e WAS ONCE HERE. T hat is to say , at th e present tim e H e is our absent L ord and S aviour . Shailer Matthews in his booklet, “Will Christ Come Again?” sent out by the Amer ican Institute of Sacred Literature, and which they have done everything in their power to put into the hands of every preacher in this country, begins by ask ing, “Will Christ come again?” Some say Yes, and immediately. Others say, when did He ever go away? He is present spiritually. Has He not promised to be with us even to the end of the age? These two answers are the out come of two ways of using the Bible. W h ic h is correct ? In what immedi ately follows and in his whole booklet, Shailer Matthews makes it plain that he sympathizes with the latter “way of using the Bible,” and indicates that he would like to know when Christ ever went away. How any student of the Bible even of ordinary intelligence and honesty could ask such a question it is difficult to under stand. Shailer Matthews’ question is not difficult to answer. Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself answers the question. He answers it for example in John 14:28, where He says “Ye heard how I said to you, I GO AWAY, and I come unto you. If ye loved me, ye would have rejoiced, because I go unto the Father; for the Father is greater than I.” Now if our Lord Jesus Christ meant anything by these words, and He certainly meant something for He was not a fool, He meant to say that he was going away to the Father in Heaven. So Jesus Christ Himself tells us when He went away. He went away when, after having been cruc ified and raised again, He ascended from Mount Olivet leaving this world behind and going to another world, from which some, day, as we shall see later, He is coming back again. Shailer Matthews’
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question is also answered in the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, in the 9th verse, where we read: “And when He (Jesus) had said these things, as they were looking, HE WAS TAKEN VP; and a cloud received him out of their sight.” In these words Luke tells us distinctly w h en th e L ord J esu s went away . It was- when the disciples were gathered on Mount Olivet and when He had said goodhy to them, and then while they were i looking, He went away and was received up out of their sight. The Apostle Peter also answers the question in Acts 3:19-21 R. V. “Regent ye therefore, and turn again,, that your sins may he Hotted out, that so there may come seasons of refresh ing from the presence of the Lord; and that HE MAY SEND THE CHRIST who hath been appointed for you even Jesus WHOM THE HEAVENS MUST RECEIVE UNTIL THE TIMES OF RESTITUTION OF ALL THINGS, whereof God spake by the mouth of His holy prophets which have been since the. world began." Peter here very distinctly tells us just when the Lord Jesus went away and just where He went and how long He is to stay there. The Apostle Paul also answered Shailer Matthews’ question in I Thess. 1:9,10, where we read: “For they them selves report concerning us what man ner of entering in we had unto you; and how ye turned unto God from idols, to serve a living and true God, and TO WAIT FOR HIS SON FROM HEAVEN, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivereth us from the wrath to come.” Here Paul distinctly tells us that Jesus having been raised from the dead, left this earth and went into heaven and that a truly converted man, and properly instructed man, is waiting for Him to come hack again. Of course, we all know that Jesus is here spiritually, that He has promised to be with us by His Holy Spirit to the end of the age, if we go forth according to His commandment and make disciples of all the nations, (Matt. 28:18-20 cf. Jno.
14:15-23), but the Bible makes it just as plain that He is not here in the way that He was here during His bodily pres ence on earth, before His bodily ascen sion from Olivet, and the way that He is going to be here again when He comes back. The Bible makes it as plain as day that Jesus went away from this world, from Mount Olivet, that He went into Heaven and that He is to stay in Heaven until the appointed time comes for llim to come back again. Such words as those with which Shailer Matthews opens his booklet are simply an attempt, and a weak and foolish attempt, to throw dust into the eyes of unthinking men and women. Of course, if you are determined not to discover and accept the plain mean ing of, God’s Word, you can spiritualize away the plain, grammatical, historical, intended sense of these numerous pass ages which I have quoted, but you can only do it by a method of interpretation by which you can also make the Bible mean anything you like, and can make lying out to be as acceptable to God as truth, and greed, covetousness and steal ing as acceptable to God as self-sacrifice, and adultery as acceptable to God as holy married love. Listen to Shailer Matthews’ system of interpretation as described by himself in this same booklet. He says (p.'8) : “The other way to use the Bible (that is the way that Shailer Matthews is himself advocating), sometimes called historical, might better be called the common-sense way. Those evangelicals who hold to it are not beyond making mistakes, for this method is not without difficulties of detail, but they believe in the inspiration of apostles and prophets by the spirit of God. (Let me call atten tion to the fact in passing that Shailer Matthews’ spells Spirit of God with a small “s”). They know that this inspira tion was progressive, accumulative, de pendent upon and fitted to successive periods of human existence. Evidence compels them to believe that many of the BELIEFS OF THE EARLY CHRISTIANS (by
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THE K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
“beliefs of the early Christians” Shailer Matthews means the teachings of the inspired Apostles and even of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, though he is not courageous nor honest enough to come right out and say so, but his whole book let shows it) can be understood only as they are studied in the light of the habits of thought prevalent in their days. HIS TORICALLY-MINDED STUDENTS OF THE BIBLE DISTINGUISH B E T WE E N FUNDAMENTAL C h ristian tbuths and th e method and LANGUAGE USED BY THE EARLY CHRISTIANS IN EXPRESSING THESE TRUTHS. (The emphasis here is Shailer Matthews’ own.) They believe that, in order to realize these truths th e conceptions of these ANCIENT MEN OF GOD HAVE TO RE TRANS LATED INTO MODERN CONCEPTIONS e x actly as the Hebrew or Greek language has to be, translated into English.” Shailer Matthews calls the method of Bible inter pretation he here advocates, the “ h is torical method .” It is absolutely noth ing of the sort. The “historical” method of Biblical interpretation has a clearly defined sense. The real “historical” method of interpretation is this, that the words in the Bible should be interpreted according to their grammatical construc tion and in the light of the historical usage of the day, and to that method of interpretation no intelligent student has any objection. Shailer Matthews has sub stituted for this really “ historical ” method an entirely different method of interpretation, and calls it the “histor ical” method, which it is not at all. He also calls it the “ common sense way ,” but if we will only look at it a moment we will see that so far from being the “com mon sense way,”,it is absolutely nonsense. It is a method of interpretation that no translator outside of a lunatic, asylum would dream of applying to Plato, Homer, Virgil, Horace or any book but the Bible. He says further, “the conceptions of these ancient men of God have to be translated into modern conceptions exactly as the Hebrew or Greek language has to be
translated into English.” A few moments consideration' will show that these words of Shailer Matthews are absolute non sense. Translating Hebrew and Greek words and grammatical constructions and idioms into their exactly corresponding English words, constructions and idioms -is one thing, a reasonable and common sense thing, but translating th e thoughts of “ancient men of God” or' anyone else into other thoughts utterly alien to their own and oftentimes flatly contra dicting their own, is not translation at all, and this whole sentence is simply a ridiculous attempt to defend the substitu tion of Shailer Matthews’and others’ evo lutionary (and revolutionary) vagaries for what Jesus Christ and the inspired Apos tles actually taught. This is not translation at all. It is distortion, perversion, sub stitution and prostitution. Shailer Matthews goes on to say, “Thus the is sue is plain. It is not between those who believe the Bible and those who dis believe it. It is between ways of using the Bible.” ’) The statement is an abso lute falsehood. The .issue is between those who believe the Bible, those who translate Hebrew and/ Greek words into equivalent English words and believe what it says, and those who throw, over board what it says, substituting some thing else for it simply because they dis believe what the Bible says. Shailer Matthews feels himself compelled to admit that if we are to take the Bible at its face value, as we take any other BOOK OF THE PAST OR PRESENT, the “Pre- millennial propaganda” is “true to the Bible,” but he tries to explain it away by saying of the Premillenarian that “he is really true to an improper way of using the Bible. His loyalty to the Bible amounts to making outgrown or tempor ary words and conceptions equally true with what they attempt to express.” To this we would say that there is no other form of loyalty to the Bible, or any other book, than by taking its words and con ceptions to mean what they say; and to
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call them, as Shailer Matthews plainly does, “ outgrown or temporary words and conceptions ’’ is to be disloyal to the Bible, and to pour contempt on the Bible, and goes to show that in spite of all his twisting and turning that he disbelieves the Bible'. He ought to be man enough to come out and say so, but he isn’t. How anybody can be so silly and irrational as to be blinded by such pettifogging words as these of Shailer Matthews is more than I can understand, but hundreds and probably thousands of preachers in Amer ica have been blinded by them. What Shailer Matthews calls “the historical method of interpretation,” in plain Eng lish is the infidel method. By any such system of interpretation you can make the Koran or all the morally rotten lit erature of India, reeking with the most unmentionable and indescribable vileness, as valuable as the Bible. If Shailer Matthews wishes to get rid of the plain and crystal clear teaching of the Bible as he undoubtedly does, why is he not honest enough to come right out and say so? Why does he not come right out and say that the Bible is a jumble of errors and falsehoods? His fundamental lack is a lack of common intellectual honesty and of a decent amount of courage. When he refers (unmistakably from what he says in this connection) to the teachings of the inspired Apostles and of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself he does not speak of them as the teachings of the Apostles and of Jesus, but speaks of them, over and over again, as “the beliefs of the early Christians.” He knew perfectly well that any man or woman who had even a meas urably decent amount of faith in Jesus Christ and the Bible, would resent it if he spoke so contemptuously 6f what were clearly set forth as the teachings of Jesus Christ Himself and the inspired Apostles, so he doesn’t call these teachings the teachings of the Apostles and of Jesus Christ, but “the beliefs of the early Christians” (over and over again), and then goes on, time and time again,
to refer to things that either the Apostles or Jesus Christ Himself taught, and oftentimes to what they both taught in ridicule and contempt. His whole method of argument would be unworthy of a pettifogging police court lawyer. Some of the Los Angeles preachers who have spoken on the Second Coming of Christ have followed most dutifully and blindly in the wake of Shailer Matthews, and Professor Case, also of Chicago Uni versity. One of them told his audience that the Apostle Paul did believe in and teach at the time of his earlier epistles, the personal, premillennial return of the Lord Jesus, but that when Paul got to know more he changed his opinion' and his teaching. What a pity that the Apostle Paul and the Lord Jesus Christ could not have attended Chicago University before they said or wrote anything. II. J esus C h rist is C oming B ack to the E arth . The second thing that the Bible very plainly tells us regarding the Second Coming of Christ is that J esus C h rist is COMING BACK TO T H IS EARTH. Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself says so in John 14:2,3. His words are “In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I GO, to pre pare a place for you. And if I go and pre pare a place for you, I WILL COME AGAIN, and receive you unto . myself, that where 1 am, there ye may he also.” These are our Lord’s own words. These words evidently indicate a definite going away of our Lord from the earth and a definite coming back again to the earth. If Jesus Christ did not go definitely and personally from this earth and if He is not coming back again definitely and per sonally, then He was either a fraud, a deliberate fraud, or else a sadly deluded fanatic. ..If He is either one or the other you may believe in Him if you wish to, but I decline to. You cannot deny the reality of His Second Coming and remain an intelligent believer in Jesus Christ. But Jesus Christ was neither a deliber-
THE K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S thing that it evidently was never intended to mean, i.e., the one who uses Shailer Matthews’ method of interpretation, whereby not merely the Greek words and idioms are translated into exactly cor responding English words and idioms, but also the conceptions of the inspired writers are translated (or rather, dis torted) into his own foolish notions. Let me read another passage, Acts 3:19, 20: “Repent ye therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that so there may come seasons of re freshing from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send the Christ who hath been appointed for you.” Peter is the speaker here. His words are as plain as words can be and their meaning is as plain as language can make it. We have heard Jesus and we have heard Paul and we have heard Peter, now let us listen to John, thé Beloved Disciple. This is what he says in Rev. 1:7: “Behold, HE COMETH with the clouds; and EVERY EYE SHALL SEE HIM, and they which pierced Him; and the tribes of the earth shall mourn over Him.” These words need no comment. It is plain as day that the Bible teaches that Jesus is some day coming back to this earth. If the Bible doesn’t teach that, it doesn’t teach anything; and we may as well throw it onto the scrap heap or use it for a joke book. But He is coming! I am as sure of that as I am that I stand here, and woe be to Shailer Matthews and the whole brood who have dishon ored our Lord Jesus Christ by juggling with His words. Yes, woe be to them when He comes; for He Himself has said of those who juggle with His words: “He that rejecteth Me, and receiveth not My sayings hath one that judgeth him, THE WORD THAT I SPEAK, THE SAME SHALL JUDGE HIM IN THE LAST DAY. For I speak not from my self; but the Father which sent me, He hath given me a commandment, what I should say and what I should speak.” . (Jno. 12:48,49).
746 ate fraud nor a sadly deluded fanatic.. He was a Teacher sent from God who spoke the very words of God. God sealed Him as such by raising Him from the dead. He is my Divine Lord and Saviour, God seal ed Him as such by raising Him from the dead; and, therefore, I know He is com ing back again personally because He said He was, and I am not going to give up my faith in Him for all the vaporings and subtleties of all the Shailer Matthews and Professor Cases and the whole brood of American dispensors of a system of criticism and exegesis made in Germany, the land of systematic, university-bred and fostered falsehood, violence, rape and general deviltry. The poison gas Ger man university professors are belching out upon our sons and brothers on the battle front -of Picardy today is not one tithe so dangerous and damnable as the poison gas that German university pro fessors have been belching into the uni versities and theological seminaries of America, England and Scotland, and pre eminently intov Chicago University and Union Theological Seminary of New York. Let me read you another passage, Phil. 3:20, 21: “ For our citizenship is in heaven; FROM WHENCE also we wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ; who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His glory; according to the working whereby He is able even to sub ject all things unto Himself." And let me put alongside of this still another pass age—I Thess. 4:16, 17: “For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we that are alive that are left, shall, together with them be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” It is Paul who wrote these two statements. Their meaning is as plain as day to anyone who goes to the Bible to find out what it really teaches and not to make it mean some-
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I will not stop to show that these words of Jesus and Paul and Peter and John about the Second Coming of Christ have not as yet been fulfilled and refer to a coming yet in the future. That is plain on the very face of them. The deniers of a future coming of Jesus Christ have tried in the past to make out that the prophesies and promises regarding His Second Coming have been fulfilled either in the coming of the,Holy Spirit at Pente cost, or at the coming of Christ at the death of the individual believer, or in His coming at the Destruction of Jeru salem; but every attempt in this direc tion has so utterly failed and this posi tion was so evidently untenable and the alleged fulfillment was so utterly unlike the promise and prophecy that this posi tion has been given up, and now those who are determined to deny His coming, and His premillennial coming, resort to the Shailer Matthews’ method of seeking to discredit these prophecies by saying they were merely “the belief (notions) of the early Christians,” that they have been obtained from the Jewish apocryphal apocalyptic literature of the second or third centuries or so before Christ—1 which by the way is an assertion without one single scintilla of historical proof. They deliberately seek to obscure the unquestionable fact that these teachings were not merely the views held by early Christians, but th e explicit teachings OP THE DIVINELY INSPIBED APOSTLES AND OF J esu s C h rist H im self whom God accred ited as His Only Begotten Son and as a Teacher sent from God who spoke the very words of God, by raising Him from the dead and of whom He once said with audible voice from Heaven: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; HEAR YE HIM." I don’t think He has ever said anything of that kind about Shailer Matthews or Professor Case. I really would like to know what He does say about them.
III. How th e L ord J esu s is C oming B ack . We have seen that our Lord Jesus has gone from the earth and is now absent. We have seen also the certainty that the Lord Jesus is coming back to this earth, and now comes the question, How is He coming? On this the Bible is very clear and definite and explicit, and what the Bible says is widely divergent from the baseless speculations and wild vagaries of Shailer Matthews, “Pastor” Russell, “Mother” Eddy and certain Los Angeles preachers. 1. jj In the first place the Bible tells us that H e is coming personally . We,see this in Acts 1 : 1 0 ,1 1 “And while they (i.e. all the apostles) were looking stead fastly into heaven as He (i.e. Jesus) went, behold two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, ye men of Gali lee, why stand ye looking into heavent This Jesus which was received up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye behold him going into heaven.” The Lord Jesus Himself says in the passage already quoted—John 14:3: “7 will come again, and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also.” The Apostle Paul says in I. Thess. 4:16,17: “For THE LORD HIMSELF shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with • the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise' first: then we that are alive that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." Now it is plain as (lay that these pass ages teach that Jesus is coming ■back personally . We hear much in this day of the “ coming of th e K ingdom ”, by which is meant all kinds of social uplift and socio logical readjustment, but what the Lord Jesus Himself and the Apostles talked about and promised as the blessed hope of the church, as the one and only hope
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They have circulated all over this city a sheet in which they say, “more than twenty years ago Pastor Russell pointed out from the Bible that God had granted to the Gentiles a lease of power which would legally end in 1914 and that then the nations would become angry and God’s wrath would come; that a great international war would begin at tha t ' tim e and would be followed by greater trouble and that the trouble would usher in Messiah’s Kingdom of righteousness, which would be ‘the desire of all nations.’ ” “Pastor” Russell prophesied nothing of the -kind. This statement is a bold and unblushing lie. What “Pastor” Russell prophesied for 1914 was some thing entirely different. Look up his lit erature written years before 1914 and you will see what he predicted was just the opposite of this war. For example,. “Pas tor” Russell begins the second volume, Volume II of “Studies in the Scriptures,” with these words “In this chapter we present the Bible evidence which indi cates that six thousand years from the creation of Adam were complete with A. D. 1872;' and hence that, since 1872 A. D., we are chronologically entered upon the seventh thousand, or the Millennium —the fore-part of which, the ‘Day of the Lord,’ the ‘day of trouble,’ is to' witness the breaking into pieces of the kingdoms of this world and the establishment of the Kingdom of God under the whole heav ens.” Furthermore, “Pastor” Russell makes out this “fore-part” of the Millen nium to be a period of forty years, extend ing until 1914 A. D. and winding up “the time of the Gentiles.” He says (P. 79): “The Bible evidence is clear and strong that ‘the times of the Gentiles’ is a period of 2520 years, from the year 606 B. C. to and including 1914, A. D. And he says further (P. 99): “In view of this strong Bible evidence concerning the times of the Gentiles, we consider it an established truth that the final end of the kingdom of this world, and th e full establishment of the Kingdom of God,
of human society, was not merely the coming of the Kingdom, hut the coming of the King, Jesus Himself. Some people might be satisfied with the coming of the Kingdom, a “universal league of peace,” or something of that kind. I would not be. I want the King. I want Jesus Himself. And by His own promise it is Jesus Himself that I am going to get. 2. In the second place J esu s is com ing back bodily and visibly . The verse just quoted, Acts 1:11, makes this plain. Listen to it again: “This Jesus, which was received up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner AS YE BEHELD HIM going into heaven.” Cer tainly it was bodily and visibly they “ beheld H im going into heaven .” Y ou cannot behold anything in any other way, and He is not merely coming back but He is coming back as they “beheld Him going,” bodily and visibly. Heb. 9:28 also makes this plain. Here we read “Christ also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, SHALL APPEAR a second time apart from sin, to them that wait for Him, unto salvation.”,;. The word here translated “ appeab ” means “be seen,” and it is used, and can he used, only of an oculab , bodily visibility . Rev. 1:7 is equally plain: “Behold, He cometh with the clouds; and EVERY EYE SHALL SEE HIM, and they which pierced Him." In these words God has antici pated 'the vagaries of “Pastor” Russell and the vagaries of Shailer Matthews and the rest. Right here is where the Word of God differs especially from Pastor Rus sell. Russell denied a bodily and visible coming of Jesus Christ. He taught that Jesus Christ had already come in Octo- her, 1874, but of course not bodily and visibly. Russell predicted furthermore the outward manifestation of His king dom and end of war and discord," to occur in 1914, which predictions were not realized. Russell’s followers are now try ing to make out that what Russell pre dicted for 1914 was this present war.
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will be accomplished at the end of A. D. 1914.” Now this is Certainly very dif ferent from predicting “that a great inter national war would begin at that tim e .” Furthermore, “Pastor” Russell says in Volume .II, P 77: “S ome tim e before th e end of A. .D. 1914 the last member of the divinely recognized Church of Christ, the ‘royal priesthood,’ ‘the body of Christ,’ w ill be glorified with the Head; because every member is to reign with Christ, being joint-heir with Him in the King dom, and it cannot be fully ‘set up’ with out every member!” This certainly is just the opposite of predicting that “a great international war would begin at tha t tim e (i.e., in 1914).” Russell denied a bodily, visible coming, and put the sec ond coming of Christ back in October 1874, and made it' not a bodily visible coming. But what God has revealed in the Bible is a bodily and visible coming, just what “Pastor” Russell denied and Shailer Matthews and his school dis credit and “Mother” Eddy perverts. I once had an interesting experience with one of Pastor Russell’s satellites and teachers in Chicago. I had been preach ing on the Second Coming of Christ and showed, from the Word of God, as I have showed here this morning, that Jesus Christ was coming back bodily and visibly. At the close this teacher waited for me and said to me, “Mr. Torrey, you don’t believe that Jesus Christ is com ing back in such a way that He can actu ally be seen with these eyes.” I replied, “It .matters little what I believe, but here i^ what God says: ‘ Behold, He cometh with the clouds; and EVERY EYE SHALL SEE h im : ” 3. T h e L ord J esu s is coming again w it h great publicity . In Matt. 24:26, 27 our Lord Jesus says: “If therefore they shall say unto you, behold, he is in the desert, go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers, believe it not. (27) For as the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west: so shall , also the coming of the Son of Man be.”
This evidently indicates' that our Lord Jesus is coming with great publicity when He comes again. This is also evident from the passage to which we have referred several times—Rev. 1:7: “Behold He cometh with the clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they that pierced Him;; and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn over Him." And from I. Thess. 4:16,17: “For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, w ith the voice of the Arch angel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first, then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord" , “Mother” Eddy and her disciples claim that the revela tion of the truth, Christian Science, to “Mother” Eddy in 1876 was the Second Coming of Christ predicted in the Bible. My sister in New York was urged by a friend of hers to go to a Christian Science service. After many refusals she at last consented to go. When the service was over my sister’s friend asked her how she enjoyed it. She replied she had not liked it at all. Her friend asked her why not. “Why,” she replied, “for one thing, there was no sermon.” Her friend replied, “We would not have a sermon, that would be human and we have nothing human in our services.” To this my sister answered, “But you had someone stand up there and read out of Mrs. Eddy’s book half an hour.” To this the devout Christian, Scientist replied, “Oh, that’s not human, that’s the Second Coming of Christ.” This is a common claim among the Christian Scientists. But certainly the revelation of Christian Science to Mrs. Eddy in 1876 or the earlier revelation of it, if it be a revelation, to Dr. Quiniby, from whom Mrs. Eddy stole it, redressed it and bap tized it as her own child, did not bear the slightest resemblance to the Comingi Again of Jesus Christ prophesied and described in the Word of God, in the pass age just read. If it were said that Mrs.
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