THE K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
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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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