King's Business - 1923-03

THE K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S lights. He has no peer and no rival. “There is none other name given under heaven among men whereby we must be saved.” “The only-begotten.” Millions of others have been begotten by n atu ral generation and of God unto eternal life, bu t He stands alone as begotten of a virgin th rough th e Holy Spirit. Among all th e persons in the universe He is unique in His virgin birth. In th is He is “ the only begotten” in earth and heaven. The second implication is th a t th e Bible stands alone as th e God-breathed Word, which “liveth and abideth fo r­ ever.” O ther books have in them the life of men. This is the one book which has in it th e life of God. O ther books have in them divine life only as they have drawn it from th is solitary source. The th ird implication is th a t the Church, by which we mean all who have been born from above, stands alone as th e agency th rough which t his unique Christ and unique Book a re to be tak en to all th e world. “Go ye” was spoken not to angels bu t to His disciples. We are H is sole dependence for world evangelization. If we fail Him, the work will not be done. Obligations Our first obligation is to give to such a Christ th e place He deserves. The one in whom “ dwells the fullness of th e God­ head bodily” deserves our worship and service. It is fitting th a t we should fall before Him and say w ith Thomas, “My Lord, and My God.” It is fitting th a t such worship should be linked w ith con­ sta n t and whole-hearted service. To serve Him w ithout worship is to rob Him of the glory which is His due, and to worship Him w ithout service is a pietism which may resu lt in mere sp irit­ ual luxury. Social service which takes the crown of deity from Christ is tre a ­ son to our King, and no amount of doing good can atone for such a wrong. Our second obligation is to give to th e God-breathed Book th e place it

237 m erits. It is our text-book on theology, th e most im portant science under the sun. Only he who has no God can truly say th a t he has no theology, for th e­ ology is what we know about God. If we have a little insignificant Go£, we shall have a little insignificant theology. The greatness of th e God we worship is th e measure of our theology. The Bible is, for the most p art, the revelation of God in Christ, and the book th a t reveals in Him “all the full­ ness of the Godhead bodily,” has such a theology as no other book approaches. Indeed, all other books which do not echo •th e teachings of the Bible have nothing b etter th an mythology. In th e world of books the Bible not only merits, pre-eminence, but' is so unique as to suggest th at, like the Christ it reveals, it belongs to a class apart. A German theologian inform ed us th a t the five kings in the fourteenth chapter of Genesis had no historic exist­ ence; but now in th e ligh t of knowl­ edge, revealed by th e pick and spade, th e reign of Arioch is acknowledged to be the certain sta rtin g point of ancient history, showing th a t the Bible was for thousands of years th e only correct tex t­ book on th is p a rt of ancient history. A few years ago th e historians who - did not accept the Bible as th e inspired Word of God denied th a t Sargon, King of Assyria, mentioned in Isaiah 20:1, • ever existed. His name did no t occur in th e list of Assyrian kings, th a t were known to modern scholarship, and the Bible m ust be m istaken. But now, in the light of w hat the pick and spade of the archeologist have revealed, we know the date and deeds of Sargon’s reign and have even unearthed th e founda­ tions of his palace. So th a t th e Bible was fo r a t least twenty-five hundred years, the only correct text-book of As­ syrian history. And the Bible was un til the tim e of Copernicus the only correct text-book on astronomy. While the world was be-

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