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"Teaching
the things concerning the
The
Savior of the World
Table
of Contents
Chapter
Title
Page
3. God Will
Have All Men to be Saved
39
4. Man is a
Free Moral Agent
58
5. The Wages
of Sin is Death
80
12. The Restitution of All
Things
221
15. Reconciliation In The
Heavens
311
Chapter
1
GOD HAS A
PLAN!
AMONG all the questions that
men have asked, there is one that is of supreme interest and importance. Why are we here?
What is our destiny? What lies beyond the grave for the Christian, for the unbeliever? For
old, for young? For our fellow citizens, and for the teeming masses in far-away lands
serving strange gods? These questions were raised by one of the great poets of all times.
I am speaking now of that American genius of letters, Edgar Allen Poe - an incomparable
genius, and yet a man whose life was destroyed by unbelief. Millions of people have read
his masterpiece, "The Raven," but few, I am afraid, have ever grasped the real
spiritual significance of the struggle that was going on in the soul of this man. He asked
four very significant questions - questions which every living soul, at one, time or
another, must raise to God. First, Is there a God who comforts? Is there a God who can
assuage the pain of life? (In this case it is the poignant pain of the loss of a loved
one, his beloved Lenore.) Is there "some water from the river of paradise, the water
of Nephenthe," which can take away the heartache that is driving him insane?
Secondly, he asks, Is there really a Christ? Does He live? Is there a balm in
Untold billions of human
beings have lived and died without hearing the gospel of salvation through our Lord Jesus
Christ. What has become of them? Is there no hope? For more than six thousand years
generations of men, like the grass, have appeared and in a few fleeting years withered and
vanished. Whence came those countless billions of human beings, and where do they go? This
is the problem which has preoccupied the world's thought since the dawn of history. This
is the question about which philosophers have theorized and theologians have dogmatized.
Unquestionably the problem of the eternal destiny of mankind is the question of questions!
It concerns every individual and touches everything of enduring interest. Life is a vapor
that appears for a while and vanishes away. But there is a beyond! What is that beyond to
be?
God has a plan indeed, God
has a wonderful plan for this world! It is a plan of which the architectural drawings were
made in eternity. It encompasses the minutest detail of all of creation. I assure you that
when time has run its course, and the veil is dropped upon the final scene, we shall
discover that that plan has been worked out to its very tiniest detail, just as God had
planned it in eternity - that His will has been done!
That is an amazing thought
because it often seems as if the world is flying off unattended, like a chariot where the
driver has fallen off, the horses are running wild, the reins are flapping in the breeze,
and it is threatening to go over the precipice at any moment. Yet the Scriptures would
have us know that God, the sovereign Lord of history, has His hands firmly upon those
reins and that His plan is coming to pass. Think about it! Our God is perfect in all His
attributes. He is perfect in His power. He is perfect in His holiness and justice. He is
perfect in His love and mercy. He is perfect in His wisdom and in His omniscience.
Therefore, His plan must be perfect. Indeed it is a perfect plan!
This is not to deny that the
world is filled with many evils; that all about us we see that sin and evil and disease
and death cling to man. It is not to shut our eyes to those realities, but it is to open
our eyes to the realization that God sovereignly overwhelms all these things to bring
about His own will. God has created this world. Even though Satan let chaos loose into the
midst of the creation, God created Satan and God knew precisely what this angel of
destruction would contribute. He knew of the chaos and the sin that would be introduced
into the peaceful calm of those Elysium fields. Yet God created him anyway. God knew that
with sin would come the perfect judgment of God upon that sin, which means sickness,
death, judgment, disillusionment and decay. Yet, God ordained all these things so that He
might overcome them for good.
Central to the whole plan of
God is Jesus Christ and His greater glory, but even more amazing is the realization that
God has planned for us to share His glory and to work out for us our good as well. God has
a perfect plan. My friends, I want you to understand one thing. This plan needs no human
support! In
Read the words of that
magnificent hymn: "God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform; He plants
the footsteps in the sea, And rides upon the storm." What a beautiful hymn! Many
people may not know how William Cowper was brought to write that hymn. His life was in
shambles. He was not a Christian. He was filled with despair and discouragement. In fact,
so overcome with despair was he that he determined to take his life by taking poison.
Instead of dying, he became deathly ill. He bought a gun and tried to shoot himself, but
the gun would not go off. In great anger, he threw the gun away, got a rope and tried to
hang himself. The rope broke. So then, in utter desperation, he hired a carriage in
Perhaps I ought to state here
for the benefit of some of my readers, that the idea that God HAS a plan may be to them a
new one. According to the view of most Christians, God has no definite, prearranged plan,
but is simply endeavoring to do the best He can through human instrumentality to repair
the ruin that sin has made, and, though thus far the majority of the race have been
overwhelmed in that ruin, yet in the end truth will triumph and sin will be confined in an
eternal prison house.
As some ignorantly misjudge
the skill and wisdom of a great architect and builder by his unfinished work, so also many
in their ignorance now misjudge God by His unfinished work; but by and by, when the rough
scaffolding of sin, death, and redemption has been removed, and the rubbish cleared away,
God's FINISHED WORK will universally declare His infinite wisdom and power; and His plans
will be seen to be in harmony with His glorious character.
Since God tells us that He
has a definitely fixed purpose, and that all His purposes shall be accomplished, it
behooves us, as His children, to inquire diligently what those plans are, that we may be
found in harmony with them. Notice how emphatically the Lord affirms the fixedness of His
purpose: "The Lord of hosts has sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it
come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand." "The Lord of hosts has
purposed, and who shall disannul it?" "I am God, and there is none else; I am
God, and there is none like me... My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure
... Yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also
do it" (Isa. 14:24-27; 46:9-11). Therefore, however haphazard or mysterious God's
dealings with men may appear, those who believe this testimony of His Word must
acknowledge that His original and unalterable plan has been, and still is, progressing
systematically to completion.
When we think of a plan, we
think of something involving more than just a single element. An architect's plan for a
building consists of drawings and specifications descriptive of its several floors,
including styles of plumbing, decoration, arrangement of rooms, etc. Unless each floor of
the building is to be identical to every other floor, necessarily the drawings and
specifications for any given floor do not harmonize with the details of the other floors.
No one, however, would construe this to mean that the architect is incompetent, nor that
his plans and specifications are contradictory. God's plan, like the plan of a building,
is also made up of many parts. Instead of different floors, however, it embraces EPOCHS
AND AGES. Through each of these ages the divine plan has steadily progressed toward
completion. Only when it is complete, and mankind sees the result, will they all be able
to appreciate the wisdom, justice, love and power of the Divine Architect. -Ps. 72:1-20
Upon your table today there
is or should be a book we call the Bible. This book alone reveals God's secret plan of the
ages. It unfolds with unerring accuracy the mysteries of ages in the dim and misty past
and points with unerring finger to the purpose of countless eons yet to come. The
Christian Church as we know it has been living in a fool's paradise, propounding pet
doctrines, ranting and raving about an endless eternity with golden streets and harps and
white nightgowns for some and crackling, searing, tormenting flames for others, but almost
completely overlooking God's wonderful PLAN OF THE AGES.
Paul writes of this plan of
the ages in Eph. 3:8-11. "Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this
grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;
and make all to see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the
world has been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: to the intent that now
unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the
manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus
our Lord." The word translated "eternal" in the phrase "eternal
purpose" is the Greek word AIONON which means "ages." Young's Literal
Translation reads, "And to cause all to see what is the fellowship of the secret that
has been hid FROM THE AGES in God, who the all things did create by Jesus Christ, that
there might be made known now to the principalities and authorities in the heavenly
places, through the assembly, the manifold wisdom of God, according to A PURPOSE OF THE
AGES, which He made in Christ Jesus our Lord." The Diaglott renders verse 11 thus,
"According to A PLAN OF THE AGES, which He formed for the Anointed Jesus our
Lord," and
It will be a wonderful day
for you, dear one, when first your soul becomes enthralled with the revelation that God,
before ever the world began or ever the ages were formed, looked forth from His temple of
wisdom and omnipotence to chart with resolute care the course and purpose of every age.
Your heart will throb as you read the opening proclamation of Scripture, "In the
beginning - GOD! In the beginning of what? Not in the beginning of God, certainly,
but in the beginning of His creation of all things, in the beginning of time, in the
beginning of the orderly procession of the divinely destined ages. In the beginning stands
God, omnipotent and omniscient, creating, sustaining and guiding all things and all people
and all the ages of time according to the purpose of His own will. No purpose ordained by
God from the beginning can possibly go astray or be hindered by the efforts of devil or
man. Oh, for the hour when all creation will grasp the beautiful message, "From Him
everything comes, by Him everything exists, and in Him everything ends!" (Rom.
11:36).
As men with the aid of God's
Word have gazed into the vista of the future, it seems to have missed their understanding
that God says very little in His Word about eternity, while devoting many hundreds of
passages to His will and works wrought through THE AGES. "God, who at sundry times
and in divers manners spoke in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, has in these
last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, by whom
also He made the worlds" (Heb. 1:1-2). What tremendous statements we have here! God
has spoken to us through His Son - literally, "spoke to us in Son," or, God
spoke to us in One who has the character that He is a SON, revealing the realm and
relationship of sonship to God. This Son is heir of all things and, blessed be God! we are
joint heirs with Him. "By whom also He made the worlds. Many people believe
this refers to the creative act - "In the beginning God created the heavens and the
earth." Actually, it does not refer to that at all. The word here for
"worlds" is AIONAS. It means ages- "... by whom He made the ages."
This goes beyond His being the Creator of matter and its arrangement into multiplied
billions of stars, suns, and planets with their atmospheres and inhabitants. This lends
purpose to everything. He is the heir who GIVES THE PROGRAM FOR THE FUTURE! He framed the
ages, He ordained the end from the beginning; not only did He create everything, He did it
for a purpose, and "known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the
world" (Acts 15:18). Notice - the Amplified Bible says, "But in the last of
these days He has spoken to us in the person of a Son, Whom He appointed Heir and lawful
Owner of all things, also by and through Whom He created the worlds and the reaches of
space and the AGES OF TIME - that is, He made, produced, built, operated and arranged them
in order! "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word
of God." (Heb. 11:3), but it should read, "the ages were planned by the word of
God."
God made, planned, and
determined the destiny of all the ages by Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
Creator of this universe, and time and space, and there is purpose to it all. Abroad today
is the idiotic notion that the universe is running at breakneck speed through time and
space like a car that has lost the driver. The interesting thing is that when a car loses
the driver there is a wreck, but this universe, even according to the scientists, has been
running millions of years, and it has been doing pretty well, by the way. The sun comes up
at a certain time every morning; it is very precise. The moon stays in a predictable
orbit. As one of the men who works on the moon modules says, all they have to do is aim,
and the moon will be there when the module gets there. This is not a mad universe in which
you and I live. It has purpose, and the Lord Jesus Christ is the One who gives it purpose.
HE is the architect and sovereign Lord of the ages. He FORMED THE AGES and appointed what
should be done in each of them. I must, therefore, with utmost force impress upon all who
read these lines that, if we are to comprehend God's great plan for the ages, we must
raise our eyes far above the engulfing muck and sucking quicksand of Babylonish Church
tradition handed down to us by the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth to keep
God's people in bondage to eternal hopelessness. God has a plan of the ages! It was
conceived by the omnipotent and omniscient Christ of God, the Creator and Redeemer of the
world. Its successful conclusion is as sure and unfailing as God Himself is sure and
unfailing. God never "flits" from one thing to another. He does not begin one
work and then tiring of it, drop it and start another. He does not create what He cannot
control. He is not the proverbial mad scientist who creates an UNCONTROLLABLE monster. The
prophet Isaiah gives us the words of God wherein God declares, "I am God, and there
is none else; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning,
and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand,
and I will do all my pleasure" (Isa. 46:9-10). God's purpose is so unalterable, so
fixed, so certain that He could declare from the very beginning just what the end would
be, and that end will come to pass in just exactly that way.
For many years now multitudes
of preachers and people in the Churches would have us believe that God has been in this
great work of the ages for the short period of about 6,000 years. They tell us that in
this day God is about to become so disgusted with the whole mess that He is going to close
it down, take a few saints away to some far off heaven somewhere, and give up on the rest
of the creation, the work of His love. What a WEAK God some folk have and worship! They
worship a God who CHANGES, one who in the beginning did start out to bring about a
glorious end, but somewhere along the line lost control of the situation and has now
thrown up His hands in despair and decided to destroy the whole thing and be satisfied
with a little handful for Himself for all eternity. What great pity I feel for such people
and for the god they serve! For this is going to put their god in the unenviable position
of being filled with regret throughout all eternity because He was not able to carry out
His purpose, and He will have to always remember that over in the hell He created is the
vast majority of His creation suffering the tortures of the damned for ever and ever. What
a prospect for God and His creation! If God knew in the beginning that it would turn out
like this and included eternal damnation in His creative plans, then why did He create the
world in the first place? Better to have forgotten the whole creation in the beginning!
And if God DID NOT know this from the beginning, THEN HE IS NOT GOD.
This brings us to the thought
I want to share in this chapter. Let us consider the wonderful Kingdom parable Jesus told
of the sheep and the goats. "When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the
holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory: and before Him shall
be gathered all nations: and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd
divideth his sheep from the goats: and He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the
goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, Come, blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom
prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry, and you gave Me meat:
I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink: I was a stranger, and you took Me in: naked, and you
clothed Me: I was sick, and you visited Me: I was in prison, and you came unto Me. Then
shall the righteous answer Him, saying, Lord, when did we see You hungry, and fed You? or
thirsty, and gave You drink? When did we see You a stranger, and take You in? or naked,
and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come unto You? And the King
shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as you have done it unto
the least of one of these MY BROTHERS, you have done it unto Me. Then shall He say also
unto them on the left hand, Depart from Me, you cursed, into EVERLASTING FIRE prepared for
the devil and his angels: for I was hungry, and you gave Me no meat ... then shall they
also answer Him, saying, Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or
naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto You? Then shall He answer them,
saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as you did it not unto one of the least of these,
you did it not unto Me. And these shall go away into EVERLASTING PUNISHMENT: but the
righteous into LIFE ETERNAL" (Mat. 25:31-46).
There are many precious and
important truths contained in this parable, but we must restrain ourselves from pursuing
them at this time in order to deal briefly with two points. First, it is important to note
that this separation of the sheep from the goats was brought about, not on the basis of
whether one had accepted Jesus Christ as his personal saviour, but solely on the basis of
WORKS. Everything depended entirely upon what the sheep or goats had DONE or had NOT DONE.
There was nothing of faith or a spiritual experience connected with this separation. The
sheep were set on God's right hand because of the fact that they had done something -
given meat and drink to the LORD'S BRETHREN, clothed them, visited them, and comforted
them. All these things the Lord said they had DONE TO HIM. But the sheep confessed that
they had never seen Him, so how could they have done these things to the Lord? He
answered, "Inasmuch as you have done it to the least of THESE MY BRETHREN, you have
done it unto Me." All of this is a kind of ministry unto the Lord Himself and it
brought all these people into a separation unto blessings of the right hand of God! This
had nothing whatever to do with how the sheep treated the Jews, or the orphans in foreign
lands, or the destitute masses or the poor drunk in the gutter. None of those are the
Lord's brethren! Paul identifies the Lord's brethren in Rom. 8:29, "For whom He did
foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might
be the firstborn among many brethren." The Lord's brethren are the sons of God, the
members of His body, of His flesh, of His bone, of His spirit and nature. The sheep had
responded in a positive way to these brethren in their time of testing and preparation
during their sojourn in the flesh, and now there is rich reward!
This meant an entrance into a
kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world. This kingdom was not to be
some far-off land of ivory palaces, golden streets, beautiful mansions, white nightgowns,
wings and harps, where there is nothing to do and all eternity to do it in. THIS IS A
KINGDOM. And because it is a kingdom it denotes rulership and advancement of all kinds. It
indicates the bringing of a great many people into a higher realm in the Spirit than they
have ever known before. It means WORK and RESPONSIBILITY and a place of ministry and
authority to bless.
But the people who had never
done all these things mentioned by the Lord were separated unto the left hand of God! They
received no kingdom. There were no rewards for work done or attainments reached. Rather,
they were set on the dark side of God, they were put under a kingdom and under authority
and they were placed in a process of fiery judgment to receive correction. There is much
subtle truth in these words of Jesus: "These shall go away into everlasting
punishment." The word punishment is from the Greek KOLASIS which means simply that -
punishment. But it comes from the root KOLAZO which sheds precious light upon the nature
of the punishment. KOLAZO, according to Strong's Concordance, bears only two shades of
meaning, namely, "to curtail" or "to chastise." To "curtail"
means to restrain as a person is restrained in jail or a child is restrained when he is
"grounded" for a week because of some disobedience. "Chastise" has one
simple meaning according to Webster's New World Dictionary: to punish in order to correct,
usually by beating. It should be clear to any thoughtful mind that the subject here is not
meaningless, sadistic, unending torture, but PURPOSEFUL CORRECTION.
While the King James version
states that these goats go into everlasting fire and everlasting punishment and the sheep
enter into life eternal, that is not quite the meaning of the Greek. The Greek word here
translated everlasting and eternal is AIONIOS and AIONIOS is the adjective form of the
Greek noun AION. Some have arrogantly contended that the punishment must be everlasting
because the same word is used of the life of God - eternal life - and if the punishment is
not eternal then the life cannot be eternal. But that is an argument put forth by the
ignorant, the result of the shallow reasoning of men who reach hasty conclusions not
founded on the facts. "If the punishment ends then God's life must end, if the life
is eternal then the punishment must be eternal," we are told!
In late years there has been
much controversy over the meaning of the little Greek word AION. Certain deceivers, to
further their unscrupulous ends and uphold their blasphemous and Romanish doctrine of
eternal damnation, have maintained, contrary to and in spite of all revealed facts, that
it means eternal. And our King James version renders it, together with the adjective
AIONIOS as "age, course, eternal, for ever, evermore, for ever and ever, everlasting,
world, beginning of the world, world began, world without end." What a horrible
mixture!
But we need not remain in
darkness, for fortunately the Word of God tells us precisely what this Greek word means.
Too few have taken the time or energy to consider the real meaning of AION. It is the word
from which we get our English word eon. Eon, according to Webster, means "a long
period of TIME." Many attempts have been made to prove that eons are eternal. But
this is more than a grave error, it is the height of stupidity, for the divine Author of
the blessed Bible has not Himself used them in that way. AION nowhere means eternal! Its
simple meaning is an age. In its plural form it means ages. This fact can be
unquestionably and incontrovertibly demonstrated from numerous New Testament passages. A
glance at any Greek concordance proves that the noun AION, or AGE, is not the synonym of
eternity. A study of each case would make a library; so, leaving this task to the reader,
we must content ourselves with adducing a few specimens to demonstrate the fact. It is
usage that determines meanings - THEIR usage, not ours; the meanings that the holy
prophets and apostles gave to their words rather than those that our English translators
may try to give. Let me illustrate.
The term forever (and its
equivalents, eternal and everlasting) often occurs when it cannot possibly mean unending.
In the story of Jonah one is surprised to hear him say while in the belly of the fish,
"I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me
for ever" (Jon. 2:6). But he was in the fish only three days and three nights! When a
Hebrew slave loved his master and did not wish to go free at the end of the seventh year,
we read, "... His master shall bore his ear through with an awl; and he shall serve
him for ever" (Ex. 21:6). Of course, that couldn't be longer than his life span.
Again, when Solomon built the temple unto the Lord, he began his prayer of dedication with
the statement, "I have surely built You a house to dwell in, a settled place for You
to abide in for ever" (I Kings. 8:13). And the Lord answered Solomon, "I have
heard your prayer and supplication that you have made before Me: I have hallowed this
house, which you have built, to put My name there for ever" (I Kings. 9:3). But
Solomon's temple lasted for only about 400 years! And it was never in God's mind to dwell
there for ever!
Here is something that ought
to be clear to any intelligent, honest man. A word that is used to mean in one case three
days and nights, in another case to mean a man's lifetime, and in still another case to
mean a period of about four centuries, surely does not mean unending or eternal, no matter
what English word is used to translate it. USAGE DETERMINES MEANING. Another illustration
is the Aaronic priesthood. According to the King James version, Aaron and his sons were
anointed as priests for ever. It says, "Their anointing shall surely be an
everlasting priesthood throughout their generations" (Ex. 40:15). Yet we read in Heb.
7:11-18 that the Aaronic priesthood is CHANGED to that of Melchizedek. "Now if
perfection had been attainable by the Levitical priesthood, for under it the people were
given the Law, why was it further necessary that there should arise another and different
kind of Priest, one after the order of Melchizedek, rather than one appointed after the
order of Aaron? For when there is a CHANGE IN THE PRIESTHOOD, there is of necessity an
alteration of the law concerning the priesthood as well. For it is obvious that our Lord
sprang from the tribe of
Furthermore, Lev. 24:8 states
that the covenant given to
The Lord announced through
the prophet Isaiah, "Upon the land of My people shall come up thorns and briers; ye
upon all the houses of joy in the joyous city: for the palace shall be forsaken; the
populous city shall be deserted; the hill and the watch-tower shall be dens for ever; a
joy of wild asses, a pasture for flocks; UNTIL the Spirit be poured upon us from on high,
and the WILDERNESS BECOME a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a
forest" (Isa. 32:13-15). Verse 15 limits the use of the word in verse 14, for the
desolations of the land are "for ever" only UNTIL the Spirit is poured out from
on high bringing glorious RESTORATION!
As regards animal sacrifices,
dietary laws, ceremonial observances and sabbaths, each was to be "observed as a
statute for ever" (Ex. 31:16-17; II Chron. 2:4; Lev. 16:31). But the New Testament
clearly shows that these were, one and all, but "carnal ordinances imposed UNTIL the
time of reformation" (Heb. 9:10). It is clear - if "for ever" really meant
ETERNAL - we would still be offering sheep, bullocks, and goats as sacrifices to God! But
- more startling still - the idea of endlessness does not adhere even to the reign of
Christ. Heb. 1:8 says, "But unto the Son He says, Your throne, O God, is for ever and
ever..." Now turning to another Scripture bearing on the same subject, we obtain
additional light on this subject. "Then comes the end, when He shall have delivered
up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when He shall have put down all rule and all
authority and power. For He must reign TILL He has put all enemies under His feet. And
when all things shall be subdued unto Him, THEN SHALL THE SON ALSO HIMSELF BE SUBJECT UNTO
HIM that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all" (I Cor. 15:24-25,28).
The Kingdom of the Son will have a conclusion. In some remote time the Son delivers up the
Kingdom to the Father, the Kingdom continues no longer in the rule of Sonship, but in the
rule of Fatherhood, that God may be known no longer in and through the Son and the Sons,
but transcendentally as ALL IN ALL!
Dear reader, it is high time
to stop acting the fool. It is high time to cease from exalting ourselves and our ignorant
imaginings above the knowledge of God. It is high time to bow in humble submission to His
Word and cease our own blasphemous and ignorant prattlings. It is high time for a lot of
people to curb their wagging tongues and do some listening for a change, if perchance they
might at length learn something worth talking about. The Hebrew word OLAM and its Greek
equivalent, AION, mean a limited time, an age, and their plural means ages. No one who is
sane and reasonable can maintain otherwise. To do so is to contradict all known facts and
to contradict God's own Word. That is precisely what all the "eternal damnation"
people are guilty of. God be merciful to them!
Let us look at how the word
AION is used in a number of passages. About 37 times in the New Testament it is rendered
"world," twice as "worlds," twice as "ages," and once as
"course." Every place where the word "eternal" appears, with but one
exception, it is a translation of this word AION or its adjective form AIONIOS. Twice it
is rendered "evermore." Every place where the word "everlasting"
appears, but one, it is this same word or its adjective form. With but thirteen
exceptions, every place where the word "ever" appears it is the same word or its
adjective form. And aside from all this confusion, the word also appears in the plural,
and in a number of confusing combinations, such as "the aion of the aion,"
"the aion of the aions," and "the aions of the aions," etc.
Some of the passages where
AION is found will give us added information concerning it. In Eph. 2:7 we find, "in
the ages (aions) to come." In Col. 1:26 we find, "the mystery which has been hid
from ages (aions)." In Eph. 2:2 we find "you walked, according to the course
(aion) of this world." In Heb. 1:2 we find, "by whom also He made the worlds
(aions)." In Heb. 11:3 we find, "the worlds (aions) were formed by the Word of
God." In about fifteen instances, such as Mat. 12:32, 1 Cor. 1:20, etc., we find it
rendered "this world (aion)." Twice we find "this present world
(aion)." In Gal. 1:4 we find, "deliver us from this present evil world
(aion)." In Eph. 6:12 we find, "the rulers of the darkness of this world
(aion)." In 11 Cor. 4:4 we find, "the god of this world (aion)." In I Cor.
2:6 we find, "the wisdom of this world (aion)." In Lk. 16:8 we find, "the
children of this world (aion)." In Mk. 4:19 we find, "the cares of this world
(aion)." How much more understandable it would be if the translators had used the
word age instead of world!
In Mk. 10:30 we find that
there is not only this present aion, which is evil, but also "the world (aion) to
come." In Lk. 20:35 we find, "but they that shall be accounted worthy to obtain
that world (aion), and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in
marriage." In Heb. 6:5 we find, "and have tasted the powers of the world (aion)
to come." And in Lk. 1:70, Jn. 9:32, etc., we find that the aion had a beginning:
"since the world (aion) began."
And now in reviewing the
Scriptures we have just quoted we note that this aion is something which has a king; it
has princes; it is in darkness; it had a beginning; it has an ending; it is evil; it has
wisdom; it has children who marry; it has cares. The aions we find were made by Christ,
simply through His spoken Word, and we also find in Col. 1:26 that the mystery of Christ
in us, the hope of glory, has been hidden from these aions.
Now, if AION means ETERNAL,
consider how ridiculous the Word of God would be! The Holy Spirit would be found saying,
"the mystery which has been hid from eternities;" "the mystery of Christ
which in other eternities was not made known;" "in the eternities to come;"
"You walked according to the eternity of this world;" "by whom also He made
the eternities;" "the rulers of the darkness of this eternity;" "now
once in the end of the eternities has He appeared;" "the harvest is the end of
the eternity;" "since eternity began;" "in the eternities to
come," etc. etc. Let the scholars whose business it is delve into the many
intricacies of expression, and worry over the many grammatical combinations. Suffice it to
say here that there have been "aions" in the past, there is this present
"aion," and there are "aions" to come. And these all combined make up
TIME, encompassing the whole of the progressive plan and program of God for the
development of His creation.
Any thinking person should
clearly see that if you translate the word AION which means an age by the word eternal,
which has nothing to do with time, you immediately get the wrong idea. The same thing
applies when the word AION is translated by the word world. It is incorrect and brings
nothing but confusion. That is why so many Christians have been worrying about "the
end of the world" when they should have been understanding God's special dealing here
at "the end of the age." There is a great deal of difference between the
expression, "He shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever," and the
expression, "He shall be tormented day and night unto the ages of the ages." For
ever and ever has no end. The ages of the ages do have an end, and their end will see
every knee bowing and every tongue confessing that Jesus Christ is the Lord to the glory
of God the Father. (Phil. 2:10; Rom. 14:10-11). The first expression forebodes complete
hopelessness for billions and makes the faith of God of none effect. The second
expression, which is completely correct, not only offers hope but expresses the ultimate
fulfillment of the purpose which was purposed in Christ Jesus before the world began or
before the ages were framed.
The best way to arrive at the
true meaning of a word is to study carefully the way it has been used. If we are to study
a Greek word, we must go to the Greek text and not to a translation, nor to a definition
which has been derived from an interpretative translation. If, in the original text, the
word appears in different forms, surely these forms must have some special significance. A
singular form cannot have the same meaning as the plural. Since both forms are used they
should be distinguished when they are translated. Yet in certain places the singular form
is translated by exactly the same words as the plural form and thereby the true import of
the words is hidden. For example, compare the following passages: Heb. 1:8 Your throne, O
God, is forever and ever (Gr: for the aion of the aion); Rev. 1:6 To Him be glory ... for
ever and ever (Gr: for the aions of the aions); Eph. 3:21 Unto all generations for ever
and ever (Gr: for the aion of the aions). In I Cor. 10:11 we have the expression,
"The ends of the aions." In Heb. 9:26 we have "The end of the aions."
How can a period that is definitely said to come to an end be endless? How can a group of
such periods, each said to come to an end, be forever?
I am aware that some people
will oppose us on the grounds that the Greeks of today use the phrase "the aions of
the aions" meaning eternal, everlasting. A Greek gentleman told me several years ago
that "the ages of the ages" is how they express eternity in Greek, and that when
the book of Revelation says "and the smoke of their torment ascends up to the ages of
the ages" (Rev. 14:11) it means FOREVER. Ah, that sounds convincing, conclusive,
final and unanswerable, does it not? But precious friend of mine, in studying Bible
language we are studying ANCIENT GREEK, not MODERN. The Greek language in two thousand
years has changed to such an extent that the ancient tongue is altogether unintelligible
to a modern Greek. The fact is, for over a thousand years, up till the year A.D. 1453,
Greek was almost unknown or forgotten in most of
It was the false doctrines of
the apostate Greek Orthodox Church that caused the meaning eternal to be placed upon the
modern Greek phrase "the ages of the ages." And don't think for one moment, dear
friend, that religion doesn't influence language! The English word "hell" once
meant "a dark hidden place" but Church dogma has through the years caused the
word to take on an altogether different connotation. Word meanings do change! And
religious dogma has effected many such changes!
So usage is the fundamental
key to unlocking the meanings of ancient Greek words. That the expression "the ages
of the ages" cannot mean an endless succession of ages, or eternity, is clearly
revealed by comparing Rev. 11:15 with I Cor. 15:24-28. In Rev. 11:15 our Lord is said, in
the Greek text, to reign "for the ages of the ages" but in I Cor. 15 His reign
is said to end. He does not reign "for ever and ever" though He does reign
"for the ages of the ages." As the Son, God reigns unto the ages of the ages
through a process of subjecting, subduing all things unto Himself. When that work is
completed and there is nothing more in all God's vast universe to subdue and reconcile
unto Himself, God reigns no longer as the Son, but as Father He shall finally and
eternally be ALL IN ALL.
Endlessness is expressed in
the Scriptures by the simple phrase "no end" (Lk. 1:33; Dan. 7:14; Isa. 9:7).
The thought of permanence is also expressed in Heb. 7:16, "the power of an endless
(or indissoluble) life," and in I Pet. 1:4, "an inheritance incorruptible, and
undefiled, and that fades not away." Now had the Holy Spirit wished to indicate true
unendingness or true eternity as the time issue in the punishment and suffering of the
lost, He could have used the word that He used in Rom. 1:20 to describe God's
"eternal power and Godhead, " literally God's "perpetual" or
"imperceptible" power and Godhead, one being unable to see to the end of it! You
see, had the Holy Spirit wanted to convey unendingness in reference to the punishment of
the enemies of God, He could have used words that plainly denoted that, rather than the
words "to the age...... to the ages," "to the age of the ages "to the
ages of the ages, " etc., all which plainly denote SPANS OF TIME.
"The same shall drink of
the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His
indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy
angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascends up for
ever and ever (to the ages of the ages): and they have no rest DAY NOR NIGHT, who worship
the beast..." (Rev. 14:10-11). Notice, dear reader, that these are tormented DAY AND
NIGHT unto the ages of the ages and have no rest DAY NOR NIGHT. The very terms day and
night and for ever and ever prove beyond question that we are still dealing with the realm
of time. The expression for ever and ever is misleading and throws us into confusion, for,
while on one hand eternity is indicated, on the other hand time is indicated by the use of
the words day and night. There is neither day nor night in eternity! Both are creatures of
time. There is no way of knowing how long a time this will be, but since it unquestionably
deals with day and night and ages, it does therefore belong to time and no endeavor must
be made to equate it with eternity. These words are solemn and awful, and we have no
desire but to acknowledge both the wicked deeds and the dreadful and fearful doom of those
who are so justly condemned. I have no desire to spend even one day under the terrible
hand of God's severity! But to refer to these words as bespeaking eternal, endless,
hopeless, and merciless torture is to invite the fearful curse of those who "add to
the words of this book" (Rev. 22:18).
Once we understand that AION
and all the compounds of that word denote TIME, how clear everything becomes! And how
ridiculous the ignorant prattlings of men! In an effort to harmonize the Scriptures with
the false doctrines of the apostate Church, the translators rendered "the ages of the
ages" as "for ever and ever." This one little mistake once and for all
exposes their folly. Even in English we can see that "for ever" cannot be
endless if "and ever" may be added to it. Eternity cannot be added to! Only time
may be compounded. Eternity is absolute timelessness. Eternity is without either beginning
or end. There cannot be more than one eternity. You cannot add a second eternity on to a
first eternity. Forever in English means "for eternity; always; perpetually;
endlessly." Now if "for ever" is "eternity" how can you add
"and ever," attaching ANOTHER ETERNITY to an already existing eternity? That
isn't even correct English grammar! Ah - but ages are time and time, beloved, can be added
to! When the Greek speaks of "the ages of the ages" it is speaking of AGGREGATED
PERIODS OF TIME - not eternity! And you cannot get eternity by compounding all the time
periods of the past and the future, for time began and time ends. The ages and all the
time and times combined do not equal eternity. There simply is no such thing as "the
endless ages of eternity" as the preachers love to say, for the phrase is a complete
contradiction of itself. No one who is sane and reasonable can maintain otherwise. To do
so is to contradict all known facts and to contradict God's own Word.
No other book that was ever
written can be compared to the Bible, which is the Word of God. I am a believer in the
verbal inspiration of the Scriptures, and I am not a believer in the folly of uninformed
and unenlightened men who by ignorance of the facts and misinformation try with puny human
reasoning to tear it apart. There are a great many people who forget their scholarship,
however, if ever they had any, and contend for the King James version even when it is
manifestly wrong. One thing I should like to say in passing is, that while the Bible is
inspired in its origin, you have to be exceedingly careful of two things: FIRST, THAT YOU
HAVE THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT; AND THE SECOND, THAT YOU HAVE A GOOD TRANSLATION. Original
manuscripts are inspired, but translations are not. To hear some people talk you would
think that the good old King James Bible was the one Paul preached from!
It is interesting to note
that the word "Easter" appears one time in the King James version in Acts 12:4.
"And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four
quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the
people." Here Easter is translated from the Greek PASCHA which appears twenty-eight
other places in the New Testament, and in all of those instances is translated
"Passover." The Greek PASCHA comes from the Hebrew PASACH which means to pass,
to leap, or skip over. We see from this that the English word "Passover" is the
correct meaning of the original. How then did the translators of the King James version
come up with Easter? Easter, according to Webster's New World Dictionary, is from
"Eastre," the ancient Anglo Saxon GODDESS OF THE DAWN - her festival being in
the spring of the year. And "Eastre" is the Anglo Saxon form of the Babylonian
goddess "Ishtar" the pagan Queen of Heaven! Hundreds of years after Christ the
Romish Church, as a compromise with the pagan converts, adopted the pagan rites and
customs associated with the worship of Ishtar into the Church as a celebration of the
resurrection of Christ - and called that celebration EASTER! Naturally, Easter is
celebrated at approximately the same time as ancient
It lets in light on the
attitude of the translators of King James' Bible to know, as stated in the Bible helps of
Bagster's edition, that King James instructed the men who gave us our Authorized Version,
"To sanction no innovation that would disturb the orthodoxy or peace of the
Church." It is said that, "The translators were careful in the main to respect
the rules laid down by the king." What a vast difference it would have made in our
thinking today had these translators followed consistently and accurately the Hebrew and
Greek texts, instead of conforming to the heresies of the mother of harlots! Especially
where "eternity" and the "ages" are concerned!
Thus, the translators were at
the disadvantage of never being able to say or write anything that conflicted with the
accepted belief of the nominal Church, its leaders or the ruling element of the nation. In
support of this I would give you a quotation from page seven of the Emphatic Diaglott as
follows, concerning the King James version: according to Dr. Gell, it was wrested and
partial, and only adapted to one sect; but he imputes this, not to the translators, but to
those who employed them, for even some of the translators complained that they could not
follow their own judgment in the matter, but were restrained by reasons of State."
Little wonder, then, that we have eternal damnation taught in the King James Bible!
While the Scriptures speak of
an age, and the ages, and the ages of the ages, - one age proceeding from, or out of, a
previous age until all the ages have run their courses - it also points to that glorious
climatic age of all ages. We read the phrase, "Your throne, O God, is for ever and
ever" (Heb. 1:8). These words "for ever and ever" come from the Greek which
literally reads TO THE AGE OF THE AGES. This is very familiar terminology in the
Scripture.
Few men have been caught away
by the spirit of inspiration as was the wise king Solomon when he penned the beautiful
Song of Solomon. God dropped one thousand and five songs down into the heart of Solomon,
but of these, only five comprising the Song of Solomon, have been preserved and have found
a place in Holy Scripture. Inspiration named it "The Song of Songs," that is,
the one song which was above and beyond all the songs that have ever come from human heart
and human lips. Just as the "Song of Songs" was chief above them all, just as
the "Holy of holies" was the Holiest place of all, just as the "heaven of
the heavens" is the highest heaven of all, just as the "King of kings" is
the greatest King of all, so all through the Scriptures, though obscured by many
translators, we have this remarkable phrase TO THE AGE OF THE AGES. It points to that age
which shall be the most glorious of all, and which finds its type in the year of Jubilee.
This is the Holy Spirit's way of expressing the superlative, and so far as God's plan of
the ages is concerned this AGE OF THE AGES is THE AGE PAR EXCELLENCE of them all. A simple
illustration of this is our expression, "a day of days," meaning a day that
comes out of previous days, which crowns them, and embodies not only what they contained,
but the full fruition of all that was elementary in them. Eternity does not emerge full
grown in man's consciousness until this wonderful age is ended. This AGE OF THE AGES is
that glorious climax to His purpose and process of the ages, wherein He states,
"Behold, I make ALL things new" (Rev. 21:5). And when He says, "ALL,"
it is self-evident that there is nothing remaining in the universe which shall not be made
new, else all is not all. "For He must reign until He has put ALL enemies under His
feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death" (I Cor. 15:25-26). When the
last enemy is under His feet, destroyed, and there is no more death in any creature
anywhere in all God's great universe, then shall God be all in all! The Amplified gives,
"Be everything to everyone." Time comes to an end when the ages end and
eternity, with God "all in all," becomes a conscious reality.
"AIONIOS" - THE
LIFE OF THE AGES
I have pointed out previously
that the word for "everlasting" as used of punishment and
"everlasting" as used with life is often the same word in the Greek - AIONIOS.
Some sincere and well meaning people assert that if AIONIOS does not mean eternal, that
is, if the punishment is not eternal, then the life is not eternal. If the "aionios
punishment" ends, then the "aionios life" of God must end, say they! That
sounds like a reasonable argument, but when one searches beneath the surface he discovers
that it merely reveals the ignorance of those who labor the point. Let us see!
The noun AION nowhere means
eternal. Its simple meaning is an age. In its plural form it means ages. We have
unquestionably and incontrovertibly demonstrated this fact from numerous New Testament
passages. Now once we understand that AIONIOS is the adjective form of the noun AION, a
simple little sixth-grade grammar lesson should once and for all establish the exact
meaning of AIONIOS.
A noun is a word that tells
what you are talking about. A noun is a word that names something, a person, place, thing,
quality, etc. Boy, water, tree, age and truth are all nouns. An adjective is a word that
is used with a noun to describe it. It is a word that tells you what kind, what color,
which one, etc. If you wanted to tell me about the hat a woman was wearing you would
describe the hat in some way. You might say that it was a large hat, an atrocious hat, or
a red hat. These are adjectives, words that describe what kind, what color of hat. When
you add one or more of these "describing words" or "adjectives" to
hat, you give a clearer picture of what the hat is like. Some words are both nouns and
adjectives, that is, the same word can be used both ways. Sometimes the adjective form of
the word is identical to the noun form, while at other times the spelling is slightly
different. Look at these sentences: "I would like to visit
Let me illustrate. If we say
"John is in college," the word college is a noun. But if we say, "John has
sixteen college credits," college is an adjective, modifying the word credits -
telling what kind of credits. Now we all know what a college is - an institution of higher
education that grants degrees - so we understand what kind of institution John is
attending in the first sentence. Since we know the meaning of college, when we come to the
second sentence we have no difficulty understanding what kind of credits John has -
college credits - credits gained through study in an institution of higher education
granting degrees! No one in his right mind is going to read the second statement and
conclude that John has just finished kindergarten, or that he has a diploma showing that
he finished sixteen lessons in leather craft at the YMCA, or that he has $16.00 worth of
credit at a department store! College as a noun and college as an adjective cannot have
altogether different meanings. They mean the same in both cases!
Ah, brethren, let's be fair
with the basic rules of English grammar and interpretation, and Greek, too, for they both
follow the same basic rules. No one can say that AIONIOS means eternal without breaking
the basic rules of English or Greek. The adjective AIONIOS which is directly derived from
the noun AION occurs seventy times in the New Testament. It is an axiom of grammar that
derivatives cannot have a greater force than the parent word. When we have an adjective
derived from a noun, the meaning of the adjective is dependent upon the meaning of the
noun. A daily paper is one that comes every day. A monthly bill is due for payment every
month, not once a year. A yearly automobile license is good for one year, not for ever.
Thus the adjective AIONIOS, a
derivative of AION, carries within itself its own solution; for AIONIOS is simply what
belongs or relates to the AIONS - the ages - hence it cannot carry a force or express a
duration greater than that of the ages of which it speaks. If therefore these ages are
limited periods, some of which are already past, while others are yet to come, the word
AIONIOS cannot mean infinity!
And yet men who should know
better tell us that the Greek noun AION means an age, or ages, which is TIME, and then
proceed to ridiculously explain that the adjective form of the same word means exactly the
opposite - unending, everlasting, ETERNAL! A child of ten should be able to understand
that that is not so. The adjective AIONIOS modifies two nouns in Matt. 25:46 and numerous
other passages: punishment and life. "And these shall go away into everlasting
punishment: but the righteous into life eternal." It tells what kind of punishment
and what kind of life Jesus is talking about. It is ages-lasting punishment and
ages-lasting life, or better stated THE LIFE OF THE AGES. Now I can hear someone
protesting, "But isn't the life we have received from God ETERNAL LIFE?"
Certainly God's life is eternal life. But we have received that life injected into TIME,
so that the inworking of that life through the processings of God is experienced in
relation to TIME rather that ETERNITY. Let me explain. Anything that is absolutely eternal
is not only unending, but is also UNCHANGEABLE. Anything that changes in any way is not
eternal, for in the change some characteristic is left behind and a new one acquired. In
every change something ends and something else begins, at least in form. That which dwells
in an eternal state knows NO CHANGE. Change is possible only in that which is limited,
imperfect, or not fully developed. The Lord declares of Himself, "I am the Lord, I
CHANGE NOT" (Mal. 3:6), and the inspired apostle says of Him, with Whom there
is no VARIABLENESS, neither shadow of turning" (James 1:17). God is never surprised.
God has not learned anything this week, nor last year, nor in the last several trillion
years. If God learned one thing today, it would destroy Him. He would no longer be the
omniscient One who knows the end from the beginning, for known unto Him are all His works
from the creation of the world. God does not experiment. God does not become stronger,
mightier, or increase Himself in any way. God is the omnipotent and omniscient one. He
CHANGES NOT. He eternally is all that He is without a decrease or increase or fluctuation
whatsoever. Therefore He is the ETERNAL GOD! It means more than unending, it means
unchangeable, and therefore unending! But we, in our spiritual life, are STILL BEING
CHANGED! "And all of us... are constantly BEING TRANSFIGURED (changed) into His very
own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another" (II
Cor. 3:18, Amplified). Therefore the life we have received is not truly eternal yet, it is
the LIFE OF THE AGES, God's life injected into time to be processed and matured into that
unchangeableness which He Himself is!
It is a great and blessed
fact that God is the eternal God. Transition, adjustments, change - these words seem to be
constantly with us, until we fain would grasp for something that seems to be stable,
solid, enduring. Much of the inner drive for change is simple evidence that man is not
satisfied, has not found his completeness in Christ, for "beloved NOW are we the
children of God, and it does not yet appear WHAT WE SHALL BE: but we know that when HE
shall appear, we SHALL (then) BE LIKE HIM for we shall see HIM AS HE IS" (I Jn. 3:2).
Here is stability - immutability - the quality of His nature remains the same, HE IS THE
ETERNAL! And this is the nature of which we would be a partaker, the fullness of which we
find in Christ, and through union with Him with which we shall be changed until we become
changeless in the absoluteness of that which He is. He who is eternal cannot be
influenced, affected, moved, changed, altered, damaged or destroyed in any way. He cannot
grow tired or old. The character of God is eternal, changeless, unaffected. The love, joy,
peace, righteousness and power of God do not rise and fall, rise and fall, rise and fall.
Matters not what happens or what men or devils say or do, the love of God, the purpose of
God, and the power of God are steadfast, unmoved, unquenched, unaffected, without
fluctuation. The eternal existence of God is certain for He is the source of all life.
Death cannot touch Him for He is not dependent upon the sustaining power of another, He is
Yahweh, the SELF-EXISTENT ONE.
A concept we must immediately
grasp in order to understand God's plan of the ages is that time is a created phenomena
consisting of past, present, and future just as man is created phenomena having youth,
middle age, and old age. No, you cannot smell, touch, or feel time, but it is there,
ever-present, always marching into the future. Time was created; it had a beginning, it
shall have an end. It is only one thing among countless other things that are part of the
entire created universe. It is as much a "species" of creation as, for example,
rocks, elephants, trees, and water are species of creation. Before the creation of the
universe, there was no time; at the end of the ages when the present material universe is
dissolved and replaced by a new, spiritual universe, time shall cease to be. It will be
swallowed up into eternity just as all death will be swallowed up into victory, and there
shall be no more death. Time - composed of milliseconds, seconds, minutes, hours, days,
weeks, months, years, decades, centuries, millenniums, ages was created in the beginning,
and will be dissolved at the end of the ages.
A proper understanding of
time as a created phenomena having beginning and ending is an absolute prerequisite to a
proper understanding of eternity. Time is relative only to the physical universe and the
purposes of God therein. Let me ask - If there were no such thing as the planet earth,
would there be days? No! If earth didn't have a satellite called the moon, would there be
months? No! If both earth and moon didn't have a thing called the sun around which to
orbit, would there be years? No! If there were no stars, no suns, no planets, would there
be time? No! Time is "duration set forth by measures;" the ticking of a clock,
the beating of a pulse, the burning of a candle, the falling of sand through a certain
aperture, - these, and a thousand similar regular movements, may serve as measures, more
or less exact, of time. Time, then, because it is a created phenomenon, can be studied to
some extent just as any other part of the creation of God can be studied. We know how it
functions by its effects in passing: decay, corrosion, erosion, deterioration, or
progression, growth, development, maturity.
The late Dr. Einstein
discovered, at least theoretically, that time and space are interdependent, inseparably
related, and form a four-dimensional continuum (length, height, depth, and duration). That
is to say, there is no space without time, and no time without space. Space cannot be
traversed without the passage of time; without the passage of time, there is no traversing
of space. That is why in His post-resurrection, spiritual body, Jesus was able immediately
to transcend and traverse the space-time continuum with the speed of thought. By Christ's
power, space and time cohere and consist. Without His binding power, space and time would
become nonexistent. Also, since we know from the Scriptures that space is created, we can
then know that time is created, too. We can also understand that both time and space (as
we presently know them) will end together at the conclusion of the ages.
I am compelled to state that
the Bible says very little by way of a definition of eternity because the Bible is
essentially a book of time and for time. It was written for man who lives in a temporal
state and who is not yet a totally eternal being. Only as we enter that state of being
called eternity... only as HE who IS ETERNITY becomes "All in All" in us... only
as we are spiritually metamorphosized into our eternal condition... only as eternity
becomes an absolute reality to us... only then will formerly temporal beings such as we
now are truly comprehend and understand eternity and things of an eternal nature. This
marvelous work has now begun within our spirit as our spirit has been quickened by His
Spirit. I stated that the Bible is relatively silent about what eternity is; that is not
to say that human teachings and theology haven't taught us a great deal about eternity,
but, alas! much of it over the past centuries has come from the carnal minds of Babylonish
theologians and not from the mind of the Eternal One via the Holy Spirit.
ETERNITY IS A STATE OF
ABSOLUTE TIMELESSNESS, not of unending time. Eternity is a STATE OF
Now the eternal God has
injected Himself into time. The Bible rarely speaks of God as eternal; both the Hebrew and
Greek Scriptures reveal Him as the GOD OF THE AGES - time. "In the beginning God
created..." Since that wonderful dawn God has been the God of His creation, the God
of heaven and earth, the God of the ages, the God of history, the God of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, the God of Israel, and the God of our salvation. God is said to be living
"for the ages of the ages" not because God must die when the ages end, but in
contrast to multitudes of His creatures whose days upon earth are limited to
"threescore and ten years." Generation after generation, through the rise and
fall of empires, and the shifting sands of history, God remains.
The great revelation of the
Scriptures is that this universe is governed by a throne and that throne is not in
God in Christ became man as
well as God. God as man has tenses to His being: the yesterday of the past, the today of
the present, the tomorrow of the future. This is not the eternal God, but the God who has
dispensed of His eternity into time. "Jesus Christ the same - yesterday, today, and
to the ages" (Heb. 13:8, literal). "And the four beasts had each of them six
wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night,
saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come" (Rev.
4:8). Day and night do not exist in eternity - they fill up the whole of time. HE is
praised and extolled both DAY AND NIGHT, this God who WAS, and IS, and IS TO COME, the God
of the ages, the Architect of history, the Lord of time, the King of the universe, the
Most High who "...lives for the ages, whose dominion is an age during dominion, and
His kingdom is from generation to generation: and all the inhabitants - of the earth are
reputed as nothing: and He does according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the
inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What doest
Thou?" (Dan. 4:34-35, literal & KJV).
Oh, take me not back through
the long ages to a Christ that walked the shores of
"Crown Him the Lord of
Years - The Potentate of Time,
Creator of the rolling spheres, Ineffably sublime.
All hail, Redeemer, hail! For You have died for me;
Your praise shall never, never fail As long as Time shall be!
This phenomenon called time
was created by God for man. Why? Time is the womb from which God is birthing a people like
unto Himself. We get the germ, the beginning and foretaste of eternity in time, but this
is only the seed of eternal life. This womb of time is provided to aid man in his
development, to assist him in preparation for a new, totally spiritual existence beyond
time, beyond the last age, when the umbilical cord is cut, in a state of existence called
eternity. Man, as he is dealt with by God, is passing from a gross, largely material
consciousness, into a glorious spiritual existence. Time serves only as an instrument to
help man, to give him time and experience to develop into that new state of being. In time
there is change - in eternity there is no change. All change and development must take
place in time.
Thank God! we are being
changed! But that means that the life of God within is still in a limited, imperfect,
underdeveloped state. That life as to our condition and state of being is limited,
imperfect, and in some measure immature. God has dispensed that life into us in time, that
through a process of time with its experiences the spiritual life may be perfected and
matured, brought to the fullness of that which HE HIMSELF IS. When the process is
completed and we are like Him fully and see Him as He is, there will BE NO MORE CHANGE. We
will then truly know what ETERNAL LIFE is! But as long as the life within is passing
through the process of change, growth, and development, it is not viewed as eternal,
unchangeable life, but as the LIFE OF THE AGES, life undergoing the dealings of God in
time.
The eternal security of the
believer is known only by the overcomers who have fully and forever conquered every
vestige of the world, the flesh, and the devil, being conformed into the image of the Son.
Of these triumphant ones it is written, "To him that OVERCOMES will I give to eat of
the TREE OF LIFE," and again, "He that OVERCOMES... I will NOT BLOT HIS NAME OUT
of the Book of Life" (Rev. 2:7; 3:5). The inference is clear ... until this
"overcomer" state is attained, it is possible to have one's name blotted out of
the Book of Life! That does not mean that the name cannot be written there again, any more
than it could be said that it was impossible for it to be written there in the first
instance. But it does indicate that the life possessed by a Christian who is not fully an
overcomer is not by God's definition ETERNAL LIFE, for if it were absolutely eternal it
could not be lost! Little wonder, then, that our Lord says to the Church at
The life we now have is a
progressing, growing, conquering life - the LIFE OF THE AGES. It is life that has come by
the quickening of our spirit by His Spirit, giving a new beginning, and the potential to
become, in due time, all He is. But I am sure my readers, with myself, must confess that
there is a great deal of progress still to be made, considerable growth to be experienced,
much transformation to be wrought before we stand in Him in the fullness of that life that
needs no change, no further development, no additional experience, no more growth, no
fuller stature, no added triumph, no increase of wisdom and knowledge - that state of
being as unchangeable as He is unchangeable, as ETERNAL AS HE IS ETERNAL! Only faintly now
do our eyes behold the splendor of that eternal realm which lies before us, but if we
approach softly with reverence and godly fear, not disrespectfully and thoughtlessly as
nosey children prying into some sacred thing, then the Lord of glory will meet us and will
be a Father unto us and we shall be the Sons of God in whom the Father shall unfold the
fullness of His life, mind, will and glory. Thus shall we come into that same image and be
sharers with the Christ in the glory He had with the Father BEFORE TIME WAS - ETERNAL
GLORY! I think I know why some become so enraged when we tell them that we do not now
possess the absolutely eternal life. Is it not because they would rather ignore this life
of the ages, somehow projecting themselves into that life which is eternal, claiming
"by faith" the finished product, while by-passing the tedious processing? Ah,
dear ones, it doesn't work that way! God has graciously given unto us life aionios - the
life of the ages - and how I thank God that my present state of being is NOT ETERNAL!
There is MORE! I would follow on to know Him in all fullness. And it will take "the
ages," my friend, to unfold it all. As long as there is need for growth, change, and
advancement, there is need for time. But redemption as a completed plan has a unique
relationship to time. Until redemption is complete its work will proceed in time, but the
finished work of redemption stands at time's end. Thank God! There is an END - then
eternity, God all in all!
As God's plan of the ages has
progressed there has been a level of life, a spiritual vitality, for each age. Each age
has been different. Men in antediluvian times knew God in a certain way and received life
of a particular order.
God is cultivating within His
Sons an eternal nature. The thoughts of God's people are becoming boundless and eternal,
no longer controlled and motivated purely by carnal memories of the past, by present
events, or by dim hopes for an endless future in "mansions over the hill-top".
The fledgling spirits of God's Sons are fast growing up into the limitless expanses of
God's own eternal, spiritual nature. Yes, the whole man is becoming a new, eternal
creation, no longer limited by the space-time continuum. God's maturing Sons see the
reality of a state of being called eternity, and their hearts strain and leap upward
toward that "place" in God!
We miss so much vital truth
by our careless scanning of the Bible, and by clinging tenaciously to the time-worn
traditions of the religious systems, mistaking them for the holy truths of God. It should
be clear that if the "eternal life" of Mat. 25:41 is really the "life of
the ages", then the "eternal punishment" is likewise an age-lasting
correction. The Diaglott says, "Depart from Me, you cursed ones, into that aionian
fire... and these shall go away into a cutting-off age lasting." The Bible in Modern
English by Farrar Fenton reads, "And these He will dismiss into a LONG
CORRECTION."
The word punishment is from
the Greek KOLASIS which means simply that - punishment. But it comes from the root KOLAZO
which reveals the true nature of the punishment. KOLAZO according to Strong's Concordance,
means "to curtail" or "to chastise". The word means "a
pruning" according to Liddell and Scott's Greek English Lexicon. it is so used all
through the Greek language. That punishment of which the Christ spoke was the very thing
that helped me to see the glorious HOPE for all who are unbelievers or rebellious against
God - because the word punishment there means chastisement or pruning. I saw in a moment
that it was not the destruction of the man; it was the correcting of the man. it was not
the destruction of the tree; it was the cutting back, and the pruning, that it might bring
forth fruit. Some rightly reason that KOLASIS cannot mean corrective punishment or pruning
if it is everlasting. But everlasting is itself wrong - who ever heard of EVERLASTING
CORRECTION! It is age-lasting punishment, age-abiding correction, age-during pruning.
There are those who did not
enter into His life in ages past, there are those who do not enter into His life in this
present age, and there shall be those who will not enter into His life in the age to come.
But in the world where God is the King you can count on it - every man will finally have
to face up to his waywardness, and being thoroughly disciplined, broken, and purged of
self-will, until he is prepared to respond to the love of Christ, to advance from the
realm of punishment into the blessing of HIS LIFE and victory. If you do not punish a
criminal for his improvement, for what do you punish him? There are just two right reasons
- to protect society and to restore the criminal to society improved by the punishment.
The "aionian" punishment which will come to every sinner who goes to hell will
be a punishment that will break his stubborn, rebellious spirit and bring him back to God!
It is most regrettable that
many Bible translators have been careless in their translation of words that concern the
ages. The common thought seems to have been that any age following this present age must
be identical with eternity, which, of course, is gross error, and we get ourselves into
all manner of confusion by thinking that such is the case. For instance, according to the
King James version Jesus, speaking of the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, is clearly
quoted as saying, "He that blasphemes the Holy Ghost has never forgiveness" (Mk.
3:29). Because of this faulty rendering we have concocted the fallacious notion of an
unpardonable sin. But the Emphatic Diaglott translates the passage correctly thus:
"Whoever may blaspheme the Holy Spirit has no forgiveness to the age, but is exposed
to aionian (age-lasting) judgment." Likewise also the passage in Mat. 12:32......
Whosoever speaks against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in
this world, neither in the world to come." The word world here, as the margin of your
Bible will probably indicate, is translated from the Greek word AION, which means age or a
period of time. See also Young's Concordance. Hence the translation should be, "It
shall not be forgiven him, neither in this age nor in the coming age" (Diaglott).
Jesus was born in the age of law. Therefore, when He spoke of this age, He was speaking of
the age of law, the age to come being the Church age in which we now live.
God's precious people,
saturated and literally "oozing" with the false doctrines of the harlot Church
systems have long viewed God's judgments as a vindictive action prompted by a motive for
revenge and supported by a tumultuous wrath that must be pacified. NOT SO! Such is a gross
caricature of our God! His mercy and grace are super-abundant, His mercy endures to all
ages, and though He finds it necessary to chasten, His wisdom and righteousness produce a
just and pure chastisement conditioned to correct the situation, and bring forth a
creature prepared to respond to the delivering and redeeming power of God. ALL OF GOD'S
JUDGMENTS ARE CORRECTIVE IN NATURE, conceived in His wisdom, motivated by His love,
administered by His power, and used to work out the divine purpose, into our good, and
unto His praise!
This does not deny that
"the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men" (Rom. 1:18). There is no doubt whatever as to the fact that the Bible clearly
teaches wrath - not only in this age but in that which is to come and in dim and distant
ages beyond that. But it is a just wrath; the judgment is everywhere said to be ACCORDING
TO OUR WORKS (Ps. 62:12;
Those who are hard and
impenitent of heart treasure up for themselves wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of
the righteous judgment of God who will render to every man according to his works. If you
don't believe it, ask the antediluvians, ask Korah and his followers, ask the inhabitants
of Sodom and Gomorrah, ask the Jews who passed through the holocaust, and ask all the rest
of men who have lived and died trampling under foot the righteousness and mercy of the
Lord. To them that are rebellious and obey not the truth but obey unrighteousness shall be
wrath, indignation, tribulation and anguish upon every soul. All that the Scriptures
actually teach about the wrath of God will surely come to pass. The wrath of God is an
awful thing and it is not my purpose to minimize it in the least. I do rejoice, however,
in the knowledge that it will accomplish its work until all men are broken before God and
call upon Him for mercy full and abundant.
Thank God - He has a plan!
And it will work. You can count on it. Grace has intervened. Love will conquer. The wisdom
of God will be vindicated. God will actually WIN! Hallelujah! Isn't THAT good news! The
devil will have none left to possess. The grave will claim not one victim. Death will hold
no more power over any creature anywhere in all God's vast universe, for death shall be
DESTROYED. Sin and rebellion shall raise their ugly heads no more, for God will be all in
all. YOU CAN COUNT ON IT! THAT IS GOD'S PLAN!
Chapter
2
The
Law Of Circularity
WILL JESUS TORTURE BILLIONS
FOREVER?
Our Lord Jesus Christ is the
Creator and Sustainer of ALL things and ALL people. He either does or allows everything
that is done in heaven or on earth. If one hundred billion helpless human beings are being
tortured, then Jesus is doing it. Satan has brought suffering and death to the whole human
race. However, if eternal torment IS TRUE, then Jesus Christ will torture forever the
whole human race, except the small handful who will be saved. In one hour, in a hot
searing hell, our Lord will inflict more pain and agony on each person than Satan
inflicted on that person during his entire life.
If this torture lasts
throughout eternity, then each unsaved person will suffer more than all the suffering of
all the people that ever lived on earth. Think of it! Billions have suffered horrible pain
for hours, days, weeks, months, and years, during the time they were alive. And yet, after
they die, EVERY unsaved person will suffer more agony than all the suffering of the whole
race PUT TOGETHER from Adam until now. This is so horrible, so frightful, that it is
difficult for our minds to grasp. Except Satan himself, Pharaoh, Nero, and Hitler were
among the most horrible killers of men this world has ever known. Yet, the doctrine of
eternal torture makes Jesus a million times more vicious and vindictive than these three
put together. You see, these brutal murderers killed their victims. Death brought sweet
relief in a moment of time. However, that Man of Galilee, that Man whom we love, praise,
and worship, that Man who taught that we should forgive four hundred and ninety times a
day, that Man who told us that we should love our enemies and bless them that curse us,
that Man who died for all men, will never, never forgive ANYONE who has rejected Him in
this frail life, or, worse yet, who merely failed to believe on Him during this brief
time. Instead of torturing them for a season and then ending their suffering with death,
He will torture them through all eternity.
Even the hardest, cruelest,
most brutal men cannot torture their fellow men for more than two or three hours without
growing weak, faint, and sick (see Fox Book of Martyrs). However, Christian leaders teach
that our Lord will torture His victims through endless ages. The Scripture reveals that
Christ Jesus is the kindest, the most tender-hearted and merciful Person this world has
ever known. His mercy endures forever, or to all generations of time. The doctrine of
eternal torment pictures Him to be the most horrible monster, the most beastly, brutal,
cruel, vicious Person this world has ever known. The governments of this world, ruled by
unregenerated men, put their rebels in prisons, and the very worst offenders they put to
death. But our Lord Jesus Christ, the Creator and Redeemer of the world, will mercilessly
torture those who offend Him to the most hideous and incomprehensible degree. Surely, this
pagan and Romish doctrine of eternal torture does NOT glorify HIM!
One of the theologians of the
Church of England (Jeremy Taylor) speaks of the fate of the wicked in the following terms:
"In hell every sense and organ shall be assailed forever with its own appropriate and
most exquisite sufferings. We are amazed at the inhumanity of Phalaris who roasted men in
his brazen bull, but THAT WAS A JOY IN COMPARISON WITH HELL." And here is what the
renowned evangelist, C. H. Spurgeon, said on the same subject: "There is real fire in
hell. The body shall be suffused with agony; your head tormented with racking pains; your
eyes starting from their sockets; your ears tortured with horrid sounds; your pulse
rattling with anguish; your limbs crackling in the flame; every vein a pathway for the
fire to tread; every nerve a string on which the devil shall forever play the diabolical
tune of hell's unutterable lament."
If it were true, it is so
awful that it should never be spoken without tears and a broken heart. How does the mother
of a murderer speak of the corning execution of her boy? Yet the prospect to her is only
one of time, and in the limits of the physical. If the people believe it, then their
attitude about the whole thing reveals that they could care less if the creation burns
forever. The fact is, NO ONE really believes in an eternal burning hell if we are to judge
by their actions. If they saw a person in a burning building, they would put forth every
effort to save them; they would cry and scream for help; they would be late for work; they
would not rest until the victims were rescued. Yet, those who teach eternal torment can
spend their hours relaxing in front of the television screen, visiting and feasting upon
rich dainties with their friends, and whole days in camping, vacationing, fishing, and
playing, and then lay their heads upon a pillow every night and sleep soundly, while,
according to their own teaching, countless millions are going to a place a million times
worse than a burning building!
If they believed what they
teach, they would never cease, day and night until they dropped, and others came to take
their places, in their efforts to save men from such a place! They excuse themselves by
saying, "All we can do is warn." But if they were standing before a burning
building would they preach a thirty-minute sermon, then turn and walk away, saying,
"All we can do is warn!" And how many do they meet day after day, and never
mention their danger? Ah, precious friend of mine, if my concept of hell were what modern
Christendom's is, then it is my conviction that I would not be able to wait for God to
send me to preach the Gospel! I would have to spend my every wakened hour pleading,
working, struggling, fighting to save men from such a fate. I would be compelled to spend
hours upon hours in the chronic wards of hospitals, in rest homes, with the elderly and
those working on dangerous jobs, begging men to repent and turn to Jesus before they die.
And I am convinced that anyone with the love of God in his heart would do the same IF HE
REALLY BELIEVED the fables that are being taught today about hell. I will say this, either
those who teach eternal torture are EXTREMELY CALLOUSED or they do not believe what they
teach!
George Hawtin has so aptly
written: "Is it any wonder that in the face of such sadistic humbug there has been a
wholesale manufacture of infidels? All these statements (by eternal hell-fire preachers)
may be a show of oratorical eloquence, but they are nothing more. They hold no part of
truth. They deny every attribute of God. They make wisdom foolishness, turn eternal love
into exasperated hate, make omnipotence helplessness, and make the justice of God the
grossest injustice in the universe. To say that I believe in such repugnance would be a
lie of the first order. I do not believe it because it is contrary to the nature of God.
It is contrary to the love of God. It is contrary to the justice of God. It is contrary to
the power of God. It is contrary to the Word of God and it puts God in the ridiculous
position of being the almighty King of kings and Lord of lords yet having in His dominion
a vast pocket of hate and resistance that even He cannot overcome. Further than this it
makes the mighty sacrifice of Christ that was made for all the world to be almost impotent
in its power and scope. Worst of all, it frustrates the purpose of God laid down in the
beginning when He said, 'Let us make man in our image and after our likeness.' Some will
immediately ask me whether I do not believe in hell. My answer is very definite on this
point. I most certainly DO BELIEVE in hell, but the hell of the Bible and the hell of
human tradition are not the same thing at all. The hell of tradition is hopeless and
eternal, while the hell of the Scripture like every judgment of God is corrective,
remedial, and restorative." -end quote.
I do not like to differ, even
in minor things, from those whom I esteem for their devotion to Christ and their valuable
service in the cause of His Kingdom. But in the immortal words of the great Martin Luther,
"Here I stand - I can do no other. So help me God!" Long centuries ago the
faithful apostle Peter penned these inspired words, "Who by the power of God are kept
through faith unto a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time" (I Pet. 1:5).
My conviction before God is that the extent of the salvation of Jesus, the Christ, our
Lord, is to be known only in the last time. Jesus Himself said to His disciples, "I
have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now." But He said when
the Holy Spirit should come, He would lead his people step by step - patiently lead them
into the way of All Truth; so that when the last time (end of the age) came, the full
revelation of that salvation would be made. I believe that I am writing in the last time.
Writings of this kind do not endear the hearts of many people. I fear that enemies are
made instead. Every time a truth is spoken, many become offended and many are filled with
wrath. People always astonish me. It is never possible to know what attitude they will
take under any given circumstance. They will believe and trust you and feed from your
table, and for many years, only to become suddenly offended because of some point upon
which they disagree, and often become hostile and sometimes even vicious, calling you a
heretic and a false prophet, cutting you off from any fellowship and spiritual
communication, and warning other saints near and far not to have anything to do with you.
I am also perfectly aware
that these profound truths will be misapplied by another class, and some will twist and
wrest them to their own destruction in their carnal and wicked endeavor to set aside all
repentance of sin and annul all holiness of life, as some men in their zeal to display the
grace of God have done, ridiculously living in sin and turning the grace of God into
lasciviousness (Jude 4). These beautiful truths are not now written to men of corrupt
minds who have no desire to walk in the Spirit, but to all who walk in the whole counsel
of God, serving God because they love and know Him and not in fear of some dreadful
judgment that hangs like a horrible terror before their eyes. I do not address those who
would pervert the right ways of the Lord, using God's gracious plan and His great mercy as
an excuse for careless living or unconcern for lost men, but to those children of the Most
High God who, seeing their infinite identity in Christ, are consumed with the holy passion
of becoming the very instrument of God to fight the good fight of faith, destroying sin
and death and hell, and bringing all men back into the loving embrace of their God and
Redeemer. So be it!
I recognize that there will
be some still unanswered questions in some minds, but there is neither time to write nor
finances to print a treatise dealing with every small point. How can we put the ocean of
eternal truth into the limited pages of one small book? If God will have all men to be
saved, and the Scripture is very clear on this point, then there must be a way by which
this truth falls into perfect harmony with every other Scripture which seems to teach
otherwise. We do ourselves much injury when we seize upon every Scripture which proclaims
the salvation of all men, but carefully avoid all Scripture which speaks of the fearful
judgment of the wicked. Yet even greater harm is done when people insist upon taking the
other point of view, as almost the entire Church system has done for centuries,
emphasizing only those Scriptures which seem to teach the unending doom of those
unfortunate creatures who never once heard that God had a Son and skillfully avoiding
every direct statement of Scripture which indicates that God has reconciled all things to
Himself, and that every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess to God of things in
heaven and things in earth and under the earth. There is always a place of harmony if we
look for it, and it is not usually difficult to find. Otherwise we will be forced onto
that untenable ground of having to say that the Bible contradicts itself - which, of
course, it never does. Whenever you find two Scriptures that seem to set forth conflicting
views, there is always a simple explanation, and, if we will diligently inquire of the
Lord, He will give us a definite answer. Human understanding is almost always prone to
seize upon one side of a statement and will cling to that with the grip of death, refusing
to even investigate or seek the wisdom of God to harmonize the truth. Worldly wise men are
forever saying that the Bible contradicts itself.
I have never believed that by
teaching the ultimate salvation of all men we were pitting one group of Scriptures against
another, for it is my conviction that the solution can only be found in the correct
HARMONIZATION of all the Scriptures, not ignoring one group while advancing the other. I
believe I speak by the Spirit of God when I assert that the only sensible harmonization of
all the Scriptures lies in the fact that Jesus is indeed THE SAVIOUR OF ALL MEN, that He
is in very fact THE SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD, and that HE WILL HAVE ALL MEN TO BE SAVED and
come to the knowledge of the truth, DRAWING ALL MEN UNTO HIMSELF. To me this is a most
glorious and wonderful fact! I find all the judgments of God to be correctional and
disciplinary rather than vindictive and final. Therein lays the harmonization of which I
speak. This leaves us free to believe ALL of God's Word. It magnifies the cross. It
glorifies God. It honors the atonement. It gives meaning to the ministry of the Sons of
God. It gives purpose to the ages yet to come, all planned and arranged beforehand by our
wonderful Creator. Sin, judgment, and death are temporary, all to be dealt with by the
mighty power of God invested in His saints. The entire universe will be reconciled to God
through the blood of Christ's cross. God will become All-in-All. Here is a God worthy of
your worship and adoration!
Several brethren have written
or discussed this subject with me through the years, adamant against the truth I see. But
their arguments are shallow and twisted and their spirits generally harsh against men whom
God loves and for whom the Christ died, as though they wanted to make CERTAIN that
everybody gets every thing they "deserve." Their theology is lopsided,
distorted, out of balance, and it will be smashed in the end! Those who walk in that
attitude know but little of the love of Him who is at the same time the JUDGE OF ALL and
the SAVIOUR OF ALL. He is not the Judge of some and the Saviour of some, but both Judge
and Saviour of ALL! If "Judge of ALL" means that He judges all, then
"Saviour of ALL" must mean that He saves all, for the Scriptures plainly make
both statements. Within that one fact again can be seen the HARMONIZATION of the justice
and the love of God - His judgment leading to repentance and a knowledge of His mercy.
Praise His wonderful name!
It is estimated that about
one hundred and sixty billions of human beings have lived on the earth in the six thousand
years since Adam departed from
CALVINISM ANSWERS: God is
all-wise; He knew the end from the beginning; and as all His purposes shall be
accomplished, He never could have intended to save any but a few, the Church. These He
elected and fore-ordained to be eternally saved; all others were equally fore-ordained and
elected to be lost - to go to eternal torment; and they are there now, writhing in
indescribable agony, where they will ever remain, without hope.
ARMINIANISM ANSWERS: Yes, God
is love; and in bringing humanity into the world He meant them no harm - only good. But
Satan succeeded in tempting the first pair, and thus sin entered into the world, and death
by sin. And ever since, God has been doing all He can to deliver man from his enemy, even
to the giving of His Son. And though now, six thousand years after, the Gospel has reached
only a very small proportion of mankind, yet we do hope and trust that within six thousand
years more, through the energy and liberality of the Church, God will so far have remedied
the evil introduced by Satan that all then living may at least know of His love, and have
an opportunity to believe and be saved. We believe that God excuses many of them on
account of ignorance. Those who did the best they knew how will be sure of being a part of
the saved, even though they never heard of Jesus.
FUNDAMENTALISM ANSWERS: Only
those who here and now, during the fleeting years of this life, truly repent and receive
the Lord Jesus as Saviour are saved. All others have been and are and shall be eternally
lost without retrieve and go to a merciless, hopeless, hell-fire and damnation.
There is one beautiful and
undeniable truth in the Word of God. The Scriptures clearly show that there is only one
ground of salvation and that is FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST as our Redeemer and Lord. "By
grace are you saved, through faith" (Eph. 2:8). Justification by faith is the
underlying principle of the whole system of New Testament revelation. When asked,
"What must I do to be saved?" the apostles answered, "Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and you shall be saved" (Acts 16:31). "There is none other name
under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). "Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Rom. 10:13).
The apostle Paul warned of
those who would depart from the utter simplicity of this truth to preach ANOTHER WAY, and
ANOTHER GOSPEL. "I fear lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his
subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if
he that cometh preacheth ANOTHER Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive
ANOTHER Spirit, which ye have not received, or ANOTHER Gospel, which ye have not accepted,
ye might well bear with him" (II Cor. 11:3-4). ANOTHER JESUS, ANOTHER SPIRIT, ANOTHER
GOSPEL - ANOTHER W-A-Y!
Many today who claim to be
"Bible believing," "Evangelical" or "Fundamental" preach
ANOTHER GOSPEL and ANOTHER W-A-Y OF SALVATION. There are some who feel the burden of the
awful doctrine of eternal torture which they embrace, and unconsciously their souls revolt
at the ghastly conclusions to which it leads. Such ones have resorted to various
makeshifts to escape the inevitable conclusions. I will mention two or three of these. It
is said that although it is true that the great mass of the race have thus far died in
their sins, yet it does not follow that they have been lost; for if those who are
unavoidably ignorant live up to the light they have, they will be saved. These claim that
Paul teaches that IGNORANCE will save men, when he says that "The Gentiles, which
have not the law, are a law unto themselves" (Rom. 2:14). They gather from this that
the law which their conscience furnishes is sufficient to justify them. But such persons
misunderstand Paul. His argument is that the whole world is guilty before God (Rom. 3:19);
that the Gentiles, who had not the written law, were condemned, not justified, by the
light of conscience, which, whether it excused them or accused them proved that they were
unworthy sinners and thus estranged from the life of God, even as Israel who had the
written law were condemned by it; "For by the law is the knowledge of sin" (Rom.
3:20). The law given to the Israelite revealed his weakness, and was intended to show him
that he was unable to justify himself before God; for "By the deeds of the law there
shall no flesh be justified in His sight." The written law condemned the Israelite,
and the Gentiles had light enough in their conscience to condemn them; and thus every
mouth is stopped from claiming any inherent life, and all the world stands guilty before
God.
Remembering the statement of
James (2:10), that whosoever shall keep the whole law, except to offend in one point, is
guilty of all, and cannot claim any blessing promised by the Law Covenant, we realize that
indeed "there is none righteous; no, not one" (Rom. 3:10). And thus the
Scriptures close every door of hope save one, showing that not one of the condemned is
able to secure eternal life by meritorious works, and that it is equally useless to plead
ignorance as a ground of salvation. Ignorance cannot entitle anyone to the REWARD of faith
and obedience! Salvation by IGNORANCE! Indeed! ANOTHER GOSPEL! ANOTHER WAY! "For
there is none other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we M-U-S-T be saved!"
(Acts 4:12).
Many Christians, unwilling to
believe that so many billions of ignorant heathen will be eternally lost (which they have
been taught means to be sent to a place of eternal and hopeless torment), insist,
notwithstanding these Bible statements, that God will not condemn the ignorant. I admire
their liberality of heart and their appreciation of God's goodness, but urge them not to
be too hasty about discarding or ignoring the words of Scripture. God has a blessing for
all, IN A BETTER WAY THAN THROUGH IGNORANCE!
But do these erring ones act
in accordance with their stated belief? NO! Though they profess to believe that the
ignorant will be saved on account of their ignorance, they continue to send missionaries
to the heathen at the cost of thousands of valuable lives and untold millions of dollars.
If they all, or even half of them, would be saved through ignorance, it is doing them a
positive injury to send missionaries to teach them of Christ; for only about one in a
thousand believes when the missionaries go to them. If this idea be correct, it would be
much better to let them remain in ignorance; for then a much larger proportion would be
saved. Continuing the same line of argument, might we not reason that if God had left ALL
MEN in ignorance, ALL would have been saved? If so, the coming and death of Jesus were
useless, the preaching and suffering of apostles and saints were vain, and the so-called
Gospel, instead of being good news, is very bad news. Leave the heathen alone in their
darkness and ignorance and the majority will be saved by living up to the light they have.
Send them the Gospel and we know from past experience that the majority of them will
reject it and be lost. These conclusions are inevitable. You cannot escape them while you
entertain the notion of the majority of the heathen being saved by living up to the light
they have. Such reasoning is a hideous affront to the atoning sacrifice of Jesus, and a
wicked blasphemy against God and His plan of redemption. ANOTHER GOSPEL! ANOTHER W-A-Y!
Others, craftily seeking to
evade these conclusions, invent the silly myth that in some unexplained way ALL MEN HAVE
BEEN DEALT WITH BY GOD. These conniving souls presume that in some mysterious way God
reveals Himself to each and every son of Adam sometime during his life. Perhaps through
the conscience - or one dark night while the heathen is standing under the canopy of the
heavens observing the majesty of the star-studded sky - there suddenly comes that burst of
inner revelation there is a GOD! And if, in that instant, we are told, that man will seek
after God he will find Him. To which I answer: -Tommyrot! Rubbish! ANOTHER GOSPEL! ANOTHER
W-A-Y! And those who teach the lie are deceivers. Why, bless your heart, if God habitually
and consistently reveals Himself sovereignly and independently to every man who lives upon
this earth, then what need is there to print Bibles, or send missionaries, or intercede in
prayer, or preach the Gospel? You will have to tear the Bible all to pieces if you teach
such nonsense. It is blasphemy. The Word of God asks the burning question: "HOW THEN
SHALL they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And HOW SHALL they believe on Him
of whom they HAVE NOT HEARD? And HOW SHALL they hear WITHOUT A PREACHER? And HOW SHALL
they preach, EXCEPT THEY BE SENT?" (
But, I ask, how are the
heathen, or any lost men, to be justified by faith by this method since "faith comes
BY HEARING and hearing by the Word of God," and "it pleased God BY THE
FOOLISHNESS OF PREACHING to save them that believe" (Rom. 10: 17; 1 Cor. 1:21).
Nowhere in all the pages of God's blessed Book does it state that God sometime, somewhere,
somehow, reveals himself to every man during his brief life in the flesh. Show me! Here is
God's estimation of the condition of the heathen: "Wherefore remember, that you being
in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called
Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; that at that time you were without Christ, being
aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise,
having NO HOPE, and without God in the world..." (Eph. 2:11-12).
If God independently and
sovereignly reveals Himself to every man then the "Great Commission" is a
monstrous farce and should be torn out of the Bible and deposited on the garbage heap. No
need to "go into ALL THE WORLD and
preach the Gospel to EVERY CREATURE" if the Spirit deals with EVERY MAN sometime,
somewhere, somehow during his life APART FROM THE MINISTRY OF THE BODY OF CHRIST. Ah! The
argument is really the great "cop out," a silly invention of conniving deceivers
who are unwilling to face the fact that God would permit billions of men to pass through
this life without any chance of salvation, and equally unwilling to concede that God has
any plan for the salvation of those billions in the future. So - in order to consign them
an to eternal damnation they concoct this outrageous lie that God really DID give these
billions a chance, apart from the preaching of the Gospel of God's grace in Jesus Christ,
that these rejected His dealing, and have of their own free wills been damned. Such a
teaching contradicts the Word of God, making a travesty of the fact that "God has
committed unto US the word of reconciliation" and has "given to US the ministry
of reconciliation" (II Cor. 5:18-19). The fundamental flaw in the theory is that even
if a heathen looked up at the stars one beautiful night and became deeply impressed that
there must be a great God out there somewhere, such understanding in no way reveals to his
darkened heart the wonderful truth that this God HAS A SON, that His Son's name is JESUS,
that JESUS DIED FOR HIS SINS, and that ONLY BY FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST CAN A MAN BE SAVED. I
challenge anyone to prove that the vast multitudes of heathen die having REJECTED JESUS
CHRIST WHO DIED FOR THEM who was revealed to their hearts by the Holy Spirit apart from
the preaching of the Gospel. How foolish can men be! Let someone answer - if they can! Ah,
it is but ANOTHER GOSPEL! ANOTHER W-A-Y!
Another makeshift theory is
the theory of salvation by INNOCENCE. Most Christians today, including the so-called
"Fundamentalists" who claim to believe the whole unadulterated Word of God,
believe this lie. They tell us that a baby that dies in infancy, or a small child that
dies before reaching the "age of accountability," whatever that is, is alright,
automatically covered by the blood of Jesus-SAVED! This evidently becomes a SECOND WAY to
salvation, since it is apart from FAITH in Jesus Christ. "Oh," they glibly
recite, "the little child is INNOCENT, and therefore free from the guilt of any
sin." Is that so! The Scripture says otherwise. "Behold, I was shaped in
iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me" (Ps. 51:5). In this verse David was
not attempting to prove that his mother was having an adulterous affair at the time of his
conception, but states the true inner condition of his own nature from his mother's womb.
Again, "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so
death passed upon ALL MEN, for that ALL HAVE SINNED" (Rom. 5:12). "For ALL have
sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23). "For God has concluded
them ALL in unbelief, that He might have mercy upon all" (Rom. 11:32).
If even one infant is saved
without personally believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, then there IS INDEED A-N-O-T-H-E-R
W-A-Y! "He that believes shall be saved" is the unceasing and unalterable
testimony of God's Word. Some of the basic ingredients in salvation are repentance, faith,
and confession. No infant can do any of these things! "Ah," you say, then you
believe that all the little babies that have died are burning in hell!" What I am
saying is what the Bible says, that all men are BORN SINNERS, and that faith in Jesus
Christ is the ONLY WAY OF SALVATION. "As many as RECEIVED HIM, to THEM gave He
authority to become the children of God, even to them that BELIEVE on His name" (Jn.
1: 12). The child who dies goes into the loving hands of God who watches over the souls of
all men, who is the Saviour of all, and who deals with all out of His heart of infinite
love, drawing each in the perfect timing ordained by His wisdom and omniscience. WE CAN
TRUST HIM WITH THE FATE AND DESTINY OF OUR LITTLE ONES, for the Judge of all the earth
shall DO RIGHT, but He does not cancel His redemptive process for any offspring of Adam,
all must come the same route, the infant included.
The truth is, we who believe
in the faithful dealings of God AFTER DEATH are the only ones who have the answer to the
problem of the child that dies in innocence and ignorance of God and salvation. We are the
only ones who correctly harmonize the whole plan of God and the processes of redemption.
The rest contradict their own teaching that all men are born sinners, arguing rather that
all men are born saved and afterwards BECOME SINNERS, when, reaching the so-called
"age of accountability," they become guilty before God. These offer us a
SALVATION BY INNOCENCE. It would be much better to die as infants, if such were the case!
What an act of mercy the wicked old king Herod performed when in
The Bible, which is full of
the missionary spirit, does not teach that there are several ways of salvation, one way by
faith, another by works, another by ignorance, and another by innocence. Neither does it
teach the God-dishonoring doctrine of fatalism. While it shows every other door of hope
closed against the race, it throws wide open the one, only door, and proclaims that
whosoever will may enter into life; and it shows that all who do not now see or appreciate
the blessed privilege of entering shall in due time be brought to a full knowledge and
appreciation. The ONLY WAY, by which any and all of the condemned race may come to God, is
not by meritorious works, neither by ignorance, nor by innocence, but by a living faith in
the precious blood of Christ, which takes away the sin of the world (I Pet. 1:19; Jn.
1:29). This is the Gospel, the good tidings of great joy, "which shall be unto all
people."
Suppose we now look at these
things just as God tells us of them, and leave the clearing of His character to Himself.
Let us inquire, what has become of this one hundred and sixty billions of people who have
lived upon this planet? Whatever may be their present condition, it cannot be their full
reward; for Peter says, "The Lord knows how to reserve the unjust unto the day of
judgment to be punished" (II Pet. 2:9); and He will do so. But the thought that so
many of our fellow creatures should at any time be lost from lack of having had the
knowledge which is necessary to salvation would be sad indeed to all who have a spark of
love or compassion. Then, too, there are numerous Scriptures which it seems impossible to
harmonize with all this. Let us see: In the light of the past and the present as the only
opportunities, laying aside all hope through a restoration in the coming age and ages, how
shall we understand the statements, "God is love," and "God so loved the
world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not
perish" (I Din. 4:8; Din. 3:16)? Would it not seem that if God truly loved the world
so much He might have made provision, not only that believers might be saved, but that ALL
MIGHT HEAR IN ORDER TO BELIEVE?
Again, when we read,
"That was the true light that lights every man that comes into the world" (Jn.
1:9), our observation says, Not so; every man has not been enlightened; we cannot see that
our Lord has lighted more than a few of earth's billions. Even in this comparatively
enlightened day, millions of heathen give no evidence of such enlightenment; neither do
many now living on our street; neither did the Sodomites, nor multitudes of others in past
generations and ages.
We read that Jesus Christ, by
the grace of God, tasted death "for every man" (Heb. 2:9). But if He tasted
death for the one hundred and sixty billions, and from any cause that sacrifice becomes
efficacious to only five billion, was not the redemption comparatively a failure? And in
that case, is not the apostle's statement too broad? When again we read, "Behold, I
bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people" (Lk. 2:10), and
looking about us, see that it is only to a "little flock" that it has been good
tidings, and not to all people, we would be compelled to wonder whether the angels had not
over-stated the goodness and breadth of their message, and overrated the importance of the
work to be accomplished by the Christ whom they announced.
Another statement is,
"There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who
gave Himself a ransom for all" (I Tim. 2:5-6). A ransom for ALL? Then why should not
all involved have some benefit, from Christ's death? Why should not ALL come to a
knowledge of the truth that they may believe? Without the KEY, how dark, how inconsistent
these statements appear; but when we find the KEY to God's plan, these texts all declare
with one voice, "God is love." This key is found in the latter part of the text
last quoted - "Who gave Himself a ransom for all, TO BE TESTIFIED IN DUE TIME."
Ah, God has a "due time" for everything! He could have testified it to these in
their past lifetime; but since He did not, it proves that their "due time" must
be the future. For those who will be of the Church, the body of Christ, the firstfruits of
His redemption, the present is the "due time" to hear and receive; and whosoever
now has an ear to hear, let him hear and heed, and he will be blessed accordingly. Though
Jesus paid our ransom before we were born, it was not our "due time" to hear of
it for long years afterward, and only the appreciation of it, quickened by the Holy
Spirit, brought responsibility; and this, only to the extent of our ability and
appreciation. The same principle applies to all: in God's due time it will be testified to
all, and all will then have the glorious opportunity to believe and be blessed by it. The
prevailing opinion is that death ends all opportunity; but there is no Scripture which so
teaches; and all the above, and many more Scriptures, would be meaningless, or worse, if
death ends all hope for the ignorant masses of the world.
Nothing is more evident in
the Word of God than the fact that man had his beginning IN GOD. Every son of Adam, born
as he is in trespasses and sins, enters into this world shrouded by the darkness of the
carnal mind and imprisoned by the power of the carnal nature. But it was not always so!
Everything everywhere OUTSIDE OF CHRIST belongs to the realm of death, and because it
belongs to the realm of death, it likewise belongs to the realm of darkness. Before ever
man touched this dreadful realm the record states: "In the beginning WAS the Word,
and the Word WAS with God, and the Word WAS God. In Him WAS life; and the life WAS the
light of men" (Jn. 1:1,4). W-A-S! It is a wonderful fact that in Him IS life, and His
life IS the light of every man who believes, but, wonder of wonders, in that long ago
beginning Christ WAS THEN THE LIFE and His life WAS THEN THE LIGHT OF MEN. It was into
this realm OUTSIDE OF CHRIST, the realm of OUTER DARKNESS, that Adam was banished when he
partook of that strange tree of the knowledge of good and evil. There he died, as God had
warned, and we all died in him. Thus death passed upon all men, for all have sinned. Has
mankind not fully proved throughout the centuries that he is in truth the son of Adam?
Which of all God's commandments have we not broken, justifying ourselves in having done so
even as Adam seemed to do.
Oh, sweet mystery of the
ages, that a second Adam should stand upon the earth and declare, "The thief comes
not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come THAT THEY MIGHT HAVE LIFE,
and that they might have it more abundantly. For the bread of God is He which comes down
from heaven, and gives life unto the world. I am that bread of life. If any man eat of
this bread, he shall live for ever: the bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will
give for the life of the world" (Jn. 10:10; 6:33, 48,51). No greater revelation can
break upon any man's consciousness than this simple truth that there is ONLY ONE LIFE in
the universe, and that one life is JESUS CHRIST. May God make this truth real to your
heart! When a man comes to Christ the life, he comes not only to the life that IS the
light of men, but to the same life that in the beginning WAS the light of men. What we
have received in Christ's opening again of
Let me give you now a
Scripture that shows the hand of God in this and the extensive scope of both the departure
from, and the returning unto, God. I quote from Ps. 90:1-3. "Lord, You have been our
dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You
have formed the earth or the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God. YOU
TURN MAN TO DESTRUCTION; and say RETURN YOU CHILDREN OF MEN." You could never read
this word "return" here, if you had not first read that man had been
"turned" away to destruction. In this passage the word "destruction"
has this meaning in the original: A COMPLETE COLLAPSE, crumbling man to a contrite
condition.
Here is the picture: For the
magnificent purpose God had in mind He made all the provision necessary before the
foundation of the world. He made provision for a Lamb to be slain (Rev. 13:8). He made
provision for a company of people to be chosen in Christ, to be holy and without blame
before Him in love, as a firstfruit of His redemption in the earth (Eph. 1:45,10). Then He
brought into
After turning man to
destruction God then says, "RETURN TO ME, children of men." In verse four of
Psalm ninety, the writer makes the statement that in God's sight a thousand years is as a
day when it is passed. But in verse thirteen the Psalmist exclaims, "Return, O LORD,
HOW LONG?" In the beginning of the Psalm the writer is joyful in the knowledge that
though the Lord has turned man to destruction, yet God has also given the command to
return, and what if it does take a thousand years or more, it is but a day in God's sight.
But by the time the writer reaches the position of the thirteenth verse, he begins to cry
out, saying, "O Lord, HOW LONG is all this going to take? HOW LONG before our full
return to You?" A thousand years had become an unbearably long time. Surely this is
the cry from the hearts of men today! This is the crying, groaning, and travailing we find
the creation passing through in the eighth chapter of Romans, waiting for the
manifestation of the Sons of God.
There was a day when Paul,
standing in the center of the Areopagus (Mars Hill Auditorium) declared to the
philosophers of Athens, "The God who produced and formed the world and all things in
it, made from one common origin, one source all nations of men to settle on the face of
the earth, having definitely determined their allotted periods of time and the fixed
boundaries of their habitation - their settlements, lands, abodes; SO THAT THEY SHOULD
SEEK GOD, IN THE HOPE THAT THEY MIGHT FEEL AFTER HIM AND FIND HIM, although He is not far
from each one of us. For in Him we live and move and have our being; as even some of your
own poets have said, FOR WE ARE ALSO HIS OFFSPRING" (Acts 17:24-28, Amplified).
Oh, yes, He turned us to
destruction, but planted deep in the sub consciousness of every man the SECRET COMMAND to
RETURN, which is revealed in that inner desire, yearning, craving, seeking, feeling,
compulsion which is never satisfied until man does find himself home in God once more. All
the religiousness of men, from the witch doctor in the jungle to the modernist in the
pulpit in
Mankind is yet groping about
in the dense darkness of the carnal mind, knowing not that HE is standing right there in
the shadows, were their eyes opened to see. Yet He has appointed a day - Oh glorious day!
- when His light shall shine forth and the plan shall be completed as the apostle says,
"For God has allowed us to know the secret of His plan, and it is this: He purposed
long ago in His sovereign will that all human history should be consummated in Christ,
that everything that exists in Heaven or earth should find its perfection and fulfillment
in Him. In Christ we have been given an inheritance, since we were destined for this, by
the One who works out all His purposes according to the design of His own will" (Eph.
1:9-11, Phillips).
The very laws of physics and
mathematics establish with indisputable certainty the absolute inevitability of the
creation's return back to God. Psalm nineteen was long a source of amusement to Bible
critics. In speaking of the sun, the Psalmist says: "His going forth is from the end
of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat
there of' (Ps. 19:6). It was claimed that the writer of this verse, obviously believed in
the ancient notion of the sun's revolving about the earth. This charge is most unjust,
since we still use words and phrases of the same sort, simply because from our natural
viewpoint the sun does rise in the morning, move across the sky, and set in the evening.
The whole science of nautical and engineering astronomy is based on the assumption, made
purely for convenience, that the earth is the center of a great celestial sphere, moving
along the surface of which in ordered paths are the sun, moon, planets and stars. And as
far as any practical usage is concerned, this is so. On this assumption, courses can be
plotted, positions determined, and scores of other applications made.
But the words of the Psalmist
have a deeper, more scientific meaning than that. It is now concluded by the leading
astronomers that the sun, with the entire solar system, actually does move through space
at the tremendous speed of 600,000 miles per hour in such a gigantic orbit that it
requires over two million centuries to complete it, but complete it it shall, returning
again and again, as the ages roll onward, to the point of its beginning. Furthermore, it
is believed that our galaxy is also moving with respect to other galaxies. The sun's
circuit IS from one end of the heavens to the other! Who can accuse the Holy Spirit of
ignorance of modern astronomy?
The entire universe is an
infinite sphere and each galaxie, solar system, star and planet within it moves
continuously and harmoniously in circular motion; thus, all worlds and suns have circles
for their pathway. This principle has been referred to by scientists as the "law of
circularity." Science is beginning to tell us that in the highest development of
physics and mathematics the old theory of straight lines of infinite length has to be
changed and modified to satisfy all the data of electro-dynamics, light, and some of the
new electrical phenomena. There is no such thing in the universe as an absolutely straight
line of infinite length. All straight lines will be found to be portions of immense
circles. This law of circularity runs through all nature. If you were to leave planet
earth traveling steadily in one direction, the day would surely come, be it in some
distant age millions or billions of years hence, when you would arrive back at the precise
point of departure, having completed the circuit - home again! Someone has said (a
scientist) that if we were to build a telescope that could see into infinity, we would one
day be looking at the back of our heads!
This great law of circularity
by which all things in God's creation are seen to RETURN to the place of their BEGINNING,
in its spiritual significance, is expressed in Rom. 11:36: "For FROM HIM and THROUGH
HIM and TO HIM are all things - for all things originate with Him and come from Him; all
things live through Him, and all things center in and tend to CONSUMMATE AND TO END IN
HIM. To Him be glory forever! Amen" (Amplified). All manifestations of nature
discernible to the senses confirm this law of circularity. "The sun also arises, and
the sun goes down, and hastens to its place where he arose. The wind goes toward the
south, and turns about unto the north; it whirls about continually, and the wind returns
again according to his circuits. All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full;
unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again" (Eccl. 1:5-7).
Today, scientists tell us
that there is just so much water in the earth. There has always been that amount and there
always will be. We should understand that neither water, nor anything else, can be
destroyed. Its form can be changed, but it eventually will return to its original form.
The writer of Ecclesiastes tells us that water is taken from the oceans in the form of
moisture by the sun. Then the winds in their circuits carry that moisture as clouds over
the land. There through certain actions of cold and heat, according to the laws of God,
that moisture falls to the earth in the form of rain or snow or hail. Creeks and rivers
are formed that carry this water back into the oceans, thus completing the circuit or
cycle. Water may be frozen, but under the right condition it will return to water. It may
be heated and converted into steam, but the steam will eventually condense, becoming water
again. Water sinking into the ground is either evaporated, or taken up by plants and
evaporated, or perhaps finds its way to underground streams. In any event it eventually
finds its way back to the sea, and the circuit continues on, unseen, unheard, almost
unknown, but it is by the law of God.
Ray Prinzing has written,
"We have known what it is to take the downward journey, picking up the debris of the
flesh and self, until we come to the bottom, a filthy pool. But there is another river,
much more invisible, spiritualized, we might say, and that is the one which forms by the
DRAWING OF THE SON, lifting us up out of the 'dead sea' and raising us again into the
heavenlies, to bring us back to the height of the mount of God. Of this glorious river we
read, 'There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of
"What is true in the
cycles of our own life, is also true concerning God's dealings with His whole creation.
That which was turned away from Him, to run an erratic and wild course of self-will, shall
eventually come meekly and submissively back to its Source, our Creator. Thus we need this
perspective, to view from the vantage point of God's great purpose to BECOME ALL IN ALL,
for without this purpose there would be no rhyme nor reason to any unfolding event. We
often say that the 'way UP is DOWN,' bit to always have to go down, without a way up,
would bring forth a hopeless frustration that would surely end in defeat. But, in God's
law of circularity, there is a place in our going down process, God knows when and where,
we come to a curve and begin that upward way"-- end quote.
We read in Isa. 40:22,
"God sits upon the circle of the earth." While the word for "circle"
in the Hebrew denotes the sphericity of the earth, it may also indicate the cycles of
nature. These cycles are the continual goings and comings of the seasons, days, months,
years, etc., which were ordained of God in the beginning. Everything in nature moves in
cycles: winter and summer, seedtime and harvest; generation after generation, all show the
might and wisdom of God. Even electricity must have a circuit. A battery has a positive
and a negative to complete the circuit. SO IT IS WITH GODS WORK. In the spiritual
realm God is the positive, and Satan is the negative. It is therefore reasonable to
conclude that man, the highest of God's creation, came out of God, was then lowered into
the world of vanity, darkness, and death, but will return to God, thus completing the
cycle, not in part, but in full. Even Jesus came out of God, and descended into the depths
of man's fall, then arose and returned to God.
The King James version of
Rom. 11:36 begins, "For of Him..." This word "of" comes from the Greek
word "ek" literally meaning OUT OF. This clearly places God as the one Source of
all things, and hence the Amplified's beautiful rendering, "For all things originate
with Him and come from Him." Col. 1: 16 says, "For it was IN HIM that all things
were created, in heaven and on earth, things seen and things unseen, whether thrones,
dominions, rulers or authorities" (Amplified).
The law of circularity
requires that EVEN AS ALL THINGS BEGAN IN CHRIST, ALL SHALL END IN CHRIST. "I am
ALPHA and OMEGA, the beginning and the end, the first and the last," says the Lord
(Rev. 22:13). Only the glorious mind of Christ can reveal to our hearts what that means!
Through a glass darkly I can see that He was the FIRST - "before all things."
Can I also believe that HE IS THE LAST? If He is the BEGINNING, can my feeble mind dare to
comprehend what it signifies when He says that He is also the END? All that existed IN
CHRIST before the ages began, shall RETURN INTO HIM AGAIN that He may be the FIRST and the
LAST, the BEGINNING and the END. All that came out of Him, lowered into the realm of the
negative, completes its circuit and returns once more to its former estate - IN GOD! The
first Adam had power to take ALL with him into death, without their knowledge, or consent:
therefore, the second Adam, the Lord from heaven, gathers up the same number in His
redemptive work and man who came out of God shall return, that the circle may be unbroken.
To quote Ray Prinzing once
more: "When we understand the glorious truth that our God is both the Alpha and
Omega, the Beginning and the Ending, then we realize that no matter how vast the cycle and
circuit, the end is secure, for all things return unto Him again. To read only a portion
of God's Word, the facts are too few to rightly calculate the CURVE of God's plan. And
while HE does, gloriously, illumine a specific verse or sentence to speak to our hearts
for that day, we also need the full sweep of the Book to gain an overall view of His
purpose, and then understand the tremendous victory which is ours in Christ"-- end
quote.
Long millenniums ago Adam was
banished from the Paradise of God and its life-giving tree. But God has provided a way by
which His banished may return! Some glad morning, when the unfolding plan of God is
complete, all who once stood "in Adam" in the Garden will again be gathered
together and their eyes will behold with endless joy that heaven blest
Chapter
3
God
Will Have All Men Be Saved
On this earth there are more
than seven billion people! The most populous lands are China, India, and other parts of
Asia, and in spite of missionaries from the West, actually more than half of all people on
the earth have never so much as heard the ONLY NAME BY WHICH MEN MAY BE SAVED - the name
of JESUS CHRIST! For your Bible says....... "there is none other name under heaven
given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). This means that billions of
people here on this earth have lived, and died, without having known anything about God's
provision of salvation - without saving knowledge - neither having heard the only name by
which men may be saved! Now think what that means. If all unsaved are eternally lost, then
more than HALF the people who have ever lived on this earth have been consigned to eternal
hell without ever having been given so much as a chance to escape it!
What about the millions of
people living now in the modern nations of Red China where the Gospel is suppressed? Those
people did not choose to be born into these godless nations. Are they lost forever because
they never heard the true message of God's love in Christ? Is this their only day of
salvation? Are they eternally doomed when they die? Will a just God and Saviour condemn to
eternal damnation those people who died before the true Gospel was ever brought to them?
Is God about to "shut the door" of mercy in their face?
We hear much today about
evangelizing and saving the world in one generation. The preachers tell us this mission
must be accomplished before Christ can return, and it must be done in this generation. We
hear of glorious revival at home and abroad, of fresh missionary efforts in various
directions, of great Crusades attended by tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands, of
radio and television beamed by satellite to all the nations of earth, and of large sums
being devoted to these endeavors: and we get the idea that adequate efforts are being made
for the evangelization of the nations of the earth. It is estimated today that the world's
population is over seven billion, and it is a fact that considerably more than one-half -
nearly two-thirds - are still TOTALLY HEATHEN, and the remainder are mostly either
followers of Mohammed or members of those great apostate Churches whose religion is
practically a Christianized idolatry, and who can scarcely be said to hold or teach the
Gospel of Christ.
And what about the multiplied
billions who have gone before and never had any contact with the living Christ? Even if
all the people of this one generation could be saved, it would be only a infinitesimal
fraction of the people who have ever lived, and there would be no victory for God, for the
devil would still possess the vast majority of mankind. It is estimated that about one
hundred and sixty billions of human beings have lived on the earth in the six thousand
years since Adam's creation. Of these, the very broadest estimate that could be made with
reason would be that less than three billion were truly saints of God. This broad estimate
would leave the immense aggregate of one hundred and fifty seven billions
(157,000,000,000) who went to their graves without faith and hope in the only name given
under heaven or among men whereby we must be saved. Indeed, the vast majority of these
never knew or heard the name of Jesus, and could not believe in Him of whom they had not
heard. What, I ask, has become of this vast multitude, of which figures give a wholly
inadequate idea? What is, and is to be, their condition? Did God make no provision for
these, whose condition and circumstances He must have foreseen? Or did He, from the
foundation of the world, make a wretched and merciless provision for their hopeless,
eternal torment, as many of His children claim? Can you really believe that is the plan by
which the all-wise, all-merciful, loving God is working out His purpose here on earth?
WHAT IS THE TRUTH?
Paul, in I Tim. 2:1-6, gives
the answer! "I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers,
intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for ALL MEN ... for this is good and
acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; who WILL HAVE A-L-L
M-E-N TO
BE SAVED, and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one
mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave Himself a RANSOM FOR ALL, to
be testified in due time." This text is one of rare beauty. It is indeed like a
precious diamond, the effulgence of whose radiance dazzles the mind. It is a drop of pure
distilled essence, whose fragrance fills the rooms of the heart. It is a joy forevermore
and a challenge to everyone who reads it with an understanding heart. It should be
engraved upon the heart of every saint of God. There is so much depth to that text that I
am afraid that we often do not even perceive it. It is like a beautiful sky of deep rich
blue and one cannot even begin to grasp the vast depth above us. So it is with this
passage!
The few laws that Scripture
contains are rays of light revealing only small portions of God's will, much as the words
I write are parts of the thought I wish to express. He who would know the complete will of
God must look for the larger concept, discover the real objective. One main objective is
given us in our text for this study: "I exhort therefore, that ... supplications,
prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for ALL MEN ... for ... God our
Saviour ... WILL HAVE A-L-L M-E-N TO BE SAVED, and to come unto the knowledge of
the truth." The will of God is so far beyond our usual thoughts that we simply cannot
understand it unless the Spirit enlightens us. The eternal God WILL have all men to be
saved! We need to ask God to fill our minds with this great truth, by the Holy Spirit.
The light of God and His
power always go hand in hand. If I try to understand the will of God with my limited and
darkened mind, I have only my limited and feeble strength with which to participate in it.
But when I wait upon God so that through the Holy Spirit His will shines within me like a
heavenly light and I am "filled with all knowledge and spiritual understanding,"
the Spirit will with the light also give power. Note well, the most complete knowledge of
God's will, if it is acquired only by the natural mind, fails to give me the strength to
see it fulfilled. On the other hand, every revelation concerning God's will that comes to
me through the Holy Spirit strengthens me with heavenly power. So I must fervently pray,
"Lord, help me to understand how earnestly God WILLS THE SALVATION OF ALL MEN!"
May everyone who sincerely prays, "Your will be done!" receive into his own
heart this wonderful and loving will of God. Let us not deceive ourselves into thinking
that the will of God in salvation is just for a "little flock" that is to be
saved and evacuated off to heaven. His will is far more glorious than that! It is the very
nature of God, the revelation of His divine perfection, the expression of His limitless
and unfailing love. How foolish even to think of doing His will unless I have something of
this great love in my heart! Therefore, we must open our hearts and allow the love of God
for all men to be poured in by the Holy Spirit.
When we think of and seek the
will of God we should not limit ourselves to concern about our individual lives and needs,
but rather learn His will for all men and use this as a guideline for our behavior and
feelings toward them. Reread I Tim. 2:1-4 and note what we are taught - He wills "all
men to be saved." He wills "that all men should come to the knowledge of the
truth." What effect should this will of God have on us? And how must we become
participators with Him in the fulfilling of His will? First, accept what His Word teaches;
believe in His love; and leave it to God to someday fulfill all that He means. Your task
is to prayerfully accept God's will and to receive it into your heart. Believe what is
written: GOD WILLS that all men be saved. Let faith in those beautiful words take
possession of your heart; allow God's will to BECOME YOUR WILL and inspire your life. If
we accept this will of God, taking it into our hearts and making it truly ours, how will
our lives be affected? The first result will be just what Paul commands: prayers and
intercessions FOR ALL MEN. We will learn to see each man in the proper light, not the
light of who he is, what he does, or what he deserves, but in the light of God's love and
God's will for him. If God so loved miserable and unworthy creatures and so desired to
help them that He sent His Son to die for them, and if our will is one with His, we will
be inspired to love them and pray earnestly for them.
I have met a few people who
argued that when Paul states that "God will have all men to be saved" he means
that God "wishes" or "would like" for all men to be saved, and then,
of course, these folk are always quite certain that what God "wishes" or
"would like" to be really stands very little chance of ever being fulfilled. How
foolish! Oh, that God's will for the salvation of all men might be found in each one of
us! The glory of God is nothing less than this: His unfathomable love for all who are lost
and miserable, His will that they should be saved. When will Christians learn that this is
their glory, their likeness to God, to allow themselves to be filled with the loving will
of God, to let it possess them, devour them? Obedience to all the individual commandments
of God, which are expressions of His will, is merely a first step on the path to this
higher oneness with the will of God that purposes to bless and save and lift the whole
creation!
In December, 1981, I sent out
an article in which I set forth the wonderful truth of the ultimate salvation of all men.
Soon thereafter I received a letter from some precious folk who were deeply distressed by
this teaching. They raised several objections, the first of which was stated thus: If we
believe the way you are teaching, it will mean we no longer need to pray for the salvation
of our loved ones as they will be saved in the end regardless of their standing. On top of
that, all our past prayers have been in vain as the Lord will save them in the end anyhow.
On the surface that may seem to be a plausible argument; but what makes such faulty
reasoning so pathetic and tragic is that it openly contradicts the Word of God! Let me
quote again what the Lord says about this in I Tim. 2:1-6: "I exhort therefore, that,
first of all, SUPPLICATIONS, PRAYERS, INTERCESSIONS, AND GIVING OF THANKS be made for
A-L-L M-E-N ... for this is good and
acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who WILL HAVE ALL MEN TO BE SAVED, and to come
unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and
men, the Man Christ Jesus; Who gave Himself a RANSOM FOR A-L-L, to be testified (proven,
demonstrated, fulfilled) IN DUE TIME."
You will note that the
command to pray for all men is rooted in the fact that God WILL HAVE ALL MEN TO BE SAVED.
We must ever distinguish between the fact of the salvation of all and the manner in which
God brings it to pass. He condescends to work through human instrumentality. Since God
purposes to save all men, He has a PLAN, a PROCESS, and an INSTRUMENTALITY by which to
accomplish this! Part of the process is THE INTERCESSORY PRAYERS OF THE SAINTS. The men
who are to be saved are held under the power of the devil. The saints are called as God's
INSTRUMENT OF SALVATION, on behalf of lost men they engage in spiritual warfare, claiming
these men for God, binding the enemy who enslaves them, bringing deliverance to the
captives. That all men be saved is God's purpose. Intercessory prayer is part of the
process. To say that since God will save all men we need not pray for them, is to say that
God has a purpose to save them, but NO MEANS BY WHICH TO ACCOMPLISH IT. That would be like
saying that a contractor is going to build a skyscraper and, since he is going to build
it, there is no need for nails, hammers, saws, heavy equipment, plumbers, electricians,
carpenters, etc. How ridiculous! All those things are the necessary instruments and means
of ACCOMPLISHING HIS WILL AND PLANS!
The prayers of the saints!
Prayer is not a useless exercise, it is part of God's cosmic purpose. I don't pretend to
understand it, but when Jesus was going away He said, "Up until now you have asked
nothing in My name, from now on you will ask the Father in My name, and whatever you ask
the Father I will do it." Ah, we have missed the importance of prayer in the
redemptive and reconstructive and restorational purposes of God! Our prayers ARE
important! Don't ask me to explain the mystery of the apparatus, but they are important.
You'll find yourself praying, you'll find yourself desiring to pray, and that's the Holy
Spirit urging you to do what is necessary to enable things to happen the way they are
supposed to happen. There is a relationship between the decrees of God and the response of
God's people! God created all things by a Word. God SAID, "Let there be ... and it
was so." That's a CREATIVE WORD! Prayer is a participation in the creative Word of
God, speaking the new creation into existence. It's a mystery I don't fully understand,
but there are times when I have to pray, there are times when the altar of my soul is full
of clouds of holy incense as I send up to God petitions, as I decree a Word, not for
myself, but for others, and when I can't articulate them in English I send them up in an
unknown tongue. And there is that deep inner consciousness that somehow I am participating
in a great tableau and drama of history.
Through many years the spirit
of intercessory prayer has stirred within my spirit and I have been compelled to pray for
some of the most wicked, unbelieving, and treacherous men and women upon the face of God's
earth. I speak not of an occasional weak, insipid little table prayer, but of deep travail
and intense spiritual warfare on behalf of the souls of these individuals. Among those for
whom I have been moved to intercede have been world leaders such as Golda Meir, Nikita
Khrushchev, Leonid Brezhnev, and Fidel Castro. Must I now believe that my prayers shall
never be answered, and that the Omniscient and omnipotent Holy Spirit who wrought so
mightily in these supplications, failed?
My heart is emboldened by the
testimony of that great man of God, George Muller. George Muller was literally the
"man God made," and whom God used to house, feed, clothe, educate and save
thousands of orphans in
Muller has been called
"the apostle of faith." When there was a vision to be fulfilled never once did
he announce his plans in advance, nor even once did he appeal to men for help. He shut
himself up in solitude and prayed to his Father Who saw and heard in secret. George
Muller's faith was grandly rewarded, for God furnished in response to his prayers
approximately seven and a half million dollars. From a most insignificant beginning the
work grew until it became the leading supporter of missions, distributor of Bibles and
religious literature, as well as the outstanding "father of the orphans."
When George Muller arrived at
the twilight of his life God, he estimated, had answered over fifty thousand of his
prayers, many thousands of which were answered on the day he made them and often before he
arose from his knees. Some of his petitions, however, lingered across the decades. Here is
a sample of such asking: "In November, 1844, 1 began to pray for the conversion of
five individuals. I prayed every day without a single intermission, whether sick or in
health, on the land or on the sea, and whatever the pressure of my engagements might be.
Eighteen months elapsed before the first of the five was converted. I thanked God and
prayed on for the others. Five years elapsed, and then the second was converted. I thanked
God for the second, and prayed on for the other three. Day by day I continued to pray for
them, and six years passed before the third was converted. I thanked God for the three,
and went on praying for the other two. These two remain unconverted. The man to whom God
in the riches of His grace has given tens of thousands of answers to prayer in the
self-same hour of the day in which they were offered has been praying day by day for
nearly thirty-six years for the conversion of these individuals, and yet they remain
unconverted. But I hope in God, I pray on, and look yet for the answer. They are not
converted yet, but they will be. " -end quote. This was the faith that carried him
through every straitened place. He met emergencies by asking and in due time God supplied
whatever the need might be. Those prayers? you ask. In 1897, those two men, sons of a
friend of Mr. Muller's youth, were not converted, after he had entreated God on their
behalf for fifty-two years daily. But after his death God brought them into the fold! Such
was this man's triumphant faith, whatever the difficulty.
And I would add would God
that he might have prayed for the salvation of ALL MEN! He prayed for five - and they were
all saved. Praise God for that! But we are commanded to pray, supplicate, intercede, and
give thanks for all men..."for God will have all men to be saved, and to come unto
the knowledge of the truth." "Whatsoever you ask in My name, I will do it."
What awesome power! Ah, we know it works for needs, money, jobs, healing, problems,
-carnal things. But does it work for the SOULS OF MEN? Dare we ask for the salvation of
men with the same confidence that God will grant our request as when we ask for a new pair
of shoes? The Holy Spirit answers, "I exhort therefore, that, first of all,
supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for ALL MEN ... for
this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who WILL HAVE ALL MEN TO BE
SAVED... "
Those foolish people who in
their willful and petulant ignorance dare to say, "If God is going to save everyone,
why need I bother?" really do not deserve either recognition or an answer. Since my
eyes have caught a vision of the supernal glory of the will of God to save all men, and my
ears have heard the Word of the Spirit saying, "I exhort THERE FORE, that, first of
all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made FOR ALL
MEN," my heart responds with the greatest eagerness, for the greatness of His
infinite love and purpose for every man who has ever lived, sets aflame the love of God in
my heart until every breath I breathe is a fervent prayer, "YOUR WILL BE DONE! YOUR
WILL BE DONE!" This is the hope that consumes my life and all my waking hours, and
beside it all else is the grossest and lowest vanity. Stir yourself in repentance and in
prayer and in consecration, you carnal minded, blessing-seeking souls who think you shall
enjoy the glories of heaven while billions for whom the Christ died writhe in the
tormenting flames of hell, possessed by the devil forever. How narrow our prayers
sometimes can be. We pray so often for ourselves: me and my wife, my son John, we three,
no more. How broad our intercession should be! When we come before the throne of the God
whose Kingdom we represent, there must be a catholicity, a universality, about our
prayers. And to any who still think our prayers are wasted if God will save all men in the
end anyway, I now say - In my mind there could be nothing so frustrating, vain,
meaningless, vexing, and futile as to be given a ministry of intercessory prayer on behalf
of God's creation knowing that for the most part my time, effort, energy, and ministry
would end in failure as most of those I pray for will never be saved anyhow! To be
commanded to pray for all men, intercede for all men, when only a few, a mere handful
would ever be affected by that prayer could represent either utter foolishness or absolute
impotence on God's part, for the devil would win out in the end anyway, possessing for
ever the souls of those on behalf of whom we had done battle! Ah, dear ones, the salvation
of all men in no measure diminishes our responsibility to the lost; it INCREASES IT A
HUNDRED AND SIXTY BILLION FOLD! Previously I felt responsible to pray for the few I hoped
could be rescued through my effort in God; now I am responsible to pray and pray and pray,
and battle and battle and battle for the souls of all men until the battle is won and the
enemy has not even one left! It is those who believe MOST MEN WILL BE ETERNALLY LOST who
should give up their praying - not we, who have the assurance that our prayers actually
CAN and WILL be answered!
With what new and wonderful
significance does the proclamation of Jesus Christ now echo through the corridors of our
spirits as we hear the impelling words sound from His lips, "And I, if I be lifted up
from the earth, WILL DRAW A-L-L M-E-N UNTO
ME" (Jn. 12:32). This speaks not of Christ being lifted up in our daily living, or in
praise, or by preaching, but upon the cross of
Whenever there is introduced
into any revelation this "I WILL" of God, then you immediately erase the will of
man, the self-efforts of man to fulfill His will, and are brought face to face with the
sovereignty of the GRACE of God. In the face of the sovereignty of God's purpose all of
man's hostility toward or unbelief regarding what God says He will do is as nothing, for
whenever God decrees "I WILL do it," all of man's unbelief cannot deter the
sovereign operation of HIS GRACE. Man has the tremendous powers of will. Man can say
"I will," and he can say "I will not"; and when a man says "I
will not," to God, he will go down as swift as an arrow to its mark, swift as a stone
into the depths of the sea; he will sink to the deepest depths; he will be cast down to
endure the judgment of fire and brimstone until his breaking comes. Learn this, O man, and
you will know a great truth: man's will is subject to God's will! The will of God is
always the higher will. In the will of God lies the origin of all creation - its very
existence, its joys, its power, its glory. In the will of God lies the origin of
redemption - the fact of it, its power, its glory. In the will of God alone lies the
origin of the grace of God in the life of each of His children - its being, its power, its
blessedness, its glory.
The Lord Jesus Christ became
man in order to do the will of God, and also to teach us what is God's will, and how to do
it. On one occasion we read, "And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped Him,
saying, Lord, if You will, You can make me clean. And Jesus put forth His hand, and
touched him, saying, I will; be clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed"
(Mat. 8:2-3). I desire to impress upon your mind and heart, dear reader, these words, the
words of Jesus: "I will." The most important of all things is first to know
God's will, and secondly to do, the will of God. I would call your attention to the prayer
of the leper. That is a prayer which neither you nor any Christian should ever offer. It
is a wicked prayer for you to offer. It is a prayer that will be fruitless. The leper
said, "Lord, if You will, You can make me clean." That leper was ignorant. In
his case there was this excuse for him: that the Lord Jesus Christ was only unfolding His
mission, and that He had not fully revealed God's will. Ignorance of the Lord's will was
the one thing which stood in his way of getting the healing. He saw that Christ was able.
He said, "You can make me clean." But he was in doubt as to whether Christ was
willing. Therefore he said, "Lord, if You will." The Lord said, "I
WILL," and the moment He said that, there was no more "If You will" in that
man's heart.
Let me illustrate. Supposing
now that you and I are talking together on the telephone, and after some remarks you say
to me, "Bro. Eby, may I see you this morning?" You know many precious folk want
to come by and see us, about the same time sometimes, and sometimes would like to stay and
visit for a few hours, or days, and sometimes they cannot do it, because I am a very busy
man, and have an immense number of things to do. The work load is such that I must spend a
full fifty to sixty hours in my office each week with correspondence, study, writing, and
attending to many matters; then often travel out on weekends in ministry among various
groups of the Lord's people. Generally, when we have visitors, or when I go away for a few
days of meetings, I must then work OVERTIME the same number of hours in order to keep up
with those things the Lord has entrusted into my hands here. Many people do not understand
this. But you have said to me: "May I see you this morning?" and I say:
"Yes, if you will come to my house I will see you at eleven o'clock today."
Well, now, suppose you come to my house at eleven o'clock. Suppose you ring the bell at
the front door, and you say to my wife, "Bro. Eby told me that if I came he would see
me at eleven o'clock." "All right," she says, pointing, "there is the
office door; knock there." Suppose you come back down the walk near to my door, and
you lie down on the walk-way, and begin to howl like this: "Oh! Bro. Eby, if you
will, if you will, you can see me in your room. Oh! Bro. Eby! if you will." Well, I
wonder who is making all that noise, and open another door into the house, and my wife
comes, and I say, "Honey, who is out there making that noise?" "Oh, it is a
person you told to come and see you this morning, and I told him to knock at your
door." "And what did he say?" "The person said to me, 'Oh, it is so
good of Bro. Eby to invite me to come. Oh, I wish he was willing. Oh, if I only knew he
was willing.' I said, Did Bro. Eby not tell you he was willing? 'Yes, and I wish I could
believe it........ Oh, Bro. Eby, if you will, if you will," and you keep on howling
like that, and I say, "Honey, go tell the person I am willing to see him. Bring him
right in." You come up closer and begin howling again, "Oh, Bro. Eby, if you
will." "Honey, tell that person to come in at once." "He won't come
in, Dear." "Why?" "He says it is too good to be true; he won't come in
unless you go out." So I go out and say, "My dear friend, I told you to come to
my house at eleven o'clock, and I am willing to see you." "Oh, Bro. Eby, I wish
I could believe it were true. Oh, if you will, if you will."
Now, would that not be great
nonsense? But that is the way people talk to God and about God. Jesus said to the leper,
"I will - be clean." And straightway his leprosy was cleansed. In this case the
leper said, "Lord, if You will." And Jesus answered, "I will." But in
Jn. 12:32 no man is inquiring concerning the will of God. The omnipotent and sovereign
Lord and Redeemer of heaven and earth issues the wonderful and certain fiat: "I W-I-L-L DRAW
A-L-L M-E-N
UNTO ME!" When the Lord Jesus Christ says
"I will," no man on earth has any right to even question whether or not He will.
It is a wicked blasphemy to say that He will not do what He has said He will do. The WILL
OF GOD is that all men be saved. And yet I hear many Christians, and some who profess to
be walking in sonship, impiously saying, "I do not believe that God will save all
men." To which I say, It doesn't make any difference what YOU believe, your unbelief
does not make the power of God of none effect.
Jesus says, "I, if I be
lifted up from the earth, WILL DRAW ALL MEN UNTO ME!" "It does not mean
that," they argue, "it means He will draw all of the elect, or He will draw all
men who believe, or He will draw all kinds of men." "But how many does it say He
will draw?" "All men." To which I answer, "If that proclamation is not
true, if He is not strong enough, and purposeful enough, and loving enough to draw every
spirit on earth and in hell, and throughout the universe, to Himself, then He has told a
lie. If He can, but won't, then He is a mean, hard, vindictive, sadistic tyrant. And if He
can't, then He's not God" "Oh, Bro. Eby!" they cry, "that is
heresy!" "But," I say, "that is Jesus. Was He a heretic?"
"Oh, no; you do not understand, we can explain all that away, and you must not talk
like that." But they explain and I still don't understand!
Has the first Adam more power
than the second? ALL were made partakers of the sinful nature through the fall of one man
(Rom. 5:12; I Cor. 15:21-22). Adam had power to take the whole human family down with him;
even without their consent. If he being of the earth, earthy, could do this, how much more
power will the second Adam show in lifting all again, through His death and resurrection!
Jesus said, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.
" He did not say He would draw them if they decided to come, or He would draw them,
and they could come if they chose; but if He was lifted up (which He was), "I WILL
DRAW ALL UNTO ME." It is not a partial drawing, an action to be yielded to or
resisted according to the whims of the subject. It is a complete action, the subjects are
drawn irresistibly and totally. If the drawn ones merely "sensed" His drawing
but could resist, Jesus would have said, "I will cause all men to sense my drawing
power." But the wonderful words "unto Me" denote the object and the end of
the drawing. He says not, "I will draw all toward Me," but "unto Me."
A total, completed action. "I will draw all men UNTO ME" all the way!
Hallelujah! It should be clear to every thinking mind that the last Adam has more power
than the first; that the Almighty cannot fail; that He has a plan by which He will cause
ALL to come at the appointed time, praise His wonderful name!
Are you agitated over the
wayward condition of sons and daughters, or of other loved ones? THEN REST IN GOD'S
PROVISION, FOR HE HAS APPOINTED A TIME WHEN THEY, TOO, SHALL COME TO CHRIST. And if they
are not responding to the many attempts to convert them, then it is because GOD IS NOT
CALLING THEM YET. But never fear, in due time He will merely point His finger at them and
all of heaven's hosts will converge upon them to bring them to their promised and
purchased salvation. Paul Mueller relates the following story which so beautifully
documents Christ's power and ability to draw all men unto Himself: "Some years ago,
during our missionary tour in Nigeria, West Africa, we were told a fascinating story of a
people who lived on an island off the coast of Africa. These island people were in a
remote area and somewhat isolated from the mainland, but God sought to bring a significant
number of people on this island to salvation. There were no missionaries or other
Christians on the island, so the Lord gave a dream to the chief of the tribe. In the
dream, the chief was told to erect a cross and call the entire tribe to present themselves
before that cross. As the people came bowing before the cross the chief had erected in
obedience to the dream, they came without understanding of the significance of the cross.
But they came nevertheless, for it was the command of the chief. However, as they came and
bowed before that cross, they wept in repentance and their lives were changed by the power
of God. Later, a missionary came to the island. He found the people serving God as best
they knew, and he explained more fully to them the ways of the Lord" -end quote.
Beloved, when God wants to
bring a people unto Himself, He is well able to do so, even to reach out to them without
the use of human vessels, if need be. The Christ has been lifted up from the earth and now
HAS ALL POWER IN HEAVEN AND IN EARTH. In due time He will bring His redemptive process
into glorious fulfillment and consummation. If God wants to save some Russians, He is well
able to reach inside the iron curtain and take those lives unto Himself that are appointed
of the Father. If He wants any number of Chinese, He is able to apprehend them unto
salvation in spite of the iron rule of an atheistic government. There is no continent too
dark, no people too enslaved by satanic powers, no man too incorrigible but what His power
can reach them. Christ has been lifted up from the earth, and HE WILL DRAW ALL MEN UNTO
HIMSELF. You can count on it!
The purpose of God to save
all men is as unalterable as His nature of love and His character of holiness. Not only
has God stated that He will save all men, not only has God promised that He will save all
men, but God has SWORN BY AN OATH that He will save all men! This truth stands forth in
clarity in the glorious words declared openly by God Himself. In fact, when God could find
no greater, He swore an oath by Himself, vowing that every promise He had made unto the
children of men would be accomplished. What He had spoken He was well able to perform. God
is faithful, who also will do it!
What does God's Oath entail?
We are warned never to swear, or make a vow; either by heaven or by earth. For it is
better never to make a vow, than to make one, and then not be able to keep it. Great
penalty can be incurred upon our carelessly made vows and pledges. We see this in the
reckless vow made by Jephthah. In Judges 11:30-40 we read that he "vowed a vow unto
the Lord" which caused him and his daughter great pain, sorrow, and loss.
God's Oath, sworn by Himself,
is an expression of God's utter devotion to His Word, spoken in a solemn vow to His whole
creation. Let us consider only one of these unconditional promises revealed and confirmed
by God's own Oath. "Look unto Me, and BE ye SAVED, all the ends of the earth: for I
am God, and there is none else. I HAVE SWORN BY MYSELF, the word is gone out of My mouth
in righteousness, and shall not return, that UNTO ME EVERY KNEE SHALL BOW, EVERY TONGUE
SHALL SWEAR" (Isa. 45:22-23). "Wherefore God also has highly exalted Him, and
given Him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE SHOULD
BOW, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that EVERY
TONGUE SHOULD CONFESS that Jesus Christ is Lord, To THE GLORY of God the Father"
(Phil. 2:9-11). "I have sworn by Myself." The word "sworn" is from the
Hebrew SHABA meaning "to SEVEN oneself, i. e. swear, by repeating a declaration seven
times." The number seven is used in the Bible to indicate completeness and perfection
and is used as the basis for swearing to point to the sureness and sacredness of that
which was sworn. And just what has God sworn that He shall accomplish? "Unto Me EVERY
KNEE SHALL BOW, EVERY TONGUE SHALL SWEAR."
Many people who do not
believe the truth of the salvation of all men do believe the words quoted above. But they
take them entirely out of context and wretchedly distort what God has said. They feel that
this bowing of the knee and confessing unto God by every man is a sort of COMPULSORY
ADULATION rendered by beings who can't help themselves, a sort of "Heil Hitler!"
extracted under pressure from conquered subjects. Such persons believe that God will grind
His enemies into subjection, FORCING a confession of His Lordship through their clenched
teeth, just before sending the sinners and unbelievers away to eternal doom. Just what
good this would do, I do not know.
I would draw your attention
to this Oath of God as reiterated and expanded by Paul in Phil. 2:10-11. "That at the
name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things
under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, TO THE
GLORY OF GOD THE FATHER." These are not conquered subjects compelled and coerced into
bowing and confessing allegiance to a hated but almighty God. The character of the speech,
the structural form of the language used here reveals something far greater than a forced
confession! Arthur S. Way so beautifully renders these verses - "Because He stooped
so low, God uplifted Him very high, and has freely given Him The Name - The Name that is
above every name, decreeing, In the Name of Jesus shall every knee bend IN PRAYER, alike
of dwellers in heaven, on earth, in the underworld, and every tongue shall utter this
confession, Jesus the Messiah is Lord! So rendering glory to God the Father." The
Amplified Bible reads, "That at the name of Jesus every knee must bow, in heaven and
on earth and under the earth, and every tongue FRANKLY AND OPENLY CONFESS AND ACKNOWLEDGE
that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
The word translated
"bow" is KAMPTO, found in the Bible only in Paul's writings, and means TO BOW IN
WORSHIP. The meaning is clarified when we understand the Spirit that moved Paul when he
said, "For this cause I BOW my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ"
(Eph. 3:14). No compulsory adulation there! What love and worship and adoration moved Paul
to BOW low before the One whose love had completely won his heart in unmovable allegiance.
He was captivated by this altogether lovely One. Humbled by the knowledge that he was the
"chiefest of sinners," and awed by the love and mercy of the Lord, he bowed his
knees - worship and adoration freely and spontaneously flowing from every part of his
being. For the present time, such bowing, such worship, is found only in the
"firstfruits" - those whom God has apprehended and drawn to Himself in this age.
But we read of a coming day, witnessed in spirit by the beloved apostle John - "And
every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth ... heard I
saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sits upon the throne,
and unto the Lamb for ever and ever" (Rev. 5:14).
As one has written,
"All, we are told, will bow the knee. This is always a sign of fealty and worship.
Surrender to a conqueror is not indicated by bowing the knees, but by raising the hands
high above the head. In one of the darkest days of
This gives the key to God's
Oath in Isa. 45:23; "Unto Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear."
When this great Oath is fulfilled it will be found that it was only by virtue of a SAVIOUR
that every knee has bowed and every tongue confessed to God. They all bow at the name of
Jesus! "Jesus" signifies "Yahweh is salvation." Ah - it is in the name
of God THE SAVIOUR that they bow! - not in the name of God as judge, general, or dictator.
To bow in this Name can indicate but one thing, the acceptance of Him as their Saviour.
And notice now, precious friend of mine, upon the basis of God's Oath to cause every knee
to bow and every tongue to swear allegiance He commands, "Look unto Me, and BE ye
SAVED, all the ends of the earth ... I have sworn ... every knee shall bow ... every
tongue shall swear" (Isa. 45:22-23). This is not a declarative sentence. It is an
IMPERATIVE SENTENCE and carries all the weight or a command by the sovereign Lord of the
universe! God COMMANDS all to BE SAVED and then proceeds to SWEAR that He will do it, and
every knee shall bow in worship before Him, offering up the fruit of their lips, even
praise to His name. Those who suppose that it is through clenched teeth that the conquered
masses will acclaim Him as Lord completely miss the message of the above passage. But how
wonderful that God's Oath is an Oath UNTO SALVATION FOR ALL MEN!
"Unto Me every tongue
shall swear (allegiance)" (Isa. 45:23). "And every tongue shall confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Phil. 2:11). Consider now the
wonderful statement made by Paul in I Cor. 12:3, "Wherefore, I give you to
understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed: and that no
man CAN SAY JESUS IS LORD, but by the Holy Ghost." This surely makes it plain that
this is not a forced confession, but one coming through the lips of men under the
influence of the Holy Spirit. It becomes a willing acknowledgment and acclamation. This
word "confess," from the Greek EXOMOLEGEO, means "to speak out the same
thing." To give the same confession from our heart, as truth known by the Holy
Spirit. "The Spirit of Truth ... shall not speak of Himself ... He shall glorify
Me..." (Jn. 16:13-14). And filled with His Spirit, all creation shall utter only that
which glorifies God. Their confession is to the Holy Spirit's confession! The word
translated "confess" is also used to mean "praise" or
"acclaim." The same Greek word is used to express Jesus' gladness as recorded in
Mat. 11:25 and Lk. 10:21. He said, "I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and
earth..." Now according to Paul, every being IN HEAVEN, and IN EARTH, and IN THE
UNDERWORLD is to bow the knee in the same worshipful humility that characterized Paul
himself, and every tongue is to thank or praise or acclaim Christ as Lord in the glad
spirit that characterized our Lord Himself. The loving attitude of the whole universe is
to be complete and perfect. Thus all the ends of the earth shall offer their THANKSGIVING
TO HIM for His great love and salvation and inflow of life. What a THANKSGIVING DAY that
will be! Every knee on this globe, and in the heavens, and in the underworld shall confess
the Lordship of Jesus Christ. What a TESTIMONY MEETING! There has never been one like it!
Hitler will bow and say, "Jesus, You are my Lord! " Caesar and Alexander will
bow and joyfully proclaim, "Jesus, You are Lord!" Idi Amin will lovingly
testify, "I thank God for saving me - Jesus Christ is now my Lord!"
THE JUSTIFICATION OF ALL
MANKIND
Paul says in Rom. 5:19,
"For just as by one man's disobedience (failing to hear, heedlessness and
carelessness) the many were constituted sinners, so by one Man's obedience the many will
be constituted righteous - made acceptable to God, brought into right standing with
Him" (Amplified Bible). The word disobedience in this verse is from the Greek word
PARAKOE which comes from a root meaning "to mishear; neglect to hear;
inattention." It speaks of A HEARING AMISS, or a wrong hearing. The verse also speaks
of Christ's obedience, the word for obedience in Greek is HUPAKO meaning A SUBMISSIVE
HEARKENING. If obedience is a right hearing and obedient action thereto, then disobedience
is simply a wrong hearing, a hearing amiss, and then acting in kind. It means a hearing of
a voice OTHER THAN GOD'S, a LISTENING TO THE WRONG VOICE and then acting upon what is
suggested. Adam and Eve listened to the voice of a stranger, the voice of the bestial
spirit of this world, as represented by the serpent, and found that sin was at the door,
and death by sin.
It would not have been so
tragic if Adam's sin had affected himself alone, if all after him could have observed the
horrible fruit of his sin and then kept themselves from the same ravaging despair; but the
Scriptures faithfully point out the awful POWER OF DISOBEDIENCE, revealing that it was by
ONE MANS DISOBEDIENCE that "the many" (that's how the Greek says it) - ALL
- WERE MADE SINNERS! As Adam fell, we fall each one, for Adam lives yet in his progeny.
Because Adam had the principle of sin and death imposed as an actual feature of his
biological life, his descendants also have inherited a life principle which involves a
built-in death principle. The moment a child is conceived the nature of disobedience is in
him and the power of death - so that in the same moment he is conceived he is a sinner by
nature and also begins to die; he is dying ere he is born, and eventually the death
principle wins out over the life principle and he does die. And, fallen in Adam, men prove
he is in them, by walking just as he walked. Adam yet relives old Adam's life in every
unregenerated man, as Christ in us yet lives Christ's life. With all emphasis I must
declare that at the very most, the worst offender on earth, has committed a crime WHICH IS
INHERENT IN HIS OWN NATURE, and the eye of the all-seeing God sees what even we, in most
cases, cannot see, that the most wicked sinner on earth IS SIMPLY DOING THAT OVER WHICH HE
REALLY HAS NO CONTROL. People tell me that "man has a choice," but I declare to
you that when I came into this world nearly 80 years ago ADAM HAD ALREADY MADE MY CHOICE
FOR ME! God didn't ask me if I would prefer to be born a sinner or a saint, Adam answered
that question for me in the dim and distant past! Never in my life did I have a
"choice" until the blessed day when the Spirit of God came and illumined my
mind, convicting me of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, taking the things of Christ
and unveiling them to my astonished soul; then, and not until then, did I have a choice!
It did not take me long, beloved friends, to make that choice!
Until the day God intervened
and apprehended me sovereignly by His grace, I was in no way responsible for my actions,
for, try as I might, I could never have been different than I was, and neither could you.
If this is not the case then the apostle lied when he said, "And you He made alive,
when you were dead, slain by your trespasses and sins in which at one time you walked
HABITUALLY. You were following the course and fashion of this world - and were under the
sway of the tendency of this present age - following the prince of the power of the air.
You were obedient to him and UNDER HIS CONTROL, the demon spirit that still constantly
works in the SONS OF DISOBEDIENCE... who go against the purposes of God. Among these we as
well as you once lived and conducted ourselves in passions of our flesh - our behavior
governed by our corrupt and sensual nature; obeying the impulses of the flesh and the
thoughts of the mind - our cravings dictated by our senses and our dark imaginings. WE
WERE THEN BY NATURE THE CHILDREN OF WRATH ... like the rest of mankind" (Eph. 2:1-3,
Amplified).
Men have, in their blood,
been saturated with sin, with lawlessness, with nervous temperaments and diseases WHICH
HAVE BEEN THE DIRECT CAUSE OF THEIR TRANSGRESSION. God in His great mercy knows this, and
thus it is written, "And the Lord said in His heart, I will not again curse the
ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth;
neither will I again smite any more every living thing, as I have done" (Gen. 8:21).
I do not hesitate to say that all the multiplied sins upon earth today ARE THE RESULT OF
HEREDITARY WEAKNESSES - inherited from Adam! Ah, beloved, such is the unspeakable POWER OF
DISOBEDIENCE, a power beyond the scope of human imagination. I now invite you to meditate
deeply upon these inspired words penned nineteen centuries ago by the consecrated hand of
the apostle Paul. "Well then, as one man's trespass - one man's false step and
failing away - led to CONDEMNATION FOR A-L-L M-E-N, so one Man's act of righteousness
leads to ACQUITTAL AND RIGHT STANDING WITH GOD, AND LIFE FOR A-L-L M-E-N" (Rom. 5:18,
Amplified). Can we not see by these words what a mighty power there is in both obedience
and disobedience?
Two persons, two acts, and
two sentences affecting ALL MEN are brought before us in this passage. Adam's act of
disobedience and its race-wide, life-destroying result, bespeaks the universal tragedy
that has befallen all men because of Adam. Christ's act of obedience and its race-wide,
life giving result, bespeaks the glorious hope and consolation we have for ALL MEN. Is it
not strange that the negative side of this passage is usually believed without hesitation,
while the positive side is strongly denied by nearly all Christians? In order to
understand the effectiveness, the success, and the scope of the saving work of Jesus
Christ set forth in this passage, it is only necessary to believe implicitly what it
states. In the following arrangement the two parts of the passage are placed in parallel
columns as an aid in comparing them:
AS
Through one trespass. The judgment came. Upon ALL MEN. To condemnation.
EVEN SO
Through one righteous act. The free gift came. Upon ALL MEN. To justification of life.
How shall I describe the
blessing that came to my own soul when Jesus Christ revealed to me that as potent as was
the power of Adam's disobedience, mightier yet is the power contained in the OBEDIENCE OF
THE SON OF GOD. All the languages and dialects of earth do not contain words meaningful
enough to describe the immensity of the all embracing work of Jesus Christ, the Son of the
Living God. I fully expect that I will be misunderstood in these things, but I am assured
by the Lord Jesus that one day the truth of it will be common knowledge, and all
Christians and all people will be forced to acknowledge it. I suppose that all the
arguments and persuasions in the world will not convince some saints today of the
incontrovertible truth of the words under consideration: "Therefore as by the offense
of one judgment came upon ALL MEN to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the
free gift came upon ALL MEN unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience
many (Greek: "the many" - all) were made sinners, so by the obedience of one
shall many (Greek: "the many" - all)be made righteous. Moreover the law entered,
that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, GRACE DID MUCH MORE ABOUND"
(Rom. 5:18-20). The Amplified Bible renders verse 20: "But then Law came in, only to
expand and increase the trespass. But where sin increased and abounded, GRACE HAS
SURPASSED IT AND INCREASED THE MORE AND SUPERABOUNDED."
Grace did "much
more" abound. More. MUCH MORE! My deepest prayer is that God may grant understanding
to all who read these lines that you may see the wonderful significance of the word
"more." You can never comprehend the greatness of God's love, the majesty of the
glories of His Kingdom in the bright ages yet to come purpose, nor unless your spirit can
grasp this word "more." "More" is that which goes beyond the limits. A
five pound bag of apples is a set limit. I pay $5.00 for a five pound bag of red delicious
apples. But if I find that the bag actually contains six pounds of the apples, that is
more. It surpasses the limits of the $5.00. I am amazed, happy, delighted and
I feel deeply gratified someone has done MORE than required or paid for. It has a
language all its own. That language of MORE THAN is what the Bible is teaching from the
first verse in Genesis to the last verse in Revelation. That is what GOD IS AND DOES. That
is what LOVE IS AND DOES. That is what GRACE IS AND DOES. That is what SALVATION IS AND
DOES!
You see, it is as if a common
deckhand in the line of duty, during a raging storm, is swept off a great ocean liner into
the foaming sea. The rescue party goes to work fast and before long the deckhand stands on
his feet, the crowd gathered around him. He has been unconscious. He feels his clothes,
and they have been changed. He feels his head, but a new brass cord trimmed cap is upon
it. The deckhands who were his fellows stand to salute him, and in astonishment he asks
why. The captain comes to him and calls him mate and the vessel rolls on while he assumes
his newly gained place of authority next to the captain of the ship. He fell off a
deckhand, he is rescued a mate! This is the way grace works. This is the "much
more" abounding grace in Jesus Christ!
MUCH MORE! "Where sin
did abound, grace did MUCH MORE abound!" You cannot understand God nor His language
apart from it. Nor can you really fellowship deeply with the Father in prayer unless you
understand HIM as being "much more" than. Nor can you understand what His
Kingdom is, nor how it shall develop, nor His plan and purpose for the ages to come,
unless you understand what "much more" means. If your hope is merely something
for you, and the rest of the "little flock" of saints, and not "much
more," then it is not from the heart of God but is a product of self. Listen!
"The love of God is broader than the measures of man's mind; and the heart of the
Eternal is most wonderfully kind." "Much more" is something for HIM - yes,
ALL for Him! Much more means abundance - MORE THAN ENOUGH.
No one will dispute that SIN
abounded, or that it overflowed, spilling out of
But what about the other seed
that was cast into the earth, the second man, the last Adam, the OBEDIENT SON? Are we
going to credit the disobedience of Adam with having more power and authority than the
Christ? Are we going to infer that the law of sin and death has an even greater potential
than the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus? Are we going to believe that the law
of sin and death has the power and ability to stretch forth its poisonous tentacles into
every area of mankind, to the complete perversion of body, soul, and spirit, and then at
the same time draw back in unbelief at the revelation of the Word concerning the law of
the Spirit of life (more abundant) in Christ Jesus? Five times in Romans 5 does the
apostle Paul use the expression "Much more" relative to the POWER OF THE GRACE
OF GOD, IN CONTRAST TO THE SIN OF ADAM. Shall we not believe that there is a greater and
MUCH MORE potential in the redeeming grace of Christ, than there is in the law of sin and
death? Is there not a MUCH MORE effectual working of the grace of God through the last
Adam, than there was of the power of disobedience through the first Adam? In other words,
are we going to honor the power of Adam and Satan ABOVE THE REDEEMING POWER OF CHRIST?
Shall not the Christ redeem and restore every man that Adam's sin cursed, and make every
one of them better men than Adam was? Is that not what MUCH MORE means?
"But God's free gift is
not at all to be compared to the trespass. His grace is out of proportion to the fall of
man. For if many died through one man's falling away - his lapse, his offense - MUCH MORE
profusely did GOD'S GRACE and the free gift that comes through the undeserved favor of the
one Man Jesus Christ, ABOUND and OVERFLOW to and for the benefit of many" (Rom. 5:15,
Amplified). It is interesting to observe that while all Churches will acknowledge that by
one man, and his offense, death passed upon all men, yet they cannot accept the glorious
fact that MUCH MORE the grace of God shall abound unto all men. That one man's offense
could cause such devastation of the human race does not provoke an argument, for the
evidence is all around us. But when one Man, Christ Jesus, releases that GRACE, through
His obedience to the will of God, then people find it hard to believe that this shall have
the same coverage, abounding unto all men, and even MUCH MORE! Yes, there is also a MUCH
MORE to be brought into account here. For the FREE GIFT is not the same as the offense,
Paul says. For one act of disobedience brought judgment and condemnation. But by the time
the FREE GIFT came on the scene, there wasn't just one offense to take care of, but now it
must cover MANY OFFENSES and a multitude of sins. Therefore, how much greater is this free
gift, able to go beyond ALL SIN and gain the victory, until all shall receive of His life.
Our problem seems to be
simply this. We believe, oh, HOW we believe in the horrible manifestation of sin and death
in Adam, because it is a matter of history in the past, and of fact in the present. But we
reject the glorious outcome of the overwhelming grace of God in Christ because it is not
too manifest in history, nor scarcely visible in this present day. Only a few have been
affected thus far. Men will not believe until they see. But those apprehended to be the
SONS OF GOD, though unknown by the world as yet, even now are believing what they cannot
see, and indeed the whole creation groans for their manifestation, for the creation itself
also SHALL BE DELIVERED FROM THE BONDAGE OF CORRUPTION into the glorious liberty of the
children of God (Rom. 8:19-21). If the life of God is not to overflow super-abundantly to
the entire creation, then the manifestation of the Sons of God is TOTALLY WITHOUT PURPOSE,
and all the teaching and preaching about it is a great farce and a wicked hoax. I do not
hesitate to declare it.
Who has not been distressed
by the overflowing of evil and sorrow and death? But - where sin increased and abounded,
grace has surpassed it and increased the more and super abounded. In the same place where
sin and evil overflowed, grace did - do we dare to say what the Scripture says here? Will
not someone think that we are getting off into some heresy? Oh well, we will just happily
sing it out - "where sin overflowed, grace did EXCEEDINGLY-MORE-THAN-OVERFLOW!"
Where evil flooded, grace more than flooded. Grace equaled the overflow of sin, and THEN
MORE. Grace overflowed where sin did, and then became permanent floods of mercy and
redemption! If the Word of God does not teach this, then I know nothing of the Word. Oft
times we have sung the little chorus:
"His love has no limit,
His grace has no measure,
His power has no boundaries known unto man,
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus,
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again!"
The limitation of God's
mercy, if it were possible, would be the condemnation of God Himself. If there are limits
to His mercy, then the word of God, which says that "His mercy endures forever,"
is a lie. The limitation of God's mercy is a trick of the devil, to discredit God and
defeat His Gospel. The limitation of God's mercy makes the disobedience of Adam more
powerful and enduring than the OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST. I am glad for a Gospel that is
coextensive with, and GREATER THAN, the devil's work in spirit, soul and body. I am glad
for a Gospel that is not limited to a man's heartbeat, for our great High Priest is able
to save them TO THE UTTERMOST that come unto God by Him, seeing He EVER LIVES to make
intercession for them. I am glad for a Gospel that is not limited to one age, or to the
three-score-and-ten years of man's frail existence, but reaches out into the ages to come
until GOD IS ALL IN ALL. I am so glad for a Gospel which tells me that God has made a way
by which even His banished may return. The Lord Jesus, the Christ, said, "And I, if I
be lifted up from the earth, will draw" - how many? "ALL men." "ALL
MEN unto Myself!" (Jn. 12:32). If that proclamation is not true, if He is not strong
enough and gracious enough to draw every man on earth, and under the earth, and throughout
the universe, unto Himself, then He told a lie.
If you say that sin abounds
to an extent not equaled by grace, you again contradict the Word of God. If God could
eventually be defeated in the purpose for which He created man, to be an
"Habitation" for Himself, "in the Spirit," and if He were to abandon
all effort, and permit man throughout the endlessness of eternity to be possessed by the
devil, then He had better stop saying that He is God Almighty, All-wise and All-merciful.
That would be failure and proof that the devil is stronger than the Christ, that sin
exceeds grace, which we know is not true. You will have to tear your Bible all to pieces
if you teach such doctrine.
"Well then, as one man's
trespass led to condemnation for ALL MEN, so one Man's act of righteousness leads to
acquittal and right standing with God, and life FOR ALL MEN" (Rom. 5:18, Amplified).
How final, how supreme, how absolute is this word! There is no appeal from it. There is no
escaping it. There is no disregarding it. There is no discrediting it. God stands as His
own witness to this act, and all mankind will eventually be forced to accept the truth of
it and God will be glorified through it all!
"This is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation. For therefore we both labor and suffer reproach,
because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of ALL MEN, specially of those that
believe. THESE THINGS COMMAND AND TEACH" (I Tim. 4:9-11). I have suffered reproach
because I have trusted in the Living God as "the Saviour of ALL MEN, specially (in a
special way, measure) those that believe." I have been exhorted by unthinking
brethren to stop teaching it, or to at least minimize it. To do so would be a violation of
the Word of God, and rebellion against the clear command of God. "These things
COMMAND AND TEACH." This Gospel I am commanded to teach.
Some time ago a letter came
in the mail wherein the statement was made, "It hurts me to the uttermost to have
people - unsaved especially - read this or know it - as by your standing they will be all
saved someday, somehow, somewhere. So, in other words, there is no need for them to give
their life to the Lord now. They can continue their fun in this sinful world, as they will
all be saved" -end quote. It is beyond my comprehension how it could hurt anyone to
hear the lost being told that THEY WILL BE SAVED. That is exactly what we are sent to tell
them, the Gospel, the GOOD NEWS, to pray them in Christ's stead to be reconciled to God. I
therefore teach you today, as the apostle Paul has taught, and has exhorted us to teach,
that "God is the Saviour of all men." Of course we don't tell the sinner to go
out and live it up because in the end he is going to be alright!
"And the times of this
ignorance God winked at; but now COMMANDS ALL MEN EVERYWHERE TO REPENT" (Acts 17:30).
God commands all men everywhere to repent and as God's messenger I command all men
everywhere to repent. And thank God, they shall! The One who commands men to repent is the
almighty Christ of God. Have you prayed for your loved ones and friends, and then
despaired lest God should fail to reach them? Why, my dear friend, are you so sad? All
power is given unto our Lord and Saviour in heaven and in earth. At His Word rainwater and
dew become the grape-juice; tiny handfuls of grain fill autumn barns; storms die away into
calm; fish are led through the path of the sea; rills are sent among the mountains; and
stars are maintained in their courses, so that "not one fails." What God
commands shall be carried out. Do you believe it?
Think of all the wrong and
evil that was done to the Son of God during His trial and crucifixion. Things that many
Churches would have us believe would separate men from God for all eternity. There was
railing, ridicule, false accusations, mocking and blasphemies. There was defiant and utter
rejection of Jesus as the Christ of God, as King and Redeemer. ALL MANKIND was gathered
there to reject and refuse the Saviour of the world. ALL MANKIND killed the Prince of
Life. "The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against
the Lord, and against His Christ. For of a truth against Your holy child Jesus, whom You
have anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles (nations), and the people
of Israel, were gathered together" (Acts 4:26-27). But what happened? In the midst of
all the railing and ranting and cruelty, nine wonderful words are heard coming from the
Christ. He said, "Father, forgive them. They know not what they do." Here was
forgiveness to the uttermost! Here was forgiveness covering EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING! Here
was the healing of the nations. Here was the uniting of the Father and all His creation.
Here was the end of the struggle and peace was completely established between God and
mankind.
Why should He die? He had
loved men. His life had been stainless and beautiful. Why should He die? Why should He
suffer for the lies of false priests, and the malignity of petty politicians, and a
drunken, voluptuous king and a beastly, brutal procurator, a heathen, who had a good wife
that warned him not to do what he did. Why should He die? Twelve legions of angels would
have come in a moment at His command. Why should He die? He must die. It was necessary.
The High Priest was right when he said, "You know nothing at all, nor do you take
account that it is expedient for you that One Man should die for the people, and that the
whole nation perish not." It was necessary that the Lamb of God, slain from the
foundation of the world, should appear and by the sacrifice of Himself tear down every
wall of partition and unite humanity; establish His Kingdom; call out His Church from that
Kingdom; put down all rule and all authority and all power; bring unity out of diversity,
light out of darkness, life out of death, health out of disease, a new world wherein
dwells righteousness out of an old world wherein dwelt Satan and sin and disease and death
and hell. It was necessary. AND IT IS NECESSARY STILL FOR THIS WORK TO GO ON UNTIL ALL MEN
AND ALL CREATION HAS BEEN BROUGHT BACK TO GOD.
There is one verse in Paul's
letter to the Romans that seems to express all this in about as few words as can be found
anywhere in God's Word. I want to quote it and give two or three translations of it.
"For God has CONCLUDED them ALL in UNBELIEF, that He might have MERCY upon ALL"
(Rom. 11:32). The Diaglott reads, "For God SHUT UP together ALL for DISOBEDIENCE,
that He might have MERCY on ALL." Young's Literal says, "For God did SHUT UP
together the WHOLE to UNBELIEF, that to the WHOLE He might do KINDNESS." Then one
more, the Amplified Bible renders, "For God has CONSIGNED (penned up) ALL MEN to
disobedience, only that He may have MERCY on them ALL alike."
There are always those people
who object to this truth on the grounds that the preaching of universal salvation will
make Christians and unsaved careless. I can hear the unbelieving say, "If I believed
that all men were to be saved eventually, I would just go out in the world and enjoy
myself. What is the use of going through all these things we have to endure, if we're
going to be saved in the end anyway?" Such ridiculous talk only reveals the true
inner condition of the one who makes such an assertion. it shows that he has no true love
for God, but is serving Him only out of fear of going to hell, as a slave in fear of a
tyrant. If such a person had the fear of hell removed from him it is obvious that he would
promptly tell God to go to hell and then proceed to drown himself in devilish pleasures
and fleshly pursuits. I have no hesitation in saying that any man who says that if all are
going to be saved in the end we might as well eat, drink, and be merry, is a devil at
heart, and convicts himself by his own words. If the wages of sin were removed, he would
immediately go out and begin to live it up in the world, serving both the flesh and the
devil. He has no love for God at all, and is the most contemptible of hypocrites.
If your heart is that much
inclined to the world and your love for God is no greater, then you better go back into
the world. People who want to live careless will always find an excuse to be careless and
they will have to suffer the result of their carelessness both now and in the day of
judgment. The knowledge of God's gracious purpose does not make true men of God careless.
It makes them long to become a part of His will and an instrument in His plan of the ages.
We can embrace every travail in understanding, grace, and love, when we clearly see it is
working for eternal good according to His purpose which He purposed in Christ before the
ages began.
Some press the issue further
and raise the question, "If sinners hear that all will be saved eventually, won't
that cause them to relax and live more carelessly?" To which I reply, Has the
doctrine of eternal torture kept men from backsliding? Has it turned the world to God? Has
it made the streets in your city safe to walk at night? Has it kept the Christians from
growing spiritually cold, or from committing disgraceful sins? Has it prevented Churches
from becoming worldly, or sinking into apostasy? It has not! If anyone thinks to use their
service to God as a fire escape, He will not accept it. Our service must be because we
love Him. Everything He did for us was because He loved us, and He will accept nothing
less from us. "The love of Christ constrains us" (11 Cor. 5:14). He does not
want what we have; He wants us; our heart and affection. And sinners need to discover the
love of God in Christ, and be brought to truly love Him. Let us consider these things, and
cry mightily unto God to deliver our minds from all prejudice and preconceived ideas and
distorted notions, for it is possible He still has truth He has not revealed to us!
Some time ago the following
questions were presented to me. "Why preach and teach the Gospel if all are to be
saved ultimately? There is no need to witness for they will be saved someday, someway,
somewhere - right?" W-R-O-N-G! First, the Christian life is so rich and beautiful and
worthwhile that it would be the only life to live, even if there were no hereafter. Ask
those who have truly known and experienced Christ over a period of years. Was it not Dr.
A. J. Gordon who met an old crippled man on the street, and asked him why, with all his
handicap, his face was nevertheless so bright and shining? And the old man answered,
"The devil has no happy old men!"
Furthermore, God will never
save your loved ones, your neighbors, or any other person who has ever lived or who ever
shall live apart from a MEANS, an INSTRUMENT THROUGH WHICH TO REACH THEM. And WE are that
instrument! God declares to His elect in Isa. 49:6, "I will also GIVE YOU for a light
to the nations, that YOU may BE MY SALVATION unto the end of the earth." The method
by which God causes men to believe is revealed in Rom. 10:14-15. "How then shall they
call on Him in whom they have not BELIEVED? and how shall they BELIEVE in Him of whom they
have not HEARD? and how shall they HEAR without a PREACHER? and how shall they PREACH
except they be SENT?" Does the salvation of all men negate this procedure?
Ah - does the fact that God
will have all men to be saved mean that it is meaningless to WITNESS, to PREACH? A
thousand times no! "It pleased God by the foolishness of PREACHING to save them that
believe" (I Cor. 1:21). So we cannot preach less, we must not witness less, armed now
with the hope that the preaching will ultimately BEAR FRUIT we shall preach MORE THAN EVER
BEFORE, for this is one of God's MEANS of salvation! Those who should really give up
witnessing to their loved ones, and preaching to the lost are those who believe most of
them will burn for ever in hell anyway! What on earth could be more worthless,
unprofitable, vain, disturbing and disappointing than witnessing and preaching to men when
we actually believe that only a small fraction of them will ever be saved? Why bother? To
what end all the labor? The devil gets most of them in the end anyhow!
We who know that God will
have all men to be saved are really the only people on earth who have REAL PURPOSE in
ministering to the lost. Praise God! He has committed unto us the MINISTRY OF
RECONCILIATION. Now comes the word: "And all things are of God, who has reconciled us
to Himself by Jesus Christ, and has given UNTO US THE MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION; to wit,
that God was in Christ reconciling T-H-E W-O-R-L-D unto Himself, not imputing their
trespasses unto them; and has COMMITTED UNTO US THE WORD OF RECONCILIATION. Now then we
are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: WE PRAY YOU IN CHRIST'S
STEAD, BE YE RECONCILED UNTO GOD" (11 Cor. 5:18-20). The apostle shows how it is that
God was in Christ reconciling NOT THE CHURCH, NOT THE SAINTS, NOT JUST BELIEVERS, but
T-H-E W-O-R-L-D unto Himself, and now has given the MINISTRY BY WHICH THIS RECONCILIATION
IS TO BE EFFECTED ... unto us! "We pray you in Christ's stead." Not witness to
our loved ones because they will be saved anyway? Not preach to the unconverted because
they will be saved in the end? The very idea is absurd, a complete contradiction of terms!
Because God has made blessed provision for their salvation IS W-H-Y WE WITNESS! On the
contrary, to witness and witness and witness to vast numbers of people who will NEVER BE
SAVED would be an effort in futility. If I believed that nonsense, then I really might
STOP PREACHING!
Will believing that God is
the Saviour of all men do away with evangelistic fervor and zeal? Only in men who hold a
carnal knowledge of the doctrine in their intellect, but have no deep revelation of the
truth of it in their hearts. It did not affect the apostle Paul in this manner. On the
contrary it increased his fervor and zeal. Paul states it clearly and emphatically,
"For to this end we labor and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God,
who is the Saviour of all men" (I Tim. 4:10). After many years of ministry, being, by
the grace of God, an instrument of God to help a great many people in the deep spiritual,
psychical, and physical needs of their lives, I testify that I know of no greater joy on
earth than the joy of seeing people receive Christ as their own Saviour and Lord. Just ask
anyone who has led some person to the Lord, what is the greatest joy he knows. He will not
be slow in telling you. Or try it yourself!
The fact that we see and
appreciate God's great and wonderful plan for all men leaves no room in us for a dilatory,
DON'T CARE spirit. The elect of God are always conscious of their unique calling. We are
given the high honor of being "laborers together with God." Some day when the
last devil has been subjected, and the last sinner broken in humility and contrition at
the lovely feet of Jesus, we shall realize, as we may not now, just how great that honor
really is, and how much we have missed if we fail to share in this task to which the
Almighty has set His hand.
I must confess that I am
deeply grieved in my spirit when I meet these would-be Sons of God who look with contempt
upon those who still have a passion for souls and desire to see men delivered from the
power of the devil. I am aware of the fact that the hour has not yet arrived when God
shall deal with all nations, and multitudes of past generations, to bring forth His
salvation in them, but it is my deepest conviction that one of the sure marks of sonship
is THE SPIRIT OF RECONCILIATION. Why speak of our great hope of what God shall do in the
ages to come if THE SPIRIT OF THAT HOPE is not now alive in our hearts? It is not the
doctrine of reconciliation that shall change the world, but the MINISTRY OF
RECONCILIATION. The ministry of reconciliation springs from the spirit of reconciliation.
If you would not walk across
the street to see some poor soul delivered and converted by the redeeming power of Christ,
don't waste your time relating to me how you are chosen of God to help in the delivering
of the whole creation from the bondage of sin and death. The Spirit of Reconciliation must
reign within our hearts. The Ministry of Reconciliation must issue forth from our lives.
Rivers of Living Water must, even now, pour forth out of our innermost being, bringing
hope and victory and life to all who will come and drink! Amen!
Chapter
4
Man
Is A Free Moral Agent
Just What Do You Mean ... MAN
IS A FREE MORAL AGENT!
ONCE I read a story about the
so-called "free will of man," and it goes something like this. A certain infidel
was reported to have raised his hand and dared God, if there be a God, to bring it down.
Now the case was such, the story goes, that the infidel was bald, and there was a fly
buzzing around which at that very moment landed on this bald pate and tickled it, and
without hesitation down came the hand and swatted the fly. Thus God had answered the fool
according to his folly, not by a mighty act of omnipotence, but by the seemingly
insignificant weakness of a little fly. Now, this infidel's public verbal defiance of God
was prompted by a desire for fame and notoriety; this he inherited from his human nature.
Alone on an island in the middle of the ocean he would never have done such a thing. Next,
his baldness was not an act of his own will, for man does not will to be bald, with the
top of his head exposed to the elements. Then we see how God used this man's will against
itself. He willed to hold up his hand, but the tickle of the fly was far more momentous in
his life than the existence of God, and so while he willed to hold up his hand, he also
willed to swat the fly, and God, setting man's own will against itself, defeated itself.
How true is the word, "O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is
not in man that walks to direct his steps" (Jer. 10:23). You have probably heard it
said throughout all of your life, that MAN IS A FREE MORAL AGENT. Let me call attention to
the fact that the phrase "free moral agent" is not a Scriptural one, any more
than the term "rapture" is Scriptural. Free moral agency is simply a theological
expression, man-manufactured for his own convenience, and like most human inventions, and
extra-biblical terminology, is not the truth at all. But briefly let us examine these
three words: free moral agent.
1. An AGENT is an actor, one
who is able to act or perform.
2. A FREE agent is one who
can act as he pleases without any restraint of any kind placed upon him.
3. A free MORAL agent is one
who is free to act as he pleases and without any restraint on all moral issues, i.e.
questions involving the qualities of right and wrong.
I do not believe that the
Bible anywhere teaches that man is a free moral agent. That teaching is a figment of the
imagination of the harlot church system. In fact, the Bible teaches the exact opposite. It
tells us, "It is NOT of him that WILLS or of him that runs, but of GOD that shows
mercy" (Rom. 9:16). The biggest lie that ever was told in human language is that all
men are born free moral agents. They are not born free. Be honest! Ask, Is that child free
who is born in the slums; the child of a harlot and a whoremonger; a child without a name,
who grows up with the brand of shame upon his brow from the beginning; who grows up amidst
vice, and never knows virtue until it is steeped in vice? Is such a child a FREE MORAL
AGENT, free to act intelligently, as he chooses, upon all moral questions? Is that child
free who grows up amidst falsehood, and never knows what truth is until it is steeped in
lies; that never knows what honesty is until it is steeped in crime? Is that child born
free? Is that child free who is born in a communist land and in a godless home; who is
told by its government and taught by its teachers that there is no God in heaven, and
never knows even a verse of Scripture until it is steeped in unbelief and infidelity? Is
that child born free? Is he a free moral agent? It is a sham, a delusion, and a snare to
say it. It is not true. All are not born into this world as free moral agents. The truth
is much stronger than that, for the fact is, that NONE are free moral agents!
The preachers claim that when
God made man in the first place, He endowed him with freedom of will, the ability to
accept God's love or reject it, to keep God's laws or break them, and that the decision
here and now is a final choice. But our Lord says, "No man can come unto Me, except
the Father which has sent Me draw him" (Jn. 6:44). Let us think a moment of just how
free man is, how far his freedom reaches. A little observation and study will show that
man's freedom has very narrow limits. One is able to wish or desire or purpose as he
pleases, but when he comes to carry out his wish or desire or purpose, he finds that he
faces a problem. One is not free in the physical realm. Just let him try to jump off the
Earth and land on Mars, for example. One is not free in the social realm. Not every man
can marry the woman he wishes. One is not free in the economic realm. Not every person who
dreams of being a millionaire can become one, no matter how hard he tries. One is not free
in the moral and spiritual realm. He may desire with all his being to rid the world of
drunkenness and vice, of greed and hate and war, but who has yet accomplished that? Many
are not able to free even themselves from a little weed called tobacco!
Life neither begins or ends
by choice and free will. Consider the matter of your own physical birth. What did you have
to do with it, my friend? May I remind you that you were not consulted in the matter; you
were absolutely passive in it; you had nothing whatsoever to do with it. You did not have
a choice as to where or when you would be born. You had no choice as to what kind of a
home or family you would be born into. Did someone say to you, "Tell me, sir - or
would you rather be madam? Would you like to have black hair, or blond hair, or perhaps no
hair at all? Would you like to have brown eyes or blue? Would you like to have white skin,
or black, or would green, or red, or yellow suit you better? And where would you like to
live? In
Even if Adam was a free moral
agent, God is responsible for what happened in the Garden, for whatever a free moral agent
may do, He is responsible for it who made him a free moral agent. If God made man a free
moral agent, then God created within man the propensities for either good or evil which
determined his choices. If God made man a free moral agent, He knew beforehand what the
result would be, and hence is just as responsible for the consequences of the acts of that
free moral agent as He would be for the act of an irresponsible machine that He had made.
Man's free moral agency, even if it were true, would by no means clear God from the
responsibility of his acts since God is his Creator and has made him in the first place
just what he is, well knowing what the result would be. If God's will is ever thwarted,
then He is not almighty. If His will is thwarted, then His plans must be changed, and
hence He is not all-wise and immutable. If His will is never thwarted, then all things are
in accordance with His will and He is the architect of all things as they exist. If He is
all-wise and all-good, then all things, existing according to His will, must be working
toward some wise and wonderful end!
"What shall we conclude
then? Is there injustice on God's part? Certainly not! For He says to Moses, I will have
mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
So then God's gift is not a question of human will and human effort, but of God's mercy.
It depends not on ones own willingness ... but on God's having mercy on him. For the
Scripture says to Pharaoh, I have raised you up for this very purpose of displaying My
power in dealing with you, so that My name may be proclaimed the whole world over. So then
He has mercy on whomever He wills (chooses) and He hardens - makes stubborn and unyielding
of heart - whomever He wills. You will say to me, Why then does He still find fault and
blame us for sinning? For who can resist and withstand His will? But who are you, a mere
man, to criticize and contradict and answer back to God? Will what is formed say to him
that formed it, Why have you made me thus? Has the potter no right over the clay, to make
out of the same mass one vessel for beauty and distinction and honorable use, and another
for menial or ignoble and dishonorable use?" (
It is a wicked and cruel lie
to say that the unregenerated man is a "free moral agent." He is no such thing!
He is a slave. "We know that the Law is spiritual; but I am a creature of the flesh
(carnal), having been SOLD INTO SLAVERY UNDER THE CONTROL OF SIN" (Rom. 7:14,
Amplified). The unregenerate man is a slave to sin. He is a slave to Satan. He is a slave
of his own carnal mind and deceitfully wicked heart. He is a slave of his own vile
passions. How can a man who is a slave and a captive of the devil be a "free moral
agent"? Impossible! Adam sold us out. Adam gave us no choice in bringing his progeny
under the workings of iniquity. When Adam went into sin, he did not consult with any one
of us as to our desire concerning anything he did. None of us had any power or any choice
in the condition in which we entered this world. WE WERE NOT SINNERS BY CHOICE, as we have
erroneously been told. We are "born in sin, and shapened in iniquity," with the
carnal nature in us from the moment we leave the womb. Being "dead in trespasses and
sins," dead to God, dead to truth, dead to purity, dead to reality, the Adamic race
was no longer capable of making a choice or decision for salvation. How truly the apostle
wrote in Eph. 2:2-3, "And you ... were dead in trespasses and sins: wherein in time
past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the
power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience; among whom
also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the
desires of the flesh and of the mind; and WERE BY N-A-T-U-R-E THE CHILDREN OF WRATH, even
as others."
The message is clear - we
were not sinners by choice. We were sinners by NATURE! We were BORN INTO this condition,
simply because the first man, Adam, put us all into slavery to sin. We had nothing to say
about it. We did not in any way will it, consent to it, or choose it, for we were born
into it. And we were not born free moral agents. We were born slaves!
There is no fact more
self-evident than the fact of the total depravity of man, or his TOTAL INABILITY to
deliver himself from bondage to sin, and this is rooted in the fact that his human spirit
is dead from birth. Total depravity means that man in his natural state is incapable of
doing anything or desiring anything pleasing to God. Until our spirit is quickened by HIS
SPIRIT we are slaves of the flesh and the devil and are enemies to God. When man insists
that he still has a "spark" of divine good resident in his heart the Bible says,
"The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know
it?" (Jer. 17:9). When man contends that he is a free moral agent and can accept or
reject the Lord by his own volition, the Word of God contradicts him, declaring,
"There is none righteous, no not one! There is none that understands, there is
N-O-N-E THAT SEEKS after God" (Rom. 3:10-11).
Man is totally depraved in
the sense that everything about his nature is in rebellion against God. Man is loyal to
the god of darkness and loves darkness rather than The Light. His will is, therefore, not
at all "free". It is a slave to the flesh. Total depravity means that man, of
his own "free will," will NEVER MAKE A DECISION FOR CHRIST. Our blessed Lord
bluntly says, "You will not come to Me, that you might have life" (Jn. 5:40).
Why does our Lord say this? Because the will of the unregenerate man is bound by the bands
of sin and death to the god of the spiritually dead.
Total depravity means that
the natural man is completely incapable of discerning Truth. In fact, unregenerate man
thinks of the things of God as being ridiculous! "The natural man receives not the
things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him. Neither can he know them,
because they are spiritually discerned" (I Cor. 2:14). Man cannot see or know the
things which relate to the
Unregenerate men cannot
comprehend even that they should come to the Light. They are the unborn dead who know only
darkness. They are totally depraved, wholly incapable of thinking, perceiving, or doing
anything pleasing to God, UNTIL GOD SEES FIT TO GIVE THEM LIFE and understanding. Faith
follows the giving of Life. The giving of Life is by the will of God. Notice the order:
"God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love with which He loved us, even when we
were dead in sins, has made us alive together with Christ (by grace are you saved)"
(Eph. 2:4-5). Man is not saved by some mythical act of his own free will. He is saved by
grace, the divine enablement of God who first gives him Life and then imparts faith in his
heart as a free gift. Paul continues: "For by grace are you saved through faith, and
that not of yourselves; it is the Gift of God. It is not of works, lest any man should
boast" (Eph. 2:8-9).
Observe! Saving faith is the
GIFT OF GOD, NOT AN EXERCISE OF MAN'S "FREE WILL"! Man must believe, certainly,
but it is not the old deceitful and desperately wicked heart, nor the old carnal mind
which believes, but the faith graciously imparted by God as a gift is the agency of man's
believing. God has decreed that the works of the flesh shall have no part in the "so
great salvation" which He Himself provides. It is His work through the Gift of Life.
He regenerated us when we were dead in sins. Life is His Gift. Faith is His Gift. We are
saved by a faith which "is not of ourselves." We believed by the faith which GOD
GIVES, not by our own FREE WILL! Until a man has been quickened by the Holy Spirit the
word is: "Why do you not understand My speech? Even because you cannot hear My word!
You are of your father the devil" (Jn. 8:43-44). But once God quickens us by the Gift
of Life and the Gift of Faith the word is:" It is GOD who works in you both to will
and to do of His good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13).
Wise men standing by the
grave of Lazarus might pronounce it an evidence of insanity when the Lord addressed a dead
man with the words, "Lazarus, Come forth." Ah! but He who thus spoke was and is
Himself the Resurrection, and the Life, and at HIS word even the dead live! Just as
Lazarus would never have heard the voice of Jesus, nor would he have ever "come to
Jesus," without first being given Life by our Lord, so all men "dead in
trespasses and sins," must-first be given Life by God before they can "come to
Christ." Since dead men cannot will to receive Life, but can be raised from the dead
only by the power of God, so the natural man cannot of his own mythical "free
will," will to have eternal life (Jn. 10:26-28). He must be given God's gift of
saving faith. If Jesus had had no more than an "invitation" for Lazarus to
receive Life, He could have knocked at that tombstone door for a long time. But Christ
spoke the Life-giving Word and that Word brought Lazarus to life and caused his heart to
begin to beat and his lungs to work, and Lazarus heard the voice of his Master and
received the faith to arise and walk out of the darkness of that tomb of death.
The natural man is a third
rate power. He is not able to resist Satan because his will is inferior to the will of the
devil. Paul says that those who oppose the ministers of God's truth are in the snare of
the devil and "are taken captive by him at his will" (II Tim. 2:26). How can the
devil ensnare the lost "at his will"? For the simple reason that man, without
the Holy Spirit, is an inferior power who cannot resist the devil but walks
"according to the course of this world, according to the Prince of the power of the
air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience" (Eph. 2:2). And
consequently, Jesus says, "NO MAN CAN COME TO ME, except the Father which has sent Me
draw him" (Jn. 6:44). A plain example of this is the business woman named
As someone has said,
"Here is a man that is dead, lying in a casket in the ground. What will you do to
raise him? Will you bring your flute and play a sweet melody to woo him out of the grave?
Perhaps a great thunderstorm could come and the lightning could strike around him and the
thunder could shake the earth and boom and crash with its mighty voice. But neither the
sweet music of the flute nor the mighty thundering above would have any effect whatsoever
on the dead in their graves. They hear not; neither do they know. Nor, can the thundering
of the Law or the sweet music of the Gospel have any effect on the mind and soul that is
dead in sin. It needs one thing. It needs to be made alive! By a POWER BEYOND ITSELF! 'You
has He made alive that were dead.' " Therefore, until God first of all comes with His
grace and MAKES MEN ALIVE, there is nothing that man can do. Only GOD can raise the dead!
True, God requires repentance and faith that we might be saved. But, praise His name, that
which He requires, He also freely gives, that the whole thing may be of grace. Yet
Christendom insists on a doctrine of man being a "free moral agent," even though
the Word of God exposes this as being utterly false in every degree. Most emphatically do
I declare: We are NOT free moral agents! "The creature was made subject to vanity,
NOT WILLINGLY, but by reason of HIM WHO HAS SUBJECTED the same in hope" (Rom. 8:20).
Strange as it may seem there
are many today who insist that they believe in salvation by grace, yet they insist that
man has the power to "make a decision for Christ." They argue that "God
loves everyone, equally and alike," yet they are sure that He is going to send some
people to hell for ever. They affirm that the Bible teaches that the Creator of all things
is surely omnipotent, but they are also quite confident that finite man is fully capable
of obstructing the will of God. In nearly every case the problem lies in the fact that
these dear people do not know Bible truth. They have heard nothing from their pulpits but
"plan of salvation" sermons minus the wonderful truths which make up the plan!
If they were asked to explain the meaning of such doctrines as redemption, propitiation,
reconciliation, remission, and atonement, they would either mutter trivia or be absolutely
speechless. Why? Because they have never been taught, nor have they had the spiritual
vigor necessary to discover for themselves, what Scripture actually teaches about the work
of Christ. There is one thing they hold in common: the confidence that man can use his own
"positive volition" or "free will" to accept Christ and get himself
"saved."
More than a century ago a
great man of God, A. P. Adams, penned the following: "I wish to add a word further in
regard to the salvation of all men, suggested by the following extract which I clip from
one of my exchanges. The extract is as follows: The Rev. B. W. Ward, the popular
"In this extract it will
be seen that the salvation of the individual is made to depend upon his own decision. THE
SINNER MUST DECIDE, and as he decides so will his future destiny be to all eternity. Thus
one's salvation is practically made to depend on one's self. God and Christ have done, or
are doing their part, and now they simply wait for the sinner's decision. By the way, how
long did God wait for the 'decision' of Saul of Tarsus when 'it pleased God to call him?'
Most people, however, would accept the above extract as a correct presentation of the
case, and would assent thereto without any hesitation. But there is a fatal defect in the
illustration. The case of the one choosing the knife is NOT PARALLEL TO THAT OF THE SINNER
CHOOSING SALVATION, because the former has his EYES WIDE OPEN and knows full well the
value of what is presented to him for his choice, while the LATTER IS BLINDED, and knows
not what he does. 'But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the
god of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the
glorious gospel of Christ ... should shine unto them' (11 II Cor. 4:3-4).
"The Bible plainly
teaches that fallen man is blinded to the truth; the soulish man receives not the things
of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because
they are spiritually discerned, and the soulish man has not the Spirit. Thus the sinner
does not realize and appreciate the value of the salvation that is offered to him. In the
first place, he does not know that he is lost, and hence feels no need of salvation.
Secondly, this sinner does not know that the salvation offered him in Christ is worth
anything. All he has to go by in determining its worth is the lives of those who profess
to possess it, and they for the most part, are very deficient illustrations of its merit.
Furthermore the sinner is surrounded by circumstances entirely adverse to his acceptance
of Christ. And finally, worse than all, 'the mind of the flesh,' a corrupt nature, an
'evil heart of unbelief,' a 'body of death,' that leans toward the bad and opposes the
good continually; and mark you, all these things are circumstances over which the
individual has no control and for which he is not to blame.
"Again, mark you, that
if he overcomes these unfavorable circumstances and in spite of them does accept Christ,
it must be by some power OUTSIDE OF HIMSELF, for in himself he would never have any power
for his own deliverance. This is the teaching of the seventh chapter of Romans. God must
deliver him if he is delivered at all! He must bring him to a knowledge of his lost
condition, so that he will feel his need of a Saviour, and He must give him repentance and
faith. God must open his eyes so that he shall not only see the need, but also the
priceless value of salvation, that like the apostle Paul, he will be willing to count all
thing but dross for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord.
"And he must be endowed
with power to overcome the evil around and within him. All this help must come from God,
and must be imparted to the sinner before he can make the slightest movement toward
salvation. Are there any such elements as these in the case of the man choosing the knife?
Is it not plain that that illustration and the case of the sinner are NOT PARALLEL at all?
And yet just such illustrations are constantly presented as setting forth exactly the case
of the sinner in 'his' choice or rejection of salvation in Christ! The fact is there are
many factors to be taken into account in the regeneration and new creation of a human
being. It is no such small matter as picking up a little present that a friend passes over
to you. Hence these illustrations are very faulty and misleading" -end quote.
When addressing the unsaved,
an evangelist often drew an analogy between God's sending of the Gospel to the sinner, and
a sick man in bed, with some healing medicine on a table by his side: all he needs to do
is reach forth his hand and take it. But in order for this illustration to be in any wise
true to the picture which Scripture gives us of the fallen and depraved sinner, the sick
man in bed must be described as one who is blind (Eph. 4:18) so that he cannot see the
medicine, his hand paralyzed (Rom. 5:6) so that he is unable to reach forth for it, and
his heart not only devoid of all confidence in the medicine but filled with hatred against
the physician himself (Jn. 15:18). Oh, what superficial views of man's desperate plight
are not entertained! Christ came here not to help those who were willing to help
themselves, or even those willing to be helped, but to do for people what they were
incapable of doing for themselves: "To open the blind eyes, to bring out the
prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house"
(Isa. 42:7).
Someone will ask, "Will
God save men eventually against their will?" The answer is no! He will have no need
to do that, for all men will be one hundred percent willing when God reveals Himself to
them. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped,
and the doors of the prison house shall be opened. We have only to consider the case of
Saul of Tarsus to understand the miraculous power of the Lord to change the leopard's
spots and melt the heart of stone. There are those who suppose that God could not convert
a soul unless that depraved and lost soul gives to almighty God that permission. I only
wish they would ask the apostle Paul, that great despiser of Christ and hater of His
Church, that persecutor of Christians, who while on his way to
There is an overwhelming
desire in my heart that God's precious people might know that GOD IS GOD, glorious in
power, fearful in praises, DOING WONDERS. I long with a great longing that His people will
repent of ever having believed the insipid and useless traditions that make the almighty
God seem to be a victim of the will of His own creation. It is my opinion that most of the
theology of the church system is stupid prattle that seeks to render the almighty God
impotent by robbing Him of His omnipotence. It teaches that God gave His Son that all the
world through Him might be saved and then renders His sacrifice hopeless by leaving
ninety-nine percent of all His creatures in the hands of the devil for all eternity. Such
a doctrine as that belittles the power and wisdom of God and does despite to the Spirit of
grace, the atoning work of Christ, and the precious blood that He shed so that the world
through Him might be saved. Such a doctrine as that is, undoubtedly, one of the
"doctrines of devils" of which Paul warned. I say that because I cannot think of
anyone outside of the devil himself who would be happy with the prospect that
My dear friend and brother
Elwin Roach has given a striking illustration of the ludicrousness of the popular
teachings concerning mans free will and Gods judgments. He writes,
I recall having written quite a number of years ago a scenario of a very wealthy
family man who was the mayor of his village as well as the judge whose brother was the
chief constable. He was honorable, the pillar in the city who was loved by all. He was
generous to a fault, giving freely to anyone who was in need. He was one who would
sacrifice and do without so others would be blessed. His generosity went to the extreme at
times, so much so, that he deprived his own children in order for complete strangers to
eat and have a roof over their heads. He was a man that everyone admired, even worshiped
by some. A few did, however, fear him because they knew he was a very strict man of
matchless authority. It was a side of him that no one should cross; for rumors had it that
not only was this philanthropist a man of love and ultimate sacrifice for others, but that
he had a vindictive side as well, so do not, and I repeat, do not cross him! If you
should, it would be hell to pay
f-o-r-e-v-e-r! He would never forgive and certainly
would never forget.
The story goes that he
was having guests over for a special dinner to celebrate the awards he had received for
his humanitarian services to the poor of his community as well as his humanitarian work
throughout the world. There was no end to his love and giving. Wherever there were people
hurting, he tried to be there to help relieve their suffering.
After dining on the
finest of cuisines and during the celebration, a young man noticed a door at the end of a
long, dimly lit hallway. The door was of old, tattered wood with huge iron hinges and a
latch that seemed would take a little effort to life it. The décor of the door was out of
place in such a beautiful mansion; but there it stood for all to see, almost as if this
wonderful man wanted peoples eye to be drawn to it. He asked a few around him to
where did that door lead. Some had no clue, while a few who had known about this man of
honor for a long time, said, Stay out of there. Dont get close to that door.
It leads to a place you dont want to go. Be warned!
After his curiosity
could no longer be contained, he cautiously slipped down the hallway toward the door
without anyone noticing. The latch was not nearly as hard to lift as it looked, and the
door swung open with ease. It led down a dimly lit, foreboding staircase, and to his
horror, utter shock, he saw the most heinous torture chambers he could have imagined.
There were torture racks, beds of needle sharp spikes, red-hot iron rods resting in beds
of live coals of fire, and horrific implements that staggers the mind. To this young
mans amazement were three of the honorable mans children who seemed to be from
around 17 years old to perhaps 29 or 30. But the worst part was their remorseful groans.
It was so horrible that he thought that he must be asleep and was having a terrible
nightmare; but if it was, he was not able to wake up.
These poor kids were
being tortured day in and day out by hired thugs who delighted in what they were doing.
They were so demented that it was all a big game to them. It would have been merciful if
they could die; but these bottom of the barrel hirelings made sure they did not torture
unto death, and gave the bare minimum of food and water to keep them alive, but never
enough to satisfy their hunger and thirst.
The man in his horror,
screamed out, What in your loving fathers name are you doing here? Does he
know about this? The answers were all the same: Yes, he knows we are here. He
put us here. Not thinking he could be serious we all ignored his warnings after we became
of age and could make our own decisions. He told us that after becoming of age, if we
chose to live the way we wanted to rather than what was required of us, that he would
throw us into this cellar to be punished for the rest of our lives. He loved us so much
that we could not believe he would carry through with it, even to the point of not letting
us soon die so the torment would end. If only we had taken heed to our loving
fathers demands and chose his ways rather than those of out youthful temptations, we
would be upstairs being enraptured by the festivities that everyone else is enjoying. But
it is too late, so late, eternally too late. Oh, father, I wish we had a second chance;
but like you warned, that will never be.
His heart was being
torn out by what he was seeing and was told by the mans children, as his attention
was drawn to the awful screams of one of the servants. He asked what was her offense that
caused her to be imprisoned here and tortured? I was caught lying about my
coworkers, and I didnt repent and confess my sin before the end of the week, the
deadline I was given. It came and was gone before I had a change of heart. Now it is too
late, too late, forever too late. Another servant sorrowfully told him that he was
sentenced to this fate for stealing and drinking several bottles of his masters best wine.
He said, I was told that this would be the punishment for stealing and drinking unto
drunkenness. I should have known better, but temptation got the best of me, and now I will
always be paying for the debt that can never be paid.
In this scenario, after
witnessing such a surreal nightmare, we can see him slowly climbing the stairs back to the
party where everyone is rejoicing and praising their wonderful host for his unprecedented
love and generosity for all who were meritoriously invited to his banquet. But the stunned
man cannot reconcile what he had just seen in that horrid torture chamber with what the
host of honor was ravishing upon his guests in paradise made especially for them.
After a few moments,
that seem like an eternity had past, the man could not refrain from questioning his
benevolent host. How could it be, Sir, that you lavished such love upon everyone
here; but you are having your own children and servants tortured in the basement
below? Without hesitation, and showing no emotion, he said, First, it is
beyond me that you would question a man of my stature, the mayor, the judge, the one who
has made this town and provided jobs for everyone who lives here. Nonetheless, I will put
your concerns to rest. You see, I taught my children, as well as my servants, throughout
their earlier childhood about rewards and punishments. Of course, to be fair, I gave them
a sacred free-will that I would never trespass. They could choose to obey the rules I
established for my household, or they could choose to disobey, and they knew the
consequences. If they had obeyed, I would have rewarded them beyond measure. They would be
here with the rest of us if they had been obedient; but if they freely chose to disobey
and live frivolously. They knew their punishment would be without measure, and for the
rest of their lives. They knew what was facing them, and still, they went astray. So, I
had no choice, especially since I had given my irrevocable word of what would happen. I
didnt want to do this, but they made me! They forced my hand! Now, do you
understand?
We know that no one in
their right mind could understand or accept such an atrocity. Only on rare instances do
evil people hold others in captivity and torture them, and those who do are labeled as
demented, diabolical fiends. Yet, so many in the world of most religions say that our God,
the Father of all, is that way.
Some of you might feel
that the above scenario is a bit harsh and unrealistic; but this is a very accurate
example of what has been formed in the minds people over the centuries. end
quote
In Luke 15:4 we read,
"What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, does not leave the
ninety and nine in the wilderness and go after that which is lost UNTIL HE FIND IT?"
In this passage we find that at the end of the day, the shepherd finds that he is just one
little sheep short of completeness. There is only one outside - so why bother to go after
that one, for perhaps that one is one of the rebellious ones anyway and will not choose to
come back!
But the Shepherd we are
dealing with in this story is not an ordinary shepherd. This is the Great and Good
Shepherd of the sheep and nothing will stop Him or prevent Him from finding that last
sheep. This Shepherd will not be content with even an extraordinary effort to find the
sheep and then give up, feeling that He has done His duty. Neither does He
"call" the sheep, and then wait to see if the sheep decides to come, and if not,
just leave him there in his lost condition to die. This Shepherd searches UNTIL HE FINDS.
And the FINDING of this Shepherd is not only the locating of the sheep, but it also
includes the bringing back into the fold of that sheep.
If you know anything at all
about sheep, you know that a sheep is helpless to find its way back to the rest of the
flock. Not only that, but it becomes subject to every danger that is near to it, yet it
never recognizes that danger. This is exactly the condition of mankind today. Mankind,
being dead in trespasses and sins and in rebellion against God, does not know how to get
to God. In fact much of humanity does not even think of getting to God. They have come to
the point where they are quite satisfied with their condition just as the sheep is
satisfied with its condition as it feeds, knowing not that it is lost. Mankind does not
know the way back to God. Mankind must wait until IT IS FOUND. He does not even know he is
lost. How will the lost ever come to God of himself, of his own "free will"? If
he were able to come HE WOULD NOT BE LOST. Men do not even know they are lost, or where
they are going. Ah, the Shepherd must find the sheep, and not the sheep find the Shepherd!
And Jesus said the Shepherd would seek until. Jesus said He came to seek and to save those
lost ones. Not the lost ones seek God but GOD SEEK THE LOST!
Most of the religious
teaching today would have us believe that Christ has done all He can for the sinner, so He
has now gone back to His heaven and is seated upon His golden throne waiting for all who
will to be saved. According to this thinking, God through Jesus has done all He can
possibly do and has now left the work of saving souls to the Church, hoping that some, at
least, will be persuaded to accept the Saviour. The Church must go out and contact all the
sinners they can and see if they cannot get them to "accept Christ." But, of
course, if the sinner does not want to be saved, then even God in all His power cannot
intervene and nothing is left but eternal hell fire and damnation for that sinner. But
just what does this line of reasoning reveal? The tragedy of it is that it shows us
nothing but a POWERFUL MANKIND and a WEAK GOD!
Another thing this line of
teaching suggests is that God, having finished the work of redemption, then turns it all
over to a rather carnal Church that does not truly know God, does not even understand
God's great plan of the ages, and cares far more about making proselytes to a denomination
than in bringing people into a living relationship with Jesus Christ. The average Church
today cares more about its programs, its missionary efforts, its buildings, its committee
meetings and its budget than it does about making known to the world the glad news that
God has reconciled the whole world to Himself and He shall not rest until every heart has
surrendered and the very last sheep has been carried back to the fold. Nothing stops or
hinders this Shepherd, for if He did fail in this effort, He could never rest knowing that
one of His sheep was lost and eternally destroyed. He does not send anyone else or leave
it to the sheep to find its way back. HE HIMSELF GOES UNTIL HE FINDS.
Let us have these things
right and straight in our minds. Let us see these things correctly. Nothing is left in any
way to chance. The Shepherd sends no one out to look for the sheep, but goes Himself.
Granted, HE GOES THROUGH HIS BODY, but He is not sitting idly by to see what will happen.
His mission goes on until it is one hundred percent successful and the LAST ONE is found.
Nothing will stop the work of the Shepherd until that last sheep is made to correctly know
the Shepherd, who He is, and His great love for him. The Shepherd DOES SEEK until He finds
the last one, no matter how long it takes or to what depths He must search!
Someone will ask, "But
doesn't God command sinners to CHOOSE this day whom they will serve and to SEEK the Lord
while He may be found?" ABSOLUTELY NOT! Oh, yes, the Scripture does say, "And if
it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, CHOOSE YOU THIS DAY WHOM YOU WILL SERVE; whether
the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the god of
the Amorites, in whose land you dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the
Lord" (Jos. 24:15). But those words were never spoken to the unsaved man, without God
and without hope in the world; these were the words of God's prophet to
And yes, the Scripture does
say, "SEEK ye THE LORD WHILE HE MAY BE FOUND, call upon Him while He is near: let the
wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the
Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon"
(Isa. 55:6-7). But again, these words were never addressed to the sinner who never had a
relationship with the Lord. They were thundered by the prophet Isaiah to GOD'S BACKSLIDING
PEOPLE in a time of spiritual declension and apostasy. It is God's own people who must
"seek" the Lord, not the man who is lost and cannot find his way. Thus it is
that Jesus said, "For the Son of man is come to SEEK AND TO SAVE THAT WHICH WAS
LOST" (Lk. 19:10). It is the Lord's people who are called upon to "choose"
between Him and the ways of the flesh, the world, and the devil, not the man who is dead,
for "the dead know not anything" (Eccl. 9:5), and are totally incapable of
choosing anything but sin.
The popular Churches
ridiculously assert that spiritually dead men must somehow "choose" the Lord,
but God's testimony about it is just the opposite. The bluntest affirmation that man does
not do the choosing of God is that our Lord Jesus Christ Himself testified, "You have
not chosen Me, but I HAVE CHOSEN YOU" (Jn. 15:16). In fact, according to Paul, that
choice was made by God before He ever made so much as one single thing! "According as
HE HAS CHOSEN US in Christ before the foundation of the world" (Eph. 1:4). It is
tantamount to blasphemy for anyone to argue that man is capable, of his own "free
will," to make a decision for Christ. Note the testimony of Luke: "And when the
Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the Word of the Lord; and as many as
were ordained to eternal life, believed" (Acts 13:48). The Lord Jesus insists that
Life and Faith are the work of God, not the work of man. He said....... the Son
gives life to whom He will" and "this is the work of God, that you believe on
Him whom God has sent" (Jn. 6:29; 5:21). In all fairness, the evangelist who says to
the crowd, "Whosoever comes to Jesus will in no wise be cast out," should add
the preceding words of Christ: "All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me"
(Jn. 6:37). Who is it that will not be cast out? All who come to Him! Who, then, will come
to the Saviour? He says, "All whom the Father gives Me." The choice as to who
will come to Christ at any given moment is God's, not man's. God does not call all men at
the same time. Some are ordained to eternal life, right now, while others will be called
later. "For as in Adam ALL DIE, even so in Christ shall ALL BE MADE ALIVE. BUT EVERY
MAN IN HIS OWN ORDER..." (I Cor. 15:22-23).
If it were left up to man he
would NEVER BELIEVE, for man is totally depraved, totally incapable of that which is good.
Left on his own to make a decision for Christ, without first being given life and faith by
an act of God, man would never of his own "free will" come to Jesus. "You
will not come to Me, that you might have life" (Jn. 5:40).
'Tis not I that did choose
You. For, Lord, that could not be:
This heart would still refuse You, Had You not chosen me!
In the true and eloquent
words of another, "Let me interject a foundational truth here. It is a truth seldom,
if ever, heard among the people of God. The preachers and evangelists studiously avoid it,
but it is fundamental to all our understanding of the work of God in this present age. It
is a truth given by no less an authority than God's only begotten Son. The following three
Scriptures vividly point out God's method of choosing those who are elected to be saved in
this age and in the ages to come: First, 'No man can come to Me except the Father which
has sent Me draw him' (Jn. 6:44). The second is this: 'All that the Father gives Me shall
come to Me; and him that comes unto Me I will in no wise cast out' (Jn. 6:37). And the
third is: 'Father, the hour is come; glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You:
as You have given Him power (authority) over all flesh, that He should give eternal life
to as many (all flesh) as You have given Him' (Jn. 17:1-2). Christians blindly strive
under the mistaken idea that, if they will only meet certain conditions, God will reply by
bringing every man into the fold of Christ in this present age. My friend, this is a very
great error. It is about as far from the truth as anything could possibly be. God does not
intend to bring all men into the fold now. If that were His intention, He could do it with
but one word of His omnipotence. When God's eternal voice speaks, saying, 'Let there be
fight,' then light immediately floods the universe as it did in the beginning. There is no
need for a candle nor the light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. That light
could not be matched by ten thousand suns, for the light that shone out of darkness in the
beginning is the same light that lightens every man that comes into the world. It is the
light that shines into the benighted souls, bringing the life of the ages to men who are
sleeping in death. 'Lazarus, come forth!' called the Lord, and a dead man sprang from his
tomb to reply. 'Saul! Saul!' Jesus called to a disconsolate and determined persecutor, and
he quickly replied, 'Lord, what wilt You have me to do?' And so will it be when He calls
you, your child, your husband, or your wife with His still small voice, speaking to the
inner ear. Whether it be John, George, Henry, Joan, Phyllis, or Louise, all will fall at
His feet in penitence and brokenness the moment He speaks, crying, 'Here am I, Lord! What
wilt You have me to do?'
"It is useless to try to
gather all the world into the Kingdom in this dispensation, for that is not God's purpose
in this age. No man comes except the Father draw him. Those who insist on bringing all the
world in now are trying to do in this age the work that God Himself has said should be
done in the dispensation of the fullness of times. In the dispensation of the fullness of
times, His immutable Word has declared, He will gather all things into Christ, both which
are in heaven and in earth, even in Him (Eph. 1:10). 'ALL that the Father has given Me
SHALL COME to Me,' said Jesus, and you may be sure that this is the truth. At the end of
this age there will not be one soul missing of all that number of the 'firstfruits' who
were predestined to come to Him, and, when the age to come has run its course, there will
not be one missing of all who are appointed to come to Him in that blessed age. So also
may we declare for that wonderful AGE OF THE AGES, the dispensation of the fullness of the
times, for God's Word has faithfully declared that in that glorious age of all ages every
missing sheep will be accounted for as God gathers together in one the all things into
Christ " -end quote.
Some have tried to say that
in Eph. 1:10 the things gathered into one in the Christ are limited to those things
already in Christ, that is, that it is all things that are "in Christ" that are
gathered "into one." That is a mistake that those who oppose the ultimate
salvation of all men are only too eager to make, and the error comes from a faulty
understanding of what is actually said due to the wording in the King James version. ALL
OTHER VERSIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES CLEARLY SHOW THAT SUCH IS NOT THE CASE. It is not
"all things in Christ" that are gathered "into one." It is ALL THINGS
IN HEAVEN AND IN EARTH GATHERED INTO ONENESS IN AND UNDER THE CHRIST. The Amplified Bible
says, "He planned for the maturity of the times and the climax of the ages to UNIFY
ALL THINGS and head them up and CONSUMMATE THEM IN CHRIST, both things in heaven and
things on earth." The Moffatt translation reads, "It was the purpose of His
design to so order it in the fullness of the ages that ALL THINGS IN HEAVEN AND EARTH
alike should be gathered up in Christ." J. B. Phillips renders, "He purposed
long ago in His sovereign will that all human history should be consummated in Christ,
that everything that exists in heaven or earth should find its perfection and fulfillment
in Him." We could go on from version to version and they all with one voice show that
in the dispensation of the fullness of times God shall gather together into one, into the
Christ, ALL THINGS AND ALL BEINGS IN HEAVEN AND IN EARTH. From age to age, those that the
Father has given the Christ in each age, will come to Him, praise His name. When the last
and crowning age is ended ALL shall have been gathered together into the Christ. What
anticipation this stirs in our hearts!
At this point I wish to share
some searching and enlightening words penned by a servant of the Lord more than
eighty-five years ago. "Concerning the nature and the power of man's will, the
greatest confusion prevails today, and the most erroneous views are held, even by many of
God's children. The popular idea now prevailing, which is taught from the great majority
of pulpits, is that man has a 'free will,' and that salvation comes to the sinner through
his will co-operating with the Holy Spirit. To deny the 'free will' of man, i.e. his power
to choose that which is good, his native ability to accept Christ, is to bring one into
disfavor at once, even before most of those who profess to be orthodox. And yet Scripture
emphatically says, 'It is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that
shows mercy' (Rom. 9:16). Which shall we believe: God, or the preachers?
"But does not Scripture
say, 'Whosoever will may come'? It does, but does this mean that everybody has the will to
come? What of those who won't come? 'Whosoever will may come' no more implies that fallen
man has the power in himself to come, than 'Stretch forth Your hand' implies that the man
with the withered arm had the inherent ability in himself to comply. It should be obvious
that the ability came from the One who spoke the word: 'Stretch forth your hand.' In and
Of himself the natural man has power to reject Christ; but in and of himself he has not
the power to receive Christ. And why? Because he has a mind that is 'enmity against' Him (
"Let me appeal to the
actual experience of the reader of these lines. Was there not a time when you were
unwilling to come to Christ? There was. Since then you have come to Him. Are you now
prepared to give Him all the glory for that (Ps. 115:1)? Do you not acknowledge that you
came to Christ because the Holy Spirit brought you from unwillingness to willingness? You
do. Then is it not also a patent fact that the Holy Spirit has not done in many others
what He has done in you! Granting that many others have heard the Gospel, been shown their
need of Christ, yet, they are still unwilling to come to Him. Thus He has wrought more in
you, than in them. Do you answer, Yet I remember well the time when the word of salvation
was presented to me, and my conscience testifies that my will acted and that I yielded to
the claims of Christ upon me. Quite true. But before you 'Yielded,' the Holy Spirit
overcame the native enmity of your mind against God, and this enmity He does not overcome
in all at this time. Should it be said, That is because they are unwilling for their
enmity to be overcome? Ah, none are thus 'willing' till He has put forth His all-mighty
power and wrought a miracle of grace in the heart.
"But let us now inquire,
What is the human Will? Is it a self-determining agent, or is it, in turn, determined by
something else? Is it sovereign or servant? Is the will superior to every other faculty of
our being so that it governs them, or is it moved by their impulses and subject to their
pleasure? Does the will rule the mind, or does the mind control the will? Is the will free
to do as it pleases, or is it under the necessity of rendering obedience to something
outside of itself?
"What is the Will? We
answer, the will is the faculty of choice, the immediate cause of all action. Choice
necessarily implies the refusal of one thing and the acceptance of another. The positive
and the negative must both be present to the mind before there can be any choice. In every
act of the will there is a preference - the desiring of one thing rather than another.
Where there is no preference, but complete indifference, there is no volition. To will is
to choose, and to choose is to decide between two or more alternatives. But there is
something which influences the choice; something which determines the decision. Hence the
will cannot be sovereign because it is the servant of that something. The will cannot be
both sovereign and servant. It cannot be both cause and effect. The will is not causative,
because, as we have said, something causes it TO CHOOSE, therefore that something must be
the causative agent. Choice itself is affected by certain considerations, is determined by
various influences brought to bear upon the individual himself, hence, volition is the
effect of these considerations and influences, and if the effect, it must be their
servant; and if the will is their servant then it is not sovereign, and if the will is not
sovereign, we certainly cannot predicate absolute 'freedom' of it.
"That which determines
the will is that which causes it to choose. If the will is determined, then there must be
a determiner. What is it that determines the will? We reply, THE STRONGEST MOTIVE POWER
WHICH IS BROUGHT TO BEAR UPON IT. What this motive power is, varies in different cases.
With one it may be the logic of reason, with another the voice of conscience. with another
the impulse of the emotions, with another the whisper of the Tempter, with another the
power of the Holy Spirit; whichever of these presents the strongest motive power and
exerts the greatest influence upon the individual himself, is that which impels the will
to act. In other words, the action of the will is determined by that condition of mind
which has the greatest degree of tendency to excite volition.
"Human philosophy
insists that it is the will which governs the man, but the Word of God teaches that it is
the heart which is the dominating center of our being. Many Scriptures might be quoted in
substantiation of this. 'Keep your heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues
of life' (Prov. 4:23). 'For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts,
adulteries, fornications, murders,' etc. (Mk. 7:21). Here our Lord traces these sinful
acts back to their source, and declares that their fountain is the 'heart,' and not the
will! Again, 'This people draws nigh unto Me with their lips, but their heart is far from
Me' (Mat. 15:8). If further proof were required we might call attention to the fact that
the word 'heart' is found in the Bible more than three times oftener than is the word
'will,' and nearly half of the references to the latter refer to God's will!
"When we affirm that it
is the heart and not the will which governs man, we are not merely striving about words,
but insisting on a distinction that is of vital importance. Here is an individual before
whom two alternatives are placed; which will he choose? We answer, The one which is most
agreeable to himself, i.e., his 'heart' - the innermost core of his being. Before the
sinner is set a life of virtue and piety, and a life of sinful indulgence; which will he
follow? The latter. Why? Because this is his choice. But does that prove the will is
sovereign? Not at all. Go back from effect to cause. WHY does the sinner choose a life of
sinful indulgence? Because he prefers it - and he does prefer it, all arguments to the
contrary notwithstanding. And why does he prefer it? Because his heart is sinful. The same
alternatives, in like manner, confront the Christian, and he chooses and strives after a
life of piety and virtue. Why? Because God has given him a new heart or nature. Hence we
say that it is not the will which makes the sinner impervious to all appeals to 'forsake
his way,' but his corrupt and evil heart. He will not come to Christ, because he does not
want to, and he does not want to because his heart hates Him and loves sin (Jer. 17:9).
"In what does the
sinner's 'free will' consist? The sinner is 'free' in the sense of being unforced from
without. God never forces the sinner to sin. But the sinner is not free to choose or do
either good or evil, because an evil heart within is ever inclining him toward sin. Let us
illustrate what we have in mind. I hold in my hand a book. I release it; what happens? It
falls. In what direction? Downwards; always downwards. Why? Because, answering the law of
gravity, its own weight sinks it. Suppose I desire that book to occupy a position three
feet higher; then what? I must lift it; a power outside of that book must raise it. Such
is the relationship which fallen man sustains toward God. Whilst Divine power upholds him,
he is preserved from plunging still deeper into sin; let that power be withdrawn, and he
falls - his own weight (of sin) drags him down. God does not push him down, anymore than I
did that book. Let all Divine restraint be removed, and every man is capable of becoming,
would become, a Cain, a Pharaoh, a Judas. How then is the sinner to move heavenwards? By
an act of his own will? Not so! A power outside of himself must grasp hold of him and lift
him every inch of the way. The sinner is free, but free in one direction only - free to
fall, free to sin. As the Word expresses it: 'For when you were the servants of sin, you
were free from righteousness' (Rom. 6:20). The sinner is free to do as he pleases, always
as he pleases (except as he is restrained by God), but his pleasure is to sin.
"We repeat our question:
Does it lie within the power of the sinner's will to yield himself up to God? Let us
attempt an answer by asking several others: Can water (of itself) rise above its own
level? Can a clean thing come out of an unclean? Can the will reverse the whole tendency
and strain of human nature? Can that which is under the dominion of sin originate that
which is pure and holy? Manifestly not. If ever the will of a fallen and depraved creature
is to move God wards, a Divine power must be brought to bear upon it which will overcome
the influences of sin that pull in a counter direction. This is only another way of
saying, 'No man can come to Me, except the Father which has sent Me, draw him' (Jn. 6:44).
And how effective is that drawing? 'ALL that the Father gives Me SHALL COME TO ME' (Jn.
6:37). In other words, people must be MADE WILLING! " -end quote.
Ah, God did not MAKE Jonah go
to
I WILL DRAW ALL MEN UNTO ME
It is a strange theory that
obsesses men that the human will is greater in power than God, and that, no matter what
the will of God is for His creatures, man is able finally to wreck it. It is a curious
hypothesis that states that although the Holy Spirit seeks to woo all men to Christ, since
God loves all mankind and wills to save all men, still, the omniscient God has boxed
Himself into a corner, since the will of God is bound by the will of man, and the
Omnipotent Spirit can be resisted by finite man if man so chooses. Such faulty reasoning
actually brings into prominence ANOTHER OMNIPOTENCE which, because it baffles the
omnipotence and love of God, is by far the greater. Man will not so God cannot! What makes
this notion so tragic is that it DEIFIES MAN, elevating him to god-hood, and aligns all
who embrace it with the very sin that caused the fall in the beginning! The first sin
committed by man had its roots in the desire to be a FREE MORAL AGENT! Free moral agency
is not the doctrine of the Bible. It is the doctrine of Romanism; and it is the doctrine
of humanism. It was Erasmus, the humanist, who wrote on the freedom of man's will. It has
always been the humanists that have sought to deify man and have boasted of the freedom of
their sovereign will.
The serpent entered upon the
stage with the bold question as to the authority of God: "Yea, has God said, You
shall not eat of every tree of the Garden?" (Gen. 3:1). This was Satan's crafty
inquiry; and had the Word of God been dwelling richly in Eve's heart, her answer might
have been direct, simple, and conclusive. To raise a question, when God has spoken, is
blasphemy. Thus, the question, "Has God said?" was followed by the lie:
"You shall not surely die." But the enticement to induce Eve to disobey the
command of God was couched in this argument: "God does know that in the day you eat
thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be AS GODS, knowing good and
evil" (Gen. 3:5). YOU SHALL BE AS GODS! Can we not see by this that man was grasping
after GODHOOD, which godhood gave him the right to CHOOSE FOR HIMSELF whether to obey God
or not obey Him! This godhood, furthermore, was to bring to man the knowledge of good and
evil, the innate ability to discern and choose
between the good and the evil. Thus, the doctrine of "free moral agency" was
spawned by the devil in
Man's effort at free moral
agency was his attempt at godhood. Man became a "god" alright, in the eating of
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil - but he became a god in the wrong realm - the
demigod of a lower realm - for at the same time that God acknowledged man's
"deity" (Gen. 3:22) He also CAST HIM FROM THE GARDEN - cast him from the
heavenly realm - and set him in the earth "to till the ground from which he was
taken." And from that day to this man has discovered to his sorrow that he definitely
is not a free moral agent, for man's boasted freedom is in truth "the bondage of
corruption"; he "serves divers lusts and pleasures"; he is "sold under
(slavery to) sin"; his will is biased toward evil, and therefore he is free in one
direction only, namely, in the direction of evil. He is unable to fulfill the role of
godhood he assumed. He cannot weigh good over evil and come out on top, because his
desires are filled with the mystery of iniquity. "There is none righteous, NO NOT
ONE!"
In supporting the omnipotence
of man's godhood, the radio preacher declared, "Man makes his choice, and once it is
made God cannot do one thing about it." What brash stupidity! It is true that man has
a will, but so also has God. It is true that man is endowed with power, but God is
all-powerful. It is true that, speaking generally, the material world is regulated by law,
but behind that law is the law-Giver and law Administrator. Man is but the creature. God
is the Creator, and untold ages before man first saw light "the mighty God"
(Isa. 9:6) existed, and ere the world was founded, made His plans; and being infinite in
power and man only finite, His purpose and plan cannot be withstood or thwarted by the
creatures of His own hands.
To say that Christ is unable
to win to Himself those who are unwilling is to deny that all power in heaven and earth is
His. To say that Christ cannot put forth His power without destroying man's responsibility
is a begging of the question here raised, for HE HAS put forth His power and MADE WILLING
those who HAVE come to Him, and if He did this without destroying their responsibility,
just why "CANNOT" He do so with others? If He is able to win the heart of just
one sinner to Himself, why not that of another? To say, as is usually said, the others
will not let Him is to impeach His sufficiency and the depths of His love. It is a
question of HIS will, not man's! If the Lord Jesus has decreed, desired, purposed the
salvation of all mankind, then the entire human race will be saved, or, otherwise, He
lacks the power to make good His intentions; and in such a case it could never be said,
"He shall see the travail of His soul and be satisfied." The issue raised
involves THE DEITY of the Saviour, for a DEFEATED Saviour cannot be God.
His promise is sure, His
purpose unfailing: "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw A-L-L M-E-N
unto Me" (Jn. 12:32). This speaks not of Jesus being lifted up in praise, or lifted
up by preaching, or lifted up in our spiritual lives, for the record states: "This He
said, signifying what death He should die" (Jn. 12:33). It was the cross of
The truth of the supernatural
and all-powerful DRAWING of God is one of the most neglected of all the great truths of
God's Word, and yet it is one of the most important. Undoubtedly the reason for its
neglect is that it is repugnant to the world of unregenerate man, and professing
Christians whose theology denies the sovereign and infinite grace of God. One of the chief
characteristics of apostate Christendom is that it vigorously opposes any teaching of
Scripture that refuses to give man the glory. Therefore any doctrine of the Bible that
declares man's helplessness apart from the activating power of God is bound to arouse the
ire of the adversary and his followers.
The words translated
"draw" and "drew" in the Greek New Testament are HELKUO and HELKO.
Each of these words has the basic meaning of "compel...... draw...... pull," and
"tug." In most instances the force which does the drawing or compelling is
sufficient to cause the object of the drawing to respond fully. For example, in Jn. 18:10,
it is said that "Peter having a sword DREW it..." The impetuous disciple most
assuredly did not draw the weapon out of its sheath in a gingerly or wooing fashion. Nor
did the sword seek to draw itself out by its own will and good pleasure! Peter didn't
merely "invite" the sword to come out, in spite of any resistance the blade may
have had as it dragged the leather scabbard, the muscular arm of Peter yanked it
forcefully out in obedience to his will.
One of the forms of HELKO is
used in the Song of Solomon (in the Septuagint, Greek Old Testament) to speak of the love
of the Bridegroom which causes the Bride to cry out to her maidens: "DRAW me after
thee!" (S. of S. 1:4). The irresistible power of the heavenly Bridegroom's love for
His betrothed creates a corresponding love in her heart. It is the heavenly One who
initiates the love, creating faith and devotion in His beloved as He reveals Himself to be
desirable and trustworthy. Already she has been drawn unto Him in deeper hunger; already
she has longed for the kisses of His mouth, those tender moments of communion and prayer,
wherein is revealed His love. Already she has smelled the sweet odors of His oils; already
she has beheld Him upon the cross for her, she has beheld HIS LIFE poured out for her.
This but increases her desire to be drawn with greater power, with stronger cords of love,
with greater call to separation, and even with greater suffering, that she may arise and
run AFTER HIM. She is more and more realizing the truth of her helplessness to run unless
He draws.
We little realize that mighty
unseen power that is drawing, drawing, drawing us like an irresistible, supernatural
magnet. We speak of our hunger for the Lord, we tell of the longing we feel for Him, we
pour out our hunger and longing at His feet as though He did not know they were in our
hearts. We comprehend but little that all this is the drawing of God; that if He did not
graciously put the hunger in our hearts, we should be cold and barren; we should be
satisfied with but little of that into which He is constraining us to enter. Let this sink
down into our hearts and ever abide there, that every heavenward impulse in our souls,
every upward desire, IS THE DRAWING OF GOD. No sinner could be saved if God did not
convict, quicken, deal with, and draw him. So many times we lose sight of this. We could
not desire His will nor His best, we could not love and hunger for our dear Lord if God
did not graciously put within us a hunger for Him and His will. Dear child of God, if you
feel the drawing of God in your soul, cherish it as you would cherish a great treasure. If
you feel a deeper hunger, if you are entering into a closer walk with Him, do not look
upon it carelessly, nor treat it lightly.
The words HELKO and HELKUO
may be found eight times in the Greek New Testament. I have already mentioned the passage
in which Peter forcibly drew his sword from its sheath to cut off the ear of Malchus.
Other passages contain the idea of force connected with this word, such as in Jn. 21:6,
where we find that the load of fish was so huge that the disciples could not haul it
aboard the boat. Their seasoned muscles were not able to pull such a great weight out of
the water, for John says, "Now they were not able to DRAW it for the multitude of
fish." Yet, a moment later, Simon Peter hauls the net through the water and up to the
shore. This again is referred to as "drawing" the net load of fish with a force
that is not resisted.
When the apostle James wishes
to describe the manner in which rich men forcibly drag those who are indebted to them to
prison, he uses the word HELKO. In James 2:6 he writes, "Do not rich men oppress you
and DRAW you before the judgment seats?" This "drawing," of course, was not
with wooing or pleading! It was an act of force that absolutely took no care of the
willingness of the person drawn! The poor man might resist ever so much, and he might cry
and plead, but he was drawn irresistibly to the place of judgment! It is with precisely
this kind of forceful drawing that the Lord Jesus is talking when He says, "And I, if
I be lifted up from the earth, will DRAW all men unto me!" And, thank God, they are
not just drawn "toward" Him, but UNTO HIM all the way! Because the Christ was
"lifted up" on the cross of
Another example of the use of
the Greek work HELKO which shows that the drawing is by force and in spite of the
resistance of the one drawn, is in Acts 16:19. When Paul and Silas were vexed by the
demonic slave girl, Paul cast the evil spirit out of her. Her masters saw that all hope of
profit was gone, so they grabbed the two servants of Jesus and forcibly dragged them to
the judges in the market place. We read: "And when her masters saw that the hope of
their gain was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and DREW them into the market place unto
the rulers." This was not an act in which the persons drawn delighted to cooperate.
No, it was an act of force which "compelled" them to go where they would not
have preferred to go! So it is with man who is spiritually dead and happy to follow the
devil to hell because he prefers darkness to light. He does not "come to Jesus"
of his own "free will." If he has eyes to see and ears to hear the Lord it is
because God has quickened his spirit and opened his spiritual sight and unplugged his
spiritual ears, as it is written, "The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the LORD has
made even both of them! " (Prov. 20:12).
Still another instance in
which the Greek word HELKO is translated "draw," when it refers to taking by
force and overcoming all resistance, is Acts 21:30. Paul is seen in the temple at
No one ever comes to Jesus
without God having planned the time and the manner. No one ever "decides" to
accept Jesus of his own "free will." It is the volition of the Lord that moves
powerfully and irresistibly upon the sinner to trust the Saviour, and not the will of the
spiritually dead creature who loves darkness rather than light! "No man can come to
Me, except the Father which has sent Me DRAW him... " (Jn. 6:44). Do you think that
you came to the Christ of your own free will, as a free moral agent? Do you dare assume
that your old corrupt mind and heart somehow became persuaded to violate its very nature
and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Then read Jn. 6:44 and Jn. 12:32 again and accept it
for what it plainly says! Treat these verses with honesty. Jesus says that NO ONE can come
unto Him apart from the irresistible force of God's drawing, and He also says that because
He died HE WILL FORCIBLY AND IRRESISTIBLY DRAW A-L-L M-E-N unto Himself.
I sought the Lord, and
afterwards I knew
He moved my soul to seek Him, seeking me!
It was not I that found, O Saviour true;
No, I was found of Thee!
Are you a born again
believer? Then kneel humbly before your God and Saviour and confess that it was because HE
DREW you, and not because you exercised some inherent prerogative of "free moral
agency." Acknowledge His Word to be truth, and that just as surely as HE SUCCESSFULLY
DREW YOU, He shall likewise draw and DRAW and D-R-A-W until He has drawn ALL MEN unto
Himself! We ourselves are the living proof that He both can and will do it! "GOD has
saved us ... not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began" (11 Tim. 1: 9). "The Son
gives life to whom He will... (Jn. 5:2 1). "I will draw all men unto Me."
(Jn. 12:32).
"For the love of Christ
constrains us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead"
(II Cor. 5:14). How can one who is dead find God? Impossible! Why should Paul connect the
love of Christ with the fact that ALL WERE DEAD? Simply because it is the love of God in
the Christ which is accomplishing this work, in His sovereign way, of bringing the whole
world back to life and to God. Again we read in Eph. 2:12 "That at that time you were
without Christ, being aliens from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God
in the world." Ah, this is really a desperate situation! And all mankind was in a
place like that. All of us were absolutely dead to God and without God in the world.
One of the most enlightening
passages along this line is found in Jn. 1:10. "He was in the world, and the world
was made by Him, and THE WORLD KNEW HIM NOT." How can anyone seek after the Lord if
they don't know Him? How clear that mankind was in a dilemma. We could not direct our own
steps or order our way before the Lord. We were without God and we were dead. And now John
declares that Jesus came and walked in the midst of the people He had created, AND THEY
DID NOT KNOW HIM! What chance did men have to return to God EXCEPT GOD HELP THEM?
The prophet Jeremiah
declared, "O Lord, I know that the WAY OF MAN IS NOT IN HIMSELF; IT IS NOT IN MAN
THAT WALKS TO DIRECT HIS STEPS" (Jer. 10:23). God had been saying through the prophet
that His people were scattered, His pastors had become brutish and His tabernacle was
destroyed, so it was obvious that the way of man is not in himself. This being true, man
cannot direct his steps or set his pathway. This is the condition in which God began His
redemptive work with man. If it was not in us to direct our steps, then we could not
direct our steps back to God. This ability was not a part of the makeup of man. In the
beginning the first man deliberately, and according to the plan of God, directed his steps
away from God and, hopelessly lost, man has walked that way ever since. Mankind was made
blind and couldn't see his way back to God, even though, as Paul said to the Athenians,
surely God is not far from any one of us.
How we thank God that He sent
one Man into this world who did know the way hack to the Father! This Man knew how to
order His own steps, and also how to order our steps, when we could not direct them
ourselves. We can see it so plainly in a little child. Even after the child learns to
walk, it does not know where or how to walk to keep out of danger and harm. Its way must
be directed by an adult. Without any fear it would run onto a highway filled with speeding
cars. It does not know how to order its way. Just so, mankind does not know how to direct
its way!
"For God has concluded
them all in unbelief, that He might have mercy upon all" (Rom. 11:32).
"Therefore as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even
so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
For as by one man's disobedience (the) many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one
shall (the) many be made righteous" (Rom. 5:18-19). "For since by man came
death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in
Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order" (I Cor. 15:21-23). It
would be a most beautiful thing if all the saints of God could have an open vision that
would enable them to understand the simple and obvious truth that if the first Adam could
do something which the last Adam could not undo, then the first Adam had more power than
the last Adam. In other words, if Adam could put ten people into sin and death, and the
Christ could take only nine out, then Adam would have greater influence and power than the
Christ. But whether we believe it or not, ALL POWER HAS BEEN GIVEN UNTO THE CHRIST.
With the foregoing truth in
mind let us read a most remarkable and significant statement in Jn. 12:31. "NOW is
the judgment of this world." What a volume of truth is contained in those few short
words! The word "judgment" literally means A DECISION. We know that any judgment
is a decision. Jesus was saying that now is THE DECISION of this world, or now is the time
the world is going to decide what it is going to do. At the time He uttered these words
Jesus was preparing to be sacrificed on behalf of the people of the world. He came to
taste death for every man. He was speaking just prior to His crucifixion and the world was
soon to make a momentous decision. The world would decide just what it would do with the
Christ. It should be clear to every honest heart that the world at that or any other time,
WAS NOT CAPABLE OF TURNING TO GOD, or of MAKING A DECISION FOR ITSELF THAT WOULD CAUSE IT
TO RETURN TO GOD. There was absolutely no desire, no will, nor any purpose on the part of
mankind to return to God. The people of
This condition is again
mirrored in the lives of our children. In the life of a child, there are times when
decisions must be made, and the child is not capable of deciding, SO SOMEONE ELSE MUST DO
IT FOR HIM. The parent, or other responsible person, must make the decision. Here in
chapter twelve of John we see a whole world that is estranged from God and dead in
trespasses and sins, without God and without hope. Here was a world whose ears were
stopped, whose eyes were blinded, and understanding had been taken from their hearts. Yet
this world was going to be required to make a decision!
Another profound statement,
freighted with meaning, accompanies the statement by Jesus that we have previously quoted.
He said, "NOW shall the prince of this world be cast out" (Jn. 12:31). Christ
proclaims two great truths which cannot be separated. "NOW is the judgment (decision)
of this world: NOW shall the prince of this world be cast out." The world had come to
the crossroads and must make a decision, but was not capable of doing it. So Jesus said
that the prince of this world would be cast out and that He, Jesus, the last Adam, the
representative of the whole human race, would decide for the whole human race, just as the
first Adam, the first representative man, decided for us all. If the first Adam, as a
representative man was able to decide for all the world and put us all into sin and death,
then the last Adam, the Christ of God, as the representative man could decide to take all
of us out of sin!
How meaningful, then, the
inspired words of the apostle Paul, "For if when we were enemies we were reconciled
to God by the death of His Son..." (Rom. 5:10). According to all human reasoning this
is an impossibility - that my enemy could be reconciled to me by the death of my own son.
But Paul argues that the death of Jesus reconciled us, the enemies of God, unto God. By
the death of the Son of God was this wrought. Naturally, an enemy would refuse to be
reconciled. He would have nothing to do with it. Nevertheless, God sent His Son, and by
the dying of that Son, reconciled T-H-E W-O-R-L-D unto Himself (II Cor. 5:19). God did not
consult with the world, did not ask the world whether it wanted to be reconciled. He just
went ahead and did it! God knew from the beginning that we would not be capable of
deciding for ourselves. We would be so bound by the fetters of sin, so bound by our pride
and ignorance, our minds so twisted by the illusions of this world, our reasoning so
warped by the god of this world, that we could not decide. So God decreed that He would
seal up all humanity in unbelief, conclude all under sin, stop up their ears that they
could not hear, blind their eyes that they could not see, and take understanding from
their hearts that they could not understand. He would send His own Son as a representative
man to make the decision for us, to lead us all back to Himself, since we were not able to
direct our path or order our way. He concluded us all in unbelief and then let JESUS
DECIDE FOR US. This, God did!
BY ONE MAN! Dare we believe
it? Dare we embrace the simple but glorious truth that "...as by the offense of one
judgment came upon ALL MEN to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free
gift came upon ALL MEN unto justification of life" (Rom. 5:18)? Are the blessed words
of the apostle Paul too good to be true, wherein he states, "God was in Christ
RECONCILING T-H-E W-O-R-L-D unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and has
committed unto us the word of reconciliation" (11 Cor. 5:19)? Ah - the destiny of the
whole race was settled in one man, even Jesus. He was both the sacrifice and the new
federal head of the race who would gather us all up into His loving arms and bring us back
to God. He would lead all into salvation. Oh! how I rejoice that God did not permit the
world to decide the eternal question, but that He sent His Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh, to do it for us. What matchless love! And in God's own good time, as the orderly
procession of the ages run their course, all will be worked out for His glory.
In view of the marvelous,
glorious, majestic and all-inclusive work of the last Adam - what good would it do for man
to be a FREE MORAL AGENT? God has overruled the will of man, anyway. Oh, no, beloved, man
is not a free moral agent. JESUS CHRIST IS THE ONLY MAN WHO IS A FREE MORAL AGENT. And He
made the right choice, the one and only right decision. And HE MADE IT FOR US ALL! Praise
His name! And we, the FIRSTFRUITS of His redemption, are the proof, the guarantee, that
God is both willing and able to save ALL. Thank God! Man is NOT a free moral agent!
Chapter
5
The
Wages Of Sin Is Death
In considering the issue of
the eternal punishment of the lost, many people can only visualize this punishment as
vindictive. In other words, sinners are afflicted by God because of God's intolerable
disposition towards them in their sin. And this is the impression one certainly receives
from Calvinistic descriptions such as the following: "The damned shall be packed like
brick into a kiln, and be so bound that they cannot move a limb, nor even an eyelid; and
while thus fixed, the Almighty shall blow the fires of hell through them for ever."
G. H. Lang, commenting on Rev. 14:10-11 in The Last Assize, states basically the same
thought, though perhaps in less barbaric language: "Mingled unmixed; every ingredient
compounded that shall make the punishment fit the crime; but no element of mercy or
alleviation shall be mixed with this dread draught of the wine of the wrath of God. If the
Lamb can look on their torments, shall His saints be unable to do so. And on this
same passage yet another further shockingly comments: "Should this eternal punishment
and this fire be extinguished, it would in a great measure obscure the light of heaven,
and put an end to a great part of the happiness and glory of the blessed!
Of all the blasphemous
absurdities of the harlot Church systems, this is probably the worst, a lie intended to
scare poor souls into her clutches in order to rob them of their dollars, a lie which
makes our God of love to be a hideous monster, an insane and sadistic monstrosity who
takes delight in tormenting and torturing His creatures made in His own image, a lie which
makes our Saviour to be nothing but a lunatic, a deceiver, and a rascal of the first
magnitude. It makes
Here is a fact. The Word
says, "The wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23). Wherever one goes he finds
someone quoting that plain declaration of fact. But the remarkable thing is, that no one
believes it, not even the ones who continually preach it. The hell-fire-and-brimstone
enthusiast loudly proclaims that verse of Scripture to be true, and then abruptly and
shamefully contradicts himself by maintaining that the wages of sin is ETERNAL TORMENT!
But IF ETERNAL TORMENT WERE THE PENALTY FOR SIN, THEN JESUS NEVER ATONED FOR SIN. HE DID
NOT SUFFER ETERNAL TORMENT. AND IF THAT IS THE PRICE THAT GOD DEMANDS AS PUNISHMENT FOR
SIN, THEN JESUS PAID NOTHING AT ALL. If my punishment were eternal torment, and Jesus took
my place, receiving the full judgment for my sin, then it should be clear to any thinking
person that He would have had to suffer eternally in hell. That is the only way the debt
could be paid!
But He merely became a man,
lived as a man, was tempted as a man, suffered as a man, died on a cross, was buried,
descended into Hades, and the third day arose, and is now seated on the right hand of the
Majesty on high. And if eternal torment is the punishment for sin, then every son of Adam,
whether saved or lost, still has to pay the full penalty himself. Then God's righteous
wrath can never be appeased until every sinner, who ever committed even one sin, has paid
that debt in full. If eternal torment is the punishment for sin, then
If the wages of sin is
eternal torment, then we must re-write the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. We must make
the Bible say that, if that is what God meant. We must make the Bible say, "And the
Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat: but of
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it: for in the day that
you eat thereof you shall surely SUFFER ETERNAL TORMENT IN HELL" (Gen. 2:16-17). We
must correct the Word of God so that it says, "The soul that sins, it shall be
eternally tormented in hell" (Eze. 18:4). Jn. 3:16 must be made to correctly read,
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever
believes in Him should not be eternally tormented, but spend eternity in heaven." If
the wages of sin is eternal torment then Rom. 5:12 must be made to say, "Wherefore,
as by one man sin entered into the world, and eternal torment by sin; and so eternal
torment passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." You will have to tear the
Bible all to pieces and re-write literally hundreds and thousands of passages if you say
that the wages of sin is eternal torment!
Oh, that men might begin to
read, and to heed what is written! "The wages of sin is death, " says the Lord.
And it is true, even though the majority of men still think that the wages of sin is
eternal torment, one of the most abominable and notorious lies ever told, a product of
popish fraud and deception and greed. The wages of sin is actually death. And Jesus died!
He met the full demands of law. He paid the debt of sin in full, blessed be His wonderful
name!
The
"annihilationist" has another scheme. He is going to have a few men of his own
persuasion to be saved, and then after such-and-such has happened, all the rest of mankind
are to be simply blotted out of existence. They will simply cease to exist! That is his
idea of the penalty for sin. To the annihilationist the wages of sin is ETERNAL DEATH. But
that is not what the Word says! The Bible nowhere speaks of "eternal death." God
did not say to Adam, "In the day that you eat thereof you shall surely eternally
die." The record does not state that "the wages of sin is eternal death."
It does not say that "the soul that sins, it shall die forever." To the
contrary, it points to the END of death for "The last enemy that shall be destroyed
is DEATH" (I Cor. 15:26), and the beloved apostle John, banished to the barren Isle
of Patmos for the Word of God heard a great voice out of heaven saying, "Behold, the
tabernacle of God is with men, and He shall dwell with them, and they shall be His people,
and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes; and there shall be NO MORE DEATH ... for the former things are passed
away" (Rev. 21:3-4). But again, if the wages of sin were utter annihilation, or
eternal death, then there is no hope for anyone. For Jesus was not annihilated! He did not
stay dead for ever! If annihilation is the penalty for sin, then every son of Adam, saved
or lost, must yet suffer his own penalty and be blotted out of existence for evermore.
Then Jesus never saved anyone from anything. And then we all might as well enjoy this
world to the full; for it is the only life and existence that any of us will ever know!
"For the wages of sin is
death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom.
6:23). It is not written that the wages shall be death, but the passage we have before us,
penned by divine inspiration, by God's finger, is, "The wages of sin IS death."
"She that lives in pleasure," the Scripture again says, "is dead while she
lives." Dead in trespasses and in sins. It is a sad and most horrible fact that there
are millions and thousands of millions of people going about this earth dead in their
spirits! Dead to God! Dead to virtue! Dead to truth! Dead to purity! Dead to
righteousness! DEAD!
I speak not, therefore,
concerning a death that is to come. I speak of the wages, OPSONIA, which in the original
means the reward of a soldier, the Wages of a man who is fighting as a soldier; Wages he
has earned, as a patriot fighting for his King and his country; or Wages which he has
received as a mere mercenary soldier, fighting for the pay which a tyrant might give him
for his work in destroying life and property and liberty to put a usurper in power. The
meaning, therefore of the word is Wages for a military man. The free gift of God is the
reverse of this. God's soldiers do not receive the LIFE OF THE AGES as Wages, but as a
free gift. I would point out that these Wages are given to those who have enlisted under a
banner and are fighting for someone. There are but two armies in this world.
One marches to the drum beat
roll.
The deep mouthed clarion's bray,
And bears upon a crimson scroll,
"Our mission is to SLAY!"
That is the devil's army.
There is another army - it is God's.
Along our ranks no sabers
shine,
No blood red pennons wave;
Our banners bear one single line:
"Our mission is to SAVE!"
You are on one side or the
other, and you will get your Wages. The devil's Saturday night comes. God's Saturday night
comes. Every man gets his Wages. And Adam and all in Adam HAVE ALREADY RECEIVED THEIR
WAGES! When God passed sentence upon Adam He passed sentence not only upon ONE MAN, Adam,
but upon all men in Adam, the entire race. In that day of death, it became more than the
death of a single man, but it became the death of all humanity. Humanity left the realm of
life, and entered into another realm called death, or if you please, man entered a life of
death. He entered that realm or that life of death through the acceptance of Wages, which
Wages was death. The truth is not that man is under the sentence of and in danger of being
lost, he is already dead and lost, and Christ comes to seek and to save the lost, and to
give life to the dead world. "If One died for all then were ALL DEAD" (II Cor.
5: 14). Mark it well, dead, not in danger of death, or liable to it, but dead already.
As one has written, "In
one of his books Glenn Clark discusses the problem of why a rotten apple in a barrel of
good ones will spoil the whole lot, but a good apple in a barrel of rotten ones is
powerless to make the rotten ones sound. He says that the good apple has the stroke of
death in it. When the stem was severed from the tree its source of life and health and
growth was removed. Even a good apple is a dying thing. He should have added that death
was hovering near the apple while its stem was still fast to the tree. Just let the wind
swing the apple against a limb near at hand and break the peel, immediately rot sets in.
Let a bird pick a hole in it, or a worm enter its body, at once the forces of decay and
death are manifest, and the end is putrefaction. In the midst of life we are in
death."
The first warning against
disobedience is, "In the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." The words
"you shall surely die" are often translated "dying you shall die," or
"you are dying to die." That is, "dying" is a process, and "to
die" is the final act or event in the process. When Adam sinned it was life that he
lost; it was death and dissolution that he received.
The word "death"
means vastly more than this old dilapidated body going to the grave; it means the whole
condition and state of being of the man outside of Christ. May God make this truth real to
your hearts! There is only one life in the universe, and that life is Jesus Christ.
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. In
Him was life; and the life was the light of men" (Jn. 1:1.4), "And this is the
record, that God has given unto us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that has
the Son has life: and he that has not the Son of God has not life" (I Jn. 5:11-12).
"I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat this bread, he
shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the
life of the world" (Jn. 6:51).
"The dead know not
anything" (Eccl. 9:5). Furthermore, the dead see not anything, nor do they hear or
feel anything. How can a natural man who is dead in trespasses and sins hope to see or
understand the things that belong to the wonderful realm of life, since death has closed
his eyes to them? It is Christ and Christ alone who raises the dead, making men alive to
God and the realm of the Spirit. It matters not to Him nor to His resurrection power
whether those dead be corpses buried in the earth or whether they be men walking on top of
the ground, dead while they live. "Let the dead bury the dead," said Jesus,
because He understood the mystery I seek now to explain. Well did the Son of God know that
outside of Him both the man who was being buried and the men who cast the earth into his
grave belonged to the realm of death and were alike dead!
Death takes in this whole
dreadful realm of sin, weakness, fear, sorrow, pain, heartache, rebellion, strife, war,
sickness, torment, sadness and trouble in which men walk without the peace and joy and
transforming power of God in their lives. Men need to know that they are dead and that the
wrath of God abides upon them. "But," you may ask, "what is the wrath of
God?" I must reply that the wrath of God is death! "The soul that sins, it shall
die," is the edict of the Lord. God's wrath against sin is manifested in the death of
the sinner, a Christless death in which he is dead to God, dead to Christ, dead to virtue,
dead to truth, dead to purity, dead to righteousness, dead to peace, dead to joy, dead to
reality, dead to promise, dead to hope. He abides in this death throughout all the
decades, centuries, or millenniums of his existence until Christ comes into his heart. It
was this very truth that Jesus was making clear to us when He said, "He that has the
Son has life, but he that has not the Son of God has not life; but the wrath of God abides
on him." The wrath of God is death. Though such an one should live in the extreme
fullness of earth's pleasures, yet HE IS DEAD while he lives, a stranger to Christ, a
stranger to spiritual things, and an enemy of God. I know many people who are quite
intelligent, capable in their field, civil, polite, personable, courteous, and caring in
an earthly kind of way; and yet, when the subject of SPIRITUAL THINGS and CHRIST is
introduced into the conversation, suddenly the true nature emerges and the true antipathy
the person has toward the living God will come forth. They are dead to God, and an enemy
of God. The condition of a man outside of God is a condition of complete and utter
helplessness, and, insofar as his ability to help himself is concerned, his condition is
also one of utter hopelessness. That which is dead is both helpless and hopeless. Such a
one stupidly stumbles through this mortal existence working, playing, sleeping, without
ever knowing or caring why he is here or where he is going.
In the conflict with the
enemies who have to be overcome by God, the last enemy which shall be destroyed is death.
In the final triumph, death and hell shall be cast into the lake of fire, which is the
second death, the death of death and the death of hell. Death is an enemy! Death destroys.
Death corrupts. Death, foul, hateful, hell-born, "the wages of sin," belongs to
the devil, and eats out the brain, destroys all vitality, corrupts the mind, disturbs the
emotions, torments the soul, and reduces the eye to dust and leaves only an empty socket.
Do not talk of death as if it were a holy thing. The King of Terrors, Death, is unholy.
Death is an enemy. Death is devilish. Death is hellish. Death is corrupt. Death is foul
and dark as night. Death is the Wages of sin. Sin is the work of the devil.
The portrait of spiritual
death is physical death. God gave us physical death merely as a type to convey something
of the awfulness of the true death of which all men have been made partakers. Speaking of
physical death, Charles Spurgeon once said, "The time will come, ere long, when these
shining orbs by which I look out upon you and through which you look into my very soul,
will become a carnival for worms; that this body of mine will be inhabited by loathsome
things, the brother of corruption, the sister of decay. These cheeks now flushed with life
will soon be sunken in death. Beneath the skin there will be going on such activity that,
could we look upon it, we too would recoil in horror. The same death of the body is the
condition of our soul and spirit as we come into this world."
Jesus raised three people
from the dead during His years of ministry, and each of these stands as a picture of the
condition of those who are raised out of the death of the carnal mind into the life of the
Son of God. First, there was Jairus' daughter. Do you remember the story? Jesus came into
the house and she was still upon her bed. She had just died. She still wore the garments
of sleep. Her mother was still holding her hand and moistening her brow with kisses. Her
father looked upon her lovingly but she was dead. And Jesus raised her with these simple
words, "Talitha cumi." Her eyes opened! She sat up and was alive again!
Then there was the funeral
procession that took place in the town of
Then there was that notable
instance of Lazarus of Bethany. When Jesus arrived, Lazarus was no longer in his home; he
was no longer in procession; he was already in his tomb. Neither the bed nor the bier but
the tomb now contained him and Jesus said, "Roll away the stone." Martha said,
"Lord, he has been dead four days and now he stinks." Jesus said to her,
"Said I not unto you, that if you would believe, you should see the glory of
God?" And so they rolled away the stone. No doubt there issued forth from that open
cavern those noxious smells of the grave. Jesus having lifted up His eyes to God in
prayer, said, "Lazarus, come forth!" and life pulsated through his body again.
Still wrapped in the grave clothes he shuffled out of the darkness into the light. Jesus
said, "Loose him, and let him go."
Each of us, as we come into
this world and continue along our path, unless our spirit has been quickened and renewed
by HIS SPIRIT, are in some such condition as one of these three. There are some who are
young and tender; they are still in their mother's home; their faces are fair and their
cheeks are flushed; they are the adorable objects of their parent's love; the world is
before them and yet they are dead. They are dead in trespasses and in sins; dead to God;
dead to truth; dead to reality; for this is how they have been born into this world.
Though physically, intellectually, and emotionally alive, they are dead spiritually. They
have not had time for sin to run its course and to effect its devastating changes. Like
Jairus' daughter, they still look alive - why she looks as though she sleeps! Her eyes are
simply closed in sleep. And yet she is dead!
And there are those like the
son of the widow of Nain who have left their father's home and are now out in public. Some
years have passed and already the flush has left the cheek and the results of sin are
beginning to make themselves seen. Our land is filled with these today! Unlike Jairus'
daughter, their sins are no more secret, a matter kept at home, but now they are out in
public and known to many. Without shame they expose their sins willfully, flaunting them
before all the world to see; they call it "coming out of their closets;" they
have no sense of guilt or shame because their sin and death has proceeded thus far. And
yet they are still accepted by society. They are not like Lazarus, who has been put away,
where death has come to such a state that the corruption has progressed to such a degree
that now he stinks and none can bear to be in his presence. And so there comes a time in
some men's lives when even their loved ones say, "Put away my beloved from out of my
sight. Bury him in some jail or in some hospital or in some gutter of depravity."
The corruption of sin and
death can reach to such a marked degree that it is seen in the person, in his acts, his
words, his dress, his face, and he becomes an outcast, the dregs of society. There are
more, I am sure, like the widow's son. The revelation of the death in them is only
beginning to show. There are still some like Jairus' daughter where it is not seen at all,
except by those with spiritual eyes and discernment. They are so lovely. "Isn't she
sweet?" "Isn't he handsome?" "Oh, he is such a nice person."
"They are such good neighbors." And yet, each and every one of them - the girl
on the bed, the young man on the bier, and Lazarus in his tomb - were equally dead! Dead
one, dead all!
This is the description of
the land of the dead in which the whole world lives by nature. The land of trespasses and
sins in which there walk the dead. "Wherein," Paul says to the quickened ones,
"in time past you walked" (Eph. 2:2). Is that not amazing? We were dead and yet
we walked; we were the walking dead, a land filled with zombies, walking, yet dead! Did
you ever stop to think that when Jesus Christ the firstborn Son of God came into this
world HE WAS THE ONLY LIVING MAN IN A WORLD OF DEAD PEOPLE? The whole world lies in the
hands of the wicked one and death reigns over all the earth realm. No wonder the Scripture
says that men are a stench in the nostrils of God because spiritual death sends forth its
reek and stench. How the soul of Jesus must have recoiled at the state of death that was
rampant over the earth. We, the walking dead, walked according to the course of THIS
WORLD, we are told.
When Jesus Christ, the Son of
the living God, came into this world to reveal the LIFE OF GOD, He came outside the
existing religious system. He spoke the words of God and did the works of God and
manifested the nature of God. What an appalling shock to the established religious order
to have this strange man speaking as one with authority suddenly appear in their midst not
as a Pharisee, Sadducee, or a priest of the order of Aaron, but in the power of the Spirit
of God. What a bolt out of heaven it must have been to the hypocritical priests of Levi,
so accustomed to strutting about in long robes with broad phylacteries, wearing their
mitres, loving to be called Rabbi and teacher as they received the homage of the people
about them, binding burdens that they would not touch with the tips of their fingers on
others, robbing widow's houses and for a pretense making long prayers as they increased
condemnation upon their own unforgiven sins. What a stunning dismay it must have been for
these lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God to hear this mighty Son of God
proclaiming to publicans and sinners, soldiers and priests alike, "Repent, for the
There are but two kinds of
people: the dead and the alive. If you have not been made alive by His transforming power,
you are still dead no matter how rosy your religious cheeks may appear. If you have been
made alive may I tell you that, as assuredly as Lazarus knew that he had been raised from
the tomb, so also you know that you have been quickened by God, made alive, recreated,
born anew by the Spirit of God, and you walk in newness of life as a Son of God in the
land of the living God.
All men are born sinners; and
the wages of sin is death. But Jesus became a sin offering for all men, He carried those
sins to the cross, and that ends the matter. And there, because He actually atoned for ALL
those sins, He actually "ABOLISHED DEATH." To abolish is to do away with
entirely. Death is no more. That is God's estimation of the fruit of Christ's redemption!
"Our Saviour Jesus Christ, who HAS ABOLISHED DEATH, and has brought life and
immortality to light through the Gospel" (II Tim. 1:10).
We have been told a lot of
funny stories. How we need to get back to the Word, and to it alone! How we need to
forsake the imaginings of mere men, and get our feet planted firmly on solid rock! How we
need to cease limiting the Holy One of Israel and renouncing the all-inclusive victory of
One wonders what most
Christians read their Bibles for. They certainly get very little out of them worth
mentioning. If they did, then they would have discovered long ago that "by the
righteousness of One the free gift came upon A-L-L MEN unto justification of life"
(Rom. 5:18). Oh, that all might somehow come to realize the enormity and compass of the
work of
How we need to forsake all
the stupidity and blasphemy that can represent our Lord as a failure! He accomplished what
He came to earth to do. He did not die in vain. He did not do a half-job. He
"finished the work," accomplished fully His Father's plan. And "we have
seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to BE THE SAVIOUR OF T-H-E
W-O-R-L-D (I Jn. 4:14). Ah, the victory of
Thank God, that long night of
darkness is passing! Thank God, a fuller, deeper message now goes forth, which does not
limit the God of our salvation, which does not belittle and besmear the atonement, the
complete redemption of our Lord Jesus Christ! He did not die in vain! He was not a
failure! Hallelujah!
"...but now once in the
end of the world (age) has He appeared to PUT AWAY SIN by the sacrifice of Himself"
(Heb. 9:26). "Once in the end of the world." Not for each dispensation, but for
all dispensations. Not for one age, but for all ages. Not for a few, but for "the
many" (vs. 28), comprehending the vastness of the number which no man can compute of
the great family of man. As the year's sin of a nation was borne away into the desert by
the scapegoat, and put away, so were the sins of the WHOLE WORLD centered on the head of
Jesus Christ. He was "the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also
for the sins of the W-H-O-L-E W-O-R-L-D"
(I Jn. 2:2). And when He died, He dropped sin as a stone into the depths of oblivion. And
He PUT AWAY sin. The Greek word is very strong: annihilated, made nothing of, made as
though it had never been. Sin, in the mind and purpose of God, is as entirely done away as
a debt when it is paid. Hallelujah!
Yes, He is actually "the
Saviour of ALL MEN" (I Tim. 4:10). And He cannot be Saviour of all, and at the same
time the destroyer of some. Let us, dear ones, cease listening to Satan who would have Him
to fail in His mission, to come off second best in His attempted overthrow of sin. He came
to earth to destroy SIN, and to save SINNERS . "The Son of man was manifested that He
might DESTROY THE WORKS OF THE DEVIL" (I Jn. 3:8). And when all is finished, if but
one trace of sin remains, He will have died a failure and in vain. The adversary would
have us to believe that HE is the victor, that sin is not destroyed, and hence, since
Christ can not destroy sin, He must destroy those sinners whom He could not reconcile. But
let us remember that Satan is the father of all lies. Let us cease being deceived by those
lies! Let us believe God. "God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that THE WORLD through Him might be saved" (Jn. 3:17). "I came not to judge
the world, but to SAVE THE WORLD" (Jn. 12:47). "For the Son of man is not come
to destroy men's lives, BUT TO SAVE THEM" (Lk. 9:56). He came to put away sin, to
destroy death, to curse the curse, to lift the burdens, to heal the heartaches, to deliver
those in bondage.
Why will men continue to
preach eternal wrath, and damnation, and torment, and torture, and anguish, and despair,
and fear, when God is love? Surely they cannot have experienced that love, else they could
never refrain from proclaiming it! Surely they must not have found Jn. 3:16: "For God
SO LOVED T-H-E W-O-R-L-D.
that He gave..." And surely they must never have found Jn. 12:32: "And 1, if I
be lifted up from the earth will draw ALL MEN unto Me." Let us never again forget
that "He gave Himself a ransom for ALL, to be testified in due time" (I Tim.
2:6). Let us ever remember Col. 1:20: "And having made peace through the blood of His
cross, by Him to reconcile ALL THINGS unto Himself; by Him, I say, whether they be things
in earth, or things in heaven." And now, "the saving grace of God is manifested
FOR ALL MEN" (Tit. 2:11, Gk.).
Think of it, the living God
IS THE SAVIOUR OF ALL MEN! (I Tim. 4:9-11). The Greek word used here is SOTEER. It occurs
twenty-four times in the New Testament and is correctly translated "saviour"
every time. Nor does the Scripture say that God is the "provider" of salvation
for all. This would not make Him the Saviour of all. If He does not actually save all,
then He is merely a "would-be" Saviour, a "potential" Saviour of all.
He is not a Saviour "for" all men, merely provided, to be accepted or rejected
according to the whims of human nature or the power of the devil; He is the Saviour
"of" all men, and there is a world of difference between those two views. I find
that all the Churches believe that Jesus is a Saviour "for" all men, but none of
them truly believe that He is the Saviour "of" all men. Let me illustrate. If
five men were drowning and a life guard was on duty with instructions to save any who
voluntarily called on him, he would be a saviour "for" the five men. But if he
actually jumped into the water, grabbed them by the hair of the head, snatched them out of
the water. and saved their lives, he would then be the saviour "of" the men. Can
we not see by this that Jesus can only be the SAVIOUR O-F ALL MEN if all men are actually
saved by Him? Such a truth should fill the hardest heart with joy, and cause continual
thanksgiving to God for His power, wisdom, love, grace, and righteousness.
Knowing how difficult it
would be for men to believe that Jesus is the Saviour of all men, in I Tim. 4:9-11 God
offers man encouragement by assuring him that it is a FAITHFUL SAYING and WORTHY OF ALL
ACCEPTATION. It is faithful to God, faithful to His Son, faithful to
Oh blessed deliverance, oh
wonderful emancipation! What a shame that so little of it is told! What a tragedy, that
those who profess to preach the Gospel preach instead little but a morbid and horrid tale
of eternal fear and torment and torture! Thank God it is true, wonderfully and gloriously
true, "The wages of sin is death, but the GIFT OF GOD IS ETERNAL LIFE THROUGH JESUS
CHRIST OUR LORD!"
Chapter
6
Hell
FROM the earliest years of my
memory there stirred deep within my bosom an insatiable longing after Christ. Though only
a child, I wanted to know Him who once was spat upon for me, who was crowned with thorns
for me, who died and rose again and ascended into the highest heaven for me. I wanted to
intimately know the Christ, the great and good Friend who was compassionate to all men,
who forgave the thieves and harlots and drunkards, and healed the sick and gladdened the
sorrowful, who brought the dead to life again, and loved and blessed the children. Oh! how
I wanted to KNOW HIM! Sometime after my twelfth birthday, the Lord came to me in a
remarkable visitation, flooding my life with billows of His presence, power and glory.
From that moment Christ became a living Reality. He filled the skies. He filled the earth.
He filled my life and flooded my heart with unspeakable love for His creation. He
whispered in my ear and flooded within the depths of my spirit the precious knowledge that
He is the Good Shepherd who will seek until the last lost sheep is in His fold. He
proclaimed the omnipotence of His love in the sweetest of tones. The Good Shepherd who
came from heaven, and gave His life, will seek, and seek, and seek, and save, and save,
and save, until He has brought all men back to God. This is the work of the Redeemer and
the redeemed. I remember sitting, some time after this experience, in the auditorium of
the public school in the rural community where we lived in southern Alabama, looking at
the several hundred students assembled there, as the Spirit mused in my heart,
"Someday, someway, somewhere, CHRIST WILL SAVE THEM ALL!" The revelation was
real to me, Christ was there bursting forth in my spirit, and I rose and departed with
gladness that Christ is indeed Victor!
I do not hesitate to preach
it. I do not hesitate to tell it. At the same time I have warned the sinner that if he
sins, the face of God is against him; that if he will not submit to Christ, hell is in
front of him; the way of the transgressor is hard, for the wrath of God is revealed from
heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men; let no man deceive you with
vain words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the children of
disobedience. But let us not falsely say that such men will never be saved; let us not
limit the Holy One of Israel!
Most Christians believe that
once a person dies, his or her fate is sealed for ever. If anyone has been fortunate
enough to have repeated the "sinner's prayer" one moment before death stole the
spirit away, he is guaranteed, according to the "orthodox" teaching, that he
will go straight to heaven. Matters not whether he was truly drawn to the Son by the Holy
Spirit; as long as he muttered the correct words before the final beat of his heart
yielded to the stillness and silence of death, his salvation is eternally secured.
The question is, does
physical death end the availability of God's grace? The death that came to Adam was first
and foremost a spiritual death, and all men enter this world "dead in trespasses and
sins" (Eph. 2:1). Does physical death render our moral character changeless? Does it
irrevocably fix our eternal destiny? Are the grace and mercy of God TIED TO OUR HEARTBEAT?
Here is a young man driving along the road on his way to an evangelistic meeting where he
will hear an anointed message of salvation. Conditions are such that he may be saved this
very night. His heart is tender. His mother is praying. The Holy Spirit will be mightily
dealing. But - en route to the meeting there is a terrible accident. The brakes are
slammed on, the car skids wildly, spins uncontrollably off the highway, rolls down the
embankment, crashing violently into a tree. Death is instant. Abruptly the young man is
gone "out into eternity." The question comes ... was the mercy and redemption of
God tied to his heartbeat? Was there mercy for him IF HE WOULD HAVE MADE IT TO THE
MEETING, but eternal damnation instead BECAUSE A DRUNKEN FOOL PULLED OUT IN FRONT OF HIM
IN THE DARKNESS?
I do not hesitate to say that
there is not one passage of Scripture in the whole Bible that indicates that the grace of
God is limited to physical life, or that the mercy of God is tied to ones heartbeat. I am
sure that my readers recognize that it is the spirit of man that is of the greatest
importance to God. Why should there be salvation provided as long as the mortal body
remains animate, but no salvation for the much more valuable spirit of the same man or
woman as soon as the last mortal breath is drawn? Oh, I know the writer to the Hebrews
states, "It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment"
(Heb. 9:27), but that proves nothing relative to the question under consideration. It
merely establishes the fact of judgment - not the process following judgment. The passage
is conspicuous for what it does not say. It does not say, "It is appointed unto men
once to die, and after this ETERNAL DAMNATION." The whole theory of eternal torment
rests upon a faulty translation of a couple of Greek words, and actual distortions and
perversions of what the Scriptures say.
So the Church system
concludes that God has both the will and the power to save a breathing man, but no will
and no power to save a non breathing man. It teaches that God has both the will and the
power to regenerate a spirit which has a body of dust, but no will or power to save the
same spirit without a body. God's mercy and power limited to the temporary function of
certain animal organs! Good heartbeat, good mercy! No heartbeat, no mercy!
If, instead of bringing every
sin into judgment - punishing that sin - and correcting the sinner - we imagine the poor
sinner suffering the eternal torments of hell with its unbearable anguish, the pangs of
conscience, the taunts of fiendish demons, one hour of which is more than all his earthly
sorrows rolled into one - lengthen this out to endlessness and season it with hopeless
despair - and its horrors will be absolutely inconceivable. Though our lips may be afraid
to frame the words, our hearts will whisper, "Can such be the final fruit of God's
glorious plan?" Is this the response for which He hungered when He purposed that sin
should estrange His creatures from Himself? But this is far from all! Multiply this single
case by scores of billions of human beings, who age after age, have been hurdled into this
hopeless hell - all tortured and tormented while the ages roll, and roll, and roll...
without mercy and without remedy.
If the above scenario be true
then something horrid must have happened to both God and His saints in heaven. Before the
death of these people God loved them all, and in many instances they loved each other,
saved and unsaved alike, and would have performed a great number of kindnesses for one
another. Many of these had Christian friends and loved ones who were very concerned about
them and prayed earnestly for them. But now that both saint and sinner are out in
"eternity," God and all the saints in heaven have either lost their love and
compassion for their lost loved ones, or else God has brainwashed all the saints so that
they have erased from their memory the fact that their beloved mothers and fathers, their
lovely sisters and brothers, their precious daughters and sons, and their good friends and
neighbors are suffering the most terrible pain and hideous torture for all eternity. So we
see this: there is MORE LOVE AND COMPASSION in the natural world in God and the saved
ones, than there is in the spirit world. Furthermore, there is MORE LOVE for sinners while
they have bodies than there is for sinners without bodies. What has happened to cause God
and the saints to turn from love and pity for the lost, to a feeling that the lost are now
getting what they deserve and should suffer the torments of the damned for all eternity?
What, I ask, has happened to God and the saints to cause them to love and seek the lost as
long as their frail, mortal bodies endure, but to turn from that love for the precious
unclothed spirit of the very same man or woman? Can we believe that God, having created
all things for His pleasure, having so loved His creation that He freely gave heaven's
most precious gift, after a few paltry years, the brief span of a man's mortal existence,
throws up His hands in futility and disgust, saying that He has done all He can and men
would not respond, so He must cease all effort, seat Himself upon His golden throne, and
consign His creation to everlasting hell? Yet this is exactly what we are told today. But
how foolish! God is not that fickle, and God does not give up that easily. In fact, God
does not give up! He started the whole program of creation and redemption and, blessed be
His wonderful name! He will not cease His work until He is Victor - "All in All"
throughout all the vastnesses of infinity for evermore!
How often we have heard
preachers warn people that "the day of grace will soon be over for ever." Now
nothing could be further from the truth, for as long as God exists the GRACE OF GOD will
be with us. The end of the grace of God, were it possible, would mean the destruction of
God Himself, for grace is one of His eternal, immutable attributes. Please notice that
Paul shows that the grace of God is going to be displayed and made known in the AGES TO
COME through those who have received it here and now in this dispensation. "And has
raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ, THAT IN THE
AGES TO COME HE MIGHT SHOW (Greek: exhibit, put on display for all to see) THE EXCEEDING
RICHES OF HIS GRACE in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 2:7-8). Not only
does this passage tell us of the great revelation of God's grace in the AGES TO COME, but
it also shows us that it is for this very reason that God is saving a FIRSTFRUIT COMPANY
now. The unveiling of the grace of God to the whole creation is the true reason for the
MANIFESTATION OF THE SONS OF GOD. God has no intention of bringing all the world into the
fold now. If that were His purpose He would surely bring it to pass, for He is the
omnipotent God who works all things after the counsel of His own will. The whole purpose
of this age is to GATHER OUT A PEOPLE TO DISPLAY HIS GRACE IN THE COMING AGES. James also
declared this truth when at Jerusalem he said, "Simeon has declared how God at the
first did visit the Gentiles to TAKE OUT A PEOPLE FOR HIS NAME ... that the residue (rest,
remainder) of men might seek after the Lord and ALL THE GENTILES upon whom My name is
called...known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world" (Acts
15:14, 17, 18). This so-called "age of grace" is coming to an end, but grace
will be more manifest in the future than in previous times. This age which is presently
coming to a close should more properly be called THE CHURCH AGE, for grace will not end,
but the present form and administration of the Church will end. In the age to come God
will move from calling out a body from among the nations, to the saving of the nations
themselves. In ages beyond that God shall deal with the residue of men and all the reaches
of His vast creation.
Ray Prinzing writes,
"GOD'S PURPOSE ANTEDATES TIME, for He purposed it in Himself before time began, and
then arranged for the times in which He will fulfill it. Therefore His purpose is not in
bondage to any man's time, be it a day, or a thousand years, but all time has to serve
that purpose. Furthermore, God's grace, whereby this purpose shall be accomplished, also
antedates time, for we read, 'Who has saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not
according to our works, but according to HIS OWN PURPOSE AND GRACE, which was given us in
Christ Jesus BEFORE THE WORLD (ages) BEGAN' (II Tim. 1:9). The sufficiency of grace was
freely given before time began, hence God's grace is not bound to time either. Grace can
take all the time it desires for its manifestation, for it is not subject to the confines
and limitations of time. The religious traditions of some speak of an age of grace, as if
all other ages would be devoid of grace. This is utter nonsense. You cannot possibly limit
the grace of God to any one age, for it is manifest in all ages, and is not bound to any
certain age alone.
"Since man is saved by
grace, not of self-works, and grace is a gift of a sovereign God, then obviously He can
administer that grace to man whenever He chooses. The length of time has no claims upon
that grace, it is but a servant to His grace, to reveal by degrees the wonder and glory of
God's bountiful grace and mercy. Should God so arrange that this be the hour when He gives
grace in your life, then bow low before Him in worship and praise. Yet if you have loved
ones who have not yet been given this inflow of grace, do not despair, 'In Christ shall
all be made alive. But every man in his own order' (I Cor. 15:22-23), and God has fitted
the ages so that there is an appointed time for grace to work in every life. We do not
know HIS times and seasons, therefore we warn every man to turn to God now, knowing that
we reap what we sow, and to continue sowing to the flesh means more harvests of suffering
and sorrow. And we thank God for each heart that is opened to receive of God's grace
now" -end quote.
The limitation of God's
mercy, if it were possible, would be the condemnation of God Himself. If there are limits
to His mercy, the Word of God, which says that "His mercy endures for ever (all
ages)," is a lie. The limitation of God's mercy is a trick of the devil, to discredit
God and to defeat His Gospel. The limitation of God's mercy makes the disobedience of Adam
more powerful and more enduring than the OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST. I am glad for a Gospel that
is coextensive with, and GREATER THAN, the devil's work in spirit, soul and body. I am
glad for a Gospel that is not limited to one age, or to the threescore-and-ten years of
man's frail existence, but reaches out into the ages to come until GOD IS ALL IN ALL. I am
so glad for a Gospel which tells me that God has made a way by which even His banished may
return. How gloriously true, then, the words of the chorus:
"His love has no limit,
His grace has no measure,
His power has no boundaries known unto man,
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus,
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again!
The following words by George
Hawtin are most challenging: "The established visible Church has preached its
multiplied sermons seeking to prove its tradition that the vast majority of God's human
creation will be LOST, finally, irrevocably, and eternally, and not only will they be lost
to God forever and ever, but they will be given up to the most sadistic, inhuman, ungodly
torments that could be devised by the vilest fiends. According to the tradition of the
Church this hellish torment is to fall upon all who do not believe. It matters not a whit
whether they had opportunity to believe or not. It matters not at all if they were born in
the darkest jungles of Africa, the swamps of Borneo, or the deserts of
Some people say that the
ultimate salvation of all men makes a "second chance" Gospel. NOT SO! We do not
have a "first chance" Gospel, nor a "second chance" Gospel, nor yet a
"third chance" or "fourth chance" Gospel. Salvation is not by
"chance" at all - it is by grace! Had it been left to "chance" no one
would have been saved, now or later. Salvation is of God! "As it is written, There is
none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understands, there is none that seeks
after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there
is none that does good, no, not one. For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of
God; BEING JUSTIFIED FREELY BY HIS GRACE through the redemption that is in Jesus
Christ" (Rom. 3:10-12, 23-24).
But if, for the sake of
illustration, we choose to use the term "chance," before we speak of a
"second chance," we must make sure that those whom we have consigned to eternal
damnation have had a "first chance". "For whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not
believed? and how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? and how shall
they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is
written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, that bring
glad tidings of good things!" (
There have been some people
who accepted Christ as their Saviour at the "first chance" they ever had. Three
thousand people did that on the day of Pentecost. But I have asked many men if they
accepted Christ the "first chance" they had, and few have answered in the
affirmative. Most of us should be filled with thanksgiving to the Lord that not only did
He give us a "second chance," but a third and fourth and sometimes a multitude
of chances! I doubt if there is any reader of these lines who can truthfully say that he
has obeyed God every "first time" that God has spoken to him. If God had taken
our first answer or refusal to submit to Him, and had not given us a second opportunity,
it would have been too bad for us! We simply would not be walking in God today if He had
not given us many "chances". Christians are very free to grant this privilege to
themselves, but seldom to the sinner, and NEVER TO THE SINNER WHOSE HEART HAS STOPPED
BEATING. But does not the grace of God teach us that since in this life there is on the
whole, so little of the Gospel of Christ touching the masses of humanity, the vast
majority of men dying as they lived, like natural brute beasts, there must be an
opportunity for the goodness and kindness and salvation of our ever-faithful God to reach
them in the world to come? Indeed, since man has so poor an opportunity here, and the
majority no opportunity at all, they must by the justice of God have an opportunity in the
age or the ages to come. JUSTICE demands it! And GRACE demands it I This is both
reasonable and Scriptural.
As one has written,
"Jesus gave a wonderful teaching in Matthew 11, one aspect of which is often
overlooked. He said that if
There is one Hebrew word and
three Greek words which have been translated "hell" in our commonly used King
James or Authorized Version of the Bible. In the Old Testament we find the word SHEOL
which according to our Hebrew dictionaries means "the place of the dead." The
word always appears in the singular, never in its plural form. It is not the
"places" of the dead, not the individual graves where reside their respective
bodies, but the realm of the dead, the abode of the dead, or the state of the dead. The
word is derived from the root SHAEL, which means, by implication, "to request, to
demand." And this reminds us forcibly of the common and inevitable end of all flesh.
There is a realm and a state beyond this life which inexorably beckons men onward through
the fleeting years of earthly ambition and toil till at last it lays its demand upon them,
drawing them into its inescapable embrace.
In the New Testament there
appears the word GEHENNA referring to the
Next we consider the Greek
word TARTAROO - the English form is "Tartarus." The passage where this word is
found is II Pet. 2:4. "God spared not the angels (messengers) that sinned, but cast
them down to hell (Tartarus), and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved
unto judgment." Jude also presents the same truth without mentioning the name as he
writes, "And those angels (messengers) who kept not their first position of power and
authority, but left their habitation, He has kept in chains under thick darkness, for the
judgment of the great day" (Jude 6). The whole thought is of a restraint, a
confinement, a prison, a condition in which apostates are held for a specific period of
time, in the same manner as prisoners are often held in jail awaiting the day of trial.
Tartarus is not the judgment itself, but a state or condition in which persons are
inescapably held over unto a day of judgment. I see men today who are apostates, they have
turned from the truth, they have usurped the gifts and anointing of God for their own
advantage and to their own ends, making merchandise of God's people, they have perverted
the ways of the Lord and turned the truth of God into a lie, and have sunk into the
blinding darkness of delusion, captivated by the fleshly ways and methods of this world,
chained in the snare of the devil, they continue going through the motions of their
"ministry," unable to escape from the devilish trap into which they have fallen,
and are held there in their personal "Tartarus" reserved unto a day of judgment.
This brings us to our fourth
and final word, the one we wish to consider in this study - HADES. HADES is the Greek word
most often translated "hell." Where do the dead go? They go into what has
commonly been called "the unknown." Concerning the literal meaning of the word
HADES there can be no doubt. It comes from the Greek A(I)DES. The "a" is a
prefix which is equivalent to our "un-" and the stem "-id" means
perceive. Thus we have UN-PERCEIVE or imperceptible; the unseen. That is Hades - the
unseen world, the unknown realm. Our English word hell is derived from an Anglo-Saxon word
"hillan" or "helan," meaning a cavern, anciently denoting a concealed
or UNSEEN place. In parts of
We know that the dead haven't
passed out of existence altogether, for man is not only a body and soul, but also spirit.
And when the spirit of man passes from this present tabernacle of flesh it goes into a
realm unseen by the eyes of mortal man. David, in speaking of it at the time his first son
by Bathsheba died, said, "I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me." He
knew there was a place where he would be able to join that infant child. And likewise the
phrase often used in the Old Testament of their being "gathered unto their
fathers" meant far more than having their bodies buried in the same grave. It bespoke
a gathering in the unseen world. And our Lord spoke of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, linking
their names together as all being in the same place, and also added that their God is
"not a God of the dead, but of the living," thus affirming that they were alive
at that time, even though they were in the Hadean state. Indeed, they were all in Hades -
the invisible world of departed spirits.
Some have contended that hell
(Sheol and Hades) is never associated with the idea of suffering, pain or torment. That is
far from the truth! A careful examination of the Hebrew and Greek words in context reveals
that there is both the positive and negative aspects of hell, and there are those passages
which connect hell, either literally or metaphorically, to darkness, restraint, distress,
sorrow, suffering, pain, and torment.
Hell is certainly a place, a
realm, a dimension of consciousness and existence, yet more than a place - it is a state
or condition - in its negative application the inner state of depravity, perverted desire,
burning lust and ambition, devilish emotions, mental anguish and despair - and because it
is so twisted and warped it cannot obtain lasting fulfillment, being tormented by the
fires of its own unsatisfied passions. Heaven and hell both are states of the soul rather
than the body, whether it be the natural or the spiritual body. The spirit possesses the
qualities of soul apart from the body, for the soul is so closely united to the spirit
that only the sharp two-edged sword of the Word of God can separate between them (Heb.
4:12). These are realities transcending place and time. As the poet puts it:
"I sent my Soul through
the Invisible,
Some letter of that after-life to spell,
And by-and-bye my Soul returned to me,
And whispered, 'I myself am Heaven and Hell;'
Heaven but the vision of fulfilled desire,
And Hell the shadow of a Soul on fire."
Heaven and hell may dwell in
the same home, sit at the same table, sleep in the same bed, but between them there is a
great gulf fixed. Here, for example, is a home in which one boy goes wrong, bears about
with him a guilty secret he may not be able to tell the rest, and yet he must keep the
dreaded company of his guilty, tortured self. Every time that boy hears the happy laughter
of brothers and sisters rejoicing in the joy of the Lord, the fires of hell are burning in
his heart. Every time he receives his father's blessing or listens to his mother speaking
of him in the language of maternal pride, he knows that between them and him there is a
gulf fixed, and over it neither he nor they can pass. To the sinner abiding in his sin
even the language of love is part of the torture of hell!
Here is another home in which
an angry and unhappy man has power to inflict suffering on those who are weaker than
himself. He has lived for wrong and vicious, devilish ideals all his life, and they have
grown stronger as he has grown older. He has power to oppress and abuse and crush one
faithful, beautiful woman, whose very presence and purity of character are a rebuke to
him. The more nobly she lives, the better for him she cares, the fiercer seems to burn his
anger and hostility, because he knows that he is not worthy of such devotion. He does not
repent, but he suffers remorse, and inward self-hate, and between the two there is a great
gulf fixed. The fires of hell are burning in that man's experience now, for guilt is often
made more devilish by the presence of holiness.
And in our acquaintance with
life have we never suspected that the fires are burning where the world sees not? There
are people facing life today with a smile who are not to be counted heroes, merely because
behind the smile is anguish. Some people can smile in the shadow of the cross, and they do
well. They are God's great ones! But there are others who wear the smile of dreadful joy,
the smile of sin's make believe. Down beneath are the fires of hell, kindled by the
pollution and the corruption and the wickedness on which the soul has fed. We can meet
with hell in the palace, in the halls of Congress, in the business establishment, in the
world of entertainment, in the home, on the street, and salute it and pass it by, and
never know, but hell knows, for it has seen heaven. Naked and open are we to Him with Whom
we have to do, and, believe me, nothing but the tender mercies and the cleansing power of
the blood of the Lamb can avail to save us from what we are in the great day of
revelation, whether it come on this side of the grave or on the other, when delusions are
gone, and we find ourselves in our heaven or our hell. We may eat, drink, and be merry; we
may stifle the Voice within us, but some day it wakens and will be heard, and the wakening
shall lead to brokenness and repentance, praise the name of the Lord! The truth is, nature
is a mirror of the unseen world. Every form of death, all disease, decay, failure, pain,
every fruitless seed, each ruined life, is the shadow of hell, and of the working of that
spirit which destroys and mars God's handiwork, as all beauty, purity, harmony, and
enduring love is the reflection of heaven.
"Fear not; I am the
first and the last, and the living One: I was even dead, but behold, I am living for the
ages of the ages: and I have the KEYS OF DEATH AND HADES" (Rev. 1:17-18, Diaglott).
To John on the isle of
When Jesus came into the
world in the humiliation of the Incarnation, He started on a route of conquest that took
Him through the lonely years prior to His introduction at the muddy waters of Jordan, when
the bony prophetic finger of John the Baptist was pointed at Him and those significant
words were uttered: "Behold, the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the
world" (Jn. 1:29). For some thirty-three and a half years He overcame and lived an
impeccable life so that it was said of Him that "He was tempted in all points like as
we, yet without sin" (Heb. 4:15).
Jesus' flawless life was
followed by a decisive death. He went to Calvary to endure inexplicable and incomparable
suffering: suffering of which we can only have a hint; suffering we can only look at
curiously with a sob in our throats; suffering veiled in the mystery of the bearing of
sin; suffering surrounded by torn rocks and a sun that refused to shine and an earth that
writhed in agony. As He hung there alone, God reached down His giant fist and gathered the
accumulated sins of men and placed them upon Him. In the awful agony of
For centuries now Christians
have supposed that when Jesus cried, "It is finished," that meant that His work
of redemption was completed. Many refer to this as "the finished work of
One day, in Satan's realm -
the dark domain,
Where souls of dead in chains
of death remain,
The Prince of darkness,
boastful, spoke aloud
To his abject, imprisoned,
awestruck crowd:
"Hearken, you spirits.
Lo, I bring this day
Another victim bound beneath
my sway:
Jesus, the Nazarene, the
Master Fraud
Who proudly claims Himself
the Son of God!
I laid the snare, which the
Imposter caught,
And to the tree of shame the
Boaster brought,
And now, between two thieves
He helpless hangs,
In Death's dissolving and
resistless pangs.
You shall behold Him pass
through Hades' door,
To walk among the living -
nevermore!
My power shall hush the Arch
pretenders breath,
And bind Him hopeless in the
realm of death."
Then Hell itself in fear
began to quake,
And, in alarm, thus to the
Devil spoke,
"Jesus! Do you not fear
that mighty Name?
And is this Jesus - Nazarene
- the same
Who once cried, 'Lazarus!
Come forth!' and swift
the bands of death were
loosed, his fetters rift,
And through your gates
impassable he broke,
So soon as that almighty word
was spoke?
Let but that Jesus once
invade these halls,
And in that hour your boasted
empire falls!
What if the victim you do
proudly claim
Shall as the Victor bring
your pride to shame?
And then He arose the
conquering Christ! What a marvelous turn of events! He took control of the situation as
with one exultant shout He grasped the keys of death and hell from him who had the power
of death, that is, the devil, stripped away the power of death, burst asunder the bars of
hell, stalked boldly out in eternal triumph over all the dread powers of that unseen
realm, entered back into His body in the garden tomb, passed through the walls of rock as
water passes through a filter, ascended up far above all heavens, stepped up to the
Father's throne, and presented the tokens of His redemption. The Father said, "Sit
down, Son, at My right hand until your enemies are made your footstool!"
More than two hundred years
ago, the world was in chaos because "The Scourge of the Earth" (we know him as
Napoleon Bonaparte) almost conquered the world. Everything fell before him. The British
feared that soon their homeland would be invaded by the troops of
There is a great hero whose
name is Jesus. On a hill outside the city wall of
JESUS DEFEATED DEATH!
JESUS DEFEATED HELL!
JESUS DEFEATED SATAN!
Jesus has the keys; He proved that He has the keys of both death and hell; for He unlocked
both and arose Victor. Death could not hold its prey! Hell could not hold its prey! Oh
Christ! You Son of the living God! You are the resurrection and the life. You were alive;
You were dead; and, behold, You are alive forevermore and Your nail-pierced hand does hold
in triumph the keys of hell and death. Oh death, where is your sting? Oh grave, where is
your victory? Oh gates of hell, you shall not prevail, for the Redeemer of Israel and the
Saviour of the world holds in His triumphant hand the key.
Who NOW has the key of death?
OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. Who NOW has the key to hell? OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. Praise God, no
one passes through the gates of either of those two, hell or death, except the Lord open
or close those gates. And now He proclaims, "FEAR NOT; I have the keys of death and
of hell." And what reason do we have to not fear? Those reasons are found in the
statement of the Christ. He is THE FIRST. He
is THE LAST. He is the LIVING ONE. At one time He was dead, but behold, LOOK! He is living
for the ages of the ages. And this ever living One HAS THE KEYS. We commonly think of keys
being used to lock or unlock doors, but there is another sense in which the word key is
used. Many times when we say we have the key to a thing, we mean that we have the solution
to a problem. Jesus was saying to John and to us all that HE HAS THE SOLUTION TO THE
UNSEEN WORLD. He has all the problems connected with it unraveled and solved. He had
worked out the problem for Himself, overcame in it, and now stands to proclaim to all men
everywhere the GREAT EMANCIPATION. Through His death and resurrection Christ took away
from the enemy his power of death, and from hell its power of containment; no longer can
negation claim the final victory over any man - CHRIST HAS THE KEY, and shall ultimately
bring every man into the fullness of HIS LIFE. Christ has the power to redeem, and He has
the keys of death and hell.
Praise God! Not only does the
firstborn among many brethren possess the keys of death and hell, but He shares them with
His OVERCOMING ONES in whom is inwrought the triumph of HIS LIFE. Jesus said to Peter,
"You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church; and the GATES OF HELL
SHALL NOT PREVAIL AGAINST IT" (Mat. 16:18). The gates of hell HAVE NOT prevailed
against our Lord Jesus Christ, and they SHALL NOT prevail against His Church. What are the
"gates" of hell? Gates are used either to bar entrance or prevent exit. What
does it mean that the gates of hell shall not prevail against Christ's Church? I used to
erroneously imagine the conflict between the Church and Satan as a game of "Cat and
Mouse." Satan was the cat and the Church was the mouse. Satan was big and powerful -
the Church was small and weak, always on the defensive. But that's not what the verse
about the gates of hell means. Far from it! The picture instead is of a VICTORIOUS CHURCH
laying siege to hell and breaking down its gates to release its prisoners! The Lord Jesus
Christ Himself is the example and prototype.
A lady wrote to me more than
a year ago, expostulating about this thought of the wicked ever having any opportunity in
the next world. She said she did not see it in the Bible, and craftily raised this
question: "There is no need for us to witness to the lost for they will all be saved
someday, someway, somewhere - right?" I thought her eyes must have been closed, as
well as her ears, because the Scriptures are so meticulously clear on this point. God will
never save our loved ones, our friends, our neighbors, or any other person who has lived
or ever shall live without a MEANS, an INSTRUMENT THROUGH WHICH TO REACH THEM. And WE are
that instrument! God declares to His elect in Isa. 49:6: "I will also GIVE YOU for a
light to the Gentiles, that YOU may BE MY SALVATION unto the ends of the earth." The
method by which God causes men to believe is revealed in Rom. 10:14-15. "How then
shall they call on Him in whom they have not BELIEVED? and how shall they believe in Him
of whom they have not HEARD? and how shall they HEAR without a PREACHER? and how shall
they PREACH except they be SENT?" Does the salvation of all men negate this
procedure? By no means! It only intensifies it! The idea that if God is going to save all
men then we need not preach or witness is an incomprehensible absurdity. It leaves God
with a wonderful objective, but with no MEANS of accomplishing His objective. The simple
truth is that God purposes to save all men. The means by which He shall accomplish this is
A PEOPLE, a ROYAL PRIESTHOOD, the SONS OF GOD, who become one with the PRIESTLY MINISTRY
OF JESUS the great HIGH PRIEST, to intercede, witness, speak, exhort, warn, entreat,
proclaim and preach the will of God and the good news of His glorious salvation until this
ministry conquers all men for God. Most Christians are content to witness and preach the
Gospel to a few lost souls here on earth, but how many would desire to so become ONE with
the ministry of Jesus the Saviour until they would go even to HELL to PREACH? Jesus did!
It was for this very reason
that Jesus Christ, after His death and resurrection, went to PREACH to the spirits in
prison, the spirits of the men who had been disobedient in the days of Noah. To them He
carried the WORD OF RECONCILIATION, showing not only that Christ had died for their sins,
but that He was risen for their justification. If perchance our minds are numbed with the
glory of such a thought, let us consider the words from
Despite the crafty and
deceptive efforts of some to twist and explain away the plain meaning of this passage, it
reveals that Jesus, after His death and resurrection, went and preached, not to men in the
flesh, but to SPIRITS in prison; not to angels, not to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob or any of
the other Old Testament saints; but to those men who had been DISOBEDIENT to the preaching
of Noah in the days preceding the flood. And what did He preach to these long-departed
spirits? Well, I Pet. 4:6 certainly answers this question! This passage is only a few
verses further on from the one under consideration, and as Peter continues speaking of the
same subject we are informed, "For this cause was the Gospel preached also to them
that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according
to God in the spirit... " The message is clear - though these were dead, and lived on
in the spirit, but not in the flesh, THE GOSPEL WAS PREACHED unto them that they might be
judged, or dealt with, the same as men who were alive in the flesh. Please notice,
precious friend of mine, it was not doom or gloom or judgment that was preached to these,
but THE GOSPEL, the GOOD NEWS WHICH IS THE POWER OF GOD UNTO SALVATION was PREACHED even
to these spirits in prison, the disobedient ones!
It is written in the plainest
of plain language. But there are some people who will not understand plain speech. They do
not believe that the Christ went down into hell to preach the Gospel to dis-embodied
spirits of wicked men; they think He went down somewhere in the heart of the earth to
rescue Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the righteous people out of a place called
Paradise and take them up to heaven. He may have done that, but there is not one shred of
evidence for it anywhere in the pages of God's wonderful Book. The Bible nowhere says
that. He preached to the disobedient and it was the Gospel that was preached to them,
informing them of the death of God's Son, who was given as a propitiation for them, and
that God had faith in the blood of His Son to deliver them from the bondage of sin and
death and hell into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Shall our unbelief make
the faith of God of none effect? Certainly not! If we believe not, yet He abides faithful.
God's plan goes on just the same, and "God WILL have all men to be saved, and to come
to the knowledge of the truth" (I Tim. 2:4). God will do what HE WILLS to have done
whether we believe it or not.
Ah, does the fact that God
purposes to save all men mean that it is meaningless to witness and preach? A thousand
times no! CHRIST WENT TO HELL AND PREACHED. God has chosen through the foolishness of
preaching to save men, so we shall not preach less, we shall not witness less, for armed
with the hope that the preaching will ultimately bear fruit we must preach more than ever
before to those who are lost, for this is God's MEANS for their salvation! Those who
should give up preaching to the lost and witnessing to their loved ones are those who
believe that most of them will burn for ever in hell anyway! What on earth could be more
frustrating, worthless, unprofitable, vain and disappointing than witnessing and preaching
to men when we actually believe that only a small fraction of them will ever be saved? Why
bother? To what end all the effort? The devil gets most of them in the end anyhow! But,
blessed be God! He has committed unto us the MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION, for God was in
Christ RECONCILING THE W-O-R-L-D unto Himself (11 Cor. 5:19-20), therefore that is exactly
what must be reconciled - the world!
I would point out to you,
dear reader of these lines, that, contrary to popular teaching, it was not during the
three days and three nights while the Christ's body lay in a Palestinian tomb that He went
and preached to the spirits in Hades. Christ was not in Hades on a preaching mission
during the time of His death, there was nothing to announce at that time, for redemption
was not complete until after His resurrection and ascension. He was not there at that time
to proclaim an as yet unrealized victory; He was there, rather, taking your place and mine
as part of the penalty of our sin. He was there as a willing victim, not a deliverer. How
and when then did He preach to the spirits in prison? Peter explains this. He says that
Jesus was "put to death in the flesh, but QUICKENED (made alive again) BY THE
SPIRIT," and then adds "BY WHICH (i. e. by this quickening in the spirit - the
resurrection) ALSO HE WENT AND PREACHED TO THE SPIRITS IN PRISON." There is nothing
in this text to indicate that Jesus went on a preaching journey during the time He was
dead. The use of the expression "by which He preached" refers to Jesus'
resurrection - "quickened by the Spirit." It was after He was raised from the
dead, after He was both "delivered up for our offenses, AND raised again for our
justification" (Rom. 4:25) that He went on this mission.
With the release of the
mystery of iniquity into the Adamic race, the wickedness of man became great in the earth,
"every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Gen.
6:5), and God used a restraining work to hold the upsurge of evil in check, restraining it
according to HIS purpose. YET He did allow it to go a certain course for a certain length
of time, knowing full well just how far HE could allow man to express these evil
inclinations, and just where to draw the line. At the appropriate moment the spirits of
these wicked men were put in prison, as society today puts a criminal in prison; the flood
swept them away into hell and hell restrained the Antediluvians from committing more wrath
upon earth.
The Christ, after His painful
life on earth, His agony upon the cross, and His victorious resurrection from the dead,
did not at once ascend into heaven to be seated at the right hand of the Father. He went
down to hell. He went down to the deepest hell, approaching its portals with the cry,
"Lift up your heads, O gates, and be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of
glory may come in!" Entrance was not to be gained without some resistance, however,
for the keepers of the gates hurled back their challenge over the ramparts of Hades:
"Who is the King of glory?" To which the hosts of heaven replied, "He is
the Lord strong and mighty - the Lord mighty in battle. He is the One who has just come
freshly from the battlefield of Golgotha, where single-handedly He dealt a deathblow to
all of Satan's plans and purposes, bore the sins of men, cut off the old Adamic order and
died a decisive death, meeting the requirements for man. He is the One who has just
grasped the keys of death and hell and strode out of Satan's domain triumphant. He is the
Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. NOW - will you lift up your heads, O
you gates? Lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in!"
Again, unsatisfied, the
challenge rang out, "Who is this King of glory?" Again the triumphant response
came, "He is the Lord of hosts. He is the King of glory. He is the One who is in
charge of all the Celestial Hosts. But not only that, He is King now of a multitude which
no man can number. He is God's delegated authority. He is the One who is to bring to God
the fruit of His purposes. He is the King of Glory. Now swing back those gates and let the
King of Glory come in!" Finally the gates could prevail against Him no longer. The
gates swung back. He entered in, stepped up before the assembled throng, and began His
mission. The Christ was there on business! Wherever He went He did business for God. He
went there to begin His new age deliverance ministry among a group of spirits that had
been imprisoned there for two thousand three hundred and fifty years. They had been
"disobedient in the days of Noah," and they were so bad that the Scripture says,
"their thoughts" and all the "intents of their hearts" were "only
evil continually." They were so bad that God could not wait for them to die, and
another generation to arise, but in order to re-establish some order on earth He had to
sweep all of them off the earth into hell. The fact that they remained there so long
indicates that they were very bad, for I cannot doubt that the God of mercy was all the
time in some way pleading with them to repent. They were ignorant and rebellious and would
not learn of God. The race of Cain was a filthy, sensual, polygamistic race; they were
hateful and violent and they were murderers. They were boastful and vile in the extreme,
and would have nothing to do with the God who made them. They were the offspring of a
murderer who slew his brother. I am sure that Christ felt a great, divine pity for the
offspring of that murderer; and in a loving spirit, the One who reconciled the world unto
God, not imputing their trespasses unto them, went down to hell.
And what was the result of
such a wonderful mission? "Wherefore He says, When He ascended up on high, He LED
CAPTIVITY CAPTIVE ... now He that ascended, what is it but that He also descended first
into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far
above all heavens, that HE MIGHT FILL ALL THINGS" (Eph. 4:8-10). Some suppose this
leading "captivity captive" refers to the Lord at His ascension leading the Old
Testament saints out of
So also in the passage from
which the phrase is quoted in Eph. 4:8-10. The quotation is from Ps. 68:18 where we read,
"You have ascended on high, You have led captivity captive: You have received gifts
for men; yea, FOR THE REBELLIOUS ALSO, THAT THE LORD GOD MIGHT DWELL AMONG THEM!"
There is every suggestion here that the captives thus led were not the righteous but the
unrighteous, for they are described as "rebellious." And Christ will dwell among
the rebellious! What a word! What a work!
And when did Christ lead
captive a host of rebellious ones? "When He ascended on high." He had preached
to those spirits who were damned through their terrible wickedness in the time of Noah.
Thank God, He gave them an opportunity of salvation, and He opened the
Then in the realm of Death's unbroken shade
Appeared the Conqueror in light arrayed.
It was as tho' in crimson and
in gold
The splendor of a thousand suns had rolled
Their mingled glory in one
matchless beam,
And lit up Death Shade with the lustrous gleam.
Ineffable that glory; as it
shone
Like to the radiance of the Great White Throne,
Whilst through the open gates and broken bars.
Toward realms of light more
fadeless than the stars,
The Prince of Life a host of captives led
From out the night and bondage of the dead.
Christ has led captivity captive! The official name for such an event in the Roman world
was called a "Triumph." It was a spectacle well known to every citizen of
This was a Roman
"Triumph" and Paul is telling us that Jesus Christ, the Captain of the
well-fought fight, the greatest General of all times, has come and has had a greater
victory than any of these. He has come, not only into the opposition and hostility of this
world, but He has gone into the very portals of Hell. There He has taken on the most
violent and the vilest of the underworld, and now He leads into the metropolis Of the
Kingdom of God a great triumphal victory. Behind Him come all the hosts of heaven, all the
saints of Old Testament times, and all those to whom He preached in Hell and that have
trusted in Him. This is the Triumph!
Paul tells us, secondly, that
this triumphal march, this triumphal entry into the
THE PUNISHMENT MUST FIT THE
CRIME
If Christ went to hell once,
and preached, and led out a host of captives, I wonder why, on the same errand, He should
not go or send to hell twice or even a thousand times? He considered the dreadfully and
unspeakably wicked in the days of Noah fitting subject for His mercy, and shall He not so
consider the poor, wretched creatures who have gone to hell by the billions from heathen
lands and by the millions from our so-called Christian cities? They never heard the name
of Jesus, except as profanely used or in some empty religious platitude. They know nothing
of His word or His power. The Churches too often cared nothing for them, and care next to
nothing for them today. I speak plainly, because it is necessary. I am not seeking to
extenuate the crime of anyone, and I am urging no plea for the undue mitigation of just
punishment. But unlimited mercy is an attribute of God, as love is His nature, and when
endless punishment is taught I claim the right to enter protest against that horrible
dogma. I admit, and declare, and warn men, that those who sin against light and knowledge
will have the heavier penalty. They invite the just judgment of God. No man who rejects
the Christ will go from earth into the joys and purity of heaven; he will certainly go to
hell.
As Charles Pridgeon has
stated, "One of the elements that makes punishment effective is its certainty. If a
man thinks that there is a chance for him to escape the punishment for a wrong doing, he
may take that chance. Every one needs to learn that this law of certainty has no
exceptions. There is no chance about it; WHAT YOU SOW, YOU REAP (Gal. 6:7). Every sin has
its certain consequences. This is true even of the wrongdoer who thinks that he has
escaped the working of this law. He is mistaken. The evil has already wrought damage to
his character, and one day its direful consequence will be manifest, unless divinely dealt
with. Every offer of salvation; every presentation of more or new light; and every
opportunity proffered, brings added responsibility. Every rejection increases guilt and
multiplies the consequences. From this law there is no escape. The normal harvest exceeds
by many fold the sowing. This is a wise provision in reference to punishment. The
enjoyment or gain that comes through sin is very small in proportion to the evil
consequences that naturally come to the one who so yields. This is one of the natural laws
of the harvest. God means this law to cause men to halt and to cease from sin. Sin costs
the sinner too dear; it cost God His only begotten Son!" -end quote.
But, on the other hand, the
doctrine that a temporal fault is to be punished with an eternal punishment is, in the
very nature of things, unreasonable, illogical, and wicked. Such a doctrine could not be
divine. As Adam fell, we fall each one, for Adam lives yet in his progeny. Because Adam
had the principle of sin and death imposed as an actual feature of his biological life,
his descendants also have inherited a life principle which involves a built-in death
principle. The moment a child is conceived the nature of disobedience is in him and the
power of death - so that in the same moment he is conceived he is a sinner by nature and
also begins to die; he is dying ere he is born, and eventually the death principle wins
out over the life principle and he does die. And, fallen in Adam, men prove he is in them,
by walking just as he walked. Adam yet relives old Adam's life in every unregenerated man,
as Christ in us yet lives Christ's life. With all emphasis I must declare that at the very
most, the worst offender on earth, has committed a crime WHICH IS INHERENT IN HIS OWN
NATURE, and the eye of the all-seeing God sees what even we. in most cases, cannot see,
that the most wicked sinner on earth IS SIMPLY DOING THAT OVER WHICH HE REALLY HAS NO
CONTROL. People tell me that "man has a choice," but I declare to you that when
I came into this world some 77 years ago ADAM HAD ALREADY MADE MY CHOICE FOR ME. I wasn't
consulted, God didn't ask me whether I would prefer to be born a sinner or a saint - Adam
answered that question for me in the dim and distant past! WHAT "CHOICE" DO DEAD
MEN HAVE? Never in my life did I have a choice until the blessed day when the Spirit of
God came and illumined my mind, convincing me of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment,
and showing me the things of Christ, taking the glories of Him and unveiling them to my
astonished soul; then, and not until then did I have a choice - and it did not take me
long, beloved friend, to make that choice!
The Psalmist acknowledged
that he had been "shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me" (Ps.
51:5). This was not a confession of some illicit act on the part of his mother, which
resulted in his birth. Perish the thought! For the following verses bear out the fact that
it was the hereditary "mystery of iniquity" which was passed upon all men,
stamped upon the very "genes" of his makeup, the "seed of Adam" has
blueprinted into its genes the propensities for evil, which he acknowledged, and for which
he sought deliverance. "Behold, You desire truth IN THE INWARD PARTS: and in the
hidden part You shall make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean:
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Create in me a clean heart, O God; renew a right
spirit within me" (Ps. 51:6-7, 10).
Men have, in their very
blood, been saturated with sin, with lawlessness, with nervous temperaments and diseases
WHICH HAVE BEEN THE DIRECT CAUSE OF THEIR TRANSGRESSION. God in His great mercy knows
this, and thus it is written, "And the Lord said in His heart, I will not again curse
the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man 's heart is evil from his
youth; neither will I again smite any more every living thing, as I have done" (Gen.
8:21). I do not hesitate to say that all the multiplied sins upon earth today ARE THE
RESULT OF HEREDITARY WEAKNESSES - inherited from Adam! And if God in His great mercy will
not send a flood again, because He pities man in his weakness, shall He then proceed to
commit an even more horrendous act by torturing men in everlasting hell-fire?
Any penalty which does not
take into account the fact that a poor miserable human creature has been the victim of
such an inheritance is an unjust penalty. The law of man may punish without mercy, but
even that law should be merciful to the ignorant. But even when the extreme penalty of
death has been visited upon the transgressors, the bigot adds to it a penalty far in
excess of the crime when he says that a man who has not been drawn to the Lord will go to
a burning, torturing hell and live on in misery, without hope or mercy, through unending
eternity. That is a vile and devilish doctrine, which has no support in the Word of God.
Those who say otherwise are ignorant or perversely wicked. It is foolish to say that it is
necessary to preach an everlasting hell to keep people from being wicked. I should be
wicked if I preached it, and in conflict with both the love and the justice of God who is
the Father of my spirit, and the Creator of my soul and body. I clearly see that it would
be vile and wicked to make punishment so tremendously exceed the guilt. One should take
into account what God remembers in dealing with humanity. He never forgets that we are
"dust," and He remembers just the kind of muck from which our souls and bodies
came. "Oh," you say, "when people are wholly bad, and their thoughts are
evil, and that continually, they must go to hell!" Yes, that is right! they cannot go
to heaven! And they must stay there for ever and ever!" you erroneously add.
Then why did God send His Son to get them out of hell? Why did the Christ, after He arose
from the dead, grab the keys of death and hell and descend into hell? What was He doing
there? WHY does the blessed Redeemer HOLD THE KEYS? Thank God! hell is not the end of the
matter. Banishment and torment do not spell the ultimate results of God's great plan. The
end of all God's dealings is one of victory, deliverance, and full redemption and
restoration.
To tell me, as I find in the
Westminster Confession of Faith, that God had, by a predestined plan, so constructed man
that he was born, and from all eternity designed to be wicked, and a vessel of wrath, that
God Almighty might show His power by sending him to everlasting hell that is the most
infernal lie that a man's tongue could utter, or type could print. That my God, the
infinitely good and holy God, was the predestinator, and creator of multitudes of harlots,
whoremongers, thieves, murderers, liars, to let them grow up, and to live and lust and
die, and then glorify Himself by torturing them in eternal hell! Horrible! I tell you that
all the divines that ever hatched a cockatrice egg could never make me swallow that.
Write it between your eyes
and never forget it. The Good Shepherd who came from heaven, and gave His life, will seek,
and seek, and seek, and save, and save, and save, until He has brought all men back to
God. This is the work of the Redeemer and the redeemed. I desire to make this perfectly
clear, because it is necessary to do so. When Jesus came He sought for sinners, wherever
Satan had gone. He sent His disciples into the world to seek even farther for them. He
seeks for sinners still. And He shall seek for them throughout ages yet unborn. The Good
Shepherd will seek them until He finds them. If He didn't, He wouldn't he the Good
Shepherd! He will seek them on earth and in hell. "Where shall I go from Your
presence?" the Psalmist asks. That question is unanswered and unanswerable. It has
stood upon the page of Scripture for three thousand years, and no one yet of all the
myriads that have read it has been able to devise a reply. Heaven says, Not here. Hell
says, Nor here. It is not among angels, or demons, or the lost, or in the vast silent
spaces of eternity. There is no creature anywhere not manifest to His sight. He who made
vultures, able from immense heights to discern the least morsel on the desert floor, has
eyes better than they. Then David says, "If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are
there!" (Ps. 139:8). Thanks be to God that He will seek His lost ones through all the
Universe - through all the Earths and all the Hells until He has found and saved them all.
He must seek until He finds.
"Where are you going
Shepherd?
To find My sheep.
How far will you go?
As far as My sheep.
How far may that be?
To the world's end.
How long will you seek it?
Until I find it.
When you find it,
will it come to you?
No, it will flee from Me.
Where will it go then?
To the rocks and the sand.
When will it stop?
When it can run no more.
What will you do then?
Carry it home.
Friends, you will never get away from Jesus. Jesus will follow you everywhere and demand
your heart's surrender. I am so glad for a Gospel that is coextensive with, and greater
than, the devil's work in spirit soul, and body. I am so glad for a Gospel that is not
limited to this age, but reaches out to all ages! I am so glad for a Gospel which tells me
that God has made a way by which even His banished may return. I am so glad for a Gospel
that is not limited to earth, but reaches into the depths of death and hell. I am so glad
for a Gospel of Everlasting Hope, of Everlasting Expectation, and for the conviction and
divine revelation that the miserable and the wicked shall at last be brought to repent of
their sin, and to find their God and Father. I should not want to be an elder, or pastor,
or leader, of a people that would wish me to preach eternal damnation.
Mothers, your boys have
sinned. They were dragged into sin and died in sin, and you have been weeping because they
went to hell. Mothers, if the Christ would guide you down to hell to talk to your son
there, would you not go? Would you not go and plead with your son to come back with you to
the
There is no hell that could
be more vile than the hell I see around me right here in El Paso; the hell of sin, sorrow,
torment, fear, demon possession, hatred, murder, strife, drugs, vile rock music,
immorality, rebellion, cursing, nervous breakdown, godlessness and wretchedness. We have a
great deal of hell here in El Paso, and there are no hells that could be worse than Miami,
San Francisco, New York, Chicago, London, Hong Kong and Calcutta. "Oh, but there is a
hell that is full of murderers!" you say. Well, these cities today are full of
murderers. "But there is a hell that is full of devils!" you say. Well, these
cities today are full of devils. "But there is yet another hell that is filled with
liars, fornicators, and blasphemers!" you say. Well, these cities today are filled
with liars, fornicators, and blasphemers. "Ah, but there is a hell where the devil
himself dwells!" you say. Well, the devil himself is also right here on this earth,
cursed to crawl upon his belly, to eat the dust of the carnal mind and nature of man. He
that is joined to the devil is one satanic spirit. Or is it that people cannot be that
bad? What about
We have lots of hell beyond
us, but our work is to follow Christ, to be willing, as Sons, not only to ascend the
throne, exalted far above all heavens, but to be poured out as a River of Life INTO THE
LOWEST PARTS OF THE EARTH, INTO ALL THE HELLS, and clean them out by His conquering power
and transforming life, until there is no more hell anywhere. What father would not go to
any of the hells of the world, what father would not trudge through the saloons of the
Bowery or the sex-filth of Amsterdam in the hope that he might run across his son or his
daughter who is captive to the devil there and bring them back to God and to the Kingdom?
This is the Spirit of the Father who "so loved the world" and it is the Spirit
of the Son who "descended into the lower parts of the earth" and it is the
Spirit of every Son of God, born of the incorruptible seed of a Divine Hope, a Divine
Faith and a Divine Love. If you would not walk across the street to see some poor soul
delivered and converted by the redeeming power of Christ, don't waste your time relating
to me how you are one of God's "chosen ones" to help in the delivering of the
whole creation from the bondage of corruption. The Spirit of Reconciliation must reign
within our hearts even now. The Ministry of Reconciliation must proceed from our lives
even now. Rivers of Living Water must, even now, pour forth from out of our innermost
being, bringing hope and victory and life to all who will come and drink!
While preaching about the
harlot who washed the feet of Jesus, J. A. Dowie related the following story which
graphically illustrates the truth of which I write: "This poor woman who came in from
the streets is called 'Hamartolos'; in the original word, that is to say, a prostitute, a
harlot; a poor, wretched, outcast woman. Oh, is there any being upon God's earth so much
to be pitied, so deplorably miserable, as such an one? Perhaps she had known virtue, and a
happy home. She may have been pampered and petted; perhaps educated and made to think that
she was the cynosure of all eyes. Now she finds herself, by the betrayal of her heart's
affection, a poor wretched outcast, whose only means of sustenance is to prey upon unclean
and vicious and foul humanity. I know nothing so sad as this. In all its naked horror it
appeals to no one. I have never ceased to shrink almost with terror, man of mature years
though I now am, whenever I have been accosted in the street by such an one.
"One night in
"I was enjoying, for a
moment or two, that cool, fresh air, when I heard a clear and beautiful voice say to me,
'Good evening, sir.' I turned around and saw the lovely face of a very beautiful girl. I
said, 'Good evening,' but I trembled as I said it; because I knew at once what kind of
woman she was. Yet she did not seem to be deeply stained with sin. 'Good evening,' she
said; and I again said, 'Good evening,' and that was all. She said, 'Will you go home with
me?' And then, having silently prayed, I turned to her and said, 'Home with you?' 'Yes.'
'Where is your home?' So she told me. 'Oh, no,' I said, 'that is not your home. Your home
is the house of her which is the gate of hell. The dead are there. If I went home with you
I should share the fate of all who enter there, unless God delivers them. But will you go
home with me?' She was trembling violently, holding on to an iron post with a ring at the
top of it, and her fingers were grasping the ring. 'Home with you?' she said. 'Yes, sir,
but where do you live?' I said, 'I live on earth, but my home is in the heavens. Oh, won't
you go home with me to heaven, I will take you to a lovely woman tonight in
"I am sure that she had
not been long in sin. She opened her eyes wide and held up her hand, and I will never
forget her cry - 'It is too late. The waters have gone over me. It is too late,' and with
that she darted away. I went after her, but she was lost in a moment amidst the great
multitude that was surging up and down the streets. 'Too late! The waters have gone over
me.' I went home that night with these words ringing in my ears: 'Too late! Too late! The
waters have gone over me.' I said, 'It is not so, God; we shall search for that woman in
this city until we find her.' And blessed be God, today that woman is living a holy and
happy and virtuous life" -unquote.
This is the ministry of the
Good Shepherd.
This is the ministry of the Son and the Sons.
Rescue the perishing, Care
for the dying,
Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave;
Weep o'er the erring one,
Lift up the fallen,
Tell them of Jesus, the mighty to save.
Down in the human heart,
Crushed by the tempter,
Feelings lie buried that grace can restore;
Touched by a loving heart,
Awakened by kindness,
Chords that were broken will vibrate once more.
Oh God! Every man of the
untold billions of earth is Your creative offspring. They may have wandered far from You.
The mark of Cain may be upon the brow; but even Cain You would permit no man to kill; and
You did send into the abyss Your sinless Son to bring back those who had sinned when the
whole world rejected You thousands of years before. Here in this land, and in all lands,
there are many spirits in the prison house of sin and darkness, and damning lust and fear,
and vile habits and wretchedness, and all kinds of devious and guilty ways. God bring them
out into the light! Help us, Oh Father, to BE THE LIGHT and shine, and shine, and shine,
till there is no more darkness anywhere. Help all who read these lines to understand Your
great love.
Jude tells us to
"convince some, who doubt; save some, by snatching them out of the fire; on some have
mercy with fear, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh" (Jude 22-23). It is
our job to do the snatching. Christ has shed His blood and poured out the Holy Spirit of
power! Our part is to pick up our weapons and go out against the powers of darkness and
drive them off the land. Christ bought us with His own blood - we belong to Him. And so,
by the same token, do all men. John said that Jesus "is the expiation for our sins,
and not for ours only but also for the sins of the WHOLE WORLD" (I Jn. 2:2). No
person is exempt from Christ's work of salvation. What remains is for us to work with God
- to fight the good fight that loosens Satan's bold on lost men and women and compels them
to come into the banquet hall. Do you believe that the weapons with which God has equipped
you are effective? Do you believe that merely speaking the Word of Reconciliation in
faith, in utter dependence upon the Holy Spirit, will cast down strongholds and bring down
every high thing that exalts itself against God? Do you believe that your weapons can and
will bring minds - rebellious minds to obey Christ? They will! Let us challenge hell's
gates. They cannot prevail against God's Church! Let us break them down in order to bring
out the captives that they might serve Christ and know true freedom.
I do not wonder sometimes
that those who only read my writing think that I am a hard and vindictive man, especially
as I warn men of the error and abominable apostasy of the nominal Church systems. But if
you only knew, I am one of the most peaceable and gentle men in the world. I am a very
quiet man (except in the pulpit), and believe that I am merciful and compassionate toward
every sinner. I have only been a fighter because I had to fight. Was Jesus Christ not a
great fighter? Is He not a great fighter still? And is He not the Prince of Peace? Is He
not God's Lion, the Lion of the tribe of
I call God to witness and you
to witness that when I have had to fight - for whom have I fought? I fought for God. I
fought for Truth. I fought for reality. I fought against the false shepherds who were
taking away the key of knowledge, who entered not in themselves, and them that were
entering in they hindered. I fought those who fought the right ways of the Lord, deceiving
the people and holding them in bondage to slavish forms of empty religion. Stephen fought
the devils in the Jewish system to their very faces although he knew he would die. He saw
his Master in the heavens. Do you see your Master in the heavens? Do you see Him by your
side? Do you know Him within, in the depths of your spirit? Do you hear His voice? Do you
know what He wants you to do? He wants you to follow in His steps, to BECOME HIS SALVATION
unto the ends of the earth. He wants you to deliver His creation from sin, sorrow, death,
hell, and the demonic power which curses this world. Who follow in His train? Not those
whose Christianity consists in a feeble conformity to a creed, and go through the motions
of a Sunday morning ritual. The peace of God means war with sin. He that is a friend of
evil is the enemy of God. This is the kind of peace Jesus left. He made warriors of men.
They went forth to fight the world and the devil, in
Oh, that is such a sublime
verse where Jesus said, "ALL AUTHORITY is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Go therefore and teach all nations..."
(Mat. 28:18-19). Do you see that? There is a tremendous power in that
"Therefore," I am with you. I will back you. Every angel in heaven if needful
will come forth and surround you. Fight! What does it matter, the puny governments and
armies and courts of THIS WORLD? All authority is given to the Christ of God, and we are
His body! The hosts of God will troop over all the skies, ten thousand times ten thousand
millions, if need be. "I command. Go therefore, you poor fishermen, and tax-gatherers
and discredited rabbis, go, I am with you." If only we realized what power there is
behind us!
General Grant marched out
because he felt that it was an honest nation behind him that would lay all its millions of
dollars down to carry that thing through, and can we not march out and take the devil's
forts, knowing that we have got all the omnipotence of heaven with us? Cowards you are,
talking about "holding the fort"! Get out of your forts! What is the use of
going inside of fortifications? I tell you, the army that fights behind entrenchments is
whipped every time. God is raising up a SONSHIP COMPANY that will go for the devil's
fortresses, to batter him, shatter him and break up his kingdom. God is even now, in the
end of this age, preparing an army of OVERCOMING ONES who shall go forth in the fullness
of the power of the Spirit to pull down the strongholds of creed and ritual and religious
ignorance and set the captives free; who will beat down the strongholds of sin and
rebellion and let the prisoners go free!
I am not afraid to take the
blows from the devil, and I am not afraid to give blows! I have a shield upon which I can
take the fiery darts. I am glad for the fight. It is the good fight of faith. It is the
good fight of love. The thing, however, that buoys up my heart above everything else is
the hope, the hope that springs perennial in this breast, that I shall see victory;
victory for purity and righteousness and peace; that I shall hear a song of universal joy
from the whole earth, and from hell, and from the farthest reaches of the universe when
they sing: "Hallelujah! For the Lord God omnipotent reigns, and the kingdoms of this
world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ." Blessed hope!
We must have it! We shall
fight it out to the end, and we will win. Sin shall be abolished. Disease, death, pain,
and hell shall pass away. Then, O Christ, and then alone, will You see the travail of Your
soul and be satisfied. Then, O Christ, and then alone, can we be satisfied; when the last
rebel has bowed at Your feet, and there is no more fight; for there is no more rebellion
anywhere. Hallelujah! God shall reign forever! It is a living hope; this hope that, at
last, every poor sinner will have heard the glad sound, and that at last every poor spirit
in earth and heaven and hell will bow before the Christ, and will own His sway, and there
shall be harmony and peace and unity everywhere, for God shall be All in All. That is my
hope.
"Oh," you reply,
"the story of Lazarus, and the rich man who in Hades lifted up his eyes, being in
torments, teaches us that there is no bridge between heaven and hell, no way to escape the
tormenting fire." I shall speak very plainly about that. In the first place the story
of the rich man and Lazarus is usually considered without any reference to its setting.
Near the close of Jesus' ministry He had eaten dinner with a Pharisee, at which time He
not only healed a man with dropsy, but gave some pointed instructions about how to give a
dinner party. When He left the house, great throngs followed Him (Lk. 14:25).
Many of this crowd were
publicans and sinners. In Lk. 15:1-2 we read, "Then drew near unto Him all the
publicans and sinners to hear Him, and the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This
man receives sinners, and eats with them." It is against this background of criticism
from the scribes and Pharisees that the teaching of Lk. 15 and 16 are given. That whole
discourse is called a parable. "And He spoke this parable unto them, saying"
(Lk. 15:3). The Greek is very definite in making the word for parable clearly a singular
noun. It is "the parable this." Five seemingly separate stories enter into His
teaching to carry the truth of "THIS PARABLE." His usual method of teaching all
but the inner circle of His disciples was by a parable. "All these things spoke Jesus
IN PARABLES unto the multitudes; and without a parable spoke He nothing unto them"
(Mat. 13:34). "But privately to His disciples He expounded all things" (Mk.
4:34).
Now, it is not my purpose to
explain the meaning of the parable in this writing, for that is another story altogether.
I would be remiss if I did not point out, however, that while the story itself IS A
PARABLE, in all parables there must be a correspondence between the type and the antitype
or they fail to have validity as parables. Let me illustrate. Jesus spoke a parable,
saying, "Behold, a sower went forth to sow." He then explained how the seed fell
upon various kinds of soil, and the result from each. Now, since this is a parable, it is
obvious that Jesus is not just relating a series of facts; He is not talking about a
certain literal farmer sowing actual seed such as wheat or corn. Each part of the story is
a symbol, a metaphor, an illustration of something else, and we know, of course, that the
sower is the Christ, the seed is the Word of the Kingdom and the soils are different kinds
of hearts. But - if there were no such thing as seed, and no such activity as sowing, and
no actual soil in existence, then the parable would have no base, no strength, no meaning
- it would not be a parable at all, but merely a fantastic, unrealistic, imaginary fairy
tale! It is the FACT of seed, sowers, and soils that gives the parable its strength.
So, in the parable of Lazarus
and the rich man, if there is no such thing as Hades, and if there is no sense of
suffering of punishment in Hades, then the application of the parable fails. There must be
some reality to these things or the parable is not a parable at all! But in the parable
Lazarus is said to be in "Abraham's bosom." The phrase "Abraham's
bosom" was a well-known one, current among the people of
The rich man wanted Lazarus
to come and cool his tongue. He had been a very bad man, and so was tormented in the hell
he had created for himself. But when he asked that Lazarus should cross, Abraham said,
"Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed; no one can cross it." Abraham
could not cross that gulf. It was a fixed gulf to him. Ah, no, Abraham could not get
across to him! I know Abraham could not pass over it, and I do not wonder at Abraham's not
being able to pass over it. I am not a great admirer of Abraham. A man that will hide
behind his wife and say she is his sister in order to save his own skin, is not to be
greatly admired! That is just what Abraham did. Abraham got behind Sarah's robes, saying
to her in effect as follows: "Now, when Abimelech comes along, you say to him that
you are my sister, and not my wife; you are so beautiful that if he knows you are my wife
he will kill me. But it won't matter, even though you are carried off to his harem, you
will know Abraham's skin is alright." I think that was a very pitiful kind of a man,
if his name was Abraham. I do not wonder that he could not cross the gulf.
I do not wonder that Isaac
could not cross. He was just the same kind of fellow, and did exactly the same thing. I do
not wonder that Jacob could not cross. He was one of the cutest scamps that ever lived. He
persuaded his brother to sell him his whole inheritance, his entire birthright, for a mess
of portage, and then deceived his poor old blind father and brazenly lied and stole his
brother's blessing. A very mean man was Jacob. "But these are Patriarchs!" you
say. I know that, that shows what a poor lot the best of them were. Wonderful that God
Almighty could make so much out of them! And we are a poor lot, too, and it is wonderful
what God can make out of us!
The Bible says that Abraham
could not cross that abyss, nor could Lazarus. There is no denying that, BUT THE CHRIST
CROSSED THAT ABYSS. There is the difference! You say that Abraham said, "Between us
and you there is a great gulf fixed, that they which would pass from hence to you may not
be able, and that none may cross over from thence to us." Let me remind you that,
although Abraham said that, the Christ did not. That is right, Abraham, you could not
bridge it! And even if you could, you did not have the keys to the gates. But the Christ
crossed that gulf, and HIS SALVATION BRIDGED IT. Christ bridged it! The Christ Himself IS
THE BRIDGE! It is no use talking nonsense, saying that the gulf was not bridged. It was
not bridged at the time Jesus told that story, but when He arose and grasped the keys of
death and of hell, He made a way for His banished to return.
It was bridged by Jesus
Christ, and there is not any gulf that He cannot bridge. I believe it! If there is, then
He is not God, because there is no gulf that God and His love cannot bridge. Jesus Christ
has bridged the gulf between God and man, between Israelite and Gentile, between bond and
free, between male and female, between rich and poor, and between heaven and hell. He has
bridged all the gulfs, blessed be His name, and so "There is neither Jew nor Greek,
there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in
Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3:28). Thank God! a greater than Abraham is here. He bridges the
gulf between heaven and earth and between earth and hell, for it is written, "That at
the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and
things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to
the glory of God the Father" (Phil. 2:10-11).
Oh, the love that drew
salvation's plan!
Oh, the grace that brought it down to man!
Oh, the mighty GULF THAT GOD DID SPAN at
My greatest desire is to be
filled with all the fullness of God and come into the image of Jesus Christ. My greatest
obsession is that I might be counted worthy to stand in that glorious company of the
MANIFESTED SONS OF GOD. As God knows my heart, it is not a selfish desire. The reason I
want to be like Jesus is because I love Him so; but also because it is the only way I can
ever be used in the restoration of fallen creation. I see the desperate needs of the world
around me, and realize that I am powerless to do anything about it on a sufficient scale.
Oh, yes, I can pray, agree with God, and see occasional conversions, deliverances, and
victories. But anyone who says that they have reached the place where their ministry is
meeting the needs of this sin-cursed world is either blind to the needs of man, a proud
hypocrite, or a compulsive liar.
But God has a purpose in His
people. God's purpose is NOT to redeem a bunch of people to sit at a bus stop and wait for
a heavenly bus to come along and take them out of this mess. God is preparing SONS to
change the world, to seek and save, to redeem and restore all back into God. These Sons
will not be found looking up into the sky, expecting Jesus to come and snatch them away to
heaven! God has redeemed us and is putting Himself into us so that He may send us to clean
up the mess that the devil has made.
For this day of deliverance
the whole creation groans! For these Sons who shall bring the deliverance all creation
travails! "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be
compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the
creation waits for the MANIFESTATION OF THE SONS OF GOD... because the creation itself
also shall he delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the
children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together
until now" (Rom. 8:18-22). From within the prison house of sin and death and hell can
be heard the groaning and the travailing of the whole creation. We know this groaning is
not a groaning for the manifestation of merely God or of His Son, Jesus the Christ.
Somehow, through the infinite wisdom and work of God, there is a faint ray of knowledge
deep within the sub consciousness of the prisoners, that their release is going to come
through the ministry of the SONS OF GOD. God will not singlehandedly deliver the
prisoners, and neither will Jesus the Christ. But some of the very prisoners of that
prison, who once mingled with all the rest, have been ushered out to become a FIRSTFRUIT
OF HIS REDEMPTION and commissioned of God, chosen of God to pass through a process of
training, preparation, testing. and transformation that they may return and release the
captives.
The processing, the purging,
the change, the transformation and the testing that the chosen ones must go through is of
great importance to us. Hear now the inspired admonition of the apostle Paul in whose
spirit this hope burned brightly: "I entreat you, therefore, brethren, by the tender
compassions of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice holy, well-pleasing to God,
your rational service. And do not conform yourselves TO THIS AGE, but transform yourselves
by the renovation of your mind, that you may ascertain what is the will of God, the good,
and well-pleasing, and perfect" (
In God's wonderful plan there
is the call for the PRESENTING OF OUR BODIES. There is the ASCERTAINING OF HIS WILL, and
the being CONFORMED TO THE AGE AND THE AGES THAT ARE TO COME. We are not to be married to
THIS AGE, but we are to remain unmarried to it that we might be married to that age and
those ages that are coming. The children of this age, Jesus said, marry and are given in
marriage to this age, but the children of the resurrection, the Sons of God, those
destined to deliver the creation, neither marry nor are given in marriage to this age, but
are keeping themselves unto the age and the ages to come, and the gracious and glorious
ministry reserved for that time.
Ah, let us surrender
ourselves unto God for the blessing and deliverance of ALL CREATION!
Chapter
7
A king in
The answer of the child is
the answer which I give you. Do you desire to teach the child that which will enable it to
triumph over the lusts and passions of a mere animal nature? Teach it that it is the
Offspring of the Father of spirits, and that first and greatest of all is the spiritual
nature which it has and not the psychical or the physical nature. "And God said, Let
us make man in our image, and after our likeness ... so God created man in His own image,
in the image of God created He him" (Gen. 1:26-27). "And has made of one blood
all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined the times
before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek the Lord, if
haply they might feel after Him, and find Him, though He be not far from every one of us:
for in Him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have
said, for we are also HIS OFFSPRING. Forasmuch then as we are the OFFSPRING OF
GOD..." (Acts 17:26-29). Teach the child that sex, race, or nationality is nothing in
the
"...which was the son of
Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God"
(Lk. 3:38). Adam - the SON OF GOD! God has a wayward sinner for a son, that wayward boy
sprang, originally from the heart of God after a creaturely manner. He was created out of
the glory of God and was a radiant creature, more radiant than an angel; and that boy,
dead in scarlet sins, is still God's son, but he is a prodigal son. Some fathers may
disown their sons, but the Father of the prodigal son never said that that wayward boy of
His was not His son. The Bible says that such become the children of the devil; but,
nevertheless, God still has a double claim upon them: they are His by creation; and they
are His by right of redemption. They are dead in trespasses and sins. They need to be
saved, to be converted, regenerated. They need to repent and come home; but when they do,
the sorrowing Father is made glad and says, "For this My son was dead, and is alive
again; be was lost, and is found." God is a bereaved God. It brings sorrow to our
hearts, too, to think that our God and Father is bereaved of His children!
But to whatever depths of
depravity, destitution, emptiness, sorrow, pain, and disaster the prodigal finally comes,
it is good for him, for it ultimately destroys the pride and arrogance, the independence
and selfhood, and the wickedness and rebellion in his heart. It would be well worth our
time to consider prayerfully the deep import of the piercing words of the prophet:
"Your own wickedness shall correct you, and your backslidings shall reprove you"
(Jer. 2:19). Those who suppose that hell and the lake of fire represent the eternal doom
of the sinners of Adam's race are ignorant and understand nothing whatever of God's great
laws, and purposes, and dealings in judgment. The apostle Paul wrote to Timothy about two
apostates in the Church: "Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put
away concerning faith have made shipwreck: of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have
delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme" (I Tim. 1:19-20). Were
these two reprobates turned over to Satan to be tormented for ever in the lake of fire?
Nay I They were delivered unto Satan that they might LEARN! Learn what? "Learn NOT TO
BLASPHEME. " It should be obvious to every thinking mind that as soon as the lesson
had been learned, the apostle called Satan off the case, and the erring one was restored
to God and His people!
There is a beautiful story in
Luke chapter fifteen, the parable of the Prodigal Son. While feeding hogs in the "far
country," the prodigal came to himself. It was the lack of food that changed him. His
body was made to need food, even as his heart was made for friendship and love, but he was
destitute. "No man gave unto him," the story says. Alone! Forsaken! Stripped!
Then he remembered: "How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to
spare, and I perish with hunger!" He was suffering the results of his own
selfishness, and lust, and rebellion. His body was in agony without the sustenance it was
created for. Rags, and filth, and stench were his surroundings. All this the result of his
sin! To be "without God in the world" is life's ultimate in desolation and
despair. The reality of judgment is separation from God's love and fellowship and blessing
and the consequent recognition of condemnation and the processes of wrath and judgment.
We often forget that God not
only allows Satan and sin and evil, but that He also uses them. Again and again, when
trouble stalks his path, a man turns back to the God he has despised. When his wife dies,
or his children go wrong; when loss and disaster fall upon him, again and again he will
seek the God he has neglected. Many of our men who fought in past wars found that danger
and privation turned their minds toward God. Foxholes cure atheism, they say. Weeks on a
lifeboat adrift in the ocean do something to a man, and he is often a very different
person when he lands on shore again. That is not because God coerces the man, but because
God brings upon him such experiences as change his attitudes and priorities. And God
brings such experiences upon men, not in vindictive hatred, but in love. He is too wise to
err, too loving to be unkind!
Some argue that because we
affirm that the judgments of God are not eternal, but corrective, we teach a "hell
redemption." We are accused of believing that hell can accomplish in a man what the
mercy and blood of Jesus could not accomplish. Many years ago Charles G. Finney (and we
respect his ministry) opposed the teaching of the ultimate salvation of all by ridicule.
Finney was a master of the invective. He said that those who were saved after this
"age of grace" ends would unceasingly sing, "Thanks be to the hell that
saved us by our own suffering!" Just how much weight is there to that criticism? It
is a marvelous truth that CHRIST ALONE can save! There is no other way! How we rejoice
that it is so! But there is one thing that must be dealt with before any man can come to
Christ and be saved. MAN'S REBELLION MUST BE REMOVED. His pride and self-confidence and
stubbornness and trust in things and pleasures that damn and lead away from God must be
broken. And this is where judgment comes in. Judgment destroys the power of the carnal
mind which blinds, which is enmity against God, but judgment does not grant redemption. It
only breaks rebellion! It breaks man's stubborn will! But redemption was purchased upon
the cross.
It is a small matter for God
to break the resistance of men. Men without God live like animals. They eat, sleep,
entertain themselves, labor, but they are not in touch with God at all. He has no place in
their thoughts nor in their lives. Finally man awakens. Like the old country preacher who
was telling of the prodigal son. He said, "He took off his coat and spent that. Then
he took off his vest and spent that. Then he took off his shirt, and when he took off his
shirt, he came to his self." We come to ourselves in various ways! When the prodigal
was feeding hogs in the "far country" he "came to himself," according
to Jesus. Did he, then, have a "hog pen redemption?" Not at all! The hog pen
didn't save him, but he did get some sense knocked into him there. It was there his
willfulness and rebellion left him, but he was not saved until he got back to his Father.
I have read about men in the foxholes on the battle front getting saved. Did they get a
"war redemption?" Did the war save them? No! No! No! Men in the danger and
horror of war often begin to think as they never thought before, but war does not save. At
best, it can only awaken them, and turn men to the Christ they have ignored. And if they
are saved at all it is because they call in all sincerity upon the Saviour who died for
them on
Now the prodigal didn't have
to go home. He was not compelled to do so, no one dragged him. He wanted to! But he didn't
want to until all his money was gone and he got to feeding hogs. The circumstances had to
crowd in upon his life which caused him to come to the place where he chose to "arise
and go to the Father." The heart of the Father is calling, calling, calling to His
wayward children, "Come unto Me." Long before the prodigal son had come to his
home, the Father was waiting, and looking for him. He saw him coming along the weary way,
no longer with servants attending, no longer in rich robes; but ragged, poor, dirty, in
worn out sandals, he came along the road, with the stench of the swineherd and the stains
of the fleshpots upon him. Creeping along, sick, sore, and weary, he said, "Oh, if I
could but be one of my Father's hired servants! "Is it he? Can it be - O God, can
that be he who left only a few months ago, so strong, so happy, so bright, with the world
all before him? Can that be he?" "It is. It is he." Will the Father reject
him? Will the Father not say, "I gave him his portion and he has spent it all in
riotous living; let him stay away for ever?" No, no. The Father saw him afar off, and
he ran and fell on his neck, and kissed him, not heeding his filthiness and his rags. The
Father interrupted the prayer, after the son told him of his sin, that he might become a
slave in the Father's house; for there are no slaves in our Father's house. They are all
sons and daughters of the Most High God.
Thank God for that! Why,
then, should we be slaves to Satan, and to sin, and to death, and to hell? The Father took
him and kissed him. He told the servants to bring the best robe and the signet ring that
made him controller of his Father's estate. He told them to get out the musical
instruments and the dancers, and to make merry and be glad. "Spread the feast, for
this my son was dead; dead to me; dead to mother; dead to purity; dead to truth; dead to
love; dead to God; and he is alive again. He was lost and is found." Whenever
judgment has done its work; whenever a man comes to himself and says "I will";
"I will arise and go to my Father, and I will say to my Father, I have sinned against
heaven and in Your sight and am no more worthy to be called your son," then the Great
and Eternal God and Father will take that man, sin-stained and foul as he is in spirit,
and in soul, and in body, and He will make him whiter than snow. If you ask Him to give
you the lowest place as a servant, He will lift you up, and kiss you and say, "My
Son! My Daughter!" The robe of the Father's righteousness will be placed upon you,
you will be bountifully fed from His very own table with the wisdom of His Word, and the
signet-ring that gives you power and authority over all things in His Kingdom, will be
upon your finger. Cleansed and robed and empowered by the Father, you can go out and do
His work. All creation groans for the FIRSTFRUITS of His redemption to be revealed in all
the majesty and power and glory of their regained inheritance! Blessed be God for ever.
You may remember the story of
the man who was trying to get his mule into the barn. The man was tugging on the rope and
pulling with all his might. He got behind the mule and pushed; he put his shoulder to its
back but he could not budge the mule who just stood there, stiff legged, and would not
move. He could not get it into the barn! A fellow walked up and watched for quite a while.
Finally he said, "Mister, I'll get your mule into the barn for you if you like."
The man stopped in astonishment and said," Can you?" He said," Of course,
it is easy." The stranger walked over and picked up a two-by-four, came over to the
mule, quietly lifted the two-by-four, and whacked him on top of the head, right between
the eyes. The mule went a little cross eyed! Then he hit him behind the ears. Before the
mule could quite straighten up again, he struck him underneath the chin. With that he took
hold of the rope and with two fingers led the mule into the barn! The man stood there
astonished. The fellow came out again and said, "You see, mister, actually this mule
is a very cooperative critter. You just got to get his attention!"
Sometimes God has to GET OUR
ATTENTION. And to do that He chooses to use events which are instruments of His judgment.
God told Moses that the reason for His judgment upon the Egyptians was to make them know
that He is God. Everything God does shows us something about who He is, but in this
instance of judgment God particularly expressed that His intent was to show Himself to the
Egyptians. And He was successful in this, for in chapter eight of Exodus Moses records the
magicians telling Pharaoh, "This is the finger of God." Our God has foretold the
blessed era when He shall be ALL IN ALL. How can God ever be ALL- IN - ALL? Are there not
some creatures and men too calloused and hostile to bend to His omnipotence? Let each one
who knows Him as their ALL give answer thus: "He who has broken my stubborn will and
brought me to His feet can lead the most obstinate to Himself." His will is more than
a match for any man's. Were it His decree to become their DOOM, they could not stop Him.
But as it is His will to become their ALL (which is a far nobler, greater goal), their ALL
He shall become. His indignation may break and destroy pride and rebellion for the ages,
but His love will endure endlessly and He will pursue all men until at last they surrender
to His love.
Ah, yes, God knows just how
to GET OUR ATTENTION! He can get it here and now. If He doesn't get it here, He will get
it in hell. If He doesn't get it in hell, He will get it in the lake of fire. He will get
it by gracious words and tender mercies, if He can. But if not, He will get it by severe
judgments and awful wrath. But, blessed be His name, He will get our attention!
God gives us power, in the
positive realm, to get men's attention, to subdue them to Christ. Jesus has said, in
effect, "All Authority has been given unto Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore, I give you authority to tread upon
serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy. I give you this authority. I
am behind you, and all the powers of heaven are on your side. Go therefore and MAKE DISCIPLES." They were
a poor lot to go. They were nearly all fishermen, with one honest tax-gatherer. If you can
find one honest tax gatherer in
Dr. J. A. Dowie, years ago,
related the following incident: "A man said to me once, 'You talk as if you could
make people believe.' I said, 'I can; of course I can. You give me a chance at you, and I
will make you believe before I am through.' He said, 'You will never make me believe.' I
said, 'Will you come and attend services at Zion Tabernacle for ten consecutive Sundays,
and see if I cannot?' 'Yes,' he said, 'I will, but you will be just as far away from it at
the end of the ten weeks as you were at the beginning.' I looked for that man every
Sunday, and I studied him from every point of view. I got to know all about him. I got to
know all of his meannesses. I got to know the wickedness he had done. I 'spanked' him for
about five consecutive services. I had him writhing in his seat and swearing under his
breath, and wondering who had given him away. Every now and then I would look at him from
this platform and say, 'I will have you yet.' He was wondering what I meant; but he was
breaking up fast. After about five weeks I did not know if he would come any more. But on
the sixth Sunday I forgot about him and did not know whether he was in the place or not.
That day I said, 'There are some of you whom I have been pounding, and I suppose you have
about come to believe that there is no hope for you anywhere on earth or in hell.'
Suddenly I saw him and said, 'There is hope for you. You are a mighty hard case, but I
will have you today. You will be a disciple today. Dare you to put it off any longer?'
When I said, 'Stand,' I saw that fellow try to sit when thousands arose, but he could not.
Before the ten weeks were up he said, 'Doctor, I surrender.' I said, 'All right; come and
be baptized next Sunday.' God enabled me to MAKE HIM A DISCIPLE" -end quote.
But at times God has to use
more severe means. Some months ago I turned on my car radio while en route to a meeting on
a Sunday morning and heard a preacher relate a most interesting and illustrative story. He
said, "I remember a friend of mine that I was in school with. He was a pastor in the
East Texas oil fields at the time of the explosion at the
"But this pastor friend
of mine told me this story. He said, In the parish in which I was the pastor, there lived
a man that had become suddenly rich. He was a Texan who had become oil rich, even had put
up a small refinery. And he had made already several millions of dollars. He had built a
lovely home. He had a wife and two beautiful boys. And the wife and two boys were
Christians, fellowshipping in our Church. And this pastor went on and said, This man was
the worst blasphemer I had ever met in my life. I've never heard a man talk as that man
would talk. He would blaspheme God, curse God. And his wife was so concerned about him and
asked me to go see him. I went to see him, and I've never been treated like that in my
life. He cursed me from the time I opened my mouth until I got out of earshot. He called
me everything that was in the book and some things I didn't know were in the book. He was
vile. His wife and one of his little boys took sick during the flu epidemic and both died
at the same time. I went over that night to see them. I went in and there sat the father
and the little boy that was alive. I went over and sat down beside them and began to talk,
and he began to abuse me again. And curse - I've never heard anything like it! It was vile
beyond description. He blasphemed God's name. There was nothing left for me to do but get
up and walk out of there, which I did. I had the funeral. The man wouldn't even speak to
me. And he became more vile after that. But all of the love that he'd had for his family,
and that seemed to be the only thing about the man that was a redeeming feature, was now
turned to this one little boy that was left.
"That little boy was in
the
That man did not respond to
the POSITIVE witness of the Gospel of God's grace, so corrective measures were needed, and
God stretched forth His hand and brought NEGATIVE forces into action, thereby getting his
attention. Once broken under the judgmental dealings of God, he knelt before the Lord and
received the goodness and mercy and deliverance so graciously proffered. Hallelujah! It
should be clear to every thinking child of God that God does not use the same means and
measures with every man to bring them to Christ. It would be very simple to fill this book
with instance after instance from Holy Scripture which loudly and unmistakably proclaim
the nature and purposes of all God's judgments from the banishment of Adam and Eve from
Eden's fair garden in Genesis to the blazing inferno of the lake of fire in Revelation.
But I would point you briefly to one plain and positive illustration which proceeded from
the lips of our Lord Jesus Christ. "But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord
delays his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and
drink, and to be drunken; the lord of that servant will APPOINT HIM HIS PORTION WITH THE
UNBELIEVERS. And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself,
neither did according to his will, shall be BEATEN WITH MANY STRIPES. But he that knew
not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be BEATEN WITH FEW STRIPES. For unto
whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed
much, of him they will ask the more" (Lk. 12:45-48).
In this parable it is plain
that Christ is teaching degrees of punishment. The Christ teaches that those who have
committed things worthy of many stripes, will receive many, and those who were ignorant,
and with lesser light did not know or understand the will of God, yet did things worthy of
stripes, shall receive but a few. Here is set forth in the plainest of language not only
varying degrees of punishment, but also varying lengths of time for the punishment. What
ever the judgment typified by the "stripes," it takes longer to inflict many
stripes than just a few, so it should not be difficult to understand that some men are
punished for a longer period of time than others. The Word of God declares that the Judge
of all the earth shall do right, and I believe that He shall do just that. As our children
were growing up we did not have one stock punishment for all their misdeeds. We suited the
punishment to the disobedience, yet we haven't granted the same privilege to God! We have
said that everyone is to receive the very same common punishment, hell fire, and that that
judgment would endure for the very same length of time for all - eternity! How, then, I
ask, can some be beaten with "many stripes" and others with "few
stripes" if all receive the same punishment of endless hell fire? How foolish can we
be! It is always extremely foolish to hold to a doctrine that clearly contradicts the Word
of God.
I can almost feel the holy
wrath, I can almost hear the stinging invective of some who think they have me now
-"Ah, " they say, "but Jesus is not talking in this parable about the
condition of the lost; He is teaching about the punishment of disobedient SERVANTS OF
GOD!" And you are so very right, my friend! We never want to forget it. Nothing could
be plainer, for Jesus prefaces His remarks with these significant words: "Who then is
that FAITHFUL AND WISE STEWARD, whom his Lord shall make ruler over His household, to give
them their portion of meat in due season? Blessed is that SERVANT, whom His Lord when He
comes shall find so doing. Of a truth I say unto you, that He will make him ruler over all
that He has" (Lk. 12:42- 44).
There would be no answer to
your argument; I would be forced to throw up my hands and admit that these words of our
Lord apply only to the correction and discipline of servants of the Lord, and have
absolutely no bearing whatever on the judgment of unbelievers, or on hell, or on the lake
of fire, were it not for one significant statement that appears in verse forty-six. The
Lord says, "The Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looks not for Him,
and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will APPOINT HIM HIS
PORTION WITH THE U-N-B-E-L-I-E-V-E-R-S."
Do you see that? Ah, the punishment of this SERVANT is the SAME PUNISHMENT as the
UNBELIEVER receives! He is appointed his portion WITH THE UNBELIEVERS! The punishment,
therefore, of this servant of the Lord and the punishment of the unbelievers is equal,
identical, of the same intensity, for the same length of time, the very same punishment,
and that punishment is? -MANY STRIPES! Not unending stripes; not everlasting whipping; not
eternal torment under the hands of the tormentors; but - many stripes. And of what precise
judgment speaks our Lord when He commands "appoint him his portion with the
unbelievers?" What is the "portion of the unbelievers?" Hear it! "But
the fearful, and UNBELIEVING ... shall have their part (portion) IN THE LAKE WHICH BURNS
WITH FIRE AND BRIMSTONE" (Rev. 21:8). The "portion of the unbelievers" is
the lake of fire. And not only are the unbelievers judged there, but the unfaithful
servants of God are dealt with there, too! And, by Jesus' own words, this punishment is
called "many stripes," and is shown to be limited in its duration and corrective
and remedial in its nature.
I believe every word that the
Bible says about the lake of fire; I don't believe what
The teaching concerning the
lake of fire does not appear anywhere in Scripture except in the book of Revelation where
it is spoken of in the following passages: Rev. 14:10-11; 19:20; 20:10; 20:13-15 and 21:8.
This last passage definitely states, "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the
abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars
shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone: which is the second
death." There should be no question remaining as to the certainty of this lake of
fire; neither should there be any doubt as to the awful consequence of having to be cast
into it. These Scriptures with their dreadful foreboding should be a fearful warning to
all unthinking and foolish people who, because of their love for the world, the flesh, and
the devil, have dared to ask why we should serve God now if all are going to be saved
eventually. Such people have no love for God nor fear of God, and they manifest by what
they say that their professed serving of God is only a pretense, arising - not from any
true love for Him - but from fear of punishment. If there were no prospect of hell these
would promptly tell God to go to hell and they would, themselves, go to the devil. It is
not thus with those who truly love God, for they serve not from fear, but from pure love
and devotion. Remove punishment completely from the universe, and they would still serve
God with all their hearts.
Because of the gross
misunderstanding of almost all people concerning the lake of fire, I would like to draw
your attention to three words found in the passage quoted above. "But the fearful,
and unbelieving, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all
liars shall have their part in the lake which BURNS with FIRE and BRIMSTONE: which is the
second death." The word BURN means combustion, or to consume. To consume does not
mean to annihilate, for there is no such thing as annihilation in the absolute sense. When
fire consumes a log in your fireplace it does not destroy any of the elements within the
log, it merely changes their form. Combustion is the process by which chemicals combine to
form new chemicals. For example: a tree might be cut down, sawed into fire wood, and
burned. When the wood is burning the heat causes the chemicals of which the wood is
composed to vaporize, mixing with the oxygen in the air to form new chemicals, including
water and the gas carbon dioxide. So what was formerly a tree is no longer identified as
the form of a tree, but the substance thereof is now simply CHANGED into a DIFFERENT FORM
and exists in its new form within the atmosphere as water, carbon dioxide, etc. Thus, to
bum, means to CHANGE. Furthermore, it is interesting to note that fire does not burn down;
it always burns up; it seeks the highest level. And all that it consumes "goes up in
smoke," to exist in a new form in a higher dimension. Even if you take a pan of water
and place it over a fire, before long the water will take on the property of the fire and
will begin to go up in steam. To burn means to CHANGE, and the change is always UPWARD in
its motion.
FIRE is the heat and light
that you feel and see when something burns. It takes heat to start a fire, but once the
fire is started it produces heat that keeps the process going. Thus, fire is really HEAT
and LIGHT.
In my study of the lake that
burns with fire and brimstone I was very much helped and impressed by the understanding
given by Charles Pridgeon and I would like to quote from his scholarly work on the subject
of BRIMSTONE. He says: "The
I realize that the above
thoughts define the subject very briefly, but let us summarize the meanings thus: BURN
means combustion; to change the form of. FIRE means heat and light. BRIMSTONE means
divine. Putting these three together can we not see that the lake burning with fire and
brimstone is, actually, DIVINE HEAT AND LIGHT PRODUCING A CHANGE! Is such a process
eternal? All the laws of nature shout that it is not! More than 2500 years ago the Holy
Spirit warned the wicked inhabitants of
Are the judgments of God
permanent? Isaiah says, "When Your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the
world will learn righteousness" (Isa. 26:9). And Mat. 12:20 says, "A bruised
reed shall He not break, and smoking flax shall He not quench, till He send forth judgment
unto victory." Judgment, therefore, is not an eternal condition, but it is given to
produce that victory. Judgments of themselves do not save anyone, but they are used by God
to bring one to one's self, to effect a change of attitude and will, to consume away the
stubbornness and rebellion of men. Punishment by fire is a beneficent one. "Our GOD
is a consuming fire" (Heb. 12:29). The basic purpose of this divine fire of God is to
cleanse, purify, purge, temper and change. It is to rid of impurities, of filth, of
undesirable elements. There is no better way to deal with filth than to deal with it by
fire.
The punishment by penal fire
leads back to the beginning of things. The final work of God in this world will be the
destruction of the world (order) by penal fire. That will change all things. That will
melt all the elements, so that no man can tell you where his original grab was. It will
burn up all the governments, institutions, systems, and fruitage of the carnal mind. It
will melt all the customs, cultures, traditions, and practices of society and make of this
earth a new earth wherein dwells righteousness. Every man's work will eventually be tested
in this fire. The fire will try every man's work of what sort it is. If you and I build
into our walls wood, hay, and stubble, that fire will find it out, and the wall will come
tumbling down. When God turns on the HEAT, the BLAZING LIGHT OF HIS SPIRIT AND WORD - some
things begin to change! The fire is never sent to destroy the PERSON, but to purge out all
that hinders and separates him from his God, to consume the pride, arrogance, hostility,
defiance, and rebellion of the flesh, the carnal mind, that He might then be wooed and
drawn by the Holy Spirit unto the Father of Spirits and live.
More than three centuries ago
when the Black Plague swept through London, England, more than 68,000 men, women, and
children were sickened with the putrid fever, suffered nameless agonies, passed into
delirium, sometimes with convulsions, and then died. Before the end of the terrible
nightmare of anguish and death, what was thought to be an even greater tragedy occurred.
The city caught fire, the whole heavens were ablaze as the Great Fire destroyed more than
13,200 homes and 89 churches. Most of the city, which was built largely of wood, lay in
ashes. Wonder of wonders! As soon as the last dying embers cooled and the smoke cleared,
the inhabitants of the city discovered that the Plague had been stayed! Not another person
died of the epidemic. The Plague never returned. The fire had killed the bacteria-carrying
fleas and rats that caused the Plague. It took a fire to do it! Fire is a great cleanser,
purifier, and changer.
We all know that a horse must
be broken, that is, its will must be broken before it is of any practical use to man. God
put that will in the horse, but it must be broken and made to conform to the will of man.
Just as surely did God put the will in man, BUT IT MUST BE BROKEN and we will benefit by
the very process of breaking. Man may do a lot of crying and wailing, but when he is
broken to HIS will, what a wonderful condition it is. God may take man over some rough
places, even through the lake of fire and brimstone, but the love of God will break every
man to His will.
If you think the
The book of Revelation is a
book of symbols. In the introduction to this marvelous book the beloved John explains,
"The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him, to show unto His servants
things which must shortly come to pass; and He sent and signified it by His angel unto His
servant John" (Rev. 1:1). The word "signified" is from the Greek SEMAINO
meaning to indicate or communicate by means of signs and symbols. The meanings of all the
symbols of the Revelation are given, either in the book itself, or elsewhere in the
Scriptures. The first things John beheld when in Spirit was One like unto the Son of man,
standing in the midst of seven golden candlesticks, holding seven stars in His right hand.
The One like unto the Son of man is identified as the resurrected and glorified Lord, for
this One says, "I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: I am He that lives, and
was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore" (Rev. 1:10, 17-18). The other symbols
of that first vision are interpreted as follows: "The mystery of the seven stars
which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the
angels (messengers) of the seven Churches: and the seven candlesticks which you saw are
the seven Churches" (Rev. 1:20).
Children in school learn what
we call definitions. A definition is an explanatory statement which tells us exactly what
a certain thing is, as "an island is a tract of land completely surrounded by
water." God also gives us definitions in His Word. He tells us exactly what certain
things are. And in the Scripture just quoted He has told us exactly what the seven stars
and the seven candlesticks are. Those are God's definitions. And in Rev. 20:14 God tells
us exactly what the SECOND DEATH is. "And death and hell were cast into the lake of
fire. THIS IS THE SECOND DEATH." Now let me make this a little plainer. Definitions
of men can be given backward. For instance, the definition, "An island is a tract of
land completely surrounded by water," can be given thus: "A tract of land
completely surrounded by water is an island." This is but another way of stating the
same fact. It does not, in any way, change the meaning. Now let us try this on the
definition of the second death. The Bible states it thus: "Death and hell were cast
into the lake of fire. THIS IS the second death." Now let us turn this around for
clarity. "The second death IS death and hell cast into the lake of fire."
Therefore we have exactly the same meaning either way it is stated. What is the second
death? It is the first death and hell cast into the lake of fire! This fact is very
IMPORTANT. The second death is not merely the lake of fire. The second death is not men
being tortured for ever in the lake of fire. The Holy Spirit has made it very simple and
plain. The second death is the first death and hell CAST INTO THE LAKE OF FIRE. That is
the Holy Spirit's definition, not mine.
Can we now open the eyes of
our understanding to see that everything cast into the lake of fire pertains to DEATH?
Death itself is cast into the lake of fire. Hell, the realm of the dead, is cast into the
lake of fire. And those whose names are not written in the Book of Life, those who are
dead, in trespasses and in sins, who inhabit hell, are cast into the lake of fire. That is
the end of death and hell and sin, for God shall destroy death in the lake of fire, He
shall burn up hell in the lake of fire, and He shall consume sin and rebellion in the lake
of fire. How I long to see the end of sin and death and hell! The time is coming, praise
His name! when God's Kingdom shall be All in All, and there shall be neither sin, nor
sinners, nor death, nor hell. It is clear that God does not destroy men in the lake of
fire, nowhere does it say that, for that would be a contradiction of terms. How can you
destroy death by creating death? How can you abolish death by bringing men under the power
of eternal death from which there is no escape? Oh, no, it is not men who are destroyed in
the lake of fire - it is SIN and DEATH and HELL that are destroyed. "And the last
enemy that shall be destroyed is death" (I Cor. 15:26). Thus, the lake of fire is
nothing more nor less than THE DEATH OF DEATH!
The following words by Ray
Prinzing give fresh insight into this wonderful truth: "The offence of the first Adam
brought all men under the sentence of death for sin. Hence presently our mortal bodies are
in a state of dying, while our minds need to be freed from minding the things of the
flesh, to mind the things of the Spirit. The act of disobedience of Adam brought forth
death. Now, the obedience and work of righteousness of the last Adam also brings forth a
death for every man. The question arises, Is the SECOND DEATH the same kind of death as
the first? Many people think that it is a repetition of the first, and that the results
are the same, while its action is more severe and cruel, and destructive, being by fire.
And some Christians add very sorrowfully, 'and from this second death there is no
resurrection, it is an endless torment in agony,' BUT NOT SO! For God's seconds are never
duplicates of the first, they are always better, higher, and more powerful than the
firsts, and used to counter-balance all the action of the firsts, and MUCH MORE - He
always saves the best until last.
"All Bible statements
prove that the two deaths are absolutely UNLIKE, and that the two are opposite and
antagonistic. The second death undoes all the work of the first death in the same manner
that the last Adam undid all the work of the first Adam. Not to nullify the purpose being
wrought out by the plan of God in the firsts, but to bring a release from the firsts in a
MUCH MORE manner of majesty and glory and power and scope of coverage, into the greater
and glorious things of God. Creation was made subject to vanity for a purpose! Sin was
allowed for wise ends, but when those ends have been secured it will have to cease to
exist. The purpose is not nullified, but the means whereby the purpose has been executed
shall be done away. Discipline is a means to an end, but not an end in itself, it leads up
to the 'AFTERWARDS YIELDING THE PEACEABLE FRUIT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.'
"The first Adam died to
God and righteousness, and became alive unto sin. The last Adam died unto sin (Rom. 6:10),
and lives unto God, and so fulfills all righteousness. The first made all men sinners, the
last makes all men righteous. The lives and the deaths of the two
"Death came as an enemy,
the fruitage of an act of disobedience that turned man away from God and into the realm of
carnality, minding self and flesh. Now God makes death overcome itself. It is by death
that death is rendered powerless, and there arises an upspringing, a new life. It takes
death to destroy death, and thus Christ 'did taste death for every man' - 'that through
death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver
them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage' (Heb.
2:9,14-15). Since we are all under the effects of the first death, it is appointed unto us
to die once more - not physical death, we are already in a state of mortality - but now a
dying out to this present death state. We conquer this death of the carnal mind by dying
to it - only God could use such a process bringing victory, but praise God, He is
destroying the first death with the second death!
"All the Crucifixion,
our identification with the cross of Christ, must first be accepted by faith as a fact,
and then the working of it in and through us is a process. If it is done now, through our
yieldedness to the call and the claims of Christ upon us, we won't have to face it later,
in what is called 'the lake of fire,' which is the second death. The passing through that
lake of divine purification will thoroughly purge out the last remaining fragments of the
rebellion and waywardness of man, till the mystery of iniquity is no more, and then the
carnal mind being abolished, death is no more" -end quote.
It is true that some men are
cast into the processing of the lake of fire. But what a disreputable lot! "...the
fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and
sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with
fire and brimstone: which is the second death." These are men saturated with the
power of the first death - dead in trespasses and in sins, sold under sin, slaves to every
devilish passion, possessed of corrupt and perverse natures, obsessed with every evil
device, unrelentingly driven by the spirit of the world, the flesh, and the devil. And
nothing God has done has yet broken these stubborn wills or brought these men to
repentance. The wages of sin has not broken them. The harvest of evil has not broken them.
Hell has not broken them. The tender mercies of the Lord have not broken them. The Spirit
has faithfully told us of a second death into which unbelieving and incorrigibly wicked
men shall surely go. They go there with death and with hell. The second death will be an
experience and a period of time similar to this first death we are now experiencing, but
much more terrible and severe than anything we now know. The penalty of sin is very great.
The processes of God to break the resistance of willfully wicked men are extremely severe.
Not only in this present age do they smite us, but in that second death which is to come.
It can only be described as the "lake of fire." This terrible death is reserved
for those who have not profited from the previous judgments and still need further
correction to subdue them to the will of God. When the process is complete, and the last
sinner has emerged from the discipline with a broken and contrite spirit, having learned
the lessons of the awful fruit of man's "own way," fully yielding to the
Lordship of our Saviour, then at last shall be fulfilled the beautiful promise: "And
I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and
He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them,
and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be NO
MORE DEATH, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the
former things are passed away. And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make ALL
THINGS new. And He said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful" (Rev.
21:3-5).
Whatever we hold as the
nature of the death state, may we let this truth sink deep into our hearts: DEATH IS TO BE
ABOLISHED. The ringing declaration, "The LAST enemy that shall be destroyed is
death" (I Cor. 15:26), overthrows the whole structure of accepted, but unproved,
theology which shuts up the mass of the human race in "eternal death." When the
"last" enemy is abolished it is self-evident that none remains. Those wretched
religionists who demand the endlessness of death, who argue for eternal torment in the
lake of fire, the second death, do err, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.
The lake of fire MUST end because death and hell are cast into it, which is the second
death, and in the end THERE SHALL BE N-O M-O-R-E D-E-A-T-H.
No more death! No more first death. No more second death. No more of any kind of death. To
say there is no more death is to say that there are no more sinners, for sinners are DEAD
MEN, dead in trespasses and in sins. To say there is no more death is to say that God has
not "burned up" all the wicked and left them dead, or in hell, for as long as
any creature of God is in a state of death, death is not abolished. To say there is no
more death is to say there is no more hell, for hell is "the realm of the dead."
To say there is no more death is to say there is no more a lake of fire, for the lake of
fire IS the second DEATH. To say there is no more death is to say there is no more sin,
for "the wages of sin is DEATH." What a universe of truth is contained in three
little words: NO MORE DEATH!
This grand truth seems to be
almost unknown in the Church systems. Although the very climax and fulfillment of all
revelation, it has been eclipsed by human perversions. As a result the God of the popular
Churches has lost the essential attributes of Deity. He is like the foolish man who
started to build but could not finish. Man's theology brings nothing to a conclusion. It
attains no definite goal. Sin, suffering, and insubjection are never conquered. Death is
never destroyed. Redemption is never fully secured. God is compelled to work an eternal
miracle in order to maintain a never-ending eyesore in His creation, once so subject, so
sinless, and so good. He has to eternally keep His great foot on the lid of hell; for if
even one of the devils should get out there would be hell everywhere! But death in all its
forms shall be destroyed until it shall be said, "There is no more death!" Jesus
is Conqueror! Then shall every creature in the universe bow and in glad chorus sing,
"O death, where is they sting? O grave, where is your victory? The sting of death is
sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be unto God, which gives us the
victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!" (I Cor. 15:55-57).
There is a strange and
wonderful statement found in Rev. 2:11. "He that has an ear, let him hear what the
Spirit says unto the Churches; He that overcomes shall not be HURT of the second
death." I would draw your attention to the fact that it does not say that the
overcomer experiences nothing of the second death, that he does not pass through it, or
that its work is not wrought in his life; but the thought is that he will not be
"hurt" by it. It is possible to pass through the most terrible experience and
not be hurt by it. Listen! "And these three men Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell
down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. Then Nebuchnezzar the king was
astonished, and rose up in haste, and spoke, and said unto his counselors, Did not we cast
three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O
king. He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire,
and they HAVE NO HURT; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God" (Dan.
3:23-25). Oh, to know that we can pass through the darkest night or the hottest fire and
not be hurt by it if Jesus goes with us! How heartening and assuring to read such promises
as these: "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the
rivers, they shall not overflow you: and when you walk through the fire, you shall not be
burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon you" (Isa. 43:2).
The word "hurt" is
from the Greek ADIKEO meaning to be unjust, do wrong, injure or offend. Armed with this
understanding we may paraphrase Rev. 2:11 thus: "He that overcomes shall not be done
an injustice, wronged, injured or offended by the second death." The great difference
between the unbeliever and the child of God is that the unbeliever is taken hand and foot
and "cast" into the lake of fire, fighting, kicking, screaming, cursing, and
resisting all the way, while the child of God willingly and obediently walks into the
fiery processings of God hand in hand with his blessed Redeemer. And, one way or the
other, ALL MEN MUST DIE UNTO SIN.
When the natural man becomes
the spiritual man, the great change is described by the Holy Spirit as a passing from
death unto life. Before the transition occurred, the practical difficulty was this, how to
get into harmony with the new environment of the
His testimony will agree with
the apostle who wrote: "For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my
flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot perform it. I have the intention and urge to
do what is right, but no power to carry it out; for I fail to practice the good deeds I
desire to do, but the evil deeds I do not desire to do are what I am ever doing. Now if I
do what I do not desire to do, it is no longer I doing it - it is not myself that acts -
but the sin (principle) which dwells within me. So I find it to be a law of my being that
when I want to do what is right and good, evil is ever present with me and I am subject to
its insistent demands. For I endorse and delight in the Law of God in my inmost self -
with my new nature. But I discern in my bodily members - in the sensitive appetites and
wills of the flesh - a different law at war against the law of my mind and making me a
prisoner to the law of sin that dwells in my bodily organs - in the sensitive appetites
and wills of the flesh. O unhappy and pitiable and wretched man that I am! Who will
release and deliver me from the shackles of this body of death?" (
To walk both after the flesh
and after the spirit is morally impossible. "No man," as Christ so often
emphasized, "can serve two masters." And yet, as a matter of fact, here is the
new-born child of God being in relation to both worlds - flesh and spirit. With sin and
purity, with light and darkness, with God and the devil, the confused and undecided soul
is now in relation. What is to be done in such an emergency? How can the New Life deliver
itself from the ever-persistent call of the flesh?
The ready solution of the
difficulty is - TO DIE! Not for our "old man" to die, for he is already
crucified with Christ, but for us to DIE TO SIN, or to KILL THE EVIL DESIRE LURKING IN OUR
BODILY MEMBERS. To die to any reality is to withdraw correspondence with it, to cut
ourselves off from all communication with it. The solution of the problem will simply be
this, for the spiritual life to REVERSE CONTINUALLY the processes of the fleshly life. The
spiritual man having passed from death unto life - the fleshly man must next proceed to
pass from life unto death. Regeneration of the spirit in short must be accompanied by
degeneration of the flesh, the carnal mind. And this DEATH PROCESS is the SECOND DEATH -
the DEATH OF DEATH! Now it is no surprise to find that this is the process everywhere
described and recommended by the Holy Spirit! Paul asked the burning question, "Who
will deliver me from this body of death?" and swift came the answer, "O thank
God! - HE WILL! through Jesus Christ our Lord! " (
Listen to the words of the
apostle as he presses this beautiful truth home to the hearts of the understanding saints
in Colosse: "If then you have been raised with Christ to a new life, thus sharing His
resurrection from the dead, aim at and seek the rich, eternal treasures that are above,
where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. And set your minds and keep them set on
what is above - the higher things - not on the things that are on the earth. For as far as
this world is concerned you have died, and your new real life is hid with Christ in God.
So KILL (DEADEN, DEPRIVE OF POWER) the evil desire lurking in your members - those animal
impulses and all that is earthly in you that is employed in sin: sexual vice, impurity,
sensual appetites, unholy desires, and all greed and covetousness, for that is idolatry.
It is on account of these very sins that the holy anger of God is ever coming upon those
who are obstinately opposed to the divine will, the sons of disobedience, among whom you
also once walked, when you were living in and addicted to such practices. But now PUT AWAY
AND RID YOURSELVES COMPLETELY OF ALL THESE THINGS: anger, rage, bad feeling toward others,
curses and slander and foulmouthed abuse and shameful utterances from your lips! Do not
lie to one another, for you have stripped off the old unregenerate self with its evil
practices, and have clothed yourselves with the new spiritual self, which is ever in the
process of being renewed and remolded into fuller and more perfect knowledge upon
knowledge, after the image (the likeness) of Him who created it" (Col. 3:1-10,
Amplified).
Let me repeat - all men shall
die to sin. Some lovingly submit to God's dealings that the dreadful death of the carnal
mind in their members may be "mortified" or put to death, while others must be
subdued and broken under the severe heat of judgmental fire. The former pass through the
death to self - but are not "hurt" by it. In dying by a living and active faith
to everything of the flesh, and living by the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, a
perfect work is wrought in which everything that is in any way opposed to God is brought
to death. These become what God seeks in order to satisfy His heart. In the measure that
we are identified with the cross of Christ, and made conformable to His death, in which it
is no longer our will but HIS, in that measure we are "dying out" to the first
death, via the process of the second death, the death of death, our whole being coming up
in the likeness of His resurrection. The second death, the destruction of the carnal mind
and its hostility and enmity against God, is not to be feared by the blood-bought over-
coming saints of God - it is God's arrangement whereby all the effects of the first death
shall be disannulled, and all carnal-mindedness shall cease. For us who willingly submit
to this process "no man takes our life from us, we lay it down." But for those
who will not lay it down, I do not hesitate to say that IT WILL BE TAKEN FROM THEM.
To quote the timely words of
Ray Prinzing once more: "Now - while we see the victory of the ultimate, a complete
triumph over death, first death, second death, ALL DEATH to ultimately be brought to an
end, there is a present-tense application which is before us. God has apprehended in this
hour, as in all preceding generations, a remnant in whom HIS SPIRIT is working, and they
are becoming daily experiential partakers of His death, overcoming all the desires and
lusts of the carnal mind. To those who now OVERCOME, the same shall not be 'hurt' of the
'second death,' when it is manifested in its more severe forms, as portrayed in the term
of being 'a lake of fire.' Praise God, with the inworking of the Holy Spirit, enabling us
to overcome all the evil of this present age, and all the carnal mind, we shall not be
done an injustice by the second death. THE WHOLE PROCESS IS UNTO VICTORY. There may be
suffering involved, for indeed, it means death to all our pre-conceived ideas, death to
all the rebellion of our self-will, but it also means that we shall be loosed, set free
from the shackles that bind, and with the inflow of His life we shall walk in the glorious
liberty of the sons of God" -end quote.
Make no mistake about it.
There are multitudes who shall resist God until the extreme measures He must use to subdue
them are beyond our comprehension. For them the second death shall hold terror, and will
prove a most painful experience. Let us die now! Let us die to sin now! Let us die to our
own stubborn wills now! Let us die to our fleshly ways now! Let us take the cup of
suffering and submit to the refining fires now! Let us arise in the newness of HIS LIFE
now, to be conformed to His image. He that overcomes NOW shall not be HURT by the second
death!
TORMENTED IN THE PRESENCE OF
THE LAMB
The words torment, tormented,
tormentors, and torments occur twenty-one times in the King James version, and all in the
New Testament. Three of these are in connection with the lake of fire. Let me give you the
quotations. "The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured
out without mixture into the cup of His indignation; and he shall be TORMENTED WITH FIRE
AND BRIMSTONE IN THE PRESENCE OF THE HOLY ANGELS (MESSENGERS) AND IN THE PRESENCE OF THE
LAMB: and the smoke of their torment ascends up for ever and ever (Greek: unto the ages of
the ages): and they have no rest day nor night..." (Rev. 14:10-11). "And the
devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and
the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever (Greek: unto
the ages of the ages - see Part One of this series -'Just What Do You Mean ...
ETERNITY!')" (Rev. 20:10).
Notice please, in both
instances, the subjects are tormented with fire and brimstone, and we have previously
established what the fire and brimstone are. But Rev. 14:10 sheds further light, those are
also tormented by and through another agency, which in reality sums up and constitutes the
fire and brimstone, and that agency is THE PRESENCE OF THE LAMB and the holy angels, or
messengers. What an amazing divine paradox! The Lamb - precious embodiment of the very
character of innocence, patience, meekness, gentleness, holiness, sacrifice, and
redemption - being made TORMENT to men for whom He died! The very thought seems
incongruous. You see, dear ones, IT IS NOT THE NATURE of a lamb to torture anyone. It is
simply not in the nature of the lamb to want to hurt in any way. Really! What could a lamb
do to torture anyone? It has no capability for such a thing. And so it is with the LAMB OF
GOD! The Lamb of God has no desire, no ability to inflict torture in any way - His desire
is entirely redemptive - that men might have life and have it more abundantly! I cannot
imagine One with the nature of a lamb packing poor lost souls like brick into a kiln,
standing there blowing the fires of hell through them for ever. Such a grotesque
representation charges the blessed Redeemer with crimes more heartless than those of Adoph
Eichmann.
Ah, the torment comes not
from the Lamb. The torment lies within the bosoms of the tormented. The Scripture does not
say that the Lamb torments them! If you think it does, you are mistaken. It states that
THEY ARE TORMENTED IN THE PRESENCE of the Lamb. What a thought! TORMENTED IN THE PRESENCE.
The Lamb is merely present. He does not torment. The condition is within themselves.
Because they are wrong and sinful in nature, wicked in their hearts, selfish in their
minds, and impure in their desires, they are CONDEMNED IN THEIR CONSCIENCES by the very
PRESENCE of the pure, holy, sinless, selfless, sacrificing Lamb of God. Hell is at its
fiercest when it sees heaven, and not till then. When these realize the presence, or the
character of the Lamb, they are tortured in their consciences, for in the Light of the
Lamb they see themselves for the wretched little devils they are. The very PRESENCE of
TRUTH torments the deceitful and the liar. The very PRESENCE of HOLINESS torments the
immoral and corrupt. The very PRESENCE of LOVE is torment to the mean and hateful. The
PRESENCE of Him who is the PRINCE OF PEACE is torture to those who live by violence and
the sword. The very PRESENCE of the LIFE OF THE LAMB is the most awful torment and torture
to all the opposing forces, both deceiver and deceived, until all the deceit and hostility
has been taken out of them, and they come to KNOW THE LORD. When these have been exposed
for a sufficient time to the PRESENCE of the Lamb, the Lamb will overcome them; His love
and power will conquer their hearts; the rebellion and waywardness will be taken from them
and they will at last ENJOY the Presence of the Lamb!
When the maniac of
Peter Marshall said that when
the apostles preached the Gospel there were either riots or regeneration. The fact of the
matter is that in most cases there were both, for the same Gospel melted some hearts and
turned others to stone. People were led either to faith in Jesus Christ or they were
stirred to the most violent animosity and enmity. Jesus Christ has always been either a
stone of stumbling or the sure foundation stone. We build upon it or we stumble over it
and are crushed by it. Riots or regeneration! Joy unspeakable and full of glory or
torment!
A person under deep
conviction is tormented. Tormented with what? He is tormented with the fire of God's holy
presence, the fire of His penetrating, burning Word. He has no peace or rest, day or
night. His conscience troubles him continually. When you and I were under deep conviction
for our sins and past life we were tormented by the Holy Spirit, the presence of God. And
we had no rest day or night. When we were finally broken by the Holy Spirit's dealing and
repented and confessed those sins to Jesus, we cried often and shed many bitter tears of
remorse and regret. THAT, my friend, is exactly what the rebellious will do in the ages to
come as God deals with "every man in his own order." There was no short cut to
salvation for us, and there will be none for them. In some cases it took months and years,
sometimes a lifetime, of preaching and dealings to win our hearts to the Lord. And I am
sure that it will take much preaching and many dealings along with the convicting power of
the Holy Spirit to win the ignorant, disobedient, and defiant masses who lived and died in
this world outside of Christ.
A brother in the Lord shared
this illustration of wicked people being tormented in the presence of the Lamb: "A
few years ago, we often preached to ALL the women in the state penitentiary for women.
They were forced to sit and listen while we sang about Jesus, talked about Jesus and
preached about Him. Some wept, some stared, and some faces showed bitter hatred toward us.
Others seemed to writhe and twist in mental anguish and physical torment. Why? Because
they were forced to listen. There was no escape" -end quote.
Suppose a few filthy, vile
men and a few immoral women from some house of prostitution were forced to sit in the
midst of a large congregation of singing, shouting, worshipping saints. This certainly
would he torment to most of them. They would be tortured in the flames of the blazing
glory of God in that place! If they were not held in their seats by force, most of them
would rush out of there. I have been in meetings where I witnessed three responses to the
glorious manifestation of the Lord's presence. First, the saints who loved the Lord
rejoiced and adoringly worshipped. Some who were not Christians, but whose hearts were
tender toward the Lord, came under deep conviction and, weeping and broken, gave
themselves into the loving hands of Jesus. But others, filled with self, haters of
righteousness, I have seen jump up and literally run out of a meeting - TORMENTED IN THE
PRESENCE OF THE LAMB! Sure, they would rush, even run to get away from the convicting
power of the Holy Ghost! I have seen it, and so have you.
To the unsaved, HIS GLORY is
a
I believe it!
God hasten it!
Chapter
8
Reconciliation
JUST WHAT DO YOU MEAN ...
RECONCILIATION!
In the Bible there are a
great number of words, phrases, and expressions that are especially significant in the
creative and redemptive plan of God. One of the first such phrases was uttered by God
Himself before ever He brought mankind into being when He said, "Let us make man in
our image." This was the purpose of God condensed into about as few words as can be
used. Then there were the inspired words of Isaiah when he prophesied, "Unto us a
child is born; unto us a Son is given." Connected with this were the words of the
angels unto the shepherds, "For unto you is born this day in the city of
There are many other examples
of such words and phrases, but one we want to consider in this message is the declaration
of Paul in Col. 1: 20 "...by Him to RECONCILE ALL THINGS unto Himself." The full
text reads, "For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in
earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or
powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him: and He is before all things, and by
Him all things consist... and, having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to
reconcile all things unto Himself; by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or
things in heaven. And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked
works, yet now has He reconciled" (Col. 1:16-17, 20-21).
The word
"reconcile" in the Old Testament means "to cover" or "to make
atonement." The many sacrifices made upon the altar served to cover over the sins of
the people, making a certain kind of peace between God and man. Yet under the limited
meaning of the word "atonement" we do not have the complete answer to our need,
for we need more than a covering over of sin, but a complete and finished putting away
thereof, never to be remembered any more. "But in those sacrifices there is a
remembrance again made of sins every year" (Heb. 10:3). "But now once in the end
of the world has HE appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself" (Heb.
9:26). In Christ there is no more remembrance of sin, for HE brings forth a new creation
life, old things passing away, and behold, all things becoming new.
The dictionary defines the
English word "reconcile" to mean: to unite; to bring back into harmony; to
settle; to make consistent or compatible. The basic Greek word dealing with reconciliation
in the New Testament is ALLASSO. This simple verb means "to change" or "to
exchange" . From this verb comes the compound KATALLASSO which is translated
"reconciled" in Paul's epistles. Then there is an intensified compound,
APOKATALLASSEIN, which is used in two places and rendered "reconciled" and
"reconcile". ALLASSO is used in Acts 6:14 where Stephen is accused by false
witnesses of preaching that Jesus of Nazareth would "change" the customs
delivered to the Hebrews by Moses. In Rom. 1:23 the apostle Paul declares that reprobate
men "changed" (in the sense of exchanged) the glory of the creator for images of
the creature. In I Cor. 15:51 the apostle tells of a "mystery" concerning the
resurrection when we are "changed" from corruptible to incorruptible beings.
Again ALLASSEIN is used in Gal. 4:20 for a "change" of voice, and in Heb. 1:12
for a "change" of garment.
KATALASSO is a word which had
an interesting history of usage in secular Greek before it was taken up by the Holy Spirit
for use in the New Testament writings. It early acquired the technical sense of money
exchange or of changing precious metals into money. Later it expanded to include the idea
of giving one's life as a mercenary soldier in exchange for a small salary and adventure.
Finally, in the Hellenistic writers, the term is found in constant use to describe the
bringing together of individuals and nations who have been estranged.
Have you ever received your
bank statement only to discover that the balance therein was not in agreement with the
balance shown in your checkbook? If so you know something about the Bible teaching of
reconciliation! When the balance shown by the bank and the balance shown on your check
stub are not identical, there is bound to be error on the part of someone. In most cases
you have probably discovered, as have I, that the mistake was on your part - a simple
error in arithmetic, or, perhaps, a failure to register a deposit or a change of one kind
or another. At any rate it became necessary to "reconcile" your balance with
that submitted to you by the bank. To do this you traced down the error, corrected it,
changed the sum, and brought the figure in your checkbook into conformity to that given by
the bank.
The basic idea of
reconciliation is, therefore, "to change thoroughly, to cause to be conformed to, or
adjusted to a specified norm or standard." In the case of your home bookkeeping you
found it necessary to adjust your check balance so that it "conformed to" the
amount published by your bank in their monthly statement. In the case of Divine
Bookkeeping there was found a necessity to have an adjustment made on man's books which
were out of balance with the Divine Norm or Standard. God's act in bringing conformity of
man's account to the Divine Norm, by rectifying the "errors" (sin) that brought
about the imbalance, was accomplished through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
How meaningful, then, these
words of Ray Prinzing: "In the New Testament Greek we really find the depth of
meaning for this word (reconcile), which is TO CHANGE THOROUGHLY. There can be no true
unification without first a thorough change. Thus we are not seeking for just a
present-time harmony, covering over the past, and hoping for the best in the future, but
we desire that the Spirit of God, working within, shall bring a thorough change in us, and
then we shall be united with our Lord. There will be no fear of the things we covered over
rearing their ugly heads and distressing us again, making a break in our fellowship, for
there will have been a thorough correction, and all things made new. Thus, we repeat,
there must be a change before unification, 'for what fellowship has righteousness with
unrighteousness? and what communion has light with darkness? and what concord has Christ
with Belial? or what part has he that believes with an infidel?'" (II Cor. 6:14-15)
-end quote.
MAN - NOT GOD - IS
RECONCILED!
Our Lord Jesus Christ is the
Prince of Peace. He came to bring peace. Peace is alien to earth. When sin entered, peace
fled. The moment that sin entered, peace fled, and Adam and Eve themselves were at strife
with God and each other, so that their firstborn son had the spirit of the devil and was a
murderer from the beginning. He slew his own brother. The second Man, the last Adam, was
the Lord from heaven. When He was once rejected, in the days of His flesh. His disciples,
with indignation, besought Him to command fire to come down from heaven and destroy these
evil people. His answer comes down to us through the ages: "You know not what manner
of spirit you are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save
them" (Lk. 9:55-56). The firstborn son of Adam was a murderer, but the firstborn Son
of God was a Saviour. One was the peace breaker shedding his brother's blood, the other
was the Peacemaker shedding His own blood that He might make peace with God. Yet the
Christ had power to destroy men's lives if He had the will. When He stood there with the
cross in full view, He said to His persecutors that it was in His power to call twelve
legions of angels. If that heavenly host which hovered about that Son could have once made
itself manifest, oh how they would have swept that doomed city, that accursed conclave of
false priests, and those wretched, blind and filthy-minded heathen soldiers! How the
breath of these heavenly angels could have swept the life out of them and swept them down
into hell and the grave. But that is not God's way in redemption. That is not the mission
of the Son of God nor of the Sons of God.
Now this leads to a point of
immense importance. We often hear it said that "the death of Christ was necessary in
order to reconcile God to man." This is a pious stupidity, arising from inattention
to the language of the Holy Spirit, and indeed to the plain meaning of the word
"reconcile." God never changed - never stepped out of His normal and true
position. He abides faithful. There was, and could be, no derangement, no confusion, no
alienation, so far as He was concerned; and hence there could be no need of reconciling
Him to us. In fact, it was exactly the contrary. Man had gone astray; he was the enemy,
and needed to be reconciled. Wherefore, then, as might be expected, the Scriptures never
speak of reconciling God to man. There is no such expression to be found within the covers
of the New Testament! "God was in Christ RECONCILING T-H-E
W-O-R-L-D unto Himself, not imputing their
trespasses unto them." And again, "All things are of God, who has reconciled US
to Himself by Jesus Christ" (II Cor. 5:18-19). In a word, it is God, in His infinite
mercy and grace, through the cross of Christ, bringing us back unto Himself.
We have seen that the ideas
in the simple and compound verbs translated "reconcile" that "change"
and "exchange" form the keynote. However it is not God who must undergo a
change, nor is it His account which is in need of alteration even one single iota! There
is no need for a change in the attitude of God toward man, for it has been Love from
eternity. There is no equality of footing in this truth for it is the story of the
Absolute One who is Infinite in Power condescending to act towards rebel man in perfect
grace in the latter's desperate need for reconciliation. It is the Lord Himself changing
the accounts from "Sin's Wages" to "God's Gift," from "Legal
Righteousness which condemns" to "Divine Righteousness which exalts." It is
the Mediator exchanging the "Hostility of Man" for the "Peace of God."
It is that which GOD DOES and which GOD GIVES which is at the heart of the cross whereby
man is reconciled. Only God Omnipotent COULD ACCOMPLISH RECONCILIATION! The books are
cleared. And God did it!
"Being justified freely
by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ; whom God has set forth to be a
propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of
sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time His
righteousness: that He might be just, and the justifier of Him which believes in
Jesus" (Rom. 3:24-26). The following words penned by George Hawtin are true and
graphic on this point: "The word propitiate means to appease, to soothe, to cause to
be favorably disposed, and to conciliate. When Paul says, therefore, that God has set
forth Christ to be a propitiation, the great question that must be answered is this: Whom
is Christ propitiating? Whom is He appeasing? Whom is He soothing? Whom is He causing to
be favorably disposed? Whom is He conciliating? Is this propitiation for His benefit? Or
is it for the sinner's benefit? Is God trying to conciliate Himself or is He conciliating
the sinner? You know as well as I do that the Church system has always erroneously taught
that it is God who must be propitiated, conciliated and soothed, but I want you to know
that such teaching is utter rubbish and the brashest sort of nonsense. It springs from
that Romish tradition that likens God the Father to a fearful and offended despot,
spoiling for the blood of the offenders, and it makes Christ to be the one who pleads with
God on behalf of the victim until the Father is consoled and conciliated.
"The Church all down
through the ages, including all evangelicals of the past and present, have taught that
Jesus came to propitiate God and to endeavor to dispose Him to be kind toward His fallen
race. If you search in a thousand places, I doubt that you will find one man who does not
make this incorrect assertion. How often I have listened to preachers describe Jesus
Christ as a lawyer who stands up before God to plead our cause and beg for our lives on
the grounds that He, being innocent, died for us and God is propitiated by Him and we are
forgiven. This gross misunderstanding of the truth of propitiation is everywhere evident
in sermons, in writing and in hymns. Notice how this error is brought out in the words of
the following hymn:
Five bleeding wounds He
bears,
Received on
They pour effectual prayers;
They strongly plead for me.
Forgive him, O forgive, they cry,
Nor let the ransomed sinner die!
The Father hears Him pray,
His dear anointed One;
He cannot turn away
The presence of His Son.
My God is reconciled;
His pardoning voice I hear.
"This is Church
tradition, but it is not the truth. Nowhere in all Scripture are we ever taught that God
has to be reconciled to the world or to man. God never ever became an enemy of man nor
does He need to be reconciled to man. The opposite is the truth and always the teaching of
Scripture. Man is an enemy of God and man must be reconciled to God. Oh that sinners would
be told that it was God the Father who gave His Son, not to appease or reconcile Himself,
but to appease and reconcile man! Therefore the Scripture loudly proclaims, 'We beseech
you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God' (II Cor. 5:20).
This is the message that I
bring,
A message angels feign would sing:
Be ye reconciled!
Thus says my Lord and King,
O be ye reconciled to God.
"Oh, the wonder of it
all just to know that God the Father has sent Christ to be His propitiation toward us and
that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses
unto them (II Cor. 5:19), and has committed unto us the word of reconciliation! So then,
when the great apostle says that God has sent Christ as a propitiation, he means that He
sent Christ to propitiate US and dispose US to kindness and repentance before God and to
reconcile US to Himself. The Father did not send Christ to appease Himself, though that is
the way the Church has always erroneously taught propitiation. The idea that God would
send forth His Son to propitiate and appease Himself is exceedingly absurd. The truth is
that Christ came to propitiate you and me that we might repent of our rebellion and
iniquity against Him, believe and be reconciled to God, who has always loved us and been
our friend and not our enemy. We might also take notice that in referring to the
Scripture, 'There is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus,'
the preachers have also turned this backwards and made Christ to be our mediator with the
Father, but that is not what Paul said. He said that the mediator was between God and man,
not between man and God. So Christ was sent as a propitiation, a propitiator, or one sent
by God the Father to dispose man to repentance and kindness, love and faith toward
God" -end quote.
"For if, WHEN WE WERE
ENEMIES, we WERE RECONCILED to God BY THE DEATH OF HIS SON, much more, being reconciled,
we SHALL BE SAVED by His life" (Rom. 5:10). What wonder there is in these few words!
We were ENEMIES, yet reconciled to God, and that reconciliation came through the death of
the Son of God. We were not converted people when we began to be reconciled. We were not
saved people at that reconciliation. If we had been saved or converted or righteous at the
time of reconciliation, THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN NO NEED FOR A RECONCILIATION. A
reconciliation is for the purpose of bringing people of opposing ideals and desires
together.
Two things many Christians
have not known. One is that when we were reconciled we did not even know that we were
enemies of God; the second is that we did not know it until the knowledge of it was
brought to us. In fact, at the time of the reconciliation, we had absolutely no knowledge
of it at all. No one is reconciled at any altar, or anywhere else, except at THE DEATH OF
THE SON OF GOD. The joy and the happiness comes to the sinner, not because he has just
been reconciled, but because he has discovered that in actuality he was reconciled to God
a long time ago. Preachers and people are quick to say that we are not healed NOW, but
that in all actuality we WERE healed by His stripes two thousand years ago. In like
manner, in God's estimation, we, WHEN WE WERE ENEMIES, WERE RECONCILED to God BY THE DEATH
OF HIS SON.
When Jesus the Christ died on
the cross, excepting the very few disciples who stood there, HE DID NOT HAVE ONE SINGLE
FRIEND. ALL were His enemies! In Acts 4:27-28 we read, "For of a truth against Your
holy child Jesus, whom You have anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the
Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together for to do whatsoever Your hand
and Your counsel determined before to be done." This people had no choice in this
matter. GOD gathered them together on that fateful day! Why was this so? In order that all
of them together with the whole world might come to know the wonderful love of God that
would save mankind, even against its will, so that God might fulfill HIS WILL for the
entire race. All this was in the will and purpose of God and nothing was amiss or out of
order, or in opposition to the will of God. The wondrous and gracious words of Jesus
confirm this when, as He was dying, He cried, "Father, forgive them, THEY KNOW NOT
what they do." What was it that made this manifested love of God so gloriously known?
It was the opposing character in all the multitude that crucified the Christ. Had the
nation of
Every soul has been at war
with God; in order for reconciliation to take place, there must be a cessation of the
warfare, the hostilities, which exist between the individual and the Creator. The question
that must be answered, therefore, is: How is the warfare that exists between the soul and
God to come to an end? The first part of the answer is that we must realize that the war
exists and confess the fact. A man who tries to insist that there is nothing wrong between
him and God is dodging the truth. There is warfare between every man and God by the very
nature of man's ego, his self-seeking, sinful heart. God says that the warfare exists, and
we have to admit it. Paul expresses the matter with finality: "For they that are
after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the
things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is
life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to
the law of God, neither indeed can be" (Rom. 8:5-8). Phillips graphically translates
these verses: "The carnal attitude sees no further than natural things; but the
spiritual attitude reaches out after the things of the Spirit. The former attitude means,
bluntly, death; but the latter means life and inward peace. And this is only to be
expected for the carnal attitude is inevitably opposed to the purpose of God, and neither
can nor will follow His laws. Men who hold this attitude cannot possibly please God."
Let us examine how a war
between two nations comes to an end. A French statesman once pointed out that there were
only two types of peace that ever followed a war: A peace imposed upon the defeated by a
conqueror; or a peace accepted by the defeated through surrender. There is a vast
difference between the peace which is imposed or the peace which one accepts. It should be
evident that if there is to be peace between a man and God, the terms must be imposed by
God Himself. God, the eternal God, omniscient and omnipotent, must have His way for it is
the only right way in the universe. Every other way is the self-will of the creature, the
way of earth, the way of limitation, blindness, finiteness. Men who will not submit their
wills to the Creator go their horrible way into judgment.
Yet in spite of the fact that
our position and our condition are defenseless, there have been those who have talked
about "making their peace with God," as if they had a right to set the terms.
The phrase has long been in use to describe settling differences between men. Shakespeare,
in Twelfth Night, has one of his characters say, "I will make your peace with him, if
I can." Thomas Fuller seems to have been the first man who ever spoke of making one's
peace with God. But the phrase is incorrect and an absurdity in such a connection. If you
are to know the joys of what God has for you, you must get that idea out of your mind. You
must realize that GOD HAS ALREADY MADE THE PEACE and that you are simply to accept it! And
when you come to God, the wonderful thing is that you find Him merciful toward you. The
man who flings himself upon the promises of God finds that God is the loving Saviour. God
has already made peace and is ready to receive that soul with all grace and tenderness. In
the epistle to the Colossians, we read of the Lord Jesus Christ that "it pleased the
Father that in Him should all fullness dwell; and HAVING MADE PEACE through the blood of
His cross, by Him to RECONCILE ALL THINGS unto Himself " (Col. 1:19-20).
Note especially the tense of
the verb: Having made peace. This is of paramount importance: God has made peace! There is
no other peace that can be made except that which God has made. A man who talks about
making his peace with God is ignorant and denies the peace which God has already made. God
will have no other peace with man than that which He made at the cross. God established
the terms for this peace. He set these terms BY THE DEATH OF HIS SON. He declared that
only by the death of man's ways, the death of man's will, the death of man's attitude and
hostility, could there be peace. In all this God does not change at all. But God works a
mighty work upon man, placing him in the Christ upon the cross, crucifying all that he is
and all that he does, and bringing him forth out of that death into the resurrection of a
new creation in Christ Jesus. Oh the wonder of it! And now, if you will come with an
absolute capitulation and unconditional surrender, you will find that God is all peace
toward you. It is then that you can go on to find that FULLNESS OF PURPOSE which God
fulfills in all who surrender to Him.
What a hideous affront it is
to the God of our salvation to wickedly accuse Him of needing to give His own Son as a
propitiation TO APPEASE HIS OWN WRATH, though this is the inexcusable lie we hear
continually from the pulpit and over the air waves! God is portrayed by the preachers as
so mad at sin and sinners, so violently angry and beside Himself that He is metaphorically
foaming at the mouth with uncontrollable rage which can only be appeased by looking upon
the bloody sweat and cruel, ugly death of His Son upon a Roman cross. All sermons and
songs that picture God as a God of rage who must be "appeased" and
"soothed" by blood are heathenish and should be piled on a bonfire and burned.
The Old Testament sacrifices
serve as a beautiful revelation of God's love towards us, in His reconciliation. Whatever
Never was holiness more
vindicated, than at the cross, when Jesus "suffered for sins, the Just for the
unjust, that He might bring us to God" (I Pet. 3:18). Never was love more lavishly
outpoured than when "God SO LOVED the world that HE GAVE His only begotten Son, that
whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have the life of the ages" (Jn.
3:16). Notice, dear reader, it does not say that God was so mad at the world, or so
offended by the world, or so angry with the world, or so vengeful toward the world, or so
caught in a dilemma because of His justice - but GOD SO LOVED the world that HE GAVE.
Hallelujah! We stand in awe before this fulfillment of Gen. 22:8, when by the Spirit
Abraham prophesied to Isaac, "GOD WILL PROVIDE HIMSELF a lamb for a burnt
offering." As one has pointed out: "And that is just what He did, He provided
HIMSELF! Stripping Himself of His glory, He who was in the form of God, took upon Himself
the form of man, and offered that form in that great sacrifice, yea, POURED OUT THE LIFE
CONTAINED IN THAT FORM, which life was freely given to reconcile all things back into
Himself. Never was grace more majestic in its operation, than when 'He made Him to be sin
(Greek, literally, A SIN-OFFERING) for us, Who knew no sin, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him' (II Cor. 5:21)." How inspired the words of John the
Baptist when he declared of Jesus, "Behold the LAMB OF GOD, which takes away the sin
of the world" (Jn. 1:29). Ah, this Lamb was no sacrifice to appease - it was the
perfect and purposeful embodiment of God's grace and mercy and love and life to reconcile
a hostile world unto Himself!
Appeasement is the basis of
the offerings and sacrifices in all pagan religions. J. A. Dowie once wrote: "The
religions of the world are worldly, are sensual, and are devilish for the most part. No
one will doubt that is true in
Can we not see by this that
the Christians have copied the heathen and have made a fiendish devil of their God, and
have then used the sacrifice of Jesus to "appease" this God who is more like a
malicious devil than a loving and gracious Creator and Redeemer? Most Christians know, by
hearing at least, that "'God is Love," but the sense of condemnation from His
Presence beclouds the vision of the heart, so that The Face which He has revealed in
Christ Jesus cannot be seen. Often that is because of the continual preaching which
describes God as a destroyer, a vindictive punisher. Even as a child many were taught to
think of Him as an avenger of every little thing they did wrong. Parents have said,
"Now don't you do that because GOD will punish you! He will punish you!" And
even much stronger things are told to little children. It is one thing to describe God as
a LOVING Father, and all the relations of the little child to a LOVING Father who corrects
in order to bless. It is quite another thing to darken the heart of a little child with
threats of the certain vengeance of a Being who is a constant terror over the life. It is
a false and terrible thing to leave upon the heart of a little child, as their first
impression of God, that He is always waiting, lurking around, to punish them.
Think of it! That little
child whose whole being is susceptible to LOVE; who is always looking for and wanting
LOVE; who is capable of the purest and fullest simplicity of response to LOVE - think of
it! marked and stamped with the impression that "God" is one to be constantly
scared of. As though He is waiting everywhere with a punishing whip of large dimensions!
Such impressions remain through a whole lifetime as an actual foundation of belief and
action. That Wonderful Father! That Gracious Redeemer! That most Loving of all Beings! Oh,
how I LOVE Him! He turned my heart back again and restored me into His life. God, the
Father, the Most High, sent Jesus - the very fullness of His own heart - sent Him into the
world to die on
"For by Him were all
things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether
they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by
Him and for Him: and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. And, having
made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to RECONCILE ALL THINGS unto Himself, by
Him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And you that were
sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now has He
reconciled" (Col.1:16-17, 20-21). "And all things are of God, who has reconciled
us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and has given to US the ministry of reconciliation; to wit,
that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself by Jesus Christ, and has given
unto US the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God
did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God" (II
Cor. 5:18-20).
It is utterly impossible for
any man or any creature on earth or in heaven to exclude himself from this most precious
ministry - the ministry of reconciliation. Before the reader can shut himself, or any
other man or being out from the application of this grace, he must prove that he does not
belong to either the earth or heaven, or that he is not a part of the "all
things" that were created by and in the Christ in the beginning, and that therefore
he is excluded from being reconciled, since he has no identification with any of the
"all things" that were created and that are being reconciled into the Christ.
This he cannot do, and hence he must see that God is beseeching him and all to be
reconciled! Every foot of this earth and every man upon this earth belongs to Christ, for
He made the earth and He made every man. On that wonderful day when God created "all
things" in earth and in heaven He also said, "Let us make man in our image, and
after our likeness." Christ made every man and tasted death for every man, and
therefore every foot of the earth and every man on the earth belongs to Christ my Lord,
first by right of creation, and second by right of redemption.
This leads us to look, for a
moment, at the features which characterize this glorious ministry of reconciliation.
First, let us mark God's attitude. He is beseeching sinners. What a thought! It seems too
much for the heart to conceive. The words "to sin" in either Hebrew or Greek
mean, TO ERR, TO MISS THE MARK. It speaks of that which turns away from the true course,
causing a separation by its own selfhood course. "All we like sheep have gone astray,
we have turned everyone to his OWN WAY" (Isa. 53:6). Only think, precious friend of
mine, of the Most High and Mighty God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, think of HIM
as beseeching and praying you to be friends with Him! And more than that, to be unified
with Him, made one in His life! It is not a question of your desiring to be like Him and
your praying to Him and His hearing. No: but the very reverse - HE is praying you! He
simply asks you to be unified into Him because He has made the provision at the cost of
His own Son. Think of this. He spared not His only begotten and well beloved Son, but met
the demand of divine law, made HIM to be a sin-offering for you, judged your sin in the
person of His Son, opened up the fountain of the life-giving stream of His incorruptible
life, in order that He might be able to reconcile you. And now He stretches forth His arms
and opens His heart to you, and prays you to be reconciled - to be unified in Him.
Surpassing grace! It really seems to me as though human language can only tend to weaken
and impoverish this grand reality.
I would further suggest that
the force of verse 20 is greatly weakened by the word "you," which, as the
reader will observe, is in italics, showing that it does not appear in the original text
but is supplied by the translators. "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as
though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to
God." What an inexcusable error! The inserted "you" makes it as though God
through Paul was beseeching the saints, NEW CREATION MEN for whom old things had passed
away and all things had become new to now be "reconciled" to God! What an
unmitigated absurdity! The word "you" doesn't belong in the text at all. It
makes it appear as though the apostle were beseeching the Corinthian SAINTS to be
reconciled, whereas he is only setting forth the terms and the style adopted by all
"ambassadors" for Christ wherever they would go through the whole wide world -
the language in which they were to address "every creature" under heaven. It is
not, "Do this or that" or "Give this or that," it was not law or
ritual or ceremony or creed; but simply, "Be reconciled." The message, "Be
ye reconciled" is not for saints, but for THE WORLD, for "God was in Christ
reconciling T-H-E W-O-R-L-D unto Himself, not imputing THEIR (not our) trespasses unto
THEM (not us); and has committed unto US (the saints, now) the ministry of
reconciliation." The next verse, purged of the erroneous "you," then
declares, "Now then WE are ambassadors for Christ, as though GOD DID BESEECH BY US:
WE PRAY IN CHRIST'S STEAD, BE (the
world) reconciled to God."
Consider now Col.1:16 from
the Emphatic Diaglott: "Because IN Him were created ALL THINGS, those in the heavens
and those on the earth; the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or lordships, or
governments, or authorities; ALL THINGS HAVE BEEN CREATED THROUGH HIM AND FOR HIM."
The King James version says that all things were created BY Him, but the more literal
Diaglott says that all things were created IN HIM. Paul is here speaking of God as the
Creator and as creating everything IN THE SON.
I must emphasize that God is
the Creator of ALL THINGS. Notice the things that the inspired apostle includes in
creation. ALL things in the heavens, or all things that are in and constitute the RULING
ELEMENT -"the heavens do rule" (Dan. 4:26). ALL the things on the earth, or all
things that are in or constitute those elements which are ruled, or under authority. ALL
things that are visible, or that are discernible to the physical senses - ALL that the
eyes can see, ALL that the ears can hear, ALL that we can touch, feel, taste or smell -
has been created by God. ALL things that are invisible were created by our God - ALL the
wisdom, ALL the knowledge, yea, even that which has not yet been tapped or conceived of by
the mind of man - GOD CREATED. ALL of the myriad machines and devices that shall yet come
out of the mind of man, were created by God. ALL of the vast forces and powers and
universal laws that science has not yet discovered, were created by God. ALL the thrones,
and the glory and the power of those who occupy them, were created by God. ALL the
dominions or lordships, the mastery and the supremacy, were created by God. ALL the
principalities and powers, angels, intelligences, chief ones, in heaven and in earth, were
created by God. And it is not just the fact that all of these were created by God that
startles us the most, but it goes on to say that BY THE BLOOD OF HIS CROSS ALL THESE
THINGS ARE RECONCILED TO GOD IN HEAVEN AND IN EARTH. This implies that the principalities
and powers in the heavenly realms needed reconciling and are reconciled by the blood of
God's Son. This is why the redeemer was both a HEAVENLY BEING and an EARTHLY BEING. He was
the Word from heaven made flesh upon earth, heaven and earth blended into one, so that the
Son could say, "No man has ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven,
even the Son of man which is in heaven" (Jn. 3:13). Praise God, even the
principalities and powers IN THE HEAVENS are included in the glorious reconciliation and
peace secured by the blood of His cross, the Man who was from heaven, born on earth,
reconciling both realms into one IN HIMSELF. Glory!
If God be the Creator of ALL
THINGS, then it must of necessity follow that GOD IS THE SOURCE OF ALL THINGS. We read in
Rom. 11:36, from the Diaglott, "Because OUT of HIM, and THROUGH HIM, and FOR HIM are
ALL THINGS, to Him be the glory for the ages, Amen." All things are out of God, all
things are through Him, all things are for Him, and all things are unto Him, ending in
Him. The clearest possible rendering is given by Goodspeed, "For from Him everything
comes; through Him everything exists; and in Him everything ends! Glory to Him for ever!
Amen." The Amplified Bible also expresses it beautifully, "For from Him and
through Him and to Him are all things. - For all things originate with Him and come from
Him; all things live through Him, and all things center in and tend to CONSUMMATE AND TO
END IN HIM. To Him be glory for ever! Amen - so be it."
Some misguided individuals
have argued that the reconciliation of all "things" does not mean men or beings.
But, pray tell me, what "things" in the whole vast universe, apart from men and
other creatures, are described in the Word of God as "enemies" of God,
"alienated" from God, "blasphemers" of God, "haters" of God,
etc. in need of reconciliation? These are not mere "offices" or
"governmental positions" for they carry the qualities of personality and being.
And it is an important and incontrovertible fact that the Colossians were themselves part
of the "all things" to be reconciled! "...by Him to reconcile all things to
Himself...and YOU, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked words,
YET N-O-W has He reconciled" (Col. 1:20-21). The internal evidence within these
verses demonstrates beyond question that the "all things" to be reconciled are
LIVING CREATURES. That persons is meant is clear to all except those who do always resist
the Holy Ghost, ever searching for some excuse not to embrace the all-inclusive scope of
God's reconciliation. To say that "things" is not persons, or that "all
things" does not include all persons is to violate the whole testimony of the
Scriptures. Of course ALL THINGS includes ALL PEOPLE! Numerous passages could be cited,
but I share only two briefly, to establish the point. "Therefore let no man glory in
men. For ALL THINGS are yours; whether PAUL, or APOLLOS, or CEPHAS, or THE WORLD, or LIFE,
or DEATH, or THINGS PRESENT, or THINGS TO COME; ALL are yours" (I Cor. 3:21-22). It
should be clear to anyone that people - Paul, Apollos, and Cephas - are among the ALL
THINGS that Paul enumerates as belonging to the saints. Such other items as "the
world" and "life" and "death" are included with them as
"things." No less illustrious a personage than our blessed Lord Jesus Christ is
called in Scripture a "thing." "The angel answered and said unto her ...
that HOLY THING which shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God" (Lk.
1:35). It is deceitful to say that "all things" is something other than people!
Paul was teaching us and all who have ears to hear that there is coming a time of
UNIVERSAL RECONCILIATION in which all things - all men, and every created spirit, whether
they be in heaven or on earth, whether they be visible or invisible - shall abide in the
conscious awareness of having been wonderfully and gloriously CONCILIATED TO GOD!
THE MINISTRY OF
RECONCILIATION
Far too many Christians
testify like this: "Thank God I'm saved, sanctified, and baptized in heaven's sweet
Holy Ghost - but its too bad for the rest of you people. Thank God He laid His hand on me,
so I believed and am on my way to heaven - but it is going to be hell for the rest of you.
Come quickly, Lord Jesus, and take me out of this sin cursed world and let it go to the
devil." Few people, even if they had the authority, would condemn anyone, even their
worst enemy, to a burning, scorching, tormenting, eternal hell. Yet they expect God to do
it! Some, as we have spoken of the good consolation and everlasting hope we have for all
men, have said, wistfully, "I wish it were true." But sadly they confessed that
their own sense of hope and mercy obviously exceeded that of God's. Other folk would never
be satisfied for God to judge the world in a way that would bring the world back to
Himself. Their attitude is, if men have spurned God's love, if they have lived in sin, if
they have done wickedly, if they have drawn their last breath blaspheming His name, then
let them burn in hell - they deserve it! And these so-called followers of the Lamb of God
who died to take away the SIN OF T-H-E W-O-R-L-D would personally join in shoveling the
coal and seeing to it that they get everything they deserve - and perhaps a little bit
more! I have no hesitation whatever in saying that people who hold that attitude are not
Christians at all. They are devils.
The most abusive and
vindictive letters I have received through the years have come from people who claim to be
in the sonship company through which God will set all creation free. Only this week I
received a letter from one of these "creation-delivering-sons" bitterly
denouncing me and the teaching of the "reconciliation of all things." He said it
is "destructive" and "Satanic" and said that he was sick of it all.
When people call these precious truths Satanic, they unwittingly blaspheme the Holy
Spirit, for it was He and none other who inspired Paul to write these words: "And,
having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him TO RECONCILE ALL THINGS UNTO
HIMSELF." It was the Holy Spirit who said that "God was in Christ, RECONCILING
THE WORLD unto Himself, NOT INPUTING their trespasses unto them, and has committed unto us
the WORD OF RECONCILIATION." And in the face of such wonderful and all-inclusive
statements as these, these have the brazen audacity to write to me and make such Holy
Spirit-defying statements as: "I don't believe in the reconciliation of all
things!" The simple truth is, my beloved brethren, that until we are able to embrace
God's immutable intention of reconciling all things unto Himself, we will never be able to
clearly see God's plan for this present age nor for other ages yet to come. And most
certainly God will not entrust into our hands the blessed ministry of reconciliation as
long as we remain hostile toward God's gracious purpose and vindictive toward men for whom
Christ died and the creation we are sent to rescue and redeem.
Some have asked what good it
does to believe that God will save all men. You might as well ask what good it does to
believe that God will save some men! If a man does not believe that Jesus Christ saves
sinners he will not spend his time preaching to and pleading with sinners. If a man is
convinced that God will not save any men in this age then he will not exert one ounce of
energy to accomplish what he believes God will not do. Every evangelist believes that it
is God's will to save some men during this present time, or he would not be an evangelist!
And if a man does not believe that God will save any men past this present age, is it not
obvious then that he will not spend his time ministering to men in the ages to come? To
what end, then, is such a man's "sonship ministry"? Why strive and labor to be a
Son, to set creation free, if what God is accomplishing in redemption during this present
age is all there is! We may as well join a good Church, become the very best evangelist
possible, and give ourselves to getting the few saved that can now be won for Christ. If
there is no out-working of redemption in the ages to come, no extension nor expansion of
the Kingdom of God beyond the formation of the body of Christ, then why not settle for the
fundamentalist's heaven and content ourselves with spending eternity shouting up and down
the golden streets, waving palm branches and strumming harps? All who say out of one side
of their mouth that they are called to sonship to bring deliverance to the whole creation,
while out of the other side of their mouth they denounce as heresy the doctrine of the
reconciliation of all, foolishly contradict themselves. You simply can't have it both
ways, my friend!
In II Cor. 5:18 the apostle
Paul states the matter very clearly. He tells us that something wonderful has been given
unto us. He tells us WHY God has given us this understanding of His plans and purposes. He
admonishes us that we have work to do. He says that "God ... has reconciled US to
Himself by Jesus Christ, AND has given to us THE MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION." Let us
notice the logical sequence of this statement. Having first reconciled US to Himself by
Christ, God then gave to US the ministry of reconciliation, having put in us the word of
reconciliation. And this ministry of reconciliation is on behalf of whom? The Church? NO!
"God was in Christ, reconciling THE WORLD unto Himself." God has reconciled the
Church, so that He might give to the Church the ministry of reconciliation on behalf of
the world that He has reconciled through Christ. The great God of the universe, He who is
from everlasting to everlasting, from the ages to the ages, the Creator of all things, has
invited us to be His associates in this great plan of reconciling T-H-E W-O-R-L-D! This grand project of reconciliation, in
which it is our privilege to have a part, begins with the Church in this age, it carries
over into the ministry of the Sons of God on behalf of the whole world of mankind, and
ultimately to the whole vast creation of God in all realms. God will, in the ages to come,
put on display in His Sons all His power, wisdom, love, mercy and righteousness which are
even now specially operating on behalf of the "firstfruits" followers of the
Lamb. But our part now in this great work of reconciliation, in this present age, is to
preach the
Reconciliation brings harmony
and peace. "And having made PEACE by the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all
things unto Himself." The distinguishing characteristic of a Son of God is that he is
a peacemaker above all things. "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called
the children (Greek: Sons) of God" (Mat. 5:9). How are we to be peacemakers? We are
peacemakers, first of all, by being at peace with God. We cannot make peace; we cannot
assist in ministering God's peace, unless we are ourselves at peace. If I am to be an
ambassador for God, I must surely be at peace with God. If the ministry of reconciliation
is my ministry, then I must possess the peace of God. I must be reconciled to God. Christ
has "made peace" by the blood of His cross. Therefore do I say unto you,
"acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace." Many Christians are not at
peace. They ought to be, but they are not. They talk about being justified by faith and
having peace with God, and they have no such thing. Some are justified by faith but they
are at controversy with God because they are not obedient. All within has not been
stilled, reconciled. All within has not been subdued, reconciled. You may be God's child
and yet be at controversy with your Father. Some who now read these lines are children of
God but they are at controversy with the Holy Spirit of truth over the doctrine of the
reconciliation of all things! My message to you today is: BE
RECONCILED TO GOD. Accept God's beautiful plan and stop fighting
against the truth and He will receive you and be a Father unto you and you will be His
Son, a fit instrument to bear the word of reconciliation to the ends of the creation.
In II Cor. 5:18-20 the Holy
Spirit has given us a direct word concerning the RECONCILIATION OF THE WORLD as well as
the members of the body of Christ. Having said that we who trust His word have been (past
tense) reconciled to God by means of Christ, we are told that we now have been given the
"ministry of reconciliation." This is explained as a sharing with the world that
THEY ALSO ARE RECONCILED. This "word of reconciliation" is committed to us. The
Lord is trusting us with the job of seeing to it that the lost men and women of "the
world" know that God has reconciled them unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses
unto them. Now, as representatives, as ambassadors of Jesus Christ and His Kingdom, you
and I are to minister this reconciliation to the world. The debt of sin has been paid in
full. The books are balanced as far as God is concerned. Divine righteousness is theirs,
also, when they will finally lay down their rebellion and surrender, believing God's Word
of Love and accepting the Life He offers them in exchange for their death. And what is the
ultimate result of such a ministry? Hear it! "And, having made peace through the
blood of His cross, by Him to RECONCILE ALL THINGS UNTO HIMSELF: by Him, I say, whether
they be things in earth, or things in heaven" (Col. 1:20). Amazing grace! Stupendous
and glorious plan! What a ministry!
As Ray Prinzing has so aptly
written: "A ministry of reconciliation, of changing others so that they might be
drawn into unification and harmony with God. This is a NEW ministry, based upon a new
covenant, 'established upon better promises' (Heb. 8:6). 'Not that we are sufficient of
ourselves to think anything of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; Who also has made
us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the Spirit: for the
letter kills, but the Spirit gives life' (II Cor. 3:5-6). Herein is a ministry of mercy
and grace! 'To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, NOT
IMPUTING THEIR TRESPASSES UNTO THEM' (II Cor. 5:19). Not charging them with guilt, to heap
upon them loads of condemnation, but simply to give them the GOOD WORD, namely, that GOD
LOVES THEM, forgives them, and is ready to receive them back to Himself. All is well, come
home - forsake your wayward course, the Father waits to forgive and receive you. No word
of condemnation, not imputing a list of sins against you, but a word of hope, of grace, of
love.
" 'Now then, we are
ambassadors for Christ.' This word 'for' is the same word as used later 'in Christ's
stead.' In behalf of Christ, as though God did beseech by us, 'we pray you in Christ's
stead, be ye reconciled to God.' God is going to beseech the whole creation through the
enchristed (anointed) company of which The Christ is the Head. The word 'beseech' is a
strong word, bespeaking of laying hold in earnestness. This company will be filled with
divine compassion, 'for the love of Christ constrains us' (II Cor. 5:14). And will this
ministry be effective? Ah, yes, 'And I heard every created thing in heaven and on earth
and under the earth and on the sea and all that is in it, crying out together, to Him Who
is seated on the throne and to the Lamb be ascribed the blessing and the honor and the
majesty (glory, splendor) and the Power (might and dominion) forever and ever' (Rev. 5:13,
Amplified).
"Yes, He purposes in His
sovereign will that all human history shall be consummated in Christ. Everything that
exists in heaven and earth shall find its perfection and fulfillment in Him. All things
shall 'center in and tend to consummate and to end in Him' (Rom. 11:36, Amplified). Though
the ages run their course, and the time seems long; though judgments are required and the
discipline is severe; though there be many paths washed with tears, and the valley be
deep; yet God has purposed that all shall be fully restored, and the great age of jubilee
shall see a universe redeemed from the tyranny of change and decay, delivered into the
glorious liberty which rightfully belongs to the children of God, and the whole purpose of
the ages shall redound to the glory of God. We bow to worship HIM who truly 'does all
things well' "
-end quote.
And this glorious work of
RECONCILIATION has now begun - IN US! I would quote once more from Brother Prinzing's
writings: "The law demands, 'the soul that sins, it shall die.' Why? Because the only
way to end the wayward course of self's rebellion is to DIE OUT to that course of action,
and be reconciled back into the will of God. But how can we 'die' to that which has
captivated us, especially when we are 'dead in trespasses and sins,' and cut off from the
LIFE of God, and His power which is needed for our overcoming? Death - which came as an
enemy, and separated us from righteousness, and the life of God, must now be REVERSED, so
that we DIE to this carnal realm, and are restored into fellowship and harmony with our
God. THIS DEATH-ROUTE WAS BLAZED OUT FOR US BY CHRIST. 'That He by the grace of God should
taste death for every man' (Heb. 2:9). And now He is able to indwell us by His Spirit, and
give us the power to walk in His steps, and follow through the process of 'death to self'
that we might come alive to God, praise Him!
" 'What are we then to
say to FACTS like these? If God is for us, who can be against us' (Rom. 8:31, Williams).
This is not some weird figment of a vain man's distorted imagination, dreams of the night,
THESE ARE FACTS. God is working a THOROUGH CHANGE, and He has already begun with a
firstfruits company, gathering a remnant out of each generation, until the appointed hour
when He shall begin the greater scope of the restitution of ALL THINGS spoken of by the
mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began" -end quote.
A THOROUGH CHANGE! THAT, my
dear friend, is what we mean by ... RECONCILIATION! We have possessed "in part"
the life of God, and we have thrilled to its surgings within us, and the transformations
wrought, but we must have the WHOLE, being thoroughly changed into His same image. What a
tremendous process, for man is not a noble ruin, but he is an utter ruin of what was once
a noble nature. God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let
them have dominion..." But, alas, how the glory has grown dim, how the fine gold has
tarnished! The crown has fallen from man's head. His kingly nature is deformed, and the
image of God is destroyed. Thus we see that so little remains in the unregenerated man of
that copious flow of love and life and light and righteousness and power which at first
poured forth from man to the creation.
How can it be restored?
"And, having made peace through the blood Of His cross, by Him to RECONCILE
(THOROUGHLY CHANGE) all things unto Himself." With the climax of the cross bringing
final death to the carnal mind, mankind will emerge out of the barren tomb as a NEW
CREATION. If man is to be restored to the image of the all-loving God, reconciled,
thoroughly changed and unified INTO HIM, it will only be done by God Himself. A little
child can take an egg in his hand and crush it. All of the skill of all of the men in all
of the world, all of their wisdom and all of the power that can split the atom, and all of
the technology that can place men on the moon, all these combined CANNOT RESTORE THAT EGG
TO WHAT IT WAS BEFORE. How much less can man, by his own strength or wisdom, restore the
destroyed image of God in his being unto that which God originally made him to be? Nothing
will suffice but a thorough change, a new creation, a reconciliation wrought by God
Himself. "Therefore if any man be in Christ He is a new creature: old things are
passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who HAS
RECONCILED US to Himself" (II Cor. 5:17-18).
If such be not the end of
God's great plan of the ages then
And what a wonderful effect
the truth has upon those who see it with spiritual eyes, hear it with spiritual ears, and
believe it with pure and reverent hearts! The witness of spiritual giants like Andrew
Jukes, William Law, Andrew Murray, John Alexander Dowie, and Mrs. Pearsall Smith, not to
speak of precious saints living today and known to the writer, men and women of holiness
and deep spirituality, whose lives emit the fragrance of Christ, is no mean tribute to
this beautiful truth. As for myself, I humbly bear witness to the blessed sense of the
thrill of the Holy Spirit whenever I touch upon this subject.
This blessed hope, in the
words of A. E. Saxby, "gives a fuller vision of HIS glory; it arouses greater love to
men; it inspires intenser hope over the fallen; it furnishes an argument to utmost
patience with the worst; it leads to a deeper humbling of self; it divides aright the Word
of God and meets the unanswerable problems of the otherwise dark mysteries of human
destiny; it restores the character of God to its Scriptural poise; it brings the sob of
pity even over the vilest offender; it stirs to service and sacrifice for God and men; and
lastly it evokes such an admiration of, and affection to, the God who is Creator and
Redeemer, that all the soul can do is to abandon afresh all life and ministry to Him, to
bear for Him the stigma that must be suffered in advocacy of His thoughts and ways, which
ever surpass ours as the heavens are above the earth" -end quote. To which my
ransomed spirit shouts, Amen!
How we long for that day when
ALL THINGS SHALL BE RECONCILED!
God shall grant it! God hasten it!
Chapter
9
God
All In All
GOD has a plan! At the
beginning of the Church age the world was visited by events so momentous in their power
and glory that all things were changed from that time onward. In the eternal realm before
the ages were formed, and ages before man first saw the light of earth's day, the almighty
Lord set in motion His omniscient and immutable purpose for the ages which were to follow.
As a year is filled with weeks and a week is filled with days and a day is filled with
hours, so time is filled with ages and ages with dispensations. Let it be thoroughly known
that our all-wise heavenly Father planned the events of each successive age from the very
first age unto the ages of ages far beyond the comprehension of mortal man.
The plan of the ages
conceived in the heart of Him who purposed all things after the counsel of His own will is
being worked out one step at a time in each succeeding age in like manner as people who
read these lines have often planned in advance the work for each successive day of a week
or each week of a year. Is it not true that many of the wives and business men now reading
this booklet have plans in mind for today and tomorrow and perhaps even months and years
in the future? Whether consciously or unconsciously we all plan ahead, daily and hourly
working toward some human goal.
Each week a portion of your
pay check goes into social security or some pension plan in preparation for a day of
retirement that lies years distant in the future. Accumulation of property, savings,
investments, etc. are all part of well-laid plans for a day when there will be time for
relaxation, travel, and other projects and accomplishments. If you remove plan and purpose
from your life then your sheltered harbors will become whirlpools and all your cherished
hopes and dreams will become dark clouds and empty holes. And, precious friend of mine, if
you remove GOD'S PLAN OF THE AGES from your understanding, then your spiritual treasure
house of hope is left full of gaping holes where thieves break through and steal, and you
yourself are left as hopeless as a crow in the ocean or a prince-charming lost in the
great Sahara.
When we think of a plan, we
think of something involving more than just a single element. An architect's plan for a
building consists of drawings and specifications descriptive of its several floors,
including styles of plumbing, decoration, arrangement of rooms, etc. Unless each floor of
the building is to be identical to every other floor, necessarily the drawings and
specifications for any given floor do not harmonize with the details of the other floors.
No one, however, would construe this to mean that the architect is incompetent, nor that
his plans and specifications are contradictory. God's plan, like the plan of a building,
is also made up of many parts. Instead of different floors, however, it embraces EPOCHS
AND AGES. Through each of these ages the divine plan has steadily progressed toward
completion. Only when it is complete, and mankind sees the final result, will they all be
able to appreciate the wisdom, justice, love, and power of the Divine Architect.
Such a view as this opens to
us entirely new and greater vistas of the love and mercy and wisdom and power and glory of
God. It is not any longer a question of the Church working to get a few souls saved, but
it has become a question of the working out of God's plan and purpose for all people and
for the ages He has created. All the ages are created for Jesus the Christ. As we read in
Heb. 1:2 from the Diaglott, "In the last of these days, spoken to us by a Son, whom
He appointed heir of all things, and ON ACCOUNT OF WHOM, also He constituted the
ages." Eph. 3:11 also speaks of this, the Diaglott says....... according to a
PLAN OF THE AGES, which He FORMED FOR THE ANOINTED JESUS, our Lord." Herein lies the
great work of God in this age and in all ages yet to come. It is all for Jesus Christ!
In God's blessed Book
numerous ages are visible, stretching in a vast panorama from the first ray of light in
chapter one of Genesis to the end of the dispensation of the fullness of times when all
shall be subdued unto God and God becomes all in all. As the years have gone by the Holy
Spirit has convinced me more and more that it is intensely important to the spiritual
growth and understanding of every Son of God to know the intention of God in each
successive age as it unfolds. Some precious saints have in ignorance stated, "I am
not concerned about what God may do away out there in the ages to come; it is enough to
know what He wants me to be doing right now!" That sounds very wise and spiritual,
and it gives me pain to say it, but the truth cannot be denied that such a statement is
really an excuse, a "cop-out" to absolve these dear ones from searching the
Scriptures or exposing themselves to the revelation of God's beautiful plan of the ages.
Furthermore, it saves them the trouble of getting involved in some controversy! What
spiritual cowards we are!
Failure to understand God's
plan of the ages will leave us on the rocks of ignorance and unbelief and we will spend
our lives in the shallows, chanting aimlessly about God's acts and blessings, but never
knowing or embracing His purposes. I am convinced that those who reject or deliberately
side-step the great truth of God's plan of the ages and the reconciliation of all things
to God will never be a part of that blessed company of Sons who are destined to set
creation free! How can any one be God's instrument to bring deliverance to the whole
creation while he closes his eyes and stops his ears and shuts up his heart to the
beautiful revelation of His purposes?
There is nothing that opens
the wellsprings of love, of faith and understanding, in the human heart like the knowledge
of His purpose. What infinite joy, what satisfaction and assurance floods our souls when
for the first time in our lives our great and wonderful Father is seen to be a God of
purpose, knowing the end from the beginning because He planned the beginning and planned
the end! He created all things and made all things and brought all things into being that
His glorious purpose might be fulfilled. It was this triumphant knowledge that gripped the
heart of the apostle Paul when writing to the Romans, he drew aside the veil to give the
saints a clearer view into the mysteries that lay hidden in God's mind from the foundation
of the ages. This is what he plainly stated: "I reckon that the sufferings of this
present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.
For the earnest expectation of the creation waits for the manifestation of the sons of
God." Now take particular notice of the words that follow: "For the creation was
made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him (God) who has subjected the
same in hope. Because the creation itself ALSO shall be delivered from the bondage of
corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God" (Rom. 8:18-21).
Frankly, I never cease to be
amazed at those who profess to yearn for the Sons of God to be manifested, who continually
quote the Scripture about the WHOLE CREATION GROANING, WAITING for the manifestation of
the Sons of God, because THE CREATION ITSELF SHALL BE DELIVERED FROM THE BONDAGE OF
CORRUPTION INTO THE GLORIOUS LIBERTY OF THE SONS OF GOD - and then when you tell them that
the Sons of God shall really, truly, actually, factually, completely SET ALL CREATION FREE
they get upset and call you a heretic, or ask foolish questions like, "What good is
it to believe that?" If God isn't going to do what He said; if Christ isn't going to
actually draw all men unto Himself; if the whole of creation is not going to be delivered
into the glorious liberty of the children of God; if God will not make all men alive in
the Christ; if the last enemy, death, and hell shall never be destroyed; if the devil is
going to possess the souls of the vast majority of men forever; if God is never going to
become ALL IN ALL; then I fail to see what is the purpose of all this qualifying for
sonship, for a glorious ministry in the age and ages to come, for THERE IS NO MINISTRY FOR
THE SONS. We may as well forget about sonship, forget about being kings and priests unto
God, forget about God setting all creation free, content ourselves with the present Church
program, and be satisfied that while untold billions are damned for ever God shall have
His sweet little handful of saints to rejoice with Him in heaven!
THE PURPOSE OF GOD IN THIS
AGE
While the preparatory
features of God's plan of the ages have all been related to the one harmonious program,
they have varied in detail. This means that in our study of the Bible it is necessary
properly to apply its promises and prophecies, else there will be seeming contradictions.
That part of the divine plan which was developed prior to Christ's first advent was
different from that which God has been doing since. His plans for the ages yet to come are
again different from what is being done today.
An example or two will help
to illustrate this point. In the second Psalm there is a prophecy which applies to Christ.
Here the heavenly Father says to His beloved Son, "Ask of Me, and I shall give You
the heathen (nations) for Your inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Your
possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them in pieces like a
potter's vessel" (Ps. 2:8-9). When Jesus came in the flesh, He did not ask for the
nations of the world at all. Instead of that He said, "I pray not for the world, but
for them which Thou hast given Me out of the world" (Jn. 17:9). Does this mean that
the prophecy of the second Psalm is not in harmony with what the Christ came to do? Not at
all! It simply means that the fulfillment of this prophecy belongs to a different epoch in
God's plan of the ages.
In Rev. 2:26-27 Jesus quotes
a portion of the second Psalm and applies it to the overcomers out of the Church age,
promising that they are to share with Him in ruling the nations with a rod of iron when
the time comes for Him to ask for and receive the nations for an inheritance, and the
uttermost parts of the earth for a possession. "And he that overcomes ... to him I
will give power over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the
vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of My
Father." This is in harmony with numerous other New Testament promises to the
overcoming saints of God, which show that they are to be joint-heirs with Him in His
inheritance of the nations (Rom. 8:17; II Tim. 2:12). It is in harmony also with Jesus'
prayer on behalf of His disciples, wherein He reveals that His purpose in calling them to
be associated with Him in the Father's work is that THE WORLD MIGHT BELIEVE ON HIM THROUGH
THEM. Can we not see by this that when the time element is properly understood Jesus is to
possess and rule the nations, but first there is the great task of calling and preparing
those who will be partners with Him in that universal rulership which will bring the
triumph of His Kingdom in all realms from pole to pole!
In the true and eloquent
words of another: "The plan and order of God for this age was stated by the apostle
James with clearness, brevity and eloquence when he, speaking to the apostles and brethren
at Jerusalem with the anointing of the Spirit upon him, uttered this remarkable statement:
'Simon has declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles (nations) to take out of
them a people for His name. And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written,
After this (that is, after He has taken out a people for His name) I will return, and will
build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the
ruins thereof, and I will set it up; that THE RESIDUE OF MEN (the rest, the remainder of
men) might seek after the Lord and ALL THE GENTILES (nations) upon whom My name is called,
says the Lord, who does all these things. Known unto God are all His works from the
beginning of the world (ages)' (Acts 15:14-18).
"Once God's plan for
this age, outlined above by the inspired lips of the apostle James, has gripped your heart
and laid hold upon your understanding, then you will clearly see that everything - yes,
absolutely everything in this entire age - is working out just exactly as the omniscient
God intended that it should. God is taking out a people. He is not calling all people now.
He is taking out a people for His name. Jesus is the Christ. To be in Christ means that
you have taken His name. To be in Christ is to be a Son of God, born of incorruptible seed
as Jesus is a Son of God. To be in Christ is to be a member of the body of Christ. To be a
member of the body of Christ is to be a king, a priest, a royal generation, an holy
people. To be a sharer of His glorious name is to be prepared by God for the ages to come
in which those chosen ones shall show forth the praises of Him who has called them out of
darkness into His marvelous light. Being thus called to bear His name is to be prepared to
reign with Him in the ages to come, in which ages the Lord will gather the residue of
mankind and eventually all the Gentiles whosoever and wheresoever they may be. That is the
true purpose of the ministry of the Sons of God for which all creation groans and
travails. Once you see the clearness of this plan, confusion drops away like a millstone
into the depths of the sea and the order of the plan of God begins to take its place.
"The reason God's
children make such frantic, though futile, efforts to compass land and sea to get the
whole world converted in this age is because they cannot see that God is first calling out
a people for His name that through them in the dispensation of the fullness of times He
will gather all things into Christ. Be it known that in this age God's special purpose and
program is to take out a people for His name - that is, a people to bear the name of
Christ, the in-Christed - that in ages yet to come (and there are several of them) these
elect saints shall rule the world and gather all things in earth and heaven into our
wonderful Lord and Saviour (Eph. 1:10) " - The Page.
These "called out"
people are, also called the "firstfruits" company. "Of His own will begat
He us with the Word of truth, that we should be a kind of FIRSTFRUITS of His
creatures" (James 1:18; Rom. 8:23; 11:6). Those who stand on
God not only chose the
members of the body of Christ, He not only predestinated them to the adoption of Sons, but
He also did for them exactly what He did with Christ. He has "quickened us together
with Christ, and has raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenlies in
Christ Jesus" (Eph. 2:5-6). God has given the body of Christ the highest standing
that it is possible to give, in Christ, to be like Him, and to sit upon His throne. But
that is not just to honor those who have been transformed by His grace. It is part of
God's program for the Sons of God "in the ages to come."
What is that program? Here it
is: "That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His
kindness toward us in Jesus Christ" (Eph. 2:7). "That He might show..."
"Show" is from a Greek word meaning "to exhibit, to put on display like a
work of art, to demonstrate." The Amplified Bible reads, "He did this that He
might clearly DEMONSTRATE through the ages to come the immeasurable (limitless,
surpassing) riches of His free grace in kindness and goodness of heart toward us in Christ
Jesus." Kenneth Wuest translates, "In order that He might EXHIBIT ... in the
ages that pile themselves upon one another in continuous succession the surpassing wealth
of His grace in kindness to us in Christ Jesus." Show ... demonstrate ... exhibit the
riches of His grace - to whom? Not to those who already know it - that would be useless
nonsense. But to those who do not know it! And not as an expression of God's scorn,
ridicule, or cynicism, saying to the multitudes of hopelessly lost men and women,
"Just LOOK at what you missed!" That would be no demonstration of the riches of
GRACE nor would it be an exhibit of His unsurpassed KINDNESS! But, praise His name, in the
ages to come He shall put His grace and kindness toward us ON DISPLAY that the entire
creation may walk across the stage of His cosmic theater and behold and see and finally
come to understand WHAT GOD HAS PROVIDED FOR ALL MEN IN CHRIST.
But the objection will be
made that "in the ages to come" men will not deserve an opportunity to accept
Christ. Of course there will be countless billions there who have never had an opportunity
for salvation, who never heard the name of Christ, whose hearts were never touched by His
gracious Spirit. But there will be other countless millions who have heard the message and
have rejected it. So men who ought to know better say, "Let them go to hell! They
will be getting just exactly what they deserve!" Alas, how many so-called Sons of God
I meet across the land who actually fear that some poor, lost, hell-bent sinner might not
get everything he deserves! God have mercy upon them.
May I now state that I do not
deserve the grace of God. And without any thought of being insulting, but just to state
the fact according to God's estimation, you do not deserve the grace of God, either! All
men are undeserving sinners. That is why it takes grace to save. "For by grace are
you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works,
lest any man should boast" (Eph. 2:8-9). Have you noticed that these beautiful verses
follow immediately the statement, "That in the ages to come He might show the
exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Jesus Christ?" And why do
these verses begin with the word "for"? The word "for" shows a
relationship between what precedes and what follows. In the ages to come He will
demonstrate and exhibit His grace, for He has already shown it to us, the members of His
body, whom He will use AS THE DEMONSTRATION! So God chooses a "firstfruit," a
few undeserving sinners in this age; calls them, saves them, sanctifies them, transforms
them into the image of Christ, fills them with His mind, clothes them with His glory, that
through them He may demonstrate His grace to other undeserving sinners "in the ages
to come." And the demonstration will be convincing, too. It will accomplish what God
intends that it shall accomplish, praise His wonderful name!
Paul wrote to his beloved son
Timothy, "For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; who will
have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one
God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave Himself a ransom
for all, to be testified in due time" (I Tim. 2:3-6). Praise God, He "gave
Himself a ransom for all," in order that he might bless all, and give to every man
all that Christ purchased for men. To claim that He gave a "ransom for ALL" and
yet to claim that only a mere handful of the ransomed ones will ever receive any benefit
from it, is absurd; for it would imply either that God accepted the ransom-price and then
unjustly refused to grant the release of the redeemed, or else that the Lord, after
redeeming all, was either unable or unwilling to carry out the original benevolent design.
The unchangeableness of the divine plan, no less than the perfection of the divine justice
and love, repels and contradicts such a thought, and gives us blessed assurance that the
original plan, of which the "ransom for all" was the basis, will be fully
carried out in God's own "due time," and, will bring to all men everywhere the
blessing of release from the power of sin and death, and a return to the rights and
liberties of sons of God, as enjoyed before sin and the curse.
In his statement to Timothy,
Paul gives us the key to the seeming delay in the blessing of the whole race with the
life-giving streams of that precious fountain flowing from Immanuel's veins. He says that
Christ "gave Himself a ransom for ALL, TO BE TESTIFIED IN DUE TIME." In I Jn.
2:2 the apostle John makes it clear that "Christ is the propitiation (satisfaction)
for OUR sins; and NOT FOR OURS ONLY, but also for THE SINS OF THE WHOLE WORLD." Thus
it is plain to all who have eyes to see that the application of the merit of Christ's
sacrifice on behalf of sin is to be made in TWO SEPARATE PARTS - first for
"ours"; that is, for the members of Christ's own body; and then, later, in due
time "for the sins of the whole world."
Surely these are simple words
that even a child can understand! I do not hesitate to emphasize the blessed truth that
during this Church age the merit of Christ's atonement is being applied only on behalf of
the members of Christ's body, the Church, which is the firstfruits of the result of that
all-inclusive sacrifice.
In relation to this truth it
is important that we get a clear idea, not only of the structure of the Tabernacle in the
wilderness, but also that we should know something of the actors therein, and their
significance as types. There are three groups: first,
The wilderness journey
represented the tedious pilgrimage through which many pass, seeking the promised
In a word,
The "
The apostle Peter shows who
were typified by the Aaronic Priests when, addressing those who were sanctified, he says,
"YOU are ... an holy priesthood to offer up sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus
Christ." "YOU are ... a royal priesthood" (I Pet. 1:2; 2:5,9). That the
Head or Chief Priest of this Priesthood, this "little flock," is our Lord Jesus,
is repeatedly mentioned by the apostles. I give but one quotation: "HOLY brethren
(the Royal Priesthood), partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and High
Priest of OUR PROFESSION (our order of priests), Christ Jesus" (Heb. 3:1).
On the Day of Atonement the
High Priest carried the blood of the sacrificed bullock into the
That the merits of Christ's
redemption are applied in two separate parts is clearly seen in the offering of the two
rams on the Day of Atonement. Many Scriptures could be cited, but we shall content
ourselves with one example which clearly points out the two aspects of the application of
Christ's redeeming work. "And Aaron shall come into the Tabernacle of the
congregation (the Holy Place) and shall put off the linen garments which he put on when he
went into the Holy Place (the "Most Holy") and he shall leave them there; and he
shall wash his flesh with water in the Holy Place and put on his (usual) garments and come
forth and offer HIS BURNT OFFERING and the BURNT OFFERING FOR THE PEOPLE, and make
atonement for HIMSELF (the Christ, Head and body, the Church) and FOR THE PEOPLE"
(Lev. 16:23-24). It is obvious that no atonement needed to be made for our great
antitypical High Priest, Jesus, for He was "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from
sinners," yet, in the shadow of good things to come, an atonement was made for Aaron
and his house. This ram for Aaron included ALL THE MEMBERS OF HIS FAMILY, THE PRIESTHOOD,
and in type, therefore, covers ALL THE MEMBERS OF CHRIST'S BODY, THE ROYAL PRIESTHOOD -
and we did indeed need an atonement! Can we not clearly see by this that there were two
rams, two sacrifices, one for the Priesthood, and another for the people? There should be
no question in the mind of any who are willing to face facts that there are two
applications of Christ's atonement, first for the body of Christ during this age, and
later "for the whole world". Glory!
When every living stone has
been readied and permanently placed within the living walls of that glorious body of Kings
and Priests, that wonderful
In the hour in which we live
the vast majority of Christians are more miserable than most other people in the world.
They are only enduring this life in order to eventually get to heaven where they imagine
they will spend the next billion trillion years or so singing, playing harps, and dancing.
I am quite sure that if such people would admit the truth, they would admit that even a
thousand years of singing, shouting, playing harp music and dancing around in white robes
would become very boring, to say the least. I find that most of these people can't endure
five hours in a meeting even if the glory is failing all around! The problem is that their
theology leaves them with nothing constructive to do and all eternity to do it in!
To possess the fullness of
the mighty anointing of God's Spirit of power and holiness for this life only would be
like putting a five thousand horse power engine in a common automobile. That would be more
power than could possibly be used in any automobile made for common use. Such power would
actually destroy any automobile in which it was placed. It would be of no benefit in any
way, but become a very real danger. We are admonished to "go on to perfection"
and "put on the whole armor of God" and "be filled with all the fullness of
God" and "grow up into Him in all things" and are promised that "we
shall be like Him" and do "greater works" than Jesus did. But if such
awesome glory and power is to be used only through the fleeting years of this present
life, or expended throughout eternity in singing, shouting, and dancing - what a waste!
This life could not under any circumstances endure to possess the FULL anointing of God.
Therefore this anointing must be for another work than we find in this life or this
present age. There must be something beyond upon which this anointing is to be used, else
why would the Lord spend such long time, and work with such meticulous care to bring forth
a body in the fullness of His life and victory? If we do not see any ministry beyond this
life for which we can use this anointing, we are then truly the most miserable of all men,
for we actually possess something which is of very little use. God has not allowed
anything like the real fullness of this mighty anointing to come into actual use. It is,
for the most part, resting in a dormant state within the body of Christ. The anointing of
God is far, far greater than the Church has ever witnessed, even as the hydrogen bomb is
far more powerful than the hand grenade. Truly that is but a feeble comparison, but what
comparison can we make between ALL THE FULLNESS OF GOD and the "measure" we have
thus far experienced?
Perhaps now we can understand
why God has reserved the ages to come to put the fullness of His grace and glory and power
on display and in demonstration through the perfected, overcoming, and fully anointed Sons
of God! Thank God! He has not called us to such glory and virtue and authority to see
nothing more come of it than we now see about us, but all we are learning and acquiring
and attaining during this present time is but preparation for the greater glory yet to be
revealed in us and the greater work still to be done.
One of the grandest passages
of Scripture to be found in all the pages of God's wonderful Word is in I Cor. 15:20-28
and is accentuated by this remarkable proclamation: "...as in Adam all die, even so
in Christ shall all be made alive." Would God that I had the voice of a trumpet that
I could sound from the highest mountain peak this message that "as in Adam ALL die,
even so in Christ SHALL ALL be made alive!" Just what does it mean for ALL to be
"made alive"? First we must understand what it means for ALL to "die."
I will speak very plainly about that condition or state of being that we call death. Who
are the dead? Of course some one will say that is a foolish question because it is so
obvious that the dead are those who have departed this life, their bodies lie buried in
the earth.
But far more than our decease
was brought in by Adam, and something which affects our souls much more than the sleep
which ends our earth consciousness. God did not say to Adam, "In the day that you eat
thereof you shall surely die" (Gen. 2:17). If He had, Adam would have fallen over
dead in the very day he sinned. He would then have had no progeny of sinners. In the
precise language of the Hebrew He said, "And dying, you shall die." That is,
there would be a process of dying as well as a condition of death. As we now know, there
is a long process of disintegration, with which we are all acquainted, even though we are
accustomed to calling it life! Ever since Adam sinned, he and his descendants have been
dying. It isn't that death "catches up with us." Death is a part of us, from the
very moment of conception until the day it triumphs over us. Like ripe fruit plucked from
the tree, our bloom soon passes away. In Adam, all are dying, even while they walk about
on two feet. That is the "life" that we inherited from our disobedient parent.
But death is much more than
this! No more precise definition of death can be given than the one provided by God
Himself : "For to be carnally minded IS DEATH; but to be spiritually minded IS LIFE
and peace" (
The carnal mind is enmity
against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be, for it
minds only the things of the flesh, and fulfills the desires of the self-will, all of
which perishes. Paul describes this natural state this way, "And you - who were DEAD
IN TRESPASSES AND SINS; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this
world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the
children of disobedience: among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the
lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by
nature the children of wrath, even as others" (Eph. 2:1-3). The wages of sin is death
(Rom. 6:23), and death has passed upon ALL MEN, for that ALL HAVE SINNED. This inworking
of the mystery of iniquity has brought every man into the death of the carnal mind,
terminating our consciousness of the spiritual realm, and causing us to become very self
conscious in the flesh realm. Anybody apart from God in Christ is dead, whether in this
life, or in any other. "He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son
of God hath not life" ( I Jn. 5:12). Physical death is only one of the results of a
previous spiritual death. When Adam sinned, fellowship was broken between himself and the
realm of God. It was not merely his physical demise after 930 years that constituted his
death, but his separation from God on the very day he sinned was the inner reality of his
death. That is the real death! And all the sorrows, frustrations, heartaches, pains,
sicknesses, sufferings, disappointments, tragedies, and torments of this poor mortal
existence are all part and parcel of the realm of death - truly the condition and state of
being of all men "in Adam."
Let us now see how it is that
"in Christ" all shall be MADE ALIVE. The verse under consideration is found in I
Cor. 15:22, and this whole chapter deals with resurrection. The word resurrection is so
inadequate to express the true thought or idea that the Holy Spirit is conveying to us.
The common conception of this word carries with it the idea of opening all the graves in
the world and the arising out of them of the physical bodies of those who have died. But
since death is something more than dead bodies, you can be assured, dear ones, that
resurrection is something far beyond bringing bodies out of tombs. To have a false or
limited view of the resurrection is to have a false and limited view of God's work
throughout the ages until now. If our view of the resurrection is dwarfed, then our whole
view of God's plan is dwarfed.
So we read that in Christ ALL
SHALL BE MADE ALIVE. The contrast is not between corpses and walking bodies, but between
the dying process and the life process in God. The Greek text actually reads, "As in
Adam all are dying, so in the Christ shall all be made alive." The terms "are
dying" and "shall be made alive" are in the incomplete tense in the
original, which denotes an action in progress. The long drawn out activity of death in
dragging men down to sin, death, and the grave is put in contrast with the endless
activity of life imparting holiness, power, incorruption, and glory. All who endured the
first shall enjoy the second. Here is a message for mankind which should lift it above its
misery! The process of His life, and hence, the process of resurrection has already
commenced with us! Truly "He hath quickened us together with Christ...and hath raised
us up" so that "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are
above" (Eph. 2:5-6; Col. 3:1).
To be "made alive"
is more than some instantaneous event to take place some time in the distant future.
"Made alive" is not a blasting open of graves and the coming forth of the bodies
that have been buried in them. "Made alive" does not point to some event when
people will go soaring off into the heavens. When Jesus stood before the tomb of Lazarus,
He rebuked Martha for looking for some manner of event in the far distant future and told
her that the RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE WAS STANDING THERE BEFORE THEM. "I am the
resurrection and the life." Oh, saints of God, do you not see that the eternal Father
within the Christ was and is the resurrection? "I live by the Father," Jesus
declared. The resurrection was not some thing that happened to Jesus, not some event of
which He was a partaker, not some day marked by the calendar. The resurrection was and is
A MAN! "I AM" - there it is! "I AM the resurrection and the life." To
possess the Man, to put on the Man, to come into union with the Man is to have
resurrection, for the Man IS the resurrection. "In Christ shall all be made
alive."
This is what Paul is speaking
of in the fifteenth chapter of I Corinthians. He bases his argument on the fact of whether
or not the Christ has risen from the dead. In verse sixteen we read from the Diaglott,
"For if dead persons are not raised up, NEITHER HAS CHRIST BEEN RAISED." Please
notice, and most other translations bear this out, Paul says, "If dead persons ARE
NOT (present tense) raised up." He did not say, "If dead persons WILL NOT
(future tense) be raised up." He placed it in the present, that if the dead ARE NOT
raised up, then the CHRIST IS NOT RAISED. If Jesus the Christ is the only one so far
raised from the dead, He is most surely having a lonely time of it, and He too is looking
with wistful eyes into the unknown future, waiting for the graves to open. But there is a
note of triumph in Paul's epistle, and that epistle comes right out of Paul's own personal
experience when he proclaims in verse twenty, "BUT NOW IS CHRIST RISEN FROM THE DEAD,
and become the firstfruits of THEM THAT SLEPT." Ah, the word "sleep" is in
the past tense, them that SLEPT. This can but mean that they are not sleeping now, and
Christ has already led forth from the dominion of death an unknown host who are WITH HIM
IN THE LIFE OF THE RESURRECTION!
Truly the resurrection is not
a future hope - it is a present reality. As those in Adam "are dying" so in
Christ men "are being made alive." Receiving of His life we find it to be a
RESURRECTION LIFE. The word "resurrection" is from the Greek word ANASTASIS
meaning a standing or rising up. It denotes much more than our English word resurrection
which we term to mean a restoring to life again. The Greek word means the WHOLE PROCESS OF
ADVANCING AND RISING UP UNTIL THE HIGHEST POSSIBLE REALM IS REACHED, and our goal is
nothing short than full conformation into the image of God that, when He shall appear, we
shall be like Him. Resurrection is the process of STANDING UP and ADVANCING, it is arising
from the dust and the low realm of the earthy, to bear the image of the heavenly.
Resurrection is the process of having our life lifted up from the earth, to be raised to
the heavenlies, joined in one with the fullness of the Spirit of God. Our alienation and
separation from God, with all the dreadful attending sorrows, are already beginning to end
in this life as through Christ we ARE MADE ALIVE! And, blessed be His name, in Christ
shall ALL be made alive!
In the face of a hope so
blessed and glorious as this, some have raised an objection, contending that not ALL who
die in Adam will be made alive in Christ. These assert that in each case the
"all" is limited, so that it is only ALL WHO ARE IN CHRIST that shall be made
alive. The idea is that it is not the same all who die in Adam that are made alive in
Christ. All who have ever lived were "in Adam" and therefore died, they say, but
only a few have by faith come to be "in Christ" - and only "all in
Christ" are given life. If that were true, this booklet would be a short one and our
story soon told. I do not hesitate to say that that is indeed a crafty and cunning - but
devious - argument. It reveals the crass ignorance of those who employ it. It shows that
either they have not read the Scripture, or they have read it but, like the Ethiopian
Eunuch, understand not what they read and need "some man to teach them."
It has been said that if the
average Christian knew what his Bible is talking about, he would burn it as a dangerous
and heretical writing. There is much more truth to this statement than most of us would
like to admit. False doctrine is founded on error. While professing to believe and teach
the Word, yet it can do nothing but contradict it. Most of its efforts are therefore an
attempt to make the Word conform to its own ignorant imaginings. While it loudly proclaims
the Bible to be true and professes to believe it, yet it must continually change and
explain its truths in such a way as to make them uphold its own reasonings. God's true
ministers are those who have come to the place where they dare to believe God, though it
makes all men liars. And anyone who will serve the Lord faithfully by declaring His truth
is bound to be unpopular with all the ministers in apostasy, because he must then
continually expose their shame.
And the assertion that all
who die in Adam will not be made alive in the Christ is very sly and cunning and
deceptive. It is a flat contradiction of the Word of God. Furthermore, it is a Christ
dishonoring blasphemy straight out of the pit. The simple truth is that the argument is a
subtle play on words, while missing or ignoring altogether what Paul REALLY SAID. His
statement in I Cor. 15:22 can be made to say what these deceivers make it say only when it
is taken out of context. It must be read in connection with all the verses surrounding it.
As soon as this principle is faithfully followed, it becomes plain.
Here is what Paul says in the
verse under consideration: "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be
made alive" -but that is not the end of the matter! Paul does not drop his thought or
change his subject at the end of that sentence. The very same thought is continued in the
next verse where the apostle states, "BUT EVERY MAN IN HIS OWN ORDER." That is,
all who shall be made alive in the Christ will be made alive by an order, in sequence,
according to a progressive arrangement, determined by group, position, degree or rank. The
Scriptures make it very plain that all are not saved at the same time. "Who gave
Himself a ransom for all; to be testified in due time" (I Tim. 2:6). At the present
time God is saving only those He has called unto the special salvation of the ages (I Cor.
1:26-30; 1 Tim. 6:12). He will use these to bring about the salvation of the rest (Eph.
1:9-12; 2:6-10; Rom. 8:18-23).
The Greek word translated
"order" is TAGMA and means a "group," or "rank," or
"band," or "company." TAGMA actually comes from a root word meaning to
appoint, determine, or set in array, as used in Acts 13:38, "and as many as were
ordained (set in array) to eternal life believed." The thought is of soldiers
marching in bands, companies, regiments or battalions. As in times of war the country
calls age groups and forms them into companies of men, so in like manner the Spirit of God
calls to resurrection and life every man in his own time, order, and rank. Man holds no
power to hasten that order even for an hour; neither has he power to delay it.
While men who understand
nothing of the plan of God go rushing far and wide, desperately trying to convert the
world "before it is eternally too late," the almighty God in matchless serenity
sits on His glorious throne, beholding with joy His on-going purpose of the ages as it
develops in magnificent harmony, and sends forth His Spirit at just the proper time to
call "every man in his own order." As one has so beautifully written,
"Jesus clearly taught that No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent
Me draw him,' giving indication that the initiative is God's, as He causes us to come in
His time, to be in that order, that rank that He has determined for us. But He also made
it clear, that regardless of the timing of our call, when the Father draws us to Himself,
the process continues until ALL have been brought to Him, for He said, 'And I, if I be
lifted up from the earth, WILL DRAW ALL MEN UNTO ME' (Jn. 12:32). 'Every man in his own
order' is also very reassuring, for it promises that in His own time and calling for each
one, He will bring them into the fullness of His life. The Spirit draws, awakens,
illumines, imparts life - according to the will of God for each individual. EACH IN HIS
OWN RANK. There is no merit upon man for this choosing - 'It is not of him that wills, nor
of him that runs, BUT OF GOD that shows mercy' (Rom. 9:16). And when He draws us we can
only bow in humble thanksgiving for this expression of His love toward us, and receive
Him, yield to Him, and follow after Him with our whole heart." - Gospel Echoes.
And now, let us see WHAT THE
ORDER IS. "In Christ shall all be made alive - but every man in his own order."
And then the apostle lists three unmistakable and successive orders in which EVERY MAN is
made alive. Hear it! "But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits;
afterward they that are Christ's at His coming. Then comes the end, when He shall have
delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when He shall have put down all rule and
authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet. The
last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For He hath put all things under His feet ...
and when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject
unto Him that put all things under Him, that God may be ALL IN ALL" (I Cor.
15:23-28). Let me present the three orders:
1. Christ the firstfruits
2. Afterwards those who are Christ's at His coming
3. Then the end ... all enemies ... all things subdued ... until God is ALL IN ALL.
Those who insist that only
the small handful of saints who during this age find life in Christ make up the
"all" who will be made alive fall short for they fail to get past the first two
companies. These believe that the Christ was Himself made alive, and they further believe
that those who are now His are being made alive, but in their terrible blindness they miss
entirely the third order in which ALL MEN AND ALL THINGS, including God's very worst
enemies, are SUBJECTED AND SUBDUED UNTO HIM and then delivered up in His Kingdom unto God,
even the Father, that God may then be "all in all"! Ah, beloved, it takes not
two, but all three of these "orders" to constitute the ALL who are MADE ALIVE IN
CHRIST. And to say that "all" is anything short of this is to horribly distort
and impiously wrest the Word of God!
What a demonstration of love
and grace and power! The mighty working of HIS LIFE in this third group shows us that the
impetus given to God's purpose by the resurrection of Christ from the dead does not expend
itself until all others are made alive in Him; until all sovereignty and authority and
power in opposition to Him is broken; until all enemies are placed under Christ's feet,
subdued unto Him; until the last enemy, death itself, is abolished and there is no more
death abiding in any creature anywhere; until all in the universe is included in the
Kingdom of the Son; until the Son Himself has handed over the Kingdom and all its subjects
to the Father and God has become All in all - everything to everyone everywhere! What an
impetus! The resurrection of Christ from the dead sets in motion a chain of happenings
which carry on and do not stop until God's great purpose in the ages is fully consummated.
What love! What wondrous
love! The might of God's strength which operated in Christ, raising Him from the dead, was
sufficient to exalt Him to the highest pinnacle of the universe, thus ensuring that all
His enemies would be reconciled to Him, that every opposing power would .be made
subordinate to Him, that all sin and death in every realm and in every man and in every
creature throughout all the unbounded heavens would be so swallowed up of HIS LIFE until
God would be ALL IN ALL, bless His glorious name! The gospel of the grace of God! May it
flood our hearts that they may, indeed, be illuminated with the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
After "Christ the
firstfruits" and "those who are Christ's at His coming" notice the words -
"then comes the end." Paul is talking about the "order" in which all
are to be made alive. As I have pointed out, the word "order" means a group, or
rank, or band, like succeeding groups or bands in a parade. "Christ the
firstfruits" is the first order; "they that are Christ's" are the second
order; and the Greek says, "Then the end," an expression that is not unlike
"bringing up the rear." It constitutes the "end rank" or the last
order to be made alive in Christ. Paul is writing about three orders or classes of mankind
to be made alive in Christ, and these three orders constitute ALL of mankind. Paul seems
to pile up words to make clear his meaning that ALL THINGS IN THE UNIVERSE are to be
brought into subjection to God. In I Cor. 15:22-28 he uses the word "all" twelve
times, and in just the last two verses he repeats the idea of subjection six times. One
wonders what else He could have written to make men understand his meaning. He is saying
as clearly as words can say that the ultimate GOAL OF GOD is the bringing into subjection
of all beings in the universe, in heaven, in earth, and in the underworld!
"Then comes the end,
when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when He shall have
PUT DOWN all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign until He has PUT all
enemies UNDER HIS FEET. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For He hath PUT
ALL THINGS UNDER HIS FEET. But when He says all things are PUT UNDER Him, it is manifest
that He is excepted, which did PUT all things UNDER HIM. And when ALL THINGS shall be
SUBDUED UNTO Him, then shall the Son also Himself BE SUBJECT unto Him that PUT ALL THINGS
under Him, that God may be all in all" (I Cor. 15:24-28).
In the 27th and 28th verses
one single verb meaning "put in subjection" is used six times. It is variously
translated as "put under," "subdues," and "be subject." Paul
chooses this word to make clear his meaning that ALL THINGS IN THE UNIVERSE are to be
brought INTO SUBJECTION to God. To bring into subjection is to bring into obedience. There
can be no reconciliation, no harmony, no orderly Kingdom, no "God all in all"
without a subjugation; and as God accepts nothing but a willing obedience, He plans to
bring ALL to a willing obedience to His will. God does not make anyone do anything. But He
certainly knows how to "make" us WILLING! God didn't "make" Jonah go
to
"Who will transform the
body of our humiliation into a conformity with His glorious body, according to the energy
by which He is able to SUBJECT ALL THINGS to Himself" (Phil. 3:21). The power that
transforms our bodies into the likeness of His glorious body, is the same power that will
subdue ALL THINGS unto Him. They will become His subjects, and own Him as their King. Some
erroneously teach that THINGS does not mean people, that it only means nature, thrones,
governmental positions, etc. If so, God loves the created inanimate THINGS more than man
who was made in His image! That is but another of
The real proof, however, lies
right within the passage under consideration. "For HE hath put ALL THINGS under His
feet. But when He says ALL THINGS are put under Him, it is manifest that HE is excepted,
which did put ALL THINGS under Him" (I Cor. 15:27). Now, I am sure that all will
admit that GOD is a person. God is not an inanimate object or an abstract governmental
position. He is a living being! And He is the only thing, according to Paul, that is NOT
SUBDUED UNTO THE CHRIST. Thus the internal evidence in our text reveals beyond any shadow
of a doubt that within the scope of the "all things" subdued unto Christ and
delivered up to the Father are ALL LIVING BEINGS other than God Himself. None can
contradict this fact but those so bound in the darkness of error that they no longer care
what the Word of God says - they will fight to the end for their man-made traditions!
The description, moreover, of
this consummation in the verses quoted is so sweeping that words and terms mean nothing at
all if it does not set forth total and universal homage paid by WILLING HEARTS to Christ,
and thus to God. Some have the idea that the subjection referred to is something like the
subjection of the Jews in the Nazi concentration camps during the second world war. Those
who hold that view envision billions of people confined to the lake of fire screaming,
cursing, hating and blaspheming God in their torments, but subjected, confined, held by
force, unable to escape, or to ever again be free to spread their sin and rebellion
through God's universe - but never changed. But notice, precious friend of mine, the very
same Greek word that suffices to describe the complete and loving subjection of the Son to
the Father, is used to declare what is the nature of the submission of all things under
the Son's rule and reign. There will be nothing anywhere that is any longer antagonistic
to God, therefore the reason why Christ's REDEMPTIVE REIGN comes to an end, and He hands
over to God all the subjugated and loyal realms of heaven and earth and hell is that He
may become "All in All." The same word for "subdue" is used in other
places for the kind of subjection that Christ yielded to His parents, that the Church
gives to Christ, and that God's children render to their Father - the identical
subjugation into which Christ will bring all things when the consummation of His reign
arrives.
This kind of total
subjugation to God is that which is being wrought in the "firstfruit company" in
this hour. Have you totally surrendered yourself to God? This is what God demands. In
numerous places, in various ways, in different words, God says the same thing over and
over again. And yet, sometimes it seems that we fail to get the message: Yield yourselves
to God. Submit yourselves to Christ. Offer your bodies as living sacrifices. Die to self.
Lay down your life. Present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead. Yield
not your members as instruments of unrighteousness but as instruments of righteousness
unto God. Put off the old man. Put on the mind of Christ. Walk in the Spirit. Over and
over again, God says the same thing. And what He now requires of us, His firstfruits, He
ultimately requires of the whole creation! He wants us to yield ourselves to Him. Andrew
Murray, in a great monograph on this subject, calls our attention to the encounter that
King Ahab had with Ben-hadad, king of
Ben-hadad ruled over
Just how long the battle
continued, we are not told. It may have been an extended period of time, but one thing is
certain. The rebellious King Ahab of
It seems that, usually, we
are ready to do almost anything but surrender ourselves to God. I recall the time when the
British general came to surrender to
The following words by George
D. Watson will help us see the unsurpassable beauty and majesty of what it really means to
be SUBDUED UNTO God. "Before God can launch us out into the breadth and sweetness of
His service, and entrust to us great things for Himself, we must be perfectly subdued in
every part of our nature to His will and disposition of His mind. We must be subdued in
our hearts, in our wills, in our words, in our tempers, in our manners; subdued through
and through so thoroughly that we will be flexible to all His purposes and plans. We must
be subdued that harshness, severity, criticism, sluggishness, laziness, impetuosity, and
all wanting our way, even in religious matters, must be subdued out of us. Conversion will
not finish this work.
"We must be subdued, not
merely in our own opinion, not merely think ourselves subdued, not only subdued in the
esteem of our friends and fellow workers, but subdued so perfectly that the all-seeing eye
of God can look us through, and the omniscient One knows that we are subdued. God must
conquer the man that He can trust with His great thoughts and plans. The Holy Ghost must
saturate us with a divine conquest, before He can use us to conquer other souls. The Lord
will begin to subdue us with gentle means; and if we sink lovingly and promptly into His
mind, the work will be done; but, if we have flint or iron in our nature, and it is
necessary, He will use heroic means and put us between the millstones and grind us to
powder, until He can mold us without any resistance to His purpose. We must be so subdued
that we can hold our tongues, and walk softly with God, keep our eyes upon Jesus, attend
to our own work, and do God's will promptly and lovingly, glad to have a place in His
Kingdom.
"Oh! it is grand to be
absolutely conquered by the Holy Ghost, and swing out a thousand miles from everybody and
everything into the
Oh, the ineffable glory to be
revealed when ALL RULE AND ALL AUTHORITY AND ALL POWER AND ALL ENEMIES AND ALL THINGS
SHALL BE SUBDUED UNTO CHRIST AND GOD SHALL BE ALL IN ALL! What anticipation this stirs in
our hearts!
Oh! the beauty of God's plan
of the ages! "Salvation is of the Lord" (Jonah 2:9). It is a fundamental and
wonderful fact that salvation is of the Lord and not man, but the Lord does not save all
in this age. Why not? He does save some; and if He saves some, why not others? Is it
because they are too sinful and depraved? No; for the apostle wrote, "This is a
faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners; of whom I am chief" (I Tim. 1:15). Therefore, if God saved the
"chief" of sinners, none are excluded because of their depravity. Why then does
God not now save all? Is it because some are too stony-hearted to be won? No; because of
the most stony-hearted people of all it is written, that God will yet "take the stony
heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh" (Eze. 11:9). Then is
it because some are so stubborn, so intractable, so defiant, so incorrigible that God is
unable to woo them to Himself?
I shall answer that question
by asking another. Beloved, was there not a time when you walked in the counsel of the
ungodly, stood in the way of sinners, sat in the seat of the scornful, and with them said,
"We will not have this Man to reign over us" (Lk. 19:14)? Was there not a time
when you "would not come to Christ that you might have life" (Jn. 5:40)? With
shamed face most of those who read these lines have to acknowledge there was. But how is
it that all is now changed? What was it that brought you from haughty self-sufficiency to
a humble suppliant, from one that was at enmity with God to one that is at peace with Him,
from lawlessness to subjection, from hate to love? And, as one born of the Spirit, you
will readily reply, "By the grace of God I am what I am" (I Cor. 15:10).
What is it that caused you to
put your trust in Christ? Is it because you were more intelligent than your fellows, and
quicker to discern your need of salvation? Perish the thought - "Who makes you to
differ from another? And what have you that you did not receive? Now if you did receive
it, why do you glory, as if you had not received it" (I Cor. 4:7)? Then do you not
see that it is due to no lack of power in God, nor to His refusal to coerce man, that
other rebels are not now saved too? If God was able to subdue your heart, then is He not
able to do the same for others? Assuredly He is! Then how inconsistent, how illogical, how
foolish of men to argue that God is unable to save the masses of hell-bent humanity
because THEY WILL NOT LET HIM. Do you say, "But the time came when I was willing,
willing to receive Christ as my Saviour." True, but it was the Lord who made you
willing! (Ps. 110:3; Phil. 2:13).
Why then does He not make
other sinners willing? The answer is of course: HE WILL! "As in Adam all die, even so
in Christ shall ALL be made alive. BUT EVERY MAN IN HIS OWN ORDER: a firstfruit Anointed;
afterwards they that are Christ's at His appearing. Then... the end, when ... ALL SHALL BE
SUBDUED UNTO HIM ... that God may be ALL IN ALL." I shall fight that battle for the
supremacy of Christ while there is a drop of blood in my body. I shall claim that every
foot of this earth and every man upon this earth and under the earth belongs to Christ,
for He made the earth and He made every man. He tasted death for every man, and therefore,
every foot of the earth; and every man on the earth and under the earth belongs to Christ
my Lord. They are His by right of creation and by right of redemption. I claim for His
this great and universal Kingdom. The Church has forgotten that Christ came to establish a
Kingdom and that it must break in pieces and CONSUME (take into itself) every other
kingdom including the devil's kingdom. The Gospel which Christ preached was the Gospel of
the
GOD ALL IN ALL - this will be
the grand conclusion of the great drama of the world's history and of Christ's redemption.
There will come a day - the glory is such we can form no conception of it, the mystery is
so deep we cannot realize it - when the Son shall deliver up the Kingdom that God gave Him
and which He won with His own blood and established and perfected from the throne of His
glory. "He shall deliver up the Kingdom unto the Father ... that God may be all in
all." ALL IN ALL - such is the grand goal of our God! He will yet be everything to
everyone of His creatures, as it is fitting He should be. Nothing less will satisfy His
heart for "He has created all things, and for HIS PLEASURE they are and were
created" (Rev. 4:11). Nothing less will vindicate His love or form a fit conclusion
for the sin and sorrow and death of the ages. Let us with joy believe it! Let us exult as
we receive it! Let us be "laborers together with God" to accomplish it! May this
simple phrase, that the smallest child can utter, become the very basis of our being, the
background of every act, the key to every occurrence, a light in every darkness, a balm
for every wound, and our ages-lasting consolation and good hope.
Let us awake from the
terrifying nightmare of
I am living for this, that
Christ may have the Kingdom to deliver up to the Father, and then God will be all in all.
I am living for Him, and I shall be there not only as a witness, but I will have a part in
it all. The Kingdom delivered up, the Son made subject, and God all in all! I shall have a
part in it and in adoring worship share the glory and blessedness. Let us take this home
to our hearts that it may rule our lives - this one thought, this one faith, this one aim,
this one joy: Christ lived and died and reigns; I live and die and in His power I reign
only for this one thing, "that God may be all in all!" Everything in history is
moving inexorably toward a day when Jesus will have conquered everything and everyone.
Like a mountain of soil before a gigantic bulldozer steadily moving forward, all that can
be conquered is being collected into the loving arms of Jesus, whose right it is to rule.
He will then turn it over to God the Father "that God may be All in All."
When Christ ascended on high
after His resurrection, He led many captives out of the pit and also set forth this
greater purpose: "Now that He ascended, what is it but that He also descended first
into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far
above all heavens, THAT HE MIGHT FILL ALL THINGS" (Eph. 4:9-10). The message is clear
- redemption does not include only the salvation of mankind, as wonderful and glorious as
that aspect is, but it also includes the complete transformation of the entire universe so
that God shall FILL ALL THINGS. There shall not be left one corner of this vast universe
where He shall not be LORD AND KING. EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE SHALL BE RESTORED TO THE
BEAUTIFUL HARMONY AND ORDER OF THE LOVE OF GOD. Indeed, HE SHALL FILL ALL THINGS SO THAT
"GOD MAY BE ALL IN ALL."
V. Gelesnoff wrote: "The
current Evangelical Theology involves in its system belief in the deathlessness of sin,
the indestructibility of error, and permanence of evil. That though there was a time in
the history of the universe when sin in any shape or form did not exist, when no cry of
pain or sense of guilt darkened the all-extensive bliss and holiness of creation, yet
since sin has once effected an entrance into such a scene, it has come in NEVER TO GO OUT
AGAIN, indestructible, unconquerable, ineradicable, endless. Absolute happiness and
sinlessness have forever vanished like the phantom of a dream. The 'eternal state' is a
universe endlessly finding room for myriads of souls rolling and writhing in the burning
agonies of ceaseless flame, eternally sinful, vile and morally hideous. It pictures the
final perfection (?) yet to be attained as having room for a vast cesspool of immoral and
degraded beings, continually existing in opposition to God.
"This system of
doctrine, though as old as man, as venerable as the tradition, as hoary as the pyramids,
as 'orthodox' as anything in ancient or modern theology, is a misconception, a travesty of
God's character, a caricature of His wisdom, and must be relegated to the scrapheap of
ancestral error.
"GLADLY DO WE TURN FROM
THIS figment of natural reason to the grand, simple statements of the unadorned Word of
God. It looks forward to a time when God shall be all in all, when heaven and earth shall
be purged from every stain of sin's pollution. It anticipates that glad occasion when
every heart shall beat in unison with the heart of God; every mind shall harmonize with
the Divine Wisdom and Purpose; every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord" -end quote.
While we praise God for every
moving of His Spirit and each step of His all-wise plan, the fact remains that none of the
revivals of history have ever once-for-all defeated satan, sin, and death. No revival in
any land has turned the whole world to God! No dealing of God with humanity has ever
brought to pass the TOTAL TRIUMPH of His Kingdom in all realms! Sin and death still stalk
across the earth, the vast masses of humanity held tight in their terrible clutches. Is
there no deliverance for these? How truly the whole creation groans and travails in pain
together, waiting, not for another Luther, nor another Paul, nor another Finney, nor
another Peter, nor another Moody; waiting not for another Pentecost, nor for another
healing campaign, nor for another prophet. "For the earnest expectation of the
creation waits for THE MANIFESTATION OF THE SONS OF GOD" (Rom. 8:19). And why does
all creation wait with bated breath, standing on tiptoe to see the wonderful sight of
God's Sons coming into their own? "For the creation itself ALSO shall be delivered
... INTO THE GLORIOUS LIBERTY OF THE SONS OF GOD!" (Rom. 8:21). Praise God!
Thank God, Dan 7:27 is really
true! "And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom, under the
whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom
is an everlasting kingdom, and A-L-L DOMINIONS S-H-A-L-L
S-E-R-V-E H-I-M!"
Thank God, Eph. 1:10 is actually the fully inspired Word of God! "And this is in
harmony with God's merciful purpose for the GOVERNMENT OF THE WORLD when the times are
ripe for it - the purpose which He has cherished in His own mind of restoring the whole
creation to find its one Head in Christ; yes, things in heaven and things on earth, to
find their one Head IN HIM" (Weymouth).
A little seed is the
beginning of a great tree. A mustard seed becomes a tree in which the birds of the air can
nestle. That great day of which our text speaks, when Christ shall deliver up the Kingdom
to the Father, and God shall be All in All - that is the great tree of the
WILL GOD BE
- ALL in Few?.
ALL in Many?..
ALL in Most?...
SOME in Some?...
SOME in All?...
or - ALL in ALL?...
Chapter
10
God
Is Love
"Herein is love, not
that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our
sins; and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world" (I Jn. 4:10; 2:2).
To us it is almost a
commonplace. But to the times in which it was first spoken and to the people who first
heard the words, it was the most astounding, the most startling revelation that had ever
fallen upon human ears. In a way I could wish that somehow we might be plunged back into
that heathen era so that we, ourselves, might hear those words for the first time - those
words which we take so much for granted that their meaning for the most part eludes us
entirely; that we might hear them in their pristine freshness when first they fell upon
this earth - "GOD IS LOVE!"
It is helpful to understand
how men viewed their God; the way in which they conceived of Him who created them. Would
that we could go back to those ancient days in India or China or Japan and see the hideous
idols with their grimacing countenances, their devouring teeth, their many arms and sharp
claws, something of the devouring, hateful nature of their deities - or go back to the
cruel Assyrians or Babylonians or Egyptians and the monstrosities, the tyrannies, which
they worshipped as gods.
If you will examine the
ancient pagan literature, you will find the concept of a loving God was alien to people.
We take that so much for granted. Why, of course, God loves us! I want you to know that
until Jesus came, people did not know that. They knew God according to superstition, or
after the law. They knew that God was angry with people. God punished people. God woke up
and threw thunderbolts at people. But that God loved them? God would accept their
sacrifices. God would even put up with them, and they would propitiate Him and appease Him
(or so they thought!), but they did not love God. But now our relationship with God is one
of a Father infinitely loving a son. You can see this, for example, in one of the famous
Confucian stories that our missionaries discovered when they got to
The Greeks had a little
different conception. They viewed God in terms of beauty or truth as revealed in their
architecture or sculpture or their philosophy. The Romans who were led in a thousand
battles by the Caesars, had become convinced that the Roman eagle never turned backward.
They conceived of their god in terms of might and strength. God was might! Even the Jews,
as they looked back to the time of Moses when God descended upon Sinai and caused the
mountain to quake and poured out upon them His law, conceived of God, basically, as the
great Lawgiver and Judge.
It waited for the apostle
John - that one who had leaned his head upon the breast of Jesus, that one who had stood
before the cross to drop those words which no man had ever dared to dream before. These
words were the most startling revelation when they were first spoken - "GOD IS
LOVE!" We all know that, you say! Do we indeed? It is my deep conviction that for
most of us the words are so trite that we haven't the faintest conception of what they
mean, nor have they ever begun to grasp our hearts as they should.
Since it is an everlasting
truth that men become like the god they worship, so this revelation, the unveiling of the
face of the Father in heaven in the person of Jesus Christ, has done more to soften and
conquer the hearts of mankind than anything that man has ever discovered. It has brought
more love and more genuine progress to civilization than anything else. Without it we
might still be as the Assyrians who worshipped cruel and merciless gods and, therefore,
when they descended upon their foes they placed thousands of sharpened stakes in the
ground, picked up their adversaries and left them impaled to die an agonizing death. Those
they did not impale they flayed alive and covered the walls of their captured towns with
the skins of their victims because that was the kind of god they worshipped.
But have we really made that
much progress? The same beloved John who wrote so extensively of God's marvelous love left
us this solemn warning, "Little children, keep yourselves from IDOLS (that is, false
gods, or false ideas and representations of the true God)" (I Jn. 5:21). Do we have
false ideas about God? I fear we do. We say that God is all-wise, all-knowing, and
all-powerful, and then turn around and deny it. We say that God "so loved the
world" and that Jesus is "the Saviour of the world" and then turn around
and say that only a few will be saved while God sends the vast majority to suffer the
excruciating pains of fire and brimstone for all eternity without His feeling any concern
for their suffering - without mercy! We say that God is all-powerful, and then turn around
and say that God has "provided" salvation for all men, that God is
"trying" to save the world, that God is "pleading" with men to repent,
but the devil who blinds and possesses men's souls is so much more powerful than God that
he will carry captive into eternal hell countless billions of men for whom Christ died!
Also, folk who claim that
they are true to the Bible say that God the Creator and God the Redeemer are the very same
God, but they deny it in their attitude toward the question of the salvation of all men.
As Dr. Hurley has written, "They have an infinite Creator, but a very little
Redeemer. Their Christ is a comparatively helpless and puny Saviour who is going to lose
most of those for whom He died. He can pay the price for the sins of the whole world, but
the stubborn will of man makes it ineffective. Man's will is mightier than God's will. God
is infinite to create, powerless to redeem! But either God is all-powerful, or He is not.
Either God is all-wise, or He is not. Either God is all-loving, or He is not. Either God's
will is sovereign, or it is not. Either God's grace is infinite, or it is not. Isn't it
time for the
"Little children, keep
yourselves from false ideas of God!" False ideas about God. How the world and the
Church are filled with them! Many people view God as a schoolboy did: "...the sort of
person who is always snooping around to see if anyone is enjoying himself and then trying
to stop it." Then others make God out to be a tyrant, or a vengeful, wrath-filled
FIEND. The Riverside Daily Press had an Associated Press report from San Francisco as
follows: " 'A Father's Curse' was the legacy left by Dennis Donohue III, fifty-four,
member of a well known family here, to his two daughters by a former wife, in a will filed
for probate in Superior Court. 'And to my two daughters, Frances Marie and Denise Victoria
Donohue,' he wrote in his own hand, 'by virtue of their unfeeling attitude toward a doting
father, and because they have repeatedly thwarted my efforts to see them, I leave the sum
of one dollar to each and a father's curse. May their respective lives be fraught with
misery, unhappiness and poignant sorrow. May their deaths be soon and of a lingering,
malign, and torturous nature. May their souls rest in hell and suffer the torments of the
damned for eternity.' " I am sure that my readers agree with me that such an attitude
is not that of a true father; it is only that of a fiend. But what may not be clear to all
is that, in this respect, he is a perfect example of the God of popular theology! Because
His children were unfeeling He consigns them to the torment of hell fire for ever! We
loathe such a character when we see it in a mere mortal, but justify it as the character
of our God who IS LOVE!
But the Bible knows of no
such God. No more terrible insult was ever given to the God of all grace who came in Jesus
Christ reconciling THE WORLD unto Himself. This story is told about a little girl. After
she had heard her father preach a sermon on the awful wrath of God, and that the unsaved
would go to a red hot, sizzling, burning hell the moment they died, and that they would
twist in agony and torment forever, without mercy, this little girl said, "I wish
Jesus were as good and kind as my father." God does bring judgment upon sinners -
swift, strong, effective, corrective judgment - but never meaningless, sadistic torture.
Do you know what God wants
more than anything else? "For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our
Saviour; who WILL HAVE ALL MEN TO BE SAVED, and to come unto the knowledge of the
truth" (I Tim. 2:3-4). His mercy runs so deep that He sent Jesus as the Redeemer of
the race, and has mapped out a beautiful and comprehensive "Plan of the Ages" in
which to reconcile all things unto Himself. He has revealed that His tender mercies are
over all His works; that He hates nothing that He has made; that it was all made for His
pleasure; that He is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil; and that He has provided a
way that even the banished may return to Him -- self-banished though they may be by sin.
This unquenchable and eternal love of God our Father for all His creation is the great
center of all Christ's teaching. He said, "For GOD SO LOVED the world..." He
said, "I say not unto you that I will pray the Father for you; for the Father Himself
loves you." He is not pleading with the Father to love us or any man in the world,
for He came from that Father with the Gospel, with the glad tidings of the Father's love;
that He so loved the world that He sent His son into it, not to condemn the world, but
that the world through Him might be saved. What compassion! What wisdom! What love! What a
God!
"He that loves not knows
not God; for God is love. And we have known and believed the love that God has to us. God
is love; and he that dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him" (I Jn. 4:8, 16).
Charles H. Pridgeon wrote, "When Edgerton Young, a successful missionary in
Northwestern British America, taught some of the Indians to read by the simple syllabic
characters, he wrote on the rock for them to read the words, 'God is Love.' One old Indian
chief looked and pronounced the characters, and as soon as he uttered them he caught their
import. He arose to his great height and said, rubbing his eyes, 'Has there been sand in
my eyes all these years? I have seen the Great Spirit in the lightening, I have heard Him
in the thunder, but I never knew till now that GOD IS LOVE.' How many have really learned
this truth?" -end quote. You see the old Indian chief knew something of the
attributes and greatness of God, but he had never KNOWN WHAT GOD I-S.
Would that my tongue were
eloquent enough to explain it, or that my mind were great enough to comprehend it. But
neither is sufficient. I would ask that you join me as we descend into the great wealth of
the glittering mine of God's attributes. As we look into this mine we find that it is
scattered everywhere with precious jewels of the attributes of God that glitter and
scintillate in the light that comes in behind us. Pick up one and examine it and perhaps
you shall see something more of the greatness of God. Pick up the jewel of God's power and
look at that. As you look into that gem you see omnipotence beyond comprehension - God
speaks, and the universe leaps out of nothing into existence! God thinks, and vast myriads
of beings spring into being to sing His praises! By a thought He creates; by a thought He
could think them into nothingness and they would disappear as the foam on the ocean wave
sinks back into the sea as if it had never existed at all. Our mightiest telescopes
through which our astronomers gaze cannot begin to pierce the length and breadth of this
universe which God in His omnipotent power has created. We cannot in our finite minds
begin to comprehend the power of Him who can create the Milky Way or even the solar system
we know. And yet, as limitless and infinite as the power and omnipotence of God is, even
so limitless is HIS LOVE. It is without measure and without boundary. It is absolutely
illimitable. You might as well try to drink up the ocean until it is dry as to ever
exhaust the infinite love of God who sent Jesus to be the Saviour of the world.
Or consider God's wisdom.
Pick up that jewel and gaze into its many glittering facets and you will behold something
that will benumb your mind. God who knows all things that ever were, are, or ever shall
be, is a God whose omniscience enables Him to comprehend not only what is, was, or shall
be, but even contingent things: what might have been under all possible circumstances.
There is nothing that escapes His mind. We are told that there are birds that fly high in
the sky, who have not only microscopic but telescopic vision, and yet they are gropingly
blind compared to the eye of God who sees all things; who sees the flashing neurons in
your brain as the thoughts flash through your mind; who knows everything about you. And
yet, as vast and incomprehensible as the wisdom and omniscience of God is, even so vast
and incomprehensible is HIS LOVE through which He reconciles us to God!
When we speak of God's
attributes we may say, and many do, that God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal and
unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth. This is a
very beautiful definition; but it largely defines only God's attributes, whereas the text,
"God is Love," tells us WHAT HE HIMSELF IS. This text reveals His nature, His
state of being. For instance, in speaking of justice, we know that God has justice as one
of His attributes, but He is not justice; God IS love. This fact gives us a revelation of
GOD'S VERY NATURE.
This brings us face to face
with the great central message of the Bible which is a message of love. We need to
remember that the Personage about whom the Bible is written IS LOVE - a Being whose very
nature is love. In our day that is something that can become distorted because we live in
an age of distortion; we live in a time when even the truth of anything, whether it be the
nature of God or the nature of human sexuality, is distorted and perverted. The fact that
God is love is perverted into some sort of a mish-mash that God is a wishy-washy old
grandfather who would never punish his grandchildren lest they stop coming to see him. We
have met some brethren in this end-time move of the Spirit who have exaggerated the bright
side of the love of God out of all proportion to its other aspects. The love of God has
been presented in such a way that it is a weakness rather than a strength. It has been
presented on the sunny side of the street with nothing on the other side ever mentioned.
There is a "love" of God preached that sounds to me like the doting indulgence
of rather senile grandparents instead of the vital and vigorous concern of a Father for
the best interests of a son. They have used the old shopworn cliché "God is love,
God is love, God is love" until love has become such a one-sided, mushy, gooey,
syrup-sweet thing, and they have not told about the dark side of the love of God:
"Whom the Lord loves, He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives"
(Heb. 12:6). They have watered love down, making it sickening rather than stimulating,
causing it to slop over on every side like a sentimental feeling rather than an abiding
concern for the object of love. Some have no concern at all, they have settled into a
drowsy complacency, into a do-nothing, don't-care disposition, for, they say,
"Everything will turn out alright in the end, anyhow!" They have no passion for
lost souls anymore, they have thrown judgment and hell out the window, and would not lift
a finger to warn any man to flee from the wrath to come. Sometimes where we would endeavor
to teach the whole truth of God, we might lean so far to the other side of the boat to
balance it, that again the truth might be lost. The balance in the love of God was summed
up by the sweet singer of
In the conception of God that
we have found and created in our own mind, if anything other than love is paramount, we
have a distortion and an idol of the mind. If we have a concept where the justice of God
becomes greater than His love, a concept where the omnipotence of God overrules His love,
where the sovereignty of God outshines His love, and the omniscience of God puts His love
into the shadows, then we have a false concept of God. For we have been told by one who
knows, that God IS LOVE! That does not mean that He is not just, righteous, sovereign and
wise, but all these are rooted in the fact that He is preeminently THE LOVING CREATOR AND
REDEEMER OF THIS WORLD!
A famous preacher of
yesteryear related the following story. "I was visiting one day with a religiously
divided family. The wife was a devout Christian; the husband, a hard, rancorous
unbeliever. He was hardly courteous to me. Why should he be? As a minister of the Word of
God I was in his eyes little better than a fool. When the evening paper came, he grasped
it eagerly as a fortunate escape from what he considered a boring conversation. I had been
talking with his wife about the marvelous love of God. Suddenly he threw the paper in
front of me. 'Look!' he shouted, pointing to the headlines - THOUSANDS ARE SLAUGHTERED IN
BIG PUSH - 'how can you say that God is. love? Nonsense! If He were alive and loving as
you say, would He not stop it all?' His question was put very sharply, but it was not new.
It was as old as the race" -end quote.
Any thinking mind will be
quick to consent that the problem in the world today is not with God - it's with MAN! The
vast majority of the pain, sorrow, suffering, cruelty, heartache, war, bloodshed and
despair in the world today really reveals nothing at all about the nature of God; it
merely points out the barbarity, selfishness, ruthlessness, brutishness, and savageness of
MAN! It is MAN who wars, lies, exploits, divorces, deserts, deceives, cheats, ignores,
intimidates, does drugs, steals, murders, and breaks the hearts and destroys the lives of
those about him. Not GOD!
Why should men doubt the love
of God? How dare they place a question mark after His beneficence? What reasoning has
brought them to this fearful interrogation? Betimes their doubts have arisen because they
have listened to the ambiguous oracles of nature, rather than the revelation of God in
Christ Jesus. Nature impresses men with the awful mystery, power and wisdom of God. The
storm with its jagged lightnings and rolling thunders, the proud mountains with their
dizzy heights mantled in snow, the heaving bosom of the ocean with its foam-crested waves,
yes, and the tiny violet on the hillside - these eloquently proclaim a God of infinite
power, wisdom and riches; but they do not convince the unconverted heart of God's infinite
love. The forces in nature that sometimes work for our good often turn about and seem to
work for our ruin and destruction. The sunlight that warms our fields to produce the
golden harvests also beats down unmercifully upon the earth and produces a dust bowl
making thousands homeless and hungry. The warm rains that help to germinate the seed that
has been sown sometimes come in ruinous abundance, producing floods in whose wake are
destruction, disease, despair and death. How apparently contradictory! Possibly in the
midst of some tragedy you, too, are asking the question, "Is God loving?"
"Why does God permit war?" you ask. "If He is a loving God, why does He
permit the roar of bombers and the barking of guns to silence the joyous laughter of
innocent children? If God is a God of love, yes, why does He not stop it all?"
We do not have the answer to
many of the dark questions of life, for our vision is so limited, and unlike God, we
cannot see the end from the beginning. Ah! If only we could see the end - God's glorious
end, THEN we would understand all the "whys" and "wherefores" and how
even all of these things WORKED TOGETHER FOR OUR GOOD. We do not have the answer to many
of the dark questions of life because we cannot fully understand the wonderful interplay
of God's justice, chastisement and mercy. We only know that man has sinned, the whole
planet is in rebellion, mankind continually rejects the ways of the Lord and spurns the
love of God, and sin takes its awful toll, and all of nature is thrown into chaos in the
process. The ambiguous testimony of nature alone cannot supply you with an adequate
answer. Only those elect saints who are spiritually enlightened can discern the love of
God, even in the adverse and fearful demonstrations of nature, and in the terrible
judgment that stalks through the earth. Ah, let us turn from these oracles with their
double answers and turn to a LIVING DEMONSTRATION of the loving nature of God - a
demonstration that all the ages have not been able to contradict, namely, the great fact
of the Incarnation, the deathless, eternally glorious fact that "God so loved the
world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not
perish, but have everlasting life" (Jn. 3:16).
From childhood most of us
have heard these blessed words, yet they are so freighted with heaven's riches that one
instinctively shrinks from talking about them. Who presumes to be able to measure the
magnitude of God's love? "God so loved the world." Charles Spurgeon once struck
off a bold figure when he exclaimed, "Come, you surveyors, bring your chains, and try
to make a survey of this word so. Nay, that is not enough. Come hither, you that make our
national surveys and lay down charts for all nations. Come you, who map the sea and land
and make a chart of this word so. Nay, I must go further. Come hither, you astronomers,
that with your optic glasses spy out spaces before which your imagination staggers, come
hither and calculate imaginations worthy of all your powers. When you have measured
between the horns of space, here is a task that will defy you - 'God so loved the world!'
" Although we may completely despair of calculating the love of God, there are
nevertheless in these classic words of Jesus some very clear statements that help us
compute, to some extent, the greatness of the heart of God. This little word so finds its
definition, I think, in the object and the gift of God's love.
God loved "THE
WORLD" - the world that then was and now is, the world rebellious against God,
morally depraved and lost in degradation and shame. "Herein is love, not that we
loved God, but that He loved us, and send His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. In
this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son
into the world, that we might live through Him" (I Jn. 4:9-10). You see, it was while
we were dead in trespasses and sin, while we made no response to God, while friendship
with Him was cut off and the urge of faithfulness and goodness lay smoldering in the grave
of our depravity - it was then that the love of God's great heart embraced us. God so
loved the world - that means His love sweeps around the whole earth and flows out to men
of every race and tongue and nation; but it means more. It means He loves the men and
women of the world who by their own evil have wrenched themselves away from Him. It means
that He loves the blaspheming atheist, the scornful skeptic, the lecherous outcast, the
criminal behind the bars, the grafter who swaggers about as a good citizen and the
unscrupulous leeches who drain the very lifeblood of widows and orphans. God so loved THE
WORLD. ALL of it! And He loves it still. He loves the men living now upon the earth, and
He loves those who have lived and died in dim and distant ages past. He loves them on
earth and He loves them in hell. God so loved! Herein is manifested the love of God: He
loves the unlovely, the unloving, and the humanly unlovable! Let holy and powerful angels
from the extended galleries of heaven sing it! Let the redeemed in rapturous wonder take
up the song and let sinners fall prostrate in penitence before the almighty Creator and
Redeemer!" God IS LOVE!" Do you believe it?
Love has been described as AN
ETERNAL WILL TO ALL GOODNESS. This is THE ONE ETERNAL, IMMUTABLE GOD that, from eternity
to eternity, changes not, that can be neither more nor less, but an ETERNAL WILL TO ALL
GOODNESS that is in Himself and come from Him, so that as certainly as He is Creator, so
certainly is He the blesser of every created thing, and can give nothing but blessings,
goodness, and holiness from Himself, because He has in Himself nothing else to give. The
judgments of God can never be rightly understood apart from His nature of love. If God's
judgments spring not from His love then they come not from God at all, for He IS LOVE.
What ought this to teach us about His judgments! The pen of inspiration wrote, "My
son, despise not the chastening of the
Lord, nor faint when you are rebuked of Him: for whom the Lord LOVES He chastens, and
scourges every son whom He receives ... for our profit, that we may be partakers of His
holiness" (Heb. 12:5-10). God doesn't go around purposelessly punishing or
vindictively torturing any of His creatures. But He does go about precise paths of
bringing forth correction UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS, as the prophet says, "When Your
judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will LEARN RIGHTEOUSNESS"
(Isa. 26:9). God's judgments, whether upon saints, nations, or the wicked in general are
all corrective in nature, accomplished by the motivation of His nature which is LOVE.
"Herein is love, not
that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son ... beloved, if God so loved us,
we ought also to love one another. No man has seen God at any time. If we love one
another, God dwells in us, and HIS LOVE IS PERFECTED IN US" (I Jn. 4:10-12). Can
words make it plainer that God's love in Christ is given to pass into us and to become our
life? We shall then love God as He loved us. We shall then love one another as Christ has
loved us. And we shall then love the world with the same love which God in Christ revealed
upon the cross!
Some who read these lines may
be bruised and battered by life. Some of you may be lonely and cast down. Some of you may
feel all alone. If you are a father, or a mother, then you know something of the love of a
parent for a child. You know something of a love that reaches out after a child, even in
its waywardness; a love that reaches out to a child that has been hurt; a love that
reaches after a child who has deserted its family; a love that NEVER LETS GO. All of that
tender compassion of a parent's love is but the faintest shadow of the infinite love of
God which knows no measure; a love that, indeed, could never let us or any man go. When we
become children of God, we enter into that parental love of God. How sad that so many who
call themselves children of God are, as the apostle warned, "without natural
affection," stubbornly willing to consign the vast majority of God's wayward sons to
everlasting damnation, yea, demanding, as judge and jury, that they be damned, rather than
loving them infinitely and omnipotently as God loves them!
While reflecting upon the
parental love of God, a story came to mind that I read some months ago. In this story a
man who was entirely careless of spiritual things died and went to hell. And he was much
missed on earth by his old friends. His business manager went down to the gates of hell to
see if there were any chance of bringing him back. But, though he pleaded for the gates to
be opened, the iron bars never yielded. His cricket captain went also and besought Satan
to let him out just for the remainder of the season. But there was no response. His
minister went also and argued, saying, "He was not altogether bad. Let him have
another chance. Let him out just this once." Many other friends of his went also and
pleaded with Satan saying, "Let him out, let him out, let him out." But when his
mother came, she spoke no word of his release. Quietly, and with a strange catch in her
voice, she said to Satan, "Let me in." And immediately the great doors swung
open upon their hinges. For love goes down through the gates of hell and there redeems the
damned! Our Father and God, incarnate in the Person of Jesus Christ, holds in His
nail-pierced hand the keys of death and hell. O grave, where is Your victory? O gates of
hell, you shall not prevail, for the Redeemer of Israel and the Saviour of the world, the
God who IS LOVE holds in His triumphant hand your key!
It is my deep conviction that
this opening of Divine Love will melt more hearts for God than any other exercise. A
mother may forget her child, but the Word says, "For God SO LOVED THE WORLD that He
gave His Son" (Jn. 3:16). How can God ever forget the world, or give up on the world
with a love so fierce as that! The Scripture declares, "But God commends His love
toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (
J. A. Dowie relates the
following story: "I remember how touched I was to look upon a grave once which had
only these words: 'MY BROTHER. HE LOVED ME AND GAVE HIMSELF INSTEAD OF ME.' I turned to a
person and said: 'Tell me the story of that grave.' He told me that it was erected by a
man in memory of his brother who was killed in war. The man was drafted as a conscript;
but when this younger brother, who had no wife or family, heard of it, he went to him and
said: 'John, you have a dear wife and a nice family, and I have none. Let me take your
name and go for you.' So he went under the name of his brother, John, and was killed in
the battle. John went down to the battlefield and brought the body home and buried it. He
erected a tombstone on which were only these words: 'My brother. He loved me and gave
himself instead of me.' " -end quote.
Christ loved us, and gave
Himself instead of us. He died for us, when we were not like that man's brother. We were
not good. We were not worthy. The whole race was wicked and vile and hostile. When we were
yet ungodly, the Word of God became the Son of man and died for us. So let us love Him and
all mankind whom He loved, and for whom He died.
Here is love, vast as the
ocean,
Loving kindness as the flood,
When the Prince of Life our ransom
Shed for us His precious blood;
Who His love will not
remember?
Who can cease to sing His praise?
He can never be forgotten
Through Heaven's everlasting day.
On the Mount of Crucifixion
Fountains opened deep and wide;
Through the floodgates of God's mercy
Flowed a vast and gracious tide;
Grace and love like mighty
rivers,
Poured incessant from above,
And Heaven's peace and perfect justice
Kissed a guilty world in love!
The story has been told of
when John B. Gough, the great temperance orator, was entertained by some friends in an
eastern city, the mother of the household called him aside and asked him to go to her son
Edward and have a talk with him. She said that Edward had been a wayward son; in fact, had
gone so far in disgracing them that the father forbade him to enter the house. She said
that she had pleaded with the father and had prevailed, and that the father had consented
to permit Edward to have a room where he would never have to see him. She said, "Mr.
Gough, Edward came home intoxicated a couple days ago and is still in his room. I have
been caring for him. Will you not go and have a little talk with him?" Mr. Gough
said, "My dear mother, if you with all your love and patience can not do anything
with him, I scarcely think that I can." With a mother's persistency she finally
persuaded Mr. Gough to talk with her son. He knocked at the door and entering found
Edward. Mr. Gough said, "Edward, aren't you tired of the kind of life that you are
leading?" Edward said, "Yes, Mr. Gough, I am sick and tired of it."
"Then why do you not quit it?" "Quit it? I can't, Mr. Gough; I am bound
hand and foot with an evil habit." "Then why do you not pray, Edward?"
"Pray! I don't believe in prayer; I don't believe in God; I don't believe in
anything." "Oh, yes, you do, Edward," replied Mr. Gough. "You believe
in something. You believe that your mother loves you." Edward replied, "I do not
believe anything about it, I know she loves me." "Then, Edward," continued
Mr. Gough, "you believe that there is such a good thing in this world as love, and I
am going to leave you here and I want you to promise me that after I go out, you will get
down on your knees and pray to love." "Pray to what?" said Edward.
"Pray to love, for that is the only thing that you say you believe in." After
much persuasion Edward promised. He afterward said that he felt very foolish when he knelt
down to pray to love, but he had promised, and he tried to fulfill his promise. He kneeled
and cried, "Oh love, love help me"; and straightway, as if through the cleft
heaven, this text sounded as a voice in his heart, "God is Love"; and, still
looking up, he said, "Oh God!" and there came to him the verse that he had
learned years before, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten
Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
And he cried, "Oh, Christ!" - and it was done. He rushed out of his room to find
his mother, and, when he did, he threw his arms around her neck and said, "Mother, I
have found the Christ!"
Our poor, lisping, faltering
tongues cannot proclaim the Gospel as we would like; but we have God's Word that is true
for the present time, and for all the times of all the ages. God IS LOVE! IS -
unchangeably! IS - eternally! God is love in heaven, in earth, in hell! IS - everywhere!
And the great practical consequence is for you and me to respond to that God and to that
love, to become filled with that love, one with that love, the embodiment and
manifestation of that love to all men in all realms. The best and most wonderful word in
the universe is Love. For God is Love. And the best and most wonderful word in the inner
chamber of our heart must be - Love. For the God who meets us there is Love. What is Love?
The deep desire to give itself for the beloved. Love finds its joy in imparting all that
it has, to make the loved one happy and fulfilled. And the heavenly Father, who offers to
meet us in the inner chamber - let there be no doubt about this is in our minds - has no
other object than to flood our hearts with His love.
But the spirit of love is not
in you till it is the spirit of your life, till you live freely, willingly, universally
according to it. It knows no difference of time, place, or person; but whether it gives or
forgives, bears or forbears, it is equally doing its own delightful work. The spirit of
love does not want to be rewarded or honored; its only desire is to become the blessing
and happiness of everything that needs it. The wrath of an enemy, the treachery of a
friend, only gives the spirit of love an opportunity to be more triumphant. The rebellion
of Adam but opened up avenues for mankind to experience and know the incredible depths of
the love of God! God IS LOVE! And His SONS are of His own nature. The Sons of Love! What a
blessed title! Little wonder, then, that the whole vast creation, sold under slavery and
bondage to sin, sorrow, and death GROANS for the manifestation of THE SONS OF LOVE!
To know this is a wonderful
help to faith. It teaches us that to love God, or the brethren, or our enemies, or the
whole wretched race of men, is not a thing self-effort can attain. We can do it only
because the divine love is dwelling in us; only as far as we yield ourselves to the divine
love as a living power within, as a life that has been born into us, and that the Holy
Spirit strengthens into action. Our part is first of all to rest, to cease from effort, to
know that He is in us, and to give way to the love that dwells and works in us in a power
that is from above. The love of God reigns. The Spirit of God still waits to take
possession of hearts where He has hitherto had no room. Love is timeless, eternal. God so
loved. He loves still. Though one hundred and sixty billions of men have lived and died
and gone to Christless graves, HE LOVES THEM STILL. Oh, my dear friend, can you believe
that? His mercy endures for ever, throughout all ages, and love will conquer, praise His
name!
Hence it is that God, wanting
to show us what love was, sent One who from the beginning was sinless; who was conceived
without the aid of lust, who was conceived of the Holy Spirit of Infinite Love, and into
whose being there entered no evil passion, since the virgin was sanctified in her spirit,
her soul, and her body; so that the Holy Thing that was born of her was the Incarnation of
Love in every part of His spirit, in every drop of His blood, and in every organ of His
body. People have great difficulty relating to an abstraction or an invisible force. It
must be personalized and that is why God has come in the person of Jesus Christ, so that
we might see Him and see what God is like. God has been personalized. Love has been
personified. God so loved this Son that He placed Him at the head of all the ages. God so
loved Him that when He died the very heavens were darkened, and the earth trembled under
the noonday sun veiling all nature, while silence in earth and heaven lasted until Love
had finished His sacrifice upon the cross. That was Love so divine, so wonderful, so
awful, that it could only have been possible for God in Christ to have revealed it at all.
This Love is the Love which God imparts to us. This same Love that was in Him must be in
us. The Sons of God must be the Sons of Love. Go and learn what that means and the hope of
sonship will gleam brightly in your soul.
Some time ago, I read a story
designed to illustrate the meaning of love. It touched me deeply and perhaps it will help
you. It was a story of an incident that took place in mid-nineteenth century
Think ye, sin nailed Him to
that cross?
For sin the hammer swung,
Sin lifted up the cruel tree
On whose broad arms He hung;
Sin triumphed, when from anguished lips
His bitter cry was wrung?
So seemed it. But not sin,
nor men,
Nor nails had held Him there;
Love was the nail that held Him up
And made Him strong to bear
For us that weary weight of woe -
That tempest of despair.
A brother in Christ has
shared the following experience with us. "Shortly after I became a Christian, I
recall a story that was in all of the news, including a picture on the front page of Life
Magazine. It was the story about five young men from
"Some years later, the
father of one of these men spoke at a local hotel. He was a great hulk of a man, about
six-four, two hundred and forty or fifty pounds. He said that when he had heard what these
savages had done to his son, he boarded a plane in
While living here on earth,
our Lord was extremely kind. He picked up little children and blessed them. He healed all
who were suffering with pain. While relatives were weeping over dead loved ones, He raised
four of them to life again. The Saviour of ALL men said to the woman caught in adultery,
"Neither do I condemn you; go, and sin no more" (Jn. 8:11). His KINDNESS made an
evangelist out of that wicked woman at the well (Jn. 4:29). Because Jesus really loved the
weak, helpless creatures whom He had created, He wept over them, prayed for them and
taught them continually. Except those religious Pharisees, Jesus never spoke one cross
word to the unconverted masses. He was very tender and kind in all His dealings with men.
His approach to them was very gentle, delicate, and considerate. Surely then, we are safer
in His hands than anywhere else! The things He has in store for every one of us are far
greater than we could plan for ourselves.
Does God expect His Sons to
be better than Himself? In Lk. 6:35-36 we read, "But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping
for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and you shall be THE SONS OF THE
HIGHEST; for HE IS KIND UNTO THE UNTHANKFUL AND TO THE EVIL, BE YE THEREFORE MERCIFUL, AS
YOUR FATHER also is merciful. "In this instance Jesus plainly says that if we desire
to be the SONS OF THE HIGHEST, we must be merciful as He is merciful. THE HIGHEST IS
MERCIFUL TO ALL.
The question follows: Why
should the Highest be merciful to the evil and the unthankful? The answer is clear - that
the evil one and the unthankful one may come to know the mercy and goodness of God! They
would never know that mercy in any other way. If Jesus teaches us we are to be kind to
those who mis-use us, reproach us, curse us, and make themselves our enemies, then what
kind of a God and Father would He be, whose words Jesus taught us, who would HATE HIS
ENEMIES and cast them into merciless eternal hell to burn for ever? If such a thing were
to be, then God would require us to be better than Himself! Jesus teaches us that we are
to be merciful and kind. Do we then have a Father whose nature is entirely opposite to
ours? Impossible! The Sons of God are sent, as was the Son, to reveal the nature of our
Father to all.
If we see a God who loves
only those that love Him, then we have a very small and fickle God indeed. But Jesus
taught us the principles of the
Are we to suppose that God
requires us to behave in one way toward the unrighteous, while His own disposition toward
them is exactly the opposite? Are we to believe that our Father commands US to be
merciful, to love our enemies, bless them that curse us, do good to them that hate us, and
pray for them that persecute us ... while HE banishes HIS enemies to everlasting
damnation, torturing endlessly those that curse HIM, meting out eternal vengeance upon
those that hate HIM, and shutting up all mercy from those who persecute HIM? What great
nonsense! What horrible blasphemy!
There is a time to fight and
a time to hate. "To everything there is a season, a time to every purpose under
heaven ... a time to love, and a time to hate..." (Eccl. 3:1,8). The Word of God not
only allows for hatred - it commands it. Love, true love, involves hatred even as true
wisdom involves ignorance of evil. True love necessitates true hatred. The greatest hater
is God! Have you ever thought about that? In this wishy-washy, mushy theology age of ours,
where God is considered a lovey-dovey, spongy old grandfather who would never think of
hurting anyone, we often fail to realize that God is a God of wrath who hates sin with an
infinite hatred. He is a God who is ablaze with love, but He is ablaze with a holy wrath
as well. The Scripture says, "Therefore I hate every false way" (Ps. 119:104).
"These six things DOES
THE LORD HATE; yea, seven are an abomination unto Him: a proud look, a lying tongue, and
hands that shed innocent blood. An heart that devises wicked imaginations, feet that be
swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaks lies, and he that sows discord
among the brethren" (Prov. 6:16-19). In the first chapter of Hebrews the Father
speaks to Jesus Christ, as He heaps this great encomium upon Him: "Your throne, O
God, is for ever and ever: a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your
Kingdom." Why? "You have loved righteousness, and HATED INIQUITY; therefore God,
even your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness above Your fellows" (Heb.
1:8-9). What did Jesus do? He loved righteousness and hated iniquity, and you cannot have
one without the other! Jesus said to the Church at
The Scripture says, "You
that love the Lord, HATE EVIL" (Ps. 97:10). Evil serves its purpose but we are told
what the proper objects are for that hatred that springs from the love of God. We are to
hate evil; WE ARE NOT TO HATE PEOPLE! Furthermore, we are told that we are to begin to
hate evil in our own souls. It is not until we have truly and honestly hated it within our
own hearts and minds that we are qualified to begin to strike out against it in the world
around us. That is why Paul, who spoke so eloquently against the evils of his time, could
also say of those things which he did that were wrong, that he hated them. Do you hate the
carnal mind and the evil that lurks in your own life or do you ignore it? Are you
indifferent to it? Are you indulgent to it? Are you moderately concerned about it? Or do
you hate it with a burning hatred? God hates it! He hates all evil. God is the greatest
hater. We are told in the Scriptures that unless we hate sin we cannot truly love God or
know the love of God. If God had not hated evil HE WOULD NOT HAVE SENT JESUS TO REDEEM US
FROM ALL EVIL AND RESTORE US TO THE IMAGE OF GOD AGAIN. Pure, divine hatred springs from
pure, divine love!
In order to follow on into
sonship to God, we need, first of all, to have a right attitude and understanding of what
sin really is. We need to see it for the pernicious, and devilish and destructive, and
hateful, and damning, and destroying thing it really is. We need to have a holy fear of it
which should develop into a holy hatred of it. Do you see sin for what it really is or do
you see it as something to play with? Do you think that it is a little kitten that doesn't
know it is a roaring lion which can destroy you? There is not one person who has not felt
the ravages of sin in his own life and its destructive power, for it is inevitably true
that when sin comes of age, it produces death. When you see sin for the pernicious and
hateful thing that it is, and then when you see God for what He is, the all-holy One, the
One who is ablaze with a holy love for every creature in His vast creation and a holy
hatred for sin, you will at last understand the purpose of REDEMPTION and you will love
what God loves, and hate what God hates. Only then will you truly be a Son of the Highest.
Paul commanded Timothy,
"Fight the good fight of faith" (I Tim. 6:12). To deliver the creation and
restore all back into Christ again, the Sons of God must go forth to war! They must FIGHT
and they must HATE. Fight with love for humanity. Fight with hatred for sin. Fight with
hatred for disease. Fight with hatred in your heart for death. Fight with hatred against
the works of the devil. Fight with hatred against the powers of hell. Fight with hatred
against evil. Hate evil. Hate it! But do not hate the evildoer. Love him, love her; but
hate evil. Hate drunkenness, that which creates famine, heartbreak, violence, crime, and
death. Hate drugs; and hate the heathenish, hellish, satanic jungle-beat of rock music,
that which destroys the mind, impairs the hearing, perverts the emotions, and saturates
our youth with the unholy spirit of rebellion. Hate lying, deception, and dishonesty. Hate
the filthiness of the flesh. Hate it! Hate it in yourself. Hate it in others. Hate pride
and selfishness. Hate worldliness. Hate the swaggering, harlot system of Mystery Babylon
and her empty, lifeless, meaningless forms, and her blinding, spirit-enslaving traditions.
Hate sin, and God will cause you to know His love, and God will flood your life with
unspeakable happiness and blessing. God will make you strong, He will make you His son,
and He will receive you and be a Father unto you. God will put the armor of the Army of
Heaven upon you and will help you to smash the strongholds of sin and Satan. Do that and
be that. Hate and fight while you love and reconcile. Hate sin, but love the sinner.
Condemn sin, but do not condemn the sinner. "For God sent not His Son (or His Sons)
into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
"Make sure, dear one, that there is no complacency in your heart about sin; and make
just as certain that there is never any vindictiveness in your spirit against the sinner!
That is how God loves and hates! That is why He is a Saviour, a Deliverer, and a Redeemer.
He loves the sinner enough to be patient even for long ages with him; He loves the sinner
enough to forgive him any depth of vileness, insult, or blasphemy; He loves him enough to
pardon, cleanse, and transform him by His Infinite Grace and Omnipotent Power. And He
hates sin enough to deal with it, He hates death enough to destroy it, He hates hell
enough to empty it!
A dear brother in Christ has
penned these valuable words of admonition: "The opinions we form by hearing about
people are usually found to be wrong after we have come to know them personally. This is
also true concerning God. When you come to know Him, you will find Him very unlike the
description given by theologians. You will come to know that much that they teach is only
rubbish because it is contrary to the nature of God. It certainly was so with the Jewish
theologians and doctors of the law. When Jesus came He smashed their theories to bits and
tore the robes of their ecclesiasticism to ribbons. He ate with sinners, cast the devil
out of the Syropheonician, let a sinful woman of the street wash His feet, forgave a
thief, healed on the Sabbath, ate with unwashed hands, called the best religionists of His
day liars, hypocrites, serpents, children of the devil, whited sepulchers, and a
generation of snakes. They thought that they knew God, but they didn't. He was more
pleased with the sincerely of sinners than with the ritualism of scribes and Pharisees.
When you come to know Him, you will find that it is the same now as it was then.
"Furthermore, to know
Him who is truth empowers one to immediately recognize all that is error. The more you
come to know Christ, the more you come to recognize the flagrant error of so much that is
taught in the name of truth. If the doctrines that men try so hard to prove run contrary
to the very nature of Christ, then know that all that is contrary to His gracious Spirit
is error. For years without number the evangelicals in their missionary fervor have taught
that all heathen men will be condemned forever to groan in eternal flames in unremitting
torment because they did not accept Christ, their ignorance of His existence being no
excuse whatever. I have no hesitation whatsoever in calling this a lie, because everything
about it is contrary to the very nature of the blessed Christ I know. It is contrary to
His love, contrary to His kindness and mercy, contrary to His foreknowledge, contrary to
His immutable wisdom, and contrary to His great and all-inclusive redemption, of which it
is stated that as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
"I care not how many
wonderful acts of God you see or bear witness to, you will always remain a spiritual baby,
living for and lusting after outward things, until your spirit is awakened to grasp the
eternal, immutable purposes of God. Sadly we confess that the Church system is filled
today, as in the centuries past, with those shallow souls who praise the excitement, the
revival meetings, physical hearings, baptisms, seminars, building programs and acts
without number, but who know not God's ways. Tell such super-spirituals that God had a
purpose in the fall of mankind and they will brand you as a fanatic or a false prophet
from the pit. Tell them that it is God's purpose to reconcile ALL THINGS unto Himself and
they will begin their name calling and put the worst possible interpretation upon all you
say. If you preach that ninety-and-nine out of every hundred of God's creation will burn
in torment eternally, they will admire you as a man of truth and understanding, but if you
say that every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to
the glory of God the Father, they will gaze upon your ignorance with the sympathetic
understanding generally reserved for lunatics. Like
A man who knows God can
answer questions about God because he KNOWS God. I know my wife. We have lived together,
sacrificed together, suffered together, laughed together, loved together, prayed together,
and triumphed together for some fifty-seven years. I believe I know her fairly well. There
are some things that if I were told that she did them, I would not believe it for one
moment, though there be all manner of circumstantial evidence to support the claims. I
would not believe it BECAUSE I KNOW HER. I know how she thinks, how she is; her nature,
her character, her ways.
I have served God all my
life. I did not throw away my youth on filthy, disgusting and shameful practices. I have
been preaching the Gospel of Christ practically full-time since I was fourteen years old.
God kept me. He filled me with an intense hatred of evil, and an intense love for God. I
love Him and have always wanted to walk with Him. I have been sitting at His feet for
nearly 80 years. To me the Christ has filled my life, and for me there is no life, no
love, no power apart from Him. He has been to me, All. He is more to me now than ever, and
I know Him. I know something of the power of His resurrection and I know something of the
fellowship of His sufferings, and I have trod somewhat in His footsteps, and I love to
speak His Name. Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! The Name that charms our fears, that bids our sorrows
cease; 'Tis music in the sinner's ears, 'tis life, 'tis health, 'tis peace! Bless His
name!
I would never preach anything
I cannot find plainly indicated in the Holy Scriptures. However, if there was not even one
small passage in all the Word of God that clearly states that God will have all men to be
saved, that He will reconcile all unto Himself, I would still, in my deepest heart,
believe it to be the truth because I KNOW GOD. I know something of His ways. I know
something of His nature. I know something of His character. I know something of His power.
I know something of His purpose. "That which we have seen and heard declare we unto
you" (I Jn. 1:3). "That I may know Him!" cried Paul in the longing of his
soul. "That I may know Him!" patriarchs and seers of all ages have prayed.
"That I may know Him!" is the echo of my own longing heart. Yet I DO KNOW HIM in
a measure. And I know that in all of His ways, in all of His intents, and in all of His
doings GOD IS LOVE.
Why did God make the
universe, the earth and sky above? Scripture gives the answer when it says that "God
is love." Before God made the universe He worked a master plan, He knew how
everything would end before it all began.
He made mankind so He could
have an object of His love,
But man was blind and did not see - it came from above.
So God created evil as He had created night,
So man could see the good in Him - in darkness we see light.
He made the
"blackboard" very black, with evil, sin, and woe.
He made an adversary to be His cunning foe.
He made the earth to be a "stage" to show the hosts above,
By all of our experiences, His wisdom and His love.
He locks up all in
stubbornness to make His mercy clear;
Lets Satan lure all men away, so He can draw
all near.
He gives His only firstborn Son to die and save us all;
Yet each in his own class we read; we're blind until our call.
You ask me why God made the
earth, the glittering stars above.
The Scriptures give the answer when they say that GOD IS LOVE!
Anyone who dares to proclaim
the beautiful truth of the restoration of all men to God and pins people right down to the
Word of God is immediately accused by the unthinking masses of teaching heresy, and is
accused of teaching doctrines which give the sinner nothing to flee from, no reason for
accepting salvation. Such thoughtlessness! These poor simple folks are merely admitting in
this that they themselves have never yet had a revelation of the abounding love of God.
They are but admitting their shame in upholding a false gospel which would attempt to
scare men into God's Kingdom. It never has worked. It never will. Christ leads and draws
through love. Sometimes love disciplines and breaks, but it does not play games by
"scaring" people into God! Fear is not the instrument of God to bring men unto
Himself.
If fear of hell were a
legitimate tool in turning men to God, we should expect to find that the community where
the flames of hell were the stock argument of the preachers to woo men from sin would be
noted for its spirituality and holiness of life. As one has written, "Witness, then,
the Roman Catholic Church in its most prosperous times in the Dark Ages holding over its
adherents a ceaseless threat of purgatory and hell, and fattening on the proceeds from the
pockets of her poor hunted sheep. Was there such a striking scene of righteousness then,
that a Luther should not be needed? Fear is the weapon of man and of law. Love is the
all-conquering scepter of God. 'God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of love and
of power and of a sound mind.'
"It is love, not fear,
that has bound those of us who love the Lord as willing captives to His chariot wheels.
Love that does not spoil but lures and conquers: love that, while it loves the sinner,
hates his sin: love that disciplines with unstinting hand, that the chastened may, at
last, be a partaker of His holiness. This love is the power that has overcome men so far,
and that is destined to do its perfect work till God is all in all" -A. E. Saxby.
And instead of preaching a
false gospel to sinners, instead of holding up before them fancied horrors which they may
escape, the true Gospel tells them of the unsearchable riches of Christ, of the glory of
the
How men struggle and strive
and suffer here to obtain ownership of a mere particle of this little speck of dust known
as our sin-cursed earth! How they sacrifice for a mere shelter for these sin-sick bodies,
which must soon be left behind! Friends, I own a world, maybe a whole galaxy of worlds!
For my Lord and Saviour owns the universe. He is "heir of ALL THINGS" (Heb.
1:2). And we are "joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him"
(Rom. 8:17). Who wants to fritter away time and energy on this passing shadow which is
earth, when such eternal and fadeless wealth and position and glory and power may be
gained by merely coming into an experiential knowledge of THE ABOUNDING LOVE OF GOD?
Oh, that all men might learn
God's one and only everlasting Gospel, the Gospel of love - and then preach it! and BE IT!
Love alone can draw A-L-L MEN to
The love of God is greater
far
Than tongue or pen can ever tell;
It goes beyond the highest star,
And reaches to the lowest hell.
The guilty pair, bowed down
with care,
God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled,
And pardoned from his sin.
When hoary time shall pass
away,
And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall;
When men who here refuse to pray,
On rocks and hills and mountains call;
God's love so sure, shall
still endure,
All measureless and strong;
Redeeming grace to Adam's race -
The saint's and angel's song!
Chapter
11
Just What Do You Mean... THE
JUDGMENT!
WHEN we come to this thought
of God's judgment we approach a subject upon which there has been a fathomless sea of
ignorance and misunderstanding. Contrary to the popular opinions of the religious systems
there is no such thing as a GENERAL JUDGMENT for all men. Such a doctrine is pagan in
origin and flows from the philosophies of demons. The idea that there is in the future one
particular time and circumstance in which all creatures, whether celestial or terrestrial,
shall be brought before the bar of Divine Justice is contrary to the Word of God. The view
generally entertained is of Christ coming to earth, seated upon a great white throne, and
that He will summon every sinner in rank and file before Him to be judged, amidst great
convulsions of nature - earthquakes, opening graves, rending rocks and failing mountains;
that the trembling sinners will be brought from the depths of everlasting woe to hear
their many sins rehearsed, only to be again returned to an eternal and merciless doom of
torture; and that the saints will be brought from heaven (of course many saints have a
fear that they may appear at that judgment as one judged) to witness the misery and
despair of the damned, and return to heaven for eternity. I do not hesitate to say that
this is a very crude conception, and is entirely out of harmony with the whole picture of
judgment. This distorted picture arises from a too-literal interpretation of a few verses
of Scripture which were given merely as SYMBOLS, to be understood by the Spirit.
There are far more judgments
than people have ordinarily recognized. The fact is, the Scriptures speak of MANY
JUDGMENTS! Some judgments are already past, some are continuously present, and some are
yet future. It is misleading to speak of "THE JUDGMENT" as though it were only
one event limited to some time in the future. A careful and prayerful study of the Word
will show that there are judgments of unholy angels (messengers), of Satan, of Israel, of
cities, of nations, of sin, of death, of the believer, of servants, of sons, of
unbelievers, etc., etc. Each takes place at a different time, in different surroundings,
and in a different way.
It may aid our comprehension
to list a few of the judgments of God upon sin. Before proceeding, however, we need to
understand exactly what is meant by the word "judgment." Judgment is translated
in the Old Testament most often from the Hebrew word MISHPAT. MISHPAT means simply "a
verdict" which may be either favorable or unfavorable. The only judgment most people
understand is the negative aspect of judgment, the unfavorable verdict, which is unto
condemnation and wrath. It should require only a moment's reflection, however, to enable
anyone to see that the very same judge who sentences one man to pay a fine, another to die
in the electric chair, may suspend the sentence of a third man and declare yet a fourth
man "not guilty"- acquitted! It is plain that a great many different
"judgments" or "verdicts" may come from this one judge. Thus, the work
of the judge is not merely to condemn and mete out sentences, but to weigh all the facts
and take all the circumstances into consideration in each case and render a just verdict,
favorable or unfavorable, as the case may demand.
Furthermore, the
"judge" of a beauty contest does not condemn or damn any of the contestants who
fail to receive the highest recognition. He merely renders a "verdict" as to
whom, in his estimation, is "the fairest of them all"! In keeping with these
principles the Hebrew word MISHPAT indicates merely the rendering of a judicial verdict or
decision, favorable or unfavorable, as the case may warrant. The Psalmist spoke of this
when he said, "For promotion comes neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from
the south. But GOD IS THE JUDGE: He puts down one, and sets up another" (Ps. 75:6-7).
The positive aspect of judgment, the rendering of a favorable verdict, is implored of the
Lord by David in Ps. 43:1-2: "JUDGE ME, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly
nation: for You are the God of my strength."
The word
"judgment," moreover, signifies even more than the rendering of a verdict. It
includes the idea of a trial, as well as the decision based upon that trial. And this is
true not only in the English word judgment, but also of the Greek word it translates in
the New Testament. In the Greek New Testament there are a number of terms used in
connection with the judgments of God. Each is based on the "KRI" stem of
"KRINO" meaning "I judge." There is the word KRISIS from which we
derive our English word "crisis" and which carries basically the same meaning as
our English word "crisis." It denotes an experience and time of crucial testing,
and has reference to the experience one undergoes out of which a decision, or judgment, is
made. KRIMA relates to the condemnation of the criminal. KRITES and KRITIKOS
("critical" in English) both speak of the judge and his decision, while yet
another Greek word, KRITERION, refers to the basis for his decision or sentence (as
"criterion" in English).
The first great judgment
(trial and sentence) was at the beginning, in
There have been many other
judgments beyond this general judgment that fell upon man in the beginning. At various
times in the past God has called peoples and nations to account for their actions and
executed His judgments by bringing destruction upon them. The best known of these is the
world-wide deluge in the days of Noah of which we read: "And God saw that the
wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of
his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have
created from the face of the earth; for it repents Me that I have made them" (Gen.
6:5-7). The destructive judgments of God have always come as a result of the wicked
conduct of the people in their daily lives.
God conducted a legal case
against ancient
FUTURE TIMES OF DESTRUCTIVE
JUDGMENT
The Word of God specifically
foretells a number of yet future judgments which are destructive in their nature.
Revelation points to the time when "
Mystery
Men will never attain to
sonship within the walls of
God has decreed HIS JUDGMENT
against this idolatrous system of
How clear it is to any who
have eyes to see that this work of destructive judgment upon the harlot system of
The great principles that
govern our present walk in the
In the meantime, however, we
need to be wise to the purposes of the Lord. We are not to fear communism nor be dismayed
when it comes right to our borders. We must not be upset because of the tribulation upon
God's people in those lands, or upon ourselves should it spread across our land. Communism
can never defeat nor destroy the chosen of God, but I declare to you by the word of the
Lord that it can, has, and shall DESTROY BABYLONIAN RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS. Why is there so
little religious freedom in communist countries? Why is it the communist's objective to
remove all religion and the knowledge of God from the face of the earth? Why have the
church properties been confiscated, the leaders killed, and the ministers jailed? Why have
the religionists of all stripes been hounded and harassed, stripped of their former power
when the state churches controlled the governments and dominated the lives of the people?
Why? I ask. Because the almighty God, long centuries ago, decreed that
God has His means for
destroying
Pointing to yet another
destructive judgment, Peter drew upon what occurred in Noah's day and foretold a "day
of judgment and perdition of ungodly men" (II Pet. 3:7). But Peter informs us not
only of the time when wicked men shall be destroyed, but speaks of "the heavens
(ruling powers) and earth (social order), which are now," which are "kept in
store, reserved UNTO FIRE against the day of judgment and perdition (destruction)"
(II Pet. 3:7). Yes, my friend, this present world order is coming to an end! This evil
world will end in A DAY OF JUDGMENT. Fiery judgment. It will all pass away. Communism.
Democracies. Economic systems. Ecclesiastical institutions. Science. Technology. Lodges.
Seminaries. Schools. Denominations. Political parties. ALL will pass away amid great
commotion! "Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for a NEW HEAVENS
(government of God) and a NEW EARTH (social order), WHEREIN DWELLS RIGHTEOUSNESS!"
(II Pet. 3:13).
The average Christian today
has the idea that there is only one judgment at the Great White Throne; and that there
everyone, good and bad, saved and lost, saint and sinner, will meet and be separated like
sheep and goats. It may come as a shock to many to learn that the Bible teaches no such
thing! Apart from the past and future destructive judgments already considered, the
Scriptures reveal many, many other judgments, and also three distinct judgments that must
be experienced by every saint who would press forward into the fullness of sonship to God.
Of these three judgments that pertain to saints, one is already past; one is continuously
present; and one is yet future. In one we are judged as sinners; in one we are judged as
servants; and in one we are judged as sons.
The first, the judgment of
our sins and of us as sinners, is already past for every Christian. I Pet. 2:24 says,
"He personally bore our sins in His own body to the tree, that we might die to sin
and live to righteousness." Again we read, "Christ died FOR OUR SINS" (I
Cor. 15:3). Christ died for our sins 1900 years ago - and there is absolutely nothing that
you or I can add to its effectiveness except to trust in it! The sins of the believer in
Christ were judged at the cross - IN JESUS. Whether they are the sins of the past, or of
the present, or of the future - ALL were judged at
Thank God, the good old Book
is true! The wages of sin is actually death, and Jesus died that death. THE DEBT IS PAID I-N F-U-L-L.
Thank God,
Thank God, Rom. 3:23 is
really true! "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God; BEING JUSTIFIED
FREELY BY HIS GRACE through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." Thank God, II
Cor. 5:18-21 is not an infamous fairy tale! "And all things are of God, who hath
reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of
reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ, RECONCILING THE WORLD unto Himself, NOT
IMPUTING THEIR TRESPASSES UNTO THEM ... for He hath made HIM to be sin (a sin offering)
FOR US, Who knew no sin." Thank God I shall never stand in the judgment for my sin.
My case will not even be reviewed. It is settled, forever, bless His wonderful name! Our
judgment as sinners is forever past!
The next point I wish to
present is THE JUDGMENT OF SONS. Through the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit God has
given us new birth, making us His own children. "For ye are all the children of God
by faith in Jesus Christ" (Gal. 3:26). "Beloved, now are we the sons (children)
of God" (I Jn. 3:2). "And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of
His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but
a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ" (Gal. 4:6-7). "The
Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God" (Rom.
8:16).
It has been the Father's good
pleasure to bring us into this relationship of sonship to Himself and now His supreme
desire for us is that we may truly grow up and become mature, that we may be SONS INDEED.
He has given us the standing of sons through faith in Jesus Christ. But He purposes for us
to become sons in state of being as well. He wants His sons to be son like! And being the
great and faithful Father that He is, He deals with us unto this expected end. In order to
make us son-like He brings us into judgment - SON JUDGMENT. The prodigal son was not
son-like, but he was still a son. So you, beloved brother, sister, if you are in Christ by
faith, you have been birthed into God's family and so are His son. The Father plans for
His sons to be completely and exactly like unto Himself in mind, will, purpose, power, and
glory. In order to make us so He faithfully brings us into judgment - son judgment. God
wants His sons to be son-like. If we are not, He judges us!
Paul sets forth this judgment
in I Cor. 11:31-32: "For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But
when we are judged, we are CHASTENED OF THE LORD, that we should not be condemned (judged)
with the world." There are several thoughts in this verse which we should note in
passing. First, when we are judged, we are CHASTENED of the Lord. Thus, the chastening of
the Lord upon His sons IS the son-judgment of which I speak. The chastening of sons and
the judgment of sons are the same thing. Secondly, if we would judge ourselves, we should
not be judged (chastened). The message is clear - if we would chasten ourselves we should
not be chastened by the Lord. Judgment and chastening; the two terms are identical. The
meaning is the same. Furthermore, when we are judged we are chastened by the Lord THAT WE
SHOULD NOT BE CONDEMNED (judged, chastened) WITH THE WORLD! How plain that there is
appointed a great day of judgment, chastening, and correction for the world! "He hath
appointed a day, in the which He will JUDGE THE WORLD in righteousness by that Man Whom He
hath ordained" (Acts 17:31). The saints of God, the members of the Corporate Son,
will be the instrument through which that judgment of the world shall be executed.
"Do ye not know that the saints SHALL JUDGE THE WORLD?" (I Cor. 6:2). Paul
emphasizes that we must be judged now, so that we will not be judged with the world. We
must be chastened and corrected NOW, that we be not chastened and corrected WITH THE
WORLD. The judgment, chastening, and trial of the sons of God must take place at this
present time, in this present age, because it is the Christ, Head and body, which is to
initiate and administer the work of judgment upon the world in the age and the ages to
come. It is with this great truth in mind that the Holy Spirit faithfully declares that if
we are judged now, by either judging ourselves, or coming under the chastening of the
Lord, then we "shall not come into condemnation (Gr: krisis, judgment) with the
world;" we shall not share in the world's judgment day of chastening and correction,
being fully dealt with in advance of the world, already passed from death unto life,
brought unto obedience as elect members of His body, the firstfruits of His redemption, to
be used in the disciplining of the nations when the time is ripe for it.
So, then, this present life
is to each of the consecrated ones his "day of judgment" - his day of trial,
testing, proving, chastening, his day of being brought to perfection in Christ. The
apostle Peter's words are in harmony with this: "Judgment must begin at the house of
God!" (I Pet. 4:17).
Let all men know that the
hour has come when judgment must begin at the house of God. Judgment beginning at the
house of God! This does not imply a sudden visitation of catastrophes, calamities, and
troubles, but it means that there will be a concentration of divine instruction and
discipline, as the Father purifies each individual, until He can gather to Himself a
FIRSTFRUITS. He chastises us - and chastise comes from a root word meaning chaste or pure.
As Ray Prinzing has so aptly stated, "Those who are apprehended for this hour will
find that their ways are under the watchful eye of the Lord, He orders every step of their
path, and He will bring pressures to bear upon them which help to turn their feet in the
right direction. In due time there will be an outreach, as this correctional working
proceeds to those who yet wait to be called and drawn by the Spirit, for He is to be the
Saviour of all men. But remember, for us, it is a present-time process, as we seek to be
filled with His fullness, we must be daily purged and cleansed, and there are these
ordained TURNING POINTS, CRISIS', JUDGMENTS to work His way in us. There are many
conditions and situations, confusions and frustrations, limitations and complications,
which, if we but knew it, are judgments. They are brought our way by the hand of God, to
hem us in, to subdue us, to bring us to the point of complete submission to His will.
"How lovingly the Father
watches over His own. What tenderness and faithfulness are seen in the way HE 'girds up'
our way. It would be a real mark of learning if, when we find ourselves frustrated and
confused, to simply sit down and ask the Lord for more understanding of HIS way - to learn
to USE these situations as sign posts along the way, telling us that God would put a bend
in our path, and turn us more towards His plan for us. There seems to be so much 'fight'
yet left in men. We are so determined to push our way through, regardless of how rough the
going becomes. And so the frustrations continue to build up, the limitations are
increased, and the complications multiply until we come to the end of ourselves, and then
cry out, 'Lord, show me Thy way.' Yes, thank God for these little measures of His
judgments, divinely used to correct us, to instruct us, to bring us into alignment with
His will and purpose.
"If these judgments are
effective in us now, then we read, 'He that hears My word, and believes on Him that sent
Me, hath everlasting fife, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death
unto life' (Jn. 5:24). The word 'condemnation' is actually the Greek word KRISIS, the
process of judgment. To yield to the mighty hand of God NOW is to escape the future,
general judgments which will yet come. For after the HOUSE has been thoroughly judged, and
brought up to divine specifications and qualifications, and found approved in His sight,
then shall the process of judgment pass onward to the next order" - end quote.
The final judgment of
believers is to be judged as servants. This is a judgment that is both present and future
reality for Christians. It involves rewards for works, not a dealing with sin or
development of character. It is reward for works, not a discipline for the perfecting of
sons. It is vital to our understanding of this subject that we see clearly the distinction
between three important biblical terms: salvation, inheritance and reward. Salvation
relates to the sinner, inheritance relates to sons, and reward relates to servants.
SALVATION means to be rescued from the power of sin and death and is the free gift of God
to the believer. "And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shall call His name
Jesus: for He shall save His people from their sins" (Mat. 1:21). "For by grace
are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of
works, lest any man should boast" (Eph. 2:8-9). INHERITANCE, on the other hand, is
that which a son receives by virtue of his relationship to the Father. It is not a gift;
it is not earned; it is his by right. "Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a
son; and if a son, then an HEIR of God through Christ" (Gal. 4:7). "And if
children, then HEIRS; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ" (Rom. 8:17). REWARD,
furthermore, is something that is given for service rendered. It is not a free gift, as is
salvation, nor is it bestowed because of right, as an inheritance. It is earned by work!
"For the Son of man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and then
He shall REWARD EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS WORKS" (Mat. 16:27). "And the nations
were angry, and Thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged,
and that Thou should give reward unto Thy servants" (Rev. 11:18).
We are aware that we were all
included in the JUDGMENT OF SINNERS that was meted out upon Jesus Christ at
It is far from the truth,
however, to say that there is no sense in which those who are sons are also servants. Paul
is speaking of OUR RELATIONSHIP TO GOD, THE FATHER, Under the Old Testament economy the
people of God had not received new birth by the Spirit and so were not, by spiritual
generation, the children of God. They are called a "house of servants" (Heb.
3:2-6). Their relationship to God was the relationship of servants. They were not sons.
Now, bless His name, He has redeemed us from the curse of the law that we might receive
placement as sons, and He has birthed into our hearts the Spirit of His Son, the Spirit of
Sonship, whereby we cry, "Abba, FATHER!" This has brought a change of
relationship to God. To Him we are no longer servants, but sons. However, as sons we enter
not only into a relationship to God, but we also become UNIQUELY RELATED to men. It is
here that we must be very clear in our understanding. Unto GOD I may be a son, but unto
MEN I may be a servant - because I am a son! I cannot be a servant TO GOD, for I am a son.
But I cannot be a son TO MEN, therefore I must approach unto men in a relationship through
which I can minister to them the LIFE OF THE SON which indwells me. The only way in which
I can minister the life of the Son unto men is as a SERVANT. To minister means "to
serve," and both "minister" and "servant" are frequently
translated from the same Greek word.
Can a son be a servant?
Jesus, the Pattern Son declared: "Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered
unto, but to minister (serve), and to give His life a ransom for many" (Mat. 20:28).
Jesus was a Son to His Father, but He came as a servant unto men. It is the SON that
SERVES! The Son is a Servant-Son. The very same Jesus, the Son, of whom the Father
witnessed, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased," of Him the
Father also witnessed, "Behold My SERVANT, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom My soul
delights; I have put My Spirit upon Him: He shall bring forth judgment to the
Gentiles" (Isa. 42:1). Mat. 12:15-21 shows unmistakably that this SERVANT of the Lord
is JESUS. The Son came into the world as a Servant-Son. The beloved John understood this
beautiful truth, for the same John who wrote in I Jn. 3:1, "Behold, what manner of
love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God,"
later penned these significant words: "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave
unto Him, to show unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass; and He sent
and signified it by His angel unto His servant John" (Rev. 1:1). The great apostle
Paul also understood this truth, for the very same Paul who wrote in Gal. 4:7,
"Wherefore, thou art no more a servant, but a son," also said in Rom. 1:1,
"Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle." Is Jesus a Son or a
servant? Was John a son or a servant? Was Paul a son or a servant? And lest we would exalt
ourselves above John, or Paul, or Jesus, we further find of the 144,000 in Revelation,
that glorious company of the manifested sons of God which stands with the Lamb upon Zion's
holy hill, that even of this exalted company it is written, "Hurt not the earth,
neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed THE SERVANTS OF OUR GOD IN THEIR
FOREHEADS" (Rev. 7:3). So there you have it! The sons are the servants! Not servants
to God, of course, but sons who are servants to men, humble ministers of the life of the
Father.
At this point I wish to
mention again the divine order: Men receive salvation from God as a GIFT; sons receive
from the Father an INHERITANCE; servants receive in consideration of their WORK, a REWARD.
Inheritance is given on the basis of relationship, while rewards are given because of work
done. All believers are saved by grace, but rewarded for works. There is great glory and
heavenly wealth awaiting those who become profitable servants, fully equipped to serve. As
sons we shall truly receive our inheritance, but as servants we shall in no wise lose our
reward. "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus
Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood,
hay, stubble; every man's WORK shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it,
because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try EVERY MAN'S WORK of what sort
it is. If any man's WORK abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a REWARD.
If any man's WORK shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved;
yet so as by fire" (I Cor. 3:11-15).
This wonderful passage speaks
so adequately of the JUDGMENT OF SERVANTS. Paul mentions this judgment in Rom. 14:10-12,
saying, "But why doest thou judge thy brother? or why doest thou set at naught thy
brother? for we shall all stand before THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST. So then everyone of us
shall give account of himself to God." Paul shows that Christ, the FOUNDATION OF THE
HOUSE OF GOD, is being built upon by every child of God. Some of our works which we are
seeking to build on Him are referred to as "wood, hay, and stubble." These are
all works which are built on Christ but they are not of the nature of Christ, works of the
flesh rather than works of the Spirit. Without doubt the vast majority of the
"works" being done today by the harlot church systems fall into this category!
Wood, hay, and stubble are not sins such as lying, drunkenness, or adultery, but so-called
"good Christian works" which are built upon THE FOUNDATION OF CHRIST and done in
His blessed name, although they are not products of His Spirit. Constantly we are
receiving some letter in the mail telling of this great program and that great endeavor
for God; a missionary program, a television ministry, a radio program, church building,
recording studio, evangelistic crusade, Bible school, Christian hospital or some other
GREAT WORK, with their heart-rending pleas for financial help, with their self-addressed
envelopes into which the poor and the widows are urged to put their offerings. With glib
tongues and plausible programs by which the world is going to be won for God, or a cure
found for cancer, well-meaning people are urged to give to further grandiose programs
hatched by kingdom-building preachers who live in wanton luxury upon earth, which programs
are not the plan of God at all, but merely the product of an imaginative, scheming, and
avaricious mind. Through long centuries billions of dollars have been squeezed from God's
precious people to build huge temples, cathedrals, church buildings, Christian
communities; to promote innumerable programs and methods to do this and that for God
which, not only did God not ordain, but were in all truth a stench in His nostrils and an
abomination before His face.
When all these good fleshly
religious works are brought into the blazing presence of the holy God they will one and
all go up in smoke! What a bonfire that will be! I declare to you that the fires of that
judgment shall be witnessed from the farthest extremities of the universe so that every
creature in heaven and on earth may understand once and for all that "Except THE LORD
build the house, they labour in vain that build it!" All works which are to the glory
of the creature, or the invention of the creature, and not to the glory of HIM WHO IS THE
BUILDER OF ALL THINGS will be totally consumed.
But other works are
identified as "gold, silver, and precious stones." These symbols speak of works
of faith and righteousness wrought in and through us by the Holy Spirit. These are the
works which are the product of HIS LIFE, wrought in union with His will. Gold and silver
are refined by fire. Precious stones are fire resistant. These are Hebrew symbols for
those works which are made pure by the consuming fire of our great and glorious God and,
therefore, will remain for evermore. The apostle goes on to say that every work which
successfully passes the test by fire (which "abides") will be REWARDED.
Obviously, the "wood, hay, and stubble" variety of carnal works, which were not
of the Spirit nor to the glory of God alone, will go up in smoke. Praise the Lord! But
those works of the "gold, silver, and precious stones" variety, which are
accomplished by obedience to the Holy Spirit and to the glory of God, will be rewarded.
This is the order of the JUDGMENT OF SERVANTS. I would point out to you, dear ones, that
it does not say a thing about being saved or lost as the result of our WORKS being JUDGED.
No, our SIN JUDGMENT is already past, forever settled, hallelujah! We are neither saved
nor lost by the kind of works we build upon the foundation of Christ. However, our works
are judged "as by fire" in order to get rid of those that are of the flesh and
not of the Spirit. I do not doubt but that there will be a lot of red faces and
embarrassed countenances in that day when men who received the applause and acclaim of
multitudes stand empty-handed before God with nothing to offer Him, and receive not even a
nod of recognition from Him!
Then Paul makes a fantastic
statement. He states plainly that a man's works may ALL BE CONSUMED by the blazing glory
of God so that he has absolutely no reward, but the believer himself "shall be
saved." Even if a believer loses all reward, all credit for what he did and
supposedly "accomplished for God" because he ends up with tons of empty,
worthless, vain religious works, still he shall be saved "so as by fire," purged
and purified, corrected and disciplined, that he might serve God acceptably. God's purpose
in judging our works as servants is that He may reward (the reward is actually the
increase of glory and life from the seed of faith and obedience we planted) our works of
righteousness and forever eradicate all that is of self!
"And the Spirit of the
Lord shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding, the Spirit of Counsel
and Might, the Spirit of Knowledge and of the Fear of the Lord; and shall make Him of
quick understanding in the fear of the Lord: and He shall not JUDGE after the sight of His
eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of His ears: but with righteousness shall He JUDGE
the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and He shall smite the earth
with the rod (authority) of His mouth (word), and with the breath of His lips shall He
slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins, and faithfulness the
girdle of His reins ... for the whole earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as
the waters cover the sea" (Isa. 11:2-5, 9).
Through the cunning of the
adversary, both the world and the popular church have been robbed of the blessed
assurances of the time when God's RIGHTEOUS JUDGMENTS break forth in the earth. Most
people know that the Bible tells of a "judgment day," but the average person,
believer or unbeliever, regards it only with a certain sense of fear and dread. Because of
this fear there is, to them, no more unwelcome tidings than that the Lord is coming to
JUDGE THE EARTH. Many tremble inwardly at the thought of God's judgments, and in this mind
put them far from them, preferring not to even hear the subject mentioned. They have
absolutely no idea of the wonderful blessings in store for a sin-weary world under the
glorious reign of the sons of God filled with all the nature, wisdom, glory and power of
God!
How differently did the holy
prophets and apostles regard that promised DAY OF JUDGMENT! Note the expectation in
Isaiah's spirit as he announces: "Yea, in the way of THY JUDGMENTS, O Lord, have we
waited for thee ... with my soul have I desired Thee in the night; yea, with my spirit
within me will I seek Thee early: for when THY JUDGMENTS are in the earth, the inhabitants
of the world WILL LEARN RIGHTEOUSNESS" (Isa. 26:8-9). Here Isaiah assures us that the
day when God's judgments are in the earth will be a most glorious and desirable day, a day
in which the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness! If the desire of your
heart is anything like the desire of my heart, this is a blessed thought and a wonderful
assurance: the inhabitants of the world WILL LEARN RIGHTEOUSNESS! How my ransomed soul
longs to behold such a thing! Every time I scan the headlines of the morning paper I am
seized with an intense yearning that the inhabitants of the world will learn
righteousness. Oft times as I watch the evening newscast my spirit is mightily moved
within to intercede earnestly that the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.
As I drive across our great land; as I walk the streets of our cities and towns, beholding
the condition of those about, neighbors, friends, relatives, strangers, my spirit groans
with unutterable supplication that the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness!
What a marvelous provision of our wise and loving Father that, to this very end, He has
ORDAINED JUDGMENT to come forth in the earth. Bless His name!
Again I would share from the
rich writings of Ray Prinzing: "Now we must examine this word 'judgment,' the Greek
word, as used in the New Testament, is KRISIS, and with the letter 'K' changed to the
letter 'C' it is brought directly over into our English language as CRISIS. All of the
pressures and trials which produce these times of 'crisis' in our life are simply a
working out of God's corrective measures, His judgments. The root from which KRISIS comes
is KRINEIN meaning, 'to separate.' And so it is, a crisis is a critical period of time, a
decisive moment, a turning point; hence, a separating, choosing, deciding, judging. The
very purpose of judgment is to separate you from the old, that you might come into the
new. To separate you from selfhood's rebellion, giving you a TURNING POINT, and heading
you in the right direction, in the will of God.
"The man is very sick,
he is growing steadily worse, and finally there comes a Crisis, either he begins to mend,
or else death comes. It is a TURNING POINT! And when God orders the Crisis, it is to turn
us towards righteousness, and bring us into HIS NEW LIFE. Ah, if we tell you that there is
a turning point, things will be corrected and brought into righteousness, then you will
rejoice. But if we say it is a time of judgment, you say, Woe is me! But it is all the
same thing, that's what God's corrective judgments are all about" - end quote.
Another man wrote,
"Judgment, not in the sense of vengeful retribution, but of that involved when a
craftsman working on a mass of clay, or an ingot of metal, continually examines the
results of the various processes to which he subjects it, with a view to assessing whether
or not his skill and artistry are producing the desired results" - end quote.
Hear the note of triumph and
exaltation when David speaks by the inspiration that the Spirit gives, saying:
"Let the heavens be glad
And LET THE EARTH REJOICE; And let men say among the nations, the Lord reigns! Let the sea
roar, and the fullness thereof; Let the fields rejoice, and all that are therein. Then
shall the trees of the wood (people of the earth) SING ALOUD AT THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD,
Because He comes TO JUDGE THE EARTH. O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good; For His
mercy endures forever!" (I Chron. 16:31-34).
Why will the "trees of
the forest" (people of the nations) "sing out" when He is coming to JUDGE
THE EARTH? One would think they might weep, or shrink in fear and consternation at the
thought of His judgments, but why all the singing? Why the rejoicing? Because God's
judgments are an expression of HIS GOODNESS and everlasting MERCY, designed to teach the
inhabitants of the world RIGHTEOUSNESS! The earth shall rejoice because this means that we
have reached the TURNING POINT in our degeneration, and have come to the times of
regeneration. This is true even now for the church, but must ultimately reach unto the
whole world and the entire creation. His presence, while it speaks of His utmost holiness
and will not tolerate the continuance of evil, brings the changes needed for harmony and
righteousness. There shall surely be those severe prunings, crushing, shattering, melting;
but when they have accomplished their desired results, His new life shall flow in
restoration and victory. Hallelujah!
This same ecstatic
exclamation of joy and gladness at the prospects of the coming of God's righteous judgment
into the earth is found all through the psalms and the prophets. If you are truly destined
to stand among the company of the sons of God, the long-awaited liberators of creation,
you will most assuredly share the thrill of the heavenly vibration in David's inspired
song: "Say among the nations that the Lord reigns: the world also shall be
established that it shall not be moved: HE SHALL JUDGE THE PEOPLE RIGHTEOUSLY. Let the
heavens rejoice, and LET THE EARTH BE GLAD; let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof.
Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein: then shall all the trees of the wood
rejoice before the Lord: for He comes, for He comes TO JUDGE THE EARTH: He shall judge the
world with righteousness, and the people with His truth" (Ps. 96:10-13).
"Make a joyful noise
unto the Lord, ALL THE EARTH: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise. Let the sea
(raging, surging multitudes of humanity) roar, and the fullness thereof; THE WORLD, and
THEY THAT DWELL THEREIN. Let the floods (armies) clap their hands, let the hills (small
kingdoms, third world nations) be joyful together before the Lord; for HE COMES TO JUDGE
THE EARTH: with righteousness shall HE JUDGE THE WORLD, and the people with equity"
(Ps. 98:4, 8-9).
If you will take the time and
effort to look up the words judge, judgment, and judgments in a good Bible Concordance,
reading down the lists of scores upon scores of passages in which these words are found,
you will quickly make the enlightening discovery that only occasionally do these terms
denote the negative aspects of judgment: condemnation, wrath, and destruction. In the vast
majority of cases judgment is presented as something altogether desirable, beneficial, and
glorious! Consider these examples: "But the Lord shall endure forever: He hath
prepared His throne for judgment. And He shall judge THE WORLD in righteousness, He shall
MINISTER JUDGMENT to the people in uprightness" (Ps. 9:7-8). "Sing unto Him a
new song ... for the word of the Lord is right; all His works are done in truth. He loves
righteousness and JUDGMENT: the earth is full of THE GOODNESS OF THE LORD" (Ps.
33:3-5). "Justice and judgment are the habitation of Thy throne: mercy and truth
shall go before Thy face. Blessed are the people that know the JOYFUL SOUND" (Ps.
89:14). "I will sing of MERCY and JUDGMENT: unto Thee, O Lord, will I sing" (Ps.
101:1). "Behold My servant, whom I uphold; Mine elect, in whom My soul delights; I
have put My Spirit upon Him: He shall BRING FORTH JUDGMENT to the Gentiles. He shall not
cry, nor lift up, nor cause His voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed shall He
not break, and the smoking flax shall He not quench: He shall bring forth JUDGMENT UNTO
TRUTH. He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till He have SET JUDGMENT IN THE EARTH: and
the isles shall wait (expectantly) for His law" (Isa. 42:1-4). "The Lord lives,
in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness; and the nations shall BLESS THEMSELVES IN
HIM, and in Him shall they glory" (Jer. 4:2).
Nothing is more evident in
the Word of God than the fact that God has a great and wonderful plan which He is working
out among the nations of earth. Many saints recognize that God has a predestined purpose
in the life of each of His people, an appointed end for
From the first dawn of human
history God has had the formation, development, and destiny of NATIONS in mind and
purpose. The present nations of earth had their origins in the early days following the
Great Flood. In Genesis chapter ten is found a most remarkable and comprehensive list of
the descendants of Noah who became the heads of the families and tribes which subsequently
developed into nations. Even so-called higher critics have often admitted that the tenth
chapter of Genesis is a remarkably accurate historical document. There is no comparable
catalog of ancient nations available from any other source. It is unparalleled in its
antiquity and comprehensiveness. You would do well to read the entire chapter.
Here is the one link between
the historic nations of antiquity and the prehistoric time of Noah and the antediluvians.
The grandsons and great grandsons of Noah are listed, each of whom is identified with the
city or country established by his descendants. It has been possible in many cases to
identify the names in Genesis 10 with nations and peoples known to antiquity, especially
as revealed by archaeology. Thus this chapter provides the link between recorded history
and the period of "prehistory" which is, except for the Bible, preserved only in
ancient traditions.
An interesting verse is found
in Gen. 10:25. "And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg; FOR IN
HIS DAYS WAS THE EARTH DIVIDED; and his brother's name was Joktan." Peleg - or
rather, the event associated with his name - is of special interest at this point.
"In his days was the earth divided." Evidently this was a most memorable event,
and Eber named his son in commemoration of it. The name Peleg means division. Almost
nothing else is said about Peleg apart from mention of his family line and how long he
lived. The fact that the earth was divided in his days seems the only possible item of
distinction that can knowingly be attributed to Peleg himself. The important thing
concerns the meaning of this indicated "division of the earth." It is obvious
that this division was the division of the peoples that took place at the
The descendants of Noah
migrated over the whole face of the earth, forming tribe after tribe, city after city, and
NATION AFTER NATION. Let all men know that it is the Almighty God who is the designer and
architect of all the nations in the world. The time periods and localities in which
nations flourish have all been pre-arranged by the will of Him who "works all things
after the counsel of His own will" (Eph. 1:11). The truth of this cannot be made any
plainer than it is by Moses in Deut. 32:8: "When the Most High DIVIDED THE NATIONS
their inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the people
according to the number of the children of
David, the sweet singer of
Many precious
"fragments" reveal God's ultimate purpose for mankind, when "ALL the ends
of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord, and ALL KINDREDS OF THE NATIONS shall
worship before Thee, for the kingdom is the Lord's and HE is the governor among the
nations" (Ps. 22:27-28). For further confirmation of God's gracious intention toward
the nations let us read Ps. 2:8. In this wonderful prophecy the Father is addressing the
Son, saying, "Ask of Me, and I WILL GIVE THEE THE HEATHEN (Heb: nations) for Your
inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession." Surely the
will and plan of God is revealed in this most gracious request, and surely this was the
purpose for which Jesus came and was sent. "Christ Jesus came into the world to save
sinners" (I Tim. 1:15). "The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of THE
WORLD" (I Jn. 4:14). With this divine plan in view, well may David triumphantly sing,
"O let THE NATIONS be glad and sing for joy, for Thou shall judge the people
righteously, and govern the nations upon earth ... God shall bless us, and ALL the ends of
the earth shall fear (reverence) HIM" (Ps. 67:4-7). "ALL NATIONS shall call Him
blessed ... and blessed be His glorious name forever, and let THE WHOLE EARTH be filled
with His glory. Amen and Amen" (Ps. 72:17-19).
A most marvelous prophecy is
found in Micah 4:1-3 which points to the very day in which we are now living. "But in
the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain (government) of the house of the
Lord (the sons of God) shall be established in the top of the mountains (strong kingdoms,
super powers), and it shall be exalted above the hills (weaker kingdoms, third world
nations); and people shall flow unto it. And MANY NATIONS shall come, and say, Come, and
let us go up to the mountain (government) of the Lord, and to the house of the God of
Jacob; and He will teach us His ways, and we (the nations) will walk in His paths: for the
law of the Lord shall go forth of Zion (sons of God), and the word of the Lord from
Jerusalem (the church). And He shall JUDGE among many people, and rebuke STRONG NATIONS
afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plow-shares, and their spears into pruning
hooks: NATION shall not lift up sword against NATION, neither shall they learn war
anymore." Blessed beyond my feeble ability to describe shall be that day when it
shall come to pass that "He shall sprinkle (cleanse, sanctify) MANY NATIONS; the
kings shall shut their mouths at Him: for that which had not been told them they shall
see; and that which they had not heard they shall consider" (Isa. 52:15).
"Sing and rejoice, O
daughter of
"And the city had no
need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it,
and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the NATIONS of them that are saved shall walk in
the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour unto it. And
they shall bring the glory and honour of THE NATIONS into it ... and there shall be no
more curse" (Rev. 21:24-27; 22:3). As Jerusalem was the seat of the empire, the
center of government under the Old Testament typical kingdom of God, so the New Jerusalem
must occupy the same position and be the "city of the Great King" (Ps. 48:2;
Mat. 5:35). A city is a symbol of a kingdom or dominion, and so God's Kingdom is
symbolized by the New Jerusalem, the new dominion coming down from heaven to earth. This
is the heavenly city, the heavenly spiritual government, the city for which Abraham
looked, "a city which hath foundations" - a government established in
righteousness, being founded upon the sure rock foundation of the righteousness and
authority of the Christ. This city is composed of a heavenly and spiritual people in and
through whom the mind, nature, glory, will, and power of God is expressed. This
governmental city is being built now as God brings a people into union with Himself,
conformed to His image, filled with His life. It is this overcoming body of the Christ
that shall so demonstrate the fullness of the power and glory of the Lord that ALL NATIONS
shall be swept into the embrace of the
Glorious City of
There is no Scriptural truth
stated in simpler or more convincing language than that God, omnipotent and omniscient,
has, from the beginning, both formed and marked out the path of destiny for every nation
of men upon the face of the whole earth. Unceasingly and untiringly God has been working
out His purpose, shaping all things through successive generations and ages. In the age
after the Flood, beginning with Abraham, men were divided into two special groups - men in
general, plus a Chosen Family. Later we recognize these two groups as Israelites and
Gentiles. the Chosen Family or Israelites were selected to bear witness to a wicked and
idolatrous world of the truth of the One, True and Living God. They always remembered that
they were chosen, but quickly forgot what they were chosen for. Instead of bearing witness
to the heathen, they only hated them! And, worse yet, copied them and became corrupted by
their wicked practices and idolatrous religions.
Beginning with Pentecost
another group has appeared, a group called the church (ecclesia), the body of the Christ.
Its very name denotes that it is a "called out" group, composed of both
Israelites and Gentiles, chosen especially to proclaim, not only the power and wisdom and
righteousness of God, but particularly His GRACE. They are to proclaim to the world God's
solution of the problems of sin, sorrow, and death, the solution God wrought out in
Christ.
The apostle James made a
statement to the council at
It is here, in the true
church, that Jesus Christ first establishes His government to rule and reign on the throne
of men's lives. God's purpose in His church is not merely to save men from sin and hell
and carry them off to some far-away heaven somewhere. God's plan is to first establish His
dominion in the hearts of His Elect, imbuing them with the glorious MIND OF CHRIST until
they become His nature and will in the earth. Sadly, most Christians never come to this!
They are too busy playing church, waiting for their mansion over the hilltop, or
blundering around in the carnal programs, foolishness, and shame of a wretched, fleshly,
Babylonian religious system. But even as the dispensation of the law, at its consummation,
brought forth that which it typified and pointed to - Jesus Christ, the Son of God - so
this present church age must, in the latter days, at its consummation, bring forth even
that unto which it pointed - the many membered BODY OF THE CHRIST, the CORPORATE SON,
matured, overcoming, conformed unto the exact likeness of its glorious Head and so filled
with the fullness of HIMSELF that it can be said in all truth, "As HE IS, so ARE WE
in this present world" (Eph. 4:11-16).
God never intended that
either Christ or His body should rule over all nations during this present age. His reign
is confined entirely to that little company of footstep followers who have heard His voice
and who follow the lamb where ever He goes. These are the blessed sons of God who become
the very embodiment of His divine government. This may seem to be an extremely slow method
and a very small and insignificant Kingdom for such a great and eternal King, but I cannot
over-emphasize the importance of this lowly beginning for a government whose authority is
destined to "subdue ALL THINGS." May God grant us vision to see that not only is
He establishing His divine government in the hearts and lives of an Elect company of
believers, but through His faithful dealings with them He is actually FORMING THEM INTO A
GOVERNMENT - a ruling body of sons!
God is calling out a people
to bear his name. But WHY? WHEN? WHERE? To bear His name merely to a small handful of
people through their short lifetime in the flesh during this age?
In this age salvation is unto
"as many as are ordained unto eternal life" (Acts 13:48). But in the ages to
come there shall be a displaying of God's matchless grace through His beloved sons that
"the residue of men shall seek after the Lord, and all the nations over whom My name
is called." If this is not true then "reigning with Christ" is absolutely
ridiculous and purposeless. But, blessed be God! the word is sure: "...the God of
heaven shall set up a Kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the Kingdom shall not
be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume (take into itself) ALL
THESE KINGDOMS, and it shall stand for ever" (Dan. 2:44).
JUDGMENT AND RESTORATION OF
NATIONS
There is a two-fold ministry
of the sons of God: Judgment and mercy. On the one hand they shall exhibit His surpassing
grace, while, on the other hand, they shall bring judgment in the earth. The more the
spirit of revelation unfolds the truth, the more we see God's judgments in proper
perspective, that they are corrective in nature and used to bring forth a state of
rightness in the earth. They shall not be executed in unholy vengeance, for mercy and
grace shall balance the score. Judgments are desperately needed, but they are ever
tempered with mercy, and when they have fulfilled their purpose, the judgments end, and
the whole earth shall be full of His mercy, life, and glory. Mercy recognizes the need of
justice. Mercy knows that every mountain and hill must be brought low, but mercy is there
to FILL UP THE VALLEY once the subduing has taken place. As the Psalmist wrote,
"Justice and judgment are the habitation of Thy throne: mercy and truth shall go
before Thy face" (Ps. 89:14). And again, "I will sing of MERCY and JUDGMENT:
unto Thee, O Lord, will I sing" (Ps. 101:1).
With this thought of judgment
and mercy in mind, let us consider some certain and indisputable promises of God to
specific peoples and nations. We all know the awful magnitude of the sin and judgment
which came upon
Behold, this was the
iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in
her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And
they were haughty, and committed abomination before Me: therefore I took them away as I
saw good. Neither hath Samaria committed half of thy sins; but thou didst multiply your
abominations more than they, and hast justified thy sisters in your abominations which
thou hast done. When I shall bring again their captivity, the captivity of
Has this wonderful thing been
accomplished? History shouts aloud that it has not - not yet! But, fear not, dear ones,
for the same God of faithfulness and omnipotence who declared, "And so ALL ISRAEL
shall be saved," also promises, "
A. P. Adams has written a
masterful monograph on the restoration of Sodom and I here share a portion of his
scholarly wisdom: "I need not dwell upon the history of the destruction of Sodom, all
are familiar with it, or may very easily make themselves so. We know that the city was so
wicked that ten righteous persons could not be found within its walls and God destroyed
them all by a horrible tempest (Ps. 11:6) of 'fire and brimstone.' 'Terrible!' you
exclaim, 'what extraordinary sinners they must have been to have deserved such a fearful
visitation as this!' Why, no, 'they were not sinners above all men' (Lk. 1 3:4); in fact
they were very ordinary sinners, not near as bad as many cities that are referred to in
the Bible. Their sins were just the ordinary transgressions of all populous and wealthy
cities, ancient and modern. What were they? 'Behold, this was the iniquity of
"Suppose we take the
orthodox view of this case and see how well it will stand investigation. The case of Sodom
is clear-cut and unequivocal. We know that the Sodomites were exceedingly wicked sinners
(Gen. 13:13). We know that when they were destroyed there were no righteous persons among
them, 'no, not one' (Rom. 3:10), for if there had been the Lord would have saved him with
Lot, and thus the Sodomites were a fitting type of the whole race. We know that they
perished in their sins, and that none of them escaped, all were destroyed (Lk. 17:29).
Hence it is positive that these wicked sinners have all gone to an ENDLESS hell, if the
orthodox view is correct. Is such a view in harmony with the Bible teaching in regard to
Sodom? As we have already noticed, the sin of
"But now how easy to
understand and how reasonable this declaration in regard to
"The foregoing rational
and Scriptural explanation of the case of
'I will bring again their
captivity, the captivity of
"I will conclude with
noticing one more thought. A future probation for
Another striking example of
God's dealings with nations and His future plans for them is found in the ancient nation
of
Now hear the words of the Lord against two other peoples, Moab and Ammon: "Therefore as I live, says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, surely Moab shall be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah, even the breeding of nettles and salt pits, and a perpetual desolation" (Zeph. 2:9). This judgment would seem to be final, and would be IF THE JUDGMENT OF SODOM IS FOR EVER SEALED IN ETERNAL PUNISHMENT, but it is only final till the judgment is completed. For God says of Moab in Jer. 48:47, "YET will I bring again the captivity of Moab IN THE LATTER DAYS;" and in Jer. 49:6, of Ammon He promises, "And afterward I will bring again the captivity of the children of Ammon, says the Lord." If one reads only a portion of God's word, the facts are too few to calculate rightly the curve of God's purposes. May the spirit of wisdom and revelation from God enable us to see beyond the weeping of the night that we may behold the JOY THAT COMES IN THE MORNING; when every judgment shall have fulfilled its purpose, the judgments end, and ALL NATIONS are filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. "And He will destroy in this mountain