TRUTH is consistent; it runs in parallel lines. Error is ever inconsistent. It can't help it. Its paths are bound to cross. Here is an example. A religious paper has the following on the resurrection: "There is no such thing as death for a Christian. . . . It is only going away from the old house to go to be with Christ. What we call dying is simply a process of living, as when a dragon-fly bursts away from its old husk, and its place at the bottom of the pond, comes out with beautiful wings, and flies aloft in the air."
But if so, what is the use of the resurrection? If at death the real person goes to Christ, what need of the resurrection or the judgment at Christ's coming? Yet this same paper says a little further on: "Christ in His resurrection is called the first-fruits of them that are asleep. This means that Christ's believing ones shall at length come also from their graves, the whole great harvest."
Now this last is true—"Christ the first-fruits; afterward they that are Christ's at His coming." 1 Cor. 15:23. For if the dead be not raised; "then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished." 1 Cor. 15:18.
The Everlasting Covenant.
By Editor
THE great Bible facts concerning God's covenant, in which He brings His children home, is given in a Bible-reading on another page. We hope that our readers will study the words of the Book.
The question of the Everlasting Covenant, like that of the Everlasting Gospel, is great and all-inclusive, each in its scope. The Gospel is God's message of salvation to those out of Christ; the Covenant is expressive of their condition in Christ. It includes God's will, God's promise, God's provisions for bringing home all those who come into covenant relationship with Him by the acceptance of the Gospel. It presents before man God's great love and power exercised in his behalf, and assures him that he need have no fear if he will by faith yield to God's plan. The Master's promises will not, can not, fail, and the soul which rests upon them is secure.
In the study of this question, as in that of the Gospel, one must be struck with the great fact that it is God's purpose to bring man into harmony with Him and His government. Man by nature is a sinner; God would make him righteous. Man is carnal, and has enmity against God's law; God would make him spiritual and a lover of His law. Man shutting the law without by the closed, selfish heart of unbelief, stands condemned; Christ would enter that heart, take away the condemnation, and write the law within, so that the erstwhile sinner would say, "O how love I Thy law! it is my meditation all the day."
Yet it is a strange, sad fact that many who profess the name of Christ chiefly use the covenant question to confuse minds over the duty of obedience to the law of the Most High. They confound the very heart of God's everlasting covenant, His holy law, with the agreement which God made with Israel at Sinai. The law was there made the conditions of the covenant, but it was not that covenant; and Israel's lamentable failure to keep the law—the condition—no more changed or affected in any way that law than the crimes of thieves, robbers, murderers, affect the laws of New York or California. God's law is as eternal as His throne. God's everlasting Gospel is to bring men back to Him, cover all past sins, and place them into covenant relationship with all the beneficent moral forces of the universe, in order that man may perfect a character which the law of Jehovah will not condemn, but upon which is written that law in ineffaceable letters by the Spirit of God. He who preaches a Gospel which does not include this does not preach the everlasting good tidings of God in Jesus Christ. He would lead men to hope for the blessings which the Gospel promises, while at the same time he crucifies afresh the Son of God by dishonoring the law Christ died to vindicate.
OUR study in Romans last week was on the first eight verses of chapter three. From those verses it may be learned that God had set the Jewish nation to be the light of the world, but many of them were only hypocritical professors, and so dishonored the name of the Lord. But, regardless of their unfaithfulness, the Lord was ever faithful, and when the judgment is finally reached, the course that the Lord has pursued will be fully and clearly vindicated. The next verses in the chapter are the following:
"What then? are we better than they? No, in nowise: for we before laid to the charge both of Jews and Greeks, that they are all under sin; as it is written:
"There is none righteous, no, not one;
There is none that understandeth,
There is none that seeketh after God;
They have all turned aside, they are together become unprofitable;
There is none that doeth good, no, not so much as one:
Their throat is an open sepulcher;
With their tongues they have used deceit:
The poison of asps is under their lips:
Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
Their feet are swift to shed blood;
Destruction and misery are in their ways;
And the way of peace they have not known:
There is no fear of God before their eyes.
"Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it speaketh to them that are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God: because by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in His sight; for thru the law cometh the knowledge of sin." Rom. 3: 9-20.
Many of the Jews in Paul's time were mere whited sepulchers; they were by no means living up to their profession of godliness. And when the Lord gave the inspired words quoted above He knew that many in later times would become very hateful toward the Jewish people and that they would be looked down upon as inferior. They have been condemned all thru the ages, and are still condemned to-day, because they crucified the Christ. In condemning another there is always the implied, and often the expressed, thought that we hold ourselves above such things as we condemn. The persons condemning the Jews would have it understood that they would not reject and crucify the Lord if He were here to-day.
But those who condemn the Jews for rejecting Christ, and yet who do not do the things that Christ teaches, should note particularly the opening words of the apostle in the foregoing quotation. He says, "Are we better than they?" then he answers his own question with the unequivocal utterance, "No, in nowise: for we before laid to the charge both of Jews and Greeks, that they are all under sin."
Unregenerate humanity is the same in all nationalities. The Jew who held to the forms of Jehovah's worship, but who did not lay hold on its vitalizing power, worked himself up to the place in his own hypocritical imagination that he even dared to sit in judgment to condemn the perfect life of the Christ of God. The truth of God had been committed to that nation; they had been made the depositaries of the law of God; heaven's choicest blessings had been given to them; the very Old Testament Scriptures that we now possess, and from which we learn of the Messiah whom the Jews crucified, were given to us by them and thru their prophets. But possessing all that wealth of perfectly and clearly divine truth did not save them, for the simple reason that they rejected its life and power and held to its mere forms.
"There is none righteous, no, not one." "With their tongues they have used deceit: the poison of asps is under their lips." This statement is true of every individual who has not been cleansed by the blood of Christ, or who does not continue to live in the strength and power of Christ. And because all, both Jews and Gentiles, are in this condition, these important words are given:
"Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it speaketh to them that are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God: because by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in His sight; for thru the law cometh the knowledge of sin." verses 19, 20.
The law of God, then, brings the "knowledge of sin." In the light of that righteous law "every mouth" is stopped and all the world is "brought under the judgment of God." "Because out of works of law [marginal reading, A.R.V.] shall no flesh be justified in His sight." In order for men to be found just by the law, they would have to be free from ever, in the slightest degree, transgressing that law. The law can not find a man just when he has violated its precepts. And since "there is none righteous, no, not one," it follows that the law must always hold the sinner under condemnation.9
The very terms in which the law of God is expressed are so manifestly clear, and they show that law to be so perfectly just, that no sinner can stand before God and find fault with His law. But as has been shown, particularly in the verses from Romans that were studied last week, the danger is not so much to the sinner who feels and senses his guilt. Such a sinner will be more than likely to flee to the great Fountain that has been provided for the cleansing from sin, and thus have his life, by the power of God, brought into harmony with the law of God. But the nominal professor who holds to the forms of Christianity, yet who does not possess its life of power, is the one that is in great danger. He is the one who is liable to make the same fatal mistake now that the Jews made in the times of Christ and of Paul.
The readers of this journal who have been studying the prophecies with us are aware of the fact that God has foretold the same conditions of formality and lack of living faith among the professors of Christianity in these last days that were so characteristic of the Jews in apostolic times. And hence there are many in these days who are making their boasts of being followers of the Lord, as did the Jews of old, but who are deceiving themselves; they will bring upon themselves the same judgment that they are now pronouncing upon the Jewish hypocrites of apostolic times.
Those Jews back there who rejected Christ were full of sins and hypocrisies; we can see that matter perfectly plain. But they did not see it with sufficient clearness to cause them to turn from it. And the reason they did not see it was because they did not carefully consider the law that they professed to keep. They were made the depositaries of God's law, and claimed great things for themselves in the doing of the law. They had the law bound about with much formality and many ceremonies that they observed. But still they were gross sinners and base hypocrites. If they had studied closely the depth of the spirituality and the refinements of the pure life that were required by the law that God had committed to them, they could have seen their mistake, and the way of escape thru the Gospel would have set them free.
We may see and condemn the course that was pursued back there, but if we do the same thing now we are only condemning ourselves by condemning them. For what was wrong in them then is also wrong in us now. It was "thru the law" that the "knowledge of sin" came to them then; it is thru the same law that the knowledge of sin comes to us now. It was necessary then to look into the law so as to sense the guilt of sin and feel the need of the Gospel remedy; it is just as necessary now to look into the same law to reveal our sins so that the Gospel remedy may be applied to us. T.
Studies in the Book of Daniel
God the Deliverer
NEBUCHADNEZZAR was on the throne of Babylon, the grandest ruler of the most glorious kingdom of earth. His reign had been prosperous. His martial triumphs had been great from the beginning, but of these he did not boast. His inscriptions, unlike those of the Assyrian kings, do not speak of war and conquest. They tell us of the great buildings of state erected, the great temples built to honor the gods; the temples restored, enlarged, and embellished; of the restoration of the tower of Babel; of the great canals and reservoirs, regulating the water supply, and irrigating the otherwise barren land in the tropical valley; of the mighty walls and strong gates and hanging gardens,—of all these he has left us chronicles; in these the mighty emperor boasted, but not of war.
Sixteen years, according to the Septuagint and Arabic, had passed since the Divine Teacher, thru the dream and its interpretation by Daniel, had taught the proud king that God is the Revealer of secrets, the Ruler of kings, and that the disposal of the kingdoms of the world rests with Him. The Gospel thus preached had profoundly affected the king. He outwardly acknowledged the power of God to reveal the secrets of the mind, and greatly honored His prophet. But it did not wean Nebuchadnezzar from his own vainglory, nor lead him to accept the converting, regenerating, creative power of God.
Birs-Nimrod, near Babylon. See Foot-note.
He has confidence in himself. Is he not great Nebo's son, who bears the exalted name of "the governor of the world," "the god of science," etc.? Does not his own name signify "Nebo-protects-the-crown"? Is there not joined with Nebo the father of Nebo, great Marduk, the tutelary god of Babylon? Does he not honor Shamash, the great sun-god? "Surely," thought the proud king, "my kingdom shall stand forever."
Did he think this?—He did; and he demonstrated his thought by duplicating the image of his dream in excellent form and commanding height; but not of different metals. Remembering the words of the prophet, "Thou art the head of gold," he arrogated to himself and Babylon, not only the whole world, but all time,—the whole image was of gold, for all the world to worship. This is the record:
"Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof six cubits; he set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon. Then Nebuchadnezzar the king sent to gather together the satraps, the deputies, and the governors, the judges, the treasurers, and the counselors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces, to come to the dedication of the image which Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. Then the satraps, the deputies, and the governors, the judges, the treasurers, the counselors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces, were gathered together unto the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up; and they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Then the herald cried aloud, To you it is commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages, that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of music, ye fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king hath set up; and whoso falleth not down and worshipeth shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. Therefore at that time, when all the peoples heard the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and all kinds of music, all the peoples, the nations, and the languages, fell down and worshiped the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up." Dan. 3: 1-7. A.R.V.
The image, covered with burnished gold, together with its pedestal over one hundred feet in height, over ten feet across its shoulders, doubtless erected on an eminence in the broad plain, must have been an imposing spectacle. In its glittering splendor it could easily be seen from all parts of the vast throng of the representatives of all nations, gathered at the summons of the king to its dedication. In that worship nothing is to be wanting to make it imposing. It was the worship of Babylon; it was the king and state deified; it was the expression of Chaldean patriotism; it was the exaltation of the creature to the throne of the Creator. Nebuchadnezzar was the one law; the image representing him and the kingdom, the one god for that occasion.
Like all the gods of man's devising, it was the god of force. Its form and splendor could compel admiration, but not love and devotion, which are always voluntary. These essential elements of true service and worship were wholly wanting. They are wholly wanting in the system of every false god. Their place must be supplied, and it was done, as ever before and since, by force-made fear. "Whoso falleth not down and worshipeth shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace."
Liberty versus Slavery.
It would seem that the king of great Babylon was free; he thought himself free to do as he chose. But he was a slave to self, to superstition, to folly, to the god of this world. No truly free man can ever seek to enslave others. Of that vast throng, nearly all those representative men were slaves to the same superstitions, or to slavish fear of consequences should they refuse to worship.10Yet the glorious freedom of the Gospel of God is not without its witnesses. Daniel is doubtless absent, but his three companions, educated in God, are there. They obey the king's summons to be present. But when the vast throng prostrated themselves before the god of gold, the devotion of some was not so centered upon their affected worship that they could not watch the hated worshipers of the true God, the three noble young men who of all the multitude stood erect.
These false worshipers, less concerned over their own souls than the non-conformity of others, remind the king of his decree, and tell him of the "certain Jews" whom he has exalted to rule, yet who in ingratitude "have not regarded thee; they serve not thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up." Verses 8-12.
The king, favorably disposed toward them, calls Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, and asks them, "Is it of purpose . . . that ye serve not my god, nor worship the golden image which I have set up?" He was willing to receive from them any apology or excuse, and he laid before them once more the opportunity. He would go thru the program a second time. He would again have his sacred concert of praise to his gods, at which time they could bow to the image. But if not, he warns them again that they should be cast "the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace;" and then he throws out this challenge: "Who is that god that shall deliver you out of my hands?" Verses 13 to 15.
Not Expediency, but Principle.
The Hebrews might have reasoned, "Righteousness is not in form, but in heart; it is of the spirit, not the letter, the flesh, the body. Why should we bring a spirit of discord into this great congregation? Truly Babylon is great, and they are patriotic; why enrage the king and endanger our lives? We can bow with the throng, and at the same time worship God."
Thus many have reasoned in times of testing, but not these. They were in Babylon and amid that great congregation in the plain of Dura for a purpose. They had learned of God that purpose. They were there to witness for God and to preach the Gospel to Babylon and her subject nations. They were there because Israel had compromised truth and righteousness in the past; they now must not compromise it in mind or heart, or even seem to compromise it. They were there to lose their life, if need be, for truth's sake. Their Ruler was greater than the king of great Babylon, their mission incomparably greater than the herald of the king's worship. Moreover, God had chosen them to answer the king's challenge, and demonstrate His power to deliver. Their hearts, their lives, are devoted to His service; and therefore they reply:
"O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace; and He will deliver us out of thy hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king; that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up." Verses 16 to 18.
Words worthy of perpetuation thru the ages; worthy to be framed in letters of gold; aye, worthy to be—purposed of God to be—engraved in principle on every heart. They not only said, "As we believe God will deliver, we will serve God," but "If He does not deliver, if the furnace devours us, we will serve Him still. He is Lord of life; His power reaches beyond the furnace ashes."
We know the result. The infuriated king, feeling insulted and his favor rejected, commands the furnace to be heated equal to his sevenfold fury. He calls on his mightiest men to bind the unresisting Hebrews, and cast them into the heated mass. It is done.
Nebuchadnezzar's Image of Gold in the Plain of Dura.
The fierceness of the heat slays the strong slaves who cast the bound free men into the furnace. The men who serve the God whose power is over every element fall down bound in the fire. This is the extent of the king's power with the most destructive agent he can use.
But lo! there is a change in the scene. The king sees not, as he gazes, the blazing garments, and their burnt, shriveled forms. But one thing the fire devours—the bands of earth's bondage. Four beings appear, the fourth the shining Angel of Jehovah. Verses 19 to 28. The Septuagint reads of the children of faith that they "walked in the midst of the flame, singing praises to God, and blessing the Lord. And Nebuchadnezzar heard them singing praises."
"Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished, and rose up in haste: he spake 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 aspect of the fourth is like a son of the gods." Verses 24, 25.
The king calls them forth from the furnace; they come, and, lo, upon them is found no evidence of fire in any way. Verses 26, 27. The God of heaven and earth is Himself "a devouring fire" (Ex. 24:17; Heb. 12:29); but His presence devours only sin and that which is identified with sin, thus becoming sin. When Israel's sin was confessed and placed upon the head of the burnt-offering, the people were free from sin,—the offering represented their sin. God's presence is manifested in fire that devours the offering, and the people praise their Saviour. Lev. 9:22-24. But when the priests, Nadab and Abihu, came into God's presence identified with unrighteousness, the fire of God's presence devoured them. Lev. 10:1, 2. Even so God's presence, which blessed Barnabas, separated from sin, slew Ananias and Sapphira, identified with sin. Acts 4:36, 37; 5:1-10. The men cast by the infuriated king into the fiery furnace were whole-hearted men, free in Christ Jesus, filled with the purifying presence of God. God dwelt in them. The Angel of the covenant, the Son of God was with them; how could the fire harm them?
The Result.
Unlike Pharaoh, the king received, in part at least, the lesson. His vain boasting in the challenge,—"Who is that god that shall deliver you out of my hands?"—had been strikingly answered, and to his complete satisfaction. Here are his words:
"Nebuchadnezzar spake and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, who hath sent His Angel, and delivered His servants that trusted in Him, and have changed the king's word, and have yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God. Therefore I make a decree, that every people, nation, and language, which speak anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill; because there is no other god that is able to deliver after this sort." Verses 28, 29.
He acknowledges God and the Messenger that He sent; he declares that faith in God's word on the part of His servants, who "delivered [Septuagint] their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God," could change the king's word; and that there "is no other god that is able to deliver after this sort."
But the king, tho convinced, was not converted. He supplements his knowledge with a foolish decree against all who speak anything amiss against God. "Christian rulers," so-called, have made similar decrees. (Continued on page 12)
From all the manifestations of God's power thru the Hebrews, from his conversations with the three young men, it seems reasonable enough to conclude that the king believed "the Fourth" to be the Son of God whom they served, instead of a mere son of the gods.9#### Studies in the Book of Daniel.
(Continued from Page 10)
"Christian churches," so-called, have clamored for them. Such ones have yet failed to learn the lesson that the service of God is heart-service, and that men can curse God in their hearts as well as by their lips. He seemed to think that such a decree would bring him favor with God. But God needs no supplementing decrees to preach His Gospel. He would not have carried to the world in teaching or law that His service is an enforced service. It must be voluntary, of choice, love-imbued.
Nevertheless, Nebuchadnezzar had taken another step in Gospel teaching. He had learned a third lesson. God could not only teach and impart knowledge and science; He could reveal secrets; He could deliver as could no other god, not even Nebo, the god of science, or great Marduk, Ea, or Shamash, the sun-god. He therefore exalts the three young Hebrews, and justly gives them rule, according to the Septuagint, "over all the Jews in his kingdom." Verse 30.
There is a lesson to us; for Daniel's prophecy, we must remember, was written for "the last days," "the time of the end."
In the last days great Babylon will rule over all the kings of the earth. All nations will be made drunken with "the wine of her fornication." See Rev. 14:8; 17:1-5, 18; 18:2, 3. Thru her influence over the nations a last-day image is to be set up to the evil system of the beast power—a symbol of the organic union of church and state. Penalties even to death will be pronounced upon those who refuse to worship. Rev. 13:11-18. On the other hand, God calls to His worship, and warns against the worship of the beast and its image. Rev. 14:6-14. As truly as men were tested in the days of Babylon of old, so surely will they be tested in these days of modern Babylon. It is the worship of the golden image representing tradition, popularity, expediency, wealth; or the worship of God in the face of death. And as truly as God delivered then so will He deliver now those who trust in Him. He is the great Deliverer, mighty to save, even to the uttermost. He delivers from the most cruel bondage of all—from the slavery of sin and self. This was the lesson to Nebuchadnezzar and every sinner: "Jesus saves." And all who are saved from sin will be saved from all sin's power to persecute, from all sin's consequences, to inherit forever His everlasting kingdom.
