The need of a healing message for the divisions of Protestantism was discussed in our last. Some of the doctrines over which Protestantism was divided and is still divided, were named. It needed but the statement; for all recognize the facts. We did not name the scores, nay hundreds, of sects and denominations into which Protestants are divided. We have not space so to do, and all know more or less of the facts. There are more than a hundred named in America in books of statistics. Did not God rightly denominate the general condition “Babylon,”—“Confusion”? Is it not confusing to the man in the wilderness who would do God’s will, and would find the true church? If he be naturally of doubtful heart and inquiring mind, how confusing to him it must indeed be. How contradictory to the Saviour’s prayer: “That they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me.” John 17:21.
His people are not yet one. They are divided in Babylon. Their testimony is for confusion, for Babylon, not for Christ and life-oneness.
“We would have healed Babylon” is the Lord’s message. His Gospel in the Reformation would have wrought this healing if His word had been taken as the one standard of truth. The Reformation churches not only thought the word insufficient, and therefore formed human creeds; but they thought the power of the Spirit of God insufficient, and sought the aid of earthly powers. As James Bryce sets it down in his “Holy Roman Empire:”
“The principles which led the Protestants to sever themselves from the Roman Church should have taught them to BEAR WITH THE OPINION OF OTHERS, and warned them from the attempt to CONNECT AGREEMENT IN DOCTRINE OR MANNER OF WORSHIP with the necessary forms of CIVIL GOVERNMENT. Still less ought they to have ENFORCED THAT AGREEMENT with CIVIL PENALTIES; for faith, upon their own showing, had no value save when it was freely given.
“But whether it was that men only half saw what they had done, or that, finding it hard enough to unrivet priestly fetters, they WELCOMED ALL THE AID A TEMPORAL PRINCE COULD GIVE, the result was that religion, or, rather, RELIGIOUS CREEDS, BEGAN TO BE INVOLVED WITH POLITICS MORE CLOSELY THAN HAD EVER BEEN THE CASE BEFORE. Through the greater part of Christendom, wars of religion raged for a century or more, and down to our own days feelings of theological antipathy continue to affect the relations of the powers of Europe. In almost every country the form of doctrine which triumphed associated itself with the state, and MAINTAINED THE DESPOTIC SYSTEM OF THE MIDDLE AGES, while it forsook the grounds on which that system had been based. The will of the sovereign, as in England, or the will of the majority, as in Holland, Scandinavia, and Scotland, imposed upon each country a peculiar form of worship, and KEPT UP THE PRACTISES OF MEDIEVAL INTOLERANCE without their justification.
“Therefore the INTOLERANCE OF PROTESTANTS, if the forms it took were less cruel than those practised by the Roman Catholics, was also FAR LESS DEFENSIBLE; for it had seldom anything better to allege on its behalf than motives of political expediency, or more often the mere headstrong passion of a ruler or a faction, to silence the expression of any opinions but their own.” —“Holy Roman Empire,” Chap. 18.
The result to the European churches generally was a lapse into dead formalism with all its inconsistent state relationship and its intolerance.
A mighty uplift came through the freedom engendered in the new-opening, great Republic of the West. Previous to this, the preaching of the Wesleys, Whitefield, the Friends, the Baptists, and others set the religious world to thinking and made possible the era of American freedom, which definitely began July 4, 1776, a forward movement, the influence of which became worldwide. It was in God’s providence an opportunity for working out the principles of freedom in both church and state apart from king or pope. Gloriously it has succeeded so far as it has gone. But it brought over the Old World creeds, and added new.
To bring healing the great Gospel message with the proclamation of the impending judgment, was given to the world, beginning with 1844. That message, if it had been received whole-heartedly by the Protestant churches, would have healed all their divisions. Errors in teaching and organization would have sloughed off, and left the church on the peerless platform of eternal truth, radiant in the righteousness of God.
If a tribe of people are sick with a deadly disease, and a skilled physician comes bringing the only sure remedy, yet the people refuse to receive it or apply it, they will in that very thing pass the crisis to the wrong side, and unquestionably the disease will prove fatal. When the healing message came to Protestant Babylon and Protestant Babylon as a whole rejected that message, a moral fall was inevitable. It was but repeating the history of Israel before and after the Babylonian captivity, the history of the early church, and of the Reformation churches.
It is because of this rejection that the second part of that great threefold message follows:
“Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, that hath made all the nations to drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.”Rev. 14: 8.
It is the divine, sorrowful statement of what follows the rejection of the healing remedy. Babylon prefers to remain with the errors, to retain the unlawful connection with the world, deemed fornication. With this sin Babylon has corrupted the world.
What must inevitably follow such decision?—This: Just as the primitive church, when backslidden, turned to the world and committed fornication with the civil powers, just as the Reformation churches of Europe refused to follow the word, formed creeds, and made alliances, so the last phase of Babylon, rejecting God’s healing power and choosing her own way, is bound to seek the aid of the state to uphold her dogmas, and thus form anew the intolerant church-and-state regime denominated in Holy Writ the “beast” power.
Furthermore, there will be human attempts at union on the thing or things upon which there is agreement, and that will constitute the mark of this federated church-and-state power. Therefore follows the third part of the great message, warning all of the awful results of yielding to that organization which has been built up contrary to and ultimately in defiance of God’s plan.
“And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, 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 ascendeth up forever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.”Rev. 14: 9-11.
What do we see in fulfilment of this prophecy?—We see all Protestantism so-called federating, not merely to forward evangelistic work, but to influence the government to demand certain legislation, chief of which is the establishment of Sunday as the religious sabbath, contrary to the Bible Sabbath, contrary to every principle of religious freedom. The great healing message would have corrected this. That message demands the fear and worship of God the Creator, the memorial of whom is the holy Sabbath of the seventh day. The holiest worship we can render God is service. Matt. 4:10. The truest service is the doing of what He says. Luke 6:46. Fearing God, giving Him glory, worshiping Him, would inevitably lead to the keeping of all His commandments, including the Sabbath of the Bible. God warns against the counterfeit, and the world-wide federation which would enforce it as the true. To fail to heed the warning is to incur the awful consequences.
[What it means to follow the healing message will be studied in our next.]
What Then?
By R.
SOLON, the great Athenian lawgiver, once said that a republic walks upon two feet; one foot being just punishment for the unworthy, the other due reward for the worthy; if it fail in either of these, it necessarily goes lame. But we would like to ask what happens if it fail in both of these. It does fail in both of these under a union of church and state, for penalty for conscience’ sake is not due reward for him who refuses submission for conscience’ sake, and it is not just punishment for the unworthy persecutor and bigot who has thus perverted justice and sought to control conscience by force.
R.
Alleging That Jesus Is Not Christ
By R.
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE has a unique notion with reference to the relation between the names Christ and Jesus. For example, in the chapter, “Science of Being,” of the authoritative book, “Science and Health,” the following statements are made: “The word Christ is not properly a synonym for Jesus, tho it is commonly so used. Jesus was a human name, . . . Christ is not a name so much as the divine title of Jesus.” “Not that the human Jesus was eternal, but, that the divine idea of Christ was so; . . . not that the corporeal Jesus was one with the Father, but that the spiritual idea, Christ, dwelt forever in the bosom of the Father, God.” Granted that the two terms, as words, are different in meaning, the two apply nevertheless to the same eternal, divine being; the two names are His for eternity. More might be quoted along this same line, but this is enough to show the teaching. Such as this, was never derived from the Bible; there is not one syllable in all the word to give any sort of credence to any such doctrine. In fact there is enough said in the Bible to show that this idea set forth by Christian Science is utterly erroneous.
First, we have the notable words of the angels at the time of the ascension. They do not give us the slightest doubt about who this Jesus may be. “Ye men of Galilee,” they said, “why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven.” Acts 1:11.
This scripture states that it was Jesus who ascended to heaven. It also states that it is this same Jesus who will come again, descending from heaven “in like manner” as He was seen “go into heaven.” Then the One who disappeared, and the One who, at the end of the Christian age, will reappear, is Jesus; and logic teaches that all through the period that intervenes He must still be “this same Jesus.” How utterly this contradicts the doctrine of Christian Science as quoted above.
Again we have the word of Stephen on the famous occasion when he was about to be stoned. “He, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God.” Acts 7:55. As Stephen beheld this marvelous sight, “being full of the Holy Ghost,” he described to his hearers what he saw; but they were maddened by it and killed him. As he died he said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” If Christian Science is correct in saying what it has about Jesus, then Stephen was mortally wrong in calling on Jesus to receive his spirit, and the writer of the book of Acts was incorrect in saying that Stephen saw “Jesus standing on the right hand of God.”
The editor of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES received a letter the other day from a prominent teacher of Christian Science, in which he averred that Christian Scientists accept the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. If the above examples show anything at all, they show that, if this sort of teaching is accepting the Bible, then the rankest sceptics accept the Scriptures also whenever they teach exactly opposite to the sacred word.
Also we have against all this false teaching the word of Peter. “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.” Acts 2:36. Peter is not at all hesitating about this statement which he makes; he is not at all uncertain about the matter; he says, “Let all the house of Israel know assuredly.” And now we ask, Do you know it? Or is it possible for somebody to rise in these last days and make a simple statement that puts all that Peter said into the fog? Is it possible that a woman can arise and get people to accept her statement against that of the apostle Peter, the sainted Stephen, and even the angels of God?
The text-book of Christian Science further says, “The corporeal Jesus manifest in flesh, continued until the Master’s ascension, when the human, material concept, or Jesus, disappeared.” From the scriptures already quoted we see that this statement from “Science and Health” is incorrect; it is absolutely untrue; and furthermore there are other scriptures which show that the teacher of Christian Science knows very little in this connection about the New Testament.
Directly opposed to this doctrine we have the very words of the Lord Himself. When Saul was on his way from Jerusalem to Damascus on a persecuting trip, a mighty light shone round him from heaven, “and he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.” Acts 9:4, 5. Is it sacrilege for me to ask, Did Jesus know His own name? Then by just as much as it may be thought out of place to ask such a question, it is out of place for anybody to say in any sense of the word whatever that Jesus is not the Christ; by the Lord’s own words, after His ascension, He is still Jesus, no matter what anybody may say about it.
And yet Christian Science says, “Not that the human Jesus was eternal;” “not that the corporeal Jesus was one with the Father;” “the corporeal man Jesus was human;” “Jesus was the offspring of Mary’s self-conscious communion with God;” “the fleshly Jesus.” Against all this sacrilegious teaching about our divine Lord, we place the one statement of our Master. The divine Being who appeared to Saul with a light above the brightness of the midday sun said, “I am Jesus.” That is enough for us. We believe it ought to be enough for anybody. And where does it place Christian Science? We will leave you to answer the great question yourself just now, but in a few paragraphs from this you will have a Biblical answer to the question.
It is nothing strange that when Paul afterward tells of this experience he should say, “He said unto me, I am Jesus.” Nor is it strange that he on one occasion, as at Thessalonica, should reason three Sabbath days “with them out of the Scriptures, opening and alleging . . . that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ.” Acts 17:3.
And now a word as to where all this puts Christian Science. We will not depend upon any man’s word. We will take God’s word alone. Christian Scientists claim to accept the Bible; then, will they accept the following? If they will and do, they will at once renounce Christian Science, and follow God’s word. We have no authority for impugning the name of Jesus as not being the name of the divine Son of God. Listen! “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.” 1 John 5:1. Do you believe that?
But what of him who does not believe and teach that Jesus is the Christ? And mind you, it is not that Jesus was the Christ, but is the Christ. “Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ?” 1 John 2:22.
And the very last words that Jesus Christ has left on record for His church, include these significant words: “I Jesus have sent Mine angel to testify these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David and the bright and morning star.” Rev. 22:16. And now once more contrast this description of the evidently divine Jesus with the quotations from Christian Science given above, and may God help you to heed well the lesson. The success of Christian Science shows easily enough that there are those to-day who will accept and teach on the naked word of an erring human being alone that which is flatly contradicted in the Christian revelation, the New Testament, and who will still assert that their unscriptural, unchristian teaching is all Christian and all in accordance with the Scriptures! R.
Let Us Come Boldly
WHERE? to the priest? to the bishop? to the pastor? — Nay, but to the Throne of Grace. And what for? to be told to go to the priest or the “church” for absolution? — Nay, but “that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” Heb. 4:16. Let us come boldly to the Throne of Grace where sits the Lord Jesus Christ on the right hand of the Father, a merciful and faithful High Priest on our behalf. The business of pastor or priest is to introduce, lead, point, the sinner to Christ; not to tell Christ that the sinner deserves mercy because he has been thus brought, or for any other reason, the Lord knows all that; but to tell the sinner that all mercy and life and blessing and healing are found in Jesus Christ.
Signs of the Times
By Editor
Home Bible Study Series
25-Special Numbers-25
Beginning Oct. 6, 1909
Covering Every Phase of the Gospel Message
The Sermon on the Mount
On the Way to Emmaus
As in Egypt of old, there is “a great cry” going up from the world. It is a cry of fear, of despair, of soul-misery, of dying men, of suffering women, of starving children, of agonized, almost hopeless, workers for souls.
These are times of peace, yet nations are staggering to their death under war expenditures and debts.
These are times of much religious pretension and profession, yet vice and crime are rampant.
These are times when millions are pleasure-mad over multiplying tragedies. Many a hilarious laugh hides a sad and hopeless heart.
Rogues, to whom justice is never meted, fatten in luxury while God’s poor starve in squalor. Calamity follows calamity in the lands of earth. In religion the ancient landmarks are removed or questioned. Earnest yet doubting souls question, Does God live and reign? Is the Bible the word of God? Does the Bible belong alone to a dead past, or is it a living word to-day?
Is there no response from God to the great cry of the needy, unsatisfied world, longing for rest, for life, yet seeking it ever in channels that are as dry as the hills of Gilboa?
Yes, God lives and reigns. His mighty hand is still upon the levers of the world. He will, as through all the ages, make the wrath of man to praise Him; the remainder He still restrains.
His word is a living word, filled with power to the believer. He has a message of hope for the world’s lost souls in this time. He has clear light for those in the darkness of doubt. He has great soul-strengthening help for all the world’s helplessness. He has a great, “everlasting Gospel” and “eternal good tidings” for the world now, for its perplexities, its problems, its passion-blind madness; for its sickness, its sorrow, its sin-enthralled souls; for its darkness, its despair, its death.
That message does not minimize the ill; it exalts the remedy. It does not spare in probe or statement the diagnosis of the world’s wound, but it brings the healing balm. The great Surgeon and Physician never loses a case entrusted to Him. He does not condone the sin, but His nail-pierced hand removes the burden, breaks the chain, and sends the soul away clean and free.
This message the SIGNS OF THE TIMES will give in clear epitome and forceful detail as described below. We invite our readers to study with us once more.
God’s Message for All Time, and for This Our Time
For more than a third of a century, the SIGNS OF THE TIMES, set for this very purpose, has been giving these truths to the world. From time to time it has made a specialty of combining, correlating, connecting these truths into one great, symmetrical, doctrinal whole.
This is what the editors propose to do again in a series of
Bible Studies for the Home Circle
Read them; circulate them. Let your neighbors, your friends, hear for once or once more God’s great, clear message of truth and salvation. Thus doing, you will be a co-worker with Christ in saving others.
Brief Outline of Subjects to Be Considered
The following subjects will be treated, beginning with the issue of Oct. 6, 1909, and continuing for six months.
I. THE HOLY SCRIPTURES OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS
1. The Scriptures — Their Importance Now.
2. Prophetic, Doctrinal, Practical — Their Inspiration.
3. Centered in Christ, the Incarnate Word.
II. PROPHECIES IN DANIEL.
1. Daniel 2 and 3 — What Prophecy Says Concerning the Kingdoms of Man and of God.
2. Daniel 7 — Antagonistic Powers to the Kingdom of God.
3. Daniel 8 — The Great Controversy Between Good and Evil.
4. The Kingdom Which Abides Forever.
III. PRESENT-DAY CONDITIONS MINUTELY FORETOLD; THE BIBLE AN UP-TO-DATE BOOK.
1. Conditions in the Ecclesiastical or Religious World, a Subject of Prophecy.
2. Some Things Foretold in the Political World.
3. Conditions in the Social World Divinely Predicted.
4. What Is Told in the Bible Regarding Physical Calamities.
IV. THE “BLESSED HOPE” OF THE AGES.
1. What Is Involved in Christ’s Coming.
2. The Counterfeits of the Deceiver and His Efforts to Hide Its Importance.
3. The Manner of Christ’s Coming.
V. MAN, THE MASTERPIECE OF GOD.
1. Man as Created — A Candidate for Immortality, His Home and Opportunity.
2. Man’s Fall, and What It Involved.
3. A Saviour from Sin.
VI. MAN IN DEATH.
1. The Consequence of Sin in Man.
2. Man’s Condition in Death. Is He Conscious?
3. The Resurrection of Man, When Does It Take Place?
VII. SIN: ITS FRUIT; ITS FUTURE.
1. Is Man Mortal or Immortal?
2. What Are “the Wages of Sin”?
3. The Ultimate of Sin and Death.
VIII. THE EARTH MAN’S HOME.
1. For What Was the Earth Prepared?
2. The Earth Under the Curse.
3. What the Earth’s Future Will Be.
IX. MODERN SPIRITISM.
1. Is Modern Spiritism New?
2. Are Its Claims True? Can the Dead Talk with Us?
