THE WORK OF
HARVEST
Character of the
Harvest Work—Gathering the Wheat—Bundling and Binding
and Burning the Tares—Their Origin and Prolific Growth—Consumed Like
the Chaff of the Jewish Harvest—Time Correspondencies
Noted—The Casting off, Gradual Fall and Final Destruction
of Babylon—The Sealing of the Servants of God Before the Plagues
Come upon Babylon—Judgment or Trial, Both as Systems and
Individually—The Test of the Jewish System Typical—The Testing and
Sifting of the
Wheat—The Wise, Separated from the Foolish Virgins, Go
in to the Feast—“And the Door was Shut”—A Further
Inspection, and the
Casting Out of Some—Why? and How?—The Close of the “High Calling”—The Time is Short—“Let no Man Take Thy
Crown”—Eleventh Hour
Servants and Overcomers.
"Harvest" is a term which gives a general idea as to what work
should be expected to transpire between the dates 1874 and 1914.
It is a time of reaping rather than of sowing, a time of testing,
of reckoning, of settlement and of rewarding.
The harvest of the Jewish age being a type of the harvest of this
age, observation and comparison of the various features of that harvest
afford very clear ideas concerning the work to be accomplished
in the present harvest. In that harvest, our Lord’s special teachings
were such as to gather the wheat, who were such already, and to separate
the chaff of the Jewish nation from the wheat.
And his doctrines became also the seeds for the new dispensation,
which opened (shortly after the nation of Israel was cast off) at
Pentecost.
Our Lord’s words to his disciples as he sent them forth, during
his ministry to that church-nation, should be carefully C_page 136
remembered, as giving proof that
their special work then was reaping, and not sowing. He said to them, “Lift up your eyes and look on the fields;
for they are white already to harvest: and he that reapeth receiveth wages,
and gathereth fruit unto life eternal.” (John 4:35,36)
As the chief reaper in that harvest (as he also is in this one),
the Lord said to the under-reapers, “I sent you to reap that whereon ye
bestowed no labor: other men [the patriarchs and prophets and other holy
men of old] labored, and ye are entered into their labors”—to reap the
fruits of those centuries of effort, and to test that people by the
message, “The Kingdom of heaven is at hand,” and the King is
present—“Behold, thy King cometh unto thee.” Matt. 10:7; John
12:15; Zech. 9:9
In the Jewish harvest, the Lord, rather than to make goats into
sheep, sought the blinded and scattered sheep of Israel, calling for all
who already were his sheep,
that they might hear his voice and follow him.
These observations of the type furnish an intimation of the
character of the work due in the present harvest or reaping time. Another and a larger sowing, under the more favorable
conditions of the Millennial age and Kingdom, will soon be commenced:
indeed, the seeds of truth concerning restitution, etc., which will
produce that coming crop, are even now being
dropped here and there into longing, truth-hungry hearts.
But this is only an incidental work now; for, like its Jewish type,
the present harvest is a time for reaping the professed church (so-called
Christendom), that the true saints gathered out of it may be
exalted and associated with their Lord, not only to preach the truth, but
also to put into operation the great work of restitution for the
world.
In this harvest, wheat and tares are to be separated; yet both of
these classes, previous to the separation, compose the nominal church.
The wheat are the true children of the C_page 137
Kingdom, the truly consecrated, the heirs, while the
tares are nominally, but not really, Christ’s Church or prospective
bride. The tares are the
class mentioned by our Lord, who call him Lord, but who do not obey him.
(Luke 6:46) In outward appearance, the two classes are often so much alike
as to require close scrutiny to distinguish between them.
“The field is the world,” in the parable, and the wheat and
tares together (the tares more numerous) constitute what is sometimes
called “The Christian World,” and “Christendom.”
By attending religious services occasionally or regularly, by
calling themselves Christians, by following certain rites and ceremonies,
and by being identified more or less directly with some religious system,
the tares look like, and sometimes pass for, God’s heart-consecrated
children. In so-called “Christian lands,” all except professed
Infidels and Jews are thus counted Christians; and their numbers
(including the few fully consecrated ones—the saints) are estimated at
about one hundred and eighty millions of Greek and Roman Catholics, and
about one hundred and twenty millions of Protestants.
During the Gospel age, our Lord’s instructions have been not to
attempt a separation of the true from the imitation children of the
Kingdom; because to accomplish a complete separation would occasion the
general turning of the world (the field) upside down—a general
unsettlement of the wheat, as well as of the tares.
He therefore said, “Let both grow together until the harvest.”
But he added, “In the time of harvest I will say unto the reapers
[angels, messengers], Gather ye together first the tares and bind them in
bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” (Matt. 13:30)
Hence, in the time of harvest we must
expect a general separating work, hitherto prohibited.
While those symbolized by the wheat are ever encouraged to
stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ made them free, and to C_page 138
avoid entangling alliances with open transgressors
and with wolves in sheep’s clothing, yet they were not to attempt to
draw the line between the fully consecrated class (the wheat, the saints), and the tares
who profess
Christ’s name and doctrines, and who to some extent allow these
doctrines to influence their outward conduct,
but whose heart desires are far from the Lord and his service.
This judging of hearts, motives, etc., which is beyond our power,
and which the Lord commanded us to entirely avoid, is the very thing
which the various sects have all along endeavored to accomplish;
attempting to separate, to test the wheat, and to keep out as tares or
heretics, by rigorous creeds of human manufacture, all professors of
Christianity whose faith did not exactly fit their various false
measurements. Yet how
unsuccessful all these sects have been!
They have set up false, unscriptural standards and doctrines, which
have really developed many tares and choked and separated the wheat; for
instance, the doctrine of the everlasting torment of all not members of
the Church. Though now
becoming greatly modified, under the increasing light of our day, what a
multitude of tares this error has produced, and how it has choked and
blinded and hindered the wheat from a proper recognition of God’s
character and plan. Today we
see what a mistake the various sects have made in not following the
Lord’s counsel, to let wheat and tares, saints and professors, grow
together, without attempting a separation. Honest men in every
sect will admit that in their sects are many tares, professors not saints,
and that outside their sectarian bars are many saints.
Thus, no sect today either can or does claim to be all wheat, and free
from tares. Much less would
any earthly organization (except Christadelphians and Mormons) be bold
enough to claim that it contained all
of the wheat. Hence,
they are without any excuse for their organizations, theological fences,
etc. They do not separate C_page 139
wheat from tares, nor can anything completely and
thoroughly accomplish this separation of hearts except the method which
the Lord has ordained shall be put into execution in the time of harvest.
This shows the necessity for knowing when the time is at hand and
the harvest work of separating is due to begin.
And our Lord, true to his promise, has not left us in darkness, but
is giving the information now due, to all whose hearts are ready for it.
“Ye, brethren, are not in darkness [nor
sleep] that that day should overtake you as a thief.” 1 Thess. 5:4
The
truth now due is the sickle in this harvest, just as a similar
sickle was used in the Jewish harvest.
The reapers, the angels* or messengers, now, are the Lord’s
followers, just as a similar class were the reapers in the Jewish harvest.
And though others, throughout the age, were told not to attempt the
separation of the wheat from the tares, yet those now ready, worthy and
obedient will be shown the Lord’s plan and arrangement so clearly that
they will recognize his voice in the time of harvest,
saying, “Thrust in the sickle” of present truth, and “gather my
saints together unto me, those that have made a covenant with me by
sacrifice.” “They
shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my
jewels.” Psa. 50:5; Mal. 3:17
—————
*The
word “angel” signifies messenger.
Not only is this the time for the gathering of the saints by the
truth (into oneness with their Lord and each other, and out of fellowship
with mere professors, tares), but it is also a time for cleaning up the
field by consuming the tares, stubble, weeds, etc., preparatory to the new
sowing. In one sense the
“wheat” is gathered
out from among the tares—because of the greater abundance of tares—as
when the Lord says, “Come out of her, my people.”
Yet, in another sense, the separation is properly represented by
the tares C_page 140
being gathered from the wheat.
Really, the wheat has the place by right; it is a wheat-field, not
a tare-field (the world of mankind being counted the ground out of which
the wheat and also the tares grow or develop); so it is the tares that are
out of place and need to be removed. The Lord started the wheat-field, and the wheat represents
the children of the Kingdom. (Matt. 13:38)
And since the field or world is to be given to these, and already
belongs to them by promise, the parable shows that really it is the tares
that are gathered out and burned, leaving the field, and all in it, to the
wheat. The tares are returned
to the ground (world) whence they came, and the first-fruits of the wheat
are to be gathered into the garner, so that the earth may bring forth
another crop.
The wheat was not to be bundled: the grains were originally planted
separate and independent, to associate only as one kind, under similar
conditions. But the parable
declares that one of the effects of the harvest will be to gather and bind
the tares in bundles before the “burning” or “time of trouble.”
And this work is in progress all around us. Never was there a time
like it for Labor Unions, Capitalistic Trusts and protective associations
of every sort.
The civilized world is the “field” of the parable.
In it, during the Reformation, the winds of doctrinal strife, from
one quarter and another, threw wheat and tares together into great batches
(denominations), inclining some in one direction (doctrinally), and some
in another. This huddled
wheat and tares closely together, and took away much of the individuality
of all. The doctrinal storms
are long past, but the divisions
continue from force of habit, and only here and there has a head of wheat
attempted to lift itself to uprightness from the weight of the mass.
But with the harvest time comes the release of the wheat from the
weight and hindrance of the tares. The
sickle of C_page 141
truth prepares this class for the freedom wherewith
Christ originally made all free, though the same sickle has an opposite
influence upon the tares. The spirit of the tares is toward sectarian greatness and
show, rather than toward individual obedience and allegiance to God.
Hence, present truths, the tendency of which they at once discover
to be to condemn all sectarianism, and to test each individual, they
reject and strongly oppose. And,
though disposed to unite with each other, all the sects unite in opposing
the disintegrating tendencies of present truth, to such an extent as to
draw the cords slowly, cautiously, yet tightly upon all individual thought and
study on religious subjects, lest their organizations should fall to
pieces and, all the wheat escaping, leave nothing but tares.
Each of the
tare class seems aware that, if examined individually, he would have no
claim to the Kingdom promised to the close followers of the Lamb. The tares would prefer to have the various sects judged as so
many corporations, and in comparison one with another, hoping thus to
glide into the Kingdom glory on the merits of the wheat with whom they are
associated. But this they
cannot do: the test of worthiness for the Kingdom honors will be an
individual one—of individual fidelity to God and his truth—and not a
trial of sects, to see which of them is the true one.
And each sect seems to realize, in the greater light of today,
which is scattering the mists of bigotry and superstition, that other
sects have as good (and as little) right as itself to claim to be the one
and only true church. Forced
to admit this, they seek to bind all by the impression that it is
essential to salvation to be joined to some one of their sects—it
matters little to which one. Thus
they combine the idea of individual responsibility with sectarian
bondage.
As an illustration of a popular cord recently drawn tightly by
sectarianism upon its votaries, we cite the seemingly C_page 142
harmless, and, to many, seemingly advantageous,
International Sunday School Lessons.
These lend the impression of unsectarian cooperation in Bible
study, among all Christians. They
thus appear
to be taking a grand step away from, and in advance of, the old methods of
studying with sectarian catechisms. These
uniform lessons have the appearance of being an abandonment of
sectarianism and a coming together of all Christians to study the Bible in
its own light—a thing which all recognize to be the only proper course,
but which all sectarians refuse to do actually; for, be it noticed, these
International S. S. Lessons only appear to be unsectarian: they only appear to grant liberty in
Bible study. Really, each
denomination prepares its own comments on the scriptures contained in the
lessons. And the committee which selects these lessons, aiming for the
outward appearance of harmony and union, selects such passages of
scripture as there is little difference of opinion upon.
The passages and doctrines upon which they disagree, the very ones
which need most to be discussed, in order that the truths and errors of
each sect may be manifested, that a real union might be arrived at upon
the basis of “one Lord, one faith and one baptism”—these are ignored
in the lessons, but still firmly held as before by each sect.
The effect of these and other similar “union” methods is to
make Protestantism more imposing in appearance, and to say to the people
in fact, if not in words: You must
join one of these sects, or you are not a child of God at all. Really, it
is not a union as one church, but a combination of separate and distinct
organizations, each as anxious as ever to retain its own organization as a
sect or bundle, but each willing to combine with others to make a larger
and more imposing appearance before the world.
It is like the piling of sheaves together in a shock.
Each sheaf retains its own bondage or organization, and becomes
bound yet more C_page 143
tightly by being wedged and fastened in with other
bundles, in a large and imposing stack.
The International Lesson system, in connection with modern methods
of “running” Sunday Schools, greatly aids sectarianism, and hinders
real growth in the knowledge of the truth, in yet another way.
So general a lesson is presented in
connection with the “exercises” of the school, that there is scarcely
time to consider the guarded, printed questions, with prepared answers;
and no time is left for the truth-hungry Bible student, or the occasional
earnest teacher, to bring out other questions of greater importance,
containing food for thought and profitable discussion.
Formerly, Bible classes met to study such portions of the Bible as
they chose, and were hindered from obtaining truth by the bondage of their
own prejudice and superstition only, and the earnest, truth-hungry ones
were always able to make some progress.
But now, when increasing light is illuminating every subject and
dispelling the fogs of superstition and prejudice, it is hindered from
shining upon the Bible class student by the very International Lessons
which claim to aid him. His
time for Bible study is skillfully directed, so that he may get no new
ideas, but be so continually occupied in the use of the “milk of the
word” (greatly diluted with the traditions of men), as to take away all
appetite for the “strong meat” of more advanced truth. (Heb. 5:14) In
such classes, all time and opportunity for tasting and learning to
appreciate “meat” is sacrificed, in obedience to the words, “We must
stick to our lesson; for the hour will soon expire.”
Well has the prophet, as well as the apostle, declared that, to
appreciate the great doctrines of God, so essential to our growth
in grace and in the knowledge and love of God, we must leave the first
principles and go on unto perfection—“weaned from the milk, and drawn
from the breasts.” Heb. 6:1; Isa. 28:9 C_page 144
While Sunday School methods have recently been considerably
improved, they still leave much to be desired. They contain some of the
best of the Lord’s people—who, anxious to serve the Master, are more
or less bewildered by the show of numbers and appearance of “work
for the Lord.” Some good is
accomplished, we admit, but it has its offsets.
The earnest are hindered from personal duty and progress, in the
doing of that which God committed to the parents, the neglect of which is
an injury to the parents as well as to the children.
The immature find the brief session and “exercises” more
agreeable than Bible study. They
are let to feel that they have performed a duty; and the sacrifice
of the few moments is repaid by the social gossip and interchange which it
affords. The little ones,
too, like the “exercises,” the singing, story-books, picnics, treats
and general entertainment, best; and they and their mothers feel well
repaid for the labor of dressing, by the opportunity thus afforded for
showing their fine clothing. And
the parental responsibility of religious home-training is very largely
resigned in favor of the sham and machinery of the Sunday School.
The Sunday School has been well named the nursery of the church and
the little ones thus brought up in the nurture and admonition of the
worldly spirit are the young shoots of that abundant crop of tares with
which great Babylon is completely overrun.
Wherever, here and there, an adult Bible class does exist, and the
teacher is candid and independent enough to leave the prescribed lesson,
and follow up more important topics, giving liberty for the truth to be
brought forward, whether favorable or unfavorable to the creed of the
sect, he is marked by the worldly-wise pastor or superintendent as an
unsafe teacher. Such teachers
are indeed dangerous to sectarianism, and are very soon without classes.
Such teachers, and the truths they would admit to candid
investigation, C_page 145
would soon cut the cords and scatter the sectarian
bundles, and hence are not long wanted.
Others are therefore preferred, who can hold the thoughts of their
classes, divert them from “strong meat,” and keep them unweaned babes,
too weak to stand alone, and bound to the systems which they learn to
love, and believe they would die without.
The true teacher’s place, and the true Bible student’s place,
is outside of all human bondage, free to examine and feed upon all
portions of the good Word of God, and untrammeled to follow the Lamb
whithersoever he leads. John 8:36; Gal. 5:1
While individual liberty must outwardly be recognized as never before, we see that really
there never was a time when the bands were so thoroughly drawn, to bind
all wheat and tares into the many bundles.
There never was a time when arrangements were so close, and so
restraining of all personal liberties, as now.
Every spare hour of a zealous sectarian is filled by some of the
many meetings or projects, so that no time for untrammeled thought and
Bible study can be had. The principal design of these meetings, entertainments,
etc., is sectarian growth and strength; and the effect is the bondage
mentioned, so detrimental to the real development of the consecrated
children of God, the wheat. These bands are being made stronger, as the
prophet intimates. (Isa. 28:22) Some
wheat and many tares constitute these bundles, from which it daily becomes
more difficult to get free.
From what we have seen of the small quantity of truly consecrated
wheat, and the great mass of “baptized profession” (as a Methodist
bishop has forcibly described the tare class), it is evident that the
burning of the tares will be a momentous event.
It is a mistake, however, which many make, to suppose that the
burning of the tares in a furnace of fire, where there shall be wailing
and gnashing of teeth C_page 146
(Matt. 13:42), refers either to a literal fire, or to
trouble beyond the present life. The
entire parable belongs to the present age.
Not only is this fire a symbol, as well as the wheat and the tares,
but it symbolizes the destruction of the tares, in the great time of trouble with
which this age is to close, and from which the wheat class is promised an
escape. (Mal. 3:17; Luke 21:36) The
great furnace of fire symbolizes the “great time of trouble” coming,
in the close of this harvest, upon the unworthy tare class of
“Christendom.”
Nor does the destruction of the tares imply the destruction, either
present or future, of all the individuals composing the tare class. It signifies rather a destruction
of the false pretentions of this class.
Their claim or profession is that they are Christians, whereas they
are still children of this world. When
burned or destroyed as tares, they will be recognized in their true
character—as members of the world, and will no longer imitate
Christians, as nominal members of Christ’s Church.
Our Lord explains that he sowed the good seed of the Kingdom, the
truth, from which springs all the true wheat class, begotten by the spirit of truth.
Afterward, during the night, the dark ages, Satan sowed tares.
Doubtless the tares were sown in the same manner as the wheat.
They are the offspring of errors.
We have seen how grievously the sanctuary and the host were defiled
by the great adversary and his blinded servants, and how the precious
vessels (doctrines) were profaned and misapplied by Papacy; and this is
but another showing of the same thing.
False doctrines begat false aims and ambitions in the Lord’s
wheat-field, and led many to Satan’s service, to sow errors of doctrine
and practice which have brought forth tares abundantly.
The field looks beautiful and flourishing to many, as they count by
the hundreds of millions.
But really the proportion of wheat is very small, and it had been
far better for the C_page 147
wheat, which has been choked and greatly hindered
from development by the tares, if the worldly-spirited tares had not been
in the Church, but in their own place in the world, leaving the
consecrated “little flock,” the only representatives of Christ’s
spirit and doctrine, in the field. Then
the difference between the Church and the world would be very marked, and
her growth, though apparently
less rapid, would have been healthy.
The great seeming success manifested by numbers and wealth and
social standing, in which many glory so much, is really a great injury,
and in no sense a blessing, either to the Church or to the world.
As we examine this subject, we find that many of these tares are
little to blame for their false position as imitation wheat.
Nor do many of them know that the tares are not the
real Church; for they regard the little flock of consecrated wheat as
extremists and fanatics. And,
when compared with the tare multitude, the Lord and the apostles
and all the wheat certainly do appear to be extremists and fanatics, if
the majority, the tares, be in the right.
The tares have been so thoroughly and so often assured that they
are Christians—that all are Christians except Jews, infidels and
heathens—that they could scarcely be expected to know to the contrary. False doctrines assure them that there are but two classes,
and that all who escape everlasting torment are to be joint-heirs with
Christ. Every funeral
discourse, except in the case of the miserably degraded and the openly
wicked and immoral, assures the friends of the peace and joy and heavenly
glory of the deceased; and, to prove it, passages of scripture are quoted,
which, from the context, should be seen to apply only to the fully
consecrated, the saints.
Naturally inclined to reprove themselves, to conscientiously deny
that they are saints, and to disclaim the rich promises of the Scriptures
to such, they are persuaded C_page 148
to claim them, by their no better informed
fellow-tares, both in pulpits and pews.
They conscientiously feel—indeed they are certain—that they
have done nothing which would justly merit everlasting torture; and their
faith in the false doctrines of “Christendom” leads them to hope, and
to claim, that they and all moral people are members of the Church to
which all the rich promises belong. Thus
they are tares by force of false doctrines, and not only occupy a false
position themselves, but misrepresent the truly high standard of saintship. Under the delusion of the error, they feel a sense of
security and satisfaction; for, measuring themselves and their lives with
those of the majority in the nominal church, and with their deceased
friends to whose funeral eulogies they have listened, they find themselves
at least average—and even more consistent than many of loud profession. Yet they are conscious that they have never made any real
consecration of heart and life, time and means, talents and opportunities,
to God and his service.
But as
the “chaff” class of the Jewish nation was consumed in the close of
that harvest (Luke 3:17), so
this “tare” class will be consumed in this harvest.
As the chaff ceased from all pretention to divine favor as the
triumphing Kingdom of God, before that harvest closed in the great fire
of religious and political contention, which consumed that system, so it
shall be with the tare class of so-called “Christendom.” They will be
consumed; they will cease to be tares; they
will cease to deceive either themselves or others; they will cease to
apply to themselves the exceeding great and precious promises which belong
only to the overcoming saints; and, when their various so-called Christian
kingdoms, and their various religious organizations, rent by discords
induced by the increasing light of truth, will be consumed
in the fire already kindled, “the fire of God’s zeal” (the great
time of trouble with which this age will end— C_page 149 (Zeph. 3:8), they will cease to claim for their
worldly systems the name “Christendom.”
After telling of the burning of the tares, the parable further
declares, “Then
shall the righteous [the wheat] shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom of
their Father.” [What better
testimony than this could we have, that the true Church is not yet set up
in power, as God’s Kingdom, and that it will not be thus exalted until
this harvest is ended?] Then shall this sun of righteousness (of which
Christ Jesus will always be the central glory) arise with healing in his
beams, to bless, restore, purify and disinfect from sin and error the
whole world of mankind; the incorrigible being destroyed in the second
death.
Let the fact be remembered that, in the typical Jewish harvest,
Israelites indeed, as well as imitation Israelites, constituted the Jewish
or Fleshly House of Israel; that only the true
Israelites were selected and gathered into the gospel garner, and honored
with the truths belonging to the Gospel age; and that all others of that
nation (“chaff”) were not physically destroyed (though of course many
lives were lost in their trouble), but were cut off from all Kingdom
favors in which previously they trusted and boasted.
Then trace the parallel and counterpart of this, in the treatment
of the “tares” in the present burning time.
Not only has the Lord shown us what to expect in this
“harvest,” and our share in it, both in being separated ourselves and,
as “reapers,” in using the sickle of truth to assist others to liberty
in Christ and separation from false human systems and bondages, but in
order to render us doubly sure that we are right, and that the separating
time of the harvest has arrived, he provided us proofs of the very year
the harvest work began, its length, and when it will close. These, already
examined, show that the close of 1874 marked the beginning, as the close
of 1914 will mark the C_page 150
end, of this 40 years of harvest; while all the
minutiae of the order and work of this harvest were portrayed in that of
the Jewish age, its type. Some
of the marked time-features of that typical harvest we will now examine,
and note the lessons which they teach, which are applicable now, and which
our Lord evidently designed for this purpose, so that we might not be in
either doubt or uncertainty, but might know of his plan, and be able to
act accordingly, with strength, as cooperators with him in carrying out
his revealed will.
All the time-features connected with the Jewish harvest (though
they sometimes indirectly related to the faithful), had their direct
bearing upon the great nominal mass, and marked periods of its trial,
rejection, overthrow and destruction as a system or church-nation.
Thus the Lord, as the Bridegroom and reaper, came (A.D. 29) not to
the true
Israelites only, but to the entire mass. (John 1:11) The progress of the harvest work there disclosed the fact
that the grains of ripe wheat fit for the garner (the Gospel dispensation)
were few, and that the great mass was wheat merely in appearance—in
reality only “chaff,” devoid of the real wheat principle within.
When, three and a half years later (A.D. 33), our Lord assumed the
office of King, and permitted (what before he had refused—John 6:15)
that the people should mount him upon an ass and hail him King, it marked
a point in this antitypical, Gospel harvest more important far than that
of the type. The parallel to
this, as we have seen, points to 1874 as the time of our Lord’s second
presence as Bridegroom and Reaper, and to April 1878 as the time when he
began to exercise his office of King of kings and Lord of lords in very
deed—this time a spiritual King, present with all power, though
invisible to men.
The doings of our Lord, while there for a few hours typically C_page 151
acting as King of Israel, are deeply significant to
us, as unquestionably indicating, and shadowing forth, what must be
expected here. What men saw him do at that time,
such as riding on an ass into Jerusalem as king, and scourging the
money-changers out of the temple, we recognize as typical—as done here
on a larger scale, though the King, and the scourge of cords, and the
proclamation of kingly authority, are now manifested in a very different
way, and to the eye of faith only. But
the Jewish type serves to call attention to this fulfilment, which
otherwise we would not be able to appreciate.
The first work of the typical King was to reject the entire
church-nation of Israel as unworthy to be his Kingdom, or longer to be
treated as his special heritage. This was expressed thus: “O Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent
unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as
a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not.
Behold,
your house is left unto you desolate!” Matt. 23:37-39
This, when applied to the present harvest, teaches that as in A.D.
33 typical Israel, after being recognized as God’s people for 1845 years
by favors, chastisements, etc., was cast off, rejected by the King,
because found unworthy, after a trial and inspection of three and a half
years, so in the present harvest, after a similar three and a half years
of inspection, and at the close of a similar period of 1845 years of favor
and chastisement, nominal Christendom would be rejected by the King as
unworthy longer to receive any favors from him, or to be recognized in any
manner by him.
But, as the rejection of nominal Fleshly Israel did not imply the
rejection, individually, of any “Israelite indeed,” in whom was no
guile, but rather a still greater favor to such (who were set free from
the “blind guides,” and taught more directly and perfectly through new
spiritual channels—the apostles), so here we must expect the same.
The C_page 152
spiritual favors, formerly bestowed upon the nominal
mass, belong henceforth only to the faithful and obedient. Henceforth the
light, as it becomes due, and “the meat in due season for the household
of faith,” must be expected, not through former channels, in any degree,
but through faithful individuals outside of the fallen, rejected
systems.
During his ministry, and up to the time when, as King, he cast off
the Jewish system, our Lord recognized the scribes and Pharisees as the
legitimate instructors of the people, even though he often upbraided them
as hypocrites who deceived the people.
This is evident from the Lord’s words (Matt. 23:2)—“The
scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat; whatsoever therefore they
bid you do, that observe and do.” So,
likewise, for a time the great religious rulers of nominal Christendom in
Synods, Conferences, Councils, etc., measurably sat in Christ’s seat as
instructors of the people, as the Jewish Sanhedrin once occupied Moses’
seat. But as, after A.D. 33,
the scribes and Pharisees were no longer recognized by the Lord in any
sense, and the true Israelites were no longer instructed by these, but by
God himself, through other, humbler, untitled and more worthy instruments,
who were raised up among the people and specially taught of God, so we
must expect and do find it here, in this parallel harvest.
The taking of the kingly office by our Lord in A.D. 33, and his
first official act in rejecting the national church of fleshly Israel,
taken in connection with all the striking parallels of the two ages,
indicate very clearly that at the parallel point of time in the present
harvest, i.e., 1878, mystic Babylon, otherwise called Christendom, the
antitype of Judaism, was cut off; and there went forth the message,
“Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of
devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and
hateful bird.” Rev. 18:2 C_page 153
m
The fall, plagues, destruction, etc., foretold to come upon mystic
Babylon, were foreshadowed in the great trouble and national destruction
which came upon fleshly Israel, and which ended with the complete
overthrow of that nation in A.D. 70.
And the period of falling also corresponds; for from the time our
Lord said, “Your house is left unto you desolate,” A.D. 33, to A.D. 70
was 36 1/2 years; and so from A.D. 1878 to the end of A.D. 1914 is 36 1/2
years. And, with the end of
A.D. 1914, what God calls Babylon, and what men call Christendom, will
have passed away, as already shown from prophecy.
Judaism was a divinely appointed type of the Millennial Kingdom of
Christ which will control and regulate all matters; hence Judaism was
properly a union of church and state—of religious and civil government.
But, as we have already shown, the Gospel Church was in no sense to
be associated in, or to have anything to do with, the government of the
world, until her Lord, the King of kings, comes, assumes control, and
exalts her as his bride to share in that reign of righteousness. Neglecting the Lord’s words, and following human wisdom,
theories and plans, the great system called Christendom, embracing all
governments and creeds professing to be Christ’s (but a miserable counterfeit of the
true Kingdom of Christ), was organized before the time, without the Lord,
and of wholly unfit elements. The
fall of Babylon as an unfit church-state system, and the gathering out of
the worthy wheat, therefore, can be and is well illustrated by the fall of
Judaism.
The name Babylon originally signified God’s
gateway; but afterward, in derision, it came to mean mixture
or confusion. C_page 154
In the book of Revelation this name is applied
specifically to the church nominal, which, from being the gate-way to
glory, became a gate-way to error and confusion, a miserable mixture
composed chiefly of tares, hypocrites—a confused mass of worldly
profession in which the Lord’s jewels are buried, and their true beauty
and luster hidden. In symbolic prophecy, the term Babylon is applied at
times only to the Church of Rome, called “Babylon the Great, the Mother
of Harlots.” The name could apply only to her for centuries, so long as
she was the only mixed system and would tolerate no others; but other
ecclesiastical systems, not so great as the “mother,” nor yet so
wicked, nor so radically wrong, sprang up out of her, through various
attempted though imperfect reforms. Errors,
tares and worldliness in these also largely predominating, the name
Babylon is used as a general or family name for all the nominal Christian
systems, and now includes not only the Church of Rome, but all Protestant
sects as well; for, since Papacy is designated the mother system, we must
regard the various Protestant systems which descended from her as the
daughters—a fact very generally admitted by Protestants, and sometimes
with pride.
Previous to the harvest time, many of God’s people in Great
Babylon discovered her real predominant character to be grossly
antichristian (notably the Waldenses, the Huguenots and the reformers of
the sixteenth century); and, calling attention to the fact, they separated
from the mother system and led others with them, many of whom were tares,
as the prophet had predicted, saying, “Many shall cleave to them with
flatteries.” (Dan. 11:34) Here
were the separatings of the politico-doctrinal storms before the harvest
time. Among these the tares,
still predominating, formed other, though less objectionable, Babylonish
systems.
Thus the wheat, though from time to time endeavoring C_page 155
to free themselves from the incubus of the tares (and
especially from the grosser errors which fostered and produced the tares),
and though blessed by these efforts, were still under their influence,
still mixed with large predominance of the tare element. But for the wheat’s sake God’s favor extended even to
these mixed bunches or Babylonish systems; and not until God’s time for
effecting a complete and final separation—in the time of harvest,
1878—were those systems completely and forever cast off from all favor,
and sentenced to swift destruction, and all of God’s people explicitly
and imperatively called out of them.
In the very beginning of the age, God’s people were warned
against the deceptions of Antichrist, and taught to keep separate from it;
and yet, for their trial and testing, they were permitted to be in a
measure deceived by it and more or less mixed up with it.
Every awakening to a realization of unchristian principles,
doctrines and doings, which led to reform measures, tested and proved the
wheat class, and helped to purify them more and more from the pollutions
of Antichrist. But this last testing and positive call, coupled with the
utter rejection of those systems, no longer to receive divine favor (as
they had formerly received it, for the sake of the wheat in them), is to
effect the final separation of the wheat class from all antichristian
systems and principles. What
truths those systems formerly held are now fast being swept away from
them, being displaced by theories of men, subversive of every element of
divine truth; and vital godliness and piety are being rapidly displaced by
the love of pleasure and the spirit of the world.
With the declaration that Babylon is fallen comes also the command
to all of God’s people still in her, to come out—“And I heard
another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my
people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive
not of her plagues.” (Rev. 18:4) The expression, “Babylon is fallen:
Come out of her, my C_page 156
people,” clearly marks two thoughts which should be
distinctly remembered. It
indicates that at one time Babylon was not fallen from divine favor; that
for a time she retained a measure of favor, notwithstanding her mixed
character; that, however large the proportion of error which she held, and
however little of the spirit of Christ which she manifested, she was not
entirely cast off from God’s favor until the harvest time of separation.
It indicates that at some time a sudden and utter rejection is to
come upon Babylon, when all favor will forever cease, and when judgments
will follow—just such a rejection as we have shown was due in 1878.
It indicates, also, that at the time of Babylon’s rejection many
of God’s people would be in and associated with Babylon; for it is after
Babylon’s rejection, or fall from favor, that these are called
to—“Come out of her, my people.”
The contrast between the many gradual reform movements of the past
four hundred years and this final complete separation should be clearly
discerned: they were permitted attempts to reform
Babylon, while this recognizes her as beyond all hope of
reform—“Babylon hath been a golden cup in the Lord’s hand, that made
all the earth drunken; the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the
nations are mad [intoxicated with her errors].
Babylon is suddenly fallen and broken: wail for her; take balm for
her wound, if so be she may be healed.
We
would have healed Babylon,
but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go every one unto his own
country [to the true Church, or to the world, as the case may be,
according as each is thus proved to be of the wheat or the tares]: for her
punishment reacheth unto heaven.” Jer. 51:7-9.
Compare Rev. 17:4; 14:8; 18:2,3,5,19.
Unhealed Babylon is now sentenced to destruction: the whole
system—a system of systems—is rejected, and all of God’s people not
in sympathy with her false doctrines andm C_page 157 practices are now called to separate themselves from
her. The prophet gives the reason for this sentence of rejection, and the
failure of some to comprehend it, saying:
“The stork in the heavens knoweth her appointed times; and the
turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming
home; but my people know not the arrangement of the Lord.
[They do not recognize that a harvest time of full and complete
separation of wheat, from chaff and tares, must come.
In this they show less discernment than the migratory fowls.]
How can ye say, We are wise, and the Law of the Lord is with us
[when you cannot discern the harvest time and the change of dispensations
then due]? Truly, behold in
vain wrought the pen, in vain the writers [because the word of the Lord by
his prophets and apostles is made void, and set aside without attention,
and creeds formed in the past “dark ages” are the lightless lanterns
of them that walk in darkness]. The
wise (?) [learned] men are ashamed; they are disheartened [by the failure
of their cherished human schemes] and caught: lo, the word of the Lord
have they rejected, and what wisdom have they [now]?
[Compare Isaiah 29:10.] Therefore
will I give their wives [churches] unto others, and their fields [of
labor] to the conquerors; for, from the least even to the greatest, every
one [of them] is seeking his own personal advantage—from the prophet
[orator] even unto the priest [minister], every one practiceth falsehood.
[Compare Isa. 56:10-12; 28:14-20.]
And they heal the sore of the daughter of my people [nominal
Zion—Babylon] very lightly, saying, Peace, peace: when there is no peace
[when her whole system is diseased, and needs thorough cleansing with the
medicine of God’s Word—the truth].
They should have been ashamed of their abominable work; but they
neither felt the least shame, nor did they know how to blush: therefore
shall they
[the teachers] fall among them that fall; in the time of their visitation
[or inspection—in the “harvest”] C_page 158
they shall stumble, saith the Lord.
I will surely make an end of them, saith the Lord; there shall be
left no grapes on the vine, and no figs on the fig tree, and the leaf
shall wither; and the things that I have given them [all divine favors and
privileges] shall pass away from them.” Jer. 8:7-13
The succeeding verse shows that many of the rejected will realize
the troubles coming, yet will still be blind to their real cause. They will say, Let us unite ourselves and entrench ourselves
in the strong cities [governments], and keep
silence. They somehow
realize that neither reason nor Scripture supports their false doctrines,
and that the wisest method is to keep silent, in the shadow of old
superstitions and under the protection of so-called Christian governments.
They are here represented as saying very truly: “The Lord hath put us to
silence, and given us bitter poison-water to drink.”
The only refreshment they may have is the cup which they have mixed
(the poison of bitter error, the “doctrine of devils,” mingled with
the pure water of life, the truth of God’s Word).
Shall not such as are of and who love Babylon, and who are
therefore unready to obey the command, “Come out of her,” be forced to
drink the cup of their own mixing? Shall not such be forced to admit the falsity of their
doctrines? They surely shall;
and they will all be thoroughly nauseated by it.
The next verse tells of the disappointment of their expectations,
which were that their bitter (poison-water) doctrines would have converted
the world and brought about the Millennium.
They say, “We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time
of health, and behold trouble!”—The disease of nominal Zion will grow
rapidly worse from the time of her visitation and rejection, when the
“Israelites indeed,” obeying the divine call, begin to come out of the
nominal systems.
Some wonder why the Lord does not institute a still greater reform
than any of the past, which have proved so futile and short-lived. They ask, Why does he not pour C_page 159
out a blessing upon all the great sects and
amalgamate them all into one, or else upon some one and purify it of
dross, and draw all others into it? But,
we ask, Why not also amalgamate all the kingdoms of earth into one, and
purify it?
It should be sufficient for all of God’s children to know that
such is not what he reveals as his plan.
And a little further reflection, from the standpoint of God’s
Word, shows us the unreasonableness of such a suggestion.
Consider the number of the professed church (four hundred millions)
and ask yourself, How many of these would themselves claim to be fully
consecrated, mind and body, to the Lord and the service of his
plan? Your own
observation must lead you to the conclusion that to separate the
“wheat” from the “tares,” by removing the “tares,” would in
almost every instance leave but a small handful even in the largest church
buildings or cathedrals.
The reason for not attempting to purify the nominal systems is that
no amount of cleansing would make the unconsecrated mass of
“Christendom” and their organizations, civil and ecclesiastical,
suitable to the Lord’s work, now to be commenced in the earth.
During the past eighteen centuries he has been selecting the truly
consecrated, the worthy ones, and now all that remains to be done is to
select from among the living those of the same class—and they are but
few—as only a few are lacking to complete the foreordained number of
members in the body of Christ.
The reason for discarding all human organizations, and not
reforming the least objectionable one and calling out of all others into
it, now, is shown by our Lord’s treatment of the various Jewish sects in
the harvest or close of their dispensation; for then, as now, all were
rejected, and the “Israelites indeed” were called out of all, into
freedom, and taught the will and plan of God by various chosen vessels of
God’s own selection. C_page 160
Illustrating this subject to the Jews, the Lord in two parables
explained the wisdom of his course: first, that a patch of new cloth upon
a very old garment would only make the weakness of the garment more
noticeable, and from the inequality of strength the rent would be made
greater; second, that new wine put into old wine-skins, out of which all
the stretch and elasticity had gone, would be sure to damage, rather than
benefit, for the result would be not only to speedily burst and destroy
the old wine-skins, but also to lose the valuable new wine.
Our Lord’s new doctrines were the new wine, while the Jewish
sects were the old wine-skins. Suppose
that our Lord had joined one of those sects and had begun a reform in it:
what would have been the result? There
can be no doubt that the new truths, if received, would have broken up
that sect completely. The
power of its organization, built largely upon sectarian pride, and
cemented by errors, superstitions and human traditions, would forthwith
have been destroyed, and the new doctrines would have been left
stranded—hampered, too, by all the old errors and traditions of that
sect, and held responsible for its past record by the world in
general.
For the same reasons, the Lord here, in the present harvest, in
introducing the fuller light of truth, at the dawn of the Millennial age,
does not put it as a patch upon any of the old systems, nor as new wine
into old skins. First,
because none of them are in a fit condition to be patched, or to receive
the new doctrines. Second,
because the new truths, if received, would soon begin to work, and would
develop a power which would burst any sect, no matter how thoroughly
organized and bound. If
tried, one after another, the result would be the same, and, in the end,
the new wine (doctrines) would have none to contain and preserve it.C_page 161
The proper and best course was the one followed by our Lord at the
first advent. He made an
entirely new garment out of the new stuff, and put the new wine into new
wine-skins; i.e., he called out the Israelites indeed (non-sectarian), and
committed to them the truths then due.
And so now: he is calling out the truth-hungry from nominal
spiritual Israel; and it becomes them to accept the truth in the Lord’s
own way, and to cooperate with him heartily in his plan, no matter which,
or how many, of the old wine-skins are passed by and rejected as unfit to
contain it. Rejoice, rather,
that you are counted worthy to have this new wine of present truth
testified to you, and, as fast as proved, receive it and act upon it
gladly.
Those who at the first advent waited to learn the opinion and
follow the lead of prominent sectarians, and who inquired, “Have any of
the scribes or Pharisees believed on him?” did not receive the truth,
because they were followers of men rather than of God; for prominent
sectarians then did not accept of Christ’s teaching, and the same class
always have been, and still are, the blindest leaders of the blind.
Instead of accepting the truth and being blessed, they “fall”
in the time of trial. The old
garment and the old wine-skins are so out of condition as to be totally
unfit for further use.
Since it is the Lord who calls his people out of Babylon, we cannot
doubt that, whatever may be his agencies for giving the call, all truly
his people will hear it; and not only will their obedience be tested by
the call, but also their love of Babylon and affinity for her errors will
be tested. If they approve
her doctrines, methods, etc., so as to be loathe to leave her, they will
prove themselves unworthy of present truth, and deserving of her coming
plagues. But the words of the call indicate that God’s true people
in Babylon are C_page 162 not to be considered as implicated in her sins of
worldliness and ignoring of divine truth, up
to the time they shall learn that Babylon is fallen—cast off.
Then, if they continue in her, they are esteemed as being of her, in the sense of
approving her wrong deeds and doctrines, past and present, and shall be
counted as partakers
of her sins, and therefore meriting a share of their punishment, the
plagues coming upon her. See
Rev. 18:4.
How strong the expression, “She is become the habitation of
demons, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and
hateful bird.” How true it
is, that the most execrable of society seek and wear the garb of Christian
profession and ceremonialism, in some of the various quarters (sects) of
Babylon. Every impure principle and doctrine, somehow and somewhere,
finds representation in her. And
she is a “cage” which holds securely not only the Lord’s meek and
gentle doves, but also many unclean and hateful birds.
Of all the defaulters, and deceivers of men and of women, how many
are professedly members of Christ’s Church! and how many even use their
profession as a cloak under which to forward evil schemes!
It is well known that a majority of even the most brutal criminals
executed die in the Roman Catholic communion.
Babylon has contained both the best and the worst, both the cream
and the dregs, of the population of the civilized world.
The cream is the small class of truly consecrated ones, sadly mixed
up with the great mass of mere professors and the filthy, criminal dregs;
but under favorable conditions the cream class will be separated in the
present harvest, preparatory to being glorified.
As an illustration of the proportion of the unclean and hateful
birds, in and out of Babylon, note the following official report of the
condition of society in a quarter of the wheatfield where “Orthodoxy”
has for centuries boasted of C_page 163
the fine quality and purity of its wheat and the
fewness of its tares, and where “The
Church,” so-called, has been associated with the government in making
the laws and in ruling the people:
The Status of Society in England and Wales
Parliamentary Report Made in 1873
Population by Religious Professions
| Roman Catholics |
1,500,000 |
| Church of England |
6,933,935 |
Dissenters
[Protestants other than Episcopalians] |
7,234,158 |
| Infidels |
7,000,000 |
| Jews |
57,000 |
Total Number of Criminals in Jails
| Roman Catholics |
37,300 |
| Church of England |
96,600 |
| Dissenters |
10,800 |
| Infidels |
350 |
| Jews |
0 |
| |
145,050 |
Criminals to Every 100,000 Population
| Roman Catholics |
2,500 |
| Church of England |
1,400 |
| Dissenters |
150 |
| Infidels |
5 |
| Jews |
0 |
Proportion of Criminals
| Roman Catholics |
1
in 40 |
| Church of England |
1
in 72 |
| Dissenters |
1 in 666 |
| Infidels |
1 in 20,000 |
C_page 164
The cause of this mixed condition is stated: “Babylon made all
the peoples drunk with the wine [spirit, influence] of her
fornication”—worldly affiliation. (Rev. 18:3)
False teachings concerning the character and mission of the Church,
and the claim that the time for her exaltation and reign had come (and
particularly after the great boom of success which her worldly ambition
received in the time of Constantine, when she claimed to be the Kingdom of
God set
up to reign in power and great glory), led many into Babylon, who
would never have united with her had she continued in the narrow way of
sacrifice. Pride and ambition
led to the grasping of worldly power by the early Church.
To obtain the power, numbers and worldly influence were necessary.
And to obtain the numbers, which, under present conditions, the
truth never would have drawn, false doctrines were broached, and finally
obtained the ascendancy over all others; and even truths which were still
retained were disfigured and distorted.
The numbers came, even to hundreds of millions, and the true
Church, the wheat, still but a “little flock,” was hidden among the
millions of tares. Here, as
sheep in the midst of devouring wolves, the true embryo Kingdom of God
suffered violence, and the violent took it by force; and, like their Lord,
in whose footprints they followed, they were despised and rejected of men,
men of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
But now, as the Millennial morning dawns, and the doctrinal errors
of the dark night past are discovered, and the real gems of truth are
lighted up, the effect must be, as designed, to separate completely the
wheat from the tares. And, as false doctrines produced the improper
development, so the unfolding of truth in the light of harvest will
produce the separation. All
of the tares and some of the wheat are fearful, however.
To them it seems that the dissolution of Babylon would be the
overthrow of God’s work, C_page 165
and the failure of his cause.
But not so: the tares never were wheat, and God never proposed to
recognize them as such. He merely permitted, “let,” them both grow
together until the harvest. It
is from Babylon’s “cage” of unclean birds that God’s people are
called out, that they may both enjoy the liberty and share the harvest
light and work, and prove themselves out of harmony with her errors of
doctrine and practice, and thus escape them and their reward—the plagues
coming upon all remaining in her.
These plagues or troubles, foreshadowed in the troubles upon the
rejected Jewish house, are pictured in such lurid symbols in the book of
Revelation that many students have very exaggerated and wild ideas on this
subject, and are therefore unprepared for the realities now closely
impending. They often interpret the symbols literally, and hence are
unprepared to see them fulfilled as they will be—by religious, social
and political disturbances, controversies, upheavals, reactions,
revolutions, etc.
But note another item here. Between
the time when Babylon is cast off, falls from favor (1878), and the time
when the plagues or troubles come upon her, is a brief interval, during
which the faithful of the Lord’s people are all to be informed on this
subject, and gathered out of Babylon. This is clearly shown in the same
verse; for with the message, “Babylon is fallen,” is coupled the call,
“Come out of her, my
people, that ye...receive not of her [coming] plagues.”
This same interval of time, and the same work to be accomplished in
it, are also referred to in symbol, in Rev. 7:3. To the messenger of wrath
the command is given, “Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the
trees, until we have
SEALED the servants of our God in their foreheads.”
The forehead sealing indicates that a mental comprehension of the
truth will be the mark or seal which will separate and distinguish the
servants of God from the servants and votaries C_page 166
of Babylon. And
this agrees with Daniel’s testimony: “The wise [of thy people] shall
understand; but none of the wicked [unfaithful to their covenant] shall
understand.” (Dan. 12:10) Thus
the classes are to be marked and separated before the plagues come upon
rejected, cast off Babylon.
And that this knowledge is to be both a sealing and a separating agent is
clearly implied in the verse before considered; for the declaration is
first made, that “Babylon is fallen,” and that certain plagues or
punishments are coming upon her, before the Lord’s people are expected
to obey the command, “Come out,” based upon that knowledge.
Indeed, we know that all must be well “sealed in their
foreheads”—intelligently informed—concerning God’s plan, before
they can rightly appreciate or obey this command.
And is it not apparent that this very work of sealing the servants
of God is now progressing? Are
we not being sealed in our foreheads? and that, too, at the very proper
time? Are we not being led, step by step, as by the Lord’s own hand—by
his Word—to an appreciation of truth and affairs in general from his
standpoint—reversing our former opinions derived from other sources, on
many subjects? Is it not true
that the various divisions or sects of Babylon have not been the channels
through which this sealing has come to us, but rather that they have been
hindrances which prevented its speedier accomplishment?
And do we not see the propriety of it, as well as of the Lord’s
declaration, that a separation of wheat and tares must occur in the
harvest? And do we not see it to be his plan, to reveal the facts to his
faithful, and then to expect them to show their hearty sympathy with that
plan by prompt obedience? What
if to obey and come out obliges us to leave behind the praise of men, or a
comfortable salary, or a parsonage home, or financial aids in business, or
domestic peace, or what not?— C_page 167
yet let us not fear. He who says to us “Come!” is the same who said
“Come!” to Peter when he walked on the sea.
Peter, in obeying, would have sunk, had not the Lord’s
outstretched arm upheld him; and the same arm supports them well who now,
at his command, come out of Babylon. Look not at the boisterous sea of
difficulties between, but, looking directly to the Lord, be of good
courage.
The command is Come, not Go; because in coming out of bondage to
human traditions, and creeds, and systems, and errors, we are coming directly to our Lord,
to be taught and fed by him, to be strengthened and perfected to do all
his pleasure, and to stand, and not to fall
with Babylon.
God’s Word reveals the fact that the nominal church, after its
fall from his favor and from being his mouthpiece (Rev. 3:16), will
gradually settle into a condition of unbelief, in which the Bible will
eventually be entirely ignored in fact, though retained in name, and in
which philosophic speculations of various shades will be the real creeds.
From this fall the faithful sealed ones will escape; for they will
be “accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and
to stand”—not fall, in the time of the Lord’s presence. (Luke 21:36)
In fact, many are already thus settling—retaining the forms of
worship, and faith in a Creator and in a future life, but viewing these
chiefly through their own or other men’s philosophies and theories, and
ignoring the Bible as an infallible teacher of the divine purposes. These,
while retaining the Bible, disbelieve its narratives, especially that of
Eden and the fall. Retaining
the name of Jesus, and calling him the Christ and the Savior, they regard
him merely as an excellent though not infallible exemplar, and reject
entirely his ransom-sacrifice—his cross. Claiming the Fatherhood of God
to extend to sinners, they repudiate both the curse and the
Mediator.
It has not been generally observed that at the first advent C_page 168
our Lord’s ministry of three and a half years, up
to the casting off of the Jewish nation (their church and nation being
one), was a trial or testing of that polity or system as
a whole, rather than of its individual
members. Its clerical
class—Priests, Scribes and Pharisees—represented that system as a
whole. They themselves
claimed thus to represent Judaism (John 7:48,49), and the people so
regarded them; hence the force of the inquiry, Have any of the rulers or
Pharisees believed on him? And
our Lord so recognized them: he rarely rebuked the people for failure to receive him, but repeatedly held
responsible the “blind leaders,” who would neither enter into the
Kingdom themselves, nor permit the people, who otherwise would have
received Jesus as Messiah and King, to do so.
Our Lord’s constant effort was to avoid publicity—to prevent
his miracles and teachings from inciting the
people, lest they should take him by force, and make him king
(John 6:15); and yet he constantly brought these testimonies or evidences
of his authority and Messiahship to the notice of the Jewish clergy, up to
the time when, their trial as a church-nation being ended, their house or
system was cast off, “left desolate.”
Then, by his direction and under the apostles’ teachings, all
efforts were directed to the people individually; and the cast off
church-organization and its officers, as such, were wholly ignored.
In evidence that during his ministry, and until their system was
rejected, the teachers and priests represented it, note the Lord’s
course with the cleansed leper, as recorded in Matt. 8:4.
Jesus said to him, “See thou tell no man; but go thy way, show thyself to
the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for
a testimony unto THEM.” The
evidence or testimony was to be hidden from the people for a time, but to
be promptly given to their “rulers,” who represented the Jewish church in the
trial then in progress.
C_page 169
We should notice particularly the object and results of the trial
of the Jewish church as a system, because of their typical bearing upon
the present trial of the Gospel Church, as well as their relationship
toward the entire plan of God. They
professed, in harmony with God’s promises, to be the people ready
for the coming Messiah, the people whom he would organize, empower, direct
and use as his “own
people,” in blessing all the other nations of the earth, by
bringing all to a full knowledge of God and to opportunities of harmony
with his righteous laws. God,
though by his foreknowledge aware that Fleshly Israel would be unfit for
the chief place in this great work, nevertheless gave them every
opportunity and advantage the same as though he were ignorant of the
results. Meanwhile he disclosed his foreknowledge in prophetic
statements which they could not comprehend, lest we
should suppose that he had experimented, and failed, in his dealings with
the Jewish people.
So long as Israel as a church-nation claimed to be ready, waiting
and anxious to carry out their part of the program, it was but just that
they should be tested,
before God’s further plan should go into effect. That further plan was, that when the natural seed of Abraham
should, by their testing, be proved unfit for the chief honor promised and
sought, then an election or selection should be made, during the Gospel
age, of individuals worthy of the high honor of being the promised seed of
Abraham, and joint-heirs with Messiah in the promised Kingdom, which would
lift up and bless all the families of the earth. Gal. 3:16,27-29,14
The “seventy-weeks” (490 years) of divine favor promised to the
Jewish people could not fail of fulfilment; and hence in no sense could
Gentiles, or even Samaritans, be invited to become disciples, or in any
sense to be associated with the Kingdom which Christ and the apostles
preached. (Acts 3:26) “It
was necessary that the word of God [the invitation C_page 170
to share the Kingdom] should first have been preached to
you,” said Paul, addressing Jews. (Acts 13:46) “Go not into
the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not;
but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel”; and again: “I
am not sent, except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” said the
Master, sending forth his disciples. Matt. 10:5; 15:24
The entire “seventieth week,” in the midst of which Christ
died—the seven years from the beginning of our Lord’s ministry to the
sending of Peter to preach to Cornelius, the first Gentile convert—was
set apart by God’s arrangement for the Jewish trial.
But instead of testing them as a whole (as a church-nation) all of
those seven years, that testing was “cut short in
righteousness”—that is, not to their disadvantage, but to their
advantage. Because it was
evident, not only to God but to men also, that the Pharisees, priests and
scribes not only rejected, but toward the last hated, the Lord Jesus and
sought to kill him; therefore, when the time had come for him to offer
himself publicly as King,
riding to them on the ass, when not received by the representatives of the
church-nation, the King promptly disowned that system, though the common
people received him gladly and insisted on his recognition as king. (Mark
12:37) Thus our Lord cut short the further useless trial, in order that
the remainder of that “seventieth week” might be spent specially and
exclusively upon the people,
the individuals
of that cast-off system—before the efforts of the ministers of the new
dispensation should be distributed broadcast to all nations.
And it was so; for our Lord, after his resurrection, when telling
his disciples that their efforts need no longer be confined to Jews only,
but might be extended to “all nations,” was particular to add—“beginning at Jerusalem.”
(Luke 24:47) And he knew well
that their Jewish ideas would hinder them from going beyond the Jews until C_page 171
he should in due time open the way—as he did at the
end of their favor, by sending Peter to Cornelius. Since that time, individual Jews and Gentiles have shared the
privileges of God’s favor equally, both being alike acceptable, in and
through Christ; for in the present call “there is no difference” so
far as God is concerned—the difference unfavorable to the Jew being his
own prejudice against accepting, as a gift through Christ, the blessings once offered him upon
condition of his actual compliance with the full letter and spirit of
God’s law, which none in the fallen state could fulfil.
That “seventieth week,” with all the particulars of the testing
of Fleshly Israel, not only accomplished the purpose of testing that
system, but it also and specially furnished a typical representation of a
similar testing of the nominal Gospel Church or Spiritual Israel, called
“Christendom” and “Babylon,” during seven corresponding years,
which began the harvest of the Gospel age—the period from October 1874
to October 1881. “Christendom,”
“Babylon,” professes to see the failure of its prototype, Fleshly
Israel, and claims to be the true spiritual
seed of Abraham, and to be ready, waiting and anxious to convert the
heathen world, and to righteously rule and teach and bless all nations,
just as the Jewish system professed.
The present is like the typical age, also, in the fact that the
leaders then had generally come to regard the promises of a coming Messiah
as figurative expressions; and only the commoner class of the people
expected a personal Messiah. The
learned among the Jews, then, ignored an individual Messiah, and expected
that their church-nation would triumph over others by reason of its
superior laws, and thus fulfil all that the common people supposed would
require a personal Messiah to accomplish. (And this is the view that is
still held by “learned” Jewish teachers, or Rabbis, who interpret the
Messianic C_page 172
prophecies as applicable to their church-nation, and
not to an individual Savior of the world.
Even the prophecies which refer to the sufferings of Christ they
apply to their sufferings as a people.)
Carrying out their theory, they were sending missionaries
throughout the world, to convert the world to the Law of Moses, expecting
thus to reach and “bless all the families of the earth,” aside from a
personal Messiah. To such an
extent was this the case, that our Lord remarked it, saying, “Ye compass
sea and land to make one proselyte.”
How similar to this is the theory of nominal “Christendom”
today. The common people,
when their attention is drawn to the fact that the Lord promised to come
again, and that the apostles and prophets predicted that the Millennium,
or Times of Restitution, would result from the second coming of the Lord
(Acts 3:19-21), are inclined to accept the truth and to rejoice in it,
just as a similar class did at the first advent.
But today, as eighteen hundred years ago, the chief priests and
rulers of the people have a more advanced (?) idea.
They claim that the promises of Millennial blessedness, of peace on
earth and good will among men, can and must be brought about by their
efforts, missions, etc., without the personal coming of the Lord Jesus;
and thus they make void the promises of the second advent and the coming
Kingdom.
The present chief priests and rulers, the “clergy” of
“Christendom,” deceiving themselves as well as the people, claim, and
seemingly believe, that their missionary efforts are just about to
succeed, and that, without the Lord, they are now upon the eve of
introducing to the world all the Millennial blessings portrayed in the
Scriptures.
The foundation of this delusion lies partly in the fact that the
increase of knowledge and of running to and fro in the earth, incident to
this “Day of His Preparation,” have been C_page 173
specially favorable to the spread of the commerce of
civilized nations, and the consequent increase of worldly prosperity. The
credit of all this Babylon coolly appropriates to herself, pointing out
all these advantages as the results
