September-October 2008

  1. Great day of atonement
  2. RESURRECTION BY DIVINE POWER
  3. SELF-ESTEEM—EXAGGERATED
  4. Letters to the Editor
  5. QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
  6. mOTHER EVE BEGUILED
  7. Publications
  8. Announcements

GREAT DAY OF ATONEMENT
 

“...Without shedding of blood is no remission” (Heb. 9: 22).

    MANY intelligent people are coming to a realization of the fact of their own imperfection, their sin. With the Psalmist they admit, “I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psa. 51: 5). Whether the how and the why, the philosophy of the matter be discerned or not, the fact is recognized. However much we may theorize that the same Creator who made the angels pure, happy, holy, sinless, also made us. We, nevertheless, are aware of the fact that we are not pure, holy, sinless, undefiled. Righteousness should not, however, be considered as being the phenomenon, but the original creation in perfection and fall of man portrays the correct viewpoint. Sin is the occurrence, the peculiarity, the disorder—the disarrangement of the proper order which would have prevailed if disobedience had not manifested its ugly head.

    Nowhere in the world do we find any explanation of present human conditions that is satisfactory to heart and intellect, except in the pages of the Bible. Revealed therein, it is stated that God’s work is perfect (Deut. 32: 4, 5)—that He created man in His own character image and likeness, as earth’s king and ruler; however, man rebelled against the Divine regulations and sin resulted. Therefore, the present disorder, human degradation—mental, moral, physical and religious—and dying and death, are the result of that rebellion in Eden (Rom. 5: 12; 1 Cor. 15: 21).
It is true that human philosophy has sought, aside from the Bible, to solve the question of man’s condition of sin and imperfection. Its claim is that the Bible record is untrue; that man never was perfect; that man never fell from perfection into sin and death; that man, consequently, needs no savior from sin and death and no restitution to original Edenic perfection. Its claim is that, if there is a personal God, He is not exercising any special powers, but merely allowing so-called laws of nature to operate.

    Furthermore, this unreasonable human philosophy claims, that in ages past in the surging of the salt waters of the ocean, protoplasmic life was spontaneously generated, and that the microscopic germ that thus developed, evolved into a thousand different forms. Among these were worms, snakes, fish, reptiles, whales, birds and beasts, and that finally one division of these families attained to an ape and gradually developed into a human person. This viewpoint ignores and denies sin and its downward tendencies that we all know afflict the human family and must be opposed. It denies the need of a savior, a mediator, and holds that each generation of humanity, in dying, helps onward the succeeding generation to grander development and that eventually human perfection will be attained by an evolutionary process, by man’s own exertion, regardless of whether there is a creator or not.

    Man’s present position and his future outlook stands in direct opposition to such an illogical conclusion, for he is, and we as a race, are century by century, increasing in physical, mental, moral and religious degradation by leaps and bounds. The gap between the sought-after human excellence and present imperfection is ever widening. Anyone with but meager comprehension surely can see that since the world wars, revolution, anarchy, terrorism, and 9/11, the human race without God has been on a downward course leading to the grave and not improving their position in society by their claims of intellectual improvement.

    We believe that one reason that the evolution theory has found friends and advocates is because the Bible teaching, the plan of God, has been grossly misunderstood by mainline Christian denominations. The Bible is misrepresented as teaching that practically all of the human family were born under a Divine sentence of eternal torture. As a result, only the comparatively few that are reached in the present life by the Gospel, can by faith in the Savior and by a thorough, ongoing conversion to sainthood, escape eternal torture and gain eternal bliss. Many thinking people, not comprehending that the Bible has been misrepresented by its own friends, by the creeds of the Dark Ages, have looked about for a substitute for the Bible. Evolution, although quite unsatisfactory to them, furnished the only substitute they could find, even though it contradicted God’s Word; particularly the teaching of the Scriptures that God created our first parents perfect, “in His own image” (Gen. 1: 26, 27) and that man by sin fell from that standing.

SIN’S PENALTY

    As electric lights help us to see much more clearly than it was possible to see with the aid of kerosene lamps and candles, so concordances and other Bible study helps enable us to understand the Bible, God’s revelation, much clearer than it was possible to understand it in past centuries. One Sacred text is found to throw light upon another; and gradually the errors and superstition which prevailed so generally in the Dark Ages, flee away and the Lamp of Divine Truth, the Bible, gives forth a brilliant ray which makes things clear to our heads and hearts and glorifies our Creator.

    In the light of this newly-trimmed Lamp of Divine Truth, the Sacred Word, we now can see that the real penalty of sin is not a coming eternal torture at the hands of fireproof devils, but instead is death—cessation of life. Now, we understand how disobedience on the part of Father Adam brought upon him a death sentence, a dying condition. This sentence, transmitted by heredity from parent to child, has increased the depravity, century by century until today, even among the most civilized, many are in mental hospitals, and many of those in these institutions are mentally dead to the extent that they are unable to care for themselves. Millions more of our race are in prisons and penitentiaries because of moral blemishes, for the reason that, in many cases, of being born in sin and shapen in iniquity, and thereby inheriting bad tendencies from their parents (Psa. 51: 5). Consequently, with some people, these blemishes have been developed and accentuated by close association with those contaminated with moral and religious blemishes. There are the world-over, hospitals, infirmaries and cemeteries, which are additional evidences of man’s depravity. The reason is exactly what the Word of God teaches, that, “The wages of sin is death.” “The soul that sins, he will die” (Rom. 6: 23; Ezek. 18: 4, 20). The great disease of sin, started by our first parents in Eden, has spread as a plague among all their children, blemishing some in one particular and others in another, but corrupting them all and bringing death eventually to all.

 

 

SIN ATONEMENT

    Our minds agree to the foregoing, and we agree too that it is proper that the Almighty God should be a just God, that justice should be the foundation of His throne (Psa. 89: 14), His government. We may well inquire as to what is possible in the way of sin atonement, by which original sin is offset for Adam and his entire race. He fell through disobedience and we ask how might humanity be brought back into Divine favor again and be made holy and happy again, as the good angels are, and thus be recipients of Divine blessings, including eternal life?
The Old Testament is replete with assurances that God’s mercy will ultimately come to the human race in general through our Redeemer, the Messiah, and in addition through the instrumental ity of the nation of Fleshly Israel, upon which He will, in the coming Age, confer a special privilege and honor in bearing the Truth to other nations. The New Testament contains the record which shows that when the Messiah came at His First Coming, the world and His own nation knew Him not. The record tells us that, in crucifying Him, the people of Fleshly Israel really fulfilled the Divine intention as foretold through the prophets, that thereby they slew “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1: 29, 36).
The Scriptures tell us that before the prophesied blessings to and from Israel, the Plan of God called for another work to take precedence in the Gospel Age, which was the gathering of Spiritual Israel, from among both Jews and Gentiles (Acts 15: 14). Otherwise called the True Church, the Little Flock (Luke 12: 32), is that which the Apostle styles “the mystery of God” (Col. 2: 2).

RESTITUTION

    While the result of the great sin atonement provided by our Redeemer means for Spiritual Israel a change of nature from human to spirit nature, it does not mean such a change for Fleshly Israel and mankind in general, for they are to have restitution or restoration to what was lost by Adam. The Edenic life and home first provided for Father Adam was human perfection in the garden of Eden, but it was all lost by his disobedience. The proposition of the Scriptures is that the great Redeemer will restore Paradise and make it worldwide; the home not only for Adam, but also for many millions of his now multitudinous progeny. The Scriptures abound with promises concerning Fleshly Israel and their regathering to their homeland, and their restoration to God’s favor and show that they will be made God’s instrumentality for helping to spread the blessings of Messiah’s Kingdom to other nations. The Scriptures tell us how the paradisiacal condition will be brought about. They explain that the wilderness shall blossom as the rose and that the solitary place shall be glad (Isa. 35: 1).

 

 

    St. Peter points us down to the time of the Second Coming of Christ for the fulfillment of all these great Restitution promises. He tells us that then “times of refreshing” will come to earth, and assures us that then will be accomplished the Restitution of all things, which God spoke by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began (Acts 3: 19-21).

BETTER SACRIFICES

    Now we inquire, Why the long delay in bringing to pass “the times of restitution”? Why did the great Redeemer not begin at once to accomplish this restoring work for the human race, after it was secured by His death at Calvary? How could He bear the delay, since He loved the world so much that He died for all, and since He knows that the whole creation is groaning and travailing in pain together, waiting for the great deliverance made possible by His sacrifice (Rom. 8: 19-22)?

    Ah! The Scriptures answer the question. They indicate that in the Divine program the gathering of the elect church and the other elect classes must precede the bringing of Restitution blessings to the human race. They tell us that God imposed special crucial tests (James 1: 12) upon those called and chosen members of His Bride (Rev. 17: 14). Their invitation was to joint- heirship with Christ in a heavenly, spiritual nature, the Divine nature, and to sharing with Him in the earthly, Millennial Kingdom and glory and in the work, which these will accomplish for the world. The Scriptures tell us that those accounted worthy of that high exaltation to glory, honor and immortality must first have proven their loyalty to the Lord to the extent of sacrifice, and faithfulness therein unto death (Rev. 2: 10). This does not mean merely a putting away of sin, for that would not be sacrifice. It means the laying down of earthly rights and privileges, after the manner and example of the Redeemer, who knew no sin. The exhortation to them is to sacrifice. The Apostle says, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Rom. 12: 1).

    The Scriptures inform us that God has attached the glories of the future to the sufferings of God’s consecrated people during the Gospel Age. It is written respecting the Body of Christ, “If we be dead with Him, we shall also live with Him: if we suffer, we shall also reign with Him” (2 Tim. 2: 10-12). Accordingly, we see that this entire Christian Age has been set aside as a period of sacrificing. Jesus began the sacrificing as the Ransom price, and in accepting believers as His Body members, it was only on the condition that they be sanctified, separated from the world, and to present and use day- by-day their bodies as living sacrifices. Therefore, the Body members throughout the Age have suffered with their Lord and Head, and have been, as the Apostle Paul declares, “filling up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ” (Col. 1: 24). The ransom merit is all in the great ransom sacrifice of Jesus, but He passed that merit through the Body members to the intent that they have received a share in the glories and honors of the spiritual phase of the Kingdom. This will in turn introduce His Millennial Kingdom, which will eventually be established on earth, after all of the elect will have finished their earthly course.

    The Apostle, after pointing out the typical sin- offerings under the Jewish arrangement, shows us that the sacrifices of Jesus and the Church, which is His Body, are the antitypes of those sin-offerings made year by year under the Jewish economy. He styles the antitypical sacrifices as the “better sacrifices than these” (Heb. 9: 23).

THE TYPICAL DAY OF
ATONEMENT

    We are at the time of the year when our Hebrew friends are accustomed to celebrate their great Day of Atonement. They do so, however, in a rather meaningless manner. Those of them who are acquainted with the facts, know that the whole procedure is only a ceremony. In their confusion, which God has permitted to come upon them during the Gospel Age, they have no priest (Hos. 3: 4). Since the rejection of their Messiah, their priestly records are all lost, so that no Jew in the world can make claim to the position of high priest or rightfully seek to perform the functions of the high priest in connection with the Day of Atonement sacrifices.

    Our Hebrew friends deserve our sympathy. The tenth day of the seventh month, which corresponds approximately with Oct. 1, was their appointed Day of Atonement. The sacrifices of that day, when properly performed, made reconciliation for their iniquities for the coming year, at the end of which they would again become unclean and need another Atonement Day. As the Apostle says, the arrangement God made by them for the forgiveness of sins was “year by year continually” (Heb. 10: 1). Moreover, the yearly repetition indicated that the sins were not actually canceled, but merely covered for the year.

 

 

    Now when the anniversary of their Day of Atonement comes, they bemoan their sins and fast and pray; but they have no High Priest to offer the bullock of a sin-offering and then to take its blood into the Holy and into the Most Holy, and there to sprinkle it for the cleansing of his household and tribe (Lev. 16). It was The bullock’s sacrifice which represented Jesus sacrifice primarily for the Church. Additionally, they have no High Priest later on to come and take the blood of the goat as a sin-offering and do with it as he did with the bullock’s blood—i.e., sprinkle it on the Mercy Seat in the Most Holy, for all the people of Israel. Nor have they any High Priest to come out of the Most Holy and the Holy to bless the people at large, as the High Priest did in olden times, telling them that their sins are forgiven through the merit of the sacrificial blood. The goat’s blood antitypically applies to the future redemption of the entire human race in the times of Restitution during the Millennial Age. For the Jews today after waiting the entire day, and knowing that they have no High Priest, no advocate, no intercessor, no sin-bearer, they endeavor to be cheerful and happy at the close of the Atonement Day, and to suppose that their sins are forgiven. On the other hand, in other cases, they endeavor to forget all about the matter, not understanding what their Atonement Day really means.

THE GREAT ANTITYPICAL
ATONEMENT DAY

    Would that all our Hebrew friends, as well as Christians, could understand the true antitype of that great Day of Atonement, which the Jews celebrated annually in a typical manner! The antitype of the sacrificing part of that Atonement Day has been the sacrifice of Jesus and the Church in the Christian Age, and the antitype of the blessing part, will occur in the future Messianic Age for the world. At the beginning of this great antitypical Atonement Day our Lord Jesus offered up Himself. When He ascended up on high forty days after His resurrection, He deposited the merit of that great Ransom sacrifice with the Father, who then imputed the merit for the Church. Beginning at Pentecost the Church, as typed by the Lord’s goat (Lev. 16: 9, 15), as the second sacrifice of the antitypical Day of Atonement was then offered. The Gospel Age was set aside as the acceptable time (2 Cor. 6: 2), in which the great High Priest (Jesus) received consecrated believers as members of His Body. He invited them to share with Him in His sacrificial cup. They who were “baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death” (Rom. 6: 3), and were exhorted as the antitypical goat to “go forth to Him outside the camp, bearing his reproach” (Heb. 13: 13).

    This sacrificing of the antitypical Body members progressed during the Gospel Age. The antitypical blood of the Lord’s Goat, the Body of Christ, was made ready for sprinkling on the antitypical Mercy Seat in the Most Holy. In antitype it is the all-sufficient merit of Jesus’ sacrifice that has during the Christian Age, offset the sins of the Church. Eventually Jesus’ merit, represented by the goat’s blood, will be applied on behalf of the entire human race. Then it will be accepted “for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2: 2) and will be acknowledged by the Father! In God’s due time the great antitypical High

    Priest, Head and Body members, will come forth, clothed in the great glory, honor, dignity and power represented in the garments of glory and beauty of the typical High Priest (Lev. 16: 23, 24), and will bless mankind! Then will come the time for the lifting up the hands of the great antitypical High Priest, the display of His power in the blessing of all the families of the earth! Eventually, the blessing will descend upon all of the people—upon natural Israel first and shouts of rejoicing will arise from the whole human race as conditions of sorrow, pain and death shall pass away, giving place to praise, as men shall seek to glorify God and to lift up their endeavors in His service (Isa. 35: 10)!

    We understand that the resurrection of the Church was to be in Divine spirit bodies, quietly, unobtrusive, unseen by human beings, who cannot see spirit beings (John 1: 18; 1 John 4: 12). But with the world in general, how will their awakening in the earthly Kingdom be? They will be raised human beings and will be visible to all; will not their resurrection cause a great disorder, and, indeed, concern? Will not the appearing of millions of human beings, needing food, clothing and shelter, produce a general famine and shortage for all, and interrupt all the affairs of the world? We answer: “No!” Although our Father’s Word has not given us clear and direct information on these points, we who have come to some knowledge of His wisdom and power, and of His orderly methods of working out His great designs, can safely trust all to Him.

    The Time of Trouble started with the onset of World War I (Dan. 12: 1; Matt. 24: 21); this marked the close of all opportunity to be a member of the elect Church; for the full number of the Bride had been reaped and there was no room for any more. (Rev. 7: 3). The door was then shut (Matt. 25: 10). Since then, society has moved more and more toward a chaotic condition—with the beginning of the twentieth century; spiritual darkness has come for light, with selfishness, having worked general discontent. This has led to the rejection of the Sacred Word and the overall discontent throughout the world. The light of Divine truth having shaken the foundations of sectarianism, which for so long misrepresented the Word of God, the natural result followed and the degenerate conduct of many of Christendom’s leaders has been manifested. When sectarianism began to fall, it subverted faith in the Bible. This condition was then followed in an attempt for the union of the confederacy of Protestants and an attempt at affiliation with Catholics, to rule the Christian world along lines of morality and formalism. This had its day; but finally the masses, freed from the chains of superstition, revolted against class and clerical domination, and overthrew them. Then followed various efforts to establish world peace, prosperity and general welfare, according to various theories—Nationalism, Socialism, Nihilism, Communism and, finally, Anarchism. Each proved impracticable—all failed to improve world conditions. Together they proved worse than the most degraded of earth’s despotic governments, because they were based on selfishness, while supposedly built on justice and love; leaders selfishly and in pride exalted themselves, while violently speaking against others, who had done the same under previous social arrangements.

    The world is becoming disgusted with its own futile efforts to institute and maintain peace and prosperity in government. The time is approaching for God’s Kingdom to begin to reconstruct society upon the principles of righteousness and love. The spiritual Kingdom of Christ and the Church is working unostentatiously for the destruction of Satan’s evil empire. The Ancient Worthies will eventually come forth perfect men, because they passed their trial in ages past, and that satisfactorily in God’s sight (Heb. 11: 39). “These all” are but few—Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses, will by their appearance among the regathering Jews in Palestine not be a complete surprise, since many are looking for some favor of God for Israel. Their appearance, no less than their superior talents and wisdom, will contrast strongly with those of imperfect men around them, and bring them at once the respect and obedience of the Jews in Israel. Those who have faith in the Scriptures and believe in the resurrection will be able to discern these leaders as representatives of the Divine government. Soon they will be recognized world-wide as the rulers of Palestine.

    Before long, the news will no doubt be that Palestine is prospering under these new governors; as attention is drawn to their laws and methods, which bring the very results so long and so fruitlessly sought through the centuries. Finally, the world in general will, by petition, seek for the same government and laws, saying in the language of the prophet: “Come, let us go up to the mountain [Kingdom] of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths” (Micah 4: 2). In this way the Worthies, as the earthly representatives of the heavenly Kingdom of God, will come into control of the earthly phase of the Kingdom; and then will begin the work of Restitution—the formation of the “new earth” the new social order under the “new heavens” [the heavenly spiritual Kingdom, the glorified Church]; “and new earth, [the earthly Kingdom for the human race in the Millennial Age] wherein dwells righteousness” (Isa. 66: 22; 2 Pet. 3: 13).

    Now let us step one hundred or more years farther into the Millennial Age, and take a view. By then the blessings of peace and wise government will have been instituted by the Worthies. The Ancients of old and the Youthfuls of more recent times, perfect rulers, in whose hearts selfishness has no place, they will produce wonders in transforming the world’s society (Joel 2: 28); the people will rejoice in being a part of the new world order then in operation; the idle rich are gone, the unemployed poor are gone, all trouble-makers and breeders of discontent are under restraint; most will have a changed purpose, they will be walking the “highway” toward human perfection (Isa. 35: 8, 9).

    Love, Wisdom, Justice and Power will be in control over the earthly phase of the Kingdom of God. Education and learning will be general under the new order. Wisdom will then be present, assisting in the developing of character as the ruling principle in everyone’s heart and mind. With climatic changes improved, the wisdom of these perfect rulers will cause the earth to yield great increase in quantity as well as in quality of food. Machinery then will be marvelously improved and the results will benefit everyone. Technology beyond man’s highest dreams will come forth as an every day occurrence. The race will then be undergoing Restitution, being prepared for the work relative to the future population of the other planets of our solar system; brought about by the creative efforts of Jesus and the Church in “ages to come.” Health will improve proportionately, as people obey the laws of the Kingdom; and none will die except the wilfully perverse, who resist all the beneficial arrangements provided for their welfare then and in the everlasting future. Those who then die have no hope of future trial— for all then living will be living under the second trial secured for all by our Lord’s ransom-sacrifice, and failure for them will mean Second Death—”everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power” (2 Thes. 1: 9; Heb. 10: 26).

    The knowledge of the Lord in the Kingdom will be everywhere: the knowledge of the Lord will fill the whole earth, and none need say to his neighbor, “Know the Lord; for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD” (Jer. 31: 34). Seeing that the blessings of Restitution will then be enjoyed and are the result of the ransom-sacrifice of our Lord, and that it was “a ransom for all—to be testified in due time.” The Scriptures teach that all the world must be awakened from death and brought to the knowledge of the Truth and to an opportunity to reach full restitution—up to the perfection lost—many will talk about this, and when and how it will come about. It will be the conversation of the day. Looking forward to when the great awakening will be operative it will probably be common to understand that it is a miracle from God (John 11: 40-44).

    It may readily be surmised that it will be those who have done the most good in this life, those who have exercised and developed patience and benevolence to some extent, that will first be reached in the awakening. Not until nature and invention shall have made the necessities and comforts of life quite abundant, nor until the hearts of the world have become greatly enlarged with generosity and sympathy, will the viler characters of the world be remembered and brought back. Those remembered as brutal and devilish, such as Nero, Diocletian, Herod, Torquemada, Hitler and thousands less notorious, may be expected among the last. They will “come forth to shame and lasting contempt” as the prophet expresses it (Dan. 12: 2). By that time human society will be much nearer perfection than now, and, with the greater powers of perfection, will be able to read the minds, the very thoughts, of these miserable, depraved, fellow-creatures. The evil tendency of their lives of selfish gratification will then be seen. They who had shunned the pure, the generous, the good, will come to loathe themselves.

    But, although in contempt with all, all will recognize that a share in the great redemptive sacrifice of Christ belongs to even these; because Jesus Christ, by the grace of God, tasted death for every man. Yet even while despising their miserable characters, all will be ready and anxious to help them to gain knowledge of God and Christ, and to direct their faith and hope. Those who have previously entered on the “highway” will rejoice at their every evidence of progress toward God and righteousness and restitution and eternal life. Hence, whichever of these shall, by full consecration, yield himself entirely to the Lord, shall proportionately gain the support of the faithful; but those who then, after seeing righteousness and sin fully contrasted, choose the ways of evil, the wrath of God and the contempt of all who love righteousness will abide, and they “shall be punished with an everlasting destruction”—the Second Death (2 Thes. 1: 9; Rev. 2: 11).

    Hence, there will be the “coming forth” of “all that are in their graves.” And it is written that “They that hear [give attention to, or obey the voice of the Son of Man, at that time] shall live” (John 5: 25). Their awakening will not be living, in the full sense of the word “live”—as in perfection. Their condition, when they “come forth,” will resemble the present condition of humanity—a dying condition, until they make reformation toward righteousness. As they make progress, their situation will properly be called a living state; because the merit of our Lord’s great sacrifice will then be fully operative toward all, and because the general tendencies surrounding them will then be directed for attaining life instead of, as now, leading to death. Then all, who under those favorable circumstances, do not oppose, but hear and obey the Lord, will find themselves coming more and more into man’s original estate, “very good,” the earthly image of their spiritual Creator, and finally be accounted worthy of everlasting life.

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