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 [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 [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 [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 [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 [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 [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 [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 [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 [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, [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 [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 [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 [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— [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 [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 [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 [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
[page
153]
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.
[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 [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 [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 and [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”] [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 [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. [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. [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 [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 [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 |
[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, [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 [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?— [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 [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. [page
169]