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People of The Living God |
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April 2019
WATCHMEN ON THE WALLS
THE GATE AND THE WAY
Harry R. Miller
“Wide is the gate, and broad is the way” (Matt. 7:13) for the “many” who disesteem the “way that leadeth unto life.” Sadly, the general run of humanity is but a listless mob who have surrendered their lives to the flow of the current of moral worthlessness. It takes no effort to drift down stream with the conglomerate riffraff and derelicts of the human race. Stupidity and mediocrity are absorbed, saturated, soaked up states of all whose stubborn hearts and deaf ears have turned away from the voice that calls from heaven: “COME OUT…MY PEOPLE” (Rev. 18:4).
The words “come out” are an order, a divine command. However, it requires effort to obey any command. For before any action of obedience there must be the response of the human will. It is here in the sphere of the will that all battles of life are rejected or fought. God in His mercy pleads, coaxes and even prods at times in order to persuade men to forsake the way of disaster.
May every man be aware of this fact: Human nature and the earth sphere are not accidents of creation. The Almighty Creator has chosen both “nature” and “sphere” as means to a desired end. The Master has set in order a creative process that is producing BEINGS fit for the heavenly family. The world is like a womb that is formulating entities whose natures are divine.
“The creature was made subject unto vanity, not willingly” (Rom. 8:20). The word creature designates that peculiar something that is incarcerated within the temple of clay. The “creature” had no choice in this matter; the sovereign act of the Creator was to arbitrarily place the entity known as “creature” within this body of limitations. Why did He do it? We have the answer in the last line of this verse from Romans: “By reason of Him who hath subjected the same in hope.” There is much to be learned by this Scripture.
God’s “reason,” His sovereign act of subjecting man to this “vile body” (Phil. 3:21), this “corruptible” body (I Cor. 15:53), this being whose eyes now see through “a glass darkly” (I Cor. 13:12), can only be understood as one contemplates the glory of the finished product: “In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely” (Isa. 4:2)
There are not enough superlatives in the English language to describe the glory of that which the Almighty God has said would be: “Beautiful,” “glorious,” “excellent,” “comely.” This is heaven’s evaluation of the finished product. Surely it is difficult for man to imagine himself ever being classed with so elite a company of beings; yet, faith tells us that this is the Father’s will.
“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matt. 5:48) was not said to mock us. Christ has ordered us to become perfect. Perfection is the goal, the desired end. It is attainable – and in this life.
Let every saint fully realize that all the forces of heaven and hell are at work for the Master and us; and the object of all of their labors is the perfection of the saints. The very purpose of earth life with all of its privations is to bring many sons unto glory.
The one outstanding characteristic of the saint is his complete, absolute obedience to the Lord. Now, obedience is a quality of nature that is learned by practice. The man of Galilee, “Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered; And being made perfect He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him” (Heb. 5:8,9).
Obedience to the Father’s will is the sign of perfection; but take note that even the man who came down from heaven had to learn it. Notice here that the teacher of this most important quality of Christian character is “SUFFERING.” Oh, how human nature shrinks from this stern disciplinarian.
Suffering is not only an indispensable factor in Christian development; it is the major element in the work of redemption. “In the world ye shall have tribulation” (John 17:33). For the prospective saint there is no escaping the adversity of earth life. “We must through much tribulation” (I Thess. 3:4). “Your brother, and companion in tribulation” (Rev. 1:9). “These are they which came out of great tribulation” (Rev. 7:14). Take cognizance of the last part of this verse of Holy Writ: “and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” It is the saints who submit to suffering, who wash their robes white: saints use God’s means to cleanse themselves.
Suffering has a cleansing action upon the soul – If the sufferer permits the bitterness of the action to accomplish its purpose. “No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby” (Heb. 12:11). Many people blame the Lord when in adversity; some become very bitter. Such people are very foolish, and we might learn much from the reasoning of Jonah. When he lay “in the belly of hell,” he concluded that, “they who observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy” (Jonah 2:8).
“WE KNOW that all things work together for good to them that love God” (Rom. 8:28). Can we not agree with brother Paul in this knowledge? Has He not given angels charge over us, who even stand ready to bear us up in their hands? And about the angels, “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” (Heb. 1:14) Has not the Saviour sent us a Comforter of whom He said, “that He may abide with you forever” (John 14:16)?
The seventy-third Psalm portrays the difference between “the prosperity of the wicked” and the saint who has been “chastened every morning.” This disparity grieved and vexed the Psalmist, and he said, “When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me; Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end.” Of the prosperous wicked they said, “Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou casteth them down into destruction.”
The places of ease are slippery. The prosperous become soft and careless; the opportunity to indulge the pleasurable sensations of the flesh powerfully influences the better judgment of even the strong. Privation for many is a blessed state in disguise. “Silver and gold have I none” was the personal testimony of every member of the apostolic church in its infancy. However, this disciplinarian known as personal poverty was not kept very long by the early church. The stringent life of a communal church was more than most men cared to bear and eventually the spirit was made to surrender to the flesh.
The “gate” and “way” of the apostolic church was so narrow and strait that it made little appeal to the masses. In this church it was said, “Fear came upon every soul” (Acts 2:43). The powers of heaven were so near that swift death eliminated triflers. After the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira “Great fear came upon all the church” (Acts 5:11). It was then that it was said, “they were all (all of the church of Christ) with one accord in Solomon’s porch. And of the rest durst no man join himself to them” (Acts 5:12,13). Think of it: the church was closed to the trifler, the experimenter, the shallow believer. In other words, the apostolic church was a SAINT’S CHURCH.
Can you imagine a church “of one heart and one soul”? This was not a small handful of downtrodden disciples, for it is written that “the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul” (Acts 4:32). There was “no lack,” there was “great power,” and “great grace was upon them all.” What a church! This was The Christian Church as it was set in order by the Holy Spirit.
The ease and simplicity of becoming a professing Christian has proved to be a snare to multitudes of people of this latter day. In apostolic times there was but one kind of Christian church: it was gifted with supernatural ministries, it was directed by the Holy Spirit. In our present day there are many kinds of so-called Christian churches, most of which have no evidence of the supernatural, and they are usually governed by an appointed board of directors.
In the early church they looked for certain spiritual evidences that would confirm the testimony of professing Christians. The apostle Paul, upon arriving at Ephesus “and finding certain disciples, He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost” (Acts 19:1,2). To Brother Paul, the evidence of true discipleship was the possession of the Holy Ghost.
The apostles never asked a church member for his letter of membership; neither did they ever issue any of these ridiculous identifications. However, today, church members are known by the name of the group with whom they have affiliated themselves. The ecclesiastical group stamp, or mark, is a beastly identification. Could this religious stamp be the mark of the beast?
Super sectism is the mark of most all professing Christians of this generation; yet it is sectism that is one of the grossest of sins. In the enumeration of the “works of the flesh,” “Heresies” (sectism) is in the very midst of the vilest of sins (Gal. 5:19-21). This same word is translated “sect” in other places in the New Testament. Sectism is divisionism. It is this sort of sin that has split the church into thousands of fragments, each fragment of which has offered people of the world a place in the church of Christ.
There is no denying the fact that entrance into the sphere of the heavenly kingdom (kingdom of God and kingdom of heaven are one and the same) is open to all humanity: “whosoever will, let him come.” All that is actually required of anyone to be saved is set forth in these words of Joel: “Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered” (Joel 2:32). And listen to this answer to a very simple question: “What must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:30,31).
Yes, the “gate” to a profession of Christianity is very wide; so wide that it now embraces all of the more enlightened nations of the earth. Modern so-called Christianity makes practically no demands upon its advocates; or should we say “clientele.” This latter day Christianity can boast of its variety and innumerable number of brands of religious gumbo. Humanity is offered a religion that is compatible with the desires of the heart of man; if he is dissatisfied with one kind it is easy to find a different one; or one that will not conflict with his own personal conceptions.
Few people seem to realize that the Great Architect of the universe has made a “STRAIT GATE” and a “NARROW WAY” that control the flow of traffic to life everlasting. “Not everyone that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven” (Matt. 7:21).
BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY
Alfred King
The Bible speaks quite a bit about Babylon, beginning in Genesis with Nimrod, a mighty hunter. Scripture says, “And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel” (Gen. 10:10). We read in the following chapter of Genesis that men began to build a tower that would reach to heaven, but the venture displeased God. God confused the languages and the people were scattered, thereby leaving the project incomplete. The place was called Babel because there the Lord confounded the language. (It is interesting to note that the Hebrew word translated “Babel” in Genesis, is translated “Babylon” every other time it is used in the Old Testament.)
All through II Kings and II Chronicles, we read about the sins of the nation of Judah. The fenced cities of Judah had been taken captive and Jerusalem alone remained as the dim beacon of God’s chosen people, Israel. However, Jerusalem also had grievously transgressed God’s law and God’s judgment was at the door. God mercifully sent prophets to them but they rejected the warnings of God’s messengers, refusing to repent and turn back to Him. The best known of these prophets was Jeremiah, who warned the people from the days of his youth that judgement was coming upon Jerusalem. Jeremiah suffered greatly at the hands of those who did not want to turn from their wicked ways, and they hated the prophet and his warnings. The time finally came when God, through Jeremiah, told the people to surrender themselves into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. Some did, but there were those who stubbornly resisted, forcing Nebuchadnezzar to send his armies into Jerusalem and destroy the city and the Jews’ beloved temple. Jerusalem was razed and God’s chosen people were held captive in Babylon for seventy years.
All the major prophets and most of the minor prophets spoke about Babylon. In the New Testament, Babylon is not mentioned much until we get to the book of Revelation, and there its judgment is spoken of in chapters 14, 16, 17, and 18. The warnings and prophecies given to the Apostle John on the isle of Patmos certainly do not favor Babylon, but they do place her existence in the latter days as a great enemy and deceiver of all mankind. The warnings of these chapters in Revelation concern the last days. They are particularly written for God’s chosen people and are extremely important and pertinent to our day. The message to the church in the last days is that she is to extricate herself from Babylon. Let me state very clearly, the Catholic Church is not all there is to Babylon; it goes much deeper than that pagan church. Babylon touches every Christian living on planet earth and its influence has penetrated every church and every congregation, especially in America. There is no church that remains unscathed from the poisonous tentacles of the Babylonian system. Why is God calling His people out of Babylon? Because they are in Babylon and they are in extreme danger.
When the seventy years of the Jews’ captivity in Babylon neared its prophesied end, God raised up men (Daniel, Ezekiel, Zechariah, Haggai, and others) to seek God, pleading God’s mercy and remembering God’s promise given through Jeremiah. Jeremiah had prophesied that the Jews would be held in captivity for seventy years and then there would be a restoration. God set Cyrus on the throne of the Chaldeans and commanded him to build again the temple in Jerusalem. He sent an invitation to all the Jews in Babylon to return to their land and build again the temple of their God. Many had waited for that day. Years of prayer had gone up before God in repentance, pleading for mercy, and imploring God to grant the temple in Jerusalem to be again raised up and God’s people returned to the land promised to their fathers.
However, there were many, probably most, who did not want to leave Babylon. They had obtained land, wealth, and prosperity. Their children were raised in Babylon, and they had put down roots. The thought of going back to a desolate and destroyed city to endure hardships, live in tents, labor in the hot sun cleaning up rubbish was too much to ask. They sat back in the ease of their luxurious lifestyle and continued to enjoy the pleasures of Babylon.
Today, the American church in particular has been taken captive by Babylon. The luxuries, pleasures, entertainments, the securities (no matter how uncertain), the comforts, the fleshly gratifications of Babylon, coupled with just enough “Christianity” to ease the conscience, has lulled most Christians into a comatose state of existence where they feel things will continue as always. Those who do rouse themselves somewhat, see the handwriting on the wall but are so drugged with the wine of this “great city” that they cannot shake themselves from its intoxication. Let us consider seriously where we are as a church and as Christians in today’s world.
Just fifty or sixty years ago, most fathers of the family worked and provided for the family. The wife remained at home rearing the children. A mother’s love and nurture are indispensable to the welfare of children. Mothers would teach, mold, and shape the child’s character and most would instill moral responsibility and moral conduct. Respect, honor, decency, and character were important traits instilled and they were taught that these morals should never be compromised. But Babylon could not tolerate such practicality too long, and it wasn’t long until the father’s income alone could not supply all the desired luxuries necessary to meet the demands of the proverbial rat race. It required the mother to leave her children with others while she stepped onto Babylon’s squirrel cage in a desperate attempt to keep up with the Jones. The bombardment of entertainment and worldly pleasures demanded she forsake her nurturing role and provide Babylon’s luxuries, pleasures, and live the American dream. Jesus said, “Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth” (Luke 12:15). Babylon rejects those wise words and has convinced the multitudes that her way is the best way.
The children, which were once taught and nurtured by a loving mother, were sent to hired baby sitters, lacking that special motherly influence. They were sent to public schools where indoctrination has become the main dish. Simple education was the genesis of our modern schools. But Babylon had a different end in view. Gradually but steadily, things changed. No longer was the school’s primary focus basic reading, writing and arithmetic, for ungodly men and women began to fill the teacher’s union and other things “more important” than basic facts crept into school curriculums. Along with fundamental subjects, the classroom must also be filled with propaganda and foolishness and diabolical abominations. Children must be exposed to sexual education, even in preschool. Kindergarteners must know about the LGBTQ community and to know that they can choose their gender. Since moral integrity had been flushed down the drain, condoms were the new norm for junior high and high school students. Abstinence was a thing of the past, for Babylon had a better plan that fit her destructive purposes. How did a nation arrive at this place? How can men be so foolish? What blindness has come upon an “enlightened” nation! How reckless and irrational to think that such education (???) will not lead to the destruction of families and the downfall of the nation! And then we have the ridiculous and idiotic idea that abortion is a woman’s right, for it is her body. Does a woman feel the pain that her baby is feeling when it is butchered to death in the womb? Oh, she may feel some pain, but little compared to the pain the baby is enduring, and she can have some medication to ease her pain but the baby suffers with no thought of its pain. Can a nation be called “enlightened” which can kill a baby in the womb? How long will God hold back His righteous judgment? This is Babylon’s world.
Why are Babylon’s politicians so blind? When politicians can convince a nation that its greatest threat is global warming, its populace has fallen for a great lie. Are politicians so blind and yet so haughty that they think they can control what only God can control? Do they think they are god? It was God who destroyed the earth in the days of Noah and it was God who rained down fire and brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah, and nothing the wise men of the hour, the soothsayers, the politicians, scientists, stargazers, nor any other man or group of men could do to stop God’s judgment. God is sovereign and no man, or nation, or scientist, nor the wisest and most powerful can prevent His judgment. Man has made lies his refuge. Babylon has produced a spiritually blind and ignorant people, and all their self-made wisdom and power cannot save them from the mighty hand of God. How long will God hold back His judgments? It was not global climate change that destroyed the known world in the days of Noah and it will not be climate change that will destroy America or the world. It will be when Jesus, “the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up (II Peter 3:10).
Man doesn’t need to fear climate change: man needs to fear God. Consider a prophecy given by David in Psalm two, verses 1-4. “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.” The destructive forces of nature which have fallen upon the world are not the result of climate change but the beginning signs of God’s almighty judgment. Babylon’s politicians and scientists will never be able to control the climate, only God can.
When our politicians can behave in congress as elementary children on the playground and wrestle over petty and insignificant things, bicker as spoiled preschoolers instead of as adults, resort to name calling, etc.: Are we in good hands? Can we trust them to make good, intelligent decisions for the good of the nation? I think not. When they can take issues of non-importance, wrangle over them like spoiled brats, and at the same time neglect the truly critical problems facing our country: can anyone have any serious confidence that they will improve this nation or help the world? Like Babel of old, they are in confusion.
God is the answer to all of America’s problems and the world’s problems. God reveals the answers in His Word and gives that message to His church. God is calling His people out of Babylon, but the exodus must be one that is directed by the Spirit of God and not by men’s outlandish ideas. Only God could deliver Israel from Egypt and only God could bring His people out of sin. Only God could make a way by which the Jews could escape Babylon and return to their God-given land, and only God can extricate His people from Babylon in these last days. Let the church push away from Babylon’s table of vomit and begin once again to partake of the bread of life. Let the church return to the Holy One of Israel, our Maker, with their whole heart. We must begin to seek God, to cry unto Him day and night and give Him no rest until He deliver His people from Babylon and cause them to return to Him. It is through this means that He will establish and restore and bring His people into that city whose builder and maker is God.
TRUE SENSE OF VALUES
Dora Walton
There’s nothing like comparison to effectively show true size and value. Every little boy imagines his daddy is the biggest man he knows, and hopes to someday be just like him. “Daddy” knows he’s no giant, for he has confronted many men that dwarfed him. Many rivers that are considered large rivers lose their significance of size when contrasted with the great Amazon. And the brilliance of a genuine diamond dulls the best of imitations. Differences are plainly marked in these material examples, but the differences of any earthly thing compared to spiritual things are actually staggering. The best the world affords loses its worth after a glimpse of the eternal. “What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?”
Jesus used the method of comparison many times to enable men to more fully comprehend the value of eternal things; the uselessness of the wealth of this world. His parable comparing the house built on sand with the house built on a solid foundation was a powerful parallel – too powerful to be denied or misunderstood. He compared the beauty of the lilies of the field, that take no thought for raiment, to the apparel of Solomon. “Even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” He careth for His people. He endeavored to instill faith and trust in their hearts by picturing for them the provision He makes for even the birds, in contrast to the struggle of man attempting to care for his own needs. “Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly father feedeth them.” (Matt. 6:26) Men complicate their lives by seeking to obtain this world’s goods when God desires to provide every need, material and spiritual, and all He asks is surrender to His will. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God…and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matt. 6:33). “Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature…take therefore no thought for the morrow.” (verse 27 and 34)
How does the scriptural pattern of living compare to men’s ideas? How does it compare to the lives of the average professors of religion? How does it compare to the teachings of the theologians of our age?
Let’s make a comparison of the accepted up-to-date version of Christianity with the unchanging standard God established for His people when He created them. What does He get in comparison to what He asks; in comparison to what He gave?
In Luke 14:33 there is no mincing of words; His conditions are clearly stated: “Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.” This was no new doctrine. It seems startling to us because the severity of its meaning has been softened by man’s interpretation. This scripture was just another way of repeating the first commandment. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy might” (Deut. 6:5). No wonder this has been watered down, made easier; this is drastic! To obey this would completely change a man’s life! It would leave him no time or justification for his own ways. Is this accepted by all who claim to know Him? The first part of this scripture rules out multitudes. “With all thine heart.” Christ plainly declared “where your treasure is there will your heart be also” (Matt. 6:21). “No man can serve two masters.” (v. 24) “If a man loves the world the love of the Father is not in him.” Most professors of religion will give tithes and offerings, and spare some of “their” time for church work, but don’t ask for all their heart. Christ watched the rich young ruler turn sorrowfully from Him when his giving was measured by the ALL the Lord required. One small part of the heart that is unsurrendered can spell destruction for the soul. “Set your affections on things above;” this is the only safe place for our love.
Love with “all thy mind.” Another stickler – yet it is one of His requirements. Remember, these are God’s words – plain and powerful. Why does He insist that every thought be in subjection to Him? It is for our protection. For the thoughts of man reason away the commands of the Lord. “To be carnally minded is death.” The wisdom of man is foolishness with God. Man’s thoughts and reasoning must be in subjection to the obedience of Christ before faith can operate. When Peter walked on the water he acted on faith; when Peter started to sink, his natural reasoning had asserted itself.
“Thou shalt love with all thy might.” The response to this in comparison to the demand is pathetic. Just how much strength is expended for God by the majority of those who confess to know Him? There is no record in the Bible of anyone walking with God, who was not a worker. There is no such thing as an unemployed Christian. To walk with God is to work for God. It is a full-time job. It takes no strength to profess Christianity, but it takes ALL of one’s strength to be a Christian. Many will donate money to help send missionaries into the field. How much strength does that take? The work is great, the laborers are few. The professors are many, the workers are few. To love with all thy might is to present your body a living sacrifice – not give a little part of your earnings so someone else can present “his” body.
Men will spend their strength for fame, for careers, for education, for their families. Nothing is too hard to do to accomplish their own desires and ambitions. How much of their strength is given to God? All – or a small fraction? “Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?”
This comparison only reveals the shortcomings of mere professors of religion in regard to one of His commands. A comparison of every religious doctrine of today with the plain statements of Jesus promises many surprises. The paralleling of the popular concept of a Christian with Christ’s requirements for a true disciple bears little similarity.
Today’s ideas of Christianity will be paraded before Christ at His coming. “Have we not done…many wonderful works” in “Thy name – and He shall say, “I never knew you: depart from me.” Man’s ideas of God’s way compared with what is actually His way will be their condemnation.
PRAYER NOT A “CURE-ALL”
Harry R. Miller
It is a common belief among religious people that if sufficient prayer is made to the gods that there is no limit to what can be accomplished. Many “holiness” people boast that through prayer “all things are possible,” and we are told that the only thing that limits the exercise of this divine gift is our own lack of faith and perseverance. To try to prove the omnipotence of prayer some will quote that portion of Scripture from the book of James which says, “Elias was a man of like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not…and he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain” (James 5:17,18). We are supposed to infer from their quoting of this Scripture that any man can ask anything, and if his prayer is earnest enough, and fervent enough that it will be brought to pass.
Thank God that prayer is NOT omnipotent! What a world of chaos this would be if unlimited power were at the disposal of men who only needed to pray a forceful prayer to unleash the great forces of nature! God is still God; that is, He is ever supreme; His will controls every force and being in the universe. The law of God is the creation of His will, and since His law is based upon eternal principles, it then is eternal. Prayer is subject, not to the will of man, but to the law of God.
Since prayer is governed by law, we must also conclude that it is a science; and to those “who do know their God” it is a most exacting science. Through Jesus Christ we have all been made “priests unto our God,” and this holy ministry of divine intercession is one of the most sacred acts of the soul. By this avenue the voices of human beings are permitted to penetrate the inner sanctum of the capital of the universe. Only prayers of “high priority” ever actually reach the throne. “Small talk,” insincerity, and the unlawful prayers of mammonites hardly rise above the speakers’ heads.
Many folks are under the impression that the secret of making an effectual prayer is to make it sincere; but a sincere prayer isn’t necessarily a wise prayer, or even one that is lawful or reasonable. Esau sought God’s blessing “carefully, with tears,” but “he was rejected.” There is no denying the man’s earnestness. When a man weeps in secret before God he is in dead earnest. Only a complete idiot would play the hypocrite while in secret prayer before his Maker.
The Mohammedans are usually very faithful in prayer. As a rule, they are much more devoted to this ministry than most Christians are, but all of their prayers do not lead them to God.
One-third of the male population of Tibet is given to priestcraft, and they are avid supplicants. Their devotions to this function are beyond that of 99 percent of the Christian ministry; yet these pagans know nothing about communion with the Lord of Glory.
The prophets of Baal prayed most desperately all day long without any results. And it was the silence of God that frustrated Cain’s prayer as he stood by his altar. There is no doubt that Cain completely exhausted his nervous energy in his effort to pray the fire of God down upon his sacrifice.
Present-day pseudo-Christianity, like praying Cain, drops upon its knees in earnest prayer asking God to bless its sacrifices; or rather – its enterprises. Man invents a religious machine and then cries for God to endue it with power to make it run. Then, when his prayers are not answered he thinks that heaven failed him.
In a small village near the Alabama and Florida state line, an uneducated country preacher claimed to have great ambitions for God. He was the pastor of a very small congregation, but he felt that if he had a large tent, and seats to accommodate at least two thousand people, he could sway the multitudes with the gospel of healing. Since his congregation was poor, and could never supply him with the money for these expensive items, this “Brother Buddy,” as he was called, decided to make this a definite issue of prayer. Every morning before daylight this young man went out into the woods; and his strong voice could often be heard pleading with God to hear his prayer. This continued for two whole years, and the heavens remained as brass; still no tent. The poor man was terribly discouraged as he heard of the glamour of the ministry of many “lesser lights” who were successful, presumably just because they had the proper equipment! He began to feel that he had been let down. Then he felt sorry for himself; the poor man backslid, stopped preaching, and turned his back upon the Christian ministry.
This “Brother Buddy” and Cain had something in common; they were both religious; they both wanted to serve the Lord, but in their own way. The Pharisees of Christ’s day also served the Lord, but in their own way, “according to the commandments of men.” But Jesus declared that such “worship” was vain. If the worship of these people is vain, then their prayers are also vain.
Modern Christianity is making a great appeal to all of the church members to pray for a great revival. The machinery of the religion that calls itself Christian is well oiled with multi-millions of dollars, and its citadels of worship and learning are some of the finest that the world has ever seen; but it confesses one deficiency: it needs the Spirit of God to put life into the machinery. The ecclesiastical structure has been humanly approved, the methods are highly recommended, its doctrine is accredited by the “best sources” as completely orthodox and fundamental; all they need now is God’s blessing. The request of these so-called Christians is no different than Cain’s, or the glamour-seeking brother’s. The answer to these supplications will be the same: no comment from heaven.
The Scriptures state that “God cannot deny himself.” That is, when He makes a law, His law is based upon eternal principles, and for Him to move contrary to His law and compromise principle in order to satisfy the degeneracy in humanity would be for God to deny Himself. He would be guilty of collaborating with the forces that destroy man. God cannot lower a standard: His very nature demands that He never repeal a law. The crucifixion of Christ is complete proof of the Father’s esteem for His law. Divine law cannot be minimized, belittled, or spurned by those who expect the favor of Providence.
The blessing of God can easily be invoked by those who are doing His will. Abel “offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain” because it was according to the command of God. And Elijah did not have to scream and cut himself with knives in order to be heard of heaven. After he had obeyed the command of the Lord, he stepped back and offered a very simple prayer; then the fire fell from heaven.
The apostate church of our day could fast and pray for a revival until dooms-day, but it will not come. God will never bless the religious system that denies the commands of Jesus Christ. Those who call themselves Christian today claim to believe in Christ as their Saviour, but most of them refuse to acknowledge Him by obedience to His commands.
There are some people who tell us that the present-day church is dead, but that if there is sufficient prayer, God will pour out of His Spirit upon the churchmen and they will all awaken and walk with Him as they should. This is merely wishful thinking, and actually contrary to the testimony of the Word. The apostate Christian church is in rebellion against God. To refuse to obey the commands of Jesus Christ, as given in the Sermon on the Mount, is to sin; and to continue to refuse to obey Him is nothing else but rebellion.
“He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination”. (Prov. 28:9) The apostate Christian church has completely rejected God’s law. They claim that they are under a special dispensation of “grace” where every religious society can do that which is right in its own eyes.
No matter what the excuse, he who turns away his ear from hearing the law of God should not pray, for his abominable prayers only add insult to injury.
The Psalmist knew that there was such a thing as a sinning prayer. He said concerning traitors: “Let his prayer become sin.” (Psalm 109:7) And one man whom Jesus healed made the statement that “God heareth not sinners” (John 9:31). Solomon, the wise man, wrote in the book of Proverbs: “Because I have called, and ye refused…ye have set at nought all my counsel…then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer.” (Prov. 1:24-28)
If the backslidden church is going to be heard in heaven, it will first have to set its house in order by complete obedience to the words of the Saviour. Then, after she has demonstrated her faith by obedience to her Lord, she must repent of her wretched past. Then, while in contrition, she will not have to plead with her Maker, for He will be there to help her arise from the dust. The Scriptures declare that the “bride” will “make herself ready” (Rev. 19:7). The “Zion” of Isaiah fifty-two is told: “Put on thy beautiful garments…shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down…loose thyself from the bands of thy neck.”
The wise virgins of Matthew twenty-five didn’t call for someone to come and trim their lamps; they did it themselves. We have all heard what the Lord hath said. It is now time to do what He has commanded.
Prayer is a glorious ministry for those who are demonstrating their love for God by their obedience; but to attempt to pray without first obeying His commands is one of the greatest of follies.
PRAYER IS NOT ENOUGH
A.W. Tozer
These words are addressed to those of God’s children who have been pierced with the arrow of infinite desire, who yearn for God with a yearning that has overcome them, who long with a longing that has become pain.
“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” Hunger is a pain. It is God’s merciful provision, a divinely-sent stimulus to propel us in the direction of food. If food-hunger is a pain, thirst, which is water-hunger, is a hundredfold worse, and the more critical the need becomes within the living organism the more acute the pain. It is nature’s last drastic effort to rouse the imperiled life to seek to renew itself. A dead body feels no hunger, and the dead soul knows not the pangs of holy desire. “If you want God,” said the old saint, “you have already found Him.” Our desire for fuller life is proof that some life must be there already. Our very dissatisfactions should encourage us, our yet unfulfilled aspirations should give us hope. “What I aspired to be, and was not, comforts me,” wrote Browning with true spiritual insight. The dead heart cannot aspire.
In nature, everything moves in the direction of its hungers. In the spiritual world it is not otherwise. We gravitate toward our inward longings provided, of course, that those longings are strong enough to move us. Impotent dreaming will not do. The religious urge that is not followed by a corresponding act of the will in the direction of that urge is a waste of emotion. The awe-inspiring power of a discharge of lightning may dissipate itself in the atmosphere and accomplish nothing; while a flashlight battery may provide illumination for a miner, hours on end. One is a dramatic display of immense power without direction and the other a quiet application of modest energy to an intelligent purpose.
It is my conviction that much, very much, prayer for and talk about revival these days is wasted energy. Ignoring the confusion of figures, I might say that it is a hunger that appears to have no object; it is dreamy wishing that is too weak to produce moral action. It is fanaticism on a high level for, according to John Wesley, “a fanatic is one who seeks desired ends while ignoring the constituted means to reach those ends.”
Granted that the man who seeks revival has stopped thinking in plurals and has narrowed his faith down to one single individual, himself, what then? How can he find that after which his soul is yearning? How can he cooperate with his hungers to the end that he may indeed be filled?
He must rid his mind of the false notion that prayer alone will bring the blessing. Normally all transactions between the soul and God are carried on by prayer. It is right and scriptural and according to the testimony of all the saints that any spiritual advance on any front, any deliverance, any purification, any enduement of power, comes by the prayer of faith. Our error is that we try to secure these benefits by prayer alone.
The correction of this error is extremely difficult, for it entails more than a mere adjustment of our doctrinal beliefs; it strikes at the whole Adam-life and requires self-abnegation, humility and cross-carrying. In short, it requires obedience. And that we will do anything to escape.
It is almost unbelievable how far we will go to avoid obeying God. We call Jesus Lord and beg Him to rejuvenate our souls, but we are careful to do not the things He says. When faced with a sin, a confession, or a moral alteration in our life, we find it much easier to pray half a night than to obey God.
Intensity of prayer is no criterion of its effectiveness. A man may throw himself on his face and sob out his troubles to the Lord and yet have no intention to obey the commandments of Christ. Strong emotion and tears may be no more than the outcropping of a vexed spirit, evidence of stubborn resistance to God’s known will. Jacob wrestled against the angel through one whole night. It was only after he had been defeated that he became the aggressor and refused to let go of God. Why did Jacob resist so long? Because he was ashamed to confess his name to the angel. When he finally broke down and admitted that he was the supplanter, the victory was won. He triumphed in defeat.
No matter what I write here, thousands of pastors will continue to call their people to prayer in the forlorn hope that God will finally relent and send revival if only His people wear themselves out in intercession. To such people God must indeed appear to be a hard taskmaster, for the years pass and the young get old and the aged die and still no help comes. The prayer meeting room becomes a wailing wall and the lights burn long, and still the rains tarry.
Has God forgotten to be gracious? Let any reader begin to obey and he will have the answer. “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him” (John 14:21).
Isn’t that what we want, after all?
(The following article is from H.A. Baker’s book, Through Tribulation. He here gives us a factual account of the origin of the Rapture doctrine
A NEW DOCTRINE
The teaching that the Church, in whole or in part, will be caught up to heaven before the reign of the man of sin, the anti-christ, did not appear in church history until the early part of the nineteenth century. Neither any of the early church fathers nor later church writers taught this doctrine. Neither did the early church creeds nor the church creeds of modern times before the nineteenth century teach this doctrine. On the contrary, whenever these writers, or creeds, referred to the last days of the Church, in every such instance they said that the Church would continue on earth to the end of the reign of the anti-christ.
Of course, beliefs of church fathers or beliefs as stated in creeds do not prove a doctrine true. The Bible is the proof-standard. However, these evidences from church history do show that this doctrine in question is a new doctrine.
How We Got The New Doctrine
After my study of the scriptures had led me to believe this erroneous doctrine, I learned about its origin. You may be as surprised as I was to learn how this teaching got into the Church and became so popular. It appears that it came about as follows:
In March, 1830, a woman in Richard Baxter’s church in London, England, when under supernatural power, prophesied that the Lord Jesus might come any time and that true believers in Him might any day be caught up by translation to heaven. This church and this woman were connected with the Irvingite movement that soon went astray on many false doctrines. The Irvingite movement, at that time, placed much emphasis on supernatural manifestations such as speaking with other tongues, prophesying under supernatural power, etc.
At the same time, John Darby and a little group of men gathered at Plymouth, England, were engaged in independent Bible study. This was the beginning of the sect later called “The Plymouth Brethren.” Although Richard Baxter himself did not accept as true the prophecy of the Irvingite woman in his church, it seems that many others did. And, although Darby and his group of Plymouth Brethren were not a part of the Irvingite movement, they, nevertheless, accepted this prophecy as coming from the Lord, and they incorporated it into their teaching.
Since Darby was one of the most influential preachers in England at that time, and since this easy way to escape-tribulation-doctrine was pleasing, and since it is a natural weakness of Christians to be readily attracted by any doctrine that promises to be a “new” revelation, this supposedly new revelation about the rapture of the Church quickly spread throughout the evangelical churches of England.
George Muller of the famous Muller orphanage and Tregelles, reputed to be the best Bible scholar of that century, and Spurgeon and many others by public addresses and in writing, opposed this new teaching, declaring it to be unscriptural and false. However, all this opposition was in vain, as already shown.
Having accepted this “spirit”-inspired new teaching, Darby and his group proceeded by “new” interpretations and inferences to make the scriptures support the new “theory.” Darby’s line of “interpretations” and “inferences” have come down to us today through the Plymouth Brethren sect with little variation from the teachings of Darby. In our day, Charles Scofield, one of the Darby line and closely associated with the “Brethren,” has perhaps done more than any other one man to propagate the escape-tribulation, any-moment, secret-rapture teaching. Another man who helped much in making this teaching widely known was W.E. Blackstone. He summarized the Darby-Scofield teaching on this subject in a book called Jesus Is Coming, and, with the help of some men of wealth, sent free copies to preachers and missionaries all over the world. That is how I first came in contact with any definite discussion about the return of the Lord. This was doubtless true in the case of thousands of others who had been as ignorant as I about the whole question. I read recently that Blackstone, after further study, reversed his former view and saw the error of his previous belief. However, he did much in his time in promoting the Darby-Scofield view.
Like Blackstone, and Oswald Smith, and Henry Frost, American secretary of the China Inland Mission, and like many, many others who, after much careful study, have reversed their beliefs, you may have to reverse yours, for you will see that the popular belief is “the tradition of the fathers,” but not of the true church fathers. At any rate, the above is a brief outline of the history of this “new” Darby doctrine. Further information on this point, supported by more evidence of its accuracy, is given in my book Tribulation to Glory.
What Darby Taught
So far as I know, all familiar with the facts agree that Darby taught as stated in this chapter. He taught that Jesus might return any moment to raise the dead in Christ and to translate, without death, the believers in Christ, who will be alive at the time. This coming, Darby claimed, would be invisible, noiseless, secret. After the disappearance of the believers from the earth the man of sin, the anti-christ, would openly appear to reign over the whole world. At the end of this usurper’s reign the Lord Jesus would openly return to earth to raise the rest of the dead believers, judge the world, and set up His visible kingdom on earth. According to Darby, this first coming of Christ would be “for” His saints, and the coming after the reign of the man of sin would be “with” His saints for whom He had previously come.
Because Darby and his group could find no direct statement of the scripture that the believers would be translated before the time of the anti-christ, they found it necessary to support the new doctrine by “interpretations” and “inferences” not found by direct statements of the Word of God. How can it be emphasized too strongly that this much-embracing doctrine from Darby’s day to ours has only the support of “inference?”
“CAUTION: MEN AT WORK”
Randall Walton
This fair warning sign is quite familiar to all of us who travel upon our streets and highways, and it has undoubtedly helped prevent many fatalities, both to the motorist and the workmen, as well. And no doubt the work projects have been warranted, for our public roads are not always in the best condition. Most of us are glad to see the repair crews arrive to patch up the potholes or build up a badly eroding shoulder.
In the past several decades, many men have been working overtime to repair, alter, revise, reroute, update, modernize and broaden the Word of God, the Holy Bible.
They have been applying all their skills (and a few non-skills) in an effort to produce a “better” Bible, a more scenic route, smoother and more enjoyable and easier to understand.
After all, the King James Version was written for the 17th century, and we modernists can’t be expected to “rap” with all that old English verbiage, we’re told. Besides, the times are different now, and modern man must have a modern gospel, one which deals with modern problems in a modern manner. So, man is at work, and we believe it’s apropos to erect a CAUTION sign for the travelers along the way.
Hardly anyone claims that the King James Version is a faultless Book so far as complete accuracy is concerned. (We do hold to the tenet of inerrancy of the Word of God. God made no mistakes in the authorship of His Holy Book!) The original manuscripts, or the actual documents penned by the writers of the Scriptures, are non-existent. We wish they weren’t, but the truth is that they have either disintegrated with time, or have been lost in storage somewhere.
However, the Scriptures were copied letter by letter, and word by word by scribes whose lives’ work was to faithfully reproduce and preserve the Holy writings.
The oldest transcripts in existence (except for the recently discovered Dead Sea Scrolls which are not a part of the inspired texts) date back to the second century A.D., which means that they are copies, probably exact, but with a little tolerance for error. However, it seems that the very importance of authenticity of God’s word would justify and impel heaven’s intervention by dispatching a special messenger to oversee the work of the scribes, “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” (Heb. 1:14)
It was from these early scrolls that the Vatican commissioned the translation from the Hebrew and Greek into Latin (actually Vulgar, the language of the common people), commonly known as the Vulgate. And it was from the Vulgate that the Catholic Douay Version was translated into English (named for the French town where the work was done).
History reminds us that after King Henry VIII inaugurated the Anglican Church (due to his expulsion from the Roman body), a new English version was felt to be needed, so under the orders of King James of England, the Authorized Version of 1611 was produced. It was a true translation, not an interpolation nor an interpretation. It was written in the vernacular of the 17th century and, of course, languages do have a way of altering over a period of years so that many words and phrases in popular use at that time are no longer in vogue. To the honest student of the Word this presents no real problem; however, for there are many Bible dictionaries and lexicons which can be consulted for a definition of words and terminology.
In 1885 an effort was made by a committee of English and American revisers to produce a more readable version of the Scriptures. After a disagreement among these scholars, the American committee decided to go ahead with their production and, in 1901, published the American Standard Revised Version, which is a reliable translation.
Since that time there have been many attempts to rewrite the Bible by various self-appointed committees. We know of no reliable versions of the Holy texts other than the King James and the American Standard of 1901. All the rest are but interpretations which are biased by the traditions and practices of apostate Christendom! The people who put together these spurious counterfeits are guilty of bastardizing the Word of the Living God. We realize that many sincere people protest that souls are being won to the Lord by these so-called Bibles, but we object to that claim on the basis that it is the Living Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Saviour of men, not a book. The Holy Spirit convicts of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8-11), not some man’s invention which he erroneously labels the Holy Bible.
There is a reliable test which any layman can use to judge the authenticity of any new Bible. We refer you to Matthew 28:1, which in the King James Version reads thus: “In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.” The new Bibles interpret this to read as per the following:
Revised Standard Version: Now after the sabbath
The New English Bible: The Sabbath was over
Jerusalem Bible: After the sabbath
New American Standard Bible: Now after the sabbath
New International Version: After the sabbath
The Living Bible: Early on Sunday morning
Good News for Modern Man: After the Sabbath
New World Translation: After the sabbath
Obviously, something is amiss, for “In the end of the Sabbath” is certainly not the same as “After the Sabbath”! It is well known by all of us that the Sabbath ended at Sundown, and that the first day of the week began at that same time. The stumbler here has been over the phrase “as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week.” The new interpreters of the Book could not reconcile “dawn” with “in the end of the Sabbath,” so they unjustifiably corrupted this verse to agree with “popular tradition” which says Jesus rose on Sunday, the first day of the week.
In 1611 the word “dawn” did not necessarily designate the break of day, or sunrise. It had to do with “beginning,” or the start of something new, such as we might say, “the dawn of a new era.” And the very fact that the phrase, “In the end of the Sabbath,” precedes this statement, we have further proof that this point of time was before sundown on the Sabbath, and the first day was drawing near, or dawning.
In case you are not a Greek student, we’ll show you how this verse appears in the Greek language: Όψέ δε σαββατων τηέπιφωσκοφση εις μαν σαββατων - George Berry’s Interlinear translates this: Now late on Sabbath, as it was getting dusk toward the first (day) of the week.” This first word Όψετ, pronounced opseh, is the key here. Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon says that “Όψετ followed by a genitive (αββατων) seems always to be partitive denoting late in the period specified by the genitive (and consequently still belonging to it).” Doctor Thayer also states that attempts have been made to render this after, but without success. Doctor Thayer is considered one of the great authorities of the Greek language and his definition certainly does credit to the translation of George Berry as well as the American Revised Standard 1901 Version, which states, “Now late on the sabbath day, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week.”
And, of course, this places the resurrection of Jesus late on the Sabbath, Saturday, before sundown; indeed, had He not risen at that exact time He would have failed to have fulfilled His own prophecies concerning His resurrection! (Send for our free tract, “3 Days and 3 Nights”) And this is a very crucial point in a serious consideration of truth and the reliability of the Scriptures. Jesus did not rise from the tomb on Sunday morning!! All attempts by Bible interpreters to make it appear that He did are clearly the works of men that help to undermine the validity, veracity, authenticity and faithfulness of the Word of God, whether they intend it that way or not.
Any Bible which interprets Matthew 28:1 as meaning “after the Sabbath” is certainly not a translation of the Greek text. It is man’s way of supporting the pagan sanctity of Sunday and the celebration of that unsacred day of Easter. And, if these Bible interpreters will excoriate the Scriptures in this relatively innocuous passage, what are we to assume they have done to the many more potent areas?
Let us advise you, that before you spend your money on one of these perversions of the Word of God, you examine closely its rendering of Matthew 28:1. If there has been an attempt to make it read “After the Sabbath,” or on “Sunday morning,” etc., don’t waste your money on it. Remember – CAUTION! MEN AT WORK!
A STORY OF PASSOVER
Alfred King
As the sun began to set just north of Jerusalem, Baruch, his wife Rebekah, and their four children set up their tent for the night. It had been five days since they had left their home in Capernaum. The weather had been nice most of their journey but the wind had picked up and the whole family was covered with dust from their travel. It had been a slow and tiresome trip. Trying to keep the few sheep they had brought with them healthy and sufficient for the coming sacrifice was challenging in itself. This trip was certainly not for the faint of heart, and the journey was beginning to tax each one of the weary travelers. Gone was the excitement that made sleep a stranger the night before their trip began and complaining was now beginning to become too common. Baruch tried to encourage the children, telling them that tomorrow they would arrive in Jerusalem where they would be able to stay in an inn and get some well-deserved rest. The Feast of the Passover would begin in just three days and they would hear afresh the account of Moses and their forefathers. They had studied God’s word and had memorized the first five book of the scriptures so they were very familiar with the plagues God sent upon the Egyptians who had enslaved Israel, and how the first Passover came about. They reveled in the part where God finally lead Israel out of Egypt, parting the Red Sea before them and then drowning Pharaoh and his armies in the sea.
This was the last night living in a tent and as they were sitting around the camp fire, Joseph, the youngest of the children, asked his father why his lamb would have to be slain. He had taken this lamb for his own since its birth. He even named him Joshua after the man of God who led Israel into the land of Canaan. Joseph loved this lamb, yet he knew he would have to offer it as a sacrifice at the time of the Passover. The time of this sacrifice was getting close and Joseph was hoping that maybe his father would change his mind or offer a different lamb. However, Joseph was pretty certain that Joshua was already determined to be Joseph’s sacrificial lamb.
Baruch again explained to young Joseph that the lamb being sacrificed was a price he had to pay for any sins he had committed over the past year. Of course, Joseph knew he had not always been a perfect son, but he tried very hard to be good. Yet he knew he had been disobedient to his parents at times and had fought with his siblings over things that now seemed trivial. Nevertheless, Joseph was willing to sacrifice his lamb knowing it was the right thing to do before Jehovah. As he had many times before, Baruch began once again to tell Joseph that God would one day send His Son from heaven and His Son would become the Lamb, sent from Almighty Jehovah, who would take away the sins of the world. In fact Baruch had recently heard of a man named John who was baptizing people and declaring the kingdom of God being close at hand. Joseph could not grasp the concept of God sending His Son to become a lamb, but he accepted his father’s words.
The next day as Baruch and his family entered Jerusalem the number of people which had come to the Passover was the largest crowd Joseph had ever seen. Not only were there people everywhere but there was the noise of animals making their individual and distinct racket in the midst of the rattling of handmade wagons, wooden and metal wheels clattering on the cobblestone streets and people yelling in order to be heard by those to whom they were speaking. To Joseph it was pure pandemonium. He hoped his father knew where they were to go and how to get there through all the traffic and seeming disorder. But Baruch had been to this feast many times since his youth and he was familiar with Jerusalem and had already booked a room at a local inn. Joseph was busy trying to keep Joshua calm, because all the noise and activity was making Joshua very nervous. Joshua was used to the peace of the hills outside Capernaum where he could eat the tender grass and play with other lambs. He loved it when Joseph would come to the field and bring him some special grain or goodies and would pet him and talk to him. But now in the midst of all the noise in Jerusalem, Joseph struggled to calm him.
It wasn’t too far into the city that the family arrived at the inn where they would remain for the next few days. For the children the weariness they felt the day before had departed and in its place an excitement filled them with more energy than desired, at least by their parents. They put the sheep in a small pen where Joshua began to calm down some because he was with other sheep and was no longer tethered to a wagon. The children were then allowed to run off some of their energy while Baruch and his wife got things settled in the inn and prepared supper.
After a short while, the children returned with great enthusiasm and began to all speak at once about some of the things they had heard while they were scouting out the city. There was a lot of talk about a man named Jesus who was supposed to be coming to the Passover feast. It was said that He was a prophet, a miracle worker, and a great teacher. Everyone was hoping to see Him perform a miracle and heal someone, and also hoped to hear Him teach. It was even said that He raised a dead man named Lazarus, just a few days before in the city of Bethany. It could be that Lazarus would be at the Passover also. All this served to stir up the excitement among these children, and Joseph wondered if this might be the Lamb which Jehovah had promised to send. Maybe his precious lamb wouldn’t have to be sacrificed after all.
The day before the Passover, Joseph woke up early as the sun was shining through the window right into his face. It looked like it was going to be a nice day but Joseph was not too excited, for this was the day that his lamb would be killed. He jumped out of bed and ran outside to the pen where Joshua was. He walked in among the sheep and found Joshua lying in a pile of straw. Joseph sat down beside Joshua and began to pet him and talk to him sadly. His heart was heavy knowing that Joshua had to die for sins he, Joseph, had committed. There was nothing Joshua had done to deserve to die; it was for what Joseph had done that Joshua must die. Tears filled his eyes as he thought about some of the bad things he had done over the past year that brought this judgment upon his precious innocent lamb. Joseph was there with Joshua only a few minutes when his mother called him for breakfast. Although Joseph wasn’t hungry he arose and went to eat, mainly because he didn’t want anyone to know he was getting sentimental.
It was a long day for this family as they had to kill the sacrifices they had brought, clean them and go through all the various requirements of the Mosaic law, preparing them for the moment when they would be consumed upon the altar. It was bloody, tiresome, de-appetizing, and sad. As animals all around the city were slain one by one, their cries ceased and an eerie silence filled the air. Tears ran down Joseph’s face as his lamb was slain. He hid his face so no one would see him crying because “boys don’t cry.” That was the motto that he grew up with, and even though he had always been strong when he was injured while playing, he could not refrain himself now as he looked upon this lifeless lamb lying before him.
It was well after noon before all the intensive labor of preparing the sacrifice was finished. As Baruch and his family rested on an outdoor porch waiting for the time of the evening feast, there came the city crier yelling in the street. The people following him were excited and seemed to all be speaking at one time. As the crier approached the inn, Baruch began to understand what the crier was proclaiming. The man whom the children had heard about two days before, the man named Jesus, had been taken and crucified by Roman soldiers.
Baruch and his family were shocked at the news. Joseph wondered why, since everyone was hoping to see a miracle and hear Him teach. What had happened that He was now crucified? Baruch was able to stop one of the men following the crier and questioned him concerning the crucifixion. The man was very familiar with what had transpired the night before and began to explain to Baruch how the Pharisees had hated Jesus and desired to have Him killed because they were jealous of Him. Jesus took the attention and praise from the Pharisees, for the people heard Him teach and He taught, not as the Pharisees, but as one having authority. The people had seen Him heal many, feed thousands, and even raise the dead. They had seen him cast out devils, setting them free from demonic possession, and all this created a hostile spirit among the Pharisees and religious leaders. They had managed to get one of Jesus’ followers to betray Him and they were able to capture Jesus at night when the multitudes were not around. After giving Jesus a fake trial, they falsely condemned Him and sent Him to Pilate to be judged and, eventually crucified. So great was their hatred of Jesus that when Pilate offered to release one prisoner, either Jesus or Barabbas, they chose Barabbas, a man convicted of murder and insurrection.
As Joseph heard the man tell about Jesus and the hatred of the Pharisees, he remembered a scripture he had been taught by his father from the prophet Isaiah. He remembered how Isaiah had prophesied that the Messiah would be despised and rejected; He would be a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. As the man told how Jesus would not defend Himself before Pilate, so much so that Pilate was astonished, Joseph remembered that Isaiah wrote, “He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not his mouth” (Isa. 52:7). Then another part of Isaiah’s prophecy came to his mind, “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed” (Isa. 53:5).
Suddenly, Joseph realized that this Jesus was the One of whom Jehovah spoke and now sent to take away the sin of the world. No longer would men have to slay their beloved sheep for their sins, for now the Lamb of God had come and borne the sins of the whole world. Joseph thought briefly about Joshua. If it had only been one day later, Joshua would not have had to die. But then his mind shifted to God. How much did it grieve God to see His Son die? Why would such a price be paid by a God who needed nothing and certainly did not need mankind? What would cause God to pay such a great price? Joseph had cried when his lamb was slain, but Jesus was not an animal, He was a man, a person. But not any man; He was God’s only Son. He was and is God. Why was this great sacrifice made? It was at that very moment as though someone spoke to him in his heart and Joseph understood that God sent His Son to die for the sins of the world because God loved man and wanted to save him from eternal death.
Joseph sank to his knees and, with tears flowing down his face, he asked God to forgive him and save him. There was a great peace that flooded over his being, and there sprung up a love to God that he had never felt toward any person, greater even than that which he had for his father and mother. And yet strange as it may seem he felt an even greater love for them. As he looked at the multitude following the crier, he knew that God had changed him, for he sensed a special love for them all and a great desire to tell them about Jesus Christ and His saving grace. Joseph now understood what the Feast of Passover is all about and it changed him forever.
From the Editor: This short story is to remind us what Passover is all about. It is to exalt and honor Jesus Christ. Salvation is found in none other than in Him. All other promises of salvation are a lie from the pit of hell and all other gods are false gods. As we near the time of Passover for 2019, let us remember what we are celebrating and why. Let us examine ourselves and come into this season with pure hearts and an ever growing love for God and His people. Jesus died for sinners, and His blood is more than sufficient to save the worst among us. Paul said, “that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief” (I Tim. 1:15). As the death angel passed over the children of Israel on that night in Egypt, so death passes over all those who are covered by the precious blood of Christ Jesus.
People of the Living God will be observing the Passover this year on April 19th. We will observe the feast on Friday evening of the 19th and the following day (the 20th) will be the Passover Sabbath. It will be a double Sabbath since the Passover Sabbath falls on the seventh day. We will observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days and will observe a Sabbath on the seventh day, which will be Friday, April 26th. We pray for a great time of worship and praise and a time of refreshing from the Lord. Pray to that end for all of God’s people. May God richly bless each one as they honor Jesus Christ through the Passover.