2004_01 by Uplook

JANUARY 2004

UPLOOK • ASSESS

THE

NEED • CATCH

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THY KINGDOM COME!

FROM MY WINDOW

THY KINGDOM COME! Dispensationalists need more teaching on the King and His kingdom.

he subject of the Lord’s return is often thought to be a geriatric hope, enjoyed only by those whose life work is complete. It is assumed that such senior saints have nothing left to live for down here; they’ve seen it all. Heaven is next on the agenda. Those who still have a spring in their step, with plans for marriage, family, career, ministry—in short, the exciting adventures that await us on the preRapture planet—find the words, “O Lord, how long?” to be somewhat premature. And it surely isn’t wrong for us to have a desire to “finish the work” given to us on earth, as our Saviour did (Jn. 17:4). To the inquiry, “Wouldn’t you like to go to heaven right now?” one believer responded, “Not at the moment. I’ll be there forever; I have things to do for the Lord before I leave.” This ambivalence is seen in Paul’s honest confession to the Philippian saints: “For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you” (1:23-24). And it isn’t just the work to be done among Christians that holds us here. We see the same tension in the response to the “burden of Dumah”: “Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night…” (Isa. 21:11-12). If the eternal morning, the Day without a sunset, were the certain hope of every earthly resident, the Rapture would be unmingled joy. But who of us does not have loved ones who still linger in the shadows? For them a night approaches whose “blackness of darkness” (Jude 1:13) will be eternally unbroken by a single shaft of light. We long for them to have one more day, one more opportunity. If you feel this way, your Father feels the same (though infinitely more!). The trumpet remains unsounded; the archangel withholds his command; the Son waits seated as the Day of Grace continues. Why? Because “The Lord is…not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9). And yet our longsuffering Lord would teach us to pray, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Mt. 6:10). We well might ask the plaintive query posed in David’s day: “Why speak ye not a word of bringing the king back?” (2 Sam. 19:10). For surely everything is out of place, and will be, until He sets it right. The devil is out of place; stalking about, seeking whom he may devour, he ought to be bound and cast out. Israel is out of place; the tail of the nations, they ought to be the head. The Church is out of place; a heavenly people, they ought to be with their Bride—no longer tempted, persecuted and scattered on earth. And what of Christ Himself? The “desire of all nations” is a curse word among men. This earth is His inheritance; He ought to be reigning over it, with “the earth…filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Hab. 2:14). He shall reign here on earth, make no mistake about it. Though the wait has been long, He will not be late. We who have been “…delivered…from the power of darkness, and…translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son” (Col. 1:13) in that day shall see our presently-maligned Redeemer vindicated before the whole universe. And thus we continue to pray: “Thy kingdom come!”

With With this this redesigned redesigned issue, issue, Uplook Uplook magazine magazine begins begins its its 77th 77th year year of of publication. publication. With With thanks thanks to to our our faithful faithful God— God— and and to to our our contributors, contributors, readers readers and and supporters. supporters.

UPLOOK / JANUARY 2004

J. B. NICHOLSON, JR.

JANUARY 2004

Founded in 1927 as Look on the Fields, UPLOOK is published monthly except for occasional combined issues which count as two issues, by Uplook Ministries, 813 North Ave., N.E., Grand Rapids, MI 49503.

UPLOOK

Volume 71 • Number 1

FEATURES 4

PARADISE REBORN Erich Sauer Q & A David Baron

DEFINING OUR TERMS Frederick A. Tatford

THE CHURCH & THE KINGDOM William MacDonald

THINE IS THE KINGDOM Chart

THE KINGDOM IN MATTHEW 13 T. Ernest Wilson

THE 7 PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM T. E. W.

BRING BACK THE KING! Vance Havner

ARE WE IN THE KINGDOM? J. B. N. Jr.

THE ASSEMBLY & THE HOME Donald L. Norbie

DEPARTMENTS EDITORIAL FRONT LINES WORLDVIEW QUOTABLES: Long Live the King! SCIENCE & YOU BOOKSHELF: Be Holy TRUE STORY: Incidents from the life of D. L. Moody Subscription Information: The Uplook magazine mailing list is maintained on a subscription basis. There is no charge for a subscription, however you must renew your subscription annually in order to continue receiving the magazine. An initial subscription is for six issues. Thereafter any time you renew, your subscription will be extended a further ten issues. There are three ways to renew: 1) by using the reminder envelope sent to facilitate your renewal; 2) by using the form on our website at: http://www.gospelcom.net/uplook/magazine_uplook/subscribe.phtml 3) by contacting our office at any time, by phone, fax, mail or e-mail. Please advise us of any address changes at least six weeks in advance and include your customer number from your mailing label.

2 7 15 18 21 25 27

UPLOOK magazine is intended to encourage the people of God in ﬁdelity to His Word, fervency in intercessory prayer, labors more abundant, and love to the Lord. Believing in the practical Headship of Christ and the local autonomy of each assembly, this is not intended to be an ofﬁcial organ of any group or federation of local churches. The editor and authors take responsibility for materials published. For any blessing which accrues, to God be the glory. UPLOOK is copyrighted solely for the purpose of maintaining the integrity of the material. It is not intended to limit the proper use of articles contained in the magazine. Please include the words: “UPLOOK magazine, by permission” on photocopies made for personal use. For large quantities or other purposes, contact UPLOOK. Submissions Please enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope with all unsolicited material. News items must be submitted at least two months in advance of issue requested. Selected news items will be carried for two issues (if time permits). The editor reserves the right to determine those items best suited for the magazine. Editorial decisions are final. Photos accepted. Please enclose a selfaddressed, stamped envelope for photos you wish returned. Postal Information US POSTMASTER: (USPS 620-640) Send address changes to UPLOOK, P. O. Box 2041, Grand Rapids, MI 49501-2041 Periodical postage paid at Grand Rapids, MI. CANADIAN POSTMASTER: Send address changes to UPLOOK, P. O. Box 427, St. Catharines, ON L2R 6V9 International Publication Mail Product (Canadian Distribution) Sales Agreement No. 1064363 British POSTMASTER: Send address changes to UPLOOK, P. O. Box 1163, Bristol BS39 4YA

Donation Information: Uplook Ministries is a tax-exempt corporation looking to the Lord to provide for the needs of this ministry. This magazine is sent freely to those who request it, but evidently is not freely produced. Donations may be made by check or money order denominated in US $, Canadian $ or £ sterling. All checks should be made payable to Uplook and sent to one of the above addresses. Donations may also be made by VISA, Mastercard/ACCESS or Discover in US dollars, either by mail or at our website: http://www./uplook.org/home/about_us/contributions.html We do not advise sending credit card numbers by e-mail. Please include your card number, expiry date and the amount in US dollars you wish to donate. Receipts are issued for all donations received and are valid for tax purposes in the US and Canada. Making a donation will automatically renew your Uplook subscription.

www.uplook.org / JANUARY 2004

IT’S A CLASSIC

PARADISE REBORN

God’s original plan, delayed through the Fall, will yet flourish, but elevated by His grace. Erich Sauer excerpted from The Dawn of World Redemption, pp. 38-48 od set mankind on the earth. In Eden He planted that wonderful Garden that should be its possessors’ delight and pleasure, for “Eden” means “pleasure land,” or “loveliness.” Christ and the New Testament guarantee the historicity and literality of the opening chapters of the Bible. Everywhere the Lord and His apostles treat them as accounts of actual events; indeed they even draw from them dogmatic conclusions (Mt. 19: 4-9; Rom. 5:12-21; 1 Cor. 15:21-22; 1 Tim. 2:13-14; Jas. 3:9; 1 Jn. 3:12; Rev. 20:2. Therefore if the New Testament is truth, then Genesis 1–3 is history. Whoever rejects or explains away this history at the beginning is thereby in opposition to the absolute authority of the Lord Jesus and His apostles.

THE HOME OF AN INDESCRIBABLE BLISS Majestically Adam, the lord of the earthly creation, ruled the Garden and all the work of his hands prospered. The flowers bloomed with such beauty as the human eye has never again seen, and the trees bore the most glorious fruit. In the vegetable and animal world a wondrous breath of heavenly peace prevailed; and above all, God Himself, the Creator of the universe, held ungrieved fellowship with him and granted him the enjoyment of His blessed presence (Gen. 3:8). Where the earthly Paradise was situated cannot be stated with certainty. Some have suggested Armenia or the Syrian-Arabia desert. In any case the Phrat (Gen. 2:14) is the Euphrates and Hiddekel the Tigris (comp. Dan. 10:4, the Aramaic Diglat). That the dis-

trict of Eden must have lain high is proved by the circumstance that it was the birthplace of great rivers (Gen. 2:10). The Garden is not Eden itself, but “in” Eden (Gen. 2:8, 10). That later the name of the district passed to the Garden itself (e.g., Ezek. 28:13) is a common occurrence easily to be understood. The rivers Pison and Gihon cannot with certainty be identified. It appears that substantial changes in those regions were effected by the Flood. The word “paradise” is derived from the Persian and means simply a park or forest which surrounded the royal stronghold. Thus Nehemiah 2:8 speaks of a certain Asaph, the keeper of the royal forest (Heb., pardes). Similarly, Solomon in the sentence “I made me gardens and orchards” uses for orchards the same word paradises (Eccl. 2:5; comp. Song of Sol. 4:12). In the New Testament the word occurs only three times (Lk. 23:43; 2 Cor. 12:4; Rev. 2:7). But God had placed man in Paradise not for enjoyment only: he was also to be active and produce fruit; and thus the garden became for him the beginning of a great work. THE STARTING-POINT OF A WONDERFUL TASK “Be fruitful, and multiply, and [populate] the earth, and subdue it” (Gen. 1:28). In these words the royal appointment of the human race is declared. The capacity for this is the human spirit, which reveals itself above all in speech. What is a word? A sound which goes out of the mouth! Yet much more! A conveyor of a motion of the spirit, an instrument for manifesting the intelligence, a sign, a symbol of an activity of the souL Only through the gift of the spirit and speech does man becomes really man. Only thus is it that he receives the capacity of inward development. By speech Adam began in Paradise the exercise of his royal authority. At the very beginning, even before

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the creation of the woman, God Himself brought to him the creatures of the air and the earth, so that he, discerning their natures, should give them suitable names (Gen. 2:20). Thus was their “king” at the very beginning crowned by the Creator, and speech became, spiritually speaking, the “scepter of mankind.” Thus speech is not, as unbelieving philosophers assert, an invention which man first made little by little within human society for the purpose of mutual intercourse. For God “spoke” to Adam even before He had given him Eve as helper, and in like manner Adam, before the creation of the woman, made use of speech in the naming of the animals. Rather therefore is speech an “instinctive emanation of the spirit” which, “passing out through the mouth, is a perceptible revelation of the intelligence” (Plato). As an aptitude inherent in creation, the gift of speech was present in man from the beginning. The earth—at least exterior to Paradise—in spite of its creation and government by the Most High, was a region that had not yet entirely reached its goal. Indeed, it appears that the condition of disharmony that with the fall of Satan had invaded this earthly realm (Rom. 8:20-21) was still existing in the earth outside Paradise at the time man was created. This is proved by the command of God to man not only to cultivate the garden of Paradise, but to “guard” it; as also by the fact that his temptation came through a hostile power opposed to God, appearing on the earth and making use of an animal. Thus the extending of man’s rule on the earth, provided he remained subject to God, signified a drawing of all things earthly into the sphere of the moral purposes, an increasing resumption of the earth for God and therewith a progressive leading forward of the creation to redemption and perfection. Paradise was thus the fixed point from which the uplifting of Nature into the sphere of the spirit should take its beginning. In this regard Adam himself counted not only as an individual, but at the same time as the primary ancestor and representative of the whole of his descendants, then already seen in principle “in” him (1 Cor. 15:22; Rom. 5:1221). Therefore is it said first, “Be fruitful and multiply and [people] the earth,” and only afterward, “and subdue it to yourselves and rule it” (Gen. 1:28). So then the Paradise garden is beginning and end, start and goal, basis, program, and type of the whole task of man on earth. But this could be attained only by the man being placed in a moral conflict with the possibility of yielding to evil. Only in a conflict could he “conquer;” only so could he

obtain the crown of the “overcomer.” On the other hand Satan, the adversary of God, would not allow the work of his enemy, this man created pure and good, to go unattacked. Thus, at the very beginning, there forthwith opened a highly significant struggle, and Paradise became a battlefield of sorts. THE ARENA OF A MIGHTY CONFLICT With this its mysterious background it entered into the cosmic frame of universal super-history. Behind Paradise stands the star world of God and the greatest revolt that has ever taken place, the conflict between Satan and God. Foolish indeed is the objection that to eat of a forbidden fruit was no more than nibbling a dainty on the sly and so a small sin; for to the first pair it was not simply to test the flavor of the fruit, but they wished, behind the back of the Creator, by a forbidden way, to rise to equal exaltation with Him (Gen. 3:5). The prohibition as to eating from the tree was thus essentially spiritual, inasmuch as it established the absolute authority of God over men, and this as the true good. Through not eating the fruit of the tree, that is, through victory in the temptation, Adam’s moral consciousness, through the exercise of his freedom of choice, should attain to freedom of authority, and at the same time his service to the earth as its ruler should therewith become effective. Each victory over temptation would have ripened and deepened his inner life. More and more would he have recognized the good and seen through the evil, and would have grown out of the condition of childlike innocence into one of adult maturity, of victorious holiness, with an attainment of a perception of good and evil like to that of God. This tree of the knowledge of good and evil was become Adam’s altar and pulpit, from which he was to render due obedience to God, recognize God’s word and will and give Him thanks; and had Adam not fallen, this tree would have been like a temple and cathedral (Luther).

Thus the tree was a sign of the rule of God over man and the subjection of man to God. Even in the prohibition God wished far more to give than to withhold. The tree of knowledge had consequently in a double manner a divine purpose: it was a means in the hand of God for the education of man and by this for the transfiguration of the earth. But then came the sin. Man lost his Eden; and Paradise, this dwelling of delight and loveliness, became the scene of

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the Fall of man, and the whole creation came crashing down with it. THE PLACE OF A TRAGIC COLLAPSE The serpent had promised man the knowledge of good and evil, and in a distorted form he has kept his word. But “instead of perceiving the evil from the free height of the good he perceived the good from the deep abyss of the evil.” According to God’s plan, man through victory in temptation should have perceived what good is and what evil would be; but through sin he subsequently perceived what evil is and what good would have been. And because at the tree of knowledge he had wantonly sinned, he must now also be cut off from the tree of life (Gen. 3:22-23). Death entered the human race, and in Paradise began man’s sad tale of sorrow from that day to this. Yet man could never forget his native place. All peoples have sung of “Paradise Lost” and, hoping and waiting, have watched for its return. Paradise is still a goal of the human heart. THE LONGED-FOR GOAL OF A WAITING HUMANITY In fact their hopes will not be disappointed. The final history will return to the opening history, and as at the beginning of the ancient earth there existed an earthly paradise, so at last on the new earth there will be a heavenly paradise (Rev. 22:1-5). Moreover, after the Fall the Lord permitted the high calling of man to continue. Even now the glorifying of the earth and the perfecting of mankind still remain eternally connected. Therefore the Scripture intimates repeatedly a deep connection in the history of salvation between the earth and mankind. Thus Paradise corresponded to the man in innocence; the land under curse to him as the fallen man. So to Israel, as the typical people of God, corresponded the Promised Land as the type of the future Paradise. Similarly, to each moral decline of that people there corresponded a desolating of its land (Deut. 28:14ff.; Joel 2; Zeph. 1:14ff.), even as to each period of spiritual reviving there corresponded an uplifting of nature (Deut. 28:8ff.; Ps. 72:16-17). Likewise at the death of Christ the sun became darkened, and the renewing of the earth announced itself at His death by the earthquake.

Similarly with the increase of sin in the time of Antichrist there will come an increased distress over

nature (Rev. 16:1ff.); but in the Millennial kingdom nature will be blessed with the whole of mankind (Isa. 11; etc.). Finally, with the close of human history the old universe perishes as to its form (2 Pet. 3:10; Rev. 21), in order that, with the glorifying of redeemed humanity, there may come a glorified “new earth” (Rev. 21:1). Therefore “the earnest expectation of the creation awaits the manifestation of the sons of God” (Rom. 8:19), and therefore can it be brought to the sharing of “the liberty” only when the children of God are in the state of glory (Rom. 8:19-22). In Christ at last will mankind attain its blessed goal. He appeared on earth and completed His work. He humbled Himself, went to the cross and bore there the sins of mankind. Thereupon He ascended to heaven and now sits at the right hand of the Father, until at length He shall usher in the day on which He will present to Himself and to the Father His own people glorified (Eph. 5:27). Yet as the Son of Man He has perfected here the work which the Father gave Him to do. As Man He bore here the crown of thorns which the unredeemed land, standing under the curse, offered Him; and therefore as Man will He some day, as Head of His church, reign over the same earth, though then redeemed and freed from the curse (Eph. 1:22). The divine Redeemer became Man and as such redeemed the human ruler of the earth, united him then to Himself in eternal, inseparable oneness, and at the same time effected the redemption of the earth. This is the way which grace found. Thus the old vocation of man remains, and yet is it filled with wholly new content. In Christ as its head, mankind attains the purpose of its appointment. As the last Adam (1 Cor. 15:45, 21-22; Rom. 5:12-21) He is its center, crown, and star. But it is one of the deepest secrets of the counsel of the grace of God that, in order to reach His great objective, He did not set man aside when, through his sin and fall, he proved unworthy of his high vocation. “The gifts [by grace] and the calling [of God] are irrevocable” (Rom. 11:29). In spite of all, the perfecting of creation is to be bound up with man. Though its development may proceed along other ways than it would have done had man not fallen by sin, yet the final purpose remains. And because it remains the way and the goal of God that man shall be the channel of blessing for the creation, therefore can the devil be cast into the lake of fire, and there be a new heaven and a new earth after the conclusion of the revealed history of the redemption of mankind (Rev. 20:1; comp. 20:11-15).

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he believers meeting at Lakeside Bible Chapel in Lincolnton, GA (about a half hour’s drive northwest of Augusta) recently dedicated their new building to the glory of God at a special The chapel is located at 2034 Augusta Highway. meeting held November 16 at 3 PM. Sam Thorpe, a commended worker there, gave the message. Refreshments were served following in their fellowship hall. The new 9,100square-foot building also houses an auditorium, seven Sunday School rooms, a library, a kitchen, and a nursery. Lakeside Bible Chapel came out of the work at Believer’s Gospel Chapel in Augusta. In the mid-199Os, Sam Thorpe and Bemie O’Neill received the full blessing of the saints and elders at Believer’s to pioneer a new work in Lincolnton. In September of 1995, a group of seven families began meeting in the O’NeiIl home for a mid-week Bible study. Several months later, the group began Breaking Bread and having a Sunday School each Lord’s Day in the Thorpe home. Then, in September of 1996, the group moved to its first facility, a restaurant renovated for use as a chapel. Over the next several years, the fellowship grew to 80+. In order to accommodate further growth, the assembly broke ground on its new building in the winter of 2002. They began meeting in their new building on Sep. 21. “It is with much joy and anticipation that we look to the future for the Lord’s continued blessing as He adds to His body,” says brother Thorpe. May we be found faithfully planting and watering the ‘good seed’ and shepherding the sheep He has entrusted to our care.”

NEW OHIO ASSEMBLY Columbus Bible Chapel was formed in February 2003 with six families (12 adults and 11 children). Sunday meetings are held at Riverside Green Elementary School in Dublin, Ohio. For information please contact: Earl Kerns at 614-833-3771 Leslie Mathew at 614-763-0560 Thomas Pucheril at 614-766-0021 WINTER FL CONFERENCE Visit Park of the Palms on Lake Brooklyn in north central Florida, Jan. 17–Mar. 12, 2004. Eight weeks of excellent Bible ministry with the following speakers: Week 1: Mr. Steve Herzig (PA) Week 2: Mr. David Glock (IA)

Week 3: Dr. Boushra Mikhael (ON) Week 4: Dr. Paul Irwin (ON) Week 5: Dr. Donald Hubbard (FL) Week 6: Mr. Roy Hill (UK) Week 7: Dr. Daniel Smith (IA) Week 8: Mr. Jabe Nicholson (MI) Excellent conference accommodations. Well-built duplexes for retirees are also available. Please contact: Park of the Palms 706 Palms Circle Keystone Heights FL 32656-8016 352-473-4926 Fax: 352-473-6113 Email: pop7@earthlink.net Web: www.parkofthepalms.org STILL STUDYING IN ONT. The Oakville (ON) Bible study series for the spring 2004 season

continues with the general topic of “Egypt to Canaan.” All studies are held at Hopedale Bible Chapel, 342 Sherin Dr., Oakville, ON. Registration at 8:30 AM. Studies commence at 9:00 AM, and finish at noon. Speakers and topics still to come: Feb. 21, J. B. Nicholson (MI), Sinai; Mar. 20, R. Amos (NY), Sinai to Kadesh Barnea; Apr. 17, J. Mikhael (ON), Kadesh to Jordan. The Bible Study Program has been receiving requests for tapes of the studies. Tapes will only be sold in sets for a whole study year (i.e., no individual tapes). Funds should be advanced at the time of ordering ($60 CAN to cover the cost of the tapes, study notes and postage). Copies of the tapes from previous

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years can be made available on request, but tapes for the current study year will only be dispatched when the studies close in April 2003. A list of subjects already covered (by study year) can be made available. Send requests (with funds) to: Mr. H.W. Allison 3199 Sovereign Road Burlington, ON L7M 2W1 E-mail: hw.allison~sympatico.ca HOLIDAY TIME The saints at Holiday Gospel Assembly are happy to announce their annual Winter Bible Conference to be held Feb. 20 and 21, 2004 in Holiday, Florida. In the will of the Lord, speakers expected: Mike Attwood (GA) and Roy Hill (England). The theme of the conference will be “Assembly Distinctives.” The conference will convene on Friday evening at 7:30 to 9:00 PM and Saturday from 10:00

AM to 3:30 PM. Dinner served at noon on Saturday. For further info.: Lee Cappiello at 727-845-4572 email: elijacap@innet.com

William Burnett (ON). There will also be special children’s meetings. For more details/accommodations: Robert Fiebig at 708-448-2552

ADVANCE PLANNING The 49th Dallas Area Conference is scheduled for April 2-4, Lord willing. Steve Hulshizer (PA) and Alan Parks (SC) will be ministering the Word. The meetings will be held at Wheatland Bible Chapel, 1303 W. Wheatland Road, Duncanville, TX 75116. For information call: John Daniels at 972-424-9889 email: jandmdaniels@msn.com.

SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES Food Service Manager Verdugo Pines Bible Camp is a 200-bed camp/retreat center located in the Angeles National Forest, at 6200 ft. elevation in the San Gabriel Mountains of Southern California. They host summer and winter camps for local assemblies, as well as weekend retreats for various (Christ honoring) groups from Southern California. They serve 50 to 185 guests on the weekends from September to June, and average about 120 guest each day through the summer. They are currently seeking a couple or small family who can be commended by their local assembly to fill a position as Food & Environmental Services Manager.

CHICAGO CONFERENCE The Chicago area Spring Conference will be held, God willing, April 23, 24 and 25, 2004, at the Palos Hills Christian Assembly, 10600 South 88th Ave, Palos Hills, IL. Speakers expected are Doug Kazen (WA); Alan Gambel (Scotland), and

A MACEDONIAN CALL from GRANADA SAMUEL JEREMIAH This summer I had the privilege of spending time with the assemblies in Grenada, West Indies. My visit was in response to an invitation from eight assemblies, requesting that I might come to assist them in giving instructions to a number of new believers who came to the assemblies as a result of a joint gospel crusade. This crusade was held in a large tent in St. George, the capital. Two of the Lord’s servants from the United States brother Dwight Knight (MI) and brother Kenny Grant (GA) were invited by the brethren to conduct the crusade. According to the brethren responsible, there were about 125 new converts. They were introduced to the various assemblies and the brethren were determined to follow up with them as quickly as possible. I responded to their invitation and flew to Grenada with my wife, Maud. We spent about seven weeks with the saints and visiting with the various assemblies.

My assignment included teaching the new believers, speaking at the conference in Calivigny, ministering the Word at various assemblies around the island, and conducting a leadership seminar for elders, deacons, Sunday School teachers and Christian leaders both in the assemblies and the community. It was profitable experience. The Lord gave His blessing. I was especially encouraged by the enthusiasm and dedication of the young people. The future for assembly work in Grenada is very promising, but there is a real need for workers committed to the Word and to the truth of gathering to the NT way. Retired brethren whose pension is adequate for living in Grenada may be another option (Phil. 4:11). Contact: Samuel Jeremiah, 808 Somerset Place NW Washington, DC 20011 Phone: 202-726-9881

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Duties include menu planning, ordering and receiving shipments, safe food preparation and presentation. Food service experience would be helpful; leadership and organization skills a must. Opportunities are available during the summer to lead staff devotions and evening Bible studies. We will provide on-site and professional training. This requires individuals mature in their faith, who enjoy serving others and work well with people. A salary and a three-bedroom home with paid utilities is provided, with allowances for gasoline and food. If interested, send resume to: Verdugo Pines Bible Camp Attn: Executive Director PO Box 1989 Wrightwood, CA. 92397 Registered Nurse Pittsboro Christian Village, Pittsboro, NC, has an opening for a Registered Nurse. This person will work with the management of our Assisted Living and Care Unit. We are looking for a believer with a servant attitude. This is a salaried position with benefits. Please pray that God will provide wisdom as we seek to fill this position. If you are interested, please contact Dave Dewhurst at 919-542-3151 Fax: 919-542-5919 email: wddew@juno.com Camp Manager We are asked to pray with the Board of Trustees of Camp Iroquoina as they search for a camp manager. Camp Iroquoina is situated on over 200 acres in the Endless Mountains of Pennsylvania near Hallstead, 20 minutes from Binghamton, NY. Started by a group of men over 30 years ago with a vision of impacting

lives for Christ, the camp continues to do that, with programs that reach every age group throughout the year. If your own personal vision might include Camp Iroquoina, contact: Mr. Harry Neil at 609-890-0450 hbwlneil@earthlink.net Office Manager and Public Relations Personnel Christian Mission for the Deaf in Detroit, MI needs two godly workers: an Office Manager and a Public Relations Person. Each should know the Lord and show by daily living his/her commitment to the Lord; be self-supporting, depending on the Lord through the gifts of the Lord’s people. The Office Manager must be able to handle the daily correspondence with donors, deaf schools, and deaf ministries in Africa; know or be willing to learn sign language and deaf culture; prepare the quarterly newsletter and the annual financial report for the IRS and the auditor. If able, he may occasionally do Public Relations on deputation trips and at conferences. If a lady is chosen, she may be available for ladies’ meetings, conferences and retreats. The Public Relations Personnel must become familiar with the ministry of CMD; prepare display boards, video presentations, pamphlets, etc.; prepare schedule for talks about CMD in assemblies, at conferences, etc. If a woman is chosen, she may be available for ladies’ meetings, retreats, conferences, etc. More information about CMD is found at: www.cmdeaf.org Send testimony and resume to: CMD P.O. Box 28005 Detroit, MI 48228-0005 mail to: cmd@cmdeaf

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GOOD SEED INDEED D. M . PA N T O N Sir Bartle Frere, traveling in India, was amazed to find a small town in which the idol shrines and temples were empty, but the townsfolk professed the Christian faith. It transpired that some years earlier, one of the townsfolk had been given an old garment by an English resident, in a pocket of which, forgotten, lay a gospel portion with eight or nine tracts in the vernacular. The Life is not in the sower, but in the seed. Even if an infidel scattered the Scriptures, he would only be exploding his own battlements. For in scattering gospel literature we liberate thistledown, laden with precious seed, which, blown by the winds of the Spirit, floats over the world. The printed page never flinches, never shows cowardice; it is never tempted to compromise; it never tires, never grows disheartened; it travels cheaply, and requires no hired hall; it works while we sleep, and continues working long after we are dead. The printed page always catches a man in the right mood, for it speaks to him only when he is reading it; it always sticks to what it has said, and never answers back. Another powerful reason for using literature is that the printed page will reach those otherwise utterly unreached. Someone once gave four copies of H. L. Hasting's lecture on the inspiration of the Bible to four infidels at different times. All four were converted, and became ministers of the gospel. Nor can any limit be put to the extent of its possible influence. Luther wrote a pamphlet on Galatians which, falling into Bunyan's hands, led to his conversion; and, at time of writing, the 135th translation of Pilgrim's Progress has just been issued.

Q&A

WERE THE JEWS justified in rejecting Jesus as their long promised Messiah and the kingdom which He in all sincerity offered them? The charge is made that the Jews—who were most competent to judge the issue—denied His claims, while the Gentile Christians received Him. How do you respond to this?

IN HIS BOOK, Israel in Europe, G. F. Abbott, a professing Christian, writes: The Founder of Christianity, Himself a Jew, had appeared to His own people as the Messiah whom they eagerly expected, and with all the Divine prophecies concerning whose advent they were thoroughly familiar. They investigated His credentials, and, as a nation, they were not satisfied that He was what His followers claimed Him to be. Instead of remembering that His Jewish fellow-countrymen were, after all, the most competent to form a judgment of their new Teacher, as they had done in the case of other inspired Rabbis and prophets, the Christians proceeded to insult and outrage them for having come to the conclusion that He failed to fulfill the conditions required by their Scriptures (p. 43).

I am far from condoning the insults and outrages which have been heaped on Jews by professing Christians. Yet I cannot but protest against such misleading statements as the above. Owing to Israel’s previous alienation from God and the spirit of the prophets, and the long-continued process of self-hardening through which they had passed before His advent, the majority of the nation were far from being competent to form a right judgment of their new Teacher. This is shown by their dealings with the “other inspired Rabbis and prophets.” If the writer had studied Jewish history a little deeper, he would have found that it has always been the misfortune of the Jewish nation not only to follow false prophets and “Rabbis,” but to reject and to persecute God’s true prophets. On the last page of the Jewish Scriptures (2 Chronicles being the last book of the Hebrew Bible) the sacred historian, in summing up the causes of the calamities which ended in the destruction of the first Temple, says: All the chiefs of the priests and the people trespassed very greatly after all the abominations of the heathen; and they polluted the house of the Lord…And the Lord, the God of their fathers, sent to them by His messengers, rising up early and sending; because He had compassion on His people, and on His dwelling-place: but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, till there was no remedy.

Did they not say of Jeremiah, “This man is worthy to die,” and actually seek his destruction? (Jer. 26:11). Did they not say to Isaiah, “See not…prophesy not…get you out of the way…cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us”? (Isa. 30:10-11). Is it any wonder that they treated the greatest of the prophets in the same way? Of course, the Jews afterwards repented of their attitude to the true prophets, and so also will they yet do regarding Christ. It was not because Christ “failed to fulfill the conditions required by their Scriptures” that the majority of the Jewish nation, led by their blind leaders, rejected Christ; but because of their alienation from the spirit of this Scripture and because He failed to correspond with their own invented ideas about the Messianic kingdom. This rejection of Christ was foreknown by God, and foretold in the Scriptures centuries before. Moreover it was the occasion of the fulfillment of God’s purpose in providing a perfect atonement, not only for Israel, but for all. The fact of Israel’s rejection of Jesus, instead of being an argument against His Messiahship, must be regarded as an additional proof that He is indeed the one of whom “Moses in the law and the prophets did write.” Lastly, remember that not all Israel rejected Christ. The “as many as received Him” were in the first instance men of Israel; and it was through Jewish evangelists and disciples who had all sorts of “insults and outrages heaped upon them” by the majority of their people that the faith of Christ became known among the Gentiles. Considering that it was only through a small remnant of Israel that the purposes of God in and through that people were carried on, we have every right to regard the minority, who did receive and follow Christ—the “remnant according to the election of grace” as Paul calls them—as the true Israel, the link between the faithful in Israel in the past and the “all Israel” which after the great national repentance and conversion, “shall be saved.” D AV I D B A R O N

UPLOOK / JANUARY 2004

WORD STUDY

DEFINING OUR TERMS

What is the kingdom? The kingdom of God? The kingdom of heaven? Are they synonymous? Frederick A. Tatford E. Vine’s definition of the Greek word basileia, translated “kingdom” in the New Testament, is so informative that we quote it in full:

Basileia is primarily an abstract noun, denoting sovereignty, royal power, dominion, e.g. Rev. 17:18, translated “[which] reigneth,” lit., “hath a kingdom” (RV, margin); then, by metonymy, a concrete noun, denoting the territory or people over whom a king rules (e.g. Mt. 4:8; Mk. 3:24). It is used especially of the kingdom of God and of Christ. (Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, p. 294.)

The kingdom of God is (a) the sphere of God’s rule (Ps. 22:28; 145:13; Dan. 4:25, Lk. 1:52; Rom. 13:1-2). Since, however, this earth is the scene of universal rebellion against God (e.g. Lk. 4:5-6; 1 Jn. 5:19; Rev. 11:15-18), the kingdom of God is (b) the sphere in which, at any given time, His rule is acknowledged. God has not relinquished His sovereignty in the face of rebellion—demonic and human—but has declared His purpose to establish it (Dan. 2:44; 7:14; 1 Cor. 15:24-25). In the meantime, seeking willing obedience, He gave His law to a nation and appointed kings to administer His kingdom over it (1 Chron. 28:5). Israel, however, though declaring a nominal allegiance, shared in the common rebellion (Isa. 1:2-4) and, after they had rejected the Son of God (Jn. 1:11, cp. Mt. 21:33-43) were “cast away” (Rom. 11:15, 20, 25). Henceforth God calls upon men everywhere, without distinction of race or nationality, to submit voluntarily to His rule. Thus the kingdom is said to be “in mystery” now (Mk. 4:11), that is, it does not come within the range of the natural power of observation (Lk. 17:20), but is spiritually discerned (Jn. 3:3; cp. 1 Cor. 2:14). When, hereafter, God asserts His rule universally, then the kingdom will be in glory, that is, it will be manifest to all (cp. Mt. 25:31-34;

Phil. 2:9-11; 2 Tim. 4:1, 18). Thus, speaking generally, references to the kingdom fall into two classes: the first, in which it is viewed as present and involving suffering for those who enter it (2 Thess. 1:5), the second, in which it is viewed as future and is associated with reward (Mt. 25:34) and glory (Mt. 13:43). See also Acts 14:22. The fundamental principle of the kingdom is declared in the words of the Lord spoken in the midst of a company of Pharisees, “the kingdom of God is in the midst of you” (Lk. 17:21, margin), that is, where the King is, there is the kingdom. Thus at the present time and so far as this earth is concerned, where the King is and where His rule is acknowledged, is, first, in the heart of the individual believer (Acts 4:19; Eph. 3:17; 1 Pet. 3:15) and then in the churches of God (1 Cor. 12:3, 5, 11; 14:37; cp. Col. 1:27, where for “in” read “among”). Now the King and His rule being refused, those who enter the kingdom of God are brought into conflict with all who disown its allegiance, as well as with the desire for ease, and the dislike of suffering and unpopularity, natural to all. On the other hand, subjects of the kingdom are the objects of the care of God (Mt. 6:33) and the rejected King (Heb. 13:5). Entrance to the kingdom of God is by the new birth (Mt. 18:3; Jn. 3:5), for nothing that a man may be by nature, or can attain to by any form of self-culture, avails in the spiritual realm. And as the new nature, received in the new birth, is made evident by obedience, it is further said that only such as do the will of God shall enter into His kingdom (Mt. 7:21). There, however, the context shows that the reference is to the future, as in 2 Peter 1:10-11. (Cp. 1 Cor. 6:9-10; Gal. 5:21; Eph. 5:5.) The expression “kingdom of God” occurs four times in Matthew, “kingdom of the heavens” usually taking its place. The latter (cp. Dan. 4:26) does not occur elsewhere in the New Testament, but see 2 Timothy 4:18, “His heavenly kingdom.” This kingdom is identical with the kingdom of the Father (cp. Mt. 26:29 with Mk. 14:25) and with the

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DEFINING OUR TERMS

kingdom of the Son (cp. Lk. 22:30). Thus there is but one kingdom, variously described: of the Son of Man (Mt. 13:41), of Jesus (Rev. 1:9); of Christ Jesus (2 Tim. 4:1), “of Christ and God” (Eph. 5:5), “of our Lord and of His Christ” (Rev. 11:15), “of our God and the [authority] of His Christ” (Rev. 12:10), “of the Son of His love” (Col. 1:13, DARBY). Concerning the future, the Lord taught His disciples to pray, “Thy kingdom come” (Mt. 6:10, where the word is in the point tense, precluding the notion of gradual progress and development, and implying a sudden catastrophe as stated in 2 Thess. 2:8). At present, that a man is of the kingdom of God is not shown in the punctilious observance of ordinances, which are external and material, but in the deeper matters of the heart, which are spiritual and essential, viz. “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17, NKJV). With regard to the expressions “the kingdom of God” and “the kingdom of heaven” (lit., “of the heavens”) while they are often used interchangeably, it does not follow that in every case they mean exactly the same and are identical. The apostle Paul often speaks of the kingdom o£ God, not dispensationally but morally (e.g. in Rom. 14:17; 1 Cor. 4:20), but never so of the kingdom of heaven. “God” is not

KEYS Help in unlocking the THE KINGDOM

Kingdom

the

main

distinctions on this vital subject.

GOD

THE KINGDOM

The kingdom of God is the reign of God over the whole universe. Entrance comes only by being born again (Jn. 3:3). Thus this kingdom is spiritual and as far as the believers are concerned, it is within us. But it is God’s clear intention (there is no mystery about it, as there is with the kingdom of the heavens) that Christ shall reign in a golden age on earth, when the devil will be bound, the Bride will be manifest, and the Jewish people be all righteous. Then the shout will go forth in triumph: “Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down” (Rev. 12:10).

the equivalent of “the heavens.” He is everywhere and above all dispensations, whereas “the heavens” are distinguished from the earth until the kingdom comes in judgment and power and glory (Rev. 11:15, RV), when rule in heaven and on earth will be one. While, then, the sphere of the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven are at times identical, yet the one term cannot be used indiscriminately for the other. In the “kingdom of heaven” (32x in Matthew), heaven is in antithesis to earth, and the phrase is limited to the kingdom in its earthly aspect for the time being. It is used only dispensationally and in connection with Israel. In the “kingdom of God,” in its broader aspect, God is in antithesis to man or the world, and the term signifies the entire sphere of God’s rule and action in relation to the world. It has a moral and spiritual force and is a general term for the kingdom at any time. The kingdom of heaven is always the kingdom of God, but the kingdom of God is not limited to the kingdom of heaven, until in their final form, they become identical (e.g. Rev. 11:15, RV; Jn. 3:5; Rev. 12:10).

H E AV E N

Entrance is by professing Christ as King. Thus the kingdom of heaven includes both wheat and tares, both good and evil, until the end when the angels gather out “all that offends” God. At that point it will then be truly said, “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Mt. 18:3). According to Matthew, the kingdom of heaven involves only earth. It portrays what is happening on earth during the time when the King is away in heaven. Thus it is a dispensational truth, showing the tactics God will use to make Christ’s enemies His footstool and bring the whole earth to bow to heaven’s King.

UPLOOK / JANUARY 2004

DISTINCTIONS

THE CHURCH & THE KINGDOM We need to keep these related but distinct subjects clear in our thinking. William MacDonald excerpted from Here’s the Difference, pp. 119-124

t will probably come as a surprise to many readers to learn that the Church is not the same as the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven. In Christendom at large the Church and the kingdom are usually taken as synonymous. But failure to distinguish them leads to serious problems in both doctrine and practice. The Church is a unique society, unlike any other in God’s dealings with humanity. Christ is the Head, and all believers are members. Distinctions of race, social status, and sex are abolished in Christ; all become one in Him. The Church began at Pentecost and will be completed at the Rapture. It is spoken of as the body and bride of Christ, and is destined to reign with Him in His Kingdom and to share His glory eternally. But what about the kingdom of heaven? The kingdom of heaven is the sphere in which God’s rule is acknowledged. The word heaven is used figuratively to denote God; this is clearly shown in Daniel 4:25-26. In verse 25, Daniel said that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men. In the very next verse he says that Heaven rules. Thus the kingdom of heaven announces the rule of God, which exists wherever people submit to that rule. There are two aspects of the kingdom of heaven. The broadest aspect includes everyone who merely professes to acknowledge God as the Supreme Ruler. Outward Profession But its inner aspect includes only people who have been genuinely converted. We Inward may picture this by two Reality concentric circles, a small one inside a large one. The large circle is the sphere of profession; it includes the true and the false, the wheat and the tares. The inner circle includes only those who have been born again through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

By a comparison of all the biblical references to the kingdom, we can trace its historical development in five distinct phases. The Kingdom Predicted First of all, the kingdom was prophesied in the Old Testament. Daniel predicted that God would set up a kingdom that would never be destroyed and never would yield its sovereignty to another people (Dan. 2:44). He also foresaw the coming of Christ and His universal and everlasting dominion (Dan. 7:13-14; see also Jer. 23:5-6). The Kingdom at Hand Second, the kingdom was described as being at hand and present in the Person of the King. First, John the Baptist, then Jesus, then the disciples announced that the kingdom was at hand (Mt. 3:2; 4:17; 10:7). The King had arrived to present Himself to the nation of Israel. Jesus said, “…if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Mt. 12:28, NKJV). On another occasion He said, “…the kingdom of God is in the midst of you” (Lk. 17:21, RSV). It was present because the King had arrived on the scene. (While the last two references deal with the kingdom of God rather than the kingdom of heaven, we shall demonstrate below that the two terms are used interchangeably in the New Testament.) The Interim Kingdom Third, the kingdom is described in an interim form. After He was rejected by the nation of Israel, the King returned to heaven. The kingdom exists today in the hearts of all who acknowledge His kingship while the King is absent, and the moral and ethical principles of the kingdom are applicable to us today. This interim phase of the kingdom is described in the parables of Matthew 13. The Kingdom Manifested The fourth phase of the kingdom is its manifestation. This is the literal, thousand-year reign of Christ on earth, often called the Millennium. It was foreshadowed on the Mount of Transfiguration, when the Lord was seen in the glory of His coming reign (Mt. 16:28). Jesus referred to

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THE CHURCH AND THE KINGDOM

this kingdom when He said, “Many will come from east and kingdom of God. This can be demonstrated as follows: west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (Mt. 8:11, Kingdom of Heaven Kingdom of God NKJV). The Eternal Kingdom The fifth and final form will be the everlasting kingdom. It is described in 2 Peter 1:11 as “the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

In its outward aspect it includes all who are genuine subjects of the King, and also those who merely profess allegiance to Him. This is seen in the parable of the sower (Mt. 13:3-11), the parable of the grain of mustard seed (Mt. 13:31, 32), and the parable of the leaven (Mt. 13:33).

It too includes the real and the false. This is seen in the parable of the sower (Lk. 8:4-10), the parable of the grain of mustard seed (Lk. 13:18-19), and the parable of the leaven (Lk. 13:2021).

The Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of God The phrase “kingdom of heaven” is found only in Matthew’s Gospel. The term “kingdom of God” is found in all four As to its true, inward reality, the As to its true, inward reality, the Gospels. For all practical purposes there is kingdom of God can be entered kingdom of heaven can be no difference; the same things are said only by those who are born entered only by those who are about both. For example, in Matthew again (Jn. 3:3, 5). converted (Mt. 18:3). 19:23, Jesus said it would be hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. In Mark 10:23 and Luke 18:24 Jesus is quoted as saying the same thing with regard to the kingdom of The apostle Paul was referring to its inward reality God. In the same Matthew passage Jesus is then quoted as when he said that “the kingdom of God is not eating and saying virtually the same thing with regard to the kingdom drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirof God (compare Mt. 19:23 and v. 24). it” (Rom. 14:17). He also emphasized that “the kingdom of Other passages in which the kingdom of heaven and God is not in word but in power” (1 Cor. 4:20). the kingdom of God are used interchangeably are: The Kingdom and the Church Compare Matthew 4:17 with Mark 1:15 The distinction between the kingdom and the Church Compare Matthew 8:11 with Luke 13:29 may be seen in the following: The kingdom began when Compare Matthew 10:7 with Luke 9:2 Christ initiated His public ministry; the Church began on Compare Matthew 11:11 with Luke 7:28 the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2). The kingdom will continue Compare Matthew 13:11 with Mark 4:11 on earth till the earth is destroyed; the Church will continCompare Matthew 13:31 with Mark 4:30-31; Luke 13:18 ue on earth only until the Rapture; later it will return with Compare Matthew 13:33 with Luke 13:20-21 Christ at His Second Advent to reign with Him as His Compare Matthew 19:14 with Mark 10:14; Luke 18:16 bride. At the present time the people who are in the kingWe mentioned that the kingdom of heaven has an outdom in its true, inner reality are also in the Church; this is ward aspect and an inner reality. The same is true of the the only respect in which the two overlap.

IF YOU DON’T HAVE THIS BOOK, YOU NEED IT IF YOU DO HAVE IT, YOU NEED TO READ IT We can’t afford sloppy thinking in these days of “designer” religion and feel-good Christianity. This book gives you the ability to see important biblical distinctions like: Three Tenses of Salvation, Position & Practice, Relationship & Fellowship, Judicial & Parental Forgiveness, The Two Natures plus 22 other key chapters. Available from GFP (see ordering info. on page 31).

UPLOOK / JANUARY 2004

WO R L D V I E W T H E C H U R C H • T H E C U LT U R E • T H E C O N F L I C T

WHO WEEPS FOR THE CITIES?

choes of Service, a service organization serving assembly missionaries commended from the UK (similar to CMML and MSC in North America) has just issued their Prayer Guide for 2004. The year’s theme is “World Cities.” In fact the inside cover broadens the vision with the words, “Mission challenge for the 21st Century.” The January issue of Echoes magazine explains: “We are excited about this [theme], for we believe this is the major challenge facing world mission in the 21st Century.” Editor Ian Burness provides some startling facts in his lead article. He writes: The world has become a world of cities, as migration continues from rural areas to the sprawling metropolises where people search for employment, prosperity and the hope of a better life. The reality is frequently different, with the growth of shanty towns, and social deprivation for the dispossessed. Urbanization has been a 20th Century phenomenon, and at the end of that century just under half the world’s population lived in cities. The UN estimate is that in the next decade virtually all population growth will take place in the urban areas of the world. During that period the urban population will increase by 2.1 billion people, nearly as many as the total that will be added to the world population, i.e., 2.2 billion. By the year 2000 there were 410 cities with more than 1 million inhabitants, compared to 20 at the beginning of the 20th century. In these cities live more than 2 billion urban poor, at varying levels of deprivation. There are now 19 world cities with over 10 million inhabitants. This number is predicted to grow over the next ten years to 23. In current terminology these are called ‘mega-cities.’” He continues, “Before World War II, mega-cities were a phenomenon of industrialized countries. Today the greatest numbers are concentrated in developing or newly industrialized countries. Of the current top 20 cities, only three lie in what was the traditional industrialized world: New York, Los Angeles and Paris. Eleven are found in Asia, three in Latin America and two in Africa.” He concludes: “They are the most neglected mission field and perhaps the hardest. To a large extent, Christians have retreated from them, although city populations are now receiving greater attention as some move in to reach the poor in a variety of ways and share the good news of Christ…While not neglecting rural areas…more attention must be given to urban centers.” For more information, visit their website: www.echoes.org.uk

GUESS THE TOP 20? According to the UN World Urbanization Prospects, 2001, here is the population (in millions) of the top 20 cities in the year 2000: Tokyo 26.44 Mexico City 18.06 São Paulo 17.96 New York 16.73 Bombay 16.08 Los Angeles 13.21 Calcutta 13.05

Shanghai Dhaka Delhi Buenos Aires Jakarta Osaka Beijing Rio de Janeiro Karachi Metro Manila Seoul Paris

12.88 12.51 12.44 12.02 11.01 11.01 10.83 10.65 10.03 9.95 9.88 9.63

Cairo 9.46 According to the UN, here are the estimated rankings in 2015: Tokyo 27.19 Dhaka 22.76 Bombay 22.57 São Paulo 21.22 Delhi 20.88 Mexico City 20.43 New York 17.94 Jakarta 17.26

www.uplook.org / JANUARY 2004

Calcutta Karachi Lagos Los Angeles Shanghai Buenos Aires Metro Manila Beijing Rio de Janeiro Cairo Istanbul Osaka

16.74 16.19 15.96 14.49 13.59 13.18 12.57 11.67 11.54 11.53 11.36 11.01

THINE

is the

“Sit Thou at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool” (Ps. 110:1).

1 FROM ETERNITY…

Only a sovereign God like ours could give men and devils their wills and still do His good pleasure in the end

“OVER ALL, GOD BLESSED

1. Christ, planner of the ages, by whom and for whom are all things, was “slain before the foundation of the world.” 2. Satan will bow his knees, rather than as in Mt. 4:8-10. 3. At first lower than the angels, by grace we shall rule as kings. 4. Judah’s rightful king is now rejected, but soon to be received. 5. The kingdom was prophecied, and then introduced by John.

“How art thou fallen SATAN seeks a from heaven, throne O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground” (Isa. 14:12)

“A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return”

(Luke 19:12).

The battle line is clearly drawn between the “elect angels” (1 Tim. 5:21) loyal to God and

“The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever” (Rev. 11:15).

“The god of this world” “the prince of the power of the air” Man held in bondage under Satan’s rule through fear of death Man created to be

God’s REGENT

EARTH: GOD’S POSSESSION, MAN’S STEWARDSHIP CHRIST’S INHERITANCE, ISRAEL’S PROMISE

(Ps. 8:5-6)

THE FALL of MAN

Shem Japheth Ham

UNITED KINGDOM THE KINGS OF JUDAH

HELL,

KINGDOM DIVIDED

Israel’s

TIMES of

ABRAHAM’S BOSOM

THE PLACE OF TORMENT

It seems that Eden was relocated as paradise, the temporary abode of the OT believing dead

Made for the devil and his angels. Those “that kept not their first estate” reserved “in chains of darkness.”

Between this place sometimes called “Abraham’s bosom,” and hell there was a “great gulf fixed.” It appears that the thief at Calvary was the last one to be promised a place in paradise. Now the believer’s hope is in heaven (“the third heaven”) which Paul says is the same as paradise, and Eden’s tree of life is there (see Lk. 16:19-31; with Lk. 23:43; 2 Cor. 12:4; Rev. 2:7).

UPLOOK / JANUARY 2004

K I NG DOM “But unto the Son He saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever” (Heb. 1:8).

FOREVER” (Rom. 9:5)

Thus, in the end, Christ will be seen as:

…TO ETERNITY (Isa. 57:15)

the rebels

The Lord from heaven (1 Cor. 15:47) Israel’s final King of Judah (Zech. 6:13) The Saviour of all who believe (Acts 4:12) The Judge of all men (Jn. 5:22) The Church’s Bridegroom (Rev. 19:7) The Prince of the kings of earth (Rev. 1:5) The Desire of all nations (Hag. 2:7) Conqueror of all our foes (Col. 2:15)

the Saviour descends

the Spirit descends

…and went to God

He came from God…

Jehovah’s vindicated Servant (Isa. 52:13)

who have sided with Satan in this “long war.”

The HEAVENLIES

“Finished!” Israel’s True KING

Defeated…

Realm of the believer’s blessedness (Eph. 1:3; 2:6) and battles (Eph. 6:12). It is where we will meet the Lord, declaring the triumph of grace.

“and his doom is sure”

11. Christ comes to save the remnant, defeat the foe, and judge the nations. 12. A 1000-year reign of Christ on earth. Israel at last will keep her jubilee. 13. Satan is loosed and leads a final rebellion. 14. New earth and heavens where all is right. 15. Heaven, earth & hell bow to Christ the Lord.

12 10

The CHURCH AGE

13 14

remnant returns…is scattered

the GENTILES

until Christ’s ascension

Roman Empire vanquished …then restored…then judged

6. The King proved His claims but did not fit their own ideas. 7. He was rejected as their king: “We have no king but Caesar.” 8. The Church, though distinct, is a key part of the kingdom. 9. The Rapture: the next big event on God’s (and our) calendar. 10. Seven years’ Tribulation: punitive, restorative, evangelistic.

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DEATH & HELL cast into the LAKE of FIRE 17

Q U O TA B L E S

LONG LIVE THE KING! “And of His kingdom there shall be no end” (Lk. 1:33).

His tormentors didn’t mean it, but they glorified the King even in their mockery. What better scepter to give Him than a reed of whom it was written: “A bruised reed shall He not break”? Could there be a more eloquent way to show Him as the curse-bearer than to make Him a crown of platted thorns? And how fitting to dress in a secondhand coat the One who “laid aside His garments” of glory for us! Why, even anointing Him with spittle (Deut. 25:9) reminds us of the Kinsman Redeemer willing to mar His own inheritance to win us!

“

HE SHALL BEAR THE GLORY

ZECHARIAH 6:13 Sing to God, my spirit, sing! Where the thorn-wreath pressed His brow Joyful praise and worship bring! Sits the priestly miter now; He whom sinners mocked as King— With the many, crowns, O how He shall bear the glory. He shall bear the glory. He in lowly guise who came, Bore the spitting and the shame; His the highest place and name He shall bear the glory.

On the rainbow circled throne ‘Mid the myriads of His own— Nevermore to weep alone, He shall bear the glory.

He who wept above the grave, He who stilled the raging wave, Meek to suffer, strong to save, He shall bear the glory.

MAN of slighted Nazareth— KING who wore the thorny wreath— SON obedient unto death He shall bear the glory.

He who Sorrow’s pathway trod, He that every good bestow’d— Son of Man, and Son of God, He shall bear the glory.

His the grand “eternal weight”; His the priestly-regal state; Him the Father maketh great— He shall bear the glory.

He who bled with scourging sore, Thorns and scarlet meekly wore; He who every sorrow bore He shall bear the glory.

He who died to set me free; He who lives and loveth me; He who comes—whom I shall see; Jesus only, only He—

Monarch of the smitten cheek, Scorn of both the Jew and Greek, Priest and King, divinely meek— He shall bear the glory.

He shall bear the glory.

—W I L L I A M B L A N E from his collection of poems entitled The Atonement

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”

My heart is inditing a good matter: I speak of the things which I have made touching the king: my tongue is the pen of a ready writer. Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into Thy lips: therefore God hath blessed Thee for ever…In thy majesty ride prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness…Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the scepter of Thy kingdom is a right scepter…All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made Thee glad. Kings' daughters were among Thy honorable women: upon Thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir. Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father's house; So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty: for he is thy Lord; and worship thou Him. —FROM PSALMS 45

INTRODUCTORY

THE KINGDOM IN MATTHEW 13

Want to read more on the subject? This is taken from the author’s book, God’s Sacred Secrets. T. Ernest Wilson careful consideration of the teaching of our Lord in the Gospel by Matthew would show a dramatic change at the end of chapter 12 and the beginning of chapter 13. Up to this point the King has been presenting His credentials to the nation of Israel. But after careful examination of those claims by the leaders of the nation, He was deliberately rejected. They said His miracles were the work of Satan and not of the Son of God. He calls this the unpardonable sin and turns away from the nation as such. The unpardonable sin of Matthew 12:31, also called the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, is the national rejection of Jesus of Nazareth as the Jewish Messiah. From this point on, His ministry changes. Instead of plain statement and teaching, He uses parable and metaphor. Those who are anxious to learn and know the truth will probe and inquire and come to understand. But the indifferent will be judicially blinded. This blinding is the condition of the nation of Israel until the present day. It is the subject of one of the New Testament mysteries in Romans 11. Matthew 13 is a key passage in the interpretation of the New Testament. It should be studied carefully along with the seven feasts of Jehovah in Leviticus 23 and the seven churches of Asia in Revelation 2 and 3. These three passages have something in common in that they give a chronological outline of God’s purposes in relation to Israel, to the kingdom, and to the Church of the present era, respectively. A clear understanding of their teaching would be an education in itself in systematic theology. The kingdom of God is one of the important themes of Holy Scripture, but the term “kingdom of heaven” is found only in the Gospel by Matthew, where it occurs twenty-six times. The kingdom is different from the Church, although often confused with it, and by many regarded as the same. Matthew’s Gospel shows the difference very

plainly. The kingdom is a much wider concept than the Church, and is found in the Old Testament, long before the Church came into being. The kingdom will continue until the end of time and into eternity, when God will be all in all. The Church in its outcalling and testimony is confined to the present era of grace. Is there any difference between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven? The fact that some of the parables in Matthew are called parables of the kingdom of heaven, and the same parables are designated parables of the kingdom of God in Mark and Luke, would seem to indicate that the terms are interchangeable. Many Bible teachers emphasize this point. Without wishing to be dogmatic, I would point out that there are very few synonymous terms in the Word of God. It would appear that, in the overall picture, the kingdom of God is a wider term than the kingdom of heaven, and is universal in its scope. The kingdom of heaven, as outlined in Matthew 13, suggests that the rejected King is absent from earth and is working out His purposes from heaven. The kingdom of God is both a spiritual and a material kingdom, and is composed of those who gladly and willingly bow to God’s authority and control, while the kingdom of heaven is intershot with revolt and sinister influences that seek to undermine and destroy God’s sovereignty and His universal dominion. But one day these infernal movements will be rooted out and the kingdom of heaven will merge into the kingdom of God. The seven parables of Matthew 13 describe in a systematic way how these two movements work side by side, but will result in the ultimate triumph of God’s glorious purposes of grace for man and the whole universe. Perhaps this is the reason why the two terms, describing the kingdom at this period, overlap and run side by side. The kingdom of God reaches back into eternity past, and stretches forward into eternity to come, when the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of our God and His Christ. But at the present time the King is in exile,

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TITLE OF ARTICLE

rejected in the world His hands had made; but He reigns from His royal and priestly throne in heaven, and in the hearts of His loyal subjects on earth. The seven parables of Matthew 13 are divided into two groups. The first four were spoken publicly to the multi-

tude by the seaside; the last three were given privately to the disciples in the house. The first group describe how Satan is working to destroy the work of God. The second, given in the seclusion of the house, show how the operation of the purpose of God will ultimately triumph.

The 7 Parables of the Kingdom 1. 2. 3. 4.

The Sower and the Seed: Here the Lord is a Husbandman sowing the good seed of the Word in the hearts of men. Note four kinds of soil: wayside, stony, thorns, good. Four prepositions: by, upon, among, into. The Lord interprets the parable in verses 18-23. Note that the ground is the person; the plants are the evidence that the Word has taken some effect. Only time and the sun’s heat (difficulties) will prove who has received the Word superficially or not. The threefold opposing of the Word: the devil, the flesh, and the world. The Wheat and the Tares: Here Satan tries another tactic to undermine the work of the husbandman. Good seed is sown in the field, but while men slept the enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat. Tares are the bearded darnel or rye grass, which resembles wheat so closely as to be almost indistinguishable from it while it is growing. The harvest is the ultimate test of that which is genuine wheat and that which is false and poisonous darnel. One of Satan’s chief weapons to undermine the work of God is imitation. The Mustard Tree: A garden herb grows into a monstrosity, a haven for the fowls—interpreted in v. 4 as Satan and his emissaries (cf. Dan. 4:20). Another satanic attack is by unnatural sensational expansion. In the description of Babylon (Rev. 17–18), that organized religion has become the habitation of demons and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird (Rev. 18:2). The birds which once took away the good seed, and then found safe haven in the tree’s branches, are now confined in the system they helped to develop. The Leaven: Many speak of the leaven of the gospel permeating society and gradually transforming it. But Christ’s millennial reign will be ushered in by cataclysmic judgments (Rev. 6–19). Leaven represents evil working in the dark (cf. Mk. 8:15; Mt. 16:6; 1 Cor. 5:6-8; Gal. 5:9). Three measures of meal equals an ephah (cf. Gen. 18:6; Lev. 2; Jud. 6:19; 1 Sam. 1:24). The fine flour would represent the perfection of Christ. This parable, then, would speak of the subtle infiltration of heretical teaching concerning His Person. The first four parables given at the seaside to the multitude show how the devil is opposing the work of God.

5. 6. 7. 20

The last three parables given in the house (disciples only) show that the work of God will ultimately triumph. The Treasure in the Field: Israel will be prominent in the kingdom. The promises made to Abram (Gen. 15) and David (2 Sam. 7) will be fulfilled. “Peculiar treasure” occurs five times in the OT (Ex. 19:5; Deut. 14:2; 26:18; Ps. 135:4; Eccl. 2:8; Mal. 3:17; cf. 1 Pet. 2:9). The words, hid, found, hideth, give a concise history of Israel: found in Egypt, redeemed by blood, but, rejecting Christ, buried again in the field of the world. The Lord Jesus, Israel’s Messiah, will bring them again to prominence when they receive Him as such. The Pearl of Great Price: The merchantman is Christ, selling all that He has (2 Cor. 8:9). The pearl is the Church, composed of Jew and Gentile, an organic unity called out of the sea of the nations. When irritating foreign material is covered by a precious substance, the pearl is formed as the answer to the wound in its side. How graphically this jewel (the only one whose value is not increased by cleaving it) illustrates the work of our Lord in relation to His Church. We read that each gate of the bride-city (Rev. 21) is of one pearl. The Fishing Net: The fisherman and his net illustrate gospel preaching. When the Church is removed by rapture, the gospel of the kingdom will be preached (Mt. 24:14). Note: this parable applies particularly to the end of the age, 13:49. There will be a mighty ingathering, but. like other mass movements, there will be both genuine and false. At the coming of the King, those who have only a profession will be separated from those who have life (vv. 49-50). Even so, “a great multitude that no man can number” will be gathered in.

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SC I E NC E & YO U V I S I B L E C R E AT I O N S H O W I N G U S

THE

INVISIBLE GOD

OUR GOD DOESN’T MAKE JUNK T

his year is the 50th anniversary of the double helix design of the DNA molecule. On top of this the Human Genome Project announced it has completed a “final draft” of man’s DNA sequence. Yet even as they celebrate their burgeoning knowledge in the field of genetics, they are once again discovering how much they have to learn. In a recent Scientific American journal (Nov 2003), the author, Wayt Gibbs, explained “the central dogma of molecular genetics.” He writes: “DNA makes RNA, RNA makes protein, and proteins do almost all the real work of biology.” But, points out John S. Mattick, director of the Institute for Molecular Bioscience at the U. of Queensland, Australia, the protein-coding sections account for less than 2 percent of the DNA in human chromosomes. Three billion or so pairs of bases in nearly every cell “are there for some other reason.” Yet these long sections of DNA between the protein-producing genes were, as Mattick puts it, “immediately assumed to be evolutionary junk.” “The assumption,” writes author Gibbs, “was too hasty.” Mattick concludes, “Indeed, what was damned as junk because it was not understood may, in fact, turn out to be the very basis of human complexity.”

FLOATS LIKE A BUTTERFLY It is a rare thing to open a secular book in any realm of science today and find a respected author speak up for special creation. But Bernard d’Abrera, regarded as the world’s most renowned lepidopterist (butterfly expert), is an outspoken critic of evolution, which he says requires “blind religious faith.” His 350-page book, The Concise Atlas of Butterflies of the World, is called concise because, while including illustrations of almost every genus of butterfly known, it is actually a précis of his 24-volume set! His comments on evolution are hard hitting. For exam-

ple, “Evolutionary Man, having slandered and libeled Biblical Man into impotent irrelevance, is now leading mankind backwards down atavistic pathways into a terrifying autodemolition of civilization and all that is transcendentally good.” So there. —Creation, Jun-Aug 2003 NO LEG TO STAND ON According to the Orange County (California) Register, the fossilized skull of a whale unearthed in that state has paleontologists scratching their heads. The September 9, 2003 article quotes them as saying that this prehistoric whale “may have had small rear legs, though this remains speculative because the rear part of the whale was not found.” Really? www.uplook.org / JANUARY 2004

LISTENING FOR ALIENS Speaking of California, Jack Welsh, astronomer from U. Berkeley, is busy installing more than 350 antenna dishes to act as one radio telescope at the Hat Creek Radio Observatory in Shasta County. With big private funding (Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen pledged $11.5 million), they are preparing to scan the heavens for special signals. What signals, you ask? Messages being sent by extra-terrestrial civilizations! U.S. News & World Report comments (under a subheading “Giggle Factor”): “While there’s not a scintilla of evidence for aliens, the search goes on with more energy than ever.” The price tag? $30 million.

P R E A C H I T, B R O T H E R !

BRING BACK THE KING! The world’s best kept secret? It’s time to get the word out! Vance Havner uring the last sad years of King David, Absalom, his handsome and well beloved son, rebelled against his father. King David had been forced to leave his throne and flee for safety. It was not his first experience as a fugitive, but it was his saddest. Absalom, however, was slain, and now it is time for the King to return. It is the subject of conversation throughout all Israel. David is particularly concerned that he be invited to return by his own tribe of Judah. He wants to come back by invitation in kingly fashion, and he has to send word to the priests to speak to the elders saying, “Why are ye the last to bring the king back to his house?” (2 Sam. 19:11). It must have been embarrassing to David. His own tribe, Judah, especially the priests and elders, should have taken the initiative to invite the king back to his throne. They had to be prodded by the king himself to do their obvious duty.

THERE IS NO SHORTAGE OF ABSALOMS Leaving the story, let us apply this text to David’s greater Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. He too was of the tribe of Judah. He came to his own people and His own received Him not. But He is to return one day to reign, not only on

David’s throne, but as King of kings and Lord of lords. At present He is away, but before He went away, He promised to return. During His absence, there have been many would-be usurpers. We have been plagued with plenty of Absaloms. We have joined with this upstart and that, and the pages of history are filled with the scheming, rebellion, and delusion of pretenders to the throne, and this will continue until the very last usurper, Antichrist himself, shall claim to be King of kings. Of one thing we are certain. Every one of these counterfeits is doomed to defeat. The higher they climb the harder they fall, and there never will be peace and safety on this wretched earth until He shall return, whose right it is to reign. Return He will, and it could happen at any time. WHO WANTS THE KING BACK? Just here emerges one of the saddest questions in our modern world. If the King of Glory is to return to reign forever, one would think such wondrous news would be on every tongue. One would expect the street corners to buzz with such a topic of conversation, and that all our gatherings would find men and women discussing such a momentous event. Alas, one feels like walking the streets and asking chattering groups, all excited over trifles and facts, “Why speak ye not a word of bringing back the King?”

“Why speak ye not a word of bringing back the King?”

“Why are ye the last to bring the king back to his house?”

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BRING BACK THE KING!

What is the explanation of this phenomenon? When Jesus came to earth the first time, there were three great world forces: the Roman world of government, the Greek world of culture, and the Hebrew world of religion; yet none of these was looking for the King. The mighty Roman world of government had accomplished wonders. It had welded the world together to some degree, linked much of it with highways, and maintained some semblance of law and order; but government had failed to meet the problem of humanity wallowing in iniquity. The Greek world had created a culture of which it has been said, “Two centuries of ancient Athens produced men who, in statesmanship, philosophy, letters, oratory and art, set standards for all subsequent time.” Yet the world was reeking in corruption when Jesus came. The Hebrew world had given to man the worship of one God, the Mosaic law, and the highest standards of righteousness. Yet the world knew not God and worshiped gods of its own. Into such a world the King came, only to be rejected; yet as He died on Calvary His superscription, written in the three languages of these three worlds—Roman, Greek and Hebrew—proclaimed Him King. Today we have the world of government, the world of culture, and the world of religion. It is time for the King to return, but you will listen in vain to hear any of these worlds speak a word of bringing back the King. IS GOVERNMENT CALLING FOR THE KING? Do you catch the faintest whisper of it from the world of government? Statesmen and diplomats huddle the world around to plot and plan the world of tomorrow, but the only one who can unscramble this mess and assemble this worldwide jigsaw puzzle is left outside the door. In the United States Senate, or the conferences of the United Nations, or the get-togethers of the world’s statesmen— why speak they not a word of bringing back the King? Certainly the world of government has failed to solve our problems. We merely exchange one dilemma for another. We get rid of this dictator and that, but we are on our way to the worst tyrant of all time. Man is not capable of governing himself, but will not submit to the government of the Son of God. DOES CULTURE WANT HIM BACK? Listen to the modern world of culture, and you will never hear a word of bringing back the King. Are they looking for Him in our universities? Is modern education

getting ready to welcome Him? If you should rise in any academic convocation and propose the return of Christ as the solution of the world’s headache and heartache, you would be viewed as a crackpot; yet you need only to read the literature, look at the art, and study the culture of this age to know that man, by his wisdom, has not only failed to know God, but he has descended to a moral and spiritual state beneath the dignity of the beasts of the field. The world of culture flounders in a cesspool of iniquity. WHAT ABOUT THE WORLD OF RELIGION? Is the modern world of religion looking for the King? Millions in heathendom bow before sticks and stones. Other millions have their great religious systems with no place for Jesus. The world of religion has not solved the need of the soul of man, for there are more lost souls today than in all history. You will remember that King David was concerned that His own tribe of Judah should welcome him home. Today one feels like turning to the Jews, to that nation “of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came…” (Rom. 9:5), to ask them, “Why speak ye not a word of bringing back your king?” There was a day when their King was on trial and their chief priests cried, “We have no king but Caesar” (Jn. 19:15). From that day to this, they have known one Absalom after another. They have suffered as no other race on God’s earth. This poor plagued people shall yet look on Him whom they have pierced and receive Him as their sovereign. Some of them as individuals so look for Him now, but there must come a day when all Israel shall be saved, for David’s Son must reign in Jerusalem. SURELY THE CHURCH CALLS FOR HIM! I press on to the saddest of all applications of our text. If the world has refused the King up to now, certainly one would expect to find plenty of conversation in the Church about bringing back the King. It certainly was a lively subject among the early Christians. Alas, one can sit in many a mighty religious assembly, day after day, and never know that the King is coming back again. One may listen to hours of addresses and discussions about the fix we’re in, hearing religious panaceas proposed ad infinitum, and never will a word spoken of bringing back the King. Here is the saddest spectacle in the Church today, and one feels like standing in many a gathering of the King’s own people to ask, “Why speak ye not a word of bringing back the King?” Let one speak of the King’s return and he is viewed out of the corner of the eye suspiciously, as though he had

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brought up a troublesome subject. Some brother is sure to remark that it is a controversial subject. Well, any doctrine of the Christian faith is controversial. Other Bible themes have not been ignored because they are controversial.

of the doctrine; but usually when men love to speak of bringing back the King, they love His appearing. The early Christians looked for His return. Preparation was accompanied by expectation. It is true that Jesus did not return during their lifetime, but no one is mistaken when he lives as though He might come anytime. It is always proper to live looking for that blessed hope.

HIS RETURN IS HARDLY A MINOR ISSUE To be sure, as with other doctrines, some have gone overboard on the matter and have majored on prophecy, until they need to be balanced as did the Thessalonians of THE BLESSED HOPE HAS BLESSED RESULTS old. I am also persuaded that with most Christians today These believers lived in the light of the Lord’s return. the devil has never had more success with any of his What good does it do to speak much of His appearing? designs than with this, and that he has silenced the lips of Well, for one thing, “…every man that hath this hope in him believers on bringing back the King. It is almost inconpurifieth himself, even as he is pure” (1 Jn. 3:3), and we are ceivable that any truth as clear and as frequent from the sadly in need of cleansing ourselves from all filthiness of lips of our Lord should be on so few Christian lips today. It the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. is amazing that the blessed hope which shows up on That is what revival means and surely we need revival. almost every page of the New Testament, and which was Also, when men love His appearing and look for Him, so great a part of early they make good witnesses, Christian faith, should be Why say ye not a word of bringing back the King? missionaries, and evangeignored as though it were a Why speak ye not of Jesus and His reign? lists. All one needs to do to questionable quirk. In our Why tell ye of His Kingdom and of its glorious reign prove that is to check the church gatherings we easi- But nothing of His coming back again? list of God’s servants who ly get hot and bothered Do you not want to look upon His loving face? have been most greatly used and talk aplenty about Do you not want to see Him glorified? as ambassadors of Christ matters of far less impor- Would you not hear His welcome and in that very place and fishers of men. tance. We are masters at Where years ago we saw Him crucified? bewailing the times, disBONE OF HIS BONE O hark! Creations’ groans, how can they be assuaged? cussing the status quo, and It is indeed a strange and How can our bodies know redemptive joy? debating ways and means. sinister silence that has fallHow can the war be ended in which we are engaged The devil is happy to have en over so much of the it so, if it will keep us from Until He come the lawless to destroy? Church today, that so many speaking a word of bring- “Why speak ye not a word of bringing back the King?” who name the name of ing back the King. Christ speak not a word of Someone may ask, “But what good would it do to talk His return. We can understand why the world is dumb about the King’s return? That is God’s business and He because it is also blind—blinded by the god of this age to will take care of it in His own time and way. All that we can all the revelation of God. But remember that David’s greatdo is to be ready.” That is a very popular argument today est worry, in the passage with which we started, was that but the New Testament Christians were not content merehis own kinsmen of Judah should be the last to welcome ly to be ready. They loved the King’s return; they looked him. Did you notice the words he used? “Ye are my brethren, for it, and they lived in the light of it. my bones and my flesh” (2 Sam. 19:12). Does not that There is no use denying it: one fails to find in much of remind you of another verse, “For we are members of His our religious world today the love of His appearing. What body, of His flesh, and of His bones” (Eph. 5:30). If it grieved we love usually manages to get into our conversation. David that his kinsmen in the flesh should be so slow to What is down in the well of the heart will come up in the speak of his return, what must our Lord think of us, the bucket of the speech. When men refuse to speak of bringmembers of His Body, when we speak not a word to weling back the King, either they do not love it or they are not come Him again? prepared for it. There is indeed an academic speculation May God loosen the strings of our tongues and make us about the doctrine that can be almost as cold as the denial all members of His reception committee!

UPLOOK / JANUARY 2004

BOOK S H E L F

TREND SETTERS • LIFE CHANGERS • TIMELESS CLASSICS

BE HOLY: The Forgotten Command by William Macdonald Publisher: John Ritchie Ltd., 40 Beansburn, Kilmarnock, Scotland ISBN 0 94635137 6 Paper, 236 pp. $10.99US

he command to “be holy” is inseparably bound to a biblical understanding of the Christian life, yet many believers today view holiness as an optional status achieved by only a few godly saints—a “pie-in-the-sky” state of being reserved for the eternity. Mr. MacDonald brings the concept of holiness to ground level where we all live: in the workplace, the neighborhood, the family and among the gathering of the saints. The thirty-one chapters, averaging eight pages each, cover a wide range of topics, more comprehensive than most books on this subject. Beginning with Christlikeness, the book moves on to give a clear view of God’s and man’s role in sanctification. He then discusses Satan’s devices and the believer’s armor, the two natures, the filling of the Spirit, man’s conscience, and biblical principles for living pure lives. Doctrine and practice are coupled all through the book as the author illustrates both the theological concepts of holiness as well as the practical decisions we need to make if we are to live in the world, yet not be of it. He includes such topics as controlling your temper, your tongue, your thoughts, your body, and the lusts of your mind. Nor does he sidestep several other controversial areas such as birth control, politics, business and personal ethics, gambling, chemical addictions, and being overly obsessed with self. The book from cover to cover is full of quotes from men of God, of the past and present generation. Practical illustrations drive home the application of the truth, making the book a captivating read. Every main point is tied directly to the authority of Scripture by reference and often includes the verse, convincing the reader this is not man’s opinion but “Thus saith the Lord.” It soon becomes obvious, however, that the Lord has not only commanded us to be holy, He has made it possible through His marvellous provisions. We are not to be struggling on our own here. The book shows us that God’s salvation isn’t only available to rescue us from the penalty of our sin but from it’s influence as well. Mr. MacDonald’s writing style serves up profound thoughts packaged in the simplest of terms. The book is a treasury of concise statements bursting with powerful truth, capable of making a lifelong impact. This helps the reader capture and remember the thought long after the last chapter is read. You’ll find statements such as “We should be lions in God’s cause, and lambs in our own,” and “We should remember that there is only the difference of a letter between anger and danger.” and so on. These proverb-like statements have big meanings that will remain fastened to the walls of your heart. Reading a book on holy living may not be at the top of your to-do list yet, but it is a must for every believer. Holiness is not an option—it is a command from our Lord and Saviour. The subject deserves our daily attention. Holiness is not a single event, but a developmental process as we occupy ourselves with Him, His Word, and His will for our everyday lives here below. This book can start you out on this life-long process or give you sharper sensitivity to what our holy God expects from the Bride of His beloved Son. SAM THORPE, JR.

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ISSUES

ARE WE IN THE KINGDOM? The short answer—no and yes.

and brake them to pieces” (Dan. 2:34). It is the return of Christ that will bring to an end “the times of the Gentiles” (Lk. 21:24). And it will also be the second coming of Israel’s f the question means are we presently in once-rejected Messiah that will cause a that kingdom period commonly called the nation to be born in a day (Isa. 66:8). At millennium, the answer is “No.” And for I am a Canadian. last the little remnant of Jews who have some very good reasons: I do not presently rejected the wooing of the Anti-messiah 1. There can be no millennium until live there, but it is my will understand. “…They shall look upon Christ comes again. Even if you don’t birthplace and my Me whom they have pierced” (Zech. 12:10), believe in the Rapture of the Church first says the Lord, and cry, “But He was (and I certainly do), how can you believe citizenship is there. in a kingdom on earth without the King? So it is with the kingdom wounded for our transgressions, He was This kingdom will not fall into the Sav- into which we are offered bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His iour’s lap; He must come as a mighty “an abundant entrance.” stripes we are healed” (Isa. 53:5). warrior and wrestle it from the grip of 2 P ETER 1:11 4. Of course there can be no millennium the “strong man.” This is described for us until the saints who have died are raised and in Revelation 19. Then will come that glowe are given new bodies. How could the saints long passed rious day of which Paul spoke to Timothy: “…our Lord Jesus away “reign with Him” without His coming to raise them Christ: who in His times He shall show who is the blessed and first? This was the fear of the Thessalonians, calmed by only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords” (1 Tim. Paul’s triumphant words in 1 Thessalonians 4. It will be 6:14-15). during the millennium that those faithful in this life will 2. There can be no millennium until Antichrist is defeated hear their Lord say: “Because thou hast been faithful in a very and Satan is bound. Regarding Antichrist, note these little, have thou authority over ten cities” (Lk. 19:17). But words: “And then shall that Wicked [one] be revealed, whom before we can be brought into such responsibility, we the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall “…shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the destroy with the brightness of His coming” (2 Thess. 2:8). glorious liberty of the children of God. For we…groan within And when is Satan bound? While the argument can be ourselves, waiting for the adoption, that is, the redemption of made that some of the book of Revelation is not in chronoour body” (see Rom. 8:21-24). These new bodies will be neclogical order, it should be clear that the events of Revelaessary for the new responsibilities of our new sphere. tion 20 follow hard on those in chapter 19. Chapter 19 The Lord Jesus is never called the King of the Church; brings before us the coming of Christ who “shall rule them we, as His Bride, are to be co-regents with Him. However with a rod of iron: and He treadeth the winepress of the fiercethe New Testament does teach that we in the Church have ness and wrath of Almighty God” (v. 15). And how does willingly submitted to the One who is King. As such, God chapter 20 begin? “Then” an angel from heaven “…laid hold “hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath transon the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, lated us into the kingdom of His dear Son” (Col. 1:13). A and bound him a thousand years” (v. 2). queen should be a good example of the way subjects ought 3. But there can also be no millennium until Gentile world to behave. She has a higher motive than law that calls forth power is broken and the true nation of Israel is restored, not her submission; she loves the king. “Wherefore we receiving simply to Jerusalem but to Jehovah. Both these events will a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby require the return of Christ. we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear” Daniel revealed “that a stone was cut out without hands, (Heb. 12:28). Again we cry, “Thy kingdom come!” which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, J. B. N. Jr.

UPLOOK / JANUARY 2004

T RU E S T O RY “Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee” (Mk. 5:19).

THE SALOON KEEPER’S CHILDREN Two incidents from the life of D. L. Moody

hen I first began to work for God in Chicago, a Boston businessman was converted there and stayed three months. When leaving, he told me that there was a man living on such a street in whom he was very much interested, and whose boy was in the high school. He said that he had two brothers and a little sister who didn’t go anywhere to Sunday School, because their parents would not let them. “I wish you would go round and see them,” he said. I went, and I found that the parents lived in a saloon, and the father kept the bar. I told him what I wanted, and he said he would rather have his sons become drunkards and his daughter a harlot than have them go to our school. It looked pretty dark, and he was very bitter to me, but I went a second time, thinking that I might catch him in a better humor. He ordered me out again. I went a third time and found him in better humor. He said: “You’re talking too much about the Bible. I’ll tell you what I will do; if you teach them something reasonable, like Paine’s Age of Reason, they may go.” I talked further to him, and finally he said: “If you will read Paine’s book, I’ll read the New Testament.” Well, to get hold of him I promised, and he got the best of the bargain. We exchanged books, and that gave me a chance to call again and talk with the family. One day he said: “Young man, you have talked so much about church, you can have a church down here.” “What do you mean?” “I’ll invite some friends, and you can come down here and preach to them; not that I believe a word you say.” “Very well,” I said; “but it must be understood that we are to have a definite time.” He told me to come at 11 o’clock, then surprised me by adding, “You aren’t to do all the preaching.” “How is that?” “I’ll want to talk some, and also my friends.” I said, “Suppose we have it understood that you are to have forty-five minutes and I fifteen; is that fair?” He thought that was fair. He was to have the first forty-five, and I the last fifteen minutes. When I arrived at the appointed time, the saloonkeeper wasn’t there. I thought perhaps he had backed out, but I soon found the reason. His saloon was not large enough to hold all his friends, and he had gone to a neighbor’s, where I went and found two rooms filled. The place was filled with atheists, infidels and scoffers. I had taken a little boy with me, thinking he might aid me. The moment I got in, they plied me with all sorts of questions, but I said I hadn’t come to hold any discussion; that they had been discussing for years and had reached no conclusion. They took up their forty-five minutes talking. No two of them could agree. Then came my turn. I said: “We always open our meetings with prayer; let us pray.” I prayed, and after I finished, to all our surprise, the little boy prayed. I wish you could have heard him. He prayed to God to have mercy on those men who were talking so against His beloved Son. His voice sounded more like an angel’s than a human voice.

www.uplook.org / JANUARY 2004

THE SALOON KEEPER’S CHILDREN

When he and I got up from our knees, I was going to speak, but there was not a dry eye in the assembly. One after another went out, and the old man I had been after for months—and sometimes it looked pretty dark—came and, putting his hands on my shoulder with tears streaming down his face, said: “Mr. Moody, you can have my children go to your Sunday School.” The next Sunday they came, and after a few months the oldest boy, the promising young man in the high school, came up on the platform; and with his chin quivering and tears in his eyes, said: “I wish to ask these people to pray for me; I want to become a Christian.” God answered our prayers. In all my acquaintances I don’t know of a family it seemed more hopeless to reach. Yet I believe if we lay ourselves out for the work, there is not a person but can be reached and saved. I don’t care who he is, if we go in the name of our Master, and persevere, it will not be long before Christ will bless us, no matter how hard their heart is. “We shall reap if we faint not.”

BE A GOOD SAMARITAN remember the first good Samaritan I ever saw. I had been in this world only three or four years when my father died a bankrupt, and the creditors came and swept away about everything we had. My widow mother had a cow and a few things, but it was a hard struggle to keep the wolf from the door. My brother went to Greenfield, and secured work in a store for his board, and went to school. It was so lonely there that he wanted me to get a place so as to be with him, but I didn’t want to leave home. One cold day in November my brother came home and said he had a place for me. I said that I wouldn’t go, but after it was talked over they decided I should go. I didn’t want my brothers to know that I hadn’t the courage to go, but that night was a long one. The next morning we started. We went up on the hill, and had a last sight of the old house. I sat down and cried. I thought that would be the last time I should ever see that old home. I cried all the way down to Greenfield. There my brother introduced me to a man who was so old he couldn’t do the chores, so I was to do his errands, milk his cows, and then go to school. I looked at the old man and saw he was cross. I took a look at the wife and thought she was crosser than he. I stayed an hour; it seemed like a week. I went around to tell my brother I was going home. “What are you going home for?”

“I’m homesick.” “Oh well, you will get over it in a few days.” “I never will,” I said. “I don’t want to.” “You’ll get lost if you start now,” he warned. “It’s getting dark.” His comments frightened me—as he intended them to do. I was only about ten years old at the time. “Then I’ll go at daybreak tomorrow morning.” He took me to a shop window, where they had some jackknives and other things, and tried to divert my mind. What did I care for those old jackknives? I wanted to get back home to my mother. My heart was breaking. All at once my brother said, “Dwight, there comes a man that will give you a cent.” “How do you know he will?” I asked. “Oh! he gives every new boy that comes to town a cent.” I brushed away the tears, for I wouldn’t have him see me crying, and I got right in the middle of the sidewalk, where he couldn’t help but see me. I remember how that old man looked as he came tottering down the sidewalk. Oh, such a bright, cheerful, sunny face he had! When he came opposite to where I was, he stopped, took my hat off, put his hand on my head, and said to my brother: “This is a new boy in town, isn’t it?” “Yes, sir, he is—just came today.” I watched to see if he would put his hand into his pocket. I was only thinking of that cent. But he began to talk to me so kindly that I forgot all about it. He told me that God had an only Son, and He had sent Him down here. But wicked men had killed Him, and yet God’s Word said that Christ died for me. He only talked five minutes, but he took me captive. When he finished, he put his hand into his pocket and took out a brand new cent, a copper that looked just like gold. He gave it to me; I never felt so rich before or since. I don’t know what became of that cent; I regretted that I didn’t keep it; but I can feel the pressure of the old man’s hand on my head today. Fifty years have rolled by, but I hear those kind words yet. I never shall forget that act. He put the money at usury; that cent has cost me a great many dollars. I’ve never walked up the streets of this country but down into my pocket goes my hand, and I take out some money and give it to every forlorn, miserable child I see. I think how the old man lifted a load from me, and I want to lift a load from someone else. Do you want to be like Christ? Go and find someone who has fallen, and get your arm under him, and lift him up toward heaven. May God help us to do like the good Samaritan! He will bless you in the very act.

UPLOOK / JANUARY 2004

FINAL WORDS

THE ASSEMBLY & THE HOME In some areas a conflict is arising between the local church and the home.

any today see the vital importance of the home, and this is good. Some are schooling their children at home with great success. But some have gone on to feel that the home displaces the local assembly. As the head of the home the father is commanded to teach his children. “You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up” (Deut. 6:7, NKJV). Thus it is said there is no need for the church; the home is adequate for all spiritual needs. The home then becomes a citadel, a sanctuary, a refuge, into which we may escape. There is an element of truth here. Home schooling can be a great blessing and can draw the family together. The father should take leadership and teach his family the Word. Home schooling can be good but not all feel they can or should do this. Some may choose to send their children to a Christian school or to be a witness in the public school system and we must be careful about being judgmental in this area. There are dangers if you neglect the local church. There is the possibility of the father taking on an extreme, authoritarian role. He can rule like a dictator in the confines of his own home and that can be attractive to the male ego. The family is also cut off from the nourishing life of the assembly, the love and encouragement we all need. The teaching of one man also can become unbalanced and extreme, even heretical. There is no accountability to other believers. There are no other men who will check and correct you if needed. The apostles preached the gospel and established churches wherever they went. Elders were appointed (Acts 14:23) and commanded to shepherd the flock of God. “Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood” (Acts 20:28). The elders take ultimate responsibility for the flock, the local church. And fathers are to submit to their authority (Heb. 13:17). Plural leadership of the assembly was the rule. The church provides for the exercise of various gifts, all contributing to the health and growth of the fellowship (Rom. 12:3-8). A family does not have the rich resource of gift that a local church has. The church is a place where all may develop their gifts and grow, providing the fellowship and love that we all need. A wife needs the friendship and understanding of other women, the advice of older, godly women. This her husband cannot provide. He needs other men with whom he can talk and discuss problems. This his wife cannot supply. The children need to interact with other children and form friendships which may last a lifetime. And there are times when we may need, not only instruction, but also discipline by the body. There is also a richness to corporate worship which the home is unable to supply, as various brothers pour out their hearts in praise and adoration. We are told that the local assembly is a “temple of God” and that we are to be builders in it (1 Cor. 3:11-17). Paul emphasizes the importance of the local church and our own responsibility to contribute to its success. Since it is God’s temple, instructions are given as to how it should function (1 Tim. 3:15) and it is described as “the pillar and ground of the truth.” Paul exalts the importance of the local church. Since the local church is so important, we are exhorted, “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much more as you see the Day approaching” (Heb. 10:25). Do not belittle the importance of the assembly.

DONALD L. NORBIE

www.uplook.org / JANUARY 2004

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UPLOOK

YOUR RIGHTS H. A. Ironside

Many years ago as a little fellow, I attended a meeting in Toronto where some difficulty had come up between brethren. I well remember how horrified I was to see men I esteemed and had been taught to respect, apparently so indignant with each other. I remember one man springing to his feet, and with clenched fists saying: “I will put up with a good deal, but one thing I will not allow; I will not allow you to put anything over on me. I will have my rights.” An old Scotsman, who was rather hard of hearing, leaned forward, holding his ear, and said, “What was that, brother? I did not get that.” “I say I will have my rights,” the man said. “But you did not mean that, did you? Your rights? If you had your rights you would be in hell, wouldn’t you? And you are forgetting, aren’t you, that Christ did not come to get His rights? He came to get His wrongs, and He got them.” I can still see that man standing there for a moment like one transfixed, then the tears broke from his eyes and he said, “Brethren, I have been wrong. Handle the case as you think best,” as he sat down with his face in his hands, and sobbed before the Lord. And everything was settled in three minutes.