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"History is but the unrolled scroll of prophecy."тАФGarfield.
PAGEANT of
PROPHECY
"We have also a more
sure word of prophecy."-2 Peter 1:19.
Because of the hundreds of Bible texts dealing prophetically with our troubled days, THESE TIMES
presents this feature. Further information on any item may be obtained by writing the editor.
APOCALYPTIC MUNITIONS. The following essay girst appeared in Jerusalem, monthly organ
of the Messianic Jewish Movement. Two egregious characteristics of the movement are
the emphasis on the soon coming of Christ and the high intellectual quality of those
within it who write for it. Gerard Opitz, Messianic Jewish leader, who believes the
Book of Revelation to be the history of our times, writes:
"Among the clear affirmations of Scripture is the declaration that the history of
humanity, before the return of the Lord, will end in great catastrophic judgments.
Thus we read in Luke 21:26, 'Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after
those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.'
"The present time is full of the noise of war-preparations, of anguish which
modern warfare provokes, of possible defense, and the like. What is most surprising
is that all prominent in public life and all military leaders in both East and West
look for no good to come from such a war. There will be neither victor nor vanquished,
only survivors.
"Is not that extraordinary? Is it not an indication that heads of nations, as
well as individuals, have lost free will? They seem to be delivered to a chain of
events contrary to their will. They are obliged to bring about that which all agree
will be nought else than destruction. Does this not witness that they are on the way
to judgment?
"The Eternal God is preparing days for a new and terrible judgment of humanity.
"What is this anguish, this strange anxiety, which agitates the hearts of men
today: Have there not always been wars and preparation for wars?
"Yes, but what is new today is [the foregleam of the fulfillment of the prophecy]
the saying, 'The stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be
shaken' (Matt. 2)4:29).
"According to my understanding of Scripture, these passages have a specific meaning for our time. What are the powers of heaven? They are forces which up to now
have not acted on our earthly sphere but which are active in the stars, in our sun, in
a word, in the radiation of heavenly bodies. These forces, these reserves of energy,
are called nuclear energy, that is, they result from the mutation of atoms into other
atoms--for our sun the mutation of helium into hydrogen.
"The characteristics of these mutations is that the energy liberated by them is
infinitely greater than that of the sources of energy hitherto known on earth. Comparison of energy liberated by atomic fission with explosives of World War I (trinitrotoluol) is commonly made. Weight being equal, the fission of uranium liberates a
million times more. And these modifications of atom structure are accompanied with
effects absolutely new to our terrestrial world.
"We find in the Bible accounts of many consequences of atomic activity which, as
I understand it, describe with great clearness what is impending. The reason for the
fear which has taken hold of hearts today appears to be grounded on the fact that mutations in atoms, up to our time exterior to terrestrial space, can by the acceleration
of neutrons reach our planet. They will engender artificial stars which, on falling
to earth, will liberate power for destruction hitherto unknown.
"Further such 'stars' will be accompanied by parallel manifestations such as the
penetrating power of gamma rays and the harmful effects of clouds of isotopes, not to
speak of destruction by fire, by melting, by vaporization, by tempests of flame. When
(Continued on page 30)
2
THESE TIMES, APRIL, 1955
APRIL, 1955
No. 4
VOL. 64
*
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RODNEY E. FINNEY
Editor
- Associate Editor
- KENNETH J. HOLLAND
Editor, Braille Edition CLAUDE W. DEGERING
Circulation Manager - - IRVIN H. hum
Art Director - - - ROBERT M. ELDRIDGE
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Established in 1891. Published monthly (except September, when
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Special Features
How to Enjoy Your ReligionтАФEdwin R. Thiele . .
Does Sincerity Ensure Salvation?тАФBernard P. Foote
What Wilt Thou Have Me to Do?тАФAnonymous . .
Real Estate for SaleтАФInez Stone Carr
A Hopeful People in a Hopeless World
тАФFrancis D. Nichol
White as SnowтАФArnold V. Wallenkampf . . . .
The Year Time EndedтАФErnest Reed
Be Glad You Don't Know It AllтАФCharlie W. Shedd
Is World Security Possible?тАФCarlyle 13. Haynes
Moving Sermons
Is Ignorance Bliss?тАФMiriam Tripp
Earthly Pretender or Heavenly Potentate?
тАФRobert FL Pierson
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30
31
Regular Departments
Pageant of Prophecy
Under the Gourd Vine
Events of These Times
Interpreting These Times
Happy Homes
Let's Ask the Doctor
God's Two Books
Please Explain
2
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Poetry
Another ChanceтАФGrace R. Ballard
WorshipтАФGrace Madelon Frame
Our Hope Lies Not in WeaponsтАФReid Crowell
8
9
22
The Cover
Artfully attired Shirley Betts does not forget her Bible
as she starts to church. Photo by H. Lambert.
THESE TIMES, APRIL, 1955
Is Anybody Listening?
NLY the other day it happened again. I was talking into my
dictaphone when I happened to look at the place where the
O recording plastic was supposed to be, and found that I had
forgotten to put a fresh one on. So I had to back up and start
over. I had done the same thing before with worse results, for
after one has dictated for a long time, it is difficult to remember
what has been said. It can be exasperating.
This got me to thinking about the horrible facility with which
we humans today "express" ourselves. With film and wire and
tape and wax and type, we can catch the fleeting word or thought
and render it imperishable, physically speaking, and multiply it
infinitely.
The difficulty that I have occasionally with my dictating machine is avoided on some models by a little buzzer which sounds
if the machine is not really recording. As soon as one presses the
switch and starts to talk without the machine recording, the
buzzer begins an insistent, staccato reminder that it is not listening.
It might be a good thing if people could carry around some sort
of automatic warning such as this. Even we preachers. Then if
we just set ourselves to talking and left ourselves running, the
buzzer would sound, "Nobody listening."
It would be hard on us, though. Suppose after the introduction
to a sermon, when a preacher had gotten well into the body of it,
carried along by the intoxicating sound of his own voice, one of
these infernal machines would sound off with, "Nobody listening," or worse still, "Nobody saying anything." There would
likely be a good deal more sweat developed in the minister's
studies, with a vast improvement in his sermons.
This machine would be particularly deadly at conventions and
conferences. I can think of many people it could be turned loose
on, devastatingly. Me too, probably.
Getting back to the facility with which we make records of
thought and what passes for thought these days, one wonders
whether the influence of this development on literature has been
good or not. Take the "Gettysburg Address," for instance. Wonder
how the "Gettysburg Address" would have turned out if it had
been spoken into a machine instead of composed by Lincoln with
pen and ink? Try paring it down sometime, and you will find out
what I mean.
The Bible wonderfully demonstrates how sublimely brief great
truths can be. Imagine a news commentator trying to tape a
description of the creation of the world so that it would go into a
page and a quarter of type. Or the destruction of Sodom and
Gomorrah in forty-three words. There is no better place than the
Bible to go to find the blessing of brevity; and after we have read,
we can understand how Job felt when he said, "Therefore have I
uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which
I knew not." Job 42:3.
And there is another thing I would like to point out. . . . But
wait a moment; I think I hear a buzzer!
***
3
The author, a college professor of religion, has found complete inward
satisfaction and joy in his relationship
with God. In this article he points
the way to happiness and tells
A. DEVANEY
4
THESE TIMES, APRIL, 1955
By Edwin B. Thiele
+',10Y YOUR RELIG1011
OES RELIGION make people
happy or unhappy? Is it a matter
of cheer and joy, or of dejection,
discomfort, and pain? That all depends upon the individual and upon, his
religion. True religion is a matter of joy
and gladness, not of vexation, sorrow,
and distress. It brings peace instead of
conflict, faith instead of suspicion, hope
instead of despondency, and smiles instead of tears.
To me religion is the most important
thing in life. Nothing else brings me so
much of courage, assurance, comfort,
and cheer. In fact I cannot conceive
how it would be possible, for me to be
truly happy and at peace with myself
and the world without religion. Apart
from my religious convictions life would
be without meaning or purpose, without
heart or spirit, without sunshine or
hope.
Without religion I would be without
God, and without God human existence
would be without the basic element of
love, for God Himself is love.
Without religion we would be without life, for life proceeds from God. He
is the great I AM, who was before the
worlds were made and who brought all
other life into being. It is He who
created man and the world in which he
lives. Without God there would be no
world and no men to inhabit it. It is
from God that all life proceeds, and it
is by His power that the universe is
enabled to exist. Without the life that
God bequeathed to man, all that now
lives would return to the dust from
which it was taken. For this reason I
rejoice in the thought of God as the
world's Creator and Sustainer, as man's
Guide and Keeper.
Since man is living in a world in
which death and decay are the common
lot of all, it is a particular comfort to
know that there is a God who inhabits
eternity, and whose will it is that life
for him be not temporary but eternal.
D
THESE TIMES, APRIL, 1955
Does death descend on all mankind?
Yet the hour is coming when those who
sleep in the dust will hear the voice of
God and will live again. It is because
Jesus is the resurrection and the life that
this corruptible flesh may someday put
on incorruption and this mortal may
put on immortality.
My religion teaches me that God is
not only a God of life but also a God
of love. Love is an instinct placed within
the heart of man by his loving Father
above. Without God there would be no
love. The world today has little of love
because it has little of God. And what
can bring to us any greater joy and
peace than love?
The only true religion is a religion of
love. "What doth the Lord require of
thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy,
and to walk humbly with thy God?"
Micah 6:8. And what is the most important requirement in religion as well
as in life? "Thou shalt love the Lord
thv God with all thy heart, and with
all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This
is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like unto it, Thou
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On
these two commandments hang all the
law and the prophets." Matthew 22:3740. When the church and the world
come to understand this as the only
meaning of true religion, they will have
discovered the basic secret of peace,
tranquillity, and joy.
I enjoy my religion because it is a
religion of love. I cannot be truly happy
unless I love my fellow men and unless
they manifest a spirit of love toward me.
My religion teaches me to love my
neighbors, and it teaches them to love
me, and in such a manifestation of mutual love I cannot but be happy and at
peace with the world about me.
My religion also teaches me to love
God, and it assures me that God loves
me. In this latter I am particularly
happy, because God first loved me before
I knew Him, and it was His love that
drew me to Him and kindled love within
my heart. "For God so loved the world,
that He gave His only-begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in Him should
not perish, but have everlasting life."
John 3:16. "Behold, what manner of
love the Father hath bestowed upon us,
that we should be called the sons of
God." "Herein is love, not that we loved
God, but that He loved us, and sent His
Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought
also to love one another." 1 John 3:1;
4:10, 11. In these words are found the
essence of all religion and the basic
secret of all happiness and joy upon the
face of the earth.
When I understand that God is the
very embodiment of mercy and love, I
have no difficulty in being at peace with
the present and in facing the future
with confidence and courage. With the
affairs of the universe in the hands of a
God of such infinite love, all must and
will yet be well. It brings joy to my
heart when I think of God and understand that He loves me and that He is
my friend. It brings peace to my soul
when I understand that everything that
God does for me is for my greatest good.
When He created the world, He made
it perfect. The Garden of Eden was for
man a perfect abode because it came
from the hands of a perfect God. Its
birds and flowers and streams, its sunshine and hills and its trees, its delicious
fruits, noble rivers, lovely lakes, majestic
mountains, and glorious sunsets were
to make happy the heart of man and to
cause his soul to rejoice at the wonderful love and handiwork of God.
Is there now darkness and sadness in
the world about me? My religion helps
me to understand that God did not will
it so, and that pain and sickness and
woe do not proceed from Him. God
gives life and beauty and laughter, but
it is the enemy of man and God who is
5
the author of sorrow and death. God
gave man peace and tranquillity, but it
was the enemy who brought in strife
and contention. God gave men faith and
confidence and joy, but it was the evil
one who sowed seeds of hate, discord,
and fear.
It is my enemy and yours who is the
enemy of God and the enemy of peace
and of righteousness. My religion
teaches me that in the great conflict now
going on between right and wrong, between the forces of good and the hosts
of evil, God will eventually triumph,
and with that triumph will come the
victory of truth over error, of magnanimity over greed, of justice over oppres-
sion, and of light over darkness. Facing
the world with such a faith and looking
toward the future with such a hope, I
can be happy indeed with my present
lot in life, and I can face tomorrow with
courage and joy.
With such a faith in God and in His
wisdom, power, and love, my fears and
perplexities leave me, and I am ready to
trust my all to Him. I know that beyond
the clouds of the present is the sunshine
of an eternal tomorrow; beyond the
sorrows, disappointments, and woes of
this present world are the certain joys
and peace of that new world of righteousness which, according to His promise, is being prepared for all who love
FRANKLIN BOOTH, ARTIST
Surpassing the range of all human imagination will be the pure joys the redeemed will
experience in the land of never-ending bliss. But even in this life, in spite of problems and
perplexities, a satisfying foretaste of the happiness of heaven may fill each believer's heart.
6
Him and are willing to entrust their
all to Him.
Tomorrow will bring a brighter day
and a better world. This I know because
God so wills it, and as He purposes, so
will it come to pass. "For, behold, I
create new heavens and a new earth:
and the former shall not be remembered,
nor come into mind. But be ye glad and
rejoice forever in that which I create:
for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will
rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in My
people: and the voice of weeping shall
be no more heard in her, nor the voice
of crying. . . . They shall not build,
and another inhabit; they shall not
plant, and another eat: for as the days of
a tree are the days of My people, and
Mine elect shall long enjoy the work
of their hands. They shall not labor in
vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for
they are the seed of the blessed of the
Lord, and their offspring with them.
. . . The wolf and the lamb shall feed
together, and the lion shall eat straw
like the bullock; and dust shall be the
serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor
destroy in all My holy mountain, saith
the Lord." Isaiah 65:17-19, 22-25.
This, according to the Word of God,
is a picture of the world as it soon will
be when recreated in righteousness.
And this, according to my religion, is
the future that I am looking forward to.
Serving such a God today, I find my
religion a matter of true joy. Looking
forward to such a future, I find the
keenest of delight as I contemplate its
glories and beauties.
I love to think of the fact that the
universe is governed not by a God of
hate but by a God of love, a God who
takes the keenest delight in bringing
happiness to the hearts of His children.
There can be only happiness in a world
governed by such a God, only joy and
peace in the hearts of a people who
serve such a Lord.
As there is only one Lord and Master
who rules over the universe, so there is
only one true religion, and that is the
religion that acknowledges Him. In that
religion is to be found the world's only
way to true happiness and peace. If men
know God and follow Him, if they
understand His ways and walk in them,
if they are acquainted with His plans
and purposes, for themselves and the
world in which they live, there will be
joy and peace in the hearts of all.
Do you enjoy your religion? You will
and I will to the extent that God becomes real to us, that His purposes become clear, and that we walk in His
ways.
***
THESE TIMES, APRIL, 1955
By Bernard P. Foote
We often hear the remark,
"He's a sincere Christian."
But religiously speaking,
what does the word "sincere"
really mean and, most important,
Nog Sincerity
Ensure Salvation?
RE WE тАФ \(1u and 1 тАФ completely sincere in our religious beliefs? And even if
we are, does that ensure our
salvation? Are we capable of judging
the quality of our own sincerity? And
if we think so, then by what standardтАФ
our church, our community, our own
wishful thinking, or some other?
It is impossible to be a true Christian
without perfect sincerity. The Apostle
Paul's last words to the Ephesians were
these: "Grace be with all them that love
our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.
Amen." Ephesians 6:24. God asked His
people in ancient times to "serve Him in
sincerity and in truth." (Joshua 24:14.)
That is a requirement upon all who
hope to go to heaven, just as much so
now as it was then, nearly 3,400 years
ago.
Sincerity, like faith, must have a substantial foundation, or it is of little
value. Like conscience, also, sincerity
must be educated along right lines. Sincerity cannot stand alone; it must have
propsтАФreasons for its existence. It cannot
stand still; it constantly leads one forward and upward. It demands action,
growth, and improvement as knowledge
increases. It compels us to accept and
THESE TIMES, APRIL, 1955
act upon even, new ray of light that
comes to us. Sincerity requires the constant making of right choices and following them through to the best of our
knowledge and ability. It is much better
for us to do something, even if it is only
partly right, than to do nothing for fear
of making a mistake. It is better to start
for a high goal, even though we stumble
and fall, than never to start at all. Some
of the best Christians have been those
who have made many mistakes, but
have profited by them because they
were sincere.
H. M. LAMBERT
7
Saul of Tarsus was a great man and
absolutely sincere before he was converted, but he was nonetheless wrong.
He thought he was doing God service by
persecuting the Christians. Persecution
is always wrong; but because Saul was
sincere, Christ went to the trouble of
performing a miracle to convert him.
(Acts 9:1-18.) Then his name was
changed to Paul, and he became probably the greatest missionary of all time.
The Apostle Peter was sincere, but he
made many mistakes. He was impulsive.
(John 18:10.) He was overconfident in
himself. (Luke 22:33.) He was boastful. (Mark 14:29.) He was selfish.
(Matthew 19:27.) He was disloyal to
his Master. (Mark 14:66-68.) He cursed
and swore. (Mark 14:70, 71.) He lied.
(Matthew 26:69, 70.) He was entirely
wrong on one of the great doctrines of
the gospel, and Paul had to rebuke him
publicly. (Galatians 2:11-14.) In fact,
after more than three years of close association with Jesus, Peter was still unconverted until the night before the
crucifixion. There are more blunders
recorded against Peter than against any
of the other disciplesтАФeven Judas. The
Lord rebuked him severely time and
again, once even saying to him, "Get
thee behind Me, Satan!" Matthew
16:22, 23. If a man like Peter could be
converted, "born again," and become "a
new creature" after all those sins and
mistakes, is there not hope for us now,
just before the end of time and the
beginning of eternity? Every true conversion means a complete transformation, being "born again" into a new and
better life.
The principal difference between
Peter and Judas when they made their
greatest mistake was that Judas "went
and hanged himself" (Matthew 27:5),
whereas Peter went out and repentedтАФ
"wept bitterly" (Matthew 26:75).
Peter's sincerity and his deep love for
his Master carried him through this
painful experience. The process of being
truly "born again" is always a painful
one, either on the part of the individual
himself or of someone else in his behalf.
Often the Lord permits serious illness
or accident to befall a person in order
to give him a chance to think things
through to a correct conclusion.
Many people think sincerity is everythingтАФthat it does not matter what we
believe or do if we are sincere in it.
They think God will accept our sincerity, even if we are wrong. The natural
tendency of such a belief is to cause us
to put forth little or no effort to make
sure we are right. We are in serious
danger of becoming so engrossed in "the
8
cares of this life" (Luke 21:34, 35) that
we fail to "prove" our sincerity. Whenever two doctrines conflict, true sincerity
demands that we consider the evidence
on which both are founded, and accept
the one which has the most credible
evidence in its favor, even if it is unpopularтАФwhich nearly all true doctrines
are and always have been. (2 Thessalonians 2:7; 1 John 2:18; 4:3.)
True sincerity is as much a matter of
the mind as it is of the heart. It requires
us to "grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ." 2 Peter 3:18. That was Peter's
final admonition in his last epistle to all
professing Christians, whether in his
day or since.
True sincerity demands that we do
our own thinking and make our own
decisions as to our own duty. Unless we
prove a truth for ourselves, it is not our
Jnotlle'i Chance
Did I forget today some kindly word
Or actтАФthat might,
To someone have deferred
Their griefтАФor sense of loneliness?
Did I neglect to see
The bitter circumstance,
Which needed only somebody to care
To turn to joy? Forgive my selfishness;
Dear LordтАФhear Thou my prayerтАФ
Give me another chance.
тАФGrace R. Ballard.
own. We cannot be really sincere while
depending on othersтАФno matter how
wise or good or highly educated they
may seem to beтАФto tell us what we must
or must not believe or do. To be truly
sincere, we must have our own beliefs
and be able to "give a reason" for our
own hope. If we are unable to give a
good reason, it is quite possible our faith
and hope may be vain. God inspired
Paul to advise us, "Prove all things; hold
fast that which is good." 1 Thessalonians
5:21. "Examine yourselves, whether ye
be in the faith; prove your own selves."
2 Corinthians 13:5. It should be noted
here that the Bible approves only "one
Lord, one faith, one baptism." Ephesians
4:5.
There are various ways in which I
can test or "prove" the quality of my
sincerity. For instance, would I promptly
turn from my church and join another
if I were convinced that the other is
better? If not, then I do not love God
"in sincerity and in truth." I must not
love my church better than the Word of
God. If my friends of other religious
persuasions offer me good evidence that
their church is the best in the world, and
I refuse to study and carefully evaluate
that evidence, that too is a sure sign of
insincerity, waywardness, a closed mind.
Can I properly judge the sincerity of
my belief in my own religious doctrines
by the number of other people who hold
the same beliefsтАФor by the length of
time those doctrines have been advocated by others? Certainly not! History proves that by far the great majority
of people have always been wrong in
religious matters. Paul predicted that
"evil men and seducers shall wax worse
and worse, deceiving, and being deceived." 2 Timothy 3:13. He also
warned of a power that would come
"with all deceivableness of unrighteousness." (2 Thessalonians 2:10.) He said
that the time would come when people
would "not endure sound doctrine" but
would "turn away their ears from the
truth" and be "turned unto fables." (2
Timothy 4:3, 4.) That apostasy brought
on the Dark Ages, from the effects of
which the world is still suffering, in
spite of great scientific progress.
Can I be truly sincere if I permit my
church leaders to surround me with an
"iron curtain" by saying, "You must believe what we tell you, and disbelieve
everything else"? A powerful secret society was organized in Europe more than
four hundred years ago, one of whose
requirements wasтАФand still isтАФthat if
Your superior says black is white, you
must believe black is white. However, if
we are lost, our "superiors" will not come
forward in the great day of judgment
and offer themselves for punishment in
our place for having caused us to accept
even one false doctrine or persistently to
disobey even one of God's commandments. They will be unable to save
themselves from punishment, to say
nothing of helping the tens, hundreds,
thousands, or millions they have deceived.
Many people who consider themselves
Christians avoid going to churches other
than their own, or even talking to their
friends about religion, apparently for
fear they might learn of some new duty
which might "upset" their present way
of life. But should we not want our way
of life upset if it is leading us in the
wrong direction?
True sincerity makes one a missionary. He wants to help others to understand and accept his faith, because he
THESE TIMES, APRIL, 1955
honestly believes it is the best of all, and
he wants to share it with as many as
possible. On the other hand, if others
can prove to him that they have something better, he must, if he is sincere,
accept it thankfully. Too many people
are "hiding their light." Perhaps they
are not sure that what they have is the
best there is, so they say nothing about
it; or perhaps their leaders have ordered
them not to talk about their doctrines,
fearing they would be unable to prove
them, and therefore be tempted to study
their foundation and find it weakтАФor
entirely absent. If that is the situation,
it is an evidence of insincerity on the
part of the leaders.
Suppose some of my good friends and
neighbors of other religious persuasions
were to see me asleep in a boat, floating
rapidly down toward the brink of Niagara Falls. Would they not make all the
noise they could in an effort to warn me
before it was too late? Of course they
would! They would be desperately in
earnest about it, and some, I feel sure,
would not hesitate to risk their own
temporal lives if they thought there was
a chance of saving mine.
But suppose those same dear friends
and neighborsтАФsincere in believing their
own doctrines are the best in the worldтАФ
see me floating down the stream of life
on what they must believe to be a
flimsy raft of doctrines which will surely
sink me into eternal separation from
God if I continue on my present course.
Will they do anything to warn me?
Probably not, because they fear it might
hurt my feelings to discover I had been
wrong. Or can it be that they say nothing because they think I am sincere in
my beliefs and that sincerity will save
me, regardless of the doctrines I believe?
If we are truly sincere in our own faith,
must we not lovingly do everything in
our power to help our friends and neighbors to see all important doctrines as we
see them? Or doesn't it make any difference what they believe, as long as they
are sincere?
Do we suffer intense mental and spiritual agony when we see our friends
giving their assent to doctrines which
we believe with all our heart, mind, and
soul, after long and careful and prayerful study, are entirely contrary to God's
commandments and the principles of
the greatest science in the worldтАФthe
science of salvation? If not, are we
sincere in our own beliefs? Have we
proved them in the depths of our own
mind and heart and soul beyond the
shadow of a doubt?
And can we depend upon either our
heart or our mind alone? God warns,
THESE TIMES, APRIL, 1955
"The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately wicked." Jeremiah 17:9,
10. The mind is above the heart and
should control it; but the mind must
have properfood upon which to make
its decisions, or it too can lead us astray.
The world is full of extremely dangerous and deceptive teachingsтАФ"doctrines
of devils." (1 Timothy 4:1.) See also
Revelation 18:2, 4. Satan started his
downward career in heaven by deceiving a third of the angels (Revelation
12:4, 7-9); and he has had about six
thousand years of experience in deceiving each generation since thenтАФall except "the very elect." The Bible is positively our only safe original source of
faith and morals тАФ hundreds of thousands of apparently sincere, well-educated religious leaders to the contrary
notwithstanding.
Worship
Dear Lord, I would not worship Thee
Just when the church bells ring. . . .
But every hour of every day
I would Thy praises sing.
I would not wait for Sabbath morn
To go to church and pray,
But let my prayers bear fruit of deeds
As I pass on my way.
тАФGrace Madelon Frame.
Suppose I sincerely believe that the
world is flat. Nearly everyoneтАФhierarchy and laityтАФbelieved that theory
during many hundreds of years of the
Dark Ages of superstition and mental
and spiritual stagnation; but that did
not make it so. God had indicated in His
Word as far back as 712 B.C. that the
earth is circular. (Isaiah 40:22.) Can it
be that many religious superstitions and
false doctrines came into existence just
before and during the Dark Ages, when
the fate of civilization was hanging in
the balanceтАФand that they have not yet
been corrected тАФ doctrines in which
many millions of people still sincerely
believe? Yes, it not only can be true,
but, sad to say, it is true, beyond any
shadow of doubt. In fact hundreds of
millions of people still believe many
doctrines which are absolutely contrary
to the plain teaching of the Word of
God, and they permit their leaders to
surround them with an almost impenetrable "iron curtain" which holds within
it all of those "Dark Age" doctrines and
keeps out most of the "increase of
knowledge" (Daniel 12:4) of Bible
doctrines and prophecies that has developed during the past hundred and
fifty years.
Suppose you and I were in a group
exploring a huge cave down in the
depths of the earth, and we all got lostтАФ
and then our lights went out. Think
how carefully we would search for a
wav up and out! And suppose one of us
saw a little ray of light. How happy all
would be to follow that little ray up to
the full light of day! This world is in
"gross darkness" (Isaiah 60:2), and the
only way out of it is up, as we sincerely
follow all the little rays of light that
come to us, until we reach the full light
of the true gospel of Christ.
To persist in refusing to follow every
ray of light which God in His mercy
sends to us comes perilously close to
being the unpardonable sin. We would
surely be able to recognize light above
a dark cave if our temporal lives depended on it. Why can we not always
recognize spiritual light? Is it because
we have been in the "gross darkness" of
this world so long that we have lost the
ability to seeтАФas do fish in dark caves?
There must be some reliable standard
by which we can judge our own motives
and beliefs, other than the say-so of any
man or any group of men, any church,
or any nation. There is such a standard,
and it is the inspired, infallible, unchanged, and unchangeable printed
Word of God as interpreted by that
Word itself when all the principal texts
on each subject are brought together
and compared. The Holy Spirit was the
means through which the Bible was
brought into existence, and the Holy
Spirit will never lead any individual or
any church contrary to the Bible. We
must take God at His Word; if we do
not, we accuse Him of insincerity or of
inability to make known His truth in
the Guidebook which He inspired and
which He has protected down through
the ages in spite of all the efforts of men
and devils to destroy it during the Dark
Ages and to discredit it now.
Yes, sincerity is of tremendous importance; true Christian sincerity demands that every habit, thought, word,
deed, and doctrine be regulated by the
Word of God, "with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."
(James 1:17.) True Bible doctrines are
the same today as the day they were
first written. They were good enough
for Christ and the apostles; they should
be good enough for all who desire to
spend eternity in heaven and the wonderful new earth, which is to be a
***
worldwide Garden of Eden.
9
love for those who disagree with us.
The only way we will be able to keep
on preaching our consciences on live
issues is to show a genuine love for all
our hearers, regardless of whether they
agree with us."
OF THESE TIMES
Bible Balloon Barrage
Code for Christian Clergymen
Hoping to raise $100,000 in this country and an equal sum abroad, evangelist
Billy James Hargis, sponsored by the
International Council of Christian
Churches, is planning to make 1955
"the biggest year in the Bible balloon
project's history." In the previous biennium 30,000 balloons carrying 163,000
Bible portions penetrated the Iron Curtain. Threatened Soviet reprisals notwithstanding, the U.S. government is
not interfering with this unique evangelistic venture.
Addressing the local ministerial association, a Sheboygan (Wisconsin)
pastor recently made some significant
remarks concerning ministerial ethics:
"Jealousy is the minister's outstanding
sin. We're not greedy, gluttonous, licentious, or a bunch of drunkards. But
because the sins of the flesh are so
infrequent among ministers, sometimes
we forget how badly we sin against the
spirit. . . .
"For instance, pity the poor pastor
who can't stand to have his predecessor
preach in his pulpit for fear he will
steal some of the glory. Long-standing
enmities have developed from situations
like this.
"We often transgress in our preaching
and public utterances. We are the only
people who can stand up once a week
and say what we want as long as we
want to, without contradiction.
"Now I believe a minister should
state his convictions forcefully from the
pulpit, but sometimes we do it without
Christ for Korea
"The Radio Voice of Christian Korea," HLKY, is that nation's first privately owned and operated broadcasting
station. Directed by Rev. Otto DeCamp,
a Presbyterian missionary, the station
beams religious programs to free South
Korea as well as beyond the thirtyeighth parallel. The National Christian
Council of Korea and several American
missionary groups are co-operating.
Moslems and Minorities
Joshua Fazluddin, chairman of Pakistan's Christian Constitutional Committee, recently demanded that three
seats in the nation's seventy-member
Constituent Assembly be allocated to
members of his faith. Pakistan has 550,000 Christians and 75,000,000 Moslems,
but the latter are not at all eager to accord representation to other persuasions.
Their attitude is perhaps best exemplified in their demand that the Koran be
taught in the Christian schools of the
country. This has led at least one mission
society to declare that it would rather
close down its educational system than
accede to such a plan.
The Worm and the Weary
He had no very unusual problem, that
Michigan biology professor, but a very
unusual solution. His four-year-old boy,
Kim, had a hard time keeping still in
church, so his daddy solved the problem
with the help of a tomato worm.
At the beginning of the service he
placed the worm on the bottom of Kim's
jacket, and the worm of course began
to crawl up. As could be expected of
the son of a biologist, young Kim
watched with fascination. When the
worm got to the lad's shoulder, the professor picked him up and placed him
again at the bottom of Kim's jacket.
After fourteen trips of the worm, time
came for the benediction.
There had not been a quieter person
in the whole auditorium than Kim.
Mental Health and the Mennonites
A mental hospital intended to serve
the states of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana,
and Illinois is being contemplated by a
fourteen-member committee of Mennonite, Brethren in Christ, and Amish
churches which is surveying the mental
health needs and facilities in that area.
Should the plans materialize, it will be
the fourth such institution established
by the central committee of these three
denominations. The others are located
at Hagerstown, Maryland; Newton,
Kansas; and Reedley, California.
Noted in Passing
RELIGIOUS NEWS SERVICE PHOTO
A group of Korean children are presenting 3,000 hwan (about $5.00), enough to maintain a
fifteen-minute program, to Kim Chae Bok, a Methodist elder and manager of station HLKY.
10
Five carloads of rice donated by
churches, schools, and millers in Louisiana for the Christian Rural Overseas
Program (CROP) reached Korea earlier
THESE TIMES, APRIL, 1955
this year. . . . The released-time religious education program in New York
City is widening its outreach: there
were 109,672 students participating in
December, 1953, but 111,957 a year
later. . . . A round-the-world evangelistic
good-will tour, as well as a full-scale
metropolitan campaign in New York
City', is in the offing for Billy Graham.
A crusade in America's largest city
would have been undertaken years ago
had there not been disagreements among
the sponsors. Graham is also hoping to
play a personal part in carrying the
gospel behind the Iron Curtain. . . .
A Greek Orthodox church in Minneapolis is planning to erect and lease a
supermarket as a means of obtaining additional funds, the construction to begin
this spring. . . . The French hierarchy
has released an impassioned blast against
the activities of Protestant "sects." . . .
Tanganyika Lutherans are being called
upon by their church to "take a firmer
stand" against alcohol. . . . Subject to
final approval this spring, Southern Baptists are mapping a crusade for Christian
morality. It will feature such themes as
the foundation of morality, honesty,
clean living, abstinence from beverage
alcohol, and civic righteousness. . . .
Rather than sign the controversial state
loyalty oath which assures churches of
tax exemption, a Unitarian congregation
in California has decided to pay more
than $2,200 a year. . . . Some 1,500
ministers and laymen participated in a
demonstration in front of the state parliament in Sydney, Australia, earlier this
winter in protest against a proposed
liquor act extending the sale of alcoholic
beverages. . . . Disputes between the
Roman Catholic hierarchy and the
Argentine government are the order of
RELIGIOUS NEWS SERVICE PHOTO
Symbolizing how church members carry their
influence to the whole world, these footsteps
were painted during a missions festival held
at a Presbyterian church in Long Beach.
THESE TIMES, APRIL, 1955
DIET DEFICIENCY
тАв
I EAT HEARTILY
AND WELL...
THAT COULDN'T
BE ME!
тАвтАв
Yi
d
,i44┬░.wVr
┬░MAN 00TH NOT LIVE BY BREAD ONLY, BUT BY EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDETH
OUT OF THE MOUTH OF THE LORD DOTH MAN LIVE.'"
DEC/7: 8.3
IIAMM
the day in the number one nation of
Latin America. . . . Nearly four million pilgrims journeyed to the famous
shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in France
during the Marian Year of 1954, half a
million of them having come from foreign countries. . . . The Evangelical
Church in East Germany has warned
parents that it will not dedicate children
who have participated in the Communist-sponsored youth dedication ceremonies.... An Amish bishop of Virginia
has called upon his people throughout
the country to comply with the national
school and draft laws. Several Amish
parents had been fined for refusing to
send their children to school after fourteen, and there had also been friction
between Amish young men and draft
boards. . . . A training school for colporteurs in Latin America is being
planned by the American Bible Society.
The continent last year absorbed 65 per
cent of the society's distribution outside
the U.S. . . . The year 1954 witnessed
the birth of 4,100,000 babies in America,
more than in any previous \
Statisticians claim that the nation is well on
its way to a 220,000,000 population by
1975. . . . According to Bishop Fulton
Sheen, 71 per cent of the money available to the Vatican for missionary purposes comes from the United States.
. . . All the 259 popes will appear on
Panama postage stamps to be issued
within the next eight years. . . . FBI
statistics reveal an 8.4 per cent increase
in the number of crimes committed during the first six months of 1954 as compared with the previous year. The urban
crime rate jumped 7.2 per cent, whereas
rural areas showed an increase of 11.9
per ccnt. . . . Dr. Gerhard Jacobi, Lutheran bishop of Oldenburg, Germany,
in a recent front-page article in his
church paper discussed the challenge to
the world's Christians to evangelize the
inhabitants of other worlds should space
travel become a reality. . . . A radio
station on Formosa is now beaming 292
hours of gospel programs to the Chinese
***
mainland.
11
A True Story
From the Wild Regions
of Africa.
Anonymous
HIS WORK of giving the message
of salvation to the world costs something. Those who cannot go must
give. And it costs something to those
who go. It has cost me something. My
mind goes back to those days before I
went to the wild regions north of the
Zambesi to open the Barotseland Mission. When at home on furlough, I
visited some churches and pleaded with
the members for money enough to put
up a house in that new field, that we
might keep the mosquitoes out, so we
could go on with our work there.
Some said, "You don't need very
much money in the mission field. You
ought to go out there and live much as
the natives do, in the same kind of house
they live in." We did not get the money
we needed, but we went ahead and
answered the call of God just the same.
I built a little mud house with a
thatched roof, and we used to put the
mosquito net over the holes we called
windows; but the white ants would cut
the net, and the mosquitoes would come
in. Then we tried putting the net over
the bed; but the white ants would eat
holes in it just the same, and the mosquitoes would come in, and we took
sick of malaria.
More than this, our mud house could
not withstand the tropical rains. I had
gone away on a trip to some of the
villages and expected to be back at home
T
12
before the rain commenced. But the rain
came a few days before we had expected
it. The heavy downpour beat against
the clay walls of the house. My wife
awoke, and being anxious for the safety
of our baby girl, went over and picked
her up and took her into her own bed.
She had just done so when the side of
the house, moistened by rain, fell in,
piling dirt and mud all over the child's
bed.
The awful shock of that night and
the malaria were more than my wife
could endure. I arrived home about two
days later, and she said, "Harry, I am
tired. It seems that I have no more
energy left." I said to her, "Go down to
the coast and stay during the wet season." But she said, "No, I cannot leave
you."
A little while after that, one night, she
awakened and said, "Harry, I am chilly."
I arose and put hot bricks and hot water
bottles around her, but they seemed to
do little good. She shook violently for
an hour and a half. Then came the
dreaded blackwater fever. I sat by her
bedside that Friday and until the next
Sunday morning without sleep. Sunday
night I put cold applications over her
heart, and that frail heart would beat
once, twice, and stop, and I did not
know whether it would ever start again.
We had no doctor. It was too far to
send for a physician; and even had he
been called, the expense was far greater
than our meager funds would bear.
I took my little girl in my arms and
said, "Naomi, I am sorry to tell you that
I do not know whether mamma will
wake up when you wake up in the
morning." The little girl went to her
bed, and I heard her pleading with God
to spare her mother. God heard our
prayers.
ACME PHOTO
Neither physical achievements nor intellectual attainments are the measure of man, but the
extent to which the love of Jesus radiates from the heart and inspires to service and sacrifice.
THESE TIMES, APRIL, 1955
Monday I put my dear wife in a
hammock, carried her to the railway
line, flagged the train, put her in the
coach, and took her to the hospital.
There she became a little better. After
we had been there two weeks, the doctor said I must take her to the coast, that
she must get out of that country. I took
her to the train, and we started the 1,600
miles to the coast where we could get
help.
When we got to Kimberley, we went
to the home of our friends the Wilsons.
There my wife got a little rest. On Tuesday she felt a little better. We have
only one train a week there. She called
me into her room Wednesday afternoon
as she lay on her bed, and said, "Harry,
I want you to take that train tonight
and go back to the mission." I said,
"Wife, I cannot do it. I promised you I
would stay with you until death shoulc1
part us."
"But," she said, "I do not need you
now. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson are good
nurses. I have good doctors here. But
there are those sheep of ours. There are
those boys and girls we have gathered to
the mission station. Who will take care
of them?"
I said, "I cannot do it."
Then she lifted herself up on her
elbow with the little strength she had,
and said, "Harry, you must do it."
With a heavy heart I packed up my
things and took the train back to the
mission.
My wife went to the Cape Town
Sanitarium a month later, and there
skilled and kind hands ministered to
her needs. At that time it was eighteen
miles from the mission station to the
post office. I sent a native boy there
every time the mail train came up, once
a week, to get my letter. The train came
in the night, and he could not return
until morning, for the lions were too
dangerous. The next morning I used to
watch the path for him.
One morning the boy came back with
the usual letter, and with two telegrams.
I opened the first. It said, "Your wife
has had a relapse of blackwater fever."
Then I opened the other and read:
"Your wife passed away yesterday with
the blackwater fever. Buried this afternoon. Sorry."
Our little girl was there alone when
her mother died. Stricken with grief,
she saw the casket lowered into the
grave. It seemed that she could not give
up her mother. She sprang to the side
of the grave and cried, "Oh, mamma,
why have you left me alone in the
world?" When my wife knew she had
no chance to live, she sent me word,
THESE TIMES, APRIL, 1955
"Take care of Naomi; stay by the mission and make it all we have planned,
under God, it should be."
I have tried to give the child an education. A short time ago, when I saw
her at college, and said good-by to her,
she said, "Papa, do you know where
you will see me the next time? It will
be back there at old Table Mountain,
the entrance into Africa." She wants to
go back to help finish the work for
which her brave mother gave her life.
I have given my money, my strength,
my wife, and I intend to give the rest
of my poor self to finish the work that
God has given me to do. Will you not
ask yourself this question, "Lord, what
wilt Thou have me to do?"
[This poignant, true story of foreign
service was written by a Seventh-day
Adventist missionary, who prefers to
retain his anonymity.тАФEnrrons.]***
тАв
.:1111101MIlliE
sAut4Y-
Real Estate for Sale__)
By Inez Slorie Carr
T
HE DISAPPEARANCE of Eluge- ground passages for treasure storage.
lab, an atoll in the Marshall Islands There are protective measures for air,
of the Pacific, has increased the value, sea, and land; but now all such is as
in many minds, of real estate of both thistledown before a March wind when
country and city homes in the new the H-bomb explodes.
earth and in the New Jerusalem.
Where can we look for protection?
The skyscrapers of Manhattan and The psalmist asks and answers that
the real estate in Los Angeles and Chi- question: "From whence cometh my
cago have lost a bit of glamour and help? My help cometh from the Lord,
glitter in the recent death of an island which made heaven and earth." "For
now lying 175 feet below the ocean vain is the help of man." Psalm 121:1,
surface because of a man-made experi- 2; 108:12. It has ever been thus, but it
takes an H-bomb to emphasize it today.
ment.
The real estate in the earth made new
The H-bomb has a way of raising
thoughts as well as a mushroom radio- is the same price it has always been, but
active cloud. A cloud thirty-two times the real estate here is not going to be
as high as the Empire State Building, worth giving away when Jesus arises to
with a one-hundred-mile spread in two shake terribly the earth. It will be
minutes' time, is not a thing of beauty thrown to the moles and the bats.
when one realizes how much real estate (Isaiah 2:19, 20.)
A home that will never need the excould disappear in that interval.
It becomes more serious when one pense of the termite exterminator or prothinks of millions of people, as well as tection from quakes or wars or H-bombs
тАФa home that is a mansion, a palace
islands, disappearing.
Man has sunk foundations deep to with golden streets in front of itтАФis
fortify against earthquakes and has offered free to every individual. The
raised walls high to block flood destruc- only price is willingness to accept the
tion. Man has set concrete thick to with- "Come" invitation found in the precious
***
stand hostile invasion and laid under- Guidebook.
13
Hopeful People it
STARTLING thing
has happened. Scientists who formerly
predicted a bright future for our world,
now speak of fiery doom impending.
Christian ministers who so recently
prophesied a peaceful millennium, now
speak of the end of the world. And
their doleful forecasts simply make vocal
the feelings of all thoughtful men today.
So striking has been the change in
thinking on the part of scientists that a
word of explanation needs to be made.
Our modern age has been marked by
the growth of scientific activity and discovery, with the result that the world
has seemed to become increasingly better
and more livable. Men have looked to
scientists as virtually the new messiahs
who would produce an ever better
world. Scientists themselves, especially
after Darwin had set forth his views on
evolution in 1859, talked confidently of
world progress. Their faith in the future
was almost unbounded.
But two world wars, followed by the
blinding light of the weird and terrifying atomic age, have shaken scientists
to their very depths. In place of confidence is fear; in place of the idea of
world progress is the dreadful thought
of world destruction. In fact by the close
of the second World War such a sense
of impending doom took hold of the
atomic scientists that they set out on an
organized campaign to arouse the country to a realization that world disaster,
total and final, lay ahead if some means
were not discovered to put atomic energy
under peaceful legislative controls. They
started a monthly journal, the Bulletin
of the Atomic Scientists, to set forth
their views. On the cover of each issue
is a clock with the hands pointing within
a few minutes of midnight. Looking
back over five years of campaigning, the
editor of the Bulletin wrote that they
had failed in their endeavors to place
the atomic bomb under bounds. In the
14
HARRY ANDER ,O, ARTIST
Looking back on hundreds of fulfilled prophecies, the
student of God's Word can look forward with renewed
courage and know that the great climax of the agesтАФ
the literal, personal return of ChristтАФis very near.
January, 1950, issue he said, "What
then have we to show for five years of
effort, except the relief of having 'spoken
and saved our souls'тАФand the doubtful
satisfaction of having been right in our
gloomy predictions."
It was the nuclear physicists that
coined the phrase "minutes to midnight" to describe the perilous state of
the world. The Bulletin is, of course,
ever hopeful that some solution will be
found. But it dolefully confesses that
now there is "no place to hide" from the
threatened disaster that could easily
close earth's history.
So much in explanation of the events
that have changed scientists in one short
generation from being the messiahs of a
bright new age to being the prophets of
doom and fiery annihilation.
The change in thinking on the part
of the great majority of the clergy is
THESE TIMES, APRIL, 1955
a Hopeless World
By Francis D. Nichol
Two world wars, with their revelation of the inherent evil in
men, and the rise of the atomic threat have caused clergymen and scientists
alike to question the "progress" of mankind. In the midst of the confused thinking about the future of the world has arisen a movement with the Bible answer.
equally startling. But we must go a
little farther back to find the explanation. It may come as a surprise to some
to learn that from the beginning of
Christianity until our very modern
times, virtually all Christian people believed that earth's history would be
brought to a dramatic close by the second advent of Christ to destroy the
wicked and to take the righteous to
glory.
But Darwin's theory of evolution
seemed to prove that the world and
every living thing upon it had been endlessly progressing from the dim ages of
the past and would undoubtedly continue to progress onward and upward
in the ages that lay ahead. In time the
clergy began to accept the theory, because they wished to square their thinking with that of the scientists. Was not
science proving daily that it had the key
to the secrets of nature and could transform the world?
But the story of the clergy's acceptance of the evolution theory, and related
scientific views, is the story of a revolution in Christian beliefs. If the world
has been constantly progressing toward
a more perfect state, there is no place for
the Bible record of an original perfect
creation. And if this earth and man
upon it have been thus progressing, and
will continue to progress into the endless
ages ahead, what reason could there be
for a second coming of Christ and an
end to the world? Furthermore, both
creation and the second advent are
miracles, and scientists dogmatically declared that miracles do not happen.
It is easy, then, to see why those of
the clergy who began to adjust their
beliefs to scientific theories soon began
THESE TIMES, APRIL, 1955
to doubt the Bible account of creation,
at the beginning of time, and the second
advent, at the end of time. It is easy also
to see how they came to believe and to
preach that the future was bright and
hopeful, and that ere long we would
have a kind of heaven on earth.
By early twentieth century this mood
and viewpoint controlled the thinking
of the great majority of the clergy. In
fact, virtually all educated people had
rather come to the conclusion that the
wars and tragedies of all the past centuries were at an end, and that soon this
world of ours would be the best of all
possible worlds on which to live. Why
trouble to look beyond?
But the two world wars, with their
revelation of the appalling evil in man,
and the atomic age, with its frightful
threat of extinction, have shaken the
clergy even as they have shaken the
scientists and others. The bright dream
of the future was lost somewhere in the
smoke of battle. Perhaps the world is
not progressing! Perhaps there could be
an end to earth's history!
The revolution in religious thinking
is well illustrated by a statement made
in 1946 by the Provisional Committee
of the World Council of Churches.
Here are the opening lines: "The world
today stands between life and death.
Men's hopes of a better world have not
been fulfilled. . . . The nations seem
impotent to deal with the crucial problems of international order." Then follow these ominous words: "The time is
short. Man's triumph in the release of
atomic energy threatens his destruction.
Unless men's whole outlook is changed,
our civilization will perish."тАФChristian
Century, March 27, 1946.
Now, the Christian religion is a religion of hope. That is why the Second
Assembly of the World Council of
Churches made the doctrine of the
second advent, the hope of the church
in past ages, a central topic of discussion. That is how important the subject
of the advent has become.
But right here a strange fact stands
out. As already stated, most churchmen
today have squared their theology with
scientific premises. Chief among these
is that miracles can lot happen. But the
second advent is a miracle. Hence
churchmen are caught betwixt a desire
to take hold of the hopeful doctrine of
the advent and a refusal to surrender
scientific premises. The result has been
that they speak only in the vaguest language regarding the advent.
The Bible presents the second advent
as the climax to a great plan of God for
our earth, a plan that began with the
creation of a perfect world and ends
with Christ's return to save His own
and to recreate this earth as a perfect
abode for righteous men. What is more,
the Bible presents the second advent
doctrine in the context of great Bible
prophecies that make it possible to know
that Christ's coming is "near, even at
the doors." (Matthew 24:33.)
Now, when men reject creation, they
remove the foundation of the plan. If
they do not give credence to the prophecies, they may be sure with the scientists that the time is "minutes to midnight," but they will have no grounds
for believing that God's new day is about
to dawn for the righteous. The very
vagueness of the revived preaching of
the second advent is clear proof that
there is something wrong with the re15
lated beliefs of those who have now
begun to preach it, and also clear proof
that in such a desperate day as this there
is need that someone speak with certainty concerning the future of our
world.
That brings us naturally to another
remarkable development of our modern
times. Right in mid-nineteenth century
тАФwhen scientists, clergy, and educated
men in general were beginning to accept the evolution theory and to adopt
the heaven-on-earth doctrine that banished the second adventтАФa unique religious movement started. That movement was marked by its study of Bible
prophecies. It declared that those prophecies revealed that the world had entered
what the Bible describes as "the time of
the end," and "the last days." And so
the movement proclaimed, through its
ministers and its publications, that there
lay ahead for the world, not increasing
progress and betterment, but increasing
wickedness, wars and distress, and finally
the daczling light of the literal, personal
second advent of Christ to bring a sudden end to all evil.
At first few took notice of the movement, except to remark that its forecasts
were incredible, wholly contrary to the
views held by all the learned. Further
comment seemed superfluous. Surely
the scientists, statesmen, educators, and
the leading clergy could not all be
wrong regarding the future. That was
why many people often laughed at the
beliefs of this movement.
But no one laughs today, and for
evident reasons. The very kind of
troubled world that the movement forecastтАФon the basis of Bible prophecyтАФ
is now here. That is a simple statement
of fact. But that fact immediately raises
a most important question that no serious-minded person will seek to evade:
If this movement so accurately described
in advance the unexpected happenings
of our day, might it not have dependable spiritual guidance for men in the
dark, unknown days ahead?
The name of the movement? Seventhday Adventist. Central to the beliefs of
this religious bodyтАФwhich now numbers
almost a million throughout the worldтАФ
is the conviction that God foretold its
rise and commissioned it to preach to
all men the great truth of the second
coming of Christ. We who are Seventhday Adventists believe that it was part
of the divine plan that the movement
should begin to preach in advance of
the world events that could validate its
forecasts. Thus no one could say that
we read into dark and mysterious Bible
prophecies the events happening around
16
us. The Fact that we preached in advance of the events, and that the events
have taken place, provides compelling
proof that our message for men is true.
We are by nature no better and no
wiser than others. This we emphatically
record to remove the personal element
from this important question before us.
Our only hope of salvation is found in
God's mercy and grace; our only wisdom
comes from a study of the Book of God.
But we solemnly believe that what God
has graciously opened before us from
His Book, especially its prophetic parts,
we are duty bound to share with others.
Our goal is not to go to heaven alone,
but to take as many with us as possible.
* * *
JUDGED
God does not give character; He
gives only time. He does not give results, but only opportunities.
At the end of life we shall not be
asked how much pleasure we had
while we lived our earthly allotment,
but how much service we gave to it.
Not how full it was of success, but
how full it was of sacrifice. Not how
much happiness we experienced, but
how much help we were to others.
Not how much ambition was gratified,
but how love was served. For life is
judged by love, and love is known by
its fruits.
тАФLem Gilbert.
* * *
Scientists say "minutes to midnight,"
but have no solution except the pathetic
hope that restrictive legislation can be
enacted to curb the destructive power of
bombs. Churchmen say, "Time is short,"
but speak vaguely, even haltingly, of a
second coming of Christ. By their own
frank confession, they know not when
Christ may come, how He will come, or
what He will do for our poor world if
He does come. How unsatisfying for
churchmen to set forth the second advent as the answer to the threat of early
extinction by bombs, when they must
admit that they do not know whether
the advent is near or a million years
away.
We accept fully Christ's declaration
that no one can know the day or hour
of His return. (Matthew 24:36.) But
we also believe His important statement
in the same connection: "When ye shall
see all these things [a series of signs He
foretold], know that it idle advent] is
near, even at the doors." Verse 33. We
believe that Bible prophecies provide
strong proof that Christ's coming is now
"near, even at the doors." We think of
Seventh-day Adventism, not as one more
church in the world, but as a movement
тАФa movement that arose in fulfillment
of prophecy, and that proclaims a message set forth in prophecy, whose task
is to gather men of all faiths, all ranks,
and all lands, to make ready for the day
of God.
We believe that the strength of Seventh-day Adventist preaching, which
enabled it to win adherents even when
world events seemed to give the lie to
it, is found in two most significant
facts: (1) Its preaching of the advent
rests squarely on the divinely inspired
prophecies of God's Book and (2) fits
harmoniously into the whole framework
of beliefs that distinguish this religious
movement.
As earlier explained, one of the
reasons for the disappearance of belief
in the second advent in modern times
was that churchmen accepted the evolution theoryтАФone neutralized the other.
But we who are Seventh-day Adventists
have ever held firm our belief in creation. How could we do otherwise when
we keep the seventh-day Sabbath, which
is the divine memorial of the creation?
(Exodus 20:8-11.) And it is because
we believe that God originally created
this world by a divine act that we go on
to believe He can fulfill His promise to
"create" a "new earth." (Isaiah 65:17;
Revelation 21:1.) It is the promise of
the new creation that gives to the second
advent doctrine its truly realistic and
meaningful climaxтАФthe earth restored
to its original beauty, perfection, and
holiness. Thus the Sabbath and the second advent are interlocked and stand
forth together as of unique significance
in these last troubled days of earth's
history.
Scientists and others cry out that there
is "no place to hide" from impending destruction. But we believe there is. That
is why we are a happy people. The doleful prediction of "minutes to midnight"
does not tell the whole story. True, God
is soon to end the day of probation for
all men. But immediately beyond lies
the bright morning of a new day for
all who love God. We focus, not on the
darkness that ends earth's evil history,
but on the light that opens the glad and
endless era of righteousness. We look
forward with joy to Christ's personal,
soon return, in glory and power, as the
only hope of the world. We wish to
share that joy with others.
***
THESE TIMES, APRIL, 1955
White as Snow
By Arnold V. Wallenkampl
PHOTO BY PHILIP GENDREAU
HEN we went to bed last
night, the street by our
house was gray with dirty
slush. And when I had
stepped off the cement walk in the back
yard earlier in the evening, my shoes
gathered mud. But this morning as we
awoke, the ground was covered with
trackless snow. It was everywhere; in
our yard and on the busy street the
downy carpet lay. The drooping limbs
of the trees were decked with fleecy
white. As the sun's rays later in the
morning rested on the whiteness, the
scene was dazzlingly beautiful. All the
filth and sticky mud of yesterday were
covered with resplendent purity.
The snow covers the earth, hiding
all its ugliness and filth, and adorns it
with beauty and purity. In the same
manner Jesus will cover all your sins
and mine and make us clean, beautiful,
and pure if we only accept Him as our
Saviour from sin.
The life of David after his loathsome
sin of adultery with Bath-sheba and
murder of her husband, Uriah, was
scarlet red. But even to David the Lord's
merciful vow extended: "Though your
sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white
as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Isaiah 1:18.
Thus not even David's sin excluded him
from God's forgiving and purifying
grace. As conviction of guilt reached
him through the prophet Nathan, David
cried to God in contrition of heart:
"Have mercy upon me, 0 God, according to Thy loving-kindness. . . . Wash
me throughly from mine iniquity, and
cleanse me from my sin. . . . Purge me
with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash
me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
. . . Create in me a clean heart, 0
God; and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from Thy presence;
and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me."
Psalm 51:1-11.
God heard David's heart-rending cry,
washed away his sin, and made him
white as snowтАФa man after His own
heart. See Acts 13:22.
Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, had also been stained with scarlet
sins. Jesus first met her when the scribes
and Pharisees brought her to Him as He
was teaching in the temple. They had
W
THESE TIMES, APRIL, 1955
overtaken her in the very act of adultery,
and the law of Moses ordered that such
an offender should be stoned. They
asked Jesus, "But what sayest Thou?"
John 8:5. The Saviour made no answer.
He only "stooped down, and with His
finger wrote on the ground, as though
He heard them not." Verse 6.
As Jesus in the sand recorded the sins
of her accusers, they stole away, one by
one. Finally Jesus was left alone with
Mary, who never once had ventured to
lift her guilty eyes. She had crouched
in fear and shame, expecting every moment to feel the stones pelting her to
death. Jesus then asked her, "Woman,
where are those thine accusers? Hath
no man condemned thee?" Verse 10.
Mary for the first time lifted her eyes
and found that she was alone with
Jesus. He looked at her and added, with
forgiveness shining out of His eyes,
"Neither do I condemn thee; go, and
sin no more." Verse 11. At these gracious
words newborn hope sprang up in
Mary's heart. No one had ever spoken
to her like that.
In the experience of Mary, Jesus'
forgiving, pitiful, and kind words became the starting point for a new life.
Mary entered upon a path that led her
to Jesus; she came close to her Saviour.
It was Mary who at Simon's feast
anointed her Master's feet with her tears
and wiped them with her hair. See John
12:3; Luke 7:36-38. At the crucifixion
Mary was at the cross. See Matthew
27:56. Mary also helped at the burial of
Jesus. See Matthew 27:61. She was first
at the grave on the resurrection morning.
See Mark 16:1, 9, 10. Mary had been
cleansed from her sins and washed
white as snow in the blood of Jesus.
Jesus had saved her "to the uttermost";
therefore she loved and followed Him.
As Jesus washed David and Mary
from their sins and made them "white as
snow" so He is able also to cleanse you
and me from every stain of sin. The
Scriptures say, "Wherefore He is able
also to save them to the uttermost that
come unto God by Him, seeing He ever
liveth to make intercession for them."
Hebrews 7:25. Today His invitation is
extended to you and me. May we today
ask Jesus to wash us and make us
"white as snow."
***
* That
Man Schweitzer
HE IS eighty years old this year. For
nearly forty years he has been in the
Belgian Congo at Lambarene ministering to the needs of the natives. As far
as we have heard, he has never gotten
a pay raise or been elevated to any
higher level in ecclesiastical government. The climate is probably as bad as
when he first went there.
Schweitzer must bother a lot of folks,
if they stop to think about him. Folks
who live in luxury and waste. Who are
so selfish that they think always of
themselves first. Folks who drop pennies
in the offering plate when they could
drop hundreds of dollars. If there were
no Schweitzers in the world, it would be
much easier to be comfortable and
selfishтАФto forget that Christ once said,
"Whosoever shall seek to save his life
shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose
his life shall preserve it." Luke 17:33.
* Is It Night in Japan?
THERE are indications that Christianity's golden day is over in Japan.
Immediately after the close of World
War II there was an insistent call for
Christian missions in Japan, and those
who were there said that the interest of
the Japanese people in Christianity was
beyond anything ever dreamed of
formerly.
Now the Japanese people are turning
back to their old ways. This is not to
say that Japanese Christians are forsaking their religion, but there was
never more than an extremely small segment that actually accepted Christianity.
According to reports from Japan, there
is now taking place there a renaissance
of interest in their ancient folkways and
religious activities. Recently 2,700,000
people visited the shrine of the Emperor
Meiji, Hirohito's grandfather; 500,000
visited the Yasukuni Shrine, a monument to the souls of Japan's war dead;
and 360,000 visited the Grand Shrines
of Shintoism on the Ise hills outside
Tokyo.
18
* And in India Too?
INDIA will probably reduce the
number of American missionaries permitted to work in that country to about
half the present total, according to a
recent statement by Dr. E. Stanley
Jones, noted Methodist evangelist and
expert on India.
Jones said that Indian officials' complaints against American missionaries
center on four charges: that they do not
foster loyalty to India; that they engage
in politics; that they use material inducements to win converts among low-caste
Indians; and that they use terminology
(such as "heathen") which is "insulting" to India.
Dr. Jones's statements confirm recent
disquieting reports from India about the
increasing difficulty with which missionaries returning to that country, or
going for the first time, are able to ob-
tain visas. Christian people may awake
soon to the realization that what they
have failed to do through indifference
and procrastination, they are not able
to do now because of hostility or for
other reasons, on the part of those living
in "mission lands."
The sun is about to set on the history
of this world. We may be witnessing the
lengthening of the shadows across Christian missions.
* Religious Liberty
AS WE GO to press, the disagreement about the duties and privileges of
American army chaplains in Spain has
not been settled. Canon law in Spain
requires a Catholic Church dispensation
for the marriage of a baptized Catholic
and non-Catholic, and the non-Catholic
must sign a premarital agreement to rear
all children of the union as Catholics.
American Protestant chaplains would
Responding to a survey conducted by thirty Seventh-day Adventist churches in the state, Governor Goodwin J. Knight of California points to his favorite verse in all the Bible, Micah 6:8.
RELIGIOUS NEWS SERVICE PHOTO
THESE TIMES, APRIL, 1955
be authorized to officiate at weddings
only when both parties are baptized
Protestants. All other weddings would
be performed by Catholic chaplains or
Spanish priests under conditions laid
down by Catholic canon law.
Strong protests have been voiced by ,
prominent Protestant leaders in this
country.
* More and Better These
Times
ON THE DAY this editorial is being
written, the Southern Publishing Association, publisher of THESE TIMES,
has purchased a two-color rotary press.
This press does not replace a worn-out
machine, but is an addition to the equipment of the pressroom. Its purchase has
been made partly necessary by the
greatly increased circulation of THESE
TIMES, whose present printing order is
220,000.
The present circulation of THESE
Tim Es is a little more than three times
that of 1950, and it is still growing. The
editorial staff rejoices that this great
record of progress has been made, and
believes that it is partly due to the worth
of the magazine in the eyes of the
readers and their friends.
The present circulation of THESE
TIMES places it among the top ten of the
Protestant monthly magazines published
in the United States.
* Decoys
THE PUBLISHERS of the sixty
million comic books published each
month in this country are fearful of
what aroused public opinion may do to
their sales. It is unpleasant to believe,
but it seems true, that there is nothing
that will cause these people to stop
printing the filth that they purvey to
the children of the nation. Several years
ago the public was told that a comic
book association had been formed for
the policing of the industry. From that
time on, everything was to be lovely and
pure in the comic book world. Alas,
THESE TIMES, APRIL, 1955
things have not worked out that way.
According to our observations, the content of the magazines is now even worse
than before the "association" was formed.
The latest quirk in this sordid situation came to light recently. A comic
book by the name Crime SuspenStories
published a full-page spread entitled
"Are You a Red Dupe?" Following is
this: "Here in America, we can STILL
publish comic magazines, newspapers,
slicks, books, and the Bible. We don't
HAVE to send them to a censor FIRST.
* The End of an Era
The Reader's Digest, long a publishing phenomenon in that it has consistently been a money-maker in spite
of the fact that it has never carried a
line of advertising in this country, has
now been forced to change its policy in
this respect. Beginning with its April
issue, it will carry thirty-two pages of
advertising. A poll of its readers revealed
that the majority would rather have advertising in the magazine than pay more
than twenty-five cents a copy.
The Reader's Digest will accept no
liquor, tobacco, or medical-remedy ads.
In foreign editions the Digest has
carried advertising, and in at least one,
the Canadian, it has also accepted liquor
ads.
It is to be hoped that the Digest will
continue to keep its pages free from the
objectionable advertising that it is now
ruling out in its United States edition.
* Millions for Missions
RELIGIOUS NEWS SERVICE PHOTO
Omar Bacon, librarian at Huntington, West
Virginia, enthusiastically participates in the
national movement "Operation Book Swap."
Not YET! . . . THE GROUP MOST
ANXIOUS TO DESTROY COMICS
IS THE COMMUNISTS! . . . The
NEXT time some joker gets up at
P.T.A. meeting, or starts jabbering
about the 'naughty comic books' at your
local candy store, give him the ONCEOVER. We're not saying he IS a Communist! . . . He may be a DUPE who
has SWALLOWED THE RED BAIT
. . . HOOK, LINE, AND SINKER!"
Such tactics need little comment, but
are most revealing as to the morals and
motives of the comic book publishers.
It is heartening to know that Albert
Schweitzer received the 1952 Nobel
Peace Prize. It is also heartening to learn
that he is putting all the money, $33,149, into the medical mission which he
maintains in French Equatorial Africa.
In this connection it should be noted
that in a recent meeting of the Seventhday Adventist denomination the largest
mission budget in the history of the
church was voted, slightly over $20,000,000 for 1955. Seventh-day Adventists
continue aggressively to move forward
in every portion of the world where they
can get an entrance. They are also
steadily building up organizations within mission lands to carry on Christian
activities if foreign missionaries should
have to relinquish their work and turn
it over to national representatives.
Although most Americans are falling
far short of what they should be doing
from this wealthy country, it is heartening to know that mission work still is
***
not entirely forgotten.
19
TIME ENDED--AND AFTER
By Ernest Reed
ILLUSTRATED BY CLYDE PROVONSHA
Part 2
LANDING to lorry, Blanding to
lorryтАФover." "Lorry to Blanding,
O.K.тАФover," came the immediate
reply to Blanding's powerful portable sender. "Have contacted my
man. Will report hourlyтАФover," said
Blanding.
"Well done. Cheerio."
By now it was late evening and almost
dark. Peter would not try to make it
into the valley before morning. He
therefore spread out a small waterproof
groundsheetтАФall the bedding he could
carry with his other cargo; and after
having eaten a meal of concentrated
food, he prayed and went immediately
to sleep.
"Blanding to lorry. My quarry has led
me into a small valley by an obscure and
most difficult path. This valley has been
recently cultivated and inhabited by a
considerable number of people. I am
following up the valley toward the precipitous hills. It is becoming increasingly
evident that there is a band of dissenters
somewhere near. Make ready for attack
at any moment." The speaker's voice
was just a whisper but easily carried to
the point of contact. Morning had come,
and events were moving rapidly toward
a climax.
It was only a matter of minutes after
the foregoing microwave conversation
that Peter's shoelace came untied. He
was going down a steep place in the
path that momentarily dipped into a
ravine, when it happened, and his foot
began to slide forward in his shoe. Instantly he dropped to one knee, with his
foot poised on the projecting root of a
tree.
8
20
This extraordinary document might be termed a modern-day parable.
Although the characters and certain details are imaginary, the foundation facts are based on well-understood Bible prophecy. In the first
installment a number of events leading up to judgment day were described: John Day, military official with offices in the underground
Octagon, and the "Leader" found themselves out of patience with a
stubborn group of religionists that failed to fall in line with the government-sponsored "spiritual" revival that was taking place as a way out
of overwhelming world difficulties. As soon as Day signed the decree
to kill the dissenters, supernatural spectacles took place. in many parts of
the world. The Appearance, a being of majestic bearing, came from
nowhere and worked together with Day and the Leader against the
dissenters. The seven last plagues began to fall. Blame for them was
immediately placed on the dissenters, one group of which was in Australia, led by Peter Dundee. One. day Dundee cautiously left the group's
hiding place in a remote valley to go to the city. On the way back he
was spotted by Blanding, a secret service man with a motor convoy of
lorries. As this installment opens, Blanding is reporting back to the
truck convoy.
At the moment Peter stopped, Blanding had for once taken his eves off his
quarry for a mere second. But when he
looked up again, there was Peter kneeling, and the distance between the two
had closed dangerously. As Blanding
brought himself up short to avoid being
seen, a round rock rolled beneath one
foot; and before he could prevent it, it
went bounding down the faint path with
a horrible clatter. Blanding instantly
threw himself behind a fallen log.
At the first sound of the rock's rolling
Peter's blood froze in his veins. So well
schooled was he, however, in the arts of
self-preservation, that not by the slightest
action did he give evidence that he
had heard anything. Methodically he
finished tying the lace while inwardly
thanking God that what had happened
had happened, for otherwise he would
have led whoever it was that was following him to the cave. He straightened
himself, adjusted his pack, and went
forward as though nothing had happened. Meanwhile his mind began to
work feverishly. He must think of some
evasive action that would convince his
follower that he had not become
alarmed, and at the same time lead him
away from the cave. Fortunately Peter
was strong and had great stamina. He
would have no difficulty in going on
much farther than had been his original
plan in getting to the cave. He lengthened his stride. Whoever was following
him would have a good workout before
he was through, Peter thought to himself. And then something happened that
made his heart almost stop. He heard
the sound of approaching voices.
In the meantime, while proceeding
cautiously, Blanding again made contact with the lorry. "Relay to coast command at once. Send extermination squad
immediately with utmost caution. Compass bearings as follows. Repeat, urgent.
Repeat, urgent."
"Lorry to Blanding. O.K., Blanding.
Relay will be sent at once. Urgent."
Within seconds there was action at
the coast command. Fifty men were
loaded into a rocket troop carrier and
catapulted into the sky. The ship would
fly beyond visibility over the target, and
the extermination squad would parachute down. They were armed only
with small arms and knives. Noisy
means of killing were avoided if possible, as it was not thought good policy
to attract too much attention to the
killings.
THESE TIMES, APRIL, 1955
Peter's shoelace came untied. He was going
down a steep place in the path that moPeter paused and listened. Yes, his
mentarily dipped into a ravine, when . . .
keen ears had heard voices. They were
at least a mile away, across the valley,
and their sound had been projected to senters. If possible they would be caphis ears by the sheer cliff that formed tured alive. Then they could be "perthat side of the vale. How could he suaded" to reveal their hide-out. Torture
warn his fellows and keep them from was not a pleasant word, butтАФ
harm? How could he keep them from
"My brothers, why did you come?
giving away the secret of the cave? Dis- You should never have left the cave in
regarding the heavy pack on his back daylight!" Peter's blanched face and
and at the same time throwing all hope gasping breath told his fellows that
of evasion to the winds, Peter began to something had gone terribly wrong.
run. At the same time, many thousands "Come, we must fly! Away from the
of feet above, the extermination squad cave!"
were already floating down silently to
But flight was hopeless. The group
the valley floor. As they floated earth- had run only a score of yards until they
ward, powerful binoculars, directed by caught sight of armed men coming in
Blanding's microwave transmitter, swept their direction. Turning at right angles,
the valley floor and took in the situation. they were again confronted within a
As Peter neared his unsuspecting com- short distance.
panions, the squad was already forming
"We are surrounded!" cried Peter.
a ring around the unfortunate dis- "We must break through, or all is lost."
- THESE
TIMES, APRIL, 1955
Heading for a dense thicket where the
ring had not penetrated, the group
crashed through with more than human strength and actually won through
the armed ring. For a moment they
gained ground on their cruel pursuers.
"Halt, or we fire!" the squad commander's voice rang out.
"Never," Peter's low voice counseled
his companions. "Capture means torture or betrayal."
Behind the pitiful group the exterminators dropped to their knees. Silencerequipped machine rifles came to the
ready, were aimed, and the "fire" command was barked out. There was a
blinding white light across the forest
between the pursued and the pursuers,
and as Peter and his companions looked
back, they could, for a time, see nothing
of their enemies.' When the hovering
light vanished, seconds later, they saw
the machine rifles scattered on the
ground and heard the retreating sound
of men running. That was the last they
were ever to see of the squad.2
* * *
"And that, Excellency, is typical of
our experience with the dissenters in
Australia. Our squad leaders come back
absolutely terrified. They claim that
their weapons are powerless and refuse
to fire. Whereas at one time we were
able to capture some of these people and
imprison them, from the time of the
`contamination' we have neither captured nor killed a one."
"Nonsense!" snarled John Day. "It
is obvious that we need new blood in
the ring command. Asia?"
"Your Excellency." The commander
from Asia stood deferentially by his
chair, but the beads of perspiration on
his upper lip betrayed his inner agitation. "My distinguished colleague from
Australia could not have better described
our experience had he been in command
on my continent!"
The ensuing minutes were not pleasant. Day was no Hitler. He did not rant
and foam at the mouth. Neither did he
threaten. Men who failed to carry out
his commands, implicitly, often simply
disappeared. In every case their property
was forfeited to the ring and their families left destitute.
It was therefore a white and shaken
group that took its leave from the office.
Every man knew that he had been asked
the impossible. Every man knew that he
was doomed should he fail to achieve it.
Day himself was more shaken than
any of the ring. He had had word from
the Leader who claimed to have been
directed by the Presence. Second in
command in all the world and with
21
special responsibilities in the Western
Hemisphere, Day was nonetheless a
pawn on the chessboard to be used or
disposed of by the Leader. No man
could successfully defy the LeaderтАФunless it might be a dissenter.
Day's face was dark as he lived out the
next few weeks. He thought that he had
lived through the worst days that the
world could see. Then came the darkness in the country where the Leader
held court, and after that the final war.3
So severely was the Leader's immediate organization shaken by the
darkness and its horrors and by the following titanic conflict that Day was not
molested. Stealthily, meanwhile, he
caused the Octagon to be more and
more thoroughly protected.
Thinking of all the plagues that had
come, and trying to think ahead to any
possible eventuality, Day tried to make
provision against every one.
After the great heat the Octagon was
completely re-airconditioned with a
safety factor of ten to one. The outer
defenses were tripled in magnitude.
Day sat looking at the television wall.
There was proceeding a gigantic buildup of armed forces, and as next to the
supreme command Day was given every
scrap of confidential military information via television. Expert geographers
and logisticians briefed him almost
hourly and rendered special aid and
advice upon call.
Click . . . click . . . click. . . . Again
that click of doom! Day blanched in
spite of himself. Had he dared, he
would long since have had the warning
mechanism ripped out of the machine,
but he must hear every important bulletin. The screen darkened, blurred,
and then cleared. A succession of views
were thrown upon it. Great storms were
sweeping over the continents with
thunder, lightning, and wind beyond
the experience of mankind. Repeatedly
buildings were shown struck and ripped
apart and set afire by tremendous bolts.
"Although it has been impossible to
prepare a telecast of the affected areas,
we regret to say that Paris, Marseilles,
London, and Berlin have been stricken
with heavy earthquakes. Mass evacuations are, taking place. Minute by minute we are receiving bulletins telling of
new outbreaks of the quakes, many in
places where such things have never
before been known. . . тАв Wait! A bulletin has just been put in my hand
which says that the entire city of Cape
Town has sunk under the sea. Scarcely
5 per cent of the population escaped!
And here's another from Italy. . . ."4
John Day half rose from his seat.
22
Our 3-lope Lies Not in enapons
Safe was our journey, and sure our silent going
Through all the ages that the earth has known,
For He, who is almighty and all-knowing,
Held secrets that were His and His alone.
But now the reins that guide the cosmic courses
Are sought by man who seeks to seize and wrest
The aeon-lengthened secrets of the forces
That He has kept close-hidden in His breast.
How can there be but fear when science plunders
The energies within the blazing sun,
And pries into the springs of cosmic wonders
Like children playing with a loaded gun?
Our hope lies not in weapons man may fashion,
Nor in the arrogance of wayward pride,
But in the healing might of God's compassion,
And in the force of Faith we have not tried.
тАФREID CROWELL.
More and more and still more! What
was wrong with all his plans and devisings? Touching the telecasting control
button, he straightened in his seat.
"Calling all ring commanders. This
day at 1200 I, John Day, supreme high
commander of military forces of the
Leader, will personally lead a new drive
against the dissenters. The ring commanders of the world will report immediately their present location and
plans."
Click . . . click . . . click. . . . "Reno,
Nevada, reporting. . . . Los Angeles has
just been totally submerged by a succession of two-hundred-foot tidal waves.
The whole metropolitan area and much
of the suburban surrounding territory
is sinking at the rate of two feet every
hour. The city will have to be written
off as totally destroyed. . . ."
"NO!" Day cried out, leaping to his
feet. "No, it can't. . . . It must not. . . .
I decree!" Clutching his head with both
hands, he jabbed the button to cut off
the telecast and draw the drapes. Falling
into his chair, he muttered, "Not here,
at least not here. . . ." His voice rose to
almost a scream. "I say, NOT HERE!
NOT HERE!"
But even as he spoke, there was a
rumbling that was not from the television machine, now silent. It seemed
to John Day that the floor was moving
under his feet. With awful fascination
and bulging eyes he saw a crack begin
in one corner of the sumptuous office
floor and run rapidly to the ceiling.
Then, with a rending roar, the mighty
rock above the Octagon split, and a
million tons of rock crushed the great
complex of the Center like a doll's
house of cardboard.5
1. "The angel of the Lord encampeth
round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them." Psalm 34:7.
2. "Thou shalt not be afraid for the
terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth
by day. . . . A thousand shall fall at thy
side, and ten thousand at thy right hand;
but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with
thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the
reward of the wicked." Psalm 91:5, 7, 8.
3. "And the fifth angel poured out his
vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed
their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the
God of heaven because of their pains and
their sores, and repented not of their deeds.
. . . For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings
of the earth and of the whole world, to
gather them to the battle of that great day
of God Almighty. . . . And he gathered them
together into a place called in the Hebrew
tongue Armageddon." Revelation 16:10, 11,
14, 16.
4. "And there were voices, and thunders,
and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon
the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so
great." Revelation 16:18.
5. "And the great city was divided into
three parts, and the cities of the nations fell:
and great Babylon came in remembrance
before God, to give unto her the cup of the
wine of the fierceness of His wrath." Revelation 16:19.
(To be continued next month)
THESE TIMES, APRIL, 1955
's'e
91Aad Zlou Vatet?
R-ptoia 7t
;Litt
By Charlie W. Shedd
UPPOSE some mystic fairy were to appear
at your bed tonight and ask, "Would you
like to see a filmstrip of your remaining years?"
What would you do?
If you are wise, you would beg him to go
away and leave you with the blessedness of
mystery.
We say, "If only I could know how it will be
six months from now. If I could just see where I
will be in 1960." But the denial of these things
is one of life's rich favors.
Last week you met an interesting stranger.
The moment you shook his hand you thought,
"I'd like to know him better." Yet that's what
makes him interesting. Ours would be an insipid
society if we knew all about every person on
the spot.
The same applies to romance. You've had
dates with those you could know fully on the
first night. Something about them seems to say,
"I wear me on my face. This is all there is to
me."
So the handsome swain and his beautiful
bride approach the altar not because they are
fully acquainted. Instead they come implying,
"We know each other well enough to spend the
rest of our lives knowing each other better."
Madam, if you sometimes think your husband
is hard to understand, thank God it's so. If you
knew him fully, you'd be bored. When you as
a husband can't understand women, praise life
for the fact that a wise Creator gave you a
challenge. The most thrilling marriages are
those where she is putting together a jigsaw
puzzle and he sees in her islands to be discovered
or faraway streams deep and waiting.
The blessing of a partial knowledge works
both ways. If you don't know all about others,
they don't know all about you, and that is good.
Muse some evening on the goldfish. How would
you like to live in a bowl where you would be
completely visible always?
The goodness of mystery is evident in sorrow.
If you were to know that one year from now you
are to lose a loved one, go to the hospital, or
S
THESE TIMES, APRIL, 1955
find your back to
the wall, you'd be a
mental wreck before
the time appeared.
Would you be happier if you were told
the hour of your
death? Of course
you wouldn't. No normal human being would.
Life's hidden future is one of the things which
makes you capable. If you knew tomorrow's successes, if the challenges of your job came easy,
your work would go flat.
When you were little, you got the new
tricycle, but the fun wore off. Then you wanted
the doll house. Next it was a formal, then a
husband, now a baby, and to round it all out
you will want the new home. Will you have
them? Let's hope so. But be glad you don't know.
Although anticipation makes life savory, it
needs a solid footing. We only thrill to the unexpected, or look with pleasure to the unknown,
when we go through life with confidence.
Annie Lou was four years old. She had long
lashes and dark ringlets in her hair.
My six-year-old Karen and I were on the
streamliner. Annie Lou came down the aisle and
said, "Would you like to play dolls with me?"
So we played dolls and visited.
In the course of the conversation she announced herself as Annie Lou, and she was
going to a friend's house.
"And where does your friend live?" I asked.
"I really don't know," she answered.
"Oh, but aren't you afraid?" I continued. "If
you don't know where it is, how will you know
when to get off and where to go?"
Annie Lou smiled her million-dollar smile and
said, "Well, you see, I really don't need to know
all those things because I'm traveling with my
grandmother, and she knows."
Some of us don't know it allтАФin fact we don't
know very much. But we're having a grand trip
and life is fun. You see, we know with whom
we're traveling, and He knows all those things.
23
There is significant meaning to the universal demand for security,
even at the price of liberty. It adds up to another sign
of the approaching return of Christ. The Bible
answers the question . . .
IS WORLD SECURITY
HE BIBLE has a significant word
to say about the present worldwide
longing for peace and security.
That word is as follows: "Of the
times and the seasons, brethren, ye
have no need that I write unto you. For
yourselves know perfectly that the day
of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the
night. For when they shall say, Peace
and safety; then sudden destruction
cometh upon them, as travail upon a
woman with child; and they shall not
escape." 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3.
The inspired apostle writes here to
the believers in Thessalonica. Ile tells
them they are already informed regarding the "times and the seasons" of "the
day of the Lord," that is, the developments and signs and evidences which
will be associated with the return to this
earth of the Lord Jesus. However, Paul's
message is primarily one for us believers
today, and the one thing he would emphasize, which we should keep in mind
as an outstanding and convincing sign
of the nearness of the great event, is that
"when they [men] shall say, Peace and
safety," then, with great and unexpected
suddenness, the events of "the day of
the Lord" shall come.
Paul would have us, who are living
in the last days, alert to what men are
saying, quick to discern the significance
of developments which have a bearing
on the return of the Lord, and watchful
for one development in particular: some
announcement, or demand, or effort
toward a worldwide movement to compose the differences between nations
and bring about international peace and
safety. (The word "safety" has been
translated "security" in several modern
translations.)
We are to expect, then, in fulfillment
of this prediction, that the time will
come in the development of human
affairs when the people of the earth
shall unite in making a great demand
for, or in expressing the imperative need
of, both peace and security to solve the
T
24
complex troubles of the world. The
supreme effort to reach these two objectives will constitute a most convincing evidence of the nearness of the return of Jesus, the imminence of the day
of the Lord, and the "sudden destruction" to follow.
You will observe that it is not only
"peace" that is to be said; it is "peace"
plus something else: "peace" plus "security." Certainly that connects the
prophecy with our day, which is characterized by the greatest, the most elaborate, the most insistent effort of humanity to obtain peace and security that
mankind has ever witnessed.
The nations of the world, sixty of
them at present, have united to form a
vast organization known as the United
Nations, the chief purpose of which is to
bring about peace and security for the
whole world. Indeed, that word "security" has become the great word of the
present hour.
SECURITY is the catchword of
ecclesiastical, social, political, and industrial ideologies of the present time.
Social security, job security, health
security, old-age security, eternal security. We hear of these securities everywhere and all the time.
Spiritual security is promised if you
will only put your soul and its salvation
in the control of an ecclesiastical hierarchy, which will then furnish vim with
beliefs, a way of life, forms of worship,
limited duration in purgatory, escape
from hell, and assurance of heavenтАФall
without your being bothered about
thinking of those things.
That is, eternal security is yours
merely by transferring your individual
responsibility to God to a church, which
claims to be fully equipped to look after
your eternal interests. You can turn the
whole intricate and puzzling business of
salvation over to experts, who will
handle the matter for you on your agreement to accept their assurance of security for your surrender to them of your
individual responsibility and liberty.
They claim they will get you all the
way through to heaven if they may have
your mind, your body, your soulтАФnow.
It is an exchange of liberty for security,
a security which you never get, for salvation is not the commodity of any
church, but depends wholly on a personal relationship to Jesus Christ.
Political security, likewise, can be
obtained, we are told, if individuals will
turn over their individual responsibility
for good government to experts, who are
quite willing to assume this responsibility under a guarantee of the greater
good of the whole community. Individual rights need only to be merged in
the reservoir of the people's rights as a
whole, and the whole complicated matter of the common good be turned over
to those who claim special qualifications
for this business of government.
Industrial security, too, can also be
taken care of by merging individual interests and welfare with a group, called
a union, the leaders of which will guarantee security on the mere pledge of the
individual to obey orders, doing what
he is told, when he is told to do it, and
in the way he is told. On that basis your
job will be guaranteed (employment
security), your hours will be arranged,
your wages will be fixed, the amount of
work you do will be determined (as well
as the amount you are not to do), and
all responsibility for bargaining about
these things will be taken over for you.
Health security! Social security! Employment security! Old-age security! Do
not bother your head about them, we
are told. They will be taken care of by
the government. All you need to do is
to step into line, allow yourself to be
regimented, told what to do, told what
not to do, told what to eat, what not to
eat, told what to buy, and what not to
buy, told where you can go, and where
you must not go. Just give up your individuality and become a cog, or a
number, lost in the mass.
THESE TIMES, APRIL, 1955
By Carlyle B. Haynes
POSSIBLE?
OFFICIAL. UNITED NATIONS PHOTO
Man's deep longing for peace and securityтАФintensified
by the catastrophic weapons now threatening his very
existenceтАФhas produced gigantic diplomatic efforts.
You are promised that if you will but the contending forces which are strugrelinquish your liberty, you will be gling for the mastery without a sense
given security. However, it never works of coming disaster. Everything seems
out that wayтАФor only half so. You do turned out of its normal course. Inlose your liberty, but you never obtain dustrial development and political philosophy have operated to rob the individsecurity.
These are the days when individual- ual of his personal distinctiveness. A
ism is on the way out. Totalitarianism vastly mechanized age has crowded men
is coming with a rush in nearly every into factories and mills and shops. They
aspect of human life. Men used to love have become so many "hands." They
liberty and were ready to make any have banded together in defense of their
sacrifice to obtain it. Now they stand interests and as such have become "unlike sheep and allow demagogues, who ions." They work in "shifts" and
pattern their ideologies after those of "gangs." Their sentiments are made
Hitler and Lenin, to deprive them of known through a "federation," or "contheir liberties, and appear quite in- gress," or "organization." They negotiate
different about it.
and bargain "collectively." They even
The United States began its existence shed their names and become numbers,
by making "liberty" its chief goal and so that Tom Smith is now Number 28
putting that before all else as its main on Job 36 in the mass manufacture of
objective. Liberty now is coming to be some machine part or product.
replaced by another objective. That obWhat has become of the individual
jective is SECURITY. And men are today? He is lost in the mass. His inbeing induced into surrendering liberty dividual rights and interests and welfare
in order to obtain it. But all that hap- cannot be considered, but only the inpens is that they lose their libertiesтАФ terests and welfare of the group to
and they do not obtain security.
which he belongs. If he has a conscience
No man can look about him today at which will not permit him to go along
THESE TIMES, APRIL, 1955
with his group in all things, that is too
bad for him, for nothing can be done
about it. His personal and religious convictions must be submerged and suppressed for the welfare of the group.
This is the principle which sent Jesus
to the cross. Entrenched ecclesiasticism
in that day decided that "it is expedient
for us, that one man should die for the
people, and that the whole nation perish
not." That is, the welfare of the individual must give way before the welfare
of the group.
And that is the spirit which is coming
to characterize every aspect of human
life today.
It is, indeed, a significant word which
Paul wrote:
"When they shall say, Peace and
safety [security]; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon
a woman with child; and they shall not
escape." 1 Thessalonians 5:3.
This is the day foreseen and foretold.
"Peace and security." They are saying it
over all the earth. This is the time when
we confidently look for the breaking of
"the day of the Lord."
***
25
HAPPY )
HOMES
A Queen at Hozne
HE RECENT "Christ back in
Christmas" emphasis has helped crystallize my ambition to put mother
back on the throne as "queen of the
household." Commercializing, in this
case, has also been the offender. It
works like this: The latest model range,
the latest model refrigerator, the TV set
with the biggest screen, are constantly
played up in advertising far beyond
their real importance. Women abandon
their family duties to go out and help
earn the money to buy these unimpor-
T
tant things. Many children growing up
today will never look back to a shining
clean kitchen filled with the wonderful
fragrance of plump loaves of homebaked bread, yellow mounds of butter
all printed with butterflies, clover blossoms or tiny pine trees, and tasty cinnamon spiced apples baked to a turn.
About all they will remember is the
name of the folks who ran the corner
bakery! What a loss to mother!
TV is pushing mother into another
corner. While she dashes about trying
n pervades the home whose queen loungly
teadies her children the Word of God and demonstrate, its pos%cr in her life.
to do at least half a job of housekeeping
after office hours, Debby, Sandra, and
Jack are left to themselves with the TV
in the den. In many cases the suitability
of the program is never questioned. It
is a means of keeping children entertained and out from underfoot until
bedtime. When these children grow up,
mother will not be the center of their
childish entertainment world, but rather
some TV entertainer, maybe good or
maybe definitely harmful.
It seems to me that every mother
should have the privilege of putting her
own children into a bubbly, warm bath
in the evening, dressing them in warm
sleepers, and having a few minutes' play
with them in the living room. Daddy's
paper, too, should be laid aside for the
fun if he has the supper dishes finished.
Then to bed with good-night stories.
Not highly exciting adventure stories,
but stories about boys and girls living
lives like they live, character-building
stories told or read by mother herself. A
mother should know that her children
are learning lessons of honesty, reliability, kindness, reverence, courage, and
the other virtues that, molded together,
make a well-adjusted adult.
Jack-of-all-trades, but master of none,
is a name that may apply to many men
and women. It should never apply to a
mother. She should be jack-of-all-trades
and master of some. A mother should
constantly apply herself to the task of
studying nutrition and learning to be an
expert cook. Only then can she ensure
the health of her family.
Since children, in spite of good nutrition, do get sick, a mother should be
familiar with the best home nursing
techniques and be prepared to use them
in her home.
A mother should develop her teaching ability to the highest possible degree.
She is her child's first and most influential teacher. The home, the church, and
the school are responsible for the training the next generation receives. Mothers
become agitated if an incompetent
teacher is on the school staff, or concerned if the pastor of the church is
negligent; and vet, for the want of the
latest model automobile, they relinquish
their share of the responsibility of training their children to someone else. A
mother never sits quite so much a queen
as when in her own home, where she
directs and molds the spiritual life of
her children; or when she sits in church
with well-groomed, happy children sitting in the pew between herself and
her husband, awaiting the Lord's benediction on her week's loving endeavor
for Him.
***
THESE TIMES, APRIL, 1955
ET' S S
E
The answers to health questions are supplied to the readers of THESE TIMES
by Owen S. Parrett, M.D. Address your queries to him in care of this magazine.
I am a woman thirty-two years old
and have suffered from migraine
headaches since I was twelve. I have
tried remedies and recently was given
Cafergot, which has proved to be the
best so far, as I can go longer without
recurring headaches. Is it safe to use,
and what is it made of?тАФH.A.M.
Cafergot is a medicine put up by the
Sandoz Chemical Works, Inc., of New
York City. It is a compound of 1 mg.
ergotamine tartrate and 100 mg. caffeine
in tablet form. The suppositories contain 2 mg. of ergotamine tartrate and
100 mg. of caffeine. It should be taken
as early as possible in the beginning of
an attack. The effect is to contract the
dilated blood vessels along the nerve
trunk which are causing the pain. It is
not a narcotic. The average dose, from
two to six tablets, is to be taken soon
after the beginning of an attack.
Start using two tablets and experiment, finding out how little can be
taken while still getting relief. Take no
more than is necessary for this purpose.
Never take it to prevent an attack, but
always when the attack sets in. Although
this is the best medicine to get quick
relief, it must always be borne in mind
that the factors causing migraine, besides heredity, include nervous strain,
wrong diet, lack of rest or sleep, and
whatever hygienic factors may lower the
vitality. All persons with migraine
should study carefully to work out the
most careful program possible to avoid
in each individual case the known factors which precipitate the attack. Outdoor life in the fresh air and sunshine,
freedom from anxiety, and a careful diet
should become part of the daily program. In this way it is sometimes possible almost entirely to avoid recurrence
of the attacks.
Is it harmful to drink one or two
bottles of cola a day besides a cup of
coffee?тАФB.K.
It is definitely harmful to drink either
cola or coffee. Many cola drinks are
spiked with caffeine like that found in
coffee. They are definitely harmful
THESE TIMES, APRIL, 1955
nerve stimulants. Another disadvantage
is that when taken in rather large
amounts, one gets large quantities of
cane sugar without the proper vitamins
and minerals to accompany it.
If I had a family of children in a
polio epidemic, I would be less afraid
of polio than pop. I remember a family
of four, in which one girl had polio. I
sent her to the polio hospital. After inquiring of the mother which one of the
children was most likely to take sweet
drinks and desserts and less likely to
take vegetables and fruits and so forth,
she remarked it was the same girl that
had polio. I have seen this repeatedly.
Since sugar is lacking vitamins, large
amounts of it predispose to polio and
other diseases. A surgeon friend who
was in Africa for thirteen years told me
that he only saw three cases of appendicitis while he was there. All three were
African chiefs who were eating the food
of the white man, including meat and
sugar. It would seem that in countries
where little or no sugar is eaten, such
diseases as polio and appendicitis are
little known. Regarding coffee: I have
seen one cup of coffee bring on nervous
spells and dizziness which would not
cease until the coffee was left off. Both
coffee and soft drinks contain harmful
drugs and should be avoided under all
circumstances.
I am a woman aged forty-six. When
thirty-four years old I had radium
used, resulting in no periods for one
year. Now I am going through the
menopause, am very nervous, and lose
confidence in myself. Sometimes I
almost go blind. I have had some
symptoms since radium was used. I
am doing eight hours of work a day
besides my housework and caring for
my eleven-year-old boy. I have some
hot flashes and weak spells. My husband can't understand why I feel as
I do and am unable to spend evenings out from home with him.
тАФM.E.D.
Your problem is not an unusual one,
but not every woman at your age at-
etteill
tempts to do double duty as you are. It
is unfortunate that you must work eight
hours on the job and then have to carry
your homework besides. If finances
make it necessary and there is no way
out, of course you will have to do the
best you can. But you would get along
much better if you had one job instead
of two.
I would certainly take some estrogenic
medicine right away, consisting either
of weekly injections or tablets such as
Premarin, 1.25 mg. once every day or
every other day as necessary. You should
have a diet rich in vitamin B and especially vitamin E, which is derived from
the outer layer of grains, wheat germ, and
so forth. Avoid all white flour products.
Secure some middlings and germ in the
proportion of 85 per cent middlings and
15 per cent germ, which is a by-product
of the manufacture of white flour. Use
this as a breakfast cereal, cooking onehalf hour. You may add some dates or
raisins. You might also take some wheat
germ oil two or three times a day. The
vegetable estrogen-like vitamins will enable you to reduce the injections or
tablets of the true estrogens, and at the
same time it will tend to build up your
general energy and nervous system.
Balance your diet well with plenty of
fresh fruits and salads, green and yellow
vegetables, and some milk and eggs.
Perhaps some men do not realize the
strain a woman is under when going
through this period. A word from a
physician would enable your husband
to understand the matter better, I am
sure. You should have some outdoor
exercise daily and nine or more hours
of rest and sleep. Do not get discouraged. Time is in your favor, and eventually you may almost forget entirely
your present troubles, although it may
be two or three more years. Probably
when you had the radium treatment,
you almost completely destroyed your
ovarian secretions and thus brought on
a premature menopausal condition. The
hot flashes and nervousness will gradually diminish with the passing of time
***
and as you take treatments.
27
"Moving"
Sermons
WIDE WORLD PHOTOS. INC.
LEFT: Bill McGarrahan is known
throughout the country for his oneman dramatizations of Bible stories.
His audiences sit entranced as the 100pound five-footer portrays the giant
Goliath one moment, little David the
next. Here he plays the part of the
blinded Samson pulling down the pillars of the heathen Philistine temple.
BELOW: Jack Hamm, 36-year-old
Waco, Texas, artist, with some of the
religious cartoons he furnishes at nominal rates to more than three hundred
newspapers in 42 states and several
foreign nations. He says he draws the
truths of the Bible as related to modern events. He puts a Scripture quotation on every cartoon. His work
has appeared often in "These Times."
THESE TIMES, APRIL, 1955
RIGHT: Phil Saint, 40year-old evangelist of
Greensboro, N.C., with
one of the colored chalk
pictures he draws as an
introduction to sermons
he delivers across the nation. This one is called,
"The Return of Christ."
He has been combining
preaching and drawing
successfully for 19 years.
BELOW: Elijah P. Schofield, of London, England,
a Congregational minister
and ventriloquist, holds
his dummy, "Jimmy,"
while a young member of
his congregation looks at
it admiringly. The minister uses "Jimmy" in his
sermons from the pulpit.
BELOW: To be sure she will not miss any calls,
Mrs. Julia Shelhamer, 72-year-old telephone
evangelist, carries a plug-in phone wherever she
goes in her mission in Washington, D.C. She
gets calls from people at any hour of the day or
night, and is always ready to pray with any who
have learned of her and need spiritual help.
musk
be boNN\
agar .
THESE TIMES, APRIL, 1955
Pageant of Prophecy
(Continued from page 2)
one reflects on the entirely new technique of long distance projectiles, paralleling in effectiveness the explosivesтАФ
giant rockets, higher than ten-story
buildings and directed to distant continents, the anguish of our epoch becomes understandable. But what saith
Scripture?
"In Genesis 8:21 God said to Noah,
'I will not again curse the ground any
more for man's sake; for the imagination
of man's heart is evil from his youth.
Neither will I again smite any more
every thing living, as I have done.'
"This word of the Eternal is valid
today and tells us that a new deluge, or
an atomic conflagration according to
sensational reports, cannot be. The
earth, in the measure expressed by the
Word of God, will survive the terrible
judgments evoked by the scientific technique of a demonic humanity. All that
will come on man is found essentially in
the Revelation given by the Lord Jesus
to the Apostle John.
"But let us return to what the Bible
calls 'the powers of the heavens.' Men
call them today fission, chain reaction,
the atomic bomb. It has pleased God to
give to scientists, with an insatiable
thirst for new discoveries, the key to immeasurable energy.
"The single bomb of Hiroshima vas
equal to twenty massive attacks with a
thousand bombs of TNT. In a few
thousandths of a second after the release of this one bomb, a ball of fire
formed an incandescent mass of gas 300
meters in diameter, reaching a temperature of a million degrees. The light of
this ball of fire was, at a distance of a
kilometer, 2,000 degrees greater than
that of the sun. Consumed in six seconds, it gave out penetrating gamma
rays which destroyed 15,000 men in
Hiroshima. What was agonizing was
that the victim touched by death felt at
first only a passing discomfort but died
two or three weeks later of a frightful
death by the total dissolution of his
blood. Metal buildings were melted,
trees uprooted, all life destroyed. . . .
"An improved form of the uranium
bomb, using an isotope of plutonium,
has a destructive power six times greater
and equivalent to 120,000 tons of TNT.
Its ball of fire has a temperature of two
hundred million degrees and a diameter
of two kilometers. It would reduce
stones to vapor. The radioactive dust
following destroys certain organs of the
body.
"Our hearts are profoundly moved by
30
these things when we read what the
Prophet Zechariah (14:12) wrote regarding the days of the end:
" 'Their flesh shall consume away
while they stand upon their feet, and
their eyes shall consume away in their
[eye] holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.'
"When we read what the Apocalypse
tells us of the judgments which the
Lord will permit to come on humanity,
we recognize these modern arms. Multitudes will die because all water is
polluted by radioactive bitterness. All
that is green will be consumed. What
will not be the intensity of those ternpests which the explosion of atomic
bombs will unchain on the seas, destroying a third of the ships. It is impossible to recount here all the military
phenomena which visibly agree with the
descriptions of the Prophet John.
"Finally, some words on long-range
arms. According to press information,
giant rockets are being prepared to carry
atomic bombs from one continent to
another. These bombs will fall from a
height of up to 100,000 meters. Radar
cannot detect them, neither the most
rapid airman, flying 3,000 kilometers an
hour and provided with all manner of
automatic devices of detection and destruction. These stars will fall from
heaven with no possibility of restraining
them, directed as they are by the hand
of divine judgment.
"What can we conclude? Shall we be
in terror or seek to defend ourselves with
counter devices and electronic brains?
"No, we are to seek salvation only
from the Lord our God, for He alone
can save. 'Watch ye therefore, and pray
always, that ye may be accounted worthy
o escape all these things that shall come
to pass, and to stand before the Son of
man' (Luke 21:36). Then we can lift
up our heads, for our redemption
drawcth nigh."
Reprints Available
"Death in the Bottle," the poignant temperance story in our
January issue, has now been
printed in pamphlet form. Orders
should be sent to the Southern
Publishing Association, PeriodicaI
Dept., Box 59, Nashville 2, Tenn.,
or to your conference Book and
Bible 1 louse.
Prices (Postage prepaid)
100 to 500
SI.10 per 100
500 to 5,000
$10.00 per 1,000
5,000 and over (shipped to
one address)
$9.50 per 1,000
IS IGNORANCE BLISS?
BY MIRIAM TRIPP
GNORANCE is bliss," said Joan;
"people who know too much are unhappy." "Yes," agreed Patsy, "people
were much happier in the old days
when they didn't know about all the
diseases we are acquainted with today.
They died of diseases, but they didn't
go through the mental suffering we do
today. For example, when I was sixteen,
I tried to get out of bed one morning,
but I crumpled to the floor. Visions of
polio passed before my frantic eyes. I
tried to rise, only to topple again. Thereupon I let out a piercing shriek. My
parents came running, and finally we
learned that my difficulty lay in the fact
that both of my legs had 'gone to sleep'
during the night. Think of the mental
suffering I went through because I
knew that there was such a disease as
polio. I thoroughly agree with you that
ignorance is bliss."
Patsy's trouble was caused not by
knowledge but by insufficient knowledge. Had she known from the first that
her difficulty lay simply in the fact that
her feet were "asleep," she would not
have suffered mentally. Today knowledge has increased to the point where
we know more about diseases, but we
also know more about the means of
curing them. Through increased knowledge about mental hygiene, we also
know better methods of relating ourselves to disease should it strike.
The cynic is a former idealist. His
world crashed because his knowledge
was incomplete. How much better it is
to face all the facts and build one's
philosophy of life upon a sure foundation!
In the Bible the word "knowledge" is
found about two hundred times. The
word "know" is also found frequently.
From this we infer that God considers
knowledge to be something important.
I Ic invites: "Wash you, make you clean;
put away the evil of your doings from
before Mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn
to do well; seek judgment, relieve the
oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead
for the widow. Come now, and let us
reason together, saith the Lord: though
your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as
white as snow; though they be red like
crimson, they shall be as wool." Isaiah
1:16-18.
The Master said: "Ye shall know the
truth, and the truth shall make you
free." John 8:32. The greatest knowledge we can gain is acquaintance with
Him who says: "I am the Way, the
Truth, and the Life." John 14:6. ***
I
THESE TIMES, APRIL, 1955
Earthly Pretender
or
HEAVENLY
POTENTATE?
By Robert IL Pierson
N THE ORIENT through the 1 ears
a title has meant much to those holding high positions. Ruling princes
have paid large sums of money to the
paramount power for the privilege of
placing "His Highness," "His Exalted
Highness," "Sir," or some other honorific title before their names. One Indian maharaja, I am told, is entitled to
place the appellation "sri" some thirty
times before his name. The average
gentleman must be content with using
it but once. Yes, titles mean a great deal
in many parts of the world.
There is, however, One who, without
the fanfare of earthly superlatives, has
a name "which is above every name."
This name was not bestowed upon Him
by some grateful earthly sovereign for
some meritorious works. Rather "God
also hath highly exalted Him, and given
Him a name." Philippians 2:9. That
name is Jesus!
I
"The name of Jesus is so sweet,
I love its music to repeat;
It makes my joys full and complete,
The precious name of Jesus!"
"At the name of Jesus every knee
should bow, of things in heaven, and
things in earth, and things under the
earth; and that every tongue should
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the
glory of God the Father." Philippians
2:10, 11.
In this world of sin, a world in rebellion, every knee does not bow at the
name of Jesus, nor does every tongue
confess Him Lord. But in the glorious
coronation day, when the redeemed
THESE TIMES, APRIL, 1955
ROBERT AYRES. ARTIST
Jesus' pre-eminence, His authority, His lordship,
and His dominion all confirm the Biblical claim that
He was more than a mere man. He is indeed the
divine Son of God!
shall gather around the great white
throne of earth's rightful King (Revelation 14), every knee shall bow and
every tongue shall confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord.
"All hail the power of Jesus' name!
Let angels prostrate fall;
Bring forth the royal diadem,
And crown Hirn Lord of all!"
What a magnificent scene! What a
glorious day that will be when Jesus at
last takes His rightful place as the
Crown Prince of the universe!
Today men quibble. They say Jesus
was a good man. He was a prophet. He
was a fine example. He was this. He
was that. Yes, He was a good manтАФ
never has there been a better. He was
a prophet тАФ never has there been a
greater. He was a fine example both to
I Iis generation and to ours. But Jesus
Christ was far more than any of theseтАФ
I Ie was the divine Son of God.
God, His Father, has given Him a
name "which is above every name." His
Father has "highly exalted Him." It is
true. Not only in that glorious tomorrow, when every tongue shall confess it,
but yesterday, when men reviled Him,
and today, when menтАФeven good menтАФ
refuse to accept Him as the Son of God.
Centuries before His birth in Bethlehem's manger the gospel prophet
wrote of Jesus' exalted position. Speaking for the One who inspired him,
31
Isaiah wrote, "I will divide Him [Jesus]
a portion with the great, and He shall
divide the spoil with the strong." Isaiah
53 : 12.
Again, catching a glimpse in vision
of the Son of God, Isaiah exclaimed,
"Who is this . . . that is glorious in
His apparel, traveling in the greatness
of His strength?" Isaiah 63:1.
Not only the prophets but His contemporaries, His disciples, and followers
spoke and wrote of His exalted nature
and position, and of His greatness.
John the Baptist, mighty preacher of
repentance that he was, recognized that
the One of whom he was the forerunner
was far greater than he. "He must increase," he declared in John 3:30, 31,
"but I must decrease. He that cometh
from above is above all. . . . He that
cometh from heaven is above all."
Of John the Baptist, Christ had said,
"Among them that are born of women
there hath not risen a greater than John
the Baptist." Matthew 11:11. Jesus
placed John at the pinnacle, humanly
speaking. Yet John declared that Christ
was above him, and he should decrease
that his Master might increase.
"Above all"тАФyes, that is Jesus' rightful place as the Son of God.
Paul, writing under inspiration, declared Jesus to be "so much better than
the angels." (Hebrews 1:4.) Later, in
his effort to convince the Jews of the
pre-eminence of Christ, he added, "For
this man [Jesus] was counted worthy of
more glory than Moses." Hebrews 3:3.
This was the acme of expression as far
as the former member of the Sanhedrin
was concerned.
The pre-eminence of Christ is further
emphasized by Paul in his epistle to the
church at Colosse. "And He is the head
of the body, the church: who is the
beginning, the firstborn from the dead;
that in all things He might have the preeminence." Colossians 1:18.
In a final burst of sublime revelation,
Paul declares Christ to be not only
greater than Moses, not only the head
of the church, not only greater than the
angels, but to be "Lord both of the dead
and living." (Romans 14:9.) To Paul,
the Christ he had met on the Damascus
road was not merely a good man, He
was "above all," "Lord both of the dead
and living," the divine Son of God preeminent above heaven and earth, one
with His Father.
One of the fruits of Christ's sufferings, death, and resurrection is His Godgiven authority both in heaven and in
earth. Just before His return to His
Father, Jesus spoke with His disciples,
declaring, "All authority has been given
32
unto Me in heaven and on earth."
Matthew 28:18, R.V.
Because of His submission to the ignominy of the cross, Christ was given
special, exalted authority in heaven. His
it was to send down the Holy Spirit
from heaven to His needy followers
whom He had left behind. To Him,
likewise, was granted the right to raise
up followers to take them to His (and
their) heavenly abode and there to
crown them with an endless glory.
He also had authority "on earth." He,
by His Spirit, should convert sinners
and sanctify, protect, and perfect His
church for the day of His second advent.
He was to subdue nations and finally to
act as judge of all mankind. "And hath
given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of
man." John 5:27.
If Christ were not divineтАФequal with
the FatherтАФhow could He have made
such claims? To have boasted of such
authority without being one with the
Father would have been base impiety
and blasphemy. It was because He knew
from whence He came (John 8:14) that
He could in such a manner assert His
Godhead and His equality with the
Father by claiming to possess all power
in heaven and on earth.
This authority was ever reflected in
His teaching and in His ministry. The
multitudes were ever conscious of it.
They were amazed by it. They easily
detected the difference in His teaching
and the insipid, ceremony-bound doctrines of their religious leaders. "For He
taught them as one having authority,
and not as the scribes." Matthew 7:29.
"And they were all amazed, insomuch
that they questioned among themselves,
saying, What thing is this? What new
doctrine is this? For with authority cornmandeth He even the unclean spirits,
and they do obey Him." Mark 1:27.
Why was His teaching different?
Why did He teach as one having authority? Why did even the unclean
spirits obey His word? The answer is
singularly clear. He taught and worked
not as the Son of Mary with influence,
but as the Son of God with power!
In Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost the apostle refers to the lordship of
Christ: "God hath made that same Jesus,
whom ye have crucified, both Lord and
Christ." Acts 2:36.
The name "Lord" used here is from
the Greek word kurios, meaning "a controller" or "the one supreme in authority." To Peter, Christ was not only the
spiritual Messiah but also the supreme
governor of the universe, whose power
and justice, as well as mercy and kind-
ness, knew no earthly bounds. Likewise
He wished to impress upon his hearers
that the One whom they had crucified
had been on the right hand of the Majesty on high, the Lord to whom every
knee would one day bow. He was the
supreme in authority, the controller of
all. Such a One they had maliciously
opposed and crucified.
Paul, in writing to the church at
Corinth, emphasizes the fact that Christ
was not merely a lord but the Lord of
all: "But to us there is but one God,
the Father, of whom are all things, and
we in Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom are all things, and we by
Him." 1 Corinthians 8:6. This Paul
has stated by way of contrasting Christ
the one Lord with the many lords
of heathenism. In the Orient non-Christians have many lordsтАФthere is Lord
Krishna and scores of othersтАФenough in
fact that each person can have his or
her own personal deity. It is not so with
Paul or with the true follower of Christ
today; there is but "one Lord Jesus
Christ."
THESE TIMES, APRIL, 1955
The apostle to the Gentiles further
attaches a spiritual significance to the
calling of Christ "Lord." "Wherefore I
give you to understand . . . that no
man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but
by the Holy Ghost." 1 Corinthians 12:3.
Not in the sense that our Hindu friends
refer to Lord Krishna do Christians
speak of Lord Jesus. Jesus here is not an
abstract doctrine but the historical, living God-man, who by I Iis Spirit has
become a reality and the ruler in the
surrendered life of an individual. Only
the person who has experienced true
conversion, who acknowledges himself
to be Christ's servant, can truly call
I Iim "Lord."
The Lord of all holds dominion over
all. There is no limit in heaven or in
earth to His overlordship. The prophet
Zechariah states it thus: "His dominion
shall be from sea even to sea, and from
the river even to the ends of the earth."
Zechariah 9:10. Moses declares, "The
Lord made heaven and earth, the sea,
and all that in them is." Exodus 20:11.
Christ demonstrated His dominion
over nature when He stilled the storm
and calmed the waves, and "men marveled, saying, What manner of man is
this, that even the winds and the sea
obey Him!" Matthew 8:27. The Lord
of nature has the elements of nature
under His control.
Not alone the elements of nature
respond to His command, but Peter
writes that Jesus, now being on the
right hand of God, has "angels and
authorities and powers being made subject unto Him." (1 Peter 3:22.) They
likewise obey Him. His dominion
reaches beyond the limits of our mundane sphere and extends throughout
the whole universe.
The prophet Isaiah reminds us that
"of I Iis government and peace there
shall be no end." (Isaiah 9:7.) A strange
statement this seems in a world in
ferment, a world that has known no real
peace. But it is true. Today He sits enthroned in human hearts that admit of
His kingdom of grace. He who has admitted Christ into his life and submitted
to I lis government knows a sweet, abid-
ing peace despite the fearful chaos that
surrounds him.
Then, glorious day, Christ's kingdom
of grace will become His kingdom of
glory. When the seventh angel sounds,
"the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of
His Christ; and He shall reign forever
and ever." Revelation 11:15. When
things began at creation, Christ, as our
Lord exercising His right in His dominion, began them. (Genesis 1:1; John
1:1-3, 14.) When the drama, as far as
this earth is concerned, ends, it will be
because He rings down the curtain. He
is the first and He is the last. (Revelation 1:17.) Then comes His kingdom
of glory over which "He shall reign
forever and ever."
Christ's greatness demonstrates His
divinity. He is no earthly pretender who
ignominously passed from the stage of
action two thousand years ago as a victim of the cross. No! He is today a living
Christ, our heavenly Potentate, our sooncoming "King of kings, and Lord of
lords."
***
The unique position of Jesus Christ among the leading figures of world history can be understood only if one accepts His claim to be the Messiah of Israel and hope of the world.
GUSTAVE DORE, ARTIST
TI IESE TIMES, APRIL, 1955
33
TW2
IN is I I тАФ
.4v
Atf3t,
40.0
%MU
By
Mary Hunter Moore
Wings
HAVE SEEN a wing. It lay on the
table at the Bird Club meeting, and
the members crowded around to examine it. We had looked on with wonderment at the huge bundle our chief
birdbander had just carried in. This
changed to amazement as she unrolled
the great mass of bone, muscle, and
feathers, and laid it out full length. It
must have approximated five feet in full
stretch.
It was the wing of a white pelican
which had come down on the Cumberland River to rest during migration from
its northern nesting ground to its Gulf
coast winter vacationland. Fishermen in
a motorboat had caught up with the
floating bird, dragged it aboard, taken
it ashore at a riverbank tavern, and
shut it up in a car trunk, where it slowly
suffocated and drowned in the contents
of an overturned oil can. A tardy call
to Nashville's best-known birdbander
brought her hurrying, but it was too
late. The dying bird but shortly outlived
its cruel abuse. Most of its plumage was
too much soaked in heavy motor oil to
allow examination. But this immense
wing had been clean enough to allow
being skillfully disjointed at the shoulder. It now lay before us for observation.
The bone was huge and heavy looking, but remarkably light, being hollow.
Rather it was cellular, or the hollow
part was criss-crossed with struts and
braces to provide maximum strength
with minimum weight. The muscular
system was marvelous in its adaptability
to every motion. We pulled the wing
out to its greatest length and folded it
back almost like an accordion. The outpull not only moved the hinged joints
of the skeleton of the wing, but also
spread and closed the feathers.
Those feathers! A feather is a fascinating thing. Every detail, from the
quill to the almost microscopic hamuli,
I
34
or hooks, by which the smallest divisions
of the web are held together fabric-like,
is admirable in its perfect adaptation of
form to function. The largest feathers of
this great pelican wing were underlaid
with such a mass of smaller, fluffier
feathers as gave the wing in relaxed
position a cushioned feeling as though
covered with deep velvet pile. In its extended position, the feathers gave my
hands as I held the wing a curious sense
of sustaining power. I was told later by
the owner of the wing that the feathers
on the bird's body were so plump and
heavily plumed as to mass together into
what felt more like fur than feathers.
This facilitated the streamlining of the
immense body to reduce wind resistance
in its powerful flight and to cut the
water in its plunging dives.
Do you have problems, burdens,
and perplexities that seem overwhelming? If you drop us a line,
we shall be glad to join you in
praying to our heavenly Father.
Address all correspondence: Prayer
Circle, Box 59, Nashville 2, Tennessee.
401
тАвтАвтАвтАвтАвтАвтАвтАвтАвтАв111..111..
Looking with fascination at this
largest wing I was ever near, I kept
thinking of the smallest wing I ever
sawтАФthat of the hummingbird that once
lay on the palm of my hand, from beaktip to tailpoint not so long as across it.
The pelican's largest feathers had quills
almost as large as my little finger. The
hummer's feathers were so tiny as to
be indistinguishable. Its body seemed
clothed in a shimmering silken fabric,
the separate feathers no more noticeable
than one thinks of the separate threads
in a piece of satin. Yet the hummingbird's wings had proportionately as great
power as the pelican's. They took that
animalcule off my palm at a speed my
eye hardly followed. Hummingbirds'
wings carry them across the Gulf of
Mexico. Power of wings apparently
does not depend on size.
Since having seen these two extremes
of wings, I can find more meaning in
the beautiful Bible expressions about
wings. "I bare you on eagles' wings,"
God said of His delivering the Israelites
from Egypt. Exodus 19:4. "As an eagle
. . . spreadeth abroad her wings, taken'
them [her young], beareth them on her
wings," He said of His tender love for
His people. Deuteronomy 32:11. Boaz,
praying for Ruth, said lovingly, "A full
reward be given thee of the Lord God
of Israel, under whose wings thou art
come to trust." Ruth 2:12. "He shall
cover thee with His feathers, and under
His wings shalt thou trust." Psalm 91:4.
The shadow of wings is used in the
Bible as a symbol of God's loving care
for His children. One understands that
better after observing how strongly the
thread-like barbs and barbicels of the
feather are hooked together by the
hamuli into the elastic webтАФlight,
tough, almost air- and water-proof. Instances are known of a mother bird's
standing on a nest's brim sheltering her
fledglings from the sun by her wings
outstretched. So David prayed, "Hide
me under the shadow of Thy wings."
Psalm 17:8. "How excellent is Thy
loving-kindness, 0 God! Therefore the
children of men put their trust under
the shadow of Thy wings." Psalm 36:7.
"My soul trusteth in Thee: yea, in the
shadow of Thy wings will I make my
refuge, until these calamities be overpast." Psalm 57:1. "I will abide in Thy
tabernacle forever: I will trust in the
covert of Thy wings." Psalm 61:4. "Because Thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of Thy wings will I
rejoice." Psalm 63:7.
The overcoming power God's people
can obtain from Him is symbolized by
wings. "They that wait upon the Lord
shall renew their strength; they shall
mount up with wings as eagles; they
shall run, and not be weary; and they
shall walk, and not faint." Isaiah 40:31.
Salvation is symbolized by wings. "Unto you that fear My name shall the Sun
of righteousness arise with healing in
His wings." Malachi 4:2. But the epitome of tenderness is reached in our
Saviour's own heartbroken cry over selfish Jerusalem: "How often would I
have gathered thy children together,
even as a hen gathereth her chickens
under her wings, and ye would not!"
Matthew 23:37.
THESE TIMES, APRIL, 1955
Address your questions to Editor, THESE
TTMES, Box 59, Nashville 2, Tennessee.
"Passed 4111"
1. After our loved ones have passed
on, can Christians pray to God for
them? 2. And if they passed on before
they said they were ready, do you
think they are saved? 3. Where is the
spirit between death and the judgment day? 4. Some people say if any
are suffering and pass on, they are not
saved. Is that true?тАФA.E.S.
1. It is not in harmony with the Bible
to speak of the dead as "passing on."
The words "to pass on" began to be
used for "to die" by the founder of
Christian Science to express the teaching that there is no reality to sin or
suffering or sickness or death (all of
which contradicts the Bible). No one
but Christian Scientists ought to use
those words. The Bible words are "fell
asleep" (Acts 7:60); to "die in the Lord"
(Revelation 14:13); to "sleep in Jesus"
(1 Thessalonians 4:14). The dead are
called "them which are asleep" and "the
dead in Christ." (Verses 15, 16.)
The Bible teaches that death closes
our probation. In the parable of the
foolish farmer Christ showed that his
opportunity passed when he died. (Luke
12:20.) Hebrews 9:27 says, "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after
this the judgment." That does not allow
for any change of character, or any more
probation, between death and the judgment. Much more in the Bible agrees
with this. If our prayers for our loved
ones after their death could influence
their future salvation, surely God would
have told us so and have urged us to
such praying. But the Bible is silent on
that subject. The Apostle Paul says,
"Now is the day of salvation." 2 Corinthians 6:2. The twelfth chapter of
Ecclesiastes is devoted to exhortation to
turn to God before old age and death.
"Remember now thy Creator in the days
of thy youth, while the evil days come
not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou
shalt say, I have no pleasure in them."
2. We cannot judge how a soul stands
THESE TIMES, APRIL, 1955
before God, and it is not wise to try.
(Matthew 7:1.) No other human being
can know one's thoughts. Especially are
we unable to judge the thoughts of one
in his last illness. The wisest thing to
do is to trust our beloved dead to God,
knowing that He is a loving Father,
who will save everyone who can possibly be saved. (2 Peter 3:9.) Then let
us be comforted in hope. "I would not
have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye
sorrow not, even as others which have
no hope. . . . Wherefore comfort one
another with these words." 1 Thessalonians 4:13, 18.
3. The Bible says, "Then shall the
dust return to the earth as it was: and
the spirit shall return unto God who
gave it." Ecclesiastes 12:7. The spirit
is with God until the resurrection at
Christ's coming. The spirit is the breath
of life that God gave to man when He
created him. (Genesis 2:7.) See also
Job 27:3; 32:8; 33:4; 34:14, 15. That
breath of life returns to God, and the
body returns to the chemical elements
of which it is composed. The dead are
not conscious. (Psalm 146:3, 4; Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6, 10.) lore than sixty times
in the Bible death is called a sleep.
Send for This
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Bible Correspondence
for Busy People
(John 11:11, 13, 14, and elsewhere.)
The record of men's bodies is kept in
God's book. (Psalm 139:16.) Their
breath of life is safe with God until He
returns it to them at the resurrection.
Read the whole of 1 Corinthians 15.
4. It is cruel and un-Christlike for anyone to say that those who die in suffering cannot be saved. The Bible teaches
nothing like that. This world is a place
of suffering because of sin, and we all
must share that suffering; but it is not
because we are unsaved or are any worse
than anyone else that we suffer. (Luke
13:1-5; John 9:1-3.) God never intended
suffering; it has come because of the
sin of Adam and Eve. (Genesis 3.) But
God will use the sufferings of this life
to discipline us and mold and form our
))
characters. "Trials are God's workmen,
someone has said.
"Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you,
as though some strange thing happened
unto you: but rejoice, inasmuch as ye
are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that,
when His glory shall be revealed, ye
may be glad also with exceeding joy. If
ve be reproached for the name of Christ,
happy are ye; for the Spirit of glory and
of Gicl resteth upon you: on their part
I Ie is evil spoken of, but on your part
He is glorified." 1 Peter 4:12-14.
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A TREASURE HOUSE
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