| News and Views | September 1946 |
The Conversion of Christendom
IMPORTANT world changes are occurring so rapidly that the imagination is staggered when one tries to visualize, without the aid of the Word of God, what the ultimate outcome will be. It is only necessary to compare the pre-1914 world with the national and international setup of today to realize what far-reaching changes have already been made. The royal families of continental Europe have nearly all vanished as ruling factors over the various divisions of the old Roman world. The spirit of revolution is everywhere manifest. Communism and socialism have already supplanted many of the powerful conservative governments which once existed.
Even the heretofore backward peoples of the earth are feeling the impact of the spirit of change, and in their request for freedom and a larger share of earth’s bounties; are asserting their real and fancied rights. This adds to the general picture of chaos and suffering in this post-war world—a world which was supposed to have been a veritable utopia of peace, prosperity, and happiness for all classes and nations. As a background of grim reality which is striking fear into the hearts of the people of all nations is the threat of universal destruction now posed by the atomic bomb. And all of this fear, chaos, starvation, and misery, in a world that for centuries has called itself “Christendom”—Christ’s kingdom!
True, the term Christendom seldom appears in print, or is heard over the radio today. And that is as it should be, for it originated with the establishment of the church-state systems of government, and most of these governments have now become extinct, or else have lost their power over the people. Had Christendom actually been Christ’s kingdom we would not have had two global wars in a generation, and the world would not now be threatened with utter destruction by the atomic bomb.
Gradually this fact is beginning to take root in the public mind, and leading churchmen the world over are now busily engaged in promoting the idea that what the nations need is to be converted to the teachings of Christ; that this, and this alone will avert the catastrophe which nearly everybody fears is coming.
One of the few church-state systems of government which still exists is that of Great Britain, and there it functions largely in name only, the church having little of consequence to say in the affairs of state, and the socialist lawmakers caring even less for the affairs of the church. Highly placed officials of the Church of England have reached the conclusion that Great Britain needs to be converted to Christianity—a revealing admission to make concerning a traditionally Christian nation!
This is a tacit acknowledgment of the fact that the cold steel sword of the king has not been as effective as it was supposed to have been in defending the faith of the English people. To those honest enough to admit the truth this reveals the fact, long known by some, that England has never, any more than the other nations of Christendom, been truly Christian, and that Christ never ordained that his teachings should be defended by steel swords of civil rulers.
The admission of the present non-Christian status of Great Britain is set forth in considerable detail in a report published in book form by a commission on evangelism appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of York pursuant to a resolution of the church assembly passed at the summer session of 1943. The book is entitled, “Towards the Conversion of England,” and is published by “The Press and Publications Board of the Church Assembly.” The committee thus authorized by the Church of England and appointed by the two archbishops above mentioned took two years to make a survey of all the factors involved, and after securing the information needed, issued their report. There were fifty members on the committee, five of them bishops of the church, and the remainder either ministers or other brilliant and well-recognized personages in the organization.
This report is said to represent the unanimous opinion of the entire committee, which it is well to recognize when reading some of the startling statements it contains. This eminent committee raises the question, “What then are the conditions which constitute the problem of modern evangelism,” and proceeds to answer, first of, all by reminding the reader that England is still Christian on the surface. We quote:
“Seen from a distance, Britain is the country which seems most nearly to approach the ideal of a Christian community. The ceremony of the Coronation, the regular opening of sittings of Parliament with prayer, the Mayor’s chaplain, the provision for religion in the Services and in all State institutions, the religious articles in popular periodicals,’ the Religious Department of the British Broadcasting Corporation and many similar phenomena, go to show that the ethos of the State remains Christian. Delegates, for example, from the Protestant French churches at the Oxford Conference in 1937, on Church, Community, and State, were at first shocked and then enviously astounded at the relations in this country between Church and State. They regarded the State as the Great Beast in Revelation. With us the Established Church is ‘still entwined by countless sub tie threads around the life of the realm and nation.’ The English are still more deeply influenced by Christianity than they themselves know, or churchgoers often admit. There is in them a fundamental soundness of character and a sense of responsibility that explains why other nations look to this country for leadership. But behind this facade the situation presents a more ominous appearance.”
So much for the outward appearance, the “front,” of a nation which has been so fundamentally a part of Christendom. But do the “Christianized” coronation of kings, the opening of Parliament with prayer, and the many other outward forms of religion—although practiced for centuries—make a nation actually Christian at heart? We will let the investigating committee of the Church of England answer. In the next paragraph of their report these fifty dignitaries of the English Church say:
“There can be no doubt that there is a wide gulf between the Church and the people. How far the rift has gone, or how deeply it has as yet affected national character, cannot be measured with statistical accuracy. Conditions vary surprisingly from area to area, and reports from personal observations differ widely according to the locality, or the section of the community, from which observers draw their conclusions. The war, however, with its general mix-up of the population, has afforded an unequalled opportunity of gaining some general appreciation of the situation. Thus, evacuation has opened the eyes of one-half of the inhabitants of this island to see how the other half lives, with the result of eyes being opened very wide indeed. Then again, men and women congregated together for war service present a cross-section of British society between the ages, roughly, of 18 to 40 years. Though they are living under abnormal conditions and are subject to special moral and emotional stresses, they remain essentially the product of our day and generation. The evidence, therefore, of chaplains and others in close touch with all three Services, and with munition factories, may be accepted as conclusive. They testify with one voice to the fact of a wholesale drift from organized religion. The present irrelevance of the Church in the life and thought of the community in general is apparent from two symptoms which admit of no dispute. They are (1) the widespread decline in church-going; and (2) the collapse of Christian moral standards.
“It is indisputable that only a small percentage of the nation today joins regularly in public worship of any kind. Though accurate statistics are hard to obtain, it is significant that matters usually appear to be at their worst where there is no conscious community life. The most depressing reports come from large industrial cities, and from the wide and heterogeneous belt of population which sprawls round London and includes about one-sixth of the total inhabitants of England. … The obvious fact of the decline in church-going throws into high relief the need for finding new means whereby a hearing may be gained for the Gospel message. It is plain that pulpit preaching can no longer be relied on as a principal medium for evangelization. You cannot convert people who are not there.”
Well said! And then the report goes on to detail the breakdown of Christian morals throughout England. After presenting a shameful picture of sexual promiscuity, the report continues:
“If we have seemed to emphasize the declension from Christian moral standards more particularly in the realm of sex, it is because it is most obtrusive in the field, not because it is not marked in other directions. In every department both of public and private life the same trend is clearly to be seen. The gravest feature in the whole situation is that there is so little feeling of shame in loose living, still less in untruthfulness and dishonesty. The sense of responsibility and of duty has become undermined. There is no. longer a generally accepted moral standard by which men judge their own actions. Instead, they excuse themselves by an appeal for a pseudo-scientific determinism. Personal failings are dismissed as the result of repressions, or as due to the action of the ductless glands. Dishonesty in private or public affairs is waved aside as the inevitable result of the economic system. The idea of man as a responsible person is in danger of disappearing with the loss of belief in God. No wonder our generation has been dubbed the Age without Standards.”
This is indeed a dark picture! According to the committee’s report it is a situation which has developed hand in hand with the industrial revolution brought about by science and invention. The doctrine of Humanism—which, in brief, is the belief that man is his own master and does not need to depend upon a higher power—has gradually supplanted faith in God. But, as the report states,
“Instead of man being ‘the master of things,’ he finds himself their slave—the serf of the very civilization that he has created, and the powerless victim of mechanical laws of his own devising. It is not man who has been set free, but the blind materialistic forces he has unleashed. The machine has taken charge of its directors and reduced the common people to mere cogs in its wheels.”
Even more damaging to the reputation of a State Church which still claims to be a part of the kingdom of God on earth, is the stark acknowledgment of its impotency to deal with the difficult task of converting England. We quote the committee again:
“In the face of the unique opportunity entrusted to our race, it would be fatal to minimize the problem that confronts the Church. We are called to a far harder task than to evangelize heathen who do worship (however ignorantly) a Power higher than themselves. In England the Church has to present the Christian Gospel to multitudes in every section of society who believe in nothing; who have lost a whole dimension (the spiritual dimension) of life; and for whom life has no ultimate meaning. The paramount spiritual need of the non-worshiping members of the community (as evidenced by this survey) is the recovery of their consciousness of God. Only so can they regain a doctrine of man morally responsible to God, and a philosophy of life that sees the material world as the sacrament of the realities of the Eternal. But the Church is ill-equipped for its unparalleled task and opportunity. The laity complain of a lack of creative leadership among all ranks of the clergy. The spiritual resources of the worshiping community are at a low ebb. Above all, the Church has become confused and uncertain in the proclamation of its message, and its life has ceased to reflect clearly the truth of the Gospel. It is for the Church, in this day of God, by a rededication of itself to its Lord, to receive from him that baptism of the Holy Ghost and of fire which will empower it to sound the call and give the awaited lead.”
The committee of investigation seems to take for granted that if the Church professes to right itself with God the gift of the Holy Spirit will be forthcoming and they can get on with the work of evangelizing “Christian” England. Perhaps the taking of so important a thing for granted is another evidence of the spiritual decline and lack of vision of the Church in which the committee of investigation itself shares. The committee, of which many are the clergy, has this to say about the spiritual leaders of the church:
“We are gravely disturbed to discover how many of the clergy seemed to have received inadequate training in prayer and meditation. Great numbers of priests neither know how to pray themselves, still less how to teach the art of prayer to their people. There is the need of Schools of Prayer for the clergy, and of all the help and encouragement they can possibly be given in this vital matter.
“The ignorance of the Bible today, not only in the ranks of the laity but also amongst many of the clergy (and particularly the younger clergy) is really horrifying. Yet there is nothing more vital for the work of evangelism. The Bible contains the title deeds of our Faith. How many priests, today, by pointing to passages and verses from the Holy Scriptures, can bring that assurance of salvation to enquirers which our Bible-loving forefathers were able to mediate to countless multitudes? … Bishops tell of candidates for ordination who cannot point ‘to any words of the Lord Jesus Christ where he promises forgiveness of sins to anybody and everybody.’”
As we read these astounding confessions of spiritual bankruptcy within and outside of the State Church in a professedly Christian country we cannot help wondering why the committee of investigation does not raise the question of whether or not God has deserted the organization, and look elsewhere for an evidence of his leading and blessing. While charging the clergy in general with ignorance of the Bible which contains the “title deeds” of their Faith, why did they not examine the Bible a little more carefully to ascertain if the “title deeds” had been properly interpreted?
If the State Church of England is the kingdom of God on earth, as it is alleged to be, why didn’t the committee begin to wonder why prophecies of the Bible did not point out such a tragic breakdown of God’s kingdom? Concerning Christ’s kingdom the Bible says that “of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end.” (Isaiah 9:7) How does the committee harmonize this promise, and the many others of similar import, with what they have discovered concerning the near collapse of the British State Church?
But let us examine the report a little further. In another chapter is set forth what the committee believes to be the “Gospel” which must be preached in order that Christian England, after being ruled by a Christian government for centuries, may be, converted to Christianity. The report starts out boldly and scripturally on this point, saying, “The Gospel for this twentieth century is identical with the Gospel which Jesus ‘came preaching,’ and the apostles ‘went forth and preached everywhere.’ Neither may we pick and choose particular aspects of this whole Gospel—emphasizing the love of God to the exclusion of its inevitable reverse, which, (in biblical terms) is ‘wrath,’ not ‘neutrality’; or uplifting Christ as an Heroic Leader or Social Reformer, but not as our Crucified Saviour.”
Divine Intervention
Very true, but what is the whole Gospel? In the report the committee sets forth a number of epitomized statements concerning essential elements of the Gospel, one of which is, “The Gospel is the good news that God has intervened and done for man that which man could not do for himself.” This is true, and it is a truth which should be followed to its logical conclusion, for it means that God will continue to intervene and do for man—and praise God for this—far beyond even what the State Church of England can do for him.
Herein, as a matter of fact, is the essential difference between the true plan of God for human reconciliation to God and salvation, and the ever-failing efforts of the church nominal to win the world for Jesus through unauthorized, hence necessarily abortive efforts of their own. God’s plan, through Christ, is to establish his own kingdom to rule over all nations; and to back up that kingdom with divine authority, but centuries ago the church nominal, of which the State Church of England is a branch, conceived the idea of establishing God’s kingdom for him, by uniting with the arm of civil power.
This, in the Book of Revelation, is referred to as spiritual harlotry, and the fall from divine favor of this nominal system of Christianity, characterized in prophecy as “Babylon,” is foretold. To those therefore today who are enlightened by the Word of God, it is no surprise that State Churches and other nominal churches everywhere are losing their influence over the people. The Revelator says, “Babylon is fallen,” and invites the Lord’s true people to “come out of her,” that they may not be partakers of her sins and receive not of her plagues.
Reconciling the World
The committee’s report epitomizes another essential element of the Gospel as follows: “The Gospel is the good news that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself.” This, too, is true, and it strikes directly at the fundamental need of divine intervention on behalf of the fallen race, for it implies that man at one time became alienated from God through wicked works. This, in turn, is a denial of the modernist and evolutionist conception of the creation and ultimate destiny of man.
And to take into account that man is fallen from divine favor and stands in need of reconciliation calls for the acceptance of the Genesis account of creation, and the plan of God for man as therein outlined. Briefly, that account indicates that man was created in the divine image, and that he was commanded to multiply and fill the earth and subdue it—to make it all like the little sample spot prepared for him in Eden. It was this earthly home and heritage that man lost because of sin, and with it he lost life. “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die,” was the direct way in which divine law was revealed to our first parents.—Gen. 2:17
The reconciliation of the world to God means the restoring of that which was lost by sin. This means that the hope of man through Christ is to be restored to life upon the earth where his original home was located. It is in keeping with this that in the committee’s outline of the essential elements of the Gospel they include the assertion, “The Gospel is the good news of the ‘restoration of all things’ in Christ.”—Acts 3:19-21
“The restoration of all things”—how beautifully simple is this statement of fact, yet how seldom is it understood to mean what it says! Even the committee who used these words as an expression of the Gospel of Christ probably thought of “restoration” as a transfer; that is, that those who are saved through the redemptive work of Christ are all to be transferred from earth to heaven, rather than to be restored to live on the earth.
Evidently the committee employed the, word “restoration” instead of “transfer” for the reason that the Apostle Peter used it in the text which they cite as proof of this particular statement. The only difference is that in the King James translation of the Bible, the word “restitution” is used instead of “restoration.” And it is interesting to note the circumstances under which the apostle speaks of the “restitution of all things.” He was addressing a company of Jews who had rejected Christ, and calls upon them to repent, saying,
“Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: whom the heavens must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.”—Acts 3:19-21
Just before Jesus was crucified, in speaking to this same class of unbelieving Israelites, he said to them, “Your house is left unto you desolate.” (Matt. 23:38) Peter knew of this, and he knew also of the many Old Testament prophecies which not only foretold this casting off of Israel, resulting in the desolation of the nation, but also of a future time of restoration, when, instead of desolation there would come “refreshing” from the “presence of the Lord.”
In the Greek text the expression translated “presence of the Lord” literally means “out from the face of the Lord.” It is an ancient expression denoting favor and friendship. God turned his back upon the whole world because of sin. He turned his back also upon Israel because of her national sin, but according to his own promises the time will come when he will again show them his face, when he will “lift up his countenance upon them and give them peace.”—Num. 6:26
And this will mean times of refreshing, which, according to the apostle, will be realized as a result of the second coming of Christ. The practical result of that glorious time of refreshing will be, as Peter declares, “times of restitution [restoration] of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.” Then the apostle explains further:
“Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Unto you FIRST God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.”—Acts 3:25,26
How plain this is! The Jews ARE to be restored to God’s favor during the second presence of Christ, but this is merely the beginning of a larger work of restoration, a work which was contemplated by God when he made the promise to Abraham, to which Peter refers, that through his seed ALL the kindreds of the earth were to be blessed. It is merely that the “first” opportunity for restitution is offered to the Jews, but later all mankind will share the blessings.
The special privileges of the Gospel which were available at the beginning of the Gospel age were “first” offered to the Jews, but later to the Gentiles; and it will be the same in connection with the blessings of restitution—of being restored to life upon the earth, and to dominion over the earth.
The apostle gives us a comprehensive thought concerning the scope of the restitution work to follow the second coming of Christ by his explanation that it involves “all things … spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.” (Acts 3:21) A glance through prophetic testimony of the Old Testament is sufficient to reveal that what God has promised to restore includes health, joy, everlasting life, peace, security, and prosperity for all who will obey the divine will at that time.
He has promised also to restore Israel to his favor, as well as the long-lost dominion over the whole earth that was forfeited through the sin of our first parents. Jesus himself said concerning the restored class made up of both Jews and Gentiles, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”—Matt. 25:34
God Is Love
Truly the Gospel is, even as the committee states, the “good news of the restoration of all things.” In this wonderful provision God has made we see revealed the truthfulness of another brief statement of fact concerning the Gospel which these Church of England dignitaries have set down in their outline of what should be preached in order to convert England to Christianity; namely, “The Gospel is the good news that God is, and that God is love.”
Truly there is a God! All nature speaks of this, and in his Word, the Bible, we find his glorious character of wisdom, justice, love, and power revealed by his outlined plan for the blessing of all his human creatures with the opportunity of life everlasting. Man became a sinner, but God still loved him, and sent his beloved Son to redeem him from the wages of sin, which is death. (Rom. 6:23) In the divine plan we see God’s beloved Son returning to earth, establishing a kingdom, and through the kingdom agencies, restoring all the willing and obedient of the entire race to harmony with God and to life in the sunshine of his favor.
Kingdom of Heaven
Another element of the Gospel, as set forth by the committee, reads, “The Gospel is the good news that God in Christ has opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers.” This statement is true if properly understood and qualified. True “believers” are those who have devoted themselves fully to doing God’s will, which means that they are faithful followers of Christ. The kingdom of heaven is open to these in the sense that they are promised joint-heirship with Jesus in that kingdom, to live and reign with him, if they are faithful in suffering and dying with him.—Rom. 8:17
The true rulership aspect of the kingdom of heaven is not understood by the rank and file of church people, particularly those of the English Church, for it is supposed that all the reigning in that kingdom is done by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the king, as the representatives of Christ. In this viewpoint all that is left ‘for the rest of the church is to enjoy what blessings may be derived from this humanly constituted substitute for the true kingdom of heaven.
The work of God among men which began at Pentecost was not first of all to convert the whole world, but merely to call out from the world a people to share the rulership of the kingdom of heaven with Jesus. Christ is, the great King of glory the long-promised Messiah, but few in any part of the age have recognized the important scriptural truth that he is not to reign alone, and that his church is to be his “body”—the body of the Messiah, or Christ.
Overlooking this, the medieval church undertook to set up the ruling phase of the kingdom by enlisting the aid of the state. But this was contrary to the divine will. God did not sponsor, nor did he support those efforts, which accounts for the fact that the church-state systems of Europe were responsible for so many unchristian and bloody wars.
Meanwhile, however, the selection of the true church has gone on, that selection being based upon individual fidelity to God and to Christ. The faithful of this class have, as a rule, been unrecognized by the world and by the worldly church, but they have been known and loved by God. Their faithfulness has led them in the way of sacrifice even unto death, and to them has belonged the promise that those who suffer with Christ shall reign with him.—II Tim. 2:12
Now this work of selecting the body members of the church is nearly complete, and soon, together with him, in resurrection power and glory, they will, through the establishment of the kingdom of God, begin to dispense the blessings of restitution to all mankind. With this—the scriptural view of the true church and its mission—in mind, it is no surprise to learn that the Church of England has so signally failed in establishing true kingdom conditions in England, and why similar church-state systems have likewise failed in other parts of the world.
“Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it,” said the wise man. (Psalm 127:1) Certainly God did not build the church-state system of Rome, nor is he responsible for all the carnage and bloodshed which it has caused throughout the centuries. Nor did he establish any of the church-state systems of Europe. That is why it is now becoming so evident that they who labored to build up these counterfeit systems of Christianity really did so in vain, for now they are crumbling under the impact of conditions which gradually are bringing about the end of a world. The real ruler of this disintegrating world is the devil himself, and for that reason it has been out of harmony with God.
But with the end of the present world society will come God’s new world of tomorrow. In that world Christ will be the King, and his church—his true church, not the nominal systems of organized religion as we know them today—will reign with him. What a glorious prospect!
It is beyond the ability of the human mind to grasp the glorious realities of the blessings of peace and joy and life which then will be available to all mankind. All the blind eyes will be opened; all the deaf ears will be unstopped. The lame man shall leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb will sing. God will make wars to cease unto the ends of the earth, and there will be economic security for all, for every man shall dwell under his own vine and fig tree. And more than all of this is the blessed fact that those now sleeping in death will be awakened by the power of God so that they, too, may enjoy the blessings of the kingdom of heaven which will then, for the first time, be available for the masses of mankind.
But there will not be universal salvation in the sense that every individual of the human race will be restored to everlasting life regardless of his personal acceptance of Christ and obedience to the laws of the kingdom of heaven then ruling over the earth. The Church of England investigating committee, with its bishops and others of the clergy, have appropriately and scripturally stressed this point in their final statement of the Gospel, as follows:
“The Gospel is the good news of the final triumph of the good and that Jesus Christ has opened the way of escape from the power of sin, from the fear of judgment and from everlasting death.”
For centuries the so-called orthodox view of nominal churches in general has been that “everlasting death” meant everlasting life in a place of excruciating mental and physical torment; but this no longer seems to be the official viewpoint of the Church of England as expressed by its investigating committee on evangelism, for the bishops and others on this committee say, and we quote:
“Ultimately all that is found valueless in God’s sight must and will be abolished, that that which he can use may be set free, and God may be ‘all in all.’ Revelation and reason alike point to this inevitable consummation. The idea of the inherent indestructibility of the human soul (or consciousness) owes its origin to Greek, not to Bible sources.”
This is truly a remarkable statement of fact, and the more so when we consider that it is the unanimous opinion of a committee which includes five bishops of the Church of England. Real truth lovers can’t help but rejoice that the light of truth on this subject is dawning upon so many highly placed dignitaries of the Church of England. It shows that when conditions are more favorable for the dissemination of truth the old superstitions based upon Satan’s lie, “Ye shall not surely die,” will quickly vanish and the people will gladly accept the truth.—Gen. 3:4
And the truth is that the “wages of sin is death,” and death, according to the Scriptures, is extinction of life—not separation from God in a place of torment. The final punishment of the incorrigibly wicked is described in the Bible as the “second death.”—Rev. 20:14
The first death includes all who die because of Adam’s transgression, but all are redeemed from this death, and given an individual trial for life. Then it is that those who sin willfully against full light and knowledge will die the “second death.” The Scriptures do not promise that there will be a resurrection for those who die the second death—that will be an everlasting destruction, an everlasting cutting off from life.—Matt. 25:36; II Thess. 1:9
The Apostle Peter refers to this when describing the work of restitution to follow the second coming of Christ. Jesus will be the great Prophet and King of that time, and Peter says it “shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that Prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.” (Acts 3:23) They will be destroyed because they would be useless to themselves and a continued threat to the happiness and well-being of the remainder of the people.
With the blotting out of those who fail to believe and obey, when full opportunity is given to them to accept Jesus as their Savior, the human race will have been completely restored to harmony with God and to life not in heaven—except the saintly few who live and reign with Chirst—but on earth. The “lost sheep” of the Master’s parable—the entire human creation—will have been rescued from its lost condition, and restored to the fold of divine favor.—Luke 15:4-6
Then the conversion of England, and of the entire world, will be an accomplished fact; for we are promised that the knowledge of the glory of God shall fill the earth as the waters cover the sea, and that none will need to say to his neighbor, Know the Lord, for all shall know him from the least even unto the greatest. (Hab. 2:14; Jer. 31:34) But this far-reaching work of world conversion will not be done by the Church of England, nor by any of the other nominal systems of our day, but by The Christ in glory—Jesus the Head, and the church his body.
A People for His Name
Jesus’ commission to the early church was to go into all the world and preach the Gospel in order to make disciples of every nation. These disciples were not to be Jews only, but were to be selected from all the kindreds of the earth, hence the necessity to carry the Gospel to all nations. God did not expect that the evangelistic efforts of the true church during this Gospel age would convert the whole world, hence it should not surprise us to realize that after nineteen centuries of effort England and the rest of the world are still unconverted. The Scriptures declare that God visited the Gentiles to “take out of them a people for his name,” not to convert them all by this “first” visit.—Acts 15:14
It is “after this,” declares the apostle, that the remainder of the Gentiles will seek the Lord. This will be during the thousand years of Christ’s reign—the reign during which the “people for his name” who “first” were gathered from among Jews and Gentiles will live and reign with Christ. (Acts 15:15-17) This “people for his name” will, after the “marriage of the Lamb” has taken place (Rev. 19:7), be the “bride” who will say to the suffering and dying world, “Come … take the water of life freely.”—Rev. 22:17
This “water of life” will be supplied from the symbolic “river of water of life” which depicts the promised blessings of life and happiness flowing out from the throne of God and of the Lamb to give health and peace and joy to all nations. On either side of this symbolic river are shown to be the pictorial “trees [Greek] of life, which bare twelve manner of fruit, and yielded their fruit every month”—a never-ending, inexhaustible supply. We are further told that the leaves of these symbolic trees of life are for the “healing of the nations.”—Rev. 22:1,2
How much all the nations need healing! How vividly the investigating committee’s report reveals the need of healing within Great Britain. We are living at the end of the age, and concerning this time Jesus asked, “When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8) This prophecy is fulfilled today in England, and throughout the world. But the bleeding, suffering, faithless peoples of the earth are to be “healed.” The eyes of their understanding are to be opened, and their unbelief removed. The life-giving waters of the river of life, and the trees of life beside the river, will restore their faith, restore their health, and restore their life.
These blessings will come from the “throne of God and of the Lamb”—a symbolic representation of divine authority established in the earth, and from that authority, and by reason of the shed blood of the Lamb, the blessings of life will flow to the people—the kingdom blessings. In Isaiah 25:6-9, Christ’s kingdom is depicted as a “mountain,” and the promise made that in this mountain the Lord will wipe away tears from all faces, that he will swallow up death in victory, and remove the veil of ignorance and unbelief now spread over the face of all nations.
And how the people will rejoice when that real work of enlightenment and blessing is accomplished! The ;prophet declares that their response shall be, “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: … we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” The people throughout the centuries have had various “gods,” none of which saved them. Instead, their gods plunged them into war after war, and reduced the masses to serfdom.—Isaiah 26:12-18
Among these “gods” were the church-state systems of Europe. Once the people trusted in them, but now they know that their trust was misplaced, that these systems are impotent to save them from war and from all the other evils which currently afflict the nations. That is the reason the Church of England committee of investigation found such a radical drift away from organized religion. That is the reason for the growing unbelief everywhere throughout the world. That is the reason England and the world need to be converted.
And the world WILL be converted! The real kingdom of Christ, soon to be manifested, will accomplish this, and the people will rejoice that at long last the true God has revealed himself, and in his love and grace they will rejoice. “The ransomed of the Lord [all for whom Christ died] shall return [from the grave], … with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”—Isaiah 35:10