| Highlights of Dawn | April 1954 |
Hope for a Frustrated World
“Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.” —Acts 2:24
IT WAS a dark day for that little band of Jesus’ disciples when he was taken away from them by his enemies and cruelly put to death. They had followed him faithfully in full assurance that he was the promised Messiah, and that in him was vested the hope of Israel and of the world. But their sorrow was turned into joy unspeakable when they were convinced that God had raised their Master from the dead. The full assurance of this came to them at Pentecost through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon them as they waited in the “upper room.”
The enemies of Jesus and of the disciples were quick to charge that the miraculous demonstrations resulting from the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise to send the Holy Spirit were merely the result of intoxication, so they mocked, saying, “These men are full of new wine.” (Acts 2:13) In reply to this charge Peter delivered his marvelous Pentecostal sermon in which he established the fact of Jesus’ resurrection, and identified the fulfillment of prophecies pertaining to the resurrection and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Peter quoted extensively from the prophecy of Joel, chapter 2, verses 28-32, and showed that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit marked a beginning of its fulfillment. The entire prophecy was not fulfilled at Pentecost, for among other things it speaks of a time when “the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come.” (Joel 2:31) When Jesus answered the disciples’ questions concerning the time of his second presence and the end of the age, he quoted this part of the prophecy as being one of the signs of his second presence.
There were also to be, the prophet foretold, “wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke.” (Acts 2:19) These are all symbolic expressions denoting destructive and disintegrating influences at work in the religious and civil phases of “this present evil world” when the time should come in the divine plan for it to pass away and the kingdom of Christ to be established in its place.
In the prophecy two outpourings of the Holy Spirit are mentioned: one upon God’s “servants and handmaidens,” and the other upon “all flesh.” Peter quoted the entire prophecy, but actually the only part of it which had a fulfillment at Pentecost was its reference to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the “servants and handmaidens.” It was to be “afterward,” the prophet foretold, that the Lord would pour out his Spirit “upon all flesh.”—Joel 2:28
When John the Baptist announced the presence of Jesus at his first advent, he said that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. Jesus’ parables and other teachings all pertained to the kingdom. Not that the messianic kingdom was then established with its blessings beginning to flow out to the people, but the promises pertaining to the preparation and establishment of the kingdom were beginning to be fulfilled. The coming of Christ marked the dividing line between the promises of the Old Testament, and the beginning of their fulfillment.
One of those kingdom promises was the prophecy of Joel pertaining to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, first upon those who were to reign with Christ in his kingdom, and later upon “all flesh”; hence its fulfillment began at Pentecost. And the shedding forth of the Holy Spirit upon the waiting disciples at that time was a token that other important things had occurred which also were in fulfillment of God’s promises, the chief among them being the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
God had raised him from the dead because he laid down his life as an acceptable sacrifice for the sins of the world. Now he had appeared in the presence of God for his church, and the Holy Spirit had been sent to enlighten, strengthen, and comfort his disciples while they laid down their lives following in his footsteps. Illuminated by the Holy Spirit, they were no longer frustrated with the strange and unexpected turn of events which culminated at Calvary. Now they knew the meaning of Jesus’ death, rejoiced in the fact of his resurrection, and looked forward to the fulfillment of that “blessed hope” of his return and the establishment of his kingdom.
Endued with the power of the Holy Spirit, those early disciples went forth into the world proclaiming in clarion tones the glorious Gospel of Christ and of the coming kingdom. They met with opposition, persecution, and oft-times death. But this mattered not to them, for they understood clearly that as servants of the coming King they could not expect to be treated differently than the King himself had been treated. Indeed, they felt honored that they had the privilege of suffering and dying with him; or as Paul stated it, of bearing about in their bodies “the dying of the Lord Jesus.”—II Cor. 4:10
But this clear vision of the Early Church began to dim soon after the apostles fell asleep in death. Jesus and the apostles had foretold this. It had also been forecast in the prophecies of the Old Testament, so it did not represent the slightest measure of defeat of the divine plan, but was permitted as a test upon the true people of God throughout the age. This dimming of spiritual vision developed finally into a complete apostasy from the “faith which was once delivered unto the saints,” with the result that instead of continuing to wait for the return of the Lord to establish his kingdom, the church joined hands with the state and called their illicit union, Christ’s kingdom.—Jude 3
The utter failure of this prostitution of Christianity, and the many evils which resulted there-from, is now a matter of history, and is more or less clearly recognized by millions. But that blessed hope of the return of the real King, and the establishment of the kingdom which God had promised, remains lost to all but a few. This glorious Gospel light, symbolized by the sun, has become dim, and to millions the symbolic moon, illustrating the Law Covenant and its typical sacrifices, is looked upon as “bloody,” and unworthy of being considered a part of God’s arrangements.
At the same time, human wisdom is quite unable to cope with the problems of human selfishness, with the result that the symbolic “blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke” of the great “time of trouble” with which the age is ending, become more and more threatening and distressing. This leaves the people in confusion and fear, with millions casting about for something solid to which they can anchor while the symbolic “sea and waves” are boisterously roaring and threatening the bulwarks of what remains of civilization.
Since man originally was created in the image of God, though fallen far from perfection, many instinctively seek to find God as it becomes increasingly apparent that all human plans are failing. And human efforts are, indeed, failing. Constantine Brown, writing in the Seattles Times, takes note of this, saying:
“International conferences under present-day conditions tend to weaken further the ties between the free nations, instead of strengthening them. Very few lasting or constructive decisions are ever taken at these gatherings. The result of most of them is usually negative. … There has been a rash of such international conferences since the end of the war. An impartial examination will show that their net result has been an increased deterioration of world conditions.”
As the people awaken to this situation, many of them begin to examine religion, hoping, as one writer put it, “to find something they can get their teeth into.” This trend is manifested in the large number of religious books now being sold. Outstanding book publishers such as Harper & Brothers; Simon and Schuster, Inc.; William Morrow & Co.; Harcourt Brace & Co.; the McGraw-Hill Book Co.; and others, all report that today religious books of all sorts, fictional and nonfictional, are their best sellers. George W. Cornell, Associated Press Staff Writer, giving the reason for this, says:
“There is pretty close agreement on what has caused the literary religious drift; namely, Hitler, the A-bomb, disillusionment with accomplishments of technology, Soviet despotism, international fist-shaking—and the fear, barbarity, and danger of our times to which neither science nor system has provided an answer.”
A mere glance at the nature of the religious books now being so avidly read by the general public is sufficient to reveal the confusion of thought which prevails. Moral and ethical philosophy and stories with a religious flavor constitute the subject matter in most of these books, but practically nothing points the reader to anything better for the future than what is plaguing the world today. But the fact that these books are being bought by the millions, and read, indicates the longing of the people for something more substantial upon which to build their hopes than the false security of increasing armaments.
Withal, however, there is some serious thinking being done. Quite independent of religious leaders, people are now expressing themselves on vital religious issues. It has been of great interest to us to read an editorial written by Clarence Poe, editor and president of The Progressive Farmer, a farm journal with a large circulation throughout all the southern states. It is a full page article entitled, “Christianity’s Greatest Opportunity—Now.” The great opportunity Mr. Poe outlines is the need to repudiate the God-dishonoring doctrine of eternal torture for the wicked. He speaks of the “split personality” viewpoint of God which is presented by many churches in that they claim that he is love, yet has planned the torture of sinners. He asks:
“How can we effectively lift up Christ with his doctrine of love for all men, if at the same time we lift up a picture of a supposed ‘God of love’ who decrees the endless tormenting of weak creatures of his own making—tormenting even through all the long ages past the day of judgment itself when it could serve no conceivable purpose of reform, restraint, or warning, but mean only the gratification of a merciless vengeance.”
Writing further on what he sees as a contradiction of viewpoint concerning the true character of the Creator, Mr. Poe says:
“Can we ever expect men and nations to cease hating and torturing their enemies when God himself is represented as doing so?
“Above everything else I believe this long unresolved conflict is almost fatally handicapping all Christians as they strive to so lift up our Lord and Master as to draw all men unto him. To remedy this conflict seems to me to be ‘Christianity’s Greatest Opportunity!’ To remedy this conflict seems to me the one hope of helping a world in crisis save humanity by a right choice between Christ and Chaos.”
Mr. Poe is to be congratulated for his courage in presenting this earnest plea for the churches to abandon their God of hate and their efforts to frighten the world into accepting salvation, and preach instead the God of the Bible, the God of love and mercy. We do not share his optimism that the world would flock to Christ if all the churches renounced the doctrine of eternal torture and preached unqualifiedly that God is love. No, only the agencies of Christ’s kingdom will succeed in lifting up Christ and drawing all men unto him. Only through the administration of the kingdom will Christ enlighten every man that comes into the world.
But to see, and speak out against, the hideousness of the torment superstition which the churches inherited from the Dark Ages is a step in the right direction, and a long step, too. Nor was it done in a corner. This editorial against the eternal torture doctrine was probably read by the majority of farmers and rural dwellers throughout the entire southern area of the United States. We are glad, Mr. Poe—and more power to you!
To be realistic, however, we must acknowledge that again this year, as the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is commemorated, he is still an “unknown God” to the vast majority, and this at a time when the people are searching for God as perhaps never before. On the one hand is the view that the Father and the Son are one and the same person, while others teach that Jesus was just a good man, and a wonderful teacher, but did not have a miraculous birth, and was not raised from the dead. Still others—many millions in all—believe and teach that those who do not accept Christ before they die will be eternally tortured.
And this confusion will continue until another part of Joel’s wonderful prophecy, which Peter quoted at Pentecost, is fulfilled. The waiting disciples at Pentecost witnessed the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon God’s servants and handmaidens. As fellow disciples and followers of the Master, we are even now still rejoicing in the light of the outpoured Spirit. By this provision of God, his people are now seeing the foretold signs in heaven and earth, the symbolic “fire, and vapor of smoke.”
Seeing these signs gives us confidence that soon, very soon, the final portion of that wonderful prophecy will be fulfilled; that is, that the Lord will pour out his Spirit upon “all flesh.” It will be then that the nocturnal hallucinations will begin to vanish. It will be then that those now searching for God will find him, and, in finding him, they will learn that he is in truth and in fact a God of love—a loving Creator and Father who, despite man’s disobedience of his law, made provision through his Son Jesus for his recovery from death and for his everlasting happiness in a global paradise.
This is the meaning of Jesus’ resurrection to those whose faith is anchored in the sure kingdom promises of God. Just as God raised Jesus from the dead; just as he poured out his Holy Spirit upon the Early Church; just as he foresaw and foretold the darkening influences which, throughout the age, were to hide the true Gospel from all but a few; just as he foresaw and foretold the present distress and chaos of the world; just so he will soon fulfill his promise to pour out his Spirit upon “all flesh,” that, in conjunction with other kingdom agencies, it may cause the knowledge of his glory to fill the whole earth.—Habakkuk 2:14