1. The Testimony of the Scriptures¶
Two facts are very strongly impressed upon my mind today. The first is the amazing ignorance of the common people both within and without religious circles of what is the heart of the Christian gospel. It can be summed up in this way. Most folk think the Christian gospel is a new variety of the Ten Commandments, something they have to do. Very few indeed have the slightest idea that the Christian gospel is the good news of what God has done! The other fact that deeply impresses me is the unwillingness of modern Christendom to examine its relationship to God. It is deeply concerned about the relationship of itself to the masses but takes for granted that its relationship to God is infallibly correct. Today the successful preacher is the man who can by any means get his building full. The devices adopted, the message uttered, are matters for his individual liberty. All that matters is that he should get the people across the threshold of the chapel or church. No concern is displayed by ministers or church members as to whether the views expressed are consistent with Scripture. So far indeed from the Bible being the standard of truth and light it has itself become the subject of the critical judgment of the carnal mind. It ought to be a matter of the gravest concern to all Christians that the message proclaimed should have the authority of the Word of God. Differences of conclusion on truth there may be, but they are due not to the Word of God but to failure of the mind to be truly and absolutely led of the Holy Spirit. That apart, no man has any right to declare to the people what he has not himself learned from the Word of God by the aid of the Holy Spirit. When these two facts are clearly faced in the light of the teaching of the Scriptures there can be no possible doubt whatever that the Gospel is the good news concerning Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, crucified for sin, risen for our justification, crowned with glory and honour in the throne of the Father and personally returning for His church and then with His church in visible glory when every eye shall see Him.
The test of a church is not necessarily and certainly not primarily its numbers. If I were seeking for evidence of a really virile church I should look for a testimony that was entirely and absolutely centred on Jesus as Lord. I should expect to find a people who loved prayer and were proving its power, a people to whom the thought of a church without a prayer meeting was beyond contemplation, a spiritual monstrosity. I should look for a church where missionary interest was keen, were members would unhesitatingly give one guinea to foreign missionary enterprise before they would give a similar amount to an organisation working for what is called world peace. These are some of the characteristics, necessary characteristics of a really spiritual and therefore virile church and these characteristics will flourish in a church where the personal return of our Lord is proclaimed. Yet the man who allows himself to be known as a second Adventist will soon be labelled a crank. I remember being invited to Broadcasting House for the purpose of discussing the possibility of a broadcast from Rye Lane Chapel. I was at once told that the people of this country were very ignorant of religion and that anything I said must be of the simplest character. “A subject,” said my interviewer, “such as the second coming would be useless.” I wondered how he knew that I was a second Adventist but when I said that although I had not thought about a possible subject yet I must reserve myself liberty to preach what I believed to be the message for the occasion, the interview ended. I was politely escorted to the lift, and that has been the end of broadcasting possibilities from Rye Lane Chapel. I remember also addressing a meeting of clergy and ministers on this subject. When I had finished, the chairman, not a Baptist, while the essence of courtesy to myself personally, did not hesitate to express the opinion that the second Adventist was the bugbear of the Church although, he added, “I grant you they have the Scriptures on their side.” There are others, especially in Baptist circles, who are content to preach Christ crucified. God forbid that any of us should fail to declare again and again the glory of the Cross but its full glory demands that it be presented in light of the resurrection, ascension and His personal return. There is no life in a dead Christ. Many an evangelical ministry fails to realise that simple truth. “We are saved by His death but much more by His life.” That life I need hardly add, is not the life He lived in Galilee, but the life He lives in the glory. The New Testament emphasis is an emphasis on life. The Romanist and the Anglo-Catholic cannot agree on the Pope, but they do agree that the Lord can be reduced to a wafer while differing between themselves as to which one can do it in a valid manner. Our blessed Lord has indeed been absorbed into Deity that it is commendable and desirable to intercede with Mary! So the Romanist teaches, although apart from empty speculation of the carnal mind there is not a vestige of foundation in fact for such an extraordinary delusion.
As to the world broken, beaten and perplexed, what shall the Church say? Gone now are the speculative assertions of the march of progress to a dazzling height of glory. It hardly seems credible that twenty-five years ago there were preachers taking texts as mottos and preaching war to end war. Everybody now knows that the preacher who declared that sort of thing bluffed himself and his hearers. Equally we cannot talk now about world brotherhood and the birth pangs of a new era. Strange indeed that in this realm we should confuse the signs of death with the signs of birth! The amazing fact, however, that confronts us is the obsession of the religious world with the issues of peace and the relations between men and men. They are, of course, important. They are not, however, fundamental, nor are they central to the Word of Truth. Surely those who claim to be in the line of the apostolic succession should manifest it, not by the empty boast of an historical ordination that cannot be proved but by declaring the same testimony as the apostles. Now it cannot be questioned that the apostolic testimony is definitely centred upon, not the relations between men and men but between men and God. The proof of apostolic succession will be found in the apostolic testimony. The Archbishop of Canterbury with a seat in the House of Lords, with almost free access to the Radio, has a wonderful opportunity of shewing that he is in the apostolic succession by pleading with men to be reconciled to God through Him who was made sin for us. What a wonderful afternoon it would be in the House of Lords if, with a company of bishops by his side on their knees praying for him while he spoke, he pleaded with the peers of the realm to have no confidence in their christening at birth or their confirmation while at Eton or Harrow, but to repent and take the Lord Jesus Christ into their hearts as Saviour. That is most certainly what St. Paul would have done, but then he would never have been in the House of Lords!
Now the Second Adventist believes that the Scriptures have the answer to world need. That answer is Jesus Himself, once crucified for sin, now reigning as the God-Man in heaven and personally returning to this earth to usher in the reign of righteousness. The writer to the Hebrews declares: “So also Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time, apart from sin, unto salvation” (chapter 9:28). When our Lord ascended into heaven two men stood by the disciples as they watched him depart and they made this solemn declaration to them. “This same Jesus, Who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven.” 1 These heavenly beings spoke with authority and their word is really conclusive. “In like manner” as He went into heaven shall He come from it! Could anything be more explicit? Peter certainly understood the promise in this sense. Speaking to the people (Acts 3 verses 19/21) he said: “Repent ye therefore, and turn again that your sins may be blotted out, in order that the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send the Christ, who before was preached unto you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of the restitution of all things, of which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets from old time.” Here the prophecy of the Old Testament Scriptures is confirmed, the Christ Who suffered is most definitely asserted to be in heaven and to be there until the time of the restitution of all things. St. Paul declares that we are to observe the Lord’s Supper “until He come.” 2 If therefore we claim to be in the apostolic succession either the Table must be ended or the hope of His coming must still be fostered. The Christian attitude is defined most clearly also in the epistle to the Philippians: “For our citizenship is in the heavens; from whence also we wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, Who shall transform the body of our humiliation that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the power whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself.” 3 The apostle was most evidently looking heavenwards to the place of His citizenship whence he knew the Lord Himself would one day come.
It is always a matter of profound amazement to me that there should be a Baptist minister who does not believe in the personal return of our Lord. We Baptists have formed ourselves into a denomination, separating ourselves from Congregationalists especially upon this issue. We are so sure that baptism is by immersion and that of a believer only that we could not possibly practice the sprinkling of infants as if baptism was connected with the birth into the flesh when it is confined in Scripture to the new birth in the Spirit. Of that position I am more and more convinced, but how is it a Baptist can find sufficient in baptism to come out from the rest of professing Christendom (as far as the larger denominations are concerned) and yet in the same Scriptures that teach baptism, he cannot find the personal return of our Lord? A Baptist basing his position on the Word of Scripture, and he can do no other to justify his position, must surely by the same principle accept, rejoice in and proclaim the sure and certain return of the Lord Jesus Christ.
There are, of course, many objections to the simple truth of Scripture. Indeed I know of no truth of Scripture that has not been contested. Let us look at some of them. There is first the phrase “a little while.” 4 It would seem that the Lord’s return was not thought of as being 1900 years distant. I agree. If I had heard the words “a little while” from the lips of our Lord I should not have thought of at least nineteen centuries interval. At the same time He also taught the possibility of delay in His parables. There is the wicked servant who says to himself “My Lord delayeth His coming” 5 and forthwith begins to beat his fellow servants. The parable of the pounds also suggests an appreciable interval. The actual fact is that one sees in the New Testament immediacy and urgency together with delay. Thus expediency is encouraged, but whether the time be long or short, the fact of His return is always beyond dispute.
There are others who think that if He came He did so in A.D. 70 at the fall of Jerusalem. Now when He comes Jerusalem is to be made the centre of praise of the whole earth with the tribes of Israel in the land. His coming will mean deliverance for the Jew, whereas in A.D. 70 Jerusalem was destroyed, the people decimated and the city ceased for the time to be a political or spiritual factor in the world.
Some think that the coming of the Holy Spirit is the fulfilment of the promise. The Rev. Leslie Weatherhead preached a sermon recently and he is reported as saying that he has examined every passage in which Jesus is supposed to have spoken of His Second Advent. Here then we may understand that careful consideration with much prayer and waiting on God has led to a decision which will be patently in accord with Scripture. His conclusion is that many passages which speak of the Son of Man coming in power and glory seem to be completely met by “the coming of the Holy Spirit on Whit-Sunday which surely was not the coming of a Stranger but their dear Lord back in their midst again,” Mr. Weatherhead assures us this is the result of careful meditation and reflection. Let us look at the promise in John 16, verse 7. “Nevertheless I tell you the truth.” Let us note the assurance. Our Lord is not speaking here because He shares the view of His times as some tell us. He is telling us the truth and He proceeds, “It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I depart I will send Him unto you.” If then Mr. Weatherhead’s careful study of this passage is correct the words for our Lord and the Holy Spirit will be inter- changeable. How then will this verse read. “Nevertheless I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go away for if I do not go away I shall not come unto you, but if I depart I will send myself unto you.” Does anybody entertain such a low estimate of our Lord’s integrity and intelligence as seriously to tell a London congregation that this is what our Lord meant? And who ever heard of the Holy Spirit being described as a “Stranger”?
Another deplores that the outlook of the Second Adventist is so gloomy. I remember a speaker at a meeting of the London Baptist Association declaring that the present trouble in the world gave satisfaction to nobody except the Second Adventists. It was a cheap jibe which caused a ripple of laughter, but it was a jibe at the expense of truth. In any event the outlook is gloomy - wars , rumours of wars, strife and bloodshed. Our Lord said it would be so but He was careful to add that the gloom was for the world, for when these things begin to come to pass the child of God was “to look up.” 6 Modern Christendom is so anxious to identify itself with the world that of course it is compelled to share its outlook. That is part of the Divine punishment! The Scriptures give the world no hope and no preacher has any authority to give it hope. To be without Christ is to be without God and without hope 7 in this world. So St. Paul declared, and anybody who holds the commission of the crucified hand is bound to tell the world there is no hope outside Christ. It is a gloomy outlook for the world and for professing Christendom. Paganism is growing, Romanism is growing in Protestant centres, men’s hearts are hardening against religion. All this is the result of the failure of the modern religious world to plead with men to be reconciled with God and the unwillingness of men to renounce their sin. If the blood of Christ is rejected then the world is doomed, judgment is inevitable. On the day when the flood came, a man was either in the ark or out of it. Outside of it, no matter what other considerations there might be, it was death. The issue is just as clear and as urgent today. Sodom and Gomorrah experienced judgment, but it will be more tolerable 8 for those cities than for those who reject the Christ Himself.
There is therefore no encouragement in Scripture to work for a new world except in the Divine method of Redemption. If a man chooses of course to do so, let him be honest and tell people that he speaks on his own speculation and without the authority of the Word of God. God’s way is through His Beloved Son Who gives the Holy Spirit from heaven as the secret of the new creation of His body the Church. He is coming for His church that through His Church He may reign over the world. But since the Second Adventist is so severely criticised by the religious leaders of today it may be well if his point of view on their teaching is considered. Let me put down some of the facts that appear obvious.
First the modernist acts as if the things of earth were everything. To some extent it is natural for we are bound in some measure to be responsive to our environment. At the same time the Scriptures ought to warn us. The enemies of the cross of Christ are those “who mind earthly things.” 9 The Holy Spirit emphasises the transitory character of all we are touching and seeing. Men are fearing today not because they are worried about eternity but because they are deeply concerned about their earthly interests. Surely the modern preacher ought to be pressing home to the people that long after Hitler and Mussolini have joined Napoleon and all the others who have laid the world waste, God’s marvellous purpose in His Son through time and eternity will persist! I am particularly impressed by the fact that the pulpit is almost silent about eternity. And yet there lies the deepest tragedy of all, “To die with no hope, Hast Thou counted the cost?”
Secondly, the attitude of the so called modernist to Jesus is quite antique and out of date. He is always taking people’s minds back to Jesus 1900 years ago. He speaks of Jesus as a dim shadowy figure in the past. For Him he has a devoted and pious memory, so preachers assure us we can receive Him in the sacraments, all urge us to emulate His teaching and example, and yet they miss the most glorious fact of the New Testament. “In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead in bodily fashion.” 10 Notice the present tense used by Paul in this verse in his epistle to the Colossians. It has nothing to do with His life in Galilee; it is a declaration about His present life in glory. John declares: “Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him and he in God.” 11 Notice again the present tense. Jesus who once died on the cross for our sins is now the Incarnate Man in the throne of the Father. He is, as somebody has observed, the greatest man living today. From heaven He has sent, according to His promise, the Holy Spirit to indwell the believer 12 and one day when He moves from His throne through the heavens into the air, by the law of attraction already operating as between the believer and the Lord, He will draw to Himself all those in the graves and on the earth who share His nature and life by the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Thirdly, the modern preacher thinks of death as the certain and positive lot of everybody and has little interest in the beyond save of a traditional heaven in which, no doubt, all people working for good ends will assuredly be warmly welcomed. There is no issue through all eternity, centred in Christ. Our Lord did not give this teaching. He declared: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.” 13 The believer has passed from death unto life. There is to be one generation of the church that shall never know the grave but shall be raptured into His presence as were Enoch and Elijah.
Fourthly, Christians today are bewildered as to service. When a man sees clearly what God has in purpose in His Son he is never in doubt for a moment as to what is his duty. God is calling out a people for Himself through faith in His Beloved Son. He wants many sons for the glory. 14 The Second Adventist sees clearly therefore that the proclamation of the good news of the gospel of salvation whereby men shall turn from their sin and be redeemed in the blood of Jesus Christ is the supreme issue in every age. He knows there is a day coming when the blood of Christ will be the critical issue for every man, especially for those who have rejected and despised it. There can therefore be but one task and that is to plead with men to be reconciled with God. The multitude of tasks that are thrust upon the Christian today are seen to be part of the devil’s plan for so overburdening the Christian that he will not persist in the vital work for which the Holy Spirit indwells him. Therefore every Second Adventist is bound to be a soul winner. “He that winneth souls is wise.” 15 Sermons on the league of nations will never save a soul, nor make a man conscious of His condition before God as a sinner, but when the word is sounded forth concerning the coming again of the Lord who was crucified on the Cross then hearts are touched by the Holy Spirit, men become anxious about their souls, barriers are broken down, sin renounced, lives remade, renewed, and regenerated, men and women step out of darkness into light and the church is both edified in faith and added to by the Spirit. The most practical man in the wide world is the Second Adventist who is loyal to the vision of truth God has given him and who daily seeks to plead with men to be ready; for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.