TEACHING AND TRUTH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23333, 27 October 1937, Page 12

TEACHING AND TRUTH

TO THE EDITOR

Sir—ln reply to Mr Steel's letter, the kingdom is certainly announced as " at hand" by John the Baptist (Matthew iii, 1,2), by Christ (Matthew iv, 17), and by the twelve (Matthew x, 5-8), ' The Messiah is indeed presented as the King' in the Gospel of Matthew. In chapter ii we read of wise men from the east who arrive in Jerusalem saying: "Where is He that is bom King of the Jews? for we have seen His star in the east, and are come to worship Him." ' Zechariah prophesied more than 500 years before, concerning the coming of the King, in these words: " Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold, thy King Cometh unto' thee; He is just, and having salvation; lowly, and ridins upon an ass, and upon a colt the. foal of an ass." We read of the fulfilment of. this in Matthew'xxi, 4, 5. ' v Because the King was rejected by the leaders of Israel the outward visible kingdom was postponed. It is quite impossible to have an outward, visible kingdom without, an outward, visible King! The first and second advents of Christ were blended together as one event by the Old Testament prophets, but your correspondent has not discovered this fact, and that is why he mixes up the kingdom and the Church. "Ekklesia" is a Greek word (from ek, "out from among," and kaleo, "to call"); church is the English rendering of this word. Now we can understand what James says in Acts xv, 14: " Simon (Peter) hath . declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His name."

We are living in the Gentile interregnum, between the first and second advents of the Messiah, when from Jew and Gentile a people is being called out to form the bride of Christ. During this present age the grace of God is as free as the air we breathe, and " God is no respecter of persons."— Acts x: 34.

James tells us what is going, to happen at the beginning of the next age: "After this I (Christ) will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I , will build again the ruins ; thereof, and I will set it up." (Acts xv: 16.) We know that the temple site in Jerusalem is still "fallen down" as far as the Jews are concerned.

After the Messiah was rejected by the scribes and Pharisees He propounded to the people the seven parables of the kingdom in its mystery form during His absence. Has Mr Steel ever made a study of Matthew xiii, where these important parables are recorded? We doubt it. And does he know that in this Gospel only onefourth of the whole is narrative and three-fourths are speeches by Christ Jesus? i

The passage •in Acts iii to which Mr MacManus refers in 'his letter is deeply interesting, but he did not give the whole of verse 21 and omitted the nineteenth verse entirely. Here are the three verses:

" Repent ye. therefore, and be converted (turn ye) that your sins may be blotted out, when (so that) 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 heaven 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 (or from of old)." If the people had repented when Peter preached at that time Christ might have returned then, but they did not do so. " The times of restitution of all things" cannot begin until the return of the Messiah. To find out what they will be like we must read what the prophets say about them in the Old Testament. But before these good times are ushered in there will be some terrible judgments in the world on account of the sins of the people. "Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these (wicked people), saying: Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly, sinners have spoken against Him. These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaking great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage." (Jude, verses 14 to-16.) Your correspondent quotes Genesis i, 26: "And God said: Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. And then he says "that passage was clear." Yes, but so is this one: "And the Lord God commanded the man (Adam) saying: Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat.of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thoushalt surely die." By reading Genesis iii we see that both Adam and Eve were deceived by Satan, for he it was who spoke through the serpent • Christ was referring to Satan when He said for

he is a liar and the father of it. Because they believed the devil and disbelieved God and then obeyed the devil and disobeyed God they died spiritually. Therefore they were no longer fit to have the dominion. They had become rebels! And this poor world has become a rebel world!- And that is what is the matter with it „, And putting rebels at the head at if cannot do it any good. But God has provided a way of escape for all who will return to Him. He said to the serpent: "And I will put enmHy between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it (He. Christ) shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel." Here we have the Gospel .in germ. Though Christ suffered for Qur sins on the Cross,, He gave the. devil his death-blow, for when>a' serpent js badly wounded in the head it.js-dona for.—l am, -etc.,: '.; . Maran-attia; ! [This correspondence isi closed.—Ed., O.D.T.T '■'-'■ "... ,■•:•. :•;.;: ~.;•,;'t,; ; .'.:-.■. V i. .— ——-—«■ ' \:''v.,"';\