p. 3 | Our Message by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Jun 29, 1905

Our Message

By Editor

(Continued)

AT the time of the first advent, the Jewish people had largely lost the right conception of God. So perverted had the gospel become, especially as revealed in the typical system which God gave to them to be a clear and distinct revelation of himself, his character; his plan of salvation had become perverted until it misrepresented God, misrepresented his character of love, and became a hindrance to them in their knowledge of God, rather than a help as it was intended to be. This was a complete perversion of the gospel according to God.

The direct result of this perversion was this: inasmuch as the gospel according to God is the one and the only provision for sin, and the one and only provision to save from sinning, when they lost this understanding of the gospel of God, they lost with it the power that saves from sin and from sinning; that in itself brings to a people a condition of hopelessness, a condition of despair, and that was exactly the condition at that time.

The message that John the Baptist brought at that time was designed to meet just that situation, to restore to them the true gospel, and in restoring the true gospel, to restore to their lives the power of righteousness, and to bring hope and joy in the place of utter despair, and to build up barriers against sin, and to save them from sinning.

All that is included in that idea, Behold your God. That is turning away from humanity and the flesh to God and his power and his provision for sin.

But notice that when John the Baptist came to interpret that message to the people to meet the needs of their time, he gave to it a specific interpretation, under the guidance of God's Spirit, that made it apply exactly to the need of the time; because, with all the rest there was this thought: "The time is fulfilled; the kingdom of God is at hand." The prophecies of Daniel were fulfilled; it was time for the manifestation of the Messiah. When, therefore, the Messiah stood in their midst, and the time had come for him to make that direct and specific application of his message which would meet the exact need of the hour in indicating the fulfilment of prophecy in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, he took up the words of Isaiah, which were the keynote and the interpretation, as it were, of his whole work, and he said, "Behold your God;" but he did not use the exact words, "Behold your God;" but in his interpretation, under the guidance of the Spirit, when he said in his time, "Behold your God," to say it correctly, he said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world." That was distinctively and specifically Isaiah's message for that time; but up to that time, no other messenger, and no other voice, could have pointed out one, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world!" But when the fulness of time had come, and the messenger had come, and the Spirit of God had given to the messenger his message, then the message fitted the facts exactly; and in speaking the message, he did not quote Isaiah, but, under the guidance of the Spirit, he interpreted

Isaiah, and applied specifically and directly the message, "Behold your God," to this particular revelation of God in the flesh in the person of Jesus Christ.

It was an essential thing that that message should be given at that time, that it should be received at that time. That that message did not have any broader application, and that he could not see God anywhere else than in the person of Jesus Christ, I am not saying; but this is the thing I am saying: While others might be saying, Behold your God, and pointing to any and every evidence of the revelation of God, when the message for the time came, and the messenger took up the message for the time, instead of scattering his fire, and saying of other things as other people did, 'Behold your God,' he had a distinct and special application of that message that no other one had at that time; and when he said, Behold your God, he said, 'Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world!' Those who did not hear that message in its specific and special application in the presentation of that man, did not hear the message of the hour, even though hundreds of voices may have said, 'Behold your God.'

That principle is just as applicable to every specific phase of this message. There is now a special application of some scriptures that have been familiar to people for centuries. Under the guidance of God's Spirit, when the hour comes for the message, and the times demand the message, the voice is heard; and when the voice is heard, it will have a specific application of Scripture such as no other voice can give. And that is what will constitute a special message out of old and familiar scriptures.

Further than that: there will also be a new interpretation, a new application of scriptures and prophecies that will deal exactly with that time. As, for instance, in John's day, when he, and Christ himself, said, 'The time is fulfilled; the kingdom of God is at hand,' it meant something altogether different, and had a meaning in it which was not found in what the priests said, when they, every Sabbath day, in the synagogue, encouraged the people to believe that the time was fulfilled, and the Messiah was just at hand. They were preaching the very same thing; they were referring to the very same scriptures; they were proving the fulfilment of the same prophecies; but they interpreted the application of the prophecy according to their own ideas, rather than according to the distinct teaching of the Word.

When the Spirit gave to John the Baptist the correct interpretation of those same scriptures, he came with a message just as new to the people as if they had not heard a word from the priests in regard to the Messiah and his coming.

The same is true now. There are specific scriptures, the fulfilment of specific prophecies, that must be interpreted to the people, in view of the time and the work for the time, and when the true voice is heard, and the true message is heard, it will gather up all the old scriptures, and give to them a newness of interpretation, not a fanciful interpretation, but a Spirit-given interpretation; it will give the interpretation of specific scriptures that have never been fulfilled, and that must apply to the time and the hour; but it will give such an interpretation of those scriptures as is different from that usually given outside of this message; and, taken altogether, both in the interpretation of the old and the application of the new, it will constitute a distinct, special preaching of the gospel according to God; and it will have a very specific and special application to the time when it is given.

I can not take the time to read the scriptures that will be involved in these statements. These principles cover the whole Bible. It is not a new gospel. There is only one gospel. It is not presenting a new way of salvation, but it is gathering up all truths that have been taught, it is taking all the general truths of the gospel, which are as true at one time of the world as at another, and giving to them a new and special setting for the time in which the message is given, together with an application of scripture and prophecy that could not be given until that time arrived. When you get that combination, you have very clear evidence that that is the true message for the time; because, if it is not, what would be the fulfilment of the Word, and what could be the giving of the message? If the time and the needs of the time, the message and the messenger, meet together, and the message meets the need of the people and the need of the hour, what can it be but the fulfilment of God's word that at that time there should be a message that would meet the needs of the hour?

Now let us make a further, and perhaps more specific, application of these principles, which may be stated in this way: The gospel according to God will give right conceptions concerning the being and the character of God. To maintain and dwell upon a wrong conception of God, a wrong idea of God, that is, to put reason and what reason brings out concerning God, in the place of revelation and what is revealed concerning God, has the same effect upon the human mind, and leads to the same result in character, as outward and gross idolatry: in the one case, it is simply the idea put in words; in the other case, it is an idea retained in the mind, expressed in a tangible form; and the effect upon the character, the results, are the same. Wrong conceptions of God, wrong ideas of his being, his attributes, his character, will lead in the same direction and to the same results as outward and gross idolatry; that is, it is simply heathenism in another form, and heathenism is manifested in a variety of ways. But all these manifestations possess one characteristic: the one who believes in the heathen doctrine always depends upon himself or something that he does, for salvation, rather than upon the gift of salvation as revealed in the Scriptures.

Now that will take many forms, and reveal itself under many guises: with the ignorant it will take one form, with the educated it will take another form; it will be expressed in one way by a certain class of persons, and in another way by another class of persons; but there will always be found one element in it; that is to say, the barrier against sin is broken down, because God's revelation of himself, his character and his plan of salvation, brings a power for righteousness from without, which erects a barrier against sin, and saves from sin, revealing the character of God in the person.

An inadequate idea or conception of God is that which brings him down upon the plane of the human, which is revealed in the making of graven images in the lowest forms, revealed in mental images in the higher forms, and leads to the same results, inasmuch as the actual connection between the human and the divine is cut off, and sin rules in the human heart.

Therefore the message now which says to the world, 'Behold your God,' and all that belongs with it according to the message of John the Baptist, will reveal the true idea of God, the true conception of God as opposed to all false ideas and false conceptions of God. It will also reveal the true way of salvation as opposed to all false ways of salvation. It will reveal God's plan as wrought out and brought to light in his Word, rather than man's plan as reasoned out and being the product of the human mind.

Now, to make the distinction between these two, as to whether it is the revelation according to the Word, or whether it is simply the product of human reasoning, requires a discernment that does not reside merely in the intellect. They are not separated so that you can turn this way, and find the gospel according to God clearly distinguished by itself. To find the gospel according to man, you must turn that way, and you have a revelation of another gospel entirely distinct

and separate from it. It would be perfectly easy, then, to distinguish between the two; but Satan does not present his substitute for the gospel in that way. He does not come to us and say, Now, there is the gospel according to God, and here is the gospel according to man; take your choice. He will probably come to you and say, This is the gospel according to God just the same as that, and these are the same. Now, in the windings, in the subtle presentations of his gospel—for he is back of it all—there is that which confuses, and in many of the ramifications, not in the bare, broad, simple statement whether you will be saved by faith or by works, but in the ramifications of this teaching of the gospel according to man, there are windings and deceivings and subtle presentations that are not to be distinguished from the teaching of the gospel according to God, and avoided, simply by that discernment which resides in the intellect.

The keenest intellects of the world are to-day advocating the gospel according to man, and when we come with the gospel according to God, it will be utterly impossible for us to attempt to match intellect with intellect, logic with logic, reasoning with reasoning. We must come with the Word of God which he has given to us, confident that it is the Word of God, dependent upon it as the Word of God, and let the Word of God itself answer false reasoning and false logic, even though we ourselves can not do it.

Any other method would simply lead us off into the by-paths of sophistical reasoning. And the moment we come onto that ground, we have left the gospel. That is not where you find the word of the living God, but we want to become acquainted with the living word of God, so that we can give the message of the living God with clearness. There is in the Word of God itself that which will accomplish more than we can accomplish by our human reasoning; and often it will happen, and it does happen, that we ourselves may be unable to reason out the matter, and to label this and that, yet when we take the Word of God, and apply it with confidence, it will bring light to our own minds, and confusion to other minds who reject its teaching on these very principles.

(To be continued)