p. 3 | Editorial by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 16, 1903

Editorial

By Editor

The Pauline Gospel

IN his salutation to the church at Rome the apostle Paul opens to us the essential truth of the gospel which he preached. He declares it to be “the gospel of God, which he promised afore through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, who was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.” We need to give careful attention to what is here set forth; for it lays open to our view the very heart of the gospel. It is “the gospel of God . . . concerning his Son.” That Son was born of the flesh, and thus became the Son of man. As the Son of man he lived and labored, suffered and died. But by his resurrection from the dead he was authoritatively declared to be the Son of God. The essential truth of the gospel is thus seen to be that the man, Jesus of Nazareth, was the Son of God,—that God has manifested himself in flesh in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ, in fulfillment of the promise made through the prophets of the coming Messiah. The gospel then, as taught by the apostle Paul, is the good news of God manifest in the flesh, even “in the likeness of sinful flesh.” This is the provision which God has made for our salvation. To believe the gospel is to believe in this provision as a present fact,—that God is manifest in the flesh. Each believer lets this be true in himself through faith’s appropriation of God’s gift of himself to the flesh. Each individual must accept this truth for himself, and yield himself to the indwelling of God through the Spirit. “If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, he that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall give life also to your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” This is the gospel of God manifest in the flesh.

The Only Gospel

GOD has provided only one way of salvation for all peoples in all ages. There was not one plan devised for the Jews, and then another for the Gentiles. God manifest in the flesh is the one gospel for both Jew and Gentile. “It is too light a thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.” And when the devout Simeon saw the child Jesus, he recognized him as God manifest in the flesh, and said: “Mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples; a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.” “The Father hath sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.” This is the gospel of “Immanuel . . . God with us.” “If any man preach any other gospel unto you, . . . let him be accursed.”

The Everlasting Gospel

THIS gospel of God manifest in the flesh is “the everlasting gospel” which is to be proclaimed in the last generation to prepare the way of the Lord. And in order that it may be proclaimed effectively, so as to meet the special need of the last generation and save a people from all the perversions of this time of great deception, the Lord has given to us in the Scripture the exact setting in which this gospel of God manifest in the flesh is to be presented. The prophecies, especially those found in the books of Daniel and the Revelation, disclose the condition both of the church and of the world in the last days. In the time just before the destruction of the world by fire we learn that it will be as it was in the time of Noah, just before the destruction of the world by water. Then “Jehovah saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” And we also learn that in that same time Satan will work “with all power and signs and lying wonders,” and professed Christians will have a form of godliness, but will deny the power thereof. To the world thus under the power of Satan, and to the professed church which is without the power of godliness, must be proclaimed with a loud voice “the everlasting gospel” of God manifest in the flesh, that gospel which is “the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.” But in order to meet the demands of this generation, it must be proclaimed in the very way in which inspiration has indicated that the final proclamation of this truth must be given. This means that the gospel of God manifest in the flesh, which was typified in the earthly sanctuary and its services, must now be taught from the standpoint of the heavenly sanctuary and its services. This will bring the world face to face with the hour of God’s judgment and with the law of God as the standard of the judgment, and will then offer to them the gospel of God manifest in the flesh as the only basis of confidence in this time of judgment. It will show that Babylon is fallen, and that any form of Babylonish worship—either of the beast or of his image—will bring upon the worshiper the unmingled wrath of God. And this is the third angel’s message.

The False Gospel

THERE is a counterfeit gospel in the world. It appropriates the names and terms of Christianity, but it denies the essential truth of Christianity. The true gospel is God manifest in sinful flesh, condemning sin in the flesh. The counterfeit gospel is sinful flesh claiming all the blessings and privileges of God manifest in the flesh, but without the experience. This false gospel finds its culmination in the papacy as the result of “the falling away” foretold by the apostle Paul, when the man of sin should be revealed. But the false gospel is also found in apostate Protestantism, that image of the papacy, which denies in experience, if not in express statements, the real gospel of God manifest in the flesh. As a result of all this departure from the truth, the people of this generation are largely left without the power for victory over sin, and are carried captive by Satan at his will. This is the gospel which was taught by the Pharisees in the time of Christ. “We have

Abraham to our father.” This is the gospel of the flesh and of self-righteousness. It often appears under the guise of great zeal for the commandments of God, but it is always the fleshly interpretation of the commandments, which is the same as tradition. It is simply man’s measure of God’s character with only man’s power with which to reveal it, and this is no defense against sin. It is certainly time that we should know that we are proclaiming the true gospel of God manifest in the flesh, and that we ourselves know this true gospel as an experience. It is so easy to pervert the true into the false by substituting a mere form for the thing itself. This is our danger. “Many talk of the truth, they preach the theory of the truth, when the melting love of Jesus has not become a living, active element in their character. This is an age of almost universal apostasy; and those who claim to hold advanced truth mislead the churches when they do not give evidence that their character and works harmonize with divine truth.” Beware of either accepting or teaching the false gospel. “Take heed lest there shall be any one that maketh spoil of you through his philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.”