THE SONS OF ZION AND THE SONS OF GREECE.
By A. T. Jones
[Address delivered by ELDER A. T. JONES in Chicago.] “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 riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off: and he shall speak peace unto the heathen: and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth. As for thee also, by the blood of thy covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water. “Turn you to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope: even to-day do I declare that I will render double unto thee; when I have bent Judah for me, filled the bow with Ephraim, and raised up thy sons, O Zion, against thy sons, O Greece, and made thee as the sword of a mighty man. And the Lord shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning: and the Lord God shall blow the trumpet, and shall go with whirlwinds of the south. The Lord of hosts shall defend them: and they shall devour, and subdue with sling stones; and they shall drink, and make a noise as through wine; and they shall be filled like bowls, and as the corners of the altar. And the Lord shall save them in that day as the flock of his people: for they shall be as the stones of a crown, lifted up as an ensign upon his land. For how great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty! corn shall make the young men cheerful, and new wine the maids.” “Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain; so the Lord shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field.” Zech. 9:9 to 10:1. Can there be any question as to what time this scripture applies? There is no mistake as to the time referred to in the first verse that I have read. That refers to the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem. The next verse tells of the time when his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth. That is the time of his second coming, the time when his kingdom shall be set up and fill the whole earth. To what time, then, do the other verses apply? — Plainly to the time between the first advent of Christ and his second,—to the Christian dispensation. When is the time of the latter rain? — Now. Notice also that the fourteenth verse speaks of the time when “the Lord God shall blow the trumpet;” and verses eleven and twelve speak of the prisoners of hope being brought out of the pit wherein is no water. This evidently refers to the resurrection of the dead. Thus we can see plainly that this scripture refers to the last days, to the time in which we live. It therefore is instruction to us. Now I want you to notice especially the thirteenth verse. What people are particularly mentioned here? — The sons of Zion and the sons of Greece. And what class of people are mentioned in verse seventeen? — The young men and the young women. And what is the Lord going to do in this time with the sons of Zion? — Raise them up against the sons of Greece. In this time that thing will be done,—in this “time of the latter rain,” when the young men and the maids shall be made cheerful by the Lord, just before the great trumpet is blown; this is the time that the Lord is going to raise up the sons of Zion against the sons of Greece. The sons of Greece have had the ascendancy in this work long enough, now it is the turn of the sons of Zion. To see further what this signifies, turn to the first chapter of First Corinthians, beginning with the eighteenth verse: — “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish, foolishness, but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God. . . . Where is the wise, where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” Who was it that brought in this wisdom? Who was it that sought after wisdom? — The Greeks. And that wisdom of the Greeks ruled the world in that time, the time when this was written; it has done so since, too, and it does now. That144wisdom of the Greeks ruled the world, and what did it do for the world? — It was the means of the world's not knowing God; for “the world by wisdom knew not God.” That wisdom was the very means by which the world reached the point where it knew not God. And that wisdom was altogether of the Greeks. And the Lord set against that wisdom the foolishness of preaching, the foolishness of the preaching of the cross of Christ. Thus the Lord sent into the world his wisdom, which to the world was foolishness. But the world did not have a chance to see that thing fully and fairly tried. Yet so far as his wisdom did have a chance, it abundantly demonstrated itself to be wiser and mightier than all this boasted wisdom of the world which was Greek. But shortly the mystery of iniquity began to work; and many of those who professed the cross of Christ, those who professed the wisdom of God, accounted this wisdom of the world—this wisdom of the Greeks—to be a great thing. They turned aside after that, adopted it, and made it the leading thing in their preaching of what they set forth as the gospel of the cross of Christ. And that was the course by which the apostasy came, which brought in “the man of sin, the son of perdition,” who exalted himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped. Thus the mystery of iniquity supplanted and hid from the world the mystery of God. But there stands the word in the tenth chapter of Revelation, seventh verse: “In the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.” The mystery of God was started there in the days of the apostles,—“Christ in you the hope of glory.” The cross of Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God: that was preached. The mystery of iniquity came in, and hid it from the world. But, thank the Lord, in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, the mystery of God, the preaching of the true gospel, shall stand forth again, never to be hidden or obscured any more. And it is in this our day that the mystery of God is to be finished. Now is the mystery of God to stand forth exactly as it is, in the clear light and the power and the glory of God, until its work is done. Just as it was in the beginning, this is the time again when “the foolishness of God” will be set against the wisdom of the world. And in “the foolishness of preaching,” which is preaching of the cross of Christ,—in this setting of the foolishness of God against the wisdom of men,—in this preaching of the cross of Christ against all the seeking after the wisdom of the world,—in this it is that God will raise up the sons of Zion against the sons of Greece. That is the work that is before us in our day. That is the work of Seventh-day Adventists, under God. It is the work of the third angel's message. And the thing now for every Seventh-day Adventist to do is to rally himself, to set himself before himself, and tune his mind to an understanding, a comprehension, an appreciation, of the wonderful thing that God proposes to do in this day, in using him as an instrument in his great and grand work of raising up the sons of Zion against the sons of Greece, in causing the wisdom and knowledge and power of God to stand in the world in its proper glory, just as it should, transcending all the “wisdom” that has ever, or can ever, come from the sons of Greece. If Seventh-day Adventists will only do this, the victory is won. But so long as Seventh-day Adventists realize nothing of this great responsibility and wondrous privilege, and think that the education of the present day in the worldly schools is good enough for our sons and daughters, I want to know how the Lord is going to do what he has here promised, and what must be done. Look again. What does that wisdom of Greece do? what is its tendency? what is its only work? what is its outcome? — To lead the world to where it does not know God. Anything that can bring me to where I do not know God at the last, brings145me there at the first: it starts with me there. That is what it does for me at the beginning. All that anything can do in the beginning which in the end brings the world to where it does not know God, is to take away the knowledge of God. And there stands the word, that that is what the wisdom of Greece did, which was the wisdom of the world at that time. “The world by wisdom knew not God.” That so-called wisdom, that which really passed with the world as wisdom, was the means by which the world came not to know God. It was that very “wisdom” that deprived the world of the knowledge of God. And that wisdom was the wisdom, the philosophy, the science, the learning, of the Greeks at that time. And that philosophy, that science, that learning, of the world at that time, is the philosophy, the science, and the learning of the world to-day. In that day it was indulged and propagated by Greece; in this day those who indulge and propagate it are the sons of Greece. And it is written of this day, that God will “raise up thy sons, O Zion, against thy sons, O Greece.”