Living by Every Word by L. A. R.

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Dec 2, 1913

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 46.

Living by Every Word

By L. A. R.

ALL the light of the past, all the light which shines in the present and reaches forth into the future, as revealed in the word of God, is for every soul who will receive it.” This is but to say that the light increases with the advancement of time, and that all the light of God’s truth that has shone in past ages is applicable for the present. We are living in the last days, and the Word plainly declares that all that has happened in the past—all God’s revelation, all the truth from past ages—is applicable to our time, profitable for our study, necessary for our salvation. We read, “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come,” 1 Cor. 10:11.

And yet, in antagonism to this statement from the Word, there are whole denominations of professing Christians to-day who say that the Old Testament is out of date, who count it unworthy of study.

No one can understand the New Testament unless he understands the Old, and it is impossible to understand the Old Testament without the revelation contained in the New. The types and shadows, the figures and parables, of the Old Testament are clear when read in the interpretation of the New; and the unfolding of divine truth in the New Testament is often obscure unless we know the figure, the parable, or the picture alluded to, in the Old.

For example, the reason why God gave the promise through Isaac is left unexplained until we come to New Testament times; and there we find it was God’s intention from the first to found His church upon His promise, that it might not be a matter of works, but a matter of grace, that all His children should be children of promise.

In like manner, the reason why God promised that through Abraham all the nations of the earth should be blessed, is not revealed fully until we come to the New Testament days, and then we learn that that blessing pronounced through Abraham was to be realized only through Christ. God foresaw that the gospel would go to the Gentiles; and so, as the Word says, “the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.” Gal. 3:8.

We might multiply instances to show that God’s light is cumulative—none of it becomes obsolete, or unworthy of consideration. We find many popular preachers to-day choosing certain portions of God’s word, exalting them as the message, and refusing other portions of the Word that would correct some erroneous ideas which they are bringing into their philosophies and doctrines. But we should remember the words Christ quoted from Deuteronomy,—that it is by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God that man is to live—by every word. And if we heed every word of God, we may be perfected in the divine way. We will thus be certain to hear a voice behind us saying, as the Spirit calls the Word to our mind, “This is the way, walk ye in it.” Isa. 30:21.

Only a few Sundays ago a prominent minister, speaking to ten thousand people, put forth Christ as a great social reformer, and classed Paul with those who uphold capitalism. Thus these men put one part of the word of God against another part, and become wiser than that which is written.

Let us remember that the time has come when all that is written within the covers of the Book we call the Bible is understandable for him who will come to it with the spirit it enjoins. All the light of the present, all that which has accumulated from the past, and all the marvelous prophecies that disclose the future, are for the one who to-day will receive them. It is by this means that the prayer of the Holy Spirit, recorded in Eph. 3:10, is to be fulfilled,—“to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God.”

L. A. R.