What Does Restoration of All Things Include?
ARE MR. DOWIE'S CLAIMS TRUE?—NO. 4.
What Does Restoration of All Things Include?
In Mr. Dowie's paper, Leaves of Healing, of June 8, appeared the following:— For more than two years we have taken the responsibility before the church and the world of being the Messenger of the Covenant. . . . The Scriptural and logical issue of our action was the declaration as Elijah the Restorer, which we made in the Chicago auditorium before about seven thousand persons last Lord's day afternoon. The Messenger of the Covenant, Jesus tells us, was John the Baptist. John the Baptist, Jesus said, was Elijah. . . . Malachi and Jesus say that the Messenger of the Covenant and Elijah must come again. . . . If we are the Messenger of the Covenant, we must also be Elijah the Restorer. . . . God does not rebuke us now in saying that we are Elijah the Restorer. Both offices center in one man. . . . The preparation of God's people for Christ's coming can only be made through Elijah, since God has so decreed it, and through no other person. The “restoration of all things” was to be accompanied by the prophet, of whom God spake to Moses in Deut. 18:15–22. . . . The Messenger of the Covenant, and Elijah the Restorer, and that Prophet of whom Moses spake, are all one and the same person. The declaration that we are that person is either . . . a great blasphemy, or a tremendous fact of the utmost importance to the whole world. Which is it? The above raises the following questions:— - Who is the Elijah that is to come? and how is he to come?
- Who is the Messenger of the Covenant?
- Who is that Prophet like unto Moses?
- What does restoration of all things include?
- What are the Biblical credentials?
Three of these have been answered in previous issues. It has been shown from the Word of God that Elijah typified in part John the Baptist, and that both Elijah and John the Baptist, with their adversaries and times, are archetypes of God's people, in character, not person, with their adversaries in the last days; and that the Messenger of the Covenant and that “Prophet like unto Moses” were both met in Jesus Christ, and Him only. IV. What Does Restoration of All Things Include?
Peter tells us that the heavens must receive Jesus “until the times of restitution [or ‘restoration,’ R.V.] of all things which God hath spoken [‘whereof God spake,’ R.V.] by the mouth of His holy prophets since the world began.” Acts 3:21. This restoration is not, therefore, what we wish restored, or what men fancy will be restored, but what God has declared by His prophets should be restored. Another point to keep clear in mind: The restoration to be wrought by Elijah is by our Saviour applied to John the Baptist. Matt. 17:11–13. But this embraced simply the preaching of the clear, previously down-trodden truth, and present truth of the Gospel for that time. “He shall be filled with the Holy Ghost,” said the angel; “and many of the children of Israel shall he turn unto the Lord their God. And he shall go before His [Christ's] face in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready for the Lord a people prepared for Him.” Luke 1:15–17. This character of John's work was predicted in Isa. 40:3–9, and recorded in Matthew 3 and Luke 3. It was the preaching of repentance, turning to God's law, faith in God's coming One, and the utter repudiation of trust in man. God was exalted and humanity brought low, and the truth of God appeared once more as a noble highway of holiness, where men could walk in the light of God and be saved. But the restoration in Acts 3:21 embraces all that God's prophets, since the entrance of sin, predicted, in the restoration of which man at his best could have but a limited part. The great Restorer here is Jesus Christ. The heavens were not to receive Him until the restoration of all things spoken of by the prophets, but “until the times of restoration of all things.” Those times begin with God's last great reform message, typified by the work of both Elijah and John, and completed by the coming of Jesus Christ in person, by the judgment, and a restored earth. Of this restoration Mr. Dowie says:— The “restoration of all things” begins by obedience to the law of marriage which God first decreed when man and woman were pure in Eden. Then in the restoration of obedience to the Ten Commandments which God gave to Moses in Mount Sinai, and which He reaffirmed . . . by Jesus Christ when He ministered on earth in the flesh. These fundamental things must all be restored. But all this work, so far as man can do it, is embraced in the preaching of the everlasting Gospel, and its accompanying proclamations, protests, and warnings, given in God's last great threefold message of reform, as recorded in Rev. 14:6–12, as follows:— “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come: and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.
“And there followed [went with him] another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
“And the third angel followed [went with] them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation. . . .
“Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” The positive truth of God's great restoration message is all embraced in the message in charge of the first messenger. It is (1) the preaching of the everlasting Gospel in its purity, as “the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth” (Rom. 1:16, 17); (2) the giving up of all fear of man, his customs, his traditions, his laws, his “science falsely so-called,” his arbitrary rule, and listening with reverent, devoted awe to what the great God of the universe shall say, realizing that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” and “to depart from evil is understanding;” (3) the turning from all worship at the human shrines of tradition, superstition, wealth, worldly honor, and worldly science, and worshiping, not the god of man-made law, but “Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” To fear God in view of the judgment, at which His holy law shall be the rule (Eccl. 12:13, 14; Rom. 2:12; James 2:8–12), to worship the great Creator, is to listen to God's voice, is to obey His holy law. “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve,” are the words of Jesus Christ. Matt. 4:10. But God's voice was uttered in the Ten Commandments (Deut. 5:22), magnified and confirmed by our blessed Lord (Matt. 5:17–20; Luke 16:17). This is further shown by the class developed by the giving of this threefold message to the world: “Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Believing the Gospel has cleansed from sin and made them in Christ's grace holy ones; has restored in them the faith of Jesus, and His life in them keeps, as it did in Judea of old, the commandments of God,—not in dry, dead form, but in warm, living, beneficent, righteous doing of the will of God from the heart. Now, the keeping of the commandments of God does not mean keeping a part of the commandments of God and a part of the commandments of men. He does not keep God's commandments who is an adulterer, or who profanes God's name, or who steals, or who worships idols. Neither does he who profanes God's Sabbath. Many men who rob the poor and oppress the hireling are trying—men always have been trying—to substitute large giving to public benefactions and enterprises for the keeping of the eighth commandment; but while such things may pass current among men, they will not stand the test of God's rule of judgment, which declares, “Thou shalt not steal.” Many men who are profaning God's holy day are trying—men always have been trying—to substitute for their transgression a day of tradition, concerning which God has given no commandment. Many have transgressed ignorantly, and have thought themselves obeying God's law in observing the substitute; but now God's message of restoration calls men away from flesh to what God says. “The times of this ignorance God winked at; but now He commandeth men everywhere to repent.” He who can set aside one part of God's law can do it all. And he who assumes to do so puts himself in the place of God, and is antichrist. The messenger who announces the fall of Babylon simply tells all people that the great religio-worldly organizations, in rejecting the healing message of the Gospel, retain their confusion and have fallen. And the third angel's message declares that this world has come to that time of restoration and enlightenment when he who rejects the worship and service of God for the worship of church-and-world union, designated the beast, must bear the fearful consequences that follow utter separation from God. in this work of restoration is to receive the message and to bear it to others in life and word. He can do no more. God gives to His servants through Christ authority to preach His Gospel, power over sin, but no more. They may not compel, coerce, or anathematize; they may proclaim the truth of the Gospel, and beseech or entreat men to be reconciled to God. The doctrine of force is foreign to the Gospel of Christ. is to make effectual the work of His servants by the mighty power of His Spirit; to thwart or permit the evil purposes of men till this work of Gospel-proclaiming is over. And then, when men reject His last saving message, when Infinite Love can no longer reach them, His Spirit will be withdrawn, the plagues, the fruit of unrestrained sin, will follow; Jesus Christ will come, and His brightness will consume sin and all allied therewith. Out of the work of the millennial judgment will come the final destruction of sin and sinners, the renewal of the earth to more than its primeval beauty, the salvation of the elect characters of God of all ages, the restoration of all things foretold by the prophets. And in it all, Christ Jesus is the Restorer. V. What Are the Divine Credentials?
What evidence should Mr. Dowie, or any one else, produce that he is bearing to the world God's message? that he is doing the work of God's messenger? There is but one reply to these questions. He must fulfil the Scriptures. When John the Baptist was asked to give an account of himself, he boasted no great names, no great work, no great authority. He was not even worthy to unloose the shoe-latchet of the coming One. He was content simply to be “the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Isaiah.” John 1:23. Elijah's message was prefaced with the solemn, awful thought of Jehovah's existence: “As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand.” The antitypes of Elijah and John will be those who are content to bear God's message. Their credentials will be that message, the truth of God, borne with no dependence upon the human, but with all dependence upon God its Giver. They will bear to the world God's last great threefold message with an ever-growing sense that they must decrease while Christ's coming glory increases. They will not lead man to trust in man, but in the living God, and the Spirit will bear witness to their work. Will there be signs connected with this work?—There will. The truth of God still holds: “And these signs shall follow them that believe.” See Mark 16:17, 18. Sons and daughters shall prophesy, young men shall see visions, and old men dream8dreams, and God's Spirit will be generally poured out. Acts 2:17–21. The “last days” include the last day. The people looking, waiting, for Christ's coming will “come behind in no gift.” 1 Cor. 1:5–7. All these things will be seen among the people of God; but the chief witness of this divine acceptance and mission will be the truth of God, witnessed,— First of all, in the testimony of righteous living in obedience to all the commandments of God, according to His Word—the creative power of the Gospel in character; and— Secondly, in bearing to the world the truth as it is in Christ Jesus, according to that Word. Miracle-working Not Evidence.
The working of miracles is not evidence of God's approval. “Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy by Thy name, and by Thy name cast out devils, and by Thy name do many mighty works?’ And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity [lawlessness, law-breaking].” Matt. 7:22, 23. Of the wonder-workings of one last-day deception, we are told: “They are the spirits of demons, working signs [miracles]; which go forth unto the kings of the whole world, to gather them together unto the battle of the great day of God Almighty.” Rev. 16:14. And again we read that Satan will work just previous to Christ's coming “with all power, and signs, and lying wonders, and with all deceit of unrighteousness for them that are perishing.” 2 Thess. 2:9, 10. “Lying wonders” and “deceit of unrighteousness” is false wonder-working appearing as the true, and sin appearing as righteousness. These things show that no wonder-workings are of themselves evidences of truth, or of the presence of God. The great test is His Word in heart, in life, in speech. Those who are deceived by Satan's deceptive working are those who “received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.” 2 Thess. 2:10. Says the Lord through His prophet, “To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” Isa. 8:20. And our Lord utters the same truth in this saying: “By their fruits ye shall know them. Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven.” Matt. 7:20, 21. The great supreme test is the keeping and teaching of God's law and the faith of Jesus, as taught,—not in human creed or dictated by human fancy, or tradition, or expediency,—but as taught in His holy Word, as kept by Jesus Christ; and all glory will be given to God, and none to man. Whether Mr. Dowie's teaching and work bears these evidences and credentials, let the reader judge. May God guide him or her by His Spirit into all truth.