Studies in the Gospel Message
THE visions of Daniel as recorded in the seventh and eighth chapters of the book of Daniel form the basis of the Sabbath-school lessons for the last quarter of the present year. It may therefore be an opportune time to consider what special reason there is for the study and teaching of the book of Daniel and that book which is its complement, The Revelation. One thing is certainly clear from the ground which we have already covered in these studies, there can be no new gospel for this generation. From the time when the gospel was first preached in the garden of Eden until now, there has been but one way of salvation, and that is personal salvation through personal faith in a personal Saviour. Why, then, is it necessary that at this time so much stress should be placed upon the study and teaching of the books of Daniel and Revelation? The most satisfactory answer to this question will be found by a study of the living oracles. The promise of his continued presence with his disciples in his representative, the Holy Spirit, was the greatest promise which Jesus could make to his disciples just before the time when he was to take his bodily presence from them. “I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever. . . . I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. . . . If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” Jesus was about to give himself as the living sacrifice for a fallen world, and “through this sacrifice the mighty influence of the Holy Spirit was given to the world.” Thus the living presence of the Father and the Son would be found in and among the people of God. This was the full realization of that gospel of the indwelling presence which was taught in the sanctuary and its services. The Lord told Moses, “Let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.” This was “the tabernacle of witness,” constantly bearing witness to the purpose of God to make his dwelling with men. And this is the essential thing in Christianity. In the fulfillment of this eternal purpose,5“when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, that he might redeem them which were under the law.” “By the incarnation of the Son of God, the purpose of heaven is fulfilled. God dwells in humanity, and through saving grace the heart of man becomes again his temple.” Any perversion of the gospel which prevents one from receiving the full benefit of this provision, and thus himself becoming “the temple of the living God,” strikes at the vital thing in Christianity. In the worship of ancient Israel everything centered in the sanctuary and its services, and the central thing in the sanctuary was the ark of the covenant, in which was the law of God written upon the two tables of stone. Thus the law of God was the heart of the sanctuary and its services. In this “parable for the time now present” was set forth the new covenant promise, “I will put my laws into their mind, and on their heart also will I write them.” This same law which was deposited in the ark of the covenant was enshrined in humanity when the Word became flesh. This was the fulfillment of the prophecy, “Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.” Jesus in the flesh was the living law revealed in and for humanity, the actual setting forth of the purpose that humanity should be the temple of the living God. By the gift of the Holy Spirit, the personal representative of Jesus, to be the indwelling presence in the hearts of believers, this experience would be extended to all who would avail themselves of the provision. Thus the temple would be restored, “Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.” It is because this is the chiefest thing in Christianity that there has been preserved for us in the Scripture such a full record of the instruction concerning the building of the tabernacle and later the temple, and of all that pertained to the services carried forward therein. The subject of the sanctuary and its services is the leading subject in the gospel, and Christian experience consists in translating this instruction into the reality of life. When we recognize God’s claim upon us to be his temple, and when we accept the provision which he has made in order that this original purpose may be accomplished even though sin has laid the temple in ruins, we are co-operating with God in his plan of salvation. Thus the way is opened that God himself shall dwell in his own temple, and reveal his own glory there. From the instruction given by the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul we learn that he foresaw a great apostasy in the church, and that there would be a most astonishing perversion of the truth taught by the great parable of the sanctuary and its services. He foretold the career of one who would actually usurp the place of God in his own temple, and thus seek to render of none effect the whole provision which has been made that fallen humanity might again be “an habitation of God through the Spirit.” Let us read the inspired statement of the case: “Now we beseech you, brethren, touching the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto him; to the end that ye be not quickly shaken from your mind, nor yet be troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by epistle as from us, as that the day of the Lord is now present; let no man beguile you in any wise: for it will not be, except the falling away come first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, he that opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is called God or that is worshiped; so that he sitteth in the temple [“sanctuary,” margin] of God, setting himself forth as God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know that which restraineth, to the end that he may be revealed in his own season. For the mystery of lawlessness doth already work: only there is one that restraineth now, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall be revealed the lawless one, whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the breath of his mouth, and bring to naught by the manifestation of his coming; even he whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceit of unrighteousness for them that are perishing; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God sendeth them a working of error, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be judged who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” 2 Thess. 2: 1–12. Several things should be noted concerning this instruction:— 1. It has special reference to the coming of the Lord. “We beseech you, brethren, touching the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 2. Between the time when this was written and the day of the Lord there was to be an apostasy. “It will not be, except the falling away come first.” 3. This apostasy would result in revealing “the man of sin,” “the son of perdition.” 4. The characteristic of this man of sin would be self-exaltation, so that he would actually usurp the place of God in his temple. 5. All this disloyalty and opposition to God would be revealed under the pretense of serving God as his representative. “He sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God.” 6. This great apostasy was designated as “the mystery of lawlessness,” and it had already begun its work at the time the apostle was writing. “The mystery of lawlessness doth already work.” 7. This opposition to the kingdom of God in the earth, under the cover of a pretended zeal for its establishment, would continue unto the end, and would be overcome only by the second coming of Christ in his own person. When that which restrained should be removed, “then shall be revealed the lawless one, whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the breath of his mouth, and bring to naught by the manifestation of his coming.” 8. The only defense against being swept away by this tide of apostasy, and sharing in the destruction which it will bring upon those who are caught in it, will be the belief of the truth. It is plain that before such an apostasy could come in the church, there must be a perversion of the fundamental truth of the gospel as taught in the sanctuary and its services. The early church knew that the Holy Spirit had been poured out upon all flesh, and that he was the representative of God in the earth, and that if any man attempted to take his place, it would be putting the flesh in the place of the Spirit, man in the place of God. This would be a direct effort to shut away the presence of God from his church. And yet this was just what was prophesied of through the apostle Paul. Is there any way of locating the rise of this great apostasy and of following its development? Has the church any duty to the world with reference to it? Does the time of the coming of the Lord depend in any way upon the working of this “mystery of lawlessness”? We will consider these questions in our next study.