“Believest Thou the Prophets?”
By A. M. Lindsley
At the close of his bold and able defense before King Agrippa, the apostle Paul put this question to him. Having seen something in him that indicated that his judgment was convinced, Paul confidently answered the question himself, “I know that thou believest.” Then said Agrippa, “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.” But like many of our day he probably deferred his decision in favor of the religion of Jesus of Nazareth, from sinister motives. It required some independence of character, as well as a good degree of humility to embrace it. The rulers of that province seemed to regard the good will of the Jews as of some moment to them, and they wanted to conciliate them, and did so, as far as possible. For the seeming safety of themselves and their territory they must do this. In their blind zeal of persecuting the believers in Christ, the Jews had become so blood-thirsty that they would revolt, and perhaps cause them to lose their thrones even, so all care must be taken to keep them quiet. The convictions of Felix as well as Agrippa were stifled for the sake of secular interests. Oh! how many like Esau prefer to sell their birthright for that which is of no more value than a morsel of meat. The Jews thought that they believed the prophets. Every Sabbath Moses and the prophets were read in their synagogues. There they read of one that should come as a king, and deliver Israel. While the same prophecies told of the humiliation of his birth, life, and death, these were entirely overlooked; and thus they were led by this sad mistake to reject him to their own destruction. As the prophet Isaiah had written, Christ became a stumbling-stone to them as a people. In their blind party zeal they put him to death, and persecuted all who believed on him. Where was now their claim to be the peculiar people of God? They clung so tenaciously to the commandments contained in ordinances, as to let slip from them those virtues which were the weightier matters of the law of God. As they backslid in heart from God, they were left to make obedience to the letter of the law their only dependence, thereby making works their salvation. Self-deceived, they went to ruin over the very means that God sent for their help. Poor, blinded, deluded human nature, how oft hast thou fallen! The prophecies were given as a light in a dark place, to guide mankind through the labyrinths of the six thousand years of time that must elapse before the consummation of the great plan of redemption. Overlooking these, and putting them back in the shade, millions of earth’s inhabitants are groping their way without the aid of that which would prove as sure a light to them as did the visible cloud by day and pillar of fire by night to the Israelites in their flight from the land of Egypt. By as wonderful a power of self-deception they are shutting out the only light that would pilot them through the perils of the last days. The Jews had their minds on a king who should come in triumph and glory, and establish with them an everlasting kingdom and place them at the head of the nations of earth. They could see nothing else. Their views did not embrace the full scope of the plan of salvation. The sacrificial offerings that were instituted to be a constant reminder to them of the one great offering of the life of the Son of God became darkness to them. Did God will it to be thus? Nay! Did he not with the wisdom becoming his character shadow forth his great plan so plainly that a wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err therein? It was through pride and hardness of heart and the deception of the devil that they were led to stumble. It would seem that their example would be a sufficient warning to us to be very careful that we do not by the same process, work our own ruin. But what says the prophet? Does it not read in the eighth chapter of Isaiah that Christ should be for a stone of stumbling and rock of offense to both the houses of Israel? As the Hebrew people were the first house of Israel, and stumbled over the prophecies concerning the first advent of Christ, so the Gentile churches which were grafted in, must be the second house of Israel; and they are to stumble at the prophecies relating to the second advent. The fulfillment of this scripture must have its application this side of their time; consequently, we may look for it now, when the messages of Rev. 14, are being given as foretold by the angel of Jesus Christ. The various prophecies extending into the future which speak of his coming in power and glory to establish his kingdom on the earth, should be rightly understood, and they will be at the proper time; for Daniel the prophet said, “The wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.” Here must be where the stumbling of the second house of Israel has its location. The time and place where Daniel bore this testimony was at the close of his prophecy. Having taken up the history of the earthly kingdoms in advance (for prophecy is history in advance), and by different symbols representing these kingdoms and their acts, he carries us forward to the standing up of Michael, the time of trouble, and the resurrection of the dead. That, then, of which he says the wicked shall not understand, but the wise shall understand, must be the subject which he has written out—shown to him in vision, and by the direct teaching of the angel Gabriel, concerning the duration of these earthly kingdoms; and the time when the stone cut out of the mountain without hands, which symbolizes the fifth universal, or God’s everlasting, kingdom, should be established under the whole heavens, or fill the whole earth. These prophecies which were so important for us to understand as to be necessary for the God of Heaven to send one of the chief angels from Heaven to the man “greatly beloved,” must certainly be of vital importance to us; and we shall be far more inexcusable than the Jews, if we refuse to search and dig deep to get the correct understanding of them. As it is light on the very point over which the second house of Israel is to stumble, should we not give all diligence, and with earnest, humble prayers seek divine aid for a perfect understanding of this subject? God wills that his people shall not be in darkness on this momentous question, and has taken care to set up one waymark after another so that there need be no mistake made by us while traversing the last sands of probationary time. With infinite love he has sent messenger after messenger from the courts of Heaven to enlighten his prophets, and they have written out what has been shown them for our learning upon whom the ends of the world are come. Then let us with childlike humility investigate these things, that we may stand in the counsel of the Almighty, and receive the never-ending blessing pronounced on the obedient when Christ shall appear the second time. Reader, let me ask in the words of Paul, at the head of this article, Believest thou the prophets?