WAS THE GOSPEL TAKEN FROM THE EARTH?
By W. A. Alway
THOSE who have followed carefully the foregoing articles of this series must admit that the Gospel authority given to the church was virtually, essentially, bound into and attached to the spirit-filled word of God rather than the fallible individual. Man by submitting his own life to the conditions of this word may become the channel thru which its saving power is communicated to the repentant soul; but since the power is in the word, the man or the church that forsakes the word are at the same time deprived of their authority. It was for this reason that Paul, in 2 Tim. 4:1-4, so earnestly admonished the youthful Timothy in view of the judgment of the great day to remain loyal to the word of truth, and warned him of the approaching period of darkness when multitudes would be led astray by the fables of men. The dangers, perils, and persecutions of these coming days of darkness were often referred to by Christ and in the inspired writings of the New Testament. In his parting instruction to the elders of the church at Ephesus the apostle warned the church that immediately after his departure grievous wolves would enter the fold and by teaching perverse things draw away disciples after themselves. Referring to this same time in his second letter to the Thessalonians, he declares that before the second advent of Christ there should be a period of apostasy, termed the "falling away," in the church. This "falling away" would result in the exaltation of the "man of sin," who was to exalt himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped. 2 Thess. 2:1-4. Some persons have erroneously supposed that these scriptures pointed to a period of time when the saving power of the Gospel would be removed from the earth. This seems an impossible conclusion from the language of this scripture itself. For if the church fell away from the Gospel and did not take the saving Gospel with it, then certainly the Gospel would remain. It was not the Gospel that fell away, but the people. Other scriptures also prohibit this view with even greater clearness. In His instruction to His disciples just before His ascension, Christ left this promise of encouragement: "Lo, I am with you alway [all the way], even unto the end of the world." Matt. 28:20. Again: "Upon this Rock I will build My church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Matt. 16:18. If the powers of darkness had driven the children of God with the open door of salvation from the earth, surely it would have been a signal triumph for the gates of hell. Thru the prophet Isaiah it was declared: "So shall My word be that goeth forth out of My mouth; it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." Isa. 55:11. Some of the purposes for which this unfailing word was sent forth are expressed in the preceding verses of this same chapter. "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters." Verse 1. "Seek ye the Lord while He may be found." "Let the wicked forsake his way, . . . and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him." Verses 6, 7. If it be true that for nearly eighteen long centuries this word of Gospel invitation and promised pardon was withdrawn from the earth, so that there was no rest for the "heavy laden," and no response to the sinner's cry, could it be truthfully said that this universal invitation was accomplishing its purpose in the earth? Let us view this thought from the standpoint of the parable of the Wheat and Tares, recorded in Matthew 13. In a private interview (verses 37-41), Christ explained the wheat to be the children of the kingdom, and the tares to be the children of the wicked one; the imperative command was, "Let both grow together until the harvest," which, in verse 39, is said to be the "end of the world." But if the apostasy swept the Gospel from the earth, with all true representatives of its power, how could the wheat and tares grow together until the harvest? Consistent with this conclusion are all the admonitions of Christ relative to these evil days of apostasy. In the Lord's great prophecy recorded in Matt. 24:12, 13, the Saviour declared of this period, "Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many [not all] shall wax cold," and He adds for the encouragement of the faithful ones, "but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." The Militant Church and Her Refuge.
All are agreed that the future history of the church with its trials and conflicts was the subject of the symbolic prophecy recorded in the twelfth chapter of the Revelation. After the ascension of Christ, the man Child, to God and to His throne (See Rev. 19:11-15; 3:21), the dragon is represented as turning in wrathful persecution upon the woman, the church, who still remains upon the earth. Verse 13. In verse 6 the church is represented as fleeing to the wilderness, an earthly not a heavenly retreat. Even admitting this language to be symbolical, it would be inconsistent to represent heaven as a wilderness. Then, too, the dragon, or Satan (verse 9), whose abode is upon the earth (Job 1:7), sent out a flood9after the church who must still have been upon the earth; for verse 16 declares that the earth helped the church and swallowed up the flood. Verse 17 reveals the remnant church still in deadly conflict with the devil in this present evil world. We have therefore in this chapter the whole earthly history of the church revealed from the time of Christ's first advent to the end of the world. This period of bitter persecution, during which time the church was to remain in obscurity, is designated in verse 6 as 1,260 prophetic days, or literal years (Eze. 4:6), and covers that long night of papal supremacy known in history as the Dark Ages. It was the children of God, who still held to the simplicity of Gospel truth, that were torn by satanic oppression and compelled to seek the seclusion of the wilderness and mountain fastnesses. There they preserved the simple truth of the living word in those obscure retreats. Christ, in referring to this experience of His church, said: "Then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved; but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." Matt. 24:21, 22. Note that it was the "elect" who were suffering at this time and for whose sake the "days" were "shortened." But how could there be an "elect" in those days if it be true, as some believe, that there was no Gospel on earth to produce them. Is it possible that the multitudes, who, in those dark days marched heroically to the stake, whose faces shone with a heavenly radiance, as they laid down their lives for Christ, whose expiring words were sweet with the fragrance of the divine spirit of forgiveness to their enemies, is it possible that those people lived such lives of self renunciation, and died such triumphant victors and were yet strangers to the power and consolations of the Gospel? It was not the intention, neither was it the promise, of Christ that, when the way grew rough and thorny and the days dark with error and evil, that people should be taken out of the world and its conflicts; for in earnest prayer Christ said: "I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil." "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me thru their word." John 17:15, 20. Could language be more conclusive to show that Christ intended to preserve an unbroken chain of witnesses to the saving power of the Gospel to the end of time? [This article will be followed by one entitled, "Submission to the Sin-Condemning Word versus Commercialism."]