Swearing, Breaking Faith, Killing, Stealing
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Swearing, Breaking Faith, Killing, Stealing.
THE Book of God pictures to us a time that will be characterized by extremes of wickedness. The language of the Book is as follows: “Hear the word of Jehovah, ye children of Israel; for Jehovah hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor goodness, nor knowledge of God in the land. There is naught but swearing and breaking faith, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery; they break out, and blood toucheth blood.” Hosea 4: 1, 2. At the time when the foregoing scripture applies, the text says that “Jehovah hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land.” And the text further says that this controversy is occasioned, or brought about, “because there is no truth, nor goodness, nor knowledge of God in the land.” But while there is “no truth, nor goodness, nor knowledge of God in the land,” yet there is profession of goodness in that time, for the following verses say: “Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away. Yet let no man strive, neither let any man reprove; for thy people are as they that strive with the priest. And thou shalt stumble in the day, and the prophet also shall stumble with thee in the night; and I will destroy thy mother. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to Me; seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. As they were multiplied, so they sinned against Me; I will change their glory into shame. They feed on the sin of My people, and set their heart on their iniquity. And it shall be, like people, like priest; and I will punish them for their ways, and will requite them their doings. And they shall eat, and not have enough; they shall play the harlot, and shall not increase; because they have left off taking heed to Jehovah.” Hosea 4:3-10. Note that the foregoing scripture shows that the “priest” is still in the land when the fearful wickedness is going on. And the “prophet” is also in evidence, for it is said of him, “the prophet also shall stumble with thee in the night.” But, while both priest and prophet are there, it is only to “stumble” with the people. And the reason why the “prophet” and people, as well, are stumbling is made plain in the text. Observe that it says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to Me: seeing thou hast forsaken the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.” Knowledge has been “rejected;” the law of God has been “forgotten.” This is the one age in all the world’s history when it is most prominently and most conspicuously true that the Bible as a whole has been discounted by the infidel teaching of the professed church itself. There is scarcely a portion of the Bible that has not been attacked and declared to be a “fable.” And those who have not joined the ranks of the “higher critics” and dissected the Bible as a whole, and thus made it of none effect on the minds of the masses of the people, have taught that the law of God is abolished. The binding obligation of the true Sabbath has been earnestly taught, and to try to nullify the force of the conviction that has come with this teaching, men have said that the whole Ten Commandments have been abolished. And thus have the people been led to forget the law of God, just as the foregoing text says. This week the papers are reporting “epidemics of crime” in Berlin, in New York, in Chicago, in San Francisco, and elsewhere. These “epidemics of crime” are the fruitage of the seed-sowing that has been going on for the last century. Critics and infidels both without and within the professed church of Christ have spread doubt and ridicule of the Bible. There has also been the perverse teaching that we are under no binding obligation to keep the law of God. And now we are reaping the fruit in these “epidemics of crime;” and we have not seen the end of it yet. The terrible condition of wickedness brought to view in the prophecy from which the text herein is quoted, is by no means at its height yet. Speaking of the “last days,” Paul tells us, “Evil men and impostors shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.” The knowledge that is given in the good old Book shows us just what the events and conditions of this time mean. If we are not among those who are fulfilling the prophecy already quoted by “rejecting” this knowledge, it will be very interesting to watch the developments. And not only will it be interesting, but we will find an indescribable pleasure in the salvation that the Book of God guides us into. We can be saved and sheltered from the storm of wickedness and crime that is breaking upon the world by accepting with simple faith the knowledge that God has for us in His word. To reject this knowledge means our eternal ruin.