Preach the Word by James White

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 11, 1855

"Preach the Word."

By James White

"I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine." 2 Tim. iv, 1, 2.

A more solemn charge cannot be found in the Book of God. It was given before God, before the Lord Jesus Christ, and in view of the judgment of the living and the dead. It was given under circumstances the most solemn. The great Apostle says: "For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing."

The language of the text—"I charge thee therefore,"—indicates that this solemn charge—"Preach the word"—was given in view of facts before stated, which facts are recorded in the previous chapter as follows: [verses 1-5.] "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof; from such turn away." This is the prophetic description of the professed church of Christ in the "last days." In view of this sad picture, the Apostle gives us the solemn charge, "Preach the word." The word exposes all these sins, and shows the duty of God's people in regard to those who are guilty of them. "From such turn away." The reason why these sins exist in the church is because Christ's professed ministers have not preached the word. They have not fearlessly rebuked these sins which the Scriptures rebuke in the plainest language. Says the Apostle, "Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine."

Verses 3, 4. "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine." Here the Apostle points forward to the "last days" which he had been describing; to those days when men will not endure sound doctrine taught by prophets, Jesus and apostles. "But after their own lusts, shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall be turned from the truth unto fables." Here we learn that the multitude of religious teachers in the last days are the choice of the people, instead of God's choice; and that the people in their choice follow their lusts. The man of God who will reprove them for their worldly lusts; will rebuke them for their sins, they do not want. They will not hear him. They rather "heap to themselves teachers" who—after they have followed the world, the flesh, and the Devil six days—will preach smooth things on Sunday, and touch their popular sins as lightly as possible. They will not endure sound doctrine. Should the meek and humble Man of Sorrows appear before them in his seamless robe, as he stood forth 1800 years ago, and reprove and rebuke the sins of professed Christian worshippers, as he reproved the professed pious of that day, a thousand voices would be raised against him. Away with him! Crucify him! Crucify him! would be heard from every lip. Should men, filled with the Holy Spirit, stand forth with boldness, as did Peter and John and other of Christ's witnesses, and reprove sin in all its forms, they would meet like persecution. Human nature is no better now than then. The Devil, though he may profess piety, is not converted. When men "preach the word," when a pure apostolic gospel shall be preached, then will Bible Christians be persecuted as they were 1800 years since, and they will stand out separate from the world with apostolic faith, apostolic works, and apostolic power. "For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." Heb. iv, 12.

But it is a fact, which will not be denied, that apostolic faith, works and power cannot be found in the popular churches of this day. And what makes their condition still more hopeless is, they are taught that those things belonged to that age alone, and that God does not require the same sacrifice and consecration of the Christians of this day, and that to expect the faith and manifest power of God possessed and enjoyed by Christ's earliest witnesses, is heresy, is fanaticism. Thus the professed church of Christ is bound in chains of unbelief, and united to, and overcome by the world. Her ministers, instead of preaching the word, hold forth a powerless gospel, and thus daub Zion's walls with untempered mortar.

"A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land; the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means, and my people love to have it so, and what will ye do in the end thereof?" Jer. v, 30, 31.

Let the prophets answer. "Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof. And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest." "Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate; therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left." Isa. xxiv, 1-6. "And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground. Howl, ye shepherds, and cry; and wallow yourselves in the ashes, ye principal of the flock; for the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions are accomplished; and ye shall fall like a pleasant vessel. And the shepherds shall have no way to flee, nor the principal of the flock to escape. A voice of the cry of the shepherds, and a howling of the principal of the flock, shall be heard; for the Lord hath spoiled their pasture." Jer. xxv, 33-36.

But the expression of the Apostle, "they shall be turned from the truth unto fables," is worthy of especial attention. We will here briefly notice some of the popular fables of the age.

1. The world's conversion, and a thousand years of peace and holiness before the second coming of Christ. Those who cherish this hope, look for its consummation in the seventh Millennium, in the last days. But have the prophets, Christ and apostles, spoken of the last days as a period of peace, prosperity and holiness? Nay, verily. The prophets speak of the last days as a period that waiteth for the wrath and fierce anger of the Lord to "lay the land desolate, and to destroy the sinners thereof out of it." Christ declares that as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at his coming; that the wheat and tares should grow together until the harvest, and that the harvest is the end of the world. The apostles speak in harmony with the prophets and Christ. Says Paul, "In the last days perilous times shall come;" &c. 2 Tim. iii, 1-5. Compare his description of the last days, with the picture of the good days to come, the golden age now opening before us, held forth from the pulpit and the religious press, and it will be seen that the popular churches are deceived by a false hope. Their ears are turned from the truth unto a pleasing fable.

2. The spiritual Second Advent. The majority of religious teachers hold forth that Christ's second advent is in death, or at conversion. In this case there are as many second advents as there are deaths or conversions, which is the greatest absurdity. Said the angels to the anxious disciples as they stood gazing at their ascending Lord from Mt. Olivet, "This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." Acts i, 11. "Behold! he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him." Rev. i, 7.

3. The saints' inheritance "beyond the bounds of time and space," instead of the earth made new, when the kingdom "under (not above) the whole heavens shall be given to the saints." Dan. vii, 27. "Blessed are the meek," says Christ, "for they shall inherit the earth."

4. The natural immortality of the soul. The Word says that God "only hath immortality;" [1 Tim. vi, 15, 16;] that it is the gift of God, through Jesus Christ; [Rom. vi, 23;] that those alone who seek for it, will obtain it; [Rom. ii, 7;] and that it will be given to those who are Christ's at the resurrection. 1 Cor. xv, 51-55. But the Pagan and Papal fable of natural immortality makes man's last enemy, death, the gate to endless joys, and leaves the resurrection as a thing of little consequence. It is the basis of modern Spiritualism.

Here we might mention the Trinity, which does away the personality of God, and of his Son Jesus Christ, and of sprinkling or pouring instead of being "buried with with Christ in baptism," "planted in the likeness of his death:" but we pass from these fables to notice one that is held sacred by nearly all professed Christians, both Catholic and Protestant. It is,

5. The change of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment from the seventh to the first day of the week. The Pagan festival of Sunday has been substituted by the church for the sanctified Rest-day of the Creator. The Holy Sabbath is the divinely appointed memorial of Jehovah's rest on the last day of the creation week. But the church has changed this to the first day of the week to make it a memorial of the resurrection of Christ, in the place of baptism, which has been changed to sprinkling.

But is there no precept from the great Head of the church for Sunday-keeping? There is none. The New Testament is entirely silent in regard to a change of the Sabbath. The Sabbath of the Lord our God is trampled under foot every week by the professed servants of the Most High God, who hold forth the Pagan festival, Sunday, (substituted by Papists for the seventh day), as the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. The only commandment for the weekly Sabbath found in the Book of God, says, "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord our God."

We might set down and mourn over a corrupted gospel and apostate church, but this would not mend the matter. Then what shall we do? Answer, "Preach the word." Brethren, put on the whole armor. Take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, and go forth in the name of the Master and "Preach the word." If fable teachers succeed in turning the masses away from the truth, still "Preach the word," and let those hear who have an ear to hear. A few can be reached and rescued. A remnant will hail a pure, living gospel with joy, and prepare for the coming of the Son of man. And those who faithfully "Preach the word," will receive a crown of life when the Chief Shepherd shall appear.