It is passing strange that, from the standpoint of a Christian believing in the omnipotence of the Most High, so many religionists regard it as essential to maintain the doctrine of natural immortality at all hazards. Does Christianity depend for its existence on such an article in the creed? Do individuals perish, character and all, from the mind of God when their bodies crumble to dust? Surely, if the Lord can create a man that has not existed, He can resurrect one that has; nor do we see why, to accomplish this, it is a necessary resource for Him to be able to unlock some limbo of departed shades, march them forth at the sound of the last trump, and give to each a brand-new tailor-cut vesture of clay to cumber them for the rest of eternity.
That is why we marvel. Does the whole fabric of Christianity stand or fall with the theory of inherent conscious soul persistence? Will some profound theologian kindly explain the reason for this nervous anxiety to bolster up such a belief? Is it because a sinful heart finds more assurance of a future life in the thought of an indestructible soul than in trusting to the power of Jehovah to bring forth from the dead? For us, we prefer to sleep in Jesus rather than rely upon any qualification whatever (much less a mooted one) of our own. We would rather express our hope for eternity in Stephen's dying words, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,” than in the old serpent's assertion, “Thou shalt not surely die.”
But this notion that the rock and corner-stone of the church of Christ is natural immortality, and that without it the whole superstructure of faith must crumble, is the very thing which is driving the world into Spiritism. And let it be noted that this practise of interrogating the dead has been the habit of every heathen nation of whom we have any authentic annals. So oppressed is the mind of Herbert Spencer with the unlimited quantity of evidence of the universality of some sort of Spiritistic belief, that he attempts to find in it the origin or genesis of the religious idea of mankind. In connection with a considerable number of illustrations drawn from many nations and tribes, he concludes, that “we get from this kinship of beliefs among races remote in time, space, and culture, strong warrant for the inference that ghost-propitiation is the origin of all religions.” While the conclusion he adopts is worthless, his citations establish our point beyond question. Since our limited space forbids the introduction of any of the volumes of testimony to this fact, we shall content ourselves with transcribing the general summary of another—
“Believing that their dead friends continued to exist, they naturally reasoned that they continued to hunger and thirst just as they did here. So they brought and poured out on the grave drink for them, and laid upon it food, believing that they ate the spiritual essence, knowing of course that the substance, which they could see and handle, was not thus consumed. . . . That which at first was only food and drink for the dead developed later into sacrifice; and this sacrifice at first was a communion meal, of which the god [soul] partook along with his worshipers.”
We have supplied the italics in this quotation, since we wish it to be noted that this eating of sacrifices to the dead is the identical thing mentioned in Psalms 106:28, and is simply an ancient form of Spiritism. Turning to Numbers, chapters 22 to 25 inclusive, we find that this incident referred to in Psalms was the abomination into which Balaam seduced the people of the Lord. The results are plainly stated: “They began to commit whoredom” and went into degrading idolatry. As it is said in the warning given to the church of Pergamos, Balaam “taught Balac to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.” Rev. 2:14. Is it to be wondered at that their practise of Spiritism “provoked” the Lord to anger and “the plague brake in upon them” (Ps. 106:29), so that there died in the plague “twenty and four thousand” (Num. 25:9)? Who, in the face of these facts, will question the wisdom of the ancient legislator for passing the law for the commonwealth of Israel, that “a man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death” (Lev. 20:27)? But, since Israel was then a theocracy, with God ruling directly, and Moses received this law from Him, it follows, since the Lord changeth not, that for all time and eternity His attitude toward Spiritism is made manifest, and it is stated as plain as words can express it, that death, from the standpoint of divine government, is not only the merited penalty, but the sure result of the practise of Spiritism.
Apropos of the analogy between early and modern Spiritistic accompaniments, it is within the knowledge of this generation, so much so that I need cite no testimony, that the ancient lasciviousness in the rites has had a counterpart in the “free-love” teachings of modern representatives of Spiritism. We say “has had,” for we know that most adherents of that faith will repudiate its present application. They will now deny that it is any part of their creed. Yes; so do Mormons abjure polygamy—when the law is likely to get after them. We may, however, say in justice, that free-loveism, or any other heinous immorality, is not so much a doctrine of Spiritism as it, and almost everything else proscribed by the canons of Christianity, is a necessary result of the loosening of all moral restraints which follows logically from the true meaning of Spiritism, which we have amplified in a former chapter; namely, that eternal life does not depend upon character. A concrete illustration of this relation of its teachings to Christian ethics is found in the fact that open repudiation of the Bible and of the cardinal teachings of Christianity, as of faith in Christ, does not unfit one for being a high priest of the cult—a perfect medium for the transmission of messages from the spiritual world. Indeed, when we read, in the scriptures already cited, that the worship of idols, which means the repudiation of the true God, was a part of the ceremony, it is evident that the acceptance then of Spiritism involved the rejection of God; and that the principle has not changed in the Christian dispensation is seen not merely from the fruits of the belief to-day, but from the explicit testimony of Paul and John. The former, naming Spiritism along with its concomitants, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, calls them all works of the flesh and adds: “Of the which I forewarn you, even as I did forewarn you, that they which practise such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” Gal. 5:20, 21, R. V. And John, carried forward in apocalyptic vision to the time when that kingdom is ushered in, sees without the walls of the eternal city this same class, still associated and destined to destruction with whoremongers and idolaters and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. Rev. 22:15.
We are not yet able to conceive of the Omnipotent God as destroying with sulphurous flames an idol worshiper for the mere stupidity of bowing down with either fear or reverence to so senseless a thing as a mere image. We are therefore compelled to search for some deeper meaning in the act. And this the Word of God reveals; for it says that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils (demons). And that the thought above is the one in the mind of the inspired writer is shown from the preceding verse: “What say I then? that the idol is anything, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is anything?” 1 Cor. 10:19, 20. The fearful enormity of Spiritism thus stands out in its nakedness. Tho the ancient incident of sacrifice in connection with the practises of necromancy has been dropped from the modern revival of it; none the less the essence of the thing, DEMON WORSHIP, is the same, whether called witchcraft or sorcery as in days agone, or “Spiritualism,” as now.
How can we close this brief survey more fittingly than in the words of our God, which shall stand forever: “I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. Ye can not drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye can not be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils.” Therefore, “When they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God?” for is it not folly, as well as wickedness, for “the living” to look for knowledge “to the dead”? 1 Cor. 10:20, 21; Isa. 8:19.
Death does not end all; but as the epigraph of earth's teeming millions, whom the hoary ages have seen fall in the inevitable tragedy which ends the mortal hour, we may adopt till the morning of the resurrection, that final summons, the words of the poet:—
“No dreams have they who take their slumber here,
No restless starting at the night's mid-hour;
Peace falls on them, as at the break of year
The early sweetness of an April shower.
“The crocus stains the sod, they do not heed;
The poppy flaunts, they make no faintest sign;
Above their heads the aster drops its seed,
And unremembered passes to decline.”
Or even more fittingly the inspired epigraph of the human race, uttered ages ago by the Idumean seer,—
“So man lieth down, and riseth not;
Till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake,
Nor be raised out of their sleep.
—If a man die shall he live again?—
All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my
change come.
Thou shalt call, and I will answer Thee:
Thou wilt have a desire to the work of Thine hands.”
Job. 14:12, 14, 15.
And then, dear Lord,—
“E'en tho beyond our bourne of time and space
My bark should bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crossed the bar.”
[A most interesting article will follow this series, and is intimately connected with it, entitled “Can I Be Bewitched?”]
“FOLLOWING AFAR OFF.”
THERE are many warm impulsive hearts that are forced to go out and weep bitterly again and again, because of some failure in Christian life, some denial of their Lord when they should have witnessed for Him. The failure may have been some light and foolish remark; in a time of a sore trial of patience, an oath. They may even by an expressive silence have failed to stand up for Christ in the person of some of His derided or persecuted followers, and so denied the Lord.
They wonder why they did as they did. Surely they love Him who bought them. They thought they would never fail again; but there is the sad deed, the utter defeat, the shameless denial, and the after bitter remorse. Why did they deny their best Friend?
Answer to the question may be found in the study of Peter’s life. We will not attempt an exhaustive examination; let each do that for himself; but note these things:—
1. At the last supper Peter had been singled out and told that he would deny his Lord three times before the second cockcrowing. Mark 14:30. While this was intended as a warning to Peter, he did not so take it. It was a reflection on his loyalty; and instead of searching his heart for the weakness, he bolstered up his pride on air pillows: “He spake exceeding vehemently, If I must die with Thee, I will not deny Thee.” Verse 31, R.V. Have we been reproved or warned when we thought the reproof or warning was not needed?—Remember Peter.
2. Even tho the Master sorrowed even unto death, and entreated the zealous disciple to watch with Him in His agony, Peter slept, and failed to learn the much-needed lesson of human nothingness and submission to God’s will. Verses 33-40. Does physical weariness or sensation of any sort keep our souls back from companionship with Christ in His suffering in His people?—Remember Peter.
3. When the priests and soldiers came to apprehend Jesus, Peter in his mistaken zeal drew his sword and wounded one of them. Verse 47; John 18:10. The lesson in the garden would have saved him this, but Peter slept; and when he drew the carnal weapon to defend a spiritual cause the Master healed the wound, rebuked the rash disciple, and suffered Himself to be taken. Peter was greatly humiliated and offended; and he with the others forsook Jesus and fled, followed no doubt by the gibes and jeers of the rabble—and by the prayers of His Lord. Verse 50.
4. And yet all could not remain away. Some of the disciples at least returned, among them John and Peter, but Peter followed “afar off.” Verse 54. He was still smarting under his humiliation and indignant toward his Lord. He yielded to the mood and time, instead of living by faith in the righteousness of eternity; and in the present mood he did not wish to be identified with the head of an unpopular, humbled cause. He must see the trial; he must be near his Lord, and like a spoiled child he kept in sight, tho as far away as he could. His position, his selfishness, his attitude, his distance from Jesus, left him an open prey to the enemy, and he failed, and shamelessly denied Him. More than that; the erstwhile rough swearing fisherman went back to his old habit of cursing and swearing. He “followed afar off.”
An opposite experience is recorded of John. He “went in with Jesus into the palace of the high priest.” John 18:15. He was not even tempted by the scoffers to deny his Lord. They knew that he was a disciple of Jesus. He did not dissemble. He was not even questioned. But not so with Peter.
Have we reverted to the old habits? Have we denied our Lord? We will find, if we seek to know, that we have been following “afar off.” But let us not despair; let us come back. Peter “wept bitterly.” The Sabbath day following was one of cruel remorse. But Jesus remembered him. The angel said to the women, “Go your way, tell His263disciples and Peter.” Mark 16:7. Walk near to the Lord; follow with Him; and you will not deny Him.
THE LAST DELUSIVE DREAM.
By G. W. Reaser
A FAITHFUL individual history of this world's inhabitants would reveal a succession of delusive dreams on the part of all those who have not looked beyond this “vale of tears” for the fruition of their hopes. A marked example of this truth is the case of “the great Napoleon.” He fondly dreamed that his magnificent generalship, and the power of his mighty army, could cement the nations of Europe together in one world-dominering kingdom, himself to wield the scepter as monarch supreme. He did not stop to consider that the Ruler of nations had spoken, saying of these European powers, “They shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.” The word of the “King of kings” stood, as it always will stand; Napoleon’s dream of power and glory met with disaster and gloomy failure. The proud-hearted warrior was shorn of all his visionary dominion, and in captive chains spent his last years in solitary exile, far from the land of his nativity and the scenes of his folly and ambitious hopes.
It is said that Julius Cæsar,—denominated “the greatest man of antiquity,”—had a similar day-dream, which, at the height of his power, was abruptly terminated by his assassination, perpetrated by his fellow-senators.
History informs us that Juan Ponce de Leon dreamed of a fountain of perpetual youth, located somewhere in the wilds of Florida. Purchasing a goodly ship, he set out in search of it. After a vain quest, his party came to disaster, and himself to an untimely end, finding, instead of a fountain of youth, an open grave, in which to lie and forget, in dreamless sleep, his disappointment.
Multitudes of the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve have dreamed of long life, wealth, honor, glory, love, happiness, whose days have been cut short in poverty, shame, dishonor, ignominy, hatred, misery.
But the final illusive dream of the lost members of the human family is, in its results and bitter disappointment, the saddest of them all. Inspiration graphically describes the last dream of those who, in this life, have rejected the overtures of mercy, and thereby refused to be redeemed. When brought forth in the second resurrection, marshaled under their leader, Satan, they make a last desperate assault against the city of God. Their fruitless attack on the New Jerusalem is thus pictured:—
“And the multitude of all these nations that fight against Ariel [the Lion of God, the city where David dwelt] even all that fight against her and her munition, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision. It shall even be as when a hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty; or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite; so shall the multitudes of all the nations be that fight against Mount Zion.” Isa. 29:7, 8.
Apparently the same dream is described in detail by the prophet Ezekiel. Addressing his language to Satan and his unnumbered army, he says:—
“After many days thou shalt be visited” (resurrected); “thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land.” “At the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought [conceive a mischievous purpose,—margin]; and thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages [the “unwalled villages” corresponding to the “camp of the saints.” Rev. 20:9.]; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely,” “to take a spoil, and to take a prey, to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations,” “that dwell in the midst of the land.” “Therefore son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord God: In that day when My people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it?” “And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands,” “an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.” Eze. 38:8–12, 14, 22.
The Revelator, likewise, vividly portrays the same scene when he records these words:—
“And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city; and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.” Rev. 20:7–9.
In this countless host of Satan will be found all of the great generals and warriors of earth who have not submitted to the Prince of Peace; all of the inhabitants of the world who have died unrepentant and therefore unpardoned; all who have spent their days of probation in dreaming of good days to come, who have said in their hearts to the pleadings of the Spirit, “Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.” Many of this vast army will have departed this life, fondly dreaming of an abundant entrance into the city; but the Saviour will say to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me.” All of these unite in one scheme,—“a mischievous purpose,” conceived in the mind of the deceiver of the whole world, which is to wrest the city of God from its rightful possessors, the “joint-heirs with Christ,” the redeemed of men.
As the fire begins to fall which consumes them, they realize that their final effort for self-preservation is only a deceptive dream. God is all-powerful; they must perish. Then, in panoramic vision, they recall their past lives; their rejection of mercy and grace; and, most bitter of all, they now sense the fact that all the joys of the redeemed in their eternal city are not reserved for those who fight against God.
To-day, dear reader, you are either for Him, or against Him. There is no neutral ground. As are our characters when we cross that invisible line, the close of our probation, so will it be decided whether we will be inside the city, dwelling safely, or without, fighting against God.
“Doth not wisdom cry,” “Unto you, O men, I call?” Meditate upon the city of God now; contemplate the blissful abode of the redeemed this day; make your peace, calling, and election sure; else—“too late”—you will be found marshaled under the banner of the prince of evil spirits, the arch-rebel against the government of God, in the last, mad, desperate, deceptive dream,—an abortive effort to take forcible possession of the New Jerusalem, built upon Mount Zion. “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” “To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.”
G. W. Reaser.
The Cost of Self-Approval
EVERY hour of self-approval is an hour wasted, and worse than that, it is usually an hour which will prevent progress for a long time to come. “Self-approval” in moral growth corresponds with “sitting down” in a foot race. It is pleasant to sit down in a foot race, especially toward the end of the race, but it is a bad thing for your chance of winning. Self-approval is a pleasant thing in the race of life, but it is a very bad thing for the race itself.—San Francisco Examiner.
RIGHTEOUSNESS AN INDIVIDUAL MATTER.
We hear very much now-a-days about national righteousness and civic righteousness, a general, corporate thing which is absolutely necessary to the salvation of the nation and race. We are told by Mr. Charles M. Sheldon, for instance:—
The Bible teaching . . . expressly declares that governments that do not heed the voice of God, States that break moral laws, peoples that disobey divine laws, will suffer, and finally be destroyed, just as an individual will suffer and finally lose his life if he persists in disobeying the fundamental law of righteousness. . . . There is not one law for an individual and another law for a nation or community. If it is wrong for an individual to sell intoxicating drinks, it is wrong for a nation to go into the liquor business for the sake of revenue. If it is wrong for an individual to make money by running a saloon, it is also wrong for a city to license such an institution for money. If it is not righteous for an individual to make money at the expense of a weaker brother, it is also unrighteous for a government to do the same thing through its commercial relations with other governments.—Christian Herald, Apr. 9, 1902.
Now all this is true, emphatically true. But in what follows is where the mistake lies:—
A government, in order to have that righteousness that exalts and keeps alive, must be taught in every possible way the authority of a divine Being. The Republic . . . seems to forget the fear of God, and reverence for divine authority.
The idea obtains with many even more strongly than with Mr. Sheldon that the Republic, the government, the state, can be taught. But any or all of these can be taught only through the individual. If individuals sufficient had right conceptions of truth, purity, duty, there would be no legal unrighteousness in the liquor traffic, no oppression of smaller nations. The conscience that is wrong is the individual conscience. No truly Christian man will do through a corporation, if it is in his power to remedy it, what he will not do as an individual. If he thinks that God will excuse him because he has companions in crime, his own individual sense of righteousness needs remedying. The nation is made up of an aggregation of individuals. What these individuals are, the nation is. No national legislation ever can change the individual heart or morally affect the nations. All reformation, all lifting to a higher plane, must be through the individual soul. And all efforts to reform a nation socially and morally apart from the individual, will result only in hypocritical profession and greater wickedness.
“THAT STUMBLING-STONE.”
By G.
People make hard work of trying to serve God and to gain eternal life, because they will not work in the yoke of Christ. He says, “My yoke is easy, and My burden is light;” but His yoke is a yoke of faith, and so many people insist on walking by sight. They can not trust anything that is not visible to the fleshly eye. This point is made very clear in the epistle to the Romans: “The Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.” Ch. 9:30, 31.
Here we have one class of people getting what they have not followed after, and another class following hard after the same thing but failing to acquire it. And why is it so? “Because they [the latter class] sought it not by faith.” Verse 32. They sought it by trying to work out the law themselves. They “followed after” the law; but like the faithless disciples who followed Jesus after His arrest on the night of His betrayal, they followed “afar off.” They followed the law of righteousness in their own wisdom, in their own strength, in the light of their own traditions; therefore their following was so far behind that they never could catch up to that which they followed after.
How, then, did the Gentiles succeed in attaining to that which they had not followed after?—They attained it by faith in Christ. When the Gospel was presented to them, they accepted it. Like Abraham, they believed God, and it was counted to them for righteousness. They were accredited with that which they had not attempted to do themselves. They knew that they had not walked in the law of God; therefore they just accepted Christ as “a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.”
The faith of Christ was a stumbling-stone to Israel. Christ was the leader of Israel in the wilderness, but they did not follow Him by faith. They walked by sight; their action was governed by the appearance of things. When appearances were discouraging, they faltered, and that was why they failed before the giants and the walled cities which the faithless spies reported. “So we see, that they could not enter in because of unbelief.” Heb. 3:19.
Some people try to make us believe that the law was “that stumbling-stone;” but that could not have been, for the law was the point they had in view. They did not stumble and falter at the object of their desire; they stumbled at that which they did not want. Therefore they failed to attain the desired righteousness, because they stumbled at the only means there was for them to attain it.
Note the language of Rom. 9:32 particularly, reading in parenthesis that which is clearly parenthetical: “They sought it [the law of righteousness] not by faith (but as it were by the works of the law). For they stumbled at that stumbling-stone.” That faith in Christ was the stumbling-stone is put beyond question by the next verse: “As it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling-stone and rock of offense; and whosoever believeth on Him [the stumbling-stone] shall not be ashamed.” This had been written by Isaiah (ch. 28:16) who also had given this testimony: “Sanctify the Lord of hosts Himself; and let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread. And He shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling, and for a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.” Ch. 8:13, 14.
The natural man is condemned by the law of righteousness, and the only means he has of coming in harmony with it is by faith in Christ. G.
Question Corner
1228.—Marriage with Unbelievers.
Do the Seventh-day Adventists believe that it is wrong of their church-members to marry worldlings, and members of other religious sects? D. N.
Evidently those Seventh-day Adventists who so marry believe it proper, or else do that which their conscience forbids. We have not interviewed even a small proportion of the nearly hundred thousand Seventh-day Adventists, and therefore do not know what they personally believe. But presumably they believe God’s Word, and that Word is very explicit upon the matter. “Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers; for what fellowship have righteousness and iniquity? or what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what portion hath a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement hath a temple of God with idols? for we are a temple of the living God; even as God said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” 2 Cor. 6:14-16, R.V. Surely is this very plain, and there are many other scriptures. We can not understand how any one who knows by life union Jesus Christ (and there is no other way of knowing Him) could consent to become one with a person who did not know Him, whose whole aim, aspiration, spirit, and belief was set in an entirely different direction. There could be no true union in the dearest and holiest of all things earthly; no union in prayer; no union in the interchange of sweet, spiritual thoughts and experiences, no union in seeking God’s blessing upon home and offspring. All these things, if experienced with human companionship, must be sought elsewhere. When such have come to the writer to be married, he has refused, and told them frankly and kindly that one of these consequences would inevitably follow: (1) The unbeliever would become a believer; (2) or the believer would lose faith and hold upon God; or (3) that if temporal separation does not result, eternal must eventually ensue. All history shows that the probable outcome of such marriages is the second or third consequence noted above. Of course, if the faithful lost his faith, eternal separation must come in death. Surely in the highest of all things—religion—there should be union between the man and woman before marriage. When conversion of either one comes afterward, it is a different matter. Let the believing one abide, and labor to win the unbeliever. It is proper for Christians to marry, but let them “marry in the Lord.”
1229.—In Heaven while on Earth.
Please explain John 3:13. The text seems to imply that Christ was in heaven while still on earth. J. A. S.
“And no man hath ascended up to heaven [that is, to learn and teach these things] but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven,” reads the text. Physically, of course, this was not so, but spiritually Jesus dwelt in God and God in Him. He had life-connection with heaven. So also he who is born of God and loves God “dwelleth in God, and God in him.” 1 John 4:16. And so again it is written that God hath raised us up who believe, and “made us to sit with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus.” Eph. 2:6.
SOUL-CLEANSING
By G.
On the day of atonement, in the typical service, the blood of atonement was carried into the most holy apartment of the sanctuary and sprinkled before the ark of the testament. The whole service is detailed in Leviticus 16. This blood represented the lives of those persons who had confessed their sins and acknowledged that they were worthy of death on account of sin. Death is the “wages of sin” (Rom. 6:23; 5:12), and “sin is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4) that was contained in the ark. The presentation of the blood before the ark prefigured the satisfaction of the law by the death of Christ, in order that the sinners whose faith was manifested in the service might be purged of their sins.
Then the high priest, in figure, bore out the sins that had been confessed in the sanctuary during the past year, and laid them upon the head of the scapegoat, which was sent away to an uninhabited place to perish with them. This ceremony was called the cleansing of the sanctuary, and it typified the judgment. Two goats were chosen, and lots cast upon them; “one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for the scapegoat,” which represented Satan. The goat which represented the Lord was slain, and it was the blood of this goat that was sprinkled before the ark containing the tables of the law which had been violated.
The Lord is now doing in the heavenly sanctuary what this service in the earthly sanctuary typified. It should be a most solemn time on the earth, especially among those who profess faith in the atoning blood (or life) of Christ. On the typical day of atonement the people were to make a Sabbath of it, and humble themselves before God, confessing their sins, because the high priest was making an atonement for them. Should there be any less of humiliation, of sacrifice, of confession and putting away of sin, in the time of the service in the true sanctuary?
But while our High Priest is cleansing the heavenly sanctuary of the sins that men have confessed and are confessing during the probationary time, we have some temple-cleansing and purifying to do. “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.” 1 Cor. 3:16, 17. “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” Ch. 6:19, 20.
This judgment time is preeminently a time for soul-cleansing. Two classes are especially appealed to in the Scriptures: (1) “Dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” 2 Cor. 7:1. (2) “Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. . . . Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up.” James 4:8-10. The assurance is given to all that “the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin;” and that “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:7-9. G.
