p. 16 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 39, No. 7. (2/13/1912)

Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth.

By Editor

Before us is a little sheet which has been scattered more or less, we suppose, throughout the Pacific Coast region, perhaps throughout the United States, on the beast that “was, and is not, and yet is.” To those who know the Scriptures, its fallacy will be perfectly apparent. To those who do not, there is a likelihood of deception and disappointment. The circular takes the position that the scarlet beast of Revelation 17 was in the past, is now dead, but will live again after the 1,000 years; and it tells us this just as tho the Scriptures said that, quoting Rev. 20:14. But this is not what the Scripture declares. John saw that beast under a particular head. It was the head which gave character to the beast, and that beast exists under seven different heads, every one of which represents a different character,—a different beast, so to speak. The beast under the head which John first saw “was, is not, and shall come.” But all of this is previous to the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, previous to the judgment that is pronounced in Revelation 18. The same circular takes the ground that the “wilderness” to which John was carried is the earth in its desolate condition,—another utterly unscriptural position. The “wilderness” of which he speaks he had himself spoken of before (see Rev. 12:6). There are two religious bodies represented in Revelation as seen at the time of the wilderness state: in the one, apostasy rides in triumph; in the other, the true church of God is persecuted. A few such considerations show the entire fallacy of the view advocated in the little sheet referred to.

Bible Versions Used

By Editor

Our authority is the Bible, the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. When the Common ("King James" or "Authorized") Version or the American Standard Revised Version is used, the version will not generally be designated in reference. Any Bible quotation in this paper, therefore, differing from the Common Version, unless otherwise indicated, will be almost invariably from the American Standard edition of the Revised Bible, copyright 1910, by Thomas Nelson & Sons.

For further particulars, subscription rates, etc., see page 15.

Contained in This Issue

By Editor

Question Corner	PAGE
3663 — Has Christ Creative Power? 3664 — Which Day of the Week Was It? 3665 — Change of the Law, Heb. 7:12; 3664 — Providence and Lightning-Rods	2

| Our Bible Band | 2 |

| General | |

| Christ the Life-Giver | 3 | | The Testimony of Jesus | 4 | | The Victory Over the Fall | 5 | | Studies in Daniel — An Unnatural Kingdom; the Little Horn of Chapter 7 | 6 | | Every Man His Work | 8 | | Man a Prism of Divine Love | 9 |

| Our Bible Reading | |

| A Literal, Visible Coming | 9 |

| The Outlook | |

| Wanton Extravagance and Its Results | 10 | | “Deluded Divines” | 11 | | Notes | 16 |

| Missions | |

| India | 12 | | Our Work and Workers | 13 |

| The Home | |

| Young Old Age | 14 |

| Poetry | |

| Above and Below | 1 | | Jesus, Burst My Bonds Asunder | 5 | | Power Divine | 8 | | Christ | 12 |

Serve God Today

You say you mean to serve God sometime? Then do it to-day. Such a service, rich with blessing, you can not put off for one day without serious loss. Then give Him your heart, your life, your strength, your all, and give it now. He is calling for volunteers; enlist to-day.

Jesus Our Present Saviour

Jesus our Lord is a present Saviour. There is no other; there can be no other than a present Saviour. For it is always in the NOW that we need the help. We look forward to future help; but when it comes, when it touches us, it will be the NOW. It is always true, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” There is no time so very important as this moment.

Why Raise Magazine Postage?

By Editor

The Post-office Department of our Government is on a paying basis, and it has been put on a paying basis without any increase of postage on the magazines and periodicals. For twenty-seven years there has been a deficit. In twelve months, in 1909, the loss exceeded $17,000,000; and yet Postmaster-General Hitchcock has in two years turned a big deficit into a surplus, extended carrier delivery and new rural routes, and increased the postal employees. Now why, in the face of this, is it still contended that the postage should be raised on magazines?

Christ, Christianity, and Character

A philosophical theory does not bring “repentance not to be repented of.” A system of ethics does not change a sin-loving heart to a righteousness-loving heart. A fable, a myth, does not hold in hope a soul, in the deepest darkness as well as the clearest light; does not strip away all selfishness, and lead to the abandon of all that the flesh counts dear for the sake of others, even enemies. Christ, Christianity, does all this, and more. It fits a man for better service in every good way in this life, it creates and transforms character for the eternal future. Reader, in that faith abide. “Let no man rob you of your prize” by any philosophy or theory under heaven. Remember that “the preaching of the cross” is foolishness to those only who choose to perish.

Peace Through Surrender

Do you desire peace with God? The way to secure it is plain—surrender. God has no evil feelings toward you. Listen: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith Jehovah, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope in your latter end.” He is right, always right. It is His right law that you have transgressed. It is against His right government that you have rebelled. You have set yourself against God. Your thoughts toward Him have been thoughts of evil. His thoughts toward you still are thoughts of peace. Then why not surrender, unconditionally, yield all? Christ died to win you to this conclusion. Do it now—to-day, this hour; and you will know the peace which “passeth all understanding.” Its secret is a right surrender.

Jehovah the Healer

"I am Jehovah that healeth thee" was God’s word to Israel as they passed triumphantly through the Red Sea. He is Jehovah Rapha, Jehovah the Healer. He heals the soul of the wounds that sin has made; He gives strength to the weakened will; He renews the moral fiber crushed and macerated by lawlessness; He restores the unbalanced mind, poisoned by the virus of sin; He re-creates the leprous, sin-corrupted soul into His own divine image. "I am Jehovah that healeth thee." Besides working these mighty miracles for character, He often heals the body. He quickens our mortal body by His indwelling Spirit. Rom. 8:11. He is as able to-day to heal all bodily ills in response to faith as when He walked by Galilee, in Capernaum, by the Pool of Bethesda, or at the grave of Lazarus. The virtue is in Him; it needs simple living faith to grasp its divine potency.

Resurrection Power in Christ

Our hope of forgiveness, justification, sinlessness, life eternal, rests in Christ Jesus our Lord, in His incarnation, His death, His resurrection, His creative power. “The Word—the eternal Logos—became flesh;” He died for our sins; He became sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him; He rose again for our justification. “If Christ hath not been raised, your faith is vain.” The Scriptures abound in just such unequivocal, straightforward statements. These statements have been demonstrated by facts, not alone in the life of Jesus our Lord, but in the life of His church. Every regenerated soul, living the new life in Christ Jesus, overcoming sin, developing and manifesting a godly character before the world, is a demonstration of the resurrection power.

Interested

By Editor

Interested.—A minister who is changing fields asks us to hold his papers for a time till he can give us his address, and says, “I am interested in the study of the book of Daniel.” It is an important book for these days.

Arbitrary or Private Interpretation.

To say that a certain Scripture word or term means thus or so regardless of context or the use of the same term elsewhere is arbitrary interpretation. It makes the meaning of the text private to itself. It is vicious, likely to be misleading, and sooner or later leads to divisions. To illustrate, the Greek word pneuma is rendered "spirit," or that which means spirit, throughout the New Testament generally. It is rendered ninety times "Ghost," in the term "Holy Ghost," much better rendered "Spirit," as in the American Revised Version. It is rendered "ghost" twice (Matt. 27:50; John 19:30), meaning "spirit." Compare with Luke 23:46; Acts 7:59. It is rendered "life" in Rev. 13:15, meaning spirit, or given life. The other times of its occurrence in the New Testament it is rendered "spirit," in singular and plural, and "spiritual" and "spiritually." In all these cases the meaning is very similar. The one exception is "wind" in John 3:8, a rendering, it seems to us, which is purely arbitrary and almost meaningless. Better to render as in the margin of the American Revised Version, "The Spirit breatheth where it will;" or as Rotherham, "The Spirit where it pleases blows;" in his later version, "The Spirit where it pleaseth doth breathe;" or "The Spirit moveth . . . born of the Spirit." The passage is harmonious, clear, and beautiful. Let the Word be its own interpreter.

The Panama Canal and Human Souls

A great work is the Panama Canal. Mr. Albert Edwards, writing on "Panama, the Canal, the Country, and the People," gives a very graphic description of its bigness. He simply declares that the dam that is being built is not a dam, but a mountain range, a quarter of a mile wide, a mile and a half long, and high enough to hold the water up to a level of eighty-five feet above the sea,—a tremendous wall, fifteen times as wide as it is high. He summarizes in this way: "The largest dam, the highest locks, the greatest artificial lake, the deepest cut, the biggest machine-shops, the heaviest consumption of dynamite, the most wonderful sanitary system. All these, and others which I forget, are unique,—the top point of human achievement." And yet, and yet, one human soul is worth more than all.

New Treasurer-General for Persia

Frank S. Cairns, of California, has been appointed by the Persian government to take the place of Mr. Shuster as treasurer-general. Russia compelled Persia to turn Mr. Shuster out of office, but the man appointed to take his place has been intimately associated with him, not only in his work in Persia, but in the Philippines before going to Persia.

Our Dumb Animals

By Editor

"Our Dumb Animals," which echoed for forty-one years the humane, kindly sentiments of George T. Angell, has entered upon a new era. It is published by the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the American Humane Education Society. It retains its old size page, with a fine four-colored cover and a good class of well-written articles. Its subscription price is $1.00 a year; clubs of 5 and over, 50 cents; to teachers, 40 cents. Its address, 45 Milk Street, Boston, Mass. May God bless it in its mission.

An Elderly Bible Reader

By Editor

Thus writes one of our Bible Band members: “I kept up with the Bible reading this year, but on account of failing eyesight am glad the readings have been cut down another year. If spared until February, I will be 81 years old.”

May God bless the dear old sister. The Book to her has been a staff and a stay. May it be to the very end.

Elbert Hubbard Pays for a Church Pew

Elbert Hubbard, the agnostic, pays yearly for a pew in a Roman Catholic church. It is a religion and church which harmonizes with man's unregenerate nature, a salvation by human works.