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Last Updated on :Thursday, November 20, 2014

 

 

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(ii) THE BLASPHEMY OF THE CHURCHES

 
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Blasphemy against the mountains and people of Israel, and consequently of the covenanted promises of Jehovah [Yahweh], is the mortal sin of all who believe not "the gospel of the kingdom", which is the said promises evangelized. He that directly denies the restoration of the Jews, and the reign of Jesus over them in the Holy Land "during the age", [Ezek. 37:25] or indirectly denies this by affirming that his hope, and consequently his only hope (for scripturally, there is but "one hope of the calling" [Eph. 4:4]), is the translation of his immortal soul to transkykingdomia at death, and its return for reunion with the mortal dust it left when it comes with Jesus to burn up the earth and world; he who thus directly or indirectly denies this great and divinely attested purpose of the Most High One, is under the condemnation of the sentence which reads, "He that believes not shall be condemned". [Mark 16:16] This infidelity is the sin of all the ecclesiastical factions of the Gentiles. They content themselves with the creed prepared for them by the Apostasy, called "the Apostles' Creed", which ignores the Hope of Israel, for which Paul was a prisoner in Rome, as completely as if earth had no Holy Land, no Jewish inhabitants, and no destiny involved in their glory and independence! This credal version of what the apostles believed recognizes a resurrection of the body and a judgment; but such a resurrection and judgment as never entered into their heads to conceive of. This resurrection dogma of Gentilism is the reunion of a fictitious celestial soul from the skies with certain grains of dust in the earth's crust! This is not the resurrection the apostles believed in. To admit the Gentile dogma is to admit "the immortality of the soul", which is Paganism, and not Christianity. Their "judgment" is akin to it -- a judgment invented by the fleshly mind for "immortal souls"; the judgment of nonentities! It is a libel upon the apostles, a defamation of their Christian fame, a blasphemy of their glorious faith, to dignify such nonsense with their official name. They believed in God the Father Almighty, and in Jesus Christ, His son, their Lord; they believed that he was born of a virgin, but not of an "immaculate" one, nor that his nature was immaculate, as Protestants do; they believed that he was condemned by Pilate, and crucified unto death, and buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended to heaven afterwards; and that he will come from thence again to judge the world, but not to burn it up; they believed in remission of sins, the resurrection of the body, and in life everlasting; but not in the sense imposed upon the words by Gentile theology. The Gentile "Names and Denominations", styled apocalyptically "NAMES OF BLASPHEMY", [Rev. 17:3] do not believe the things the apostles believed and taught, and interpretations of some of those things approved by their blind leaders of the blind. These interpretations, which are anti scriptural discords, constitute their theology, which, making of none effect the promises of God, as the leaven of the old Pharisees did, generates a vain worship, and blasphemies against Him and His doctrine.

The popish and sectarian interpretation of "the Apostles' Creed" is the gospel believed by all "Christendom". The apostles, however, did not preach the Gentile interpretation of their creed, which is therefore "another gospel". [Gal. 1:6] This the Papal and Protestant, or sectarian world, now believes. The world's gospel is that Jesus, a person of immaculate nature, is Son of God, who died for sins, was buried, and rose again; and that whosoever believes this, and believes that he died for him, and repents, his immortal soul shall be saved from eternal torment in liquid fire and brimstone! Some sects may modify this statement somewhat; nevertheless, as a general definition, it is the Gospel according to "the Mother of Harlots and of all the Abominations of the Earth", [Rev. 17:5] and of those Harlots and Abominations too. This is a gospel that has nothing to do with the promises covenanted to the fathers. When a man professes this gospel, and presents himself to the old Roman Mother, or to any of the State-Harlots, or to any of the innumerable sectarian Abominations, or "Names of Blasphemy", [Rev. 17:3] all styled "Churches", from the Mother to the most insignificant of her rebellious progeny: when such a one makes application for admission within their pale, no member thereof, lay or clerical, ever thinks of inviting his confession of faith in the things promised to Abraham, David, and their seed! The unlucky zealot, or bigot (by whatsoever name they might reproach him matters not), who should presume to make inquiry as to whether the candidate's "faith" embraced "the substance of things hoped for" [Heb. 11:1] "unto which hope the twelve tribes of Israel, constantly serving night and day, hoped to come" [Acts 26:7[ and on account of which Paul was accused of the Jews if such should be his inquisition that he might assure himself if the candidate's faith were justifying faith; and, finding that he knew nothing about the good things God had promised to Israel, nationally and individually in Christ, he were to object to his fitness for admission to church- fellowship -- were he clergyman or layman, who does not know that he would immediately become a marked man, an object of suspicion, and be regarded as an uncharitable disturber of the peace, a presumptuous and conceited fellow? It is well known that such is the fact. What has Gentile church-fellowship to do with God's promises to Abraham, David, and their seed, national or individual? Nothing! Only "believe in Jesus", as they define it, and a fig for Israel, their mountains, and the promises. It is enough, say they, that you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. But the demons believed this, and trembled [James 2:19].

This is enough for them who endorse the blasphemies of Edom. Believe a barren proposition, and be pious, and make a bonfire of the promises. I say, a barren proposition; for the confession that "Jesus is the Christ", in the Gentile sense of it, is the mere acknowledgment of "a fact", irrespective of the promises evangelized concerning the kingdom by the apostles and himself. What more natural than that the sons of Edom should delight in a gospel that ignores the promises? Is it likely that they would rejoice in the blessing of Isaac upon their brother Jacob -- that he "shall be as the smell of a field which Jehovah [Yahweh] hath blessed"? [Gen. 27:27.28] Would they, pluming themselves on having the birthright, rejoice that God should give Jacob "of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine"? [Gen. 27:27,28] Is, it to be expected that, they being Gentiles, and rejoicing in Gentilism, would respond "Amen"! to the eulogy, "Let people serve thee, O Jacob, and nations bow down to thee; be thou lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother's sons bow down to thee: cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee"? [Gen. 27:29]. It is expecting too much of reckless Edom that he should delight in such promises as these, "Thou shalt serve thy brother Jacob", to a man that lives by his sword (verse 40), is a galling and bitter humiliation. No wonder that Edom hate Jacob, and repudiates all the promises concerning him -- that having acquired dominion by his sword, and for the time, broken Jacob's yoke, he should seek to persuade himself that Jehovah [Yahweh] hath indeed cast off his people, Israel, for ever! For, if this be so, then Edom shalt not serve Jacob, and the word of God becomes a lie!

Such is the blasphemy of Edom, the name used in Scripture for the enemies of the Jews; and surely they are their enemies who assign all God's curses to them, and monopolize the blessings for themselves. Upon this principle, then, all the sects of Edom are incorporations of blasphemy against God; an idea apocalyptically set forth in the words, "Upon the seven heads of the beast THE NAME OF BLASPHEMY"; [Rev. 13:1] and in Rev. 17:3, where the beast is said to be "full of names of blasphemy", and commented on above; a gospel-nullifying fraternity, denying the truth in ignorantly maintaining the opposite; or, in mixing it up with their traditions; or, in rejecting it without qualification or reserve. The disciples of these systems are the "talkers" (Ezek. 36:3) on whose lips Jewish affairs are taken up reproachfully. They prate against the truth with volubility inexhaustible; being unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, whose mouths", says Paul, "must be stopped. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith". Titus 1:10,11].

The same apostle says, "There is one faith". [Eph. 4:5] Now this is the faith which justifies; but not the faith of Christendom. Justifying faith, and the faith of the unruly talkers of Edom, are antagonist and mutually destructive systems of belief. The latter has no soundness; and in the former, soundness can only be attained by an intelligent belief of the "covenants of promise" [Eph. 2:12] Men are justified by an enlightened and hearty faith in the gospel of the kingdom of God preached by Jesus and the apostles. This is evident from the consideration that when the Lord Jesus sent Paul to preach the faith that justifies, he sent him to "open the eyes of the Gentiles, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they might receive remission of sins (or be justified) and inheritance among them (the saints of Israel) who are sanctified by faith the which leads into him" [Acts 26:17,18] (pistei te eis eme). It is clear from this, that illumination of mind preceded the reception of remission, and a right to the inheritance. He whose eyes are unopened by the gospel of the kingdom "walks in darkness" [John 8:12;1 John 1:6] and is obnoxious to the sentence, "he that believes not shall be condemned". [Mark 16:16] As there is but one true faith [Eph.4:5], it is also manifest that this condemnation, is pronounced upon him who believes not that "one faith", [Eph. 4:5] or the gospel; and therefore styled "the faith of the gospel". [Phil. 1:27] Now we have shown often that the faith of the children of Edom is not the "one faith" [Eph. 4:5] which the apostles preached; nor is any other form of faith which ignores the promises covenanted to the fathers of Israel: for "faith is assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen"; [Heb. 11:1] and these unseen matters of hope are the subject of the covenants of promise; for in speaking of the death of that cloud of witnesses who had obtained renown through the possession and exercise of this faith, Paul says, "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but saw them afar off" [Heb. 11:13]; and the reason he gives for their dying without receiving, is that "God has provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect ", [Heb. 11:40] or immortal.

The gospel, we have said, is the covenanted promises evangelized. To make our meaning distinct, a word or two must be said in regard to "evangelized". This is a Greek word in an English dress, being in its own country called evangelidzo. This is the noun evangelion, with a verbal termination implying action -- a putting into action the noun. Now this noun is composed of eu, signifying good, well; and angelia, a message, from angelo, to narrate; from which comes angelos, one sent, a message-bearer, angel. Evangelion, therefore, signifies a good message, which, when put into circulation, is evangelized. Now, a message to be good must be something excellent, beneficial, and to be desired by those to whom it is sent; and because this is the fact, God has called the message, or "word he sent unto the children of Israel proclaiming peace" to them, good.

That "peace" is the subject matter of the covenants of promise and is the reason why we so often meet with such passages as these: "Thou shaIt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life. Yea, thou shalt see thy children's children, and peace upon Israel" (Psa. 128:5,6), "As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, Jehovah [Yahweh] shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity; but peace shall be upon Israel" (Psa. 125:5); "Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; they shall prosper that love thee. Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces. For my brethren and companions' sakes (the saints) I (Messiah the Prince of Peace) will now say, Peace be within thee!" (Psa. 122); "In his days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endures" (Psa.72:7). "He will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints but let them not turn again to folly. Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him; that glory may dwell in our land. Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other" (Psa. 85:8-10) "I will extend peace to Jerusalem like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream" (Isa. 66:12).

In the song which shall be sung in the land of Judah when Jerusalem become "a strong city", [Isa. 26:1 and others] Israel sings, "O Jehovah [Yahweh], thou wilt ordain peace for us" (Isa. 26:12). Yea, "I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land; and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods. And I will make them and the places round about my hill (Zion) a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in its season; there shall be showers of blessing. And the tree of the field shall yield its fruit, and the earth shall yield its increase, and they shall be safe in their land, and shall know that I (Jesus) am the Jehovah [Yahweh] (I shall be) when I have broken the bands of their yoke, and delivered them out of the hand of those that served themselves of them. And THEY SHALL NO MORE BE A PREY TO THE NATIONS, neither shall the beast of the land devour them; but they shall dwell safely, and none shall make them afraid. And I will raise up for them a PLANT FOR RENOWN, and they shall no more be consumed with hunger in the land; neither bear the shame of the nations any more. Thus shall they know that I Jehovah (Yahweh) their God am with them, and that they, the house of Israel are my people, saith Adonai Jehovah [Yahweh]" (Ezek. 34:25-30) The Son given to Israel is styled "the Prince of Peace" (Isa. 9:6), of whom it is written, "Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom to order and establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth and during the age" (Isa. 9:6,7). Then, "He shall speak peace unto the nations; and his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the river (Euphrates) to the ends of the earth" (Zech. 9:10). "And I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make Israel to lie down in safety" (Hosea 2:18).

Now, when the time had nearly arrived for the Prince of Peace to be born, a communication was made to Mary that she should be his mother; and that, as Isaiah had predicted, the throne of his ancestor David should be given him by the most High, whose Son he should also be; and that, when seated there, he should reign over the house of Jacob for the ages, and that of his kingdom there should be no end [Luke 1:32-33; Isa. 9:6-7]. This was announcing peace to Israel through the Son to be born. So Mary understood it; and in the rejoicing of her spirit in God, said, "He helps his servant Israel in remembrance of mercy as he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his Seed, for the age". [Luke 1:54,55]

That the mercy covenanted to Abraham was peace to Israel through the Messiah is also manifest from the words of the Holy Spirit spoken through the father of John the Baptizer, who said in view of the birth of the Christ, "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he visits and redeems his people, and raises up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David; as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets which have been from the beginning of the age; that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant; the oath which he sware to our father Abraham, that he would grant unto us, that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life" (Luke 1:68-75). What a beautiful comment is this upon the Abrahamic Covenant; how forcibly it exhibits the national blessedness to come upon the hereditary seed of Abraham through the Christ. But not exclusively upon them; but upon all other nations through him also; for "In thee and in thy seed, shall all the nations of the earth be blessed"; [Gen. 12:3,4; 22:18] therefore it came to pass when the birth of Jesus had occurred, that his mission was proclaimed by a multitude of the heavenly host, saying, "Glory in the highest places to God, and over the earth peace, and goodwill among men". [Luke 2:14].

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Here, then, is peace to Israel, and peace to all other nations, promised and confirmed by oath to Abraham, David, and their seed, when Christ shall sit upon David's throne as the result of "mercy and truth meeting together, and righteousness and peace embracing each other". [Psa. 85:10] When Abraham rises from the dead, and becomes the patriarch, or chief father, of a believing and righteous world, the multitude of its nations will become "his seed" as well as Israel, and the saints, the kings and lords of all. This is Moses' doctrine of a future state, amplified by all the prophets. Their oracles were its depository; and until Peter visited the house of Cornelius, these covenanted promises were supposed to be confined to Israelites alone. It was not conceived possible that men of other nations would be associated with Messiah in the government of the Jewish nation and the Gentiles. The promises of the holy covenant had not assumed the form of a message of invitation to aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel [Eph. 2:12]. The Jews were exclusively invited by Jesus, and by the apostles for several years after his ascension. They went about explaining the purpose of God, which was full of goodness and glory for Israel; and inviting them to partake in it with endless life and honour. This was evangelizing the promises, or setting before them the hope. They were called upon to become heirs of that hope by embracing it, and becoming obedient to the commands of Jesus. It was therefore styled "the hope of their calling", [Eph. 4:4] by faith in which, says an apostle, we are saved [Eph. 2:5,8].

Understanding then that the gospel, or glad tidings, is not salvation of immortal souls from endless torment in material fire who believe that Jesus in flesh was God's immaculate Son and died for them; but that it is the promises of everlasting peace and glory to the Jewish nation, and of contemporary blessedness to all other nations; when, as one dominion, they shall exist under the government of Christ, and of his called, chosen and faithful (Rev. 17:14) "brethren and companions" (Psa. 122:8) when he shall sit arid rule as a priest upon David's throne which promises were covenanted to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David and their seed; and confirmed by the death and resurrection of Christ; it is these confirmed and covenanted promises evangelized, or circulated among men in a proclamation, in which Jews first and afterwards Gentiles who believe said promises and recognize the claims of Jesus to be that Christ as he is described in Moses and the Prophets, are invited to co-partnership with him in said covenanted kingdom and glory, on condition of becoming the subjects of repentance and remission of sins in his name. This is the Pentecostian Gospel of the Kingdom of God preached by Peter and the apostles; the other, the salvation of immortal souls from endless torture in material fire, is the Pope's gospel -- the clerical gospel of Rome, Wittenberg, and Geneva -- the gospel according to Christendom, by which its intoxicated peoples are ecclesiastically policed: the gospel of Antichrist, which, admitting the divine sonship and sacrificial character of Jesus, ignores the promises, blasphemes Israel, and so "speaks great words against the most High", [Dan. 7:25] who has "formed that people for himself that they may show forth his praise" (Isa. 43:21). Understanding, then, these things; and that justification comes by belief and obedience, or an enlightened and obedient belief of the gospel -- what intelligent man can be at a loss to perceive that they are not justified who are ignorant of, or reject the promises, when they seek, or are sung, prayed, or scared into immersion? Belief of the gospel of Antichrist does not make water saving; and certainly none but a Romanist, Puseyite, or baby-sprinkler, would make it saving of itself alone. What makes baptism saving, then? For Peter says, "We are saved by baptism". (1 Pet. 3:21) We answer according to the word, the belief of the promises: that is, of the gospel the apostles preached. The Baptistic, Millerite, Campbellite, Mormonite, and general paidorhantist theories of belief, are not justifying; because they either ignore or destroy the promises. In doing this they are, as we have shown, "blasphemies", and punishable with death. Can a man be justified by the belief of blasphemy? Will a pious profession of love to Jesus transmute blasphemy into justifying truth? Is the sincere belief of what the Scriptures style blasphemy less offensive to Jehovah [Yahweh] in a modern religionist, than in an ancient Edomite? Is it less blasphemy to say with Millerism, "God has cast away the Jews; he will destroy the nations; he will burn up the earth; and we shall inherit Paradise with dominion over the beasts after the similitude of Adam"; than to say with Edom, "The mountains, of Israel are laid desolate, they are given to us to consume"? [Ezek. 35:12] One saying is as subversive of the truth of God, and as derogatory to His veracity, as the other. If immersed- Millerism decree the truth, Jehovah's [Yahweh's] promises, which we have set forth, will never come to pass. Hence God and Millerism are as much at enmity as God and Edom; it is logical and scriptural therefore to place Millerism and Edom side by side against God. We say Millerism, not simply as such; but as representative of all Gentilisms ending in ism, whose theology does not teach for justification, and whose organizations do not require for admission to their fellowship, an intelligent belief and confession of the message of peace to Israel, as taught in Moses and the prophets.

Let any one read the faith of Mary, Zacharias, and Simeon, as expressed in their utterances prompted by the Holy Spirit; and then imagine the proclamation of such gospel as sounds forth from the pulpits of the Gentiles, being made to them a gospel which assigns the Holy Land to Edom, and consigns Israel to curse and perdition: what does he think those ancient worthies would have said? Would not their souls have boiled, over with bubbling and steaming indignation? Would they have rejoiced that their eyes had seen such a Saviour as the Gentile character styled Jesus? Would they have seen in him an earnest of the remembrance by Jehovah [Yahweh] of the oath He had sworn to Abraham, and of the covenant He had made with David? No: they would have been like our Jewish contemporaries, rejecters of Jesus, because the Gentile description of his character and mission did not accord with the Messiah as defined by Moses and the prophets. Let all, then who believe in "the exceeding great and precious promises", [2 Pet. 1:4] and who are disposed to accept God's evangelized invitation to His kingdom and glory, which He has promised to them that obey Him -- let such be honest to themselves and true to God. Let them repudiate the uncovenanted traditions of Gentilism as "blasphemies against their king". If dipped into Baptistism, Campbellism, or Millerism, etc., let them put them off as "filthy rags" -- as garments "all tattered and torn", and "spotted with the flesh". [Jude 23] They are investments unbecoming the divine presence of the Nazarite King of the Jews. He invites men to walk with him in white -- a white which the sectarian fullers of Edom cannot produce. "What is the chaff to the wheat, saith Jehovah [Yahweh]?" [Jer. 23:28] Some who read these lines may have been dipped into divers Gentilisms, sincerely believing they were obeying the truth; but, if you have studied the prophets to any good purpose, you will know that the truth according to Edom is not "the truth as it is in Jesus" [Eph. 4:21] -- your own good sense will teach you that your sincerity will not transmute the one into the other. Do you find in the Bible such adogma as, "He that is sincere and immersed, shall be saved?"

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This is one of the gospel-nullifying principles of Edom -- a mere tare sown among the wheat. Abandon it, dear friends, and consent heartily to the wholesome, unrepealed words of Adonai Jehovah [Yahweh], that "He who believes (the gospel or promises) and is immersed shall be saved; but he that believes not shall be condemned". [Mark 16:16]

 

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