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• Sweet and Simple • Four Fundamental Truths • Some Things Most Surely Believed • Hold Fast

word is a lamp unto my feet, y h T and a light “ u

nto my pat h.

” Psalms 119:105

Founded in 1927 as Look on the Fields, UPLOOK is published ten times a year by Uplook Ministries, 813 North Ave., N.E., Grand Rapids, MI 49503.

Phone: (616) 456-9166 Fax: (616) 456-5522 Website: http://www.uplook.org E-mail: uplook@uplook.org ISSN #1055-2642 Printed in USA. © Copyright 2002 Uplook Ministries UPLOOK magazine is intended to encourage the people of God in fidelity to His Word, fervency in intercessory prayer, labors more abundant, and love to the Lord. Believing in the practical Headship of Christ and the local autonomy of each assembly, this is not intended to be an official organ of any group or federation of local churches. The editor and authors take responsibility for materials published. For any blessing which accrues, to God be the glory.

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C O N T E N T S

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F E AT U R E S I HAVE CHRIST; WHAT WANT I MORE? W. H. Westcott

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LEAVING IT BEHIND J. B. Nicholson, Jr.

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FRENCH LITERATURE WORK Jean-Paul Berney

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SPIRITUAL STRENGTH Leslie S. Rainey

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A LESSON FOR LIVING R. E. Harlow

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A BRIEF OUTLINE OF BIBLE DOCTRINES Center Chart

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SOME THINGS MOST SURELY BELIEVED Wm. Hoste

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THE DAY OLD DAN DIED Daniel Lee

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FOUR FUNDAMENTAL TRUTHS E. P. Y. Simpson

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HOLD FAST Hy Pickering

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D E PA RT M E N TS EDITORIAL Sweet and Simple FRONT LINES MUDDLED MIDDLE EAST The Real Palestinians

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Photo of Bible / light house at Peggy’s Cove: © Photospin

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Donation Information: Uplook Ministries is a tax-exempt corporation looking to the Lord to provide for the needs of this ministry. This magazine is sent freely to those who request it, but evidently is not freely produced. Donations may be made by check or money order denominated in US $, Canadian $ or £ sterling. All checks should be made payable to UPLOOK and sent to one of the above addresses. Donations may also be made by VISA, Mastercard/ACCESS or Discover in US dollars, either by mail or at our website: http://www./uplook.org/home/about_us/contributions.html We do not advise sending credit card numbers by e-mail. Please include your card number, expiry date and the amount in US dollars you wish to donate. Receipts are issued for all donations received and are valid for tax purposes in the US and Canada.

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SWEET AND SIMPLE Life! Functional complexity, practical simplicity.

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There are two things I know for sure: 1) life is simple, and 2) life is definitely not simple. The one statement is as fundamentally true as the other. Let me explain.

Physical life is sustained in the following way: you get up in the morning, perform your necessary ablutions, have a good breakfast, and head off into the day. It helps to keep good posture and get some exercise—basic things your mother told you as a child. Generally speaking, a healthy lifestyle is a relatively simple matter for the average individual to pursue.

But what is actually happening in your body as you get out of bed and head to the breakfast table? The most brilliant biochemists stand agape at the intricacies of the chemical reactions occurring in the cell. The human body is composed of hundreds of trillions of cells. Each cell contains an average of 13 trillion bits of information—enough to fill 500,000 pages in a library. These cells are highly specialized, providing us with such services as the ability to see, smell, and taste our food, the muscular movement of our hands, jaws, heart and diaphragm, and the wonders of our immune system, the blood clotting mechanism and digestion. In order to accomplish even one step in any of these actions, a whole series of events must take place in the right order at the right time. Protein, for example, when utilized in a cell, travels only about one ten-thousandths of an inch from the cytoplasm where it is synthesized to the lysosome where it will conclude its task, yet it requires dozens of other proteins to make this journey successfully. These mind-boggling processes occur in our bodies billions of times every day. And as long as the machinery of life works as God designed it, we rarely—if ever—think about it.

In a similar way, the world around us carries on. Neither I nor the scientists who study light really understand it. Is light comprised of waves or particles? Sometimes it acts like one, sometimes like the other. Yet I do not need to understand light or photosynthesis to enjoy their benefits. I use a simple ON-OFF switch to illuminate my life. And, just as surely, munching on lettuce unlocks the energy of the sun in my body.

I have heard many messages preached on Romans 6–8 and often wonder if even the preacher understands “how it all works,” let alone his hearers. And while I am even more curious about how justification and sanctification work than I am about life at work in my body, the complexities of the doctrines should not keep me from enjoying the Christian life any more than struggling with how polysaccharides store energy should keep me from enjoying the first peach of summer.

When I have engaged my mind to its limits in seeking to understand how the Christian life “works” and still fail to understand these ministries of the Spirit described in such marvellous detail in the Word of God, it comes down to this: my soul needs hygiene (we are sanctified and cleansed “with the washing of water by the Word,” Eph. 5:26) and food (“Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life,” Jn. 6:27, NKJV), exercise (“For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things,” 1 Tim. 4:8) and good posture (see Rom. 5:2; 1 Cor. 2:5; Gal. 5:1) as much as my body does. How can I expect to be healthy in spirit if I neglect these daily essentials?

But the Christian life is simpler yet. Paul writes: “I fear, lest…your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” (2 Cor. 11:3). We need a return to first principles, first love, first works. If Christ is first in my day, thoughts, plans, and desires, I will have found the uncomplicated secret of the simple side of life: “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 7:24-25). Christianity is not rules and regulations, formulas or equations. “The truth is in Jesus” (Eph. 4:21).

Christianity is Christ, a loving relationship with the One who is Life itself.

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I Have Christ; What Want I More?

Here is the one essential in the life of the believer. Everything else is secondary.

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The Epistle to the Hebrews seems to have been written in view of the fall of Jerusalem, and the removal of the established form of religion initiated by Jehovah when Israel was delivered from Egypt. The holy places made with hands—the altar, the sacrifices, the priesthood, the covenant to which these things were attached, and the law which foreshadowed good things to come—were all passing. In place of the whole system of material things, hallowed by the history of centuries, the Hebrews were called on to realize the blessedness of the Person who is the antitype of it all.

Instead of the temple, the hierarchy of priests, the impressive ritual, the charm of instrumental and vocal melody, they were to find themselves outcast, ill-treated, defamed, poor, despised—with Christ (see Heb. 13:13). Were they losers?

The Hebrews Epistle is the answer. They exchanged the transient thing for the eternal. The types were superseded by the antitype. The partial communications from God through the prophets were more than eclipsed by the full revelation of God in the Son. The object of much that is written in this epistle is to set forth the greatness of the person of Christ. We have also the greatness of the presence of God as it is now opened to believers, and the greatness of Christian privilege, whether inside the veil or outside the camp.

But let us consider the first as it is presented to us in the first four verses of chapter 1.

It is evident that the Holy Spirit intends to emphasize the fact that the Messiah of the Jews is divine, in contrast with prophets who were not so, though divinely inspired. This is necessary, for in whom could God speak adequately to reveal Himself except in a divine Person? When the time came for Him to fully reveal all that He is, He spoke in the One who is “Son.” Neither prophet among terrestrial beings nor angel among celestial beings would have sufficed to bring to light all that is in the heart of God, to express all His character, nor to establish God’s promises and purposes. The Son

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was the language in which God spoke. It is not that God spoke merely by the Son as He had spoken by the prophets; it is more justly rendered in (the) Son. He was the interpreter of God; and he who imagines that one of lesser glory than the Son could interpret God does not know God. In two or three verses the writer is empowered by the Holy Ghost to utter seven of His glories. They bring the majesty of the Godhead into contact with the creature’s littleness, the purity of the throne into contact with the creature’s sin for its removal. They look out from the present world with all its problems to the righting of all things under Christ. The writer knows no object and no joy that he can compare with Christ and communion with Him. The Heir of All Things: After the indication of His glory as Son, this is the first assurance given to our faith—that God has appointed Him heir of all things.

He became poor for our sakes, and instead of being accepted by Israel was cut off. But His rejection only served for the accomplishment of God’s will that He might atone for sin and make the love of God known.

Now He has risen, and it is decreed that all things shall come into His hand. It will be the pleasure of God to see His Beloved in possession of all things.

In the present confusion, and amid the blindness brought about by Satan’s malignant power, men are toiling to take possession of the earth for themselves.

Nation intrigues against nation for the widest possible power on land and sea; company vies with company for the possession of wealth and influence; individual competes with individual in the struggle for recognition and ease. All are being swept along in the pursuit of pleasure, fame, riches, honor, power; but each for himself and none for God. The thought of interference from the Supreme Being is resented; man wants to evolve himself, to work out his own redemption. There is less and less time for thinking. A feverish haste to be rich, a lust for human learning and research, a mad race for sport and pleasure, control the masses today.

But we look ahead. There in the future is the hope

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of our hearts—Christ, Heir of all things. Everything will revert to Christ. Power has been perverted to man’s own ends; it will come into Christ’s hands for the execution of God’s will. Riches have been abused by man to the furtherance of carnal lusts; they come to Christ for the service of God. Wisdom will be at His disposal. All the forces of education, though more and more perverted from their right use now, will suddenly come under Christ’s control, and He will not fail to use it all for God. Glory—only stained by corruption in the fallen creature—will be rightly centered in the person of the Lamb once slain. The future is filled with Christ.

The Maker of the Worlds: If we look into the past eternity, even as we have looked forward, we see the Son’s glory resplendent and eternal. The personalities in the Godhead were distinguishable in the ages previous to all time. “By whom [the Son] He [God] made the worlds.” This teaches us clearly that in the Godhead glory, before all time the Son was distinguishable as Son. This is enough, for if we have Son, we have Father, and if we have Father and Son, we have also Holy Spirit. These are not merely names connected with the revelation made in time, but are subsisting and related glories in the Godhead outside of all time. It served the divine purpose to withhold this as a revelation until Christ came, who fully revealed God; but when the Godhead was fully revealed, we find Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (see Mt. 28:19).

By the eternal Son then, before all ages, God was pleased to make the ages, or worlds. Of Christ it is said, “All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.” Whatever there is of beauty or glory in things great or small, in all the wide universe of God, it has derived its shape, its beauty, its luster, its functions, from Him. And He is greater, more glorious, more beautiful, than all that He has created. The glory of the eternal Son fills up the vision of our faith as we gaze backward into eternity.

The Upholder of All Things: Passing for a moment the two glories in between, we reach the middle of the third verse, and find Him to be the One who upholds all things by the word of His power. This spans the time which we call present, arching over from eternity past to eternity to come. It is the third phase of His glory in relation to the created scene through which we are passing. He did make the worlds; He now upholds all things; He shall come into the full inheritance of all.

What a vast range of His creatorial power and wisdom does this open up to us. The law of gravitation w w w . u p l o o k . o r g

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explains that the moon revolves around the earth according to that law, the earth round the sun, the sun possibly around some “fixed” star in the Pleiades— what then? What holds up the Pleiades? If we go farther afield and in our imagination create some yet more distant center around which ten thousand universes roll, it only makes more vast and stupendous the system which demands some fixed point capable of sustaining the whole. The mind of man reels, and is baffled. Faith, guided by inspiration, quietly points to Christ, the Son, and utters the only possible solution— He upholds all things “by the word of His power.”

What is true in things great is true also in things small. The exquisite composition of the air that envelops our earth, the rotation of the globe that produces alternating day and night, the orbit it pursues to give us the changing seasons of summer and winter, the evaporation from the water surface of the globe balanced so beautifully with the flow of rivers to the sea— all speak of supreme wisdom and power in the One who directs and upholds the whole fabric. All things serve Him. The Jehovah of the Old Testament is the Jesus (Jehovah-Saviour) of the New, as Isaiah 50 clearly shows. The very beating of our hearts, the breathing of our lungs are only explained by the same wonderful fact: He upholds all things “by the word of His power.”

The Brightness of God’s Glory: We come now to something different from the relations in which He stands with created things for He is the shining forth of glory. All that can be called glory in God shines out in Him. Our Lord wears human form now, and His humanity has served to bring out in the most illuminating way all the attributes of God, which, when viewed together, compose glory.

What is glory? And what are the elements in God’s glory, its constituent parts? We take a prism, and allow light to fall upon it. Instantly that which is diffused as light becomes broken up into its component parts, and we discover the beauty of the various rays which, when blended, form light. Even so, with reverent hearts may we study Christ in whom the varied rays of God’s glory are discerned. His character and ways bring before us the exact delineation of God’s holiness, righteousness, truth; they utter to us His grace, goodness, longsuffering, and mercy; they set forth those divine perfections of obedience, dependence, humility, meekness, lowliness, which could be discerned only in such circumstances. Moreover, in the cross of Jesus we find every ray converging; the Son of Man is glorified, and God is •

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glorified in Him. Never was all that God is so seen as in that wonderful moment.

Nor is this all. Raised from the dead, triumphant over death and sin and Satan’s power, Jesus has become in heaven the complete expression, the effulgence, of all that God is. What would be to us otherwise unknowable is resolved, and in the face of Jesus we behold the glory of God. That face is language that our ransomed hearts can understand. It makes our own will appear loathsome; it makes the world appear a poor selfish system without God,;it attracts our affections, expands our minds and stirs our energies for God as nothing else could. It makes the presence of God our home, and the glory of God our goal.

The Image of His Person: More correctly, it is “the expression of His substance, or Being.”

The mind of man craves for some representation of the being he worships. From the degraded savage who tries to represent the supernatural forces around him by amulets and charms, to the idolater who invests his carved or molten image with divine powers, or the devotee who vainly prostrates himself before crucifix or images of saints, all betray this instinct for a tangible representation of the object of worship. Christ is the Image of God. An image of Christ is therefore absurd, and a negation of all that He is; for if He be the Image of God, why require an image of Him? God as God is invisible. No finite creature could take account of so glorious a Being whose time is eternity, whose dimension is space, whose being is Spirit.

There was every necessity why He should be represented to us. But who among created beings could be the embodiment of the Uncreated One? All that God is in His own being is adequately set forth in Christ. There was no deficiency in Him; He brought down here the entire fullness of the Godhead—setting it forth without flaw. There is no one else capable of compassing in his own person all the majesty and the nature of God. Jesus is the Son; there is therefore no disparity between Him and God. Never, in any religion or philosophy before has it been written “God is love.” But the truth is out now—in Jesus.

God’s nature is disclosed, revealed in the Man who is also, and must be, eternal Son. The Sin-Purger: Now, think what it must be if such an One take up the sin question. Supposing such an One came down, unaided and unasked, for reasons of His own, to apply all His infinite resources of wisdom and power and love to the sin question. What must be

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the result for Himself first, and then for those who believe on Him? Being the full representation of God, the Son knew all God’s unsullied holiness and purity, all the claims of His throne, all His wrath against and judgment upon sin. Being very God in His own essential nature and being, though become Man for the accomplishment of all God’s will, He knew all that sin is in its varied forms and in all its ramifications. Moved by unutterable love, and jealous for the majesty of the supreme Being, the sinless Son made purification of sins at Calvary, dying to remove them, to vindicate God against them, dying to reveal God in His grandest glories at the moment of His putting them away.

That I, believing in Jesus, benefit by it goes without saying. My sin has been unearthed, weighed in divine scales, repudiated, judged, execrated, damned in His death. The wrath of God has found it out, fallen upon it, burnt it up, made an end of my sins—through the death of the One who died for me. But it was not only a question of me. He did this for Himself, from Himself, by Himself. He took it up as a matter in which His own glory was involved, and for His own sake made purification of sins. All the perfection of His person was thrown into the work He did; and the sins have been perfectly purged as only a Divine Person could have done it. I am benefited infinitely indeed, for I stand in the presence of a glory that has removed all my sins, and has declared itself infinitely, but in such a way as to be more than friendly to me. My God is the best Friend I have; and I know Him, for He is fully revealed in the One who put my sins away.

The One at God’s Right Hand: This is the seventh glory of this all-glorious Person. Would it not have been a grief to us had the Lord in some way been deprived of His right to sit there? Could His contact with our sin, His undergoing the judgment of God and death for us, have resulted in some loss of dignity, some diminution of glory? How our hearts would have chided us for eternity to think of it. But this is not so.

So completely has sin been judged, so entirely has God been glorified as to it, that the Son—now wearing man’s form to be the Image of God forever—has gone back to the height from whence He came. But He is now seated there as Man. There is a Man on the throne of God. That Man is the Son, who put my sins away.

May God fill our hearts with worship as we think of Him. May He also teach that even if for His sake we become poor, despised, isolated, outcast, we are—in having Christ—more than well off indeed.

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AN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON • Relationships • Revival • His Return

• Rise Up West 2002 •

Lord, Open the Heavens!

December 30, 2002 through January 2, 2003

At the Vancouver Airport Conference Resort in the Ramada Plaza Hotel Complex

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS: Daniel Smith (IA) and J. B. Nicholson (MI) COST: $155 US/$230 Cdn (quad occupancy); $190 US/$280 Cdn (double occupancy) Conference Telephone: 250-395-4230 Conference FAX Line: 250-395-2960 Mailing Address: P. O. Box 75528, 3034 Edgemont Blvd., N. Vancouver, BC V7R-4X1 E-mail: riseupwest@shaw.ca Website: www.riseupwest.com

Seminar Topics and Leaders John Bjorlie (MI): • How to Get Ready to Give a Reason for your Hope • Revival: The False and the True Rick DeVaul (CA): • Character is Destiny (youth) Rick and Gail DeVaul (CA): • Finding a Partner for Life (youth) Ron Hampton (MB): • Short-Term Missions; Long-Term Results Warren Henderson (IL): • Assembly Planting: Lessons Learned • Discipling Young Converts • Home Bible Studies Tim Hood (Eire/BC): • Door-to-Door Evangelism James Hull (CO): • Worship: the Christian's Highest Privilege • Cultivating Godly Friendships • Living a Holy Life in Today’s World Eric Kalmback (ON): • An Overview of Assembly Missions Today—Challenges and Opportunities

• Short-Term Overseas Opportunities in Relief and Development Alan Kember (CA): • Living as a Christian in the Work Place Steve Kember (AB): • Making your Gospel Meetings Winsome Jim McCarthy (CA): • Apostasy: a Sign of the End Times • Preparing for Eldership Elie Nessim (BC): • The Importance of the Old Testament • Reaching our Jewish Friends for Christ J. B. Nicholson (MI) Moderator: Panelists: Ron Hampton, David Campbell • You Can Get a Grip on the Word (1, 2, 3) Allen Rae (BC): • Biblical Principles of Stewardship with Integrity (Part 1 of 2) • Responsible Applications of Stewardship with Generosity (2 of 2) Ann Reese (ON): • Discipleship for Women: Older Women Teaching Younger Women (Women only)

• Hospitality: The Home as an Outpost of Heaven (Women) Joe Reese (ON): • Why I Plan to Stay with the Assemblies • Evaluating your Personal Prayer Life— and Improving it!

• Raising Children for God Daniel Smith (IA): • Biblical Counseling (1), (2), and (3) Norma Stevens (BC): • Finding Opportunities to Reach Children for Christ (Women) • Mary Principle: Finding Rest in the Midst of the Pressure-Cooker of Life (Women) John Stutters (BC) Moderator: Panelists—Keith Coss, Jack Heseltine, Stuart Mitchell • Youth Ministry • Christian Camping Ministry Harold Summers (BC): • Dangers Ahead! Prepare Now! (elders) • How to Get Involved in the Assembly as a Young Person

LABOR DAY PICNIC The second annual Labor Day Picnic is scheduled to be held in Northeast Pennsylvania. Sponsored by area assemblies, the picnic will be held at the Christy Mathewson Park, Factoryville, PA on Monday Sep. 2, beginning at 11:00. The speaker will be announced later. Bring your own meal and table service. Beverages and snacks will be sold at the pavilion. Contact Chuck and Mary Truitt 570-945-3729 truitt_family@hotmail.com

ATLANTIC, IA, CONFERENCE All are invited to a conference Sep. 13-15 in Atlantic, IA. Invited speakers are Dave MacLeod (IA) and Ross Ragland (MO). Friday night they meet for prayer and ministry at 7:30 at 13th & Elm. Saturday and Sunday, they will meet at the 4-H Fairgrounds at the 700 block on West 10th St., beginning at 10:00. Contact Dennis Oathoudt at 712-243-6303

Li-Lo-Li (8811 Sunfish Run Road, Randolph, New York 14772) is planned for Sep. 13 at 7 PM to Sep. 14 at 3 PM. The theme is “Under His Wings” and the invited speaker is Nadia Mikhael (ON). Cost: $30 US; $35 after Sep. 3. Contact: Lori Robinson 585-429-7052 ladiesretreat2002@yahoo.com

W. NEW YORK RETREAT The Ladies’ Retreat 2002 at Camp

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LADIES’ FALL RETREAT The 5th Annual Ladies’ Fall Retreat at Camp Hope (Dahlonega,

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Conference to be held September 28 at Don Valley Bible Chapel from 9:30 to 1:00. A special program for girls ages 6-14 runs concurrently.

Speakers are expected from Ecuador, France, Ireland and Zambia as well as short term reports. Further information and requests for hospitality from Sheila Henderson at 416-784-3981 sheilahknow@idirect.com

GA) is scheduled for Sep. 27-29. Dr. Ruth Schwertfeger will be the keynote speaker, and there will be seminars on various topics offered.

Tammy Crooks 864-224-6918 tcrooks4@juno.com FAITH ONCE DELIVERED The saints at Brandywine Bible Chapel (Wilmington, DE) invite you to join us Saturday Sep. 21 from 2:00 PM to 5:45 PM for “What The Bible Teaches” on practical topics confronting families today with J.B. Nicholson (MI). A meal and time of fellowship will follow.

SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES Camp Li-Lo-Li The mission of Camp Li-Lo-Li (SW New York) is to present the gospel of Jesus Christ and the teachings of God’s Word to children, youth and families in a rural camp setting.

Will you help us fulfill our mission?

Immediate opening at a year round camp and rental facility. Seeking

CHALLENGE 2002 Challenge 2002 is the annual Toronto Ladies Missionary

applicant with strong custodial, groundskeeping, hosting and people skills. Includes ranch house on grounds, salary and benefits.

Bob Plantz at 585-227-3437 rfplantz@netacc.net COMMENDATIONS Thomas Wheeler The assembly of believers that meets at Southside Bible Chapel (Lafayette, LA) are pleased to add their commendation of Thomas to the grace of God as he ministers throughout Texas, Alabama and Kansas.

Treavor and Leo Kamstra The elders of Kelly Road Gospel Chapel (Prince George, BC) commend Treavor and Leo to the Lord’s service in Mexico and elsewhere.

The Timothy Conference “Be thou an example of the believers” (1 Tim. 4:12)

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

December 29, 2002 through January 1, 2003 Holiday Inn Select by the Airport • Keynote speakers: John Lennox; Joe Mikhael, J. B. Nicholson, Sandy McEachern • Missions emphasis afternoon on December 31, hosted by MSC • Celebrate New Year’s Eve with a special banquet and program • Cost is $216 (Cdn) for quad occupancy; $260 (Cdn) for double occupancy • Website: http://www.cre8iveminds.ca/timothy • Contacts: Jim Paul (905-835-0125) jimpaul@sympatico.com Photo of CN Tower: © Barry Cockburn Brian Gunning (905-685-5090) brian100@sprint.ca Please pray for this conference Rod Joyce (905-619-1377) rodnsheryl@sympatico.com and make plans to come!

Here is a sampling of some seminars that will be offered: The Importance of Genesis John Lennox Israel, Islam and the Middle East J. B. Nicholson Construction of a Sheepfold J. B. Nicholson How to Study the Bible Sandy McEachern Participating in Lord’s Supper Sandy McEachern Ethical Issues Joe Mikhael The Prayer Life of the Assembly Jim Paul Personal and Hospital Visitation Jim Paul

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Preparation for Marriage (x2) Gerry Libby Planting a New Assembly Rex Trogdon Working With a New Assembly Rex Trogdon The Assembly and the New Believer Ralph Carr Overview of the Book of Daniel Wm. Burnett Practical Lessons from the Book of Daniel Wm. Burnett In Fellowship:What Does it Mean?

Ed Plett Using Our Homes for the Lord (panel of women) Sunday School and Youth Work TBA

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Gerhard and Christina Buettner The believers of the assembly at Burke Ave. (Grand Rapids, MI) are of one mind in commending the Buettners to serve the Lord in missionary capacity. They are being trained in the New Tribes Mission program, Gerhard as a pilot.

Laura Lokensgard It is the joy and privilege of the saints at Des Moines Gospel Chapel (Des Moines, WA) to commend Laura Lokensgard to the grace of God in order that she might serve Him in Torreon, Mexico. She will be serving under the leadership of local assemblies in Torreon as a school teacher in an assembly school and in evangelistic outreaches to children and families in that area.

Jeff and Tammy Buckles The saints meeting at Ramseur Gospel Chapel (Ramseur, NC) commend to the grace of God for the work of the Lord, Jeff Buckles. Jeff is involved with itinerate and local ministry with emphasis on evangelism.

This ministry has consistently grown and Jeff is already serving the Lord in various areas of outreach.

ASSEMBLY INFORMATION Believers Bible Chapel The assembly of Christians meeting at Believers Bible Chapel (Charlotte, NC) thank the Lord for answered prayer in providing a building for them. It is located at: 13531 Lancaster Highway Pineville, NC 28134 Phone: 704-752-1532 www.BBCcharlotte.com The meetings on Sundays are: Lord’s Supper—9:30 AM Family Bible Hour—11:00, 6:00 Prayer meeting and Bible Study is Tuesday at 7:00 PM.

Victoria Gospel Chapel It is with regret that we announce the closure of Victoria Gospel Chapel (Victoria, BC) as of May 31, due to varying circumstances. The assembly has met in its present location for more than 70 years, but the property has been purchased by two organizations who will use it for housing and feeding homeless and poor families.

The saints will meet at other assemblies in the city.

Sherbrooke, Quebec The new correspondent for Grace Chapel in Sherbrooke, Quebec is: John W. Rivett 1134 Rte. 210 Sawyerville QC Canada Phone: 819-889-2963 jwr@abacom.com ADDITIONAL INFORMATION In the April issue of Uplook, Gospel Missions of India offered a free copy of the Indian Missionary Prayer Handbook. Contact: Gospel Missions of India P. O. Box 1043 Warren, MI 48090-1043 50th ANNIVERSARY Grace Bible Camp (St. Helena Island, SC) celebrated its 50th anniversary on June 29. The camp was founded by Julius and Eva Dennis. The mission is still to provide a place where boys and girls could come to receive Bible lessons with times for physical exercise, fun and a chance to make friends with other young people. Please pray for the Lord’s blessing upon this work.

AT HOME Aubrey Wilson Brother Aubrey was born in 1916 in St. Catherine, Jamaica. In 1938, he was led to a saving knowledge of the

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CARE FOR THE AGING Rest Haven Homes in Grand Rapids, Michigan has a number of openings for new residents at a variety of levels of care.

There are two large apartments, three assisted living rooms, and six nursing beds. Enjoy the fellowship and care of living in a Christian environment.

For information, contact Brian Wilson or Terry Carrick Phone: 616-363-6819 resthavenhomes@yahoo.com Lord. He was received into fellowship in Linstead Gospel Hall where he was nurtured and became instrumental in the growth of the assembly. He was involved in Sunday School work and open-air meetings.

Brother Aubrey had a passion for the gospel. He labored diligently and was instrumental in planting five assemblies in Jamaica: Linstead, Tredways, Byndloss, Harkers Hall and Hampton Green.

In 1946, he moved to Washington, DC, where he began fellowshipping with a small assembly, later called Maranatha Gospel Hall. He became involved in the leadership there as they grew and moved to two different locations. The Lord also used Brother Wilson in the establishment of two assemblies in Baltimore, MD. His ministry included Bible studies from home to home and at the Pentagon.

He and his wife, Josephine have three daughters.

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Leaving It Behind “We brought nothing into this world; it is certain we can carry nothing out.”

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Nothing focuses the soul on what is truly important as much as the thought of leaving this world behind.

Sometimes the more things we have, the harder it is to die. But what exactly will we be leaving here?

1. MATERIAL THINGS: The subtitle verse, found in 1 Timothy 6, is a warning passage about living for the wrong world. It includes the following red flags: a) confusing gain with godliness (v. 5) b) wanting to be rich sets traps for the soul (v. 9) c) loving money grows into other evils (v. 10) d) being rich tends to pride and false trust (v. 17) But Paul tells Timothy he is to remind the rich “That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life” (1 Tim. 6:18-19). See also 2 Pet. 3:11-12.

2. OUR HUMILIATION IN THESE BODIES: “…We look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body…” (Phil. 3:20-21). Our bodies: a) were created by God for His glory (Gen. 1:27) b) were damaged by the Fall and subsequent sin c) are presently indwelt by the Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19) d) have been redeemed by Christ (1 Cor. 6:20) e) will be changed at the Rapture (1 Cor. 15:42-54) 3. OUR SINFUL NATURE: There are some things only the Rapture will fix. BUT IT WILL FIX THEM. The world’s glitter will look like carnival prizes the morning after, compared with heaven’s glories. He will not be ashamed to be called our God! (see Heb. 11:16). We shall be like Him (1 Jn. 3:2). What does it mean? a) we will be removed from sinful influences b) we will see things from God’s perspective c) we will see the horrific consequences of sin d) we will see our Saviour—His eyes, His wounds

4. OPPORTUNITIES TO WITNESS: Who will you witness to in heaven? “He said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mk. 16:15). The Lord Jesus will be “…preached unto the

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Gentiles, believed on in the world,” (1 Tim. 3:16) or not at all. If you wait to witness until: a) you feel like witnessing; or b) you think you have all the answers; or c) you know just the right way to do it, there will be nobody then to tell! There are only believers in heaven.

5. THE ABILITY TO MAKE SACRIFICES FOR CHRIST: What will you be able to sacrifice in a land where you own everything? We are “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:17). There is a day coming called “the manifestation of the sons of God” (Rom. 8:19). All things promised to us now will then be our possessions.

At present, we should be learning to give like the princes we are. We should give: a) ourselves first (2 Cor. 8:5) b) cheerfully—spontaneously (2 Cor. 9:7) c) generously (2 Cor. 8:7; 9:6) d) proportionately (2 Cor. 8:12; 9:15) 6. SUFFERING FOR THE SAVIOUR’S SAKE: The Rapture will herald an end to the long and bloody history of Christendom on earth—although there will yet be suffering saints during the Tribulation.

The persecution of the Church will be over. First the suffering, then the glory is a principle throughout Scripture. That means, of course, that our time is limited to identify with our Lord Jesus in the day of His rejection. There are no baptistries in heaven, no pillories, no prisons, no cruel jokes or ostracizing. As Amy Carmichael wrote: “We have all eternity to celebrate our victories, but only a few short years to win them.”

7. ALL HARMFUL EFFECTS OF THE FALL: “…for the former things are passed away” (Rev. 21:4). a) no more disease, pain or death, sorrow or crying b) end of loneliness, weakness, failure and sin c) end of war, famine, natural disasters d) no more night, darkness, wasted time e) end of separation from fellow believers f) no more disappointment or unfulfilled desires g) no more regrets, fears or doubts h) no satanic temptation or worldly allurements What is in heaven will be wonderful, of course. But thank the Lord for what isn’t there as well.

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French Literature Work Pray for our nearest foreign mission field.

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The Bible, or parts of it, is translated in more than 2,200 languages and dialects. The complete Bible is available in over 370 languages; the New Testament is published in 960 languages. Ninety-six per cent of the world population can read the Bible.

In French we have a wide range of versions, from the much appreciated J. N. Darby’s literal translation to the modern speech editions. However, do you know there are as many Christian books published in English as in all the other languages combined?

We estimate there are approximately 125 million francophones around the world—in Europe, Canada, West Indies, Africa and Asia. Sixteen countries in Africa have French as the official language. In the latter, French is the everyday language of the better educated class. Nevertheless, there are twenty percent more francophones in Africa than in the rest of the world.

The writer has been involved in the publication and distribution of French Christian literature for half a century in Quebec. The beginning of this ministry was very modest, but it has grown steadily. It is now under the management of our son-in-law, Jean-Paul Gosselin, with the help of three co-workers.

We operate a Christian bookstore in a shopping center in Quebec City. A wide selection of Bibles, sound commentaries, Sunday school material, selected books on various topics, etc., are on display. We serve believers from different horizons. Sometimes non-Christians give us the opportunity to present the gospel. About fifteen people have been saved, baptized and received in assembly fellowship as a result of the bookstore ministry.

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elsewhere, even the U. S. A. We have distributors of our own publications in Europe and also send parcels to Africa and Haiti.

A Christian bookstore is a light in a dark world. We could tell you many stories of people who had their life and destiny changed by the grace of God through Christian literature. People who would never go to a gospel meeting may look at books on display, ask questions and accept a piece of literature.

We have published many gospel tracts and over twenty books and booklets which are distributed by bookstores wherever French is spoken. Some of them are translated into other languages as well. Our book on worship is to be translated and published in the local language of Tadzhikistan.

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Belgium books which are not published in Quebec. As general distributors of the Geneva Bible Society (publishers of the French Scofield Bible), we serve bookstores all through Canada and U. S. A. This short account of our French literature ministry is a call for prayer. We need wisdom to select the best

available literature, honoring the Lord and true to His Word. We wish to see more non-Christians visiting the bookstore. Also, may the Lord give wisdom to the staff to know how to answer everyone asking questions. “A word spoken in due season, how good it is!” (Prov.

15:23).

A Pioneer Promoted to Glory More troops needed in La Belle Province

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On April 13, 2002, Joseph F. Darling, aged 91, went to be with the Lord. Our brother and his wife Gertrude, both from Grand Haven, MI, served the Lord in the province of Quebec from 1946 to 1986.

During the Second World war, our brother was called to conscription. He served his country in the medical corps and as military kitchen staff. While in Belgium a bomb exploded in the house where he was stationed. Joseph said to the Lord that if his life was spared he would give it to Him for His service.

About this time, his wife Gertrude wrote Joseph that her attention had been brought to the spiritual darkness and need of French Canada, namely the province of Quebec. Shortly after the end of the war, the Darlings moved to Quebec. They spent a year learning French in Sherbrooke and Girardville, before moving to Shawinigan which was their home town for close to forty years.

In the early days the province of Quebec was a Roman Catholic stronghold and very much opposed to the furtherance of the gospel. The Darlings were in Shawinigan in 1950, when the assembly experienced a riot at their rented meeting place. The hall and furniture were severely damaged and the cars on the parking lot turned upside down. Several newspapers in the United States mentioned this event.

In spite of this opposition, the work of the Lord progressed at Shawinigan under the ministry of the Darlings. Their home was always open to Christians as well as to people inquiring about Bible truth. Our brother was very faithful in home visitation. He saw many saved through this ministry. The fruit remains to this day.

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Today things have greatly changed. The Catholic Church has lost much power and prestige.

Indifference prevails. We still need missionaries in Quebec.

Our brother was also an appreciated speaker at conferences. When it was an open platform he was particularly gifted to add an appropriate conclusion or a short message which would fit in or complete what the previous speaker just said. It was his pleasure to be occupied with the Lord and His work, After the Darlings returned to Michigan our brother was still active for several years in visitation and jail work.

They finally moved to Rest Haven Home in Grand Rapids where their presence was an encouragement to other senior residents.

Brother Darling passed peacefully into the Lord’s presence after a long illness. He leaves his wife, two daughters JoAnne and Elisabeth, and son Joseph, who with their families, all live within thirty miles of Grand Rapids. Remember Mrs. Gertrude Darling in prayer.

The large funeral service was held on April 16 at Rest Haven Home. Jean-Paul Berney, a co-worker from Quebec, gave a brief account of Brother Darling’s ministry and qualifications to be a missionary. Mr. Ralph Van Ryn, from Northwest Gospel Hall in Grand Rapids, gave a clear gospel message.

The burial service took place the next day with military honors. Mr. Ralph Van Ryn gave an appropriate word of comfort at the grave side.

“The memory of the just is blessed” (Prov. 10:7).

—JEAN PAUL BERNEY

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Spiritual Strength The Lord doesn’t faint; He isn’t weary (Isa. 40:28).

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In this graphic, soul-stirring section of the book of Isaiah there is enshrined one of the most needed messages for today. Chapter 40 deals with comfort, and presents the God who is incomparable in His strength and sympathy. The content of the chapter is magnificent for its richness of revelation in the development of the theme.

The closing verse of the chapter gives to us the secret of spiritual strength. “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint” (Isa. 40:31).

Though the youths (a general term) and the young men of military age falter and fail, they that wait, as Delitzsch says, “they shall gain fresh force.”

THE GREAT ESSENTIAL One of the most difficult things in life is to follow the counsel of the prophet: “wait upon the Lord.” To wait is always trying to the flesh. Yet as Christians we know that unless there is tarrying there will be no triumphing. This was the lesson taught to the early Church in the city of Jerusalem (Lk. 24:49). The more we count on the power of the Spirit of God, the more we shall know of the life that pleases God, a life that is operative in the production of fruit for God. This is an imperative need among the Lord’s people. Life would be enriched, homes more happy, quarrels prevented, if we knew the art of tarrying at the throne of God. How often we act in haste and learn to repent at leisure.

Recall again the words of the Lord Jesus to Martha regarding the quiet place at His feet, “one thing is needful.” What a word for an age of beehive activity and ceaseless running to and fro!

While there are several different Hebrew words expressing the ideas of waiting, the one used here, gavah, is most illuminating. It means to bind together, to collect, and so has the figurative sense of expectation. Moses, the servant of God, knew something about waiting; David also in the wilderness, Daniel in exile, Paul in Arabia, and even Christ in the seclusion of Nazareth.

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well-known shoe clinic, “Repairing done while you wait.” So in our lives today we can experience this glorious reality. “It is no vain thing to wait upon the Lord.”

THE GRAND EXCHANGE The idea here is not that we have something to renew, but rather exchange. The word means to follow, or to go in the place of another; to pass from one place to another. Thus, we shall exchange our poverty for His power, the garment of our weakness for the clothing of His strength. Like the mantle of Elijah that fell upon Elisha, so we shall know, “His strength is made perfect in our weakness.” As we wait in the presence of the Lord, life will take a new color, service will be marked by a new impetus and we shall apprehend that for which we have been apprehended.

Why is it that so many break down in the work of God? Why is it that so many carry on in the work of Christ in such a shiftless, easy-going manner? The answer is found in the verb, “wait.” Only in waiting is fresh force gained; indolence, sloth and carelessness are exchanged for steadfastness, activity and sobriety.

To all of us will come periods of depression, defeat and even despair. The devil’s master tool is discouragement and for such there is only one cure. We must look away from our own human limitations and self-reliance to the One who alone “is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us” (Eph. 3:20).

THE GLORIOUS EXPERIENCE To all who follow along the path of waiting on God there will be the dawning of a bright and glorious morning. Just as we have life at its brightest and best in Philippians, so here we have God’s formula for spiritual strength. In place of descent there will be ascent; instead of lagging there will be running; in spite of the tendency to sit down or stand still there will be the persistence of walking.

It is the life of mounting. The Christian who exchanges mere dependence in his ability, talents, and resources for the all-sufficiency of God will first of all ascend into the hills of God, the source of all strength, J U L Y - A U G U S T

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He shall be like the eagle that is characterized by three things—swiftness of flight, keenness of scent, and power of vision. To live in the secret place of the Most High is to have a life of communion that enjoys the atmosphere of heaven. The life of vision beholds things from the viewpoint of God and not so much from that of man. Life will be separated from the questionable things which dog the footsteps of so many. How important to remember that God likens the life that ascends to that of an eagle. The eagle life is the symbol of youth (Ps. 103:5); it is the life that soars (Prov. 23:5); the life that is swift (Deut. 28:49); and the life that sees (Job 39:29).

It is the life of running. To run for God will involve the discipline of appetite, ambitions and associations.

In an age when many are fainting and others have grown weary, our solemn task is to run for God. We are to be people with a message and on important business for the King. It will cost us preparation beforehand, perseverance during, and patience until the work is finalized. We shall guard ourselves from anything and everything that impedes and hinders our Christian race (Heb. 12:1-2). What prevents me in my work for God and the gospel? Is it my business, home cares or numerous engagements that sap and undermine my usefulness and the fulfilling of the will of God? Is there a way whereby God’s interests can be foremost?

Yes, the way of waiting upon God. It simply means to train your mind and spirit to the habit of drawing from God life and stability, wisdom and light, inspiration and sustaining power, at all times and in every circumstance of life.

It is the life of walking. The last experience of the prophet mentioned here is walking. It is the most difficult for it implies slow progress, steady persistence and the life of pilgrimage. Its characteristics are pursuit after God, submission to God, humility before God, occupation with God, and the daily realization of God. Such is the invincible life that faithfully plods on in season and out of season. While many go in for the life of heavenly elevation in mounting up to the hills of God, or the life of divine enthusiasm in running in the ways of God, so few enroll for the life that walks with God by means of consecrated persistency. It is consecration that does not lift us out of life, but teaches us how to live the life that is life indeed.

What counts for God, after all, is not talk but walk, the quiet, godly, consistent walk year in and year out before God and the world. It is a life that keeps in living touch with the Almighty by staying the soul on such eternal, weighty words: “My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from Him”; “Wait, I say, on the Lord”; “In the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee and will look up”; “Trust in the Lord”; “Delight thyself also in the Lord”; “Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him”; “Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him”; and “They that wait on the Lord.” Living and meditating on such holy words helps one to rise out of weakness into strength, out of despondency into joy, out of turmoil into peace, out of deadness into life. It will prove the blessedness of God’s word: “They shall mount up with wings as eagles; and they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint.”

The Lady with the Lamp Florence Nightingale’s firmness at surgical operations was amazing. She stood one day with antiseptic, instruments, and bandages around her, performing a tedious amputation. Half a dozen young nurses were behind her, holding basins, towels and other necessary items. A harrowing groan from the patient suddenly put them all to flight, except Miss Nightingale, who, turning calmly around, called to them, “Come back! Shame on you as nurses!

Shame on you as Christians.” It is not easy to stand at such times, but it is better than the alternative.

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A Lesson for Living Still a student at 94!

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The Scripture gives us total guidance for salvation and how, though sinful, we may get to heaven. It also teaches us salutary lessons for our welfare, and the Lord’s glory, while we are on the upward path.

I have learned from the Bible that our God may allow what seem to be disasters in our lives to teach us more effectively to trust Him fully. For example, Joseph was thrown into a pit and sold as a slave in Egypt. He learned God’s purpose when he rode in Pharaoh’s chariot, in command of the nation.

In my own small scale, I went to work in a business office, at the age of 14. I learned a lot in two years, and never heard that my work was unsatisfactory, until the manager told me I was fired. I found out later that the assistant sales manager, my immediate superior, had black-balled me, so his brother could get the job. But at the time it was humiliating, and a financial blow to our little fatherless family.

But my mother and older working sister decided that I should go back to high school for a year and gain college entrance status. This began my academic career, terminating 24 years later with a Ph.D. My goal in university was to learn Greek and Hebrew, so I could understand God’s Word better. I continued taking courses in Hebrew after my Master’s degree. This involved two cognate languages, Aramaic and Syriac, but I failed these exams, the first ever in grade or high school, in undergraduate or graduate work. It became apparent that the Department did not encourage evangelicals to work for a doctoral degree.

Anyway I switched to the department of Education, which was far more valuable to me in the early days of Emmaus Bible School.

Meanwhile I got married and my wife and I were commended to missionary work in Africa. Two of our children were born there, and the third after our return to Canada. Emmaus was launched and grew, including the Correspondence School. After 18 years I resigned and Bill MacDonald took charge. We moved to New Jersey and New York City to serve with the brethren there, now known as Christian Missions in Many Lands. But a year later my wife died of lung cancer. It was hard to see the Lord’s purpose at first. w w w . u p l o o k . o r g

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Gertrud Koppel served at the same station in Africa, in Swahili translation work. When the whole Bible was published, she returned home. We decided the African Christians needed books to help them understand the new Scriptures. After we were married we together engaged in literature work, now known as Everyday Publications.

The twelve-year-old girl was in terminal condition but her father, a ruler of a synagogue, fell down at the Great Physician’s feet and was pleased when He started to come with him. He may have been annoyed at the delay caused by a woman who touched the hem of His garment and was healed. The little girl died before the Lord got there, and the house was full of noisy mourners. They quickly changed and laughed at the Lord, when He said the little girl was not dead but sleeping.

He put them all out, except the parents and three disciples. Then He said, Talitha cumi, literally, “Little lamb, stand up.” This resulted in greater faith for the ruler than if Christ had arrived in time to heal her.

Mary and Martha were sore grieved when their brother Lazarus died. But the Lord said it was for the glory of God, that the Son of God should be glorified.

Martha believed that her brother would rise at the last day, but she learned that Jesus is the resurrection and the life. So they took away the stone four days after the burial, and later Martha served at supper with both Jesus and Lazarus there.

So we learn to trust the Lord, no matter what comes.

The directors of Everyday Publications found that believers in developing countries could not afford to buy books about the Bible, even at our low subsidized prices. About ten years ago we started offering our commentaries in Everyday English without charge to commended missionaries. Do you think we soon went broke? Our Lord supplies all needs, without solicitation on our part. The same policy is followed today, in our Free Literature Fund. We are learning to trust Him fully, but we still have many lessons to learn in the school of God. R. E. Harlow, in his 95th year, is engaged in getting out the Word worldwide.

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A Brief Outline of Bible Doctrines INTRODUCTION: It may be thought highly presumptuous to suggest that a listing of all the teachings in the Word of God may be put on one page. However some may find it helpful to at least have a sampling of the more common doctrines for reference purposes. Although there are hundreds of distinctive truths in the Word, we may place them in seven major groupings: Theology, Angelology, Bibliology, Anthropology, Soteriology, Ecclesiology and Eschatology.

1. THE DOCTRINE OF GOD (FATHER, SON, SPIRIT) i. THEOLOGY:

His Work in the Believer’s Life— Indwells, Baptizes, Seals, Fills, Unifies, etc.

The Trinity and Unity of God

2. THE DOCTRINE OF THE SPIRIT WORLD

The Names and Attributes of God The Decrees and Works of God

ANGELOLOGY & DEMONOLOGY:

Creation by God Ex Nihilo

Their Origin and Fall

Divine Preservation

Their Nature and Classification

Providence in the Affairs of Men

Their Work and Destiny

God’s Self-Revelation

Satan, Demons, and the Root of Sin

The Lord of Salvation

(Doctrine of Sin called HARMARTIOLOGY)

The Father, His Names, Works, Character

3. THE DOCTRINE OF DIVINE COMMUNICATION

ii. CHRISTOLOGY: The Son, in Pre-Incarnate Appearances Types, Prophesies, Messianic Passages

Revelation—its Supernatural Origin

His Advent, Two Natures, Ministry

Inspiration—Verbal, Plenary

His Words & Miracles

Canonicity & Authority

His Death, Resurrection, Exaltation and

Illumination & Interpretation

Present Ministry

(Considering General Purpose, Distinctive

Names, Titles and Offices

Character, Context, Meaning)

iii. PNEUMATOLOGY:

ii. PRAYER:

The Spirit, His Personality & Attributes

Its Aspects, Helps, Purposes, and Examples

His Titles, Ministries (in creation, revelation,

Worship, Praise, Intercession, Thanksgiving,

salvation, etc.), Symbols and Gifts.

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i. THE WORD OF GOD (BIBLIOLOGY):

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Supplication, Advocacy, etc.

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“…Adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things” (Titus 2:10) USES: This chart may be useful for personal Bible study, as groupings for the thematic study of the Word. Sunday school teachers, youth workers, preachers and teachers may find it an incentive to study subjects which have until now been left as unexplored mines of scriptural treasures. Elders, entrusted with ensuring that their local flock is being fed with a wholesome and balanced diet, can see those areas of “the apostles’ doctrine” which need to be given attention.

4. THE DOCTRINE OF THE HUMAN RACE

Call, Covenants & Blessings

ANTHROPOLOGY:

Setting Aside & Future Restoration

Man’s Origin and God’s Purpose

ii. THE KINGDOM:

The Fall and its Consequences

Prophetically Described & Illustrated

The Covenants & Dispensations

Offered to Israel & Rejected

Responsibilities and Relationships

In its Spiritual Mystery Form Today

Man’s Enemies & Christian Ethics

In Manifestation When the King Returns iii. THE CHURCH (ECCLESIOLOGY):

5. THE DOCTRINES OF SALVATION

Her Foundation and 7-fold Unity

SOTERIOLOGY:

The Church Universal and Local

Calling, Election and Predestination

The Church’s Order and Ordinances

Grace and Faith

The Church’s Ministries and Mission

Repentance and Regeneration

The Ten Pictures of the Church

Substitution and Imputation

The Church’s Destiny

Redemption and Justification

7. THE DOCTRINE OF FUTURE THINGS

Reconciliation and Peace Assurance and Adoption

ESCHATOLOGY

Sanctification and Glorification

The 2-Part Coming of Christ

Holiness and Righteousness

The Rapture of the Church

The Roles of the Trinity in Salvation

The Restoration of Israel The Resurrections and the Judgments

6. THE DOCTRINES CONCERNING GOD’S PEOPLE

The Millennial Kingdom

i. ISRAEL & HER REMNANT:

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The Final State

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lous incidents (Mt. 12:40-41; Lk. 17:26-32 etc.); by affirming that “till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass… till all be fulfilled” (Mt. 5:18); by confirming them all after His resurrection (Lk. 24:44).

The apostles do the same. “Men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Ghost” (2 Pet. 1:21, RV) “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 Tim. 3:16), which, though primarily referring to the Old Testament includes, I believe, that body of truth already nearing completion, the New Testament (see 2 Pet. 3:16; 1 Tim. 5:18), which the Lord had pre-authenticated by the promise of the Spirit.

The marvellous unity of Scripture—their accuracy, universality, permanence, prophetic foresight and spiritual power can only be explained by divine origin.

In a house the writer used to visit the following question hung on one of the walls, “Can God?” and underneath for the answer, “See Genesis 1:1—Rev. 22:21,” comprising the whole Bible. We might well give a similar answer if asked what we believe. But for convenience sake the following truths “most surely believed among us” (Lk. 1:1) are selected for brief consideration. This does not claim to be a creed or authoritative pronouncement, but a brief statement of some important scriptural truths.

THE DIVINE INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES If we had no divine record, we could not know what to believe. The Bible claims to be such. It not only contains the Word of God; it is the Word of God.

New Tribes Mission

THE CREATORSHIP OF GOD

Our Lord sets His seal on the Old Testament Scriptures by quoting them in every part (Mt. 4:4); by ascribing them to the Holy Spirit (Mt. 22:43, RV); by referring to them as His final court of appeal—“The Scripture cannot be broken” (Jn. 10:35); by unhesitatingly accepting their whole record, including miracu-

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The Bible makes much of this all through. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1), and it is “through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God” (Heb. 11:3).

This was carried out by the agency of the Son, “All things were made by Him” (Jn. 1:3) and “for Him” (Col. 1:16), with the cooperation of the Spirit (Gen. 1:2).

Man did not evolve. God said, “Let us make man” (v. 26); then we read, “So God created man in His own image” (v. 27); then in chapter 2:7, God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.” Man was thus constituted a being to exist as long as God, either in harmony with Him which is eternal life, or in separation from Him, which is eternal death.

THE FALL OF MAN Thus man was created a moral agent, capable of communion with his Maker, and in moral responsibility to Him. A test was therefore necessary. God laid one down, of the simplest kind. Disobedience would entail death. Application of the test was, for inscrutable reasons, permitted to Satan—a personal, angelic being, probably by original creation the highest of all God’s

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to every creature. Those who believe were chosen “in Him before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:4).

creatures (Ezek. 28:11-17), himself already fallen.

Man fell and died that very day.

What then is death? Not primarily physical dissolution, which had to be ensured later by exclusion from the tree of life, but a mysterious moral change—a great gulf had yawned between man and his Creator; he was afraid of Him and hid from Him. This is spiritual death, not non-existence but wrong-existence. “Through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all sinned” (Rom. 5:12, RV).

The whole race has existed in this death-condition ever since. When a sinner believes in Christ he passes “from death unto life” (Jn. 5:24). As the result of their fall, man and woman came under certain governmental disabilities, and the ground was cursed for their sake.

THE INCARNATION OF CHRIST But how could the seed of the woman bruise the serpent’s head, who had overcome the woman? Later God reveals the mystery: “Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel” (Isa. 7:14), so the seed would also be divine, One “whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting” (Micah 5:2). Accordingly, “when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman” (Gal. 4:4). In order to die for our sins, the “Word became flesh” (Jn. 1:14), for “forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same” (Heb. 2:14).

A divine Person, the Eternal Son, entered into manhood, taking in addition to His divine nature a perfect, spotless humanity—spirit, soul, and body; able thus to enter into all the experiences proper to such a condition, but who neither did nor knew sin.

This miraculous birth was announced first by Gabriel to Mary (Lk. 1:35), and then to Joseph (Mt. 1:20), in which was fulfilled the promised sign; the babe Jesus was “God with us.” And when we consider the life of that blessed babe, we ask by what other way than the virgin birth could it have begun (1 Cor. 15:47).

ATONEMENT BY BLOOD How could man get back to God? He could not if he would; he would not if he could. But even were his will won, that would not suffice. Satisfaction is due to God, as the righteous Law-Giver, for sin’s guilt; its defilement must be removed; the sinner must he raised from death to life. A full atonement must be made, and God alone could make it. Were one sin passed over without this, God’s throne would totter to its base. God’s holiness demanded it; God’s love provided it, The day man fell God called him to account, but also spoke of “the seed of the woman” who would bruise the serpent’s head, but be bruised in so doing— a first hint of Calvary. The way of approach by a slain victim was revealed; of this “by faith” Abel availed himself (Heb. 11:4), as all his co-believers since.

The Levitical sacrifices and the Messianic psalms and prophecies point forward to this. In them we read of Jehovah’s servant, “led as a Lamb to the slaughter”—pierced, forsaken, wounded, bruised, under the weight of sins not His own.

The Gospels describe the historical fulfillment of all this. God in the Person of His Son, made flesh, must then be raised from the dead, if one sin was to be put away or one sinner brought to God. “Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God” (1 Pet. 3:18).

The Atonement of Christ was indispensable, voluntary, once for all, infinite in value, sufficient for all, efficient for those who believe God. He “will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” Thus a bona fide offer of salvation is proclaimed w w w . u p l o o k . o r g

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THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST The resurrection of Christ was foretold in the Old Testament (Ps. 16:10), and by Himself (Mt. 16:21). It is proved by (1) the precautions taken by our Lord’s enemies against an “engineered” resurrection. The sealed stone represented the moral authority of the Roman Empire, to guard its material power. Anyone who can believe that the whole guard, at the risk of their lives, went simultaneously to sleep when on sentry duty, or knew what happened when they were asleep ought to be able to believe the miracle of the resurrection; (2) the terror-stricken witness of the soldiers. They would sooner have died than leave their post on any ordinary pretext; (3) the testimony of those who saw Him alive, singly and in companies, one of which comprised 500 brethren. He was heard, seen, handled, and conversed with by those who knew Him best, and they were convinced it was their Lord, and His body the very one they had seen nailed to the cross, though under new conditions.

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doubters into believers, from mourners into worshippers, turned the Roman Empire upside down, and eventually turned millions to the Lord, As regards the event, there are three alternatives: 1. The disciples were deceivers. This supposes the Lord had only swooned and they pretended He had come to life. But this does not account for His appearance in full vigor only three days after being crucified and transfixed with a spear.

2. The disciples were deceived. The theory is they saw what they were fanatically expecting to see. It was an hallucination, but this is all individual, not collec-

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tive, experience. There is another trifling flaw in the explanation: They were not expecting their Master to rise again.

3. Christ really rose. Otherwise Christianity would never have begun, nor the name of Christ be known today. His resurrection proves the present justification of believers (Rom. 4:25), their future resurrection (2 Cor. 4:14), the judgment of the ungodly (Acts 17:31), who will be all raised for this (Jn. 5:29), a thousand years later (Rev. 20:5).

May reaffirming these truths strengthen our resolve to build our lives on these foundation stones.

MIDDLE EAST © Photospin / Ed Simpson

WILL THE REAL PALESTINIANS PLEASE STAND UP?

Who are the Palestinians? At a personal level, they are some of my good friends, brothers and sisters in Christ. Many of the believers in the Middle East are Palestinians. Living between the proverbial “rock and a hard place,” they are ostracized by the majority of Israeli Jews and spurned by Palestinian Moslems.

Their lot is not easy.

Now back to the question. As mentioned in a previous column, these people are not Philistines (“Palestine” comes from the old Roman name for Israel, calling it after the Philistines to seek to eradicate Jewish claims to the land). They are Arabs, similar to other Arabs across the Middle East. In fact, when the British drew the border between Palestine and Jordan, brothers living on opposite sides of the line became Jordanians or Palestinians depending on their hometown.

Then who are the Arabs? The land of Arabia is a large desert peninsula south and east of Israel.

Almost one-third the size of the U.S., it nonetheless

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was able to sustain (before the discovery of petroleum in modern times) only the barest of nomadic life.

Such desert dwellers paid little attention to national borders, living not only in Arabia proper but also in the desert regions of both what is now southern Jordan (biblical Edom) and in southern Israel.

It seems that it was to this region that Abraham sent the sons of Keturah and of his concubines, “eastward, unto the east country” (Gen. 25:6). Also the descendants of Ishmael and Esau wandered the trade routes from oasis to oasis. Many of these became “princes” much like the desert sheiks, ruling over an extended family or tribe.

We read of Solomon receiving tribute from the kings of Arabia (1 Ki. 10:15) as did good King Jehoshaphat (2 Chron. 17:11); however in Jehoram’s time they plundered his house and carried away some of his family (21:17). Uzziah later drove them back (26:7).

With the majority of the Israelites removed forcibly from the land during the captivity, some Arabs moved in and were a grief to Nehemiah when he was seeking to reestablish Jerusalem as Israel’s capital (Neh. 4:7-8). They felt they had a claim to the city where Israel’s “God [had] chosen to place His name” (Deut. 16:11), but Nehemiah told them that they had “no portion, nor right, nor memorial, in Jerusalem” (Neh. 2:20). Sound familiar?

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The Day Old Dan Died Pride kept him from Christ until he saw himself as God saw him.

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This story begins with a young man who knew it all. I knew what was best for me, and how I should live my own life. I was going to enjoy those things in which I gloried. Thus, I wasted much of my high school years in drugs and alcohol. I left home a month before my eighteenth birthday to live in the manner that I chose.

In university I reaped some of the fruits of my labor.

Although I engaged in less substance abuse there, I skipped more classes than I attended, and left more than I sat through. The university thought that I shouldn’t come at all because of my poor grades. The Bible says, “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall” (Prov. 16:18), and I was proud. I had always thought of myself as being smarter and wiser than anyone else, and now it seemed that my pride was misplaced. I flunked out of school. I had a desire to fix my situation, and to restore that pride.

One day at work a co-worker told me she had not been to church since she came to university. Interested, I said that I would accompany her to a service, in fact there was a large church building with interesting architecture near where I lived. That Sunday we attended the service, and we went again a couple of weeks later. I can remember that the only one who came to greet us was the man whose job it was to do the greeting. Although we didn’t get too much out of the visits to that church, I felt good about myself for going. With that in mind, I wanted to attend church the following Sunday.

There was one problem—easily solved—which was this: the big stone building had no meeting on Sunday evening, and I was working in the morning. Thus, I decided to visit another (boring looking) place down the street. I thought that the evening meeting started at 7:30, so I showed up promptly at 7:29. To my surprise I was a half-hour late. The speaker had already started.

I sat down, noticing that although I was wearing cut-off jean shorts and my trusty sandals, most of the people there were either wearing suits and ties (for the men) or dresses (for the ladies). I remember that I didn’t really know what the topic of the message was, but not long after I arrived, the preacher finished and the meeting was over. w w w . u p l o o k . o r g

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Right away a man rushed over to greet me. “So tell me, what brought you out to Bethel Chapel?” he inquired.

Soon, he had found out quite a few things about me, and was interested in learning more. He was also interested in having me meet his wife. I met another person as well, a few more people, and some more, and more. It seemed to me that soon everyone in the place would know me.

This “receiving line” waned as I began to talk to a fellow, Sandy McEachern, and he began asking me about spiritual matters, so we drew aside into the nursery for some quietness. It was then that I found out why people were Christians. It wasn’t because they were square, but because they thought that due to sin and the penalty of sin, the only way to be right with God was to receive forgiveness through the sacrifice of the sinless Jesus. I was 21 years old, and this was the first time that I heard such a message.

That night, he invited me to receive forgiveness for myself, but I was unsure, and declined. He also invited me to play on the baseball team that they were starting up. Having a love of playing sports, I agreed.

Even though I agreed, I probably wouldn’t have gone unless someone had called, and that person even came to pick me up at my house. That summer I played with them, and I watched them. Even though they didn’t drink or swear or put people down, they still seemed to be happy and have fun. I went to the morning and evening meetings on Sunday, and heard the messages. It seemed to me that they were all directed at me—“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” I didn’t know what they could have gotten out of those messages.

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very impressed with the character of the people, and with the fact that they seemed to really want to honor God by their lives.

In the fall, I was invited to go on the Upward Bound retreat, which is held in Waterloo, ON, for a week, before they go camping in Algonquin Park for the second week. I was invited to attend the camping part— another love that I have. The trip was great, and we were able to get some time alone to think. It was in the quiet moments on that trip that I decided that I wasn’t going to be a Christian. They were great people, but I didn’t believe what they believed. I would have to find something else that would work for me.

As hard as it was, because I genuinely liked the people, I stopped attending Bethel. Weeks later, as they gathered for a mid-week prayer meeting, someone said, “We haven’t seen Dan for a while. Let’s pray for him.”

That night I felt a great sense of loneliness, and so I went for a walk to think some things over. I thought of how I was leading my life. I was trying to hide the emptiness inside by keeping busy. I thought of all that I had heard at Bethel, and from the Christians.

Two things stuck out in my mind. Jesus said that if a person heard His words and obeyed, it would be like building a house on a rock, and when the storms came, the house would stand. That was what I wanted. I had already ruined my life up to that point; I was looking for the truth to which I could cling in building my life back up. Could I trust Jesus? Well, He had a lot to say about life and how to live it, but He also had a fair bit to say about death and what happens afterwards. The fact that He rose from the dead proves that He knew what He was talking about. With those two things in mind, I thought that the most logical thing would be to follow Him. And so, on the corner of King and Bridgeport, I made a commitment in my heart, to follow Him wherever He would lead me.

I hurried over to the gas station where a friend worked the graveyard shift, and boldly announced, “I

think I’m going to get baptized!” That’s all I knew to say. That Sunday I went to the meeting, and afterwards I tried to say what had happened, but fortunately I didn’t have to say much—they could tell. The following Sunday I attended the Lord’s Supper for my first time, where I unashamedly shed tears of joy. Two weeks later I was baptized.

That old pride in my supposed cleverness was exposed and didn’t survive, but my heart was restored, and my life was made useful. With God my academic failure was changed to success. His ways are good. I am now convinced that to follow Him is better than anything that the world can offer.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.

It wasn’t long before testing came. I was accepted back into university, but because of my failures, I couldn’t receive any provincial loans. I had a bit of money saved up, and my Christian grandparents helped wonderfully, which gave me enough to pay tuition. I still had books, rent, and food to worry about. I prayed.

The Lord, it seemed, wanted me to go to school, and I complied. I applied for a bursary for the amount that I needed to get me through the semester: $1200. I received the bursary. This was good news and I would have been very happy about it if I didn’t have another concern—a painful toothache, that demanded my attention. The cost of fixing it? $1187. That was the money that I was to live on for the next four months!

As the receptionist explained the cost, my heart sank.

But God provided. I was able to work part-time.

Some dear brethren gave me money without being asked. I lived economically. The Lord brought me through. In my need I was thrust on Him, forced to rely on His provision. In seeing God meet my needs here, I am more fully convinced that He will meet my needs

all the way Home.

Between the Leaves Between the Leaves is a new publication devoted to the reviews of books of interest to Christians. This eight-page bi-monthly newsletter is published by Autumn Leaf Limited of Grand Rapids, MI, and edited by Kevin Shantz. Annual subscription fee is $12.00 (US$15.00 for those in Canada and abroad.)

Quantity discounts are available. A free sample issue can be downloaded at www.betweentheleaves.com or you can obtain the print edition by writing to Between the Leaves, P. O. Box 140225, Grand Rapids, MI 49514-0225 or info@betweentheleaves.com We are also looking for individuals to submit reviews for future issues. Visit our website or write for further details.

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Four Fundamental Truths Biblical clarity is essential.

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It is capable of demonstration that every great expansion in Christian history has been a product of some type of re-thinking of fundamental ideas. It is necessary to remember that too frequently old truths, losing their vitality, have become a hindrance to the progress of the gospel. Not the least hindrance to the gospel has been the manner in which the old truths have been entombed in archaic language misunderstood by succeeding generations. Thus there is the constant need to come to grips with fundamental truth—sometimes to abandon archaic ways of speaking, and sometimes to rediscover the old emphases. The purpose of this paper will be to consider four fundamental truths. It is not suggested that these are the only “fundamentals.”

SIN In our day it is relatively seldom that books are written, or sermons preached, on the subject of sin. The story in told of a former president of the United States, Calvin Coolidge. As was his custom, he had attended church on a particular Sunday, but his wife had been indisposed. Upon his return, she asked him what the sermon had been about. In typical laconic fashion, the president replied, “Sin.” “What did the minister have to say?”

“He was against it!” Perhaps the president’s comments were more penetrating than we may imagine.

It is quite common to find that many are confused about the difference between “sin” and “sins.” This confusion is increased by the Roman Catholic doctrine of baptismal regeneration whereby “original sin” is purged away. In fact, the true meaning of sin in all its seriousness is not likely to be understood until we make a new and honest approach to the biblical teaching on the subject. We may then begin to recognize the non-biblical sources of such dogmas as “original sin” and “baptismal regeneration.” At these basic points some have not managed to get free from the wrong turns taken in the thinking of Christians who came long after the New Testament writers, and who seriously misunderstood those writings.

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ing of those who proceeded to interpret Augustine.

Suffice it to say that Augustine’s doctrine of “original sin” came to light when he was in a debate, and when—with the typical tricks of rhetoric of which he was a master—he was more anxious to make a point than to state ultimate truth. Once having fathered a catch-phrase, it was difficult to reconsider the issue. It is doubtful if the Christian world would ever have heard of “original sin” if Augustine had not been involved in debate with Pelagius. It is a tragedy that modern understanding of the nature of sin is clouded by a fourth century debate. Let us therefore try to get back to the Scriptures, and see what is there stated.

First we need to recognize that sins are the symptoms, while sin is the disease. We know a good deal about the symptoms, but it is too easy to overlook the real nature of the extremely grave disease from which we all suffer. We need only look at the state of the world today to make us realize that there is something radically wrong with man’s moral and spiritual nature.

In the Augustinian concept of “original sin,” we suffer the guilt of another person’s sin—the sin of Adam!

This is an immoral idea! Ezekiel wasn’t an Augustinian! There is no playing with the idea of “original sin” in Ezekiel 33:1-9. It can be shown that Augustine was trying to emphasize the seriousness of sin, but he continued to make sin a mechanical thing instead of a moral thing.

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considers vice, wrong-doing as it affects individuals.

But God deals with sin: that is, man’s fundamental wrongness as He, the Creator, sees it.

The Genesis account of man’s fall into sin does not present a glaring example of crime, nor yet a lurid manifestation of vice: it does describe man’s decision to go his own way. In Genesis 3:5 the tempter is recorded as saying, “Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” Man aspired to be his own god, and to judge good and evil for himself. Man’s reaction when he was given the opportunity to choose was to say no to God, and yes to his own will. At the root of his sin lay his decision to rule his own life. This involved him in rebellion against God, the root of all sin. Each man faces the same choice, and all, except One, have fallen before the same temptation. I sin when I, the creature, forget or refuse the purposes of Him who created me. I sin when I say no to Him, and yes to my own desires.

What are the consequences of this sinning? In the first place, sin is seen in man’s determination to make his own appetites the purpose of his life. This produces the obvious sins of selfishness, covetousness, gluttony, sloth, lust and all their foul brood.

But at a deeper level, sin appears in man’s determination to make his own thoughts, his philosophy, his “religion,” to be the measure of what he calls “good.”

The ultimate in goodness is limited by the measures of man’s mind. This produces, on the one hand, the gross evils of corrupt religion and godless ideologies. On the other hand, it produces the disorders of secularized life, in which religion is not so much denied as considered irrelevant. Thus, the life which men call “respectable,” even “good,” may be profoundly sinful in God’s sight simply because His purposes are neglected. The man who stands aloof, sneering about the hypocrites in the church, may in fact live a more ethical life than do certain “hypocrites” whom he despises. But he lives such a life to please himself, erecting his own will as his highest good. He has said that radical no to God and yes to himself. Meanwhile, the poor hypocrite in the church who may be making a poor record as a follower of Christ is nevertheless a man who knows that ultimately he has to do with God. He recognizes himself as a sinner who needs salvation: he is trying to say yes to God. His condition is immeasurably better than that of the man who is indifferent to God’s demands.

We must also consider the judgment on sin. It is not sufficient to say that sin is its own punishment. We see the havoc wrought in this world by sin, but this is only

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the earthly penalty. The essential judgment on sin is in complete keeping with its nature. If man has been given by God freedom to choose, it is a freedom which carries consequences. The full horror of the eternal penalty on sin is the fact that the man who persists in his no to God excludes himself eternally from the realm of God’s blessing. God sends no man to hell— man, by his own choice, sends himself to that horrible destiny. But if man gives his yes to God, God’s gifts of grace are able to do their work in and through his life.

Thus the true penalty of sin is eternal death, just as the true blessing of God’s grace is eternal life.

GRACE The consequences of man’s sin are met by God’s grace. Grace is not defined in the Bible. For that matter, the Scriptures do not offer definitions of any major doctrine, though there are descriptions and inferences to be drawn. From the manner in which the word is used we are able to see that it contains at least four radical ideas. First, grace is that which God gives; second, it is of His free mercy, and not from any necessity; third, man cannot discover or earn it for himself, he has no natural right to it, and can only receive it as a gift; and fourth, it confers on man something wholly other than anything he possesses by nature.

Grace may be seen in operation in the Old Testament in many places, but a few illustrations will suffice. When Adam and Eve sinned and fell under the curse, God gave them a promise (Gen. 3:15) which was essentially gracious in character. Likewise Abraham received the promises by grace (12:1-3). The choice of the children of Israel to be God’s elect nation was entirely of grace (Deut. 9:4; 14:2; Ezek. 16:1-14). This in an entire reversal of the understanding of the nature of Deity as was to be seen in the heathen nations of those times. They regarded their titular deities as being bound to them by various ties, and under some kind of obligation to them, whereas Israel knew herself to be entirely under obligation to God. There is considerable extension of the understanding of the meaning of grace as we study the New Testament. While God demonstrated His grace to men before the coming of Christ, He revealed the full measure of His grace in the gift of His only begotten Son. This complete revelation was manifested in at least six major elements connected with the coming of Christ.

1. The Eternal Son “was made flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn. 1:14). The fact of the Incarnation is the

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4. He ascended into heaven to be our High Priest before God (Heb. 4:14). Just as the resurrection demonstrates the significance of the cross, so the ascension comes as the inevitable and essential crown of glory to all of the incarnation. After His resurrection He withdrew from the self-imposed limitations of His incarnation, yet He did not cast off His manhood. He went from this limited physical contact with His disciples so that He might be always present with them.

5. The Holy Spirit, who “proceedeth from the Father and the Son” has come to complete the work of grace in the believer’s life (Jn. 15:26; 16:7-15).

Upon this particular point more must be said later.

While all of these matters are connected with our Lord’s earthly ministry, we cannot ignore the end and purpose of grace. The Scriptures constantly place before us the coming time when the whole creation will be redeemed, and the new heaven and new earth will be given by God (Rom. 8:22; 1 Cor. 15:47-54; Eph. 1:10; Rev. 21:1-5; 22:1-5).

To sum up this matter of grace, we need to remember that the New Testament repeatedly denies that man can of himself gain or earn forgiveness of sin or anything else pertaining to the spiritual life. The one thing he can earn for himself is the wrath of God (Rom. 6:23). But the fact that man cannot earn the blessings of God does not mean that he cannot receive them. In fact, the emphasis of the NT is that any man, no matter how sinful he may be, can receive all these blessings as the gift of God. The only barrier which can prevent him from receiving them is pride: that is, self-confidence before God. The only attitude which opens the way for man to receive all these gifts is humility and a willingness to receive as a penniless beggar what God offers in grace. If we would be enriched by God’s supreme gifts, we must always beware of all forms of dependence on our own works or capacities (Lk. 17:7-10; 18:9-14; Rom. 4:4; 11:6; Gal. 3:21; 5:4).

basic emphasis of the fourth Gospel (see Jn. 1:1-18; 20:30-31). By word and deed He revealed God to men (14:9). In this regard the self-imposed limitations of His humanity are singularly important. The two earliest heresies concerning His Person could have destroyed the essence of the revelation had they been accepted. The one heresy, Docetism, made Him entirely deity, and stated that anything human about Him was merely a phantom. The other early heresy, Ebionitism, emphasized His humanity and denied His deity, thereby reducing Him to the status of a prophet who obviously, then, was deluded at certain important points.

The Docetic heresy made nonsense of the assertion, “We have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15).

We must always remember that divine revelation must be capable of being apprehended by man. The unique authority of the revelation in and through the Incarnate Son is in the fact that He enters our society recognizably as a man and speaks and acts as a man.

His uniqueness as Godman (to use Anselm’s great phrase) is seen only as we look back from the vantage point of the resurrection and ascension.

2. He gave His life on the cross as a ransom for many (Mt. 20:28). Whatever theory of the atonement we accept, no theory is big enough to explain all that God has done for us. But no understanding of the cross can be reached which does not involve a recognition of who it was that died there.

3. He rose to be “the first-begotten of the dead” (Rev. 1:5) and “Head over all things to the church” (Eph. 1:22). The focal point of the NT is the resurrection, as Paul strongly asserts in 1 Corinthians 15, especially verses 13-20. Paul emphasizes this point in one way; John emphasizes it in another (Jn. 20:26-31). It is only as we face the fact of the resurrection, with its proof that Jesus of Nazareth is uniquely the Son of God, that we are able to understand anything of the significance of the cross. It is as we take this view of the cross, and what happened there, that we recognize the significance of Paul’s assertion that Christ is the Second Adam. As the first Adam fell before the temptation, choosing to go his own way, so the Second Adam reversed the tragic process by being perfectly obedient to the will of God. “Nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt” (Mt. 26:39): and ultimately there comes the cry of victory, “It is finished!” (Jn. 19:30), which is the final answer to the sin of Adam. w w w . u p l o o k . o r g

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FAITH What is faith? This question is asked by many, and asked with urgency, since the Scriptures indicate that salvation is connected with faith. The non-Christian man is liable to say that “faith” is credulity. Others suggest that faith is a kind of “faculty” given to some but not to all—just as some have marked artistic talents, while others lack such gifts. We can reject both of these ideas forthwith, because if faith were not connected with profound spiritual realities it would have been for•

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gotten long since; and because all who have any experimental knowledge of faith declare that it is within the reach of every man. Experience proves that the scriptural “whosoever” is true.

Faith is more than intellectual assent to some statement of fact. It is more than simple belief. I believe that the world is round, but that belief does not transform my life. Likewise a man may believe in God and yet lack faith (Jas. 2:19). Some people therefore ask: Is faith a spiritual activity within myself by which I effectively lay hold of a divine blessing? If it is this, then we must always be haunted by the doubt: Have I sufficient faith? But this question is not raised in the NT in respect to the faith required to receive salvation. On the contrary, people who appeared to be little developed spiritually were able to enter instantly into the blessing.

(Note Mt. 8:5-13; Mk. 5:25-34; Lk. 23:39-43; Acts 16:29-34.) In the case of Cornelius (Acts 10:44) faith is not even mentioned, but it is said that “the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.”

It is quite clear in the New Testament that “hearing” and “faith” are connected. “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Rom. 10:17). This gives us a clue to the true understanding of faith. God speaks to man; man hears the Word of God; that Word begets faith in him. Faith is not something which we possess of ourselves: it is our humble yes to that which we recognize to be the Word of God. Thus faith is the true opposite of sin. As sin is our no to the Word of God, so faith is our yes to His Word.

Many of us heard God speaking to us the word of condemnation on our sins. Perhaps He spoke through the Scriptures, or through some other writing, or by the spoken word of a preacher or friend. However the word came to us, we knew that God had spoken, and that we were condemned sinners. Then we heard His word of mercy through Christ. His Word declared that Christ had borne our sins in His own body on the tree, and that for His sake we were forgiven. Again, and in the same way, we heard God’s Word to us, and knew it to be true—true for us—and humbly answered with our yes. That hearing was faith. Now we go forward in confident trust, knowing that everything depends on the truth of the word which God spoke to us. Likewise, we enter into all of the rest of God’s gifts and promises, by hearing His Word to ourselves, and knowing that He speaks the truth. So, in faith, we move into all the richness of God’s gracious gifts, becoming His children: heirs of all His glory, joint-heirs with Jesus Christ!

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THE HOLY SPIRIT As mentioned above, the Holy Spirit completes the work of grace in the believer’s life. The essential work of the Spirit is to glorify God and bring to fruition God’s work in the individual. As the fullest manifestation of God is in Christ, it is thus the Spirit’s task to bring us into vital relationship with God through His Son. The Scriptures indicate a number of the functions of the Spirit. He convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment (Jn. 16:8-11); He strengthens and directs them in temptation, adversity and opportunity (Jn. 14:16; Mk. 13:11; Acts 13:2; 16:6; Rom. 8:26); He sanctifies—makes saints of—believers (Rom. 5:5; 8:13; 15:16; 1 Cor. 6:11; Gal. 5:22); and He gives such special powers as are needed for the service of the gospel and of His Church (1 Cor. 2:4; Eph. 4:11-13).

We are so used to thinking of the more striking manifestations of the Spirit’s power that we tend to overlook how completely the whole life of the believer is conditioned by His presence. The whole development of the believer’s life is the work of the Spirit.

A variety of gifts were discerned in the experience of the Church, and it was recognized that they were distributed at the will of the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:1-11; 28-30) for the purpose of spreading the gospel and building up the church. These gifts are given as He sees the need for them; perhaps we already possess something which we are neglecting (1 Tim. 4:14; 2 Tim. 1:6); but anxious, self-centered striving for our own glory has no place in the Christian life. As we give ourselves to serve Him according to His will and for His glory, we shall unfailingly be given powers to accomplish even the seemingly impossible (Mt. 19:26; Phil. 4:13).

Paul uttered an extremely significant word when he said: “Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His” (Rom. 8:9). If we are His, we will partake of His Spirit. People who have to deal with us will be able to recognize His Spirit in us. If I have said my serious no to self, to my own will and purposes, and my serious yes to God through Jesus Christ, it must follow that day by day I will become more and more what He would have me be and His Spirit will be ruling my every deed, word and thought.

So here they stand, like four massive pillars on which rest God’s unerring truth: sin and its consequences, grace and its enrichment, faith and its response to God’s voice, and the marvelous ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

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Hold Fast Seven key facts to get a grip on.

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“Hold fast” is a word which occurs twelve times in the Scriptures, three times notably in the messages to the seven churches: (1) “Hold fast till I come” (Rev. 2:25).

That is a long, powerful, and permanent grip. However dark the days and difficult is the path, “hold fast till I come.” (2) “Hold fast and repent” (Rev. 3:3). If inclined to lose heart, to slacken pace, repent and tighten the grip. (3) “Hold that fast which thou hast” (Rev. 3:11). That is, you have something worth holding; because of its merit and value, so hold it fast.

In order to make plain what we should “hold fast,” I want to discuss seven Bible truths of intrinsic spiritual worth which everyone should grip more and more firmly as the days darken.

THE GOSPEL “I declare unto you the gospel …how that Christ died for our sins…and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:1–4).

Time was when “the gospel” concerning the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, was preached in public buildings, rented halls, on street corners and door to door everywhere, but that time passed long ago. A dreary dearth of legalism set in, when law was preached more than grace, until nearly a hundred years ago, a reversal to the old gospel caused men to assert “that people could be saved as they sat, walked, and stood,” for God loved the sinner and Christ died for our sins. The message stated clear and plain “that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (Jn. 3:16).

Since the days of the 1859 Revival, the times of Richard Weaver, the preaching of Moody and Sankey, this message became so well known that fifty years ago few could realize what those days of darkness a century ago were like. Yet today, even in places where we w w w . u p l o o k . o r g

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might expect to hear “the gospel,” how little direct reference is made to the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord. Moral essays, current questions, miniature expositions, points of prophecy, and topics without number are handled, but the glad and glorious gospel in all its simplicity is seldom declared. Hence the need of the exhortation to hold fast to the gospel of a crucified, buried, and risen Lord Jesus, “able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him” (Heb. 7:25).

ASSURANCE “Ye may know that ye have eternal life” (1 Jn. 5:13). In early days they realized that “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life” (Jn. 3:36); they could rejoice that their names were “written in heaven” (Lk. 10:20); they were persuaded that Christ was “able to keep that which [they had] committed unto Him against that day” (2 Tim. 1:12).

Then the gospel came “in much assurance” (1 Thess. 1:5), but as the years passed, love waxed low, and truth became dimmed, numbers lost their assurance, till in the days of John Wesley and since, it has been asserted that a true child of God may fall away and be lost forever.

As well, through the mystic Calvinism taught in many churches, the mischievous doctrine of falling from grace taught in other places, and through various other theories and causes, thousands of true believers today have missed the “blessed assurance” which God meant to be their happy portion.

Yet many Christians accept the words of the Apostle John—“Ye may know that ye have eternal life,” and rejoice in the present possession of a life that is “everlasting” in the true sense of the word, and therefore cannot be lost. Still there is always the need to exhort one another to hold fast this precious truth.

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INSPIRATION “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Tim. 3:16-17), One of the serious theological battles in these last days has been that fought over the question of a fallible or an infallible Bible. Is the book which we call the Bible—insofar as it is a faithful translation of the original—the very Word of God: or is it, as some assert, a book of fables, myths, legends, and folklore, mixed with grains of truth?

If the former, then it behooves me to read it, know it, believe it, and value it more and more. If the latter, the sooner I place it in the furnace, and be done with it and its teaching, the better.

Prominent leaders in some of the principal denominations have openly denied the inspiration of the Bible.

They and others have introduced a standard different to the original “What saith the Scripture?” (Rom. 4:3).

About 180 years ago, a band of godly men, whose hearts the Lord had touched, after much prayer and meditation on the Word, decided to set aside all creeds, confessions, catechisms, and every human-drawn code of regulations, and to take “the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible,” as their complete and only

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rule of life, standard of truth, and guide in all matters relating to the Christian life, the Christian church, and the world at large.

They held that the inspiration of the Book was demonstrated in that it was the only book that could cause people to be “born again” (1 Pet. 1:23); could develop growth in the young believer (1 Pet. 2:2); the matchless cleanser for believers, old or young (Jn. 15:3); the Book that “builds up” and establishes us in our most holy faith, and as the text quoted at the beginning of this section states, the only book leading to perfection’s utmost heights, “that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”

Never more needed than today is the exhortation to true believers, old and young, to hold fast to the truth of the Bible as the plenary and verbally inspired Word of God, “which shall stand for ever” (Isa. 40:8).

THE GATHERING NAME “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them” (Mt. 18:20).

This gathering Name involves the unity of the church, as stated in the beginning of the great Church epistles, 1 and 2 Corinthians. The link is named in 1 Corinthians 1:2: “Unto the church of God which is at Corinth…with all that in every place call upon the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.”

At the Battle of Waterloo when the fight was grim and hard, an officer galloped up to the commander, the Duke of Wellington, reporting on behalf of his superior that they were being destroyed where they were, that they could not hold the position, and that they must have reinforcements.

Said the Iron Duke, “Tell him to stand.” The soldier galloped back and delivered the message.

Presently another officer came with the same request.

The Duke’s answer was the same, “Tell him to stand.” He went back, and a third came, begging in the name of his superior for the needed help. “I have no help to send you,” said the Duke, “Tell him to stand.”

He saluted and said, “You will find us there, Sir.” And when the battle was fought and won, there they were, all of them, dead in their place. They were prepared to stand—and die in their stand. As Paul would put it simply: “Having done all, to stand.”

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continue? “Till we all come in the unity of the faith…unto the measure of the stature (age, marg.) of the fullness of Christ” (v. 13).

Such a distinction as “clergy and laity” is unknown in the New Testament, was unknown in the early Church, and should not be acknowledged today. Every true believer is a priest unto God. Every one “justified by faith” can say: “We have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Rom. 5:2). Those who have “redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins,” can say “Through Him (Christ) we have access by one Spirit unto the Father” (Eph. 1:7; 2:18). The true priests of today are the “spiritual priesthood,” called, ordained, and “built up” by God. They need no human intermediary, as by virtue of our Great High Priest, “who ever liveth to make intercession for us” (Heb. 7:25; 8:1), they have immediate access into the presence of God at all times, and under all circumstances (Heb. 10:19).

The twofold evil of the present human system of “priests” or “clergy” is (1) that by the focusing on one man, it does not use all the gifts given by the Holy Spirit; and (2) appointing men unproved, at times unfitted, and, alas, not infrequently unconverted, to what is called the sacred office of a priest.

As C. H. Spurgeon well said, “A godly old grandfather who had preached the gospel. and lived the true Christian life for fifty years, was only plain ‘Mr.’ John Smith; while a pert grandson, who had been to college, acquired a smattering of languages and a mass of theology, who has little experience, and less grace, was the ‘Reverend’ John Smith.” For, be it noted, there is just as much authority for putting “Almighty” before any man’s name, as there is for “Reverend.” Both are the titles of Him of whom the Scripture says: “Holy and reverend is His Name” (Ps. 111:9).

“Hold fast,” then, to the God-verified fact of “every believer a priest,” relegate all ecclesiastical titles to their proper place—oblivion—and glory more and more in the truth that “we have such an High Priest” (Heb. 8:1).

Alas, even in the earliest days there were some not satisfied with the one Name, but said, “I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas (Peter); and I of Christ” (v. 12). And this has developed throughout the ages, until now we have a list of hundreds of leading denominations and numerous smaller ones around the globe. Such is aptly described in 1 Corinthians 3:4: “For while one saith I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos, are ye not carnal?”

Then what is the remedy? Back to the original, set aside all sects, denominations, parties, and cults of man; own no name but the one alone worthy Name of Christ, admit the only “one body” (Eph. 4:4); unite with “all who call upon the Lord out of a pure heart” (2 Tim. 2:22); have a warm heart for world-wide evangelization with the “one gospel” (Gal. 1:8), and keep looking for the one hope, the coming again of our Lord Jesus Christ (Titus 2:13).

After I enunciated these truths in a large meeting, a lady came to me and asked: “What Church do you belong to?” I replied: “The same as the Apostle Paul.”

“Oh,” she exclaimed, “then what church did he belong to?” “The same as I do,” I replied, “the only church which any one has scriptural warrant to belong to— “the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15).

But where can I find anything like this today? Look around for a company of Christians with this threefold mark: 1) they are separate from the world and its ways; 2) they are united in Christ Jesus; 3) they function as a living organism (not an organization), complete in itself with pastors, teachers, evangelists, and all the gifts from the risen Head. When you find it, like the apostle of old, be “with them” (Acts 9:28) as a real working partner.

THE PRIESTHOOD OF ALL BELIEVERS “Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God, by Jesus Christ…But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood” (1 Pet. 2:5, 9).

The appointment is made by the risen Head, as we are told in Ephesians 4: “When He (Christ) ascended up on high He…gave gifts unto men…and He gave some apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers” (vv. 8-11). What were they given for? “For the perfecting of the saints unto (RV) the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the Body of Christ” (v. 12). How long would these gifts w w w . u p l o o k . o r g

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SEPARATION UNTO GOD “Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers; for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? …or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel…wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord” (2 Cor. 6:14-17).

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In the ecclesiastical realm today, in most of the denominations (some more, some less) there is a hopeless conglomeration of saved and unsaved, believers and unbelievers, light and darkness, saints and infidels.

Christianity consists of a religious compound of real and nominal Christians, linked up with brewers, distillers, publicans, betting men, theatricals, sweepstake organizers and supporters, Communists, Theosophists, and anyone and every one who cares to be associated in what is called “Church Fellowship.”

Dr. Bonar, himself a Presbyterian minister, truly said, “I look for the Church, and I find it in the world; I look for the world, and I find it in the church.”

In the spiritual realm, members of the Church of God seek to be (1) separate from the world (Jn. 15:19; Heb. 7:26; 1 Jn. 2:16); (2) separate from one that “walketh disorderly” (2 Thess. 3:6); (3) separate from all who do not hold “the doctrine of Christ” (2 Jn. 9-10; Titus 2:7); (4) separate from those guilty of the sins named in 1 Corinthians 5:11, 13; above all, (5) separate unto God. “The Lord hath set apart him, that is godly for Himself” (Ps. 4:3).

Separation from fellow-believers who are sound in the faith and godly in life is not taught in the New Testament. The sanctimonious separation practiced by some today, of the stamp which says: “Come not near me, for I am holier than thou,” (Isa. 65:5) must be an abomination unto our God, who “setteth the solitary in families” (Ps. 68:6).

Never, never more needed than in this day of compromise, disloyalty to God, His Christ, and His Word. and laxity in Christian life, is the clarion call to come out—be separate.

THE COMING OF THE LORD The Saviour Himself said: “I will come again” (Jn. 14:3); the Messengers direct from heaven said: “This same Jesus…shall so come…as ye have seen Him go” (Acts 1:11); the great Apostle had the special revelation that “the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven…the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:16-17).

We are well aware that this subject, almost above all other Bible themes, has been abused: and caused to be disgraced, not only by foe, but by friend. Date-fixers by the dozen have calculated by years, days, by the feasts, and other ways, and fixed the year of the Coming, only

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to leave themselves disgusted as their date has come and gone and nothing has happened. Popular preachers by sensational titles, charts and pictures, have created a false interest and led to utter disgust and disregard of the whole subject. Charlatans have even used the Lord’s Coming to extract cash out of their followers, or to put themselves on a pinnacle ever with personal “profit” as the goal. Saint-splitters, by taking away the faithful or the “select” at the Coming, and leaving the unfaithful for some tribulation, punishment, or disadvantage, cause hearts to faint and hands to hang down.

Yes, we know that that which burned so brightly in many hearts, and led to such heroic lives and sacrifices of rich and poor, is growing dim, the terrible apathy which is settling down on church and world, is putting a veil on “that Blessed Hope.”

Yet we assert with confidence that “Jesus is coming.” The Man who bowed His head in death on Calvary’s tree, who lingers on heaven’s throne, will rise up from that throne, descend into the clouds, give a shout which shall raise everyone who has been truly born again (Jn. 3:5-7) and who has died. He will change every living saint into His own image (1 Cor. 15:51; Rom. 8:29); and blow the trump of God, which will take every true child of God away from the earth, into the air, to meet their Lord, and to be forever with Him in glory.

Differences of judgment there may be concerning the time of the coming, the manner of the coming, the results of the coming, even concerning the events before and tragedies after the coming, but differences on such details need not cause alienation of heart among His own. We all hold fast that the glorious Person of Christ, the triumphant Victor of Calvary, is coming again. Then He will receive the glory which is His due (1 Pet. 4:13), will be “glorified in His saints” (2 Thess. 1:10), and will receive the adoration of the unnumbered hosts of heaven (Rev. 5:12) and throughout the vast universe of God. Then He will be crowned “King of kings, and Lord of lords” (1 Tim. 2:2; Rev. 17:14; 19:16) and every knee shall bow to Him. “He which testifieth these things saith, surely I come quickly.” Oh, my soul, be stirred up to respond, “Even so, Come, Lord Jesus” (Rev. 22:20).

I can almost hear His footfall On the threshold of the door; And my heart, my heart is longing To be with Him evermore.

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31

UPLOOK

✔ A Biblical Checklist

The Top 20 according to the apostle Paul—from 1 Thessalonians 4:11-24

GOD’S PEOPLE NEED TO BE… 1. CARING (v. 11) “comfort yourselves together”

11. FORGIVING (v. 15) “not rendering evil for evil”

2. POSITIVE (v. 11) “edify one another”

12. WHOLESOME (v. 15) “follow that which is good”

3. AWARE (v. 12) “know those who labor among you”

13. JOYFUL (v. 16) “rejoice evermore”

4. SUBMISSIVE (v. 12) “and admonish you”

14. PRAYERFUL (v. 17) “pray without ceasing”

5. APPROACHABLE (v. 13) esteem highly in love

15. THANKFUL (v. 18) “in everything give thanks”

6. LONGSUFFERING (v. 13) “be at peace”

16. EXERCISED (v. 19) “quench not the Spirit”

7. CAREFUL (v. 14) “warn those who are disorderly”

17. OBEDIENT (v. 20) “despise not prophesyings”

8. UNDERSTANDING (v. 14) “comfort...small-souled”

18. THOUGHTFUL (v. 21) “prove all things”

9. SUPPORTIVE (v. 14) “support the weak”

19. UNCOMPROMISING (v. 21) “hold...to the good”

10. PATIENT (v. 14) “be patient toward all”

20. WATCHFUL (v. 22) abstain if it even appears evil

OUR GOD IS…

(see vv. 23-24)

a) The God of PEACE

d) The God who can PRESERVE in every situation

b) The God who SANCTIFIES

e) The God who is FAITHFUL

c) The God who has BIG PLANS for us

f) The God who always SUCCEEDS