The Most Important Work on Earth
When Pilate asked Christ, "Art Thou a king?" Jesus answered, "Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world." Luke speaks very directly: When Pilate asked Him, "Art Thou the king of the Jews?" He answered "Thou sayest it." Centuries before the Christian era the prophet Isaiah, speaking of the redeemed, said, "Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty." The revelator, seeing in vision the Saviour when the saints were about to enter upon their reward, wrote, "He hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords"
Every king is supposed to have a kingdom over which he reigns. Often the Gospels speak of "the kingdom," "the kingdom of heaven," "the gospel of the kingdom," etc.; not a few of the parables are built around the "kingdom of heaven."
The Lord has two kingdoms, of which He often speaks in His word. One is the kingdom of ,grace, which the new birth brings to men in this life; the other is the eternal kingdom of glory, which He will Finally give to the redeemed as their eternal inheritance.
Revelation abounds with references to the fact that the saints will inherit this kingdom of glory when it is established. Jesus promised it to His children, saying, "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne." Daniel wrote, "The kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him." Again, we are told that He hath "made us unto our God kings and priests."
The children of the kingdom are frequently mentioned as of great value in the estimation of God. Through the prophet. Isaiah the Lord declares, "I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir." Of the church it is said: "Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people." Zechariah declared, "He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of His eye." If the people of God are so precious in His sight on earth, wayward and rebellious and marred by sin as they are, how will the redeemed be prized in glory? God has planned that they shall be "heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ." The esteem in which heaven holds the redeemed is beyond our comprehension,
All the peoples of earth belong to Christ by purchase as well as by redemption. But they have turned rebels against His government, and have entered into the service of sin. By some means they must be won back to love and serve God. In order that the wages of sin might be paid, and all men be set free from sin and at liberty to become children of the heavenly kingdom, Christ came to earth, and by laying down His own life paid the wages of sin.
The one thing that concerns heaven at the present time while probation lasts, is to secure candidates for the eternal kingdom. Nothing else is so important, nothing brings such joy to the heavenly beings, as this. Not only so, but God calls upon those who have found Him and who profess to love Him, to make the winning of subjects for His kingdom their first work. He has never asked that His servants should undertake to conquer new territory, but only that they win subjects to His kingdom through the preaching of the gospel. No service that His ambassadors can ever render to Him can equal in value the souls of men won from the ranks of Satan to serve the Lord, nothing else will so enhance the joy of heaven. Among His workers it is not eloquence that counts with Him, nor education, nor position, but the ability to win rebels to His government, to become His own obedient, faithful subjects.
The soul winner is doing the most important work on earth today, the work that counts for all eternity. Whatever else may be done, and however commendable other work may be, if it fails to win souls to Christ, it is not the most important work to be done for the Master. He is a King; His kingdom must be filled with subjects; and he who does most to lead sinners to become eternal subjects of the everlasting kingdom of God, best serves the cause of Christ.
I. H. E.
Evangelism Not a Drive
There is grave danger lest the imperatively needed rally call to universal soul winning in the church,—or evangelism, if you please,—shall be cast into the mold of a drive or campaign, and that its great objective shall be jeopardized by being popularized and sloganized, and so made abnormal.
We should resolutely set our hands to prevent this. Drives expend their force, and wane. Slogans lose their potency, and pall. But true evangelism, in its larger sense, is the church's normal, changeless task. A calm recognition of this solemn obligation, intensified by the lateness of time's hour and the deeper obligation of the custody of present truth, should lead us to an operating basis as a movement that will direct every agency—institutional and field facilities, ministerial and lay talent—to this one supreme objective. The hour has come for the entire church to be placed on an undeniable war-time basis. Extended effort in line with our goal should be a guiding principle, and the finishing of the work our supreme passion.
L. E. F.
What Is the Ministerial Association?
The Ministerial Association is a Service to the field, built about an assembling and distributing point. It will secure for you facts and information on Biblical and ministerial problems or methods of labor from experienced workers in any line or field.
It is an Exchange, operative between our evangelical workers on questions of mutual interest and concern,—the success of this feature depending upon freedom of participation by all our laborers.
It is a Medium, affording an opportunity for our appointed denominational leaders to speak to the entire force of conference workers on fundamental issues, and its essential emphasis representing their viewpoint.
It is a Stimulant, directed toward higher ideals and achievements in spiritual and intellectual lines, and the technical features of soul winning.
It is a Bond between workers in various special lines of ministry, making for oneness in faith and doctrine, hope and purpose.
It is an Encourager of youth in training for the ministry and Bible work while still in college, and later a stimulant when operating under the Interneship provision.
It is an Influence which cannot be gauged by material interests or figures and statistics, but by that deeper, more fundamental effect of a spiritual force upon a human life.
Such are some of the operating features of the Ministerial Association. But in the ultimate it is just the aggregate of evangelical workers of the movement—just you and me, leaders and rank and file, with our faces toward the goal, pressing on together toward God's ideal for a Christian ministry in these last days. It has no matriculation fee, no annual dues. If you are a worker, you belong.
Therefore, read and contribute to its official organ, the Ministry; join in its annual Reading Course, not forgetting 1931; feast on the good things of God, growing in grace and fruitfulness for the speedy finishing of the work.
L. E. F.
Our Greater Task
Aims is a fundamentally different, kI a greater and harder task than that which confronted the pioneers of this movement. They faced, in the main, a Bible-believing, Christ-honoring generation. Now the foundations of evangelical belief have collapsed in the public mind. Evolution, materialism, modernism, skepticism, and commercialism have emasculated the Christian platform, and the popular religious bodies stand on sinking sand.
For decades secular schools and theological seminaries have been inculcating the \subtle principles of unbelief. Scientists and lecturers have harangued the public. Both the secular and the religious press have aided and abetted by circulating books and periodicals by the million. And now radio is added to the list of major perverting agencies, until the concept of the man in the street and the man in the pew, as well as of the average clergyman, is utterly changed. Belief in miracles is looked upon as the result of superstition or ignorance.
All this we must not forget in our evangelistic approach. We have more to do than simply to change the observance of the Sabbath from the first to the seventh day, to correct misconceptions as to the nature of man, the true mode of baptism, et cetera. We must by the very force of circumstances begin at the foundation, and teach men to recognize and fear God, to accept His revealed word, to accept His divine Son, to enter into His salvation—and all in the distinctive setting of the threefold message in its fullness of both letter and spirit.
It is folly to be oblivious of the changed times and conditions. It is fatal to confine our labors to the methods of approach and the doctrinal emphasis of the decades of the past, for we live in a different world. Ours is a constructive task, rather than simply a demolishing of the structure of error. Ours is a positive salvation to be offered, the everlasting gospel as well as the negative warning. We must be men who discern the times, and adequately meet their challenge with a changeless gospel.
L. E. F.
United We Stand
The strength of unity can scarcely be estimated. There is resistless power in solidarity of heart purpose and outward objective. Next to the manifest smile of God through the approving witness of His Spirit, the consciousness of genuine support by one's fellow workers in the accomplishment of a difficult task is one of the greatest blessings.
On the other hand, the vitiating effect of slighting criticism or secret or open opposition is almost beyond calculation. It cuts the nerve, it saps the strength, it paralyzes the initiative, it seriously hampers and retards the cause we love. God will not hold him guiltless who weakens and undercuts the influence, and thus hampers the labors of his brethren.
In case of honest difference of conviction there is a straightforward, honorable way of talking or writing things over in the open. There can be love and respect, confidence and support, even if there is unfortunate and unavoidable difference of view. But sniping is contemptible. Undercutting is reprehensible. And the traitor attitude of betrayal is loathed by all true-hearted men.
This is the hour to pray each for the other, to love and shield and help one another, and to back one another in every possible way. As Christians we must exercise charity for human frailties and mistakes of judgment and those limitations which mark every finite being. God give us oneness of heart.
L. E. F.