Work for the Jews
How are we to understand and to reconcile the counsel against work for the Jews, recorded in "Early Writings," pages 75, 76, with our present activity and emphasis in work for this people?
In the early fifties there was a certain man who professed he had a mission to perform in going to Jerusalem and building up a colony of our people, to bear witness to the message, with the hope that it might be the nucleus of a great work among the Jewish. people. Sister White was shown that it was useless for our people to spend time or money in those days to bring the gospel to the Jews; for they were not ready for it. And they surely were not. In those days the pent-up .prejudices of the centuries were in full action, and the Jews were not at all inclined to listen to the gospel.
Some years later, instruction was given to us in regard to starting work among the Jewish people; and in 1905 at the General Conference held in Takoma Park this message was given to the denomination:
"The time has come when the Jews are to be given light. The Lord wants us to encourage and sustain men who shall labor in right lines for this people."
Similar instruction came to us from time to time, and in 1911 there came a message from the servant of the Lord saying we should do more work among the Jews than we had been doing. The attitude of the Jews was changing, and the auspicious moment had come. In that year the Jewish Department was organized. Thus the instruction from beginning to end has been consistent, harmonious, illuminating.
F.C. Gilbert
Washington, D. C.
The Successor to Judas
Who took the place of Judas? Was it Paul or Matthias?
The position is sometimes taken that the action of the eleven apostles in appointing Matthias to fill the place vacated by Judas was premature and unauthorized, and that the vacant place was in due time filled by the Holy Ghost in calling Saul of Tarsus to be an apostle. This position is not supported by the Scriptures.
True, the choice was made prior to the day of Pentecost, but the book of Acts was written long after, and the record of that book has nu criticism to suggest on the action of the apostles. The chronicle states that Matthias "was numbered with- the eleven apostles." Acts 1:26. He is so reckoned in Acts 6:2.
In the providence of God, provision had been made for a substitute. Of those who had been in the company of the eleven, "all the time that the Lord Jesus went- in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that He was taken up," there were found two men who were qualified to bear witness to the great facts of the Saviour's life. The qualifications of the two were so balanced that the eleven felt themselves unable to make the selection, and prayerfully referred the point to' the Lord Himself: "The lot fell upon Matthias." There is nothing in this record which could lead us to infer that the Lord Himself had not from the beginning chosen Matthias to become the successor of Judas.
To this conclusion the Saviour Himself seems to set His seal. Speaking on one occasion to the little band of disciples, in which Matthias would also be present (as we may conclude from the statement concerning him in Acts 1:21, 22), he said: "Ye which have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." Matt. 19:28. These words were, in all probability, spoken to Matthias with the others. They were certainly not spoken to Saul of Tarsus. It follows, therefore, that the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb which are inscribed on the foundations of the New Jerusalem, will include the name of Matthias rather than the name of Paul.
The apostle Paul himself excludes the idea that he is reckoned among the twelve. In his record of the appearances of the risen Christ, he speaks of Him as appearing to the twelve. 1 Cor. 15:5. Why did Paul write "twelve"? Was it a slip? Impossible! No one of us would have made such a slip. The episode of the traitor is not forgettable. Even if Paul had made the slip in a moment's lapse of memory, it would have been noticed by someone and corrected. Then why should Paul refer to twelve apostles at a moment when there were only eleven? Because Matthias was present with the eleven, and he, as the record tells us, "was numbered with the eleven apostles." Paul so numbers him. From this word of Paul's It becomes perfectly clear that he did not count himself among the twelve, but that he did count Matthias in that company.
We are left, therefore, without any New Testament justification for assuming that the eleven, at the time when they were putting away everything that savored of the flesh, and fitting themselves for the reception of the Holy Spirit, proceeded in their own fleshly wisdom to appoint a successor to Judas without the guidance and sanction of the Holy Spirit.
W.T. Bartlett.
Nottingham, England.
Meaning of "Present Truth"
Is present truth constricted to our last-day warning message? or has every age had its present truth? In other words, what is the relationship of present truth to the "everlasting gospel" of the threefold message of Revelation 14? Please amplify sufficiently to make it clear and specific.
Present truth, it may be said, is that phase of God's "everlasting gospel" whose time, in the progress of the plan of salvation, has come for emphasis in any given period, but always in appropriate relation to the entire scope and provision of redemption. Today, present truth manifestly centers about the consummating features of the plan of salvation to be accomplished in our time, as disclosed in Revelation 14.
God has had but one complete and consistent plan for human redemption, conceived back in the days of eternity. It embraced God's promise of redemption; the enunciation of His full moral law; the incarnation of His Son; the substitutionary, atoning death of Christ as sacrifice on Calvary; His triumphant resurrection and ascension, with the consequent outpouring of the Holy Spirit; His priestly service in the heavenly sanctuary; and will culminate in His literal second coming in power and glory to gather the saints, dead and living, and ultimately to destroy the wicked. That, in its sweeping fullness, is the gospel, —"the everlasting gospel,"—because it came from everlasting and issues to everlasting. It is eternal both in its efficacy and in its effects.
Present truth in Old Testament times stressed the coming Messiah through graphic type and symbol. It focalized upon God's promised remedy for sin, as it sustained the claims of His majestic law. It pointed undeviatingly to the first advent.
Present truth in the days of John the Baptist called for the recognition of Jesus as present among men, the "Lamb of God," to be slain in order to take away the sin of the world. That was the phase of the everlasting good tidings then due.
Present truth after the resurrection and ascension centered in the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, to endue the followers of the risen Christ with power for world witness.
Present truth in Luther's time was focused on unmasking papal apostasy, and restoring the apostolic gospel after blighting centuries of papal dominance.
Present truth in Wesley's time involved emphasis upon vital godliness to supplant the deadening formalism of the conflicting creeds of Protestantism.
Present truth in William Miller's day led the minds of men to Christ's priestly work in the heavenly sanctuary, and to the startling fact of our Lord's impending return.
Present truth today must focus its emphasis upon the consummating phases of the everlasting gospel, now due or occurring, stressing the restoration of all truth to its sovereignty, and preparing the way for the imminent return of our Lord, the end of the world, and the destruction of all sin, apostasy, and rebellion.
Its grand theme is the full saIvation of God; its burden is the preparation of the whole man to meet God. Primarily positive in its provisions, it must correct the negations of error. Constituting the essence of all truth, it of necessity unmasks every kind of apotasy. The outshining of all light, it must perforce expose all the perversions of darkness; hence the unavoidable conflict over the Sabbath truth, which in its larger aspects constitutes the line of cleavage between truth and error, loyalty and rebellion. The sharper the conflict at the last, the clearer will be the contrast between fundamental truth and error, every truth being placed over against its counterfeit, and every digression met by the stressing of God's undeviating will. Its object and effect are primarily transformatory, not merely educational, renewing and redirecting the very nature as well as correcting erroneous beliefs and practices.
We conclude, then, that present truth involves that recognition of, and emphasis upon, the developing features of the one changeless purpose and provision of God's grace as it progresses through the centuries and culminates in our day.
And that preaching of the everlasting gospel which does not stress the feature due at the particular time, does not constitute present truth. Merely to preach today concerning the events clustering about the first advent and crucifixion of Christ, now historically nineteen hundred years in the past, without localizing on Christ's second advent as the consummating objective of the gospel of the cross, would be to be recreant to our bounden duty as God's appointed spokesmen.
L. E. F.