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Show K PASTOR RUSSELL'S Bm SERMON Jewish Paradise Not the Christians Heaven IS, Mo.. Juno 11. Pnator jrcached hero twice today audiences. Both addresses of the ordinary ami well rt to make the hearers sit lotlcc. We report one of :s from a text we never beted be-ted and did not even know Ic (Acts li. -31): "For David i Into the heavens." stament Scriptures wo ac-al ac-al authority with the New id Pastor Russell, because upostles so accepted them, sed all of their teaching he false Impression which id amongst Christian peo-Old peo-Old Testament Scriptures hat their predictions have A. Is very erroneous. This tiered Bible study, and has v to grievous errors. It "mbered thai the Old Test-its Test-its the only dlvino revela-ifan revela-ifan durlntr the AloS years on to the time when Jesus was proclaimed "the Lamb :aketh away the sin of the rebraic Tradition, ild Testament, from Geh-l, Geh-l, not a single- suggestion a change of nature from Itual, nor of any other hat which God had orlg-for orlg-for man the Garden of ipes Inspired In "Israel by mlses pointed them for-!me for-!me when God's blesslnc te the curse of sin and Ift mankind from present ack to the original per-eed per-eed of the woman, It was Id ultimately "crush the " destroying the evil that , and establishing a reign s instead of the "reign of Messiah, as Emanuel, Lhese great blessings to rough Israel, they would nsst all nations by divine Ise, lost through dlsobe-ic dlsobe-ic restored through Mcs-jeotlng Mcs-jeotlng a change of nature 3 spiritual, the teachings itament led the Israelites Jod would make no change al purpose. He made not destroyed by fire nor to mder the cloud of slu and stes i, 3). He formed It to a human race, in his own less, Adam In his original sample. Testament tells nothing nly condition, likewise it iout a hell of fire or tor-cvlllsh tor-cvlllsh theories were in-leathon. in-leathon. from whom many i since absorbed more or ; doctrines. The law and refer to hell some slxty-the slxty-the hell which they teach a tomb, the state of death. ,st all mankind, both good hell, sheol, the tomb. : and Jacob and all the Ithout giving the slightest purgatorial suffering for lell of eternal torture. '. tho New Testament were it might here be noted Id they describe tho Hell which we Protestants and red up during the dark ,v Testament, whitten in nil accord with the Old ton In Hebrew the sheql the hades of the former, aur translators have, in )lc, mixed things up In a , giving us hell and pit riionymous Interpretations a.dos. "Orthodoxy" made thus our eyes of under-been under-been darkened through is of our great adversary. Darkness." dempniacal mlErepresen- tation of the divine character and plan Is soon to be scattered. The morning is at hand; the prince of light, the Savior. Messiah and Ills glorious church, will soon shine forth as the sun In the kingdom king-dom of the Father, while Satan will be bound for that thousand years that he may deceive the people no more. "Then all the blind eyes shall be opened and ?.!'. in? deaf ears shall be unstopped"; and Ly?.0wJed5Cl of tno Kloi'' of ln Lord shall fill the whole earth": and "to Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue confess, to the glory of God." "Slept With His Fathers." All through the Scriptures natural sleep Is used as a figure for death, as the present time of the reign of sin Is represented as a night time, and the coming reign of Messiah Is prophetically described as the morning of a new day. a new epoch. "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning," wrote David. The night lias lasted for six thousand years; the new day Is tho seventh thousand, the Sabbath of the great week. It will be the awakening time, as the six thousand vears of the rolgn of sin and sorrow are tho time In which our race has been going down into death Into the deep sleep from which none will come forth except by the call of Messiah. Tho penalty of death upon our race would have blotted us out of existence yke the bruto beasts had not God's niercv from the beginning made provision for a Redeemer and for His church and iolnt-helr; iolnt-helr; and for the Messianic kingdom; and for the resurrection, the awakening of all mankind, through this kingdom. It was In view of that hope of a resurrection resur-rection of the dead that believers spoke of their deceased friends as falling asleep. This expression is used frequently In the New Testament. St. Stephen fell asleep In death; St. Paul, having In mind the great work of Christ on behalf of the world and the eventual awakening of all, declared that believers need not sorrow as others over the death of their friends and neighbors, hut might realize that all "sleep In Jesus," and that eventually God, through Him, will bring to pass tho general awakening of tho dead, all of whom are yet to be brought to a knowledge of the truth that they may be saved from sin and death and obtain restitution (Acts 111., lfl-23). Pastor Russell quoted the Scripture. "Abraham slept with his fathers," and declared that Abraham's fathers "were heathen men. He called attention to the fact that good and bad, kings and princes and others, arc, In the Scriptures, Scrip-tures, declared to have fallen asleep. So it was with David. These all slept in the Bible hell In the tomb.. They are all unconscious; as tho Scriptures declare. "The dead know not anything; their sons come to honor nnd they know it not; they come to dishonor and they perceive it not of them"; "There Is neither -wisdom nor knowledge nor device de-vice In sheol (heli; the grave), whither thou 'goesl" whither all go (Job xlv . 21; Eccleslastes ix 10). "Thou Wilt Not Loave My Soul in Sheol." The prophet David declared his faith In a resurrection of the dead when he wrote. "Thou -wilt not leave my soul in hell (shc-ol, the grave), nor suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption" (Psalm xvl. 10). St. Peter (Acts 11. 25-31) calls our attention to the fact that tho prophet David did see corruption, corrup-tion, and hence that this statement was not In regard to himself but Jesus that the soul of Jesus -was not left in sheol (Greek, hades); and. additionally, the flesh of Jesus was not allowed to corrupt. St. Peter was pointing out the fulfillment ful-fillment of this prophecy of tho resurrection resur-rection of Jesus from the dead on tho third day, when he made use of our text. "David Is not ascended into the heavens: his sepulchre is with us nn Lo this day." SI. Peter's argument argu-ment Is that David was In his sepulchre sep-ulchre and' was still dead, but that his words were a prophetic reference to Jesus' resurrection. Many Christian people repeat cverv Sunday what is styled the apostles' creed, which declares the crucifixion aVid death of Jesus and His descent Into hell Into hades and that "God raised Him from the dead on the third daw" All intelligent Christians understand that the hell to which Jesus went was not purgatory purga-tory nor a place of eternal suffering, but the grave, sheol. tho tomb, the sUHo of death. Thla Is proved to be the apostle's apos-tle's thought by the words, "God raised Him from the dead, for it was not possible pos-sible that He should be holden" of death. Iavid Will Not Go to Hoavon, King David will not go to heaven, said Pastor Russell, and he will not desire de-sire to go to heaven, for the same reason rea-son that a fish has no desire to perch upon the limb of a tree nor a bird to make Its home under the water. As these animals have natures distinct and are adapted to the conditions which God has provided, so tho nature of man. even when brought lo human perfection, will enjoy and appreciate more the earthly blessings which God has provided for him than he would enjoy the heavenly blessings bless-ings which God has provided for the elect "little flock" "the church of the llrst-borns" (Hebrews xli, 23). The reason for this Is plain when wo remember the apostle's words. He declares. de-clares. "The natural man receive th not the things of the Spirit of God. neither ran he know ("appreciate! them, for they are spiritually discerned" (I Corinthians Corin-thians ii. 9. 10). And even when thus spirit-begotten and with their affections set on things above, the Lord's consecrated "little flock" experiences difficulty In keeping their affections on the Heavenly things and off. of the earthly things, because the latter appeal to them continually through all of their earthly senses. They are therefore exhorted to "look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that arc unseen." which "eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the great things which God has In reservation for ihose that love Him" love Him more than they love houses or lands, parents or children, or self. "We can plainly sec, then, that without this begetting of the Holy Spirit, which belongs, of course, to the servants and handmaidens of God during this Gospel age. none are able to appreciate the things unseen. And hence the world of mankind in general, brought back to perfection and all the way back, appreciating ap-preciating human perfection will be willing not. to sacrifice their earthly nature na-ture to obtain a heavenly, but will enjoy en-joy the earthly, under perfect conditions, In a paradise restored (Isaiah xxxv, Ezcklel xxxvil). David Was a, Prophet. On a previous occasion we saw the teaching of the Scriptures to bo that the first to bo blessed by Messiah's kingdom will he the ancient worthies Enoch, Abraham. Moses. David and the prophets and that these will be made princes in the earth. As one of these princes, the Prophet David will have n. very glorious station. His long career, his "ups and downs," said the pastor, show us the llcrhts and shadows of the prophet's character more particularly, perhaps, than In the case of any other Bible character. char-acter. And they show us a noble character, charac-ter, despite David's human weaknesses and the fnalltles of his flesh, augmented In power by his klncriy office and the misconceptions of klncly prerogatives which prevailed In his daw The beautiful traits of the character of David, on account of which ho was declared to be, not a "new creature," not a "son of God." not an "heir of God and Joint heir with Messiah," but "a man after God's oww heart" these traits wore his loyal obedience and his repentance of everything which In anv degree was displeasing to God and interrupted in-terrupted the fellowship divine. God's splrit-beirotten children may not, therefore, take the Prophet David or any of the ancients as their pattern. pat-tern. Only spirit -begotten ones can ! serve -as examples to the church. They should walk in the footsteps of Jesus, and may even take the apostles and other faithful brethren for examples. The apostle, however, suggests that the church may look back with profit upon tlje worthies of tho past, to note their degree of faith In God and their obedience obedi-ence to that faith. St. Paul, however, explicitly reminds us that God has provided pro-vided some better thing for us the church that the ancient worthies, without with-out us members of the Messiah cannot- b made perfect (Hebrews xt, 3S-40). Joint Heirship With Christ thoh Better Thing Eeserved for Christians. The "better thing" reserved '"for us" who arc called of God durlnir this gospel gos-pel age Is the Joint heirship with Christ. Jehovah s only-begotten son .and heir of all things, the partaking with him In all his subsequent work for. the blessing of Gods Intelligent creation. Therefore it Is. as the apostle states, that the reward of the ancient worthies tarries until first the overcoming gospel church is exalted to the throne of Christ in the dawn of the new dispensation, now so close at hand. As soon as the spiritual phase of the kingdom Ik established In power the sotting sot-ting up of the human phase will begin. In humble recognition, therefore, of the divine purpose and order in the superior exaltation of the gospel church, we repeat re-peat the apostle's statement that "thev (those noble, loyal, righteous, faithful ancient worthies) without us shall not b made perfect." But as to whether we shall be numbered num-bered among the "us" depends upon our successful running of the race set before nufw. Sl'rcIv "o ss faithfulness and nobility no-bility of character can be expected of us than of those who ran for the earthlv prize. And since all the blessings of God s plan the exaltation of the ancient worthies, the liberation of the whole world from the bondage of sin and death and the final judgment of angels await the manifestation of the spiritual sons of God, the gospol church, therefore the apostle (chapter 12). In forceful metaphor, points us back to those ancient worthies as a stimulus for faith and zeal, saving "Therefore also we. being compassed about with so great a cloud of martyrs Greek marturon who so nobly witnessed for God and righteousness, let us emulate emu-late them and J lay aside cverv weight and the sin which doth so ea-silv beset us. and let us run with patience the higher, heavenly race that is set before us. looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who, for the joy that was set beforo him, endured the cross, despising tho shame, and Is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." Jesus, our ransomer, is also our forerunner fore-runner and pattern In this race. He ran successfully, and. In consequence, is even now at the right hand of the throne of God. where wo also may go to him. Jesus's way to the crown was the way of the shameful cross, and ho said. If any man love me. let him take up his .cross dally and follow me; the servant is not above the Lrd. etc. Persecution and shame and grief and loss are our portion por-tion in this present world, but exaltation and glory will follow In due time. If we faint not. Therefore we are urged to consider his example and teaching lest we be weary and faint In our minds under un-der the trials of faith, patience and endurance en-durance of this evil day. "A little while; now he has come; The hour draws on apace The blessed hour, the glorious morn, When we shall see his face.' How light our trials then will seem! How short our pllsrim way! The life of earth a fitful dream, Dispelled by dawning day." |