| Show NECESSITY OF continuous revelation continued prophecies IN THE NEW TESTAMENT without entering into more minute examination of the remaining epistles I 1 will proceed to consider some of the prophecies of the gospel dispensation prominent among these prophecies are those which predict the establishment of a new dispensation in uie last days our savior calls it the regeneration and says that in that dispensation the son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory and the twelve shall sit upon twelve thrones matt 28 peter says that christ Christi is to be in heaven until this new dispensation the times of restitution of all things comes acts iii 21 jude quotes a prophecy delivered by enoch about this dispensation I 1 behold the lord cometh with ton ten thousand of his saints to execute judgment upon all jude xiv 16 15 paul 2 thess there it ii is very clear and minute concerning the ehnts that hud hid to transpire between his bis own time and the dispensation of the last days 1 A falling failing away a general apostasy apoe apo tacy stacy was to take place first and 2 that man of sin the son eon of perdition be revealed M it is further pointed out that the power of apostasy apo stacy was already at the time of the writing of paul secretly at work only there was something that hindered this power from appearing openly but as soon own as this obstacle the roman imperial power had been removed the man of sin an i e the embodiment of the spirit of apostasy apo stacy would boldly appear and this man of sin would hold his bis sway over the world until destroyed by the brightness of the coming 1 of the lord v 8 and this apostate power is further described as one opposing and exalting himself above every other authority or a god both on earth and in heaven he is lawless aud sit teth in the temple that is he Is in a christian 11 not an infidel power his coming is the work of Sat anand is accompanied by powers signs and lying those that would not believe the truth among the doctrines that should be advanced by this apostate power is noted particularly as a departure from the faith doctrines of devils P 1 also a prohibition of marriage which was a re vival of heathenism see I 1 timothy iv 1 6 5 all of which was fulfilled t to the letter letter in the revolution from Chriatian ism to romanism nothing can be clearer from these prophecies of paul than this shortly fy after his bis own time a period of apostasy apo stacy would follow during which all kinds of lies were to be promulgated in the nanae name of god but this period of apostasy apo stacy would again be followed by a new dispensation of truth and light the coming of the son of god in glory john wu was the last of the apostles he lived to see the spirit of apostasy apo stacy still more developed than did paul in speaking of it he be says that many anti christs had already come 1 john it ii 1819 18 19 tv iv 8 to him it was given to see in his apocalyptic visions the calamities that crushed the roman empire thus making way for the man of sin bin JIJI or the little horn of daniel or the antichrist namely the great church of the world with her pontifical Ima image geP in rome borne he was permitted to see the subjugation and flight 10 tp lo the wilderness of the church of christ and the subsequent darkness that teat followed but he also like the former seers and prophets of the lord was permitted to behold in the future the ti first rat ray P of the new dispensation the millennial kingdom to be established never to be overthrown let us pause use for one moment and reflect if f the word of god is sure bure this fact to is surely established that the reign of antichrist anti christ shall he be followed by a new glorious dispensation the millennial reign of tho the j conof son of god there is scarcely an event in the scriptures more frequently predicted than this all the previous dispensations of gott god are nothing but reparations preparations for this the last and most glorious of all and at the commencement of which the hosts of heaven join the saints below in shouting hosannah I 1 hosannah I 1 hosannah Hos annab I 1 the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our lord and of his christ and he shall reign for ever and ever 12 rev xi 15 but it has before been proved that god never established a new dispensation dispensa pensa tion without renewing revelations during the damic adamic A dispensation which continued while man was yet without sin god revealed himself so bo also during the patriarchal dispensation god taught man how to offer sacrifices and to conduct woma worship hip the mosaic dispensation was established through revelation continued through centuries until years before christ the new testament dispensation or godfel gospel dispensation was wonderfully r rich ch in revelations which until the priesthood lest hood was taken away unto md god rev vii 6 5 and now can we believe that revelation theu and there ceased shall the last dispensation the most glorious of all the millennial reign of I 1 established without revelation only through the wisdom of man which b by the way is foolishness to god wol no such a view is madness it may be sound worldly theology but it is not the word of god all the prophecies that have been fu ful I 1 filed so far have in that fulfilment fulfillment been accompanied by divine revelation those prophecies that remain to be Sal filled willas will as surely be accompanied by revelations when chrlot first came his coming was heralded by angels by the spirit of god operating on men hie ministry was followed by revelations on the mount in gethsemane and the spirit was poured out upon his followers A nd yet at his first coming he appeared in humility despised by men in general what will not his second coming judging from this bring with IV it surely burely revelations cannot cease as long as god has promised to send his son in glory to visit this earth and its inhabitants preparations on the earth are necessary for such an event preparations that no man can make without the aid of divine revelations elat ions ious during the ages past god lias has tried the human race in every respect resie ct the patriarchal dispensation ended in a corruption which even the deluge could not check dispensation ended in the rejection and dispersion of the covenant people the gospel dispensation ended in the apo of the apostolic churches and the reign of A antichrist antich riot but god is prepared to gain the victory yet he promised in ia the end of time to establish that kingdom which shall stand forever never to be overthrown and hence the necessity of continuous revelation difficulties IN ascertaining THE MEANING OF THE in considering the question whether the bible is sufficient for the guidance of men to al it becomes becony a matter of great importance ance to ascertain whether the language employed by the sacred writers ers is is sufficiently clear cear A to be understood in all main points pointe at least if the spirit of gou god in directing the composition of the books of the bible intended to make these books a code of divine laws whereby further revelation should be ren rendered dered superfluous we may reasonably expect to find in the bible a clear language conveying the I 1 leas in a manner to be easily understood by the earnest reader we may expect to find no ambiguity no indistinctness human jaws are written with the greatest possible care lawmakers aim at cl clearoe eartie s seeing that this is indispensable when laws are made for the guidance of the citizen yet with all possible care in framing laws it has been found that no law ever was framed however carefully worded that could not be construed in more than one way hence the necessity of a supreme court to which whick all cases can he be appealed the meaning of any disputed paragraph of the law jaw authoritatively given no human law would ever be a complete guidance forthe forthe citizens without huab a supreme court now the question is simply this Is the bible clear enough so BO that it undoubtedly can be understood in only one way if it be then there may not be any need for the I 1 lou su preme courtl court 9 of divine revelation to appeal to in order to ascertain its meaning since this to is in noa no j instance doubtful but if the bible is not clear eiA enough ough if it is so worded that in many instances the same passage may inay lie ie understood in more than one way then further revelation is necessary in order to settle these points if every passage pas sage of the bit bibla does not dot convey only one meaning and this many passages can be and have been conis construed trued in various ways anti and if divine revelation be abolished then we aie exactly in this position we have a code of laws and a collection of doctrines but for the right understanding of those laws and doctrines we are entirely at the mercy of the sagacity or the stupidity of the theological lawyers with whom we huppen happen to be connected there is then no appeal no authority no certainty let us honestly consider some of the facts in the case wi shout shrinking from the ble conclusion first we are met by the sad fact that mankind has not dot yet been able to decide exactly how many and I 1 which of the ancient books really belong to the bible the protestant churches now accept sixty five books in all viz thirty eight in the old testament and twenty seven in the new but luther was not quite certain about the canonicity of all of the twenty seven books of the new testament the revelation JRe of john was always suspicious to him because he be did not understand it and the moral epistle astle of james he thought bethought was more fit t to be burned than to be read As to the books of the old testament a much later and better informed critic michaelis has proposed to exclude the two books of chronicles from the canon cabon while others have hatt had their grave doubts concerning the bong of songs but the catholic church so far from b being e ug disposed to diminish the number of books has added all those which by protestants have been called apocryphal the whole apocryphal collection was by the council of trent 1645 1545 declared to be holy scripture and the council did so with some antiquity in support of the decision too for the book of baruch is quoted as canonical by origen Athanas lus cyril and Epi hanius tabith judith adith wisdom wi dom of solomon Solo won and two are quoted as canonical by the great augustine whether ther then the bible should consist of seventy nine dine books including the four fourteen teon apocrypha or of sixty five or of only sixty one excluding the two chronicles and james and the revelation is yet a question awaiting dg its final decision and it would seem but reasonable remo not to abolish the immediate revelations from god until this problem has been satisfactorily solved secondly accepting any of the above mentioned books as canonical a great difficulty presents itself in determining the precise text what the first authors wrote is in some cases impossible to determine let it be remembered that our present bibles with their divisions divisi of chapters and verses are by no means exactly such as the first authors left them much is the work of uninspired mau man the original manuscripts were copied in Dum numerous erous editions and it was a always possible in fil copy copying i ng co deop a letter to misspell a word to leave out a word etc translations ami paraphrases have been made these were not dot always correct in every particular in the case of oatlie the old testament the original authors did not dot write the vowels but only the consoli consonants ants it was the work of later men to insert all the vowels but whether these later men in all instances or er even in most inserted the right vowels is another open question at all events if it were possible to prove that all the consonants of the old Teet testament ament are identical with those written by the original authors and therefore inspired yet all the cowets which are added many years afterwards db by uninspired men cannot be proved to be of divine origin or such as god originally intended them m to be A few instances may be quoted to illustrate the nature of such easily recognized changes as the sacred text has suffered in jonah i 1 9 the prophet says 1 I iama am a hebrew where the original reading probably was as the septuagint has it 1 I am a servant of jehovah the difference is between ivri hebrew anti and avdi the bercant her van t of jehovah in I 1 pet li ii 3 it will always be dubious whether the correct reading Is ie if ye have tasted that the lord is gracious or that the lord is chrid 1 the fact is that both th these so words were sometimes written with the letters CU che standing both to fo chrstos and JAre VAre afos atos gracious in genesis i 1 8 the words got god saw that it was good is wanting at the end of the second days creation but it is found in verse 10 in the middle of the third days work indicating di a transposition sometimes verses have been added by later copyists such variations amount to many thousands in IB all leaving the present text very far from satisfactory in its details theologians in admitting this as they are compelled compel Jed to do by the facts generally generall v smooth the disagreeable impression over with the assurance that none of all these variations in the text affect the meaning in the least degree the most inaccurate text ever writ written teD 22 they say leaves the truths of scripture substantially unchanged but this is evidently said more tor for the sake of the effect than for the sake of truth for the theologians themselves always insist on the very letter of the text the little words this Is ie were sufficient in the quibble between luther and calvin to cut the Protes body in two halves each wishing to roast the other in hell yes the theologians build doctrines not only on words but on forms of words discriminating between the meaning of the same words when used in this form or the other in a text where words worde are so important it is ridiculous to say that many mady thousand variations are of no importance and besides since we know there are many thousand variations how do we know that there are not many thousand more which have not yet been detected this question must be solved before we are prepared to admit that the bible is a sufficient guide and has done away with the necessity of further revelation but we will pass by the difficulties thus far pointed out we will suppose that we have settled beyond doubt the number of hooks books to be accepted as canonical we will suppose that the original text has been preserved and that the translations thereof in our vernacular tongues are correct all this we suppose and yet we will find the greatest difficulty exists that of understands under standi ug ng the sacred volume correctly indeed this difficulty is so great that probably not one single singh man now living cau can understand it all and those that understand part of it aright do so by the aid of the spirit of god some of the difficulties in understanding even the translations of the bible may now be pointed out jt t to is admitted that the words used in the scriptures are sometimes to be used in a figurative sense and sometimes in a literal sense what words are in each case to be u understood strictly and what figuratively must be left to the judgment of the reader and from this fa t numerous errors have arisen people have sometimes allegorized where no allegory was intended as org origen n in reading that abraham in his oad old age married keturah now he says the word Ket keturah means sweet odor and sweet odor refers td t the fragrance of righteousness hesire lie he concludes that abraham iu in his old age became very pious or righteous and tha this fact is meant when moses states that the patriarch married keturah equally absurd is |
