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Interesting Questions
"NOW ARE WE THE SONS OF
GOD"
QUESTION.--Are consecrated believers actually or only reckonedly sons of God? Answer.--Consecrated believers
are actually sons of God. The Scriptures so state the matter. "Now
are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we
know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as
He is." (I John 3:2.) Old things have
passed away and all things have become new. (2 Cor.
5:17.) Either you are a son of God or you are not a son of God. If you
have made the proper consecration and God has begotten you of the Holy Spirit,
you are a son of God. It is just as well, dear friends, that we have this
matter clearly before our minds.
In England a business man said to us
after one of the great Albert Hall Meetings, "I was out to hear you at
Albert Hall, and you discouraged me very much." At first we did not know
what he meant. As he proceeded we found out. He said, "I had been thinking
that I was a good Episcopalian, and that if God had anything good to give away
I should be sure to get it if any one would. From the way you talk I see you
think there is only a 'little flock' which gets these good things which the
Father has. You have quite upset my faith."
When we came to understand what the gentleman
meant we told him that we were very glad, for we wanted to wake him up before he should die with such a misunderstanding of God's terms. God is not
calling people who say, "I would rather serve You than go to hell, but
that is all the interest I have in you." God is calling those people who love
righteousness and hate iniquity. Of that kind He is getting the
number He wants for His special place--to be joint-heirs with His Son. He is
not calling the remainder of mankind. After this Gospel Age will be the
time for those on the earthly plane to receive their blessing, to reach human
perfection.
But the only ones who will ever get the
spiritual or high calling are those who are saints. How can we suppose that God
will exalt to association with Jesus, as members of His Body, any who are not
saints at heart, pure in their intentions, especially pure--loyal to God
to the very core? Would you expect Him to take any others? You would not
even respect the Government of God if you knew He would have all sorts of
people in highly exalted places and give them the divine nature. If you
believed such to be the case you must lose all respect for the Almighty's
Government. But when He tells you that all those who will be highly exalted to
association with Jesus will be copies of His Son, you will say, "That sounds
right." It is right. The Lord's ways are just and righteous
altogether. If we should never make our calling and election sure we would say,
"True and righteous are Thy ways, Lord God Almighty."
But we could never count it right if anyone
should be roasted through all eternity or in Purgatory for a time. We could
never agree to the righteousness of that. Such [R4932
: page 446] ways would be most unjust. There is no one who for
his shortcomings could ever warrant the sentence of eternal torment, or even
one hundred years of torment, or even one year of torment. It could not
be right for poor, imperfect human beings to be held responsible for perfection
and to be tormented because of coming short of it. But you know, and everybody
knows, that to whatever extent you co-operate with evil, to that extent you
will bring upon yourself degradation, mental, moral and physical; and every
step you go downward must be retraced, if you attain to anything good in this
life or in the life to come. [R4933 : page 446] There
is a righteous recompense of reward, as the Scriptures say, to the righteous as
well as to the evildoers.
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THE LAND WAS FORCED TO KEEP ITS
SABBATHS
Question.--In
a chapter in Vol. II of STUDIES IN THE SCRIPTURES it is shown how the Israelites
while in captivity were forced to observe the Sabbaths which they did
not observe before. Why
are these Sabbaths called Jubilees in Vol. II?
Answer.--What the
Second Volume of STUDIES says is, not that the Jews were forced to keep their
Sabbaths while in Babylon, but that the land was
forced to keep these Sabbaths, while the Jews were in Babylon. God says so. (2
Chron. 36:20,21.) The Jews were commanded that in the Jubilee year the land
should rest. Like the rest of humanity, somewhat selfish, they were afraid
that if they should let the land rest a whole year they would get behind in
their taxes, etc. So they did not properly keep those Jubilees. Israel had kept
nineteen Jubilees up to the time when they went into captivity; and the Lord
was greatly dissatisfied with them. He said: While you have had the land, the
land did not observe the Sabbaths. You did not keep the Sabbaths properly. We
are not herein blaming the Jews, for we believe that if the Lord should put
such a commandment upon the United
States or any other country, very few would
keep it.
According to the Law, the Sabbath year occurred
every seventh year. The people were instructed to count seven times seven
years, and then came the fiftieth, the Jubilee. Thus two Sabbaths came
together, one of which, the fiftieth, was the great Jubilee year. The Jews kept
these Sabbaths in a half-hearted way; so the Lord put them out of their land
into the enemy's land, until their land should accomplish her Sabbaths. Evidently
God did not wish the Jew to understand the full import of these time features;
for the Jew does not understand even to this day. If God had meant for the Jew
to understand, the Jew would have understood. But we believe that these time
features were meant chiefly for the Spiritual Israelite, and that the number 70
was put there to show us when the time should come for the Lord to bless
Israel
and the whole world. When the time comes, then the Jews will understand about
their Sabbaths, the captivity and the fulfilment of all things. But we get this information from the spiritual source, a higher source than the Jews
and the remainder of the world.
W.T. R-4932a : page 445 - 1911r