“A.L.O.C.”-There are some who maintain that when the Church is taken away, the Holy Ghost will then be withdrawn. Is it so? 2 Thess. 2:7 speaks of a restrainer till the “wicked” sets himself up as God
A. The personal place in the Church on earth which the Holy Ghost assumed, as sent down from heaven at Pentecost, only remains true as long as the Church of God is here. You must distinguish between His actions on earth previously and Himself now personally dwelling in the Church, which is peculiar to Christianity. When it ceases as a system on earth, as existing only during Christ’s rejection and absence, the Holy Ghost’s personally dwelling on earth is no more needed; for Christ will then be present Himself and reigning in power. The Holy Ghost will then work, and His actions be known and manifested, as was the case before He came to dwell, and will thus continue to carry out all divine good as God’s direct power, and in the unity of the godhead.
Scripture does not state that the Holy Ghost is the One who “letteth,” in 2 Thess. 2:9. The wisdom of God has left the restrainer unnamed. Of old the saints believed it to be the then Roman Empire, and were probably right. Now, it doubtless is the power of God working by His Spirit in the Church on earth-as we can gather from general intelligence of the Word. When the Church is taken away there may be a long or short interval before the manifestation of the “man of sin.” God will then use whatever He pleases as the restrainer. It may be the Holy Ghost’s action in the godly Jew or whatever He wills. Hence it is left vague in the passage. Any instrument may be at the moment this restrainer in God’s hand.
The Holy Ghost will be “poured out upon all flesh “in the millennial day—a remarkable manifestation of His power and action. As to “dwelling” it is peculiar to the period of Christ’s rejection and absence. He is the Spirit of communion, leading the children of God into the consciousness of the possession of their own things.
When He ceases thus to dwell, the Lord gives a testimony to the world, through His, earthly people Israel—the Jew. This is termed the “spirit of prophecy,” because it is the desire produced in the hearts of the godly for what they have not yet possessed, but are looking for; and this expresses itself as “the testimony of Jesus,” i.e., the testimony He gives at that day.
Enoch, you find illustrated the spirit of communion; in Noah the, spirit of prophecy. The one walks with God; has the testimony that he is pleasing to Him, and is translated out of the, scene before the judgments of which he testified were poured out on the world. In this he is a figure of the Church. The other must pass through the waters of tribulation and build an ark, prophesies about blessings he had not yet enjoyed, preaches righteousness to an ungodly world, and becomes heir of the renewed earth. He typifies the Jewish remnant in whom the Spirit of God works during the interval before the millennium is set up.
The Paraclete or Comforter is the name given to Him in His actions and sojourn on earth with and in the Church, as the Messiah was the Comforter or Consolation of Israel. (Luke 2:25.) “I will send you another Paraclete,” or “Comforter,” points to Christ Himself, as amongst those godly ones as their Comforter then; this, too, while Christ is away.
Q. Will sin cease when the Enemy is bound’?
A. We learn of Israel— “Thy people also shall be all righteous,” &c. (Isa. 60:21.) And that the multitude of Gentiles saved through the great tribulation (Rev. 7:9-17) all call upon the name of the Lord; “All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto Jehovah; and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.” (Psa. 22:27.) But we also learn of a solemn outbreak of sin and sinners at its close, when Satan is once more set free. (Rev. 20:6-9.) We also find that during this time of blessing the direct manifested government of God will cut off by judicial death those who sin (See Psa. 101 passim; Isa. 65:20, &c.) Those, then, who are born in the millennial day will need to be “born again,” as much then as now, though those who begat them are the Lord’s.
This being so, sin in man’s nature, i.e., the flesh, is the same as since the fall; but Satan, who can act upon it by temptation, will be bound, and the “world” (the present great system built up on man’s departure from God)— “all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life”—this moral system will then have passed away, and the renewed earth be under the peaceful sway of Jesus. Consequently the “world” will be no more an evil system to allure the “flesh,” through the power of the “devil,” and to sin in that day will be willful sin against Christ, in manifested power and glory.
“The evil heart of unbelief” will show how “evil” indeed it is, in a day when all is light and manifestation, should it be unbelieving at such a time; in contrast to that in which we have to walk in what is unseen and eternal. It came in when man departed from God; not surely in paradise.
Q. What is “a living sacrifice,” the reasonable service spoken of in Rom. 12:1? Sacrifices require the death of the animal in the Old Testament.
A. I believe it refers to the meat offering (more than to sacrifices where death came in), as far as such can be applied to us. It should more correctly be termed the “meal offering,” or “mincha.” The fine flour mingled with oil was Christ’s human nature as conceived of the Holy Ghost by the Virgin Mary (Luke 1). Unleavened cakes anointed with oil point to his being anointed with the Holy Ghost at His baptism. The frankincense to those graces which God alone appreciated truly and fully, and all of it was consumed—all was tried by fire and only emitted a fragrant odor to God. No honey—the sweetness of nature, and no leaven—that which is sour and inflated. Salt always added, as the holy grace which binds the soul to God and enables the heart to refuse all that is presented to it which is not of Him. In short, a sinless man was before God’s eye in Christ, and was what none else ever was in itself offered to God.
In Rom. 8:2, 3, we are consecrated to God and presented to Him, as in Christ. In chap. 12 as priests for whom the mercies of God have opened our temple door, we have come out of all man’s corruption, and now present our bodies, hitherto slaves of sin, to God, a “living sacrifice” as the meat offering, and as in Christ and His life in us, “holy,” to which the salt pointed (cf. Mark 9:49,50), and “acceptable,” the grace of Christ seen in us (the frankincense)—all presented to God as an “intelligent priestly service,” or “worship,” as it might be; in contrast to the ceremonial which might be under the law without intelligence of heart and conscience.
Q. We have in 2 Cor. 1:22, “The earnest of the Spirit,” and in Eph. 1:14, “The earnest of our inheritance.” If the Spirit is the “earnest of the, inheritance,” what is the “earnest of the Spirit”?
A. The subject in hand in Eph. 1:14, is the calling of God (vv. 3-6), which is our present portion, and the inheritance which we have in Christ in the future over all created things. Christ’s place in the calling and Christ’s place in the inheritance is ours, as joint-heirs with Him. The inheritance being a matter still to come, we receive the Spirit as a seal, as looking back at the fullness of redemption which sets us in the calling, and looking forward as the earnest before we possess the inheritance. He is named, consequently, the “Spirit of promise,” as connected with what we have not yet received.
In 2 Cor. 1 The inheritance is not named, but He who is its earnest has been given us. It is a wonderfully comprehensive passage (vv. 20-22). God had made promises of old; His Son comes in the “yea,” the fulfillment in His person, and the “Amen”—the certainty of them all. Those to whom the promises were made (the Jews), reject Him, and so the promises are deferred until another day, when Israel will “Amen” the promises of God, when grace restores the seed of Jacob.
Another thing now unfolds itself. God had purposes and counsels before He made the promises—before the foundation of the world. His “delights were with the sons of men” ere the world was. (Prov. 8) The history of the first man’s responsibility was closed in the Cross; and the second Man enters into His glory when cast out in shame from this world. The people of God’s counsels are now called; His eternal purposes are unfolded, and God has a fresh and wondrous glory “by us” —Christians—the objects of those counsels. God establishes us “in Christ” before Him. Then He “anoints” us with the Holy Ghost for power for our pathway and service while awaiting the day of glory, and seals us as His own to secure all this glory to us. This brings into our hearts the conscious earnest of all, and by the Spirit thus given. The affections are thus kept in the joy and enjoyment of our own things.
The context in each case makes the difference of language simple.
Q. “I charge thee before God... and the elect angels”? (1 Tim. 5:21.)
A. The elect angels are the witnesses of God’s preserving a creature unfallen; men, the saints, of His redemption of creatures who have fallen. The fallen angels are those, who exercised their own will without a tempter, as man, and lost their place irrecoverably. They are reserved in; chains under darkness until the judgment of the great day. Angels are either “elect” or “fallen,” as far as I know from Scripture.
Q. What was the distinctive character of the missions of the “Twelve,” Luke 9, and of the “Seventy,” Luke 10?
A. The mission of the “Twelve” was, as sent out by the Lord the Messiah of Israel, before His ministerial rejection, which in the Synoptic Gospels (Matt., Mark., Luke) is seen before the “Transfiguration.” His final rejection was in His humiliation at the cross, and supplementally, in His glory, witnessed to by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. (Acts 2-7) They were sent out to preach the kingdom of God, and were given power over all evil spirits, and to cure diseases-the samples of the “powers of the world to come” or millennium, when Satan will be bound, and man’s diseases cured. Their mission was general and final, and not specifically confined to Israel. No provision for the journey was to be taken, for Messiah’s power commanded the hearts of men for all their need.
When this mission was over (v. 10) they returned, and in v. 18 the Lord seems to ask what the results of His own mission (chap. 8.) and theirs (chap. 9.) had been. It was refused. Some said one thing, some another (v. 19). Discussion and reasoning is not faith, and no real results as a general thine, were seen. Those who had faith confessed Him (v. 20) as “the Christ,” which is no more to he preached (v. 21); the testimony was over. “The Son of Man” was now about to suffer, being rejected; and His followers would have a path of sorrow and rejection in this world like His own (vv. 23-26). The transfiguration scene follows to sustain their hearts in such a path of suffering, unfolding the glories that would follow when that day would come.
The severity are sent out on their mission now (chap. 10), which is founded on His rejection as the Messiah; and the declaration of His coming glory as Son of Man, bead over all things. His full glory as Man while Son of the Father, is the result of and follows His rejection here.
It is striking that while they are empowered to “heal the sick” (chap. 10: 9), they were not empowered to cast out devils, yet they make some tentative efforts in faith, to cast them out (v. 17), which were answered of God. Devils were subject to them, “through thy name,” they say. Such is God’s answer to living faith, wherever it is found.
Q. Who are the “two witnesses” (Rev. 11:3, 4.) Do they answer to the “Saints of the Most High,” in Dan. 7:22?
A. During the period known as the “Great Tribulation,” which lies between the Lord’s coming for His saints, and His appearing in glory with them, the Lord Jesus gives a testimony through the Jews as to His claims as “Lord of all the earth.” This is referred to in the account of these “two witnesses,” in this symbolic part of the Revelation; “In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.” God is giving an adequate testimony at that day to what is then coming on the earth. The number which may be used to testify does not signify; adequate or sufficient testimony is the thought. This witness has a double significance, as the miracles show. They are similar to those performed by Moses, when the people of Israel were captives in Egypt (Ex. 7-10); and by Elias, when the people were apostate, worshipping Baal (1 Kings 18); as the shutting up of heaven, and the smiting the earth with plagues and turning the water into blood testify. They are owned as true worshippers in that day, and they have the spirit of prophecy, which is the “testimony of Jesus,” i.e., the testimony He gives at that day to His royalty and priesthood about to be established (cf. Zech. 4).
I believe they are godly Jews whom the Lord thus uses in this special manner, some of whom seal their testimony with their blood, looking for a “better resurrection.”
I judge that Dan. 7:22 refers to the appearing of the Son of Man in glory who is the Ancient of Days Himself, to deliver the godly ones who are trampled down by the beast. This results in two things here (v. 22) stated generally; 1St, “Judgment was given to the saints of the high (or heavenly) places”—not “Most High;” and 2d, “The saints possessed the kingdom”—the heavenly and earthly departments of glory.