The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1909-09-21

laQ uOL Sought W dDduOOu TUG oH6cAAS
plane Of being were restrained In Tar
tarus, our earth's atmosphere, until the
Judgment of the great day of trouble
! in the close of this world" when evil
IDENTIFY they will recover their power Of
| naturalization.
"This Present Evil World"
This present evil world" differs
| from "the world before the flood" In
| that it is not under the ministration
| of the angels-but man, In a general
sense. is left to himself. Since the
flood the world in general has been
going on just as if there were no God,
| the exceptions, aside from the Jewish
nation and the Church of Christ, being
| the destruction of the Sodomites and
| the preaching of Jonah to the Nine
vites. warning them that they were
| about to perish. In other words. so far
as outward appearance goes. God has
allowed the world to take its own
course, interfering only when the cor
ruption became so great as to make life
injurious rather than a favor. We
may also understand the Scriptures to
teach that God has had silent super
vision of the nations to hinder them
from overturning or disturbing any
feature of the Divine program. He Is
wise enough to know how to make the
wrath of man to praise him and the re-
mainder more than this he will restrain.
st. Paul, reviewing the question of
human degradation as exhibited In
| heathendom. etc., explains that the
great deterioration in the human fam
ily is the result of mans being left to
himself as respects the Divine super
vision. He says, looking back along
| the line of Noah's descendants, when
they knew God they glorifed him not
as God, neither were thankful.
| And even as they did not like to re-
tain God in their knowledge, God gave
them over to a reprobate mind"-they
| giving themselves over to things that
were not profitable, defling themselves.
etc. Romans /, 21-2S).
This condition of things continued
from Noah's day until 314 years after
our Lords crucifxion, when the spe-
| ciaI favor of God toward the nation
Of Israel terminated and the middle
wall of partition was broken down.
Cornelius being the first Gentle adj
mitted to the privileges of the Gospel.
From that time onward the proclama-
| ton of the Gospel was not restricted to
| the Jewish nation. but is for whosoever
NAV have IAN ear to hear" of every
nation, people, kindred and tongue.
| During the long period from Noah to
| Christ-Twenty-F Five Hundred years
| God, as we have seen, had no dealing
| with the world, but he did have very
| special dealings with Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob, and then subsequently with
| the nation of Israel. To those patri-
archs he gave an Oath-Bound Cow
nant. that through their posterity he
would ultimately bless all the families
| Of the earth. Moreover, the character
| Of the promise was such that 1t I'M
| pied not only the resurrection Of the
| patriarchs, but the resurrection also of
all the families of the earth that have
gone down into death under the great
Adamic sentence Romans v, IL, IL, 19).
J The nation of Israel was segregated
| from all the other nations of the world
and bound to the Lord and he to them
! by the Covenant of the Lao entered into
at Mt. Sinai. Under the terms Of that
| Covenant it was implied that that
whole nation should constitute the seed
| of Abraham and rule and bless all
| other nations, but the conditions were
the keeping of the Lag perfectly God.
| of course, knew that, as imperfect men,
Israel had undertaken an impossible
| contract But he also knew that under
his supervision the contract would not
eventually be to their disadvantage,
| but the reverse He used that nation
as typical people, their jubilees rep
resenting the "times of restitution"
| (Acts lii, 2O) coming to the world under
the Millennial reign of Christ. Their
day Sabbaths typified a coming bless
ing to Spiritual Israel. Their year
Sabbath typified a coming blessing to
the world, to the universe. Their Day
of Atonement for sins typifed the day
of better sacrifices, of Christ and the
| Church Indeed, we may understand
that f1eshly Israel and all Of its great
affairs were typical foreshadowings of
Gods greater blessings to come in aft
er dispensations.
Jewish Favor eliminated.
The elimination Of the Lords deal
ings with Israel was reached, as he had
intended from the beginning, when
our Lord Jesus left the glory of the
Father on the heavenly plane and was
| made flesh. being born under the Law
| Covenant Not being a direct member
Of the human family, but holy, harm
less and separate from sinners" he
was perfect and fully able to keep all
the terms of that Law Covenant, and
did so. Thus under the provisions Of
the Law Covenant he, and he alone,
of all the Jewish nation, could claim
the rights of the Abrahamic Covenant
the blessings foretold and the rightful
authority to bless men, for, as the
| ruler of earth, he took the place OF
Father Adam with all his rights and
authorities described In Psalm viii, 4-6.
BY keeping these rights and priv
ileges as man our Lord indeed would
have been an earthly potentate Of con-
siderable dignity, the highest amongst
men. But the Fathers place for him
and for the world was far higher than
this. As an earthly potentate he would
have ruled over a falling and dying
race and would have been privileged
merely to counsel, rule and direct their
imperfect energies; but he never could
have brought them to eternal life
Hence the Divine Plan was that he
should die as the Redeemer Of Adam
and his race. that thus he might have
the Just, the legal right to lift out of
sin and degradation and death all Of
mankind who would fall in line with
the gracious arrangements OF the d.
vine purpose which center in Christ
1t was in fulfilment of this feature Of
the Divine Plan that our Lord laid
down the earthly Kingdom, the earthly
rights, all that he had, as mans ran
som price (Matthew xiii, AZ. "Who
gave himself a ransom for all, to be
testified in due time'' q Timothy II, g..
"Every Knee Shall Bow"
We now have Messiah exalted
and In his possession the authority
| justly. legally acquired, whereby he
may bless all the families of the
earth-all the children of Adam, by re-
storing to the willing and obedient
that which was lost"-earthly perfec-
ton and dorlinion. Where will he be-
| gin his blessing work? All the prophe-
cies implied that Messiah would begin
his work with Israel and that 1t should
progress through Israel to all nations.
But the prophecies did not even hint
at the fact that before giving the res
titution', blessing TO Israel under the