June 1, 1916 THE identified more or less with hate, resentment, anger, malice? If lovely, it may pass on. If not, it must be immediately expelled, not permitted to go further, to do harm to ourselves and to others. (4) Is it reputable? This cannot mean: Is the thing well spoken of by the world? For the Apostle himself and our Lord Jesus were reviled by the world, who said all manner of evil against them falsely. The word reputable here must be taken to mean that which would be thought well of by all reputable people, if they knew and understood everything connected with the thought. (5) Has the thought any virtue, or is it in any sense of the word praiseworthy? If so, it may be admitted. If not, it should be repelled; for even if it be blameless otherwise, that fact that it is not of any value is a reason for its re WATCH TOWER (169-179) jection. We have no time and no place for things that are merely not bad. We desire to have in our hearts and our minds things that are positively good, helpful, beneficial in some way. Otherwise, the thought should be repelled as a mere cumberer of the ground of our hearts, of our minds, needed for profitable things. Much novel reading is of this character—not evil, but not advantageous, not upbuilding, Whatever we may be naturally, the people of God who follow the instructions of the divine Word surely become noble people, helpful people, possessed of the spirit of a sound mind; and these things will be only a part of their preparation for the kingdom and for the great work then to be entrusted to them as the servants of God under their Redeemer and Head. HARVEST GATHERINGS AND SIFTINGS {Reprint of article which appeared in issue of July 15, 1906. which please see.] THE SCOPE OF THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT Question.—Which is the greater, the Abrahamic Covenant or the New Covenant? Answer.—The Abrahamic Covenant is an all-embracing arrangement. Everything that God has done and will yet do for our race is included in that Abrahamic Covenant. The Law Covenant of Israel was added to this Covenant ‘‘because of transgression.” Although only a typical arrangement, nevertheless the Law Covenant developed a certain faithful class, to be made “princes in all the earth” during the Millennial age. This Covenant was represented by Hagar; and her son Ishmael represented the nation of Israel. (Galatians 4:21-31) The Christ, the new creation class, was represented in Isaac, Sarah’s son. Sarah, Abraham’s first wife, represented that part of the Abrahamic Covenant which pertained to the spiritual seed, the new creation, that which we sometimes speak of as the Sarah Covenant. This Sarah Covenant —the Grace Covenant, the Covenant of Sacrifice (Psalm 50:5) —brings forth the Isaac class, the church, Head and body. Even as Isaac was not born after the flesh in the ordinary sense (Abraham and Sarah being too old naturally), but was a special creation, so with The Christ company, the church. This “Isaac” class is developed as a distinctly new creation, formed from members of the fallen human race. The divine invitation to these is to present their bodies living sacrifices. They sacrifice their human nature that they may attain with Vout. XAXXVIT BROOKLYN, N. Y., JUNE 15, 1916 their Head, the antitypical “Isaac,” the divine nature—something never before offered. After this new creation is completed, the blessing indicated in God’s Promise to Abraham will reach all the families of the earth. It will reach them, first through the “Isaac” seed, the new creation, and secondly, through the Ancient Worthies, developed in the ages preceding this age, under God’s typical arrangements. All kindreds and families of the earth will be blessed by the privilege or opportunity to become children of Abraham, children of God, whom Abraham represented in a figure. ‘“‘T have made thee a father of many nations (Genesis 17:5; Romans 4:17), said the Lord to Abraham—‘In becoming thy seed shall all the nations of the earth bless themselves.” These will be blessed under the New Covenant, an arrangement whereby the Abrahamic Covenant will be fulfilled as relates to Israel and to all. The Abrahamic Covenant, then, embraces all the other Covenants, those Covenants being merely different features of God’s arrangements by which the work implied in the great Abrahamic Covenant or promise is to be accomplished. As we have elsewhere previously shown, Abraham took another wife, after the death of Sarah—Keturah. By her he had many sons and daughters. Thus the New Covenant is typed and its grand work of bringing many to life—‘o “the liberty of the sons of God.”—Romans 8:19, 2]. No. 12 HOW THE GREAT APOSTASY WILL BE OVERRULED > “They received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God sendeth them a working of error, that they should believe a lie; that they all might be judged who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”—2 Thessalonians 2:10-12. The Bible helps of our day are so numerous and accessible, and the words in the original Scriptures translated Hell, so clearly shown in these helps, that there is no reason why an honest student of the Word of God may not see clearly what the Bible teaches on this subject. We are not to lay upon our God the responsibility for the erroneous thought on the subject of future punishment; for he is not the Author of sin or darkness or error in any form. All his work is perfect; he is “righteous altogether,” his name is LOVE. Such being the case he would never create any being to torture it forever. Nor does the responsibility for doctrinal error rest entirely upon humanity, who have no doubt been more ignorant than wilful in respect to this error of doctrine, though there seems to have been a measure of wilfulness on the part of mankind. The Apostle Paul, in the first chapter of Romans, declares that when men knew God, they worshiped him not as God, and did not wish to retain the knowledge of him in their minds, but willingly departed from him. (Romans 1:18-28) This same Apostle elsewhere assures us that “the god of this world,” “the prince of this world,” Satan, who fell from his holy estate and became the adversary of God through unholy ambition, has blinded the minds of mankind. (2 Corinthians 4:4; John 12:31; 14:30) He is the great deceiver, of whom the Lord said, “He was a murderer from the beginning [of man’s creation] and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; for he is a liar and the father of it.’—John 8:44. Rev. Ver. Again the Master declared in Revelation, when telling us about the consummation of the Gospel age and in the inauguration of the age to follow, that at that time Satan should be bound for a thousand years, that he should deceive the nations no more until the thousand years were finished—thus intimating that prior to that time the people of the world had been deceived by him right along. Satan started his lies very early. His first great lie was told to our Mother Eve, away back in Eden. (Genesis 3:4, 5; 2 Corinthians 11:3) The lie that he told to Mother Eve he has ever since very assiduously propagated; namely, “Ye shall not surely die’—-God has deceived you; nobody dies; what is called death is only the dropping of the mortal body as of a worn-out dress; merely the passing into another form of life—a more desirable change. But the Bible has all the while been assuring us that death is a reality, that death means death. SIN’S RAPID DEVELOPMENT UP TO THE FLOOD There is an irreconcilable conflict between the words of Satan and the declaration of God. But God has permitted man to a large extent to go his own way, just as St. Paul intimates in Romans, already cited. Mankind did not desire to retain God in their knowledge, so for a time he has permitted them to work all manner of uncleanness. (Romans 1:28-32) But while he has allowed the world liberty in regard to their own wills, nevertheless he has not abandoned them. From the beginning God has purposed that in due time, after mankind have learned the needed lesson, they shall be delivered from sin [5909]
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