TURNING THE WORLD UPSIDE DOWN.
-ACTS
17:1-12-JANUARY 18.-
“Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet.”-Psa. 119:105.
WHEN released from
the prison at Philippi, Paul, Silas and Timothy went about a hundred miles
direct to Thessalonica, the largest commercial city of that
district-Macedonia. Nothing daunted by their experience at Philippi,
apparently not even waiting for their backs to thoroughly heal from the wounds
there received, Paul at once began a vigorous presentation of the Gospel. As
was his custom, he went first to the Jews. The propriety of this course is
evident: the Jews were familiar with the prophecies of the Messiah, and
although making their home amongst the Gentiles, nevertheless, as the Apostle
declares, they were continually hoping for the fulfilment of the grand promises
made to Abraham, confirmed unto Isaac and unto Jacob, and that by divine oath,
or affirmation.-Acts 26:7.
Not only were the Jews, acquainted with the prophecies and looking for
their fulfilment in a Messiah, better prepared than other peoples for the
message of the Gospel, but, additionally, it was part of the divine will that
the first offer of the Gospel should go to the Jew, the natural seed of Abraham,
who was, by divine intention, to have the first opportunity of becoming a part
of the spiritual seed. Furthermore, the Jewish synagogues were ostensibly
conducted on a liberal plane, anyone of reasonable ability being free there to
show what he could of the teaching of the Scriptures. Thus the Apostle met with
the Jews on three Sabbath days; and, according to his own narrative, he labored
with his hands for temporal necessities between times. (1 Thess. 2:9.) It was
during this stay of probably three to six months that he twice received
financial aid from the brethren at Philippi.
The result of his labors was the nucleus of a flourishing church, to which
two of his epistles were addressed. The Apostle’s attitude toward these
brethren may reasonably be taken as the criterion of his general attitude
toward all of the Lord’s dear flock. He dealt not with them as a lord or
master amongst slaves or subordinates; but, using his own words, he was gentle
toward them, as a nursing mother to her children. (1 Thess. 2:7.) He
admonished, comforted, instructed them, “as a father doth his children.” (1
Thess. 2:11.) He lived an unblamable, unselfish life in their midst, giving
them the Gospel, and with it his very life.-1 Thess. 2:5-8,10.
The method of the Apostle’s teaching is expressed in the statement that he
“reasoned with them out of the Scriptures,” opening and showing forth “that it
behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead.” The Greek word used
signifies that the teaching was in the nature of a dialogue. He appealed to
the Scriptures, offered explanations of their meaning, pointed out how this
meaning found its fulfilment in the experience of our Lord, and heard and
replied to queries and objections. Like other Jews, these had, of course, thought
chiefly on the Scriptures which predict Messiah’s glory and Kingdom, and the
grandeur of the position of Israel as his people, dispensing blessing to all
the families of the earth. The Apostle pointed out the other Scriptures which
spoke of “the sufferings of Christ,” and how it was necessary that he should
redeem the world before he could properly deliver it from the power of sin and
death. We may be sure that he had the prophetic statements well in mind, and
also the various types of the law, and that these were called up in order
before his hearers, and the evidences adduced that our Lord fulfilled these;
and not only that his death was necessary, as typified in Isaac, but also his
resurrection from the dead, that he might be the distributor of the mercies of
God. The word “opening” carries with it the thought that these Scriptures had
been closed previously, and this is in harmony with the statement of Luke, when
mentioning the Lord’s discourse with the two disciples on the way to Emmaus, it
is declared that he “opened unto them the Scriptures,” saying, “Thus it
is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer.”-Luke 24:26,46; 1 Pet. 1:11.
The work to be done today very closely resembles that which was done by
the Apostle as here recorded. There is need for us to go with the “meat in due
season,” first of all to those who have already been the recipients of divine
favors and great advantages every way, to open to them other Scriptures
which are now due to be understood;-which show the grand purposes of our
heavenly Father in connection with the blessing of all the families of the
earth through the Church glorified; and that the glorified Church, under its
glorified Head, Christ Jesus, is to constitute the Kingdom of heaven, the
divine agency for the blessing of all. It is appropriate that we adopt largely
the same plan that the Apostle did, and reason with people out of the
Scriptures, opening them before their minds gradually, that they may catch some
glimpses of the lengths and breadths and heights and depths of the divine
plan. Nevertheless, we know that it will be now even as it was then-that only
those who have “an ear to hear” will hear, and that the others will be stirred
up to antagonism, bitter envyings, jealousies, etc.
The Apostle’s work was evidently well done, his arguments effective-the
result was that some of them (Jews) were persuaded and took sides with Paul and
Silas; and of the devout Greeks quite a good many,-who had been feeling after
God and who probably had realized that there was more true religion with the
Jew than elsewhere,-were now, because of having less Jewish prejudice, more
ready than their Jewish friends to hear and appreciate the Gospel of Christ.
Of the chief women of the city, too, quite a number were influenced by the
message, and became followers of Christ.
Christian people in all denominations today are claiming great
liberty-that they are not sectarian, and that all who love the Lord have
fullest opportunity to worship with them. But we find that if we take them at
their word and attempt to reason with them out of the Scriptures respecting the
things now due to be understood, pointing out that we are in the dawn of
restitution times, that the Millennial Kingdom is about to be ushered in, and
that Christ is not only the Priest who redeemed his people with his blood, but
is shortly to be the great Prophet and King who is to rule and instruct the
whole world of mankind, the majority are unable to receive this-it is too
contrary to their preconceived notions. Especially do the leading ones, the
preachers and elders and Sunday School superintendents, feel that they must
oppose the truth; that they must not admit that there are in the Word of God
“things new and old-meat in due season for the household of faith.” Their
objections are often inspired by jealousy or envy, as they note that the
message of grace appeals to the hearts of some of the very best of their
number, and some of the very best outside their number-of the world.
None like to complain, after having boasted of Christian liberty and
fellowship;-they murmur that our preaching of the good tidings of great joy is
proselyting-“attempting to steal their members,” etc. They exclaim, “Why do you
not go to the slums, instead of coming in amongst us to steal away our best
members, our ripest wheat?” We answer that a similar charge of proselyting
might with equal force have been brought against our Lord Jesus and against the
apostles. The Apostle, as we see, wherever he went, sought for the most religious
and most intelligent people, instead of seeking for the most ignorant and the
most degraded. Why? Because he well knew that the Gospel he had been sent to
proclaim was not intended of the Lord to convert the world, but to gather
out of the world a “little flock,” a people for the Lord’s name. (Acts
15:14.) He knew that the Gospel he had to preach would not appeal to the most
degraded hoodlums of society; on the contrary, it would appeal most to
intelligent people,-and he presented it in as logical, reasonable and
intelligent a manner as it could possibly be set forth. It is still proper for
us to pursue the same course, and the conditions today of proclaiming the
second presence of the Lord, and that the time is at hand for the establishment
of the Kingdom and for the gathering of the elect wheat into the barn, can
better be presented now to the intelligent, thoughtful, devout people in all
the various sects, and of the world, than to others.
Evidently the discussions of those three Sabbath days were all that the
Jews as a whole could endure;-apparently the ministers of the truth,
thenceforth excluded, went to the house of a prominent believer, Jason, and
from there continued their propaganda,-possibly holding meetings at his house.
Meantime the opposing Jews at Thessalonica received information from their
brethren, opponents of the truth at Philippi, respecting these servants of the
Lord, and the message they carried;-and, doubtless, the Adversary persuaded
them that they were engaged in a noble cause when they gathered a rabble of
market-loungers, “roughs and toughs,” to raise a commotion, and as a mob to
make an assault upon Jason’s house, to take the Apostle and his companions
before the authorities and have their work stopped. So some of a similar class
in spiritual Israel today feel toward the truth and its servants, if we may
judge from the epithets sometimes used. The inciting of Sunday school scholars
to tear up religious literature and throw the fragments at the distributors is
about on a par with the conduct of those Jews of Thessalonica in inciting a
mob-the difference between their day and ours of more general intelligence and
better police regulations being taken into consideration. A disinterested
spectator would be inclined to query-What can be the evil teachings of the
WATCH TOWER publications, that would lead a professedly “liberal servant of
God” today to feel such an animosity against them? We would only reply that we
know of nothing contained in this literature that should arouse any but the
warmest sentiments of love toward God and toward the brethren and toward the
world in general. It might similarly be questioned in the minds of
disinterested persons why reputable Jews and rabbis should incite a mob against
the Apostle and his companions? and why the high-priest and Scribes and
Pharisees incited the multitude against our Lord? Pilate, evidently was in
this position when he inquired respecting our Lord, “Why, what evil hath he
done?” It is because the Lord’s message was one of grace and truth that he was
hated and crucified. It was because the Apostles and their co-laborers were
telling forth the same message of the grace of God in Christ and the blessings
yet to come through them, that they were maligned and opposed; and it is the
same Gospel, the same good tidings, the same joyful message, of which Christ is
the center, the Kingdom and the blessings for all the world of mankind the
circumference, that is hated and maligned today;-not by the world, but by those
who professedly are God’s people.
Not finding Paul and Silas, the mob dragged Jason and others of the
believers before the rulers. The charges were very serious ones-inciting to
anarchy and treason-turning the world upside down, and teaching that there is
another king, Jesus, whose kingdom is to be universal in due time. While these
charges were fraudulent as respects the true standpoint, they nevertheless had
in them a sufficiency of truth to make them appear serious. It is true that
the Gospel of Christ is revolutionary in its character; that whenever it enters
the heart of a man it keeps turning things upside down continually, until it is
either ejected or has produced a transformation of heart and life. There is no
peace between right and wrong, or light and darkness, in any heart. Peace can
be secured only by giving way either to the light or to the darkness; either to
the truth or to the error; and since the error is the more popular, the more
general, the majority choose peace along that line. The Lord’s people,
however, the sincere lovers of righteousness, can have peace on no other terms
than those of loyalty to the Lord and his Word, and the principles of his
righteousness. The same is true in respect to all the affairs of the world.
It is the Gospel of Christ, the Gospel which will be a Gospel of peace in
due time, that at the present time, because of evil and ignorance in
the world, is setting on fire the very foundations of “the present evil world,”
and will ultimately result in the great figurative conflagration which shall
consume this present order of things, political, financial, social,
religious,-that upon the ruins of present institutions the Lord may shortly
erect his Kingdom of righteousness-with peace upon proper foundations of
justice and love.
We must not be surprised if this Gospel of peace has the same influence
today as it had in the days of our Lord and of the apostles. Mark the effect
of the precious message at Thessalonica and at Philippi and elsewhere. Mark
the effect when the message was delivered from the lips of him who spake as
never man spake, and of whose wonderful words it is recorded that “all the
people bare him record and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out
of his mouth.” Nevertheless, however graciously
stated, the truth is a sword which penetrates in every direction, and which, as
our Lord foretold, frequently sets parents against children and children
against parents, because the darkness hateth the light and opposeth it in every
possible manner.
The decrees of the emperors respecting riots and treason were very
strict, and all rulers were held rigidly to account. Hence, when the charges
were made of anarchy and treason, both the multitude and the rulers were
“troubled;” the multitude, because more or less of a riot had occurred,
seemingly because of treason;-and this might lead to the taking away of some of
the city’s privileges and liberties, its loss of commerce, etc. The rulers were
troubled because they were in danger of being called to account unless they
took active steps for the repression of anything resembling treason. They knew,
nevertheless, that the charges were fabrications, and, hence, got out of the
difficulty by placing Jason and his companions under bonds to keep the peace-to
see that similar riots did not occur again. This necessitated the sending of
Paul and Silas away as quietly and as quickly as possible.
It need not surprise us to have, at no distant day, charges of anarchy,
etc., made against those who today are proclaiming present truth, the harvest
message, the establishment of the Kingdom, etc. It might be claimed against us
that we are not sufficiently in accord with Caesar’s government, the kingdoms
of this world; that we do not manifest sufficient interest in the elections,
nor in the militia, etc.; and that our teaching that the Lord is about to
establish his Kingdom, and that it will be set up at the expense of all present
institutions, which will fall in a time of trouble and anarchy, implies
sympathy with anarchy. The charges would be no more true in our case than in
the case of the Lord and the apostles; nevertheless, it may be used as a
powerful weapon some day, and if it is we must trust to the same God who
guarded the interests of his cause then, and who is equally able to guard it
now. We may be sure that the door of opportunity for proclaiming the good
tidings will not close until the true “wheat” shall have been found, until the
elect shall have heard the message that is now due, that they should come out of
Babylon and be gathered to the Lord, instead of being bound to human
institutions.
In view of the Lord’s teaching regarding this
subject, and of how the wisest presentation of it may be ultimately
misconstrued, it behooves everyone who would serve the truth faithfully to be
as careful as possible not to be misunderstood;-to let it be clearly understood
that we neither participate in nor advocate anarchy of any kind; but, on the
contrary, are standing for righteousness and the highest of all laws, the divine
law; and that we believe that the poorest of laws are better than none,
and that the anarchy that will inevitably come upon the world, according to
divine predictions, will be a great curse, a great disadvantage in many
respects; and that the only reason why we are able to look upon it with any
degree of complacency is because of the assurances given us in the Lord’s Word
that it will be speedily followed by the Kingdom of God’s dear Son;-in power
and authority, to fully control all the turbulent elements.
Leaving Timothy at Thessalonica, Paul and Silas journeyed about fifty
miles to a rather obscure Grecian city, called Berea, and, according to their
custom, realizing that the preaching of the Gospel of Christ was their chief
business, they lost no time in engaging therein. Again they sought the Jews in
the synagogue, and this time found some specially susceptible to the truth,
referred to as “more noble than they of Thessalonica.” The Greek word used
here for “noble” seems to imply persons of noble birth, a higher and nobler
class than those of the more commercial city. Nobility of character is
favorable, wherever it is found, and from whatever cause, and true nobility
implies reasonableness, as distinguished from prejudice. The Bereans were reasonable,
professing to believe all that was written in the Law and the Prophets; to be
looking for the Messiah; etc., and they welcomed the servants of God who sought
to draw their attention particularly to the “things written aforetime.” With
all readiness of mind they began to examine the Scriptures, not merely on the
Sabbath days, but daily,-to see how well the Apostle’s arguments were supported
by the testimony of the Law and the Prophets. As we should expect, many of so
noble a class accepted the good tidings. Indeed, the wonder is that any person
of noble and reasoning mind, once becoming acquainted with the glorious message
of God’s love and mercy in Christ-his plan for selecting the Church now, and by
and by of blessing all the families of the earth through it-could disbelieve or
could attribute such a Gospel to any human source. Surely its internal
evidences are convincing that it is not of man nor by man, but of the Lord.