THE GOOD PHYSICIAN.
-MARK
1:21-34.-FEBRUARY 7.-
Golden Text:-“He laid his hands on every one of them, and healed
them.”-LUKE 4:40.
ALTHOUGH Simon Peter
and Andrew were natives of Bethsaida, a few miles north of Capernaum (Jno.
1:44), they had evidently settled down in the latter city, perhaps because
larger and more favorable to their business. When Peter, Andrew, James and
John accepted the Lord’s invitation to become fishers of men they did not immediately
depart from home. Some hours if not some days elapsed between the fishing
experience and the narrative of this lesson. The Sabbath was come, and Jesus
with the four disciples went into the synagogue where he was recognized and
given an opportunity for teaching. In the synagogues of olden times there was
great liberty to anyone who had the necessary education and faith in the holy
Scriptures, to discuss their messages. In some respects that greater liberty
was more favorable to the Truth than the present circumscribed methods of
Christendom, in which each party or sect holds absolute control and refuses
liberty of discussion of its own tenets as well as of the Scriptures. The
Lord’s people should jealously guard Lord’s day opportunities, so that they be
not occasions for the overthrow of faith by those who reject the Word of God.
At the same time the blessing of the Lord’s day, the purity of Truth and the
clearness of the faith would certainly be greatly stimulated by a full liberty
of discussion of the meaning of the Scriptures in a reverent manner.
In very few Church gatherings of today would our Lord Jesus be granted
opportunity to set forth his doctrines. He could not and would not accept
authority from any of the denominations of Christendom, because he could not
and would not indorse any of their creeds as a whole; hence he would be
deprived of any opportunity for promulgating the Truth in this manner in this
our enlightened twentieth century. Likewise those who follow his word closely,
and who for similar reasons cannot indorse fully any of the creeds of
Christendom, are deprived of opportunities for presenting the Truth in the
synagogues of today; and are obliged to adopt other methods of reaching the
Lord’s sheep with the message of the great King, now due to be understood.
However, the Lord has greatly blessed and used these efforts outside the
synagogues-especially the printed page, DAWNS, Tracts, WATCH TOWERS, etc.
Our Lord’s teaching impressed his hearers as being reasonable and positive;
and this is one of the characteristics of the Truth today. The Lord’s message
is so clear and so forceful that it cannot be gainsaid. It appeals to the
minds as well as to the hearts of reasonable people now as it did then. On the
contrary, the general mixture of error as then held by the Scribes and
Pharisees and Doctors of the Law, and as now held by the various denominations
of Catholics and Protestants and their Doctors of Divinity, is confusing,
indefinite, self-contradictory and generally unsatisfactory.
THE DEVIL A CHURCH GOER.
The devil went to Church then as he not infrequently does now, and he
was as opposed to having the Truth preached then as he is now. The attendants
of the Capernaum synagogue, however, were seemingly of a nobler type than that
of Nazareth, which gnashed upon our Lord and sought to take his life. In this
case the majority of the people were less under the influence of Satan,
although one of their number was more particularly possessed by a demon, here
called “an unclean spirit.” We know nothing of our Lord’s discourse, but from
the fact that this demon became so excited under the preaching, we may draw the
inference that our Lord was explaining to the people the origin of sin and the
power of Satan and of the fallen angels in respect to humanity, how all these
downward tendencies were more and more injurious to men and should be resisted,
how divine fellowship and communion should be sought, and how repentance and
reformation and resistance of the evil one were necessary to physical health as
well as to a closer approach to our God.
The demon-one of the fallen angels from the time of the flood, mentioned
by Jude and by Peter (Jude 6,7; 2 Pet. 2:4)-believed that the Lord’s teachings
were condemnatory of himself and his associates in evil, and cried out, using
the mouth of the possessed man. Unquestionably the fallen angels, although
restrained by chains of darkness from manifesting themselves to humanity until
a certain time, have contact with each other and are well aware of procedures
in general. As Satan recognized Jesus in the temptation, so all of the fallen
angels knew that the Holy One of God had become a man for the purpose of
redeeming and reclaiming and restoring humanity from the fallen condition superinduced
by Satan’s lying ambition. Apparently, too, these demons had some knowledge of
the divine times and seasons, though we need not suppose that they had a
particular or definite knowledge, for our Lord declared that at that time
neither himself nor the holy angels knew of the day and the hour of his coming
in glory and the establishment of his Kingdom. It is not supposable,
therefore, that the fallen angels knew more on this subject. However, there is
a great difference between not knowing the exact day or hour of a matter and
not having any idea whatever respecting it. Apparently this demon recognized
that the time was still distant when the power of Satan and all the fallen
angels is doomed to be overthrown.
“BE YE CLEAN THAT BEAR THE VESSELS OF THE LORD’S HOUSE.”
The testimony of the demon seemed to be reverential, and might by some
have been construed to be a testimony in the Lord’s favor. Jesus, however, was
not willing to accept such a testimony from such a source, even as the Apostle Paul
was similarly unwilling to receive testimony of the possessed woman, who
declared of Paul and Silas, “These be the servants of the Most High God, which
show unto us the way of life.” (Acts 16:17.) The
divine method seems to be to make a clear separation between the servants of
God and the servants of evil. The privilege of testifying for God or being
ambassadors for the Truth is a favor reserved for the Lord’s own people. He
seeketh not the evil one nor the fallen demons nor evil men or women to be heralds
of the good tidings. The Lord’s people should note this matter carefully, and
resent the services of any who do not give evidences of being in heart-union
with the Lord. “Unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to take my
covenant into thy mouth? Seeing thou hatest instruction, and casteth my words
behind thee.” (Psa. 50:16.) Spiritualists, Trance Mediums, Hypnotists,
Christian Scientists, etc., would fain associate themselves more or less with
the name of Jesus and seem to be servants of the light; but all children of the
light should be on their guard against these, who, however sincere they may
sometimes appear, are undoubtedly the tools of the prince of darkness, who
would array himself as an angel of light that he might deceive and mislead the
children of the light-the children of God.
But some one will say, Did not Jesus surely say, “Greater works than these
shall ye do because I go unto my Father,” and are not those words genuine?
Yes, we answer, they are genuine, and most precious words; but how have they
been fulfilled? Have any of the Lord’s disciples done any greater miracles
than Jesus did so far as healing physical ailments are concerned? Assuredly
not. We have no record of greater works of this kind than are recorded in the
Gospels. Have any of the Lord’s disciples at any time done as great works
according to the flesh as Jesus did? Have any of them ever awakened the dead?
Surely none except the apostles have done this wonderful work. What then could
our Lord have meant by this expression?
“GREATER WORKS THAN THESE SHALL YE DO.”
We answer that in our last lesson we saw that Jesus in his ministry
dealt only with the natural man, and could not communicate to natural man
respecting spiritual or heavenly things except in parables and dark sayings,
which could be but imperfectly comprehended until after Pentecost gave the
enlightenment of the holy Spirit. To our understanding, therefore, the greater
works that have been done by the Lord’s followers since the ascension have been
such works as related to the hearts of men rather than to their bodies. The
whole creation is groaning and travailing in physical discomfort, but the worst
of all groans and pains comes from the anguish of the soul-broken hearts.
The Lord’s followers, even the humblest of them, in proportion as they
receive of his Spirit, may communicate it through his word and bring to wounded
and broken hearts peace and joy and blessing, regardless of physical conditions
of discomfort, so that as the Apostle explains they may rejoice even in
tribulation, knowing what the tribulations are working out for them in the way
of greater glory and blessing and association with the Lord in his Kingdom.
(Rom. 5:3.) Would not he who has had the eyes of his understanding opened,
that he might see with clearness the lengths and breadths and heights and
depths of the love of God, esteem this blessing as of much greater value and
importance than simply the restoring of natural sight? Who that has tasted
that the Lord is gracious has not participated in a greater miracle than did
those who tasted of the loaves and fishes which our Lord so miraculously
increased that they fed the five thousand? It is true indeed, then, that the
Lord has made it possible for his humbler servants in the humbler walks of life
and with few natural abilities, but possessing his Spirit and his Word, to do
mighty works even today-“Mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds”
of error and of sin.
THE NECESSITY FOR MIRACLES IS PAST.
There was a reason why miracles were necessary at the beginning of
this Gospel dispensation. Had our Lord Jesus performed none of the miracles
recorded in the Scriptures how could we today feel the confidence, the
assurance, that we do feel respecting him? Had he gone about as a preacher of
righteousness and expounder of the divine Word merely, and had he then died
just as he did die, would the proof have been as sufficient as it now is that
he was indeed the Son of God and that his death was indeed the sacrifice of a
perfect one for the imperfect one and his progeny? Would our Lord in preaching
to the Jews have accomplished any work without the use of miracles? Were they
not necessary to him as a demonstration of his right to take the place of Moses
as the antitypical leader of the Israelites indeed? Assuredly this is true.
But we have no necessity for such manifestations of miraculous power today. On
the contrary, we behold Christianity already too popular with the world. As it
is, too many tares are pretending to be wheat. The conditions, therefore, seem
to be the very reverse of those which at the first advent demanded miracles for
the establishing of the Church on a proper faith basis.
“WHO HEALETH ALL THY DISEASES.”
But some one will urge, Does it not seem more reasonable that the
Lord’s people should go to him in prayer or go to the elders for healing by
miraculous power, than that they should use drugs or medicines or surgery? Yes,
we reply; it is very natural. That is just what the natural mind would
expect and crave, but the Lord is not dealing with his people of today as with
natural men. We are not natural Israelites, but spiritual Israelites. It is to
the New Creature that the Lord now appeals; it is the New Creature that now has
the privilege of experiencing healing at the Lord’s hands, forgiveness of sins,
covering with the robe of Christ’s righteousness, so that we have the standing
before the Father of absolute righteousness, without spot, wrinkle, or any such
thing; we know no man after the flesh, we know no perfection after the flesh,
but we do know the perfection and miracles after the spirit; and many a time
have the Lord’s people marveled at the wonderful healing of mind and faith and
hope, and the wonderful refreshments, with joy unspeakable,-the holy anointing
oil received from our spiritual and glorified Head.
“WE ARE TO WALK BY FAITH AND NOT BY SIGHT.”
Not only is this the clear statement of the Word, but the logic of the
proposition must be evident to any one. As for the Lord’s saints, have they
not taken their physical, human, earthly rights and privileges, secured through
the death of Christ, and exchanged these with the Lord for heavenly things, the
heavenly body that is to be received at the First Resurrection, the heavenly
hopes and heavenly joys which are already the first-fruits of the Spirit in
us? Yea, verily, they have. Have they not sacrificed thus the earthly
interests, hopes, rights, privileges, for the heavenly ones? How then can we
who have thus devoted or consecrated our earthly advantages for the heavenly
ones ask to have again the earthly advantages? Would not such a prayer, such a
request intelligently made, signify a withdrawal of our consecration-signify
our preference for the earthly rather than the heavenly gifts, privileges and
advantages? And would we as spiritual Israelites be willing to make such an
exchange again if the Lord were willing to let us do so? Surely not. Would one
who appreciates the privilege of sacrificing earthly interests with Christ, of
laying down the earthly life and its privileges in participation with the Lord
and in hope of joint-heirship with him in the divine nature and Kingdom, wish
for a moment to have the Lord cancel this arrangement and give him back earthly
rights, restitution privileges?
As for the world we grant that the Lord has secured for them restitution
privileges and blessings, and that in due time they will have them-that in due
time Satan will be bound and all of his coadjutors be restrained, and that then
the good Physician, with his whole staff of co-laborers, the members of his
body, his Bride, will participate in the great uplifting of the millennial age,
in administering the blessings of restitutions, mental, moral and physical, to
all the willing and obedient of that glorious time. (Acts 3:19-23.) But the
time of restitution has not yet come. It will not come until the close of this
Gospel age-until the Church shall have finished her course, walking by faith
and not by sight, enjoying the spiritual miracles and not the natural ones.
The demon came out of the man, tearing him-that is to say, causing a
convulsion, a fit. Luke, describing the event, says that he threw the man in
the midst-that is, he fell on the floor of the synagogue in the midst of the
people in a fit, but was otherwise unhurt, the demon not having power to do him
injury, under the Lord’s command. The assembled company was astonished, and
inquired, What new teaching is this which has authority to cast out the evil
demons? Our Lord’s enemies, it will be remembered, subsequently charged him
with casting out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, Satan; hence we see
the wisdom of his having refused to receive testimony from this demon. To have
received their testimony would have been more or less acknowledging them and
giving them credit for truthfulness; whereas the Scriptures everywhere
represent Satan and his fallen spirits as lying spirits, deceiving the people.
Undoubtedly there are cases of demon possession today-obsession. The
custom of our day removes these to asylums, where they are called insane. It
is not our thought that all the inmates of insane asylums are possessed of
demons; but that many of them are. So far as we are able to form a conclusion
on the subject, it would be that probably more than half are demon possessed,
and less than one half are insane through disease of the brain. In all parts
of the world this demon possession seems to prevail, and the tendency seems
always to be downward-they are unclean spirits, delighting not in holy, pure
and good things, but in impurity and unholiness. Their influence is exerted
not only upon the possessed ones but upon others, in an evil direction.
WE ARE NOT IGNORANT OF SATAN’S DEVICES.
Even spirit mediums are well aware of the danger they encounter in acting
as mediums at all. They caution one another not to yield the will too far, to
maintain a self control to a certain extent, to yield themselves to the control
of these spirits only in a definitely limited degree lest they become obsessed,
because the evil spirit obtaining full control, the human will is therefore
powerless to expel the intruder and they are at the mercy of the demon, and
from man’s standpoint are denominated crazy-more particularly so if several
demons gain possession of the same person and thus several wills seek to
control the one organization. In proportion as a knowledge of God and the
principles of righteousness advance and open the eyes of human understanding,
in this same proportion the evil spirits find it necessary to be coy in their
deceptions, and proportionately the Lord’s people need the protection which the
Lord has provided for them, namely, the holy Spirit, the spirit of a sound
mind, the spirit of love, joy and peace in the holy Spirit of the Lord.
Apparently, however, the masses of the people were less deceived on this
subject at that time than they are today. Today Satan, acting more skillfully
than in the past, is leading on as a scientist and is pooh-poohing suggestions
that there are evil spirits or a Beelzebub or prince of demons. To such an
extent has he prevailed that many of the leading theologians of the world, in
all denominations of Christendom, agree that there is no devil, that there are
no demons and that our Lord performed no such miracles as are here recited.
They claim that the poor ignorant people of our Lord’s day did not understand
what they were talking about, and said that a man had a devil when he merely
had a nervous disease, a fit, etc. Christian Science is one of Satan’s latest
fads, which, under the guise of morality, is seeking to destroy both common
sense and Christianity amongst the Lord’s people. It is one of Satan’s latest
devices, disproving himself and thus turning attention away from the powerful
influence which he exercises in the world. “We are not ignorant of his
devices.” (2 Cor. 2:11.) “We wrestle not with flesh and blood, but with
principalities and powers, and wicked spirits in high places.” (Eph. 6:12.)
“But greater is he that is for us, than all they that be against us.” (2 Kings
6:16.) The revised version translation of the 28th verse is preferable. It
reads, “And the report of him went out straightway everywhere in all that
region of Galilee round about.” This fame of Jesus subsequently aided greatly
in his ministry, when he went to all the towns and villages throughout
Galilee.
ST. PETER’S MOTHER-IN-LAW CURED.
After the synagogue incident our Lord went to the home of Simon Peter
and Andrew, James and John accompanying him. Peter’s mother-in-law lay sick of
a fever, and one of the evangelists intimates that it was a violent form of
fever. For the first time it seems to have occurred to the disciples that the
Lord’s power, which they had seen manifested on various occasions, might be
exercised on behalf of this sick woman. Now, their faith grown stronger, they
mentioned her case to Jesus and he took her by the hand and lifted her up.
Immediately the fever left her. Not only so, but instead of being weak and
enervated, as is usually the case after a severe fever, she was strong and
vigorous and able to serve the family, probably in the setting forth of
refreshments and other household matters. This demonstrates that her cure
could have been nothing short of miraculous. The operation of the mind, even
if it could in any measure have destroyed the fever condition, could not have
made good the waste of strength in the system accomplished by the fever.
Sunset saw the gathering of numbers of the sick and demon-possessed ones.
This was probably for two reasons: (1) that it would be during the cooler time
of the day in which the diseased could come in a warm country such as
Palestine; (2) it was the Sabbath day, and the Jews, however irreligious and
even devilish some of them were, were all strict Sabbatarians. We remember how
on another occasion the Pharisees found fault with Jesus because he had healed
a man on the Sabbath day, and how our Lord exposed their hypocrisy in the
matter by showing that if it had been an ox or an ass that had fallen into a
ditch, and where there might be a monetary loss if the creature were not
assisted, their reasoning would be more correct. Our Lord, however, seems to
have preferred the Sabbath days for his healing work: at all events some of his
most notable miracles were done on the Sabbath days. His reason for so doing
was not, we believe, to exasperate the Pharisees and Scribes or merely to show
the hypocrisy of their formalism, but because the Sabbath days served a special
purpose as an illustration of the great Sabbath that is to come, the
Millennium, in which all the families of the earth shall be blessed by this
good Physician, who has already given his life for the redemption of the life
of the world, and who during the millennial age (his Bride, the Church,
cooperating) will bless and heal all the willing and obedient of the human
family-lifting them up, up, up out of Adamic sin and death conditions to the
perfection of life lost in Eden through the disobedience of the first Adam.
SATANIC POWER CAN AND DOES NOW CURE.
Many of the Lord’s consecrated people of today, noting the cure of
diseases by spirit mediums, mind curists, hypnotists, Christian Scientists,
Mormons, etc., are inclined to think of these cures of our day in much the same
light as we think of our Lord’s cures recorded in this lesson and its Golden
text. This is a natural tendency-it is natural for us to seek to walk by sight
and not by faith. Some of these dear friends inquire of us, Is not our Lord
Jesus as able to heal the sickness of our bodies today as he was able to heal
the sickness of the Jews at Capernaum? We answer, Yes, unquestionably. More
than this, we hold that our Lord has more power today than he had then.
It was after our Lord had finished his sacrifice, after he had risen from
the dead, a life-giving spirit, that he declared to the disciples, “All power
is given me in heaven and in earth.” We have not a question, therefore,
respecting the ability of our Lord to perform today and through his people of
today any miracles that he performed at the first advent in person. We are
asked, If this be so, should we not expect such healings? Did not our Lord
say, “These signs shall follow them that believe: In my name shall they cast
out devils and heal the sick, and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not
harm them, etc.”? (Mark 16:18.) We answer, that these words are spurious,-that
they are not found in any of the old manuscripts, that all scholars
admit that they are forgeries, and that no part of the 16th chapter of Mark,
after the 8th verse, is genuine.