Preserving Parousia and Epiphany Truth: What are we not to understand?

Monday, June 22, 2009

What are we not to understand?

PT. 1979 Pg. 50:

...we are not to understand that during the Gospel Age, or Church Age, God called two classes to salvation; for the Scripture states, "Ye are called in one hope of your calling" (Eph. 4: 4); that is, we are not to understand that God offered two sets of people two different salvations during the Gospel Age, as inducements for them to love and serve Him; for such a thing is nowhere taught in the Bible. Rather, there has been only one salvation offered to those who during the Gospel Age would turn from sin to righteousness, from Satan to God and Christ. To all of these God offered as the prize (Phil. 3: 14) the Divine nature (2 Pet. 1: 4) and eternal life in joint-heirship with Christ as His Bride, His Body members (Rom. 8: 17; 12: 4, 5; 1 Cor. 12: 12-27; 2 Cor. 11: 2, 3; Eph. 4: 4-14; 5: 22-33; Rev. 21: 9, 10), on condition of faithfulness unto death in following Christ (Rev. 2: 10).

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Sifters—Who Are The Sifters

Question (1968)—Bro. Russell called Messrs. Barbour, Paton, Williamson, Henninges, McPhail and other similar disseminators of error sifters, and they in turn called him a sifter; Bro. Johnson called J.F.R. and others like him sifters, and they in turn called him the same; and now you speak of certain ones as sifters and they accuse you of being like J.F.R., who “accused Bro. Johnson of being a sifter.” It is rather confusing. Who are the sifters anyway?

Answer.—It should not be confusing if we hold carefully to the Truth as unfolded for us from the Word of God and look for His holy Spirit. In all cases Satan is really the sifter—the one who originates, initiates and carries on persistently a sifting (Luke 22: 31; 1 Pet. 5: 8). Through pride, ostentation, self-exaltation, envy, jealousy, deceit, misrepresentations, falsehoods, slander, favoritism, unfaithfulness to the Truth, malice and other works of the flesh he appeals to God’s people and uses those who respond to Him as his agents to oppose the Truth and to spread error, which of course sifts out the unfaithful ones. We are not to forget that God’s approval or disapproval is manifested through testings and siftings (1 Cor. 11: 18, 19; see also P. ’53, pp. 50, 51). Nations are sifted “with the sieve of vanity,” but “through the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down” (Isa. 30: 28-31). The Assyrian here, as in Micah 5: 5, 6, represents “those who make spoil of God’s people by devastating the Truth and its Spirit” (E. 10, p. 115).

Satan’s emissaries “call evil good, and good evil” and “put darkness for light and light for darkness” (Isa. 5: 20). Many leaders who once had the truth, given by the Lord through Bro. Russell, on Jesus’ Second Advent, His invisible presence, the Bible chronology and the forty years’ Harvest reaping, now claim . . . that the Bible chronology as given by Bro. Russell is wrong,. . . The Lord’s true sheep will heed only the voice of the Good Shepherd; they will study to show themselves approved unto God, rightly dividing the word of truth (2 Tim. 2: 15). They will keep themselves in the love of God and in the most holy faith. The Truth and its Spirit will be the touchstones that will determine for them which is true and which is false. Teachings that do not agree with (1) themselves (2) all other Scriptures, (3) all other Scripture doctrines, (4) with the Ransom, (5) with reason, (6) with facts, and (7) with the purposes of Godliness, should be rejected as erroneous. ’68-46