A REFUGE from THE STORM

 Dear Friends,

The world today is faced with a situation unparalleled in the history of the human race. Man now has at his disposal weapons of such destructive capacity that the extinction of all life from the face of the globe is regarded as a sober possibility. This disconcerting fact dwarfs all other problems which beset mankind. The more people read of the awful devastation and lethal after-effects of the weapons of mass destruction, the more hopeless the future appears to be.

A lively apprehension of the possibilities which are involved is instilling a sense of utmost urgency into present efforts to secure world agreements: agreements which it is hoped will tend to lessen world tension and promote lasting peace. But the weapons are there, and the experience of 6000 years of human history has instructed us that when an aggressor is bent on war, then treaties, pacts and agreements count for very little.

In the world today there are intense national rivalries, irreconcilable ideologies, and thoughtful men and women find the future extremely dark and forbidding. But in the perplexities of the times there has been no resort on the part of the leaders of the people to the Book of books for guidance. Yet the Bible sheds a flood of light on the present world situation.

This great fact is not appreciated by the religious world generally. The reason, however, is not far to seek. When we compare the leading doctrines of the churches and chapels with the clear teaching of the Bible itself, we find that there is something radically wrong. We discover that the generally accepted teachings of the Church are, as a whole, quite out of harmony with the message of the Bible.

It is this fundamental lack of harmony which blinds men to the true facts of the present world situation. It prevents them from discerning aright the signs of the times. When they ought to be awake, and preparing for the second coming of Christ, they are spiritually asleep.

Let us get this point quite clear. The true Christian hope, as preached by Jesus Christ and by his apostles, was not that men should fit their immortal souls for a place in heaven at death. Such a doctrine is entirely contrary to clear Bible teaching.

The Bible teaches that death is really death; that is, it is in every sense the opposite of life. When death terminates life, then there is an entire cessation of all thought and activity. Nowhere does the Bible teach that there is any part of man which continues on in conscious existence after death. Here are two plain passages from the inspired Word of God:-

But the surface of this fair earth is at present divided among rival nations. Desiring peace, they thoroughly distrust one another, and twice in the present century they have engaged in terrible global conflicts. They talk much of disarmament, but an underlying fear and distrust urges each nation to prepare feverishly the latest weapons of defence and offence. How, then, can the righteous inherit the earth and dwell on it happily for ever?

Obviously, under present conditions, such a thing would be impossible. But again, the Bible throws a clear light on the matter. We have said that Jesus never taught that the righteous would go to heaven at death. What he did preach was that he himself would go there after his resurrection, and that he would sit at his Father's right hand until the day appointed by God for him to judge the world in righteousness (Acts 17:31). Jesus further taught that when this great day comes, he will descend from heaven to this earth to overturn the kingdoms of men, and so set up on their ruins the Kingdom of God. This kingdom will be world wide, and Christ will reign upon the restored throne of David in Jerusalem, the undisputed monarch, by divine right, of the whole earth (Isaiah 9:6-7; Luke 1:32-33).

Do not be misled by the fact that the great majority of the sects that make up what is called ‘Christendom’ believe that the righteous go to heaven at death. The fact that an error is sincerely believed by millions does not convert the error into truth. The Bible is our only guide, and in its sacred pages we find that the promise of a future life is intimately bound up with the future of this earth.

But now note this. Gibbon states, "But when the edifice of the church was almost completed, the temporary support was laid aside . . . The doctrine of Christ's reign upon earth was at first treated as a profound allegory, was considered by degrees as a doubtful and useless opinion, and was at length rejected as the absurd invention of heresy and fanaticism."

This testimony by a secular historian is extremely important and instructive. It shows how the true teaching of Christ was gradually corrupted by the church.

The doctrine of Christ's reign upon earth was the burden of his teaching when he was on earth. It was in fact the GOSPEL, or glad tidings, which he proclaimed to the people :-

He promised his twelve apostles that when he should reign on earth in his kingdom, they also would reign on earth with him :-

This promise to the disciples is perfectly understandable when we appreciate that both Old and New Testaments contain numerous promises by God that He will purify and restore the nation of Israel to its own land and bless them abundantly:

When the disciples asked the Lord to teach them to pray, he spoke those words which have been repeated untold times in every tongue under heaven. His model prayer contained a petition concerning the establishment of God's coming kingdom on earth:

How few people in Christendom who repeat these words really understand their true import. Many think it is a petition for the prosperity of the Church. It is nothing of the sort. As we have shown, Jesus went about "preaching the glad tidings of the Kingdom of God." He promised his twelve apostles that they would sit on twelve thrones in that Kingdom; and the angel Gabriel assured the virgin Mary that the Son who should be born to her by the power of the Holy Spirit would be a king who should reign literally on this earth:

Finally we have the plain promise in Revelation 11:15 that when Christ returns, the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever.

This change of world dominion will be effected by force. In Revelation 11:18 we are told that when Christ comes and raises the dead and rewards the righteous with life eternal, he will also contend with the angry nations, and "DESTROY THEM WHICH DESTROY THE EARTH." This is exactly in harmony with the prophecy in the second Psalm :-

Present rulers will be dispossessed by Christ when he returns. In place of the present divided, troubled condition of things on the earth, there will be established, by divine power, Christ's universal kingdom of righteousness and peace.

Here is the answer. The Apostle Paul foretold that after his death the simple life-giving doctrines of the true gospel would be abandoned, and the Truth would be corrupted. He foretold, by the Holy Spirit, that ‘grievous wolves’ would enter the Christian communities and would devour the flock. He also declared, "Also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them."

Now let us see where all this leads.

They have a hope; they believe that if they are good they will go to heaven when they die. But it is a false hope. It will never bring them to salvation.

Correct doctrine is vital to salvation in spite of what the modernists say. If any doubt the importance of right doctrine, let them ponder these sobering words of the Apostle Paul :—

Christ preached the gospel of his coming kingdom on earth and that the righteous will be rewarded with eternal life in that kingdom.

This, then, is the reason why Christendom as a whole will be taken completely unawares by the sudden appearance in the earth of Jesus Christ.

Now with these facts clearly in our minds, let us consider some remarkable words which the Lord Jesus uttered concerning his second coming. His disciples were admiring the stones of the temple on one occasion, and drew the Master's attention to their beauty. The Lord replied by declaring that there would come a time when there should not be left one stone upon another: all would be thrown down.

In the 21^st chapter of Luke we have the Lord's reply to these profoundly interesting questions.

Exactly as foretold by Christ, Jerusalem was besieged, the temple destroyed, and the Jews led captive and scattered among the nations. It is considered that the horrors of that siege in A.D. 70 have no parallel in history.

Jesus then proceeded to answer the further question, "What shall be the sign of thy coming and the end of this dispensation?"

He said there would be "signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars, and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring." In Bible figure, sun, moon and stars stand for the luminaries in the political heavens. The ‘sea’ stands for the nations; the ‘waves roaring’ for peoples in a state of restlessness and uneasiness. (For example, "The wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest" — Isaiah 57:20).

When the present precarious peace breaks down, fear will grip the whole world. Men everywhere know the fearful potentialities of modern day weapons. They remember that in the early days of the atom bomb, one single bomb destroyed a whole city. Professor Otto Frisch of Cambridge once declared that the power of the H-bomb exploded at Bikini in 1954 was 600 times that of the Hiroshima bomb of 1945. He added that such a bomb would probably cause the destruction of all buildings within an area of 200 to 300 square miles. Existing stocks, which can be doubled every few years, are capable of devastating many thousands of square miles. Another terrible feature of this weapon is the "fallout", that is, the settling of radioactive explosion debris. The radio activity produced by one bomb is enormous. If a bomb were dropped over London when a south-east wind were blowing, Birmingham and Coventry would receive a lethal dose of this fallout in 2 ¹/₂ hours.

The Editor of the World Intelligence Digest, viewing the appalling crisis which has come upon the world when these new weapons are unleashed, boldly declared that unless there were a divine intervention from heaven, then mankind must perish from the face of the earth.

This is the great crisis toward which the world is fast hastening.

But let us be quite clear on this point: Christ is coming to give shelter and protection to his true followers; but he is also coming to bring sore judgments on those who resist his claims. In this 21^st chapter of Luke, this great contrast between the two classes of persons is clearly drawn. In verse 28 Christ speaks words of great comfort to his true disciples who will be alive at the time of his second coming; he declared, "And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh."

But what of the heedless masses who are not looking for the Lord's second coming? Christ's words of warning to his followers are very clear and very solemn:-

There is no doubt that we are living in the last days of the Gentiles. In that same 21^st chapter of Luke there is a sign which demonstrates conclusively that we are in the final epoch which will witness the second coming of Christ. When Christ has spoken of the world-wide distress, fear and perplexity which will prevail, he uttered a remarkable parable. Here are his words:-

As a result of the invasions of Gentile armies, the Holy Land for centuries has lain desolate and her people, the Jews, scattered to the four corners of the earth. But Christ spoke of the fig tree as once more putting forth her tender shoots. He said this would be an unmistakable sign of his second coming, and of the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth. In other words, one of the great signs of the times for which the faithful were to watch was the revival of Israel's national life in their ancient homeland.

The development of this sign during the past hundred years has been truly remarkable. The movement known as "Zionism" took definite shape as a result of the enthusiasm of Dr Theodor Herzl. In 1896 he wrote The Jewish State and emphasised concerning Jewry, "We are a nation, a nation." He became the leader of the Zionist movement. Jews in countries where they were being cruelly persecuted were fired by Dr Herzl's vision, and there started, slowly at first, but ever increasing in tempo, the return of Jews to their ancient homeland. The movement was given great impetus when Britain, on 2^nd November 1917, issued the famous "Balfour Declaration". Britain declared that she viewed with favour the establishment in Palestine of a National Home for the Jewish people. After the 1914-18 war, Britain was entrusted with the mandate for Palestine. She retained this mandate until 1948. During the period of the mandate many thousands of Jews settled in Palestine and began to make fruitful fields out of the desolation of centuries.

In 1948 the State of Israel was established. Unrestricted immigration of Jews to the land of Israel was made a fixed policy of the new state, and unprecedented numbers of Jewish refugees from all lands returned to the old home land of Israel. The new state has its army, its civil service; it has a seat in the United Nations Organisation (UNO), and the wisdom of its counsel at the meetings of that organisation has more than once been acknowledged.

The Jews themselves have unwittingly used the very symbol employed by Christ himself when he spoke of this remarkable latter-day sign. They have their own postal services, and one of their postage stamps bears the illustration of a leafy fig tree branch from which hang figs in the early stage of development. Underneath is a quotation in Hebrew from the Song of Songs 2:13. "The fig tree putteth forth her green figs."

And Christ declared that when this fig tree shoots forth we are to know that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand. Indeed, he declares that the generation which witnesses this great sign will not pass away until the fulfilment of the promise.

Old and New Testament prophecies show clearly that God's coming great controversy with the nations will start in the land of Israel. The Middle East holds today all the ingredients for the start of a world conflagration. It is there that the nations will join battle in the third world war. This last great war will reveal to a startled world the Lord Jesus Christ in a new aspect. He will come as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, to cleanse this fair earth of rebels and tyrants and to establish God's kingdom of righteousness and peace:

The saints here mentioned are the redeemed. They will have been raised from the dead and gathered from among the living immediately after Christ's return from heaven. Called to the judgment seat of Christ they will have been approved and granted the gift of eternal life. With Christ they will then go forth to conquer the world, in order that God's Kingdom may be established on earth. Then they will exercise their kingly and priestly offices (see Revelation 5:9-10).

In this last great war of Armageddon, Christ and the saints will possess the limitless powers of the Holy Spirit. The very elements will be in their control. The armies of the nations will oppose Christ with all the weapons of their modern armouries. But what can the most terrible weapon do against Christ and his immortal followers? The Lord will turn their weapons back upon themselves. The fearful effects upon the human frame caused by atomic explosion have been fully described to the public. There is a remarkable similarity between those effects and the description in Zechariah chapter 14 of the disaster which will overtake the armies that will fight against Christ and the saints at Armageddon. In verse 12 we read,

Verse 13 tells of panic and mutual slaughter among the Gentile hosts.

Men may pry today into the innermost secrets of God's creation. They may deploy their discoveries in the manufacture of terrible nuclear weapons. But the Lord will mock at their efforts; and He can destroy them by similar means.

This coming world conflict will not be confined to the Middle East. It will start there, but will spread through the whole earth. Psalm 2 is prophetic of this coming time of crisis. It relates how the nations will band together against Christ to resist his claim to the rulership of the world. But hear the declaration of the Almighty in this same Psalm:-

This is the "snare" of which Jesus spoke, as recorded in the 21st chapter of Luke:

But there is no need for the true servants of God to fear. A refuge from the storm is promised. Those who die in Christ will be raised from the dead at his second coming, as we have seen.

Those who are ‘in Christ’ and who are alive on the earth at his second coming will be taken away from the troubles about to engulf the world. The righteous, comprehending those raised from the dead and those called away from among the living who are approved at the judgment seat, will find shelter and security. They will receive the divine invitation promised by God through Isaiah the prophet:-

The question may now be put with all earnestness: "Where do you stand in relation to the coming of Christ? Will you be found among the few who will be on the watch: those who will ‘look up and lift up their heads’ knowing that their redemption draws nigh? Or will you be found among the heedless masses upon whom ‘the time of trouble such as never was’ will come suddenly as a snare?"

Surely all earnest seekers after Truth will give an instant answer. They will wish to be found ready and prepared for the Lord's coming.

This is the promise of life eternal and the everlasting possession of the earth. This is the true Christian hope. There is no other.

It is sincerely hoped that this pamphlet will arouse your interest in God's wonderful promise of salvation, and that you will be moved to pursue your enquiries and not rest content until you have a full knowledge of the first principles of the Truth, and have attested your belief by baptism into Christ.

• (This article is placed on the web by The Aletheian Christadelphian Fellowship, Bible Students in the U.K. to draw attention to the true teaching of the Bible).

• Web Page Edition: April 2008

The word Christadelphian is a Greek word, and translated, it means the brethren of Christ (Heb. 2:11), We are a body of people associated together by a belief in the things concerning the Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 8:12); and by immersion into Christ (Gal. 3:27) for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38) and a part in his resurrection (Rom. 6:5).

We do not profess to have received any new revelation, but hold that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are able to make wise unto Salvation (2 Tim. 3:15,17). Believing in the Divine Authorship of the Bible, we think it only reasonable to reject any interpretation thereof which fails to harmonise all the testimonies of the Holy Scriptures; and finding that the creeds of the various sects around are, in a great variety of ways, opposed to the direct teaching of the Bible, we feel compelled to stand apart, making appeal in all such matters to the statements of Scripture, and testing all creeds thereby.

We believe in the personal, visible return of Christ to the earth, to set up his power and reign thereon, and we seek to share this knowledge with others. We offer our services in expounding the message of the Bible without cost of any kind.