2 Peter 1
April 5, 2020
2 Peter 1
"Behold, the Bridegroom!
Go Ye Out to Meet Him."
2. The Lamp
On account of the nightly journey, the virgins took their lamps in order to go
out and meet the bridegroom. Thus it is the lamp that distinguished these
virgins from other religious people who do not go out from the already
established state-churches, nor turn from the customs inherited from their
fathers. Therefore, the lamp must represent the prophetic Word which calls
the world's attention to the signs of the time that announce the second coming
of Christ.
It is written about the prophetic Word, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and
a light unto my path." (Ps. 119:105.) — "Where there is no vision (Word of
prophecy), the people perish" — (go in the dark). (Prov. 29:18). And again,
"We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye
take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and
the day star arise in your hearts." (2 Pet. 1:19). Christ is the morning star that
leads to the throne of David. (Rev. 22:16.) The evening star appeared at his
birth in Bethlehem.
2 Peter 1:19 out of Emphatic Diaglott
And we have the PROPHETIC Word more confirmed, to which you do well, taking heed,
(as to a Lamp shining in a Dark Place, till the Day dawn, and the Light-bringer may arise,)
in your HEARTS;
We must not forget that all the promises of God are prophetic; if they were
not prophetic, they would not call forth actual events, but would remain
inactive and therefore, be valueless and dead.
Contrary to these plain testimonies, many different answers are given to the
question, "What constitutes the lamp?"
The Catholic answer is, "The heart is the lamp and the grace of God is the
oil."
The fault with this answer is this, that without a heart and the active grace of
God in it, there can be no virgin.
The Lutheran says, "The religious confession is the lamp, and the oil is the
Spirit."
The trouble with this reply consists in the fact that all the religious people
have a confession, and particularly so, those who never go out to meet the
Bridegroom. Neither do they lack spirit; it is the spirit that leads them to
persecute those who do go out.
The Adventists reply, "The lamp is the Bible and the oil is the renewing
power of the Spirit." This answer suits the carnal-minded partisans who rest
satisfied with the mute letters, bound in splendidly mounted volumes, of which
the whole Christendom now boasts, like the Jews of old, in the presence of
Christ and during the eventful times that followed his prophetic work, boasted
of the names, Abraham and Moses; also of the lawbook and the temple. The
renewing power of the Spirit will finally affect the heavens and the earth in
such a manner that both will be transformed. But how can the heaven
and the earth be the Bride of Christ? Impossible.
--
The Gospel of the Kingdom to Come
by Julia Lee
PRESENT TRUTH
PRESENT TRUTH
"Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though
ye know them, and be established in the present truth."-2 Pet. 1:12.
Truth is truth at all times, though its significance and importance may vary, wherefore there
is an essential difference between historic, prophetic, and present truth.
Historic truth is a description of past events and facts, and it experiences therefore little or no
opposition. It causes animosity, however, when applied in connection with the fulfillment of
prophecy.
Prophetic truth is a prediction of coming events, or history given beforehand. God alone can
truthfully declare things concerning the future, inasmuch as he alone is able to look through
the events of time and materialize the prophecy he has spoken. All of his Word is prophetic,
and it can be compared with the seed, which is sown over and over again, and comes forth in
a new body, enclosing a new development of life which produces a similar result every time it
is brought in contact with the same acting agencies or causes. Prophecy always meets with
opposition and is invariably considered the most obnoxious "foolishness."
Present truth is the growing seed of prophecy, becoming history as it assumes shape in
truthful manifestations of power. The disciples witnessed just such a change of time,
wherefore Peter exhorted them to heed and preserve the prophecy in honor. (2 Pet. 1:19).
Every time history repeats itself and overthrows an antiquated condition, it corroborates the
truthfulness of prophecy. Ignorance, partisanship, egotism, and violence rise up in arms to
conduct concerted war against prophecy in the act of being fulfilled, and thereby the
atrocities of the past recur in a new, and as far as the truth is concerned, just as dangerous
war, from which truth rises triumphantly after a more or less bloody carnage. Thus present
truth is the reality concerning which the prophets have prophesied, and which causes the
people to be placed on trial.
Every period of time has its own peculiar trial, originating from some truth, which is then
being clothed in flesh. If we consider seven such periods of the past, we shall be able to
grasp the meaning of the expression, "present truth," also its significance to us.
Noah. The earth had become full of "renowned" and "mighty men." The way of truth had
been destroyed, and the Spirit of God was not permitted to chasten the people any more.
Therefore the Creator said, "I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the
earth." "Yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.," "Make thee an ark ... And,
behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth ... But with thee will I establish
my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy
sons' wives with thee."
"Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he." Thereby the Word
assumed real form, in the building which constituted a guarantee of life, by which he who
believed the prophet could save his life. The person who did not believe the Word of God did
not work on the ark, consequently he had no room prepared in it for himself when the flood
came.
It is impossible for us to grasp how repulsive the work of Noah was to his contemporaries.
When he after one hundred and twenty years of work had completed his part of the contract,
or covenant, and when the ark was provisioned and ready, the time of grace belonging to the
time of Noah was ended. He was commanded to enter the ark, and God closed the door. You
can almost hear how the blasphemers rejoiced when Noah and his family sat as prisoners in
the ark for seven, days without a drop of the predicted rain falling. But on the eighth day it
began to rain, and it continued forty days and forty nights; and thus vanished that evil
generation, which had scoffed at God, who had spoken the Word through Noah.
Abraham. We move a little farther down the course of time to Abraham with his 318
servants. Why didn't he build a residence and settle down? Why didn't he too make himself
"a name" by building a famous castle, a city, a tower, or a palace? Because he expected to
inherit the land as an everlasting possession, and to inherit a city which God himself would
build, because he had received the promise, "Unto thy seed will I give this land," and it "shall
possess the gate of his enemies."—Gen. 12th and 22nd chapters.
After 430 years these words were transformed into an irresistible development of life--a
movement of great magnitude. Oppression had then reached its climax. The cry of the
helpless family of Abraham summoned the Judge, and Moses stepped forth as the watcher
and materializer of prophecy. When the delivered and victorious children of Israel returned to
their land "with great substance," as God had promised (see Gen. 15: 13-16; 22:17), they
became established in "present truth," and the land of Egypt resembled a devastated
battlefield, with a person dead in every house. The Egyptians did not laugh any more at "a
foolish" prophecy. They were conquered and overwhelmed by a righteous punishment,
administered because of their cruelty. Their army was annihilated, their laborers were gone,
and their riches had disappeared.
Joshua brought to completion what Moses commenced, and here the prophetic utterance,
"Thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies" became present truth. No less than thirtyone
kings with their armies made a concerted effort to oppose the fulfillment of the prophetic
Word; but their wickedness was complete, spoils from the poor were found in their houses,
and their time of grace was consequently ended. The victors—the people who had been
mistreated for such a long time—possessed the land and the gate of their enemies. And they
testified that "the Lord gave unto Israel all the land which he sware to give unto their fathers
.. . There failed not ought of any good thing which the Lord had spoken unto the house of
Israel; all came to pass."—Joshua 21: 43-45.
Elijah appeared on the scene. When the Creator took upon himself to become the Father and
King of Israel, he enjoined Israel to wander according to his commandments and regulations.
He said, "And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments
which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your
heart and with all your soul, that I will give you the rain of your land in his due season . . .
and I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle that thou mayest eat and be full."
(Dent. 11:13-15.) "And I will set my tabernacle among you." (See Lev. 26: 3-33.) Then follows the
disastrous prophecy: "Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn
aside, and serve other gods, and worship them; and then the Lord's wrath be kindled against
you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit;
and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which the Lord giveth you."—See Deut.
11:16, 17.
Slowly but surely they forgot the purpose of the law. When the apostasy was complete, when
King Ahab had assumed the throne of God, and the prelates had evicted all the servants of
God, permitting those who exercised authority in Israel to commit violence and
unrighteousness in, the name of Moses and the law without receiving punishment, then
Elijah, the prophet of the dethroned King Jehovah, stepped forth and said, "As the Lord God
of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years but
according to my word."-1 Kings 17:1.
For a period of 681 years they had read the Word of prophecy without believing that
punishment would come over them. The words of Elijah were naturally accepted with scorn
and contempt by the powerful of church and state, who stood as a mighty wall between the
Creator and his people. Therefore it was necessary that the drought gnaw at the very lives of
the deceived people in order that God should be able to gain their ear. At- the end of three
years and six months they were humiliated; and then the outlawed prophet was sent to
remove the colossal wall which had been the cause of the terrible destruction. The deceivers
tried to make the king and the people believe that the heavens gave no rain because of
Elijah's intrigues and machinations. For this reason the king sought him in every land in order
to execute him.
When their thirst for the blood of Elijah was at its height, he confronted the king as one
having authority, and the king greeted him as follows: "Art thou he that troubleth Israel?"
Wholly undaunted Elijah answered, "I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father's
house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed
Baalim. Now therefore send, and gather to me all Israel unto mount Carmel, and the
prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the groves four hundred, which
eat at Jezebel's table." And Ahab had to obey.—See 1 Kings 18.
Finally they stood on Mount Carmel, and Elijah said to the prelates and the king, "I, even I
only, remain a prophet of the Lord; but Baal's prophets are four hundred and fifty men . . .
And call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord: and the God
that answereth by fire, let him be God. And all the people answered and said, It is well
spoken."
Eight hundred and fifty sorcerers, or pastors, commenced that famous prayer meeting. Then
they prayed for fire as they before had prayed for rain, but not one spark of fire came. There
were no secret passages on the mountain cliff, otherwise they would have found some
loophole. Elijah mocked at them and told them to cry loud enough for Baal to awaken, or in
case he was on a journey, for him to make haste and come. When all hope of receiving an
answer to their prayers was gone, Elijah stepped forth and erected an altar, the one which
the praying hypocrites had torn down, laid his sacrifice on it, and poured twelve barrels of
water over the sacrifice and into a trench dug for the purpose. It required an intense fire to
consume this water-soaked sacrifice. Then it was Elijah's turn to pray. He said "Lord God of
Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I
am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word. Hear me, 0 Lord, hear me,
that this people may know that thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their heart
back again." A conclusive answer immediately followed the prayer: "Then the fire of the Lord
fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and
licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their
faces: and they said, The Lord, he . is the God; the Lord, he is the God."
The conviction was complete. The people realized that God had withheld rain on account of
the priests of Baal. For this reason Elijah said, "Let not one of them escape !" The truth of
that day had conquered. The actors disappear, one after another, and new scenes are
prepared behind the curtains in this1 world drama.
5. The curtain rises again and Zerubbabel, a new champion in the house of Judah, assumes
the leadership of a people returning from their captivity. With the sword in one hand and the
trowel in the other, Nehemiah battled in the third act of this movement against both
heathens and his own false brethren, during the time they were building the city of their God.
What was this?
The answer follows:
The Jewish nation had to suffer for its own disobedience, because of its evil kings and
immoral prelates. God said by Jeremiah the prophet, "Ye provoke me to anger with the works
of your hands ... Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the Lord, and
Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and
against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly
destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations.
Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the
bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the
candle. And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations
shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years."—Jer. 25:7-11.
Jeremiah was nearly murdered in the temple of Jehovah because he prophesied that both the
temple and the city of God would be destroyed. And when the time came, the heathens
destroyed Jerusalem, the glory of Israel, and the disobedient became as "dung upon the
ground," as the prophet had said. (V. 33.) It looked as if Jeremiah were a lunatic; and it is
1 About 175 years thereafter, or 724 B. C., the house of Israel, consisting of the ten tribes which had seceded
from the throne of David in 975 B. C., was carried away into captivity to Assyria. Since then they have been
the slaves of the nations, and have been called "the lost tribes."
written, "They mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his
prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy." (2
Chron. 36:10-21.) But when the streets were full of dead bodies, and the house of God went
up in smoke, they laughed no longer at Jeremiah.
"For thus saith the Lord, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you,
and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place . And the city
shall be builded upon her own heap, and the palace [the temple] shall remain after the
manner thereof"—Jer. 29: 10; 30: 18.
After seventy years Zerubbabel stepped forth, gathered the noble children of the captivity,
and rebuilt the temple. But then even a great number of Jews were opposed to the fulfillment
of prophecy. Babylon had then fallen—by virtue of the prophecy which testified against it.
Cyrus, the king of Persia at that time, had humbled the crown of the proud empire; and we
are greatly surprised over the decree he sent out to the advantage of the despised prisoners
Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the land of Judah. He wrote, "Thus saith Cyrus king of
Persia, The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth . . Who is there
among you of all his people'? his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is
in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel (he is the God), which is in Jerusalem.
And whosoever remaineth in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help
him with silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beasts, beside the freewill offering
for the house of God that is in Jerusalem."—See Ezra 1:2-11.
Zerubbabel and the warrior Nehemiah became overseers over the fulfillment of the prophecy.
The first company consisted of 42,360 brethren and their 7,337 servants. But those who had
remained in the land had fallen away from the God of faith, and had fomented war against
this people; thus even their own brethren sought to nullify the fulfillment of prophecy.
However, the One who had spoken the Word kept it in force, and both the temple and the
city of Jerusalem rose from the ashes, though it took seventy years to complete the work.
John the Baptist, "the greatest born of women," came as the reality of the prophecy, "The
voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in.
the desert a highway for our God."—Isa. 40:3.
He did not appear in the churches, but out in the wilderness in a raiment of camel's hair with
a leathern girdle about his loins. He predicted the fall of the Jewish kingdom: "the axe is laid
unto the roots of the trees"—the harvest time when the people would be mowed down like
grass and the earth cleansed by fire. The Word of prophecy was read by the shepherds of the
people—but they failed to recognize present truth clothed in flesh. John fulfilled his part of
the heavenly mission—the completion of the work is reserved for the morning of the great
day of the Lord—by introducing to the people "the Lamb of God," heir to the throne of David,
saying, "whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his
wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." (Mat. 3:10-12.)
For this reason prophecy now requires a closing scene.
The Beginner and Finisher of faith, Jesus, entered the scene as a result of the following
prophecy: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel
[that is, God with us, or, God is the child's Father] ." And he was to be "taken away by
distress and judgment" (see margin), and "he bath poured out his soul unto death: and he
was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession
for the transgressors."—Isa. 7: 14 and 53: 8-12.
For seventy years a warning cry was sounded that the kingdom of God should be taken away
from Judah; and the most miraculous of God's wonders confirmed the fact that God was
behind these witnesses in materializing his disrespected prophetic Word. The suffering and
heavily laden people listened to him eagerly, and desired to make Jesus their King because
he was their friend, their benefactor, their healer, and their life-giver. But they were called by
their overlords, "the accursed people, who know not the law." These prepared to judge and
execute him; therefore it was said of this holy One of God, "He bath a devil and is mad," "He
deceiveth the people," "He is from Galilee," "Is not this the carpenter?" and so forth.
They had beheaded John. Jesus was crucified and buried, but he rose from the dead. The old
prophecy, which for a period of about 1,491 years before the days of Christ had predicted
disaster in the following manner, approached to fulfillment: "And I will set my face against
you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and
ye shall flee when none pursueth you ... and your high ways shall be desolate." "And the Lord
shall scatter you among all people." (See Lev. 26 and Deut. 28.) The seventh drastic drama
ended with the ruin of the Jewish nation; their wailing and lamentation was choked in blood
and tears in the year 70 A. D.
Truth still remains victorious, impelling the corresponding acts which these foreshadows
prefigure. They all return in Christ, because the Divine Plan of salvation is dual. The
scattering of Israel is a reality. Let us consider in the next lecture the in-gathering movement,
which belongs to our time.
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Out of an Article: Dialogue - Revelation
