The Word of Truth for Today 5

By Joseph L. Watkins

As we left off in our last paper, we were trying to share with our readers how we see the Spirit of Truth has used the Companion Bible, and the author of this great and priceless work, Mr. Ethelbert W. Bullinger, to give the world a good "Foundation" for dispensational thought.

Now as a builder of many homes, I have long been aware of the need for a sure and true foundation to build upon. Once that phase was complete, I would call on the framing crew. Now this phase of the project is very technical and of the utmost importance if our house is to abide the elements. And we see that the Lord gave us a very wise and faithful master builder of the framework of dispensational truth concerning The Mystery of The Outcalled, which is His Body, in Charles H. Welch (1880 to 1967).

Following the framing work, we look to the finishers to make our house habitable on a daily basis. To a great degree we have the Lord to thank for the immeasurable contribution of such men as Mr. Stuart Allen and our own beloved Oscar M. Baker, among others. However, in a real sense this phase (the finishing) of the work will never be finished. Today that one who has a true desire for "Truth" for Truth's sake, can receive a tremendous amount of help and understanding from the writings of these faithful men. And it is our goal to make these writings available to our readers.

However, having said all this, we have expressed to the Lord our most sincere gratitude for each of these faithful men, and all such men that have been a help and an encouragement to us in our endeavor to find God's own approval on our work of "Rightly Dividing" the Word of Truth. For in the end, it is "I" who must stand alone before my Lord as an approved workman, or I must bow there in both shame and in loss. Read and study again both 2 Tim. 2:15 and Phil. 1:9, 10. Things that "differ" must not be joined together, for in so doing, both may become of "none effect" or disallowed.

Those who would live with one eye on the Lord's return to his "earthly purpose" found in Matt. 24:3, 27, 37, & 39; 1 Cor. 15:23; 1 Thess. 4:15, and the other eye on His "Eternal Purpose" in the Heavenly Place Far Above (Eph. 2:6), will in the end miss both. And those that would hold to the types and shadows of the Acts times will never lay hold of the Real and the True Worship that we are called to in the post-Acts dispensation of "The Mystery".

As we study All Scripture, we learn that man has been on this present earth about 6,000 years. The first 2,000 years or so, the Creator God allowed man "to do that which seemed right in his own sight", but they did, even as they do today, only that which is according to their will and ways, with little regard for the right as the holy Creator of all sees "The Right". So we read in Romans 1:18-32 that "... God ... gave them up to uncleanness even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge... "

And we see that at that same time the Lord called to His service a man we now know as Abraham. To him was born a son Isaac, and to Isaac was also born a son, Jacob, whose name was changed by the Lord to Israel. Now to this man was given 12 sons, and from these 12 came to be that one great nation we now know as Israel.

The 2,000 year history of that nation as the people of God, occupies about ninety percent of the Bible from Gen. 12 to Acts 28:28, which also takes in the 14 kingdom epistles - three by John, two by Peter, and one each by James and Jude. Also seven by Paul: Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, 1 & 2 Thess., and Hebrews. The last, but one of the most vital of all with regard to that time and hope, The Revelation. But at Acts 28:28 judgment came upon that people - the "Lo-ammi" (not my people) judgment of the Prophet Hosea. Read and study all of that closely.

Now we can and should learn from all this long historical record of God's earth purpose, for our lives and our "faith" are greatly influenced by it. However, we must also learn that very little of that truth is Truth For Today.

For in the course of that 2,000 years The Spirit of Truth gave unto that nation and "for that people only" what we understand to be their "National Constitution", which most call "The Law of Moses"; a whole religious system of fleshly traditions, that should have no place in our lives and service today. A system that rested on animal sacrifice and a full system of priests along with their "priest-craft" that was to make that people acceptable (reconciled) to a Holy God, never could these things give life, then, or now, as so many think.

So that whole system was done away with by God himself, and in place of that old out-dated "religion", the Lord has given the true believer a new way of service and worship - one without priests or things of the flesh, no traditions to keep, no ordinances to observe, no sabbaths or holidays (religious holidays). All of which were but types and shadows of the true CHRIST. Today we have Him, the real and the true SPIRIT, and we are to worship and we are to serve - in SPIRIT and in TRUTH. Read John 4:24 and study Col. 2:4-23.

jlw