Moses and Christ: or, The Plan of the World's Salvation (1896)
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Moses
and
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Christ
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
0001026392A
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.
Chap. Copyright No.___
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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
Yours, hopefully.
John 26. Paton.
MOSES AND CHRIST, OR THE PLAN OF THE WORLD'S SALVATION,
ILLUSTRATED BY BIBLE ALLEGORIES.
(REVISED EDITION.)
THE GREAT REVELATION, OR
GOD'S LOVE, PURPOSE, AND PLAN.
BY JOHN H. PATON,
MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL, AUTHOR OF " DAY DAWN, OR THE GOSPEL IN TYPE AND PROPHECY," "THE PERFECT DAY," "THE ATONEMENT," AND PUBLISHER OF "THE WORLD'S HOPE."
"Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me; for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?"—John v. 46, 47.
ALMONT, MICH.
PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR.
54876-B^{2}-1
1896.
COPYRIGHT, 1896, BY JOHN H.
PATON. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
WASHINGTON
Narrow Mickey
PREFACE.
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THIS book first came into existence in response to the expressed wish of many readers of THE WORLD's HOPE. In issuing a Revised Edition, I have gratefully to acknowledge the interest manifested in the little work, as evidenced by its comparatively rapid circulation, the general tone of the comments it has called out even from those not accepting all its teaching, by the earnest call of many for a new edition, and by their willingness to help. It evidently has been, as was hoped, a means of spiritual blessing to many.
The special design of the book is to show that the characters and histories of Moses' writings, especially of the book of Genesis, are pictures or allegories of the gospel plan. It is also designed, directly or indirectly, to present the general teaching of the Bible, and to show the fullness of God's Love underlying his Purpose and Plan in the Creation and Redemption of Mankind,—that is, in bringing the Race up to His own image.
Reference is sometimes made in these pages to the book, "DAY DAWN, or The Gospel in Type and Prophecy." This work may properly be regarded as a sequel to that, being a further development of "The Gospel in Type and Prophecy."
That the blessing of "the Head of the Church," who is also "the Saviour of the World," may still rest upon this work; that it may result in leading many more to larger views and better thoughts of our Heavenly Father and his purpose concerning the children of men; and that it may help its readers to appreciate their relation to the Father and each other, is the earnest and continued prayer of the
AUTHOR.
CONTENTS
OF MOSES AND CHRIST.
I. MOSES WROTE OF CHRIST... 7
II. THE PLAN IN ALLEGORY—Adam a Type of Christ—Eve the Wife and Mother ... 12
III. THE NEW JERUSALEM... 21
IV. CAIN AND ABEL... 25
V. TOWER OF BABEL... 28
VI. ENOCH THE SEVENTH FROM ADAM—The Two Enochs... 31
VII. THE FLOOD... 34
VIII. RAVEN AND DOVE... 43
IX. NUMBER THREE... 46
X. THE Bow OF PROMISE... 64 XI.
ABRAHAM, ISAAC, AND REBEKAH—Isaac the Type of Christ—Rebekah the Type of the Church—The Meeting of Isaac and Rebekah—Rebekah the Wife and Mother... 70
XII. ABRAHAM'S SEVEN SONS... 85
XIII. JACOB AND ESAU... 88
XIV. LEAH AND RACHEL... 95
XV. THE HISTORY OF JOSEPH—Joseph a Type of Christ—Joseph the First—born—Pharaoh's Dreams... 101
XVI. HISTORY OF ISRAEL... 117
XVII. HISTORY OF MOSES—The Burial of Moses ... 130
XVIII. MOSES A TYPE OF CHRIST—Pre-existence of Christ—The First Coming Rejected—Getting His Wife—Thrice Forty Years—Deliverance of Israel—The Burning Bush—Conclusion... 138
XIX. THE ATONEMENT—Shedding of Blood—The Body of Sin—The Great Sacrifice—Atonement in Type—The Scapegoat—Word of Encouragement... 157 This peculiar attitude of the Jewish people is shown also in verses 39 and 40, where Jesus said, "Ye search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: AND THEY ARE THEY WHICH TESTIFY OF ME.
And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life." Many think Jesus was blaming them, but He was rather showing the weakness and inconsistency of the natural man. Had they been spiritual, and so had been controlled by the love of God, they would have seen Christ in Moses' writings; but being natural, they could only see the lower or earthly phase of truth. For the same reason, they could see no beauty in Christ, when He came, that they should desire Him.—Isa. liii. 2.
The method by which Moses wrote of Christ was and is the puzzle. He said nothing directly about Christ—that is, in the letter of his writings. Then if Christ is to be found in those writings, He must be discerned spiritually, under cover of the natural things of which he wrote, just as when He had come into the world, He had to be accepted under cover of a natural body. The Jews could see Jesus as a man, but they could not see nor come to Him in His divine character, because they were natural themselves. They could not see the Father in Him; ['He that hath seen [understood] me hath seen the Father.''] and Jesus spoke a necessary truth when He said, "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him."—John vi. 44. Just so, they could not see Christ in the writings of Moses. It was in both cases because of their natural inability to see spiritual things
They trusted in Moses, but did not believe him. "Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me." (v. 45, 46.) Trust and faith are not necessarily the same. Trust may be blind, but faith, properly speaking, is intelligent. To believe Moses, according to this teaching, means to see and understand the spiritual meaning of his writings,—that is, to see the Gospel of Christ under cover of the letter of his words.
In other words, to believe Moses is to see in his writings pictorial representations of the whole Plan of the Ages, God's plan in Christ for the enlightenment and salvation of the world.
Inasmuch as we are told that the worlds, (that is, the ages) were made by and for Christ, (Heb. i. 2,) and that in them He carries out God's great purpose in reference to mankind; it is easy to see that Moses could not have written of Christ in any other way so effectively, as by giving allegorical pictures of the plan. He wrote of Christ, not by mentioning His name, but by giving the outline and result of His glorious work.
Skeptics have sometimes objected to the statement of Jesus, "Moses wrote of me," on the ground that he never once mentioned His name; but to write of His plan, and work, and glorious success, is far more important, and more effectual writing of Christ, than the mention of His name. And there is no other way in which so much truth can be expressed in small space as by types or life pictures of the plan.
But it is truth under cover; and some object to it on that ground, thinking that all truth should be given in plain, direct and positive statements. Well, they must settle the matter with the Author. If men will stumble over the method of giving truth, then they must stumble; and sometime they will stumble on to a truth adapted to their need. It is a fact, whatever may be God's reason for having it so, that all things of great value are made difficult of attainment. To study, search, dig or work, is Heaven's law. The deep things have a special value, whether it be in the earth or in the Bible. In this respect, God's two books, Nature and Revelation, are much alike; and this may well be regarded as evidence of the divinity of the Bible, and of nothing more so than the writings of Moses.
John said, "The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." "The Law" in the comprehensive sense, includes the typical and allegorical features of Moses' writings, as well as the system of commandments. With this in mind, the contrast between the law and the grace and truth becomes more clear and forcible. The grace (or favor) is contrasted with the commandments, and the truth is contrasted with the pictures. The letter of those writings was only a shadow of the great truth concerning Christ. The 'truth,' fully developed in Christ and His work of the ages, is the substance to which the shadow pointed.
The Jews saw only the historical 'letter,' and the system of commandments, and could not discern Christ in Moses' writings. They thus 'trusted' in Moses as a divine leader, teacher and law-giver, but did not 'believe' the deeper phase of his writings. The 'letter' was like a veil to hide the gospel truth. (See 2. Cor. iii. 13-16.)
This tendency to see only the surface truth, and so to fail in seeing Christ and His plan and work, showed itself in the immediate disciples of Jesus, and is not uncommon among Christians today. Many do not believe that the word has a 'spirit' under cover of the 'letter.' They must have surface truth or none at all. They are afraid to see, or hear of, "the deep things of God." "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned."—1. Cor. ii 14. The most glorious things which God has prepared for them that love him, and for all mankind through them, are not seen even by the majority of Christians; "But," says the apostle, "God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God,"—that is, the things under cover of the letter.
As the truth is under cover, it needs to be uncovered or opened. This is true of both "the law and the prophets." Jesus, after his resurrection, having entered on the deeper (or higher) life, talked with the two disciples on the way to Emmaus. After listening to their rehearsal of the things concerning the death and the reported resurrection of their Lord, he said, (and do not let us think of it as the language of sharp and cutting severity, but as the statement of a natural fact): "Oh fools, [unlearned] and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and have entered into his glory?" Then, "Beginning at Moses [Mark that!] and all the prophets he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself."—Luke xxiv. 25-27.
After their eyes were opened, and he had vanished out of their sight, "They said one to another, Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures."—Verse 32. Here are two facts worthy of our attention: 1. The writings of Moses needed opening, in order that Christ and his work could be seen in them; 2. That truth, when seen, made their hearts burn.
We may readily assume, then, that when the truth of God's plan is seen, as revealed in Moses' writings, it will make our hearts burn. The gospel in type, picture or allegory, it will or may be seen, contains nothing of the horrible features of the creed theology of our day; but it reveals the fullness of the love of God, and the success of Christ, in the exaltation of his elect and the final salvation of all mankind.
MOSES AND CHRIST.
CHAPTER II.
THE PLAN IN ALLEGORY.
THE writings of Moses are allegorical. An allegory is a figurative speech or parable. These allegories are life-pictures of the gospel plan. The literal, natural facts of the lives of those primitive men, are used to foreshadow the spiritual facts in the life and work of Christ, in the execution of God's plan of the ages. And different features of the plan are illustrated in the various lives of the different characters—Adam, Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses himself. Some of their wives are made prominent in the allegories. Great historic events are also used as outline illustrations of the work of the ages—as the creation, the flood, the going down into Egypt, the deliverance therefrom, the wilderness journey, and the final inheritance in Canaan. These are all on what we may call the Lord's side, representing the experiences and victory of God's people
On the other hand, the enemies of God and his cause are represented by the serpent, the beasts slain, Cain, the Babel-builders, the wicked Antediluvians, the Egyptians, and the Canaanites. The general relation of these two lines illustrates the struggle between good and evil, the doom of the evil, and the complete victory of God and his cause.
Even a partial development of the allegories is very convincing that God is in these writings, and that they are full of the glorious gospel of Christ; and a careful examination of them will show that it is not a meagre or limited plan, but one which includes the final blessing of all mankind.
Some object to calling any of those histories allegories unless a positive Scripture can be found saying that this or that is an allegory, or figure, or type of the plan; but this is an extreme skepticism. In Rom. v. 14, we are shown that Adam was a figure of Christ, who is called the second Adam. (1. Cor. xv. 45-47.) As Adam was the head and therefore the representative of the whole natural race, it shows that natural things are used in Bible teaching as types, parables, or allegories of spiritual things This gives us the basis of a general rule. Then, in Gal. iv. 24, we are told that the history of Abraham with his two wives—and the two sons—the free and the bond—is an allegory, representing the relation of the two covenants, of law and grace, embodied in two Jerusalem, the earthly and the heavenly. This case is so comprehensive that it seems like an assurance that in one way and another the whole ground is covered with allegories.
Then we have an intimation by the Apostle Paul that all the experiences of ancient Israel happened unto them for ensamples, (margin, types), and were written for our instruction.—1. Cor. x. 11. This shows that Israel itself was a type, and that there fore the Church is the antitype, not uncommonly known as "Spiritual Israel." It does not appear imaginary, nor far-fetched, to claim, in view of what is said, that all the ancient characters and histories were typical. It seems that wherever any feature of the revealed plan is to be found pre-figured in Bible characters or histories, we have a perfect right to claim that it was so intended and arranged. A strong conviction of the truth of this principle, gives ground to speak of it with confidence. Oh! that God's own pictures of the plan and purpose of the gospel may strengthen the faith of many in the inspiration of the Bible, and show them the fullness of the divine love and saving power.
Adam a Type of Christ.
LET us look first at the history of the first pair Their creation and career make a grand picture of God's plan for the regeneration of mankind. The key of the application is given by the Apostle when he says that Adam "was a figure [or type] of him that was to come."—Rom. v. 14. For the same reason Christ is called "the second Adam."—1. Cor. xv. 45-47. It is here explained that the first is natural, (or animal), and the second spiritual. The spiritual is the real, the perfect man; the first is the shadow cast beforehand. The first was the embodiment, the head, the unit of the whole, and therefore the father of the whole race on the natural or earthly level—the plane of the flesh.
When God (by the agencies adapted to do this lower work—the Elohim, the mighty ones, the angels, who said, "Let us make man,'") created Adam, he created all mankind. He contained them all as the kernel of wheat, the seed, contains the whole crop to be developed or produced from it. They were latent in him;—that is, in him lay the germinal force to produce them all out of himself. He was the seed of an unlimited race, and all developed from him are Adam,—the whole race of natural men.
Whoever can see this fact, and the principle involved, will understand why and how sin and death came upon all by, or in, one man, because in him all sinned.—Rom. v. 12, with marginal reading. The one man was the root or seed of all men, and for the same reason, the one sin of the one man was the root or seed of all sin in all men. Personal sin is Adamic sin developed The same principle of representation and headship exists in Christ, the second Man.
"As in the one, so in the other," is the rule variously stated by the apostle; only they work in opposite directions. Each is the head of the whole race on opposite planes—the earthly and the spiritual. Each in turn imparts his own nature to the whole race,—"Every man in his own order." Neither are substitutes for men. Neither stands instead of the race, but each for—on account of—the race, containing them, all being in their head on both planes. It would be as reasonable and Scriptural to call Adam a substitute as Christ. It is unity, not substitution, that brings both sin and death in Adam, and righteousness and life in Christ. This is more honoring to Christ, and better for the race, than substitution. If he died instead of men, they should not die, and he should have remained dead, or under the curse; but he rose, and men still die. On the other hand, if Jesus rose instead of men, the race should remain dead. But our Saviour bound the strong man, conquered death, obtained the keys, and leads forth, in due time and order, all the captives,—giving all a share of His own nature and life.
Once seen that each 'Head' is the "Unit of all men,"—that all are in each seed,—then the opposite results of the work of each are easily seen. Adam sinned, and his sin made all men sinners. So Christ obeyed, and His obedience, or His righteousness, made all men righteous. This is not left to inference, but is positively asserted by Paul. (See Rom. v. 16-21 and vi. 23.) The judgment by one offence was to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. Mark! they are justified to life, or, as the apostle explains, "made righteous." Being no longer sinners, no reason will exist for them to die again. The second death is not the death of redeemed men,—which would be absurd,—but the destruction of death and hell—the low conditions of men.—Rev.xx.14.
What the crop is to be, is determined by and in the seed. As all men, when developed on the natural plane, in Adam, are sinners, so when all men are developed on the spiritual plane, in Christ, they are righteous. And, from God's standpoint, (He seeing the end and the immutable causes leading thereto), whatever is to be, is counted so already. So we read that "God was in Christ, reconciling the world [not merely the elect, or believers] unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them."—2. Cor. v.19. This does not set aside the necessity of a personal reconciliation to follow. Indeed, what has been done for men in Jesus is the basis of appeal for men to become personally reconciled to God. Faith in God's unbought and unending love works by love and leads to obedience.
Adam's sin was first imputed to all, and afterward imparted by generation. So our Lord's righteousness, secured and imputed to all in His atoning sacrifice, is afterward imparted to all by regeneration. The reconciliation of all in the Seed is the gospel at the root, and the practical reconciliation of all in due time is the gospel at the top, or in the fruit. God, seeing the end from the beginning, or the glorious fruitage, tells the last things first,—that in the promised Seed all shall be blessed.
Those who understand our position will see how bald and gross the misrepresentation of those who say that we have laid aside the righteousness of Christ, and are seeking to appear before God in our own righteousness, and inviting others to do the same. We would not blame them, as they probably do not know how grossly we are misrepresented. Our worst wish for them is that they may be enabled to lay aside their prejudice, and learn the full value of Christ's righteousness.
The work of Adam is downward to death—because "The wages of sin is death." Christ finds the raco under condemnation,—either dead or dying, and the dying even counted dead,—and His work is upward to eternal life, (the only kind of life Jesus gives), for "The gift [not the offer] of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."—Rom. vii. 23. He prevents the full execution of the penalty in all the elect, believers,—who "never perish," and in due time delivers them who have perished, from the bondage of corruption.—See Rom. viii. 21; Heb. ii. 15.
The work of the first Adam is in no case final. The final condition is without exception the work of the second Adam. "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." Sin reigned unto death (not eternal), but grace reigns unto eternal life.—Rom. v. 20, 21. This is why it is written: "As in Adam [the mortal man] all die, even so in Christ [the immortal man] shall all be made alive; every man in his own order." And all who bear the image of the earthly (Adam), shall in due time bear the image of the heavenly (the second Adam).—See 1. Cor. xv. 22 and 45-49.
Eve—the Wife and Mother.
We have considered the work of both Adams and the two opposite results. In the accomplishment of the work of each, the wife as a helpmeet is needed. Eve was called woman, "because she was taken out of man."—Gen. ii. 23. She was called Eve, "because she was the mother of all living."—iii. 20. Adam and Eve are really one, as the generating power of the whole family of man, created in Adam. The woman is the embodiment of the feminine side, the mother element of God's creation. God Himself would be imperfectly manifested without the unfolding of the woman nature and mother love. Eve was both Adam's wife and the mother of the race; and the natural, in the earthly pair, is but the shadow of the spiritual reality in the second Adam and His wife, the perfected Church, the New Jerusalem system.
Rev. xxi. 9, 10.
As Adam was the figure of Christ, who can doubt that Eve was a type of "the bride, the Lamb's wife?" Paul, after speaking of the relation of the earthly husband and wife, and of the two being one, adds: "This is a great mystery [a spiritual truth under cover of the natural], but I speak concerning Christ and the church."—Eph. v. 23-32. The mystery is now uncovered. The whole New Testament is built on the principle that Christ Jesus is a Bridegroom, (Matt. xxv. 1-10), that until the marriage, the church is a virgin espoused to Christ (2. Cor. xi 2), and, after the marriage, "the bride, the Lamb's wife."—Rev. xxi. 9, 10. The extension of the saving plan after the Lord's coming and the marriage, is therefore revealed by the fact that in the New Jerusalem age, "The Spirit and the bride [shall] say, Come."—Rev. xxii. 17
Even the manner of Eve's creation foreshadows the manner of the development of the church. Adam was alone for a time, was then placed in a deep sleep, and from his opened side his wife was taken. So Christ was alone for a time, and He passed into a deep sleep, and His side was opened. He said, "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit."—John xii. 24 From His pierced side came forth blood and water. "There are three that bear witness in the earth, the Spirit, the water, and the blood;" and it is by faith in the testimony of these three that the church has been developed. What Christian can fail to see that in a deep spiritual sense the bride comes from His opened side? Oh! that all might see the spiritual meaning of the rib taken from Adam's side.
The idea, maintained by some, that the Jewish nation is to be the bride of Christ cannot be sustained by such allegorical testimony.
Its strongest support is the fact that she too was called a wife; but Israel was only a type (in national form) of the New Testament Church, who alone is the espoused virgin, as we have seen, and is therefore the future bride.
As surely as the church is the antitype of Eve as a wife, so surely she is the antitype as a mother. Eve was the necessary help for Adam to manifest what God had created in him, and she herself was the first step in that direction. So the church is the channel through which the fullness of Christ's regenerating power will flow, so that she will be the mother of all humanity as to spiritual and eternal life. The natural race came by generation, after the marriage, and the spiritual comes by regeneration, after the marriage of the Lamb. Some, who admit that the church is to be a wife, deny her motherhood rather than admit that the nations saved after the marriage will have the spiritual nature of Christ and the church. Their difficulty is the unscriptural idea that the destiny of the race of men—or all that they expect will be saved after the marriage—is what they call "human perfection," in the earthly state. It would do them good to see that the race will be continued by natural generation, (see PERFECT DAY), and that the true perfection of man is spiritual, attained by our Head and Forerunner by sufferings.—Heb. ii. 10. This spiritual and immortal destiny of man is more than suggested by the fact that Paul, in answer to the question, "What is man?" does not point to the so-called "human perfection" of Adam, but says, "We see Jesus,"—the first, the promise, and security of what man is to be. Why cannot all see that the object and proof of marriage is offspring, and that the glory of the wife, on both planes, is the power of motherhood—imparting her own nature to her children?
Summary: Adam was a type of Christ, both as husband and father. Eve was a type of the Church, both as wife and mother. The marriage of the first pair was a type of the marriage of the second pair. The generation of mankind after the first marriage was a type of their regeneration after the marriage of the Lamb. As that is not due until the coming of the Bridegroom, it follows that the nations—the non-elect—are to be regenerated in "the ages to come." Eph. ii. 7. This we may call the unlimited Gospel according to Moses.
MOSES AND CHRIST.
CHAPTER III.
THE NEW JERUSALEM.
N last chapter it was suggested that Eve was a type of the wife of the second Adam—the perfect church, or New Jerusalem.
It seems proper to say here that the bride of Christ is not a class, or number of people, but a system, which includes all the classes necessary to the perfection of the heavenly city, or ruling power of the world to come. The "little flock" of kings and priests is not the bride, but the highest class in the New Jerusalem system. They are to sit in the throne with Christ. But the New Jerusalem is not all throne. As it takes all the inhabitants, as well as the mayor and aldermen, to constitute an earthly city; so it requires all the inhabitants, as well as Christ and his associate rulers, to constitute the heavenly city. And yet that city as a whole, and not merely its royal priesthood, is called "the bride, the Lamb's wife."
Rev. xxi. 9, 10, is the only place in the Bible where we find the term bride specifically applied. Let us observe the application and it may help us to see the larger view of this subject. The angel said to John: "Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife." Of course the angel did what he promised, and therefore what he showed John was "the bride the Lamb's wife;" and John says: "And he [the angel] carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God." We should be careful, then, not to call anything less or different by the name, "the bride, the Lamb's wife."
To have this Scriptural view of the bride may enable us also to obtain a more correct idea of what constitutes the marriage of the Lamb. It is not always easy to lift the mind from the individual woman, and the momentary ceremony that makes her a wife, to the grander, broader idea of the bride of Christ which the earthly foreshadows. But it now seems that, inasmuch as the bride is the heavenly city, the marriage must include the full and complete organization or setting up of that heavenly institution. In harmony with this view, and the prophetic periods which mark the transition from the old age to the new one, why may not the marriage of the Lamb cover the whole period of forty years in which we now live, which we call the day dawn, and reaching to the full end of the "Times of the Gentiles," in the Spring of A. D. 1915?—See DAY DAWN.
The heavenly city of the book of Revelation is preceded by another city, called Babylon, which in due time it supplants. That city is described as a comprehensive system too, as united (illegally, so far as the law of Christ is concerned) with the kings of the earth, and therefore called a harlot. She is further described as the "Mother of harlots and abominations of the earth."—Rev. xvii. 5. This woman (also called "That great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth."—Verse 18.) the prophetic eye saw "drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus." Verse 6. With such a description, it is not difficult to identify either the 'mother' or the 'daughters.' The Papal church claimed (not to say claims) to be the perfect church system, the bride of Christ. That she was a counterfeit of the true, we may well allow, on account of her similarities. By her differences she is detected. Had she known the New Jerusalem method of destroying her enemies (killing them with kindness—"coals of fire,"—Rom. xii.
20, 21, and the sword proceeding out of the Lord's mouth, Rev. xix. 15), she would not have murdered millions of God's saints. But who with her power would then have done better?
Looking at the breadth of organization of the counterfeit woman-city may help some to see the breadth of the heavenly woman-city—the New Jerusalem. The counterfeit had a large citizenship as well as its Pope and his associate priesthood. And it required all the various elements, high and low, in the whole church, to constitute that counterfeit city, or bride. Who can fail to see the similarity, in this respect, at least, between the Babylon system and the New Jerusalem system which follows it and supersedes it? In this transition period, Babylon falls to rise no more, and the New Jerusalem is fully organized to rule and bless.
Some have objected to the idea, previously advanced (in DAY DAWN,) that those saved after the marriage of the Lamb will enter and become parts of the heavenly city, "the bride, the Lamb's wife." They say that adding to the bride would make her a monstrosity. (This objection would apply with equal force to adding to the church after the espousal at Pentecost. The virgin is a woman as really as the wife, but it does not make a monstrosity to increase her membership.) It does not seem at all monstrous, nor out of character, if we remember what the bride is—the heavenly city or New Jerusalem system. Millions were added to the Papal system after she was fully organized and united to the kings of earth. Lift the mind from the type to the great organism of the antitype, and all seems plain. And the very idea of the New Jerusalem having gates is that the nations may eat of "the tree of life, and enter in through the gates into the city."—Rev. xxii. 14.
The unsaved are out, and to come in is to be saved. The way the Papal church has proposed to be the 'mother' of all nations, and gather them to her bosom, as part of her own great organism, may surely serve to illustrate how the heavenly city will be the 'mother' of all nations, and in due time gather all into her bosom, as parts of her organism. The New Jerusalem is the true Catholic (universal) Church. And as Babylon is going down to rise no more, the New Jerusalem is coming down to take her place.
This much about the New Jerusalem has been here given, to show, if possible, of what a grand, comprehensive, universal system Eve is the type. And it seems as if all who can understand the position will see its strength and fullness, and no longer object to additions being made to the bride after the marriage. But whoever is right, or wrong, it is hoped that neither writer nor any reader will claim to be infallible, nor make his view a test of Christian fellowship. With all the varieties of thought, may we all as brethren endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace.
MOSES AND CHRIST.
CHAPTER IV.
CAIN AND ABEL.
N searching for the typical meaning of characters and events in the writings of Moses, we do not expect to find them all teaching the same thing.
The grand outline of the plan is given in the account of Adam and Eve; but there are many features of the plan not presented in that picture. Probably no two things are used for precisely the same purpose; but while some may cover the same ground in part, we may expect to find in each picture something peculiarly its own, so that by them all the whole gospel will be included.
In Cain and Abel, we see the representatives of the two seeds, "the seed of the serpent," and "the seed of the woman," (Gen. iii. 15), in their relation to each other, and to the Lord, in certain stages of their development and work. Cain was the elder, the firstborn, and Abel the younger. In their relation to each other, they represent the natural and the spiritual in God's plan. It is, "First the natural, and afterward the spiritual." The difference between them is the enmity. There is of necessity antagonism. The natural man persecutes the spiritual man, as illustrated afterward in the case of Ishmael and Isaac.—See Gal. iv. 29. The two seeds, the two classes—wicked and righteous—and the two systems—Babylon and Jerusalem, both in type and antitype—are all based on the same principle. While the natural has power to persecute, he has a present triumph, but the curse abides on the persecutor.
Cain's temporary triumph in the death of his brother, illustrates the bruising of the heel, (Gen. iii. 15), as does also the temporary triumph of all wicked men and persecuting powers; but "Abel, though dead, yet speaketh," (Heb. xi. 4), by his faith and sacrifice. The natural fails, though for a time it triumphs; but the spiritual triumphs, though crushed to earth by the cruel hand of persecution.
"Thy saints in all this glorious war,
Shall conquer though they die;
They see their triumph from afar,—
By faith they bring it nigh."
In this case of Cain and Abel we have an illustration of the difference between two kinds of sacrifice Abel's sacrifice was from the flock, and was therefore acceptable; but Cain's sacrifice was from the ground, the fruit of his own labor, the natural, the earthly, which was as far from being acceptable as the earthly is from the heavenly. Cain's sacrifice was "The sacrifice of the wicked,'" which we are told, "is an abomination to the Lord.''—Prov. xv. 8.
Many are puzzled to know the real difference between them. It is often said that Abel's sacrifice was of faith because it foreshadowed the sacrifice of Christ, while Cain's did not. This is truth, but it should not be confounded with the error of Substitution. The sacrifice of Christ, rightly understood, is the sacrifice of the low nature, the carnal principle, the sin of the world. Christ in his earthly nature, stood not instead of the world, but for the world, as the Unit of the whole,—having been thus, by assuming our nature, "made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."—2. Cor. v. 21. The carnal nature, or sinful flesh, is represented by a beast, (and nothing short of a perfect beast could represent it fully); and the death of the beast, voluntarily sacrificed by a man for himself, as in Abel's case, represents the spirit of self-humiliation, self-denial, self-crucifixion, self-sacrifice, which is the only means of a true and spiritual life and exaltation, and therefore is alone acceptable to God.
But the sacrifice of Cain, however valuable in itself, was but the proud honoring and exaltation of self before God,—like Pharisaic self-righteousness.
In these two kinds of sacrifice may be seen the spirit of the two great systems, the natural and the spiritual, and their work down through the ages. The natural says, by its representatives: "Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?"—Dan. iv. 30. They build a great tower to reach heaven by methods of their own, and get to themselves a great name in the earth. Thus it is that many of the rich and proud of earth, made rich often by oppression of the poor, build great churches, and endow colleges, and head subscriptions for benevolent purposes with large sums of money, and secure to themselves great honor and fame, and yet know nothing of giving up self in sacrifice. On the other hand, the spirit of self-abasement and humility submits to the control of God, crucifies the flesh with its affections and lusts, and says: "Except the Lord shall build the house, the builders build in vain."
The spirit of this theme is couched in the words of our Lord, words the substance of which is often expressed in the Bible: "Whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted."—Luke xiv. 11.
MOSES AND CHRIST.
CHAPTER V.
TOWER OF BABEL.
HIS is considered next in order, because much of what has been said of Cain, and his sacrifice, or work of self-exaltation, is applicable here. The Babel building was an early manifestation, or promise, in an organic form, of the spirit of Babylon, in both the typical city of the Jewish age and the mystical Babylon of the gospel age. The spirit of Babel or Babylon (confusion) is the same in all its stages—promise, type and antitype. Pride, ambition, self-exaltation, and effort at great and permanent worldly organization are its leading characteristics. These were clearly shown in the call to build: "And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad.—Gen. xi. 4. Here was an effort to reach heaven by methods of their own—by other means than self-sacrifice, as represented in the offering of Abel in a sacrifice unto death. They may have shown a lack of faith in God's promise that he would not again drown the world, by their building a tower higher than the flood. But pride of name and organization was clearly prominent.
The same spirit was manifested by the king of Babylon in his self-exaltation and national pride. He did not humble himself, in self-sacrifice, under the mighty hand of God; but glorying in his own power and might, he exclaimed, "Is not this great Babylon, that I have built, etc.?"—Dan. iv. 30 The same spirit is manifested in the New Testament Babylon, before mentioned.
It is the spirit of pride of sect and strong church organization. It is based on the principle that "Union is strength," and that numbers give respectability. The latter is true, but the former has something of sophistry in it. RIGHT is strength, and union on right principles, and of right elements, manifests the strength of the right. But union may be attained on a false basis, and a mere greatness of number is never an evidence of spiritual strength or success. Thus far in the history of mankind, the truth and right have usually been held by the minorities; and whoever is conscious of being right, had better stand with a few, or even alone, than to compromise with evil for the sake of union. All human church organisms, however great, have "brick for stone, and slime for mortar;" and what is intended to perpetuate, and which may preserve for a time, finally results in ruin. Union in Christ, as of "one body and one Spirit," (Eph. iv. 4), is the only real, safe and permanent union. Union on any man-made creed, or other human foundation, will be dissolved, and the defeat will be eternal.
When the Babel builders had done their best, the Lord, by a peculiar judgment, thwarted their plans. So when the kingdom of Babylon had reached the summit of pride and human glory, the hand-writing on the wall revealed its doom.—Dan. v. 22-31. And so following the decree of Papal infallibility, (in 1870), immediately came the downfall. God having declared that he that exalteth himself shall be abased, such being the spirit, such must be the fate, of Babylon in every form.
The confusion of tongues is a striking thing in the history of Babel. It must have been both the result and expression of confusion of mind, as language is but the expression of thought. Of confusion of thought about spiritual things, the confusion of tongues must be the type.
The fall of Babylon, in the great antitypical system, must be co-incident with a restoration of one tongue. When the watchmen see eye to eye, (Isa. lii. 8), they will learn to speak the same language. "In that day there shall be one Lord, and his name one."—Zech. xiv. 9. After the destruction of Babylon, and all it represents, by the fire of God's jealousy, "Then," says the Lord, "will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call on the name of the Lord, to serve him with one consent."—Zeph. iii. 8, 9. It is not to be limited to a mere literal unity of language, (though that will doubtless be included), but the grand thought is, that by the knowledge of the truth the confusion of ideas shall be done away, and all shall harmoniously worship the great God of love, the universal Father, and be blessed in him. For such an end, will not all loving souls fervently pray?
MOSES AND CHRIST.
CHAPTER VI.
ENOCH, THE SEVENTH FROM ADAM.
E came on this side of the flood to take up the case of Babel. Let us now return to the antediluvian age to consider briefly the case of Enoch. The record of him, given in Gen.
v. 21-23, is brief, but significant. In the generations before Noah, he is the only one of whom it is said that "He walked with God." He lived three hundred and sixty-five years, begat sons and daughters, and the record closes thus: "Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him."
Paul places him on the short list of the antediluvian men of faith, and thus explains the brief record of Genesis: "By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God."—Heb. xi. 5. Jude tells us that Enoch was the seventh from Adam (not the seventh person, but the head of the seventh generation on the line of the seed leading to Christ), and that he foretold the Lord's coming to execute judgment, and to convince the ungodly.—Verses 14, 15. These three witnesses give us what may be known of the life, character and destiny of this wonderful man.
The question is, Whom or what does Enoch represent in the plan of the ages? He now appears to be the type of the church of the perfect day—as to their character, communion with God, and the manner of their transfer to the invisible state. Enoch means initiated.
The church in all the ages of the past and present has lived in a state of partial light, seeing through a glass darkly, and surrounded by the limitations of Babylon, in its various phases. But in the perfect day—represented by the perfect number, seven—she will have passed the limitations—all the narrowness of the sect, and all dark views of God and his plan—into the clear light of the Sun of Righteousness. She will be fully initiated into the grand mysteries of the kingdom of God. Enoch-like, her members will walk with God, during their stay on this side of the vail of the flesh, and when ready for the change to the heavenly state, they will not die, like their brethren of former ages, but will pass at once, "changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,"—into the presence and companionship of the Lord and the church triumphant in his glory. It appears that the translation of Elijah is a type of the change at death, of those who have sinned, during the Lord's presence before the perfect day, and Enoch of the sinless, changed afterward.
Of course, in all such matters it is not becoming to be over-positive. But we believe, and therefore speak. It seems that the Scriptures indicate translation without death as the means of change in the perfect day, and use Enoch as the type. Why are we told that he was "the seventh from Adam?" Why was he able to walk with God? Why was he translated—carried over—instead of going down into sheol, or without dissolution? The best answer we can give, in the light of what we have seen of the Scriptural method, is, that Enoch was the type of the ideal church of the perfect day.
The Two Enochs.
THE view that Enoch, "the seventh from Adam," is a type of the ideal church is not weakened by the fact that there was an Enoch also on the line of Cain, (See Gen. iv 17), and that there was a city built by the same name.
These two Enochs are related to each other as are the two great systems or cities of the Apocalypse, and of church history. Babylon is the counterfeit of the New Jerusalem, and the lower, or world-church, is the first in the order of development. She cares not for God's chronological order. She ignores all study of the times and seasons, does not recognize the true order of the ages, applies Scriptures pertaining to the future reign and the bride of Christ, to herself and in the gospel age—calling herself the bride before the marriage of the Lamb, and so ignoring the fact of mercy and the free out-flowing of the water of life after the marriage.—Rev xxii 17 She is in too great haste to wait to reign with Christ in the coming day. But the true Catholic (or Universal) Church, is not only clothed with the seven Christian graces (2. Pet i. 5-7), whose highest, the seventh, is love, but she also bides God's time. During the gospel age, she has been the chaste virgin waiting for the coming of the Bridegroom. The world will be regenerated after the marriage.
MOSES AND CHRIST.
CHAPTER VII.
THE FLOOD.
SOME Christians believe that the flood was a literal event, and some that it is an allegory, designed to illustrate important spiritual truths, or facts in human experience. Probably both are right. Some reject the literal, and others the allegorical, and there are people of spiritual mind on all sides of the question. As mere history, the flood would have both interest and value, but as an allegory of some features of God's plan, it assumes an importance that mere history could not possess. Aside from the Bible record, many students think they can see physical evidences that this earth has at some time been deluged with water; and there appears to be no good reason for denying it. In Matt. xxiv. 37-39, our Lord recognizes the historical character of both Noah and the flood. Christ and his Apostles seem to recognize the historical truth of all the writings of Moses, and the literal existence of all his characters; and we know of no better way than to do the same. But inasmuch as the spiritual is of more importance than the letter, let us seek this deeper meaning. If we succeed, it may be an evidence that there is gospel even in the terrible judgments of God.
Let us look first at the cause of the flood. Gen. vi., shows that it was a punishment of a very peculiar form of wickedness and corruption—miscegenation,—the mixing of what should be distinct and separate. The "sons of God" took them wives of "the daughters of men," and produced a race of strong men that became mighty in the earth.
And in the ninth verse, we learn that the difference between Noah and the rest was that "Noah was a just man and perfect [margin, upright] in his generations;" which implies that Noah was one of the "sons of God" who was not guilty of the specified offence.
Noah was "a preacher of righteousness," and some think this means that he was a preacher of the gospel, and that the people were destroyed for rejecting Christ. But there is no evidence that even Noah himself knew the gospel, or that any of those destroyed ever heard of it. Only in the typical or allegorical sense can the gospel be found in those early times. Not even the law was then given. (Gal. iii. 17-19.) But Paul tells us that those who have not the (written) law, do by nature the things contained in the law, and are therefore a law unto themselves, shewing the work of the law written in their hearts.—Rom. ii. 14, 15. It is nowhere said that the gospel is thus natural to people. It is a revelation of the love and mercy of God to those who have broken the law. Now, as righteousness—that is, right-doing—is based on law, and the principles of law are natural to the human mind, Noah could be "a preacher of righteousness," before the written law was given; but he could not be a preacher of the gospel before he learned it, inasmuch as it is not natural to the human mind. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."—Rom. x. 17.
It is not to be assumed that Noah was perfect in every respect. But it seems more than probable that he preached righteousness by his action in standing aloof from the masses in the matter of their criminal generation. And no doubt the flood was sent to destroy the corruption,—whatever else it may mean.
There are different views as to who are meant in this early record by the "sons of God" and the "daughters of men."
Some think that a class of spiritual or angelic beings came down and took human wives, producing by the union a race of giants. Others hold that these "sons of God" were of another race then living on the earth. With either view the sons of Adam were not the sinners; but the record implies that they were, and that Noah was commended for not being like the rest.
With all due regard for the opinions of others, we would express our own, that the "sons of God" is an expression applied to men on the line of descent from Adam through which Christ came, and that the "daughters of men" were the women of the other line. In other words, the former were the sons of Seth, who was given to Eve instead of the murdered Abel (Gen. iv. 25), and the latter were the descendants of Cain, the persecutor and murderer. We have seen that Cain and Abel (or Cain and Seth) represent the natural and the spiritual in God's plan; which are related to each other as God and man—heavenly and earthly. Adam was "the son [the typical son] of God," (Luke iii. 36), and his descent and the biographical and chronological history down to Christ, the antitypical Son of God, are all reckoned on the line of Seth. (See Gen. v. and Luke iii.) This is the line on which Enoch was "the seventh from Adam." But the seed of the serpent, as represented by Cain, is not taken into account on that line. God had placed an enmity (and a line of separation) between the two seeds, (Gen. iii. 15), and it was the violation of this divine arrangement, by intermarriage, that constituted the crime of the antediluvians.
The natural and spiritual (the difference between which is the basis of the enmity) have a manifestation in their relation to each other in the individual, and also in an organized form in the history of mankind. "First the natural, and afterward the spiritual," is Heaven's order. The lower, the earthly, the natural, has its time and place, but it must be destroyed.
This is true, whether it be in the individual, or in the organized people. "The world passeth away, and the lust thereof." The destruction of the serpent and his seed was the object of the flood.
The greatest sin consists in ignoring the proper distinction between the spiritual and the natural Out of this proceeds much that has cursed the world. And with the facts now before us, (in type), can we not readily see that the flood is a type of the overthrow that must come in consequence of the unholy alliance of the spiritual and the natural, of the church and the world? Who cannot see in the history of those times a prophetic picture of the strange mingling of the church and the world during the gospel age, and in the flood a foreshadowing of the fall of Babylon, which will prepare the way for the New Jerusalem, and the new world wherein dwelleth righteousness?
Cain and his descendants represented the lower, the natural, the earthly, the sensual, the devilish, in persons and their organizations; and Seth (who took Abel's place) and his descendants represented the higher, the spiritual, the heavenly principle, in persons or in their organization—the Church of Christ. The condemned intermarriage represented the alliance of heavenly principles with worldly policy, or in organic form, the union of Church and State, the Church and the World. This is the Babylon (or confusion) of the book of Revelation. Giants of earth (not spiritual) are the fruit of such union. The world is full of such giants today,—"mighty men of renown,"—which may include the grand world-church systems, and other worldly institutions made grand by the overshadowing religious element,—in whom the spiritual is at a low ebb, even if recognized at all. There are good men, spiritual men, in those systems, who Noah-like will be saved out of them, and, when the flood is past, will make the nucleus of a new world and a better order of things.
It may be that the modern educational system is one of the giant children of the union mentioned. We would not be understood as being opposed to a liberal education. There is good in the modern system, and it has done much good, but it is not perfect. There is in it a great tendency to make infidels. The teachers develop the natural side of human ability, but seldom the spiritual. They are dealing with Natural Science, and they seldom find the link that connects all true Science with God. Hence God is not in all their thoughts. Indeed, the tendency of much of the teaching is toward reasoning God out of the universe. [We gladly allow that some teach otherwise]. This results in the excessive independence and exaltation of self, manifest today in nearly all the elements of society. The drift is away from all the old restraints. One of the first tendencies of popular education is revolutionary. The masses, who may have submitted tamely to the dictation of others, and even to oppression by wicked men and cruel systems, by education learn their strength and how to use it. And we may yet see [Are we not seeing?] the strange result of the uprising of the masses—made strong by their education—against the very systems which have given them their power. Who can fail to see such a tendency in our time? It is the root of a coming conflict. It is natural and inevitable.
It is not to sweep away what is good, in anything, that the flood is coming. But even what is good in education hastens the crisis. The things to be swept away are all outgrowths of the natural, selfish, Satanic element in human society. The curse is many-headed. Errors in government, oppressive measures, false and cruel elements in religious faith and societies, competition, selfish greed of gain, which leads to lying, cheating, stealing, and to the making and selling of such things as are a curse to society—all these and the conditions, civil and social, which they create, are the fruit of the unrestrained lower nature and must be swept away.
Whatever is truly good will outlast the storm. What cannot be shaken will remain. (Heb. xii. 27.)
There will be a great flood. It will be brought about by the "breaking up of the fountains of the great deep," and by a long-continued rain. And the waters (the typical and prophetic word for "the people,"—Rev. xvii. 1, 15.) will gradually rise against and cover and overwhelm the hills and mountains (all the human institutions and governments which have oppressed the people during the times of their former ignorance), and there will be a new world beyond the flood. This terrible upheaval and submerging may be symbolized in Rev. xvi. 17-21. It is called the great day of the Lord's wrath.
Here we can see the relation of the flood to the fire mentioned by Peter. They are two figures used to represent two different phases of the same thing. The water typifies the uprising of the people; and the fire is the causative judgment power of God.
Some will be hidden in God's ark, and carried safely over the flood. "Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger."—Zeph. ii. 2. Noah and his family represent the hidden, the exalted ones,—those who yield not to the tide of the popular way,—those who have the spiritual consciousness of the sons of God, and will not consent to unholy alliance with the world, nor world-church systems. John describes them in Rev. xiv. 4: "These are they which were not defiled with women [that is, corrupt world-church systems] These are they that follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb."
That company who make God their refuge have their song described in the forty-sixth psalm, which please read. It is a poetic picture of the coming flood, and fire, and the grand consequences. These are not afraid, because God is their refuge and strength. The earth (the low and old order of things) may be removed. The mountains (earthly organizations and governments) may be carried away by the uprising of the waters of the great sea of mankind. But all is well with those in the Ark. The New Jerusalem with its living stream is theirs. God is with them, as their help and deliverer.
Then comes in the other element of that revolution—the fire. "The heathen [the nations] raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted." As to the result of this flood and fire, the Psalmist gives a grand retrospective vision: "Come; behold the works of the Lord, what desolations he hath made in the earth. He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire." Now let us catch the closing strain of this grand, prophetic song. It is the sweetest music: "Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen; I will be exalted in the earth."
Then the people are to know the Lord and be blessed, for only thus could the name of the Lord be exalted and glorified.
But some may say: "This is a national affair, and while it speaks of a good time coming, it does not speak of hope for all mankind; but rather the multitude is carried down without an apparent ray of hope."
At first sight it does look dark, and many have been overwhelmed with the idea of its hopelessness.
But now it does not appear hopeless. It is the destruction of the evil that God has promised to accomplish. And it is true that, "The wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs, and shall be consumed." It is true that, "They shall utterly perish in their own corruption." But it is never said that such destructions are either endless or hopeless for the people. Hosea says they shall be ransomed from the power of hell, and hell [sheol—the low, the death state] itself shall be destroyed. (Hos. xiii. 14.) They that sow to the flesh shall indeed reap corruption; but there is light and hope beyond, for Paul declares that, "The whole creation shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption, into the glorious liberty of the children of God."—Rom. viii. 21.
An important lesson to be learned is, that God deals with individuals as with nations. He destroys the worthless element and saves his own out of the flood or fire. He will only destroy the seed of the serpent, the works of the devil, and will save his own work; and man himself is the work of God. He saves men by destroying the carnal nature and making them alive in Christ. This will be the result of the flood in its individual application.
It is necessary to refer to baptism here, as an Apostle of Christ says that the flood was a type of it. (See 1. Pet. iii. 20, 21.) The flood was transitional; it carried over from the old world to the new. So is baptism transitional; it carries over from the old state to the new, from the natural to the spiritual. It is not merely of the ordinance of baptism that this is to be understood, but of the spiritual reality. The value of the ordinance lies in the fact that it is a symbol of the reality. The real baptism consists in death to the carnal, and the regeneration by the Spirit. It includes negative good, by ceasing to do evil, and positive good, by learning to do well.
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