In Cullings - Comments And Correspondence

Shall We "Let Peace Settle Upon The Churches"?

There is a peace which hell approves, and a war that heaven sanctions. One is the brush of the vampire's wing, humming the lullaby of death. The other, like the anguish pains of travail, eventuates in life and joy and beauty. (Jno. 16:21) Since Satan usurped the world and the heart, he is for peace—peaceable possession. The strong man armed having gained the palace, would keep his goods in peace. So the wolf in the fold craves freedom from hindrance while destroying the flock. "Let us alone, what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth" (Luke 4:34), is the abject, base, cowardly, deprecatory, let-us-have peace policy of demons. . . But there is, there can be no peace. An irrepressible conflict has been inaugurated. The "enmity" has been divinely put (Gen. 3:15). The presence of sin in the moral alembic excites to their intensest activity the expelling energies of holiness. Truth waits not to be attacked, but marshals her hosts for aggressive war. She neither sends nor receives truce, but fights to the death. The horsemen of Israel are rough riders, the chariots thereof rush furiously along the steeps of sin. God's heroes have ever been troublers of the world. Enoch the seventh from Adam, reproving an ungodly race. Noah, a preacher of righteousness, condemning all the world except his own little family (how very uncharitable in that old-fashioned saint). Moses in the Egyptian Court with his hated refrain, "Thus saith the Lord, let my people go, that they may serve me;" with Elijah and Micah (I Kings 18:17), whose names come to us across the ages as the troublers of wicked kings and idolatrous priests; these only anticipate the Captain of our salvation, who came, not to send peace, but a sword (Matt. 10:34); to kindle a fire (Luke 12:49), to produce division, and set mankind at variance. In righteousness doth he make war. The stronger than the strong man (Luke 11:22) hath taken from him his armour wherein he trusted. . . The weapon in which the strong man trusted is taken from him. Death is destroyed, captivity led captive. The Lord is a man of war. The Lord hath triumphed glorious The Lord, strong and mighty in battle, hath all our foes o'ercome; and now by death we shall be saved from death and life eternal gain...

Tremble not, soldier of the cross, at the trumpet blast of strife. It is the stern necessity of our fallen state The healing virtue imparted to Siloam's waters must be diffused from the troubling angel's wing. Liberty blooms in the track of revolution. Religion is not the frail, sickly sentimentalism that many paint it. Its baby clothes were sprinkled with the blood of Bethlehem's slaughtered innocents. The good fight of faith is a great fight of affliction. Christianity is a nursling of the storm; was rocked into vigor upon the purple crest of opposition. The apostles, as they sped along the highways of earth with the message of salvation, were hailed as the troublers of cities, and upside-down turners of the world. Princes trembled in their presence; the faces of priests gathered blackness. Hated of all men for His name's sake, they ceased not from aggressive war till judgment was brought forth unto victory; rested not, but resisted unto blood, striving again sin, and now await the victor's crown beneath the altar. Shall we be worthy the society of those who attained heaven thru much tribulation? Of some it is said they shall walk in white, for they are worthy. What is it to be worthy of the world to come? The soldier who endures with his leader the toil of the weary march and the dangers of battle, is accounted worthy to share with him the wealth of victory and glory of the triumph....

We may not die for Christ, but much weariness and painfulness attend upon the church heavenward. We war against spiritual wickedness in high places, and what is more difficult to subdue the promptings of our own sinful hearts. Luther was wont to say that he feared his own heart more than the pope and all his cardinals. The conflict between the law in our members (Rom. 7) and the law of the spirit will end only with life. Let us put on the whole armour, and praying with all prayer, and watching thereunto, gird ourselves anew for the fight. . . Shall we in the "storms that sweep our wintry sky," hear "the sound of a going," and arouse us to smite the hosts of the enemy (II Sam. 5:24). The "conflict of ages" was never more sanguine than now. Never was sin more impudent in its mien, nor potent in its sway. Inadequate views of the malignant nature and tendency of sin, coupled with a chilling indifference, is the bane of the present generation. O, that the "enmity" between us and the serpent were quickened anew. All intelligences, supernal and infernal, are actively engaged. Shall man, on account of whom this strife is waged, remain neutral?

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Above is timely article published in Bible Index, January, 1874, a monthly periodical of Toronto, Canada, devoted to primitive Christianity.

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I've hesitated to "rush into print" in the fight you and other good brethren have been making through the press, on "premillennialism". I have contented myself with doing "my bit" in an oral way, where I am, perhaps better qualified. The charge has been made against Bro. Armstrong of Harding College that he has been teaching Bollism. He has denied the charge through the press. Correctly so, too. But haven't you noticed that he has never denied being premillennialist? He has stated through the papers he has not changed his position on the kingdom question during the last 40 years. I gladly accept his statement as correct. I had a little tilt with him through Gospel Herald in 1914 or 1915, and I know he contended then that the scriptures teach that the righteous dead will be raised at Christ's coming; that Christ will reign on the earth 1,000 years and then the wicked dead will be raised. They, both, were taught the same theory. Boll read Russell and went further into the speculations, so, the premillennialism that Armstrong teaches, is very truthfully not Bollism. But I venture the prediction that Armstrong will not deny that he teaches premillennialism. And I also venture the guess that all the Bible teachers associated with him in Harding College teach the same theory. C. D. Crouch, Christopher, Ill.