Covenanter Witness Vol. 53 - Rparchives.org

you."nations,"works."evangelize,"choice."appearing""teach,"or make disciples of "all or allGentiles. This is evangelism, which means that Gentiles get saved and follow Jesus by consistent Christian living. Second: "baptizing them in the name ofthe Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."This is organization baptizing them into the localchurch ; conserving results of our evangelistic effortsby organizing local churches. Third : "teaching themto observe all things whatsoever I have commandedThis is indoctrination "all things" includesthe whole Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. "Allscripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness : that the man of God maybe perfect, throughly furnished unto all goodof His divine presence toGod promised the blessingthose who faithfully obey the three aspects of thegreat commission: "Lo, I am with you alway, evenworld."unto the end of theThere are missionaries in the mission fields whoobey only the first, and sometimes the third also,but ignore the second. This is also true of ananyGospel teams, evangelistic movements, Youth forChrist, and other crusades. "Ours is tothey always say, "and the Holy Spirit will take careof the converts, where to lead them." They areenthused with the provided-we-get-them-saved idea.This is the same as provided-we-have-fish idea ofthat disobedient boy in our story. They neglect thesecond phase of the great commission of the LordJesus, to organize the disciples into local churches.They deal with their converts as individuals and notas an assembly of called-out ones. With the addressof their individual converts they usually follow themup with a Bible study correspondence course. Sometime some of those earnest ones on inquiring as towhich church they should attend for worship areadvised to go to the church of their own choicevery silly advice to a new-born babe in Christ. It'sjust like putting a new-born child on the street andtelling him, "Go to the home of your ownThe crisis lies in the fact that these converts if theyare genuinely saved are in the infancy of theirChristian life, void of spiritual discernment, tossed toand fro with every wind of doctrine by the cunningcraftiness of men, and are therefore easy prey to theravenous workers of false cults. It is no wonder thatfalse cults, like the Jehovah's Witnesses (rightlycalled, Jehovah's sicknesses), thrive during theselast days of apostasy.The Christian's Hope(The following statement was unanimouslyadopted by the Third Plenary Congress of the International Council of Christian Churches meeting inElkins Park, Philadelphia, Pa., at the business session on Thursday, Augst 12.)The Christ of the Scriptures, the Hope ofGod's RedeemedThe Christ who is our hope cannot be conceivedof in terms other than those of the historical recordsof the Holy Scriptures if He is to remain our hope.He must be no less than one of the persons of theTriune Godhead, very God of very God, Lord of216lords and King of kings, sovereign of the universe,or He would be powerless to achieve the climactic concatenation of events associated with His future coming, in resurrection power to raise and receive Hisredeemed to Himself. Only the Christ of the Biblecan redeem a sinful man, indwell him, keep his heartin peace and tranquillity in a wicked and chaoticworld, take him to the joy of heaven where there isneither sorrow nor suffering, and bring him to theday of resurrection and restoration of all things.This is our blessed hope.The Christian's hope, the hope of the saints ofGod throughout the ages, is offered to all men everywhere, but offered on specific terms. It is offeredto all who will repent of their sins and accept theRedeemer, Jesus Christ, as God and our only Saviour.Only by the regenerating power of the Holy Spiritcan a fallen man be transformed from the sinful waysof this evil world and conformed to the righteousways of the Holy Christ. Only through the cleansingof the substitutionary atoning work of the crucifiedand risen Christ can a man be prepared for a holyHeaven. The Apostle Paul has declared clearly in hisepistle to the Romans (10:9-10) that there can beno salvation apart from recognition and acceptanceby faith of the fact of Christ's bodily resurrection,which truth applied to all men regardless of theirestate. The Christian's hope is thus in the Christ ofthe Bible, who is very God of very God, and consistsof a sure expectancy of the fulfillment of His wordsthat He will personally ond visibly come again inresurrection power to receive His own to a new worldwhere there will be neither tears nor sorrow, deathnor darkness; where the former things are passedaway and righteousness dwells forever more.The Christ of the Scriptures,The Judge of the Sinful WorldBright and comforting though the hope of theChristian thus is, not so can it be for a world withoutfaith in this Christ. The Word of God declares, "Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saintsto execute judgment . . (Jude 14-15). His coming toearth, far from inaugurating a day of hope for an unrighteous world which has not sought His salvation,will usher in the wrath and curse of God upon allsuch. It will be a day of woe and destruction, a dayfrom which there can be no turning back, a day without hope for all without Christ.To this confused and troubled world there mustnot be any uncertain proclamation of this fearfultruth. It ill behooves churchmen who profess to speakfor the church of Christ, to substitute their own confused thinking for the clear message of the Church'sLord, for the darkness they thus spread will be theirown place of stumbling. "Vengeance belongeth untome, I will recompense, saith the Lord," (Heb. 10:30)of whom it is written that He "shall judge the quickand the dead at his(2 Tim. 4 :1).There is no hope in Christ for any who wouldreduce Him to a level so low that sinful men couldimitate Him in their power. There is no hope thatsuch a Christ could deliver anyone out of this present world into a new world where all things are restored in perfection. He who is now offered to allmen as Saviour can only return to His deniers as anavenging Judge. In this day of salvation when thecrucified, risen and ascended Christ still holds outCOVENANTER WITNESS