ALONE WITH GOD     

  How beautiful and simple the inspired record which reveals to us that God made of one every nation of men (Acts 17: 26) ! Not only do we read that all men proceeded from one original pair, but the Book of God tells us that even the material substance of the woman was taken out of the man. This simple account unfolds the sublime purpose of God, who is the God of order and whose nature and character is love. He loves harmony and peace, and therefore he created the woman out of man—a part of himself—so that they twain might be one not only by relation and attachment but also by nature. Thus children born of such union, where nothing but unity, harmony, and love could be expected, would of necessity love one another and live in harmony and peace, so that there would be only one great universal family in the whole world. But alas! sin destroyed the harmony and sowed the bitter seed of enmity and jealousy even between the first two brothers. What followed is too sad for narration. Enmity and hatred, jealousy and envy, division and strife, have checkered the pages of the history of the human family since the first innocent blood of a brother was shed by a brother's impious hand.

  But the purpose of God in creation, though for a time thus obstructed, could never be frustrated. True, the human family was rent asunder by social, political, and religious factions, and seemingly became irreconcilably estranged from one another; but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. In due time Christ, by his vicarious suffering on the cross of Calvary, bridged t h e chasm between human hearts, ever abolishing the enmity, and thereby destroying the very seat of the trouble. He broke down the middle wall of partition and made both the Jews and the Gentiles one, and by the supernatural power of his blood created of the two a new man, thus making peace. He restored the broken harmony and reestablished unity on the divine and unshakable foundation of love. This new family or brotherhood is called "The Household of God," in which all the children have access to the Father through the one Spirit, and are built together for a habitation of God through the Spirit. Eph. 2 :11-22.

  This unification of the dispersed human family and the gathering together of the scattered children of God was the manifest mission of the glorious incarnation of the Son of God (John 11:52), and this sublime, divine purpose seems to underlie the whole plan of salvation and is interwoven throughout the Inspired Record. Unlike the eminent philosophers and the renowned moral teachers of Greece and Rome that preceded him, Jesus conceived from the beginningţ of his mission the formation of a brotherhood of his disciples on the strong foundation of his divine personality as a leading factor recognized and confessed through the preaching of his gospel. Socrates and Plato taught ethics and philosophy, and made many disciples too; but neither of them conceived the idea of forming his disciples into a community or brotherhood. There was no solidarity among their followers. But Jesus of Nazareth, being imbued with the one family idea of the Bible, revived the hidden purpose of God in restoring the broken unity and harmony of the human family. His was a mission as original as divine— original as regards human wisdom, divine as regards the inspired ideal. He was conscious of his mission when he claimed the august title of "The Light of the World" (John 8:12) and announced that he had "other sheep" which were not of the Jewish fold, and that them also he must bring, so that there might be one fold and one shepherd (John 10: 16).

  This mission was to be carried on after his death by his apostles, to whom the Holy Spirit revealed the long forgotten mystery that the (Gentiles were to be the fellow heirs and fellow members of the body and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel (Eph. 3: 6). The early disciples caught the fire of their Master and began building upon his foundation. The result is the Christian ecclesia of the New Testament, having one faith, one baptism, one Spirit, one Lord, and one God, and all one in matters pertaining to life and godliness. This was realized, in the embryo, the original and eternal purpose of God in creation (Eph. 3: 11). Thus in Christ was the lost paradise regained.

  Nor is this idea a stray thought in the Revealed Volume, a thought originated in the mind of some eccentric fanatic. The symbols and types are too numerous and the analogies too plain to be misunderstood After the creation of the first family when the natural relation and the ties of flesh and blood had given away to the inroads of the wild and unruly nature of sin, God destroyed the whole world with a flood; and by a remarkable coincidence, as it were, the only human survivors of the catastrophe consisted of a single family. This measure also failed to preserve the unity and harmony of the human race. Then God, so to speak, adopted a different plan. He chose Abraham, a faithful man, desiring to establish through him one whole family again (Gen. 12: 1-3; 18: 18). Later the Lord raised up another man to be a lawgiver and a national leader, whom he instructed to build a sanctuary according to the pattern shown him by revelation. This was to serve as a bond of national unity. The erection of an altar on the other side of the river was condemned with great vehemence as violating the divine ideal of one people, one sanctuary, and one altar. Any possible occasion of division in the camp was not to be tolerated with indifference (Josh. 22: 11-34). This temple was designed to be a symbol of the people of God indwelt by his Holy Spirit. The symbols of the bride, the body, the fold, and the household all clearly indicate the same plan. To conceive division and faction in the ecclesia as compatible with the divine purpose is to ignore the whole trend of revelation and to misinterpret the mind of God and his design for the highest good of man as revealed in His gracious dealings with humanity throughout the ages.

  But when the unsophisticated reader of the Bible looks around him for the Biblical ecclesia, the divine church, the household of God, his unprepared mind is bewildered at the unpleasant sight of sects and divisions that have rent Gentile people of God for centuries. The Biblical conception of one family and the sublime ideal of a loving brotherhood is all but lost in modern Christendom. Nor does the study of ecclesiastical history help him very much. To him the existence of Christian sects is a strange phenomenon, deep shrouded mystery. The crystal flow of the celestial river that was seen sparkling down the granite bed as it was descending towards the plain seems entirely out of sight. Instead there is a turbid stream, which now appears on the surface, now disappears in the sand, and whose contents are a strange admixture of various impurities gathered from the soil of its banks. There is a sense in which the stream, though lost at times to human observation, is still flowing underground; but to regain its original purity the water must be percolated through an effective filter.

  To explain and unfold the divine plan and pattern, to elucidate the origin and development of the ecclesia, to trace its gradual degeneration into corruption and its final reappearance in glory—such are the objects of the following pages. An honest effort has been made to render a sincere apology for the church of Clod and to explain some of the most perplexing questions of modern theology and ecclesiastical polity.

 We earnestly invoke the divine guidance and wisdom upon the reader, that he may understand the deep mystery of God revealed to his church by his Spirit. May the same Spirit that conceived the plan and developed it into the divine ecclesia reveal it to his people. Amen.

John A. D. Khan.

  How beautiful and simple the inspired record which reveals to us that God made of one every nation of men (Acts 17: 26) ! Not only do we read that all men proceeded from one original pair, but the Book of God tells us that even the material substance of the woman was taken out of the man. This simple account unfolds the sublime purpose of God, who is the God of order and whose nature and character is love. He loves harmony and peace, and therefore he created the woman out of man—a part of himself—so that they twain might be one not only by relation and attachment but also by nature. Thus children born of such union, where nothing but unity, harmony, and love could be expected, would of necessity love one another and live in harmony and peace, so that there would be only one great universal family in the whole world. But alas! sin destroyed the harmony and sowed the bitter seed of enmity and jealousy even between the first two brothers. What followed is too sad for narration. Enmity and hatred, jealousy and envy, division and strife, have checkered the pages of the history of the human family since the first innocent blood of a brother was shed by a brother's impious hand.

  But the purpose of God in creation, though for a time thus obstructed, could never be frustrated. True, the human family was rent asunder by social, political, and religious factions, and seemingly became irreconcilably estranged from one another; but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. In due time Christ, by his vicarious suffering on the cross of Calvary, bridged t h e chasm between human hearts, ever abolishing the enmity, and thereby destroying the very seat of the trouble. He broke down the middle wall of partition and made both the Jews and the Gentiles one, and by the supernatural power of his blood created of the two a new man, thus making peace. He restored the broken harmony and reestablished unity on the divine and unshakable foundation of love. This new family or brotherhood is called "The Household of God," in which all the children have access to the Father through the one Spirit, and are built together for a habitation of God through the Spirit. Eph. 2 :11-22.

  This unification of the dispersed human family and the gathering together of the scattered children of God was the manifest mission of the glorious incarnation of the Son of God (John 11:52), and this sublime, divine purpose seems to underlie the whole plan of salvation and is interwoven throughout the Inspired Record. Unlike the eminent philosophers and the renowned moral teachers of Greece and Rome that preceded him, Jesus conceived from the beginningţ of his mission the formation of a brotherhood of his disciples on the strong foundation of his divine personality as a leading factor recognized and confessed through the preaching of his gospel. Socrates and Plato taught ethics and philosophy, and made many disciples too; but neither of them conceived the idea of forming his disciples into a community or brotherhood. There was no solidarity among their followers. But Jesus of Nazareth, being imbued with the one family idea of the Bible, revived the hidden purpose of God in restoring the broken unity and harmony of the human family. His was a mission as original as divine— original as regards human wisdom, divine as regards the inspired ideal. He was conscious of his mission when he claimed the august title of "The Light of the World" (John 8:12) and announced that he had "other sheep" which were not of the Jewish fold, and that them also he must bring, so that there might be one fold and one shepherd (John 10: 16).

  This mission was to be carried on after his death by his apostles, to whom the Holy Spirit revealed the long forgotten mystery that the (Gentiles were to be the fellow heirs and fellow members of the body and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel (Eph. 3: 6). The early disciples caught the fire of their Master and began building upon his foundation. The result is the Christian ecclesia of the New Testament, having one faith, one baptism, one Spirit, one Lord, and one God, and all one in matters pertaining to life and godliness. This was realized, in the embryo, the original and eternal purpose of God in creation (Eph. 3: 11). Thus in Christ was the lost paradise regained.

  Nor is this idea a stray thought in the Revealed Volume, a thought originated in the mind of some eccentric fanatic. The symbols and types are too numerous and the analogies too plain to be misunderstood After the creation of the first family when the natural relation and the ties of flesh and blood had given away to the inroads of the wild and unruly nature of sin, God destroyed the whole world with a flood; and by a remarkable coincidence, as it were, the only human survivors of the catastrophe consisted of a single family. This measure also failed to preserve the unity and harmony of the human race. Then God, so to speak, adopted a different plan. He chose Abraham, a faithful man, desiring to establish through him one whole family again (Gen. 12: 1-3; 18: 18). Later the Lord raised up another man to be a lawgiver and a national leader, whom he instructed to build a sanctuary according to the pattern shown him by revelation. This was to serve as a bond of national unity. The erection of an altar on the other side of the river was condemned with great vehemence as violating the divine ideal of one people, one sanctuary, and one altar. Any possible occasion of division in the camp was not to be tolerated with indifference (Josh. 22: 11-34). This temple was designed to be a symbol of the people of God indwelt by his Holy Spirit. The symbols of the bride, the body, the fold, and the household all clearly indicate the same plan. To conceive division and faction in the ecclesia as compatible with the divine purpose is to ignore the whole trend of revelation and to misinterpret the mind of God and his design for the highest good of man as revealed in His gracious dealings with humanity throughout the ages.

  But when the unsophisticated reader of the Bible looks around him for the Biblical ecclesia, the divine church, the household of God, his unprepared mind is bewildered at the unpleasant sight of sects and divisions that have rent Gentile people of God for centuries. The Biblical conception of one family and the sublime ideal of a loving brotherhood is all but lost in modern Christendom. Nor does the study of ecclesiastical history help him very much. To him the existence of Christian sects is a strange phenomenon, deep shrouded mystery. The crystal flow of the celestial river that was seen sparkling down the granite bed as it was descending towards the plain seems entirely out of sight. Instead there is a turbid stream, which now appears on the surface, now disappears in the sand, and whose contents are a strange admixture of various impurities gathered from the soil of its banks. There is a sense in which the stream, though lost at times to human observation, is still flowing underground; but to regain its original purity the water must be percolated through an effective filter.

  To explain and unfold the divine plan and pattern, to elucidate the origin and development of the ecclesia, to trace its gradual degeneration into corruption and its final reappearance in glory—such are the objects of the following pages. An honest effort has been made to render a sincere apology for the church of Clod and to explain some of the most perplexing questions of modern theology and ecclesiastical polity.

 We earnestly invoke the divine guidance and wisdom upon the reader, that he may understand the deep mystery of God revealed to his church by his Spirit. May the same Spirit that conceived the plan and developed it into the divine ecclesia reveal it to his people. Amen.

John A. D. Khan.