The way to the kingdom of heaven and what to do to be saved in it

Front matter

Class _EX-L^i- Book,. ^0 3 o

Copyilghtl^"

COPYRIGHT DEPOSnV

Preface

This book, "The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven, and What to Do to Be Saved in It," is written for those who are in the Ivingdom as well as for those who are wanderers from the fcrfd — for those in the kingdom, that they may realize more fully the position they occupy, and that they may be better able to help others along the way; and for those out of the kingdom, that they may journey with more security in the steps they must take to enter the fold again.

This book is not written in a spirit of controversy; hence we do not refer to what others teach in a way to censure their different views, but simply give the result of our own long and faithful study of the Scriptures. Therefore, should any sectarianist find a statement not in accord with his creed, we trust he may attribute our different views alone to our different interpretation of the Scriptures.

No religious denomination is responsible for this book, and none is chargeable with the statements it contains. What is said is chargeable alone to the author.

The book is the result both of years of study and of a practical experience of forty years in the Christian life.

Let the reader glean its pages with care, and perhaps somewhere in it a grain of truth may be found that will ripen into luscious fruit for the Master.

Throw the mantle of charity over any mistaken error we may have made in our conclusions; but be not hasty to condemn without careful consideration.

May the Holy Spirit attend our effort; and, however feeble it is, may it be used to the glory of God and the good of our fellows! W. E. Searcy.

Griffin, Ga , March 3, 1908.

ILLUSTKATIONS.

Page.

Human Life Driven out of Eden 12

The Rended Veil 23

"Suffer the Little Children to Come unto Me". 30

"And a Little Child Shall Lead Them" 32

Burning the Books — An Example of a True Conversion. 46

The Passage of the Red Sea 57

The Manifestation of the Christ (John i. 31) 59

Where Grapes of Gladness Grow 74

Descent of the Spirit at Pentecost 78

The River of the Water of Life 80

Jesus and Nicodemus 84

Raphael 86

Jesus and the Woman of Samaria 94

The Transfiguration of Christ 96

"Consider the Lilies" 103

Listening to the Word of God 116

The Site of the Great Babylon as It Now Appears 120

The Lord's Supper 126

The Guardian Angel 136

Messengers Appear to Abraham 138

The Angel's Errand 140

Repentance of the Ninevites 149

The Pitying Father and the Prodigal Son 151

Elijah under the Juniper Tree 168

Contents

Page.

I. The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven 7

II. The Atonement of Jesus, the Christ 10

I. The Way To The Kingdom Of Heaven

When man arrives at the age of discretion, he finds himself confronted by two roads which diverge from each other and separate forever. One of these roads is broad, and has a wide gate at its very entrance. It is an attractive and seductive way, meandering amid valleys and fields that are seemingly full of beauty to the eye and full of cheer to the heart. In the distance can be seen those who have gone this road, sowing to the pleasures of life and, like the butterfly, dallying amid its flowers without restraint.

Yonder is a group that seem wild with delight at the gratification of the desires of the heart ; yonder is another group wasting the strength of youth in licentiousness. They gloat upon the wine cup and seek the midnight orgies; they fall a prey to those who have forsaken the guide of their youth and forgotten the covenant of their God, whose house inclineth unto death and whose paths are unto the dead.

Still farther on there are other groups of men pleased with the thousands of vanities which delight the eye.

To look upon it the road appears beautiful, and all seems bright and gay; but over the gate that leads into this way the young man reads this warning: "Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment." And in another place he sees these ominous words: ''This is the way that leadeth to destruction!''

On the right is another road. It is a narrow way, and at its entrance stands a narrow gate; it has none of the glitter that attracts the eye, none of the seductive pleasures that lead astray the heart ; it has none of the gaudy tinsels of earth ; it is but a plain, narrow way. But while it seems unbidding, it looks to be the proper way to travel, for over the gate are these inviting words : "This is the way of life — the way to the kingdom of heaven." And, too, the good Spirit, standing by, points to this route. He says that it lies through hidden valleys abounding in scenes of grandeur, which will fill the soul with sublimity; by hidden springs of glory, which will gladden tbe heart; by still waters, which will give peace to the troubled spirit ; by green pastures, which will fill with fatness; on up to the very house of God, where he may dwell forever. The question naturally presenting itself is: "Which road shall I travel?"

Now, if left alone to his judgment, this question could be easily answered ; for his reason would convince liim that lie should travel the "best way." It does do so about the roads that go up and down the earth; and, if left untrammeled, it would do so about the roads that lead away into eternity.

The trouble is, the evil spirit whispers in the ear to go down the broad road and have some fun or pleasure; that just ahead we can gratify this or that appetite or passion or desire; that the narrow way is a bleak way, fit only for old men and sentimental women ; but not the way to find the pleasures of youth or manhood, which nature craves.

Man too often lays aside the promptings of his reason, and the admonitions of loving friends, and the teachings of the Spirit, and the guidance of the conscience to follow this siren voice. Alas that it is so! for once well adrift doAvn this road, it is hard to get back to the innocence of the day when the young heart first bounded like a roe adown its forbidden paths. If he pursues these ways long enough to form its habits of sin, O what a yoke he hath put upon himself! It will bind him like the chains of death; for it is fastened with the devices of craftiness and riveted with the skill of angelic wisdom.

O, my friend, put on the breakers ! Stop short ! Every time you gratify an unlawful appetite or passion or desire, you are getting farther and farther doT\m the broad road and farther and farther from the way of life. As you grow older in years and sin, the harder it is to return. Solomon knew this. He says : "Eemember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not." The narrow wav is the wav of life.

II. The Atonement Of Jesus, The Chkist

One who desires to be a citizen of the kingdom of heaven and to travel the narrow way we have portrayed should understand that the very basis of our religion, which is the only guide to what we seek, is in the atonement of Jesus, the Christ; and that it will be of incalculable value to start out with some knowledge of what our Heavenly Father sought to accomplish in this great sacrifice of his Son in our behalf.

"Christ Jesus, and Him Crucified," has been the theme of the evangelists for nearly nineteen hundred 3^ears, and the ''old story" will ever be full of interest to the successive generations that shall be born into the world for all future time.

The Object of the Atonement.

God planted one human life in this world, known to us as the ''Adamic life." This life was first in Adam ; but God, seeing that it was not good for man to be alone, divided that one life, taking a part of Adam's bone, flesh, blood, and life, and making of it a woman. Eve. So that the Adamic life and the entire race of Adam was then in these two alone. This same idea is expressed in Hebrews vii. 10, where (10)

Levi paid tithes in Abraham to Melchizedek long before his birth into individual life. Now, while the whole human race was yet unmultiplied — no children to them having yet been born into the world — these parents of mankind committed a sin the penalty of which was spiritual death. The result was that death passed upon the guilty pair, and necessarily upon the whole human race in them.

Then we had lost a world. But God so loved his creature man that he made a plan to rescue and redeem him from this lost condition. (1) That plan involved the vicarious sacrifice of the Son of God as a substitute for the penalty of man's transgression; so that the Son of God thus became a ransom for the life of mankind, and redeemed the whole race (still in the first parents unborn) from the death which had passed upon them. In the substituted death of the Son of God we see, therefore, that the whole race was redeemed, and thus became again guiltless (or justified) in the sight of God. So we had a redeemed world through Christ. God's plan for man also involved (2) the making alive, with spiritual life, the redeemed race, whereby the whole race lived spiritually again. But redeemed man, made alive, was as liable to sin as Adam and Eve had been, and was confronted by the same great evil influence which had prompted their sinful act in Eden; and hence God's plan had to provide further for man (3) by the gospel of the grace of God, whereby through faith or trust in the blood of Jesus, shed in the vicarious sacrifice, sins of individuals afterwards committed might be forgiven under

HUMAN LIFE DRIVEN OUT OF EDEN.

" By the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the rio^hteousnes? of c ne the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." (Eom. v. 18.)

the provisions of the gospel, and all justified persons be gathered together into an earthly spiritual kingdom, in which Jesus Christ might reign over the spirit lives of men. God's plan was also designed (tt) to reconcile the human race to himself, whereby his Fatherhood would be recognized in the earth by the redeemed children of men. God's plan also provided for man a plan (5) of progression through the aid of the Holy Spirit, associated with him, by which he might attain to the high state of Christian perfection. The elucidations of these five objects of the atonement of Jesus the Christ, as revealed in the Bible, will help the honest traveler on his "way to the kingdom of heaven," and show such traveler how he may be saved in the kingdom.

Jesus, the Christ, the Substituted Penalty

FOR THE AdAMIC TRANSGRESSION.

The death of Jesus, as already stated, was a vicarious sacrifice. The word "vicarious" means "acting in the place of another; substituted." The word "sacrifice" here means "an offering to God." So we look upon the death of Jesus as a substituted offering to God. This offering was not a substituted penalty — a punishment attached to the commission of a crime — but it was a substitute for a penalty. When the divine law was transgressed in Eden, the penalty of the transgression, as stated, w^as death of the transgressors and the whole human race, then in them unmultiplied. God did not pardon that transgression, but satisfied it by substituting his only-begotten Son; so in his death as such substitute the Scriptures truly tell us: "He tasted death for every man/' ''But we behold him who hath been made a little lower than the angels, even Jesus, because of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that by the grace of God he should taste death for every man." (Heb. ii. 9.)

Let us realize, then, the first great truth of the atonement: that Jesus died on the cross as a substitute, in the stead of man, in full satisfaction of the penalty of man's disobedience in Eden; and as such substitute he was buried in the grave of Joseph of Arimathea, and as such substitute he arose from that sepulture; so we may say, constructively, through the principle of substitution, that man was crucified and died on the cross with Christ on Golgotha, was buried in the grave of Joseph, and arose therefrom with him. So this act of Jesus, the Christ, satisfied the transgression of Adam and saved the whole human race from its penalty of death. That all Christians are in accord with this statement, we need only refer to the universal belief in the salvation of children who die under the age of personal accountability. It matters not what our creeds may be, this truth appeals so strongly to the human heart and mind that no one can escape from it. Jesus, the Christ, took away the sin of the world, bore it himself, satisfied it by virtue of his vicarious sacrifice, and the original sin was expiated, and all children are saved — not conditionally saved, not placed on salvable ground, but saved: absolutely redeemed.

John the Baptist, seeing Jesus coming nnto him, said: ^'Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin [margin: "beareth the sin"] of the world." (John i. 29.) The Greek word a iron, translated "taketh" away," means "to bear, to carry, to take away, remove, destroy, kill." Isaiah, the prophet, over seven hundred and fifty years before John saw Jesus, had designated him as the "Lamb of God," and portrayed with wonderful accuracy his vicarious suffering and death (Isaiah liii.). St. Chrysostom said: "Christ has paid far more than we owed, as much more as the boundless ocean exceeds a single drop of water."

But Jesus did not satisfy man's transgression in the sense of a commercial transaction, as so much suffering for so much sin; he suffered enough, according to God's estimate — a full equivalent for man's deserved penalty and all demands of righteous government, as a free manifestation of God's love. The satisfaction of the original sin of Eden blotted it forever from the book of remembrance; but it left man in the new position in which he had placed himself. It left him out of Eden, out of the reach of the tree of life, a toiler in the earth cursed for his sake. Instead of the beautiful trees of the garden, his vision fell upon the thorn and the thistle ; instead of a diet of fruits, he became an eater of herbs and bread and flesh. The sorrows of conception and birth were greatly multiplied; and "dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return" became the heritage of man.

We should remember that a man sentenced for crime may be pardoned or his sentence satisfied ; yet neither the pardon nor the satisfaction will obliterate the scars that the crime inflicted upon him, or the turpitude that clings around his oft'ense ''like the odor round the old shattered vase." Human experience confirms this view; and to-day Adam's posterity, with the sin of Eden canceled, still struggles with the problems which confront us through the laws of heredity and environment.

GoD^s Second Purpose in the Atonement.

Paul tells us that as through one trespass the judgment came to all men to condemnation, even so through one act of righteousness the free gift came unto all men to justification of life. (Kom. v. 18.) The Greek word paraj^toma, translated "offense" or "trespass," means a "falling aside or away, to make defection from," and. refers here to the fall of the Adamic life in Eden. The word Jcatakrima, translated "condemnation," means a "condemnatory sentence, to give judgment against, condemn," and refers to the judgment of death given against Adam, and through him to all men in him.

The meaning of the first clause, then, is that through the fall of Adam the judgment came to all men by a condemnatory sentence of God.

In the second clause the word dilcaiomatos, translated "righteousness," means "rightful act, act of justice, equity, meritorious act, setting right, to hold as guiltless," and refers to the meritorious act of Christ. The words "the free gift" are not in the

The Way to the Kimjdom of Heaven. 17

original, but were inserted by the translators. The Greek word dikaios'ui, translated "justification," means here a judicial sentence, and, in connection with life, means that life by judicial sentence or adjustment came to all men, God set them right and held them guiltless. Taken as a whole, St. Paul's teaching is, that through the fall of Adam all men were adjudged dead, and through the meritorious act of Christ all men were adjudged to life again. John Wesley, in his "Notes," says of this passage: ''The term 'justification of life' is that sentence of God by which a sinner under sentence of death is adjudged to life."

So, then, God's object was not only to satisfy the penalty of the original sin, but also to makeman alive again. As the penalty of death was to pass upon all men, so the meritorious act of Christ extended to all men to justification of life. One was as broad as the other. St. Paul says: "As in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive." (1 Cor. XV. 22.) God's design is that, though man died in Adam without any fault of his own, he shall be made alive in Christ as the free gift of God. This making alive, taken in' reference to Adam's fall, is a clear teaching that all men will live, and that what we call the annihilation theory for the wicked is false. St. John, in speaking of the "Word" (Jesus, the Christ), says: "In him was life; and the life was the light of men. . . . There was the true light [Jesus, the Christ], even the light which enlighteneth every man coming into the world [margin: "as he comes into the world"]." (John i. 4-9.) The 2

Greek word translated "every" is panta, which means "all." The teaching is that the life of Jesus enlightens all men as they come into the world — a declaration which should make every birth chamber a very gate to heaven.

But whether at the very beginning, when man was driven from Eden, or at every birth into individual life, Jesus, the Christ, restores all men to life again. How he does so need not concern us at this time. We must not confound this teaching with the statement already made as to the condition of Adam after the fall. Many theologians have done so and have thereby laid a premise on a false foundation. The condition of Adam, we detailed, was purely a physical condition. Every declaration referred to his animal life. Living out of Eden was determined by the position of his body. Tilling the soil with thorns and thistles in his way, eating herbs and bread, the sweat of his face, the birth of his offspring, his return to the dust — all these things referred to the physical and not the spiritual. Christ made alive the spirit of man; his animal life was already living, hiding under the fig trees of Eden or toiling in the fields of earth. The restoration of the spirit of man must have been as complete as its fall, or the redemption or ransom was not complete.

The Gospel of the Grace op God in the Kingdom op Heaven.

As we stated, redeemed mankind was as liable to sin as Adam and Eve had been, being confronted

The ^ya\J to the Kingdom of Heaven. 19

with the same evil inlluences that induced them to commit the first transgression. Indeed, as man had lost Eden and its pleasant happy surroundings, and was now in an environment every way less conducive to the leading of a sinless life, we can readily see that he was in a more perilous position than he was in Eden. So that while God had redeemed mankind, it was necessary for him to establish a kingdom of heaven in the earth in which there would be a provision of grace and pardon, for the rescue of such of his redeemed people as should go astray from his fold. Hence, in the atonement of Jesus there was made once for all a propitiation for the individual or personal sins of men, as well as for the original sin of xldam.

So that while all mankind are legally justified by the general redemption in the atonement of Christ, yet when mankind pass out of this justified state into sin again they may still be reclaimed through the propitiatory sacrifice under the provisions of grace and pardon. Thus Christ's kingdom in the earth seeks to maintain itself by the conversion of sinners who stray from the Good Shepherd's fold, and bringing them back again to the plane of redeemed children, through the regeneration, reestablish them once more in the family of heaven. In the kingdom of heaven Jesus is the Mediator between the sinner and God, through whom alone they may enter to the mercy seat and find pardon and release. The Scriptures say : "God sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (1 John iv. 10.) "And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the

20 The Waif to the Kingdom of Heaven,

Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." (1 John ii. 1.) We see, then, that there are two sides to the gospel — the gospel to the redeemed whom he saved from sin, and the gospel to the sinner to reclaim him: to the redeemed that there may be a realization of life and obedient submission in love and an acceptance of the reign of Christ ; to the sinner that he may repent and -turn again to the plane of the redeemed, through the provisions of the gospel of the grace of God.

GoD^s Fourth Object Was the Keconciliation

OP Man.

St. Paul tells us: "While we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son," etc. (Rom. v. 10.) Also in 2 Corinthians he says: "But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, . . . reconciling the world unto himself, not reckoning unto them their trespasses, and having committed unto us the word of reconciliation." (Chapter v. 18, 19.) Theologians have raised the question as to whether or not God was also reconciled to man by the death of his Son. They enter into lengthy arguments to show that he was or was not. Why man should trouble himself to try to find out the mind of God (that concerns only God himself) is hard to understand. Be that as it is, it is certain that what God did for man should reconcile us to him. We know God was the

The Way to tlie Kingdom of Heaven. 21

offended party; but John tells us that ^'God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son," etc. It was this great love which prompted the atonement and through which God satisfied the moral laws of the universe and reestablished a close relationship with man. That plan was the basis of reconciliation, and in that sense God partook of it also ; but in a higher sense his reconciliation was in his love for his offspring, and the offering of his Son was a manifestation of that love as a pitting father. In the parable of the prodigal son we have the question illustrated. (Luke xv. 11-25.)

EEDEMrTION FROM AlL INIQUITY.

The Scriptures tell us that Jesus gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people, and that the "blood of Jesus cleanseth us from all sin." Through the complete efficacy of the blood of Jesus, God's plan of redemption contemplates that Christian development may reach, even in this life, a state of Christian perfection. In Hebrews x. 12-14 we read : "This man [Jesus], after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down on the right hand of God; . . . for by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified." The original word translated "perfected" is the same as that used in Hebrews V. 14 and vi. 1-3, signifying the attainment that may be reached through Jesus, the Christ, our Lord, according to the measure of the gift of Christ for the perfecting of the saints. (Eph. iv. 11, 12.)

III. The Bended Veil

We have read of the atonement of the Christ, and how for our sakes he died that we might live. We have read in the Old Testament of the temple service and of its forms and ceremonies, which through hundreds of years pointed the people to his coming. At last the veil of the temple was rended and the old dispensation ended, and Jesus, the Christ, began his kingdom in the earth.

Let us now before considering his kingdom take a cursory view of the rended veil, and find the way to the kingdom of heaven through his torn and bleeding side.

In the temple was an apartment called the holy of holies, in which was kept the ark of the covenant, which contained the golden pot that had the manna, Aaron's rod, and the tables of the covenant. The lid of the ark was called the propitiatory or mercy seat, over which were the cherubim with expanded wings, and about which the Shekinah, the glory cloud (the visible majesty of the divine presence), rested, and from whence issued the oracles of God in audible voice.

Into this place only the high priest could enter, and he only once a year, on the great day of atonement. On these occasions he entered and appeared before the mercy seat, and sprinkled upon it the (22)

THE RENDED VEIL.

blood of tlie sin offering for the sins of the people, and burned incense within the apartment.

Now, between that apartment and the other courts of the temple there was a veil made of fine linen, of purple, blue, and crimson, with cherubim wrought thereon.

The object of this veil was to screen or shut out from the vision of men the spiritual manifestations that occurred in the holy of holies, and in this respect it corresponds to the fleshly nature of man which veils spiritual manifestations from human eyes in the temple of the new dispensation — the body of man.

Now, immediately upon the death of Jesus, while darkness was still over all the land, the veil of the temple was rended from top to bottom; so that if the priest was ministering at the golden altar (it being the time of the sacrifice) the sacred oracle was laid fully open to his view.

Now the rending of the veil must have signified several things: First, that the holy of holies had fulfilled its mission, and could not be further used in the religious worship of the world. Therefore there was an end of the dispensation in which it so prominently figured. There was no longer need of the priestly intervention of the Aaronic priest, because Jesus, the Christ, the Great Priest over the house of God, had taken his place and made one sacrifice for sin by shedding his own blood, once for all, in "propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world."

With the abolishment of the propitiatory sacrifice in the temple also went all the ceremonies that attended it.

The Shekinah, the "glory cloud," departed, and the oracle of God ceased its communications with the priest, because Jesus, the Son of God, manifested in the tlesli, stood face to face with the people and declared the Father.

The veil itself was destroyed in the temple of the old dispensation by an invisible power, laying it open, and the veil of the temple of the new dispensation — that is, the flesh of the human body — had been rended to make a new and living way for the spirit of man to approach unveiled the mercy seat where Jesus answers pra3^er. Through the way of the rended flesh, by the blood of Jesus, not only the Jew but all men may enter into the holy of holies and receive a manifestation of the divine in their own lives.

The rended flesh of Jesus by substitution for all men is that open way ; so that now in Jesus, through the propitiation of his blood, man may turn to the Lord and find that the veil is taken away. Paul tells us that "they that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lust thereof." If our own flesh is crucified with Christ, we may draw near with boldness unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.