22 - Human Progress, Its Course and Doom

B.W. Newton The "Patmos" Series No. 22 Human Progress Its Course and Doom, or “Withdrawal Unto Prediction” The place of the Prophets was in the midst of the corruption of God’s professing people. Israel had received the testimonies of God; they were professedly the witnesses of TRUTH in the earth; but they had corrupted that TRUTH! Ungodliness had taken the place of HOLINESS! Falsehood had taken the place of TRUTH! All was corruption and evil; and the Prophets were set in the midst of that evil, to behold it, but, in communion with God; their title to that communion being simply the “grace” that bad sanctified through the foreshadowed offering of Christ! See how Isaiah was prepared for taking a place for God and His service in the midst of iniquity; viz., by having his lips touched by a live coal from the Altar; i.e., sacrificial fire; representing the holiness of God that had received propitiation; not holiness apart from propitiation. This “remember” is what the present generation is rejecting! The advanced thought of the day, as it calls itself, speaks of this as a Jewish element, as they deem the “Old Testament”: something that has passed away with past ages! Those who speak these blasphemies scorn “SACRIFICE!” “No doubt,” they say, “humanity needs purifying; and there are divine elements in humanity by which it is purified; but not propitiation!” So what remains for them but destruction?

Now I say, if that be the step which “human progress” is now taking what shall we say of persons—Christian teachers nominally who bless “human progress” in the Name of the Lord? Of old, we read of “shepherds” of Israel who “gloried in the pride of Lebanon; in the forest of the vintage;” but when Lebanon was cut down; when the forest of the vintage was felled, the “shepherds HOWLED (Zechariah 11:1-17)!” Seek to carry that thought in your remembrance, for what is the “pride of Lebanon;” what are the “oaks of Bashan” intended definitely to designate? That glory of the earth; that “human progress” in which men glory! Well, God says it shall be cut down by a “mighty One;” and then, Christendom’s professed “shepherds” shall HOWL! Think of those who “speak peace” of these things! and how this was done last Lord’s Day! [Funeral Sermons for the Prince Consort]. Glorifying everything which God designates by “oaks of Bashan” and “forest of the vineyard” (i.e., a wild vineyard, not God’s vineyard); pronouncing “peace” on all that! and those who so preach, unless they repent, will HOWL with anguish when the Lord comes! I beseech you, lay these things to heart if they be true; and guide your thoughts and feelings every hour by them. And remember, that the prophets, in speaking of the iniquity of professing Israel, did not confine their thoughts to that which at the moment was manifested before their eyes. It was only then incipient; the germ, the bud; not the mature fruit. But Prophecy, including the germ, always looks forward to the matured development of evil. It is needful to remember this in reading Prophetic Scripture, because it gives at once a present interest to those testimonies. If they merely concerned the past, they would indeed have a certain interest, as supplying the instruction that can be gained from the past; but, how far more, when we see they were only premonitory; and that the difference is between the “green tree and the dry,” i.e., the youth and old age of iniquity. So remember, this is mainly a future scene; and see the connection there is between the “past,” as that which forewarns us, and the “future.”

Take Habakkuk, e.g., He mourned over the evil; but God tells him it would be worse; that that evil would be chastened by the rise of a worse form of evil in the Chaldeans! And was it not so? Did not the king of Babylon come and sweep the land with destruction, and make it groan under his yoke seventy years? That was a premonitory fulfillment, but it was only premonitory! Are not Israel when gathered into their own land, to shew their evil again? It has been stopped for a moment, but are they not to go back professing the Name of Jehovah, yet causing that Name to be blasphemed because of their evil? And there will arise again a greater evil to chasten it! And where will it arise? In the land of Chaldea! It will be a similar character of evil, and exactly in the same place! Babylon is ordained to be the place where evil will strengthen itself against God, to be used by Him in chastening on His professing people, and then to be swept into destruction! So what a living interest this gives to Habakkuk 1:1-17. But we have also to remember, that when ISRAEL had been tried by these premonitory judgments, God was pleased to suspend the course of things; and another “Body” has been allowed to come into the place of testimony that belonged to them. And is the history of CHRISTENDOM different? There is a difference between the subject of the testimony of ISRAEL and of CHRISTENDOM, and it is this. Israel were sent to be witnesses of the righteousness of God which met them at SINAI. They professed to be able to embody those principles in themselves, and then to work deliverance in the earth; put down evil; and bring the nations to God! Now this was a great profession to make and they failed! They did not exhibit those principles of righteousness, and “wrought no deliverance in the earth!” Their enemies became stronger and stronger, and at last put their yoke on ISRAEL!

Then came the testimony that was committed to the CHRISTIAN CHURCH—inaugurated in the dawn of its history by that song from heaven “Glory to God in the highest;” which Christendom repeats from end to end this day! (See Dec. 25, 1861). I really do not know of a text, that has been more perverted and misunderstood; and I do not think Christians understand the bearing of these words at all! It is a text that has wrought great deception in the minds of men! Also the hymn, “Joyful all ye nations rise; join the triumph of the skies; with the angelic host proclaim ‘Christ is born in Bethlehem!’” Are the nations indeed to rise and join the triumph of the skies, because Christ is born into the earth? Born to be rejected; born to be crucified; born for His Truth to be set at nought; for Him and His servants to be abhorred! You see, hymns like this altogether deceive the soul; they place us virtually in the Millennium! They tell us that the visitation of which we read in Habakkuk is past! IF that really were so, and the nations were brought to the “fountain open for sin and for uncleanness,” they might “rise to join the triumph of the skies:” but see how the human heart may be deceived by words of God’s own Truth being misapplied!

Now, the words of the angels are really these. “Glory to God in the highest; and on earth the peace of well-pleasedness or complacency among men.” NOT “peace on earth, good will towards men.” That makes all the difference. And what do the words mean? How was it there was “peace” and not only peace, but the “peace of complacent rest” on the part of God? It is the same word as was used over the head of Jesus, “This is My beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased;” i.e., in “Whom I complacently rest.” So it indicates the complacency of peace on the part of GOD, resting on someone in the earth! But on whom could it rest in the earth? On man’s ways? No! it was never intended to speak “peace to men” in the condition in which we see them. It was in One only; even in Christ; over Whose head Heaven could be opened, and it could be said “I rest in Him in Whom I am well pleased.” Christ was among men, but all men were in the circle of darkness; under the power of Satan; altogether lost and distant from God! One little circle of light was drawn, and that was around the Person of Emmanuel, and there God was resting; seeking to gather into that circle by the principles of Love and Mercy; but no peace of complacency to men as men. On the contrary, “the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men!” John Baptist announced what the condition of the world was “The axe laid to the root of the trees”—but he was able to say “Behold the Lamb of God;” and to that he sought to gather.

Now, who are in that circle? RITUALISM Says “All the baptized!” ROME takes it boldly; goes to the porch of the Church; meets the babe, and says to it through its sponsors, “What dost thou demand of the Church?” The answer is “Faith:” and they profess to give faith! They say, “We give thee true faith, and we receive thee so into the Church of God!” Those are the first words of the Romish baptismal service! Now this is RITUALISM! It is man taking the place of God, Saying “WE give it!” So I desire that this should strike your souls with horror, and that you should be against it wherever you find it. But there is something even worse than this! Men say that “the very fact of Christ being born into the earth has united humanity to God! That all men were united to God the moment Christ was born into the earth!” That is the rising doctrine of the day; the advancing step that men are taking! Ritualism has enlarged the circle by saying that all are in it who are “baptized;” but now it is being enlarged still further; and it is said that all men are in the circle “naturally!” Of course if that were so, the moment a person is born, Christ is in him; by which he becomes virtually God; each thus being a standard to himself! That is an advanced step! All society is divided between these two classes, and, if this be what is in the professing Church itself, is not a place analogous to that given to the prophets, given to all who abide in the truth, to stand as they did, contemplating the evil around? Is it not pleasing to God that evil should be discerned, but appealing to Him; not forgetting God, but turning to Him?

Now, I do not say that we should turn to Him with the same unrelieved mournfulness with which the prophets Jeremiah, Habakkuk, and Moses in Psalms 90:1-17 did. We find but little glow of heart or joy of spirit, or any ability to rise above the evil, in them; or, if so, it is in something future, not present. The Apostles’ knowledge did not take away the sorrow. The eyes of John and of Paul were fixed as steadily as Habakkuk’s on the evil around, but then, another sphere was unveiled to them; the sphere into which Christ had entered in glory, and to the prospects of which He had brought them; for when He is revealed, they are to be changed into the likeness of His glory! That is added knowledge. If we were to learn the lesson of peace and glory apart from what the prophets taught, we should become careless and ignorant. Nature would become strong in us; we should be like the person who drank only of one cup—a cup intended to strengthen the new man—whereas, the other cup is intended to chasten and to produce godly fear. So, seek to combine. Seek to take all the aspects that God has opened in His word—not more. Do not take one single imagination that is not in the Word of God. I have often seen spirituality ruined by imagination, Nothing is more to be dreaded than unbridled imagination. Once let a person put before his soul imagination that God has not put there, and he is worth nothing; he spreads confusion wherever he goes. But, if he take the aspects of Truth that are presented in God’s word, and not any aspects of his own, the proper effect will be produced on the soul; not otherwise.

Well, the prophets mourned so much over the evil, because they contrasted it with the coming hour when all will be light and blessing and truth; and they looked for it, and said “How long, oh Lord, will this evil continue?” And is anything more important for believers, than that they should be interested in the bearing of God’s truth on everything human, and see the difference between the hour when false principles bear on humanity around—on national and social life—and the true hour of rectification, when the foundations will no longer be “out of course?” Even natural conscience is able to see that things are not right in the earth now; therefore, one of the present crafts of Satan is, to say “See, the earth has not been rightly ordered heretofore; new principles are needed; an alteration is necessary; a new day is coming: God desires His creatures to be happy, and these new principles will make them so!” Well, it is true that God desires this; and by and by He will make them happy, and all creation shall rejoice and sing; but not by those principles with which society is being drawn into further distance from God; viz., the putting away of Truth, saying “it is a sword in the household!” It must be so, if heavenly light comes into the midst of darkness that does not receive it. There must be a separating power, and the world has been conscious of it; and that power they desire to turn out of the world, in order that they may be undisturbed; and that they will be able to accomplish! And when that power, which is the only thing that brings sanctifying blessing with it, has been driven out of human society, and a vacuum thus made, then Satan will come in, and fill the chasm with his floods of falsehood and darkness! When Habakkuk complained of the iniquity of his day, God did not instantly remove it; but he said “Oh ye among the Gentiles,”—this I believe, is a special address to ISRAEL, who were chastened for iniquity by being scattered among and learning the habits of the Gentiles, —“regard, and wonder marvelously; for I work a work in your days which ye will not believe, though it be told you!” What work? “I will raise up the Chaldeans,” i.e., a worse iniquity to chasten! (Habakkuk 1:5-6).

Now these words are not past: in a certain sense they are more important to us than when first spoken. They were first spoken of the premonitory rise of the evil of the Chaldeans; but, imagine Israel restored to their own land; professing Christians united with them; and then think of those who have the Spirit of Truth in the midst of that scene; will they not groan and cry “How long, oh Lord?” and God will say “I raise up something worse! A power of violence is coming in, which will sweep away everything before it; not knowing Me, but utterly contrary to Me—a proud power of infidel blasphemy—and it shall chasten the corruption of My professed people!” That will be true of both Christendom and Israel! Now, do we believe this power is to arise and again to be connected with Chaldea? These remarkable words are borrowed and applied in Acts 13:41 to something else. To what? To the present proposal of mercy in the forgiveness of sins through the blood of Jesus! When the Apostle said, “Through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins,” he quotes these words and says, “Take heed that you do not reject this; as it is said, “Behold ye despisers; AND PERISH! for I work a work in your days, which ye will in no wise believe though a man declare it unto you!” So you see, these Two works will not be believed; neither the work of God’s mercy in forgiving sins through the blood of Jesus, nor the warning as to the mighty power of evil that will come in due season; the head of which will fulfil the solemn description of Habakkuk 2:1-20. Neither of these things is believed; neither the mercy of God through the Blood-shedding of CHRIST; nor the exaltation by Satan of a man in the person of ANTICHRIST to a throne, not reached by abasement but by iniquity! (Habakkuk 2:12). Jesus reached His throne by abasement. “Because he humbled Himself God hath highly exalted Him:” but this man founds a city by iniquity! Satan will establish him in a supremacy and glory, the like to which the earth has never yet seen: not by peace, mercy, and gentleness; but by everything that makes human life groan, as if placed under the power of torture; for all humanity will be tortured as it were, to serve the glory of this man who is to be exalted! That is the last picture given to us. It is especially to be true of ISRAEL. They are to be ground down even to the dust, that out of their woe, and the nations’ woe and calamity, may be extracted the glory of this individual to whom Satan will give power!

Now if this be true, is it not a thing to hold fast? Yet it is not believed! And what are men interested in? In what they call “HUMAN PROGRESS!” They will be devoted to that; and the end will be a fearful development of human civilization and pride, in the person of that peculiar agent of Satan: and that is what the nations will reach by “laboring in the fire for very vanity!” (Habakkuk 2:13).

Now, this was gracious instruction to the people of God, concerning the relation of judgment in which He stands to the iniquity that abounds around; but we are not so to consider it, as if it did not affect ourselves. There is a relation in which God stands to His own servants, and we are to think “what God will say to us.” The servant of God may be weak, and he may tremble and fear; and probably Habakkuk did fear and question with himself what God would say to him. But see how gracious the words of God! He did not rebuke Habakkuk, but comforted him! He was pleased to employ him, and he said first, “Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he that readeth it may run and be the messenger of it to others.” And what was the vision? It concerned first, the greatness and character of this last form of iniquity—the END of “human progress.” So that when we hear of “human progress” we may think of this chapter, and say “THAT is the END of it!” I beseech you to consider whether you see the End of “human progress” according to these thoughts of God, or, according to human thoughts.

Then another subject of the vision is, the Day in which the glory of God will be displayed—the glory in which He will meet this evil: in which He will go forth for salvation, when He shall “sweep the nations in His anger, and ride upon the horses and chariots of salvation.” This is the subject of Habakkuk 3:1-19. “Rivers” (Habakkuk 3:8) are the representatives of the means by which men strengthen themselves in their greatness: an emblem of the medium by which men avail themselves of the resources of the earth; using them for their own purposes of confederate evil! How would countries be united; their greatness be brought together; and men avail themselves of their resources, unless it were for these seas and rivers? So they are used peculiarly as emblems of the greatness of the world in the latter day. But see how God’s wrath and anger are against these things! He is displeased with the use men have made of the “rivers.” They are representatives to Him of all the combined evil of former generations which will be, gathered into one concentrated whole at the End! So you see against what the wrath of the Lord will be revealed; and how it will be developed; and. how it will accomplish His purposes and sweep away the evil! And the prophet said, “When I heard this I trembled.” Do we tremble as we read it? We ought to! Oh! think of what the End will be of all that men cultivate for their joy and comfort in natural things! All to be cut off! There shall be no fruit in the vineyard; the fields shall yield no meat; all will be desolation (Habakkuk 3:17)! But Habakkuk was comforted; for though these were all to be swept away, he could still “rejoice in the God of his salvation:” that joy would not be swept away. He knew it would be the hour when all the saints of God will walk with Christ in no earthly place of glory, but in the glory of the highest heavens and be made like Christ! And that is our prospect. Looking through this dark scene, we can say “that is the hour of our elevation; and for that we wait.”

One word more. In the midst of this address to Habakkuk we find a remarkable expression, “BEHOLD WITHDRAWAL!” but “the righteous by faith shall live” (Habakkuk 2:4). They are remarkable words. “Behold proud WITHDRAWAL;” a word that implies the swelling of human pride, but at the same time contemptuous withdrawal from God and His Truth! It is referred to by St. Paul in the Hebrews, where it is said, “We are not of them who withdraw unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.” So it tells us that there will be proud “withdrawal” from God and His Truth to perdition; implying that some of God’s redeemed saints may wander in a measure; but that where there is real “withdrawal” the soul is not righteous; i.e., unjustified; there is nothing of Christ! It is a dangerous path to tread. How earnestly then ought we to watch against anything like wandering or drawing back from any part of God’s Truth that He has revealed to His Prophets and Apostles. Alas! even real Christians have wandered a great deal. The process of “withdrawal” has been continually going on; but there is to be a proud contemptuous withdrawal from it altogether; and that will be “WITHDRAWAL UNTO PERDITION!” And do we see no symptoms of this? When believers, e.g., give up any of the precious truths God has revealed, such as the imputed righteousness of Christ—which it seems to me Christians all around are discarding, yet without which we cannot be saved; for it is as necessary as the atoning Blood to our salvation—they are treading the path of “withdrawal!” It is a grievous thing; for all the arguments used against the imputed righteousness of Christ would equally tell against Atonement; so that would equally be set aside. We are taught the blessed truth that “Christ is made of God to us righteousness,” etc: which means that God has provided our righteousness in virtue of something that Christ effected on EARTH, and which HE FINISHED when He bowed His head in death on the Cross. This, He imputes to those who believe. So remember the passage “the righteous by faith:” i.e., those whose righteousness is founded on or derived through faith “shall live.” It is the opposite to “righteousness grounded on works or anything in ourselves.” Such shall not only be delivered from earth, but shall “live” in the power of that life in glory!

I beseech you, consider these words of comfort in the midst of this dark scene, where Scripture stamps “withdrawal” on all human society, excepting on those who are righteous “by faith:” who “believe to the saving of the soul.”