I am in the process of writing about Medical Marijuana and I am seeking your opinion on the subject from a Spiritual point of view. Thank You.

The Riches of His Grace! (Ephesians 1:7)

215 Things That Are True Of Me Now That I Am Saved

As the hymn writer has said, “Oh to grace how great a debtor, daily I’m constrained to be!” (Robert Robinson). Paul, in referring to the redemption and forgiveness that believers have in Christ, spoke of “the RICHES of His GRACE” (Ephesians 1:7). Elsewhere he said, “But by the grace of God I am what I am” (1 Corinthians 15:10). God has given to every believer everlasting consolation (eternal encouragement) and good hope through grace (2 Thess. 2:16-17). “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that YE through his poverty might be RICH” (2 Corinthians 8:9).

Many believers fail to appreciate the RICHES that they have. The story is told of an aged silver miner who had spent his whole life searching for silver in the mountains of the Old West. He had become so involved with his search that his wife and children had left him. When he died, the handful of people who came to bury him found in his possessions a note instructing them to bury him under his cabin. As the shovels turned over the earth, a lustrous gray material began to appear. It was the famous Comstock Silver Vein, the richest in California history. That miner had been a billionaire all his life, but he did not know about the wealth that he had and he had never claimed it. He did not realize how rich he really was.

Every true believer is a spiritual billionaire. The Bible says that Christ became poor (and died for us) that we through His poverty might be RICH (2 Cor. 8:9). The believer, who is a child of the King, often goes around living like a PAUPER rather than living like a PRINCE. God wants us to know how RICH we are because of His matchless grace: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3). We have been blessed with every spiritual blessing!

We cannot possess our possessions if we do not know what they are. We cannot walk worthy of our calling (Ephesians 4:1) if we do not know what our calling is. The great facts and truths found in God’s Word must be claimed by faith. We must see ourselves as God sees us in Christ. By faith we must lay claim to what has already been given to us in Christ. The grace of God teaches us and instructs us how to live (Titus 2:11-12). God’s method of instruction is to first show us and teach us what He has done for us in grace, and then we are told to walk accordingly. Ephesians 5:8 illustrates this well: “For ye were sometimes [formerly, referring to our unregenerate state] darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light.” We are to walk in light of WHO WE ARE. We are to “be what we are.” Our actual CONDITION is to match our glorious POSITION. The more we, by faith, lay hold of the glorious facts of our POSITION in Christ, the more this will affect our actual state and CONDITION as we walk with the Lord in time.

May the eyes of our understanding be enlightened, that we may know what is the hope of His calling, and what is the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe (see Ephesians 1:18-19).

In order to fully appreciate the riches of God’s grace we need to contrast our present position in Christ with our former unregenerate state when we were outside of Christ and dead in sin. The glories of God’s grace shine brighter against the black background of our past state and condition before we met the Saviour. God never wants us to forget WHAT WE WERE prior to our salvation: “Wherefore REMEMBER, that ye being in time past [formerly, when in an unsaved state] Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; That at that time YE WERE without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world” (Eph. 2:11-12 and compare Titus 3:3). Thus, before we consider our riches in Christ, let us consider…

61 THINGS THAT WERE TRUE OF ME BEFORE I WAS SAVED…

1. I was on the broad way (road) leading to destruction (Matthew 7:13).
2. I was lost (Luke 19:10; 2 Corinthians 4:3).
3. I was condemned already because of my unbelief (John 3:18; compare 1 Corinthians 11:32).
4. I was a lover of darkness (John 3:19).
5. I was under God’s abiding wrath (John 3:36) awaiting God’s coming wrath (Luke 3:7; Ephesians 5:6; Colossians 3:6).
6. I was an ignorant worshipper (John 4:22).
7. I was an evildoer deserving judgment (John 5:29; compare 3 John 11).
8. I was of the world and from below or beneath (John 8:23).
9. I was yet in my sins (John 8:21,24; compare John 20:23).
10. I was a child of the devil (John 8:44).
11. I was a Christ-rejecter (John 12:48).
12. I was a Christ-hater (John 15:18) and a hater of those belonging to Christ (John 17:14).
13. I was under the power of Satan (Acts 26:18; 1 John 5:19).
14. I was unthankful, not giving honor to God (Romans 1:21).
15. I was unrighteous (Romans 1:29-31; 3:10; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10).
16. I was under sin (Romans 3:9) and sin-sick (Luke 5:31-32).
17. I was unprofitable (Romans 3:12; compare Philemon 11).
18. I was without the fear of God (Romans 3:18).
19. I was guilty before God (Romans 3:19).
20. I was a sinner (Romans 3:23; 5:8).
21. I was without strength (Romans 5:6).
22. I was ungodly (Romans 5:6; 4:5).
23. I was God’s enemy (Romans 5:10; Colossians 1:21).
24. I was a servant (slave) of sin (Romans 6:17,20; John 8:34).
25. I was deserving of death (Romans 6:23; compare 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9).
26. I was in the flesh (Romans 7:5; 8:8).
27. I was in danger of perishing (1 Corinthians 1:18; 2 Corinthians 2:15; Luke 13:3,5).
28. I was a natural man who considered the things of God as foolishness (1 Corinthians 1:18; 2:14).
29. I was under God’s curse (1 Corinthians 16:22).
30. I was blinded by the god of this age (2 Corinthians 4:4).
31. I was part of this present evil world (Galatians 1:4).
32. I was dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1,5; Colossians 2:13).
33. I was walking according to the course of Satan’s world (Ephesians 2:2).
34. I was a child of disobedience (Ephesians 2:2).
35. I was a child of wrath (Ephesians 2:3).
36. I was without Christ (Ephesians 2:12).
37. I was an alien from the commonwealth of Israel (Ephesians 2:12).
38. I was a stranger from the covenants of promise (Ephesians 2:12,19).
39. I was one who had no hope (Ephesians 2:12) and no foundation (Luke 6:48).
40. I was without God in the world (Ephesians 2:12).
41. I was far off (Ephesians 2:13).
42. I was walking in the vanity of my mind (Ephesians 4:17).
43. I was one whose understanding was darkened (Ephesians 4:18; Romans 1:21).
44. I was alienated from the life of God (Ephesians 4:18; Colossians 1:21).
45. I was ignorant (Ephesians 4:18).
46. I was blind and hardened (Ephesians 4:18).
47. I was given over to unbridled lust (Ephesians 4:19).
48. I was corrupt according to deceitful lusts (Ephesians 4:22).
49. I was once of the darkness and of the night (Ephesians 5:8; 1 Thessalonians 5:5; 1 John 2:11).
50. I was in the realm and under the power of darkness (Colossians 1:13; Luke 1:79; Acts 26:18).
51. I was one who did not know God (1 Thessalonians 4:5).
52. I was foolish (Titus 3:3; Romans 1:22).
53. I was disobedient (Titus 3:3).
54. I was deceived (Titus 3:3).
55. I was one who served various lusts and pleasures (Titus 3:3).
56. I was one who lived in malice and envy (Titus 3:3).
57. I was one who was hateful and was hating one another (Titus 3:3).
58. I was a sheep who had gone astray (1 Peter 2:25).
59. I was one who lived in the flesh to the lusts of men (1 Peter 4:2).
60. I was one who walked in lasciviousness, lusts, abominable idolatries, etc. (1 Peter 4:3).
61. I was sensual, having not the Spirit (Jude 19).
62. ( add to the list ) _____________________________________________________
63. ___________________________________________________________________
64. ___________________________________________________________________
65. ___________________________________________________________________
66. ___________________________________________________________________

In light of our former, unsaved state and condition, notice how important the little word “but” is in these precious passages:

Having reminded ourselves of our former, unregenerate state, we are now ready to consider the great things God has done for us in His grace, saving our souls and making us whole. This listing is by no means original. For example, Lewis Sperry Chafer has a similar listing in his book entitled Salvation. Also this listing is by no means complete or exhaustive. We have listed 215 things but there are more. You can add to this list through your own study of the Scriptures as you find other things that are true of you now that you are saved. This study can be used as a devotional aid. One or two of the following points could be considered each day as you meditate on the riches of God’s grace. Consider these as “SPIRITUAL VITAMIN PILLS” and take one or two a day! As you go through the day remind yourself of who you are and what you have in Christ! As a saint, live saintly! As a child of God, so walk in a way that would honor your heavenly Father! “To God be the glory! Great things He hath done!” Don’t forget WHO YOU ARE!  Consider the following:

215 THINGS THAT ARE TRUE OF ME NOW THAT I AM SAVED:

1. My salvation is fully accomplished (John 19:30).
2. I have eternal life as a present possession (John 5:24; 6:47; 1 John 5:11-13).
3. I have Jesus Christ as my present possession (1 John 5:12).
4. I know the one, true God (John 17:3; 1 John 2:3; 5:20).
5. I have been saved by His grace (Eph. 2:1-10).
6. I have been justified by His grace (Tit. 3:7).
7. I have passed from death unto life (John 5:24; 1 John 3:14).
8. I have been quickened (made alive) by God (Eph. 2:1,5; Col. 2:13).
9. I have been made fit for heaven (Col. 1:12).
10. I have the forgiveness of sins (Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14).
11. My sins have been taken away (John 1:29; Heb. 9:26; 1 John 3:5).
12. My sins have been completely purged (Heb. 1:3).
13. My sins will never be remembered by God (Heb. 8:12; 10:17).
14. I have been washed (1 Cor. 6:11; Tit. 3:5; Rev. 1:5).
15. I will walk with Christ in white (Rev. 3:4-5).
16. I have been healed by His stripes (1 Pet. 2:24).
17. I have been forgiven all trespasses (Col. 2:13; 1 John 2:12).
18. I have been fully justified (Rom. 4:5; 8:30; 1 Cor. 6:11; Gal. 2:16; Tit. 3:7).
19. I am reconciled to God (2 Cor. 5:18-19; Col. 1:20).
20. I am made nigh by the blood of Christ (Eph. 2:13).
21. I am redeemed through His blood (1 Pet. 1:18,19; Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14).
22. I am redeemed from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13).
23. I am redeemed from all iniquity or lawlessness (Titus 2:14).
24. I am bought with a price (1 Cor. 6:20; 7:23).
25. I am delivered from so great a death (2 Cor. 1:10).
26. I have been delivered from this present evil world or age (Gal. 1:4).
27. I have been delivered from the power of darkness (Col. 1:13).
28. I have been delivered from the wrath to come (1 Thess. 1:10).
29. I will not come into condemnation or judgment (John 5:24; Rom. 8:1).
30. I am a child of God (John 1:12; Rom. 8:16; Gal. 3:26; 1 John 3:1,2).
31. I am a son of God (Gal. 4:5-7).
32. I belong to Jesus Christ (Gal. 3:29; 5:24).
33. I have been adopted (Gal. 4:5; Rom. 8:15,23).
34. I am an heir of God and joint-heir with Christ (Rom. 8:17; Tit. 3:7).
35. I am an heir of the grace of life (1 Pet. 3:7).
36. All things are mine (1 Cor. 3:21-23).
37. I possess all things (2 Cor. 6:10).
38. I will inherit all things (Rev. 21:7).
39. I am enriched by Christ in everything (1 Cor. 1:5; 2 Cor. 9:11).
40. I am a fellow heir (Eph. 3:6).
41. I am rich because of Christ (2 Cor. 8:9; Rev. 2:9).
42. I am blessed with every spiritual blessing (Eph. 1:3).
43. I have obtained an inheritance (Eph. 1:11,14; Heb. 1:14; 9:15; 1 Pet. 1:4).
44. I have been appointed to obtain salvation (1 Thess. 5:9; Heb. 1:14).
45. I am His inheritance (Eph. 1:18).
46. I am a partaker of His promise in Christ by the gospel (Eph. 3:6).
47. I am a new creature (creation) in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17; Eph. 2:10; 4:24; Col. 3:10).
48. I have been renewed by the Holy Spirit (Tit. 3:5).
49. I am accepted and highly favored in the Beloved One (Eph. 1:6; cf. Matt. 3:17).
50. I have been seated in heavenly places with Christ (Eph. 2:6).
51. I am to the praise of His glory (Eph. 1:6,12).
52. I am light in the Lord (Eph. 5:8).
53. I am a child of light (Eph. 5:8; 1 Thess. 5:5).
54. I am a “peculiar person,” even God’s special, purchased possession (Tit. 2:14; 1 Pet.2:9).
55. I am a priest who can offer spiritual sacrifices (Heb. 13:15-16; 1 Pet. 2:5,9; Rev. 1:6; 5:10;20:6).
56. I am a king who will reign (Rev. 1:6; 5:10; 20:6).
57. I am privileged to have fellowship with the Father and with the Son (1 John 1:3).
58. I dwell in Christ (John 6:56; 1 John 3:24; 4:13,15,16).
59. Christ dwells in me (John 6:56; Gal. 2:20; 1 John 3:24; 4:12-16).
60. I am in Christ (John 14:20; 2 Cor. 5:17).
61. Christ is in me (John 14:20; Col. 1:27; Rom. 8:10; 1 John 4:4).62. The Spirit of God dwells in me (Rom. 8:9; 1 Cor. 3:16; Eph. 2:21-22).
62. The Spirit of God dwells (John 6:56; Gal. 2:20; 1 John 3:24; 4:12-16).
63. I am not in the flesh but in the Spirit (Rom. 8:9).
64. My “earthen vessel” houses a great Treasure (2 Cor. 4:7).
65. My body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19).
66. I have been blest with the gift and pledge of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 1:22; Gal. 4:6; Eph. 1:13-14; 1 Thess. 4:8; Tit. 3:6; 1 John 3:24; 4:13).
67. I have an anointing (unction) from the Holy One (1 John 2:20,27).
68. I am one of the “called” of Jesus Christ (Rom. 1:6; 8:28-30; Jude 1; Rev. 17:14).
69. I have been called unto the fellowship of God’s Son (1 Cor. 1:9).
70. I have been called unto eternal glory (1 Pet. 5:10).
71. I have been called with a holy calling (2 Tim. 1:9).
72. I am a partaker of the high, heavenly calling (Phil. 3:14; Heb. 3:1).
73. I have been called out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Pet. 2:9).
74. God foreknew me (Rom. 8:29; 1 Pet. 1:2).
75. God predestined me to be conformed to Christ’s image (Rom. 8:29; Eph. 1:5,11).
76. I have already been glorified according to God’s mind and purpose (Rom. 8:30).
77. I am eternally secure in God’s love (Rom. 8:38-39).
78. I am chosen in Christ (Eph. 1:4; Col. 3:12; 1 Thess. 1:4; 1 Pet. 2:9; Rev. 17:14).
79. I have been chosen to salvation (2 Thess. 2:13).
80. I am complete in Christ (Col. 2:10).
81. I am beloved of God (Col. 3:12; 2 Thess. 2:13).
82. I am chastened and disciplined by my Heavenly Father (Heb. 12:6-7).
83. I am part of that group that Christ is not ashamed to call His “brethren” and “friends” (Heb. 2:11; John 15:14-15).
84. I am a child of Abraham (Gal. 3:7).
85. I am Abraham’s seed (Gal. 3:29).
86. I enjoy the blessing of Abraham (Gal. 3:9).
87. I am a child of promise (Gal. 4:28,31).
88. I am faithful (Rev. 17:14).
89. I am a sheep in His flock (Luke 12:32; Heb. 13:20; 1 Pet. 2:25).
90. I am a member of His body (1 Cor. 10:17; 12:27; Eph. 3:6; 4:25; 5:30).
91. I am a stone in His building (Eph. 2:20-22; Heb. 3:6; 1 Pet. 2:5).
92. I am a branch in the Vine (John 15:1-7).
93. I am a child of the kingdom (Matt. 13:38; compare Mark 10:14-15).
94. I am born again into His family (John 1:12-13; James 1:18; 1 Pet. 1:3,23; 2:2; 1 John 5:1).
95. I am one of God’s people because He graciously claims me as His own (1 Pet. 2:10; Rev. 21:7).
96. I am a fellow citizen with the saints (Eph. 2:19).
97. I was baptized into Jesus Christ (Rom. 6:3; Gal. 3:27).
98. I was identified with Christ in His death (Rom. 6:3-6,8-11; 2 Cor. 5:14; Col. 2:12,20; 3:3).
99. I was identified with Christ in His resurrection (Rom. 6:5,8,11; 2 Cor. 5:15; Gal. 2:20; Col. 2:12; 3:1).
100. I died to sin (Rom. 6:2).
101. My “old man” was crucified with Christ (Rom. 6:6).
102. I have been crucified with Christ (Gal. 2:20).
103. I have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts (Gal. 5:24).
104. I am alive unto God (Rom. 6:11,13; Gal. 2:19,20).
105. Christ is my life (Phil. 1:21; Col. 3:4).
106. I can walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:4).
107. I can serve in newness of spirit (Rom. 7:6).
108. I can live unto righteousness (1 Pet. 2:24).
109. I died to the law (Rom. 7:4; Gal. 2:19).
110. I am delivered from the law (Rom. 7:6).
111. I am not under the law but under grace (Rom. 6:14).
112. I have God’s laws written in my heart (Heb. 10:16).
113. I am married to Jesus Christ (Rom. 7:4).
114. I am a partaker of Christ (Heb. 3:14).
115. I am identified with Christ in His suffering (2 Tim. 2:12; Phil. 1:29; 1 Pet. 2:20; 4:12-13; 1 Thess. 3:3; Rom. 8:18; Col. 1:24).
116. The knowledge of God is made known by me (2 Cor. 2:14).
117. The savor (aroma) of Christ is made known by me (2 Cor. 2:15-16).
118. I am an epistle of Christ (2 Cor. 3:3).
119. I am being changed into Christ’s glorious image (2 Cor. 3:18).
120. I am being perfected (Phil. 1:6).
121. My inward man is being renewed day by day (2 Cor. 4:16).
122. I have put on Christ (Gal. 3:27).
123. I am not of the world (John 17:14,16).
124. The world is crucified unto me (Gal. 6:14).
125. I am crucified unto the world (Gal. 6:14).
126. I am separated unto the gospel of God (Rom. 1:1).
127. I am set apart and sanctified in Christ Jesus (1 Cor. 1:2; 6:11; Heb. 10:10; Jude 1).
128. I am holy (Col. 3:12; Heb. 3:1; 1 Pet. 2:9; Rev. 20:6).
129. I am clothed in His righteousness (Rev. 19:8).
130. I am a saint (1 Cor. 1:2; Phil. 1:1; Col. 1:2; Rom. 1:7).
131. I am faultless in Christ (Eph. 5:27; Col. 1:22; Jude 24).
132. I am perfected forever (Heb. 10:14).
133. I am not my own (1 Cor. 6:19).
134. I am called unto holiness (1 Thess. 4:7).
135. I am a citizen of heaven (Phil. 3:20).
136. I am a stranger and pilgrim who is not at home in this world (Heb. 11:13; 1 Pet. 2:11).
137. I have been translated into the kingdom of the Son of His love (Col. 1:13).
138. I am circumcised in my heart (Col. 2:11; Phil 3:3; compare Deut. 10:16).
139. My faithful God will sanctify me wholly (1 Thess. 5:23-24).
140. My faithful God will keep me from evil (2 Thess. 3:3; 2 Tim. 4:18).
141. Christ has made me free, free indeed (John 8:32-36; Gal. 5:1; 1 Cor. 7:22).
142. Jesus Christ is my Deliverer (Rom. 7:24-25).
143. I am free from sin (Rom. 6:7,18,22).
144. The law of the Spirit of Life has made me free from the law of sin and death (Rom. 8:2).
145. I am God’s servant or slave (Rom. 6:22).
146. I am Christ’s servant or slave (1 Cor. 7:22).
147. I am a servant or slave of righteousness (Rom. 6:18).
148. I have been called unto liberty (Gal. 5:13).
149. I have the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16).
150. I have a sound mind (2 Tim. 1:7).
151. Christ has given me an understanding (1 John 5:20).
152. I have the righteousness of Christ (2 Cor. 5:21).
153. I have all sufficiency in all things (2 Cor. 9:8).
154. I have all things that pertain to life and godliness (2 Pet. 1:3).
155. I can ever be content for I have Christ (Heb. 13:5).
156. I have all the armor and weapons I need (2 Cor. 10:4; Eph. 6:10-17).
157. I have God’s all-sufficient grace (2 Cor. 12:9).
158. I have grace to help in time of need (Heb. 4:16).
159. I have God’s power (Eph. 1:19; 3:20).
160. I have access to the Father (Eph. 2:18; Heb. 4:16).
161. I have a great High Priest (Heb. 2:17-18; 3:1; 4:14-16; 8:1; 10:21).
162. I have an unfailing Intercessor (Heb. 7:25; 9:24; Rom. 8:34).
163. I have a righteous Advocate with the Father for times when I sin (1 John 2:1).
164. I have peace with God (Rom. 5:1).
165. Christ is my peace (Eph. 2:14).
166. I have rest for my soul (Matt. 11:28-29; Heb. 4:9).
167. I am led by the Spirit of God (Rom. 8:14).
168. I am enabled during trials and temptations (1 Cor. 10:13).
169. I am given assurance by the Spirit (Rom. 8:16; Heb. 6:18).
170. I am given comfort by God (2 Cor. 1:3-7).
171. I am tranquilized by His peace (Phil. 4:7).
172. I am freely given truth and knowledge by the Spirit (1 Cor. 2:12).
173. I am not distressed (2 Cor. 4:8).
174. I am not in despair (2 Cor. 4:8).
175. I am not forsaken (2 Cor. 4:9).
176. I am not in darkness (1 Thess. 5:4).
177. God is my Sufficiency (2 Cor. 3:5).
178. God is my Strength (2 Cor. 12:9-10; Phil. 4:13).
179. God is my Helper (Heb. 13:6).
180. I belong to a Sovereign God who works all things together for my good (Rom. 8:28).
181. All things are for my sake (2 Cor. 4:15).
182. My God is for me (Rom. 8:31).
183. My every need is supplied (Phil. 4:19).
184. I am a laborer together with Christ (1 Cor. 3:9; 2 Cor. 6:1).
185. I am His workmanship (Eph. 2:10).
186. God works in me (Phil. 2:13; Heb. 13:21).
187. God’s Word works in me (1 Thess. 2:13).
188. I am sealed by God (2 Cor. 1:22; Eph. 1:13).
189. I am on the Rock, Christ Jesus (Matt. 16:18; 1 Cor. 3:11).
190. I am established securely in Christ (2 Cor. 1:21; 2 Thess. 3:3).
191. I am kept by the power of God (1 Pet. 1:5).
192. I am preserved in Jesus Christ (Jude 1).
193. I am kept from falling (Jude 24).
194. I have a building of God eternal in the heavens (2 Cor. 5:1).
195. My name is forever written in heaven (Luke 10:20).
196. I am more than a conqueror, even a super-conqueror (Rom. 8:37).
197. I have victory through Christ (1 Cor. 15:57).
198. I have overcome the world (1 John 5:4-5).
199. I always triumph in Christ (2 Cor. 2:14).
200. I am indwelt by the victorious Christ who is greater than Satan (1 John 4:4).
201. Satan cannot touch me (1 John 5:18).
202. I have a living hope (1 Pet. 1:3).
203. I have a glorious future (Rom. 8:18; 2 Thess. 2:14).
204. I have been given eternal encouragement and good hope through grace (2 Thess. 2:16).
205. I will be preserved unto His heavenly kingdom (2 Tim. 4:18).
206. I am receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved (Heb. 12:28).
207. I have a place reserved in heaven for me (John 14:2,3; 1 Pet. 1:4).
208. I will eat of the tree of life (Rev. 2:7).
209. I will not be hurt of the second death (Rev. 2:11; 20:6).
210. I will have a new name (Rev. 2:17; 3:12).
211. I will have power over the nations (Rev. 2:26; 5:10).
212. I will not have my name blotted out of the book of life (Rev. 3:5).
213. I will be a pillar in God’s temple (Rev. 3:12).
214. I will sit with Christ in His throne (Rev. 3:21).
215. I will be with my God forever (Rev. 21:3-4).
216. (add to the list ) __________________________________________________

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Blessings in Christ Jesus,

Rev.

“A Man Learns A Lesson – To ‘Do Unto Others’!”

Author Unknown

An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his employer-contractor of his plans to leave the house building business and to live a more leisurely life with his wife enjoying his extended family. He would miss the paycheck, but he needed to retire. They could get by.

The contractor was sorry to see his good worker go and asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favor. The carpenter said yes, but in time it was easy to see that his heart was not in his work.

He resorted to shoddy workmanship and used inferior materials. It was an unfortunate way to end his career.

When the carpenter finished his work and the builder had inspected the house, the contractor handed the front-door key to the carpenter. “This is your house,” he said. “My gift to you, God Bless You!!”

What a shock! What a shame! If he had only known he was building his own house, he would have done it all so differently. Now he had to live in the home he had built none too well.

So it is with us. We build our lives in a distracted way, reacting rather than acting, willing to put up with less than the best. At important points we do not give the job our best effort.

Then with a shock we look at the situation we have created and find that we are now living in the house we have built. If we had realized, we would have done it differently.

Think of yourself as the carpenter. Think about your house. Each day you hammer a nail, place a board, or erect a wall. Build wisely. It is the only life you will ever build.

Even if you live it for only one day more, that day deserves to be lived graciously and with dignity.

The plaque on the wall says, “Life is a do-it-yourself project.”

Who could say it more clearly? Your life today is the result of your attitudes and choices in the past. Your life tomorrow will be the result of your attitudes and the choices you make today.

MAKE TODAY COUNT!

God Bless You Sincerely!

CHARLIE COULSON

The Drummer Boy

A Christian Hero of the American War

by the late Dr. M. L. Rossvally,
Surgeon in the United States Army

Two or three times in my life God in His mercy touched my heart, and twice before my conversion I was under deep conviction.

During the American war I was surgeon in the United States army, and after the battle of Gettysburg there were many hundreds of wounded soldiers in the hospital, twenty-eight of whom had been wounded so severely that they required my services at once; some whose legs had to be amputated, some their arms, and others both their arm and leg. One of the latter was a boy who had been but three months in the service, and being too young for a soldier had enlisted as a drummer. When my assistant surgeon and one of my stewards wished to administer chloroform previous to the amputation, he turned his head aside and positively refused to receive it. When the steward told him that it was the doctor’s orders he said, “Send the doctor to me.”

When I came up to his bedside I said: “Young man, why do you refuse chloroform? When I found you on the battlefield you were so far gone that I thought it hardly worthwhile to pick you up, but when you opened those large blue eyes I thought you had a mother somewhere who might at that moment be thinking of her boy. I did not want you to die on the field, so ordered you to be brought here, but you have now lost so much blood that you are too weak to endure an operation without chloroform, therefore you had better let me give you some.”

He laid his hand on mine, and looking me in the face said: “Doctor, one Sunday afternoon in the Sunday school, when I was nine-and-a-half years old, I accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as my Saviour. I learned to trust Him then, I have been trusting Him ever since, and I know I can trust Him now. He is my strength and my stay; He will support me while you amputate my arm and leg.”

I then asked him if he would allow me to give him a little brandy. Again he looked me in the face saying, “Doctor, when I was about five years old my mother knelt by my side with her arm around my neck and said, ‘Charlie, I am now praying to the Lord Jesus that you may never know the taste of strong drink. Your dear father died a drunkard, and went down to a drunkard’s grave, and I promised God, if it was His will that you should grow up, that you should warn young men against the bitter cup.’ I am now seventeen years old, but I have never tasted anything stronger than tea and coffee, and as I am, in all probability, about to go into the presence of my God, would you send me there smelling with brandy?”

The look that boy gave me I shall never forget. At that time I hated Jesus, but I respected that boy’s loyalty to his Saviour, and when I saw how he loved and trusted Him to the last, there was something that touched my heart, and I did for that boy what I had never done for any other soldier – I asked him if he wished to see his chaplain. “Oh yes, Sir!” was the answer.

When Chaplain R – came, he at once knew the boy from having often met him at the tent prayer meetings, and taking his hand, said, “Well, Charlie, I am sorry to see you in this sad condition!”

“Oh, I am all right, Sir,” he answered. “The doctor offered me chloroform, but I declined it, then he wished to give me brandy, which I also declined, and now, if my Saviour calls me, I am ready, and can go to Him in my right mind.”

“You may not die, Charlie,” said the chaplain, “but if the Lord should call you away, is there anything I can do for you after you are gone?”

“Chaplain, please put your hand under my pillow and take my little Bible, in which you will find my mother’s address. Please send it to her, and write a letter, and tell her that since the day I left home I have never let a day pass without reading a portion of God’s Word, and daily praying that God would bless my dear mother, no matter whether I was on the march, on the battlefield, or in the hospital.”

“Is there anything else that I can do for you, my lad?” said the chaplain.

“Yes, please write a letter to the superintendent of the Sands Street Sunday School, Brooklyn, N.Y., and tell him the kind words, many prayers, and good advice he gave me I have never forgotten; they have followed me through all the dangers of battle, and now, in my dying hour, I ask my Saviour to bless my dear old superintendent; that is all.”

Turning towards me he said: “Now, doctor, I am ready, and I promise you that I will not even groan while you take off my arm and leg if you will not offer me chloroform.”

I promised, but I had not the courage to take the knife in my hand to perform the operation without first going to the next room and taking a little stimulant to nerve myself to perform my duty. While cutting through the flesh Charlie Coulson never groaned, but when I took the saw to separate the bone the lad took the corner of his pillow in his mouth, and all that I could hear him utter was, “O Jesus, blessed Jesus, stand by me now!” He kept his promise, and never groaned.

That night I could not sleep for whichever way I turned I saw those soft blue eyes, and when I closed mine the words, “Blessed Jesus, stand by me now,” kept ringing in my ears.

Between twelve and one o’clock I left my bed and visited the hospital, a thing I had never done before unless specially called, but such was my desire to see that boy. Upon my arrival there I was informed by the night stewards that sixteen of the hopeless cases had died, and had been carried down to the dead-house.

“How is Charlie Coulson? Is be among the dead?” I asked. “No, Sir,” answered the steward; “he is sleeping as sweetly as a babe.”

When I came up to the bed where he lay, one of the nurses informed me that about nine o’clock two members of the Young Men’s Christian Association came through the hospital to read and sing a hymn. They were accompanied by Chaplain R – who knelt by Charlie Coulson’s bed, and offered up a fervent and soul-stirring prayer, after which they sang, “Jesus Lover Of My Soul,” in which Charlie joined. I could not understand how that boy, who had undergone such excruciating pain, could sing.

Five days after I had amputated that dear boy’s arm and leg he sent for me, and it was from him that I heard the first Gospel sermon. “Doctor,” he said, “my time has come, I do not expect to see another sun rise, but, thank God, I am ready to go, and before I die I desire to thank you with all my heart for your kindness to me. Doctor, you are a Jew–you do not believe in Jesus; will you please stand here and see me die, trusting my Saviour to the last moment of my life?”

I tried to stay, but I could not, for I had not the courage to stand by and see a Christian boy die rejoicing in the love of that Jesus whom I had been taught to hate, so I hurriedly left the room. About twenty minutes later a steward who found me sitting in my private office covering my face with my hand said, “Doctor, Charlie Coulson wishes to see you.”

“I have just seen him,” I answered, “and I cannot see him again.”

“But, doctor, he says he must see you once more before he dies.” I made up my mind to see him, say an endearing word, and let him die, but I was determined that no word of his should influence me in the least so far as his Jesus was concerned. When I entered the hospital I saw he was sinking fast, so I sat down by his bed. Asking me to take his hand, he said, “Doctor I love you because you are a Jew; the best FRIEND I have found in this world was a Jew.”

I asked, “Who was that?”

He answered, “Jesus Christ, to whom I want to introduce you before I die, and will you promise me, doctor, that what I am about to say to you, you will never forget?”

I promised, and he said, “Five days ago, while you amputated my arm and leg, I prayed to the Lord Jesus Christ to save your soul.”

These words went deep into my heart. I could not understand how, when I was causing him the most intense pain, he could forget all about himself, and think of nothing but this Saviour and my unconverted state. All I could say to him was, “Well, my dear boy, you will soon be all right.” With these words I left him, and twelve minutes later he fell asleep, “Safe in the arms of Jesus.”

Hundreds of soldiers died in my hospital during the war, but I only followed one to the grave–that one was Charlie Coulson, the drummer boy, and I rode three miles to see him buried. I had him dressed in a new uniform, and placed in an officer’s coffin with a new United States flag over it.

That dear boy’s dying words made a deep impression upon me. I was rich at that time, so far as money is concerned, but I would have given every penny I possessed if I could have felt towards Christ as Charlie did, but that feeling cannot be bought with money. For several months after Charlie Coulson’s death I could not get rid of the words of that dear boy. They kept ringing in my ears, but being in the company of worldly officers, I gradually forgot the sermon Charlie preached in his dying hour, but I never could forget his wonderful patience under acute suffering, and his simple trust in that Jesus whose Name to me at that time was a by-word and a reproach.

For ten long years I fought against Christ with all the hatred of an orthodox Jew until God in His mercy brought me in contact with aChristian barber, who proved himself a second instrument in my conversion to God.

At the close of the American war I was detailed as inspecting surgeon, and to take charge of the military hospital in Galveston, Texas. Returning one day from an inspecting tour, and on my way to Washington, I stopped to rest a few hours at New York. After dinner I stepped downstairs to the barber’s shop (which is attached to every hotel of note in the United States). On entering the room I was surprised to see hung around the room sixteen beautifully framed Scripture texts in different colors. Sitting down in one of the barber’s chairs I saw directly opposite to me, hanging up in a frame on the wall, this notice:

“PLEASE DO NOT SWEAR IN THIS ROOM.”

No sooner had the barber put the brush to my face than he began also to talk to me about Jesus. He spoke in such an attractive and loving manner that my prejudices were disarmed, and I listened with growing attention to what he said. All the while he was talking, “Charlie Coulson, the drummer boy,” came swelling up in my mind, although he had been dead ten years. I was so well pleased with the words and deportment of the barber that no sooner had he gotten done shaving me that I told him next to cut my hair, although when I entered the room I had no such thought or intention. All the while he was cutting my hair he kept steadily on preaching Christ to me, and telling me that although not a Jew himself, he was at one time as far away from Christ as I was then.

I listened attentively, my interest increasing with every word he said to such an extent that when he had finished cutting my hair 1 said, “Barber, you may now give me a shampoo;” in fact, I allowed him to do all that one in his profession could do for a gentleman at one sitting. There is, however, an end to all things, and my time being short I prepared to leave. I paid my bill, thanked the barber for his remarks, and said, “I must catch the next train.” He, however, was not yet satisfied. It was a bitter cold February day, and the ice on the ground made it somewhat dangerous to walk on the streets. It was only two minutes’ walk to the station from the hotel, and the kind barber at once offered to walk to the station with me. I accepted his offer gladly, and no sooner had we reached the street than he put his arm in mine to keep me from falling. He said but little as we were walking along the street until we arrived at our destination, but when we got to the station he broke the silence by saying: “Stranger, perhaps you do not understand why I chose to talk to you upon a subject so dear to me. When you entered my shop I saw by your face that you were a Jew.”

He still continued to talk to me about his “dear Saviour,” and said he felt it his duty, whenever he came in contact with a Jew, to try and introduce him to One whom he felt was his BEST FRIEND, both for this world and for the world to come. On looking a second time into his face, I saw tears trickling down his cheeks, and he was evidently under deep emotion. I could not understand how it was that this man, a total stranger to me, should take such a deep interest in my welfare, and also shed tears while talking to me.

I reached out my hand to bid him good-bye. He took it in both of his and gently pressed it, the tears still continuing to run down his face, and said: “Stranger, if it is any satisfaction for you to know it, if you will give me your card or name, I promise you; on the honor of a Christian man, that during the next three months I will not retire to rest at night without making mention of you by name in my prayers. And now may my Saviour follow you, trouble you, and give you no rest until you find Him, what I have found Him to be, a precious Saviour, and the Messiah you are looking for.”

I thanked him for his attention and his consideration, and after handing him my card, said [I fear rather sneeringly] “There is not much danger of my ever becoming a Christian.”

He then handed me his card, saying as he did so, “Will you please drop me a note or a letter if God should answer my prayers on your behalf. I smiled incredulously, and said, “Certainly I will,” never dreaming that within the next forty-eight hours, God in His mercy, would answer that barber’s prayer. I shook his hand heartily and said “Good-bye;” but in spite of outward appearance of unconcern, I felt he had made a deep impression on my mind, which indeed he had as the sequel will show.

As is well known, the American railway carriage is much longer than the ordinary English railway carriage. It has also only one compartment, which will seat from sixty to eighty persons. As the weather was bitterly cold, the passengers were not numerous on this train–the carriage I had entered not being more than half filled. Without being conscious of the fact, in less than ten or fifteen minutes, I had occupied every empty seat in the compartment.

The passengers began to look upon me with suspicion as they saw me change my seat so frequently in so short a time without any apparent object. For my part, I did not think at that time that the wrong was in my heart, although I could not account for my erratic movements. Finally, I went to an empty seat in the corner of the carriage, with the firm intention of going to sleep. The moment I closed my eyes, however, I felt myself between two fires. On the one side there was the Christian barber of New York, and on the other there was the drummer boy of Gettysburg, both talking to me about that Jesus whose very Name I hated. I felt it impossible either to go to sleep or to shake off the impression made upon my mind by those two faithful Christians, one of whom had bid me goodbye only an hour previously, whilst the other had been dead nearly ten years, and so continued to be troubled and perplexed all the while I was on the train.

On my arrival at Washington I purchased a morning newspaper, and one of the first things that caught my attention was the announcement of a Revival service in Dr. Rankin’s church, the largest church in Washington. No sooner had I seen that announcement than an inner monitor seemed to say to me, “Go to that church.” I had never been inside of a Christian church during divine service, and at any other time I should have scouted such a thought as from the devil. It was my father’s intention when I was a boy that I should become a rabbi, and so I promised him that I would never enter a place where “Jesus, the Imposter,” was worshipped as God, and that I would never attempt to read a book containing that Name, and I had faithfully kept my word up to that moment.

In connection with the Revival meetings just referred to, it was stated that there would be a united choir from the various churches in the city, who would sing at each of the services. Being a passionate lover of music, this attracted my attention, and I made it my excuse for seeking to visit the church during the Revival service that night. When I entered the building, which was filled with worshippers, one of the ushers, attracted doubtless by my gold epaulettes (for I had not changed my uniform), led me up to the front seat, right in front of the preacher, an evangelist well known both in England and America. I was charmed with the beautiful singing, but the evangelist had not been speaking five minutes before I came to the conclusion that some one must have been informing him who I was, for I thought he pointed his finger at me. He kept watching me, and every now and then appeared to be shaking his fist at me. In spite of all this, however, I felt deeply interested in what he said. But this was not all, for still ringing in my ears were the words of the two former preachers – the Christian barber of New York and the drummer boy of Gettysburg – emphasizing the utterances of the evangelist, and in my mind I could plainly see those two dear friends also repeating their messages. Growing more and more interested in the words of the preacher, I felt tears trickling down my face. This startled me, and I began to feel ashamed that I an orthodox Jew, should be childish enough to shed tears in a Christian church, the first I had ever shed in such a place.

I omitted to say that during the service, and whilst the preacher was watching me, the thought occurred to me that possibly he might be pointing his finger at some person behind me, and I turned around in my seat to discover who the individual was, when to my astonishment a congregation of more than 2000 persons of all grades of society seemed to be looking at me. I at once came to the conclusion that I was the only Jew in the place, and heartily wished myself out of the building, for I felt I had gotten into bad company. Being well known in Washington, both by Jew and Gentile, the thought flashed across my mind: how will it read in a Washington paper that “Dr. Rossvally, a Jew, was present at the Revival services, not five minutes’ walk from the synagogue he usually attends, and was seen to shed tears during the sermon?” Not wishing to make myself conspicuous (for there were faces there I recognized), I made up my mind not to take out my handkerchief to wipe off the tears–they must dry up themselves; but blessed be God, I could not keep them back, for they came flowing faster and faster.

After a while the preacher finished his address, and I was surprised to hear him announce an after-meeting, and invited all who could do so to remain. I did not accept the invitation, being only too glad of the opportunity to leave the church. With that intention I got up from my seat, and had reached the door, when I felt that someone held me by the skirt of my coat. Turning around, I saw an elderly-looking lady who proved to be Mrs. Young of Washington, a well-known Christian worker.

Addressing me, she said: “Pardon me, stranger: I see you are an officer in the army. I have been watching you all this evening, and I beg of you not to leave this house, for I think you are under conviction of sin. I believe you came here to seek the Saviour, and you have not found Him yet. Do come back; I would like to talk to you, and, if you will permit me I will pray for you.”

“Madam,” I answered, “I am a Jew.” She replied: “I do not care if you are a Jew; Jesus Christ died for Jew as well as Gentile.”

The persuasive manner in which she said these words was not without its effect. I followed her back to the very spot that I had just left so abruptly, and when we came up to the front she said: “If you will kneel I will pray for you.”

“Madame, that is something I have never done, and never will do,” for orthodox Jews never kneel in prayer except twice a year–on the Feast of Trumpets and Day of Atonement, and then it is not kneeling as Christians do; it is a prostration on the ground.

Mrs. Young looked me calmly in the face and said: “Dear stranger, I have found such a dear, loving, and forgiving Saviour in the Lord Jesus that I firmly believe in my heart He can convert a Jew standing on his feet, and I will go on my knees and pray for that.” She suited the action to the word, fell on her knees, and began to pray, talking to her Saviour in such a simple, childlike manner that completely unnerved me. I felt so ashamed of myself to see that dear old lady kneeling near me while I was standing and praying so fervently on my behalf. My whole past life floated so vividly before my mind that I heartily wished the floor would open and that I might sink out of sight. When she arose from her knees, she extended her hand and with a motherly sympathy said: “Will you pray to Jesus before you sleep tonight?”

“Madam” I replied, “I will pray to my God the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but not to Jesus.”

“Bless you!” she said, “your God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is my Christ and your Messiah.”

“Goodnight, madam, and thank you for your kindness,” I said as I left the church.

On my way home, reflecting on my recent strange experiences, I began to reason with myself: ‘Why is it that these Christians take such an interest in Jew or Gentile, perfect strangers to them? Is it possible that all these millions of men and women who, during the last 1800 years, have lived and died trusting in Christ, are mistaken, and a little handful of Jews, scattered all over the world, are right? Why should that dying drummer boy think only of what he was pleased to call my unsaved soul? And why, also, should that Christian barber of New York manifest such a deep interest in me? Why should the preacher tonight single me out and point his finger at me, or that dear woman follow me to the door and hold me back? It must be all for the love they bear to their Jesus, whom I despise so much.’

The more I thought of this the worse I felt. On the other hand, I argued: ‘Is it possible that my father and mother, who loved me so dearly, should teach me anything that is wrong? In my childhood they taught me to hate Jesus; that there was but one God, and that He had no Son.” I now felt a desire springing up in my heart to become acquainted with that Jesus whom the Christians so much loved and worshipped. I started to walk faster, fully determined that if there was a reality in the religion of Jesus Christ I would know something of it before I slept.’

When I arrived at home, my wife (who was a very strict orthodox Jewess) thought I looked rather excited and asked where I had been. The truth I dare not tell her, and a falsehood I would not, and so I said: “Wife, please do not ask me any questions. I have some very important business to attend to. I wish to go to my private study, where I can be alone.”

I went at once to my study, locked the door, and began to pray, standing with my face towards the east, as I always had done. The more I prayed the worse I felt. I could not account for the feeling that had come over me. I was in great perplexity as to the meaning of many prophecies in the Old Testament which deeply interested me. My prayer gave me no satisfaction, and then it occurred to me that Christians kneel when they pray. Was there anything in that? Having been brought up as a strict orthodox Jew, and taught never to kneel in prayer, a fear came over me that if I should kneel I might be deceived in thus bowing my knee to that Jesus whom I had been taught in childhood to believe to be an imposter.

Although the night was bitterly cold, and there was no fire in my study (it was not thought that I should use the room that night), yet I never perspired so much in my life as I did that night. My phylacteries were hanging in my study on the wall, and I caught sight of them. Never since I was thirteen years of age had I missed a day in wearing them, except on Jewish Sabbaths and feasts. I loved them dearly. I took them in my hand, and while looking at them Genesis 49:10 came flashing across my mind: “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto Him shall the gathering of the people be.”

Two other passages also which I had often read and pondered over, presented themselves vividly to my mind, the first of these being from Micah 5:2, “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto Me that is to be Ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.”

The other passage is the well-known prediction in Isaiah 7:14, “Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call His name Emmanuel.”

These three passages impressed themselves so forcibly on my mind that I cried out: “O Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Thou knowest I am sincere in this thing. If Jesus Christ is the Son of God, reveal Him to me this night, and I will accept Him as my Messiah.” No sooner had I said this than almost unconsciously I flung my phylacteries into a corner of the room, and in less time than I can tell it I was on my knees praying in the same corner where my phylacteries were lying on the floor by my side. To throw the phylacteries on the floor as I had done, was, for a Jew, an act of blasphemy. I was now on my knees praying for the first time in my life, and my mind was much agitated and in doubt as to the wisdom of my proceedings.

My feelings at that time are best expressed in the first hymn I ever composed after my conversion, and dedicated to the preacher who had so powerfully impressed me.

LEAVE ME NOT ALONE:
THE PRAYER OF A CONVERTED JEW

Dedicated to my Dear Friend, E. Payson Hammond

My life is filled with sad regrets;
No peace attends my way;
Each day the sun in darkness sets,
Oh, hear me Lord, I pray:
Oh, let me not in darkness rove,
But melt my heart of stone;
Accept my faint attempts at love,
And fix my heart on things above.
Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly dove,
Oh leave me not alone.

Indulgent God of love and power,
To Thee for help I fly;
He with me at this solemn hour,
And hear my contrite sigh;
Renew my heart and be my Guide
To Thy celestial throne:
Oh, let me see Thy wounded side;
I come to Thee, the crucified Lord,
Condescend to be my Guide,
Oh, leave me not alone.

My heart with inward horror shrinks,
I feel this load of sin;
Far from the shadow of Thy wings,
All darkness is within.
Now, take me, Lord, into Thy care,
And melt my heart of stone;
My load is more than I can bear,
And Thou didst not disdain to hear
The publican in fervent prayer,
Oh, leave me not alone.

I know Thou canst not let me go–
Thy blood for me was shed;
Now let me sink beneath its flow,
And raise me from the dead,
And bid me stretch my withered arm
To Thee whose love is shown,
And grasp Thy mantle with its charm
To take from Death its dread alarm,
And then, reclining on Thine arm,
I shall not be alone.

My first prayer to Jesus I shall never forget. It was as follows: “O Lord Jesus Christ, if Thou art the Son of God; if Thou art the Saviour of the world; if Thou art the Jews’ Messiah for whom we Jews are still looking; and if Thou canst convert sinners as Christians say, Thou canst convert me, for I am a sinner, and I will promise to serve Thee all the days of my life.”

This prayer of mine, however, went no higher than my head. The reason was not far to seek. I had tried to make a bargain with Jesus, that if He would do what I asked of Him, I, on my part, would do what I then promised Him. I remained on my knees for about half an hour, and whilst so engaged drops of sweat came running down my face. My head also felt hot, and I put it against the wall of my study to cool it. I was in agony, but I was not converted. I arose and paced to and fro in my room. Then the thought came to me that I had gone too far already, and I vowed I would never go on my knees again. I began to reason with myself, ‘Why should I go on my knees? Cannot the God of Abraham, whom I have loved, served, and worshipped all the days of my life, do for me what Christ is said to do for the Gentiles?’ I looked at it, of course, from a Jewish standpoint and went on reasoning, ‘Why should I go to the Son? Is not the Father above the Son?’

The more I reasoned the worse I felt, and became increasingly perplexed. In one corner of the room lay my phylacteries, which still possessed a magnetic influence over me. I instinctively turned towards them, and I involuntarily fell on my knees again, but could not utter any words. My heart ached, for I had a sincere desire to become acquainted with Christ, if He was the Messiah. I changed my posture time after time, alternately kneeling and then walking about the room from a quarter-to-ten until five-minutes-to-two in the morning. At that time light began to dawn on my mind, and I began to feel and believe in my soul that Jesus Christ was really the true Messiah. No sooner had I realized this than, for the last time that night, I fell on my knees; but this time my doubts were gone, and I began to praise God for a joy and happiness had penetrated my soul such as I had never known before. I had found the true Shiloh, the Ruler of Israel, Emmanuel –”God with us”– I had believed the report of Isaiah concerning the true Messiah – Jesus – who was “despised and rejected of men; a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief,” who was “wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; andwith His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). I had looked on Him whom they had pierced, and I knew that I was converted, and that God for Christ’s sake had pardoned my sin. I now felt that neither circumcision availed anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.

I arose from my knees and, in my new-found happiness, thought that my dear wife would at once share my joy when I told her of the great change which had come over me. With that thought uppermost in my mind, I rushed out of my study into the bedroom (for my wife had retired to rest, although the gas had not been turned off). I threw my arms around her neck, began to kiss her eagerly, saying: “Wife, I have found the Messiah.” She looked annoyed, and, pushing me from her, coldly asked, “Found who?” “Jesus Christ my Messiah and Saviour,” was my reply. She spoke not another word, but in less than fifteen minutes was dressed and had left the house, although it was then two in the morning and bitterly cold, and went across the street to the house of her parents, who lived immediately opposite. I did not follow her, but dropped on my knees imploring my newly-found Saviour that my wife might also have her eyes opened as I had, and afterwards went to sleep. On the following morning my poor wife was told by her parents that if she ever called me “husband” again she would be disinherited, excommunicated from the synagogue, and accursed. At the same time my two children were sent for by their grandparents, and told that they must never call me “father” again; that I, in worshipping Jesus, the “Impostor,” was fully as bad as He was.

Oh! the inveterate hatred of the human heart to the Gospel of God. Well might the converted Hebrew of the Hebrews who wrote the Epistle to the Romans declare that “both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one…For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:9-10, 23).

Five days after my conversion I received orders from the Surgeon-General at Washington to proceed west on Government business. I tried all the means in my power to communicate personally with my wife and to bid her goodbye, but she would neither see me nor write to me. She, however, sent me a message by a neighbor to the effect that as long as I called Jesus Christ my Saviour I should not call her my wife, for she would not live with me. I did not expect to receive such a message from my wife, for I loved her and my children dearly, and it was with a sad heart therefore that I left home that morning to travel 1300 miles to my sphere of duty without being able to see either my wife or children.

For fifty-four days my wife would not answer any of my letters, although I wrote her one daily, and with every letter sent I prayed that God would incline her heart to read at least one of them. I felt that if she would but read one of my letters (for Christ was preached and the joy I was experiencing in my soul was told forth in every one of them), she would reconsider what she had said and done before I left home. Never in my experience were Cowper’s lines more signally fulfilled:

“God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea,
And. rides upon the storm,”

for it was through the disobedience of my daughter that my wife was converted. My daughter was the youngest of our two children; she was generally considered her father’s pet. After my conversion to Christ, a sense of duty to her mother on the one hand and her love to her father on the other, kept her mind in continual agitation.

On the fifty-third night she dreamed she saw her father die. A fear came over her, and she made up her mind that, come what would, she would not destroy the next letter in her father’s handwriting. The following morning she waited for the postman at the door. As he handed the letters to her she took her father’s letter, quickly slipped it into her bosom, ran upstairs into her room, locked the door, and opened the letter. She began to read it, and then read it three times before she laid it down. That letter made her sad at heart to such an extent that when she went downstairs her mother saw she had been crying, and asked her the cause of her grief.

“Mother, if I tell you, you will be offended; but if you promise me not to be grieved, I will tell you all about it.”

“What is it, my child?” asked her mother.

Taking out my letter from under her dress, she told her mother her dream of the night previous, and added, “I have opened my papa’s letter this morning, and now I cannot and will not believe what my grandpa and grandma or anybody else says about my papa being a bad man, for a bad man couldn’t write such a letter as this to his wife and children. I beg of you to read this, mother,” she added, as she handed to her the letter.

My wife took the letter, carried it into the next room, and locked it in her desk. That afternoon she locked herself in her room, and, opening the desk, took my letter and began to read it. The more she read the worse she felt. She afterwards told me she read it through five times before she finally laid it down. After the last reading of the letter my wife returned it to the desk and went back to the room she had just left. Her eyes were full of tears, and now it was my daughter’s turn to ask, “Mother, why are you crying?” “Child my heart aches,” was the reply; “I wish to lie down on the lounge.” She did so. The servant made ‘her a cup of tea, thinking that was all that was needed to take away the heartache of which she complained. There are many cases, doubtless, in which a cup of tea may possibly be a benefit, but it brought no relief to my poor wife.

After a while my wife’s mother came across the street to our house. Thinking my wife to be very ill, she administered some simple home remedies, as mothers frequently do. This also failed to give any relief. At half-past seven in the evening my mother-in-law sent for Dr. D–. He came at once and prescribed for her, but his medicine likewise failed to remove the heartache of which my wife complained. My mother-in-law stayed at our house that night attending to my wife until a quarter-past eleven o’clock. I heard my wife say afterwards that the desire of her heart was that her mother should leave the room, for she had fully made up her mind to go on her knees, as I had previously done, as soon as her mother had gone. No sooner, therefore, had she left our house than my wife locked the door and fell on her knees by the side of her bed, and in less than two  minutes Christ, the Great Physician, met her, healed her, and saved her.

Like her husband, the moment she came to an end of human effort, worldly wisdom and vain tradition, and surrendered herself, body, soul, and spirit, to God, she found the Holy Spirit ready to open her blind eyes, to turn her from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God (Acts 26:28). The moment she was enabled to “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world,” she could say with Philip of old, “We have found Him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph;” and add with Nathaniel, “Rabbi, THOU art the Son of God; THOU art the King of Israel” (John 1:29, 45, 49).

On the following morning I received a telegram worded as follows: “Dear Husband, Come home at once. I thought you were in the wrong and I was in the right, but I have found that you were in the right and I in the wrong. Your Christ is my Messiah – your Jesus, my Saviour. Last night, at nineteen minutes past eleven, while on my knees for the first time in my life, the Lord Jesus saved thy soul,”

After reading the telegram I felt for a moment as if I did not care one cent for the Government under which I served. I left my business unfinished, took the first express train, and started for Washington. My house at that time being well known there, especially amongst the Jews (for I had frequently sung in the synagogue), I did not wish to create a sensation, and so I telegraphed to my wife not to meet me at the station, for I would take a carriage on my arrival at Washington, and drive quietly home. When I got to the front of my home I saw my wife standing at the open door expecting me. Her face beamed with joy. She ran to meet me as I stepped out of the carriage and threw her arms around my neck and kissed me. Her father and mother were also standing at their open door across the street, and when they saw us in each others’ arms, they began to curse both me and my wife. Ten days after my wife had accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as her Saviour, my daughter was converted. She is now the wife of a Christian, and a co-worker with her husband in Christ’s vineyard. My son (would to God I could say the same of him as of his sister!) was promised by his grandparents on his mother’s side that if he would never again call me “father” or his mother, “mother,” they would leave all their property to him, and thus far he has kept his promise.

A year and nine months after her conversion, my wife died. The desire of her heart, previous to her death, was to see her son, who resided about seven minutes’ walk from our house. I sent again and again to him, begging of him to come and see his dying mother. One of the ministers of the city, along with his wife, personally saw my son, and tried to persuade him to grant his dying mother’s request but his only reply was, “Curse her, let her die, she is no mother of mine.”

On Thursday morning (the day of her death), my wife asked me to send for as many members of the congregation where she worshipped as could come, to be with her in her dying hour. At half-past ten she asked Mrs. Ryle, the minister’s wife, who was a very dear friend of hers, to take her left hand, and let all the ladies in the room join hands with her. I stood at the other side of the bed and took hold of the right hand, and the gentlemen joined hands with me, and at my wife’s request we formed a circle, about thirty-eight of us, and then we sang,

“Jesus, lover of my soul,
Let me to Thy bosom fly,
While the nearer waters roll,
While the tempest still is high:
Hide me, O my Saviour hide,
Till the storm of life is past;
Safe into the haven guide;
O receive my soul at last,”

very softly. As we began to sing,

“Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
More than all in Thee I find;
Raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
Heal the sick and lead the blind.
Just and holy is Thy Name,
I am all unrighteousness;
Vile and full of sin I am,
Thou art full of truth and grace,”

my wife in a feeble, though clear voice, said: “Yes, it is all I want; it is all I have. Come, Lord Jesus, take me home,” and she fell asleep.

She, who from infancy had been taught to hate the Name of Jesus, had, by grace, learned to value that “Name above every name” as the One who so recently had saved her precious soul, made and kept her happy during the last trying months, and in our presence had given her a triumphant exodus from this world of sin and sorrow into the everlasting habitations prepared for Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and all the redeemed, whether Jew or Gentile.

The manner of her home-going I have sought to describe in the following poem:

I AM COMING

O glorious hour! I’m going home,
The gate’s ajar for me,
The angels’ wings are rustling near,
Their forms I almost see.
The shadows of that sinless throng
Are falling over me;
Saviour! loving Saviour!
I come, I come to Thee.

Chorus:
I am coming, I am coming,
Coming now to Thee;
I am coming, blessed Saviour,
Coming now to Thee.

What though this temple slow decays,
And pain is hard to bear,
I have a home not made with hands,
Eternal over there.

Thy blood alone has purchased it,
Those mansions bright and free,
Jesus! loving Jesus!
O glorious hour! the gates of pearl
Are open wide, I’m free!
The angel songs are ringing clear,
Praise God, praise God with me.

My work is done, I’m going home,
Sinless soon I’ll be;
Saviour! loving Saviour!
I come, I come to Thee.

My son would not come to the funeral, nor, so far as I have known, has he ever visited his mother’s grave, neither has he called me “father,” nor answered any letter of mine since my conversion, although I have three times crossed the Atlantic, from America to Germany, trying to see him and be reconciled, but have failed in every instance, for he would not see me. This, however, has only called forth more fervent prayer on his behalf that he also may be emancipated from the thraldom of Jewish prejudice, and in Jesus’ “Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). A fourth visit to Germany in July, 1887, has strengthened and confirmed my faith, for my son not only consented to see me, but he shed bitter tears on the remembrance of the past, and at once declared his determination to see his dear sister in America.

I wrote to my mother, who resided in Germany, immediately after my conversion, recounting to her how I had found the true Messiah. I could not keep the good news from her, and in my heart thought she would believe me, the eldest of her fourteen children. Indeed, I may say that the first desire of my heart after my conversion was that all my friends, Jew as well as Gentile, should share with me in my new-found joy. I felt like the Psalmist when he wrote: “Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what He hath done for my soul” (Ps. 66:16) This hope, as far as my mother was concerned, was destined to be bitterly disappointing for she wrote me but one letter (if a curse can be called a letter), prolonged silence at last awakening within me a suspicion that if she did write at all it would be to send me that curse which every Jew must expect from his nearest relations when he embraces Christianity. This suspicion was only too fully confirmed after a lapse of five months-and-a-half, during which time I was in suspense, for previous to my conversion my mother had written to me once a month.

One morning when the postman brought me my letters, I saw amongst them one bearing the German postmark, and in the old, familiar handwriting of my dear mother. As soon as I saw it I said to my wife, who was in the room: “Wife, it has come at last.” Needless to say I opened that letter first. There was no heading to it, no date, no “My dear son,” as all her former letters to me began, but it read as follows:

“Max – You are no longer my son; we have buried you in effigy; we mourn you as one dead. And now may the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob strike you blind, deaf, and dumb, and damn your soul forever. You have left your father’s religion and the synagogue for that Jesus, ‘the impostor,’ and now take your mother’s curse.–CLARA.”

Although I had by this time fully counted what it would cost me in embracing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and knew what I had to expect from my relatives because I had turned my back on the synagogue, I confess I was hardly prepared for such a letter from my mother. My dear wife and I could now, however, more fully sympathize with each other in our new-found life; for, as stated before, her parents had already cursed her to her face for believing in Christ. It was not all sadness, however, for never before did the Psalmist’s words seem so full of meaning and encouragement both to my wife and myself–”When my father and mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.”

Let not anyone think that it is an easy thing for a Jew to become a Christian. He must be prepared to forsake father, mother, and wife for the kingdom of God’s sake, for the considerations which appeal alike to his affections and to his self interest are brought to bear upon every Jew who is suspected of looking with favor towards Christianity. Yet such persecution only led me more and more to value the words of my newly-found Master, “Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for My Name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life” (Matt. 19:28-29).

I answered my mother’s letter a few days later in the following words:

ANSWER TO MY MOTHER’S CURSE

Far away from home, my mother,
Daily I will pray for thee.
Why should I be cursed, my mother?
Why such message sent to me?
Once convinced of sin, my mother,.
I cried, “Jesus, set me free!”
I am happy now, my mother,
Christ, the Jew, has died for me.

Him you taught me to hate, mother,
Him you still “Impostor” call,
Died for me on Calvary, mother,
Died to save me from the Fall.
Let me lead you to Him, mother,
While I pray on bended knee:
“Jesus, now accept my mother;
O Lord Jesus, set her free!”

Be persuaded, dearest mother,
Do not now so hardened be;
Jesus Christ, the Jew’s Messiah,
Surely died for you and me.

Can you spurn such mercy, mother?
Can you turn away your face?
Come to Jesus, come, dear mother,
Fly, oh fly, to His embrace!

Although she never wrote to me afterwards, I was told the last word she uttered when life was ebbing away was my own name, “Max.” And who can tell but in the last moments the sad memory of her curse and the soul-craving, unsatisfiable by Judaism, may have led her to find the God-provided Lamb in the true Messiah–JESUS (John 4:26-6:37).

* * * * * * * * * * * *

The sequel to “Charlie Coulson” remains to be told. About eighteen months after my conversion I attended a prayer meeting one evening in the city of Brooklyn. It was one of those meetings when Christians testify to the loving-kindness of their Saviour. After several of them had spoken, an elderly lady arose and said, “Dear friends, this may be the last time it is my privilege to testify for Christ. My family physician told me yesterday that my right lung is very nearly gone and my left lung is very much affected, so, at the best, I have but a short time to be with you, but what is left of me belongs to Jesus. Oh! it is a great joy to know that I shall meet my boy with Jesus in heaven. My son was not only a soldier for his country, but a soldier for Christ. He was wounded at the battle of Gettysburg. and fell into the hands of a Jewish doctor, who amputated his arm and leg, but he died five days after the operation. The chaplain of the regiment wrote me a letter and sent my boy’s Bible. In that letter I was informed that my Charlie, in his dying hour, sent for that Jewish doctor and said to him, ‘Doctor, before I die, I wish to tell you that five days ago, while you amputated my arm and leg, I prayed to the Lord Jesus Christ to save your soul.’ “

When I heard this lady’s testimony I could sit still no longer. I left my seat, crossed the room, and taking her by the hand, said, “God bless you, my dear sister; your boy’s prayer has been heard and answered. I am the Jewish doctor for whom your Charlie prayed, and his Saviour is now my Saviour.” A heavenly fervour spread over the meeting at the affecting sight of Jew and Gentile being made “one in Christ Jesus,” and realized His wondrous power in enabling the dying drummer boy to manifest the Spirit of his Master in praying for the enemies of the Cross; in the wonderful answer to the dying lad’s prayer and in the glorious prospect of the reunion of the great ransomed multitude which no man can number out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation.

And there among the saved at last,
For ever blest and glad,
The mother dear and doctor saved
Shall meet that drummer lad.

* * * * * * * * *

Writing in October, 1887, the doctor says: “It is with great joy and thankfulness of heart that I record the conversion of my dear son. I firmly believe that the dear Saviour had been troubling his heart for some time prior to our meeting in July, 1887. For the first time in fourteen years he called me “father.” He wept bitterly at our meeting, and it seemed his soul’s desire was to see his sister again. My heart leaped with joy to hear this, for I knew with his sister (a devoted Christian in America) he would be in good hands.

After traveling with myself and some friends for several days in Germany (during which time he conversed freely with me about his mother, regretting that he had refused to see her before her death, and expressing a desire to see her in heaven), he left for America, where he met his sister on Monday afternoon, August 15th. That meeting can be better imagined than described, for they had not met before for nearly fourteen years. On the following Friday, my son begged his sister to accompany him to their mother’s grave. My daughter wrote me that same night that her brother’s heart nearly broke while standing at his mother’s grave, and she concluded her letter: ‘Dear father, I thank God my brother is under deep conviction of sin; he fully realizes how he has neglected his duty in the past towards his father, mother, and sister. I am constantly praying for him, so is my husband, and many Christian friends here are praying for his conversion.’

“On Friday, August 19th, he again visited his mother’s grave (but this time alone), and while there God, in His mercy, for Christ’s sake, pardoned his sins and converted his soul. He went home, told his sister the good news, and then wrote to me that same night. Unknown to her brother my daughter also wrote to me, and both letters reached me by the same post, making that day to me indeed a day of good tidings, and granting me some recompense for the many years of sorrow I had endured, causing me to exclaim with our Psalmist: ‘Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.’

“And now, in conclusion, I pray that God may spare my life that I may be permitted to hear my only son preach the Gospel of that dear Saviour whom he had so long rejected, but who is now his all in all; for in his last letter he informs me that he is now preparing himself for evangelistic work.”

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Writing on September 13, 1892, Dr. Rossvally says: “In regard to my son I can tell you this. He is devoting his whole time to the Lord’s work. He has no church of his own, as he prefers to do evangelistic work. He is engaged in the same way that I was a few years ago, before my health was so impaired; that is, going from place-to-place helping poor, struggling churches and missions. I am thankful to say that the Lord has abundantly blessed his labors. He also publishes my tracts for free distribution in America.”

* * * * * * * * * * *

Shortly after his conversion to God, Dr. Rossvally resigned his commission in the United States Army and opened a Mission for the conversion of his Jewish brethren. He met with much opposition at first, but persevered, and finally had the joy of seeing quite a number–rich and poor, old and young Jews and Jewesses–exclaim, with one of old: “We have found the Messiah, which is, being interpreted, THE CHRIST” (John 1:41B).

He afterwards made a prolonged evangelistic tour, and visited many cities in Europe, America, Canada, Germany, and many other lands, preaching the glad tidings of a free and full salvation in his forceful way to large audiences, his ministry being owned of God in leading not a few–Gentiles as well as Jews–out of darkness into light and from the power of Satan unto God.

A few years of happy service, a few months of severe suffering, and M. L. Rossvally was called to the higher service of heaven in October, 1892.

“He being dead yet speaketh,” for several millions of “Charlie Coulson, the Drummer Boy,” and some of his other tracts, have been scattered over America, Britain, India, Australia and New Zealand, France, Germany, Switzerland, Russia, and other lands, leading many to “know Him whom to know is life everlasting.”

Surely this true and touching narrative of real life in our own day re-affirms the words of the most noted Jewish convert–Saul of Tarsus–who said: “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek” (Rom. 1:16).

Notice it is not the Gospel of Christianity or Judaism, the gospel of any church, creed, or party, but the Gospel of Christ, the Gospel concerning the peerless Person of THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, Who “…died for our sins according to the Scriptures;…was buried, and…rose again the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3-4). “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a Name which is above every name: that at the Name of JESUS every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that JESUS CHRIST IS LORD, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11).

The great question for each of us to consider is–Have I, like the drummer boy and the doctor, as an individual, realized my lost condition as “dead in trespasses and in sins” (Eph. 2:1), and accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as my own personal Saviour? – and do I know that “God for Christ’s sake has pardoned my sins?” If not, why not, like Jew and Gentile recorded herein, put the matter to the test? “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), and you will be able to say, “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My Word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:24).

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).

” ‘Whosoever heareth,’ shout, shout the sound,
Send the blessed tidings all the world around:
Spread the joyful news wherever man is found,
‘Whosoever will may come.’

‘Whosoever will, whosoever will,’
Send the proclamation over vale and hill;
‘Tis a loving Father calls the wanderer home;
‘Whosoever will may come.’

Whosoever cometh need not delay;
Now the door is open, enter while ye may;
Jesus is the true, the only Living Way;
‘Whosoever will may come.’

‘Whosoever will,’ the promise is secure;
‘Whosoever will,’ for ever shall endure;
‘Whosoever will,’ ’tis life for evermore;
‘Whosoever will may come.’”

Having been frequently asked whether all the details of this story are strictly true, I take this opportunity of stating that every particular incident occurred exactly as related. –M.L.R.

The Lost Years of Jesus:
The Life of Saint Issa
Translation by Notovitch

The Best of the Sons of Men

• Ancient
  scrolls reveal that Jesus spent seventeen years in India and Tibet

• From age
  thirteen to age twenty-nine, he was both a student and teacher of
  Buddhist and Hindu holy men

• The story of
  his journey from Jerusalem to Benares was recorded by Brahman
  historians

• Today they still know him and love him
  as St. Issa. Their ‘buddha’

In 1894 Nicolas Notovitch published a book
called The Unknown Life of Christ.
He was a Russian doctor who journeyed extensively throughout
Afghanistan, India, and Tibet. Notovitch journeyed through the lovely
passes of Bolan, over the Punjab, down into the arid rocky land of
Ladak, and into the majestic Vale of Kashmir of the Himalayas. During
one of his jouneys he was visiting Leh, the capital of Ladak, near
where the buddhist convent Himis is. He had an accident that resulted
in his leg being broken. This gave him the unscheduled opportunity to
stay awhile at the Himis convent.

Notovitch learned, while he was there, that
there existed ancient records of the life of Jesus Christ. In the
course of his visit at the great convent, he located a Tibetan
translation of the legend and carefully noted in his carnet de voyage
over two hundred verses from the curious document known as “The
Life of St. Issa.”

He was shown two large yellowed volumes
containing the biography of St. Issa. Notovitch enlisted a member of
his party to translate the Tibetan volumes while he carefully noted
each verse in the back pages of his journal.

When he returned to the western world there
was much controversy as to the authenticity of the document. He was
accused of creating a hoax and was ridiculed as an imposter. In his
defense he encouraged a scientific expedition to prove the original
tibetan documents existed.

One of his skeptics was Swami Abhedananda.
Abhedananda journeyed into the arctic region of the Himalayas,
determined to find a copy of the Himis manuscript or to expose the
fraud. His book of travels, entitled Kashmir O Tibetti, tells of a
visit to the Himis gonpa and includes a Bengali translation of two
hundred twenty-four verses essentially the same as the Notovitch
text. Abhedananda was thereby convinced of the authenticity of the
Issa legend.

In 1925, another Russian named Nicholas
Roerich arrived at Himis. Roerich, was a philosopher and a
distinguished scientist. He apparently saw the same documents as
Notovitch and Abhedananda. And he recorded in his own travel diary
the same legend of St. Issa. Speaking of Issa, Roerich quotes legends
which have the estimated antiquity of many centuries.

…
He passed his time in several ancient cities of India such as
Benares. All loved him because Issa dwelt in peace with Vaishas and
Shudras whom he instructed and helped. But the Brahmins and
Kshatriyas told him that Brahma forbade those to approach who were
created out of his womb and feet. The Vaishas were allowed to listen
to the Vedas only on holidays and the Shudras were forbidden not only
to be present at the reading of the Vedas, but could not even look at
them.

Issa
said that man had filled the temples with his abominations. In order
to pay homage to metals and stones, man sacrificed his fellows in
whom dwells a spark of the Supreme Spirit. Man demeans those who
labor by the sweat of their brows, in order to gain the good will of
the sluggard who sits at the lavishly set board. But they who deprive
their brothers of the common blessing shall be themselves stripped of
it.

Vaishas
and Shudras were struck with astonishment and asked what they could
perform. Issa bade them “Worship not the idols. Do not consider
yourself first. Do not humiliate your neighbor. Help the poor.
Sustain the feeble. Do evil to no one. Do not covet that which you do
not possess and which is possessed by others.”

Many,
learning of such words, decided to kill Issa. But Issa, forewarned,
departed from this place by night.

Afterward,
Issa went into Nepal and into the Himalayan mountains ….

“Well,
perform for us a miracle,” demanded the servitors of the Temple.
Then Issa replied to them: “Miracles made their appearance from
the very day when the world was created. He who cannot behold them is
deprived of the greatest gift of life. But woe to you, enemies of
men, woe unto you, if you await that He should attest his power by
miracle.”

Issa
taught that men should not strive to behold the Eternal Spirit with
one’s own eyes but to feel it with the heart, and to become a pure
and worthy soul….

“Not
only shall you not make human offerings, but you must not slaughter
animals, because all is given for the use of man. Do not steal the
goods of others, because that would be usurpation from your near one.
Do not cheat, that you may in turn not be cheated ….

“Beware,
ye, who divert men from the true path and who fill the people with
superstitions and prejudices, who blind the vision of the seeing
ones, and who preach subservience to material things. “…

Then
Pilate, ruler of Jerusalem, gave orders to lay hands upon the
preacher Issa and to deliver him to the judges, without however,
arousing the displeasure of the people.

But
Issa taught: “Do not seek straight paths in darkness, possessed
by fear. But gather force and support each other. He who supports his
neighbor strengthens himself

“I
tried to revive the laws of Moses in the hearts of the people. And I
say unto you that you do not understand their true meaning because
they do not teach revenge but forgiveness. But the meaning of these
laws is distorted.”

Then
the ruler sent to Issa his disguised servants that they should watch
his actions and report to him about his words to the people.

“Thou
just man, “said the disguised servant of the ruler of Jerusalem
approaching Issa, “Teach us, should we fulfill the will of
Caesar or await the approaching deliverance?”

But
Issa, recognizing the disguised servants, said, “I did not
foretell unto you that you would be delivered from Caesar; but I said
that the soul which was immersed in sin would be delivered from sin.”

At
this time, an old woman approached the crowd, but was pushed back.
Then Issa said, “Reverence Woman, mother of the universe,’ in
her lies the truth of creation. She is the foundation of all that is
good and beautiful. She is the source of life and death. Upon her
depends the existence of man, because she is the sustenance of his
labors. She gives birth to you in travail, she watches over your
growth. Bless her. Honor her. Defend her. Love your wives and honor
them, because tomorrow they shall be mothers, and later-progenitors
of a whole race. Their love ennobles man, soothes the embittered
heart and tames the beast. Wife and mother-they are the adornments of
the universe.”

“As
light divides itself from darkness, so does woman possess the gift to
divide in man good intent from the thought of evil. Your best
thoughts must belong to woman. Gather from them your moral strength,
which you must possess to sustain your near ones. Do not humiliate
her, for therein you will humiliate yourselves. And all which you
will do to mother, to wife, to widow or to another woman in
sorrow-that shall you also do for the Spirit.”

So
taught Issa; but the ruler Pilate ordered one of his servants to make
accusation against him.

Said
Issa: “Not far hence is the time when by the Highest Will the
people will become purified and united into one family.”

And
then turning to the ruler, he said, “Why demean thy dignity and
teach thy subordinates to live in deceit when even without this thou
couldst also have had the means of accusing an innocent one?”

From
another version of the legend, Roerich quotes fragments of thought
and evidence of the miraculous.

Near
Lhasa was a temple of teaching with a wealth of manuscripts. Jesus
was to acquaint himself with them. Meng-ste, a great sage of all the
East, was in this temple.

Finally
Jesus reached a mountain pass and in the chief city of Ladak, Leh, he
was joyously accepted by monks and people of the lower class …. And
Jesus taught in the monasteries and in the bazaars (the market
places); wherever the simple people gathered–there he taught.

Not
far from this place lived a woman whose son had died and she brought
him to Jesus. And in the presence of a multitude, Jesus laid his hand
on the child, and the child rose healed. And many brought their
children and Jesus laid his hands upon them, healing them.

Among
the Ladakis, Jesus passed many days, teaching them. And they loved
him and when the time of his departure came they sorrowed as
children.

I have struggled greatly over the last few months, questioning everything that is from above and below. The seen and not seen, only to find out I was suffering from grieving the Holy Spirit.

Eph:4:30 Do not “______” the Holy Spirit

Eph 4:30 ‘Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption’

This short study will look at what it means to grieve or quench the Holy Spirit and what could be some of the signs or implications of doing so. Not exactly a topic anyone wants to be qualified to talk about, but if you are honest you will know times when this has happened. This study then will first establish who has been given the Holy Spirit and then look at what role the Holy Spirit plays in our lives. From the verse above it is clear that one of the main reasons to avoid grieving the Holy Spirit comes from the fact that he has been given to live within us to the very end. He is with us through the good, the bad, and the ugly. Grieving the Holy Spirit is NOT a sign that the believer has lost his salvation because we are sealed until the day of redemption. True believers are eternally secure. But it does influence our daily relationship with God.

Who has been given the Holy Spirit?

Rom 8:9 ‘However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him’.

Eph 1:13 ‘In him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise…’

From these two passages it is clear that every born again believer in Jesus Christ has been given the Holy Spirit. In fact if someone doesn’t have the Holy Spirit he does not belong to Christ. So its simple, the moment you believe and are saved you are given the Holy Spirit as a seal of Gods ownership upon you.

Eph 4:29 – 32 Grieving the Holy Spirit

To grieve: ‘to afflict with deep sorrow.’

Vs 29-31 ‘Let no unwholesome word proceed out of your mouth, but only such a word that is good for edification according to the need at the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.

In its context the Holy Spirit can be grieved when we return to those things from which we should have been set free. All of these things such as bitterness, wrath and anger etc can grieve the Holy Spirit because they deny what has happened to us in being born again.

Vs 32 ‘Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.’

This is how it is meant to work: Remember what God has (past tense) done for you. Taking into account all that has been freely forgiven you by God, how can we not then find forgiveness for others? If we were conscious of our own sin and the awesome grace that has been extended to us, how can we remain bitter and angry with other people? The order under grace is that you have been forgiven, so forgive others. The order under law is forgive others so that you can be forgiven. That’s why I said that it grieves the Holy Spirit when we hold onto bitterness and malice because it is a denial of that which God has already done for us, and the great grace we have already received.

1Thess 5:16-21 – Quenching the Holy Spirit

To quench: ‘to extinguish or put out. ie the water quenched the fire.’

Vs 16-21 ‘Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophetic utterances. But examine everything carefully, holding fast to that which is good.’

How can we quench the Spirit?

By not doing the things that give him access to control our lives. For example, while we are rejoicing in what God has done for us, continually talking to Him about it, and giving thanks to the Father in all things, the Holy Spirit is given reign to control and work in us. What are the opposites of these things? Opposite of rejoicing may be to moan about our situation. Instead of giving thanks we may be ungrateful wondering what God is doing or where he is. These things can quench (or restrict) the Spirit.

Possible difference between grieving and quenching the Holy Spirit

Grieve is something we do. (We are angry, bitter, have unwholesome talk)

Quench is what we don’t do. (We don’t rejoice, or be thankful or just talk with God)

What does the Holy Spirit do in our life?

This next section will look at the role of the Holy Spirit within our lives and what could happen if the believer had quenched the Holy Spirits influence in their life. I say COULD because…

1)       God’s very nature is to be patient and gracious even to his disobedient sons.

2)       We may have times of dryness when we are perfectly in Gods will and he is still teaching us but through different means. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the Holy Spirit is grieved if you are going through a hard time.

Rom 8:15-16 ‘… but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out ‘Abba! Father! The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God.’

The Holy Spirit gives us an assurance that we are saved and enables us to cry out ‘Abba’, which means ‘daddy’ to God! He shows us how close God has drawn us, making us his own sons. If a person had grieved or quenched the Holy Spirit they could lose that feeling of intimacy with God and even begin doubting their salvation.

John 14:26 ‘But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all the things that I have said.’

The Holy Spirit teaches us and brings scriptures to mind. If he wasn’t doing this the bible would be continually boring as he would not be bringing anything alive out of it.

Gal 5:16 ‘But I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.’

The Holy Spirit is holy, and will always want to lead the believer in holiness in any given situation. If the Holy Spirit had been quenched the desires of the flesh would be well and truly evident.

Gal 5:22 ‘But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control; against such things there is no law.

The Holy Spirit produces this fruit. With the Holy Spirit quenched the flesh is in control and produces the exact opposite of these things.

1 John 2:26-27 ‘I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you. As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you.’

The Holy Spirit, (the anointing within us) discerns between true and false teaching. Without this a person could jump for anything.

John 14:16 ‘I will ask the Father and he will give you the Comforter, that he may be with you forever.’

The Holy Spirit comforts us in our trials. The root of this word means to exhort, comfort, strengthen, and encourage. Pretty hard going without this!

1 Cor 2:9-12 ‘For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God… Now we have received the… Spirit who is from God so that we know the things freely given to us by God.’

The Holy Spirit searches the deep things of God and reveals them to us! And they are the things freely given to us – Grace! If the Holy Spirit weren’t doing this we would slip back into religion and not see the great things that are given to us because of the cross.

Matt 10:20 ‘For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you,’

The Holy Spirit can speak through us when are witnessing about the Lord, teaching others, giving advice in situations, encouraging other through testimonies etc. If the Holy Spirit was grieved our testimony wouldn’t mean anything. It’s his witness in the hearer that makes something real.

Rom 8:26-28 ‘In the same way the Spirit helps us in our weakness for we do not know what to pray what we should…he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.’

The Holy Spirit helps us in praying, and intercedes for us before the Father! If he was grieved, I think this would be one of the times when His role would increase. He would intercede for us more because he wants more than anything for us to come back into a true relationship with God.

Quick Summary: A person who has grieved or quenched the Holy Spirit could find some or all of the following signs: They don’t feel close to God, with little assurance of their salvation; the word would be boring and dead; struggle to have peace and comfort in the harder times; their life would not display the fruit of the Spirit and discernment between right and wrong teaching would be limited. If this were the case then it would be necessary for that person to recognize his sin and repent. Nothing new here! 1 John 1:9.

I can only pray that this short study on the Holy Spirit will help you as it has helped me writing and sharing it.

In Christ,

MC

Introduction

We have not a pure and complete text of this book, which ranked next in popularity and probably also in date to the Canonical Apocalypse of St. John.

We have, first, certain quotations made by writers of the first four centuries.

Next, a fragment in Greek, called the Akhmim fragment, found with the Passion-fragment of the Gospel of Peter in a manuscript known as the Gizeh MS. (discovered in a tomb) now at Cairo. This is undoubtedly drawn from the Apocalypse of Peter: but my present belief is that, like the Passion fragment (see p. 90), it is part of the Gospel of Peter, which was a slightly later book than the Apocalypse and quoted it almost in extenso. There is also in the Bodleian Library a mutilated leaf of a very tiny Greek MS. of the fifth century which supplies a few lines of what I take to be the original Greek text.

Thirdly, an Ethiopic version contained in one of the numerous forms of the books of Clement, a writing current in Arabic and Ethiopic purporting to contain revelations of the history of the world from the Creation, of the last times, and of guidance for the churches -dictated by Peter to Clement. The version of the Apocalypse contained in this has some extraneous matter at the beginning and the end; but, as I have tried to show in a series of articles in the Journal of Theological Studies (1910-11) and the Church Quarterly Review (1915), it affords the best general idea of the contents of the whole book which we have. The second book of the Sibylline Oracles contains (in Greek hexameters) a paraphrase of a great part of the Apocalypse: and its influence can be traced in many early writings -the Acts of Thomas (55-57), the Martyrdom of Perpetua, the so-called Second Epistle of Clement, and, as I think, the Shepherd of Hermas: as well as in the Apocalypse of Paul and many later visions.

The length of the book is given in the Stichometry of Nicephorus as 300 lines and in that of the Codex Claromontanus (D of the Epistle) as 270: the latter is a Latin list of the Biblical books; already cited for the Acts of Paul.

There is no mention of it in the Gelasian Decree, which is curious. At one time it was popular in Rome for the Muratorian Canon mentions it (late in the second century?) along with the Apocalypse of John though it adds, that ‘some will not have it read in the church.’ The fifth-century church historian Sozomen (vii. 19) says that to his knowledge it was still read annually in some churches in Palestine on Good Friday.

A translation of the ancient quotations shall be given first.

Texts of the Apocalypse of Peter

A.

1. From Clement of Alexandria’s so-called Prophetical Extracts, a series of detached sentences excerpted from some larger work, generally supposed to be his Hypotyposes or Outlines:

a. (41.1) The Scripture saith that the children which have been exposed (by their parents) are delivered to a care-taking angel by whom they are educated, and made to grow up, and they shall be, it saith, as the faithful of an hundred years old are here (in this life). b. (41. 2) Wherefore also Peter in the Apocalypse saith: And a flash (lightning) of fire leaping from those children and smiting the eyes of the women.

2. Ibid. (48 . 1 ) The providence of God doth not light upon them only that are in the flesh. For example, Peter in the Apocalypse saith that the children born out of due time (abortively) that would have been of the better part (i. e. would have been saved if they had lived) -these are delivered to a care-taking angel, that they may partake of knowledge and obtain the better abode, having suffered what they would have suffered had they been in the body. But the others (i.e. those who would not have been saved, had they lived) shall only obtain salvation, as beings that have been injured and had mercy shown to them, and shall continue without torment, receiving that as a reward.

But the milk of the mothers, flowing from their breasts and congealing, saith Peter in the Apocalypse, shall engender small beasts (snakes) devouring the flesh, and these running upon them devour them: teaching that the torments come to pass because of the sins (correspond to the sins).

3. From the Symposium (ii.6) of Methodius of Olympus (third century). He does not name his source. Whence also we have received in inspired writings that children born untimely -even if they be the offspring of adultery- are delivered to care-taking angels. For if they had come into being contrary to the will and ordinance of that blessed nature of God, how could they have been delivered to angels to be nourished up in all repose and tranquillity? And how could they have confidently summoned their parents before the judgement seat of Christ to accuse them? saying: Thou, O Lord, didst not begrudge us this light that is common to all, but these exposed us to death, contemning thy commandment.

The word rendered care-taking in these passages is a very rare one- [temelouchos, Gr.]: so rare that it was mistaken by later readers for the proper name of an angel, and we find an angel Temeluchus in Paul, John, and elsewhere. A similar case is that of the word Tartaruchus, keeper of hell, which is applied to angels in our Apocalypse, and is also taken in the Ethiopic version, in Paul, and in other writings, to be a proper name.

4. From the Apocritica of Macarius Magnes (fourth century) of whom we know little. His book consists of extracts from a heathen opponent’s attack on Christianity (Porphyry and Hieroclcs are named as possible authors of it) and his own answers. The heathen writer says (iv. 6, 7):

And by way of superfluity let this also be cited which is said in the Apocalypse of Peter. He introduces the Heaven, to be judged along with the earth, thus: The earth, he says, shall present all men to God to be judged in the day of judgement being itself also to be judged along with the heaven that encompasseth it.

5. Ibid. And this again he says, which is a statement full of impiety: And every power of heaven shall be melted, and the heaven shall be rolled up like a book, and all the stars shall fall like leaves from the vine, and as the leaves from the fig-tree.

This very nearly coincides with Isa. xxxiv.4, and does not occur in our other texts of the Apocalypse.

6. In an old Latin homily on the Ten Virgins found and published by Dom Wilmart (Bulletin d’anc. litt. et d’arche’ol. chre’t.) is this sentence:

The closed door is the river of fire by which the ungodly shall be kept out of the kingdom of God, as is written in Daniel and in Peter, in his Apocalypse…. That company of the foolish also shall arise and find the door shut, that is, the fiery river set against them.

The equivalent of all the above quotations is found in the Ethiopic text, with one exception, no. 5. The Akhmim text only contains Something like no. 1 b: one indication out of many that it is a shortened and, I would say, secondary text.

B.

THE AKHMIM FRAGMENT

I should prefer to call this Fragment II of the Gospel of Peter. It begins abruptly in a discourse of our Lord.

1 Many of them shall be false prophets, and shall teach ways and diverse doctrines of perdition. 2 And they shall become sons of perdition. 3 And then shall God come unto my faithful ones that hunger and thirst and are afflicted and prove their souls in this life, and shall judge the sons of iniquity.

4 And the Lord added and said: Let us go unto the mountain (and) pray. 5 And going with him, we the twelve disciples besought him that he would show us one of our righteous brethren that had departed out of the world, that we might see what manner of men they are in their form, and take courage, and encourage also the men that should hear us.

6 And as we prayed, suddenly there appeared two men standing before the Lord (perhaps add, to the east) upon whom we were not able to look. 7 For there issued from their countenance a ray as of the sun, and their raiment was shining so as the eye of man never saw the like: for no mouth is able to declare nor heart to conceive the glory wherewith they were clad and the beauty of their countenance. 8 Whom when we saw we were astonied, for their bodies were whiter than any snow and redder than any rose. 9 And the redness of them was mingled with the whiteness, and, in a word, I am not able to declare their beauty. 10 For their hair was curling and flourishing (flowery), and fell comely about their countenance and their shoulders like a garland woven of nard and various flowers, or like a rainbow in the air: such was their comeliness.

11 We, then, seeing the beauty of them were astonied at them, for they appeared suddenly. 12 And I drew near to the Lord and said: Who are these? 13 He saith to me: These are your (our) righteous brethren whose appearance ye did desire to see. 14 And I said unto him: And where are all the righteous? or of what sort is the world wherein they are, and possess this glory? 15 And the Lord showed me a very great region outside this world exceeding bright with light, and the air of that place illuminated with the beams of the sun, and the earth of itself flowering with blossoms that fade not, and full of spices and plants, fair-flowering and incorruptible, and bearing blessed fruit. 16 And so great was the blossom that the odour thereof was borne thence even unto us.

17 And the dwellers in that place were clad with the raiment of shining angels, and their raiment was like unto their land.

18 And angels ran round about them there. 19 And the glory of them that dwelt there was all equal, and with one voice they praised the Lord God, rejoicing in that place.

20 The Lord saith unto us: This is the place of your leaders (or, high priests), the righteous men.

21 And I saw also another place over against that one, very squalid; and it was a place of punishment, and they that were punished and the angels that punished them had their raiment dark, according to the air of the place. 22 And some there were there hanging by their tongues; and these were they that blasphemed the way of righteousness, and under them was laid fire flaming and tormenting them.

23 And there was a great lake full of flaming mire, wherein were certain men that turned away from righteousness; and angels, tormentors, were set over them.

24 And there were also others, women, hanged by their hair above that mire which boiled up; and these were they that adorned themselves for adultery.

And the men that were joined with them in the defilement of adultery were hanging by their feet, and had their heads hidden in the mire, and said: We believed not that we should come unto this place.

25 And I saw the murderers and them that were consenting to them cast into a strait place full of evil, creeping things, and smitten by those beasts, and so turning themselves about in that torment. And upon them were set worms like clouds of darkness. And the souls of them that were murdered stood and looked upon the torment of those murderers and said: O God, righteous is thy judgement.

26 And hard by that place I saw another strait place wherein the discharge and the stench of them that were in torment ran down, and there was as it were a lake there. And there sat women up to their necks in that liquor, and over against them many children which were born out of due time sat crying: and from them went forth rays of fire and smote the women in the eyes: and these were they that conceived out of wedlock (?) and caused abortion.

27 And other men and women were being burned up to their middle and cast down in a dark place and scourged by evil spirits, and having their entrails devoured by worms that rested not. And these were they that had persecuted the righteous and delivered them up.

28 And near to them again were women and men gnawing their lips and in torment, and having iron heated in the fire set against their eyes. And these were they that did blaspheme and speak evil of the way of righteousness.

29 And over against these were yet others, men and women, gnawing their tongues and having flaming fire in their mouths. And these were the false witnesses.

30 And in another place were gravel-stones sharper than swords or any spit, heated with fire, and men and women clad in filthy rags rolled upon them in torment. [This is suggested by the LXX of two passages in Job: xli. 30, his bed is of sharp spits; viii. 17, on an heap of stones doth he rest, and shall live in the midst of gravel-stones.] And these were they that were rich and trusted in their riches, and had no pity upon orphans and widows but neglected the commandments of God.

31 And in another great lake full of foul matter (pus) and blood and boiling mire stood men and women up to their knees And these were they that lent money and demanded usury upon usury.

32 And other men and women being cast down from a great rock (precipice) fell (came) to the bottom, and again were driven by them that were set over them, to go up upon the rock, and thence were cast down to the bottom and had no rest from this torment. And these were they that did defile their bodies behaving as women: and the women that were with them were they that lay with one another as a man with a woman.

33 And beside that rock was a place full of much fire, and there stood men which with their own hands had made images for themselves instead of God, [And beside them other men and women] having rods of fire and smiting one another and never resting from this manner of torment….

34 And yet others near unto them, men and women, burning and turning themselves about and roasted as in a pan. And these were they that forsook the way of God.

THE BODLEIAN LEAF

It measures but 2 3/4 by 2 inches and has 13 lines of 8 to 10 letters on each side (Madan’s Summary Catalogue, No. 31810). The verso (second page) is difficult to read.

Recto=Gr. 33, 34: women holding chains and scourging themselves before those idols of deceit. And they shall unceasingly have this torment. And near

Verso: them shall be other men and women burning in the burning of them that were mad after idols. And these are they which forsook the way of God wholly (?) and . . .

THE ETHIOPIC TEXT

First published by the Abbe Sylvain Grebaut in Revue de l’Orient Chretien, 1910: a fresh translation from his Ethiopic text by H. Duensing appeared in Zeitschr. f. ntl. Wiss., 1913.

The Second Coming of Christ and Resurrection of the Dead (which Christ revealed unto Peter) who died because of their sins, for that they kept not the commandment of God their creator.

And he (Peter) pondered thereon, that he might perceive the mystery of the Son of God, the merciful and lover of mercy.

And when the Lord was seated upon the Mount of Olives, his disciples came unto him.

And we besought and entreated him severally and prayed him, saying unto him: Declare unto us what are the signs of thy coming and of the end of the world, that we may perceive and mark the time of thy coming and instruct them that come after us, unto whom we preach the word of thy gospel, and whom we set over (in) thy church, that they when they hear it may take heed to themselves and mark the time of thy coming.

And our Lord answered us, saying: Take heed that no man deceive you, and that ye be not doubters and serve other gods. Many shall come in my name, saying: I am the Christ. Believe them not, neither draw near unto them. For the coming of the Son of God shall not be plain (i.e. foreseen); but as the lightning that shineth from the east unto the west, so will I come upon the clouds of heaven with a great host in my majesty; with my cross going before my face will I come in my majesty, shining sevenfold more than the sun will I come in my majesty with all my saints, mine angels (mine holy angels). And my Father shall set a crown upon mine head, that I may judge the quick and the dead and recompense every man according to his works.

And ye, take ye the likeness thereof (learn a parable) from the fig-tree: so soon as the shoot thereof is come forth and the twigs grown, the end of the world shall come.

And I, Peter, answered and said unto him: Interpret unto me concerning the fig-tree, whereby we shall perceive it; for throughout all its days doth the fig-tree send forth shoots, and every year it bringeth forth its fruit for its master. What then meaneth the parable of the fig-tree? We know it not.

And the Master (Lord) answered and said unto me: Understandest thou not that the fig-tree is the house of Israel? Even as a man that planted a fig-tree in his garden, and it brought forth no fruit. And he sought the fruit thereof many years and when he found it not, he said to the keeper of his garden: Root up this fig-tree that it make not our ground to be unfruitful. And the gardener said unto God: (Suffer us) to rid it of weeds and dig the ground round about it and water it. If then it bear not fruit, we will straightway remove its roots out of the garden and plant another in place of it. Hast thou not undErstood that the fig-tree is the house of Israel? Verily I say unto thee, when the twigs thereof have sprouted forth in the last days, then shall feigned Christs come and awake expectation saying: I am the Christ, that am now come into the world. And when they (Israel) shall perceive the wickedness of their deeds they shall turn away after them and deny him [whom our fathers did praise], even the first Christ whom they crucified and therein sinned a great sin. But this deceiver is not the Christ. [something is wrong here: the sense required is that Israel perceives the wickedness of antichrist and does not follow him.] And when they reject him he shall slay with the sword, and there shall be many martyrs. Then shall the twigs of the fig-tree, that is, the house of Israel, shoot forth: many shall become martyrs at his hand. Enoch and Elias shall be sent to teach them that this is the deceiver which must come into the world and do signs and wonders to deceive. And therefore shall they that die by his hand be martyrs, and shall be reckoned among the good and righteous martyrs who have pleased God in their life. [Hermas, Vision III.i.9, speaks of 'those that have already been well-pleasing unto God and have suffered for the Name's sake'.]

And he showed me in his right hand the souls of all men, And on the palm of his right hand the image of that which shall be accomplished at the last day: and how the righteous and the sinners shall be separated, and how they do that are upright in heart, and how the evil-doers shall be rooted out unto all eternity. We beheld how the sinners wept (weep) in great affliction and sorrow, until all that saw it with their eyes wept, whether righteous or angels, and he himself also.

And I asked him and said unto him: Lord, suffer me to speak thy word concerning the sinners: It were better for them if they had not been created. And the Saviour answered and said unto me: Peter, wherefore speakest thou thus, that not to have been created were better for them? Thou resistest God. Thou wouldest not have more compassion than he for his image: for he hath created them and brought them forth out of not being. Now because thou hast seen the lamentation which shall come upon the sinners in the last days, therefore is thine heart troubled; but I will show thee their works, whereby they have sinned against the Most High.

Behold now what shall come upon them in the last days, when the day of God and the day of the decision of the judgement of God cometh. From the east unto the west shall all the children of men be gathered together before my Father that liveth for ever. And he shall command hell to open its bars of adamant and give up all that is therein.

And the wild beasts and the fowls shall he command to restore all the flesh that they have devoured, because he willeth that men should appear; for nothing perisheth before God, and nothing is impossible with him, because all things are his.

For all things come to pass on the day of decision, on the day of judgement, at the word of God: and as all things were done when he created the world and commanded all that is therein and it was done -even so shall it be in the last days; for all things are possible with God. And therefore saith he in the scripture: [Ezek. xxxvii.] Son of man, prophesy upon the several bones and say unto the bones: bone unto bone in joints, sinew. nerves, flesh and skin and hair thereon [and soul and spirit].

And soul and spirit shall the great Uriel give them at the commandment of God; for him hath God set over the rising again of the dead at the day of judgement.

Behold and consider the corns of wheat that are sown in the earth. As things dry and without soul do men sow them in the earth: and they live again and bear fruit, and the earth restoreth them as a pledge entrusted unto it.

[And this that dieth, that is sown as seed in the earth, and shall become alive and be restored unto life, is man. Probably a gloss.]

How much more shall God raise up on the day of decision them that believe in him and are chosen of him, for whose sake he made the world? And all things shall the earth restore on the day of decision, for it also shall be judged with them, and the heaven with it.

And this shall come at the day of judgement upon them that have fallen away from faith in God and that have committed sin: Floods (cataracts) of fire shall be let loose; and darkness and obscurity shall come up and clothe and veil the whole world and the waters shall be changed and turned into coals of fire and all that is in them shall burn, and the sea shall become fire. Under the heaven shall be a sharp fire that cannot be quenched and floweth to fulfil the judgement of wrath. And the stars shall fly in pieces by flames of fire, as if they had not been created and the powers (firmaments) of the heaven shall pass away for lack of water and shall be as though they had not been. And the lightnings of heaven shall be no more, and by their enchantment they shall affright the world (probably: The heaven shall turn to lightning and the lightnings thereof shall affright the world. The spirits also of the dead bodies shall be like unto them (the lightnings?) and shall become fire at the commandment of God.

And so soon as the whole creation dissolveth, the men that are in the east shall flee unto the west, unto the east; they that are in the south shall flee to the north, and they that are in the south. And in all places shall the wrath of a fearful fire overtake them and an unquenchable flame driving them shall bring them unto the judgement of wrath, unto the stream of unquenchable fire that floweth, flaming with fire, and when the waves thereof part themselves one from another, burning, there shall be a great gnashing of teeth among the children of men.

Then shall they all behold me coming upon an eternal cloud of brightness: and the angels of God that are with me shall sit (prob. And I shall sit) upon the throne of my glory at the right hand of my Heavenly Father; and he shall set a crown upon mine head. And when the nations behold it, they shall weep, every nation apart.

Then shall he command them to enter into the river of fire while the works of every one of them shall stand before them (something is wanting) to every man according to his deeds. As for the elect that have done good, they shall come unto me and not see death by the devouring fire. But the unrighteous the sinners, and the hypocrites shall stand in the depths of darkness that shall not pass away, and their chastisement is the fire, and angels bring forward their sins and prepare for them a place wherein they shall be punished for ever (every one according to his transgression).

Uriel (Urael) the angel of God shall bring forth the souls of those sinners (every one according to his transgression: perhaps this clause should end the preceding paragraph: so Grebaut takes it) who perished in the flood, and of all that dwelt in all idols, in every molten image, in every (object of) love, and in pictures, and of those that dwelt on all hills and in stones and by the wayside, whom men called gods: they shall burn them with them (the objects in which they dwelt, or their worshippers?) in everlasting fire; and after that all of them with their dwelling places are destroyed, they shall be punished eternally.

(Here begins the description of torments which we have, in another text, in the Akhmim fragment.)

Then shall men and women come unto the place prepared for them. By their tongues wherewith they have blasphemed the way of righteousness shall they be hanged up. There is spread under them unquenchable fire, that they escape it not.

Behold, another place: therein is a pit, great and full (of . . ) In it are they that have denied righteousness: and angels of punishment chastise them and there do they kindle upon them the fire of their torment.

And again behold [two: corrupt] women: they hang them up by their neck and by their hair; they shall cast them into the pit. These are they which plaited their hair, not for good (or, not to make them beautiful) but to turn them to fornication, that they might ensnare the souls of men unto perdition. And the men that lay with them in fornication shall be hung by their loins in that place of fire; and they shall say one to another: We knew not that we should come unto everlasting punishment.

And the murderers and them that have made common cause with them shall they cast into the fire, in a place full of venomous beasts, and they shall be tormented without rest, feeling their pains; and their worms shall be as many in number as a dark cloud. And the angel Ezrael shall bring forth the souls of them that have been slain, and they shall behold the torment of them that slew them, and say one to another: Righteousness and justice is the judgement of God. For we heard, but we believed not, that we should come into this place of eternal judgement.

And near by this flame shall be a pit, great and very deep, and into it floweth from above all manner of torment, foulness, and issue. And women are swallowed up therein up to their necks and tormented with great pain. These are they that have caused their children to be born untimely, and have corrupted the work of God that created them. Over against them shall be another place where sit their children [both] alive, and they cry unto God. And flashes (lightnings) go forth from those children and pierce the eyes of them that for fornication’s sake have caused their destruction.

Other men and women shall stand above them, naked; and their children stand over against them in a place of delight, and sigh and cry unto God because of their parents, saying: These are they that have despised and cursed and transgressed thy commandments and delivered us unto death: they have cursed the angel that formed us, and have hanged us up, and withheld from us (or, begrudged us) the light which thou hast given unto all creatures. And the milk of their mothers flowing from their breasts shall congeal, and from it shall come beasts devouring flesh, which shall come forth and turn and torment them for ever with their husbands, because they forsook the commandments of God and slew their children. As for their children, they shall be delivered unto the angel Temlakos (i.e. a care-taking angel: see above, in the Fragments). And they that slew them shall be tormented eternally, for God willeth it so.

Ezrael the angel of wrath shall bring men and women, the half of their bodies burning, and cast them into a place of darkness, even the hell of men; and a spirit of wrath shall chastise them with all manner of torment, and a worm that sleepeth not shall devour their entrails: and these are the persecutors and betrayers of my righteous ones.

And beside them that are there, shall be other men and women, gnawing their tongues; and they shall torment them with red-hot iron and burn their eyes. These are they that slander and doubt of my righteousness. Other men and women whose works were done in deceitfulness shall have their lips cut off, and fire entereth into their mouth and their entrails. These are the false witnesses (al. these are they that caused the martyrs to die by their lying).

And beside them, in a place near at hand, upon the stone shall be a pillar of fire, and the pillar is sharper than swords. And there shall be men and women clad in rags and filthy garments, and they shall be cast thereon, to suffer the judgement of a torment that ceaseth not: these are they that trusted in their riches and despised the widows and the woman with fatherless children . . . before God.

And into another place hard by, full of filth, do they cast men and women up to the knees. These are they that lent money and took usury.

And other men and women cast themselves down from an high place and return again and run, and devils drive them. [These are the worshippers of idols] and they put them to the end of their witst (drive them up to the top of the height) and they cast themselves down. And thus do they continually, and are tormented for ever. These are they which have cut their flesh as [apostles] of a man: and the women that were with them . . . and these are the men that defiled themselves together as women. (This is very corrupt: but the sense is clear in the (Greek.)

And beside them (shall be a brazier ?) . . . and beneath them shall the angel Ezrael prepare a place of much fire: and all the idols of gold and silver, all idols, the work of men’s hands, and the semblances of images of cats and lions, of creeping things and wild beasts, and the men and women that have prepared the images thereof, shall be in chains of fire and shall be chastised because of their error before the idols, and this is their judgement for ever. (In the Greek they beat each other with rods of fire: and this is better.)

And beside them shall be other men and women, burning in the fire of the judgement, and their torment is everlasting. These are they that have forsaken the commandment of God and followed the (persuasions ?) of devils.

(Parts of these two sections are in the Bodleian Fragment. At this point the Akhmim fragment ends. The Ethiopic continues

And there shall be another place, very high (corrupt sentences follow. Duensing omits them: Grebaut renders doubtfully: There shall be a furnace and a brazier wherein shall burn fire. The fire that shall burn shall come from one end of the brazier). The men and women whose feet slip, shall go rolling down into a place where is fear. And again while the fire that is prepared floweth, they mount up and fall down again and continue to roll down. (This suggests a narrow bridge over a stream of fire which they keep trying to cross.) Thus shall they be tormented for ever. These are they that honoured not their father and mother and of their own accord withheld (withdrew) themselves from them. Therefore shall they be chastised eternally.

Furthermore the angel Ezrael shall bring children and maidens to show them those that are tormented. They shall be chastised with pains, with hanging up (?) and with a multitude of wounds which flesh-devouring birds shall inflict upon them. These are they that boast themselves (trust) in their sins, and obey not their parents and follow not the instruction of their fathers, and honour not them that are more aged than they.

Beside them shall be girls clad in darkness for a garment and they shall be sore chastised and their flesh shall be torn in pieces. These are they that kept not their virginity until they were given in marriage, and with these torments shall they be punished, and shall feel them.

And again, other men and women, gnawing their tongues without ceasing, and being tormented with everlasting fire. These are the servants (slaves) which were not obedient unto their masters; and this then is their judgement for ever.

And hard by this place of torment shall be men and women dumb and blind, whose raiment is white. They shall crowd one upon another, and fall upon coals of unquenchable fire. These are they that give alms and say: We are righteous before God: whereas they have not sought after righteousness.

Ezrael the angel of God shall bring them forth out of this fire and establish a judgement of decision. This then is their judgement. A river of fire shall flow and all judgement (they that are judged) shall be drawn down into the middle of the river. And Uriel shall set them there.

And there are wheels of fire and men and women hung thereon by the strength of the whirling thereof. And they that are in the pit shall burn: now these are the sorcerers and sorceresses. Those wheels shall be in a]l decision (judgement, punishment) by fire without number.

Thereafter shall the angels bring mine elect and righteous which are perfect in all uprightness, and bear them in their hands, and clothe them with the raiment of the life that is above. They shall see their desire on them that hated them, when he punisheth them, and the torment of every one shall be for ever according to his works.

And all they that are in torment shall say with one voice: have mercy upon us, for now know we the judgement of God, which he declared unto us aforetime, and we believed not. And the angel Tatirokos (Tartaruchus, keeper of hell: a word corresponding in formation to Temeluchus) shall come and chastise them with yet greater torment, and say unto them: Now do ye repent, when it is no longer the time for repentance, and nought of life remaineth. And they shall say: Righteous is the judgement of God, for we have heard and perceived that his judgement is good; for we are recompensed according to our deeds.

Then will I give unto mine elect and righteous the washing (baptism) and the salvation for which they have besought me, in the field of Akrosja (Acherousia, a lake in other writings, e.g. Apocalypse of Moses -where the soul of Adam is washed in it: see also Paul 22, 23) which is called Aneslasleja (Elysium). They shall adorn with flowers the portion of the righteous, and I shall go . . . I shall rejoice with them. I will cause the peoples to enter in to mine everlasting kingdom, and show them that eternal thing (life ?) whereon I have made them to set their hope, even I and my Father which is in heaven.

I have spoken this unto thee, Peter, and declared it unto thee. Go forth therefore and go unto the land (or city) of the west. (Duensing omits the next sentences as unintelligible; Grebaut and N. McLean render thus: and enter into the vineyard which I shall tell thee of, in order that by the sickness (sufferings) of the Son who is without sin the deeds of corruption may be sanctified. As for thee, thou art chosen according to the promise which I have given thee. Spread thou therefore my gospel throughout all the world in peace. Verily men shall rejoice: my words shall be the source of hope and of life, and suddenly shall the world be ravished.)

(We now have the section descriptive of paradise, which in the Akhmim text precedes that about hell.)

And my Lord Jesus Christ our King said unto me: Let us go unto the holy mountain. And his disciples went with him, praying. And behold there were two men there, and we could not look upon their faces, for a light came from them, shining more than the sun, and their rairment also was shining, and cannot be described, and nothing is sufficient to be compared unto them in this world. And the sweetness of them . . . that no mouth is able to utter the beauty of their appearance (or, the mouth hath not sweetness to express, &c.), for their aspect was astonishing and wonderful. And the other, great, I say (probably: and, in a word, I cannot describe it), shineth in his (sic) aspect above crystal. Like the flower of roses is the appearance of the colour of his aspect and of his body . . . his head (al. their head was a marvel). And upon his (their) shoulders (evidently something about their hair has dropped out) and on their foreheads was a crown of nard woven of fair flowers. As the rainbow in the water, [Probably: in the time of rain. From the LXX of Ezek.i.28.] so was their hair. And such was the comeliness of their countenance, adorned with all manner of ornament. And when we saw them on a sudden, we marvelled. And I drew near unto the Lord (God) Jesus Christ and said unto him: O my Lord, who are these? And he said unto me: They are Moses and Elias. And I said unto him: Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and the rest of the righteous fathers? And he showed us a great garden, open, full of fair trees and blessed fruits, and of the odour of perfumes. The fragrance thereof was pleasant and came even unto us. And thereof (al. of that tree) . . . saw I much fruit. And my Lord and God Jesus Christ said unto me: Hast thou seen the companies of the fathers?

As is their rest, such also is the honour and the glory of them that are persecuted for my righteousness’ sake. And I rejoiced and believed [and believed] and understood that which is written in the book of my Lord Jesus Christ. And I said unto him: O my Lord, wilt thou that I make here three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias? And he said unto me in wrath: Satan maketh war against thee, and hath veiled thine understanding; and the good things of this world prevail against thee. Thine eyes therefore must be opened and thine ears unstopped that a tabernacle, not made with men’s hands, which my heavenly Father hath made for me and for the elect. And we beheld it and were full of gladness.

And behold, suddenly there came a voice from heaven, saying: This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased: my commandments. And then came a great and exceeding white cloud over our heads and bare away our Lord and Moses and Elias. And I trembled and was afraid: and we looked up and the heaven opened and we beheld men in the flesh, and they came and greeted our Lord and Moses and Elias and went into another heaven. And the word of the scripture was fulfilled: This is the generation that seeketh him and seeketh the face of the God of Jacob. And great fear and commotion was there in heaven and the angels pressed one upon another that the word of the scripture might be fulfilled which saith: Open the gates, ye princes.

Thereafter was the heaven shut, that had been open.

And we prayed and went down from the mountain, glorifying God, which hath written the names of the righteous in heaven in the book of life.

There is a great deal more of the Ethiopic text, but it is very evidently of later date; the next words are:

‘Peter opened his mouth and said to me: Hearken, my son Clement, God created all things for his glory,’ and this proposition is dwelt upon. The glory of those who duly praise God is described in terms borrowed from the Apocalypse: ‘The Son at his coming will raise the dead . . . and will make my righteous ones shine seven times more than the sun, and will make their crowns shine like crystal and like the rainbow in the time of rain (crowns) which are perfumed with nard and cannot be contemplated (adorned) with rubies, with the colour of emeralds shining brightly, with topazes, gems, and yellow pearls that shine like the stars of heaven, and like the rays of the sun, sparkling which cannot be gazed upon.’ Again, of the angels: ‘ Their faces shine more than the sun; their crowns are as the rainbow in the time of rain. (They are perfumed) with nard. Their eyes shine like the morning star. The beauty of their appearance cannot be expressed…. Their raiment is not woven, but white as that of the fuller, according as I saw on the mountain where Moses and Elias were. Our Lord showed at the transfiguration the apparel of the last days, of the day of resurrection, unto Peter, James and John the sons of Zebedee, and a bright cloud overshadowed us, and we heard the voice of the Father saying unto us: This is my Son whom I love and in whom I am well pleased: hear him. And being afraid we forgat all the things of this life and of the flesh, and knew not what we said because of the greatness of the wonder of that day, and of the mountain whereon he showed us the second coming in the kingdom that passeth not away.’

Next: ‘ The Father hath committed all judgement unto the Son.’ The destiny of sinners -their eternal doom- is more than Peter can endure: he appeals to Christ to have pity on them.

And my Lord answered me and said to me: ‘Hast thou understood that which I said unto thee before? It is permitted unto thee to know that concerning which thou askest: but thou must not tell that which thou hearest unto the sinners lest they transgress the more, and sin.’ Peter weeps many hours, and is at last consoled by an answer which, though exceedingly diffuse and vague does seem to promise ultimate pardon for all: ‘My Father will give unto them all the life, the glory, and the kingdom that passeth not away,’ . . . ‘It is because of them that have believed in me that I am come. It is also because of them that have believed in me, that, at their word, I shall have pity on men.’ The doctrine that sinners will be saved at last by the prayers of the righteous is, rather obscurely, enunciated in the Second Book of the Sibylline Oracles (a paraphrase, in this part, of the Apocalypse), and in the (Coptic) Apocalypse of Elias .

Ultimately Peter orders Clement to hide this revelation in a box, that foolish men may not see it. The passage in the Second Book of the Sibylline Oracles which seems to point to the ultimate salvation of all sinners will be found in the last lines of the translation given below.

The passage in the Coptic Apocalypse of Elias is guarded and obscure in expression, but significant. It begins with a sentence which has a parallel in Peter.

The righteous will behold the sinners in their punishment, and those who have persecuted them and delivered them up. Then will the sinners on their part behold the place of the righteous and be partakers of grace. In that day will that for which the (righteous) shall often pray, be granted to them.

That is, as I take it, the salvation of sinners will be granted at the prayer of the righteous.

Compare also the Epistle of the Apostles, 40: ‘the righteous are sorry for the sinners, and pray for them…. And I will hearken unto the prayer of the righteous which they make for them.’

I would add that the author of the Acts of Paul, who (in the Third Epistle to the Corinthians and elsewhere) betrays a knowledge of the Apocalypse of Peter, makes Falconilla, the deceased daughter of Tryphaena, speak of Thecla’s praying for her that she may be translated unto the place of the righteous (Thecla episode, 28).

My impression is that the maker of the Ethiopic version (or of its Arabic parent, or of another ancestor) has designedly omitted or slurred over some clauses in the passage beginning: ‘Then will I give unto mine elect’, and that in his very diffuse and obscure appendix to the Apocalypse, he has tried to break the dangerous doctrine of the ultimate salvation of sinners gently to his readers. But when the Arabic version of the Apocalypse is before us in the promised edition of MM. Griveau and Grebaut, we shall have better means of deciding.

E.

APPENDIX

SECOND BOOK OF THE SIBYLLINE ORACLES, 190-338

It seems worth while to append here a translation of that portion of the Second Book which is most evidently taken from the Apocalypse of Peter. It may be remarked that Books I and II of the oracles really form but one composition, which is Christian and may be assigned to some time not early in the second century, or to the third. Many lines are borrowed from the older books, especially III and VIII.

After saying (1.187) that Elias will descend on earth and do three great signs, it proceeds:

190 Woe unto all them that are found great with child in that day, and to them that give suck to infant children, and to them that dwell by the sea (the waves). Woe to them that shall behold that day. For a dark mist shall cover the boundless world, of the east and west, the south and north. And then shall a great river of flaming fire flow from heaven and consume all places, the earth and the great ocean and the grey sea, lakes and rivers and fountains, and merciless

200 Hades and the pole of heaven: but the lights of heaven shall melt together in one and into a void (desolate) shape (?). For the stars shall all fall from heaven into the sea (?), and all souls of men shall gnash their teeth as they burn in the river of brimstone and the rush of the fire in the blazing plain, and ashes shall cover all things. And then shall all the elements of the world be laid waste, air, earth, sea, light poles, days and nights, and no more shall the multitudes of birds fly in the air nor swimming creatures any more swim the sea no ship shall sail with its cargo over the waves;

210 no straight-going oxen shall plough the tilled land; there shall be no more sound of swift winds, but he shall fuse all things together into one, and purge them clean.

214 Now when the immortal angels of the undying God Barakiel, Ramiel, Uriel, Samiel, and Azael, [These names are from Enoch.] knowing all the evil deeds that any hath wrought aforetime -then out of the misty darkness they shall bring all the souls of men to judgement, unto the seat of God the immortal, the great.

220 For he only is incorruptible, himself the Almighty, who shall be the judge of mortal men. And then unto them of the underworld shall the heavenly one give their souls and spirit and speech, and their bones joined together, with all the joints, and the flesh and sinews and veins, and skin also over the flesh, and hair as before, and the bodies of the dwellers upon earth shall be moved and arise in one day, joined together in immortal fashion and breathing.

Then shall the great angel Uriel break the monstrous bars framed of unyielding and unbroken adamant, of the brazen

230 gates of Hades, and cast them down straightway, and bring forth to judgement all the sorrowful forms, yea, of the ghosts of the ancient Titans, and of the giants, and all whom the flood overtook. And all whom the wave of the sea hath destroyed in the waters, and all whom beasts and creeping things and fowls have feasted on: all these shall he bring to the judgement seat; and again those whom flesh-devouring fire hath consumed in the flames, them also shall he gather and set before God’s seat.

And when he shall overcome Fate and raise the dead, then shall Adonai Sabaoth the high thunderer sit on his heavenly

240 throne, and set up the great pillar, and Christ himself, the undying unto the undying, shall come in the clouds in glory with the pure angels, and shall sit on the seat on the right of the Great One, judging the life of the godly and the walk of ungodly men.

And Moses also the great, the friend of the Most High shall come, clad in flesh, and the great Abraham himself shall come, and Isaac and Jacob, Jesus, Daniel, Elias, Ambacum (Habakkuk), and Jonas, and they whom the Hebrews slew: and all the Hebrews that were with (after ?) Jeremias shall be judged at the judgement seat, and he shall destroy them, that they may receive a due reward and expiate all that they did in their mortal life.

And then shall all men pass through a blazing river and unquenchable flame, and the righteous shall be saved whole all of them, but the ungodly shall perish therein unto all ages, even as many as wrought evil aforetime, and committed murders, and all that were privy thereto, liars, thieves, deceivers, cruel destroyers of houses, gluttons, marriers by stealth, shedders of evil rumours, sorely insolent lawless, idolaters: and all that forsook the great immortal God and became blasphemers and harmers of the godly, breakers of faith and destroyers of righteous men. And all that look with guileful and shameless double faces -reverend priests and deacons- and judge unjustly, dealing perversely, obeying false rumours . . . more deadly than leopards and wolves, and very evil: and all that are high-minded, and usurers that heap up in their houses usury out of usury and injure orphans and widows continually: and they that give alms of unjust gain unto widows and orphans, and they that when they give alms of their own toil, reproach them; and they that have forsaken their parents in their old age and not repaid them at all, nor recompensed them for their nurture; yea, and they that have disobeyed and spoken hard words against their parents: they also that have received pledges and denied them, and servants that have turned against their masters; and again they which have defiled their flesh in lasciviousness, and have loosed the girdle of virginity in secret union, and they that make the child in the womb miscarry, and that cast out their offspring against right: sorcerers also and sorceresses with these shall the wrath of the heavenly and immortal God bring near unto the pillar, all round about which the untiring river of fire shall flow. And all of them shall the undying angels of the immortal everlasting God chastise terribly with flaming scourges, and shall bind them fast from above in fiery chains, bonds unbreakable. And then shall they cast them down in the darkness of night into Gehenna among the beasts of hell, many and frightful, where is darkness without measure.

And when they have dealt out many torments unto all whose heart was evil, thereafter out of the great river shall a wheel of fire encompass them, because they devised wicked works. And then shall they lament apart every one from another in miserable fate, fathers and infant children, mothers and sucklings weeping, nor shall they be sated with tears nor shall the voice of them that mourn piteously apart be heard (?); but far under dark and squalid Tartarus shall they cry in torment, and in no holy place shall they abide and expiate threefold every evil deed that they have done, burning in a great flame; and shall gnash their teeth, all of them worn out with fierce thirst and hunger (al. force violence), and shall call death lovely and it shall flee from them: for no more shall death nor night give them rest, and oft-times shall they beseech in vain the Almighty God, and then shall he openly turn away his face from them. For he hath granted the limit of seven ages for repentance unto men that err, by the hand of a pure virgin.

But the residue which have cared for justice and good deeds, yea, and godliness and righteous thoughts, shall angels bear up and carry through the flaming river unto light, and life without care, where is the immortal path of the great God; and three fountains, of wine and honey and milk. And the earth, common to all, not parted out with walls or fences, shall then bring forth of her own accord much fruit, and life and wealth shall be common and undistributed. For there shall be no poor man, nor rich, nor tyrant, nor slave, none great nor small any longer, no kings, no princes; but all men shall be together in common. And no more shall any man say ‘ night is come ‘, nor ‘ the morrow ‘, nor ‘ it was yesterday ‘. He maketh no more of days, nor of spring, nor winter, nor summer, nor autumn, neither marriage,nor death, nor selling, nor buying, nor set of sun, nor rising. For God shall make one long day.

And unto them, the godly, shall the almighty and immortal God grant another boon, when they shall ask it of him. He shall grant them to save men out of the fierce fire and the eternal gnashing of teeth: and this will he do, for he will gather them again out of the everlasting flame and remove them else whither, sending them for the sake of his people unto another life eternal and immortal, in the Elysian plain where are the long waves of the Acherusian lake exhaustless and deep bosomed;

Some artless iambic lines of uncertain date are appended here, which show what was thought of the doctrine:

‘ Plainly false: for the fire will never cease to torment the damned. I indeed could pray that it might be so, who am branded with the deepest scars of transgressions which stand in need of utmost mercy. But let Origen be ashamed of his lying words, who saith that there is a term set to the torments.’

BIBLE GEOGRAPHY

The Bible is not a make believe storybook about imaginary people in imaginary places (such as Peter Pan in “Never Never Land” or Alice in “Wonderland”). The Bible is a true record of REAL people who lived in REAL places on this earth. These people (such as Abraham, Moses, David, Daniel, Peter, Paul, Luke) were surrounded by REAL cities and REAL countries and REAL mountains and REAL rivers and REAL seas, just like we are. Geography is “a study (or description) of the EARTH,” and in this lesson we want to study that part of the earth where the events of the Bible took place.

Most of us are quite familiar with that part of the earth called “North America.” We are acquainted with the great cities of North America (New York, Los Angeles, Chicago), the great rivers (the Mississippi, the Hudson, the Colorado), the great mountain ranges (the Rocky Mountains, the White Mountains, the Smoky Mountains), the great bodies of water (the Atlantic Ocean, the Great Lakes, the Great Salt Lake) and the great countries (the United States, Canada, Mexico).

Most of us are less familiar with another part of the world called “The Middle East” (although we are hearing and seeing more and more about this volatile section of the world on the news and in the newspapers) or another part called “Mesopotamia” (the fertile region between the Tigris and Euphrates River, the home of the great ancient civilizations). We are also less familiar with that section of the world which at one time comprised the Roman empire (including the lands bordering the Mediterranean Sea). These are the lands of the Bible. It is here that earth’s most important events have taken place and will take place.

To help you become more familiar with this part of the world, answer the following questions and then see if you can locate the answers on a map.  Your Bible may have maps in the back.

Obey the Government

Our President, King, or whatever the Ruler of a Country may use as a title, they are there be cause of God. You ask your self “how can I, as one person make any change in my Country?” It must start with you and to recognize that God is the supreme Ruler of all! 2 Chron. 7:14 .

14 However, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves, pray, search for me, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear {their prayer} from heaven, forgive their sins, and heal their country. 15 My eyes will be open, and my ears will pay attention to those prayers at this place.

If were to humble ourselves and Pray,  turn from our sin, seek God, then, our voices will pierce the clouds and God will hear and heal our Land. There you have it. That’s how “WE” as one, can and will make a difference. OK, let’s read verses 1-10…

Romans 13: 1-10

Obey the Government

Love One Another

If we change our life’s to please God, and to Love on another, others will see that it is good, and they will want to change themselves. We all want a piece of something good, preferably all that is good.

1Tim. 2: 1-4

We must PRAY for all our leaders and authorities, whether Mayor, Police, Minister, City Office it doesn’t matter. Pray for all !!

If we change our lives, and start living for God, others will see the GOOD change in you and will want to also change. We must evaluate our own selves, where we truly are with God and our true faith in Christ. We must start doing the will of our Father in Heaven and not that of our own. There are people in need every where. They need our help. If you go to Church, and do not tithe, then please start doing so.

1 Cor 16:1-2 (GW)

If you do not attend a Church, we encourage you to find one near you. You are also Welcome to join our Church online. If you do, Welcome to our family.  Where ever you join or go to praise God, please, please give. If you would like to donate an offering here, please go to our Donations page(located on top bar). It is safe, secure, and easy. May God bless our Leaders and may their hearts come back to know God. Amen.

Rev. Dr. Myron Cohen D. Div.