1916_What Pastor Russell Taught.pdf

What Pastor Russell Taught

Pages 321-390

The first part of this book consists of articles from the

Zion's Watch Tower and thus are not duplicated on this disk .

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The Sin-Offering

and

The Covenants

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—————

1907 PUBLISHERS’ NOTE

—————

The following pages are taken from a stenographic report

of a “Question Meeting” conducted by Pastor Charles T.

Russell, of Allegheny, in St. Louis, Missouri, Sunday,

August 11, 1907. The brethren who have arranged for its

publication send it out with the sincere hope and prayer

that it may be blessed of the Lord in making more clear to

the minds of His people into whose hands it may fall, the

“Harvest Truth” concerning the subjects discussed; to the

end that all the “Watchmen” may see “eye to eye.” Peace be

to you!

—————

We are glad to be able to reprint these items for the

benefit of those who do not have the original Towers or

Reprints.

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THE SIN-OFFERING AND THE COVENANTS

—————

Introductory—Harvest Truth

I was glad to accept the invitation of the St. Louis Church

to hear certain questions, perplexing to some, and give

answers to the best of my ability, with the hope and prayer

that the subject may be clear to our minds. We are living

in a time when the Lord declares his people shall see eye to

eye. He says this shall be a characteristic of our day:

"When the Lord shalld bring again his people the watchmen

shall see eye to eye." (Isa. 52:8.) We trust that while some

of us, called Elders, might be called watchmen in a special

sense, yet all the Lord’s people are watchmen. We are all

seeing what the Lord our God has brought to us, and

looking to that word which is the only revelation of the

Divine will. So all should see eye to eye. Those asleep are

not watchmen, but as soon as they become watchmen they

will come to see eye to eye. As we come nearer and nearer

to an object it should be more clearly seen by all of u s.

If we recognize that we are in the harvest time of the

Gospel Age, then we ought to recognize certain things as

being due to be understood more clearly, yet at the same

time we ought not to expect anything particularly different

from what has been the course of the Lord’s dealing

throughout the past; but so surely as we are, we ought to

expect something peculiar to the harvest time. What are

we to expect? With us the Jewish nation is a figure, an

example and type. You remember having studied that

matter. They had their priesthood, their high priests and

under priests, we have ours; they had

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their tabernacle and we have ours; they had their golden

candlestick and we have our golden candlestick of Divine

truth and light. So when it comes to the harvest we find

that their harvest was a particular pattern of this age. If

Jesus was present to do the work there, so he will do the

work here. What was the work? Separating and reaping,

and gathering together iof the Lord’s elect. How was that

done? By the promulgation of greater knowledge and

greater truth. He made known certain things.

Well, then, we should expect there to be greater knowledge

of God’s plans pertaining to this time, as there was to that

harvest time. We ought to remember that that was the end

of the Jewish age and the opening of the Gospel age, and

the Apostle, by inspiration, speaks of the light that is to

come upon the “ends of the ages,” upon the ends of those

ages where they met, and these two ages where they meet.

That light did not precede our Lord’s presence, and while

there has not been gross darkness over this Gospel age, the

ispecial lightd from God shines upon the i"ends of the

ages."d It is in harmony with this that you and I have

received from the Lord the great blessing of clearer light. It

would be very difficult for us to say what is the most

valuable feature of Divine truth. It is all important, all

necessary, that the man of God may be “thoroughly

furnished.” (2 Tim. 3:16,17.)

Now, dear friends, this clear light on the end of the age

came in connection with the understanding of a mystery.

What mystery? The “mystery” the Apostle Paul talks about.

You remember how this was on the end of the Jewish age

and the opening of the Gospel age. The Lord made known

the mystery “not made known to other ages and

dispensations and which is now made manifest.” (Rom.

16:25,26; Col. 1:26,27.) You remember how frequently he

speaks of this mystery. He explained that the Messiah

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to come was to be not only our Lord Jesus Christ, but

also the Church his Bride. They supposed that the great

Messiah was coming and was to be king of their nation and

their nation was to convert the world, but they did not

know he was going to itake out of the Jewish nation the

ijoint heirsd of the world.

Then the Apostle says there was another part they did

not understand. God not only proposed to take some of

that body of Christ from the Jews, but from all the nations

of the earth, that He might make of each one a part of the

Christ. This is what the Apostle brings to our attention.

He says God gave Jesus to be the head of the Church. This

is "the mystery" not made known in previous ages. This

mystery was not even made known to all the apostles. You

remember it was made known to the Apostle Paul, and

while the writings of the other apostles are in harmony with

this thought, you do not get it from them—you get it from

Paul. He tells us that God had given to him visions and

revelations more than to all the other apostles, and it is

manifest from his writings, that he had this clearer vision

and knowledge. So it is from the Apostle Paul’s writings

that we get this knowledge of the mystery.

Peter did not understand it: he was at first in opposition

to the Gentiles, but the Lord sent to him the vision of the

sheet held by the four corners, by which he was shown he

must not consider the Gentiles any longer as common and

unclean. (Acts 10.) You see, then, that at that time the

Apostle Peter did not have the thought of the oneness of the

Body of Christ. That is a part of the mystery Paul says was

made more clear to him through visions and revelations

than to them all. And yet that very thought was lost sight

of—the oneness of Christ and the Church—when the

Church began to get the wrong impression that it was to

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convert the world. When they thought of everybody, they

could not think of the “Body of Christ” including everybody.

It destroyed this thought that the Church is the mysterious

body of Christ that is to rule all the earth and bless the

earth.

So this thought was hidden from all during the Gospel

age, and our parents and friends did not see this subject,

which is now clear to us. It is clear to us because we are

living in the harvest time of the age, when God is brushing

away the darkness and allowing our eyes to see and

understand. This light was lost sight of during the Gospel

age, and now this is the particular thought brought to your

attention, namely: That Christ the head and the Church

his body, is the great anti-typical Moses, the great Prophet

God has been raising up, through which the blessing is to

come to Israel, and through Israel to all the nations (Acts

3:22,23.) Christ is the head, and through the members of

his Elect is to bless Israel and all the nations. When did

this feature of light come to our attention? It came to my

attention in 1869. I was thinking along these lines, seeing

that our friends in the churches were wrong, and seeing

the second coming of Christ was the thing to be expected,

and along about 1873 I got so far as to see that there was

restitution coming to the world, but I did not understand

what restitution meant. I supposed that when the world

was blessed it would come to be in the same sort of

spiritual condition as the Church, and not until 1878 did

the light of that feature come, in respect to the fact that the

Church is to be of a separate and distinct nature, and is to

be used by the Lord in blessing Israel and through them

blessing all the nations. What is the basis? The matter we

are to discuss this morning—The type of the Sin Atonement,

and the Day of Atonement.

You have it in a booklet called “Tabernacle Shadows,”

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published in the Fall of 1880—there was the basis of it.

Christ is the great High Priest and the Church is

associated with him as the under priests, and to be

associated with him in the glories of the future when the

atonement day is over and the sacrifices ended. So have in

mind that the basis of any light we have today rests upon

this subject of the atonement sacrifices and the

sin-offerings of this Day of Atonement. The light has come

along these lines. God has been pleased to bless this

thought. If that becomes evident to you, you will ibed ivery

slow to cast aside that which has brought you to the light

you have.d It is on this line God has granted all the light in

which we are now rejoicing.

I shall be pleased to answer any questions.

PART 1.—THE SIN OFFERING

(Question.) How does the “Sin-Offering,” typified in the

Atonement day sacrifices, differ from the Ransom, or

corresponding price, paid by Jesus Christ for Adam’s

forfeited life?

(Answer.) The two are not to be associated at all, any

more than two of our Lord’s parables. If you take the

parable of the Wheat and the Tares and the parable of the

Ten Virgins and try to combine them, you will find it

impossible to do so, because one is discussing one subject

and the other another subject. They are both true, and

plausible, and both teach beautiful lessons, but not the

same lesson. They are both parables given

of God; they do not contradict, but they do not teach the

same lesson. And so when we talk about the Ransom, that

is one thought, iand the Sin-offering is another thought, and

we are inot to mix the two.d

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