Matthew the Publican
By
Rowland V. Bingham.
My acquaintance with Matthew seems to drop
into three epochs.
The First Epoch
The
first thing I did following my conversion was to buy myself a good teacher’s
Bible. I had no one to guide me, and so knelt
by my bedside and opened the book at the New Testament. There I met Matthew, and he told me of One Who was named Jesus because He came to save His people
from their sins. And I did not doubt
that I was one of those whom He came to save.
When
Matthew pictured Him, following John the Baptist, and announcing the Kingdom of
heaven as at hand, I read on and saw Him preaching the kingdom as already come and almost declaring, “Blessed are the poor in
spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
I
was so broken that I felt I had received this blessing.
When
I read on, “Enter
ye in at the strait gate,” not only did I come that way, but soon found myself
trying to get others in by the same narrow gateway, and not without some
success.
When
Matthew presented Christ preaching, “Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I
will liken him unto a wise man, which built his
house upon the rock,” I sought to
hear and do these words of Christ,
and there came the assurance that I was building
on the Rock.
And
when under the urge of this Gospel I was moved to confess Christ before men,
and preach Him to men, I went to Matthew to
find the most moving messages of warning and entreaty. In all language there is no more tender
appeal than that contained in the sweet invitation, “Come
unto Me, all ye that labour and are heave laden,
and I will give
you rest” (Matthew 11: 28). And it
worked, for men and women responded to it and were gloriously saved. They came in by the strait gate into the kingdom
which I preached.
[* NOTE. The “rest” here is that which Christ Jesus gives
to all His regenerate people at the time of their initial salvation by
faith; and it is based upon His finished work. This “rest” has
nothing whatsoever to do with a Christian’s work after receiving eternal
salvation.
But,
there is also mention of “a sabbath rest for
the people of God” which is an entirely different “rest.” This is
a “rest,” which regenerate believers
should “give diligence to enter into” Heb. 4: 9, 11, R.V.):
and it is something yet future - at the “salvation of souls” (verse
9)!
We
dare not confuse these two different periods of “rest”! The former is given to all Christians:
it is eternal. It is given
immediately after asking Jesus Christ to be one’s personal Saviour; and it
cannot be lost. But, the latter
“rest” may be lost (for it is millennial):
and is dependant upon the behaviour of some!]
Yet
the time came when I met those who
protested that Matthew was not written for
sinners or saints, but for the Jews.
It was Jewish, and had no
practical application to the Church.
To use it as containing the Gospel for sinners, or its precepts as
obligatory for saints, evidenced a serious lack of knowledge of the Scriptures.
The Second Epoch
It
was this second period that a unique opportunity came to me. A very godly, cultured minister invited me to
his home to study, undertaking to give me daily instruction in the Scriptures
and to guide me further in my studies.
His life of faith and prayer was a benediction to me as a young man, and
the whole experience meant more to me than a seminary course.
His
daily expositions of the Scriptures were wonderfully rich. And following an hour’s exegesis he outlined
my studies for the day. He introduced me
to Hodge’s Theology with its strong Calvinism, and then placed in my hands
books by the Brethren, and I was soon revelling in the writings of C.H.M. with
their typology of Pentateuch; also in Kelly on the Revelation.
Having
never listened to a single address on the Second Coming of Christ, I at once
become infatuated with prophetic study. Had I been warned against systems of
prophetic interpretation, and directed to the text of Scripture itself, I
should have been saved much.
But
I heard the constant repetition of the term “dispensational”
interpretation of the Bible, and under this big word I had soon swallowed its
whole method of dividing Biblical history into what were termed seven
dispensations, in all of which God adopted a different method of dealing with
the human race. Had they been just a
succession of the great events of history, which by their outstanding
importance gave a milestone mark through the process of time, little harm might
have been done. Or had it divided
history, as the Bible itself does, into Old and New Testament periods, in which
God was dealing with the race under the Old and New Covenants respectively, no exception could be taken to such a division.
But
gradually I found this method robbing me of more and more of the New Covenant
heritage. First, Matthew was Jewish, and its commission even belonged to the
Jewish converts of the tribulation period.
Then the other two Synoptic Gospels were soon following in a similar
classification. With others, John’s
Gospel followed suit; and ere the process was complete, I was informed at last
that the Pauline Epistles alone contained “Church
truth,” and that the Pauline Gospel was the only Gospel for today. The Epistle to the Hebrews
and the General Epistles of James and Peter contained Jewish,
Not
all these teachers go to the full extreme thus referred to, and commonly
classed as Bullingerism, but it is difficult to find a stopping place en route
when once the principles of interpretation are admitted.
All
of these teachers are strong in their affirmation of believing in the whole
Bible, and inveigh against Modernism, but by a subtle process, which they
commonly refer to as “rightly dividing the word of
truth” (although an entirely wrong application of 2 Timothy 2: 15,
in which Paul had no thought of such divisions), they rob the soul of large
portions of Holy Writ - they may no longer be applied to those personal needs
by which the believer is sanctified through the truth.
As
to Matthew, there would be quite general
assent among these teachers to the following summary:
1. The Gospel of Matthew is peculiarly Jewish and
contains the Gospel for Jews.
2. That it sets forth Christ as being heir to the throne
of David, King of the Jews, and that He came [at that time] to present Himself to them as such, and ready, if accepted, to set up
that kingdom.
3. That it was this kingdom that was primarily proclaimed
as at hand.
4. That when the Jews refused Him, the kingdom announced
was suspended, to be proclaimed anew after the Church Age is complete.
5. That “the Gospel of the
kingdom” has to do with that kingdom, and therefore has no place in the
present Church Age, but will be proclaimed by Jews converted subsequent to the
translation of the Church.
6. That the ethics of this book are the laws of the
kingdom, and are no standard for the Church - that they express Law and not
Grace.
7. That the eschatology or prophetic part of Matthew pertains also to the period after the
Church is translated. That the Church
has nothing to do with the signs given; she has but to watch momentarily for
her Lord’s return. To use the expression
we have often heard these teachers use, “When Israel
was set aside, the prophetic clock stopped.”
8. That the great commission with which this Gospel concludes
is intended not for the Church but will be taken up and preached after the
church is translated by a very convenient and much used “group” commonly referred to as “the Jewish remnant.”
The
reiteration of these propositions by such great and godly men whose names are
known and beloved by the whole Church, many of whom personally known and loved
by me, had made their impression upon me and the second period of my life was
largely dominated by this interpretation - although my deep missionary call
under the terms of the great commission kept me from their final conclusion
given above.
The Third Epoch
Then
there came a sudden revelation which led to a revolution and an
emancipation. And it all happened
in a day, although there had been introductory premonitions. There were misgivings at some of the
unnatural forced interpretations necessary in order to make every Scripture fit
in to what I conceived to be its proper place in my dispensational chart. The tribulation period took care of a good
many of the misfit passages, and was a great convenience.
My
wife set the investigating machinery going one day by saying, “Rowland, where do you get the Secret Rapture idea in the
Bible? I have to teach the Second Coming
to my class of young women on Sunday, and I have been hunting for some proof of
the Secret Rapture.” I quite
glibly replied “1 Thessalonians 4.” “But,” said
she, “I have been reading that and it is about the noisiest
thing I can find in my Bible - ‘The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the
But
you may not have someone who holds your theories on the defence until you prove
them. I tried a second thrust be
suggesting that there was the type of Enoch being secretly translated while
Noah went through the judgment, to which there came the counter blow that
knocked me out of the ring as she said “You know,
Rowland, that you cannot build a doctrine on a type.”*
[*
But, the Apostle Paul’s teachings and
warnings to Christians were built on types! Read 1
Corinthians 10: 6: “These things but Types of us were made, in order that we might not be lusters
of evil things, as even they
lusted:” (translated literally from the Greek.). The fact of the matter is that the
whole of the inspired Apostle’s warnings to Christians today (relative
to the loss of the “Prize”, the “Crown” and their “Inheritance”
in the “Age” yet to come), are all based on Types! It is true that we dare not teach doctrine
from Hymn
Books, because much of what is written in some of the hymns which we
sing, are not in accordance with the teachings found written throughout
the Holy Scriptures!]
Later
I said to the unsatisfied wife “My teachers all
affirmed that the Greek very clearly differentiates between the secret rapture
of the Church and the public manifestation to the world. The word ‘Parousia’ always indicates the
rapture, while ‘Epiphanea’ always has to do with the appearing of Christ with
His Church.” I had heard those
two Greek words so often adduced in evidence that it must be so. If you can only go over a few Greek words, it
suffuses mystery and creates authority.
But that help-meet of mine wanted to do what I had never done, check up
on those two Greek words. So there was
nothing for it but to get out my Young’s Concordance and turn up every text in
which the word “Parousia” occurred. And it smashed the theory of the Secret
Rapture*
so hopelessly that I marvelled at the credulity with which I had swallowed my “authorities.”
[*NOTE. Always keep in mind: The rapture at the end of the Tribulation
(when Christ returns to resurrect the holy dead, 1 Thess. 4: 16), is not
a Secret Rapture - as has been shown above, by a removal of those “accounted worthy to escape:” Luke
21: 36 cf. Rev. 3: 10)!
These
saints only will be removed from earth before Antichrist’s persecutions
commence! The words “accounted worthy to escape”
indicate this will be a select rapture of some,
and therefore will not include all Christians! It will take place before the rapture
mentioned in 1 Thess. 4: 17 of those
“that are alive, that
are left”
(R.V.), after having endured the fearful persecutions of the coming Antichrist!
How
easy, for Satan to blind the Lord’s regenerate people
to His responsibility and accountability truths shown
throughout the Scriptures! Many
Christians believe in one Rapture only, and one
Resurrection only unto immorality, when it is declared in God’s Word that there
are two!]
But to come to my revolution by revelation in a day. An old friend had
invited me for about the twentieth time to come to help at his annual
missionary conference at which I had generally given the special missionary
sermon. A little while before the
conference he wired to tell me that the Bible teacher upon whom he had relied
had failed him, and he would look to me for the special teaching ministry of
the week. Unwittingly, I consented.
The
intervening days were so crowded with the pressure of my work that I could find
no time for the special preparation needed, and the fearful morning arrived
when I had to take the train for an all-day ride, with a week’s ministry
staring me in the face at the end of the journey - and no message.
In
sheer desperation I took out my Bible and threw myself helplessly on the
Lord. And I know the blessed
illuminator, the Holy Spirit, responded.
I commenced to read in Matthew, and
all day long I Read and re-read, with such an unveiling that my soul was filled
to such overflowing that I wondered how I was going to find time in a week to pour
out the inward wealth that was poured in that day.
But
my theories were being dispelled like mists in the sunshine. It means a great deal to have a cherished
teaching of years upset in a day, and that without argument or human
instrument. As time has gone by, our
future study, freed from the system of interpretation which had dominated so
long, has only confirmed us in the conclusions reached that day. …
*
* *
THE MEN WHO MOVE THE WORLD
ARE THE ONES WHO DO NOT LET THE WORLD
MOVE THEM
God give us men!
A time like this demands
Strong minds, great hearts, true faith, and ready
hands.
Men whom the lust of office does not kill;
Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy:
Men who possess opinions and a will;
Men who stand before the demagogue
And scorn treacherous flatteries without winking;
Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog,
In public duty, and in private thinking.
J. G. Holland.
C. H. Spurgeon and the Millennium
“There are better times coming, when the religion of Christ
shall be universal; when He shall reign from pole to pole, with illimitable
sway, when whole kingdoms shall bow down before Him, and nations shall be born
in a day; and in the thousand years of the great millennial state there will be
enough saved to make up all the deficiencies of the thousands of years that
have gone before. Christ shall be Master
everywhere, and His praise shall be sounded in every land. Christ shall have the pre-eminence at last;
His train shall be far larger than that which shall attend the chariot of the
grim monarch of hell:” (from C. H.
Spurgeon’s Autobiography, Volume 1, page 175).