brews looked upon their sanctuary as the
earthly dwelling place of God. But they
realized also that God was too great to
have His primary abode in a simple,
earthly structure built by the hands of
man. Hence Solomon, upon the dedica-
tion of the magnificent temple, addressed
"+ Deity in the following words: “Will
d indeed dwell on the earth? Behold,
the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot
contain Thee; how much less this house
that I have builded? ... Hearken
Thou to the supplication of Thy servant,
and of Thy people Israel, when they
shall pray toward this place: and hear
‘Thou in heaven Thy dwelling place: and
when Thou hearest, forgive.” 1 Kings
8: 27, 30. |
Moses understood that the tabernacle
built by Israel was solely an earthly rep-
resentation of the glorious abode of God
in the infinite vault of heaven, for the
Lord said: “According to all that I
show thee, after the pattern of the taber-
nacle, and the pattern of all the instru-
ments thereof, even so shall ye make it.”
Exodus 25: 9,
Prophets in vision often saw the hea-
vens opened and there beheld the scenes
of which the earthly temple was. but an
imperfect shadow. Thus Isaiah declared:
“I saw also the Lord sitting upon a
throne, high and lifted up, and His train
filled the temple.” Isaiah 6:1. Ezekiel
tells us that he saw the heavens opened
and was given visions of God. He gives a
vivid description of the cherubim sur-
rounding the eternal throne of the Deity.
(Ezekiel 1: 1, 26-28; 10: 1-22.) John, the
apostle, also saw a door opened in hea-
ven, and beheld there God seated upon
His throne, with seven lamps of fire, an
angel with a golden censer standing
before the golden altar which was before
the throne of God, and the ark of the
testament in the heavenly temple. (Reve-
lation 4: 1-5; 8: 3, 4; 11: 19.)
Paul, in speaking of Jesus, the great
antitypical High Priest, declared: “We
have such an High Priest, who is set on
the right hand of the throne of the Ma-
jesty in the heavens; a minister of the
sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle,
which the Lord pitched, and not man.
. . . There are priests that offer gifts
according to the law: who serve unto the
example and shadow of heavenly things,
as Moses was admonished of God when
" > was about to make the tabernacle: for,
e, saith He, that thou make all things
according to the pattern showed to thee
in the mount.” Hebrews 8: 1, 2, 4, 5.
~ By this earthly representation of scenes
and ceremonies in heaven, God kept
vividly before His people a prophetic
picture of the intercessory work of Christ
(Continued on page 13)
NOVEMBER — 1944
"OF ONE
5L00D"
By J. F. Huenergardt
“GOD . . . hath made of one blood all na-
tions of men for to dwell on all the face of the
earth, and hath determined the times before ap-
pointed, and the bounds of their habitation.”
Acts 17: 24-26.
These words were uttered in ancient Athens,
almost 2,000 years ago. They struck at one of the
cherished vanities of the Greeks, who held that
they were produced at the same time as was the
sun, and that they originally sprang from the soil
. which they inhabited. They prided themselves
on their superiority, and wore golden grass-
hoppers as a badge of honor.
Since then the human heart has experienced no
fundamental change. It is an interesting fact
that in behalf of each separate race of men the
claim of superiority very definitely has been made.
This very idea has embroiled the world in the
greatest international struggle for world su-
premacy that humanity has ever witnessed. But
wars will not solve the problem. Jesus Christ is
the one solution of the race problem, as He is of
every other moral and social problem. Race
wrong and injustice are sin, and Christ came to
save man from sin, both the sin of each individual
man, and the sin of the race of men.
The Bible teaches that all the races are but
parts of the one human race. Mankind is one
great kindred of all men. God did not change
His original plan after .the Flood. Through the
one family of Noah it was continued, and through
the covenant made with him it was further estab-
lished that the world should be peopled of this
one blood. (Genesis 9: 18, 19.)
According to the most reliable historical
sources it is ten generations from Shem to
Abraham, of exactly 292 years. During this
time various nations came into being, but they
all came from “one blood”’—all were descendants
of Noah.
The study of the race problem needs to be
taken up with the definite thought that a race
group, after it has developed, is only at its best
an enlarged section of the human family. That
is the biblical view, and that is also the finding
of careful race study. All the attempts made to
explain otherwise this question of races have
failed. The unity of mankind is proved in many
different ways, and is immensely more real than
the idea that there are independent races very
remote from one another.
There are no pure or unmixed races. Professor
- Edwin Grant Conklin says: “If in the past God
made of one blood all nations of men, it is certain
that at present there is being made from all na-
tions one blood. By the interbreeding of various
races and breeds there has come to be a compli-
cated intermixture of racial characters in almost
every human stock, and this process is going on
today more rapidly and extensively than ever
before. Strictly speaking, there are no ‘pure’ lines
in any group. If so-called ‘pure’ English, Irish,
Scotch, Dutch, German, Russian, French,
Spanish or Italian lines are traced back only a
few generations, they are found to include many
foreign strains, and this is especially true of
American families, even those of purest blood.” —
“The Direction of Human Evolution,” p. 47.
Men are many, but man is one, with a unity
that is rich with the originality of God. The
ethnologist can find no evidence for any doctrine
which denies the unity of man. Our own human
experience teaches us the same lesson. We are
at variance with the facts and the reality of life if
we do not come into the personal and the social
realization of the solidarity of humanity.
The Christian conviction is that all that we see
is simply raw material awaiting the cleansing
and unifying power of the gospel of Christ, whose
mission it is to purify all that is unholy, to illu-
minate all that is dark, to raise up all that is low,
and to redeem all from bondage. Histery is full of
the work which Christianity has wrought in this
long and still continuing process. And the traces
of it are written all over our common institutions.
From the very beginning Christianity came
into the world with the stamp of universality.
(Luke 2:10.) For Christ there were no race
prejudices, no party lines, no favored nations.
His love embraced the whole world. “I am the
light of the world.” John 8: 12. “I, if I be lifted
up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.”
John 12: 32. It is true that His lineage is estab-
lished, that He was subject unto His parents, and
that in the hour of death He acknowledged a
filial bond to His mother ‘and cared for her.
(Luke 3:23-38; 2:5; John 19:25-27.) Who
would not see in this His recognition of country,
blood relationship, and personal love. But at the
same time, he rose above kindred and country to
embrace the world. (Matthew 12: 48-50.) In
God’s eyes “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there
is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor
female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Galatians 3: 28.
Jesus, born according to the flesh of Eastern
stock, committed His work to a group of Oriental
apostles chosen in Palestine, the crossroad of the
world, midway between the East and the West.
He sent them out to preach His message to the
world. They received a vision of the common
relationship of the human race. They advanced
against ignorance and prejudice, and led the cross
of Christ to triumph.
One reason why Paul was chosen to bring the
gospel to the Gentiles was because he was
able to tear away from the narrow provincialism
of his own people, and adjust himself to the cos-
mopolitanism of Jesus. And in every successive
age it was those who grasped the truth of the
universality of Christianity who were the true
ministers of the gospel to all nations. (Ephesians
3:10, 11.)
Today—more than ever before—we need this
mind of Christ. Today His gospel of the kingdom
is the only hope of the human race. (Matthew
24: 14.) It must be preached to all nations. It
carries us beyond all national and racial influ-
ences, and leads to the blessedness of the pure in
heart, who alone shall inherit the earth made new.
PAGE 5