THE MAN GOD USES – CHAPTER XII – Oswald J Smith

WHICH IS YOUR GOAL?

HOW do you find the work among the Indians now?” I enquired of a missionary on the Pacific Coast.

“Oh, harder, much harder,” was the reply. “Many of them have begun to doubt the Bible and to question the Christian religion. They have lost faith.”

“Why! How is that?” I asked, wondering what his explanation would be.

“The war—Christian nations fighting each other—the Indians can’t understand it.” And his face grew solemn as he looked out over the mountain ranges across the channel.

And my heart, too, was saddened for I knew what he did not, knew that it was due not at all to the war, but to the unscriptural teaching of the present day that not only the Indians but the heathen of every foreign land as well as thousands in our so-called Christian countries have lost faith and are perplexed.

It is only occasionally that I preach on the premillennial Coming of Christ, because I recognize that it is a truth and not the great central truth of Christianity. It is not the Gospel. I am forced to admit that it is the pivot point upon which a man’s ministry is bound to turn. I find that the goal for which he works makes all the difference in the world as to the methods he uses and the results he hopes to obtain.

For instance, if his goal is the Conversion of the World, and if he believes this to be the work of the Church, then he is going to labor on until that goal is reached. He will expect to see conditions improving and Christianity advancing on every side. And if such is not the case, he is bound to be cast down, pessimistic, discouraged and disappointed.

Were I a post millennialist today, in view of the tragic struggle that has recently terminated, I would be the most pessimistic, discouraged and disappointed person in the world. To think of the awful set-back that Christianity has received, to meet the thousands whom I have met this summer who have lost faith, and who speak contemptuously of our Christian (?) nations and the Christian religion, instead of a glorious conquest and the spread of righteousness, would be enough to make me lose all hope of the ultimate christianization of the human race. If I believed that the Conversion of the World was the task of the Church, and the goal for which I must strive, I would give up in despair.

But if on the other hand he believes that God is now visiting the Gentiles not to save the world, but “to take out of them a people for His name” (Acts 15:14) and that this is the work of the Church in cooperation with the Holy Spirit, then he can be the most optimistic of men, for full well he knows that this work is being accomplished. His goal is the calling out of the Church, the Bride, the Body of Christ.

One will go out to Christianize China, an utterly hopeless task; for the Church has never yet Christianized one single village or community, let alone a nation. The other will go to cooperate with the Spirit in calling “out” from among the Chinese “a people for His name,” the Church. And he will be eminently successful.

There are no Christian nations. What government today is guided and controlled by the principle of Jesus? Has the Sermon on the Mount been adopted by the so-called Christian nations as their law? Is there any country in which all are followers of Christ? Then why talk of Christian nations?

War is Hell, sin its author, and selfishness its ruling power. And God declares that it will continue and become more awful until the end of the age, in spite of all men may attempt to do to alter His decrees. Their task is hopeless for the greatest war of all is yet to come. The human heart is to grow worse and worse, not better (1 Tim. 4:1-3; 2 Tim 3:1-5, 13). World Salvation in this age is impossible, and the man who makes that his goal, like a fool, attempts the impossible.

Men used to say that the world was growing better ⁹⁰ , that there never could be a war again among the Christian (?) nations. Today they must hang their heads in shame. What have they to answer? How will they explain their position? What now of the German theology which they embraced? They know at last that the world has had a set back and a bad one, too. Their hopes and ideals have been shattered, and their goal placed father off. How will the missionary answer the questions of the Indians? What will he say to the perplexed heathen? Can he explain his past teaching? Is he able yet to prove that the world is growing better, and that Christianity is making progress? Will he stand out still for World-Betterment? They will answer him by pointing to the War, and to the thousands who have lost faith. And he will be dumb.

But if he has taught them according to the Word, if he has told them that they were to expect wars; if he has differentiated between the World and the Church, and made it plain that the goal of the Gospel is not the Conversion of the World, but the taking OUT of it a people, the calling out of the Church, and that this the Gospel is surely accomplishing in all lands and among all people; if he has been true to the Word, he will have no trouble now. They will understand perfectly, and there will be no pessimism, no discouragement.

The aim of the “New Era” or “Forward Movement,” “A Christ-controlled Nation and a Christ-controlled World,” was doomed to failure from the beginning because it is absolutely contrary to the Word of God. That is not the mission of the Church, nor the aim of the Gospel.

The vital question is, “Which goal are you working for?” “What do you expect to accomplish?” The roads may start at the same point but they are widely divergent. On one your work is vain, impossible, for the goal you seek does not exist. The world will not be converted in the present dispensation. Post-millennialism, or the Conversion of the World before Christ returns, is a hopeless task, Pre-millennialism, or the calling OUT of the Church, for which, when completed, Christ will come, is the “Blessed Hope” and will be accomplished. Which is your goal?

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90 Postmillennialism is an interpretation of Revelation chapter 20, which sees Christ’s second coming as occurring after the “millennium.” They believe the world will continue to improve until the world turns into God’s kingdom -­‐ heaven. Then Christ will come. This view was very popular in the 1800s but when the catastrophes of World War I and World War II occurred and Christians began to realize the world was getting not better but worse, many changed their views and postmillennialism lost its appeal. Those who do hold to this view do not believe in a tribulation or a literal 1,000-­‐year kingdom. The term includes several similar views of the end times, and it stands in contrast to premillennialism (the view that Christ’s second coming will occur prior to His millennial kingdom and that the millennial kingdom is a literal 1000-­‐year reign) and, to a lesser extent, amillennialism (no literal millennium).

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