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Why do the Heathen Rage? These essays were written over a period of thirty years and originally appeared in more than sixty newspapers nationwide. The author, who chose to remain anonymous, was a prominent Christian businessman in the Atlanta area. He entitled his columns "Why do the Heathen Rage?" and used this question from Psalm 2 and Acts 4:25 as a basis to comment on the events of the day. He believed that Psalm 1 promised blessings to the faithful in Christ, but Psalm 2 and Acts 4:25 asked a critical question and answered it with a prophecy of cursings and judgments upon the heathen; those who rebelled against the laws of God. Truly a prophet in his own time, the author received thousands of letters from his readers. However, at times, newspapers would refuse to print his column or prefer to edit it because of his outspoken condemnation of evil in government, literature and individuals who supported unbiblical practices.
Bob Hill, Editor Evangelical Review  TOPICAL INDEX
Hell and Judgement MAY 19, 1962 "I will also forget thy children!" Is there not something wrong with the young people today? Maybe some light can be thrown on the situation by considering this quotation, for it is God Himself speaking.
"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge!" What is your vocation, doctor, lawyer, teacher, etc.? Say you are a lawyer: If you had spent that same amount of time on your law books, court cases, decisions, etc. as you have on studying the Law of God and His Judgements, what kind of a lawyer would you be? If a doctor, what sort of doctor would you be if you had spent no more time studying the necessary subjects than you have spent learning of The Creator of the body -- "we are fearfully and wonderfully made" -- and taking heed to the injunction and invitation of The Great Physician to "Learn of Me?" Whatever one's vocation may be, their success or failure doubtless depends on their knowledge of the subject and their ability to make application of same. But fail or succeed, it is only temporal. But the knowledge of God, or lack of it, has to do with our Eternal Life, or eternal death! God says: "Cursed be the man that trusteth in man," and "He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool!" "Search the Scriptures, they testify of Me," said Jesus Christ. "The Scriptures cannot be broken." Search and you will find the Almighty pleading with you:
"Oh, that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways! I should have soon subdued their enemies, and turned My Hand against their adversaries. The haters of The Lord should have submitted themselves unto Him: but their time should have endured forever. He should have fed them with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee." Psalm 81: 13-16. "Thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer -- 0 that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! Then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea: thy seed had been as the sand." Isaiah 48. 17-17. Hell and Judgement JANUARY 04,1964 "Who is on The Lord's side?" This quotation is from Exodus 32: 26. Moses asked the question of the children of Israel and called on all those who were on The Lord's side to come to him, and all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. Moses himself belonged to this tribe of Levi which God had set aside for His special service. These men were ordered to do a terrible thing, witness: "Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor. And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men!" Was not this a terrible thing to do, and a terrible thing to have to take part in? About this time, or just a little later, there were numbered of the nation 603,000 men 20 years of age and over that were able to be soldiers and go to war, and this indicated there were probably over three million men, women, and children total population. The killing of the three thousand is not so terrible when you consider that they perished instead of the three million, for God had told Moses: "Now therefore let Me alone, that My wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them and I will make of thee a great nation" -- God's anger bursting into flame and burning them up! The object of this article is to present the facts, the setting, the context, concerning the question "Who is on The Lord's side?" which appears nowhere else in The Bible, we think, in just these words. We carelessly and glibly sing the song "Who is on The Lord's Side" and doubtless feel that means us because we have joined the Church and have not been put in jail, maybe because we did not get caught, not yet. About six weeks before Moses asked this question he stood with the others at the foot of Mt. Sinai: Picture in your own mind what they saw as recorded in Exodus 19:17, etc.:
If we consider ourselves as "being on The Lord's side" we would do well to consider our attitude towards the terribleness of sin and rebellion against God's Commandments. "The wages of sin is death, eternal death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus our Lord." When Moses saw the idolatry of the people, and how in their perverted worship they "sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play" -- this makes one think of things going on in many of our churches these days -- he became angry and threw down the two tables of stone on which the Commandments were written, and broke them. Later, God told him to cut out two stones and present them to God for a rewriting of The Commandments "with the finger of God." God now calls on you and me to present the tables of our heart to Him in order that The Spirit of God might write His Commandments upon them. Beware, take heed, if you are one who thinks and claims "Christ is in you" and yet there is not the desire to be obedient to every Commandment of God:
Hell and Judgement MARCH 31, 1962
The Warning Threat: "If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book; and if any man shall take away from the words of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book." Surely we are without excuse if the curse becomes our potion! The invitation is Come, Come, Come! And we are on our way to our spiritual "space flight" to other worlds and eternity! The late Sam Jones said: "The heart in your bosom is a 'muffled drum' beating a march for you to the cemetery." How old are you? Is your "drum-beat march" near its end? A few days ago there were sixty or more notices -- funeral -- in just one paper of men and women and maybe children who had just left on their trip to outer-space to keep The Appointment God made for them: "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." Hebrews 9:27. Enoch and Elijah's trip to "outer-space" is exceedingly interesting! Also, in the 16th chapter of Luke, Jesus Christ draws back the veil and gives us a little view of the "Space-flights" of the souls of two men to other worlds: one carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom, the other died, and was buried, and in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments -- not much about the details of the trips but very definite about the destinations and the conditions found at the end of the journey. Let any mock and scorn who will, but as for me let me stir up myself to "Fear The Lord and depart from evil." "Why do the heathen rage?" A heathen is one who does not believe in "The God of The Bible." The ones who rebel and rail against the righteous Laws of The Holy God, and pull down His wrath, curse, scorn and contempt upon the human race in judgments. While the Second Psalm gives us a picture and the cause of present world conditions and tells us the way out, yet turn back to the First Psalm and look at a different scene, a beautiful and fruitful tree planted by the side of a river: It is the blessed man
Hell and Judgement APRIL 13, 1974 "Forget Hell!" Recently we saw this sign on the front end of an automobile -- beware of this man's "front end service," -- such a "front-end loader!" "The heart in your bosom is a 'muffled drum' beating a march for you to the cemetery," and God Almighty's Judgment:
Many years ago the writer had the privilege a number of times to hear the late Bishop Candler -- it is my understanding that the Emory Candler School of Theology was named in his honor. Many interesting and striking incidents were told of his experiences. We undertake to tell one of them -- it could be that we might get two of them mixed into one story, yet we think we are careful to stress points that are faithful to the Bishop's teaching and testimony. One Sunday morning The Bishop was standing in the front of a hotel in a city where he was to preach, waiting for his carriage or conveyance. He noticed a man in some activity that in those days was considered Sabbath Profanation -- in our day it would probably be all right as it appears we have developed such a religion and faith that puts no difference between the "sacred and profane," "the holy and unholy."
"Naw," replied the man, and then looking closely at The Bishop he said: "Where in the hell have I seen you before?" "Well, now," said the Bishop, "just what part of hell are you from?" There was a cause, and good grounds for Dante, as well as all men who sincerely believe in "The God of The Bible" and accept His Word as Supreme Authority, to meditate upon and seek to visualize the horrors of hell. Just about all that we have in The Scriptures of the awful subject fell from the mouth of The Lord Jesus Christ, and from His Beloved Apostle John, found in the Revelation of Jesus Christ given unto John by God's angels. Dante in his vision of the Inferno sees hell divided into nine or ten "pits" or "circles." It appears there is segregation in each pit: for example, the sexual, sensual, lustful sinners are together in one pit -- but they are not enjoying one another's company. The gluttons occupy a pit of their own and so on. Remember the preacher's question to the Sabbath desecrator: "Well, now, what part of hell are you from?" Let us look and behold what Dante saw "in that part of hell" he called the fourth "pit" or "enclosure!" There he sees the Demon Plutus, with hoarse voice and inflated lips, symbolizing "Pride of Health!" These occupy the same pit where the misers and prodigals are made to herd together. Their mutual hatred makes them form into opposing bands, which attack one another without ceasing, reminding one another at each encounter of the degrading vices that have brought them down. Amongst them are clerics and cardinals and popes! "Now, my son, thou canst discern the shortlived vanity of those possessions that are committed to fortune, for which the human race is ever wrangling. For all the gold that is under the moon, or that ever existed, would not give rest to these weary souls!" This fortune that makes people so contentious, is hidden like a snake in the grass. It enters, however, into the plan of Providence, and it is through its influence that peoples are great or weak, that one nation rules and another languishes." Is the Bishop's question relevant for you, for me? "What part of hell are you from?" The late Dr. Leen G. Broughton, who for many years was Pastor of the Baptist Tabernacle on Lucky St. in Atlanta, and under whose ministry the present building was erected, told of this experience in a revival meeting: He had preached the sermon, and in giving the invitation for the people to forsake their sins and come forward and publicly accept Christ, he asked the Christian people who were willing to go about the congregation and give people a personal invitation, and offer to come forward with them if desired. There was a well known and brilliant lawyer on the back seat. The Doctor noticed a young man, known to be about half-wit, get up and go straight to the lawyer and speak to him. After a word or two the lawyer's face flushed, he got up and went out. The Doctor was afraid he had ruined things in so far as that prospect was concerned. It was near the end of the week before he learned what had happened. The lawyer came to see him and told this story: The young man came to him and abruptly said: "Do you want to go to Heaven?" It offended and angered him so much that he said, "Naw!" "Well, go to hell then," the boy replied. However, regardless of the provocation, he had been unable to shake off the fact that he had said he did not want to "go to Heaven," and he had faith enough to believe the alternative was as the boy said: "Then go to hell!" The man was unable to find peace of soul until he acknowledged his lost condition, and called on The Saviour to Save. It appears that it took quite a shock to wake him up to his spiritual condition, and God used this poor boy to produce the shock needed! "Is it well with your soul?" Beware -- Don't forget Hell -- remember Him who came to save. Hell and Judgement JULY 06,1963 Dante, the great Christian poet, in his immortal work, The Divine Comedy, says he saw Cleopatra and Helen of Troy in Hell! Others also he saw there, and called names. Some were emperors, kings, great generals, popes, cardinals, priests, and others of the great or small of the earth! Dante was born in 1265 and died in 1321 A.D. The literature on his life and work is enormous. The first complete American translation of The Comedy was that of Longfellow in 1867, in three volumes. Here are a few quotations from some familiar with his life and works: "As a Christian poet, his name occupies a foremost place in the line of genius. His immortal work, The Divina Commedia, expresses such views of religion and the Church that he is numbered among the forerunners of the Reformation. To use his own words, 'The subject of the whole work, taken literally, is the state of the souls after death regarded as a matter of fact; taken allegorically, its subject is man, in so far as, by merit or demerit in the exercise of freewill, he is exposed to the rewards of punishment or justice."' "The Inferno represents the summing up, by perhaps the keenest observer the world has ever seen, of The Papal system judged by its results." Dante was a Catholic, as were most all men at that time who called themselves Christian; and no doubt from his knowledge of God, his love of righteousness, and his experiences in life, he knew what he was talking about. Another says: "Dante had the art to make men tremble six centuries after recital of his words!" Ruskin said: "The more I think of it, I find this conclusion impressed upon me . . . the greatest thing a human soul ever does is to 'see something,' and to tell what he sees in a plain way. Hundreds of people can talk to one who can think; but thousands can think for one who can 'see.' To see clearly is poetry, prophecy, and religion -- all in one." The Apostle Paul could "see," and what great things he accomplished: "Whereupon, 0 King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the 'heavenly vision."' Acts 26:19. God opened the eyes of others and enabled them to "see" and tell in a plain way what they "saw." Luther, Calvin, Knox, Bunyan, Wesley, and many other mighty men of God, and what great things they have done in blessing mankind in time and eternity! From our meager knowledge there are three things that stand out in the life of this great man: His fear of The Lord; his faith in "every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God;" and his love of righteousness -- "Ye that love The Lord, hate evil." He could "see," and he told in a plain way the things he "saw." Over the portal of hell was this alarming inscription: "Through me is the way to the city of woe!" Through me is the way to eternal sorrow! Through me is the way to lost people! Justice moved my High Creator! The Divine Power, Supreme Wisdom, and Primal Love, made me! "Before me were no created things, but eternal, and I eternally endure! Give up all hope you who enter!" In some eight or nine separate "pits," "Circles," or "enclosures," Dante sees and tells of the punishment of souls, according to their particular kinds of sin, evil and rebellion against God. He pictures the above and punishment of the "lukewarm" -- remember Christ said to the lukewarm. "I will spue you out of My mouth, unless you repent" -- who were mingled now with a band of lukewarm angels who, when Lucifer rebelled, were neither rebels nor faithful to God. Heaven drove them out! Here, also, were men who did not act a manly part in life, who did not know how to make up their mind and take a decisive step, but preferred to await events and reserve to themselves freedom to join the successful side. Justice and mercy hold them in equal contempt! Shall you, shall 1, be there? In other "Pits" are pictured the condition and punishment of Gluttons, Misers, Prodigals, those inflated by Pride of Wealth; the spirits of the Wrathful, Sullen, Slothful; and in another enclosure the Heretics with the followers of all kinds of Sects -- So great was Dante's hatred of heresy he describes the stench at this point of his journey as something awful -- He saw where and how were punished those guilty of Violence, Fraud, Grafting, Stealing, Murder, Flattery, and Simony -- simony means trying to buy the gifts of God with money or rewards; also he saw in hell the place reserved for the punishment of Diviners, Soothsayers, False Prophets, Witches, Sorcerers, and the like! But let us note more in detail the place where he saw Cleopatra and Helen of Troy! In this pit were punished the Carnal, The Sensuous, The Incontinent, etc. (Carnal means "pertaining to the body, its passions and its appetites; Sensual: gratification of the senses; Incontinence: "lack of restraint, especially undue indulgence of sexual passions." Are not such as these especially applicable to our day and generation?) Dante sees these souls standing on the precipitous edge of a cliff down which they are hurled. As he approached the cries of despair were already audible, as they shriek, and wail, and blaspheme The Divine Power. In their new abode they are caught up in a whirlwind, or tornado, that blows and bears them up increasingly, whirling and buffeting them, go as to cause endless sufferings. They not only have no hope of any rest,but not even the slightest alleviation of their pain. Like cranes that form themselves into a long line in the air and go chanting their lays, so these souls, borne along by the winds, come uttering lamentations. The whirlwind that blows them around is symbolic of the tumult of their passions! Do you admire and envy Cleopatra, Helen of Troy, or present-day movie stars who, through carnality, sensuality and incontinence, cast aside the laws of God and a decent civilization regarding the marriage state, and the God ordained and declared proper relations of the man and the woman? "That which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God!" Does Carnality, Sensuality, and Incontinence dominate and prevail over The Spiritual in your life? "He that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of His!" If you "see" the imperative need of the Spiritual over the Carnal, then give attention to "Searching the Scriptures," The Prayer Closet, "Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy," and Your Church vows: "Whatsoever your hand findeth to do, do it with your might, and as unto The Lord." "He that endureth to the end shall be saved," said Jesus Christ, in at least three different places! Hell and Judgement MARCH 08, 1969 The object of this article is to give somewhat a review of the contents of several of our recent columns, together with the suggestions of a personal applicaton of these Biblical Truths. Then, a prediction of some of the results to be expected by those who do make faithful application. Three Bible Stories were presented. Recognition was duly given to those to whom "Bible Stories" are considered as Fables, Jewish History and Traditions. Our witness and testimony is that all such are people in whose hearts The Holy Spirit of God has not done His work with "The Sword of The Spirit, which is The Word of God." Certainly, you are at liberty to take that position, but if you know the meaning of the word "integrity" and a partaker of its Virtue, you surely have no right to be in a Church and partake of its Holy Sacraments if you fail to believe and accept The Scriptures of The Old and New Testaments as The Infallible Word of God, the only rule to direct man how to obey and glorify God. If you are such a one, this scribe would like to tell you that if he had the authority and was in a position to do so, you would be put out of the Church and refused as a partaker of The Lord's Supper; not for the purpose of offending you but for fear of offending God Almighty and the fear of "your blood being on my hands!" With God's permission, the Devil swept away Job's earthly substance, and his family with the exception of his wife. Then, in a second blow, the devil swept away Job's health and left him sitting in an ash heap covered with boils from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet! Mrs. Job said: "Do you still retain your "integrity? Curse God and die!" (Mrs. Job knew her husband had integrity! Does your wife know you have integrity and zealously hold on to it? Does the world of your acquaintances know you have integrity? Recall the time you stood up in the House of God, and in the presence of His people and took vows to serve and obey God, and then check your integrity in the light of your performance of faithfulness to such vows.) But to those "whose hearts God has touched" -- see 1st Samuel 10:26 -- "Bible Stories" are Revelations of God Almighty Himself and His Truths. Have you ever asked Him to touch your heart? Do you give Him the opportunity to "Touch your heart" by waiting on him in prayer and meditation upon His Word? Over and over again "the man after God's heart, " King David says to us: "Wait on The Lord, and again, I say, wait on the Lord." The first Bible Story pointed out was concerning Jacob's experiences in the 32nd chapter of Genesis, verse 9 and verses 24-29. In the second Bible Story attention was called to Moses' experience in the war with Amalek. Exodus 17: 8-13. The third Bible Story was in 2nd Kings 2: 9-11 and told how Elisha refused to leave Elijah and was rewarded with the vision of horses and chariot of fire taking Elijah to Heaven in a whirlwind and receiving a double portion of Elijah's Spirit! In each instance, the great blessing came after great physical "endurance to the end." At least three times in the Gospels we find these words of The Lord Jesus Christ: "He that endureth to the end shall be saved!" And in Revelation 2:10 the risen and glorified Christ, Whom when the Apostle John saw he fell at his feet as one dead, said: "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life!" The personal application the individual Christian should make in fulfilling his vows to God is to exercise yourself in "Searching The Scriptures" to get familiar with "every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God;" and "Men ought always to pray and not faint" -- Luke 18:1 -- and refuse to turn back or stop going on, even as Elisha. As to a prediction of the results to be expected; would call your attention to these words of Christ in Luke 8:11, etc.:
 W. M. Religious InfoNet ¤ Box 456 ¤ Forest Lake, MN 55025 Email: kevin@waltermartin.com Phone: 651-307-1507 |