THE RELIGION OF CHRIST NOT A SCIENCE

Another great editorial by Elder Gilbert Beebe.  Still relevant today. - ed.

"And the Jews marveled. Saying how knows this man letters having never learned?" John  7.15.

Of all the numerous systems and theories of religion with which the world is deluged, we know none save the religion of our Lord Jesus Christ, that cannot be comprehended by the natural intellect of man. With the aid of education, all the cunningly devised fables of heathen and mythology; all the delusions of the Pagans, papists, and Protestants of ancient and modern times, have been and now are taught and learned in the schools of men. No supernatural qualifications were required in heathen mythology to enable the pupil to learn the mysteries of their gods; nor is there now required, in any of the religions named above any such qualifications, to make the student proficient in the popular divinity of the various classes of worldly religionists.

The religion of the Jews, although divinely instituted and authoritatively enjoined upon the children of Israel under the old dispensation, differs widely from the religion of Jesus in this respect. For it was a religion of ceremonies, figures, and shadows adapted to the fleshly state of the sons of Abraham, requiring their males to be circumcised and enjoining on them the law of carnal commandments until the time of reformation, or until the Messiah should come. They worshipped in a worldly sanctuary, and we're required in their religious service to perform carnal ordinances. Their laws and all that belong to their religious instruction, was by an order from God himself to be taught, as lessons of human science are taught by parents and preceptors to the rising generations. No Grace was required to entitle the male Israelitish infant to the right of circumcision, or any of the privileges that this fleshly birth entitled him to. If he were of the tribe of Levi, and of the family of Aaron, perfect in his mental and physical parts, he was eligible to the priesthood, although, like most of the Jewish priesthood, he may have been an utter stranger to a work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration.

The Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ is a spiritual Kingdom, totally invisible to the world. Except the man be born again, he cannot see it, except he be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into it. As this Kingdom of Christ is spiritual. So are all its upper appurtenances, its laws, ordinances, Doctrine, promises, munitions, gifts, and provisions, and being spiritual, the unregenerate man, however, learned cannot know them. For the "natural man receives not the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." Indeed, the invisibility of the Church of God is one of her most distinguishing characteristics. In no other point does she differ more widely from all other churches, kingdoms, or communities. Nor in any other particular does her religion differ more from that of all other religionists than in this very discriminating peculiarity.

For this distinguishing mark, she is indebted alone to the wisdom and decree of her sovereign God. He has hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes. Because so it seemed good in his sight. The hiding of these things from the one class as well as the revelation of them to the other. Is equally provided for the purpose and pleasure of this unchanging God. Israel. Has not obtained that which she sought. For the election has obtained it, and the rest were blinded. Not blinded for the want of learning, or learned teachers to instruct them, for Moses was read to him in their synagogues every Sabbath day; nor for the want of missionaries, mission funds, or missionary zeal; for in that business, they were charged by our savior with compassing sea and land to make converts to their religion. By what power then were they blinded? Allow the apostle to reply in the next verse to that quoted above. "According as it is written. God has given them the spirit of slumber. Eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear until this day." And David said, "let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling block, and a recompense unto them. Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see and bow their back always."

This Kingdom, in all its parts, is hidden from the scrutiny of all unregenerate human beings. None of the princesses or rulers of this world knew the King. For they had known him, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. The life of all the subjects in this Kingdom is hidden with Christ in God; they dwell in the secret place of the Almighty and abide under his shadow. And because they are not of the world, therefore the world knows them not. For the world knew him, Christ not.  Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love him. And all the things of the Kingdom are prepared for God for them that love him. To whom he says, come, you, blessed of my father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. All these prepared things have always been so completely hidden from the world. That no mortal eye has seen, nor mortal ear heard. Hence, it is certain, that the day can only be known by the immediate revelation of God. And thus the apostle testifies. But God has revealed them to us by our ministers, their preaching, or by our tracks or school books, or even by our Bibles. Oh, No. By one of these, not by all of them put together, has any poor unregenerate Sinner since the time began, ever been brought to the knowledge of the things of the Kingdom, or things of the Spirit. The natural man, as we have proved, cannot know them because they are spiritually discerned. But God revealed them to us by his spirit. God has revealed these things by his Spirit unto babes, which he has hidden from the wise and prudent. "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and he will show to them his covenant." Psalm 25.14. 

And in showing them his covenant, he shows them what things the new covenant contains for them. "Jesus therefore answered and sent to them, murmur not among yourselves. No man can come unto me except the father which has sent me draw him. And I will raise him up at the last day." It is written in the prophets, and they shall all be taught of God. Every man, therefore, that has heard has learned that the father comes unto me. Hence we see that the words of Jesus to Peter are also applicable to all that have heard and learned of the father. Blessed are you, Simon bar Jona. For flesh and blood has not revealed it unto you, but my father, which is in heaven. No truth is more clearly recorded in the scriptures. Than that of the inability of man, short of the direct, immediate, and independent revelation of God himself, either to know Christ, or any of the things of the spirit of God. Yet perhaps no truth is less regarded by the modern teachers of the age. It is virtually assumed as the very basis of all missionary tract and theological schools, that operate in the present age, that God himself cannot or will not regenerate sinners unless they be prepared for him by some human instrumentality. That the preaching of the gospel, or the circulation of tracks or instructions of Sunday schools, or the circulation of Bibles, can, must, and do the first make some impression on the dead Sinner, preparatory to his being quickened by the life-giving spirit of God. It is even assumed by some theologians of our day that an education, or knowledge of letters is indispensable to salvation. 

The Jews marveled saying. How knows this man letters having never learned. Nor has the marvel ceased to this day. How Peter and John could preach as they did without a classic education, could only be accounted for by the fact that they had been with Jesus. And still the wonder grows, for down to the present day, all fashionable religionists regard education as a key to the mysteries of the Kingdom of God. Even the Baptists, or rather those who have clandestinely assumed the name, regarded it as a very essential preparation for the work of the Gospel Ministry. The Baptists of all preceding ages, since the days of the apostle until the present century, have regarded the wisdom of this world as being foolishness with God. And however highly they valued human learning to qualify men for usefulness in this world. And to give them an understanding of the things of this world, they have never contended that it cannot enlighten in the natural understanding of mankind. In regard to the things of the Kingdom which God has hidden from the wise, which he has and does reveal to his children by his Spirit. Neither the Jews nor the heathen philosophers of ancient, nor the religious philosophers of the present time can discover any absurdity in the idea that Christ should have come into this world to learn from the wise men of the Earth what message they would have him communicate to them in his father's name. With modern theologians now it is taught perfectly consistent, that men professing to be sent to men with a message from God, should learn of those very men unto whom they profess to be sent, what message they are to deliver, and how, and when, and where, and to whom. And for how much lucre they shall deliver it. Is it God's message they bring when they have learned their doctrine in the schools of men? Are they his ministers who are sent of men? Do they come with collegiate diplomas and the excellency of speech, which man's wisdom teaches, show, like Peter and John, that they have been with Jesus? A man of erudition with ordinary natural talent may make an impressive speech, and with fair words, he may beguile the simple without a spark of grace. But men, unlearned and rude, must be divinely taught and sustained if they can feed the flock of God, which he has purchased with his own blood.

Gilbert Beebe

April 1, 1851