Studies in the Scriptures, Volume 7: The Finished MysteryRussell, C. T. (Charles Taze)
Religion
Studies in the Scriptures, Volume 7: The Finished Mystery
Russell, C. T. (Charles Taze)
Bible -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.; Jehovah's witnesses -- Controversial literature
“If you see the ‘door’ of opportunity for sacrifice and service open
before you, enter in. But enter quickly; for the night of darkness and of
intense opposition to the truth will ere long be upon us and will hinder
you from engaging in the service. ‘The morning cometh, and also the
night.’ ‘The night cometh in which no man can work.’ When that is true,
you may know that ‘the door is shut.’ that all the wise virgins have
entered in, that all have been proved, and that all vacancies have been
acceptably filled. All the special ‘servants of God’ having by that time
been ‘sealed in their foreheads’ (given an intellectual appreciation of
God’s Plan), the four winds will be loosed and will produce the great
‘whirlwind’ of trouble in the midst of which the remnant of the Elijah
class will be ‘changed,’ and exalted to Kingdom glory.”—C. 225.
7:4. And I heard the number of them which were sealed.—“We have every
reason to believe that the definite, fixed number of the Elect is that
several times stated in Revelation, namely, 144,000 ‘redeemed from amongst
men.’ ” (F. 179; Rev. 14:1.) This is the equivalent of one saint fully
developed for each five days of the Age.
And there were sealed 144,000.—On this point one of Pastor Russell’s
coworkers has well said: “That this is not a symbolical, but an exact
number, seems certain from the fact that, in the same chapter reference is
made to another company, also spirit‐begotten. In the 9th verse we read:
‘I beheld, and lo, a great multitude which no man could number.’ It is not
probable that this multitude is so great that no one could actually count
them, but rather that none can state their number, God having left it
indefinite.”
Of all the tribes of the children of Israel.—“As a name, Israel signified
‘The people blessed of the Lord,’ ‘The people of God,’ ‘The Lord’s
people.’—2 Chron. 7:14.” (D. 654; Gal. 6:16; Rom. 9:6‐8.) Each of the
saints is reckoned as belonging to one of the twelve tribes of “Israelites
indeed,” which tribes bear the names of the twelve patriarchs of natural
Israel. In every family each child is beloved for some characteristic
peculiarly its own; and in the meaning of the names of the children of
Israel we may recognize certain of the qualities which make each overcomer
precious in the Father’s sight.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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