CHAPTER FIVE
THE WORK BEGUN IN 1902, PUBLISHED IN 1909
AS WE have briefly shown, the real beginning of the
Reference Bible dates from the second Sea Cliff Bible Conference in 1902.
The two prominent sponsors were Alwyn Ball, Jr., of New York, and John T. Pine,
of Chicago and New York. The writer does not know how much all this, and the
fact that he could now start in the production of the Reference Bible,
influenced Dr. Scofield in resigning from his East Northfield pastorate and his
work in the East Northfield schools. In 1903 we find him back in Dallas, the
scene of his first pastorate. Of course he received a hearty welcome, and when
it became known that he would begin work at once on the Bible, the official
board of the First Congregational Church (now known as the Scofield Memorial
Church) encouraged him by releasing him from the minor duties of a pastor, so
that he might devote the greater part of his time to the Reference
Bible.
It was during the next year, after his return to Dallas, that he
said the following in a letter to the writer: "I am so encouraged in the Lord
that Messrs. Pine and Ball are willing to make it possible for me to prepare
‘The Bible Study Bible.’ I have the full plan, after years of prayer
and thought. I believe it will be vastly the greatest of my poor services to
Him." The plan was some time later given in a printed sheet to the seven
consulting editors, and also sent to all who showed an interest in the work. We
are not aware of having seen this outline in print anywhere. We quote therefore
a condensed portion of it:
Speaking generally, it may seem that the
thought is to prepare an edition of Gods Holy Word so clearly and simply
divided and arranged that any believer of ordinary intelligence may real the
Bible understandingly. People are not interested in the Bible because they do
not understand it when they read it. But along with this ministry to the whole
flock, it is intended so to indicate the "deep things of God" and the larger
aspects of divine revelation, that ministers, evangelists, and advanced
students may be led into a deeper knowledge of the Book.
I. As to
the text. The text will be the King James Version. Passages which, by
common consent of spiritual and scholarly men, miss the meaning, will be
amended.
II. Size. The new edition will not exceed in bulk the ordinary
Bible with helps. It will not be a commentary.
III. Plan. The conviction
underlying the work is that the Bible is a self-interpreting book. The plan,
therefore, contemplates giving the student instant access to those passages and
to all of them which interpret each other. The plan is worked out in the
fellowing manner:
1. By a wholly new system of references.
2
Definitions. Bengel said "Whoever understands twenty great words of the
Bible, understands the Bible. In the proposed edition all the great pivotal
words of Scripture, such us atonement, justification, sanctification, world,
glory, kingdom, church, sin, sacrifice, predestination, worship, etc., some
sixty in all, will be briefly defined in footnotes. These definitions will be
submitted to the consulting editors.
3. Divisions. The structural
divisions of each book of the Bible will be indicated in the text itself. The
dispensational divisions will also be indicated.
4. Fulfilled prophecies
will be carefully distinguished from those which are in course of fulfilment,
or unfulfilled.
5. The types will be conservatively treated upon the
principle of affirming nothing to be a type which is not elsewhere affirmed to
be such.
6. The more important themes of Scripture will be grouped in
footnotes under orderly heads.
7. The right pronunciation of different
words will be so indicated as to class the new edition among the "self-
pronouncing Bibles."
Every user of the Reference Bible knows how
faithfully this plan has been followed and what help it has brought to all
students of the Word of God.
Dr. Scofield was especially concerned
about the sane and scriptural interpretation of prophecy. The writer gave a
series of addresses during the second Sea Cliff Conference on "The Harmony of
the Prophetic Word." After listening to these lectures, Dr. Scofield said they
expressed the method he intended to follow in the Reference Bible, and he urged
the writer to prepare the material, with additional lectures, for publication
in a volume. He declared such a volume would be most helpful to him in his
Bible work. We were enabled to submit the advance proof sheets to him before he
left East Northfield. In November, 1902, we received a very interesting and,
more than that, an illuminating and helpful foreword, written by him. Now
inasmuch as the postmillennial school has raised objections against the
Reference Bible on account of its strong premillennial teachings and its
logical dispensational arguments, we quote this enlightening foreword, for it
reveals, in Dr. Scofield’s clear-cut style, the gist of the prophetic
teachings contained in the annotations of his own work:
"Having had
the privilege of reading advance sheets of the present book, it is both a
pleasure and a privilege to commend it to all who are interested in the study
of "the prophetic word made surer" (2 Pet. 1: 19). -All students of prophecy
are sure to be interested in a presentation of the chief contents of the
prophetic Scriptures which is so original in scope and method. But I would more
especially bespeak for this book the attention of those who are not students of
prophecy. Unfortunately this class includes the enormous majority of
present-day believers. No fact is at once more patent or more lamentable than
that the writings of the prophets are little read and less comprehended.
Doubtless there are many reasons for this condition. The characteristic of the
present age is a reckless and unreasonable optimism. On every hand we are
assured that the Church is "marching grandly on to the conquest of the world,"
and that despite the fact that, after one hundred years of missions, there are
200,000,000 more heathen to convert than at the beginning of the century. But
prophecy, grandly optimistic in its ultimate view, presents anything but a
flattering picture of the end of this age. Apostasy, heading up in the man of
sin, and the utter destruction of the present imposing worldsystem by a
crushing blow, is the testimony of the prophets. This is an unwelcome message,
and therefore is not heeded. It is pleasanter to listen to the self-sent
prophets who prophesy "smooth things."
Another reason for the neglect of
prophecy is found in the undeniable difficulties which encounter the beginner
in that study. A bewildering number of new phrases and formulae are
encountered, and it is not all at once, nor indeed without long application,
that this seeming confusion falls into its truly majestic order.
It is
precisely at this point that The Harmony of the Prophetic Word seems to
me supremely helpful. What the beginner could not do at all, nor even the most
persevering student for many months, is here done for him by an expert student
of the prophetic writings. The method, as will be seen by an examination of the
book, is to take up the great prophetic epochs and events, and bring together
from the whole body of prophecy the testimony concerning them. This, indeed,
thoroughly as the author has done his work, will not be found available as a
substitute for personal study of these great subjects —nor was such
substitution any part of the thought of the author—but what the present
book does is to present the great subjects concerning which God has revealed
the future, and to assemble and analyze that revelation so that any reader of
the book will find himself fully introduced to these great and important
themes.
The final effect of such a synthesis is to leave the mind
overwhelmingly impressed with the divine origin and authorship of these ancient
oracles. Writing in widely separated ages, under wholly different
circumstances, of necessity often ignorant of each other’s writings, the
production of one continous, harmoniously developed testimony is proof
unanswerable that, although He employed many penmen, God alone is the Author of
the prophetic testimony.
Some time later, Dr. Scofield requested
the analysis of a number of the prophetic books and the interpretation of
difficult and disputed prophecies from the writer, and after our consent to do
so we received his reply:
My beloved Brother:
By all means
follow your own views of prophetic analysis. I sit at your feet when it comes
to prophecy, and congratulate in advance the future readers of the Reference
Bible on having in their hands a safe, a clear, sane guide throngh what to most
is a labyrinth. Yours lovingly in Christ,
C. I. S.
After his
return to Dallas, our friend continued for a time at least to accept speaking
engagements here and there. They became less when he discovered that the Bible
work demanded more and more of his time. Finally he decided, after consulting
different brethren, that it would hasten the early completion of the work if he
went abroad to visit England, to consult with a number of biblical scholars and
to visit libraries. He spent two seasons in Switzerland (Montreux) to be in
retirement, devoting his whole time to the completion of the work. But during
his first visit to Montreux (1906), he was taken seriously ill, which made it
impossible for him to do much work. His return took place toward the end of
May, 1906. We find in our files the following letter:
Crestwood
Camp,
Ashuelot, N. H.,
May 27, 1906.
My beloved Brother:
We
reached New York Friday after a slow but pleasant voyage, and came right here.
Was sorry to pass through New York without seeing you, but could ill bear the
expense of a delay with my family. . . . Thanks for Stebbins’ letter. I am
in splendid health, rested and refreshed by the voyage of thirteen days. I must
soon go to New York. Will let you know when the date is fixed. Found here a
pressing invitation to occupy my old pulpit at East Northfield next Lord’s
Day and I have accepted. Love to all.
As ever yours,
C. I. S.
A few weeks later we met in New York. Dr. Scofield seemed to be
quite satisfied with the steady progress on the Reference Bible in spite of the
delay on account of his illness abroad.
The writer does not know how
much correspondence Dr. Scofield carried on with the other consulting editors.
More than once did he express his indebtedness to them, especially in the
following words:
The editor disclaims originality. Other men have
laboured; he has but entered into their labours. The results of the study of
God’s Word by learned and spiritual men, in every division of the Church
and in every land, during the last fifty years, under the advantage of a
perfected text, already form a vast literature inaccesible to most Christian
workers. The editor has proposed himself the modest, if laborious, task of
summarizing, arranging, and condensing this mass of material.
That he has
been able to accomplish this task at all is due in a very large measure to the
valuable suggestions and co-operation of the consulting editors, who have given
freely of their time and the treasures of their scholarship to this work. It is
due them to say that the editor alone is responsible for the final form of
notes and definitions.
As we write this brief history we have
before us numerous letters received from him dated from 1903 to 1909, and
others up to the time of his home call.
While the Reference Bible was in
the making, we received from him inquiries as to the dates of the so-called
minor prophets; questions as to the Book of Daniel and its prophetic
interpretation; for help on certain portions of the Book of Revelation; on some
of the parables; as to II Thessalonians 2, etc.
The parable of the ten
virgins was especially taken up in correspondence. Someone had invented a new
interpretation, differing from the almost universal exegesis as taught by the
leading expositors of different Protestant bodies. Someone had charged Dr.
Scofield with teaching one of these new theories. We quote the following from a
letter dated Ashuelot, N. H., July 8, 1906:
I teach the following:
(1) That the prophecy of the wise and foolish virgins gives the testings of the
Christian profession by the coming of the Bridegroom; in other words, by the
rapture of the Church. Two classes only are before us in that
prophecy—possessors and professors, to quote your own classification. The
door which is shut is the door to the bridechamber.
(2) The foolish
virgins are unsaved professors, and I hold that their doom is sealed, etc.
We do not give the rest of his words of explanation, for what we
have quoted is sufficient to show that he adhered to the traditional
interpretation of this important prophetic parable. Most of his communications
were written in long hand, only a few were typed. If he carried on a similar
correspondence with the other six consulting editors, as he probably did, he
certainly must have been kept very busy. He told us, for instance, that he
exchanged many letters with Dr. W. J. Erdman about the term "kingdom" and its
use in the New Testament. Nor was there always a full agreement in these
consultations. We cannot follow in this sketch other interesting details of
these consultations. What we have written are but illustrations of the
thoroughness with which the work was done.
But there is one thing which
impressed the writer in all this voluminous correspondence. Dr. Scofield was
greatly burdened about the condition of the professing Church, and he yearned,
to quote his own words, "for a larger, a world-wide ministry, through a
wholehearted return to apostolic doctrine, mission, and ministry." In one of
his letters he referred to the disbanded Niagara Bible Conference, and called
attention to the fact that it was swept away because there were nothing but
addresses and studies and no practical action. In a letter dated Ashuelot, N.
H., June 9, 1906, written in anticipation of the next Sea Cliff Conference, we
read the following-:
"God help us to meet the seriousness of the days in
which we live, with an apostate Church, an unnourished Body, a lost world, and
an impending advent as our environment."
What would our brother say if
he were here today! What would he say about the condition of Christendom, the
terrible chaos of the whole world, the devastating world war which threatens to
plunge all humanity into an abyss of unspeakable misery and wipe out our
civilization! The fact is and remains that all these sad conditions of our
times, indicating the fast approaching end of the times of the Gentiles, the
great tribulation, the return of our Lord and His enthronement as the Prince of
peace, King of kings, and Lord of lords, is all revealed in the Bible,
God’s holy and infallible Word. Human traditions, human inventions, human
learning, totally void of the Spirit’s guidance, and much else, have
obscured, if not completely obliterated, these startling truths of God’s
omniscience, which knows the end from the beginning. The Scofield Referenee
Bible, from beginning to end, calls attention to these startling things to
come, and has become indeed like a lamp which shineth ‘in a dark place'.
World conditions today are the most powerful evidences of the supernaturalness
of the Bible and the prophecy it unfolds.
It is the writer’s deep
and firm conviction that the Reference Bible, with its faithful testimony to
the fundamental truths of our faith and its prophetic interpretations, is now
in these solemn days much more needed than on the day of its publication, some
thirty-three years ago. We are deeply conscious that God will use it as never
before, use it in leading souls to Christ, use it in the edification of true
believers, use it in warning the world of judgment to come!
PUBLICATION of the Reference Bible was still a problem after Dr. Scofield had
been at work on it for several years. The brethren who were interested in the
Sea Cliff Bible Conference were also interested in a new publication venture.
It was called the Gospel Publishing House, located in New York, under the
management of Mr. D. Bass. One of the first books published was one by Dr.
Arthur T. Pierson, The Bible and Spiritual Life. Some of the brethren thought
the Reference Bible should become one of its publications. Others, including
Dr. Scofield, Mr. Fitch, and the writer, felt that such a small concern,
totally unknown, with no capital at all, would spell failure for the Bible. To
some it seemed strange that such an important work should be undertaken without
a definite assurance as to its publication. Dr. Scofield was very calm about
it. The Lord who had made the work possible in such a providential way would
surely, in due time, make its publication possible.
One of the
visitors to the East Northfield Conferences, when Dr. Scofield was pastor of
the Congregational church there, was Mr. Scott, of the London publishing house
of Morgan and Scott, publishers of The Christian as well as many excellent
books of biblical expositions. Our friend became acquainted with Mr. Scott, and
when Dr. and Mrs. Scofield arrived in England, he entertained them. One day Dr.
Scofield told Mr. Scott about the work he had undertaken and Mr. Scott at once
raised the question, "Who will act as your publisher?" He was rather astonished
when he heard that none had been selected. He impressed upon Dr. Scofield that
the right publisher was of the utmost importance. Furthermore, Mr. Scott said
that his own firm would gladly undertake the publication, but he feared Morgan
and Scott could not give to the Reference Bible the world-wide introduction it
must have. He added, "There is only one publishing house which can handle your
Reference Bible and that is the Oxford University Press."
A few days
later, Mr. Scott took Dr. Scofield to the office of Mr. Henry Frowde, the chief
of the great Oxford University Press, which is so widely and favourably known
throughout the English-speaking world. He became at once interested. But the
head and manager of the American branch of the Oxford University Press had to
be consulted. Mr. Armstrong enthusiastically endorsed the plan and urged the
early publication of the Bible. Contracts were later drawn up and signed by
both parties. But before this was done, Dr. Scotield consulted some of his
friends about this move and asked for their counsel. Here is part of a letter
addressed to us,
Orion, Mich., June 25, 1907:
"After much delay, for
which, though unwittingly, I was alone responsible, I followed dear Brother
Ball’s counsel and closed an arrangement with the Oxford University Press
direct, for the publication of our new Bible. They put their own capital into
it, and their organization back of it. Both Mr. Frowde in England and Mr.
Armstrong in New York are very enthusiastic about it. I feel sure everything
their capital, wide experience, and the best trade facilities can do to insure
its wide circulation will be done. The proofs are to be sent here. I am turning
down all invitations and shall devote the summer to this work alone."
A few months preceding the publication of the Bible, now nearing
its completion, Dr. Scofield lived at 21 Fort Washington Avenue, New York. In a
letter dated October 23, 1908, he gave full information as to the date of
publication:
"My dear Brother:
"Yours to hand. As to the date of
publication - the typesetters are in John, but are going very rapidly now, and
I expect to get through here in about three weeks. The book will not, however,
be issued till January 15. The publisher fixes that date. He is importing the
paper for both editions, the ordinary Bible paper and the India. It certainly
is going to be beautiful from a typographical point of view.
I shall go
home for a few weeks after I finish here, but expect to be in the East and
Middle West after January till March, then the Pacific coast. Many invitations
are coming in. Will send you schedule in December. We ought to get together in
some, or most, of these meetings.
"With every best wish,
"Yours as
ever,"
When we received our copy in January, 1909, we found that it
was indeed a beautiful specimen of Bible printing. Its value was soon
discovered by the household of faith. In a short time the sales increased far
more than Dr. Scofield and the publishers had anticipated.
Dr. Scofield
and I met frequently after that in Bible conferences in various cities and also
in a private way. Again and again he referred to the great need of a practical
testimony. He made, for instance, the suggestion of starting in New York an
undenominational assembly under the leadership of himself and the writer, with
a number of Bible teachers and evangelists as associates, for a nationwide
testimony. Nothing came of it, for his age began to tell on him; the spirit was
willing but the flesh and its weakness asserted itself.
In 1914, that
momentous year when the first World War started, Dr. Scofield attended the
Chicago Prophetic Conference and gave several helpful addresses, as he also did
in a similar conference in 1916 in Philadelphia. On the suggestion of the
writer, in 1918 the New York Prophetic Conference was held in Carnegie Hall. In
the opinion of many, including the late Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman, who
participated, it was one of the most remarkable religious events in our great
city. We had invited Dr. Scofield to deliver just one address, but he had to
decline on account of his health. However, he came to one of the sessions.
Although he had to be helped to the platform, he arose to say a few words. His
feebleness was apparent to all. As he turned around to greet the writer, tears
filled his eyes, and, stretching out his hand toward the immense audience, he
said, "Brother Gaebelein, just look - look!" He was filled with joy and
gratitude over the success of the last prophetic conference he could
attend.
Two years later we received an urgent request from him, in view
of a new edition of the Reference Bible, to make suggestions and certain
additions, etc. We responded at once. Here is one of the last letters we
received from our friend.
"Crescent City, Fla.,
March 22,
1920.
"My dear Gaebelein:
"Thanks for telegram and letter from
Galveston. I am greatly encouraged. Here are my thoughts concerning the work
which you have so kindly consented to take upon your already over-burdened
shoulders: To (1) call my attention to any passage (a) needing a better
rendering (in margin), (b) peculiarly difficult passage which I have passed
over, or, (2) any editorial matter in which I seem to you to have erred.
"The copy which you will thus help to make more useful will be reset, but the
Oxford people desire to preserve the present facsimile idea as carried out in
the octavo and duo editions now out. A broad margin edition will be issued.
Again thanking you,
"Yours as ever,
"C. I. SCOFIELD."
Three months later he received and acknowledged the desired suggestions and
emendations. But strange to say, we never heard anything more of the
manuscript, a labour of love, like all of our labours on the Reference
Bible.
On July 24, 1921, Dr. Scofield was called home by the Lord whom
he had served so well. As the writer was away from home it was impossible for
him to attend the funeral service. What a greeting he must have had as he met
the thousands of saints in glory! What a day it will be when we all shall be in
God’s presence, when we shall no longer look into a glass darkly, when we
shall know as we are known!
It seems that after his home-call the
critics of the splendid service he had rendered to the Church increased as
never before. Why did they keep so silent during his lifetime? Why did they
wait till an answer from his side was no longer possible? We, too, pass them
all by, except one. We have before us a small pamphlet containing a lecture on
A Candid Examination of the Scofield Bible. The lecture was delivered in 1938
at a college in Michigan. It is published by a small, so-called Bible Truth
Depot in the state of Pennsylvania. In the beginning of this lecture we find an
astonishing eulogy of the Bible. We quote:
"On the great fundamental
issues of the Christian religion, such as the inspiration of the Holy
Scriptures, the deity of Christ, the atonement, justification by faith,
regeneration and sanefification by the Holy Spirit, the resurrection of Christ
and the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting, it rings true as a
bell."
Then the lecturer praises most highly other features of the
Reference Bible. But as we come to the close of his lecture we find an equally
astonishing condemnation of the Reference Bible. We quote again:
"Let me
close with the exhortation with which I began, that every minister get a
Scofield Bible and study it for himself; for, good as the intentions of the
author were, and good as the faith and zeal of his followers are, this book
must be pronounced from the standpoint of the Reformed theology, and with a
view of the peace and prosperity of our churches, one of the most dangerous
books on the market. Its circulation is no aid to sound Bible study and true
scriptural knowledge, but rather the contrary. Its use should be quietly and
tactfully, but persistently and vigilantly, opposed; and our congregations
should be diligently instructed in a better interpretation of the Word of
God." (Italics ours.)
To use a popular phrase, the above warning
shows "where the shoe pinches." The Scofield Reference Bible is stepping on
some denominational toes in Christendom, because it ignores the different
creedal confessions. The lecture complains about the detrimental influence of
the Reference Bible. We quote once more:
"Through its influence there have
arisen here and there, tabernacles and undenominational churches, composed of
people no longer at home in the established orthodox denominations, because
they do not get there the sort of teaching they find in the Scofield Bible."
No! True believers leave dead churches, not so much on account of the
Scofield Reference Bible, but on account of the prevailing apostasy which is
scattering its leaven through all of professed Christendom.
The
professor also takes serious objections to the use of typical applications in
the Reference Bible. We quote his own words:
"Constantly he is
dogmatically asserting this or that to be a type for which the New Testament
offers no sort of explicit authority. Let me give you a few examples. He has
hardly begun the story of creation in Genesis 1, before he tells us that the
sun is a type of Christ, the moon of the Church, and the stars of the
individual believers. A little further on, we are told that Eve is a type of
the Church as the bride of Christ; then that Enoch typifies the believers of
the last day, alive at the coming of Christ, etc."
This will be
sufficient for our purpose. The professor calls all this "artificial and
extravagant typology." Let us begin with Christ, our Lord, a type of the sun.
Why not? The sun in the physical heavens is the source of light and life.
Without the sun all would be night and death. Is not the Son of God all this in
the spiritual realm? Is He anything less than the life and light of men (John
1: 4)? Did He not say Himself, "I am the light of the world," and "I am the
life"? Is He not called in Scripture "the Sun of righteousness"? On the Mount
of Transfiguration did not His face shine like the sun? In Revelation 10: 1 we
read that He also appears in a glory like the sun. Please tell us, Mr.
Professor, why you call this "artificial and extravagant"? It is the opposite.
It is sane, scriptural, and spiritual.
We may not be able to put our
finger upon a statement in the New Testament in which the Church is compared to
the moon. But the typology is apparent, and has been acknowledged by far
greater biblical scholars than our critic. The moon is the lesser light which
shines during the night; the moon is a witness for the absent sun. The Church,
in her true condition, Spirit- filled, with Christ indwelling His mystical
body, is the glory of Christ, witnessing to Christ during the night of the
present age, till some blessed day the sunrise comes and Christ appears in His
power and glory. Believers are the heavenly seed, compared in Scripture to the
stars of heaven. They are seen in the high-water mark of God’s revelation
in the New Testament, in the Epistle to the Ephesians, in the heavenlies. Is
all this artificial and extravagant?
What about Eve, taken out of
Adam’s side, when God had put him to sleep? There was no helpmeet for Adam
to rule and reign with him. So out of the pierced side of Adam the woman was
formed, taken out of Adam’s body, called to be his bride, flesh of his
flesh and bone of his bone. The death of Christ and the Church formed from His
pierced side are seen here prophetically. Mr. Professor, have you ever read
Ephesians 5:21-33? How can you say that all this is artificial and extravagant?
It is the sanest and most spiritual interpretation followed by God’s
choicest saints in all ages, though it may clash somewhat with accepted
theology. And here is Enoch, the seventh after Adam. What has the New Testament
to say about him? "By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death;
and was not found, because God had translated him; for before his translation
he had this testimony, that he pleased God" (Heb. 11:5; see also Jude 14, 15).
Does the New Testament say anything about a repetition of the supernatural end
of Enoch? Is there a promise given that ultimately not another person, but a
great company of people, who also walk with God as Enoch did, will have the
same experience? Listen to God’s Word! "Behold, I show you a mystery; we
shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall
be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed" (1 Cor. 15: 51, 52; read also
1 Thess. 4:16-18). Is all this artificial and extravagant typology?
Such criticism proves what man-made creeds, systems of theology, different
kinds of orthodox standards are. They are dead forms, a lifeless orthodoxy
which lacks in the deeper spiritual meaning of God’s Word. Out of these
traditional creeds and misinterpretations of the Word of God the Reference
Bible has, under God, led a multitude of Christians. No wonder that thousands
say, as we have heard it from many lips, that the study of the Bible has become
for them the most fascinating occupation in their lives.
Of course, the
main objection of this lecturer is the way the Reference Bible interprets the
prophecies of the Bible. There has been, since the days of the Reformation, a
gradual recovery through the Holy Spirit of lost and forgotten truths. Nowhere
is this recovery so marked as in the realm of prophecy. To reject the light
which the Holy Spirit has shed upon the hundreds of unfulfilled prophecies is,
especially in these days so pregnant with meaning, a serious matter. If the
household of faith needs anything today, it surely is to take heed unto the
light that shineth in a dark place, the lamp of prophecy, until the day dawn;
to walk and serve in the light, till the blessed goal is reached—face to
face with Christ our Saviour.
Yes, read the Reference Bible and then
test it not by creeds, but by comparing scripture with scripture, and you will
soon discover what the Bible teaches.
THE END