(October 2003 Edition)
At the Lord's Table
Coming Close to God
Bible reading: Genesis 32
Whenever we come close to the Lord, it is always a life-changing experience. Few have had the privilege of being invited to come intimately and physically close to God. “Present yourself to me there on top of the mountain,” said God to Moses (Exo. 34:2 NIV). Elijah was told, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord” (I Kgs. 19:11). The Lord invited Miriam, Aaron and Moses, “Come out to the Tent of Meeting, all three of you!” (Num. 12:4). The Lord, in the days of his flesh, must often have come very close to his Heavenly Father.
Those who came close to God in this special intimate sense often shone with a radioactive glow afterwards. And sometimes even stranger things happened. In the case of Jacob in Genesis 32, three things occurred which lasted a lifetime. His name was changed. He suddenly developed a mysterious disabling limp. And he received a special blessing. It was a blessing that had pain with it, but Israel was willing to endure the pain to keep the blessing.
Jacob was a very persistent person. He made many mistakes in his life, so that many of us would have treated him with suspicion, if not disdain, as someone less than worthy of our respect. Not so with God. Jacob never gave up on God, and God never gave up on him. He was determined to receive God’s blessing and keep it until death. And for that we are told that he will be in the Kingdom.
We are invited by the Son of God, God manifested in the flesh, to draw near. “Come unto me,” he urges us (Matt. 11:28). At this table, Jesus invites us to come close to him. “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you” (Luke 22:15). “Where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them” (Matt. 18:20). It is a life-changing experience.
Rodger Mortley, Jamaica
Forty-seven years ago, on December 15, 1956, with her matron’s consent, nurse Daisy Wilson helped to prepare one of her hospital patients for an unusual day out. A tall, thin Indian man took the patient, Hugh Tingle, to Rockfort Mineral Baths, baptized him and then welcomed him as a member of the worldwide Christadelphian brotherhood.
After his baptism, Hugh began to preach to his fellow patients and often he could be seen sitting at some patient’s bedside teaching from the Bible. Soon there was a little group who seemed eager to listen to him. Hugh’s church brothers and sisters visited and these visitors gave talks on the wards about Bible subjects. Their doctrine seemed strange to Daisy, contrary to what she had been brought up to accept as Christianity. But the little group increased in numbers, and there were more requests for patients to be allowed out for baptism by complete immersion in water. It suddenly dawned upon the staff that they had a “church” right there in the hospital! There were criticisms and sarcasms. The “church” was nicknamed the “Milk and Milo Church” because the visitors would bring these items of food to supplement the poor hospital diet. In spite of all this, the number of believers increased. Women patients, as well as a nurse, one of Daisy’s colleagues, joined. They even started to have their meetings in an operating theatre.
One day Nurse Wilson was struck by statements made by one of the visitors during his lecture on the Word of God. He was speaking about the devil and Satan, and Daisy was really alarmed at what he said. So she had a talk with him after his lecture, and accused him of leading the people astray. He calmly opened his Bible and read to her passages of scripture to prove every statement he had made. This was too much for Daisy Wilson. She started thinking: if the Bible says so, it must be true.
A Bible correspondence course was recommended. As she studied, she became drawn to the group of believers and listened to their discussions. Gradually she began to see the whole picture of grace and salvation as God has revealed it in the scriptures of truth.
On October 22, 1957, another moving episode took place in Daisy’s life. Veronica Vickers, twenty-two years old, had been a desperately ill patient in the hospital for the previous four years. She was the victim of seemingly hopeless despair, and she rejected every effort to support and help her. Then the Christadelphians brought the love of Jesus and the hope of the Kingdom into the life of this lost soul. Daisy helped with the difficult task of baptizing her into Christ in a bath filled to the brim with warm water, into which Veronica’s wasted frame was lifted tenderly in a blanket. The power of the Word of God came into Veronica’s life, bringing light and joy, and Daisy, along with all the staff, marveled at the transformation wrought by the gospel. Two weeks later, in November 1957, Daisy Wilson herself put on the saving Name of Jesus Christ at Rockfort Mineral Baths.
Sister Daisy Wilson was not simply a new convert to a church. She soon found that the Christadelphian brotherhood is not “church” in the traditional sense. Every member, male and female, brother and sister, is a priest in full-time service, offering themselves as living sacrifices to God. The apostle Peter wrote: You, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Sister Daisy realized the potential which this great privilege offers, and at once dedicated herself to a lifelong service as, what the New Testament calls, a diakonos of the Kingston Christadelphian Ecclesia.
In fulfilling that position of honor, sister Daisy became known and loved worldwide. Of course, because of her great age now, almost all the visitors to Jamaica with whom she worked in her younger days are now asleep in Christ. But there are still a few hoary heads alive today who salute her faith and dedication: Malcolm and Sheila Edwards of Australia, Margaret Howarth and Timothy and Muriel Whittaker of England, Don and Ellen Styles of America (Sis. Daisy added her testimonial to a recent booklet produced in memory of Bro. Alfred Norris).
Sister Daisy married a brother who was showing great promise. Sadly, he made shipwreck of the faith, one of the relatively few Jamaican brothers to have done so over the past half century. Our earnest prayers were not answered in the way we all would have wished. Daisy bore the tribulation heroically, and with the faith and patience of Job. She loved and cared for her father-in–law, Stan, and mother-in-law, Tiny, who died in Christ in Kingston 20 years ago, even though their own son in his ill-gotten prosperity ignored and scorned them in their poverty.
Sister Daisy Allen has been a source of sound advice and a tower of strength to the Kingston ecclesia for almost half a century, and continues to contribute that wisdom which comes from a life lived with God. Unlike some more timid and self-centered members of the Brotherhood, Daisy has always loved the business meetings of her ecclesia. We are sure there has never been a single such meeting in which she has not played a prominent part and contributed significantly – to the immense and permanent benefit of all her brothers and sisters. For years and years, Sis. Daisy Allen has been guide, counselor and friend to many in spiritual need. In her typically loving way, she will readily rebuke elders as well as humbler members of the brotherhood. At ninety, she continues this wonderful work with her spirit and mind unimpaired, and with a mighty heart. Her constant, unwavering dream and goal has always been for her beloved Christadelphian brotherhood, and her Kingston ecclesia in particular, to be, in the apostle Paul’s words, a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
Most of us believe that the 20 years since sister Daisy passed her three score years and ten have been the best years of her life. She is precious to us beyond any words can say. Before her is not just a little time of declining strength, but a glorious resurrection to a life of immortality in which her great talents will be sanctified for ever in the service of our beloved Savior and Lord.
The brothers and sisters in Kingston, Jamaica
Some Satans in the New Testament
Perhaps the most famous Satan was Peter, the great disciple of our Master, Jesus the Christ, (Matthew 16:23; Mark 8:33). Here we have one Satan. If we read John 13:2 we have another Satan, in this case under the name of “devil” (cf. Luke 22:3; John 6:70). Who was the devil here? We can think about some Pharisee or a priest offering 30 pieces of silver for betraying his Master.
Jews
as adversaries
Now let me offer
some considerations. Unbelievably, we have forgotten that the first
opposition to the preachers came from the Jews. They sought to kill Jesus
many times. But they wanted to kill him by crucifixion. This could only be
done if the Romans did the execution. The Jews could kill him by stoning
because Rome permitted them to execute justice under the Law of Moses.
In the course of time, after Jesus’ death, the Jews continued resisting the preaching of the apostles, persecuting them and trying to kill them. Acts 9:1,2, shows us the great power of the high priest: He could send people to other nations to capture heretics and bring them to Jerusalem to punish them under the law of Moses. The Roman law permitted the Jews to do this.
Since the followers of Jesus the Christ were integrated into a sect inside of Judaism, Christianity was not a problem for Rome, but for Jews. They made every effort to eradicate the sect, scourging and killing some of the disciples. Accordingly, let us consider Judaism as one Satan.
The fornication reported in I Corinthians 5:1-5, was a sin punishable by death under the Law of Moses (Lev. 20:11). We could assume that there was a legal Roman formula to protect the members of the ecclesia, a way of escaping the Jews’ punishment. But if we interpret the words of Paul as the official excommunicating of a Christian, then this member could fall into the hands of Jews and be punished. This would confirm Judaism as one Satan.
In the same way we can find that I Timothy 1:20 refers to people being delivered into the Jews’ hands in order to be scourged “to learn not to blaspheme.”
We must never forget the legal status of the religion in every country conquered by Rome, and this could include every sect under every religion. Acts 18:12-16 shows us that local authorities did not wish to involve themselves at that time in religious matters.
Consider other references
I Peter 5:8,9,
refers to Jews and judaizers who were spying on every Christian, waiting for
an opportunity to catch them on blasphemy, or slandering them in order to
find an excuse to justify their right to punish them.
II Corinthians 12:11, Revelation 2:9,13,24; 3:9 are all references to the Jews, Judaism or judaizers.
Matthew 13:39, may refer to the Jews acting devilishly after a Christian sower. The same would be true in Luke 8:12.
Revelation 2:10, clearly does not refer to the Roman local governors, but to the local Jewish authorities. These were interested in eliminating the sect even by death. Sometimes they delivered the Christians to the Roman governor. Never forget that the Jews had such authority in all the Roman Empire (remember Paul going to Damascus to persecute Christians).
Considering the context
In my opinion, we
must look for every particular devil or Satan in all the verses referring to
this topic. Sometimes the words refer to sin. In other cases we could
apply the biblical logic and consider that by the end of the apostles’
ministry, they were confronting a great and efficient Devil or Satan: The
ever rebellious Jews.
Be careful. We (the Christadelphians) are really Zionists (in the correct biblical sense of the word) and we cannot hate God’s people. God is their judge and He will give everybody his own reward.
Nehemías Chavez Zelaya, San Salvador, El Salvador