The Four-fold Gospel, by Dr. A.B. Simpson, founder of The Christian and Missionary Alliance

If you go back to July 1 and read ahead, you will be able to read a digest version of A.B. Simpson's The Four-fold Gospel.   This classic book is the basis for the doctrine of The Christian and Missionary Alliance.

I will not be posting on this site for awhile since I am switching to non-Alliance authors.  If you wish to continue to follow my classic faith quotes, you may find them each day (M-F) at www.lepsfaithquotes.blogspot.com,  or join the Lep's Faith Quotes group on Facebook, or see my daily status update on Facebook.

Conclusion of The Four-fold Gospel

Be diligent. There is much to do. You can hasten the coming of the day of God. The world is to be forewarned. The Church is to be prepared. Arouse thee, O Christian. Give Him every power, every faculty, every dollar, every moment. Send the Gospel abroad. Go yourself if you can. If you cannot, send your substitute. And may this last decade of the nineteenth century mean for you and for this world, as nothing ever meant before, a time of preparation for the coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ!







-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

The Lessons It Leaves

"I come as a thief; blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame." Let us not put off the wedding robe for an hour. Let us remember His words, "When these things begin to come to pass, then lift up your heads and bend yourselves BACK (Dr. Young), for your redemption draweth nigh." Keep your faces turned heavenwards until your whole being shall curve heavenwards, like a dear old saint we know, whose body, when she speaks and prays, describes a circle bending towards the sky.



-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

Blessings of His Second Coming #7

7. And it will bring such blessings to others, to the race, to the world. It will stop the awful tragedy of sin and suffering; it will sheathe the sword, emancipate the captive, close the prison and the hospital, bind the devil and his henchman death, beautify and glorify the face of the earth, evangelize and convert the perishing nations, and shed light and gladness of this dark scene of woe and wickedness.

There shall be no more crying.

There shall be no more pain.

There shall be no more dying.

There shall be no more stain.

Hearts that by death were riven,

Meet in eternal love:

Lives on the altar given

Rise to their crowns above.

Blessings of His Second Coming #6

some words illegible on ereader



6. It will banish Satan. It will bind and chain the ... fiend, whose hate and power have ... the world in ages of darkness and misery. Oh, to be free from his presence for even a day! to feel that we need no longer watch with ceaseless vigilance against him! to walk upon a world without a devil! Lord, hasten that glorious day.

-- A. B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

The Feast of Tabernacles

The final and most joyous festival of the year begins at sundown Wednesday and continues for seven days. It is called Feast of Tabernacles (or Shelters or Booths), Feast of Ingathering, Season of Our Rejoicing, or Sukkot. It celebrates God's care and protection during forty years of wandering in the wilderness and His continuing sustenance. All Jews made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. They made and lived in temporary shelters (sukkah booths) recalling their years of wandering. In modern times families or congregations build outdoor shelters filled with harvest decorations. It was during the Feast of Tabernacles' illumination ceremony that Jesus said, "I am the light of the world." It was during the water pouring ceremony that Jesus said, "I am the living water."



There is evidence by comparing time frames in the Scriptures to prove that Jesus was born during the Feast of Tabernacles and that He will return during the Feast of Tabernacles.



"Jesus is God tabernacling among men. The word _dwelt_ in Greek implies a temporary dwelling, a sukkah booth. Jesus is God's ultimate sukkah booth. For God, in Jesus Christ, tabernacles among men. As the Temple was a temporary dwelling for the Shekinah (visible Glory of God), so Jesus tabernacling among us manifested the glory of God. He is the source of light and life to all who believe." (The Fall Feasts of Israel, by Mitch and Zhava Glaser)

Blessings of His Second Coming #5

Here's a new thought about heaven that I'd never encountered:



5. It will give us the sweetest and highest service. It will be no idle, selfish ecstasy, but will bring a perfect partnership in His kingdom and administration. We shall, perhaps, be permitted to fulfill the ideals of our highest earthly experiences, and finish the work we have longed and tried to do -- with boundless resources, infinite capabilities, unlimited scope and time, and His own presence and omnipotent help. The blessed work will be to serve Him, to bless others, and to raise earth and humanity to happiness, righteousness and Paradise restored.

-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

Blessings of His Second Coming #4

4. We shall have perfect bodies; we shall possess His perfect resurrection life... The laws of [gravity] will hold us no more. The streets of the New Jerusalem vertically and horizontally, the length and breadth, and the height are equal. Our bodies shall be the perfect instruments of our exalted spirits, the exact reflection of His glorious body.



-- A. B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

Blessings of His Second Coming #3

3. It will bring us perfect spirits, restored to His image, glorious in His likeness, free from fault, defect, or imperfection, removed above temptation, incapable of falling, and overflowing with unutterable blessedness. We shall wear His perfect image; we shall know as we are known; we shall be as holy as He is holy; we shall possess his ... perfect love.

-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

Yom Kippur

As you know, I like to educate Christians on their Hebrew roots. Yom Kippur begins at sunset Friday. It is God's appointed day for atonement of sins. Jesus would have observed Yom Kippur, and He is the fulfillment of it.



On this day there is to be no eating or drinking, no work, no travel, no wearing leather shoes, no bathing or washing, no perfumes, and no sex. It is customary to dress entirely in white.



The high priest made animal sacrifices, and the scapegoat was sent into the wilderness to take away the sins of the people.





from Wikipedia: According to Jewish tradition, God inscribes each person's fate for the coming year into a book, the Book of Life, on Rosh Hashanah, and waits until Yom Kippur to "seal" the verdict. During the Days of Awe, a Jewish person tries to amend his or her behavior and seek forgiveness for wrongs done against God and against other human beings. The evening and day of Yom Kippur are set aside for public and private petitions and confessions of guilt. At the end of Yom Kippur, one hopes that they have been forgiven by God.



Jesus is the fulfillment of Yom Kippur. By His blood sacrifice He has taken away our sins once and for all so that sacrifices are no longer needed. No longer do we need to "hope" that our sins have been forgiven.



And no, I don't observe the Hebrew customs of Yom Kippur.

Blessings of His Second Coming

1. It will bring us Jesus Himself. This is the best of its blessings... Not the robes and royal crowns, not the resurrection [bodies] or ... friends will be the chief joy, but "Thou art coming, we shall see Thee, And be like Thee on that day."



2. It will [bring] us our friends. "Them who sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him." They shall be alive, they shall be recognized, they shall be gloriously beautiful, they shall be ours forever. Not only the old ones, but such new ones, the good of all the ages, the men and women we have longed to know. What a family! "Ten thousand times ten thousand, In shining garments bright, The armies of the ransomed Throng up the steps of light."



-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

More Signs of His Coming

Portions of the text are illegible on my ereader. It misreads the letters in the original text and makes whole passages incomprehensible.







5. The intellectual signs... while human philosophy talks of evolution and declares that all things continue as they were, and nature is ... only material.



6. The moral signs are even more marked than Daniel's picture. "The wicked shall do wickedly," was never more true than today. Portentous forms of wickedness startle the moral sense every day...



7. The religious signs are growing more vivid. Lukewarmness and worldliness in the Church, intense longings after holiness on the part of the few, and a mighty missionary movement are the features of the age, and the signs of prophecy, that point to the day of the Son of Man.



8. And finally, an earnest, a growing and a world-wide expectation of His coming on the part of all those who love His appearing, is as profound today as it was in Judea, and even the Gentile world in the age preceding His advent at Bethlehem. The morning star is in the East. "The children of the day" have seen it. The cry gone forth, "The night is far spent, the day is at hand."



-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

Signs of His Coming Fulfilled

Many of the most important signs of the Lord's coming have already been fulfilled. For example:



1. The political developments of Daniel's visions have apparently all occurred...



2. The predicted "falling away" has long ago begun, and the man of sin has sat in God's temple already the full time of the prophetic cycle, and the process has begun to consume and destroy unto the end.



3. The Mohammedan power has waxed and waned, and the waters of this great spiritual Euphrates are being dried up every day to prepare the way of God's kingly people.



4. The Jewish signs have not been less remarkable. Jacob is turning his face again to Bethel, and Jerusalem... Her sons are slowing returning, while jealous nations... fulfilling unconsciously the voice of prophecy. (much of this section is illegible on the ereader).



-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

The Coming of Christ

He will first come for His own waiting ones, and they, with the holy dead, shall be caught up to meet Him in the air. The wicked world shall be left behind; a formal church and a multitude of nations shall live on and scarcely miss the little flock that has just been caught away. Then will begin a series of judgments and warning, ending at last in the descent of Christ in power and glory, the revelation of His righteous judgment against His open enemies, and the beginning of His reign... It is more imminent and certain, and may come at any hour.



-- A.B. Simspon, The Four-fold Gospel

Rosh HaShanah 2

I decided to wait until Monday to pick up the A.B. Simpson quotes again. Meanwhile, some more stuff about the Jewish New Year and an uplifting Scripture.



My prayer partner and I went to Sar Shalom Messianic Congregation in Mansfield Wednesday night. We enjoyed a meal of pizza, KFC, and all kinds of sweets, which is customary for wishing a new year of sweetness. Then we all went out on the lawn at sunset where 28 people with shofars blew them in four directions to welcome the new year. Then inside for a service consisting Davidic dancing, flag and banner dance teams, shofar-blowing, tambourines, shouting, dancing the hora through the aisles, traditional prayers, and sermon. About 80 present.



During the ten days from Rosh HaShanah until Yom Kippur, Jews and Messianics read Psalm 27 daily. So I thought I would quote some verses (NKJV) from that psalm for today's meditation.



The LORD is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid?

Though an army may encamp against me, My heart shall not fear; Though war may rise against me, In this I will be confident.

One thing I have desired of the LORD, That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD All the days of my life. To behold the beauty of the LORD, And to inquire in His temple. For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; In the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock.



I would have lost heart, unless I had believed That I would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living. Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD!

Rosh HaShanah: One of God's Appointed Feasts

If you know me very well, you know that I like to keep Christians informed of their Jewish roots and the fulfillment of the High Holy Days, "the festivals of the Lord", by Yeshua/ Jesus.



Rosh HaShanah ("Head of the Year") (also known as Yom Teruah - "Day of the Trumpet") begins at sundown today, Wed., Sept. 4, by tradition the 5774 th anniversary of the Creation of Adam and Eve. It continues through Friday. This is the Jewish New Year.



Traditional foods are apples and honey, or anything sweet (for sweetness in the new year). It is also a time of personal introspection, culminating on Yom Kippur next week.



Here's the application for Christians:





Hebrew for Christians (Facebook group)



... Moreover there is a prophetic aspect to this season, as Yom Teruah (i.e., Rosh Hashanah) represents the "Day of the LORD" (יוֹם יְהוָה) and the imminent apocalyptic judgment of the present world... Just as the spring festivals foretold Messiah's first advent, so the fall festivals foretell his second coming... Moreover, "teruah" (תְּרוּעָה) is the blast of a shofar, the "calling up" signal for those who belong to Messiah; the opening of the gate to the wedding of the Lamb! May God help us be ready to soon see our King!

The Millennium

Although God knew just the moment when His Son should appear, yet He wanted His Church to be always expecting it -- at even, or at midnight, or at cock crowing, or in the morning. The announcement of a fixed previous millennium would have been fatal to this design, and the Church would have gone to work to make her own millennium without Him.



-- A. B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel







As we approach the fall festival of The Feast of Trumpets (more about this tomorrow), let's keep waiting and watching and listening for that final trumpet!

What Do We Mean by the Millenium?

1. The resurrection and re-union of the saints.

2. Their reward and reign.

3. The complete exclusion of Satan from the earth.

4. The personal and continual presence of Jesus with them on earth.

5. The suppression of all enemies and the universal reign of righteousness.

6. The duration of a thousand years.

7. The immediately succeeding revolt of Satan and sinful man, and the final judgment of the wicked.

If there was no other reference in the Bible to this time of blessing, these elements alone would be sufficient to constitute a state and time of exalted glory and happiness.



--A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel

What It Means by Christ's Coming

[The examples that Simpson cites were all popular attempts to explain away Christ's Second Coming in Simpson's day.]




1. We do not mean His coming to the individual Christian's heart... This is not His second coming... Indeed, the more we know Jesus spiritually, the more will we long for His personal and eternal presence in the fuller and more glorious sense which His personal advent will bring.

2. We do not mean His coming at death. It is doubtful whether He does really come for us at death...

3. We do not mean... the progress of Christianity. This is nowhere recognized... as the personal coming of Christ...

His truth is to prevail; His cause is to triumph, but He is coming personally, and He is infinitely more than even His truth and cause.



-- A.B. Simpson, The Four-fold Gospel