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Scripture Reading: Acts 17:24-27; Dan. 2:21; 4:17
Prayer: Lord Jesus, we love You. We like to tell You how much we love You. You are our God. You are very God and You are very man. We love You because of this. In You we see God, we find God, and we obtain God. In You we also see man, a proper man. We worship You that today You are on the throne. How we worship You! We worship You as the exalted man on the throne of God. How we thank You that today we are preaching You, declaring You, and ministering You to all the needy ones! Thank You, Lord Jesus. We exalt You in our meeting. You are God’s exalted Head and also our Lord of lords. We give You all the glory. Thank You for Your redemption. Thank You for Your life. Thank You for all You are. In Your precious name we worship You. Amen.
The church comes out of mankind. To have the proper church life, we must therefore know the world situation. This situation is under God’s sovereign arrangement. I like Acts 17:26: “And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation” (KJV).
God made all the nations out of one blood. Regardless of all the different skin colors, God made all the races out of the blood He created in Adam. One blood means one person, that is, Adam. In a sense we should not have concepts about people because of their skin color; all of us are out of the same blood.
God determined the appointed times and boundaries. The continent of America was discovered by Columbus, but it was not up to him. God ordained that this continent be occupied just by the Indians and that the rest of the world be kept in ignorance of it until about five hundred years ago. What was it that inspired Columbus to sail west? Could he have had a dream? When I was in school, I learned the poem about Columbus, called “Sail On.” The sailors were angry at such a seemingly endless voyage with no sight of land and wanted to turn back. Columbus kept telling them, “Sail on!” There were great men in the past. Solomon was the wisest of men. No one before Columbus, though, had the inspiration to reach the eastern lands by sailing west.
The time was before appointed. God made the appointment when America should be exposed to the descendants of Japheth. You remember Noah’s prophecy: “May God enlarge Japheth” (Gen. 9:27). Now the time was ripe for Japheth to be enlarged and to spread abroad. The example of the discovery of America is only one illustration of how the spreading of the nations, their boundaries, and their time are all determined by God’s appointment.
Since God made man in His image and made all peoples out of one blood, He surely took an interest in the territories the various nations would occupy and the seasons when they would be in ascendancy. Where the bears, lions, and tigers would be was not of much concern to Him; but man, made in His image and therefore like Him (like a photograph of Him), surely has had his seasons and boundaries appointed by God (see Dan. 2:21; 4:17).
After Adam took in the evil one and had his eyes opened to see not the good things but his nakedness, God came and called him: “Where are you?” (Gen. 3:9). Adam was hiding himself in shame and fear. He had covered himself with the dying fig leaves. God, of course, said He would discipline him, but He also gave him the promise that the seed of the woman would bruise the serpent’s head (v. 15). This was the way the serpent would be destroyed.
Four thousand years went by. Mankind meantime went further and further downhill. They went down to idolatrous Babel, trying to erect a tower to spread abroad their own name. This caused God to call out one man, Abraham, and to promise him that He would bless the whole earth through him (22:18). This promise, made midway in the four thousand years, was stronger and more definite than the one to Adam. Still mankind had to wait for the fulfillment.
Finally, the Lord Jesus came. God came! This time it was not in the form of a man, as in the case of His visit with Abraham (ch. 18). Now He came by way of pregnancy. He came by way of getting into man’s blood, man’s flesh. He stayed in a virgin’s womb for nine months and then came forth as an ordinary baby. He was born not in a hospital or even in an inn, for there was no room for Him there; He was placed in a manger. Thus God put on human nature.
Then He lived a human life for thirty-three and a half years. He was not in a rich family, nor did He have an easy life. At the end He was put to death by crucifixion. He was buried, and He arose.
Why did He take this path? All He went through was to accomplish one goal: to bring God into man by redemption and resurrection.
For these great things to be accomplished, there had to be the right situation. Take the matter of the crucifixion as an example. In the Old Testament there was the prophecy that hinted that the Lord Jesus would hang on a tree (Deut. 21:22-23; Gal. 3:13). In typology there was the bronze serpent, which was lifted up on a pole (Num. 21:8-9; John 3:14). The Roman Empire used crucifixion to carry out the death penalty for the lowest class of criminals and for slaves who were guilty of rebellion. By using this means to put to death the Lord Jesus, the Roman Empire was the instrument for the prophecies regarding Christ’s death to be fulfilled.
For Christ’s great accomplishments to be carried out, there was the need for the Roman Empire to be established. After I was saved, I was interested in studying world history and comparing it with the Bible so that I might know more concerning the spiritual things. I learned the significance of many things from reading and studying world history. The rise of nations began after Babel. The Jews, because they offended God, lost their homeland about 600 B.C., when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem and carried many of them captive to Babylon. Not too long after, the supremacy of Babylon passed to Medo-Persia. Persia is the present Iran. The Medo-Persian Empire controlled the lands formerly under Babylon, including the land of Israel. Then a little over three hundred years before Christ, Alexander the Great of Macedonia defeated Medo-Persia and ruled those lands. He was only about thirty when he died.
Following the death of Alexander, his kingdom broke up. In the interval before the rise of the Roman Empire, there was no world empire controlling the nations around the Mediterranean. Wars and disturbances were common. Gradually, the Romans, especially under Julius Caesar, defeated all the surrounding nations. Octavian, Julius Caesar’s grandnephew, defeated Egypt. With this conquest all the lands around the Mediterranean were brought under Roman control. Octavian was the adopted heir of Julius Caesar. In 27 B.C. Octavian took the title Augustus and became the first emperor.
It was during the reign of Augustus that Christ was born. Luke 2:1 says, “In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus for a census to be taken of all the inhabited earth.” The Lord Jesus was born under the rule of the first formal Caesar of the Roman Empire. It was God’s ordination that the Roman Empire should be in control of the Mediterranean area during the time of Christ.
The order which Rome brought to that warring region made it possible for the Lord Jesus to be born peacefully into mankind. The Roman method of capital punishment, crucifixion, made possible the fulfillment of the prophecies concerning His death.
The spread of the gospel after the resurrection and ascension of Christ was greatly facilitated by the common language, the single rule, the roads, and the domestic order that Rome established.
Greek was the language of the educated classes. The New Testament, though written almost entirely by Jews—Luke was the only exception—was written in Greek, not Hebrew. Even before the rise of the Roman Empire, about three centuries before Christ, the Hebrew Old Testament was translated into Greek. This version, called the Septuagint, was translated by seventy scholars in Alexandria, Egypt. When the Lord Jesus was on earth, many times the Scriptures He quoted were from the Septuagint.
Rome called its conquered lands provinces—for example, Galatia, Asia, Achaia, and Macedonia. With all these provinces being united under Rome, people were free to cross borders without restrictions. Such a situation was a great convenience to those who traveled to spread the gospel. In addition, ships were available for crossing the Mediterranean; for traveling by land, the roads the Romans built crossed the whole empire.
The peace and order that prevailed further encouraged travel, thus aiding the spread of the gospel. Robbery was kept under control. It was reasonably safe to travel without fear of being robbed or killed. Roman citizens were under the full protection of the law. Paul himself claimed this right. When he was about to be scourged, he protested to the centurion, “Is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is a Roman and uncondemned?” (Acts 22:25). The commander was afraid, “realizing that he was a Roman and that he had bound him” (v. 29). Later, when the Jews, his own countrymen, were accusing him before Festus, he claimed his right as a Roman citizen and appealed to Caesar (25:11). Thus, he was protected.
The Roman Empire, then, was appointed by God to provide the situation in which redemption could be accomplished and the gospel spread.
Satan followed. What God uses, Satan also comes along to use in order to cause damage. The emperors began to persecute the Christians, and countless numbers were martyred. Persecution, as we know, did not terminate the Christians; it rather helped them. Then Satan changed his strategy. Under the rule of Constantine the Great, the Roman Empire made Christianity legal, and Christians had the full freedom of worship. Because of the favors he granted the Christians, thousands of pagans were baptized and became Christians in name. These were the tares spoken of in Matthew 13:24-30. That ruined Christianity.
Constantine was a clever politician. He wanted to bring all the warring factions of the empire together. Realizing that Christianity could be a peaceful influence, he decided that first the conflicts that were raging among theologians must be resolved. He therefore convened a council to meet at Nicaea to discuss the matters of Christology and the Trinity. These were the two main issues that were being fought over, even as they are today. Constantine himself presided over the council. Under his influence the Nicene Creed was drawn up (A.D. 325). He acted openly as head of the Church, which in his reign was first called Catholic; at the same time he kept his title of high priest of the heathen.
This ruin progressed from the fourth to the sixth centuries, by which time the papal system was fully established. With this the Roman Catholic Church reached its full development; it claimed to be the one, universal church (catholic means “universal”) and exercised worldly power over people and nations. No protest or dissent was tolerated. Over the centuries when it held sway, the Roman Catholic Church killed more genuine Christians than the pagan Roman Empire had killed. Under such a dark Church, the so-called Dark Ages were produced, lasting about ten centuries, from about A.D. 500 to 1500.
Around 1500 the Reformation came in. God used Germany to protect Martin Luther. But once again, what God used, Satan also used. Luther was bold in defending justification by faith. When it came to the matter of the church, however, he was weak. Satan used Germany to interfere with Luther’s ministry. The first state church was formed in Germany; this was due to Luther’s weakness. Even today this state church exists in Germany, supported by public taxes.
Other state churches sprang up. There are the state churches of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. The monarchs of these countries are the heads of the state church. The same is true of Great Britain; Queen Elizabeth is the head of the Anglican Church. What a ruin to the church of God, which is the Body of Christ!
This historical background shows how God used the world situation in the carrying out of His economy and then how Satan followed, using the same means, to ruin God’s work.
Around the time of the Reformation, another thing happened: the discovery of the new land by Columbus. These two things, the Reformation and the discovery of the new land, liberated human mentality. Science and scientific knowledge grew, leading to modern machines and weapons. The free mentality plus the newly discovered land changed the world a lot.
This was the period of time when Spain was the dominant power. It was Spain that provided the support for Columbus’s voyages. This gave Spain the right to lay claim to vast portions of the Americas. Even today in the southwest of the United States the Spanish influence is apparent. Many cities along the West Coast, like Los Angeles and San Francisco, have Spanish names. Spain reached out even to the Far East and took possession of the Philippines. As a result, the Catholic influence there is still strong. All of Central and South America, except Brazil, speak Spanish because of the Spanish conquests.
Until the close of the sixteenth century, Spain was the leading power on earth. If she had remained on top, the whole world would be under Catholicism, as is the case with Latin America. God could not allow this. Therefore, He raised up the small island of Britain, and in 1588 the British navy dealt a fatal blow to Spain’s supremacy by defeating the larger, seemingly better equipped, Spanish Armada.
With the coming of the Reformation the Bible was released. This, coupled with the free thinking that developed once Catholicism’s hold on the mind was broken, led Christians to the discovery of many new truths in the Bible. It seemed that everyone who discovered a new truth became the founder of a new denomination. There were a number of Brethren churches that began during this period of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The Grace Brethren and the Mennonites were two of them. All these newly formed denominations were persecuted by both the Catholic Church and the state churches. This was true of the state churches even in northern Europe. These freethinking Christians were thus in peril for their lives.
At this very time God raised up Count Zinzendorf, a wealthy German who owned a large estate in Saxony. He invited the persecuted Christians to come and stay there. From many places they came, but mostly from Moravia. With their varied denominational backgrounds, they were soon quarreling about the presbytery, baptism, and other doctrines. Finally, Zinzendorf called the leaders together. He reminded them how they had come together as brothers to escape persecution. They must stop their dissenting ways, he said, and sign a contract to cease arguing and simply be one in Christ. This they agreed to do. After that they had the Lord’s table. There was a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Eventually, hundreds of the so-called Moravian Brethren went out to other lands, especially to the newly found land of America. Even today there are a number of Moravian Churches in the United States.
On one of these ships bound for America was John Wesley. A great storm arose, causing the passengers to fear for their lives. Wesley, a revivalist but not sure of his salvation, noticed a group of passengers praying together. As a result of his contact with these Moravian Brethren, Wesley eventually came into the assurance of salvation. After a time in America, he returned to England and then went on to Saxony to spend time with the Moravians. Had he not been burdened for England, he would have liked to remain with them. This was the time of the French Revolution. Those revolutionary ideas were gaining ground in England, and there was fear that the government itself might be overthrown. It was through the preaching of John Wesley and George Whitefield, those powerful open-air evangelists, that the gospel prevailed over the revolutionary tendencies and England was spared. British society was changed as a result of their work.
The practice of the church life by those with Count Zinzendorf marked a beginning. It was good, but it was not adequate. Their light was limited, but we consider that theirs was the first practice of the church life in the Lord’s recovery after the Reformation.
About a century later, in the 1820s, God raised up the Brethren in England, under the leadership of John Nelson Darby. Oh, the light that flooded in! Luther had unlocked the Bible from prison, but it remained for Darby and his contemporaries to open it. Even today the best theological seminaries follow the Brethren teaching. Yet, they would not take the Brethren way in the matter of the church life.
The Brethren movement, according to an article by D. M. Panton, was stronger and more prevailing than the Reformation under Luther. To the world, however, it was unknown. This was because the early Brethren would have nothing to do with the worldly ways the Reformation had followed. Martin Luther gained the support of princes and other worldly rulers to advance the cause of the Reformation. Newspapers were printed for the first time in the 1500s; these were used to spread propaganda for the Reformation. The Brethren had no publicity; everything about them was kept covered. It is hard to find a photograph, for example, of J. N. Darby. They did not have biographies or autobiographies. A number among them who were lords and ladies renounced their titles.
When Jamaica in the British West Indies suffered a ruinous storm during the last century, the British Brethren assemblies sent aid to the believers there. The amount they sent greatly surpassed what the British government provided.
There was still the need for the gospel to be spread to Africa and to Asia. There was also the need for the spread of the light seen by the Brethren to every part of the earth. How was this spreading to come about?
After the defeat of the Spanish Armada, Spain’s power declined while that of Britain rose. Gradually, she became an empire, with colonies all around the earth. It was called the empire without a sunset. For more than two centuries the colonies were farms, providing her with the goods she needed and making her wealthy.
During the days of Britain’s preeminence, the Protestant influence reached to every continent. Most missionaries in the past were British. The money used for the spread of the gospel was largely in pounds sterling, not United States dollars. It was in England that many spiritual giants were raised up. Great teachers among the Brethren wrote hundreds of books for the release of the truth. Light was released by the speakers at the Keswick Convention.
Now, however, especially since World War II, Great Britain has lost her colonies, the source of her wealth. Instead of her islands being gardens, they have had to become farms. Britain was not faithful to God or to man. In World War I she promised the Jews to make Palestine their homeland if they would help in the fight against Germany. At the same time she secretly promised the Jordanians, who were Arabs, that Palestine would become theirs if they would join in fighting against the Turks. When the war was over, the Jews and Jordanians were both offended at this duplicity.
The United States followed Britain as a world power. Before the discovery of America, the connecting center for the whole world was the Holy Land. Though it is located in the western part of Asia, it joins Asia, Europe, and Africa. God sovereignly made the Holy Land the focus of the ancient populated world so that the gospel could be formed and spread from there.
Since World War II, the United States has been the heart of the populated world. Its climate is temperate. It lies between two great oceans, which are like the wings of an eagle.
Whatever the United States does, the entire world follows. This is true financially, industrially, scientifically, politically, militarily, religiously, scripturally, and spiritually. Even in language, it is American English, not British, which prevails.
Why has God ordained this? It is for His move on earth to carry out His recovery. The Roman Empire was for the gospel. Germany was for the Reformation. Britain was for the spreading of the gospel and of the truth. Now the United States has become the center for the recovery. From here it can spread to all the continents in a worldwide language. Wherever we are from, we must appreciate America. God will use America to spread His recovery so that the Lord may return.
