The Same Communion

Those who know the truth can have the same communion with the Father and the Son as those who saw with their eyes and handled with their hands what they have declared unto us of the Word of life.
“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (for the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ." 1 John 1:1-3.
After Christ had reproved and corrected and instructed those two disciples on their way to Emmaus, He then tested their affection for Him and their desire to have Him with them. When they drew near to the village, He made as though He would have gone further. But they loved His presence; they wished Him to stay with them.
“But they constrained Him, saying, Abide with us; for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And He went in to tarry with them. And it came to pass, as He sat at meat with them, He took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew Him; and He vanished out of their sight." Luke 24:29-31.
In this there was further witness of "not by sight" for when their eyes were opened that they knew Him, instead of His adding something to what He had already taught them, He vanished out of their sight. He left them in happy meditation on the words He had spoken instead of sadness in reasoning on the things that had happened. "And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened to us the Scriptures?”
May we thus have communion with Christ, according to that which is written, and according to the power of His Spirit. May we be kept from the sadness of our own reasoning on the things that happen, that we may not be as fools but as wise. "For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope." Rom. 15:4.
The Remembrance
Editorial
Twenty years ago the army of the Israelis captured the city of Jerusalem. Moshe Dayan, along with crowds of soldiers went down to the western (wailing) wall of the old Temple site. He wrote a note and placed it in a crevice. These were his words: "May peace descend upon the whole house of Israel." Later he said, "We have returned to the holiest of our sites, and will never again be separated from it.”
To this day the Israelis have tenaciously held on to Jerusalem but most certainly nothing like peace has descended upon the whole house of Israel.
We believe that it is proper and profitable for us to observe and learn from events concerning God's earthly people, Israel. In fact, it states this in Isa. 18:3, "All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when He lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when He bloweth a trumpet, hear ye." Applying this means that we are supposed to notice and pay attention to what goes on concerning that nation "scattered and peeled." The meaning of Diaspora (which they call themselves) is, dispersed or scattered.
About 2000 years ago, the Lord Jesus Christ (Messiah) came and was presented to the Jews as their King, but they rejected Him. Christ had fully demonstrated all the power of God against sin and its effects in miraculous signs and wonders in goodness and yet they rejected Him. In Matt. 12 they attributed His works to Beelzebub, the prince of devils. This was the unpardonable sin of the nation.
In the same chapter, the Lord utters a remarkable prophecy concerning "this wicked generation." Generation here means a class of people. Later they said, "His blood be on us and on our children.”
Now consider verses 43, 44 and 45. "When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none." This prophetic figure presents the Jew as freed from idolatry for which they had been carried into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar, but not finding rest even in their Messiah who in chapter 11 had invited all to come to Him and find rest. Everywhere the "scattered ones," or Jews have been, has only been for them "dry places.”
In the prophetic figure in the next verse they say, "I will return into my house from whence I came out." But when they do, what do they find? They find it empty, swept and garnished. Empty because Jesus, their rejected Messiah, has left and it is as He says to those of Jerusalem in Matt. 23:38, "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate." Swept is the series of events that have happened to that city so very frequently ever since. Garnished is its present condition as rebuilt and the site of the Temple adorned (garnished) with a luxuriant heathen mosque. The "wailing wall" is about all the Jews have as yet at the old temple site.
There are further events to take place according to Matt. 12:45. "Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.”
Idolatry will again be fully embraced by the Christ-rejecters who will receive the antichrist working his lying wonders. We believe this takes place after the rapture of all believers to be with Christ in glory. Surely the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ for His bride, the Church, is very near. Ed.