days.  These prophecies have been considered in measure, in the articles Last

Days2,8, but a summary may be of service here.

1 Timothy 4:1 -3 shows the evil in germ and somewhat disguised; 2

Timothy 3:1 -7 and 4:1 -4 shows it at the end, with the mask removed.  The

way is prepared by a departure from the faith (1 Tim. 4:1), for which the

members of the Mystery must be held in measure responsible.  Throughout this

first epistle Paul is urging Timothy to be awake to this 'departure'.  'That

they teach no other doctrine', 'give no heed to fables', 'hold the faith and

a good conscience, which some having put away concerning faith have made

shipwreck'.  The attitude of bishops, deacons, servants, elders and widows to

the truth and its relationships is noted as contributory factors.  Doctrine

is or should be 'according to godliness', but danger springs from 'perverse

disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing

that gain is godliness'.

Behind all this leavening of the wholemeal of truth, are 'seducing

spirits, and doctrines of demons (not devils), speaking lies in hypocrisy ...

forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats ...'.  Here we have

a specious piety inculcated by the deceiving teachers.  In 2 Timothy 3 the

mask of piety is cast aside, and a paganism, almost identical with that

described in Romans 1:26 -32, will be in the ascendant.  The only bulwark

allowed to us as the end draws near is that we 'preach the Word' and 'love

His appearing'.  While it cannot but be a matter of grief to find so many

turn away from the revelation of grace and glory that is found in the

epistles of the Mystery, it has already been foreseen.  If we heed the

prophetic utterances of 1 and 2 Timothy, we, being forewarned, will be

We still have the joy of seeing one here, and one there, recognizing

the claims and privileges of this high calling, and realize that the God Who

chose every member of the Body of Christ, will not fail to bring each member

into touch with the truth that makes free, and if any word we write can be

used to that end what privileged people we must be.  For this purpose, this

series of volumes is dedicated.  We entertain no false hopes of a general

acceptance either of the doctrines or the privileges laid down in these

pages, but in the spirit of the poem, which gave Rutherford's attitude to

opposition and apparent waste of time and labour, we also say:

'But if one soul from Anwoth*

Shall meet me on that strand,

My heaven 'll be two heavens,

In Emmanuel's land'.

*

Anwoth, on the Solway, Scotland, where Rutherford was minister.

'A prediction of some contingent circumstance or event in the future

received by immediate and direct revelation' (Vitringa).

'A declaration made by a creature under the inspiration or commission

of the Omniscient God relating to an event or a series of events, which

have not taken place at the time the prophecy is uttered, which could

not have been certainly foreknown by any science or wisdom of man' (Dr.

Pye Smith).