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By every test therefore we are safe in making the claim, that those who proclaim the
message found in these four epistles will be proclaiming "The Truth". Our next
proposition is that these epistles do not only contain "Truth", but that they are "The Truth
for the times". This we will next consider.
#2.
The Prison Epistles teach "Truth for the times".
pp. 27 - 31
In the first address we sought to establish the four great "prison" epistles as epistles of
"truth", taking their place with all Scripture, and given by inspiration of God. We
submitted these epistles to three forms of examination:
(1)
Their relationship with the rest of Scripture.
(2)
Their inter-relationship as exhibited by Structure.
(3)
Their response to a seven-fold Doctrinal test.
We now pass to the second part of our proposition; that these epistles are not only
epistles of inspired truth, but that they are "Truth for the times". Now, in such a claim
there is a challenge. First, it supposes that there can be "truth" in God's word that is not
"Truth for the times". Secondly, that such a discrimination is proper and scriptural, and
thirdly, that these four epistles minister truth for the present dispensation, as no other part
of Scripture can.
Let us take these three divisions of our subject and examine them separately in the
light of all Scripture.
First. Can there be "truth" that is true at one time and not true at another? In one
sense, any word that God has said is eternally, unalterably, true. The law given through
Moses is as true as to-day as when it was first instituted. Yet, not one of those who read
these words has ever kept those laws, which are true, nor has he any intention of doing
so. The law of Moses contains commands that were not only enjoined upon the people,
but accompanied by severe penalties for non-observance. There is a series of commands
accompanied by the threat for disobedience; that "He shall be cut off from his people".
Such are the rite of circumcision (Gen. 17: 14); the eating of leaven during the days of
unleavened bread (Exod. 12: 15); the keeping of the sabbath (Exod. 31: 14); the
keeping of the day of atonement (Lev. 23: 29); the observance of the Passover
(Numb. 9: 13); the purification upon touching a dead body (Numb. 19: 13, 20). Now
either these passages are the truth of God, or they are not. We believe that they are truth,
the words of Moses being endorsed by the Saviour Himself (Luke 24: 27; John 5: 46,
47).
Here therefore are words of truth, recognized as truth by believers, who
nevertheless agree that they have not obeyed them, and do not intend to obey them, yet
they have not suffered the penalties involved, nor do they expect to. Indeed, in the
self-same Bible that enjoins, with such solemnity, circumcision or the keeping of the
Sabbath day, we also read, "If ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing . . . . . ye