The Ohio Independent Baptist, September 1969

iange e ar? - A Radio Message - by Rev. Gerald V. Smelser ' O O E"' ~t p. to a k. f r an ex– J an.1t1t- n l f one f the trang t fa""t . nL t nl , in hi torical literature, l1t1t 1n the li\ ing \\ rid: th fac t that all c1,iliz d tin~- i d a ted fron1 the birth of J e~ tt f aza r th . Thi i 1he t\\ cnt1et h centtlr) . and from vvh at c, nt are tho t\\ enty centurie ~ tint d? Fr n1 the birth of a Jew. ,, ho ,, a pea ant in an ob cure r , in in a far-off age : who ,vrote no bo k. n1ade no di covery. invented no phi lo ph) . built no temple: a pea ant prophet \\ ho died when he had carcely reached hi prime, and a ordi ng to the annal of ecular hi tor, d ied the death of a criminal. "' Thi i a tory written in all the character of defeat. Y et , civilized 1i11ze zs dated fro 111 the birtlz of tlzis J e,t·! The centurie carry Hi igna– tu re. and the year of the modern ,, orld are labelled Hthe year of our Lord... E, er, morning the new papers of our wor ld - though ome of the·m fill their column with attacks on Chri t . .. readju t their date to Hi cradle . Each new year. a it arrive i attached to Hi name! Calendar and act of tate, busine s politics and literature .. . the very dates on our check and letters ... are all ad– ju ted to the chronology of Messiah s life. To \.\'rite a mere human ignature on time it elf is a marvelous achieve– ment. Cae ar ha not done it, nor ha hake peare ! The philo ophy of P lato. the dialogues of Socrates, are till tudied in the universities of the v.rorld. but the \.\ orld does not reckon I ts ti me from Plato or ocrates, from Alexander. or Cae ar: I t dates its ~ime from one v. 1 ho. as unbelief ex– plains H im. v. a merely a Jewish peasant who died the death of a criminal. Ho\.\ does it come to pass that. not b~,.- accident not by some con piracy of fanatics, not by the 8 SEPTEMBER, 1669 for ~e f an imperial edict. but by a converg nee of ilent unrecognized fo rce . all civilized time i joined to the nan1e of Je u Chri it? The name of the Me iah did not emerge in the cale ndar until five centurie after H i death, a space of time long enough for Him to have been for– gotten, had He been an impositer. Emperor and world figure have 011n.ted for nothing again t the name of Je u . By the ixth centLLry that nan1e had grown into the imagina– tion of the world. Only one name has preeminently urvived the wide .5pace of peri bed time. Ot her At te mpts Made Many attempt have been made to give another point of departure for recorded time. La Place, the astrono– mer propo ed to give tability and dignity to human chronology by link– ing it to the tars. Human time La Place argued ought not 1:o be ad– ju ted to the trivial event and vani h– ing name of earthly history, but to the march of the heavenly bodie . I lam made a faint and broken mark on the calendar! The mo t notable attempt in modern times to find a new tarting point for civilized time was that undertaken by France in 1793. The Revolution was to be counted as the year One. It la ted ju t thirteen year , and its only leg– acy to hi tory i the tangle of names and dates with which it confu e the records of those thirteen years . A still more recent attempt was made by the elf-styled Cae ar of modern times who would have changed the calendar to begin with the r i e of hi n1odern Romain Empire, but that story of infamy is closed. We are reminded, in all thi , of the prophet Daniel s warning concern– ing the character of a world dictator "' t t o C(1111c - "1\ntl }1c sl1 t1ll ri ak gr ':, t "' >rtls aga i 11 t t }1 c 11, l>St 11 igh, , \111 ~J1all \\,l".ll' <)Ul the sa int s c1f the llH)S l Jl igh an ll thi11l· t 1 c l1 angc tin1es an{l la,v,.' ' II the fclrccs kn<)Wn t<> hi ~t()ry, an{I all the iclcas that l1a v c at I l h clrI t ) f ) r t I, c h un 1 a n i n 1 a g i 11 at i n hn vc Ileen c111ploycc.l to 111nrk the sl,trting 11oint frc.)111 whi ch the ht1111a11 • race 11,ay count 1l s years . . . and ,di n avc I ai Ice.I. Onl y one event tower high c noL1gh above the hor1i'on of hi\tor, to ~crve a a landn,ark an<I a tin1e 11cast1rc for c1vili1.cd races. It i. hoth a c;ign and a prophecy; a ign that the cc11turie helong to Chri t. a prophec} of the fa t coming hoL1r when all that time includes and rcpre ent hall bear Hi 1gnature. Dr. Fitchett, quoting Jean Patil Richter· magnificient entence , ay), '~The crucified Je u being the holie t among t the mighty. and mighti e-, t among t the holy ha lifted with Hi pi erced hand empire off their hinge , turned the trearn of centuries out of their channels and .till governs the age, . ' And all our almanac re– peat in uncon ciou pro e that flight of tately rhetoric ay Dr. Fitchett. Tri1ly , tl1e Son of God, 1i1ade flesl1, l1as co111e into tl1e world's histor)' to shape it to a new pattern by secitring i,z His great rea 1 e111ption a neiv fa111ily joined eternally to the Name of God. Two Great Movements The miracle of history is further een in it cour e and development, leading to its grand fulfillmenit: in the coming of the Me iab, by two move– n1ent in hi tory . . . Jewish prophecy and Greek philo ophy. The two move– ment , though widely eparated are parallel, and finally merge in that one supreme event . . . the appear– ance of the Mes iah. Jewi h prophecy i a Divine movement in preparation for thi one great momenrt in hi tory. The whole ~tory of ,the Jewi h people. a faithfu lly recorded by in piraition in the Bible, is the tale of the nation selected and morally trained to be the channel of blessing to all nations by the coming of a Redeemer. Jewish hi tory and it revealed religion, are thu a movement toward a great piritual victory nece ary for the lhappine s of the world, only to be achieved by the appearance of the great and n1ighty Redeemer . Running concurrently with Jud aism, in the late centuries just before the advent of Mes iah, was Greek philo ophy, which reached its high water mark in Plato. But he who tudies the hi tory of the e two movemenits will see that they both came to a dead end - a place of waiting and expectation. THE OHIO INDEPENDENT BAPTIST