The Bible Class

LESSON XXXIV. John the Baptist

Questions to Lesson 34^*

Another sign of the first advent, and proof that Jesus was the Christ, was the ministry of John the Baptist. BIC 78.2

More than seven hundred years before, the Holy Spirit had moved the prophet Isaiah to write the following prophecy: “The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” Isaiah 40:3. The Lord had also said by Malachi, Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me, etc. Malachi 3:1. BIC 78.3

We come down now to the time when Christ was about to appear in his first advent. A man, dressed in coarse raiment made of camel’s hair, with a belt of leather around the waist to bind his loose garment to the body, appeared in the wilderness of Judea, and attracted much attention by preaching a special message to those who went out to hear him. Matthew 3:1-6. The food which he lived upon was such as was found in the desert, which was locusts and wild honey. The object of his preaching was that a people might be prepared, by repentance and remission of sins, for the Lord Jesus Christ who was about to appear; and to bear his own testimony, in connection with the fulfillment of the prophecies already quoted, that Jesus was the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. John 1:29. BIC 78.4

The sixty-nine weeks of Daniel were about ended and doubtless the people were aware of it; for they were in expectation of Christ, so much so, that it was a question with them, whether John the Baptist was not the Christ. Luke says, And as the people were in expectation, and all men mused in their hearts of John, whether he were the Christ or not Chap 3:15. But when they inquired of John, he said, I am not the Christ John 1:20. And when he was asked, who art thou? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias. [Isaiah.] v, 23. BIC 79.1

“John did no miracle,” [John 10:41,] but came before the people, at the right time, with his message, saying that he came in fulfillment of the prophecy of the voice as foretold by Isaiah. In proof of his pretension, he had, at first, no other testimony, except that his preaching was against sin and in favor of righteousness; yet those that did not heed his preaching rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him. Luke 7:30. The evidences which they rejected were a prophetic message, prophetic time, and the assertion of John supported by purity of doctrine and practice. These were sufficient to prove his mission to be from heaven. Mark 11:27-33. BIC 80.1

Will not those, who reject the same evidences in relation to the second advent, reject the counsel of God against themselves? BIC 80.2