Bible Echo and Signs of the Times, vol. 3
May 1888
“Not Without Witness” Bible Echo and Signs of the Times, 3, 5, 70.
WHEN Paul and Barnabas were trying to persuade the people of Lystra to turn from the vanities of idolatry, they said unto them that although God “suffered all nations to walk in their own ways, nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.” These are some of the means by which God witnesses of himself to all nations. When the prophet Isaiah sets forth the absurdity and inexcusableness of idolatry, by simply showing how a god is made, a man who plants a tree, which the rain nourishes until it has grown large enough to be used; then he cuts it down, and with part of it he makes a fire, by which he warms himself and cooks his food, and the residue he makes into a god, and falls down to it and worships it, and cries to it, “Deliver me; for thou art my god.” Isaiah 44:14-17. Then the prophet shows where such people fail to use the common sense that belongs with nature itself. As it is that the rain nourishes the tree from which he makes his god, if he does not know who is the God, why don’t he worship the Power that gives the rain? If he would but do that he would be walking in the light of common sense, of reason, and of faith, and would soon find out God. Men can, by searching find out God. But God expects him to search, and in the search to use the common sense and the faculties generally that God has given to him. And men are without excuse who do not do it. Romans 1:20. BEST May 1888, page 70.1
But it is not alone by the giving of rain and fruitful seasons that God has “left not himself without witness.” He has done it by revelation, and through living testimony. When Egypt stood at the head of the world in power, wisdom, and influence, God made manifest in that land his power and his glory in such a way that all the nations heard of it. The Canaanites heard of it, and knew that the God that delivered Israel was God of Heaven and earth. Joshua 2:9-11. BEST May 1888, page 70.2
The next nation that arose to power and influence in the world was Assyria. And when Assyria had grown corrupt and had gone far away from God, the Lord graciously sent a Hebrew prophet to the people, and called them to repentance. Jonah 1:2, 3. After this, again and again, he bore witness to Assyria that he is God above all, the most notable instance, perhaps, being the slaughter of the host of Sennacherib. Isaiah 37. BEST May 1888, page 70.3
Babylon next spread her empire over all nations, and to them God left not himself without witness. He bore witness directly to Nebuchadnezzar, in the dream of the great image, and its interpretation by Daniel, the captive Hebrew. Again, in the affair of the three Hebrews and the fiery furnace, God bore witness of himself to all the power and all the provinces of that mighty empire, both by the representatives that were present (Daniel 3:3), and also by the decree of the king, which followed. Verse 29. Again when Nebuchadnezzar, after being warned of God (Daniel 4:4-27), was driven out from the presence of men to run wild for seven years, he learned by it that Jehovah rules in the affairs of men, and that he is above all gods; and when he recovered his understanding, he published “unto all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth,” that he “thought it good to show the signs and wonders that the high God” had wrought. Verses 1, 2. Again, when that empire was on the brink of ruin, God, by the handwriting on the wall of the palace, bore a last parting witness to the lascivious king, that he was weighed in the balances and found wanting, and that his kingdom was given to the Medes and Persians. Daniel 5:27, 28. BEST May 1888, page 70.4
The power of Media and Persia came after, and through that power, also, God again bore witness of himself “unto all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth.” For Daniel, the servant of God, was cast into a den of lions, and came forth unhurt, because God sent his angel and shut the lions’ mouths that they should do him no hurt. “Then King Darius wrote unto all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth,” that the God of Daniel “is the living God, and steadfast forever, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed, and his dominion shall be even unto the end.” Daniel 6:25, 26. When Darius was dead and Cyrus reigned, he also “made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, the Lord God of Heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel (he is the God).” BEST May 1888, page 70.5
When Alexander the Great was in the full tide of his career of conquest, he stood at the temple of the Most High in Jerusalem, and heard the witness of God concerning himself read from the Hebrew Scriptures. And through the Greek language, which the career of Alexander was instrumental in spreading throughout all the Eastern world, God chose to give witness of himself in the salvation wrought for man in the death and resurrection of his own dear Son. BEST May 1888, page 70.6
And when Rome ruled the world, God not only left not himself without witness, in the preaching of the gospel to every nation under heaven, but also by the apostle Paul he bore witness more than once to the head of the Roman world himself. And from that day to this, God has left not himself without witness to all nations. BEST May 1888, page 70.7
Nor was it only to these great empires and nations that the Lord bore witness of himself. In Jeremiah 27:2-11 is the copy of a message from the Lord that was written by the prophet Jeremiah, and was sent “to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the Ammonites, and to the king of Tyrus, and to the king of Zidon, by the hand of the messengers which come to Jerusalem.” And the time would fail us to tell of all the testimonies that God bore by Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and Joel, and Amos, and Obadiah, and Zephaniah, and Zechariah, not only to Assyria, and Babylon, and Egypt, and Medo-Persia, but also to Edom, and Moab, and Ammon, and Tyre, and Zidon, and Syria, and Arabia, and all the nations round about. It is literally true that God has “left not himself without witness” unto “all nations” in all ages. And when in that great day of the Lord the great trumpet shall be blown, there shall gather before the glorious throne of the most high God, “a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues,” and will cry “with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.” BEST May 1888, page 70.8
A. T. JONES.