ONE of the most effective strategies of that arch-plotter, the devil, is to employ half truths with such tremendous emphasis as to obscure the other half.

This he did in the Garden of Eden when he said to the woman.

God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil (Gen. 3:5).

That this was true God later testified, when He said,

Man is become as one of Us, to know good and evil (Gen. 3:22).

But the devil used this truth to blind the eyes of the woman to the certainty of God's judgment on such an act of disobedience to the plain command of His Word. With his half truth the devil coupled the blasphemous lie which brought God's curse on Adam and his posterity.

Later, when he would tempt the Saviour, he used a half truth in quoting God's Word which says.

He shall give His angels charge concerning Thee: and in their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest at any time Thou dash Thy foot against a stone (Matt. 4:6).

Being the Word of God, this certainly was true, but in his use of it Satan omitted part of the expression:

To keep Thee IN ALL THY WAYS (Ps. 91:11).

In this omission (which was significant inasmuch as Satan was trying to lead the Son of God into a snare), and in the connection in which he used this Scripture, it became a blighting devastating lie, designed to seduce the Saviour, forever to unfit Him for the work of Redemption, and subject Him to the rebellious will of the prince of the powers of darkness. Where the first man fell, however, the Second Man stood. Being God, the Lord Jesus could not sin.

One of the most recent examples of the devil's wily use of half truths is the Kingdom Teaching of Philip Mauro. Mr. Mauro teaches that the "Kingdom of Heaven" is purely spiritual in character and not at all earthly. It is our purpose in this paper to examine Mr. Mauro's teaching and point out its sad effects.

LET us first get his teaching clearly in mind. A few quotations will fairly present his position in regard to the spiritual character of the Kingdom.

The Kingdom which our Lord, throughout His entire ministry on earth, announced as "at hand" was — not a Kingdom of earthly character, such as the spiritually blinded Jews of that day were looking for, and such as certain teachers of our day say Christ offered them and they refused, but — a spiritual and heavenly Kingdom (The Last Hour, Feb., 1923, p. 18).

The Kingdom of God... is not a Kingdom of earthly character, as held by the Jews' to their ruin, but purely spiritual (The Last Hour, Jan., 1926, p. 12).

The Kingdom He was then bringing into the world was spiritual in character, utterly unlike the kingdoms of earth, one that would not displace any of them (The Last Hour, Dec, 1927, p. 268)

The announcements by John the Baptist and Christ Himself that the Kingdom of heaven was at hand, had their realization and fulfilment in that Kingdom of God's dear Son, into which those who are saved through faith in Jesus Christ are forthwith translated (The Last Hour, Aug., 1926, p. 121).

The Kingdom foretold by the prophets, and that announced by the Lord and His forerunner, was realized in the blessed company of those who are called and saved through the Gospel of Jesus Christ (The Last Hour, Aug. 1926, p. 121).

There is much in these statements which we might profitably discuss, but for our present purposes we will content ourselves with presenting them as fair examples of Mr. Mauro's teaching concerning the spiritual character of the Kingdom.

Mr. Mauro goes further. He most emphatically denies that; Christ will ever restore His chosen nation, Israel, to their own land, there to reign over them as their King. He admits that he once believed and taught that such would be the case, but testifies now that he regards any such teaching as deadly error.

The present writer received the doctrine of the future restoration of "Israel after the flesh," as part of a system of teaching which he accepted in bulk because of the soundness and excellent reputation of those who sponsored it. But having now learned to his sorrow and mortification that he has held and taught error of a serious kind, it is his duty thus to confess it, and also to do what in him lies to establish the truth of the matter (The Last Hour, Sept., 1925, p. 133).

How thoroughly he has repudiated his former faith may be judged by the following:

The doctrine of a yet future restoration of the Jewish nation has not a Scriptural leg to stand upon (The Last Hour, Sept., 1926, p. 139).

The doctrine of national restoration for the Jews, and the conversion of the Jewish nation at the beginning of the next dispensation, is directly contrary to the plain teaching of the New Testament (The Last Hour, Sept., 1925, p. 133).

There has sprung up in our day among orthodox believers a new system of teaching which is identical with that of first century Judaism in that it is based upon the mistaken idea that the hope of Israel, according to God's promise to the fathers, was the restoration of their earthly dominion (The Last Hour, Apr., 1925, p. 56).

The hope of Israel, according to them (the rabbis' carnal interpretation of the Scriptures), was the national restoration of the Jewish people (The Last Hour, Sept., 1925, p. 132).

And not only so, but our modern teachers support this radically different "hope of Israel" by the very same carnalizing of the O. T. prophecies and promises which Paul repudiated and refuted in his day" (The Last Hour, Sept., 1925, p. 133).

It will be noticed that Mr. Mauro dubs the faith of those who looked for a literal Kingdom in which Christ should reign over His people Israel,

The carnal expectations of apostate Jews (The Last Hour, Sept., 1926, p. 138).

And he classes with them all teachers who hold that such a Kingdom will yet be established.

Evidently he regards the prophet Ezekiel, and others of God's prophets, as among those who cherish "such carnal expectations," for he quotes with approval the following from Geikie's "Hours with the Bible":

'It was necessarily taken for granted by both prophets and people that the anointed leader, or Messiah, thus expected, would restore the Kingdom on the lines of its ancient constitution; for they knew nothing higher. There might be a great advance in the religious and moral condition of the community; but at the highest, the restored Kingdom would only be a transfiguration of that of David. The conception of a purely spiritual Kingdom lay outside the range of human thought, and was not dreamed of, until proclaimed by the lips of our Lord. It was reserved to later ages to learn the significance of these prophecies through the light shed upon them by Christ... Nor was it possible for Ezekiel to think or speak except as a Jew, with the longings and expectations of his day, unconscious that his visions had a deeper meaning than he conjectured.' (The Last Hour, Nov., 1926, p. 168).

Mr. Mauro gets quite abusive in handling those who hold that God will yet literally restore His people Israel to their own land, and will establish them there in a literal earthly Kingdom with the Lord Jesus Christ reigning as their King. He says.

Any doctrine therefore that asserts or implies a special salvation for the Jewish nation is rank heresy and subversive of the gospel of Christ (The Last Hour, Sept., 1926, p. 132).

But this is mild compared to other language which Mr. Mauro uses. He classifies all who hold to faith in such a literal earthly Kingdom with those who crucified the Lord Jesus Christ. In the following statements it will be noticed that he is particularly warm in his denunciation of those who believe (as the Bible teaches) that the literal Kingdom was offered to Israel in the days of the Lord Jesus' earthly sojurn, but was postponed because of the unbelief and rebellion of that nation.

The postponement theory is opposed because it is identical with that false rabbinical doctrine which caused the Jewish nation to reject and crucify the promised Messiah, and which causes them to reject to this day the gospel of Christ. That fatal doctrine was and is based upon a carnal interpretation of the Old Testament prophecies, an interpretation which makes the Kingdom of God, foretold by the prophets, and proclaimed by Christ and His apostles, to be an 'earthly kingdom,' the restoration of natural Israel to earthly dominion and glory (The Last Hour, June, 1926, p. 83).

Because of the grossly carnal interpretation placed by their teachers upon their own prophets, they crucified the Promised One, when at the appointed time He came to them. And now has come to pass an even more astounding thing. For Christian teachers are holding out to unrepentant Jews the very same false hope of an earthly and "national salvation. Indeed they tell them, in effect, that they have only to resist the gospel of God and His Holy Spirit a little longer, and they will receive the very thing their carnal hearts have always desired (The Last Hour, Nov., 1927, p. 231).

Chiefly, I take it, is this modern revival of ancient error to be resisted, because it vindicated those false Messianic expectations under whose potent spell the Jews despised, rejected, and crucified the very One they were professedly awaiting (The Last Hour, Dec, 1925, p. 191).

But the end is not yet. So extreme is Mr. Mauro in his determination to prove that the teaching that God will gather His people into a literal earthly Kingdom, over which the Lord Jesus Christ shall reign, is wicked and unscriptural, he even goes so far as to declare that Satan was the originator of such an idea!

The expectations of a Kingdom of earthly character before atonement and redemption were thoughts, not of the things that be of God, but of those that be of men. Just what is the purpose of the great "spirit of error" in reviving again in these last days the doctrine that Christ came to announce and offer the Kingdom which the Jews were expecting, we do not know; for we cannot pretend to fathom his deep designs, though we can see havoc and mischief resulting from this pernicious teaching. But, beyond all question, the Lord's words, which we have just quoted, reveal the source of this grave error. Satan is, of course, the author of all error; but the words of the Lord to His chief apostle show that the matter we are discussing is in a special way the devil's work (The Last Hour, Aug., 1922, p. 119-120).

This offer, made to our Lord in those mysterious "days of His flesh," was a temptation, . . . the proposal came from the devil; . . . it was made in furtherance of his dark designs; and . . . our Lord rejected it in strong terms, saying, "Get thee behind Me, Satan" (The Last Hour, Nov., 1923, p. 168).

The acceptance of earthly sovereignty by the Lord Jesus Christ would have accomplished the devil's purposes (The Last Hour, Nov., 1923, p. 168).

Surely this is enough to show that Mr. Mauro completely repudiates the idea that there will ever be any literal regathering of the children of Israel into an earthly Kingdom, and this he does with an emphasis even more tremendous than that with which he asserts the positive side of his position, i.e., that the Kingdom is purely spiritual in character.

It is true, Mr. Mauro does hint that there may be a future earthly rule of the Lord Jesus Christ, as for instance in the following:

Whenever he spake of His own earthly rule it was referred to as in the future, at His Second coming (The Kingdom of Heaven, p. 18).

In a future day He would return with a world wide display of power and glory, and would then establish His universal dominion (The Last Hour, Dec, 1927, p. 268).

Apparently Mr. Mauro attaches very little importance to this future earth-rule of the Son of God, for though the present writer searched diligently through many of his books, and through the issues of his magazine for five years, he searched in vain for any clear and definite information as to Mr. Mauro's position in regard to the character of that period. It was not until he got into his book, "The Patmos Vision," that he found this information, and then in most disappointingly limited quantity. On the other hand he found such abundance of teaching which spiritualizes the "Kingdom of Heaven," and the "Israel" of God, as almost to convince him that Mr. Mauro conceives it to be his God-given life work to prove that God will never regather the nation Israel into a literal Kingdom on earth, and that any such teaching is one of the most deadly heresies of this age of apostasy.

Mr. Mauro's ideas concerning this earthly rule of Christ seem to be somewhat nebulous. As nearly as we can glean from the exceedingly meager references which he makes to that period, Mr. Mauro teaches that It is to be inaugurated by Christ's coming, at which time He will judge His enemies and resurrect His saints. The devil is to be bound in the bottomless pit, and the resurrected saints shall reign on (or over) the earth for a thousand years. Man will then have dominion over all the earth, and over all living creatures. And the end of this period will be characterized by an attack upon the resurrected people of God by heathen from remote quarters of the earth. This army shall be overthrown, and the devil shall be cast into the lake of fire.

Now all this is very well, and agrees approximately with the teaching of God's Word concerning the millennium, but with one very important difference: Mr. Mauro gives absolutely no recognition to the place which the nation Israel will have in that Millennial earth-rule of Christ. Apparently, to him "Israel," since the Cross, means exclusively the Church.

It is evident that Mr. Mauro does not believe that Christ will ever reign over a literal Kingdom on this earth, in which the nation Israel will have a special place of honour and prestige.

THAT there is a spiritual phase of the Kingdom no instructed Bible student will deny. The passage which Mr. Mauro quotes most frequently and with apparent gusto, proves this beyond the question of a doubt. This passage declares that

The Father hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the Kingdom of His dear Son (Col. 1:13).

This passage also makes it clear that this Kingdom is the exclusive portion of believers. In the light of such clear teaching (and other Scriptures could be adduced with similar clarity of meaning) we cannot deny that the Kingdom has an aspect which is purely spiritual in this present age. Nor would we wish to deny it, for this truth has many times filled our souls with joy and blessing.

But we must protest when Mr. Mauro denies that there is also 'a literal aspect of the Kingdom which involves the blessing of the restored nation Israel. The Scriptures are too clear on this point to permit any successful argument. God's Word plainly teaches that in the days to come there will be a literal Kingdom for the nation Israel, situated in the land of Canaan, and with the Lord reigning as King, in Jerusalem, on Mount Zion.

First, the prophet Micah says.

But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills ; and people shall flow unto it.

And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

And He shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the Lord of Hosts hath spoken it.

For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever.

In that day, saith the Lord, will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted;

And I will make her 'that halted a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation: and the Lord shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth, even for ever (Micah 4:1-7).

We would call especial attention to the terms which are here used, indicating that this Kingdom is to be on the earth — "mountains," "hills," "nation," "Zion," "Jerusalem," "sword," "plowshares," "spears," "pruning-hooks," "fig tree," "vine," etc. While undoubtedly spiritual lessons may be learned from these things, they certainly appear primarily to be literal in meaning. We would also call particular attention to the last verse which says that God "will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast off a strong NATION: and the Lord shall reign over them in MOUNT ZION from henceforth, even for ever." Certainly from other Scriptures we are assured that those who will compose this nation will be believers. But could language more plainly indicate a literal restoration of the nation Israel?

Next we direct attention to the prophecy of Ezekiel:

Therefore prophesy and say unto them. Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, O My people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.

And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up out of your graves,

And shall put My Spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord.

The word of the Lord came again unto me, saying,

Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, for Judah, and for the Children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, for Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions:

And join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thine hand.

And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying, Wilt thou not shew us what thou meanest by these?

Say unto them, thus saith the Lord God; Behold, L will take the stick of Joseph, which is ill the hand of Ephraim. and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in Mine hand.

.And the sticks whereon thou writest shall be in thine hand before their eyes.

And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land: And I will make them one nation in the land

1 upon the mountains of Israel; and one King shall

be King to them all: and they shall be no mere two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all:

Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwelling-places, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be My people, and I will be their God.

And David My servant shall be king over them ; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in My judgments, and observe My statutes, and do them.

And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob My servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children for ever: and My servant David shall be their prince for ever.

Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them ; it shall he an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set My sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore.

My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be My people and the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore (Ezek. 37:12-28).

Surely it is not necessary for us to call attention to the many expressions such as, "your own land," which indicate that this is to be a literal restoration to an earthly Kingdom, situated in the land of Canaan. True it will include resurrected believers (vs. 13), but these believers are of the house of Israel, and they are to be restored in resurrection bodies to their "own land." We would also again call particular attention to one of the most significant verses. Verse 22 declares that "God will make them — "Ephraim" and "Judah" — one NATION in the land upon the MOUNTAINS OF ISRAEL; and ONE KING shall be King over them all." Again we must ask, could language more plainly declare the literal restoration of the Children of Israel to an earthly Kingdom, situated in the land which God gave to their fathers?

And last of all, though such passages could be many times multiplied, we would call attention to the plain testimony of Zechariah 14:16-18:

And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of Hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.

And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of Hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.

And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain ; there shall be the plague, wherewith the LORD will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.

While this passage does not particularly speak of the nation Israel, it surely indicates a literal Kingdom, and that situated in the land of Israel. In view of the etherealizing of the Kingdom to mean a purely heavenly Kingdom, perhaps it will not be impertinent to ask, WILL THERE BE REBELLIOUS NATIONS IN HEAVEN? and WILL THERE BE THERE "RAIN" AND "THE PLAGUE?"

From these and many other such passages, we must earnestly contend that it is God's purpose one day to establish a literal Kingdom on this earth — a Kingdom in which the nation Israel, believers all, shall have a special place, and over which the Lord Himself shall reign as King.

Mr. Mauro is guilty of the devil's tactics. He teaches only half the truth and denies the other half.

MAY we now call attention to the deadly effect of such an unbalanced position?

First, it leads to a denial or perversion of the plain statements of Scripture. Of the clear and unmistakable prophecy of Ezekiel which we have just quoted, Mr. Mauro says,

Ezekiel's vision cannot be taken as a prophecy of the national restoration and repatriation of "Israel after the flesh" (The Last Hour, Nov., 1926, p. 170).

This statement appears in an extended discussion in which Mr. Mauro attempts to etherealize every one of the statements of the passage which we have noted, basing his argument partly upon the fact that the resurrection of the believers is mentioned, and partly upon the fact that God says that He will make a "covenant of peace" with His people in those days. Mr. Mauro would have us believe that this clear and unmistakable passage is purely spiritual in meaning and describes the gathering of believers, Jew and Gentile alike, into a purely spiritual Kingdom which is situated in the heavens! "

He does like violence to other Scriptures. Of the disciples with whom the Lord Jesus talked on the road to Emmaus, he says,

Because they clung to the expectation of a Kingdom of earthly character He rebuked them as "fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken" (The Last Hour, Aug., 1922, p. 118).

In so saying, he perverts the force of the Scripture which he quotes, utterly disregarding the force of the word "ALL." Could any but a biased mind read this passage without recognizing that in this expression the Lord Jesus Christ was testifying to the Scripturalness of their Kingdom expectations, but rebuking them for their unbalanced emphasis in ignoring the Scriptures which spoke of the suffering which must precede His glory?

Mr. Mauro further says,

Christ was "despised and rejected" indeed, as had been foretold in Isa. 53:3, not however as King, for He did not present Himself in that character (The Kingdom of Heaven, p. 17).

Again Mr. Mauro has permitted his prejudice to blind his mind, for the Scripture plainly says.

On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet Him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord. And Jesus, when He had found a young ass, sat thereon ; as it is written. Fear not, daughter of Zion: behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass's colt (John 12:12-15).

And when He was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying. Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto Him, Master, rebuke Thy disciples. And He answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out (Luke 19:37-40).

If the Jews and His disciples had been voicing "carnal" and unscriptural "expectations" at the triumphal entry is it conceivable that the Lord Jesus Christ would have refused to rebuke them for it? Again, in the presence of Pilate, He was asked the question:

Art Thou the King of the Jews? (Luke 23:3).

To this He gave a clear and emphatic answer in the affirmative. P'urthermore, the record reads:

And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour: and He saith unto the Jews Behold your King! But they cried out, Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King.'' The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar. . . . And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the Cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS. Then said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate, Write not The King of the Jews; but that He said, I am King of the Jews (John 19:14-15, 19, 21).

It is in the face of such conclusive evidence to the contrary that Mr. Mauro says that Jesus was never rejected as King for He never presented Himself in that character. We are familiar with the etherealizing explanations which he offers for the Scriptures which we have quoted, but they are utterly inconclusive and on a par with his weak and ineffectual attempts to identify the "Israel" of the Old Testament Kingdom prophecies with the resurrected believers of this age. Evidently his attitude toward these plain statements of the New Testament is the same as toward the equally plain statements of the Old Testament, of which he says:

There are, indeed, certain prophetic passages in the Old Testament which, apart from the light afforded by the New, might be taken as relating to "Israel after the flesh"; for there is in those passages no distinct reference to the resurrection. But THAT GOES FOR NOTHING (The Last Hour, Apr., 1925, p. 56).

Mr. Mauro distorts the Old Testament prophecies of the Kingdom by etherealizing their promises to apply them to resurrected believers of this age instead of to the nation Israel to whom they were given. He justifies this practice by a perverted interpretation of the New Testament teaching concerning "The Kingdom of Heaven." And with confessed deliberateness he ignores the lack of proof for his position apparent in the absence of reference to the resurrection in the Old Testament prophecies which he thus distorts. Of such significant omissions he says, "THAT GOES FOR NOTHING." In the light of such a self-revealing statement of his attitude, should we be surprised when he utterly ignores the plain meaning of New Testament Scriptures which declare that Christ was both presented to Israel as their King, and as such rejected by them.?

Such is one of the sad effects of Mr. Mauro's perverted Kingdom teaching. It leads to the ignoring and perverting and distorting of the plain meaning of Scripture.

In keeping with this, and as a second consequence of his unscriptural position, Mr. Mauro is compelled to resort to the most extreme spiritualizing of Scriptures which utterly divests them of any literal sense. He presents the trite post-millennial interpretation of the "leaven" as being the Gospel. "Israel," he makes to mean believers of all nations during this dispensation — Jew or Gentile. "Zion," he interprets to mean the presence of the Lord; and inconsistent with his teaching on the millennium which we have noted in our foregoing statements, he quotes with approval the exposition of Lightfoot, who teaches that,

The thousand years is not a period of earth's history at all, nor a measure of sidersal time, but purely a descriptive term, belonging in the spiritual realm and running parallel with this age.

But the most pitifully weak attempt to harmonize Scripture with his theory by this etherealizing process is found in his exposition of Zechariah 14:1-4, which, though it is somewhat lengthy, we quote in full, capitalizing some of the most significant expressions.

Then as to the passage (Zech. 14:1-4) beginning, "And His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives," I would first point out that what goes before is evidently a prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, when the city was "taken" and the other horrors recited in verse 2 were perpetrated by the ROMAN ARMIES, WHICH WERE MADE UP LITERALLY OF "ALL NATIONS." This further tends to fix the time referred to by the phrase, "in that day." (It should be remembered also that in Bible prophecy any period of special judgment is spoken of as "the day of the Lord.")

NOW THIS PROPHECY DECLARES, BY A SERIES OF FIGURES AND METAPHORS, AFTER THE USUAL PROPHETIC MANNER,. HOW THE LORD WOULD "GO FORTH" FOR THE DELIVERANCE OF HIS OWN PEOPLE IN THOSE DAYS. "THE MOUNT OF OLIVES IS A SYMBOL OF THE NATION ISRAEL, TO WHICH HE WAS TO COME (John 1:11). For in Bible prophecy a mountain is the common symbol of a nation; and the mount of Olives is a most suitable figure to represent the nation of Israel. THE RESULT OF HIS COMING TO THAT NATION WAS THAT IT WAS DIVIDED IN TWAIN ("CLOVEN IN THE MIDST"). FOR "THERE WAS A DIVISION BECAUSE OF HIM" (John 7:43; 9:16, etc.). And that rift was truly "a very great valley"— deep and wide. "ONE PART" OF THE DIVIDED NATION (for the word rendered "half" means merely one of two parts, which my be very unequal in size) WAS REMOVED (speaking figuratively) "TOWARD THE NORTH," THE REGION WHENCE ISRAEL'S ENEMIES CAME, and whither they were taken into captivity (Jer. 1:14, 15, etc.); A REGION THAT STANDS FOR THE PLACE OF JUDGMENT; AND THE OTHER PART "TOWARD THE SOUTH," WHICH STANDS FOR THE PLACE OP LIGHT AND WARMTH AND BLESSING— THAT IS, THE PLACE OF ACCEPTANCE WITH GOD (The Last Hour, Apr., 1926. p. 54).

Compare this with the text of Zechariah 14:1-4 of which it purports to be an interpretation.

Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.

For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle ; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth, into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.

Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when He fought in the day of battle.

And His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south (Zech. 14:1-4).

Surely a teacher is hard put to it for a plausible explanation of a passage which wrecks his theory when he must interpret the first part of such a prophecy as strictly literal and the verses immediately following as purely spiritual. And how utterly vapid is the attempt to identify the armies of Rome as the "all nations" of the prophecy. But the clearest evidence of the desperation of this attempt to avoid admitting the literal character of the Kingdom, is seen in the fact that Mr. Mauro is compelled to violate the chronology of the prophecy and reverse its order by interpreting the gathering of the nations against Jerusalem as the siege of Jerusalem by the Roman armies, and the "going forth" of the Lord as His first coming in Redemption, which event antedated the first named by 38 years! Mr. Mauro discreetly ignores the expression "to fight against those nations,'" for to recognize it would be to make the Lord go forth to fight against them 38 years before they were gathered together to battle! And it might prove difficult to explain just how He "fought." No less significant is the frantic attempt to identify the Mount of Olives with the nation Israel; the division of the mount as the division of the nation because of Him; the north as the place of judgment; and the south as the place of acceptance with God. Evidently Mr. Mauro forgot that to the south of Jerusalem lay Egypt, to which for the people of God to go was a grievous thins; in His sight! (Isa. 30:2; Jer. 40:18; Ps. 75:6). In all of this elaborate exposition Mr. Mauro utterly fails to furnish the least scintilla of proof, which thing he condemns most severely in others.

This one sample is enough to show the disastrous effect of the unbalanced teaching which Mr. Mauro gives forth on the Kingdom. That doctrine rests on a shaky foundation which must be bolstered up with such frenzied interpretation.

But the depth of wickedness in this denial of a literal Kingdom is seen in the fact that it makes God a liar, and unfaithful to His promises. Mr. Mauro tries to dodge responsibility for this conclusion by spiritualizing all the Kingdom promises which God made to Israel.

All the unfulfilled promises of God are for the spiritual seed of Abraham (The Last Hour, Sept., 1926, p. 140).

But he cannot escape the evil consequences of his etherealizing so easily.

As we have seen, God promised to restore Israel to a literal Kingdom in her own land, and He promises of that time,

Then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord (Ezek 37:14).

Mr. Mauro utterly ignores the fact that the Kingdom promises made to Israel conditionally, in connection with the law, were repeated later and that unconditionally; and at one sweep he forever abolishes all these promises (we capitalize his most significant expressions):

The old covenant and everything connected with it, including THE FORFEITED PROMISE AND HOPE OF EARTHLY BLESSING TO ISRAEL AFTER THE FLESH (which when given v/as conditioned upon faithfulness and obedience on their part) HAS BEEN ABOLISHED FINALLY AND FOREVERMORE (The Last Hour, Sept., 1925, p. 134).

This hardly sounds consistent with the Scripture which says,

God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the Son of Man, that He should repent: hath He said, and shall He not do it? or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good? (Num. 23:19).

But Mr. Mauro does not stop with this. In his blind determination for ever to do away with the possibility of a literal earthly Kingdom for Israel he presses forward, on another count to charge the God of Israel with unfaithfulness to His Word. The Spirit of God has said,

Thus saith the Lord, Which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, Which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The Lord of Hosts is His Name: If those ordinances depart from before Me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before Me for ever. Thus saith the Lord; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast of? all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the Lord (Jer. 31:3S-37).

He could not more effectively have said, that He would never cast them out. But Mr. Mauro says,

MOSES, THE FOUNDER OF THE JEWISH NATION, CLEARLY FORETOLD ITS APOSTASY AND ITS COMPLETE EXTERMINATION (The Last Hour, Feb., 1926, p. 30).

Israel after the flesh was a nation under the Law. As such, promises were given them, all those promises being expressly conditioned upon their obedience to the Law; and as such, JUDGMENTS WERE DENOUNCED UPON THEM AS PENALTIES FOR DISOBEDIENCE, WHICH JUDGMENTS MOUNTED UP TO COMPLETE NATIONAL EXTERMINATION, IF THEIR DISOBEDIENCE SHOULD BE PERSISTENT— AS IT WAS (The Last Hour, Jan., 1926, p. 14).

Such is the blasphemous conclusion which the devtees of this false Kingdom doctrine arrive by way of an unbalanced emphasis which is given to a half truth!

Jeremiah, speaking by the Spirit of God, says that Israel shall not cease from being a nation till His ordinances concerning the sun, moon, and stars fail.

Mr. Mauro, evidently speaking by some other spirit, says that Israel's disobedience has persisted till it has accomplished a "complete national extermination."

Somebody is terribly mistaken, Jeremiah or Mauro! The normally balanced and spiritual soul will not hesitate long in deciding whether he will stand with the inspired writer or the uninspired.