(Words in Season, Vol. 3, 1889, page 306.)
Dearest brother,
The passage in 1 Tim. 4:8, though referring to present blessing as Peter does (1 Peter 3:10-13) has a different, or at least more general basis. Godliness is the way of happiness in this life (save of course persecution with it, we read in Mark), but it is the way of blessing. Peter's writings, after redemption, are occupied with the government of God - the first in favour of the pious, the second in judgment - and hence the passage referred to has this character, and refers immediately to the peaceful and upright character which avoids evil, and gets quietly through the world in peace as a follower of good. If you wish to see good days, you must govern your spirit and walk so and so, and then - save persecution for righteousness or for Christ - if you live in peace, you will live peacefully and happily. But the life we love is life here, and so is 1 Tim. 4. It is a quotation from Psalm 34, and shews how far the direct government of God, which was immediate and dispensational in Israel, applies to Christians. I believe 1 John 1:9 to be, as all such statements in John, abstract and absolute for forgiveness at first coming, and for governmental forgiveness. In detail there is often delay; in general, the Holy Ghost is given to them that believe; but if we examine all that is said, I think we see that there must be faith in the efficacy of Christ's work, as well as His Person. But whenever a soul can say, Abba, Father, it is sealed - has the Spirit - though bad teaching may mar its effects. The mass of evangelicals don't go beyond Peter's teaching, and enter neither into Paul's nor John's, and souls are thus kept down.
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"Have you remarked that it is only the second time Moses went up that His face shone? The tables under pure law never reached the camp, but now, though put back under law, all God's goodness passed before Moses. It is a remarkable point as to holiness, that we never meet it at all till Ex. 15, after redemption and judgment." J. N. D.
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John Nelson Darby (1800 - 1882)
was an Anglo-Irish Bible teacher, one of the influential figures among the original Plymouth Brethren and the founder of the Exclusive Brethren. He is considered to be the father of modern Dispensationalism and Futurism ("the Rapture" in the English vernacular). Pre-tribulation rapture theology was popularized extensively in the 1830s by John Nelson Darby and the Plymouth Brethren, and further popularized in the United States in the early 20th century by the wide circulation of the Scofield Reference Bible.He produced a translation of the Bible based on the Hebrew and Greek texts called The Holy Scriptures: A New Translation from the Original Languages by J. N. Darby. Darby traveled widely in Europe and Britain in the 1830s and 1840s, and established many Brethren assemblies. He gave 11 significant lectures in Geneva in 1840 on the hope of the church (L'attente actuelle de l'église). These established his reputation as a leading interpreter of biblical prophecy.
John Nelson Darby was an Anglo-Irish evangelist, and an influential figure among the original Plymouth Brethren. He is considered to be the father of modern Dispensationalism. He produced a translation of the Bible based on the Hebrew and Greek texts called The Holy Scriptures: A New Translation from the Original Languages by J. N. Darby.
John Nelson Darby graduated Trinity College, Dublin, in 1819 and was called to the Irish bar about 1825; but soon gave up law practice, took orders, and served a curacy in Wicklow until, in 1827, doubts as to the Scriptural authority for church establishments led him to leave the institutional church altogether and meet with a company of like-minded persons in Dublin.
Darby traveled widely in Europe and Britain in the 1830s and 1840s, and established many Brethren assemblies. These established his reputation as a leading interpreter of biblical prophecy. He was also a Bible Commentator. He declined however to contribute to the compilation of the Revised Version of the King James Bible.