Like the Scriptures themselves, commencing with creation and concluding with the regeneration or making of all things new, this monumental contribution to the Truth’s works, of most felicitous title,1 traverses the plan and purpose of God from the time when He planted a garden eastward in Eden and there put the man whom He had formed, to the time when the tribes of Adam who are subjects of the great salvation shall gain more blessings than their father lost, when the very wilderness shall blossom as the rose and the desert ” bloom like Eden’s blissful bowers.”
Having known from a child the Holy Scriptures and lived in the service of the Truth, Mr. Albert Hall fell asleep in Christ on May 5th, 1951, only a few months after the completion of his manuscript, and before he had time and the wherewithal to see his work published. Some three or four years earlier, before he began the writing of the book, the author first expressed the subject in the form of a pictorial chart, thirty-five feet long by four-and-a-half feet deep. Publication, including a folding picture of this chart, was made possible, as we learn from the preface by his daughter Mrs. Dora Hall Deighton, through the kindness and generosity of friends.
The book is in the form of eight lectures, conveniently sectionized by frequent subheadings, enabling the busy reader to lay it down and pick it up again without any feeling of loss of continuity. The writer sees his task : “to travel the Highway of Truth ” without stepping aside to wander in all the byways of error; though he by no means turns a blind eye in their direction, and he utters many a timely warning against their pursuit and allurement. In fact, the careful reader will find himself becoming possessed, quite incidentally, of many a good argument against ” British Israelism,” universal resurrection, ” clean flesh,” substitutionary Sacrifice, misconception of the baptismal formula, and so on; as well as against the grosser errors, of course, of the Apostasy rampant.
The first lecture sets the pace nicely for what follows. It is entitled The Beginning A well-watered garden. Paradise lost. Shall Babel prevail? Here is sound doctrine on the Creation, the Garden, man’s formation, nature and Fall; the condemnation and its effects; the angels, an altar and the need for suitable sacrifice; the reality of death. The meaning of Eve being ” saved in childbearing.” The trouble between Cain and Abel—and so on, beyond the Flood, as far as the Tower of Babel: ” which was but a representation of the stronghold of the traditions of men ” But God’s purpose in the earth must be fulfilled. His Plan, even though it may involve 7,000 years, must be executed. At the end the vision shall speak. Scripture is quoted to good advantage; margins, where helpful; quotations from pioneer and contemporary writings; other translations, and concordances, are all laid under tribute to this fascinating track of the Truth of God through those early times.
Every line on his chart is worth noting. For example, the odd line connecting Enos, son of Seth with the Exodus. Why that? Only readers who have dug below the A.V.’s ” then began men to call upon the name of the Lord ” will appreciate that connecting thread. Mr. Hall opens two windows upon it : (1) the marginal rendering, ” then began men to call themselves by the name of the Lord “; (2) Dr. Young’s rendering, “then a beginning was made of preaching in the name of Jehovah.” We are well aware there are many other slants upon that obscure matter, as reference to the LXX, Speaker’s Commentary, etc., soon show; but what matter even if we finish by putting a small question mark on that little line? The very effort to get at the full truth of just a phrase of God’s own record will make us grateful that the author drew that line !
Lecture 2, The Call of Abram, which carries us to Israel in Egypt and Sinai, and includes a section on the prefiguring by types and shadows of the strait and narrow way of Truth in Jesus, provides a good example of the writer’s own rightly dividing the word of truth. After indicating the ” multitudinous ” and the ” individual ” aspects of the promise to Abraham, embracing two ” seeds,” one national, the other individual, he proceeds to resolve what would otherwise be a contradiction between the ” hast performed ” of Neh. 9, and the ” wilt perform ” of Micah 7. Reaching forward for the confirmation of this, found in Acts 7 and Gal. 3, he thus opens the eyes of readers to what has long been distorted and disbelieved by nearly all Christendom. (Some “printer’s devil,” by the way, has, not for the first time in the history of printing, given the word ” immorality ” instead of ” immortality,” in the last line of page 41).
The third lecture covers The History of Israel, its two Houses and their fall; and finally the Destruction of Jerusalem” Many days without a king.” Here, again, we see careful dividing of Scripture. ” David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel ” is a statement by Jeremiah, which has been clamorously misused in our day by people who would establish a theory based on a distinction between ” Israel ” and ” the Jews,” complimentary and gratifying to the British and related peoples. The theory is completely displaced by the demonstration that God never taught the continuance in perpetuity of the throne of David, whateverperplexity arose through His deliberate suspension of it due to disobedience. The inheritance of the national ” seed ” was clearly conditional. The covenant is ” in promise still ” until the individual Seed, ” whose right it is,” shall come to sit upon that throne restored, and so fulfil it.
Lecture 4, The Image and the Stone, turns from the sad story of sorrow and despair,to the hope of God’s goodness in the latterdays, as revealed by the remarkable dream recorded in Dan. 2. The time period involved; the two Babylons; Lucifer’s falland the modern Assyrian; the identity of the Stone and its latter-day work in relationto Gog and Co., are all dealt with in aninteresting manner (the section on the Stone is particularly good), and all lead, of course,to the fulfilment of the cry which comes ringing through the years, ” Arise, shine; for thy Light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.”
The fifth lecture, A crown of Thorns and a Crown of Life, leads us, from the LastSupper, through Gethsemane and the tragedyof the Crucifixion, to a consideration of why Divine Love should require a sinless manthus to die; how some souls are ” left inhell ” (sheol: the grave), whilst others are delivered by “the blood of the everlastingcovenant.” The Gospel and its power; thebirth of water and spirit (His word and will); the gift of God and the symbolic archof hope as seen on the chart: the Ark, the Altar and the Rainbow, are but a few of the interesting topics of this section.
Lecture 6, The Wandering Jew, makes one think seriously of the phrase, ” thegoodness and severity of God,” for the Jewshave certainly tasted both! From being the most favoured nation, they became but aValley of Dry Bones. The author tabulates a list of passages, from Leviticus to Zechariah, which shows, at a glance, the ” scattering ” which would follow their disobedience. But the same prophetic witness tells,even more extensively, that the exiled Israel would return to the gates of Zion, whenGod would make it His Rest for ever. Thegrowth of Zionism; the ” Restoration “. still ahead; the New Covenant and a section onSalvation, individual and national, begin to fill out the picture to the satisfaction of any earnest student.
The seventh lecture, The Unknown God, necessarily commences with Paul at Athens.
He was to them a babbler (slang term for ” seed picker “—” a picker-up of odds and ends “) but he placed before those condescending intellectuals with supreme tact, some very profound truths, in simple language, which were quite beyond their superiority! There are some excellent paragraphs on the office of the Mosaic Law in relation to the Abrahamic covenant and eternal life; on minds soothed by tradition being too religious; and the drive from mere diplomacy to the revelation of the Unknown God. The messages of Jesus to the Seven Churches are here considered; the foretelling of the falling away; the light shining through long darkness; the ” Coming Out ” of the Christadelphians, to be separated “sons of God ” in ” the last days ” in hope of a rich reward.
It would be quite impossible, even to summarize the eighth lecture, which is twice the length of any of the others and takes the same title as the book itself. It traverses “The King’s Highway” through 6,000 years, contrasting, in short crisp sections, a forgotten “Narrow Way” with a popular ” Broad Way.” From the latter, voices are heard from time to time, and duly answered!
One matter may be raised by the critical reader. On pages 103 and 227, “the principle upon which Jesus rose again (and why others are left in the grave)” is being stated as ” through the blood of the everlasting covenant.” “The only assured way of participating in the resurrection at the return of Christ is by association with the blood of Christ.” This may seem innocent enough to the majority of readers, but, to those who know the history of ” the Truth,” there is an omission at these two points of something which could have found its appropriate place. Whether deliberate or accidental we do not know, but, in fairness we must mention it. What is said is a correct indication to a life-seeker; but this must not be understood as limiting God in the exercise of His power and wrath in the resurrection to condemnation of the enlightened rejecter of His initial commands to ” repent and be baptised “—upon that other ” principle ” that Jew or Gentile who suppresses or “holds down the Truth,” and despises the goodness of God which would lead him to repentance, treasures up indignation and wrath, which he must meet, in the day whenGod shall judge the secrets of man by Jesus Christ.2 In such special case, the ground of further condemnation (beyond the Adamic), is, that the light is come, but the darkness is deliberately chosen.3 The Word spoken (and fully understood—of which God alone can be Judge), will judge such in the last day.4 So that whilst the broad classification as made by Mr. Hall is true, and none will be raised unto Life save through association with “the blood of the everlasting covenant,” those who rise to condemnation and the Second Death comprise two classes: (1) those who were baptized but were unfaithful to their calling; (2) those who received and understood their calling but hardened their heart in impenitence and refused utterly to obey, or to wash away their sin, in baptism; therefore their sin remaineth;5 and the Gospel (” the savour of his knowledge “), is, to such ” the savour of death unto death.”6
If the writer’s omission was deliberate, he would no doubt have crossed swords with us on this matter, had he lived; but if an accidental oversight, he would, we hope, have welcomed this humble attempt to attain the declaration of the whole counsel of God; for the stressing of this very aspect once made Felix tremble,7 and even the ” terror ” of Christ’s Judgment seat may persuade some men.8
The seeker after Truth will find this book satisfies alike the mind and heart, and stimulates the resolve to “come out and be separate,” even if this means association with a ” sect everywhere spoken against.” The young in Christ can feed avidly upon it and grow in the knowledge of God and His Plan, and of the Great Salvation through His Son. Even those long “in the Truth” will find much enjoyment and refreshment in its pages, and maybe ” still increasing light ” on some long-familiar passage of “the Old Book.”
The contents are worth a cloth binding, and in the event of a re-issue, perhaps the providing of this, if only as an alternative, is worth bearing in mind.
2 Rom. 1:16-19; 2:4, 5, 8, 9, 16.
3 Jno. 3:18, 19. Jno. 12:47, 48. 5 Jno. 9:41.
4 Jno. 12:47,48.
5 Jno. 9:41.
6 2 Cor. 2:14-16. 7 Acts 24:25.
7 Acts. 24:25.
8 2 Cor. 5:10, 11.
Review of “The Early Earth” by John Whitcomb (1972)