The Quiet Hour

By Rev. L. A. Brunsting

God said that He would chain the devil. The chain is a symbol for binding one's influence. The Devil is a spirit and therefore the chain is spiritual but nevertheless real. Spiritual things are as real as material things and more so.

That binding of Satan would be for one-thousand years. Thousand in the Bible stands for completeness, it is made of the number ten three times. Ten times ten, times ten. A thousand years are as one day with the Lord and one day as a thousand years.

It was God's mercy for Job that Satan was bound then and it is our mercy from God that Satan is bound now. God binds Satan for every believer and He does it completely. That does not mean that no believer has no temptations from Satan. He does, but as with Peter, Christ prays for His own. And the Devil never gets any one of them.

Our boys left us with the ideals of Christ, the church and the Christian home. The devil will not get one of them. We fear those who kill the body but much more him who hath power over soul and body. We pray that all our boys may come back, but and if not, that their souls may go home with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Great enthusiasm has been high with extravagant grief over Lombard, the actress. She was a patriot. Was she also a Christian? Was she also a mother of a son in the army? Did she pray? We pray for the fathers and mothers who have lost their son on the battle field. May they sorrow but not as those who have no hope.

Jesus Christ is the rider of the white horse in Revelation 19. He is called the FAITHFUL and the TRUE. He has the sword of the Word of God. He is crowned with a crown of diadems. He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is over all, the devil and all his works are under His direct control. But do not forget there is another rider also upon a white horse in Revelation 6. There are four judgments under the symbol of four horses. They are all one in cause and purpose, God judging the peoples. And the first rider upon a white horse is dangerous. He conquers many. He has a bow not a sword. He is given a crown but not of diadems. He imitates Christ upon the Real White Horse.

The antichrist is always imitating the real Christ. Antichrist is the false christ. And the false christ is made very much like to the real Christ. As a false coin is made like to a real coin. No one makes square coins, for they would be detected too easily.

Jesus in Matthew 24 records the same direction and order that John does in Revelation 6. First false Christ, the false white horse; then the war, the red horse; then the famines, the white horse of scarcity; and finally pestilences and death, the pale horse.

We are reminded of these things in these times. But God is God, And God has the devil chained completely. It may not so appear for us. From our angle of vision the devil is very much loosed. Job would have made that same observation in his day from his viewpoint. But from God's viewpoint the Devil was completely controlled.

Beware of the rider on the false white horse. The boldless, crossless, atonementless Christianity, Christless preaching of a so-called Christianity. Our boys and we are safe in the CHRIST OF REVELATION 19.

—Sioux Center News, Sioux Center, IA, Feb. 12, 1942, p. 3.