Chapters
EPIPHANY
STUDIES
IN THE
SCRIPTURES
"The Path of the Just is as the Shining Light,
That Shineth More and More
Unto the Perfect Day."
SERIES VI
MERARIISM
20,000 Edition
"Every One that Heareth these Sayings of Mine, and Doeth them not,
shall be Likened unto a Foolish Man, which Built his House
upon the Sand" (Matt. 7:26).
——————
PAUL S. L. JOHNSON
PHILADELPHIA, PA., U. S. A.
1938
To the King of Kings and Lord of Lords
IN THE INTEREST OF
HIS CONSECRATED SAINTS,
WAITING FOR THE ADOPTION,
— AND OF —
"ALL THAT IN EVERY PLACE CALL UPON THE LORD,"
"THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH,"
— AND OF —
THE GROANING CREATION, TRAVAILING AND WAITING FOR
THE MANIFESTATION OF THE SONS OF GOD,
THIS WORK IS DEDICATED.
_____________
"To make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery which from the
beginning of the world hath been hid in God," "Wherein He hath
abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having
made known unto us the mystery of His will, accord-
ing to His good pleasure which He hath pur-
posed in Himself; that in the dispensation
of the fullness of the times He
might gather together in one
all things, under
Christ."
Eph. 3:4, 5, 9; 1:8–10.
_____________
COPYRIGHT 1938
BY PAUL S. L. JOHNSON
AUTHOR'S FOREWORD.
THE title of this book is based on the name given one of the three divisions of the tribe of Levi, viz., Merari, and is designed to suggest the doctrines, history and practices of the Merarite division of the Epiphany Levites. In Chapter V of Vol. IV of the Epiphany Studies we gave a few particulars on the Epiphany Levites, who consist of three general groups: antitypical Gershonites, Merarites and Kohathites. We there pointed out that the antitypical Gershonites consist of the antitypical Libnites, the B. S. C. (of Britain) and the antitypical Shimites, the P. B. I.; that the antitypical Kohathites consist of the antitypical Uzzielites (Sturgeonites), Hebronites (Ritchieites), these two being now dead as movements, but having successors in other movements, antitypical Izeharites (Olsonites) and antitypical Amramites (Hirsho-Kittingerites); and that the antitypical Merarites consist of the antitypical Mahlites (the Societyites) and the antitypical Mushites (the Standfasts). The differences between the three Levite groups are the following: The antitypical Kohathites do not have corporations or committees to control their teachings and works; the antitypical Gershonites have such corporations; for they, having failed to get control of the corporations left by our Pastor, formed such of their own; while the antitypical Mahlite Merarites got control of our Pastor's three corporations; and the antitypical Mushite Merarites sanction the uses made of these three up to the Spring of 1918, but not thereafter, and have in their Elijah Voice Society formed a corporation of their own. It is of the doctrines, history and practices of these two groups of Merarites that this book treats.
By far the larger part of this book treats of the main doctrines, history and practices of the antitypical Mahlite Merarites, because of the decidedly more prominent, influential and erroneous part that these have taken among God's people than the antitypical Mushite Merarites. And because decidedly the most prominent, influential and erroneous part therein has been taken by J.F. Rutherford, to whom for short we will refer by his initials, decidedly the larger part of this book treats of a history of his pertinent acts and a refutation of his erroneous official teachings and practices. The exposures of his main revolutionistic
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official acts and practices, and the refutations of his main errors of teaching are not made from the desire to become the president of the Society, nor from the spirit of retaliation for the great wrongs that he and his main supporters have done the author, as he has taught his followers to believe, but out of love for the Lord, the Truth and the brethren. Satan is seeking more through J.F.R. than through all the other Truth-errorists combined to destroy from the earth the Truth and its arrangements given us by the Lord through that Servant. And believing that the Lord has now raised us up, as He in the past raised up faithful servants (Mic. 5:5, 6), to defend His Truth and its arrangements against its attackers among professed Truth people (the Assyrian here is the great and the little nominal church, all professing to be Truth people), we have, among other things, devoted ourself to the Lord in the defense of His teachings and arrangements given through that Servant against their attackers. As the bishops of Rome during the Gospel Age, in the course of their introducing the apostasy, while professing loyalty to the teachings and practices of the Apostles, by craft and force, from a small beginning gradually set aside various truths and their arrangements given by God through the Apostles, and substituted counterfeit ones in their place, until they finally brought to a completion the Satanic counterfeit of God's teachings and arrangements that we find in great papacy, wherein there is scarcely a remnant of Apostolic teachings and arrangements found; so J.F.R., during the miniature Gospel Age, in the course of the apostasy that he has developed, while professing loyalty to the teachings and practices of that Servant, by craft and force, from a small beginning gradually set aside the various truths and arrangements given by God through that Servant, and substituted counterfeit ones in their place in little papacy.*
PAUL S. L. JOHNSON.
Philadelphia, Pa., March 24, 1938.
* Whenever in THE EPIPHANY STUDIES IN THE SCRIPTURES we refer to our Pastor's volumes, we call them Studies, Vol. I, II, etc.; the volumes of this series we call Vol. I, II, etc.
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CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
HARVEST SIFTINGS REVIEWED.
A SYNOPSIS OF THIS CHAPTER. ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE EUROPEAN TRIP. THE BRITISH SITUATION BEFORE AND AFTER THE ABSOLUTELY WITHOUT AUTHORITY CABLE. J.F. RUTHERFORD'S AND J. HEMERY'S MULTITUDINOUS AND GROSS MISREPRESENTATIONS. J.F. RUTHERFORD'S COURSE TOWARD THE AUTHOR AFTER HIS RETURN TO AMERICA. A CHARITABLE EXPLANATION OF J.F. RUTHERFORD'S INVOLVED COURSE. A SUPPLEMENT. 7
CHAPTER II.
THE CHURCH COMPLETELY ORGANIZED IN RELATION TO THE SOCIETY AS A CHANNEL.
THE CHURCH COMPLETELY ORGANIZED. ITS MISSION. ITS BIBLICAL ORGANIZATION. THE SOCIETY'S PLACE IN THE HARVEST. THE SOCIETY AS A CHANNEL. TWO WRONG VIEWS OF THE SOCIETY AS A CHANNEL EXAMINED. THE TRUE VIEW OF "THE CHANNEL." SOME HINDRANCES TO FRUITFUL SERVICE. EXAMINATION OF FURTHER SOCIETY-CHANNEL CLAIMS. 97
CHAPTER III.
A REJECTED SERVANT AND SHEPHERD.
THOU SHALT NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS. THAT EVIL SERVANT OF MATT. 24:48-51. THE FOOLISH, UNPROFITABLE SHEPHERD OF ZECH. 11:15-17. 165
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CHAPTER IV.
RIGHT-EYE DARKENING.
COURT—TYPE AND ANTITYPE. VIEWS AND REVIEWS. POUNDS AND TALENTS. MORE RIGHT-EYE DARKENING. MORE RIGHT-EYE DARKENING. STILL MORE RIGHT-EYE DARKENING. 189
CHAPTER V.
FIRST MISCELLANY ON DRUNKEN FOLLIES OF
RIGHT-EYE DARKENING.
FURTHER RIGHT-EYE DARKENING. RIGHT-EYE DARKENING ON PHILADELPHIA AND LAODICEA. RIGHT-EYE DARKENING ON THE PYRAMID. SOME FOLLIES OF RIGHT-EYE DARKENING. SOME DRUNKEN FOLLIES OF RIGHT-EYE DARKENING. 331
CHAPTER VI.
SECOND MISCELLANY ON DRUNKEN FOLLIES OF
RIGHT-EYE DARKENING.
MORE DRUNKEN FOLLIES OF RIGHT-EYE DARKENING. STILL MORE DRUNKEN FOLLIES OF RIGHT-EYE DARKENING. FURTHER DRUNKEN FOLLIES OF RIGHT-EYE DARKENING. MORE FURTHER DRUNKEN FOLLIES OF RIGHT-EYE DARKENING. 517
CHAPTER VII.
MUSHIISM.
STANDFASTISM EXAMINED. ELIJAH VOICEISM EXAMINED. CONCLUDING REMARKS ON MERARIISM. 731
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