Meta Chestnutt Sager's Letter to Eva Heiliger, February 11,1945 (2)

One of the more remarkable notes found in the letter comes at the very beginning, where Sager speaks of her "salary," and refers to the financial struggles of "us school people." Apparently, at the age of eighty-one, she was still working at the Oklahoma College for Women in Chickasha. The campus of the college, now the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma, is less than a mile from the house where she lived at 1528 South 7th Street. It seems likely that Sager, very much a woman of the nineteenth century, never drove an automobile. Most days she would have walked to and from her workplace, each time passing by the Rose Hill Cemetery where her husband lay buried.[1]

In response to what must have been Eva Heiliger's questions or challenges regarding baptism, Sager denies that her position detracts from the essentiality of faith. (Again, today the Church of the Nazarene asserts that the Lord grants salvation "to all who believe on Jesus Christ and receive Him as Lord and Savior"). At the same time, paraphrasing part of James 2:20, she adds that "faith without works is dead." This marks an opening salvo in an argument according to which Meta will insist that just as the New Testament connects faith to salvation, it also connects repentance, confession, and baptism to salvation. Coming to faith is not the end, but is rather the beginning of a process by which a person becomes a Christian, a series of steps culminating with the immersion of the penitent believer who has confessed his faith in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God. And, "[j]ust as you must come every step of the way into the house, so you must come every step of the way into the Church of the living God."[2] On this point, she notes Acts 2:36-38, where the Apostle Peter did not tell people who had just concluded Jesus was the Messiah that they should believe. "It would have been silly to tell them to believe, for that they had already shown." Yet, neither did Peter suggest that their faith was sufficient for salvation. Instead, when they asked what they should do, Peter "told them to do what they had not done, repent and be baptized."[3]

Notes

[1] Meta Chestnutt Sager to Eva Heiliger, February 11, 1945, Meta Chestnutt Sager Collection, Oklahoma History Center, Oklahoma City. The author has made several visits to Chickasha, Oklahoma, researching the life of Meta Chestnutt Sager.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

Are We Living in the Last Days? (3rd of 3)

New Testament Teaching

What the Old Testament might have left in doubt, the New Testament makes absolutely clear: when the Scriptures speak of the last days, that expression refers to the entire Christian age, from the first appearance and saving work of Christ to his Second Coming.

One of the earliest examples of this is found in Acts 2. Quick to answer the slur that the Spirit-filled apostles were full of new wine, Peter announced to his hearers that what they were witnessing was the fulfillment of the prophecy recorded in Joel 2:28-32. It is important to note that Peter clearly says that the words of the prophet were, at that time, being fulfilled "in the last days" (Acts 2:17).

In much the same way, 1 Peter 1:20 reports that Christ "was revealed in these last times." The passage places the recipients of the letter, the first-century readers, in "these last times." Peter, along with his first-century audience, lived in the last days.

By themselves, these two passages would make the case. But even more revealing is Hebrews 1:1-2:

In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.

These first few words from Hebrews are especially important because they place Old Testament times and "these last days" side by side, identifying the second and concluding period as the time in which God has spoken to humanity by his Son. Because this was the common understanding and teaching in New Testament times, Paul could speak of Christians as those "on whom the ends of the ages have come" (1 Corinthians 10:11 NRSV).

Conclusion

What the Old Testament prophets saw as the future last days has become present reality through the work of God through Christ. According to the New Testament, the last days began with the ministry of Jesus and will conclude at his Second Coming. The biblical expression the last days refers to the entire Christian age, not merely to the very end of that age.

Without losing the edge of expectation, Christians must remember and teach that "no one knows about that day and hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father" (Matthew 24:36). It is best to remain ready by consistently living as we should before God.