December 2012 – jeffersonvann

Mary Christmas

No, that’s not a typo. It is our sincere hope and prayer — for all of our friends who come upon this greeting – that you will have a Mary Christmas this year, and not a Martha Christmas.

I am referring, of course, to that incident in the life of Christ where he was visiting friends in Bethany.

“And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:38-42).

Christmas should be a time when we can be more restive, more contemplative. It should be a time when we can step back and appreciate all the good gifts that the Father God has given us, especially the treasure of his Son, our Savior.

Sadly, Christmas tends to make Martha’s of us all. We so much want to show our appreciation to our friends, relatives and coworkers that we tend to be “anxious and troubled about many things.” That goes double for those who find themselves unable (because of illness, distance, or lack of means) to be as generous toward others as we might want to be. Then we find ourselves in the peculiar position of feeling sorry that we cannot be the Marthas that we want to be.

But our Lord said that Mary had chosen the good portion. Marys always win the Christmas lottery. They use the season to get back in touch its real reason. Even if they find themselves overwhelmed by all the things to do, they still find time to rediscover the Gift of Jesus Christ. He is a gift that no one wants to give back.

So, friends, our wish for you is that you will have a Mary Christmas.

Jeff and Penny Vann

Williamsburg, Virginia, USA

why Jesus will (probably) not come back on December 21st

A Mayan calendar ends its record of time on December 21st, 2012. People start to wonder if this means the world is coming to an end. Just like a few years ago, when Y2K madness hit the world by storm. No one is old enough to remember Y1K madness. The historian tells us…

The year 1000 was marked by widespread fear and anxiety throughout almost every part of the Christian world. It was extensively believed that the period of the Church was to last just one thousand years, and that, … this period was just about to come to a close. The end would be announced by fearful calamities, and then the last and terrifying judgment would begin. In point of fact, nothing very much happened…¹

Sound familiar? Although much of the Y2K madness centered on possible economic problems, there was an increase in eschatological interest among people the world over. Generally, that is a good thing. There is always a need for good biblical preaching on the 2nd coming of Christ, and now is as good a time as any to blow the dust off our prophetic charts, and hit the camp meeting trail.

But before we quit our day jobs, perhaps we should pay another visit to William Miller, and learn some very important lessons. Miller’s zeal was unsurpassed. He had something we all need to cultivate – call it eschatological courage. He had the courage to voice his convictions about the future because he knew that the God who gave us prophecies would see to it that they were fulfilled. Miller was not a David Koresh – wildly misapplying entire books of the bible to himself. He was enthusiastic, he was zealous, but he was not a raving heretic.

Miller made a mistake when he proclaimed that Christ would come back in the 1840s. Many like him were saying that Christ will come back in the 1990s. These were not all lunatics. They were just convinced by the evidence they saw that the time is at hand. Like Miller, they were proven wrong. It seems that every year someone proclaims “This is it!” and gets a following. Sooner or later, one of these is going to be right – probably by accident. Eschatological courage is a good thing, but it needs to be balanced with a healthy restraint. Otherwise, we will face a series of disappointments which can only damage our witness for Christ.

I affirm without hesitation the doctrine of the Imminence of Christ’s Return.

Christ could come at any moment. His coming is due. This is what theologians mean by the doctrine of the imminence of Christ’s return. My affirmation goes a bit further. I believe Christ could come back personally, visibly, and loudly at any second. I base this expectation on 1 Thess 4:16-17. Here is a list of my expectations based on that passage.

The Lord Himself will come down.
He will come down from heaven.
He will come with a loud command.
He will come with a shout from the Archangel.
He will come with a Trumpet Call of God.
He will raise those who have fallen asleep in Him.
He will rapture the rest of believers.

The Lord Himself will come down. He will not send a delegation. He will not call me up to Him. He will come to me. The Father has set a day on which this will happen. I don’t know what that day is, but I believe it will be soon!

He will come down from heaven. He is alive in heaven today. He is my king today, and I am in his kingdom today, but he has not yet begun his reign on earth. His present reign is in heaven. But in order to fulfill the prophecies written about him in scripture, he must come to earth.

He will come with a loud command. He will come with a shout from the Archangel. He will come with a Trumpet Call of God. What follows is a list of three rhetorical questions.

How can a loud command be secret?
How can a shout be secret?
How can a trumpet blast be secret?

If Christ’s coming for his saints is secret, it will be the worst kept secret in the history of communication. This is the coming described by Paul in which he says the saints will be “caught up” (vs. 17). If your prophetic system does not allow for a visible, personal, and loud coming of Christ – perhaps you need to reevaluate your prophetic system.

He will raise those who have fallen asleep in Him. The issue Paul was addressing was that of dead believers (vs.13). He affirms that the dead in Christ will be raised at the second advent.

He will rapture the rest of believers. The rapture will not be secret, but there will be a rapture. The dead in Christ will be raised and the alive in Christ will be caught up, so that all believers of all times will be with the Lord from that time on – never to be separated again.

Many theologians today agree in principle to the doctrine of imminence, but then proceed to add so many restrictions that what they finally describe is a coming which is far from imminent. There were a great many prophecies about the interval between Christ’s first and second coming. Here is a short list:

Jerusalem’s Unequaled Distress and Desolation (Mt 24:15-22; Lk 21:20-24)
A Worldwide Great Tribulation, lasting Centuries (Mt 24:4-13; Rev 7:13-17)
A Great Apostasy in the Church, resulting in the Revealing of Antichrist. (2 Th 2:1-12; Rev 13:11-18)
The Restoration of Israel to the land (Jer 30; Lk 21:24)

Jesus gave a time limit of one generation (40 years) for the fulfillment of Jerusalem’s Unequaled Distress and Desolation. He gave the prophecy in the year of his death. 40 years later (70 AD) a Roman siege destroyed both Jerusalem and its temple. It has been desolate ever since. In fact, an Islamic mosque stand on the site.

The distress felt during the worldwide Great Tribulation would not be constant, but would appear and disappear many times over many ages. Jesus called these signs birth pains. He warned his listeners not to get excited when wars, famines, and earthquakes happened. These birth pains only showed that the end is coming. They could not foretell when the end would come.

John, in Rev 7 sees a vision of all believers from every nation, tribe, people, and language (vs.9). These are those who went through the Great Tribulation (vs. 14). God’s message to them is “Never again…” (vs. 16). This shows that these people are you and me. Therefore, this prophecy is being fulfilled now.

Paul tells us that before Christ comes, an Apostasy (rebellion) must occur. John calls the leader of this Great Apostasy – Antichrist (1Jn 2:18). He implies that Antichrist will lead the Church astray (2:20). This apostasy occurred around 500 AD, and the Church of Jesus Christ has yet to fully separate from the tremendous cult that emerged. The unclean spirit who has masterminded this rebellion is called The False Prophet, and his place is reserved in the fiery lake of burning sulfur (Rev 9:20). This will happen at the Return of Christ (2 Th 2:8).

And what of The Restoration of Israel? In case you haven’t noticed, there is a tiny spot of land between Africa and Asia which is once again called Israel. Since 1948 the descendants of Jacob have been migrating to that land. Since the 1967 Six Day War the land has included the city of Jerusalem. It appears that the “times of the Gentiles” are fulfilled.

I Deny that Christ Has to Come Back on December 21st in the Year 2012

With all this evidence I have presented for the imminence of Christ’s return, my title for this article seems a bit ridiculous. But there is method to my madness. I sincerely wish to be proven wrong on that title. Nothing would make me happier than to see the body of a Jewish carpenter’s stepson break the clouds with celebration. He is coming back, and I, with all my heart want it to be sooner, rather than later.

But what I want is not at issue here. The fact is that the year 2012 is prophetically insignificant. There is no biblical support whatsoever for dating the coming of Christ. No one knows when Christ will return (Mt 24:36).

In fact, the odds are against Christ returning on such a noteworthy date. What little we do know about that day suggests that it will be an ordinary day. No fireworks will precede it, no fanfare. Christ will come when he is not expected (24:37, 44, 50). The parables Jesus used to illustrate this eschatological discourse are all built around the premise of an unexpected arrival. Five foolish virgins are caught a midnight cry (25:1-13). A wicked, lazy servant is not prepared when his master comes back to settle accounts (25:14-30). Two are working in a field. One is taken, the other left (24:40). Two women are grinding. One is taken, the other left (24:41). The master comes when the stewards are not ready, so they are punished (24:45-51).

There is also that little matter of the gospel going out into all the world (Mt 24:14). However, no one knows whether those ethnic groups listed as unreached now have never been exposed to the gospel. We only assume that those few thousand remote or hostile groups who do not have a viable church have never heard. Only God knows for sure.

And only God knows the day and the hour … and the YEAR of Christ’s return. My plea is that our eschatological zeal be balanced with humility’s restraint. After all, the best way to welcome my Master is not with the date of his arrival marked on my calendar (or anyone’s calendar). The best way to welcome him is with my work accomplished. Then he will say “Well Done!”

¹ Neill, Stephen. A History of Christian Missions. 1990 . NY: Penguin Books, 2nd edition reprint. p. 85.

This article is adapted from a previous one by the author which first appeared in The Advent Christian Witness

ACST 55: The Chosen

God loves you, but not just you. The Bible makes it clear in both Testaments that God’s plan for redeeming involves a people, not just individual persons. When theologians seek to explain this, doctrines of the church emerge. A biblical doctrine of the church has to answer at least three general questions:

1. what is the church? (the identity question),

2. what does the church do? (the mission question) and

3. how should churches be governed? (the leadership question).

The most important of these questions is the first, because biblical answers to the latter two questions only make sense in the light of a clear understanding of question one. The reason for this is that both mission and leadership emerge from a proper understanding of a person’s identity as a part of the whole, and the relationship that the whole (church) has to God.

When Jesus began to draw a community of believers to himself, he instructed them to pray to God by saying “our Father.”[1] He drew attention first to the relationship that these people had with God. The fact of that relationship was the most important thing for them to know. The same is true today. The most important thing anyone needs to know about the church is that it consists of people who have a relationship with God.

That relationship is described in images and with metaphors. Those metaphors are “the picture language of another century”[2] but still manage to speak the truth powerfully in our own. Even the term ‘father’ is a metaphor. While it is true that God is the creator of all humanity, we use the term ‘father’ to speak of a more specific relationship than the creator/creature one. God is the source of our existence, but he is more than that. He is the supplier of our every need, but he is more than that. He delights in our existence. We bring him joy by just existing, and greater joy when we reflect his nature by ours. Jesus taught that those who call God ‘father’ will act like it.

“let your light shine before others, so that they may

see your good works and give glory to your Father

who is in heaven.”[3]

“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute

you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in

heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on

the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”[4]

“You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly

Father is perfect.”[5]

The term speaks of a dependence upon God as well. We do what we do because we expect to be rewarded by our Father who commanded it.

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before

other people in order to be seen by them, for then

you will have no reward from your Father who is

in heaven.”[6]

“when you give to the needy, do not let your

left hand know what your right hand is doing,

so that your giving may be in secret. And your

Father who sees in secret will reward you.”[7]

“when you pray, go into your room and shut

the door and pray to your Father who is in

secret. And your Father who sees in secret will

reward you.”[8]

“when you fast, anoint your head and wash

your face, that your fasting may not be seen

by others but by your Father who is in secret.

And your Father who sees in secret will

reward you.”[9]

The deeds themselves (and even the rewards) are not the point. Jesus condemned those who thought that good deeds themselves were what God wants. Jesus commanded that his church do acts of righteousness as a manifestation of the relationship we have with our Father. We give because he first gave. We love because he first loved us. God is the Chooser,[10] we are the chosen.

Family

The image of God choosing people to be his family begins in the Old Testament. He is the father of all in the sense of our creator, but “the usual biblical language speaks of him as Father in relation to his spiritual children.”[11] God called Abram, and renamed him Abraham: the father of many nations. This was true physically, as many nations trace their ancestry back to him – not just Israel. But it is also true because Abraham is regarded as the father of the faithful as well.

“in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through

faith. For as many of you as were baptized

into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither

Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free,

there is neither male nor female, for you are

all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s,

then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs

according to promise.”[12]

God’s sovereign and gracious choice of people from all ethnic, economic and social backgrounds, and both genders produces a whole new nation out of all nations. Being chosen suggests a special relationship which brings about a new identity with special status and responsibilities. It also implies a new destiny, an inheritance.

Being all in the same family, we now call ourselves brothers[13] and sisters.[14] God intends us to recognize and live according to that new distinction.

“Therefore go out from their midst, and be

separate from them, says the Lord, and touch

no unclean thing; then I will welcome you,

and I will be a father to you, and you shall

be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord

Almighty.”[15]

A church made up of children of God is expected to be different from the world from which it emerges.

“Do not love the world or the things in the

world. If anyone loves the world, the love of

the Father is not in him. For all that is in

the world – the desires of the flesh and the

desires of the eyes and pride in possessions

– is not from the Father but is from the

world.”[16]

We have been adopted,[17] and are therefore in the process of releasing the allegiances and habits of our old family, and learning those of our new family. This is not an easy process, and the Adversary wants us to cling to the old self/kingdom/family because that remains under his control.

New

Within the shell of the old creation there is now a new one. It gives us a new identity but also involves a struggle with the old one. All believers are encouraged to embrace the reality of their new selves. Paul taught “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”[18] Many aspects of our old life will remain, but they will be spiritually insignificant.[19] We can still be categorized by race, gender, social status, age, geographical background, etc., but those categories no longer need to limit our new identity in Christ, nor our relationships with other believers.

The people of God are fresh new wineskins into which the Master Vintner is pouring his new wine.[20] They are scribes trained for the kingdom of heaven, new treasures that the Master brings out of his house.[21] They are a new garment, capable of taking a patch without tearing.[22] They are participants in the new covenant.[23] They are recipients of the new commandment.[24] These images speak of the church as a fundamentally different way that God intends to do things in the new world,[25] and we begin following those new instructions now.

Old

But there is continuity with the people of God manifested in Old Testament times as well. It is best not to make such a clear distinction between the New Testament church and the Old Testament saints. Movements within Christendom sometimes insist that the Church was born at Pentecost, and did not exist before then. Yet this New Testament Church had the same Old Testament Scriptures for its Bible, the same God for its father, and the same Messiah for its Savior as the Old Testament saints did.

Paul described it this way: he described the people of God as a tree. The Old Testament saints are its root, those descendants of Abraham who rejected Jesus as the Messiah are natural branches that have been broken off of the tree, and the Gentiles who come to faith are wild branches grafted into the tree.[26] There are plenty of Gentiles in Old Testament times who, by faith, were grafted in to Israel.

There is both continuity and discontinuity in the analogy. The continuity is found in the faithful who have a relationship with God. The discontinuity is found in the “natural branches” which do not have a relationship with God, and therefore were broken off from the tree, and the fact that Jesus commanded his church to target all nations with the gospel.

Implications

1. There is only one Church. We may call ourselves by many names and trace our existence to various traditions, but all true believers are united in our relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

2. The Church consists of many individuals, all of which have the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives, and each of which has a ministry to perform as part of the body of Christ.

3. The temptation has always been for some individuals to “lead” by downplaying the gifts and ministries of others while promoting their own. This kind of leadership is disastrous, and does not reflect the reality that God wants to reach the world through all of us, has chosen all of us, and called all of us to ministry.

4. Change is to be expected. One of the most dangerous things that any church can do is try to decide what the original “biblical” church did, and force its membership to comply. Such attempts always produce division and stifling of the Holy Spirit. The Church at Pentecost was a product of both continuity with the old traditions, and radical changes brought on by the new wine, which required the development of new traditions.

5. The most important question any church movement should ask is not “Do we conform to the patterns of the past?” The most important question is “Are we accurately reflecting our relationship with God?” The people of God has undergone numerous changes since Old Testament times, yet has survived those changes because of its relationship with God. Therefore, believers should be less worried about conforming to some artificial standard, and more concerned with the reality of their individual relationships with the Lord.

6. Believers need to be more comfortable with the diversity that exists among themselves, and less inclined to correct each other’s faults. Paul taught the Romans “Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.”[27] That certainly applies to the issue of interdenominational cooperation. We should feel free to support and work with any true believer, and any organization of true believers, regardless of their historical background or chosen affiliation.

7. Believers should look on each other not according to the limits and preconceptions inherent in who they are “in the flesh” but according to who they will be for eternity thanks to their new relationship with God through Christ. The limiting factors of our “in the flesh” existence will not survive the new age, when Christ comes and gives us our immortality. Instead, we will be “like angels”,[28] — no longer defined by the things that limit us now.

[1] Matthew 6:9.

[2] Paul S. Minear, Images of the Church in the New Testament. (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1960), 17.

[3] Matthew 5:16 ESV.

[4] Matthew 5:44-45 ESV.

[5] Matthew 5:48 ESV.

[6] Matthew 6:1 ESV.

[7] Matthew 6:3-4 ESV.

[8] Matthew 6:6 ESV.

[9] Matthew 6:17-18 ESV.

[10] chapter 49.

[11] Everett Ferguson, The Church of Christ. (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1996), 114.

[12] Galatians 3:26-29 ESV.

[13] Romans 16:23; 2 Corinthians 1:1.

[14] Romans 16:1; Philemon 2.

[15] 2 Corinthians 6:17-18 ESV.

[16] 1 John 2:15-16 ESV.

[17] Romans 8:15, 23; Galatians 4:5; Ephesians 1:5.

[18] 2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV.

[19] Galatians 6:15.

[20] Matthew 9:17.

[21] Matthew 13:52; Mark 2:22; Luke 5:37.

[22] Mark 2:21; Luke 5:36.

[23] Luke 22:20.

[24] John 13:34.

[25] Matthew 19:28.

[26] Romans 11:16-21.

[27] Romans 14:4 ESV.

[28] Matthew 22:30; Mark 12:25.

review of “First Doctrine”

Reviews are normally shared to notify the interested public of new and potentially important publications, particularly relating to certain fields of interest. One of the unfortunate aspects of that fact is that often some of the more important and relevant works are already published long before the reviewer is born. Also, newer works may not be more helpful than older ones, but they are almost certainly more expensive. Some of the more significant works on a given topic may be freely available to all, having passed into public domain, and available online as free e-books.

In light of that, this reviewer does not apologize for being over a century late in his review of The First Doctrine of the Christian Church by Charles Earl Preston et. al. (Providence, RI: The Young Minister’s Christian Union, 1891). This gem, discovered not in a dusty library, but in a Google search, offers valuable assistance for those who are interested both in the history and the doctrines of conditionalism.

The book is a collection of essays on conditional immortality, regarded as the “first doctrine of the Christian church” because it was the hope presented by the first witnesses of Christ in New Testament times. It was prepared for a convention of the Young Minister’s Christian Union, a clergy conference held (it is presumed) that year. The 19^th century had seen a number of religious revivals, including the Adventist movement, which had a major impact on America, particularly in re-sparking interest in eschatology. The YMCU was one of the results of that interest.

In the preface, the publisher expressed thanksgiving for being able to present a work defending conditional immortality to the public. The publisher expressed gratitude that “many who were bound by the subtle influence of the traditional dogma are now rejoicing in the blessed truth of life alone in the Redeemer[1].” That traditional dogma it refers to is the belief in the innate immortality of all human beings. Instead, the gospel teaches that Christ alone brings eternal life.

Nature of God

One of the criticisms that this book implies to the traditional doctrine of hell is that it makes God the author of an eternal evil – a place where a significant number of souls (most of all who have ever lived) will suffer in agony for all eternity. The preface quotes a bishop Newton, who wrote “nothing can be more contrary to the divine nature and attributes, than for a God, all-wise, all powerful, all-good, all=perfect, to bestow existence on any beings whose destiny he foresees and foreknows must terminate in wretchedness and misery, without recovery or remedy, without respite or end.”[2] Some, today, are thinking thoughts like this, and it is leading them back to the ancient concepts of probation and purgatory.

Conditionalism offers another alternative. God’s prescribed wages of sin is eternal death, not unending misery. “Eternal Death is at once an eternal punishment and the everlasting blotting out of evil from the universe of God.”[3] Conditionalism is –first and foremost – a defense of God’s loving nature.

Human Nature

An essay in this work traces two diverging lines of thought in theology, both of which can be traced back to Plato’s philosophical doctrine of the immortal soul. Origen’s concept of eventual restoration of all, and Augustine’s doctrine of eternal conscious torment each find their origin in that pagan concept of the indestructible soul. The suggested solution to the problem agrees with Augustine that future punishment must last forever, and agrees with Origen that evil must be blotted out. That solution is what the Bible calls the second death, an eternal death.[4]

Yet, to insist that fallen human beings have been made immortal makes eternal death impossible. “Fallen man to live forever! Oh! No! That was the Devil’s lie whispered in Eve’s ear in Eden and by her believed to the destruction and death of her children.” Instead Christ taught that those who do not come to him will not have life (John 5:40). Paul taught that immortality is a gift promised believers, not a present possession of all (Romans 2:6-7).[5] God created human beings with a marvelous nature, but immortality is not ours this side of the resurrection.

Life after Death

Even today, we are often told that a conscious life immediately after death is a belief shared by all cultures at all times. But the Bible denies that. Paul said, in 1 Thessalonians 4:13, that the Gentiles had no hope of life after death. “While our teachers and preachers are telling us that belief in immortality was universal in the heathen world, Paul who knew that world well, tells us it had no faith in any future life, and no hope beyond the grave.” Justin Martyr and Tertullian said that the heathen believe in “nothing after death.”[6] The concept of natural immortality was devised by pagan philosophy, and adapted syncretistically into Christianity. It had its origin neither in popular belief nor the Bible.

Final Punishment

The ultimate punishment for those who are not saved will be the same punishment Adam was threatened with – “not eternal life in misery, but death.” God will destroy with fire those who will not make it into his eternal kingdom. “It will be an unquenchable fire. Eusebius speaks of unquenchable fire destroying the martyrs. So also in Jeremiah (17:27) we read of such a fire burning the palaces of Jerusalem, though not now burning.”[7] This threat of the final punishment of destruction is what Jesus said people should fear (Matthew 10:28).

The First Doctrine of the Christian Church is not without its flaws. It gets somewhat sidetracked at times, suggesting a bit too strongly that Christ will save many “good” heathens that never knew him. But the book does serve as a good record of 19^th century conditionalist thought, and has many good biblical arguments against innate immortality.

Scriptural Index to “The First Doctrine…”

Genesis 1:26-27; 2:17 53 (80)

Genesis 2:15 60 (87)

Psalm 16:11 6 (33)

Psalm 21:4 6 (33)

Psalm 34:10 4 (31)

Psalm 37:20 4 (31)

Psalm 145:20 4 (31)

Isaiah 26:19 61 (88)

Isaiah 66:24 5 (32)

Jeremiah 17:27 4 (31)

Hosea 13:14 61 (88)

Matthew 10:28 xii (19), 36 (63)

Luke 16:25 44 (71)

Luke 20:36 65 (92)

John 3:16 3 (30)

John 5:40 3 (30), 63 (90)

John 6:51 63 (90)

John 10:27; 11:25 62 (89)

John 15:22 44 (71)

Acts 17:30,31 25 (52)

Romans 2:6-7 64 (91)

Romans 2:7 5 (32)

Romans 5:12 54 (81)

Romans 6:23 5 (32)

1 Corinthians 15:53-54 5 (32)

1 Thessalonians 4:13 57 (84)

1 Timothy 1:1,10,17 5 (32)

1 Timothy 6:16 5 (32)

1 Peter 1:3 66 (93)

1 Peter 3:18-22; 4:1-6 42 (69)

2 Peter 2:6 4 (31)

1 John 2:17 3 (30)

1 John 5:11 3 (30)

Revelation 20:7 43 (70)

[1] vii (14). [Since this book was scanned into .pdf format, references to page numbers will include the .pdf document page numbers as well. Those numbers will be in parentheses].

[2] ix (16).

[3] 51 (78).

[4] 49-50 (76-77).

[5] 63-64 (90-91).

[6] 58 (85).

[7] 3-4 (30-31).