Andrew John Jukes (1815– 1901) was an English theologian. He was educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge. He was initially a curate in the Church of England at St. John's Church, Hull, but became convinced of Baptist teaching and underwent adult baptism at the George Street Chapel, Hull, on August 31, 1843. After leaving the Church of England, he joined the Plymouth Brethren.Jukes later left the Plymouth Brethren and founded an independent chapel in Hull. Among those influenced by Jukes was Hudson Taylor.
In this book he writes:
"The thought which is now expressed in these pages has long been growing in the writer's heart. Hidden at first and unconfessed, during the last few years it has from time to time been brought forth in conversation with trusted Christian friends. But the time seems come to give it a wider circulation. Men's hearts, now perhaps more than in any former age, are everywhere moved to enquire into the nature and inspiration of Holy Scripture, and the destiny of the human race, more especially the future state of sinners, as taught in Holy Scripture. Many are perplexed, hesitating to receive as perfect and divine a revelation, which, they are told, in the name of God consigns a large proportion of those who in some sense at least are His offspring to everlasting misery. And while the conclusion, uttered or unuttered, in many hearts is, either that this doctrine cannot really be a part of Holy Scripture, or else that what is called Holy Scripture cannot be a perfect exposition or revelation of the mind of God our Saviour, few even of those who receive the Bible as divine seem able to solve the difficulty, or throw much light on those portions of the "oracles of God," which confessedly are "dark sayings" and "hard to be understood."
"The doctrine here stated, therefore, though it runs like a golden thread through Holy Scripture, may, because as yet it has been hidden from many of God's children, be condemned by them as contrary to God's mind, just as Paul's gospel, when first proclaimed, was charged with being opposed to that old law of which it was but the fulfilment. In every age the man of faith can only say, "We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak."
"Truth may, and indeed must, vary in form as time goes on,--Christ Himself, the Truth, at different stages appears differently,--for God has stooped to this, to give us truth as we can bear it; stooped therefore to be judged as inconsistent; becaus e He is Love, and waits to reveal Himself till we are prepared for the revelation. But the end will justify all His ways; and some of His children can even now justify Him."
In this book he writes:
"The thought which is now expressed in these pages has long been growing in the writer's heart. Hidden at first and unconfessed, during the last few years it has from time to time been brought forth in conversation with trusted Christian friends. But the time seems come to give it a wider circulation. Men's hearts, now perhaps more than in any former age, are everywhere moved to enquire into the nature and inspiration of Holy Scripture, and the destiny of the human race, more especially the future state of sinners, as taught in Holy Scripture. Many are perplexed, hesitating to receive as perfect and divine a revelation, which, they are told, in the name of God consigns a large proportion of those who in some sense at least are His offspring to everlasting misery. And while the conclusion, uttered or unuttered, in many hearts is, either that this doctrine cannot really be a part of Holy Scripture, or else that what is called Holy Scripture cannot be a perfect exposition or revelation of the mind of God our Saviour, few even of those who receive the Bible as divine seem able to solve the difficulty, or throw much light on those portions of the "oracles of God," which confessedly are "dark sayings" and "hard to be understood."
"The doctrine here stated, therefore, though it runs like a golden thread through Holy Scripture, may, because as yet it has been hidden from many of God's children, be condemned by them as contrary to God's mind, just as Paul's gospel, when first proclaimed, was charged with being opposed to that old law of which it was but the fulfilment. In every age the man of faith can only say, "We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak."
"Truth may, and indeed must, vary in form as time goes on,--Christ Himself, the Truth, at different stages appears differently,--for God has stooped to this, to give us truth as we can bear it; stooped therefore to be judged as inconsistent; becaus e He is Love, and waits to reveal Himself till we are prepared for the revelation. But the end will justify all His ways; and some of His children can even now justify Him."
