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Author:
Erich Sauer

theWord Version:
3.x - 4.x

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Sauer - The Dawn of World Redemption

About the Author

Eric Sauer was born in Berlin, Germany, on Saturday, December 31, 1898 and died in Wiedenest, Germany, on Wednesday, February 25, 1959, at 60.

He was raised in the Open Brethren Church to which both his parents belonged. He was involved in a Bible school in Wiedenest from sometime in the 1930s until his death.

He authored five books:

The Dawn of World Redemption: A Survey of Historical Revelation in the Old Testament (1951) http://www.wordmodul...rld-redemption/
The Triumph of the Crucified: A Survey of Historical Revelation in the New Testament (1951) http://www.wordmodul...-the-crucified/
From Eternity to Eternity: An Outline of the Divine Purposes (1954) http://www.wordmodul...ty-to-eternity/
In the Arena of Faith: A Call to a Consecrated Life (1955) http://www.wordmodul...arena-of-faith/
The King of the Earth: The Nobility of Man According to the Bible and Science (1962)

The first three books were translated by G. H. Lang.

F. F. Bruce wrote the foreward for the first book

A. Rendle Short wrote the foreward for the second volume.



AUTHOR'S PREFACE

The history of salvation stands or falls-nay, it stands with the authority of the Lord Jesus. It is an undeniable fact that Christ distinctly acknowledged those portions of the Old Testament which are most challenged, as, for example, the literal historicity of Adam and Eve (Matt. 19: 8), the actual occurrence of the Flood (Matt. 24: 37, 38), and the miraculous experience of the prophet Jonah (Matt. 12: 39, 40). Most striking is His acknowledgment of the book of Daniel; for from this very book, today so much attacked by unbelief, He took the chief designation of His own Person (" Son of man ", Dan. 7: 13, 14; Matt. 26: 64). Indeed, it was with this book that He linked Himself by the only oath He ever took (Matt. 26: 63, 64; and comp. Matt. 24: I5). And as regards the future, He expected His own personal return in glory (Matt. 24: 27-31) and the literal establishment of the kingdom of Messiah as foretold by the prophets (Matt. I9: 28; Z5: 3I ff.; Acts I: 67). It was the same with His apostles. His attitude to the Old Testament was theirs.

According to Dr. Evans, in this Bible of the Lord Jesus (John 5: 39), the Old Testament, the phrase "thus saith the Lord" occurs 3,500 times. For Christ, the personal living "Word" (John. 14; Rev. 19: 13), a mere tittle or jot of the written Word was of more value than all star worlds and sun systems of the entire universe. "Verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law, till all things be accomplished" (Matt. 5: 18; comp. 24: 35; John 10:35)- And Paul, His greatest apostle, confesses: "I believe all things which stand written in the law and the prophets " (Acts 24: 14).

Faith in the Holy Scripture as a Divine revelation, and in its indestructible authority, is therefore no mechanical idolization of the letter and no small-minded unchristian bondage thereto, but has on its side the greatest spiritual personalities of salvation's history, including even Christ Himself, the Son of God. "The revelation stands, nay, it continues for us in the Scripture; it is continuing-there is no avoiding it-in the Bible texts, in thc words and sentences, in that which the prophets and apostles wished to say, and have said, as their testimony.

Thus we explain the history of salvation by reference to the King of that history. The whole revelation is a circle, and Jesus Christ is the centre of this circle. He is the sun, and from Him the whole circle is illuminated.

But if anyone, through unbelief or half belief, takes up a lame attitude to the Scripture, and particularly in reference to

the opening chapters of the Bible,

the prophecies of Daniel,

the meaning of the Cross,

the bodily resurrection and

the personal return of Christ,

to him will the beginning, thc middle, and the end of the Divine plan of redemption be unintelligible, and the wonderful divine temple of the history of salvation will remain to him a closed building.

The Bible, as the record of salvation, is one complete whole, an organism throbbing with life, and a system of prophecy wrought out in history according to plan. It is "a marvellous structure, of which the ground plan was prepared in advance", a harmonious, graduated whole, with perfect proportion and accord in all its parts, and having Christ as its goal. And the theme of the kingdom of God, with the rhythm of its progressively developing epochs and periods, is the leading basic melody of this whole majestic divine symphony.]

But we have to "bow down, observant and attentive, if we would catch the harmony of things acknowledged and existing". Thus can we interpret the Scripture as a record of God's plan of salvation. Only thereby is justice done to the essential and true nature of the Bible. It is to be read " age-wise", that is, according to the dispensations, economies, gradations, and groupings. Here the human spirit stands on the very highest possible prophetic watch-tower. Worlds and ages come within its expanded field of vision. Here it looks beyond the narrow circle of its own personality, beyond the frontiers of nationality and civilization, yea, beyond all the bounds of the present and of time itself. Here it embraces past, present, and future at once, surveying at the one time that which is and that which is coming into being, indeed its enlightened vision penetrates right into the heart of the All-Highest, even into the depths of the Godhead itself.

It is in this spirit that we would now enter upon our task, even the attempt to give an outline of thc "pilgrimage" through the millenniums of thc Divine unfolding of salvation, from the creation of thc world onward to Christ, the Redeemer of thc world.

No attempt is made to be exhaustive. Nor is it intended to give a comparison between the Biblical and the modern philosophical conceptions of the world, or to set over against each other the positive and the liberal-critical attitudes to the Bible in general. The book is not a defence of the faith, but a history of salvation. Too wide an extension of its task would have exceeded the space available. But, taking for granted that the Bible is right, the book does deal in all seriousness with the historical unity of the Bible, and seeks to review the Biblical plan of history and the development of mankind as they are therein represented from God's point of view in their harmonious variety, their cosmic universality, and their progressive ordering.

As regards the outward features of the present work, an attempt has been made to achieve general comprehensibility. For easier reading the whole has been divided into many small sections.

I am very conscious of the great imperfections and incompleteness of what is here set forth, yet I commend the whole work to the Lord and His grace. My prayer to Him is that He may use it to the service of His saints. Now to Himself, the "King of the ages, the incorruptible, invisible, only God, be honour and glory from eternity to eternity. Amen." (I Tim. I: I7).

ERICH SAUER

Wiedenest, Rhineland, Germany.