Firstfruits and Harvest

A Study in Resurrection and Rapture. Few writers have approached the subject of Biblical prophecy with more diligence and precise thinking than G. H. Lang. His purpose in studying and writing on the end-times and related themes was not to be controversial or sensational, but rather to encourage watchfulness and readiness. The serious reader will find much to challenge both mind and heart in these pages as the writer uses the prophetic Scriptures to give a strong call to holy and careful living. The secret of G. H. Lang's power and persuasiveness as a writer must surely be attributed to his lifelong dedication to searching the Scriptures, not for the sake of aquiring more knowledge, but in order that he might know God more intimately and follow Him more closely. His great passion was that God's children everywhere would press beyond the shallow and superficial and into a deep understanding of the ways and workings of God. In this respect he was the true successor to such spiritual giants as George Müller, Hudson Taylor, Robert Cleaver Chapman and Anthony Norris Groves. One of Mr. Lang's contemporaries, Douglas W. Brealey, wrote of him: "I think I may truthfully say that he was the most apostolic man I have ever met; perhaps for that very reason he was a very controversial figure; a correspondent suggested to me that he was the most controversial figure in Brethren circles since J. N. Darby; yet it would be true to say that he himself was not a controversialist. A very close student of the Word, and an independent thinker, he was not prepared to take traditional interpretations unless he were personally convinced that they were right. . . . To be in his presence was to realize that one was in the presence of a true saint of God whose holy life gave weight and authority to all he taught."