| News and Views | January 1941 |
Christendom’s Vanishing Horizon
PARADOXICAL though it was, the world in general in 1940, paid more attention to celebrating the birth of the Prince of Peace than ordinarily. Perhaps this was because there is an awakening consciousness in the hearts and minds of the people that the lack of peace among the nations is due to a failure to adhere to the teachings of the One whose birth they all so demonstratively celebrated. Christmas, 1940, brought home, perhaps as never before, the absolute necessity for fundamental changes being made in governing principles by which the nations of earth are controlled if lasting peace is to be assured; yet few today have faith that the Prince of Peace will ever intervene in the world’s affairs and establish real peace. To most people, the hope of peace through Christ is now a vanishing horizon.
While lasting peace and happiness seem more remote today than ever before, and while the teachings of Christ are flouted by the nations, each one of which is determined by the force of arms to establish a new world order of its own pattern, yet there are millions of people now thinking about Jesus, and visualizing what a beautiful world we would have if His teachings were obeyed. Indeed, ringing out above the names of all the mighty ones of the earth today, is the name of Jesus; and to all—believers and unbelievers alike—that name stands for peace and good will. That there isn’t a nation on earth willing to accept and obey His rules for living, does not militate against the fact that when the time now near, does come for the manifestation of His Kingdom in the earth, He will not be an unknown personality.
A story is told that on Christmas Eve a street vendor in London was going about with a sign on his cart reading “Hitler is 56 years old, but Christ was born 1940 years ago. Why should we worry?” While it is true, as stated by the editor of one of New York’s leading papers, that not a single nation, even once, throughout all the centuries, has actually endeavored to put Christ’s teachings into practice in settling disputes with other nations, yet His name still lives; and the need for His doctrines yearly becomes more manifest.
That professed Christians have never enjoyed genuine peace is not due to a failure of Christianity, but because the nations have never practiced Christian principles. The truth is that earthly governments have never been anything else than the “kingdoms of this world.” Powerful, but apostate church systems of the world have in the past united with these worldly kingdoms, with the explanation that this transformed them into Christ’s Kingdom. But this whole arrangement has been merely a pseudo Kingdom of Christ, bearing the name of the Prince of Peace but not practicing His principles—except when doing so would further their own selfish interests.
This union of church and state, the evils of which were recognized by the founders of American liberty, is described in the Bible as harlotry. The first church system to practice it is symbolized by the term “Babylon,” and the explanation is offered that she made all nations drunk with the “wine of her fornication”—that is, the doctrine of church-state union. Today the world is gradually awakening from the drunken stupor that was imposed upon it by the false claim that nations which resort to the force of arms to attain their ends can be properly classified as Christian.
And so, while the name of Christ is still an outstanding one in the minds of millions, the world is facing the stark reality that in name only has allegiance to Him been practiced. In America, where the press and the radio are still “free,” the people are having this fact brought vividly to their attention. The day before Christmas, PM, one of New York’s outstanding newspapers, published a cartoon depicting a half-clad and wretched individual stumbling along through a field near a church. Flying overhead were a number of bombing planes presumably ready to drop their bombs on the church. According to the caption the church bells were supposed to be ringing out the hymn “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing.” Ten thousand words could not have told more emphatically that bombing planes and Christianity are not brothers, and that nations which exploit humanity by the force of arms are not Christian nations.
The New York Daily News, on Christmas Day, published a striking illustration, emphasizing the same thought. It displayed a facsimile of a part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, as it appears in the Bible. In this illustration all of the Master’s words which suggest the thought of peace, good will, kindness, forgiveness, and the like, were struck out as if by a censor. The caption of this illustration was “Passed in Part by Censor.”
“THE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT:
‘PEACE ON EARTH, GOOD WILL TOWARD MEN’”
Under the above heading, one newspaper on Christmas Day published the following “Christmas Messages” from a number of persons who are now prominent in the eyes of the world:
President Roosevelt: “For most of us it can be a happy Christmas, if by happiness we mean we have done with doubts, that we have set our hearts against fear.”
Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s aid, speaks from Berlin: “Almighty God: you gave us the Fuehrer. You blessed his battle with a vast victory. You gave him power to create and defend a new, great and free Germany.”
Marshall Petain, speaks from Vichy: “Take courage and swear tonight to aid with all your force this great rebirth [of France] so your children will again know happy Christmases.”
We quote these statements made by prominent personalities, not to show how right or wrong any or all of them may be, but to show that irrespective of the varied viewpoints represented in them, they all reveal a desire for the same thing, namely peace and happiness. They also reveal that probably most people in Christendom still associate these blessings with the thought of Christ, and that they are reminded of these things at least once a year when His birth is celebrated.
But while this is true, something else is happening in the hearts of the people, namely the conviction that Christ is not bringing peace to the world. The nations have always endeavored to establish peace by military might, and generally speaking this has been done in the name of Christ. What the people are learning now is that it’s only a farce to associate the name of Jesus with war. However, the people have no real faith in Christianity as a power to establish peace, so they continue on with war. Thus appears the paradox of a dwindling faith in a name that is better known in the world than any other.
Jesus Himself raised the question as to whether or not there would be real faith in the earth at the time of His return. Other prophecies of the Bible depict a blackout of whatever spiritual influences may previously have been exerted in the affairs of men. The result of this is that today it is very difficult to find’ an individual who will confess his faith in the Scriptural teaching that Jesus is actually to one day take hold of the affairs of mankind and establish a real and powerful Kingdom that will cause all the nations to beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. To believe such a thing is to believe in miracles, and belief in miracles is no longer popular. Most people would rather trust in the efficacy of bombing planes than to put their trust in a miracle-working God.
Withal, however, everybody now knows that a new order of society will be needed following the present struggle, for they realize that nothing can now save the old order. The Pope voiced these sentiments in his Christmas speech and indicated that Papacy is willing and ready to fall in line with the new order, no matter what its pattern may be. He hopes that it will be based on justice, and that somehow the doctrine that might makes right will be discarded.
We all hope that, but only those who have faith in all that the Bible teaches relative to the new order—that it is to be Christ’s Kingdom—know that justice and love are indeed finally to reign supreme among the nations. Only those who know and believe what the Bible teaches also realize that the making of the new order is not to be in the hands of dictators, nor earthly parliaments. Only such, therefore, can now continue to rejoice in a real hope of peace, even though the noise and suffering of war is almost everywhere apparent.
THE COURSE OF THE WAR
Emil Ludwig, German-born, but now a citizen of Switzerland, has declared in a press conference recently that the present war will be brought to an end by a series of revolutions which will sweep through all the nations involved, probably beginning in Italy. These thoughts were expressed last November while Mr. Ludwig was in Los Angeles, on a lecture tour. Since then, there have been indications that a spirit of revolution is working in Italy. Mr. Churchill, Prime Minister of Great Britain, evidently thought there was a possibility of something like this occurring in Italy, and in a speech made a direct bid to the Italian people to overthrow their present leadership, and through a newly formed government, to make peace with the British Empire. Italian reaction to this bid was not at once encouraging to the British, but something akin to what Mr. Churchill suggested may occur later.
It would he unwise to undertake a prediction of the detailed pattern of future events in this dying world. However, the Bible does indicate that these details are all adding up to complete a world revolution, symbolically depicted in Revelation 16:18 as a “great earthquake.” It is foretold that in this earthquake the “great city is divided into three parts.” The Revelator further explains that (1) the “cities of the nations fell”; (2) “great Babylon came into remembrance before God”; and (3) “every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.”
Already the first phase of the revolution has caused most of the “cities of the nations” to fall. That is, the independent kingdoms that made up Europe prior to 1914, are now nearly all destroyed or made vassals to one or another of Europe’s dictators. There is much evidence also that “great Babylon” is now coming “into remembrance before God.” Already her hold upon Europe is seriously weakened, and today she has little to say in shaping the affairs of the countries she once ruled. Moreover, as Mr. Ludwig predicts, it is quite within the realm of possibility that the present struggle in Europe will be terminated by a cracking up of present governmental authority within all the nations involved. This could easily lead to the third phase of the “great earthquake,” in which “every island” will “flee away,” and “the mountains” will not be found. Thus will the “time of trouble” end in world-wide anarchy.
For centuries the Babylonish woman-city of Revelation was a dictator over the kingdoms of the old world. Even after this absolute dictatorship was broken, the ideology of Papacy—its moral codes and standards and its armed-camp conception of Christ’s Kingdom—continued to be the accepted order of things throughout the old Roman world which was Europe. A revolution means a change in the form of government and the ideology of government. Already the church-state pattern of things has almost completely disappeared from the continent of Europe. Not only has the organizational bands of that system been broken, so that the nations no longer bow to the wishes of the church, but the moral ethics and codes of the church are being more and more set aside. In their places there is being set up a pagan “way of life” variously styled Nazism, Fascism, and Communism.
Perhaps as some think, Papacy is yet to have a measure of her power restored by the nations recognizing her claims of authority as a last resort to establish some semblance of order in a dying world. Certainly Papacy will be alive to whatever opportunities may present themselves along this line; and doubtless will, try to make such opportunities. The Pope’s recent admission that a new order is inevitable in Europe, and his indicated willingness to fall in line with whatever that order might be, is significant. But will Papacy’s ambitions turn out to be more than wishful thinking? That’s a question for which we should all seek the answer in the European news parade of the coming months.
There is one thing we do know, namely that the final outcome of the present world distress will be the full establishment of the Kingdom of Christ; not representatively through the kingdoms of this world; but actually, and with power and great glory. Meanwhile, as mankind’s troubles increase, the need for the Messianic Kingdom becomes more and more apparent. Even Christmas celebrations, as paradoxical as they are in a world of war, are helping the people to realize more fully the need of the Prince of Peace, and to long more earnestly—though at present most vaguely—for the Kingdom of righteousness which is yet to be accepted as the “desire of all nations.” And when that Kingdom authority is manifested the people will, with an all-out enthusiasm, devote themselves to it, saying “Lo this is our God, we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.”—Isa. 25:6-8
Then the “lost horizon” of men’s hope in the Prince of Peace will be found as they behold the rising of the Sun of Righteousness with healing in His wings. Then men will have demonstrated to them what they cannot now accept by faith, namely, that “the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.” (Isa. 9:6,7) By then men will have learned the futility of putting their trust in earthly kings and princes and will gladly say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and He will teach us of His ways and we will walk in His paths. … And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”—Micah 4: 1-4
| The Everlasting Gospel |
Sin and Atonement
SIN is disobedience to God’s law and the departure from righteousness. Its presence in the human race is indisputable. Sin is a barrier between man and his God. The divine holiness cannot unite in any system of government in which there is sin. To God it is loathsome, degrading, and leads to ruin. God cannot tolerate it, parley with it, nor make a place for it in His presence, but must visit it with the condemnation it deserves. His “wrath is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness.”—Rom. 1:18
God’s marvelous method of atonement vindicates once for all, before the universe, His righteousness, and its incompatibility with sin, and, at the same time, reveals His love for the sinner. God’s love is revealed by providing, in the spirit of sacrifice, that which pays sin’s penalty. This provision was none other than His own beloved Son. The propitiatory value of Christ’s perfect human life, obediently given up in sacrificial death, is the basis for the reclamation of the sinner and his return to God’s favor. Jesus gave His human life as a substitute for the forfeited life of Adam, and this constitutes the basis of atonement for Adam and the whole race which lost life in him.
But the sinner must accept this provision in order to benefit by it. Conscious of his unworthiness he must, in penitence, accept Christ as his personal Savior, Redeemer and Intercessor. Consecrating himself to henceforth do the Father’s will, the condemned one receives the benefit of God’s gift of love, and is restored to the divine favor, and to all which it implies. This is God’s provision for pardon and reconciliation. It is His way of being just and yet accomplishing the justification of the sinner, for, “Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead … and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations.”—Luke 24:46,47
Every conscientious soul desires to be free from sin. Through all the ages righteously inclined persons have groaned under sin’s curse. These have striven to rid themselves of sin. Some have endeavored to purchase cleansing by money; others have sacrificed everything to obtain pardon. Many have prayed and fasted, and fasted and prayed, till heart and flesh were starved. Some have worn uncomfortable hair shirts, put stones in their shoes, made long journeys on hands and knees, separated from humankind, lashed, wounded and maimed themselves, and in various ingenious ways have tortured themselves that sin might be eliminated.
But from all these endeavors, these agonies, these self-imposed tasks and self-inflicted sufferings, the seeker has returned heart-heavy. There is no cleansing of self by self. Man is not only stained with sin, but is deeply dyed. The prophet declares, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jer. 17:9) No chemical of earthly compounding can bleach out sin from fallen human beings. Only the blood of Jesus Christ can do this.—I John 1:7
GOD’S LOVE MOVES TO SAVE
Everywhere in the wonderful Word, God’s “love,” “mercy,” “kindness,” “compassion,” and “grace” are given as the moving motive in the great redemption. In Titus 3:4-7, Paul makes use of four of these words: “The kindness and love of God our Savior toward men appeared. … According to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit; which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior; that being justified by His grace, we should he made heirs according to the hue of eternal life.”
The Scriptures also declare the atonement to have been made on behalf of “the world,” “the whole world,” “all men,” “all people,” “once for all,” “every man,” “the ungodly,” “the unjust,” “sinners,” “enemies,” and “the dead and the living.” Christians have always acknowledged this but have long been perplexed that the saving truths of the gospel even in distorted forms, have reached comparatively few since our Lord died on Calvary four thousand years after the fall into sin.
However, when all the Bible testimony is given fair representation, and if it means what it seems to say, it will be seen to most marvelously magnify the justice, wisdom, love and power of God. The Bible will be found to be more than a book of detached sentences, truthful history, divine instructions, comforting words. God’s wonderful Word declares the end from the beginning and reveals and unfolds His everlasting purposes toward the human race as manifested through Jesus Christ.
One great Personage, the Hero of the great redemption, pervades the entire book from beginning to end and makes it the grandest and most thrilling story the world has ever known. We read about this Mighty One in Eden as the “Seed of the woman, who should bruise the serpent’s head.” He is also the “Seed” of Abraham in whom “all nations of the earth” are to he blessed. Again He is the Seed of David who shall sit on David’s throne and set up a Kingdom that shall never pass away. He is the despised and rejected sufferer, crucified on Calvary, raised triumphant the third day, and exalted to sit on the right hand of God with the promise that He comes again as King of kings and Lord of lords.
THE CENTER OF THE GOSPEL
Around this mighty Personage, the whole book revolves; to Him, Moses, all the prophets, the Psalms, the Apostles, give witness, predicting His coming in the earliest pages and revealing in its closing pages, the glowing splendors which will yet crown and complete His perfect work, when He reigns until He has put all enemies under His feet, destroying all the works of the devil, extinguishing, expunging death and evil. (Acts 3:19-21; I Cor. 15:24-28; I John 3:8) “Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of the saints [or nations]. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy name? … for all nations shall come and worship before Thee; for Thy righteous acts have been made manifest.”—Rev. 15:3,4
In the great drama of Revelation 5, when the Lamb took the book, a thrill went through the heavenly hosts, rising to anthems of new and complete adoration, spreading ever wider and wider until every creature in heaven and earth and under the earth John heard saying, “To Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb … blessing, and honor, and glory, and power for ever and ever.” “I have sworn by Myself, the word is gone out of My mouth in righteousness, and shall not return,” “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow … and every tongue should confess.”—Isa. 45:22-25; Phil. 2:9-11; Isa. 2:2-4,11,25; 66:18-24; Psa. 2:8; 65:2; 72; 82:8; 86:9
Hardly had the Word of God been spoken on the threshold of human history, when appeared a strange propensity, tendency, disposition to question, alter, amend, that Word. Eve, following a subtle process of reasoning, was persuaded that God’s word did not mean what it seemed to say, that no harm, but great good would result in an alteration. Not profiting by the Edenic disaster, men “when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, … but became vain in their reasonings, … professing themselves to be wise.” (Rom. 1:21,22) Moses and the prophets were withstood by some, doubtless well-meaning, who questioned God’s word and offered substitutions and alterations in God’s name. This too, is the record of church history—failure to “hold fast the faithful word.” (Titus 1:9) “As the serpent beguiled Eve” in his craftiness, so their minds were “corrupted” from the simplicity and purity in Christ.—II Cor. 11:3
The Reformation, the art of printing, the revival of learning, brought forth whole brigades of higher critics, modernists, liberals, evolutionists, “advanced scholarship,” “new light.” All these, doubtless sincere, by widely various ways, were united in altering, amending, modifying, corrupting the wonderful Word; claiming, like the first critic in Eden, that it did not mean what it seemed to say. Some even waxed bolder than the devil by discarding as uninspired the book of Deuteronomy, from which our Lord made three unanswerable quotations, thus ending His temptation in the wilderness. If one were to believe the sum-total of all these critics, little or nothing of the wonderful Word would remain.
UNIVERSALISM BASED ON HUMAN PHILOSOPHY
There have been some who “trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others,” and then there are others who, going to the opposite extreme, are confident that everyone will be finally, eternally saved. The belief in universal salvation is not a new one. The greatest scholar of the early church, the president of the Alexandrian “school of speculative theology” used his voice and pen in earnestly advocating endless probation. To those unaware of God’s glorious “purpose of the ages” (Eph. 3:11), and who were confronted with election of the few and the nightmare of unspeakable torture for the non-elect, this fleeing to extreme liberalism could be regarded in the light of a benevolent reaction.
The author of the Studies in the Scriptures relates his experience as follows:
“Emerging from the blackness of error called Calvinism, its heaven of blessing for the elect little flock and into the glorious light of the goodness of God, shining in the face of Jesus Christ and revealed in His great plan of the ages, the writer was subjected to the same attacks of Satan, the great enemy of God and man, to which all others seem to be exposed. Having brought the gross darkness on the world and now coming as an angel of light, the suggestion presented itself: God will not permit any to be lost.
“Reason and judgment swayed for a time according to circumstances and moods, until we learned that our reasoning powers are not to be relied upon to settle such questions. They are imperfect as well as liable to be prejudiced, and for that cause God has given us His inspired Word to guide us into the proper paths. Then appealing to the wonderful Word, we found abundant proof that if it ‘means what it seems to say’ and unless God therein trifles with His children’s confidence (or as man would say ‘bluffs’ them with suggestions and threats which He knows He will never execute), there will surely be some lost as well as some saved.”
WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS
Note the following plain statements of Scripture declaring God’s purpose toward the wicked:
“Yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be, … but the meek shall inherit the land.”—Psalms 37:10,11
“The Lord preserveth all them that love Him: but all the wicked will He destroy.”—Psalms 145:20
“These shall go away into everlasting cutting-off: but the righteous into life eternal.”—Matt. 25:46
“Whosoever shall blaspheme against the Holy Spirit has never forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin.”—Mark 3:29 R.V.
“It had been good for that man if he had not been born.”—Matt. 26:24
“It is impossible for those who were once enlightened, … and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, … if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance.”—Heb. 6:4-16
“That which beareth thorns and briers is rejected; … whose end is to be burned.”—Heb. 6:8
“If we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.”—Heb. 10:26,27
“A man that hath set at naught Moses’ law died without compassion, … how much sorer punishment, think ye, shall he be judged worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God.”—Hebrews 10:28,29
“If he shrink back, My soul hath no pleasure in him, … we are not of them that draw back unto destruction; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.”—Heb. 10:38,39
“See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused Him who spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven.”—Hebrews. 12:25
“There is one Lawgiver, Who is able to save and to destroy.”—James 4:12
“False teachers … shall bring in destructive heresies, denying even the Master that bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.”—II Peter 2:1
“These are … trees … without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots.”—Jude 12
“It shall not be forgiven him: … neither in this age, neither in the age to come.”—Matthew 12:32
“The sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.”—Isa. 65:20
“They shall go forth, and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against Me; … and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.”—Isa. 66:24
“And fire came down from out of heaven, and devoured them.”—Rev. 20:9
DESTRUCTION OF SINNERS IS MERCIFUL
It might be argued that there will be a resurrection from the death described in these passages, but the Bible does not say so. Only human philosophy can claim it. What could be more definite than this testimony of God’s Word. And how reasonable it all is! Perpetuation of life of the disobedient in misery would yield no benefit to them, nor to the saved; nor would it glorify God. Nor would it be merciful. It is not taught in the wonderful Word. But taking away the life of those who will not conform to the holy, just and good regulations of God’s law, is reasonable, just and merciful. Even sinful men concede this and the grossly guilty are electrocuted.
Why should God continue His blessings, of which life is the chief, to those who after being delivered from darkness and ignorance, refuse His grace? If man will not render loving respect to his Creator’s wise and good commands, Justice would demand that those blessings be stopped. It is merciful on God’s part to destroy the incorrigibly wicked; those who, after full knowledge and opportunity have been enjoyed, refuse to be conformed to the precepts of God’s law of love and His Kingdom:
(1) Because all who will live ungodly—out of harmony with God’s law of love—will always be like the restless sea, more or less discontented and unhappy.
(2) Because such characters, be they ever so few, would mar the enjoyment of those who do love peace and righteousness. And to these God has promised that the time shall come when sin and its results, weeping and pain and dying, shall cease (Rev. 21:4), when He will destroy out of the earth those who corrupt it.—Rev. 11:18
(3) Because God has promised there shall yet be a clean world (Isa. 11:9; Rev. 21:5), in which the unholy and the abominable and all who love and make lies, shall find no place. (Rev. 21:8) “Yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be.”—Psa. 37:10
Does it not seem strange that some, believing that the one act of disobedience of one man, brought death to some twenty thousand million and required a ransom, can yet believe that after a costly redemption, a persistence in sin by one person, cannot bring death to that one person? If “the wages of sin is death,” and if “without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin,” and if there is no more “sacrifice for sin” on behalf of those who “sin wilfully after having received a knowledge of the truth,” then all such willful sinners, in suffering the wages of sin, must remain eternally dead; else these Scriptures are meaningless; that is, they do not mean what they say.
“Whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”—Rev. 20:15
“But the fearful, and unbelieving … shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”—Rev. 21:8
SINNERS DESTROYED—NOT MERELY SIN
But some attempt to evade the foregoing plain Scriptures with the claim that they refer to wickedness and not to wicked people; that all wicked people are to be destroyed only in the sense that they will be converted. We ask those who so think to read over these words of God again carefully, and then they will see that they could not reasonably be so construed. The “lake of fire, which is the second death,” is “prepared for the devil and his angels,” and not merely for sin —Rev. 20:14; Matt. 25:41
Yes, the Word specifies wicked persons; and all who are familiar with the rules of grammar covering the question, know that when the person is specified, the destruction of his wickedness alone could not be meant. And how could we know that the Word does not mean what it says on any other subject, after all the testimony has been given a fair representation.
What if the world today would lay aside for a little season, the common rules of grammar and everything everybody said or wrote did not mean what it seemed to say. What a condition. Nobody would be sure of anything anybody said and in a day the world would be in a turmoil.
Others, reasoning outside of the Word of God, have reached a conclusion that everything from a mosquito bite to a great plague of death, or from a snowflake’s fall to a tornado or an earthquake, are fulfillments of God’s will, and that by and by, God shall choose to alter His course and “will” only pleasant things, including the eternal salvation of all. It would lead far afield to follow after all these bypaths. Our business is with the Word of God. We believe in letting God tell us in His wonderful Word, His purposes, designs, laws, judgments. Our commission is to preach “the Word,” to testify to others, saying, “thus it is written.”—Luke 24:46
God does not owe us everlasting life. It is an extraordinary gift, offered on His terms, in His appointed way—the same as in Eden—upon the basis of obedience. Hence we read, “Christ … became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him.” (Heb. 5:9) “O that there were such an heart in them that they would fear Me, and keep My commandments always, that it might be well with them.” (Deut. 5:29) “Create in Me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.”—Psa. 51:10
All who, with Satan, serve sin, are his servants. (Rom. 6:12) For such and such only, God has prepared the penalty of “everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of His power.” And from Satan their chief, to the least of his followers who, notwithstanding knowledge and opportunity to the contrary, cling to evil and choose it rather than righteousness, God will blot out to the praise of His justice, and the welfare of the obedient.
It will not do to judge others by ourselves in all respects. The fact that God’s saints do not feel opposition to God’s will, and cannot understand why or how others can entertain such sentiments, sometimes leads to the false conclusion that if all others enjoyed a similar knowledge of God they too would delight in His service. That such a conclusion is false is evident from the fact that Satan, who knew God thoroughly, “abode not in the truth,” but became the “father of lies” and a “murderer.” And after six thousand years’ witness of sin and its results, he is still the adversary of righteousness. After nearly two thousand years’ knowledge of the love and mercy of God, Satan is still as unmoved by that love as he is unmoved by pity for human woe.
And more than this; God who knows the future as well as the past, shows us unquestionably, that after being bound in the abyss for a thousand years, he will, when granted liberty at the close of the Millennium, still manifest a preference for the way of sin and opposition to God’s arrangements. Surely this proves that intelligent beings, and perfect beings, too, can know God and yet choose the way of disobedience; whether or not our minds can grasp the motives of such a course.
A perfect being, angel or man, to begin with is a blank page upon which character must be engraved. Knowledge and free will are the engravers. Pride, selfishness or ambition may be engraved; or love, humility and meekness. The latter is the blessed or god-like; the former is the sinful or devilish. According to what is engraved will be the result, for if the will decides for sin and cultivates wicked motives, the result will be a wicked creature. If the will decides for righteousness and god-likeness, the result will be a holy creature.
The same principles in a general way apply to fallen men, for they can still “will” aright even if they cannot do aright. The gospel is offered to all, but only those who “will” or choose to believe are accepted. For some who are evil-doers now, our belief is that they are such because of the blinding power of the devil (II Cor. 4:4), which leads them to make a choice they would not make if they had a clear, full knowledge. Nor is this speculation, as our Lord’s words concerning Tyre and Sidon, Sodom, Nineveh and the queen of the south, indicate.—Matt. 11:20-24; 12:41,42
Unrepentant Israel is to come forth from the tomb, remember their past evil ways, and be ashamed and confounded when they have been forgiven all they have done. (Ezek. 16:44-63; 36:16-36) Evidently God’s wonderful promises that through Christ all are to come to a full, accurate knowledge of the truth, will be fulfilled.—I Tim. 2:4-6; 4:10; Heb. 2:9; Rom. 11:32
TRIALS OF FAITH—WHY PERMITTED
Many are perplexed as to why false doctrines are permitted to annoy and confuse God’s people. On receiving the truth and rejoicing in it, they thought they had, at last, come to the end of all controversy and had entered the Beulah land of rest and peace, thenceforth never again to be disturbed. But this was quite a mistake. Our great adversary, Satan, is not disposed to let the children of the light walk on undisturbed, unhindered into the heavenly Kingdom. Satan is an inveterate enemy of all prospective heirs of the Kingdom of God. The children of the light are, therefore, his special targets against which his fiery darts are aimed and they may, consequently, expect to find snares spread for their feet and stumbling blocks placed in their way. The work is done with subtlety, that, if possible, they may be deceived and caught unawares.
God’s children are not curiosity hunters, but when they have found the truth, they recognize its value; they prize it and meditate upon it; they view it as the grand and systematic embodiment of the highest ideal of righteousness and benevolence. They rejoice in its gracious provisions, not only for the attaining of heavenly hopes, but also for the deliverance of mankind; as well as in the merciful dealings with the finally incorrigibly wicked whom He will mercifully destroy. They say, it is just like God, it is the manifestation of His glorious goodness, the reflection of His loving, benevolent, wise and just character. And therefore, they love the truth and the God who gave it. They treasure it up in their hearts and con it over again and again. They look into it and admire all its symmetry and beauty. They strive more and more to conform to the same lines of beauty and seek to commend it by word and conduct to others, that they, also, may be blessed by it.
O, wonderful, wonderful Word of the Lord!
True wisdom its pages unfold;
And though we may read them a thousand times o’er,
They never, no never grow old.
Each line hath a treasure, each promise a pearl,
That all, if they will, may secure.O, wonderful, wonderful Word of the Lord!
Our only salvation is there;
It tells of a Savior, it points to the cross,
Where pardon we may now secure;
Its warnings, its counsels, are faithful and just;
Its judgments are perfect and sure;
And we know that though heaven and earth pass away,
“God’s Word shall forever endure.”—I Peter 1:25