THE HERALD
of Christ's Kingdom
VOL. VIII. September 1, 1925 No. 17
Table of Contents
PREPARATION FOR EARTH’S LAST GREAT STRUGGLE
CONCERNING THE SPECIAL HERALD ON CHRONOLOGY
GOD’S WORD AND WORK IN HIS CHURCH
TRAVELS IN THE HOLY LAND
LESSONS FROM THE SECOND MISSIONARY TOUR
SEES “KEY TO PRESENT TIMES”
VOL. VIII. September 15, 1925 No. 18
Table of Contents
The Bible and Evolution
IS THERE A
CLASH BETWEEN THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION AND REAL SCIENCE? HOW READEST THOU?
GOD’S
PLAN OF THE AGES
DECLINE OF
FAITH IN LAST DAYS
NO CONFLICT
BETWEEN REAL SCIENCE AND THE BIBLE
VOL. VIII. September 1, 1925 No. 17
WE presume
that few will claim that the last great battle of human anger, passion, and selfishness
has been fought. Before the world will be prepared for the great feast of fat things which
the Lord in His Plan has provided (Isa. 25:6), another dark hour of strife awaits our race
-- one last struggle, more dreadful than any in the past, before the last chapter of the
present evil world and the reign of sin and death is written. When that chapter has been
written, it will mean that a great change in the administration of the affairs of earth
will have taken place, for we read that just subsequent to the great tribulation closing
the present evil world, the Lord will turn to the people a pure language that they may all
call upon the name of the Lord to serve Him with one consent. (Zeph. 3:8, 9.) Again the
Prophet tells us of the time coming when “Nation shall not lift up sword against
nation; neither shall they learn war any more”; of the time when they, shall say,
“Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,” “and the desire of all
nations shall come.” -- Micah 4:2, 3; Haggai 2:7.
None of
these most interesting and significant prophecies are yet fulfilled. One more great lesson
is needed which will come to humanity through what is termed the “battle of the great
day .of God Almighty,” for it will be the last great conflict between light and
darkness, truth and error, which will humble and prepare the hearts of men for the reign
of His Kingdom. To all of those who are watching, the imminency of the conflict and of
this Kingdom are everywhere apparent. We submit below a statement recently appearing in
the “New York World,” which seems most ominous and significant to those who are
being exercised today by the prophetic viewpoint.
__________
By Webb
Miller
“London,
July 24. -- Eleven years ago next Wednesday was fired the first shot of the World, War,
when an elated young Austrian officer jerked the lanyard that sent the first shell
shrieking into panic-stricken Belgrade. He little realized that he was initiating the most
terrible catastrophe in human history which profoundly modified the map of the world and
the lives of all the inhabitants.
“Now,
seven years after the end of the slaughter, there are more men prepared and preparing for
war than in 1914. Official figures secured by the United Press from the League of Nations
in Geneva show there are 6,055,144 men in the standing armies of fifty-nine nations.
“One of
the contributing causes of the great war-the competitive race for supremacy in armaments
is today actively revived. Now it is for the supremacy of the air. Great Britain has.
prepared an air budget of $77,565,000 designed to contest France’s domination of the
air.
“Only
seven years after the most terrible of wars nearly every power in Europe and Asia is
preparing for the ‘next war.’ There is a great silent preparation. Here and
there daily are portents fraught with significance. Herewith are only a few:
“Sir
Laming Worthington-Evans, British Secretary of State for war, replying to a Parliamentary
question, said British scientists have killed 1,001 animals during the past year in
research for poison gases.
“Mussolini,
speaking in the Italian Chamber, said: ‘Do you think the great War was the last war?
It was not the last war. And we must not fancy that the war of tomorrow in Europe will
exempt us. We must be prepared because the next war will not give us time to prepare, but
may come totally unforeseen.
“The
Japanese Navy Department announced the construction of twenty-two warships with a total
tonnage of 124,000. Japan decided to.send seven experts to France, five to the United
States, three each to England and Germany to investigate new weapons.
“Frunze,
War Commissar of Russia, announced to the Congress of Soviets that the international
situation will not permit Russia to reduce the army below 552,000. He said if reports that
England was leasing islands in the Baltic were true, Russia would regard it as a warlike
act.
“A. B.
Swales, Chairman of the British Trades Union Congress, said: ‘New wars, more inhuman
and ghastly than any in history, are approaching.’
“Tests
of a new gas mask are being carried out at the R. A. M. C. depot at Millbank, England.
“The
Birmingham Small Arms Company announced profits of £300,000 last year.
“The
Versailles Inter-allied Military Commission reported that Germany is constructing the
framework of a new army by training her police organizations as non-commissioned officers;
that secret chambers where are concealed machinery for making guns were found in certain
factories.
“Austen
Chamberlain, Foreign Secretary of England, said in a speech at Birmingham: ‘Fear
broods over Europe. Unless we can alter the outlook, relieve these fears, and give
security in the international sphere, it is brought home to me every day that I pass at my
work that Europe is moving uneasily, slowly it may be; but certainly to a new
catastrophe.’”
“Referring
to a speech made by Lord Birkenhead, Secretary of State for India, attacking the Soviet
Government, Foreign Minister Tchitcherin of Russia said:
“‘I
cannot pass over in silence this extraordinary declaration. Birkenhead appears to be
aiming at the breaking off of diplomatic relations with the Soviets, and the next step can
only be war. It is clear that Birkenhead and his colleagues are only looking for a
pretext, the consequences of which cannot be foreseen.’
“Lord
Jellicoe, famous British Admiral, declared that naval disarmament was not ‘worth the
risk.’
“The
Italian Minister of Marine urged the passage of a naval budget of 1,000,000,000 lire or
55,000,000 more than previously.
“Fokker,
the famous Dutch designer, has invented a super-fighting airplane of 1,000 horsepower,
carrying six machine guns and a half ton of bombs, and traveling 180 miles per hour.
“Hadfields,
the British munitions works, announced the discovery of a sixteen-inch armor-piercing
shell which will mortally damage any battleship afloat, according to their announcement.
“A
British fleet is ordered to cruise in the Baltic this summer. In retaliation the Soviet
Government has ordered a ‘state of siege’ at the Kronstadt naval base and a
demonstration by their own fleet.
‘It is
reported Great Britain is planning a naval program that will include five new 10,000-ton
cruisers costing nearly £3,000,000 each. Says the Daily News: ‘What in the name of
patriotism and common sense is the reason for challenging the world with a new and costly
naval program?’
“J. C.
C. Davidson, Parliamentary Secretary of the British Admiralty, announced in Commons that
345 war vessels have been laid down in the world since the Armistice, and 200 more are
projected.
“France
is establishing an air base at Cherbourg which is much commented upon in Britain. France
denied it was designed to menace Great Britain.
“The
British combined fleet of 101 vessels -- the greatest array of naval power gathered since
the war -- held war games in the Mediterranean,
“Since
the war Great Britain has completed several new roads. The roads toward, the coast on the
Continental side are extraordinarily wide and graded so they can be quickly widened in
case of necessity. The War Office aided in designing them.
“These
and many other signs indicate that Europe is fast again becoming an ‘Armed
Camp.’“
MANY of the
brethren as yet have not had time and opportunity to give consideration to the review of
the “Times and Seasons” and various chronological lines that were presented in
the double number, August 1-15 issue, of this journal, but from such as have given it
careful examination we are receiving communications expressing much interest and profit.
Earnest assurance. is given that the study of this subject pertaining to the end of the
reign of sin and death and the coming in of the Kingdom of God’s dear Son is most
uplifting and encouraging; especially since all the outward signs about us today portend
that surely not many years hence the fulfillment of the Divine promises of the
establishment of the Kingdom will be fully realized. The Scriptures admonish the
Lord’s people to be moderate, reasonable, in all things. Hence we would avoid
attaching undue importance to this or any other feature of our study; and too, it is
recognized that there is a tendency especially with some to give too lose rein to the
imagination and to arrive at conclusions with, regard to time features that are not at all
well supported by facts and Scripture. We are then to let our moderation be known in the
study of this subject as in all things, and can wisely and safely follow the conservative
course.
In
presenting the subject as was done in the special August number, we thought merely to
encourage the brethren generally to look into and investigate those lines of Scripture
testimony that bear upon the various time periods which lead on down to the last great
epoch -- “the dispensation of the fullness of times,” the period of the triumph
of righteousness in the earth. Thus another has written:
“Faithful
children of God long to know when the King of Glory shall come in, and the Prince of
Darkness be bound; when the children of the light shall shine forth as the sun, and the
darkness be scattered; when the saints shall be received into full Divine adoption, and
the groaning creation released from the bondage of corruption; and when our Heavenly
Father’s glorious character shall be fully revealed to an astonished world, causing
all who love righteousness to bow their hearts in adoration and love and obedience. To be
devoid of such desires indicates a lack of interest in, and appreciation of God’s
plans.”
It is
recognized of course by all that a knowledge of just how much time was covered by certain
dynasties and kingdoms of the past is of little or no value to us, and does not concern
the saints of the present time except as such knowledge has an important bearing upon an
understanding of where we now are on the stream of time and our proximity to that glorious
Age in which every follower of Christ must feel a deep interest. It is then from this
standpoint alone that any one could really, be interested in the study of chronology. The
Apostle speaks approvingly and commendably of the holy Prophets, who searched “what,
or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which .was in them did signify, when it
testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.” (1
Pet. 1:11.) In other words, they sought to know the meaning of certain time periods, their
purpose, length, etc., that thus their faith and hope might be strengthened. Likewise,
when St. Paul exhorts, “But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need
that I write unto you . . . . But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should
overtake you as a thief,” he evidently had in mind that faithful watchers would be
students of chronology, “the times and seasons,” in order that they might have
the desired information. -- 1 Thess. 5:l, 4.
We would
repeat the word of caution, that we have no desire to insist on any one studying the time
features contrary to their wishes. Any one who feels that the subject is an unprofitable
one and that time devoted to its study would result in spiritual loss should of course not
act contrary to such convictions. Again, any who may feel convinced that all their
expectations and hopes as to a number of important events have thus far been realized and
think there is nothing more to be learned upon the subject of chronology and the prophetic
testimony would not be expected to be interested in pursuing a further examination.
Remembering our privileges of liberty in Christ, and remembering that the spirit of the
Master is one of love and tolerance, each one should accord to fellow-members the
privilege of studying this subject without its becoming an offense or a test of fellowship
to any degree. More and more, we believe, the brethren are seeking to profit by the
lessons of the past and are therefore more on guard against trying to put shackles on
others or attempting to fix lines or tests of fellowship other than those authorized by
the great Teacher and Head of the Church, which are, faith in His redemptive sacrifice and
obedience to Him unto full consecration.
Those who
have been studying the subject with much interest are suggesting that special effort be
made to give this chronology number as wide circulation as possible. Therefore extra
copies are being ordered and lists of names are enclosed. It will be, interesting in this
connection to read how this matter is upon the hearts of some, as for instance one brother
writes
“Please
send me half dozen extra copies of the August Herald with the chronology, and greatly
oblige. It does not seem likely that the ‘vision will tarry’ The chronology,
fortified by the celestial cycles, seems well nigh impregnable. This should be good
reading for those who do not see with us eye to eye, especially as 1925 fades out with no
signs of the Jubilee except the one taking place in Rome, and even that does not seem to
be up to expectations. Be assured of an interest in my prayers daily, and may the good
work go on and ‘every error old and hoary flee to realms that gave them
birth.’”
Another who
includes a long list of names remarks:
“The
double number, August 1-15, has arrived. It is a very interesting layout of chronology
problems and of the Scriptural evidences that seem to solve them. Some very remarkable,
new parallels support these views, as shown in the article. Am sending a list of names,
people who may find the discourses of extreme interest. Several are ‘Truth’
friends.
“I
would consider this review of Scriptural chronology, as has been so laboriously carried on
to a systematic finding, as one of the best tonics for fagging faith. It certainly should
cheer all readers who have been looking for a reason for the tarrying of the present evil
world.”
Still
another observes:
“Have
been much interested in the last Herald. Have read it over and am now going to make a
careful study of it, for mere reading is not sufficient. I thoroughly went into the
chronology given some time ago and my mind, even though it may have been slightly biased
the other way, had to accept the figures given.
“I am
sorry for but one thing, and that is that so few of the friends, even among the brothers,
really investigate anything that involves figures. They accept it because the Herald says
so, or they reject it for the same reason. I know this was so with the former article
along these lines. Several brethren in another city who voiced most decided views against
it. admitted when hard pressed that they had not studied it; and I know another dear
brother who was enthusiastic over it and had no real understanding of it. Our Class. has
decided to get the names and addresses of the friends here and some elsewhere that this
special number may be sent to each one. Many of course will not investigate, but a few may
and it is worth the effort.”
We believe
the suggestions contained in the extracts of letters foregoing are timely and should be
given careful consideration. Many in the past have sent us names of brethren to whom we
have forwarded samples of our literature, but we believe the present is a most opportune
time to make a fresh, earnest endeavor to lend a helping hand to others that we are sure
are becoming much confused ,and distressed at this time. We know of no better means of
helping these than by such a review of the subject as is presented in the recent issue of
this journal treating the times and seasons.
The
suggestion we therefore earnestly urge upon all the friends for consideration is that
there be a general and concerted effort to place this special issue in the hands o other
brethren. This can be done in some instances by personal contact, but it can be more
effectively accomplished no doubt by securing the names and addresses of others. We urge
that this be done and that these be forwarded tous and we will mail the matter to them
direct. Please write all names and addresses as plainly as possible.
Those who
wish to place this special issue in the hands of brethren personally, may order a supply
direct to their own address. We have mentioned on the second page of the special number of
the paper that the price is five cents each, but if any are not prepared to send in the
amount, please send us the names anyway, and order as many as you can use judiciously,
regardless of whether or not remittance is enclosed.
Thus we
trust for the Lord’s guidance and wisdom that the ministry be not blamed, and that we
may be a means in His hands of assisting fellow-embers of His Body. Let our prayers be
united to this end.
This article is supplied by a Brother in
Great Britain
“For 1 determined not to know
anything among you save
Jesus Christ and Him Crucified.” -- 1 Cor. 2:2.
THE language
here used by the Apostle Paul must of necessity appeal to every sincere Christian, for it
truly expresses the very fundamental teaching of God’s Word and work. It turns our
minds to the great fact of God’s gracious Gift, by whom He opened up a new way of
life -- “a new and living way.” It would be good if every true believer were to
act up to such a noble determination and be equally careful in adhering strictly and
closely to the premises of God’s Word, which set forth the one and only teaching on
the matter of the hope of life and deliverance -- Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Every
thoughtful student, however, would naturally ask why the Apostle did not state anything
further. Did he not believe in a resurrected Savior? Was not “Christ and Him
crucified” but the prelude to the great work? Was not the Crucified One according to
prophecy to “enter into His glory”?
Most
certainly the Apostle Paul believed all this, and in his writings to this very Church of
Corinth he later elaborated all these points, but just here where our text occurs we need
look a little more closely and try to gauge as critically as possible the reason why he
makes use of such a phrase.
Every letter
writer does or should have a purpose in his writing to another person, and he should of
necessity have a theme that would be comprised in the content of such letter, which the
recipient would comprehend as a whole when he has perused it. No single word or single
sentence of any letter could properly stand alone nor in themselves express the purport of
the whole. So in the instance before us we have an important and deliberate statement from
the Apostle’s pen ,placed there for a purpose and with good cause.
Some few
details should help us just here to understand something of the condition of things in
this Corinthian Church, and we give just a brief sketch of its history and of the
surroundings, amidst which this Church was brought into being by the faithful preaching of
the Apostle.
Many records
from the Acts of the Apostles form valuable links of evidence and are most helpful for
throwing additional light on the Epistles to the Corinthians. We are told in Acts 17:15
that after Paul had been driven from Thessalonica and Berea by the unbelieving and
exasperated Jews, he went to the most celebrated city of Greece, which was Athens,
determined to make know the Gospel there, but only contempt was poured upon him and his
message by the philosophers of (that place, and he realized the uselessness of remaining
longer. He soon moved on to Corinth, the chief town of the province of Achaia, and it was
the a he found Aquila and his wife Priscilla, two Jewish Christians who had recently come
from Rome, because the Emperor had commanded all Jews to leave Rome. -- Acts 18 :2.
Paul’s
first effort was preaching in the synagogue at Corinth, but the Jews mainly opposed him
and blasphemed; so he told them he would go to the Gentiles. (Acts 18:6.) This was a noble
resolve, but Paul realized also that it would be a very different thing from one
standpoint to preach to those profligate heathens; hence he says (1 Cor. 2:3) that he was
in “much fear and trembling” lest he should be casting his Master’s
precious pearls in dangerous places. But as we read Acts 18:9, 10, we see the Lord’s
direct word of encouragement to him in vision, bidding him not to be afraid because He had
“much people” in that city.
It was after
the Apostle had left Corinth that a false teacher appeared in the Church -- a Jew by birth
(2 Cor. 11:25) -- evidently from Jerusalem and sent with letters of recommendation
probably from some brethren in Judea “for which reason he is called a false Apostle
(2 Cor. 11:13), having been sent forth by men.” He was of the sect of the Sadducees
(See 1 Cor. 15:12) and of some note on account of birth (See 2 Cor. 5:16, 17) and
education.
“He
seems likewise to have been well acquainted with the character, manners, opinions of the
Greeks, for he recommended himself to the Corinthians, not only by affecting in his
discourses that eloquence of which the Greeks were so fond, but also by suiting his
doctrine to their prejudices and his precepts to their practices.” This false teacher
in substance denied the resurrection of the dead and so also curried favor with them. He
moreover gave evidence of condoning many of their licentious practices and unusual
excesses. Lastly, to ingrate himself with the Jews he enjoined obedience to the Law of
Moses as absolutely necessary “for salvation.”
Of all this
and more was this false teacher guilty in his obvious endeavor to become the head of a
party, and it was on account of such unsatisfactory conditions that the Apostle Paul was
impelled to write the two letters to this Church in Corinth. The baneful effects of
leaders usurping their just and honorable functions are not new today, nor were they new
in St. Paul’s day, and it is clear from the numerous references in these Apostolic
letters that such conditions were in direct opposition to the message of the Gospel and
likely to retard its progress, and vitiate the hearts of many who were seeking to walk in
its beneficent light.
The
information the Apostle received concerning these doings in Corinth was at the time of his
second visit to Ephesus. He was there a fairly long time, during which there came some of
the family of Chloe (who were members of the Church in Corinth) to Ephesus and brought to
the Apostle some account of the disorderly conditions which prevailed in the Corinthian
Church. The Apostle’s righteous zeal was aroused and he determined to go to Corinth
and demand the false teacher’s credentials, that he might demonstrate to all, in
contrast, the authority and power by which he himself upheld his own claim as a sent one
of the Lord.
Before he
was able to carry out this decision, however, three persons arrived in Ephesus who had
specially been sent over by the sincere part of the Church in Corinth with a letter to the
Apostle, asking him numerous questions and seeking advice in respect to their
difficulties. The Apostle’s reply is represented in his first Epistle to the
Corinthian Church. The letter was evidently written under the deepest solicitude as to the
manner of its reception and its effect on the Church: “For out of much affliction and
anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears.” (2 Cor. 2:4.) Eventually the
letter was sent by the hand of Titus, accompanied by another brother (2 Cor. 12:18) --
possibly an Ephesian Christian.
The
foregoing useful details should help us to more particularly appreciate the contents of
the Epistles and also to understand them in their proper setting and sense.
Paul starts
right away in Chapter One to call to the attention of the Corinthians the baneful
influences of man-worship, which simply means the gathering around one head -- a human
head-and thus of necessity displacing the real Head of the Church -- Christ. No teaching
is more emphatically stated throughout the Scriptures than that which shows Christ as Head
of the Church, His Body, and any other head must be either an opponent or a supplanter --
invariably the latter.
In 1 Cor. 1
:12, the Apostle challenges their conduct in this respect, because he full well knew, as
we know, that such conditions lead away from God and from the Truth. Read carefully this
first chapter and note how nobly the Apostle kept himself in a humble place and truly made
himself of no reputation, even as did his Master. We do not do justice to Paul’s
forceful logic if we fail to see this same self-abasement carried right through his
letters. Without missing the truth of our usual view, that the poor of the world, rich in
faith, are called into God’s favor, and that the “common people” gladly
heard the Word, we still find that the Apostle in 1 Cor. 1:25 and on to the end, has a
deeper thought to express something indeed which directly shows that he is at issue with
some who would fain pervert the Church of God and in pride of heart would “draw
disciples after them.”
He says in
substance that the type of message which God had seen fit to send and with which He would
call some from darkness to light, though “foolishness” to the wise Greeks, was
the “power of God” and hence the wisdom from God. But Paul said more than this
and with evident intention. He explained that the weak instruments God employed were
stronger than those deemed strong by men. (1 Cor. 1 :25) . And here notice a paraphrase of
verse 26: “For ye see the calling of you brethren that not many persons remarkable
for human literature, not many mighty by their offices, not many eminent for their noble
birth are chosen to call you into the fellowship of the Gospel.” (See italics in
verse 26, A. V.)
Compare then
this thought with what follows. and see at once how the Apostle obscures ‘himself in
real humility, as he throws out an unanswerable challenge to the false teacher. He
continues to show how God has used as the truest and most capable leaders, the weak of the
world, the despised ones who counted their lives not dear to them that He might bring to
naught the boastings of those who prided themselves as alone suitable to be the guides and
leaders of the people. Truly it is the privilege of every humble child of God to lift up
the standard of truth and “a little one shall chase a thousand,” but we point
out that in the Apostle’s immediate reasonings he has in mind the place, power, and
operation of a true leader in God’s Church as opposed to another who would fain
subvert them and draw them away from the living God. We are assured of this too, as we
carefully follow Paul’s forceful points along this line right to the end of Chapter
Three.
Why then
should God be content to choose such apparently poor instruments? The answer is in 1 Cor.
1:29: “that no flesh might glory [boast itself] in His presence” -- that no
leader should be able to say that he contrived this Gospel and by his own power brought
others to receive it. Therefore it is owing to God alone and not to the ability of the
preachers that Christ Jesus has become to us “wisdom and righteousness and
sanctification and redemption.” Hence let him Who boasts, boast not in the preachers
who handed him the Word of Life, but in the Lord who drew him to Himself. -- Ver. 30; 31.
We are not
forgetful, however, that the Apostle Paul, though meekly counting himself among the poor
and weak of the world, and willing to put human learning at a discount and in its right
place as respects the Gospel Message, was quite able had he chosen to refute the paltry
arguments of his opponent on his own ground and with his own weapons. Paul had ample
learning along the lines of the classics of his day, and all that was considered a fitting
possession and accomplishment to be admitted into the sacred precincts of the Greek
philosophers’ cliques; but Paul unhesitatingly declares that his decision was formed
first and finally, and in Chapter 2: 1,2, he gives a clear and intelligible statement of
how he carried out that decision and why he did so. He points out that he came to them in
the first place not with excellency of speech, not with human wisdom, but when he came he
“determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him
crucified”-without persuasive words of human logic, but with the demonstration of
powers with which God had endowed trim and which proved his genuine apostleship. He told
them also why he had thus acted (ver. 5) : “that your
faith, should not stand in the wisdom of .men, burin the power of God.”
How much
better it would be for all concerned if every child of God. entered into the privileges of
simple service with such sentiments ever before his mind. What a grace and charm it would
give to his person and acts on every occasion! What a means it would prove of preserving
the unity of the spirit! How easy and smooth would loving co-operation show itself in
every community and how soon would strife and factions disappear!
When we
glance over the records of human history and see the pages filled with details of wars and
strifes, we find in almost every case the causes for such have been traced to leaders and
heads; in fact almost every such conflagration originated in a leader’s quarrel
through pride, envy, or greed. It is still a sadder truth to note the same causes for all
the troubles and strife that have arisen among nominal believers in Christendom and even
among the most enlightened and blessed of God’s people, the same lordly spirit, pride
of place or pride of ability in leaders has again and again worked havoc among the
guileless sheep. Sentimental and even political motives have many a time swayed believers
into different camps where a dominating mind says, “follow me, I am your true and
only safe leader.” Such arrogance instead of being censured has more often been
applauded and condoned. But in contrast to all this Jesus said that His sheep would know
His voice as that of the only true Shepherd and happy are the true sheep who can be
content to rest in Him and, truly learn that “all ye are brethren, and one is your
master even Christ.”
We have many
times been in a Class study which has been from first to last a battle of brains, in which
just one or two intelligent brethren let forth their wisdom in a sort of competition or
bid for mastery in the discussion or debate. Such exhibitions cannot be helpful for
building up the saints, but invariably leads to a party spirit and division.
If
God’s people endeavored to be more observant, especially in respect to the
instructions laid down, there would be no occasion to complain as the Apostle did, that a
fleshly mind was dominating those who said, “I am of Paul” or “I am of
Apollos.” Though the Apostle Paul in our lesson shows himself a courageous opposer of
the self-styled leader, and left no effort untried to impress upon the brethren the safe
and proper way to deal with such deceivers, he nevertheless in equally clear and forceful
language points out that there is also a grave responsibility resting upon themselves both
as individuals and ecclesias.
It is
helpful in this connection to get a clear view of the Apostle’s mind in this respect,
and for this purpose we refer the reader to his First Epistle to Timothy: A text is there
found which is often quoted, but the meaning of which is generally obscure to one who is
only a casual reader of the Word or to one who depends only upon what share he can get of
the spoken Word from pulpit or platform. We are instructed to be doers of the Word and not
hearers only.
The text
then in mind at the moment is this: “Some men’s sins are open beforehand going
before to judgment; and some [men] they follow after.” (1 Tim. 5:24.) This has many
times been explained thus: “Some men’s sins are found out before they die and
they get punishment now, but others whose wrong-doings do not get found out, receive the
reward of wrong-doing after death,” etc. This explanation is unsatisfactory ineed,
especially when we see the vital topic with Which it is connected. The immediate context
is found in verse 22 which says: “Lay hands suddenly on no man,” which sentiment
must of necessity form the basis for the Apostle’s admonition to Timothy. It had
direct reference to the solemn act of appointing a servant-leader in an ecclesia, and it
is well to note here that although these words were primarily addressed to Timothy, they
undoubtedly hold good in the basic directions for all time forward from then, for similar
occasions and where similar needs arise, and are admonitions to all who take
responsibility for such appointments. With whom, we would ask, does such responsibility
rest? Most certainly with the Church, the Ecclesia, wherever situated, and the collective
vote of such community in its own particular neighborhood is the authoritative word for
such appointments.
Able expositors
‘have pointed out that verse 23 should be read parenthetically, since for the moment
the Apostle diverted his thought in his genuine concern for Timothy’s bodily
infirmity. We can then with propriety read verses 22, 24, and 25 in unbroken sequence and
find much food for reflection. We offer a paraphrase of these three verses, and advise our
readers to carefully compare such with the ordinary version, always bearing in mind the
Apostle’s subject matter:
Verse 22:
“Appoint no one to any sacred office hastily without inquiring into his
qualifications and character; neither by conferring these offices upon unworthy persons,
thus partake of other men’s sins. In the whole of thy conduct keep thyself
pure.”
Verse 24:
“In judging of those who desire sacred offices consider that of some men the sins are
very manifest, leading before inquiry into condemnation such reject. But in others
especially their sins are so concealed that the knowledge of them follows after
inquiry. For which reason no one ought to be appointed to sacred office hastily.”
Verse 25:
“In like manner also the good works and good qualities of some men are very manifest.
Such may be admitted to the sacred offices without any particular inquiry. And those which
are not manifest cannot long be hidden if an accurate inquiry be made.”
With such
inspired instructions before us ought we not to be extra, cautious in carrying out this
privilege among the Body members, and see to it that in our decisions we avoid injury to
any by appointing them to positions which may prove a danger to themselves and to us.
It is
impossible to read the history of the Corinthian Church without one very patent fact
becoming manifest-that a large number of adherents were attracted to the Apostle and to
the community on account of the miraculous powers of which he gave demonstrations. To many
of the cultured Greeks who aspired naturally to fame, no “power”was more
alluring than the “gift of tongues.” The glib and silvery tongue was considered
an asset, an accomplishment to be coveted and gained at almost any cost. Many no doubt
were the disappointments when the true drawing power of the Gospel was made clear to such
aspirants for worldly honor before men. “Though I speak with the tongues of men and
of angels and have not love,” the Apostle wrote to them, I am nothing but an empty
sound.
It seems to
be an accepted law (though not a Scriptural truth) that any brother elected to office as
elder must of necessity be a public speaker and must come into the public eye, and must
thus be a prominent person, but we feel sure that such propositions are wholly erroneous
and certainly not in harmony with the Divine plan for edifying the Church. Prominence of
this kind has in many many instances led on to self-importance, out of which has grown the
subtle desire to “draw disciples” around the person himself and thus leading on
to a self-styled leadership and even to a proud and autocratic dictatorship, as is clearly
evidenced in the Lord’s last warning to His Church. -- Rev. 2:6.
Passing on
then to Paul’s further argument (1 Cor. 3), we find him giving the reasons why he
could ladle out only milk to them in the first place. And even at the time of writing he
could do no more. Why? Because they demonstrated that their minds were still fleshly, on
account of their divided condition under earthly heads, whereas, they should have
comprehended their oneness under their one Head -- Christ.
Paul likens
himself and Apollos to husbandman and the brethren as their husbandry, but “God gives
the increase,” without which their labor would have been barren and wasted. He again
likens himself to a “wise master- builder” and the brethren to his building, and
then carefully measures up the false builder who was attempting to build side by side upon
the foundation which Paul had laid.
We, like
Paul, need never object to any one building upon the sure foundation. But we should note
the significant remark that “every man’s work shall be made manifest . . . of
what sort it is.” (1 Cor. 3:13.) It will be put to the test. This will be true,
indeed, concerning all who have named the name of Christ, but especially true from the
special viewpoint which the Apostle adopts in Chapter 3, where he shows that the time will
come when the product of leaders’ efforts will be made manifest -- when the wise and
unwise master-builders of the Kingdom class will have to pass their tests for faithfulness
by an examination and scrutiny of the work they have produced. This will not only refer to
the products and showings in their own personal character attainments; but also in respect
to what kind of persons had been developed as a result of their ministry and service.
Surely all those persons who had given close heed to the Apostle’s teachings and as a
result had remodeled their lives and, conduct to the pleasement of God, and who had
preferred God’s will in place of their own or of any other persons, these surely will
stand firm when the fiery trials will be permitted to test them; and having come through
the test unscathed they will receive the “well done.” But not they alone are
thus blessed; the faithful leader also will receive into his own heart the reward for
faithfulness in maintaining the unity of the spirit in the bond of love among the taught
ones. On the other hand a less faithful leader’s work will be less able to stand the
fiery tests, and many of his flock will become offended because of the Word and bring
discredit on themselves and their faulty teachers, and they with him will lose the chief
share of the great reward -- “He shall suffer loss.” He built up a
superstructure of wood, hay, stubble.
The Apostle
gives a still further significant hint in respect to the possible total loss of some who
may cause defilement of the Temple of God. Our beloved Lord forestalled the Apostle Paul
by showing us (Matt. 5) the more excellent way. In this connection He leveled at the
Pharisaic leaders of Israel the most delicate irony when He described those Beatitudes as
“these least commandments” and yet
explained that whoever does them and teaches them and thus constitutes himself a faithful
leader of faithful learners, the same shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Let us ever
be ready to warn one another against the deceptive means which the Adversary uses . to
blind and delude the true saints. Thank God we can say with the Apostle, “we are not
ignorant of his devices.” There are records in the Word of God of all Satan’s
finger-prints -- records to which we all have access for comparison whenever needed; and
there is such a monotonous sameness about the Adversary’s methods that the well
instructed child of God need never be deceived if he is watchful unto prayer. There are
two of Satan’s most successful deceptions which have worked well. One is to keep the
human mind in the darkness of ignorance, and the other is to push the deceived ones into a
frenzy of activity. The ability to search is barred from the former, and the time to
search is robbed from the latter. Over both classes there
have never been lacking ambitious and pushful leaders who delight to perpetuate the
Adversary’s time-worn methods of “lording it over God’s heritage” --
his ancient but most useful method by which he has deceived the unwary and uninstructed.
Seeing then clearly this line of danger, let us, like the beloved Apostle, determine
“not to know anything among you, .save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”
SERIES V
WE ARRIVED
in Palestine early in the morning of February 28. There are only two, sleeping coaches in
all Palestine and our party had these two in our journey from Cairo to Jerusalem. I awoke
with the realization that I was in the Holy Land – the land made so sacred and dear
to Christian hearts, the scene of the most wonderful drama in earth’s history. When
one stops to reflect that of all the broad expanse of the earth this one spot has been
chosen by Providence as the place wherein the most significant, solemn and thrilling
scenes have been and are to be enacted, wherein the voice of God, through the life and
works of His only begotten Son, has spoken in living tones most eloquent, and the land
from which His voice will yet flow to all the ends of the earth, a sense of profound
reverence and awe sweeps over one’s spirit that can be better felt than described --
a feeling that somehow the blessed majesty and glory of Jehovah that have been and will
yet be herein revealed, has peculiarly sanctified and dedicated this as indeed holy
ground. A feeling of satisfaction, of being at home, came over me, and remained for every
moment of the seven days I stayed there, in spite of the cold dampness of stone hotels and
inconveniences of many kinds.
When we
arrived in Jerusalem, a slight rain was falling. As it was the rainy season there, we
expected damp weather, but that was the last we had. They were having the first drouth in
many years. Although the annual rainfall is twenty inches, only six had fallen, and the
season was nearing its end. The water situation looked very serious; the streams were very
low, and precautions were being taken against typhoid.
There are
three hotels in Jerusalem, with very little choice among them. We were taken to The
Allenby, an old hostelry with a new name. The proprietor is a Russian Jew and the servants
are Arabs. We found it damp and cold, with little provision made for heating -- a usual
thing in the East. The buildings are entirely of stone, plastered over with mortar, and
only those accustomed to their chilly dampness can find them comfortable. There are two
outstanding memories of this hotel: one, that of an elderly physician in our party sitting
disconsolately in the narrow lobby, wrapped in a great plaid, fringed shawl, declaring
that he was on the verge of pneumonia and asking himself why he had ever come to
Jerusalem; the other is that of an Arab, with swinging gown, marching up and down the
corridors at meal time, banging a copper pan. Added to our cold discomfort were rooms
neither luxurious nor clean, and this is why the majority of those who have been to
Jerusalem discuss nothing but its hotels and the disagreeable things they suffered.
Our hotel is
in a section outside the city wall and so in the walk we took soon after our arrival, we
entered through the old Jaffa gate. Beside this narrow gate is a wider opening, formerly
known as the Kaiser Gate, in honor of the late emperor of Germany, at whose order it had
been widened by tearing down a section of the wall. Through this gate General Allenby rode
with his great proclamation, and it is now sometimes called the Allenby Gate. It affords
wide enough space for the entrance of automobiles; but short indeed is the distance an
auto can travel when once inside the gate, for the narrow streets of Jerusalem accommodate
only the pedestrians and the stolid little donkeys with their burdens, that constantly
dispute your way. The rows of shops on both sides of many of these streets, mere recesses
in the wall, are interesting, but very like those of other eastern cities.
Jerusalem is
built upon two prominent hills -- Mt. Zion and Mt. Moriah. Along its western side lies the
Valley of Hinnom, also known as the Valley of Gehenna, or “Pleasant Valley,”
although the latter did not apply well after the valley became a place for the burning of
refuse. On the east is the Valley of Kedron, also called the Valley of Jehoshaphat, whose
steep sides are pierced with ancient tombs, some being lately excavated. While visiting
the temple area, I stood on an inner ledge of the city wall and was swung by a burly guide
to the top where, looking down below into this valley my attention was directed to a
building on its opposite bank -- the reputed tomb of Absalom -- seemingly small and
slender from that height and distance. The inscriptions found are claimed to prove that
this is the resting place of Absalom. The fact that the present day Jews pelt it with
stones, a symbol of their contempt, is further added as proof that it is the tomb of
David’s ungrateful son.
The city
wall has eleven gates, five of which are closed. The finest of these is the Damascus gate,
which is quite modern, though its foundations are very old. If one cares to do so, a
donkey ride around the entire walls can be easily arranged for.
Jerusalem
has a population of 60,000, of which about 7,000 are Moslems, 41,000 Jews, and 13,000
Christians -- mostly ,of the Catholic faith. Palestine, with an area of 9,000 square
miles, had (in 1921) 770,000 population, and of these 600,000 were Moslems, 80,000 Jews,
84,500 Christians. At the present time the Jews represent about one tenth of the
population.
Within the
walls of Jerusalem many places of religious interest are pointed out to visitors, but in
almost every instance they are merely traditional. One must be credulous indeed to believe
it all, for the city has been destroyed and rebuilt many times, the present city being the
eighth. The city of Herod’s time lies deep under the debris of centuries; so it
(Publishers’ Note: The original
article ends here in mid-sentence)
“He shall have dominion also from
sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.” -- Psa. 72:8; Acts
15:36-16:5.
IN pursuing
a review of the lives and ministry of those who were leaders in the early Church, such as
St. Paul and Barnabas, we are sure to meet repeatedly with grand lessons growing out of
their experiences. Surely it was to this intent that Divine providence has left us the
records of their lives, which again remind us of the words of the poet
“Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime;
And departing leave behind us
Footprints in the sands of time.”
It was soon
after the conference at Jerusalem when certain questions of subserviency to the Jewish Law
and questions dealing with. the privileges and liberties of believers in Christ had been
considered and settled, that St. Paul and Barnabas once more thought to go forth to a
broader field of opportunity and service than was open to them at Antioch. “Let us
return now and visit the brethren in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord,
and see how they fare,” was the suggestion that came from the Apostle Paul.
It was
doubtless of the Lord’s providence that the activities and ministries of these two
prominent leaders should become divided at this time, and that they should choose
different fields for their work. By this we are not meaning to express endorsement of all,
that took place in the dispute that arose between them over the proposition of taking Mark
into their companionship. We may not know certainly just where, or to what extent, the
brethren were to be blamed in the matter that caused them to go in different directions.
It may be. that there was a measure of fault on both sides, or it may be that by far the
greater amount of blame rested on one side. It is significant that Barnabas .and his
activities passed into comparative obscurity from this time forward, and he is not heard
of again except in isolated allusions of St. Paul’s letters. On the contrary, in the
case of the Apostle Paul we read that “Paul chose Silas and went forth being
commended by the brethren to the grace of the Lord,” which is a strong inference that
the brethren at Antioch favored the Apostle’s position in this incident.
Additionally, considering the great prominence of the Apostle Paul in the ministry and the
evidences of the Lord’s spirit in connection with his work in after years, we would
not be inclined to think that the Lord was specially displeased with his conduct in
connection with the separation from Barnabas. There is the appearance on the surface that
Barnabas was more long-suffering and sympathetic, that he was willing to look over the
weakness of Mark in having forsaken them upon the former occasion. On the other hand, the
Apostle Paul may not have had less of the real sympathy and love, but deeper and better
foresight and judgment as to what was more pleasing to the Lord.
For our
consolation, however, we find that the bond of Christian love between St. Paul and
Barnabas was not broken, but that they continued to regard one another as brethren in
Christ, while they engaged in two different spheres of mission instead of one; and as
before intimated, the providence of the Lord was able to overrule even this division of
their labors so as to probably further the interests of His cause.
It is to be
supposed also that Mark profited by the disagreement for which he was the unhappy cause.
The attitude taken by the Apostle Paul with reference to Mark’s former conduct would
surely become the occasion for him to more deeply search his heart and be aroused if
possible to a sense of his weakness and to make amends for the past. In later years St.
Paul is heard to refer to Mark in very kindly terms. -- Col. 4:10; Philemon 24; 2 Tim.
4:11.
We read
concerning the Apostle and Silas as they went forth that it was with the object of
confirming the churches. This was regarded as an important feature of the Apostolic
ministry. The Apostles kept prominently before the Church that which many since and today
have apparently lost sight of the necessity for Christian development -- of becoming fixed
and established in Christian faith; of being so instructed and disciplined in the
understanding of the will of God that they would be in a position to act upon and in
accordance with those great and sublime principles that are at the foundation of all holy
character. Thus the confirming of the churches conveys the idea of ministering to them in
those things that would contribute to their progress and development in the character and
likeness of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Another
incident associated in this portion of the record is a reference to still another addition
to the ministry, which must have meant much of encouragement to the Apostle Paul. It
appears that in the former visit of the Apostle at Lystra a young man, Timotheus, had been
converted. In fact it probably was in the house of the boy’s mother Eunice and his
grandmother Lois that St. Paul and Silas were received. Both of these pious women hid also
accepted the Christian faith, and though we have not many details concerning them, we are
given to understand that they were both women of naturally good character. The Apostle
Paul dresses Timothy later and says, “I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith. that
is in thee, Which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois and thy mother Eunice, and I am
persuaded that in. thee also.” The Apostle also recalled that from a child Timothy
had known the Holy Scriptures which were able to make him wise unto salvation; thus
showing that he had been blessed with early training and discipline in religious things.
Another remarks concerning Timothy that he “is one of the best known and most lovable
of that little circle of companions and followers -- chiefly Gentile converts -- who are
henceforth associated with the wanderings of St. Paul. Of the many whom Paul loved, none
were dearer to him than the young disciple of Lystra. Himself without wife or child, he
adopted Timothy, and regarded him as a son in all affectionate nearness. ‘To Timothy,
my.son’; ‘my true son in the faith’ -- such are the terms in which he
addresses him; and he reminds the Philippians how well they knew ‘that, as a son with
a father, he had slaved with him for the Gospel.’ And slight as are the touches which
enable us to realize the character of the young Lystrenian, they are all wonderfully
graphic and consistent. He was so blameless in character that both in his native Lystra
and in Iconium the brethren bore warm and willing testimony to his worth. In spite of a
shyness and timidity which were increased by his youthfulness, he was so entirely united
in heart and soul with the Apostle that among his numerous friends and companions he found
no one so genuine, so entirely unselfish, so sincerely devoted to the furtherance of the
cause of Christ.”
Although
devoutly raised, Timothy had never been circumcised according to Jewish regulations, and
when it was determined that he should accompany Paul in his missionary work, the latter
caused him to be circumcised. To some this has seemed strangely inconsistent, in view of
the fact that the Apostle at the same time was calling to the attention of the Christian
brethren wherever he went the decision of the council of Apostles at Jerusalem, to the
effect that circumcision was not necessary to Christian brotherhood. We are reminded also
That the Apostle would not consent to the circumcision of Titus, who was a Gentile. (Gal.
2:3.) In view of these things, why did he countenance the circumcision of Timothy? We
answer that, properly understood, the Apostle’s conduct was thoroughly consistent;
circumcision was no part of the Mosaic Law, but was instituted with Abraham, centuries
previous, and was intended as a mark or sign upon all the children of Abraham. The council
at Jerusalem did not decide that no Jew must be circumcised thenceforth; but it did decide
that circumcision should not be considered necessary to a Christian. The Apostle
Paul’s own argument on this subject is most specific: he says, “In Jesus Christ
neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by
love.” -- Gal. 5:6. Timothy’s mother being a Jew, he was a Jew, even though his
father had been a Greek. And this fact becoming known to Jews in general with whom in
traveling they would come in contact, inquiry might be made as to whether or not he had
been circumcised. If the answer were No, the implication would be that he had never been a
good Jew but a renegade. If the answer were ‘Yes, it would remove this obstacle and
grant him correspondingly greater influence with them -- a closer access to their hearts.
We also
should observe the wisdom of the Apostle which was willing to make himself all things to
all men that the ministry be not blamed, and that the prejudices of some might not be
aroused so that they would be hindered from enjoying the blessings of the Gospel. Let us
likewise clearly distinguish between concessions in respect to forms, dress, ceremony,
etc., which may properly be made to the prejudice or ignorance of those about us, and
concessions of principles, which are not permissible to any one under any circumstances.
Dear
Brethren:
During the
last ten days I have been re-studying Revelation 17, 18, and 19 in Vol. II of
“Revelation of Jesus Christ.” This is the third time I have studied those
chapters, and much of the book two times. I think those three chapters are the great key
to the present times, and of course including the Age. The more I study it, the more I
reason on it, compare with history and facts, the more I am deeply impressed with the
master work those two volumes comprise. My books are greatly marked, cross-referenced,
associated thoughts bound together with lines, indexed, etc., so everything is found at
once.
The
remarkable fact I have thought of many times is that Brother Streeter was spared until his
forty years’ Biblical and historical researches on the great prophetical books could
be put down in his own hand -- Revelation and Daniel. The Lord must have been back of
that.
Sometimes
when one sees or hears or reads something that deeply impresses, one feels unable to
speak, but simply sits and thinks and thinks. That is the way I feel when studying those
three Revelation chapters in that book. I never could get the slightest conception of what
the 8th phase of the beast meant until this book was read. This is not emotional, for I am
slow to receive or act or accept anything, and a thing has got to be reasonable to me
before I can accept it, and I can’t accept anything I can’t argue myself. Of
course there are many things one cannot explain in this world but still believes, but
knowledge of this kind is based on facts.
I notice the
.letter in Herald of July 15, page 215: No doubt the Brother has read pages 262 and 263,
Vol. VI:, “Scripture ,Studies.”
With Christian love,
Sincerely, _________
VOL. VIII. September 15, 1925 No. 18
HUMANITY of
all professions, climes, and nationalities have ever evidenced the deepest interest in the
great theme of life -- whence it came, its present mission, and its ultimate goal. And
this fact speaks to us eloquently of how near to the hearts of all people is the question
of man’s origin, his present outlook, and his destiny. Nor does time or circumstance
diminish this interest; to the contrary the absorbing interest universally displayed in
the recent past, in the subject of the Bible and Evolution manifestly tells the story of
how thoughtful people everywhere are longing for the light and truth, and are earnestly
searching in whatever direction there may appear to come the ray of light, or that may
promise to yield the great truth.
All along in
the past there has appeared to be disagreement and hostility between the Bible and
man’s philosophy and science; and this continues to be the case as was evidenced in
the recent controversy as to man’s origin and destiny, evoking world-wide interest.
The question before us is, Does the Bible and Science disagree?
Understanding
the word science to signify ascertained truth, or established knowledge of facts,
classified knowledge, etc., who can estimate the value of science to the human race, and
the assistance it has been and is on life’s pathway. Mankind is most surely indebted
to science for untold benefits conferred by the discovery of the laws of nature and by the
designing of machinery for the utilization of those laws. As another has expressed it:
“If one is entitled to draw from society in proportion to the service that he renders
to society, who is able to estimate the reward earned by those who have given to us the
use of steam, the use of electricity, and enabled us to utilize the weight of water that
flows down the mountain side?” Not only so, but in almost every department of human
life, we behold the blessings coming to our race in these days as the result of the
application of science, so that in modern times the general conditions and circumstances
about us have been revolutionized. It is therefore unthinkable that any person of sound
mind could desire to cast the slightest degree of reflection upon real science and its
achievements.
On the other
hand, for centuries the Bible has professed to be speaking to humanity not only on the
subject of his present, but also of his future; accounting for man’s present state
under the reign of sin and death, and portraying a grand scheme of redemption and
deliverance. The message of the Bible has presented what a large number of people have
considered sound credentials as to its supernatural origin, and many indisputable
evidences as to the genuineness of its authorship and as. to the truthfulness of its
claims, its instructions, and of its forecasts of the future. The Bible is the oldest book
in existence; having outlived the storms of thirty centuries. Men have endeavored by every
means possible to banish it from the face of the earth; they have hidden it, burned it,
made it a crime punishable with death to have it in possession, and the most bitter and
relentless persecutions have been waged against those who had faith in it; but still the
book lives. Today, while many of its foes slumber in death, and hundreds of volumes
written to discredit it and to overthrow its influence, are long since forgotten, the
Bible has found its way into every nation and language of earth, over two hundred
different translations of it having been made, and its power and influence abound, and
affect the trend of the human race far above that of any other book or religion in
existence. The fact that this book has survived so many centuries, notwithstanding such
unparalleled efforts to banish and destroy it, is at least strong circumstantial evidence
that the great Being whom it claims as its Author has also been its Preserver. Another
writes of the Bible:
“If we
shall find one common line of thought interwoven throughout the Law and the Prophets and
the New Testament writings, which cover a period of fifteen hundred years, this, taken in
connection with the character of the writers, will be a good reason for admitting their
claim that they are divinely inspired -- particularly if the theme common to all of them
is a grand and noble one, comporting well with what sanctified common sense teaches
regarding the character and attributes of God. This we do find: One plan, spirit, aim, and
purpose pervades the entire book.”
The
“Jewish Exponent” quotes Chancellor McCracken of the New York University at the
recent opening of that Institution, complaining of the gross ignorance of the Bible on the
part of the students. He spoke as an Educationalist looking to the production of noble and
efficient manhood and womanhood: “Ignorance of the Bible is to all a great loss, in
Jews it is a disgrace. If the clubs and classes formed for the study of Browning and
Shakespeare are evidences of culture, what shall be said of those who neglect the study of
the Bible?”
Amongst the
reasons submitted by Chancellor McCracken as to why the Bible should be studied, are the
following:
“It [the Bible] has essentially
molded our civilization.
“It is the history of our
people.
“It unveils an ancient
civilization to the world.
“Its facts, and principles, and
characters pervade all literature, which is unintelligible to those ignorant of its
contents.
“Knowledge of it is presupposed
in every educated man and woman.
“It enables men to teach and
move the heart of all.
“A great comfort in time of
sorrow.
“Its view encompasses heaven and
earth, opens a path in this life to walk in, and a hope for the future.”
Accepting
the Bible and its claims as a Divine revelation of truth and knowledge, and having before
us the thought that science is that established or exact truth obtained by patient
endeavor and experience, should we not look for perfect harmony between the Bible and
science? If God be the Author of both, how can there be any disagreement between them?
Confronted as we are by some with the claim that they are at variance, we believe the
difficulty is twofold: First, the clashing of religious creeds reveals that much has been
taught and proclaimed as truth from the Bible that really has no foundation or support
whatever in the Book. Among these teachings that have come to us from the darker past and
that are supposed to be based upon the Bible, are certain doctrines and conceptions of God
that are purely traditional and are human opinions; doctrines that not only are not
sustained in the Scriptures, but are directly opposed to their spirit and teachings. Some
of these will come before our attention later in the consideration of this theme. The
Bible then, has been and is a very much misunderstood and .misrepresented book, and often
by its professed friends.
Second, all
will concede that much is and has been advanced as truth in the name of science that has
not been and cannot be sustained by any real scientific argument, analysis, or evidence.
It is discovered that men of science in their zeal to uncover the truth and advance in the
light have often too hastily adopted conclusions as established truths that afterwards
were clearly shown to have been nothing but hypotheses, conjectures, and guesses; and
certain theories built thereupon shave utterly collapsed. As evidence of this it is a well
recognized fact that the books of science treating biology, geology, philosophy,
chemistry, etc., used as the foundation for training in schools and universities, are
constantly undergoing change and revision. Many ideas and conclusions taught as truth to
one generation of students are expunged from the books used to teach the subsequent
generation. Not only so, but scientists themselves disagree on many points that are
classified as scientific knowledge and given out as truth, science, which fact makes the
wary cautious that what they accept as scientific truth is not merely some one’s
guess or speculation.
Until proven
to the contrary, we will therefore logically anticipate that whatever discrepancy there
appears between the Bible and science can be overcome by recognizing the traditional
element associated with Bible interpretation, and by eliminating that which is purely
hypothesis and speculation associated with the name science.
In modern
times the theory of Evolution has been, unfortunately we believe, associated with the name
of science. It is the teaching that attempts to account for the origin of the human race
through a process of evolution -- that man through thousands or millions of years has
gradually evolved from a lower order of animals. The theory has found ready acceptance,
has found its way into the highest institutions of learning and has been incorporated into
the text books of our common schools. And further, the hypothesis of Evolution has to a
large extent entered into and laid hold upon theological institutions of learning -- a
large number of ministers, educators themselves having accepted it. Some of the more
radical advocates of Evolution make the claim that Evolution is as firmly established as
the law of gravitation or the Copernican theory; but such claims are manifestly
extravagant when we remember that any one can prove the law of gravitation by throwing a
weight into the air and that any one can prove the roundness of the earth by going around
it, while there is no such method of proving Evolution to be true. An important
consideration at this point is that many who profess to believe in Evolution use the term
loosely and appear not to know what Evolution really means. For instance, we sometimes
hear of “the evolution of machinery,” which is a very common misuse of the term.
The evolution of the telephone, the automobile, and the musical instruments are all
examples of its misuse. These are merely illustrations of man’s power to deal
intelligently with inanimate matter. There is no growth from within in the development of
machinery. It is just as improper to use the word evolution in describing the springing of
a plant from a seed, or the development of a chicken from an egg, or the growth of any
form of animal life from a single cell -- any of these illustrations merely give us a
circle and suggest no change whatever from one species to another.‘
But
Evolution and the only Evolution that is a subject of controversy is that which teaches
that human kind began in an infinitesimal form of life and has been gradually ascending
through many thousands of forms and changes until the -present state was reached. There
can be no mistake that the theory is one that turns from the thought of an intelligent
Creator to the recognition of a blind force operating under a “law of evolution and
survival of the fittest.”
True, a
comparatively few are yet so bold as totally to deny a Creator; but even the devout under
this theory undermine the fabric of their faith and that of others when they claim that
“creation is merely the reign of Natural Law.” Not to go farther .back they
surmise that our sun ejected immense volumes of gases which finally became consolidated,
forming our earth; that by and by protoplasm formed, a small maggot, a microbe got a
start, they know not how. The extreme view, if it does not deny the existence of God,
claims at least that He had nothing whatever to do with the creation of man; but that
evolutionary processes began with inert matter. Also extreme hypothesis assumes that
Divine power did operate upon inert matter, but that it began at the very lowest point of
living organism, and created a microbe, or more exactly speaking a “protoplasm”
which became the parent of all living things, including man, by a supposed process of
evolution. The most conservative theory of Evolution hesitates to go so far back as the
“protoplasm,” and ignoring the method by which Divine power operated in the
development of the lower animals, begins its philosophy with man; searching amongst the
lower animals, for the one most nearly resembling humanity in structure and shape, it
lights upon the. monkey, the baboon and the chimpanzee, and asserts that human nature
represents a second step in advance of these (for it is forced to admit many
dissimilarities), and that “a missing link” is still being sought -- a grade or
condition of life between the highest monkey-developments and the lowest form of the human
creature known.
It need
hardly be said that the theory of Evolution as above presented has not been shown to be
established truth. While many scientists accept Evolution as if it were a fact, they all
admit when questioned that no explanation has been found to show that one species has
developed into another. The theory has not been proven by one of its greatest exponents,
not even by Mr. Darwin. He expressed astonishment that with two or three million species
it has been impossible to trace any species to another species. Likewise in the day of Mr.
Huxley it had not been proved. And but a short while ago Professor William Bateson, M.A.,
F.R.S., D.Sc., President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, in
1914, World’s famous English ,biologist, addressing an audience of scientists in
Toronto “threw a bombshell into the Convention of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science, by declaring that it was impossible for scientists any longer to
agree with Charles Darwin’s theory of the origin of the species.
“He
declared that, while forty years ago the Darwin theory was accepted without question,
today scientists have come to a point where they were ‘unable to offer any
explanation for the genesis of species.’
“Professor
Bateson stated that there was no evidence of any one species acquiring new faculties, but
that there were plenty of examples of species losing faculties. ‘Species lose things,
but do not add to their possessions. . . . Variations of many kinds, often considerable,
we daily witness, but no origin of species.’”
Let us hear
briefly how the Bible answers the claims of those who attempt to explain creation and
human origin through Evolution. First, concerning the days of creation: Nothing, perhaps,
has done more to becloud and undermine faith in God as the Creator, and in the Genesis
account as His revelation, than has the error of understanding the epoch-days of Genesis
to be twenty-four-hour days. The various stratifications of rock and clay prove beyond all
controversy that long periods were consumed in the mighty changes they represent. And when
we find that the Bible teaches an epoch-day, we are prepared to hear the rocks giving
testimony in exact accord with the Bible record, and our faith in the latter is greatly
strengthened; we feel that we are not trusting to our own or other men’s guesses,
abut to the Word of the Creator, abundantly attested by the facts of nature.
Examining
the Genesis expressions critically, we discern that a distinction is made between the
creation of the heaven and the earth (verse 1) and the subsequent regulations, or ordering
of these, and the further creations of vegetable and animal life. It is these subsequent
operations that are described as the Divine work of six epochal days. Verse 2 tells us
that in the very beginning of the first day of that creative week the earth was -- though
without form (order), and void (empty) waste, empty and dark. This important item should
be distinctly noted. If, recognized, it at once corroborates the testimony of geology thus
far; and, as we shall be obliged to dispute the deductions of geologists on some points,
it is well that we promptly acknowledge and dismiss whatever does. not need to be
contended for in defense of the Bible. The Bible does not say how long a period elapsed
between the beginning when God created the heaven and the earth, and the beginning of the
creative week used in perfecting it for man; nor do geologists agree amongt themselves as
to the period of this interval -- a few extremists indulge in wild speculations of
millions of years.
Professor
Dana, commenting on the data from which scientists draw their conjectures; and the method
of reckoning employed by them, says:
“In
calculations of elapsed time from the thickness of formations there is always great uncertainty, arising from
the dependence of this thickness on a progressing subsidence [regular sinking of the
land]. In estimates made from alluvial deposits [soil deposited from water], when the data
are based on the thickness of the accumulations in a given number of years-- say the last
2,000 years -- this source of doubt affects the
whole calculation from its foundation and renders it almost, if not quite, worthless.
. . . When the estimate . . . is based on the amount of detritus [fine scourings]
discharged by a stream it is of more value; but even here there is a source of great
doubt.”
Coming then
to the creative period -- the ordering of affairs in our heaven and earth in preparation
of the Paradise of God for man’s everlasting home -- we note that these
“days” are nowhere declared to be twenty-four-hour days; and hence we are not
obliged thus to limit them. We find in the Bible that the word day stands for epoch, or
period. The fact that it is most frequently used in reference to a twenty-four-hour period
matters nothing, so long as we have the record of “the day of temptation in the
wilderness . . . forty years” (Psa. 95:8-10), and sometimes a “day” or
“time” representing a year period (Num. 14:33, 34; Ezek. 4:1-8), and also the
Apostle’s statement -- “A day with the Lord is as a thousand years.” (2
Pet. 3:8.) Most assuredly these epoch-days were not sun days; for the record is that the
sun was not visible until the fourth day-the fourth epoch. We believe our readers will
agree that although the length of, these epoch-days is not indicated, we will be justified
in assuming that they were uniform periods, because of their close identity as members of
the one creative week. ‘
!Coming to
the consideration of the commencement of life upon the earth, let us not contend for more
than the Scripture record demands. The Bible does not assert that God created separately
and individually de myriad kinds of fish and reptiles; abut merely that Divine influence,
or spirit, brooded, and by Divine purpose the sea brought forth its
creatures of various kinds. Thus we read: “And the earth brought forth
grass,” etc.; “Let the waters bring forth the creeping creature,”
etc.; “Let the earth bring forth living creature after his kind, cattle,”
etc. The processes by which each of these kind were developed, created, brought into
existence are not revealed, neither in the Bible nor in the rocks -- no man knoweth, and
it is unwise to be dogmatic. What we do claim is, that all came about as results of Divine
intention and arrangement, and hence were Divine creations, whatever were the channels and
agencies. And we claim that this is shown !by the facts of nature no less than by the
words of Genesis -- that however the creatures were produced God has fixed Animal species,
each “after his kind,” in such a manner that they do not change; in such a
manner that the ingenuity of the human mind has not succeeded in assisting them to change.
Here is the stamp of the intelligent Creator upon His handiwork; for had
“Nature” or “blind force” been the creator, we would still see it
plodding blindly on, at times evoluting and at times retrograding; we would see no such
fixity of species as we behold all about us in nature. It is most significant to note the
wide difference in the language used when referring to man’s creation. The latter is
a specific declaration of the direct exercise of Divine creative power, while the others
are not, but rather imply a development. It is not said of man as of the sea creatures,
“Let the seas swarm,” nor as with the lower earthly animals, “Let the earth
bring forth”; but it is recorded, on the contrary, that he was a special creation by
his Maker, “made in His own image.”
We are not
to understand this “image” to be one of physical shape; but, rather, a moral and
intellectual image of the great Spirit, fashioned appropriately to his earthly conditions
and nature. And as for the “likeness,” it doubtless relates to man’s
dominion,he was to be king of earth and its teeming creatures, like as God is the King of
the entire universe.
At this
point it will be interesting to read the statement from the pen of an eminent authority,
Prof. G. Frederick Wright, D.D., LL.D., writing of the Genesis record from the standpoint
of science:
“The
first chapter of Genesis, which treats of the creation of the world, is a most remarkable
document. It is remarkable as much for the skill with which it avoids possible conflict
with scientific discovery as for its effectiveness from a literary point of view. Measured
by the influence it has had, there is scarcely any other piece of literature that can be
compared with it. Its evident object is to discredit polytheism and to emphasize the unity
of the Godhead. This it does by denying a :plurality of gods, both in general and in
detail, and by affirming that it is the one eternal God of Israel who has made the heavens
and the earth :and all the objects in it which idolators are in the habit of worshiping.
“The
sublimity of this chapter is seen in the fact that everywhere apart from the influence of
it, polytheism and idolatry prevail. The unity of God and His worship as the sole Creator
of all things are maintained only by those nations which have accepted this chapter as a
true and Divine revelation.
“At the
same time the advancement of science has served rather to enhance than to detract from our
admiration of this remarkable portion of the grand book of Divine revelation. Within its
ample folds there is opportunity for every real discovery of science to find shelter. With
such remarkable wisdom has the language of this chapter been chosen to avoid conflict with
modern science that so great a geologist as Prof. J. D. Dana of Yale College asserted with
great emphasis that it was impossible to account for it except on the theory of Divine
inspiration.
“In the
opening verse it shuts off controversy concerning the age of the earth, and indeed of the
solar system, by the simple statement that the heaven and the earth were created in the
‘beginning,’ without any assertion how long ago that beginning was. But that the
solar system had a beginning is proved by modern science with such clearness that the
boldest Evolutionist cannot gainsay it. The modern doctrine of the conservation of energy
proves that the present order of things has not always existed. The sun is cooling off.
Its heat is rapidly radiating and wasting itself in empty space. In short, the solar
system is running down, and it is as clear as noonday that the process cannot have been
going on forever. Even the nebular hypothesis implies a beginning, and no wit of man ever
devised a better statement of that fact than is found in the opening verse of the Bible.
“This
whole first chapter of Genesis is based upon the principle of progress in this method of
creation. The universe was not brought into existence instantaneously. It was not complete
at the outset. In the beginning we have merely the physical forces out of which the grand
structure is to be made by a gradually unfolding . . . process. This is equally true
whatever view one may take of the word ‘day’ (Hebrew ‘yom’). Why
should an Almighty Creator need six days, even if only twenty-four hours long, to create
the world in? The answer is that the Creator not only possesses almighty power, but has
infinite wisdom, and has seen fit to choose a method of creation which involves first the
blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear.”
After
reviewing the order and steps of creation as outlined in Genesis, and noting the harmony
with that which has truly been proved to be scientific, and after a careful comparison of
man, his nature and qualities, with that of the lower animals, Professor Wright concludes
with the following significant statement:
“The
mystery of the origin of man has not been in the least degree diminished by the Darwinian
hypothesis, or by any light which evolutionary theories have thrown upon it. It is
acknowledged by all that geologically he is the most recent of the species which have been
added to the population of the earth; while mentally, he towers so far above the lower
animals that he is for that very reason, if for no other, classified by himself. The
mystery is how he came into possession of this high degree of mental power with the bodily
frame and physiological constitution so completely adapted to its exercise. Those who say
that it was exhaled in some way from the lower orders of intellectual beings, will
encounter philosophical difficulties tenfold greater than do those who accept the simple
statement of the Bible. that his soul is the Divine inbreathing, the very image of
God.”
Here then is
the battlefield between God’s Word and so-called Modern Science, to which the whole
world, especially the learned -- including many of the leaders of thought in all
theological seminaries, and many ministers in prominent pulpits, are bowing down --
worshiping the scientific god called “Evolution.” The two theories are squarely
at issue; if the Evolution theory be true, the Bible is false from Genesis to Revelation.
If the Bible be true, as we hold, the Evolution theory is utterly false in all its
deductions as respects man. It is not alone the Genesis account of man’s creation in
the Divine image that must determine the matter, strong as are the declarations of the
Word; the entire system and plan of the Bible supports the Genesis record, and stands or
falls with it.
The
situation, therefore, growing out of the promulgation of the Evolution hypothesis during
the past fifty years or more, becomes alarming, to the extent that it is seen to be in
direct opposition to the Bible and leads straight to infidelity, without showing any
ability to disprove or overthrow the Bible story and plan. In many cases it is evident
that the advocates of the Evolution theory are not aware of the violent and irreconcilable
differences between this theory and the Bible. As an example of how the acceptance of the
Evolution hypothesis leads to the rejection of the Bible and into agnosticism in general,
we cite the case of Mr. Darwin, the great exponent of the theory before whom all
Evolutionists bow: he began life as a Christian; he spent three years at Cambridge
studying for the ministry. On page 39, Vol. I, of the “Life and Letters of Charles
Darwin,” by his son, Francis Darwin, he says, speaking of the period from 1828 to
1831: “I did not then in the least doubt the strict and literal truth of every word
in the Bible.” On page 412 of Vol. IL, of the same publication, he says: “When I
was, collecting facts for the ‘Origin,’ my belief in what is called a personal
God was as firm as that of Dr. Pusey himself.”
This was
Darwin as a young man, before he came under the influence of the doctrine that man came
from a lower order of Animals. The change wrought in his religious views will be found in
a letter written to a German youth in 1879, and printed on Page 277 of Vol I of the
“Life and Letters” above referred to. The letter begins:
“I am
much engaged, an old man, and out of health, and I cannot spare time-to answer your
questions fully-nor indeed can they be answered. Science has nothing to do with Christ;
except in so far as the habit of scientific research makes a man cautious in admitting
evidence. For myself, I do not believe that there ever has been any revelation. As for a
future life, every man must judge for himself between conflicting vague
probabilities.”
Note that
“science has nothing to do with Christ, except in so far as the habit of scientific
research makes a man cautious in admitting evidence.” Stated plainly, that simply
means that “the habit of scientific research” makes one cautious in accepting
the only evidence that we have of Christ’s existence, mission, teachings,
crucifixion, and resurrection, namely the evidence found in the Bible.
Now let us
follow with his son’s exposition of his father’s views as they are given in
extracts from a biography written in 1876. Here is Darwin’s language as quoted by his
son:
“During
these two years (October, 1838, to January, 1839) I was led to think much about religion.
Whilst on board the Beagle I was quite orthodox and I remember being heartily laughed at
by several of the officers (who thought themselves orthodox) for quoting the Bible as an
unanswerable authority on some point of morality. When thus reflecting,. I felt compelled
to look for a first cause, having an intelligent mind in some degrees analogous to man;
and I deserved to be called an atheist. This conclusion was strong in my mind about the
time, as far as I can remember when I wrote the ‘Origin of Species’; it is since
that time that it has very gradually, with many fluctuations, become weaker. But then
arises the doubt, Can the mind of man, which has, as I fully believe; been developed from
a mind as low as that possessed by the lowest animals, be trusted when it draws such grand
conclusions ?
“I
cannot pretend to throw the least light on such abstruse problems. The mystery of the
beginning of all things is insoluble by us; and I for one must be content to remain an
agnostic.”
Here we have
the effect of Evolution upon its most distinguished exponent; it led him from an orthodox
Christian, believing every word of the Bible and in a personal God, down and down and down
to helpless and hopeless agnosticism.
One of the
arguments used by Evolutionists and thought by some to be a most potent one is the fact of
the greater general intelligence, knowledge, and skill of modern times as compared with
the past. In answering this argument we do not dispute the fact that we of today are
enjoying a higher degree of general knowledge .and civilization than has ever before been
known to the world. But instead of accepting in explanation of present conditions a theory
which makes void the Word of God, we accept the explanation of present conditions which
the Bible presents -- stronger and sounder by far, and more reasonable every way, than the
Evolution theory.
The Bible
foretold the present conditions, and explained how they would come about, and how they are
to result, with a detail and an accuracy which evolutionary speculation knows nothing
about. We recall the revelations given to the Prophet Daniel, concerning the things to
come to pass in the closing epoch of the present Age. We remember the Prophet’s deep
interest in the stirring scenes of that vision, and how he prayed and fasted seven whole
weeks, desiring to know of these things -- the purposes of God; and how then an angel was
sent to him who delivered the Divine message, “Go thy way, Daniel, for the
declarations [of the vision] are closed up and sealed until the time of the end.”
This “time of the end,” you will remember, is elsewhere in the Scriptures spoken
of as “the day of His preparation” -- the day or period in which the Lord will
be preparing the world for the new dispensation, the Millennial Age.
We recall
also the testimony of the angel sent to Daniel respecting some of the peculiar
characteristics of this “day of preparation” or “time of the end”:
“In the time of the end many shall run to and
fro and knowledge shall be increased, and the wise shall understand,
but none of the wicked shall understand.” (Dan. 12:4, 10.) This inspired statement,
it seems to us, is most remarkably fulfilled before our eyes today, and not only proves
that we are now living in this period, “the time of the end,” the day of
God’s preparation, but also furnishes a much clearer and more satisfactory
explanation of the present day enlightenment and progress than any evolution theory
extant. It begins by calling attention to what every one will concede is one of the most
notable features of our time, differentiating it from all past time, namely the fact that
everybody travels. The whole world seems to be “running to and fro”; just as was
revealed to the Prophet twenty-four hundred years ago. We wonder why there should be so
much “running to .and fro,” and yet it is on the increase every year. Let us
note that the railway, the steamboat, the trolley car, the automobile, and more recently,
the aeroplane, which permit this running to and fro, have all come within a century.
Remember, again, that we as individuals have probably traveled over more miles of country
within the last twenty-five years than did all our ancestors back to Adam, during that
period of six thousand years.
Take the
next feature of the Lord’s .revelation to Daniel respecting the present time:
“Knowledge shall be increased.” We hold, in harmony with this Scriptural
statement, that the present wonderful increase of knowledge is not the result of
Evolution,’ but the result of Divine interposition, at the present time; that it is
one of the features of this “day of His preparation” -- making ready for the
Millennial Kingdom. If the theory of Evolution were correct, this increase of knowledge
should have been, gradual, during the past, and not sudden, now, toward the close of six
thousand years of man’s history -- within a century, and particularly within the past
seventy-five years.
We call
attention also to the fact that the increase of knowledge has accompanied and followed the
running to and fro of the past sixty years. In His own due time it has pleased the Lord to
draw to man’s attention the powers of steam and electricity, and to quicken him with
intelligence for the handling and harnessing of these to his service. (See Exod. 31:6;
36:1.) Pots had boiled and kettle-lids had rattled for centuries before the mind of Watt
was led to reflection on the power of steam, and how it might be utilized in human
affairs. Similarly simple were the first thoughts respecting contrivances for making use
of steam power, and subsequently electrical power. But for those simple thoughts to which
we believe Divine providence led in God’s due time, these great factors in our
nineteenth century awakening might have lain unnoticed for centuries to come, as they did
for centuries in the past. But in His own due time God made these the bases, the starting
points, for the fulfillment of the Divine prediction – “in the time of the end
many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.”
As the
discovery of the power of steam led to the construction of engines by which, on boats and
cars, the people by running to and fro and commingling with each other gave fresh impulses
to thought and action, so also the same steam power was attached to printing presses; and
as a result the world is flooded with literature in every language, and thus again the
world’s thinkers and writers are brought in contact with the millions of its
population, and increase of knowledge became unavoidable-as God foreknew. Electricity
coming in assists in this commingling of mankind and their thoughts, throughout the world,
by telegraph, telephone; wireless telegraphy, radio, etc. Very evidently the all-wise God,
the Author of the Bible, which He caused to be written by His various instruments and
agents, knew well what would be the result of letting in the proper light at the proper
moment, to co-operate with all the features of His great and wonderful Plan of the Ages.
Moreover,
the stoutest Evolutionists stand somewhat in awe of what may be the outcome of present
conditions, viewed along the lines of Evolution. They begin to fear that the increase of
knowledge signifies eventually a danger of social wreck and possibly of ultimate anarchy,
or, to avert this, a return to some degree of restraint of education or of liberties. They
see that the increase of knowledge of our day permits a twelve-year-old child to have
before him the accumulated knowledge of centuries, as well as of modern investigations and
discoveries, gives him much more theoretical knowledge at his command than had his
grandfather (mainly of his own personal experience) at seventy years of age. They see also
that a century ago the educated were extremely few, whereas today knowledge is so
increased that in civilized lands education is compulsory, and comparatively few are
without its privileges and advantages. And yet they see, contrary to all their Evolutionary expectations, that these
hitherto undreamed-of blessings and comforts of our day are not apparently favorable in
the masses of the people to the cultivation of happiness and contentment. On the contrary,
it is manifest that the more and the greater the blessings enjoyed, the more and the
greater will generally be the discontent in unregenerate hearts. Thus Evolutionists stand
in dread of a retrograde movement, the logic of which disputes their hypothesis.
On the
contrary, all of these facts are in most absolute accord with the Scriptural delineation
of the cause, object, and result of the present running to and fro and increase of
knowledge. The Scriptures indicate that the present increase of general knowledge and
skill is now due, in order to the preparation of machinery, and the various mechanical
arrangements and contrivances for the benefit of mankind during the Millennial Age;
nevertheless, it points out also that this knowledge is premature, so far as mankind in
general is concerned -- that mankind is not in proper condition to appreciate and use with
wisdom the knowledge and opportunities, liberties; and blessings thus thrust within his
grasp, because of innate, inherited selfishness, which left to itself, would turn
blessings into curses.
The Bible
points out that unregenerate man needs a strong superhuman government, which will give him
practical lessons along the lines of wisdom, righteousness, and the spirit of God, Love;
and it points out that God is preparing to establish such a strong superhuman government,
which will prove a blessing and an uplifting power to all who will come into accord with
it, after its establishment. (Isa. 26:9; 25:6-9; Zeph. 3:8, 9; Haggai 2:7.) This
superhuman government is the Millennial Kingdom, the kingdom or dominion of heaven, for
which our Redeemer taught us to pray, “Thy Kingdom came, Thy will be done on earth as
it is done in heaven.” -- Psa. 72:1-19; 98:1-9.
In referring
to the establishment of this heavenly Kingdom we are not advancing the theory held to by
some that Christ is to come a second time in “glorified flesh,” upon an, earthly
. throne, hold earthly court, etc., during the Millennium; for such procedure would not
be in keeping with His present highly exalted nature and office. We understand the
Scriptures to teach that our Lord Jesus is no longer a man, a human being, in any sense,
but a spirit being, “the express image of the Father’s person.” And when
His Kingdom shall come into control in the world, the heavenly King and His associates
(the glorified Church) will no more be visible to mankind than are the holy angels now.
The coming Kingdom will be a spiritual and invisible one, but will operate and rule
through human representatives. As an illustration of a spiritual ruler operating and
governing through earthly agents, take “the present evil world” or Age, of which
Satan is the prince. As a spirit being, he is invisible to humanity, and rules for evil
through his human servants. With the end of this Age comes the binding of Satan and the
overthrow of his dominion-God’s due tune for the establishment of the Kingdom of
Heaven having come. Christ’s Kingdom will be the reverse of Satan’s in respect
to its character, in that it will be a Kingdom of light, a Kingdom of righteousness, but
it will resemble it in that its King and His associates will also be spirit beings of a
still higher order, of the “Divine nature,” -- and equally invisible to men.
The
Scriptures point out that the present blessing and preparation for the coming Millennial
Age, will prove eventually a curse in the end of this Age-in that the increase of
knowledge and of liberty, combined with the innate selfishness of the depraved man, will
eventually lead to the very condition which our Evolutionist friends foresee and dread.
(Isa. 24:1-6, 17-23; 34:1-6; Joel 3:9-17.) But the Scriptures point out that even this
dread condition of anarchy, with which the present Age will terminate; will be overruled
of God so as to make of it a practical lesson for mankind, humbling the power and the
pride of the great and of the small, and teaching all the great lesson that human
perfection is not attained through processes of :human evolution, but only through Divine
interposition for the uplifting of mankind, through the agency of the Kingdom of God, long
promised through the Prophets and Apostles, and by our Lord Himself, to be the Divine
agency -- the Seed of Abraham, in which all the families of the earth shall be blessed. --
Isa. 2:2-4; 35:1-10; Micah 4:1-5.
The prophecy
already mentioned calls special attention to this. It will be as a result of the running
to and fro and the increase of knowledge, and the strange parallel increase of
dissatisfaction, that the prophecy declares “There shall be a time of trouble such as
never was since there was a nation” -- and at that time, to intercept that trouble,
and to save mankind from self-destruction in anarchy, Michael, the great Prince (Christ)
shall stand up, the leader and the commander of the people. “And it shall come to
pass that whosoever will not hear (heed that Prophet shall be cut off from amongst the
people.” -- Dan. 12:1, 4, 9, 10; Acts 3:23.
Furthermore,
the world’s history does not accord with the theory of evolution, as evinced by the
following facts. While conceding that this is pre-eminently the day of increase of
knowledge, as the Scriptures foretold, we hold that it is not pre-eminently the day of
increase of ability. We do not find that the world is be coming greater in ability,
but merely, as the Scriptures declare, greater in knowledge, which is generally
diffused as never before.
(1) In the
domain of Art. Modern artists point us back to Raphael, Michael Angelo, and others, as the
masters whom they still copy, in the matter of artistic skill.
(2) In
Poetry. If we inquire respecting poets, without disparagement to any of the able ones of
recent years, we Are, nevertheless, pointed back to the greatest poets, and told that the
poetry of the book of Job has no equal today in literature. We are pointed also to the
Psalms of David, and to Homer, Virgil, and Shakespeare, all past masters, whose works and
style are studied and to a large extent imitated today.
(3) As for
Laws. It is well known that the Mosaic laws have served as a basis, pattern, and guide in
the formation of the laws of Christendom, special adaptations being made to harmonize with
present conditions: and yet there were features of the Mosaic Law not incorporated into
the laws of Christendom, which it is generally admitted would be blessings, if adopted in
some measure; for instance, the law of the Jubilees, the cancellation of all debts every
fiftieth year, the beneficial results of this law being attained in part only, and for a
limited class only, by modern bankruptcy laws.
(4) In the
Sciences. Of present day arts and sciences, special boast is made; and we are ready to
admit generally the claim, accounting for it as before explained. Nevertheless, it
behooves us to remember that the people of the past accomplished wonders without our
modern appliances. For instance, the great pyramid at the delta of the Nile gives evidence
of having been oriented in harmony with late astronomical deductions; and even in its
mechanical structure implies a skill which causes modern architects and builders to
wonder, when they find some of its immense stones so closely fitted at their joints that
the dividing line is not thicker than a knife-blade. It is admitted that it is doubtful
whether such immense stones could be raised and thus accurately placed in position even
with the aid of modern mechanical appliances. We
are not to forget, either, that some of the valuable arts of the past were so
thoroughly lost that even with all our present-day enlightenment they have not yet been
re-discovered: for instance, the process of manufacturing flexible glass; and the process
of tempering steel which gave the swords of Damascus a world-wide fame for flexibility;
and the process of tempering copper so as to render it useful for tools.
And while
considering these matters we are to remember that the Scriptures indicate not only that
the children of Israel became much degraded through their several centuries of bondage in
Egypt, but also that among all the Gentiles there was a retrogression. This is
particularly stated by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Romans (1: 21-28 ), where he
points out that the degradation of the Gentile nations was not the result of their
creation in a depraved condition, but resulted from their not choosing to retain the
knowledge of God in their hearts for which cause He gave them over, abandoned them to
their own way, permitting them to hasten and to increase their degradation, so that today
throughout the world there are some, indeed, sunken so low as to be only a few steps
removed from brute creation.
We are asked
to state the grounds for the assumption that the Evolution theory is in direct conflict
with the teachings of the Bible, so that whoever holds to the Evolution theory must ipso
facto deny the teachings of the Bible, and whoever holds to the Bible must, to be logical,
renounce all faith in the Evolution theory.
To begin
with we call attention to the Scriptural account of man’s creation, as given in
Genesis that man was created, not as a microbe or protoplasm, nor one step removed from a
monkey, but as specifically stated, “In the
image of God created He him.” Man was created a moral image of God (not a
physical image, ‘because God is a spirit, while man is of another nature, human,
fleshly, earthly). And this thought, of man’s original perfection of being, is borne
out by the context, which declares that God looked upon His creature with approval; seeing
him to be “very good.” It is borne out also by the general testimony of
Scripture respecting God as a Master workman -- “His work is perfect”
(Deut. 32:4.) It is borne out by the statement of the Prophet, “Thou madest him [man,
Adam] a little lower than the angels; Thou crownedst him with glory and honor [his moral
likeness to his Creator]; Thou didst set him over the works of Thy hands” -- the
beasts of the field,’ the fish of the sea, and the fowl of heaven -- “and didst
make him ruler over them all” -- giving to man the rulership, the dominion of the
earth, with its lower orders of creation, in likeness of God’s dominion over heavenly
things. (Psa. 8:5, 6.) It is borne out again by the statement of the Prophet, that God
made man upright, but he sought out many inventions, and defiled himself. -- Eccl. 7:29.
Additional
to all these evidences of man’s condition, is the fact that he was placed on trial
for eternal life. It is not supposable that an imbecile creature, one remove from a
monkey, would be in a fit condition. to be tried before the bar of Divine Justice for
eternal life, with the assurance that he might live forever in the condition then enjoyed,
provided he maintained it by obedience. Surely the
fact of Adam’s trial implies that his condition was then a good condition, that his
abilities were then perfect abilities, and that his only lack was in experience, in the
use of his good abilities and the knowledge which the use of those perfect abilities would
bring. It would be thoroughly unreasonable, inconsistent with Divine justice, and out
of harmony with expression of the Divine Word, to suppose the Lord would have given
everlasting life to Adam, with the prospect of maintaining it forever, and with the risk
of losing it forever, had he been but one remove from the brute creation, or had he been
even as low as are the majority of mankind today.
On the
contrary, the fact that Adam is Scripturally termed a “son of God,” and that he
maintained that sonship and fellowship with God while in the Garden of Eden, prior to his
transgression, and came under the penalty of death, with its concomitants, sickness and
pain (the results of mental, moral, and physical decay), assure us most unmistakably that
the Almighty intended us to understand by this Genesis account of man’s creation that
man was created perfect, and that whatever has come upon the race since has been the
result of transgressions against the Divine commands -- has been the penalty of sin.
Furthermore,
note the Scriptural consistency, for while the Apostle Peter tells us that “a day
with the Lord is as a thousand, years,” Genesis tells us that the sentence upon Adam
was that he should die “in the day” of his disobedience, and that he did die
within the limits of that thousand-year day. Nevertheless, the record that the dying
process in. him lasted for nine hundred and thirty years fully corroborates and sustains
the declaration that God’s creation was perfect, and possesses powers of vitality,
mental and physical, which since have almost entirely disappeared -- for the average of
human life today does not exceed thirty-five years.
This story
of mean’s creation in the image of God, in sinlessness and perfection, the very
reverse of the Evolution theory, is fully confirmed by all the testimony of the Old
Testament. The Prophets pointed out the fallen condition of Israel and the world, and
pointed forward to the coming of the Messiah as the only hope of relief and blessing. Our
Lord Himself was announced by His Forerunner, John the Baptist, as “The Lamb of God
which taketh away the sin of the world.” These declarations that there are sins of
the world to be removed, and which would require the sacrificial death of Christ as the
Lamb of God, a Messiah, a Deliverer, are in direct contradiction to the Evolution theory,
which claims that man has been gradually and grandly climbing upward into the likeness of
God. According to Evolution, there is no sin of the world, unless it be a sin to evolve,
to progress upward. According to Evolution also, the world needs no Redeemer, for as it
could not be claimed to be a sin to progress upward to perfection, neither could it be
claimed that man was a sinner while thus progressing upward, nor could it be claimed that
Justice could require any redemption price for that which had not fallen from grace, but
which was approaching more and more to the Divine standard.
At our
Lord’s First Advent He found some Pharisees “who trusted in themselves that they
were righteous”; and in reproving these He declared that He had not come to call the
righteous, but sinners, to repentance; declaring also that those who feel themselves to be
whole do not feel their need of a physician, but that He Himself, nevertheless, is the
Good Physician. The Evolution theory is in accord with the Pharisaical view of matters --
theorizing that it is progressing grandly upward, it does not recognize the necessity for
the great Sin-offering which God has provided.
Again, we
remember that our Lord declared that He “came to seek and to save that which was
lost.” (Luke 19:10.) According to the Evolution theory nothing was ever lost, all
that we have as a race is gain; according to this theory, therefore, our Redeemer’s
statement was worse than void of meaning-a falsehood. But from the Scriptural standpoint,
as presented in Genesis, and confirmed by the Prophets and Apostles, the whole world was
lost in father Adam; because when he cams under the penalty of sin the impairment of his
dying process extended to all his posterity as yet unborn -- according to the laws of his
nature. From this standpoint our Lord’s words are full of meaning. They mean that He
came to recover Adam and all his race from the sentence of death, and to give to all an
opportunity to attain eternal life through Him.
The Apostle
Paul (Rom. 5:12-19) states this matter most forcefully. He places himself, as a teacher
and expounder of the Divine dealings with humanity, in absolute and direct opposition to
the Evolution theory. He says: “By one man’s disobedience sin entered into the
world, and death by [as a result of] sin; and so death passed upon all men, in that all
are sinners [inheritors of their father Adam’s blemishes].” The significance of
this clear statement is unmistakable. It tells us, that there was no sin in the world
prior to father Adam’s transgression. It tells us that there was no death in our race
until the Divine sentence fell upon Adam as the penalty for his sin. (1 Cor. 15: 21, 22).
It thus accords with Genesis, in showing us that father Adam in the image of God occupied
an exalted position, and not a low and almost bestial condition, as the Evolution theory
teaches. It teaches us that Adam fell from Divine favor and lasting life (which the
Apostle assures us was not through ignorance-1 Tim. 2:14) into sin, alienation from God,
and under the sentence of death, with its associated sickness, pain, decay, and
degradation; and hence that these evils are not our inheritance through poor workmanship
on the part of the Creator, but are our inheritance by heredity, by reason of father
Adam’s transgression, disloyalty, disobedience to God.
Nor does the
Apostle leave the matter here, but pursuing the same thread of thought, he assures us that
all hope of escape from this sentence of death, and this alienation from God, centers in
Christ Jesus, our Lord. He thus implies most distinctly that Evolution hopes are worse
than useless, inasmuch as they would frustrate and make void the very faith in Christ and
His redemptive work, which is essential to the blessed condition of reconciliation with
the Father. For says Sit. Paul, “The man Christ Jesus gave Himself a ransom for all
to be testified in due time.” (1 Tim. 2:5, 6.) Thus the Lord Jesus as the man is
declared to have been the “anti-lutron,” the ransom-price (or corresponding
price) for this first man’s guilt, and He must, therefore, be considered a sample, or
illustration, of what the first man was, before he sinned and passed under the Divine
condemnation of death.
Notice now
how the Apostle contrasts the first man, Adam and his failure, and the blight which came
through that failure upon all his posterity, with the faithfulness of “the man Christ
Jesus” who bought us with His own precious blood, to release us from the Adamic
penalty. He says, “As through one offense sentence came upon all men to condemnation
[death]; so also through one righteous act, sentence came upon all men to justification of
life. For as through the disobedience of one man the many were constituted sinners, even
so through the obedience of the One [Jesus] the many will be constituted righteous, . . .
that as sin reigned unto death, even so grace [favor] might reign unto eternal life,
through righteousness, by Jesus Christ our Lord.” -- Rom. 5:18-21.
In harmony
with this same thought is the Apostle’s expression in his letter to the Corinthians
(1 Cor. 15:21, 22), “Since through a man there is death, through a man also there is
a resurrection of the dead; for as all in Adam die, even so all in Christ shall be made
alive” -- brought back from present dying, imperfect conditions to the perfection of
life.
Indeed, all
the Scriptural statements -- that “Christ died for our sins,” that He
“suffered, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God,” that
“God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing our trespasses
unto us [but unto our substitute, our Redeemer],” that God “might be just, and
yet be the justifier of them that believe in Jesus,” that “He is the
propitiation [satisfaction] for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of
the whole world,” and that “by His stripes we are healed” -- all these and
many other Scriptures of similar import, most positively contradict the Evolution theory,
and with equal positiveness uphold the Scriptural theory that man was originally created
perfect, “upright,” in God’s image, and that he fell from that exalted
position into sin and degradation, mental and physical, from which he needs first to be
ransomed with a corresponding price, and secondly to be saved or recovered to perfection
of being and everlasting life.
It is in the
great and marvelous Divine Plan of the Ages itself that we discover the most conclusive
evidence of the falsity of Evolution. True, in tracing the various lines of truth, we find
much in opposition to what has been and is taught in the various creeds of Christendom;
but in this investigation we are ignoring human opinion and tradition. It is this correct
appreciation of God’s Plan for man and his destiny as outlined in the Bible that
constitutes the most convincing argument that the Evolution theory is merely a human
invention, without any foundation.
Tracing
further this great purpose of God briefly, it is observed that throughout the ages since
the fall of man six thousand years ago, there has been no particular dealing on the part
of the Creator with mankind at large -- no special effort to recover humanity in general;
but that nearly all that has been done up to the present has been in the nature of
preparation or of laying the foundation for man’s deliverance in a future age. Thus
in reading the Scriptures none can fail to note that in past ages as in the present one
certain individuals and classes have been dealt with to the exclusion of the masses. At
once the question of election, comes before us; but what we find in the Bible on this
point is very much different from what many have been taught in the creeds. We do indeed
find that the Bible teaches the thought of an elect class termed a “little
flock,” who are to inherit the Kingdom with Christ; but we do not find in the
Scriptures the thought that all the hundreds of millions of the non-elect were predestined
before their birth to an eternity of torture, as the catechism puts it, “passed
by” of the Lord, and not elected to “salvation.”
Consulting
the Scriptures we discover that in the Jewish Age, prior to Christ’s First Advent,
that one nation, and it alone, was God’s people, the recipient of His promises and
providences, as says the Prophet Amos (3:2), “You only have I known [recognized] of
all the families of the earth.” The Apostle Paul also points this out, saying,
“What advantage hath the Jew? Much every way, chiefly because to them were committed
the oracles of God.” (Rom. 3: 1, 2.) But the Scriptures say nothing whatever
respecting the damnation or eternal torment of the other non-elect nations outside of
Israel. They point out further that there was a system of election in vogue to some extent
before the Jewish Age, namely that Abraham was elected or chosen to be the father of the
faithful; that his parents and relatives were not chosen, nor in any manner connected with
him in his election; that even his friend and nephew, Lot, was debarred from any share in
that election; that the elect line proceeded from Abraham not to his first-born son,
Ishmael, but to his second son, Isaac, and that the same election proceeded through Isaac,
not to his first-born son, Esau, but to his second-born, Jacob, surnamed Israel. It is
observed that the Scriptures say nothing whatever respecting a condemnation of
Abraham’s non-elect relatives and friends and children, but, on the contrary, mention
some of them favorably, and promise them other blessings, outside the special line or
purpose of the election.
The
Scriptures show too that the work of this Gospel Age -- the selection of the Gospel
Church-is likewise in the nature of an election, in that God during this Age is not
attempting to bless the whole world, but merely certain portions of it, not attempting to
save the whole world, but merely to elect a Church, a “royal priesthood, a holy
nation, a peculiar people,” out of it. But no Scriptural statement either says or
implies that all the remainder of mankind not thus elected during this Gospel Age are to
be damned and tormented forever, but quite to the contrary.
If any
object to the statement that God has not in the past been trying to save the world, let
him call to mind the words of the Prophet, “My word that goeth forth out of My mouth
shall not return unto Me void, but it shill accomplish that which I please, and shall
prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” (Isa. 55: 11.) Since, therefore, “All
His purposes shall be accomplished,” and since we know it to be a fact that the
Gospel has not in the past reached more than one-tenth of humanity, and even today reaches
very few more than that proportion, it follows that if “All His purposes shall be
accomplished,” it cannot have been the Divine purpose to have sent .the Gospel
message to every creature during this Age -- thus far at least.
But some
will ask, How do we account for the breadth of the Gospel commission, “Preach the
Gospel to every creature,” and for the Apostle’s statement, “The Gospel
which is preached to every creature under heaven”?
We find the
answer in the fact that as the Law was given to Israel alone, and not to the other
nations, so the Gospel was preached “to the Jew first,” and to the Jew only, up
to the time that they rejected the Messiah and their national favor ended. This turning
point is clearly marked in our Lord’s words, “Now I say unto you, Your
house is left unto you desolate.” This statement was made just five days before His
crucifixion, at which time His work took on its larger proportions; for our Lord Jesus
died not only for Israel -- “to redeem those who were under the Law,” but the
value of His death extended beyond that people, as it is written, “Jesus Christ, by
the grace of God, tasted death for every man.” (Heb. 2: 9.) And it was after
He had thus “died for all” and had risen again, that He gave His disciples the
broader commission for the Gospel, above mentioned. Previously, when sending them out
two and two to the cities of Israel, He said “Go not into the way of the
Gentiles,” and His declaration after His resurrection, namely “Go ye into all the world and preach the
Gospel,” was meant to contradict their thought that the Gospel message was to be to
the Jews only. He would have them understand that henceforth the message is for
any member of the human family, because every member of it has been redeemed.
Of similar import is the Apostle’s statement, “This Gospel which is preached in
all the world”; it is no longer á Gospel restricted to one nation of the world, but
is open to any who have ears to hear and hearts to receive it “even as many as the
Lord your God shall call.”
If some
object that God is no “respecter of persons” let them consider the following
explanation in reply: The Gospel light arose in Palestine, which lies at the juncture, we
may say, of three continents -- Europe, Asia, and Africa. It would have been nearest to
have sent the Gospel southward into Africa, to its benighted millions; but Africa still
lies in darkness, touched with the light of Truth only a little upon its northern borders.
It would have been almost as near to have sent the Gospel light eastward to India’s
hundreds of millions, and into China with its hundreds of millions; but India and China
have lain in darkness for eighteen centuries, except as little glimpses or flashes of the
light of truth have reached them. Europe lay farther away, but to Europe, and through Europe to America, the Lord has been pleased to send the light of
the Gospel, “A light to lighten the Gentiles.”
Nor are we
to suppose that the coming of the Gospel light to these lands that have been so greatly
blessed by it was a matter of chance or accident. Quite to the contrary, a few words
recorded in the Acts of the Apostles (16:6, 7) relating to the mission of the great
Apostle to the Gentiles, St. Paul, show us unquestionably that the sending of the Gospel
to Europe was of Divine intention – predestination -- choice or election. The
narrative is that while Paul and his company had purposed to go into Asia, the spirit
suffered them not to do so, but providentially hindered their going; and while they were
thus perplexed and seeking to know the mind of the Lord, the Apostle Paul had a dream in
which he saw a man of Macedonia beckoning to him and saying, “Come over and help
us.” As a consequence of these Divine providences, and gathering from them the
Lord’s will in the matter, the Apostle and his co-laborers at once proceeded to
Macedonia, there beginning the preaching of the Gospel in Europe. When Paul returned to
Palestine, and apparently with no thought of further prosecuting the work in Europe,
Divine providence permitted him to be arrested and sent a prisoner to Rome; and there the
same Divine providence held him a prisoner for a long time, but gave him sufficient
liberty to preach the Gospel there for a number of years. It was from these providential
lightings of the Gospel lamp in Europe that all the great blessings which have reached us
proceeded.
Do not these
facts prove that Divine providence has had much to do with the progress and direction of
‘the lamp, of truth? Are they not a manifestation’ of Divine election or
selection? And is it not evident that the non-elect and non-enlightened are similarly and
proportionately uncondemned? Nor are we claiming in this that God is a respecter of
persons, amongst those who hear and believe. It is quite another thing that God may have
been, nay, evidently has been, a respecter of races, and has specially blessed and favored
certain branches of the Aryan race in Europe and America. But the fact, that the white
race has been more abundantly blessed with the light of the Gospel than others, is not to
be understood to signify that when members of other races heard and appreciated the
Gospel, they were repulsed or rejected by the Lord. This view is in full harmony with the
suggestion that God is no respecter of persons, but that “In every land he that
feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of Him.” In harmony with this, we
hold that, while the elect Church will probably be composed chiefly of the highly favored
white race, nevertheless, it will probably have in it representatives out of “every
kindred, people, and tongue.”
It is seen
then that the election of the Church, which is progressing during the present or Gospel
Age, is by the Heavenly Father, Jehovah, though through His Son, our Lord Jesus. We quote
our Lord’s statement, “No man can come unto Me, except the Father which sent Me
draw him,” and limit its application to the present Age, and to this selection or
election of the Church, variously called the Body of Christ, the Bride of Christ, the.
Royal Priesthood, etc. We note also the words of our Lord Jesus, “I, if I be lifted
up, will draw all men unto Me” (John 12: 32), and apply this to a future Age --the
Millennial Age -- in which Christ and the glorified Gospel Church (in the glory of the
heavenly condition and power) shall both rule and bless the world of mankind, and bring
back into harmony with God and to human perfection all who will then accept God’s
grace, eternal life under the conditions of the New Covenant. Thus seen, the election of
the Church, so far from meaning a damnation of the non-elect, implies a future blessing
for the world of mankind in general (the non-elect), in that a favorable opportunity for
attaining eternal life will be granted to all.
Again it may
be asked here, Wherein would be the consistency of first making an election from amongst
the world, and subsequently dealing with all the remainder in exactly the same manner?
The
difficulty arises front the fact that we are endeavoring to state the great Divine Plan
very briefly. Let the truth be clearly seen that the elect Gospel Church is called to a
“heavenly calling,” to a change of nature-from human nature, a little lower than
the angels in its perfection; to be partakers of the Divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4; Rom. 6:5,
8, 9; 2 Tim. 2:11, 12; 1 John 3: 1,2; Rev. 20:4), far above angels, principalities, and
powers. But very different from this will be the blessing which God will offer to mankind
in general, through the elect Church, during the Millennial Age, namely an offer of
restitution. One of the proof texts on this subject is Acts 3:19-23. Here the Apostle
Peter, speaking on the day of Pentecost under inspiration, refers to the Second Conning of
Christ and the blessings which then will coarse to the world in general. He refers to the
complete Christ (Jesus the Head and the Church His Body) as the antitype of Moses, the
Lawgiver, declaring that this Great Lawgiver then raised up in power and authority over
the whole world shall’ bless those who will hear and obey Him, and shall destroy in
the Second Death all who will not then obey Him. And the Apostle speaks of this period of
the reign of the glorified Christ (Head and Body) as “the times of restitution of all
things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets since the world
began.”
Restitution
is the blessing which God has in store for mankind in general for all who will gladly
accept this blessing at the hands of the Redeemer when the due time shall come for it to
be offered to them. And by accepting it, we mean ,accepting the then to be proffered
blessing of restitution upon the teams or conditions of obedience, which will accompany
the offer. The word restitution is simple enough and easily understood. It signifies
neither more nor less than a return to primeval conditions. Those who shall ultimately
receive at the Lord’s hands this blessing of restitution to the full, will have
gotten fully back into the Divine favor, and fully free from all the blemishes and
imperfections of humanity which have tainted the entire race to putrefaction. It will
mean, therefore, not only physical health, strength, and perfection, but also mental and
moral ability restored. In a word, it will mean a re turn to that moral image and
likeness of God in which Father Adam was created, and from which he fell, and we by him
under the law of heredity.
The Divine
Word teaches that as God had already created various orders of spirit beings fore creating
man, He determined that as a further exercise of His creative power, He would make an
earthly creature in His own likeness, and put him in possession of the earth for his home,
adapting him constitutionally to it, and providing the earth with various orders of
animals, also adapted to it, and placing anon as lord of earth in charge, subject,
however, to Jehovah as his Overlord. It points out that the intrusion of sin was not
unforeseen by Divine wisdom; and that its permission for six thousand years has not in any
degree altered the original Divine purpose; and that, consequently, when the time shall
come, there shall be no more dying, -- no more sighing, no more crying, because the former
things will have passed away (Rev. 21:4); the condition of things which will be permitted
to remain, and that to all eternity, will be-this earth, a Paradise, fully peopled with a
human race, who, through knowledge and experience shall have learned to know their Lord
and Creator, and to have absolute confidence in His wisdom, His love, His justice, and His
power, having learned that His ways axe ways of pleasantness, and all His ;paths are peace
(Isa. 11:9; 35:8-10; Hab. 2:14); a race which shall have passed through experiences and
tests which will have destroyed from amongst it all who in any degree are in sympathy with
unrighteousness; leaving only those who shall, of their own free will, delight to do the
will of the Father who is in heaven. -- Isa. 45:18, 22, 23.
It is
manifest that in the Divine Plan God, foreseeing and not preventing Adam’s
disobedience, and thus the entrance of sin and death into the world, decided to utilize
that evil for the special trial, testing, proving, of an elect Church, whose members, by a
change of nature, will pass from being men, a little lower than the angels, to being new
creatures of the Divine nature, far ‘above angels in glory and power. Calling these
to so very high exaltation, even His own Divine nature, “to glory, honor, and
immortality,” it is appropriate that they shall first be subjected to crucial tests,
as to obedience to the Father, and be perfected for that new nature through sufferings and
disciplines, otherwise described as presenting their bodies living sacrifices, holy and
acceptable to God through Christ and the merit of His sacrifice. It is for this reason
that the Gospel Church is called during the present Age, while sin abounds and the Prince
of this world, Satan, is, permitted to have much power through those who possess his
spirit. Those who would make their calling and election sure to a place in this Heavenly
Kingdom, as heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ their Lord, are required to
show their fidelity, their love, by such zeal for God and for righteousness during the
present time, when sin prevails, as will surely imply to them self-sacrifice -- the
sacrifice of human interests. It is this class, now being called, that is required to walk
in the “narrow way.” The way is narrow, because of the prevalence and power of
sin in the world: and this is permitted of God in order to thus test the elect Church
“whose names are written in heaven”-regardless of earthly denominational lines
and systems.
On the
contrary, the Scriptures everywhere indicate that the Millennial Age, in which the world
will have blessings from Him, will be a period of blessing, of refreshment, of
restitution, when “the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His
beams,” and “the knowledge of the Lord shall fill the whole earth as the waters
cover the great deep”; because “all shall know Him, from the least unto the
greatest.”
We get, in
the words of the Psalmist, the strong contrast distinguishing between the present Age,
when evil holds sway, and the coming Age, when the Lord our righteousness shall assume
control of the world, establishing His Church with Himself in glory as the Kingdom of God;
comparing the Gospel Age to a night, to be followed by a morning of light and blessing, He
says, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” (Psa.
30:5.) Again, the Scriptures represent that the Millennial Age will be introduced by the
binding of all evil influences represented by Satan, that the world may no longer be
deluded, deceived, misguided by Satan and his servants, willing or ignorant. -- See Rev.
20:1-3; Isa. 35:8.
Let the fact
be clearly seen in this connection that this thought of restitution being the Lord’s
promise for the obedient of the world of mankind, which Peter declares is more or less the
theme of all the holy Prophets since the world began, certainly deals a death blow to the
Evolution theory; for nothing can be plainer than the inference that the restitution to be
inaugurated at the Second Coming of Christ is in the nature of a blessing to mankind, a
great blessing, whereas, if the Evolution theory be in any sense of the word true,
restitution would be the worst thing that could possibly happen to poor humanity. If our
race began life as a protoplasm, or even as one step removed from monkeys,
“restitution” would signify a loss of all that Evolution claims has been gained
in human development; it would mean his return to bestial conditions-the greatest curse
that could come upon the race. Consequently we must decide between this human Evolution
theory, and the teachings of the Divine Word.
Another line
of thought related to the foregoing is that the promised, Seed of Abraham to bless all the
families of the earth refers to the larger Christ -- not Christ Jesus our Lord only
(although all the merit of salvation is fully accorded to Him, and His sacrifice), but
also His redeemed, called, chosen, and faithful followers of this Gospel Age are members
of this Seed of Abraham. This is supported by Gal. 3:16, 29. The latter verse declares
that, since we belong to Christ (as the bride belongs to the bridegroom; or, as the body
belongs to the head of the body (by which it is directed and represented), we are thus and
therefore members of this promised Seed of Abraham, and heirs of the promise made to that
Seed.
That
promise, it will be remembered, reads, “In thy seed shall all the families of the
earth be blessed.” There can be no question that the promise has never yet been
fulfilled, and that it never can be fulfilled except through such a resurrection and
restitution process as many Scriptures point out; for all the families of the earth
include not only the living families, but all who have ever lived, frown Abraham’s
day to the present time, the vast majority of whom have gone down into the great
prison-house of death, without the slightest blessing or enlightenment; and without any
hope except as it is contained in this promise-that in due time the whole world of
mankind, justly brought back from under the death penalty, shall be blessed with an
opportunity of return to Divine favor and the attainment of everlasting life, by
God’s grace, operating through the elect Church -- Head and Body. -- Rom. 11:31.
“In
due time” is the secret which explains the entire matter. We are to remember,
too, that the six thousand years of earth’s experiences with evil seam long to us
because of the brevity of our lives and present conditions; from God’s standpoint, as
the Apostle points out, a thousand years are but as yesterday, or even as a watch in the
night, after it is past. The night of sin has only had six watches after this measurement,
and the morning of everlasting righteousness and blessing is just about to dawn.
The Bible
teaching concerning the Day of Judgment carries the truth on the entire subject still
further in advance-for we learn that the Judgment Day is not one of our drays of
twenty-four hours, but “a day with the Lord” -- a thousand years; that it will
be the thousand years of Christ’s reign, the Millennium. During that Day of Judgment
the world will be on trial or on judgment for eternal life, as we, the called out ones of
this Gospel Age, are now on judgment or on trial; only that our trial is, as already
pointed out, severer, along a “narrow way.” The Apostle distinctly tells us that
we, the Church, shall not come into condemnation (trial or judgment) with the world in the
next Age, but pass now from death. to life, before the world’s day of judgment
begins. (John 5:24; 1 Cor. 11:32.) He also declares-“God hath appointed a [future]
day, in the which He will judge [grant trial to] the world, in righteousness”-by
Christ. And he distinctly tells us that when the world of mankind will be on trial (during
the Millennial Age), the overcoming elect Church then in glory, partakers of the Divine,
nature, glory, honor, and immortality, will be. the judges of the world, associated with
their Lord. He says, “Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world?” -- 1
Cor. 6:2.
But what
about the finally impenitent at the close of tile Millennial Age, and those who in this
Age sin against the Holy Spirit? What will be their doom?
God’s
law changes not. As it was expressed to Adam, and executed against him, so it still stands
the same today-“The wages of sin is death.” (Rom. 6:23.) The Prophet, speaking
of the Millennial Age, declares that then none shall die for inherited sins, as all die
now, but that it will be an individual trial, with an individual penalty against all who
shall then sin willfully. His declaration is, “The soul that sinneth, it shall
die.” He reminds us of the proverb now in general application, namely “The
fathers ate a sour grape [sin], and the children’s teeth are set on edge [all of
Adam’s posterity are fallen, depraved, dying, as a result of his
transgression]”; but assures us that this shall not be true in the next Age. None
will die except for his oven personal willful sin. God willeth not the death of him that
dieth, but would that all should turn unto Him and live. -- Ezek. 18:2-4, 23, 32; 2 Pet.
8:9.
The Apostle,
speaking of willful sinners, declares that they “shall be punished with everlasting
destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.” Whoever
will not have God’s gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, cannot have
life at all, for “All the wicked will God destroy.” -- Psa. 145:20.
What then
about hell, purgatory, etc., so generally believed throughout Christendom?
The view
generally held on this subject is a great and serious error which has done much to hinder
many of earth’s best minds from careful consideration of the Word of God; because
they believed the Bible to teach the God-dishonoring doctrine that the majority of His
creatures, with His foreknowledge, consent, and predetermination, would be eternally
tormented. The simple teaching of the Scriptures is solemn and serious enough, without
depraved human embellishments of flame and agony indescribable. The great hell to which
the entire human family was consigned because of sin is the great prison-house of death,
the tomb. The wages of sin is death; and there would have !been no resurrection, no future
life, except for our Lord’s great sacrifice on our behalf. Christ ransomed or bought
us with His own life -- He died for our sins and thus secured for mean legal privilege to
be resurrected, restored. Thus it is written, “I will ransom them from the
grave.” -- Hosea 13:14.
All scholars
today are aware that the word translated “hell” in our Old Testament Scriptures
is in Hebrew sheol, and signified the death state, and never in any sense or use of the word,
a place or condition of torture. We notice also
that the same Hebrew word has been translated still more frequently “grave” and
“pit” --- much nearer its correct signification in our language. More than this
the word hades of the New Testament Greek translated “hell” in English,
is the exact equivalent of the Hebrew word sheol, and is always used to translate
it wherever a passage is quoted in the New Testament. Hades, therefore, signifies the same as sheol,
namely the tomb or the death state. In the New Testament the word tartarus occurs once, descriptive of the place or
condition in which the fallen angels are reserved, waiting for their trial in the
Millennial Age (for the glorified Church is to grant them also a trial for life).-1 Cor.
6:3.
The only
other Greek word of the New Testament, translated “hell,” is the word gehenna,
which, as all scholars recognize, is applied in our Lord’s parables to the Valley of
Hinnom, outside the city of Jerusalem, where the offal of the city was destroyed.
It was used as a symbol of the Second Death, in which all found unworthy of life shall be
destroyed from amongst men as offal.*
__________________
* We shall
take pleasure in sending gratis a treatise bearing upon this subject, entitled “What
Say the Scriptures Concerning Hell? Where Are the Dead?” It points out various
misconceptions and misinterpretations of our Lord’s parables, and of the Book of
Revelation, in which alone anything is found which has even a semblance of teaching
eternal torment. The punishment of sin is death, and it will be an everlasting punishment in that there will be no
resurrection from the Second Death. than your
ways.”
___________________
Throughout
the great thousand-year Judgment Day, the Kingdom of God, for which Jesus taught us to
pray, will. be ruling, and. the restitution processes which it will put into operation
will enlighten, instruct, encourage, and uplift fallen humanity out of the degradation and
depravity into which they have :been fallen during the past six thousand years. Grand
reformations along all lines will be the order of that Age, for the assistance-of the race
back to perfection; meantime the earth itself will be brought to a state of perfection and
paradise. But none will be. forced or compelled to accept of salvation even in that Age;
it will still be a matter for each one to make his own, by willing acceptance. The order
of that Age will be; “whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”
(Rev. 22:17.) And it is written concerning that Age or Judgment Day that “it shall
come to pass, that every soul which will not hear that Prophet, shall be destroyed from
amongst the people.” (Acts 3:23.) This is the Second Death, from which no recovery is
promised; for all on whom that penalty will be pronounced will have had full advantage --
they will have had all the lessons and experiences elf the present life before them, with
all the blessed privileges and opportunities of the Resurrection Age or Judgment Day; and
hence any who then oppose the Lord will do so in .the face of complete knowledge and
light, with Satan and temptation removed. Their sin being fully willful, no further trial
will be of advantage to them, and no resurrection from the Second Death is provided for
such. There are strong intimations that the number of those who will thus fail, will be a
small one -- .Micah 4:1-5; Joel 2:28; Zeph. 3:9; Haggai 2:7.
Thus the
great consummation of the Divine Plan will be realized at the conclusion of the reign of
Christ, with a restored race of perfect beings peopling the earth, which will then be as
the Garden of Eden, with no more sorrow, pain, or dying; they will be ushered into the
perpetual ages of bliss to follow-the particulars of which are not revealed. How grandly
sublime! How reasonable, good, just, and loving!-yet just what we should expect of Him who
declares, “My thoughts are not as your thoughts, nor My ways as your :ways, saith the
Lord, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My thoughts higher than your
thoughts, and My ways higher than your ways. Surely
the New Song can then be sung by all of
God’s creatures, both in heaven and in earth; saying:
“Great and marvelous are Thy
works, Lord God, Almighty!
Just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of the ages!
Who shall not reverence Thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy name?
For Thou only art bountiful.
For all peoples shall come and worship before Thee,
Because Thy righteous doings are made
manifest.”
-- Rev. 15:3, 4.
“Thus
saith the Lord that created the heavens: God Himself, that formed the earth and made it;
He hath established it. He created it not in vain, He formed it to be
inhabited.”-Isa. 45:18.
“And
every creature which is in heaven and on earth and such as are in the sea . . . heard I
saying. ‘Blessing and honor and glory and power be unto Him that sitteth upon the
throne and unto the Lamb, forever and forever.” -- Rev. 5:13.
All familiar
with the Scriptures will recall that the Bible plainly predicts just what is in evidence
today, namely a great falling away from the true faith, on every hand a denial of the
Scriptures as a revelation from God, through various forms of infidelity under the guise
of so-called Science, Higher Criticism, Evolution, etc. (2 Tim. 3:1-5; 1 Tim. 4:1, 2; 2
Pet. 3:3; Luke 18:8.) Hence the opening up of the Scriptures today and the revealing of
the Truth, which makes manifest that much that has been taught in the creeds of
Christendom is error and dishonoring to God, is in fulfillments of the Divine promise
given for the closing days of this Age, namely that the Truth would shine more brightly
for the enlightening of the faithful children of God. (1 Thess. 5:4, 5; Luke 12:37; John
16: 13; Prov. 4:18.) This light has come; not through the superior wisdom or ability on
the part of any man, but is discernible now because God’s “due time” for
its unfoldment to His people has come. A study of sacred prophecy shows that we are now in
“the time of the end,” spoken of by Daniel, and evidenced by the running to and
fro and general increase of knowledge. More than this the unfolding of spiritual and
Scriptural truths is also referred to in that prophecy, in the statement that “the
wise shall understand.” We should distinguish between the wisdom of this world (much
of which is at this time to be proved foolishness) and the wisdom from above; and
recognize that the truly wise are those humble ones who are willing to be “taught of
God” through the Scriptures.
It is this
knowledge of the Divine Plan which the Bible so abundantly affords that many thousands
today need, who are on the wrong track and who are fast losing whatever portion of truth
they ever had on the Gospel of the Cross of Christ, and are laying hold upon a false
gospel of Evolution, which is not another gospel, but merely a human speculation
and radically in opposition to the Divine revelation.
In
consideration of the foregoing lines of testimony we realize more fully the proper claim
that the Scriptures have to credibility. We have a deeper love and reverence for the Bible
as the Word of God than we ever before had, and are thoroughly forearmed against modern
infidelity in the form of Evolution and Higher Criticism. Otherwise the bold assertions of
present-day scholarship, that Isaiah wrote nothing beyond the twenty-eighth chapter of the
Bible-book which bears his name, and similar statements respecting other portions of the
Word, might indeed have unsettled our confidence in its Divine author ship and
inspiration; but armed with the internal evidences of the truth of the Scriptures which is
clearly manifest today, our faith can rest secure and unassailable.
Now we can
see that the claims of these worldly-wise professors, Higher Critics, that our Lord and
the Apostles in their various quotations from the twenty-ninth chapter of Isaiah, and
onward, erred in saying that they were written by Isaiah; whereas they were written by
some other and unknown writer-these claims, so far from causing us now to lose confidence
in the wisdom and inspiration of our Lord and the Apostles, and in general in the Bible,
have quite a contrary effect; they cause us to utterly lose confidence in worldly wisdom,
and the more firmly to rely on the wisdom which cometh from above, so that we are enabled
to see in this very matter of Higher ‘Criticism a fulfillment of Isaiah’s
prophecy, “The wisdom of their wise men shall perish.” -- Isa. 29:14.
The boast is
frequently made that the scholarship of the world is arrayed on the side of Evolution; but
those who make such statements are certainly most ill advised, no matter what their
profession or official standing may be. From the claims that scholarly men and all of high
authority are Evolutionists we not only dissent, but declare that the very opposite is
more nearly the truth. The evidence at hand at present establishes the assertion that the
world’s ablest, philosophers and scientists with few exceptions are not supporters
but many of them are assailants of Evolution. Let us note a few statements from some whose
standing and authority in matters of scientific research are not questioned:
At a meeting
of the Victoria Philosophical Institute not very long ago it was stated that “‘a
careful analysis had been undertaken by Professor Stokes. F. R. S., Sir J. R. Bennett,
Vice-Pres. R. S., Professor Beale, F. R. S., and others, of the various theories of
Evolution, and it was reported that, as yet, no scientific evidence had been met with
giving countenance to the theory that man had been evolved from a lower order of animals;
and Professor Virchow had declared that there was a complete absence of any fossil type of
a lower stage in the development of man; and that any positive advance in the province of
prehistoric anthropology has actually removed us further from proofs of such connection,
namely with the rest of the animal kingdom. In this, Professor Barraude, the great
palaeontologist,had concurred, declaring that in none of his investigations had he found
any one fossil species develop. into another. In fact, it would seem that no scientific
man had yet discovered a link between man and the ape, between fish and frog, or between
the vertebrate and the invertebrate animals; further, there was no evidence of any one
species, fossil or other, losing its peculiar characteristics to acquire nervy ones
belonging to other species; for instance, however similar the dog to the wolf, there was
no connecting link; and among extinct species the same was the case; there was no gradual
passage from one to another. Moreover, the first animals that existed on the earth were by
no means to be considered as inferior or degraded.”
We quote
briefly from Sir J. W. Dawson, LL.D., F. R. S., from his summary of his recent findings
respecting “The Meeting Place of Geology and History.” He says:
“We
have found no link of derivation connecting man with the lower animals which preceded him.
He appears before us as a new departure in creation, without any direct relation to the
instinctive life of the lower animals. The earliest men are no less men than their
descendants, and up to the extent of their means, inventors, innovators, and introducers
of new modes of life, just as much as they. We have not even been able as yet to trace man
back to the harmless golden age [of Paradise]. As we find him in the caves and gravels he
is already a fallen man, out of harmony with his environment and the foe of his fellow
creatures, contriving against them instruments of destruction more fatal than those
furnished ‘by nature to the carnivorous wild beasts . . . . Man, as to his body, is
confessedly an animal, of the earth earthy. He is also a member of the province
vertebrata, and the class mammalia; but in that class he constitutes not only a direct
species and genus, but even a distinct family, or order. In other words, he is the sole
species of his genus, and of his family, or order. He is thus separated by a great gap
from all the animals nearest to him; and even if we admit the doctrine, as yet unproved,
of the derivation of one species from another in the case of lower animals, we are unable
to supply the ‘missing links’ which would be required to connect man with any
group of inferior animals . . . . No fact of science is more certainly established than
the recency of man in geological time. Not only do we find no trace of his remains in the
older geological formations, but we find no remains of the animals nearest to him, and the
conditions of the world in those periods seem to unfit it for the residence of man. If,
following the usual geological system, we divide the whole history of the earth into four
great periods, extending from the oldest rocks known to us, the eozoic, or archaean, up to
the modern, we, find remains of man, or his works, only in the latest of the four, and in
the latter part of this. In point of fact, there is no indisputable proof of the presence
of man until we reach the early modern period . . . . There is but one species of man,
though many races and varieties; and these races, or varieties, seem to have developed
themselves at a very early time, and have shown a remarkable fixity in their later
discovery . . . . The history in Genesis has anticipated modern history. This ancient book
is in every way trustworthy, and as remote as possible from the myths and legends of
ancient heathenism.”
Prof.
Pasteur, the great bacteriologist, was an outspoken opponent of Darwinism, and expressed
himself as follows:
“Posterity
will one day laugh at the foolishness of the modern materialistic philosophers. The more I
study nature, the more I stand amazed at the works of the Creator. I pray while I am
engaged in my work in the laboratory.”
Virchow, the
Russian savant, though not a professed Christian, was similarly opposed to the Darwinian
theory of the development of organic beings from inorganic, and declared: “Any
attempt to find the transition from animal to man has ended in a total failure. The middle
link has not been found and will not be found. Man is not descended from the ape. It has
been proved beyond a doubt that during the past five thousand years there has been no
noticeable change in mankind.”
Quoting from
a recent publication “Collapse of Evolution,” we have the following:
“Professor
C. C. Everett, also of Harvard, though better drilled in literature than science; is such
a careful observer and extensive reader that his words may be allowed considerable weight.
Speaking of Evolution he says:
“‘If
in the past those ranks of beings ever rose and moved in procession along the upward
slope, each passing, by no matter how slow a step, out of its own limitations, and in
itself, or in its posterity entered upon a larger life, it was (before the eyes of man
were opened to them. No searching of his awakened powers can detect, even among the
remains of an unknown antiquity, any glimpse of the great movement while in progress of
accomplishment. All, as he looks upon it, is as fixed as the sphinx, that slumbers on the
Egyptian sands: All this story of transformation and activity is a dream.’
“Of
earlier date such very eminent scientists as Louis Agassiz, Joseph Henry,. John William
Dawson, and Arnold Guyot pronounced Evolution false and unscientific.
“The
late Professor Agassiz, who still ranks second to no man in his mastery of the scientific
method, in his “Outline of Comparative Physiology,” defends with great ability
and. learning the theory of the successive supernatural creation of the higher organisms.
“In one
of his later papers, ‘Methods of Study in Natural History,’ he speaks thus of
Evolution:
“‘As
a paleontologist I have from the beginning stood aloof from this new theory of the
transmutation of species now so widely admitted by the scientific world. Its doctrines in
fact contradict what the animal forms buried in the rocky strata of the earth tell us of
their introduction and succession on the surface of the globe. The theory is a scientific
mistake, untrue in its facts, unscientific in its methods, and mischievous in its
tendency. . . There is not a fact known to science tending to show that any being in the
natural process of reproduction and multiplication has ever, diverged from the course
natural to its kind, or that a single kind has ever been transmuted into any other.’
“Dr.
Joseph Henry, late secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, and Professor Arnold Henry
Guyot, of Princeton University, names that rank with those of any American scientist of
late date, emphatically discredited the theory of Evolution and are to be classed with
Professors Agassiz, Shaler, Dwight, and Everett.
“Dr.
William Hanna Thomson, former president of the New York Academy of Medicine, and one of
the most noted medical men in the country, author of several treaties on medicine and
kindred subjects, among which are ‘What is Physical Life,’ and ‘Wonders of
Biology,’ in which he emphatically rejects the theories of Darwin, Huxley, and
Tyndall on the simple ground that ‘they do not explain anything.’ Speaking as a
medical scientist he says:
“‘The
Darwinian theory is now rejected by the majority of biologists as absurdly inadequate,
owing to its, principle being wholly negative. Selection of any kind does not produce
anything, but only chooses between that which already exists. Evolution never was a cause
of anything. It is almost pathetic to read how Huxley and Darwin, in their day, fancied
that. because the primate homo – man -- was so well in keeping with the Evolution of
the other primates, therefore they had scientifically accounted for man. It is absurd to
rank man among the animals. His so-called fellow-animals, the primates -- gorilla, arong,
and chimpanzee -- can do nothing truly human:
“Dr.
Leavitt, Ex-president of Lehigh University, recently had this to say: ‘All the facts
of the past cycles of the earth are against Darwinism. Protoplasm evolving a universe is a
superstition more pitiable than the paganism which worshiped the image of Diana as the
mother of creation.”‘
Many other
scientists and naturalists might be cited who have raised their voices against the
Darwinian views.
In view of
these facts how foolish appear the occasional essays of “Doctors” or
“Professors” who feign learning by discussing “missing links” or
suggesting that the little toes of human feet are becoming useless and; will soon be
“dropped by nature” as “monkey tails have already ‘been dropped.”
Have we not mummies well preserved,. nearly four thousand years old? Have we not
life-sized nude statuary nearly as old? Are tails shown on any of these? Are their little
toes anywise different from ours of today? Is. not the whole tendency of all nature
downward? With plants and the lower animals is not man’s wisdom and aid necessary to
the maintenance of highest types? And with men is not the grace of God necessary to his
uplift, and to hinder gross degeneracy such as we see in “Darkest Africa”? And
is not this in accord with Scripture? -- Rom. 1:21, 24, 28.
It is
appropriate that the Lord’s people keep well in mind the caution bestowed on Timothy
by the Apostle Paul: “O Timothy, . . . avoid profane and vain babblings and
oppositions of science falsely so-culled.” (1 Tim. 6:20.) To see any truth clearly we
must look from the standpoint of the Divine revelation. We must “See light in His
light.” Then looking abroad through nature under the guidance of nature’s God,
the effect will be to expand both heart and intellect, and to fill us with admiration and
adoration as we catch panoramic glimpses of the glory, majesty, and power of our Almighty
Creator.
1925 Index
|