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All Are Debtors To Grace Divine
"Who maketh thee to differ from another? And what hast thou that thou
didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as though
thou hadst not received it?"—1Co 4:7.
Evolutionists and Higher Critics in
their so-called "New Theology" would apply our text to what they
denominate the "ascent of man." They tell us that the first man was
second cousin to a monkey, and that all the progress that has since been made
by the various races of mankind is so much to be thankful for and to be proud
of.
According to their theory each generation receives from the preceding one
additional blessings, and thus the world is going onward and upward to
wonderful heights, mental, moral and physical. But we cannot agree with this
theory, and find the Bible story much more consistent with the facts of the
case.
The Bible records and revelations teach the fall of man from original
perfection and likeness to his Creator through disobedience—a disobedience
which has been accentuated in proportion to the degree of alienation from the
Creator. The Bible shows us also a measure of recovery or ascent of man from
the depths of his degradation proportionately to his attainment of a knowledge
of his Creator and his rendering of obedience to the Creator’s laws. Our text
fits well to this, the Scriptural teaching from Genesis to Revelation. Man’s
original perfection was a gift from his Creator. His sin was of his own
voluntary opposition to the Divine will, and any progress made by any member of
the race has been in proportion as he has received of the Lord’s favor and
accepted the same. "What hast thou that thou didst not receive?" Let
us inquire further of the Word of God and of history, Who maketh us to differ
from others? Let
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us see whether or not we are different by reason of a process of evolution or
different because of having received more of the grace of God.
ADAM NOT A CHIMPANZEE’S COUSIN
Those who have accepted the Evolution theory instead of the Bible record seem
to be so infatuated with it that they deceive themselves into believing a lie.
They sometimes give the public to understand that there is but a slight
difference between the lowest, most degraded member of the human family and the
highest development of the brute creation, when, as a matter of fact, they well
know that this is not true. They know that there is a wide difference indeed.
They assure us that there is but one missing link to be found; but the informed
ones among them well know that the missing link is a very long one.
Several skulls have been found which these wise men tell us belong to periods
hundreds of thousands of years before Adam’s time, as Scripturally marked. But
while disputing the age of these relics and denying that there ever was a man
before the first man, Adam of the Scriptures, we ask these sages to account for
the fact that every one of those skulls they exhibit as antiques shows a brain
capacity and cavity larger than that of the average man of today. How will they
explain this, in view of the fact that the brain space of the most developed
ape is little more than one-half as large as the brain space of the least
developed among men today? Do not these facts upset their entire theory and
show that the average of human brain capacity has been decreasing instead of
increasing? Do they not know also that statistics recently published in Great
Britain show that the sizes of hats worn by Englishmen have considerably
decreased within the last century? If it is necessary to establish some
relationship between man and the ape (which we deny), would it not be fair to
suppose, as one scientist of Europe has recently done, that the apes are
degenerate members
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of the human family? Is it not safe for the man of average information and
reasoning faculties to doubt the wisdom of these scientists who guess on both
sides of the question and who reserve to themselves the right to change their
guesses frequently, and who show the wildness of their unreason by
discrepancies of millions of years in the guesses as to the time the first man
appeared on the earth?
The "common people," who heard Jesus gladly and who still listen for
the message of the Great Shepherd, will feel much safer and be much wiser if
they will give heed only to the Divine Word on this subject. It speaks in no
uncertain terms; and its theory is not self-contradictory, but safe and sane.
It tells of man’s original creation in the image and likeness of God. It explains
that the fall of the race from that perfection was proportionate to the
alienation from God. The Apostle explains the whole situation in few words,
saying, "When they knew God they glorified Him not as God, neither were
thankful, but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was
darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became foolish, and changed
the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible
man and of birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. Wherefore God gave
them up in the lusts of their hearts unto uncleanness, that their bodies should
be dishonored among themselves. And even as they refused to have God in their
knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind to do those things which were
not fitting."—Ro 1:21-28.
CHANGE FOR WORSE—CHANGE FOR BETTER
Does not the Apostle’s inspired record of the influence of godlessness toward
obscenity and degradation agree well with all that we surely know from our own
experiences with the race and from the records of history?
They surely do! They are satisfactory to those who are
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in a right attitude of mind, but nothing is satisfactory to those who are in a
quibbling attitude and seeking to ignore a personal God and man as His
handiwork. The Apostle’s argument is strengthened when we look at the reverse
side and consider the effect of God’s truth and grace wherever it has touched
and glanced throughout the world during the ages marked by the Scriptures and
since.
For instance, consider the moral, physical and intellectual state of the world
in Abraham’s day. We do not go further back, because little information is
furnished us in the Scriptures respecting the epoch before the Flood, and
little after the Flood until we come to Abraham, who under the call from God
became a sojourner in the land of Canaan, while Shem, the son of Noah, was
still living.
If the theory of Evolution were correct, Abraham would have been a short remove
from a chimpanzee. But what do we find was his character? The Scriptural record
tells of his various weaknesses as well as of his good qualities, and thereby
shows itself to be an unbiased, truthful narrative.
Its story dignifies Abraham as a most wonderful man, full of faith in God to
the extent that his character is still in many respects a model even for
Christians. His dealings with his nephew Lot show him to have been a most just
and honorable man. His management of extensive flocks and herds, with 318
trained male servants, shows him to have been a man of affairs, with a
considerably larger capacity for management than the average man of today. His
pursuit of and defeat of the army which had captured Sodom and taken its
valuables as spoils and its people as prisoners, including Lot, Abraham’s
nephew, showed a generalship on Abraham’s part of no mean order, and a skill
among his trained servants which places them also on a plane of intelligence
far removed from that of monkeys.
Moreover, Abraham’s dealing with the spoils—his refusal to accept any portion
of them for himself—indicates a length, breadth, height and depth of intellect
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and of character far beyond that of the majority of farmers, cattlemen and
generals even of this, our day.
Furthermore, recent excavations in Babylonian ruins have brought to light the
fact that among that people there was a high degree of civilization prevalent
at that time; that goods were bought and sold by measure and for money; that
accounts were kept much after the manner of the present time among the most
civilized, and far away beyond what we find among the heathen races of our
time. Further, we have connected with the history of Abraham a glance at the
character of the King of Egypt, which shows that the latter was governed by
high principles of honor, justice and morality in his dealings with Abraham and
Sarah, his wife—principles so noble that we fear they could not be matched by
one-half the princes and rulers of our day.—Ge 20:9-11.
GOD MADE ISRAEL TO DIFFER
The children of Abraham are still to be found—the Arabs of the desert, the sons
of Ishmael; the Hebrews, the sons of Isaac. Do we find that any process of
evolution has brought the children of Abraham to a higher, nobler standard,
mental, moral or physical, than we see illustrated in him? Surely not! Let us
look at God’s dealings. He declared to Abraham that He would take his posterity
through Isaac and accomplish through them a work which eventually would bless
and uplift the entire human family of every nation, of every race. But as
though to show us that He was not dependent upon natural evolution for the
development of the Jewish people God allowed that nation to go into a kind of
slavery or serfdom to the Egyptians. After a long period of such serfdom the
Lord brought them forth under the lead of Moses, who unquestionably was a great
leader, a great general, a good man, as well as the meekest of men. He was a
man that any nation in the world might be proud of today. Surely evolution has
not developed the race
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up to the standard of this son of a serf. The Law given at Sinai has served as
the basis in the formulating of all laws since, and its brief, succinct
statement, given in Le 19:18, and in #De 6:5, is still the standard of all law
among the wisest and best people of earth, namely, "Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy mind, with all thy being, with
all thy strength"; and "thou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself."—Mt 22:40.
True, the people of Israel, surrounded by examples of idolatry and immorality,
frequently slipped back from their covenant relationship to the Lord and their
endeavors to keep the Divine Law, yet on the whole that nation ultimately
became in some respects the greatest and wisest in the world under the
administrations of David and Solomon. True, that nation passed under a cloud
and lost special Divine favor when they rejected the Messiah, yet even now the
influences of the Divine Promises and Law make them still a great people, so
that while without national existence, scattered among all the nations of the
earth, they wield an influence in finance and in literature second to none
other. Unquestionably they were made to differ from other men by reason of
God’s dealings with them and promises to them. In proportion to their faith and
obedience to the Lord they have had a blessing.—Ro 3:1-3; De 4:5-9.
HOW CHRISTIANS DIFFER ALSO
But we are not to judge of the blessing upon Israel from the standard of those
who had not a sufficiency of faith to accept the Messiah in His day. Rather we
should look to those faithful ones who received Jesus. The twelve chosen by our
Lord from the humbler walks of life to be His Apostles have left their mark in
the world as its benefactors in the very highest sense—next to that of their
Lord, the Redeemer.
When we come to consider the effect of this Gospel of Christ in the world, we
must differentiate between true
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Christians and nominal Christians. The latter are estimated to number 400,000,000
and include both the best and the worst specimens of the human family,
including true Christians. All of this mass have been enlightened more or less
through the teachings of Christ and the Apostles, but only a comparatively
small number of them have received that special blessing to which they were
invited and which does not carry an every-way favorable opinion among men.
Keep in view our argument, based upon the words of our text, "Who hath
made us to differ?" Our claim, supported by the Bible and by history, is
that the degradation which came upon the world through the disobedience and
fall of Adam has been to a considerable extent offset by the grace and truth
which our Lord Jesus brought to light through His Message of Salvation. As the
Jews were blessed by the types and shadows of the Law and the prophetic
messages sent to them, so during this Gospel Age every nation of the world has
been blessed with a measure of enlightenment through the Gospel of Christ—in
proportion as they have received the true Message in its purity and in
proportion as they have responded thereto. But, alas, these two exceptions are
very important ones! Let us consider them: The Message itself has been woefully
corrupted, and that by the very ones who have claimed to rejoice in it and to
be its ministers. The beauty and simplicity of the original Message—that God
was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, imputing their transgressions
to Him who died for us—gradually became warped and twisted into meaning that
the Heavenly Father had been endeavoring to do violence to every principle of
justice and love and to send the entire race of Adam to eternal torment; that
Jesus in love and sympathy had interposed Himself in His endeavor to assist our
race; but that His efforts, including His death, would avail but little to the
majority who have died without so much as hearing of
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the only name given under Heaven and amongst men whereby we must be saved. The
beautiful teaching of God’s Word, that He is now electing or selecting from the
world of mankind a very special class to constitute the Bride, the Lamb’s Wife,
and joint-heir in the Millennial Kingdom which shall bless all the families of
the earth—this has been twisted into a most horrible doctrine.
The false view of Election is that God, in the exercise of a Sovereign
authority, determined to save a handful of our race to show what He could have
done for all if He had so chosen; that He is utterly regardless of the
interests of the non-elect, and has provided no salvation for them, either in
the present or in the future life.
The fate of those who have died outside of the knowledge of Christ, and hence
outside the possibility of salvation through faith in His name, has been
horribly misrepresented, so that to the intelligent thinker the God of Love—who
is working all things according to the counsel of His will—is made to appear a
most terrible demon, lacking in justice and devoid of love, and far inferior to
the most degraded of the human family—not one of whom could be supposed to take
pleasure in the eternal torment of a fellow-creature.—Isa 29:13.
Is it strange that such a perversion of the Message brought forth an evil
fruitage? Is it not true that so surely as a corrupt tree brings forth bad
fruit, so false doctrines will develop bad characters in those who receive
them? Looking back to the Dark Ages we feel a horror as we read of millions who
suffered violent deaths, excruciating tortures, etc., for conscience sake; and
when we are told that these cruelties were inflicted in the name of God and
religion and the Bible, we rightly feel incensed at such a perversion of the
truth, and subsequently we feel a sympathy as we realize that this wrong course
of action resulted from the inculcation of false doctrines—contrary both to the
word and to the spirit of the Bible.
Thus we see that churchianity does not properly represent
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Christ and His teachings and those of the Apostles.
Nevertheless, as we should expect, the letter of Christ’s teachings to some
extent prevails even among those whose conduct indicates that they either never
possessed or had lost the spirit of His teachings—love, joy, peace, meekness,
gentleness, patience, kindness.
"FEAR NOT, LITTLE FLOCK"
The blessing has been in proportion as the people have returned to the true
Message. Apparently a few in every land have been in that attitude of heart
which enabled them to appreciate the spirit of the true Message,
notwithstanding the admixtures of human philosophy and falsehood. Yet these are
but few now or at any time. Speaking of this our Lord Jesus called them a
"little flock," saying, "Fear not, little flock; it is your
Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom." The twelve Apostles were
of this little flock class; and there have been others of this same spirit all
the way down through the ages, mixed in among the tares, among the formalistic
hosts and more or less confused with the false doctrines. These, despite the
errors and despite their own inability, have held to the Scriptural declarations
respecting the justice and love of the Creator and the mercy provided in the
Redeemer. They have ignored the misrepresentation of the Divine Character by
the creeds of the Dark Ages, and have in heart accepted the Lord on the terms
stated by our dear Redeemer: "If any man will be My disciple let him take
up his cross and follow Me."—Lu 9:23; Mt 19:27-29.
Following the letter and spirit of this teaching this class have been willing
to be counted fools for Christ’s sake, and have sought to walk in the footsteps
of Him who has set them an example, to live separate from the world, to live
for God and the Truth and for the blessing of fellowmen.
But so small is the number of these and so insignificant their influence that
they are not recorded among any of the great denominations of the world, but
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are counted as offscourings of all denominations—sometimes pitied, sometimes
scorned. What the Apostle said of such in his day is still true—the world
knoweth us not even as it knew our Lord not. What our Redeemer said of this
class is still true: "Ye are not of the world, even as I am not of the
world. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye
are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the
world hateth you."—Joh 15:19.
But although the world disowns and despises this class it recognizes,
nevertheless, in them what it terms an impractical spirit—because their
conceptions, ambitions and methods are not such as would bring the greatest
prosperity and success in the present time, when sin and selfishness rule in
the world. The world and churchianity have so misconceived the Divine Plan that
whatever is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of the
Lord, while that which is highly esteemed by the Lord is an abomination in the
sight of those who are not in full accord with Him.
"WHO HATH MADE US TO DIFFER?"
We have seen that truth mixed with error has made Christendom to differ from
heathendom, greatly to its advantage in some respects. The teaching of the
Gospel respecting the original equality of the race and respecting the final
accountability of each individual to the Lord alone—to the effect that the rule
of judgment will be the same for prince and peasant, for learned and
unlearned—has had the effect of opening the eyes of the human understanding
along this line, whereas the heathen peoples are still under superstition
respecting classes and castes.
The spirit of liberty thus infused through that measure of the truth which the
world could and did receive has worked marvelous reformations of one kind and
another wherever the Message of the Gospel has gone. The common people have
grasped the thought that "A man’s a man for a’ that," and to some
extent have grasped the
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thought that opportunity and education and mental power have established the
rulerships of this world, but that these have neither power nor influence
respecting the life to come, when all will be on a common level before the
judgment seat of Christ. The little of truth which Christendom has received
therefore has been liberating and uplifting and enlightening and destructive to
ignorance and superstition. But Christendom has not been prepared to receive
other features of God’s Message, "speaking peace through Jesus
Christ." They have not received the invitation to make a full consecration
of their hearts to the Divine will and service and to walk in the footsteps of
Jesus. Consequently they have not received the full benefit and blessing which
they might have had.
In other words, they have developed along the lines of love and liberty, while
they have not developed along the lines of consecration and realization of
responsibility to God. As a consequence we are rapidly approaching a time when
these poorly balanced conditions will mean the wreck of our present
civilization. Growth in liberty, independence, etc., in connection with growth
in selfishness, is liberty working out a condition of things which the
Scriptures portray in respect to the closing of this age, in which—throughout
Christendom especially—every man’s hand will be against his neighbors.
Selfishness gone to seed will bring forth anarchy, the overthrow of all human
government and restraints, the precipitation of the most awful trouble the
world has ever known. Here we have an illustration of the danger of liberty
while selfishness is the motive power. The essence of the Lord’s message being
rejected, the consequences will be disastrous. The greater the light the
greater the responsibility; the higher the elevation the greater the fall. This
is the sad picture which the Scriptures give of our present civilization.
"Churchianity"—which lacks of the Spirit of the Lord, the spirit of
love—will wreck itself on its own intelligence because of its own spirit of
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selfishness. A measure of truth made "Christendom" to differ from
heathendom, and the result will be that in the collapse the most favored will
sustain the greatest injury.
But what about the Little Flock, the true Christians, who not only appreciate
their liberty, freedom from ignorance and superstition, but who accept the
Lord’s Message in full, and by consecration of their all take up their cross to
follow the dear Redeemer, not living merely for the present joys, comforts and
honors, but chiefly for the Father’s will to be done—what about these? Ah!
theirs is a peculiar case, difficult for many to comprehend.
As the Master said to them, "In the world ye shall have tribulation, but
be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." So it is also that the world
understands them not and thinks of them merely as a class of foolish persons
who have no joy, no happiness, no pleasure in life.
On the contrary, these well know that they have more pleasure, more joy, more
happiness than have their friends, because there is a peace of God which
passeth understanding ruling in their hearts. They not only joy and rejoice in
the future prospect—in a hope of a share in the First Resurrection and the
glory, honor and immortality then to be given to the Elect, but are happy in
present trials, difficulties and oppositions.— Ro 5:3-5.
Ah, this is the secret of true peace and true joy—the love of God, the promises
of God, the realization from God’s Word that present trials and difficulties
are all working together for good to them that love Him, to all called ones
according to His purpose—preparing them for the glory, honor, blessing and
usefulness of the future—of the Millennium and after! These have learned not to
care so much for the smiles or frowns of the world, as they once did. They look
beyond for the smile of their Heavenly Lord and Bridegroom, and are happy,
while by the eye of faith they discern that, no matter what their earthly
conditions may be, they rejoice in the privilege of serving their Master and
His cause.
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"WHAT HAVE WE THAT WE HAVE NOT
RECEIVED?"
And in these words of our text there is a thought which should help us toward
humility, one of the graces of the Lord’s Spirit, without which, He tells us,
we could never be acceptable to Him as joint-heirs with our dear Redeemer in
His glorious Kingdom that is to bless the world of mankind very soon. Do we not
see it to be true, as the Apostle expressed it, that everything that we
possess—every quality of character and of its development—has come to us from
the Lord; that we ourselves originated nothing whatever of which we could boast
or of which we could be proud?—1Co 4:7.
Looking back into the remote past we find that our forefathers were heathen
savages, and that the Lord sent to them some measure of the Gospel light. They
were blessed in proportion as they received it into good and honest hearts.
Coming down we find the blessings of civilization following this Gospel of
light, truth and grace.
And in our own individual cases we
realize that we were favorably born, and that in the Word of God we have the
power of God for the transformation of the character; and that our own work in
connection with this has been so inspired and enthused by the Lord’s promises
that we see, as the Scriptures tell us, that God has been working in us to will
and to do His good pleasure by these promises and instructions furnished us
through the Scriptures. Our justification through faith in the precious blood
is surely not of ourselves, but of the Lord, who provided the sacrifice and who
has given us the blessed anointing of the eyes of our understanding that we
might see Jesus as the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. It
was favor upon favor that we were granted an appreciation of the privilege of
presenting our bodies living sacrifices, and of thus becoming disciples of
Christ and followers in His footsteps, that eventually we might attain unto the
First Resurrection and become members of the Bride, the Lamb’s Wife.
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