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CALAMITIES -- WHY PERMITTED
"EXCEPT
YE REPENT, YE SHALL ALL LIKEWISE PERISH."
"There
were present at that season some who told him of the Galilaeans,
whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus
answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were
sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things?
I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
"Or,
those eighteen, upon whom the tower of Siloam fell, and slew them,
think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in
Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all
likewise perish."--Luke
13:1-5.
Noble
and good in the sight of both God and man are the generous impulses,
of charity and sympathy, awakened by great calamities in recent
years. And when this is said, it leaves little more of good to be
said favorable to calamities or their influence.
While
these charities should not be misconstrued to signify that God's
consecrated saints are rapidly multiplying--for many of the
charitable are not the consecrated, and some are even infidels,--yet
they are an evidence that at least some of the original God-likeness
of our race remains; that it has not been wholly obliterated by the
degradation of the fall, nor wholly poisoned by the bad theology of
the dark ages. While we live in perhaps as selfish and money-loving a
period as any known to history, yet millions of dollars are
generously poured forth to aid suffering humanity. And yet many who
in times of calamitous distress show that they have a tender spot,
somewhere, in their hearts, would and do at other times lend time and
brain and skill to the arts of war, and in designing the most
horrible implements of warfare; and on occasions when bitter passions
are aroused would relentlessly and pitilessly slaughter a thousand
times as many as the accidents of nature. Yet, for all this showing
of the two elements in the same men, we rejoice [R1124 : page 3] that the God-like element of sympathy exists as a partial offset
to the devilish qualities of selfishness and heartlessness, which,
under the degrading influence of man's fallen state, have grown
strong during the past six thousand years.
Preparatory
to looking carefully, reasonably and Scripturally at the question of
why does God permit calamities, let us note some of the absurd views
of some Christian people, who should know God's Word and character
much better than they seem to. Some whose hearts overflow with
sympathy and God-like love in the presence of great calamities (which
proves their hearts better and more sound than their theology),
declare that God is the director and cause of all disasters and
troubles. Hence whatever men may do to alleviate such distresses
would, according to this false view, be so much done in opposition to
God; and whatever love and sympathy they feel, is as much sentiment
opposed to God's sentiments, --which are thus made to appear
malicious.
But
the hideousness of such a character, as is thus ascribed to the God
of love, is intensified, when the same good, tender-hearted, but
wrong-headed, Papacy-deluded people (whose theology was formed in the
"dark ages" when the Bible doctrines concerning God's
character and plan had become over-grown with papal superstition and
human tradition), tell us their faith in God and their view of
his character, is that, He not only looks without pity or sympathy
upon man's present calamities and distresses, and fore-ordained them,
but that he has furthermore fore-ordained and made fullest
preparation for engulfing the vast majority of his creatures in a
calamity in comparison with which all the horrors of all earth's
calamities united in one would be nothing;--but mere preludes to that
most awful, indescribable torment, which would be wholly
unendurable, but that God with fiendish cruelty will perpetuate life
under such awful conditions, forever and forever, in order to have
them suffer, and will never relieve them. And why? Simply
because, when told that such was God's character and plan, they would
not love him, nor praise as good and just such a plan; or because
millions of others had died in ignorance of the Lord Jesus, through
faith in whom, alone, any can be acceptable before God.
It
is surprising that any who possess the spirit of God, to any extent,
can thus blaspheme his holy name? It is surprising that they
do not know more of the character of the Creator than this, even
without the Bible testimony to his character of love and justice, to
advise them of his plan in Christ for blessing all the
families of the earth; the declaring of which plan constitutes the
"good tidings of great joy [not of eternal torment] which
shall be unto all people." Verily, God is more villified by many
of his children than by the infidel world. And yet, how strange! the
very Bible which declares God's true character of love and justice,
they have been led to consider as the authority for these devilish
doctrines and false interpretation of our Lord's parables and of the
symbols of the book of Revelation, originated by those who during the
"dark ages" used to burn and torment Bible believers.
GOD'S
LOVE--HOW SHOWN.
When
we declare that whatever there is of love and sympathy in man, is
only the remnant of the original divine likeness, in which Adam was
created, not wholly effaced by six thousand years of degradation in
sin, it at once raises the question: In what way does God manifest
his sympathy and love in such emergencies, when even the hearts of
fallen human beings are touched, with sympathy and love, to acts of
kindness and succor?
A
correct answer is, that God is represented in every act of kindness
done, whether by his children or by the world; because their actions
under such circumstances are the results, in some measure, of his
character and disposition. And yet this answer is not full enough to
be satisfactory. But, thank God, a fuller investigation, in the light
of his Word, reveals a boundless sympathy on God's part,-- providing
also an abundant succor, which is shortly to be revealed.
But
why does not God immediately succor his creatures from calamities?
Or, to go still farther back, why does he who has all wisdom to know
and all power to prevent, permit calamities,--cyclones, earthquakes,
tidal-waves, destructive floods, pestilences, etc.? And while we are
about it, we may as well include all the evils which God could, if he
would, prevent --all the forms of sickness and pain and death; every
form of destruction-- wars, murders, etc.; every thing which causes
pain or trouble to those willing to do and be in harmony with God?
The answer to one of these questions will be the answer to every
question on the subject; for all human evils are related and have a
common source or cause.
To
fully comprehend this cause, we must go far back, to the very
beginning of sickness, pain, death and sorrow,--to the Garden of
Eden, where neither famine, pestilence, cyclones, earthquakes, nor
death in any form was permitted; where man and his surroundings and
conditions were pronounced "very good," even by God
himself, and certainly greatly appreciated by man, who had to be
driven out and prevented from returning by the fiery
sword which kept the way of access to the life-sustaining fruits of
the trees of the garden.
How
came it that the Creator, who so graciously provided for the life and
comfort of his creatures, and who communed with them and gave them
his blessing and the promise of everlasting life upon the sole
condition of continued obedience, should so change in his attitude
toward his creatures, as to drive them from the enjoyments of those
Eden comforts and blessings, out into the unprepared earth-- to toil
and weariness and insufficient sustenance, and thus to death?
We
must remember that only the Garden of Eden was "prepared,"
and fit for man's comfortable enjoyment of the favor of life. The
preparation of the whole earth for man, requiring in a natural way
seven thousand years more to entirely fit it for the habitation of
perfect, obedient, human children of God, the Creator specially or
miraculously prepared the Garden of Eden in advance merely as a fit
place for Adam's trial. God foresaw the fall of his creature, and
provided that the penalty for sin, "dying thou shalt die,"
instead of being suddenly inflicted as by a lightning stroke, or
other speedy method, should be served out gradually by conflict with
the unfavorable conditions (of climate, sterility of soil, storms,
miasms, thorns, weeds, etc.,) of the as yet unprepared earth.
Adam
and Eve, therefore, went forth from Eden convicts, under sentence of
death; self-convicted under the most just of all judges, their
Creator and friend. The convicts esteemed it a mercy to be let die
gradually rather than suddenly; while to the Creator and judge this
was expedient because of a plan he had for their future, in which
such experience with imperfect conditions would be of great value;--a
plan for the increase of the race, and for its discipline and final
redemption and restoration.
The
death penalty, inflicted in this manner, God foresaw would furnish
man, through experience, such a lesson on the exceeding sinfulness of
sin and its baneful results as would never need to be repeated; --a
lesson, therefore, which will profit all who learn it to all
eternity; especially when Christ's Millennial reign of righteousness
shall manifest in contrast the fruits of righteousness: God also
designing that the exercise of man's mental faculties in coping with
the disturbances and imperfections of his surroundings and in
inventing reliefs, and the exercise of his moral faculties in
combating his own weaknesses, and the calls upon his sympathy should
prove beneficial.
Had
the sentence of God (in addition to a loss of Eden's comforts and
experience with sin and death,) condemned his creatures to an
eternity of torment and anguish, as so many now believe and teach,
who could defend such a sentence, or call the Judge just, or loving,
or in any sense good? Surely no one of a sound mind!
But
when it is seen that the Scriptures teach that death (extinction), and not life in torment, was the penalty pronounced and
inflicted, all is reasonable. God has a right to demand perfect
obedience from his perfect creature when placed under perfect
conditions, as in Adam's case. And the decree that none shall live
everlastingly except the perfect, is both a wise and a just
provision for the everlasting welfare of all God's creatures.
There
is a depth of meaning in the Creator's words, as he sent forth his
fairly tried and justly condemned creatures, among the thorns and
briars, to labor and pain, and sorrow, and disease, and to be subject
to the casualties and calamities of nature's unfinished work. He
said:-- "Cursed is the ground FOR THY SAKE:" i.e., the earth in general is in its present imperfect condition for
your profit and experience; even though you may not esteem it so.
Adam would have sought to retain continual access to the garden
fruits, to avoid severe labor and to enable him to fully sustain his
vital powers and live forever; but in loving consideration for man's
ultimate good, no less than in justice, and in respect of his own
sentence of death, God prevented this and guarded the way back to the
garden, in order that the death sentence should not fail of
execution, in order that sinners should not live forever and thus
perpetuate sin.
The
children of the condemned pair inherited their fall, imperfections
and weaknesses, and also the penalties of these; for "who can
bring a clean thing out of an unclean?" The whole race,
therefore, [R1125 : page 3] as convict laborers, have not only
been learning what sin and evil are, and their undesirable results,
but by their labor and skill they are serving to prepare the earth
and bring it as a whole to the full perfection designed for it, and
illustrated in the condition of Eden--ready for a further purpose of
God of which none but his children (and not all of them) are made
aware through the Scriptures.
We
can see, then, that labor and toil were prescribed for man's good.
They have kept him so employed that he could not plan and consummate
evil to the same extent that he otherwise would have done. And as the
earth becomes more fertile, approaching perfection, man's vitality
becomes less; so that now, with greater leisure to plot and scheme
and grow wise in evil, the period of life in which to do so is
shorter. What a mercy in disguise present shortness of life is, under
present circumstances. Were some of our "shrewd business men"
who accumulate millions of money, and grasp great power, in a few
short years, to live 930 years, as Adam did, what might we expect but
that one man, or at most a syndicate or trust, would own every foot
of land, control every drop of water and every breath of air, and
have the rest of the race for their dupes and slaves?
God's action, then, in
exposing his creatures to death, pain and various calamities, it must
first of all be seen, was one which related only to his present
life on
earth, and to no other; for of any continuance of life, in any other
locality, God did not give him the slightest intimation. On the
contrary, the words of the [R1125
: page 4] penalty
were, "Dust thou
art, and unto dust shalt thou
return,"--"dying
thou shalt die."--Gen.
3:19; 2:17,
margin.
True,
God gave promise that, somehow and at some time, a son of the woman
should accomplish a deliverance. But it was vague and indefinite
then, merely a glimmer of hope, to show them that though God dealt
severely with them, and on lines of law and justice, he yet
sympathized with them, and would, ultimately, without violating
justice or ignoring his own righteous sentence of death, bring
them succor.
Paul
tells us that God adopted a method for the recovery of man, from that
original sentence of death which came upon all as the result of
Adam's fall, which would show the justice of his sentence and
the unchangeableness of his decrees, and yet permit such as
are sick of sin to use their experience wisely, and to return to
harmony and obedience to their Creator and his just and reasonable
laws and regulations.
This
divine plan, by which God could remain just and unchangeable in his
attitude toward sin and sinners, and yet release the well-disposed
from the penalty of sin (death and disfavor), is stated by the
Apostle in Rom.
3:24-26.
In brief, this plan
provided that another man who, by obedience to the law of God, should
prove his worthiness of eternal life, might, by the willing sacrifice
of the life to which he was thus proved worthy, redeem the forfeited
life of Adam and of his posterity who lost life through him; for it
is written, "In Adam all die," and "By the offence of
one sentence of condemnation came on all men."--1
Cor. 15:22; Rom.
5:12,18.
Since the condemnation to
death was thus upon all men, and since another man newly created and
inexperienced as Adam was, though just as favorably situated, would
have been similarly liable to fall, God devised the marvelous plan of
transferring his only begotten Son from the spiritual to the human
nature, and thus provided a man fit for sacrifice-- "the man
Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransom for all;" "who, though he was rich [though he was possessed
of glory and honor and riches of wisdom and power above both angels
and men], nevertheless for our sakes became poor [humbling himself to
a lower nature, even as a man, becoming obedient even unto death]
that we through his poverty might be made rich."--1
Tim. 2:5; 2
Cor. 8:9.
Thus the one first created, "the firstborn of all creation" (Col.
1:15),
"the beginning of the creation of God" (Rev.
3:14),
the one who had known God's character longer, more fully and more
intimately than any other being, the one in fact who had been
Jehovah's chief and honored, intelligent and active agent in the
creation of angels as well as of men, the one by whom all things were
made, and aside from whom not anything was made (John
1:3; Col.
1:16,17)
--this great being, Jehovah's Prime Minister, and next to himself in
dignity, the Almighty entrusted with the great work of redeeming and
restoring mankind.
To
redeem them would cost the sacrifice of his own life as their
ransom-price, with all that that implied of suffering and
self-denial. To restore them (such of them as shall prove
worthy--whosoever wills,) will require the exercise of divine
power to open the prison-house of death, and to break the fetters of
sin and prejudice and superstition, and give to all the redeemed the
fullest opportunity to decide whether they love good or evil,
righteousness or sin, truth or error, and to destroy all who love and
work iniquity, and to develop and perfect again all who love and
choose life upon its only condition--righteousness.
To know the Father's plan
and his privilege of co-operation in its execution, was to appreciate
it and joyfully engage therein. Willingly our Lord Jesus laid aside
the glory of the higher nature which he had had with the Father from
before the creation of man. (John
17:5; 2
Cor. 8:9.)
He was "made flesh" (John
1:14; Heb.
2:14),
became a man at thirty years of age, and then began the great work of
sacrifice, the sacrifice of himself, a perfect man, for the
cancellation of the sin of the first man, to recover Adam and his
race by dying on their behalf, as their Redeemer. By giving to
Justice the price of their liberty from divine condemnation, he secured the legal right
to cancel the sentence of condemnation to death against them, and
hence the right to resurrect or restore to life and to all the lost
estate and blessings, "whomsoever he wills." (Rev.
22:17.)
And he wills to restore all who shall prove worthy. And to prove who
are worthy will be the object of the Millennial reign.--1
Tim. 2:4; 2
Pet. 3:9.
This fact that our Lord's
mission to earth at the first advent was to undo for the race,
legally, the results of Adam's transgression, and to secure the right to resurrect them and restore them, is clearly stated by the
Apostle.--See, Rom.
5:5-12, 16-19,21; 1
Cor. 15:21-24.
Though tempted in all
points like as we (his "brethren") are, he ignored his own
will (Luke
22:42; John
4:34; 5:30)
and all suggestions from others contrary to God's plan (Matt.
16:23; Luke
4:4,8,12),
and obeyed God implicitly. And therein lay the secret of his success.
Temptations did not overcome him, as they did even the perfect man
Adam, because of the fulness of his consecration to the divine will
and plan; and this fulness of consecration and trust was the result
of his intimate knowledge of the Father and his unbounded confidence in his wisdom, love and
power. He had recollection of his previous existence as a spirit
being with the Father. (John
17:5; 3:12,13.)
Our Lord's success, then, was the result of being rightly exercised
by his knowledge of God; as it is written: "By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, while bearing their
iniquities." --Isa.
53:11.
The
suggestive thoughts here are two: First, that even a perfect man
failed in trial because of the lack of full appreciation of God's
greatness, goodness and resources. Secondly, the knowledge (as
in Satan's case) would be valueless, if unaccompanied by sincere love
and consecration to God's will. A lesson further, to Christ's
"brethren," is, that knowledge and consecration are both essential to their following in the Master's footsteps.
Among men he and his
mission were not really known; even his most ardent followers and
admirers at first supposed that his mission was merely to heal some
of the sick Jews, and to advance their nation to the rulership of a
dying world, and to be a teacher of morals; they saw not at first
that his mission was to lay the foundation of a world-wide empire,
which should not only include the living, but also the dead, of
Adam's race, and which should insure peace and joy everlastingly to
all the worthy, by eradicating, forever, sin and all who love
it after fully comprehending its character in contrast with
righteousness. Even his friends and disciples were slow to realize
these grand dimensions of his work, though he continually repeated
them, and bore witness, saying: "The Son of man came to give his
life a ransom for many;" "Verily, verily, the hour is
coming* when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and
they that hear [obey] shall live." "The Lord hath sent me
to preach deliverance to the captives [of death] and recovering of
sight to the [mentally, morally and physically] blind; to set at
liberty them that are bruised"--injured by the Adamic
fall.--Matt.
20:28; John
5:25; Luke
4:18.
*Sinaitic
MS. omits the words and now is.
The
sacrifice of the Redeemer's all, as man's ransom price, was
offered at the time he was thirty years old--at his baptism. And
there the offering was accepted by Jehovah, as marked by his
anointing with the spirit. Thenceforth, the three and a half years of
his ministry he spent in using up the consecrated life already
offered; and this he completed at Calvary. There the price of
our liberty was paid in full. "It is finished!" It holds
good; it is acceptable by the grace of God, as the offset and
covering for every weakness and sin of the first man, and his
posterity, resulting either directly, or indirectly, from the first
disobedience and fall. All that is necessary since, for a full return
to divine favor and communion, and to an inheritance in the Paradise
of God, which [R1126 : page 4] the great Redeemer in due time
has promised to establish in the entire earth, as at first in the
Garden of Eden, is, a recognition of sin, full repentance, and a
turning from sin to righteousness. Christ will establish
righteousness in the earth by the Kingdom of God, which he has
promised shall be established, and for which he has bidden us wait
and hope, and for which he taught us to pray, "Thy Kingdom come,
Thy will be done on earth even as it is done in heaven."
Under
that blessed and wise rule of Christ as King of nations,* all the
evil, depraved tendencies inherited from the fall and from the six
thousand years of degradation, will be restrained, held in check, by
super-human wisdom, love and power; and all being brought to a clear
knowledge of the truth in its every phase, all will be fairly and
fully tested. The lovers of righteousness will be perfected and given
control of the perfected earth, while those loving unrighteousness
under that clear light of knowledge and experience will, as followers
of Satan's example, be utterly destroyed in the Second Death. The
first death is the destruction to which all were subjected by Adam's
sin, but from which all were redeemed by the Lord Jesus' sacrifice;
and the second death is that destruction which will overtake those
who, though redeemed by Christ from the first death, shall, by their own
wilful conduct, merit and receive death again. This second death means utter
destruction, without hope of another redemption or resurrection; for
Christ dieth no more. Nor could any good reason for their further
trial be assigned; for the trial granted during the Millennial age
under Christ, as Judge, will be a thorough and fair and individual
and final trial.--1
Cor. 15:25.
*Not
visibly in flesh, however, for he is no longer flesh, having been
highly exalted again, after he had finished the flesh-life by giving
it as our ransom price.--See, "The Time at Hand," Chap. v.
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