THE ONLY HOPE OF A GROANING CREATION
By
E. H. THOMAS.
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THAT this world,
at present lying wholly in the power of the evil one is destined ultimately to
be restored to its allegiance to God, all scripture, which is our only guide, abundantly
testifies, and it would savour of impertinence to adduce scriptural proof to
that effect.
But
how is this change to be effected, and through what agency?
Enquiry
upon this point is of supreme importance to us all; bearing as it does upon Christian
life and Christian service.
Indeed
an answer to this question may, to some, be different to what they have been
accustomed to imagine.
The
prevailing notion to this day seems to be that to the Church has been entrusted
the task of bringing to an end revolt in the world as a whole.
Were
this true, we might well write Christianity off our books as the merchant
crosses out a bad debt as a dismal failure.
Certainly all Christian service, professedly at least, is rightly
directed to the reclamation of individual rebels, and is in this respect
partially successful; but what about the world as a whole?
Another
and less widespread view consists in the visionary idea of gigantic missionary effort
in the future, stimulated by the removal of the Church, facility of
communication (it may be), and other agencies.
Surely
this subject appeals to us as worthy of our deepest interest and most earnest
consideration.
Scripture
gives us the cause or rather the causes, both of revolt in the distant past and
of its perpetuation up to the present time.
Next,
it reveals to us the truth of a future restoration; and thirdly, it reveals the
means by which such restoration shall most certainly be brought about.
As
to the causes, we are surely not in ignorance.
It pleased Divine wisdom and goodness to prepare this earth for human
abode; then to create man, to whose stewardship it was committed by Him. This was an absolute gift with one proviso,
viz.: - total and continual observance of one prohibition, infringement of
which was to entail forfeiture and death.
The
lower heaven near the earth, but distinct from it, was the abode of fallen
angels. So far as we are enabled to
gather from certain side lights of Scripture, it was and still is under their
dominion. Of these, Satan is prince and
leader.
By
a permission, which in our present state of knowledge and finite comprehension
we are unqualified to discuss, Satan came upon the scene, and the result we all
know: Adam and Eve with their posterity corrupted and ruined, and the loss by
them of dominion and possession. These
reverted to him who probably was the ruler of “the
world that then was” (2 Pet. 3: 5),
previous to its being consigned to that state described in Gen. 1: 2.
The
Word of God does not sanction the current idea that our earth was originally
created in the chaos state.
Satan,
then, albeit a usurper, became not only earth’s
divinely recognized chief ruler, but with the progress of human corruption,
succeeded in getting himself accepted as its god.
The
result continues to this day as it was 6,000 years ago, viz.:- the exchange of
allegiance due to Jehovah alone, for open revolt against Him and His authority.
This
revolted condition is one of sin, wretchedness and misery, as the history of
this world has amply proved since the fall of our first parents. Any recovery therefrom must necessarily begin
with removal of the first cause of the evil.
And this is precisely what the Word of God promises shall take place.
We
thank God that existing conditions are not to be permanent. The Son of God has come, whose mission has
been announced as the destruction of the works of the Devil of which the ruin
of this world most surely is a part.
As
stated above, this lower heaven and our earth are at present under Satanic dominion.
Although apparently this world is under man, it is really subject to
angels Heb. 2:
5 implies as much. Nor are all of these good angels. For the majority of them everlasting fire is
prepared as Matthew 25 declares. But the inward and inherent energy of all
corrupted humanity is Satan, and of Satan.
All human procedure, moreover, in whatever sphere or department
(excepting where, from time to time, Divine interference is pleased to hold
sway), is in reality Satanic control by means of human agency. This is a terrible thought.
The
first step toward the actual restoration of revolted humanity as a whole is due
allegiance to God has been revealed. For
Satan is going to be forcibly expelled from his kingdom of the air as the
source of all this evil. This is the
leading condition of full restoration.
Next,
this earth into which he and his will be cast for a short time will experience
the fearful “woe” of his concentrated wrath (Rev. 12: 12). Then,
he will be cast into the abyss for the period during which the Lord Jesus shall
reign in
Any
theory for the recovery of the world to God which excludes this Divine judgment
and the binding of Satan from the important place assigned to it in the Word of
God must be radically wrong and its fruit error and darkness instead of light
and wisdom.
After
this great preliminary in the disestablishment of Satan, comes the regeneration
of Matt. 19: 28. This is not that new
creation of men in the Holy Spirit mentioned in Titus
3: 5, but it is accompanied by the “restitution” of Acts 3:
21, which in the Revised Version is
translated the “restoration.” Both this regeneration and restoration are
contingent upon the Son of Man’s sitting on the throne of His glory. These important revelations therefore involve
three things:-
1. The suppression of human revolt by the overcoming
of Satanic power.
2. Purification of this world and its lower heaven.
3. Restoration to some original state or condition at
present in abeyance.
It
will be good to consider how these predicted results are to be attained, and how
far certain present agencies are calculated to bring them about.
All
humanly devised plans for improvement and restoration of the human race
invariably leave out the chief factor in the calculation, for they never show
how the Devil is to be reformed. Many
indeed deny or ignore his personal existence.
As products of human folly we may dismiss them with a shrug of pity.
But
it is not so when we are confronted with the proposition that the whole earth
will be brought to God by the Gospel of His grace now being proclaimed to Jew
and Gentile alike.
Here
we are to all intents and purposes upon scripture ground, and this pretension
must be tested in the balance of the sanctuary.
To
begin with it is not scriptural. The
Divine object in this present dispensation [or evil age] is set forth and amplified in the Pauline Epistles,
and may be summed in the words of an able writer as Divine appropriation to
certain specified uses, in a possibly near future and throughout eternity, of a
special people for God’s own possession.
If
eighteen [now twenty] centuries of Christian service should be found not to
have failed of God’s openly avowed purpose - and indeed upon our detractors
falls the burden of proof to the contrary - this constitutes what men call
success. Christian service is no failure
for not having accomplished that which God never predicted of it.
The
[bodily] presence of the Lord Jesus upon this earthly scene is
God’s only way of recovering this world to allegiance. This involves the suppression of Satan and
removal of his angels and of demons from the present scene. We also learn that both before and after the
Lord’s return many wicked members of the human race will also be removed. First, by grace, there will be a people
secured to God, seemingly by Israelitish agency; and then all open rejectors of
grace will be removed by judgment.
Subsequently the full realization during a thousand years of Eph. 1: 10. [“A
dispensation of the fulness of the times, to sum
up all things in Christ, the things in the
heavens, and the things upon the earth…” R.V.]
Apart
from the direct intervention of the Lord Jesus in power, there can be no
question of the recovery to God of this world’s allegiance.
If
all mankind were converted tomorrow, so stupendous a miracle of Divine power
would begin and end with the objects of it.
A fresh revolt would always be possible with the Devil and his angels
still at large. Nothing but the exercise
of competent power set in motion is able to suppress revolt. Such a power of force God has not
committed to the Church, nor would its exercise in the suppression of evil be
compatible with the Divine purpose in this present dispensation. So that it is as futile for the church to
think of transforming this world as a
whole, as it is for the weak-minded - (whether in or out of Parliament) - to
imagine that any rebellion, or any manifestation of lawlessness can be finally quelled
by diplomacy or by concession made to the malcontents.
God
has promised that the Lord Jesus shall
be King over all the earth, and for this the Church [of
the Firstborn
(Heb. 12:
16, 17)*], the Israel nation and a groaning creation hope and
wait; but the loftiest hope of all is the fulfilment of Col. 3: 3, 4 - the manifestation of the sons of God - in
glory [during the millennium] with Christ.
[* See G. H. Lang’s “Firstborn Sons
Their Rights and Risks”.]
For
this, the whole creation waits, for nothing short of this will end its
groanings.
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