by Rev. James McRobbie ©Pillar of Fire, International |
"God never
leaves man in hopeless despair." |
Learn more about the power of the Holy Spirit for personal holiness
through Sanctification
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Chapter 5 Contents: |Man's Creation|
|The Fall of Man| |Inherited
Sin| |Free Moral Agency| |Seven
Dispensations| |Future Destiny|
[What the Bible Teaches refers to numerous
passages from the Bible. Your study will be greatly enhanced by looking
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the Bible and this study. All quotations in What the Bible Teaches
are from the King James Version [KJV] unless otherwise specified.]
Editor's note: James McRobbie
uses words such as "man," "men," "mankind," etc., in their universal sense.
No effort has been made to edit his diction to conform to current notions.
Chapter 5: What the Bible Teaches ABOUT
MAN
"Then let us pray that
come it may,
As come it will for a'
that;
That sense and worth,
o'er a' the earth,
May bear the gree, and
a' that;
For a' that, and a' that,
It's coming yet, for
a' that;
That man to man, the
world o'er,
Shall brothers be for
a' that." --Burns
In order
to be informed regarding the origin of man as well as his final and eternal
destiny, we must turn to the Book of God. There we become acquainted with
the various dispensations, placing him under different circumstances and
various relationships to God; of how he fulfilled the will of his Creator,
or rather, how he failed to do it; of his redemption; of the end of his
probationary privilege; of the final judgment, and of the issues of eternity.
Man's Creation| |The
Fall of Man| |Inherited Sin| |Free
Moral Agency| |Seven Dispensations| |Future
Destiny|
Man's Creation
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Man
is the crown of God's creation. He is in every respect "fearfully and wonderfully
made" [Psalm 139:14]. He is a tripartite being, consisting of "spirit and
soul and body" [1 Thessalonians 5:23] -- a threefold being who, in each
of these respects, is admonished to be "presented blameless," and "sanctified
wholly," unto the "coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Consider the
dignity and glory of man -- how lowly in his creation and still how lofty
-- he was formed of the humble dust; he was made in the image and likeness
of God. The dignity of man is also seen in that he is exalted immeasurably
above the animal creation, for he is capax Dei -- he is capable
of understanding God. The original image, of course, has, in many instances,
become sadly distorted, yet is not completely obliterated. Christ is the
light that lights all who come into this world [John 1:9; Romans 1:19-20].
The thing that God supremely desires; the thing that our Lord suffered
to offer us; the thing that all the promises point to, is that we might
be conformed to the image of His Son [Romans 8:29; Colossians
3:10; 2 Peter 1:4]. That image was revealed amongst men in a most perfect
and exalted manner [2 Corinthians 4:4; Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:3]. Nothing
is higher than this, and to this end we may expect chastisement and refinement
[Hebrews 12:10]. Yet, thank God, "We know that, when he shall appear, we
shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is" [1 John 3:2].
One of the most
tragic anomalies of our time is that innocent childhood and impressionable
youth should be taught in numerous places of learning that the evolutionary
theory of the origin of man is the scientifically ascertained truth. While
the evolutionist endeavors in vain to discover one single missing link
between man and the brute creation, it is logical to think, if the evolutionary
theory is correct, that there should be thousands and millions of links
-- halfway developed species. Why is there none? Answer: Because there
never was any. The Word of God gives us the true picture of the original
man, and it also points us to the Golden Link, our Lord Jesus
Christ, who suffered vicariously to bind all who come to Him and accept
Him, to God and heaven.
Against this
modernistic evolutionary theory that man is the product of millions of
years of development, and that the Genesis story of Adam and Eve in the
Garden is purely allegorical and with no reality, is the fact that our
Lord confirmed the historical teaching of man's creation according to Moses.
He said, "In the beginning God made them male and female." St. Paul made
it conclusive, unless we deny the Word of God; he said, "Adam was first
formed, then Eve" [1 Timothy 2:13]. In 2 Corinthians 11:3 there is the
statement: "As the serpent beguiled Eve," making genuine the story of the
fall. The Bible, moreover, plainly declares that Adam was the first man
[1 Corinthians 15:45].
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There are different
scriptural terms referring to the creation of man. In Genesis 1:26 are
the words: "Let us make man"; in verse 27, "So God created
man"; and in the second chapter, verse 7: "The Lord God formed man."
Here are three words: make, created, formed, which deserve consideration.
That He "formed" him, has reference to his body; he was "formed of the
dust of the ground." Then God "made" the beasts, and said, "Let us make
man," using the same word in each instance. This refers to the living soul,
or life, that was given to man's body and which is akin to the life bestowed
upon the lower animal creation. This is verified in verse 30 (chapter 1),
"To every beast. . . wherein is a living soul" [marg.]. In the New
Testament, "soul" is the rendering of the Greek psyche, and signifies
life. It is the personality, the individuality, the ego -- the governing
and controlling part of the individual man centering in his mind. In mankind
it continues beyond the grave, whereas in the lower animals it ceases at
death. This part of man is capable of being sanctified wholly and of being
lost. Then man was "created" in the "image of God" [verse 27], and this
is a reference to that part of him that is spiritual and that is endowed
with dignity. "He hath set eternity in their heart" [Ecclesiastes 3:11,
marg. R.V.]. The New Testament Greek word for "spirit" is pneuma,
and is that higher and divinely bestowed faculty by which the ego, the
man himself, as distinguished from soul, is capable of communion with a
holy God. In his natural state man is "dead in trespasses and sins" [Ephesians
2:1], and as a dead person is wholly void of life, so a sinner has no divine
life -- he lacks what the Bible calls the "new birth."
The divine image
lost in the fall can be found only in Christ, and thus St. Paul says, "If
any man be in Christ there is a new creation" [2 Corinthians 5:17, marg.,
R.V.]. This recreation that man finds in conversion does not apply to the
physical man, nor to the soul of man, although both are affected, even
transformed by it, but to the spirit -- it is the spiritual being that
is brought to life through the redemption of Christ, bringing spiritual
life to the dead soul, and recreating the whole being into the moral and
spiritual likeness of God.
The Fall of Man
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It would be folly to conjecture how
long Adam remained in his original state of purity. The Bible does not
enlighten us on this. It is clear, however, that this fair couple in the
Garden were the "gods" of all created things. "I said, Ye are gods" [John
10:34-35], was our Lord's statement on one occasion. Genesis clearly states
that they were to have dominion over all the lower animal world.
Man was originally vegetarian. Neither
he nor the lower animals were created as carnivorous creatures. "Every
herb bearing seed," and "every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree
yielding seed," was to constitute his diet [Genesis 1:29-30]. The first
permission to eat meat was subsequent to and because of the fall, and is
recorded in Genesis 9:3.
These noble progenitors of ours, as
lords over God's creation, evidently were given a place Lucifer occupied
and which he forfeited in his transgression. Infuriated with jealousy,
he cunningly assailed them through the medium of the serpent, not the crawling,
elongated creature as he is now, and they were seduced -- doubted God's
Word and sinned. In the Garden was the "tree of life," an emblem of that
life everlasting which was their inheritance, and the "tree of the knowledge
of good and evil." The "apple" that Eve is purported to have given Adam
is usually considered a metaphorical expression. The magnitude of their
sin, however serious though that was, was not in the simple eating of a
forbidden fruit, but of something far more sinister: it revealed rebellion,
lawlessness, hate, doubt, and self-will against the good and holy government
of the Creator.
The subsequent expulsion of man from
the Garden was in lieu of his redemption. Had he eaten of the "tree of
life" in his sinful state he would have remained sinful forever [Genesis
3:22]. Now, without [outside] the precincts of his first fair home, face
to face with the toil, sweat, and tears of the curse, he must learn through
type and symbol how to trust in a slain substitute, a Redeemer, who would
in due time pay the price of sin once for all, and in that way once more
give him eventual access to the "tree of life" [Revelation 22:2].
The prescribed punishment for sin
in the Garden was death. "Thou shalt surely die." The death that followed
this first sin was threefold: first it was spiritual death. They
were there and then separated from intimate fellowship with God and consequently
became deprived of spiritual life. At the same time, apart from faith in
a Redeemer to come, they became victims of eternal death, and, not
having access to the "tree of life," physical death began to work
in their members, to which they were, after a limited probationary period,
to succumb.
God never leaves man in hopeless despair.
Side by side with the curse we find the first terse promise of redemption
[Genesis 3:15]. The seed of the woman was eventually to bruise the serpent's
head. Redemption is also seen in that they were clothed with the skins
of animals [Genesis 3:21] -- their covering came through the death of another.
The first religious act mentioned
in the Bible was by Cain, a murderer. Mere religion never saved anyone.
The Bible plainly says Cain "was of that wicked one" [1 John 3:12]. Moreover,
Abel knew that he was righteous; he had the "witness," God "testifying
of his gifts," involving the shedding of blood, which was an emblem of
his faith in Christ.
All through the history of our race
there can be traced the fact of good and evil, of faith and unbelief, of
sin an holiness. The whole race of man is lined on one side or the other
-- on the side of Cain or the side of Seth, that is morally and religiously
-- the good seed and the wicked seed. Those who are of Christ and those
who are of the devil are seen side by side; they are the wheat and the
tares, and this condition of intermingling is to continue [Matthew 13:37-43;
Revelation 14:14-20].
Inherited Sin
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Some have claimed that it would be
unjust of God to permit the posterity of Adam to be held responsible for
his offense. Why should we be afflicted through his transgression? they
argue; it was his responsibility, not ours; we cannot help what he did.
At the beginning of the fifth century, Pelagius, a Briton, strongly advocated
this theory. He affirmed that the sin of Adam did not affect the race;
that they are as pure as Adam was before he fell; also that Adam would
have died physically even had he not sinned. The Socinians of the sixteenth
century held the same tenets.
In reference to inherited sin it is
not difficult to harmonize experience with the teaching of the Scriptures.
Besides, it is God's sovereign right to act as it pleases His, and so He
works "all things after the counsel of his own will" [Ephesians 1:11],
and since Adam was the federal [covenantal] head of the human race then
his unborn progeny were in him seminally, for God "hath made of one blood
all nations." Reason asks with the prophet, "Who can bring a clean thing
out of an unclean? Not one." Do we realize that the curse pronounced then
upon Adam is still in force? Moreover, centuries of civilization have not
improved man's nature or modified the curse in any way. Are we conscious
of the fact that this earth is the field of blood where God's holy Son
was murdered by human beings? The methods of some nations in modern warfare
have given vent to such bestialities as to be unmatched by cannibal, savage,
or barbarian of any age; yet some would argue against the depravity of
man's fallen nature, and even deny it.
There are a number of scriptures to
show that the divine image in man, called spirit, is utterly dead in the
natural, unconverted man. There is Jeremiah's well-known verse [Jeremiah
17:9] which shows that there is nothing good in the heart; that it is "deceitful
above all things," and "desperately wicked." Read carefully Paul's indictment
in Romans 3:10-18 and see how little natural goodness there is in the human
heart. Yet this is the Word of God. In Ephesians 2:3 it is plainly stated
that we "were by nature the children of wrath." The prophet David
in the penitential Psalm [51:5] humbly confessed: "I was shapen in iniquity."
Perhaps the most conclusive proof of inherited sin is Romans 5:12-19. Ponder
these verses deeply. In Adam, death passed upon "all men to condemnation,"
and "by one man's disobedience many were made sinners."
Free Moral Agency
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An agent is one who acts for
another. We are actors. That man is a moral agent signifies his
relation to good and evil, to right and wrong. That he is free shows
that he is not influenced in any way by the omnipotence or omniscience
of God. God knows the end from the beginning, but He leaves man to choose,
either actively or passively, and to work out his own salvation and eternal
destiny. The powers of the will and mind by which man exercises his volition,
and by which he decides and acts, is a prerogative placed independently
under his control by the Almighty.
Free agency is linked with man's probationary
state; his destiny is the outcome of his own choice. He may, of course,
become so weak of will as to be unable to act in accordance with the dignity
of his choice. Our Lord doubtless referred to this when He said that many
would seek to enter into the kingdom and would not be able, and that the
"spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."
One of the outstanding scriptures
confirming man's free agency is Deuteronomy 30:19: "I call heaven and earth
to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death,
blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed
may live." Joshua appealed to the Israelites to exercise their volition
and be wholehearted for God in these words: "Choose you this day whom ye
will serve" [Joshua 24:15]. Jesus, too, on that memorable triumphant morning
when He wept over Jerusalem, said, "How often would I have gathered thy
children together, . . . and ye would not" [Matthew 23:27]. Again He said,
"Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life" [John 5:40]. The very
last utterance of the Scriptures are those yearning expressions of the
Spirit, saying, "Come."
Nothing is more destructive to the
soul than fatalism. It robs one of his free moral agency and makes
the "whosoever" gospel meaningless. Many are so gripped with the conviction
that what is to be will be, and have become the hopeless, pliant
victims of the wicked one. In this can be seen the danger of the pernicious
doctrine of perverted predestination. One was heard to say, "My father
and mother were both drunkards, I was born with the devil in me, and I
will never be different." That is fatalism. Thank God for the Gospel of
hope. "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." There is certainly
no hope for man in himself, so he must cast himself unreservedly on the
"God of hope" [Romans 15:13]. We are always to remember that God is man's
true friend, and we of the church must befriend him, too.
Seven Dispensations
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Man is a "political animal." He is
a being possessed with an aptitude for government, for "politics is the
science of the social and ethical relations of men and communities of men
in the state of civil society under organized government." Looking at the
political state of world affairs today, failure and incompetency seem to
be written over everything. There is social unrest, a cry for a more equitable
justice, a vain looking for an order that will bring a worldwide Utopia
of bliss.
Man's failure lies in the fact that
he is constantly seeking to act independently of his Creator, and so God
gives him opportunity of proving himself. This is what He has been doing
since the beginning of time, but the dire results have been ever and always
the same, proving that under all circumstances, apart from grace, man is
a failure.
There are seven dispensations or ages
revealed in the Scriptures. These cover the whole period of man's existence,
and in each of them it may be seen how God patiently bears with generation
after generation with man's ultimate benefit in view, just as an earthly
father, in order to aid his struggling, helpless children, would exercise
various means in order to enlighten and instruct them. Yet every age, as
may be seen, ends in disastrous failure.
-
(1) The age of innocence. This refers to that
period before sin entered the Garden when our first parents walked and
talked with God and angels face to face. It ended in sin, sorrow and expulsion.
-
(2) The antediluvian age. This covers the period
before fall to the deluge, when man lived according to the dictates of
his conscience. It culminated in unrestrained violence, in utter disregard
for the Creator. The whole race became abandoned to immorality and every
conceivable form of evil. "The thoughts of his heart [were] only evil continually"
[Genesis 6:5]. Only one man with his family survived the shock of that
time. Under Noah the race was to get a new start. The deluge was the deathly
proclamation of man's failure and was God's protest against sin.
-
(3) The patriarchal age. This is the period
of the "father" -- Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and his sons. Through them God
raised up a chosen race by which He would reveal His name to the world.
[See Psalm 67:1-2.] By and by we find Abraham's seed groaning under the
yoke of bondage in a foreign land.
-
(4) The Mosaic dispensation. The time came
when God raised up a leader for the enslaved Israelites, brought about
their deliverance, and placed them under law. The purpose of the law was
to show them how holy their God was and what they, if they were to be His
people, must do. Of course, the law never made one holy, it was never intended
for that purpose; it was for another purpose altogether, namely, to show
man that he was a sinful creature, that he could not keep those holy commandments,
and that he was in need of an inward regeneration. This dispensation ended
in awful wickedness and idolatry [2 Chronicles 36], followed by the exile
and a subsequent partial restoration.
-
(5) The dispensation of the Son. By and by
the very Son of God walked in the midst of this chosen race. He came to
be their King -- the Ruler of their hearts. But they soon showed that they
were not tired of the world or their own ways. They were not ready for
Him; rather, they were ready to put Him to death. Never did the human heart
show itself so black as it did then, even under the cloak of religion.
Jesus was rejected. The Jewish nation, as well, suffered the utmost desolation
-- Jerusalem was leveled to the ground and the Jews were murdered and scattered
by Titus, A.D. 70, and as a nation they ceased to exist.
-
(6) The dispensation of the Spirit followed
that of the Son. It began with the outpouring of the Spirit on the day
of Pentecost. While this age has not yet run its course, we can see that
the masses are content to go on unsaved, living for the empty and changing
things of time. God is now calling out all who respond. This age is to
end in the great tribulation. In its final stages, the spirit of the sin-loving
people will be expressed in the appearance of a cunning, influential personality
who will be the climax and personification of wickedness, the "man of sin,"
as the Bible calls him, one who will eventually endeavor to usurp the very
place of God in the affections of the people.
-
(7) The millennial age. In this coming age
Christ Himself will return personally to the earth and overthrow all the
usurping forces of evil. The devil will be bound and the world will enjoy
a thousand years of peace and righteousness. Yet at the close of this age,
when Satan "will be looked out of his prison," there will be a further
outcropping of man's badness, following which the curtain will fall in
a deluge of fire from heaven, and man's probationary period will come to
an end in catastrophe. This will be followed by the final resurrection
and judgment [Revelation 20].
Future Destiny
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The strength of spiritualism lies
in the fact that it claims to have penetrated the veil that separates the
present from the future. But modern spiritualism is simply a revival of
ancient necromancy which had God's bitter anathema upon it [Leviticus 20:27].
The messages spiritualists bring are not from God but from deceiving demons.
There are, however, one or two places
in the Bible where the veil has been drawn aside, which, with other references,
afford us a glimpse of what lies beyond. For example, in Matthew 22:23-33,
Jesus replies to the Sadducees who denied the fact of a literal resurrection.
He said they did err in "not knowing the scriptures, nor the power
of God." In this connection we are given a little light on the condition
of the saved in the future glory world. There, the present order of earthly
relationships and blood kinships as they are known today will be untenable.
The saints will be fashioned in their glorified bodies after the semblance
of angels. [See Philippians 3:21.] Yet there will be perfect recognition:
"Then shall I know even as also I am known."
In the story of the rich man and Lazarus
[Luke 16], the former is represented as being in torment as soon as he
left the body; the other was carried by angels at death and placed in Abraham's
bosom in paradise.
Revelation 5:9 and also 7:9-17 reveal
a company around the throne redeemed and praising God. When Jesus led "captivity
captive" [Ephesians 4:8], paradise, the Old Testament intermediary place
of departed spirits of the saved, was removed from Hades to heaven. The
saints had, of necessity, to abide in this place until Jesus qualified
as man's Redeemer on the cross. Now, when a saved person dies, he goes
directly into the presence of Jesus in heaven. Paul did not go down into
paradise; he was "caught up" into it, that is, in soul and spirit, into
heaven. [See 2 Corinthians 12:1-7]. St. Paul further stated that to die
was not to sleep in the grave, but to "depart and to be with Christ" [Philippians
1:23]. When Stephen died he was heard to say, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit"
[Acts 7:59], showing that he was there and then swept into His presence.
Wicked people, as with Dives, go immediately
into a local hell to be in soul torment until the resurrection. There will
be a resurrection of saved and unsaved [Acts 24:15; John 5:29; Daniel 12:2;
Revelation 20:4]. At the judgment of the Great White Throne [Revelation
20:11-15], two books will be opened: the book of records, and the "lamb's
book of life." Only they who have their names written in the book of life
will enter eternal bliss [Revelation 21:27]. Then the wicked, in body and
soul, will be cast into the "lake of fire" [Revelation 21:8], a place prepared
for the devil and his angels.
In the eternal state the redeemed
people of God will get back to the "tree of life" [Revelation 22:1-4],
where they will no more bear the effects of the curse, and where there
will be no more pain or separation or death. There, too, under the emblem
of the "Holy City," the "New Jerusalem," the multitude of the redeemed
are seen coming down to possess the earth in its redeemed and celestial
state. "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth." Best of
all, they will enjoy the eternal presence of Him who loved them and washed
them in His own blood, for
"God himself shall be with them, and be
their God."
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