Contents:
The developed nations have made awesome progress. They have produced a highly mechanized world providing every luxury, modern convenience and means of pleasure. Yet they are cursed with crime, violence, injustice, sickness and disease, broken homes and families. At the same time more than one-half the world is living in illiteracy, abject poverty, filth and squalor. Violence and destruction are rapidly multiplying. Many ask, "Why, if God exists, does he allow so much violence and human suffering?"
We were born into this 20th-century world as it is. We take it for granted. But we can't explain it. It's like viewing a movie at a point already near the end. We see what is occurring at that point, but, not having seen it from the beginning and not knowing how events developed to the point of viewing, we simply cannot understand what we are seeing. A fiction writer wrote about a time machine that could transport one back to some time in history. If we had such a time machine, we should now transport ourselves backward 6,000 years where we could actually see what was transpiring in that original Garden of Eden, at the foundation of the world. That's where this civilization started. Then we may better understand why there is now talk of the imminent end of the world.
How did our civilization develop to our 20th-century state? What a mystery that is to thinking people! Of course most are not thinking people and never ask themselves that question. But if one does, he finds the question enveloped in mystery. So let us understand.
It has already been explained in this volume how God created
man for the supreme purpose of reproducing himself. But this
supreme purpose necessitated the creation in us with our own
assent, diligence, effort and joy, the supreme spiritual character
of God. But in so doing, why did God place man on the earth? Why
this particular planet?
But Lucifer, on the throne to administer the government in
cooperation and harmony for their world, rebelled. He turned
cooperation and harmonious activity into competition, evil,
rebellion and destruction. Light on earth was turned to darkness.
Wasteness, decay and ruin came to the surface of the earth.
Then is six days (Ps. 104:30) God sent forth his Spirit and
renewed the face of the earth for man.
But still "the icing on the cake" had not been added. God
placed man here to do that which sinning angels had not done.
Man was to finish the beautification of the earth. God is not
the author of confusion, ugliness or decay, but of beauty,
perfection, character, the best in quality.
Look at the description of God's heaven--the seat of God's
throne--where, we might say, God lives as described in the fourth
chapter of Revelation. God sits on a throne surrounded by brilliant
splendor, quality and beauty and character. More dazzlingly and
gloriously beautiful than anything human eyes have ever seen.
God intended man to work this earth, improve it, beautify it,
give it glorious character--and in so doing to build into his own
life the "beauty of holiness" (I Chron. 16:29). God never intended
humans to live in poverty, filth and squalor or ugliness. Man
should have beautified the earth, and developed man's character in
so doing. His civilization should have been a "heaven on earth."
All because the very first human rejected and turned from God,
relying solely on himself--and all Adam's children have done
likewise.
Thus man has built a man-made and Satan-influenced
civilization. Man not only has ruined the earth he should have
developed and improved, he has destroyed his own health by wrong
living, and degraded and perverted his own spiritual character.
Now, at last, as we near the end of the 6,000 years God has allowed
him this free rein, man has created the Frankenstein of weapons of
mass destruction that can destroy all mankind utterly--unless a
merciful God intervenes to save us from ourselves.
Jesus Christ, through the Church, built three colleges--two in
the United States and one in England. The three campuses, in
material beauty, have mutually excelled each other, as a high
character physical setting for the development of God's righteous
character in students. The beauty of godly character in these
students has excelled the physical beauty of the campuses. A royal
Queen on a recent six-day visit to the headquarters campus in
Pasadena, California, on touring the campus, exclaimed, "I have
just been in heaven."
Three times this campus has won the award of being the most
beautiful, best landscaped, and best maintained campus in the
United States. These campuses are an example of what mankind should
have done, and a modest foretaste of the beauty that will blossom
forth over the whole earth after Christ and his saints in his
kingdom are ruling the earth in the wonderful world tomorrow.
Deteriorated, former millionaire mansions have been restored.
An area behind them that had deteriorated into Pasadena slum area
has been cleaned out, and been built into the most beautiful area
in Pasadena.
Had Adam taken of the proffered tree of life the whole course
of civilization would have been entirely different. Peace,
happiness, joy, health and abundance would have spread over the
earth.
But what did result?
Adam took to himself the knowledge of good as well as evil.
But it was only human good, no higher than the carnal human level
of the human spirit within him. He rejected reliance on God and
relied on himself for knowledge, ability and power--all limited to
the fleshly human plane, deceived and led by the perverted Satan.
Had he taken of the tree of life, he himself undoubtedly would
have succeeded Satan on the throne of the earth, restoring the
government of God, empowered, influenced and led by the Eternal
God. But he allowed Satan to enter within his mind. He was, as it
were, kidnapped and held captive by Satan.
Thus the first created human disbelieved God, disobeyed God,
chose to go HIS OWN WAY, do his own thing. Adam did it willingly,
but not apparently willfully or with malicious intent.
Willingly, Adam was led into captivity by Satan. He had
willingly gone along with Satan, the archkidnapper of all time.
All humanity came out of Adam and Eve. The present world was
FOUNDED in them. The WORLD has ever since been HELD CAPTIVE! The
world had thus chosen THE WAY of the kidnapper, rather than of the
potential Parent!
But God the Father was to pay the ransom price and even yet
bring his potential spiritual children back to him. God did not
choose to redeem, correct and restore humanity to him at that time.
There cannot be a law without a penalty. The penalty of human
sin is DEATH.
The penalty of death had passed on Adam and all his children.
That penalty had to be paid. There was no escaping it. Satan must
have gloated, believing he had totally defeated God's purpose of
restoring God's government and unseating Satan on earth's throne.
Truly all Adam's children would come under the penalty of death,
for all would sin.
But what even Satan probably did not realize, God's plan was
yet to save humanity, and remove Satan from earth's throne.
At this very foundation of the world, it was determined that
Jesus Christ, as the "Lamb of God," should be slain in payment of
the penalty for all human sin (Rev. 13:8), which substitute
sacrifice is effective only upon repentance and faith. It was also
determined by God at that time that all Adam's children should die,
but after dying be resurrected to judgment (Heb. 9:27). But as in
Adam all must die, so in Christ the same ALL shall be made alive by
a resurrection from the dead to be judged (I Cor. 15:22).
But still, none could ever be born of God until God's holy and
perfect spiritual character had been instilled within, by
individual choice and proof by performance.
God set apart a 7,000-year period to complete his original
SUPREME PURPOSE of reproducing himself through man. It was a
masterminded MASTER PLAN for working out the PURPOSE here below.
For almost 6,000 years a civilization has developed, which we
call the world. But it has been a world held captive. It has become
SATAN'S WORLD though millions have been deceived into believing it
is God's world. To this day Satan is still on that throne.
Meanwhile Satan has worked IN all humans. He has injected into
the world enormous EVILS.
But how has Satan injected those evils into the minds of all
humans, even of the most scholarly and advanced in education,
science, government and areas of awesome human accomplishment? Even
that question is a mystery understood by almost no one.
For example, we read in Ezra 1:1, when King Cyrus of Persia
issued a proclamation to send a colony of Jews back to Jerusalem to
build the second Temple, he was moved to do so because God stirred
up his human spirit--in other words, put the suggestion and impulse
in his mind, and the king acted on it. In the same manner Satan
moves on the human spirit within people to move them in attitudes
of envy, jealousy, resentment, impatience, anger, bitterness and
strife. People have no realization of the tremendous power of
Satan. The human spirit within each human is automatically tuned to
Satan's wavelength. It seems as if Satan has surcharged the air
over the entire earth with his attitude of self-centeredness and
vanity.
And so a world--a civilization--developed from the original
Adam and Eve. When God shut off the tree of life, that act marked
the foundation of the world. It was founded on rejection of God, on
disobedience to God's law which defines God's way of life. And all
the evils, sorrows, pain and suffering in 6,000 years of human
civilization have resulted.
God had designed a 7,000-year master plan for accomplishing
his tremendous purpose. The first 6,000 years were allotted to
allow Satan to remain on earth's throne, and for humanity to learn
the bitter lesson, through experience, that Satan's way of self-
centeredness in opposition to God's law leads only to pain,
suffering, anguish and death.
The whole world of humankind has been deceived into preferring
this "getting," self-centered way of life.
At this point, remember, the world had never known of the
existence of God the Father until Jesus came and revealed the
Father (Matt. 11:27).
The world, from its foundation, was cut off from God the
Father. Jesus came to reconcile repentant believers to the Father
(Rom. 5:10).
God created the first humans, perfect specimens physically and
mentally. Physically this perfectly created pair had no chronic
ailments or tendencies toward diseases or illnesses. That is
testified in part by the fact that Adam lived to be 930 years old.
And for nearly 2,000 years the human life span from Adam to Noah
averaged close to 900 years.
Think of it! The first man lived nearly one sixth of all the
time from human creation until now!
Adam and Eve had two sons, Cain and Abel. When they were
grown, perhaps still in their teens, Cain became envious and
hostile against his brother Abel. Even though by the closing off of
the tree of life they were cut off from God the Father, the "Word"
(the "Lord" or the "Eternal" in English) spoke to Cain and warned
him. But Cain was being led by Satan. This prince of the power of
the air stirred Cain to an attitude of resentment, anger and
hostility. Cain slew his younger brother, and when the Eternal
asked him about his brother, he lied to God about it. The very
first human ever born was moved by Satan to become a murderer and
a liar.
God sentenced him to become a vagabond and a fugitive.
But even though the human family had rejected God, chosen to
rely on self even as swayed by Satan, the human mind was capable of
working with material substance. In a few generations a son of Cain
was making harps and organs and musical instruments (Gen. 4:21) and
another, an artificer in brass and iron.
Mankind was making progress in material development even
though growing further from God spiritually. But remember at this
point, that "except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain
that build it" (Ps. 127:1). Also in Matthew 7:24-27, a house built
on a faulty foundation is bound to fall. Civilization as we know it
was built, not on the foundation of God and his direction, but on
man's self-reliance under the deception and sway of Satan.
The Bible tells us little of human development prior to Noah,
but after 1,500 to 1,600 years human civilization had become so
evil that only one man, Noah, remained righteous. There was a
population explosion, but humanity had turned to evil continually.
After 100 years of warning by Noah, God sent the Flood to drown all
living except Noah, his wife, three sons and their wives--eight
people.
This violence had become so universal that God determined to
spare humanity from suffering longer in mounting misery and
anguish.
God took away their miserable lives, by the earthwide Flood,
to be resurrected in the next second of their consciousness in the
"Great White Throne" resurrection (Rev. 20:11-12). They will be
brought back to life in a time when Christ is ruling the earth in
righteousness, peace and happiness. Satan will be gone. Their minds
then will be opened to God's TRUTH, and eternal salvation will be
opened to them.
But God intended to preserve human life--to give humanity a
new and fresh start.
God found only one man, of all the millions, who was walking
with God. Two can't walk together except they be agreed. Noah alone
agreed with God and God's way of life. God used Noah as a preacher
of righteousness (II Pet. 2:5). For 100 years Noah warned the
unheeding world, from age 500 until he was 600 years old.
Noah, was "perfect" in his generations. That is, his heredity,
ancestry (Gen. 6:9).
Proof of this lies in the meaning of the Hebrew word
translated "perfect." It may refer either to spiritual character
(Gen. 17:1) or to physical characteristics (Lev. 22:21). Therefore
Genesis 6:9 allows the translation that Noah was either "blameless"
or "unblemished." The context (Gen. 6:2) clearly indicates the
latter is the intended meaning of "perfect." So a good rendering of
Genesis 6:9 is that Noah was the only "just" man (in spiritual
character), and also "unblemished' (in his genetic heritage) among
his contemporaries.
What was this universal evil and corruption? Jesus described
that universal, corrupt evil as "eating and drinking, marrying and
giving in marriage" (Matt. 24:38). Eating food and drinking is not
evil. Marrying is not evil in itself. There had to be wrong use and
excess in eating, drinking and marrying--the evil was in the
manner, and in the extent of eating, drinking and marrying.
It could only be eating improper food, drinking excessively of
alcoholic drinks, revelings (Gal. 5:21), rioting, violence.
Marrying, to be evil, had to be as in Genesis 6:2, when men "took
them wives of all which they chose." There was rampant and
universal interracial marriage--so exceedingly universal that Noah,
only, was unblemished or perfect in his generations--his ancestry.
He was of the original white strain.
It is amply evident that by the time of Noah there were at
least the three primary or major racial strains on earth, the
white, yellow and black, although interracial marriage produced
many racial mixtures.
God does not reveal in the Bible the precise origin of the
different races. It is evident that Adam and Eve were created
white. God's chosen nation Israel was white. Jesus was white. But
it is a fair conjecture that in mother Eve were created ovaries
containing the yellow and black genes, as well as white, so that
some of the children of Adam and Eve gave rise to black, yellow, as
well as white.
The one man God chose to PRESERVE the human race alive after
the Flood was perfect in his generations--all his ancestry back to
Adam was of the one strain, and undoubtedly that happened to be
white--not that white is in any sense superior.
If you are a livestock breeder, planning to enter your prize
animals in a livestock show--perhaps at a state or county fair--you
will be sure to enter only thoroughbred or pedigreed stock! Mixing
the breed alters the characteristics.
God originally set the bounds of national borders, intending
nations to be SEPARATED to prevent interracial marriage. Notice,
"When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance
[speaking of land or geographical boundaries], when he separated,
[notice--he separated] the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the
people..." (Deut. 32:8).
But people wanted to intermarry--until there would be only ONE
RACE!
That desire seems still inherent in human nature today!
Noah was of perfect lineage in his generations. His wife and
three sons were of that same white strain. But Japheth evidently
had married an Oriental woman, and Ham a black.
We know little more than stated above about civilized
development prior to the Flood.
Mankind should have learned its lesson by the Flood, but man
cut off from God, and swayed by Satan had not, and has not to this
present day. But once again, "as it was in the days of Noah," Jesus
said in a prophecy, there is a population explosion, and evils are
multiplying. This time worldwide nuclear war will threaten to erase
all humanity from the earth. But, for the sake of the "elect" of
God's true Church (Matt. 24:21-22), God will cut the destruction
short--and this time send Jesus Christ as King of kings to replace
Satan and sit on earth's throne.
God had set the bounds of the nations, intending geographical
segregation of the races.
At this point I quote from Satan's Great Deception, a thesis
by C. Paul Meredith (pages 14-16):
This group, composed of the only people on the earth
(for the others had all been destroyed by the great
Flood) began migrating from the mountains of Ararat (Gen.
8:4) where the ark had landed: "And the whole
earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came
to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they
found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt
there" (Gen. 11:1-2). These people, now known as
Sumerians (Miller's Ancient History in Bible Light, page
51), pushing through the mountains of the east, came upon
a prodigiously fertile plain built up by the deposits of
the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers. This land of Shinar
is now known as ancient Babylonia (J.H. Breasted"s
Ancient Times, page 107). Here was a land that would
produce all they desired in abundance....
These people, like Adam and Eve, disobeyed God and
brought trouble upon themselves. The land was productive,
but the wild animals were multiplying faster than the
people due to the destruction of the former civilization
by the great Flood. Because of their primitive
weapons, there was a great danger to life and possessions
(Ex. 23:28-29). What could be done about it?
Nimrod, the son of Cush, was a large, powerfully
built black who developed into a great hunter. It was he
who gathered the people together and organized them to
fight the wild ferocious beasts. "He was a mighty hunter
before the Lord" (Gen. 10:8-9). In other words, the name
of Nimrod was known everywhere for his might. He
emancipated the people of the earth after the Flood from
their fear of the wild animals. His prestige grew. He
became the leader in worldly affairs. He was ambitious.
The people not only protected themselves from the
wild animals by building a walled city but also
established authority of their own--"let us make us a
name." This was to be a central place of mankind's
authority--the necessity of their obedience to God was
not going to be recognized! Nimrod was their leader. Also
they built a tower whose top was to "reach unto heaven."
With a tower this high they could do as they wished-
-disobey God and still be safe from his punishment which
had drowned the inhabitants of the earth before. This was
mankind's first act of open rebellion against God after
the Flood--they thought they had placed themselves out of
God's reach if they wished to disobey him. They, like
Satan, thought that if they could "ascend above the
heights of the clouds," they could "be like the most
High" (Isa. 14:14). Cush, Nimrod's father, also had much
to do with the building of this tower and city (The Two
Babylons, by Alexander Hislop, page 26).
They built the tower, "lest we be scattered abroad upon the
face of the whole earth" in geographical segregation (Gen. 11:4).
But God looked upon their building of the tower and said, "Behold,
the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they
begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which
they have imagined to do" (Gen. 11:6).
What has mankind "imagined to do"? By this twentieth century
man has gone into outer space, flown to the moon and back, invented
and produced the most intricate machines, computerized instruments,
transplanted hearts, and even attempted to produce life from dead
matter. The human mind's capacity for material accomplishment seems
unlimited. But his problems are not material, but spiritual. And
before them he is still helpless without God.
So God confounded their languages and "scattered them
abroad...upon the face of all the earth" (Gen. 11:8).
Continuing from C. Paul Meredith's thesis, now out of print
(pages 16-17, 25-29):
Nimrod kept growing in power but the inborn desire
of the people to worship must be satisfied. Nimrod and
his followers had turned against the true God. They
wanted to glorify God in their own way! They "changed the
glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made
like...creeping things" (Romans 1:23)--the snake, and
other things God had created. (They should have worshiped
God in spirit and in truth and not through idols--John
4:24 and Ex. 20:4-5,) With the civil power he wielded,
Nimrod set himself up as the priest of the things
worshiped by the people, to obtain a still stronger hold
on them and gradually put himself in place of the true
God....
[But] Noah, the preacher of righteousness (II Pet.
2:5) did stand fast and gained a staunch supporter in his
son Shem. While Nimrod was expanding his kingdom so
rapidly there was opposition to Shem, the representative
of Noah....Nimrod became the representative for the
forces of evil in opposing Shem....
Shem, a very eloquent person, is said to have
obtained the aid of a group of Egyptians who overcame
Nimrod.
The death of Nimrod seemingly halted the counterfeit
pagan worship which he started.
Nimrod's kingdom, which consisted of most of the
populated world of that time, had fallen to her. Much of
Nimrod's power had come from his setting himself up as
the human representative of the Sun-God. She must retain
this world rule by any and all means. The religious
control which had given so much power to [Nimrod] must be
used by her also if she were to retain the maximum hold
on her subjects....In life [Nimrod] had been honored as
a hero; in death she will have him worshiped as a god....The Unfinished Earth
God placed man here to restore the government of God to the earth.
Lucifer and his angels had been placed here originally. God had put
them here on an unfinished earth. Remember, God creates in dual
stages. Like a woman baking a cake, she bakes first the body of the
cake, but it is not finished until she puts on the icing. The
substance and body of the earth had been created before the angels
were placed here. But God intended for the angels to develop the
surface of the earth, to beautify and improve it. For this purpose
he gave them his government to regulate their conduct and
performance together in so doing.What Man Has Done
But what has man done on the earth where God placed him? Man has
made ugly, polluted, defiled, profaned everything his hands have
touched. He has polluted the air, befouled the water in the rivers,
lakes and seas. He has deteriorated the land, denuded the forests,
thus altering rainfall and causing the expansion of deserts. He has
worn out the soil by neglecting to give it its sabbaths of rest
every seven years. Man has built cities and allowed them to
deteriorate into slums, filth and squalor.A Modest Foretaste
We now live in the era biblical prophecy calls the last days--the
last generation before the coming of Christ to rule and accomplish
on earth what mankind should have done. In these last days,
according to biblical prophecy, knowledge, spiritual as well as
material, was to be increased. The true Church of God was to be set
back on the track, restoring the glorious knowledge of the faith
once delivered to the saints in the days of the original apostles.What If Adam Had Taken the Tree of Life?
How did this material and human character degradation start?A World Held Captive
Adam had been created with the potential to be born a son of GOD.
Even though not as yet even a begotten son of the GOD FAMILY, he
had been created as potentially just that. Once he succumbed to
Satan's WAY of choosing to "do his own thing," in rebellion against
a deliberate command of God, he became spiritually the property of
Satan. He actually had succumbed to the GOVERNMENT of Satan,
choosing the LAW of that government--the law of vanity, self-
centeredness--leading automatically into attitudes of self-glory,
coveting, competition, desire to GET rather than God's way of GIVE.At the Foundation of the World
Upon Adam's sin, God closed off the tree of life to the world as a
whole until the second Adam, Jesus Christ, shall have deposed Satan
and taken over the throne of the earth.Satan--the Master Broadcaster
In Ephesians 2:2, Satan is called the prince of the power of the
air, working in--inside the minds of--people. I could never have
understood this until: 1) I had understood how radio and television
sounds and pictures are transmitted through the air; and 2) I had
learned the truth about the human spirit in the human brain. If
your radio is set on the proper radio wavelength, or television set
is tuned to the proper channel, the broadcaster's message comes
through clearly. Satan as prince of the power of the air
broadcasts--not in words, sounds or pictures, but in attitudes,
moods, impulses.The Beginning of Civilization
But notice briefly how human civilization developed.The Extent of Evil
Notice to what extent humanity had been turned by Satan to evil. In
Genesis 6:5, "God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the
earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was
only evil continually." The earth was filled with violence. Man's
thoughts, contemplations and plans were continually on self-
centered, lustful and evil objectives.End of the Antediluvian World
The subject matter of the chapter is the generations ancestry of
Noah. Exceeding wickedness had developed through those generations,
by Noah's generation reaching a climactic crisis that ended that
world.Origin of Cities
It was only the second generation after the Flood until a man named
Nimrod organized people into cities. First was the tower of Babel
and the city of Babylon. Then Nineveh and other cities, which
became city-states. Everyone on earth after the Flood knew of God and why
he had drowned the wicked. They feared to do evil--at
first....Men lived...without cities and without laws, and
all speaking one language....
These people were not only of one language, they were of three
races or families--white, yellow and black. Just as God created
varieties in many species of flowers and of animals--for example,
many varieties and colors of roses--for greater beauty, so God
created the three races and colors of human skin. God intended to
prevent racial intermarriages. But man has always wanted to violate
God's laws, intentions and ways. They wanted to become one race or
family through intermarriage of races. As mentioned before, God had
set the bounds of the races, providing for geographical
segregation, in peace and harmony but without discrimination. But
the people wanted to be of one amalgamated people. One purpose for
the tower of Babel was to unite them, and to prevent them from
being scattered in racial geographical segregation. First City--Babylon
There was a better way to protect the people from the
wild animals that roamed the earth than by constantly
fighting them. Nimrod built a city of houses and
surrounded this city with a high wall and gathered the
people therein. Thus the people were protected and Nimrod
was able to rule over them. This arrangement was
agreeable to the people for "They said...let us build us
a city and...make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad"
(Gen. 11:4).Then it was that Nimrod "began to be a mighty one"
and a "mighty hunter before the Lord" [Gen. 10:8-9] in
a ruling sense (the Hebrew word for "mighty" is
gibbor, which means "tyrant," Strong's Concordance of the
Bible). Nimrod became a tyrant over the people. He made
the laws. Not only that but he was "mighty...before" the
Eternal. (The Hebrew word paniym translated "before"
here, should be translated "against"--Strong's
Concordance of the Bible.) The Bible says Nimrod was
against God!...
Semiramis was actually the founder of much of the world's
pagan religions, worshiping false gods. Even such so-called
Christian observances as Christmas, New Year's and Easter emerged
from the false religious system she developed. For details of this
the reader is referred to The Two Babylons, by Alexander Hislop. Semiramis...
[If] Nimrod had been a man of unbounded ambition,
the ambition of ...Semiramis--the future "Queen of
Heaven" (Jer. 7:18)--exceeded even his. Nimrod...had
become the greatest and most powerful figure in the
world. He was dead. She clearly saw that if she were
to...have the great position and power...of the most
powerful man on earth, something must be done to
assure...her power.