What Is Man? by C. P. BOLLMAN

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 21, 1915

“What Is Man?”

By C. P. BOLLMAN

C. P. BOLLMAN

THIS question, asked in the eighth psalm, is not intended to introduce a panegyric upon man, but to emphasize the wide contrast between the Creator and the creature, between the whole universe and man, an infinitesimal part of that great whole.

The infinity of the Creator is shown not alone by the vastness of his power and the universality of his sway, but also by his equally wonderful grasp of the most minute details. This thought is strongly emphasized in the first eighteen verses of the one hundred and thirty-ninth psalm:—

“O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my down-sitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee. For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.”

In Matt. 10: 28-31 we find our Lord appealing to the same truth to fortify his followers against dread of persecution, saying: “Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.” Matt. 10: 29-31.

The Bible teaches man to rely not upon himself, but upon God; to trust not his own power, but the power of God; to rest his hope of a future existence not upon his own feeble hold upon life, but upon God’s ability to restore life even to those who have died and moldered back to dust.

The Scriptures declare that God “only hath immortality.” 1 Tim. 6: 15, 16. He only has life in himself, and consequently he only has life to give to others. John 5: 26. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” John 3: 36.

The same absolute dependence upon God for life through Christ is taught in 1 Cor. 15: 16-18:—

“For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.”

It is against this entire dependence upon God that the natural man revolts. In the temptation Satan said, “Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” Gen. 3: 4, 5.

Referring to the principle, if not to the original temptation, the Lord says through his prophet: “With lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life.” Eze. 13: 22.

As he came from the hand of his Maker, man was free from both moral and physical defilement, but he did not possess immortality. His being was such that uncorrupted by sin it might measure with the life of God; but it could never become independent of God. Man could live eternally only by maintaining an eternal, sinless connection with the great Fountain of life.

Such was man as he was created, but by sin he became positively mortal, or dying. Hence he is in the Scriptures called “mortal man.” Job 4: 17.

“Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust. As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth: for the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.” Ps. 103: 13-16.

“Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.” Ps. 146: 3, 4.

Again: man’s absolute dependence upon God for all future life is strongly emphasized in Eccl. 3: 19: “For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath [in this respect] no pre-eminence above a beast: for all is vanity.”

But as already stated, it has always been hard for man to accept this truth, and confess himself absolutely dependent upon God for life. We have seen that man was led into sin by the promise of life apart from God. He is encouraged to continue in sin by the same delusive assurance, that he has life, life eternal, apart from and independent of the will of the Creator.

In line with this we read in the thirty-seventh chapter of Ezekiel the plaint of a people who, having largely lost sight of the promise of a resurrection, had lost hope of a future life. “Behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts. Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, and shall put my Spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord.” Eze. 37: 11-14.

The gospel of the Bible is life only through Christ. The hope of all false systems is life by inheritance—natural, inherent immortality. The Bible doctrine of life only in Christ, and no life aside from Christ, leads to dependence upon him, trust in him, and obedience to him. The doctrine of natural immortality begets independence of God, distrust of his goodness, disobedience to his will. In other words, the hands of the wicked are strengthened by the promise of life without righteousness.