The Inheritance of the Righteous by John Norton Loughborough

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Feb 11, 1913

The Inheritance of the Righteous

By John Norton Loughborough

By J. N. Loughborough

1. The Purpose of God Concerning the Earth

We judge of a man's purpose as we see him lay out a plat of land, or construct a piece of machinery, by noting what he does. Some people make the claim that we are likewise left to find out God's plan respecting our world, without any revelation. The late Henry Drummond, in an essay published in the San Francisco Examiner of November 14, 1901, said: “It is a principle of interpretation, well known to all theologians, that the Bible never reveals anything which man could find out for himself. Man could find out the way the earth was made.” This reads very different from the statement made by the Lord's prophet Amos, “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets.” Amos 3: 7. Looking at the various theories of the so-called “science” of the last seventy years, we would conclude that the world was formed in several different ways, and each way contradictory of the other.

The very first verse of the Bible tells us how the world was made: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Gen. 1: 1. To him that believes that statement, the case is settled at once. As expressed by the apostle to the Hebrews, “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” Heb. 11: 3. Accepting this statement, we are placed on a sure foundation. Otherwise, we are in a maze of speculation of evolution, and self-made worlds. Those who set aside revelation on the origin of our world, are thus represented by Townsend, in his “Ocean Beach Lectures” of 1884: “They are like a person coming upon a well-beaten road leading to a city, but take the course leading from the city. The farther he goes in that direction, the farther he gets from the city. So those who follow so-called ‘science,’ without revelation, go deeper and deeper into the mist of speculation.”

Persons born into the world, coming to years of understanding, observe many things around and above them, and several questions arise which they wish solved. (a) Whence came this earth and all I see upon it, and the lights shining above it? (b) How did man come to be here? (c) What is the object of his being here? (d) Why did death, and all these evils which I see, come to be here? (e) Is there no remedy for these things? (f) Is everything to go on thus eternally, or is there a future remedy for these things? (g) Am I left in ignorance, with no means of finding out what

I am so anxious to know? What a cold answer it would be to say to such a one: “The Lord has made no revelation on these things. You will have to wait, and study nature, and maybe you will find out for yourself.”

Suppose some multi-millionaire purchases fifty thousand acres of fine land; and after fitting it up with orchards of luscious fruits, fields of growing grain, gardens of edible vegetables, and flowers of the most beautiful kinds and fragrant aroma, places a family upon it, and leaves the country, never hinting to the man whether the land is his in sole possession, or intimating what is expected of him. You would say at once, “Such dealing by a man with his fellow man would be inconsistent, unreasonable, and unjust.” Indeed, “shall mortal man be more just than God?” Job 4: 17. But, really, this is in accord with the “higher critic” idea of “no reliable revelation from God, only what you obtain from asking yourself, and your reasoning.”

We could form some idea of God's purpose, by reading in His revelation what He did when He created the world; but in addition to this, He has been pleased to tell us, in that revelation, exactly what was His purpose. “And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” Gen. 1: 26. In harmony with this are the words of the psalmist, “The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord's: but the earth hath He given to the children of men.” Ps. 115: 16. The prophet Isaiah said, “Thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God Himself that formed the earth and made it; He hath established it, He created it not in vain, He formed it to be inhabited.” Isa. 45: 18. In the past history of the race, we find that the inhabiting for the most part, has been by those who have openly rebelled against God, or who in their blindness and hardness of heart have worshiped false gods. We could not claim that this has fulfilled God's purpose respecting the earth. In Rev. 4:11 we read, “Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created.” The psalmist says, “The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear Him, in those that hope in His mercy.” Ps. 147: 11. Of the creation of the earth with man upon it we read, “God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good.” Gen. 1: 31. So man must have then been sinless, and in harmony with God. As expressed by Solomon, “This only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.” Eccl. 7: 29.

These inventions were their idols, on which the Lord “took vengeance.” Ps. 99: 8. As man was in an upright state—free from sin—when the Lord gave him the earth, we conclude His purpose was to have the earth possessed by a race of beings who should, in obedience, worship Him. God gave to man the earth when he was in an upright state; but when he had sinned by partaking of the forbidden fruit, “the Lord God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.” Gen. 3: 23.

The Glorious Culmination

When man became sinful, and the decree had gone forth, “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return,” he lost right to the dominion, wherein all had been subjected to him. He had become a subject of death. The penalty must be met. So God, in His infinite love, planned for the rescue of man and the dominion, and the final accomplishment of the original purpose. Of this we read in the epistle to the Hebrews: “What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that Thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; Thou crownedst him with glory and honor, and didst set him over the works of Thy hands: Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him [he sinned, and lost that dominion]. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man.” Heb. 2: 6-9.

As death is the culmination of all earth's woes, so, in the destruction of death, all the effects of the curse culminating therein will be removed, and those accepting by faith the proffered mercy will be again placed in that state where all things will be in subjection to man. And God's design respecting the earth will be carried out, and the earth be possessed by man in an upright state. The prophet Isaiah, when speaking of the future glorious kingdom of God, said, “Thy people shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land forever.” Isa. 60: 21. In the words of Irving we may say:

“O, what a glorious thought—that the deluge of sin shall be baled out; that the long-covered hills and valleys of holiness shall again present themselves; that the slimy path of the old serpent shall be cleansed out of all nations, and the alloy of hell with fervent heat be burned out of the elements of the solid globe; that the kingdom, peopled with the redeemed, shall become meet to be presented in the presence of God, and remain forever.”

[“The Promised Seed” is the next topic in this series.]