BRIEF THOUGHTS CONCERNING LIFE AND DEATH.
IT SHALL BRUISE THY HEAD, AND THOU SHALT BRUISE HIS HEEL. GEN. III, 15.
This is the first prophecy in the Bible, and it contains within itself all other prophecies. It involves the events of the first advent, and those of the second. It relates to Christ's humiliation and his triumph, and to the final overthrow of the devil. The serpent is the great foe of God and man. It is in allusion to this very scripture, that Satan is called, in Rev. xx, the old serpent, the devil. The New Testament gives this text a very simple form, so that the real idea cannot be misunderstood. Thus Paul says to the Romans (chap. xv, 20), “And the very God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly.” Stating the same fact with even clearer reference to the means of its accomplishment, he says (Heb. ii, 14), “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.” And John says (1 John iii, 8), “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.” These texts are but New Testament versions of Gen. iii, 15. It is plain that the serpent is no other than Satan. It is equally plain that the seed of the woman is the Son of God. The contest between these two mighty combatants is expressed in the text, by the terms, “It shall bruise thy head,” “Thou shalt bruise his heel.” In other words, Christ must die upon the cross; Satan must be utterly destroyed in the furnace of fire. “Through death” the Son of God is able to destroy the devil. How costly is redemption! Satan and all evil doers might have been destroyed without one pang of suffering to the Son of God. But if he would open a way of escape to lost man, and buy back for him his forfeited inheritance, the Son of God must die. Let us thank God that this infinite sacrifice was not withheld. And let us tremble lest sin be found upon us, so that we share with Satan in his terrible destruction. THE NUMBER OF THE FAMILY OF MAN.
God designed that the earth should be peopled with a race of holy beings. Had man never sinned, and the earth never been cursed of God, it would have been replenished with the family of Adam, and then a further multiplication of men would no doubt have ceased. Sin has entered our world and brought the curse of God. But the God of Heaven has not relinquished his design respecting the earth. He will create it anew at the close of the day of Judgment, and make it the eternal abode of immortal beings. The number of the saved will be sufficient to people the earth as God designed it to be peopled at the first. His purpose will not be frustrated. But the human family will, in consequence of the fall, consist of just as many more persons than it otherwise would, as the whole number of the wicked. They will have lived in vain. THE OFFER OF SALVATION TO ALL.
The wicked are to the righteous, as the tares, and chaff, and stubble, to the wheat. They are either of no value, or of positive evil. They must feel the devouring fire. But though so many human beings live in vain, it is not because God has had no thoughts of mercy toward them. God has purposed to secure out of the family of man, a sufficient number to people the new earth. Doubtless this will be just the number that would have been required to people the earth had Adam never sinned. With God is no injustice. He does not save some by irresistible power, and damn others in spite of all their efforts to secure salvation. He offers salvation to all mankind. He began with the first generation to make this offer. He has continued the offer to each successive generation. A few in every age have accepted, but the greater part have refused, the offer. Had all of each generation received the gracious gift of God, the number of the saved had soon been made up, and the work would have thus been brought to a close. But as the most of every generation have counted themselves unworthy of eternal life, the number has not been made up, and the offer has passed to the next generation, and the next, and so to us. With God is no injustice. He has given every one a chance to be saved. The righteous will indeed owe their salvation to God, but the wicked will be damned simply because they would not be saved. Sin promises great advantage to those who will yield to its seductions. This is what Paul means by the deceitfulness of sin. Satan told Eve that she should not die though she should disobey God. On the contrary, it would bring her great advantage. She should become a god herself. She was then a little lower than the angels. By disobeying God she was to become elevated to the rank of a divine being. She made the fatal mistake to believe Satan and disbelieve God. But she found to her cost that death was a terrible reality, and that sin had power to abase, but none to elevate. She found death, not to be a translation to the rank of gods, but an abasement to the dust of the earth. But Satan's lie has found ready belief by the world of mankind. Even to-day death is not esteemed a reality, but an elevation to a higher mode of existence. DEATH AS AN ELEVATED FORM OF LIFE.
To Eve Satan promised, “Ye shall not surely die.101. . . Ye shall be as gods.” The heathen gods are deified dead men. What Satan promised Eve has been esteemed a reality by the heathen world. Their gods are almost all of them men distinguished for their crimes, who, having at last tasted death, became thereby elevated to a higher life, and were constituted gods. The gods of the Moabites were deified dead men. Num. xxv, 2, 3; Ps. cvi, 28. And Antiochus Eupator, the son of Antiochus Epiphanes, speaks thus of the death of his father, “OUR FATHER IS TRANSLATED TO THE GODS.” 2 Mac. xi, 23. If this be true, then death is indeed a higher life. But how inconsistent such a view, with the fact that it is the penalty of violated law! Who was truthful, God who said man should surely die, or Satan who said that he should not, but should be as a god? A REMARKABLE CORNER-STONE.
The doctrine of the immortality of the soul is something indispensable to almost every prominent religious system. It is the corner-stone of heathenism. All, or nearly all the gods of heathenism are dead men who were turned into gods by dying. They are simply the immortal souls of the dead. Romanism is indebted to this doctrine for all its saints who are now acting as mediators with God. It is a fundamental idea in the system of purgatory. In fact, Romanism is as much dependent upon this doctrine as is heathenism, and that is incapable of existing without it. Spiritualism is simply the embodiment of this doctrine of natural immortality. It is incapable of existing without it. The very mission of Spiritualism as proclaimed by itself, is to establish the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. Is it not strange that this corner-stone of heathenism, Romanism, and Spiritualism, should be also the corner-stone of modern orthodoxy? Yet such is the case. It is in these days esteemed the marrow and fatness of the gospel. And so prevalent is their doctrine that the advent of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, and the Judgment, are rendered almost obsolete by it. It is evident that God did not design that man should die. He prepared a garden for him, in the midst of which stood the tree of life. He was not forbidden access to this tree. If he should eat of the tree of life he would continue to live. Even after he had sinned, had he not been shut away from this tree, he would have continued exempt from death. Gen. iii, 22–24. This tree remained upon the earth after the rebellion of man, for the way of access to it was guarded by a flaming sword. This tree is now in the midst of the Paradise of God, in the third Heaven. 2 Cor. xii, 1–4; Rev. ii, 7; xxii, 1–3, 14. Probably at the time of the flood the garden of Paradise was removed. Two trees stood in the midst of the garden of God. To eat of one tree was to secure eternal life. To eat of the other was to render death certain and inevitable. The tree of knowledge stood near the tree of life. It was death to eat of it. How strange the infatuation of sin. Man had greater desire to eat of the forbidden fruit, than to eat of the tree that should perpetuate his life to all eternity. The tree of knowledge had no pernicious property inherent in its nature. It was undoubtedly good in itself. The evil all grew out of disobedience. When man had been tested, no doubt this prohibition would have been removed. But man could not wait. Sin promised advantage which could not be neglected. How terrible the deception. And yet, though sin has only deceived and cheated every time for 6000 years, the great body of mankind still believe that the real good of this life is found in disobeying God. This is what Paul terms the deceitfulness of sin. When man had only the knowledge of good, he must have the knowledge of evil also. And he obtained it to his lasting sorrow. He found what good there was in sin. It brought guilt, distress, banishment from Paradise, and finally death itself.