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Hard Problems

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Oct 25, 1906

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 83, No. 43.

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Hard Problems

By Editor

Editorial

We can not prevent the devil from coming to us with his temptations, but we can make him as uncomfortable as possible by giving him no place. “Neither give place to the devil.” We can do more than this. We can resist his advances. “Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist steadfast in the faith.” Such resistance will result in driving the devil from us. “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Satan can not gain the victory over those who will follow the instructions of God’s Word. Christ has conquered Satan, and he shares this victory with every believer in him. To his followers he says, “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” The motto of every Christian may be, “Conquering and to conquer.”
The world has gone money-mad. Health, honor, home, happiness, heaven—all are staked in the game for riches. “They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.” Eternal riches seem to be held lightly in comparison with the wealth of this world. And yet houses and lands, gold and silver, stocks and bonds, and all temporal possessions, will soon be consumed in the great conflagration. “The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” Those who believe the message concerning the coming of the Lord and the end of the world will not barter their souls for the baubles with which the devil cheats the unwary. Heed the counsel of the True Witness: “I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear.” It is better to be “rich in faith” than to secure from Satan a deed to the whole world, for his title is defective. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness.”

Hard Problems

Sin and Satan have introduced many hard problems into this world—problems which only the wisdom of God is able to solve. Will the heathen be saved? Will children who have not come to the years of understanding when cut off by death, be saved? Will idiots and insane people be held responsible for their actions? Will one who has inherited an almost irresistible appetite for liquor be judged by the same standard as those who loathe the taste of it? Will all have a fair chance in view of the fact that so few will actually be saved? Such questions might be multiplied indefinitely, but to what profit? We are not called upon to deal with these problems. Human wisdom can not solve them. The only result of attempting to deal with them will be to involve us in perplexity, and to unfit us for the real duties devolving upon us. We know that God has not abdicated his throne in favor of the devil. We know that the justice of God is infinite. We know that the Judge of all the earth will do right, and that “he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth.” We may therefore safely leave all the perplexing problems which the author of evil may press upon us to the wisdom of God, while we give our whole attention to the faithful discharge of the duties actually resting upon us. We are responsible for the way in which we treat the light which comes to us. We are under obligation, so far as in us lies, to impart that light to others. When we walk in the light as he is in the light, and when we let our light so shine that others may see our good works and glorify God, our responsibility ceases, and we must leave the results in the hands of God. Of one thing we may be sure: all the problems connected with the introduction of sin into this world will be solved without compromising the character of the eternal God, and in the unending ages his wisdom and his justice will be apparent to all. “And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; salvation, and glory, and honor, and power, unto the Lord our God: for true and righteous are his judgments.”