THE FIRST DOMINION

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 11, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 24.

THE FIRST DOMINION.

To Whom Given.

In the great city of London, June 26, 1902, will take place one of the grandest displays of pomp and pageantry that the world has ever seen. It will be the coronation of Edward VII., King of Great Britain and Ireland, and Emperor of India. Mightier than Babylon and Assyria, greater than Medo-Persia and Grecia, mightier and greater than Imperial Rome, measured by education, wealth, power, territory, and population, is the Empire of Britannia. Upon its dominion the sun never sets. Its subjects embrace men of every stock and almost every tribe of the human race. Millions of these, and thousands more from friendly nations, will journey by swift modern conveyances from all parts of the earth to London to witness some part of the imposing spectacle, the gorgeous pageantry. And all this because men love dominion.

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But of the dominion of earth we speak, the empire for which men have longed and planned and prayed and intrigued and fought and murdered, and sunk body and soul in everlasting perdition. To obtain this dominion of earth, men have crushed the hopes of thousands as withered leaves, blotted out thousands of lives, and left wreck and ruin behind them. The same insatiable earth-hunger still lives. Men still dream and strive for the mastery. Earth's dominion is a question of vital, mighty interest. What is its future? Will the present struggle of the rise and fall of nations and changing geography continue? Or will the whole earth be brought under one dominion? Who or what will reign her king? Will it be some great world trust or syndicate, merging all interests under one head? Will some mighty warrior with conquering armies sweep the entire earth with universal victory? Or will the coming ruler be one of righteousness and peace? Surely these questions are worthy of study, and where shall we go for our information but to the Word of God, the foundation of all wisdom?

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If man had never departed from his Maker, earth would never have known haughty king and trembling subject, overbearing lord and cringing servant, tyrannical master and abject serf. The swish of the slave-driver's lash would never have been heard, and the too pliant knees would never have bowed to the human slave in blessed, loving ministry. Sickness nor pain nor death would have been known. Oppression nor strife nor war would have desolated her fields or laid waste her cities. Her crystal brooks would never have been incarnadined with human gore. All would have been joy and peace. The children of earth would have been of one family, and the king, the head of its government, would have been the loving father of all. This was in brief the plan of the wonderfully wise God. This was the first dominion of earth as it came from the crucible of its Creator, and by His perfect wisdom was pronounced “very good.”

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The king of that first dominion was man himself, subject to his Father-King, the great Jehovah. After the earth was fitted for man's home, the Lord 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. And so God created man, male and female, and gave him the universal dominion of the earth in its primeval beauty. God's creation was perfect. His wisdom and love were written alike on the tiniest blade of grass and the towering tree, on the verdant plain and the lofty mountain, on the tiny streamlet and the mighty sea. From the glorious orb of day and the star-gemmed dome of night shone the light and glory of God. Upon flower and field and forest rested His beauty and wisdom. The murmur of the sea, the rustle of the foliage by the breeze, the carols of the songsters of meadow and grove, the happy hymns and songs of our first parents, the deep-toned music of the spheres, the melody of the purling brook, all blended in one universal anthem of praise to the Creator. In man above all other creatures was manifest the glory, the dignity, the majesty of the Maker of heaven and earth. The psalmist, reflecting on God's creation, and inspired by His Spirit, has beautifully expressed it thus:—

“O Jehovah, our Lord, How glorious is Thy name over all the earth! And in the heavens how Thy glory shines! When I see Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, The moon and the stars which Thou hast ordained, What is man that Thou takest thought of him, And a son of man that Thou heedest him! Thou hast made him in rank little less than divine, Thou hast crowned him with glory and honor! Thou hast given him dominion over the creatures of Thy hand, And to him hast Thou made all things subject. O Jehovah, our Lord! How glorious is Thy Name over all the earth!” Psalms 8, Polychrome Bible.

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The law of that realm was the principle of the character of God—love; for “God is love.” 1 John 4: 8. It was no new law that Jesus gave, but one that was “from the beginning,” when He declared: “The Lord our God is one Lord: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength;” and, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” As love is the motive power of God's character, so it must be of all His creatures; for surely the perfect Father would desire that the children should bear such characters as Himself. As only perfect love can cast out fear and bring perfect happiness, the God of love, who desires the happiness of His children, must have given them a nature capable of this love. He therefore “created man in His own image;” not alone physically God-like, but pre-eminently spiritually Godlike, even as the quality, the character, the intrinsic excellence, is of more importance than the form. To develop the character, absolute obedience to God's perfect law of love, given in fuller and in part negative form in the Decalogue (Ex. 20: 1–17) for the benefit of sinful humanity, was necessary. Obedience was life. Note a few expressions of Holy Writ regarding God's law:—

“Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, And Thy law is the truth.” “Let my tongue sing of Thy word; For all Thy commandments are righteousness.” “All His precepts are sure. They are established forever and ever, They are done in truth and uprightness.” “The law of Jehovah is perfect, converting the soul; The testimony of Jehovah is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of Jehovah are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of Jehovah is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of Jehovah is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of Jehovah are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.” “The law is holy, And the commandment holy, and just, and good.” “For we know that the law is spiritual.” “In the way of righteousness is life; And in the pathway thereof there is no death.” “If ye love Me, keep My commandments.” “This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; And His commandments are not grievous.” “Blessed are they that do His commandments.”

Such is the nature of the holy law of God, the reflect of His own divine character, as written in the hearts of His children of old. For man was “made upright,” his physical form emblematic of his character. He was created “in righteousness and true holiness,” the representative of God upon earth.

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How could man live this law?—Only by faith; for it has been forever true that without faith it is impossible to please God. Heb. 11: 6. Faith brings the soul into harmony with God. It opens the heart to the inflow of the light and life and love of God. It sees Him and His creatures, and forgets self in love's service. The heart of faith is ever expanding, the mind is ever growing toward the Infinite. Faith ministers to the needs of the universe, and in turn is ministered unto by the universe. It drinks from the great fountain of God's love and life and power, and becomes in itself to the needy a well-spring of blessing. And if sin had never entered, earth would have been a glad kingdom of love, in which each would have found greatest joy in other's good. “The just shall live by faith.”

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In the light of these great truths it is clearly manifest that the very seat of God's kingdom in earth was the heart of man. If man and earth remained true to God, in the heart God must rule supreme. Ruling in man, the king, He would rule throughout the earth; for over it all man had dominion. Righteousness was then incarnate; it ruled in the flesh. Every thought of the mind, every affection of the heart, every aspiration of the soul, every act of the

physical, was willingly, gladly, subject to the King of heaven.

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How blessed it would have been if man had remained loyal! He might have done this. God did not tantalize His children when He set before them their duty of the obedience of faith. He did not deceive them when He gave them the promise of life and immortality forevermore as the fruit of obedience. He told them the solemn truth when He said that disobedience meant death. Gen. 2: 17. That is ever true. Good perverted becomes evil. Righteousness perverted becomes sin. Love perverted becomes selfishness. Life perverted is death. Man could have his choice.

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But why did God not make man so he could not fall? Simply that He might have a loving, willing, loyal race to serve Him to all eternity. To make man so that he could not refuse to obey God, would make him a mere automation, with the mere action of creative instinct, not the noble, willing service of an intelligent choice. No true happiness comes without a character foundation. No character can be formed without free choice. No service is acceptable but the free, willing service; therefore God must create man an absolutely free agent, with the awful risk, but never the need, of sin. It could not be otherwise. This was the first dominion, with all its boundless possibilities of glory, happiness, and immortality. But it has passed away, and a usurper is king.

HOW THE DOMINION WAS LOST.

THE dominion, the kingdom, was the earth. The seat of that kingdom was the heart of the man, its king. Never until he yielded that could the God-given kingdom pass to another. The king must first become slave before the usurper could possess the kingdom. Sin must become incarnate in the place of righteousness. The heart must become the throne of the adversary instead of the throne of God.

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God would not take the kingdom from man. “The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord's; but the earth hath He given to the children of men.” Ps. 115: 16. And “the gifts and callings of God are without repentance.” When man lost his dominion, he himself yielded it of choice. He did this when Satan came with his evil, suggestive sneer, “Yea, hath God said?” He represented God as unjust and cruel in placing upon man a prohibition, a test of character. He suggested that God was keeping back from man needed beneficent knowledge and great honor; and, listening to his hypnotic suggestion, man yielded, and became his slave. For “know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” Rom. 6: 16. Man yielded to Satan and sin, and so yielded his dominion to Satan, and became himself a slave of sin. “Whosoever committeth sin is the servant, [bond-slave] of sin.” John 8: 34.

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Then the whole of earth's creation was marred. The head was sick; all the body became affected. “For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of him [man who sinned] who subjected it. . . . For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.” Rom. 8: 20–23, R.V. The curse of God was upon everything. With its erstwhile abundant grains and fruits, the earth brought forth “thorns and thistles.” An evil spirit took possession of the brute creation. Forms of grace and strength and beauty became savage beasts of prey. Gentle, teachable dispositions became savage and stubborn. Bird preyed upon bird, beast upon beast, fish upon fish, and man upon man, and all upon each other. Love became selfishness and hate; wisdom became craft, shrewdness, duplicity; beauty was marred with the ugliness of sin; life became death; and the grand, triumphant major anthems and songs of earth became discords mingled with the saddest minor notes creation had ever known.

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Satan, the adversary of God, the one-time “son of the morning,” usurped the “throne.” “The prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience,” induced man to be his slave, and so subjected the fair earth to his malign influences. (See Isa. 14: 12–14; John 12: 31; 14: 30; Eph. 2: 2.) It was not God's plan, yet God permitted. It is not unlimited control; for over and above all, God reigns supreme. As to the wild, stormy sea, lashing out its fury, so God says to the prince of hate, “Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further.” When man fell, all was yielded to Satan, and man was totally depraved, the abject slave of the master who promised him life and wisdom, but gave him folly and death. Man lost his innocence, his dominion, his life; he received from his new master guilt and slavery and death.

HOW THE DOMINION IS WON.

When man fell, he was completely and absolutely in the power of the adversary; and if God in His mercy had not interposed, he would have demonstrated in himself the immediate result of sin as declared of God, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Gen. 2: 17. God's life comes to men in perfect harmony with His law. “In the way of righteousness is life.” Only in the way of righteousness does God's life, as His life, flow. Only those who receive it in the way of righteousness, possess His life. To all who walk in sin, God's life is perverted, and He owns it no longer as His. Sin alienates the transgressor from the life of God. Eph. 4: 18. Therefore when man believed Satan, and turned from God to the adversary of God, he cut himself off from life, and became a dying creature. Only by God's mercy was sin prevented from doing its work.

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This goodness of God is revealed in the words of the Lord to the old serpent. While the Sacred Record does not give us the direct promise, it implies that the promise had been given. Here is the record: “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel.” Gen. 3: 15. Praise God for His mercy, which placed in man the enmity to evil, the negative of the longing for good. If it had not been for this, man would have been totally depraved. He would have had no power of choice, no hope of life, because of no longing for good; therefore God gave the slave of Satan, bound in the fetters of sin, a hatred of evil, a desire for good, and a will to choose. God looked upon the ruin sin had wrought, and gave Himself, in His only-begotten Son, a willing offering, that man might regain what he had lost. Innocence, life, and dominion were to be restored in the offering, the sacrifice, the life, of the Son of God.

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It was not in Bethlehem that the Son of God first gave Himself, or the Father gave His Son; it was not at the baptism at Jordan; it was not in the garden of Gethsemane; it was not upon the cruel cross of Calvary. The great conflict for the supremacy, for dominion, began in heaven. Jesus was the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,” the “Lamb without blemish and without spot,” “foreordained before the foundation of the world,” but manifest in these last times for you.” Rev. 13: 8; 1 Peter 1: 19, 20. “God is love,” and He could not do otherwise than give Himself for His creatures. Constantly is He giving of “life, and health, and all things” to all creatures of the universe. This is His nature. Life can exist only in giving. To refuse is to die.

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The great strife began in heaven, when Lucifer,—“the light-bearer,” “the son of the morning,” the “anointed cherub,” the brightest of all created intelligences, who in himself sealed “up the sum, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty,”—sought not alone equality with God, but to usurp the throne of heaven. This was his ambition and purpose: “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God [mighty angels]; and I will sit upon the mount of congregation, in the uttermost parts of the north [the place of presiding]; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds [God's host of angels]; I will be like the Most High.” Isa. 14: 12–14; Eze. 28: 11–19. Satan could lie and dissemble; he could act with all duplicity and artfulness; but God could not prove false to His essential attributes of truthfulness, righteousness, justice, and love. Satan could charge God with injustice and tyranny; Truth could deny his charges, but Time only could demonstrate them to be false. And so angels and men must wait till the vindication of time. Cast out of heaven, Satan goes forth to deceive and destroy. God sends forth all the agencies of the universe to save His creatures from death, and waits the vindication of eternal love, when truth, not deceit, right, not might, shall reign.

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In this incipient conflict was manifest another spirit. The great Firm of Deity divided, not in spirit or purpose, but in office and position, the One—the Eternal Father—to occupy the throne of the universe, the Other—the Son—to give Himself an eternal sacrifice for the lost. No new principle came into the character of God, but a new manifestation of essential principles. When the sun is hidden, the glorious stars shine forth, gemming in dazzling brilliance the whole vault of heaven. Sin darkened, as necessary to man, the effulgent sun of God's love, but that darkness disclosed new luster, new revelations of the glory of His power. And so, while the Deity sat on the throne of universal dominion, in the person of the Father, Deity came down to the poor wanderers in darkness, in the person of the Son. We have read what was the mind of Lucifer; here is the mind of the Son: “Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus; who being originally in the form of God, counted it not a prize to be on an equality with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross.” Phil. 2: 5–8, R.V., margin.

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O, the wonderful contrast between Lucifer and the Son of God! “The one exalting self, the Other abasing self; the one endeavoring to gather all to himself, the Other giving all for the needy; the one desirous of dethroning Absolute Good, that he might reign, the Other turning from the throne with the Father to suffer; the one filling self, the Other emptying self.” This was the controversy introduced into this world when Adam was placed here to reign. This is the controversy which has been and is being waged in every soul from that day forward to the present. It comes to us, reader. Shall hate or love, righteousness or sin, self-exaltation or humility, death or life, Satan or Christ, rule in us? Adam and Eve decided for the former at first. And God in His love gave them a new trial under new manifestations of His undying love. And their opportunity is ours.

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The glad tidings from God set before Adam and his descendants all that had been lost. Lost innocence could be restored by yielding the sin and choosing the righteousness of God through the promised Seed. Receiving by faith the righteousness of God, restores the life of God. And God prolongs man's poor life in His mercy, in order that he may “lay hold” on His eternal life. The dominion is restored first of all where it is lost, namely, in the heart of man. Christ must be admitted there, invited there, to reign and rule. There is where the dominion was first lost; there it must first be restored. The universal prayer for all times and ages of sin is that found in the sixth chapter of Matthew. One of its petitions is, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” The two requests are one. The last request explains the first. Never will God's kingdom be in earth till in earth His will is wrought, as it is in heaven. And no man ever

truly prayed the prayer who did not pray first of all that God's throne might be set up in his own heart, God's will be done in his own life. Only such will compose the nations which shall serve Him forever.

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When the Son “gave Himself” to restore the dominion for man, He gave Himself to suffer, to bear, to endure, just what man must. Therefore He took upon Himself in very purpose in the beginning the sinful flesh of man. He became the Seed of the fallen woman. He was to come through Adam, through Noah, through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; through Judah, and Jesse, and David, and Solomon, and Manasseh, and all the others, good and bad, that He might in Himself know the temptations of humanity, and reveal God's power to save from sin of whatever character. “Since then the children are sharers in flesh and blood, He also Himself in like manner partook of the same; that through death He might bring to naught him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and might deliver all them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. . . . Wherefore it behooved Him in all things to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted.” Heb. 2: 14–18, R.V. But in this victory Christ must bring Satan to naught in the individual hearts of all His people before this world is rid of the presence of the usurper.

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The great thing, then, for each of us to do is to let Christ into the heart. Give up the carnal mind, which rules and is ruled by the flesh, which is enmity against God, and is not subject to His law, neither indeed can be, and let the mind of Christ be yours. Rom. 8: 7; Phil. 2: 5. His mind delighted in the will of God; God's law was in His heart. Ps. 40: 7, 8.

Give up your sin, and take His righteousness. Rom. 3: 20–23. Yield up the throne upon which self and Satan have ruled, “that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith,” and reign there as king. Eph. 3: 17. Thus we are delivered out of the power of darkness, and translated into the kingdom of the Son of His love. Col. 1: 13, R.V. Thus also we reign with Christ over sin. And faith receives His word, the expression of His mind, and lets Him in. And so letting Christ reign, we can say with the apostle, “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.”

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But this is not all that our Lord accomplishes. When all who will let Him reign have yielded the dominion of heart, and mind, and flesh, to Him, He will give, sadly give, to those who have rejected Him, the full measure of their choice. Sin and wrath will meet their end in eternal death. All transgression will be blotted out—from all hearts of all, and lives desiring it, but with all those who reject deliverance and identify themselves with it. God's universe will then be clean. But till that time the bruising goes on. The bruising of the heel of the Seed is the relentless persecution and oppression of all God's children from Abel's day to the end. In the struggle Satan has again and again seemed to be conqueror,—when Abel died, when the flood came, when Abraham seemed to fail, when Jacob was in Egypt, when Israel apostatized, when the Son of God died upon the cross; but all these efforts and seeming triumphs of the enemy God uses to emphasize the wealth of His glory and power. Soon will come the everlasting victory of right, and the serpent's head will be crushed forever, and his principles and progeny will be no more. The Eden of God will be restored. The thorns and thistles of earth will give place to fadeless flowers, and our God and Saviour shall reign forever and ever.

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“And I heard a great voice out of the throne, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He shall dwell with them, and they shall be His peoples, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God; and He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more. . . . He that overcometh shall inherit these things; and I will be his God, and he shall be My son.” Rev. 21: 3–7. “And Thou, O Tower of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion, unto Thee shall it come, even the first dominion.” Micah 4: 8. “And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever.” Rev. 5: 13. Amen.