As With Man, So With the Earth
The old earth is still beautiful in spots, despite the threefold curse of sin upon it. God's life is still given in mercy, and though perverted, despite the perversion it is still manifest in beautiful forms. Satan, the usurping king, can pervert, but not create. He can pervert beauty to ugliness, perfume to malodor, sweet to bitter, harmony to discord, preciousness to vileness, good to evil, light to darkness, life to death; but he can not create one thing. His power is limited. But He who created man in righteousness, in true holiness, in beauty and honor, can and will re-create every soul who will let Him do the work. He will renew, regenerate, re-create mind, and heart, and soul, and body, and make His children like Himself, worthy of His name and kingdom. As with man, so with the earth. God will re-create the earth, the dominion, when the King and His people are ready. When the perfect number of perfect characters is gathered out from this world of sin, when sin, and all identified with it, is destroyed by God's presence, the sin-burdened, desolated earth will be renewed, re-created; “for, behold,” says the Creator, “I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered, nor come upon the heart.” Isa. 65: 17, margin. “Behold, I make all things new.” Rev. 21: 5. How fair then will be earth's flowers and forests, her hills and mountains, her lakes and rivers! How blue will be her skies! how full of indescribable glory her sunsets! How brightly will shine sun, and moon, and stars to the immortal eyes fitted not merely to endure, but to enjoy the intensest light! God, in His mercy, has diminished the light of the sun, and veiled the glory of the heavens, that man's sin-dimmed eyes may not be blinded. But in the new heavens and earth “the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord bindeth up the hurt of His people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.” Isa. 30: 26. But greater glory than this will illumine the earth. Of the New Jerusalem, that glorious city of gold, and pearls, and precious stones, 375 miles on each side, the fit capital for Christ's everlasting kingdom, it is said: “The throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it. . . . And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light; and they shall reign forever and ever.” Rev. 22: 3-5. “Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when Jehovah of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before His ancients gloriously.” Isa. 24: 23. Now, man could not endure the glory of God's unveiled presence, “the light which no man can approach unto,” and the overwhelmingly radiant glory of Him whom no man hath seen nor can see (1 Tim. 6: 15, 16), but then, clothed in the likeness of Jesus Christ, purified and immortalized by His power, we shall see Him face to face, and bask in the glory of His effulgent love. O Earth, great glory is coming to thee. Science may question; skepticism may sneer; self-interest may be indifferent; yet God's “words are true and faithful,” and not one thing will fail of all that the Lord our God hath spoken. Rev. 21: 5; Josh. 23: 14. This earth, cursed by sin, slimed by the trail of the serpent as no other, many of its children fallen lower than the brutes, shall bloom again in Edenic purity and loveliness. Where the Deity suffered in the person of the Son, there will be the Throne Eternal of the universe. Where sin left its deepest wounds and most hideous scars, God will manifest more glorious beauty. In every way that Satan has endeavored to malign and stain the name of our God, it will result in the revelation of more of His love, His wisdom, His power and glory. The story is all told in the one sentence, “There shall be no more curse;” or as elsewise rendered, “There shall be no more falling away.” Eternally will be seen the evil character of sin. Eternally will the universe have learned the lesson. And the mightiest teachers of God to the children of unborn worlds will be those whom Christ's power has rescued from the slavery of sin. They will tell not alone in words, but in character, the wonderful story of the victory over sin, of Infinite Wisdom and Redeeming Love.