OBEDIENCE OR CHOICE

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · May 15, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 20.

OBEDIENCE OR CHOICE.

A Washington correspondent sends us the following, clipped from the Signs of March 6, to which he takes strong exception:—

“It was the privilege of Lucifer to retain his glorious beauty and wisdom and light by choosing God’s ways. It was his privilege to pervert the life, the light, the wisdom, which God placed in him and continually poured upon him from the ministry of others in the service, and to the glory of God, to himself, and what would seem to unbelief, his own benefit. Only by free choice can character—eternal, unswervingly loyal, loving and lovable—be formed. And God must take the risk of sin in giving the right of choice. But He did it under such conditions that no soul at the last can charge God with injustice or partiality.”

His protest is against “the right of choice.” He speaks of a home where a mother has given her children the right of choice, and the children are practically worthless. He says:—

“Jesus told some that they worshiped God in vain, teaching for the commands of God the tradition of men. Will not the same condemnation come on us if we teach that God has given man the right to choose, the right to worship according to the dictates of our own conscience, instead of the command, ‘Thou shalt not bow down to them nor serve them?’ . . . Do you not err in stating, ‘Only by free choice can character, etc., be formed?’ Will not prompt obedience to just authority of the Creator form a symmetrical character? Such was God’s plan in the first for the formation of the character, and I have no doubt it was sufficient.”

1. The word “right” is used in the sense of the Revised Version in John 1:12: “As many as received Him, to them gave He the right [power, privilege, authority] to become children of God, even to them that believe on His name.” “Right,” in this sense, falls under the definition of “a claim founded upon any consideration of justice, morality, courtesy, custom, civility, or upon either natural or positive law, or that which may be claimed on such grounds; often in the plural.”—Standard Dictionary.

2. This right, privilege, power, is conferred on man by our great Creator, and is absolutely necessary to the formation of character. It is true that God commands, commands clearly and positively. It is only right (not wrong) to obey what He commands; but He gives man the power, privilege, right, to refuse to obey, even the right, the power, to do wrong.

3. It is not teaching the doctrines of men to say that God gives man the power, the right, the privilege of choice. One of the invitations which Infinite Love extends to the sinner all thru the Scriptures is, “Come.” That the sinner has power to come shows that he has power to refuse. Said the Lord thru Moses, “I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.” Deut. 30:19. Thru Joshua He said: “If it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15. The wise man declares that distress comes upon the wicked because they “did not choose the fear of the Lord.” Prov. 1:24–31. Jesus said, “If any man hear My words, and believe not, I judge him not; for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.” John 12:47. God in His goodness has given to man the right, the privilege, the power of choosing eternal destruction if he prefers so to do. The right to worship according to the dictates of conscience is not a right which man may confer or withdraw; it is God-given; it is unalienable.

4. Character is built up of acts based on choosing. If man is compelled to do what he does not choose to do, he is made in that doing a slave, an automaton. If his heart be against the requirement, compulsion makes him all the more the enemy of him who requires it. There is but little question that England would not give the Boers a better government than they have yet given themselves; but for England to force it upon them makes the Boers her everlasting enemy. “God is love.” That is the essential of His character. Love can not be compelled save by love. Man can not form a character like God’s save thru love. And love is not, it can not be, a matter of compulsion.

5. Yes, “prompt obedience” to God will form a “symmetrical character;” but there is no prompt obedience to God save that prompted by faith and love. What God requires is, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind.” Love is willing; willingness implies free choice; and “the willing and the obedient shall eat the good of the land.” “Love is the fulfilling [obeying] of the law.” “This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not grievous.” The only way a man can obey God is to love God; and the only way a man can love God is to choose God and His ways; and the only conditions under which he will choose God is to believe God.

6. God’s plan in the beginning is just what God’s plan is now. Man may be different, but God is the same. “Without faith it is impossible to please Him.” This is now true; it has always been true. It is true since man sinned; it was just as true before man sinned. Obedience without faith, without choice, is mere will-worship, or self-righteousness. It centers man’s thoughts in himself, and in himself each would glory, bringing confusion and desolation ever. God’s plan was sufficient in the beginning to save man; it is the same sufficient plan now.

7. The care, instruction, and correction of a child involve other considerations. Parents have authority over their child that no government has over the individual, and God holds them responsible for its salvation. God commands man that which is right. He tells man the consequence of wrong-doing,—trouble, and, if continued, ultimately death. He permits affliction and sorrow and trouble to come upon the sinner, that he may see how sinful sin is, and so return to God. He in this way chastens and corrects, but always in love, that he may win man to Himself. So the parent may deal with the child; for only so will he win him to God. For he can not by mere force compel the child’s obedience. He may compel him, while the child fears him, to do the outward act, but unless he thru God’s grace awakens the love of choice of good in the child, rebellion will follow. There are thousands of children who are being driven to rebellion thru compulsion of only outward duties. There are also thousands being ruined by foolish mothers who leave the child the right of choice when he has never been taught what it means to choose. Both ways are equally unwise and equally averse to the developing of a right character.

Only by faith and love will God’s government

stand. All who truly obey Him do so because they truly believe Him and love Him. Such will give all glory to God, will ever prove loyal to Him, because they have proved by choice that God’s way is the only true way, and in His kingdom “affliction will never rise up the second time.”