p. 1 | DEPARTURE FROM GOD by X

Oakland, California · May 10, 1899

FromThe Signs of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 19

DEPARTURE FROM GOD.

By X

Its Result.

God is One. Perfect unity is manifest in all that He does. There is coherence and growth and progress in all that is God's. His life permeates, infuses all; His Spirit controls all, moves all. This divine unity runs through all His plans. “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”

God is One, and the only One. It therefore follows that all that is not of God is division. And all the ages have ever demonstrated.

This is shown in the root meaning of the word “sin,” “missing the mark.” The mark is God and the glory and unity of His character. Missing it is turning from His way. Walking in God's way is righteousness and life. Turning from it is sin, confusion, and destruction.

We have an illustration of unity from the standpoint of the world in an army, moved according to the will of one man, often to complete defeat, disaster, or destruction. But the motive power in all is force, moving against some other body or bodies moved also by force.

In God there is the drawing power of love to unite in Him, the only One, for the salvation, conservation, and preservation of all of His creatures. “God is love.” Love only can truly unite souls. Other motives may unite for awhile; mutual self-interest may unite for a little time the minds of men; but such union is only for so long as self-interest is mutual.

God has ever sought to bind all His creatures to Himself in the bonds of love. Satan has ever sought to deceive man into believing that God is cruel and arbitrary, and so to lead man to set up standards for himself and mark out ways diverse from the ways of God. And the latter has been the way of all the earth; “for all have sinned,” and sin has ever brought forth death, destruction, and desolation. This is manifest in all the ruined men, ruined nations, ruined cities of past time. A good illustration of the result of this departure from God is shown in our illustration, the ruins of Persepolis. Where once men roamed and ruled, ate and drank, ran hither and thither on business or pleasure bent, wild beasts of prey now prowl among its ruins, or lie in wait for victims. God's prophecy against Idumea of old is true of all who rebel against God. He shall stretch out upon it “the line of confusion and the stones of emptiness. They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing. And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof; and it shall be a habitation of dragons, and a court for owls.”

The hope of the world is to turn to God. He is One. One with God is existence to all eternity. Apart from God is utter non-existence, utter ruin, and utter desolation. Why not be one with God when it can be done simply by yielding to Him? X.