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Man himsel f sooner or later
must cometo realize that any form
of government he puts together is
ftawed. It will eventual ly fail- his
only hope is that it won't be in his
lifetime.
The cause lies in human nature,
as we see it today. " None calleth
for justice, nor any pleadeth for
truth : t hey trust in vanity, and
speak líes; they cooceive mischief
and bring forth iniquity" (Isa.
59:4). This is what the ancient
prophet Isaiah saw as the climax of
human society in our day.
Man's solut ion to bad govern–
ment in many areas of the world is
to revolt! The pages of human his–
tory a r e drenched with blood
spilled in "wars of liberation."
As l saiah continues, "Our
offenses are ever with us . . . [in–
c lud ing ] re bellion and treach–
ery ... fomenting oppression and
revo l t ... so j ustice is driven
back ... truth is nowhere to be
found" ( lsa. 59:12- 15, New l nter–
national Version).
Peace- if any really existed- is
but a brief interlude betwccn
devastat ing conftict. Nations also
turn to armed aggression as a sup–
posed solution to política! , econom–
ic, social and religious conflicts.
How did the world get into this
condit ion? There must be a cause
for cvery effect! And the cause has
its origin with one man nearly
6,000 years ago.
The Answer ls Spiritual
Man, it seems, has never rcalized
that the cause of his social, economic
and political problems is
spiritual
in
nature. But philosophers, politicians
and social scientists do not under–
s tand spiritual matters-they under–
stand only the intellect ual and the
mater ial. And, even this world's rcli–
gions have fai led to grasp these spiri–
tual principies.
Whc n God created the firs t
human being, He set befare him two
separate, irreconcilable ways of life.
That first man could choose to fol–
low God and His rule and govcrn–
ment, orto reject Him and invent his
own ways. There were two symbolic
trees in the garden wbere the fi rst
man was placed . The first, the tree of
lije,
represented God's Holy Spir it.
February 1982
Through the Holy Spirit the first
man Adam and his progeny would
have been instructed in God's way
of living. The human fami ly would
have come under the government of
God-which is the way of g ive, of
putting down self-will. Man would
eventually have come to inherit
eternallife- immortality!
The other tree in the garden, the
t ree of the knowledge of good and
evil, represented human-acquired
knowledge that leads to
death.
God wanted Adam and his wife
to prosper- to enjoy life in the
Kingdom of God. So He Iovingly
warned them: " Of every tree [in–
cluding the tree of life] of the gar–
den thou m ayest freely eat: but of
the tree of the knowlcdge of good
and evil,
thou shalt not eat
of it:
for in the day that thou eatest
thereof thou s ha lt
surely die"
(Genesis 2: 16- 17).
Botb Adam and Eve rejected
God by disobeying and eating from
that forbidden tree
(T
Tim. 2:14).
In effect, Adam decided to make
his
own
rules- he willingly cut
himself off from God's Spirit , from
God's help and from God's
revealed way of life. He g rasped the
way of get-everything for self.
You
suffer directly from this act,
because it set up a pattern of life
we call human civi lization.
But our story doesn't really
begin witb tbis first human error.
It
began much earlier, in the realm
of spi r it.
Originally there were only two
Personages. There was no universe,
no matter, no humanity.
" In the beginning [long befare
the account of tbe material uní–
verse in Genesis] was the Word ,
and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God" (J ohn 1:1).
These two Personages were the
Wo rd, who la te r became Jesus
Christ , and God, who became His
Father. They developed an incredi–
ble plan. They created powerfu1
angelic spirit beings of different
ranks and then, later, an awesome,
physical universe (Job 38:4, 7).
Certain angels were put on earth
to develop it. But expert organiza–
tion was required for this develop–
ment. The government of God was
installed over the angels, witb the
supreme authority always emanat–
ing from God, then to the Word
and on down. Under the Word a
superpowerful angel called a cher–
ub was installed to administer
God's government. His Hebrew
name meant Lightbringer, Lucifer
in Latín . He was given authori ty
over all angels on earth.
This Lucifer decided he knew
better than God how to rule the
earth . Further, he decided he didn't
have enough a utbori ty. So he
rebelled and finally led one third of
the angels
against
tbe two divine
Personages ( l sa. 14:12-15; Ezek.
28: 15- 19). God instant iy acted.
The result? " Now the earth was
[better translated from the Hebrew
as "became" ] formless and empty,
darkness was over the surface of
the deep, and the Spirit of God was
bovering over the waters" (Gen.
1:2, New International Version) .
A devastated eartb now needed
God's attention. God, tbrough the
Word , began to
recreate
the earth's
su rface (Psa. 104:30), preparing it
for man. And on the sixth day, He
created man out of the soil, and
began to educate him in God's way.
When Lucifer (now called
Satan) rebelled, the government
installed throug h him over t he
earth needed a replacement. God
now offered Adam the chance to
qual ify to replace Satan on that
earthly throne.
A 6,00G-year Plan
Now-grasp this- if Adam had
qualified to re place Satan, this
world would have bee n drastically
different. Wars, crime and violence
would bave been unknown. God's
government, operati ng directly
from God
(tod~y
in the Personage
of the Father) , and through Chris t
on down, would bave led to happy
prosperous lives.
A view of what this world could
have been like is explained in our
free booklet
Never Before Under–
stood- Why Humanity Cannot
So/ve l ts Evils.
Write for your
copy today. (See inside cover for
addresses.)
But Adam rejected God's govern–
ment . And Adam and tbe wbole
human family carne under the gov–
ernment of Satan since Adam bad
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