Page 1291 - Church of God Publications

Basic HTML Version

Persona
1
from...
(Continued from page 1)
banks in New York and Chicago,
or executive heads of major indus–
trial corporations.
1 had entered the business world.
And indeed that, too, was a world
unto itself. In those days, we in the
business world held college profes–
sors more or less in contempt, as
impractical theoretical idealists
without real knowledge based on
EXPERIENCE.
But in October, 1947, starting
Ambassador College with a faculty
of eight and student body of four, 1
began for the first time to rub
shoulders with college professors.
Six had either PhDs or MAs, and
two had BAs, but were taking spe–
cial courses toward higher degrees.
The faculty members prepared
their own luncheon in a kitchen in
our one-building college, and fGe–
quently 1 joined thcm. 1 observed
they carried a specially developed
professional manner, used the lan–
guage of scholarship, an d-yes,
like other worlds- were a superior
world unto themselves.
This was becoming interesting as
1 meditated on. More and more
worlds continued Aashing to mind.
1 thought of the sports world. It's
even divided into worlds within the
sports world-the world of base–
hall , football (U.S.) , soccer (Brit–
ain and many other countries), ten–
nis, basketball, ice hockey, track
and field and many others. Each
with its own language and termi–
nology, its own printed media. How
many wives pick out the sports sec–
tion of the morning newspaper and
place it at their husbands' plate
with breakfast?
Then there's the labor world, the .
domestic political world, the social
world and now surfacing, reminis–
cent of Sodom and Gomorrah, the
emboldened and defiant "gay"
world, flaunting their shame as
though they were righteous and
superior, asserting their " rights."
They recognize one another instant–
ly and form their own inner world.
Also now emerging in force is a
world actually founded by the orig–
inal mother Eve, organizing to
demand "their rights" in the
United States under the banner of
August 1982
the ERA. The prophet Isaiah broke
the original news story of their
world for these last days. Speaking
of "i n that day" - our time now–
"chi ldren are their oppressors, and
women rule over them" (Isa. 3:12).
1 have known personally three
women rulers, Mrs. Golda Meir,
Mrs. Indira Gandhi , and Mrs. Ban–
daranaike of Sri Lanka. And now
we have the " lron Lady," Margaret
Thatcher, leading Britain , a nd
Queen Elizabeth on the throne.
1 have been in the advertising
world and the newspaper world,
and each is, indeed, a world of
itself, with the common character–
istics of a feeling of superiority and
a certain disdain fo r those outside
their worlds.
Then we must not overlook the
exclusive professional military
world-those making military ser–
vice their profession, a closed world
in itself. They, too, are lofty and
superior, high above us ordinary
civilians.
There are, too, the various reli–
gious worlds, each with its own per–
sonality and culture, a nd each
esteeming itself loftier than other
religions, sects or worlds.
All these many worlds, all loftier
in their own minds than the others,
nevertheless amalgamate into one
overall world collectively inhabit ing
this planet Earth.
Actually, the earth and aJI in it
was designed and created by the
Almighty Ever-living God, pur–
posed to be
HIS
world, in close asso–
ciation with and guided by him.
But the world with all its subworlds
actually is cut off from him, living
separately and independent of bim,
virtually unaware of him as if he
were nonexistent. Even to those
who have sorne consciousness of
him, to most of them he seems
unreal-a sort of phantom or imag–
inary being.
Most people know little of other
worlds outside their subworld-let
alone a consciousness of any connec–
tion, association with or real knowl–
edge of the supreme overall God who
gives life, sustains the universe and is
the direct Source of
al/!
But
WHY?
How did things
get
this way?
Wh at was the origin- the
source-of this amalgamated world
with its many inner worlds callee-
tively? They do all have certain
things in common, despite the dif–
ferences and imagined respective
superiorities.
lt
all originated in a very superi–
or being- a superhuman- on the
highest leve! of the feats of creation
of the Almighty Creator. He was
the super archangel, the cherub
Lucifer-immortal, high above
ordinary angels or even seraphs. Of
this superbeing, God said, "Thou
art the anointed cherub that cover–
eth" the very throne of Almighty
God. "Thou wast perfect in thy
ways from the day that thou was t
created, till iniquity [lawlessness]
was found in thee." But why the
re bellious lawlessness in such a
mighty and perfect superbeing?
God reveals: " Thine heart was
lifted up because of thy
BEAUTY,
thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by
reason of th y brightness ..."
( Ezek. 28:14-15, 17) .
This superior created being was
utterly
BEAUTIFUL.
He was exceed–
ingly brilliant in mind.
It
went to
his head. He, superior though he
was, sti ll was inferior to bis Maker.
But bis brilliance, brightness, intel–
lect, beauty, went to his head. He
exaggerated even hi s exceeding
brilliance and magnified himself
above even bis C reator. He became
excessively vain in self-esteem. To
elevate himself above bis own Cre–
ator, he allowed
VANITY
to seize
him- to pervert his mind into an
attitude of ext reme hostility. He
inoculated the angels under him
with this same attitude of host ile
rebellion against their Creator. He
at tempted a spiritual military inva–
sion and coup to seize the heavenly
throne of the universe from God.
He was cast back down to earth.
Thus he became Satan the devil,
and bis angels became demons.
In the form of a serpent, he
deceived mother Eve in the garden
of Eden. In initiating the original
ERA movement, she led the first
Adam into a rebellious attitude of
taking to himself the
spiritual
knowledge of good and evil. Thus the
first human imbibed the
ATTITUDE
of hostility against the Creator God
and against God's way of life.
But
HOW
have all succeeding
humanity ·imbibed this attitude of
self-centered motivation? The hu–
man mind is composed of human
39