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had not been added. God placed
man here to do that which sinning
angels had not done.
Man was to finish the beautifica–
tion of the earth. God is not the
author of confusion, ugliness or de–
cay,
but of beauty, perfection,
character, the best in quality.
Look at the description of God's
heaven - the seat of God ' s
throne- where, we might say, God
lives as described in the fourth
chapter of Revelation. God sits on
a throne surrounded by brilliant
splendor, quality and beauty and
character. More dazzlingly and
gloriously beautiful than anything
human eyes have ever seen.
God intended man to work this
earth, improve it, beautify it, give
it glorious character-and in so do–
ing to build into his own life the
"beauty of holiness"
(l
Chron.
16:29). God never intended hu–
mans to live in poverty, filth and
squalor or ugliness. Man should
have beautified the earth, and de–
veloped man' s character in so do–
ing. His civilization should have
been a "heaven on earth. "
What Man Has Done
But what has man done on the
earth where God placed him? Man
has made ugly, polluted, defiled,
profaned everything his hands have
touched. He has polluted the air ,
befouled the water in the rivers,
lakes and seas. He has deteriorated
the land, denuded the forests, thus
altering rainfall and causing the ex–
pansion of deserts. He has worn
out the soil by neglecting to give it
its sabbaths of rest every seven
years. Man has built cities and al–
lowed them to deteriorate into
slums, filth and squalor.
All because the very first human
rejected and turned from God, re–
lying solely on himself- and all
Adam's children have done like–
wise.
Thus man has built a man-made
and Satan-influenced civilization.
Man not only has ruined the earth
he should have developed and im–
proved, he has destroyed his own
health by wrong living, and de–
graded and perverted his own spir–
itual character. Now, at last, as we
near the end of the 6,000 years
God has allowed him this free rein,
man has created the Frankenstein
Februar y 1986
of weapons of mass destruction
that can destroy all mankind ut–
terly-unless a merciful God inter–
venes to save us from ourselves.
A Modest Foretaste
We now live in the era biblical
prophecy calls the last days- the
last generation before the coming
of Christ to rule and accomplish on
earth what mankind should have
done. In tbese last days, according
to biblical prophecy, knowledge,
spiritual as well as material, was to
be increased. The true Church of
God was to be set back on the
track, restoring the glorious knowl–
edge of the faith once delivered to
the saints in the days of the origi–
nal apostles.
Jesus Christ, through the
Church, built three colleges- two
in the United States and one in
England. The three campuses, in
material beauty, have mutually ex–
celled each other, as a high charac–
ter physical setting for the develop–
ment of God's righteous character
in students. The beauty of godly
character in these students has ex–
celled the physical beauty of the
campuses. A royal Queen on a six–
day visit to the headquarters
cam–
pus in Pasadena, California, on
touring the .campus, exclaimed,
" 1
have just been in heaven."
Three times this campus has won
character degradation start?
Had Adam taken of the prof–
fered tree of life the whole course
of civilization would have been en–
tirely different. Peace, happiness,
joy, health and abundance would
have spread over the earth.
But what did result?
Ada'm took to himself the knowl–
edge of good as well as evil. But it
was only human good, no higher
than the carnal human level of the
human spirit within him. He re–
jected reliance on God and relied
on himself for knowledge, ability
and power-all limited to the
fleshly human plane, deceived and
led by the perverted Satan.
Had he taken of the tree of life,
he himself undoubtedly would have
succeeded Satan on the throne of
the earth, restoring the government
of God, empowered, influenced
and led by the Eternal God. But he
allowed Satan to enter within his
mind. He was, as it were, kid–
napped and held captive by Satan.
Thus the first created human
disbelieved God, disobeyed God,
·chose to go
HIS OWN WAY,
do his
own thing. Adam did it willingly,
but not apparently willfully or with
malicious intent.
Willingly, Adam was led into
captivity by Satan. He had will–
ingly gone along with Satan, the
archkidnapper of all time.
e were boro into
the award of being the
most beautiful, best land–
scaped, and best main–
tained campus in the
United States. These
campuses are an example
of what mankind should
have done, and a modest
foretaste of the beauty
that will blossom forth
over the whole earth after
Christ and his saints in
his kingdom are ruling
the earth in the wonder-
this 20th-century world as
it is. We take it
for ·granted. But we can't
explain it.
ful world tomorrow.
Deteriorated, former millionaire
mansions have been restored. An
area behind them that had deterio–
rated into Pasadena's slum has
been cleaned out and been built
into the most beautiful area in
Pasadena.
What lf Adam Had Taken the Tree
of Li te?
How did this material and human
A World Held Captive
Adam had been created with the
potential to be born a son of Goo.
Even though not as yet even a be–
gotten son of the Goo
FAMILY,
he
had been created as potentially just
that. Once he succumbed to Sa–
tan's
WAY
of choosing to "do his
own thing," in rebellion against a
deliberate command of God, he be–
carne spiritually the property of Sa-
17