Basic HTML Version
ON EARTH
(Continuedfrom page
3)
rior to that possessed by man. One
might suppose that, endowed with
such great knowledge and being cre–
ated holy, they would never choose
wrongly, or commit sin.
But sorne of them did! Their su–
perior knowledge did not prevent
rebellion, sin, and worldwide chaos
and destruction.
Originally, the angels under Luci–
fer were holy-and Lucifer himself.
sealing up the sum of wisdom, per–
fection and beauty, was created per–
fect. Yet ne led the first rebellion,
and evidently induced his angels to
follow him in this supersin. Thus the
angels sinoed (II Peter 2:4). They
rebelled against God's way. They
deliberately formed within them–
selves
evil
character. They turned
from God's government to vanity,
lust and greed; jealousy and envy;
competition leading to strife, vio–
lence, war. They resented any rule
over them. They wanted to choose
their own way,
not God's way.
Thus the government of God was
rejected, removed from the earth.
The creation of this group of an–
gels
was now
complete! They had
formed evil character. They became
demons.
And the great Lucifer be–
carne Satan the devil.
So possession of vast knowledge
and endowment with free choice
does not const itute perfect righteous
character. Neither does it absolutely
prove that the remaining two-thirds
of the holy, righteous angels will not
turo to sin.
There are three alternatives. One
is that al! of the angels were put on
earth and a third of them went the
wrong way, while the remaining
two-thi rds developed righteous
character. The second possibility is
that God placed a third of the an–
gels on earth and they all sinned by
following Satan in his rebellion. The
final possibility leaves the angelic
attainment of perfect, righteous ,
holy character uncompleted as of
now. Perhaps this latter possibility is
the most likely.
What God ls
But now look at God Himself, and
consider what He must have consid-
The
PLAIN TRUTH August 1978
ered. God possesses perfect. righ–
teous character. God will not sin.
God wíll not go contrary to the per–
fect, holy, spiri tual
law
whic.h He
created and set in living, active, in–
exorable motion, to cause and pro–
duce
al/ good.
God has
so set
Himselfthat H e cannot sin.
So here we have the state ofthings.
as God saw them, after the sinning
devil and demons were cast down to
the earth they had ruined. When the
earth first was created, the angels
shouted for joy (Job 38:7). There was
happiness,joy, ecstasy. perfect peace
on the earth as long as the govern–
ment of God was administered on
earth. But the universal sin of the
angels on earth had apparently
brought universal destruction!. The
earth was in a state of ruin.
Can we see, therefore, that God
had these facts to consider? That
immortal beings possessing great
knowledge and freedom of choice,
but
without
proveo righteous char–
acter, could not guarantee the pres–
ervation and improvement of H is
creat ion. You see,
God is Creator
and Preserver
of His creation.
lt
is
Satan and his angels who tumed to
destruction-and became des troyers.
The Second Phase of
God's Great Purpose
God knew that if the angels chose
evil character, it left Him as the only
Being in existence who could possi–
bly be relied upon never to deviate
from His government, its laws. and
its way of life.
We have now reached the point
where the govemment of God-the
means of bu ilding and instilling
righteous , holy, perfect character–
was abolished from the earth. It
must be restored. That is
uppermost
in God's mind!
God must have said: "There's just
not enough of me." He needed mil–
lions or billions of perfect and righ–
teous beings, governed by H is
government, to complete in beauty.
majesty and glory not only th e other
planets of our solar system, but of
our Milky Way, and the. countless
other galaxies of the limitless, vast
universe. So now comes the next
phase of God's overwhelmingly
grand purpose: to
REPRODUCE
HIM–
SELF
into billions ofGod-beings.
o
(To Be Continued)
DIET
(Continued Jrom page 26)
harmful effects on ·our health. These
dietary changes represent as great a
threat to public health as smoking.
Too much fat, too much sugar or
salt, can be and are linked directly
to heart disease, cancer, obesity, and
stroke, among other killer diseases.
In all, six of the ten leading causes
of death in the U.S. have been
linked to our diet."
"1 cannot think of any reason why
following the McGovern recom–
mendations would be inadvisable,"
concludes Carpenter. "One is simply
going back to the kind of diet that
has been found over long periods to
support good health. One wou ld be
going back to a tested diet rather
than being on the modero diet
which in terms of generations is an
untested diet."
The Prudent Diet
There's an old saying: "An apple a
day keeps the doctor away." Most
people today probably think that ex–
pression has little relevance to good
diet and health. But one thing is
certain: Americans-and increas–
ingly other affiuent nations of the
world- are
not
keeping the doctor
away. The cost in dollars is high
enough, but the cost in human suffer–
ing and death is incalculable. Over 70
percent of all deaths in the United
States are caused by diseases linked to
the composition of our diet.
"We would never feed the average
American diet to farm animals in this
country," asserts Briggs. "No farmer
would go out and give his pigs or his
poultry a good diet and then dilute it
down wi th sugar and fat at the kind of
levels that we' re doing in the Ameri–
can diet."
"Americans eat too much food ,"
states Dr. Mark Hegsted of Harvard
University. "They eat too much meat,
too much fat-especially saturated
fat- too much cholesterol, too much
salt, too much sugar. They should cut
their consumpt ion of these and in–
crease their consumpt ion of fruit,
vegetabies, and cereal products, espe–
cially whole grains."
Instead ofthe affiuent diet, we need
a prudent diet. Our health and lives
depend on it.
o
41