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ON EARTH
(Continued from page 3)
darkness was caused by his great
supersin and tha t of his angels. But
God is the very symbol of
light- of
truth- of beauty. So on the very first
day of what is often called "creation
week" God changed the earth 's sur–
face from darkness, ugliness, decay
and confusion to light , beauty and
harmony.
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cannot emphasize too strong ly
the fact that God is the author of
beauty - of quality- of perfection.
Satan is the author of ugliness, infe–
riority, imperfection, cheapness, de–
s lruclion. I n the six da ys of
renewing the face of lhe earlh and
lavishly decorating it with flora and
fauna , God made it beautiful-glo ri–
ously beautiful!
God had now compleled renew–
ing the face of the earth, preparing
it to become lhe abode ofman.
The Creation of Humankind
And now was to come the crowning
piece of God's handiwork- MAN!
"And God said , Let us make man in
our image, after our Iikeness.. ..
So
God created man in his own image,
in
the image of God created he him;
ma te and female created he them"
(Gen. l :26-27).
But
why
did God createman?
Here is a truth perhaps never be–
fore underslood by man. Look now
at God's supreme, overall purpose.
As He had previously surveyed the
colossal cataclysm thal the angelic
rebellion had produced, He must
have realized that it left H IMSELF as
the ONL
Y
Being who will not and
CANNOT SIN! The only possible as–
surance of accomplishing His great
purpose of finishing the creation–
populating and beaulifying the en–
tire universe- was for Him to repro–
duce Himself.
But what part could man possibly
have in such an awesome purpose?
Notice whal King David was in–
spired to write: "O Lord our Lord,
how excellent is thy name in all ·the
earlh! Who hasl set 1hy glory above
the heavens.... When
J
consider
thy heavens, the work of lhy fingers,
the moon and lhe slars, which lhou
The
PLAIN TRUTH October-November 1978
hast ordained;
whm is man, thOI
thou art mindful of him?"
(Psalm
8: 1-4.)
Ma rveling at the entire cre–
ation, David had asked how God
could take any account of puny
man.
Conlinue: "For thou hast made
him a little Iower tha n the a ngels,
and hast crowned him with glo ry
and honour. Thou madest him to
have dominion over the works of
thy hands;
1hou hast put al/ things
under his Jeet .
.. .
O Lord our Lord ,
how excellent is thy name in all the
earth!" (Ps. 8:5-9.)
David here
limited
man's domin–
ion to the present- that which God
gave mankind at his creat ion- the
solid earth , the earth's atmosphe re.
and the waters and sea. That is the
dominion lhat man
now
has!
But in the New Testament , writ–
ten much la ter. a far g rea ter destiny
and dominion forman is revealed.
The Transcendent Goal
In the book of Hebrews, we read:
"For unto the angels hath he [God]
not
pul in subjection
the world to
come,
whereofwe speak" (Heb.
2:5).
The theme of the first ha lf of this
chapter, in context. is " the world to
come"-the world tomorrow!
Then
verse 6 follows on with a quotat ion
froro the first six verses of the eighth
Psalm. Again David was specifically
showing tha t God has
now
placed in
subj ection under man the solid earth,
the earth's a tmosphere orair, and the
sea. But the writer of Hebrews is
inspired to follow with
something in–
jinitely greacer- somelhing
to happen
in the world to come.
The revealed knowledge of God's
purpose for mankind- of man's in–
credible, awesome potential- stag–
gers the imagination. Science knows
no thing of it- no religion reveals it–
and certainly higher education is in
utter ignorance of it.
Continue now in this passage in
Hebrews, beginning where this New
Testament book leaves off quoting
the eighth Psalm and adds the awe–
some human potential: "Thou hast
put all things in subjection under his
[man's] feet. For in tha t he [God]
put all in subjection under him
[man], he [God] lefl
nothing
lhat is
nol put under him" (Heb. 2:8).
Is it possible God could mean
what He says- "all lhings"?
Nothing
excl uded? In the first chapter, verse
3, the Moffatt transla tion of the
Bible renders the Greek word tha t is
translated "all things" as
" 1he uni–
verse."
In othe r words, for !hose willing
lo believe what God says. He says
thal He has decreed
the enlire uni–
verse
with all ils galaxies, ils count–
less suns and
planels- every thing–
wi ll be put unde r man 's subjection.
Bul wail a momenl! Before you
disbelieve, read the next words in
this same e ighth verse: " But now we
see
not y et
all things (the endless
universe] pul under him (man]." Re–
member, this is speaking of the
" world to come"- not
today's world.
But what do we see now, today?
" But we see Jesus, who was made a
little Iower than the angels for the
sufferingofdealh, crowned with glory
and honour. ... ' ' (verse
9).
Man,
other than Ch rist, is
not yet
crowned
with glory and honor. But
he
wi/1
be
in
a new age- yet in the future.
T his is on ly a brief inkling of the
fantastic, awesome, transcendent
purpose of man- only one of the
many passages in the Bible tha t de–
scribes bis incredible potential. God
needs millions o r billions of perfect
and righteous beings, governed by
His divine government , to
complete
the crea tion of, in all their beauty,
maj es ty and glory, not only the o ther
planets of our solar system
(now
in
utter waste and decay), but also ou r
galaxy, and count less other galaxies
ofthe Jímitless, vast universe.
1
have yet 10 tell you of th e in–
ciden! of the forbidden fruit in the
Garden of Eden-where man went
wrong- and
why he was created of
ma tte r, the dust of the ground. Ex–
pect surpri ses as you learn more of
the
crowning pinnac/e
of even God's
unmatched creating powers.
How could
the great God- the
Self-Existent One-the Creator of a ll
else- reproduce
Himse!f
inlo mul–
tiple millions of others just like
Himself- divine, supreme in power,
perfecl in character- each by his
own choice
perfectly
like-minded
with the Father, each having so set
himsel f that he cannot sin?
o
(To Be Concinued)
45