DIVINE JUSTICE IN THE DELUGE

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 3 May 1913, Page 3

DIVINE JUSTICE IN THE DELUGE

AN ACT OF MERCY, DELIVERING MAN FROM SLAVERY, AJND A TEST OF LOYALTY TO ALL THE HOLY ANGELS. I ( Pvihlisliotl I»y Arrangement.) On Sunday. I'astor Russell resumed his consideration of "'I he Flood." We report his diycourM' i'rom the text "The fl(K>d came and took them al! away" (Matt. xxiv. .10). Speaking without notes, lie said: — I continue my subject oi' a week ago. I am confident that many of you keep in touch with my weekly discourse* through the newspapers. Last Sunday wi> considered the physical causes which led up to the Deluge. and found tliein tuvry way most reasonable and in full harmony with history and geology. To-day we consider the matter from a .different stauidpoint. We will endeavour to show from the Bible why God permitted tiie Deluge at all, and that He was fully justified in the arrangement which" blotted out the human family, except eight—righteous Noah and his family. To begin with, we should remember that .God's Covenant with Adam, granting liini everlasting life, was based upon the fact that he was perfect (an image of his Creator), and oiii condition that lie would maintain this image and likeness by continued obedience to his Maker. God not only foreknew that the cbnditions under which man was created with result in simy but without causing the temptation and without giving any excuse for the disloyalty, He determined to permit it. When Satin obsessed the serpent and buided 'it to eat the very fruit of which our first parents were forbidden to eat, he presented thereby a temptation. Mother Eve saw that so for from rhe serpent being poisoned by that fruit, it was the wisest of animals. She reasoned that humanity was so superior to the brute that the increased make her husband and herself like gods. She thirsted for knowledge and power. Only the Divine command seemed to stand between her and the highest ideals. She partook of the fruit amd reconimoinded it to Adam—who was not so deceived, but knew that death would surely follow disobedience. Nevertheless he disobeyed, preferring to perish with his wife rather than live without her.

THE RESULT OF DISOBEDIENCE. The disobedience led to expulsion from Eden and the beginning of? the gradual execution of the sentence. "Dying thou shalt die." Adam died within the thousand-year Day in which he ate- of the tree—nine hundred and thirty years old. . His race inherited his dying \ conditions and tendencies. Tims all humanity are under the. Divine curse, or sentence of death, and have been going down to the tomb, Hades, for six thousand years. Whatever, therefore, may cut short human life is no injustice to humanity, because any life enjoyed is that much more tham it has title to. Hence the Deluge was merely a quick means of executing against the race the death sentence already expressed sixteen centuries before. When the Bible adcount of the cause of the Delug? is properly comprehended, it is seen that it is indeed a blessing in disguise. The human family had fallen into slavery, and would shortly have been wiped out by a new race which moat peculiarly had intruded upon humanity. The' Bible tells us that'this new race consisted exclusively of males, propagated through the human female. We real that the same were giants—men of renown.

The fallen race of Adam was -unable to. cope with the superior mental and phyical istrengtli off the intruders. Robbed of their wives and daughters, and compelled to do tlio drudgery of their new masters, their lives were a burden. Not only so, but the new race wag vicious, brutal, violent,- as well as immoral, i'lie Bible account declares, "The earth was filled with violence." The general moral corraption went so far that we read, "Every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually." What a mercy in the sight of all intelligent beings that ,sucli a terribly immoral, ,strifeful, and enslaved, condition! should be brought completely to an end 1 This description is found in Gen, vi. 4-11. WTTENCE THE RfCE OF GIANTS? In the last wo have not studied the Bible with sufficient care, and therefore have not appreciated properly the wonderful, harmonious story. Til© origin of the invading race of giants is clearly told, said Pastor Russell. Satan, a glorious angelic being of & high order, named Lucifer, the Morning Star, deflected to sin, because of ambition. He had isaid in his heart long before, "I will be as the Most High"—fin indepe*ndent sovereign. Satan thought he saw his opportunity to establish a separate empire in the earth. He thought that if he could become master of the first pair, all of their children would

be his subjocts. Knowing of tea own continued life, aind that man was created for everlasting existence, ho counted not on "death" as tha Divine penalty for sin. When Satan peroeived liis human subjects' growing gradually weaker under the curso a ciew plan waa formulated . To the angels who were given permission to help and instruct, humanity, a temptation was presented. They possessed the power ei materialisation, and could as human to help and instruct humanity. The Satainic suggestion was that they could help humanity better by bogetting a new race, using the human females as mothers ior the race, to which they would impart their own virility. Although this was recognised as being contrary to the Divine law, it- was perceived that Satan had not been punished for his rebellion. The inference was that (Joel was unable to punish Satan. By refraining from punishing Satan, God left open the door by which all the holy angels wer?' exposed to tests of loyalty and obedience. DIVINE WISDOM MANIFESTED. Thug we may know that the angels in harmony with God are loyal to the core, because thy withstood temptation—permitted for their testing. That this testing continued, for centures we know from the context, because th© children of this illicit union were men, giants, and renowned at a time when* manhood was rarely reached earlier than one century. The simple record of Genesis is, "When the sons of God come in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children unto them, the. same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown'." These bestial giants filled the earth with violence, oppressing and enslaving Adam's posterity. As for them, they never had a right to existence, gince they were born contrary to the Divine Law. Nor can we suppose that they would bo included in the redemptive work of Jesus, who died only for Adam and his posterity. "As all 'in Adam' die, even <9O all in Christ shall be made alive" (I. Cor. xv. 22). The Pastor reminded his audience that Noah and his family were of "pure Adamic stock," Quoting, "Noah a just man and perfect in his generation." There is the same hope for the antediluvians as for tne remainder of the human family—the hope of the resurreotion of the dead. This means not merely a hope of being awakened from the sleep of death, but a hope of [Restitution to the full measure of hu'man perfection. This hope rests on God's gracious promise that all th© families of the earth be blessed in Abraham's seed, and in we Bible assuraaice that Jestis is the Head, and the Church the members, of that Spiritual seed of Abraham, which soon, as the Elect of God, will be completed and glorified. Next Sunday Pastor Russell will show just what penalty Divine Justice has imposed upon Satan, and his associated angelic rebels. If you are not in touch with any the newspapers publishing his sermons weekly, drop him a postcard to the London Tabernacle, Lancaster Gate, J/andon, W.