Human destiny in the light of revelation

Preface

The teaching of Revelation concerning man's ultimate destiny is not vague or inconclusive, though it has sometimes been made to appear so through metaphysical interpretations ; systems of thought have arisen by this means which from time to time have been accorded a certain sanction or authority. But it is now widely recognized that such systems of metaphysical definition cannot be final as statements of truth, since they must ever be subject to critical revision with the progress of mind ; the changes or modifications to which they have been subject in the past are an indication of what must follow in the future as truth is gradually freed from error.

Some recent attempts have been made to forecast the destiny of man by the light of modern science, and in this light it may vi PREFACE

perhaps be possible to form a reasonable, though necessarily vague, conjecture as to what may be the nature of that perfected earthly state of man toward which all the higher activities of the present life appear gradually to tend. But of that ultimate destiny of the human soul which lies beyond the horizon of this world. Science supplies no data whatever upon which a conclusion may rest ; concerning that which transcends the boundaries of the earthly life Revelation alone supplies the key. It has been the aim in this treatise, therefore, to adhere strictly to the teaching of those original scriptures which affirm a revelation of human destiny by "the word of prophecy " and as manifested in the person of "Jesus, the Christ.'*

I am not aware that this exclusive aim, of ascertaining the destiny of man by the light of Revelation, has hitherto been attempted, except incidentally, with reference to some less single purpose and in a fragmentary form. The prophecies bearing on

PREFACE vii

this subject have had a profound significance for devout minds in all ages, but the teaching of the scriptures with reference to man's moral redemption has had a tendency to place the revelation of his ultimate spiritual future in a remote and shadowy background.

While a release from the conditions of sin is the first and most pressing need in the life of the individual, the supreme note of joy which finds emphasis in the scriptures is based upon the revelation of " Life and Immortality," including the manifestation of this in its ultimate form in the person of the Messiah. Few, comparatively, realize how full and complete and perfect is the revelation of human destiny. Many imagine that the knowledge of this is withheld from man ; that nothing is known, or can be known, of man's ultimate future; while some would affirm that a veil should be drawn over that future lest the activities of the present be hindered by the contemplation of that which apparently is remote and unsubstantial.

viii PREFACE

But Revelation presents another view : it emphasizes the fact that the knowledge of human destiny, once realized in the consciousness, is a potent influence affecting the life and thought of man, transfiguring the darkest features of the present and stimulating aspiration and joy. From the earliest (Gen. xvii : 1-5) to the latest prophecies (Rev. xxi : 1-8), it appears to be the aim of Revelation to bring to the human consciousness a full knowledge of the divine purpose and ultimate end in the creation of man, and to make this knowledge a reward of faith and a means of drawing the human soul onward and upward to the fulfillment of its destiny.

The advanced thought of the time, in many converging lines, is earnestly seeking light on the nature and destiny of man by the aid and methods of modern Science; this gives to the study of Revelation, in this connection, a peculiar interest and significance, which it has been the aim of this treatise to present. And as no one order

PREFACE ix

of truth stands unrelated to other forms of knowledge in the human mind, Nature and Spirit have been discriminated in Part L, in the light of Science and Revelation, as an introduction to Part II., which treats exclusively of the Destiny of man as revealed in Christ. When the reader reflects upon the vastness of the theme and the extent of the ground traversed, he will apprehend that only an outline was possible within the limits of one small volume ; but with this outline in mind the study of Revelation will disclose with far greater fullness the truths emphasized in this brief statement.

Contents

PAGE

PART I. NATURE AND SPIRIT . . i

Science and Revelation ; Nature and the Supra'VizXMX2\ ; The Creation of Man ; The Order of Creation ; Temporal and Eternal Life ; The Symbols of Genesis ; The Cosmogony of Genesis ; The Process of Forming Man ; Man's Natural Ascent ; The Travail of Nature ; The Edenic Man ; Moral and Spiritual States ; The Spirit imparted to Man; Activities of Nature and Spirit.

PART II. THE DESTINY OF MAN AS REVEALED IN CHRIST ... 89 What is Man t The Son of Man; The Messiah ; Perfect Man ; The Son of Man in Heaven ; The Man, Christ Jesus ; The World to come ; The Spirit of Jesus ; Then cometh the End ; A Little Lower than God ; The Faith of God ; With Thine Own Self; We shall be Like Him.

CONCLUSION 180

PART I

NATURE AND SPIRIT

** Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. . . . That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." — John iii : 3-6.

" The first man Adam became a living soul. The last Adam became a live-giving spirit. Howbeit that is not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural ; then that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy : the second man is of heaven." — i Corinthians XV : 45-47. • (R. V.)

NATURE AND SPIRIT

SCIENCE AND REVELATION I

It is affirmed as a fundamental truth of Revelation that God is spiritual or supranatural Being, that he is over all his works, and that he has variously revealed himself to man, but more specifically through what is designated his " word." It may likewise be affirmed as a fundamental premise that spiritual or ^///r^-natural Being, to be known as such, must be supernaturally revealed ; not necessarily in the form of miracle, so-called, but through the manifestation of that which constitutes the ^?//m-natural principle or *^ substance '' of that Being — which the scripture affirms is '' Spirit." ^ A "mani-

festation of the Spirit"^ is therefore the self-revelation of God, — the disclosure of that which is above or behind Nature.

II

The discoveries of Science and the course of human events are sometimes designated '* revelations/' the term being freely applied to whatever pertains to human enlightenment ; but in its scriptural sense this term has a more restricted meaning as implied in the words : " God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son."^

Likewise the term ** Science " may signify all that pertains to exact knowledge, of whatever kind ; but as commonly understood it refers more specifically to the knowledge of Nature, and it is in this sense that the term will be used in this treatise. Science and Revelation therefore, as these terms are herein used, have a distinction in their

1 I Cor. xii : 7. 2 Heb. i : 12.

methods and aims which it may be well to define as a premise. Science- may direct the astronomer to point his telescope to a quarter of the heaven where a hitherto unknown planet will become visible at a specified time. The certainty of the fulfillment of this prediction is due to the fact that the presence of such an unseen body has been ascertained through certain disturbances observed in the movement of some known body, the cause of which has been mathematically determined. This is not properly a revelation, but a discovery ; and it is important to mark the distinction between the enlightenment that is due to the observation of Nature, and the enlightenment derived through a revelation of the Spirit.^

Ill

For Revelation, in the scriptural sense, implies an order of enlightenment differing from the common, as manifested in "the sure word of prophecy,'* of which^ means the scripture affirms that ''no prophecy ever came by the will of man, but men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Ghost." 1

As thus defined the enlightenment derived through Revelation differs from the acquisitions of Science according to the distinctions in their respective sources of light. Jesus said, " The word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's who sent me." ^ . . . "The words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are life." ^ This distinction is further emphasized by the apostle Paul as follows : '* My speech and my teaching," he said, " was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power : that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. . . . We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory ; which, none of the princes of this world knew''^ — or, which was unknown to the philosophies of man. ^ Thus the wisdom acquired in the course of Nature the apostle designates "man's wisdom,'* by virtue of its being an acquisition of the human mind through the use of man's intellect ; but *' a demonstration of the Spirit and of power*' he designates " the wisdom of God." ^

In the light of the knowledge that all things are fundamentally of divine origin, the wisdom derivable from Nature is likewise the wisdom of God — but in a secondary sense. For Nature is an organic expression of the mind of a Creator ; man's last discovery through the observation of Nature is natural law. The wisdom derivable from Nature is therefore a result of the mediation of natural law, and natural law differs from "a demonstration of the

2 Matt, xiii : 35 ; Rom. xvi : 25, 26.

Spirit '' as the creation differs from its originating and sustaining Cause. For the laws of Nature are not more truly God than are the products of these laws : they do not reveal " the Spirit of God " in a primary sense, as God is revealed in " his word " or in '' his Christ/' While, therefore, a creator and sustainer of the universe may be inferred from the observation of Nature, even to "his eternal power and Godhead," ^ as the maker of all things, God is known as to his spiritual Fatherhood by Revelation ; for in " a demonstration of the Spirit '' 2 God himself is present in the manifestation in a primary sense. Thus are Science and Revelation clearly distinguishable as of two orders of "wisdom,'' proceeding respectively from Nature and Spirit.

V

Revelation affirms that " God is Spirit ; " ^ and as already stated Spirit is supra-natursl,

— above or behind Nature. The most ancient symbol of Revelation affirms figuratively that " the Spirit of God moved " in originating a creative act ; ^ then followed, in the light of Science, an order of Nature through which were formed the universe and man.

For Science has already demonstrated the truth that creation is by natural law ; and while this '' order of Nature/' so-called, proceeds forth from God — of whom, through whom, and to whom are all things ^

— the originating cause, or divine immanence, which is Spirit, is not discernible in Nature as to his essential Being. It is an ancient question, " Canst thou by searching find out God } '' ^ The most acute scientific scrutiny fails to discover anything back of natural law, though it belongs to the necessities of human thought to infer an intelligent First Cause.

In the last analysis, therefore. Science resolves the order of Nature into a system of

10 HUMAN t)ESTINY

laws, a correlation of forces — impersonal, comprehensive, immutable — which form, differentiate, and apparently explain all natural phenomena of the physical and mental realms. The existence of the s^ipra-naXural, therefore, is not demonstrable by Science, but through a revelation of the Spirit ; ^ and in a revelation of the Spirit, God himself, who alone is supra-naXixYsly breaks forth,^ as it were, through his creation and is manifested in and through the soul of man, the scripture affirming that " the tabernacle of God is with men/' ^

1 I Cor. ii : 4, 5. 2 Exod. xix .-22. ^ Rgy, xxi : 3.

IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION ii

NATURE AND THE SUPRA- NATURAL

I

A '' demonstration of the Spirit '' is therefore the self-revelation of God, in and through the soul of man. But so long as man is wholly of the order of Nature, the scripture affirms he is incapable of discerning "the things of the Spirit of God."^ The apostle Paul says, " The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God : for they are foolishness unto him ; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.'* ^ And it is a fundamental teaching of Christ's gospel that *' Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. . . . Except a man be bom ... of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." ^ For Nature is ap-

1 I Cor. ii: II. 2 j Qqy, ii : 14.

3 John iii : 3-10.

prehended by that which is natural, and Spirit is apprehended by that which is spiritual ; like discerns like. That which is born in the order of Nature is natural, and that which is "born of the Spirit " is spiritual or divine.^ Therefore Jesus said, " Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again/' ^

For as formed in the order of Nature man is a " creature ; '* ^ the scripture says he is made of the elements of the earth : ^ and it is likewise affirmed that this creation is not consummated^ in man until he is endowed with the Spirit, or " born of God." 6

This teaching of Christ and his apostle, through the distinctions and issues that flow thence, will be found to be fundamental in the revelation of human destiny.

1 John iii : 6. ^ John iii : 7.

3 Rom. viii : 19. ^ Gen. ii : 7.

^ Rom. viii: ii. ^ i John iv : 7-9.

II

If man received this spiritual endowment in the course of Nature it would have been needless to say that he "must be born again/' that he must be "born of the Spirit/' The teaching of Jesus likewise has reference to the freedom of the individual human will to accept or reject this "gift of God." ^ Except a man (the individual soul) be born of the Spirit, he cannot "see/' or "enter/' the kingdom of God.

For "the kingdom of God" is a spiritual as distinguished from a natural realm, wherein "the things pertaining to God" are spiritually discerned, without a veiling.^ The scripture affirms that it is not until man is " born of the Spirit " that he is " born of God," or becomes a son of God : " As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God ; even to them that believe on his name : which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." ^

While, therefore, in the order of Nature, and by the light of Science, man may vaguely discern a divinity in an inferred first cause, or in a power which upholds the universe, God is known as to his spiritual Fatherhood through some other form of knowledge. Jesus said, " No man knoweth the Son, but the Father ; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him : '' ^ and " no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.'' ^

The revelation of God as Spirit is therefore in a sense distinct from his revelation in Nature as the creator and sustainer of the universe. And in order that man may discern *' the things of the Spirit of God '' ^ the scripture affirms he '' must be born

1 John i : 13. 2 ]yxatt. xi : 27.

8 John xiv : 6. * i Cor. ii : 14.

anew." ^ To them that were entering upon this divine inheritance the scripture says, emphasizing a distinction of the spiritual and the natural in the order of the soul's life, ''The things of God none knoweth, save the Spirit of God. But we received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God ; that we might know the things that are freely given to us by God. Which things also we speak, not in words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Spirit teacheth ; comparing spiritual things with spiritual." 2

In the light of this teaching the enlightenment that comes of Nature and the enlightenment which comes of Spirit are in a sense distinct. One order of wisdom relates to that which is created, formed, made, and to the mind thence derived ; while the other relates to God himself, or to that which is "begotten of God." They who are born of the Spirit are said to be '' taught

2 I Cor. ii:ii-i3. (R. V.)

of God ; " ^ for when man has become spiritual-minded ^ God then guides and counsels man Spirit to spirit, by an inward communion that is spiritual or divine.^ When one of the disciples of Jesus first manifested this spiritual enlightenment the Master said, '* Blessed art thou . . . for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven/' * The disciple was blessed because of his spiritual discernment as well as in the special revelation that was made to him. And it is upon this spiritual order of apprehension, through the

1 John vi : 45. ^ Rom. viii : 6-1 1.

3 Faculties are developed and various orders of mind formed according to the nature of the sustained impulse given to thought through observation and reflection. The " natural mind " is formed through the observation of natural things, and to the extent of its knowledge its accretions constitute an image of the natural virorld. In like manner, vv^hen inspired by the Spirit, a distinct order of observation and reflection, pertaining to spiritual things, forms the spiritual mind, or "man:" and these two orders of mind differ according to the distinctions existing in their objects of thought.

* Matt, xvi : 17.

birth of a spiritual consciousness in man, that Christ declared he would build his church^ or found his ** kingdom," — a kingdom of the Spirit, *'the kingdom of God."

1 Matt, xvi : 18.

THE CREATION OF MAN

I

But while " the natural man," or natural mind — by which is meant the mind that is formed exclusively in the order of Nature — as the scripture says, "receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,"^ it has its own proper function to exercise in the discernment of that which is natural. When it is affirmed in the parable that " the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light,'' ^ a general truth is implied ; namely, that wisdom on any given plane has reference to the things pertaining to that plane ; and while Nature is apprehended naturally. Spirit is apprehended spiritually, — like discerns like : therefore the scripture says spiritual things are '^spiritually discerned/'^

1 I Cor. ii : 14. ^ Luke xvi: 8.

3 I Cor. ii: 14.

That which engaged the mind of Newton in his Prmcipia and that which filled the mind of Paul in his Epistles are not of one and the same order of truth, though fundamentally both orders of truth are alike of divine origin. But the truths of Nature and the truths of Spirit are, respectively, with reference to natural and spiritual realms. Science is now affirming ** the unity of Nature," while Revelation affirms "the unity of the Spirit ; " ^ and these unities agree in one only in the end and consummation of human destiny, when God will be "all in all." 2

II

In so far, therefore, as Nature has ministered to the creation of man Science is the interpreter of the process, and Science is gradually explaining this order of creation through the discovery of natural law. As thus explained — in so far as the scientific mind is warranted in forming a conclusion from the ascertained facts — man is an organic creature "formed" through evolution and development. Science, as alreadyaffirmed, is only cognizant of that which is natural — the j-^//r^-natural ** Spirit " is not included in her categories. Every form and function of the human organism, apparently every faculty of mind — as the forming of these in the order of Nature is gradually reduced to knowledge — attests man's relationship to subordinate organisms, and these in turn to lower or more rudimentary forms of life. For in the light of Science an order is found to prevail throughout Nature which links the latest developments with the initial stages of creation, and the forming of "man'' apparently is included in this order. Though Science has by no means solved the problem of man's ascent in the order of Nature, the results of modern research already suggest the inference that natural law preserves an unbroken order, or chain of sequence, which connects the latest with the earliest stages of creation.

Through the discrimination of genera and species, through the development of faculties and functions, there seems to have been, in the light of Science, a gradual rising from simpler to more complex organisms, from lower to higher forms of life, until in " man " the physical organism apparently reached its final stage of development. Thence on there follows an evolution of the mind and the moral sense which differentiates ** man '* from all subordinate, antecedent forms of life, and apparently has no bounds of limitation. As the struggle between the various races of man becomes more and more dependent upon intellectual and moral qualities, the dominance of physical force gradually yields, though with exceeding slowness, to these higher powers pertaining to the soul. Hence when the physical organism attained its final development in man, the evolution of his psychic powers, as expressed in mind, continued on independent of any further change of the bodily form ; for there is **no indication that Nature tends to the production of any higher organism than that of man." While, therefore, in all living creatures subordinate to man the physical organism appears to have set a limit to their psychic development, — as determined by their mental range or intelligence, — when the human stage was reached, thence on there followed a seemingly independent evolution of the mind and the moral sense, which became a distinguishing human characteristic, separating man, through these higher attributes of the soul, from all that subordinate creation which Revelation figuratively designates in its totality "the dust of the ground,'* of which the scripture affirms "man is made."^

1 Gen. ii : 7.

THE ORDER OF CREATION

Thus the results of modern scientific research appear to agree with this symbol of Revelation as to man's origin and natural descent, or with respect to the forming of his natural mind and organism. The process of man's creation in the order of Nature is gradually being explained through the discovery of natural laws ; which natural agencies Revelation symbolizes by the anthropomorphic figure, '' the work of mine hands " ^ — the laws of Nature being regarded as an instrumentality.

Revelation, having another end in view than that of supernaturally informing man with reference to the natural history of creation, merely outlines this figuratively, in a few far-reaching all-inclusive symbols, in Genesis, as a foundation upon which

1 Isa. xxix : 23.

it was divinely purposed '*in the fulness of time '* ^ — as discerned in the light of the New Testament — to base a revelation of the Spirit through Jesus Christ,^ when man was qualified to receive this divine gift.

The " Spirit of prophecy '* reveals nothing which man may discover of himself by the use of his intellect, for it is by searching out the truths of Nature, in the widest sense, that man's intellect is formed ; and to supernaturally reveal this natural order of truth would have an injurious effect upon the human mind by depriving it of a proper exercise of its own natural faculties in their development. The reference Revelation makes to the order of a natural creation is therefore merely a figurative or symbolic outline, indicating the divine immanence in the creative act, with special reference to what was to follow when " the divine nature *' ^ should be imparted to man through Jesus Christ.

1 Gal. iv : 4. 2 Rom. xvi : 25. ^2 Peter i : 4.

II

By the light of Science the inference may now be drawn that all the activities of Nature tended from the beginning toward that final consummation which is expressed in "man;" anti the scripture intimates as much when it affirms that a *' Saviour of men '' was *' foreordained before the foundation of the world/' ^ In the light of this revelation the divine purpose is made known from the beginning ; namely, that the creation and salvation of *'man'' was in mind before this world came into existence.

The scripture figuratively affirms that it was not until "man was made" that the divinity " breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul." 2 Referring to the " natural man " as distinguished from that spiritual manhood revealed in Christ, the apostle Paul says : " The first man Adam became a living soul ; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

1 I Peter i : 20. 2 Qen. ii : 7.

Howbeit that is not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural ; then that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy : the second man is of heaven. . . . And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.'^ ^ By his use of the present tense — "the first man is," etc. — the apostle implies that this order of creation is common to all men ; " first the natural ; afterward, then that which is spiritual.'' ^

For the making of man, in the light of this teaching, was not an act consummated in a remote past, but is still in process in the life of the individual, as implied in the words of Christ, " My Father worketh hitherto, and I work."^ . . . ''My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work/'* For it is through Christ that the Father imparts his own Spirit individually to man, that man may become '' a living soul " ^ — that is, a soul quickened

2 John V : 17. ^ John iv : 34. ^ Gen. ii : 7.

by the indwelling " Spirit of God ; " and the sign of the consummation of this divine act in the creation of man was when the risen Christ breathed on his disciples and said, ^* Receive ye the Holy Spirit''^ — a symbol, or sign, of that subconscious spiritual experience which is common to his followers through all time.

1 John XX : 22.

TEMPORAL AND ETERNAL LIFE

In its ever-widening sphere of knowledge Science indicates a gradual advance in human progress in the earthly life — morally, intellectually, and materially ; but concerning that ultimate destiny of the human soul which transcends this present stage of life. Science is necessarily silent, for Nature holds no revelation of this. In the light of Nature the individual man seemingly emerges into existence at his birth and sinks into oblivion at his death — the momentous question of his immortal future remaining unsolved. But by the revelation in Jesus Christ life and immortality are brought to light ^ in a comprehensive " demonstration " ^ of the truth by actual manifestation. This revelation in the Christ is supra-naXursl in one sense, by its '* revelation of the Spirit ; " ^ and /r<^/^r-natural in another sense, by its manifestation of "the Son of man in heaven ; " ^ in whom, the apostle Paul says, " dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead, bodily " ^ — for where " man " is, in bodily form, there is necessarily a natural environment corresponding to that organism, however sublimated or spiritualized : " Nature " not as known to man in a physical world, but as known to the angels in heaven.