ZTbinge flew anb ©lb.
VOL. 4.
LONDON, APRIL, 1925.
No. 2.
**(*•
God
in Creation
ISt bi
ss'-x-
able
r esp"1'
The character, as well as the ability of the
maker, is visible in the thing- that he makes.
If a g-ood tree cannot bring: forth evil fruit,
then it is certain that the great Creator of
all, who is holy in all His ways and righteous
in all His works, vvho is good and only doeth
good and whose tenderness is over all His
works, can design nothing whose end is not
pure happiness and usefulness. Whatever
catastrophes may have intervened, and however mysterious are the processes by which
His goal will be reached, it follows, from
the fact of His unimpeachable character, that
the consummation of His work will justify
all   His   methods.
So wide is His care, and so minute, that a
falling sparrow is noted and remembered.
Peter gives Him the title of " the faithful
Creator," meaning thereby that His responsibilities are fully met in a manner only
possible to infinite power and love. If His
creatorship yearns over a fallen broken bird,
how much more will it reckon with all the
forces that have combined to mar the image
of Himself in the man He has made. If He
employs the discipline of a father, the sacrificial love of a mother, the stern justice of a
judge and the passionate affection of a
husband—and all these are figures chosen by
Himself to set forth His attitude towards men
and His work for and in them—it is to the
end that His great designs of love may ultimately triumph. If He turns men to destruction, it is that He may say, " Return
ye children of men." (Ps. xv., 3). If the
vessel is marred in the hand of the Potter,
it is that He may make it again another
vessel. (Jer. xviii., 4). If His work is
marred, then His own face will be more
marred than any man's, that He may buy
back those who have sold themselves for
nought. Creation is full of mysteries, but
the revealed character of the Creator suffices
to assure us of a triumphant solution to them
all. Only a traitor to His person and
character would deny such a God this
certainty.
The greatest of all the mysteries in His
fair creation is the presence of sin. Thank
God, how it can be dealt with and expelled
is clearer than how it entered, and why it
was allowed to enter the universe. It is not
necessary to understand the genesis of evil
to realise its departure.
The presence of sin is so immediate upon
the initial act of bringing man into
existence, that its presence is evidently de
liberate and with design. This makes the
problem more acute, but it should help us
all the more to trust the faithfulness of the
Divine architect of all things. It was anticipated ; for, in His Divine purpose, the
lamb was slain before the foundation of the
world. Being anticipated, sin was, therefore,
a definite part of the Divine plan.
The presence of sin, and the part it plays,
cannot be understood, however, unless the
Creator's own declared consummation of His
work be accepted as truth. Because men
have not believed His own goal to which He
is professedly moving, therefore, they have
not understood the part that sin plays. While
they believe that sin has come to stay as
eternally as God is alive, and that its effects
will be as endless as His own being-, it is
little wonder that its genesis is a mystery.
The end must justify the means as well as
the beginning. Who would venture to say
that the end does this, if sin has intruded
to remain as long as God Himself will live ?
There must be in the Word of God a solution to this mystery which is glorifying to
God and beneficial finally to His creation.
Sin is here in the world vvith all its dreadful fruit. If God could not help its coming
into His creation, then we are face to face
with the hopelessness of its final expulsion
from the universe. // He could not kelp its
appearance, then there is a rival power that
is spontaneously evil as He is fundamentally
good. In such case the effort to deal with
sin at Calvary is but the strategical movement of God in the hope of overcoming His
adversary. The tragic failure of such effort,
in the prospect of myriads of His creatures
being either hopelessly tormented for ever
or obliterated from existence as so much
waste substance in the universe, is unspeakably pathetic, presenting as it does in the
foreground, the picture of a God who has
made the supreme sacrifice of Himself as an
expedient, and has fallen short of His
cherished hope. It is suggested, on the
other hand, that God could help sin coming
into the world, and that He did deliberately
allow it to come into the world, in full view
of the dire results accruing to its appearance in the shape of the endless misery of
men. This view preserves that which is
essential to God's existence as Creator and
Governor of the Universe—His omnipotence.
To suggest that He may have been taken
by surprise, and has been ever since doing
what He can to remedy the harm which sin
has brought about, is only to question His
omnipotence in another way, and to leave
Him pitiably inadequate to control the situation. These considerations have driven theologians to claim that He did allow sin to
enter the universe, and to admit that it must
have been in full cognizance of the awful
issues. In view, however, of the belief that
the unhappy finish to His work in creation in
one direction, will be the hopeless committal
of myriads of beings into the flames of an
endless hell of unmitigated conscious suffering, it has to be admitted also, by such theologians, that God must have created man
with His express understanding and consent
to this, and therefore must have had that
certainty in view in His original plan.
One reason for this, which is advanced by
the advocates of this theory, is, that this may
be intended to serve as a warning to the rest
of His creation of the terrible consequences
of rebellion. In a revolt under human
government such an object would be
achieved by the execution of a few of the
ringleaders, but God is represented as
executing, or rather putting on an endless
rack, all the rank and file of rebels, numbering perhaps far more than those who by His
grace have been rescued from such a fate.
His omnipotence is certainly salved by this
admission, but His character as Creator
suffers. If it is argued that He blots them
out of existence rather than put them to endless misery, then the problem of a creation
useless for all intents and purposes and displaying nothing but suffering and misery
as the outcome of His handiwork, equally
confronts us, giving rise to queries as to His
wisdom. If it be suggested that all this complexity of human life, with its sin and
sorrow, was necessary to produce the elect
of God and to educate them, it would seem
that an overwhelming reg-ret must possess
each member of the elect race at the thought
of such ruin and misery being the background necessary for their perfection.
What solution is offered to meet these
terrific problems, that threaten to undermine
faith in both the wisdom and love of God ?
The onus of failure is placed by some upon
the stubborn will of man, and this is supposed to meet all the difficulties. It really
brings into prominence another omnipotence
which, because it baffles the omnipotence
and love of God, is by far the greater. Man
will not and God cannot. This sums up the
situation created by this view. It appears
on the surface to be fair until a few questions are asked. Where did man get this
terrific ability to defy God? It was the
bestowment originally of God Himself, who
thereby has created and allowed a rival force
which He knew when He created it, would
prove in its rebellion impervious to all the
overtures of His love, and the activities of
His omnipotence.
Another query that rises to the lips is
whether this will of man in every case has
been perfectly free and unbiassed in its
choice. We learn in reply that it was allowed
to be fixed in the plan of God in its bias
away from God in the rebellion of the firit
human pair, and that, in all those mighty
potentialities which influence thought and
life, man is the victim of heredity and circumstances over which he   had   no   control
I