| GOD'S GRANDEST GLORY has become a blot upon the pages of
Theology. The success or failure of any enterprise can only be rightly judged by the
outcome. God's adventure must stand the same test, and His work be viewed in its finished
form. Our estimate of His work and our regard for Himself must be molded by His ultimate
achievement for ourselves and for the universe. The theories of current theology fail to
give any satisfactory solution to the problems of sin and death and estrangement from God.
Their presence is deemed a hideous nightmare, inexplicable, eternal, omnipotent. But God
assures us that He can cope with all of these, and through the work of Christ will replace
sin by universal righteousness, death by universal life, estrangement by universal
reconciliation. Upon the pages of current translations of God's Word there is an irreconcilable conflict between eternal sin and universal righteousness, eternal death and universal vivification, eternal punishment and universal reconciliation. If sin and death and judgment are eternal then righteousness and resurrection and reconciliation cannot be universal. The translations must be wrong and a study of the doctrine of the eons shows that the eternity of evil is unfounded and fatuous and false. As the preceding pages show, God is not ground under the heels of Fate but serenely guides the universe with a strong and steady hand to its grand and glorious goal. The subject has been considered from two sides, God's assertions and human asseverations, and, as always, God is true and man is found a liar. Let it be clear that we are not seeking to displace the Word of God or any portion of it by a new "system" of theology. We know that no present system will stand the test of all the Word of God. The difficulty lies deeper -- it is in the faulty version of that Word itself. By correcting the version the discrepancies vanish as well as the difficulties which they occasion. Let everyone face the issue squarely. Current versions clearly teach two different outcomes of God's connection with evil. Let us put the case thus:
There is no escaping the conviction that both cannot be true. The usual method has been to minimize the universality of the reconciliation. But this cannot be done without violating the context. The real discrepancy lies in the words "everlasting," "endless," and "eternal," which have no equivalents in the original. The key to the cause, the character and the consequences of sin lies in its temporary term. If evil is eternal and death indestructible and estrangement irreconcilable, their origin and object can never be grasped. Their gloomy shadow stretches its interminable length athwart the character of the God Who permitted and planned and prepared their entrance and existence, yet provided no exit when they had played their part. Faith will fall back upon God in spite of a faulty version and trust Him to explain all in His own time; but this very same faith will force aside all human interference when once it discovers that God Himself has already given a sufficient and most satisfactory explanation. Faith will exult that the bitterness of human theology has been banished and its doubts not only dissolved but that the God it worships is greater and grander and more glorious than it has dared to dream; that He is not only able and willing, but that He has harnessed evil to His chariot for His own glory and for all His creatures' good. Let no one imagine that these pages teach a mere "restitution" to a former state. A creation restored to its primeval condition cannot account for the presence of evil. Sin leads to estrangement. It brings in the breach between God and His creatures. It makes them His enemies. God's answer to this is reconciliation, not a mere restoration to a former condition, but an exultant and ecstatic engagement of the affections with the God who has delivered them from the evil and has displayed His own immanent love in its dark shadows. Nor let any dream that aught of this is brought about apart from the work of Christ. Rather let them acknowledge that it owns Him not only as the Alpha, but also as the Omega, not only as the Origin but also as the Consummation. The truth here set forth is based upon the blood of Christ, it depends upon the death of God's Son, and it crowns His cross with a conquest which adequately accords with the suffering and shame of Him Who was forsaken for our sakes upon the accursed tree. |
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