The King James Version Defended
By Dr.
Edward F. Hills
CHAPTER
ONE
GOD'S THREE-FOLD REVELATION OF
HIMSELF
How do we know that
there is a God? How do we know that the Bible is God's
Word, infallibly inspired and providentially preserved?
How do we know that Jesus Christ is God's eternal Son?
We know all this because of God's revelation of Himself.
In nature, in the Scriptures, and in the Gospel of
Christ God reveals Himself,
not mere evidences of His
existence, not mere doctrines concerning Himself, not a
mere history of His dealings with men, but HIMSELF. In
nature God reveals Himself as the almighty Creator God,
in the Scriptures God reveals Himself as the faithful
Covenant God, and in the Gospel of Christ, which is the
saving message of the Scriptures, God reveals Himself as
the triune Saviour God. In this present chapter,
therefore, we will discuss God's three-fold revelation
of Himself, the foundation of the Christian view of the
world and of the Bible and its text.
1. In Nature God
Reveals Himself As The Almighty Creator
God
Modern ethnologists and
anthropologists have discovered that belief in God is
general among men. It is found even in savage and
uncivilized tribes who have never read the Bible or
heard of Christ. "About the existence of some form of
monotheism," Paul Radin (1954) tells us, "among
practically all primitive peoples there can be little
doubt.'' (1) W. Schmidt (1931) also states that even
among the African Pygmies there is "the clear
acknowledgement and worship of a Supreme Being." (2)
According to Nieuwenhuis (1920), this idea of God was
produced "by the impression which the universe made as a
whole on reflecting men, as soon as they set about
trying to understand the world round about them."
(3)
But these
discoveries of modern investigators were anticipated
long ago by the inspired psalmist, who exclaimed, O LORD our Lord, how
excellent is Thy NAME in all the earth! (Psalm 8:1).
What is God's Name? As many scholars and theologians
have pointed out, God's name is His revelation of Himself. God's
name is excellent in all the earth.
God the Creator is present everywhere in the world
which He has made, actively and objectively revealing Himself
in all His divine excellence. In
the regular motions of the stars and planets He reveals
His power and glory (Psalm 19:1; Isa. 40:26). In the
immense variety of living things and their harmonious
interaction He reveals His wisdom (Psalm 104:24). In the
rain, sunshine and harvest He reveals His goodness and
His tender mercies (Psalm 145:9; Acts 14:17). In the
human conscience He reveals His righteousness. writing
on the heart of man His moral law (Rom. 2:15). And in
the universal prevalence of death and its attendant
sickness and suffering He reveals His wrath and coming
judgment (Rom. 5:12).
Because God the
Creator is present everywhere revealing Himself in the
world which He has made, all men of every tribe and
nation may know God if they will and do know Him at
least in part. Because that which
may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath
shewed it unto them (Rom. 1:19). Atheism and
agnosticism are inexcusable. For the invisible
things of him from the creation of the world are clearly
seen, being understood by the things that are made, even
His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without
excuse (Rom. 1:20). Idolatry and all other false
doctrines and observances constitute a departure from
this natural knowledge of God, an apostasy which is
motivated by human pride and vanity. Because that, when
they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither
were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations,
and their foolish heart was darkened (Rom. 1:21).
God reveals Himself in the
world which He has created. How can we be sure of this?
We can be sure of this upon the authority of the holy
Bible. As John Calvin observed long ago, (4) the sacred
Scriptures are the God-given eyeglasses or contact
lenses (to speak in ultra-modern terms) which correct
our spiritual vision and enable our sin-darkened minds
to see aright God's revelation of Himself in nature
(Psalm 119:130). Therefore the guidance of the Bible is
necessary in the study of the natural sciences. In the
Bible God has inscribed the basic principles which give
unity to scientific thought and provide the answers to
ultimate scientific questions. In order to prove this
let us consider some of these questions in the light of
holy Scripture.
(a) What the Bible
Teaches Concerning
Astronomy
When we believe in
God as the Creator of the universe and receive the
revelation which He has made of Himself in nature and
the holy Scriptures, then for the first time the
mysteries of astronomy become comprehensible, at least
in principle. Then for the first time we understand how
astronomers with their tiny human minds can know as much
as they do know concerning the vastness of the heavens.
Then we learn once and for all that the universe is
finite and that, however vast it may appear to our human
eyes, in the eyes of God it is a very little
thing (Isa. 40:15). As Thiel (1967) has observed
whether the universe is large or small depends on the
way you look at it. According to Thiel, if the nebulae
were the size of pinheads the space between them would
be no more than a hand's breadth. (5) And in God's sight
the nebulae are mere pinheads. Indeed, the Scriptures
teach us that compared with God's infinite greatness the
whole universe is less than nothing
and vanity (Isa. 40:17,22). God created the whole
universe according to His wisdom (Psalm 104:24). He
understands it completely, and to man He gives the
wisdom to understand it partially. And it is from this
wisdom which God gives that all that is true in
astronomy and every other department of science is
derived. For with
Thee is the fountain of life: in Thy light shall we see
light (Psalm
36:9).
In the beginning God
created the heaven and the earth (Gen. 1:1) How long ago was that beginning? There are many
who say that this must have been ten billion years ago,
because light takes this long to reach the earth from
the farthest quasi-stellars. But this argument has no
cogency for those who believe in the omnipotent Creator.
If God created the stars and put them in their places in
space, why couldn't He have brought down their light to
the earth in an instant of time? There is no need,
therefore, to "re-interpret" the first chapter of
Genesis and thus to obscure its plain meaning with
modern glosses and rationalizations. On the contrary,
the more we let this sublime introduction to the written
Word of God tell its own story the more reasonable and
up-to-date we see it to be.
The first two verses
of Genesis 1 tell us how the whole universe was brought
into being by the creative act of God, in an unformed
state at first, perhaps as mere energy out of which
matter was later constituted. The rest of this first
Bible chapter describes to us how the Spirit of God, who
moved upon the
face of the waters, brought the
whole creation out of its original formless condition
into an estate of entire perfection. And it was in
reference to the earth that this creative power was
first exercised. No mention is made of the sun, moon and
stars until after the earth is freed from its layers of
water and carpeted with grass and herbs. The sun, moon
and stars, on the other hand, are younger than the
earth, having been created, or at least brought into
their present state, on the fourth day. Next the seas
and the dry land were populated with living creatures,
and then finally man was created in God's image with a
mind attuned to heaven's harmonies and a God-given
ability to search out its mysteries.
Although the Bible is
entirely true and cannot be in any way affected by the
opinions of men, nevertheless it is of interest to note
that some of the latest developments in the realm of
astronomy agree with what the Bible has always taught
concerning the natural world. For example, astronomers
for many years believed that the sun was at the center
of the universe and ridiculed the Bible for speaking of
the sun as moving and the earth as standing still. "The
Copernican heliocentric cosmogony," Shapley (1960)
observes, "prevailed for more than three centuries and
widened its range in that the sun eventually was
considered to be not only central in its own planetary
family, and in full command through gravitation, but
also appeared to be the central object for the whole
stellar world." But in 1917 this heliocentric cosmogony
was found to have been a mistake. "The sun is no longer
thought to be in a central position," Shapley continues,
but has now been relegated "to the edge of one ordinary
galaxy in an explorable universe of billions of
galaxies." (6) Evidently, then, the sun is of little
significance in itself. Millions and millions of other
stars are larger and more impressive. The sun is
important chiefly because its rays nourish the earth and
the lives of men who are created in God's image. And
this is what the Bible has always taught (Gen. 1:14-18).
This is what Jesus teaches (Matt. 5:45).
The earth, then, is
more important than the sun because it is the abode of
men, God's image bearers. It was on earth that the Son
of God was crucified for sinners. It is to earth that He
shall return to judge the living and the dead. It is to
emphasize this central importance of the earth in the
plan of God and in history that the Bible speaks of the
earth as being at rest and the sun as moving. And even
from a strictly scientific point of view this manner of
speaking is not regarded as incorrect. For according to
Einstein: (7) and most modern scientists, (8) all motion
is relative, and one may say with equal justification
either that the earth moves and the sun is at rest or
that the sun moves and the earth is at rest. Einstein's relativity theory, however,
depends on his definition of simultaneity as coincidence
in time and space relative to an observer, and this
definition is contrary to fact. Observation clearly
shows that simultaneous events always occur at the same
time but never in exactly the same place. Even
simultaneous flashes in a mirror occur at different
locations on the mirror.
For this reason and many
others scientists will eventually be compelled to lay
Einstein's theory aside, and when they do they will
probably find that the true view of the universe is that
which Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) (9) proposed 400 years
ago. He maintained that the earth rotated on its axis
and that the sun, moon and planets revolved about the
earth. This hypothesis agrees remarkably with the
biblical data and is mathematically sound, according to
Christian mathematicians such as J. N. Hanson (10) and
W. van der Kamp. (11)
(b) What the Bible
Teaches Concerning the
Fossils
We pass now to
geology, the science which deals with the earth and its
history. The type of geology which is accepted today by
almost everybody is uniformitarian
geology. Its basic principle is
that geologic changes in the past have been effected
gradually by the same processes that are at work in the
present. The Scriptures, however, do not support this
assumption but tell us of a great catastrophe, namely,
the Genesis flood, which alone is adequate to account
for the observed geologic phenomena. The following
therefore is a brief summary of the principal points at
issue:
( 1 ) The warm
climates of geologic times. The evidence of the
fossils indicates that warm climates once prevailed in
regions which are now covered with arctic ice and snow.
Sub-tropical heat, it is said, was experienced in
Greenland. Why this tremendous difference between
ancient and modern climatic conditions? Uniformitarian
geologists are hard put to it to find an answer to this
question. A rather recent (1954) symposium of scientists
stressed changes in the sun's radiation as the cause of
changes of climate here on earth, (12) but astronomer F.
Hoyle (1955) says that there is no evidence that any
such variation in solar radiation took place.
(13)
The Bible, however,
provides the solution of this problem. The uniformly
mild climate which once prevailed everywhere is to be
attributed to the invisible vapor canopy which enveloped
the earth in the days before the flood, namely, the waters above the
firmament, which God established in their places on
the second creation day (Gen. 1:7). The effect of this
canopy would be to distribute the sun's warmth in
uniform fashion throughout the earth and to prevent the
formation of cold fronts and the occurrence of wind
storms. At the onset of the flood the windows of
heaven were opened (Gen.
7:11), that is to say, the vapor canopy was precipitated
on the earth in the form of torrential rains which completely flooded it. The Bible indicates
that this was the first time it had ever rained. Before
the flood mists watered the ground (Gen. 2:6). After the
flood Noah saw a rainbow for the first time (Gen.
9:13).
(2) Volcanoes and lava
flows. In past geologic ages, we
are told, volcanic lava flowed much more plentifully
than it does today, both spouting from craters and
pushing upward from great cracks in the earth's surface.
A stupendous rock formation more than one thousand miles
in length along the Canadian and Alaskan shore was
formed in this way. The great plateaus of northwestern
United States, covering 200,000 square miles, were built
by oozing lava, as was also the famous Deccan Plateau in
India. Other plateaus of this kind occur in South
America and South Africa. Most of the oceanic islands
also were produced primarily through volcanic action.
(14)
The presence of all
this volcanic lava on the earth's surface contradicts
the leading principle of uniformitarian geology, namely,
that the geologic work of the past was accomplished by
the same natural forces that can be observed today.
Plainly it was a catastrophe that produced these lava
flows, and the Bible indicates what this catastrophe
was, to wit, the Noachian deluge. Not only were the windows of
heaven opened, but the fountains of the
great deep were broken up
(Gen. 7:11), and through the
resulting fissures both in the sea floor and also in the
land surfaces the vast lava deposits observable today
were spewed forth.
(3) How were the
fossils buried? Uniforrnitarian geologists have
never given a consistent answer to this all important
question. Instead they assert a paradox. The fossils,
they maintain, were buried quickly, but the rocky strata
in which these fossils are buried were laid down very
slowly. The reason, Simpson (1960) tells us, why there
are so many missing links in the evolutionary fossil
chain is that these missing animals were not buried
quickly enough. "The possession of readily preservable
hard parts is clearly not enough in itself to assure
that a given organism will indeed be preserved as a
fossil. The overwhelming majority of organisms are
quickly destroyed or made unrecognizable, hard parts and
all, by predation, by scavenging, by decay, by chemical
action, or by attrition in transport. The few that
escape that fate must (with a few exceptions) be buried
quickly (within days or at most a few years) in
sediments free of organisms of decay or chemicals
competent to destroy the hard parts.'' (15) Howells
(1959) says the same thing, observing that it is not
easy to become a fossil, (16) and Rhodes (1962) also
informs us that the preservation of an organism almost
always involves rapid burial. (17)
If the fossils must have
been buried quickly in order to become fossils, doesn't
it follow that the strata in which the fossils are
buried must also have been laid down quickly? Not so,
the geologists strangely maintain. In accordance with
their uniformitarian dogma these scientists insist that
these strata were laid down by the same slow processes
which are in operation today. Zeuner (1952), for
example, agrees with Bradley's earlier (1929) estimate
that during the Eocene period the mean rate of the
deposition of the strata was only one foot in 3,000
years. (18) And according to Dorf (1964), the volcanic
sediments in Yellowstone Park were laid down at the rate
of three-quarters of an inch a year, and this rate is
100 times faster than that estimated for sand or mud
sediments of comparable age in the Gulf Coast region of
North America. (19)
The fossils were buried
quickly, but the strata in which the fossils are buried
were laid down very slowly! Uniformitarian geologists
would rather insist on this paradox than admit the
reality of the Genesis flood. There is abundant
evidence, however, that the strata were laid down and
the fossils buried in a great world-wide flood. How
otherwise can the frequent occurrence of "fossil
graveyards" be explained? The Baltic amber deposits, for
example, contain flies from every region of the earth.
The Cumberland Bone Cave in Maryland is filled with
fossils of both arctic and tropical regions. The La Brea
Pits in Los Angeles have yielded thousands of specimens
of all kinds of animals both living and extinct. In
Sicily hippopotamus beds occur so extensive that they
have been mined as a source of commercial charcoal.
Frozen mammoths and an immense number of tusks have been
discovered in Siberia. At Agate Springs, Nebraska, a
vast aggregate of fossil animal bones have been found
jumbled together. (20) And according to Macfarlane
(1923), there is evidence of sudden destruction of fish
life over vast areas. (21)
(4) The fossil order
out of order. One of the strongest pillars of
uniformitarian geology is the alleged invariability of
the order of the fossil-bearing strata. The ages of the
rock strata are determined by the kind of fossils that
are found in them. The strata containing the simpler
forms of life are always older. The strata containing
the more complex forms of life are always younger. The
younger strata are always on top.
This theory, however,
often contradicts the facts of nature. Often the younger
strata are on the bottom and the older on top. In the
Alps such "inverted" arrangements of the fossil-bearing
strata occur "on a grand scale" (Geikie). The 19th
century geologists explained them by supposing that the
strata had been folded together and thus turned upside
down. They admitted, however, that there was no physical
evidence for this hypothesis. Thus Geikie (4th ed. 1903)
acknowledged that "the strata could scarcely be supposed
to have been really inverted, save for the evidence as
to their true order of succession supplied by their
included fossils." (22)
Another hypothesis by
which to explain the "inverted" order of fossiliferous
strata was that "thrust-faults" had occurred, that is to
say, sections of the strata had been raised and pushed
up on top of adjacent sections. But B. Willis (1893), U.
S. government geologist, had this to say concerning
assumed thrust-faults in the southern Appalachians.
"These faults of great length, dividing the superficial
crust into crowded scales, have provoked the wonder of
the most experienced geologists. The mechanical effort
is great beyond comprehension, but the effect upon the
rocks is inappreciable." (23) Another example of a
supposed thrust-fault for which no evidence can be found
is the Lewis over-thrust of Montana which measures 135
miles in length and 15 miles in breadth. Here also,
according to a recent government survey (1959), the
rubble which would naturally be produced by the movement
of such a vast quantity of rock is conspicuously absent.
(24)
Thus for one hundred years
uniformitarian geologists have been putting forth
paradoxes. To explain the "inverted" order of the strata
they have been assuming tremendous folds and
thrust-faults which strangely enough have left no
evidence of their occurrence.
But if we acknowledge the
reality of the Genesis flood, we no longer need to
"explain" the strata but can take them as they come. As
Whitcomb and Morris (1960) point out, the bottom-most
strata would normally contain the trilobites and
brachiopods, because their mobility was least (they
would find it hardest to avoid entombment), their
specific gravity was greatest (they would sink most
easily in the flood waters), and their habitat was
lowest (living on the sea bottoms, they would most
quickly be affected by the breaking up of the fountains
of the great deep). The fish would naturally be found in
the middle strata, since in these three respects they
occupy an intermediate position. And the reptiles,
mammals, and birds would tend to take their places in
the higher strata, since their mobility was greatest
(they could most easily escape the entrapping
sediments), their specific gravity was least (their
bodies could float the longest on the surface of the
waters), and their habitat was highest (they would be
the last to be reached by the advancing flood ). These
factors would account for the general order to be found
in the fossil-bearing strata, an order due not to an
ascending evolutionary scale of life but to the
circumstances under which the fossils were buried in the
deluge sediments. And since these circumstances often
varied locally, there were often instances in which the
more usual order was reversed. (25)
(5) Mountains,
plateaus, and canyons. According to Leet and Judson
(1954), the formation of every mountain system on the
globe has involved the following two-fold process:
first, thousands of feet of sedimentary rocks were
accumulated in great marine basins that slowly sank;
second, these sedimentary rocks were slowly elevated to
form mountains. (26) In other words, the bottoms of
certain seas kept sinking down until the streams had
washed in a collection of sediment (dirt, sand, etc.) as
deep as the mountains are high. Then the bottoms of
these seas came up again and lifted all this sediment
thousands of feet into the air, and thus the lofty peaks
of Tibet were formed, and also the Alps, the Andes, and
the Rockies. But why should the bottoms of these seas
(marine basins) move down and up, first receiving
sedimentary deposits and then pushing them up into the
air? Three possible causes have been suggested for this
alleged phenomenon, namely, thermal contraction,
convection currents, and continental drift. (27) Wilson
(1963) believes that the Himalayan mountains could have
been thrown up by the collision of India with the Asian
land mass. (28) No one of these explanations, however,
seems to be generally satisfactory to
scientists.
Not only the mountains but
the high plateaus that lie next to them are full of
problems for the uniformitarian geologist. One such
plateau region occupies some 250,000 square miles,
extending over most of Arizona and Utah and also large
portions of Colorado and New Mexico. It is here that the
Grand Canyon is found as well as its smaller but
scarcely less spectacular sister canyons. The walls of
these canyons are composed of thousands of feet of
sedimentary rock strata lying horizontally. According to
Leet and Judson, this whole region was pushed up from
the bottom of a sea without any disturbance of the
horizontal position of the strata. In defense of this
hypothesis these authors point to the fact that the
rivers which are thought to have hollowed out the
canyons flow in curves called meanders. These curves, it
is maintained, were established before the uplift began,
and the uplift was so gentle that it did not disturb
them, (29) But according to Whitcomb and Morris, such
notions are vulnerable from the standpoint of
hydromechanics. A river which is downcutting enough to
excavate a canyon will not continue to flow in curves
but will straighten itself out due to gravitational
pull. (30)
The mountains and canyons
of which we have been speaking and also the submarine
canyons and the rifts which have recently been
discovered in the ocean floor can be satisfactorily
explained only in terms of the Genesis flood. These
effects indicate the process by which God removed the
swollen flood waters from off the land after they had
accomplished their work of divine justice and
purification. In order to accommodate the water which
had fallen from the overhead vapor canopy and would
never be returned thither, the oceans were made larger
and deeper. And as the seas were widened and deepened,
the continents were compelled to rise to make room for
the displaced earth crust. As part of this general
elevation of the continents, the mountains were lifted
up to their present lofty heights. Cracks occurred at
various angles in the sediments, and along these cracks
torrents of flood water poured down, driven by the force
of gravity, to the ample new storage space created by
the sinking ocean floors and the rising continents. Thus
quickly and efficiently the Grand Canyon was formed and
also its sinuous sister canyons. And all this is
suggested in Psalm 104:6-9, where the coming and going
of the Genesis flood is vividly described.
(31)
(6) The coming of the
glaciers. The Genesis flood
narrative also provides the best explanation of the
extensive glaciation which took place in past ages, the
causes of which are still a matter of debate among
uniformitarian geologists. In the words of Whitcomb and
Morris, "The combined effect of the uplift of the
continents and mountain-chains and the removal of the
protective vapor blanket around the earth could hardly
have failed to induce great snow and ice accumulations
in the mountains and on the land areas near the poles.
And these glaciers and ice caps must have continued to
accumulate and spread until they reached latitudes and
altitudes at which the marginal temperatures caused
melting rates in the summers adequate to offset
accumulation rates in the winters." (32) Later the earth
would be replenished with a new generation of plants and
animals. These would fill the air with carbon dioxide,
thus warming the atmosphere and causing the glacial ice
to recede. Also the carbon dioxide emitted by the
volcanoes during the flood would contribute to this
warming effect as soon as the volcanic dust had settled.
(33)
(7) Searching for the
missing links. For over a
century uniformitarian geologists and paleontologists
have been searching for the missing links in the
evolutionary fossil chain, but today these links are
still missing. "It is a feature," Simpson (1960) tells
us, "of the known fossil record that most taxa appear
abruptly. They are not, as a rule, led up to by a
sequence of almost imperceptibly changing forerunners
such as Darwin believed should be usual in evolution."
(34) And according to Rhodes (1962), the Cambrian fauna
appears with "Melchisedechian" abruptness, (35) without
any obvious ancestors, and the same is true of most of
the major groups of organisms.
The most interesting
fossil specimens, of course, are those which are said to
bridge the gap between apes and men. Some of these,
however, were evidently merely apes and not men at all.
Such were the Australopithecines. whose brains were only
ape-size. At one time it was said that they walked erect
like men, but Zuckerman (1964) denied this, (36) and
today R. E. F. Leakey (1971) admits that the
Australopithecines may have progressed on their knuckles
like the extant African apes. (37) Other alleged
sub-human specimens were in all probability simply
diseased. For example, Sir Arthur Keith suggested that
the Rhodesian man might have been the victim of a
hyper-active pituitary gland, and Hooton (1946) thought
it possible that the Neanderthal men had been suffering
from a similar malady. (38)
(8) Dating the strata
and the fossils. Attempts to
date the strata and the fossils by radioactivity methods
reveal the unreliability of these procedures. In 1969
Australopithecus boisei was considered 600,000 years
old. (39) In 1961 his date was pushed back to 1,750,000
years ago by use of the potassium-argon method. (40)
Recently (1970) R. E. F. Leakey has pushed this date
still farther back to 2,600,000 years ago. (41) In 1965
Bryan Patterson of Harvard found an australopithecine
arm bone which he dated at 2,500,000 years ago. In 1967
he found an australopithecine jaw bone. He then dated
the jaw bone at 5,500,000 years ago and pushed the date
of the arm bone back to 4,000,000 years ago.
(42)
(c) What the Bible
Teaches Concerning Space and
Time
Isaac Newton
(1642-1727), the father of theoretical physics, was a
firm believer in the concepts of absolute space
and absolute
time. In his Principia (1686)
he writes as follows: "Absolute space, in its own
nature, without relation to anything external, remains
always similar and immovable.... Absolute motion is the
translation of a body from one absolute place to
another." (43) Thus for Newton space was an existing thing, an
infinite, immovable tank or framework in which bodies
moved and in reference to which their movements could be
calculated. Newton regarded space as co-eternal with
God. In his Optics (1704) Newton even went so far as to
call space God's sensorium. (44) And, similarly, Newton regarded time as a
perpetual stream that flowed on and on quite
independently of God. "Absolute, true, and mathematical
time, of itself, and from its own nature, flows equably
without relation to anything external, and by another
name is called duration." (43)
For two hundred
years Newton's views regarding absolute space and
absolute time were generally adhered to by physicists.
In 1887, however, Michelson and Morley, two American
scientists, discovered that the velocity of light is the
same in all directions and is not affected by the
movement of the earth through space. This discovery
contradicted some of Newton's basic principles, and it
was to reconcile this difficulty that Einstein in 1905
published his
special relativity theory,
featuring the following operational definition of time:
"Suppose that when an event E happens to me on earth a
flash of light is sent out in all directions. Any event
that happens to any body anywhere in the universe after
this flash of light reaches it is definitely after the
event E. Any event anywhere in the universe which I
could have seen before event E happened to me is
definitely before event E. All other events are
simultaneous with event E, since they cannot be
demonstrated to be either before or after E and that
which is neither before nor after is simultaneous."
(45)
On the basis of his
operational definition of time Einstein defined motion
as progress through a four-dimensional space-time
continuum. And in his general relativity
theory,
published in 1915, Einstein went on to define gravity as
the effect of the curvature of this continuum. There is,
however, an inconsistency in Einstein's operational
definition of time. As Reichenbach observes, (46)
Einstein made a distinction between the simultaneity of
events next to each other and the simultaneity of events
far apart from each other. Events next to each other, he
maintained, are simultaneous if the observer can know
that they are coincident in time and space. Events far
apart from each other are simultaneous if the observer
cannot know that they are not coincident in time and
space. But how can the knowledge or lack of knowledge of
a human observer determine the simultaneity of external
events? Surely Einstein taught pantheism in the guise of
science.
In view of this logical flaw it is
not surprising that Einstein's theories are being
threatened experimentally. In 1970 Endean and Allen, two
British scientists, concluded that electromagnetic
fields in the turbulent Crab Nebula are traveling at
about 372,000 miles per second, or twice the velocity of
light. (47) This is contrary to Einstein's special
relativity theory, which makes the velocity of light an
absolute that can never be surpassed. Also, as Huffer
(1967) (48) and Dixon (1971) (49) remind us, there is
evidence that there may be stars which consist entirely
of negatively charged anti-matter. This, if true, may
endanger Einstein's gravitational theory. At least
Burbidge and Hoyle (1958) (50) and Gamow (1961) (51)
have expressed such fears.
Newton conceived of time and space
as two disconnected absolutes independent of God. In
pantheistic fashion Einstein made simultaneity his
leading concept but was compelled to operate
inconsistently with two discordant definitions of
simultaneity. In the Bible, on the other hand, God
reveals Himself as the only Absolute. I am God, and there is none else;
I am God, and there is none like Me (Isa. 46:9 ) .
God's eternal plan for all things is the only ultimate
continuum. Declaring the end from the
beginning, and from ancient times the things that are
not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will
do all My pleasure (Isaiah 46:10). God created space
and time when He created the world and began to fulfill
His plan. (For further discussion of Newton and Einstein
see Believing Bible
Study, pp.
165-171, 224.)
(d) What the Bible Teaches
Concerning Causation and Chance
Scientists for many years have been
accustomed to define causation in terms of human
prediction. If from a preceding event a following event
can be predicted, then the preceding event is considered
to be the cause of the following event. Einstein (1934)
says that it was Isaac Newton who began to define
causation in this way and that this definition is the
only one that is completely satisfactory to modern
physicists. (52) Similarly, Bridgman (1955) says that
the ability to predict is tied up with the ideas of
cause and effect. (53)
In the 1920's, however, physicists
discovered that the behavior of atomic particles, taken
individually, can not be predicted. No matter how hard
the physicists strive to make their measurements
accurate, a large element of uncertainty will always
remain. In 1927 Heisenberg stated this fact
scientifically in his famous uncertainty principle.
(54)
According to Jeans (1947), this principle
states
that it is impossible to determine both the position and the velocity of an atomic particle
with perfect precision. If we decrease our uncertainty in
regard to the position of the particle, by
that very action we increase our uncertainty in
regard to its velocity and vice versa. The product, moreover, of the two
uncertainties can never be reduced below a certain
minimum value. (55)
We see now why so many physicists
say that there is no causation in the sub-atomic realm
and hence no causation at all, since the atomic
particles are the basic units out of which the larger
world of nature is constructed. They say this because
they identify causation with prediction. Two events are
causally connected when the second can be predicted from
the first. But there can be no such prediction at the
sub-atomic level, because at this level, according to
the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, the accurate
measurements needed for such prediction are impossible.
Hence, since causation and prediction are regarded as
synonymous, it is maintained that there is no causation
in the sub-atomic realm. According to Heisenberg (1958),
classical physics and causality have only a limited
range of applicabllity. (56)
According to Bridgman ( 1955 ), the
law of cause and effect must be given up. (57) And Max
Born (1951) tells us that all the laws of nature are
really laws of chance in disguise, that is to say, laws
of statistical probability. (58)
This statistical probability to
which Born refers rests on a principle first discovered
in the 18th century when records of births and deaths
began to be kept by municipal and national governments.
According to this principle, statistics of large groups
are regular. That is to say, there is a regularity about
large groups of similar events, even when these events
seem to occur entirely by accident. For example, it was
found that there was a certain regularity about male and
female births. Everywhere, year after year, the number
of male births was found slightly to exceed the number
of female births. In the early 19th century also
inspection of government records by the Belgian
statistician Quetelet brought to light many other
instances of statistical regularity in the seemingly
accidental features of life. For example, Quetelet
showed (or claimed to show) that year after year the
number of suicides bore a fixed ratio to the total
number of deaths. (59)
As this statistical regularity
began to be discovered, mathematicians began to deal
with it mathematically by applying to it the
terminology and rules of the
probability calculation which had been first formulated
in France during the 1650's for the solution of gambling
problems. For example, when dealing with birth
statistics they began to speak of the chance of a boy
being born rather than a girl and to calculate it as
slightly more than one half. It was in this way, Cramer
tells us, that actuarial mathematics was developed and
used in the rapidly expanding insurance business. And
from insurance the use of statistical probability theory
spread into other fields until now its range of
applications extends, as Cramer observes, over
practically all branches of natural, technical and
social science. Automatic computers, for example, make
their predictions on the basis of statistical
probability. (60)
But if the universe is governed by
the laws of chance or statistical probability, what is statistical probability, and why
does it work the way it does? What is back of
statistical probability? According to Born, (61) you are
not supposed to ask these questions, and he ridicules
those who do ask them. Statistical probability is simply
to be accepted as an unanalyzable governing principle of
the universe. But is it scientific to reject causation
as meaningless and then to put in its place an
unanalyzable something which you call statistical
probability? Even Einstein (62) and other well known
physicists have had their doubts about this. Bridgman
(1959), for example, concedes that a world governed by
pure chance is completely inconceivable. For then, he
goes on to say, he might in the next instant turn into
his dog Towser and Towser into his Ford.
(63)
Only the Bible has the solution to
this problem which baffles top-flight scientists. For
the Bible defines causation ultimately not in terms of
human prediction but in terms of God's works of creation
and providence. The God who created the atomic particles
also controls and guides them. He worketh all things after the
counsel of His own will (Eph. 1:11). Hence causation is
still operative in the subatomic realm, even though
scientists may never be able to measure or observe its
action.
The eternal God is thy refuge, and
underneath are the everlasting arms (Deut. 33:27).
God rules and reigns even in the seemingly accidental
features of life, the flight of an arrow shot at random
(1 Kings 22:34), the trampling of a jostling crowd (2
Kings 7:18-20), the casting of lots (Prov. 16:33), the
falling of a sparrow from its nest (Matt. 10:29). If we
put our trust in Christ, then we know that He so
preserves us that not a hair can fall from any of our
heads without the will of our heavenly Father; yea, that
all things must be subservient to our salvation. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are
the called according to His purpose ( Rom. 8:28). May the good
Lord help us to believe this always.
2. In The Scriptures God Reveals
Himself As The Faithful Covenant God
The Scriptures are the God-given
eyeglasses which correct our faulty spiritual vision and
enable us to see aright the revelation which God makes
of Himself in the world which He has created. This is
the first aspect in which the Bible presents itself. But
the Bible also fulfills a second function. The Bible is
a record book in which is outlined the history of God's
dealings with men from the creation to the final
judgment. In the Bible God reveals Himself as a
covenant-making, covenant-keeping God. For God's ways
with men differ from His ways with plants and animals.
God deals with men by way of covenant. He makes His
promises and keeps them. All He requires of us on our
part is faith and obedience. All the paths of the LORD are mercy
and truth unto such as keep His covenant and His
testimonies
(Psalm 25:10).
Hence the Bible is the Book of the Covenant. This
is the name which was bestowed upon the holy Scriptures
when they were first given at Mount Sinai. Here God met
with His people and promised that if they would keep His
covenant He in turn would be their God (Exodus 19:4-6).
Here God called Moses to the mountain top and revealed
to him His laws and judgments. And here Moses inscribed
these sacred statutes in the Book of the Covenant, the
first portion of the holy Scriptures to be committed to
writing, and then read them in the ears of all the
people. And he took the Book of the
Covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and
they said, All that the LORD hath said will we do, and
be obedient
(Exodus 24:7).
(a) The Covenant of Works
Adam, when God created him, was
perfect (Gen. 1:31). He was created in God's image and
given dominion over God's creatures (Gen. 1: 27-28 ) .
Adam obeyed God instinctively, just as dogs bark
instinctively and elephants trumpet and lions roar. But
God was not satisfied with mere instinctive and
automatic obedience on the part of man. From mankind God
desires a conscious choice of that which is good, a
deliberate dedication of the whole self to the will of
God, a devotion which is based on faith in God's
promises. For this reason therefore God entered into a
Covenant of Works with Adam and his
descendants, of whom he was the legal head and
representative.
This Covenant of Works which God
made with Adam and his posterity was negative in form.
Of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day
that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die (Gen.
2:17). But although the form of the commandment was
negative, the intention of it was positive. In the
Covenant of Works God required of our first parents
perfect and entire obedience even in such a seemingly
insignificant matter as the eating of the fruit of a
tree. If they had complied with this condition, the
Bible indicates that they would have been permitted to
eat of the tree of life ( Gen. 3:22 ) and together with
their descendants would have been confirmed in perpetual
holiness. And in this happy state they would have
fulfilled to perfection the God-given mandate to replenish the earth and subdue
it (Gen.
1:28). For it was God's will that Adam and his posterity
should erect upon earth a sinless civilization and
culture the splendor of which we cannot now have even
the faintest conception, a civilization in which every
gift of God would be used properly and to the fullest
advantage and in which sin, suffering and death would be
unknown.
But Adam violated the Covenant of
Works, and hence all these pleasant prospects were
blasted. By partaking of the forbidden fruit he brought
upon himself and all mankind all these miseries which
have been mentioned and also the liability to eternal
punishment (Rom. 5:12; 1 Cor. 15:21).
(b) The Covenant of Grace
When God created Adam, He gave him
dominion over the earth and assigned him the duty of
subduing it and of cultivating its resources to his
Creator's glory (Gen. 1:28). This divine command
however, has never been fulfilled. Sinful men now
exercise dominion in the earth not as the servants of
God but as the thralls and minions of Satan, the god of this
world (2
Cor. 4:4), by whose wiles their first father Adam was
seduced into his first transgression.
But the sabotage and subversion of
Satan could not thwart the plan and program of God. Even
before He created the world God had provided the remedy
for Adam's sin. In the eternal Covenant of Grace He had
appointed Jesus Christ His Son to be the Second Adam who
would do what the first Adam failed to do, namely,
fulfill the broken Covenant of Works still binding on
all mankind. The first man Adam was made a
living soul: the last Adam was made a quickening Spirit.
The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second Man is
the Lord from heaven (1 Cor. 15:45,
47).
In the Gospel of John the Lord
Jesus Christ frequently testifies that He came down from
heaven to accomplish the task assigned to Him by God the
Father in the eternal Covenant of Grace. I came down from heaven, He
tells the unbelieving Jews, not to do Mine own will, hut the
will of Him that sent Me (John 6:38). To accomplish
this work of redemption was His delight. It nourished
and sustained Him. My meat is to do the will of Him
that sent Me, and to finish His work (John 4:34).
Every moment of His earthly ministry our Saviour labored
unremittingly in the performance of this divine duty. I must work the works of Him that
sent Me while it is day: the night cometh when no man
can work (John 9:4). Only when He had finished the
work which His Father had given Him to do, was He ready
to lay down His life. I have glorified Thee on the
earth: I have finished the work which Thou gayest Me to
do (John
17:4).
What then is that work which
Christ, the Second Adam, came down from heaven to do? He
came to save His people, to redeem those whom God the
Father had given Him before the foundation of the world
in the eternal Covenant of Grace. Father, the hour is come; glorify
Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee: As Thou
hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give
eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him (John
17:1-2). Those whom the Father has given to Christ in
eternity shall be raised up in glory at the last day. This is the Father's will which
hath sent Me, that of all which He hath given Me I
should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the
last day (John 6 39). They can never be separated
from the love of God in Christ. No man is able to pluck them out of
My Father's hand (John 10:29).
Does this mean that any sinner is
excluded? No! Only those that exclude themselves by
their own sin and unbelief. In the Gospel Jesus assures
us that all those that come unto Him in faith shall be
saved. All that the Father giveth Me shall
come to Me; and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise
cast out (John 6:37). It is the will of God the
Father that all those that believe on His Son shall
receive the gift of everlasting life and have a part in
the blessed resurrection. And this is the will of Him that
sent Me, that everyone which seeth the Son, and
believeth on Him, may have everlasting life: and I will
raise him up at the last day (John 6:40). If we
believe in Christ, then we know that we have been chosen
in Him before the foundation of the world and are safe
forever in the shelter of His redeeming love. My sheep hear My voice, and I know
them, and they follow Me: And I give unto them eternal
life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man
pluck them out of My hand (John 10:27-28).
As in Adam all die, even so in
Christ shall all be made alive (1 Cor. 15:22). Just
as Adam represented his descendants in the Garden of
Eden, so Christ, the Second Adam, represented His people
throughout His whole life on earth and at Gethsemane and
on the cross. During the whole course of His earthly
ministry Jesus did what Adam didn't do. He perfectly
obeyed the will of God. He became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross (Phil. 2:8). By His life of
perfect obedience and by His sufferings and death Jesus
completely fulfilled the requirements of the Covenant of
Works and paid the penalty of its violation. Through His
obedience Christ earned for His people the gift of
righteousness and delivered them from the deadly
consequences of Adam's sin. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall
many be made righteous (Rom. 5:19). And it was on
the grounds of His obedience also that Jesus Christ, the
Second Adam, claimed for His people the reward of
everlasting life with Him. Father, I will that they also, whom
Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may
behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me: for Thou
lovedst Me before the foundation of the
world (John
17:24).
All God's dealings with men,
therefore, from the creation to the final judgment, are
summed up and comprehended in these two covenants, the
Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace. In the
Scriptures the Covenant of Works is also called the Old
Covenant because it was the first to be established in
time. The Covenant of Grace, on the other hand, is often
called the New Covenant because it was disclosed later
and was not fully revealed until after the death and
resurrection of Christ.
(c) The Old Testament—Emphasis
on the Covenant of Works
The Bible, then is the Book of the Covenant. This has
been its name from the beginning because in it God
reveals Himself as a covenant-making, covenant-keeping
God. But there is another fact, a very familiar fact,
which we must notice concerning the Bible. The Bible is
divided into two parts, the Old Testament or Covenant and the New Testament or Covenant. (The Greek word diatheke can be translated
either testament or covenant.) This two-fold
division goes back to the Apostle Paul, who was the
first to apply the name Old Testament to the ancient
Hebrew Scriptures. The Jews, Paul said, read these
Scriptures but did not understand them because of their
unbelief. But their minds were blinded: for
until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in
the reading of the Old Testament; which vail is done
away in Christ (2 Cor. 3:14).
But why are the Hebrew Scriptures
called the Old Testament? Because in them the
emphasis is on the Covenant of Works. As we read through
the Old Testament from Genesis to Malachi, this fact
cannot fail to attract our attention.
According to Genesis 2, the very
first dealing which God had with Adam was the
establishment of the Covenant of Works. Before God
brought the animals to Adam to name and rule and before
He created Eve to share in Adam's world-wide dominion,
He first of all placed our common father in this solemn,
covenantal relationship (Gen. 2:17).
The Covenant of Works therefore casts its somber
shadow over the books and chapters of the Old Testament,
beginning almost with the very first page. The angels
barred the guilty pair from Paradise in order that they
might be ever mindful of their violation of this law
(Gen. 3:24).
This also was God's purpose in
giving the Ten Commandments to the children of Israel at
Mount Sinai, namely, to remind them once again that they
all lay under the shadow of the broken Covenant of
Works. The Law entered, Paul tells us,
that the offence might abound (Rom.
5:20). God gave His people His holy Law in order that
they might clearly understand that they were sinners and
could not save themselves by their own good works. In
this sense the Law of Moses was but a restatement and
renewal of the original Covenant of Works made with Adam
in the Garden of Eden. In this capacity the Law
pronounced a curse on all those that violated any of its
ordinances. Cursed be he that confirmeth not
all the words of this Law to do them (Deut. 27:26).
And conversely in the Law God offered life only to those
who kept all its provisions. Ye shall therefore keep My
statutes, and My judgments: which if a man do, he shall
live in them: I am the LORD (Lev. 18:5).
In the history of Israel also this
same emphasis is continued. Repeatedly the children of
Israel turned aside from the Covenant which God made
with them at Mount Sinai. Repeatedly God visited them
with punishment at the hands of their heathen neighbors.
The house of Israel and the house
of Judah have broken My Covenant which I made with their
fathers. Therefore, thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will
bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to
escape; and though they shall cry unto Me, I will not
hearken unto them (Jer. 11:10-11). Through such
chastisements the people of God were again reminded of
the broken Covenant of Works.
But even in the Old Testament these
dark shadows are penetrated by the light of God's grace.
As soon as Adam and Eve had sinned, the provisions of
the eternal Covenant of Grace were revealed to them in
the proteangelium, the first preaching of the Gospel.
God announced to Satan in their hearing, I will put enmity between thee
and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it
shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his
heel (Gen. 3:15). Jesus Christ, the Second Adam, was
to be born of woman and by His active and passive
obedience to the will of God was to defeat the
stratagems of Satan. For this purpose the Son of God was
manifested, that He might destroy the works of the
devil (1
John 3:8).
Not only so but later God
established the eternal Covenant of Grace on earth, in a
preliminary way, with Abraham, "the father of the
faithful." I will bless them that bless thee,
and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all
families of the earth be blessed (Gen. 12:3). In
this way God preached the Gospel beforehand to Abraham
and foretold the calling of the gentiles and their
justification by faith (Gal. 3:8). Look now toward heaven, and tell
the stars, if thou be able to number them: and He said
unto him, So shall thy seed be (Gen. 15:5).
Still later the Old Testament
prophets looked forward to the coming of the Messiah and
the complete and final ratification of the eternal
Covenant of Grace. Then the eyes of the blind shall be
opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue
of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters
break out, and streams in the desert (Isa. 35:5-6). Then
God's Spirit shall be poured out on all flesh (Joel
2:28). Then there shall be a fountain
opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of
Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness (Zech. 13:1).
And these expectations were summed up by the prophet
Jeremiah when he foretold the coming of the New
Covenant. Behold, the days come, saith the
LORD that I will make a new Covenant with the house of
Israel, and with the house of Judah. I will put My law
in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and
will be their God, and they shall be My
people
(Jer. 31:31, 33).
(d) The New Testament—Emphasis
on the Eternal Covenant of Grace
The Christian Scriptures are called
the New Testament. Why? Because in
them the emphasis is on the New Covenant foretold by
Jeremiah and the other ancient Hebrew prophets. The New
Covenant is the eternal Covenant of Grace completely and
finally established on earth and ratified by the shed
blood and death of Jesus Christ, the Second Adam. For
this reason the New Covenant is also called the New Testament. It is the last will
and testament of Jesus Christ which became effective
only after His death upon the cross. For where a testament is, there
must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For
a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it
is of no strength at all while the testator liveth
(Heb.
9:16-17).
This cup is the New Testament in My
blood, which is shed for you (Luke 22:20). In this
manner at the holy Supper the Lord Jesus Christ
instructed His Apostles concerning His last will and
testament. Its provisions, however, did not become clear
to them until after their Lord's death and resurrection.
These included the following benefits:
(1) Deliverance from the Covenant of
Works. It was Christ's will that under the New
Covenant His people should be delivered entirely from
the shadow of the broken Covenant of Works, and this
deliverance He began to accomplish as soon as the Last
Supper was finished. And when they had sung an hymn,
they went out into the mount of Olives. And they came to
a place called Gethsemane (Mark 14:26, 32). Here in
the Garden of Gethsemane Christ the Second Adam did what
the first Adam failed to do in the Garden of Eden. In
agony, with supplication, Jesus overcame the temptations
of Satan and the power of darkness. Then in His final
act of obedience upon the cross our Saviour delivered us
completely from the curse of the law of works. Christ hath redeemed us from tile
curse of the Law, being made a curse for us: for it is
written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a
tree (Gal.
3:13 ) .
(2) The Outpouring of the Holy
Spirit. At the last Supper also Jesus announced a
second benefit which the New Covenant would bring His
people, namely, union with Himself. I am the vine, He told His
Apostles, ye are the branches (John
15:5). This union became effective after His
resurrection and ascension into heaven when at Pentecost
He poured out the Holy Spirit upon His disciples. Therefore being by the right hand
of God exalted, and having received of the Father the
promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this which
ye now see and hear (Acts 2:33). So Peter describes
the Holy Spirit's coming. And since Pentecost all true
believers are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and are united
by Him in deathless bonds to Jesus Christ, the Second
Adam. We, being many, are one body in
Christ
(Rom. 12:5). Hence Christians are and should be nothing
else than a new race of holy men and women. The early
Church was supremely conscious of this fact. "What the
soul is in the body Christians are in the world."
Diognetus
(3) The Calling of the Gentiles. It
was Christ's will that the gentiles also should
participate in the blessings of the New Covenant. Other sheep I have which are not of
this fold: them also I must bring . . and there shall be
one fold, and one shepherd (John 10:16). The calling
of the gentiles was an essential part of Christ's
redemptive program. Hence after His resurrection He gave
final expression to His divine purpose in the words of
the "Great Commission." Go ye therefore, and teach all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to
observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and
lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world
(Matt.
28:19-20).
At first, however, the disciples
were perplexed as to how they should best obey this
commandment of their risen and ascended Lord. Was it not
through Abraham (Gen. 12:3) that all the families of the
earth were to be blessed? Had not God promised to bestow
His covenanted blessings upon Abraham and upon his
seed? For all the land which thou
seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for
ever (Gen.
13:15). And so would it not be best for the gentiles
first to become Jews by being circumcised and then after
this to become Christians by believing in Jesus? Would
not this Judaizing type of evangelism be most pleasing
to God? Would it not be most in line with the teaching
of the Old Testament?
It was the Apostle Paul who solved
this problem under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
He pointed out to his fellow Christians that Christ was
the seed of Abraham to which God was referring in Gen.
13:15. Now to Abraham and to his seed were
the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of
many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is
Christ (Gal. 3:16). Hence the covenant which God
made with Abraham was but an earthly manifestation of
the eternal Covenant of Grace which God made with Jesus
Christ His Son before the foundation of the world. The
gentiles, therefore, need not be circumcised or become
Jews in any fleshly way. If they believe in Christ and
are united to Him by the Holy Spirit, then they are the
spiritual children of Abraham. If ye be Christ's. then are ye
Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise
(Gal.
3:29). The unbelieving Jews, on the other hand, who
reject Christ are covenant breakers. Like Ishmael and
Esau they are children of Abraham after the flesh but
not after the Spirit (Rom. 9:8, 12). Both Jews and
gentiles must be justified by faith (Rom. 3:29-30). Both
Jews and gentiles must be united in one body to Christ
(Eph. 2:15).
(e) Future Provisions of the
Covenant of Grace
When we come to consider the future
provisions of the Covenant of Grace, we enter the region
of unfulfilled prophecy, an area in which there is a
measure of disagreement among Bible-believing
Christians. In this brief summary therefore we shall
seek to emphasize the points on which all Christians
agree.
(1) The Evangelization of the
World. Jesus tells us that before He comes again the
Gospel must be preached to all nations. And this Gospel of the Kingdom
shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto
all nations; and then shall the end come (Matt. 24 14). Jesus does
not say that the whole world must be converted but
rather that the whole world must be evangelized. All
nations must hear the Gospel. With our modern means of
communication, especially radio and television, the
fulfillment of this condition in the near future is a
distinct possibility even from a human point of
view.
(2) The Conversion of the Jews. The
evangelization of the world will be followed by the
conversion of the Jews. Blindness in part, Paul tells
us, is happened to Israel, until the
fulness of the Gentiles be come in (Rom. 11:25). The Jews are
like olive branches which have been broken off the olive
tree through unbelief. In their place the gentiles, like
wild olive branches, have been grafted in (Rom. 11:17).
When the Jews are converted to Christ, they will be
grafted back into their own olive tree (Rom. 11:24). The
return of the Jews to Palestine seems undoubtedly to be
the prelude to their promised conversion on a national
scale.
(3) The Advent of the Antichrist.
The last days shall also be marked by the advent of the
antichrist. This event is predicted by the Apostle Paul.
Before Christ comes again, he tells the Thessalonians,
there shall first come a falling away in which the man of sin, the son of
perdition,
shall be revealed (2 Thess. 2:3). This antichrist shall
be the personal and final embodiment of the evil
tendencies which have been at work in the Church since
the days of the Apostles (2 Thess. 2:7; 1 John 2:18).
His power as a world ruler shall be both political and
religious. Daniel depicts him from the political side
(Dan. 11:41-45), Paul portrays him from the religious
point of view (2 Thess. 2:4-10), and John presents both
aspects of his abominable career (Rev. 13:1-17). His
reign shall bring in the great tribulation but the
period of his ascendancy shall be short (Matt.
24:21-22).
(4) Christ's Return, the Resurrection
and Judgment. The Lord Jesus Christ shall come again
from heaven with power and great glory
(Matt. 24:30) and destroy the antichrist (2 Thess. 2:8).
This second coming of Christ shall be followed by the
resurrection and judgment. For as the Father hath life in
Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in
Himself, and hath given Him authority to execute
judgment also because He is the Son of man. Marvel not
at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that
are in the graves shall hear His voice and shall come
forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection
of life, and they that have done evil, unto the
resurrection of damnation (John 5:26-29). Resurrected
believers will be caught up to meet the Lord as He
comes, and believers who are living at the time of the
Lord's return will be transformed and made partakers in
this heavenly rapture (1Cor.15:50-55; 1 Thess. 4:16-17).
This resurrection and rapture of the believers is the
result of their union with Christ, the Second Adam (1
Cor. 15:22).
(5) The New Heaven and the New
Earth. After the resurrection and judgment Christ's
redemptive program shall culminate in the complete
renewal of the universe. And I saw a new heaven and a new
earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were
passed away; and there was no more sea (Rev. 21:1). The way to the
tree of life shall lie open to all in virtue of Christ's
active obedience (Rev. 22:2, 14). And because of
Christ's passive obedience the curse entailed by Adam's
first transgression shall be removed (Rev. 22:3).
Sorrow, and crying, and pain shall be no more (Rev.
21:4). The people of Christ shall see His face and bear
His name and reign with Him for ever and ever (Rev.
22:3-5). Christ's Church, which is His body, shall abide
throughout all ages in glorious union with her exalted
Head (Eph. 5:23-27).
The Bible, therefore, is the Book
of the Covenant. In it God reveals Himself as a
covenant-making, covenant-keeping God. The Covenant of
Works which He made with Adam in Eden He fulfills in the
eternal Covenant of Grace, in Jesus Christ, the Second
Adam, in redeemed humanity, the members of Christ's
body, and in the restitution of all things (Acts
3:21).
3. In The Gospel God Reveals
Himself As The Triune Saviour God
The Bible is the key to the proper
understanding of nature and of science. It provides us
with the God-given eyeglasses which correct our faulty
spiritual vision and enable us to see aright the
revelation which God makes of Himself in the world which
He has created. And the Bible is also the key to the
proper understanding of human history. It is the Book of
the Covenant which teaches us God's ways with men. In it
God reveals Himself as a covenant-making,
covenantkeeping God. But this is not all that must be
said concerning the Bible. For the Bible is, above all,
the Gospel. The Bible is a message from the spiritual
world. The Bible is good news from God. In this Gospel
Christ reveals Himself as Prophet, Priest, and King. In
this message God reveals Himself in Christ as the triune
Saviour God.
(a) In the Gospel Christ Reveals
Himself as Prophet
A
message requires a messenger to deliver it. Christ is
this Messenger. He is the Angel of the Covenant (Mal.
3:1), the Supreme Prophet whose coming was foretold by
Moses long before. The LORD thy God will raise up unto
thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren,
like unto me; unto Him ye shall hearken (Deut. 18:15). And as
Prophet Jesus invites and warns.
Ho, every one that thirsteth, come
ye to the waters (Isa. 55:1). In the Gospel Christ
takes up this theme of the ancient prophet, inviting
sinners to Himself that they may partake of the water of
life freely. If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and
drink (John 7:37). In His parables He summons them to
joy and everlasting gladness. My oxen and my fatlings are killed,
and all things are ready: come unto the marriage
(Matt 22:4). In His witnessing and public preaching He
gently calls them to eternal peace and quietude. Come unto Me, all ye that labour
and are heavy laden, and I will give you
rest (Matt.
11:28).
How shall we escape, if we neglect
so great salvation (Heb. 2:3)? As a faithful Prophet
Jesus warns us that we shall not escape. In severest
terms He made this plain to the Pharisees who rejected
Him. Ye serpents, ye generation of
vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell
(Matt. 23:33)? Those that hate the light and choose
darkness must perish in the darkness. He that believeth not is condemned
already, because he hath not believed in the name of the
only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation,
that light is come into the world, and men loved
darkness rather than light, because their deeds were
evil (John
3:18-19).
"How doth Christ execute the office
of a prophet? Christ executeth the office of a prophet
in revealing to us by His word and Spirit the will of
God for our salvation." (Shorter Catechism)
(b) In the Gospel Christ Reveals
Himself as Priest
At Mount Sinai God ordained Aaron
and his sons to the priesthood for the special purpose
of offering up sacrifices to atone for the sins of His
chosen people Israel. Each of the various priestly
sacrifices symbolized some aspect of the atoning death
of Christ. For example! the law of Moses provided that
before the offerer slew his sacrificial animal he should
place his hand upon its head (Lev. 4:29). This was an
act of faith by which the offerer indicated that he was
presenting the animal as his substitute to bear the
punishment which his sin deserved. So also the blood of
the Passover lamb, which saved them from the angel of
death (Exodus 12:3-30), was prophetic of the blood of
Christ which would save them from the just wrath of God.
And, above all the blood of the bullock and the goat,
which each year on the day of atonement was sprinkled
upon the mercy seat of the ark (Lev. 16:14-15), was
typical of the poured-out blood of Jesus, which fully
satisfies God's justice and thus provides the basis for
His forgiveness.
In the Gospel Christ reveals
Himself as the great High Priest who has offered up
Himself a sacrifice for believers upon the cross and is
now making intercession for them at the throne of God.
Wherefore He is able also to save
them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing
He ever liveth to make intercession for them (Heb.
7:25). As High Priest also He urges sinners to come unto
Him. For we have not an High Priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our
infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we
are yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto
the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find
grace to help in time of need (Heb. 4:15-16). And
since Christ is our High Priest, we have no more need of
an earthly priesthood. Every believer is a priest unto
God through Christ. Ye are a chosen generation, a
royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people
(1 Peter 2:9). Every believer has access to God
through Christ, the great High Priest. Therefore being justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this
grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory
of God
(Rom. 5:1-2).
"Christ therefore in very deed is a
lover of those who are in trouble or anguish, in sin and
death, and such a lover as gave Himself for us; who is
also our High Priest, that is to say, a Mediator between
God and us miserable and wretched sinners. What could be
said, I pray you, more sweet and comfortable than this?"
(Martin Luther) (64)
(c) In the Gospel Christ Reveals
Himself as King
In the Gospel the Lord Jesus Christ
reveals Himself not only as a Prophet and a Priest but
also as a King. Jesus Christ was born a King. The book of the generation of
Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the son of Abraham
(Matt. 1:1). Such is the beginning of Matthew's Gospel.
Jesus was of the kingly line of David, the legal heir to
David's messianic throne. He is David's greater Son. At
the very outset of His earthly ministry He announced the
coming of the Kingdom. The time is fulfilled, and the
kingdom of God is at hand (Mark 1:15). He was condemned to
death as one who claimed royal dignity (Luke 23:2) and
on this account was mocked and spat upon (Matt.
27:29-30). And when He was crucified, this
superscription was placed above Him, JESUS OF NAZARETH,
THE KING OF THE JEWS (John 19:19).
Christ's kingdom is, in the first
place, a kingdom of power. After He rose from the
dead, He entered into full possession of this aspect of
His royal dominion. This we know from His parting words
to His Apostles. All power is given unto Me in
heaven and in earth (Matt. 28:18). And this glad
assurance is echoed by the Apostle Paul, who speaks as
follows of the risen and exalted Christ: Wherefore God also hath highly
exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every
name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things
under the earth, and that every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the
Father (Phil. 2:9-11). In His kingdom of power,
therefore, Christ is reigning as the Second Adam,
bruising Satan's head under His heel (Gen. 3:15) and
conquering all His foes, including finally even death
itself. For He must reign, till He hath put
all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be
destroyed is death (1 Cor.
15:25-26).
In the second place, Christ's
kingdom is a kingdom of grace. The kingdom of heaven, Jesus
says, is like unto a certain king, which
made a marriage for his son, and sent forth his servants
to call them that were bidden to the wedding (Matt.
22:2-3). Three things, Jesus tells us, are required of
those who would accept this gracious invitation and
enter into the heavenly kingdom. First, they must be
born again. Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he
cannot enter into the kingdom of God (John 3:5).
Second, they must hear the word of the kingdom
(Matt. 13:19) and understand it. But he that received seed into the
good ground is he that heareth the word and
understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth
forth, some an hundred-fold, some sixty, some thirty
(Matt. 13:23). Third, they must be converted. Verily I say unto you, Except ye be
converted and become as little children, ye shall not
enter into the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 18:3).
Hence the Gospel is often called
the Gospel of the kingdom because by it Christ calls His
people into His kingdom of grace. This is the Gospel
which Jesus Himself preached during the days of His
earthly ministry. Now after that John was put in
prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the Gospel of
the kingdom of God and saying, The time is fulfilled,
and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye and believe
the Gospel (Mark 1:14-15). This is the Gospel which
was preached by Christ's Apostles. The Samaritans, we
are told, were baptized when they believed Philip,
preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God and
the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 8:12). This was the
Gospel which was preached by Paul at Rome. And Paul dwelt two whole years in
his own hired house and received all that came in unto
him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching those
things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all
confidence, no man forbidding him (Acts 28:30-31).
And this is the Gospel which shall be preached
throughout the whole world before the end of this
present age. And this Gospel of the kingdom
shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto
all nations; and then shall the end come (Matt.
24:14).
Christ must reign, Christ must
conquer! And with the coming of Christ's final victory
God's program for the world shall have been completed.
Then Christ shall give back His kingdom of power and of
grace to God the Father, since the purpose for which it
exists shall have been accomplished. Then cometh the end, when He shall
have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father,
when He shall have put down all rule and all authority
and power. And when all things shall be subdued unto
Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him
that put all things under Him, that God may be all in
all (1 Cor.
15:24, 28). Then when all is finished, Christ's kingdom
shall assume its third and final form, namely that of
everlasting glory. Jesus Christ the Son of God shall sit
down upon His divine throne and with the Father and the
Holy Ghost shall reign throughout eternity as the triune
Saviour God.
Blessing, and honour, and glory,
and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and
unto the Lamb for ever and ever (Rev. 5:13). Jesus
Christ! King of power! King of grace! King of glory! The
triune Saviour God!
"O victorious, O royal, O strong,
princely soul-Conqueror, ride prosperously upon truth:
stretch out Thy sceptre as far as the sun shines, and
the moon waxeth! Put on Thy glittering crown, O Thou
Maker of kings, and make but one stride, or one step of
the whole earth, and travel in the greatness of Thy
strength." (Samuel Rutherford) (65)
