The Way Out

IF EVER there was a time in the history of the world which called for calm and unbiased reasoning on the part of all, it is now. But mere reasoning, no matter how intelligent, can never bring hope to anyone unless there can be found some dependable foundation upon which reason may be based.

Today the world seems hopelessly adrift on the stormy seas of raging human passions. Jesus foretold the coming of just such a time as this in which there would be “distress of nations, with perplexity; men’s hearts failing them for fear” (Luke 21:25,26), as they see the things “coming on the earth.” Is there a way out?

This is a question that is now upon the lips and in the hearts of practically all thinking people the world over. Is there anything upon which we may build our hopes for better days ahead? In this hour of world distress many churchmen are recommending religion as a sure solace for the suffering people. But if religion can point the way out of the billowy seas of uncertainty to a haven of rest and security, for what particular kind of religion should we look?

We hold that through biblical truth alone will man find a true solution to the present worldwide conditions of perplexity and distress, and it is from this standpoint that we approach the subject in this discussion. Yet on this point we are faced with the necessity of distinguishing between the pure teachings of the Bible and the confusing theories of traditional theology, which too often masquerade in the name of Christianity.

We cannot expect to make progress in finding a reasonable basis for faith and hope except by identifying superstition as such, brushing it aside, and seeking to learn and apply the naked principles of undefiled biblical truth to present-day problems. If, as all Christians claim to believe, the Bible is the foundation of ultimate truth and reason, then by all means let us find out what the Bible really teaches!

If in this search for truth we may seem to trespass upon some of your accustomed beliefs, and seem cruelly to wrest them from you, think not that this will destroy your faith in the eternal verities that are actually taught in the Bible. It will not!

Truth and Reason

To whatever extent vain superstition is replaced with dependable truth and reason, one’s faith becomes a far more comforting reality than mere credulity, and the Bible takes on a new and saner meaning. And how much need there is today that our faith be based upon a firm foundation of reason and truth, for we are surely confronted with many confusing paradoxes.

Evolutionists insist that we have made steadily progressive strides since the first crude beginning of civilization on this planet. Many today boastfully point to the marvelous achievements of this modern brain age, yet our highly civilized world is faced with the undeniable fact that its boasted civilization now stands at the very brink of destruction. With all our learning, we are not able to maintain the standards of supposed culture to which we pretend to have arrived.

No longer is it possible to prevent a knowledge of these startling facts from edging in upon the public mind. Serious statesmen are frankly pointing out the necessity of something drastic being done if civilization is to be saved. Prominent religious leaders of all schools of ecclesiasticism are earnestly announcing that unless the people now quickly return to God, the whole world will be plunged into the greatest and most deadly cataclysm of all human history.

Finding the Real Solution

Agreeing that it does look doubtful if mere human diplomacy will be able to prevent the disaster which nearly everybody fears, the necessity of finding some other solution naturally becomes obvious and imperative if we are to have any hope for the immediate or distant future.

Do the religious differences that exist among the professed followers of Christ mean that we should give up our faith in the Bible itself as containing answers to the baffling questions with which the world is now confronted? We think not!

Should we conclude that the great Intelligence who brought into existence the countless billions of heavenly bodies, and who causes them to move about ceaselessly in their orbits with such absolute accuracy, has signally failed in his attempt to produce a race of sentient creatures here on this small planet that can continue to exist under conditions of uninterrupted peace and happiness? Reason answers, No!

When Jesus was on the earth he suggested to his disciples something very definite in the way of world betterment. He said, “Pray ye: Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” (Matt. 6:9,10) All down through the centuries, earnest Christians have been repeating that prayer, and patiently waiting for its answer. Is it ever to be answered?

What kind of laws will the world be required to obey if and when the prayer, Thy kingdom come, is answered? These are but a few of the many important questions which reason demands must be considered if we are to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion in the discussion of this subject which is so vital to all who are seeking a true solution of present world distress—the divine solution.

THE CREATOR AND HIS HUMAN CREATION

It is assumed that a large majority of our readers already have faith in the existence of an intelligent Creator, or at least would like to exercise such a faith if it could be based upon reason. On this point it is interesting to note that eminent scientists of today are becoming more and more convinced of the existence of a Divine Intelligence, and some of them have gone on record before their colleagues to that effect. We recall, for example, the words of Dr. Michael I. Pupin, who at one time was president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Albert Wiggam, scientific writer, in an interview with Dr. Pupin, quotes him as saying:

“Wherever science has explored the universe it has found it to be a manifestation of a coordinating principle, and that coordinating, directing principle I call Divine Intelligence. It leaves us no escape from the conclusion that back of everything there is a definite guiding principle which leads from chaos to cosmos.

“We are faced with two alternatives. We can either believe that cosmos, beautiful law and order, is simply the result of haphazard happenings; or, that it is the result of definite intelligence. Personally, I choose to believe in the coordinating principle, the Divine Intelligence. Why? Because it is simpler. It is intelligent. It harmonizes with my whole experience.

“The theory that intelligent beings like ourselves or intelligent processes like the movement of the stars, are the outcome of unintelligent happenings, is beyond my understanding. And why should I accept such a theory, when I observe the evidence of a directing Intelligence every day? When you see the stars, each moving in its own pathway, or see a seed grow up after a definite plan into a tree, or see a baby develop into a full grown, self-directing human individuality, can you conceive of all that taking place as the result of haphazard happenings? Well, I cannot.

“Why should I deny a directing Intelligence of all cosmic phenomena? To me as a scientist it is obvious. It was obvious to the prophets over three thousand years ago. From the crudest savage to the highest prophet it has always seemed obvious that there is a definite Intelligence back of everything. There is nothing that science has ever found that contradicts this. … Indeed, the more deeply science penetrates into the laws of the universe, the more it leads us to believe in an Intelligent Divinity.” Amen!

The main question, then, for us to examine is that of how and to what extent this Intelligent Creator has revealed his purposes to man—particularly his plans concerning man himself. The Bible purports to be such a revelation, and our theme will be developed upon this basis.

Today there is a growing tendency to doubt the inspiration of the Bible. But Christianity is so inseparably connected with the Bible—both the Old and New Testaments—that if we repudiate it, or take the position that it is not reliable, we may as well give up Christianity itself. We hold, however, that there is both internal and external evidence that the Bible is the Word of God.

It is admitted even by skeptics that wherever, and to whatever extent the influence of the Bible has been felt, its moralizing force has made the world better. For this reason it has been called the torch of civilization. There would be no world crisis today if the laws of the Bible had been faithfully followed by the ruling classes and the masses in the various nations.

A book, then, that has been such a power for good, and which has influenced the course of so large a part of the world for good during so many centuries, is surely worthy of being given more than a mere, casual reading before it is discarded. Besides, no other satisfactory explanation of the origin and destiny of man, apart from that suggested in the Bible, has ever been offered, evolutionists to the contrary notwithstanding.

The Genesis Account of Creation

The Bible account of creation and the Garden of Eden story of man’s fall have come in for the greatest amount of criticism on the part of evolutionists. But in recent years many scientists show a tendency to reverse their position in regard to these points. Prof. Rene Thevenin, of France, in a series of syndicated articles published in America on the age of the human race, said: “Before science gets through poking in caves and sea bottoms it may prove that there is considerable truth hidden in that fall-of-man legend.”

The fall-of-man teaching of the Bible is, we believe, more than a legend. It is based on the fact that man was originally created perfect and given a perfect home—“eastward in Eden.” (Gen. 2:8) It is from this standpoint that our investigation will be conducted.

According to the Bible, the human race started with just two specially created persons—Adam and Eve. Is it reasonable to suppose that this is true? Yes, the present population of the earth suggests it. Everyone knows that the human race has been steadily increasing in numbers during the entire period of known history. Think of what the population of Europe would be today, had not America been discovered five centuries ago!

Now, it doesn’t take any extraordinary intelligence, or faith, either, to determine that if we begin with the present ratio of increase in population, and inversely figure the constant decrease back through the centuries, we eventually shall reach the point where there will be found but a single pair—at just about the time when history dawns, and when man, according to the Bible, was created. This, together with the fact that recent archaeological discoveries are revealing that man, at the dawn of history, had a higher civilization than in later times, constitutes good circumstantial evidence in favor of the Garden of Eden story of Genesis.

Space will not here permit a detailed scientific analysis of the subject, but we trust that those interested, and especially those who may have doubts along this line, will take the trouble to search out the facts from the scientific standpoint, rather than endeavor to substantiate the unsupported guesses of evolutionists.*

*NOTE: As an aid to this study, we recommend the booklet “Creation”.

Is it so very hard to believe that the same great Power and Intelligence that brought into being the mighty universe about which scientists tell us so much, could also have brought that first human pair into existence by a special act of creation? If man and all other forms of life are not the result of creative power exercised by a Supreme Intelligent Being, let the scientists explain the phenomenon of life in some other way! Reason suggests that it is far better to take the Bible account of creation, and from that basis endeavor to discover the Creator’s design for the human race.

A Romantic Procedure

That simple Genesis story of creation tells us that man was first created; but no helpmate was found for him. Then Eve was brought forth. And is the method unthinkable? Has the most ingenious novelist in the world ever conceived of a more romantic way of finding a bride for his hero than that which is given in connection with the story of the creation of mother Eve? If God had the power to create Adam (and where did man come from, if God did not create him?), surely the details of removing one of his ribs, and from it producing a woman, would be an easy task for such a Creator if he chose to adopt such a procedure.

And then there was that wonderful garden home that God provided for his perfect human creation! Surely there is nothing unreasonable in supposing that God, after creating man, would provide a suitable home for him. Why should anyone make light of such a story, which tells us only that which anyone must admit would have been the logical thing to do under the circumstances? The Book of Genesis reveals that God created human beings to live right here on the earth—not in heaven, hell, or purgatory. Their commission was to obey the Creator’s law, and to multiply and fill the earth. Nothing was said to Adam and Eve about preparing for heaven.

In an endeavor to get back to foundation facts, let us suppose, for the time being, that the divine purpose to have the earth filled and subdued by man had been accomplished just as God commanded. To what would this have led? It would simply mean that the human family, gradually increasing in number in harmony with the divine command, would soon find that the originally provided garden home was too small, and that it would become necessary to begin the work of extending its borders.

The divine command was to fill the earth, not to overfill it. Surely divine wisdom and power will be able, when sufficient numbers have been born to adequately populate the earth, to cause the further propagation of the race to cease. Would there have been anything illogical or wrong with a program of this kind? Isn’t it reasonable, and exactly what we would expect of a wise and loving Creator? But to visualize the grandeur of it all, it is necessary to rid our minds of all the terrible pictures of suffering and want that now loom up before us. Selfishness of fallen man has produced all the suffering that is in the world today. Such suffering would have been unknown had man remained in harmony with his Creator.

And death! That, too, would have been an experience unknown to the human race. Modern science admits that living cells might be able to reproduce themselves indefinitely if given a perfect environment. Death came as a result of sin; and with death came suffering, sickness, and sorrow. Try to visualize a perfect human race, free from all selfishness, sickness, and death! Wouldn’t that just about suit everybody, everywhere? But, you say, why waste time thinking about something which, if it ever were a possibility, is now gone forever? But is such a possibility forever gone? The Scriptures answer, No! The divine program of redemption and restoration through Christ guarantees that, that which might have been, is yet to be.

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