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The Golden Future Part 2 Into the darkness CIVILISATION has come to the crossroads. The cataclysm of 1914 unleashed characteristics in human nature which men fondly imagined had been repressed for ever. Honesty in business, courtesy in politics, and morality in social life, all have suffered degeneration in the last decades—and the edifice of social ethics built up by the peoples of Western Europe and North America during three centuries is shaken and riven to its foundations. The nations which achieved greatness on the basis of an open Bible, religious toleration, and the emergence of true democratic principles of government, are now sliding into the abyss just as truly as they are rejecting those same foundations of their past standing. Europe’s statesmen are at their wits end; every conference becomes abortive and every agreement a scrap of paper, and with each successive endeavour to stay the heading descent it becomes more apparent that the existing social order is doomed. Truly, as predicted by Jesus two thousand years ago, there is today "upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity…men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming upon the earth." (Luke 21:25‑26) The catastrophe is inevitable. There can be no other ending. Despite the pious hopes of the last few generations and the belief of many that civilisation never stood on a higher level, the whole foundation upon which human society has existed from the dawn of history has made such a climax certain. The world is built on selfishness. Sin and injustice are allowed to flourish measurably unchecked, and the constant endeavour of men to acquire power and possession at the expense of fellow‑men has resulted in a condition upon earth aptly pictured in the oft‑quoted saying: "Man’s inhumanity to man In the beginning the human race was endowed with full mental, moral and physical perfection. The story in Genesis is plain in its teaching. Our first parents were adapted to a material environment which could be made to afford them everything desirable for the necessities and amenities of human life. The Divine commission was to "be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish (fill) the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." (Gen.1:28) Man was intended to be the lord of this earthly creation, making use of all its products for his own pleasure and satisfaction, and living his life in perfect harmony with his Creator and with his fellows. That is why man would have lived eternally in this sublime condition had he not deliberately and wilfully transgressed the Divine laws of creation and plunged himself and all his descendants into sin—and all the disease, suffering and death which sin entails. Consequently today, although man has attained an almost complete mastery over the forces of Nature; although he can at the touch of a switch or screen converse with his neighbour halfway round the earth or view in his sitting‑room scenes which are at that moment being enacted a hundred miles away; although he can set upon his table the fruits and products of lands in another hemisphere and be carried in comfort to those same lands hundreds of miles an hour; although he has thus conquered outward forces and subdued in the earth, he has not yet learned how to subdue himself. The canker of sin and selfishness in the heart vitiates (pollutes) those wonderful possibilities which are latent in human powers, and renders him impotent to achieve the one thing every man at heart really desires—everlasting life under conditions of ideal happiness. Now humankind awaits the greatest cataclysm of all. The imminent collapse of the world economic system is foreseen by many. The complex nature of this vast structure built upon wrong principles has at length reached the point where all the endeavours of its sponsors are insufficient to avert irretrievable ruin. As the writer to the Hebrews so truly says in another connection: "That which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away" (Heb.8:13), and today the world waits with bated breath for that final catastrophe which spells the ultimate and utter failure of man’s attempt to govern the world—without God. It is then that God will reach down from Heaven to save. He who has, for long ages, led men through a dark and devious way that they may learn well the laws which must govern their future well‑being, will listen to that cry which will ascend from a stricken race. It is then that Peter’s confident prophecy uttered on the Day of Pentecost to the wondering crowds in Jerusalem will have its glorious fulfilment. "He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began." (Acts 3:20‑21) For it is in the promised coming of Jesus Christ to restore order out of confusion that men will, at last, see the light. Bible Fellowship Union |
