WG-13-14. DIVINE AGENCIES IN THE WORLD
14. DIVINE AGENCIES IN THE WORLD
ALTHOUGH the affairs of the world are at present in the control of Satan and are directed according to his policy; and although the time when the sovereignty of the world shall become the sovereignty of our God and of his Christ is yet in the future (Rev 11:15), there are, nevertheless, Divine agencies now acting in the world, and acting with almighty power to accomplish God’s purpose for this age. Because of the presence of these Divine agencies the world is a very different affair from what it otherwise would be. The presence in it of even a small number of believers who truly have the Spirit and the testimony of God affects the character of the whole. Moreover, in all the unfoldings of human history, even while man has been permitted freely to choose his own way, God has, nevertheless, been overruling, has been steadily executing the counsels of His own will, and has been making even the wrath of men to praise Him. We have thus far. and for the sake of the clearer treatment of the subject, made but small reference to these Divine agencies. Let us now briefly consider them and learn what God is accomplishing through them during this present dispensation.
It has pleased God, for reasons which He has not revealed to His creatures, to permit the experiment upon which humanity entered in Eden to be worked out to its present stage, and to give full opportunity for a disclosure of the results of Satan’s leadership. It has required many centuries for the working out of this experiment, but in God’s sight these have been but as a few days, and when the end is reached He will be justified and every mouth will be stopped (Rom 3:19). But God has not abandoned His creature to be destroyed with his own experiment. On the contrary, He has always provided a way to return to Himself. This way has ever been accessible, and has been sought and found by those who have perceived the folly of sin and of continuing the vain attempt to make an abode of comfort and blessing in a Godless world.
During the age in which we live the Divine agencies in this world (which agencies while in it are in direct opposition to its projects, occupations, and diversions, and particularly in opposition to its god and prince) are the Written Word and the Holy Spirit. The Word is given as the basis of faith—to the end that men may believe to the saving of their souls (John 20:31). The mission of the Holy Spirit is to convince men of the sin of unbelief, of the righteousness of Christ, which is freely offered to all, and of the judgment of sin which He bore for all who accept Him (John 16:8; 1Co 1:30; Rom 8:1). In so doing God is not converting the world (Scripture does not promise that such will be the result of preaching the Gospel), but is “taking out from the nations a people for His name” (Acts 15:14). This is the work of God in this age, clearly announced in the inspired Scriptures given at its beginning. Anyone with the most ordinary powers of observation can see for himself this work now going on, and though it be but one here and another there who is seen to turn from “the way of the world” and to seek the only true and “living way,” the aggregate is “a great multitude which no man can number.” No explanation save that of Scripture can account for the world. No explanation save that of Scripture can account for the Church of Christ. If men would but apply in this case the same process of reasoning that they employ in other matters, and would accept the conclusions to which that process leads, the Scriptural explanation would, upon these facts alone, be accepted by all thoughtful persons. But the scientific man ceases to be scientific, and the philosopher ceases to be philosophical, and the rationalist ceases to be rational, just when he comes to these matters of highest importance. Here is another remarkable fact; and again we have no explanation of it save that given in Scripture. Why should this be so, were it not that the god of this world succeeds in blinding the minds of the unbelieving lest the light of the Gospel of Christ should dawn upon them? (2Co 4:4).
This, then, is the doctrine of Scripture—the command which Scripture gives to the believer is to live in the world as one who does not belong to it, as a stranger in it and a pilgrim through it, as a foreigner whose “citizenship is in heaven” (Php 3:20, R.V.). This command is to be received not merely as a pious sentiment, but as a living and governing principle—“be ye separate.” And what else would one wish who recognizes the truth? Truth has ever a sanctifying (1: e. separating) effect. The Lord Jesus prays for His followers, saying: “Sanctify them by Thy truth; Thy Word is truth” (John 17:17). If one believed the truth as declared by Jesus Christ, he would desire, if but as a matter of expediency, to withdraw himself from, and to sever every tie connecting him with, the perishing order of things which is administered by Christ’s enemy. How much the more, if he knows, loves, trusts, and waits for the Lord Jesus, will he wish to find no satisfaction, ease, comfort, or pleasure, in a system whose leaders cast Him out and crucified Him, and who would do the same to-day?