WG-06-7. AS AN ANGEL OF LIGHT
7. AS AN ANGEL OF LIGHT
(2Co 11:14) WITH the acceptance by Adam and Eve of the doctrine presented by Satan and defined in Gen 3:5, he became the spiritual and religious leader of the human race. He is still, and through all the ages has been, the religious teacher of every child of Adam who has not been born again of the last Adam.
Accustomed as we are to associate the prince of this world chiefly with what is vicious and depraved, and with the crimes and vices to which the baser part of humanity become addicted, we are apt to overlook another aspect of the character of Satan, and to misapprehend the nature of his designs for and upon his subjects. We question if the Devil of Christendom, as generally represented, could ever have gained ascendancy over mankind. But the Devil of Scripture, the highest of all created intelligences, greater even in dignity than the Archangel (Jude 1:9), is a very different personage. The latter is more necessary to the explanation of the condition and history of humanity, and of the contradictions and mysteries of human nature, than is the ether to the explanation of the phenomena of light and electricity. Not only is belief in the existence of such a spiritual personage a thoroughly rational belief, but, on the other hand, it is irrational to believe otherwise. No explanation has ever been brought forward which is capable of accounting for the conditions, contradictions, and mysteries referred to, except that given in the third chapter of Genesis. The moment we recognize the true character of that being with whom our first parents closed their bargain, we receive light upon the greatest problems that perplex the human soul. The first man, by the exercise of his power of choice, committed the race to Satan’s leadership. The latter has done and is doing his very best, not to drag men down, but to lift men up and to aid them in working out for them the happiest results. The fact that he has succeeded so well demonstrates his great wisdom and power. The fact that he has not succeeded better demonstrates that his wisdom and power are not those of Deity. That fact proves also that God is necessary to the life and welfare of man. This is the first lesson for the individual man.
Satan, doubtless, believed thoroughly in his own system, and in his ability to lead this newly-created race into conditions of self-satisfaction and self- enjoyment. On this assumption we may well believe that he is chagrined and disappointed at the corruption, blemishes, and failures which everywhere appear, and annoyed by the folly and perversity of his followers in choosing vice, crime, and dishonesty in preference to “high ideals” and “noble aspirations.” Knowing God in a way that we do not, he could form an estimate of the scope and chances he would have in assuming the leadership of this race, should he succeed in attaching it to himself. What he could not foresee was, first, the follies into which the poor, helpless creatures would blunder when deprived of communion with God; and second, the marvelous work of redemption which Infinite wisdom would evolve and Infinite love would execute.
Consider the results of this great experiment, this joint-adventure of Devil and man, as those results are spread before our eyes! Surely they are great and impressive in their abundance and variety; and notwithstanding all the failures, disappointments and ruins, and all the sad, dark, and ugly features which cannot be hidden out of sight, we must admit that “the god of this world” is a personage of great intelligence and resourcefulness. The world-system, apart from God’s agencies and people, who are in but not of it, is marvelous in its complexity and detail, as well as in the character and variety of its activities. Its grandeur is undeniable, and it challenges our admiration; although we perceive everywhere an incurable tendency in the various parts of the system to fall into disarrangement, disorder, and decay. This wonderful system has worlds within worlds. We hear of the world of business, the world of politics, the world of fashion, the world of pleasure, the world of science, the world of sport, the world of finance, the world of music, the world of literature; the dramatic world, the social world, the industrial world, the commercial world, the religious world. Everyone can have a share! This prodigious world-system includes monarchies, republics, despotisms, laws, customs, traditions, corporations, syndicates, trusts, banks, clubs, brotherhoods, colleges, theatres, race tracks, gambling-halls, trades unions, philanthropies, liquor saloons, brothels, inebriate homes and cures, sanitariums, reformatories, temperance societies, goals, libraries, cemeteries, insane asylums, courts, legislatures, lobbies, stock markets, department stores, insurance companies, newspapers, magazines, automobiles, philosophies, fashions, cults, factories, railroads, navies, armies, high explosives, diplomacies, peace tribunals, hypnotism, spiritualism, Christian Science, Higher Criticism, New Thought, and religious systems to suit every shade of opinion. To all these and other restless, stirring, feverish activities, organizations and contrivances, is given the imposing title of “Civilization,” whose glorious mission is to go forward and conquer the earth for man.*
[In this connection, however, seeDivine Agencies in the World(chap. 14:).“And sitting down they watched Him there” (Mat 27:36).] In such a system it should be possible to suit everyone. There is something for the moral man, something for the religious man, something for the thoughtful man, something for the benevolent man, something for the ambitious man, something for the industrious man, something for the cultured man, something for the idle man, something for the vicious man. In a word there is something for everyone, with a single exception. In the entire system there is nothing for God’s Perfect Man. For Him this system had nothing; no place at the inn, no place to lay His head—nothing but a manger, a cross, and a tomb. Between Him and this world- system there was nothing in common. Consequently, when the time arrived for Him to say, “This is your hour and the power of darkness” (Luk 22:53), the leaders and representatives of the world’s culture, the world’s intelligence, the world’s progress, the world’s power, and the world’s religion, led Him with expressive ceremony “outside the camp” and nailed Him to the tree. And now, patient reader, who have read thus far—perhaps merely from curiosity to see how the writer sustains a somewhat novel proposition—let me put a question in deep seriousness: What do you think of “this world,” you who perhaps call yourself by the name of that crucified One? Are you quite sure that you are not one of that religious throng who, on that day (and ever since) have considered Him only to the extent of turning aside during a brief period of leisure in order to contemplate, while sitting at ease, the spectacle of His dying agonies? To what extent are your hopes and interests wrapped up in this evil world, whose leaders placed Him there; and how far are your affections set upon it? How much of yourself would perish if this world-system were swept off the earth the next moment? Is there any possibility that you, too, are an indifferent spectator of the scene which the world enacted on Calvary? —that scene wherein were revealed both the true nature of the world and also the limit of the love of God? And you, all you others who do not call your selves “Christians,” yet who cannot avoid seeing, however much you may try, that Figure nailed to the cross, “is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?” Indeed, it is everything to you.
That, indeed, was their hour and the power of darkness. His hour had not yet come; hut it is coming. As surely as we have had Satan’s leadership and the very best world that men could fashion upon his principles, so surely will we have Jesus Christ and a world arranged and governed upon His principles. “Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord” (Jas 5:7).