13. TWO BODIES NOW FORMING
facts in our minds, if we consider that human beings are at the present time being gathered into two great Bodies. One is the body of Christ ("the Church which is His body," Eph. i. 22, 23). The other is the body of Antichrist.
Two great and antagonistic spiritual forces are engaged respectively in the formation of these two bodies; namely, the Spirit of God, who is forming the Body of Christ; and Satan, the "spirit of the world" (1 Cor. ii. 12), who is forming the body of Antichrist.
The body which is being formed by the Spirit of God is the Church of the living God; for "by one Spirit are we all (that is, all believers) baptized into ONE BODY, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free" (1 Cor. xii. 13). This body when completed will be caught out of the earth to be united to Christ, its living Head, as plainly foretold in 1 Thess. iv. 13-17.
But the "spirit of the world" is likewise forming a body, by gathering together, federating, or unifying, the mass of men "who know not God and who obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Thess. i. 8). This is the present enterprise of "the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience" (Eph. ii. 2). The teaching of Scripture that there is a mighty spirit concealed beneath the surface of events, and influencing all whose thoughts are not brought wholly into captivity to the obedience of Christ, furnishes an adequate explanation of the prominence of the same ideals and impulses in communities that are remote and diverse one from another. Otherwise these startling facts are inexplicable.
But Satan cannot work out his plan of forming a consolidated humanity according to the method employed by the Spirit of God. The Church of God is built upon the foundation of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God (Matt. xvi. 18), crucified for the sin of the world, and raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. God began the formation of the Church, which is the body of Christ, by raising Him from among the dead, seating Him at His own right hand in the heavenlies, putting all things under His feet, and making Him "the Head over all things to the church which is His Body" (Eph. i. 20-23). To that living Head those who believe through the preaching of the gospel are united in a vital and eternal union. This is the Divine method by which the true and lasting Humanity is being formed.
Teaching the same truth under the similitude of a building, whereof Christ is the Foundation-Stone, the apostle Peter says: "To whom coming, as unto a living Stone, disallowed (i.e. rejected) indeed of MEN, but chosen of God and precious, ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house" (1 Pet. ii. 4, 5). And the Apostle Paul likewise teaches that believers, having been "quickened together with Christ" (thus
ORGANISM VERSUS ORGANIZATION becoming what Peter calls "living stones") "are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone, in whom all the building, fitly framed together, groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord; in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit" (Eph. ii. 5, 19-22).
Thus God is preparing a building for eternity, in the preparation of which He makes use of living, that is, imperishable material, Christ Jesus, raised from the dead, being the Beginning of the new creation of God (Col. i. 18; Rev. iii. 14).
But Satan has to work, not with living but with dying material; and he has no living human head to which he can attach members by living ties. Satan cannot create an organism; he can only form an organization. Hence he is drawing unquickened human beings together around the unifying idea of "fraternity," or "co-operation," or "society," and is diligently propagating the belief that, when that great organization takes shape, the permanent advantage of all mankind will be secured. When this body is formed (as it surely will be), then the expected leader or head will be brought forth, that "man of destiny," "whose coming is according to the working of Satan, with all power and signs and wonders of falsehood, and in every deceit of unrighteousness in them that perish" (2 Thess. ii. 9, 10).
Such is religious man. When Christ came into the world, manifesting the mind of God and His purposes in grace to sinful men, the religious crowd put Him to the death reserved for slaves and for the meanest criminals. When Antichrist comes with the display of his marvellous gifts and supernatural powers, the religious crowd will put him at the head of all its consolidated interests, and will render to him implicit obedience and unstinted admiration.
Since the fall and death of Adam (who was the natural head of the human family), the race of Adam, i.e. Humanity, has been headless. God's plan for humanity was to give it a competent directing intelligence or head, who should not only have united all its members in a harmonious family, but also have maintained co-operative relations between them. But, through loss of the head of the human race, its members have been thrown into hopeless disorder and confusion. The race, instead of maintaining its solidarity and community of interest (the advantages of which are obvious), has fallen apart into hostile groups, which have maintained a perpetual struggle among themselves. There has been all along a tacit recognition of the loss and absence of headship in the many attempts of individuals and nations to occupy the vacant place.
The governmental expedients of humanity, which are its substitutes for the lost headship, have already deteriorated so far that the final stage of DEMOCRACY
THE ESSENCE OF DEMOCRACY has now been reached. Ideal or pure Democracy has not yet been attained; but in every part of the world rapid progress in that direction is being made. In fact, all the movements which we have in view could be interpreted as the progress of mankind towards pure Democracy.
The essence of Democracy is that "the will of the people" is supreme. The difficulty of applying this as a working principle is due to the lack of facilities for obtaining promptly an expression of the will of the people. For that purpose the people should have one mind and one voice. Thus the ideal social state, or pure Democracy, requires a competent leader or head, who shall express the will of the people; and the crowning achievement of "the god of this world" will be, after having gathered into one vast federation practically all the scattered members of Adam's race, to furnish that organization with a leader or head, endowed with superhuman intelligence, and supported by superhuman power.
Thus a survey of the entire sphere of human activities will disclose the important fact that the great movements of our day, whether economic or religious, are all heading directly and rapidly towards the development of a gigantic system, federation, or syndicate—a great combine—which shall control all human interests and enterprises, and regulate all human affairs, both secular and religious; and that the dominant idea of all these movements is faith in the inherent power of Man to overcome and abolish all the evils in himself and in his circumstances.
WHAT THE PRESENT-DAY MOVEMENTS LOSE SIGHT OF
One other preliminary observation should be made.
The fatal miscalculation of all the great movements of the day is that none of them takes any account of sin. This omission, of course, vitiates all conclusions, and foredooms all these movements to failure. What has been aptly said of one of these movements is applicable to them all, namely, that they aim "to get rid of the consequences of sin in human nature without getting rid of sin itself." On the other hand, the method of Christ is to "put away sin" (Heb. ix. 26), and thus to get rid of its consequences. He came as the Lamb of God to bear away "the sin of the world" (John i. 29).
Sin is firmly rooted in human nature. "By one man sin entered the world, and death by sin" (Rom. v. 12); and any scheme of human betterment which fails to take account of, and to deal effectively with, that fact, is utterly futile.
The anti-Christian theory, based upon the evolutionary notion taught in the name of modern "science,"