SUBJECTED TO FRUSTRATION . . . AND HOPE

All references are to the NIV-UK, 1984 edition

In the main the human family is forward-looking, hopeful, and imbued with the conviction that obstacles can be overcome. Belief in a beneficial Creator is so widespread that the persistence of the view requires a better explanation than is usually offered by the sceptics. Faith is itself an evidence of God. This attribute of the human mind signals to us that it has been implanted in our nature as a token of hope.

As the Apostle Paul writes (Rom. 8:20-21):

The creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

A wide range of experiences is encompassed in human life, and the various needs are similar, regardless of time, place or history.

This observation is the essence of the permission of evil, a basic tenet of Biblical doctrine, much misunderstood. For the problems of the human condition there is a suite of solutions, made available by a loving God, an explanation of which is found in His Word. This is where faith comes in. For only faith can lay hold of the promises in the Word of God and appreciate what it offers.

Although the Scriptures provide a shrewd assessment of the human condition, they are not intended to correct all the problems of the present life. Jesus performed His miracles of healing on just a fraction of the nation of Israel. He did not address the problems of water quality, currency reform or the state of housing. His essential mission was to call out the true believers with a view to their subsequent exaltation to reign with Him in His kingdom. Under such a reign there will be wide-sweeping, radical reform of the conditions which now prevail as a result of the curse of sin and death, and a restoration of all the privileges and blessings forfeited by the sin of Adam.

From Paradise lost to Paradise restored.

The whole of humanity will be the beneficiary of this process (Acts 17:31):

For he [God] has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.

Christ’s resurrection is the singular event which guarantees the resurrection of humanity. Elsewhere, Paul asserts the spiritual poverty of a life on this earth which has no prospect of a resurrection beyond it (1 Cor. 15:17-19):

If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.

Christ’s kingdom on earth will be a time of righteousness in action, involving the rule of law, the application of justice, and a process of salvation for all who comply with the benign conditions then on offer.

The Apostle John tells us that Christ ‘is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world’ (1 John 2:2; emphasis added).

We do not argue for salvation to eternal life for all, regardless of individual responsibility. However, it is folly to imagine that in this present, imperfect world those who lack faith can be judged on such a weighty matter as fitness for eternal life. The Scriptures teach plainly that the individual has ultimate responsibility for his or her everlasting fate. Only after all efforts to win the sinner to faith and repentance have been exhausted in the Millennial Age will the judgement be meted out: death without remission, extinction, not torment. Election and Free Grace belong to two different periods of time, and we should keep them separate.

God has anticipated all the needs of His creation for individuals of faith now and for the world in general in Christ’s reign to come. The Kingdom of the Son will accomplish the ends prescribed in the Plan of the Father.

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