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The UK Bible Students Website Christian Biblical Studies |
On the Unsatisfactory State of Things
Whoever digs a pit may fall into it; whoever breaks through a wall may be bitten by a snake.
Whoever quarries stones may be injured by them; whoever splits logs may be endangered by them.
Eccles. 10:8, 9 (NIV-UK)
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It is important to understand that Man today is the same as the one on whom God conferred His image at creation.
At the outset Man was magnificent and beautiful, embodying in his physical perfection God-likeness on earth, with unlimited potential in the eternity which then, while he was sinless, stretched before him. Therefore, attempts to fathom God by drawing lessons solely from the present human condition, under the regime of dying and death, will not yield complimentary results.
To paraphrase the popular saying, ‘man is a shadow of his original self’.
The existence of evil is seized on as ‘proof’ that God cannot exist.
Certainly, this is a troublesome question for most people, Christian or otherwise, and ought not to be airily dismissed.
But though universal suffering is advanced as evidence that God does not exist, the many evidences of design genetics, for example are rarely accorded the weight of proofs that He does. Such details are relegated by the sceptical mind to the realm of coincidence.
The fall in Eden, in addition to introducing human death including physical degeneracy in the form of genetic mutations and disruptions in human biology plunged the race into a downward spiral of mental and moral corruption, ageing and sickness.
Attending these changes are the hazards arising from a degraded natural environment and geological instability, and the resultant turmoil in social and national affairs. As foretold to Adam, this ‘by the sweat of your brow’ existence has taken an immeasurable toll on the human race (Gen. 3:19).
Although the benefits of industry, medical innovation, sanitation, and numerous other advancements over the past two centuries have mitigated many of life’s difficulties and dangers, the progress has come with its own peculiar environmental and social costs.
Under the regime of death and sin there is a nagging dissatisfaction with the status quo, and it seems that each turn of the corner brings new and unexpected problems, as the text at the head of this article suggests.
Science and Technology, the twin sisters of Progress, can ameliorate but not eliminate the vexations and inefficiencies of the present human condition. Divine grace and power alone will lift the individual’s and mankind’s collective burdens only when the lessons of the permission of evil have been learnt.
This restoration is the future work of the Kingdom of God on earth, when Death itself is to be destroyed under Christ’s ministry. Then and only then will we understand the meaning of perfection.
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April 2017