What is man? Where does man come from? What is his origin? What is the
destiny of man? These are the burning questions of the past and of the present.
To have them answered we need something more than scientific research.
Neither biology or psychical research can answer these questions.
Evolution claims to have discovered that the race came from the very lowest of
animal life and that the original man was nothing but a great big ape. To study
this illustrious ancestry of the human race, a professor had a cage made and
placed in the African jungle to watch the monkeys and to study their chatterings.
He watched them for years, and we suppose the monkeys watched him as well.
He wanted to learn the monkey language and came back with a vocabulary of
some unearthly sounds. But evolution is a lie! There is an unbridgeable gulf
between the highest type of monkey and the lowest of the human race. The
revelation of God answers the question, "What is man?" and answers it in a
marvelous way. No such answer is found in any of the "ancient writings" of
ancient nations. Only the Bible gives us the answer.
"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them
have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over
the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth
upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God
created he him; male and female created he them." (Genesis 1:26-27 KJV)
Man, originally, is God's greatest creature; he stands at the top of God's
creatures, except for the angels-- the tenants of the universe. Man was made a
little lower than the angels. There is no such thing as the ascent of man or that
man worked himself upward and still does so to become a better and nobler
creature. There is no such thing.
Man has rather had a descent-- a downward spiral from his original created
state. Man sinned against God and fell. God's Word gives us the record of it
and apart from it there is no explanation for the origin of evil. And because
man sinned he is what he is today. As another has said, "the first man, son of
our fallen parents murdered his brother, and from that time the unerring pen of
inspiration shows an almost unbroken record of avarice, brutality, corruption,
deceit, envy, falsehood, gluttony, hatred, injustice, jealousy, knavery, lust,
malice, naughtiness, obduracy, perverseness, quarrelsomeness, rebellion,
savagery, treachery, unbelief, vice, and wickedness." Only God could write
about man as it is written in His Word.
"Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me."
(Psalm 51:5.)
"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know
it?" (Jeremiah 17:9)
The Son of God tells us, "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil
thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness,
deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil
things come from within, and defile the man." (Mark 7:21-23 KJV)
"The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there
were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are
all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Have all
the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread,
and call not upon the LORD." (Psalms 14:2-4 KJV)
"...The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot
even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and
putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified
with ointment." (Isaiah 1:5-6 KJV)
MAN...Dead in trespasses and sins, walking according to his own lusts, a slave
of sin, a slave of satan, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and the mind, serving
the diverse lusts and pleasures, living in malice and hatred, envy, hateful and
hating one another, children of wrath-- such is man according to God's
estimate and revelation. It is "man's descent." And that descent still
continues. It is not arrested by education, reformation, prohibition, sanitation,
legislation, or anything else. Man cannot improve or become better by what he
does for himself for he is negatively and positively bad.
The present day moral conditions of the race vindicate most clearly the divine
predictions of the Word of God concerning man in this age and what man will
be when this age terminates. "Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and
worse, deceiving, and being deceived." (2Tim. 2:13). How true today! "This
know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be
lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient
to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false
accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady,
high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of
godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away." (2 Tim 3:1-5.)
How true today! And let it be noticed, it is in the religious spheres, these things
are especially to be looked for. "Heady, highminded, blasphemers" applies
especially to the infidels of colleges and universities, who under the garb of
"criticism" deny the Divine revelation of Scripture and the Truth of God. And in
the non-religious world, immoralities and ungodliness increase at a frightful
rate-- so that the world becomes more and more a sink of vileness showing that
the words of our blessed Lord, as to the end of the age, are being fulfilled. "As it
was in the days of Noah-- as it was in the days of Lot-- so shall it be when the
Son of Man cometh." Such is the descent of man! Such is man!
Is there any hope for man? Yes! The hope for lost man is Jesus Christ! The
only ascent of man possible is through redemption. The ascent begins at the
Cross of the Second Man-- the Last Adam-- the Lord from Heaven, Who came
to redeem man. Through Christ's precious, blessed work on the cross, as the
sin-bearer, man can be saved by believing on Him. By redemption through
Christ Jesus, man may be lifted from the horrible depths of degradation into the
unspeakable heights of eternal glory. But how sad it is that the only possible
way of ascent for man is denied in most of the religious world. The religious
world follows in the way of Cain-- the way of "good works" religion-- wherein
the sacrifice of the Lamb-- the Lord Jesus Christ-- is rejected. The Cross,
redemption by blood, regeneration by the Holy Spirit are rejected and because
of this, man remains hopeless in his alienated condition. And why do they reject
the Cross of Christ as the way for man's ascent? Because they deny man's
descent-- that man is a LOST SINNER.
Taken from Our Hope Magazine, Volume 27
and Modified/edited by Cobblestone Road Ministries.
Dear reader, if you have not received the Lord Jesus as
your personal Savior, please click here and read about
the free gift of salvation.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Further Reading:
POPULAR PREACHERS...Passing Out Candy On The Way To Destruction
FOUR IMPORTANT THINGS That Every Christian Should Know
THE FRIGHTENING FUTURE OF "CHRISTIANITY" - Where Is The Gospel?
THE WAY OF CAIN-- A BLOODLESS GOSPEL
Why Did Christ Die? by Dr. Arno C. Gaebelein
destiny of man? These are the burning questions of the past and of the present.
To have them answered we need something more than scientific research.
Neither biology or psychical research can answer these questions.
Evolution claims to have discovered that the race came from the very lowest of
animal life and that the original man was nothing but a great big ape. To study
this illustrious ancestry of the human race, a professor had a cage made and
placed in the African jungle to watch the monkeys and to study their chatterings.
He watched them for years, and we suppose the monkeys watched him as well.
He wanted to learn the monkey language and came back with a vocabulary of
some unearthly sounds. But evolution is a lie! There is an unbridgeable gulf
between the highest type of monkey and the lowest of the human race. The
revelation of God answers the question, "What is man?" and answers it in a
marvelous way. No such answer is found in any of the "ancient writings" of
ancient nations. Only the Bible gives us the answer.
"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them
have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over
the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth
upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God
created he him; male and female created he them." (Genesis 1:26-27 KJV)
Man, originally, is God's greatest creature; he stands at the top of God's
creatures, except for the angels-- the tenants of the universe. Man was made a
little lower than the angels. There is no such thing as the ascent of man or that
man worked himself upward and still does so to become a better and nobler
creature. There is no such thing.
Man has rather had a descent-- a downward spiral from his original created
state. Man sinned against God and fell. God's Word gives us the record of it
and apart from it there is no explanation for the origin of evil. And because
man sinned he is what he is today. As another has said, "the first man, son of
our fallen parents murdered his brother, and from that time the unerring pen of
inspiration shows an almost unbroken record of avarice, brutality, corruption,
deceit, envy, falsehood, gluttony, hatred, injustice, jealousy, knavery, lust,
malice, naughtiness, obduracy, perverseness, quarrelsomeness, rebellion,
savagery, treachery, unbelief, vice, and wickedness." Only God could write
about man as it is written in His Word.
"Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me."
(Psalm 51:5.)
"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know
it?" (Jeremiah 17:9)
The Son of God tells us, "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil
thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness,
deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil
things come from within, and defile the man." (Mark 7:21-23 KJV)
"The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there
were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are
all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Have all
the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread,
and call not upon the LORD." (Psalms 14:2-4 KJV)
"...The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot
even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and
putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified
with ointment." (Isaiah 1:5-6 KJV)
MAN...Dead in trespasses and sins, walking according to his own lusts, a slave
of sin, a slave of satan, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and the mind, serving
the diverse lusts and pleasures, living in malice and hatred, envy, hateful and
hating one another, children of wrath-- such is man according to God's
estimate and revelation. It is "man's descent." And that descent still
continues. It is not arrested by education, reformation, prohibition, sanitation,
legislation, or anything else. Man cannot improve or become better by what he
does for himself for he is negatively and positively bad.
The present day moral conditions of the race vindicate most clearly the divine
predictions of the Word of God concerning man in this age and what man will
be when this age terminates. "Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and
worse, deceiving, and being deceived." (2Tim. 2:13). How true today! "This
know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be
lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient
to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false
accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady,
high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of
godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away." (2 Tim 3:1-5.)
How true today! And let it be noticed, it is in the religious spheres, these things
are especially to be looked for. "Heady, highminded, blasphemers" applies
especially to the infidels of colleges and universities, who under the garb of
"criticism" deny the Divine revelation of Scripture and the Truth of God. And in
the non-religious world, immoralities and ungodliness increase at a frightful
rate-- so that the world becomes more and more a sink of vileness showing that
the words of our blessed Lord, as to the end of the age, are being fulfilled. "As it
was in the days of Noah-- as it was in the days of Lot-- so shall it be when the
Son of Man cometh." Such is the descent of man! Such is man!
Is there any hope for man? Yes! The hope for lost man is Jesus Christ! The
only ascent of man possible is through redemption. The ascent begins at the
Cross of the Second Man-- the Last Adam-- the Lord from Heaven, Who came
to redeem man. Through Christ's precious, blessed work on the cross, as the
sin-bearer, man can be saved by believing on Him. By redemption through
Christ Jesus, man may be lifted from the horrible depths of degradation into the
unspeakable heights of eternal glory. But how sad it is that the only possible
way of ascent for man is denied in most of the religious world. The religious
world follows in the way of Cain-- the way of "good works" religion-- wherein
the sacrifice of the Lamb-- the Lord Jesus Christ-- is rejected. The Cross,
redemption by blood, regeneration by the Holy Spirit are rejected and because
of this, man remains hopeless in his alienated condition. And why do they reject
the Cross of Christ as the way for man's ascent? Because they deny man's
descent-- that man is a LOST SINNER.
Taken from Our Hope Magazine, Volume 27
and Modified/edited by Cobblestone Road Ministries.
Dear reader, if you have not received the Lord Jesus as
your personal Savior, please click here and read about
the free gift of salvation.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Further Reading:
POPULAR PREACHERS...Passing Out Candy On The Way To Destruction
FOUR IMPORTANT THINGS That Every Christian Should Know
THE FRIGHTENING FUTURE OF "CHRISTIANITY" - Where Is The Gospel?
THE WAY OF CAIN-- A BLOODLESS GOSPEL
Why Did Christ Die? by Dr. Arno C. Gaebelein
| "What Is Man?" Taken From Our Hope Magazine, 1920 |
|
