From the initial lesson in Eden the Divine Instructor proceeded to unfold His will “in wondrous modes . . . by dream, by oracle, by seer”, leading men ever on towards a more complete vision of Himself and His Truth. He devised and supervised various tutorial methods aimed at the same beneficent end. For instance, that elaborate legal and ritual code which He gave Israel through Moses was designed to fulfil the function of a “schoolmaster”, to bring them “unto Christ”.1
Not only in Moses, but “in the prophets and in the psalms” as well, “things” were written with similar intent2. “When the fulness of the time was come”3 the same gracious Educator, Who “at sundry times and in divers manners” had spoken “in time past unto the fathers by the prophets”, now —in the “last days” of the Hebrew Commonwealth — spoke unto Israel “by His Son”4. How true was the testimony of Nicodemus concerning him : “Rabbi, we know that thou art
A Teacher Come From God
What did he teach ? The ill-intentioned tribute of the Pharisees’ disciples answers the question succinctly enough : “Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth”6. Jesus taught the Father’s way not merely in word, but in deed. Does not the peerless value of the commandments of Christ lie largely in the fact that their God-sent author practised all that he preached ? He did not merely tell the way ; he showed it. He was himself the complete. embodiment of all righteousness. Precept was confirmed by example.
The “way of God” therefore, is not a visionary, impracticable thing. Man’s exemplar was “in all things …made like unto his brethren”, yet so complete was his affinity with the mind of the Father that even “in the days of his flesh” he could say to the Jews, without any violence to truth : “I and my Father are one”8 and later to the wondering Philip : “He that bath seen me hath seen the Father”9. He was from the womb of Mary “the ‘Logos’ made flesh”, and in the full plentitude of adult life he dwelt among men “(and they beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth”.
The mind of Mary’s Son served constantly as the voluntary repository. and distributor of his Father’s Word. His unity with the Father extended to the point where Paul could declare, as the most prominent element in “the mystery of godliness” : “God was manifest (margin, ‘manifested’) in the flesh””—that is, in the flesh of Eve, “the flesh” of all mankind.
So that men, as the apostle states, “are without excuse”. “He hath showed thee, O man, what is good”12. The standard has been uplifted. Men follow or they falter. The prophet cries : “This is the way ; walk ye in it !”13 and the apostle enjoins : “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus “14
The Mind Of Man
Is an amazingly complex yet pliable instrument ,endowed with remarkable capabilities. It may be carnal, or it may be spiritual (as Romans 8. 5-9 so clearly indicates), depending on the source from which it draws its inspiration. Its possibilities in either direction are so tremendous as to be almost frightening. In fact, the German philosopher Immanuel Kant, once remarked : “Two things fill me with awe :the starry heavens above, and the mind of man below.” And why should not the contemplation of these two wonders evoke the same reaction in every thinking person ? For both are the design of the same Omniscient Mind, the construction of the same Omnipotent Hand. He Who “stretched out the heavens as a curtain”15 is He “Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts” and “given understanding to the heart”16. His our warm and sentient frame, His the mind’s exultant flame”.
Since the mind of man has played such a is prominent role in the establishment and maintenance of the “enmity” promised in Eden, we do well briefly to consider it. The first fundamental fact to be apprehended is that the human mind cannot be dissociated from the human body. All must recognise and accept the physical basis of thought. It was a principle strongly and repeatedly emphasized by our “pioneers” in their attacks upon the false dogmas of orthodox theology, particularly that of the immortality of the soul. For instance Bro. R. Roberts, in showing “Christendom Astray” from Bible Truth regarding “Human Nature”, made the following unequivocal statements in his second lecture of the series. These are among “the things we stand for”.
(1) “Thought, in so far as it relates to human experience, is a power developed by brain organisation, and consists of impressions made upon that delicate organ through the medium of the senses, and afterwards classified and arranged by that function pertaining in different degrees to brain in human form, known as reason. This is a matter of experience. It cannot be set aside as a fact, whatever reservation may be entertained as to the explanation of the fact.”
(2)”Mind is the result of impressions on the living brain, and personal identity of the sum of those impressions.”
(3)”The mind is located in the body. It is not a loose ethereal thing, capable of detachment from the material person.” . . . “The mind cohabits with the substance of the brain.” . . . “The mind is the offspring of the brain.” . . . “We have no experience of human mind apart from human brain.”
The repetition of truth may seem tedious, but the declaration was made at the end of each series of reasonings regarding what Bro. Roberts called “natural facts”, in order to lay a firm foundation for what followed in that and subsequent lectures. Its apprehension is equally necessary as a prelude to understanding the ‘modus operandi’ of the ‘enmity’ of Gen. 3. 15. Its planting was via the human brain, impressed from without. And what becomes part of the mind becomes part of the man himself-i.e. of ‘the flesh’, in the broadest sense of that term.
The formation and vivification of man was the apex of God’s creative work. The Divine Artificer made him
A Little Lower Than The Angels
and made him “to have dominion over the works of His hands”17. Being made “in the image and after the likeness of the Elohim”18 this lord of creation could not be other than “fearfully and wonderfully made-“9. The “wonder” of his making is strikingly manifest in his superior cerebral organisation. The mental faculties with which carried a corresponding responsibility, something not shared by lower creatures of the animal world. The human brain performs many wonderful functions. It is not only the seat of sensation, but also of :
( 1 ) The intellect and memory—by means of which man thinks, learns, understands, reasons, and remembers ;
(2)The will—which confers upon him the power of choice ;
(3)The affections and emotions—which enable him to love or hate, to experience joy or grief.
Truly, “God hath made man upright” but he has sadly debased himself by his “many inventions ‘2° Yet, man stands erect, literally. His feet are planted on the earth, but his head bears towards the heavens. His mind may turn in either direction. Left to its native bent it will—like “the spirit of the beast–“go downward to the earth” and so “mind earthly things”21 ; “taught of God” and responsive to that teaching, it will “go upward”, setting its affection “on things above-22. It has the capacity to manifest the beast ; and to manifest God.
It was the recognition of this very pliancy of the human mind which prompted Bro. Roberts to write (“Law of Moses” p. 2) : “Human nature in itself is only a bundle of potentialities.” The cross of Christ—the climax of the conflict foretold in Eden—exhibits in a single scene both the depths to which it may sink and the heights to which it may rise. Like the serpent’s seed, it may descend to the depth of torturing and slaying its greatest benefactor ; yet, like the woman’s seed, it may ascend to the height of laying down life for its murderers. Both were “human nature”, but responding to entirely different forces—the one innate, the other acquired.
What Dr. Thomas wrote concerning man, in the majestic opening lines of “Elpis Israel”, gives a true picture : “His heart is evil ; and, left to its uncontrolled impulses, he becomes licentious, merciless, and more cruel than the fiercest beast of prey.” But, thanks be unto God, He has not left man destitute of the means of control. In the constitution of the mind of man is that impressionable material which can be imprinted with the Spirit’s etching. Did not Paul write to some whose hearts had been thus engraved “Ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God ; not in tables of stone, but in the fleshly tables of the heart”23
The enlightening agent is Yahweh’s Word. “It only can enlarge the mind and purify the heart” ; but—IT can Let men beware of limiting its power. “The entrance of Thy Word giveth LIGHT ; it giveth understanding””. Where men are willing to grant it free and full admission, the cleansing Word can so flood the inmost recesses of the heart and mind as to illumine the whole body. “The Light of the world” himself said so : “If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light”25.
Though the process, in this benighted age, is generally employed in a sinister direction, we yet know something of the mighty transforming effects of ‘brainwashing’ on a man’s outlook—upon his future aims, his affinities and alliances. So, in a more constructive direction, those who have been receptive and responsive to the lessons issued by Heaven’s Education Department, people whose minds have been enswathed with the Spirit, are changed men.
A New Creation Of God
They have been “born again” — not physically, but mentally ; “renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him”28. They are God’s workmanship, “created in Christ Jesus unto good works”. The “old man” of the flesh has been crucified ; the “new man” of the Spirit has risen to vigorous life. Like David, this new man is “a man after God’s own heart”. He repudiates the serpent’s way, and inevitably develops an antipathy towards those who follow it. “Just Lot”, for instance, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with the unlawful deeds” of his contemporaries28. The Spirit in David well expresses the mind of the class he represents : “Through Thy precepts I get understanding : therefore I hate every false way”29.
The antagonism is mutual. The man of God is “despised and rejected of men”. In a world of sin, good men create enemies. “Saul became David’s enemy continually “30. Thus the “enmity” and the opposing seeds” have developed through the centuries and ages since the words of Gen. 3. 15 were uttered.
Being gregarious in their habits, men tend to gravitate towards those of their own ilk. “Birds of a feather flock together”, the profane proverb runs. In physics, unlike forces attract ; but not in society, at least in the matter of a man’s attitude to God and His Truth. “I am a companion of all them that fear Thee”, wrote David. “and of them that keep Thy precepts.”31 The occupants of the opposite camp revel in sin and in each other’s company. They are people who do not like “to retain God in their knowledge… of reprobate mind… filled with all unrighteousness”, “who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them”.32
Their way is the easy way, the lazy way, for which reason it is the popular way. The seed of the woman said : “STRIVE (margin, strive as in agony) to enter in at the strait gate”83. The “broad” way is broad because it entails no striving and, therefore, no conquest. To follow it, man has but to obey the fleshly urge which says : “Take the forbidden fruit ; eat, and enjoy yourself” The world has chosen that way. Wherefore the Spirit, in the later stage of its communications to men, issued again its challenge : “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God ? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One