These sombre words were written by the late H. G. Wells, one of the great thinkers and writers of our times in his book “Mind at the End of Its Tether”. He also goes on to write: “A series of events has forced upon the intelligent observer the realization that the human story has come to an end. Homo sapiens, as he has been pleased to call himself, is in his present form played out.”
It matters not that most of the philosophies, and, indeed, some religions, are fully persuaded that, “All things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation”. There is an abundance of Bible evidence which explains the absolute inadequacy of human counsel, and the expendability of national monolithic empires.
Though time is a decisive factor in our lives, yet with God it is merely part of a process, and is in effect the agency through which His purpose is accomplished.
The finite orientation of our minds cannot grasp that the omnipotence of God existed before time itself. We can neither ponder nor analyse this fact, nor indeed are we required to. Rather is it a matter for belief and faith.
History does not, in point of fact, repeat itself, but at times does give the appearance of doing so. The greatest repetitive fact of history has been the abiding love of God which has sustained irresponsible man down the corridor of time
“If he set his heart upon man, and if he gather unto himself his spirit and his breath; all flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust. “
This balanced analysis was expressed by Elihu, whose delicate role as umpire in one of the greatest dramatic trials recorded in the Bible called for a substantial degree of balance and reason.
The drama of history, charged as it has been with commotion and rebellion, reflects the degeneracy of man in the aggregate. He has alienated himself from God, and become a rebel of his own volition. “They are those that rebel against the light; they know not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof.”
The kingdoms of men have decayed and crumbled because they relied upon the arm of the flesh. They depended upon human counsel for their strength, and were, therefore, doomed to failure.
The foreknowledge of God purposed that a fifth world empire should supersede the corrupt kingdoms of men. This kingdom will be under Divine tutelage and will be legislatively and administratively of such perfect character as to promote the spiritual development and conversion of the whole of mankind.
“And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed.”
The world has been historically divided into two great divisions of time: the Preliminary and the Intermediate. Both, when analysed, proclaim their verdict: the governments, alliances, religious creeds, ethics, morality, have all been unable to prepare a people for the Lord.
“God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God.”
“Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.”
The Scriptures also pronounce a verdict upon our own Intermediate state of civilized enlightenment. Spiritually we are no further advanced than the Noachic period, when only eight souls were salvaged from the world that was only fit to be destroyed by the Flood.
“And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be in the days of the Son of man.”
A great barrier of time separates us from the Preliminary period, which can be subdivided into the Noachic, Patriarchal and Mosaic eras. This period has recorded examples of monumental, mountain-moving faith, which are preserved for our edification.
“Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.”
“And the Scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.”
“And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend.”
Our own Intermediate period was graced by the Messiah himself, and the apostles and disciples, who were all shining examples in an age when the spiritual level of man had sunk to an unbelievable depth of degradation. The Roman cohorts represented the arm of the flesh in all its naked sadism. The millions of graves in the catacombs of Rome testify to the martyrdom of Christians, who were ruthlessly destroyed by the pagan overlords.
Alternative To Calamity
Statesmcn and military leaders confirm the hopelessness of war as a means of settling differences. At San Francisco, during the United Nations Conference in 1945, General Smuts sad: “If San Francisco fails, then I see nothing but stark disaster before mankind. This war has warned us what the new forms of war mean. . . . Scientific discoveries have been made in this war which have not yet been embodied in war weapons, have not yet materialized in a munitions programme—discoveries which, if any war were to take place in the future, would make this calamity tenfold, or one hundredfold, and might mean the end of the human race.”
On the day the Japanese signed the terms of surrender General Douglas MacArthur said: “A new era is upon us. . . . The destructiveness of war potential, through progressive advances in scientific discoveries, has in fact now reached a point which revises the traditional concept of war. Men since the beginning of time have sought peace. . . . Military alliance, balance of power, League of Nations, all in turn have failed, leaving the only path to be by way of the crucible of war. The utter destructiveness of war now blots out this alternative. We have had our last chance. If we do not devise some greater and more equitable system, Armageddon will be at our door.
There must come a time when man’s conception of God will undergo a sudden and revolutionary change. In the depths of despair he will yearn to be delivered from the vortex of war, and, in the extremity of human misery and suffering, he will look for the Divine interposition that alone can estaliish peace, true peace.
Religious revival cannot bring about the Kingdom of God. There can be no merging of the Intermediate and the Ultimate as some religious thought would seem to indicate. The disposing of this age for the Kingdom of kingdoms is the prerogative of God: “Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness.”
The Preliminary has passed into Biblical history, and the embers of the Intermediate are burning low. The Ultimate, the finality of things, belongs to God. To him belongs the undisputed rights of appointment and disposal. By his creative fiat things are as they are, and the human mind can only wonder at what it sees and hears, for such is the limited compass of our intellect.
God in his infinite wisdom provided a mediator in order to establish a happy relationship between the creator and the created. Full and unreserved acceptance of Christ in the way appointed qualifies for induction into the Commonwealth of Israel, the Israel of God.
If in God’s mercy the Ultimate is made possible for us through the shed blood of the Nazarene, then will we indeed be invested with eternal fellowship.
“And truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.”
God has decreed that we cannot peer into the Ultimate, and our closed vision must be circumscribed in the manner inferred by Paul: “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known”.
How great is the Omniscience of God that knows all, sees all, hears all, whose Power controls the earth and the world. How great is the compassion that offers man a place in eternity where the Ultimate becomes compellingly sublime and beyond description. Man who is mutable cannot even begin to understand the immutable things of God.
“Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”
With God the Ultimate has always been. The alpha and the omega have ever been with Him. The epochs that have been are as moments of time with the Creator, and are as nothing when compared with eternity. We cannot begin to grasp the magnitude of created things.
The Divine Mind has appointed a day when time itself as we know it will be sealed, for the old order must pass. The ages will all merge in a twinkling of an eye when the consummated will of the Almighty will be reflected in the “Lord of lords, and King of kings”.
“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away.”
“And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”
Reflections on the Potter and the Clay