God's Plan with Men Part 1

G.o.d's Plan with Men.

by T. T. (Thomas Theodore) Martin.

PREFACE

Not new truths, but old truths properly emphasized, is one of the great needs of our times and of all times. The object of this book is not to start something new, but to specially emphasize some old truths and their relations to each other. The aim of the book is to help two cla.s.ses: those who are seeking to be saved, and those who are already saved; the one, by showing simply and plainly G.o.d's way of salvation; the other, by showing simply G.o.d's way of dealing with men after they are saved. The author hopes, moreover, that the book may be of some special help to honest sceptics. For this purpose, the Introduction is addressed to them; and the hope is cherished that Chapter I will aid in disarming prejudice against G.o.d and the Bible; for while the Bible's teaching of degrees of punishment in h.e.l.l does not detract from the horrors of future punishment, but rather adds thereto, it effectually does away with the charge of the injustice of future punishment.

The enquirer and young convert may omit the parts marked "For Further Study" at the close of each chapter and not lose connection. These are added for Bible students who wish to go further into the subject treated.

And now, the author lays the book at the Master's feet and prays His blessings upon it, that it may be a blessing to those who read it.

T. T. Martin.

Blue Mountain, Miss.

INTRODUCTION

"Come now and let us _reason together_, saith the Lord."--Isaiah.

"If any man willeth to do his will, _he shall know_ of the teaching, whether it is of G.o.d, or whether I speak from my self."--Jesus.

"And ye shall seek me and find me _when ye shall search for me with all your heart_."--Jeremiah.

"Then _shall we know_ if we follow on to know the Lord."--Hosea.

This work is not written for sceptics; yet while preparing to write for the benefit of others than sceptics, the author's heart has gone out toward that large cla.s.s of his fellow-men who are sceptical; who, from different causes, have been led to doubt or deny the Bible's being a revelation from G.o.d; and he has yearned to say something that would at least arouse the attention of this cla.s.s sufficiently to cause them to give an earnest investigation, or re-investigation, to the question. The _bare possibilities_ that there is a h.e.l.l and a Heaven, that the soul can never cease to exist, and that Jesus is the real Saviour, are enough to cause every doubting one to give the most earnest consideration to any evidence bearing on these questions, and to undertake the most careful investigation of anything that promises to lead to certainty. It will be admitted by every honest disbeliever that no writer has ever made it _certain_ that there is no future existence; that there is no Heaven; that there is no h.e.l.l; that Jesus was not the Saviour. The most that such writers have been able to produce is doubts. If, now, there is _the possibility_ of reaching _certainty_ on the other side, surely the reader should be willing and anxious to undertake a calm, searching examination, or re-examination, of the question. If there is no Heaven or h.e.l.l, no future existence, no one will ever find it out, before or after death; and there would be but little, if anything, gained if one could find it out. But if there is a Heaven and a h.e.l.l, and Jesus is the Saviour, then there is everything to be gained by finding it out and everything to be lost by neglecting to find it out. So important are the issues at stake that you, reader, should be willing to take years, if need be, to make a thorough investigation of the matter; you should be willing to read and study many books, and there are many that would help you; but I wish to urge you to read _two books only_, before reading this book. Surely your eternal destiny and the destinies of those over whom you have an influence (for "none of us liveth to himself") are enough to cause you to give earnest attention to the reading of three small books. The bare possibility that the reading of the three books may lead to your making sure of Heaven as your eternal home, is enough to prompt you to read them and to read them most carefully and prayerfully. The first is "The Wonders of Prophecy," by John Urquhart. The second is "The Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation," by J. B. Walker (American Edition). Having read these two books prayerfully and carefully, then give this book a careful reading.

But let the reader consider G.o.d's plan for investigating. It is often said by a certain cla.s.s of sceptics that the Bible is against honest investigation, that it shuts off the use of one's reason. Let the word of G.o.d speak for itself, "Come now and let us _reason_ together, saith the Lord."--Is. 1:18. The trouble with many sceptics is that they are not willing to "reason _together_," to reason to get with G.o.d, but that they reason _against_ G.o.d and to _get away from G.o.d_.

Jesus said, "Take heed _how_ ye hear." Watch your heart's att.i.tude when you hear. The att.i.tude of being against G.o.d will warp your reasoning when you hear. G.o.d's promise is plain to the earnest, honest seeker after G.o.d. "And ye shall seek me and find me when ye shall search for me _with all your heart_."--Jer. 29:13. One who is half-hearted, indifferent, prejudiced against G.o.d or against truth, has no right to expect to find G.o.d or to find truth. But the promise is positive that the one who seeks with all the heart shall find. Let the reader put G.o.d to the test. How can an earnest, honest man refuse to make an earnest, honest investigation?

It was against those who would not make such an investigation that Jesus spoke, Matt. 12:42, "The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgement with this generation and shall condemn it: for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold a greater than Solomon is here." The heathen woman who went to so much trouble and expense, and took so much time to make a thorough, honest investigation for the truth, will condemn those who do not make an earnest persevering investigation; "And behold a greater than Solomon is here," with His promise, "If any man willeth to do his will _he shall know_."

Reader, will you carelessly refuse to take the time and to go to the trouble and expense of getting and reading earnestly _two books_ that _may_ lead you to the truth? Oh, reader, outstrip the heathen queen in search of light. Give your life-time, if need be, to an earnest investigation of this matter. Picture two men, one giving his life-time to earnest, honest, searching for the truth concerning sin and salvation through Christ; the other, from indifference, or pride, or prejudice, or love of the world, or secret sin, never making an earnest, honest investigation; the one dying and going to Heaven; the other dying and going to h.e.l.l. Which shall it be in your case, reader?

There is absolutely no uncertainty as to the result _if only_ you will be honest, and earnest and persevering in your search for the truth.

Listen to Jesus: John 7:17, "If any man _willeth_ to do his will, he _shall know_ of the teaching, whether it is of G.o.d, or whether I speak from myself." Whether you, reader, are ignorant or learned cuts absolutely no figure in this case. Jesus throws the a.s.surance open to _any man_. The one condition is if he "_willeth to do his will_." No man wills to do G.o.d's will who will not go to the extreme of earnest, honest, prayerful investigation. If you do, then the veracity, the very character, of Jesus is at stake. Consider, then, reader, the awful responsibility that rests upon you, if you do not give attention to a thorough, earnest, honest, prayerful investigation for the truth.

Another promise of equal certainty comes from the Old Testament: Hosea 6:3, "Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord." Many make a slight search and cease. The promise is not to them, but to those who persevere. If we use the light as we receive it, and follow it up, _we shall know_. Again certainty is promised. Does not G.o.d, because He is G.o.d, deserve such earnest consideration from you, reader? Have you any right to expect anything from Him if you approach Him in a half-hearted, indifferent way?

The following cases in point may encourage the reader: Two learned men decided to prove that the Bible was not from G.o.d, and that Jesus Christ was not the Saviour; but they were in earnest and they were honest. They had vast libraries at their service. They gave months to investigation. They were both convinced and accepted the Saviour and wrote their books in defence of the Bible, instead of against it.

Second, one of the greatest scholars of Europe, probably the greatest, stated in a public lecture in America, that, of the thirty leading sceptics of the nineteenth century, men who had written brilliant books in their young manhood against the Bible, he knew twenty-eight in their old age, and that every one of the twenty-eight, after mature investigation, had accepted the Lord Jesus as Saviour.

Again, in one of the prominent smaller cities of America, a club of sceptics, leading business and professional men, had held weekly meetings for many years. They challenged any one to meet one of their widely known lecturers in a public debate on Christianity and Infidelity. A preacher accepted the challenge. During the debate some of the sceptics became Christians. The president of the debate, a sceptic, is now an earnest follower of the Lord Jesus, having been convinced and having accepted Him as Saviour. The debate was held years ago. So convincing, so overwhelming, was the evidence produced by the defender of Christianity, that the club of sceptics has never held a meeting since the debate.

Similar facts could be produced indefinitely, but these three are sufficient to show the most discouraged, the most hopeless sceptical reader, that there is at least a possibility of his yet finding the truth. Is not a bare possibility, where there are so tremendously important eternal issues at stake, sufficient to cause him to at once begin a thorough, prayerful, honest investigation?

A reflection before closing the Introduction: one hundred years from now, and you, reader, will not be among the living. Where will you be?

G.o.d has given you a will and the power of choice. Will you will, will you choose, to make an honest, persistent investigation? Tremendous consequences turn on your decision,--your own future destiny, the destinies of others over whom you have an influence. Do not dally with delay. Begin now an honest, earnest, painstaking, prayerful investigation. Get and read the two books suggested, and then finish reading this book. If this course does not settle your difficulties, read on, study on, pray on, and G.o.d's promise is sure, that you shall find, that you "shall know"!

_FOR FURTHER STUDY_: A brief list is here given of books that will be helpful to sceptical readers: "Why Is Christianity True?" by E. Y.

Mullins. (One of the most learned Presbyterian theological professors in America, asked to give the names of six of the best books to convince sceptics, replied, "I shall not do it; I shall give one,--'Why Is Christianity True?' by President Mullins of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; that is sufficient"); "The Fact of Christ," by Simpson; "The Meaning and Message of the Cross," by H. C.

Mabie; "The Resurrection of Our Lord," by W. Milligan; "Many Infallible Proofs," by A. T. Pierson; "The Cause and Cure of Infidelity," by Nelson; "The Word and Works of G.o.d," by Bailey; "The Character of Jesus," by Bushnell; "Hours with a Sceptic," by Faunce; "The Miracles of Unbelief," by Ballard; "Creation," by Arnold Guyot; "The Collapse of Evolution," by Townsend; "The Problem of the Old Testament," by James Orr; "Did Jesus Rise?" by J. H. Brookes; "Reasons for Faith in Christianity," by Leavitt; "The Gospel of John;" "The Young Professor," by E. B. Hatcher; "The Resurrection of Jesus," by James Orr.

I

SIN AND ITS PUNISHMENT--G.o.d'S JUSTICE--DEGREES IN h.e.l.l

"All have _sinned_."--Rom. 3:23.

"Every transgression and disobedience received a _just_ recompense of reward."--Heb. 2:2.

"A _just_ G.o.d."--Is. 45:21.

"It shall be _more tolerable_ for the land of Sodom in the day of judgement, than for thee."--Matt. 11:24.

Reader, what you and I need to know concerning G.o.d's plan with the sinner, the lost, is not what some people think, nor what some teach, nor what some desire; but what G.o.d teaches. G.o.d is _just_. Fasten that in your mind; never lose sight of it. Over and over again is this fact impressed in the Scriptures. Yet lurking in the minds of mult.i.tudes is a vague suspicion or dread that G.o.d will be unjust in sending some to h.e.l.l, and that He will be unjust in the way He will punish. Many who are thus disturbed lose sight of the fact that G.o.d is just; that whatever G.o.d does in regard to the lost, one thing is certain,--_He will do no injustice_. With my loved ones, with your loved ones, with the most obscure, worthless creature, with the most refined, delicate nature, with the most cruel, debased creature that ever lived, G.o.d will do no wrong. Many have turned away to infidelity, not on account of the Bible's complete teaching as to future punishment, but because they have taken some one pa.s.sage of Scripture and warped it or gotten from it a distorted idea of the Bible's teachings as to h.e.l.l; or they have taken some preacher's views as to the Bible's teachings on the subject. For example, here is a boy fifteen years of age, whose mother died when he was an infant, whose father is a drunkard and gambler and infidel, who has given the boy but little moral training; and here is a man seventy years of age who had a n.o.ble father and mother, who gave their boy every advantage, the best of training, under the best of influences; yet he when a boy turned away from all these influences and spent his life in sin and debauchery, and in leading others into sin. These two, the unfortunate boy and the old hardened sinner, die.

With many the idea is that G.o.d consigns them to a common punishment in h.e.l.l. But, reader, remember that _G.o.d is just_; and if that is justice, what would injustice be? They were different in light and in opportunity and in sins, and yet punished alike? _The Bible does not teach it._

But let us go back and consider this question of sin. "All have sinned." That includes you, reader. "To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin."--James 4:17. All have done this, have failed to live up to the light they have had; hence, "All have sinned." Two questions arise: first, ought sin to be punished? Second, ought all sin to be punished, or only the coa.r.s.er, grosser, more offensive sins? As to the first, ought sin to be punished? There is a strong drift toward the teaching that sin ought to be punished only for the purpose of reforming the sinner. Intelligent men endorse this teaching without realizing that it is spiritual anarchy and absolutely horrible and detestable. A woman and four little children are murdered in cold blood by three robbers for the purpose of robbing the home. When the three are arrested, the first is found to be thoroughly penitent, thoroughly reformed, broken-hearted, over his horrible crime. If sin should be punished only to reform the sinner, this man should not be punished at all, though he murdered five people in cold blood; for he is already reformed. The second is such a hardened criminal that he never can be reformed, and the more he is punished the more hardened he will become. Then if sin is punished only to reform the sinner, he should not be punished at all, though guilty of the murder of five people in cold blood. The third is tender-hearted and easily influenced, and by sending him to prison for thirty days, he will be thoroughly reformed, though guilty of five cold-blooded murders. On this principle of punis.h.i.+ng sin only to reform the sinner, all a sinner would have to do to make sure of Heaven would be to become such a hardened sinner that he could never be reformed, and then he would go to Heaven without any punishment at all.

People need to call a halt and realize that sin ought to be punished because it is right to punish it, because it is just. But this means the punishment of all sins, the sins of the refined as surely as the sins of the debased, the smaller sins as surely as the greater sins.

Hence the teaching of G.o.d's word, Rom. 1:18, "The wrath of G.o.d[1] is revealed from heaven against all unG.o.dliness and unrighteousness of men," But we need to keep in mind that it is discriminating wrath, and G.o.d's word makes this plain, Heb. 2:2, "Every transgression and disobedience received a _just recompense of reward_." "A just G.o.d."--Is. 45:21.

[1] Many sneer at a "G.o.d of wrath" and say they believe in a "G.o.d of all love." G.o.d is love, but He is just as surely a G.o.d of wrath; and were He not a G.o.d of wrath, He would not be G.o.d, but a fiend. He who loves purity and chast.i.ty and has no wrath against impurity and unchast.i.ty, but loves them, too, is a moral leper. He who loves the defence of the poor and the helpless, but has no wrath against the cold-blooded murderer, the one crus.h.i.+ng the defenceless, but loves him, too, is a fiend. Character, from G.o.d to Devil, can only be told by what one loves and what one hates.

Notice how clearly the Saviour teaches this same great truth, Matt.

11:20-24, "Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not. Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon which were done in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, _It shall be more tolerable_ for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgement than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shalt be brought down to h.e.l.l: for if the mighty works which have been done in thee had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.

But I say unto you that _it shall be more tolerable_ for the land of Sodom in the day of judgement, than for thee." Notice, "more tolerable," difference in punishment.

The same teaching Jesus gives in Mark 12:40. "These shall receive _greater condemnation_" Jesus revealed to Pilate G.o.d's judgment of a difference in sin, John 19:11, "He that delivered me unto thee hath the _greater sin_."

And Paul teaches the same, Gal. 6:7, "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap," the reaping according to the sowing.

Let the reader notice the clear teaching: the punishment of sin will be graded, first, according to light and opportunity. A writer, a great scientist, held that heredity and environment largely determine one's destiny. That is what Jesus taught. The people of Sodom were more wicked than those of Capernaum; but heredity and environment were against them. The people of Capernaum had not sinned so terribly as the people of Sodom, but they had more light and opportunity; they had better heredity, better environment; Jesus says that therefore the people of Capernaum shall be punished more severely than the people of Sodom. And that is right; that is just.

Those to whom Jesus spoke were born under better conditions than those of Sodom; they grew up under more favorable surroundings; hence, they were more responsible; hence, they are to receive greater punishment at the judgment. Apply to your own case, reader: for every added ray of light, for every added opportunity, there will be that much added punishment for your sins. And that is just; that is right. The opportunities that wealth brings, the light that education and culture bring, will but add to the punishment at the judgment. The most highly educated, the most refined, the most wealthy, those who have lived under the most favorable influences, will suffer most at the judgment.

But punishment will be further graded by the number of the sins,--"_Every_ transgression received a just recompense." Hence, the more one sins, the greater the punishment. If one knew that he was going to h.e.l.l, corrupt human nature would say, "Sin and enjoy while you live," but reason and Scripture would say, "Stop! add no more to the degree of h.e.l.l."

Punishment for sin will be further graded by the character of the sin.