Watchtower Reprints - 1890

JANUARY, 1890 ZION’S WATCH TOWER (3-4)4:4; Psa. 1: 1) ; and because their ideas of right and wrong increasing clearness the grandeur of the things which Godare badly warped and twisted, through various false doctrines hath in reservation for them that love Mm-his “friends,and theories. We might not always be able to tell which of who do whatsoever he commands.,’ We need not questionour fellow-men are &ends of righteousness and unwilling God’s power; we know that he could have crested man withsinners.and which the willing ones-which under favorable out a will ; but he did not do so; he created him in this axcircumstances would prove t; be friends of righteousness, well as in -some other respects in his own likeness or imagefriendsof God, and which would prove to be enemies of with abilitv to will for himself. And we have never found arighteousness, enemies of God. But God, who reads the member of” the human family fallen so low that he had nothoughts and intents of the heart, knoweth well. Yea, he fore- will of his own-except idiots, who are clearly not accountknewthat there would be such, before he created Adam; and able. Even those who are fallen so low that they seem toin his wonderful plan, arranged before the foundation of the have no power to control their conduct by their wills, stillworld, the Lamb slain had a place, and was his provision,- have the will. “To will is nresent with me. but how tonot for those whom he foresaw would. under full light and perform I find not,,, not only fepresented the Jew’s conditionopportunity, be wilful sinners, enemies of himself ‘;nd his but that of all fallen men. A thief may have the organ ofrighteous government. but for those whom ha foresaw would, acquisitiveness large and the organ of conscientiousness smallwhen thev would have full onportunitv, become his friends, and may therefore by reason of this mental unbalance have abecause a’t heart always willing and p;eferring righteousness predisposition to steal. Yet he has, at least, some conceptionrather than sin. It was for such ultimate “friends” that God of the wrong he commits, and he steals with a certain amountprovided the sacrifice of his Son, the redemption which is in of wilfulnes~ or unwillin~gness. A will in the matter he mustChrist Jesus, and not for those who shall ultimately prove have, even though it be so weak (because unsupported bythemselves enemies. good elements of organization and because opposed bv badAll mankind are enemies or opposers of God and righteous- elements of organizatTon) that he cannot carry out his will butness, so far as their imperfect conduct or works are con- is continuallv fallina into sins which. when out of the heat ofccrned, though all are not such at heart. Thus Christ died temptation, “he ma; mourn over. ‘Hence, we repeat, thereonly for his friends (those at heart the friends of rigbteous- is in every man a will.ness) while in fact those friends were all, more or less, That God delights in the freedom of will in all his creaopposingrighteousness (unintentional enemies) by reason of tures is evident, also, from the fact that he has given thisthe weaknesses and imperfections of their fallen state. Thus faculty to them all, even to the very smallest insects. Go toseen, two texts seemingly contradictory are in perfect accord: the ant-consider her ways, and see how much will power“While we were vet enemies we were reconciled to God by she evidences. Take a drop of water and examine with athe death of his Son,” and “Greater love hath no man than microscope its living creatures; that even they have wiZZs ofthin. that n. man 1a.v down his life for his friends-ve me mv their own, must be apparent to all. Much more man. madefriends”-whoever will render heart-obedience to God’s perfect, to be God’s represen&,ive in the earth, and its king;-manrighteous law.-Rom. 5: 10; John 15: 13. has a will. and to it God anneals: and in harmonv with itsMAN’S FREE WILL laws and . liberties, which G gave it, God and his lawsReturning to Adam and his family, outcasts from Eden always operate.and from all that it represented of divine favor and com- While Adam and Eve and their second son Abel. and theirmunion and the conditionally-promised life everlasting, let us third son Seth, developed wills which desired righteousnessstudv for a moment their mental attitudes toward God. Were and reconciliation with God, Cain, their first-born son, dethey.friends or enemies? veloped a will opposed to righteousness ; proud and self-Legally they were all enemies-violators of God’s just and willed, he had no desire to submit his will to God’s will, andgood laws, condemned to death therefor by their good and did not aspire to the reconciliation promised to be provided;just Creator. But if their wills, their hearts, be examined he, no doubt, regretted the loss of Eden and would haveto see whether they were still ZDiZfuZZy and maliciously op- liked to be restored to it, but not upon God’s conditions ofposed to God and righteousness, determinedly wilful OP- absolute obedience to God’s righteous will and arrangements.posers, as Satan for instance, we find some of each sort He would have loved the reward of obedience and righteoussomewho would rejoice in iniquity and feel and act mali- ness, but was unwilling to accept the terms; he did not willciously toward the right, and others who would fain be hack to be God’s friend upon the onlv condition God offered. or everagain in full fellowship and communion with God, deairing will offer, his friendship and”communion. He conskquentlyand delighting to do his will and sorrowful for the past. opened his heart to unbounded ambition and selfishness whichEverything connected with the narrative in Genesis tends brought in envy, hatred and malice, and led him to murderto show that both Adam and Eve were deeply penitent and his brother A&l, because his life and his offering, submittedlooked longingly to the Lord for the reconciliation and more full-v to the will of God. were more accentable to Godrestoration to his favor hinted at in the statement that the than his ‘own. Not having submitted his own ‘ZoilZ to God’sseed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head-crush will and righteous plan, Cain hated his brother, and fromevil. Seemingly this hope was associated with the birth of envy deliberately planned and executed his murder.each of Eve’s sons. Their names seem to indicate this. The It cannot be claimed that Cain’s will was weakened andname of her first-born son, Cain, in the Hebrew much resembles depraved by heredity, for he was Adam’s first-born. He hadin meaning the word Ewreh6-7 have found it”-or I have plenty of tilt-power, as much as his brother Abel, but hegot the expected one. Abel, the name of the second son. indi- misdirected his will. He willingly copied Satan, while Abelcates doubi or uncertainty: Cain in the meantime, no doubt, was copying God. Yielding himself to evil, he allowed anhaving manifested the evil disposition, afterward so clearly evil or sinful will to be begotten in him and then nursed itmarked in his history. The godly character of Abel seems into a murderous, devilish-will or disposition, hating goodto have revived her hope, that of her offspring one should and loving and doing evil. And so, as to those who natternarise who would somehow vanquish Satan and evil, and and conform their w%s to God’s will are children of God, ofbring back the fellowship and blessing of God: consequentlg Cain it is written that he, willingly copying Satan’s disposiwhenher third son was-born Eve named him instead- (i. e:, tion, became a son “of that wicked one.“-1 John 3 : 12.Seth). for she said. “God .hath appointed me another sekd Likewise, our Lord spoke to some of the malicious Plmri-IN,ST& of Abel whom Cain slew.“. (Gen. 4 :25.) And, in- sees, whose- wills were ‘set in opposition to the truth, who,deed, the hope that she might be the mother of the long instead of seeking God’s will and way, were Satan-like, seekpromised“seed of the woman” seems to have filled the heart ing their own exaltation and hating the right and the light.of Eve’s daughters through the line of the family of godly saying : “Ye are [children] of your father the devil.” SaSeth, all the way down to and including Mary, our Lord’s the Apostle once spoke to a similar character. a wilful evilmother.-Luke1: 4 I 65. doer, iaying, “0 full of all subtilty and all ‘mischief, thouIn Adam and Eve and their first three sons we have a child of the devil; wilt thou not crasc to pornr.t flrc hgktclearly marked showing of the human till, and the fact that way of the Lo&P”-Acts 13:lO.God dnea not give us our wills but that each individual is NO PROVISION FOR GOD’S ENEMIESaccountable for his own till; while God onlp influences our Notice now that God has nrrer purposed or promisedwills to the extent of setting before us certain information, blessings unon will& crlemics. ll:,trrnnl life and kinrdomupon which each one’s will must decide or act for himself. favors-are not for ‘such. Had all the race been such &ar-(Thus God works or operates in us, the church, who have acters, no redemption and no restitution would 11:1\-c bcnlalready willed to serve and obey him, by continued unfoldings provided. God foresaw, however, that many (the vast mlofhis Word and plan, so that we. alreadv right-willed. may jority, we doubt not) would, after seeing c*lc:~rly :IINI in ~omcco&i.nue to will and &ontinme to do his good-pleasure’mor’e degree experiencing both good and evil. rigllt and u~on~. :111dand more.-Phil. 2 : 13. ) As increasing light shows the their respective consequences under God’s law. 1~’ +d 1