The Origin and Mystery of Lawlessness

 "O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! in wisdom hast Thou made them all; the earth is full of Thy riches" (Psa. civ:24). "O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Thy Name in all the earth! who hast set Thy glory above the heavens" (Psa. viii:1). These beautiful words and many more were written three thousand years ago in praise of the Creator and of His works. All creation witnesses to His majestic greatness, to His Omnipotence, and in all the marvelous designs we can read His wisdom, the wisdom past finding out and also discover His Benevolence.  

Yet as we look about us in God's creation, though we see the evidences of His greatness, His wisdom and His glory, we discover that there is evil present. All Creation is marred. It is filled with groans and moans. Something happened which dragged down this good creation. The Apostle Paul, with his inspired pen, wrote of it: "The creature was made subject to vanity—for we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now" (Rom. viii:18-22). What are its groans? Earthquakes, tidal waves, disastrous storms, tornadoes, cyclones, a thousand different plights and a thousand other disturbances. And here is man! Called to be the lord of creation, to have dominion over all, we find that he, the offspring of God, created in His own image, is in a far more deplorable condition than the creation which he was to rule. What pen is able to picture the misery, the unhappiness, the sorrows of the human race! What sufferings and corruption we behold! There is a constant struggle for existence. In Scripture nations are compared to the sea, the ever surging, restless, moaning sea. As long as history has been written it records nation against nation, kingdom against kingdom, wars, rebellions, upheavals, disaster upon disaster, no peace, no happiness. We find the oppression of the poor, the sufferings of millions, never able to satisfy their physical needs, in a state of semi-starvation, homeless, in constant pain and hopelessness. On the other hand the many wealthy with their greed, ever reaching out for more, to add houses to houses, land to land, prosperous and deliberately closing their hearts against the cries of the needy. Autocratic governments which rule in unrighteousness, enslaving the people, and the people rising up against injustice. Civil wars, hatred on all sides, class wars, all kinds of corruptions and hundreds of other things fill the pages of history. Then the individual hating and hateful, filled with the different kinds of lust; suffering from disease, and finally passing away — death ends his conflicts, and the struggle for existence is over. And what more could we write about crimes, vicious-ness, certain things unknown in the animal creation below man.  

Where does it all come from? Who has brought about this deplorable condition? Who IS responsible for it? What is the origin of evil and what is the mystery of lawlessness?  

What answer does science give? What has the Darwinian hypothesis, or any other evolution theory to say?  

Darwinism and materialism trace it all to the animal ancestry from which man, according to evolution, sprang. It is all here by chance, and the evil which originated with the protoplasm must work itself out gradually, hence the human race must constantly make for better things, the evils must become less and less, till finally it has worked itself out completely. But though this process has been going on, according to scientific guessings and surmisings, a hundred million years, more or less as you please, evil today is manifesting itself in greater power than ever before. There is more lawlessness in the world today than in any previous age. In fact, as we show in this volume the whole world is steeped in lawlessness and all civilization is approaching an almost inconceivable disaster.  

If the evolutionists were right, and God has anything to do with the imagined protoplasm, then He Himself would be responsible for the origin of evil. All evil would then be unavoidable and therefore excusable.  

The shallow-thinking atheist takes hold of this invention and tries to make coin out of it. With blasphemies unknown before, the twentieth century atheists blame God for everything. In our own country they issued a call to celebrate thanksgiving day and called it "Blame giving day service." They composed a doxology suitable to their perverted mentality and sang—  

"Blame God from whom all cyclones blow, Blame him when rivers overflow, Blame him who swirls down house and steeple, Who sinks the ships and drowns the people."  

From these scientific-atheistic ramblings, we turn to the sure knowledge given to us in the Bible. Does the Bible throw any light on the origin of evil and the mystery of lawlessness? If we would have to say—no, this book is silent about it, then we would be justified in pushing it aside and we could no longer believe that it is the book which gives the satisfactory and trustworthy revelation of God, the knowledge unattainable by human research.  

Let us see then what the Word of God reveals as to the evil which is in the world.  

As stated in our opening chapter, man is not the product of chance, he is not the product of evolution, but the direct creation of God, in a class by himself. Darwinism and evolutionism claim that, coming out of an animal ancestry, man developed physically step by step. It has no place nor explanation for the soul, that gift bestowed by the Creator to man.  

"What is soul according to the Darwinian idea? A featureless, characterless, an immaterial but formless protoplasm, a substratum difficult to define; all distinctions between good and bad, pure and impure, talented and stupid—individualities cease—that is they are only passing wavelets on a sea of unconsciousness—have no permanent and consequently no real worth. This view pushed to its logical conclusion, denies the continuance of individual existence, therefore the immortality of the soul."1  

But this is not true. More and more does archaeology disprove the whole invented scheme. The late Professor A. H. Sayce, whose scholarship was of the very highest wrote:  

"Ever since the establishment of the doctrine of evolution it has been assumed that man started like a child and slowly grew into what he is today. Our primitive ancestor has been seen again in the modern savage, whose nearest representative he has been held to be. The brain and mentality of civilized man, it has been assumed, have developed out of small beginnings; he started almost on a level with the brute beasts and has become a Newton or a Napoleon. But here again archaeology stands in the way. The men who carved the hardest of stones into living portraitures in the Egypt of six thousand years ago, or at a later period erected the Parthenon at Athens, were in no way inferior to the most gifted of ourselves. We have accumulated more knowledge, it is true, but we can claim no superiority in the powers of mind. And if we go back to a still earlier age, the record is the same. The marvelous carvings and drawings of paleolithic man of the Aurignacian age prove that on the artistic side there has been little, if any, development. Indeed when we consider the conditions under which his work was done, in a climate like that of Greenland and amid the darkness of subterranean caves, we are inclined to regard him as the greatest artist humanity has produced."2  

Such arguments as these wipe out the assumptions of a certain class of men who claim to be scientists, but lack in real scholarship. Archaeology has even furnished far greater facts against the Darwinian evolution, since Dr. Sayce wrote these words.  

Perhaps the greatest philologist who ever lived was another Oxford professor of a generation ago, Dr. Max Muller. His works like "Science of Language," "Chips of a German Workshop," "Philological Essays," and many more are monuments of human learning. Comparing language with language, he furnished another conclusive argument for the Biblical revelation that man is the intelligent creature, the direct creation of God and not a developed beast.  

"As far as we can trace the footsteps of man even on the lowest strata of history, we see that the Divine gift of sound and sober intellect belonged to him from the very first; and the idea of humanity emerging slowly from the depths of an animal brutality can never be maintained again in our century (the nineteenth). The earliest works of art by the human mind—more ancient than any literary document, and prior even to the first whisperings of tradition—the human language, forms one uninterrupted chain, from the first dawn of history to our own times. We still speak the language of the first ancestors of our race; and this language with its wonderful structures, bears witness against such gratuitous theories. The formation of language, the composition of roots, the gradual discrimination of meanings, the systematic elaboration of grammatic forms—all this working which we can see under the surface of our own speech attest at least from the very first the presence of a rational mind, of an artist as great, at least, as his work."3  

There is in the last book of the Bible a beautiful outburst of praise. The Creator-Lord is addressed and we read: "Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created" (Rev. iv:2). This is true of man. God created man for His own pleasure, for His fellowship.  

God is holy, He is Light and in Him is no darkness at all (1 John i:5). He dwells in an unapproachable light (1 Tim. vi :16) and therefore creating in His own image and likeness, He did not produce a being of darkness and evil.4 He cannot be the Creator of evil. The creature He called into existence, man, was innocent; He was made a moral being endowed with intelligence. As a moral being he possessed freedom of will and was conscious of it. This freedom includes possible independent action. But could he be allowed to exercise this free will in his own way? We answer, No. He must be, as a moral, free being, subject to the controlling will of God. There was therefore an absolute necessity that God assert His control over man as His moral creature. This demands obedience. So God gave to the first man a decisive rule for action which demanded his voluntary and unconditional submission as a moral free agent to God's righteous requirement. Law means restraint—expressed by the words "thou shalt not"; it means to give up independence of action; it demands submission. So God revealed the fact that His creature is subject to His will. A test is given. "And Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Gen. ii:16-17). We are not concerned here with giving a definition of the tree of the knowledge of good or evil. Nor do we know how long Adam and the woman remained in this state of innocence. As stated in the previous chapter Adam revealed his super-intelligence by giving names to the living creatures of the earth. For an undefined period they enjoyed fellowship with their maker. There was nothing to mar it. Walking in submission to the will of God all was peace. But the test had to come; it had to be made.  

The third chapter of Genesis reveals the test. Here we find the birth of evil as far as the human race is concerned. Let modernists sneer and infidels mock, but this chapter which records the tragedy of man's failure and fall, changing him from an innocent creature to a guilty one, is one of the deepest and most instructive portions of the Bible.  

A new actor appears upon the scene. It is a person who uses one of the creatures as an instrument. Behind the serpent, then a different creature from the serpent of today, stands an unseen person of speech and intelligence. He is not a friend of God, but an enemy. He is crafty. His craftiness is revealed in that he selects the woman for the object of his attack. The law "thou shalt not" was given to the man; no doubt the man passed it on to the woman. The tempter may have reasoned that the man having heard the Creator's voice and demand, might not respond. The first he does is to create in the mind of the woman distrust. Has God really spoken, has He said, "Ye shalt not eat of every tree in the garden?" The woman, instead of turning away from such a suggestion, yielded. Then comes the lying assertion that self will, breaking through the restraint, disobeying God, would bring freedom and self-gratification through exaltation. "Your eyes will be opened, and ye will be as God, knowing good and evil." The act is committed. Sin is born and according to Bible definition "Sin is lawlessness" (1 John iii:4).5  

But who is this being who comes to make the test? Who is this enemy of God? Who is he who succeeds in making of an innocent creature a rebel? Where does he come from? A multitude of questions can readily be asked and while they are not completely answered in the Bible itself, enough light on this person is given which has satisfied the reason of the most intelligent, the deepest thinkers of the race. And what is not known, which our reason craves to know, the true Christian believer in submissive humility acknowledges as unrevealed mystery, withheld for some all wise purpose.  

Above man is another world, the world of a higher order of beings, the angels of God. They are the tenants of the universe and have access to that which is above the heavens.6  

They were created, we do not know when. Perhaps it was when the earth was founded, after the heavens had been created, for we read in connection with creation: "When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy" (Job xxxviii:7). There are different ranks in that angelic world above. Among these great beings was one who is mentioned in Scripture as "Lucifer, the son of the morning" (Isa. xiv:12). Lucifer means "Brilliant Star" or "Lightbearer." He was originally one of the greatest and most majestic creatures of God. Like man all angels also were created moral beings with freedom of will. Something happened in prehistoric times at a period of time which is unrevealed and therefore unknowable. Lucifer, the great creature of God, and the angels also had a "Thou shalt not." Then Lucifer, who may have been one of the archangels, became a transgressor. Other angels took part in the rebellion and so he became the author of the first lawlessness, the author of sin. Much is hidden from us, and God has not been pleased to lift the veil which hangs over the first tragedy of the universe. Yet if we turn to the Scripture passage where Lucifer, the son of the morning, is mentioned, we find more than the statement of his fall. The words which that great being spoke, which led to his fall, are on record. He said in his heart—"I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. . . . I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High" (Isa. xiv:13, 14). Here is the language of self-will, self-exaltation. The Creator had given to Lucifer and the angels under him a fixed abode. He was not satisfied with it. He aimed at heaven itself. God had given him a throne; he wanted that throne above the stars of God. He aimed higher and reached out after the place of God Himself. Perhaps he may have seen the eternal Son of God, by whom and for whom God had created all things, and moved with envy and jealousy he aspired to be in His place.  

Can we possibly locate the original habitation of this mighty angel? It was a place covered with clouds, for he desired to ascend "above the clouds." We cannot speak dogmatically about it, but inasmuch as this globe existed once with a gigantic creation, and judgment came upon it, plunging it into death and chaos, it is not unreasonable to draw the conclusion, that the original earth must have been the part of the universe where Lucifer had his throne. Certainly the judgment by which the original earth was visited postulates a reason. Here we must leave it.  

It would be useless to follow the philosophical and theological discussions about this being and his fall. Nor can man with his finite reason grasp the infinite One and understand His thoughts and ways. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts" (Isa. lv:9). Some have tried to solve the problem by saying that God ordained sin and lawlessness for His own glory, that He might by means of it, illustrate the perfection of His own character—His justice in punishment and His mercy in pardon. Such a theory slanders the character of God. Infidels and atheists scoff at all this. One of their common questions is: "If God is omniscient and knew beforehand that such a being would become a rebel, the devil, why did He create him at all?" True believers acknowledge that God has not revealed all, and that they look into a glass darkly, know only in part. We must trust God. We know that all His ways are perfect, all-righteous and all-wise, and that the day is coming when we shall know as we are known.  

In Christendom, that portion of it which is rationalistic, the fallen Lucifer, the enemy of God, the source of evil, of sin and lawlessness, is branded a legend. They claim it is a belief which the Jews picked up in Babylon. But what about the second Man, our Lord, who met that being in person? What about His teachings in which He mentions that sinister being as the murderer from the beginning and the father of lies? "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar, and the father of it" (John viii:44). We are told by the modernist that the Lord Jesus Christ either did not know any better than to believe what His superstitious contemporaries believed, or if He knew, He accommodated Himself to their beliefs in order not to antagonize them. By such statements they deny the infallibility of the Son of God and make of Him a mere human being or a hypocrite.  

Such, then, is the origin of sin, according to the Word of God. It was by the one man, the first Adam, that sin came into the human race and death by sin (Rom. v:12). How terse the statement yet how deeply significant: "Adam begat a son in his own likeness, after his image" (Gen. v:3). And so human history is now generation after generation, "conceived and born in sin"; the reign of lawlessness and death begins. The unseen, dark being, who had lost his dominion now reaches out after it through fallen man, whom he induced to share his own rebellion. He had lost his throne but through man's lawless act he becomes once more "the prince of this world."  

Before the first man was expelled from the presence of His creator, he had to hear the terrible results of his act of disobedience. Curse and sorrow and all that goes with it have come, and finally "dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return" (Gen. iii:17-19).  

Yet something far greater preceded this announcement of fallen man's future history. Jehovah-God speaks for the first time in prediction. "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel" (Gen. iii:15). It is one of the most marvelous verses in this great Book. We take a tiny little seed and plant it somewhere. Out of it springs forth the tree with its sturdy trunk, its many branches, with hundreds of twigs, and thousands of leaves. This verse is the seed of all prophecy. In it we find contained the great majestic tree of divine prophecy and revelation with its thousands of prophecies, promises and their realization.  

The words are addressed to the sinister being, the erstwhile Lucifer. Two things are prominently stated: There is to be a conflict from now on, a conflict which will go on through the ages, and in the second place the conflict will end in the bruising, or crushing, of the serpent's head. Here is the forecast of history and God's redemptive program which will end with victory on God's side, the dethronement of evil, the defeat of lawlessness.  

1 Bettex, "Science and Christianity," page 135.

2 Introduction to "Wonders of the Past," page 6.

3 "Essays," Vol. I, page 306.  

4 "I create evil" (Isa. xlv:7), does not mean moral evil. It means the punitive actions of the righteous God.

5 This is the correct translation; the authorized version is faulty.

6 For a complete treatise consult the author's "The Angels of God."