CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
God’s Demonstration
The demonstration which God intends to
make with the last generation on earth means much, both to the people
and to God. Can God’s law really be kept? That is a vital question.
Many deny that it can be done; others glibly say it can. When the whole
question of commandment keeping is considered, the problem assumes large
proportions. God’s law is exceedingly broad; it takes cognizance of
the thoughts and intents of the heart. It judges motives as well as
acts, thoughts as well as words. Commandment keeping means entire
sanctification, a holy life, unswerving allegiance to right, entire
separation from sin, and victory over it. Well may mortal man cry out,
Who is sufficient for these things!
Yet, to produce a people that will keep
the law is the task which God has set Himself and which He expects to
accomplish. When the statement and challenge are issued by Satan:
"No one can keep the law. It is impossible. If there be any that
can do it or that have done it, show them to me. Where are they that
keep the commandments?" God will quietly answer, Here they are.
"Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of
Jesus." Rev. 14: 12.
Let us say it reverently: God must meet
Satan’s challenge. It is not God’s plan, or a part of His purpose,
to subject men to tests that only a chosen few can survive. In the
Garden of Eden, God subjected Adam and Eve to the lightest test
conceivable. No one can say that our first parents fell because the test
was too hard for them. If they fell, it was not because the test was
hard or because they had not been provided with strength to resist. The
temptation was not held before them constantly. Satan was not permitted
to molest them everywhere. He had access to them at only one place,
namely, at the tree of knowledge. That place they knew. They could stay
away from it if they wanted to. Satan could not follow them everywhere.
If they went where Satan was, it was because they wanted to. But even if
they went there to examine the tree, they need not have remained there.
They could walk away. And even if Satan offered them the fruit, they
need not take it. But they took it and ate. And they ate it because they
wanted to, not because they had to. They deliberately transgressed.
There was no excuse. God could not have devised an easier test.
When God commands men to keep His law,
it does not serve the purpose He has in mind to have only a few men keep
it, just enough to show it can be done. It is not in line with God’s
character to pick outstanding men of strong purpose and superb training,
and demonstrate through them what He can do. It is much more in harmony
with His plan to make His requirements such that even the weakest need
not fail, so that none can ever say that God demands that which can be
done by only a few. It is for this reason that God has reserved His
greatest demonstration for the last generation. This generation bears
the results of accumulated sins. If any are weak, they are. If any
suffer from inherited tendencies, they do. If any have an excuse because
of weakness of any kind, they have. If, therefore, these can keep the
commandments, there is no excuse for anyone in any other generation not
doing so also.
But this is not enough. God intends in
His demonstration to show, not merely that ordinary men of the last
generation can successfully pass a test such as He gave to Adam and Eve,
but that they can survive a test much harder than such as falls to the
lot of common men. It will be a test comparable to the one Job passed
through, and approaching that which the Master underwent. It will test
them to the utmost.
"Ye have heard of the patience of
Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful,
and of tender mercy." James 5:11. Job passed through some
experiences that will be repeated in the lives of the chosen ones of the
last generation. It may be well to consider them.
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