Stephen
Terry, Director
The
Cosmic Controversy
Commentary
for the April 7, 2018 Sabbath School Lesson
“Submit
yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come
near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and
purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your
laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord,
and he will lift you up.” James 4:7-10, NIV
One is not long in this world before they discover the
struggle that comes with life. We begin life aware of little but our own needs.
This is a biological necessity. Whether puppy or person, food means survival so
we seek to satiate that desire. The little canid jostling their litter mates to
the side to clear the way to the bitch’s teat understands this struggle at a
very primal level. The baby that wails until fed by mother is another voice in
the same chorus. Life begins and thrives based on that greedy focus on self.
This is nature at its most raw. There is no altruism here. That could be
deadly. That comes later as a result of nurture through experience and inculcation.
If anything approaches the idea of “original sin,” it is this inherent
selfishness that each new life finds vital. It is the foundation of Abraham
Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs” pyramid.[i] But where does the Bible
say it has its source?
We are told of an idyllic beginning in paradise that
somehow became tainted. We are also told that the source of that taint predated
mankind’s existence. War took place in heaven of all places. The Devil, a
created being, rose up against his Creator and managed to convince a third of
the other angels to rise up with him. Not having the strength to prevail, he
and his fellow rebels were cast down to the Earth.[ii] But that did not end the rebellion.
Instead, the Devil managed to pull mankind into the rebellion as well.[iii] So successful was this
subversion that a tide of evil almost completely engulfed humanity, save eight
individuals who stood against the evil. When a karmic response arrived in the
form of a flood of near extinction that swallowed up all but that handful of
intrepid souls and the genetic foundation to re-establish Creation, the future
of humanity hung in the balance, preserved by a thread of grace. That grace was
made of something with tensile strength greater than anything found on earth,
for it has never broken to this day. It was forged in affliction and tempered in
the blood of Calvary.
It is a mystery how the Devil came to challenge the One
who made him. The prophet Ezekiel tried to explore what had happened using the
person of the King of Tyre to represent the evil one.[iv] Perhaps pride or jealousy,
like the prophet said, caused something to snap inside him. Considering his
determination to subvert Creation, maybe something about the creation of the
Earth had something to do with it. In any event, he no longer found pleasure in
selfless service to others. Soon mankind was on a path of selfish rather than selfless
service as well. This is not to say that there have not been those who have
exemplified selflessness with the epitome of that example spewing forth a new
flood of grace from the rude cross of Calvary. His blood flowed as a torrent
down through the ages bringing abundant pardon for all who would choose to
accept it. That torrent then flowed through their lives as well touching still
others who, together with them, stood the vigils of the often lonely nights. They
pledged themselves to better lights than the rest of humanity that the rest of us
might also come to know the Savior of souls.
This is not to say that the opposition has flagged. Satan
and his minions have survived past apocalyptic events and in anticipation of a
final, future Parousia, they are preparing frantically, knowing the time until
then will pass quickly, and every chance will have run its course. Knowing
there is no hope for them, they are determined to extinguish hope for humanity as
well. They are placing guns in every hand and hatred motivated by fear in every
heart they can that they might sweep multitudes beyond hope of salvation,
delivered to a bloody grave beyond which there is no salvation. For thousands
of years, the Devil has manipulated everyone and everything he could to place
in unassailable positions of power those of his servants who would support this
agenda and sweep millions into the grave without ever allowing them to come to
know the God who created them and loves them. Somehow with his lies, the Devil
has actually managed to convince many that the attributes of God are malicious
viciousness and pitiless cruelty, the very attributes that the Devil personifies
constantly in his dealings with mankind. Why else would he work so hard to
convince so many of us to kill so many others of us? Sadly, he even manages to
convince many that they are working in God’s service to murder their brothers
and sisters. It makes little difference whether they profess being Christians,
Hindus, Moslems, Buddhists or any other religion. Intolerance leading to
horrific crimes seems to rear its ugly head everywhere. When we add to that the
apparent development that weapons are not enough to destroy mankind with and we
can see mankind destroying the Earth and its many species through indifferent pollution
and habitat destruction, we have become like the man needing a piece of wood
who sets about sawing the very limb from the tree that he is sitting on,
heedless that he is hard at work on his own destruction. Stubbornly, when the
man is apprised of his error, rather than ceasing sawing, he admonishes the one
pointing it out to stop judging him and to mind their own business.
How frustrating all of this is. When we add to it our own
struggles with temptations and challenges that beset us, we realize how weak we
truly are in the face of the Devil’s onslaught. But that may precisely be where
God would have us. If we felt we had somehow achieved perfection in obedience
to the will of God, we may begin to depend so wholly on our own strength that
we lose sight of the necessity to depend on His strength and will to see us
through. In our humility lies strength, but not our strength; it is God’s.
Every time we move forward without seeking His leading and sustaining for our
walk, we place ourselves on dangerous ground. Fortunately, God does not simply
abandon us to those dangers. He walks with us even through the valley of the
shadow of death.[v]
But when walking with a friend, it is always harder to see and communicate with
them if we keep turning away from them, and it becomes even more difficult if
we never take the time to speak with them. A man who prepares for battle knows
he cannot win the war on his own. He relies on every other soldier standing
with him in the fray. Since we are in the greatest of all conflicts, we need to
beware of placing our own interests above our comrades, or worse still,
ignoring their interests altogether..
We are to love our neighbors no less than ourselves. The
ancient Jews thought this meant their fellow Jews who lived next to them in
Canaan. But Jesus made it clear that anyone they could help was potentially
their neighbor. In that day, He used the example of a Samaritan. In our day, He
might well use a Muslim, a refugee, an undocumented alien, or an unabashed
sinner (instead of “sinner” you might wish to insert the name of some despised
type of behavior or people group from your personal list). Jesus was able to
see past the dysfunctional behaviors to the person inside that remained capable
of responding to love and service. When He shocked people it was not through
using the most deplorable gutter talk to describe their behavior as some so-called
religious individuals might today. Instead, He shocked them with the extent of
His love, and His willingness to open His heart to them. When He touched their hearts,
they could feel the depth of that love all the way through to the cross, and it
broke their hearts. But that was good, because He was filled with joy to give
them a new heart full of grace and peace.
Seeing that we are caught up in this desperate conflict
between the rebellious Satan and our Creator, we have a choice to make. Where
will we stand on the battle line? We may insist we don’t want any part in this
battle, but most soldiers feel the same way. Nonetheless, they stand together, not
because they love to fight, but because the cause is just and what they are
fighting for is worth even the cost of their lives. We are not talking about
manning machine gun nests or charging across a ravaged battlefield with an automatic
weapon blazing away cutting the enemy into little pieces. No, the way this
battle is won is through selfless service for others. This may mean dying like
Jesus, without so much as firing a warning shot across the bow of the enemy. Who
can fight a war like that? Can you? Can I? Only in the strength of Jesus can we
see it happen.
