The Golden age. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1906-1915, May 10, 1906, Page 3, Image 3
“I Am
The Way.
The Truth, and
The Life”
The Origin of Things as Revealed in
Genesis.
By DR. A. C. DIXON.
I.— >
In the beginning of every book of geometry is
a list of maxims, such as: “ The whole is equal to
the sum of its parts.” “A straight line is
the shortest distance between two points.” These
maxims are self-evident truths—truths which are
so evident that they do not demand proof, because
everybody of sound mind knows without proof that
they are true. Geometry is built on these maxims.
There is only one maxim in the Bible, and that
is the first verse of the book: “In the beginning
God created the heaven and the earth.” Every one
of sound mind knows that there is a God. If he
says in his heart there is no God, the Psalmist pro
nounces him a fool. Results demand causes, and
intelligent results demand intellligent causes. If
a man cannot see that results demand causes, he
is of unsound mind. The Bible, therefore, does
not attempt to prove that there is a God, but takes
it for granted, and gives in its first verse the one
maxim upon which everything that follows is
founded.
If you accept this self-evident truth, you have no
difficulty in accepting as true all the miracles that
follow, for the less is included in the greater. If
“God created the heaven and the earth,” He could
certainly divide the waters of the Red Sea, cause
the earth to cease its rotation and keep the sun
fixed in the sky, make a fish to swallow Jonah and
keep the prophet alive. Miracle is God at work,
and the Creator of the universe can, of course, regu
late anything in the universe.
This only Biblical maxim places spirit before
matter. “In the beginning God created.” “God
is a Spirit” before matter. Matter, therefore, is
not eternal, and spirit is not dependent upon mat
ter, while the existence of matter is dependent upon
spirit. We are not taught that God created all
things out of nothing. Omnipotent Spirit has re
sources that can produce matter. Milton’s “Par
adise Lost” is a creation of his genius, and did not
exist in its present form before Milton. He made
it, but he did not make it out of nothing. His men
tal, moral, and spiritual resources were such as to
produce “Paradise Lost.” So the infinite, spirit
ual resources of God created the material universe.
4 ‘The heaven and the earth” implies order, if not
perfection. It reads as if God made all things
good, and somewhere between the first and second
verses there came into this perfect order a cata
clysm which changed cosmos into chaos, like the
advent of sin afterwards in the moral world. After
this “the earth was without form and void, and
darkness was upon the face of the deep.” We need
not insist upon translating “was” “became,”
though such a translation is possible. The first
verse declares that God created the heaven and the
earth perfect, as He is in the habit of doing things.
And the second verse gives the result of the catas
trophe which marred His perfect work, leaving it
“without form and void,” with darkness covering
the wreck. This harmonizes with Isa. 45:18: “God
himself that formed the earth and made it, He hath
established it, He creatpd it not in vain, He formed
it to be inhabited.” The word here translated “in
vain” is in Hebrew the same as that translated
“without form” in Genesis 1:2. Isaiah informs us
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The Golden Age for May 10, 1906.
that God did not create the earth “without form,”
so that it must have been “without form” after
creation by some sort of cataclysm. Just as He
made man in His own image and Satan marred His
perfect work, so He made heaven and earth perfect,
to be marred, it may seem, by the direct and pow
erful agency of the arch enemy of beauty and or
der.
Now begins the work of restoring chaos to cos
mos in the material world, as God begins at once
after the fall the restoration of man from sin to
righteousness. “The Spirit of God moved upon the
face of the waters.” Matter which was created by
Spirit is now moved upon by Spirit and all the pro
cesses of restoring to form and beauty which have
been going on ever since that time is the work of
the Spirit of God. “By his Spirit he hath garnish
ed the heavens.” (Job 26:13.) God creates all
things perfect and for some inscrutiable reason
He permits evil forces to mar His perfect work.
But He never leaves the work of His hands to be
utterly destroyed by evil. Though we may not un-
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A. C. DIXON, D. D.
derstand why God permits the marring of His work,
we can see how God reveals Himself more fully
in the process of restoration than in the act of crea
tion. In creation we see a God of power and wis
dom, while in restoration we see a God of power,
wisdom, love, patience, and sympathy. He creates
by the fiat of His will, but in order to restoration
He becomes incarnate, lives with His spiritual chil
dren, leads them like a shepherd, and supplies all
their needs. The glory of redemption outshines the
glory of creation.
The first two verses of Genesis give us an out
line of the whole Bible: (1) Construction; (2)
Destruction; (3) Reconstruction. Or, as Dr. G.
Campbell Morgan puts it: (1) Generation, (2)
Degeneration, (3) Regeneration. God constructs,
and it is the Devil’s malicious purpose to destroy,
while God with infinite love and patience recon
structs His work.
The first chapter of John’s Gospel informs us
that our Lord Jesus Christ is Creator-God: “All
things were made by Him.” And in Col. 1:17 we
read “He is before all things, and by Him all things
consist.” The Christian’s Savior is the God of
the universe, and all material worlds are the ex
pression of His wisdom and power.
From the Canary Islands.
The following are some pertinent extracts taken
from an interesting letter received by J. F. Cargile
from J. H. Brown, an earnest mission worker situat
ed at (Santa Cruz, Teneriffe, Canary Islands. It is
regretted that lack of space prevents our using
Mr. Brown’s beautiful letter in full. He says in
part:
“/Since my return to the Islands, I have opened
two more schools—one free day school and another
Sunday School, which was so much needed; I have
now two native teachers, who give their whole time
to the work besides myself and wife, who gives her
whole time to teaching and visiting. All this is
done by faith in God, for as you know, we have no
Society nor even Church or individual, who has guar
anteed to be responsible for our support, much less
for the expenses of the Mission and maintenance
of our native teachers—it is not for us to know how
or from whom all the money is coming; it is enough
for us to know that all our needs will be supplied
by Him upon whom we wait. I enclose a handbill
printed in Spanish from which you will see that
we have preaching every day in the week, which the
dear Lord is blessing in the saving of many souls.
“On Sunday week, alter the evening service was
over, nine people came forward and publicly con
fessed faith in Christ, and offered themselves for
baptism; and since then eight more have been con
verted, and after careful public examination and
profession of their faith in Chiist, were also re
ceived for baptism, making in all seventeen persons.
We have also much persecution, crowds of people
come around our house to throw stones and spit
in my lace, but we do not mind this if we can only
gain souls for Christ.”
The Cole Lectures.
At Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn., there
is given each year a series of lectures called the
“Cole Series,” which are the result of a fund do
nated by E. W. Cole, of Tennessee, for the purpose
of a perpetual series of religious discourses to be
delivered by prominent speakers.
The concludding lecture of the 1906 series, was de
livered by Dr. Francis H. Smith, of the University
of Virginia, and the subject of his discourse was
“Christ the Teacher.”
Dr. Smith has filled the lectureship of the Cole
Series this year and has done so to the great pleas
ure and profit of the students, and has won the
love and gratitude of them, as well as of the faculty
of Vanderbilt University.
Dr. John Watson, of Liverpool, will deliver the
Cole series next year. Dr. Watson is well known
as the author of the “Bonnie Briar Bush,” and
is as eminent in his literary work under the nom
de plume of “lan Maclaren,” as he is in his work
as a pastor and teacher.
“The Entrance
of
Thy Words
Giveth Light.”
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