Marchi 1941
TH E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
84
Around the King's Table LOUIS T. TALBOT, Edltor-in-Chief
The message made plain at the time of Christ’s incarnation expresses His direct will for the nations: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” Godlessness, war, and hatred now characterize the nations because of their unwillingness to follow God’s will. The present inter national catastrophe is with us because the nations have chosen to act and live without God. They have had the clear revelation of His mind regarding gov ernment, righteousness, and unity of nations. They have forgotten God and are having a foretaste of hell in these days of sorrow. War is the corrective rod of chastise ment. Many church leaders in Britain daily pray that out of all the terrible carnage the nation is enduring there may come a people purified and approxi mated to the divine ideal. Here, for example, are a few excerpts taken from a letter received- from a well-known English writer: “Churches are hard
we might sin, for “God’s permissive will never extends to things.morally wrong,” but that in our refusal to sin we might have a practical holiness which is ever pleasing to God. Balaam, you will remember, knew that it was God’s direct will that he should not curse a people God had blessed. Yet the Lord permitted Balaam to go with Balak. C. I. Scofield explains in his comment on Numbers 22:12, YO, 22 : “The prophet is now free to go, but knows the true mind of the Lord about it . . . The permission •of verse 20 really constitutes a testing of Balaam. He chose the path of self-will and self-advantage, and Jehovah could not but gravely disapprove.” In like manner, God has decreed that the nations of the earth should love Him and walk in the light of His Word.
What Is God Doing? It must not be thought that the title of this comment is irreverent. We use' it to express what we feel regarding the seeming inactivity of God in these days of wholesale destruction of per sons and property, and of a pagan tri umph over the forces of righteousness. The question uppermost in the minds of multitudes of distressed souls is: “Why does God not do something to stop the conquest of the free peoples of the earth?” Peace-loving nations have been savagely attacked, and mysti fied minds in all lands are asking why God does not intervene to stop the onward march of Christless dictators. Is God not as omnipotent as we have deemed Him to be? Can it be that He is powerless or indifferent? At the outset, let it be frankly con fessed that mystery often shrouds the permissive will of God. Even the Lord Jesus had a' “why” on His lips as He pondered the dealings of His heavenly
Father: “My God, my God, why hast thou for- s a k e n me?” (Matt. 27:46). There was no apparent endeavor on the Father’s part to rescue Jesus from the terrible l o a d He was bearing. The mystery, however, associated with God’s nonintervention in the affairs of men and na tions clears somewhat when we see the dis- tipction between His di rect will and His per missive will. For ex ample, God commands us to be holy. His direct will is our sanctification. Yet He permits us to live amid s i n f u l sur roundings and to be sorely tempted. And commanding us , to. be holy as He Himself is holy, He graciously sup plies all that is neces sary for the accomplish ment of His directive will. But, respecting the human will, God does not force us to take on His holiness. We must choose what He wills. Temptation, therefore, is permitted, not that
hit, but I believe good will come of it all, that is, if only the church sees in this present crisis God’s judgment upon it for the part it has played in the exaltation of man and the dethrone ment of God. It has sadly ‘ neglected the fact of divine judg ment and is now fac ing it with a venge ance. It is reaping as it has s o wn . God grant that in true re pentance both church and nation may ac knowledge their sin.” Returning to the mat ter of God’s forcibly stopping the raging con flict and compelling the nations to live in peace, it must be borne in mind that God is not a mere lookef-on. H e. is not powerless to accomplish His d i r e e t will, even although earthly rulers ruthlessly endeavor to destroy His commands and His cause. He makes the wrath of man to praise His name. “In tervention,” we feel, is
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