Pagină:Obadiah-part-I-1936.djvu/14

MANKIND’S SUFFERING: WHY PROLONGED day God raised him out of death. (1 Cor. 15:4) He had stated when on earth that God had given to him the great privilege of attaining unto inherent life, or immortality. (John 5:26) When he was raised from the dead he was brought forth the express image of Jchovah, possessing immortality, and alive for ever- more, (Heb. 1:3; Rev. 1:18) The resurrection of Christ Jesus as a divine creature is a guarantee that all his body members must be raised with His resurree- tion, to immortality, This is why the Christian is ad- monished to seek glory, honor and immortality, eternal life. (Rom. 2:7) Immortality is life in the highest condition, and indestructible. It is written: ‘‘For as in Adam all dic, even so in Christ shall all be made alive, But every man in his own order; Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s, at his coming.’’ (1 Cor. 15: 22, 28) Christ Jesus was the first one resurrected ; and his body members, or the church, are resurrected at his sceond coming; and they are resurrected to immortality, to an inheritance incorrup- tible, The apostle Paul wrote: ‘For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is cur life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.”’ (Col. 3:3,4) The argument here is that the one who is begotten by God’s spirit and brought forth as a spiritual son of God is dead as a human ereature and that his rieht to life is hid with Christ Jesus, and that when Christ appears at his second coming then the resurreetion takes place. Again it is written concerning the same ones: ‘Beloved, now are we the sons of Ciod; and it doeth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall sce him as he is.’’—1 John 3: 2. This is proof that members of the new ercation while on earth donot know what their resurrection glory will be, but that they wil) be Jike Christ Jesus because they will be with him and sce him as he is, and be members of God’s royal family of heaven. This is further corroborated by the statement of Revelation 20:6: “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first res- urréetion: on such the seeond death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.’’—Rev. 20:6. Coneerning the time of the resurrection, it is writ- ten: ‘‘For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voiee of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first.’’ (1 Thess. 4:16) This proves that the Christians who have died throughout the Christian era have not gone straight to heaven at death, but that they must remain dead until the second coming of our Lord; and then when he takes his power to reign, those faithful ones in Christ shall be raised first. The word ‘‘shout’’, as used in this text, means a command of authority, which shows it has reference to the time when the Lord Jiter CHRIST was put to death, and on the third Jesus, as the great High Priest of Jehovah, takes au- thority and begins his reign.—Ps. 110: 2. God's new ercation complete will constitute the great royal priesthood of God, which priesthood was foreshadowed long ago by Melchizedck, who was both the king of ancient Salem and also ‘‘priest of the Must High Ged"’, and who also blessed the patriarch Abra- ham after God had given him the victory over the enemies. (Gen. 14: 18-20) Jesus the Head of the new creation is alone the ‘‘seecd of Abraham’’, and his body members of the new ercation are made a part of such seed of Abraham by being adopted by Jehovah God, the Greater Abraham. In Christ Jesus the ‘‘Seed’’ all the families of the earth are to be blessed. (Gen. 12:3; 22:18) The new ereation constitutes the crowning feature of all of God's creation. It is that ereation which is granied life and immortality, and shall be for ever to the glory of Jehovah God. More than six thousand years have passed since Je- hovah ereated the perfect man Adam, who failed. For more than two thousand years God caused great living pictures to be enaeted, foreshadowing the development of his new ereation. For nearly two thousand years more he has been selecting and developing this new ereation. In all this period of time the human race has suffered sickness, sorrow and death. Satan has taken advantage of the time, to endeavor to turn the minds of men away from Jchovah. Many professed Chris- tians have asked, Why should there be so much suffer- ing amongst the pcoples of carth? “For we know,’’ says the apostle Paul, “that the whole ereation groancth and travaileth in pain to- gether until now.’’ (Rom, 8; 22) Not only is this state- ment of the divine record true, but every man ean bear witness to the fact of human suffering. There is no human creature on the carth who is perfect, and none who has lived without suffering. From the cradle to the grave each one has experieneed pain, Many have asked the reason why. ‘I'he time is due for man to learn the reason why. Death is a great enemy. That enemy has ravaged every home. The Devil has made the people belicve that God is responsible for the death amongst the hu- man race. On the contrary, death resulfed by reason of sin, and sin entered the world because of man’s dis- obedience to God’s righteous law. The Devil himself is the one who induced such disobedience. Man willingly disobeyed God and heeded the enemy. When some loved member of a family dies those mourning the loss are often heard to say: ‘ How can a just and lov- ing God take away our beloved one??? When the people understand God’s purpose and the outworking there- of, such a question will not be asked. Then the people will not sorrow as those who have no hope. There can be no hope without knowledge; hence the necessity of knowing God’s truth that shows the way to life and happiness, > 190