Pastor David B. Curtis
Pastor David B. Curtis
It is probable that, in every subsequent age, at least a few Christians in different parts of the world have had the truth that the Lord Jesus came the second time in 70 A.D. made absolutely certain to their faith. But many in the present day who would otherwise readily accept the belief find an insurmountable difficulty in the fact that all knowledge of the event has hitherto been hidden from the great majority of mankind. Such persons deem it utterly incredible that a scene so stupendous should have been enacted, and the world for nearly two thousand years afterwards know nothing of it! And yet an adequate reason for this protracted veiling of the truth is found in the fact that if men had all along had a clear and certain knowledge of the event, this would have afforded such indisputable evidence for Christianity that either the smallest unbelief would have been wholly unpardonable, or at least the guilt of the multitudes who in every age have neglected Christ's salvation would have been vastly greater than it has been. It is only at certain stages in their moral and spiritual education that men welcome truth and are able to profit by it. Selfishness and self-will are so deeply rooted in human nature that few make a full personal surrender of themselves to the Lord Jesus until a long acquaintance with the bitter results of sin has taught them their infinite need of Him. In the same way, a long and weary experience of the unsatisfying character of illusion and error seems to be in most cases necessary before men are found willing to welcome the highest truths.
When God partially hides Himself, or partially hides truth, from us, He does so in mercy as well as in justice. For, when we sin, the degree of our guilt is always measured by the amount of light and privilege, against which we sin. If we were entirely ignorant of what is right and good, we could be under no obligation to choose it and do it-sin would be impossible to us! On the other hand, if in all their exquisite beauty, majesty and tenderness, God and truth and duty continually stood clearly and certainly revealed to us, the slightest offence against them would be unpardonable. Sinning, like Lucifer, with our eyes wide open, like him also we should fall from the highest heights of heaven to the lowest depths of hell. Childlike faith and obedience are, therefore, of infinitely greater importance than mere knowledge. When a man is scrupulously true to such knowledge of God as lie may already possess, he shows that he has within him a right spirit, and he is rewarded by an increase of light. But when he is not true to the knowledge he already possesses, he proves that he has within him an imperfect and disobedient spirit For God to continue to such a one the same clearness of vision, and the same sensitiveness of conscience, as before, or to make his vision clearer and his conscience more sensitive, whilst the spirit within the man remained unsoftened and unrenewed, would merely enhance the man's guilt. And, therefore, God, in His great mercy, adopts a precisely opposite plan. In order, for a time, to lessen the man's responsibility, He darkens his mind and hardens his heart; and then subjects him to a course of discipline and pain the one object of which appears to be to expel from within him the imperfect and disobedient spirit, and to make him willing at last to admit into his heart a new spirit of faith and love.
The man, although perhaps he knew it not, stood at first on the borders of a promised land of added peace and joy. But by his disobedience he proved himself unfit to enter. And therefore out of regard to his own highest welfare he was shut out for a time, and was compelled to wander afresh in the desert. But God's revelation of Himself, and of truth, is a gradual and progressive one, not only to the individual, but also to the world at large. He has yet many things to say unto us, but we cannot bear them now (John xvi. 12). A protracted acquaintance with sin and sorrow was needed to prepare mankind for the Saviour's incarnation. Centuries intervened between the creation and the " fulness of the time" (Gal. iv. 4) when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea. In the same way, it may be that a further and protracted acquaintance with the baneful effects of religious error has been, and still is, necessary, before the truth concerning His past Second Advent will meet with worldwide recognition and acceptance.