Spiritual Death and Civilization

Spiritual Death and Civilization

The history of the human race has been a revelation of I John 5:19, “The whole world lieth in the embrace of the evil one” (literal translation). Sin has ruled as a king in the realm of spiritual death, where man lives under the cruel Emperor, Satan. Every effort of man has failed to eradicate the power of sin. Education has failed. History confesses that every rise in civilization has been accompanied by a decline in morals.

War has dominated in every period of the life of every nation, destroying the youth and strength of humanity. It has brought untold suffering to man. Its cruelty is but a manifestation of Satanic Dominion at work in its destruction of man. Man has been unable to strike at the root and the cause of sin, sickness and death. The law of disease has fastened itself upon the human body, blighting and scourging humanity. Death is the supreme problem that all men at all periods have faced. It casts its shadow upon every happiness born in the senses of man.

Man, lying in the embrace of Satan, cries in agony against this vain struggle which only ends in a hopeless death and doom. Despite the blighting curse, creation teems with marks of beauty and harmony. The marks and design of an intelligent Creator are yet made manifest. Yet man can see no reason for his short span of life between birth and hopeless death. He is born to die; he brings no joy to himself nor his Creator. His spirit hungers for God, but he cannot find Him.

His reason concludes that his Creator is not a God of Love; therefore, he rejects the revelation of a Father-God. A scientist, expressing the sentiment of the age, in contemplating on the life of man, said, “The God of the Christians is not a God of Love; the Sisters of Charity are kinder than He.” Man, blinded by his spiritual father, Satan, does not know that at the dawn of human history, Satan, the enemy if God, became the ruler of this world. He does not know that by the trespass of the one, death seized the Sovereignty.

Spiritual Death, the nature of Satan, is the soil out of which has grown sin, sickness, physical death, and every sorrow that has darkened the life of God’s man. Man’s Need of Eternal Life Ephesians 4:17-18 gives a picture of humanity as a result of the entrance of Spiritual Death into the life of Adam. See also Romans 5:12. Man is alienated from the life of God. He is walking in the Realm of Reason, in the vanity of his mind, and that mind is darkened and blinded by indwelling spiritual death (II Corinthians 4:4).

Man is utterly helpless to redeem himself by his own efforts from his condition. After Adam had obeyed Satan, bringing himself and his authority under Satanic subjection, he had no authority to free himself from that condition. As far as human efforts were concerned, one man had sealed the fate of the human race (I Corinthians 15:22).

No man could ever redeem humanity, for every man would be under Satanic dominion. If man were ever to be Redeemed, someone greater than Satan must undertake on man’s behalf. God, Himself, must redeem humanity. This Redemption demands more than that God merely forgive the sins of man. Although God should forgive the sin of Adam and of all men, man’s Redemption would not be touched. The power and authority of sin over the life of man would still remain. It would be necessary for man to be continually granted forgiveness for his sins.

Such was the condition of Israel. Hebrews 10:11. Every high priest stood daily ministering and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices for the sins of Israel. God’s Covenant people were still spiritually dead, and needed continual forgiveness for sins which were the outgrowth of that condition. Hebrews 10:3. There was continual remembrance in the mind of God of Israel’s condition of spiritual death.

Forgiveness of sins alone would not break the relationship that existed between man and his spiritual father, Satan. It would not grant fellowship between God and man, or the Father-God’s making His home with man.

Redemption must be more than forgiveness.
Redemption must be the giving of a New Nature, a New Life to man.
Redemption meant a New Creation in the spirit of man.

Man’s need can only be met by his receiving the Nature of God within his spirit.
First, spiritual death must be absolutely destroyed in the life of man. The nature of Satan must be completely eradicated from man’s nature, so that he can stand as free from Satanic authority as though he had never died spiritually. Romans 6:6. The body of sin, spiritual death, must be done away. Colossians 1:13. Man must be delivered from the authority of Satan. Hebrews 2:14. Satan, who reigns in the realm of death, must be dethroned from his position as Lord of man.

Hebrews 2:15. Man must be delivered from even any fear of his old master who had held him in bondage. Then man will be free to receive the Life of God. Genesis 3:24. We remember that God had driven man from the Garden of Eden, so that man would have no access to the Tree of Life while he was spiritually dead. Man’s need is Life, the Nature of God, but God cannot impart His own Nature to man until He first makes it legally possible for man to be freed from the Nature of Satan.

We see that forgiveness on the part of God, and reformation or education on the part of man, would not strike at the root of sin, spiritual death. Just as Adam had been born again of Satanic nature when he sinned, man who is by nature a child of wrath, must be born again, born of the life of God (John 3:7). This will make him a son of God. Read John 1:12 and I John 5:1. This Life of God within the spirit of man will set him free from the law of sin (Romans 8:2).

I John 2:6. The Nature of God will give to man the ability to walk with the Father as Christ walked with Him. Jesus Christ, although tempted by Satan, was able to walk absolutely in the Father’s will, pleasing Him. See Luke 3:22 and John 5:30. This was due to the fact that He did not belong to the realm of spiritual death, but possessed the Life of God. Eternal Life within the spirit of man today, makes him an heir of God and a joint-heir with Christ (Romans 8:17). The man who has been born again stands before the Father as Christ stood in His earth-walk, and has the same freedom from Satanic dominion, and ability to please the Father, as Christ had. Read John 17:14-18; John 17:22-23 and I Corinthians 1:30.

Eternal Life will set man free from the law of disease (I Peter 2:24). Romans 8:11 is not referring to the Resurrection. The word “mortal” means “death-doomed.” Therefore, the word “mortal” cannot refer to the condition of our bodies after death, for they are then no longer death-doomed, but destroyed by death, and await immortality at the second coming of Christ. Eternal Life dwelling within these bodies will give Life and healing to them now.

Man’s receiving of Eternal Life will make it possible for him to receive the spirit of God and for God to dwell in him. Read II Corinthians 6:16 and Ephesians 3:14-21.
This brings man again into the realm of God’s ability, the realm where all things are possible (Matthew 17:20). Man will be able to walk again in the realm of his spirit, the faith-realm, where he lives by the Word of God (Luke 4:4).

Eternal Life will meet the need of man, and the heart cry of the Father for fellowship; but before Eternal Life can be given to man, he must be declared righteous, and God must have a legal right to take man from the family of Satan into His family.