SIR ROBERT ANDERSON
Secret Service
Theologian
THE SILENCE OF GOD
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
A SILENT Heaven! Yes, but it is not the silence of callous
indifference or helpless weakness; it is the silence of a great sabbatic rest,
the silence of a peace which is absolute and profound -a silence which is the
public pledge and proof that the way is open for the guiltiest of mankind to
draw near to God. When faith murmurs, and unbelief revolts, and men challenge
the Supreme to break that silence and declare Himself, how little do they
realise what the challenge means! It means the withdrawal of the amnesty; it
means the end of the reign of grace; it means the closing of the day of mercy
and the dawning of the day of wrath.
Among the statements which distressed
the orthodox in the late Professor Tyndall's famous Birmingham address on
"Science and Man," was his reference to the Herald Angels' song. "Look to the
East at the present moment" (he exclaimed) "as a comment on the promise of
peace on earth and goodwill towards men. The promise is a dream ruined by the
experience of eighteen centuries, and in that ruin is involved the claim of the
'heavenly host' to prophetic vision." But the angels' song was not a promise;
still less was it a prophecy. That anthem of praise was a Divine proclamation.
The time was not yet when God could enforce peace between man and man; but
grace "came by Jesus Christ," and with that advent peace and goodwill became
the attitude of God to men. And this "on earth," even in the midst of their
sorrows and their sins. " He came and preached good tidings of peace." And "he
that has ears to hear" can catch the echo of that voice as it still vibrates in
our air. If God is silent now it is because Heaven has come down to earth, the
climax of Divine revelation has been reached, there is no reserve of mercy yet
to be unfolded. He has spoken His last word of love and grace, and when next He
breaks the silence it will be to let loose the judgments which shall yet engulf
a world that has rejected Christ For "our God shall come and shall not keep
silence."'
A silent Heaven is a part of the mystery of God; but Holy Writ
declares that a day is fixed in the Divine chronology when "the mystery of God
shall be finished." And when that day breaks, the heavenly host shall again be
heard, proclaiming that "The sovereignty of the world is become our Lord's and
His Christ's, and He shall reign for ever and ever." And at this signal the
wonderful beings that sit on thrones around the throne of God shall raise the
anthem, "We give Thee thanks, 0 Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art
to come, because Thou hast taken to Thee Thy great power, and hast reigned. And
the nations were angry and Thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead that
they should be judged, and that Thou shouldest give reward to Thy servants the
prophets and to the saints and them that fear Thy name, small and great, and
shouldest destroy them that destroy the earth."' Then at last He will assume
the power that even now is His by right, and openly reward the good and put
down the evil. In a word, He will do then what men think He ought to do now and
always. And if He delays to do this, it is not that He is "slack concerning His
promise." God's own "apology" for His inaction is that He is "longsuffering to
us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to
repentance."
Through all the ages until Christ came the course of human
history was an unanswered indictment by which every attribute of God was
seemingly discredited. The Divine power and wisdom and righteousness and love
were all brought into question. But the advent of Christ was God's full and
final revelation of Himself to man. There are mysteries, no doubt, which still
remain unsolved, but they are mysteries which lie beyond the horizon of our
world. First among these is the origin of evil. Not the Eden fall, but the fall
of that wonderful Being to whose "devices" the Eden fall was due. Why did God
permit the first and noblest of His creatures to turn devil? But of all the
questions which immediately concern us, there is not one which the Cross of
Christ has left unanswered. Men point to the sad incidents of human life on
earth, and they ask "Where is the love of God?" God points to that Cross as the
unreserved manifestation of love so inconceivably infinite as to answer every
challenge and silence all doubt for ever. And that Cross is not merely the
public proof of what God has accomplished; it is the earnest of all that He has
promised. The crowning mystery of God is Christ, for in Him "are all the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden."
(Anything which is manifest
is of course raised out of the sphere of doubt or question; and God declares
that in the Cross of Christ His grace and kindness and love have been
manifested (Tit. ii. II, 111 , i John iv. 9). But, ignoring the stupendous fact
that, for our sakes, He "spared not His own Son," men seek to put Him upon
proof of His love; and the test is whether He complies with some specific
appeal urged in the petulance of present need or sorrow. Col. ii. 2, 3 (R.V.).)
And those hidden treasures are yet to be unfolded. It is the Divine
purpose to "gather together in one all things in Christ."' Sin has broken the
harmony of creation, but that harmony shall yet be restored by the supremacy of
our now despised and rejected Lord. In the very name of His humiliation every
knee in heaven and on earth and in the underworld shall bow before Him, and
every tongue shall confess that He is Lord.
And to believe in Christ is to
own His Lordship now. Hence the promise, "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth
Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised Him from the
dead, thou shalt be saved." The sinner who thus believes in Christ anticipates
now and here the realisation of the supreme purpose of God, and he is
absolutely and for ever saved.
The true Buddhist will declare himself by
the way in which he names his master, never omitting some title expressive of
his reverence for him. And the true Christian will declare himself in the same
way. If a man habitually writes or speaks about "Jesus," we may be sure,
whatever his creed may be, that he is a Socinian at heart. "That Jesus Christ
is Lord" is the special testimony of Christianity, and the Christian will not
forget it even in his words.
It was in the power of these truths that the
martyrs lived and died. Here was the secret of their triumph - not "the general
sense of Scripture corrected in the light of reason and conscience"; not the
insolent pretensions of priestcraft, degrading to every one who tolerates them.
With hearts awed by the fear of God, garrisoned by the peace of God, and
exulting in the love of God, shed abroad there by the Divine Spirit, they stood
for the truth against priests and princes combined, and daring to be called
heretics they were faithful to their Lord in life and in death.
Heaven was
as silent then as it is now. No sights were seen, no voice was heard, to make
their persecutors pause. No signs were witnessed to give proof that God was
with them as they lay upon the rack or gave up their life-breath at the stake.
But with their spiritual vision focussed upon Christ, the unseen realities of
heaven filled their hearts, as they passed from a world that was not worthy of
them to the home that God has prepared for them that love Him. But with us, the
degenerate sons of a degenerate age, faith falters beneath the strain of the
petty trials of our life. And while He is saying "I will never leave thee nor
forsake thee," our murmurs drown His voice; and though professing to be
"followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises," our
petulance and unbelief put from us the infinite compassions of God. "They
endured as seeing Him who is invisible": we can see nothing but our troubles
and our sorrows, which loom the greater because viewed through tears of selfish
grief, that blind our eyes to the glories of eternity.
The dispensation of
law and covenant and promise - the distinctive privileges of the favoured
people - was marked by the public display of Divine power upon earth. But the
reign of grace has its correlative in the life of faith. Ours is the higher
privilege, the greater blessedness of those "who have not seen and yet have
believed." And walking by faith is the antithesis of walking by sight. If
"signs and wonders" were vouchsafed to us, as in Pentecostal days, faith would
sink to a lower level, and the whole standard and character of the discipline
of Christian life would be changed.
The sufferings of Paul denote a higher
faith than "the mighty deeds" of his earlier ministry. Not until miracles had
ceased, and he had entered on the path of faith as we now tread it, was it
revealed to him that his life was to be "a pattern to them that should
afterwards believe."
And what a life it was! Here is the amazing record:
"Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten
with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day
have I been in the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils
of robbers, in perils by my own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils
in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among
false brethren; in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and
thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness." And all this not only
without a murmur, but with a heart exulting in God. Instead of grumbling at his
infirmities he made a boast of them. Instead of repining at his persecutions he
learned to take pleasure in them.' Not vainly nor morbidly, but "for Christ's
sake," his Master and Lord, for whom, he declared, "he had suffered the loss of
all things." Reviewing all his privations and sufferings he describes them as
"light affliction which is for the moment, working for us more and more
exceedingly an eternal weight of glory," and he adds, "while we look, not at
the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things
which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are from God
with hardened and embittered hearts. But the sons of faith look away from the
fierce waves and threatening storm-clouds, for well they know that-
"Above
the voice of many waters,
The mighty breakers of the sea,
The Lord on
high is mighty."
And thus, filled with glad thoughts of the home beyond and
of the glory to which He is calling them, they can rejoice in Him, even though
in heaviness in manifold trials, for the proof of their faith is precious.'
Men understand and appreciate the asceticisms of religion-" will-worship, and
humility, and severity to the body"- penances and ordinances which are "after
the precepts and doctrines of men." But these have nothing in common with the
life of faith. They are paths by which men delude themselves in vain efforts to
reach the Cross. But it is at the Cross itself that the life of faith begins.
And the spiritual miracles of that life are more wonderful than any which
merely controlled or suspended the operation of natural laws. Greatest of them
all is the miracle of the new birth by the Spirit of God, with its outward side
of conversion from a life of selfishness or sin to a life of consecrated
service. And those who have experienced it can say in the words of Holy Writ,
"We know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that
we may know Him that is true."' And carrying the truth to others, they find it
produces the same results which they themselves have proved. And this not
merely in isolated cases or in favouring circumstances. Recent years, during
which so many who have publicly pledged their belief that the Bible is
true,(Every candidate for ordination must publicly declare, in reply to the
Bishop, that he "unfeignedly believes all the canonical Scriptures of the Old
and New Testaments." Whether such a pledge ought to be required I will not
discuss. The fact remains. And this being so, when clergymen set themselves to
discredit the Bible, thá primary question suggested concerns their own
honesty. Has the Church a lower standard of morality than the Clubs?) and
who are subsidised to teach that it is Divine, have been labouring to prove
that it is unreliable and human - these have been precisely the years in which
Christian men have carried it to some of the most de-graded races of the
heathen world, with results that surpass all previous records, giving
over-whelming proof of its Divine character and mission.
To men like these
there is a sense in which Heaven is not silent. The science of to-day has
taught us that there are rays of light, till now unknown, which can penetrate
the densest substances. But these rays can only be evolved when the atmosphere
of earth has been excluded. And such wonders have their counterpart in the
spiritual sphere. Those who can thus escape from the influence of earth, and
rise above the seen and temporal, have eyes to see and ears to hear the sights
and sounds of another world; and with united voice they testify that God is
with His people and that His Word is true.
And behind these men are tens of
thousands of Christians at home, including not a few of the greatest
theologians, and thinkers, and scholars of the age, who share their beliefs and
rejoice in their triumphs. Not that the question, What is truth? can be settled
by a plebiscite! For truth has always been in a minority. But there is no
element of cohesion in error. Among the children of error there is no bond of
unity save such as depends on common hostility to truth. One generation kills
the prophets; another builds their sepulchres. Those who shed the martyrs'
blood are repudiated and condemned by their successors and representatives
to-day. But the children of truth in every age are one. Great is the "cloud of
witnesses" encompassing us round the righteous dead of all the ages past. And
when our race shall have been run, we too in time shall pass from the arena to
join the mighty throng, until at last, their ranks complete, the ever-swelling
host shall stand, a countless multitude, before the throne of God.
What a success this book might have been had it but
fulfilled the promise of its earlier pages! If only it had gone on to enforce
the revolt against faith suggested in the opening chapter, then indeed it would
have been "reviewed" in the newspapers and "called for" at the libraries. But
while sceptical attacks upon the Bible rank with general literature,' any
defence of it which appeals to its deeper teaching is deemed unsuited for
notice in the secular press. And so it comes about that everything which
unbelief has to urge is brought prominently before the public, but the vast
majority of people never hear of a book which is distinctly Christian.
Religion and Scepticism are rival competitors for popular favour, And yet there
are many who, though conscious of longings too deep to be satisfied by mere
religion, make choice of religion because they know of no other refuge from
unbelief. And there are others again who, "with too much knowledge for the
sceptic's side," drift into scepticism in their recoil from priestcraft. To
some such, perchance, these pages may suggest a better way. For Christianity
delivers us not only from scepticism on the one hand, but from superstition on
the other.
And to not a few this volume may be welcome as affording a clew
to pressing difficulties which perplex and distress the thoughtful. Infidelity
trades upon the silence of Heaven, the inaction of the Supreme. If there be a
God, almighty and all-good, why does He not use His power and give proof of His
goodness in the way men choose to expect of Him? The answer usually offered by
the Christian apologist fails either to silence the opponent or to satisfy the
believer. And rightly so, for it is lacking not only in cogency but in
sympathy. The God of the Bible is infinite both in power and in compassion; and
in other ages His people had public proof of this. Why, then, is He so
silent?
The question is not why He does not always declare Himself, but why
He never does so. If, as already urged, whole generations even passed away
without experiencing any direct manifestation of Divine power on earth, then,
in presence of some crushing sorrow, some hideous wrong, His people might well
exclaim with Gideon long ago, "If the Lord be with us, why then is all this
befallen us? and where be all His miracles which our fathers told us of?"' But
what concerns us is the fact that throughout the entire course of this
Christian dispensation since Pentecostal times, "the finger of God " has never
been openly at work upon earth, never once has a public miracle been
witnessed-" a single public event to compel belief that there is a God at all
!" Are we left to grope in darkness for the answer? Does revelation throw no
light upon it? To suggest the solution of this mystery these pages have been
written. It now remains but to recapitulate the argument they offer.
An
appeal to "the Christian miracles," it has been urged, so far from solving the
mystery, serves only to intensify it. The purpose of the miracles, moreover,
was to accredit the Messiah to Israel, and not, as generally supposed, to
accredit Christianity to the heathen. And therefore, as Scripture plainly
indicates, they continued so long as the testimony was addressed to the Jew,
but ceased when, the Jew being set aside, the gospel went out to the Gentile
world.
But the crisis which deprived the favoured nation of its
vantage-ground of privilege was made the occasion of a new revelation to
mankind. Israel's fall was "the reconciliation of the world."' God assumed a
new attitude toward men. Mercy there had always been for Gentiles, for the
diligent seeker after God never sought Him in vain. But Christianity goes
infinitely beyond this. It is the realisation of the change foreshadowed by the
prophetic words, "I was found of them that sought Me not; I was made manifest
unto them that asked not after Me." It is not that God will give heed to the
cry of the true penitent who entreats for mercy, for this He ever did, but that
He Himself is entreating even the impenitent to turn to Him; He is beseeching
men to be reconciled. It is not that there is mercy for some men, but that God
has now made a public declaration of His grace, "salvation-bringing to ALL
men."
Grace is on the throne, reigning through righteousness unto eternal
life.' But it is plain matter of fact that before this, the great
characteristic truth of Christianity, was revealed there was immediate Divine
intervention upon earth: in a word, there were miracles; whereas, after this
truth was revealed, they ceased. The era of the reign of grace is precisely the
era of the silence of God. To grace, therefore, we look to explain the silence.
Christianity is the supreme and final revelation of the Divine "kindness and
love toward man." Therefore when God again declares Himself it can only be in
wrath, and wrath must await "the day of wrath."
Not that human government
has lost its Divine sanction, for "the powers that be are ordained of God." Nor
yet that the moral government of the world is in abeyance: the laws of nature
are relentlessly enforced, But in this higher sphere there is neither court nor
constable empowered to deal with the sins of men; for He to whom alone belongs
the high prerogative of judgment is now enthroned as SAVIOUR. God is no longer
"imputing their trespasses" to men.' From the throne of the Divine Majesty
there has gone forth the proclamation of pardon and peace, and this without
condition or reserve. And now a silent Heaven gives continuing proof that this
great amnesty is still in force, and that the guiltiest of men may turn to God
and find forgiveness of sins and eternal life. God is silent because He has
spoken His last word of mercy and love, and judgment must await the "day of
judgment "- there can be no place for it in this "day of grace."
(In
proportion to our appreciation of the Christian revelation will be our
appreciation of the argument that God cannot now intervene, or declare Himself,
directly and openly. But this leaves unanswered the difficulty that He so often
fails to intervene indirectly on behalf of His own people. This is dealt with
in pp. 55-58 ante. The life of faith has always been a life of trial, and it is
so specially in this dispensation of a silent Heaven. But it is our joy to know
that our Divine Lord "was in all points tempted like as we are, apart from sin"
(Heb. iv. i5). The statement seems to involve a contradiction, for how could He
be tempted as we are tempted if, as the added words imply, "through. out these
temptations, in their origin, in their process, in their result, sin had
nothing in Him; He was free and separate from it"? (Alford). The explanation
will be found in what has here been unfolded (Chap. XI. ante) respecting
Satanic temptations as primarily designed to destroy our confidence in God. The
thirty years before our Lord entered on His public ministry, spent in enforced
inaction in the midst of abounding sorrow and evil and wrong, must have been to
Him a living martyrdom, the Tempter ever taunting Him with the seeming apathy
of God. And when we read that "he suffered, being tempted" (Heb, ii. 18), we
can realise how truly He was human, and how deep and real was His humiliation.
Such have been precisely the criticisms this volume has evoked. One of the
chief organs of cultured thought in England describes it as "a book full of
religious mysticism." And one of the leading press organs of the "Sadducees,"
while speaking in flattering terms of the way in which the problem of the book
is stated, can see nothing in the proposed solution of it. So it ever was. To
the Jew the gospel of Christ was an offence because it set aside religion; to
the cultured Greek it was foolishness because it ignored what he was pleased to
call wisdom. The "philosopher" was thinking of evolution and the upward
progress of humanity, but the gospel spoke to him of grace that would pardon
his sins and of judgment to come. If the leaders of the school of thought and
teaching here alluded to could only be brought to apprehend the truth this
volume contains, their whole position and testimony would be changed. But their
literature will be searched for it in vain. Such a statement is easily made,
but if untrue it can as easily be answered; let the book be cited whith refutes
it.)
To many all this will seem the merest mysticism, Others, again,
will see no meaning in it whatsoever. For to them the ministry and death of
Christ are but a splendid episode which has raised humanity to a higher level
than it ever before attained. For such, indeed, the problem of this book has no
significance. Having but a timid belief in the supernatural, the absence of
miracles excites in them neither wonder nor distress. But there are not a few,
happily, who have learned to think of Calvary, not as an upward step in the
inevitable progress of the race toward the goal of its high destiny, but as a
tremendous crisis which has brought man's probation to an end, leaving him
absolutely dependent upon Divine grace, or, if he rejects the proffered mercy,
shutting him up to judgment. And such will form a worthier estimate of the clew
here offered to the mystery of a silent Heaven.
APPENDIX
Literature | Photos | Links | Home