Signs of the Times (12)

The signs of our Lord’s coming as the Lord himself defined them are found in Matthew 24. The sign we are now discussing is described in verses 12-13: “And because iniquity (lawlessness) shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.”

 

There is another side to this sign that we ought to discuss, for it is important to understand how lawlessness abounds. The Bible teaches us and history demonstrates to us that there is in the world a development of sin. It is about that development of sin that I want to speak.

 

Under the sovereign control of God, sin develops in this world until the “cup of iniquity” is full. The cup of iniquity, which is, of course, a figure of speech, means that God, Who is sovereign also over sin, has determined that a definite and fixed amount of sin shall be committed in the world by the time Christ comes to judge the world. But that fixed amount of sin is not an arbitrary amount: a full cup of iniquity means that every sin it is possible to commit has now been committed by man. The time comes when there can be no new and unheard of sins. Very frequently we read in our newspapers and news magazines or are told on TV that sinful man has discovered a new way to sin. The time will come when to find a new way will be impossible. Every possible sin will have been committed. An example of new sins in the last few years have been the wicked things that have been done with the breaking of the genetic code. Animals have been cloned and there is talk of cloning people. Stem cells have been used to alter certain characteristics of individuals, and scientists talk about controlling the sex, height, strength and even intellect of individuals.

 

Why is it that man can reach a point in history in which he has committed every possible sin?

 

The answer to that is that God is the Creator of this universe and He sovereignly rules in it. But how does the fact that God is Creator of all things determine the development of sin? The answer is that when God created this universe, He put powers and gave gifts to man in it. Adam was created to subdue the earth. Whether man is holy or wicked, he works to make the earth serve him. He discovers the many treasures and powers in the creation and subdues them by putting them to man’s use. God has put in the earth iron, gold, silver, titanium, oil and many other elements that man has discovered. In this calling, he uses these gifts of God to make his life richer and easier. But God has also put into the creation the powers of wind and tides, of electricity and the atom, of the sun and heat. In subduing the earth man also harnesses these powers and puts them to his own use.

 

Jabal, Jubal and Tubal-Cain were three such gifted and talented men who did much to subdue the earth in the centuries before the flood (Gen. 4:19-24). But they were wicked sons of a wicked father who used their gifts to sin against God. By the time the flood came, the wicked world had filled “the cup of iniquity” and had become ready for judgment. The wicked world had sinned in every way it is possible to sin.

 

But the world before the flood was quite different from the world after the flood. God put new and different powers in the creation during the flood, and changed the earth’s appearance and basic structure. And God alleviated the curse somewhat so that, while it is still on the earth, it is not as bad as it was before the flood. (Gen. 6:5-7, 8:21-22, II Peter 3:1-7).

 

Man is still busy subduing the earth. He has discovered and put to use such powers as the power of wind and water, the power of electricity, the power of the atom, and the amazing power of the chromosomes in every person’s body. Man is putting them to use in many startling ways: in medicine, in the development of science and its mighty inventions, and in the healing of the human body.

 

We are so amazed at what man is able to do that we begin to trust in these things. When we are sick, for example, we put our trust in medicine and the skills of surgery – rather than in God. It can be said of us as it was said of good king Asa: ‘Yet in his disease he sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians” (II Chron. 16:12).

 

It is not a sin, of course, to seek medical help from doctors, but it is dreadfully sinful to trust in their skill rather than to trust in the Lord. The discoveries and inventions that heal are also God’s gifts and are therefore good. They are there for God’s people to use, but they are not there to trust in them.

 

These powers in the creation are good gifts of God. But as good gifts of God they are to be used to serve God, give praise to Him Who alone is worthy and seek in all their use the glory of God’s name.

 

The righteous try to do this, but often fail. The wicked who hate God and are totally depraved, use them to sin. They claim that the creation came into existence through evolutionary processes and that it is given to man to do with it as he pleases. But he does Satan’s will and makes this creation the kingdom of the devil.

 

And so, as more and more powers are discovered, sin develops. Cain could not sin with an automobile. Nimrod could not sin with a TV. Before birth control was discovered, the fear of pregnancy kept man from some fornication, but now children in lower grades are taught the use of condoms.  Ahab couldn’t sin with airplanes and atomic bombs. Nebuchadnezzar could not sin by genetic manipulation.

 

Will man ever subdue the whole universe, including the distant galaxies? I don’t know. He speaks of establishing colonies on the moon and on Mars. On distant galaxies as well? Only God knows for all is under his control

 

From reports that come from the laboratories of science one gets the impression that more discoveries are yet to come. And with more discoveries come more inventions. And with more inventions come greater and more widespread sin. I think this is true. I think that we have seen nothing as yet of what man can do with God’s world. I think inventions and discoveries are around the corner that will make what we do now look like little children playing with simple toys. In the days of Antichrist, man will have attained to complete control of all science in every field. There will be no more powers in the creation to discover.

 

When I ponder these things, I am reminded of a text in Genesis 11:1-9. Under the leadership of Nimrod, man decided to establish the antichristian kingdom in the land of Shinar. But God, knowing that if they were successful, the church could not be gathered, “came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded” (verse 5) to prevent the kingdom of Antichrist from being builded prematurely. And so God created the different races with different languages because he said, “Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do; and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do” (verse 6). And so God restrained them by confusing their speech.

 

But now as one language becomes increasingly universal and the language barrier broken down through modern electronic translators, God is paving the way to bring about a time when “nothing shall be restrained from them.” And so it seems as if that time has come. It is as if God says, “You will not do what I say; go ahead and do what you want. I will not warn you any more, nor restrain you from evil. Do everything your wicked hearts decides to do.”  With each week’s report of some monstrous sin, approved by influential men and made legal by governments, one can only say, “Nothing is restrained from them.”

 

But when sin in its development reaches its ultimate goal, and all the earth is put into the service of sin, then one more terrible sin, the worst of all, fills the cup of iniquity: the sin of persecuting the church of Christ. When the flood destroyed the world because in that pre-diluvium world the cup of iniquity was filled, there were 8 people left in the church and saved in the ark. When the Lord comes back, “it will be as in the days of Noah.” The church will be all but gone, killed by the wicked. And that is the sin of all sins, for the church is the bride of Christ; and Christ will not stand by while His bride is abused and killed.

 

Then the end of the world comes!

Prof. Herman Hanko