What Is Man?

What Is Man?

WHAT IS MAN?
By W. P. SKAGGS.

“What is man, that thou art mindful of him?” (Hebrews 2:7). At no time should we speak with more care than when speaking to the young. This is especially true when speaking to so many young preachers who will go before the world teaching the lessons learned here. The great question of what is man should elicit an interest in every human heart. What is man that God should be so mindful of him? Why should the Lord be so much more mindful of man than of other objects of his creation ? Why should man be made the crown of God’s creatures? Or why should man be given domin­ion over them all? This question may receive different answers from dif­ferent peoples. Some will tell you that man is by nature a child of Satan; that he is born under just condemnation to eternal ruin without defense or excuse I do not at all believe such an idea. Indeed it is so repugnant to anything that I find in the Bible that I can scarcely treat it with due courtesy. Just imagine some preacher returning home from a long trip preach­ing that man is a child of the wicked one and justly condemned to eternal ruin and his own daughter just budding into womanhood, whose cheeks are tinted with the bloom of nature more beautiful than the rose-stinted clouds of a summer’s morning and whose bright eyes resemble the sparkling morning dew, running to meet him and hearing him say, “A child of the devil born under just condemnation to eternal ruin.“ No, a thousand times no. Or could you imagine such a scene as this, a contention between God and satan. Satan is claiming the souls of men and says to God, “Since man by sin has fallen all mankind are sinners and be­long to me.” But you hear God make answer, “All souls are mine, as the soul of the father so also is the soul of the son.” And then tell “which side of this bat­tle are you daily fighting on?” None of them belong to Satan and the only ones that he will get are the ones that will not come home to the Father’s house. For my part, it makes me feel full an inch taller, and I am de­termined to work harder when I think of what a grand thing it is to be a child of God. A child of God, what a wonderful thing! A child of the Heavenly King!

Another will answer this question by saying that man is but a product of some lower form of life; that he has been produced by what is known as the theory of evo­lution. I am not discussing the theory of evolution, I shall let thoge more competent do that. However, I shall not dispute the man’s word who says he has descended from the monkey, but would kindly suggest that we are no kinsfolk. It seems that some men will give more time and energy to prove their origin with the monkey than they will to learn of their divine origin; they would rather be descendants of the babboon than to be children of God.

After God had finished all the other of his creations he then said, “Let ns make man in our own image.” Man is in the image of God. An idol may be carved in the image of man’s body, but not in his complete image. The cold marble statue may be in the shape of man, but it is not completely in his image. So the monkey, bab- boon or gorilla may be in the shape of a man but not in his image, neither are they in the image of God. In the image of God, then, must refer as well to the inner man as the outer man. I do not know the number of minerals, clays or sands that go to make this old world. I do not know the number of fishes that inhabit the seas, I do not know the number of birds that fill the air with music, neither do I know the number of animals that roam the lands, but this I do know, that man has domin­ion over them all, and hence is the crown of God’s cre­ations. The botanist may describe the vegetables that beau­tify this world. The naturalist may describe and class­ify all the birds of the air and the fishes of the seas and animals that inhabit the land; the scientist may specu­late upon the age of the various curiosities of the earth; but who, without the revelations of Jehovah, can know either the origin, duty, or destiny of man? Whence came he? That man was created in the image of God is evident from these Scriptures: Genesis 1:26, “Let us make man in our own image.” Genesis 5:1, “In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him.” Genesis 9:6, “For in the image of God made he man.” 1 Corinthians 11:7, “For in the image of God made he man.” James 3:9, “And therewith curse we men who are made after the likeness of God.” Thus man, being in the mage of God, has been endowed with intellectual, emotional and volitional powers. It is the inner man which completes the image and gives to man those great powers. But Mr. Russell says, “The difference is not because man has a different kind of life from that pos­sessed by the lower animals—they differ in shape and mental capacity.” (What Is the Soul, p. 3). But the Bible teaches that the inner man is the spirit or soul. Paul says, “But though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day.” (2 Corinthians 4:16). That this inner man is the soul or spirit, see Job 14:22, “His soul within him shall mourn,” or Job 38:8, “There is a spirit m man and the inspirations of the Almighty giveth him understanding.” (Or Ephesians 3:16). This soul or spirit in man enables him to consider his past, weigh the present and contemplate future con­duct and decide whether or rot it is right or wrong. The brute animal cannot do this, they are devoid of moral responsibilities. Indeed man is the only one of God’s creations that has the power of self-cultivation. Man alone can improve himself. The bee made as good honey a thousand years ago a today. The monkey has not improved his language in a thousand years; the beaver builds no better houses nowr than at the begin­ning. Man alone makes improvements to better h:s conditions in life. But back to the inner man. The materialist tells us that the spirit in man is the breath of life. Mr. Alagruder in his reply to Ingersol says, “The breath of life, which includes the Spirit of God, permeating in pervad­ing the atmosphere- it is this spirit which imparts life to man and all animated nature during this life.” And Mr. Bussell says, “It is the wrind or breath of life, such as is common to all living animals.” (What Is the Soul, p. 2). That the spirit is not the breath is proven by one plain denial in the word of God, Job 34:14, “If he gather unto himself his breath and his spirit.” Thus God makes a distinction between the breath and the spirit. Or again, that the breath is not the spirit we may prove by substituting breath for spirit in a few passages, viz., John 4:24, “God is a spirit [breath].” Or Acts 17:9, “Paul’s spirit [breath] was stirred within him.” Or Romans 8:16, “The spirit [breath] itself beareth witness with our spirits [breath] that we are the children of God.” Or we may prove that the spirit is not breath by showing the attribute of spirit: (1) The spirit knows (1 Corinthians 2:11), (2)The spirit worships (John 4:24), (3)It prays (1 Corinthians 14:14), (4) It sings (1 Corinthians 14:14), (5) It mourns (Job 14:22), (6) It can be saved (1 Corinthians 5:5-6), (7) It lives (Isaiah 38:16). The spirit or inner man is not the breath but is that eternal something in man that raises him above the brute creation and enables him to realize his divine rela­tionship with Jehovah. This spirit came from God to man (Ecclesiastes 3:21), the wise men said, “Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?” And in Ecclesiastes 12:7 he says, “The dust returneth unto the dust as it was and the spirit returneth unto God who gave it,” The spirit that came from God is a child of God, the offspring of God. Paul said, “Seeing then that we are the offspring of God.” (Acts 17:28), and again in Hebrews 12:9 he says, “We had the fathers of our flesh who chastened us, and we gave them reverence; shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?” We then so joyfully answer the question of what is man by saying he is a child of God. Jesus taught us to pray, “Our Father who art in heaven.” And again, “How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” When God made man his ehild he gave him dominion over all other created things. (See Genesis 1:26, Psalms 8:4, 1 Corinthians 15:27, Hebrews 2:8). We see this demonstrated before our own eyes, even in our few days we have seen man pass from the use of the grease lamp to the gas or in­candescent light; from the reap hook to the giant header, from the old fashioned home made loom to the wonderful factories; from the old ox wagon to the lightning ex­press, automobile and airplane; and from months to get the news from one state to another to the wireless or radio. Man has conquered the ocean and in the mighty steamer he plows through the deep to carry the com­merce of the world, or he may now sink beneath the waves and cross the ocean beneath its storm in the sub­marine. He has conquered the air and may fly around the world in the airplane. He has conquered the ele­ments and made them to carry his news by radio at the rate of about 160,000 miles per second. God’s word has been verified, and God’s child has dominion over all things.

Even death itself has not been able to annihilate this spirit child of God, for when man dies his spirit goes on still conscious of its condition. But here again we must pay some attention to the materialist who teaches that death is a ceasing to be, a cessation of existence. On page 154, Vol. 1, Mr. Russell says: “When dead —when not in existence,” and on' page 159 he says, “Death, the extinction of being.” And Mr. Hall in “Good Times Coming, says, “Death is that which re­turns man to his original condition.” Now surely if death is a cessation of being and Christ died, he then ceased to be, and between the cross and the resurrection there was no Christ, and when on that third morn the grave was conquered it was another Christ, for that first one had ceased to be. For my part, I am not favorably impressed with the doctrine that teaches the annihila­tion of Christ. But is death a ceasing to be? What says the Bible? First, I would define death as a separation, or a dislocation of some form of union. In natural death it is the separation between the soul or spirit and the body. James says, “The body without the spirit is dead.” (James 2:26). That the soul or spirit goes away in death is proven by these incidents in the Bible: (1) The death of Rachel (Genesis 35:18), “And it came to pass as her soul was departing [for she died].” And in the raising of the widow’s son (1 Kings 17:22) Elijah prayed and said, “0 Lord my God, let this child’s soul come into him again. And Jehovah hearkened unto the voice of Elijah, and the child’s soul came into him again and he revived.” And in Luke 8:55 wo have the account of the raising of Jairus’ daughter. Jesus said to her, “Maid, arise, and her spirit returned and she arose im­mediately.” This will tell us why David said, “Prec­ious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” (Psalms 116:15). The soul of the saint has gone home to God, but in death the soul of the wicked goes hway from God and hence the Bible says (Ezekiel 33:11), “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.” But does man cease to be when the breath is gone from him? Samuel did not “cease to be,” for he ap­peared to Saul and talked with him. (1 Samuel 28:8-10). Jesus tells us in Matthew 10:28, that though man may destroy this life, but he may cut off the head, yet he cannot touch the soul, the soul will continue with the power of conscious speech even after the body has been decapi­tated, for in Revelation 6:9 John tells us that he saw the souls of them that had been beheaded and he heard their cry unto God. And in Matthew 17:1-6 we have the account of the transfiguration of Christ, and Moses who had been dead nearly fifteen hundred years came and talked with Jesus. And in Luke 16:19, both the rich man and Laz­arus were able to talk and be comforted. No, thank God, death does not'end it all.

Man the child of God, made in the image of the Father and having dominion over all created things, has conquered the earth and delving down into its bowels he brings out the gas, oil, minerals or metals needed for his development. He has conquered the air and may ride upon its bosom and sail around the globe. He has conquered the ocean and rides upon its waves and car­ries the commerce of the world, or he may dive beneath the surface and cross from shore to shore. He has con­quered space and may talk around the world at the rate of about 160,000 miles per second. But he has not the power to conquer death. This Jesus did for him.

We like the things that we make, e.g., aeroplane, radio, mansions, etc, we like the things that we make, as Nebuchadnezzer said as he admired his own prowess and skill, “Is not this great Babylon that I built?” While we like the things we make, we love our children, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. And so God cares for all his creatures, as it is said in Psalms 145:9, “Jehovah is good to all, his tender mercies are over all his works.” God loves his children, though they have fallen and have gone far away, liis love has followed them, and his plead­ings have been following them all the time. Jesus has opened the way across the dark stream; he has made it possible for man to pass over to the immortal side and dwell at home with God forever. And when we have crossed over to dwell on the other side may we not join our happy voices in singing this or some God-given mel­ody of like import:

“All hail the power of Jesus’ name,
Let angels prostrate fall.”

Man the child of God! God loves his children. “And beloved, we love God because he first loved us.”