The Conflict of the Ages

W. Carl Ketcherside

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     There are two great forces in conflict with each other in the moral universe. Because of their nature they are referred to as the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light. And, also because of their nature, they will be locked in battle until the utter conquest and defeat of one or the other. Every intelligent being in the universe is directly connected with the strife, voluntarily or involuntarily, consciously or unconsciously, and there will be no cessation of hostilities to pick up the wounded or bury the dead.

     This warfare did not begin on earth, but in heaven. It began before the creation of this world which we inhabit. It originated in insurrection and revolt motivated by pride--pride of such magnitude that it challenged the very prerogatives of God. It was precipitated by the one who came to be known as the Slanderer. Those who were seduced by him to regard God as their enemy fought and struggled bitterly for control, but the Messengers who remained loyal to God under the leadership of Michael vanquished them utterly and expelled them from the celestial realm.

     When the earth was created to be the abode of man, made in the image of God, the Adversary, who pre-empted the sphere called Atmos, and became "the commander of the spiritual powers of the air" (Eph. 2:2), directed his attack upon man as a means of wreaking vengeance upon God. That this was an exhibition of diabolical cunning is evident when one takes into account the nature, state and purpose of man at the time he was created.

     Man was at the apex of God's ascending scale insofar as material creation is concerned. All that preceded was designed and executed with a view to his coming, and he was made so as to use it all for his advancement and enjoyment. He was the bridge between that which was wholly material and that which was wholly spiritual. His body was made out of the elements of the earth and was a product of the womb of terra firma, but his intellect and intelligence linked him with the divine. Thus he could hold communion with the visible forms of nature as well as with God. He was made to know happiness, and to experience joy in everything God made and in the God who made everything.

     His condition made him ruler, by divine appointment, over everything which God created of a material nature. "Yet thou hast made him a little less than God, and dost crown him with glory and honor. Thou hast given him dominion over the work of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the sea. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is thy name in all the earth" (Psalm 8:5-9).

     It is true that "the earth is the Lord's,

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and the fulness thereof," but it is equally true that man was granted conditional title to it, and was the lord of all he surveyed. Inasmuch as the earth was made for man, and not man for the earth, when man found happiness, joy and satisfaction in the things made for his special enjoyment and gazed with thankfulness and admiration upon the Creator who provided them, God was glorified, and the divine purpose justified as pertained to material creation.

     The purpose of man was to glorify God and he was to do this spontaneously, naturally and unaffectedly. His very association with the blessings provided was simply a part of his communion with the Creator. As he shared in their beauty, utility and grace, in their pristine purity, he was made a partaker with Him who had formed them and made them part of a great system, the unity of which required a divine intellect to grasp, and therefore, a divine power to create. No one has the power to produce what he has not the power to conceive of.

     It is obvious that any spirit moved by malevolent or ulterior motives could best strike at God in the material universe by influencing man to commit such action as would prove him unworthy of the divine trust reposed in him and topple him from his exalted state. The possibility of such incitation was in man because of the nature of God as expressed in or impressed on the nature of man. It is not for us to question why man was not made a great deal lower than God, although we realize this would have limited his communion with God. If we spoke in purely human terms we would say that God "took a chance" in making man a little less than Himself. In doing this it was necessary to make him a free and responsible being, and to be either he had to be given the most awesome prerogative in the whole universe--the right of choice.

     One does not possess the right of choice at all who is not free to make an adverse decision, so man was constitutionally susceptible of happiness and of misery. To be otherwise would have made him not only less than God, but also essentially less than man. As a human being with the right of choice, if he glorified God by willing subservience and obedience, the divine will had to be expressed and in such a manner that man would glorify God by choice. This required the enunciation of a principle or law which could serve as a test of willingness.

     That the precept was a positive, rather than a moral one, is obvious to all who are capable of distinguishing the difference, and that it could not have served its purpose if it had been the latter is equally self-evident to the thoughtful and discerning. In this lay the greatest opportunity for the Enemy and he moved with sagacity to the attack. He first denied the penalty. "You will not die." Then he proceeded to appeal to the inner urge of all mankind, to attain unto knowledge without limitation, to burst all intellectual bonds and restraints, to probe all of the mysteries of the universe until nothing is mystery, in short, to be like God, which in the final analysis is to be God.

     This is not to say that the primeval pair understood all of this, nor that they could define the impulses and incentives which drove them almost relentlessly on, but to the woman the tempter quickly promised, "For God knows that when

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you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." The result is known to all of our readers and requires no particular analysis here. Suffice it to say that for the first time in a human being, lust conceived and the period of gestation was short until sin was produced as a progeny. The animal man triumphed over the spiritual and the glory departed. The long and unbroken caravan of death began that has deposited many more in the earth than now walk upon its surface. All of us tread upon the dust of our sires back to Adam, "the son of God."

     Man was thus thrust into the unceasing conflict of the ages, both as a participant and a pawn. Not a rational being in the universe is exempt from the effect of this war. As respects the regions inhabited by such beings, there are three--the celestial, the terrestrial and the infernal. The first is inhabited by the Father, Son and all of the holy angels or messengers. The last is invested with the Adversary and all of his angels, or messengers, the demons. The angels of Satan, having been thrown out of the celestial realm because of rebellion share the insensate fury of their leader against all that is heavenly.

     The hierarchical distinctions of angelic hosts are retained by those who have fallen as well as by the holy messengers. Thus we have principalities, powers, mights and dominions, signifying the area of control in the cosmic forces. These are all supernatural distinctions and refer to those intelligent entities under direction of supernatural leadership. Since these constitute the unseen (by human vision) fighting force against the army of righteousness their subjection and conquest had to be included in the purpose of God to vindicate His right to govern the universe which He created.

     During his sojourn on earth he became thoroughly capable, by experience, of sympathizing with our weaknesses, being "one who because of his likeness to us, has been tested every way, only without sin" (Hebrews 4:15). But he never lost sight of his mission and of the cosmic forces which constituted the real threat to God's sovereignty. And he recognized that the cross was the only means of ultimate conquest. This explains his statement to his disciples, "I shall not talk much longer with you, for the Prince of this world approaches. He has no rights over me; but the world must be shown that I love the Father, and do exactly as he commands; so up, let us go forward" (John 14:30,31).

     There is every possibility that we may seriously under-estimate the real struggle of the cross. We are accustomed to think of it exclusively in relationship to ourselves. This may be natural since we have such a tremendous stake in it and our hope of life is vested in it. Yet it accomplished its purpose because it was the ultimate in a power struggle of such mammoth perspective as to challenge the highest peak of human thought and reason. It was the means by which creative intelligence asserted the absolute right of sovereignty over that which was created, and that which was eternal and unmade demonstrated that all which was made, whether tangible or intangible, must be forever subservient. The cross marked more than the crossroads of history, for history has to do with the past, with that

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which has happened. Instead it is the crux of destiny and it is just as meaningful today as it was when erected at "the place of the skull." The cross is as imperishable as the victory it achieved. It is not a monument. It is a living symbol and men are still being crucified upon it daily.

     The right of the Son by virtue of his creative power is nowhere more clearly stated than in the Colossian letter (1:15-19). "He is the image of the invisible God: his is the primacy over all created things. In him everything in heaven and on earth was created, not only things visible, but also the invisible orders of thrones, sovereignties, authorities and powers: the whole universe has been created through him and for him. And he exists before everything, and all things are held together in him. He is, moreover, the head of the body, the church. He is its origin, the first to return from the dead, to be in all things alone supreme. For in him the complete being of God, by God's own choice, came to dwell."

     The key to this passage is found in the two phrases--"his is the primacy over all" and "in all things alone supreme." The ever present danger is that in the sanctuary of our hearts we shall attempt to enshrine something else as his equal. His unwitting enemies may do this with governments, powers or structures. His friends may unwittingly do it with angels, saints or the church. But all of these are creations and when they are used to divide our loyalty, they serve the cause of the Adversary. "All things alone supreme"--this forever precludes a diadem placed upon the head of any created organism or organization.

     This is not simply a modern problem. "You are not to be disqualified by the decision of people who go in for self-mortification and angel-worship, and try to enter into some vision of their own. Such people, bursting with the futile conceit of worldly minds, lose hold upon the Head; yet it is from the Head that the whole body, with all its joints and ligaments, receives its supplies, and thus knit together grows according to God's design." God's purpose is not served either by exalting angels, which are invisible, to a place of adoration; nor by flagellation or mortification of the human body, which is visible, in an attempt to make devotion to Jesus appear greater. Neither can we serve him by a mistaken concept of the church in which we attribute our salvation to it. The church, like any other creation) cannot save, but must be saved!

     This does not mean the annihilation of these principalities and powers by the cross, but rather their subjugation. They

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have been brought under the authority of Christ. We must still face them in the war of the ages but in Christ we are assured of victory. "Be on your guard; do not let your minds be captured by hollow and delusive speculations, based on traditions of man-made teaching and centered on the elemental spirits of the world and not on Christ. For it is in Christ that the complete being of the Godhead dwells embodied, and in him you have been brought to completion. Every power and authority in the universe is subject to him as Head" (Col. 2:9, 10). The war for the minds of men continues and we are in danger of being captivated. There are still delusive speculations, there are still traditions of man-made teaching. These are the effective weapons to capture and enslave.

     We have available unto us in Christ the same transcendent power which raised him from the dead, the power of the unconquerable life. Our problem is lack of inner illumination. We do not envision what is ours. We feel frustrated and often defeated. We battle on as if we were committed simply to a holding action until death. We think in terms of a battle unto death instead of a victory over it. The enemy has deluded our hearts and befogged our vision until we expend our energies in futile skirmishes and waste our ammunition upon trivia.

     "I pray that your inward eyes may be illumined, so that you may know what is the hope to which he calls you, what the wealth and glory of the share he offers you among his people in their heritage, and how vast the resources of his power open to us who trust in him. They are measured by his strength and the might which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead, when he enthroned him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all government and authority, all power and dominion, and any title of sovereignty that can be named, not only in this age, but in the age to come" (Eph. 1:18-21).

     The Adversary has deluded us with a clever strategem by confusing us as to the identity of our real foes. We congratulate ourselves when we think we have vanquished those who are not enemies at all. Through superior knowledge or extra intellectual effort we may put our less informed fellows to flight and think we have won a great victory but this may be wholly unrelated to the real warfare. The weapons and armor provided may not be adapted to such petty conflict at all. "Finally then, find your strength in the Lord, in his mighty power. Put on all the armor which God provides, so that you may be able to stand firm against the devices of the devil. For our fight is not against human foes, but against cosmic powers, against the authorities and potentates of this dark world, against the superhuman forces of evil in the heavens. Therefore, take up God's armor, then you will be able to stand your ground when things are at their worst, to complete every task and still to stand" (Eph. 6:10-13). Devices of the devil--cosmic powers-- forces of evil--these can never be overcome by natural power unaided. They require superhuman assistance, the armor which God provides.

     Jesus taught his disciples to pray, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Satan is deeply interested in keeping this prayer from being answered. The reason is obvious. When he led the revolt in heaven he sought to impose his will as equal with the will of God. The will of

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God triumphed. "The dragon and his angels fought, but they had not the strength to win, and no foothold was left them in heaven" (Revelation 12:8). If the will of God is done on earth as it is in heaven there will be no foothold left for the devil on earth. Every aim of Satan is directed toward keeping the will of God from being translated into reality on earth.

     It will be seen at once that the most direct means of offsetting the will of God would be to convince man that God does not exist, or to lead him to accept the theory that there is no personal being who may be called God. The will is associated with a being who is personal and intelligent. It must be said to the credit of man that he is not easily convinced that there is no God. Being a rational personality himself, and possessed of creative intelligence, he cannot readily account for the universe of which he is a part on any other basis. Even Voltaire, who decried supernaturalism and denied formal religious faith was forced to say, "If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him, but all nature cries out to us that he does exist."

     For this reason the devil does not make a direct frontal attack upon the existence of God. This would encourage too much reaction and defensiveness. Instead, he plants a doubt of his own existence. He seeks to become self-effacing, to obliterate himself. His purpose is achieved by making the world believe that man is somebody but there is nobody who is Satan. Evil is to be accounted for by assuming that it is merely a principle and not the machination of a principal. Man can dismiss his sins much more easily and with less twinging of the conscience if he can regard them as proceeding from an inner nature which he cannot help possessing and for which he does not therefore feel directly accountable.

     The ultimate purpose in spreading the propaganda that he is non-existent is to lead man to a denial of the existence of God, or certainly to denial of the relevance of the word of God. If there is no enemy there can be no war, if there is no war weapons are unnecessary. A shield of faith to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one is a ridiculous encumbrance with which to be burdened if there is no evil one and if the only fiery darts are social inequities and personal quirks of temperament. It would be silly for one to carry a sword around if there existed no enemy on earth, and since the sword of the Spirit is said to be the word of God, it follows that the word of God is meaningless to those who have learned that Satan is a purely mythological character, and a creation of superstitious minds.

     The greatest proof that the devil exists and that he has been uncommonly successful is seen in the fact that the great majority of intellectuals in our day do not believe that he is real. One who affirms that evil, like righteousness, originates with a personality outside of man himself is regarded as being ignorant and devoid of real mental and rational acumen. Certainly Satan has employed the

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art of camouflage and incognito with tremendous effect. Like a specter or wraith he has blended into the fog which he has created until men no longer suspect his presence or admit his reality. This will account for the foggy thinking about self, sin and Satan in our generation.

     Of course the cause of Satan will be served as well if by direct approach men can be persuaded to deny the existence of God, for those who do so will also deny the existence of Satan. There can be no opposite to that which has no being. If there is no heaven, there will be no hell; if there is no such thing as morality, there can be no immorality. This course is not so easy, however, because man's heart is so tuned as to yearn for God and to desire truth, and the creativity of God is everywhere manifested in the universe. "The invisible traits of him are clearly seen in the creation, being understood by the things that are."

     It is less trouble to sow the seeds of doubt and confusion than to plant the seeds of absolute denial or rejection. Man finds it easier to be skeptical than to be atheistic. In an age which has been conditioned to think that all is relative, even in the moral and spiritual realm, there is a hesitancy to be positive about anything. We should not be surprised that instead of blatant atheism we are rather treated to theorizing which questions accepted means and methods of conveying the idea of God, and in the upheaval of the mind concerning the means, God himself is tossed out. If we are devoid of the terms for explaining our concept of a personal God we shall soon be without the concept altogether. Our contemporary predicament is not so much one of base denial as it is of denial of a base from which to reason.

     The willingness of modern man to become entangled in the skeins of sophisticated mental meanderings is found in the readiness with which the theological world has hailed as deliverers those who, under the guise of rescuing us from outmoded and invalidated expressions, have left the world suspended in mid-air by a rope which is not attached to anything above. Recently, as an example, a volume by a Bishop in the Anglican party, became a runaway best seller, translated into nine different languages. The author, who admitted to having been powerfully influenced by the German theologians--Tillich, Bonhoeffer and Bultmann--attacked the idea of a God "up there" or "out there." Actually, however, his thesis amounted to denial of a personal God anywhere. The God "down here" or "in here" as opposed to the God "up there" or "out there" was simply "the ground of being," or some other impersonal principle.

     We need to question whether such men have simply devised a way of explaining God to this generation, or have generated a method of explaining God away. It is one thing to make the language of the Bible live for our day but it is a wholly different thing to kill God off in the process. However, our objection is not to men expressing themselves as to the nature or existence of God even in denial of the truth of the divine person. We deplore them doing so while parading as Christian, or intimating that their rationalizations constitute a justifiable alternative to revealed faith for Christians. It is not our intention to advocate the kind of blind censorship which denies a man the right to state his views regardless of how divergent they may be from our own. After all, as A. Leonard Griffith, Minister of City Temple, London, said about the bishop who wrote the book, "What really matters in this view is not what the Bishop thinks about God, but what God thinks of the Bishop."

     We can respect an honest atheist, agnostic or skeptic, in the sense in which we here use the word "honest," nor do we deny there are such. But it is a wholly different thing for one who parades as a Christian, or as a Christian teacher, to deny the very foundation of the Christian concept. Obviously the word "Christian" is used so loosely in our day that like charity it covers a multitude of sins, but

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it cannot be divorced from Christ, for to eliminate "Christ" from "Christian" would be to destroy the very term. Regardless of what else may be involved, the very minimum expected of a Christian is that he possess the "Christ-attitude" and certainly this must begin with the proper attitude toward God.

     To find what a Christian should believe about God or Satan, we need only to find out what Jesus taught about them. It is unthinkable that we should claim to be disciples while advocating the opposite of what Christ taught. Such a course would negate the very essence of discipleship, which is actually followship. Jesus taught that God was a personal being by description of His nature, attributes and functions. He also taught the same truth by identification and communication with the Father.

     As to identification with God in purpose, he said, "If you knew me, you would know my Father too...Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father...I am not myself the source of the words I speak to you: it is the Father who dwells in me, doing his own work...And the word you hear is not mine: it is the word of the Father who sent me." Again, "It is his will that all should pay the same honor to the Son as to the Father. To deny honor to the Son is to deny honor to the Father who sent him." As to communication with God, he declared, "I will ask the Father" (John 14:16), and "I have prayed to the Father." In a recorded prayer he said, "I came from thee," and, "Now I am coming to thee." This is the language used by one person in addressing another. On no other basis can it have any validity or make a semblance of sense.

     It will be noted that when Jesus prayed "he looked up to heaven" (John 17:1) He said, "No one went up into heaven except the one who came down from heaven" (John 3:13). He declared, "You shall see heaven wide open, and God's angels ascending and descending upon the Son of man" (John 1:51). At his ascension he testified that he was "taken up to heaven" (Acts 1:11). The apostle says, "He who descended is no other than he who ascended far above all heavens, so that he might fill the universe" (Ephesians 4:10). This language is now made the butt of attack, and even of some ridicule. We are told that the idea of a "three-story universe" has been outgrown in the Space Age.

     It is considered absurd to speak of God as "up there" or "out there," and such language in the Bible is considered as myth. It is merely the feeble attempt of a primitive people to give form to their superstitions based upon ignorance of the universe, we are told. But the strange thing is that when modern sophisticates seek to "demythologize" the language, they can do no better in portraying the state of God in relation to earth and man. In their desperate attempt to correct the wording they terminate by eliminating God, or, what is worse, by reducing God to some innate principle or power which makes man end up in the insufferable egotism of worshiping himself.

     But we are constantly told that we must "face up" to every assault made upon the Christian concept and take time out to fully investigate and reply to every philosophic thrust against it. To those

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who regard the Way as being simply another "religion" in a field of comparative religions, or another philosophic attempt to explain life, this is true. But to those who respect it as the revelation of a divine mind to direct our steps until the ultimate purpose is attained this does not appear at all necessary. One whose house is conceived of as being built upon a rock foundation hardly deems it es-to go about swatting every termite which mistakenly gnaws away at it. This is especially true when the yard is full of dead termites from the past which have killed themselves in prosecuting the same attempt.

     It is argued that maintenance of personal integrity demands that we explore every critical attack to the fullest before we make any definite commitment. This we deny, because it makes no distinction between credulity and faith, and assumes that the latter is not a valid principle or premise upon which to postulate one's hope. Yet those who demand that we hear their claims do so because they have faith in them, and thus demonstrate that man cannot choose whether he will believe or not, but only what or whom he will believe. In the final analysis, both scientists and theologians, and common folk like myself who are neither, must end up walking by faith. Where their walk will take them depends upon the direction of their faith.

     I have examined the claims of Jesus of Nazareth. I am willing to stake my life upon their verity and veracity. No one can prove at this late date that His claims are false without proving that he was a charlatan and an impostor. When I behold men who affirm the moral superiority of his personal life and teaching, and urge it as the standard by which to judge themselves and others, while asserting that he was a product of his times, hampered and hindered by a provincial outlook, my compassion is for the critics even as my faith is in the Christ. It is observable that our own day, with all of its tremendous potential, has not produced another Jesus, our critics themselves being judges. On what grounds can we conclude that the narrow and restricted age of the first century fashioned Jesus out of its fabric? It takes more faith than I am capable of generating to believe that one who was merely a son of man could so develop. It is much easier, within the limitations of my faith, to account for Jesus as the Son of God.

     And because I acknowledge Jesus as Lord of my life, I accept what he taught about the personality of God and Satan. I have enlisted in the battle of the ages under the leadership of the captain of my salvation. I expect to battle the foe until the convulsion of death relaxes my grip upon the sword of the Spirit and I fall headlong upon the shield of faith. I am committed to the faith that Jesus is real. In the strength of that commitment I shall do my best to summon the whole world to kneel before him and acknowledge his sovereignty over all. I seek to go where he leads without fear. He said, "If anyone serves me, he must follow me; where I am, my servant will be."