(1). GEN. 1: 1, 2.--We noticed, when dealing with this passage in Volume VI,

page 169-173, that the condition of chaos and darkness there indicated was not the

condition of creation "in the beginning"; it became so. The passage we referred to

(Isa. 45: 18), not only discloses that the earth was not created tohu (without form), but

that "He formed it to be inhabited". Here, therefore, at the threshold of our enquiry we

have words that indicate that the purpose of the creation of Gen. 1: 1 received a check;

something had for the time being entered and spoiled the fair work of God. This passage,

taken by itself, does not settle the question we are considering; we must wait until we

have collected further evidence. We may remark here, however, that the "purpose of the

ages" (Eph. 3: 11) occupies the whole period of this present time, the creation of the six

days being the platform upon which the great drama of good and evil is enacted, the

consummation being the restoration of the alienated creation back to God. When this

takes place the present heaven and earth pass away, and a new heaven and a new earth

appear. It seems that we must choose the view that either the purpose of God is of such a

character as to roll on its way utterly unaltered by any action of any of His creatures, or

we must believe that something did enter into His creation which temporarily turned that

purpose aside, and that the conflict of the ages is no piece of theatricals, but a desperate

battle, that sin is an ugly and awful things, and no creature of God, that the coming of the

Son of God was a necessity, that His agony suffering, and death were real, that the

triumph and victory was not the conquest of a make-believe enemy, and that the infinite

power and wisdom of God are fully able to deal with all opposition, and to accomplish

the fulfillment of all His purposes. The one who sees the very "weakness" of God as

being stronger than man, and the "foolishness" of God as wiser than man, needs no

inflexible mechanical purpose to necessitate certainty. We watch a game of chess, and

after a while the certainty comes to us that one player is already beaten, and the other the

victor, although each are bound by laws, and neither can predestinate the others

movements, and the wisdom and the skill of the victor is enhanced as we realize the high

qualities of his opponent. Sin, Satan, and death are real enemies; they are included in the

things that offend, and are to be finally banished from the kingdom of God. True, He

makes the wrath of man to praise Him, and restrains the rest (Psa. 76: 10), true, He

overrules sin, and takes the wise in their own craftiness. To accomplish His purposes of

grace He spared not His own Son, and working by law and by faith, by conscience, and

by revelation, by grace, by love, by warning, and by beseeching, with infinite variety and

in manifold wisdom He deals with the ever varying moral agents that comprise the fabric

of His purpose.

(2). GEN. 2: 17.--Coming to Adam, his temptation and fall, Scripture definitely

declares, "This only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought

out many inventions:" (Eccles. 7: 29). When God said to Adam concerning the tree of

the knowledge of good and evil, "Thou shalt not eat of it", He meant it, as the "God of

truth and without iniquity". He could not have meant, "Thou shalt not eat of it--but my

purpose is that you shall, that your seeming responsibility and choice is only superficial

and not real". The penalty attached to the disobedience is only moral if Adam had free

action in the matter; if we grant this, then it at once becomes evident that the purpose of

God cannot be of the mechanical unaccommodating character that some would have us

believe. An illustration of what we mean by accommodation is found in the birth of Seth.