Human Probationary Time Pt. 1

        When Adam and Eve disobeyed God and listened instead to Lucifer or satan in the Garden of Eden, that disobedience became sin and it immediately made them sinful and susceptible to the presence and temptations of satan.  While the couple had not abandoned their loyalty to their Creator, they now came under the influence of satan and lost their defence against him.  To resist him would become more and more difficult on their own and they would eventually succumb to death because God had put them out of Eden where the tree of life was no longer accessible to them.  And their descendants would inherit their sinful nature and all that appertains to it.  The Bible tells us that the “wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23).  The Scriptures continue to make clear that, “wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned” Rom. 5:12.  Mankind then had unwittingly doomed themselves to a sinful nature and eventually to extinction.

        The good news is, that God had not abandoned this pair to their certain destiny of sinfulness, despair and death; immediately had man sinned that God stepped between the living and the dead, offering himself the substitute for their sin and death.  In 1 John 4:10 we read, “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation (substitute, ransom) for our sins and also for the world” 1Jhon 2:2. To spurn that love and pardon would mean paying the penalty of eternal death.  Again, God pleads with us when He says, “turn ye, turn ye, from your evil ways, for why will you die, o house of Israel?” Eze. 33:11.  And this appeal is for all humanity, not just the Jewish nation, for we read in Isaiah, 45: 22 “look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else.”  What comforting words are these to all humanity engulfed in wars, crime, and evil?  To refuse to reciprocate this offer of pardon and love is to seal our future for eternal oblivion.

        The long and short of God’s response, as we read above, is simply that God, due to His love for His creation, has given man a second chance to live eternally without sin and sinfulness.  This second chance to live without sin and not die is called probation.  God has given humanity a probationary time to allow Him to fix man’s disobedience.  It is very interesting to note that this probationary time to allow God, together with man’s positive response, to rectify man’s sinful nature and restore him to godliness is seen among many nations of the earth. 

        In the encyclopaedia Britannica, we read the following: “The hope of a new world surges up from time to time in many civilizations. Many such religious movements flourished in the 20th century in Melanesia, Africa, South America, and Siberia. Christian elements are usually detectable, but the basic element in virtually all cases is indigenous. These cults and movements centre on prophetic leaders, who often emphasize the return of the dead and a renewal of life.  They also write of a catastrophic end of the present world. In many cases, this hero is expected to return and lead believers in the battle against the evil forces.  In the history of Judaism and Christianity, as in many early millenarian and messianic movements, there is an expectation of a new heaven and a new earth.”[i] 

         How could cultures all over the earth have a notion of a ‘’Saviour” who is coming or lives with men to restore them to a better way of living?  The author of this article has researched cultures from many parts of the world and found in their mores, myths, and traditions they all have concepts that are very similar to the biblical one on man, sin, and restoration.  There is a Shona belief among the East Africans that there was a time when men and God lived together, but one day while a woman was using the mortar and pestle she poked God in the eye making him angry so he removed from living with mankind.[ii]  There was also the concept that at the end of the age man will be restored to righteousness and evil destroyed.[iii]  The fact that we find these concepts scattered all over the world implies a source, a source from which every concept came.

        A very similar concept is that of the world Deluge or biblical Flood.  Scientific evidence is clear that there was a world flood that destroyed all life on the earth and in the seas, except for those that God protected in the seas.  See my articles on this.  So just as the belief of the Flood spread with the nations that dispersed across the earth from where Noah’s ark landed, so also did the idea of humans having a probationary time to allow God to renew their righteousness by taking away their sin and evil, or if they rejected His offer of pardon to destroy them, come from an original source.  This probationary time is very clear in the Scriptures for all to deduce.  Somehow the devil is having great success in causing humans to abandon their probationary time as if it never existed, or to make it appear as the dreams of children. 

        Humans have the knack of neutralizing the warnings and admonitions of God, albeit to their hurt.  Dr Fukuyama writes, quoting the renowned British historian, H. A. L Fisher who wrote in 1934, “Men wiser and more learned than I have discerned in history a plot, a rhythm, a predetermined pattern…I can see only one emergency following upon another.”[iv] Fukuyama himself says, “our deepest thinkers have concluded that there is no such thing as history, that is, a meaningful order of the broad sweep of human events.”[v]  Are we not told that Winston Churchill once said, if we fail to learn from history we are doomed to repeat it?[vi]  It was none other than Jesus Christ who told the world through the Scriptures that, as it was in the days of Noah so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man, Luke 17:26.  This, my friends, means that humans today will dismiss God’s probationary grace that He has given them for repentance, confession, and restoration as though it were the chatter of fools.  The words of God, “look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth…” are treated as though they were a vapour. 

        What makes God so determined to give humans another chance at eternal life?  The Bible give us the answer from many perspectives.  For one, we read in John 3:16 of that wonderful declaration of God, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  Because of God’s great love for humans, he could not let us perish. Secondly, while it is true that both Adam and Eve chose to disobey God, they were actually deceived and pressured into disobeying Him.  Here is how the book Patriarchs and Prophets puts this sorry episode: “They confessed that they had forfeited all right to that happy abode but pledged themselves for the future to yield strict obedience to God. But they were told that their nature had become depraved by sin; they had lessened their strength to resist evil and had opened the way for Satan to gain more ready access to them. In their innocence they had yielded to temptation; and now, in a state of conscious guilt, they would have less power to maintain their integrity.”[vii] So, to save this terrified, unfortunate pair from eternal death, their Creator assured them that He would give His life for them to have a second probationary time. 

        This was God’s Great Reset to do ‘damage control’ to pardon the guilty-both them and us.  In Romans 5:19 we read: “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.”  The death of Jesus Christ for sinful humanity guarantees our second probationary time; what we do with it is up to us.  Many people today are not aware of a probationary time committed to them by God; through those people who are followers of Jesus God has given the command to go into all the world and preach this good news to all humanity of God’s forgiveness and call to repentance and restoration.  In John 6:37 Jesus makes it plain that all that come to Him He will not cast away, but He will renew their status with God.  In 2 Cor. 5:17 Paul writes, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”( NKJV)

        Friends, will you not take time to consider what your probationary period will do for you?  Can you not see that it will make you a citizen of righteousness in God’s universe? Can you not see it will enable you to break the shackles of sin that entangle every human that is not freed by Christ?  Many things in this life are enjoyable, but the pleasure and enjoyment are only short-lived.  If we do not die an early death our bodies soon age and slow us down until the forces of entropy win out and death follows.  After death, what?  The simple answer is, “prepare to meet your God” Amos 4:12.  That meeting with God can be a happy reunion, “we have been waiting for Him and He will save us” (Isa. 25:9), or it can be a final separation that will leave us non-existent, it is a choice we make every time we reject the Holy Spirit’s voice as He pleads with us to “look and live” Num. 21:9.

        Friends, may God enable us to see the wisdom and love that he has for us so we may in turn make decisions that will only lead us towards Him so that we and those we love may use our probationary time to choose Him so that we may live forever.  God bless you all.

[i] Britannica.com/topic/myth/Messianic-and-myths

[ii] Bodie Hodge and Roger Patterson World Religions and cults vol. 2: Moralistic, Mythical and Mysticism Religions, Pub. Master Books, 2016.

[iii] Lewis Spence, Egypt, Pub. Bracken Books, 1986, 130-32.

[iv] Francis Fukuyama, The end of history and the last man, NY: Avon Books, (1993), p. 5

[v] Fukuyama, p. 3

[vi] Winston Churchill, www.QuotesMessages.com

[vii] Ellen White, Patriarchs and Prophets, (Pub. Pacific Press Publishing Ass., Boise, Idaho, 1890), p. 62

If you have any comments or questions please contact Pr. Ron Henderson at ronhende@outlook.com.

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