God in Nature
233
to eat of the tree of knowledge. God had said, “Ye shall not eat of it,
... lest ye die.” But Satan declared that by eating of it man would be
exalted to an equality with God.
Adam and Eve listened to the voice of the tempter, and sinned
against God. The light, the garments of heavenly innocence, departed
from these tried, deceived souls, and in parting with the garments
of innocence, they drew about them the dark robes of ignorance of
God. The clear and perfect light of innocence which had hitherto
surrounded them, had lightened everything which they had approached,
but deprived of that heavenly light, the posterity of Adam could no
longer trace the character of God in his created works. Therefore, after
the fall, nature was not the only teacher of man. In order that the world
might not remain in darkness, in eternal, spiritual night, the God of
nature must meet man through Jesus Christ. The Son of God came to
the world as a revelation of the Father. He was “that true light, which
lighteth every man that cometh into the world.”
The most difficult and humiliating lesson which man has to learn,
if he is kept by the power of God, is his own inefficiency in depending
upon human wisdom, and the sure failure of his own efforts to read
nature correctly. Sin has obscured his vision, and he cannot interpret
nature without placing it above God.—
Unpublished Testimonies, July
3, 1898
.
[290]
1189. Many teach that matter possesses vital power. They hold
that certain properties are imparted to matter, and it is then left to
act through its own inherent power; and that the operations of nature
are carried on in harmony with fixed laws, that God himself cannot
interfere with. This is false science, and is sustained by nothing in
the word of God. Nature is not self-acting; she is the servant of her
Creator. God does not annul his laws nor work contrary to them; but
he is continually using them as his instruments. Nature testifies of an
intelligence, a presence, an active agency, that works in, and through,
and above her laws. There is in nature the continual working of the
Father and the Son. Said Christ, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I
work.”
God has finished his creative work, but his energy is still exerted in
upholding the objects of his creation. It is not because the mechanism
that was once been set in motion continues its work by its own inherent
energy that the pulse beats, and breath follows breath; but every breath,