Creation or Chance?
God's purpose with mankind proved by the wonder of the universe.
Did the limitless heavens, this vast globe we call "earth," and the amazing diversities of life upon it, come merely by chance or caprice? Are the complexities of life a mere whim of fate -- or is there some real purpose behind existence?
A vast change has come over the world in the last ninety years. Prior to 1914, the tempo of life was far more leisurely; motor cars were few and inefficient; airplanes were flimsy affairs that inspired little confidence; electricity was still largely in its infancy. And morally, the world was still governed by the standards and conventions of the Victorian Age.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the central character of the New Testament scriptures. The opening words of the first gospel account, by Matthew, can be applied to the whole of the New Testament: "The book of the generation of Jesus Christ" (Matthew 1:1). The four gospels are followed by the account of the preaching of Christ's apostles, and by the letters they wrote to believers in him throughout the Roman world in the first century AD.
EVERYONE has heard about protest movements. Some of them, like Greenpeace, are internationally known. Some of them have taken up matters of general concern, but in a particular way -- the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament is a well-known case. Others are pressing for human rights of one kind or another, such as feminist movements or the anti-apartheid groups. Slogans and songs become popular and catch the eye or the ear, and the imagination.
Nobody who is even faintly religious would deny that prayer Is part of the religious life. People who have had little to do with a church, who have seldom picked up a Bible, who have given scant attention to God, will, faced with a crisis, turn to prayer. Many a helpless individual, faced with the stark reality of death, has gone down on his knees in prayer. It sometimes comes as a surprise to discover that some of the most powerful men in history have been men of prayer.
Open a newspaper these days, listen to the news on radio or TV, and invariably you get the impression of trouble. Our world is torn by strife -- strife between political parties; strife between ethnic factions; strife between nations. It is beset by problems -- hunger, pollution of land and water, and ever present violence; problems of society, revealed by increasing crime rates and over-crowded prisons; by hospitals filled with patients, many of whom are there because of mental stress; and by an alarming number of victims of drug abuse and alcoholism. Looming over all is the frequent threat of economic crisis, with widespread unemployment and material hardship. The "under-developed nations" are in debt to the world banks (that is, chiefly those of America and Western Europe) to staggering sums running into billions of dollars, with no prospect of ever being able to repay the loans.
It was once fashionable in religious circles to say that Jesus Christ would never return to the earth. There are still plenty of professing Christians who believe that. But there are now many others who have come to believe that the Second Coming is a very important event. Christadelphians have always taught that the Return of Jesus Christ to the earth is vital to the fulfillment of the purpose of God. This article reviews Bible teaching about the Second Coming, both the events that will lead up to that miracle and the reason for the Lord’s Return.