BOOK OF HEBREWS
HISTORY AND DESTINY OF MANKIND
DR. JIM DIXON
APRIL 4, 1984
HEBREWS 2:1-10
Imagine that it is hundred years ago, you are taking a walk in the Virginia countryside. It is a portion of the countryside you have never walked in before. It is fall. The autumn colors are all about you. As you walk, you are alone with your thoughts and the time passes quickly, but suddenly you stop and atop a hill you see a giant old house. You are curious and you want to take a closer look. As you draw near to the house, you can hear the autumn leaves blow about your feet. You see tall windows, tall pillars, tall chimneys, but there’s a lonely feeling because the house seems to be vacant. There’s no one inside, there’s no one out, and there’s also a sad feeling where now you can see that the house is not only uninhabited but it’s uninhabitable. The windows are broken, the wood is cracked, much of the brick has fallen to the ground.
You see tall weeds growing all about the house. It is late in the day. You ought to be getting home, but you want to take a closer look. You want to go in the house. You notice that the great west door has fallen from its hinges. So you enter there, you begin to walk down the great corridor. You see many rooms. There are thirty in all, once majestic now in ruin. You see hay scattered about and grain that has been milled and stacked and you wonder why it is there. Suddenly you hear a noise; it is coming from the basement. You decide to take a look. You descend the stairs, and you are astounded to see cows and cattle all over the basement eating hay. Someone is using the once great house as a barn. You marvel that a house once so great could have fallen so low. You have no way of knowing that the original owner of the house, penniless at death, sold it for a song, no way of knowing that one day in the future that great house would be restored to all of its former glory.
Many of you in this room have seen that old house in the Virginia countryside and most of you have a picture of it on you today, in your pocket, in your wallet or in your purse. That is Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello portrayed on the back of the American nickel and the history and destiny of Monticello is exactly like the history and destiny of mankind. For the Bible tells us, the author of Hebrews tells us that mankind was created in glory, but that we have fallen into ruin. And yet through Jesus Christ, we are destined one day to be restored.
I have then three teachings this morning and the first teaching is this. In the beginning, mankind was glorious. In Eden, the garden of God, before sin entered the world, men and women were great, crowned with glory and honor says the author of Hebrews, created little less than the angels. The eighth Psalm tells us that in the beginning, mankind was created little less than God. And this glory and honor given to men and women in the beginning is reflected in the gift of dominion. For God said, let us make man in our own image, after our own likeness and let him have dominion over the birds of the air, over the fish of the sea, and over the beast of the field, over everything that moves upon the face of the earth. The author of Hebrews tells us that in the beginning all things were subjected to man and nothing was left outside of man’s control. Our dominion was complete, it was full, it was perfect, and it was pure.
It is not possible for us now to look back and understand the glory and the dominion once given, for now we are fallen, and the Bible says we are only a fragment of what we were meant to be. We understand dominion, complete dominion, when we look at God. God has dominion over the elements. We see this in that the Bible tells us he has the power to command the heavens as he brought forth rain for 40 days and 40 nights that He might bring a flood upon the world of the ungodly. God has dominion over the animals, as He was able to summon a great fish to swallow Jonah and to preserve him alive and bring him to a place of God’s own choice. He was able to seal the mouths of lions to preserve His prophet. Daniel, able to instruct ravens to gather food and bring it to Elijah to preserve him in a time of hunger. God has dominion. And it may be that in the beginning when men and women were great, this dominion was manifested in us and shared with us.
But now we are fallen, and our dominion is diminished and what remains we have abused. In the year 1920, a man named Hugh Lofting of Maiden Head England made famous a fictitious character called Dr. Doolittle. He wrote Dr. Doolittle books. He illustrated Dr. Doolittle’s stories. Dr. Doolittle could talk to the animals. He had dominion over them, he could summon them, and they would come at his bidding. He understood them, they understood him. But that is the stuff of fiction and mythology. We do not see such dominion in man today. I can barely get our dogs to go in their room at night and when they escape out the front door and I chased them all over the cul-de-sac, I prove that whatever dominion I have, it does not extend to the realm of the animals.
Perhaps there has been moments in history when men and women have manifested this gift. St. Francis of Assisi founded the Franciscan Religious Order of the Roman Catholic Church. His simple life of poverty was an inspiration to men and women in the Middle Ages. In the year 1205, he received a vision of Christ, and his life was changed. And 1224 has said that the stigmata first began to appear on his body, the five marks of the resurrected Christ: blood on the hands, blood on the feet, blood in the eye. He wrote a book called Canticle of the Sun, wherein he described his great love for Jesus Christ, wherein he described his great love for the creation and even the animals. And it was universally said of him that he had dominion over the animals, that he was able to summon them, that they would come at his bidding, that there was no animal too wild, too ferocious, too carnivorous, that all animals were tame in his presence.
Indeed the stories may or may not be true, but certainly such dominion is rarely seen if ever in our time see us. Lewis, the Christian theologian, the Christian scholar, Christian writer who was a Professor Cambridge University in England, tried to imagine what Adam and Eve were like in Eden prior to sin, what mankind was like prior to the fall. And he tried to express these things in a book called Peralandra, where he described a world created in in innocence, a world where the grass was greener, where nature was more beautiful, more alive, a world where even the food tasted better, a world where the man and woman had perfect union. Their fellowship was complete, their love for each other was selfless. It was a world where the man and woman had perfect fellowship with God. They were able to understand God’s thoughts, understand God’s guidance, understand God’s mind and heart.
Moment by moment, they had no low self-esteem, they had no broken egos or they were secure in God’s love and in their love for each other and they had dominion over the earth. They were able to command the elements. They were able to command the animals. They were able to command the earth itself and they were able to summon the fish of the sea and they were able to ride upon their backs. That is how CS Lewis imagined it once was before sin entered the world.
But the truth is we cannot know what it was like before the fall. We cannot look back. We can only imagine. Some Christian theologians believe that in the beginning had not sin entered the world, man would have had powers, powers of mental telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, psychokinesis. Many of the powers that are now studied in the science or pseudoscience of parapsychology. But the truth is we do not know. We only know this: In the beginning, man and women were great. They were crowned with glory and honor, and we were made little less than Elohim, little less than God.
Now there is a second teaching from the author of Hebrews, and it is this: mankind has fallen. We are only a fragment of what we were meant to be. We are subjected to futility. Hamartia is a Greek word which means failure to attain intended or created potential. Our dominion is diminished. What dominion remains, we have abused, and this world is out of control. The author of Hebrews says all things were made subject to man. Nothing was left outside of our control, but as it is, we do not see all things in subjection to man. He is pointing out that something is wrong with the creation. Mankind has fallen and this world is out of control.
We see it in the realm of nature. As scientists and ecologists tell us that the ecosystems of this world are in peril. There’s pollution in the atmosphere, pollution in the waters, pollution in the soils of the earth. The Bible tells us that at the consummation before the end of the age, one third of the atmosphere of the earth will be polluted, one third of the fresh water and one third of the salt water. We are approaching such statistics in our time. This is a world of overpopulation, and it is a world of underproduction or at least inadequate distribution, for World Vision tells us that there are more than 1 billion people in the world who are starving to death today. They do not know where their next meal is coming from. The average garbage disposal in the United States of America eats better than one third of the people on the face of the earth. Mankind has fallen.
Something is wrong in the creation. This is a world of natural disasters. After all these millennia, despite all of our glorified technological attainments, we cannot control nature. Thousands of people are killed every year in hurricanes, in tornadoes and in earthquakes. We are not able to predict the weather, let alone control the elements.
It is a world of disease and deaths. Millions of people die every year from heart disease and cancer and death is a reality. Men and women still live three score and 10. We’re not able to bring about a succession to the degeneration of human cells. We cannot stop the aging process. Something is wrong. Where is our dominion? This is a thermonuclear age. We have harnessed the power of the atom. There is a proliferation of nuclear weaponry in our time, but there has been no corresponding proliferation of wisdom in the mind of man.
These are volatile times. It seems inevitable that someday some terrorist group, some radical third world revolutionary government will acquire nuclear power and employ it irrationally. You see, this is a world out of control, and we not only see that in the realm of the natural, but in the realm of the spiritual, for there’s moral and ethical confusion in our world today. People are looking for some moral anchor, some frame of reference by which they can judge good and evil and right and wrong, but they’re confused.
Indeed, the world is so confused that self-avowed practicing homosexuals are now regarded as a minority group. And if as Christians we say anything against the practice of homosexuality, we are viewed as prejudicial. We are viewed as having infringed upon basic human rights. How did we ever get so confused that we are no longer able to call sin? Sin? The Bible says in the first chapter of the book of Romans that mankind has become futile in his thinking. Our senseless minds have been darkened, claiming to be wise we have become fools and we have exchanged the glory of the immortal God.
Dr. Theodor Morrell was a medical doctor. He was incompetent and he was evil, but he was charismatic. He had a kind of mesmerizing effect upon his patients. He sought to instill in them emotional and physical dependency. One day almost 50 years ago, a man summoned Dr. Morrell to his home. The man had abdominal pain. Dr. Morrell made an immediate diagnosis, and he prescribed a course of action. The man was impressed. He said he’d rarely seen a doctor with such confidence, rarely seen a doctor with such clarity of thought. He said he would surely do whatever the doctor prescribed. In the weeks that followed, Dr. Morrell prescribed exotic bacteria, hormone, belladonna, dextro, and phosphorus—not enough to kill the patient, but enough to produce the desired results.
And in the weeks that followed, the patient began to feel better. The pain began to subside, and he felt strangely better. And he began to say that it was a stroke of good fortune that he had contacted Dr. Morrell. He began to say that Dr. Morrell had saved his life. He began to refer to Dr. Morrell as his savior. In the months that followed, the man began to experience a state of euphoria, a consciousness of wellbeing he had never thought possible (or Dr. Morrell had now added amphetamine, speed, to his prescriptive arsenals). In those days, whatever pain the patient felt, no matter how small Dr. Morrell always met it with a pill or an injection.
And the months passed into years and the man became a shaking, trembling, emaciated, glassy, eye gray complexion shell of a man, a human wreck submerged in a sea of uppers and downers trying to survive an ocean of drugs. He slept three hours a night and his sleep was uneasy, but he still had confidence in Dr. Theodor Morrell. Indeed, he received Dr. Morale’s treatments the final 10 years of his life, an incredible period of time considering the amount of strife, the quantity of amphetamines in various drugs consumed by the patient. In that period of time, 28 different varieties of drugs taken regularly over a period of 10 years, all having their cumulative effect upon that man’s attitudes and behaviors. History has virtually forgotten Dr. Theodor Morrell, but history will never forget the patient’s, for the patient’s name was Adolf Hitler.
The Mesmer himself was mesmerized by a megalomaniac physician. It was said that he had gone to hell with Dr. Morrell. Adolf Hitler sought dominion over this earth, but he was himself dominated, dominated by a sea of drugs, dominated by a deeply wounded childhood, his ego dominated by twisted feelings and desires deep within him that he himself could not understand. It is not possible to excuse Adolf Hitler for the monster he became, but it is hard to imagine how a child who once sang in a church choir and longed to grow up and become a priest could have grown up to become the butcher of millions of innocent people. In his great quest for world power, Adolf Hitler hated Christianity. He said it is a religion of weakness. And of course, he hated Judaism. He said, if any German married a Jew, the image of God was lost in the offspring and the child born was a cross between animal and man.
He could have been describing himself. He knew little of the image of God. And the truth is that he has perhaps history’s greatest illustration of how the image of God is shattered in man. He is an amplification of what is in all of our hearts because we are all fallen. We all seek dominion, but we are all dominated. The Bible says every one of us is dominated by snare. We are fallen only a fraction of what we were meant to be. Our glorious tainted, our dominion diminished. This world is out of control and that is why the Apostle John says, do not love the world for the things that are in the world. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world passes away and the desires of it. But he who does the will of God abides forever. And that brings us to our third and final point. This world needs a savior.
The Bible tells us there is only one Savior and His name is Jesus Christ. He is the restorer of mankind’s lost destiny. He offers to restore everyone who believes in his name to glory. The author of Hebrews says, “As it is, we do not see all things in subjection to man, but we see Jesus, whom for a little while was made lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honor through the suffering of death that by the grace of God, He might taste death for everyone. For is fitting that He, for whom and by whom all things were made, and bringing many sons to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through suffering.” You see, the Bible tells us that Jesus Christ is the pioneer of mankind’s salvation. Through His suffering, He offers to bring many sons and daughters to glory. He is the restorer of mankind.
In His suffering, He took our fall upon Himself. In His suffering, He took our ruin upon Himself. In his suffering, he took our sin upon Himself. We see dominion over the elements as He was able to change water to wine at Cana of Galilee. We see dominion over nature as the Bible tells us He was able to calm the wind and rebuke the sea by the mere command of His voice. And the disciples said, “Who is this that even the wind and the sea obey Him?” Dominion over the animals, as He is able to summon the fish of the sea into a fisherman’s net. We see dominion over death itself as He raised Lazarus from the dead by His great power. He raised the widow’s son of the village of Nain.
He raised from the dead the daughter of Jairus, the high priest. And indeed, death could not conquer Him. For Jesus Christ rose from the dead in power and great glory. He has dominion and He has dominion over sin. For His life was sinless, His heart was pure, His actions righteous. He has dominion. Jesus Christ is fully God. But the Bible also tells us that He is fully man. We look at Jesus Christ, we not only see what God is like, but we see something of what man was meant to be. In His resurrection, He is called the firstborn of many brothers and sisters. You see, all of us who believe in Him are destined to follow in His steps and we will one day be restored.
It’s not possible for us to look into the future and know fully what we will one day be like. The Apostle John says, “Beloved, we are children of God. Now it does not yet appear what we shall be, but this we know: when He appears we shall be like Him, and we shall see Him as He is.” The Bible tells us that almost two thousand years ago, the Apostle Paul was taken up into the third heaven. Whether in the body or in the spirit, he did not know. But there he saw something of our future. He saw something of our destiny. He saw something of heaven itself, and he tells us that what he saw was so great he is not allowed to utter it. What he saw was so great that human earthly words could not describe it. “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceive the wonderful thing that God has prepared for those who love Him.”
The Bible tells us that we now think like children. We reason like children, we speak like children, but one day we will put away childish thing, we who believe. The Bible tells us that now we see in a mirror dimly, but then we will see face-to-face. Now we know in part, but then we will know fully even as we have been fully known. The Bible tells us that these bodies are terrestrial. They are fit for “terra,” the Latin word for earth. But in first Corinthians 15, we are told that the bodies that will be given to you who believe that body is celestial, it is heavenly. It is the Greek word “ouranois,” which means fit for heaven. As mankind was once given dominion over the earth, so in Jesus Christ shall mankind one day be given dominion over the heavens And the Bible says we will reign and rule with Jesus Christ in the new heavens and the new earth. All of these things are promised to you who believe in his name.
In Phoenix, Arizona, there have been many four-alarm fires. There has never been a five-alarm fire. But once, in June of 1973, there was actually a six-alarm fire. Thirty-five fire engines and 150 firemen went immediately to the scene. The world’s most famous landmark, the world-famous Biltmore Hotel was burning. Millions of dollars’ worth of damage occurred in that fire, but the primary problem was not a problem of money. The primary problem confronting the owners was this: how do you restore an architectural masterpiece? The beginnings of the Biltmore Hotel were shrouded in mystery. It was once thought that the Biltmore had been designed by a little-known architect named Albert Chase MacArthur. But it was later discovered that the building had actually been designed primarily by the world-famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
The problem was that Wright was dead and so was MacArthur. Who could restore that masterpiece? The owners had only one choice. They went to the architectural firm of Tallon West because the men and women at Tallon West had been trained by Frank Lloyd Wright himself. They were his disciples, and Tallon was his offspring. Tallon was his child, and they restored the Biltmore, and they did it in 90 days because the owners could not afford to miss the winter season. They restored it to all of its former glory and all of its former beauty. With the unique woodwork, with the gold leaf ceilings, with the famous stonework restored to its former glory, and some would say even beyond. God wants us to know that every person in this world is exactly like that Biltmore Hotel. We were created crowned with glory and honor. But like the Biltmore we have fallen, and we have all experienced the fires of sin and there is only one person who can restore us, and it is the offspring, the child of the architect, and His name is Jesus Christ. Some of us may have had three alarm fires, some four alarm fires, some six alarm. It does not matter. Jesus Christ is able to restore it and He promises now when we ask Him into this house of our life, He will come in, He will come into our ruins. He says, “Behold, I stand at the door, and I knock. If anyone open the door, I will come in.”