ny basis for a true hope, and it will be
found that the most terrible condemnation of Scripture is uttered
against such systems and their promoters.

In seeking to discover the actual point of difference between the false
and the true, it will be well, first, to consider the present perverted
relation which exists between the Creator and the fallen human creature;
for herein is revealed the necessity of that which God proposes to
accomplish by redemption.

Two important points in Satan's doctrine were announced by him in the
Garden of Eden when he first approached the woman, and these two
declarations kave been an important part of the world's creeds
throughout the history of man. The first was a bold denial of a positive
statement of God, when Satan said: "Ye shall not surely die." Whether
Satan intended here simply to deny the truth of God's statement, or
whether he overestimated his own resources and proposed to shield them
from their God-appointed doom, is not clear. Certainly the latter view
is in keeping with Satan's original purpose, as well as with his evident
sincerity. It is quite reasonable to conclude that, if he could be so
misguided as to attempt to be like the Most High, he would willingly
have undertaken to protect man from judgment which followed as a result
of loyalty to himself. Satan is striving, at any rate, to direct the
lives of those who are under his power into a degree of self development
that will be a substitute for the revealed purpose of God for men.

The second announcement of Satan assured the woman that they would, by
this independent action, "be as God;" and this, so far from promising
death, seemed to them the immediate realization of the highest human
ideal. It was undoubtedly the original purpose of God in creation that
humanity should eventually become like Himself. By what process of
development this was to have been accomplished, had not sin entered, has
not been revealed. It is enough to know that even after man had fallen
from his high estate through sin, this Divine purpose was not abandoned,
though the problems involved were immeasurably increased: and now,
through the unsearchable riches of His grace, the realization of that
which surpasses all human dreams has been made possible, even to fallen
and polluted man.

The consummation of the transforming work of God is thus described: "For
whom He did foreknow, He did also predestinate to be conformed to the
image of His Son"