Skip to main content

Made Known

             He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He set forth in Him, regarding His plan of the fullness of the times, to bring all things together in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. (Ephesians 1:9-10)

Therefore I declared them to you long ago, Before they took place I proclaimed them to you, So that you would not say, ‘My idol has done them, And my carved image and my cast metal image have commanded them.’ (Isaiah 48:5)

          There are people who like to say that if God would “just” appear to the whole world in thus-and-such a manner (usually silly and so embarrassing that they would not dress that way, but they want God to) and proclaim Himself to be God and perform miracles 9472733 and 7651932 that they would believe and never again doubt that God is God. I have pointed out that their challenge is a lie. They might believe for a few seconds, but they would eventually decide that it was some sort of delusion or trick and reject God again.

          In fact, I mentioned to one scoffer that the Israelites saw the ten plagues on Egypt. They saw the pillar of cloud and of fire. They saw the Red Sea divide. They walked on dry land. They saw the Red Sea collapse on the Egyptian army. They saw water gush from rocks, manna, quail enough to feed millions land in easy reach, more plagues, more water dividing, and miraculous military victories. I asked her if she was better than the Israelites, and she proclaimed she was.

          But the problem is, God appeared before us – historically around 4BC to 33 AD.[1] He performed lots of miracles, including healing the sick, raising the dead, and rising from the dead Himself. And that doesn’t include His turning a small group of men from cowards into spiritual warriors who were willing to go to their deaths for the message they shared. The miracles that took place, they say, could have had some other explanation. Of course, and so could miracles 9472733 and 7651932 that they’ve made a prerequisite to their belief, and that makes their claim about themselves to be a lie.

          But the only difference between their disbelief and ours is that theirs is open. Ours tends to be quiet. We say we believe, but, well…

          But God gave us Scripture, some of which proclaims what will be, and historically, some of it has come to pass. Other things are happening. Some haven’t begun, but there’s no reason to doubt they will. Discovery after discovery is being made that confirms information found in Scripture. There are so many copies of the Scriptures around that critical comparisons of them allow us to bring it down to “it either said A or it said B, and there’s really no significant difference between their meaning.”

          And so we can be thankful that, in ways that cannot be done in any other religion, we can be know at least part of what God is doing, and participate in it. We can know it, if we choose to. We can investigate and discover the truth if we choose to. We have the kind of God who is willing to be known in that way, who is willing to go toe-to-toe (as it were) with the other gods on our behalf, and willing to prove Himself to us, if we are willing to take His challenge to be known by us. And for that, we can be grateful.


[1] The dates are approximate because the dating system that produced the BC/AD system came about long after the events, and was flawed in its calculation of when Jesus was born. After 1500  years, to be off by less than 5 years was amazing, but it was still off. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saved?

  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23) Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:4)   What conclusion do you draw when someone who was raised in a Christian family and church, perhaps even playing a significant role in a chur...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Shepherd!

                 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep . (John 10:14) God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” (Genesis 3:14) The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths     for his name’s sake. Even though I walk     through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil,     for you are with me; your rod and your staff,     they comfort me. (Psalm 23:1-4) For the Jews, it was politically incorrect to make claims about yourself as a teacher (or possibly as anything else.) Teachers were expected to take pride in the...
Post a Comment
Read more