HISTORICAL (Continued)

In our last session we looked at some of the intangible evidences that the Bible is actually the Word of God to humanity. When considering this type of evidence we must also consider that our understanding of God would lead us to understand that God would have written such a record.

I was going to say that our understanding of God through the pages of the Bible would lead us to understand that He would have written such a Book as the Bible. This, of course, is true. But it is also true that our understanding of God from our observations of His creative acts also would lead to such a conclusion.

Pendleton (Christian Doctrine) notes that God is a God of order. We, as sinful beings, are in disorder and need a guide to lead us from this condition.

I wrote "a God of order" above. That is incorrect. To be precise we must say, "The God of order." It is a bad habit that I have gotten into when I write "a God." God is not "a God," He is "The God." There is no other. There is no pantheon of deities. The very name "God" carries with it the idea of an absolute power and authority. If there were to be more than one "God," then neither would be absolute in power. This is one of the mysteries of the Trinity. There are three distinct personalities but only one essence of Being.

This is where the cults that claim only a status as "a created god" for Jesus, or that claim the elevation to a "godhood" of their adherents, are faulty. There can only be One God, eternal and pre-existent. To claim that God would have made "replicas" of Himself on the plane of more gods, is to claim that He has abrogated His role as supreme. This is, of course, the fallacy of a prideful mind to imagine that humanity could be so endowed.

The very creation observed about us is a testament to the great orderliness of God.

I have been over at my father’s house for the past few weeks. He has passed on to glory and I was given the responsibility to arrange an auction of his earthly goods. Part of this duty is to put his possessions in boxes to be taken by the auctioneer. Some of my siblings came over a couple of days ago and were aghast at the clutter. They complained long and loudly. They did not understand that my purpose was not to clean the house; my purpose was to prepare the house for the next stage of its existence. It is no longer my father’s abode. It will soon become home to someone else.

This "clutter," or "mess," as they deemed the fruit of my labors, is a necessary transition point. The end result will be a house which has no clutter; it will be empty.

The fact of sin in the life of humanity has created a disorderly clutter in the world of mankind. We read of this disorder every single day in our newspapers. War, riot, destruction, natural disaster, these are all things which have invaded the perfect creation of God due to sin. Considering the great orderliness of God manifest in the nature of the universe, is it not reasonable to consider that He would provide a road map to humanity for the removal of the clutter and a restoration of a "clean" house in which for man to live?

There would be a need for a very precise message from God. This fact allows us to see that it would be necessary for a written message. This fact also allows us to see that it would be necessary that God be willing to preserve His message to humanity so that it would not be corrupted.

This all seems to be an outgrowth of the goodness of God. Pendleton, again, argues that this is so. He claims it to be a rational inference from the Goodness of God that He will not leave His creatures in comparative darkness.

God has not left his creature, man, in darkness. Even the man who has never picked up a copy of the Bible has been given ample revelation to consider that there is a Creator God. Bancroft (Elemental Theology) has noted that God has provided two kinds of revelation to man. The first of these is general revelation. This is the natural revelation of observance of the creation.

It should be obvious that there could be no creation without the fact of a Creator. Science has done a wonderful job of examining the glory of the created universe. Unfortunately, science has often chosen to ignore the fact that this universe had a beginning. I don’t mean that beginning by which the universe exploded into action in "Big Bang," or some such other beginning. It mean that science is unable to understand the beginning of time and matter.

Science, as a disciple of observed facts, has no basis to understand the unobserved fact of the basic creation of the universe and all that is within. The truth is that there is a spiritual reality, which is God and the eternal, which is beyond the reach of any telescope or microscope.

Jesus used the illustration, in the third chapter of John’s Gospel, to explain this fact. He said that the wind blows and we can see the effects of this; but we can not see the wind. Sometimes we can see things being carried in the wind. Still we do not see the wind with our natural eyes. Our weather satellites can give us a view of the effects of the winds, storms, and weather fronts. They can relay this information to the meteorologists on the earth and he, in turn, can issue his weather reports.

We need the eye of the "weather satellite" of Heaven to tell us of the truths of the creation of God. He has supplied that in His Book, the Bible. This Bible is of special revelation in that It gives us a supernatural view of the things which God has determined that we should know of Him and His works.

This, special revelation, is the second revelation which Bancroft mentioned.

This special revelation is much more precise and personal than is general revelation. It is a revelation not simply set out to be either seen or ignored. The Bible is a revelation which is intended to be studied. This revelation is precise in its pronouncements.

In our next session we will begin to take a closer look at the concept of General, or Natural, Revelation.

HISTORICAL (Continued)

General Revelation is that which we are able to see in the natural creation. Even that element within scientific inquiry which is vehemently anti God will deal with the concept of General Revelation. Unfortunately, in their inability to conceive of the metaphysical concepts of eternity and the spiritual, these persons have ruled out any possibility of God in their constructs. Because of this they have a limited view of essential reality.

Paul puts their problems like this: "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things." (Romans 1:22-23)

What is the evolutionary construct except a glorification of the creation over the Creator? Evolution is a concept that argues that the beats of the field and sea do not need the agency of the Creator God. They, it is argued, can create themselves into what they wish to be.

As we begin our session on the concept of General Revelation we will look closely at what Bancroft (Elemental Theology) has to say on the subject.

First of all, General Revelation is given to all. General Revelation was given to all men. This process gives witness to the fact that there is a God. It is an exercise in secular escapism that causes anyone to look at the wonders of nature and not realize that this could not possibly have happened by chance.

A neighbor comes by every week during the summer and mows my lawn. If he is gone for a week or two, and does not mow, the lawn begins to become overgrown. The grass does not "morph" into a beautifully manicured lawn. It grows long and tangled with the weeds. Disorder ensues when there is the lack of the hand which manicures.

The order in nature also gives witness to the fact that this God has a personal nature. The fact that He is Creator implies the concept of reason and plan.

General Revelation is given through nature. General Revelation is given through nature to all men. It is said that there are no atheists in the foxhole. Each person, whether he is gazing at the glory of the vast stars of the sky or the small "blip-blip-blip" if a machine in the physicians office, holds within his own being the knowledge that there is more to life than mere existence. We are, as Muelder and Scully realized, not alone. There is a power higher than our own that has given impetus to our lives and meaning to our paths.

General Revelation condemns man because man is left without excuse before God. Man understands his need to live above his urges and longings. Man is infused with the need to worship. When man has cast aside his responsibility to God, he has left himself condemned by the very Creator Who loved him.

Man cannot complain that he is unaware of the fact an reality of God. God, the Concept and the Person, is present both within and without man. We cannot look upon a dying parent and not realize that God exists. We cannot look upon that just born grandchild and not realize that God is real and in charge.

Man cannot escape the knowledge of God’s reality unless man makes a conscious effort, or unconsciously suppresses or avoids the very revelation of God, as the Creative Force and Rightful Ruler, in Creation.

However, we must realize that General Revelation is limited.

General Revelation is limited in its message to humanity. While General Revelation reveals the "reality and majesty of the Creator," it cannot reveal all of His attributes. This is why God inspired the Biblical record.

The concept of General Revelation is mute. It is a picture painted on a wall. It is open to the interpretation of sin darkened minds. Some have even so polluted the good water of the General Revelation of God that they have produced a poison which argues that God does not even exists. We, the apex of His creation, are called no more than brute beasts in our heredity and deportment.

Sadly, once we have exorcized the concept of God out of our secular classrooms, and let the contagion of this naturalistic philosophy permeate the curriculums of those classrooms, we have turned much of our youth into mirrors of those beasts. Deprived of the true knowledge of their dignity, the youth have seen license and filth become the culture of the day. Along with thuggery and brutality!

And our educators and politicians are at a loss to explain the reasons. Often they point the finger at the only remedy and claim that "religion" has led to the suppression of an altruistic value system.

The problem stems from the fact that we’ve rejected God and His plan, as revealed in His inspired and preserved Word. Before sin entered the picture God talked with Adam and Eve in the Garden. Now that sin has entered the picture, this personal relationship between Creator and creature is denied to humanity.

God has provided a remedy for that problem. It is through the knowledge that Jesus Christ died in time so that man could live in eternity. Jesus offers mankind the opportunity to be freed from the ravages of the sin nature so that a real relationship with the Creator.

Unfortunately, so hostile to the Creator are many of the "leaders" of the day, that we are told such information may not be presented. "It is," we are told, "a bigoted view." My son has a tooth ache. He took some aspirin for the pain. Would it have been "bigoted" for him to take the cure, he would remain in pain. The real "cure" for societies ills lies in the nail scared hands of the Great Physician.

The truth of General Revelation has been distorted because of the fallen nature of men. While God is perfect, man is incapable of understanding, or even viewing with sin darkened eyes.

God’s General Revelation is perfect. The fact of sin has given humanity a "fun house mirror" of distortion of that perfection.

In our next session we will take a look at the concept of Special Revelation. This is the inspired and preserved Word of God.

HISTORICAL (Continued)

In this session we will look at the concept of Special Revelation. This session will be shorter than the session on General Revelation. There is a reason for this. General Revelation gives us pictures and sign posts that should lead us to the understanding that there is a Creator Who has set the universe in motion. Certain things, such as His obvious attention to detail, the love demonstrated in His creation and the fact that there was a Personality involved in the creation of all things, are displayed through the wonders of that Creation.

Special Revelation, however, is the fact that God has given us a written record that displays this Creator to us in ways we could not understand were they not written out. We can have no frame of reference to understand anything of the eternal and spiritual because we are trapped in an existence of time and physicality. We could have no possibility of understanding our place in the great scheme of God’s created order, or in our proper response to that order, except that the God of Eternity and Spirit choose to reveal Himself in the Written Word.

That He has also revealed Himself to us in the Living Word is further evidence of His special care for His created beings. Even, however, our understanding of the Living Word is given through the medium of the Written Word. Although the Spirit works to confirm and amplify the teaching of that Written Word, we are first introduced to His ministry through that Written Word. Simply, without the great gift from the Father of the Written Word, we would not be able to understand, or experience, the great gift of the Living Word. Our understanding of God would be incomplete, far short of His intended message to us.

Bancroft (Elemental Theology) notes that the Written Word, Special Revelation, is necessary because God is beyond the scope of human comprehension. As above, the fact that our minds and experiences are darkened by the taint of sin, and the fact that our minds and experiences are limited by the scope of our time centric and physical existence, mean that we could have no understanding of God, the spiritual realities, and the true reality of eternity.

These facts mentioned just above also serve to limit our understanding of the truths presented in Natural Revelation.

Bancroft argues that Special Revelation is superior to General Revelation. Special Revelation is that which is given to man in his fallen state. It is a picture of God reaching down to the fallen creature and offering him a map from his lost state.

Early this past year I was asked to preach a grave side service for an aunt. I was unfamiliar with the location of the cemetery and was not allowed to ride with the body, as is normally the case, to the place of internment. I asked several people for directions. It was a confusing mix of "turn here" and "turn there" which greeted me request. Consequently, I was late in arriving for the grave side service.

Had I used the simple process of reading a map I would have found the location much easier than I did by relying on "heresay and theresay" directions. This is the great difference between General and Special Revelation. General Revelation gives us a picture while Special Revelation, with the use of inspired and preserved Words, gives us a complete set of revelations that can guide our path to the Savior.

Rather than superceding General Revelation, as Bancroft note, Special Revelation amplifies and explains the former.

That Special Revelation is more explicit than General Revelation makes is much more important. Just knowing that there are bottles which contain poison is a good thing to know. How much better is it to know which bottle has the poison. My little granddaughter was sitting at her father’s computer a few days ago. Next to the computer was an empty pill bottle. In Shandi’s hand were several mints - at least she told me they were mints. I took them away from her and wouldn’t allow her to have them until her mother and father came home and were able to identify just what was what.

Isn’t the certainty of what is candy mint and what is adult medicine an important concept when baby sitting with a small child! That could have to do with her very life. If I were to err I wanted it to be on the side of caution. "No, Shandi, you can’t have these because I don’t know whether they are good or bad."

How much more important is this in the realm of Special Revelation. It is so important - Special Revelation - as to be exclusive in nature. Because Special Revelation is so important Scripture is very much opposed to other types of supposed revelation such as astrology, sorcery, witchcraft, and other so-called "Scriptures" of false cults and religions.

There was a scene in the old MASH television show where one of the soldiers needed to go out into a mine field to retrieve a small child. The setting for the series was, of course, Korea of the early 1950's. Someone had a mine field "map" which allowed him to step around the mines. As he approached the center of the mine field it was revealed that it was the wrong map upon which he was relying. Being a comedy, the soldier was able to get out of the mine field.

That is the situation, except more serious in that it relates to eternal life and eternal death, which is contained in our reliance upon revelation from God. We must have the right "map." Another map will not serve our immortal souls!

This Special Revelation has been given us supernaturally. Much of the Old Testament is engaged in reciting historical events which are records so as to teach us spiritual realities. God has used the mundane things of the world to teach us the spiritual truths of which we need to understand in order o have fellowship with Him.

Not only has God allowed historical facts to teach spiritual truths, He has also so preserved His Words to us, because those words are so eternally important, so that we can access them even in our day. God has at no point lost control of His Special Revelation to humanity. The Spirit has worked with the churches and the Christians of those churches to insure that we have reliable copies of His very Words to us.

To have done less would have been to defeat the very purpose for which God gave those Words!

In our next session we will look at the effect which those inspired and preserved Words have had on real people in real situation.

HISTORICAL (Continued)

During this session we will look at the effect which Scripture has had upon individuals. Although this is not, by itself, an evidence of inspiration, one would expect that an inspired Scripture would produce such effects in society. Therefore this is an implied evidence of the inspiration of Scripture.

In "Critiques and Addresses" Professor Huxley, an agnostic, asked a question.

"By the study of what other book could children be so humanized and made to feel that each figure in that vast historical procession fills, like themselves, but a momentary space in the interval between two eternities, and earns the blessings or curses of all times."

Such a question is well asked. The wisdom of Professor Huxley, on this occasion at least, may be well noted in our current society. The Bible, and all reference to Christianity, has been largely proscribed by an incessantly secular world. Those strident voices have birthed a brand of Western "civilization" which has become increasingly individualistic society in that personal "rights" and "freedoms" are valued over the concept of community. James T. Kirk might no longer say, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one," as he mentioned in one of the "Star Trek" movies.

Since the advent of evangelistic secularism our society has become less civil in its actions toward others. We, as a people, no longer view our place in history as a simple temporary possession; we have become progressively desirous of "leaving a legacy" than of "making the world better for our children. "I" has become the pronoun of choice while "we" is considered only in the context of "our" place in the "we." Generally "we" consider our place to be at the head. We might not lead; but we have chosen our personal priorities.

Garner (Bible Analysis) has given several examples of well known persons of history who have been influenced by the Scripture.

"John Ruskin wrote: ‘Make it the first morning business of your life to understand some part of the Bible clearly, and make it your daily business to obey it in all that you do understand.’"

"John Quincy Adams said, ‘I speak as a man of the world to men of the world; and I say to you Search the Scriptures. The Bible is the Book of all others to read at all ages and in all conditions of human life; not to be read in small portions of one or two chapters a day and never omitted unless by some overwhelming necessity.’"

"Thomas Jefferson testified: ‘I have always aid, and always will say that the studious perusal of the sacred volume will make us better citizens, better fathers, and better husbands.’"

"Benjamin Franklin advised: ‘Young man, my advice to you is that you cultivate an acquaintance with an a firm belief in the Holy Scriptures, for that is your certain interest. I think Christ’s system of morals and religion, as He left them with us is the best the world ever saw or is likely to see.’"

"Daniel Webster contended: ‘If we abide by the principles taught in the Bible, our country will go on prospering and to prosper; but if we and our posterity neglect its instructions and authority, no man [may] tell how sudden a catastrophe may overcome us and bury all our glory in obscurity. The Bible is the book of all others for lawyers as well as divines, and I pity the man who cannot find in it a rich supply of thoughts and rule of conduct. I believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of God. The miracles which He wrought establish in my mind His personal authority and render it proper for me to believe that He asserts.’"

"Theodore Roosevelt challenged: ‘We plead for a closer and wider and deeper study of the Bible so that our people may be in fact as well as in theory, "Doers of the Word and not hearers only."’"

"William Gladstone, noted English attorney, said: ‘If I am asked what is the remedy for the deeper sorrows of the human heart, I must point to something which in the well known hymn is called the old, old story told of an old, old book and taught with the old, old teaching which is the greatest and best guide ever given to mankind.’"

Garner also noted the many translations of the Scripture. "The Bible is the first book ever printed... Its translation into languages and dialects have excelled that of any other book." Again, this is not a primary evidence of inspiration. This is something that would be expected to happen with a Book which God had inspired in order to give His Message to all humanity. This is a secondary, but I believe necessary, evidence of inspiration.

Even the opponents of the Scripture give credence to the assertion that the Bible is an inspired Book from God. Simmons (Systematic Study of Bible Doctrine) says that, "It is not likely that any merely human production could have triumphed over such opposition as has been brought against the Bible."

I do not believe it necessary to go into detail all of the historical burnings, confiscations, prohibitions and tortures associated with the possession of this Book. Today we do not see such. But, we do see symbolic burnings and confiscations as the secularist of society has succeeded in having the Bible as the most banned book in our day.

Men hate this book because men hate the Writer of this Book. Garner (Bible Analysis) makes not of this fact of human history.

"Across the road of life, wicked men have rejected the Bible and its message, scorned it, spurned it, and burned its pages. And when their cold corpses were silent, many a loved on has called on some saint of God, some humble preacher of this simple gospel story to stand over the casket of decaying flesh and bones and read from the sacred pages of the Word of God. The Word and its influence live on. So it has been and so it shall ever be."

No other single thing in this world is more feared and vilified by pseudointellectuals, social activists, hedonists, those whose primary goal is that each person must do his own thing, and others of these sorts, than a right reading of the Sacred Page.

The opponents of the Scripture have proved that they are opponents of the God of the Scripture - as the Bible teachers.

"Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate your from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner id their fathers unto the prophets." (Luke 6:22-23)

Still, it is the proponents of the Scripture, those who have been bought by the Blood of Jesus and love the things of God, who prove the power of the inspiration of Scripture within their own lives and words.

Garner, again, has noted this is of the believers of the ages. "Comforted by the Word of God, martyrs have been burned at the stake, beheaded, cast to wild beasts, singing the praises of God and shouting "Deliverance has come!’"

Strong (Systematic Theology) argues that this history of the churches has spoken of the inspiration of the Book. "The rapid progress of the gospel in the first centuries of our era shows it divine origin... That Paganism should have been in three centuries supplanted by Christianity is an acknowledged wonder of history."

The impact of the Scripture upon humanity, both the followers of Divine precept and those who hate the Author of the Word, are signposts that the Bible is not just another Book to be treated as great literature or interesting historical writings. The Bible, the influence which the Words of the Scripture have had upon the people of history which bear testimony to the fact of the inspiration of this Book by the Breath of God, is God’s Message to a world in need.

We will pick up somewhat this same topic in our next session as we look at the Scripture to the reader.