At Issue – Page 4 – Scripture Thoughts

Category: At Issue (page 4 of 14)

Three Things that Jesus did NOT do.

Jesus did so many things. In fact, John claims at the end of his Gospel that if someone recorded all the things that Jesus did, the world could not contain the books. This may be more literal than figurative when we consider that Jesus made everything in this world (Colossians 1:16). Just the DNA instructions alone from one person, if written out, would fill the Grand Canyon 40 times! His works are far beyond awesome. But it’s what Jesus did NOT do that also captures my attention.

First, and foremost, He never stopped someone who worshiped Him. Throughout the Bible either men or angels began to be worshiped and the first thing they did was to stop it because they were not God. Jesus, however did not stop it. This is a glaring indication that either He was guilty of sin by allowing a false god to be worshiped thus breaking one the biggest Jewish Laws or He was God in the flesh. There are several other supports to His deity, but this one seems to get little attention.

Second, after rising from the dead, there is no indication from Scripture that He appeared to His enemies that arranged His brutal crucifixion. He could have done this to prove to them how wrong they were. It would be like us sticking out our tongue at someone when we are proven correct about something. Our God has amazing, deep humility.

Third, He did not heal everyone who needed healing. He did heal all who came to Him, but there were many more who needed a touch from God in the areas where He preached. One time there were many people sitting around the Pool of Siloam that needed healing, but He healed just one man. A critic commented that he did not want to believe in a god that healed just a few but rather healed all. We must understand what Jesus’ mission was. It was to preach the Kingdom of God first then sacrifice Himself to open doors of eternal life for people. If He healed every person in Israel and beyond, He would not have had time to teach and establish the New Testament Word of God for future generations. Jesus also realized that if He cast out demons from all who needed it, many would later be 7 times worse because they did not get the Kingdom in their hearts (Matthew 12:43-45). Therefore, He had a difficult tightrope to walk on. He had to balance miracles, healings, and exorcisms with getting out the Truth about His Kingdom. An amazing prophecy in Daniel 2:44 speaks of God setting up His Kingdom “in the days of those kings” (context is Roman Empire) that will never be destroyed. This, I believe, was describing Jesus coming to earth the first time (Daniel 7:13-14). So Jesus had to multi-task but also had to keep a proper balance to do just what His Father was telling Him to do (John 5:19).

Feedback:

Jim M – Boy did I enjoy reading this!!!

AR – Thank you – I intend to pass this on to my Sunday Adult Bible study class and a few others.

VG – I liked that 3rd point. That gave me clarity on why God didn’t heal everyone. His purpose was foremost, as you said, for people to come into the kingdom or else the permanency of the healing would be abridged.

Was God Mean During the Old Covenant?

February 13, 2018 / dscheer / 0 Comments

Many skeptics and critics of our faith charge that there were contradictory gods in the Bible. The Old Testament one was mean, vengeful, and plain old nasty while the New Testament one is loving, forgiving, patient, and kind. They can make a good case when certain verses are taken out of context. By “context” I mean the Big Picture of what God needed to accomplish and when He needed to accomplish it.

When man rebelled against God with sin, God had to withdraw Himself from this planet. He cannot tolerate sin in His presence. So early in our history, there was a major problem…and things would get worse as sin produced its ugly effect over the years. Once sin ruled mankind, God could not help man face-to-face because every human would perish at the sight of His face. So He chose to work through people, especially prophets and the words in the Holy Scriptures.

One problem is that God could not reveal Himself all at once because, I think, it would be too much, too fast, and humans would not understand much. So He choose to do this slowly over hundreds of years, gradually leading up to His personal visit in human form. This unfolding of Truth in His timeline, I contend, was to maximize the number of souls that could obtain eternal life.

In His love for humans, God would intervene immediately after the first sin of Adam and Eve by covering them with animal skins. This was to show that human effort to cover sin (fig leaves in this case) is not effective when trying to rid ourselves of sin. But the shedding of innocent blood is. Therefore, the Jewish mandate of animal sacrifices was shouting out to fallen man that innocent blood had to be shed. This practice, however, was a temporary cover. It was awaiting of the sinless Messiah to shed His untainted blood to do away with man’s sin forever. This is the reason why animal sacrifices are not performed any longer – since the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem in 70 A.D. This was God’s judgment against a nation (not all individual Jews) that rejected their God by crucifying Him. I believe God is underscoring His accomplishment via the cross by not allowing the Jewish animal sacrifices to return.

Returning to the Old Testament, I believe God had to reveal His name, His holiness, and his rules so that mankind would know what to do with their lives. In a sinful state of separation from God’s presence, man had no idea what true holiness is. Hence, God in OT times was strict about certain things, and sometimes people were killed because they did not obey. In early history, the Creator was not feared or obeyed. This would change over the years (but, of course, not all would do this). The groups of people that did do this maintained the lineage of the Messiah so that huge numbers of souls could have eternal life.

At first glance, God seems harsh when He told Jews to kill people in the land promised to them. Sometimes they were commanded to kill women, children, and even animals. Why? First, we have a difficult time understanding the depth of wickedness in non-Jewish cultures. If they were not completely wiped out, the Jews would start acting like them and God’s plan of eternal life for humans would be destroyed. It’s like a good doctor treating cancer. Cancerous cells are normal cells turned renegade. Normal cells have the ability to reproduce themselves and to stop that process. Cancerous cells have lost the ability to stop this process. So they will eventually surround and crowd out normal cells, cut off their blood supply and kill them. So doctors must kill the cancer cells before they kill the person’s body. I believe in the Old Testament times, God reluctantly had to do this at certain times in history or the whole planet would be on a premature self-destruct path. This almost happened in Noah’s day. If it weren’t for the loving and merciful God of the OT, humankind would have been wiped out thousands of years ago.

But why kill animals of their enemies? The Bible never explains this, so I can only guess. I think it was a sign to other nations that the Jewish nation did not kill and conquer others for the wealth but rather it was the execution of God‘s judgment against horrible immorality. Animals were a most valuable commodity in those days. Heathens attacked and killed to gain wealth and power. In these cases, Jews did it to stop immorality from spreading. I also think God, because He loves non-Jewish people, wanted to let survivors know that He alone is the creator of all things and has sovereignty over all. False gods in other cultures never were considered to be over all things. The sun god, for example, had no power over the rain god, etc. So this concept of one God being all-powerful was a new concept for heathen people.

Unknown to Bible critics, there are 150 verses in the Old Testament that claim that God is loving and merciful. There are also countless times where He has intervened on man’s behalf to preserve life. Anyone can take verses out of context and without understating the Big Picture and come to the conclusion that the OT God is mean and harsh and unfair. But upon open-minded scrutiny of all the Scriptures, we can see that this is not so.

A Nameless God?

February 13, 2018 / dscheer / 0 Comments

I had a great exchange with one of the recipients of the Bible Sessions. She lives in the Philippines and was recently married. Even though she lives far away, I will keep her name anonymous:

Anon: I agree with you, I personally like to talk to people with different beliefs, not to challenge their religion, but to understand their faith. I am a very broad-minded person so trying to understand people’s feelings, culture and faith are things that interest me. I like to know their views and know more about their religion. I sometimes share with them my faith. I try to avoid telling them this and that about the Bible, but instead, I share with them my experience with the Lord and how God loves everyone. I try to emphasize that our God loves each of us equally, no matter what religion we have, and that there’s no right or wrong religion. I honestly have not encountered any “cults” although I’ve seen some on television. There are cults and I pray for their enlightenment. I know that God still loves these people and would want to save them. I pray that they find and experience God’s love.

Dave: Thanks for commenting. I always look forward to your thoughts. It is great that you share with others the love of God. When you say that there is “no right or wrong religion,” however, you must be careful about the ramifications of that statement. Our life’s experiences should not trump what God has said to mankind. Jesus gave plenty of warnings about false teachers, false Christs, and false religions. If other religions such as Islam and Hinduism (which worships thousands of gods) are right, then Jesus and the entire Old and New Testaments are wrong. The Bible clearly states that only Jesus is the Door to Heaven (Acts 4:12 and John 14:6 among others) because He alone conquered sin and death. No other religion has done this. Islam states clearly that Jesus is NOT the Messiah and that He is NOT the Son of God, and Hinduism either never acknowledges Jesus or merely adds Him to their list of thousands of gods, which is a huge slap in God’s face and it breaks the number one rule of the Old Testament that there is only One God and we should never worship any others. Islam says that their god, Allah, would never demean himself and become a mere man, he is too high up to lower himself to our level. Our God says that he loves us so much that He was willing to come down to our level so that He could save us. Quite a difference! To say that the other religions are right hurts the true God very deeply. So think your belief through more on this issue as to what you are actually saying and believing. Please realize that I am not making up these statements about Christianity, I am taking the Bible for what It says because the Bible is either the Word of God or it is not. If It isn’t, then maybe all religions do work, but then Christianity is a lie. We all must decide which side are we on. There is no middle road when you compare what religions believe. Please feel free to comment further if you would like to. Thanks.

Anon: I was actually thinking that I respect other people’s religion that I don’t consider their faith as “right or wrong” because as long as they do good and share love to their neighbor, then their faith in their God is doing them good. Everyone thinks that their religion is the “right” one and the others’ wrong. They have different “scriptures,” thus they base their faith on their “book.” I base my faith in my love of God, and my experience with Him. Every time other people talk about their religion, I listen but if they start telling me that MY choice of religion or faith is wrong, then they will definitely hear from me… but of course, I don’t fight with them. I tell them what I need to say and keep quiet. It’s up to them to listen to me or not.

Dave: You said, “As long as they do good and share love to their neighbor, then their faith in their God is doing good for them.” But then do they have eternal life with the true God? The Bible states that “all have sinned and have fallen short of God.” So no one ever does enough good or loves their neighbors enough to deserve eternal life. All must go through the cross of Jesus to gain forgiveness. He is God’s ONLY Son. When the human race in Adam choose to disobey God, all humans were locked out of eternal life. God had to do something to open that door again and He says that faith in Jesus alone will do that because of what He accomplished on that cross. If what you’re saying is true, then there would be no need to evangelize to our neighbors and to the nations as Jesus has commanded us to do. Furthermore, if I were Jesus and there were other ways to God the Father, I would never come down to earth and suffer and be crucified. We cannot trash what Jesus has done for us by saying other religions, which will contradict the Bible, are okay for others even though we believe in Jesus. Ever wonder why many people get mad or just turned off when we tell them about Jesus? At first thought it is strange because it’s such a lovely story about love that guarantees eternal life. This should be perceived as good news to everyone. But the Bible says that sinners are blinded by the god of this world, the Devil, and he hates Jesus and God. He is ruling their souls but they do not realize it. This is why they get mad or turned off. With all issues, believers in Jesus must use the Bible as a guide to sift truth from error because the Bible is God’s Word. If other “scriptures” from other religions are true also, then whoever is up there (God) is contradicting himself and I do not want to worship a phony, contradicting deity. Food for thought – Thanks for taking time to write,

Anon: Hmmm.. it only proves that I really really need to start reading my Bible. 🙂

Dave: Great response! I really appreciate what God is doing in your heart! Hugs and kisses from the Savior to you.

End Note: I recently contacted her and asked how she was going, and she said she is still reading her
Bible. Music to my ears!

Scripture Thoughts

Category: At Issue (page 4 of 14)

Three Things that Jesus did NOT do.

Was God Mean During the Old Covenant?

A Nameless God?

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