05 Jan Following The Evidence #129
A quick recap on the lies about God we have been considering. The first one is that God can be whatever you want Him to be. This is the supermarket religion that has a whole spectrum of beliefs – all that ignore the revelation that God has made of Himself and the way he made it. We also noted that the statement “I believe in God” is meaningless because according to our culture there are thousands of different Gods. This is idolatry because it makes God in our image by putting Him in a manageable form that we can understand.
This is Jeremiah’s ‘scare crows in a cucumber patch.’ There is a purpose in the way God has revealed Himself through the stories in the Bible and His actions. We have covered the ground in the Old Testament, the Sanctuary service and the New Testament that reveals the two main aspects of His character. He is a God who is both kind and stern. The revelation of God from the Bible (which is the only reliable source) contrasts His Justice and mercy with law and grace. Most importantly, we noted that the unifying factor in all this, was the cross, where both sides come together as noted in Psalm 85:10 where love and truth meet together and Justice and peace kiss each other, and Romans 3:26 where God can be just and yet the justifier of those who believe. At the Cross love and justice passionately collide resolving the issue for eternity with mutual satisfaction.
Other lies we dealt with were that God has not changed His opinion about sin between the old and new testament, He has just changed the timetable for punishment. This led us to the conclusion that the God of the Old New Testaments are not different. We noted that God is particular and that His rules are immutable (unchangeable) except where they are declared a shadow as in the ceremonial law.
Last week we meditated on how God is totally in control of all of nature which itself is cursed and awaiting redemption just like we are. (Romans 8:19-22.) The revelation of God from nature is the same as in scripture. It shows the two sides to God’s character. We had to remind ourselves that God’s ways are not our ways and our understanding of His sovereignty is beyond our understanding (Isa 55:8-9). He acts from the standpoint of eternity, while we are locked into time. His decisions are made from a different perspective. God views from the grand panorama of timelessness, while we only see a speck. God does not delight in human suffering but must allow the drama to roll to its divine conclusion before a watching universe. There is a war raging between truth and error and the father of lies attacks everything God stands for, whether that be His character, His truth, His law, His church or its individuals.
There is one lie that is a monumental attack on the character of God, and it is to this lie that we will now turn.
No Comments