We do not live in a perfect world, and we would like things to be better. Even when things are going well for us individually, we know there is still a lot wrong with the world. And we know that good times are only temporary for us as well. When sin entered the world, things changed. Man was sentenced to life with hard labour (have you ever looked at clouds drifting over the landscape and wanted to be one? – cf. That lucky old sun has but nothin’ to do but roll around Heaven all day). After sin entered the world, man began to grow old and his body began to corrupt. In this body we do groan, said the apostle Paul. We are waiting for deliverance from the effects of mortality. So we dwell in corrupting mortal bodies. We cannot change who we are either – our height, our looks etc. – Matt.6:27 (Except perhaps by expensive surgery). So don’t be anxious about it. We cannot wish for strength and turn ourselves into lions etc. – O that I had the wings of a dove etc. (Ps.55:6). The only time someone defied gravity was when Enoch and Elijah and Jesus went to Heaven, and Peter and Jesus walked on water. Gravity wins in the end. False religion has no, and has never had, miraculous power in it – 666 is the number of a MAN. They are ‘lying wonders’, not real miracles (2 Thess. 2:9).
But further, when man sinned and sin entered the world, God had to withdraw. God hides Himself and yet He still deals with sinful man in a sinful world. Religion is the bridging of the gap between man and God:- “re” – “back or again”; “ligaire” – “to bind (eg. lego blocks). Hence religion is to bind back.
All of us play the game of “What if….” “What if I’d hung on to the old pedal car I had as a boy?” “What if I’d looked to the left, to the right, and to the left again before I crossed the road?” “What if I’d zigged and not zagged?” “What if I’d chosen to be a Butcher and not a Baker?” There’s probably little profit in it. I think all of us have pondered, “What if Adam and Eve had not sinned? What would the world be like today?” “What if we could see God every day?” Alas, such is not to be in this world – so great is the gulf between sinful man and a holy God that no man can see God and live (Ex. 33:20; 2 Thess. 2:8 – cf. 1 John 3:1,2) and as a result man is often not happy with the nature of the relationship between himself and God. It is a relationship of faith (2 Cor. 5:7), established and maintained by obedience to His word (Rom. 10:17). Not only does man not see God, man and God do not converse as they once did.
According to Heb. 1:1,2, God spoke to the forefathers by the prophets but now He speaks to us all through Jesus. God has never spoken to the world en masse, unless we count that original condition in the Garden of Eden when man was in perfect fellowship with Him (but ‘en masse’ was only 2!). Since sin entered, God’s way of relating to man has changed to reflect the changed condition. God spoke to Noah, his sons and thus to the people. He spoke to Moses and thus to the nation of Israel. Jesus spoke to the apostles and prophets and thus to the world, whether Jew or Gentile.
It is correct to say that God does speak to us, but we need to be careful just how we communicate that. He does speak to us but by means of an instrument. This is why we are to glorify the Word of God (2 Thess. 3:1). People sometimes think this is bibliolatry, the worship of the Bible. That’s because they do not understand the reverence we are to give to it. They feel free to do their own thing and don’t want to be bound by its dictates, except in loose generalities. Every word is inspired and so we are to glorify it as the Word of God. We do not worship it, but we worship the One who gave it and we are to be those who tremble at His word (Isa. 66:2).
God supplies things but He uses agencies. If any man lack wisdom he is to ask of God, says James. But you could pray everyday, God give me wisdom and you would never gain an ounce of wisdom unless you did what God said you should do to obtain wisdom. You could pray God save me everyday and it would not save you unless you did what God said to do to be saved. You could sing God save the King everyday and it would not save the King without Him obeying the gospel. We could pray give us our daily bread everyday and we will not have a platter of food magically appear on our table. We pray, but when we do what God says we obtain that for which we seek. There are no shortcuts or easy ways. Prayer is not an easy out to circumvent obedience and work.
We don’t fellowship with God as Adam and Eve did before the fall. We walk by faith and not by sight. However, often man is not content to walk by faith – that is, he is not content to trust God at His word, but wants some tangible presence of God to assure himself of the relationship. So the appeal of the charismatic movement is that it promises a miraculous dimension to the relationship. They are the modern Gnostics with their claim to something special that others don’t have. However, man walks by faith, not by sight. We do not walk by mysticism. We do not walk by “better felt than told” emotion. It is in walking in the light of God’s word that we have the relationship. If we cannot obey God’s written word, how could we do any better with a spoken word? If we cannot believe God’s written promises, would we fare any better with oral ones?
And we must also consider the silence of God. And God is silent on many things in His written word – it is just as much a test of one’s faith to leave the secret things to God, as it is to accept what things God has revealed (Deut. 29:29). One’s faith is tested just as certainly in his willingness to stop where God has stopped revealing, as it is to accept what God has revealed (James D. bales – The Human spirit and the Holy Spirit p. 184). Bible study is hard work. It is in the study of His word that the Spirit feeds me every day. With no study He cannot feed me, he cannot lead me. We cannot know the mind of God by consulting our own spirits (1 Cor. 2:11). Only the Spirit can illuminate us concerning the mind of God. How He does this, has, and continues to be, the subject of a lot of misunderstanding.
He does it by words. Read Ps. 119:104,105 and Ps.19:8. Now read 1 Cor. 2:12,13 and ponder: these Corinthians to whom Paul wrote, how had they been illuminated and saved? Read Acts 18:8 and you will see it was by hearing an inspired apostle preach with words: illuminated words that had been given to him by inspiration. Many believe, in spite of these plain statements, that the Holy Spirit has to, in some mysterious-better-felt-than-told way, directly illuminated the heart or understanding. They believe that the Spirit has to illuminate the mind in order for us to understand the Bible. Perhaps it is not necessarily feelings of superiority, or a messianic complex, but rather a fear of making a mistake that drives this thinking. A number of observations need to be made:
Why would the Spirit reveal an un-illuminated word and then have to illuminate men to understand it? Why not dispense with the word, cut out the middleman, and have direct illumination for everyone? Or why not just give a word that can illuminate my understanding? (this is what He has done, in fact)
How could the Bible be called the infallible revelation of God if you can’t understand it? What can it reveal, if you need miraculous illumination? How can it be called a revelation? (it would reveal nothing!)
Why was the Bible given by inspiration of God if inspiration is needed to understand it? We would have an unintelligible book and to what value? How can it be said to develop faith (Rom. 10:17) if it is not understandable? Those who revealed the scriptures proved their miraculous gift of inspiration by miraculous powers (Heb. 2:3,4). Those who claim illumination should be able to claim their illumination with miraculous powers to confirm the genuineness of their illumination, and dispel fears of it being a case of self-deception, or the deception of others.
If the Spirit does give an illumination in the mind of what He has revealed in His word, then that illumination must be infallible. The Spirit would reveal truth, not error, since he is the Spirit of Truth. This is one of the great difficulties in teaching such people: how can one such as myself, who claims no miraculous illumination teach one who claims miraculous illumination?! But if such illumination exists, why not present the world with illuminated commentaries?! That would save a lot of confusion and division wouldn’t it?! And besides, those who claim illumination differ among themselves: how can this be so if the Spirit is illuminating each one of them? (cf. 1 Cor. 14:33).
If the Bible must be miraculously illuminated, then He must illuminate it all. Where does the Bible teach that some passages need no illumination yet others do? It would mean that preaching was of non value – that people must receive the Spirit before they were saved in order to understand the word of the Spirit telling what to do to be saved. I’ve noted that passages that are hard for us to understand are also hard for those who claim illumination. Why should they be hard for the illuminated? Does the Holy Spirit have trouble understanding and/or explaining His own teaching?
We must ask the question, How does a person know that the Spirit has illuminated a passage for them? Is it by a feeling? Goes God tell them by a voice or e-mail? When two such claimants to illumination differ on a passage how does one prove the other must not have had the illumination he claims? I’ve noted they tend to do this by appealing to study of the passage and a logical defence of their position on it, so what is the value of their supposed illumination?
Finally, there lies a gross and arrogant assumption at the base of the claims for miraculous illumination. They claim they can do what the Bible can’t do!!! They talk, preach and write to inform people what the Bible teaches. They do that with words, either spoken or written. This they say the Spirit cannot do with His words in the Bible! What they say can illuminate our minds but the words of the Spirit can’t?! What utter arrogance! Their uninspired interpretations can do what inspired Scripture cannot do! Well! If an uninspired preacher or teacher using words can be understood (and they can otherwise people wouldn’t waste their breath), what makes them think the Holy Spirit can’t tell man what he needs to know using words? It is the height of absurdity as well as arrogance.
Please reveal your will for me so that I can serve you for eternity – so we sing. I’ve crossed out the words, Please reveal and written in You’ve revealed. Whilst the statement is, at best, ambiguous, what is true about it is the fact God doesn’t reveal how we are to use our life in the same way He reveals the plan of salvation and the ethics we are to live by. Why is this? Well, there is more than one way we can serve Christ – we can serve Him as a butcher or baker or candle-stick maker. There is more than one honourable vocation in the world. However, some people want to be told what to do in every detail
What is God looking for? God is looking for people with initiative: is that part of the development of man? Note that in the parable of the talents, the talents were distributed but with no instructions as to how to use them to gain profit. God wants us to take the life we have been given and use it profitably. A mother told her daughter, I gave you your life, now go out and do something with it!. For some, they want a miraculous sign, and since none are forthcoming, they interpret all manner of happenstance to mean this or that. The old African-American working in the cotton fields of Alabama looked up on a hot steamy day and saw clouds that appeared to form the letters G.P. He walked off the cotton patch believing this was a sign from God with the letters G.P. meaning Go Preach! His boss dragged him back telling him it meant Go Plough!
In short, God wants us to be responsible. Life is about responsibility for my decisions. I cannot blame the Holy Spirit for my decisions and courses of actions. We cannot know the thoughts of others, but only our own. We are responsible for our thoughts and decisions. We are not given miraculous inspiration as were the apostles and prophets. They did not have to think about what they were going to say under inspiration because it was given to them the very moment they spoke. That’s the way it had to be since if they wrote out their own thinking the Bible would not be the Word of God. Our thoughts are our thoughts. We are not inspired, either in written or spoken word, or in our thoughts. We are not to pray for miraculous intervention, but rather to study and grow in knowledge and wisdom.
It could be said that responsibility is the ultimate test of maturity. I knew a fellow who believed he should go to Hell if he deserved it and not get out of it by obeying the gospel. Do we have no responsibility toward God to save our soul? I am responsible for myself. It would be good to take on the Gestalt therapy for responsibility; to end each sentence with, and I take responsibility for it. For example, I’m feeling bored and I take responsibility for my boredom. I’m feeling excluded and lonely, and I take responsibility for my feelings of exclusion. I don’t know what to say now and I take responsibility for my not knowing (I will learn ways of doing better in these situations in the future). I do not know that person and I am responsible for not knowing (and I will introduce myself to that person).
I am responsible for my sin. The evasion and buck-passing that took place in the Garden of Eden after the fall of man has characterised man’s approach to sin to this day. It’s always someone else’s fault, so we say, and so we delude ourselves. Jesus Christ endured the opposition of sinners yet He was without sin. He was surrounded by a matrix of evil and tempted in all points even as we are, so we are without excuse.
Why can’t we be done with sin? This is another frustrating legacy of life. No matter how far down the road of life we travel, we remain sinners in spite of our best attempts to grow beyond sin. There is no perfection. Our work is not perfect; our relationships aren’t perfect; our health is not perfect; our homes aren’t perfect; in the larger scale our governments aren’t perfect; our societies aren’t perfect. Everything is marred in some way. Sin has left its indelible mark in our world, so much so, that even the creation groans under the weight of it, looking forward to the day when it shall be delivered from it.
Yet in the midst of the legacies of sin there is good news. I can be forgiven of my sin. This is the gospel, the good news. I can live as a sinner in a sinful world with all of its problems and be a saved sinner, in fellowship with God, with an earnest expectation of a sinless existence in Heaven in eternity. This gospel is more than good news: there is an aspect of it that must be obeyed. Woe unto those who do not obey the gospel (1 Pet.4:17; 62 Thess. 1:8). Have you obeyed the gospel? cf. Mark 16:15,16; Rom. 6:3-6; 17,18.