On The Damascus Road
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On The Damascus Road
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Rev. Kenneth Francart As I start this paper I truly hesitate to do so because it strikes very close to blasphemy as it deals with the attitude of God and that would mean that I am trying to put thoughts into God's mind. This, however, is not my intention nor is it a goal I intend to reach. (God's thoughts are complete in Himself. Nothing can be added to or taken away from Him.) Instead I am asking these questions of God and listening quietly and intently as the Holy Spirit speaks to my heart. A question has been raised, actually two questions have been raised by a writer¹ and I feel there is a need to bring some light to the subjects and in so doing I hope our Lord will enlarge the understanding of us mere men into the Holiness and Glory of our awesome God. The first question the writer¹ brought to light is: "In the creation there is the presence of things which God cannot approve, such as evil, pain, and death. If God is sovereign He could have prevented their coming into existence. Why did He not do so?" And the second, "If God rules His universe by sovereign decree, how is it possible for man to exercise free choice. And if he cannot exercise freedom of choice, how can he be held responsible for his conduct. Is he not a mere puppet whose actions are determined by a behind-the-scenes God who pulls the strings as it pleases Him?" These are two profound questions and deserve an honest and carefully thought out answer. In fairness to the author¹ he did try valiantly to smooth the violent waves aroused by these volatile questions. I pray that the Lord will open my mind to give clarity to this paper and understanding to the mind and heart of the reader to see the Lord in all his Glory and Unity. One Plausible Read The first and most important concept we must never forget is: God is omniscience (all-knowing). Everything that has happened, along with all that remains to happen into our future is already known to God. Isaiah 46:9,10 tells us, "For I am God, and there is none else; I am God and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying My counsel shall stand, and I will do my pleasure:" God does not need us. God does not need anything. His declaration above states that there is none other like Him and that means that He is complete in Himself. God wants us to love Him and fellowship with Him. Though it must also be understood that when we do love Him and bow down and worship Him, we add nothing to Him nor take anything away from Him. It pleases God to have His children willingly choose to love Him. That is the crux of this apparent dilemma of both seemingly unanswerable questions. As God's creation grew, one of the finest creations was His beautiful angel of the morning, Lucifer. Remember, from the beginning God knew the end results and He knew that Lucifer and a third of the hosts of heaven would fall (Rev. 12:4). He also knew that the first two beings that He lovingly created in the garden of Eden would fall to the wiles of the fallen Lucifer, Satan. All the angels in heaven have never known sin and serve God faithfully but do not have the choice of good over evil. Those that serve Satan also made a choice to follow his path and will never know the joy of serving our loving God. (As a side note here: I do believe that they remember their time with God and that is part of the hell that they now live under.) So why did God even bother with us? Time is none existent to God, but he did and does know that there will be a time when His children will come to Him willingly and worship Him. As I said, "It pleases God to have His children willingly choose to love Him." You know Jesus to be your Saviour and the Son of our Living God, and from the beginning your name was written in the book of life. You love God only because He loved you first. He told you in any number of ways that He loves you and then in His infinite wisdom He justified you from your sins by sacrificing His Son for your redemption. Why was your name written in the book of life from the beginning? Because of God's magnificent omniscience, knowing everything that will ever transpire, God foresaw your sincere desire to have Jesus on the throne of your life, your name was written down before your parents ever conceived you. This is neither predestination nor denial of freedom of choice. This is pure and simple God's foreknowledge of our willing choices. God saw the millions that would willingly turn to Him and when God looked down on His work on the sixth day of His creation, He saw that it was VERY GOOD (Genesis 1:31). He not only was pleased with what He had just done but from the beginning to the end He saw that what was started and completed was VERY GOOD. In a twinkling of an eye this creation from the beginning to the end, He saw the millions of souls that would have fellowship with Him throughout eternity. Sin, pain, and death were omnisciently allowed into the world so that women and men would have the opportunity, many opportunities to grow in the Grace and knowledge of Our Lord. As we sinfully bypassed the obvious path to follow, He allowed guilt to work on our sin sick hearts until we either turned from Him completely or willingly to Him with our full understanding of just how much He wanted us to share in His fellowship, goodness, and grace. Man had to have the freedom of choice so it would be possible to willingly choose God through Jesus Christ's sacrificial death. To make that wise decision man had to know evil in order to choose that which is not evil — the goodness of God. Now my prayer is that God in His unlimited mercy will bestow upon everyone the open mind that brings all into a full understanding into the totality of God and the fallibility of following evil. In Jesus Blessed Name I pray.
¹ A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy Chapter 22
August 14, 2006 |
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Jesus is standing at the door to your heart
all the time. He is knocking to come in and love you and guide you. He is
offering you the gift of everlasting life, but you must hear Him and open
the door to Him as He will not kick it in.
(Rev. 3:20) A gift is just outside your
heart's door at this time. Will you receive this gift? Will you open the
door to Jesus and let him flood your soul with His love? If so, read the
following paragraph as your prayer.
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Father, I know that I have sinned and I turn from my sinful ways and ask you to come into my heart and cleanse me. I know that I cannot do this on my own and I need your help. Fill my soul, Lord, and make me whole. I want your will for my life to be preeminent. Help me to grow in your way. I pray this in the precious name of Jesus. Amen
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