Lengua licaonica

THEISM
How Marvelous Are The Ways Of God!
Imagine that you had lived during the time of Jesus’ ministry; that you were a
Palestinian Jew from a Galilean city; and that it was your custom to go to Jerusalem
every year to celebrate the Jewish Passover Festival. Imagine that you were in
Jerusalem the year Jesus was crucified.
Having lived in Galilee you would probably have heard much about Jesus of
Nazareth (Matthew 4:23-24). You may have even heard him teach personally, perhaps
at the synagogue in Capernaum (Mark 1:21-22), or even seen one of his miracles, such
as the feeding of five thousand people. You may have known of his growing fame, or
that some people even wanted to make him king of the Jews (John 6:15).
Because you always came to Jerusalem for the Passover festival several days
early in order that you might purify yourself, you would while there on this occasion,
have heard stories circulating about Jesus. You may have heard about his having
raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11:43-44), and that the Jewish council requested
that if people saw Jesus in Jerusalem for the Passover, they should report his presence
to them (John 11:56-57). You may have heard how that when Jesus did come into
Jerusalem, great crowds laid their coats and palm tree branches in his path and
shouted “Hosanna to the Son of David!” (Mark 11:8-9; John 12:13) You may have even
heard Jesus teach in the temple and observed that his teaching upset Jewish leaders
(Matthew 21:23 – 22:46; Mark 11:27 – 12:34).
But you had come to celebrate the Passover, and that you did. Then, because
several days would have been required to journey back home, you would have waited
until after the Sabbath day to start. Meanwhile, some strange things happened the day
after the Passover. About noon, everyone in Jerusalem was surprised when the sun
failed to shine and the sky was darkened for about three hours (Matthew 27:45-46).
When the Sabbath came, you rested. Then, very early on the morning after the
Sabbath, an earthquake had startled you. As soon as possible, you had begun your
homeward journey.
Many other travelers would have walked along the same road with you. As you
fell into conversation with some of them, you may have learned that Jesus was
crucified the day before the Sabbath and that about the time he died the veil in the
temple had suddenly and mysteriously been torn from top to bottom (Matthew 27:51;
Mark 15:38). And then someone may have told you that early that morning during the
earthquake, graves were opened and that some people came out of their graves,
walked through the city, and were seen by many (Matthew 27:52-53). As you
continued walking, you might have wondered what all this meant. At any rate, you
surely had many interesting things to tell your family and friends when you got home.
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And now, in your imagination, change your identify. This time, imagine that you
are a Hellenistic Jew, and that you have traveled from Rome, or some other home city,
to Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost, which came just fifty days after the Passover.
Imagine that a friend, who had been at the Passover when Jesus was crucified, had
returned and told you some strange stories related to Jesus of Nazareth. This would
probably not have been the first time you had heard of Jesus, a man whom many
claimed to have worked miracles of healing (Matthew 4:23; 9:35; Luke 9:6, 11) and
whom many supposed to be a prophet (Matthew 14:5, 16:14; 21:11; Luke 24:19). You
might have thought that nothing so exciting as what had happened at the Passover
would happen at this Pentecostal gathering. If so, you would have been mistaken.
As you stood in the court of the temple on Pentecost morning, suddenly you
heard the sound of a rushing mighty wind (Acts 2:2). Looking around, you saw no
storm clouds, but you did see twelve men with what appeared to be cloven tongues of
fire on their heads, standing calmly and speaking in different languages (Acts 2:3-4).
Someone jested, saying the men were drunk, but that didn’t make sense because it
was mid-morning (Acts 2:15), too early to have become drunk! One of those twelve
men claimed that what everyone saw and heard was the beginning of the fulfillment of
an Old Testament prophecy (Acts 2:16-21; Joel 2:28-32). He then claimed that God
had raised this Jesus of Nazareth from the dead. The spokesman and the men who
were with him all claimed to have seen Jesus alive after his resurrection (Acts 2:22-24,
32). He quoted scripture from David to prove that one of the characteristics of the
Messiah was that he would be raised from the dead. All this, he said, proves that Jesus
of Nazareth, whom Jewish leaders had crucified, was indeed the promised and long
awaited Messiah (Acts 2:25-31). He said, “God has made this Jesus, whom you
crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36).
Imagine how you would have felt when you heard this message. When people
realized what they had done they were pricked in their hearts. When they asked what
they should do, they were told to repent and be immersed for the forgiveness of their
sins (Acts 2:38). Had you been among the crowd on that particular day of Pentecost,
would you have done that?
Assuming that you had obeyed that command, you would have been one among
three thousand (Acts 2:41). While enjoying the association of like-minded believers,
you would have stayed in Jerusalem longer than you had intended in order to obtain a
better understanding of how you should live with expectations of life after death.
Because you had not come with provisions to stay so long, resident believers in
Jerusalem would have provided for your needs and those of others by selling some of
their possessions, even lands and houses (Acts 2:44-45; 4:34-35). You would have
experienced the love of God in action, working through your fellow believers. After
some time, however, when persecution arose from Jewish leaders (Acts 8:1), you
would have returned home to Rome, or some other city. As you started back home,
you may have thought of the many friends and family members whom you wanted to
tell this good news. You might also have reflected on the marvelous ways of God.
When God sent forth his son to live among the people, He sent him to teach the
love of God not only in what he said but also by miracles of healing. He sent him to
teach not only that all men are sinners in need of salvation but also that God has
provided for that salvation to those who believe in Jesus as the promised Christ. After
the fame of Jesus had spread abroad throughout the land, God gave his son to die on
the cross to pay for the sins of humanity. Moreover, God did this at the most
prominent times of the year – during the Passover and the Pentecost festivals – when
the good news would most readily spread throughout the world. The printing press
was not yet invented. No newspaper, magazine, radio, or television was available for
broadcasting the good news, but God, by use of these two major Jewish festivals and
personal word of mouth, broadcast the gospel to the world. How marvelous are the
ways of God!

THEISM
God is Faithful
A faithful person is steadfast, loyal, dedicated, and unchanging in his or her
commitments and in relationships with others. Scripture characterizes God’s
relationship to others – whether of the world generally, of Israel in the Old Testament,
or of Christians in the New Testament – as that of faithfulness. To say that God is
faithful is to say that God is trustworthy. God can therefore be relied upon to keep his
promises. Assurance that God keeps his promises regarding the future may be
obtained by realizing that God kept promises he made in the past.
Here are but a few promises God made and kept in the Old Testament. God
promised Adam that disobedience would result in death (Genesis 2:16-17), which it
did (Genesis 5:5; Romans 5:12). After the great flood of Noah’s time, God promised to
put a rainbow in the sky as a reminder of God’s promise that he would not again
destroy the earth by water (Genesis 9:16-17), which he has kept. God promised
Abraham that his descendents would be strangers in another land, but that they
would thereafter inherit the land of Canaan (Genesis 15:13-16), which they did
(Deuteronomy 7:7-9). God promised Sarah when she was old that she would have a
son (Genesis 18:10), which she did (Genesis 21:1). God promised Abraham that his
descendents would be as numerous as the stars in the heavens (Genesis 15:5), which
they were (Deuteronomy 10:22). God promised to give the land of Canaan to
Abraham’s descendents (Genesis 13:15; 17:8). That promise was renewed to Jacob
(Genesis 28:13; 35:12), and to the sons of Jacob (Exodus 6:4-5; Leviticus 23:10; 25:38;
Nehemiah 9:8). All these promises were fulfilled (Deuteronomy 9:5; Judges 2:1). “Not
a word failed of any good thing which the LORD had spoken to the house of Israel. All
came to pass” (Joshua 21:45). God promised the Israelites that obedience would result
in prosperity and security (Deuteronomy 7:9-8:10; 28:1-14), but that disobedience
would result in poverty and destruction (Deuteronomy 8:11-20; 28:15-45). And that’s
what happened on numerous occasions. God promised prosperity whenever the
Israelites followed his word (Joshua 1:8). Whenever Israel turned from God, they were
oppressed by other nations (e.g., Judges 2:11-15). God promised David that his
descendents would be heirs to his throne (2 Samuel 7:12-16; Psalm 132:11) which
they were. God promised that wickedness would bring the destruction of Israel (Amos
7:14-17; 9-10), which it did (2 Kings 17:6-24). God promised to preserve the
righteous (Psalm 5:12; 34:17; 37:39; 58:11; Proverbs 12:21), but to destroy the
wicked (Psalms 37:20, 28; 2 Chronicles 25:14-16). When the wicked repented they
were then preserved, as was the city of Nineveh (Jonah 3:5-10). When the righteous
became wicked, they were then destroyed, as were the kingdoms of Israel (2 Kings
17:6-24) and Judah (2 Kings 24:1-25:21). God promised that the southern kingdom of
Judah would go into Babylonian captivity for seventy years, but that they would
afterward be returned to their native land (Jeremiah 29:10), which is what happened
(2 Chronicles 36:22-23; Ezra 1, 2; 7:7; Nehemiah 7:6-66). God is always faithful in
keeping his promises.
Because God keeps his promises, many have heralded his faithfulness. Moses
declared that God “will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of
your fathers which He swore to them” (Deuteronomy 4:31). He said, “Know that the
LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a
thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments”
(Deuteronomy 7:9). Moses encouraged the Israelites to “be strong and of good
courage” because God “is the one who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake
you” (Deuteronomy 31:6). Samuel declared that “the Lord will not forsake His people”
(1 Samuel 12:22). The Psalmists often heralded God’s mercy, truth, and faithfulness
(Psalm 9:10; 37:28; 40:10; 89:1, 2, 5, 8, 24, 33; 92:2, 15; 98:3; 119:65, 90). Daniel and
Nehemiah said that the Lord was a “great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant
and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments”
(Daniel 9:4; Nehemiah 1:5). Hosea observed that “Judah still walks with God, Even
with the Holy One who is faithful” (Hosea 11:12). Ezra observed that although “we
were slaves, yet our God did not forsake us in our bondage; but He extended mercy to
us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to revive us, to repair the house of our God, to
rebuild its ruins, and to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem” (Ezra 9:9).
God’s faithfulness may also be realized by the constancy of His character. That
constancy gives assurance that He will remain forever faithful. There is no variation in
His holiness, truth, love, goodness, mercy, etc. He changes not. He is forever the same
(James 1:17). And so also is his son (Hebrews 13:8). We may therefore expect God to
keep his word by fulfilling promises related to salvation through Jesus Christ. Some of
these promises have already been fulfilled, while others have yet to be fulfilled. For
example, God promised to send a savior (Genesis 3:15; 12:3; Deuteronomy 18:15-18),
which he did (Matthew 1:21; Acts 3:22-25; Galatians 3:8; 29).
Just as Old Testament writers testified to the faithfulness of God, so also do
New Testament authors. Paul wrote “For what if some did not believe? Will their
unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect?” (Romans 3:3) “God is faithful, by
whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1
Corinthians 1:9). “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man;
but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able,
but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear
it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). “He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it” (1
Thessalonians 5:24). “The Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from
the evil one” (2 Thessalonians 3:3). “If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot
deny Himself. . . . Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal:
"The Lord knows those who are His," and, "Let everyone who names the name of
Christ depart from iniquity” (2 Timothy 2:13, 19). The author of Hebrews wrote, “Let
us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is
faithful” (Hebrews 10:23). “Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God
commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator” (1 Peter 4:19). John
wrote, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Believing that God is faithful,
Christians are thereby encouraged to live faithfully for the Lord. Because we realize
that God has fulfilled some promises, we may be assured that in God’s own time he
will fulfill other promises.
Some of God’s promises – because they are related to the final judgment day
and eternal destiny – have not yet been fulfilled. To those who believe and obey, God
promises eternal salvation (Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-16; Acts 2:38). However,
to those who do not obey, God promises eternal destruction (Matthew 7:21-23; 2
Thessalonians 1:6-10). Christ promised to come again (John 14:3; see also Acts 1:11; 1
Thessalonians 4:15-17). When Christ comes again, this present world will be burned
up (2 Peter 3:7, 10). God has promised to judge the world through Christ (Acts 10:42;
17:31; Romans 2:16; 14:10; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Revelation 20:11-15). Those that are
in Christ will be ushered into the heavenly realm to be with God (1 Thessalonians 15-
17), whereas those who are not in Christ will be condemned eternally to hell to be
with Satan and his angels (1 Thessalonians 1:7-9; Hebrews 10:26-29; Matthew 25:34-
46). Since we may expect God to be faithful in keeping his word, should we not believe
and obey, in order that we may receive God’s blessings rather than his curses.
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Copyright ©, September, 2004, by Robert L. Waggoner. Permission is granted to copy and distribute
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