Let’s be Reasonable

Many people believe that there are psychics and modern-day prophets who can accurately predict the future. But how does that measure up to the word of God?

Interviewer: Sir, I feel a little sheepish (no pun intended) about asking so many questions, but it seems to me that some preachers put too much emphasis on truth and reason. Wouldn’t you agree?

God: Haven’t you read the prophets?

Interviewer: The prophets, you mean in the Bible? Because there are lots of folks who call themselves psychics and prophets right now.

God: They aren’t my prophets.

Interviewer: But you have to admit, they get it right a lot of the time. I mean, some of these modern prophets can hit it more than fifty percent of the time and have really predicted some strange things.

God: They haven’t passed my test.

Interviewer: Test? You mean there’s a test? Like a prophet test or something?

God: Precisely.

Interviewer: So what’s the test like? Do you have to know the names of the apostles or something like that?

God: The test is in my Book.

Interviewer: You mean you can cheat or something?

God: Not in my Kingdom.

Interviewer: So where’s the test. I’m not too familiar with your Book.

God: Have you heard of the first five books of the Bible? The books my prophet Moses wrote down as he was directed to do?

Interviewer: I’m not too good with the historical stuff. Is the prophet test in those books:

God: Read Deuteronomy, chapter 18, verse twenty-two, as some one of you has numbered my books. “when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.” (Deuteronomy 18:22, ESV) What does that mean to you?

Interviewer: It sounds like you expect every prophecy made to either come true or else that person isn’t speaking for you. Am I right?

God: Exactly. I like to call it the 100% test.

Interviewer: Then those people who predicted the deaths of famous people or earthquakes, and so on, weren’t your prophets? Is that what you mean?

God: Yes. If that person doesn’t get it right 100% of the time, I didn’t give him the message.

Interviewer: While we’re on this subject, may I ask another question?

God: Be my guest. I have all the time in the universe.

Interviewer: My preacher told me that there are a lot of prophecies in the Old Testament part of the Bible about the coming of Jesus. Is that right?

God: I see you missed a lot of Bible classes. Your preacher? If he is a true servant of mine, then he’s my preacher. Yes, there are many prophecies about the coming of Messiah, the Anointed One, my Son. More precisely, there are

over one thousand two hundred prophecies about Messiah in the Law and the Prophets.

Interviewer: So, if I may ask, (pardon me, please) how many of those prophecies came true?

God: All of them.

Interviewer: You can’t expect me to believe that over twelve hundred prophecies came true, that they all passed the 100% test.

God: My prophets all passed the test.

Interviewer: Wow, I’ll bet they had a big following. You know, they must have been really popular.

God: Not so. Haven’t you read what my Son said? “’ so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.

Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!’” (Matthew 23:35-37, ESV) So you see, my prophets were killed by the people I loved. I sent the prophets to them to warn them of danger and to prepare them for my Heavenly Kingdom.

Interviewer: I guess you should think twice before deciding to become a prophet.

God: My prophets didn’t decide to become prophets; I sent them with a message and some of them really didn’t want to deliver it.

Interviewer: So just what does a prophet do? Doesn’t he just tell the future? Isn’t he sort of a psychic?

God: You seem confused about prophecy and what is called apocalyptic.

Interviewer: I’m not sure I can even pronounce that second word. What’s the difference?

God: My prophet’s foremost task was to warn the people to look back from where they had fallen, fallen from my grace, from my covenant, my love. They called the people to repent, to turn away from evil and turn back to Me.

Interviewer: Oh, so not just future-telling?

God: That’s correct. On the other hand, other servants of mine wrote what is called apocalyptic literature. The foremost message there was to tell the people to stand firm in their faith in Me and that I was working to bring about their ultimate good.

Interviewer: So which is which?

God: Well, the big books of prophecy in the Bible are mostly about repentance, but with some references to future events. Almost all of the future events are tied into the sending of My Son, the Messiah.

Interviewer: What about the book called the Revelation of John in the New Testament?

God: Ah, that fits more into the category of apocalyptic literature. By the way, it wasn’t John’s Revelation; it was my Son’s Revelation. The Christians were under severe persecution and I wanted them to stand firm because I was already in action.

Interviewer: But isn’t that book about the end of time?

God: Many people believe so but have misunderstood the book. Haven’t you read the opening lines? “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place.” (Revelation 1:1, ESV) What does “soon” mean to you? To Me, soon can be tomorrow or thousands of years from now. But the message was meant to be understood by humans.

Interviewer: So what about modern-day prophets. I mean, some people believe they have a fresh revelation from, pardon me, You.

God: Then they need to read my Book. “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets,

but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.” (Hebrews 1:1-2, ESV) You see, my Son does the speaking for Me. I haven’t appointed anyone to speak on His behalf lately.

Interviewer: This is a lot of information. May I get back to you later with some more questions?

God: Certainly. By the way, you need to sign up for a good Bible study. You aren’t doing too well with my Book.

Interviewer: Yes, Sir. Sorry about that. I’ll make a note of it and get into a Bible study as soon as possible. Thanks and good day.

God: You’re welcome and good day to you.

Of Donkeys and Men

It seems that I have difficulty understanding the Holy Spirit, but then I think most people do. It's not easy to understand God who is the Spirit anymore than it is easy to understand God the Father. In fact, I know much about Jesus through the gospels, but I'm not sure I really understand Jesus, at least not as well as I would like.

So understanding the Holy Spirit requires that I do some real research through the pages of the Holy Scriptures. Now, God is a truthful God and in Him there is no deceit, no lies, no beating around the bush. So I thought I would have a bit of a conversation with God, you know, get His ideas about the Holy Spirit. After all, He is the Spirit, so why not go to the Source? So I will call myself the interviewer, you know, just like broadcast news, and interview God on this important subject.

Interviewer: God (do I call you Mr. God? His Reverence? Father?), good morning, Sir. I would like to know more about the Holy Spirit. When did the Spirit first get involved in all of this?

God: This what?

Interviewer: You know, the Creation, man, animals, the whole ball of wax, so to speak.

God: Haven't you read My Words? “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness covered the surface of the watery depths, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.” (Genesis 1:1, HCSB) My Spirit has always been with Me, my Spirit is Me and my Spirit was there at the beginning of creation.

Interviewer: Oh, I see. So it's safe to say the Spirit was in on this creation phase.

Now, then, did people have the Spirit, you know, the Spirit living in them, or the “indwelling” as some call it, back in the old days.?

God: Old days? One day to me is the same as a thousand years. (2 Peter 3:8)A thousand years means nothing to me. Time means nothing to me. What do you mean, “old days?”

Interviewer: Right, I forgot. Excuse me, please. I mean, before your Son came to the earth?

God: A little light on Bible reading, are we? Haven't you read my messenger, Joel? “After this, I will pour out my Spirit on all humanity;” (Joel 2:28a, HCSB) Peter, another of my messengers, understood this when he preached to a large crowd of Jewish believers. Peter understood that I meant for the Spirit to come after my Son returned to heaven, following His work on earth.

Interviewer: So this “indwelling” thing is for people after Jesus died and rose from the dead?

God: Peter explained my words very carefully. “'Repent,' Peter said to them, 'and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus the Messiah for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.'” (Acts 2:38, HCSB) My Spirit is a gift to those who call on the name of my Son, Jesus.

Interviewer: So that's why some people can speak in tongues or prophecy? They got that gift when they believed in Jesus?

God: You are confusing the gift of the Spirit and the gifts the Spirit gives. The two are not one and the same, as some would tell you.

Interviewer: But I have friends who say that if you can't speak in tongues you don't have the Holy Spirit? Isn't that right?

God: That's a classic misunderstanding of my Spirit.

Interviewer: But when the apostles got the Spirit, they immediately spoke in tongues, or foreign languages, different dialects. Right?

God: I see we're having trouble with the time thing again.

Interviewer: I don't get it.

God: I poured out my Spirit on my church, the church my Son died for. The Spirit was given as my gift. My spirit can give gifts as He chooses. As soon as my Spirit was poured out on the church on the day of Pentecost (a special Jewish holy day), He gave the apostles all of the gifts He had for man.

Interviewer: But those apostles speaking in tongues, that was a sign they had the Spirit, right? They could talk to folks in their own language about Jesus.

God: Is that what you think happened? A little more Bible study, perhaps?

Interviewer: Right. Can you help me on that, please Sir?

God: In those tongues, as men call them, they spoke in those different languages about Me, about my magnificent, wonderful acts throughout time. They were praising Me.

Interviewer: But I thought you gave them that ability so that they could preach the gospel, spread the word.

God: Peter used his own language to speak to the crowd. He even got louder so that everyone could hear him. (Acts 2:14)

Interviewer: How did they learn those languages so fast? My friend says that he can teach me to speak in tongues. Is that true?

God: Do you understand the word “gift” in your language? I gave them the ability to speak in those languages, they didn't learn them.

Interviewer: Does every Christian have that ability?

God: It's not the most important gift. There are many others. Not everyone had the gift in the past.

Interviewer: Really?

God: Have you not read what my apostle, Paul, said to the Christians living in the city of Corinth? He reminded those believers that not everyone had the same gift, but that my Spirit was involved in every one of them. They were dividing my church, my Son's body, over the gifts, trying to say one gift was more important than another. He then told them that they should desire the greater gifts after naming miracles, speaking in tongues, interpretation of tongues, knowledge, faith and so on as gifts of the Spirit. If there is something greater than those, they should desire the greater, not the lesser.

Interviewer: And?

God: Of course, love is the greatest. (I Corinthians 13)I am love. That is the best description of Who I Am. Have you not read my messenger, John? (I John 4:8b) Wouldn't you rather have the gift giver more than the gift itself?

Interviewer: Please explain that idea for me.

God: When someone gives a gift to another person, it's not the gift that the other person wants, it's the person who is giving the gift, that person's love, that person's heart. Isn't that why a man gives a ring to a woman, to show his love for her? The ring is just a symbol of his love for her. She wants the ring so she can always remember he loves her. But more than the ring, she wants him, his love. It's the same with my gifts. I have given the Spirit so that you may know that I love you. The greatest gift was my Son, who, by the way, is also the Spirit. But that's for another session.

Interviewer: But how about speaking in tongues? If I can't learn how to do it, how do I get it? Pardon me for being so simple.

God: I can make anything talk. My Son told the religious bigots of His days on earth that He could make the stones talk. (Luke 19:40)

Interviewer: Really? Not just Christians?

God: I once used a donkey to tell a man he was going the wrong way. He didn't get it, even when the donkey talked to him. (Numbers 23, 24) Humans who don't really want to understand Me will get it wrong about the gifts of the Spirit, too.

Interviewer: So if I can't speak in tongues, what should I tell my friend?

God: Tell him to go talk to some donkeys.

(My humble apology to God, using the above technique to try and explain a troubling misunderstanding. Lord, may you be glorified. Amen)

Is the Holy Spirit for Everyone?

He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God.

But Elymas the magician (for that is the meaning of his name) opposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith.

But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him

and said, "You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?

And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time." Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand.

Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord. (Acts 13:7-12, ESV)

It seems that we often think we understand a subject only to find out later that we were wrong about some aspect, some small point. God does amazing things, and all we have to do is accept what He does. But for some reason, we aren't happy when God does something that seems different than a preconceived notion we have about how He should act in a given situation. I mean, really. Strike a man blind! It must be the Holy Spirit working through Paul who struck Elymas blind. Talk about a misunderstanding. All Elymas was doing was trying to give a different point of view, another way to look at things. Surely you don't believe that God will hurt people with the Holy Spirit, do you? Okay, okay, I know that the Holy Spirit killed Annanias and Saphira for lying. I think I get it. But now here is poor Elymas, simply trying to keep Sergius Paulus from falling into the trap of believing everything Paul is telling him and zap! Elymas is stricken blind. Not only that. Did you see the language Paul used? He called Elymas a son of the devil. Now how does Paul know what is in Elymas' heart? Paul said he was full of deceit and villainy. Pretty bad stuff. I wonder if Paul could have been sued for libel? Does the Holy Spirit do this kind of thing? Seems odd to me.

Oh, I guess I didn't understand the whole story. Elymas is an Arabic name meaning magician or sorcerer. His real name was Bar Jesus, or son of Joshua. It seems that Elymas is Jewish. Oh, here it is. In Deuteronomy 18:9-14 it says that all kinds of magic arts, divination, sorcery, etc., were strictly forbidden under the Old Law. So what's Elymas, a Jewish man, doing playing around with something that was strictly forbidden for Jews to do? Ah, there's that word, villainy. Turning a buck. Old Elymas is just trying to get ahead in this world, using something that is strictly forbidden in the Jewish religion, to get a bit of the good life. Where's the money coming from? Oh, yeah. Sergius Paulus. If Sergius Paulus believes the things that Paul is telling him (the good news), he'll stop believing all of the lies that Elymas has been telling him. It seems that even in our times politicians often consult with astrologers, mediums, etc., to try to figure out how to stay ahead in the game, whether running for office of running a country.

But this is shocking. If God used the Holy Spirit to kill Annanias and Saphira and used the Holy Spirit to blind Elymas, what does that mean for me? I thought the Holy Spirit only did good things. You know, like give me strength for hard times. Get me out of a jam. Heal my poor friend.

But that raises another problem for me. That means that all the stuff Jesus said about, well, you know, the hot place, eternal punishment, just might be true. If I don't stay faithful to Jesus, will He really consign me to eternal pain and separation from Him? Makes you wonder, doesn't it?

Does Truth Matter?

"And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers,
to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of
God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,
so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried
about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful
schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held
together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working
properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love."
(Ephesians 4:11-16, ESV)
It seems the early church had some very familiar misunderstandings. I mean, people just didn't seem to get it. A lot of the time. About a lot of things. Take the case of Ananias and Saphira. Just for a little misunderstanding, God zapped them, right on the spot! Wow, talk about a big mix-up. Now I don't know about you, but that seems like overkill to me (please excuse the pun). Okay, let's see if we can sort this out. Ananias and Saphira were two of your middleclass Christians, trying to help the poor, just as good ol' Barnabas had. Nothing wrong there, right? And, according to Peter himself, they had the right to set the price for sale of the land they owned, right? And they were free to give as much of the money as they wanted to help the poor, correct? Or they could have given just a little bit. As I understand the story, there was no set percentage, no certain amount that was to be given to the church to feed the poor. So what's the big deal? Did I miss something? Isn't feeding the poor part of what the church does?
“ But Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy
Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land?”
(Acts 5:3, ESV) But I thought Ananias had lied to Peter, not to the Holy Spirit. So how is lying to Peter construed to be lying to God? Peter isn't God, so why the big deal? If someone in the church lies to another Christian today, is that the same thing? Ananias and his dear wife, Saphira, were scheming. Why on earth would they want to tell a lie about the land and the money? Seems from the context that our friend Barnabas was getting a bit of popularity for taking a piece of land, selling it and then giving all of the money to the apostles for distribution to the poor. If you read the whole story in Acts 5, Peter had no problem with anyone keeping
part of the money from the sale of property. People didn't even have to sell the land and give the money to the church. But lying . . . Now, there's another problem. Lying is so much a part of society today that people do it without blinking an eye. Lying is used to cover up mistakes, to get what one wants, to fool others. It was such a problem in the time of Christ that even Pilate, when Jesus said that He was here to bear witness to the truth, sarcastically replied, "What is truth?” (John 18:37) Lying is so much a part of our world that I can remember when I was nine years old, the reply of an elderly Christian woman when I said that I wanted to become a lawyer when I grew up, “You can't be a good lawyer unless you lie.” Lying brings down governments. Lying brings about wars. Lying destroys marriages. Lying estranges us from loved ones. Lying separates us from God. It is politically correct to lie in our age. But is it Biblical? According to the passage in Ephesians 4, we are to grow up in Christ. We grow up by learning to speak the truth, in love. Real love is truthful. Again, why did God kill Ananias and Saphira (Peter certainly didn't do it!)? The apostles had been filled with the Holy Spirit. If Peter couldn't have detected a lie in this little area, people would have doubted the truth of the gospel
message. The church cannot be built on lies. There is no earthly reason known to man to rationalize lying. It is not a venial sin, as taught by certain religious organizations. A venial sin, according to that interpretation, is a sin that does not separate one from God. On the contrary, all sin separates us from God. Lying is the very first sin we find in the Bible, perpetrated by none other than Satan himself, the Father of lies, in order to try and destroy God's creation. In
the church, lying is deadly. No, I haven't been zapped for lying. But I respect God's word and I know that He sent His Son to die for lying as well as for other sins. I also know that He
intends for me to grow up, to put away childish tendencies. Lying is one of the most vicious habits a person can get into and only the blood of our dear Savior and the power of the Holy Spirit can help us to break the chains of that deadly habit. In a sense, when we lie to one another in the church, we are lying to our Savior. Think about it. In the church of Jesus Christ, there is no politcal correctness. There is only the truth of our dear Savior, Jesus Christ, and He was willing to die for truth. Where do we stand on this matter? "I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of truth." (I Timothy 3:15, ESV)