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he dictionary defines
contemplation as, to look over, to ponder and to consider thoughtfully. Honest contemplation can bring about honest
confession and insincere contemplation can bring about refutation. To some, the act of contemplation does not enter
into the religious experience, yet the ancient pious entered a state of honest
contemplation before addressing their deity.
Job 7:17-18, “What is man, that you should magnify him, and that you
should set your heart upon him? And that you should visit him every morning,
and test him every moment?” Thus began
the contemplations of Job, a simple search for his purpose in life. To the pious, I am describing the
characteristic of the heart that leads to true confession of the soul. Contemplation or deep thought will reaffirm
our position in relation to our creator and is acceptable in God’s sight.
“What is man
that thou should make him seems so important, and that thou should give him
such attention?” David uses the same
words, in their right application, to express wonder that God should do so much
as He does for the insignificant man.
David and Job seem to realize that their existence was no consequence in
the overall plan of God. They both also
realized or reasoned from God's condescending so far to notice man as to try
him, that there must be a wise and loving purpose in trials. (To simply put, we are being tested for a position in the Kingdom.) To enter into a true state of contemplation
we as Christians should seek to understand the true purpose of our creation. We should come as little children manifesting
our love for the Father in Christ Jesus and asking him to enlighten us.
Iconic leaders of religious lore speak of
extended periods of contemplation or deep thought and during those moments, a
greater knowledge of conformities and in some cases nonconformity, come into
focus. The contemplation of man should
be about self-improvement rather than the desire to create a new order and lead
others. New religions are often born out
of a desire to improve our status in the sight of God and man. In a contemplative state, man’s view of God
and the world will be through clouded eyes, if we seek merely to justify our
position on planet earth. Serious
reflections often result in overemphasizing our own importance in the overall
plan of God thereby creating a forum for confusion for those who are seeking to
know God through our actions. The same
can hold true when considering or pondering the all-powerful, all-knowing,
attributes of God. Many preachers’
untenable views of God and the reason for our being here have contributed to a
state of deliberate confusion.
It is not the will of the Devil that we do
not study God’s word. Because of man’s
nature, this would be an impossible expectation. Forbidden things tend to be more
attractive. It is the works of that old
Satan, the serpent, to create confusion in the word of God, thereby causing man to discard the word of God. Confusion was effective in the Garden of Eden
and it still is.
Stumbling over the context and the
prospective of the scriptures in an attempt to prove our preconceived positions
is not in the best interest of teaching or understanding God’s word. Diminishing the prospective of the spiritual
world in order to amplify the natural world and its entitlement is not
scripturally sound. Many times our
preconceived positions do not allow us to consider or even accept the changed
dispensation of the Old Testament God of Moses and the New Testament God of
Paul. The God of Moses (The Father) was
a great deliverer. His plan was to
repopulate the earth with a chosen people.
In simple words, the mission of this chosen people was to destroy the
evil element of this world. It is alien
to our limited modern day prospective to acknowledge that the God of the Old
Testament often went on killing sprees as we thumb through the Bible looking for promises of blessings that might or might apply to us.
New Testament Bible history shows that the
emphasis shifted from the natural to the spiritual world. Jesus message was repent for the Kingdom of
Heaven is at hand. All of the New
Testament religious patriots suffered hardships. Many New Testament patriots gave their lives
in the service of God. Jesus taught his
disciple to pray that the Kingdom would come.
Today, trusting in God is the way to get everything you want to live comfortably
here on Earth and waking up is the greatest blessing achievable. Jesus said in Matthew 5:10, “Blessed are they which are persecuted for
righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” When Jesus spoke of Blessing, he seems to
reference the Kingdom of Heaven.
Now that I have your attention, considers
this. Luke 9:32-35, “But Peter and they
that were with him were heavy with sleep: and when they were awake, they saw
his glory, and the two men that stood with him.
And it came to pass, as they departed from him, Peter said unto Jesus,
Teacher, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one
for you, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah: Not knowing what he said. While he thus spoke, there came a cloud, and
overshadowed them: and they feared as they entered into the cloud. And there came a voice out of the cloud,
saying, this is my beloved Son: hear him.”
It seems that God was not pleased with Peter’s desire to learn from Moses,
Elijah, and Jesus, or to place Moses, Elijah and Jesus on the same level. Yet, today many of us are guilty of trying to
teach the Law of Moses and the Gospel of Jesus.
If the Father did not care for the idea then, what causes us to believe
he changed his mind? Overzealous
attitudes can be a handicap to learning about and serving God.
During a Bible Study, a student quoted 1st.
Corinthians 10:13. “There hath no
temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who
will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the
temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” The conclusion many drawn from this scripture
is that when we are tempted or tested we will pass the test. Now an element of confusion began to take
shape as the other students began to discuss the predestination aspects of
God. The eventuality of this discussion
leads to a profound conclusion. God knows
where we will end up, he has preordained it, and we cannot change it. When we start down this road of
contemplation, we do not want to be guilty of stumbling over the freewill
nature of man, in our attempt to amplify the all-knowing attributes of God. To debate this issue in a Bible study group
could reduce one's status to that of a heretic.
It is not acceptable to discuss what God knows, but it is acceptable to
pretend we know everything there is to know about the attributes of God.
The Devil and his disciples have done
extensive homework on this subject. He
has prepared a list of questions designed to shake a person’s faith, and he
cannot wait to speak up in Bible study classes in an attempt to show his
superior knowledge or to show his contempt.
The asking of these questions is not from the prospect of learning but
in an attempt to trick or trap Christians into saying something that will
validate his or her sinful nature. If a
person’s desire is to live in sin, the question will be, “If God knows the
outcome of my life can I do anything to change it?” One sinner asked, “If God knows I am going to
hell because I am a sinner, shouldn’t I just enjoy sinning, because there is
nothing I can do about it?” The Bible
teacher or preacher must be careful about how this question or any question is
framed, that question the nature of God.
Some questions are trick questions and there should be no attempt to
answer them. If the answer is “no” then
the next statement would suggest, that it does not matter how we live, God
already knows the outcome. If the answer
is “yes” then we are indicating we can change the predestinated nature of
God. Predestinated or predestination can
be, and has sometimes been, regarded as a philosophical question rather than a
Biblical question. However, it is with predestination as a Biblical question
that we are mainly concerned. A point
of contemplation is whether God foreordains all that occurs. Theology, starting from God in its
interpretation of all things, has arrived at universal fore-ordination by a
variety of deductive reasoning. We must
not contemplate the matter from abstract principles, but deal with the facts as
set forth in Scripture and as found, inductively, in the experience of
humanity.
There is no evading the doctrine of an
election by grace, as found both in the letter and in the spirit of Scripture.
The idea of predestination is set forth, with great power and clearness, in Romans
8:29-30, and with its elements or parts articulated in natural and striking
form. The idea recurs in Ephesians 1:1-23, where it is said (Ephesians 1:4-5)
that God has chosen us in Christ "before the foundation of the
world". Having predestinated or
"foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ"; and
where it is said, further, that our salvation imports "the mystery of his
will, according to his good pleasure" (Ephesians 1:9), which He purposed
in Christ. This "eternal purpose" to save men through Christ referred
to again in Ephesians 3:11. This is the proper mode of viewing predestination,
as in Christ, and never outside Him. The predestined certainty of God's
gracious work in Christ, (and for emphasis I repeat in Christ) is not to
confuse men, but to encourage and reassure all who trust in God’s grace. In Romans
9:14-25, the absolute sovereignty of God is in a form whereby the election
originates in the divine will apart from all human merit, whether actual or
foreseen.
The man made doctrine of predestination need purging of
the historical inconsistencies, and fatal illogicalities, with which, in its
older forms of presentation, was often infected. This, especially, in order
that the doctrine may appear as grounded in reason and righteousness, not in
arbitrariness and almighty caprice. What
I am saying is a man’s doctrine of predestination must proceed down the same
path of understanding of a man teaching that the Earth was flat. A study to gain a deeper understanding of
God’s word must always take center stage in our deliberation.
We must remember that deliberate confusion
is an effective tool of the Devil. When
he approached Eve in the Garden of Eden, he used a trick question to impart
confusion into the knowledge of Eve. I
am not going to try to separate Adam and Eve, because the Bible took great
pains to combine them. Therefore, I will
state that humanity’s first mistake was to answer the Devil. Once you began to answer and respond to the
Devil, the Devil can lead you down the path that he has set traps for you. Without elaborating on getting, the message
mixed up, this is a prime example. We
know that God is a spirit, and when he addresses man he address the spiritual
nature of man. In God’s eyes, this
natural body is nothing but a corpse, a tent, a place for God spirit to
dwell. Without the breath of life, it is
dead. The Devil addresses and seeks to
control the natural nature of man. God
did not change his mind as a matter of facts he reiterated his position many times
throughout the Bible. He said, the soul
that sins, it shall die. God gave man a
soul was so he could communicate with him our best approach is to follow the
path that Jesus followed when dealing with the Devil. Jesus chooses not to argue with the Devil,
nor did he spend time trying to dignify the devil questions.
Now let us revisit the question. Does God know everything we will do, say, and
think already? The question is easy—on
the surface. The Bible says he knows the
end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10).
Now the question arises, because if he knows, does that make it happens? The major conflict usually comes when we try
to make God part of the test. Therefore,
just because He knows the outcome it does not follow that His foreknowledge
causes it to happen. We must acknowledge
the gift of free will. However, once you
get under the surface, the whole concept of foreknowledge, fore-ordination,
predestination all becomes much more difficult to comprehend. I have spent some time pondering and
researching this topic and find that many preachers, teachers, and religious
pundits tend to take the superficial approach and use the cookie cutter answers
because it is such a brain teaser to try to go deeper. Psalms 139:6 says, “Such knowledge is too
wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.” On the other hand, the Devil and his
disciples have kicked back under the old Oak tree, popped the caps on a couple
of forty ounces, and debated the spiritual attributes of God. They are ready and prepared to go to Sunday
School or Bible study and trip you up.
To be continued
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