Therefore they could
not believe,
Because Isaiah said
again:
“He has blinded their
eyes and
hardened their
hearts, lest they
should see with their
eyes,
lest they should
understand with
their hearts and
turn, so that
I should heal them.”
John 6:39-40 (cf.
Isaiah 6:10)
The
historical story began at creation and it is this story of God and His world
that our conscience will agree to the truth as the curtain of history is drawn
away and the platform where history performs is revealed. Yet, not everyone sees
the truth, only those who are truly His children will be able to accept the
unfolded truth. The world at large denies the truth and form ideologies, and
theologies in their attempt to explain existence, God, and their purpose. Those
words of Jesus quoted from Isaiah cannot be misunderstood; some can see, others
cannot, some have been given the power to see, others have not that power. The
freedom man has been given, that freedom of choice to not sin is due by the
gift of God. As God does have freedom of choice therefore those who have been
given the ability to choose not to sin has from God this gift; the ability not
to sin for God cannot sin. God is Good, the ultimate good, therefore God cannot
contradict Himself and be both bad and good. The good man has his freedom of
choice, but without divine assistance his choice will be made according to his
nature, and man who is unrighteous due to his fallen nature cannot choose the
ultimate good: man needs assistance. God creates and rules, His creation,
according to His plan. Augustine wrote in (Aug. Ep. Clvii (to Hilarus) that “freedom
of will is not therefore removed because it is assisted; it is assisted just
because it is not removed.” (Italics mine). When we pray the Lord’s Prayer,
we ask for that assistance for we know that we have the ability to sin. We pray
that our steps be guided and directed as the Psalmist wrote: “Direct my
steps by Your word, and let no iniquity have dominion over me” (Psalm 119:133).
The unrighteous may do good, and the righteous may do bad, but there is not
syllogism for the unrighteous man will continue in his unrighteousness and the
righteous man will recognize his sin and fall to his knees in humbleness and
repentance. There is a huge difference between light and dark, the two cannot
be conjoined.
All history
must be seen and measured by Scripture. It is the inspired word of God that is
necessary to find the truth and the purpose of man, the reason for why this world
is the way it is. It is there in God’s word where the solution to the problem is to be found. As we look back into
history there will be clarity to this fact: man has the ability to do harm, to
follow after his own desires. At times even those ancient of men do some good,
but in the end they all will have shown themselves to be unrighteous: how can
unrighteousness be good? It can’t! I began this historical narrative with
outlining the major empires of the Syrian, Northern Africa, and the Western
world. These forerunners of tyranny came and went in history yet had a major
impact on the world and the Israelites in particular, those who where chosen by
God to be His people. If you cavil at this proposal, that God chooses some and
not others, then this walk through history will answer whether or not this is
true. Now I will list only a few of those philosophers that impacted their
world, the world at large, and still to this day impact this present age. The
most influential men and philosophers were from the Greek world. There were
many, more than can be listed in this blog therefore I will list those men who
were and are most influential and are impacting our world, and even some of our
churches.
Israel
being located precariously between two major Empires, the Egyptian and the
Syrian, or Arabic Empires was a land where armies would pass to war against
between those major Empires. Furthermore, it was a land where caravans of
merchandize would pass to sell their wares. Egypt had lost its power as an
Empire but did not lose its wealth, the promise of richness, a place where
there were seaports being a pass between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.
In 331 B.C. Alexander the Great would capture the seaport Rhakotis and named it
Alexandria and this city would become a center for Grecian thought, culture,
and would provide as a link between Greece and the Nile Valley. Prior to the
coming of Alexandria, some 300-200 years before Greek philosophy began to
impact the world. It is this impact on the world that is still, in many ways,
impacting our present age. Israel would be affected by these ideologies that
other nations began to employ in their governmental and social lives. The
Israelites were monotheistic while the peoples and nations round about them
were polytheistic and left behind a provision of powerful manuscripts: The
Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh, the Hebrew Bible, as we know it, the Old
Testament, and the Greek epics of Homer, i.e., the Illiad, Ovid’s Metamorphoses,
and were a means for people to interact with the divine. Those writings became
a window for men and women to see through the window the realm of the sacred. This
desire to know of the sacred is imbedded in the consciousness of man. Often
this desire is led into error and into a world in which man determines the
sacred and not God. How true this is of many Christians; they desire the sacred
only to follow a theology that is contradictory to the word of God, the word in
which He has revealed Himself. In the middle of all these various religions
forms the Israelite were affected and often left their monotheism in favor of
the polytheistic religions. This always came at a price and a price they paid,
death, famine, and capture by strong and powerful Empires. When a people leave
behind the truth to follow another “truth,” a truth that seems so true and
acceptable yet is contradictory to the God who has revealed Himself, and gave
to His people a Law to follow, and they don’t, then a chastisement occurs to
bring His people back to Him. God orchestrated the events that would allow the
right time for Him to enter into this world and destroy the one thing that man
cannot destroy: sin. This influence of these polytheistic nations was not
one-sided as the Hebrew understanding of God also affected other nations. You
cannot mix the false with the true. This anomaly of a mixture cannot be true as
when you put any amount of dirt into a bottle of water, the water is no longer
true water, it is a blend and is something else than pure water. This amalgamation
of theologies by the Israelites who were the chosen of God, led by God out of
Egypt, brought upon them the disdain of them by God, and God promised them and
to us that if we do not follow Him, the chosen of God then we will be, as they
were, reprimanded and those who continue to sin against God will eventually be:
“And the LORD said to Moses, ‘Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him
out of My book’” (Exodus 32:33). God required that the Israelites be a
separate people, not to be conjoined to other gods, that He was the Great I AM
and they were His prize possession. God is gracious and when a child of God
repents then the grace of God falls on him: “Then he said, ‘I will make all
My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before
you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious,
and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion’” (Exodus 33:19; cf. Romans
9:15). In time the Israelites would come to realize that to follow the true
God is the correct way for them to live. History had taught them this one
thing. Maybe history has taught you that living outside of the will of God is
wrong and has brought much pain and suffering. Remember God will accept your
repentance.
In the next
blog I will give some men who affected the world and became the reason the
world was ripe for God to now introduce His Son and by that Son living in a
culture that has provided the message of His salvation work.
But to Israel he says:
“All day
long
I have stretched out
My hands to
a
Disobedient and contrary
People.”
Romans 10:21
God is Gracious and is stretching Out His hand to you
Richard L. Crumb
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