Persevere Until He Comes

Then He said to Thomas,

“Reach your finger here, and look

at My hands; and reach your hand here,

and put it into My side. Do not

be unbelieving, but believing.”

And Thomas answered and said to Him,

“My Lord and my God!”

John 20:27–28

            How many of us are like Thomas, unless we see, touch, we just don’t really believe. There is a notion that it is true, that Jesus is God, but we want more, need more, as did Thomas. When Thomas was confronted with Jesus, saw Him alive, there was no longer any need to see Him, to touch Him for he recognized Him as the One with whom he walked and talked with for some three years: Jesus was the promised Messiah. Did Thomas actually touch the wounds of Jesus? There is no indication that he did but he did cry our: “My Lord and My God!” The Greek is explicitly clear although there are those who say that Thomas gave his cry to both Jesus and to God, separately, but the Greek: Ὁ κύριός μου καὶ ὁ θεός μου” literally says: The Lord of Me and the God of me. Thomas saw the risen Jesus and knowing that it was his friend, the One who had been crucified, dead and buried, was now alive in front of him and cried out to him those words indicating for us under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that Jesus was the Lord and the God. Jesus said this to him and to us: “Jesus said to Him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29). Jesus rose and took with Him His body that forever was the payment for sin and will not return until the last day: sorry for those who believe in more that one return, that is the rapture, Scripture is clear that Jesus returns on the last day and then those in Him will rise to meet Him in the air, and not until He comes. Now, we who are left until His return cannot see Him bodily, but we have a special blessing if we believe on Him. How can we see Him? He left the Holy Spirit to guide His Church by means of the inspired word of God. Those inspired words were written by men who walked with Him, John, Matthew, Peter, and by those associated with the disciples, Luke, Mark, Jude, and all done within a short time after the death of Jesus Christ. Jesus was crucified in and around the year 33 A.D. and the first writings by the Apostles were around the year 55-60 A.D. There are no other writings that are that close in time to the one who is being written about; therefore we have the assurance from that alone that there would be those alive who knew, saw, and spoke about still alive and would have refuted any claims about Jesus that they knew would be untrue. We have the inspired word of God for His Church and we can have His blessing when we have been enabled by God to receive His word whereby He is revealed to us, and the salvation that He, by His mercy, gave to those He chose. How do I know I am one of the chosen ones? You will know by your desire to know Him, to live according to His word, His commands, no matter what may occur due to your belief in Him. You may stumble, your may commit a sin, but you fall on your knees and repent to a Holy God who has sent His Son to save you, not because your are caught in sin, rather because God is Holy and Just, and you had blasphemed Him.

            This new covenant God gave His Church did not come without those dissenters, or philosophies that had already penetrated into parts of the world. They need refutation and God rose up men to do so as to protect His Church until He comes. Neoplatonism was one such attempt to introduce into Christianity religious ideas that were not of God, rather they were religious, different in many ways to Plato from which they were founded. Because Neoplatonism was religious and a counter Platonic philosophy of reality and thought, or ideal and form, Neoplatonism sought to find the One, or God, and had many tenets that were similar to Christianity that some were affected in their theology and included those tenets in their writings and teachings. We need to continue to know about them, to find if they are acceptable or not, and if not to refute them and remove them from our religion, or theology. One such belief system of Neoplatonism is the mystical aspect of religion which has had such an impact on Christianity, and that belief is one of mysticism. What is mysticism? It is a conviction that the soul has special ability, an immediate sense about the forms, thought in regard to a deity that deals with us in this life, to have a special interaction with this deity, and immediate knowledge of God whereby one derives happiness. Can Christianity be said to be mystical? Yes! Why? Because Christianity admits that there is a supernatural influence of God upon a person, the soul, and recognizes that there is a higher form of knowledge, a holiness that can be attained, and a person can have fellowship with God. In that manner Christians can be said to have a mystical religion. There may be some agreement among those who believe in mysticism, yet, there are many differences that separate one from the other. It is these differences that were derived from such philosophies as of the Neoplatonic philosophy, and theology, that must be explored. This will be what will be continued in the next blogs.

And He said to me,

            “My grace

is sufficient for you

            for My strength

is made perfect in weakness.”

                                    2Corinthians 12:9

Persevere in your walk with Him

Richard L. Crumb

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