| January 3rd, 2001 - There's Nothing New Under the Sun You know... I always find it amusing how many sayings people use everyday that come from the Bible. The title of this message is from the book of Ecclesiastes. The phrase, "To everything there is a season," is also from there. God promises in the last days the Good News of His salvation (the offer of unconditional friendship through Jesus Christ) shall be declared throughout the world and in every tongue... and then shall the end come. We live in times when that is coming true in multi-faceted ways. Not only in linguistics, but in the language of science, the language of mathematics, the language of archaeological record, the language of history... In every possible way the absolute authenticity of the Bible is being confirmed to us. And yet some still do not see it. The reason for this is God has not allowed them to see it. He chooses to reveal Himself to the humble, the lowly, the repentant and the child-at-heart. "Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hasn't God made foolish the wisdom of this world? ...But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, has God chosen, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: that no flesh should glory in His presence." (I Corinthians 1: 20, 27-29) There are two kinds of unbelief: ignorant unbelief and voluntary unbelief. The former is simply one who's never really heard and is therefore ignorant of the Good News. The latter is one who says, "I just want to sin... will you just leave me alone?!?!" This may be the conscious or unconscious motive of the heart. If we espouse a belief system which removes God from our lives then we may be guilty of voluntary unbelief. For example, the undercurrent version of unbelief resident within the Theory of Evolution is this: if we all evolved from apes then obviously we can't be held to higher standards then that of the animals, because after all, we're just advanced apes. Amusingly enough, it actually takes more faith to believe in evolution than it does to believe in God. The fossil evidence undeniably refutes such a theory. But there are still some scientists who cling desperately to this idea. Same as it ever was... There's nothing new under the sun. Man is still trying to build his own tower of Babel, to be his own god.... whatever it takes to exalt himself above God and make himself god. But there will be no lasting peace until Jesus returns. The Bible says there will come a time when men shall say, "Ah! Peace and Saftey" but it will be short-lived, because it will based on falsehood. Only truth will stand the test of time. |