Surely that should enable all to enter into the innermost precincts of Gods oracles! Would not that open up His revelation as no other effort of man? It was indeed, a very wise procedure, and evidence of the spirit of wisdom, but man may be blind in the brightest of sunshine. The books, the words, the elements, the grammar, all were analyzed in minute detail. The staff which worked on the Concordant version delved into the details of the divine records as has seldom been done. Even Peter and John were unlettered, unlearned men.
The rabbis among the Jews, past and present, are often intelligent men, made wise by their knowledge of the sacred scrolls, nevertheless, how few have come to the knowledge of God! None of our Lords apostles came from this class. Yet how few really grasped their import? This might be understood, if the lower classes, the poor and the ignorant, the stupid and the foolish, failed to become acquainted with God through His holy law and other literature, but, when our Lord came, He acclaimed God because He had hid these things from the wise and intelligent, and had revealed them to minors (Matt. They were copied with the greatest care and preserved with religious zeal. No people have ever prized their holy books as the Jews valued their sacred scrolls. On the contrary, when His words first came to them in the wilderness, they did not desire His presence and refused to believe His word, so their corpses marked their trail through the desert. Israels primary prerogative consisted in this, that to them were entrusted the oracles of God (Rom.3:2). No greater boon can come to any people than the Word of God. Without a knowledge of Him and His ways they lack the major premise on which all reasoning must be based.īut even if a man cannot find God in nature or by reason, surely he can find Him by the Bible! Here, indeed, is a means of acquaintance with the Deity which is ideal for the purpose! It is better even than the personal communion of Adam in the garden. Their logic is illogical, and leads them away from the Deity. Alleging themselves to be wise, they are made stupid. Since their knowledge of God in creation, which displays His imperceptible power and divinity, does not lead them to glorify Him or thank Him, their reasonings are vain and their heart is not intelligent. They have learned to know Him through His written revelation.īut cannot men use their minds to reason their way into His presence, or deduce His purpose and His plans from His methods with mankind? Alas, mens minds are feebler than the faculties of sensation. Those who see Him in His achievements have met Him elsewhere first. But has he met the Creator of all this walking in His garden, as Adam did? By no means! Great scientists are often atheists. He has amassed tremendous amounts of knowledge concerning Gods handiwork, with its multitudinous marvels and awful wonders. He has catalogued and systematized and investigated the flora and the fauna in the oceans, on the land, and in the air. He has searched the depths of the earth and the waters of the sea for minerals.
He has pried into the structure of the tiny atom, and tried to comprehend the mighty celestial spheres. Since Adams day man has made an intense study of nature, on earth and in the heavens. By nature, even under ideal conditions, man cannot make acquaintance with the Deity. Did he come to know Him? Did it teach him to trust Him? Did he learn to love Him? No! A single insinuation from the serpent showed that his heart had never appreciated his great Benefactor. He conversed on intimate terms with his Creator, Who crowned all His other gifts by giving him a complement as his companion. His eyes could see, his ears could hear, and all his perceptions were perfect to a degree which no other mere man has ever known. Endowed by nature with all the faculties which raised him above the rest of earthly creation, undimmed by disease or deterred by dread, he far surpassed his progeny in natural powers. Therefore we should emulate Paul and pray, as he did in the first chapter of Ephesians, that God would give the saints the spirit of revelation.īefore Adam sinned and offended God, he was in close communion with his Creator. CAN A MAN by searching find out God? Is humanity endowed by nature to discover the Deity? Can he perceive Him in Creation? Can he learn to know Him by logical deduction? Is God revealed to all who read the Bible? Is the saint fully equipped to comprehend Him if he searches the Scriptures? Many have tried all of these, yet have fallen far short of a knowledge of God and His highest revelation of Himself in His present operations.
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