Has
God No Respect?
I won't I won't I won't
Facebook Note
by Bud Powell on Tuesday, March 30,
2011
Thus saith the LORD, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from
the womb, I am the LORD that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself; That frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh diviners mad; that turneth
wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge
foolish; --Isaiah 44:24,25
What if
God had made the knowledge of Himself so plain and
clear, that only a person who hated God would refuse to see it? Would God try
to explain it to him? Or would God's judgment be on the man himself.
Because
God is a Spirit, it would be reasonable that this judgment would be primarily
upon man's spiritual or non-physical characteristics.
This is
exactly what the Bible says that God has done. He turns men's knowledge into
foolishness, and frustrates their predictions, and turns wise men backwards.
Such men cannot understand the truth. They look at the data, but they are blind
as moles, because of the darkening of their minds.
“This I
say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other
Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, 4:18 Having the understanding
darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in
them, because of the blindness of their heart: 4:19 Who being past feeling have
given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with
greediness." --Ephesians 4:17-19.
God will
allow such men to follow their own delusions. "Ephraim is joined to idols:
let him alone. Their drink is sour: they have committed whoredom continually:
her rulers with shame do love, Give ye. The wind hath
bound her up in her wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their
sacrifices." --Hosea 4:17-19
It is a
very dangerous thing to turn away from the truth. The eye that stares
unblinkingly at the sun will soon be unable to see anything.
God owes
the rebellious nothing at all, and is certainly not bound to their vanity and
folly. Though rebellious men refuse to see the difference between their dead
gods and the One True and Living God, God does not surrender His Mind to their
folly. Instead, His mind is perfectly clear, and declares their minds
"unapproved" or reprobate. (Romans 1:28)
God sends
them " strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all
might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in
unrighteousness." --2 Thess. 2:11,12.
What hope
is there for a man who has been darkened in his mind and thought, unable to see
the truth that is manifest before his very eyes? What if the evidence he observes
makes him certain that his lie is the truth, because of God's judgment upon his
own mind? How could he possibly deliver himself? Matthew 6:23 "But if
thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the
light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!"
The hope
is only in a light from without, the light of Jesus Christ in the Gospel. This light, though the preaching of the Gospel comes from without
the man, illuminating his darkness and transforming him. This is his
hope, and there is no other.
