God is in Control of WORLD HISTORY

[Greg Albrecht in his book REVELATION REVOLUTION, has looked at Bible's Revelation with the purpose of gleaning what God is telling everyone who has inhabited the earth between His ascension and His Second Coming, rather than going to it as a Prediction Handbook (like say, Nostradamus’s book ‘The Prophecies’).]

God’s Throne Room (in Chapter 4 of Revelation) shifts our focus from the earthly religious imperfections in chapters 2 and 3 to heavenly perfection. It redirects our horizontal vision preoccupied with here and now to the vertical dimension of eternity and heaven above. The scroll with seven seals in God’s hand represents the will of God for his children -- the inheritance of the saints, the kingdom of heaven, given as a gift by God’s grace because of the death of the Lamb of God. Only one person is qualified to open the seals and reveal the purposes of God.

The scroll is opened only when all the seven seals are broken, but as Jesus begins to break the seals (in chapter 6 of Revelation) something happens. Four Horsemen corresponding to the first 4 seals are symbolic of God’s avenging judgment (Zec 1:8;6:1-3).

They do not represent any particular historical figure or any specific era, but depict chaos, terror and destruction whenever it is unleashed. They bring misery and pain that is allowed by God but caused primarily by the evil that humans inflict upon themselves. The White horse represents conquest, the Red horse represents war, the Black horse represents famine and the Pale horse represents death.

When the fifth seal is opened, we see the brutal reality of death by martyrdom suffered by Christians. More people have died in the 20th century for being Christians than in the 19 centuries put together. When the sixth seal is opened, there is a gigantic cosmological upheaval (great earthquake, sun becoming dark, moon turning into blood and stars falling). If we interpret keeping the literary genre used to write Revelation, this upheaval could be describing a spiritual upheaval. Founding of the church on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-21; Joel 2:38-32) was a new beginning – a sign of the beginning of the end for suffering and inhumanity.

The Bible says that Christians will be ‘caught up’ (raptured) in the air, at the second coming of Jesus Christ. It does not talk about Jesus coming twice again with a period of tribulation in between. The dispensational Rapture, appeals to the human desire to avoid pain and suffering. While the Bible tells us that God loves us and protects us, nowhere does it teach that Christians will not suffer with non-Christians or that we will saved from physical suffering in some super-natural way.

Suddenly (in chapter 7 of Revelation) everything is put on hold until a very important piece of business is taken care of. The servants of God must be ‘sealed’ by the blood of the Lamb and protected by grace. One hundred and forty four thousand, 12000 from each of the tribes of Israel, that are sealed could be a symbolic number representing the spiritual Israel, the universal church. The great multitude that no one could count could represent another view of God’s faithful who come out of great tribulation. Even in spite of the overwhelming situations that we endure and sometimes cause, that we wonder if we or anybody could be saved by God, the message is that God not only saves a specific group like the 144,000 but also saves a huge group like the great multitude.

For a short time after the opening of the seventh seal (in chapter 8 of Revelation) nothing happens while the prayers of the saints ascend to God. This could be a window into how prayer “works” in God’s time. The angel takes the collected prayers of the saints and hurls them to the earth symbolizing God’s answer and resulting in divine judgment upon all wickedness perpetrated on God’s people. Jesus Christ, the slain Lamb has opened the scroll and judgment has begun. Seven angels sound a series of seven trumpets. Hail and fire, sea turning blood, falling star poisoning a third of all fresh water, and darkening of sun, moon and stars that accompany the first 4 trumpets are all symbolic. Each trumpet signals a different disaster sent to drive an unrepentant humanity to its knees.

The fifth trumpet (in chapter 9 of Revelation) together with the first “woe” brings stinging locusts from a bottomless pit to torment the earth’s inhabitants. The sixth trumpet together with the second “woe” unleashes an army of two hundred million horsemen killing a third of the world’s population. Regardless of ‘when’ the woes, judgments and plagues come, Jesus tells us that in spite of the consequences there are those who refuse to accept Him as Lord.

In the interlude between the sixth and seventh trumpets (in chapter 10 of Revelation), John is given a vision of an angel descending from heaven and planting his right foot on the sea and left foot on the land, depicting God’s power over all things. He is accompanied by seven thunder-like messages but John is instructed not to publish them. This reminds us that some of God’s work are simply not revealed to us and we must be content with an incomplete understanding (including exact meanings for every symbol and metaphor).

Two witnesses (in chapter 11 of Revelation) who are given authority to prophesy for one thousand two hundred and sixty days has been the subject of much speculation. When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the bottomless pit makes war on them and conquers them and kills them. After lying dead for three and a half days, the two witnesses are called up to heaven. The period of their ministry mirrors the duration of the ministry of Jesus on the earth, and their death and resurrection mirrors the death and resurrection of Jesus. They remind us that accepting suffering in the name of Christ will conquer evil.

When the seventh trumpet sounds, the kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of God. Then God’s temple in heaven is opened. A literal interpretation of Revelation has insisted upon a series of event that culminate in the rebuilding of a literal temple in Jerusalem. The book of Revelation, on the other hand, emphasizes Jesus, the new covenant and the new Jerusalem above.

In the first eleven chapters, Revelation shows who is in control of the great themes of human history. The major events, trends and movements of history are never out of the supervision of Jesus Christ. The disasters that confuse us and disorient us and leave us asking ‘why?’, never come as a surprise to God. There are times when it seems that God is not acting but He is still on His throne, deeply involved in human events and lives.

(SEQUEL . . .    To Understand Chapters 12-15)
(PREVIOUS . . . What Does BIBLE say about End-Times? )

What does the Bible say about END-TIMES ?

Popular notion is that REVELATION, the last book in the Bible, indicates a sequence of end-time events -- Rapture (in mid-heaven), 7 years Tribulation period, Jesus' second-coming to the earth, 1000 Years reign, Great White Throne judgment followed by New Heaven and New Earth.  How old is this interpretation and when and where did it start?  Greg Albrecht of Plain Truth Ministries, in his book ‘Revelation Revolution’, provides a fascinating insight into the book of Revelation.

The theological roots of what many believe to be special knowledge about eschatology (biblical prophecy), based upon the book of Revelation, goes back to a man named John Nelson Darby (1800-1882). Darby’s teachings became known as dispensationalism, a method of Bible Interpretation that grew in popularity by the 1870s. While dispensationalism covers more than just eschatology, the impact of the prophetic implications of it are significant. William Miller (1782-1849) one of Darby’s peers too had come to similar conclusions, and had proclaimed 1843 as the date for the second coming of Jesus Christ. When his prediction failed, he set a new date in 1844, which then came to be known as the ‘Great Disappointment’. Ellen G White (1827-1915) a follower of Miller soon founded the Seventh Day Adventist Church. 

Towards the end of the nineteenth century, Cyrus Ingerson Scofield (1843-1921) emerged as a leading advocate of dispensationalism, when prophecy conferences became a standard feature of Protestant fundamentalist churches in North America. Eventually in 1909, he published his Scofield Reference Bible, one of the first Bibles to have a human interpretation alongside the divinely inspired message of the Bible. Unfortunately many failed to distinguish his interpretations printed in marginal notes from the inspired Word of God, and accepted the teachings of dispensationalism without any question.

The twentieth century was filled with preachers and teachers who applied the prophetic “end times message” to their respective generation. Dallas Theological Seminary, founded in 1924 by Lewis Sperry Chafer (1871-1952) attempted to give academic credibility to Darby’s eschatological methodology.

Hal Lindsey and Tim LaHaye were two most popular eschatological authors who popularized the “end times" message of dispensationalism. The Last Great Planet Earth (1970), There’s a New World Coming (1973) and The 1980’s Countdown to Armageddon are some of Hal Lindsey’s best-sellers. In 1995, Tim LaHaye together with Jerry B. Jenkins, began a series of novels called the Left Behind series, propagating a fictional message of the end times. Again, as with Scofield’s marginal notes in his Reference Bible, the vast majority has taken these fictionalized narratives as gospel truth.

Earlier on, right in the middle of the second century, Montanus and his followers predicted that the new Jerusalem was about to descend upon the nearby village of Pepuza (in today’s Turkey). His influence spread rapidly among Christians throughout the Roman world, but his prophecy failed. By misinterpreting Revelation, Monatnus tarnished the book’s reputation to the point that some Christians thought it should not be part of the Bible. From Montanus to the present, the claims of Christian groups that Revelation pinpoints the events, personalities and time period of the ‘end of the world’ have all failed. This record of failed predictions should be a red flag for Christians against using Revelation as a predictive handbook.

Four Methods of understanding Revelation

Preterism – believes that most of the prophecies in the book of Revelation were fulfilled (Praeter = past) during the time of the Roman Empire.

Classical Preterism believes that much of Revelation was fulfilled in the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70, and certainly no later than the destruction of Jerusalem that followed in AD 135. Classical Preterists believe that the book was written a few years before the fall of Jerusalem in 1970. They believe that the last chapters of Revelation alone, with visions of a new Heaven and a new Earth are to be fulfilled at some point in the future.

Historicism – believes that the images of Revelation refer to the entire history of Christianity, and that its prophecies have been fulfilled throughout history and are still being fulfilled today.

Many of the great leaders of the Reformation and Bible commentators from the 19th century or earlier were historicists – Wycliffe, Knox, Tyndale, Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli. Most Protestant historicists believed that the Antichrist of Revelation referred to the pope and the Roman Catholic Church, the two witnesses referred to Luther and Calvin and the ultimate victory promised referred to the triumph of Protestantism over Catholicism. The challenge for the historicists is to be flexible enough to revise their interpretations over and over again, in the light of ongoing world events.

Futurism – is the view held by many contemporary evangelical pastors and teachers. Ironically modern futurism originated in 1585 with Francisco Ribeira, a Spanish Jesuit preacher for the purpose of refuting the anti-Catholic historicist view of the Protestant reformers.

Its most popular version today is dispensationalism – that teaches a secret rapture of the church followed by the ‘Great Tribulation’ and the ‘Millennium’. They insist upon a literal interpretation of Revelation and ignore the style of writing that John was inspired by God to use. This view has been greatly influenced by the peace and prosperity in North America. They have failed to identify the horrors produced by Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, Mao Tse-Tung, Idi Amin, sadam Hussein and their like, as Tribulation.

Idealism – believes that most prophecies in the book of Revelation portray an ongoing cosmic conflict of spiritual realities. It takes into account the apocalyptic style of Revelations and sees the central theme as triumph of Christ over Satan. While other approaches may take certain passage as chronological, idealists take these as recurring realities in history. Though this view minimizes the focus on the ‘when’ factor in prophecy, that kind of focus is not fully removed.

Many Christians today are not aware of these four views. They think that the futuristic view that their Pastor or Evangelist holds is the only way to understand the book of Revelation, and believe that it talks about the ‘end times’ for today. A more serious problem is that they also label other views as inferior and even non-Christian, just because they interpret the book differently.

The word revelation in translated from the Greek word apokalupsis, which means ‘unveiling’ or ‘revealing’.  In English, apocalypse has come to mean disaster but the word originally referred to a revealing of things not generally known.  Revelation is not written in a straight-forward style but in a literary style called apocalyptic. This style uses poetic language, metaphorical messages and figurative images and symbols to convey its message. The symbols, figures, numbers and colors in apocalyptic writing were not intended to be taken literally. The original readers of Revelation would have had a better sense of how to interpret because of their culture and familiarity with apocalyptic literature. We will need to decode its “true” meaning instead of taking the symbols to be literal.

Revelation was written to Christians who were suffering because of their faith. Some may have wondered if real power and future were in the earthly political and religious authorities like Rome’s emperor. This book answers that question. The real ruler of all things is Jesus Christ, not evil oppressors. Though Christians may suffer and die, we are safe in God’s hands and in the end He will destroy all wickedness. It not only looks forward to Jesus’ second coming but also insists that Christ has already won the decisive victory.

(READ SEQUEL . . .       TO UNDERSTAND CHAPTERS 4-11 )
(RELATED ARTICLE . . . REVELATION AND YOU! )

Why don't CHRISTIANS always Win?

(Contributed the following article to VANAMUTHAM, a Tamil Christian Monthly magazine published by Serve India Mission, that focuses on current events to give its readers a Christian perspective.  This article has been featured in its August 2010 issue.)

GIVING as we should . . .

“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the Lord Almighty "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.” (Malachi 3:10)

What is the storehouse, here? It was initially associated with the Tent of Meeting and later with the Temple at Jerusalem (Neh 13:4,5). Why should there be food in His house? It was to meet

the expense for worship at the temple and to provide living to the Priests and Levites who work while serving at the Tent of Meeting (Num 18:21). Every third year, the alien, the orphan and the widow may also eat of it and be satisfied (Deu 14:29; 26:12).

Where is the Lord’s work being done now? In churches, in mission fields, in various ministries that take the gospel to the sick in hospitals, the inmates in jails, and in various services being rendered to the orphans, the destitute and the sick. Pastors, Missionaries and Evangelists who take the Gospel to people, and doctors, nurses and caretakers at the orphanages, old-age homes and hospitals run by missions, all need to be taken care of. God’s children who have received from the Lord need to share a portion with those laboring for the Lord.

Ephesians 4:11-13 talk about the five-fold ministry (apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers) in the church. Romans 12:6-8 talk about various ministries involving gifts (prophesying, serving, teaching, encouraging, contributing, governing, showing mercy). Combining the 2 lists, we see atleast 9 ministries (which is not an exhaustive list but only indicative). Acts 6:1-4 talk about widows receiving daily distribution of food, and I Tim 5:3-9 talk about widows being put on a list and served. James (in Jam 1:27) writes to the Christian Diaspora exhorting them to take care of orphans and widows in distress.

I Cor 9:11-14 lay down the principle that those preaching the gospel must receive their living from the gospel. Paul talks about several others receiving such support from the church in Corinth, to whom he had ministered (maybe more than they did). Paul tells Timothy that every elder who is involved in ministry (particularly those who preach and teach but additionally those who take care of widows) is worthy of double honor.

The Bible does not say that the ministry that brought them to salvation or the Pastor of the local church is alone the Levite, and must therefore receive the complete Tithe.

‘GIVING’ TODAY

Since perfection could not be attained through the Levitical priesthood, there was the need for Jesus to come as our High Priest. When there is a change of the priesthood, there is also a change of the law. (Heb 7:11, 12) The sanctuary together with its sacrifices and rituals were an illustration for the reality that was yet to come. He has now set aside the first to establish the second (Heb 9:9; 10:9). Christ himself is the High Priest as well as the sacrificial lamb, and we are all his royal priesthood (I Pet 2:5,9). The old covenant was with the Jews only, which has now been set aside with a new covenant with all his children. Christ himself is the fulfillment of the first covenant.

Now, every believer is a temple of the Holy Spirit that lives in him, and he is not his own. He is bought at a price, and he is required to honor God with his Body (I Cor 6:19, 20). Like Christ who said,

“Sacrifices and offerings you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me…I have come to do your will O God (Heb 10:5-7)”, we too are to honor God with our Body. We are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is our spiritual act of worship (Rom 12:1). We are to honor God not with just a tenth of our possessions and finances as with the Old Covenant, but with all our being – all of our senses, our priorities and our possessions.

There were numerous occasions when people selfishly held on to their money rather than give it to the Lord in regular tithes and offerings. During the building of the second temple, the Jews seemed more interested in building up their own property, while leaving God’s house in ruins. Haggai and later Malachi highlight this (Haggai 1:3-6; Malachi 3:8-11). Because God’s people refused to give Tithe, he judged them. Today, he looks at our hearts. He is pleased with one who gives enthusiastically for the building of his kingdom. A Christian gives not out of greed for material prosperity or out of fear for punishment but out of reciprocation. Having received God's love that gave even His only begotten Son on the cross for him, he is filled with love and gives himself back to God.

With the Old Covenant, salvation came through a faith expressed by obedience to his law and its sacrificial system. With the New Covenant, coming to the Lord with faith and obedience brings grace and blessing.

HOW IS ‘ONE-TENTH’ SIGNIFICANT TODAY?

Today, God does not mandate that each person gives one-tenth to God. We are expected to give ourselves completely. We are to consider ourselves as stewards of the blessings God has placed into our hands. As faithful stewards, we are to manage what God has entrusted to us according to His will for the establishment of His kingdom and for administering his grace to the world he created, to His glory. It is not true that one-tenth belongs to God and nine-tenth belongs to us. All the tenths belongs to Him and so it is important not just what we do with the one-tenth but also what we do with the nine-tenth.

So if all tenths are God’s and what we do with all of it is important, what then is the significance of one-tenth for a New Testament

Christian? It is this -- He can use that as a scale (or a reference point) to measure himself and see if he loves money more than God, if his possessions are more important to him than fulfilling God’s wishes. If he is not even giving one-tenth to God, chances are, he is after money more than after God. On the other side, there are those like John Wesley, who were intent on not increasing their lifestyle so that while they started with one-tenth for God, over time, they could move on to two-tenth, three-tenths and more.

May God give us the grace to value money for just what it is so that we master it for God’s glory rather than be mastered by it. The bible says, the desire of money is the root cause of all evil. Let us beware.

Faith - what is it ?

‘Faith’ is a very important subject but has also been the object of great confusion caused by diverse interpretations. Bible defines faith as “being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Heb 11:1).

A boy flipped through television channels and listened to a message on faith. He then prayed telling God that he desired to have a bicycle if it was His will and at the time of His choosing. A few days went by and there was no sign of a bicycle, and he was wondering if he prayed right. Another day, he watched a different preacher on TV and then prayed a different prayer. He announced to God his need for a Blue bicycle of a certain brand and his desire that it be delivered at his doorstep within the next 48 hours, and then said that he was claiming that bicycle by faith. A few days went by and again there was no sign of a bicycle. He grew frustrated and watched a third preacher on TV. He then grew restless causing his mom to wonder what he was up to. At bedtime, his mom approached his bed and found him fast asleep. Underneath the bed he had put a statue of Jesus that he had picked from elsewhere within his house, and underneath the statue he had put a paper with a prayer written on it. It read “Dear Jesus, If you want to see your mother, give me my bicycle.”

Some people almost go to the extent of preaching that when you desire to own a car, if you strongly hope that you will have it, that is faith. You do not see the car physically, but with your spiritual eyes if you can see yourself owning that car, that is faith. Is that what the author of Hebrews has hinted at? If not, what are the things that we hope and do not see that we need to be sure and certain about?

Paul writes to the Corinthians, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” (I Cor 2:9). We do not see today the glorious eternity that God has in store for us. We do not see the glorious purposes that he accomplishes through us every day, when we measure our accomplishments through the world’s yardstick. Again Paul talks of God’s invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - in his letter to the Romans (Rom 1:20). We do not see his goodness, his love, his personal attention to each of us and his power. These are things that we do not see but we need to sure of and certain about.

God is loving and good. He spoke through Prophet Jeremiah, saying “I know the plans I have for you . . . plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jer 29:11). Elsewhere through the same prophet he said, “My eyes will watch over them for their good . . . I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not uproot them” (Jer 24:6).

I remember a time when I was learning to ride bicycle as a 10 years old. A cousin who was in college used to take me and my twin brother to a large ground on his bicycle, while pulling with one hand a small bicycle from a cycle rental shop around the street corner. While we learned to ride, he was always running behind us and after we had started cycling on our own, he still used to catch hold of the cycle to help us alight when we were done. One day he refused to help me alight and cried out that I should try getting down on my own. Despite frantic protests, he refused to budge. I then ran the cycle between two heaps of dust and got down safely but was fuming inside that he had withheld help and refused to speak to him for days. He humbly kept explaining and apologizing but I was adamant. When I now look back upon that incident, I understand that he had done that so that I could learn to be more complete as a bicycle rider. My little mind did not understand then.

It is the same with God. He allows certain trials and difficulties so that we grow and become more complete. We have faith if we are certain of God’s love and goodness, even when we are passing through life’s turbulences.

God is all-knowing and yet personal. He spoke through Prophet Isaiah, saying “I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come” (Isa 46:10a). We do not know our future, but he has our future in his hands.

A girl in New York became pregnant outside marriage and was let down by the man who caused her pregnancy. Since she was malnourished herself, she had to deliver a premature baby. The hospital that facilitated the delivery discharged her the same day due to paucity of beds. Having no food and not able to breastfeed her baby, she soon decided to go to work, leaving her newborn baby in the attic that was her home. When she returned from work in the evening, to her horror she found that a dog had ravaged her baby. So much had gone wrong in one life and when a city councilman was questioned how no one could check her plight, he responded, “Life is too busy and complicated for me to hear the cry of every person in my community. As a matter of fact, I struggle to find time to even hear the cries of my own family. If I had to listen to the cry of everyone in New York city, you may as well ask me to listen to every blade of grass growing and to the heartbeat of every squirrel. The noise would be deafening on the other side of silence”.

Our God not only knows the big picture, he also knows the details.  He is not overwhelmed by the volume of details or the cacophony of human cries. Jesus asked, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father” (Mat 10:29). Scores of people die of heatstroke in summer. If not a sparrow can fall without his permission, not one human life can be lost without his permission. He continued, “And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered”. Wow! Not just life, not even a strand of hair can be lost without his knowledge. He therefore reassured, “So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows”. He told us through Prophet Zechariah, “whoever touches you touches the apple of his eye” (Zec 2:8)

We have faith if we are certain that God’s knows our every circumstance and that the God who allowed it will also see us through, even when our problem looks big and appears to have no end in sight.

God has the power to accomplish his plans. He had spoken through the same Isaiah, saying “My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please” (Isa 46:10b). King David said of Him, “For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm” (Psa 33:9). He not only has good plans for us, he also has the power to fulfill them.

Imagine a spark developing in a flight flying at 30,000 feet above sea level. The pilot hurries to land the plane, establishing contact with the control tower of a nearby airport. As the plane lands, there are vehicles all around to attend to any emergency – fire engines, ambulances and police vans. As the doors are flung open, air gets sucked in, causing the flame to grow. The pilot and his crew – co-pilot, flight stewards and air hostesses – help children, aged ones and disabled passengers to come out even as able people help themselves. Finally after all passengers have been evacuated, the air hostesses, flight stewards and co-pilot come out. The pilot is the last one to emerge out, his uniform ablaze and fire fighters quickly roll him over in a blanket and whisk him away. Though the pilot had been noble in seeing every passenger out of the hazardous zone before saving himself, there are bound to be casualties depending on the age, amount of injury sustained, state of general health before the incident and the place they occupied inside the airplane. But he had done his best, and if you were to take your first flight the subsequent week and came to know that this very same heroic pilot is in charge of the cockpit, are you not sure to feel confident as you take your maiden flight?

Our God is not just good and loving, he is also able to protect those in his loving care from harm’s way. We have faith if we are sure that God is all-powerful and his inability to save is never a reason for our plight. If we do not see the solution we desired, it is just because he has a better way of solving our problem.

The Opposite of FAITH is FEAR. If we have faith, we will never be afraid when trials come our way. If we are afraid, we are not having faith.

In India, though parents often find a match for their son or daughter, it is inconceivable to think that the boy or the girl would leave the decision completely to the parents without even seeing the prospective bride or groom. One would not tell his or her parents , “I leave this completely to you; I do not want to see the girl or the boy (not even in a photo), as you know my mind, my taste and what type is an appropriate match for me”. I am not suggesting they should. I am saying it is understandable given that parents, though wiser by experience than their son/daughter are still not all-knowing and certainly not infallible. However, can we trust our Lord with such faith, saying “you know what is best for me”? “What I ask from my limited knowledge and wisdom may not be the best; you are the best person with your infinite knowledge and wisdom to determine what is best for me”.

“ Let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Rom 12:1b,2). Let us have the faith that Jesus had. Let us be sure of what is ahead of us, and not be frightened by the dangers we see around us.

Life is unfair but GOD is GOOD

Do all of us have something to thank God for? We find ourselves spread across different strata in life – physically, economically, intellectually, and so on. Some are beautiful, attracting a second look while some are ugly. Some have so much that they splurge, not knowing how to use their money, while some have nothing or so little that they struggle to make both ends meet. Some are brilliant in thought and in expression while some just don’t seem capable of thinking new or big. Does each one of us, no matter which side we fall off the dividing line, have something to thank God for?

Some suggest that a positive attitude is required to feel gratitude towards God. When looking at a cup that has some water in it, while one calls the cup as half-full and feels thankful for what he has, another may call the cup as half-empty and complain for not having enough. In the same way, while looking at a rose, one may appreciate the richness of its color or the sweetness of its scent while another may be distracted by the presence of thorns all around. They ask us how we see God, when we look back at our life? Do we remember him for all the good things that we have received -- health, education, profession, family, income, etc., or do we complain that we did not receive sufficient goodness? It is true that the way one looks at the cup or the rose, colors his emotions, but the emptiness and the thorns are very much reality. Does one always have to look at someone less privileged to feel thankful to God?

Let’s face it – Life is unfair! While one has no logical reason to expect why one should have been born in a wealthier family or with greater beauty or intellect, one can’t resisting comparing with someone more fortunate (lucky?), who equally has no reason and has yet been gifted with greater wealth and beauty. Now wait a minute! Gifted by whom? That is when one starts attributing this unfairness to God. If God is sovereign and has absolute control over circumstances, why does he choke one with all goodness while depriving another of even the basic necessities. We tend to expect that if God has been fair, life too would have been fair. We conclude that life is unfair and therefore God too is.

Let us look at God and try to figure out if he is fair or unfair. He has revealed himself through his word and through his own Son who became flesh 2000 years ago, and what do we find? Jesus’ disciples were emphatic in reiterating that God shows no favoritism. Peter told a group of people in Cornelius’ house, considered gentiles by the Jews, “I realize now how true it is that God does not show favoritism" (Acts 1o:34). Paul wrote to the church in Rome that “God does not show favoritism" (Rom 2:11) and to the church is Ephesus that “He who is [everyone’s] master is in heaven and there is no favoritism with him" (Eph 6:9). If this is what the disciples found and had to say, what do we see directly from Jesus’ own life on earth?

While no one could choose the family he would be born into, God who could do for his own Son when sending him into the world, chose the family of a poor carpenter. Can we be sure that Joseph was a poor carpenter and not a rich one? While the rich sacrificed a lamb as offering, Joseph could only offer a dove that was a poor man’s sacrifice. While the Roman imperialists who ruled the Jews in Jesus’ time, rode on horses as they demonstrated their power to the world, Jesus chose to ride on a donkey while being greeted as Saviour. He associated himself with fishermen and social outcasts such as the Samaritans and Tax-collectors.

At a time, when God gave the civil rules to the country of Israel, his objective was that “there should be no poor among [them]” (Deu 15:4). He commanded them to “not take advantage of a widow or an orphan” and warned them of punishment if they did (Ex 22:22). Moses talked loftily about God in the following words: “For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien” (Deu 10:18). King David, Israel’s most cherished King, had realized this and sang (Ps 146:7-9) :

  "He upholds the cause of the oppressed
   and gives food to the hungry.
   The Lord sets prisoners free,
   the Lord gives sight to the blind,
   the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down . .
   the Lord watches over the alien
   and sustains the fatherless and the widow”

Elsewhere, he called God, “a father of the fatherless, a defender of widows” (Ps 68:5).

If God is good, how do poverty, sickness and death rule the day? If God’s desire is to see poverty removed, sickness healed and families restored, how did all these come here in the first place? God made man in his own image as a free being. The moment man decided to be his own God and not obey his creator, sin entered the world. Fallen man is depraved and has become very much unlike God. While God is love, man is full of hatred causing violence and making many widows and orphans. While God is selfless, giving himself for us on the cross, man is selfish, hoarding and accumulating, leaving sections of the society poor. Socialism, Communism, Capitalism have all failed to combat life's unfairness.  Nature itself has fallen along with him leading to diseases and death.

But if God is certainly a father to the fatherless, and a defender of widows, we wonder why the world still finds injustice meted out to the weaker ones in society – the orphans, widows, immigrants and all who are poor? Why is God not wiping out everyone who does injustice? The hard truth is that there will be no one left on earth if he were to do so. God is therefore going through a slower process of working inside out. Today, he comes to live inside us through his Holy Spirit to renew us and transform us. He gives us the strength to bear the unfairness of life, so that together with Paul we may also say "Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day" (2 Cor 4:16).  Great many renewed people have then been transformed to wage war against illiteracy, poverty, suffering :

Mother Teresa who founded Nirmal Hriday for the destitute and the dying of Calcutta;

Dame Cicely Saunders who founded the modern hospice movement that helps people die with dignity and without pain;

Bill Magee, a plastic surgeon whose program Operation Smile has repaired facial deformities on more than thirty-six thousand children;

Millard Fuller who founded Habitat for Humanity with the belief that every person on earth deserves a decent place to live;

Dr.Paul Brand who inspired several medical missionaries through his work with leprosy patients;

and countless others who did what they did because they were being obedient to Jesus.

Would we realize today, how depraved we are and thank God for not snuffing us out, from impatience, but waiting to live through us to not just transform us but also uplift a needy and impoverished world!

God in History

I have always wondered what kind of evidence for Jesus' life and teachings exists outside the Bible. I was fascinated to find that Lee Strobel, an award-winning former legal editor of the Chicago Tribune, a one-time atheist educated at Yale Law School, had set out to determine how reliable the New Testament is and what evidence exists outside the Gospel. He had cross-examined experts to find this out for himself, and here are the highlights:

First, how much are the Gospels (of Mathew, Mark, Luke and John) credible as biographies of Jesus ? How much are they immune from possible legends developing over time?

Craig L. Blomberg Ph.D., widely considered to be one of the foremost authorities on the biographies of Jesus, states, “The standard scholarly dating even in very liberal circles is Mark in the 70’s, Mathew and Luke in the 80’s, and John in the 90’s. That’s still within the lifetimes of various eyewitnesses of the life of Jesus, including hostile eyewitnesses who would have served as a corrective if false teachings about Jesus were going around.” He goes on to make a very instructive comparison. “The two earliest biographies of Alexander the Great were written by Arrian and Plutarch more than 400 years after Alexander’s death in 323 B.C. Yet historians consider them to be generally trustworthy. Yes legendary material about Alexander did develop over time but it was only in the centuries after these two writers. In other words, the first five hundred years kept Alexander’s story pretty much intact; legendary material began to emerge over the next five hundred years. So whether the gospels were written 60 years or 30 years after the life of Jesus, the amount of time is negligible by comparison. It’s almost a non-issue.”

Blomberg then goes on to prove how these eyewitness accounts must be dated much earlier than that held by liberals. “The book of Acts written by Luke ends apparently unfinished. – Paul is a central figure of the book, and he’s under house arrest in Rome . With that the book abruptly halts. What happens to Paul? We don’t find out from Acts, probably because the book was written before Paul was put to detah. That means Acts cannot be dated any later than A.D.62. Since Acts is the second of a two-part work, we know the first part – the gospel of Luke – must have been written earlier than that. And since Luke incorporates parts of the gospel of Mark, that means Mark is even earlier. If you allow maybe a year for each of these, you end up with Mark written no later than A.D.60, maybe even the late 50’s. If Jesus was put to death in A.D.30 or 33, we are talking about a maximum gap of thirty years or so.” Here is how he summarizes the authenticity of eyewitness accounts in the Gospels: “Historically speaking, especially compared with Alexander the Great, that’s like News Flash.”

Now comes the next logical question: When I hold a Bible in my hands, essentially I am holding copies of ancient historical records. The original manuscripts of the biographies of Jesus and all the other books of the Old and New Testaments have long ago crumbled into dust. So how can I be sure that these modern-day versions – the end-product of countless copying through the ages – bear any resemblance to what the authors originally wrote?

Bruce M. Metzger Ph.D., who has authored or edited 50 books, several of which have been translated into German, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Malagasy and other languages and who is considered an authority on the New Testament text, responds, “This isn’t an issue that’s unique to the Bible; it’s a question we can ask of other documents that have come down to us through the ages. But what the New Testament has in its favor, especially compared with other ancient writings, is the unprecedented multiplicity of copies that have survived. The more often you have copies that agree with each other, especially if they emerge from different geographical areas, the more you can cross-check them to figure out what the original document was like.”

Metzger goes on to show how much greater cross-check is possible in the case of the New Testament. “There is something else that favors the New Testament. We have copies commencing within a couple of generations from the writing of the originals, whereas in the case of other ancient texts, maybe five, eight or ten centuries elapsed between the original and the earliest surviving copy.” He continues, “In addition to the Greek manuscripts, we also have translations of the gospels into other languages at a relatively early time – Latin, Syriac and Coptic. In addition to that, we have what may be called secondary translations made a little later, like Armenian and Gothic. And a lot of others – Georgian, Ethiopic, a great variety.” He cites these to show how if we even lost the Greek manuscripts today, by piecing together information from these translations from a relatively early date, we could actually reproduce the content of the New Testament. Not just that; if we even lost all the early translations, we could still reproduce the contents of the New Testament from the multiplicity of quotations in commentaries, sermons, letters and so forth of the early church fathers.

In terms of multiplicity of manuscripts and the time gap between the originals and our first copies , how does this compare with other ancient texts? Metzger points to the Annals of Imperial Rome written by Tacitus in about A.D.116. “His first six books exist today in only one manuscript, and it was copied about A.D.850. Books seven through ten are lost. Books eleven through sixteen are in another manuscript dating from the eleventh century. So there is a long gap between the time that Tacitus sought his information and wrote it down and the only existing copies.” Metzger also points to The Jewish War written by the first century historian Josephus. “We have nine Greek manuscripts of his work and these copies were written in the tenth, eleventh and twelfth centuries. There is a Latin translation from the fourth century and medieval Russian materials from the eleventh or twelfth century.” Lee was stunned that there is but the thinnest thread connecting these ancient works to the modern world.

The contrast with the New Testament is striking. According to Metzger, more than five thousand Greek manuscripts have been catalogued. “Today we have 306 of uncial manuscripts which are written in all-capital Greek letters, several dating back as early as the third century.” 2,856 of miniscule manuscripts exist, which are written in a new style of writing, more cursive in nature, that emerged in roughly A.D.800. A total of 2,403 lectionaries have been catalogued, which contain New Testament scripture in the sequence it was to be read in the early churches at appropriate times during the year. In addition to the Greek documents, there are 8,000 to 10,000 Latin Vulgate manuscripts plus a total of 8,000 in Ethiopic, Slavic and Armenian. In all, there are about 24,000 manuscripts in existence.

Metzger adds, “Next to the New Testament, the greatest amount of manuscript testimony is of Homer’s Iliad, which was the sacred book of the ancient Greeks. There are fewer than 650 Greek manuscripts of it today. Some are quite fragmentary. They come down to us from the second and third century A.D. and following.” When you consider that Homer composed his epic about 800 B.C., the gap is a thousand years. The manuscript evidence for the New Testament is overwhelming when compared against revered writings of antiquity – works that modern scholars have absolutely no reluctance treating as authentic.

Thirdly, Do we find corroborating evidence for Jesus’ life outside the gospels, in the writings of contemporary historians?

Edwin M. Yamauchi Ph.D., a graduate in Hebrew and Hellenistics, and a Master and Doctor in Mediterranean studies, who has delivered papers before learned societies and has participated in excavations cites references from Josephus, Tacitus and Pliny the Younger.

Josephus records in The Antiquities, a history of the Jewish people until his time that he completed in about A.D.93, of how a High Priest name Ananias took advantage of the death of the Roman Governor Festus, to have James killed. “He convened a meeting of the Sanhedrin and brought before them a man named James, the brother of Jesus, who was called the Christ, and certain others. He accused them of having transgressed the law and delivered them up to be stoned.” He has recorded more directly about Jesus in a section called the Testimonium Flavianum. ”About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man [if indeed one ought to call him a man]. For he was one who wrought surprising feats and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. [He was the Christ.] While Pilate upon hearing him accused by men of the highest standing among us, had condemned him to be crucified, those who had in the first place come to love him did not give up their affection for him. [On the third day he appeared to them restored to life, for the prophets of God had prophesied these and countless other marvelous things about him.] And the tribe of Christians, so called after him, has still to this day not disappeared.” Given the nature of Josephus' writing, Yamauchi thinks that the statements shown within braces above, may have been added by some copyists at a later date.

Tacitus in A.D.115 explicitly states that Nero persecuted the Christians as scapegoats to divert suspicion away from himself for the great fire that had devastated Rome in A.D. 64. “Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign on Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome . . . Accordingly an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their influence, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind.”

Pliny the Younger, governor of Bithynia in North-western Turkey , wrote the following in his correspondence with his friend, Emperor Trajan, that have been preserved to this day. “I have asked them if they are Christians, and if they admit it, I repeat the question a second and third time, with a warning of the punishment awaiting them. If they persist, I order them to be led away for execution; for, whatever the nature of their admission, I am convinced that their stubbornness and unshakeable obstinacy ought not to go unpunished . . .
“They also declared that the sum total of their guilt or error amounted to no more than this: they had met regularly before dawn on a fixed day to chant verses alternately among themselves in honor of Christ as if to a god., and also to bind themselves by oath, not for any criminal purpose, but to abstain from theft, robbery and adultery . . .“This made me decide it was all the more necessary to extract the truth by torture from two slave-women, whom they called deaconesses. I found nothing but a degenerate sort of cult carried to the extravagant lengths.”

Yamauchi adds, “It was probably written about A.D.111, and it attests to the rapid spread of Christianity, both in the city and in the rural area, among every class of persons, slave women as well as Roman citizens, since he also says that he sends Christians who are Roman citizens to Rome for trial. And it talks about the worship of Jesus as God, that Christians maintained high ethical standards, and that they were not easily swayed from their beliefs.”

The conclusion this leads to is that there is no dearth of evidence. Rather, men tend to suppress evidence because of its implications for them. If Jesus had indeed walked planet earth 2000 years ago, and if indeed all he said and did were as recorded in the gospels, it implies that men's intent are evil and they need God's redeeming love. It would be prudent to accept the truth and experience freedom, than to buy a lie and remain in bondage.