A recent conversation with my son James took a turn to religious topics, as it often does. He asked, “How can you believe in the Bible when it was written centuries ago? Why isn’t God, if there is a God, still talking to men today? How come nothing new has been written?”
My answer, without a lot of thought, and knowing a full-blown debate would be futile, said, “Because the entire story has already been written.”
The story, the truth, of the Messiah – from “in the beginning” to “come quickly”, Genesis to the Revelation is complete. The Aleph and the the Tav, Alpha and Omega, from A to Z, the full truth of Jesus Christ / Yeshua Hamashiach / the Messiah is laid out before us in His written word.
It is finished.
The Law, the Prophets, the Poetry, the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the Letters, the Revelation – the writing is finished. The redemption mission of Jesus is finished. The prophecies of the future ~ of the Restoration, God’s Kingdom to come ~ are included in the words of God that have already been written.
Yet … I still wrestled with James’ question, and asked God some of my own – Why haven’t there been additional writings? What is it that makes “now” different from “then”? Why don’t we still have prophets to speak the word of God?
BECAUSE Jesus came, in fulfillment of the prophecies of redemption, because we HAVE the Holy Spirit, because Yeshua WILL return to fulfill the prophecies written of restoration.
“And behold, I am coming quickly, Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book,” Revelation 22:7 (NASB95).
His people ARE the temple, so God communes with us individually, He COMMUNICATES with us one on one – through His written word that we call the Holy Bible, letting us read what went before to teach us, to guide us, to instruct us, even to reprimand and chastise us when we turn from Him. We COMMUNICATE with Him through our prayers, and through our obedience to His written words.
“You shall follow the Lord your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him,” Deuteronomy 13:4 (NASB).
God reveals Himself through His creation, through other people, through His written word, by the very power He displays in the very sustaining of LIFE. Without God, the earth, the universe, would still be “formless,” “void,” an utter darkness. With Him it glows with light, the earth “teems with life.”
So, James asked, “Why doesn’t God talk to men now?”
God DOES, but it’s up to us to listen. We can’t hear Him if we’re ignoring Him or attempting to drown Him out, like a rebellious child with her fingers in her ears, chanting “la, la, la, la.”
The question is NOT– Why isn’t God Speaking?
The REAL question is —
Are we listening?
paynefulponderings 