Man has a choice of two Gods. One God is the kind of God that man perceives Him to be. The other is the kind of God that He reveals Himself to be.
It would appear that most men would prefer the God that reveals Himself to man, rather than the other kind.
There are two ways in which God reveals Himself to man. One way is general or natural revelation, while the other is through special revelation in which God visits a man or prophet in dreams or visions and this person tells or writes down what God has revealed.
In general or natural revelation, God reveals Himself through the facts of life. In our physical world, life produces life. Life begats life. Life comes from other living things. Life does not come from or be produced from non-living things.
Our human life and the environment which sustains it, is so complex, so beyond the natural abilities of man to produce it from non-life, that it is the evidence of some SUPERNATURAL power, some supernatural life, some supernatural being; God, if you please. Our life comes from another life.
Lessons can be learned from the creation. How did 50 billion galaxies get hung in space? The heavens declare the glory of God, Psalm 19.
So much of the vegetable world dies in the Fall but comes back to life in the Spring. Is there to be life after death, a resurrection from the dead? Every year, nature says "yes".
In His parables, Jesus drew lessons from nature. Let us attempt to do the same.
Up to and including World War I, when large bodies of troops, in time of war, were deployed in the field for a period of time, more men would die from disease than from battle. Why?
The children of Israel wandered in the wilderness (deployed in the field) for 40 years, yet the record states that there were no feeble among them, Psalm 105:37. Why?
Although sub-freezing weather took a heavy toll in Korea, in World War II, Korea and Vietnam, disease was not the big killer it had been in the past. Why?
The U. S. Military had learned a valuable lesson in which the troops were thoroughly indoctrinated. At the Infantry School in Ft. Benning, Georgia, a class was being conducted on sanitation and first-aid, which can be kind of dull. But the students' ears perked up when the captain, doing the instructing, opens up a Bible and says, reading from Deuteronomy 23:12, 13:
"Thou shalt have a place also without the camp, whither thou shalt go forth abroad: And thou shalt have a paddle upon they weapon; and it shall be, when thou wilt ease thyself abroad, thou shalt dig therewith, and thou shalt turn back and cover that which cometh from thee". (KJV)
"Designate a place outside the camp where you can go to relieve yourself. As part of your equipment have something to dig with, and when you relieve yourself, dig a hole and cover up your excrement". (NIV)
Mankind learned a lesson that had been revealed to Moses over 3,000 years ago. That which comes out of man - human excrement - can be devastatingly defiling and disease causing, if not properly disposed. What comes out of man can be deadly and must be handled with caution. That which comes out of man is bad. It stinks, letting us know it should be covered. Notice how a cat attempts to do this very thing.
Countless human lives have been saved since man learned that what comes out of him is defiling.
What spiritual lesson can we learn from this fact that nature reveals?
When the Pharisees complained to Jesus that His disciples ate with unwashed hands, Jesus said, "…there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile … It is what comes out of a person that defiles. For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, and folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person", Mark 7:15-23 (NRSV).
Spiritual defilement comes from within according to the Bible, which is special revelation, and physical defilement also comes from what comes out of man according to general revelation.
How unfortunate it is today that many sincere Christians are teaching and believing that great spiritual truths can be discerned by searching within the human heart. Jeremiah tells us that, "The heart is deceitful … [how deceitful?] … above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?", Chapter 17, verse 9.
But they will say that the New Testament teaches that the mystery of Christianity "… is Christ in you, the hope of glory", Colossians 1:27.
However, this is not a correct rendering of the text.
The marginal reference in the KJV indicates that the Greek world translated "in" can also mean "among". Since 1 Timothy 3:16 clearly tells us that the mystery of godliness is that God was manifested in the flesh, then "among" would be the proper use of the word in this text. Also, see note on Colossians 1:27 in the New English Bible.
The mystery is that God would take on humanity and dwell among us. It was a secret hid from the foundation of the earth. When asked to tell what he had dreamed, the wise men of Babylon told Nebuchadnezzar that no one could do this "… except the gods whose dwelling is not with flesh", Daniel 2:11.
Fallen, finite, fallible man, who sees through a glass darkly, has a strong tendency to center in on himself. To look within his own heart. It is true that Christ, through His representative, the Holy Spirit, does dwell in the believer's heart. The work of the Spirit is not to bring attention to Himself or what He does in the human heart but rather to guide the believer into truth and glorify Christ who is the Truth.
"But when the Comforter is come ... even the Spirit of truth … he shall testify of me", John 15:26.
"Howbeit when he the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself: … He shall glorify me", John 16: 13, 14.
Both physically and spiritually, some of the most defiling things in the world are what comes out of man. Focusing within is a strong point of Eastern philosophy, which invaded this country in the 1960's and 1970's.
That there is some good to come out of man, is a deception that would deceive the very elect if that were possible, Matthew 24:24.
Jack D. Walker, 5353
Cane Ridge #115, Antioch, TN, 37013, 615.731.8795