A Revealing Revelation

Part Two

This discussion will assume that God exists.

So, if God exists, and if He must reveal Himself to us because we cannot fathom Him, how would He do such a thing?

Would He reveal Himself in flora and fauna (live nature)? He might reveal His power, or His abilities or some other attribute of Himself, but He could not reveal His "selfness" in them because such a revelation would be meaningless to us. Revelation requires communication. Vegetation and animals cannot communicate with us.

I have been in the communication business for all of my adult life and some of my pre-adult life. Trust me. Plants and animals do not communicate with us (us dog lovers notwithstanding). Whatever we receive from them we read in to them to begin with. (I've already heard the arguments. That's my story and I'm sticking with it.)

If a rose bush's leaves begin to wither, the bush is not trying to communicate that it is thirsty. Withered leaves are the result of lack of water. That's what happens. The rose bush initiates nothing. It just responds to its various stimuli or lack thereof.

My wonderful pug, Charlie, begins this absurd spinning and bouncing every single time I start to put his feeding dish on the floor. Is he communicating with me that he is thankful for the food? No. He is nervously reacting to the anticipation of receiving the one thing he responds to more than anything else in the world...FOOD!

But he is not communicating with me. He is totally focused on himself and his benefit. I gather from his actions that he likes food.

If God had chosen to communicate with us through plants and animals, He would be a poor communicator and we would never be able to figure out what He was saying.

One of my least favorite expressions is, "God was trying to tell me something."

Poor God. Is He is so enept at "telling us something" that He can only try? I think not.

God, if He is God (and let's assume that He is), He could certainly communicate with His own creation.

Maybe this God would reveal His "selfness" in the forces of nature. Maybe He would reveal Himself in volcanos, tornados or earthquakes. Perhaps tsunami would be His choice.

Things that kill His creation? What a mean, capricious God that would be.

Wait a minute. We just used up all of nature. What's left?

How about giving us impressions in our minds?

During trips to mental institutions when studying psychology at Stetson University, I met many people who claimed that God "spoke" to them.

I have met more than a few since then.

How do we sort out to whom God has spoken and to whom He has not?

If God is as smart as He is supposed to be, He would have to communicate with us in as way that is consistant over time.

As a university student, I read the sacred writings of many of the world's religions. I'll save the one-by-one exposition for another post.

Suffice to say that some were no more than a collection of wise sayings or advice. A few were beautifully phrased pieces of poetry. Several were an inconsistant mass of jumbled and unrelated nonsense. One was claimed to have been dictated by God to a 19th century person in 12th century English. Another took an accepted text and "retranslated" it using men who were not educated in its original languages, but who claimed to have been. The most insidious one was the essence of mixed messages and advocated the distruction of all who did not accept its precepts.

One book I read was a collection of books written over many generations, in several languages, by many different authors, some old, some young, which had a central theme and details so intertwined that it would have required hundreds of conspiracies by people willing to sacrifice their lives to have accomplish it.

This book contains predictions of specific events, where these events would take place, and one person around whom these events would be centered. Every one of these has been historically fulfilled, except for those which are to happen at a designated time in our future.

Over the years I have come to believe that God breathed into the minds and hearts of the authors the things He wanted them to write. To say that He spoke to them is the only way I have of expressing the communication He surely had with them. I have found that I can trust it message completely.

We know this book as The bible.

Not a rule book, not a history book, not a science book, not a geology or geography book, though it can be trusted in each of these disciplines, the Bible is God's revelation of His love for His creation and His plan for its redemption.

The Bible is the book I quoted in my last post. It is the book that says, "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God."

It also says, "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 6:23)

Therein lies the solution to the sin problem.

In my next post I will explain the bredth of the "sin problem," and tell you how its solution can be applied in your own life.

You're gonna love it.