Editorial
IS GOD DEAD?
The newest fad in theology is to affirm that God is dead. The affirmation is so ridiculous that it really doesn't need an answer. When I first heard it my first impulse was to laugh. But I guess these "theologians" are serious about this idea. It is my purpose here to affirm some reasons why I know God isn't dead.
I know God isn't dead, because I talked to Him this morning. You who are saved know what I mean. Of course this means nothing to the unsaved, theologian or otherwise. To the believer, talking with God daily in prayer is as real as talking with a visible loved one. I believe that when I pray He hears, as He told me to come boldly unto His Throne of Grace that I might obtain. And I do obtain from Him in answer to prayer.
And God talked to me this morning. I was reading Hosea. Hosea starts out: "The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea. And the Lord said . . . " Did I hear an audible voice? No. But God spoke through His prophet. The message He spoke was one of doom and destruction to sinners and mercy and pardon to the repentant. If God does not speak through His Word, He does not speak at all. I suppose that is why these "theologians" think God is dead. He has not spoken to them. He cannot. They will not believe His Word. They do not even believe the Bible is His Word. But I do. And He speaks to me through it. I don't care what they say, I know my God isn't dead. If they say He is, it just proves they are not on speaking terms with Him. He doesn't talk to non-believers.
Secondly, I know God isn't dead, because if He were, we would all be dead. He not only created this universe in which we live, He sustains it. "By him all things consist" -- or hold together. If God had died, the moment it happened and the moment His fingers relaxed from control of the universe, that moment the whole of it would have disintegrated. The wise theologians would not have been here to make their pronouncement about God nor to argue the point, I would not have been here to write about it, and you would not have been here to read it.
Of course I think they mean that God never really existed in the first place, except in the mind and imagination of man, and since the marvelous strides forward of man in science, technology, etc., we no longer need this "God-idea," especially the outmoded idea of God found in the Bible, which they say is no longer relevant to our society and need. But whatever they say or think, I know there is a God, He is very much alive and relevant to our present sinful society and our desperate need of salvation by His grace. He holds everything together by His mighty power. And the very fact that these doubting theologians are still alive to express their doubts, proves He lives.
Thirdly, I know God isn't dead, because He is declared in the Bible to be "the everlasting Father." Everlasting means everlasting. Anything short of it would not be everlasting. "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty" -- "to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever."
Do you know what these fellows are doing? Paul knew their kind. He describes them in his epistle to the Romans. "When they knew God (through His creative work), they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man . . . who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever." As of old, these men rejoice "in the works of their own hands." They must beware lest God do as then: "Then God turned, and gave them up . . . "
Finally, I know God isn't dead, because Jesus isn't dead. This is the month when we especially remember Christ's resurrection. This is not just a religious holiday, nor a myth of antiquity, nor a mammoth delusion or deceit of the early disciples, but a fact of history attested to by over 500 brethren who saw Him at one time following His resurrection. He was seen of all the disciples on several occasions. He was seen ascending into heaven. He was seen by Stephen at the right hand of God. Paul heard His voice from the glory. John was given visions of His future glory and was introduced to Him as "He that liveth."
The skeptical theologians, though they affirm God is dead, say we should follow the teachings of Jesus. They seem not to realize that this same Jesus is the Son of God, equal with the Father, second person of the Trinity or Godhead. They profess to recognize the value of His teachings while rejecting His divine Person. By saying God is dead, they are saying our risen and glorified Christ is dead. Actually they are about 2000 years too late. Indeed Christ did die. He died on the cross. But, as thousands of pulpits around the world will proclaim this Easter, "He is risen!" And the risen Lord says, "I am alive for evermore."
Christ's death was not cessation of existence, but a redemptive work of Deity on behalf of fallen mankind, "for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation." This redemption becomes yours "if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead -- thou shalt be saved." His resurrection guarantees our own. If God is dead we are entirely without hope in this world.
But God is not dead! You know it, if you know Him.
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"JESUS
thou art worthy . . .
for thou wast slain, and hast
redeemed us to God by thy blood."
Revelation 5:9
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THE DEITY OF JESUS CHRIST
WHO IS JESUS CHRIST ? Jesus Christ is God!
Worship is rendered to Him which belongs only to the true God.
The Bible clearly teaches that such worship belongs to God alone, and is never to be rendered to any creature, no matter how exalted.
The angels refuse worship. Said the angel to John on the isle of Patmos, when John fell at his feet to worship: "See thou do it not: I am a fellowservant with thee . . . worship God" (Revelation 22:9).
The apostles refuse worship. Said Barnabas and Paul, when a crowd at Lystra wanted to sacrifice to them because of a miracle performed: "Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men . .. and bring you good tidings, that ye should turn from these vain things unto a living God" (Acts 14:15).
Peter refuses worship. "Stand up," said Peter to Cornelius who fell at his feet, "I myself also am a man" (Acts 10:26).
Christ commands men to worship God alone. Said Christ to Satan, when Satan asked for His worship, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only . . . " (Matthew 4:10).
Men are punished for accepting what belongs only to God. King Herod found this out the hard way. "Upon a set day Herod arrayed himself in royal apparel . . . sat on the throne . . . made an oration . . . And the people shouted, saying, The voice of a god, and not of a man. And immediately an angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory," and he died. (Acts 12:21-23).
The same Bible that teaches worship belongs to God alone, teaches also that Christ is to be worshipped as God.
Christ Himself demands such worship. In handing over judgment to the Son, the Father had in mind "that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father." These are words from Jesus' own lips. Then He says, "He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father" (John 5:23). Men are to honor Christ "even as" they honor the Father. How is that? One way men honor the Father is with their worship. We are to honor the Son in like manner.
The Father commands such worship of Christ. "And when he again bringeth in the firstborn into the world he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him" (Hebrews 1:6). Indeed Christ is worshipped by the hosts (not just the angels) of heaven. (For this, read Revelation 5:8-14).
Worship of Christ will finally become universal. The story of Jesus Christ is briefly this -- He lived with the Father in glory in eternity past; He came to earth, born of a virgin, lived as a servant among men, gave Himself to death, even the death of the cross; He rose from the dead; He ascended back to the Father and glory. "Wherefore also God highly exalted him, and gave unto him the name which is above every name; that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord" (Philippians 2:9-11).
Does this mean universal salvation? No. Note, three realms are mentioned -- heaven, earth, under the earth (margin. the world below; or underworld). Who inhabits this "world below?" Those who have rejected Jesus Christ. Indeed, these, along with all other creatures of God, will finally worship Christ but against their will. As for their salvation, it will be eternally too late. Jesus says that in the day of judgment there will come those who call Him, "Lord, Lord"; but He will answer them, "I never knew you: depart from me" (Matthew 7:23).
The lesson for us is obvious -- let us give to Christ His due. Let us follow the lead of the early disciples who, "when they saw him (in His post-resurrection appearances), they worshipped him" (Matthew 28:17). And like Thomas let us confess: "My Lord and my God" (John 20:28).
He demands our worship -- He deserves our worship -- He accepts our worship -- He is God.
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MY PORTION
My portion was to be in the contemplation of the Lord of glory in the secret place (a prison cell); to gain a real experience in the contemplative content of the Christian faith, which the centuries have stolen from our western lives.
I had no Bible in my hand, no watch on my wrist, no pencil or paper in my pocket. There was no real hope of release. There was no real hope of life. There was no real possibility of reunion with those I loved. The only reality was my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Divested of all, He was to become everything to me. He was to break my bars and enlarge my coasts in the narrow room. He was to be my fullest nourishment amidst the meager food. "My meat," which my captors "knew not of." He would make me glad with His countenance. He would let me hear His voice. As in the days of His nativity, Herod may reign and imagine slaughter against the innocent but let me only see His star and I would come to worship Him.
-- Geoffrey T. Bull.
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NO BLOOD -- NO FORGIVENESS
"Without shedding of blood is no remission."
Hebrews 9:22
The question was asked: Why is there no remission or forgiveness without shedding of blood? Because "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23a).
It all started back in the Garden of Eden. God commanded the first couple, saying, "The tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Genesis 2:17).
We know too well the tragic story. They both ate, and death came upon the human race. "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned" (Romans 5:12).
"As it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). Not only death but hell results from man's disobedience. This is the sinner's sure destiny, unless there can be found a way of escape.
God found a way. God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, planned and provided a system of substitution. So we read in the Old Testament of the guilty person being instructed to offer a certain animal to die in his stead. The blood of the animal presented before the Lord by the priest brought the desired forgiveness.
But this system was not entirely satisfactory, as there was a remembrance of sins every year, for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Also God intended that these sacrifices should foreshadow a better and more perfect sacrifice.
So we read in the New Testament: "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). "He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself" (Hebrews 9:26). "Christ died for our sins" (I Corinthians 15:3). Christ died in our stead. God saw the travail of His soul, how that He poured out His soul unto death, and was satisfied.
"Christ is (now) entered . . . into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us . . . neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in . . . having obtained eternal redemption for us" (Hebrews 9:24 & 12).
In the old economy the offerer was told to "put his hand upon the head of the burnt-offering; and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him" (Leviticus 1:4). This signified acceptance of and identification with the substitute. This answers to our acceptance of and identification with Christ by faith. " . . . faith in his blood . . . for the remission of sins . . . " (Romans 3:25). "Without shedding of blood is no remission."
Somebody had to die: "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord": who died for us. Through the shedding of blood -- His blood -- there is eternal forgiveness for all who believe.
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Settle this truth steadily in your mind; that there is no acceptance for person, or services, except in the Beloved.
-- Things Concerning Himself
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Is the joy of heaven your joy? Is its refreshment the refreshment of your heart? Is its perfume the perfume of your spirit? Does your every faculty expand and recreate in Jesus? Is He your paradise of every spice and every flower? Is He your Garden of Eden in which each moment is a moment of blossoming and each blossom opens in increasing fragrance?
-- Things Concerning Himself
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SUNSHINE BREAKING THROUGH
by Geoffrey T. Bull
A piece of paper lay on my desk. There was, of course, nothing unusual in that. The study was a place of incessant activity, in fact it was a kind of terminus for innumerable pieces of paper moving in from Indonesia, Sarawak, Brunei and many a place in North Borneo itself. It was the headquarters of a "Correspondence -- Bible School."
One day as I was marking the Scripture lessons I came to this particular piece of paper. I stopped and looked at it closely. The question ran, "What new thing are you willing for the Lord to do for you?" The answer was set down in painstaking Chinese characters and "drawn" in bright green ink. Each one was distinct and clear as if written by a boy still at school. They were written, too, in the traditional style, from the top to the bottom of the page and the columns progressing from right to left. Slowly I deciphered it, the literal translation into English forming in my mind as I scanned the characters.
As the meaning crystallized I was aware that this was not so much a student's answer, but a man's heart. The reply appealed to me as being unusually full of pathos and spiritual grace. "Without stopping," it ran, "I think in prayer, hoping in future for some new thing -- willing for Him in the place where there is no way, to open a way. Willing that He, in future may have a plan of glory for me that will surpass all past glory. Willing that His lovingkindness should not cease towards me. Indeed His compassions are new every morning . . . "
* * * * * * * * * *
"Do you think you could make a basket?" Nan asked. Hua-Kai-Yun looked somewhat taken aback. "Make a basket?" Why, he had never made a basket in his life. With a wry look on his face he dismissed the whole idea as totally impossible.
"You could make one, you know," persisted my wife, with all the insistence of an occupational therapist. Hua-Kai-Yun, taken by surprise, had no arguments ready to oppose the gentle art of basketry, other than his own inability.
"You can learn if you try. The others are doing it. Look at Ah-Soong there, he's made quite a lot. Come on now, you simply must have a try."
At the back of the T. B. wards of the General Hospital, where the grounds sloped away into an old rubber plantation, there was a little hut. One look inside and any unauthorized intruder would be amazed to see a stock of cane in various colours, together with an indescribable conglomeration of baskets. Plain baskets, fancy baskets, shopping backets, waste-paper baskets, in fact almost any kind of basket you could think of. From this store-room Hua-Kai-Yun now received a quota of cane and under the enthusiastic, if not too expert instruction of his fellow patients, he began the intricate operation of making his very first basket. He would be paid for his efforts. It would only mean about fifty cents but to him this would represent his first earnings for several years. Just to be able to do a job of work, he was going to discover, would be almost better than a dose of medicine, but he had never thought of it that way before.
Slowly he worked. How clumsy his fingers seemed and the cane so unyielding. "I'm too ill to do this," he kept thinking. Three long years had passed since he was admitted, and had come in up through the narrow driveway, past the broad lawns and the shrubs filled with yellow flowers to the neat little T. B. compound. It was a secluded sanctuary. A real haven of healing and convalescence. The staff was very kind and the doctors so helpful, but he did not really improve and he felt that his youth had already slipped away. If it had not been that he belonged to Christ, life would have lost all its meaning long ago. He knew without question that God loved him and cared for him as a Father, but with his weakening frame and tired mind there were some days when he felt he could hardly carry on any more. It was little wonder, after all the hazardous and strenuous years.
Hua-Kai-Yun had been born on Hainan Island off the south coast of China, in a poor farming family some years before the last war. He could remember the quiet and placid days of his boyhood. Summer days when white fleecy clouds would fleck the blue expanse above and sunshine chase the shadows in the paddy fields below. Perhaps that was the reason they called him Hua-Kai-Yun, which means the "sunshine breaking through." All his family were people of the fields and there had always been a struggle to make two ends meet. Nevertheless they had known the rare contentment of simple pleasures which few but the poor enjoy.
He was only fourteen years of age when the first Japanese bombers came strafing in from the sea. His school-house was reduced to rubble by one of the very first bombs. Then the aggressor armies invaded and terror spread through the countryside, as town after town was occupied by the enemy forces. When they eventually reached his village, his house was cruelly burnt to the ground and his old grandmother done to death. The whole family scattered. His mother unable to face the bitter privations, fell ill and having no medical aid, died very quickly. Hua-Kai-Yun thus found himself alone with his older sister, fighting for his life and hers, amongst the widespread ruins. Once his sister was sixteen it was possible for her to get married and in some measure this was a way of escape for her but it meant, of course, that Hua-Kai-Yun was left "empty" and alone. "I was like a sheep that had lost its way and like a small boat drifting on the great ocean. What could I do? Where could I go?" That was his own description of his plight.
Mercifully he came in contact with a relative at this time, an aunt, who took him in and did her best for him. By making various contacts and arrangements, even in the upheaval of the times, it proved possible for Hua-Kai-Yun to board a vessel bound for North Borneo. His father had left, some years previously, for those parts, seeking a better livelihood. No doubt he could establish contact and live with his father. It was a big venture but it succeeded, and for some while he and his father worked together on a plantation near Tawau. The tropical climate, however proved too much for Hua-Kai-Yun, and it was not long before he contracted malaria and succumbed to a foot disease which gave him excruciating pain. As Borneo was also occupied by the Japanese at that time, it was not until after the liberation that he was able to get medical treatment. This proved to be reasonably successful and he was able, in the goodness of God, to move to Sandakan and obtain employment in a cafe. Although physically weakened by work in the plantation under occupation conditions, God was obviously undertaking for him. In Sandakan he had his first contact with the Gospel.
"In the summer of 1948," he confided, "I came to know our Lord Jesus Christ through the witness of a Chinese preacher in Sandakan. It happened like this. One day whilst working in a tea-shop a Chinese gentleman came in, sat down and ordered some tea. I was conscious that he was looking at me rather intently. After quite a while he took, what proved to be a picture, out of his pocket and said to me, 'Do you know who this is?' " Hua-Kai-Yun was undoubtedly mystified.
Without waiting for a reply, the gentleman said quietly but with obvious enthusiasm, "That man was born at Bethlehem and He died at a place called Golgotha, nailed to a wooden cross. Because He shed His blood there, your sins can be forgiven." Hua-Kai-Yun was even more baffled. The man quoted quite a number of sentences from a book called the Bible and then said, "Why don't you come along to our little chapel and we can explain more about these things to you?"
Hua-Kai-Yun did not know what to think but he was intrigued by such an encounter with one of the customers and found himself impatiently watching the clock on the wall, waiting for the time when he would slip away to the chapel. Before the time came, however, the Chinese gentleman reappeared and escorted Hua-Kai-Yun all the way.
"He took me," Hua-Kai-Yun related, "through several side streets to a rather unfrequented part of the town where there was a house built of wooden planks and roofed with atap. We walked inside and I saw twenty to thirty people already sitting in the rows of chairs. I was asked to sit in the middle of the first row. As I looked around I realized that none of those present were known to me and I rather felt that they were looking at me. After a few minutes we were all asked to sing. I had no idea what I was supposed to do, so I just stood up with the others. After the singing the Chinese gentleman preached for some time, then everyone stood up again and closed their eyes whilst the preacher quietly spoke a few words. I was amazed and very disturbed, looking this way and that to see what they would do until they had opened their eyes again. When all was over the preacher bade me farewell in a very friendly way and asked me to come again the next week."
As these different occasions came and went a new faith began to spring up in Hua-Kai-Yun and with it, a new hope. The strange encounter in the tea-shop took on a special significance and as Hua-Kai-Yun heard more of the Man who was born at Bethlehem and who died at Golgotha, he came to know Him as his very own Saviour and Lord.
Continuing his story, Hua-Kai-Yun went on, "One night when I arrived back at the tea-shop after attending one of the meetings, I was confronted by my 'boss.' He stood behind the counter and fixing his dark, black eyes upon me, exploded with anger. 'If you think you can leave the shop for two or three hours at a time, then you are mistaken,' he growled. 'You're just robbing me right and left, that's what you're doing. The big of work you do, doesn't even cover your wages. What do you expect to gain going off like that? Now I'm just not going to have it. I tell you now -- any more trouble and that's you without a job! Do you understand?' "
Hua-Kai-Yun, weak in body and more or less alone in the world, was no match for his hard-hearted and ruthless employer. He felt he could only bow his head to the grindstone and plod on. Years passed and he was unable to attend any Christian service and unable to fortify himself with any Christian fellowship. He felt his new-found faith was dwindling away.
At last in 1954 he obtained fresh employment, this time in Jesselton the capital, but it was too late, his health was already seriously impaired. The daily exertion and long hours proved too much for him and eventually he contracted tuberculosis. At first the illness responded to treatment but in the end he could work no longer and he had to be admitted to the T. B. hospital. So it was that we met him there and had our visits with him from time to time, seeking to be of encouragement and help to him.
Hua-Kai-Yun by God's grace is weathering the storm. He will never be a basket-maker, but his faith, nourished by regular Bible study and refreshed in fellowship, has like some smoking flax been kindled once again to a living flame.
I looked down at my desk. There on the table was a piece of paper where Hua-Kai-Yun's Chinese characters stood out boldly in the bright green ink. "What new thing are you willing for the Lord to do for you?" ran the question. How great was the answer of this man, called so aptly, 'Sunshine breaking through . . .'
"Without stopping, I think in prayer, hoping in future for some new thing -- willing for Him, in the place where there is no way, to open a way. Willing that He, in future, may have a plan of glory for me that will surpass all past glory. Willing that His lovingkindness should not cease towards me. Indeed His compassions are new every morning . . . "
(In "Coral In The Sand," USA edition published by Moody Press, Chicago.)
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