Many
people believe that, since there are so many opinions about God, he must be
some kind of generic, man-pleasing, chameleon-figure who becomes whatever
anyone wants him to be. The belief is that man’s thoughts about God make him
who he is, and, therefore, he is as multi-personalitied as only the divine
could experience.
According
to God, he is who he says he is. He does not bow to the wishful imaginings of
his creation, but calls us to get to know him as our one and only Creator and
Savior. People are called from every imaginable culture, ethnic group, nation,
religious background, philosophical belief system, or any other way we would
explain the diversity of thought and experience among human beings, to come to
the one true God through faith in the one Lord Jesus Christ.
Of
course, we all know that this is not what is happening in our world. There are
those who receive the Bible as the word of God, acknowledge the God of the
Bible as our Creator, and the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, and unite to
walk in the Spirit of the Triune God. There are many others who pick one of the
many mindsets that deny the Bible in whole or in part.
The
question is, according to God, how are we to see the difference between those
who take him at his word as revealed in the Bible, and those who deny him and
his word? Surely God has some way of relating differently to those who come to
him from the way he relates to those who refuse him.
Today
this became glaringly clear as I began meditating on the sixth of the seven
seals of the book of Revelation. In this seal, there is a distinctive way that
the nations of the earth will relate to God regarding the fulfillment of all
God’s promises of justice against sin. It is described like this:
Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the
generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid
themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the
mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated
on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath
has come, and who can stand?”[1]
This
tells us that, in the end, everyone who has replaced God with something of
their own creation will suddenly be united in a solitary vision. They will all
see “him who is seated on the throne,”
just as he has been revealed in the first five chapters of Revelation. They will
all see Jesus Christ in the exact same way that can only be described as, “the wrath of the Lamb.” For once, the
whole world outside the Church will agree about God, and react in unified
horror to what they all know to be true.
This
will NOT be the way God’s children see things. When Jesus comes, he will not show
the wrath of God against our sin because he already felt the wrath of God
against our sin. On the cross, his announcement of, “It is finished,”[2]
rang out as the message of hope to everyone who would believe in him for
salvation. The wrath of God against the sin of his children was finished, and
God would never relate to his children in wrath ever again.
The
reason that there will be a huge difference at the coming of Christ between
those who joyfully welcome him, and those who horrifyingly try to hide from
him, is described in this way:
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them
from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as
Lord, with ourselves as
your servants for Jesus'
sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ.[3]
The reason that some people see God in all kinds of
man-made ideas is because the red dragon has blinded them to what God really is
like. The reason that there is one group of people who see God correctly, is
because God has shone his reality into their hearts in the same way as he
called light into existence in the first place.
When Jesus comes, those who have now seen “the light of the knowledge of the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ,” will be overjoyed to see Jesus coming,
and to become just like him when we see him as he is.[4]
On the other hand, those who been blinded to “the light of the gospel of the glory of
Christ, who is the image of God,” will call on the rocks and mountains to
cover them because they now see what the one who sits on the throne looks like,
they now see what his image looks like, and they know that the Triune God is bringing
on them the wrath their sins deserve.
For
me, the message is clear: the first seal speaks of the rider on the white horse
representing the church that goes out “conquering,
and to conquer.”[5] Because
the coming of Christ will be so horrifying to those who reject him, I must join
the body of Christ in seeking to make Jesus Christ known through every means
possible so that people can be saved from the coming wrath.
In
a sense, the warning of the sixth seal makes me want to have a testimony like
Paul’s, “Therefore I testify to you this day
that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.”[6] If we are bold in
declaring to our world the whole counsel of God, we will rescue some of the
perishing before that great and terrible day of wrath arrives.
“The fruit of the righteous is a tree of
life, and whoever captures souls is wise.”[7]
With the beautiful imagery of the church as a rider on a white horse going out
conquering, and to conquer, let all the children of God help to make our
churches wise in the capturing of souls. Before it is too late.
© 2014 Monte Vigh ~
Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise
noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible,
English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway
Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)
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