Month: October 2012

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Is Your Hope in the Government?

George Lawson, a fellow graduate of The Master’s Seminary, reminds us Who our hope is in as the elections draw near.  You can find the entire article here:  Reliable Source Reveals November’s Election is Already Fixed.  Lawson’s closing lines realign our focus:  “But don’t place your hope in a ballot box or lose your hope in a ballot box either.  The election has already been fixed and a reliable source reveals that God wins!”

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… The next president of the United States will not be determined by hanging chads and dimples on the ballots in Florida.  It won’t even be decided by the elite electoral college (regardless of what you may have heard).  A reliable source reveals that this year’s election has already been fixed.

What is this reliable source?  — the Bible.  And no, I am not advocating some secret code contained in Scripture.  I’m sure if you rearranged the letters in some verse in the book of Revelation, you could spell Mitt Romney, Barack Obama or Cap’n Crunch!  No, the Bible does not reveal who the next president will be, but it does reveal that the outcome has already been fixed by a sovereign God.

Psalm 115:3 says it this way, “But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases.”

Psalm 103:19 adds this thought, “The LORD has established His throne in the heavens; And His sovereignty rules over all.”

And then we learn this in the book of Daniel…

“The Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind, And bestows it on whom He wishes, And sets over it the lowliest of men” (Daniel 4:17)

God’s sovereignty, or unopposed rule, will be the true deciding factor in November’s election, just as God decided who would govern the ancient kingdoms in the Near East.

In the book of Daniel, the Jewish people in captivity were encouraged to place their hope, not in their rulers, but in the God who ruled over their rulers.  And that’s not to say that their rulers were godly (I’m sure that Nebuchadnezzar would not receive the nomination in any party).  Rather, Daniel encouraged the Jewish people who were in captivity, by reminding them that the powers that exist will not have the final say, God will…

…Now all of this is not to say, you should not exercise your right to vote. Get informed, get involved and get in line to vote for the candidate that best represents biblical values.  But don’t place your hope in a ballot box or lose your hope in a ballot box either.  The election has already been fixed and a reliable source reveals that God wins!

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[HT: George Lawson]

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The Big Picture of the Bible in Four Movements

Just as in a great symphony there are different movements that make up the entire masterpiece, in the Bible there are four great movements or stories that make up the whole.  Creation.  Fall.  Cross.  New Creation.  Put together, these four themes can give us the big picture of the entire Bible.  Sometimes we can’t see the forest for the trees, and we simply need to step back and take in what God has done and is doing.  I hope that this will help you rejoice in His amazing and sovereign plan that is for our salvation and His glory!

Creation.  “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…” (Gen. 1:1) are such familiar words as almost every English version of the Bible translates this first verse the exact same way.  God created all things, showing both ownership and care for what He had made.  His great plan had begun!

Fall.  The Bible wastes no time in presenting the great predicament that mankind has found himself in since the beginning.  At the start of Genesis chapter 3 Adam and Eve are already presented with an opportunity to sin, and they turn from God to sin and death.  So do we: “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned…” (Rom. 5:12).

Cross.  God’s solution to His creation turning from Him and the fact of their spiritual and physical death is effected in His Son, through His death on the cross.  The One promised from the moment of the Fall (Gen. 3:15) came as the God-man who alone could atone for our sin.  “And you, who were dead in your trespasses…God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.  This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.” (Col. 2:13-14)  Christ and His work on the cross is looked forward to throughout the Old Testament and looked back upon throughout the New Testament.

New Creation.  The last “event” in all of history as we know it will be the New Creation, when God will consummate all things by abolishing sin, evil, and death.  Those who are in Christ will enjoy a New Heaven and New Earth in new bodies that will never be tainted by sin or its’ effects.  God will be worshiped and we will enjoy Him and His creation forever with joy that we can only imagine now.  God’s plan for our salvation and His glory will have been realized as He exclaims at the end of the Bible: “It is done!  I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.  To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.” (Rev. 21:6b)

May we respond to the big picture of the Bible as John did at the end of Revelation: “Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev. 22:20)

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