Selective Blindness

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Luke 4:16-17, 28-30 Good News Translation

¹⁶ Then Jesus went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath, he went as usual to the synagogue. He stood up to read the Scriptures ¹⁷ and was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it is written, …

²⁸ When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were filled with anger. ²⁹ They rose up, dragged Jesus out of town, and took him to the top of the hill on which their town was built. They meant to throw him over the cliff, ³⁰ but he walked through the middle of the crowd and went his way.

 

Ever since I was a kid, this story has intrigued me. Here Christ preaches to His home town crowd in the familiar old synagogue. What He says riles them up so much that they grab Him, and the whole mob drags Him over to the edge of a cliff intending to throw Him over. Standing momentarily immovable there on the edge of the cliff, He simply starts walking right through the midst of the mob and away from them.

Suddenly those who were clutching Him all lose their grip on Him. He disappears from their view, although He is still right there. A ripple occurs in the mob as they temporarily move aside to let Him pass—but they don’t see Him and cannot feel or sense Him. They see someone enough to make way for him, but they don’t perceive that it is He. He casually walks back though the village and doesn’t visit again until their anger is forgotten, maybe never.

That reminds me of Lot’s experience in Sodom, told in Genesis 19. All the depraved men in Sodom were trying to beat down Lot’s door to get at two strangers they had seen enter there. Suddenly the angels inside the house strike these perverts “blind.” But the blindness is more than a lack of sight. They can’t even find the door that they were trying to beat down immediately before. They apparently can’t even feel the door. The fact that they were still trying to get at these strangers indicates that they were seeing everything except their goal. If they had been truly blind—as in unable to see anything—they would have been crying out in terror.

Another occasion occurred in Acts chapter 12. Four quaternions, or 16 guards had been assigned to keep Peter in prison until he could be executed the following day. Their very lives depended on his not escaping. An angel marches Peter past all of them undetected. Evidently, they didn’t discover his absence earlier, or they would have fled, or tried to fall on their swords as the jailor in Philippi attempted to do—see Acts 16:27.

In my blog published on January 22, 2022,[2] I told the story of Mrs. Wangai who escaped death at the hands of the Mau Mau freedom-fighters/terrorists in the decade of the 1950s because her captors didn’t see her leave their clutches.

Apparently, God still employs this selective blindness in modern times to benefit his children. In Matthew 13:14 (GNT) it says the following: “They will look and look, but never perceive.”

You are still willing and able to strike Your children’s enemies with selective blindness, Lord, to protect Your children. Thank you!

 

 

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[1] https://www.holyspiritcathparish.org/throwing-jesus-off-a-cliff/

[2] http://wils-thoughts.blogspot.com/ 

God and Omniscience

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Matthew 28:20 Good News Translation

²⁰ and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And I will be with you always, to the end of the age.”

 

A colleague of mine, Richard Rice, wrote the book entitled The Openness of God: The Relationship of Divine Foreknowledge and Human Free Will. It was published by the Seventh-day Adventist press Review and Herald in 1980. It generated a fair amount of controversy in the Adventist Church. He argued that if God knew the future perfectly, then humans do not possess free will. If humans do not possess free will, then they should not be held accountable for being sinners. And therefore, Christ’s death was not necessary. The fact that Christ died for our sins is a strong argument that God cannot know the future perfectly. Rice called his theory “open theism”.

The openness of God has been taught at the Adventist Universities such as Loma Linda University and La Sierra University ever since the 1950s. This was before Rice was out of high school, so he did not originate the idea, but he certainly gave it a logical status with his book.

Rice presented his openness theism very persuasively in a senior class for physics, math, and computer majors that I co-taught with Ed Karlow about 30 years ago. Adventism was founded on prophetic interpretation of the books of Daniel and Revelation. Adventism grew out of a movement that set a date for Christ’s return on October 22, 1844.  Christ did not return on that date, nor has He returned as I write this blog. How do I know He hasn’t returned—because when He returns, the Bible says in Revelation 1:7, every eye will see Him, even those “who pierced Him.” I specifically asked Dr. Rice what his openness theism did for God knowing the date when an event would happen in the future. He stated categorically that God cannot know specific dates for future events. That was undoubtedly the reason for the controversy Rice’s book raised within Adventism. 

Personally, I have trouble with the argument that foreknowledge is equivalent to predestination. However, I have not spent the time studying the logical reason carefully enough to convince myself of the validity or lack of validity of Rice’s basic premise. I accept at face value, as does Rice, that when God promised that He would be with His followers “always even to the end of the age,” He was definitely including me in this promise. If He is with me, then He will also save me. This promise is also made to you; therefore, God will save you if you let Him, no matter who you are or what you’ve done.

Thank You, Lord, that You have saved us, if only we allow You!

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[1] https://www.dominicanajournal.org/predestination-grace-and-free-will/

Laughter and Sadness

 

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Proverbs 14:13 Easy-to-Read Version

¹³ Laughter might hide your sadness. But when the laughter is gone, the sadness remains.

 

My wife and his wife were good friends. Sylvia had encouraged Edna to publish a picture book of Biblical women. She had edited the book for her. She had even chosen to write a moving novella on the tragic life of Rizpah, one of Saul’s concubines, because of this picture book.

When Edna’s husband Leroy was cruelly struck by Parkinson’s disease and finally succumbed to it, I attended his memorial service. I had really not known Leroy, so I listened to the tributes paid to him by his children, his friends, and several of his pastors with great interest. I realized that He loved a good joke. A former pastor spoke of how he relied on the chuckles that Leroy sent him to lighten up his sermons, week by week.

We laughed with the speakers, but in the back of my mind I realized that behind all of the humor, there was a pervasive sadness. His family went home that night. The merriment was gone at 3:00 in the morning, just the aching void left in their lives.

The majority of us in the church that Sabbath, were people who were there to support the family. A funeral is where family members come, not only to pay their last respects, but to see others in the family. Others whom they may have not seen in many years, but really wish they had kept up with over the years. Family ties and bonds are renewed. Many old personal injuries, real and perceived are laid aside, as petty or meaningless from this distance. On some rare occasions old animosities resurface—which I do not believe is happening in Leroy’s family.

Help us in honor and brotherly love to prefer one another above ourselves. 

 

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[1] https://www.myfarewelling.com/article/how-to-plan-a-funeral

Upper-Room Hideout

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Matthew 27:62-63 Contemporary English Version

⁶² On the next day, which was a Sabbath, the chief priests and the Pharisees went together to Pilate. ⁶³ They said, “Sir, we remember what this liar said while he was still alive. He claimed in three days he would come back from death.

 

John 20:8-9 Contemporary English Version

⁸ The disciple who got there first then went into the tomb, and when he saw it, he believed. ⁹ At that time Peter and the other disciple did not know that the Scriptures said Jesus would rise to life.

 

I feel stunned, with the disciples on that Sabbath day. Jesus, the Messiah, and their Lord, was dead. All hope was gone. They had great plans for the new kingdom. They had given everything to help these plans to materialize. And now, to make matters worse, they felt that they were next in line to be killed. Jesus had told them clearly that He would be killed and would rise on the third day. In their grief they didn’t remember that, at all! I can only imagine how traumatic this must have been.

Over 40 years ago we put out a fleece as to whether we should leave Africa or remain missionaries there. God answered the fleece unequivocally that we should leave Africa, then within five days He sent me a job offer in the U.S. But we had devoted our lives to Africa, especially Sylvia. We ignored the fleece and proceeded with our plans to remain missionaries. However, God removed His peace from our lives. I felt strong physical pressure on me. It only got worse as time went by.

In the disciples’ experience after Christ’s death, the women brought news of Christ’s resurrection. The disciples, John and Peter, immediately dashed to the tomb and confirmed the report. Still the disciples refused to accept the report. It was only after they saw Jesus for themselves, did they accept the fact that Christ was alive. Christ did not scold them harshly for forgetting his promise, however, he certainly chode Thomas for lack of faith and holding his doubt for a week.

At the end of four months of trying to change God’s plans for us, I finally quit my resistance and told the Lord I would do things His way. Instantly I felt the physical pressure lift completely. It took Sylvia a few hours longer to wrestle with her determination to continue as a missionary. However, Christ’s acceptance of us was as swift as it was with the disciples in the upper room.

Thank You Lord for accepting us even after we test Your patience while we delay.  

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[1] http://www.magdalenepublishing.org/novena-pilgrimages/