Hidden Things

Martha and I went on a cruise to Norway/Iceland about a month ago. While on the sea days, I decided to attend a morning bible study. Princess Cruises apparently does this throughout their entire cruise line. I think it is a good thing, but with my issues of just being hated by "christians" I wasn't planning on attending.

The Holy Spirit had a different plan in mind.

I actually enjoyed the time. I met Stanley Clay Snyder and Andy Listiadji and we became friends. The discussions were pretty good I thought. There were a few folks' intent on taking over due to their "experience" that they touted as they boldly began to teach, but discussion mowed them over as people made comments and had questions.

There was also disagreement, most often when the group was smaller... I was often part of this.

An older couple who believed that the "rapture" was going to happen at any time, politely argued with me. They held to the strongly popular view, but I pointed out how the biblical scriptures say otherwise. I mentioned quite a few of them, but we settled on 2 Thessalonians chapter 2.

I read it out loud... several times.

2 Thessalonians 2:1-12

1] Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters,

2] not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter—asserting that the day of the Lord has already come.

3] Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.

4] He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.

5] Don’t you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things?

6] And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time.

7] For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way.

8] And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming.

9] The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie,

10] and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.

11] For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie

12] and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.

This passage lays out very clearly how Jesus cannot possibly come at any time as several events MUST happen first.

Again, I read this out loud several times.

It didn't matter. The man said we would just agree to disagree.

Not new to this type of argument, it still made me pause and marvel at the blindness people have. Was it a choice? "Free-willers" would say so. Was it something more... That is also what scripture says.

Luke 18:31-34

31] Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled.

32] He will be delivered over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him and spit on him;

33] they will flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again.”

34] The disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what he was talking about.

Colossians 1:24-27

24] Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church.

25] I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness—

26] the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people.

27] To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Again, this IS what scripture says. Yet do we really believe it or are we blind to its truth?

Who is doing the blinding??

Obviously, it is God the Father... not any willfulness on the part of people, including HIS disciples!

Does that bother you?

Romans 9:10-18

10] Not only that, but Rebekah’s children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac.

11] Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God’s purpose in election might stand:

12] not by works but by him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.”

13] Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

14] What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all!

15] For he says to Moses,

“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,

and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

16] It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.

17] For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”

18] Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.

Ouch! Yes, this IS what scripture says. It IS God's word. It was written by HIM, through men. Christians say that is what they believe, but why then do they not accept the clear context of what has been written by God?

"It was hidden from them."

This bothers me.

Romans 9:19-26

19] One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?”

20] But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ ”

21] Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?

22] What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction?

23] What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory—

24] even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?

25] As he says in Hosea:

“I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people;

and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one,”

26] and,

“In the very place where it was said to them,

‘You are not my people,’

there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’ ”

No, I am not bothered by God CHOOSING who is saved or not.

No, I am not bothered by His ABSOLUTE sovereignty.

No, I do not doubt His goodness.

I am bothered by one question. A question we should all have...

"What is hidden from me now?"

This is why constant "seeking" of Him and His Kingdom should be an absolute priority.

I find this pursuit very enjoyable.