Why couldn't God have given everything at once?
One objection to the bible being the Word of God as written by men is that it seems to limit and/or contradict the omnipotence of the very God revealed in the bible. In other words, if God is able to just give everyone all the necessary information and teaching at once without the limitations of time, location, language barriers and human agencies, why did he instead choose to go the route of the bible? Why reveal himself in such a small way, through a collection of human-authored documents written over thousands of years within a very limited geographic area?
In thinking about this objection, I recalled the story of King Belshazaar and his experience of a direct, divine revelation,
Mortal, sinful men who go their own way are ignorant of the Lord who sits enthroned and rules in righteousness over the heavens and the earth. When the Lord issues direct speech-acts, like in Daniel 5 with the king of Babylon, it strikes fear at the core of man's being, because man is suddenly conscious of standing naked before the blazing and awesome power of a holy God who is the Sovereign over all things, including life and death, blessings and judgment. Just the mere vision of a human hand writing some words on the wall is enough to cause even a mighty king to completely freak, turning pale and getting wobbly in the knees.
The nature and timing of the writings of the bible are related to the basic message of the bible overall: that God is calling out a redeemed people for himself, and it doesn't happen all at once. There are many twists and turns in the story to teach mankind about God's character and his purposes that must be accomplished in human history in due time. His plan of redemption and self-revelation occurs in a very instructive manner; in order to condescend in communication across the creator/creature barrier, as Calvin put it, "God clothes himself with our affections."
And the written records, the divine revelation, must come through the hands of commissioned human authors. Man was originally created in the image of God anyways, so it only makes sense that God's communicative acts are supervenient specifically upon basic human language modes like recorded history, law, literature and poetry, songs, oaths and promises, and everything else that makes sense to us.
And just to be more explicit in my point, because God is an all powerful entity that created the entire universe, we cannot handle him revealing all things at once in some direct fashion without appointed mediators. That story from Daniel proves that we cannot handle even a few words coming directly from God's "hand", it would fill us with endless terror as our sinfulness and our deeds and hearts are exposed. We need a mediator.
One objection to the bible being the Word of God as written by men is that it seems to limit and/or contradict the omnipotence of the very God revealed in the bible. In other words, if God is able to just give everyone all the necessary information and teaching at once without the limitations of time, location, language barriers and human agencies, why did he instead choose to go the route of the bible? Why reveal himself in such a small way, through a collection of human-authored documents written over thousands of years within a very limited geographic area?
In thinking about this objection, I recalled the story of King Belshazaar and his experience of a direct, divine revelation,
King Belshazzar made a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine in front of the thousand.
Belshazzar, when he tasted the wine, commanded that the vessels of gold and of silver that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem be brought, that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them. Then they brought in the golden vessels that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.
Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace, opposite the lampstand. And the king saw the hand as it wrote. Then the king's color changed, and his thoughts alarmed him; his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together. The king called loudly to bring in the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the astrologers. The king declared to the wise men of Babylon, "Whoever reads this writing, and shows me its interpretation, shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around his neck and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom." Then all the king's wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or make known to the king the interpretation. Then King Belshazzar was greatly alarmed, and his color changed, and his lords were perplexed.
Daniel 5:1-9
Mortal, sinful men who go their own way are ignorant of the Lord who sits enthroned and rules in righteousness over the heavens and the earth. When the Lord issues direct speech-acts, like in Daniel 5 with the king of Babylon, it strikes fear at the core of man's being, because man is suddenly conscious of standing naked before the blazing and awesome power of a holy God who is the Sovereign over all things, including life and death, blessings and judgment. Just the mere vision of a human hand writing some words on the wall is enough to cause even a mighty king to completely freak, turning pale and getting wobbly in the knees.
The nature and timing of the writings of the bible are related to the basic message of the bible overall: that God is calling out a redeemed people for himself, and it doesn't happen all at once. There are many twists and turns in the story to teach mankind about God's character and his purposes that must be accomplished in human history in due time. His plan of redemption and self-revelation occurs in a very instructive manner; in order to condescend in communication across the creator/creature barrier, as Calvin put it, "God clothes himself with our affections."
And the written records, the divine revelation, must come through the hands of commissioned human authors. Man was originally created in the image of God anyways, so it only makes sense that God's communicative acts are supervenient specifically upon basic human language modes like recorded history, law, literature and poetry, songs, oaths and promises, and everything else that makes sense to us.
And just to be more explicit in my point, because God is an all powerful entity that created the entire universe, we cannot handle him revealing all things at once in some direct fashion without appointed mediators. That story from Daniel proves that we cannot handle even a few words coming directly from God's "hand", it would fill us with endless terror as our sinfulness and our deeds and hearts are exposed. We need a mediator.
posted by Joe Branca | 12:00 PM
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