
Gaps in the Bible – Part 2
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. (Psalm 19:1-3)
TODAY WE CONTINUE AND CONCLUDE with “Gaps in Bible.” That is, times when God was silent between the Old Testament and New Testament and other times when God did not, does not comment on what He is doing or why He does it. He was silent for 2,000 years before Moses wrote anything and for the 2,000 years since the New Testament was completed. This is a book-size question, but today I’m going to try to finish all I have to say about it.
I RECEIVED THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE RECENTLY and in the last article I began responding to it. Here is the message: “I’ve been thinking a lot about the “gaps” in the Bible and why certain things were put in and why others were left out. I’ve learned that in the New Testament, the books chosen were from men who were directly associated with Jesus. The Old Testament though is still unclear to me. What happened to the souls of the people who were born gentiles and not of God’s chosen people? During the years of exile, when the Jewish people were not always able to make their sacrifices, what happened to the souls of those people who passed before their sins could be atoned? I saw this link and it did answer some questions, but I wanted to get your opinion on them”
THESE QUESTIONS ARE RAISED: “What happened to the souls of gentiles who were not God’s chosen people? During exile, what happened to the souls of those chosen people who could not make sacrifices and passed before their sins could be atoned?” Good questions.
THE BOOK OF HEBREWS DECLARES that the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sins. Then, why sacrifice all those animals? The sacrificing of these animals was to remind the people of two things: 1. That the wages of sin is death. 2. That a perfect sacrifice, Jesus, would one day come to pay for their sins. Hebrews (10:4-11)
For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. (Hebrews 10:4-7)
Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (Hebrews 10:8-10)
And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: (Hebrews 10:11)
ANOTHER QUESTION OFTEN ASKED IS: “Can the heathen who have never heard of Christ be saved?” When I was a junior in high school in Stevenson, Alabama, I confronted my young Social Studies teacher, who was not long out of college, about his soul. “Are you going to Heaven when you die?” I still ask that question. I didn’t ask him every day, or many times. But it really got to him and he evidently had considered it while he was still in college. One day as I greeted him before class, he beat me to the draw and said: “Dan, I have a question for you. Can the heathen who have never heard the gospel be saved before you get there to tell them how to be saved?”
I SAID, "WELL, SOMEONE WOULD HAVE TO TELL THEM HOW TO BE SAVED." (I knew a lot back then, more than I know now.) He was gentle and didn’t ask me anything further. He had fastened a question to the bulletin board of my mind that would remain posted for the next 20 years. I knew I had not answered him and that I did not know how to answer him. It was one of those unanswered questions that would sometimes drift into by bedroom and perch itself on my pillow and say: “Well?”
TWENTY YEARS LATER, I was a lobbyist in the North Carolina Legislature for religious liberty and for the lives of unborn babies. I was visiting in the office of a legislator who was a farmer in East Carolina and a Methodist Stewart in his church. He asked me, one day: “Can the heathen who have never heard the Gospel be saved?” It was a hot arrow that shot straight back to that day in high school when my teacher asked me the same question.
THE GAME WAS OVER. NO MORE STALLING. I had had 20 years to think it over and I had been too lazy to dig into the Bible. Go into a Christian book store and look on the shelf that has all the books on the heathen being saved before they have heard the Gospel. (It’s in the basement in a closet under several boxes of plumbing supplies that were left there when the building was built 100 years ago.)
I SAID, "I DON'T KNOW THE ANSWER TO THAT QUESTION but if you will give me three days, I will dig into the Bible and get back with you.” He was pleased, and I could tell that he expected me back in his office in three days with an answer from the Bible. In three days, I was back in his office with an answer. The answer was there all along but for twenty years I let it slide because…I really didn’t want to know the answer. I had a college degree with a major in Bible and that question had never come up. The prevailing view, the prevailing unfounded assumption was the same as I had answered my high school teacher 20 years earlier and somehow, I knew that my answer did not fly. Here are some important answers I have found.
●Christ died for the sins of the whole world.
And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. (1John 2:2) Christ died for the sins of Adam and Eve as well as for you and me: the whole world. Christ died for every human being that had been born or ever would be born. Those saved in the Old Testament were saved through the blood of Christ who would one day come and be the Lamb slain for them, from the foundation of the world. God will save men by the blood of Christ who call upon the Lord, but who know very little about God.
●Christ died in the mind of God before the foundation of the world.
Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, (1Peter 1:20) And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. (Revelation 13:8)
●There is but one God. The God of the Old Testament is the God of the New Testament.
Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. (Isaiah 45:22) We do NOT have one God in the Old Testament and another God in the New Testament.
●God the Father and God the Son are one.
If you have called upon the name of the Lord, you have called upon the Father and you have called upon the Son. I and my Father are one. (John 10:30) We cannot go to God the Father and say: “Now Father, this is just between You and me. Please don’t tell Jesus about it.”
Jesus saith unto him (Phillip), Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake. (John 14:9-11)
●Every knee shall bow to God the Father and to God the Son.
I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. (Isaiah 45:23)
For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. (Romans 14:11)
That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; (Philippians 2:10)
●God Has Shown ALL MEN the first thing He wants men to know: His power and Godhead – His authority.
Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: (Romans 1:19-20)
●The Heavens--all Creation tell all men the first thing God wants them to know:
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. (Rom 10:13)
How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? (Romans 10:14)
So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Rom 10:17)
But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world. (Rom 10:18) (This is a quote from Psalm 19:1-3)
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. (Psalm 19:1-3)
●To Encounter God, One Must Believe God Exists and Rewards Those Who Diligently Seek Him.
But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. (Hebrews 11:6) Must believe that God exists and that this God will reward them or respond to them if they diligently, sincerely seek Him. This is open to every human being on earth.
●Man is not lost because he “doesn’t know.’ Man is lost because he rebels against what God has shown him.
It is God who has made every one of us, and 102 times the Bible declares that salvation is of the Lord. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: (Romans 1:18-20)
●Only God can reach every soul He has made.
Jesus said: No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me. (John 6:44-45)
And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. (Genesis 6:3)
●God does not hold a man responsible for what he does not have or does not know.
For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not. (2Corinthians 8:12)
●Cornelius illustrates God’s telling people how to go further…
There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band, (Acts 10:1)And now send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter: He lodgeth with one Simon a tanner, whose house is by the sea side: he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do. (Acts 10:5-6)
Read Through the Bible in a Year
DECEMBER 10, 2018 – MONDAY
A.M. Hosea 5-8 P.M. Revelation 1
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)
A Good Verse to Memorize:
For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not. (2Corinthians 8:12)
Song for Today:
Who At My Door is Standing? (3:01) (Eddie Arnold)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrqxn6q1OSM
Wait a few seconds for the sound to come on.
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