I apologize for putting another email in your inbox, but I’ve been thinking on this for months. This morning it burned so hot in me that I had to express it somewhere and to somebody, because I have been too timid about the gospel and Jesus Christ for too long. Maybe you can identify.
Have you ever been bothered, intellectually or even subconsciously, by the questions from skeptics about God being good and yet people going to Hell? Or maybe how were people "saved" before Jesus came and died for our sins? Ever thought maybe God was a bit "harsh" with his "one way" that so many never heard of? I have.
I'm ready to put forward the answer I found in 5 verses and a few observations drawn from them. God's Word is amazing! I pray these verses and thoughts bless you.
The Verses:
Zacharis speaking again when his son, “John the Baptist” was born: As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been SINCE the world (aiōn, properly, an AGE) began: [Luke 1:70 KJV]
Peter’s second sermon: Whom (Jesus) the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of ALL his holy PROPHETS SINCE the world (aiōn, properly, an AGE) began. [Acts 3:21 KJV]
That the blood of ALL THE PROPHETS, which was shed FROM THE FOUNDATION of the world (cosmos), may be required of this generation; FROM THE BLOOD OF ABEL unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation. [Luke 11:50-51 KJV]
BY FAITH ABEL offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that HE WAS RIGHTEOUS, God testifying of his gifts: and by it HE being dead YET SPEAKEST. [Heb 11:4 KJV]
Who Were These First-Age Prophets?
In other words, since beginning of the ages, God has given a word, a prophetic word. The first was His command to Adam about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that Adam he was to belief by faith. Adam then communicated that word to Eve. By God’s word, life of an eternal nature (eating of the “tree of life”) was promised if they believed and lived by faith in God’s word.
They disbelieved God and lacked faith in the Word of God and His goodness—they ate what was forbidden.
Then came the prophetic Word in Genesis 3:15 about the seed that Adam and Eve were to believe by faith for salvation from the foretold effects of their disbelief and lack of faith in the goodness of God and His word.
Then, more of the Genesis 3:15 promise was revealed in the blood sacrifice of Abel. By the nature of ABEL’S BLOOD SACRIFICE, one that God accepted and that demonstrated “THAT HE WAS RIGHTEOUS” (Hebrews 11:4), Abel IS a prophet in the first age that “yet speaketh” of the blood sacrifice (of Jesus) that would be required, if we by faith can hear him speaking over the ages.
Gospel Application
It is by faith in the Word of God that we are saved and has been from the beginning. There was never an age in which God left mankind without a prophetic word of God that, if believed by faith, human beings could be saved. There is the answer to the skeptics questions!
I believe the foregoing gives an even greater depth to these words of Paul about faith:
For I AM NOT ASHAMED of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed FROM FAITH TO FAITH: as it is written, The just [in all ages??!] shall LIVE BY FAITH. [Romans 1:16-17 KJV]
Metaphysical and Ontological Application
As created beings made in the image of God, we have been, from the beginning, the kind of creatures who, to live, must live by faith in the Word of God, that “in these last days” has been “spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds (aiōn, properly, an AGE)” [Hebrews 1:2 KJV]
A Final Word Wrapping Up Prophecy
As Peter wrote “to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia” [1Peter 1:1 KJV], Christ is “the end (telos) of your faith, the salvation of your souls” [1Peter 1:9 KJV] “of which salvation the PROPHETS have enquired and searched diligently, who PROPHESIED OF THE GRACE THAT SHOULD COME come unto you. [1Peter 1:10 KJV]. And they prophesied by “the Spirit of Christ which was in them” [1Peter 1:11 KJV].
THE WORD WAS MADE FLESH INDEED!
AND IN THE FACE OF CHRIST WE HAVE THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE GLORY OF GOD! (2 Cor. 4:6)
Praise be to Christ!
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