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THE HOLINESS OF GOD
#2
KNOWING ALL THE ANSWERS
Would you be smart enough, all by yourself, to solve the stem cell research
debate? To sort out all the ethical and spiritual and moral concerns about,
say, cloning . . . and make a correct decision for the world to follow?
Only God has ALL the facts, which makes Him a perfect Judge.
There was a cute Blondie cartoon in the Sunday section just a little while
ago, where Dagwood decides to spend a relaxing hour watching a little-known
show called Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? But before the first commercial
can even come on he's screaming at the set because the stupid contestant
doesn't know an easy, easy, EASY question! A few minutes later, he writhes
on the couch in frustration because the guy is taking 20 minutes, trying
to make up his mind between "A" and "B," with the
oozy theme music repeating over and over while the man thinks aloud to
himself like a fool, and of course, it's so obvious, everybody in the
universe knows that one, Dagwood howls. But the coup de grâce is
when the man in the hotseat wants to use up a lifeline calling somebody
about an answer he doesn't know. And our knowledgeable Mr. Bumstead actually
falls on the floor; he's upside-down all over the carpet, yodeling in
protest. "No, you moron! Don't waste a lifeline on that! Come on!"
And his wife, Blondie, comes in; there are throw pillows everywhere and
the room is a hysterical mess. "How was your show?" "Oh,
I really enjoyed it," he replies. You may recall seeing a video piece
where a person knows every single answer in Jeopardy! — right down to
the daily doubles and the thousand-dollar row. And then it turns out they're
watching Alex Trebek on video; it's a segment they've rewound and seen
over and over again.
Christians, on the other hand, believe in the concept known as divine
omniscience. We believe that only God in heaven knows EVERYTHING — including
the million-dollar question and the correct response, phrased in the form
of a question, on Final Jeopardy. And this week as we consider together
the holiness of God, His absolute purity, we put those two ideas together.
God knows everything. And everything He knows is pure and holy and right
and true.
There's a paragraph we have quoted several times on this radio broadcast;
it's by the late A. W. Tozer, who penned some incredibly helpful books
for the Body of Christ. One of his best, The Knowledge of the Holy, is
a good primer for us this week, obviously. And here's what he has to say,
with all due respect to Mr. Dagwood Bumstead, about the store of knowledge
God possesses.
"God perfectly knows Himself and, being the source and author of
all things," he writes, "it follows that He knows all that can
be known. And this He knows instantly and with a fullness of perfection
that includes every possible item of knowledge concerning everything that
exists or could have existed anywhere in the universe at any time in the
past or that may exist in the centuries or ages yet unborn. God knows
instantly and effortlessly all matter and all matters, all mind and every
mind, all spirit and all spirits, all being and every being, all creaturehood
and all creatures, every plurality and all pluralities, all law and every
law, all relations, all causes, all thoughts, all mysteries, all enigmas,
all feeling, all desires, every unuttered secret, all thrones and dominions,
all personalities, all things visible and invisible in heaven and in earth,
motion, space, time, death, good, evil, heaven, and hell."
Did anything get left out on that list? Does God ever
scratch His head and say, "Oh no, I've forgotten something important"?
Does He ever have to consult with someone, an advisor, or expert in foreign
affairs, because He's not well versed in events happening in some far-flung
corner of His universe? Of course not.
"Who has known the mind of the Lord?"
Isaiah asks, "or instructed Him as His counselor?"
There has been, in recent decades, something called
"openness of God" theology, which suggests that even our Creator
does not and cannot know the future, and that God is learning about the
universe right along with us. That's a deep, difficult topic, not for
radio, but friend, let's simply say right here that the Word of God teaches
that He knows all things: past, present, and future. The reliability of
biblical prophecy alone demonstrates plainly that God knows the future
of this planet and of all worlds in His domain.
So we have here both perfect knowledge and holy knowledge. Of course,
you and I can't relate to either of these. What must it be like to have
ALL FACTS in your mind at all times? To have instant access to every detail,
every nuance, every attitude, every facet of a situation or challenge
or opportunity? The potential winnings on Millionaire pale into absolute
nothingness compared with what our Father holds in His mind on our behalf.
And the question is: what do you do with such breadth and immediacy of
knowledge?
There was an excellent series of articles in the October
1, 2001 issue of Christianity Today on the subject of stem cell research,
cloning, genetic engineering, etc. Christians certainly have their hands
full, as does the President of the United States, in sorting out the rights
and the wrongs, the ethics and the possibilities involved in using embryonic
stem cells to possibly save lives. What wouldn't we give to have the omniscience
of God when making such a decision! And of course, the Lord doesn't only
have a perfect knowledge of all facts: DNA, genomes, genetic anomolies,
future applications. But friend, God also has a perfect and holy knowledge
of what is right. When frozen embryos are going to be discarded anyway,
should they be used to alleviate human suffering? Or is that taking, as
they describe it, fruit from the poisoned tree? When "conflicting
goods" threaten to collide, and our finest bioethicists throw up
their hands and say, "There's no good answer!", God on His throne
has a full command of all those competing good objectives. If we could
tap into His divine wisdom, then we would know what to do.
In any case, one of the articles was entitled The Genome
Doctor, and it was an interview with a Dr. Francis Collins, director of
the National Human Genome Research Institute. Collins helped discover
the "genetic misspellings that cause cystic fibrosis, neurofibromatosis,
and Huntington's disease," so he is certainly interested in using
all available technologies to help mankind. But his response to one question
is very interesting, as it pertains to the perfect and holy knowledge
of God. The interviewer asked him:
"How do you respond to Christians who equate genetic engineering
with playing God?"
And Collins, himself a professing Christian, gave this
answer:
"‘Playing God' is a term that people throw around without necessarily
defining what they're speaking of. If humans played God with the same
benevolence that God did, then perhaps we wouldn't worry about it. But
of course that's not usually the case."
That's a good point, isn't it? If we could bring to
the discussion, and to the genetic laboratory, the same holy omniscience
that God has, then we would be equipped to make sanctified decisions that
are correct and right. But you and I don't have the blessing of that knowledge.
Well, friend, as desperately as a sufferer from Parkinson's might want
holy omniscience to direct in finding a cure to alleviate the hurting
of the next 50 years, are we even more interested in trusting that the
holy and perfect knowledge of God will result in a judgment in our favor
so that we can enjoy a forever life in His flawless kingdom? Does God
"instantly and with a fullness of perfection" know everything
about my life? My sins and my moments of stained sainthood? Does He know
that I do love Him, but that I'm feeble and frail and that I sometimes
stumble? Does He know all that? Does He know whether or not I really have
a faith relationship with Him, and a Calvary connection with His Son?
Does He truly know what He needs to know in order to get the verdict right?
It's interesting, and forgivable, I guess, that one of God's friends,
a man named Abraham, actually thought he could give God some counsel,
and it had to do with this matter of judging.
"Will not the Judge of all the earth do
right?" he asked God, as he tried to suggest how God should handle
the dilemma of Sodom and Gomorrah. "Shouldn't the One who judges
be just Himself?" says the Clear Word.
We've mentioned before on this program, that if it
were just up to God, the matter of judging the entire universe would take
slightly under two minutes. Because God's knowledge AND judgment AND weighing
of hard options AND knowing all pertinent facts and attitudes and extenuating
circumstances are both unlimited and infinite and perfect and holy. He
"instantly and effortlessly" knows everything He needs to know,
right this very moment, on this Tuesday, to judge the world. But perhaps
He takes His time and is careful and deliberate so as to build up our
confidence in the fact that He is doing this very important job under
a cloak of generous holiness. He's doing it well and right.
A wise Bible student once mused:
"If God would concede me His omnipotence" — His unlimited power
— "for twenty-four hours, you would see how many changes I would
make in the world." Talk about "playing God." But then
the same person humbly added: "But if He gave me His wisdom, too"
— His holy, all-knowing omniscience — "I would leave things just
as they are."
Speaking of million-dollar answers, that's exactly
what faith is.
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