Category: omniscience

FEAR NOT

Monday’s Column: Neal at the Cross

Neal at ATF 2020
Photo credit: Wayne Roberts

Neal Pollard

Fear not…

Military Threats.  Whether Al Qaida, the Taliban, Iranian nuclear weapon building, alliances between China, North Korea, and Russia, or armed forces spread too thin.

Natural Catastrophe.  Whether global warming, meteors crashing through the atmosphere, glacial melting, California sliding off into the ocean, or events like tornadoes, tsunamis, and hurricanes.

Economic Collapse.  Whether the breaking of Social Security, a major stock market crash, the mounting U.S. debt, recession, the real estate bubble bursting, bankruptcy, out of control inflation, or job losses to illegal immigrants.

Potential Persecution.  Whether the steadily rising antagonism against Christianity, overthrow by foreign oppressors, the mounting tide of immorality promoting sin, or the epidemic ignorance of the Bible in our land.

Health Problems.  Whether Coronavirus, cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, ALS, AIDS, kidney failure, dementia, arthritis, blood clots, or liver disease.

Academic Decline.  Whether comparative test scores with children in other nations, a socially-charged curriculum agenda, the “dumbing down of America,” the de-emphasis of classroom competition, or outcome-based education programs.

Rather, “Fear God” (Ecc. 5:7; 1 Pet. 2:17).       “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matt. 10:28).  “You shall follow the Lord your God and fear Him” (Deut. 13:4). “The secret of the Lord is for those who fear Him” (Psalm 25:14).  “He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him;  He will also hear their cry and will save them.  The Lord keeps all who love Him,  but all the wicked He will destroy” (Psalm 145:19-20).  “And His mercy is upon generation after generation toward those who fear Him” (Luke 1:50).  “I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him” (Acts 10:34-35).

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God Knows Where They Are

 

Neal Pollard

At a preachers’ meeting I attended today, a brother led us in prayer specifically about the men, women, and children who were onboard the missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 as well as their families.  While there have certainly been many other prayers for these folks, this brother said something that should have struck me before today.  He prayed, “God, we know that you already know exactly where they are, but please help those searching for them to find them.”  Has that thought truly struck us?  Our omniscient God knows the precise point on this globe where those 239 passengers are.  If we let that sink in, it reminds us of a much further-reaching point.  God knows everything about everyone of us, where we go and what we do.

Scripture teaches this many times over, in both testaments.  2 Chronicles 16:9 tells us the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth.  “He sees all the sons of men…all the inhabitants of the earth” (Ps. 33:13-14).  “His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men” (Ps. 11:4). Hebrews 4:13 affirms that “there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.”  The mysteries of the ages that have long confounded our greatest minds could not be more plainly known to Him.  Whether or not the massive coordinated efforts of nations, militaries, technology, and resources solve this enigma is yet to be seen, but God knows the answer to this as readily as He does the greatest conundrums with which man has ever been confronted.

One day, God will cleave the skies and bring all unsolved mysteries to an end, with every secret, cloak and dagger, and clandestine activity which may have perplexed men for centuries.  He will bring these secrets into the judgment (Rom. 2:16).  While there is so much that we may not know, let us rest assured that we stand beneath the gaze of the All-Seeing eyes of God.