Page 1624 - Church of God Publications

Hebrew prophet Hosea despai red

of those who would be "destroyed

for lack of knowledge."

Lack of knowledge of computer

technology? Lack of knowledge of

modern missi le weaponry? By no

means! What we mean is the lack

of knowing

God-the only abso–

lute certainty

in the universe.

The Ultimate Uncertainty-Human

Life ltself!

Nolhing is more uncertain than

human life. All living things begin

lo die as soon as they are born.

There is no escape.

Throughout history man has

been painfully aware of his own

mortality. He has sought to escape

the certainty of death in a variety

of ways. Ponce de Leon searchcd

for the fabled fountain of youth.

The Greeks speculated aboul and

the church later perpetuated the

phi losophical concept of the im–

mortality of the soul- that man's

soul would fi na lly divest itself of its

evil body at the moment of death.

Recent issues of

The Plain Truth

have shown it to be a fabl e.

More practica! mind s have

sought to preserve themselves

lhrough "immortal" works of art,

magnificently constructed edifices

beari ng t heir names, or classic

books that they authored. The

ancient psalmist well expressed this

proclivity of man: "Their inner

thought is, that their houses are

forever, and their dwelling places to

all generations; they have called

their la nds after their own names"

(Psalm

49: 11 ,

NASB).

None of the trappings of human

civilization are truly immortal. The

Alexandrian L ibrary of a ncient

Egypt was burned to the ground.

Palestine is the graveyard of severa!

civilizations.

Everything that the eye can

see- whether organic or inor–

ganic-is aging or. decaying to one

degree or the other. There is no

arguing with this fact. It is a basic

law of the physical universe.

Is each generation born only to

die in a never-ceasing stream of

time?

The Solutlon to Uncertainty

The Bible itself affirms the truth

about the anxiety and uncertainty

of the material world- and at the

36

same time offers a un ique solution.

The apostle Paul spoke of a

spiri–

tual solution

made possible from

an entirely spiritual source.

Notice an important excerpt

from one of his letters to Christians

at Corinth: "So we do not lose

heart. Though our outer nature is

wasting away, our inner nature is

being renewed every day. For tbís

slight momentary affi iction is pre–

paring for us an eterna! weight of

glo r y beyond a ll comparison ,

because we look not lo the things

that are seen but to the thíngs that

are unseen; for the things that are

seen are transient , but the things

that are unseen are eternal"

( ll

Corinthians

4:16-18,

RSV).

Permanent spirit life cannot be

tested by the five senses of man.

It

is an íngredient that is lotally spiri–

tual- therefore totally real.

lt

ís

even now available as a germ of

immortality while we are still tlesh

(1 Peter

1:3, 23).

lt

is the Holy

Spirit of God.

But without the marvelous ingre–

dient of faith , the Holy Spirit can–

not be obtained.

The Miracle of Falth

Faith is foundational and fundamen–

tal to any real quest for certainty.

Faith is the only real recipe for con–

quering human uncertainty.

But what is fai th, anyway? Is it

blind confidence? Or is it based on

something more substantial? Paul

expressed the essence of true faith to

J ewish Christians: "Now faith is the

substance [assurance or certainty] of

things hoped for, the evidence of

things not seen" (Hebrews 11: 1,

KJV).

You do not need faith for some–

thing you already possess. Faitb

revolves around something "not

seen"- something you do not yet

have. The apostle Paul elucidated

this point in an earl ier letter to

Christians at Rome: "For we are

saved by hope: but hope that is seen

is not hope: for what a man seeth,

why doth he yet hope for ? But if

we hope for that (which] we see

not, tben do we with patience wait

for it" (Romans

8:24).

T he apostle to the Gentiles was

himself an example of tbis living

faith. As a prisoner, Paul boarded a

sailing ship bound for Jtaly. He

warned the captain in advance that

the cargo and the passengers would

be in dire jeopardy should they

undertake the voyage. But his warn–

ing went unheeded and not long

afterward, three days of tbe worst

type of stormy weather took away all

hope that any aboard would survive.

Although all the physical evi–

dence- what they could see (the

swirl ing t em pes t s urrounding

them) - indicated the contrary,

Paul stood up and said, " ... There

shall be no loss of any man's life

among you.... For there stood by

me this night the angel of God

. .. saying, Fear not, Paul ; tbou

must be brought befare Caesar:

and, Jo, God hath given thee all

them that sail with thee. Where–

fore, sirs, be of good cheer: for

1

believe God,

that it shall be even as

it was told me" (Acts

27:22-25).

Paul had an unquestioning con–

viction that God would indeed do

what he had promised . He was

cer–

tain

of God's promises. His was the

kind of faith that sweeps away all

uncertainty.

But this one incident of faith

only resulted in a temporary saving

of human life aboard a ship in ter–

rible danger. More importantly,

J esus Christ explained-as we have

seen Peter also did-that real faith

can cause the seeds of permanent

spí rit life to be sown in tbe tlesh in

the here and now. He said, "Truly,

truly, J say to you, he who hears my

word and believes him [God tbe

Father] who sent me, has eterna!

life; he does not come into judg–

ment, but has passed from death

into life" (J ohn

5:24,

RSV) .

Unless and until this new begin–

ning happens to you personally, you

have no cerlainly of future life. But

it can happen to you! Find out lhe

whys and wherefores by requesting

the booklets and reprint articles

recommended below.