The Ohio Independent Baptist, September 1972

• • • by Dr. John C. Whitcomb ()n' cf atan·~ n10 t in ttiiot1 pt1rpo e. . throt1gh the age , ha been to cr1tcr ~ ,, c"igt' hct,, c n , d's people and od\ infallible, inerrant Word. It all " c~\n in the ,ardcn of den \\ hen "the father of lie " a ked Eve, ' ' ca. hath •<.'d • aid ... ?'' and it contint1c today without abatement. T,, 0 t,t1nct hut r lated le\ 1 el of thi atanic trategy can be detected in t1r dn\ : 1) Rationali tic doubt and denial of the supernatural acts of God a~ rec rded in cripture. Thi is being mo t keenly felt in evangeli– cal circle today through variou compromi e with the theory of organic e, olution, which attempt to reduce the great creative miracl of God to mere providential processes. ( - ) The other tra tegy of the enemy i to encourage Christians to in1agine pre ent-day miracles where there are none, through the claim of elf appointed miracle workers. The goal of the fir t trategy i to take away the Bible from us piece b) piece, until we wonder what pieces of infallible Scripture are still left to u . Dr. John C. Whitcomb, Jr. is Professor of Old Testament and Theology, and Director of Postgraduate S tu dies , Grace Theological Seminary, Winona Lake, Indiana. The goal of the econd strategy is to take us away from the Bible by centering our attention on new claims of divine revelation by modern prophet . or on new and supernatural experiences and powers so that \\ e ha'{e little time or interest in searching the Scriptures for God's truth and for God's revealed ways of perpetuating and promoting it. I. THE PRESSURE IS ON In every generation men have gravitated to religions that offer signs and wonders as their basic appeal. This ha been a principal source of power for R on1an Catholic– isrr1. which claims a continuing revelation accompanied b)· continuing signs. And what modern, fast-growing cult is devoid of prophets and miracle-workers? Old-line Pente– costalisrr1. and now the "Neo-Pentecostal" movement, offer the miracle of tongues, the interpretation of tongues, and e, ·en faith-healers that attract millions. In tune with the times. Protestant liberalism has abandoned its old ration– alistic formulas in favor of a more vibrant existentialism called eo-Ortlzodoxy. which offers a direct "word" from God to sincere individual seekers the world over, whether they have actually heard of the historical Christ or not. What may be considered a natural desire by men to see some token of God has surely been accelerated by the sttffocating atmosphere of twentieth-century uniformitar– ian scientism. I f Satan cannot take away the true God by the pressure of theoretical or practical atheism in the aca– demic world. he will attempt to do so by pushing men to the in\ention of false gods that cannot really save or satisfy. That is su rely the crisis of the present hour. The prophet I saiah felt such pressures in Judah 700 1 'ears before Christ. On the one hand, the deep skepticism of that age Vtas represented by King Ahaz himself, who completely rejected God's offer of a great supernatural sign (Isa. 7: 12). On the other hand, super stitious men tpossihly including King Ahaz) were encouraging one another: '"Consult the mediums and the wizards who v;h1sper and mutter' ' (Isa. 8: 19). The true answer to such pressures v.. as not that God never performs miracles, but that He does so on H is terms only, and in accordance "ith His re\ ealed program of history and redemption. •'To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak 4 SEPTE~BER, 1972 according to this word, it is because they have no dawn" ( Isa. 8: 20). Thus, Isaiah himself cried out to God for global and spectacular signs of His power as in the days of Moses at Mount Sinai ( I sa. 64: 1-3). And an even greater prophet, John the Baptist, sent two of his friends to Jesus to ask why the full glory of the Kingdom Age was not yet being manifested (Matt. 11: 2-6). Our Lord was continually teaching His disciples to pray for stupen– dous miracles when He taught them to pray: "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven." Their minds fascinated by this prospect, the disciples came to Jesus and pointedly asked Him, after His resurrection, "Lord, dost thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" His answer was not that there would never be such a literal ,kingdom and that God would never reveal His great power and glory to men. His answer to them was, in effect, "Not yet" (Acts 1: 7) . II. GOD'S PLAN AND PURPOSE FOR MIRACLES People often ask why it is, if God is still alive and powerful, He does not perform through men of faith today the same kinds of signs and wonders He performed when Christ and the apostles were here. The answer is that God has a plan in His dealings with men, and that plan does not happen to include a constant repetition of the same kinds of miracles in every time and place. If this were His plan then miracles would lose their i1niqi1e sign value because they would be taken for granted. God has wisely protected the significance of miracles in history by rarity of their occurrence, even in Bible time . Enoch's translation was the only miracle in over 1 700 years be– tween Adam and the Flood. For centuries Israel suffered in Egypt with no special voice from heaven. Only rarely did a miracle occur during the centuries from Jo hua to David. And God protected the absolute uniqueness of His Son's THE OHIO INDEPENDENT BAPTIST ...