These words were written by Arthur W. Pink to a friend on December 20, 1943. They caught my eye as I read the second-to-the-last chapter of his biography, because I myself had been studying Paul's teaching on the Antichrist ("the man of lawlessness") in Second Thessalonians chapter two. This chapter is, admittedly, one of the most difficult chapters to interpret in all of the New Testament. Frankly, it is challenging many of my eschatological views, most of which were developed through my formal education at Bible college and seminary. I've been doing a lot of reading, a lot of praying (though I'm sure not nearly enough), to try to reach a conclusive stance regarding the precise order of end-time events. So far my study has raised more questions than answers.
I'll say more about this in a minute, but first I want to get back to Arthur Pink. After writing the above comment to a friend in 1943, he made these additional remarks in his publication, Studies in the Scriptures, four years later in 1947:
"If any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know" (1 Cor. 8:2). To the very end of his earthly pilgrimage the best instructed Christian has reason to pray, "That which I see not teach thou me" (Job 34:32). Even the theologian and the Bible-teacher is but a learner and, like all his companions in the school of Christ, acquires his knowledge of the truth gradually - "here a little, there a little" (Isa. 28:10). He too advances slowly, as one great theme after another is studied by him and opened up to him, requiring him to revise or correct his earlier apprehensions and adjust his views on other portions of the truth, as fuller light is granted him on any one branch thereof.
I am coming to see, now more than ever before, the veracity and relevance of Pink's perception, as derived from the Scripture verses he quotes above. The inquisitive side of me wants an answer to everything. The pastoral side of me - and ironically the beast of pride in me as well - wants to have all the answers for anyone who asks. But I do myself and others a terrible injustice if I am not honest with God's Word and honest with myself. The fact is, I don't have all the answers. Nobody does. "The secret things belong to the Lord" (Deut. 29:29a). "It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter" (Prov. 25:2).
Yes, one of the glories of this life is to swim in the infinite depths of God's revealed truth, all the while knowing that the glory of His secrets are greater than the glory of our searching. But herein is where we find the divinely crafted joy and delight of it all. For as we humbly and honestly search out God's truth, we discover God Himself. We come to know Him in an ever more intimate way. Is this not what Scripture itself teaches?
But just as it is written, "Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him." For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God." -- 1 Cor. 2:9-10
Amazing! This text is not talking about heaven so much as it is discovering ALL that God has prepared and provided for us in Christ! The Spirit guides us into all truth (John 16:13), and of course Jesus Christ Himself is the Truth! How foolish it would be to stand on our theological high horse, "forcing" certain texts to "fit" our theological grid, rather than to discover in ever-increasing degrees the glory and beauty of our blessed Savior! As Arthur Pink went on to say,
Like the rising of the sun, spiritual light breaks forth upon both preacher and hearer by degrees. The men who have been most used of God in the feeding and building up of his people were not thoroughly furnished for their work at the outset of their careers, but only by dint of prolonged study did they make progress in their own apprehension of the truth. . . . Certainly this writer is no exception. Were he to re-write today some of his earlier articles and pieces, he would make a number of changes in them. Though it may be humiliating unto pride to make corrections, yet it is also ground for thanksgiving to God for the fuller light [graciously granted] which enables him to do so.
God help us always to approach His Word with humility, not simply to get answers to our questions or to find proof texts to support our theological bias, but to KNOW HIM intimately and to help others do the same.
I am so grateful for this particular blog entry! I cannot count the number of times when I have been asked, usually in a harsh accusatory way, about this passage or that, and so many times my answer has been "I don't understand, but I know God; I trust Him to be right.". I struggle with wanting to know all the "right answers". But if I knew all of the "right answers", would I need God? If I understood everything perfectly and could explain it all, where would faith fit in? Somewhere there is a balance between child-like faith that accepts God at His word and laziness or shallowness in faith that can't be bothered to dig in.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for your honest teaching, and for always pointing us towards our Lord. We've really been blessed by the way you search the scriptures to see what the Bible itself has to say, without trying to make the Bible say what you want it to say!
ReplyDeleteSome 25 years ago, I remember reading a book called "The Late Great Planet Earth". It got me excited about the coming of our Lord. But the book may have tended to get a little too specific about when this would occur. It said that the Lord would come back within one generation of the nation of Israel being restored (and the temple being rebuilt), and figured that a generation was about 40 years. So this time period would have been at some point in the late 1980's, and it didn't happen.
Right now, we try as hard as we can to understand the Second coming of the Lord. Once, there were great men of faith, who searched the scriptures, and couldn't fully understand the First coming of the Lord. There were certain mysteries that weren't unveiled until later.
Maybe it is the case that it is the Lord's purpose to withhold some details? He'll allow the anti-christ to have a little time, but then will obtain greater glory by overthrowing him later. Maybe by withholding some specifics, it enables the situation where some people will believe a delusion to more easily occur.
Dear Pastor Matt,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your honesty. I have been in a few other churches where they have been so certain that the Lord's return is any day now. People didn't grow in their faith, some just waited. After 911 I was in a church that preached that this was a definite sign that the Lord was coming soon. So many things were circulating. While this caused some excitement, people became stagnant in their bible knowledge. They were looking at the world's events and drawing conclusions from the Bible to support this this belief. When Hitler was in power my father told me that preachers were saying that Christ was coming and that Hitler was the Anti-Christ. Well that obviously didn't turn out to be the truth. Although my father's faith did not suffer because of this, what he did tell me is that Jesus comes for someone everyday. Whether we will see his glorious coming while we are still here on earth or through death, it will be a splendid site. Maybe we don't understand everything that God has written in his Word, it is though for us to obey. With God being who He is and we being who we are, I am amazed whenever I open up the Bible and a verse can speak to me in a way I hadn't seen before. I wonder how much more we will learn and what else will be revealed to us when we see Him face to face. We are only capable of understanding a beginning and an end...can we comprehend anything beyond that?
I have to say Pastor Matt that my husband and I really appreciate the time you take to bring us further in our understanding of the Bible.
Even the Apostle Paul rhetorically pointed out that Christianity is not just about Scriptural knowledge, but about living like Christ. To what specifically did he point? Well, for one thing, to love--"If I have the gift of prophecy, and KNOW ALL MYSTERIES and ALL KNOWLEDGE; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but DO NOT HAVE LOVE, I AM NOTHING" (emphasis added) (1 Cor. 13: 2). Surely, Paul didn't have full understanding of the things of God, even though he wrote much of the New Testament--in fact, he only saw "through a glass darkly" (v. 12), but he recognized that his knowledge would be worthless without the love of Christ.
ReplyDeleteAnd, so, "abide these three," "faith, hope and love" (v. 13). I confess, I get jealous of Pastor Matt's knowledge of the Bible, and sometimes wish I could jump into Bible school full-time--but, I know the Lord hasn't called me to do so (yet). When we're with Christ in eternity, though, will it really matter how many books we've written (or read), or sermons we've preached (or listened to)? Of course, but, I suspect, only insofar as we were truly trying "to KNOW HIM intimately and to help others do the same."
Frankly, I don't know that God will ever tell us whether being "slain in the Spirit" was really a holy manifestation of power; but, I betcha, we shall see in eternity the rewards for our efforts to know and help others(even our Pentecostal brethren) to know Him, even if we never win a theological debate with them.