Authority

How active can and should parents be in the selection and pursuit of a spouse for their children? This perplexing question has given rise to much controversy and misunderstanding among Christians. One of the chief difficulties in answering this question is that the Bible does not mandate a universal rule in the matter.

We can be grateful that Biblical Christianity is the one and only thing that is steadfast forever. This phrase describing the God of the Bible as “stedfast for ever” came not from the lips of an Israelite prophet or a priest but was part of a royal proclamation by a Persian ruler named Darius!

The heroic priest, clad in the garments of his Aaronic priesthood, stood as still as a statue, his long beard flowing in the wind as he looked defiantly at the Greek officer who had called upon him to deny his God. Mattathias’s five sons, all young men in the prime of youthful strength, stood quietly by their father’s side. One of the Jewish men in the village, a Hellenist (Greek sympathizer) who had long urged Mattathias to compromise just a bit, stepped forward to perform the sacrifice instead.

When we say that Jehovah is “self-existent,” we are implying that the God of the Bible does not need to prove or explain His existence. In the witness of the prophets, the Lord often undergirds His statements, not with evidence nor with logic, but with a self-sufficient statement of the presuppositional authority of His Word: “for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it” (Isaiah 40:5 and Micah 4:4).

The Lord answered Moses with an assertion of His own self-existence. “And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM” (Exodus 3:14). God’s response must have come as a shock to Moses. God did not explain Himself. He did not set about to prove His existence by rational arguments. On the surface, the statement seems to repel inquiry and to have an air of aloofness, giving distance between the Israelites and God. Let’s take a moment to look a little deeper and consider the grammatical form of God’s revelation of Himself.

The Bible shines a spotlight on a royal wedding in Psalm 45. It is thought that perhaps this psalm was written as a celebration of the wedding of King Solomon. But the psalm rises far above any earthly wedding. The Messianic implications of this psalm are not merely the suppositions of Bible scholars. The Word of God, in Hebrews 1:8, verifies that this royal wedding psalm was written concerning the Son of God.

The world has tried in vain to establish a one-world government. The prophet Zechariah declared, “And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one” (Zechariah 14:9). Unity is an attribute of God. He is one, and His name is One. Thus, it follows that God brings unity to all that He governs.

The Hebrew word Elohim, generally translated “God” in the Bible, is plural in its grammatical number. This plurality reflects the divine Trinity—that one God exists in three Persons. In Genesis 1:26, the plural number is used when Elohim spoke: “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”

God is not “mixed with” heaven and earth. He “fills,” as in wholly occupies and possesses, heaven and earth! This is not a statement of pantheism, where a bit of the divine is infused in created animals, plants, birds, and trees. Rather, He is distinct and separate from it. Just as the light of the sun fills the air but it is not mixed with the air, so God fills all the universe without mixture.

Do you lack wisdom? Are you facing a challenge that is beyond your experience or your own limited store of knowledge? You serve the God Who knows all things! Ask Him for wisdom, and He will graciously bestow it. Sometimes it may come in a form that you don’t like or appreciate, for wisdom often comes packaged as reproof (see Proverbs 1:23). But a man who is humble enough to discern the Lord’s answer to prayer and receive reproof with gratitude is one who has the potential to be a wise man in the days ahead.

The word “omnipotent” appears in our English Bible only one time. The reference is found in the Book of Revelation at the climactic, glorious proclamation of the universal reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is very fitting that this one time that the English word “omnipotent” appears is immediately before the glorious vision of our Lord Jesus crowned with many crowns and riding His white horse in victory and triumph.

One of the greatest displays of God’s omnipotence in all of history was the incarnation of the Son of God. Colossians 2:9 makes a profound statement: “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” This means that all attributes of the Godhead were manifested in the Son.

Even with so many Biblical references to faith, it still is sometimes hard to understand and exercise faith in our daily lives. Hebrews 11:1 tells us that “faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen.”

In the year 1655, the savage dukes of Savoy waged a massive crusade to crush the simple believers of the Italian Piedmont. But God raised up a remarkable individual to show His power.

The Lord made a declaration of His own omnipotence to encourage a faithful prophet who lived in a very dark day. Jeremiah would be an eyewitness to the overthrow of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple.

It was thought by all who knew the Ryle family that young John would follow his father into banking, and maybe even serve in Parliament someday. But during a severe sickness, he thought much of God, eternity, sin, and salvation.

The New Testament deals very seriously with practical daily holiness. This is not a worked-up holiness produced by special effort or by performing religious duties. Rather, holiness is an internal work of God’s Holy Spirit.

A proper response to many of God’s attributes involves joy, adoration, singing, and praise. But there’s another kind of response that the Bible commands, particularly connected to holiness: reverent silence.

God expressly defines Himself as holy. When God called Israel to make a distinction between clean and unclean and to set themselves apart from the world, He based this command upon the divine attribute of holiness.

King Edward VI reigned for only 6 short years, but his brief reign was a model of Godliness. Thomas Cranmer said of the young king that he had “more divinity in his little finger than we have in our whole bodies.”