“ q i n c e t h e f a t h e r s fell asleep, ^ all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation” (2 Peter 3 :4 ). “Oh that Thou wouldest rend the heavens, that Thou wouldest come down! (Isa. 64:1). In our first text, Peter is writ ing o f those scoffers o f the last days who ask, “Where is the promise o f His coming?” Their argument is that all things con tinue as they were from the be ginning. Natural law runs a fixed course and we need not look for a break-through from heaven. It is now the age o f the scoffer and we may expand the applica tion of this argument to a far wider range. Is this not the way the world reasons about all re vealed truth? “God is not inter ested in what becomes of us. God has not spoken with finality in the Bible. He did not take human form in Christ. Jesus was not virgin-bom, did not rise from the dead and is not coming again. Men are bom to be what they be come. There is no new birth. God does not guide and keep people nor answer prayer.” In support o f all this, they offer the same old argument our text suggests al though they may word it differ ently: “ Th in g s run a natural course fixed by law. GOD NEV ER BREAKS THROUGH.” But Isaiah knew better. He prays, in our second text, for a fresh visitation o f God. “Oh that Thou wouldest rend the heavens, that Thou wouldest come down!” God had broken through in the past as Isaiah recounts in the succeeding verses: “When Thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, Thou earnest down, the mountains flowed down at Thy presence.” What God has done He can do again. Today we face two attitudes in modem thought. Are we in the grip o f natural laws unchanged and unchanging in which the universe runs its course fixed and unbroken from the begin ning? Or, does God break through in ways not contra-natural but
When God Breaks Through
by Dr. Vance Havner
supernatural and will He do it again? Certainly He has done it. He did it in His Word. “ Holy men of old spake AS THEY WERE MOVED BY THE HOLY GHOST” (2 Peter 1:21). “God hath spoken” ; “God hath said” ; “ All Scripture is God-breathed.” Other books contain truth but in this book God has broken through in supernatural revelation. It is a different kind of book and the only book o f its kind. There never will be another book like it. It is not the product o f the continuity of all things from the beginning of creation. The argument of the scoffer will not explain, the Word o f God. God has rent the heavens and come down. But not only has God said something, He has also done something. “God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fa thers by the prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son” (Heb. 1 :1). Things did not continue as they were from
the beginning when Jesus was bom of a virgin! No wonder such a storm o f criticism has raged around that event for then God broke through ! That began a string of miracles which can never be explained by the scoffer. Our Lord’s sinless life was a new thing on this earth. Who else has ever been able to say, “Which of you convinceth me o f sin?” In every miracle He wrought—still ing the storm, healing the sick, raising the dead—God was con stantly breaking th rou gh in those Galilean days. The climax of it all, Calvary, was the su preme break-through. Christ died for the ungodly; He voluntarily offered Himself; He was not the helpless victim o f a mob. He could have called down more than twelve legions of angels. God in tervened f o r our redemption. When our Saviour rose from the dead, things did not continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. The scoffers’ argu ment breaks down at every point. There is only one explanation,
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