Vision of God

Vision of God

By JIM FLETCHER
In his magnificent book, "Don Isaac Abravanel: Statesman & Philosopher," Israeli historian Benzion Netanyahu chronicles the fascinating life of the Middle Ages gadfly. What surprises is the depth of Abravanel's religious works, as seen in this quote from Netanyahu: "Thus he wanted to rewrite his lost - and unfinished - 'Vision of God,' which he hoped would serve as a 'divine candle' for shedding light upon the mysterious phenomenon of prophecy." Amid this small core of real biblical thought, Abravanel was forced to live in a wider world that had contempt for Scripture. Again, Netanyahu: "The men of the Middle Ages were poor in historical criticism but rich in speculative fantasy. When they considered the Bible, they gave their imagination the freest possible rein, and they used the ancient references, not to reconstruct the historical past, but to build their theoretical castles in the air." What rattles the reader of this important book is that this description of Middle Ages scholars perfectly defines those who work in the present. Today, Christian scholars everywhere twist and pull at Scripture, in order to rid the world of it. Nowhere was this more evident than in the goofy, weird study aide known as "The Interpreter's Bible." I've written on this theme before, but it bears repeating - a lot of repeating - that the attacks on Scripture, from within the Church, give us the best answer to the question of why people are leaving houses of worship in droves. This is especially true when it comes to our youth. In a new book from Ken Ham, "Already Gone," the founder of Answers in Genesis reveals that youth are leaving the Church in record numbers because, at its root, what passes for scholarship today tries to turn the Bible into myth. Ham specializes in exposing the clumsy attempts to mythologize the early chapters of Genesis (from which all history springs). Building on Ham's book, we see that what I can only call the attempt to destroy Bible prophecy is a linchpin among the critics of the Bible. Because we can see quite clearly - spotlight on the founding of the state of Israel - that predictive prophecy is quite true, we can also deduce that those who hate the Bible (I'm talking about clergy and seminary professors) understand very well that Bible prophecy is perhaps their greatest enemy. Circling back to Netanyahu's insightful quote about Middle Ages scholars who gave themselves the "freest possible rein" in re-imagining Scripture, we wonder how did this start in our own time? The answer is the previously mentioned Interpreter's Bible. Were it not for the elitist attitudes that permeated the community of scholars who crafted The Interpreter's Bible, anyone reading their scholarship would laugh out loud. Actually, when I read the thick volumes of this series, I do laugh. When I'm not gritting my teeth. Look, the Bible is not hard to understand. If one believes it is communication from our Creator, one can surmise that the Creator would not speak in code, or obtuse sentences. The Creator is clear. History is straightforward. But not in the world of the modern scholar. Take the Exodus account of the crossing of the Red Sea. The mainline scholars of a few decades ago absolutely loathed the biblical stories of miracles: Exodus, Jonah, the Flood. So when we read the biblical passages, then the commentary, we see that the latter is a bizarre mishmash of dreamy stream-of-consciousness. Incredibly, in this section, the commentator managed to discuss Abraham Lincoln, D-Day, and a story about King Canute ... and still drop in a passing dismissal of the actual miracle event from Exodus: "The dividing of the water by the rod (E) leads on to the later embellishment (P) that the water stood up as walls!" Wow, where does one begin? Do you understand? Embellishment. And the parentheses? They refer to the inane JEDP theory, or Documentary Hypothesis. In this crackpot theory adored by modern, liberal/critical scholars, the histories of Genesis and Exodus were not recorded by a few men such as Adam, Joseph and Moses. No, in reality, for these scholars, those men didn't exist, or if they did, they were so hidden in wrappings of mythical mist that we can't be sure of anything as regards their lives. No, the Documentary Hypothesis claims that these histories were the product of scores of unknown writers and editors who fabricated most of the first five books of the Bible. Do you see what this does? It removes the Bible from the realm of reality rooted in real history, and relegates it to myth, superstition, and legend. That way, it can't be relied upon. And thus, it follows that if we can't count on the Bible, then it's of no use to us. Which is precisely the conclusion that millions of young people have come to in our day. Abravanel saw the same thing in his time and it shows us that truly, as the real man Solomon wrote, there is nothing new under the sun. Such a view obscures our only real hope, our Vision of God. jim@prophecymatters.com