By coincidence, I was debating this past week with a skeptic. The "coincidence" is more than that because today the most skeptical couple in the Bible names came up. well, really, the most skeptical were Adam and Eve, but Abraham and Sarah were nearly as much! With that said, read on.
Sarah had been a skeptic when God promised to make her womb alive again. He would heal her dead womb! Scientifically, that is impossible, even to this day! It was a laughable idea that an aged woman could have children, but God made to her a promise:
11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age; and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. 12 Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, “After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?” 13 And the Lord said unto Abraham, “Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I of a surety bear a child, which am old?’” (Gen 18:11-13)
Sarah was infertile. Sarah laughed at God. She diminished her God, and even with her limited knowledge, she exalted herself above God. She had found grace the same as Abraham, but then Sarah laughed at the grace of God. Not only that, but she laughed at the very notion that the seed of the Messiah would be planted in her womb. That was crazy talk, was it not?
Abraham had found grace as well and he had laughed as well: “Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, ‘Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?’” They both had been made alive in their old age, yet they thought God could not make life from nothing!
The uterus is an amazing organ. Indeed, it is an organ on loan from God! It loans to the woman a placenta because the uterus is where the placenta is planted and grows. That “tent” supports life until the unborn child is delivered.
The placenta is like a garden in that a seed must be planted for the person to grow. The seed of Abraham would be planted on barren “soil”, but the seed of God is special Seed. It would grow in Sarah even without a functional uterus.
God made Sarah’s uterus alive again, and then planted His Seed in Sarah while Abraham was away in Sodom. To the skeptic that is laughable!
Then God did it:
1 And the Lord visited Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did unto Sarah as he had spoken. 2 For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. (Gen 21:1-2)
The LORD GOD spoke, and she became pregnant. Abraham had nothing to do with that miraculous birth. Jesus would be the Son of God by Sarah, but not be Abraham.
It was not Abraham’s seed that would provide a Savior but the “seed” of God. Abraham, just like Joseph years later, would provide nothing. Jesus would be the Son of God, and so was Isaac. When Isaac was to be sacrificed, “father” Abraham would not be killing his son but the Son of God.
Is that not silly talk? How could a woman with a dead uterus provide life? For Abraham and Sarah that was impossible. They were skeptics who lacked faith. Never in one-hundred years had Abraham’s fertile seed taken “root” in Sarah, although it had in Hagar.
Who can be saved? No one can save themselves. That is the crux of Christianity. Jesus amazed the disciples when he addressed their skepticism:
26 And they were astonished out of measure, saying among themselves, “Who then can be saved?” 27 And Jesus looking upon them saith, “With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.” (Mark 10:26-27)
Yes, Jesus can provide eternal life, but can He really breath life and make a living soul as he had done long ago with Adam? [i] Indeed, God breathed life unto Sarah. He breathed His Living Water unto her womb, and it became alive again. If He can do that with Isaac, why would He not be able to do that with those who are born again? Is eternal life and raising from the dead not laughable?
Well, Sarah laughed again:
5 And Abraham was an hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born unto him. 6 And Sarah said, “God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me.” 7 And she said, “Who would have said unto Abraham, that Sarah should have given children suck? for I have born him a son in his old age.” (Gen 21:5-7)
She did laugh again, but this time she was not diminishing God but herself. She was no longer a skeptic. Sarah laughed at the idea that God could create, notwithstanding there she stood. You see, what is seen is the evidence of creation:
20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: 21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. (Rom 1:20-21)
Just where is the evidence that there is an unseen God whose throne is in another realm? Look around; what you see is the evidence! In fact, existence is proof of God because He is Existence — “I AM THAT I AM.” If creation is denied, The LORD GOD is denied.
God said that He would create Isaac and both Abraham and Sarah laughed. God said that He created all things and almost everyone laughed. Creation is laughable because God’s Ways are not our ways:
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isa 55:8-9)
When Sarah held the evidence of God’s Ways in her arms, she laughed, but this time for joy. She was no longer a skeptic. Today, even with that, some would doubt God’s Ways. Certainly, “election’ is when God plants souls in the womb of women to grow living souls. Yet, some consider pregnancy no more than a coincidental encounter between a sperm and an ovum.
Just what is a skeptic? Skepticism is doubting God. It questions even whether The LORD GOD is God! That is dangerous territory because doubt is what remains after faith is removed.
Just what is a “god”? “The supreme and ultimate reality” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). Any “god” would be reality, and that is existence, but The LORD GOD is not only Creator but Savior. He preserves what He creates and walks among His creatures.
If a “god” is supreme and ultimate, then the very notion of “gods” is irrational. If God, only One God is really God, and that so happens to be the God that caused it all to happen.
Whenever anyone questions the creating process or the creation, they question whether God even exists. The first sin was twofold: (1) Partaking of deceptive knowledge, and (2) hearkening to an ignorant person who thought she knew it all. [ii]
Adam was skeptical of God who warned him that he might die. He was skeptical because Eve ate and she did not die, so Adam ate as well. His problem was understanding; he did not know death. It turned out that Adam died inside, and he immediately felt death take its toll and was sorry for being skeptical of God’s warning.
God’s Ways, or processes, are not according to our own knowledge. He is Supreme, and we are not! To think that anyone knows more than God is arrogance. It puts down God and elevates oneself. Scientists who claim to know the origin of man and the universe are the most arrogant and those who accept their arrogance over God have them as their gods. Those who elevate their own knowledge to the Knowledge of God are arrogant and reprobate.
God’s thoughts are not our thoughts. How could His creatures understand God’s Plan? Well, they do not but think they do!
In Babel, skeptics built a tower to the heavens to learn the Knowledge of God and God destroyed that tower and confused them even further. Then God scattered them like terrified lambs.
Now, telescopes are the “towers to heaven” viewed by people who are arrogant enough to believe that they are smarter than God! They too will be terrified and scattered over the earth on that Great and Terrible Day of the Lord. That day will be terrible for skeptics because faith in Jesus is the credential for Heaven!
Paul wrote to the Romans about the skeptics that, “they glorified Him not as God, were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened” (Rom 1:20). Today, vanity is the way of thinking. Imaginative people have vain minds. They think on things that only a Supreme God would know and make conclusions based on false premises.
Their vain thoughts are nothing more than creative imaginations wherein there is no proof. Anyone who says that they know another “truth” undermines God! Their hearts are foolish because their knowledge is not wisdom but vanity.
Even Klaus Schwab’s “reimagining” of The Great Reset is foolishness!
Everyone will die without knowing how existence came about. Is that worth dying for; unproveable theories? Why are hypotheses called “theories”? Because theories are “beliefs.” Beliefs require faith. The faith of skeptics is not on God but scientists. God loves but to scientists, mankind are just specimens like trees and frogs.
Theories cannot be proven. That is scientific methodology. There is always a margin of error, and errors extrapolated over eons generate tremendous errors.
Theories are for theorists to make a name for themselves, just as with the Tower of Babel. Theories endeavor to convince gullible people that they know the ultimate truth when science never claims to be the purveyors of absolute truth. That would make them God, and look at their lives; none of them are gods!
Paul set out to persuade skeptics. The skeptics believed one of three things: (1) that there is no God, (2) that there are multiple gods or (3) that they themselves are the gods. Full persuasion, rather than almost persuaded, results in rebirth. [iii]
Jesus died because He claimed to be the Creator in the Flesh. The multitude scoffed at that, and the chief priests were infuriated. If this Man is God, then they are not! That is the same thinking of arrogant scientists. They presume to know more than God even though the truth about creation is in the Genesis of the Universe within the Holy Bible.
Just who first knew that the Earth was round? Isaiah.
Who first knew the cosmic rotations? Enoch.
Who first knew the exact time for the Earth to revolve around the sun to precise accuracy? Enoch.
Who first knew of the hydrological cycle? Solomon.
Who first knew of the air streams? Solomon again.
Who first knew of the particle mechanics and string theory? Moses when he wrote the Genesis of the Universe!
How did they know those things? Because God revealed it to them.
How did Sarah and Abraham lose their skepticism? Because God put a soul in a barren womb and created life!
How can we defy time and live eternally? Because God put in the womb of Mary His own Seed to become sin for us. But is that not a silly notion? Is creating life seems so silly to some, them providing eternal life is even sillier!
God will get the last laugh just as when He made a fool of Abraham and Sarah. Suddenly, they learned that God was not the fool, but they were the fools.
At Babel, they peered into the skies to make a name for themselves. In the Promised Land, God peered into the soul of Abraham and Sarah to make for Himself a Name above all names!
Are you a skeptic? Just who are you kidding? I know the depth of my knowledge and if I think I am going to Heaven based on what I know, I will miss the trumpet call.
Eternal life is not dependent on our ways and our thoughts. If it was, then there would be no hope. Thank God that He alone is Omniscient, and most others would not even know the meaning of that word. Yet they act as if their limited knowledge is supreme to God’s!
For me, when I doubt the Word of God, I think, What a fool I am. No, we are not the Great “I AM”, God is!
(picture credit: Chemistry World; "What is an atom?")
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