Reality Check 101

Everything we have looked at so far points to at least one big conclusion: If God is behind it all, it means He is not just some cosmic mindless spirit.  Everything says that He is more than a power or force.  He has to be someone who has exposed Himself to us through His work. That means that it would only be natural for Him to be a communicator who values who He has made and would reach out to us.

The last three clues have to do with how God, after doing everything else, reached out to certain people in certain ways at certain times.  The idea is that He was taking the initiative to reach into our world so that we could understand Him and even ourselves better. All this testimony comes from records written by all kinds of radically different people over 1,500 years who testify to experiences they have had. The situation here is the same as before with the other clues, their value is in what we do with what we’re offered.

• The first special clue has to do with the idea that the most logical, most obvious way for God to communicate in a way that will last for ages and ages, is to put down in writing what He wants us to know.  There is a record like that that claims to be from God – the  Bible [Romans 15:4, 2 Timothy 3:16, 2 Peter 1:21]. There are a lot of writings in the world that make that same claim, but we will see later on in this journey that it has some very unique characteristics . For now, just add this clue to the collection.

• The second of the special clues about God’s reaching out are things that can look ridiculous to anyone that firmly rejects all of the clues we have looked at so far. But at the same time, they are a treasure trove of information for sincere searchers.  The clues are prophecy and miracles [Numbers 12:8, Hebrews 1:1-2 & 2:2-4]. Add these to the collection for future reference also.

Prophesy is what happens when someone in the past is given information by God about what He is going to do in the future . History is full of all sorts of people who have claimed to do prophesy. Even now, there are groups that still make claims. There is really only one way to figure out who is or is not a prophet; what they say has to come true 100% of the time in every detail. A perfect God never gives out faulty information!

Miracles operate the same way. They have to happen in a way that is absolutely impossible in the normal world. Because God always does everything with purpose to show His power (not human power or prestige), a true Divine miracle always focuses on Him, not people. We will look at how the history in the Bible stands out as we get further along. The last witness is just simple personal experiences [Acts 2:23, Acts 5:22, Romans 8:16-17]. This is probably the most dangerous of all the clues for being abused or misunderstood.  It is easy to understand why. But if a person gives themselves to a relationship with  God, it only makes sense that God would provide a deeply personal sense of His presence in their life. It would also only make sense that such a person would be overjoyed to talk to other people about it. That awareness of God and those conversations are just as important as a way for God to show  Himself to the world through people.