Series: The Mind of God
Message: What Was He Thinking?
Preacher: Mark Johnson
Refresh: Open with prayer. Read or listen to Psalm 31:1-8.
Read: Hebrews 1:1-3 - As you read in the NLT translation, note 1-3 insights/questions that arise.
Reflect: The modern, scientific world has problems with the supernatural and supernatural beings. Things that can’t be observed and measured are usually discounted. Although our culture is full of stories and movies about angels and demons, the Modern Man views all of these as sentimental traditions or mythological fables.
Even Christians, to some degree, are divided on the subject. Clearly, most Christians believe that Jesus Christ was a supernatural being, and the orthodox belief is that He was God in human form, but beliefs are all over the place in regard to other supernatural beings like Satan, or angels, or demons, or sinless inhabitants of other worlds. Some wear angel pins, pray to their “guardian angel,” and almost seem to believe that angelic beings are divine. Others believe there are supernatural, or “other-worldly” beings, but that they are not divine – they are created beings. The Seventh-day Adventist Church sides with the latter.
The Bible clearly supports the presence of beings which are not divine and not human. The words “angel” or “angels” are used 283 times in the King James Version of the Bible. The theme of a supernatural “serpent,” “dragon,” “evil one,” “devil,” or Satan, as an enemy of man and God, also runs through the Bible. It is first mentioned in Genesis and last mentioned in Revelation. And once again, I believe, it raises the question, “What was God thinking?”
If God truly created “free moral agents,” or beings that can think and make moral choices, what was He thinking when He created the angels? If some of His supernatural creatures are indeed now His enemies, what was He thinking when He created them? And what was He thinking when He created us humans? Do we have a thinking, loving, caring Creator, or is He just a capricious manipulator of His creatures, much like the gods of Greek mythology?
And where can we find answers to these questions? Are they really to be found in the Bible?
Recalibrate:
Respond: Pray for wisdom.
Research: Is it possible to trace a created, free moral agent who is represented as a “serpent” and “dragon” through the Bible?