THE UNSEEN KING

Concerning Jesus Christ, Peter said to early Christians: "Whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory" (1 Pet. 1:8). To believe that Jesus Christ is the preeminent King, we today must rely on the evidence given in the Scriptures concerning Him. The prophecies concerning His Kingship, such as Dan. 2:44; 7:13,14; His own claims of being a King, such as Matt. 21:1-11; Jno. 18:36,37; His works tht demonstrate God's approval of His teachings (Acts 2:22; Jno. 3:2; 20:30,31); and the words of the inspired apostles attesting to His Kingship (Rev. 17:14; 19:11-16; Col. 1:13); all of these evidences assure us that Jesus is indeed the authoritative King over all the earth.

Skeptical people today make the same mistake that Israel made in not recognizing and submitting to their King (1 Sam. 84-8). People today too want a visible king with visible glory and pomp, and are willing to sacrifice a proper relationship to God in order to have what they want. Their skepticism toward God makes them comfortable in rejecting Him while inconsistently holding fast to belief in other things that cannot be sensed physically with one or more of the five senses. Whom do you know that rejects the existence and influence of atoms, DNA, viruses, radio waves, or abstracts such as love, beauty, hatred, revulsion and jealousy? Why should one believe in these things and reject spiritual realities such as the soul, angels, the devil, and God? Abundant evidence of the existence of spiritual realities can be found in the Scriptures as well as in creation and human behavior. Have you ever seen Pluto and Jupiter? Do you believe they exist? Why? Have you ever considered the complexity of the intelligent design of living matter? Can you explain the origin of the capability of a human body to eat and digest raw plant life from leaves to roots and seeds? That source of origin is unseen, but its existence is evident.

Human beings have the capacity to understand abstract facts. This capacity includes understanding faith, greed, selfishness, philanthropy, egotism, humility, and self-sacrifice. We also have the capacity to believe in foolish superstitions or in the existence of God and His Son Jesus Christ through Whom all things were made. What we choose to believe does not determine the reality of things. If we deny the existence of God, that denial does not mean that He therefore does not exist. Evidence is the basis of all sensible faith, a basis that all sensible people use sometimes. People who beleive in the future glorification of righteous people with an eternal King Who created us all are responding rationally to the evidence contained in a book that has stood the test of the most diligent scrutiny by critics and skeptics. Believers of the Bible are not crackpots, but reasonable people who are fully persuaded that there is one great King -- Jesus Christ, to Whom every knee must bow because He is our Creator and our Judge -- now invisible, but coming to the seen by all and to be glorified in His saints (Rev. 1:7; Jno. 1:1-4; 2 Cor. 5:10; 2 Thes. 1:3-10).

By Gilbert Alexander.

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