Saturday, March 04, 2006
Gulle: Who God?
By Inocentes A. Gulle
Your Business is Our Business
A NATIONAL daily carried an article entitled "Where is God? Why did He take away our loved ones?". It told about a man whose whole family perished in the landslide that buried the whole barangay of Guinsaugon, St. Bernard, Southern Leyte, who allegedly gave vent to his anger, shouted in the midst of a mass held to commemorate the dead, "I don't believe in God anymore! Why did he take away our loved ones?"
One who utters such blasphemy simply does not know God. For if he does, he wouldn't even dare form such question in his mind, not even in the depths of despair. He'd know that God does not do anything without divine purpose. So which god did that man call? Is it the god made by human hands, fashioned by human idea? Or, is he the god of this world who leads us humans astray by influencing our thoughts, which we now call "human nature"?
Most of us wouldn't know who God really is -- The God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Jacob. The Bible tells us who that God is. The Bible also reveals that that same God would not allow any of His children to suffer unless He has some purpose for man's own benefit. In fact, He promised His elect, those who believe and obey his commands implicitly, without reservations, that He would protect them and put them in a place of safety during the period of tribulations, such that the devastation, sufferings and deaths, the world has never yet seen nor would ever again see. That day of His wrath is now fast approaching and almost none of us would even believe it.
Are the disasters that come in clusters -- the Indian Ocean tsunami that killed hundreds of thousands, the earthquakes in Turkey, the floods that devastated New Orleans, Columbia in South America, landslides such as ours in Quezon and now Leyte, -- not enough to remind us of the warnings the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and others, and even Christ himself game, that the Day is at hand (very near)?
Most us don't care, don't even believe that there is such a Day. Then why call on a God whom we do not know or believe and Who does not know us? "Not all that call upon my name do I know...Many will come in my name, who would claim, 'I am He'... I do not know them!" Most of the world does know God, for we have created our own god.
Who then is God and how would we know Him? The Bible teaches, "The Lord said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites, 'You must observe my Sabbaths, this will be a SIGN (emphasis mine throughout) between you and me, SO YOU MAY KNOW THAT I AM THE LORD that sanctify you'.... Observe my Sabbath, because it is holy to you...It will be a SIGN between me and the Israelites forever..." That teaches how we will know who God is and then we shall know whom to call on for help and protection. Otherwise, which god would ever answer our prayers if we do not know whom we are calling on? The Bible also teaches that we become Israelites (seed of Abraham -- "wild vine grafted to the true vine") when we become believers in Jesus and the Father and love Him and obey His commandments..."If you love me, keep my commandments." Was that man in St. Bernard, addressing God? Does he know who God is? Do we?
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