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| The Holy Trinity is a mystery revealed by the Holy Spirit. God's Creation by His Word is revealed the same way, but we can see Creation at work in our own lawns and gardens - and gutters. |
The historic Jackson abode in Moline, Illinois was under the shade of a gigantic maple tree, which provided us endless leaves to rake and millions of helicopter seeds everywhere.
I remember looking up at the gutters and seeing them filled with healthy maple tree seedlings. They were doomed, one way or another, but they looked great.
One maple seedling we did not pull up in the yard was near the elm tree stump. We lost our elms in the Dutch elm holocaust. We routinely ran over the maple tree when mowing, but it kept coming back. Now it is full grown.
I examined our gutters in Springdale. They were filled with blackened goop, a combination of dead maple tree leaves and seeds, dust, and water. Both gutters were plugged with this mini-compost, so rain dripped on our heads instead of using the downspout.
God's Creation constantly renews itself, no matter what we imagine, and this management is far superior to ours.
God plants fish in newly formed ponds, by having fish eggs stick to water-loving birds. The birds air ship the eggs to new pond locations, and aquatic life flourishes.
When I planned ponds in our yard, in various homes, I learned that algae formation was essential. The only thing I needed was sunshine, and the pond water turned greenish. What we hate in the dog's watering tank outside is ideal for pond life. Algae is the foundation, but God grows it instantly.
Some land is so barren than only the worst weeds will grow on it at first. Those weeds either hold down the soil with shallow roots or mine minerals from below with tap roots. Weeds are prolific in all kinds of weather, so they leaves provide a bit of mulch and food for soil creatures. In time a weeded lot can renew itself. In fact, healthy weeds are a sign of productive soil.
Those who try to make the Kingdom of God a question of man's management are out of touch with Creation and the Scriptures. When man robs God of His glory by teaching against faith in Him, God spreads the Gospel in other places.
Some rationalists have engaged in a war against the Bible, only to be defeated by the power of Holy Spirit. If they are fair with the text - instead of just mocking it - they are compelled to see the inner consistency of the Word and its power to convert their flinty hearts.
Simon Greenleaf, as a lawyer, struggled to show all the contradictions in the Easter accounts of the Bible. Instead, the Easter accounts converted him - and he was a national legal expert on evidence.
Martin Luther had a perfect Medieval education. He was an Augustinian monk who memorized the Psalms as part of his spiritual work. He earned a doctorate (at a Catholic school!) in Biblical studies. But it was the Word that troubled him, always contradicting the Medieval doctrines he was compelled to teach and believe.
The power of the Gospel compelled him to reject works and teach justification by faith, in harmony with the Old and New Testaments.
The Protestant Revolt, as the Roman Catholics call it, actually rescued a corrupt and immoral religion from its self-inflicted wounds. The efficacious Word convinced much of Europe that justification by faith was correct, that the papal office was indeed the Antichrist.
2 Thessalonians KJV Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,
2 That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away [Apostasy] first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
When people consciously reject the Word, the Gospel rain moves on. The Third World is embracing the Gospel, even where it is violently persecuted, and looks in disgust at the West for embracing apostasy.
Lutheran ministers are so passive that when the corrupt synods kick them out, they wait around and write posts about their need to be accepted and certified by the same men and women who pushed them out for orthodoxy - or even for the sin of questioning Holy Mother Synod.
So they trust the synod more than the Word, too. They want the salary, the parsonage or housing allowance, the health benefits, something God apparently cannot manage on His own.
The Gospel will survive, because God's Word is productive.
Some will say, "But it only grew thorns and thistles for me." Jesus promised the cross and warned that those who do not take up the cross daily are not worthy of the Kingdom. Therefore, the cross is God-promised and blessed by God.
Rejection of the cross is a denial of the Gospel, yet various synodical functionaries say, "How dare you question me? The Holy Spirit gave me this office." Their response is vindictive revenge.
But God uses persecution of the Gospel to spread the Gospel. Many get vomited on the shores of a new location. No shame. Gospel enemies did it to Paul Gerhardt and Martin Chemnitz. The Gospel flourished because of this, not in spite of this.
