Sorry I've been away for so long...my life has been kind of busy (both in my secular career and my spiritual life). I've been focusing on a new position at my job as well as my Bible study with Jehovah's Witnesses...I'm slowly but surely working my way toward baptism (one step at a time). One other reason I haven't been posting is because I haven't had much to say recently. Most of what I am/will be posting (besides what's in the "Core Christian Beliefs" link box to the right) are ideas and thoughts that I feel the need to share that are mostly derived from my Bible study, and a lot of what we have been talking about lately are personal issues that I do not feel the need to post on this blog at this time (maybe someday I will share my story--when the time is right, but now is not that time). Anyway, back to the blog...
I often hear the following sentiment from people, "If God would reveal himself in an obvious way, I would believe in him." Another thought that often comes up along the same line of reasoning is that God is malicious or evil if he punishes people for not believing in him when there is no irrefutable scientific evidence of his existence.
So let's start with why I believe in Jehovah, the God of the Bible, because I didn't always. There are two reasons why I believe, one is intellectual, and one is personal, and neither one alone is a strong enough reason for me to believe, but the two together have made a pretty big impact on my life. The intellectual reason is simple--the likelihood of a volume of books such as the Bible, written over the course of thousands of years by dozens of people with varied backgrounds being compiled in such a way as to be able to begin to give a consistent account reality (whether real or imagined), is in my mind, pretty low. If you believe the Bible is fiction, then that likelihood is even lower. However, if the Bible recounts the truth, and its writing and compilation has been guided by a supreme being, now we are entering a region of plausibility. Of course, this reason is hardly water-tight; there are of course ways of manipulating the argument to make it slightly more plausible that God is NOT the author of the Bible. This is where my own personal experiences come in.
I was at one point pagan and a practitioner of witchcraft for 10 years. In all that time I have experienced some pretty amazing/powerful stuff. However, nothing I have felt during my practice of witchcraft ever came close to what I felt when I called out to Jehovah, the God of the Bible. It didn't happen right away, I felt pulled, very very gently, towards Christianity and towards Jehovah's Witnesses (I, having a grandmother who has a Jehovah's Witness, already knew much about the doctrine). That pull/calling gradually grew over time, and after about a year or two, under circumstances I'd rather not go into at this time, I felt the hand of God (God's Holy Spirit) in me and in my life--and it was an experience that was more powerful than anything else I had felt up to that point, and I've felt that same force in my life ever since then--ever since I responded to that (although not constantly in such a powerful way). Let me be clear that the force of God's Holy Spirit entering into me was a result of my response to God's gentle guidance over the previous year or two--and then something happened and the floodgates opened up as a result of my own readiness to sincerely explore Christianity.
That, by the way, is not the only time I've felt the Holy Spirit in my life in such a powerful way, but again, it is not always that powerful. I've come to see over the years that Jehovah knows when I need comforting, reassurance, or just plain old encouraging--and he provides the help needed in the least spectacular way that will get the job done. Jehovah is not a God who simply uses his power for nothing--he does not boast of his abilities--and that's point number one. If something can be accomplished by more conventional means--Jehovah will utilize that over making a showy display of power.
Now, you might say, well some people need that showy display of power in order to believe. Is that really so? Can you read other people's hearts? Only Jehovah can do that, and he knows what each person needs way better than you or I do. The fact of the matter is, there are people out there who are just too stubborn to follow Jehovah's commandments, even if they got to see first hand the creation of the universe. One such person is known as Satan. Of course, the angels were created before the physical universe (Job 38:4, 7); yet that did not stop the angel later to be known as the "Devil" from sinning. Of course, Satan believes in God-he's even had direct access to him (in the account of Job, Satan even interrupted a meeting in heaven between God and the faithful angels--Job 1:6-12), but what good did that do?
Satan is not the only one who has had access to Jehovah and visible evidence of his power but failed to live up to Jehovah's standards. Adam and Eve talked to God every day, and yet they choose not to listen to him. The Israelites witnessed many miracles at the hands of Moses in the name of Jehovah as he was leading the out of Egypt--not the least of which was the parting of the Red Sea to allow them through and the subsequent engulfment of the Egyptian army as they tried to pass through the same Sea. The Israelites saw the miraculous manna, the 12 plagues on Egypt, Moses getting water from a rock, among others. Yet none of that was enough to impress the importance of obeying Jehovah's commandments, given through Moses, on the minds and hearts of an entire nation.
Now you may say, "well, that wouldn't happen with me--if I saw these miracles, I would believe in God;" however, belief is not enough. Your heart has to be receptive to listening to and obeying Jehovah's commandments in order to gain acceptance into everlasting life. It is not enough to simply believe in God, you need to be humble enough follow Jehovah's way even if you don't agree with it, knowing that Jehovah's wisdom is far superior to yours or even mine-Jehovah's wisdom is the highest wisdom there is--even superior to that of his only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
What it comes down to is this, if you are sincere in your search for the truth, then Jehovah will open the way to you--but the decision has to be yours to make--that's the importance of free will. Jehovah is not going to force you to serve him--and this is a loving provision from God. We, as God's creation, have absolutely nothing to give him that we haven't been given BY him--except one thing--our loyalty. Our loyalty to Jehovah is the only thing that truly originates with us that we have to offer God--and that's why it is so precious to him that he would never force us to worship him against our will.
It is an unfortunate thing that Satan has shaped a world in which people love themselves too much to admit that they don't really know anything. The Devil has created an environment that breed pride and love of self and does not allow a person make a sincere search for the truth without being mocked by the world--but again, God knows what's in your heart, and if, somewhere, deep down, despite a person's mocking attitude, they are really just groping for reality, God will find a way to latch on to that and bring out a desire to make that honest search--if that person is willing to let him.
Now, of course, God could simply make a big spectacle in the sky--something that is just beyond any kind of scientific explanation and people were forced to see that Jehovah was the true God. Let's say, for the sake of argument that God did that, and he told people that Jehovah's Witnesses were his people. People would begin to flock to their local kingdom hall saying, "I believe, tell me what to do and I'll do it." What will the response of the other members of the congregations be? Here's a sample of what one dialogue might look like:
Person from the Street (PS): "I believe in Jehovah, what do I have to do?"
Member of the Congregation (MC): "That's great--let's read the Bible, we can start a regular Bible study"
PS: "No, I don't need to read the Bible, I believe, just tell me what I have to do and I'll do it."
MC: "Okay, the first thing you need to do is to get to know Jehovah, and to do that we need to examine the Bible."
PS: "It's okay, you don't have to convert, just tell me what to do."
etc...
This conversation me seem silly, but for the average person who happened to have seen this miraculous sign and now "believes" in Jehovah, this is pretty much the way it would be. It is not enough to believe in Jehovah, you need to obey Jehovah...but if you are merely blindly following a checklist or set of rules...it will get old really quick. The reason is that there is no heart or feeling in the person's obedience...he is simply doing what he is told without any feeling, and his love for worldly pleasure will no doubt win out in the end (Matt. 6:24).
The single most powerful motivator is love...and it is our love for Jehovah that moves us to want to follow his commandments. But, as with human relationships, it is impossible to love Jehovah without first getting to know him, and we do that by examining his word, the Bible. If you do not believe this, consider this scenario. Let's say you are single and you meet someone and after five years, you begin to explore a relationship with that person, and in another year you two are happily married. If I were to ask you if you loved your spouse, you would undoubtedly say "yes." If, however, I asked you if you loved the person who is now your spouse 10 years ago, you would say "no." Why? The reason is, because you didn't know that person 10 years ago. The same thing applies to Jehovah. Our dedication to obeying Jehovah cannot last if we do not love Jehovah, and we cannot love Jehovah without first getting to know Jehovah, and the only way for someone to get to know Jehovah is through his word. Of course, I can pray to Jehovah to guide me if I have a decision to make, and that helps me to get to know Jehovah's will a little better, but to really get to know who Jehovah is and why he is the way he is and why he does the things he does, the only source for that type of intimate knowledge right now is the Bible.
In conclusion, it does not do any good for a person simply to see miracles...that does not change a person's heart. The only thing that can change your heart is you, and that is guaranteed by free will, and the only thing stopping a person from experiencing the type of life-altering experience that I went through is that person's unwillingness to humble themselves in their heart enough to make a sincere and honest search for the truth. However, if a person is humble and there is a willingness to make a sincere search, then rest assured that Jehovah is powerful enough to find a way to get the truth to that person, even if it doesn't happen with a showy display of power.
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