The Journey to Know God!

In 1997, I was invigorated. My girls were growing, and I loved being a mom. As my education  broadened, I confronted new dilemmas. The contradictions within our churches weighed  heavily upon my heart. I had inherited the Reformers’ heretical thirst for truth and was dissatisfied  with the official party line. The Reformation fractured the Roman Empire’s iron claw politically, but not the people’s religious complacency.

For the most part, people flocked to their own (usually ethnic) culture to understand  God.  Soon, these beliefs were also challenged. As the Roman Empire’s grip cleaved in two, so did people’s belief in God. Would both God and man fade like grass? Each sect, to a lesser degree, repeated the Church’s status quo defined by its Reformers. They were comfortable with their Catholic–less freedom, accepting strife and division amongst religious denominations. I was too idealistic to accept or be comfortable with a complacent God of strife.

Despite its misery, we naturally avoid anything that challenges the status quo, no matter how oppressive life becomes. We are comfortable being objects at rest, who remain at rest. A Laodicean spirit of indifference dominates our churches (Rev 3:15–17). We’ve obtained our political freedom to seek God over the past 250 years, yet we stopped where the Reformers left off.

Ignored are Scriptures’ promises of universal peace and unity for a continued pursuit of truth.  Forgotten are the prophecies of a Day wherein people look to Abraham, to Sarah, and to Israel’s God for truth (Isa 51:2). Neglected are the prophets’ pleas for each of us to create a new heart within us: a heart and a spirit capable of turning every nation’s swords into ploughshares (Mic 4:3; Isa 2:4–5). We are content with our own little corner of freedom from religion.

As I’ve studied, I’ve become increasingly aware that I’ve unintentionally deemed much of the Old Testament prophecy unnecessary. History divulged that many prophecies were fulfilled before Israel’s fall to Assyria in 717 BCE and Judah’s fall to Babylon in 587 BCE.

I was blown away by the 50+ texts that prophesy of Israel’s latter end (cf. Lev 26:44–45; Deut 30:1–9; Ezek 36:22–30). I observed that God’s written word did not foretell of destruction, but of the salvation of this latter-day generation who finally broke the endless cycle of sin’s misery. From Genesis to Zechariah, Scripture foretells Israel’s latter-day descendants in the end times collectively seeking God, understanding truth, and turning from evil. The written word tells us that this generation will find Him “when we search for Him with all our heart” (Deut 4:28–29; 13:3; 30:1–10; Prov 8:17; Isa 51:1–7; Jer 29:11–14; Ezek 18:31–32; Hos 5:15– 6:3; Amos 5:4). I wondered if this latter-day generation would finally accept Paul’s challenge to prove all things.

The prophet Jeremiah refers to this era, telling us that we will no longer need to teach every man his brother saying, Know the Lord, because they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them, says the Lord. (Jer 31:34)

Jeremiah foretells humanity’s universal understanding of truth. I wondered how this latter generation discovered this amazing unity. Was it simply through God’s spirit? Could there be a tangible method that enables a universal knowledge of God? What if we right now, today, could seek and find this path? Would it lead to the earth “being full of the knowledge of God” (Isa 11:9)? What if the first step in fulfilling Jeremiah’s vision was as simple as a dialog that proved all things?