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THE LENSES AND THE BOUNDARIES OF BIBLICAL REVELATIONS
“I promise.” “I solemnly swear…. “”…as God Is my Witness. “”…before God and these witnesses.” are oaths that certify that what we have just said or done is truthful. We mean by an oath that if I am not being truthful, let God judge me. Discounting God’s judgment or believing that there is no God to do the judging, men and women perjure themselves all the time. However, the word, perjure, implicitly means that the person who has lied under oath has been caught in his or her lie, and judgment has followed in punishment.
Now ponder for a moment what it might mean for God, Himself, to use the phrases, I promise, and, I solemnly swear, in His dealing with Mankind. It seems that it would be utterly unnecessary for the God who created Man, according to the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures, Who is the God of Truth, again according to the Scriptures, to promise or swear to anyone. And who could bring the Almighty before a tribunal if He were inclined to lie in what He promised or swore? It would be unnecessary, according to His self-revelations in the Scriptures, for the God of truth to add the phrases, I promise, and, I solemnly swear, to anything that He ever said to Mankind, but He did just that- more than once. Here are several Scriptural revelations addressing the Almighty’s truthfulness:
Hebrews 6:13 For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself,
Hebrews 6: 16-18 For men swear by one greater than themselves, and with them an oath given as confirmation is an end of every dispute. In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, in order that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have strong encouragement, we who have fled for refuge in laying hold of the hope set before us.
Numbers 23: 19-20 “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? “Behold, I have received a command to bless; When He has blessed, then I cannot revoke it. [Balaam’s word to Balak]
1 Samuel 15:29 “And also the Glory of Israel will not lie or change His mind for He is not a man that He should change His mind.”
Psalm 89:35 “Once I have sworn by My holiness; I will not lie to David.
Titus 1:1 Paul, a bond-servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of those chosen of God and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness, in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago, but at the proper time manifested, even His word, in the proclamation with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior.
This Essay on the Lenses and the Boundaries of Biblical Revelations is an examination of the truths revealed by the God who cannot lie in the Three Utterances of His Voice concerning His Son recorded in the New Testament, and the implications of these Three Utterances for the whole of the Bible:
Matthew 3:17 and behold, The Voice out of the heavens, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased
Matthew 17:5 While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and behold, The Voice out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him!”
John 12:28 “Father, glorify Thy name.” There came therefore The Voice out of heaven: “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.”
Every written commentary on the Synoptic Gospels and the Gospel of John that I have read, comments on the Matt. 3:17 (Mark 1:11; Luke 3:22) and Matt. 17:5 (Mark 9:7; Luke 9:35) and John 12:28. I have not found any commentary that considers these references together. I consider them together in this Essay.
Why would the God of Truth speak 3 times as recorded in the Biblical references above concerning Jesus and His Work? The answer to this question is that the God of Truth gives to those who are trusting Jesus to save them from an eternal judgment confidence in His ability to save them.
Acts 4:11-12 This Jesus is the ‘stone that was rejected by you, the builders’, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other Name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved.”
Colossians 1:18 He is the head of the body, the Church. He is the Beginning, the Firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent.
