Searching for Answers

It is the glory of God to conceal a matter,

but the glory of kings to search out a matter.

Proverbs 25:2

How many times have we heard it said, how many times have we said it ourselves--why didn't God just say so? There are any number of issues--practical, theological, revelational--which are not directly addressed by name in the Scriptures. There are lots of doctrinal beliefs that are not exactly spelled out in black and white in one neat little sentence package.

For instance, nowhere does the Bible say, "Tongues is the initial physical evidence of the baptism in the Holy Ghost."

Nowhere does the Bible say, "The rapture of the church will happen before the seven years of tribulation God is sending upon the earth."

Nowhere does the Bible say, "God is eternally existent in the persons of Father, Son and Holy Ghost."

In fact, the term rapture is never used in the Bible. Neither are trinity, demon, or millennial reign.

And why do you think that is? Some would point out the fact that since there is no clear-cut doctrinal statement in the Scripture on these and lots of other subjects, we cannot make a solid stand on any of them. However, this is not the tack we should be taking with these issues.

Proverbs 25:2 says that God hides things for us to seek. He put lots of interesting concepts in the Bible, only He spread them out through several books over several hundred or even thousand years, and the reason He did so was so that we would search those concepts out. He wanted us to become familiar with the Word so that we would be able to follow themes from the opening verses of Genesis to the final amen of the Revelation. He wanted us to seek truth in the entirety of Scripture, not just find one simple statement and say, "This is what I believe." He wanted us to base our beliefs on what the full gospel and the whole counsel of His Word!