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The Voice of Authority by George W. Marston asks a very important question: Is the Voice of Authority God or Man? Everyone has their own believes on truth and conduct. Whatever generated those believes inside each person, is that persons voice of authority.
That generator is either God or man. People have numerous sources that they consider to have a voice of authority. Some of them are the conscious, public opinion, the church, parents, bosses, witchcraft, or God. All of theses sources derive from either man or God. For example: you cannot have public opinion unless you have human beings, you cannot have witchcraft unless you have someone to practice it, and You cannot have a church if their is no God. Sadly, for many the voice of authority is man.
The main reason that man have made themselves the voice of authority is because of what happened thousands of years ago in the Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they not only disobeyed God, they rebelled against Him. Since then, this rebellion against God has been passed down through todays generations, and will continue to be passed down to further generation. Rebellion against God is the foundation of the belief that man the voice of authority. Rebellion against God is the same as rejecting God and the Bible.
Why do men reject God? There are two explanations. The first is that men cannot fully understand God. God is unlimited in power, wisdom, holiness and many other un numerable characteristics. Man is so limited in those traits, that God is way beyond full comprehension. The second reason that men reject God is because He threatens their freedom to do evil or immoral acts and not feel guilty of what they have done.
Also they dont want to be responsible of their actions. Men do not want to face the fact that they are in need of a Saviour. They dont want God, and dont want anything to do with him. Those who make man the voice of authority, reject the paradoxes (truths that cannot be explained by human reasoning) found in the Bible.
If God says that certain things are true, we must accept them as true. Yet, there are some who reject Gods truths. The main truth that they reject is the Trinity. Let me briefly explain what the Trinity is and why we should accept it. The Trinity consists of three persons: God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. All of them add up to one God.
There are many Scriptures that prove that God is consisted of three persons. One of them is Mark 12: 29 which says, Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one... But there are some who still do not accept this paradox. They say, How can three people make one God? There has never been any answer that satires these rebellious people. All I can say is to accept the existence of the Trinity because God says so.
If men rejects paradoxes of the Bible, then men are rejecting the miracles of it too. Why? The author says that they are compelled to discard the miracles because he has rejected the key which makes the miracles possible and reasonable. They reject the birth of Jesus; the healing of the blind, sick, crippled, and mute; the resurrection of Jesus, and many other miracles that God performed. Rejecting the paradoxes found in the Bible and the miracles of God, leads to what the author called, agnosticism. This is the belief that man cannot differentiate what is right or wrong, good or bad.
There are two types of agnosticism. They are moral agnosticism, and religious agnosticism. Allow me to explain each type. If man is the voice of authority, then who or what is greater than that voice and has the ability to settle different opinions between mankind on what is right or wrong? The answer is simply nothing.
This is called moral agnosticism. With religious agnosticism, there is nothing capable to speak with authority on religious matters. People can make their own conclusions on religious matters, but their conclusions are only opinions. Nobody has the power to say what is true or false, right or wrong, on religious matters.
People can find the voice of authority on every subject only in Jesus Christ. God is the supreme voice of authority on all matters of truth and conduct. What makes God capable of being such a voice of authority? God is capable because He is the Truth. Without truth, God would not be God.
God sees everything that we do. We cant say: God never saw that; he is lying. God is also the supreme voice of authority on all matters of conduct because he is holy. It is impossible for Him to sin. He is unlimited in his holiness. Because he is pure, he is the only one who has a right to judge people.
He has the power to judge people on who they are, how good they are, and many other aspects of a person. Thankfully, he only cares if we are saved by His Grace. If God is the voice of authority for an individual, then he or she as accepted all of his traits, including Gods ability to perform miracles. He has accepted the fact that He is all powerful. For example, Christians accept the fact that the Omnipotent has the power to use men to speak his word, to show men His will, to have created every thing, and many others that are too many to list. There is one other thing that Christians have accepted.
They have accepted all of the Bibles paradoxes. Since we are limited in our knowledge and God is unlimited, then we should expect to find in the Bible things that are beyond our comprehension. Because were are Gods, we must submit, and accept the paradoxes. There are many paradoxes in the bible that us as Christians have accepted. One of them is that God has two natures. These natures are the nature of man and the nature of God.
They are bound into one nature. Non-Christians dont question the existence of these two natures, but question the how they can be put to gather. Christians know that Gods nature is inseparable. Yet they are different.
Human nature does not turn into a godly nature; nor does godly nature turn into a human nature. This is one of those paradoxes witch Christians have accepted to be true because Gods Word says so. In I Timothy 36 it says, And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in glory. Only Christians can accept the paradoxes of the Bible. Why?
Changes took place inside each non-Christian that made them more likely to accept each and every paradox. There are three main changes. The first is that Christians have a renewed conscious. They are willing to accept paradoxes because they are no longer rebelling against God.
They have submitted to Gods authority. The second change that takes place is that Christians have made God their measuring stick or the standard of truth and conduct. When Christians have a problem or a question about what is right, wrong, true and false they immediately go to the Bible or to God in prayer for guidance. Lastly, those who have become a Christian, have a right to speak with power and authority on subjects that non-Christians only have opinions.
The reason is because the Holy Spirit is in each Christian and the Holy Spirit will reveal things at the appointed time to help the Christian walk closer to the Father, and also to defend his or her faith. Non-Christians only have their feeble minds, but Christians have the power of God inside of them since the moment they cried for Gods salvation. Without God, you are on your own. If you have God, you have everything that you will need to live a happy, successful, everlasting life. I enjoyed studying The Voice of Authority. It took me on an in-depth road that explained why man is not the voice of authority.
It showed me all the benefits that a person will have if man is their voice of authority, and all the benefits that a person can have if God is their voice of authority. I am very glad that I am a Christian. I am very proud to claim God as my voice of authority.
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