(all excerpts from: inc.kabayankokapatidko.org/god-commissions-messengers-to-speak-his-words/) The Bible is definite in its teaching that God has a standing policy of commissioning or sending His messengers from time to time. Since the beginning, the Lord God Almighty has been commissioning trusted messengers, tasking them with timely missions to convey His message of truth and salvation to mankind. Lamentably, however, many refuse to acknowledge this biblical doctrine about commissioning. Proliferating today is the belief that man, without any messenger, may directly approach God and practice any religion of his own choice. Noah, the preacher of righteousness In the patriarchal era during the antediluvian period, God chose Noah as preacher of His righteousness. Apostle Peter testifies: and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly (2 Pet 2:5). Not many people paid attention to the preaching of Noah. Only seven people listened to what he preached and joined him in boarding the ark. The whole world of the ungodly perished in the flood. In the time of the prophets During the time of the prophets, God’s policy of choosing men to preach His words continued with the Israelite nation. The Old Testament identifies the major and minor prophets sent by God. He “sent warnings to them by His messengers” (2 Chr 36:15). The Prophet Jeremiah confirms: Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.” Then said I: “Ah, LORD God! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth!” But the LORD said to me: “Do not say, ‘I am a youth,’ For you shall go to all to whom I send you, And whatever I command you, you shall speak.” Then the LORD put forth His hand and touched my mouth . . . (Jer 1:4-7, 9) Noticeably, Jeremiah did not appoint himself to preach – he was commissioned by God, unlike modern self-anointed preachers surfacing today on the Internet, on cable and open television networks, and on the radio. In view of this, God instructed the Israelite people during the prophetical period “to seek the law” from the lips of His priest or “messenger”: For the lips of a priest should keep knowledge, And people should seek the law from his mouth; For he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts (Mal 2:7). In the Christian era In the Christian era, God’s policy of commissioning persisted. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the greatest messenger of all time, proclaimed that God anointed Him with the Spirit to preach the gospel: The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed. To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD(Luke 4:18-19). The apostles were also commissioned by God, through Christ, to preach the gospel: . . . “As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:21-22). Therefore, from the very outset, God has always upheld His practice of designating a preacher of His words. Not just anyone is authorized to preach but only those who are God-sent. This is because it is only to them that His words are entrusted. The need for messengers Some argue that today God’s appointed preachers are no longer needed since God’s words are recorded in the Bible, which they presume to be an “open book”. Contrary to such a presumption, after God’s words had been written in the Bible, the need for God’s appointed messengers to explain His words remained. Apostle Paul, one of God’s messengers in the Christian era, explains that God has kept His words in mystery: Let us give glory to God! He is able to make you stand firm in your faith, according to the Good News I preach about Jesus Christ and according to the revelation of the secret truth which was hidden for long ages in the past (Rom 16:25 TEV). Because God has kept the gospel secret in mystery, it can only be comprehended by those to whom it has been revealed: And He said to them, ‘To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables, so that Seeing they may see and not perceive, And hearing they may hear and not understand;’. . . (Mark 4:11-12) God’s messengers have the exclusive gift to know that which He has hidden in mystery. Unfortunately, to those who are unsent, the proper understanding of God’s words has not been given. That is why Apostle Paul asks: “how can they preach unless they are sent?” (Rom 10:15 NIV) Even if man uses human wisdom and ability, still, he cannot unravel or discover the true meaning of the gospel. Apostle Paul testifies: These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual (1 Cor 2:13). When the apostles preached the gospel, they did not dare speak it in words which man’s wisdom teaches but by means of the power of the Holy Spirit. Even if one who is not God-sent diligently studies the words of God, still he will not be able to understand them. In 2 Timothy 3:7, Apostle Paul proclaimed: always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. So, the need for the messenger who will surely give mankind the precise understanding of God’s will become all the more evident and imperative. The preachers who are guided by the Holy Spirit explain God’s words in a manner consistent with, and not in opposition to, the other biblical verses: These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual (1 Cor 2:13). The inspired preachers teach God’s pure words recorded in the Bible without giving personal interpretation. They compare spiritual things with spiritual things—they do not inject private opinion or interpretation. True messengers of God source their explanations solely from the teachings of the Bible itself. Therefore, the true messenger of God adheres to the apostolic standard of preserving the pristine truth taught by God’s early messengers: I am astonished at the promptness with which you have turned away from the one who called you and have decided to follow a different version of the Good News. Not that there can be more than one Good News; it is merely that some troublemakers among you want to change the Good News of Christ; and let me warn you that if anyone preaches a version of the Good News different from the one we have already preached to you, whether it be ourselves or an angel from heaven, he is to be condemned (Gal 1:6-8 JB). Indeed, God’s commissioning is timeless. The Bible teaches about God’s pattern of sending His trusted messengers for particular missions. Although a greater part of humanity refuses to embrace this truth, the biblical truth remains that God commissions His messengers so that His message of truth and salvation may reach mankind. God’s spokesman is His anointed messenger. Just as God appointed messengers from the patriarchal age to the beginning of the Christian era, so has He sent His messenger in these last days in the person of Brother Felix Y. Manalo (Isa 41:9-13; 43:5-6; 46:11).
Posted on: Tue, 25 Mar 2014 06:22:59 +0000
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