How Can Any Doubt the Promises of God?
One needs only look to the third chapter of Genesis to read the promise God made to the man and woman He created and placed in the Garden. It is quite interesting that God had provided them with all they needed, as well as the choice of obedience or disobedience and the penalty for not being obedient. Temptation was offered by the serpent – the manifestation of Satan. In Genesis 3:1-4 we read of this first promise of God to man, and the lie that caused the woman to doubt. Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: Because of their sin, they were separated from God; exiled from the Garden. This separation from God is “spiritual” death.
The first time the word “promise” is used in the KJV is Numbers 14:34 and is God’s punishment to His people Israel for murmuring when God had been so gracious to them. After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise. He had freed them from Egyptian bondage. He had showed them the Promised Land through the twelve spies. Yet, because of the “doubt” of ten of the spies, Israel refused to believe in God’s Promise and His Power to deliver the inhabitants into their hands so they could possess the land and live for God. From this we should see that God’s Promises have positive and negative aspects. If one follows God and His Word, positive results occur, but if not, God’s wrath is promised.
The “promise” of God in the N.T. age was first declared in the book of Acts. We know that the Jews in Jerusalem on Pentecost, AD 33 were told in Acts 2:39 that the “promise” of God was going to be offered to all humanity, the Jews having the honor to receive it first. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. Many are confused as to what this promise is. 1John 2:25 tells us what God has promised to all who follow His Word. And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life. None would deny that this is a promise with a positive outcome.
God has also told us in His Word we can be recipients of this promise. The Spirit had the apostle Paul write in 2Thessalonians 2:14 how we are “called” to become beneficiaries of this wonderful promise. Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. However, He has also warned us previously in this same letter, the failure to “answer” that call will result in a devasting outcome. 2Thessalonians 1:8-9 is where this is found. In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: 9 Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; I don’t know of anyone that willingly wishes to be a recipient of this promise of God.
We must be aware if any of God’s promises are true, they all are. All of God’s Commandments are also true. This means that all God’s Promises in the N.T. age apply to us as well. We cannot “pick and choose” which commandments we can follow. But we do have the option to choose which promises of God we will receive. It is likely those who doubt the promises of God do so because they don’t know the commandments of God. In Titus 1:2-3 we see how God made His promises known to mankind. This is also how the Commandments are made known. In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began; 3 But hath in due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Saviour;
These N.T. Commandments and Promises of God are given so we can be informed what God has provided for those who will become His children and what is in store for us, if we will be obedient and faithful to Him. Just because we have been obedient does not guarantee us a home in heaven. Continued fidelity in this life is required. In 2Corinthians 5:10 we are told that we must be judged for how we’ve lived this life. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Where does this leave those outside of the body of Christ? 1Peter 4:17 provides this answer. For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? Those who doubt the promises and ignore the Commandments of God will be lost. Can you afford to doubt it?
Dennis Strickland – Mooresville church of Christ
