Who Is Our "Intelligent Designer"? Part 7
(See Part 6)
For more than three years, the Son of God, the true designer and creator of all things in heaven and on the earth, personally (and through the preaching of John the Baptist, the 12 apostles and the 70 messengers) offered to Israel the magnificent kingdom that had been promised to them for many centuries (i.e., Isa. 2, 11, 35 and 65; cf. Alva J. McClain, [Winona Lake, IN: BMH Books, 1959]).
This genuine offer was contingent on one thing only: repentance (i.e., a radical change of heart toward God) on the part of Israel. And no one had any valid reason for doubting His true identity. His claim to be Israel’s divine Messiah was overwhelmingly confirmed by hundreds of spectacular sign-miracles. None of the “fingerprints of God” that we see today, from microscopic flagella to the galaxies above us, can compare to the persuasive power of those supernatural works. The Lord Jesus said: “the works which the Father hath given Me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of Me, that the Father hath sent Me” (John 5:36 KJV).
Nicodemus, the outstanding theologian of Israel, confessed to Jesus: “Rabbi, we know that Thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that Thou doest, except God be with him” (John 3:2).
But the nation of Israel, with some exceptions, rejected these great Messianic sign-miracles. Our Lord told them: “If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.” (John 15:24). The Jewish leaders even attributed His miracles to the power of Satan (John , 52).
Discussion