Subpoenaed By God
May 1, 2012 Blogs by: Tim Jennings, M.D.

“You are my witnesses,’ says the Lord…” (Is 43:10)

Have you ever thought about being a witness for God? Could God really need human beings to testify about Him? If you were called to be a witness on God’s behalf, would you know what to say?

If you have never considered God being on trial, Paul’s words in Romans may shock you, “God must be true, even though every human being is a liar. As the scripture says, “You must be shown to be right when you speak; you must win your case when you are being tried.” (3:4 GNT)

Most of you have already considered how Satan makes allegations against God, and how God reveals the truth to rebut those allegations, but have you considered when God goes to court? When would God be on trial?

“Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water.” (Rev 14:7)

When would this be? Now! God is on trial now! So now is the time He needs His witnesses. At the end of earth’s history God is calling for people to bring him “glory” or to testify rightly about Him, to reveal the truth about His character, because now is the time He is being judged. Right now, today He is calling for witnesses – are you ready to testify rightly about God?

God tells us how to be effective witnesses for Him. We are to extol and exalt God as Creator. But why? Why at the end of time does God need witnesses to testify about Him as Creator?

Because earth has been enveloped by two dark theories that hold the minds of men captive and prevent people from knowing God:

  • Penal Substitution – God is a being who must impose punishment for sin, torture and execute the wicked; a being who needs to be appeased, and have his wrath propitiated. This Dark Ages view of God, which is based on Imperial Rome’s imposed law concept, contributed to the second dark theory –
  • Evolution of the species – there is no God; we evolved from lower life forms.

Two mind warping theories splitting the world between a punishing god and no god.

The Creator is calling for witnesses to break the dark hold on the minds of men by telling the truth about Him.

But why focus on creation?

Because God’s character of love is the design template upon which He constructed life to operate. As Paul said in Romans, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” (1:20)

In nature we see that only in love, in free giving, is their life while all forms of selfishness result in suffering and death. With every breath we take we freely give away carbon dioxide, but if we selfishly hold it we die. Only in giving is their life. Bodies of water that freely give thrive, but those that won’t flow stagnate and die. This is God’s design for life! This is God’s character of love in action!

God is calling a people to show the perfect harmony that exists between His character of love and the laws of nature & science – the protocols upon which He constructed life to operate. In so doing we expose both dark theories that enslave the world.

When God’s law of love is seen in nature, it reveals that violations are terminal unless the Creator heals. There is no need for God to inflict death on a person who ties a plastic bag over his or her head, why? Because violations of God’s law, the design for life, automatically result in death unless someone intervenes to save. Understanding God’s character of love, His design for life, we realize that God is intervening, through Christ, to heal and to save!

When we see God as revealed in the laws He built life to operate upon, we realize there is no need for Him to execute the wicked, because life cannot exist outside His law. It is just as the Bible says, “The wages of sin is death.” (Rom 6:23) Therefore, we rightly realize there never was a need for God to be appeased or propitiated. Penal substitution stands exposed as a fraud, built on the principles of Imperial Rome’s imposed law.

God’s law in nature proves God is not like a Roman emperor, imposing law and then imposing penalties to punish lawbreakers. No, God instead is seen as our compassionate Savior, intervening to heal our terminal condition, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (Jn 3:16,17)

Likewise, when we see God’s law of love in nature, we realize the survival-of-the-fittest principle is not the engine that drives adaptation and evolutionary advancement, but is Satan’s infection of God’s creation that damages and destroys. We see that every time selfishness rules death ensues, but when selfless love rules life ensues.

Look around you, consider God’s design for life, learn how His methods work, cooperate with Him and stand up to give Him glory, for the hour of His judgment is now!

Have you been served? Have you received your subpoena to testify in God’s behalf? If not, consider yourself served! The only question is, What will you say about God?

 

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Tim Jennings, M.D. Timothy R. Jennings, M.D., is a board-certified psychiatrist, master psychopharmacologist, Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, Fellow of the Southern Psychiatric Association, and an international speaker. He served as president of the Southern and Tennessee Psychiatric Associations and is president and founder of Come and Reason Ministries. Dr. Jennings has authored many books, including The God-Shaped Brain, The God-Shaped Heart, and The Aging Brain.