The Pursuit of Happiness – Part 5 – Genesis to Revelations

Part 5 - Genesis to Revelations

It is not necessary to have or read the Bible to get to know God and communicate with Him.

Millions of people have found Him by searching for Him and He is always ready to reveal and even partially expose himself to those who search for Him, whatever the form or shape of that path may be.

However, if we have never read the Bible from beginning to end, we have missed the Greatest Love Story ever told.

Most people who have Bibles have never read it from beginning to end, but only read some verses or even chapters here and there in a haphazard way. That is like reading a novel starting at page seventy eight and then jumping to page twenty one and continuing in that fashion. They bereave themselves of the best opportunity they have of developing their faith in a big way.

Faith comes in the first place from hearing or reading the Word of God.

The Bible may have pieces where there are wars and destruction, murder and grief, desolation and hate, persecution and revenge, but that is the stuff reality is made of. There is no fiction in it.

And … there are much more than war and peace. There is philosophy and wisdom, parables and allegories, examples and teachings, miracles and healing. It is a one stop source where we can get everything we need for free  … and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

You will find, as I did, that one cannot judge the Bible. The Bible judges us, as it judged millions before us, and convinces us of sin and righteousness, and a lot more! In it, God reveals Himself and tells us what he expects of us, if we wish to follow Him.

And above all, it is sealed with the blood of Him who wrote it.

At its least it tells of a Paradise which was entrusted to the dominion of Man, of a Paradise lost by Satan swindling it from Adam, because he did not dress and keep it, and of that Paradise regained by paying a dear and treasured ransom for it.

The ultimate purpose of the Bible is to inspire us to become part of the Bride Of Christ, and this is set out with so much respect, admiration and love in Ps. 45:

To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim, for the sons of Korah, Maschil, A Song of loves. My heart is inditing a good matter: I speak of the things which I have made touching the king: my tongue is the pen of a ready writer. 

Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into thy lips: therefore God hath blessed thee for ever. 

Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty. 

And in thy majesty ride prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness; and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things. 

When I set off on my journey to read the best of books ever written, I was very sceptical, as I always am, because I only wish to be inspired by the truth, basic human values and basic facts, so my journey to faith was a very long, difficult and arduous one, and for sure an intellectual and scientific one, based on my scientific and engineering training over many years.

When I started out, I made a compact with God. The compact was simple. I said to God that, if what I read, can be substantiated by rigorous scientific and historic fact, then I will serve Him in whatever capacity He wants me to be, as His servant. I was prepared to fill any vacancy - so to speak.

I read and studied the Bible in detail for more than a year and from Genesis to Revelations.

What I did know and think at that stage, was that God had a way of sending witnesses to the ends of the earth, to tell mankind of His love and affection, of His righteousness and grace, and of His peace and forgiveness.

At first I was somewhat reluctant to expose myself or make myself vulnerable to whatever goes, but I fortunately knew very well that there was no way I could succeed with an inferior offer or make a half-hearted effort. I was to be total commitment or none at all.

When I came to the end of the Bible, I told God that I now need to verify these facts, as it might be the fiction of someone’s mind, even God's mind.

He referred me to two main sources. The one was the prophecies in the Old Testament of the Messiah, and the other was the Dead Sea Scrolls. Although I read the Bible from beginning to end, I did not understand the prophecies contained therein.

After I made a study of the prophecies in Bible books, like Isaiah and the Psalms, and compared it with the story in the New Testament, I found at least a hundred sure outcomes of those prophecies. There are many more.

You may wish to read my article on the one hundred fulfilled prophecies here:

https://pkodendaal.blogspot.com/2012/01/life-in-afternoon-part-8-search-begins.html

All that was left now for me, was to establish whether the Old Testament was written before the New Testament, and that I found in the Dead Sea Scrolls. For instance, the book of Isaiah - the richest source of prophecies relating to the Messiah, which was discovered amongst the Dead Sea Scrolls, and dated by scientists as being written on or before the fifth century BC. What was astonishing for me was that the scroll was the same book, almost word for word, as we have it in the Bible today, except for not more than a handful of words which are different, but have the same meaning.

When I read that, I closed my Bible during this last discovery and said: OK, God, I am now ready to serve you whatever it takes, according to our compact. And it has been, to this day, a wonderful, difficult, exhilarating and satisfying journey and will be forever, I pray.

In the process I have learned how to make the transition from being His servant to being His friend during a Damascus moment on Paradise Island in the Mozambique Archipelago, when God visited me, like He visited Adam in the ‘cool of the day’.

You may read my experience here:

https://pkodendaal.blogspot.com/2012/01/life-in-afternoon-part-9-friendship-and.html (the last part from ‘What a friend’)

What a revelation that was in my life!

Today I have that peace and happiness which transcends understanding.  And that is why I can say with full conviction that I am the happiest man in the universe.

Next time: Part 6 – Striking up a conversation with God