All the World is God's Stage and We are Mere Actors

There are many dimensions of truth that God deals with us on in the Bible and throughout our lives. I am aware that many of God's people would like to think that there is only one level and that is a simplistic one, but those of Children of God who think in such a simplistic manner have done God, their father, a disservice by such crude notions. And, of course, they have done their faith a disservice as well--they have weakened it greatly. There are as many levels of truth as there are many levels of learning.

For example, the scriptures teach us that "...Whosoever will let him take of the water of life freely." [Rev. 22:17] That particular scripture suggests and infers that we have a choice in coming or not coming to God. And because of that and other scriptures, the minister pleads with errant souls to come to Christ and be saved. And well he should.

But on the other hand, Jesus has explicitly said, you have not chosen me, but I you. [John 15:16-19] And, of course, such a scripture indicates that the coming to God is a doing of God and not some independent notion or goodness of man. Both Paul and Peter also assure us that we were chosen in him before the foundation of the earth. [Eph. 1:4; 1 Pet. 2:9] God is the one who chooses us to come to Him. And no man can or would come to God except he is drawn of God. To come to God is a good thing and that goodness is not in us of ourselves. It is a gift of God; for when God looked down upon man to measure his righteousness/goodness, He declared that there was none righteous/good, no not one! [Psa. 14:2-4]

This is a tragic indictment of mankind, but it is God's indictment, and it is true, and the condition of mankind is getting worse. Except the days are shortened, no human flesh will be saved. But for the elect sake, the days will be shortened.

To the unlearned or one partially learned and to him willing to make a fool of himself to try to devastate the truth of God, he will say that such scriptures cited above show the contradictions in the Bible; hence, the lack of credibility of the Bible as the inerrant word of God. But not withstanding these charges of contradictions and confusion, these are mere complexities of God's word, not contradictions, and only the accuser is confused.

I am often amazed that supposedly learned men will allow, tolerate, even tout the complexities in nature, their fields of study, or even life, but they are frequently ready to come to quick and hasty generalizations about the word of God as some popular notion about the nonexistence of God and the fallacy of the Bible. If life is complex, and is there one who will argue it is not, why can't the Bible be complex as well, especially since it must confront life's complexities? Indeed, it is. So where the skeptic and unbeliever see contradictions, I perceive complexities appropriately adjusted to the complexities of life.

Instead of showing contradictions, Paul was on Mars Hill arguing with the Athenians about the things of God and the reality of God's voice in their own poets' writings; there he stated that God has of one blood made all nations of men. Instead of accepting this truth, it has long ago been dismissed by American Christians,* as the church is still one of the most segregated places in the nation on Sunday mornings and all other times. [Martin Luther King, Jr.] We who call ourselves Christians should remember that when the church was started, it was started with every nation of men in it. [Acts 2:5] Race was not a factor as it is ignorantly so in the USA; for Peter was definitive when he said, the promise is unto you...and as many as the Lord our God shall call. [Acts 2:39] And God told Peter that he should not call unclean those whom He had cleansed. [Acts 10 & 11]

Indeed, there is no real, significant biological distinction between peoples to categorize them by race. And because we have artificially divided God's people saved by grace through such a superficial and meaningless factor as skin color, God will have His say to those who engage in this ignorance and sin.

Paul argues further with the Athenians the idea that God, not man, has set the times and the boundaries of man's habitation on this earth and that we are the offspring of God and in Him we move, live, and have being. [Acts 17:26-28] Paul read from Greek literature and saw and heard God's voice in it because he had read the Psalmist David who said that God's voice is in the language and the mouth of all men and all of nature. [Psa. 19:1-4]

For, whereas Paul had read Psalmist David and saw God in Greek literature, William Shakespeare, as most other Elizabethan writers, had read Paul and voiced the voice of God to parallel his words. Look at what William Shakespeare said in one of his plays, As You Like It:

All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players:

They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts....
[As You Like It--William Shakespeare]

Indeed, all the world is God's stage in which He commands and watches His drama acted out by man. God, of course, has determined the bounds and the conditions of this drama acted out down here. We are mere vessels in the sovereign will of God. Some vessels made to honor and some to dishonor, and each person to the beat and dictates of God. And why should that seem strange to man. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. We are a part of that fullness. We are His people; the sheep of His pasture, and we were made for His pleasure and glory.

Nothing in this world happens without His knowledge and His permission--the hairs of our heads are numbered, a sparrow does not fall to the ground without His knowledge, etc. This is God's stage. He was not caught by surprise when Eve talked with Satan and was convinced that God was the liar not Satan and responded to that lie in such a way that we were thrust into the state of sin mankind is in today. God did not have to bring out plan B as a remedy for this Adamic deviation.

God had already declared the end from the very beginning; He had spoken things that were not as though they were--example: "Let us make man." The "us" referred to God's ministers under the new covenant (Christian ministers), as workers together with him in the creation and recreation of man, as if it were one work.

No, God was not taken aback by Eve's act or Adam's following her into sin. He is God! We are His creation and we are on His stage. Each of us, Shakespeare rightly said, has a role we play. And we play it at His bidding--how is your performance? Are you on script or have you lost your way? Are you improvising and making up lines as you go? Let a man examine himself, Paul declares, to see if he is in the faith.

Do understand the level of truth I speak to you on: The sovereignty of God level. Without God's sovereignty there is no God. If God is God, He has all power and all knowledge; hence, He is sovereign.

This is a marvelous truth that I will pick up next week and develop further. Until then, may the blessings of God be upon you.

-See Part Two of this message: Actors On God's Stage [Part Two]-
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* A breed of Christians who have changed the word of God to suit their convenience. They obey the portions of God's word they desire to obey and dismiss, through flawed rationalizations, that which would reform their thoughts, lifestyles, greed, and desires. These are not Christians at all; they are men and women who live a lie for the glory and pleasure of today, but they will fade as the grass fades and die in their pretense only to meet a God who was never deceived by their pretenses. A God who will surely say, "Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity; I never knew you."