Why is Heaven Silent

[NoOne]

After the tragic event of September 11th, 2001 we often heard the question “Where was God?” or “Why did God allow this to happen?” The believer knows that God is still on His eternal throne, that He is sovereign, and nothing happens apart from His direct or permissive will, but for a season He has withdrawn from this earthly scene. He does indeed work on behalf of His own, and otherwise as well, but He acts covertly and His action is seen only with the eye of faith. Bloody wars take place among the nations, thousands perish from famine, flood, earthquake and storm, but no voice or action is heard from above. In one of Sir Robert Anderson’s books the opening words are: “A silent heaven is the greatest mystery of our existence.”

What is the answer to this mystery? For two thousand years the heavens have been silent and this is strange when we compare it with Old Testament times. God was then dealing with the Hebrew nation and they saw marvelous displays of His person and power. He brought them out of slavery, making a path through the sea, and for forty years He fed them and led them and brought them into the land of promise with mighty victories over all their foes. Isaiah saw the Lord; Daniel fell at His feet; angels walked to and fro in the land; God fought for His people; heaven was not silent.

When Israel is enjoying the favor of God the heavens are open, but when Israel is in disfavor with God the heavens are silent. Between the two testaments, when Israel was being judged for their sins, there was a period of time which is often referred to as “the four hundred silent years.” God spoke His last word through Malachi and then 400 years of silence. This silence was finally broken by the appearance of the angel Gabriel to Zacharias announcing the birth of John the Baptist. Then Gabriel spoke to Mary, telling her of that Holy One which should be born of her, even the Son of God. Later the angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds, announcing the birth of the Christ-child, and from the opened heavens they heard the heavenly host praising God.

Heaven was not silent during the earthly ministry of Christ, when He was presenting Himself to Israel as their Messiah, nor was heaven silent after His resurrection…when Israel was given opportunity to repent. There were miracles, wonders, signs, angelic visitations, jail deliverances, sudden judgments, etc….However….Israel no longer stands as a nation before God. They are set aside for a reason and a season. The reason was their rejection of Christ both in His incarnation and in His resurrection. The season is this present dispensation of the Mystery….

We find a great man of God sitting in the Roman prison, but no angel comes to liberate him. An age of silence has begun. A silent God. A silent heaven. This silence has already lasted two millenniums. The nations rage and we see war, sin, suffering and sorrow on every hand. The people of God oft suffer at the hands of their enemies, and we see the ever-increasing and God-defying masses sinning and sinning and sinning. And yet in the midst of it all, God remains silent.

When God turned away from Israel, that nation through which His earthly purposes are to be realized, He then and there withdrew from this earthly scene. C. H. Mackintosh wrote “So long as there was any ground of hope in connection with Israel, the heavenly mystery was held back; but when earth had been abandoned and Israel set aside, the apostle of the Gentiles…writes to the Church, and opens out all the glorious privileges connected with its place in the heavens.” God has for a season abandoned earth but we are here as His ambassadors in enemy land and we are asked to walk by faith and not by sight. God is allowing man’s day to run its course and is permitting the full development of the mystery of lawlessness. The mystery of iniquity is working. Soon the whole will be leavened. Man’s day will be replaced by the Lord’s Day. Then….

THE SILENCE TO BE BROKEN!

This is promised everywhere in Scripture. The psalmist declared: “Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence!” Just as the silence of the 400 years was broken by His first coming, so the present silence will be broken by His second coming. But before He manifests Himself to the world, He will manifest Himself to His own. This is the bright and blessed hope of the Church, the rapture, and it will be the opening rift in the silent heavens. After the Body of Christ has been removed from the scene God will begin to deal again with Israel and the nations. The silence will be broken and God will speak again, not then in grace, but in wrath. The heavens will be opened, not to pour out blessing, but disaster. The judgments of the Apocalypse will be visited upon the world, when the seals will be broken, the judgment trumpets sounded, and the vials of God’s wrath poured out.

Finally, the heavens will be fully opened and the blessed Lord Jesus Christ will return. The Apostle John saw Him as the rider on a white horse, followed by the heavenly armies, and He wrote: “He hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.” The silence will be broken. The King will return and have His rightful place upon the throne, with all beneath His feet. Every eye shall see Him and the earth will be filled with His glory. And never again will there be silence, for the lines of communication will always be open between heaven and earth, both as to the millennial earth and on into the new earth.

Pastor John LaVier

 

[Israel]

When God turned away from Israel, that nation through which His earthly purposes are to be realized, He then and there withdrew from this earthly scene. C. H. Mackintosh wrote “So long as there was any ground of hope in connection with Israel, the heavenly mystery was held back; but when earth had been abandoned and Israel set aside, the apostle of the Gentiles…writes to the Church, Is the above no more than and opens out all the glorious privileges connected with its place in the heavens.” God has for a season abandoned earth but we are here as His ambassadors in enemy land and we are asked to walk by faith and not by sight. God is allowing man’s day to run its course and is permitting the full development of the mystery of lawlessness. The mystery of iniquity is working. Soon the whole will be leavened. Man’s day will be replaced by the Lord’s Day. Then….

Is the above no more than how to impale the Lord upon a theology?

 

[LittleDrummerBoy]

I think it's an error to presume that since God has not spoken to you about a matter that he has not spoken to others either.

Consider Hurricane Katrina in 2005, hitting New Orleans and nearby areas and accounting for 1200 deaths and $125 billion in damages. Growing up in New Orleans I had lots of family there. I'm from a large, Hispanic family. Most of my uncles and cousins were still living a lifestyle at that time where they were abusing drugs and not saved. Katrina scattered them in different directions and most of my relatives in my mother's generation came to Christ in the aftermath, though most ended up also passing away in the past 15 years. My one uncle who had already been a Christian in 2005 ended up staying with my brother after the storm, and it was through his testimony that my brother made a profession of faith.

At the time, Hurricane Katrina just seemed like a huge disaster. But seeing the impact on my family in the past 15 years, I can look back and see the blessing. There are many other occasions in my life that seemed like disasters at the time, and it seemed like heaven was silent. But over time I came to understand God's purpose.

God is rarely really silent in the New Testament era, but there is a high level of reluctance to proclaim the message of "Repent, or you too will perish" or "Repent and turn to Jesus." Some variation of that message is almost always what God is saying to unbelievers. For believer, the Bible always speaks, "All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose."

Finally, through Scripture, heaven is always speaking. It may not always provide direct answers to the questions at the forefront of our minds, but it is always revealing God's character, words, and will to our hearts. Believe. Trust. Follow. Obey. Jesus.

 

[NoOne]

The message is talking about the undeniable miracles that God preformed when he was still dealing with Israel as a nation to receive her King and they said "We will not have this man to reign over us", Luke 19:14 " Up to the point while God was still giving Israel opportunity to repent we have blind receiving their sight, the lame healed, deaf made to hear, dead being raised, miraculous angelic intervention and so forth. These were all signs to a sign nation, 1 Corinthians 1:22 "For the Jews require a sign"

They had to see a sign in order to believe and they still would not believe even after all the signs that the Lord preformed and also by his Apostles later on.

They had to have signs because they are a sign nation from all the miracles their forefathers saw through Moses and the prophets.

But later on the Lord himself told them "And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, This is an evil generation: they seek a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet."

The nation was given ample opportunity to repent and receive their Messiah but they refused and God's dealing with them as a nation was temporarily set aside to bring in the dispensation of Grace of God given to the Apostle Paul. Romans 11 confirmed all this and it was because God opened a new door to deal with the whole world on an individual basis thought the revelation of the mystery given to the Apostle Paul.

The Apostle Paul preformed all the miracles of healing sick, raising the dead and many others but with the setting aside of Israel these miracles faded away also. Why? Because the sign nation Israel was set aside temporarily in unbelief.

Look at all the miracles preformed up to mid Acts and then afterward they slowly disappear with Israel set aside and the Apostle Paul's ministry coming more into focus.

After the setting aside of Israel instead of healing Timothy he tells him to take a little wine for his stomach 1 Timothy 5:23, "Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities."

Why didn't Paul send one of his special handkerchiefs to Timothy?, Acts 19:11-12 "And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul: So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them."

Why didn't Paul heal Trophimus?, 2 Timothy 4:20 "Erastus abode at Corinth: but Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick."

The reason again is dispensational. Israel has been temporarily set a side and God is dealing with everyone, Jew and Gentile with no distinction through Grace without signs.

Now as the Apostle Paul states in 2 Corinthians 5:7 "For we walk by faith, not by sight."

Another reason is this. God is preparing this Christ rejecting world for the Anti-Christ.

The Apostle Paul tells us this in 2 Thess 2:9 "Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be ****ed who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."

Yes God is Silent as far as the miraculous miracles he did for the nation of Israel that were unquestionable as compared to all the phonies out there today that are deceiving people.

Today he offers salvation by grace through Faith in the greatest miracle in which he saves lost sinners and gives them a Heavenly position in Christ by identifying them in his death, burial and resurrection and making them joint heirs with himself.

Ephesians 1:3-6 "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved."

 

[Israel]

It's interesting to open with:

After the tragic event of September 11th, 2001 we often heard the question “Where was God?” or “Why did God allow this to happen?” The believer knows that God is still on His eternal throne, that He is sovereign, and nothing happens apart from His direct or permissive will, but for a season He has withdrawn from this earthly scene.

And I cannot mention these things without indicting myself of laxness. But, better I be accused of that and whatever other attendant faults might accrue to it, than submit to any implication the Lord is silent.

And so that the air is clear in regards to motive, not that I appear as "defending the Lord's honor" in any matter (who has never asked for, nor needed my help in anything...) let it be abundantly clear I have never had any interest exceeding that than for my own soul.

You may doubt I am the most selfish man in creation. I do not.
Nor any longer have any care to think I can or even care to, show myself otherwise.

I flew from Newark on the evening of Sept 10, 2001. Hurrying back to my relatively new wife and new home in Savannah from a home and job I still maintained in NJ. On the leg from Atlanta (Delta's hub) to Savannah, about a 50 minute flight, I sat on the aisle. Sometime during that leg I looked up the aisle to the front...and wondered..."what am I looking at?" It took a moment to understand...all the instruments and their array was showing I was looking into the cockpit, with its door wide open.

Having lived through the 70's and all the skyjackings, I had this plain thought "I guess no one is concerned about hijackings anymore". I didn't give it a second thought except for a moment's consideration. Not then, anyway.

Later through that night...into the very early hours of Sept. 11 (I'd guess around 4 am) I was awakened...by knowing my wife was awake...and quite troubled. She said "I feel sick"...Being concerned I asked what I might do to help, or get to relieve it. Or what was going on.

"No" she said, with what I found a very troubling inflection and demeanor..."no, not that kinda sick...spiritually sick"...but said as though in the deepest throes of nausea. I'd never been faced with this condition being confessed by another...and it was very bothersome...also cause I was very tired. So, we prayed...me wanting no more than its alleviation...so I could securely go back to sleep. And so we did...me asking periodically "any better?" till at last we drifted off to sleep.

Did I get (or even care at that point about anything beyond) its alleviation? We were awakened later in the morning by her daughter's phone call "turn on the TV".

And none of these matters immediately came to mind at all. Not at all. Like pretty much everyone else we were transfixed by events. But later...

Whenever "later" was, we discussed it. No, she had no particular insight except to say she had never felt that way before. I recalled the thought I had looking into the cockpit..."I guess no one is worried about being sky jacked anymore". But at that time we watched as as the Twin Towers, so grand, so big, so much the outstanding (as much, if not more than, than the Empire State Building) revelation of the NY skyline...cut down with no more than box cutters and a will and plan to do it.

And I was pressed to ask of the Lord, over years, (of whom it seems some may say is given to silence) many things. Of course my own self interest was plain. "did you want to show more Lord?"...and my own spiritual numbness prevented? Was there something for the averting...that a failed and selfish vessel had no care about...only preferring to sleep? Warning? A better warning? (Oh, how grand I think myself...!) God knows...I was just trying to get whatever was troublesome...first to my wife, then to us both..."off our back"...even if it was the Lord, Himself!. Do you doubt I am less than the least of disciples? I do not.

I considered other matters against this which now seemed so signal. Was it just a matter of souls? I can't say I (or we) had any reference to the 2004 Tsunami in which over 200,000 lost their lives. Way more in number. (So to me it wasn't like in Star Wars where a whole planet is destroyed and there is a sensed "disturbance in the force"...due to the number of lost souls, or those about to be). As I said...it has been in intervening years the matter has arisen in questions and questioning.

And in the intervening years...many other things have become quite plain. I've mentioned now, over the years, what I believe I was ultimately being shown. And some would rightly argue so what? Who cares? The scripture already testifies of the disposition of the world. Yes, indeed. But here we are not merely discussing that...but whether the Lord continues to speak. And it may just be...that He is still willing to....but out of necessity to only the very most spiritually dense.

But if I have to "wear that" description...so be it. If I have to take the place of inferior to all who "already know"...so what? I just wanna get into the party by whatever means necessary...even if it means..."come as you really are!". Densest of all. Even seemingly late. (Not thinking for a moment I could ever slide past the velvet rope) If I get seen...yeah...I got no hope....I am entirely glad to slip through on another's...coat tails! ( I hear the music! and it stirs me...)

But even a wretch is given a voice. I testify of the Lord's speaking and showing...not because signs were sought...or even...recognized at all...even when made. Or, are even now rightly and completely discerned. I just can't deny they (for me) have been made. I can't make anyone else believe me...and even my own dear wife is rightly, and even remarkably unimpressed with what I see distilled in this.

Like a ratchet tightening to its next notch...as I have confessed as my "take away" to some...even those who believe themselves prophets, and may well be, (me having no claim) the whole of the world took a change that day. To the wiser who will say "the world is already condemned, plainly"...I can only say "yes, yes it is". But there is a manifest change even the worldly see in the world's change from that day.


Reminded even again as I watched a silly documentary last night about how a grand FBI investigation...once began making front page news, expected to "burst" to even larger headlines...suddenly was placed on page 5 on the day of September 11, 2001, relegated to little more than a small thing in light of what now held everyone's attention...and the agents who once worked on it (The McMillions McDonald's scandal) were pressed to confess to its fading glory..."the whole world changed on that day"...Sept 11th.

Of course every wickedness of worldly ways is revealed to the disciple even long before being plainly manifest. And that which is of antichrist is revealed to the disciple, and then manifest to confirmation in its practice of vain simulations. The full blown surveillance state has awaited general acceptance, and now has it..."for the world's own good". A world full of assent to a thing that less than a generation before, would not be tolerated.

As said, it is plain I have no boast in this, and if anything would come as boast, indictment must surely accompany it. I had only observations and thoughts...but it was my wife who was given to be troubled in spirit. And I would not be sorry at all to learn at this point the necessity of this being made true to me:

For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband?

I am being made readily content to ride any coattails into a thing I know I cannot do for myself...despite all my apparent and previous boastings otherwise. Of my salvation.

Often the testimonies and things spoken of as revelation by some are so easily relegated to 5th page news...while to ourselves our own make headlines. Paul only testified of the things wrought in and through him...but, nevertheless he knew what he'd seen and come to learn. Those who could receive it, no doubt did, but he also knew that was out of his purview to enforce...having no dominion over any man's faith.

But if there be boast of believing Paul, of holding Paul up as singular of any, then surely it would be foolish to be found despising any of his instruction...unless my reasoning is so corrupted beyond any hope. But it might just as surely be it has been shown corrupt by the yet speaking of a stronger voice, one of complete reason. God knows.

But I do not see, nor believe one can even begin to enter into "Let him who speaks speak as the oracles of God" by contradiction.

And if a man would hope to speak in truth among the congregation of God, if he is found speaking "God is silent and remains so", from whom or what then, is he hearing this? Whose testimony does he bear? Or...what's.

Now God forbid I think I have any standing to accuse another, for if I believe:

See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:

I am as equally subject to..."then why do you speak as a fool?"

I have no plea except...I simply cannot help myself.