Hi there,
So a little thought for you to consider: when Jesus quotes the OT saying "these people are near to Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me" and "they are blind and deaf, lest they see and hear and turn and they be forgiven" He is not speaking of a specific time or place. Even the most progressive society in the world, can't understand the nature of God's Grace, or find it. It is for the elect alone to marvel, that in Heaven there will be the possibility of seeing and hearing, but yet it will be better to be as one who does not see or hear, for then one will be able to stand before the Lord, when He comes!
This is not only a Heavenly blindness or deafness, even then: during the reign of Christ for a thousand years, many will be blind and deaf! As Jesus said the kingdom of Heaven is within. The world does not comprehend the things of God, even when it is right in front of them - it can be the world over, and the world still will not know. That is why the Bible talks with urgency that the Kingdom of God is at hand - we must be ready to receive it, while the Day is still above us! Only if we have kept our lamps burning, will we be able to enter in, to what the Lord has prepared.
Even Judgment Day may come upon men at the time of the Law and yet they will still not understand, that the law applies to them. This is what the bible is talking about when it says Jesus said "and they will cry out mountains fall on us, hills cover us!" they will be prisoners of their own ignorance and in terrified fear will beg to be exonerated of what it is they think is the Will of God, and Judgment in the same breath. Their ignorance then, will abound - "and if those days were not shortened, no flesh would survive" - in other words ignorance would devour us all, if it were not that the Lord made blindness and deafness tangible, to the flesh, by which it may escape the way of its iniquity.
So take heart, you that see and you that hear - for kings and prophets longed to see what you see and to hear what you hear and did not see it and did not hear it (Jesus, from memory)!
So a little thought for you to consider: when Jesus quotes the OT saying "these people are near to Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me" and "they are blind and deaf, lest they see and hear and turn and they be forgiven" He is not speaking of a specific time or place. Even the most progressive society in the world, can't understand the nature of God's Grace, or find it. It is for the elect alone to marvel, that in Heaven there will be the possibility of seeing and hearing, but yet it will be better to be as one who does not see or hear, for then one will be able to stand before the Lord, when He comes!
This is not only a Heavenly blindness or deafness, even then: during the reign of Christ for a thousand years, many will be blind and deaf! As Jesus said the kingdom of Heaven is within. The world does not comprehend the things of God, even when it is right in front of them - it can be the world over, and the world still will not know. That is why the Bible talks with urgency that the Kingdom of God is at hand - we must be ready to receive it, while the Day is still above us! Only if we have kept our lamps burning, will we be able to enter in, to what the Lord has prepared.
Even Judgment Day may come upon men at the time of the Law and yet they will still not understand, that the law applies to them. This is what the bible is talking about when it says Jesus said "and they will cry out mountains fall on us, hills cover us!" they will be prisoners of their own ignorance and in terrified fear will beg to be exonerated of what it is they think is the Will of God, and Judgment in the same breath. Their ignorance then, will abound - "and if those days were not shortened, no flesh would survive" - in other words ignorance would devour us all, if it were not that the Lord made blindness and deafness tangible, to the flesh, by which it may escape the way of its iniquity.
So take heart, you that see and you that hear - for kings and prophets longed to see what you see and to hear what you hear and did not see it and did not hear it (Jesus, from memory)!
