{"id":881,"date":"2016-07-01T16:05:46","date_gmt":"2016-07-01T20:05:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/?p=881"},"modified":"2016-07-01T16:05:46","modified_gmt":"2016-07-01T20:05:46","slug":"seeing-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2016\/07\/seeing-god.html","title":{"rendered":"Seeing God"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the latest issue of Relevant magazine, Jesse Carey interviews the writer Chuck Klosterman.<\/p>\n

In the interview, the pop culture author seems pretty sure that he has a handle on truth, at least in the way individuals view their truth.<\/p>\n

At one point, he makes an interesting statement regarding faith:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe central component of faith is the belief and the acceptance of something that inherently can\u2019t be proven. It would obviously be very easy to be a religious person if it was easy to physically see God. Faith demands that there is an element of irrationality that you\u2019re believing something that can\u2019t be proven.\u201d<\/p>\n

Actually, some of the apostles saw Jesus with their own eyes and did not believe. So even Klosterman\u2019s dogma is not entirely\u2026true.<\/p>\n

Yet his contention that God or, say, the Bible can\u2019t be proven is not true, either. I\u2019ve heard this many times over the years, but in fact, you can prove the existence of God.<\/p>\n

I mean, the God of the Bible.
\n

\"The<\/a>
The Israeli community of Ariel, home to Israeli Jews.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

The great fly in the ointment for thinkers like Klosterman is the Bible\u2019s predictive prophecy. <\/p>\n

Take a remarkable prophecy from Genesis 49:10\u2014<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shiloh, another name for Messiah, refers to Jesus Christ. And this specific prophecy was fulfilled in astonishing detail.<\/p>\n

Judah, a son of Jacob, was designated as the one through whom the Messiah\u2019s lineage would run. A succession of great leaders\u2014Moses, Joshua, Samuel and others\u2014were from various other tribes.<\/p>\n

Yet 600 years after the prophecy, David, from the tribe of Judah, emerged and it was through his line that Jesus came much later.<\/p>\n

The Bible is filled with many such examples of predictive prophecy.<\/p>\n

But, you say, an anonymous scribe could have manipulated that language, or some other method might have been used to make it appear as a prophecy when in fact it was not. I\u2019ve heard this, too.<\/p>\n

Explain, then, the hundreds of prophecies looking ahead to a final ingathering of Jewish exiles into their homeland. Take any of them, from Jeremiah, Isaiah, Amos, etc., and explain the appearance of Jewish immigrants to Palestine, beginning in the 19th century? Today we have a sovereign nation, Israel, which fulfills those prophecies.<\/p>\n

Chuck Klosterman and others like him are not always wrong. But they are always wrong when claiming that the existence of the Creator God cannot be proven.<\/p>\n

Seeing prophecy fulfilled is seeing God physically.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the latest issue of Relevant magazine, Jesse Carey interviews the writer Chuck Klosterman. In the interview, the pop culture author seems pretty sure that he has a handle on truth, at least in the way individuals view their truth. At one point, he makes an interesting statement regarding faith: \u201cThe central component of faith…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":392,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,15,5,19,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-prophecy","category-christianity","category-holy-land","category-israel","category-the-middle-east"],"yoast_head":"\nSeeing God - Is it the End of the World?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Seeing God - Is it the End of the World?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the latest issue of Relevant magazine, Jesse Carey interviews the writer Chuck Klosterman. In the interview, the pop culture author seems pretty sure that he has a handle on truth, at least in the way individuals view their truth. At one point, he makes an interesting statement regarding faith: \u201cThe central component of faith…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2016\/07\/seeing-god.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Is it the End of the World?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-07-01T20:05:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/files\/2016\/07\/Ariel-300x200.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jim Fletcher\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Seeing God - Is it the End of the World?","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Seeing God - Is it the End of the World?","og_description":"In the latest issue of Relevant magazine, Jesse Carey interviews the writer Chuck Klosterman. In the interview, the pop culture author seems pretty sure that he has a handle on truth, at least in the way individuals view their truth. At one point, he makes an interesting statement regarding faith: \u201cThe central component of faith…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2016\/07\/seeing-god.html","og_site_name":"Is it the End of the World?","article_published_time":"2016-07-01T20:05:46+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/files\/2016\/07\/Ariel-300x200.jpg"}],"author":"Jim Fletcher","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2016\/07\/seeing-god.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2016\/07\/seeing-god.html","name":"Seeing God - Is it the End of the World?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2016\/07\/seeing-god.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2016\/07\/seeing-god.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/files\/2016\/07\/Ariel-300x200.jpg","datePublished":"2016-07-01T20:05:46+00:00","dateModified":"2016-07-01T20:05:46+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/#\/schema\/person\/e4febb70ba13f920c6255f1d7aaf0c96"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2016\/07\/seeing-god.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2016\/07\/seeing-god.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2016\/07\/seeing-god.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/files\/2016\/07\/Ariel-300x200.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/files\/2016\/07\/Ariel-300x200.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2016\/07\/seeing-god.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Seeing God"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/","name":"Is it the End of the World?","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Jim Fletcher","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/#\/schema\/person\/e4febb70ba13f920c6255f1d7aaf0c96","name":"Jim Fletcher","description":"Blogger and researcher Jim Fletcher has worked in the book publishing industry for 15 years, and is now director of the apologetics group Prophecy Matters. His new book, \"Truth Wins,\" provides important analysis of Rob Bell and his Emergent friends.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/author\/jfletcher"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/392"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=881"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":889,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881\/revisions\/889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}