Unveiled Glory:
the Revelation of Christ
the Revelation of Christ
Upon finishing a first read of the
entire Bible cover to cover over the course of the three years ending in my 25th,
I paused to take note of what I had learned.
Regrettably, it had simply reinforced what I had already discovered from
my previous quarter century of study while attending church – namely that the
Bible contains many seemingly conflicting statements regarding the nature of
God and the bounds of his patience towards his rebellious creation. Accompanying each favorable promise on God’s
part was the inevitable disclaimer starting with “but if” and followed
inevitably by the list of conditions which clearly no honest man could ever
claim to uphold.
The Biblical narrative had left me
quite underwhelmed with the image of such an inadequate God contained
therein. And in spite of most Christian
apologist’s claims to the contrary, the New Testament really did not appear to
provide much of an improvement over the Old when it came to the revelation of a
more compassionate Deity. It was no
wonder that even “Gospel” sermons had always left me squirming, as the preacher
never failed to dig up at least one verse somewhere in the Bible to counteract
the previously quoted assurance of irreversible salvation, thereby thwarting
any possibility that I should dare exit the pew with any real confidence in the
sufficiency of God’s love for me.
In spite of all such teaching to
the contrary, my personal intuition of what must be the nature of the true God
had by that time coalesced into a simple trust in His unconditional love. Having tangibly experienced an ample dose of
this love from my parents and friends and from instruction in good psychology,
I knew first hand of its reality and of its indispensable place in the
nurturing of the human soul. And once
tasted, no counterfeit would do, no matter what kind of false authority figure
was claimed to have endorsed it. While
the true God may not have left any reliable written account of his character, it
was nonetheless evident in my experience.
Still I hoped that a clearer record
might be found, some kind of external objective manifestation to verify my
innate personal inspiration. And then it
arrived, appearing in the form of an extraordinary little book entitled
“Unveiled glory”, written by the fairly well known English author, Hannah
Hurnard. Through the things she
experienced on the mission field in Israel, accompanied by much internal mental
anguish and heartfelt questioning, she came to see that the Incarnation of God
in Jesus Christ was not so much done as a requirement for our salvation, but
rather to once and for all remove the veil from our eyes as to who God really is. And what we behold is One that will stop at
nothing to redeem the entire fallen creation.
And it was at the closing seconds of that incarnation when Jesus declared
on the Cross “It is finished”. The
tangible revelation of His immeasurable love for us had been delivered. The veil had been torn from within and
without. Thus the title, “Unveiled
Glory”.
Upon viewing the life of Christ
through this glory-ous lens, it dawned on me that the living God I had come to
know existentially was in fact one in the same as the God of the Biblical
record. A clear image of God was
thereby etched into my mind’s eye which matched precisely with what had already
been formed in my Spirit. And lo and behold
the Bible came alive to me in a way I never dreamed possible. Not only was its message more profound than
anything I had ever read of other religions, but it was really the only
description of a God that actually put his money where his mouth is within the
very real timeline of history by becoming fully immersed in the messy creative
process that he himself had initiated here on planet earth. At long last, what was presented to my most
grateful awareness was an image of my Creator that appeared not only worthy of
my worship but for which the love of my heart, mind, and soul effortlessly
poured forth.
What follows are the highlights of
this spiritual awakening as presented in the pages of Hannah’s book. The entire text (~ 80 pages) of this out of
print work has recently been transcribed to a PDF file and will soon appear on
a website I have yet to create. Until
that time, for anyone interested in receiving a copy, I would be happy to send
it by email.
Now just one more thing before we
get started. Soon after reading her book
and having unsuccessfully contacted the publisher in England to obtain more
copies, I was fortunate to have been given the opportunity to meet with Hannah
and stay overnight in a home where she had come to speak to those interested in
her writings while on a rare visit to the United States. She was a sweet soft spoken lady with a
sincere dedication to the God to whom she had dedicated her whole life’s work
on the mission field. When I arrived at
the meeting place I was quite surprised to find something less than a
standing-room-only crowd of those who had come to enjoy the words of this
prolific writer. No, there were just two
people seated there in the living room of her friend’s home, a mother and son.
Though at first stunned by the lack
of interest in meeting this popular Christian author (check out her numerous
other works on Amazon), I quickly remembered that such has always been the
general ambivalence to matters unconditional.
Of the three of us who had come to listen to her speak, only I had been
exposed to “Unveiled Glory”, the pinnacle of her writings by far, one of her
necessarily self published books of “heresy” which no publisher in America
would touch.
The book traces the story of the
natural unfolding of her own Biblical understanding through the very disturbing
experiences she encountered on the mission fields of the Holy Land. Violence between the British soldiers and
the Muslim population was a continuous reality of that environment during the
years before Israel became a nation in 1948.
It was in this volatile setting that her spiritual journey on several
occasions had been steered away from a longstanding attachment to traditional doctrines
now found inadequate to the task at hand.
She was compelled to ask the
tough questions raised by the horrors set before her. Fearing that even their asking may be
“heretical”, she knew they must be addressed head on without delay. In each case she overcame her fear of
righteous admonishment through an honest plea for a better understanding from
the Lord of Love, as she often referred to Him.
This was all so reminiscent of my
own unresolved personal struggles with these same Biblical doctrines. But here at last, with the turn of each page
of Hannah’s book, a growing sense of excitement and anticipation was building,
soon to break forth into sheer delight as it became ever so clear to me that
the Holy Book of my youth not only contained
a detailed description of the God I had come to know, but that this was its
central thesis. The buried treasure of
historical confirmation which I had hoped to find had been sitting hidden in
plain sight right there in my own backyard all along.
Throughout her striving with all
these controversial spiritual topics it had been her steadfast rule not to ignore scriptures which did not
seem to fit the image of God for which her heart longed to embrace. Her belief in the Bible as the absolute
inerrant Word of God was never in question.
Instead of selecting one set of verses over another when there appeared
to be conflicting messages, she would wait upon the Spirit to reveal the higher
meaning which would allow the seeming contradictory Biblical messages to be
resolved into one harmonious principle.
While this insistence on Biblical inerrancy was certainly not in line
with my own perspective, it did provide an extra level of confirmation for my
personal beliefs when Hannah was able to find complete agreement between them
and the totality of the Scriptures.
Her book is broken down into just
five chapters, each one dealing with a single aspect of the life of Christ as
it served to unveil some crucial but heretofore hidden attribute of the
Father’s character. Chronologically the
events in Christ’s life are presented in reverse order to their actual
occurrence. So the first topic is the
“Veil over the Glory of Christ’s Resurrection Victory”, followed by the “Glory
Unveiled by the Resurrection”, then “The Glory Unveiled by the Descent into
Hell”, the “Glory Unveiled by the Cross”, and finally the “Glory Unveiled by
the Incarnation”.
A brief discussion of the major
themes in each chapter is given below.
In the first chapter she relates
various incidences involving real live suffering people in non-Christian
surroundings which caused her to question the validity of the Biblical teaching
concerning their apparent destiny in eternal damnation. These were people who had grown up in a
literal “Hell on earth” in some of the darkest pits of despair imaginable and
who were either unfortunate enough to never have heard the Gospel or even once
having heard it had been preconditioned to reject it either through fear of
reprisal from their “friends” or family, or were otherwise incapable of
perceiving its value.
After providing graphic
descriptions of these real life encounters and the resulting intense struggles
between what she knew in her heart versus the apparent Word of God, the end of
chapter poem sums up her joyous breakthrough after having made peace between
the living God within and the Biblical God without. Here is that poem copied in full:
The cry of all distorted things!
Why hast Thou made us thus
To bear the anguish that life brings? –
Why didst Thou not love us?
So marred – that God Himself must weep,
Fit only for the rubbish heap.
The cry of every breaking heart,
Why were we born for this?
Anguish alone is made our part
And nothing of earth’s bliss.
Why didst Thou give us human birth
To live as sinners here on earth?
The cry of each despairing mind
Goes up before the Throne;
Behold us, God! or art Thou blind?
Can we be blamed alone?
If Thou be there, then answer us,
Why make us? or why
make us thus?
And Love’s Voice answers from a cross,
I BEAR it all with you;
I share with you in all your loss,
I will make all things new.
None suffer in their sin alone,
I made – I bear – and I atone.
What an exhilarating expression of
God’s unfailing love. If I had heard no further
description of His heart towards His children than the last six lines of her
prose, I believe that alone may prove sufficient to carry me through life’s
many challenges with a sense of profound worship.
In the second chapter, covering
the act of Resurrection, she points out that Christ’s body (representing all of
mankind) was not allowed to remain in the grave but rather all members were restored to perfection, every part of that body fulfilling its God-ordained purpose in
eternity. Once again, the poem at the
end of the second chapter provides a clear summary of the content which
precedes it:
Now is Christ risen from the dead!
Firstfruits of all the Race;
No more is Adam Mankind’s head,
But Christ doth take that place.
“In Adam” Mankind died in pain,
“In Christ shall all men live again!
Let Christ be preached that He arose!
Triumphant over sin,
His victory tell! Let
none suppose
That death and Evil win.
No single member of our Race
But shall be quickened by His grace!
Let Christ be preached as RISEN LORD,
The Head of all Mankind;
In Him this fallen Race, restored,
New life and health shall find.
Three days and nights the Grave may boast
Then burst from thence Christ’s conquering host.
Yes, He shall reign – till every knee
Most willingly shall bow,
His enemies shall cease to be,
All men their love avow;
And joyful worship be outpoured
To Christ their crowned and chosen Lord.
Where is thy victory, O grave?
O death, where is thy sting?
The Son of Man doth all men save,
He shall be crowned as King.
All men from love
of sin be won
This is the triumph
of God’s Son.
In chapter three, the Descent into
Hell, she takes a fresh look at a passage which is ironically most often used
to reinforce the mandate that the gulf between Heaven and Hell is fixed forever
so that no one may pass from one state to the other. The story in question is that of the Rich Man
& Lazarus. Here she demonstrates how
a more careful study of this tale shows Jesus to have chosen his words carefully
in describing the redeeming power of receiving even just a glimpse of
Heaven-sent Gospel while being seemingly stuck without hope in a self made
Hell.
Further evidence of this principle
is observed in Christ’s actions immediately following his own experience of
feeling totally forsaken by the Father on the cross. It was at that very moment that he descended
into Hell, not for his own sins but to demonstrate for us in time what God is
doing continuously in His ever
effective outreach to “…preach to the Spirits in prison” in order to “lead
captivity captive” (I Peter 3:18-19 & Ephesians 4:8-10 NIV). She points out here that Christ has been
given the keys to death and Hell for the purpose of freeing those found captive
there (not as I recall a preacher to have once claimed, “to visit those in Hell
in order to inform them that their condition was well deserved and hopelessly
eternal”), and then to use those keys one last time to lock those gates closed
before tossing both Death and Hell into the Lake of Fire.
The next chapter covering the Cross,
I found to be the biggest eye opener of them all. I had always imagined that, while the
suffering which Christ had experienced on the cross and during the days leading
up to it was immense, it still seemed to me almost insignificant in duration at
least, if not intensity as well, compared to what millions of innocent children
suffer for their entire wretched lifetime on earth through no fault of their
own, not to mention the countless examples of prolonged suffering on the part
of so many of God’s quasi-innocent adult “children”.
How sobering and frightfully
enlightening it was to consider that perhaps Christ’s suffering on earth was a
mere window into what God has not only experienced from the beginning of time until
now, but which He will endure without pause until the end of time when all
suffering in all of creation shall cease.
If for a moment the reader would consider the implications of Christ
taking on the role of the Head of the Body (traditionally limited in concept to
“the Church”, but now seen absolutely expanded to include all of Mankind) then
the extent of his suffering is revealed to be of infinitely greater scope and
magnitude than ever imagined. While we are allowed to suffer here and there
over the course of one lifetime, He
as the Head is fully conscious of every pain of every person everywhere and
every-when. (Note: this is precisely
what Angie Fenimore learned in her life-after-suicide encounter with Christ
described in her book: “Beyond the Darkness”)
Thus it is immersed within the
sinful state of all of mankind that our God is found to be continually
crucified and thus constantly bearing the sins of the whole world, having been
“…slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8 KJV) Now that speaks of suffering on a cosmic
scale by a God thus proven eminently worthy of our trust. With Job I wholeheartedly proclaim… “though
he slay me, yet will I trust in Him”.
For he certainly would not needlessly prolong in anyone the suffering in
which he intimately participates.
While this concept of a God of all
pervasive participation in our grief may appear repulsive or degrading to God’s
image to some readers, I would suggest that an image less tarnished by the
effects of a fallen creation may appear coldly aloof to those living a literal
hell on earth. For myself it has the
effect of putting to rest any indignation I may experience when wondering how a
loving God would “let that happen to innocent children” when he has the power
to stop it – a legitimate charge so often railed at the Creator.
It is reminiscent of the scene in
the movie “The Shack” when Mac accuses God the Father of not being there with
his daughter in her greatest moment of need, to which God responds by revealing
the nail wounds on his wrists, patiently explaining with heavy heart that he
was there all along.
Hannah then goes on to relate a
very powerful expression of this same sentiment through the work of an
anonymous artist who has captured this same “vision” of God with great clarity. She writes:
“I have read that there is a
picture in one of the art galleries in Europe which depicts the expulsion of
Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. In
that picture, Eden lies just behind them and an angel with a flaming sword guards
the gate against their return. Before
them stretches a waste of briars and thorns.
But Adam and Eve are not pictured as looking back with sorrowful longing
towards Eden, nor are they looking with shrinking fear at the wilderness before
them. The artist has depicted them as
looking up towards heaven, awestruck, and overwhelmed with horror at what they
see, for a great cross has appeared in the heavens above them, and the One Whom
they had known and worshipped in the Garden of Eden, is now nailed upon that
cross.”
Such an iconic image. That says it all!
When I read those words it
literally hurled me over the brink. I
was left with the unmistakable conclusion that the Bible really is the best
written account of our Heavenly Father’s absolutely irrevocable love for all of
His creation. For not only does He
refuse to leave our souls in Hell as the Psalmist proclaims, but He is
positively committed to suffering there at our side for as long as we remain in
that state, whether through our own stubborn will or in utter helplessness. At last a Deity that leads by example, a God
who willingly accepts ultimate responsibility as the omnipotent Create-or
rather than resting it squarely on the shoulders of his clearly impotent create-ed. (see future Blog post: “Responsibility &
Glory: HIS vs ours”)
For me personally, that was the
pinnacle of her story. From that point
on I would naturally embrace a Christian identity, echoing Peter’s response to
Jesus check on his loyalty… “Lord, to whom shall we go? You
have the words of eternal life. 69 We
have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”
The remainder of the book builds on
this same theme of the suffering God, thus making better sense of several other
Biblical concepts which had heretofore remained obscure. First there is the Sacrament of the Lord’s
Supper. I had never really understood
why the practice of endlessly repeating that event had been given such
prominent focus within the liturgy of the Church, albeit at Jesus’ request. It always seemed to emphasize the whole “satisfying
Justice” aspect of his death that just left me uninspired. So it’s intended impact just didn’t penetrate
my understanding until I looked at it from this new perspective.
Traditional teaching would lead us
to believe that Christ’s act of dying on the cross was needed to satisfy
justice as though God were not free to bring man to redemption without first
paying homage at its throne - as though Justice and Love were on an equal
footing, or worse yet that the requirement for justice reigns just a wee bit
higher. While I agree it was essential for us to witness the length
without measure that God would go to redeem his children, I would ardently
contend that God’s sovereign hand was not bound by any such “legal”
requirement. Rather God’s answer to
Christ’s bloody cry of abandonment was that in fact there is no other way to
break the bonds of sin upon mankind other than to actively demonstrate that there is nothing we can do (nor fail to
do) that could alter his eterenal love for us all… and sometimes words just
don’t cut it.
Hannah suggested that when Jesus
implored us to “Do this in remembrance of me” and spoke of the bread of His
broken body and the wine of His blood flowing forth from the wounds, he may
have once again been opening up a window to heaven through which we could
witness the ongoing drama of his Father’s suffering.
Could it be that he was in effect
asking us to solemnly remember that His blood will continue to flow as long as
the Body of Mankind remains broken into pieces in need of reconciliation both
to each other and to their Father in Heaven.
The message here is that he remains immanent in the Body of Mankind and
however we treat our brother we are literally treating him in the same manner
at the same time… “Inasmuch as you have done it unto the least of these…”
(Matthew 25:35-40 KJV) If we bleed, He
bleeds.
Now there is a message that touches
my soul, and I often remember it when I “sup”.
And once again a chapter ending
poem sums it up as follows:
Love
is the Lord! He hears each cry,
His
gentleness is great,
No
wounded heart will He pass by,
Nor
leave it desolate.
For
in His love he stoops to be
At
ONE in all our misery.
Love
is the Lord! Love casts out fear;
He
breaketh all sin’s chains,
The
sighs of sin-sick hearts He hears
And
feeleth all their pains.
There
is no wrong that men can do,
But
God’s own Lamb must suffer too.
O
understand it if you can,
(Tis
Love Himself Who pleads)
Whene’er
you wound a son of man
The
Son of God still bleeds.
And
not till sin is fully slain
Can
God’s own heart be healed of pain.
At this point in her spiritual
journey, having been given such an immense dose of soul stretching Grace, there
still remained a basic question that many will have when exposed to this new
understanding of God’s plan. It has to
do with what may be termed the “Missionary Motive” or the “Great Commission”
…“to go into all the world and preach the gospel”. It was really only in anticipation of her
fellow missionary colleague’s objection to her new found Gospel understanding
that she posed the question to herself -- “If all will eventually come to Christ
anyways”, she could hear them saying, “then why put out the effort required in
reaching out to those outside the fold?”
The answer to this objection came
easily to her for it was a subject close to her heart – Why go? … primarily for two reasons. First of all, as Paul explains, “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ
and gave us the ministry of
reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18 NIV). We are God’s ambassadors of love to the whole
world. Secondly, we do so out of our love
of Christ, because it is only when the Gospel has been spread into the hearts
of every last individual within his Body, forming an everlasting bond of love
between us all, that He will allow Himself to come down from the Cross.
Here I must insert a comment from
personal experience. With all of God’s
“commands” such as that contained in the “Great Commission”, the proper
response will flow quite naturally from those who have been exposed to the
unadulterated Good News known as Gospel.
It no longer takes effort on the part of the responder. In fact it would take greater effort to try
to stop the flow of love from one struck by His present-s.
Last but not least, consider what
God would have us learn of Him from the advent of the Incarnation itself? Jesus sums up the purpose of his earthly life
this way: “I came into this world to
reveal the truth” (John 18:37 KJV) … and “Anyone who has seen me has seen the
Father…” (John 14:9 NIV) “If you really
know me, you will know my Father as well.
From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” (John 14:6-8 NIV) And Paul points out that: “The Son is the
image of the invisible God…” (Colossians 1:15 NIV) And who is God? … “Whoever does not love does
not know God, because God is Love” (I John 4:8 NIV)
So, there you have it. God
is Love!
Unveiled in
Christ
Conveyed in
Spirit
“Love…bears all things, believes
all things, hopes all things, endures all things” and “Love never fails…” (I Corinthians 13:7,8 NKJV)
__________________________________________________________________
P.S… As a prologue, Hannah provides
some further support for her new found understanding of the Biblical message by
addressing the common misconception that the doctrine of eternal Hell was
unanimously embraced by the early leadership of the Church. Ample evidence exists in written documents
from the first 400 years of the pre-Constantine Church, that there were many
leaders who believed Hell to be a temporary place of teaching, one of “of last
resort”, used for the final uprooting of the disease of sin.
Hannah includes but a few quotes
from these early leaders of which I will pass on to you a couple of samples for
your consideration:
Clement
of Alexandria – “He saves all universally, but some are converted by
punishment, others by voluntary submission.”
Jerome
– “The Lord descended to the place of torment and punishment in which was the
rich man, in order to liberate the prisoners.”
“All God’s enemies shall perish – not that they shall cease to exist,
but that they shall cease to be enemies”
