First to Act

Let's head back to that pre-game discussion about God from the other night.  A man noted the challenge of attempting to believe in something you can't easily see.

"Besides," he added, "how do we know Buddha wasn't the first god?"

The answer to that can be found in history.  Researchers agree the ancient Buddha was alive and teaching about 2,500 years ago.  The roots of Judeo-Christian faith have been around much longer.  Take this example....

Because they had been unfaithful to the Lord, Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem in the fifth year of King Rehoboam. - II Chronicles 12:2

When was Shishak on the throne?  Archeologists who research these things (and know much more about it than we do) believe he was in charge around 925 B.C.  Rehoboam was the successor to King Solomon (I Kings 11:41-43) -- a leader who had several personal encounters with God (I Kings 9:1-2).  So this is a God who predates Buddha by hundreds of years.

But beyond the historical record, there's that matter of faith.  Faith that says....

Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. - Psalm 90:2

How could God be around before there was a world?  Many have asked that question through the centuries.  It's a mystery waiting to be revealed after God sends His Son back to Earth.

My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. - Colossians 2:2-3

Isaiah 55:9 adds God's ways are "higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."  Are you prepared to have faith to trust God to reveal Himself -- at the time and schedule He considers best?