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AN HOUR LATER, after his colleague
departed, Dr. Rogers sat at his desk
rubbing his eyes. Paula walked in, her Bible in
her right hand, an index finger poked between
the pages.
"Ah, Jacobs, there you are. How goes
the
battle? I hope the little buggers didn't chase you
off in search of a career counselor."
She smiled. "I have an answer."
"I'm glad for you," he said.
"I hope you find a
question to go along with it."
"No, no, Sir. An answer to your
question-- the
one you posed at lunch." She flipped open the
Bible to where her finger was, and read: ‘Behold,
a sower went forth to sow; And when he
sowed, some seeds fell by the way side...
Some fell upon stony places...And some fell
among thorns...But other fell into good
ground, and brought forth fruit’ (Matt. 13:3-9).
She looked at Rogers, her face was lit up
again. "Sir, I overheard you say 'net gain,' to
your colleague. It brought to mind this parable.
The seed mentioned here is the Gospel, God's
plan of salvation. The four different grounds
represent four types of hearts. Three of those
hearts ultimately reject the gospel. Only one of
the four is a receptive heart--the ‘good
ground’
responds to the gospel message, ‘and brought
forth fruit[.]’ As the gospel is preached, only a
relative few from each generation get saved,
they willingly repent and trust Christ as their
Lord and Saviour."
Rogers stared at her.
"Don't you see? Only a small
percentage from
each generation actually gets saved. So, just as
it takes several generations of fruit flies to
accumulate a desired amount of preferred flies,
it takes many generations of human beings to
produce enough saved people to fill Heaven.
Thus, God allows many generations to come and
go."
Rogers looked at Paula as if having gained
another daughter. He was proud of her. "I
must
say, Jacobs, I'm impressed by your resolve. You
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could have easily folded, convinced that your
dilemma had no solution. You certainly have
promise, but there is one small point you
overlooked."
He smiled, ready to strike her out again. "Your
argument still makes God uncompassionate."
"How so, Sir?" She kept her
composure.
"To use your own analogy, my intent in
breeding the flies is solely to gain the ones I
want. I then, unmercifully, get rid of the files I
don't want. What you're saying is that God is
breeding billions of souls, merely to yield Himself
a few million. His compassion toward us is no
better than what I display toward fruit flies.
Maybe you better work on it a little more."
His smile was now bigger than ever.
Paula didn't sway--she didn't even blink.
"There's no need to, Sir. Your counter-
argument is flawed. Your flies have no choice in
the matter--we, however, do. God gives us a
choice. We can choose not to be one of those
three bad grounds. We can repent, opening our
hearts to the gospel. You can't blame God. The
choice is your's. You can choose to repent."
The doctor's smile slowly disappeared.
THE QUESTION as to when Jesus Christ
will return has long been debated. Many
throughout the years have doubted that
His second coming will even take place. The
Bible is fully aware of the doubters, predicting
scoffers in the last days leading to Christ's
return: "Knowing this first, that there shall come
in the last days scoffers, walking after their own
lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of
his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep,
all things continue as they were from the
beginning of the creation." 2 Pet. 3:3-4
Notice the rationale these scoffers give for
doubting Christ's return: "all things
continue as they were from the beginning of
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