The Theology of a Truck Driver

By John E. Stephens

Recently, I was told that the social service workers in my state are told to ask their clients, "What gender do you choose today?"

Our economy is hanging on to a thread printing trillions of paper dollars while the "value" of bitcoin exceeds $50,000. People are burning their cities and inciting riots while government officials do nothing and even more ridiculously, voting to remove their police departments. The threat of COVID-19 has closed economies, government offices, airports, and schools around the world. It's obvious we are living in treacherous times.

It's true that I witnessed some of these occurrences in the sixties with the protests against the war in Vietnam, but now the cancer has moved upward into the brain as the "educated" folk have grown up and become the leaders of today. History tells us (but that's being rewritten too) that every great civilization that's fallen has fallen because of inward deterioration--and then capitulation.

Morals were exchanged for tolerance, progress, and acceptance; truth and honesty were traded for lies and deceit; innocence was traded for pleasure and indulgence; and strength was exchanged for "peace."

A past president repeatedly spouted, "Diversity is our greatest strength."

Really? What about life, liberty, truth, morality, justice? I'm afraid my USA is "progressing" to decline and capitulation unless we wake up very soon.

This book is meant to be a foundational rock for my children and grandchildren, an anchor in the storm of life. The truths and thoughts expressed are not to be embraced with a "leap of faith" but to be evidence considered. However, as expressed in the chapter "The Incipiency of the Will," each person possesses the ability to choose their own destiny regardless of evidence...and the right. But if we ignore reality--spiritual and physical--we will perish.

We have not perished yet! This book is my part to awaken the drowsy and weary, strengthen the weak, and prod the mind and heart with prayers for repentance, redemption, and restoration.

Grab on to this anchor!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Oct 3, 2022
• ISBN: 9781098097370

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The Theology of a Truck Driver

John E. Stephens

ISBN 978-1-0980-9736-3 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-0980-9737-0 (digital)

Copyright © 2022 by John E. Stephens

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Introduction

1

Laying a Foundation

God's Omnipresence and Omniscience

God is Love

Jesus Possesses All the Attributes of God Except in a Body

The Holy Spirit

Holy Spirit's interaction with man

The Reality of Angels

Personal experience

The Reality of Demons

2

The Bible: Words of God or Man?

God's Laws Were Written in Stone

God-Breathed

The Vessels of Clay

The Old Testament Books

The New Testament Books

The Holy Ghost or Spirit Is the Ghostwriter of Scripture

Here are more reasons I believe that the Bible is the Word of God as it was dictated to man:

It works for successful living

Old Testament examples

Old Testament examples

Teachings of Jesus

Teachings of Jesus

Our Calendar

Prophecies of the World Empires Were Fulfilled

Fulfillment

The future of other nations and tribes was foretold

Other prophecies fulfilled

Other prophecies fulfilled

Writers of the Old Testament Believed the Scriptures to be the Words of God

Jesus and the Bible

The apostles were convinced that the scriptures were the Word of God.

Careful Transcription and Translation

The Word of God Has Survived

3

Evidence to Believe in God

The Natural Universe

Laws of Physics

Biology

God Consciousness and Reason

Biblical Prophecies Fulfilled Is Evidence to Believe in God

Archeology and Biblical History Agree

Eyewitnesses and Personal Testimony

Prophets

Prophets

Jesus

Jesus

Disciples

Disciples

Miracles

Miracles

Empirical evidence

Empirical evidence

Summary

4

God's Physical Laws

Newton's laws of motion

The Balance of the Planets

Sound and Light

Miracles

Jesus walked on water

Healing

The Spiritual Dimension

5

God's Moral Laws

The Greatest Commandments

The Golden Rule

The Ten Commandments

6

Incipiency of the Will

Freedom

Predestination or Free Determination?

Absolute Foreknowledge of God?

(1 Peter 1:20)

Is God's will being done?

7

Consequences of Sin

Definitions

Death—Spiritual and Physical

More Consequences

The Final Judgment

Financial

8

Reconciliation, Repentance, Grace, Atonement, Salvation

The problems God had to solve

Repentance

Grace

Atonement

Forgiveness

Forgiveness in the New Testament

Salvation

Salvation

Redemption

Redemption

Why Does God Require a Blood Sacrifice for Sins?

Why Was Jesus the Only One Who Could Solve These Problems?

God loves justice and is just

9

Why Do Innocent People Suffer?

Our choices

10

Then How Should We Live?

The Kingdom of God vs. The kingdom of Satan

About the Author

Dedications

I dedicate this book to my children; Hope and Joshua, and my grandchildren; Johnny, Charis, Sophia, Ethan, and Conner, those whom I first intended it for.

Secondly, I dedicate it to my fellow truckers and all who have an inquiring mind.

And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord… (Jeremiah 29:13, 14a)

You can rest in the promise of our Creator and Father God.

Introduction

Welcome, and thank you for taking the time to investigate this book. Of course I hope the content to be inspiring, encouraging, and enlightening.

I ask you to carefully consider and have an open mind to some ideas you may not have considered before or that may even be different than your present beliefs. However, I believe that if one's mind is set to believe or disbelieve a certain way, nothing is going to change it. Stated more clearly, if one is determined to live a certain way and hold on to certain habits or lifestyles, it is doubtful one will be convinced to change no matter how strong the evidence to do so.

You may read more about this in the chapter The Incipiency of the Will. Jesus said, "If you are willing to do my will, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." However, it would be unfair to ask one to believe without reasonable evidence. I merely ask that one considers honestly whether what is written is true.

God gave man the ability to reason for a reason. Reason gives us the ability to figure things out; collect and weigh the evidence, and come to a conclusion. We also have a God consciousness. In all recorded history of mankind, man has believed there's a god, creator, or spirit being greater than themselves. We should ask ourselves, Why?

Knowing truth requires honesty—in biblical terms, a pure heart. Jesus said, Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. To know the truth, we must be as objective as we possibly can. We all see things differently because we all have biases of various kinds from what we've been taught and from personal experiences. For example, because I've had a stuttering problem most of my life, I tend to be more understanding and sympathetic with those who have the same problem than people who have never had that problem.

In order to know objective truth, we need to put aside our presumptions, presuppositions, and biases as much as possible. Years ago, I agreed to do a debate on paper with a Jehovah's Witness coworker. I chose this method in order to avoid arguing and so we could both be thoughtful and have time to study the issues.

To be honest with myself, I tried to set aside everything I had been taught and look at the Scriptures objectively. We mutually agreed that the issue of Jesus being the Son of God and the Trinity of God was the best place to begin. Though I didn't want to become a Jehovah's Witness, I felt I had to be willing to do so if that's the way the Scriptures pointed.

It turned out that I became much more grounded and convinced in the Trinity of God and of Jesus being God than I was before. My study didn't change the other guy's opinion either, but it did help a fellow worker who was being swayed that way. All that to say that a person must be honestly objective to know the truth.

In talking to a young Muslim, I asked if he would be willing to become a Christian if I showed him evidence to warrant it. He said yes and eventually became a Christian. You see, if a person is unwilling, all the evidence in the world cannot make him change his mind. The mind can come up with justifications to support one's desires and choices, no matter how wrong they are.

The incipiency of the will gives us the ability to believe whatever we want because the mind can justify whatever we want to believe. Knowing truth requires honesty to objectively weigh the evidence, accept whatever has the strongest evidence, and live one's life in agreement with the truth. People generally form the truth around the way they want to live rather than forming their life around the truth.

We will all give account to God on whether we honestly sought the truth and lived consistently with it or not. All selfishness, pride, willful ignorance, and rebellion will be revealed. We all will be without excuse and held accountable for the truth that was available to us.

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. 25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. (Romans 1:18–25 NASB)

In the book of Isaiah, God says, "If you seek Me with all your heart I will be found of you." Any and every excuse will fall helplessly aside when we give an account of our lives to God. In the Gospel of Matthew 25:14–30, Jesus tells the parable of the talents, which was money during that time. God required more of the man he gave more to.

Though this parable is about talents (money), I believe the principle is the same for knowledge, material things, and talents or skills. In the end, God rewarded those who acted wisely with what they were given by giving them more and took away even what he had of the one who was irresponsible and did nothing with the little God had given him.

Think of this principle in terms of truth, knowledge, and light, if you will. God gives us truth or knowledge through nature, the Bible, a conscience, and reason. We can either suppress it, as Paul mentions in the book of Romans, or conform our thinking and life accordingly. Science should not be held separate from faith. Faith is not a blind leap to believe something.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen (Hebrews 11:1). If we have no evidence for our faith to rest upon, it's merely wishful thinking. The hymn writer Edward Mote understood this when he wrote, On Christ the solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.

Christ was realized as a Rock, not crumbling dirt or sand. We can't put God in a test tube to prove Him, but the sciences of physics, biology, astronomy, and archeology—as well as history and empirical evidence, such as used in court—provides a solid substance (a solid foundation) for faith in God.

The testimonies of eyewitnesses and martyrs and the evidence of hundreds of fulfilled prophecies provide evidence of the divine revelation of the truth of the Bible. We have much more evidence of Jesus of the Bible than for Shakespeare or many other historical characters, which we accept without question. Even our calendar, which has been around for two thousand years, is historical evidence of the reality of Jesus and that He was super extraordinary.

Despite the evidence, some people foolishly deny His existence, simply because acknowledging Him causes them to feel guilty. They refuse to change their lifestyle (repent) and acknowledge someone greater than themselves. Considering God has made this universe and everything in it and is wise and benevolent, I believe He does have the right to tell us how to live and hold us accountable for the truth we have. And because we humans do such a lousy job taking care of one another and our environment, we should welcome His help.

You may have noticed that I have no MD, DD, or any other abbreviations behind my name. However, I am a college graduate with a BA in music, have attended several Bible colleges as well as a Youth With A Mission School of Evangelism, and have read the Holy Bible since I was eight years old. I've enjoyed the privilege of being taught by some wonderful teachers, ministers, and engineers.

Yes, I am a truck driver with fifteen-plus years of experience. I have driven OTR, regional, and local. I've driven Fords, Peterbilts, Internationals, Macks, Freightliners, Kenworths, and Volvos.

My purpose for this book is to remove hindrances from truck drivers, and anyone else's mind who is interested, that deter them from knowing the loving heavenly Father, who created the universe and everything in it.

52 He said to them, Therefore every teacher and interpreter of the Sacred Writings who has been instructed about and trained for the kingdom of heaven and has become a disciple is like a householder who brings forth out of his storehouse treasure that is new and [treasure that is] old [the fresh as well as the familiar]. (Matthew 13:52 AMPC)

Now faith is the assurance (title deed, confirmation) of things hoped for (divinely guaranteed), and the evidence of things not seen [the conviction of their reality—faith comprehends as fact what cannot be experienced by the physical senses]. (Hebrews 11:1 AMP)

Faith is not wishful thinking. Faith is not hope. Faith is not a blind choice. Faith is based on evidence. Faith is the foundation for our relationship with an invisible God.

I think that we are past the foolish thoughts and words I used to hear frequently from people who thought they were clever by saying, I don't believe in anything I can't see. However, we know there are many things we can't see, such as air, atoms, bacteria, viruses, thoughts, memory, etc.

In these chapters, I will address many of the evidence for faith in God, in particular the God of the Bible, including Jesus Christ.

I invite you to join me on this journey.

Blessings!

1

Laying a Foundation

God is spirit or immortal, therefore invisible to the eyes of mortals. You can think of God as being in another dimension. He is not subject to physical limitations as man is.

God is