“God was speaking long ago to the Fathers through the prophets…”

We spoke above about how God is a communicating God.  This is one of the things that separates the One True God from all of the false gods of this world—our God speaks to his people.  Buddha does not speak and has never spoken to his followers.  Allah does not speak and has never spoken to his followers.  Those who relate that they have had an authentic and supernatural experience that contradicts the scriptures, like that of Joseph Smith who founded the Mormons, they are visions of the devil only, the great counterfeiter who seeks to do nothing but usurp the power of God.

With this in mind, this clause makes a very important statement to us.  Our God did speak through the ages in many forms and ways, but he did so through prophets and he spoke to the Fathers of the faith.  God has always had a group of called out and faithful people through whom and to whom he spoke.  God did not speak to the pagans and tell them to bring purity to His people; God speaks in faithfully orthodox circles. 

Throughout the ages, false teachers have claimed to have a “new revelation” from God, and beloved, this is not how God works.  Through the Old Testament, God spoke through his prophets, and in the clause that follows this one, the writer of Hebrews will remind us that now God speaks to his people only through Jesus.  God brings us together as a community of believers not only to bless us with fellowship but also to keep us free from error.  The flock that is held tightly together by the faithful shepherd is safer from predators.  Though tradition is always to be subordinate to scriptural truth, God raises up fathers in the faith for our teaching, instruction, and guidance in the study of God’s word. 

Beloved, we are a culture that thrives on what is new and “groundbreaking,” but God is an ageless God.  Beware of those who would tell you that they have found a “new way” to understand the things of God.  For nearly two thousand years, the finest minds in history have been pouring over God’s word, seeking to understand its riches.  And though the depths are infinite, and though we can never exhaust the riches within God’s word, when we think we have found a new way of understanding something that has been understood a different way by the church fathers of old, we are likely flirting with heresy.  Beloved, let us stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before us, let us be guarded by their orthodoxy so that our lives might safeguard the orthodoxy of the next generation.