Lawrence W. Hilliard, Theology, Philosophy

Lawrence Hilliard has been an educator and lecturer for over 35 years within private institutions, colleges, conferences, and churches. He has a Masters Degree in History from the University of Southern California and teaches philosophy, ethics, theology, and contemporary political philosophy. He has media experience via television and radio. Mr. Hilliard is presently authoring a book on the nexus of Orthodox Jewish Theology and historic Christianity. His teaching reflects the vibrant brotherhood existing between Jew and Christian. In an anthropocentric world, Lawrence Hilliard teaches from a theocentric perspective. Epochal times demand sobriety of thinking. From the presuppositional reality of a Transcendent God, all history is purposed and directed by His sovereign will. The teleological intent of all time is God. Time is the mercy of eternity, divinely designed to conform the redeemed to live under the countenance of God forever. The infinite aspects of the glory of God will radiate eternally and sustain the redeemed throughout the wondrous aeons of a new heaven and new earth.

"He who lives forever is the creator of the whole universe; right belongs to the Lord alone. Who can steer the world with his little finger, so that all things obey his will." (Ecclesiasticus 18)

"Lord of the world, if it were possible to imagine a fraction of a second without your influence and providence, of what avail to us were this world, and of what avail to us were that other world?" (Rabbi Abraham "The Angel", 1776, Tales of the Hasidim, p. 116)

"History in the Jewish conception is not a chaos leading to nowhere, but an overall progression with a definite goal which it derives from God who is above history, and who rules and controls history." (Isidore Epstein, The Faith of Judaism)

"Were God to withdraw His supporting hand and preserving power and influence, creatures would soon come to destruction and perish; the whole fabric of the world would at once fall to pieces." (John Gill, 1775)

"First, then, let the reader remember that the providence we mean is not one by which the Deity, sitting idly in Heaven, looks on at what is taking place in the world, but one by which He, as it were, holds the helm and overrules all events." (John Calvin)

"Providence never left it's hold of you since you came out of the womb, but with a watchful eye and tender hand has guarded you in every place, and kept you as it's charge." (John Flavel, 1660)

"Oh, that every obstinate sinner, would think of this, and consider his immeasurable boldness in thinking himself able to grapple with omnipotence! What force can any have to resist the presence of Him before whom rocks melt, and the heavens at length shall be shriveled up as a parchment by the last fire! As the light of God's face is too dazzling to be beheld by us, so the arm of His power is too mighty to be opposed by us." (Stephen Charnock)

"Over the whole universe He stretches His scepter. He now reigns universally, He always has done so, and He always will. The warring elements are marching beneath His banner when they most wildly rush onward in furious tempest. Great and small, intelligent and material, willing and unwilling, fierce or gentle, all are under His sway. His is the only universal monarchy, He is the blessed and only Potentate, King of kings and Lord of lords." (Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David)

"There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: 'Mine!'" (Abraham Kuyper, 1860)

"A firm faith in the universal providence of God is the solution of all earthly troubles. It is almost equally true that a clear and full apprehension of the universal providence of God is the solution of most theological problems." "It is because we forget this great truth that we vex and puzzle ourselves over difficulties which seem to be insoluble, but which cease to be difficulties at all so soon as we remember that God's providence extends over all." (Benjamin Warfield)

"This sovereignty of God is the ground of peace and confidence to all His people. They rejoice that the Lord God omnipotent reigneth; that neither necessity, nor chance, nor the folly of man, nor the malice of Satan controls the sequence of events and all their issues. Infinite wisdom, love and power belong to Him our great God and Savior into Whose hands all power in heaven and earth has been committed." (Charles Hodge, 1920)

"When we are gasping with despair, when the wisdom of science and the splendor of the arts fail to save us from fear and the sense of futility, the Bible offers us the only hope: history is a circuitous way for the steps of the Messiah." (Abraham Heschel)

"The nations of the world make history and think what they do matters. But Israel knows that it is God who makes history, and it is the reality formed in response to God's will which is history." (Jacob Neusner)

"He is the God of history, who calls events into being and shapes man's destiny to His design. And history is His revelation." (Leo Trepp, A History of the Jewish Experience, p. 10)

"…the reins of government will never hang loose in the hands of our Heavenly Father's sovereign control. That ever watchful God that lights the evening star and paints the wayside lily, who sees the falling sparrow and counts the hairs of our head, neither slumbers nor sleeps. His all-controlling watch-care will never flag for a moment." (J. Sidlow Baxter)

"The Bible depicts the entire creation as the sphere of His lordship and rule and this providentially bracketed world and history of mankind as the central arena for the redemptive acts of God." (Carl F. H. Henry)

"His grandeur reaches far beyond all things. He stands in majesty high above all the powers in the world that man is wont to worship." (Samson Raphael Hirsch)

"The iron hand, it ain't no match for the iron rod, the strongest wall will crumble and fall to a Mighty God. For all those who have eyes and all those who have ears it is only He who can reduce me to tears. Don't you cry and don't you die and don't you burn, for like a thief in the night, He'll replace wrong with right when He returns." (Bob Dylan, "When He Returns")