What shows that ancestors are meditators between men and god
Answers
Answer:
That man needs a mediator to be reconciled with God cannot be denied. The issue is rather:
Who, according to the Bible, has God appointed to mediate between man and God?
What is the reason for appointing someone to mediate?
African theologians, who defend the need for ancestors to act as mediators, do not offer convincing answers to these questions. This article will argue that because of Christ’s mediating work there is no room nor necessity for the mediating of our ancestors. We cannot affirm mediation within African Traditional Religion (ATR) alongside Christ’s mediation.
The meaning and purpose of a mediator
A mediator is a person who comes between two parties in order to promote relations between them. The key words here are “to promote relations”, implying that the two parties are unable to get along or effect relationship themselves. In the Old Testament the patriarchs, Moses, the judges, prophets, kings and the Levitical priests acted as mediators between God and Israel.
As Hancock wrote in his dictionary entry on mediation, “Fundamentally, a twofold pattern of mediation existed: the prophetic (man-ward), in which an appointed agent reveals, proclaims, and interprets God’s will to people; and the priestly (God-ward), in which God is approached, reconciled, and sought on man’s behalf by an appointed representative.”
In relationships between two people, either or both parties may be responsible for the break-up of a friendship. In both situations, a mediator may be necessary to restore the relationship, to effect reconciliation. But in the case of the relationship between God and man, it is man who is in the wrong. God is not responsible for the alienation between himself and man, a result of the fall. In fact, since Genesis 3, it is God who seeks reconciliation with mankind, while the latter hides from him.
There is only one true mediator
Let us now tackle the two questions mentioned above. Who has God appointed as the only Mediator. Why was and is his work necessary? We will answer these questions by considering a few different phases of Christ’s role as mediator.
Christ’s pre-incarnate mediation
In election
Christ was the only Mediator way before he was incarnate (Hebrews 10:5-7). First, Christ’s pre-incarnate mediation is seen in the election of Christians in eternity. Men and women are saved from sin because they were already chosen (or known) in Christ in eternity past (Ephesians 1:4). This does not, of course, mean that those who would reject Christ would do so because they were elected to be lost. No, God does not elect anyone to reject Christ. Outside of Christ men and women are already in a condemned state – for the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). But in his sovereign will and grace God has elected some to be saved from his righteous judgment against sin and rebellion. The doctrine of election is a difficult teaching, but emphatic and evident in the Bible.
Through God’s promise
Secondly, Christ’s pre-incarnate mediation is seen in God’s promises of deliverance from sin. For example, immediately after the fall, God made a promise to Adam. God promised that through the woman’s seed he would make a way back to fellowship with himself (Genesis 3:14-15). Later, when God established his covenant with Abraham, he told him, “Through your seed I will bless all nations.” God’s prophets, especially Isaiah, also predicted Christ’s mediation many years before his coming as Saviour (Isaiah 52-53).
Explanation: