THE MEANING OF ANYTHING DEPENDS UPON ITS ORIGINS

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The ORIGIN of anything can only be from one of two sources: GOD or MAN. From our CREATOR or from the CREATED. You need to get that right or you can expect chaos.

To believe that this world with all of its complexity and finite laws could come into existence by random chance is foolishness in its extreme and yet our prestigious universities promote it as science. Science according to them cannot countenance the supernatural, despite the fact that all of the Cosmos evidence screams intelligent design.

God’s Word, Genesis 1–11, tells us the origin of all the basic entities of life and the universe. And the meaning of anything is dependent on its origin.

Take any topic. For instance:

  • Abortion. We need to start with Genesis and the information found there. God created life, and humans were made in God’s image. Humans are not to murder other humans. This is the foundation to begin to deal with abortion.
  • Marriage. God created the first marriage when he created the first man and woman, as related in Genesis 1 and 2. “He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?” Matthew 19:4–5
  • Fossils. In Genesis 6–9, we are told about the catastrophic global flood. This would have caused massive fossil formation all over the earth including fossil fuels from buried vegetation.
  • Age of the Earth. We start at the beginning of history in Genesis 1:1, where God began to create the space-mass-time universe. He tells us He created all things in six days and why: man is to work six days and have one rest day. It was the pattern for mankind. The first man, Adam, was made on day six. We are told when Adam had a son and when that son had a son and so on. The Bible gives us the history so we can add up the dates and determine when the universe and life came into existence.
  • The Fall. We learn that because of the rebellion of Adam and Eve, God cursed the initial perfect World. Man’s rebellion against God is the reason we have death, pain, suffering, and evil in this world.
  • Nations. God confused the language, he had given Adam and Eve, at the Tower of Babel and created many languages to force people to populate all of the earth. God created the nations and He created one nation, Israel, to represent Him. Sadly, as prophesied in God’s Word, they would not do as God commanded and He scattered them all over the Earth. However, this is extremely important, God also prophesied that He would re-gather them back to the land He gave them and that Jesus Christ would return to Earth and rule and reign the nations from Israel. Israel was miraculously re-established as a nation in 1948 so the first major sign of Jesus’ second coming to Earth has taken place and many of the rest of the end times prophesied signs are playing out now as well.
  • Spiritual Warfare. We are told in Genesis that God created spiritual beings called Angels. Just as Adam and Eve rebelled against God we learn that one-third of the angels that God created rebelled against God due to the rebellion of the Prince of Angels, Lucifer now called Satan. His minions are now called demons. We are also told that a battle is raging over the hearts and minds of men and women. “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:11-12

Genesis 1–11 is the foundation for everything! God’s Word, the Bible is largely prophecy. Fulfilled prophecies prove that God exists and His Bible is inerrant. God is in control of everything that happens in His Cosmos.

Praise God that He sent His Son, Jesus Christ to provide the way for mankind to get back into a right relationship with Him. Jesus died to pay the price for our redemption. If we repent of our rebellion/sin and are prepared to submit to Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour then we are restored to God’s family and our Heavenly Father sends the Holy Spirit to indwell our spirit to be our counselor, teacher, and comforter thus enabling us to live as a child of God, as a Christian. We have a good God but we must submit to His authority, and His commandments to be part of His family. That means dying to self and being prepared to say not my will but your will be done, Lord. Sadly, most of mankind, like Satan, wants to be the God of their own lives. God gave us free will so the choice is ours but we will suffer the consequences of our decision. All will stand before God on judgment day, for those that reject Jesus Christ will suffer punishment and second death. “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” Revelation 21:8

MAN IS NOT GOOD AND HE CANNOT PERFECT HIMSELF 

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Man, apart from God’s grace, is a sinner, not a saint.

To fail to recognize our own inherent corruption and the need for God’s saving grace leads to chaos and lawlessness.

In every generation man’s unconstrained impulse to have faith in his own righteousness and act upon that faith, reemerges. Today we see it in a radical Leftist agenda in America that is fueled by ambiguous intellectual movements which seek not just to find flaws in the American system that might be fixed, but which cry out for the system’s total destruction— to “tear the whole thing down.” Everything that came before must go, not just those ideas or structures that have rightly been judged as cruel or unjust. 

The forces that hold to the unconstrained vision, men and women who reject any need for divine aid or help and who really believe a new revolution can solve the problem, are once again at work. Trade-offs are unacceptable for the advocates of the unconstrained view. Only total solutions are acceptable. Perfection is within society’s grasp if we would only reach out and grab it. However, perfection is a high bar. Thus, any identifiable flaw in the fabric of society must inevitably spur on the next revolution. “Perpetual revolution” (not reformation) is the explicit doctrine of the foot soldier for the unconstrained vision of man.

The problem, of course, with this view is that it consciously rejects what it regards as the most detestable doctrines of the Christian faith: original sin and the desperate need for God’s grace.

The truth is the following three realities:

  1. Man is a sinner, prone to war and wickedness, and mutual slaughter.
  2. Any virtue in man is a gift from God. God the Father’s ultimate gift to mankind is the second person of the Trinity, Jesus, who by His death and resurrection made it possible for the Father to send the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit to indwell every believer who accepts Jesus as their Lord and Saviour.
  3. By living in the power of the Holy Spirit we are liberated from the world’s system, even to the point of welcoming our own persecution, which is to God’s glory and the glory of His Church. 

Adapted from article “Trying To Be Good Without God, Or Hoping “We Won’t Get Fooled Again”

 DECEMBER 3, 2021 by Anthony Costello http://www.patheos.com

ORIGIN OF EVIL/SIN

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The Bible reveals the origin of evil was before the creation of man. The story begins with the dysfunction of a mighty and beautiful angelic being referred to in the Latin translation as Lucifer (Morning Star). Also more commonly known as Satan or the Devil. Other names, Abaddon (destroying angel), Revelation 9:11, Apollyon (destroyer), Revelation 9:11, Accuser of the brethren Revelation 12:10, Adversary (opponent), 1Peter 5:8, Angel of light (messenger of light), 2Corinthians 11:14, Antichrist (possessed by Satan), 1John 4:3, Beelzebub (ruler of the devils), Luke 11:15, Dragon, Revelation 12:7, Father of Lies, John 8:44, God of this world (god of this age), 2Corinthians 4:3 – 4, Great fiery red dragon (serpent), Revelation 12:3, Man of sin (man of offense), 2Thessalonians 2:3, Liar (a falsifier), John 8:44, Power of darkness (power of obscurity), Colossians 1:13.

“You were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle; and crafted in gold were your settings and your engravings. On the day that you were created, they were prepared. You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire, you walked. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till unrighteousness was found in you. In the abundance of your trade, you were filled with violence in your midst, and you sinned; so I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God, and I destroyed you, O guardian cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Your heart was proud because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. ” Ezekiel 28:12-17a

We are told Satan and the angels that followed him (1/3 of the angels) are eventually (God’s appointed time) cast into the Lake of Fire. As are unbelievers after the White Throne Judgement.

“How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground,
you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God
I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit.” Isaiah 14:12-15

“I cast you to the ground; I exposed you before kings, to feast their eyes on you. By the multitude of your iniquities, in the unrighteousness of your trade, you profaned your sanctuaries; so I brought fire out from your midst; it consumed you, and I turned you to ashes on the earth in the sight of all who saw you. All who know you among the peoples are appalled at you; you have come to a dreadful end and shall be no more forever.” Ezekiel 28:17b-19

The Bible, in eight of its chapters, records seven fascinating and distinct times Satan the devil has spoken. We learn a great deal about man’s greatest enemy right from his own mouth! The first instance the Bible records of the devil speaking is, of course, his tempting of Eve in the Garden of Eden. His subtle deceptions foreshadow the craftiness he will later display in his effort to get Jesus to sin.

Adam and Eve cast out of the Garden of Eden

“Now the serpent (the devil) was more cunning than any creature of the field which the LORD God had made. And he (through an animal who could speak) said to the woman (Eve), “Is it true that God has said, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?'” And the serpent (the devil) said to the woman (Eve), “In dying, you shall not surely die! For God knows that in the day you eat of it, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be like God, deciding good and evil” (Genesis 3:1 – 5)

The devil’s perverted thinking and rebellious spirit spread to the human race by enticing the first humans to think as he does. The apostle Paul wrote about how disobedience and suffering entered the world when he stated, “Therefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and by means of sin came death; and in this way, death passed into all mankind” (Romans 5:12).

God, as the all-powerful Creator, has a right to determine what is right or wrong (good or evil) for the entire universe. He told Adam (Genesis 2:16 – 17) and Eve (Genesis 3:1 – 3) that it was good to eat from the trees in Eden with the exception of just one tree and the consequences of eating from that tree was death. (Genesis 2:17). Adam and Eve’s test was whether they would believe what God had said or reject His instruction and sin by believing Satan, the Deceiver. We are suffering the consequences of their decision.

Thankfully, God knew beforehand the outcome and He already had a plan to redeem mankind from the curse of evil. It is 2020 years since Jesus our Redeemer came and from Biblical prophecy, we know His return to rule and reign for 1000 years is not too distant. During Jesus Millennial reign Satan is bound but when released is still able to deceive a multitude to mount an army to come against Jesus and the Saints.

“Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him so that he might not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be released for a little while.” Revelation 20:1-3

“And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” Revelation 20:7-10