THE USES OF NOTHING

Parmenides maintained that reality is such that the "All is one," by which he meant that the "All" is a kind of homogeneous sphere. By this he concluded that all appearances to consciousness such as change, motion and nothing are mere illusions. Even though he used good logic to arrive at these conclusions, for all intents and purposes his conclusion was useless and meaningless.

The practical truth is that man lives in a world of appearances, change, motion and nothingness. Even if all this were an illusion, this world, nevertheless, is the only one we know and as such becomes indistinguishable from reality itself.

Therefore, nothing must be real to the mind. Nothing can be no appearance, and yet it is real. Nothingness can only be real as an idea in the mind. How consciousness acquired this singular idea of nothing when it never appears remains a real mystery. Man's finite mind is just too small to ever figure this out on his own.

Yet, this fact reminds us of other ideas that could not have been acquired by direct experience even though they are real. Their usefulness to consciousness makes them real. "Infinity" is a real idea even though it has never been seen, felt or smelt. "Justice" has proven itself to be a useful concept even though no one has ever directly seen it. One suspects that these kinds of ideas could only have been given to the mind by an infinity being the possibility of everything. But this means that the Infinite must know everything; consciousness being one of its possibilities. If this is true, then there must exist an Infinite Consciousness that we call God.

The first use of nothingness is that it is space. We move through it and we observe motion in it. Space separates objects and thereby contributes to their recognition as individual objects. In addition, something and nothing together unify the world into a whole. How we humans can outwardly move through a mere idea in our minds is another real mystery. One possible explanation ( with due credit to Bishop Berkeley) is that space is a perception in the mind of God.

The second use of the idea of nothing is that it separates ideas in the mind into individual, recognizable ideas. By use of the idea of nothing, the mind can separate general ideas such as "roundness" or "redness" and recognize that they apply to all things round or red. If one imagines two objects in one's mind, one round and the other red, one will notice that they are separated by a space which is the idea of nothing. Also, one thought follows another in moments of time, but that which divides one moment from another is the idea of nothing.

The mind holds the power to create or invent different systems, selecting those ideas that compose each system from all of the ideas that we know. The creations of these systems has been a continuous process throughout the history of mankind. Some of these systems are most useful because they benefit the most people. Others are far less useful because they benefit only a small number of people while being detrimental to the rest. Some systems benefit no one. They are simply destructive. Many such systems have been invented and created by man such as: systems of law and government, education, religion, science and technology, roads and many others.

The word "nothing" has two basic meanings. The first meaning is simply "emptiness" or the "void." In the second meaning, "nothing" should really be two words; "no thing." In this case, the "thing" means any object of consciousness, and "no" means to equate the "thing" with the negative. The objects of consciousness can never be negated by nothingness, but consciousness can use the idea of the negative to equate a particular object or idea with the negative in order to exclude that object or idea from inclusion in a system which consciousness is in the process of creating, inventing or considering. For example, when one considers the simple system called: "a straight line," one will always keep "no curves" out of this system.

Whenever man creates a particular system, whether beneficial or destructive, he always includes those ideas that fit in with the other ideas, or those ideas that he desires to be in his system, and excludes all others by using the idea of nothing. The third use of the idea of nothing is that of a principle or rule that excludes all unwanted or unuseable ideas from any system under consideration.

One of the laws of the universe is that information cannot be destroyed. True ideas cannot be destroyed, but they can be considered to be equal to nothing as far as their inclusion in any particular system is concerned. False ideas cannot be destroyed either, but the difference between these two ideas is that false ideas are actually equal to nothing whereas true ideas can only be considered as equal to nothing in order to exclude them from a system. For example, when an idealistic philosopher contends that certain materialistic ideas are "not real," he does not mean that they can be destroyed. He only means that they are equal to the idea of nothing as far as his idealistic system is concerned. He also may believe they are false. For another example, the false theory that produced the false idea of "aether" in space, can never be destroyed as ideas, but the false idea "aether" actually means nothing in the sense of "empty."

True and false systems alike always comprise true and useful ideas, but false systems always produce false ideas. False ideas are real as ideas, but because of their equality with the idea of nothing, they always indicate an absolute nothingness hidden by the idea of nothing. Thus, the fourth use of the idea of nothing is that it indicates an absolute nothingness that lies outside of human experience. As a simple example of this truth, consider the false system called a "mermaid." A mermaid comprises two true systems called a "fish" and a "female." If one subtracts these two true ideas from the false system, one is left with the idea of nothing as a product of this system. But the true idea of nothing actually indicates the nonexistence of the mermaid. So, if one then subtracts even this true idea from the false system, one is left with an absolute nothingness which constitutes the actual nonexistence of the mermaid. Nonexistence constitutes the only unreality. Humans never experience it except as it is indicated by the idea of nothing. Nonexistence seems to be nowhere and at no time.

If humans never experience unreality then all appearances must be real whether given to the mind or coming into the mind through the senses. The whole of reality appears as something, the idea of nothing, or as ideas equivalent to nothing.

THE CHRISTMAS ROMANCE a short story

     The ladies of our church had well decorated the fellowship hall for our annual Christmas party. Resplendently adorned with green and red ornaments; gold and silver tinsel, an enormous Christmas tree stood at one end of the spacious hall. Stolid statues in a manger scene, with Mary holding baby Jesus while Joseph, sheperds, and sheep looked on, lent an air of purity and holiness to this festive occasion.
     Every year, each child got a small present from the church. Pastor Hadley played Santa Claus, calling out the children's names and handing out the presents. Every child crowded around the tree eagerly waiting for his or her name to be called.
     I hopped from one foot to the other with excitement.
     "Joey Harper," Pastor Hadley finally called, waving my green-wrapped present above his head and looking around as if he hadn't seen me.
     "Here I am," I hollered.
     "Oh, there you are." Pastor Hadley grinned. "I might have known that you would be right up front."
     He handed my present to me. I plopped to the floor right there and ripped it open at once. It was a shiny blue yo-yo. Oh no, I thought, a little disappointed. I'm not very good with one of these things. I stood and slipped the loop at the end of the string onto the middle finger of my right hand. I flipped the yo-yo toward the floor, but instead of spinning and coming back to my hand, it merely flopped around at the end of the string.
     Pastor Hadley noticed my problem. "Here," he said, "let me show you how to do that." He slipped the loop onto his finger and wound up the string. Then, he quickly spun the yo-yo, making it barely touch the hardwood floor. The toy creeped away from him across the floor. "That's called walking the dog," he informed me. Then, with a bare twitch of his middle finger, the yo-yo jumped back into his hand.
     Pastor Hadley put the toy back into my hand and gently rubbed my head. "Practice, Joey," he instructed. "You have to practice every day."
     After a scrumptious buffet dinner supplied by covered dishes brought by most of the ladies, Pastor Hadley stood before the Christmas tree and held up his hands to draw attention. "Can I have everyone's attention?" he announced. "Bess, come here please."
     My mother nudged through the crowd and to Pastor Hadley's side. They each put an arm around each other's back. They gazed at each other with sparkling eyes.
     "Bess and I have decided to make this announcement at this party," Pastor Hadley excitedly exclaimed. "Thanks to what we believe to be the will of God, we plan to get married in June."
     This did not really surprise me since I had seen Pastor Hadley come to our house almost every day since Thanksgiving.
     For a moment, the crowd tittered. Then, everyone broke into smiles and began to shake Pastor Hadley's hand, congratulating him. Most of the ladies hugged my mother.
     Everyone seemed to be happy except my other mother. She was my mother's mother, but instead of Grandmother, she insisted I call her Other Mother. She caught my mother by the arm at a moment when she was standing alone. "I would like to speak with you alone," Other Mother whispered through clenched teeth.
     "Drop by the house later," Mom answered, moving away to talk to some of the ladies.
     Later that evening, Mother sat in her favorite chair in the living room, knitting, and talking with Pastor Hadley while we children; my cousin Darlene, my sister Sarah and I, sat cross-legged on the floor playing Chinese checkers.
     I was glad to see my Mom feeling so content. She had been sad for a long time after my Dad had not come home from the war.
     Suddenly, the front door swung open and, unannounced, Other Mother stomped into the room. While holding her lips firmly pressed together, she quickly began to jerk off her white gloves, one finger at a time. "I would like to know," she spat, "how you two could embarras me the way you did."
     "What do you mean, Mother dear?" Mom rejoined.
     Other Mother's narrowed eyes widened a little with pretended shock. "You know perfectly well what I mean," she thundered. "How can you two get married? It's scandalous."
     "Everyone seemed to be happy about it," Pastor Hadley replied.
     "They put on a good front," Other Mother snapped. "They were actually quite shocked. For heaven's sake Bess, you're nine years older than him."
     "So, I like younger men," Mom replied, suppressing an impish grin.
     "Bess!" Other Mother exploded. She gazed upward in mock prayer. She closed her eyes and bit her lip. "Lord, help me," she gasped. She crossed her arms and stared at Mom. "Well, I just talked to Sister Hitchcock on the phone, and she agrees with me."
     "That toady," Pastor Hadley replied, laughing. "She's never been known to disagree with you about anything."
     "All right," Other Mother sighed. She wiped an invisible tear from the corner of one eye. "A mother can only try to do her duty, but if you two insist on going through with this travesty, I won't be coming to the wedding."
     "Suit yourself," Mother retorted, this time with a look of boredom.
     Other Mother slowly began to pull her gloves on. "I've done all that a mother can do," she moaned. She trudged toward the door, glanced back and slightly shook her head. She slipped through the door and quietly closed it behind her.
     Pastor Hadley sipped his coffee and then peeked at Mom. He chuckled.
     Mom looked back at him over her knitting and smiled.

COMMENTARY ON EMPIRICISM

David Hume and the empiricists maintain that all that man can know for certain is that which we attain through our physical senses. All the rest that we know is uncertain because we obtain it merely through belief and habit. This philosophy suggests that only knowledge that comes through the senses can be real, whereas knowledge that comes from belief or habit is always suspect, and therefore, less than real.

However by experience, beliefs and habits have proven to be useful or useless depending on how they are employed. If a belief or habit improves a person's life, causing them to be healthier in mind or body, then that effect would seem to be just as real as feeling any solid object. Even more real in some respects because beliefs and habits can improve lives whereas the feeling of a solid object is mainly neutral in this effect. It is difficult to understand how anything that is useful cannot also be real.

In fact, if one examines all sensory feelings and their ideas and all abstract feelings and their ideas in their simplest forms, one will find that they all are useful in one way or another. This rule is a universal fact. If all sensory and abstract feelings and ideas prove themselves useful, then they all must be real. Thus all of the objects of consciousness must be true and real in their simplest forms.

Habits and beliefs are useful or useless combinations of these basic realities. Whether habits and beliefs are useful or useless, the basic realities that compose both are always true and real.

A habit always combines basic realities. If a habit, such as regular exercise, improves one's health, then the effect of that habit can only be true and real. If a habit, such as smoking cigarettes, tends to destroy one's health then the effect of that habit is destructive, reducing one's health toward nothingness and to that effect proves not true and not real. Thus, the habit of smoking cigarettes constitutes a false combination of basic realities that is real as an experienced habit, but its effect is a tendency toward an absolute nothingness which is not true or real; that is, a complete loss of health.

Falsity itself is real since it is a name that identifies combinations that produce useless, empty or destructive effect. Nothingness is also real, but only as an idea . One of the uses of the idea of nothingness is that it identifies the effects of false combinations that reduce reality towards absolute nothingness. Unreality always equals absolute nothingness. A mermaid is a false combination of the realities of "fish" and "female." Yet, the effect of the mermaid is a real nothingness which as a real idea, in turn, identifies an absolute emptiness which is the nonexistence and only unreality of the mermaid.

The false combination of basic realities called: " the theory of aether in space" proved useless because the effect of this false theory revealed that "aether" does not exist. Thus, the idea of "aether" equals the idea of nothing. The real idea of nothing proves useful because it identifies the nonexistence of "aether." The absolute nonexistence of the "aether" is the only unreality of the false combination.

Thus, reality appears in five forms: basic realities, real combinations of basic realities, false combinations of basic realities, names for the effects of false combinations , and the idea of nothing and all terms that equal nothing. The basic realities and their true combinations are always real. False combinations and their effects are also true and real in the sense that they indicate the unreality that should be discarded, avoided, or left behind. The idea of nothing is useful in many ways with no room to explain here. One of the main uses of the idea of nothing is that it points to the absolute nothingness inherent in all false combinations which is the only unreality in human experience. Actually though, humans never experience absolute nothingness because it does not exist in any place or at any time. Unreality is never experienced.

As an experiment, if one should read any page in a dictionary one will find that every word will fit into one or more of the five categories of reality. One must use some thought though.

As for the reality of habit, by habit we expect the sun to rise every morning. The empiricists maintain that this habit is less than real because the sun may not rise one morning. While the empiricists are right that the sun may not rise in the morning, they are wrong to aver that habit cannot be certain. If the sun does not rise in the morning, we humans can be certain that that true and real combination of basic realities called "the sun rising every morning" has drastically changed. Perhaps that basic reality called "gravity" has been subtracted from this real combination. Perhaps that basic reality called an "explosion" of the sun has been added to this real combination. Of course, an "explosion" can be a true or false combination depending on how it is used, but if added to a macro reality like "the rising of the sun every morning," then an "explosion" can be considered a macro basic reality. In any case, if the "sun rising every morning" fails to happen one morning, then we humans can be certain that some basic reality has been added to, or subtracted from, this real combination. We humans can also be certain, by a real habit, that as long as that true combination called "the sun rising every morning" holds exactly as is, then this reality will never fail.

As for the reality of belief, this basic reality proves useful in such combinations as: "confidence that a particular unproven system will prove useful." If such a system is tested and proves to be useful and real, then one's "faith" in that system has also been proven to be real. However, if such a tested system proves to be useless, then one's "faith" becomes equal to the idea of nothing which, in turn, indicates an unreality that should be usefully discarded.

If a Christian has "faith" in that system called: "the sacrifice of Christ that saves one from sin and destruction," and this system proves to be useful and real, then that Christian gains the effect of that system which is "everlasting life."

ON THE NATURE OF REALITY chapter 18

CONCLUSION

     If unreality never appears to duality except as hidden behind the idea of nothingness, then how can reality possibly appear to nonconsciousness? If unreality distorts the difference between the squareness or roundness of a lighthouse as seen from a distance, would not unreality obliterate all differences in all objects in the complete absence of duality? In fact, distance may be nothing but a recession of objects toward nothingness from a observer’s point of view. In the absence of duality, unreality would swallow all differences, and time and space, rendering evolution impossible.
     Whenever the simple true ideas appear, there is creativity. Whenever absolute nothingness does not appear, there is total disorder.
     Let those who claim that reality does not have to appear in order to be real take this into consideration. An object which does not appear has been separated from space and in time. Where is it in space and time? Such an object exists nowhere and at no time, even if it has potential real existence. Reality must appear in order to be real. Those who claim otherwise have slyly admitted that their kind of reality is really equal to nothingness.
     What allows them to aver that reality does not have to appear in order to be real? Is it not their dualities to which these objects have appeared, therefore isolating them in space and time? In order for them to convince us that reality need not appear, let them describe objects of which they have had no experience. Let them merely tell us when and where they are? In order for them to do so, they must first use their minds to make the objects real in outer or inner duality, and that is precisely the necessary task of duality in any universe.
     Materialists do not prove the reality of unexperienced objects by saying: "If they are there, then they are really there." This is merely to utter the first half of tautology. One can not prove that it is raining outside by saying: "If it is raining, then it is really raining." One must look outside to see if it is raining.
     However, there is a tautological truth in saying: "Either it is raining or it is not." Similarly, the same truth must be said about unexperienced objects. "Either an unexperienced object is there or it is not." However, this simple fact points out the truth that while an unexperienced object may possess potential real existence, as long as it remains unexperienced, its existence is equal to its non-existence, and chaos prevails. Only duality can establish reality.
     Furthermore, when duality establishes reality, only that which is real can appear to duality because unreality never appears. Unreality merely distorts reality within false combinations which, in turn, always comprise simple true ideas.
     To the skeptics, materialists, and atheists who doubt the existence of reality, a believer in Christ can only respond: Relax, all objects, ideas, and feelings are real when reduced to their simplest forms, and no matter how weak they may appear to be.
     Falsity hides behind the idea of nothingness as a kind of vicious cycle. Absolute nothingness affects reality by causing false combinations to arise in the world and in the mind. Sin, decay, disorder, impractical systems, and even optical illusions, to name but a few examples, demonstrate the destructive effects of absolute nothingness on reality. In turn, the ineffectiveness inherent in false combinations cause absolute nothingness to mar reality.
     Even so, absolute nothingness can not diminish the infinite set of simple true ideas by one whit, because even every false combination comprises simple true ideas. Infinite Duality can not be diminished or limited by absolute nothingness because Infinite Duality is also the infinite set of simple true ideas; that is, the Living Word of God. Absolute nothingness exists nowhere and at no time, and therefore, it can not diminish or limit Infinite Duality. The non-existence of a mermaid is nowhere and at no time. The effectiveness of a broken down automobile is nothing. It gets one nowhere and at no time. Yet at all times and places, mermaids and broken automobiles and all other false combinations, comprise simple true ideas.
     Skeptics, evolutionists, and atheists have produced the philosophy of nihilism. Nothing could be more logical to them. They believe that everything came from nothing and will return to nothing. To them, nothingness is all-powerful. No wonder they believe that everything is relative; for example, that there is no real difference between good and evil, or that any differences are only temporary. True to God’s description of them in Proverbs 8:36, they hate God and they love sin and death.
     Suppose our universe and all other universes had been, and forever would be, void of all duality. Would it really matter whether they existed or not? The only way that something can matter is if it matters to duality. The nihilists and evolutionists merely think in terms of existence being equal to non-existence. To them, values have always been equal to nothing, and even sensory perception becomes equal to nothing at death. The strange thing is, if they had no minds, they would be right. However, they do have minds, and those minds should be committed to trying to discover the absolute difference between truth and falsity.
     Today, scientists speculate about the possible existence of other universes. Yet, the most they can say is that these universes may exist, or they may not. Is this not an admission that they think in terms of existence and nonexistence being equal?
     If one despairs, one might well consider throwing oneself into the void of nihilism and evolutionary theory. Existential courage can not save in such a case because it would be swallowed by the void as well. Firepower beats willpower every time. If there is no God, then absolute nothingness holds all the firepower.
To those who despair, believers can say: Believe that God is real, and so are His creations. The recreation of man’s fallen spirit has been made real through the vicarious sacrifice, burial, and resurrection of God’s Son. God himself has provided the way for repentant sinners to escape the destructive effects of absolute nothingness.
     God is love, self-sacrifice, beauty, joy, righteousness, and all of the infinite true simple ideas united in Infinite Duality. The infinite set of true simple ideas are united in the Living Word of God who is the Lord Jesus Christ. The infinity of the Word is the Spirit of God who is in every possible place at every possible time. The Infinite Consciousness of the Word is the Father. The being of God constitutes an Infinite Reality.
Man possesses a limited set of true simple ideas that can be reduced or expanded. Yet, man is incapable of expanding his knowledge to the extent that he can save himself. Through the revelation of His Word, both written and living, God has provided the necessary information for man’s salvation.
     Faith can not be obtained through self-effort. It must be given to man by God. As Hebrews 11:1 teaches, faith consists of those substances and evidences that man can not see but which God has provided. Even the eyewitnesses of Jesus’ death on the cross could not fully see what Jesus was actually doing. For a time, the eyewitnesses of his resurrection did not realize what it really meant.
     However, they could remember what Jesus had told them that it would mean, and they did receive the Holy Spirit to teach them what it all meant, as Jesus had said they would.To repent of one’s sins and to receive this revelation from the Holy Spirit as to what Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection actually means, is to have faith. God made it easier for the eyewitnesses to believe, as Jesus pointed out to Thomas in John 20:29. Nevertheless, they had to receive God’s revelation of the reality of salvation, exactly as one must do today.
     To anyone who desires to escape the eventual destruction caused by absolute nothingness, and to obtain everlasting life, the believer can point to John 14:6 where Jesus said: "I am the way, the truth , and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."

CONSCIOUSNESS AND NOTHINGNESS

                             CONSCIOUSNESS AND NOTHINGNESS


How much does a dead body know? Absolutely nothing. A body can only know if it is alive and conscious. The knowing part of the body either departs the body after death or it vanishes. In either case, all must agree that a dead body knows absolutely nothing. A dead body has no awareness whatsoever of time and space. Time does not pass and space does not exist. A dead body even knows nothing about nothing. It absolutely knows nothing at all.

What about a whole universe composed of lifeless matter and energy? Consciousness does not inhere in lifeless matter and energy. Would not such a universe be in the same condition as a dead human body? In such a universe, time could not pass and space could not exist. Even nothingness could not exist in such a universe. This universe could only be equal to absolute nothingness.

One might object that one can imagine such a universe with space and passing through time. Yes, but then such a universe would not be a consciousless one. The consciousness of this imagined universe would reside in the mind of the one imagining it. The mind of the person imagining it gives time and space to it. One can only get an accurate view of a universe composed only of lifeless matter and energy if one refrains from imagining it; if one abstains from lending one's mind to it. In such a case, the only accurate view of such a universe would be one of absolute nothingness.

The physicists who study quantum mechanics have discovered that elementary particles, such as electrons, exist simultaneously as both a wave function and a particle until measured by a conscious person. By the way it is measured, consciousness can cause an electron to become either a wave or a particle.

Does not this same condition exist for time and space? Time is measured in seconds or hours or years by consciousness alone. Time that is not measured is no time at all. A unit of space, no matter how large or small, must be measured by consciousness to be space.

One might object that a person can look through a telescope and see that the universe is billions of years old, and therefore, the universe must have passed through time and space prior to the emergence of consciousness to observe it. Yes, but then one must assume that our universe was consciousless before the time that consciousness observed it. If a dead body holds no consciousness, and therefore, knows absolutely nothing; and lifeless matter also holds no consciousness, and therefore, knows absolutely nothing, then how could our consciousless universe have passed through billions of years? Furthermore, if quantum mechanics has demonstrated that our universe needs consciousness to determine the difference between matter and energy, then how could our universe ever have been a consciousless one? It seems more reasonable to assume that our universe possessed a consciousness prior to human observation. This assumption would better account for the existence of space and the passage of time before human observation. This consciousness could only be the mind of God.

ON LOVE AND THE LAW part 3

Here read (KJV) Proverbs 10:12 I Peter 4:8 I Corinthians 13:8 Romans 13:8-10 Romans 7:13

The law is rigid, hard and inflexible. As such, the law cannot be made to apply to every situation in life. The purpose of the law is to show the guilty just how guilty they are. In other words, where the conscience may be vague, the law is direct and clear. Those who violate the law God condemns to death because He is determined to cleanse His universe of all of the filthiness of sin.

On the other hand, love is completely fluid and flexible and can be made to apply to every situation in life. For this reason, situations exist in life where love trumps a strict application of the law. Romans 13:8-10 teaches that love has already fulfilled the law. One of the meanings of fulfill is "to complete." If one could love God and one's neighbor with a perfect love, then one would have no need for rigid laws. One would automatically do whatever the law requires and even more. The problem is that all humans are sinners, and therefore, cannot love perfectly. The law teaches humans that they are sinners. God's love frees humans from sin, and therefore, from any need for law.

Even human law recognizes that when a person motivated by love violates the law, then that person is usually given a lighter sentence than one motivated by greed or hate or some other negative motivation.

That which humans cannot do because of original sin, God who is Love, can do perfectly. God created all things. This means God created even negative elements such as "hatred" and "jealousy," but these elements are positive as God uses them. As used by humans, "hatred" is almost always cruel and sinful. But when God uses "hatred" He is wholly motivated by love, and therefore, He uses it in an absolutely perfect manner. Hebrews 1:9 teaches that God loves righteousness and hates iniquity. God hates iniquity because it destroys people, but He loves the righteousness of His Son because He saves people from their sins. Song of Solomon 8:6 teaches that, for humans, "jealousy is as cruel as the grave." But Exodus 20:5 relates that "I the Lord thy God am a jealous God," and Exodus 34:14 reveals that one of God's names is "Jealous." God's use of jealousy demonstrates His fierce determination to protect His people from all of the destructive effects of sin and evil.

Lies were not created by God. They were not created, but they were invented, by Satan. However, lies always comprise false combinations of true elements that were created by God. For instance, in Genesis 3:4 when the serpent told Eve: "Ye shall not surely die," he lied. Yet, every element of his lie is a true and useful element that was created by God. "Ye" means Eve was a real person created by God. "Shall" is a true element which means: "an act of the will." "Not" is a real idea of nothing which means in this case: "The real considered as a negative." "Surely" is a true element which means: "for certain." "Die" is a real element which means: "to separate the disobedient from God's presence." The effect of this invented false combination was that Eve was convinced that she could escape the death that results from disobedience. The result of her and Adam's disobedience proved useless and ineffective. On the very day they disobeyed, they died spiritually and God cast them out of His garden.

However, God knows how to use even lies in a wholly loving and creative way. God knows perfectly how to use Satan's own weapon against him. God demonstrated His ability to do this in I Kings 22 when He used a "lying spirit" in His efforts to protect His guileless servant Jehoshaphat from the evil machinations of Ahab. Titus 1:2 and Hebrews 6:18 do teach that God cannot lie, but both of these verses are about God's promises to His people. God cannot lie to His people, but God can use lies in a wholly loving way to protect His people.

The Bible records that in the Great Flood and in Sodom and Gomorrah, God destroyed huge numbers of people. After God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, He sometimes commanded the Israeli army to destroy whole cities with every man, woman and child. Atheists charge God with cruelty for doing this. Actually, God was merciful to humanity as a whole when He took these actions. The humans that God destroyed or had destroyed were themselves very cruel and wicked. They sacrificed their children to their gods, and did many other very cruel practices. These people were very much like the Nazis; wholly given over to evil.

God destroyed this wickedness for the same reason that one would pull the weeds out of one's garden. If a gardener does not weed his garden, the weeds will take over and his vegetables will be choked out. If God had not, from time to time, destroyed huge numbers of wicked people, then their progeny would have become so numerous that the light of God's future gospel would have been so dimmed that few humans would ever be saved. God was merciful in that He made a way for His future gospel to shine brighter in the world so that the maximum number of people would hear His gospel and get saved. God destroyed even the children of the wicked because they were their progeny, and would have carried on the wickedness of their parents. Even in modern times, whole nations have become devoted to evil as did Nazi Germany prior to WWII. Everyone knows the terrible price the free world had to pay to protect itself from the horrible darkness that they would have brought to the world had they won. God is merciful. He will do whatever is necessary to protect His people from the horrible darkness.
                                              Here read John 3:16

This glorious gospel that saves mankind from sin and evil is nothing less than the death, burial and resurrection of God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus took the sin and evil of every human that ever lived on Himself when He died on the cross. Jesus sacrificed Himself for them; taking their just punishment on Himself. His shed blood will wash away the sin of all who will believe in Him. God demonstrated His great love for the world in the crucifixion and resurrection of His Son. All who repent of their sins, and put their trust in Him, will be saved forever from the horrible darkness.

ON LOVE AND THE LAW part 2

                       Here read I Kings 22: 1-38 II Chronicles 18:1-34

Another good example of how this rule applies in God's Word(KJV) occurs in the story of the alliance of Jehoshaphat and Ahab. Jehoshaphat was a godly king of Judah, but he was unbelievably naive and idealistic. Ahab was the wicked king of Israel. Apparently, Jehoshaphat believed that because the people of Israel and the people of Judah shared the same lineage and language, that he could make an alliance with the king of Israel and both countries could be friends. Jehoshaphat was such a simple person that he did not realize that whenever goodness tries to ally with evil, the evil will always attempt to use the good for its own selfish purposes.

Ahab quickly found a way to use his new-found friend when he persuaded Jehoshaphat to join his army to Ahab's army in a fight with Syria. The hapless Jehoshaphat eagerly complied, but being a godly man he wanted Ahab to ask a prophet of the Lord about the wisdom of this venture.

Instead, Ahab gathered four hundred false prophets who would be sure to tell him that which he wanted to hear. He also thought that this false display would deceive Jehoshaphat into doing that which Ahab wanted. However, Jehoshaphat's loyalty to God overcame his naivete, and he insisted that Ahab call a prophet of the Lord to enquire of him. Ahab answered that there was one such prophet, Micaiah the son of Imlah, but tried to dissuade Jehoshaphat from calling him on the grounds that Micaiah was prejudiced against Ahab, always giving him an evil report. Jehoshaphat, knowing that a true prophet of God always gives a true report, simply told Ahab that he should not say such a thing.

Ahab, seeing that he could not get around Jehoshaphat's insistence, had an officer call Micaiah to prophesy. Secretly, Ahab told the officer to try to subvert Micaiah to agree with the false reports of the false prophets who were putting on a show for Ahab to convince Jehoshaphat that Ahab's campaign against the Syrians would be successful.
True to his status as a genuine prophet of God, Micaiah told the officer that he would report only that which the Lord told him to say. Micaiah was very courageous to take this stance because he knew that Ahab had the power to cast him into prison. As it turned out, Ahab did exactly that.

When Ahab asked Micaiah about his prophecy as to whether or not Israel and Judah should go to war, Micaiah answered that the king should go to war and prosper. Apparently though, Micaiah had said this in such a sarcastic voice, that Ahab immediately demanded that Micaiah report the truth of God's word. Ahab was smart enough to know that he could not accept this answer because he knew that everyone, especially king Jehoshaphat, had heard the unmistakable sarcasm in Micaiah's voice and that his answer would create doubt in Jehoshaphat's mind. In order to overcome this doubt, Ahab had no choice but to demand that Micaiah provide a true answer. Micaiah promptly complied, telling Ahab that Israel would lose the battle and his army would be scattered over the hills.

Ahab then immediately fell back to his old tactic of complaining that Micaiah simply held prejudices against him. This quick switch had its desired effect. Jehoshaphat's putative doubt about Ahab quickly changed to his having a doubt about Micaiah. Thus Ahab's clever trickery persuaded the gullible Jehoshaphat to ally with him despite Micaiah's following explanation of the vision that God had given him.

Micaiah then related his vision about how God had employed a "lying spirit" to deceive Ahab into going into a battle that would destroy him. However, Micaiah's message was meant for Jehoshaphat, not Ahab. Despite all of Ahab's show and machinations, God was trying to get the message to Jehoshaphat that Ahab was not his friend, and that he should not go to war with him. God knew that the naive Jehoshaphat needed special protection. Indeed, through his whole life Jehoshaphat received God's special protection.

For a human to lie to another person in order to cause his destruction constitutes a definite sin. Yet, God not only allowed, but commanded the "lying spirit" to deceive Ahab. This fact makes God directly responsible for the lie. God lied to Ahab. Did God sin? Absolutely, He did not. Because of His love and mercy toward Jehoshaphat, God desired to destroy the evil Ahab in order to protect Jehoshaphat. At the same time, God tried to get a message to Jehoshaphat that he should separate himself from Ahab.

Jehoshaphat knew that the false prophets were not of God. He had heard the sarcasm in Micaiah's voice. He also had heard Micaiah's true account of the vision that God had given him. Incidentally, Micaiah had not lied about relating only that which God had told him when he gave his sarcastic answer. He merely repeated that which the "lying spirit" had told Ahab.

God did everything He could to alert the simple Jehoshaphat to Ahab's evil intentions. Yet, despite all of God's efforts on his behalf, the addle-brained Jehoshaphat went to war with Ahab anyway.

When they went to the battle, Ahab told Jehoshaphat to keep his royal robes on, while Ahab disguised himself as an ordinary soldier. Ahab's wicked intent should have been apparent to Jehoshaphat. Ahab knew that the Syrians would go all out to kill him, so he tricked Jehoshaphat into wearing his royal robes so that the Syrians would mistake Jehoshaphat for him. This is exactly what happened, but God's special protection for Jehoshaphat prevailed and spared him from harm. However, Ahab was killed by a stray arrow shot in the general direction of the Israeli army. Thus, God's justice prevailed in the end.

This story constitutes one of the best examples in scripture of how any action perfectly motivated by love and mercy trumps the law and cannot, in itself, be sinful. During WWII, America and its allies used many lies and deceptions against the evil Nazis and Fascists in order to save lives and shorten the war. These actions were not sinful. In fact, they were noble and good because they were completely motivated by a desire to save the freedom-loving people of the world.

ON LOVE AND THE LAW part 1

Here read II Corinthians 5:21 Matthew 12:1-14 Mark 2:23-28 Mark 3:1-5 Luke 6:1-11 Leviticus 24:5-9
I Kings 22:6-23 II Chronicles 18:1-22 Hosea 6:6 Micah 6:6-8 Numbers 28:9-10

Beyond a shadow of a doubt, the Lord Jesus Christ never sinned or broke the law of God. He could not sin because He was God in human form and had no original sin in Him that would compel Him to sin. He is Life itself, and so when Satan tempted Him, He simply overcame Satan by quoting the Word of God. Thus He proved that Life cannot be destroyed.

One day the Pharisees rebuked Jesus for allowing His disciples to glean on the Sabbath day. They were trying to accuse Jesus of violating the law so that they could gain some power over Him. Jesus ignored their misreading of the law. The law of gleaning taught nothing about not gleaning on the Sabbath, and the law of the Sabbath rest allowed eating on the Sabbath.

Instead, Jesus chose to rebuke them in another way. He reminded them of the story of how David, and they that were with him, had eaten the shewbread which, by law, only the priests were allowed to eat. Then, He reminded them how, in the law, God had ordered the priests to make a special burnt-offering sacrifice on the Sabbath day. The subtle contrast between these two stories conveyed a message to the Pharisees that Jesus knew they would miss. The priests could hardly be blamed for violating the Sabbath by following God's command to sacrifice on the Sabbath, and David could not be blamed for showing mercy to himself and his followers when they were hungry, even though he technically violated the law by eating the priests' shewbread.

Jesus then emphasized His message, which again He knew they would miss, by flatly telling them that He was greater than the temple. Jesus used the temple as a symbol for the law because the temple held the law. Jesus' subtle message to the Pharisees was that He was God, and that God alone decides when His law has been violated and when it has not.
Jesus further emphasized His message by quoting the prophets Hosea and Micah who had taught, by the inspiration of God, that mercy was better than sacrifice. Jesus' message should have been plain to the Pharisees. It is good to obey God by sacrificing animals, but it is better to practice mercy which these sacrifices symbolize even if one technically violates the law by doing so.

Jesus then further spiked the ire of the Pharisees by brazenly telling them: "For the Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath day." This message was unmistakable. Since God is Lord of the Sabbath, and therefore Lord over the whole law, then He retains the right to decide when love and mercy trumps a technical violation of the law. Thus, God held David blameless for eating the priests' shewbread because he was wholly motivated by love and mercy when he did so.

Immediately following Jesus' attempt to teach the clueless Pharisees, He entered a synagogue where He healed a man with a withered hand. This healing was a direct example of that lesson He had just been teaching.

The Pharisees asked Jesus if He wasn't violating the law when He healed this man on the Sabbath. The Pharisees considered this to be work on the Sabbath rest. The hypocritical Pharisees ignored compassion and mercy and demanded that the people observe a very strict adherence to the law as they interpreted it. They did this because they wanted to control the people themselves by making them forget that God is merciful. By putting impossible demands on the people, the Pharisees could dump guilt on them for the slightest infraction, knowing that whoever can be made to feel guilty can be controlled.
Jesus exposed their hypocrisy when He pointed out the fact that they had no problem rescuing animals on the Sabbath, but had no compassion for the rescue of people. Jesus then plainly told them the whole truth of the matter when He said: "Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days." No person ever violates the law of God in any act that is completely motivated by love and mercy even if such an act constitutes a technical violation of the law.

One caveat follows from this rule. One must be wholly motivated by love and compassion. If even the slightest amount of selfishness should enter into the motivation, then the act is ruined and that person has sinned. Remember the proverbial warning of the expert stunt performer: "Don't try this at home." Jesus is the expert. Humans are not.

Even human law recognizes this rule to a certain extent. For example, a person who commits a so-called "mercy killing" usually gets a light sentence because the judge realizes that even though that person may have been motivated by love and compassion when they killed a suffering loved one, that killer may also have been partly motivated by selfishness in wanting to rid himself of a burden. Soldiers in combat who kill their comrades who beg for death because they have been horribly maimed, usually are not punished at all. In any case, one must be extremely circumspect when contemplating an act of mercy that violates a law. Usually, one would be better off to leave these types of actions to God alone.

ON THE NATURE OF REALITY chapter 17

HEAVEN AND HELL

     Unbelievers have spread many canards about heaven. As I Corinthians 2:14 indicates, unbelievers completely misunderstand spiritual matters. Unbelievers have spread such foolish rumors as that in heaven humans will have angels’ wings and will do nothing but sit on clouds playing harps.
     However, verses 15-16 reveal that believers retain the potentiality to understand and to judge all matters. Verse 16 clearly teaches that believers possess the "mind of Christ." This means that having been "born again," believers have been spiritually reconnected to the infinite mind of God, and thus possess an infinite amount of wisdom from which to draw.
     I Corinthians 2:9-13 teaches that God reveals His eternal truths to believers beginning in this life and continuing into eternity. This means that believers will eventually possess more simple true ideas and their true combinations than unbelievers can ever have. Believers can draw greater wisdom from their spiritual reconnection to Infinite Duality.
     Such facts can not mean that believers have nothing to do. Believers need to spend time praying, studying God’s Word, and listening to the Holy Spirit. Believers should battle the corrupting effects of sin and confusion every day. God’s will is that believers should work hard to become more like Christ. God acquires greater glory when believers use their freedom to discover greater truths. As Jesus taught in Luke 9:23, believers should take up their cross daily and follow him.
     As I Corinthians 15:42-57, Philippians 3:20-21, I Thessalonians 4:13-18, and I John 3:2 teach, some day, in the resurrection and translation of the church, all believers will be transformed into spiritual-bodies like that of the resurrected Christ. This does not mean that believes will become gods, or that they will ever be as good as Jesus. Rather, it simply means that in their eternal home, believers will be forever disconnected form all sin and confusion. Their spiritual-bodies and minds will be perfectly clear of all corrupting influences so that they will be free to spend forever in learning more simple true ideas and in creating more true combinations. Believers will spend eternity worshiping God and learning more and more about Him. Believers will never know everything at once as God does, but they will be like bookworms in an infinite library continually consuming the infinite wisdom of God. Believers will spend forever learning new and beautiful truths that they can not now even begin to imagine. Only believers will be allowed to spend eternity learning more about science, art, mathematics, wisdom, and goodness. This privilege is reserved for those who humble themselves to God.
     Skeptics and atheists have long argued that Christians exaggerate the importance of man by putting him at the center of the universe. They argue that since there is no God, then mankind is merely one form of finite intelligence among many finite intelligences scattered throughout the universe. They assert that because many of these intelligences may be superior to man’s, then man is probably a relatively unimportant creature in the universe.
     However, it has never been true that Christians put man at the center of the universe. Christians put God at the center of the universe. God is the only being who is truly important. As Revelation 4:11 and 5:9 teach, God alone deserves all glory, praise, and honor. Man is merely a fallen creature on whom God has bestowed His love and grace.
     Actually, the skeptics and atheists are the ones who put man, or some other finite intelligence, at the center of the universe. They put their faith in finite intelligence alone. Whether that intelligence belongs to man or some other creature is immaterial to them. To their way of thinking, finite intelligence is the greatest good. Finite intelligence will ultimately save mankind, if he can be saved, from all adversity including the collapse of the universe.
     Their opinion reveals the height of arrogance and pride. The destructive effects of absolute nothingness have proven far too powerful for any finite intelligence to handle. Yet man, unwilling to admit that he needs help, shakes his puny fist in the face of the absolute nothingness that will one day crush him. Absolute nothingness simply overwhelms finite intelligence.
     Mankind needs true humility. I Peter 5:5-6 teaches that men must humble themselves to God in order to receive grace and exaltation. As Jesus taught in His parable in Luke 18:9-14, such humility must be an admission of complete and utter helplessness in one’s combat with sin. The repentant sinner must empty himself of all pride and any thought of self-help, and come to depend completely upon Christ for his salvation. The repentant sinner must open his absolute nothingness to the creative powers of God already accomplished through the sacrifice and resurrection of His Son.
     In John 14:6, Jesus taught that He is the only way to God. He is the truth, and He is the life. This fact means that religion teaches that, to one degree or another, man can do something to help himself overcome his sin. God’s Word teaches that there is absolutely nothing that a man can do to overcome his absolute nothingness. A repentant sinner must humble himself enough to admit this fact to God. Then, he will be able to completely trust Christ for his salvation. Anything short of this is as unacceptable to God as was Cain’s offering. Thus Christianity may adopt some forms of religion, but true Christianity is not a religion, but rather, true Christianity comes into the hearts of believers through faith in the finished work of Christ. Hebrews 7:25 teaches that Christ alone saves to the uttermost.
     Some believers, who are also members of some religion, may yet be saved because God will forgive their sin of trusting their religion, which amounts to a lack of faith in Christ. Probably, all those who truly love Christ will be saved regardless of their Christian religious affiliation. However, believers must love the Christ of the Bible. They must love Jesus who is God and not some phony Jesus who was invented by their religion and who is less than God. True believers do fit into many categories, but they are all destined for heaven and they all possess an eternal fellowship with Christ. Those who do not believe that Jesus is God are not true believers.
     All unbelievers, whether they are atheistic or religious, are bound for hell. Because of their disconnection from the eternal Spirit, they are destined to sink toward absolute nothingness forever. Their dualities can never be broken because they were created by God. Absolute nothingness can never completely destroy anything created by God.
     This is truly a horrible fate, to sink forever toward destruction without ever being completely destroyed. Yet, one must remember that they descend into hell because they chose to put their faith in finite intelligence. For the most part, religious beliefs are in what man can do, which also amounts to belief in finite intelligence. In pride, unbelievers choose to believe in themselves rather than to humble themselves enough to ask God to save them. Even if God were to accept them into heaven, their condition would be far more horrible for them than hell itself. In heaven they would be compelled to admit that there is an Infinite Power far greater than themselves. Since they do not love God, they would be forced to live in constant humiliations. In time, they would beg to be sent back to hell. No doubt, all those in hell believe that someday their finite intelligences will devise a plan to get them out of there. They will always have a kind of hope.
     Thus, for those who have faith in finite intelligence, heaven would prove a far worse punishment than would hell. Yet, there exists a finite punishment that is far worse than even the eternal punishment of hell. This punishment is the same kind that the Apostle Peter suffered shortly after denying Jesus. This is the punishment of believers’ remorse.
     Imagine the depth of agony that Peter must have felt as recorded in Luke 22:61-62. Yet, he faced his remorse and allowed it to carry him to repentance, and as always, the forgiveness of Jesus. Jesus wanted Peter to know that he was forgiven in John 21 when Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved Him. Vestiges of shame would not allow Peter to reply with the strongest word for love; that is, the word "agape."
     In contrast, Judas Iscariot also felt remorse for his betrayal of Jesus. Yet, pride kept him from allowing himself to be guided to the humility of repentance. Instead, he chose the lesser punishment of killing himself and going to hell. He would have to suffer many terrors in hell, but at least, he would not have to suffer the humiliation of having to repent. Because those in hell become demonic, in time, he would come to be glad that he betrayed Jesus.
     Believers who commit suicide and those who die while living in deliberate disobedience suffer a tremendously profound remorse and subsequent repentance before the judgment seat of Christ that proves to be a worse punishment than all of the fires of hell could ever inflict. Yet, they can not lose their salvation and go to hell because God wills it so. They are predetermined to be conformed to the image of Christ because God wills it. In conflict with God, believers always lose. God wills that they suffer punishment worse than that of hell until such time as they repent.
     The doctrine of purgatory is not taught in scripture. Purgatory would be a form of temporary hell in which the prideful could expiate their own sins. Only Christ can expiate sin, which accounts for the need for humility within believers.
     As II Timothy 2:13 indicates, for Christ to deny His believers; He considers to be the same as denying Himself. Because He is literally their death, their life, and their righteousness, Jesus considers believers to have the same level of acceptance with the Father as He does, even if they quit believing. He can and will correct them, but He will never deny them. Note what Jesus said to Saul in Acts 9:4: "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me"?
     II Corinthians 5:10 and I Corinthians 3:12-17 teach that there will be a judgment of believers. I Corinthians 3:15 indicates that this judgment is for the saved. In this judgment, sinful believers receive a far greater punishment than they would ever have received in any temporary hell.
     Verse 15 teaches that a believer’s evil works will be burned. Verse 17 indicates that God will destroy him. Yet, verse 15 states that he will be saved. This is not a contradiction. Apparently, that part of the believer’s personality that still clings to sin will be destroyed along with his evil works. This requires a depth of remorse and agony unknown to those in hell. Those in hell are punished forever, but at least they are allowed to remain what they are. Having a part of oneself destroyed would require a greater agony in finite time than could the fires of hell in infinite time.
     Jesus evidently referred to believers’ punishment in Matthew 5:25-26, and in His parable recorded in Luke 12:41-48. This parable refers to a judgment of servants, and scripture never refers to unbelievers as servants of God. Jesus taught in His parable that faithful servants will be rewarded and unfaithful ones punished. What divides those who are punished from those who are rewarded? This judgment belongs to Christ alone. Eventually, Christ will bring all punished believers out of their agony upon repentance, forgive them, and restore them to fellowship with God and their fellow saints. This happens because God’s perfection of believers is unchangeable and inevitable. This is what God has done, and is doing, and He can not fail.
     Chapters 21 and 22 of Revelation describe heaven as being unimaginably beautiful. This constitutes an apt environment for believers; they being directly connected to the infinite creativity and wisdom of God. The greatest joy of heaven is that believers will see Jesus and will forever praise and worship Him. Believers are also those of the human race who will enjoy progress forever. Believers will spend eternity in education and creativity, and all for the glory of God.
     Hell is the appropriate place for unbelievers. Their suffering will prevent them from thinking about how to concoct any more evil. Eventually, as Revelation 20: 14-15 and Revelation 21: 8 indicates, hell and death and all unbelievers will be cast into the lake of fire where they will be thoroughly purged of all possibility of  devising any more evil at all. God fully intends to eliminate all sin and evil from His universe. However, if any unbeliever will simply put their faith in Christ's power to save them, then He cannot refuse them as He has promised in John 6: 37.

untitled poem

A squawking seagull
Soaring over sandy shore,
Hails halcyon days.

untitled poem

Stretching tiny wings
To test its strength, a fledgling,
Finding freedom, flies.

ON THE NATURE OF REALITY chapter 16

REDEMPTION

     Love, faith, and hope are true combinations of simple true ideas in God’s Word. God’s love encompasses all types of love including the agape love of God for man. Love is also a simple true idea when one means a particular feeling such as "friendship" or "romance." Faith can also be a true simple idea when one means a particular kind of faith such as "confidence" or "repentance." Although it certainly seems impossible for one to have faith in God without at least a modicum of love for Him, God requires only faith for man’s salvation. Two of the simple true ideas in the system of faith are "confidence" and "reliance." Thus to have faith is to put one’s confidence in Christ; that is, one relies on Christ as having all power and ability to rescue one from the destructive effects of sin and death. Thus John 3:16 sums up the entire message of God’s Word to man.
     Redemption means "to buy back;" that is, to rescue from a fallen condition. Man’s fallen condition renders him far too weak and confused to effect his own salvation even in cooperation with God. The tremendous amount of labor and sacrifice needed to effect salvation is far too great for man even to attempt. Such hard work can be done by God alone. For these reasons, according to Romans 5:6 and II Corinthians 5:21, Christ literally took the sin and death that is the fallen condition of man upon Himself on the cross. All of the sin of man was laid on Him, and He suffered all of its destructive effects. Christ suffered the death of every man, but He is also the life of every believer. Colossians 3:1-4 clearly teaches that Christ is both the death and the life of the believer.
     Therefore, in accordance with Romans 3:21-27, any man who receives Christ by faith will be cleansed from sin, forgiven of sin, and rescued from an everlasting death. Only when God has thoroughly cleansed a believer by the blood of Jesus, will that believer be  qualified to receive the everlasting, resurrected, righteous life of Christ. Thus Christ is far more than the one who accomplished salvation. He is that very salvation itself. For these reasons, there can be no such thing as salvation by personal effort or by cooperation with God.
     Revelation 1:5 reveals that the sole agent that washes away the sins of man is the shed blood of Jesus. This is the first great mystery of the cross that no doubt no one will ever completely understand. Why the blood of Jesus? How could the blood of Jesus cleanse all of that sin? As the shed blood of Jesus flowed from the cross, somehow it carried all of man’s sins away into absolute nothingness as water and soap carries dirt down a drain. Because Jesus is God in human form, God’s pure blood is the cleansing agent. The blood of God, being directly connected to the infinite holiness of God, can be nothing but absolutely pure, and must remain so after washing away sin. This absolute polarization proves that infinite God can negate a finite power, in this case those false combinations called sins, without corrupting Himself.
     The second great mystery of the cross is that Christ, being God, died on it. How could the everlasting life of God ever die? Possibly, the answer lies in the fact that death never becomes annihilation. Absolute nothingness holds no power to negate a finite duality, much less an infinite one. Nevertheless, Satan wanted Christ dead, not because he thought that absolute nothingness could destroy Infinite Duality, but because Satan believed that when the Holy Spirit descended into hell, then God would be forever separated from Himself, and thus His powers would be forever negated. With God imprison in hell, Satan would then be free to fill absolute nothingness with whatever destructive pleasures that he desired.
     When the lifeless body of Jesus hung on the cross, and His Holy Spirit descended into hell, then God was truly dead as if He were a finite, sinful duality. Death is eternal separation from God, and God was separated from Himself. God’s death on the cross was absolutely necessary because God had to take the place of sinful man completely in order to destroy sin and death. This necessity explains Christ’s cry from the cross as recorded in Matthew 27:46. Yet, another cry from the cross as recorded in Luke 23:46, demonstrated Christ’s absolute faith that the Father would resurrect Him to victory because although He knew that His Spirit would descend into hell, He nevertheless commended His Spirit into the hands of the Father. Similarly, repentant sinners must realize that they deserve hell on the one hand, but that they can also cry out to God, in faith, for His mercy and grace on the other hand, and be certain that God will grant them salvation.
     The problem that developed for Satan and the other lords of absolute nothingness was that hell could not hold God. The holiness of God caused more anguish to Satan and his demons than they could endure. The prophecy of Genesis 3:15 had come true. The holiness of God  had become mixed with evil, but this condition caused much more pain and anguish to evil than it did to God. As the evil powers were preoccupied with their suffering, God began again to reassert the absolute polarization of good and evil. The Holy Spirit began to ascend from hell, bringing all the Old Testament saints in paradise and paradise itself with Him. The Holy Spirit ascended to revitalize the body of Jesus, changing it into a spiritual-body, which all believers will receive upon resurrection. Jesus ascended to heaven and God was reunited with Himself. In this way, Christ destroyed sin and death, and He provided everlasting life to all who will believe.
     Proverbs 8:35-36 clearly defines the difference between those who are alive and those who are dead. Those who refuse to repent and believe in Christ to everlasting life do so because they love their disconnection from God. They want their independence from God’s authority. In seeking to save their lives, they lose them, as Jesus made clear in Mark 8:34-36. Some of them may pay lip service to God, but secretly, they do not believe in Him. They may believe in some vague god, but they will not believe in the God of the Bible; the God of love but also of judgment.
     God rules as absolutely necessary that He forever separate unbelievers from His presence, because if He did not, they would forever exert a corrupting influence on His continuous efforts to eliminate absolute nothingness from His creations. Indeed, unbelievers themselves prefer such a separation because they truly hate God and all that is pure and holy.
     On the other hand, God has equally determined that He will forever include believers in His presence. Another of the simple true ideas contained within the true combination called "faith" is the one called "repentance." Repentance means to change one’s mind about one’s relationship to God. In contrition, the repentant sinner turns from his sin, comes to hate it, and cries out to Christ for salvation. He does not try to save or reform himself. He knows that that would be the sin of self-righteousness. He simply humbly begs God for mercy and grace, believing that Christ has already done all that he needs for his salvation. Therefore, repentance is a necessary part of faith. God has determined that believers will live with Him forever, as Psalms 34:18 and Isaiah 57:15 clearly teach.
     For a person to believe that he can add to God’s salvation is to commit the sin of unbelief in God’s Word, for Jesus has already said that self-salvation is impossible in Mark 10:26-27, and the Holy Spirit said the same in Romans 5:6. Those whom God saves are those who cry out to Him for grace, realizing their completely helpless condition, as Romans 10:8-13 declares. To do anything less than this is to commit the sins of pride and self-righteousness.
In John 3:3-8, Jesus teaches that to be "born again" or "born from above" is absolutely necessary for one to enter the kingdom of God. Being "born again" is wholly a creative, miraculous act of God which is directly connected to the sacrificial work of Chris, as Jesus made clear in verses 14-21.
     When one turns from one’s sins and calls out to God for grace, then the Holy Spirit takes control of that person. The person himself does not have to do anything. As I Corinthians 6:11 teaches, the Holy Spirit washes, sanctifies, and justifies the believer. Then in accordance with Ephesians 1:12-14, the Holy Spirit forever seals the believer to God, and in accordance with Galatians 6:8, the Spirit imparts to the believer the everlasting life of Christ. Galatians 5:22 states that the Holy Spirit even gives the faith that is needed. Not only that, Jesus taught in John 16:8-9 that the Spirit causes sinners to realize that they need God in the first place! Through the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ, given by the Holy Spirit, God reconnects the broken spiritual condition of unbelievers to Himself. To have one’s spirit reconnected to God’s infinite Spirit is to be "born again."
     Ephesians 1:12-13 clearly demonstrates that salvation from the Holy Spirit immediately follows faith. Also, Ephesians 2:1-13 describes the "born again" experience of salvation.
The Holy Spirit uses the accomplished work of Christ to restore the finite spirits of believers to a reconnection to the infinite Spirit of God. Yet, how do weak, finite minds ever come to realize that they need this "born again" reconnection? Again, God takes the initiative. In the parable of the lost sheep in Matthew 18:11-14, Jesus explains that He seeks and saves the lost sheep.
     The Spirit of Christ, who is also the Holy Spirit, uses the Word of God to cause the lost to realize that they are disconnected from God and that they need to call upon God for salvation. This is clearly taught in Romans 10, verses 8 and 17.
     Then Romans 10:9-13 describes exactly what follows from this realization of being lost. Anyone who calls upon God for grace, desiring to have faith, freely receives from God the salvation that Christ has provided for them.
     In John 16:7-11, Jesus describes the work of the Holy Spirit in relation to the world; that is, to the lost. The Holy Spirit causes those who hear God’s Word to realize that they are sinners; that is, that they are spiritually disconnected from the source of life, God, and that, therefore, they need to have faith in Christ. The Holy Spirit causes the lost to realize that Christ and His righteousness are real even though they have not seen His life, death, and resurrection. The lost are made to realize that the love of God demonstrated in the righteous work of Christ has already provided all they need for salvation. The lost are also made to realize that God will one day judge the world and destroy all evil, beginning with the prince of this world, the Devil. As surely as God will judge Satan, God will judge all unbelievers. Those who refused to believe in Christ will be destroyed. However, since unrepentant sinners actually love death more than God, strange as it may seem, their destruction will be exactly that which they want. Like the demons, unbelievers would suffer more in the presence of a Holy God than they will in the fires of hell.
     In I Corinthians 15:10, the Apostle Paul attributes all that he is, and ever will be, to the grace of God. He described the gospel he preached in verses 1-4. This gospel is the grace of God that was freely bestowed upon him by the Holy Spirit at the time that he was born again. Paul refers to his born again experience with Christ in verse 8.
     The born again experience starts the sanctification process. Sanctification means that God, by His grace, elects believers and recreates them to conform to the image of Christ, as recorded in II Corinthians 3:17-18 and II Corinthians 5:17.
     In the sanctification process, the Holy Spirit imparts certain gifts to believers. Those gifts that directly pertain to that which God has already done for man through Christ are immediately and irrevocably effective at the time that believers are born again. These gifts can not fail because God can not fail. God never fails to finish whatever He starts, as recorded in Philippians 1:6.
     God never fails to cleanse believers in the blood of Christ as recorded in Revelation 1:5. God never fails to take residence in the hearts of believers, forever sealing them with the unbreakable seal of the Holy Spirit, as recorded in Ephesians 1:13 and 4:30. God never fails to forgive sinners completely, as recorded in Ephesians 4:32. God can forever forgive believing sinners because Christ has forever cleansed them. God never fails to give everlasting life to believers because the infinite Christ is their life, as recorded in Colossians 3:4. God never fails to justify believers, as recorded in Romans 4:25 through Romans 5:1-2. Justification means that God declares believers to be "not guilty" because Christ has already suffered in their places as if He were the one who was guilty. God never fails to impart the righteousness of Christ to believers, as recorded in Romans 5:17-21. The only possible righteousness that believers can possess is the righteousness of Christ. Only through His righteousness can believing sinners become acceptable to God. God never fails to impart these gifts and more because these are directly connected to the perfect life, sacrificial death, and glorious resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. These gifts can not fail because Christ did not fail. In other words, the believing sinner can rest in the finished work of Christ, as recorded in John 19:30 and Hebrews 10:9-18.
     Although the love of God and the work of Christ can not fail to save and to perfect believers, nevertheless, believers can and do fail God. The Holy Spirit imparts certain gifts to believers to which they are expected to try to conform their lives. Most of these gifts are outlined in Galatians 5:22-26. These gifts are also part of the sanctification process.
Although God can not fail to save believing sinners completely, this fact does not mean that God completely removes their freedom. Believers retain their freedom, and thus at least a part of their old Adamic natures. The Apostle Paul discussed the constant warfare between these two natures in Romans 7:15-25. He called his spiritual side the "law of God," and his carnal side the "law of sin."
     Some believers do a poor job of conforming their lives to the "law of God" within themselves. Too often they yield to the influence of the "law of sin" and thus fail God. However, this fact does not leave God powerless to help them. The Holy Spirit will always woo them and convict them in accordance with John 14:26. God will even punish them in accordance with Hebrews 12:5-7, but always because they are His children. In fact, in accordance with Hebrews 12:8, if a person commits sin and is not punished by God, this constitutes evidence that that person is not a child of God.
     God also uses fellow believers to correct a sinning brother or sister. God expects their attitudes toward their sinning brother or sister to conform to Galatians 6:1-2. Believers should always treat each other with compassion and humility. Believers should never feel that they are above failure. To have this kind of pride in one’s sanctification is itself a sin, being a form of self-righteousness.
     God never removes His Holy Spirit from believers even if they lose their faith as II Timothy 2:13 clearly teaches. Romans 8:5-8 teaches that those who are carnally minded; that is, the lost sinners, prefer death and spiritual separation from God over salvation. Romans 8:1-2 and verses 14-17 declare that those who have the Spirit of God are the children of God and are joint heirs with Christ. Particularly, verse 16 informs believers that God does not keep the knowledge of his salvation secret from His believers. Thus, God is the one who separates believers from unbelievers, and God guarantees the salvation of believers even if they cease to believe. Verse 16 clearly teaches that the children of God are joint heirs with Christ, which means that they can no more lose their inheritance than Christ can lose His.
     In Matthew 22:10, Jesus clearly explained that the guests at the marriage feast (which refers to the marriage of Christ with His church) are both good and bad. Romans 8:28-34 affirms that God absolutely predestines his children to be "conformed to the image of His son." God states in verse 30 that He alone predestines them, calls them, justifies them, and glorifies them; that is, He sanctifies them. God’s grace alone saves and sanctifies believers despite the inevitable failures that result from their retention of freedom. Believers are bound to fail because of the "law of sin" in their members which results from the weakness and confusion of their finite minds. God knows all of this better than humans. Yet, God saves repentant sinners anyway. When God reconnects a sinful mind to His infinite mind, He forms a bond that all of the powers of hell and humanity combined can never break. Jesus clearly stated this fact in John 10:27-30, and the Holy Spirit describes the believers’ security in Romans 8:35-39.
     Does this guarantee mean that God condones sin or winks at it? The answer is absolutely not. Jesus instructed His followers to obey God’s commands. In Romans 6:14-18, Romans 12:1-2, and II Corinthians 6:14-18, the Holy Spirit expects and commands believers to separate themselves from sin and conform their lives to the gift of righteousness which they have received from God.
     Although unbelievers possess a certain amount of freedom to do good or evil, nevertheless, they are never able to move beyond the bound of their separation from God. Jesus taught in John 8:34 that unrepentant sinners are the slaves of sin. Only the Son can liberate unbelievers from this slavery as verse 36 points out. Unbelievers retain a freedom that does not allow them to pass beyond the limits of their sin. Romans 5:6-11 teaches that unbelievers are completely helpless to save themselves. Christ alone can save them.
     Since, in God’s liberty, Christ chose to come to the world to save sinners; this work of salvation is God’s alone. Jesus taught in John 6:37-40 that God always saves believers with a salvation which the freedom of the believer can never revoke. As Jesus declares in John 8:32 and the Holy Spirit in II Corinthians 3:17, believers are moved into God’s liberty. God’s liberty is the constant opportunity to create that which is good and true. Unbelievers possess a destructive form of liberty, being subject to the effects of absolute nothingness. As children of God, believers enjoy the liberty of God treating their sins as errors to be corrected, and not as destructive. In God’s salvation and sanctification efforts, He treats the absolute nothingness inherent in believers as an open field in which His creative powers can operate to recreate the believer into someone beautiful, good, and true. God’s project leaves nothing for the believer to do but believe. Indeed, Jesus points out in John 6:29 that the only work of believers is to believe.
     Yet, within the sanctification process, God allows believers to retain their carnal freedom. This fact is clearly taught in Romans 7:15-25. Why does God allow this? Why does not God revoke believers’ carnal liberty so that they can not sin and thus become a perfect light of Christ to the sinful world?
     The answer can be found in Romans 5:20 and I John 1:7-10. The freedom of God is that He knows the infinite set of simple true ideas and that He always creates true combinations. Absolute nothingness is finite. God is infinite creativity. God’s desire is to prove that infinite creativity will always, and in every circumstance, overpower absolute nothingness. Should God revoke believers’ carnal freedom, He could charge Himself with failure to meet the challenge of sin on every occasion. God is certainly no coward. Again and again, God proves His powers of love, grace, sacrifice, and forgiveness in this great truth from Romans 5:20: "But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound."
     Does this mean that God grants believers a license to sin? The answer is absolutely not. The residence of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of believers causes them to desire to conform their lives to God’s gift of righteousness. II Corinthians 5:17 and Galatians 5: 13-16 teaches that believers are a new creation of God, and that their natural desire is changed to love goodness and to eschew evil.
     Nevertheless, the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15, and the Apostle Paul’s discussion of the weakness of the flesh in Romans 7, clearly demonstrates that there are times when something goes terribly wrong in the lives of believers. The weaknesses inherent in man’s spirit and mind lead to the formations of false combinations. False combinations open the spirit to the influence of absolute nothingness which is always destructive.
     Still, the abundant grace of God never shrinks from meeting and overpowering sin on every occasion in which it may arise in believers. Every time that absolute nothingness does not appear behind false combinations, God is there to fill it in with His creative actions. For this reason, believers may stray, sometimes for many years, but eventually God always wins. Jesus will never lose a single one of His sheep as John 10:26-30 and Romans 8:28-30 make clear.
     Besides, when believers go astray, they certainly grieve the Holy Spirit in accordance with Ephesians 4:30, but their actions can never diminish God. In accordance with Galatians 6:7-8, a sinning believer really only hurts himself. God will make him feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit, and God will punish him to bring about his correction. God will allow him to reap the corruption and pain that sin always causes. Yet, God will always be there to help him. God will never leave him nor forsake him as He promised in Hebrews 13:5. Eventually, God will correct the sinning believer even if He has to kill him and bring him home to Himself in disgrace.
     Always, as soon as a sinning believer confesses and repents of his sin, God is willing to cleanse, to forgive, and to restore him to His fellowship. This truth is taught in I John 1:3-10 and 2:1-3.
     The Spirit of Christ is always with believers, and Christ also always sits at the right hand of the Father as the believers’ intercessor. This great truth is taught in Romans 8:34, Hebrews 7:25, and I John 2:1. Christ constantly watches over believes, talks to the Father on their behalf, and asks Him for patience and mercy. Because of their carnal freedom, believers constantly struggle with weakness and confusion. They do not know how to separate goodness from evil, but they do have confidence that Jesus knows how, and that despite their sins, He is always able to bring them out of sin. Believers can rest in faith that God has provided His Word for their guidance, and the advocacy of Christ for their weakness. Believers will lose battles, but be absolutely certain that they will win the war.
     As Colossians 1:12-14 indicates, God alone redeems and sanctifies. For this reason, unbelievers have no excuse for not believing. Since God promised to provide, and has provided, the salvation that everyone needs, and since God can be the only source of goodness and safety, then the unbelievers’ own pride and futile self-reliance must be that which causes their refusal to repent and leads to their self-destruction. Unbelievers need only repent and put their trust in the power and grace of Christ to find eternal salvation. This salvation becomes effective the moment the believer experiences a spiritual reconnection to God’s infinity.
     Salvation does not mean that believers attain instantaneous perfection. God allows them to retain their freedom. Repentance simply means that what unbelievers once loved; as believers, they now hate. Faith means that believers put their complete trust in Christ alone for their salvation and eventual perfection. For these reasons, believers should certainly strive mightily to avoid sin, but at the same time, believers should not become discouraged when they fall into sin because sin is inevitable for weak-minded dualities with freedom, but then so is forgiveness and perfection.
     It is true that when believers are "born again," an instantaneous and miraculous transformation takes place within them. God recreates them through the presence of His Holy Spirit. At once, they begin to hate sin and to shun it. They begin to love Christ. They cling to Him, and they desire to be like Him. Nevertheless, their retention of freedom and the weakness of their flesh make it inevitable that at some time in their future, they will fail and sin again. In fact, in accordance with I John 1:8 and 10, it is a sin for believers to claim that they have no sin. God knows all this better than believers do. God does not get discouraged in the face of sin, so why should believers. God, for the sake of Christ, never fails to correct and to perfect believers. Unbelievers truly have no excuse for not believing because as Philippians 1:6 and Ecclesiastes 3:14 clearly indicate, God always finishes whatever He starts. He has already provided for every contingency.
     Yet, what keeps unbelievers from repentance and faith? It is simply pride. Most people will cling to false combinations even when they strongly suspect that something is wrong. People simply hate to admit that they could be wrong. For this reason, Proverbs 8:36 is one of the most profound statements in the Bible. Unbelievers love their sin and death because they falsely believe that their individuality and ultimate freedom are defined and preserved in this way. In other words, in seeking to save themselves, they lose themselves. They should heed what Jesus said in Luke 9:23-26 and in Matthew 16:24-26.
     Being under deep conviction from the Holy Spirit, Judas Iscariot killed himself because he was afraid he would repent. The Apostle Peter also betrayed Jesus, but he needed only to repent in order to receive forgiveness and reconciliation.
     As Proverbs 6:16-19 teaches, God hates pride more than any other sin. Pride keeps more unbelievers from repenting than any other sin. Of all false combinations, pride lies closest to absolute nothingness. It is no accident that pride is also called vanity, which means "emptiness." This emptiness can only be filled by God. Unbelievers really have no excuse for not believing because God has assumed all responsibility for their salvation and eventual perfection. Unbelievers need only have faith, and God will even give them that if they would only humbly ask for it! No one should doubt that unbelievers love sin and death instead of God. Sometimes, an unbeliever will commit suicide knowing full well that he will go to hell when he does it.
     Absolute nothingness does have some powers. Yet, believers can be confident that these powers are finite. There can be but one infinite, and that undefined by "one;" that is, Infinite Duality. If absolute nothingness were not finite, then it would be infinite, in which case everything would be equal to it. Yet, because creativity, love, grace, and the infinite set of simple true ideas possess real existence, both in inner and outer duality, then one can be sure that Infinite Duality is real.
     The set of simple true ideas can not be finite because if they were finite, then there would have been a time when they did not exist. At such a time, everything would have been equal to absolute nothingness, making it all-powerful. In such a condition, neither consciousness nor objectivity would ever be able to raise themselves above their level with nothingness. The evolution of duality would be rendered impossible. Reality could never exist. Therefore, the set of true simple ideas must be infinite.
     Two questions remain. The first is: Why did God choose to deal with absolute nothingness in a history for the sake of freedom? Why did God deal with the totality of sin on the cross, and on a case by case basis in the sanctification process, while allowing freedom to operate as requiring a history? Then there is the opposite question long pondered by man: Why did not God simply eradicate all evil from this and all other universes when He created them? Such an action would have eliminated all pain and suffering caused by sin from the beginning. God could have made the whole universe a heaven. What is so special about freedom?
     One must remember that God is absolute freedom itself. The infinite set of true simple ideas were not created by God. In a real sense, they are God Himself. They are the uncreated Word of God; that is, the Logos. John 1:1-5 teaches that the Word is God, and that the Word created everything including life. Verse 14 teaches that the Word became flesh; that is, the Lord Jesus Christ. Being that necessary infinite set of simple true ideas, the Word defines the being and character of God. Being the objects of the inner duality of God, the Word is absolutely necessary to His real existence. All that the Word has created in material objective form; that is, our universe, is patterned on some of these true simple ideas.
     John 1:18 relates that no man can see God; that is, the invisible infinite consciousness who is the Father. Jesus also made this clear in John 5:37. However, men have seen the Logos, the incarnate Word of God. Jesus possesses absolute freedom to combine the true simple ideas into all true combinations. God can not misuse His freedom and remain God. The Word of God always chooses to create that which is true and good and holy.
     However, if God had created our universe as a heaven, having eliminated all possible evil from it, then our universe could be but absolutely determined; that is, no freedom whatsoever within it. Therefore, carnal freedom must precede spiritual freedom for finite dualities. Otherwise, spiritual freedom would be equal to mere determinism. Carnal freedom involves a real choice between good and evil. Thus spiritual freedom becomes a reality to finite dualities when they choose it.
     Spiritual freedom means that one should always desire to know the true simple ideas and how to put them into true combinations. This is the same as a desire to be like Jesus. Believers are those whom God has restored to this desire for spiritual freedom. If there were no carnal freedom, there could be no such desire, and the meaningfulness and value of the true simple ideas in finite duality would be greatly diminished, being the products of determinism.
     The value and meaning of the simple true ideas and their true combinations are made real when they are chosen. In other words, to choose to love and serve God is far more valuable than to be compelled to do so by determinism. This constitutes the truth and value of the simple idea called "freedom." For these reasons, freedom requires a history so that true choices can be made, and their values made real.
     The value of freedom over determinism subsists in the chosen desire to love and to serve God. This fact presupposes all of the opposite simple ideas. That is, good is the opposite of evil, love of hate, faith of fear, and so forth. These opposite true simple ideas have useful purposes if used in true combinations. For example, those who love God should hate evil. Those who have faith in God should also fear Him.
     If all creation were determined, the love, faith, truth, and all other good simple ideas would be real merely in a trivial sense. All of the true simple ideas would be so taken for granted that they would be reduced to mere formalities. Mere formality was one of the things that Jesus detested.
     Truth can not be real without its opposite; that is, falsehood. All opposites must exist for freedom to exist, and truth is the value of usefulness of the simple ideas and their true combinations. Truth must be chosen over falsity for truth to be real. Otherwise, truth becomes a mere necessity. For these reasons, John 8:32 is one of Jesus’ most profound statements.
     One final question remains: What then is the purpose of God’s grace and love and of all of the true simple ideas, and of all of the good creations which are patterned on them. The simple answer is revealed in Revelation 4:11 and in I Corinthians 1:26-31. God alone deserves glory and honor.
     If God chooses to prove the value of His love by always being able to turn wayward believers back to Himself by reproof or discipline, then that demonstrates His power and glory. If God chooses to save lost sinners through the death, burial, and resurrection of His Son, then that manifests the power of His love. God’s creations belong to Him. They were, and are, created for God’s pleasure and glory. For precisely these reasons, God’s grace can never fail.

GOD'S WORD AND HIS SOVEREIGNTY part 3

                                          Here read John 15:4-5

"I am the vine, ye are the branches." Jesus is the vine, and the individual Christian being one of the branches can only bear fruit when the sap is flowing, and can only bear the type of fruit that God has given it to bear. The sap is symbolic of the Holy Spirit working inside the believer. When a Christian tries to produce fruit when the sap is not flowing, or tries to bear fruit that God has not given that Christian to bear, then he or she is trying to do that which God has not empowered them to do. The result will always be failure and unnecessary guilt for that Christian. Jesus also said: "without me ye can do nothing."

For these reasons, each Christian should pray mightily that God would reveal to them when the sap is flowing, and what fruit they are to bear for His glory. In order to know when the sap is flowing, each Christian should pray every day that God will keep them out of sin, which breaks communication with Him, and that He will keep their hearts in a state of sensitivity to the commands of the Holy Spirit so that they will obey Him in whatever He may ask them to do. In order to know what fruit to bear, every Christian should pray that God will reveal to them what gift He has given them, and then faithfully practice that gift whether it be an evangelist or a janitor. When a Christian lives this way, he or she will be obeying God's command to "Pray without ceasing." Then, being sure that one is in God's will, each Christian can feel free to lead a joyful and guilt free life, and not feel bad when he or she sits next to someone on a bus or plane and feels no need to witness to them. That Christian can have confidence in God that at that moment the sap is simply not flowing. That Christian can also have confidence that if God wants he or she to witness to that person, then he or she will unmistakeably feel the sap beginning to flow and the power of the Holy Spirit to help that Christian to be obedient. Every Christian can also be sure that God will reward them according to their obedience, and according to their faithfulness in practicing the gifts that the Holy Spirit has given them.