On Dread and Freedom

Isaiah 8:13  Genesis 28:17  Daniel 9:4

Dread is not exactly the same as fear. Fear means to be afraid of something exact such as death or a dangerous person or of God as a person. Dread is a kind of nameless fear, a sickening feeling about the future. Existential philosophers call this feeling "angst" or "nausea."

Dread consists not so much in a fear of the future as it does of being forced to take responsibility for the decisions that one cannot avoid. In this way, dread directly connects to freedom. This inner or spiritual freedom is not the same as political freedom although political freedom extends from it. This freedom constitutes the very intellectual and spiritual being of the individual. Thomas Jefferson referred to this freedom when he wrote "that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness..." "Unalienable" means a freedom that cannot be separated from our inner being. In a sense, we are freedom itself. The existential philosophers contend that we are condemned to be free. By this, they mean we cannot avoid being free; and that freedom can be either a blessing or a curse depending on the choices we make. For this reason, the existentialists despise those who attempt to avoid making decisions. They consider them to be cowards in life and contend that they live in a state of "bad faith." The existentialists admire those who resolutely make decisions and manfully take responsibility for them.

Yet, as Shakespeare wrote, "Conscience makes cowards of us all." We all anguish over choices we have to make, especially the very important ones. Questions arise in our minds. What if I make the wrong choice? Will I regret my choice? Can I bear the responsibility for the choice I make, especially if it was a bad one? This is dread.

The existentialists maintain that our very being becomes determined or fixed by the choices we make. Thus, the person who chooses to do evil becomes an evil person; and the person who chooses to do good becomes a good person.

However, the Bible teaches that to choose to be good is not enough to save us from evil. The Bible teaches us that when God confronts us, He constrains us to make a choice. God forces us to see ourselves as a condemned sinner; that is, as a person who cannot avoid making wrong choices at times; bad choices for which we must take the responsibility and bear the punishment. Jacob, in Genesis 28:17, and Daniel, in Daniel 9:4, faced this dread when confronted by the presence of God; and they made the right choices to repent of their sins and serve the Lord.

Whenever a sinner reads or hears the gospel, he or she becomes confronted with God in human form; and the Holy Spirit constrains that person to make a choice either to submit humbly to Christ as Savior or to deny Him. When a convicted sinner makes the right choice to repent of their sins and put their faith in Jesus as their Savior, then Jesus takes away their dread because He has already taken the responsibility and the punishment for their sins by His suffering and death on the cross in their place. In place of their dread, Christ gives them peace. Matthew 11:28-30; John 14:27; John 16:33; Isaiah 8:13.

When the new believer receives the free gift of peace, forgiveness, and the everlasting life of Christ in his heart, then his dread departs because he knows he is forever safe no matter what future decisions he may make, good or bad. But when Christ recreates the heart of the new believer, he becomes so grateful and loves Christ so much for his salvation that he desires only to please his Lord; and as a result, he endeavors to make only good choices for the rest of his time on earth.   

The Truth about Reality

What is that one main characteristic that distinguishes life from nonlife? What is the main difference between life and nonlife? The answer has to be consciousness. All of life has some form and level of consciousness, and all of nonlife has no consciousness whatsoever.

Only at such a time as when consciousness separates itself from nonconsciousness can reality be established. Consciousness establishes reality by reflecting upon itself as separated from nonconsciousness, and upon nonconsciousness as composed of separated things. Consciousness effects this separation by its use of the idea of nothing. First, consciousness recognizes that it is something in itself and not anything else. Second, consciousness recognizes each individual thing as not being anything else.

If everything were nonconscious, then all of the recognized separation caused by consciousness would be impossible. Such a nonconscious everything would be like Parmenides homogeneous soup. Parmenides thought that this homogeneous soup was the ultimate reality, and that consciousness of everything was but an illusion. Actually, the opposite is true. Consciousness establishes reality, and the homogeneous soup is not real. It cannot be real because it equals an absolute nothingness. The nothingness is absolute because it cannot be separated from the somethingness. Both something and nothing must be recognized by consciousness before reality can be established.

If ever our universe were a nonconscious one, then absolute nothingness would prevail and reality could not exist. But reality has always existed because there has to be an Infinite Consciousness who has established an Infinite Reality.

Thoughts on Quantum Mechanics

I am not a physicist but I do have certain common sense ideas ( at least to me) that seem to me to be good answers about questions about reality. I present them here for what they are worth.

The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle reveals the fact that if a sub-atomic particle's position is measured, then one cannot measure its speed; and if one measures its speed, one cannot measure its position. The essence of this Principle means that an unobserved sub-atomic particle has no position. It is a wavefunction. On the other hand, if a sub-atomic particle has an observed position, then its wavefunction collapses into a material particle. Many physicists believe that this Principle only applies to the sub-atomic world. They do not believe that it applies to the macro-world where we can feel the solidity of objects and can observe their positions.

But to a certain extent, this Principle also applies to the macro-world. For example, when a baseball pitcher throws a baseball to his catcher, then while it is in flight, its position cannot be known because it is constantly moving. Only when it is caught by the catcher and comes to rest does it gain position. One may object that since we can see the baseball in flight, we can know its position, but this is not correct. The reason is that the moment we say that the ball has a certain position, it has already moved to its next position, and so forth until it reaches the catcher's mitt. Only when it stops in the catcher's mitt can we say, with certainty, that it has position. While the ball is in flight, we cannot see its position. We can only see a moving baseball. One may object that the Principle does not apply because the baseball does not become a wavefunction. But that only happens because the baseball moves to slowly to become a wavefunction. If the pitcher could throw the ball at the speed of light, then one would no longer see a baseball. One would only see a burst of light; that is, a wavefunction.

This means that wavefunctions happen when positions are not known, and positions are only known when observations collapse wavefunctions. The Uncertainty Principle causes the mind to be critical to the reality of the world.

When our minds observe the world, we observe both wavefunctions and material objects made of particles. When we see sunlight, we observe a wavefunction. But Einstein discovered that when one does a certain experiment, one finds that sunlight, at the sub-atomic level, comes in discrete energy packets called photons. This means that wavefunctions and material or energetic objects become real only by observation; that is, by the workings of consciousness.

Reality must be a duality of mind and matter, including wavefunctions. But what happens when mind is removed from duality? In other words, what exists when there is a nonconsciousness of the world? The only possible answer is that nothing exists. No positions or wavefunctions of reality can be experienced. This can only mean that space and time also cannot exist. In fact, nothingness itself cannot exist because it too can only be real as an idea in the mind. In a nonconscious world, only absolute nonexistence would (non)exist.

One cannot possibly imagine such a condition. But one can try. In the first place, since time and space cannot exist, then all of non-reality must collapse into a superposition state of existence and nonexistence. Since there could be no points in space, this superposition state would be nowhere and at no time. A superposition state is one in which sub-atomic particles both exist and nonexist at the same time, but the unreal superposition state could be nowhere and at no time. Such an unreal condition could be called a singularity.

But when one adds Consciousness to this singularity, then the wavefunction is created and one gets a burst of light. Genesis 1:3. With the burst of light, Mind overcomes the nonexistent superposition, and something becomes distinguished from nothing. Genesis 1:4-5. Then, Mind slows light until it can be collapsed into material particles that can coalesce into material objects. Genesis 1:6-10. After this, Mind can combine matter and energy in very complex ways in order to create life. Genesis 1:11-27.

Hebrews 11:3. The first half of this verse seems to indicate that God put order into His universe by His application of information when He created it. The second half of this verse seems to indicate that God created the universe by applying His Consciousness to the task of overcoming the superposition of the singularity.

Science and Unreality plus Science and Reality

Dreams, fairies and mermaids are real. Science contends that dreams, fairies and mermaids are not real, and the scientists are right but not right in the way they think.
If a scientist were to analyze any illusion or fantasy, he would discover that they always comprise mental representations of real things. Mermaids comprise mental representations of real females and real fish. No matter how fantastic a dream may be, every basic element of the dream must be a mental representation of an object or idea that has been made real by experience.
That which is not real about dreams, illusions, hallucinations and mistakes in judgment is that they consist of false combinations of real things made real by experience. The mental representations of all that can be experienced must also be real, but real only as mental events; that is, ideas. Anything the mind can objectify, whether physical or mental, must be real because those ideas are all that can be experienced. It is nonsense to speculate about the reality of things which cannot be experienced. This means that literally everything that a mind can experience must be real whether physical or purely mental. In fact, the only reason physical events are real is because they have been experienced by a mind. This means that all basic realities and all true combinations of basic realities must be unmistakenly real as one experiences them. Mermaids are not real in the world because they are not truly experienced in the world even though females and fish are. Flying snakes are a true combination of the real motion called "flying" and real "serpents" because they have been experienced in the world. This also means that all mistakes in judgment, such as a sailor seeing a mermaid, always consist of false combinations of real things.
False combinations can be experienced in dreams, fantasies, hallucinations and mistakes in judgments, but they always comprise real things. Basic realities and true combinations can also be known to be real because they always prove useful in some way. Unreality is never useful.
But if everything is real, where is unreality? The only possible answer to this question is that unreality can only reside in the nonexistence of false combinations. Mermaids do not exist even though real females and fish do. Then in what way do mermaids not exist? The only possible answer is that they nonexist in the nothingness that remains after the basic realities of the false combinations are subtracted. This is true of all false combinations.
But this also cannot be a true description of unreality because if nothingness is known to a mind, then it too must be real. The main purpose of minds is to make things real. The mind makes nothingness real as an idea. Then, where and what is unreality in the mind and the world? The only possible answer is that unreality nonexists nowhere and at no time. Unreality is never in the mind or in the world. It is an absolute nothingness of which the mind can get no idea whatsoever.
But then how can the mind know about unreality since it nonexists? The only possible answer is that the mind substitutes the real idea of nothing as a mental representation of unreality. But how can the mind obtain a mental representation of nonexistence? The only possible answer is that the idea of nothing must have been given to our minds by another Mind capable, in some unknown way, of experiencing nonexistence. In order to be capable of such a feat, this Mind must surely be an Infinite Mind.

                                       Science and Reality

Most scientists tend to be skeptics. This means that they believe there is no such thing as absolute truth, and they base their arguments on the fact that the world and human perceptions constantly change and so no determinations about absolute truth can be made. They also contend that even the criteria by which we judge facts may themselves be wrong, and so no absolute judgments can ever be made. They do believe that the scientific method reveals probable truths about the world and the mind.
But there does exist an absolute truth which cannot be doubted. This absolute truth lies in the fact that any individual true combination of basic realities always produces the exact same result so long as no basic realities are added or subtracted from it.
That honey tastes sweet to a healthy tongue results from a different true combination than that which yields the true result that it is sticky to the fingers. Honey is both sweet and sticky according to the true combination which effects each result.
Different people often make different judgments about appearances. But this only happens because finite minds tend to be faulty, mistakenly adding or subtracting true basic realities from true combinations thus making them false. Besides this, the contention that healthy minds often see a particular object differently from the same position is greatly exaggerated. Two healthy persons who observe an object from the same position usually describe it using the same words. That one person may observe details that the other missed only proves that the first person possessed better powers of observation than the other.
The absolute truth remains that individual true combinations, so long as they remain exactly the same, will always produce the exact same results. Thus, 2+2 will always equal 4. That true combination that produces the appearance called "round" will always do so if it remains exactly the same. This will happen even if "round" as a true basic reality happens to be used in a false combination such as that of a square tower which appears to be "round" from a distance. Gravity will always work exactly the same so long as Newton's mathematical laws that describe it remain exactly the same. A yard will always prove to be a true measure as long as the basic reality called "extension" is never added or subtracted from it. This judgment constitutes absolute truth even though the false combination called "faulty judgment" causes it to appear to be untrue.
Scientists devise theories and use experiments in order to separate hidden true combinations about the world from false combinations. But science is limited in scope. It can only reveal true combinations about the physical world and the physical mind, but nothing about spiritual and moral truths. In order to obtain knowledge of such truths, the finite mind needs a revelation from the Eternal Truth who knows all possible basic realities and their true combinations. This revelation is called the Word of God (KJB). 

Thoughts on Mathematics

Although I am not a mathematician, I do have certain common sense ideas (at least to me) that seem certain to me about mathematics. I will provide my thoughts here and if any mathematicians who read them should find them comical, then go ahead and have a laugh; I am happy to entertain you.

To begin with, from what I have read about the axioms of Peano and Frege, they consider zero and infinity to be numbers. But I cannot see how either zero or infinity can be numbers. Number has to be a limitation of something but zero does not limit anything. Zero actually means "no number" and how can this be a number? Zero actually means nothing. Nothing never figures in mathematical calculations. Nothing can be the result of a mathematical calculation such as 1-1=0, but cannot figure in the calculation itself. One cannot subtract, add, multiply or divide by using zero. Zero cannot be a number. The calculation 1+0=1 cannot be a true calculation since it merely affirms that nothing can be added to one.
Infinity also cannot be a number because it too does not limit anything. One cannot add, subtract, multiply or divide using infinity. Infinity cannot figure in any calculation, although it too can be the result of a calculation. There can be no such things as infinite numbers or classes of infinite things because all such things are limited by definition. The formula "n equals n+1" cannot describe infinity because if "n" is a number then it has to be finite no matter how large, and if one adds a one to it then one only has a larger number by a factor of one. This formula merely confirms that numbers must be finite. If "n" is considerd to be infinity itself, then it cannot equal itself because this would be a limitation, and also a one cannot be added to it. Infinity can only be absolutely unlimited. This can be the only true definition of infinity since any other definition would, of necessity, be limited.
There are some strange similarities between the ideas of zero and infinity. Neither of these ideas can be understood by the finite mind, and yet somehow we have the ideas of them and can use them in limited ways.
Some empirical philosophers speculate that the idea of infinity has been acquired by the idea of one end following another end somehow leaping to the idea of infinity. But the idea of one end following another end must always be a finite idea since this series always comes to an end no matter how far it goes. The leap to infinity that the empiricists imagine can only be a metaphysical and speculative leap which they do not believe ever reveals any truth.
The finite mind also never experiences nothing except as an idea. We never see nothing. We only see things through nothing. Nothingness can never be seen or felt. We cannot imagine nothing. We can imagine a dark or light screen but not nothing. Nothingness is always an inference of the mind. Space cannot be nothing in a direct way. Space is an extension between objects, but the idea that space is nothing is merely an inference.

All of this raises the question: How did we ever acquire the ideas of nothing and infinity? These ideas must be real because unreality always lies beyond experience in the realm of nothingness or the unknown. These ideas also must be real because we can use them in limited ways. Unreality is always useless. The only possible answer to this question must be that there exists an Infinite Mind who gave these ideas to the finite mind.

Commentary on Hegel

Hegel was an idealist but he was not a dualist. Although he believed that mind creates reality, he also believed that mind is a form of matter itself. He was a monist who thought that mind united with matter formed the one basic substance of the world. This belief formed the basis of his famous dictum: "What is real is rational; what is rational is real."
Hegel was right to maintain that mind creates reality, but he was wrong to contend that mind is only a form of matter. Hegel did not take into account that in order to write his philosophy based on the idea of the unity of mind and matter, he had to be aware of what he was writing. In other words, he could know nothing about his philosophy unless he was conscious of it. This means he had to separate his consciousness from that part of his consciousness that believed that mind is in unity with matter.
This process forms the basis of self-consciousness. In order for one to be self-conscious, one must also be conscious of the fact that one is conscious of something. But in order to be conscious of this self-consciousness one must also be conscious of the fact that this process could extend to infinity if the finite mind had the power to carry it that far.
Yet, even though we cannot carry this process to infinity, humans nevertheless possess the idea of infinity. With this in mind, then the question arises: If Hegel's dictum about the unity of mind and matter were true, then how could he ever become conscious of this fact since his mind had to have been locked into a unity with matter? In such a condition, he could only have been directly conscious of matter, like an animal.
Yet Hegel, like all intelligent humans, possessed the idea of infinity, which proves that his consciousness, like ours, continuously separated from itself in order to establish self-consciousness. But if Hegel's philosophy were true, then self-consciousness would be impossible and so would the idea of infinity.
Yet, despite the finiteness of our consciousness, we somehow possess the idea of infinity. This could only be true if our finite consciousness were somehow connected to infinity. But this means that infinity has to be a real entity. This real entity has to be an Infinite Consciousness since infinity is an idea in a conscious process that can extend to infinity. Beside this, if Infinity were not also Conscious, it would possess no power to give this idea to finite consciousness.
All of this put together means that if consciousness were really in unity with matter, then matter would also have to be infinite, but it is not. Matter is finite because it is limited by nothingness.

All of this means that God must exist, and that consciousness has to be quite different from matter. Reality has a dual nature; that is, mind makes matter real. That is the purpose of consciousness in the universe. The ultimate reality is an Infinite Reality.

A Commentary on UNDERSTANDABLE HISTORY OF THE BIBLE by Dr. Samuel Gipp.

This article constitutes a review and commentary on UNDERSTANDABLE HISTORY OF THE BIBLE by Dr. Samuel Gipp. This book may be ordered from any Christian Bookstore.

Dr. Gipp's book is truly an eye-opening and enlightening message. This book not only exposes and explains the conspiracies of Satan's minions to alter and discredit the true Word of God, the King James Bible; but it also reveals the true but hidden history of mankind that one does not find in the secular history books.
One can come to understand from reading this book that the true history of the world amounts to a constant and unrelenting war between God and Satan for the souls of men. Evil is not a disjointed aberration that pops up here and there in the course of history, but constitutes in fact a unified and intelligently planned conspiracy hidden within the course of history and imbued with the secret goal of the complete ruination of the human race. This intelligent plan provides good evidence that there must be an intelligent planner behind this hidden conspiracy. This conspiracy is so ingenious that the planner has even succeeded in hiding the fact that it even exists. Such an ingenious conspiracy can only attest to the fact that somewhere Satan actually exists. Not that true Christians doubted his existence, but most Christians are just not aware of how truly cunning and insidious he really is.
This hidden conspiracy reinforces the truth of Genesis 3:1 (KJB) where the Word of God describes the serpent as being "more subtil than any creature of the field which the Lord had made." This serpent had become "subtil" because it had become possessed by the spirit of Satan himself. This also explains why God in Genesis 3:14 (KJB) cursed the serpent, condemning it to become a legless , crawling creature forever a symbol of silent cunning and poisonous evil. Behind the scenes of history, Satan has certainly lived up to his serpentine character, and most people are not even aware of this fact.
In Colossians 1:15-17 (KJB), the Bible teaches that absolutely everything that is real, "visible and invisible;" God created. Not only is the physical world of our senses real, but every idea, every mathematical principle, every creative plan; literally absolutely everything that is useful and good is real and was created by God. In addition, in accordance with Hebrews 11:3 (KJB), God reveals that all of His creations "were framed by the Word of God." This means that not only did God create the physical world, but also all of the mathematical and scientific ideas and plans by which He "framed" it. God created the universe and life in accordance with the information in His Mind. This can only mean that absolutely everything, "visible and invisible," that God has created must be real, and has a direct connection to the Word of God.
Thus, all scientific principles belong to God. This fact explains why at about the same time that Satan launched his insidious attacks against the Word of God through such apostates as Westcott and Hort, he also advanced an attack against God's true scientific principles being discovered by Galileo, Newton and Pasteur. Satan used an amateur scientist and atheist named Charles Darwin to advance the false theory of evolution in a parallel attempt to discredit the Word of God by direct and indirect means. However, recent scientific discoveries have shown that God is currently in the process of reasserting His ownership of the true scientific principles.
All true political principles also belong to God. In the Noahic covenant, God established human government based on His true principles. According to Jesus' teaching in Matthew 11:25-27 (KJB), God has always tended to reveal and preserve His Word through the efforts of common people. The common people are those who have no special talents, such as fishermen and farmers. This does not mean that God cannot save and use an intellectual person. God certainly saved and used the Apostle Paul who possessed one of the greatest intellects in the history of the world. But this tendency of God to use the common people accounts for the fact that the pure Word of God was preserved and delivered to us through the efforts of the common Christians in Antioch and not through the learned centers in Alexandria. These facts may also explain why governments throughout history which have been controlled by all the people have by far been the most successful.
Satan knows all this. These facts account for why at about the same time that he began his textual and scientific attacks against the Word of God, he also began to advance an attack against the political beliefs of the common people, such as the yearning for freedom that lies within the hearts of most people. Satan used the atheist Karl Marx to spread false political ideas to the common people in an attempt to discredit the Word of God in their minds. Communism and Nazism employed direct and cruel methods to impose these false ideas on the common people forcefully. The socialists and liberals use the far more subtle method of simply bribing the people into following their false ideas. But God created and owns the true political principles, and someday when Jesus comes to rule the earth, He will use these true principles.
No doubt, Satan thought that he was on the verge of winning the war for the control of the human race when he started the false religion of Roman Catholicism in about the third century. This false religion enjoyed great religious and political power over the minds of many people for many centuries, but its false Vulgate never replaced the true latin vulgate used by the common people. Then, God raised up great men of the Reformation to counterattack this false religion and preserve His true Word in the King James Bible.
Satan has very cleverly used infiltration to try to corrupt God's science, His politics, His Church and even His Word, but God will defeat all of Satan's evil efforts. Indeed, God has already defeated Satan through the death, burial and resurrection of His Son. John 12:31-32 (KJB).

The last remaining question has to be: What constitutes the essence of this evil conspiracy? The answer can be found in Proverbs 6:16-17 (KJB). That sin that caused Lucifer to rebel against God, that sin that caused Satan to deceive Eve into disobeying God, that sin that has inspired evil men throughout history to try to destroy the Word of God and all true principles that are connected to it, that false system of ideas that has so powerfully gripped the minds of angels and men is called pride. Just as the "born again" experience is a true conversion to the truth of God's Word, so pride seems to be a subtle and powerful conversion to the falsity of all that is unholy. Only by the guidance of the Spirit can the Bible be fully understood.

Discussion on the Rapture of the Church

I do not believe that the Bible teaches that the living saints at the Rapture of the Church do not die. I Corinthians 15:50, I Corinthians 15:22, Genesis 2:17 and Genesis 3:19 absolutely preclude any such possibility.
I Corinthians 15:51-57 teaches that our mortal and corruptible bodies must be changed to an incorruptible body, as if one changed his dirty clothes to clean ones. II Corinthians 5:1-4 does not teach about a temporary body, but instead teaches that Christ will bring the recreated bodies of all believers, whether in the grave or alive, with Him when He comes to Rapture the Church. All believers will then be changed "in the twinkling of an eye" from our old bodies, whether in the grave or alive, into our new, recreated bodies that Christ will bring with Him from heaven. The dead bodies of millions of believers will litter the world as a witness to the Rapture of the Church.
In addition, according to I Corinthians 15:50, corruptible bodies cannot be resurrected. The only earthly body that was ever resurrected was the body of our Lord Jesus Christ, but then His body was perfect.

Discussion on the Great White Throne Judgment

Revelation 20:11-15 has to be one of the most difficult passages in the Bible to interpret. It raises many questions and no doubt any interpretation will be fraught with errors.
I will not try to interpret this passage but I will raise at least two questions. In verse 12, the dead are raised, which implies that they are raised to life, and yet they are still dead as they stand before God. How can they be both dead and alive? They are judged out of God's books, one of which is the book of life. Apparently, God considers them to be dead because their names are not found in the book of life, and yet they are judged by what is written in God's books according to their works as if they were alive. According to Revelation 22:12 and Ecclesiastes 12:14, they are evidently judged according to their good works as well as their evil works. Since Revelation 22:12 clearly states that Christ possesses a positive gift with which He rewards good works, how can each individual dead person be cast into the lake of fire as a whole person?

Discussion on the Bema Judgment Seat

While it is certainly true that the blood of Jesus has washed away all the believers' sins (I John 1:7), and God has "cast all their sins into the depths of the sea," (Micah 7:19), the purpose of God's forgetfulness and forgiveness of sins is to protect His children from eternal damnation and the grasp of Satan. Acts 26:17-18.
Hebrews 12:5-11 definitely teaches that God punishes His children, but only for their correction. God has determined that He will conform every believer to the image of His Son no matter how long this process may take. Romans 8:29; Philippians 1:6. I believe II Peter 2:10-19 teaches that God will condemn all apostates to eternal damnation, but I believe that II Peter 2:20-22 teaches that carnal believers who act like apostates will be punished even worse than unbelievers who go to hell, but only temporarily and for their correction. I do not believe in Purgatory because God will never allow His children to be subject to the power of the Devil.
However, I believe that in the parable of the wedding feast in Matthew 22:1-14, Jesus taught that the wedding guest without the wedding garment symbolizes the carnal believer whom Christ will punish for his correction even after the Rapture of the Church.

Hosea

In Hosea 1:2, the Lord directly ordered Hosea to find and marry a loose woman. This marriage was symbolic of God's love for Israel despite Israel's unfaithfulness by practicing idolatry. God often compared idolatry by His people to the adultery of an unfaithful wife.


But God had Hosea prophesy that one day God would establish a nation of Israel that would be faithful to Him. One day, God would create an Israel that would no longer practice idolatry.

In Hosea 3:1-3, God ordered Hosea to go to the slave market and buy his wife back for fifteen pieces of silver and a homer and a half of barley. Apparently, she had left Hosea and finally wound up on the slave market. Hosea gladly obeyed the Lord because he loved his wife so much. This part of the story amounts to a remarkable prophecy of how one day Jesus the Messiah would lay down His life in love for lost sinners enslaved in the market of sin. Jesus would purchase them from slavery to sin and the Devil by His agony and shed blood on a cruel cross.

Hosea 3:4-5 records an amazingly accurate prophecy of how God would one day scatter the people of Israel over the whole world but they would be completely cured of idolatry, and they would have no king and they would no longer practice animal sacrifice. All of this has happened exactly as Hosea prophesied. In verse five, Hosea prophesied that the people of Israel would one day return to their land and be a nation again. This prophecy was fulfilled on May 15, 1948. The rest of the prophecy that one day Israel will seek the Lord and David their king who is actually Jesus their Messiah, will assuredly be fulfilled at some time in the future.

Jehoshaphat

Jehoshaphat was a good and able ruler of Judah who feared the Lord. However, he had a very curious flaw in his character. He was extremely naive.


According to I Kings 22:4, Jehoshaphat thought that he could be a friend and ally of the wicked and treacherous King Ahab of Israel without any harm. Jehoshaphat thought that he and Ahab could get along because they had the same language and heritage.

Because of his misplaced trust, Jehoshaphat foolishly agreed to go with Ahab into battle with the Syrians. Jehoshaphat did not even suspect Ahab's treachery when Ahab suggested that Jehoshaphat go into battle dressed in his kingly robes while Ahab disguised himself as an ordinary soldier. Jehoshaphat apparently had no clue that Ahab had set him up to be killed because Ahab knew full well that the king of Syria would order his soldiers to go all out to kill him. This is exactly that which happened when the battle was joined. The king of Syria ordered thirty two of his captains and their soldiers to press an attack directly toward King Ahab in order to kill him. Just as Ahab knew they would, these Syrian soldiers mistook Jehoshaphat for King Ahab.



When King Jehoshaphat cried out for reinforcements to help him repel this direct attack against him, the Syrians realized that this was not King Ahab and withdrew their attack. They probably knew Jehoshaphat was not Ahab because the soldiers who came to his aid were Judean soldiers and not Israeli.

Yet, a Syrian archer shot an aimless arrow in the general direction of the Israeli army and mortally wounded King Ahab.

This is a remarkable story of how God protected good King Jehoshaphat despite his incredible naivete, and had a wicked king killed for his cruel treachery.

Balaam

Balaam was one of the strangest and most interesting characters in all of the Bible. He was a Gentile and yet God had given him the gift of prophecy. For some unknown reason, God gave him a lot of light for his good side, and yet he also had a deep darkness on his evil side.




Contrary to the opinion of some commentators, Balaam never sold his gift of prophecy for money. The Bible never states that he did. Balaam knew better than to sell his prophecy for money because he knew that if he did, God would immediately take it away or kill him. In fact, Balaam's final prophecy in Numbers 24:15-24 is quite sublime, even including a prophecy about Israel's coming Messiah.



Balaam's sin and apostasy occurred after his sublime prophecy. Balaam's sin happened because of his "perverse way" as spoken by the angel in Numbers 22:32. His sin was also called "the counsel of Balaam" in Numbers 31:16, the "way of Balaam" in II Peter 2:15, the "error of Balaam" in Jude 11, and the "doctrine of Balaam" in Revelation 2:14. As described in Numbers 31:16 and Revelation 2:14, the sin of Balaam was that he conspired with Balak, and for wages, to send pagan women into the camp of Israel to seduce Israeli men and lead them into practicing idol worship and thus corrupt the camp of Israel by causing Israel to abandon their faith in God. In this way, Balaam tried to get around the fact that God would not allow him to curse Israel but rather bless them, by devising a plan whereby he would reduce Israel to paganism and thus cause God to curse them. But God protected Israel and Balaam's wicked plot miserably failed and he paid for his sin with his life in Israel's war with Midian. Numbers 31:8.

On the Characteristics of Faithful Angels versus Evil Angels

One reason why evil angels cannot be saved is because they, like Satan himself, are totally given to evil. They have no good side. They are equivalent to evil itself. God intends to purge all evil from His universe, and so when God recreates His heaven and earth, He will throw all the evil angels into the lake of fire, and let their torment keep their minds busy forever so that they can no longer devise any evil and destructive plots.




Although mankind is depraved and original sin deprives him of the ability to think much about God, man does have a good side as well as an evil side. Man's problem is that his good side cannot save his evil side. Man is destined for hell. But God loves man, and God can see that there is hope for man. God can change man's heart and cause him to desire to be wholly good, to desire even to be like Jesus.



God could also see that man had no hope of saving himself. So, God decided to come to earth as a perfect man and do all that was necessary to get rid of man's evil side, cause him to desire to be good, to be like Jesus. God succeeded in His plan and now any human who hears the gospel and puts his trust in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus will have all their sins washed away by the blood of Jesus and will be recreated by the presence of the Holy Spirit in their hearts, and God will guarantee their salvation and sanctification and will cause them to desire to become like Jesus.



Faithful angels are a good example for Christians because they are absolutely obedient and submissive to the will of God.

On the Doctrine of the Incarnation of Christ

The Incarnation of Christ became absolutely necessary if God were to save mankind from a lost condition from which it was impossible for man to save himself. Mark 10:26-27. Adam and Eve, the first humans, disobeyed God when they were living in a state of innocence and fellowship with God in the Garden of Eden. God told them not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but they did. They gained the knowledge of good and evil, but they lost their fellowship with God. Separation from God causes spiritual and physical death, for God is the source of all life and separation from God means loss of life. They exchanged an immortal and beautiful life for one of sorrow, pain, labor and death. Genesis 3:16-24.




The knowledge of evil involves a consciousness from which man cannot rid himself. Evil remains constantly a part of our consciousness and thus a part of our very being. This condition is called original sin, and inevitably, it causes us to commit sins. Genesis 2:17; Mark 7:20-23. God continued to love mankind despite his fall into an original sin which results in death which is an eternal separation from God. In His compassion for mankind, God desired to restore man to an eternal fellowship with Him, which constitutes the best possible life for mankind. John 3:16; John 10:10.



Since God knew that man could not possibly save himself, God simply decided to do everything for man, in his place, in order to save mankind from sin and death. Ephesians 1:4-5. God came to earth to be born as a baby, and live as a man on earth from birth to death. This Jesus, who was God in human form, avoided original sin by being born of a virgin supernaturally impregnated by the Holy Spirit. Luke 1:34-35. This was necessary so that Jesus would lead an absolutely perfect life free from sin in man's place, which was impossible for man to do due to original sin. Hebrews 7:26-27. This innocent Jesus then allowed Himself to be nailed to a cruel cross to suffer there all the penalty for man's sin Himself, the separation from God and the agony of hell; the innocent in the place of the guilty. II Corinthians 5:21; Mark 15:34; I Peter 2:21-24; I Peter 3:18. The blood that Jesus shed on the cross has the power to cleanse all who will believe in Him from all of their sins. I John 1:7. In addition, Jesus rose from the dead to overcome man's death by giving him His own eternal life and eternal fellowship with God. Romans 6:3-11. Thus, by His life, death, burial and resurrection, Jesus accomplished every work that man needs for his salvation, and all anyone needs in order to receive this salvation is to repent of one's sins and believe that Jesus has done all of this for him personally. I Corinthians 15:1-4

On the Vine and the Branches as a Symbol of Christ and His Church

John 15:1-8 clearly teaches that Christ is the Vine who produces the fruit, the fruit being the good works of His believers. The Branches symbolize the believers who can either abide in the Vine or not. The Branches who abide in the Vine are those believers who desire to be close to Christ, to obey Him, to study His Word, to meet for worship and to lead a clean life for the glory of God. But these efforts on the part of His believers do not produce the fruit. These efforts only allow the sap from the Vine, symbolizing the Holy Spirit, to flow through the Branches to produce the fruit.


John 15:6 does not teach that a believer who fails to abide in the Vine loses His salvation. This verse teaches that the carnal believer receives discipline from God for not yielding his life to the control of the Holy Spirit. This same kind of discipline is recorded in I Corinthians 3:15. Believers saved by the grace of God never lose their salvation. John 10:27-29.

A Discussion on the Original Choices of Man

One of the most interesting questions that we may ponder is this: What would man's life have been like had he never sinned? What would Adam and Eve's lives have been like if they had chosen to eat of the tree of life and had shunned the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?


I believe that in such a case, they could never have known the good in any definite way because one cannot know the good specifically unless one also knows the evil by contrast. I believe they could have only known innocence, which is good but only in a natural and unspecific way. Living in a state of innocence would have been blissful since they could never have known anything about evil.

But living in such a state of bliss means that they would have been living like God before Lucifer's rebellion. Before Lucifer's rebellion, God knew absolutely nothing about evil. In His state of blissful innocence, God could only create beautiful, glorious and happy things. Lucifer's rebellion may have injured God's innocence, but it could never break God's power. Genesis 3:15.

On the Origin of Man

That God created man to give Him glory, and to fellowship with Him and to demonstrate the wonder of His grace, the scriptures absolutely confirm. The Genesis account tells us how God created man and woman, and of their relationship with God both before and after the fall.


But I believe an equally deep reason for why God created man is revealed in the first book that was written, the book of Job. Satan challenged God's love by saying that Job did not serve God because he loved God, but only because God had blessed him. Remove the blessings, Satan said, and Job's love for God would die. This challenge to God's love was directly connected to Lucifer's rebellion. Lucifer rebelled because of his pride, but this challenge to God's love implies that perhaps his pride arose because he had come to believe that God's love was not real. God accepted Satan's challenge because God desired to prove that His love for His tested creation, as well as man's free choice to love Him, constituted a power that absolutely nothing could ever break. Romans 8:31-39.

On the Nature of Sin

Genesis 2:17 and Genesis 3:6 clearly teach that the knowledge of good and evil was present in the forbidden tree. Note the phrase in verse 6 where Eve states: "and a tree to be desired to make one wise."




God desired that Adam and Eve live in a state of innocence and fellowship with Him in a blissful paradise forever. But He also gave them freedom to choose for themselves to eat either of the tree of life and remain in paradise forever, or to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and suffer spiritual and physical death; that is, separation from Him. God commanded them and warned them not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in order to protect them.



Adam and Eve certainly sinned when they disobeyed God, but all of humanity acquired original sin because of the poison that was in the fruit of the forbidden tree. Mankind acquired its intellectual powers when this poison took effect. The fruit of the forbidden tree contained some kind of serum which altered the nature of man. Man acquired intellectual powers which he could only partly handle. Man was doomed to a life of creativity but also of confusion. He was doomed to do some good things, but also many evil things. His depravity, on the evil side, consists of having no desire to have fellowship with God.



However, despite all this, God in His love for man had a backup plan to rid man of his fallen nature and reconcile man to Himself by His vicarious suffering of man's fallen nature, and by employing man's freedom to be able to receive God's salvation through faith.

On the Origin of the Fall of Lucifer

Both Isaiah and Ezekiel rightly describe the fall of Lucifer and rightly ascribe his motive as being one of pride. Isaiah 14:12-15; Ezekiel 28:12-29. But neither prophet relates exactly from where this pride came. Ezekiel implies in 28:15 that this iniquity just suddenly appeared, as if from nowhere.




Colossians 1:16-17 teaches that God created all things, "visible and invisible." This means that God not only created all things we can see, but also all things we cannot see such as "ideas" and "emotions." Therefore, God created "pride," but God has never used "pride," or any other of the infinite things He has created, except in creative and useful ways. In fact, God does not even know how to use any thing He has created except in creative and useful ways. God wanted Lucifer to feel "proud" of his beauty and position that God had given him as long as his "pride" was properly balanced by "humility."



But something strange suddenly happened to Lucifer. He used his free will to annul his "humility" and exalt his "pride." In other words, Lucifer misused the emotion called "pride" and turned it to an exaltation of himself and rebellion against God. It is no accident that the Old Testament word for sin is "khata" which means "missing the mark," and the New Testament word is "harmarta" which also means "missing the mark." Sin is the misuse of God's creations; that is, "missing the mark" by failing to use the things that God has created in the useful and creative ways that He has intended.



II Thessalonians 2:7 informs us that iniquity is a mystery. This has to mean that it is a mystery even to God. But this mystery does not diminish God's omniscience or omnipotence in the least because God's infinite creative knowledge and power can accomplish anything good. The Word of God often equates sin and evil with "vanity," which means "emptiness." "Emptiness" can never diminish God's infinite power and knowledge, for "emptiness" is exactly where sin came from and exactly where it will be sent when God cleanses His universe.

On the Differences between Justification, Sanctification and Glorification

Romans 5:1. Justification is based solely on the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and is received by the repentant sinner solely by faith. Justification is solely a private transaction between the new believer and God and as such is no one else's business. The Holy Spirit washes the justified believer in the blood of Jesus, remits his sins by the burial of Jesus, and gives him the resurrected eternal life of Jesus. I Corinthians 15:1-4; I Corinthians 6:11; I Corinthians 12:13. This transaction reconciles the justified believer to God and saves him forever from the power of sin and the Devil. Acts 26:18; II Corinthians 5:17-18.




Sanctification begins with justification. Sanctification is a process by which God conforms the justified believer to the image of Christ. Romans 8:29-30. But the justified believer must yield himself to the sanctification process. Romans 6:11-23. Yet, God never fails to sanctify every justified believer no matter how long this process may take. Philippians 1:6. The justified believer who resists God's sanctification process; that is, the carnal believer, never loses his justification; but God will punish him for his sins and discipline him until he realizes that he must yield his life to the sanctification process. Galatians 6:7; Hebrews 12:5-14.



God never fails to save the sincere repentant sinner. John 6:37. God also never fails to sanctify the justified believer. Romans 8:29-30. This means both justification and sanctification are God's work, and effects His eternal security for the believer. John 10:27-30.



Glorification is the end result of justification and sanctification. Glorification is the bliss of heaven forever. Revelation 22:14.

On the Limitations of Satan and the Christian's Victory over Satan

The believer gains complete victory over Satan the moment he or she repents and believes in Christ. Romans 10:13; Romans 1:17. The believer receives a complete salvation already accomplished by Christ; all of his sins are washed away forever by the blood of Jesus and he is sealed forever by the power of the Holy Spirit. I Corinthians 15:1-4; Revelation 1:5; Ephesians 1:13. God claims the "born again" believer for His own forever and gives them His own eternal life which they can never lose. John 10:28-29.



Satan knows the scriptures. He knows that eternal security is true. Then, why does Satan bother to tempt believers to sin since he knows that they are protected by God and he can never regain control of them? Satan tempts believers to commit sins so that unbelievers will see those sins and conclude that there is no truth to Christianity. Satan tempts believers to sin in order to keep unbelievers from believing. For this reason, believers should pray every day that God will keep them out of sin, and help them to be a good witness for Him that day.



Temptations to sin come from the world, the flesh and the Devil. For this reason, some commentators on the Bible contend that the Devil is not responsible for all our sins. In a sense they are right, but in another sense they are wrong. They are right in that sometimes we sin because we are tempted by the world or our own flesh. However, Satan is the "god of this world," and the flesh stems from original sin which Satan brought into the lives of humans in the Garden of Eden. This makes Satan directly or indirectly responsible for all our sins. But this fact does not mean that sinners can blame Satan and get away with their sins. The only unpardonable sin occurs when a lost sinner refuses to accept by faith the cure for his sins already provided by the Lord Jesus Christ. By refusing Christ's free pardon of sin, the lost sinner cannot avoid taking full responsibility for his own sins.