Commentary on the Book of Job part two

                               Job 1:1-5

In the general resurrection of the dead that Jesus prophesied about in John 5:28-29, God will use His consuming fire to separate out and resurrect the good and living parts of all humans confined within one of the three regions of the dead. Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:13. In addition to hell, two other regions of the dead exist, one called the sea and the other called death. Christ will resurrect the good and living parts of all humans within each region of the dead because they worshipped Him and put their faith in Him as their Savior as recorded in Revelation 5:13. God will recreate these living humans created in His image to live on His recreated earth. Revelation 21:1-5.

Resurrection can only mean to be brought back to life. In Revelation 20:11-15, God does not say that the dead are resurrected but that they do stand before God to be judged for their evil works. Spiritual death means permanent separation from God. God separates these dead from Himself forever by casting them into the lake of fire because in their spiritual deadness they were allied with Satan in his rebellion by refusing to ever repent of their sin and evil and put their faith in Christ. Unrepentant sin and evil and spiritual death are one and the same. Revelation 20:15. God promised in I Corinthians 15:26 that the last enemy that He will destroy will be death. God will fulfill this prophecy in Revelation 20:5 and Revelation 20:11-5 when He purges all spiritual death from His recreated universe by casting it into the lake of fire which lies outside of God's creations in a region of absolute chaos and negative consciousness. For this reason, it is called the second death.

God will destroy the regions of death called hell and death by casting them into the lake of fire. Revelation 20:14. In Revelation 21:1, God will eliminate the region of the dead called the sea by a means not specified. God has washed all of the spiritual deadness of believers saved by grace into the sea of forgetfulness which is probably the same as the sea of death. Micah 7:19. The dead that God casts into the lake of fire will retain some form of demonic, negative consciousness which will cause them to suffer in some unknown way. But Revelation 19:20 and Revelation 20:10 teaches us that the devil, the beast, and the false prophet will be cast into the lake of fire alive to be tormented forever. This fact can only mean that God will supply them with a positive consciousness which will suffer severe pain as God's creations now do because of sin. They will be so preoccupied with tremendous pain forever that they will never be able to concoct a plan to infect God's creations with sin again.

In Hebrews 9:14, God has promised those saved by grace that He will "purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" This revelation seems to indicate that God will eliminate even their consciousness of their former spiritual deaths.

Hebrews 8:12 reveals that God will completely forget the sins and evil of all those saved by His grace. If the sea of death and the sea of forgetfulness is the same place, then God will eliminate the sea of death by forgetting all of the sin and evil of those saved by grace contained therein. This condition must also mean that God will forever nullify any conscious suffering of spiritual death by His believers saved by grace because He will have put their sins completely out of His Mind. 

Commentary on the Book of Job part one

                                  Job 1:1-5

Two levels of perfection exist, a finite perfection and an infinite perfection. The infinite perfection can also be called Holiness which belongs only to God. The Bible (KJB) informs us that Job possessed finite perfection which simply means that he was as good and moral as it is possible for a sinful man to be. Job 7:20; Job 1:1.

The book of Job predates all other books of the Bible including Genesis. Verse five informs us that Job offered burnt offerings to God for forgiveness of his and his family's sins. This information provides proof that burnt offerings symbolize one of the methods that God uses to eliminate sin and evil from a person's life. Such Old Testament passages as Leviticus 9:7; Numbers 31:23; Deuteronomy 4:24 and 32:22 provide symbolic proof that God can use His consuming fire to purge sins from the lives of believers. Isaiah 6:6-7 provides further proof that God can cleanse sin from the lives of His believers by the use of His consuming fire. But at the time that Job offered his burnt offerings, he had not as yet received a revelation from God that a blood sacrifice must precede the burnt offering in order for the burnt offering to be effective for the removal of sin. Hebrews 9:22; Hebrews 13:10-13.

I Corinthians 3:11-15 teaches us that God will eventually purge sin from the lives of every human, not just those saved by grace. God preserves the good works of every human for reward, but God will burn forever the dead works of all humans including the sins of believers saved by grace for which they have never repented. God purges and forgives sins in the souls and spirits of believers saved by grace with the blood of Jesus the moment they believe. God daily purges and forgives the fleshly sins of believers saved by grace with the water from Jesus' side as they daily repent of them.

God prophesied in Isaiah 45:21-24 and Philippians 2:9-11 that a day will come when all humans not already saved by grace will repent and believe in Jesus. This prophecy will be fulfilled as recorded in Revelation 5:11-13. Jesus had to have sacrificed Himself on the cross before His Spirit could descend into hell to leave behind the sins of all mankind which He had to have done because He rose immaculate from the grave. Christ's descent into hell constitutes the purging of the sins of all mankind not already saved by grace by the use of His consuming fire. Jesus prophesied about this event in John 5:28-29. Jesus prophesied in Matthew 16:27 that God will reward every man according to his works. Romans 2:9-10 proves that God gives only positive rewards for good works, and that every man must be alive in order to receive these positive rewards. These teachings can only mean that God will recreate the good and living parts of all humans not already saved by grace to inhabit His recreated earth. Revelation 21:1-5. Revelation 22:11-12 teaches that God will effect an absolute separation of all His created goodness in every human from all of their dead sins in His final judgment of those still in their graves. John 5:28-29. All humans saved by grace will have already been resurrected to eternal life with God in heaven. Revelation 5:8-12.

God's Two Methods of Salvation part three

God's allowance of Satan's test of Job's faith symbolized God's test of His own image that He has put into every man. God has allowed Satan to tempt man into committing the worst evils imaginable in order to thoroughly test His Love for His creations. Even though God allows Satan to do his worst, God intends to do His best for mankind. Job's faith and righteousness could not have succeeded without God's help. Satan would succeed in destroying God's image in man if God did not help man. Job's burnt offering sacrifices symbolized his reliance on God's help. Even though God has allowed Satan to tempt man to commit the most horrible crimes against each other, nevertheless, God's Love in man cannot and will not fail. I Corinthians 13:8.

God's help for man came when His Son was nailed to a cruel cross taking all of the sin and evil and spiritual death of mankind on Himself. Satan intends to permanently ruin God's Love in man by holding him in spiritual death forever. Jesus suffered that eternal spiritual death in man's place and destroyed all of the evil works of the Devil in the process. Hebrews 3:14-18; I John 3:8. God's answer to Satan's mocking taunt "curse God and die" was that He would take that eternal curse and spiritual death on Himself on that cross and suffer man's curse and death in man's place. Without Christ's salvation of man, Satan would be able to claim the image of God in man as his own and torture man forever. In the process, Satan would prove that God's Love in man can be destroyed, that God is not Almighty, and that He can thus be killed and replaced with Satan's world. But Christ saved all mankind forever from that curse and death through His death, burial, descent into hell, and resurrection from the dead. John 6:33; John 12:47; I Timothy 4:10; John 1:29; Revelation 5:11-13.

Job's and the Old Testament burnt offering sacrifices symbolized Christ's descent into hell where He left behind the sins and evils of all mankind not saved by grace when He rose immaculate from the grave. By this manner, God saves His image in all persons not saved by grace. God cleanses their sin and evil by the use of His consuming fire. I Corinthians 3:11-15; Matthew 3:11-12. God has a special salvation for all persons saved by His grace. When they put their faith in the cross of Christ, God washes all their sin and evil away into the sea of forgetfulness by His use of the blood and water that flowed from Jesus' body on the cross. I Corinthians 6:11; Micah 7:19. Christ eliminated the eternal death of every person when He died on the cross, descended into hell, and was buried in the grave. But He gave His eternal life to every person when He rose from the dead, some directly to those saved by grace to live with Him in heaven forever, and all others by the use of His consuming fire to separate their life and goodness for Him to recreate to live on His recreated earth. Hebrews 2:8-9. By these two methods, God separates the sin and evil from every person, which is their spiritual death, preserves their lives which He created forever and casts their deaths into the lake of fire forever. John 12:47; John 6:33; Luke 20:38; I Corinthians 15:26; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:11-15.

God's Two Methods of Salvation part two

Job happens to be the first book of the Bible that God wrote. In this first book, God describes His relationship with mankind since the fall of man. God also describes His relationship with His enemy Satan, the god of this world. II Corinthians 4:4.

After its description of Job's righteousness, the books begins with the sons of God appearing before Him. God allows Satan also to appear before Him as a former son even though Satan only comes to mock Him. Satan brags about his power to walk through the earth doing whatever evil he pleases. In his pride, he forgets that he has this power in the earth only because God allows it. God allows it because He is using Satan to fulfill His purposes.

Job symbolizes the image of God which He has put into every person He has created. Job's perfect righteousness was not the righteousness of Christ which He gives to everyone saved by grace. Job's righteousness stemmed from the image of God created in him. Even though Job was a sinner which he confessed, he had lived his life as close to his image of God in him as a sinful man possibly could. For this reason, God described Job as being as perfect as a sinful man can be, Job 7:20; Job 1:8. Job even offered burnt offerings to God for himself and his children just in case they had done something evil. The Old Testament burnt offerings symbolized God 's salvation by His consuming fire of all humans not saved by grace. I Corinthians 3:11-15. Some people have led very clean and moral lives by yielding to the image of God within them even though they are not saved by grace. Others have led very cruel and evil lives because they have rebelled against God and the image of God within them. Nevertheless, all humans have done some good and some evil. In the end of the world, God will resurrect all humans within the regions of the dead and recreate them to live on His recreated earth. God will reward them according to their good works. Those who did a lot of good works will retain some of their former identities and receive many rewards. Those who led evil lives will lose most of their former identities but their lives will be preserved in God's recreation of other humans. God will use His consuming fire to separate their living images which He created for His rewards, and will consign their separated total evil and death to the lake of fire forever. Matthew 16:24-25; Matthew 3:10-12; John 5:28-29; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:11-15; Revelation 21:1-5; Revelation 21:8; Revelation 22:11-12.

When Satan mocked God by claiming that Job only served God because of the blessings and protection that God had provided him, Satan revealed his plan for the whole human race. Satan took Job's children and everything he owned from him, including his health, and left him with absolutely nothing except the righteous image of God that was still within him. Satan even caused Job's wife to desire to be rid of him. When she told Job "curse God and die," she revealed Satan's plan for the whole of humanity. Satan desires to use evil to overwhelm and destroy the goodness that God has put into every man to the degree that even the image of God in every man dissolves into an evil curse against God. Should Satan succeed, he would completely destroy a part of God's creation and a part of God's Word, reveal God as being less than Almighty, and thus begin the downfall of God Himself. But God has promised that His Love, His creations, and His Word can never be diminished in the least. I Corinthians 13:8; Ecclesiastes 3:14; Matthew 24:35.

God's Two Methods of Salvation part one

God created Adam and Eve to be completely righteous but also innocent. God has said that whatever He creates will last forever, and His Word cannot be diminished. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Numbers 23:19. God also gave Adam and Eve free will which He attached to their innocence. They could obey God and keep their innocence pure, or they could disobey God and cause their innocence and righteousness to become besmirched with filthy sin. They did not know about filthy sin, but they did know they should obey God. This means their innocence caused their fall to be only partly their fault. For this reason, God cursed Satan and the ground but He did not curse living humans whom He created.

But God allowed Adam and Eve to fall into sin as a part of His plan to completely purge His world of all sin and evil and recreate it, along with all humanity not saved by grace, to be a righteous world. II Peter 3:12-13; Revelation 21:1-5. God had a special plan of salvation by grace for all who will believe that Jesus shed His blood and water on the cross to thoroughly cleanse them from all their sin and that in His resurrection, Christ would give them His own life and righteousness by which they would become joint-heirs with Christ and thus allowed to live with Christ in heaven forever. I Peter 1:18-25; I Timothy 4:10; John 6:32-35; Romans 8:14-17. In John 6:33, Jesus explicitly states that He "giveth life unto the world." The word "world" means all mankind. Christ can never mean anything less than exactly that which He states. I Timothy 4:10 explicitly states that the living God exists as the Savior of all men. This statement can only be true if God actually saves all men. The phrase "especially of those who believe" can only mean that God has a special salvation for those who believe in Christ while still alive in the flesh.

God has two different plans of salvation. In His first plan, God saves by His grace all who, while still alive in the flesh, put their faith in the power of Christ to save them through His death, burial, and resurrection. John 3:16; I Corinthians 15:1-4. God prophesied about salvation by His grace when He clothed Adam and Eve in the skin of an animal whose blood He had shed. Genesis 3:21.

God has a second plan of salvation for the rest of humanity not saved by grace. God prophesied in Isaiah 45:21-24 and in Philippians 2:9-11 that a day will come when all of humanity will worship Him as God and Savior. This prophecy will be fulfilled as recorded in Revelation 5:11-13. Philippians 2:10 records that those saved by grace in heaven will worship God in the same way as those on earth and under the earth. In Revelation 5:13, those in heaven and on the earth and under the earth will all worship Christ as "the Lamb" which means they will all recognize Christ as the Savior of all mankind. Revelation 20:5 prophesies that God will resurrect these living humans who worshipped Him from the regions of the dead in the ground for Him to recreate to live on His recreated and righteous earth. Revelation 21:1-5. For this reason, God cursed the ground in Genesis 3:17 because He would have to consign unbelievers in His Son to one of the regions of the dead because He could not accept their sin and unbelief. Revelation 20:13. This means all those within the regions of the dead are partly alive and partly dead. God will cause the living parts of these humans to have faith in Him, but their dead parts which will never believe, God will consign to the lake of fire forever. Revelation 20:11-15; Revelation 21:8.

In Genesis 3:20, God prophesied that He will save and preserve all living humans. God can never lose anything He has ever created. Romans 11:29; Romans 11:36. Jesus affirmed these same truths in Luke 20:37-38. God will certainly answer the prayer of His Son in Luke 23:34 and forgive and save all of His living humans. But God will never forgive that part of humanity which remains evil and dead and, just like the demons, totally reject and hate Christ. Matthew 12:31-32; Revelation 21:8; Revelation 22:11-12; Ecclesiastes 12:13-14.

The Saved and the Unsaved

The identity and personality of every individual person constitutes a system created by God. God creates or destroys systems, but He never destroys the basic elements that compose every system. God has derived all of His basic, irreducible elements from His infinite set of Basic Ideas which constitutes the contents of His Eternal Mind. God's infinite set of Basic Ideas and God's Eternal Mind unite as One and the Same. John 1:1.

God created the physical laws of the universe to demonstrate His truth that systems can be created or destroyed, but the basic elements of every system cannot be destroyed. The same holds true for ideas. Systems of ideas can be created or destroyed but not the basic, irreducible ideas of those systems derived from the mind.

In Matthew 16:24-25; Matthew 10:38-39; Mark 8:34-35; Luke 9:23-24; Luke 17:33; and John 12:25, Jesus taught some profound truths about the kinds of individual human systems that God will preserve and those He will destroy. Those who "take up his cross" and follow Jesus must "deny himself;" that is, he must reject all sinful pleasures, and he must be willing to suffer persecution for his love for his Savior. Those who turn their backs to this sinful world and fix their eyes on Calvary, God will preserve their individual systems and most of their personalities in heaven with Him forever. Each person saved by grace must "lose his life;" that is, he must deny that he is a system attached to this sinful world in order to find his life in Christ.

But Jesus also taught that those who seek to "save his life shall lose it." Jesus meant that those who believe that their lives attach only to this sinful world, God will someday dissolve their individual systems, recover the good and living elements of their systems that He created and throw the evil elements of their systems away. Life inheres in goodness just as goodness inheres in life. Jesus prophesied about this event in John 5:28-29. In a general resurrection in the end of the world, God will dissolve the individual systems of all unbelievers still in their graves, recover their good and living elements and cast their evil elements into the lake of fire. Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:11-15.

God can never lose the good lives of every person because He created them in His image. Genesis 1:27; Genesis 1:31. God can never lose anything He has ever created. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Romans 11:39; Romans 11:36; Luke 20:38. When Jesus taught that those who "will save his life shall lose it," He meant that in the end God will dissolve their individual, worldly systems by the use of His consuming fire, recover their good and living elements that He created and cast their dead elements into the lake of fire. Goodness is always alive, and spiritual death is always evil. John 5:28-29; I Corinthians 3:11-15; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:11-15; Revelation 22:11-12.

God will preserve the individual identities and most of the personalities of all humans saved by grace in heaven forever. In other words, those who lost their individual worldly lives; that is, they lost for Christ's sake that which they believed were their lives, God will retain their individual systems forever. Matthew 16:24-25. But those who try to save their worldly lives, God will dissolve their worldly systems in the end. They will lose their former individual systems, but God will recover the good elements of their lives to be recreated as new humans immune to sin to live on His recreated earth. God will cast their separated evil elements into the lake of fire forever. Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:11-15; Revelation 21:1-5.

God's Eternal Reality part two

God created man in His own image. This means God gave man free will and the basic ideas necessary to create only good systems. God created man to pass through time, but God observes man as living in eternity. This means that God alone determines who man is and what he will become.

Man has become infected by sin which is the opposite of creativity. Sin causes chaos. It is a destructive force based on negative consciousness. Negative consciousness inheres in demons which somehow emerged from a nonexistent chaos called "the deep" in Luke 8:31 and "the bottomless pit" in Revelation 20:1. The Bible constantly refers to sin as being equal to vanity which means both excessive pride and emptiness. Excessive pride equals emptiness because one images oneself to be something which one is not. Since sin cannot be something, then it must have emerged into reality from nonexistence which one could also call absolute nothingness. Nothing itself is a real idea useful in reality. Thus, sin must emerge from less than nothing which equals absolute nothingness. Job 10:21-22. In Luke 8:18, Jesus meant that the only thing which can be taken from a man with nothing is nothingness itself which leaves him in a state of absolute nothingness. How negative consciousness, which equals sin and excessive pride, could emerge into reality from a nonexistent abyss to infect Lucifer and cause his rebellion against God constitutes a mystery which not even God can understand. II Thessalonians 2:7.

God has devised a plan to completely purge all sin and negative consciousness from His entire creations, including all mankind. Colossians 1:15-20; Romans 8:18-23; Revelation 21:5.

God has created absolutely everything that is positive and good whether visible or invisible. God created a good system called science. Modern science has discovered that every person's life, past and future, is determined by every decision made in every moment of that person's life. In this respect, each person's finite consciousness happens to be quite similar to God's eternal, creative consciousness. This fact means that the reality of each person's life consists of not just the passage of time from birth to death but also of every decision made in every moment in that life which affects both its past and future.

God has provided a special salvation by His grace for every human through the sacrifice of His Son. Every human has free will. God waits for every human who hears the gospel of His grace to decide whether to accept or reject His salvation by grace through faith. John 3:16. The moment any person accepts Christ as his Savior, that decision determines that person to be a believer from his birth to his eternal future. God possesses infinite knowledge, but only of His eternal creations. This means God waits for a believer to decide to accept Christ as Savior, but at the moment of belief, God has also predetermined that believer to have been saved for all eternity. This fact makes both God's predestination of salvation by grace and man's free will to accept that salvation true at the same time. John 6:37; Ephesians 1:9-14.

God's Eternal Reality part one

Consciousness, even an Infinite Consciousness, can only establish reality by means of decisions made. Consciousness begins to establish reality by deriving reality from possibilities and order from chaos. In order to do this, consciousness must first separate something from nothing and make decisions as to what to do with that something. This process necessitates the passage of time for a finite consciousness, but for an Infinite Consciousness, this process necessitates both the passage of time and an eternal reality.

When an artist paints a picture, he must first decide what to paint and how to paint it. Before any system can be created, decisions must be made. The same holds true for reality itself. All healthy. finite consciousnesses possess the same reality because God has created this reality, and He requires us all to agree to experience the same reality.

Reality cannot be an illusion. God has not created an illusion. Infinite Consciousness has created a reality that is just as real as He is. A person cannot be accidentally killed by an illusory, stray bullet. Bullets are real. Our reality is just as real as we are.

All reality begins with decisions made. In every moment, God makes decisions that determines the infinite past and infinite future of the eternal reality. These moments themselves are infinite. For God, these infinite moments of time do not pass through time except as they relate to finite consciousnesses. For God, moments of time consist of an infinite set of creative decisions that God makes. God possesses free will.

The creation of reality begins with creative, chosen plans. Creative plans make up the contents of consciousness. For God, His Infinite Consciousness and the Infinite Contents of His Consciousness are One and the same. John 1:1. God puts Ideas together in His Mind to create real systems. These Ideas are basic and have always existed. The fact that finite consciousness cannot reduce its basic ideas by analysis indicates that the Infinite Set of Basic Ideas must be eternal. The reality that God has created exists outside of Himself, but the basic ideas and systems of that reality God has derived from the Infinite Set of Basic Ideas that is One with Himself. As an example, the artist must decide what picture to paint and how to paint it according to basic ideas in his mind. He must use colors which are the basic ideas outside of his mind to create a system which is the picture comprised of a combination of these basic ideas. God creates reality in a similar manner.

God's Love for all Mankind. II Timothy 4:1 part two

God accomplished the salvation of all humans through the death, burial, and resurrection of His Son. God has provided a special salvation for all who will believe that the blood and water that Christ shed on the cross has the power to permanently cleanse them of all their sins while they are still alive in the flesh. Revelation 1:5; I Peter 1:18-23. God will thoroughly cleanse the souls and spirits of all such believers with the blood of Jesus and recreate their inner nature. II Corinthians 5:17. God will cleanse the outer fleshly nature of all such believers with the water that flowed from Jesus on the cross as they daily confess and repent of their sins. John 13:1-10; I John 1:9. Eventually, Christ will present His Church to God as being thoroughly cleansed and pure. Ephesians 5:25-27. God will recreate the souls and spirits of all these special believers the moment they are born again, but God will wait to recreate the bodies of these believers, which holds their sinful nature, at the Rapture of the Church. Philippians 3:20-21. God will give these believers more than just the original righteousness that He created them to be. God will give His Church the perfect righteousness of Christ by which God will allow them to live with Him in heaven forever. Romans 8:14-17; II Corinthians 5:21.

God will provide a lesser salvation for the rest of humanity not saved by grace through Christ's descent into hell. The Old Testament burnt offering sacrifices symbolized God's cleansing from sin by the use of His consuming fire. Leviticus 1:9. God will cleanse from sin every human within the regions of the dead by the use of His consuming fire. Matthew 3:11-12; I Corinthians 3:11-15. God created everlasting fire to use against total evil, not for the good life that He put into humans. Matthew 25:41. Since Christ bore the sins of all humanity on the cross, He had to have left the sins of all humans not saved by grace behind Him in hell when He rose immaculate from the dead. Salvation by God's consuming fire is based on this fact. But this fiery separation of the good life of man from the total evil of his sins does not become actual until the general resurrection in the end of the world. John 5:28-29; Revelation 20:5. But in order for all live humans within the regions of the dead to be saved by God's consuming fire, they must repent and put their faith in Christ. Isaiah 45:21-24 and Philippians 2:9-11 prophesy this event and Revelation 5:13 the fulfillment of this prophecy. God will recover and recreate absolutely everything He has ever created, including all live humans. Revelation 21:1-5; Romans 8:18-23; Colossians 1:20. God will allow all recreated, live humans to live in the recreated paradise of His new earth with bliss and immunity from sin forever. Revelation 21:1-5. God will consign the separated spiritual deaths of humans to the lake of fire forever. Revelation 20:15; Revelation 21:8.

God's Love for all Mankind. II Timothy 4:1 part one

Every individual human being happens to be both quick and dead at the same time. God created man in His own image to have a totally good life. Genesis 1:27; Genesis 1:31. Man's fall into sin could not, and did not, annihilate the life and goodness that God had put into him. Ecclesiastes 3:14. Satan did succeed in causing man's life and goodness to become filthy with sin. Isaiah 64:6. Man's filthy condition meant that God could no longer accept the goodness of man in eternal fellowship with Him. Genesis 3:22-24. Man became eternally separated from God in a state of spiritual death. Sin and spiritual death is the same thing. Genesis 2:17. God cannot, and will not, allow any goodness and life that He has created to ever become permanently separated from Him. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Romans 11:29; Romans 11:36. God devised a plan to thoroughly cleanse mankind of all his sins and spiritual death, recreate him to be immune to sin, and place him in heaven if saved by grace or again in an earthly paradise with total access to fellowship with Him. Genesis 3:14-15; Genesis 3:20-21; Luke 20:38; Luke 23:34; Revelation 21:1-5. God prophesied in Genesis 3:14-15 and Genesis 3:20 that His plan would save all mankind. God prophesied in Genesis 3:21 that He would provide a special salvation for some humans by His grace. I Timothy 4:10.

God cursed total evil which is the Devil, and God cursed the ground into which He would put the three regions of death into which He would temporarily consign unrepentant sinners according to His judgment after their physical deaths. God never cursed humans whom He loves. Revelation 20:13; Hebrews 9:27. God has put into the hearts of all good parents who love their children to save both the obedient and disobedient ones if they are in danger. Would God demand any less of Himself?

Man could not have become totally evil when he sinned because if he had, he would have become demonic and could only do evil. Man must be both the quick and the dead. He is alive and dead at the same time. The doctrine of the depravity of man cannot mean that man became totally evil. This doctrine simply means that man's limited life and righteousness holds no power to cleanse himself from sin and restore himself to a pure fellowship with God. Romans 5:6; Romans 3:9-12. God had to intervene into man's history to do all the work necessary to save all mankind from spiritual death. John 12:47; I Timothy 4:10; I Corinthians 15:22.

God's Complete Salvation part three

Sin causes spiritual death which is eternal separation from God. Genesis 3:22-24. But Jesus died that eternal death in every man's place on the cross. Hebrews 2:8-9. How is it possible that an eternal, living God could ever die an eternal death? The answer lies in the fact that God is Eternal Love. I John 4:8. God's Love is infinite and all-powerful. Psalm 147:5. An Infinite and Almighty God cannot be diminished or increased in any way, not even by eternal death. Infinity also cannot be divided or multiplied. This means that any part of the Infinite must be equal to the whole. While Jesus walked the earth, He appeared to His believers to be but a part of God. John 14:28. But although Jesus did put off a part of His power and glory when He came to earth, He nevertheless held an equality with His Father and the Holy Spirit at all times as He willed. Matthew 26:53; John 19:11; John 4:34. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all eternally equal to each other, being One God. John 10:30; I John 5:7.

There exists a kind of hole in eternity similar to a black hole in space. This hole in eternity corresponds to the three days that Jesus was dead, and God was separated from Himself. Yet, the world did not end, and Satan did not take over the universe. How could such an event be possible? The simple answer is that Eternal Love happens to be far more powerful than eternal death. Satan counted on eternal death being more powerful. Even when separated from Himself in eternal death, the Almighty Power of God's Love could not be diminished in the least. Just as a black hole in space sucks in all matter that comes near it, that three day hole in eternity sucks in all the sins and deaths of all humans. I John 3:8; I Corinthians 15:22-26. Through His creation of humanity, God has tested His Love and has proven that His Love can never fail. God tested His Love because the rebellion of Lucifer had brought the power of His Love into question. I Corinthians 13:8.

The good and living parts of every human yearns for a return to fellowship with God. Romans 8:21-22. God saves some humans by His grace to show the world that He is still here and can still save. Matthew 5:16. But God's Love does not give up on the rest of humanity whom He must temporarily separate from Himself by consigning them to one of the three regions of the dead because they are still filthy with sin and evil. Revelation 20:13; Hebrews 9:27. But God will allow the living parts of these dead humans to repent and return to fellowship with Him. The Bible prophesies that this event will happen as recorded in Isaiah 45:21-24 and Philippians 2:9-11, and it will be fulfilled in Revelation 5:13. However, the living parts of these dead humans must wait until after the millennial reign of Christ for God to permanently separate their lives from their deaths in a general resurrection of all that are left in their graves. John 5:28-29. God will use His consuming fire to effect this eternal separation. Christ made this salvation possible by His descent into hell. God will recover the good and living parts of all humans within the regions of the dead for Him to recreate to inhabit His recreated earth. Revelation 21:1-5. God will consign the spiritual deaths of these humans to the lake of fire forever. Revelation 20:13-15; Revelation 21:8; Revelation 22:11-12.

God's Complete Salvation part two

In the beginning, man had fellowship with God. The living parts of humans which God created still yearns for a return to faith which is fellowship with God. Some evil exists in the best of men, and some good in the worst of men. Jesus referred to this good and living part of each human in Luke 17:20-21. God can never lose anything He has ever created. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Romans 11:29. This fact indicates that such scriptures as Luke 20:38; John 5:28-29; I Corinthians 15:22; I Timothy 4:10; Revelation 20:5; and Revelation 21:5 can only mean that God will recover and recreate the good and living parts of all humans, some by grace and all others in a general resurrection in the end of the world. God must recover the living from the dead because Christ casts only the dead into the lake of fire. Revelation 20:11-15; I Corinthians 15:26.

The wages of sin is spiritual death which is eternal spiritual separation from God. But Christ suffered this eternal separation from God in every man's place when He died on the cross. John 12:47. Man's suffering for his own sins is always only temporary. God has destroyed sin, death, and the Devil through the death, burial, and resurrection of His Son in order to recover and recreate everything He ever created that the Devil threatens to permanently destroy by eternally separating it from God's Love. The Devil means to cause God's Love to fail. God, the Father, could not possibly fail to answer Jesus' cry from the cross in Luke 23:34. Jesus' cry can only mean that God will eventually forgive and recover every living part of all humans that He created.

Only the spiritual dead become eternally separated from God, never the good and living parts of humans. Nowhere does the Bible state that God separates the living parts of humans from Himself forever. In fact, Luke 20:38 teaches that to God all humans are alive. In another example, I John 3:8 states that Christ came to "...destroy the works of the Devil...," which is sin and death, not living humans. Ephesians 6:12 informs us that God has gone to war against spiritual darkness and evil, not living humans. I Corinthians 15:25-26 teaches that God intends to destroy all of the enemies of God and man including death, not living humans. I Corinthians 15:22 teaches that Christ intends to save the lives of all men from spiritual death. In Mark 9:43-48, Jesus taught that the "worm" of men will never die in the everlasting fire. The word "worm" in the Bible always symbolizes sin and evil, never living humans. In Mark 9:49-50, Jesus meant by His use of the word "salt" that every living human within the regions of the dead will be preserved by God's consuming fire when He separates their living parts from their deaths in the general resurrection. Humans saved by grace already have "salt" within themselves, but God will burn their unconfessed sins with His consuming fire. I Corinthians 3:11-15. The living parts of all humans not saved by grace will be separated from their spiritual deaths by God's consuming fire in the end of the world. I Corinthians 3:11-15. In addition, Colossians 1:20 informs that God will "...reconcile all things unto Himself..." God created all things. Colossians 1:16. God promised in Revelation 21:5 that "...Behold, I make all things new..." God created all things, including all humans.

God's Complete Salvation part one

God provides some form of salvation for all humans. Hebrews 7:25; II Peter 3:9; I Corinthians 15:22. Eventually, in one way or another, all living humans, created by Him, will come back to faith in Him. Man can have no part in God's salvation whatsoever. Man happens to be far too weak and sullied by sin to ever be able to cleanse and heal himself. Romans 5:6. The pride of man, which was the sin that the Devil injected into the human race, causes man to believe that somehow, in some way, he can at least contribute to his own salvation. Exodus 19:8. God had already provided for the complete salvation of the Hebrew people, but they still wanted to do something that they believed would make them righteous and acceptable with God.

God liberated the Hebrews from bondage in Egypt entirely by means of blood and burnt offering sacrifices. Exodus 12:5-10. The Old Testament blood sacrifices symbolized God's salvation by His grace of all believers in the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. The Old Testament burnt offerings symbolized God's salvation of the living parts of all humans confined to the regions of the dead with a general resurrection in the end of the world. John 5:28-29; I Corinthians 3:11-15; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:11-15; Revelation 21:5. Salvation by grace and sanctification comes from the Holy Spirit washing the believer from his sins with the blood and water that flowed from Jesus' body on the cross. Revelation 1:5; John 13:1-10. Salvation of the living parts of humans in the general resurrection comes from Jesus' descent into hell to leave the sins of all dead humans behind there forever. This had to have happened because Jesus bore all the sins of mankind on the cross but rose from immaculate from the grave.

Although Christ accomplished salvation by grace as He hung on the cross, this salvation does not become actual for the believer until the Holy Spirit washes and sanctifies him with Christ's spiritual blood and water. John 6:63; I Corinthians 6:11. To the same degree, although Jesus left all of the sins of all humans not saved by grace behind Him in hell when He rose immaculate from the grave, the actual separation of the living believer from his sins and spiritual death by God's use of His consuming fire does not occur until the general resurrection from the dead in the end of the world. I Corinthians 3:11-15; John 5:28-29. God provides a home in heaven for all believers saved by grace. I Peter 1:3-4. God provides a home on His recreated earth for all His living humans that He rescues in the general resurrection. Revelation 21:1-5.

Free Will or Predestination

God is Infinite and Eternal. He occupies an infinite everywhere, and He knows an infinite everything that is positive and creative. Psalm 147:5; Isaiah 40:28.

Everything God has created reflects His Word, including science. Psalm 19:1-4; Romans 1:19-20. Certain modern science experiments have proven that every moment of decision in a person's life affects both the past and the future of that person. Decisions made in old age affects what kind of baby that person was, and decisions made by that baby, such as whether to cry or not, affects what kind of person that baby will be. In other words, science has discovered that every moment of decision in a person's life affects every other moment throughout the entire life of that person, past and future. This fact means that our experience of our lives as passing from past to future amounts to but an illusion. We are old when we are a baby, and we are a baby when we are old, and at every moment between. Our lives consist of but a set of decisions that we make. That which we decide causes us to be what we are in the past and the future. As the existentialists like to say, we are freedom itself. The Declaration of Independence states this same truth about our God given rights when Thomas Jefferson wrote about "...life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness..."

God's has eternal life with no beginning or end. Just like man whom He created in His image, God's eternal life consists of every decision He has ever made. This means God is infinite freedom, but He never chooses to create anything except that which is righteous and good. He is a Holy God. God possesses an Almighty Power to decide, and every decision defines His existence. In other words, God is Almighty Power defined by Infinite Information. John 1:1.

As Infinite Information, God knows everything that will ever happen in His eternal universe. However, since God created every human to be free, just as He is, then God must wait for every human to decide what they will do, which in turn determines who they are, so He can know their past and their eternal future. Nothing can be known until decisions are made. In this way, predestination and free will are both true at the same time.

But even though man possesses free will and can choose to disobey and sin against God, this fact does not mean that man can ever thwart or change the eternal will and plans of God for mankind or His universe. In other words, God's eternal will will be accomplished no mater what humans decide to do, good or bad. Numbers 23:19; Ecclesiastes 3:14. One of the constant themes of the Bible concerns God's ability to change sinful systems into good and creative systems over time. This theme reflects God's will for His entire universe, including all mankind. Eventually, God will purge all sin and evil from His universe and recreate and restore it to its original goodness and purity, including all mankind. Genesis 1:31; Romans 8:18-25; Luke 20:38; Luke 23:34; I Corinthians 15:22; II Peter 3:9; Revelation 21:1-5.

Commentary on Romans 8:18-25 part two

Romans 8:18-19 prophesies about a coming event in which God will awaken all of His fallen creations from the pall which sin had cast over their minds. Revelation 5:13 reveals the fulfillment of this prophecy. This great worship service begins with the angels and the Church in heaven. Revelation 5:11-12. This tremendous worship service then awakens all of God's creations still under the power of sin, and all that God has ever created joins in this thunderous praise and worship of Him as their Creator and Savior. The living parts of all humans confined within each of the regions of the dead called the sea, death, or hell will awaken to the fact that God created them and that He still loves them. This great awakening will cause all the living parts of humans within the regions of the dead to yearn and groan for a return to fellowship with God. Romans 8:22. Their hope will be realized when God liberates them from the regions of the dead in a general resurrection in the end of the world. Revelation 20:5. The Bible also prophesies about this great awakening in Philippians 2:9-11; Romans 14:9; Luke 20:37-38; Romans 14:11, and Isaiah 45:22-24. In the general resurrection, God will dissolve every individual human system, recover the good and living parts to be recreated and cast the dead parts into the lake of fire. John 5:28-29; Revelation 20:13-15.

Romans 8:20 describes how God's creations were "subject to vanity;" that is, to both pride and emptiness. All through the Bible, it equates sin with vanity. This vanity has clouded the minds of all humans. God clears the minds of all humans saved by grace because they acquire "the mind of Christ." I Corinthians 2:16. But God will still subject all humans within the regions of the dead to the hope of being saved. The living parts of these humans will have hope of being saved because they did not sin "willingly," but because they were weakened by contact with sin. That part of their beings which sins "willingly" will never repent and is permanently dead, and God casts their death into the lake of fire. In this way, God destroys the first death which liberates all living humans within the regions of the dead, and God casts their dead parts into the second death. I Corinthians 15:26; Revelation 21:8.

In Romans 8:21, God promises that He will liberate His entire fallen creation from its bondage to sin and fully recreate it, including all humans. Revelation 21:1-5.

Romans 8:22 describes how all of God's fallen creations yearn to be reunited to fellowship with Him. This groaning will greatly increase after its awakening in the great worship service.

Romans 8:23 describes how all humans saved by grace in the Church Age also yearn and groan for the resurrection and recreation of their bodies in the Rapture of the Church. I Corinthians 15:51-57.

The word "hope" in Romans 8:24-25 in the Greek means "a confident expectation," and not just "desire" as in English. Both the fact that humans saved by grace groan for the redemption of their fallen bodies, and the fact that all of God's creations also yearns to be reunited with Him proves that God will realize this hope by absolutely saving from corruption everything He has ever created. Revelation 21:5; Romans 11:29; Ecclesiastes 3:14.

Commentary on Romans 8:18-25 part one

Romans 8:18-25 provides an account of how God will one day recreate absolutely everything He has ever created which has become less than good because of the fall of Adam and Eve. The Bible prophesies about this great recreation event in such passages as Revelation 21:1-5; Colossians 1:15-20; Matthew 19:28, and John 5:28-29. God has created absolutely all things, including mankind. Therefore, every man who ever lived must be included when God reveals that, "...Behold, I make all things new..." The prophecy in Colossians 1:20 that Christ will "...reconcile all things unto Himself...," must include all mankind. Humans that God saves by grace will be recreated in a different way prior to the general resurrection of John 5:28-29.

God created every human to be a good system. The Devil injected sin and evil into every human system causing all of God's creations to become less than good. God means to purge all sin and evil from His creations and recreate them all as good systems again. I John 3:8; Revelation 21:5. Since the fall, every human system contains a good system created by God and a false system injected into every human by the Devil. In John 5:28-29, Jesus prophesied that in a general resurrection in the end of the world, God will effect an absolute separation of the good system in every human still in their graves from their fallen system. In order to do this, God will dissolve every individual system. God will use His consuming fire to effect this separation in every human within one of the regions of the dead. God will consign every human not saved by grace to a temporary separation from Him in one of the three regions of the dead following their physical deaths. Revelation 20:13; I Corinthians 3:12-15. Other scriptures, such as Revelation 22:11-12 and Matthew 3:10-12, also prophesy about God's absolute separation of good from evil in the end of the world. In this recreation, humans who led good and moral lives while on earth will retain some of their former identities and personalities when recreated as determined by the judgment of God. Humans who led deliberately sinful and evil lives will retain none of their former identities and personalities after their recreation. I Corinthians 15:35-50; Matthew 16:25-27.

God will cleanse from sin and recreate humans saved by grace with a different process than He will use with those humans still left in their graves. While still alive in the flesh, God will cleanse and recreate the souls and spirits of all believers in Christ with the blood He shed on the cross. II Corinthians 4:6-7; II Corinthians 5:17; Revelation 1:5. God will cleanse the sinful, fleshly nature of each believer with the water which flowed from Jesus' side on the cross as they daily confess and repent of their sins. I John 1:9; John 13:1-10. Christ will thoroughly cleanse the fleshly nature and recreate the body of every believer at the Rapture of the Church. I Corinthians 15:51-57. Old Testament saints have already been resurrected with the resurrection of Christ. Matthew 27:52-53. Tribulation saints will be resurrected when Christ returns to begin His millennial reign. Revelation 20:4. These events mean that those still left in their graves to experience the general resurrection of John 5:28-29 can only be the rest of humanity never saved by grace. All humans saved by grace will live with God in heaven forever and will retain their former identities and most of their former personalities. Matthew 16:24-25. The good and living parts of all humans raised in the general resurrection, God will recreate to live on His recreated earth. Revelation 21:1-5.

The Logic of Luke 20:38

The extended truth of Luke 20:38 can be summarized by a simple syllogism.

1.  The major premise.
God created all living humans in His own image. Genesis 1:27. God created all living humans as good systems capable of producing only positive and creative actions. Genesis 1:31. Proof that God's good and living systems still abides in every man is provided by the fact that even the worst men do some good for others.

2. The minor premise.
God is Almighty and cannot lose anything He has ever created. Ecclesiastes 3:14. God's Love can never fail. I Corinthians 13:8. God's Word can never be broken. Numbers 23:19. If God could ever lose anything He has ever created to the Devil, then He would not be almighty; His love would fail, and His word would be broken. Such an event can never happen.

3.  Conclusion.
God must recover and recreate every good and living human He has ever created by liberating them from the spiritual death that has infected them. God will liberate all living and good humans from spiritual death through the death, burial, and resurrection of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Luke 20:38. God will liberate some living humans by His grace, and all others in a general resurrection in the end of the world. John 5:28-29. In this way, God will prove that His Almighty Power, His Love, and His Word can never be broken. I John 3:8.

Nowhere does the Bible teach that God will cast living humans into the lake of fire. Revelation 20:13-15 teaches that God will cast only dead humans into the lake of fire. God will have already recovered His good and living humans in Revelation 20:5, and God has promised to recreate them in Revelation 21:1-5. Revelation 21:5 sums it all up. God has created everything, and He will recover and recreate everything that has been sullied by sin. The Devil believes that he can destroy God by permanently destroying a part of God's creations, particularly humans. But Christ has triumphed over the Devil by liberating all of His creations, including all living humans, from permanent death by destroying the works of the Devil and death itself. I John 3:8; I Corinthians 15:20-28. Many other scriptures support this conclusion. John 12:47; John 16:33; Romans 8:18-25; Romans 11:29; Romans 11:36; I Corinthians 3:11-15; Colossians 1:15-20; Revelation 22:11-12.  

Salvation through Faith and Repentance part five

In John 12:47, Jesus clearly taught that He came "to save the world." He did not say that He came only to save some humans by His grace out of the world. The word "world" in the Greek means "the ordered arrangement of the cosmos, including mankind." In other words, Jesus taught that He came to restore the original order of the world as He created it, including all of mankind. God is Almighty. His will can never be thwarted. Christ is Almighty God, and this means He cannot fail to rescue His entire creation, including all mankind. Revelation 21:5.

God revealed His plan to save His entire creation, including man, from its fallen condition in the beginning. Satan had injected sin and evil into mankind in order to attempt to so thoroughly ruin the life and goodness that God had created man to be that Satan could prove that God is not almighty and thus could be defeated and killed. God cursed the Devil. Genesis 3:14. God cursed the ground because He knew He would have to punish most of humanity by consigning them to one of the three regions of the dead called the sea, death, or hell located within the earth. Revelation 20:13. God never cursed the good and living part of man that He had created. God also knew that He would spare humans saved by grace from this punishment except for those who died in unconfessed sins whom God might temporarily consign to the region called death. God knew that the good life of man temporarily separated from Him within one of the regions of death would so desperately yearn to be restored to fellowship with Him that one day they all would erupt into a tremendous worship service recognizing God as their only Savior. Revelation 5:13. Because of this return to faith, God will separate and recover their good lives in a general resurrection for Him to recreate to live on His recreated earth. John 5:28-29.

God also knew that in order for Him to save the good lives of humans by grace or by recreation, He would have to devise a plan to cleanse their good lives from all of the poison of sin that threatened to completely ruin their good lives and separate them from God in spiritual death tortured by the Devil forever. God's plan was that He would allow the Devil to put all of the poison of the sins of all mankind on Himself on a cruel cross to suffer their eternal death in their place. In this way, by taking their deserved punishment on Himself, Christ would liberate all mankind from eternal separation from God either by His grace or by His recreation. Genesis 3:15; Genesis 3:20. Luke 20:38 and Luke 23:34 denote God's salvation of all living humans. Genesis 3:21; II Corinthians 5:21; and I Peter 1:18-25 denote all living humans saved by God's grace. God saves by His grace all who become washed from their sins by the blood and water that flowed from Jesus' body on the cross. Revelation 1:5; Ephesians 5:23-27. All of the rest of humanity within the regions of the dead, Christ will save by His consuming fire when He separated their sins from their good lives when He descended into hell and rose immaculate from the dead. I Corinthians 3:12-15.

Salvation through Faith and Repentance part four

No verse in the Bible teaches that God will cast living humans into the lake of fire forever. Revelation 20:11-15 teaches that God will cast only man's spiritual deadness into the lake of fire forever. Revelation 20:5 teaches that God will have already resurrected the living parts of man for Him to recreate. Revelation 21:1-5; John 5:28-29. This resurrection of man's life explains what Jesus meant by that which He taught in John 11:25. Christ did not resurrect Lazarus to be a symbol of salvation by grace. Martha and Mary already symbolized salvation by grace. John 11:26. Christ resurrected Lazarus to symbolize His resurrection of the living from the dead in the end of the world. Revelation 20:5.

Some may contend that Jesus taught in Mark 9:43-50 that God casts living humans into the lake of fire forever. But Jesus did not mean that. Jesus taught that their "worm" would be in the lake of fire forever. All through the Bible, the word "worm" symbolizes the filth of spiritual deadness which has infected mankind. Job 24:20 and Isaiah 66:24 provide just two examples. Psalm 22:6 describes how Jesus took all of the filth of the deadness of mankind, symbolized by the word "worm," on Himself as he suffered on the cross. God does cast living humans into a temporary hell in order to use His consuming fire to separate their deadness from their lives that He created. Jesus made this separation possible by His descent into hell to leave all of the sins of all mankind behind. Revelation 22:12 teaches that Christ will reward every man for his good works. Only living men can receive these rewards.

Humans saved by grace will receive forgiveness and everlasting life the moment they repent and put their faith in Jesus. John 5:24. God will cast all of the rest of humanity into one of the three regions of the dead; called the sea, death, or hell, by His judgment following their physical deaths. Revelation 20:13; Hebrews 9:27. God will separate the living parts of these dead humans from their deadness, which Christ made possible when He descended into hell, in the great worship service and revival as recorded in Revelation 5:13. God will finalize this separation of the living from the dead in a general resurrection as recorded in Revelation 20:5 and Revelation 20:11-15. Jesus also taught about this general resurrection in John 5:28-29.

Satan persists in his rebellion against God because he does not believe that God is Almighty. Satan believes that he can cause the life of man to become so filthy with sin and evil that it will be ruined forever. Satan believes that by doing this he can prove that God is not almighty. Satan believes that by this proof he can eventually kill God. Satan believes that God cannot protect and save His life and goodness He has put into mankind. But God has promised that His Love cannot fail and that He will recover and recreate everything that has been temporarily sullied by sin, including all mankind. I Corinthians 13:8; Ecclesiastes 3:14; Revelation 21:1-5; Romans 8:18-22; Romans 11:36; Colossians 1:15-20; I Corinthians 3:11-15.

Salvation through Faith and Repentance part three

All of this means that believers saved by grace never lose their salvation. Salvation by grace consists of a cleansing and sanctification process accomplished through the shed blood and water from Jesus on the cross. But permanent salvation by grace indicates the extended truth that God never retracts anything He has ever given. James 1:17. God never goes back on His Word. God never loses anything He has ever created, including the lives of all men. Luke 20:38; Numbers 23:19; Ecclesiastes 3:14.

God created man in His own image. Genesis 1:27. God created man to be a good system. Genesis 1:31. According to God's Word, He can never lose the life and goodness that He has ever put into every man He has ever created. The life and goodness of man has become sullied by sin, but God has a plan to cleanse and forgive that sin either through the blood and water that Christ shed on the cross which becomes salvation by grace, or by the use of His consuming fire in hell by which He will separate and recover the goodness and life that He put into every man for Him to recreate. All of mankind not saved by grace will receive a lesser salvation because Christ left all of their sins behind in hell when He descended into it. This fact has to be true because Christ bore all of man's sins on the cross, descended into hell, but rose immaculate from the grave. All of the Old Testament burnt offerings symbolized this type of salvation. God poured His consuming fire into the abyss in order to accomplish this purpose. Revelation 1:5; I Corinthians 3:11-15; Romans 8:18-23; Revelation 21:5; Ephesians 4:9-10; Deuteronomy 32:22; Psalm 86:12-13; Amos 7:4; Revelation 20:5; John 5:28-29.

Adam and Eve committed sins on two levels; that is, sins of weakness which God always cleanses and forgives and deliberate sins which never repents and God never forgives. Luke 23:34; Matthew 12:31-32. Man's sins of weakness sully the life and goodness that God created man to be, but God will cleanse and recover all of His goodness and life in man either by the blood and water that Jesus shed on the cross or by His consuming fire that holds all of the sins of mankind that Christ left behind when He descended into hell. Christ casts only the spiritual death of man into the lake of fire, not their lives. Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:14-15. All of the lives of man left in one of the three regions of the dead will repent and turn to faith in Christ as prophesied in Isaiah 45:21-24 and as fulfilled in Revelation 5:13. Revelation 22:10-15 describes God's absolute separation of all the filth of mankind which is their deadness from their goodness and life which He created. God can only reward living persons, not dead ones. Revelation 22:12.

Salvation through Faith and Repentance part two

When Jesus walked the earth, He displayed great compassion toward sins of weakness, especially those of fallen women. In Matthew 21:31, Jesus taught the corrupt religious leaders "...that the publicans and harlots go into the kingdom of God before you." Jesus did not say they were former publicans and harlots. In accordance with Matthew 18:21-22 and Luke 18:13, repentance consists of changing one's mind toward God about one's own sins and not an act of trying to give up one's sins. Giving up one's sins could be an act of bragging and self-righteousness. Matthew 12:43-45. Sometimes, God will heal a believer of a particular sin to which that believer is addicted. But if He does not, that believer still displays his faith and repentance by hating his own sins and begging God for His forgiveness and mercy whenever he falls into it because of his weakness. God prefers this type of repentance over that of pretended self-righteousness because true repentance displays humility before God. Luke 18:13; II Corinthians 12:9. In II Peter 2:7-8, the Bible clearly teaches that Lot was just and righteous even though he became as corrupt as were the wicked people of Sodom and Gomorrah. He even continued his sinful ways after God sent angels to rescue him. God could only have rescued and justified him because his righteous soul was vexed; that is, he hated his own corruption and sin as well as that in others. In his hatred of his sins, he humbled himself to God whom he knew to be holy, merciful, and righteous. The difference between Lot and the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, including Lot's own wife, were that they had no desire whatsoever to repent, whereas Lot did have that desire.

Most Christian people either do not have an addictive sin or they have been healed of one. Although they cannot be perfect, they tend to avoid sin because they love God and do not desire to grieve the Holy Spirit, and they hate the destructive nature of sin. Ephesians 4:30; Amos 5:15. But the sanctified Christian, who tries to do all that God requires of him, may, without realizing it, become tempted to fall into a different kind of sin. He may become proud of his righteousness and may secretly begin to ascribe it to his own efforts. This Christian has become self-righteous and feels in his heart that his righteousness has become somewhat independent of God's righteousness. This type of sin becomes much worse than if he became a worldly Christian because God hates pride more than any other sin. Proverbs 6:16-17. He becomes a lukewarm Christian who makes Christ sick to His stomach. Revelation 3:14-19. Sanctified Christians must always remember and be grateful to God for causing them to hate sin and avoid it, and that they possess the gift of righteousness only because of the power of the Holy Spirit within them. Romans 8:2; Romans 5:17.

God gave this same gift of righteousness, with innocence, to Adam and Eve. Born again Christians receive God's gift of righteousness but not the gift of innocence. Christians must battle the temptation to sin for the rest of their lives on earth. When Christians beat temptation and avoid committing sin, God should get all the glory because they won only because of the power of the Holy Spirit within them. But when Christians fail and commit sins, God never abandons them. God will still work in their lives to sanctify them, punish them for their correction, bring them to repentance and cleansing with the water of His Word, and eventually bring them back into fellowship with Him. Hebrews 12:6; John 13:5-10; I John 1:3. The key to remaining in fellowship with God is that the Christian must daily confess and repent of committed sins. I John 1:9. Christians who die in a state of unconfessed sin without repentance, Christ may temporarily punish them by separating them from God in a place called Death. Luke 12:58-59; Matthew 25:30; Revelation 20:13. This temporary punishment will cause them great remorse and anguish which will lead them to repentance, cleansing from sin, and restoration to fellowship with God. God will probably not hold them in this prison for long. Eventually, after the Rapture of the Church, Christ will present His entire Church to God being wholly cleansed and completely sanctified. Ephesians 5:23-27.

Salvation through Faith and Repentance part one

Humans are condemned to sin. Humans have a sin nature which compels us to sin. Sin is unavoidable. We humans have compassion for afflicted people. We do not blame an autistic person for not being able to relate well with others. God gave us this compassion, so certainly our God of infinite compassion cannot blame humans for committing sins that we cannot avoid. One of the reasons Adam and Eve sinned was because of weakness which persists in humanity to this day. Sooner or later, God always forgives sins of weakness in every human. Luke 23:34.

But humans also possess free will. This fact means that we possess the ability to commit a type of sin for which we can be held fully responsible. We are never compelled to commit this sin. It remains strictly our choice. Humans can freely choose to give in to sin and deliberately practice cruelty and evil. Humans can join with Satan in his rebellion against God. Eve displayed this type of sin when she selfishly gave the forbidden fruit to her husband. Adam displayed this type of sin when he knowingly and deliberately disobeyed God. Jesus described this type of sin in Matthew 12:31-32. God relates to fallen man through His Spirit. To reject the Holy Spirit means one has rejected God. God never forgives this sin of rebellion nor does it ever desire forgiveness. This rebellious evil constitutes the spiritual deadness of man which God will cast into the lake of fire in the end. Revelation 20:15.

God will forgive this sin of rebellion if one repents of it. Faith and repentance is the key. If one repents of one's evil and appeals to the grace and mercy of God, God will forgive because of one's weakness and ignorance. One can never be compelled to surrender to evil, but ignorance and weakness can cause one to be tempted to do so. I Timothy 1:12-14; II Corinthians 12:9. A sin of rebellion against God reverts to a sin of weakness if one humbles oneself to God and puts one's trust in His grace and mercy. A true sin of rebellion never repents, and God never forgives it. Lucifer did not repent and will never repent. For this reason, God stripped him of all the goodness God put into his system and condemned him to earth as a one-hundred-per cent evil system called Satan. Ezekiel 28:13-19.

Jesus displayed great anger toward religious leaders who had become self-righteous and cruel. These corrupt leaders had invented their own set of rules, and they ignored the Word of God in order to justify their own greed and cruelty. All the while, they prayed long prayers in public and put on a show of righteousness to earn the praise of men. In practice, they actually no longer believed in the merciful and loving God. They actually practiced the sin of rebellion against the true and living God. Matthew 23. Jesus warned them that as long as they remained in a state of rebellion, God would never forgive them. Matthew 23:33.

Less than Nothing part two

In Matthew 13:12; Matthew 25:29-30; Luke 19:26; Mark 4:25; and Luke 8:18, Jesus taught that those who possess something will have more given to them, but that those who possess nothing will have even that nothingness taken from them. All of the good ideas within them, including the useful idea of nothing, belongs to God and He will recover all that belongs to Him. Romans 11:36. Those who possess only the idea of nothing will have even this idea recovered by God so they will be reduced to absolute nothingness. This is their deadness. Their deadness, which can also be called their negative consciousness, God will cast into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is something. It is God's consuming fire. It is a useful system created by God to constantly reduce the dead to negative consciousness. Their torment will be their constant yearning to return to positive consciousness, but their torment will forever prevent them from ever negatively affecting God's reality again. Revelation 20:15.

Revelation 21:8 describes these absolute dead. In their lives, they misused the goodness and life that God had given them. This was their sin and evil. They tended to replace the good systems that God created them to be and to have with negative and destructive systems. The unbelievers did not have faith. The murderers negated life. The whoremongers negated the good system of love called marriage. The liars negated the truth. The sorcerers negated the healthy mind. The idolaters joined with the Devil in trying to negate God Himself. Negative consciousness conditioned much of their lives, and God will cast their deadness into the second death called the lake of fire.

But Jesus also taught that those who have something will be given even more. Everyone who has ever genuinely loved, has ever given good things to others, has ever practiced kindness and morality, have demonstrated that they possess the image of God that He created them to be. They have practiced some of the good and creative systems that God put into their lives. John 3:27; Genesis 1:27. God will give them more. Those who receive Christ by faith while still alive in the flesh will receive the gifts of grace and sanctification while still in the flesh and eternal life with God in heaven forever. John 3:16. Those who fail to find faith while still in the flesh will still find faith as prophesied in Isaiah 45:21-24 and as fulfilled in Revelation 5:13. All those saved by grace will receive recreated bodies and return to God in prior resurrections, but the general resurrection will be reserved for all those who still lie in their graves. John 5:28-29; Revelation 20:5. God will recover and recreate all of His life and goodness that He has put into every man because it all belongs to Him, some by His grace and all others in the general resurrection. God will allow all humans recreated in the general resurrection to live on His recreated earth, Revelation 21:5.

In the end, God will purge all sin and evil from His universe and recreate it so that sin and evil will never be able to enter it again. God will not allow the false trinity called the Devil to be reduced to negative consciousness. God will cast the beast, the false prophet, and the devil alive into the lake of fire. God will deliberately replace their negative consciousness with a positive consciousness so that they will feel the direct burning of the flames forever. The negative systems that the Devil introduced into God's reality often produced terrible pain in the lives of humans. God will make sure he gets what he deserves. God will subject the Devil to his own attempt to ruin God's reality forever. The Devil possesses a high degree of intellect even though it is negative. He can often easily deceive humans. God will make certain that the Devil becomes so absorbed in such terrible pain that he will never be able to even think of any way to infect God's creations with sin again forever. Revelation 19:20; Revelation 20:10.

Less than Nothing part one

Psalm 62:9 teaches that sinners are "lighter than vanity." It happens to be no accident that the word "vanity" means both "excessive pride" and "nothingness." Lucifer rebelled against God because he invented a false system called "excessive pride" which proved to be only destructive and all destruction reduces toward nothingness. Good systems always produce useful effects. False systems, such as broken down automobiles, produce only nothing as far as transportation is concerned. All through the Word of God, He equates sin, which is always a false system, with vanity. Psalm 39:5; Proverbs 22:8; Isaiah 41:9; Jeremiah 10:15; Jeremiah 16:19; Romans 8:20; Ephesians 4:7; II Peter 2:18 provide a few examples of these scriptures. Isaiah 40:17 even describes vanity as being "less than nothing."

The Infinite Consciousness of God establishes reality. Reality consists of basic elements and good and useful systems composed of these basic elements. Systems can be reduced to basic elements, but the basic elements cannot be reduced. The idea of nothing is a useful basic element in all good systems. In fact, God identifies and separates every basic element by the use of the idea of nothing. Humans identify and separate every object in sight by the use of the idea of nothing called space.

Yet, even though the basic idea of nothing cannot be separated or reduced, Isaiah 40:17 describes vanity as being "less than nothing." This can only mean that whatever "less that nothing" is, it cannot exist within the realm of reality. Since only reality can exist, then "less than nothing" can only nonexist. "Less than nothing" equates with a realm of absolute nothingness which nonexists nowhere and at no time. God possesses infinite knowledge and power within the realm of reality. God can possess no knowledge of absolute nothingness except to the extent that it has a destructive effect on reality. II Thessalonians 2:7. In some mysterious way, Lucifer became infected with absolute nothingness which caused him to misuse some of God's basic ideas to invent a false system called "excessive pride" which equates with vanity in that it attempts to reduce God's perfect reality, and God Himself, to absolute nothingness. The Devil's project equates vanity with sin and evil.

Nothing exists without consciousness. But what could this nothing be since only consciousness can establish the idea of nothing as a basic idea in reality? Without consciousness, absolutely nothing nonexists nowhere and at no time. But if reality requires positive consciousness, perhaps absolute nothingness requires negative consciousness. Perhaps Lucifer rebelled because he became infected by a negative consciousness. God evidently deduced this fact when He said that vanity was "less than nothing." Isaiah 40:17. Positive consciousness can get no idea whatsoever of what the power of negative consciousness could be since absolute nothingness nonexists.

Vanity means emptiness, and the idea of emptiness comes closer to absolute nothingness than does the idea of nothing. The idea of nothing qualifies reality, but the idea of emptiness indicates an absolute nothingness although positive consciousness can get no idea of where or what it could be. There exists no where or what to absolute emptiness. A simple thought experiment reveals that the mind can get no idea of absolute emptiness. Always, the mind can only get the idea of emptiness qualified by something. Positive consciousness can only imagine reality. One always imagines emptiness as being black or grey, which is something. Even if one tries to imagine empty space, one always pushes something to its edges even if that something is only one's mind.

Two Great Themes of the Bible part five

Another great theme of the Bible repeats itself throughout it. A good system becomes sinful because of the misuse of some of its created elements, but God works to eliminate the sinfulness that invaded the system until the system becomes wholly good and useful again. For example, in the story of the prophet Joseph and his brothers, the sin of hatred entered into a system based on brotherly love. Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery in Egypt. But God worked in Joseph's life to elevate him to become the Prime Minister of Egypt so that he could provide food for his family in a time of famine. When Joseph met his brothers again, remorse for their sin replaced their hatred, forgiveness replaced animosity, and brotherly love again became the basis of this good system. God worked the sin out of this family system, saved Joseph's family from starvation, and restored this good family system. Joseph said it best in Genesis 50:20.

This same theme repeats itself throughout the Word of God. This theme repeats in the story of Jacob and Esau, the story of Judah and Tamar, the story of Samson, the story of king David and Bathsheba, the story of the prophet Jonah, and many others. In the story of Samson, God always forgave Samson's sins of weakness until Samson allowed his hair to be cut. In this sin, Samson rebelled against God. He thought he could be strong without God. Judges 16:20. God did not forgive Samson's sin of rebellion until his hair grew back and their covenant was restored. Sins of continuous rebellion never repent and God never forgives them, but when a sinner repents of a sin of rebellion then God forgives because of His mercy toward the sinner's weakness. God sent Samson to a type of hell for his rebellion, but Samson repented and his hair grew back, and God used him again to destroy His rebellious enemies. Judges 16:28.

Someday, as John 5:28-29, II Timothy 4:1, Revelation 20:5, and Revelation 20:11-15 reveal, God will repeat this theme when He separates and recovers all of His life and goodness that He has put into man and recreates it. God will also separate from man all of his unrepentant evil and deadness and cast it into the lake of fire forever. Samson's restoration to God's favor symbolized God's recovery of all His goodness and life that He put into man. The Philistines whom Samson destroyed symbolized all of man's rebellious evil and deadness that God will forever purge from His universe.

The Bible also reveals that a time will come when all of the life and goodness that God has put into man will repent of its sins of weakness and will seek restoration to God's favor. Philippians 2:9-11 repeats the prophecy of Isaiah 45:21-24 that one day all of humanity not already saved by grace will bow to God, admit that God has given them righteousness and strength, and be ashamed of their sins which will show remorse and repentance. God reveals in Isaiah 45:22 that all of humanity will look to Him and be saved. Revelation 5:13 reveals the very day when this prophecy will be fulfilled. All of the life and goodness that still remains within humanity within all the regions of the dead will worship God on that day. They will praise Christ for His "...blessing, and honor, and glory, and power..." Humans cannot have such an attitude toward God without repentance and faith. They will recognize that God holds almighty power over sin and death and that He will rescue their lives from eternal death. Revelation 20:5 reveals that God will recover all of His life and goodness that He put into all humans when He created them for Him to recreate. Revelation 20:11-15 reveals that God will cast all of the separated rebellious deadness and evil in mankind into the lake of fire forever. Revelation 21:8; Revelation 22:11-12. This resurrection and restoration will not apply to believers saved by grace because they will have already been resurrected in the Rapture in the case of the Church, in the resurrection of Christ in the case of the Old Testament saints, and in the resurrection of the Tribulation saints in the beginning of the millennial reign of Christ. I Thessalonians 4:16-17; Matthew 27:52-53; Revelation 20:4-6. All believers saved by grace will live with Christ forever in heaven. Believers rescued in the general resurrection God will recreate to live on His recreated earth. John 5:28-29; Revelation 21:1-5.

Two Great Themes of the Bible part four

Herein lies the greatest paradox of the Bible. Jesus was all man and all God at the same time. Therefore, Jesus' dead body was the dead body of God Himself. The Spirit of Christ became separated from the Father, and therefore spiritually dead, when He descended into hell. God the Father turned His face from Jesus on the cross because of His agony and the filth of sin that covered Him there. God, the Father, was separated from His Son. God was separated from Himself. This condition constitutes the very definition of spiritual death. But if Jesus had to die in the sinner's place, He had to be separated from God just as any sinner would be. For the following three days, Nietzsche was right. God was dead. Yet, the world was not destroyed, and God became alive again after three days. Revelation 1:18; John 10:30. This has to be the all time record for paradoxes. This paradox is further complicated by the fact that Jesus said in John 10:17 that He would raise Himself from the dead. Romans 6:4 states that the Father raised Him, and Romans 8:11 reveals that the Spirit raised Him. Humans cannot possibly understand all this, but one revelation remains certain. God's Love is truly all-powerful. Not only this, but it would seem that God's Love is even more powerful when dead than when alive!

Eve was deceived by Satan while she was in a state of innocence. This means her sin was one of weakness. No rational human blames a child for being deceived by a predator. How much more would the infinite compassion of God be extended to Eve. Yet, Eve had to have known that she was fallen. She could feel it. Her cruel sin was that she gave the forbidden fruit to her husband just to bring him down to her level. This act was her deliberate sin against God. Her action demonstrates the difference between sin and evil. Sin can be weak or deliberate, but evil can only be deliberate. God cleanses and forgives all sins of weakness, but God never forgives cruel and deliberate sins. Deliberate sins are allied with Satan and never seek forgiveness. God does cleanse and forgive deliberate sins when one repents of them because faith and repentance quickens the compassion of God for the weakness of man. In the end, God will separate all deliberate evil from mankind and cast it into the lake of fire forever. Luke 23:34; Revelation 20:15; Revelation 21:8.

Adam's deliberate sin was that he knew full well that he was disobeying God when he ate the forbidden fruit. The worst part of his sin was the failure of his faith. He failed to call on God his friend for His help. Adam's sin of weakness was that he did not want to lose physical love with his wife. Adam knew that she was now a sinner and he was not. He was afraid for her and did not desire separation from her. So, in an act of self-sacrificial love he fell to her level in order to be with her to protect and comfort her. His loving action demonstrated that he had not lost that noble image of God that God had put into him and which still remains with every human. Adam's loving act constituted a prophecy in action that someday a loving God would sacrifice Himself to liberate all of humanity from eternal separation from Him. I Timothy 2:14; Romans 5:12-21; I Corinthians 15:45-47; I Corinthians 15:22.

God will cleanse, sanctify, and forgive all sinners who are still in the flesh when they put their faith in the shed blood and water that flowed from Christ on the cross. God will judge the souls and spirits of all unbelievers following their physical deaths and consign each one of them to one of the three regions of the dead which are called the sea, death, or hell. Because Christ left the sins of all mankind behind in hell when He rose from the dead, God will use His consuming fire to separate the sins of all mankind from their lives which He created, burn up their sins of weakness including deliberate sins for which they repented, and cast all their unrepentant evil sins into the lake of fire. God will recover and recreate all of His goodness and life that He put into mankind. The Old Testament burnt offerings symbolized how God would purge His universe of all sin and evil. Deuteronomy 32:22; I Peter 1:18-23; Ephesians 5:25-27; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:11-15; Matthew 3:10-12; I Corinthians 15:20-28; I Corinthians 3:11-15; Colossians 1:15-20; Revelation 21:1-5; Revelation 21:8; Revelation 22:11-12.

Two Great Themes of the Bible part three

God meant exactly that which He said through the mouth of John the Baptist in John 1:29. Christ came to purge all sin from all humanity, some by His grace, and all others by consigning them to one of the regions of the dead in order to subject them to His consuming fire by which He will separate their total evil from their goodness and life which He created so that He can cleanse and recreate it. John 12:47; I Corinthians 3:12-15; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:1-5; Matthew 3:10-12; Ecclesiastes 3:14. God has proven to the Devil that His Love cannot be destroyed or even diminished.

Satan deceived Eve and caused her to sin because of her weakness. God's gift to her of free will caused her weakness. God knew that she could sin, but God also knew that through sin in the lives of humans, God could test His Love to the utmost and prove to His creations that His Love can never be destroyed. As long as sin and the Devil remained in God's universe, His Love would be in doubt, but God devised a plan to prove that His Love is all-powerful and to purge all sin from His universe forever. While the Devil was deceiving Eve, God had devised His own plan that through Adam and Eve He would destroy the Devil and all his works. God gave free will to Lucifer as a loving gift, but God did not know that this gift would cause a weakness for sin. At that time, God knew nothing about sin. God is Almighty and Holy, but He is also innocent. This fact does not mean that God is not Omniscient. God possesses an infinite knowledge of all that is good and holy. At the time that God gave free will to Lucifer, God knew nothing about sin because it is wholly negative and empty. Sin derives from negative consciousness which is less than nothing. The idea of nothing is positive because God can use it in creative systems like mathematics. All through the Bible, God refers to sin as being vanity and less than nothing. Isaiah 40:17; II Corinthians 12:9.

Nothing is a creative idea for God and man and constitutes a useful element in all positive systems. But nothingness which is not an idea must nonexist. Yet, it remains the source of all that is destructive and evil. Nothingness which is not an idea cannot be a part of positive reality, and yet in some mysterious way, it can have a destructive effect on reality. For example, all correct mathematical calculations are positive and creative systems. 2-2=0 is one such system. The zero represents the idea of nothing which is the useful result of this positive system. But if one mentally subtracts the two twos, the minus sign, and the equal sign as elements of this system, then one still has the idea of the zero which is useful in reality. But reality itself is a positive system. If one then mentally subtracts the idea of zero from this calculation which represents reality, then one is left with absolute nothingness which cannot be an idea and one cannot mentally grasp it. But one also notices when this mental experiment reaches the level of absolute nothingness, then it has also mentally destroyed both the positive calculation and the idea of nothing itself. Sin has a similar effect on human systems and reality. Sin constitutes an attempted negation of reality.

Eve sinned because of her weakness caused by free will. But her failure was a part of God's plan to rescue all of His creations from doubt about God's Love which Lucifer had instilled in them through his rebellion. All of God's creations must have complete faith and confidence in the power of God's Love to protect them from destruction, or negative consciousness will continuously inject destructive fear and doubt into God's creations throughout eternity. The Devil thought that he could completely destroy the life and goodness that God had put into Eve, and thereby destroy God's love for her. His effort was all a part of the Devil's plan to begin the process of destroying God Himself by destroying a part of His Love. But God's plan was to take Adam and Eve's sin on Himself on a cruel cross and suffer their eternal destruction in their place to prove that His self-sacrificial Love cannot be destroyed. God then rose from the dead to prove His Love was still alive and able to rescue all mankind from eternal destruction. John 12:47; I Timothy 4:10; I John 3:8.

Two Great Themes of the Bible part two

The existence of a creative realm of positive consciousness, and the nonexistence of a destructive realm of negative consciousness could explain God's statement in Isaiah 45:7 where He said, "I ...create evil." Since God possesses only an Infinite Consciousness of all positive creations, then He may have accidentally and unwittingly established an opposite realm of negative consciousness when He created the universe. God did not learn about false systems invented by negative consciousness until Lucifer's rebellion. No doubt, God created the feelings of "pain" and "sorrow," but only to be used in future creative systems such as the sacrifice of His Son on the cross. Satan uses "excessive pain" and "excessive sorrow" to be destructive effects of his false systems. God may have confessed in Isaiah 45:7 that He is the source of pain and sorrow, but also that He did not know that these feelings could be misused in false systems in destructive ways.

Because of the fall of Adam and Eve, all mankind has become infected with negative consciousness which ineluctably produces sinful and evil systems. Whenever a person surrenders to his negative consciousness, wholly rejects God and righteousness, and becomes deliberately cruel and evil, then that person has become allied with the rebellion of Satan, will never seek forgiveness, and will never receive God's forgiveness for that totally evil part of his nature. God never forgives total evil in Satan or men. God has determined that He will cast all spiritual deadness, which is totally evil, into the lake of fire in the end of the world. Matthew 12:31-32; Revelation 20:11-15.

God created Adam and Eve in His own image which meant they were good and righteous, although also innocent. Genesis 1:27, 31. Their goodness did not dissolve because they sinned. Their goodness simply became sullied by sin. Isaiah 64:6. To this day, man still retains his image of God. God can never lose anything He has ever created. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Romans 11:36; Revelation 21:5; Revelation 4:11. In the end of the world, God will recover all of His goodness and image which He put into all humans and recreate a new, righteous humanity to live on His righteous, recreated earth. But all humans saved by grace will have already been recreated to live with God in heaven. Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:1-5; Colossians 1:15-20.

Although total evil has become a part of man's nature, it is foreign to man. Satan injected sin into man like poison. The goal of the Devil is to so thoroughly poison the image of God in man that he completely ruins it and causes it to be separated from God forever. The Devil aims to prove that God can lose that which He loves to evil, and by that also prove that God cannot be Almighty. Should the Devil succeed, he will weaken God, become equal with God, and possibly able to destroy God and take over His universe. But should any human totally surrender to evil, he still cannot lose his image of God that is in him. Job 1:11-12; Luke 17:20-21.

But God proved the Devil wrong when Jesus got up from the grave. Love cannot fail. Love cannot be destroyed. I Corinthians 13:8. Christ now holds the keys of hell and death which the Devil thought belonged solely to him. Revelation 1:18. Christ has destroyed all of the works of the Devil; that is, spiritual death and sin. I John 3:8. Christ came to destroy the works of the Devil, not humans whom He created and loves. Christ came to destroy death itself, not humans who spiritually die. I Corinthians 15:26. Christ will destroy hell and death and all total evil, which has poisoned mankind, by casting it into the lake of fire forever. Revelation 20:11-15. Christ will recover all that He has created and loves, purge it of all sin, and recreate it. Colossians 1:20; I Corinthians 3:12-15; Revelation 21:1-5. The Devil and evil are the enemies of God, not humans whom He created in His image. Ephesians 6:12.

Two Great Themes of the Bible part one

One of the great themes of the Bible reveals infallible and inerrant truths about God, about mankind, and about God's relationship with mankind. This truthful theme reveals that every person, except for one extraordinary man, has become a sinner because every person has been infected by a spiritual death and darkness which compels each person to commit sins.

God creates only good, useful, and beautiful systems. God creates His good systems from basic elements that He also created. For example, all mathematical systems are based on two basic ideas, the number one which is the basic idea for something and zero which is the basic idea for nothing. The basic elements of the periodic table produce all of the chemical systems of the universe, including life. The basic ideas of love and faith produce all good moral systems.

One of God's greatest creations, an angel named Lucifer, invented a method by which he could combine some of God's elements into destructive systems which produce only nothingness and deadness. God created a system called "pleasure" but meant for it to be used only in wise and controlled ways. Lucifer invented systems that greatly increased pleasure in the short run but proved to be destructive in the long run. Drugs and alcohol are two such systems. God knows how to use the two basic ideas called "excess" and "pride" in His creations of good systems. Lucifer combined these two basic ideas into a false and destructive system called "excessive pride." Lucifer applied excessive pride to his own being which caused him to believe that he could overthrow God and replace Him as ruler of the universe. God stripped Lucifer of all his good elements that He had put into his system and cast him to earth as a totally evil and empty entity called Satan. Ezekiel 28:13-19.

A rough approximation of that which happened with Lucifer's rebellion can be made with the following example. Automobile engines are useful systems involved in another useful system called transportation, if used in controlled ways. Those who engage in excessive gunning of automobile engines and excessive speed will usually shortly find themselves in a state of nothingness as far as transportation is concerned. Lucifer invented false systems that gunned some of God's good systems of ideas which caused God to reduce his false systems, including himself, to a state of nothingness. Lucifer has never created anything. He only misused God's good ideas to invent false systems. Nevertheless, even in a state of nothingness, Satan retained a system not created by God called "negative consciousness." God, and all of His good creations, know only a positive consciousness. Positive consciousness can get no idea whatsoever of what a negative consciousness could be except that it produces only false and destructive systems by misusing good ideas. Time and reality are positive systems produced by positive consciousness. Logically, this means negative consciousness can only come from some nonexistent realm which nonexists nowhere and at no time. In some mysterious way, negative consciousness emerged from this nonexistent realm to infect Lucifer and cause him to invent false systems. Satan still retains this negative consciousness and power. Ezekiel 28:15; II Thessalonians 2:7.