Whenever a person refuses to show remorse and shame before God and an attitude of desiring cleanness and fellowship with God again, then their sin falls back to the level of demonic rebellion. God never forgives demonic rebellion, nor does it ever desire forgiveness. Demonic rebellion equals total spiritual deadness which God will cast into the lake of fire in the end of the world. Matthew 12:31-32; Revelation 20:15.
Adam displayed the highest level of man's fallen nature when he sacrificed himself by falling to Eve's lower level so that he could provide comfort and protection for her. But Adam had no power to raise himself and Eve back to the level of spiritual perfection. Adam's self-sacrifice revealed a prophecy in action. God Himself would become a perfect man with all the power needed to sacrifice Himself for mankind in order to raise him back to the level of spiritual perfection. Just as Adam had taken Eve's sin on himself, this coming Messiah would take all of the sins of mankind on Himself on a cruel cross. But this Messiah would possess all the perfection and power of God so that hell would not be able to hold Him as it did unrepentant men. This Christ would rise from the dead victorious over sin, death, and hell in order to raise all mankind with Him back to the level of spiritual perfection, some by His grace and all others by His recreation. Romans 5:14; Genesis 3:15; I Corinthians 15:20-28; Colossians 1:15-20; Revelation 20 :5; Revelation 21:5.
But in order for all mankind to be saved either by grace or recreation, all of mankind must, at some time, display some remorse and shame for their sins and a desire to be cleansed from them. This salvation happens for those saved by grace when they repent of their sins and put their trust in the shed blood and water of Christ to cleanse them of all their sins. John 5:24. All the rest of mankind will, at some time in the future, recognize and worship God as their Creator and Christ as Lord. Their recognition of Christ as Lord will demonstrate faith in His power over sin and death, and therefore, their desire to be clean and reconciled with God. Philippians 2:9-11; Isaiah 45:21-24; Revelation 5:11-14. This great worship service in which God will reaffirm all of His goodness and life that He has put into man for Him to recover and recreate will be followed by the Tribulation period in which the Devil will desperately redouble his efforts to try to permanently ruin mankind and thus prove that God's Love has failed. But Christ took all of the sins of mankind on Himself on the cross, and when He descended into hell, He left behind all of the sins of all men not saved by grace. Christ proved this fact when He rose immaculate from the dead. God's Love can never fail. I Corinthians 13:8. Therefore, if Christ's Love compelled Him to suffer and die for the sins of all mankind, then how could He fail to save all mankind? John 12:47.
Wednesday, June 27, 2018
Tuesday, June 26, 2018
God's Success and Man's Failure part five
Unlike Eve, Adam was not deceived at all. I Timothy 2:14. Adam deliberately disobeyed God when he ate of the forbidden fruit. Adam sinned partly because he was afraid of losing physical love with his wife. His was an act of total selfishness. He cared more about his own fleshly needs than he cared about protecting and comforting his wife. Adam allowed his love for his wife to fail. This had to be a cruel and deliberate sin. In addition, both of them allowed their love for and faith in God to fail.
But Adam also had a higher motive when he sinned. Adam also desired to provide love and protection for his wife in her fallen condition. He took her sin upon himself in order to provide this protection. In this act of selfless love, Adam portended the coming of Christ who, because of His Love for all mankind, would take the sin of all mankind upon Himself on a cruel cross in order to provide a level of salvation for all humanity, some by grace and all others by recreation. The difference was that once Adam sinned, he became trapped in spiritual death, but Christ, being God, held all power over spiritual death and because He led a sinless life as a human on earth, spiritual death could not hold him in its regions, and He rose from the regions of the dead victorious over sin and death for the sake of all humanity. Romans 5:14; Romans 5:17-21.
When Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves together to try to cover their shame for their sins and tried to hide from God, they portended the future attitude of all mankind who would use excessive pride to try to save themselves instead of trusting in God alone to save them from their fallen condition. Adam and Eve further displayed excessive pride when Adam tried to justify himself by blaming his wife, and Eve tried to blame the serpent. Every person must take full responsibility for their own sins even when to some extent those sins may not be their own fault. Fair or not, no one can put his own sins away from himself. Every person must stand in honest guilt before God so that God can cleanse and forgive his sins that belong to no one except that person. One may suffer unjustly from pain inflicted by another, but nevertheless, that pain belongs only to that person and that person alone must seek remedies from a doctor. Adam and Eve displayed their full acceptance of responsibility for their sins when they allowed God to clothe them with the skin of the animal that God had slain. God shed the blood of this animal as a prophecy of the coming Messiah who would sacrifice Himself for the salvation of all mankind. Genesis 3:21. Adam and Eve represented all of mankind. Genesis 3:20.
Adam and Eve's sins displayed many contradictions. But each contradiction indicates a higher truth. On the lowest level, Adam and Eve's sins demonstrated a demonic attitude of total rebellion against God, Eve when she gave the forbidden fruit to Adam and Adam when he willfully disobeyed God. On the higher level, the remorse and shame displayed by them emerged from the goodness and life that God had put into them. They were ashamed because their created image of God within them had become sullied by sin. Remorse and shame are good emotions. They demonstrate a desire to be clean again and right with God again. This desire revealed that they had sinned partly because of weakness. God meant for them to use their fleshly desires only in creative ways, but they misused these desires to try to gain more for themselves. Just as God has commanded His people to always forgive the weakness of others, so God must always forgive all of man's sins caused by weakness. Luke 23:34. But God not only forgives sins caused by weakness, He devised a plan to get rid of them entirely either by the blood and water that Jesus shed on the cross or by His consuming fire. I John 5:4-8; Leviticus 1:3-4; Matthew 3:11; Mark 9:49; I Corinthians 3:12-15; Hebrews 12:29; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:5.
But Adam also had a higher motive when he sinned. Adam also desired to provide love and protection for his wife in her fallen condition. He took her sin upon himself in order to provide this protection. In this act of selfless love, Adam portended the coming of Christ who, because of His Love for all mankind, would take the sin of all mankind upon Himself on a cruel cross in order to provide a level of salvation for all humanity, some by grace and all others by recreation. The difference was that once Adam sinned, he became trapped in spiritual death, but Christ, being God, held all power over spiritual death and because He led a sinless life as a human on earth, spiritual death could not hold him in its regions, and He rose from the regions of the dead victorious over sin and death for the sake of all humanity. Romans 5:14; Romans 5:17-21.
When Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves together to try to cover their shame for their sins and tried to hide from God, they portended the future attitude of all mankind who would use excessive pride to try to save themselves instead of trusting in God alone to save them from their fallen condition. Adam and Eve further displayed excessive pride when Adam tried to justify himself by blaming his wife, and Eve tried to blame the serpent. Every person must take full responsibility for their own sins even when to some extent those sins may not be their own fault. Fair or not, no one can put his own sins away from himself. Every person must stand in honest guilt before God so that God can cleanse and forgive his sins that belong to no one except that person. One may suffer unjustly from pain inflicted by another, but nevertheless, that pain belongs only to that person and that person alone must seek remedies from a doctor. Adam and Eve displayed their full acceptance of responsibility for their sins when they allowed God to clothe them with the skin of the animal that God had slain. God shed the blood of this animal as a prophecy of the coming Messiah who would sacrifice Himself for the salvation of all mankind. Genesis 3:21. Adam and Eve represented all of mankind. Genesis 3:20.
Adam and Eve's sins displayed many contradictions. But each contradiction indicates a higher truth. On the lowest level, Adam and Eve's sins demonstrated a demonic attitude of total rebellion against God, Eve when she gave the forbidden fruit to Adam and Adam when he willfully disobeyed God. On the higher level, the remorse and shame displayed by them emerged from the goodness and life that God had put into them. They were ashamed because their created image of God within them had become sullied by sin. Remorse and shame are good emotions. They demonstrate a desire to be clean again and right with God again. This desire revealed that they had sinned partly because of weakness. God meant for them to use their fleshly desires only in creative ways, but they misused these desires to try to gain more for themselves. Just as God has commanded His people to always forgive the weakness of others, so God must always forgive all of man's sins caused by weakness. Luke 23:34. But God not only forgives sins caused by weakness, He devised a plan to get rid of them entirely either by the blood and water that Jesus shed on the cross or by His consuming fire. I John 5:4-8; Leviticus 1:3-4; Matthew 3:11; Mark 9:49; I Corinthians 3:12-15; Hebrews 12:29; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:5.
Monday, June 25, 2018
God's Success and Man's Failure part four
The sins of Adam and Eve reflect the entire scope of God's relations with mankind as related in His Word. Because of her innocence, Eve sinned only because of deception and her weakness. She was like a child who becomes deceived by an adult. The beginning of Adam's sin was that he lost faith in God's mercy. Had he thought to take her case to God, then God would have forgiven her, and everything would have been all right. If men have limited mercy, then surely God has infinite mercy. God always forgives man's sins of weakness. In Matthew 6:14-15, God commands believers to always "forgive men their trespasses." God instructs believers to always forgive men's trespasses, meaning sins caused by weakness, whether they ask for it or not. God would never ask people to do that which He would not do Himself. Therefore, God must forgive all sins of weakness. The Word reflects this truth in Christ's cry from the cross in Luke 23:34. Jesus' phrase "...for they know not what they do," indicates sins of weakness. God, the Father, could never fail to give Jesus whatever He prayed for. In Matthew 26:50, Jesus called Judas Iscariot "friend." This fact can only indicate that Jesus had forgiven Judas of the weakness of his sin against God. Whatever God forgives, He also recovers and recreates.
However, God never forgives sins caused by deliberate evil. Matthew 12:31-32. The totally evil part of Judas Iscariot's sin against Christ, God will never forgive. In the end of the world, God will cast all deadness and total evil into the lake of fire forever. Revelation 20:15; Revelation 21:8. Total evil is demonic and never repents anyway. Revelation 9:20-21. For this reason, God does not require believers to forgive deliberate and cruel sins against themselves and especially their families.
Eve transgressed because she was deceived by a greater intellect. This fact implies that she sinned by accident, not deliberately. We do not hold children responsible when they become deceived by an adult. God put this kind of compassion in us, and so He certainly must have this kind of compassion Himself. If Adam and Eve had only remembered the mercy of God, they could have taken her case to God, and He would have forgiven her. Adam and Eve's loss of faith became a part of their sin. Romans 14:23.
Eve did not deliberately sin until she gave the forbidden fruit to Adam for him to eat. This was an act of total selfishness. She knew that the change she felt in herself was not good, even though she also knew she was wiser. Instead of protecting her husband, she wanted him to become as fallen as she knew she was. She allowed her love for her husband to fail. This could only be a deliberate and cruel sin.
However, God never forgives sins caused by deliberate evil. Matthew 12:31-32. The totally evil part of Judas Iscariot's sin against Christ, God will never forgive. In the end of the world, God will cast all deadness and total evil into the lake of fire forever. Revelation 20:15; Revelation 21:8. Total evil is demonic and never repents anyway. Revelation 9:20-21. For this reason, God does not require believers to forgive deliberate and cruel sins against themselves and especially their families.
Eve transgressed because she was deceived by a greater intellect. This fact implies that she sinned by accident, not deliberately. We do not hold children responsible when they become deceived by an adult. God put this kind of compassion in us, and so He certainly must have this kind of compassion Himself. If Adam and Eve had only remembered the mercy of God, they could have taken her case to God, and He would have forgiven her. Adam and Eve's loss of faith became a part of their sin. Romans 14:23.
Eve did not deliberately sin until she gave the forbidden fruit to Adam for him to eat. This was an act of total selfishness. She knew that the change she felt in herself was not good, even though she also knew she was wiser. Instead of protecting her husband, she wanted him to become as fallen as she knew she was. She allowed her love for her husband to fail. This could only be a deliberate and cruel sin.
Thursday, June 21, 2018
God's Success and Man's Failure part three
God can never lose anything He has ever created, and He has created all positive things, visible and invisible, subjective or objective, all ideas and emotions as well as all material things. God has based all of His creations on His Holy Word which can never be altered. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Numbers 23:19. God can certainly never lose anything to the Devil. This fact can only mean that God will eventually recover and recreate all of His goodness and life that He has put into every human that has been soiled by sin. In Colossians 1:12-15, God affirmed that He created absolutely everything, and He promised that He will eventually "reconcile all things unto Himself." In Revelation 21:5, God promised that He will absolutely "make all things new," which can only mean that He will recover and recreate all that He has created that has been soiled by sin. Revelation 20:5 records the actual event when God will recover all of His life and goodness that He put into all humans trapped within the regions of the dead. The dead that God casts into the lake of fire in Revelation 20:15 were never created by God. This deadness equals total evil, a negative consciousness that infected humans beginning with Adam and Eve. This negative consciousness emerged from the abyss in some mysterious way to infect Lucifer when he rebelled against God. Ezekiel 28:15. While all sin is evil, God can cleanse and forgive all sins of humans because it is His goodness and life that has been soiled by evil. God never forgives total evil nor does it ever desire forgiveness. Matthew 12:31-32; Ephesians 6:12; Revelation 9:20-21.
In order to restore all of His creations that has been soiled by sin to its pristine holiness, God must purge all evil from His creations. God accomplished this cleansing from sin by the death, burial, and resurrection of His Son. Christ uses His shed blood to cleanse the souls and spirits of all believers saved by His grace. Christ uses His shed water to cleanse all believers daily, fleshly sins who are saved by grace. Christ judges all unbelievers still soiled by sin to be cast into one of the three regions of the dead following their physical deaths. Hebrews 9:27; Revelation 20:13. Satan hoped that he would be able to hold these unbelievers within the regions of the dead forever and thus permanently ruin a part of God's creation in order to prove that God's Love and His Word are not all-powerful which, in turn, would eventually cause the death of God. But when Jesus descended into hell, He used His consuming fire to purge and separate the sins of unbelievers that He carried to that place from His cross so that in the end of the world He could recover their goodness and lives that He originally created. I Corinthians 3:12-15; Mark 9:49; Matthew 3:11. But God will not actualize this cleansing until the general resurrection of the living from the dead in the end of the world. John 5:28-29; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 22:11-12. In a similar manner, Christ shed His blood to cleanse all believers saved by grace, but God does not activate this cleansing until the Holy Spirit baptizes the believer into the body of Christ. I Corinthians 6:11.
Humans suffer for their sins in this life and in the case of all humans not saved by grace in the hereafter as well, but no human will have to suffer for his sins forever because of the suffering and death of Christ on the cross, His descent into hell, and His resurrection. John 6:51; John 6:33; John 12:47.
The burnt offering sacrifices of the Old Testament prove that God uses His consuming fire to cleanse from sin. Leviticus 6:8-13; Leviticus 9:7; Numbers 31:23. Other scriptures indicate that God uses His consuming fire to purge sin such as in Isaiah 6:5-7. Isaiah had to be thoroughly clean in order to stand before God. John the Baptist informs us in Matthew 3:11-12 that Christ not only saves by His grace, but He also saves by the use of His consuming fire. The wheat of verse 12 symbolizes all of the good and living parts of humans that God will recover, and the chaff represents all of the dead and useless parts of humans that Christ will cast into the lake of fire prepared only for the Devil and his angels. In Genesis 3:14 and 17, God cursed only total evil, not humans.
In order to restore all of His creations that has been soiled by sin to its pristine holiness, God must purge all evil from His creations. God accomplished this cleansing from sin by the death, burial, and resurrection of His Son. Christ uses His shed blood to cleanse the souls and spirits of all believers saved by His grace. Christ uses His shed water to cleanse all believers daily, fleshly sins who are saved by grace. Christ judges all unbelievers still soiled by sin to be cast into one of the three regions of the dead following their physical deaths. Hebrews 9:27; Revelation 20:13. Satan hoped that he would be able to hold these unbelievers within the regions of the dead forever and thus permanently ruin a part of God's creation in order to prove that God's Love and His Word are not all-powerful which, in turn, would eventually cause the death of God. But when Jesus descended into hell, He used His consuming fire to purge and separate the sins of unbelievers that He carried to that place from His cross so that in the end of the world He could recover their goodness and lives that He originally created. I Corinthians 3:12-15; Mark 9:49; Matthew 3:11. But God will not actualize this cleansing until the general resurrection of the living from the dead in the end of the world. John 5:28-29; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 22:11-12. In a similar manner, Christ shed His blood to cleanse all believers saved by grace, but God does not activate this cleansing until the Holy Spirit baptizes the believer into the body of Christ. I Corinthians 6:11.
Humans suffer for their sins in this life and in the case of all humans not saved by grace in the hereafter as well, but no human will have to suffer for his sins forever because of the suffering and death of Christ on the cross, His descent into hell, and His resurrection. John 6:51; John 6:33; John 12:47.
The burnt offering sacrifices of the Old Testament prove that God uses His consuming fire to cleanse from sin. Leviticus 6:8-13; Leviticus 9:7; Numbers 31:23. Other scriptures indicate that God uses His consuming fire to purge sin such as in Isaiah 6:5-7. Isaiah had to be thoroughly clean in order to stand before God. John the Baptist informs us in Matthew 3:11-12 that Christ not only saves by His grace, but He also saves by the use of His consuming fire. The wheat of verse 12 symbolizes all of the good and living parts of humans that God will recover, and the chaff represents all of the dead and useless parts of humans that Christ will cast into the lake of fire prepared only for the Devil and his angels. In Genesis 3:14 and 17, God cursed only total evil, not humans.
Wednesday, June 20, 2018
God's Success and Man's Failure part two
God tested His Love through His creation of human beings. God placed them in a blissful garden in a state of innocence, but He also gave them a fleshly nature. They could choose to eat of the tree of life and gain immortality, eventually leave their fleshly nature behind with physical death, and rise to live with God in spiritual bodies forever. In that case, God's Love would pass His test. In Genesis 3:22, God cast Adam and Eve out of the garden to protect them from eating of the tree of life in their sinful condition which would have been a horrible curse to them. But this fact also proves that God did not create Adam and Eve to be immortal, for if He had, they would have already been in this cursed state the moment they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They had to eat of the tree of life in order to gain immortality.
In the other case, Adam and Eve could yield to their fleshly nature and eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and believe that they would become powerful, immortal gods who would possess the right to have excessive pride and pleasures like those of the Devil's. The Devil tempted Eve with his own ambitions. The choice was theirs. God had given them free will. The Devil wagered that God had made a mistake in giving humans free will. If the Devil could only get Adam and Eve to disobey God, then he could introduce all of the horrors of sin into the history of mankind, cause the eternal ruin of God's creation and thereby prove that God's Love was not all-powerful, and thus fulfill his plan to murder God.
But what the Devil had not counted on was that God would allow the Devil to directly attempt to murder Him by allowing Himself to be nailed to a cruel cross. On that cross, God would take all of the filth and horrors of sin on Himself and neutralize the Devil's plan to ruin man forever by taking that eternal ruination on Himself in man's place. Then after having accomplished that task, Christ would rise triumphant from the grave to prove that God's Love is all-powerful and can never be ruined. In that case, God's Love would pass His test. Genesis 3:15; John 19:30; I Corinthians 15:16-17. God had outwitted the Devil by implementing a plan to prove that His Love is all-powerful no matter what Adam and Eve decided.
The life that God gave to Adam and Eve was good and holy. The fleshly nature He gave them was also good because they could express it in creative ways like in making love or enjoying a tasty meal. God paired Adam and Eve in marriage. They did not need a marriage ceremony. When Adam and Eve sinned, they misused their fleshly nature.
The misuse of God's goodness constitutes the source of all sin. When Lucifer rebelled against God, he misused some of the elements of God's goodness to invent false systems called sin. Lucifer never created anything. Only God can create. Lucifer's main sin was excessive pride. God knows how to use the idea of "excess" and the emotion called "pride," both of which He created, in good ways to create good systems. Lucifer simply misused the two good ideas of "excess" and "pride" to invent a false system called "excessive pride" which is sinful and destructive. Isaiah 14:12-15.
In the other case, Adam and Eve could yield to their fleshly nature and eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and believe that they would become powerful, immortal gods who would possess the right to have excessive pride and pleasures like those of the Devil's. The Devil tempted Eve with his own ambitions. The choice was theirs. God had given them free will. The Devil wagered that God had made a mistake in giving humans free will. If the Devil could only get Adam and Eve to disobey God, then he could introduce all of the horrors of sin into the history of mankind, cause the eternal ruin of God's creation and thereby prove that God's Love was not all-powerful, and thus fulfill his plan to murder God.
But what the Devil had not counted on was that God would allow the Devil to directly attempt to murder Him by allowing Himself to be nailed to a cruel cross. On that cross, God would take all of the filth and horrors of sin on Himself and neutralize the Devil's plan to ruin man forever by taking that eternal ruination on Himself in man's place. Then after having accomplished that task, Christ would rise triumphant from the grave to prove that God's Love is all-powerful and can never be ruined. In that case, God's Love would pass His test. Genesis 3:15; John 19:30; I Corinthians 15:16-17. God had outwitted the Devil by implementing a plan to prove that His Love is all-powerful no matter what Adam and Eve decided.
The life that God gave to Adam and Eve was good and holy. The fleshly nature He gave them was also good because they could express it in creative ways like in making love or enjoying a tasty meal. God paired Adam and Eve in marriage. They did not need a marriage ceremony. When Adam and Eve sinned, they misused their fleshly nature.
The misuse of God's goodness constitutes the source of all sin. When Lucifer rebelled against God, he misused some of the elements of God's goodness to invent false systems called sin. Lucifer never created anything. Only God can create. Lucifer's main sin was excessive pride. God knows how to use the idea of "excess" and the emotion called "pride," both of which He created, in good ways to create good systems. Lucifer simply misused the two good ideas of "excess" and "pride" to invent a false system called "excessive pride" which is sinful and destructive. Isaiah 14:12-15.
Saturday, June 16, 2018
God's Success and Man's Failure part one
In Genesis 2:7 when God created Adam and made him a "living soul," God designed him to have an inner nature which would survive bodily death. But at that time, God had not created man to be immortal. God had only created his soul and spirit to possess potential immortality. God placed Adam in the garden of Eden and gave him permission to eat of every tree, including the tree of life, but He commanded him not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Although Adam and Eve possessed a living soul and spirit, these could not become activated to the level of immortality until they ate of the tree of life. God desired that Adam and Eve eat of the tree of life and eschew the tree of the knowledge of good and evil so that they could eventually live with Him in heaven forever.
But God had not designed Adam and Eve's flesh and blood bodies for eternal life in heaven. God created them from dust and meant for them to return to dust as He informed Adam in Genesis 3:19. God did not attach a punishment or a curse to physical death. God only cursed the serpent and the ground. God had always meant for Adam and Eve to live in their physical bodies on earth for over 900 years and then die a quite natural and painless death. At that time, God would create immortal spiritual bodies for them designed to be compatible with their immortal souls and spirits and fit to live with Him in heaven forever. I Corinthians 15:42-50. This would have been their destiny had they eaten of the tree of life.
God created absolutely everything, and it all was "very good." Genesis 1:31. God gave innocent goodness to the lives of Adam and Eve. They knew nothing about evil. God truly created them in His own image because before Lucifer's rebellion, God Himself knew nothing about evil. Ezekiel 28:15. In many ways, evil is still a mystery to God. II Thessalonians 2:7. With Lucifer's rebellion, evil entered into God's creations suddenly. The presence of evil caused God's Love to come into question. Was God's Love powerful enough to thoroughly purge all evil from His creations and return it to its pristine beauty and goodness?
God devised a plan to test His Love for the sake of His creations. The Devil believed that if he could invent a way to ruin any part of God's creations forever, then he would prove that God's Love for His creations was not all-powerful. Since "...God is Love," the Devil could prove that God is not Almighty, and thus he could, over time, find a way to kill God and replace Him as ruler of His creations. I John 4:8; Isaiah 14:12-15. God had to allow His test of His Love for His creations to be thorough and complete in order to prove that absolutely nothing could never destroy His Love. All evil comes from the abyss; that is, the non-place of absolute nothingness. For this reason, the Bible often refers to sin as being vanity. God had to allow the Devil to commit the most horrible and vile cruelties imaginable and unimaginable in order for His test of His Love to be valid. I Corinthians 13:8.
But God had not designed Adam and Eve's flesh and blood bodies for eternal life in heaven. God created them from dust and meant for them to return to dust as He informed Adam in Genesis 3:19. God did not attach a punishment or a curse to physical death. God only cursed the serpent and the ground. God had always meant for Adam and Eve to live in their physical bodies on earth for over 900 years and then die a quite natural and painless death. At that time, God would create immortal spiritual bodies for them designed to be compatible with their immortal souls and spirits and fit to live with Him in heaven forever. I Corinthians 15:42-50. This would have been their destiny had they eaten of the tree of life.
God created absolutely everything, and it all was "very good." Genesis 1:31. God gave innocent goodness to the lives of Adam and Eve. They knew nothing about evil. God truly created them in His own image because before Lucifer's rebellion, God Himself knew nothing about evil. Ezekiel 28:15. In many ways, evil is still a mystery to God. II Thessalonians 2:7. With Lucifer's rebellion, evil entered into God's creations suddenly. The presence of evil caused God's Love to come into question. Was God's Love powerful enough to thoroughly purge all evil from His creations and return it to its pristine beauty and goodness?
God devised a plan to test His Love for the sake of His creations. The Devil believed that if he could invent a way to ruin any part of God's creations forever, then he would prove that God's Love for His creations was not all-powerful. Since "...God is Love," the Devil could prove that God is not Almighty, and thus he could, over time, find a way to kill God and replace Him as ruler of His creations. I John 4:8; Isaiah 14:12-15. God had to allow His test of His Love for His creations to be thorough and complete in order to prove that absolutely nothing could never destroy His Love. All evil comes from the abyss; that is, the non-place of absolute nothingness. For this reason, the Bible often refers to sin as being vanity. God had to allow the Devil to commit the most horrible and vile cruelties imaginable and unimaginable in order for His test of His Love to be valid. I Corinthians 13:8.
Monday, June 4, 2018
Jesus' Teachings about the Sea part two
When Jesus cast the demons out of the maniac of Gadara, they begged Him not to send them back into the "deep," meaning the abyss or the place called Death. Jesus actually complied with their request and sent them into a nearby herd of swine. The swine went crazy and ran into the sea and drowned. The swine symbolized unrepentant sinners whom God casts into the Sea of separation from Him. All three regions of the dead are full of demons. The demons drove the swine into the Sea of Galilee which symbolized their desire to endure the lesser punishment of the Sea of separation rather than the terrible loneliness and emptiness of the bottomless pit called Death. Luke 8:23-35.
In Matthew 13:47-51, Jesus related a parable to His disciples which had a direct reference to some of them who had been fishermen. Jesus reminded them that in their former self-employment when they had caught a load of fish, they would keep the good fish and throw away any malformed or diseased fish. Jesus prophesied to them that something similar would happen in the end of the world. The end of the world cannot happen until God destroys the heavens and the earth and recreates them. Jesus' parable thus prophesied about a general resurrection of the living from the dead in the end of the world. This parable symbolizes the fact that God will recover all of His goodness and life He has ever put into all mankind within the regions of the dead, and He will cast only their total evil and deadness into the lake of fire. John 5:28-29; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:11-15; Revelation 22:11-12.
In Matthew 18:6 and Mark 9:42, Jesus related a parable in which He warned anyone who abuses innocent children that His punishment of them will always be worse than being drowned in the sea. Jesus informed child abusers that when He judges them following their physical deaths, He will certainly consign their souls and spirits to either the place called Death or to the fiery Hell, probably most often to the later.
In Matthew 21:21-22 and Mark 11:22-23, Jesus related a parable which pertains to the Church Age of grace. The mountain in this parable symbolizes the impossibility of any sinner to remove the mountain of sin from his life by personal effort. But if any repentant sinner puts his or her faith in Christ, then He will remove their mountain of sin from their lives and cast it into the Sea of forgetfulness. Christ holds the power through His death, burial, and resurrection to wash away the sins of any repentant sinner by His shed blood into the Sea of forgetfulness. God holds the power to separate the sins and deadness of any believer in Christ from him before he physically dies. John 5:24; Micah 7:19.
In Matthew 13:47-51, Jesus related a parable to His disciples which had a direct reference to some of them who had been fishermen. Jesus reminded them that in their former self-employment when they had caught a load of fish, they would keep the good fish and throw away any malformed or diseased fish. Jesus prophesied to them that something similar would happen in the end of the world. The end of the world cannot happen until God destroys the heavens and the earth and recreates them. Jesus' parable thus prophesied about a general resurrection of the living from the dead in the end of the world. This parable symbolizes the fact that God will recover all of His goodness and life He has ever put into all mankind within the regions of the dead, and He will cast only their total evil and deadness into the lake of fire. John 5:28-29; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:11-15; Revelation 22:11-12.
In Matthew 18:6 and Mark 9:42, Jesus related a parable in which He warned anyone who abuses innocent children that His punishment of them will always be worse than being drowned in the sea. Jesus informed child abusers that when He judges them following their physical deaths, He will certainly consign their souls and spirits to either the place called Death or to the fiery Hell, probably most often to the later.
In Matthew 21:21-22 and Mark 11:22-23, Jesus related a parable which pertains to the Church Age of grace. The mountain in this parable symbolizes the impossibility of any sinner to remove the mountain of sin from his life by personal effort. But if any repentant sinner puts his or her faith in Christ, then He will remove their mountain of sin from their lives and cast it into the Sea of forgetfulness. Christ holds the power through His death, burial, and resurrection to wash away the sins of any repentant sinner by His shed blood into the Sea of forgetfulness. God holds the power to separate the sins and deadness of any believer in Christ from him before he physically dies. John 5:24; Micah 7:19.
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