Luke 3:6 must be interpreted in light of the context of verse 5. Verse 5 prophesies about God's recreation of the world after He destroys it in Revelation 21:1. God never destroys in order to simply reduce something to nothing. God always destroys in order to recreate.
Mountains and valleys are beautiful. One cannot imagine that God would recreate the world without them. This means the language of verse 5 must be symbolic indicating that God will reduce all pride and raise the spirits of all the lowly when He recreates humanity.
The word "crooked" in this verse becomes especially significant. This word means sin. God will eliminate all sin from His recreated world. All humans are the creation of God and belong solely to God, not the Devil. The work of the Devil inheres in his injection of sin into the being of humanity to sully God's goodness in humanity for the purpose of the complete ruination of mankind forever. God intends to rescue all of His creations, including all humans, from being ruined by sin which equates with spiritual death. Deuteronomy 32:22; John 1:29; Ephesians 6:12; I John 3:8; II Peter 3:9-13; Revelation 21:5.
These facts indicate that verse 6 can only mean that all men will participate in some form of God's salvation and not just observe it. God will dissolve all men not saved by grace within the regions of the dead in order to eliminate all sin from their systems so that He can recover their basic elements to use to recreate a new, righteous humanity to live on His recreated earth. Revelation 21:1-5. God's wrath resides within His judgments, but His infinite power resides within His Love. God loves all men equally. So how can God allow man's decisions to reject Him to overcome His all-powerful Love for them? God will use His consuming fire to destroy unsaved sinners' individualities within the regions of the dead to separate their complete rejection of Him which is totally evil to be cast into the lake of fire. Then, God will recreate the separated goodness and lives of humanity that He created in the first place. Luke 17:33; I Corinthians 3:12-15; Revelation 20:11-15; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:8; Revelation 21:1-5; John 12:47.
Tuesday, July 24, 2018
Monday, July 23, 2018
God's Success and Man's Failure part eight
One question remains: When does God forgive sins of weakness? In Mark 11:25, Jesus commanded His believers to forgive the sins of weakness of others who have wronged them whether they ask for it or not. God would never ask humans to do that which He would not do Himself. Therefore, one must conclude that God has already forgiven all of man's sins of weakness from the fall of Adam and Eve to forever. God displayed great compassion toward Adam and Eve when He visited them in the garden after they sinned. This means God had to have already forgiven them and by extension all mankind. In John 8:11, Jesus forgave the woman taken in adultery even though she never asked Him for it. Jesus often forgave others before they asked. This fact can only mean that sinners do not repent and believe in order to obtain forgiveness from God. They repent and believe because they have already been forgiven by God. Romans 2:4. God's predetermined forgiveness could account for all of His foreknowledge and predestination.
But God's forgiveness, by itself, does not save humans from sin. Forgiveness must be combined with cleansing from sin for men to be saved. Hebrews 9:22. God has accomplished that cleansing in two ways, by the blood and water that Jesus shed on the cross and by His cleansing fire when Jesus left all of the sins of all men not already saved by grace behind Him when He rose from the dead. Christ had to have left all of these sins behind in hell because He rose immaculate from the dead. Matthew 3:11-12.
Jesus washes the sins of believers saved by grace into the sea of forgetfulness and raises their souls and spirits to heaven when they die. But the rest of mankind descend into one of the regions of the dead following their physical deaths. Hebrews 9:27; Revelation 20:13. At the Great White Throne Judgment in the end of the world, God will raise the living parts of these dead that belong to Him and recreate them. John 5:28-29; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:1-5. God will burn up their sins of weakness with His consuming fire, and consign their deliberate and rebellious sins, which are totally dead and evil, to the lake of fire forever. In this way, God will forever separate the goodness and life in man that He created from its spiritual death injected into man by the Devil. I Corinthians 3:12-15; Revelation 20:15.
God had to create the history of man because when Lucifer rebelled against God, it brought God's Love into question. How could Lucifer rebel when he knew that God loved him with an infinite Love? God dissolved Lucifer's system, recovered all of His goodness that He had put into him, and cast the totally evil part of him to the earth. Ezekiel 28:14-19. God created man to test His Love and prove that it can never fail. I Corinthians 13:8. For this reason, God had to allow Satan to do his worst to mankind in order to prove that His Love can pass even the most severe test. The book of Job. The Devil's aim was to use total evil to permanently ruin the life and goodness of man to prove that God's Love can fail. God passed His test when He allowed Himself to be nailed to a cruel cross to suffer man's permanent ruin in man's place to rescue all of the life of mankind from permanent ruin by the Devil. God also proved that He cannot be ruined by the Devil when He rose immaculate from the dead. I John 3:8.
But God's forgiveness, by itself, does not save humans from sin. Forgiveness must be combined with cleansing from sin for men to be saved. Hebrews 9:22. God has accomplished that cleansing in two ways, by the blood and water that Jesus shed on the cross and by His cleansing fire when Jesus left all of the sins of all men not already saved by grace behind Him when He rose from the dead. Christ had to have left all of these sins behind in hell because He rose immaculate from the dead. Matthew 3:11-12.
Jesus washes the sins of believers saved by grace into the sea of forgetfulness and raises their souls and spirits to heaven when they die. But the rest of mankind descend into one of the regions of the dead following their physical deaths. Hebrews 9:27; Revelation 20:13. At the Great White Throne Judgment in the end of the world, God will raise the living parts of these dead that belong to Him and recreate them. John 5:28-29; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:1-5. God will burn up their sins of weakness with His consuming fire, and consign their deliberate and rebellious sins, which are totally dead and evil, to the lake of fire forever. In this way, God will forever separate the goodness and life in man that He created from its spiritual death injected into man by the Devil. I Corinthians 3:12-15; Revelation 20:15.
God had to create the history of man because when Lucifer rebelled against God, it brought God's Love into question. How could Lucifer rebel when he knew that God loved him with an infinite Love? God dissolved Lucifer's system, recovered all of His goodness that He had put into him, and cast the totally evil part of him to the earth. Ezekiel 28:14-19. God created man to test His Love and prove that it can never fail. I Corinthians 13:8. For this reason, God had to allow Satan to do his worst to mankind in order to prove that His Love can pass even the most severe test. The book of Job. The Devil's aim was to use total evil to permanently ruin the life and goodness of man to prove that God's Love can fail. God passed His test when He allowed Himself to be nailed to a cruel cross to suffer man's permanent ruin in man's place to rescue all of the life of mankind from permanent ruin by the Devil. God also proved that He cannot be ruined by the Devil when He rose immaculate from the dead. I John 3:8.
Wednesday, July 18, 2018
God's Sucess and Man's Failure part seven
In the end of the world, God will use His consuming fire to separate all of the total evil and deadness of all men within the regions of the dead from their lives and goodness that He put into them when He created them so that He can recreate them. God will have already saved and recreated all men saved by His grace. Christ cleansed all believers saved by His grace with His shed blood and water on the cross, but God does not activate this salvation until the Holy Spirit baptizes the repentant believer into the Body of Christ. I Corinthians 12:13. To a similar degree, Christ has already left behind all the sins of all men not saved by grace in the fires of hell, but God does not activate this separation and salvation from sin until the end of the world. I Corinthians 3:12-15; John 5:28-29; John 5:24; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:1-5.
Man's sin exists on three levels at the same time. In the end, God will separate all of the total evil and spiritual deadness from mankind and cast it into the lake of fire which is the second death. The second death constitutes the destruction of the first death. I Corinthians 15:26; Revelation 20:11-15; Revelation 21:8; Revelation 22:11-12. God will forgive and cleanse all of man's sins of weakness that man has allowed to sully the life and goodness that God put into man when He created him. God will forgive and cleanse these sins of weakness either by Christ's shed blood and water or by God's consuming fire. The deliberate and rebellious sin that the Devil injected into man compels him to commit sins of weakness. Deep within man's heart, he realizes this truth and strives with futility to free himself from the totally destructive effects of rebellious sin. This helpless struggle activates God's Love and compassion for man which has caused God to do that which is necessary to save man. God equates man's deliberate sin with total evil and will cast it into the lake of fire, but God will forgive and save the goodness and life of man that man allowed to become sullied by rebellious sin. I Peter 1:18-19; I Corinthians 3:12-15. God will also honor the self-sacrificial love within man which lacks the power to save himself by providing for man's salvation through the all-powerful life, death, and resurrection of His Son. Genesis 1:27; Genesis 3:15; Genesis 3:20-21.
Most humans display some aspects of all three levels of Adam and Eve's sins in their lives. At the highest level, humans will sacrifice themselves for family or country. But this highest level does not seem to exist in the sociopath. At the middle level, all humans have committed some sins of weakness as when two unmarried lovers give in to temptation. Most addictions are caused by sins of weakness. At the lowest level, some humans give up on God and decide to become deliberately cruel and evil, as with Nazis and most criminals. God always forgives sins of weakness, but God never forgives rebellious sins because these are totally evil and dead and allied with Satan. God will use His consuming fire to separate all total evil from the lives of every human not saved by grace and cast it into the lake of fire in the end of the world. Revelation 20:11-15. God washes the sins of believers saved by grace into the sea of forgetfulness, but God will also eliminate this sea by a means not specified. Revelation 21:1.
Man's sin exists on three levels at the same time. In the end, God will separate all of the total evil and spiritual deadness from mankind and cast it into the lake of fire which is the second death. The second death constitutes the destruction of the first death. I Corinthians 15:26; Revelation 20:11-15; Revelation 21:8; Revelation 22:11-12. God will forgive and cleanse all of man's sins of weakness that man has allowed to sully the life and goodness that God put into man when He created him. God will forgive and cleanse these sins of weakness either by Christ's shed blood and water or by God's consuming fire. The deliberate and rebellious sin that the Devil injected into man compels him to commit sins of weakness. Deep within man's heart, he realizes this truth and strives with futility to free himself from the totally destructive effects of rebellious sin. This helpless struggle activates God's Love and compassion for man which has caused God to do that which is necessary to save man. God equates man's deliberate sin with total evil and will cast it into the lake of fire, but God will forgive and save the goodness and life of man that man allowed to become sullied by rebellious sin. I Peter 1:18-19; I Corinthians 3:12-15. God will also honor the self-sacrificial love within man which lacks the power to save himself by providing for man's salvation through the all-powerful life, death, and resurrection of His Son. Genesis 1:27; Genesis 3:15; Genesis 3:20-21.
Most humans display some aspects of all three levels of Adam and Eve's sins in their lives. At the highest level, humans will sacrifice themselves for family or country. But this highest level does not seem to exist in the sociopath. At the middle level, all humans have committed some sins of weakness as when two unmarried lovers give in to temptation. Most addictions are caused by sins of weakness. At the lowest level, some humans give up on God and decide to become deliberately cruel and evil, as with Nazis and most criminals. God always forgives sins of weakness, but God never forgives rebellious sins because these are totally evil and dead and allied with Satan. God will use His consuming fire to separate all total evil from the lives of every human not saved by grace and cast it into the lake of fire in the end of the world. Revelation 20:11-15. God washes the sins of believers saved by grace into the sea of forgetfulness, but God will also eliminate this sea by a means not specified. Revelation 21:1.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)