The World and the Word

                                                Freedom versus Tyranny

God has also provided a lower form of salvation for all living humans that He created in His image. Genesis 1:27; Genesis 8:20-21. Everything that God created is good. He loves it all and it can never be permanently ruined. God can never lose any of His goodness that He puts into every human that He creates. God's Almighty Love can never fail. I Corinthians 13:8; Ecclesiastes 3:14; Genesis 1:31.

God grieved because He had to destroy every living human for their evil in the great flood except for Noah and his family who found grace in His sight. Genesis 6:5-7; Genesis 6:8-10. After the flood, God commanded Noah to offer burnt offering sacrifices which symbolized this lower form of salvation which God would provide for all living humans not saved by grace. Genesis 8:20-21. God determined to include all living humans not saved by grace in His lower form of salvation accomplished by Christ's descent into Hell where He left all of their sins and evil behind when He rose immaculate from the dead. Psalm 16:10. God created Hell only for the cursed, which is the evil nature of humanity, and for the Devil and his angels, not living humans. God never cursed the living natures of Adam and Eve or any of their descendants. Genesis 3:14-20; Matthew 25:41. The existence of Hell expresses God's fiery wrath against evil which He will use to forever separate His living image in all humans confined within the regions of death from their evil, spiritual deaths which He will cast into the lake of fire. God will cause all living humans confined within the regions of death to repent and return of their own free will to faith in the Lamb who can cleanse them of all sins and evil by the use of His fiery wrath. Revelation 5:11-14; I Corinthians 3:11-15. God will resurrect all of His living humans from the regions of the dead and recreate them to live on His recreated earth. Deuteronomy 32:22; Matthew 3:11-12; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:1-5; Matthew 5:5; Matthew 6:10.

In Genesis 8:21, when God used the phrase, "I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake...," He meant that He would remove all living humans from the ground that He had cursed in Genesis 3:17. In other words, God will not subject any of His living humans to an eternal curse. God's phrase "...for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth..." means that every living human needs to repent of the sins and evil in their nature. The imagination is evil, not the heart. God's phrase, "...neither will I again smite any more every living thing as I have done," means that God will rescue every living human confined within the regions of death. God's destruction of all evil humans in the great flood happened to be a potential eternal destruction of their good lives as well. But because God grieved over the loss of His living humans, He provided a means through His fiery wrath against evil itself, to rescue all of His living humans from all of the regions of death. Such scriptures as Genesis 3:20; Luke 20:38; I Timothy 6:13; I Timothy 4:10; II Timothy 4:1; I Corinthians 15:26; I John 3:8; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 22:11-12 and I Peter 3:18-20, among many others, attest to the fact that God will rescue all of His living humans confined within the regions of the dead by means of Christ's descent into Hell upon their repentance and faith that their Lamb can save them. Revelation 5:11-14.

The World and the Word

                                             Freedom versus Tyranny

The original tyrant was Satan himself. Being very intelligent, the Devil used very subtle lies to get Eve to sin and then Adam. No doubt, the Devil put the fearful idea into Adam's mind that he had to fall to Eve's level or he would lose his physical love with her. Once Adam and Eve disobeyed God, then that failure opened a weakness in them that the Devil could exploit to inject the evil of spiritual death into their very beings which was foreign to them because God had created them in His own image. Genesis 1:27; Genesis 2:17; Genesis 3:1-7; Romans 5:12. God loves all of His creations, including all humans, with an unfailing Love. I Corinthians 13:8; Romans 11:29. The Devil seeks to use the evil that he has injected into all humans to so overpower the good image of God in at least one human that the Devil will be able to annul that good image and thereby prove that God's Love can fail. By such a means, the Devil seeks to prove that God's free will demonstrates a weakness in God Himself that the Devil can exploit to the extent that he can eventually find a way to murder God and take His place. Isaiah 14:12-15. In other words, the Devil thinks that he can eventually get God to sin. Matthew 4:1-11. Satan got his chance when the Father allowed all of the sins and evil of all mankind to nail Jesus to the cross. Isaiah 53:6. God came to the rescue of Adam and Eve and all of their descendants when He promised them that He would send them a Savior who would sacrifice Himself to take away all of the sins and evil of the whole human race and provide a higher and a lesser form of salvation for everyone of them. John 3:16; John 5:24; Genesis 3:14-21; Genesis 8:20-21; John 1:29; I Corinthians 15:22; Luke 20:38.

The highest form of salvation occurs when a person repents of their sins while still alive in the flesh and puts his faith in the sacrifice of Christ to take away his sins and evil. Genesis 3:21; John 3:16. God delivers His salvation to the believer by His grace the moment he believes wholly apart from any good works done by the believer. Romans 4:5-8. Upon repentance and faith, the Holy Spirit washes the sins of the believer's soul and spirit away with the spiritual blood of Christ. John 6:63; I Corinthians 6:11; Revelation 1:5. After cleansing, the Holy Spirit recreates the soul and spirit of the believer with no more sins and evil within and gives that believer the righteousness of Christ Himself by means of which God can accept him to live in Heaven with Him forever. I John 3:9; Romans 8:14-17. However, God will allow the evil that causes the believer saved by grace to sin to still adhere to his fleshly nature. Believers can still sin but only in the flesh. But the Holy Spirit will wash these fleshly sins away with the spiritual water that Jesus shed on the cross as the believer daily confesses and repents of them. I John 1:9; John 13:1-14.

But the believer who backslides on God and fails to daily repent of his fleshly sins will appear filthy before Christ at the Rapture of the Church. Christ has promised all believers saved by grace a home with Him in Heaven forever. I Peter 1:2-5. In order to be able to accept the Church into Heaven at the Rapture, Christ must thoroughly cleanse it of all fleshly sins and evil. At that time, Christ will temporarily punish the inveterate backslidder by casting him into the bottomless pit. Matthew 5:25-26; Matthew 24:48-51; Luke 12:25-26. Once there, the backslidder will greatly suffer, but he will remember that Christ is his Savior and he will repent of all his sins and cry out for Christ to save him from his torment. Christ will hear his cry, cleanse him of all his fleshly sins and evil, forgive him, and restore him to His Church. According to God's promise of Ephesians 5:25-27, Christ will thoroughly cleanse His Church at the Rapture of all of its unrepentant fleshly sins and evil by washing it in the water of His Word so that He can present it to the Father as a glorious Church worthy to be with Him in Heaven forever.

The World and the Word

                                                Freedom versus Tyranny

Some controllers seek to gain power over their fellow humans by insisting that everyone strictly obey the law, except themselves. They will vigorously prosecute any fellow citizen whom they claim has broken the law, even in self-defense, but they allow themselves to break any law with a claim of impunity. They will employ foot soldiers to riot, loot, and burn buildings and claim impunity because they did it all for the betterment of mankind. They will loudly proclaim their love for democracy while at the same time they will gladly rig elections to put their own controllers in charge. Such potential tyrants do not seek the betterment of humanity. They seek only power over their fellow humans.

Some controllers even exist within the bounds of Christianity. They seek to ruin Christianity by the introduction of false doctrines and false bibles. They desire to gain control of Christianity for their own evil purposes. True Christians strictly adhere to the true Word of God for guidance to true doctrine and practice. God has preserved the true Word of God in the Received Text which came to the west through the Antioch Church to Eastern Europe and then spread to Western Europe. The true Word of God in English is the King James Bible translated directly from the Received Text. Psalm 12:6-7; Matthew 24:35.

Jesus proved in His Word that He recognizes that everyone who hears His Word has the right to choose to believe or not. John 3:16.

Jesus demonstrated that He approves of a moderate form of free enterprise where the employer and his employees agree beforehand on the terms of their employment. Matthew 20:1-16. Jesus also revealed in Matthew 20:25-28 that leaders should be the servants of their people, not their rulers, which is the essence of democracy.

Jesus also revealed that He had no use for the super rich who use the power of their riches to gain oppressive controls over others. Matthew 23:14; Matthew 22:21. Even though they are worth billions, the super rich of today seek to increase their riches by gaining control over whole economies. They often ally themselves with the oppressive socialists because they desire universal health care which will lower the costs of the health care that the super rich must supply for every one of their workers individually. The super rich obtain sweetheart deals with the socialists to ensure that they pay only a small amount in taxes every year for universal health care. The super rich also favor the socialists' desire for a slow growth economy because that will ensure high unemployment which, in turn, will provide the super rich with cheaper labor. For these reasons, the super rich should never be allowed to control the economies of free societies.

The socialists also seek to obtain oppressive controls over others by taking away individual rights. The socialists desire to supply only the material needs of the masses. They ignore the inner freedom of individuals. In their philosophy, everyone must be wholly devoted to the material needs of everyone else. Any individual who criticizes this idea must be punished for being selfish. Socialism cannot produce a better society because it destroys all of the natural incentives of individuals, born of inner freedom, to create a better life for themselves and their families, and by extension for others, through their God-given talents to create useful systems of supply. Socialism is really based on an unfair, greedy attempt to steal the wealth created by others and on jealousy of the talents that God has given to some people who know how to create systems of wealth for themselves and others. The socialists are also natural atheists. They claim that they can create a workers' paradise which leaves no room for God's rule. Psalm 14:1.

The World and the Word

                            Freedom versus Tyranny

Some controllers seek to gain control over the minds of humans by insisting that humans adhere to the discoveries of science to the exclusion of any other knowledge. But science happens to be merely a method by which humans learn material facts about the world through observation and experimentation. These controllers themselves do not believe in science. Instead, they have replaced science with a philosophy of atheism and materialism to which they demand that all humans adhere. They then accuse all who do not believe their philosophy of being ignorant and backward if they oppose their false version of that which science is. They also link their philosophy with progressivism, which is actually just Marxism, and many submit to their control because they become afraid of being called ignorant and backward. These controllers are strict behaviorists. They believe humans are only physical creatures with physical needs. These controllers seek to reduce all of humanity to their false philosophy because they desire, like the Devil himself, to annul the inner, spiritual being of all humans.

These controllers have demonstrated that they do not believe in learning by observation because they believe in the theory of evolution; that is, that a completely blind and mindless process can, by chance alone, produce all of the extremely complicated systems humans observe in the world, including the extremely complex systems of life, not to mention the almost infinitely complex system called the intelligent brain. No one has ever observed this process. Some of their own mathematicians have proven by calculation that such a process happens to be absolutely impossible. Simple observation of the world proves that all complex systems can only be created by an intelligent mind.

These controllers also do not believe in learning by experimentation. Many modern experiments in quantum mechanics have shown that consciousness happens to be absolutely necessary for the observation and establishment of a real, material world as well as a real, abstract mental world. But the philosophers of materialism and atheism heatedly rail against these findings because they do not believe that humans can possess an inner consciousness, and if they do it is only a kind of inner television that observes the world but does not participate in it. These controllers hate the idea of a real, inner consciousness because that would provide evidence that humans also possess an inner spirit and soul.

The World and the Word

                                                                Freedom versus Tyranny

Some people actually become tired of being free. They desire to submit to strict controls over their lives. These types of people often join religious cults or oppressive political systems. They do not fear freedom as much as they fear not being able to avoid taking responsibility for the choices they make. They fear making a wrong choice and perhaps having to suffer for the rest of their lives because of it. They only desire to give up their freedom and become submissive. If they suffer for wrong choices made for them, they can take comfort in being blameless. For some reason, these types of people take pleasure in becoming as insignificant as possible and only used and abused for the pleasure of those who control them. These people really boost the already inflated egos of their controllers.

All controllers seek to expand their controls over more people. The intelligent ones often use very clever tricks and deceptions in order to gain that control. For example, certain controllers have learned to use even the goodness of a good person against them. Good people desire to be fair and compassionate, but clever controllers try to convince them that as individuals they are not compassionate enough. The controllers convince these good people that they need to join their cult or political movement that will ensure greater fairness and compassion for everyone once that system takes control. But actually, that controller only seeks to gain control of that good person in order to use them to help support a cruel and oppressive system that will never show any fairness or compassion.

In the past, controllers used physical oppression, such as slavery and torture, to maintain control. Many still do today. But in modern times, controllers have learned that in free societies those methods no longer work. Instead, they have turned to bribery as one of their methods of control. They convince some people that if they will only submit to their form of government, they will receive a lot of free stuff. Actually, someone always has to pay for that free stuff. Those who receive the free stuff do not realize that they will have to surrender some of their freedom when they do so. These types of controllers take advantage of people's ignorance of economics. These controllers know perfectly well that their economic system will consume wealth much faster than it creates it and eventually bankrupt it. Wholesale poverty will ensue. But they do not care. Through bribery, these controllers only seek to gain more control over more people. And once they gain that control, they will resort again to slavery and torture to maintain that control.

The World and the Word

                                       Freedom versus Tyranny

Many people exist who feel the need to control others, some on a small scale, such as a domineering parent, and others on a grand scale such as an oppressive and cruel ruler of a nation. Their motive for this desire is the same one that caused Lucifer to rebel against God; that is, excessive pride. Many people learn at an early age that they are just one small person within a vast sea of humanity. This realization scares them because they feel that their individuality will become crushed by anonymity. To counter this fear, they begin to acquire the idea that they are really much smarter and wiser than the average person. This idea prompts them to try to gain control over others so that they can rise above the stupid crowd and become an important person in the world. When such persons are actually very intelligent, they can learn to use very subtle methods to gain control over others.

This argument does not mean to convey the idea that certain controls are not necessary in a free society. Employers must exert limited controls over their employees while they are on the job in order to effect an efficient operation. But they agree on these controls, and if an employee does not like the controls, he can resign. Parents must have control over their children but not abuse them. Most people in a free society agree that a very strictly controlled military happens to be necessary for the defense of the nation. A free society also compels all citizens to obey the law if that law allows the citizens to exercise the freedoms that God has given them. But most people in a free society also agree that all forms of forced or abusive controls should be illegal.

Contrary to that which most people think, God does not forcibly control anyone. In fact, God gives freedom to every human whom He creates. God allows every human to be completely free to live however they desire. But God warns all humans in His Word that if they choose a sinful or evil lifestyle, then they will come under the strict controls of the Devil. The Bible (KJB) admits that there can be "pleasures of sin for a season," but eventually addiction sets in with powerful controls that can destroy a person's life. Hebrews 11:25. God creates humans to be free to exercise positive pleasures; that is, to properly love and to be able to create systems that are healthful, joyful, peaceful, beautiful, and pure. Any invented systems that lie outside of these parameters can only bring humans under the destructive and cruel controls of the Devil. John 8:44-45.

Jesus demonstrated that He dealt with every person as a free individual. Jesus allowed them all to choose for themselves whether or not they would put their faith in Him. Jesus did not try to exert controls over the rich, young ruler who rejected Him. Jesus allowed him to go his own way. Matthew 19:16-22. Jesus stood with the oppressed people of His day against the tyrannical controls of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Matthew 23:1-36.

The World and the Word

                                                       Freedom versus Tyranny

Jesus taught in John 8:32: "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." While Jesus' statement has mainly a spiritual meaning: that is, if a person comes to know Jesus, who embodies truth, repents of one's sins and puts one's trust in Him as one's Savior, then that person will become "born again" and forever saved by God's grace. John 3:3; John 14:6. But Jesus' teaching also has a wider application in that it demonstrates the method by which people can obtain physical and political liberty. In order to obtain freedom, people must know the actual events that take place in life. Only in this way, can people make informed decisions based on their ability to distinguish between truth and lies. Truth liberates. Lies enslave.

This truth can be illustrated by that which happens in honest and fair courts of law. While no court can be perfect, as a general rule, a fair court can often obtain a close approximation of the truth by allowing a defendant the presumption of innocence, a disinterested judge who strictly rules according to the law, a trial by a jury of one's peers, oaths to tell the truth, examination and cross-examination of witnesses, and a fair presentation of all evidence. When courts of law do not employ these fair methods to find the truth, then many an innocent person loses their liberty.

Tyrants often employ dishonest courts to enslave innocent people. The judge presumes the defendant to be guilty, and false witnesses and false evidences are used to falsely convict an innocent person of a crime when that person actually only criticized the tyrant.

Tyrants often employ lies to keep their people under their control. For example, a typical tyrant will tell his people that physical, mental, and political freedoms are mere illusions, that people are really only free when they obey the tyrant. Lies control. Truth liberates.

The World and the Word

                                                            The Wheat and the Chaff

Psalm 37:20-24 teaches and prophesies that God will utterly destroy only the wicked who are His enemies. God's enemies are the Devil and evil itself and the curse that the Devil injected into the beings of all humans when Adam and Eve sinned. Living humans that God created in His image are not His enemies. Evil equals spiritual death. God created a way to purge all sins and evil that adheres to and stains His image in all humans through the death, burial, and resurrection of His Son. I Timothy 4:10. Christ provides His highest form of salvation for all humans who repent and believe while still alive in the flesh. Christ washes away their sins that stain His image in them with His blood and water that He shed on the cross and purges them of spiritual death. John 5:24; Revelation 1:5. Christ gives them His own Holy Righteousness by which God can accept them to live with Him in Heaven forever. John 14:16-21; John 17:23-24.

But Christ has also provided a lesser form of salvation for the rest of humanity by His descent into Hell, which is God's fiery wrath against evil itself, where He left all of their sins and evil that He bore on the cross behind there when He rose immaculate from the dead. Psalm 16:10. The image of God within all these humans confined within the regions of the dead will repent, believe, and worship Christ as recorded in Revelation 5:11-14. God will use His fiery wrath to cleanse His image in them from all their sins and evil and raise them cleansed from the dead for Him to recreate to live on His recreated earth. God will recreate them to be wholly righteous and immortal, but they will not possess the Holy Righteousness of Christ. Genesis 1:27; Genesis 3:20; I Corinthians 3:11-15; Genesis 2:17; Genesis 3:15; Genesis 3:21; Genesis 8:20-21; John 1:29; John 5:28-29; John 11:25; I John 3:8; I Timothy 1:10; I Corinthians 15:22.

Psalm 37:20 teaches that only the enemies of the Lord, like the fat of lambs, will be consumed by God's fiery wrath. Living humans are not God's enemies. God did not curse Adam and Eve or any of their descendants but only the Devil and the ground which holds all three regions of death. Revelation 20:13. All living humans would have been trapped forever within the regions of death had not Christ come to rescue all His living humans from their sins and evil which would have held them in spiritual death forever. Genesis 3:14-21; Luke 20:38; Genesis 8:20-21; I Corinthians 15:22; I Corinthians 15:26; Luke 17:21; I Timothy 4:10; I Corinthians 13:8. If all humans are alive to God, as Luke 20:38 teaches, then no human can ever be permanently dead, especially since Christ has abolished death itself. I Timothy 6:13; II Timothy 1:10.

In Psalm 37:22, God assures that all who are "blessed of Him," which can only refer to His good image in every human, He promises He will recreate to "inherit the earth." He also assures in this verse that only the "cursed," which can only be the Devil and the evil he injected into all humans, God will purge from all living humans and from His presence forever. Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:1-5; Revelation 20:11-15; Revelation 22:11-12.

Psalm 37:23-24 teaches that God delights in His goodness that He has put into every human. Many good humans exist who are not saved by grace. God does not delight in humans who deliberately practice evil, but He does delight in the small measure of goodness still left within them. Jesus recognized the small amount of goodness still left in Judas Iscariot when He called him "friend" in Matthew 26:50. Judas displayed that small measure of goodness when he felt remorse for betraying Jesus. Matthew 27:3-5. Psalm 37:24 assures that though all humans fall because the evil within them causes them to sin, God will uphold every one of them in His mercyfull hand. John 3:16; Psalm 50:23; Proverbs 10:12; I Corinthians 13:8.

The World and the Word

                                                           The Wheat and the Chaff

The writing of the Apostle Paul in I Corinthians 3:11-15 cannot be about salvation by God's grace because he writes only about a salvation by good works. God's Word has to mean exactly that which it  states. The phrase "every man" and "any man" can only refer to every human that God ever created in His image. Genesis 1:27. In addition, these verses clearly reveal that every human that obtains salvation by being washed in the blood of Christ cannot also be saved by the fire of God. All of the Old Testament burnt offering sacrifices symbolize this lesser form of salvation. God initiated this lesser form of His salvation when He commanded Noah to offer burnt offerings for the salvation of all living humans in Genesis 8:20-21. Leviticus 5:10 proves that God will forgive sins because of a burnt offering. All humans saved by grace can only be saved by being washed in the blood and water that flowed from Jesus on the cross and wholly apart from good works. Ephesians 2:8-9. The burnt offering sacrifices symbolize Christ's descent into Hell to leave all of the sins and evil of all humans not saved by grace behind there when He rose from the dead. Psalm 16:10.

Many passages in the Old Testament refer to God's lesser form of salvation by the use of His consuming fire. In Psalm 21:8-11, God directs His fiery wrath toward His enemies, not living humans that He created in His image. God's enemies are Satan and evil itself, not living humans. I John 3:8 clearly teaches that Jesus came to destroy evil itself, not living humans. Genesis 3:20 and Luke 20:38 clearly teach that all living humans will be forever alive to God.

Psalm 22:26-28 constitutes a prophecy about God's lesser form of salvation. Every human who ever lived will eventually return to the faith that God put into them when He created them and will live to worship God forever. Romans 12:3; Luke 17:21. This prophecy will be fulfilled as recorded in Revelation 5:11-14. Jesus taught that the meek will inherit the earth. Matthew 5:5. God will create the people who will inhabit His recreated earth to be meek because He will have used His consuming fire to burn up their sinful, excessive pride in order to raise their good lives from the regions of the dead to a new life on His recreated earth. I Corinthians 3:11-15; Revelation 20:5. God will cast only the evil, separated dead into the lake of fire. Revelation 20:15.

Psalm 33:13-15 informs that God observes every human He has ever created. He has put His good image into every one of their hearts. He judges all human works, good and bad. Many humans have given themselves over to practice evil and rebellion against God. But even the worst of them have done some good works at some time in their lives which proves that they still have a small image of God within them. Even if the worst of them had only at one time given a cup of cold water to another human, then God will resurrect even that tiny image of Himself that did that good work for him to recreate to live on His recreated earth. Matthew 10:42; Revelation 21:1-5; Revelation 22:11-12.

The World and the Word

                                                 The Wheat and the Chaff

The Apostle Jude wrote his epistle as a prophetic warning to Christ's true believers about future apostates who would introduce false doctrines into the Church in their attempt to destroy the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. All that is good in Christianity hinges on repentance and faith. Jude wrote that the apostates would be unbelievers and ungodly persons. Unbelief and ungodliness always denote the totally evil and spiritually dead nature of every human. Apostates have allowed the totally evil natures of their inner beings to dominate their lives to the extent that they have fully suppressed the faith that God put into His image that He put into them when He created them. The have become secret agents of the Devil who seek to corrupt Christianity.

In verse 6, Jude compared these apostates to the fallen angels whom God cast into eternal darkness. But just as God stripped all of His goodness from Lucifer's system before God cast him to earth as a totally evil, negative consciousness, so God had to have stripped His fallen angels of all His goodness in them before He cast them into everlasting darkness. Ezekiel 28:15-19. Likewise, in verse 7, Jude wrote that only the totally evil natures of the people of Sodom and Gomorrha would be cast into eternal fire, not their living souls and spirits that God created and would reclaim. Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:11-15.

In verses 8-9, Jude compared these apostates to the Devil who contended with the archangel Michael over the body of Moses. Just as Michael told the Devil that the Lord would deal with him, so God will deal with the totally evil natures of the apostates.

Jude aptly described these apostates as being "brute beasts" in verse 10 just as the Apostle Peter had done in II Peter 2:12. In other words, both Apostles described the apostates as having an evil nature that is foreign to the image of God that He put into them which makes them truly human. In Matthew 15:16-20, Jesus taught about the evil nature of every person. In Luke 17:20-21, Jesus spoke about the eternal image of God that He puts into every human that He has created.

Jude wrote in verse 11 that the apostates could be compared to the "way of Cain," the "error of Balaam," and the "gainsaying of Core." In other words, Cain, Balaam, and Core practiced evil, but their souls and spirits were not inherently evil. It was their "way," their "error," and their "gainsaying" that was evil, not their living images of God in them.

Jude wrote in verse 12 that just as God's Holy Church would have evil persons within it, so these apostates would have an evil nature within them that would be devoid of any goodness. "Clouds they are without water" means they have no life whatsoever in their evil natures. "Trees whose fruit withereth" reminds one of Jesus' teaching about the inner nature of every human in Matthew 7:15-20. "Twice dead" reminds one that Christ will judge all humans not saved by grace after they physically die in order to cast their living souls and spirits still stained by sin into one of the regions of death, but He will use His consuming fire to separate and resurrect their living natures in His final judgment and cast their dead natures into the eternal lake of fire. Hebrews 9:27; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:11-15; I Corinthians 3:11-15. "Plucked up by the roots" reminds one of Jesus' parable about the tares and wheat in Matthew 13:24-30. Every human has tares and wheat within their inner being.

In verses 14-15, Jude further wrote that Enoch prophesied that God would judge these ungodly apostates in the end of the world and get rid of them.

In verse 16, Jude instructed the Church as to how they could recognize these apostates. They would often murmur and complain about the true doctrines of the Church. When they preached, they would often use big, theological words to get unlearned Christians to admire them and think of them as being good men of God.  In verses 17-19, Jude warned the Church to beware of these apostates who would definitely be in their Churches.

In verse 20-25, Jude encouraged the Church to faithfully preach the true gospel of Christ in order to convert sinners to salvation by grace and a home in Heaven with God forever.

The World and the Word

                                                        The Wheat and the Chaff

God bases His higher and lower forms of salvation on His Love, His grace, and His mercy. God cannot lose anything He has ever created. Ecclesiastes 3:14. Everything in man's relationship with God depends on repentance and faith which always reconciles a living human to God. Colossians 1:15-20 assures all humans that God will reconcile all things that He created to Himself. God reconciles all living humans saved by His grace to Himself the moment they repent and believe while still alive in the flesh. Colossians 1:21-23; John 5:24. God will cause all living humans confined within the regions of the dead to repent and believe of their own free will in the saving power of the Lamb in a great worship service as recorded in Revelation 5:11-14. Isaiah 45:21-25; John 5:28-29; John 11:25; I Corinthians 15:22; II Peter 3:9; Psalm 107:10-15. Puny human will can neither thwart nor enhance the will of God. Revelation 21:5. Living humans are a part of the "all things" that God has created and will recreate. "Behold, I make all things new." God will separate and consign all the evil and dead natures of all humans to the eternal lake of fire because spiritual death can never repent and believe. Matthew 12:31-32; Revelation 20:11-15. God will save His wheat and burn the chaff. Luke 3:16-17.

The Apostle Peter wrote about Lot who had become almost as evil as the Sodomites themselves. But Lot's living soul became disturbed and uneasy by the evil that he observed and sometimes practiced himself. God delivered Lot and two of his daughters from Sodom's fiery destruction because they had living, righteous souls which still retained some faith in God's Love and power to save. II Peter 2:6-9. God had the right to save Lot and his daughters, and He had the right to destroy Sodom. No one should ever question God's will. Lot's salvation was symbolic on two levels. God will Rapture His Church before the Tribulation period and cleanse it of all sin by the water of His Word because it too has become somewhat polluted by evil. Ephesians 5:25-27. God will use His consuming, fiery wrath against evil to cleanse for resurrection the living souls and spirits of all humans confined to the regions of death no matter how evil their lives may have been. I Corinthians 3:11-15; Revelation 20:5. The evil natures of the Sodomites symbolize the total evil that God will cast into the lake of fire. Revelation 20:15. But God will reclaim and resurrect even the tiny, living souls and spirits of the actual Sodomites by the use of His fiery wrath against evil. I Corinthians 3:11-15. God burned the living Sodomites, but He never said He would burn them forever.

The World and the Word

                                                    The Wheat and the Chaff

In II Peter 2:1-22, the Apostle Peter identifies and describes apostate Christians. The Apostle describes how a person becomes an apostate Christian. Every human possesses a righteous soul and spirit given to them by God, but also a totally evil and spiritually dead nature injected into their beings by the Devil. The apostate becomes drawn to repentance and faith in Christ by the Holy Spirit when he hears the gospel. But his evil nature gets the best of him and causes him to completely reject Christ. His rejection becomes so final that he actually allows his evil nature to take complete control of his life to the extent that he begins to secretly hate Christ and His sacrifice. Judas Iscariot was the first apostate. Nevertheless, as a secret agent of the Devil, the apostate remains in Christianity, often as a false leader, so that he can corrupt the Church with false doctrine. Many apostates have introduced false doctrines and false versions of the Bible into Christianity. The only true Bible in English is the King James Bible translated directly from the Received Text. Matthew 12:31-32; II Peter 2:1-3; Psalm 12:6-7.

In verse 4, the Apostle Peter identifies the apostates as being equal to fallen angels which are totally evil. In verse 12, the Apostle describes them as "natural brute beasts" who "shall utterly perish in their own corruption." In other words, God will consign their totally evil, spiritual deaths to the lake of fire, not their living souls and spirits that He created. Romans 11:29. In verse 14, Peter identifies the apostates as "cursed children." Since God never cursed the living souls and spirits of Adam and Eve, and He promised that they and all their descendants would live in His sight forever, then the Apostle's phrase "cursed children" can only refer to the totally evil nature of the apostates. Genesis 3:14-21; Luke 20:38.

Based upon Christ's descent into Hell typified by the Old Testament burnt offering sacrifices, in the end of the world God will use His consuming fire, which is His wrath against evil, to dissolve the beings of every human consigned within the regions of the dead, resurrect their repentant living souls and spirits that He created and loves, and consign their evil, spiritual deaths to the eternal lake of fire. Leviticus 5:10; Genesis 8:20-21; I Corinthians 3:11-15; Revelation 5:11-14; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:11-15; Revelation 21:1-5; Psalm 107:10-14. In many ways, the apostates are far more evil than even those who commit horrible crimes against their fellow humans because they direct their crimes toward God Himself, but even these mostly evil humans have done some good works in their lives given to them by God which proves that they still retain very small living souls and spirits that God will resurrect and recreate in the end of the world. Ecclesiastes 9:1; Luke 20:38; Revelation 20:5. But God's higher form of salvation which is by His grace and His lower form of salvation which is by His recreation cannot happen without repentance and faith in the Lamb of God who will cleanse every repentant sinner and reconcile them all to God. Jesus described salvation by grace in John 3:1-21. God will bring all living humans confined within the regions of death to repentance and faith through a great worship service as recorded in Revelation 5:11-14. Colossians 1:15-20; Isaiah 45:21-24; Luke 3:6; I Timothy 4:10.

Jesus taught in Matthew 10:41-42 that "whosoever" does good works will receive positive rewards; that is, blessings that he can enjoy. The "whosoever" of verse 42 means essentially the same as the "whosoever" of John 3:16. These verses can only mean that God must resurrect and recreate every living human confined within the regions of death so that He can give them rewards for their good works. Revelation 22:11-12; Revelation 4:11; Psalm 50:23.

The World and the Word

                                               The Wheat and the Chaff

Christ will appear at the battle of Armageddon to put an end to the horrible Tribulation period and to save Israel from total destruction by the armies of the Beast and the False Prophet. Christ will establish righteousness over the earth in the beginning of His millennial reign, but it will not end that way. Although Christ will have cast the Beast and the False Prophet alive into the lake of fire, and He will have sent an angel to chain the Devil in the bottomless pit, evil will still maintain an influence in the earth. Revelation 19:20; Revelation 20:1-3. Toward the end of the millennial reign of Christ, God will loose Satan from his prison to allow him to lead an evil army, who will already be willing to receive his leadership, against Christ in God's final war against evil. God will destroy this evil army with His fiery wrath which is also the lake of fire. Revelation 20:7-10. In this final battle, God will succeed in purging all evil from all of His creations so that He can recreate the heavens and the earth to be eternally righteous. II Peter 3:10-13; Revelation 21:1-5.

God will establish the millennial reign of Christ for a specific purpose. God will eliminate the influence of all the leaders of evil from the earth in order to use the righteousness of Christ to guard the earth so that He can learn exactly how evil emerges from the bottomless pit to cause righteous humans to turn to evil. According to Ezekiel 28:15, God suddenly discovered evil in Lucifer which had to have existed prior to Lucifer. But according to II Thessalonians 2:7, how evil got into God's creations remains a mystery to Him. According to Isaiah 45:7, God did learn that evil somehow uses the cover of darkness that God created to surreptitiously enter His creations. But with Christ guarding the consciousnesses of all humans during His millennial reign, God will learn exactly how negative consciousnesses; that is, demons, can emerge from the bottomless pit to cause righteous humans to turn to evil. God will have to learn this evil method of influence over His creations so that He will know how to purge all evil from all of His creations and forever block it from ever being able to enter His creations again.

The Apostle Paul wrote in II Timothy 4:1 that Christ's final Judgment will be "at His appearing and His kingdom." Christ has appeared and will appear many times throughout human history, but Paul meant by this verse that Christ will establish His eternal appearance and His eternal reign over His purified and recreated, eternal heavens and earth. Paul wrote in Colossians 1:18 that a time will come when Christ will "have the preeminence." This phrase can only mean that God the Father will allow His Son to recreate the heavens and the earth after He has purged it of all evil. Christ will become the eternal King over His righteous earth and all of His resurrected and recreated living humans that will inhabit the earth. Colossians 1:15-20; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:1-5; Revelation 22:11-12.