Monthly Archives: November 2009
Genesis 3:1-6 – Does Eating Fruit Kill You? Pt 1
(Ver 2.3) This is Part 1 in the series of Bible lessons on “Does Eating Fruit Kill You”. But this is also Part 2 in the series of Bible lessons on the subject of “Understanding Genesis 3” If you would like to start reading the Genesis 3 series with “Part 1” you may click the link and start there. Two of the primary themes found in the 3rd chapter of Genesis are man’s response to God’s instructions and the temptation of man to ignore God’s instructions. If you have been reading my lessons, you probably noticed that I do not stray from controversy and today will be more of the same. The book of Genesis is full of complex subjects, symbolism and many hidden spiritual truths that challenges us to figure out what is literal and what is symbolic of a much higher spiritual truth. Differentiating between the physical and natural things found in Genesis from the spiritual and supernatural things found there is one of the greatest challenges that God has given to us in reading and understanding the Bible. Over and over I have heard Bible teachers teach that the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil were literal physical fruit trees in the middle of a natural garden; real physical trees, producing real physical fruit. It is a fascinating idea or concept, but one that I believe does not hold water when analyzed by other scriptures found in the Bible. Too many times people teach the Bible in isolation, ignoring what the rest of the Bible says on the subjects that they are studying. This of course results in private interpretations based upon very limited information and leads us into confusion. In order to correctly interpret the Bible we must always follow God’s rules of Bible Interpretation. If you do not know that God has given us rules to interpret the Bible then you should probably go find out what these are before you do any more study of the Bible.
Well in my last Bible lesson on Genesis 3:1 I feel confident that I proved scripturally that the serpent being described to us was not a literal physical talking snake and that it had to be a symbolic named representation for Satan speaking to the mind of the woman. You can go back to this Genesis 3:1 blog and reread this article to review that information “Was there a Talking Snake in the Garden?” lesson or just read it for the first time if you missed it to understand the concepts. So based upon that information, what else in this 3rd chapter is literal and what is symbolic? We should be able to logically conclude that Adam and Eve were literal spiritual beings in real physical human bodies, but that they were confronted by another liteal spiritual being named Satan that they could not see with their natural eyes. So we automatically see that God combines physical and spiritual realities in the same story and this makes the information more difficult to understand correctly. Let’s look at verse 1 again:
Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD god had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
So we see Satan speaking a thought in the mind of Eve, questioning the command of God. Or was it a question? It appears to me to be a statement of fact. So many times we want to look at Satan as the father of lies and think that is all he is capable of speaking, but that is definitely not true. Satan will always use the truth if he thinks it will work to his advantage. Satan is very tricky and many times he will start with the truth and then twist it or misapply it to get you off of what was originally intended. You see the truth was that God did make that statement and told Adam that “every tree in the garden was available to him for food”.
Genesis 2:16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
Reading this verse in Genesis 2:16, I immediately saw something that the LORD God had taught me about Genesis 3:1. The term “Every” is another ALL INCLUSIVE statement that omits none. Again we can see a group association being established. A set of related items can be associated together by a common name to form a well-known and clearly defined grouping of common items. We can clearly see that in this grouping by God’s definition is included EVERY TREE that was designed to produce ANY food to be physically eaten. If the tree did not produce any natural food to eat then it was not in the defined group. Every fruit tree, every nut tree, every tree that produced any kind of edible food substance must have been included in this one group set. If it was not on the list in the set then it did not have food on it. If God said you can eat from EVERY tree that has food on it, then you can certainly see the major conflict and the problem being stated. Since most Bible teach that the fruit that caused Adam to sin was something like an apple, that interpretation would directly conflict with what God has just spoken to Adam. Was God a liar or are we not understanding what is being taught to us here? I’ll vote that we do not fully understand the interpretation that the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil” was a physical fruit tree? Let’s look at the next verse in Genesis 2:
Genesis 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
You can see the apparent contradiction to the previous statement of God or possibly just a fact that has been missed by most casual Bible readers in that God must have just changed the subject and we missed it. Instead of talking about natural physical food for the body, God is now speaking about a spiritual food and its impact on Adam’s life span on this planet. In Genesis 2:17 God is not talking about natural food trees anywhere but changes subjects to symbolic spiritual trees. I’m sure that you’ve seen the painting of Adam and Eve with the serpent wrapped around a tree and Eve holding an apple. Do understand the contradiction and the problem we have just discovered? If it is a literal fruit tree with physical natural food that is good to eat then God LIED! Since most of you know that it is impossible for God to lie, we must have misunderstood the meaning of God’s statements. What we can say is that in Genesis 2:16, God is speaking of natural physical food and told Adam that they could eat of every tree that has food on it. But in verse 17, God changes the subject and most have just automatically assumed He was talking about the same things. It is a very tricky technique used to conceal the truth in the Bible. Mix spiritual things with natural things and dare people to figure out the difference. God said don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or you will die. This could not have been a natural physical tree for many reasons. First, where is this tree today? Does it still exist? Did it suddenly vanish from the planet? Then there is this, in the book of Proverbs it reveals some very strong information about this tree:
Proverbs 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it will eat the fruit thereof.
Uh oh? We can clearly see another paradox of Biblical proportions. God tells us how we live and how we die and it is a result of the power of our tongue. What God is doing is showing you the difference that your spoken words can make in your life. The human mouth is a uniquely designed opening in the human body. The mouth takes physical food in, but it also speaks spiritual words out of it. This is why God connects both kinds of trees together in Genesis 2. Adam didn’t die by physically eating anything. It is fascinating that it also speaks of this process as being related to eating fruit, but, this is spiritual fruit and not physical fruit. Is this a coincidence or is God trying to teach us something about the connection of natural fruit to spiritual fruit. Isn’t fruit what Eve and Adam are said to have eaten?
Genesis 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her and he did eat.
This has to be a spiritual tree for several reasons. First, God said that every natural tree that was good for food to eat was permitted to eat from. Then Eve saw the tree in her mind and it was a tree that could make one wise. Does eating natural fruit make you wiser? If you think it does you are deceived. Nothing you eat physically makes you smarter. This spiritual tree is an interesting concept; Eve could see it and understood that it would make her wise. Science for a long time has tried to claim certain foods make you smarter, but that is not what this is talking about. There is a dramatic difference between being smart and being wise. A lot of people know things, but have no common sense. I guess I won’t go there today though. I want to shift focus and show you some other related verses in the Bible that are very relevant to our current subject. This is what Jesus said about what we eat physically:
Matthew 15:17 Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out at into the draught.
Here are words directly from God about natural food. He asks us a simple question; “don’t you understand the difference between natural things and spiritual things”? He tells us that whatever we put into our mouths goes to our stomachs and is then flushed down the toilet. He is declaring a very simple truth that this is not what killed Adam. God says that this is not what makes a man unclean. If you continue reading in the chapter Jesus says that it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles a man, because these are the things from his spirit. This is what kills a man physically.
Matthew 15:18 But those things which proceed out f the mouth come forth from the heart (spirit) and they defile the man.
It is so fascinating when you put things together correctly in the Bible. You can see that Jesus tells us what killed Adam and we didn’t even know it until now. Too many times we try to interpret the Bible with our natural minds and we just need to figure out what God says about the subject to really understand it. God’s perspective is so much better than ours. Don’t you think? What we have seen is information found in the Bible that tells us that a spiritual reality is more important to see than a natural one that is not true. So people, who teach that there was a physical apple tree that Eve picked fruit from and ate it to kill them, do not understand many things about what God wants to teach them in the Bible. I hope if nothing else that I have challenged you to think differently today and not to try to understand the Bible story of Adam and Eve in isolation from the other related verses found in the Bible.
If you want to continue reading this series you can continue to “Part 2”.
What Does God Think About Abortion? Pt 4
(ver 1.3) This is now Part 4 in the essential Bible study series of lessons on the subject of “What God thinks about abortion”. If you have not read these lessons from the beginning I would strongly recommend that you go back and start with “Part 1” first. I don’t know if this will be the last lesson on this subject or not. I will just try to wait to see if and when the LORD would like to say more to us on this subject. There is really so much more to learn. There are so many subjects in the Bible that need to be taught and understood. However, I do believe that this subject of abortion is one of the most important areas focused upon in the heart of God at this end of our time on earth. This evil has become so common and acceptable in the minds of people. This act of killing the voiceless has happened to millions of children that are now missing from our world. The legalization of this evil by 7 men on the U.S. Supreme Court has overruled the beliefs of what was a dominate majority of sane people back in 1973. How has the people of God become so passive in allowing this to continue. I guess if it is not happening to us or anyone we know then we are not as concerned as we should be.
Although here is a major problem that should concern us all. If God can not stop people from killing their own children in their wombs, that He is trying to send into this world to accomplish His will, then what is next? I have always noticed that if we allow evil at all, it will continue to grow into greater levels of horrific corruption. What I am asking, is what is next? It use to be that abortion was rare in the first trimester. But, suddenly it has creeped further into the pregnancy that it has become acceptable even until the last moments before birth. They call this partial birth abortions. As long as the child has not fully exited, they suck the child’s brains out to make sure they are not alive after they fully exist. Now, we are hearing of legislators and governors that are promoting infanticide. This is the death of the child after exiting fully. This is where we are going because we believed killing babies in the first couple of months of pregnancy in the womb was ok. This growing attitude represents a growing moral decay of the value of life. It will continue to grow further into next killing children long after they are born because they have developed some condition that is not acceptable for some reason. Then this evil will move to older and people next for the same reasoning. When would killing stop?
I have probably said several things that offended someone. But, this is what is happening in the U.S. and the world. I’ll ask you another question? Do you believe God can do anything to help us change this? I know I believe that but only if we cooperate with Him. Otherwise, God will not override human will to commit or allow evil. However the Bible says this on the Subject of Abortion. I mentioned this verse in the last lesson and it is so essential that we will go into it again in more depth:
Deuteronomy 30:19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing therefore choose life that both thou and thy seed may live:
So is this verse about abortion? Sure it is! These are the words of God and this is what He said to you and me about abortion. He told us that the choice was in our hands and it was our responsibility for the well being of not only us, but our children. If God told you personally, that you could choose to live or to die, then makes this recommendation, “Choose Life!”, what would you do? Notice how we learn that God can only make recommendations for what we choose to do. God doesn’t make the decisions for us. We will find this to be a common theme though out the Bible. God is not the grand puppet master in heaven controlling what we decide to do everyday and every moment of the day. God makes some very strong recommendations for our greater good and many times He gives us the consequences to our wrong choices to teach us not to do them again. But God never forces anyone to choose life. He will let us even kill our babies. He does this to give us freewill, even though He gave us that child to be a blessing, for a purpose and He had a great plan for that child in the world.
I don’t really know how people can read verses like these and not understand them, but I guess if it doesn’t go along with their current thought process or their current belief system, they just ignore them and pretend they are not relevant or they don’t exist. But, these types of words spoken by God are not unique and they apply to every person in creation. If you think they don’t, then God clearly lies and shows favoritism toward only a few certain people.
Psalm 22:9 But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breast.
Psalm 22:10 I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother’s belly.
Isaiah 49:1 Listen O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hat called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name.
If God knew this man’s name before he was born, then he knows every child’s name while they are still in their mother’s womb. God even loves and knows the names of all the children that were aborted and murdered for being not wanted and loved by any human. I know that will not sit well with a lot of people, but I didn’t say it, the God of the Bible said it and I go along with His words and I don’t really care what you think about me.
I read this next scripture and it really struck a chord with me. It sounded so much like what we are experiencing in this nation right now. We have a government system that is probably one of the greatest on the entire planet. However, even our system in the wrong hands can cause a lot of problems. When I wrote this lesson, we are experiencing a political system controlled currently by an extreme group of left leaning people that have deceived a majority of the nation into believing that what they represent is good and right. Some of these even have called themselves Christians. But in my book a Christian is someone that follows Christ and therefore would only do what He says for us to do. Jesus made this statement, “you will know them by their fruit” (Mat 7:20). What that means is obviously open to interpretation to some degree and what some might call fruit. But, I wonder what God thinks about their fruit?
Romans 16:18 For they that are such serve not out Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.
We have allowed Satan to develop a generation of people that qualify to be easily deceived. Why are they so easily deceived? I believe it is because of the removal of God and the Bible from the classroom in 1963. Satan observed how easy this was to do and has continued this strategy even until today. The end of educating children in public forums of the knowledge of Bible has caused the rapid decline of morality. Each step of decline represented a progressive methodological plan to introduce decay to human standards of morals and principles. We have had political leaders that speak of things in subtle ways that twist truths around to change what was good appear to seem evil and what evil now seem to appear good.
I heard this terminology on television given by one of these types of deceiving leaders recently and it was welcoming people to the “Democratic Values”. They were welcoming a new convert that recently changed political parties. I mean to put the words “Democrat” and “Values” together in the same sentence is an oxymoronic attempt at establishing what they consider as an acceptable alternative life style. They want to speak and profess a view to include every lifestyle and behavior no matter how perverse. They strive to seek “common ground” with every point of view no matter how extreme and wish to be acceptable to every immoral act including murdering babies.
Some would probably say that I’m a Republican. Perhaps you are thinking we should not introduce politics into Bible lessons, but I disagree. I am not telling anyone how to vote or who to vote for. But I do ask for Christians to rad their Bibles, pray and seek God and ask Him who they should vote for and then go and vote. With all of the corruption, sex scandals in Washington D.C. on both the Republican and Democratic sides, it has become increasingly difficult to know who to vote for. I realize that nobody is perfect, but it seems in today’s elections we are sometimes voting for the lesser of the two evils. The lack of true Christian participation in our political process is pretty sad. But, God is still able to use anyone even if we do not feel they are the perfect candidate. Trust God! Hear from God! Listen to what God says in the Bible and vote accordingly the best that you are able.
I’ll get off the political soap box and go back to the subject at hand. There are too many people in the world that refuse to recognize the significance and value of human life at conception. Most of them are all for human rights except for those who are unable to vote or speak for themselves. An incredible number of defenseless unborn children are being murdered and terminated on a daily basis around the world and they claim that it is the woman’s right to choose that would be violated if they didn’t allow this to happen.
The logic behind this reasoning is foolishness. No one addresses the real issue, they only want to treat the symptoms as the only problem. The root of every physical abortion problem is spiritual in nature. Why is it permissible for a woman to murder her baby before it is born and it is not permissible after it is born? For some reason certain individuals have reasoned that one is acceptable and the other one is not. I guess they think that because the child has not yet breathed a breath of air or ate a natural meal that it is therefore not a legitimate or complete life form. They use to call the child NOT “Viable”; a form of life that is not really a complete self sufficient life form. I have said this before, but it needs to be repeated because this is where we are moving. With this kind of thinking and logic why is it not OK to kill new babies after birth? They still don’t have the ability to be self-sufficient or the ability to care for themselves. Babies when they are born are just as totally dependent upon their mother to sustain them, feed them and nurture them in order that he or she can grow and develop as they are while they are still in the womb. It takes years before a child is self-sufficient. Why is it not OK to kill these children, if they can’t take care of themselves and you don’t want them? You see the only difference between these two children is we have laws that protect them after they born and no laws that protect them before they are born. People’s logic and justification for abortion is pretty crazy.
So what is the root cause for babies? If there was not a baby to abort there would be no issue to discuss, would there? So what is the root cause for babies? It is really a very simple answer, sex. People want the opportunity to have sex with whom ever they want, when ever they want and for there to be absolutely no consequences to their actions. I learned in science and physics classes that there is always a cause and an effect. If you see waves in a pool, you know somebody threw something in to the water that caused the waves. Something must always happen first that causes something else to result. God didn’t make things that complicated that we can’t figure this kind of stuff out. People these days want to approach pregnancy as the problem and not the sexual act of pleasure. They do this by desiring to solve their poor choice problem by killing the child that resulted. They ignore the real problem of desiring the pleasure, because they like that part of it. After all people say we can’t stop teens from having sex, can we? After all their hormones are in a rage of fury and need to be satisfied. But, while there has always been desires for pre-marital sex, it was not until the Bible was removed from educational systems that free sex with anyone in the 60’s went wild. It was only 10 years later after the removal of the 10 commandments and prayer from schools that the demand for abortions increased to a level that forced another supreme court case to be accepted by Christians.
So the main problem really comes down to a sin issue. People want the pleasures of sex and sin for a moment but not the responsibility or the consequences of sex for the rest of their lives. You see a woman does have a right to choose and make a choice but it is not after the fact when they are faced with the consequences to their previous decisions and actions. It ‘s too late after there is a child to determine and ask the question, do I want a child? When a woman is pregnant they already have a child no matter how long they have been pregnant, one day or 9 months of time doesn’t matter to God.
So that may sound like an easy answer to some while to a great number of others, it probably turned them off or even enraged them. After all it sounds like my opinion on the subject and my opinion on the subject matters the same as your opinion on the subject, ZERO! The problem with politicians today is they have an opinion and it is usually slanted towards their prospective voters that elect them into office. You see they let popular opinion determine what is right and what is wrong.
CONCLUSION
I would ask you this simple question again, do you think it matters to GOD what you think about the subject of abortion? Is GOD swayed by popular opinion or pressure from the left or from the right? Is God changing His mind on the value of human life because people can now create test tube babies and manipulate DNA and change other characteristics scientifically. Does the advances in medical sciences change God’s opinion on what people should do or not do? I assume most people today think that God doesn’t care what they do. They believe there are no consequences for doing what they think is right even if it is severely wrong in the eyes of God.
I am a firm believer that every aborted or miscarried child is in heaven today. I recently heard a story of a young boy that died and went to heaven. While he was there he talked with a girl that was his sister that he never met because she was miscarried by his mother before he was born. His mother never told him about her. Yet when he came back and survived this death experience to talk with his mother about it, she was shocked because he knew about her. This teaches me along with verses like 2 Samuel chapter 12:23 where David had a child with Bathsheba that died and He said “I can go to him, but he cannot return to me”. Someday we are all going to meet the children that died in the womb. We will all be very surprised to find out that they loved us very much. I would not be surprised that they have forgiven us for our evil stupidity. I really can’t imagine what they day will be like fully. I just have tears while I think about it and write how it will occur.
If you have had an abortion, I can’t imagine what you are thinking. I don’t know the reasons why you made that choice. I do know that God loves you very, very much. He will forgive you if you will repent and ask Him for mercy. If you are an abortion doctor with innocent blood of the multitudes of children on on your hands, God loves you also. While many would like you to spend eternity in hell for doing such evil, God wants you to be saved and not go to hell. Please stop what you are doing and ask for forgiveness.
If you are an abortion room assistant or have worked for organizations like “Planned Parenthood”, God loves you also. God will forgive you and help you to change to want to save innocent lives instead of taking them. Just pray and ask God to forgive you. If you are a judge that ruled in favor of allowing abortions, God loves you also. The blood of all these children can be washed away by the more powerful blood of Jesus if you ask. If you are a voter that voted for any politician that supports the funding of these evils, God loves you also.
There is no sin that cannot be covered and cleansed by the Blood of Jesus. The emotional distress and pain is another issue, while Jesus cannot take away the memory, He can give you a hope that says everything will become much better with time and the hope of being reunited with the children that never got the opportunity to live on the earth. Eternity and being in heaven with Jesus will be far greater than our experiences here and now on the earth.
God bless you and thank you for reading these Bible lessons. If you would like to leave a comment and share your experiences that would probably help someone else tremendously. Satan uses the same tricks and traps over and over and we all need to help and support each other. I love you and God loves you. Become a blessing and supporter of life. Thank you!
If you would like to continue reading in this series please go to “Part 5” now.
People Generally Don’t Know What They Don’t Know
(Ver 2.0) Here is an interesting statement to ponder. People generally don’t know what they don’t know. I don’t remember where I heard that statement for the first time or if I got it from God. I just realized that it was the truth. It is certainly related to another subject that people are generally resistant to change. In one of my last blogs on this subject I talked about the importance of having an open mind as being a key to understanding new things in the Bible. Change is inevitable, but most of the time people like the status quo and are creatures of habit. They learn something and then live it out on a daily basis, being repetitive and finding it hard to accept something new. These days technology is changing so fast, that you either have to live in a cave somewhere to not realize that what you have today will be obsolete tomorrow.
Now back to what people know. What makes one man a doctor and another man a homeless bum. The main difference is knowledge. One has extended an effort to learn and knows how to help other people and the other one lacks this knowledge and motivation to obtain and use the knowledge. In effect he doesn’t know what he doesn’t know. You know one thing I noted about doctors was that it appeared people who learned a lot to be a doctor are more readily able to accept that there is so much more to learn. People who know little to nothing sometimes come across as the kind of people who talk the loudest and think they know everything they need to know. The doctor is usually smart enough to know when his expertise is exhausted and he needs to call in a specialist that knows more than he does. These are all examples and lessons that can be easily applied to us and the Bible, knowing the Bible, understanding the Bible and applying the Bible to our lives. Because people don’t know what the Bible says, when God sends a teacher with something new they resist it automatically, they criticize the speaker, they do stupid things that result in the rejection of Jesus himself. When Saul persecuted the early church and he threw them into jail, beat them and stoned them, Jesus took that very personally. Here we have an example of Saul not knowing what he didn’t know. Being raised a Jew under the law he thought he was doing all the right things. This is a very strong lesson for all of us to learn from even today. God is not through with teaching His people new things so you need to be open to hear it and to accept it. You need to keep your stones in your pockets and quit throwing them at God’s chosen servants.
Act 5:38 And now I say unto you, Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought:
Act 5:39 But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.
Be as one of the wisest men in the Bible did, choose to keep your mouth shut and tell the others that if it is of God it will grow and prosper, if it is not of God it will die. This man knew to fight against God was a very foolish thing to do. If you read the verses prior to this statement, he gives examples of men who rose up with false messages and how they came to naught. It is very much like the story of Balaam in the Old Testament, he said “How can I curse what God has blessed”. This is a lesson for STUPID Christians in the world who are fighting against God’s servants. Learn the lesson given in Acts 5 and ignore false teachers. Do not attack false teachers, if they are from God they will prosper, if they are not from God they will come to nothing. It is not up to you to put it down, God has not appointed anyone as the watch dog of the Theology that men are preaching and teaching. The main reason for this, is the fact that you just do not know what you do not know. So if someone comes around teaching something new, it could very well be of God and thus you will not be able to stop it. If it is not of God, then it will die of its own self destruction. Learn this lesson and it will cause you to be much wiser.
Here is a natural example of what I’m talking about today, of not knowing what you don’t know. Say you are traveling down a dark highway in the middle of the night. You are going along with little to no traffic on the road. Up ahead a tragic accident happened and a barge hit the bridge and took the bridge completely out. If you continue at your current speed in the dark you will soon come upon the missing span and be unable to stop and plunge into the river. What is the lesson of this story? The lesson is you don’t know what you don’t know. You don’t know the bridge is out. You don’t know you are about to die. If you only had a flashing warning sign or cop in the road with flashing lights and a flashlight flagging the oncoming traffic down to stop you have a chance at being saved. Otherwise, you are doomed to go to a tragic outcome in this life. This is generally symbolic representation a true story of the situation of the world today. We have a tremendous number of people traveling on the road that Jesus called the road to destruction. This road is wide and long and many people will go that way not knowing the outcome that the symbolic bridge is out. But God has sent certain individuals into the world to draw attention to the fact that the bridge is out and to try to warn them. Jesus said that those who believe it will be saved and those that don’t believe will be damned. Those are tremendously important words to consider today. Try to figure out what you don’t know, because it just might save your life someday.
Is It A Good Idea to Teach The Bible Verse By Verse?
(Ver 1.2) I’ve seen many pastors and teachers attempt to go through a book of the Bible and teach it independently verse by verse. While you can certainly learn stuff by doing this, is this really the best way to approach the Word of God? In my opinion it is not. For example, take the book of Revelation. Probably the most complex, confusing and hard to understand book in the Bible. I’ve seen teachers stand up and attempt to do a verse by verse walk thru of this book in isolation and the end result is usually just more confusion. When you teach even a single verse of scripture independently of the rest of the Bible, many times you miss God’s commentary on the subject. I believe one of the keys to understanding the Bible is letting the Bible interpret itself. You do this by getting God’s definitions and commentary on all of the subjects that you are studying. When you do this, you have a much better chance of getting it right. For example, in books like Revelation that is filled with symbolism, you absolutely have to let the Bible define what these symbols mean or you will get it wrong.
Many times people are guilty of introducing their own opinions into what the Word of God means. God being so much smarter than us, knew we would do that, but yet did not make the information in the Bible any clearer or easier for us to understand. There must have been a reason for that and I’ve addressed some of those in other lessons. One of the reasons was to allow man to have the freedom of choice. Another reason was to hide information from His enemies. Finally, I think another reason was to give us a challenge to figure it out and allow God the opportunity to reveal it at His perfect timing. It’s funny but humans are naturally curious and they like puzzles, riddles and intellectual challenges. God did not create humanity to be cave men, they were just created ignorant of so, so many things. Ignorance is a reality for everyone. No matter how much you learn and know, you haven’t come close to what God knows. Will Rogers said “We are all ignorant, just about different things.” How incredibly true that statement is.
The information, clues, explanations and commentaries of God are spread throughout the Bible. Sometimes or many times they are very difficult to find. We are faced with challenges because God uses various techniques to conceal information in the Bible and I will get more into them in other lessons. One technique that God uses is symbolism. Another is allegory. Another technique is calling one object by many different names and descriptions. Another technique is to call multiple objects by the same name making it more difficult for you to figure out which one God is talking about. There are many other techniques that God uses to hide the truth and I call this “hiding the truth in plain sight.” The truth is all right there for anyone to view and read, but yet it causes so much debate as to what it all really means. Isn’t this fun? You see the other day I did a search on the just one subject on the internet. I searched Google for “The Identity of the Woman in Revelation 12” and guess what I was returned with over 6000 opinions what she meant. That is a classic of example of how 6000 different people can have 6000 different interpretations on what God calls only one truth.
So is it a good idea to teach the Bible verse by verse, I guess it depends on how you do it. If you research, study and see what God says about a subject in other places in the Bible and include that also in the teaching I would say that it would be OK to do it that way. If however, you isolate yourself into a verse, chapter or book of the Bible and teach it independently of what God says about it in other places, then you are making a huge mistake. Don’t become a Robinson Caruso Bible teacher and strand yourself on a verse island. When you do this you will eventually starve your spirit, which will cause you die of spiritual malnutrition. I hope you enjoyed my little Bible lesson about teaching in isolation and that it will help you to learn more about God’s Word.
Genesis 2:25 And They Were Both Naked
(Ver 1.1) This title sounds like an interesting Bible subject and statement to study. And it probably gets a lot of people’s attention. This was a description of Adam and Eve in the beginning that God spoke in Genesis 2:25. No this verse does not promote nudity as the normal state for human existence. Nor does it specify that we should all go to church without any clothes on. There are obviously some that would like that, but this is not what God is telling us here. God is giving us a view into the spiritual state of the first man and woman before sin entered into the world. Let’s look at the complete verse:
Genesis 2:25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
In this verse we can see God’s initial created state of innocence. I only know of one time in a normal person’s life when they are not ashamed of being naked, and that is when they are children at the age of 2 to 4 years old. My son use to take his diaper off and run around naked and it seemed to be his preferred dress code. Isn’t it interesting that children do this without any consciousness of their nudity? Why is this? Here is a verse that Paul speaks about this state of innocence:
Romans 7:9 For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
You see this is a complex verse that is easily misunderstood if applied incorrectly. It speaks of a time in Paul’s natural life after birth when he was alive in a state of innocence. This of course is speaking of a spiritual state of being alive. Paul claimed to be spiritually alive in this verse before he had reached the age of accountability. I many times hesitate in calling it a spiritual life and a spiritual death, because spirits can not technically ever die or cease to exist. The human spirit will forever exist somewhere. I often times refer to this state of existence as a type of spiritual awareness.
You see children when they are young are more in tune with their spirits than many adults. I like to say it this way, children a closer realization that they are spirits clothed or covered with a body. As a child ages and matures, Paul says sin is revived and he died. In other words he became spiritually unaware or dull and was separated from God. No longer was Paul an innocent child when he came into the age of accountability and he became much less aware of spiritual things. Now he was more body aware and much less spirit aware. How did I come to these conclusions? First by having children, then I saw it in the Bible:
2 Corinthians 5:4 For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
You see in this verse is again found a complex statement with widespread implications. The primary subject of the verse is the human body. Paul is writing about our current earthly body in the terms of it being a temporary dwelling place or a spirit cover. God calls our bodies a tabernacle (2 Peter 1:14). The Greek word for tabernacle is defined as a hut, a tent, or any other temporary residence that we will not be staying long in. In this verse God refers to our natural human bodies as being the clothes for our spirits within our body. When we die and leave this world, our bodies do not go with us and Paul calls this a state of being unclothed. But he says we are anxiously awaiting an immortal and permanent dwelling place that will be coming soon. Do you understand this better now?
So what we can say about Adam and Eve at this point in time is that they are spiritually alive and significantly more spiritually aware, in a child like state of innocence. They were spirit beings that were clothed with natural human bodies that God had created for them. Later we will see in chapter 3 the effects that sin had on them and what God did about it.
Thank you, for reading and studying the Bible with us. Please leave a comment if you would like. I’ll stop here for now and we can move on to another subject in the next chapter of Genesis.
What Does God Think About Abortion? Pt 3
(Ver 1.4) We have been going through the Bible on the subject of abortion. More specifically in relation to what God thinks about this subject and ignoring the opinions of men and women. This is now Part 3 in the series. So if you have not read these lessons from the beginning I would recommend strongly that you go back and start reading with “Part 1” first. What else does the Bible reveal to us about the thoughts of God on abortion? Obviously, we have seen some very significant things in previous lessons from the book of Judges and Isaiah. These only become obvious when we study the subject searching for the truth that is related to the subject. But once we see it and understand it, then no one can take it away from us or deceive us into believing a lie. The Bible says in the mouth of two or three witnesses, let every word be established (2 Cor 13:1). So we don’t take a single scripture and make it a theological doctrine, but if we can find more than one verse that says the same things we better take it to heart, believe it and put it into action. I found another very good example given to us by God in the book of Genesis with the story of Isaac and Rebecca. Let us read the verse:
Genesis 25:21 And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him and Rebekah his wife conceived.
I read this verse and saw several similarities to the first scriptures that we read in the book of Judges in the first lesson. Here we have a story of a woman who was barren. This simply meant she was not able to have a child but yet she wanted to have one. Isaac prays to God and his wife Rebekah was able to conceive. So where did the child come from? Was he a gift of answered prayer from God? If this child is from God due to an a answered prayer request, does this imply that every child comes from God? Ask this question. Did God withhold the child from being conceived? It is obvious to me that Isaac and his wife tried many times to have a child and failed. Is this normal? Some couples do have a lot of trouble conceiving for many medical reasons, some are on the female reproductive side and others are on the male reproductive side. A barren women seems to indicate in this case it was Rebekah that had the problem.
One problem with abortion that needs to be addressed is that there are a lot of infertile couples in the world that would like to receive an aborted child and take care of him or her to raise them as their own. This is a very significant answer for women that get pregnant and feel like they are unable to keep or take care of the child. There are so many options other than murdering an unborn child for us to consider.
I knew of a lady that this happened to. She got pregnant when she was not married by falling into a trap of Satan to sleep and be intimate with a guy from a fit of temporary passion and pleasure. She did not consider the consequences of having this relationship at that moment but found out shortly afterwards what had happened. I mean this lady already had two daughters so she knew how things worked and what would happen. But, we all do foolish things on a spur of the moment poor choice.
This woman did not want to keep her child because of her single status and the fact her guy friend did not turn out to be so responsible for his part in the creation of the child. I’m sure this nice woman regretted her choice and even considered having an abortion. However, she found a friend that wanted the child and after she was born the friend took her and raised her. The real mother that gave birth was still able to watch her child develop and grow in a loving complete family environment. And the other couple that is caring for the child is thrilled that they had a child to love. We must understand that this other couple was unable to conceive and this solution that God provided kept the child alive and made everyone involved, including the child happy. God is able to do much more than we can think if we give Him the chance and believe (Eph 3:20).
If all this is true, about God’s ability, God’s involvement in the process, and God’s desire to meet and answer the prayers of people, who are we to terminate the pregnancy of God’s gift? Please understand the child that is killed has no one to defend them or stop even their mom from taking their life. This miraculous gift from God is a new him or her that has a purpose to exist! We can choose to do right to answer someone else’s prayer for a child or fail and resist what God desired to do for someone else. We should really think about that a long time before we end a pregnancy. Now let’s continue reading in this story in Genesis.
Genesis 25:22 And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD.
This time of pregnancy there is not one child but twins, two children that are formed as gifts from God and answers to prayer. Did you notice that in verse 22 of Genesis 25, that God called them “children” even before they were born? They are still both within their mother’s womb and God calls them living “children”. Not a fetus, not an embryo, not a potential life form, not a future or potential child. God calls them H1121 the Hebrew word that means sons and children, the same title and name given to born babies. This Hebrew word literally means a person who is the builder of the family and the continuation of the family name. Wow, I pray you understood that definition.
If God calls them both “son family builders” and children while they are in the womb, who are we to call them anything else? Doesn’t this recognition provide us a very clear divine viewpoint of what God thinks of children in the womb? This is of course the antithesis of what Satan thinks about children in the womb. Satan knows the truth but uses a technique to deceive humans by relabeling the truth as a false concept by calling something truthful by a different false name. Satan does this in order to dehumanize and devalue them. This is also the plan of Satan today to end the design of the God created family structure. Satan has done this by calling babies an embryo, a fetus, a beginning nucleus, the stage after fertilization, developing tissues, rudimentary development or something else worse like a germ. I’m sure you have heard slang terms for a developing child as being called a bun in the oven, or a woman that is knocked up, or even she is just “late” (for her normal monthly cycle).
Satan brainwashes people into believing by the media and education institutes that narrate a constant flow of repetitive untruths that are used to distract us from learning the truth. For example, liberals do not call the murder of a child ant abortion anymore, it has been falsely promoted to “women’s healthcare” choices. WOW! But, what about the child’s healthcare choices? No, this goes along with the brainwashing that he or she is not a child being dehumanized to be only a blob of potential life. Liberals have designed this approach so that whatever we use to believe was the truth we can’t call an unborn child what God calls them. Let us get back to our Bible verses. Rebekah understood the children insider her were living beings and that they were struggling and fighting each other on the inside of her already. She uses wisdom in her situation and goes to God and asks Him about what is happening inside her body between her children. This is what God’s response was to her question.
Genesis 25:23 And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in they womb and two manner of people shall be separated from they bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger;
If this verse is not enough to set us straight on the subject of abortion and what God thinks about these unborn babies, then I do not know what is. God says these two children corporately represent two independent nations and two different groups of people living on the earth. That is really a very heavy statement made by the living God, our creator. What if there had been abortion available to Rebekah and she had ended the lives of these children? A great number of people would not have been born and two nations would not exist today. Remember that God called them nations and people while they were still unborn children and in the womb. God recognized who they were and what they would become long before they were ever born. That is pretty plain and very clear if you ask me.
Please recall who these two children were! The firstborn was named Esau and the second born son was named Jacob. Esau originates a nation called Edom with his descendants being called Edomites. Jacob on the other hand originate the nation of Israel having 12 sons that originated the twelve tribes of Israel and eventually our LORD Jesus Christ. Wow, thank God that both of these nations were born!
So we learn and confirm the fact that God knows not only who you are before we are born, but He also knows every descendant that will come from us after we are born. WOW! So how does a woman’s right to choose the life or death of her child, affect all of the potential human beings that were supposed to be here, but are not because of this personal decision to terminate the life created within them? Is God going to hold us responsible for the children that were not born here because of what we decided? I believe with all of my heart that He will and I do not want to find out the consequences for making that decision or for even voting for people that promote that right to choose. Are we willingly participating in murder by how we vote? Again I believe we are!
There are many other verses in the Bible like these that I can give you that will tell us the same thing. God knows us before we are born, even while we are in our mother’s womb and He already has a plan and a purpose for each of us to fulfill. God knows our name before we are born, he knows where we will live, work and play. God knows every child, grandchild and descendant that will come from us. We can go through the Bible and we will see this repeatedly if we are looking for it. However, let me show you another set of verses that I think is directly related to this subject and speaks volumes about a spiritual truth and a Bible principle that is relevant to this subject of abortion.
Hebrew 7:9 And as I may so say, Levi also who received tithes, paid tithes in Abraham.
Hebrew 7:10 For he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedec met him.
I don’t know about you but I read these verses and they revealed so much, that I had great difficulty knowing where to start talking about them. The primary subject matter is about tithing, but the underlying revelation is far, far greater than that. Hebrews 7:9 speaks of a man named Levi who was a priest that received tithes from the nation of Israel. But did you notice that this verse also says Levi paid tithes in Abraham? I’m really not sure if you totally grasp the principle being given here. Levi was a great-grandson of Abraham. Abraham had a son named Isaac, Isaac had a son named Jacob and then Jacob had 12 sons and one of them was named Levi. How can Levi great-grandson of Abraham pay tithes long before he was born back in when his great-grandfather Abraham paid tithes? Verse 10 gives us the answer, it says he (Levi) was still in the loins of his father Abraham. The Greek word for loins here is a word that can mean the hip area. In other words the sexual organ area of Abraham. What we are learning is that whatever Abraham did, Levi also did. We are also learning that Levi existed in Abraham years before he was even conceived in his mother. Wow, wow, and wow! That is very strong and powerful information. People clearly do not have a clue what is in them and what they are doing to their children today. The spiritual law implications given here are incredibly far reaching. Out of the millions or billions of sperm cells in Abraham, God already recognized that one of them was representative of a future descendant named Levi. God then teaches us that whatever your father did, you also did because you were physically present inside your father, your grandfather and even your great-grandfather. If you can see it this of course is directly related to abortion, because everyone still comes from the union between one man and one woman. God sees and knows the exact individual specific parts on the inside of us (the exact egg and sperm) that will create every baby and He calls them by their name long before they arrive into the world.
CONCLUSION
I hope and pray that you are grasping the concepts being taught here by the Holy Spirit from His living Word! If you do grasp them, you should never think about having sex casually and aborting the resulting child in the same way again. This child is known by God. God knew exactly the two cells that would come together to form this child and He knew their name and their purpose for existence. He also knows every descendant that was supposed to come from them whether to create a new nation, a new President, a new scientist, etc. Please take this information and share it with others. We are in a spiritual warfare on this planet between good and evil. Satan is evil and he desires to kill every descendant and potential threat to conquering and overcoming his evil. God is good and came to give everyone life and that life even in abundance (Jn 10:10). Therefore we should do what God recommends to us in Deuteronomy 30:19, when He says “I have set before you life and death, therefore choose life that you and your descendants live”. Wow, that is an amazing recommendation and I pray I helped someone today to make the right choice. Thank for reading and studying the Word of The Creator God. I pray that it is a blessing to you and will help enlighten the choices that you may be faced with today. I love you and God loves you. There are alternatives to death and their are greater benefits to giving life than you can imagine right now.
If you would like to continue reading this series of lessons you can go to “Part 4“.
Genesis 2:8 The Confrontation Between East and West
(Ver 2.0) When you read the Bible and begin to understand that every word has significance and meaning, you start to pay much closer attention to which words God selected to describe the events within creation. Knowing that God is so much smarter than we are and that He could have chosen any words that He desired to convey His thoughts to us, we must realize that He chose these exact words found in Genesis to describe creation to us. Recently in my blogs I have been skipping around in Genesis 2 for no particular reason, just giving you glimpses into the variety of subjects found there. Today we are going to look at verse 8 of Genesis 2 and see what God says to us.
Genesis 2:8 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
I often times wondered why God said that he planted a garden eastward in Eden. We can clearly see from the information in this verse that man or Adam came from or was created somewhere to the west of Eden. Isn’t that interesting? Why is this so important that God included this fact in the Bible out of all the information that He could have given us? We don’t know exactly where Eden was located; we are only given the general location of Eden using the names of 4 rivers which are said to have flowed through it. We can assume using the general information of the location of these four rivers given to us that Eden must have been somewhere in or near the area between Israel and Iraq or in that general vicinity. I don’t really feel that the exact location is that important, but I believe that the general principles and concepts surrounding them are very important to today’s lesson. We can also assume based upon this location that somewhere to the west, probably in Northern Africa, the Man was created and then moved to the Garden. So why is this significant? It is the first mention of any compass direction in the Bible. The first mention of any subject in the Bible always has significance. There are many implied truths given to us in this scripture. We can see that much clearer later when we get to what happens later in chapter 3 after the fall of man.
What I will tell you now is just some overall concepts of the differences between human civilizations and the developmental differences between the east and the west. If you’ve never thought of this before, it is very fascinating to see the spiritual implications of east vs. west. The Far East as it is called has always been dominated by spiritual darkness; religions of the mind, religions of the body and the religions of idol worshippers. All of these types of religions focus more upon worshipping creation and ignoring the creator. You can go to places in China, Japan, Indonesia and other places and see the temples and idols of gods that have dominated that part of world. These are gods made by the hands of men and worshipped by ignorant and deceived humans. As a result we can see the rise of communism and dictatorships of godless governments that do everything in their power to attempt to limit and restrict Christianity, the Bible and the spread of the truth. Nowhere else in the world is this so prevalent as it is in the eastern Asia.
Then we can see another conglomeration of religions centered around the region of Eden which are primarily dominated by Judaism along with Islam and some Christians. Moving to the west we see the rise of more dominate Christianity and free societies and governments. What we begin to see is a dividing line and a growing trend of a clash between the cultures of the east and the west. Of course we understand that we wrestle not with flesh and blood but the spiritual forces, the rulers of the darkness of this world (Eph 6:12). It seems that these spiritual forces while attempting to make inroads into the west have predominately through history have controlled more of the far eastern nations. In the book of Acts and in the Epistles there are a couple of mentioned times that Paul is not allowed by God to go to the Far East.
Acts 16:6 Now when they had gone throughout Phyrgia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia,
Paul is directed specifically by God to go west only. In fact it specifically says God forbid them from going into Asia. I would assume from this that it was too dangerous and the people in those regions would have just killed them. If you look at the world today, the hardest places for Christians to go into and teach and preach are still predominately in areas of the Far East and the continent of Asia. In recent news articles there were several aid workers who were giving the people of Afghanistan free medical care; these good Samaritans were executed by the Islamic extremist. The claim was that they were preaching the Bible trying to get Muslims to convert. Isn’t that religious tolerance and freedom and the free will exercise of the people’s mind? Why is it that Islam wants to force you to become a Muslim and then once you are a Muslim they will kill you for leaving? There are no choices in Islam your decisions are made for you, is that your God? The control of people by fear seems to be their only message. Other than fear they have no message of salvation. They cannot stand up to the truth so they have to shut up those who try to teach it to others. What I want you to think about is how different the cultures are in these two parts of the world. Communism still dominates China and Russia. The country of India is dominated by people who revere cows. Between those three countries lies almost half of the world’s population. I cannot thank God enough for being born in the free country of the United States of America. We are not a perfect country but at least I can go to church without fearing that the Government will come in and throwing everyone into prison, at least today I can. I’ll bring out more information about east and west as we get into chapter 3 of Genesis, but I just wanted you to start thinking along these lines and notice what God said about it in chapter 2.
Concealing Information From God’s Enemies!
This will obviously be controversial to some. But nevertheless this is what God says so I stand by it. What I have been attempting to do is give you some keys to understanding the Bible. If we can understand God’s intentions, motivations and purposes for the book, we will better understand what is written. So in today’s blog I want to give you another perspective of why the Bible is so hard to understand, to many. This principle is based upon the concept that God has enemies and that in order for God not reveal everything to His enemies, He has to write things in an encoded method. , This encoded method allows God’s people to see the truth while at the same time keeping the information from His enemies. It is a very tricky way of writing with many complex twists, mysteries, hidden meanings, symbolic representations and other tricky methods. I call it God’s method of hiding the truth in plain site.
James 4:4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosever therefore will be a friend to the world is the enemy of God.
From this verse in James we see a fact revealed that God has enemies. If you didn’t know that it would be good to study and find out who those enemies are. I’ve heard some fools think and teach that Satan was just a pawn of God. A spirit being that appears before God to get permission to make somebody sick or kill their children. People read things like in the book of Job and make too many assumptions. Satan is not working for God. Satan doesn’t have to ask for permission to put some evil plan into work against you. Most of the time it is our own fault when Satan attacks us. We open the door to the enemy and let him do the things he does. There are a lot of Bible verses that I could give you to back that statement, but I won’t spend a lot of time on that subject since that is not what we are talking about.
This may also be news to some of you and maybe you’ve never heard anyone teach on this, but God has enemies. The church has the same enemies. Satan is still a spiritual force in the world in opposition to the church and our God. Satan I think sometimes people look at him as this evil red suited, horned and pitch fork carrying spiritual entity that resides in hell and comes to earth to bug us when he wants to. Nothing could be further from the truth. Satan does not live in hell, he has never been to hell, doesn’t want to go to hell and he’s doing everything in his power to stay out of there. But there is good news Satan doesn’t know everything. He can read the same Bible that we can but he doesn’t understand it any better than anyone else in the world. As God gives new revelation to the church, that is the first time Satan hears about most of this stuff. There are scriptures that back this up. Look at this verse:
1 Corinthians 2:8 Which none of the princes of this world knew for had they known they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
You see from this verse that Satan and his fallen angels are ignorant of the plan of God. This verse says clearly if they had known the consequences to killing God on the cross, they would not have done it. So apparently we don’t yet fully comprehend the ramifications and consequences of God being nailed to the cross. Not only did He provide salvation for us, he sealed the fate of Satan. Interesting isn’t it? So when Jesus said I didn’t come to do away with the law but to fulfill it he was saying that he was here to fulfill those things which were written about him.
Luke 24:44 And he said unto them, These are they words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets, and in the psalms concerning me.
John 5:39 Search the scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
So couldn’t Satan read the Bible and see and hear what was being said in the synagogues? Sure he could, the problem is he didn’t understand anything that was written and neither did any man. Jesus fulfilled countless prophesies in his birth, life, death, burial and resurrection and Satan didn’t know any of them. I can only assume that Satan thought by killing God he could rid him from his planet and now he could go on and continue to rule for as long as he wanted. These are all interesting thoughts but these concepts are also applicable to the unsaved human race. Notice what is written on this subject and the words spoken by Jesus himself:
Mark 4:11 And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables.
Jesus speaking to his disciples said the mystery is for only you to know, those that are on the outside they will never know or understand the things of God. It has always occurred to me that people in hell don’t know why they are there. They don’t have a clue that Jesus paid for their sins and they rejected the free gift of salvation. I wonder if someday they will come to the knowledge and realize the things they missed out on. So were we enemies of God before salvation? Here is a scripture that says we were:
Romans 5:10 For if, we when we were enemies , we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled we shall be saved by his life.
So we discover a fact that God said that while we were still enemies, Jesus paid the price to reconcile us back to God. This of course was one of the primary reasons for the death of Jesus on the cross. Clearly it was not all that transpired, but I’m sure glad He did that for us.
So what can we conclude from all of these scriptures? If God had enemies, He was forced to conceal information in His Word in a manner that His enemies would not understand what He was doing that would effect them. We will eventually discuss the methods in more depth that God used to accomplish this, but that is enough for now.
How Did the Church Become the Body of Christ?
(Ver 3.2) I will notify you up front, that this lesson may be very different than anything that you are expecting to read or even a departure from what you may have heard taught before on this subject. Therefore, it may be controversial because it is based upon many hidden Bible concepts which are only being opened and revealed by the Holy Spirit now on the subject of Covenants and Marriage. I believe that if you read the entire lesson very closely using an open mind and your spiritual eyesight to see what is written that you will begin to understand there is much more to it than you first realized. There has been a theological controversy within the church for many years. Some believe that the church is only the bride of Christ while others believe the church is only the body of Christ. There are also some that believe the church is both and even others that believe we are neither. But, which belief is the actual truth? After significant Bible study on this subject with the assistance and guidance of the Holy Spirit I believe that the church is both the bide and the body simultaneously. But, how can a body of believers be both the “body of Christ” and the “bride of Christ” at the exact same time? Have you ever heard a Bible preacher or teacher explain how being both is even possible? I know I haven’t. What I have heard some teach is that we are one but not both and they explain away any verses that conflict with their chosen belief selection. Any conflicting scriptures that do not align with their beliefs are either ignored or must be explained away. That is my controversial subject that we will be focused on today, believe it or not. This lesson will teach us how both potentially conflicting beliefs can be viewed as a sound Biblical truth simultaneously.
INTRODUCTION
The human body is an amazingly complex designed creation of God. It is comprised of millions, billions and even trillions of individual separate cells that work together in united ways to be one body. This very complex body reality came from just the union of two separate individual cells. Simply from the natural union of one male sperm cell entering into one female egg cell a multi-trillion cell being results. These two cells combined will cause all of the other cells to grow and develop into this amazingly complex unified carbon based unit called the human body. I believe that this is a basic parallel principle of truth that teaches us a little bit about how the church can be both a separate entity called the bride and by Christ entering into us (our spirit living and alive within our physical body) we can simultaneously be called His body. We will be reviewing scriptures that help to build this foundation of truth later in this lesson.
If the millions of people on the earth who call themselves Christians are one unified spiritual body of Christ, could it be that we were originated from the union of two spiritual cells that were joined to create this new body of Christ? I believe that the 2 cell combined union natural process of creating a new body is a potential natural pattern for how spiritual things work in the spiritual realm. Did you know that the Bible in Romans 1:20 teaches us that the natural things created by God reveal to us many of the hidden spiritual things of God?
There are also other potential things about male and female unions that must be understood in order to know how the church can be both Christ’s spiritual body and His spiritual bride simultaneously. These are the spiritual concepts that we will be discussing today. Are you ready to receive something new from the LORD?
CONFIMING THE CHURCH IS THE BODY OF CHRIST
Let’s start this section of our Bible study by confirming using several scriptures that Christians are firmly represented to be the body of Christ. This is the most common belief in the church and I totally agree with this truth completely:
1 Corinthians 12:27 Now we are the body of Christ, and members in particular.
If you have ever read the New Testament, you have probably noticed that the church is described in numerous places to be called the “body of Christ”. That is an absolutely fascinating factual piece of spiritual information that I would say the majority of Christians accept blindly without attempting to figure out how we became His body. But, I believe us accepting truth blindly without asking questions of how this happened is a potential pitfall for deception. I remember reading in Luke when the angel appeared to Mary and told her she was highly favored and would have a son. But, the wise woman Mary asked “How will this be seeing I know not a man?” That is really a great question and she was not rebuked for asking it. I believe that this question of Mary was a very similar question to what I asked the LORD about us being the body of Christ.
It is very hard to ignore the scriptures that communicate the “body of Christ” truth to us. You can find many references and I will just point us to some of them. The church is called the body of Christ in Colossians 1:18, Ephesians 4:15-16, 1 Corinthians 12:20, and Romans 12:5. These are a few of the obvious ones, but I believe there are others. Are you curious yet to what God says in His Word about how we became His body?
TAKING THE CHURCH IS THE “BODY” TRUTH TO AN EXTREME
What I have discovered in the past is that while there are many Christians that embrace this foundational truth, there are some that exalt it into an error to teach the church is Christ or equal to Christ. Mathematically speaking they would say “Church = Christ”. They conclude this from reading verses like Colossians 1:18 where Jesus is called the “head” and the church is labeled as His “body”. They then conclude we are Him here and now in the flesh and that is a partial truth. But,this is an example of someone falling into a ditch of extremism. Taking one truth and promoting it beyond what it actually says is a very dangerous approach to understanding the Bible. We are required to balance all of the scriptures on the subject in order to recognize a more balanced complete application of truth. Saying that the church is Christ is human logic that in effect places the church on the exact same level as Jesus himself. These types of people teach, if Christ has a bride, then we (the church) also have a bride. They in effect have concluded in error, that the church by being saved ha become the spiritual husband and the spiritual bridegroom, making us God or at least His equal. That belief is a ridiculous conclusion of erroneous Bible interpretation that was probably formed and based upon ignorance and wrong reasoning.
I’ve actually heard some of these types of Bible teachers tell us that in Revelation 21:2 where God describes the New Jerusalem coming down from heaven, that this city called the New Jerusalem is the bride of the church. Many have also concluded that this city is the natural nation of Israel. This is just more examples of the wrong interpretations of the Word of God. They try to convince us that the Church is the husband (aka the body of Christ) and Israel is the bride of Christ. They say “After all if we are the body of Christ, then if Christ has a bride then we must also have a bride”. But, there are so many problems with that mistaken human reasoning and logic. The first being in Revelation it does not say this city New Jerusalem is the Bride of Christ, it says that she is the Lamb’s wife (Rev 21:9) and that is a completely different concept. I’ve never heard the church called the Lamb of God, have you? I’ve also never heard the church called the body of the Lamb either. Ask yourself that question, are you the Lamb of God? If you are not the Lamb of God, then you can not be the husband to this bride described in Revelation chapters 19-21. If you are not the lamb husband of the New Jerusalem, then you may have a major problem with the extreme interpretation of us being the body of Christ, but not the bride of Christ. I know the Bible is complicated, but we have to think and allow the Holy Spirit to speak, guide us and direct us into all truth in order to figure things out. We have to be smart enough to listen, hear and see exactly what God says and then not to be foolish enough to jump to the wrong conclusions using our limited knowledge and understanding.
CONFIRMING THE CHURCH IS THE BRIDE
RESOLVING HOW THE CHURCH BECAME HIS BODY
There is still this main unresolved issue, if the Church is the Body of Christ, how did it get to be the Body of Christ? I do not know of very many Bible teachers that are asking this question. Why not ask God to reveal it to you. Could it be that is why you came across this lesson? I’ve personally never heard any Bible teacher even try to teach this deep question. I could probably write an entire book on this subject, but I only have time in one lesson for a few words. There are other Bible lessons on this website that will provide more detailed information than can be provided today. Please understand that no teacher can teach everything they know in one lesson. I would heavily recommend that you go and read the Bible series called “The Bride of Christ Revealed”. This series provides a lot more scriptures that prove the bride is the church. That was the bottom line revelation that the LORD provided to me and He backed it up with overwhelming Bible evidence. I will go over some of that information in this lesson briefly.
Gen 2:21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
Gen 2:22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
In Genesis chapter 2 we can read about a more detailed account of the Genesis 1 creation of man and woman. There in Genesis 2 we found out that the woman’s body was “taken” out from the body of the man (Gen 2:21-22). Uh oh! Do you remember reading about this in your Bible? God created Adam first and then subsequently the woman came from the man’s living body. This was truly the wisdom of God in action. God does nothing by chance or accident. His choice to create the woman’s body in this fashion must have had a greater hidden purpose than we know right now. The first woman’s body did not come directly from the earth, but rather came from her husband’s body. Adam then looked directly at the woman’s body and said she is now the bone of my bone and the flesh of my flesh (Gen 2:23). Are these all familiar subjects? Let’s look at verse 23 of Genesis 2 to refresh our memory:
Gen 2:23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
In other words Adam was literally saying to us, “she was his body” or personal “she is my body”. Uh oh again! Does this sound familiar? What mystery are we trying to solve? Do you understand this? Is this too complex or maybe too simple for us to believe? Is it possible for God to make a complete woman from just a part of a man? That is exactly what the Bible says happened so we have to decide if we want to believe it. According to God and the Bible, the woman’s body was “taken” from the body of Adam. Light bulbs should be beginning to be illuminated in our minds. We are asking God about how the Church became the body of Christ? Could Eve be a type of the church and could Adam be a type of Jesus Christ?
Gen 2:24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
There was a law of God established here in Genesis 2:24 concerning the subject of marriage covenants between a husband (a male) and his wife (a female). This law states that the wife’s body would be called the same as her husband’s body. Jesus confirm this truth in the Gospels also. You can read one example in Mark 10:7-8. Humans have long embraced and received this truth even in our human marriage ceremonies. The wife has normally taken the name of her husband. This literally makes her body called by his name signifying one flesh. Many in the modern world are attempting to move away from this practice but taking the husband’s name is very Biblical in my opinion. In fact you can read in Revelation chapters 2 and 3 where Jesus addresses letters to the church that He will give them a new name if they overcome. We can clearly see from this the inference of a marriage covenant between Jesus and the Church. What we discover from this law of covenant marriage is God’s mathematical principal that declares two are to be called and named as one.
Wow, Genesis 2:24 is totally amazing to me. Two separate and distinct human bodies being called one body. One male multiplied by one female equals one unified covenant body. This is definitely God’s designed mathematical law of marriage (1 x 1 = 1). This verse in Genesis 2:24 says that they are separate yet still considered one flesh! Wow again and again, that is just so awesome to me. What is a body made of? The human body is largely comprised of flesh and bone. So if the Church is the body of Christ, we are His flesh and His bones here on the earth and this implies by this stated law that we must be His wife simultaneously. I’ll talk about that more in a bit.
I believe with all of my heart that Adam and Eve were physically created symbolic representations of a much greater spiritual truth. I believe that Adam and Eve were physical natural patterns that reveal much deeper spiritual parallels and realities of the unity between Christ and the church. I believe that Adam and Eve were a prophetical type and foreshadowing of a spiritual covenant marriage between the risen from the dead LORD Jesus Christ and the church. Did you know that Jesus is called the Last Adam (1 Cor 15:45) in the New Testament? Why did God call Jesus by the same name as the first Adam? This is not a coincidence either. This is God’s way of teaching us there is a divine purpose. We should read the verse:
1Co 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
Jesus is called the “Last Adam”, because of what God did with the first Adam. God has repeated the use of the first Adam in the in the Last Adam. The risen Jesus Christ the Lamb of God has taken a spiritual woman to be His wife and He married her and has now become one spirit, one flesh and one body with her. Let me give you a another confirming witness found in the scripture about Jesus being a pattern of Adam to help us understand what is being taught to us today:
Rom 5:14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.
Adam is clearly stated to be a pattern or type of the coming Jesus. The Greek word translated as figure means “a die as struck”. If you understand printing press concepts this is what God is saying in this verse. Whenever you use a die to strike a piece of paper the same image is repeated consistently. God is trying to teach us that Adam was the pattern for what Jesus will do when He comes to the earth. Since God takes and gives Adam a wife as one of the first or techinically His last works of creation, this is what will occur again with Jesus Christ and His wife. This is exactly how the church became the body of Christ, it was performed by God through a covenant marriage. Did you know that a covenat was a marriage in the eyes of God? You can find this by reading in Malachi 2:14 and Jeremiah 31:32. God when He implemented a New Covenant through Jesus Christ, He established a new marriage and calls the church His wife and His bride. We can clearly see that because of the Genesis law of marriage since the church is called the wife of Christ we would also be called the body of Christ. It is really not that complicated, but it was a hidden mystery of the Word of God. There are numerous scriptures that verify this relationship and we can look at a couple of them. The church is said to be one Spirit with Christ and this is the natural Genesis 2 covenant marriage terminology revealed in a spiritual format.
1 Corinthians 6:17 But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
This verse in direct context is specifically talking about a husband and a wife relationship. The same terminology of the marriage covenant is being conveyed with the terms “joined” and “one” that we saw in Genesis 2. This verse is clearly speaking to the church and says that we being joined to the Lord are now one spirit with Him. If we are one spirit with Christ this informs us that we are also the body of Christ. In Genesis 2:24 that verse used the word “cleave” but if you study it out you will find that this is the same word and means the same thing as to be joined. It literally means to “glue together”. God is revealing that He will take two separate pieces and super glue them to make one new even stronger unit. That is a clear definition of a marriage and a good covenant relationship between a husband and a wife.
There are so many scriptures that say the Church is the Bride of Christ that I just can’t include them all in this lesson. But, I will leave you with one more reference that says it more clearly than you have ever imagined. Those that teach that the church is not the bride of Christ obviously just ignore these verses or attempt to explain them away with some less than honest excuses. If we read in the 5th chapter of Ephesians we can see an almost entire chapter devoted to husband and wife relationships. In fact, if you do a count of the number of times husbands are mentioned either directly or indirectly I came up with around 14 separate references. If you count the number of times wives are mentioned either directly or indirectly, I came up with at least 11 references. Then if you count the number of times Christ is mentioned either directly or indirectly I came up with 11 times. Finally if you count the number of times the church is mentioned either directly or indirectly, I came up with 12 times. It is very foolish to deny the direct association of the church being named as a bride and the LORD Jesus being named as her groom/husband. Christ and the church are revealed in the same terminology and language as a husband to a wife in this chapter repeatedly. But, the real clincher for me was the fact that God repeats the Genesis 2 covenant law of marriage again in verses 30 to 32 of Ephesians 5. I’ll go over them one at a time beginning with verse 30:
Ephesians 5:30 For we (the church) are members of his body (Jesus Christ), of his flesh and his bones.
This is the beginning of the stated law of marriage found in Genesis and the words of Adam that were said to his wife. Adam said “She was bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh”. Adam said very clearly that the woman/wife Eve was his body! But, this time here in Ephesians God is talking directly about the Last Adam named the Lord Jesus Christ and about His bride/wife called the church. Immediately following this verse we have the continuation of the Genesis 2 law of marriage being restated for our benefit:
Ephesians 5:31 For this cause shall a man (Christ Jesus) leave his father (God the Father) and his mother (Israel/Mary), and shall be joined unto his wife (the church) and they two shall be one flesh (One Body).
Again we see that the church became the body of Christ by becoming the bride of Christ. I inserted the subject’s names into the verse so that you could more clearly understand who God was speaking of. The references are very clear and almost impossible to ignore. It is very important to note that when an Old Testament verse like Genesis 2:24 is quoted in the New Testament that it is given to us for the purpose of explanation. God is linking the life of Adam in Genesis to the life of Christ and explaining their similarities. The subject discussion of husbands and wives is concluded with this very direct outstanding statement of confirmation:
Ephesians 5:32 This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
So we finally we can taste the icing on the wedding cake in Ephesians 5:32. God declares this information given in this chapter to be a great mystery. What is a mystery? A mystery is something that was hidden from our plain sight and from many who still haven’t seen it. It is a puzzle that had to be figured out or solved with God’s help. Praise the LORD! That is what a mystery is, something that is confusing to many people on the surface only reading until we dig deep and learn the real truth with God’s help. That was the mystery of God that was revealed to us today. God finally tells us clearly that all of this talk about husbands and wives in Ephesians 5, is speaking of Christ and the church. So if any one asks you how the church became the body of Christ you can now tell them exactly how it happened; it was by a New Covenant of marriage. Thank you for studying the Bible with me and if this has been a blessing to you, then share it with someone else that you know to bless them with the same knowledge of the truth of God.
If you would like to continue learning more about the subject of the Bride of Christ being the church you can continue reading in this series with “Part 1“.
What Does God Think About Abortion? Pt 2
(Ver 1.4) This is Part 2 in a series of advanced Bible lessons about the subject of what God thinks about human abortion. If you have not read this series from the beginning, I would recommend very highly that you go back and start reading with “Part 1” first. This series was designed to build upon each of the preceding lessons. If you missed the first lesson then you have missed the basic foundations necessary to continue the study. Thank you for joining this Bible study and please do go and get your Bible out or your tablet or phone and open your Bible Application to verify everything that is stated is what you find in your Bible. There are really so many scriptures in the Bible that deal with the subject of abortion. But, they are only found if you look for them. God says seek and you will find (Luke 11:9). Which means if we do not seek correctly, we will never find. Therefore there is a prerequisite requirement that stipulates that people must search for the truth, instead of searching for lies. What I am teaching, is that it matters what we are looking for. Truth never changes, but our knowledge of the truth will change only if we search to find God’s wisdom and His point of view on the subject. I will say that there are people who look for verses to justify their belief in abortion and a woman’s right to choose. According to the Law given by Jesus if that is what we seek for we can find verses that seem to justify that position. But, does that make it the truth? Absolutely not! God wrote and designed the Bible to give humans the right to choose to know the truth or to not know the truth. If He had not given us this right then we would have been created as pre-programmed robots that could only follow His will imbedded in our internal software. But, we know this is not happening simply by observing human behavior all around us. God wrote 10 fundamental commandments in Exodus 20, and I have never met a human yet on the earth that has not violated at least one of these edicts. Therefore, none of us are robots and everyone has come short of the glory of God by sinning (Rom 3:23).
In my last lesson, I introduced us to the subject of abortion in the Bible. We saw a key definition of abortion from the Merriam-Webster dictionary that correctly defined the meaning of the word to include the “death” of the child during the termination of the pregnancy. Wow, that was important. Here we have a fundamental confirmation that this was a developing life form. You should know that a child is created by the union of the female egg and the male sperm and Webster was smart enough to understand that this was a life form that can die or be killed. In fact if we sent a probe to the planet mars and found these two cells and brought them back to earth for analysis, there would be such great excitement of the discovery of life on Mars that we cannot imagine it. Scientists would be so excited that life could exist on another place other than earth, that we would not be able to keep them silent. This would help them prove that life could evolve anywhere and evolution was a viable theory. But, these cells in the womb of a woman on earth are deemed unimportant by the same scientists.
Today, I will continue with the subject of what else God thinks about abortion today. Please let us stop and pray and ask the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to see how He sees the termination of a child in the womb before birth. So let’s get started.
OBSERVING NEW GOD THOUGHTS
Here is another interesting verse of God’s Word specifically concerning one of His major prophets:
Isa 49:1 Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name.
This verse says God knew the prophet Isaiah even while he was still in the womb of his mother. It also claims that He already knew his name. This proves that God knows the names of every born and unborn and even aborted child. Then God says “I know what Isaiah will do, I know the plan for his life, his calling, and his purpose”. I’ve said this before but, it will be beneficial to repeat it, if God knew Isaiah in his mother’s stomach, then he knew you while you were yet in your mother’s stomach also. If God knew Isaiah’s name, then he definitely knew your name before you were born. I am totally convinced that God knows the name of every aborted child that has never breathed a breath of fresh air, tasted food, had a drink of milk or lived to see the sun rise. God knows more than you can imagine right now. It is when people don’t know that they have a purpose in life that causes them to believe that NO human life is valuable in the eyes of God. But, in actuality the opposite is true. To God, ALL HUMAN LIFE IS VALUABLE!
Here are some more very powerful words from the Word of God concerning abortion. God speaking to another prophet said the following words:
Jer 1:4 Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Jer 1:5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.
Here is another prime example of what God thinks about abortion. God clearly says to Jeremiah that He knew him and set him apart even while he was still in his mother’s womb. This verse said God also formed the child in her. Have you ever studied the complexity of internal human development from the union of two different cells? The join together and make one cell first. This creates a combined unique complex DNA pattern that is used to by God to created entire individual containing trillions of cells when fully grown. But, this process initially begins by cell divisions that eventually start dividing into very unique and different cell types. Some cells form the head, some form the heart and other living organs, while others form the bones and skull tissues. Every unique organ has originated with a designed intentionality. What makes the union of just two cells create such a differing amount of tissues that cooperate and coordinate in specific order to work in harmony? God claims He is at work in this process and if you knew how complex that it was, you would understand how smart God is. I say this because He is capable of doing this to millions of people on earth simultaneously.
If God formed this child named Jeremiah, we know that He also forms every child. The Bible says that God is no respecter of persons. What God does for one He is required to do for all. If a woman decides to terminate her child after God has formed him or her, then exactly who is this woman working against? This verse says that God sanctified Jeremiah while he was still in his mother’s womb. If God sanctified Jeremiah today in our world of aborted children, I wonder if God would have selected someone else who was going to be born or would we have just lost this book of the Bible.
People who believe that God is in sovereign control of everything that is happening in the world are greatly ignorant or confused and don’t understand what the Bible says. God does not override the will of a human male or female. People do whatever they want to do, even if God doesn’t want them to do it. So if a woman aborts her child and God had big plans for that child what is the result of that abortion? So we must ask how do we know that God has plans for me nd my child? Because His word says He does:
Jer 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
This is an amazing verse of truth. The word here translated in the KJV Bible as “thoughts” but it has the following definition in the Strong’s:
H4284
From H2803; a contrivance, that is, (concretely) a texture, machine, or (abstractly) intention, plan (whether bad, a plot; or good, advice): – cunning (work), curious work, device (-sed), imagination, invented, means, purpose, thought.
The underlying definition of this word in the Hebrew means “purpose” or “plan”. God is saying I had a plan for you long before you were conceived or born, and I have a purpose for you after coming into this world. You have a specific purpose from God in arriving and being here on this planet. It goes on and says in that verse that it is a good plan and not an evil plan. Here is the same verse in a more literal translation of the Bible:
Jer 29:11 For I know the purposes which I am planning for you, says Jehovah; purposes of peace, and not for evil; to give you posterity and a hope.
That verse really says a lot to me personally and we can clearly see that if God knew Isaiah and Jeremiah before they were even born and He knew what they were supposed to do, then God is revealing to us that He does the same thing for you and I and every other child that is soon to be conceived.
CONCLUSION
The Bible teaches us to establish every truth in the mouth of two or three witnesses (Mat 18:16) and I have done that very conclusively with these verses written by two different prophets over two thousand years ago. But, But we are not finished with this subject, so we will continue on it again in the next lesson. I thank you for your time in reading about God and His Word. Please leave me a comment if you have the time and be blessed in your study of the truth.
If you would like to continue reading in this series of lessons about what God thinks about abortion, please continue to “Part 3“.
What Does God Think About Abortion?
(Ver 1.5) This is Part 1 of a series of advanced Bible lessons about what God thinks about the subject of abortion. In the news a while back there was a great controversial clash of opinion between the left and the right that took place. It appears that one of the nation’s biggest Catholic Universities invited one of our liberal Democratic Presidents to speak at their graduation commencement. The single point of confrontation was a delicate subject that has divided our nation since 973. So what is this subject that has caused such a major division and debate? It is the subject of abortion. This subject came to the forefront of U.S. history in 1973 when the Supreme Court ruled abortion to be legal in a case named Roe vs. Wade. It still amazes me how 9 people on a court can make such sweeping broad rulings of moral values. The 7 members of the Supreme Court that ruled in favor of legalized abortion were named 1) Harry Blackburn, 2) Warren Burger, 3) William Douglas, 4) William Brennan, 5) Potter Stewart, 6) Thurgood Marshall and 7) Lewis Powell. According to Deuteronomy 19:10 I believe these seven men have a lot of innocent blood upon their hands. I hope that they regretted their choice and repented before they died.
INTRODUCTION
Let’s begin with the basics. What is an abortion and how is it defined? One dictionary say abortion is “a medical procedure to end a pregnancy”. It uses medicine or surgery to remove the embryo, fetus and placenta from the female uterus. That was a medical description from an abortion provider. But the Merriam-Webster dictionary puts it this way gaining additional new and important information. They say abortion is the termination of a pregnancy after, accompanied by, and resulting in the death of the embryo or fetus. Wow, that changes things dramatically. Isn’t it interesting how some organizations omit words that are not desired to promote a result that would not be allowed after birth? One definition admits there is a death that occurs while the other just leaves this detail out completely. I think as we study the Bible we will learn that Merriam-Webster was more in alignment with God.
It seems that almost everyone in the world has some opinion on this matter and that is really the basis and the root of the entire problem of conflict. You see what I think about the subject of abortion and what you think about abortion really doesn’t matter or count for anything after we die. I mean who are you and who am I? The University speaking Liberal Democrat President’s opinion was that we should all just try to find some common ground and get along on this subject of abortion. But what he thinks really doesn’t matter or count for anything either. In fact what the Supreme Court’s opinion is on the subject of abortion doesn’t really matter or count for anything at all. All human opinion is baseless unless we agree with the one that created us.
What should only matter to you and I and concern us, is what does God think about the subject of abortion? If we could go instantly up to heaven and stand before the throne of God to ask Him a direct question on His thoughts on the subject of abortion, what would His answer be to us? Would God’s opinion change our opinion on the subject or would we still hang on to our opinion in spite of whatever He said about the subject? We should really think about that before we answer.
I wonder if we were confronted by God and told we were wrong about something, what would our response be? We could say I’m sorry, I didn’t know I was wrong and I’ll change immediately to be right. That would be the response of someone that was humble and feared God. Or we could say, I was wrong but then try to explain why we believed what we did was right at the time to justify our thoughts, opinions and actions. We could even try to be like an Adam or an Eve and pass the responsibility to someone else and redirect the attention away from ourselves and say it was just not my fault that I believed abortion was good and right, the court and the President made me believe it was right. We could be a real idiot and say sorry God, you’re wrong and I’m right and I’m not going to change my opinion or what I think no matter what You say or do. This last type of person has absolutely no fear of God. Or we could just care less and be indifferent. Our attitude could be just let people do whatever they want to do, it doesn’t have anything to do with me.
Which kind of person are you? What is your attitude towards this subject? If you are here on earth and can read this lesson from the Bible you must have not been aborted by your mother. Are you happy that your mother didn’t kill you before you were born? I personally believe that now is the time to learn the truth and change our opinions to conform with God’s thoughts on this subject. I’ll let you know right now that there will be no opportunities on judgment day to defend our wrong thoughts, opinions and actions we lived today. If we think there will be this chance, please show us the Bible verse that says this.
BEGINNING TO SEE GOD’S VIEWPOINT
If we proclaim ourselves to be a Christian then we should be aware that the Bible is the inerrant Word of the Living Creator God. The Bible is a directly written personal message to us from our God. The Bible was written for our benefit so that we could know this awesome God who none of us has ever seen before. So what a Christian does should follow God’s Word, His thoughts, His commandments, His instructions and the examples that He has given to us in this book. Let me show something that Jesus said to help confirm this point:
Mat 7:24 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
Jesus said a wise man is one that hears the Word of God and does it. What is the opposite of that statement? The antithesis truth would be “a fool hears the word of God but does not do it”. What are you today a wise man or a foolish man? We all make this choice everyday in everything we do. So what does the Bible say on the subject of Abortion? And of course what would make us become a wise man that we could learn to change to do? Wisdom always begins with knowledge and knowledge must begin with learning about what God says on the subject abortion?
Like many other modern day Bible subjects the the word “abortion” is not found in the entire book, but that does not mean that God did not give us His thoughts on the subject. All we have to do to become wise is to study and find out what He has said on the subject using the other synonymous words that ARE found on the subject, so let’s do that. I want us to start this lesson by reading a very important foundational verse that is short but directly to the point on the subject of abortion.
Exo 20:13 Thou shalt not kill.
What does God say in this verse? It is one of the stated 10 commandments of God from the Old Testament. Are these a part of the words and of the commandments that Jesus was speaking of for a wise human to do? The Hebrew word H7523 translated as kill in this verse means “You shalt not commit murder”. What exactly is abortion if not murder? We learned earlier that Webster defined abortion as a death. To cause an innocent life to cease from continuing and developing in existence is clearly murder in Bible terms. What is the difference from a developing child inside the womb to one that has exited the womb and is still developing for another 18 years. If it is OK, to kill a developing child inside the womb, would it be fine to kill the same developing child outside the womb? Why is it today that outside the womb killing a child is called murder and killing a child inside the womb it is called abortion? They are both the same child! They are both in developing stages of growth. They both have the exact same DNA structure. Here is where the liberals have become creative to redefine that a living baby in the womb is not really a child but rather just a embryo or fetus and therefore not a viable self sustaining life form. By redefining a living developing child to be simply being labeled as an embryo or fetus they have dehumanized the living child, him or her and eliminated them for qualification as a living being for murder. Why do they not use this same logic when they have passed laws to protect the eggs of unborn eagles? Please answer this question, can a newly born baby child survive on its own outside the womb without assistance? Who is going to feed the child? Who is going to care for the child? Since they are not self sustaining do they fall into the same category and the unborn child that is fed by the umbilical cord that is attached to their mother? Do you see any problems with this type of thinking between how we should treat the child on the inside differently than how we treat them on the outside?
Did you know that destroying an unborn baby eagle bird in its egg is a punishable criminal offense? People can go to jail for killing (murdering) an eagle egg! Clearly it is the exact same type of stated unsustainable developing life form as the child (embryo or fetus) in the mother. Can you tell me what the difference is between an eagle egg and an unborn human baby? Yet one developing life form has gained a much greater value than the other in some people’s mind based upon some unknown reasoning. Why is that? How can that not be viewed as the same logical comparison that should not be ignored? Is the value in one species increased simply based upon the numbers of that species; are numbers what really matter? Because the eagle is endangered, does that make them more valuable to be protected than humans that are more populous on the earth? What do you think? Does God care more about eagles or for people? Did you know Jesus answered this question for you? In Matthew 10:29-31 Jesus speaking of two sparrows says God knows about them, but then tells humans they are much more valuable to Him than many sparrows.
Let me ask you this question, did God come to the earth to save just sparrows and eagles or did He come to save human people? If we do not know the answer to that question then we are in big trouble. John 3:16 gives us the answer by informing us that God loved us in the world so much that He died to save all those that believed in Him. Only a human is capable of believing.
Let us permit God to speak to us further on the subject of abortion and tell us His thoughts and then let us see how we react to His words:
Jdg 13:4 Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing:
Jdg 13:5 For, lo, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and no razor shall come on his head: for the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb: and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.
Jdg 13:6 Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, A man of God came unto me, and his countenance was like the countenance of an angel of God, very terrible: but I asked him not whence he was, neither told he me his name:
There are so many things to learn from the Bible, if we are open to the truths that it contains. We begin to learn when we allow God to show us what it actually means. Here is an example of a woman that had not had any children and the messenger of God shows up at her house and tells her that she is going to have a son. How did God know this? I think that is a really fair question and that the answer is probably more revealing than you can imagine. God knew of the child and what he was going to become and do long before he was even conceived. I will tell you that knowing this Bible fact alone will eliminate a woman’s right to choose an abortion. If God knows every child before they are born or even conceived and what they are supposed to be and what they are supposed to accomplish within their life, then who is a woman to overrule God to decide that the child should not be worthy to be born?
We know for a fact from biology class that the sex of a baby is determined by the male sperm from the father. Yet God knew which sperm cell was going to fertilize the egg in this woman in order for a male baby to be born. God knew that there was a future deliverer about to be born and according to many today, they would have said that this decision for him to be born should have been left up to the woman who conceived him. Is that what God thinks? Does a woman’s desire play a role in the plan of God for a child? Would a woman wanting a child be different from another woman not wanting her child? I personally do not believe it does based upon the Bible. We will hopefully look at this question more later.
Did you notice that God gave this woman specific instructions about what she did before she gave birth or this child was even conceived yet? In verse 4 God tells the woman not to eat or drink things that are bad for her or for the future baby. WOW, that is clearly a message that is very profound. God was basically informing us that what she did would affect the future child’s ability to fulfill his purpose. This truth places human responsibility on the mother that is way beyond what the world thinks right now. I believe that women and men will be judged for what they did to their future children good or bad.
This woman, the future mother described in Judges was told not to drink or eat any unclean thing before she conceived and while she carried this child in her womb. Why is this significant? If this was not a viable life form, why does it even matter what a woman eats or drinks? No, you see it does matter because this is not just an embryo or fetus in the eyes of God, or a blob of developing cells. In the eyes of God this was a child and God said it matters what you feed him. If it matters to God about this child and what he is fed in the womb, then it also matters to God and what every other child is fed in the womb. If it matters to God what this child was fed before it was born, then it clearly matters to God if this child was born at all.
Whose responsibility was it to eat the right things and drink the right things for the development of this baby? Was it God’s responsibility to see that his mother did the right thing or not? Did God make her do the right things here? These are not loaded questions! These are not hard questions to figure out the answers to either. If it matters to God about one baby in the Bible, then it matters to God about every baby that is supposed to be born. God does not treat one baby differently than the other, only people do that.
So what happens to all of God’s future planned roles and responsibilities of all of these babies that are aborted in our world by the mother’s choice to override God’s will? Do you think that the aborted children’s responsibilities in this life are just given to others that were not aborted? Or do you think that it is possible that there are a bunch of things that are not taking place and getting done, because the one that was going to find the cure for cancer was aborted? What if this child in Judges would have been aborted? What if his mother would have drunk wine and ignored the commandment of God? Would God had another deliverer to raise up or would Israel not have been delivered? I personally believe that this is a major problem with abortion and that there would have been no other one to take this child’s place.
Therefore, how many doctors, lawyers and teachers do you think have been aborted since 1973? Who or what exactly are we missing out on? Because of the abortion of the millions of future skilled workers, tax payers and roles that are being unfulfilled. How many church pastor’s, preachers, teachers and evangelists have been eliminated from coming into the world to help others get saved and not go to hell? Satan has used murdering people that some call doctors to create a population imbalance and reduction. Satan is trying his best to eliminate humans from coming into this world because they are threat to him.
CONCLUSION
This was just the introduction to the subject of “What does God think about Abortion?” I pray that you can begin to see from just one story in the Bible that it must matter greatly to God if a child is born. Why do you think Satan wants to kill all of the future children and keep them from entering the world? Could it be that one of these are the preacher that will reach the whole world with the truth? Does Satan think by eliminating future Christians that he can remain on this planet a little longer? I tell you that there are many things to consider on this subject. One is why has Satan been motivated to kill human children even since early in the book of Genesis? When Moses was born babies were tossed into the river to be drown, if they were males. This was a repeated occurrence when Jesus was born in Bethlehem and every child under 2 years old was killed. You see Satan is attempting to fight against whatever God has planned and is doing. We need to learn the truth and figure out whose side we want to be on. Abortion is a demonic evil plan of Satan to eliminate future humans and potential Christians. God is a pro-life God and is opposed to ALL abortion. We will continue to learn this as we go through this series of Bible lessons. Thanks for reading and studying the Bible with us today. I pray that what was stated has helped you to see what God really thinks on the subject and importance of future life.
If you would like to continue reading in this series of lessons on what God thinks about abortion, please continue to “Part 2“.
Is God Really in Control of Everything? Pt 2
(Ver 1.2) This is now Part 2 in a series of Bible lessons concerning the nature and character of God and the subject of “Is God in Control of Everything that Happens”. If you have not read “Part 1“, I would recommend that you go there to begin your study in this series. In first lesson I asked a direct question that has bothered a lot of people in the church. Is God really in control of everything that happens in the world? This question often goes into deeper thoughts of why is there so much evil in the world if God is really controlling everything and that becomes a much more difficult question to answer. While we can come up with many of man’s opinions and theories on this subject, we should determine what God thinks about it by examining His Word for clues to determine the actual truth. I have already given you several great scriptures on this subject in my last lesson that conveyed a transfer of ownership and responsibility from God to man, concerning the dominion of the earth. I don’t know if people think I provided enough evidence or not for this belief, so I will provide another verse witness that also says God put man in control of what happens on this planet:
Hebrews 2:7 Thou madest him a little lower than the angels, thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands:
If you read the preceding verse you will see this is speaking of Man or Adam and the sons of Adam. It says God has crowned us and that denotes that we were given rule and authority of this earth. Then the verse says man was put over the works of God’s hands. To be put over something denotes clear responsibility and accountability for not performing what was expected. Again if I gave you a million dollars, do I have any say after you take it as to what you do with it? No I don’t. The money would belong to you and now you are responsible to keep it or to burn it or do whatever you want to do with it. That is called a transfer of power and authority. This is exactly what God did for Adam in Genesis 1:26.
Then in my last blog I ended up with a verse in Matthew that had Jesus telling us that “All power both in heaven and earth has been given to me.” The clear inference given is that before His resurrection and ascension, not everything was under God’s control. So now we have a dilemma that God is controlling everything again and we still see evil, murder, terror, rape and death still prevalent in the earth. So what is the situation and who is really in control still needs to be resolved using the Word of God.
Before I go there, let’s determine who had dominion over the World before the resurrection of Christ. We can see from earlier scriptures that dominion and authority was given to Adam to control everything on the earth and in the earth, including the air and the sea. So what happened? Did Adam transfer this gifted ownership, rule and authority to someone else? I gave you a clue that Adam did this by showing you what God said about Satan in 2 Corinthians 4:4 being called the “god” of this world. What we learn from this single scripture is that if Satan has become the god of this world then how can God be in control of everything that happens here? This is a hotly debated new topic. Many theologians believe that Satan is God’s pawn and can do only what God gives him permission to do but that is in violation of most revealed scriptures. For example, we should be able to see this more clearly by examining this verse when God was present on the earth in the flesh:
Luke 4:5 And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
We can clearly learn and see that Jesus in this temptation of Satan is being taken up to a very high mountain and is shown “ALL” of the kingdoms of this world. That information would leave nothing out, would it? Then Satan makes this statement to Jesus that is absolutely critical to see and understand:
Luke 4:6 And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will I give it.
This is an incredible statement of revelation being given to us by God’s Word. According to what is spoken by Satan all authority over the planet was “delivered” or “given” to him by someone. That statement denotes new ownership and control rights thereof. Satan then says that he is able to give it to whoever he wants to. Remember who Satan is speaking to, this is God in the flesh who created him and he is either very stupid or he is telling the truth. God would certainly know if Satan is not speaking the truth and He would have just said you are a liar, leave me and Satan would have had to leave if God was in control. So we can see a very clear statement concerning who is in control of what happens on the earth and that it is not God. This is of course Satan speaking so many will say it is just a lie, but if it is just a lie then it could not have been a temptation to Jesus. It has to be a real offer to Jesus in order for it to be a temptation for Him to take it. Remember when Jesus walked the earth during his ministry? Demons and religious people would constantly question his authority and his right to be here and to do what he was doing. You’ll find instances like this in Mark 1:24, Luke 4:34 and Matthew 8:29. Demons when confronted would question Jesus and call him God and ask what right do you have to do these things to them.
Mat 28:18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
This verse occurs after Jesus was raised from the dead. Here Jesus literally tells us that authority has been given back to him here on the earth and even in heaven. Why would God tell us that this authority was again transferred to Him if He already had it? Can you answer me that? So apparently Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection caused something to occur to transfer control back from Satan. In 1 Corinthians 2:8 we have a statement about Satan and his demon cohorts that says, “If they would have only known what was going to happen, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory.” That was my paraphrase of the verse, but that is what it basically says. You are free to go and study this verse for yourself. The demons are called “princes” and that Greek word simply means a ruler of this world. Therefore we know that if Satan would have known the consequences of killing Christ on the cross then he would not have done it. So apparently killing Christ caused a major and even devastating blow to his plan. I hope that you are grasping these concepts give to us by God.
Apparently from what I can see in the Bible God got back what Adam had lost and given away to Satan through the works of Jesus Christ who was a literal son of Adam (man) by his death on the cross. Jesus was a direct descendant of the first man Adam. Jesus being a man, had the right to take man’s authority back, as God in heaven He did not have the right to do this since it was God in heaven that gave the authority to man and man could do with it whatever he liked. If you go through the law in the Old Testament you will see what gave Jesus the right to redeem what Adam had sold, but I won’t go into all of that detail today in this lesson.
So who is in control today? We still have a problem with responsibility? Who’s responsibility is it to preach the gospel? Who is going to get men saved? Who is going to be the missionary to Africa and Asia? Is this God’s responsibility? Is God going to send angels to preach His Word? I don’t think so. No what we have is a statement by Jesus that helps us to see what happened. Earlier I gave you the verse in Matthew after Jesus was raised from the dead and He said “all power is given to me both in heaven and the earth, what was His next statement to us in the church? Let’s read this verse and see what Jesus did with His new authority:
Matthew 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
Did you see it? Here we have another transfer of authority and responsibility. We have been given the highest authority on the earth again being transferred this authority by the LORD JESUS! Jesus said “I have been given all power, now you go.” The “Now you go” is a conveyance of authority back to the church. Have you ever asked yourself this question “Why if all authority was given to Jesus, wasn’t Satan just cast out into hell?” That of course is a very interesting question to think on. Apparently something still gives Satan the right to be here on the earth, even if he doesn’t have authority over Christians any more. Perhaps you need to go back and read the verse that I mentioned earlier in Matthew 8:29. This demon that Jesus confronted in this verse knew that there was a set time for them to be here. That is why this demon said are you come to torment us before the time? We need to understand what this time is because it is rapidly approaching. There is coming a time when the devil and his demons will be cast into hell and that will be the end of them until after the 1000 year time of rest occurs but I will not teach that in this lesson today.
The Bible is such a rich and complex book, with so much deep information spiritual information given to us in it. It certainly is challenging to put all of the puzzle pieces together correctly, but with God’s help I believe we will come to a mature understanding of the truth before Jesus returns. Thank you for taking the time to read my Bible studies. I hope and pray that something positive was planted in your spirit that will produce much fruit for the kingdom of God. Be continually blessed and come back and share these lessons with your friends.
Is God Really In Control of Everything?
(Ver 1.3) This is Part 1 in a very basic series of Bible lessons on the revealed nature and character of God. In these lessons we are going to confront a popular and controversial misconception that is being spread in many churches by many confused preachers. This belief has been transferred to their church members and is often spoken in public by Christians. I hear it on Facebook very often. People will post little things on their walls passing on the responsibility for everything that occurs in their life to God. On the national news recently I heard a precious Christian couple accuse God of their house burning to the ground. In tears they said to the reporter “God does not put more on us than what we can bare”. In stating that, they had just attributed the loss of all of their natural possessions to the acts of Almighty God and implied that He was in complete control of the situation. I then heard more of the news report and wondered why the police were still looking for an arsonist that started the fire when it was actually God’s fault according to the couple. I often wonder what people think when they say things like this and then I wonder what the message is being presented to the world that is listening to these kinds of statements. Let me ask you this question and see what you think today:
Is God really in control of everything?
I am sure that there are a lot of opinions on this subject, but is opinion the thing that is really important in the world? Do you believe that everything that happens to you is what God has planned? If yes, how do you know for sure that God controls what happens to you? How would you ever prove that to anyone? What evidence do you possess for that accusation? A lot of religious people are driven by the idea that God is absolutely sovereign and therefore they have taken that truth and extended it to include that whatever happens to them must have been something that God has instigated, has caused to occur, commanded to transpire or at the very least has allowed or permitted to happen. After all they have reasoned that if it was not the will of God for it to happen, then He could have stopped it since He holds the power and ability to do that. Insurance agencies often times have clauses in their contract that state “Acts of God” are not covered. They of course are referring to natural disasters like fires, hurricanes, tornados and floods. But are these the works of God? How can they be? If they kill people and destroy their homes, lives and property? Are these the works of your God? I can tell you for sure that they are not the works of my loving God? So we must have different Gods? Recently we saw on the news a crazy man that stood up and shouted “Allah is great” and started shooting soldiers and civilians. In other shooting in Colorado we saw a man walk into a movie theatre and kill a bunch of people. Were these all of the orchestrated works of God? If it was then I don’t want that God.
The humorous thing that I have noticed about people who claim that God is in control of everything is that they never give us any scriptures to back that belief statement. Do you know of any scriptures that says “I am the LORD and I am in control of what happens to you.”? How about “I AM the Lord that sends you every clamity, test and trials”? I’ve never seen it, if it exists. So if there is no scriptural basis for your beliefs, what are your beliefs based upon? What kind of foundation are you standing upon? It sounds like your opinion or your theory and that is worth less than 2 cents to me. I once heard someone give a great definition of what a theory is and it went something like this:
Theory: A supposition based upon ignorance of the subject under discussion.
What a true statement that is. Too many people have a theory about what God is like, who God is and what God does. But how worthless is that information. Here is the number one problem with saying God is in control of everything that happens, good, bad or indifferent. You see when so many evil things happen to someone, no one can come up with a Bible answer for why it happened? They always just claim that God is smarter and wiser than we are and we can’t understand His ways, He must have had a higher purpose in taking your child. That is another idiotic opinion that I don’t mind telling you repels me away from a God who says in His Word that He loves us while causes a terrorist plane to fly into the side of a building killing hundreds and even thousands of people.
Of course religion quickly answers God had a purpose in it. Why? Because He did nothing to stop it from happening? So how did you come to the conclusion that it was God’s responsibility to stop it or do anything about it? What Bible verse is that logic based upon? Can you help me? The religious minded person, very often resort to a theory of what I call a “No Fault” Religion. No matter what happens to me in life, it is not my fault. I hope you see the problem, that means it doesn’t matter what you do, how you live, where you go, who you marry, where you work, if you live in sin or you become a nun, it just doesn’t matter. According to that philosophy, God is going to let happen to you and me everything that He desires regardless of what you or I do. I can’t find that in the Bible any where either. You know what I found in my Bible was a statement that says “God is not mocked, whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (Gal 6:7). So apparently according to this verse it is not up to God after all what happens to you. It appears to matter more what you do and the seeds that you plant in this life to determine what you will reap. If you are getting a poor crop of bad, evil things happening to you, start checking to see what you have been sowing. This is a spiritual law of planting and reaping, but that is not my subject primarily, so I’ll move on.
So if God is not in control who is? This is an interesting question that is answered with the Word of God. I’ll start with Genesis 1:26:
Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
This verse is obviously ignored by people who teach God is in control. God himself speaking in this verse says “Let them have dominion over all the sea, air and earth and everything that is in them or on them”. That doesn’t leave anything out does it? Dominion is a term denoting authority and ruler ship. It is God’s delegation of control. It is a transfer of responsibility from God to man. That is obviously tough for many to swallow and to comprehend. How can God turn over the earth to a man that was going to screw it up and fail? But before we go there let’s confirm this verse with another witness:
Psalm 115:16 The heaven, even the heavens are the LORD’s: but the earth hath he given to the children of men.
Obviously another scripture religious people like to ignore, but this verse says the Heavens belong to God, but the earth was given to Adam and his children. Let me ask you to think about this, have you ever given someone a present, maybe something really nice and very valuable? After they took your gift and left was it your responsibility to guard it and protect it so that nothing would ever happen to it? Of course not! Once given and received, tt was out of your hands, you no longer had any right to say what happens to it, they could throw it in the trash or give it away to someone else and you don’t have any right to it anymore. Do you understand that concept? This is exactly what God did with the earth.
All of this doesn’t mean that God can’t participate in helping man out or doing something if he is asked to do it, but it does mean that God must ask permission to do something on earth, since He has given it to man to control. I know that really bugs religious people, since God is sovereign, omnipotent and if He wants to do something they believe that He can just do it. I really don’t understand that kind of logic when it is associated and applied to a God who cares about His integrity, His reputation, His character, His moral values, His self worth, His honor, and above all His Word. That sounds more like Satan than God. God will not violate your rights to choose. God will not force you to do anything. God will not override your will, your desires or your intentions. God will not make you believe in Him. God will not save you if you do not want to be saved. Etc. etc. If He did that He would be the great puppet master and a control freak and not a loving God. God will let you strap on a bomb and blow yourself up, but is that what He wanted for you? Was that God’s plan for you life, NO WAY!
So when people say God is in control just ask for a Bible verse that says that before you believe something so ridiculous. Before I close I’ll give you some more Bible verses to consider. In 2 Corinthians 4:4 Satan is directly called the God of this world. I thought God was in control of this world? Un Oh? It appears someone forgot to tell Paul. If Satan is the god of this world, that explains tornados, hurricanes, and floods much better to me. Remember when Jesus was in the boat crossing the sea and a storm came up and almost sank the boat. The disciples woke Jesus up and told Him they were about to perish and Jesus went to the front of the boat and looked at the wind and the waves stopped the storm by speaking to it. Uh OH Again? If God caused the storm and then stopped the storm He must be confused, or schizophrenic or maybe His house is just divided working against itself. Today I like storms and tomorrow I don’t. He just cant’ seem to make up His mind do I want a storm to sink them or do I want it calm. Maybe God starts storms and only Jesus stops them. How crazy is that? I know that my Bible says Jesus was God in the flesh and He said when you have seen me you have seen the Father. So whater Jesus did is what God does. Therefore there is no way that God starts the storm and then stops it. There are just too many problems with the theory that God is controlling everything.
What we need to realize is that Jesus said in John 10:10 “The thief has only come to kill, steal and destroy, but I came that you might have life…” If it kills, if it destroys something you own, or if it is stolen from you, that was not God in control causing it to happen, that was Satan demonstrating his power and you letting him do it.
I’ll do one more scripture that helps us to understand who is in charge now. This verse is a statement made by Jesus Christ after His resurrection and it goes like this:
Matthew 28:18 And Jesus cam and spake unto them saying, All power is given unto me in heave and in earth.
Again we see a major problem with the God is in control of everything theory; Jesus who is God says that all power is now given to Him in heaven and on the earth. But, I thought God already had all power over heaven and earth? According to many theologians He did. Obviously Jesus is just confused and He doesn’t realize what He is talking about. Please don’t be ignorant! Jesus knows exactly what He is talking about and the authority of both heaven and earth was transferred back to God at the resurrection of Christ. But, what did Jesus immediately do with it and who did He get it back from? So many good questions to ponder. But I’ve given you enough to think about for now. I hope that you do the research in your Bible to answer these questions. Until next time, God bless you in your Bible study.
If you would like to continue reading in this series you may goto “Part 2“.
Keys to Understanding: Having an Open Mind
I’ve been going through some of the key elements that people need to know in order to understand the Bible correctly. Knowing how the Bible is written and why it is written like it is helps us to better understand what is written. Seeing things clearly and thus better understanding God’s goals and purposes. So continuing in this line of thought I want to address a key personal characteristic that will help you to increase your understanding.
Reading and studying the Bible has to be done with an open mind. What I mean by that is people who are already set in what they believe, will have an extremely difficult time learning about and accepting the truth. People who are indoctrinated with traditions of their church, the theological thoughts and concepts of error will probably never really understand the Bible. I’ve heard those types of people as being called “Concrete” Christians, thoroughly mixed up and firmly set. Think about it, why did Jesus go around and constantly say “let him who has ears, hear”. Apparently, what people received from him was not up to what he dealt out or said. Jesus put the responsibility of hearing on the hearer and not the speaker. You can say the most profound and important thing in the world and if no one cares to hear it, then it really does no good to say it. Some heard what Jesus said and some didn’t. Judas was with Jesus the same as Peter, James and John. Judas obviously didn’t hear anything Jesus said.
Acts 28:27 For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart, and should be converted and I should heal them.
This is probably one of the key scriptures to Bible interpretation that many wouldn’t associate with it. But I feel the application is right on. So what is the subject of this verse in Acts 28:27? It would appear it is the heart of the people and their ability or inability to understand with it. Isn’t that what we are talking about? Why don’t people read the same Bible and come to the same conclusions? Why do some see things one way and others don’t see them at all? It is a perplexing puzzle? But the Bible tells us that people close their eyes to the truth and they therefore refuse to see it or allow it to effect their lives. It is not God’s fault is it? Unfortunately, a lot of people want a God on their terms and conditions. They want a God that they want. The want to see a God that fits their concept of God. That is the definition of religion whether you realize it or not. Religion is man’s attempt to please a God they don’t know. Christianity should be radically different than a religion. Christianity is based upon a relationship with the Creator. Here is another scripture from the book of Acts that speaks to the subject of being open minded:
Acts 17:11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily whether those things were so.
This verse speaks so very much that it should not be bypassed. It directly compares two different groups or types of people. One was said to be more noble than the other. Nobility is a term often times inferred upon royalty, kings and queens. The word “noble” literally means “of a higher rank”. Did you realize that your rank in Christ can grow or diminish? It is all up to you however. What made these more noble than the others. It tells us they had a ready and willing mind. I’ve often heard a mind described like a parachute, it only works when it is open and engaged. This is so true that God put direct conformation in his word. But also notice that these more noble ones just didn’t swallow anything anyone was teaching them. No, you see an incredibly important lesson given here for the entire church of God. This is an example to learn from and to follow. It tells us that they searched the scriptures daily to see for themselves if what was being taught was really what the Bible says. So whoever is teaching, including me you should do the same. Never accept the words of any man or woman unless it totally agrees with the word of God.
So what is the net, net, or bottom line of this blog? What is the primary take away? I’ve heard it called low hanging fruit. What you should take away may be an attitude adjustment. If your attitude is that you already know everything you need to know about the Bible you need to change. If you hear something new that you’ve never heard before, you should be open to at least research it in the Bible and study it out for yourself before you reject it. That is one of the most obvious problems that I have observed with many pastors and Bible teachers today. God raises up someone with a new focus on a part of his word and because it doesn’t fit what they learned in seminary, they automatically throw it under the bus, not knowing they just threw God under the bus with it. How can God get over something new if no one is open to hear it. How can God teach you something radically different when you think it is from the devil?
The eyes and ears are windows to your mind and to your spirit. In order to get things into your heart, you are going to have to leave your windows open and get them past your mind. The mind is the battle ground for Satan. If you let something in your eyes and your ears, Satan will come immediately to steal it by attacking your mind. If he can get you to reject it before you understand it with your heart, you are defeated and he has won. This is a spiritual battle and it takes place inside of you. If you learn about it and understand how he works you can use it to defeat him.
Genesis 2:18-23 God Creates Woman from a Man
Genesis 2:18 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be along; I will make him an help meet for him.
I read this verse in the Bible and it was astounding what it said to me. I don’t know if people ignore what it says, or just don’t see what it says. God makes a man on the earth and turns over control of His creation to this him. Almost every time in the work of creation, God would do something and say, that was good. This is the first time we have a statement that something is not good that God has done. Before this we have had occasions to notice like on day two of creation when God did not make the statement that it was good, but now we have a direct and explicit confirmation that something wasn’t good. What is the implied information given to us by that statement? The implication was that the man was alone? Did that mean spiritually as well as physically? We know that God is a spirit, later we see in chapter 3 where God would come down and walk in the garden to talk with the man. But apparently in the eyes of God the man was a separate being not a part of the heavenly family. Not a part of the angels, not apart of the trinity. Not associated with anyone or anything in heaven. This if you did not realize it is a division or separation from God. The creation of a being that was not in covenant relationship to God. Of course that does not mean as I noted earlier that the man could not have a conversation with his father, God. We will see more implications of this as we go but for now, I thought that was interesting.
Genesis 2:21 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof.
Genesis 2:22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
There is more valuable information in these two verses of scripture and you’ll see why later. We have the fact given to us that the woman was taken out of the side of the man. That is another reason God called both of their names Adam, because they both came from the same body. This is so important to see. What was the surgical operation that God performed? God opened the flesh of his man and took a bone out of his side and creates a woman from it. Where did Adam get his DNA, it had to be from God his Father. Where did Eve get her DNA, it was from the man. All of this was done for what reason? So that the man would not be alone. What was Adam’s response to what God had done? He makes this statement which is absolutely critical to understand:
Genesis 2:23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh she shall be called Woman because she was taken out of man.
Did you see the statement? Adam declares the woman’s body to be his body. A body consists of flesh and bones. God created her body from a part of his. So the end results is that they are one body. It is really a simple math problem, If you take 1 and multiply it by 1, you get 1. 1 male x 1 female = 1 body. Or you could say it this way, God divided 1 body into 1 male and 1 female. 1 divided by 1 is 1. This is God’s basic math of marriage. There is a principle stated here that will be applicable later when I talk about Jesus. Then in verse 24, God restates what Adam has declared in the Genesis law of marriage:
Genesis 2:24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh..
This is another one of those verses that I don’t think people have understood completely. You see it has vast Biblical implications and explains many things that happen in our relationship with God, but I won’t get off track for now and attempt to explain any of that. What we should see is the statement and how it applies to Adam since that is what we are talking about. What we observe is God’s three step program for marriage. First step, we can see that God says that the man will leave or separate from his family, which consists of his father and his mother. Step two the man will marry a wife. The term cleave is used but it means to be joined to. Finally step 3, the two will become one flesh. Isn’t it absolutely amazing that God didn’t know Adam didn’t have a father and a mother. Ok, I was being a little facetious trying to get your attention. Of course God knew who his father and his mother were, but did you? I think if you have been reading my blog you know that Adam’s father was God. Now who the mother is, I will not be able to address for a while. So what is the net results of this statement? What we see is another stated division between man and God and a joining of the man to the woman to be one.
What normally happens when humans get married? They usually move out of the parents house and establish a new family and household. So while they were a part of one family, they left that one and now they are the establishment of another new family. You do understand that God has a family in heaven? So by creating a man on earth, we saw that already Adam had moved out of the family of God in heaven. But God said it was not good for the man to be alone, so God creates a woman for the man and they two now create and establish a new and separate family on the earth. The key words here are New and Separate. A family that didn’t exist before, a family not a part of God and the beings in heaven. In case you didn’t know it, God is working on a plan. What does that plan involve? Not only the creation of a new family on earth, but how does God get rid of the unwanted family members in heaven? Some might say God is God and He is sovereign and He can do anything He wants. When people think like that, it just shows how little they know God. God is a covenant making God. What is a covenant? I probably need to spend weeks exploring all the information in the Bible about covenants. I would suggest if you have never studied covenants that you do some research and study covenants. What is a covenant? How are covenants made? Who can covenants be between?. Briefly I will tell you that a covenant is equivalent to a marriage. A marriage in the eyes of God as we have seen means that they are one. I know I’ve implied a lot of new information in this blog that you have probably never considered, so I’ll stop here and let you think about it.
Genesis 2:7 – Our Source of Life
Here is another perspective or way to look at the creation of man. I will give you some advanced spiritual concepts and truths, using scriptures in the Bible. We know from Genesis 2:7 that God forms the body of the man from the dust of the ground. Then let’s read what happens:
Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
We can see that man’s life came directly from God, for it says God breathed into his nostrils, the breath of life. What exactly is the breath of life? The Bible gives us some valuable clues if we are able to put them together and see them. The first thing we should realize is that the body was not the man and did not contain any life until God did something to produce the life. God must have imparted something that made the man unique from the rest of creation. No where in the Bible, does it say God breathed into the body of a monkey or a chimpanzee to cause them to live. Right there we can see a major difference between animals and man. I believe there is sufficient scientific evidence such as DNA that when interpreted correctly shows man did not come from monkeys. But natural men who are convinced there is no God will always try to come up with a natural explanation of how we got here.
James 2:26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
This verse in James declares a universal truth that applies to every man, woman and child. It says if the body is alive, it (the body) has a spirit within it. I guess what it actually says, is without the spirit, the body is dead. So when God formed a body from the dust of the ground for Adam, was it dead or alive at first? Let’s start by asking, was Adam a spirit being? Of course he had to be a spirit being. God is a spirit (John 4:24) and man was made in the image of God, so man has to be a spirit. So where did Adam get his spirit? Of course it had to come from God. It is interesting that it says God breathed into the nostrils the breath of life. I take that to mean his spirit and not just God’s attempt at CPR. If God breathed spirit life into Adam whose spirit was it? Of course it was God’s spirit. Again, more difficult concepts to grasp and understand. But we can confirm this by looking at other scripture in the Bible:
Hebrews 12:9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of sprits and live?
Here is another fascinating scripture that contains another universally true statement. It says God is the Father of spirits. That of course would be every spirit, good, bad or indifferent. Therefore, Adam by implication was a son of God. People will automatically think that I just put Adam on the same class and level as Jesus, but I didn’t. I did not say Adam was God, I just said he was a child of the Almighty. So put down your stones and read. Why is it important to see this relationship between God and Adam? I’m sorry I don’t have time to explain that right now. Perhaps we will get into that later. So does the Bible say that Adam was a son of God? We just read a scripture that implied it very strongly but there is another reference that comes to mind. In the genealogy of Jesus in Luke the 3rd chapter we can read a long, list of father and son relationships starting with Joseph going all the way back to Adam. Then guess what says in verse 38:
Luke 3:38 Which was the son of Enoch, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.
Here is a key to correct Bible interpretation, be consistent. If every named pair represents a father and a son relationship except the last one, that would be an inconsistent interpretation. You have to apply the same logic to very member in the list or else it is not a list of anything, just a bunch of names.
What we have discovered is that God is the source of our life and that our life is not physical first, but spiritual first. Then after the impartation of the spiritual, we can see the clear implication that only then can we have physical life. This is applicable to many things in the Bible and contains valuable lessons for us all.
Varying Stages of Spiritual Growth
God created natural things to give us views into spiritual things. Jesus taught us in the parable of the sower, that there are six types of or conditions of the human heart. Only 50% of these six types produced any lasting harvest. Jesus told us that of he 50% who produced good fruit, that 1/3 of them produced 30 times, 1/3 produced 60 times and the other 1/3 produced 100 times. But, we can see that the other 1/2 of the people who also heard, allowed circumstances, persecution, lack of understanding and the cares of the world kill the harvests that God had wanted to give them. It is interesting to note that they all had the same seed sown in them, but only 1/2 produced anything worth while. We should all take note that the seed is constant, it is only the soil that changed what was produced and how much. This is a very critical lesson to learn. The seed or Word of God will never change, so that leaves only one place that changes can and should occur. Guess where that is?
So getting back to natural things showing us spiritual things, there is a comparison given to us in the Bible about Christians being born again. Jesus told us in John 3, “ye must be born again.” He of course was speaking of a spiritual rebirth. When Nicodemus asked him can a man go back into his mother’s womb? Jesus replied that “What is born of flesh is flesh, but what is born of the spirit is spirit”. Jesus was speaking of a spiritual birth process, that many times corresponds to a physical birth process. What are the implications of being born spiritually? You can see by looking at new born natural babies that these children are completely helpless and totally dependent upon someone else for nourishment and care. Well even though new born Christians can be fully grown natural people, from a spiritual stand point they need the same level of care that any new born needs.
As babies grow, they begin to develop more and more skills and abilities. By the time they are 4 years old they can do a lot of things that grown ups can do, but just not as quickly or as well. With continued training and development these children will eventually become responsible adults. So all of these physical developments are analogous to spiritual development. Just like a college student can not have a calculus conversation with a 2 year old, so are there many things in the Bible that are as equally as hard for a new Christian to accept. By realizing there are differences and by placing yourself somewhere on the following scale, you should be able to determine how much you need to grow.
| New Born | Jesus/Mature | ||||||||
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
So where would you fall on the scale? Zero being a new Christian and 9 being where Jesus is today. It think we all are striving for the 9, but none of us are very close to it yet. What does all of this have to do with Bible interpretation and understanding the Bible. Well more than you can imagine. Most of the dissension within the Body of Christ is coming from baby Christians. Babies holler the most, cry the most, complain the most, ask why the most and oblivious to what they are doing to others. Babies are self centered and focused only upon themselves and what they need or what they want. Children do many things that are harmful and hurtful without regard to anyone else. They’ll take toys away and bite and fight not caring about anyone else. Sounds like a lot of Christians I know. When a two year old comes to me and criticizes something that I do, I don’t let that bother me. Why because I’m older and I know they don’t know any better. It is funny, Jesus took the same attitude towards the Jews, while hanging on the cross, Jesus said “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”. It is no different today, when someone criticizes me for something I say, I just say “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”
Genesis 2:7 – The Redemption of the Body
There are so many ways to look at scripture that it is a challenge to know which way to go. If you have been reading my blog, you know that I try to provide new perspectives into standard teachings. I always use the Bible to explain and interpret the Bible so I’m not making stuff up. However, since a lot of what I teach is new, I’m to you and stuff you never heard, it will be difficult for you to see at first. That is just the way the Bible is. People can look right at a verse of truth and never see what it says.
Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
We can learn a lot by seeing inside the implications associated with property ownership. Since the man’s body was formed from the dust of the ground, that automatically implies the body can be bought and sold as any piece of property can be bought and sold. If you have ever bought a piece of property you will understand this concept. But what does that have to do with Adam?
Isaiah 52:3 For thus saith the LORD, Ye have sold yourselves for nought; ye shall be redeemed without money.
Here are the words of God spoken to us. God declares that Adam sold himself for nothing. In other words Adam did not gain anything from the sales transaction with Satan. There was a transfer of ownership of a piece of property and Adam lost everything. After the fall of man we now have a new god of this world (2 Cor 4:4) who was in charge until Jesus came and died for us. Did you notice the last part of Isaiah 52:3, God says, I know you sold yourselves for nothing, but I will redeem you without any money.
Redemption is a fascinating concept. In natural terms, people in our world pawn or sell items to stores called Pawn Shops. The establishment gives the person some money for their items of value and then sets a time limit that the person who sold the item can come back and repurchase the item back, usually for a premium. If the time limit expires, the item is now property of the store owner and he can sell the item for usually more than he paid for it. That is an interesting concept and actually a parallel to what the Bible says happened to Adam. Adam sold his property to Satan, but God had an established time period to redeem it and God said I will pay the price to get it back, and it won’t cost me any money. We know that God paid the price with His life and His blood, so even though it didn’t cost money, it wasn’t free or cheap.
Romans 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
In Romans 8:23 we can see a statement that declares the time period for land transfer has not completely expired. If we are waiting, like Paul was waiting what are we waiting for? When is this expiration or redemption period over. When will the property revert to the correct ownership? Well this is what God’s law said about personal property and ownership.
Leviticus 25:10 And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man his family.
You see God instigated a time when every possession that was sold would be returned to the original owner. Every 50 years, a Jubilee would take place, a time of liberty a time of freedom for everyone. Any person who had been sold into slavery would be returned to his family. Any property sold to pay a debt would be returned to their original owners. This was God’s law and God’s solution to Adam selling what he couldn’t afford to sell.
Genesis 6:3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
I found Genesis 6:3 fascinating, did you notice that it said “man is also flesh”. This verse places a higher importance on something that man is above his body. Man is of course a spirit being that lives in a body. But in the eyes of God the man belongs in a body. Paul said in the New Testament, “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” So we can see that the man’s spirit can be separated from his body. In which case if the man’s spirit leaves his body we know the body is dead. If you die and go to heaven that doesn’t mean that you are not still waiting for your glorified body.
So many will question this reasoning, but I can see it based upon other scriptures in the Bible so I believe it. In Genesis 6:3 God speaking about the years of man said they will be 120. Most people these days don’t live that long, but a few have reached ages near that number. But I don’t think God was talking about that, or I guess I should say God was implying something else. If you take 120 and multiply it by 50 (Jubilees) you get what? The answer comes to 6000, that is an amazing number in light of the Genesis 1 prophecy. It seems that man’s time period of physical redemption is 6000 years. At this time the property will revert back to the original owner. There are really no coincidences in the Bible, there are really just a lot of clues. Putting the clues together is where we come in and that is our job. God has given us an assigned task to figure out the clues. In a short Blog like this, I can’t really give you every scripture reference and all the information that you probably need to figure these things out. All I can do is give you some snippets and a few references to help you search for the truth in a new way.
Is Everything in the Bible True?
(Ver 2.1) Today’s Bible lesson is Part 1 in a series of lessons on understanding truth in the Bible. This of course is a very difficult and tricky question to answer correctly. How do you approach this subject without offending someone? Too many people approach the Bible like every word came from the mouth of God and therefore the entire book is completely true from cover to cover. I am forced to disagree with that assumption but before you write me off, you should hear why. You see, I do know that God is the author of the Bible and every word it contains was inspired by Him for us. But is everything in the Bible the truth? That would be like asking is everything you watch on the ABC World News the truth? I don’t mean to say that the national news correspondent is intentionally trying to mislead us or lie to us. That is not what I’m saying at all. You see, if you’ve ever watched the news, you probably know what I’m going to say. You may remember when we had a president get up on the news and say ‘I did not have sex with that intern’. So was that the truth? Did it make it true because it was on national TV or reported by a popular news anchor on a respected news program? You see the problem, don’t you? The Bible has many quotes from similarly unethical and ignorant people and just because it is in the Bible doesn’t mean it is the truth.
This is in fact a very important and a key element to correct Bible interpretation, first determine who is speaking and then determine what their character and moral background is before you embrace what they say to be the truth. If they are the words directly from God, like it says” Thus saith the LORD”; or if they are the words in red ink in the New Testament from Jesus, or the words of one of God’s chosen prophets or apostles then it can be easily confirmed to be the truth. If however, Moses, David, Paul, John or Luke or whoever, quotes what somebody else said like Ananias or Sapphira in Acts 5, then it is very possible that what is said is not the truth. Again it depends upon the speaker. If the speaker is Satan for example, whatever is said could be a partial truth, the complete truth or a complete fabricated lie. So it definitely matters who is speaking before you can judge whether it is a truth or not.
In the book of Job, in the Old Testament it contains a lot of words from Job, Job’s wife and Job’s friends. Now while there are many valuable lessons in the book of Job, not every word spoken is the truth. You see here is Job’s problem, he didn’t have any Bible. He couldn’t understand most of the things of God. He couldn’t really know or understand what he was saying, after all what would it have been based upon? There is not any established basis for the thoughts of Job. For example, Job said “God has given and God has taken away.” I’ve heard preachers in church and at funerals stand up and quote this like it was God speaking. However that is not the truth. It is true Job said it, it is true it is in the Bible, it is true that God inspired someone to record what he said, but it is not a statement of truth. I’m sure I’m going to get a lot people upset at me for saying this, but this is the way the Bible was written. If you read later in the book of Job 38:2, you will see that God asks Job a simple but direct question and it says this “Who is this that darkens counsel with words without knowledge?” It is very clear to me that God is saying that at least some of Job’s words are baseless ramblings from an ignoarant man. Yes, Job believed they were true and was not intentionally deceiving anyone, but according to God they were just the words of an ignornat man. So you must judge what Job says by what God says about Job’s words and then and only then will we better understand the Bible. According to 2 Timothy 2:15 there is a right way to divide the Word of Truth and by reverse/antithesis implied truths there are also potentially many wrong ways to divide this exact same Words of Truth. You have to make a determination how you want to do it. You can do it your way or you can do it God’s way. The Bible is much more complex than you can imagine and there are specific rules and guidelines which God has given to us to follow and if you learn them and follow them you will not fall into error very often.
So if the Bible contains specific historical information such as names of cities, countries, dates, times, and people can we count on them to be accurate? Absolutely, the Bible is not a book of mythology, fables, fairy tales or man made legends like Paul Bunyan, Atlas or Methuselah. The Bible contains actual historical events, places and people. You can count on every one of them to be more accurate than any text book or history book you had in school. God knows exactly what happened when and where.
If the Bible has an account of some miraculous event transpiring in a supernatural story, like the parting of the Red Sea, can we rely on that as being a true fact within human history. Absolutely, people who don’t believe in God will of course try to convince you that this is fiction, but I know better. God who is capable of creating the world and everything we can see, is certainly capable of doing something on a much smaller scale that is still very spectacular.
Knowing how to read and study the Bible will greatly increase your understanding of God’s Word. Understanding that not every word in the Bible is the Truth will help you figure out what is the truth. You do realize that if everything in the Bible was the truth, it would not be necessary to “divide the truth”. What is a division? A division is a separation of one thing from another thing. To divide something entails effort, work, tools, study and understanding. If you were a doctor about to do surgery on someone you are about to cut them open or divide their flesh to look inside. If you don’t know what you are doing your patient is in trouble. Well dividing the word of God is somewhat similar, if you don’t know what you are doing, you are the patient that is in trouble.
If you would like to continue reading about Understanding Truth in the Bible please go to “Part 2“.
Genesis 2:2 The Seventh Day, God’s Coming Day of Rest
Genesis 2:2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
It is fascinating to me to know that God works and God rests. I don’t think God get’s tired like we do sometimes, but yet this is what it says. In Genesis 1 it said that man was made in the image of God, so if God works I would guess that He expects man to work. That is a big reason I’m not in favor of welfare and free hand outs by the government, the church or by any individual. I’m not opposed to helping people, but I believe people should be willing to work to get the help. So many people today just want a free ride and a hand out. I’m not for giving those types of people anything. It sounds pretty harsh, but people need to read the Bible and find out what God thinks is right. I’m pretty sure I read in my Bible, you don’t work, you shouldn’t eat. Oh, well I’ll move on and get off my soap box.
Verse 2 of Genesis 2 is the first mention of Day 7. We have already learned that each day of creation corresponds to a 1000 year period of human history. I’ve already alluded to the fact that this day 7 corresponds to the millennial 1000 year reign of Christ which will occur directly after the 7 year tribulation period. During this time period I’ve been told Christ will return to earth and establish a kingdom on earth without the presence of evil. During this time period Satan and his demons will be bound and unable to tempt or deceive anyone. At the end of this 1000 year time period the Bible says that Satan will be released to deceive again and anyone born during this 1000 year time period will have the opportunity to choose to believe the deception and be cast into the lake of fire.
There are verses in Hebrews chapter 4 that speak of this coming day of rest. These verses directly confirm the prophetic nature of Genesis and declare that this day will soon be coming. We are also told that we must make an effort to enter into this rest in Hebrews chapters 3 and 4. Those who choose not to believe will not enter into God’s rest we are told. It appears that the ball is in our court on whether we enter into God’s day of rest.
Matthew 11:28 Come unto me, all that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Revelation 14:13 I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them.
So apparently God sees our works and acknowledges them. He has determined a time of rest for His saints. But, now is not the time. Now is the time of harvest and if you have ever had a farm you know harvest is not easy or restful.
Genesis 2:1 The Stated End of God’s Creative Work
Genesis 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the hosts of them.
(Ver 1.1) This is “Part 1” in the series of lessons on the study of the verses of Genesis Chapter 2. Today we will begin the series looking at only verse 1. The first verse of Genesis 2 begins with a statement of completion that basically says God has “finished” or “ended” His works of creation both in the heavens and on the earth. It is interesting to note that this verse says “finished”. This is the Hebrew word H3615 that means “to end”. What ended? We should have learned in chapter 1 that God spoke ten times in order to return order back into the initial state of disorder found in Genesis 1:2 when the earth was fully covered by water.
What we are learning by this statement of completion the earth and the heavens have been restored to their originally created state of order. This again affirm something major occurred between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 to cause this chaos and I believe this chaos occurred during Satan’s initial rebellion described in Ezekiel 28:11-19.
This is a good time to confirm how God works. We learn from reading John 6:29 that Jesus defines God’s work as Him doing something that causes humans to believe in the sent Son of God, Jesus. This would imply that someone was speaking right words about Jesus that cause someone to believe in Him. Spoken Words are a major part of God’s work. We also learn from reading John chapter 1:
Joh 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Joh 1:2 The same was in the beginning with God.
Joh 1:3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
This should be a review of things we learned from chapter 1. But we can see again that the Word of God was With God in the beginning and we further confirm that this Word was God. God teaches us that we cannot separate Him from His Word because they are the same. When then learn more important information that His Word created everything that was created in the three dimensional realm of space and matter. What we can conclude is that God speaking to create has ceased. There is nothing else that needed to be spoken to be created in order to fulfill His plan for humanity.
Since we have discovered in this verse that God’s work has been fully completed and yet there are more works being described in this chapter, we must understand that everything else in this chapter after this statement has to be a detailed recap or explanation of things that have already occurred in chapter 1. If you didn’t know, everything in the Bible is not sequential, or in ordered time sequence. In other words from this point forward in the Bible (verse 1), God is done working and won’t be doing anything else to create anything else new in the natural realm. That of course does not mean God doesn’t do anything to maintain, deliver, or work in the lives of his people. It just means creation of the world system is complete.
It is very interesting to note that this verse ends with “and all the hosts of them”. If you look up the Hebrew word for hosts, it refers to a military term for a group of people organized for war. Isn’t that interesting? We can see major prophetic implications here concerning the church. The book of Genesis was not divided into chapters until much later, so what we see at the beginning of Chapter 2 is really the ending of Chapter 1 and could still be talking about day 6. There are many places in the New Testament where Christians are instructed to put on armor, which includes shields, breastplates, even swords. But then we are told that our enemy is not with flesh and blood but with the spiritual forces of darkness. There are huge implications all over this verse if you can see it.
Who Wrote the Bible? Where Did the Bible Come From?
(Ver 1.1) This of course is an interesting question. Technically speaking you have 66 books of text within the standard KJV Bible. We know that approximately 40 different men shared in the writing of the Bible over a span of approximately 1600 years.
Here are some basic Bible facts that I found on the Internet:
There are 8,674 different Hebrew words in the Bible, 5,624 different Greek words, and 12,143 different English words in the King James Version
- Number of books in the KJV Bible: 66
- Chapters: 1,189
- Verses: 31,101
- Words: 783,137
- Letters: 3,566,480
So let me ask you a simple question. What would happen if you attempted to get 40 different writers together in order to publish a book of such volume. What would the net results be? Could you get any of them to agree? How many times would they contradict each other? How many times would they cross paths and overlap information? How many times would they come up with anything that could predict what was going to come to pass a 1000 or more years in the future? I think you see the problem? Here we have a book that many approach with wrong assumptions, based upon wrong information, drawing incorrect conclusions and are generally just screwed up. I’ve heard so many people who want to write an exposition of why Paul said this, or Moses said that, like it was their ability and knowledge that produced what we are reading. If you approach the Bible with wrong ideas, you generally get back wrong ideas. There is a basic computer programming law that says if you put garbage in you get garbage out. That is the way the studying the Bible works.
What you first must do is understand who wrote the Bible? Establish a correct focus first. Forget the names of the 40 different men that copied the words onto the pages or scrolls I should say. Forget the commentaries of men who don’t understand or have a clue what God is saying and focus on this, God spoke and dictated the exact text and words that He wanted recorded and He gave the task of recording these words to 40 men over 1600 years. Now that changes everything in my view. Now you are not attempting to explain why Moses wrote anything that he did and left out other things that were not recorded. If you approach every word as being important and a word directly from God that has purpose and meaning you start looking at the Bible differently and can now begin to see it correctly.
2Ti 3:16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
Jer 30:2 Thus speaketh the LORD God of Israel, saying, Write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book.
According to 2 Timothy 3:16, the Bible was inspired by the Spirit of God. I guess it actually says given by inspiration of the Spirit of God. While the Bible has multiple scribes or men that were given the task to record the words of God in book form, we must realize that all of the words were given and inspired directly from God. This book says nothing that God would not want you to know and to understand right here and right now. It doesn’t say anything that God wouldn’t say to you if you could stand before His throne in heaven and ask Him questions directly. This book contains the thoughts, ideas, wisdom and knowledge of God and is available to you 24 hours a day. It is totally up to you to tap into this vast treasure of information.
6 Days of Creation – Genesis Chapter 1 Review
(Ver 1.2) In my Blogs the last couple of weeks I have been exploring an overview of the 6 days of creation and teaching how each day fits a prophetical view into God’s timeline for the 6000 year period of human history. I know this is a controversial viewpoint and it is probably brand new information to many. However, it is there if you research it and studyit from a prophetic perspective. Some have probably wondered how did I come up with the idea that the 6 days of creation were prophetic windows? I beleieve that it is just what the Bible says and therefore it is not my opinion or my personal interpretation of what God says. What we must do is to allow the Bible to interpret itself, so we must look for God’s definitions, His commentary and explanations and we must put these together with the words written in Genesis to understand them. Look at this verse and see what it says for yourself:
Isaiah 46:10 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things which are not,…
You see from this verse God says I have declared or stated the end from the beginning. In other words God has prophesied the ending from the beginning. Genesis chapter 1 definitely declares the beginning of our current world system. So somewhere in that description is information about what is going to occur in our history and its final conslusion. To declare something that has not occurred is clearly a statement of prophetic proportion. The only to verify that a prophecy is from a real prophet is for us to examine the words and see if they have been fullfilled, have transpired or are coming to pass presently. Here is another scripture that speaks to us along these lines:
Ecclesiastes 1:9 The thing that has been, it is that which shall be, and that which is done, is that which shall be done,….
Again in this verse we see a powerful reference of something to look for when reading and studying the Bible. We can use these words to imply that God declares that what He has done during creation is that which will occur again. You see as I have read the Bible I have discovered a series of repeated patterns that have occured over and over. That is why that I believe that we should study the book of beginnings like it was a raod map to our future. Of course since we are at the very end of the 6th day or 6000 years, we should realize that we do not have very much time left. This actually makes our research more sure, since the majority of recorded history has already occurred and we are nearing the end now.
We started the chapter analysis by looking at the fact that the earth as stated in the Bible is much older than 6000 years, but we are not specifically told how old it is anywhere. It could very well be millions or billions of years old. We looked at scripture that speaks to us about a pre-Adamic civilization or world that existed prior to our current world system. We found scriptures that indicate that this world was completely destroyed and apparently God started over with us, or for us.
We looked at the work of God during creation and identified God’s first act as being division. God divided Light from darkness. We can imply from this that prophetically speaking God is breaking away or dividing himself from something that He does not want to associate with. At least 3 times in the chapter we can see that God divided something from something else. I can tell you right now that most Bible teachers and preachers don’t have a clue to the significance of these words of God so they ignore them. I’m sorry that I just don’t have time to teach you all of that right now.
The next significant point about creation is how God created. I might have alluded to the fact that God looked at the problem and always spoke the answer or the solution. As it is written in the New Testament, God is a God who calls those things that be not as though they were and as we can see from creation, they become exactly what they are called. Since man is made in the image of God this implies that man operates the exact same way that God operates. Of course not at the same level or capacity that God is, but you would be amazed at what the Bible says about our spoken words and the Bible is very strong in this area and says many things that are very hard to accept by many Christians.
During our study we identified some of the key symbolic elements and researching them in the scriptures discovered what they meant and how they are applied within creation. Light is symbolic of God. Seas are symbolic of people. Day and night are symbolic of the conditions of men’s hearts. Some have allowed the sun of God to light their hearts and then others have been kept in darkness because they have allowed Satan to blind their minds. We have identified the symbolic Sun as being Jesus Christ. Then we have identified the symbolic moon as being Satan, the ruler of the darkness.
In the creation of Adam on day 6 I took you through an analysis of the Hebrew words for man and Adam as being the same word. I then showed you from scripture how Genesis 1:27 should have been translated as Adam instead of man, because God calls both the male and the female by the same name. The inference of and application to marriage is of course easily seen.
Finally we looked at the coming into maturity of the body of Christ. We also looked at the delegated authority of the body of Christ. We are at the end of Day 6 of God’s established timetable and God has the planned return of Jesus Christ next on the agenda. I believe very strongly that Jesus’ return is not very long from now. I know I did not attempt to cover everything that the chapter speaks about. My goal was to give you some new perspectives and things to think about that you hadn’t seen before. Things that can be tremendously important to understanding a large portion of the Bible. I hope you have enjoyed Chapter 1 of Genesis and we will move into Chapter 2 next. I probably will not go verse by verse but I will change to a larger what are the key concepts given to us level of study. There are some awesome things in Chapter 2 and 3 if you can see them. So continue reading in Genesis and see what else God has to reveal to us.
Six Things Satan Doesn’t Want You To Know About Himself
(ver 1.7) This Part 1 in a series of Bible lessons about things that Satan does not want you know about him. Satan in the Bible is called by so many different names, titles, characteristics, symbols and descriptions. Each one of these that were given to us by God reveal Satan in a new way for us to learn from. For example, in Revelation 12:9 the name Satan is given to us and it is directly linked to be the symbolic “Great Red Dragon” in the book of Revelation. Satan is then further revealed as the “ancient serpent” in Genesis 3:1 in the same verse. Since Satan is called both the serpent in the garden in Genesis and now the Great Dragon in Revelation we learn from these two symbolic titles that he has gained significant power and strength. But maybe you did not know that and learned something brand new. In other places in the Bible Satan is also called the “deceiver” and the “father of lies” by God. If you wold like to see a more complete list of these Names, Titles, Descriptions and Symbols for Satan in the Bible you can go read that reference document and find those that I have been shown by God up until this point in time. Satan has had an explicit evil agenda in place ever since he deceived Eve and caused Adam to sin in the garden. Satan has implemented this plan based upon misconceptions and misdirection that diverts your attntion away from you finding or knowing the truth. There are a number of major things that Satan doesn’t want you to know about him. He tries very hard to keep these truths secret from you because they will cause you to think differently about your abilities and position in Christ Jesus. Today I’m going to tell you some of these guarded secrets that were revealed in the Bible for our benefit placed there by our wise and mighty God to help teach us the truth about our enemy.
NUMBER 1
1. Satan DOES NOT Want You To Know That He Exists
I know now as a Christian that Satan is a real spiritual being, but there was a time that I did not believe in his existence. Many people are in the exact same ignorant boat as I was when I did not believe in the existence of spiritual things. Unsaved people and even many new carnal Christians are generally very oblivious to spiritual realities, because they are consumed with natural things like drugs, alcohol, sex, money, power, fame, sports, food, music, and etc. Not only do most people in the kingdom of darkness not know that Satan, evil spirits, fallen angels and demons exist, they also do not understand that they themselves are also a spirit being that is simply living here on the earth in a natural physical body. Oh, sure there is a fascination in the world with the supernatural and spirits on TV, in movies and in video games. But these are generally put out by Satan as a distraction to the truth to keep people from finding out that he is real and to learn how he operates with them daily. Satan promotes these fictional TV shows, entertainments and activities to gain access into the minds of people to deceive them further from the truth. As long as you do not know that there is a real spiritual enemy in this world named Satan, you will never know that you need to resist him or fight against what he is doing in your life. We learn of the existence of Satan by reading the Bible and that is our only reliable source of any proof or evidence for his existence. If you do not believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God then you are in serious trouble looking for invalid sources of truth in the other books of the world. You can read about Satan’s existence and activities like in Mark 4:15, Luke 4:8, Luke 13:16 and Acts 26:18 to name only a few verses that teach of his existence. I pray that you learn to study this subject in order to learn that Satan does exist and that he is your enemy.
NUMBER 2
2. Satan DOES NOT Want You To Know How He Operates
Recently I wrote a Bible lesson on the subject Was There a Physical Talking Snake in the Garden of Eden that deceived Eve. If you read that lesson then you know that there was not a literal talking serpent in the garden. It is illegal for Satan to tempt people supernaturally and that is not how he generally operates because of the spiritual laws created by God. TV shows and movies that promote supernatural activity are created by Satan to be pure distractions to how he normally comes to us to operate. Satan uses, mostly mental thoughts, ideas and suggestions to influence and control your behavior. For example, if you have been having thoughts or ideas about suicide these are demonically inspired to try to get you to do what he is suggesting. The source of evil thoughts and these bad influential ideas are coming from Satan. Satan can even place strong desires within you to help guide you into doing wrong. These are very common ways of how spirit beings interact with any natural human being. I hope that you understand this because it will be the same for you.
The main emphasis from this section is to teach you to watch your thoughts. What I have been trying to say is that these evil thoughts in your mind to hurt someone are coming from Satan to attempt to get you do something that you shouldn’t. Have you ever considered how much people talk after a school shooting occurs about the factor of mental illness? Every crazy school shooter was caused by Satan’s barrage of evil thoughts to kill people. Every shooter was tormented by these thoughts until they finally gave into them. That is how Satan works and if you do not know this then you are at risk of the same. Satan comes to humans with thoughts of evil and these will always be very subtle attempts to control you to do what he wants you to do. I’ll say this again, every thought that you have is not from God or comes from your own mind. Let me give you a Bible verse that will help confirm this truth if you can see it:
2Co 10:5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
Why would God tell a Christian to guard their thoughts if none of these came from Satan? That would not make any logical sense. Why does anyone guard something? Guarding the President is normally done to keep evil from coming near him to do him harm. This is the exact same concept that God is speaking of here in this verse. You see I once had a man leave me a comment on my Bible lesson about homosexuality and he said he had these thoughts for other boys and men since he was a young child and he said that this proved that God created him this way. I tried to tell him that these were Satan’ thoughts that were given to him to try to steer him away from the truth but he refused to listen to me. Any thought that is contrary to the Bible is from the devil. If you are standing on the top ledge of the Grand Canyon and you suddenly get the thought to jump off then it would be really stupid if you didn’t realize that this thought was from Satan and you did it and went to hell. Learn to do what God teaches about your negative thoughts of influence and cast them down.
NUMBER 3
3. Satan DOES NOT Want You to Know that He Can’t Be Everywhere At Once
In the Old Testament we have a greatly misunderstood book of the Bible called the Book of Job. I will not attempt to teach this book today, but I will draw out some valuable information that we can learn from it about Satan. In this story, Satan is said to appear before God in heaven. God asks Satan, where have you been? Right there that question teaches us an extremely critical fact about Satan. Perhaps you missed it? Satan’s reply to God was that he has been going to and fro across the earth and from walking up and down in it (Job 1:7). From the presence of God’s question and Satan’s reply we can learn so very much about our enemy. The first thing to learn is that Satan is not on the earth when he said this. The second thing to learn is that Satan is not everywhere all at once. In theological terms Satan is not omnipresent and cannot be everywhere at the same time like God can. If Satan has to travel from place to place on the earth then he can only be in one place at a time. That is interesting isn’t it? In the New Testament we get some further confirmation of this fact by reading:
1 Peter 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour;
You can see the same basic information being given to us in this verse. Satan is stalking about the earth looking for someone that he can attack. The statement implications being given to us is that he can’t attack everybody at the same time. You also see that he has to walk from place to place in order to seek for someone to attack. We can conclude from these two verses that Satan is not everywhere at once. Therefore Satan is NOT omnipresent like God is. Now having said all of that we don’t know how many demons and fallen angels that Satan has under his control. Revelation 12:4 tells us that 1/3 of the angels fell with him. But, we don’t know how many total angels there were to start with. From information found in Hebrews there seems to be a bunch of them and it calls their number innumerable. There is also a story in the Gospels where Jesus casts out a legion of demons from just one man. This shows us that one man can have hundreds of spirits in him at once. Therefore while the devil cannot be present with everyone at the same time, he can still send his demons to them and this makes him appear like he is everywhere at the same time. This is just some good information to learn about your enemy.
NUMBER 4
4. Satan DOES NOT Want You To Know That His Time Is Short
Revelation 12:12 Therefore rejoice, ye heavens and ye that dwell in them, Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.
This verse informs us that Satan is very angry with something or someone. Why? Because he knows his time is very short. Satan is aware of an end time. You did realize that, didn’t you? Many people in the world are oblivious that the end is near. They think everything has happened the same way from the beginning and everything will just continue on like this for ever (2 Peter 3:4). However, Satan and the demons are aware that their time is so very short. Here is a Bible verse that will help to see that the devils knew there was coming an end time even when Jesus was present on the earth:
Matthew 8:29 And behold, they cried out saying What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? are thou come hither to torment us before the time?
These are the words of the demons that possessed a man where Jesus was going. These demons exclaimed who exactly Jesus was. Why were they questioning Jesus’ right to be there? Then they ask him have you come to torment us before the time. What time are they talking about? It is amazing that these spiritual beings are aware that there is coming a time of torment. All of this occurs still today, men walk about clueless to the times and the seasons while Satan and his forces know that they are almost done.
NUMBER 5
5. Satan DOES NOT Want You To Know He Was Defeated
Colossians 2:15 And having spoiled principalities and powers he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
We can see that Satan was defeated by what Jesus did on the cross. The blood of Jesus not only forgave our sins, it caused the defeat of Satan. The term spoiled is a military term when an army would take a city, they would take the wealth of the enemy and leave them with nothing of value. Genghis Kahn, Alexander the Great, Napoleon, Hitler, etc. we can go on and on, but the conquering army would always walk away with the wealth of those that were conquered. Here is an informative verse of scripture that also helps us to see what Jesus has done:
1 Corinthians 2:8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
You see from this verse we can clearly see that Satan now has a major problem. Something that Jesus did, caused his status to change. Something that Jesus did in His death has doomed Satan and his followers and has set their destiny. Many Christians today have only seen a fraction of the things that Jesus accomplished on the cross. This is just another example of the fact that there are many things found in the Bible that we do not have the complete story on as of yet. We can make a broad conclusion, that based upon this verse that the death of Jesus Christ sealed Satan’s future.
So why if Satan was defeated, wasn’t he just thrown into the pit and that was the end of it? It is an interesting question, that most have never tried to answer. Satan has a right to be here as long as descendants of Adam have the right to be here. The world was given to Adam (Gen 1:26) and Adam gave it to Satan (Luke 4:5-6). So we in effect see a sub-lease being established. As long as Adam’s lease or time period is valid, Satan’s time period is valid. However, we also now know that this time period is now growing very short. If you have been reading my other Bible lesson you will already understand that the time period of human history was prophesied by God Genesis 1 to be approximately 6000 years. We can calculate that we are very, very close to the end of that time period right now. If you learned anything today, learn that Satan is a loser and if you are following him your time is very short to change your mind.
NUMBER 6
6. Satan DOES NOT Want You To Know That You Have Authority Over Him
Did you notice that earlier I quoted a scripture that said Satan was going about, seeking those who he could devour? Apparently he cannot come into your house and take everything from you unless you let him or permit him to do something to cause it to happen. If you could just find out what opens the door for the enemy to come in, I bet you would stop it. I don’t think I have a complete answer to that question, but I have seen at least part of the answer. We know sin, allows Satan access into our lives. Then in Hosea 4:6 it tells us that God’s people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge. So in effect we can see that ignorance or not knowing the right things, can allow Satan access into our lives. What else opens the door to the enemy? I believe that not knowing that you have been given authority over Satan will also allow him to come into your life to attempt to work his evil works. Here is what Jesus told us:
Luke 10:19 Behold I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
If you don’t understand Biblical symbolism you will immediately get the wrong idea that you should be able to walk in a viper pit and not get bitten. But that is not what Jesus was talking about in this statement. Jesus is talking about the symbolic “serpent” that deceived Eve and that was literally Satan. The symbolic scorpions in this verse refers to the demons or evil spirits that are under Satan’s power. Understanding these symbolic references are essential to understanding the Bible correctly. Not everything in the Bible is literal. This verse tells us that Jesus gave us power over these evil spiritual forces. This word for “power” actually means “authority” or “legal jurisdiction” over these powers. The term translated as “power” of the enemy is a completely different Greek word that means “miraculous ability”. You learn from this verse that Satan still has ability to do some amazing things in the earth, but Jesus said I give you my authority over what he can do to you. You might not be able to stop what he does to your neighbor, but you can certainly stop what he does to you and your family. This spiritual authority must be exercised by your choice either during the attack or before the attack takes place. How do you do that? Maybe I’ll get into that in another lesson. Thanks for taking the time to read and study the Bible to learn about our enemy Satan. Share this spiritual knowledge with the poeple that you know and continue to walk in your new found knowledge from God. God Bless you!
If you would like to continue reading in this series, please go to “Part 2“.
The Agapegeek Blog 