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Blessings and Cursing from the Same Mouth, This Ought Not to Be!
(Ver 1.2) This is now Part 4 in the series of very important lessons on spoken words found in the Bible. If you have not read this series from the beginning I would suggest that you go and start reading with “Part 1“. The Bible contains some of the strongest language on what people say. Either Christians are not aware of this or they simply ignore it and pretend that it does not apply to them. God says in His Word that it is impossible for Him to lie. We can obviously see that with men and women in the world this is entirely possible. In my earlier blogs on spoken words I talked about the sword of your mouth and how it cuts two ways. A double edged sword proceeding out of your mouths, is a symbolic representation that tells us words have spiritual power. You can speak good things or you can speak evil things. Speaking evil things is much more than just speaking lies, as well as speaking good things is more than just speaking the truth. There is an established precedence in the Bible that spoken words establish blessings and in the opposite realm spoken words can also establish curses. Today I will explore this subject in more depth. Let me give you my foundational scripture reference s from the Book of James, let’s read them carefully:
Jas 3:8 But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
Jas 3:9 Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.
Jas 3:10 Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.
You can clearly see that God is talking about your mouth, your tongue and the words that they produce. It is mentioned in verse 8, with the concept of the tongue being a potential poisonous serpent. That does not sound good, does it? Then in verse 10 it says your tongue can produce both blessings and curses. What are the blessings and cursing that this tongue produces? We are not talking about curse words, those 4 letter words that mature Christians do not normally say, although these could be a small part of what God is talking about. Let’s get a Bible example of cursing something. In the book of Mark, Jesus is visiting Jerusalem and traveling in and out of the city. One day Jesus on his walk, views a fig tree and walks up to it and finding no fruit on it, Jesus does the following:
Mar 11:14 And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it.
Many people read these stories in the Bible, but ignore the point that is being made. Was the words of Jesus a blessing to the tree or a cursing to the tree? Jesus looks at the fig tree and does not find any fruit on it. I do not believe that Jesus is angry at the tree, but I do believe that He chooses to use the barren fruitless fig tree to demonstrate a very powerful spiritual life and death lesson to His disciples. Jesus does not pray, or ask anyone else to do anything. Jesus simply looks at the tree and speaks words directly to it. Please notice that these words were not positive. The negative words were directed only at the bare fig tree, but they were loud enough for everyone near Him to hear them. The next day Jesus and the same disciples are passing back by the same fig tree and Peter stops everyone and says this:
Mar 11:21 And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away.
Peter tells Jesus, that the fig tree which He had cursed was dead. Jesus had just spoken negative words to something inanimate and living and Peter remembered it and called it speaking a curse. Notice that Jesus did not dispute it or deny it. The definition of this word “cursed” in the Strong’s means to “doom” and to “execrate”. To speak words that have a very negative effect on something is a better definition of the word. Jesus spoke some very simple words and said “No man eat fruit from you hereafter forever” and that resulted in the tree dying within 24 hours. Of course Jesus was God and this does not apply to you and me, and if you think that is true then you are wrong. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that God came to the earth in His omnipotent Godhead powers. In fact if we study and search the Bible we will find the opposite being taught to us. In Acts 10:38 it says God had to anoint Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost power to do miracles. If Jesus was God in full power of the Godhead, Jesus would not need to be anointed by God, would he? Then in Hebrews 2:17 it says Jesus was made like us, his brothers. Jesus was a natural man and the Son of God at the same time. Jesus Christ the God Man became like the rest of us and chooses to become like one of His creations:
Php 2:7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
Php 2:8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
These two verses in Philippians are very interesting. The term that Jesus “made of himself no reputation”, can be taken as He removed or separated Himself from His Deity power. Think about the “reputation of God” and then compare that with the reputation of Jesus Christ (the Anointed). These verses tell us very clearly that God became like a man. He looked like a man, he walked like a man, he talked like a man, he got tired like a man, he slept like a man, he ate like a man and went to the bathroom like a man. If God was here in his full deity power, you would not see some of the things that we see in the Bible. Jesus got hungry and thirsty, Jesus slept, Jesus wept, I mean look at the characteristics of God and see how they change in the life of Jesus Christ. While hanging on the cross Jesus said “I thirst”. Would God in his omnipotent power ever be thirsty? If Jesus Christ was here in the full deity power of the Almighty it would have been impossible to kill him physically, yet we see Jesus dying on a cross. Then there is the temptation of Jesus in the Gospels that I mentioned in the last lesson in this series. Jesus fasts for 40 days so he is obviously hungry and weak physically. Satan tries to get Jesus to do something simple for an Almighty God to do, by turning stones into bread. This is not something that is hard for God to do, is it? Why is this consider a temptation to God the omnipotent? It would only be a temptation if God had stripped himself of his deity power and was here on the earth operating within the limitations and constraints, like a normal human male. Do you understand this?
Heb 4:15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
How is it even possible to tempt an omniscient God? A God who knows everything is unable to be tested or tried like a human yet that is what this verse said happened. Therefore, we cannot believe Jesus was God in His full deity abilities or this would invalidate the truth found here in Hebrews 4:15. If God is God and has the power and ability to create whatever He wants, whenever He wants how is it possible to ever tempt Him? You see in this verse in Hebrews it clearly says that Jesus can identify with how we feel. Because He was tempted in the exact same way that we are tempted, yet He did not sin. Was it possible for Jesus to sin? If it was not possible for Jesus to sin, it would not be a temptation to Him. If He was here as God, it would have been impossible to tempt Jesus with anything. Do people understand that Jesus was tempted in every way just like we are? How is this even possible if He is here in His Omnipotent Glorious Ability? Obviously it is not possible, so what does that teach us?
There are just so many references in the Bible to the man Jesus Christ not being in His omnipotent Godhead power that I cannot give you them all. I will give you another couple of examples of Jesus healing the sick. Was there anything that hindered or kept Jesus from healing anybody? You see if Jesus was God in his omnipotent power, no one would ever not get healed, if that is what God wanted to do. Do you agree? However, we find some conflicts with this thinking in the scriptures. If you read the 6th chapter of Mark you find some very interesting things occur. Jesus is visiting his hometown and place where he was raised as a child. But, when Jesus tries to heal people there, this is what the Bible says:
Mar 6:5 And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them.
So it did not say that Jesus would not heal anybody, it said He could not heal anybody. A mighty work is easy by any of God’s omnipotent standards, yet Jesus is unable to do anything mighty here, so obviously we have a situation that is very hard to explain away. Either Jesus was not operating in His Godhead Omnipotent power or there is a force greater than God that kept him from it. What do you think it was? I do not believe there is any force greater than God’s power so Jesus must have made the decision not to use this power. There are many other scriptures that you should take note of, but I will stop there for now.
The Jewish O.T. Bible says “God is not a man” (Num 23:19), therefore, the majority of the Jews did not recognize Him when He became a man in Jesus. Today we have the same foolish philosophy and reasoning in the reverse being projected that says Jesus was God in His full deity power and this is how He did all the miraculous things that He did. People put God in their religious box and expect Him to abide by their rules and this is a major mistake. Is God still God? If God chooses to do something different than what you like to think about on how God is supposed to act, can He only do that? If God wants to come to earth in the form of a man without using His deity powers in manifestation, can God do that? Is it legal? Is it even possible? I believe it was God’s choice to what He did and how He does it without our input or consultation. Obviously we need to realize that we have a lot to learn.
So let’s explore the flip side of the coin and look at the blessings. A blessing like a curse is a word based expression that someone speaks out of their mouth that results in a positive outcome. There are a lot of examples of this in the Bible and I will give you only a few of them:
Gen 1:22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
There is an established pattern of words of blessings found in this verse in Genesis. Can you see how these words contrast with the example that Jesus showed the disciples when speaking a curse to the fig tree? By the law of first reference also called the law of first mention, we can discover that Spoken words from God can contain blessings. Blessing are what I will call “word containers” filled with love, favor, goodness and mercy within them. The words of curses that Jesus spoke were containers filled with poison. Uh oh. I believe we are now learning something very profound.
If God would have said nothing, there would have been no blessing from Him given even if He thought great thoughts about them. What we should realize is that silence is not always a blessing. I just like to call silence “Empty” buckets waiting to be filled. In many service times in churches people stand up for a moment of silence, thinking they are paying honor or respect to someone or something. I have not found a Bible verse to confirm this practice, have you? Could silence be something that Satan wants us to do instead of speaking a blessing over them? Could this silence simply be those empty containers awaiting to be filled with a positive expression? I believe that we can learn a very valuable spiritual lesson from this verse in Genesis. God speaks positive words as full containers of blessing to His children and the result was a positive God given outcome that occurred in their lives or we could also say this was God’s vision of possibility that was being transferred to his creation. I believe that this was the establishment of the spiritual law of either Blessings and Curses from spoken word containers being taught to us. God was teaching Adam and Eve by His awesome example, however, I’m not really sure if they got it.
Let’s move into the 27th chapter of Genesis and see the story of Isaac and his son Jacob. We know that Jacob became the Father of the natural nation of Israel. But, how did this occur, since he was not the firstborn son of Isaac? If you recall the story, I’ll shorten it in order to get to the part I need to get to. Jacob got Esau to sell his birth right for a meal. Later, Jacob’s mother helps Jacob implement a plan to get the blessing from his father Isaac. Isaac comes to his father when he was very old and he brings him a meal and some drink. Jacob is also dressed like Esau and smells like Esau.
Gen 27:23 And he discerned him not, because his hands were hairy, as his brother Esau’s hands: so he blessed him.
Isaac is tricked into blessing the younger son Jacob, thinking that he is blessing Esau.
Gen 27:27 And he came near, and kissed him: and he smelled the smell of his raiment, and blessed him, and said, See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the LORD hath blessed:
This is the beginning of the blessing, but not the end of it. What we again see is the established pattern of God being passed down upon the generations. Just as God blessed Adam and Eve with His words, Jacob is now getting the words of blessings of his father.
Gen 27:28 Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine:
Gen 27:29 Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee: be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother’s sons bow down to thee: cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee.
Jacob receives the words of blessings from his father Isaac. Jacob then goes out with the blessing and his brother Esau comes in from hunting and asking for the blessing. But, Isaac is very surprised saying “who are you”? Who was it that I blessed earlier?
Gen 27:33 And Isaac trembled very exceedingly, and said, Who? where is he that hath taken venison, and brought it me, and I have eaten of all before thou camest, and have blessed him? yea, and he shall be blessed.
If you read this carefully you will discover a principle, it is not as easy to take back your words after they have already been spoken. There are just a lot of Christians who do not have a clue what I just said and how it applies to them. If they say something by mistake they simply think it is OK to start over and do it again. It’s funny Isaac did not take this position or attitude. Isaac knew what was done was done. The blessing was given and it would not be taken back. Like I have said before, your words have more power and significance than you can imagine.
Gen 27:34 And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his father, Bless me, even me also, O my father.
Esau pleads with his father for him to bless him also. But, Isaac says that it is too late:
Gen 27:35 And he said, Thy brother came with subtilty, and hath taken away thy blessing.
This chapter in Genesis contains some amazing information, if you learn to apply it to your life in the here and now. Words are significantly powerful and can bless others, transfer blessings, transfer authority and ownership, and they are a legal contract in the eyes of God. Like Isaac you should learn to be a man or woman of your word, stand up and stand behind your words. Mean what you say and only say what you mean. Esau did not get a blessing from his father, because the blessing had already been given to Jacob. This represents character and moral fiber that few have in our world today.
There are just so many stories in the Bible about the blessings of God, I’ll just give you one more example from the O.T. This next story is also from Genesis and occurs in the 48th chapter. Joseph brings his two sons to Israel to be blessed. Israel is presented the sons with the older son on his right hand and the younger son on his left hand. The older son is expected to receive the Right Hand of blessing and the younger the Left Hand of blessing. But, Israel crosses his hands over and speaks the blessing upon his grandsons. Again we see a principle that Words are the mechanism of blessing containers being transferred upon these children. But, the hands are also being placed here with great significance and meaning.
Gen 48:20 And he blessed them that day, saying, In thee shall Israel bless, saying, God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh: and he set Ephraim before Manasseh.
Joseph was not happy that his younger son got Israel’s right hand blessing. So there must have been meaning and significance to what happened. If it did not mean anything, it would not have mattered would it? The right hand of blessing is intended for the older son and Israel gave it to the younger. The net result was the younger son became a greater people in the eyes of God. So what you do and what you say matters and makes a difference in the life’s of your children. Learn the lessons from the Bible of the power of the blessing and then learn not to curse your children with your the words of your mouth and they will achieve and rise to level of what you have spoken over them. Words are seeds that grow in young hearts. If you tell your children they are nothing and nobody good, that is exactly what they become.
Mar 10:16 And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them.
People while Jesus walked the face of the earth realized the potential for the blessing still existed. People would bring their little children to Jesus for Him to bless them. There were those who tried to stop people from bringing their children to Jesus, but Jesus rebuked them and told them not to do this. Jesus said this is a spiritual law and a foundational way of the Kingdom of Heaven. To touch someone and speak positive words of blessings has a benefit that you probably do not fully understand. Children today are growing up and their parents put curses upon them rather than blessings. As a result the children grow up cursed. Your children will live up to your words, either positive or negative. What you transfer into them, is what they will achieve to. What you speak over them, is what they will become. It is a spiritual law found in the Bible.
If you like to continue reading this series of lessons on spoken words, you can go to “Part 5“.
The Sword of Our Mouth! Our Words Cut Two Different Ways!
(Ver 2.0) I have taught on this subject of the significance of the spoken words of our mouth a couple of times now. Today’s lesson will be Part 3 in the series and I will be talking about something that is completely new and different to many Christians. However, if you haven’t read this series from the beginning I would suggest that you go back and start with “Part 1“. This lesson will be focused upon God’s usage of the symbolic nature of a “double edged sword” to describe spoken words. If you have read through the Bible you should already be aware of how God teaches us very clearly that Jesus has a double-edged sword coming out of His mouth. We will see verses in this lesson that describe Jesus is able to destroy those who oppose Him with this symbolic sword. This double-edged sword is widely accepted by theologians as a figurative representation of the power of God’s word spoken. If we do not understand this concept, I will attempt to expound next in this lesson on this subject to clarify it and to help us better understand the concept of the power of spoken of words. Let’s start by reading some foundational verses found in Revelation:
Rev 19:21 And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.
God is truly an awesome God! It shocked me a while back when I heard about a group of people in the U.S. that were getting together to form a militia to help God fight the coming Anti-Christ. They were gathering guns and ammo like it would be useful to God’s victory over evil. Where do people get these types of foolish ideas? I really have no clue. These people obviously do not know God, the Bible or understand the omnipotent power of God. This verse in Revelation 19 reveals to us that the LORD Jesus will be sitting on a white horse and He will be able to kill everyone opposing Him, simply by speaking some choice directed words at them. That is a clear example of the power of God in action. God says something and then it happens. Pretty awesome, isn’t it? You can learn concept this from reading the Bible starting in Genesis 1 and going all the way through to Revelation 22. God’s spoken words will always prevail and will always come to pass. Let’s examine some additional verses because the Bible instructs us to establish every truth in the mouth of two or three witnesses (Mat 18:16):
Rev 2:12 And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write; These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges;
Rev 2:16 Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword1 of my mouth.
Jesus speaking to the church in Pergamos, warns them to change or else they will also see the sword of His mouth come against them. We can easily understand that God is a Spirit (John 4:24) and that God is not talking about a literal physical sword coming out of the mouth of Jesus. 
We must therefore, conclude that this described sword is a symbolic representative for the spiritual force that exists in the power of God’s Spoken Word. I really hope that you understand this concept. Did you notice that God says this figurative sword has two edges? Two edges describes a weapon that can cut in either of the two directions depending upon which way a person swings it. Two edges could could also symbolically mean something else. The words of our mouth can be a blessing to someone or a curse to someone. There exists two possible realms of opposing types of words in the world. In the last Bible lesson we observed two types called “idle” or “lazy” words versus “working” and “productive” words. But there are others like “good” words or “bad/evil” words, “positive” words or “negative” words and words of “blessings” or words of “cursing”. All of these are examples of a sword that can be used for two different purposes.
I find it fascinating that the English word “sword” is the letter “S” followed by word “word”. I believe the letter “S” can stand for “Spirit” and we will learn more about this very soon. The power of any sword or spoken word is always the same. It is non-existent until used or spoken. Therefore the power of any weapon will forever be dependent upon the directed purpose of the user. In much the same way how a natural gun is used in the hands of the shooter, a spiritual weapon can be used for two completely different purposes. The natural gun can be used as a positive weapon to help feed or protect people or as a negative weapon to hurt or rob from people. These are parallel truths concerning the words of our mouth. What I would like to do is give some additional scriptures that help to confirm what I have just said so let’s take a look at these:
2Th 2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
God is speaking prophetically in this verse about the coming events in Revelation. The wicked one described here is the future antichrist who will soon be revealed. The double edge sword we read about in Revelation in the mouth of Jesus is now called something completely new and different in this verse. The symbolic double-edged sword of Revelation is now defined to be the “Spirit of His Mouth”. This is still the same equivalent description of God’s Spoken Word that is infinitely powerful. God’s spoken word has ALL of the ability to destroy or literally consume anyone who is opposing Him. Do you understand that God’s spoken words are His Spiritual Power released? This is an awesome revelation of something that is found within the character and nature of God the Almighty. God is often described in the Bible to be omnipotent, but what is that makes God this way is what we will explore now:
Joh 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
You can see a second confirmation that the Spoken Words of God are Spirit! This verse was Jesus speaking to us and He says that His words are this Spirit that quickens. To quicken is an old English term that means to give life to us. God’s words are declared to be a force of life to us. Because of what God has spoken to us we can live. Now recall, what we previously read in Revelation. In those verses God states His spoken Words are something that produces death. These represent the same spiritual power directed two different ways for two different purposes. This is an example of a double-edged sword. A knife can be used to kill someone or it can be used to save someone’s life if used in a wise knowledgeable way by a surgeon. Wow, these are very important lessons to learn and apply to our spoken words.
You will notice if you study the Bible, that Jesus chose His words very carefully and never shot off His mouth with random thoughts. His words were always focused, directed and had a purpose. Much of what Jesus said to people were words recorded by the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. In John 12:49 Jesus said He was told what to speak by His Father in heaven. How many of us can say that? How many of our words come from the God in heaven? We should learn to become more like Jesus because, God’s words were always active, relevant and important. Now let’s look at what the Bible says about the Power of God?
Heb 1:3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
We can now see and learn from another verse about the Word of God. This time God reveals to us that “All” of His Power is in His Word. The Greek written here does not say “His powerful Word” it says “The Word of His Power” and that makes a huge difference. Some translators tried to change the meaning to “powerful” word but the KJV Bible stayed true to the original Greek and preserved it as an accurate truth. Here is the difference, does God’s Word have power or is it His Power? Can we try to think why this is important? If God said I am LOVE it would be completely different than Him saying I have love. I believe this principle is what God was saying to us in Hebrews 1:3 to His spoken Word. I believe that God is attempting to give us a revelation that His Word is His Power and His Power is His Word.
Therefore, we cannot separate God the omnipotent from His omnipotent Word or we could say His Word is God (John 1:1)! This is why John 6:63 said the Words that Jesus spoke to us were from God’s Spirit and they contain His life giving Power for those who received them. Always remember that God’s Words are Spirit! God’s Words are Life! God’s Words are His Power! As we have seen before they are also a weapon against His enemies. So we can all begin to understand that the Spoken Words of God can give life to some that will receive them and can take life away from others who do not accept the free gift of salvation. That is the nature of a double=edged sword. One aspect and application is always positive and the other is very negative. That was a summary of several foundational truths that the Bible teaches us about the Word of God and the Sword of the Spirit.
So how does this apply to us? What good does all of this information do me? Are there any benefits to speaking God’s Word for me? In other words what’s in this lesson for me? We all know that God is all powerful, so how does this power help me? Start by asking yourself this question. Why did God give us a huge book of His Written HOLY Words? Does the written Word of God have any visible power rising out from the pages? Obviously not! Therefore, these written words can only help me if I can learn to speak them. I beleive that only by learning to believer and speak His Word will it ever help us. I beleive this is “one” of the main reasons why God gave us His written Word. God gave us His Word so that we can put it in our minds (Eph 4:23). He also gave us the Word so that we could put it in our hearts (spirits) to believe it. Finally, I believe that He gave us His Word so that we can now choose to put it in our mouths to speak it (Mat 12:34).
Heb 4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than ANY two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of( soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Let me introduce you to a hidden secret, in the Bible it says God is not the only one with a “two-edged” sword in his mouth. In fact we do not have to think very hard or for very long before we figure out that every created human in the world can open their mouth and speak words either positive or negative. This also includes other created spiritual beings like angels, demons and Satan. All of these beings were created with mouths which emit words that come from their spirits (Mat 12:34). But, this verse in Hebrews says plainly that God’s sword is sharper and more powerful than any of the others that might exist. This verse clearly informs us that the other mouths have power in them, but implies that they are in a limited capacity compared to God’s spoken Words. Do you get this concept?
If man was made in the image and likeness of God (Gen 1:26), like the Bible clearly says we were, and if God’s Words are sharp and powerful, then our words must have a limited resemblance to His. But, here is the major part of God’s contribution to man, God gave us His spoken words written in a book form in order to permit us to put them in our mouth to speak them. And the Bible says that God watches over His word to perform it (Jer 1:12). Wow, I hope you understand what I just said. The implications are far reaching if you can accept it and believe it.
Eph 6:17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
In Ephesians chapter 6, God commands the church to put on the armor of God. 
Each of the armor pieces described to us is a symbolic representation of a spiritual truth of the completed freely given work of God to and for humans. In fact every piece of armor is something that God has already provided to us freely. It is now up to us to make the freewill choice to take each item and put it on. This aromor included the Shield of Faith, the Breastplate of Righteousness, the Belt of Truth, the Helmet of Salvation, and the Shoes of Peace. God is telling the church that there is a spiritual war and we must get ready for it. So far all of the weapons of armor that I just mentioned were defensive types of weapons to keep us safe from the blows of the enemy Satan. But, then in verse 17 of Ephesians 6, God finally tells the church to take the “Sword of the Spirit”, which is directly defined to be “the Word of God”. How is this Sword of the Spirit going to help us? I believe very firmly that we now have the direct implied connection to our mouths! Can’t you see this? The only way that we can use the Spiritual Sword of the Word of God against an unseen spiritual enemy to our advantage is to speak it. Leaving the Bible on our coffee tables will do nothing to keep the devil out of our houses. This is a very powerful, spiritual Bible law being revealed to us. What you say is far more important than what you can possibly imagine or know right now. Take a look at this verse in Isaiah:
Isa 59:21 As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever.
God is prophesying an awesome new covenant reality that is now established with us in the church and God says that He will put His Spirit upon us and His Words in our mouth. Can you see the direct connection between our mouths speaking His spoken words with His Spirit?
God literally says that these words will not depart from our mouths, nor from the mouths of our seed. Who are those called the Seed of Abraham? We in the church are the seed of Abraham (Gal 3:29)! Who is the Seed of the Woman? You probably do not know this, but Jesus was the chosen Seed and we the church are in that Seed of the Woman (Rev 12:17). God’s Word will not depart from our mouths and we will overcome Satan by His Blood and His Word that He has given to Us (Rev 12:11)! I taught you earlier that this was a Biblical Spiritual Law being revealed to us. Let’s look at an Old Testament example of this.
Jos 1:8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
The lessons found in the Bible through intense study are usually very deep and complex and have many hidden truths associated within them. Because we do not understand them completely we can easily just read over a truth and not grasp that these words apply to us and what we should be doing today. Here in the book of Joshua God uncovers the secret to a human’s success on this planet. It is a basic spiritual principle and law that is not very difficult to follow if we can understand it. God tells Joshua that He should speak His word both Day and Night. We could say that means constantly and continually or every waking moment. God was teaching Joshua about the Sword of the Spirit that will cause him to be a great success in this world. But, there is also an implied opposite truth found in this verse. God says by impled antithesis that if we do not speak the Word of God we will not be a success. Do we want to be prosperous and successful in life or dismal disappointed failure? God is telling us how to do both, right here! We have to make the choice. We are not forced to do either but usually being passive results in failure and this is many people’s wrong defaulted selection.
Remember when Jesus was tempted by Satan in Luke 4:1-13? Three times the enemy came to tempt him into a subtle trick. But, here is the lesson learned from this example. Every time the enemy Satan came with a temptation, Jesus brought out the Sword of the Spirit called the Word of God and said “IT IS WRITTEN”. Wow, that is extraordinarily critical to learn from and apply to what Satan does to us. You see the Bible says that Jesus was tempted the very same way that we are tempted (Heb 4:15). But, He was wise enough to use the sword correctly as a living example. I pray that this will be a benefit in your life today.
I guess I have gone long enough in this lesson and given you plenty of new things to think about. The sword of your mouth is either going to be a blessing or a curse to you and to those you direct it at. While your negative words will never be able to put a curse on me, they will cause curses to come upon you and your children. What we say is so completely important that it cannot be emphasized enough for us to think before we speak. If we do not have a Bible verse that backs up what we are about to say, we probably should not say it.
If you would like to continue reading this series of lessons on spoken words you can go to “Part 4“.
The Spiritual Family Structure of God’s Family. Part 2
(Ver 2.8) The spiritual family structure of God is one of those Bible basics that every Christian should be intimately familiar. God is said to be a triune being. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Yet these three personalities of God are reflected in One True God. In my first blog on this subject I talked about Jesus starting a new family of God. I talked about Jesus being born into the world, a product of unique circumstances. Because, God was His Father and Mary was His mother, Jesus was both God and man totally and completely. That means Jesus Christ was 100% God and 100% Man. Jesus Christ was the only one that was both the Son of God and the Son of Adam. This made Him uniquely qualified to fix problems in both dimensions of the spiritual and natural realms simultaneously. Maybe you did not realize that there were things to fix in the spiritual realm, but you really need to stop and go back to read “Part 1” of this series first. Today I will continue to talk about the spiritual family structure of God’s family and I want to start with some things that Jesus said to us:
Joh 14:1 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.
These are the Words of God coming out of the mouth of Jesus Christ. These words declare that Jesus and God are one in the same. Jesus very clearly tells us if we believe in God, we better believe in Jesus. Because, Jesus was God in the flesh, walking among us like He was one of us. This is the amazing truth of God’s word. It is also the only way to be saved, whether you like it or not.
Joh 14:2 In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
Jesus continues His discourse revealing great spiritual information to us. Jesus announces that where He came from was His “Father’s House”. A house is always a family structure with relatives and family members living within it. Now, think with me and see who is speaking, it is Jesus the Son of God on the earth. When you are a son on the earth do you live with your father forever? That is an interesting question. Here in the natural realm a man will marry a wife and usually establishes a new independent family and they normally do not live with their parents. What I am getting at, is that Jesus is inferring His Father’s house is not His house. The Bible contains some very complex truths in it and this is certainly one of them. It is definitely hard to understand since the Son of God on the earth is God. But, God’s intelligence is so far above our mind’s thought process that He can do some simple things in ways that are difficult for us to understand. What I want you to begin to understand is that Jesus does not call it His house and that is very important to see. You see Jesus is choosing His words very carefully and using extreme wisdom to reveal something that is far greater for us to know. What we need to do today is to start thinking differently about the family of God. Jesus tells us that He came from His Father’s house from heaven and we now need to figure out what this is or I should say was.
You see, in John 1:18 the Bible says no man has ever seen God. We also know that when Adam was created and his wife was brought to him by God, that God established a new family on the earth which was detached from God’s spiritual family in heaven. You see this truth when you study what God says in Genesis 2:24 “for this cause shall a man (Adam) leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife”. From this statement we can understand that God was Adam’s father that we are told that he left to be joined to his wife. But God is establishing a new type for a future pattern for the Last Adam (Jesus) to come into the world and leave His Father and Mother and to be joined to His bride. Therefore, the family of Adam is a separate earthly family from God’s existing family in heaven that Jesus is speaking of where He came from and this is a prophetic view into an event that was to come after the time that Jesus was speaking these words in these verses in John. Therefore this family of God where Jesus came from was not comprised of any of the men or women that were on the earth. Think with me and make a note that Jesus declares God’s family consists of family members that are not men, so who are they? We will definitely explore this information in the Bible later in this series, but for now let’s continue with what Jesus is saying. Jesus says if it were not this way I would have told you. Then Jesus makes this statement, “I go to prepare a place for you!” Jesus is talking to you and I and He is saying that He was going to be leaving this planet soon and going to build a new household for His new family. To “prepare” has an implication of a building project. I believe that it is not just a renovation of the old, but the creation of a new home that will be better the previous one.
Joh 14:3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
Jesus continues to speak to us and tell us that where He goes we will also be going. Jesus tells us very clearly that He will soon return and “receive us unto Himself”. Have you ever thought about what those words mean? Why is Jesus receiving us unto Himself? So many Chrisdtians in the church like to call the church the body of Christ only. Then they ignore the rest of the Bible. If we were just the body of Christ, we would not need to be received unto Him, would we? I do not ever wake up in the morning and receive my body back to myself. Do you understand what I am saying? It would appear that Christians are now separate from Christ in order to be received by Him. It helps if you understand “Bible Covenants“. Since I have already done lessons on this subject I will not repeat the information here again. You should go back and read these lessons and learn what a Covenant is in the eyes of God. I will help you to some extent, Jesus is called the “Bridegroom” and He is in covenant with His Bride, the church. The church will soon be fully assembled in heaven for the marriage supper of the Lamb of God. During this time we will be fully and completely joined to Him and become one with Him forever. Jesus later tells us in John 14 that “He is the truth, the life, the way”. He also says that “No one comes to the Father except through Him”. Meaning there is no other religions in the world that will offer you salvation or an alternative way to God. That also means there are no other covenants of God that will save you either. God has sent Jesus Christ into the world to provide one way for all the people of earth to come into this new Family of God. We have already seen that God’s previous family structure was in heaven and had a very large location with many mansions in it, before Jesus ever came to the earth. Jesus then tells us that He was leaving the earth to go back to heaven to prepare places for us. So either God has a housing shortage in Heaven or the Heaven that we knew is going away and God is preparing a new place.
Rev 21:1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
Why is it necessary for God to build a new heaven and a new earth? I can understand the earth, but heaven is a tricky thing to consider to be something that is in need of repair. Man has done a pretty poor job of keeping the earth intact. But, come on we are talking about God in heaven now. Why is it necessary for God to create a New Heaven? Evidently, we can see that there was a major problem in heaven that also consisted of a heavenly spiritual war.
Rev 12:7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,
If God’s wars are like our wars, there is always a lot of damage done to infrastructure and buildings. Now I do not mean to imply that God makes war like we make war, that is not what I am saying at all. After all it is God’s forces defending Heaven and not threatening to take it. It is Satan and his angels that are trying to overthrow God’s throne. God sends Michael and His angels to fight this enemy. What we have is some new things to consider. Why is Satan at war with God in heaven and what changed? You see in the Book of Job, Satan walks up to God without any conflict and discusses Job. By the time we get to the book of Revelation, we see that Satan is no longer welcome where he previously use to walk freely. Do you remember in the book of Daniel when Daniel prayed and fasted for an answer from God. Do you remember what happened in that story? It appears God sent an angel to answer the prayers of Daniel and Satan and his angels were in a spiritual battle that lasted 3 weeks, until the angels of God finally prevailed. The prince of Persia withstood God’s answer to the prayers of a man on the earth. That is an amazing story of why things can take so long when you pray and ask God for help. There is an enemy of God that is opposed to you and to God. He tries to stop your answers from happening. If Daniel would have resigned after only two weeks of prayer and fasting, Satan would have won. But, since Daniel did not give up, God did not give up and God prevailed and the answer came. Let me give you a picture diagram of the family of God revealed in the Bible as of Genesis 2:
Eph 3:14 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Eph 3:15 Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
Since we are discussing God’s spiritual family structure, I thought I would give you some more verses to establish that God has a family and then also describe the locations for this family. According to this verse written to the church God’s family is now in two different realms of reality. One is spiritual and the other is physical or natural. This verse in Ephesians declares God’s family to now be within the scope of both of these two sets of reality. We have one set that is found in heaven and one set that is on the earth. And God’s family is comprised of selected individuals from both of these places. However, do not attempt to be all inclusive and say that everyone in both realms has been saved and are in the unified family of God. That is what Universal Salvationists like to teach and project. They claim in error that God will save everyone eventually. They clearly do not understand that Jesus came to divide the good from the evil and not to change the evil back into the good.
Here is a graphical representation of God’s new spiritual family. God’s family now consists of members of two different set realms. In the previous diagram I showed how the two families were separate in Genesis 2. The first set realm heaven existed prior to the other set realm created on the earth. The earth is the natural temporary realm where we all live today. God created our current world system approximately 6000 years ago and turned the authority of His creation over to His created man Adam (Gen 1:26). Adam represented a new start and a new natural family structure of God’s spiritual family. Adam’s family was separate from God’s family that already existed in heaven. God did all of this for many reasons and I cannot get into all of the reasons in this blog because it would take a tremendous amount of time to explain. Today, man exists within the constraints and limitations of time and space. We are spirit beings created in the image and likeness of God, but limited to the confines of a natural body. Since Adam’s family was separate from God’s family, that is one of the main reasons that Jesus had to come to the earth in the form of a man. God’s new family established by Jesus Christ the Son of God and the Son of Man, consists of selected members of both of these set realms. Jesus was able to accomplish and provide salvation for man because He was a man as well as a division from His father’s house simulataneously by His death on the cross. Let’s look at the definition of the word translated as “family” in Ephesians 3:15.
G3965
As if feminine of a derivative of G3962; paternal descent, that is, (concretely) a group of families or a whole race (nation): – family, kindred, lineage.
This verse in Ephesians uses a word for “family” that is very interesting. You can see from the definition some widely applicable truths. God’s new family structure is a pattern of another previous structure that God did in the Old Testament. We are said to be a new nation of people descended from the Most High God. This is an interestingly different word that has a feminine connotation attached to it. Why would God put a female reference on the church? Because we are the bride of Christ. The church is a representative spiritual pattern of natural Israel. The natural nation of Israel was God’s wife in the Old Covenant. This was a pattern given to us for the New Covenant.
Jer 31:32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
You need to see what the Bible says and then interpret it using the Bible. God declares to the nation of Israel that I was your Husband. If God was the Husband to the nation of Israel that makes natural Israel the wife of God. A covenant is a marriage in the eyes of God. God proposed marriage to a nation of people and they accepted and entered into a covenant with the Almighty God. This is another example of God being a spiritual male in a spiritual family structure. We can clearly make many assumptions based upon this unlimited information. If God can marry one group of people, what stops God from marrying another group of people? Nothing really, except if you just marry a new group of people and you are still married to the other group of people you are now a polygamist by definition. There is a lot of men on earth that would like to think that God is married to multiple women, but you have not studied the Bible and therefore have put your thoughts into the mix where they do not belong.
Why did Jesus come to earth, being the Son of God? It is because Jesus Christ the Son of God was never married to anyone else before now. I know technically Jesus is the same God and He was married to Israel, but was that God the Father that was in Covenant with them or Jesus, God the Son? You soon realize how smart God is and how tricky He can be. I do not mean to imply that God is a deceiver, what God does is very legal, but yet very unexpected. Satan did not anticipate Jesus Christ and therefore, now realizes that he should not have killed him. Why is that? Why was the death of Jesus so detrimental to Satan? You should really give that some serious thought. You see you can learn from God by reading a clue given to us in the book of Ruth, when Naomi and Ruth are talking and Ruth says I’ll stay with you until “death separates me from thee” (Ruth 1:17). Death is a separating force. Death is a spiritual power that naturally divides one from another. In a marriage ceremony the husband and wife are said to be joined until death do they part. Marriage is a covenant relationship and God uses His death on the cross to separate Himself from Satan. Yes that means Satan was in covenant with God also. You should really study the Bible more, you might find all kind of new things in it, if you look for them. Let’s move on to a verse that helps to clarify what I was saying about Israel and God the Father’s covenant relationship:
Rom 7:4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
This verse in Romans has some amazing information in it. God is writing this section of Romans directly to the Natural Nation of Israel. You can read the context and see this very clearly if you understand the wording. So while the context is talking about the law of marriage that was given to only natural Israel it then declares to them that they have been released from their previous covenant with God, by the death of Jesus Christ so that they can be legally married again. God says very clearly that they are now free to “marry” another, and then describes Him to be the Lord Jesus Christ who was raised from the dead. Did you ever realize that the Jesus who died was different from the Jesus who was raised from the dead? That is what God is saying in this verse. Jesus Christ was raised from the dead and became the “firstborn” from the dead (Col 1:18). This verse now declares to natural Israel that they have been freed from the law of marriage with God the Father by the death of Jesus on the cross. The marriage to Jesus who is risen is in reference to the New Covenant and their opportunity to become the bride of Christ. Jesus confirms this reality in this statement:
- Joh 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
If the old covenant was a way to be saved then Jesus lied. The Old Covenant is not the New Covenant. We can clearly see that truth in verses like Hebrews 8:6 or Hebrews 12:24 when Jesus becomes the mediator of a new and better covenant. Any covenant called new is one that never existed before. All of this information that I am introducing you to will become clearer as the series continues and more scriptures are revealed to you.
Many like to think that God is a polygamist and is in covenant with natural Israel and the church simultaneously right now. While they do not call it Polygamy, that is what God calls it. However, once you realize that the Old Covenant was with God the Father, and the New Covenant is with God the risen Son, I believe that changes everything dramatically. It also means that God is not in covenant with Natural Israel anymore. I do not have time or space to explain that, but you can read my other blogs and find more answers, if you want to know the truth. The natural nation of Israel is able to enter into the New Covenant with Jesus Christ, if they want to. However, most of natural Israel has chosen to close their eyes and not to see the truth, so they reap the works of their own deceptions. There is more I could write and many other scriptures that we could explore, but I have gone too long in this blog. Hopefully I can continue this subject in the future.
If you would like to continue reading this series of lessons about the spriitual family of God you may continue with “Part 3“.
Deception the Greatest Weapon of Satan!
(Ver 1.3) This is Part 1 of a series of lessons on the subject of deception found in the Bible. Today I want to discuss how Satan causes people not to see the truth of God’s Word. It is a common practice in military training for Generals and commanders to study their enemies. By understanding an enemies strengths and weaknesses you are better able to defend against them or better yet to defeat them. The more you know about your enemies the better off you are. So does the church have any enemies? You must be an ostrich Christian with your spiritual head stuck in the ground if you do not see that we do. There is a spiritual force of evil in the world that is bent on taking the church down. They have specific tactics and tools that they use to try to defeat the church. We know that the Bible says that we “wrestle not against flesh and blood” so we know that people are not the source of our opposition, even though Satan does use people to try to get to us. We know that those forces of evil that we fight against are the “principalities and powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world” (Eph 6:12). So just because flesh and blood comes against the church with accusations and verbal or physical attacks, these people are controlled by a spiritual force that we cannot perceive with our physical senses.
2Ti 2:26 And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.
We can understand that Satan, our enemy uses “snares” to come against us. A snare is a trap, a trick or strategy that causes us to become captive or a prisoner. If every trap was obvious, we would never be caught. So these traps must be hidden or covered so that we do not see them clearly. I believe that Satan’s primary weapon is the deception of thoughts that are placed in our minds. What is deception and how it is used against us, will be my subject for today. Let’s start by defining the word “deceived” from the Bible:
G4105
From G4106; to (properly cause to) roam (from safety, truth, or virtue): – go astray, deceive, err, seduce, wander, be out of the way.
That is a very interesting definition for the word “deceived” found in the N.T. This word means to “cause to wander or roam from safety, truth or virtue”. If you have ever been hiking in the woods, you know that usually there are designated trails and established pathways. However, if you become adventuresome, and attempt to deviate and make your own way, this is normally where your failure and deception begins. Many times a path will have a fork in it and if it is not clearly marked you better have a good map. Sometimes walking down a path you encounter what looks like a good way to go and it suddenly turns into a dead end. When I was younger, my wife and I started climbing a mountain in Colorado. It took a good part of the day to get to the top. We did this on a whim and were not planning on being gone as long as we were. We took no food or water and on the way back down the mountain decided to try to take a short cut. If this short cut would have worked, we would have been back to camp in time for dinner. However, we ran into a cliff and a steep terrain that there was just no way to continue. So we ended up going back up the way we came and finally back the way we climbed up. This little analogy has vast spiritual implication on it. Jesus told us that he is the “Path”, “The Way” and He revealed there is no other way to God (John 14:6). So where did all of these other religions in the world come from? Who gave us these religions and why are they here? You do know there are well over 20 major religions in the world and within these 20 or more religions there are further divisions or sects and all of these just cannot be the truth. The variation in what they believe and teach is so radically different that there is no way they are even related. This is what I believe about these religions, and why they exist. I believe they are an attempt of the enemy to provide information overload. By providing you so many options and so many possible ways of thinking you are easily overwhelmed to know which one is right. How do you know which one to choose? So God comes to the earth and gives you the truth and tells you that Jesus is the way, but all of the other religions of the world say no, that is not right, we have the only truth. Wow, what a trick! What a major distraction! What a way to get people to not see the real way! Who is responsible for all these lies? The Bible tells us very clearly, that there is one individual, a spirit being that is responsible for this dissemination of invalid and false information and it is Satan:
Rev 12:9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
So we can clearly see that the “great dragon” who is called Satan is responsible for the deception that is being perpetrated upon the human race. People are being led down paths away from the truth and in directions that are directly opposite from the truth, into a realm of darkness and they do not even know it. These deceptions are being instigated at every level and every location on the globe. Satan is interested in deceiving everyone, because why? Is Satan just a really bad guy who does evil just because he can, or is there a greater motivation and purpose to his behavior? You should really think about that question and determine Satan’s motivation, since that is not my primary subject I will not try to elaborate on it for now. However, I will talk about a related subject and mention this:
2Jn 1:7 For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.
We have already seen that Satan is the chief initiator of all deception. However, as I said before, Satan uses people to get his messages out. Satan is a spiritual being that controls and manipulates natural people. So we have people, even in churches today that stand up and teach things that are lies. Here is one of the ways to determine if they are telling the truth or not. It would seem that Satan is highly opposed to letting people believe that God came into the world in the flesh, in the form of a man named Jesus of Nazareth. Why is Satan so opposed to this message? Did God’s presence on the earth cause something to happen to Satan that Satan wants to try to undo? Let me ask you this, if I said that the Holocaust never happened in Germany like some idiots try to say in the world, does that mean it is not true? No it doesn’t change the fact that it occurred just because you don’t believe it occurred, does it? But, what happens is it changes your perception of reality and therefore it changes your results and you lose any benefit of believing the truth, because you have bought into the lie. This is the net result of telling people God did not come to the earth in the man Jesus Christ. By telling people that Jesus was just a normal human male, you take away His ability to save you and forgive your sins. As a result you are lost with no hope of salvation and that is really bad news for you.
So this next part will not be particularly popular with some Christians, but yet I believe it needs to be said. Deception involves someone speaking false words. False words is a nicer way of saying lies. A liar is a deceiver. A deceiver is a liar. They go hand in hand. Where one is, the other is also present. They are the Siamese twins of Satan.
Joh 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
Jesus speaking to the Jews reveals some very strong words of truth, and says they are of their father, the devil. Since that is not my subject I will not go there today. Then Jesus tells us that Satan is the father of all lies. That is just another way of saying that Satan is the initiator of lies. However, it is interesting to note that not everything that Satan says is necessarily a lie. Jesus said “When Satan lies” not “When Satan speaks”. There is a major difference. It also makes deception much harder to recognize. When Satan speaks 10 truths mixed with one or two lies, how do you know which is which? If you notice back in Genesis 3, when Satan spoke to Eve he said some things that were true, but then he also mixed in a lie. This is how Satan operates, mixing truths with lies so that you become deceived into believing the lie. Here is a definition of one of the Greek words translated as “lie”:
G5574
Middle voice of an apparently primary verb; to utter an untruth or attempt to deceive by falsehood: – falsely, lie.
To utter an untruth. In other words to speak a lie. What is truth? Truth is based upon the Word of God, because the Bible says that it is impossible for God to lie (Heb 6:18). So God only speaks the truth. What God says we can take as the truth. The Bible contains the truth of God, but not everything in the Bible is truth. That statement shocks some Christians also, but you have to understand when you watch the 6:00 evening news, is everything that they say or report true? What if they interview a known criminal and he says I’m innocent, I did not kill that woman. Should you believe it just because it was on the news? So it is with the Bible, not every recorded word or statement of men and women in the Bible is the truth. It is true that they said what they said, but it did come out of the mouth of God so why are we suppose to believe it all? Job said some stuff that God reprimanded him for and asked him, were you there when I made the heavens and formed the stars? If you read Job 38:2 God says “Who is this that darkens counsel with words without knowledge”. That doesn’t sound very good for Job’s words, does it? We have the recorded words of Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar Ananias, Pilot, just to name a few men who were not saved, nor were they prophets of God. So truth come from verses that say “Thus saith the Lord”. Truth comes from the Words in Red in the N.T. Also truth comes from the mouth of God’s prophets.
So a lie is an untruth. A statement not based upon facts or clear evidence. A lie is a statement of “fiction”. That is why I avoid reading books labeled “fiction”. They are the words of someone’s imagination, either based upon some facts or no facts. We are surrounded by Fictional movies, books and other examples of entertainment that challenge our Christian faith. There is so much of this in the world today that it is amazing we can think at all. Satan is the author and originator of “fiction”, “untruth”, “lies” and “deception”. That is why I debate the fact that some authors call themselves “Christian Fiction Writers”. To me that is just another oxymoronic term for a true lie. I told you this was not going to be popular, but we need to consider what we feed on. Just as we should watch we eat physically, we should also watch what we put into our spirits. Here is a scripture that confirms this:
2Ti 4:4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
This verse is speaking about Christians who knew the truth at one time, but have now followed fables. The Greek word translated as “fables” means “myths”, “tales” and “fiction”. Do you see the danger of “fiction”? Satan can use it to lead you off of the path of eternal salvation back into a path of darkness. That just can’t be good, right?
1Ti 1:4 Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith:
We are again warned of the introduction of “fiction” into our lives that results in us questioning our faith. This verse tells us that truth “edifies” or “builds up our faith” and we can clearly see that “fiction” does the opposite.
2Pe 1:16 For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
Cunningly devised “fiction” will lead some into paths they do not want to go. To say something is “cunning” and “devised” means that it is purposely designed to lie to you and bring you down. In other words fiction is more than just entertainment, it has a purpose and a design intended to do harm to you and to deceive you. You can certainly see why this is not popular, but yet it is in the Bible, so what do we do with it?
So is deception becoming less prevalent or is deception in the world growing? Are there less options or are the number of possible lies being exponentially increased in our daily lives? I believe that with the advent of the internet and the information explosion era that we are living within, we are faced with an increasingly difficult levels of deceptions. Sometimes the false information is blatant and obvious, but other times it is subtle and very tricky to see. There is such a diverse set of false information on the internet and TV, that it is very difficult for most people to figure out what is real. This is what the Bible says about deception:
2Ti 3:13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.
The amount of deception in the world is increasingly growing at a rate that is difficult to comprehend. The number of ways to be deceived, the number of ways that lies are presented are exploding on TV, movies, the internet and the other media sources, that there is no way to keep track of it all anymore. If a Christian wanted to discredit all of them they would not be able to. What Christians need to understand is that we are not called to teach against lies, we are just called to present the truth. Those who believe will be saved and those who do not believe, will not be saved (Mark 16:16).
Eph 4:14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
Just as natural children are more easily tricked than adults, spiritual children are more easily deceived than mature Christians. We are admonished to grow up spiritually and to become mature in Christ. Otherwise we will be tossed around easily with the trickery of Satan. You do know that Satan has been around a lot longer than you have, don’t you? You do understand that he has more experience with what to do, than you do. So if you are depending upon your ability to deflect the lies that he will present you, you are already deceived. In this verse in Ephesians God tells us not to accept every teaching that is thrown at us. I found the word “sleight” of men to be very interesting when I looked up the definition. It means “dice”, or “a gambling cube”. The implication is given that these men are gambling with your lives and theirs. They are rolling their cubes and playing a game that is not easily won. The next term in the verse is that of “cunning craftiness”. This term means to be “subtle”. If you recall this is the way Satan came to Eve in Genesis 3. Satan used specific thoughts to deceive the woman and that is Satan’s only weapon against you. All Satan has to do is trick you a little bit, distract you from the truth by just a minor difference and you are now off the true path.
Rom 16:18 For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.
This verse is so amazingly true to our world that we live in, that I am shocked at the reality of our current government. We seem to have a President who speaks “fair” words that have deceived the hearts of the simple minded people of our nation. He says one thing and does an entirely different thing. Simple refers again to those who are not mature, those who are not grown up. To those who are still childlike. It is amazing how many people qualify for this labeled description. It is a very sad statement to the condition of our nation.
Flattering Words, Cleverly Designed Fables, Subtle Words of Deception, these are the tricks of the enemy, Satan. He overwhelms you with information that is contrary to the truth that you have difficulty recognizing the truth. The tricks of the enemy are the same as when Eve was deceived, the words and the number of words is the only difference depending upon your situation and circumstances. Learn to recognize deception and choose not to be deceived.
If you would like to continue reading in this lesson series on this subject of deception, you can go to “Part 2“.
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If you want to know how to get saved and know that you are with confidence you can go to: How do I get saved?
A New Commandment I Give Unto You!
(Ver 1.2) This is Part 2 in a series of Bible lessons on the subject of Understanding the Purpose of the Law of Moses. I covered a lot of new information about the Law already and I do not think that I will review any of what I have already covered. Therefore, if you did not read the first lesson, I would suggest that you go back and start your study with “Part 1“. I will say that in my last lesson I introduced you to the fact that the Law was a positive thing given to us by God. In other words I believe that the law was an intentional good thing designed for the benefit of the entire human race. Without laws we would not know or understand sin, guilt, punishment, consequences, to name a few things that the knowledge of the law teaches us. Laws give us guidelines, structure, organization and meaning or definition to what is right and what is wrong. Without laws we would live in a world of full of nothing but chaos. This would be a type of world where everyone would be doing what was right in their own eyes while ignoring the effects to what their actions did to those all around them. Today’s lesson will be an introduction to another brand new concpet. Are Christians in the church today under the Old Law, or under no law or under any new New Law? Many today believe that we are noy under any law and that is not actually what the Bible says. They base this belief on verses like Romans 6:15 which is an example of taking one truth and attempting to make it the only truth. This is just an example of not finding the complete truth of God’s Word on a given subject. Many are guilty of this and it is an easy trap to fall into. Just because we are not under the Law of the Old Testament does not mean that we are not under any New Law. That is the primary subject of the rest of my lesson today.
What is the difference between what is old and what is new? New sometimes can be a relative term. Is it new to you or is it new just because no one else has ever possessed it before you? New to me is definitely stated not to be the old. Old to me is definitely stated not to be the new. I view this concept in the same terms like the Old Covenant versus the New Covenant which are totally separate and distinct covenants of God. Both the Old and New Covenants bare a resemblance of characteristics and features, but they are totally and completely not the same. That was my introduction to the Law of the New Covenant. Let me now take you to some important verses in the New Testament and discuss this New Law of God.
Gal 4:4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
So I asked you a question in my last blog on this subject, did God put Satan under the law? This verse in Galatians is very clearly a clue into the answer to that question. Why was Jesus Christ born a man under the law of Moses? Jesus’ physical mother was a virgin woman named Mary, a direct descendant of David the King of Israel. We know that Jesus is therefore a natural born Jew from the tribe of Judah, by birth. Therefore, God in the Flesh being born under the Law is now bound to all of these laws, commandments, and statutes written in the O.T.. Exactly why did God do this? The God that was outside of the Law and who gave the law has now placed Himself under the law that He gave. That means whatever the law requires applies to everything that God can do and can’t do. Those are pretty strong words aren’t they? Why would God put any limitations upon Himself? Obviously God gave the law, so He must have designed the law to serve a specific purpose that would help Him to accomplish something of greater value. What was that something that God needed accomplished that only the creation of Law could do? You should really think about things like this and search for them in the Bible to see if you can find them. What you should take away from this verse in Galatians 4:4 is, if it was necessary for God to be born under the law of Moses, then it would be necessary for Satan to be put under the same law also. As I tried to teach in the first lesson, that laws only apply to those that are under them. No law is ever applicable to anyone not under the authority of that law.
Jesus made the statement that “I did not come to do away with the law, but I came to fulfill it” (Mat 5:17). So what did Jesus do while he was in the flesh walking under the law to fulfill the law? What did he accomplish to fulfill all of the Mosiac law? Was it just the fact that he did not commit any sin? Was this the fulfillment of the law? I do not think that is the entire picture of what that actually means. Did you notice that Jesus died on the cross? So being sinless under the law did not save Him, did it? We know from other scripture that the Bible says that “No flesh will be justified by God, for keeping the law” (Gal 2:16). So was Jesus in the flesh? Yes, then He was not justified or saved by keeping the law either. This is not what made Jesus righteous or justifed Him. We can discover some valuable clues by searching the scriptures and finding out God’s definition of what this means to fulfill the law:
Gal 5:14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
We can begin to understand what the fulfillment of the law was in the eyes of God by reading this verse in Galatians. God tells us that all of the law is fulfilled in just one word. What was that word? That word was Love! This of course is not a human kind of love, but it is a God kind of love and that is totally different. Humans love Coke, pie, hamburgers because they make them feel good or do something good for them. That is not the God kind of love. God does not love us because we do something good to Him or for Him. Bible, love is not a feeling or even an emotional state. Love is a choice to do the right thing for others even when you do not feel like it.
Rom 13:10 Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
Here we have another witness to the fact that God says the law of Moses is fulfilled by the single isolated word of Love! To do the right thing for your neighbor means that you do not steal from them, you do not hurt them, you do not lie to them, you do not covet or lust for what they possess, and on and on we could go. Clealry God is defining a new definition for what the fulfillment of the Law represents to us.
Rom 13:9 For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
All of the law of Moses is summed up into the word “Love”. We can only comprehend the rest of the law by understanding what Love is in the eyes of God. This is why Jesus makes this statement in the Gospels:
Joh 13:34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
If the Law was a negative thing God would be wanting to get rid of it. However, we have discovered that the law is a positive and good thing and that is why Jesus gives us a New Law. You do understand that we are still under the law being in the church right now? It is not the Law of Moses, but it is the Law of Jesus. Jesus initiated a New Covenant in His own shed blood and in doing so, He established a New Law. This New Law is significantly less complicated than the old law while at the same time including all of the Old Law in the single statement. It is amazing how complex the laws created by our government are. I believe the Health Care bill was a very thick stack of papers that are still being argued over to what they mean. Would you say that more laws are better than less laws or are fewer laws better than many laws? According to God less is better. God replaces a thick book of written laws with a single statement and calls it better. God is not opposed to the law, it is more what the law is intended to do and its purpose that God is most concerned with. By Jesus giving us the Law of Love, we are now required to follow ONLY one rule. When faced with a problem in the natural we should always stop and ask, “What would Love do with that?” Did you notice that Jesus said you must love like I have loved you? In other words we are not to love people like we love a can of Coke. I do hope that you understand this profound concept.
Rom 3:31 Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.
God says that by walking in the New Commandment of Love we now establish the law. Isn’t that an interesting concept? What all of Natural Israel was unable to do, God says that we are capable of doing. Why is that? For one thing we have God on the inside of us helping us to do it. Plus we are not worried about hundreds or thousands of rules, because God has simplified it down to just One Rule! That just makes it easier to follow doesn’t it?
If you would like to continue to read this series on understanding the Law you can go to “Part 3“.
Understanding The Bible Definition and Purpose of the Law of Moses! PT 1
(Ver 1.3) This is Part 1 in a series of Bible lessons on Understanding the Purpose for the Law. Why was it necessary for God to give Moses the Old Testament Law? The reason for these spiritual rules of do’s and don’ts are critical for Christians to understand. While Christians do not rely on keeping the law to be saved, they should still be intimately familiar with what they mean and the underlying reasons for God giving them to the natural nation of Israel. God says my People are destroyed for a lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6), so the more we learn and understand the less likely we are to being destroyed in this world. So let’s learn about the O.T. Law and determine what it is and why it was given using the Bible:
Gal 2:16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
God declares a truth about the law that is essential to understand. The O.T. law is based upon “Works”. Works is man’s attempt to do something that they think pleases God by doing without something that they really want to do. I hope you understand what I just said. Every religion in the world is “works” based. Man trying to achieve a state of self sacrifice in order to appear pious or worthy in the eyes of God. In some religions men beat themselves with whips and chains until they bleed. They think through this self inflicted pain and suffering that they have achieved favor with God. They have been deceived into stupidity and foolishness. This religion also teaches that life is like a balance scale and the good deeds that you do will be weighed against your bad deeds and if the good deeds outweighs the bad, you have earned your salvation. This is just another example of Satan’s deception. In Galatians 2:16, we see works being contrasted with true Christianity. True Christianity is based upon Faith in Jesus Christ and what He has done and provided for us. That is completely different than the law of works and the works of the law. This verse clearly tells us that nobody will make it to heaven based upon their works. That is not good news for natural Israel or the other religions of the world.
Rom 3:20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
We can clearly see one of the primary reasons that God gave the law. God declares that No flesh will be saved by obeying the law. So we immediately discover that the law was not given to save us. We can take this reason off of the list of potential reasons for the law. Then God says that by the law is the knowledge of sin. What does that tell you? Before the law was given into the world, no one really knew what sin was. It was only because the Bible said “Thou shalt not commit murder” that you would know that this is not an acceptable thing to do. To know that there is a law that has consequences for doing something and then to do it anyway is the act of a fool. However, to do something that is still not right, but there is no law against it is still sin, but yet God said how would you know it. So one of the primary reasons for God giving the law is to teach everyone what sin is and that these sins have consequences. With the Law comes the Knowledge of Sin!
Rom 7:7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.
Here is another witness to what I just said. This verse clearly tells us the same thing and gives us another example. By God saying “thou shalt not covet”, we know it is a sin to lust after what our neighbor owns or possesses. So the Law is not an evil, bad or negative thing, but a good thing. It helps us to learn and know what is good and what is evil. The law helps to guide us into what are the right things to do.
Rom 7:12 Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.
So the Bible again confirms what I just said about the law. The law is Holy, the law is good and just. The law is a positive thing meant to teach us the difference between right and wrong. God gave us the law to show us that we cannot make up our own rules and think that we are good in our own sight. That is exactly what most people in the world do, they reason in their own minds what is good and what is right and they follow their own desires and God says that is wrong.
Rom 4:15 Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.
The word “transgression” means violation. If you get arrested in our world, it is usually because you violated some law that was passed by the lawmakers of the city, state or federal governments. So again we see a principle being established for why the law was necessary. Without law there is no “violation” being committed. People in the world usually pass laws to make people stop something that is potentially harmful or hurtful to themselves or others. For example, driving too fast in a car can cause loss of life and property. So people have developed laws to limit the speeds that cars can go in certain areas. The speed limit varies depending on where the area is located, like it is slower in front of school zones. If you are caught speeding you are charged and if found guilty, you pay fines and there are consequences such as points on your license. So without laws, people could go 100 MPH through a school zone and cause great damage and loss of life and there would be nothing that the government could do to them. This is a key lesson of why God gave the law, so take note of it.
Rom 5:13 For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
Without laws in the world (physical, natural, spiritual and governments), the world would be in a state of chaos. Everybody doing whatever they felt like, whenever they wanted to, to whoever they wanted to and there would be no consequences legally speaking that they would ever be faced with. I do think that without law we would also see a vigilante retribution being enacted and people would be forced to come up with their own definition of justice. But, Romans 5:13 informs us that sin has been in the world, before the law existed. But, then it says that these sins would not be charged to their account without the existence of the law. When you read and learn verses from the Bible like these you should automatically think how do these apply to me? How does this apply to Israel? How do these apply to Satan? How do they apply to all of the other spiritual entities in God’s spiritual realm? If you do not think in these terms you will miss out on what God is trying to teach you. Let me ask you a question and get you to thinking. If it is as the Bible says and Satan was found with sin in him from the beginning, what can God do about this, if there is no law against it? I believe you can start to understand the problem that God had. Legally speaking there is nothing that God can do with Satan, unless he is put under the law. That is an amazing thing to consider and probably a key reason for why the law was given. Learn to think while you read and to ask questions and you will learn so much more than just reading it. I’ll get into this more later.
Rom 7:14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
This is an interesting twist and is highly informative. God tells us that the law applies to the spiritual realm and not just the natural realm. We know that God gave Moses the law on Mt Sinai and that it was written down in the natural realm by a man. But, think about it, God is a Spirit and the words that He spoke to Moses came from the spiritual realm. God is clearly telling us that these words found in the law apply to all spiritual beings, including God himself, the angels, you and I and Satan and his demons.
Gal 3:10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.
Here is a very scary statement about the O.T. Law. God says that anyone under the law is under a curse, if they do not obey all of the law. Do you know of anyone that has obeyed all of the law? For one thing I do not think you know all of the law and the other thing is you certainly can’t do it all consistently, I do not believe anyone on earth is capable of it. The law is more than following 10 simple commandments, the O.T. law is 5 large books of rules, commandments, instructions, and it is vastly not understood even by the Jews who read it every day. I may be wrong but I believe that this is one of the reasons for God giving the law, to show man that he is incapable of making a perfect score. It is impossible to bowl a perfect score in the game of life playing according to the rules of the “works of the law”. I assume natural Israel has not yet gotten the news yet, they must still think they are able to save themselves.
Jas 2:10 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.
Here is a second witness to the reality that man is required to keep all of the law. If any man offends or violates a single commandment, this verse in James says that he is found guilty of violating every commandment. I am certainly glad that is not the way our courts work. We would have to have everybody in a prison cell and there would be no free people in the world. If you drove your car too fast you could be sentenced to life in prison. That is what God says about his law in the O.T. Too many times people like to rate and compare sins. This sin is bigger, or greater than another. This sin is just a little one and that isn’t as bad as doing this or that. But, God says every sin is equal, there are no big ones, and no small ones. These are very tough rules to follow. In fact they are impossible for man to follow.
Gal 3:24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
So God says that the Law was designed to be a teaching tool for mankind. An instrument that was intended to point them to Christ. Is this the way the nation of Israel views the law? Obviously not! Is this the way you should view the O.T. law, absolutely. You should use it as a teacher who is pointing you to a savior, the Messiah.
1Ti 1:9 Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient,for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,
God tells us who the law was given for. To me every human would potentially qualify, but also this sounds more like Satan’s resume than anything else. You do realize that this is why our government passes laws, don’t you? If nobody did bad things you wouldn’t need any laws against doing them. So we pass laws to keep people from doing stupid, foolish things. This is another one of the key purposes of the O.T. law. Because, there are bad, evil people in the world, because there is a bad, evil spiritual force in the world, God was forced to enact spiritual laws. I hope you are getting what I am saying.
Let’s review briefly what we have learned so far and make a list of the key items concerning what the Bible says about the law:
- Sin will always Sin with or without the existence of Law.
- God’s Law is a Positive Thing that Helps us to see.
- The Law is Works Based. Obeying the Law is man’s attempt at earning Salvation.
- No Flesh can achieve Righteousness by the O.T. Law.
- Therefore, no one can be saved by observing the O.T. Law.
- However, Sin is not put on your account, if there is No law.
- Without the Law, no one knows what Sin Is.
- Without the existence of the Law there is no legal consequences for Sin.
- If you violate even one Law you are guilty of violating EVERY Laws!
- The Law given in the natural realm is Applicable in the Spiritual Realm.
- The Law was designed to teach us we need a savior and to point us to Christ.
- The Law was given because of the evil that existed prior to the law.
That was a quick synopsis of the information we have learned from the few verses about the law. We start to begin to understand what the law is and why it was given by understanding these verses. There is of course much more to learn about the law. There is different types of laws. Human laws, laws of nature, laws of science, and spiritual laws, just to name a few types of laws. Let’s continue this lesson with another verse found in Romans:
Rom 3:19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
This is one of the most outstanding and revealing verses in the Bible about the Law of Moses. It reveals some hidden spiritual principles that are critical for Christians to understand. The principle is given to us that the law only applies to them that are under the law. In other words Mexico cannot pass a law that affects me, because I live in the USA. Now, if I go to visit Mexico, then I am under that law system, but as long as I stay in the USA, nothing they do can affect me personally. That is what Romans 3:19 is saying. God tells us that the law is only effective over those that are under that system of spiritual government. USA laws do not affect Chinese citizens or companies unless they come to America. Think about that and ask the questions that I asked you to think about earlier. Does the O.T. law affect you? Does the O.T. law affect the natural Jews? Does the O.T. law affect Satan or any other spiritual entity? Is God bound by the Laws of the O.T.? These are all important questions to consider. You see if Satan is not under the O.T. law, then there is still no punishment for his sins that God can convict him of in any heavenly court. You need to consider these questions and determine, did God somehow put Satan under the Law in order to convict him of his sins? If you do not realize that God is a legal minded God who does everything in a fair and just way, you do not know God very well. God will not throw Satan into hell without him being found guilty and being convicted for his crimes of sin. If God did this, then he would be more like a foreign country that throws people into prison because they just don’t like the way they look. Think about the character of God and realize that God is the supreme judge of all spiritual matters. In the heavenly judicial system, there must be laws that can convict someone like Satan or God would be unjust. God says in Romans 3:9 that the law was given, so that every mouth could be stopped. You see if Satan was unjustly accused of God, he has a legal defense against such actions. However, if Satan is under the law and can see clearly that he is in violation and guilty, he no longer has a defense against such charges.
I think I will end this lesson on that note. I hope and pray that you learned something that was of benefit to your walk with Christ. I’ll try to continue this lesson in a future blog.
If you would like to continue reading this lesson, you can go to “Part 2“.
The Abrahamic Covenant and the Promised Seed!
(Ver 1.1) Today will be a little bit different perspective on a familiar old subject. This subject is widely taught in many different circles and it is interpreted very differently in most of them. We will look at some familiar verses using the light of the Word of God to see what they mean. Using the Bible to interpret the Bible, we will begin to see and understand the truth of the Word of God. The basis of our lesson today comes from the book of beginnings, Genesis chapter 15. As with many things written in the book of Genesis God uses symbolism to convey hidden spiritual information. This chapter of Genesis is certainly no different. In this chapter God tells Abram that he will have a son, who will be his heir. God tells him that the number of his seed will be as the stars of the heavens. In other words God declares that Abram’s descendants will be innumerable, more than he could count. While these words can certainly be taken completely naturally, I believe that God is speaking about spiritual things in a prophetic way. If you have not ever realized it, God is more interested in spiritual things than He is with natural things. If God can fix you spiritually, then you will do the right things naturally. That is the root cause of America’s problem and the rest of the unsaved world. People want to raise children and think they can do it without God and ignore the Bible and then they are surprised to find our prisons overflowing. You will never fix the sin problem, until you allow God to fix the spiritual problem within the hearts of man with His Word. Teach the Bible in school to your children and see if the world doesn’t change.
Gal 3:16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.
We can learn much, by reading God’s commentary in the Bible. God purposely gives us clues in the Bible to what other verses mean. Often times these explanations are revealed in the New Testament. This verse in Galatians is very interesting, since our subject is the Abrahamic Covenant and I just mentioned the Seed of Abraham. We can now begin to see and understand that God was speaking prophetically and in a very tricky manner when talking to Abram about his seed. Seed is one of those types of words that can be either singular or plural and you can’t really tell the difference by just looking at it. However, God reveals that Abraham’s seed was singular and this was symbolic of the one man called Christ Jesus. So we know that Jesus Christ is the Seed being referred to in Genesis 15.
Gen 15:5 And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.
What we begin to see is another example of a Biblical Paradox or Puzzle being given to us. How can one man, Jesus, the Seed of Abraham number beyond the number of stars in the heavens? That of course is a very difficult puzzle to try to answer in a single blog like this. Unless you start to think spiritually and consider what the New Testament reveals to us you will never understand it. Galatians and other books of the New Testament speak of the church as being the children of Abraham. The N.T. reveals that Abraham is the spiritual father of the many people who have come into the church. This is the beginning of understanding this spiritual paradox.
In Genesis 15:9-10 God instructs Abram to take 5 animals and kill them. God tells him to split three of the animals into halves. Now we have a bloody mess on our hands. God tells Abram to spread them out on the ground. We then discover that birds try to come and devour the animals and Abram has to drive them away. These are also all key symbolic references and they symbolize spiritual things. The bloody animals killed represents the covenants of God. The birds of the air represents the demonic forces attempting to prevent the covenant. Blood is always symbolic of the forgiveness of sins. Also in Bible covenants, the animals were split into pieces and they were saying, “thus it be done to me, if I brake this covenant”. So we see that God is revealing to us some very important information about Bible covenants. When two parties would enter into a covenant, they would pass between the bloody pieces of the animals and “cut an agreement” that was mutually beneficial to both participants. Both parties in the covenant were required to follow the terms of the agreement and to be faithful to it. If one party in the covenant had need of something that the other had in their possession, then it would be freely available to the other party. It is exactly like a marriage between a husband and a wife who now have joint ownership of everything. But, did you notice what happens in this covenant in Genesis 15? Who does it say walked between the pieces to cut the covenant with God?
Gen 15:12 And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.
After Abram drives away the birds, the sun goes down and it gets dark. It says Abram enters into a deep sleep and he is overwhelmed with darkness. Darkness never represents God, but the opposite of God. Darkness always represents Satan and his domain. God gives Abram some prophetic words about his natural children being in bondage for 400 years, but tells him they will come out at a certain time. These verses 13 thru 16, no doubt contain symbolism and information beyond the natural, but I will not attempt to teach what I do not know fully. So let’s look at verse 17, for it is really getting good with this verse.
Gen 15:17 And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.
As you recall Abram killed 5 animals and laid the pieces upon the ground. Now normally if this covenant was between God and Abram, God and Abram would now be walking between the pieces and cutting the covenant with God. However, we find that Abram is asleep on the ground and two different symbolic people walk between the bloody pieces to cut the covenant. What does this tell us? I believe that it tells us that Abram was incapable of keeping the covenant that God wanted to make, so God makes a covenant with himself. Did you notice what the two symbols were that passed through the pieces? One was a “Smoking Oven” and the other was a “Burning Lamp”. I really do not know how these two symbols can represent anything other than God. Both are God in different forms and using different descriptions. Much like God the Father and God the Son are one God but both are unique and separate at the same time.
In Hebrews 12:29, it informs us that God is an all consuming fire. I know this is not exactly a smoking oven, but you can get there mentally if you think about it. People in Bible days did not have electric power and they cooked with fire. If you look up the term translated as “Oven” you will find that it means a “Fire Pot”. So fire is involved in cooking with an ancient Oven. In Deuteronomy 9:3 God is again called a “Consuming Fire” who destroys. However, everything in the Bible has symbolic meaning if you can find it. In Deuteronomy 4:24 God is again called a consuming fire, but it then further stipulates why. God is said to be a “Jealous God”. That means God does not like it when His wife sleeps around like Israel was guilty of. It is very difficult to actually say that the smoking oven represents God, because we cannot find a direct reference in the Bible that says that. However, if you do a word search and look for the word “oven” in the Bible you will see that it more often than not, refers to a place where wicked and evil people are consumed. People who are consumed by the fire of God. God is certainly the fire, but the smoke could be the evil being burned up and consumed. So it is a little more complex than we can imagine right now to declare that God is covenanting with himself. We can look up the word “Smoking” and see what else it reveals in the Bible:
Exo 19:18 And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.
It would appear the “Smoke” is associated with the Old Covenant since “Sinai” is mentioned in this verse in Exodus. We know that God gave Moses the law on Sinai. We know that this verse says God is again the fire that descended upon the mountain. The Smoke is equated to that which ascends upwards. We can again derive, that which is consumed by the fire of God is evil and whatever is left would be the ashes and the smoke, that which remains after God’s burning. Fire normally consumes, oxygen, fuel, oil, or whatever is placed in it. God is definitely the Fire, the flame, the heat, the light. But, the oven and whatever is consumed is a different substance than God. If God is the all consuming fire as we have seen in the Bible, the smoke would be representative of that which is burned up or consumed by God.
Psa 18:8 There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it.
God is again compared in terms of being a device that produces smoke, like an oven, a furnace or any other similar fire burning device. Out of the nostrils of God comes smoke from something that is burned up or consumed by the fire of God’s mouth. It is a very interesting symbolic representation being given to us.
Psa 37:20 But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the LORD shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away.
You see the same terms being repeated in this verse of Psalms 37 and it says God’s enemies who are the wicked, shall be as the fat of the lambs, and they shall be consumed into smoke. Verses like these are helping me to see that God’s covenant in Genesis 15 is God walking between the pieces of animal flesh. So we have in a roundabout way identified one symbol that has been said to walk between the pieces and cut the covenant.
The Lamp on the other hand is more easily interpreted using verses in the Bible. We can find several good examples that declare that God is the burning lamp. A lamp of course is a light in the darkness or night. A lamp involves fire, oil and light. All of these symbols are used for symbols of God in the Bible. Let’s find some of these verses and review them:
2Sa 22:29 For thou art my lamp, O LORD: and the LORD will lighten my darkness.
This verse is exactly what I just said and refers to God as the Lamp that gives us light in the darkness. Darkness again represents the spiritual domain of Satan. People are born into the world that is ruled by Satan. The hearts of men and women are said to be in darkness until they are saved and Jesus Christ shines spiritual light into them.
Psa 119:105 NUN. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
You cannot separate God from His Word, they are one in the same. God is light and in him is no darkness. God is also His Word! God’s word is a spiritual light unto our spirit man within us. By reading and studying the Bible we bring light to areas that have never seen the glorious light of God. God and His Word are the Lamp that is lit to show the way unto righteousness.
Pro 13:9 The light of the righteous rejoiceth: but the lamp of the wicked shall be put out.
So many verses in the Bible are very informative and this one has hidden meaning within it. If God is the lamp and the light, what is this verse telling us? The light of the righteous will be GLAD, and the lamp of the wicked will be put out. If Satan is the evil one that rules the darkness, His light or lamp of God has now been put out. To put out a lamp means it is deprived of oxygen or oil or starved of any substance that causes it to burn. This involves any means of causing the flame to be extinguished. We can clearly assume that Satan use to be in the light of God, but God has now turned that light out. It also has spiritual implications to those in the world that refuse God’s salvation and they also walk in the same darkness of spiritual night.
Isa 62:1 For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.
God prophesies that a burning lamp will come out of Jerusalem. This lamp will burn with the light of Salvation. This very bright lamp will also establish righteousness. So who do you think God is talking about? This is a prophetic statement for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ that was to be crucified in Jerusalem to bring salvation to the world.
Joh 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
Jesus speaking to the nation of Israel, says He is the bright burning lamp that contains the light of the world. But, Jesus then said that men loved darkness more than this light so they were unable to see the light. Jesus equates the evil deeds of men to be of the darkness of the world. God is therefore being contrasted as being the source of good, the initiator of kindness, goodness, grace, mercy, love and compassion, but the men of Israel as a whole, chose to reject these good things and to remain in their evil darkness.
Joh 8:12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
Jesus is again very clear in telling us that He is the Lamp that lights our spiritual paths. Jesus says that if we follow Him, we shall not walk in darkness. We could say in modern language that Jesus is the Flashlight of the present dark World. If you have ever been camping in the forest, with no electricity you better take a flashlight or two. To walk in the woods without one would be crazy. This is how people are in the world, without Jesus and the Bible. They are walking in spiritual darkness and they do not know where they are going or what they bump into or stumble over. The symbolism within the Abrahamic covenant is very powerful, the spiritual implications are very informative. We can see that God, the lamp of the world makes a covenant with the smoking oven that contains the consuming Fire of God. It would appear to me that God in His infinite wisdom took the place of Abraham in the covenant and made a covenant with Himself. In this way God could implement an agreement that both parties were capable of keeping. Abraham was a physical natural man and incapable of keeping the covenant at the level that God wanted to establish, so God made a covenant that He could keep in the spiritual realm with Jesus Christ who was the promised Seed that now establishes our eternal covenant with God. So what was God’s solution for man not being able to keep a covenant? The human race is sin prone, error driven, ignorant of spiritual things and God’s ways. How is God going to make a covenant with people who are prone to errors and mistakes? God’s solution is to became one of us, a man who is both human and God to implement an unbreakable covenant with Himself and His eternal man. We then can see that God has used Jesus Christ, the Promised Seed to bring the rest of the human race back into right standing with God. Everyone that accepts the free gift of salvation will be included. It doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, the door is open to all. It doesn’t matter if you are rich or if you are poor, the door is open to all. It doesn’t matter if you are a man or a woman, the door is open to all. Because of what Jesus has done, we have now have the opportunity of a life time being presented to all of us. I pray that you make the right choice.
The Bible is so complex that it is impossible to know everything that is in it and to comprehend what everything in it means is also impossible. So we do the best we can, with God’s help in figuring out what it all means. We would be lost without His help, so I am eternally grateful and I hope that you are too.
The Promises and Covenants of God are ALWAYS Conditional!
(Ver 1.1) I want to discuss a difficult subject found in the Bible that is hard for many Christians to get their minds around. Too many Christians like to put everything on God’s back and make Him completely responsible for everything that happens to them. It is like when a major storm comes and blows their house down and they believe God is in control and He had a higher purpose for doing this to me. However, when you read the Bible and study it closely we find out some very surprising things that should cause us to begin to think differently.
When God makes a covenant with a People on the earth, you will find that God is always capable of keeping the covenant and to Him it was a forever agreement and arrangement. However, what we find in the Bible is that it is not all completely up to God and that you and I have a part to play in the relationship for the continued blessings of God to manifest. Let’s review the principle and then establish this spiritual law Biblically and learn what we can:
Isa 1:19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:
In this verse in Isaiah, God puts forth a promise to His covenant people. But, this promise comes with conditions. In order for God’s people to eat the good of the land, they must first, be willing and obedient. These sound like two little requirements that are placed upon God’s People! But they really are larger than you think. If people fulfill only one condition such as being willing but not obedient or being not willing and obeying does that match the conditions necessary to eat good? Obviously not, they fail and do not eat the good of the land. This is the basis of a spiritual law, that I call the “IF YOU DO THEN I WILL DO” law! “IF” “THEN” is a popular computer programming construct that is widely used in programming languages. There is also a converse or inverse part of the law that goes something like this:
IF YOU DO THIS
THEN I WILL DO THIS
ELSE THIS HAPPENS!
God knew about IF THEN ELSE computer programming constructs before we knew there were computers. God uses this construction in the Bible in the promises that He makes with humans and the Covenants that He implements with the People. If we apply this construct to the verse we just read in Isaiah 1:19 we can see it more clearly:
IF (YOU ARE WILLING AND OBEDIENT)
THEN
YOU WILL EAT THE GOOD OF THE LAND
ELSE
YOU WILL NOT EAT FROM THE GOOD LAND
This is some very basic Computer Logic applied to the Word of God and yet so profound! If you understand what I have said so far, then let’s go through some other verses in the Bible and determine what else God says about conditional requirements.
Let’s go back and review some words spoken to Natural Israel by Moses from God. These are the Words of God spoken directly to them, but if you look closely they are also prophetic and we can easily notice that they are very conditional:
Exo 19:5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:
What does it mean to be conditional? If I said I would give you $1000, if you would stay silent for 24 hours, is that $1000 conditional or automatically yours? No, it not guaranteed! We can see that conditional means, if you follow the instructions and rules you will get the $1000, otherwise you do not. The key word is “IF” you satisfy the requirements! Pretty simple concept isn’t it? However, Christians I guess do not understand these concepts, especially when it comes to God and the Bible.
When we read a verse like Exodus 19:5 and it says to Israel that “you shall be a peculiar treasure unto me and above all people”. What was the requirement for this to happen in the natural realm? God clearly said, “if you obey my voice and keep my covenant”, then I will do what I said and make you above all others. So when did natural Israel ever fulfill any of these requirements? If you searched your Bible and could not find it in the Bible, I have to admit that I couldn’t either. It would seem to me, that Israel has a major problem. Let’s continue with the next verse:
Exo 19:6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.
Exodus 19:6 continues to demonstrate what God will do, if Israel obeys and keeps the covenant. What we see in these two verses are a discovery of the fact that God’s blessings to Natural Israel are conditional. In order for those in covenant with God to obtain the best that He has for them, they must do something to qualify for them. Did any of the words in these two verses ring any bells to you? Did you see any parallels or glimpses into another reality that God is prophesying about? To me it was obvious, but to others they miss it, because they may be slightly dull of spiritual eyesight. These key words are echoed in a verse found in the New Testament:
1Pe 2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
Peter writes to the church and declares to them that they are these “peculiar” people, the holy nation unto God, being priests and kings of the Most High. Isn’t that an amazing coincidence? Of course God doesn’t do anything by accident and this verse is put here to show you who the church really is. I know I haven’t introduced you to this concept yet. Many Christian people do not like to think or believe that the Church is a spiritual version of the natural nation of Israel, but yet it is so prevalent in the Bible I do not know how people miss it. This is based upon the concept of natural patterns that point us to greater or higher truths within the spiritual realm. Let us read another verse:
Rev 1:6 And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Again we see John this time writing about the church and to the church, calling them the kings and priests of God. That qualifies the church as being these royal rulers of the spiritual domain of God. That makes the church a new spiritual priesthood unto God. This is of course difficult to fully accept for many believers. Please do not let it offend you. I will not be offended if you believe something else.
Heb 8:9 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.
So as we have seen, the blessings of God are conditional. The human continuation and participation within the covenant of God is also conditional. People want to put all of the responsibility on God to whether or not a covenant is valid and that is not what God says in the Bible. You can always depend on God to be faithful and He will never fail you, but that does not relieve you of your responsibility in the relationship.
What if you are married to a spouse and you are the one that is faithful and they are not. Will that work for very long? I know my wife would not put up with it. If you think you can then you are a fool. Is faithfulness a two way street that is required of both marriage participants? Of course it is! So do not put all of the responsibility upon God, God will not fail the covenant. God is eternally faithful. However, humans are imperfect and fail, people make mistakes and God will forgive us. But only if we ask for forgiveness. Repentance is an essential and valuable key part of any Christian life. If we are not sorry for how we how we act and the things we use to do, we are not a Christian. We are just someone who doesn’t want to go to hell.
Hebrews 8:9 clearly tells us that God disregarded Israel, because Israel did not keep their covenant. The Bible says this, God says this and I did not write the Bible. Is God anti-Semitic? That is what some will try to call me for saying something like this. So you can accept it for what it says or you can attempt to explain it away. Covenants with God are always Conditional! Let’s review another Old Testament example of these conditional promises of God:
Deu 28:1 And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:
The key word “IF” is given to the nation of Israel again and God tells them that “IF” they would diligently follow the Word of God that “THEN” God would make them above all nations. There are very specific requirements to the blessings of God and if you continue to read down in this chapter you will also find that there are very specific curses for not following these instructions. This is a Bible principle and a spiritual law being established by God. This is how God works and this should inform us of our responsibilities to listen and obey. We start by recognizing that we have some responsibilities and then we go about finding out what they are and how to follow them or fulfill them.
Jer 4:1 If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the LORD, return unto me: and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, the shalt thou not remove.
You see in Jeremiah God says to Israel, if they would return and put away their abominations, that God would not remove them. There is a very strong statement with very direct consequences being made to the Natural Nation of Israel. There are just too many verses in the Bible like this that declare God will do something if you first do something.
We cannot pray and ask God for something and then when it does not come, think that God said NO! Many times things like praying for specific answers in the Bible have specific conditions and requirements attached them. You have to base your prayer on the Bible promises that provide the answer, pray the right way, believe the right things, do the right things, say the right things, act in the appropriate manner and then God will do His part. This is a staggering concept to many Christians, but yet it is in the Bible if we look.
God always tells us what to do and then expects us to do it. Then God will always step in and do the rest. Read the Old Testament very closely. Notice things that God instructs Joshua when taking Jericho and other such examples. God would always tell them to do something very specific and if they did it, God would come through and do the rest. When Moses went to God with a problem, either about Pharaoh or the children of Israel, God would always tell Moses to do something with very specific steps and requirements or conditions. If Moses followed and obeyed, God would always do His part faithfully. The Bible is full of examples like this.
Jer 31:36 If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever.
I guess many Christians cannot comprehend that God would require humans to do anything in order to obtain God’s Grace. It is almost unimaginable that Israel could do anything that would cause God to end their Covenant. I have read in a few Bible lessons from other teachers that some people think that God’s love and all of the blessings of His Covenants are unconditionally guaranteed and nothing that anyone does can cause God to back out of it.
We should go back and reread the Bible and look for how many times the word “IF” is used in verses concerning Israel. We will discover that God has put conditions on many of the things that He has given to His people. God placed responsibility of the continuation of the covenant into the hands of those who He was trusting to do the right things and be obedient. If you study carefully you discover that Israel did a very bad job of fulfilling their end of the bargain. What a bargain they had, they had the fastest and most direct way to the Messiah, they had the first choice at Salvation, they were the keepers of the Holy Word of God and they blew it.
NEW COVENANT CONDITIONS
Rev 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
Just as the Old Covenant was conditional, entrance into the New Covenant is also conditional. There is no such thing as Universal Salvation. There is no such thing that everyone is saved automatically, because God wants them to be. God always requires action by man. People need to realize that God has already done everything that He needs to do to get all of the people on the earth saved. However, that does not mean everyone is saved or will be saved. Jesus tells us clearly in Revelation that He is standing at the door of the heart of man, knocking and that clearly indicates that He wants to come in. However, the conditional part of the verse clearly states that the Man on the inside is required to hear the knock and open the door to let Him come in. There are conditions to people getting saved. People are required to act appropriately and let Christ in. There are also specific conditions to staying saved. I really do not want to get into this subject any deeper for I have touched on this subject in other lessons. Realize and understand that the Old Covenant of God with natural Israel was a conditional agreement. It was very clear in the Bible that in order for Israel to remain in Covenant with God, that Israel was required to be faithful to God. Just like in any natural human marriage contract, God’s covenant works this way also. Both parties are either faithful to the vows, commitments and conditions of the agreement or the agreement is terminated. If one party is faithful and the other party is not, the agreement is terminated. There are many very difficult things like this in life and they are also revealed to us in the Bible. Recently in national news several prominent men have been caught being unfaithful to their wives. They have discovered the hard way that there are consequences to their actions in life. Israel may learn very soon that she has also encountered the consequences of her actions.
Then pay attention to things God writes to the church in the New Testament. Why would Jesus and God say so many times a warning for us not be deceived? There appears to be some unseen consequences for being deceived. Perhaps a Christian does not live a long life. But perhaps the Christians finds out like one of the 5 foolish virgins that they were not really known by Jesus. Remember in the 10 Virgin parable there was a need to have oil for the lamps. This sounds like a major condition for entering into the divine wedding feast.
Thank you for reading this lesson. I know there are a of other Bible verses that come to mind that teach this concept that I did not get to include. I appreciate your time reading and I also appreciate your comments, and questions. If you have a prayer request, please leave it and we will pray for you and add you to our prayer list. God bless you until next time.
Speak to Your Rock! Pt 2 – Do Idle Words Keep You Out of The Promise Land?
(Ver 1.6) Today is the second lesson on the subject of the significance of our spoken words. I know this is a very controversial subject and one that many Christians do now subscribe to believe in. However, regardless of what we believe about it, our beliefs do not change what God and the Bible says and the results that we get from the God’s established Spiritual Laws that are found within the Bible. In the last lesson on this subject, we learned about “Why Moses Didn’t Enter Into Promise Land”. God said it was because of Moses’ unbelief, He told him that he would not be able to lead God’s people into the promised land that He had already given to them. Unbelief is one of a Christian’s greatest enemies in receiving a promise from God. This can include the unbelief of what the Bible says or the unbelief of what the Spirit of God is leading us to do. It could even be the unbelief of what a Bible teacher teaches us from the Bible. I am not saying that I am anything important personally in you hearing from God, unless I say what the Bible says and that should make what is said important. All we need to do is read the Bible and see what it says and then believe it, to see that what is written is true or not (Acts 17:11). People should recognize that there are crazy people on the internet doing the same thing that I am doing to help people, many automatically discount what is said as being the same crazy ramblings. By automatically dismissing what someone says, many people at times miss what God had wanted them to know. Not everyone on the internet is crazy, and some of them have some very profound deep things to teach if we are open to them. Learn to judge every teacher by the Word of God and remain open and prepared to change your thinking and beliefs. God is doing some really great things in the world today and those who are open to them will enjoy their benefits. If you would like to read this series from the beginning, I would suggest that you go back and start with “Part 1“.
So today I want to discuss more about the Bible topic of “Spoken Words”! But not just any spoken words, let’s talk about those that Jesus called “Idle Words”. What are “Idle Words”? Let’s start by reading the lesson’s foundation Bible verse.
Mat 12:36 But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.
Wow! That is an amazingly strong statement from Jesus. Jesus is obviously directing our attention at our spoken words. But, not just any spoken word, but rather one specific type. God tells us personally that the “idle words” that we speak will be judged by God on judgment day. I mean that could be a very scary statement for some people to even think about. Obviously I can see too many people do not believe what Jesus said or either they do not understand what the verse means. Otherwise, they would probably keep silent more often. 
In today’s world idle words are all around us, on our cell phones, on our tablets in our emails, on internet websites, on Facebook and Twitter on TV, on radio, raining down from our satellites, printed in our magazines, news papers and fictional books. I mean we are bombarded by idle words coming at us from a multitude of different ways. How many of these text messages that we get or send can be considered idle words? Try to examine your Facebook experience and see how many words are crossing your path that can be called idle words. I know of some people and I won’t mention any names that appear like they are never quiet. To hold a phone conversation with them is impossible, because they are the only one speaking and you just have time to say “yea” or “uh?” occasionally. Some people spend hours and hours on the phone talking to everybody about everything. How many of these kind of people do you know? I pray that you are not one of them. It would appear on judgment day that we may have to sit or stand around and listen to everything that people said on this earth for a very long time. Doesn’t that sound fun? No! I do not think any of us will be very happy on judgment day.
I am generally a quiet person. It has been my personality to listen more than to speak. If you knew me, I believe that you would agree. I know many Other people are different, I know that and I do not fault them for being different. But, nevertheless I believe we need to learn what the Bible says about the definition of “Idle Words”. These are the words that God says we will personally have to account for, so what are they? It would appear that we need to learn to avoid these types of “idle words” like the plague. But that can only begin with us first learning about what they are. Here is the definition of the word from Strong’s:
G692
From G1 (as a negative particle) and G2041; inactive, that is, unemployed; (by implication) lazy, useless: – barren, idle, slow.
The concepts given to us in the Bible can so easily go over our heads. Because we don’t understand them, we may simply ignore them. This Greek word G692 means “unemployed” or “inactive”. That is a concept that most Christians do not have a clue what it means. The Greek word is the combination of the negative particle combine with the Greek word G2041 that literally means to work or toil.
I’m not going to do any jokes right here either, because that would be an example of more idle words. You see idle words are contrasted to be opposite to “employed” words “productive” words, “active” words or “working” words. These are all employment, work and job related terminologies but now they are being related to us in association to what we speak. God is saying that our words ought to be working for us and not just be idle or lazy. What we should learn are working words change things. God used His working words to change darkness to light in Genesis 1. Does God expect us to do the same? The answer is Yes! So how do we get our words work for us? 
Working words are a concept found in the Bible word “edification”, where we use our words to build up like as in a construction project. In the last lesson about Moses’ big mistake, God told Moses to Speak to the Rock and this is an example of working words. Instead of obeying Moses spoke to the people and called them rebellious. God said to Moses to speak to the Rock and get the answer and instead Moses spoke the problem and did not enter into the Promise Land. If you did not read this lesson you should, it is one of the best ones that God has given to me up to this time. What Moses did was an example of “Idle Unemployed Words”. Instead of using his words to work for him and get the answer, Moses spoke the problem and failed to enter into the promise land.
So we can start to understand now that God says every, lazy, idle, useless, unemployed, inactive,and non-constructive word that we speak we will be judged for all of them. How many words in the course of day do we “employ” that are “productive” to get good “results”? The clear implication to this verse is for us to change what we say to words that “work” for us! As Christians we should become aware of the words that we speak. We should think about what we say before we say it. Just because a thought comes into our mind, that doesn’t mean that we should speak it out. This is a common trick of the devil. Satan gives people thoughts in an attempt to get them to speak them out. Why is this so important for Satan to do this? Believe it or not your spoken words gives Satan entrance to come in and kill steal and destroy from you.
People do not understand what God said in Numbers 14:28, that whatever I hear you say that is what I will do to you. People do not realize that God is listening to what they say. People do not realize that God does to them whatever comes out of their mouths good or evil. That is very strong! Many times people like to think that God is in complete and total control of everything that happens to them. In their thinking they do not believe that they have anything to do with what happens in their lives. 
They believe that it was either bad luck, or just a coincidence, or an accident or just an unfortunate set of circumstances that they are faced with. But, God has established and given to us spiritual laws in the Bible and this is one of them that every believer needs to grasp immediately. You can very easily discount what God says and what the Bible says. But, if you do that it still does not mean that what happened to you is not something that you at least contributed to making it happen.
Let me give you another New Testament verse that repeats what Numbers 14:28 says. This is a Bible verse that is obviously very controversial and hard for many believers to grasp and believe. This verse is found in Mark chapter 11:
Mar 11:23 For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.
Jesus gives us the spiritual definition of Numbers 14:28 and clarifies a few details that were not clearly given to Moses. Many times we will learn that God teaches things in progressive stages. He will give us a little bit in one place and let us take it in in small parts and then He will give us a little bit more as we are able to chew and swallow it. This way we are not overwhelmed or choked with too much of the new Words of God. Paul taught this way also. Paul told some I wanted to feed you meat but you were unable to partake and I fed you just soft milk (1 Cor 3:2). So God teaches us a few meaty things in Mark 11:23 about how the spiritual law of spoken words work. I guess I should start by giving you the context of this verse in Mark 11. Jesus was traveling through the countryside and He sees a fig tree with leafs on it. Jesus then goes up to the fig tree looking for figs to eat. Finding none, Jesus speaks to the fig tree to curse it and the disciples heard Him. The next day they all walk by the same fig tree. Suddenly one of the disciples notices that the tree was withered and dried up from the roots upward. So what was Jesus doing? Was Jesus just mad or upset at the tree because it didn’t have any fruit on it? No, I do not think so. Was Jesus showing off and saying to them “look what I can do and not you”? No, I do not think so. Did Jesus say “This happened because I’m God and you are not”? Again, No, I don’t think so. Or was Jesus teaching them and all of us an object lesson on the spiritual law of spoken words? I believe that Jesus was telling them a spiritual secret and demonstrating the spiritual law of spoken words to His disciples so that they would learn a valuable lesson in life. You’ll have to make up your own mind in what you believe and figure it out if Jesus was talking to you also. I would personally pray and ask Him to show you what it means. Jesus is no respecter of persons and what He did for one he will do for everyone.
You can see that a “disciple” of Christ is a word that means a student, a learner, a pupil. Are you one of these? Maybe you think you know everything and you are the master? If you do you are in trouble and being covered and blinded by your ignorance. If you are a Christian you must be a Christ follower forever, a student of Christ forever, or in other words His disciple forever. Only He knows everything and we don’t. So whatever Jesus says to Matthew, Mark, Luke or John, I believe He is talking to you and I also! Please do not think that you know more than they do. Learn what Jesus was trying to teach them and we will become what He wanted us to become, more like Him.
So what was the lesson of Mark 11:23? Jesus told them and us that if we would speak to the mountain and believe that what we say would happen, we would get exactly what we say. There are so many lessons to learn from this one verse that I cannot teach them all, nor do I claim to know them all. A mountain is a symbolic representation of a negative situation or set of circumstances that we are facing, possibly an obstacle, either physical, mental, spiritual, financial or whatever we are faced with that appears to be a challenge. Jesus told us to speak to it and tell it to be removed and it would obey us, if we believe. Why is it necessary for us to both speak and believe? What we say and what we believe represents us putting our faith to work. That is the opposite of being idle or unemployed. All people both speak and believe either positively or negatively about things that around them. They either speak an expect good things to happen or speak and expect bad things to happen to them. Speaking and believing involves a decision that we make that even though the problem looks big and impossible to move, Jesus said that it would have to obey us and what we said to it would have to be done!
How many Christians believe this truth? I can see there are a growing number, are you one of them. If you are not one of the ones that believes the LORD JESUS then begin to notice what you say and believe and see if it is not what you get eventually. This principle works for you or against in the positive or the negative, because it is a spiritual law! I know this boggles the minds of religious unbeliever who do not believe what Jesus said. You see I did not write these verses in the Bible, I’m just a news reporter doing my best to show them to you with a greater emphasis of importance. These verses have been in the Bible for hundreds of years and people have just ignored them. We are responsible for the information that they say and how they apply to our life. God told Moses in Numbers that the Rock would obey his spoken working words, but Moses spoke to the people and called them “rebels”. God told him his words would bring the answer and he ended up enlarging the problem. Moses didn’t believe God and didn’t enter into the promise land and this is definitely a lesson for us all today.
Let’s look at some more example verses with the Greek word G692 translated as “idle” just to obtain a greater subject knowledge. This Greek word occurs only in 6 verses and is only used 8 times in the N.T. Jesus used this word in describing the man in the parable that went out to hire workers in his field. He goes to men and asks them why are you idle? They answer no one has hired us and then they go to work for the man. It is self-evident what the word means by studying this parable in Matthew 20:1-6. Not working is the definition of “idle”. Therefore, here is another verse in the N.T. that contains this same word:
2Pe 1:8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Greek word for “Idle” is found in this verse in 2 Peter 1:8. However, it was translated as “barren” in this verse. “barren” might mean the basic same thing as inactive or unproductive. But, I believe that God is seeking that we should avoid this situation of unemployed word from occurring in our life. I know it does not directly say “words” in this verse, but think about what the verse is saying, “in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus”? Isn’t that words? Isn’t “knowledge” obtained by words and we can’t say anything unless we have knowledge to do so” Also it would seem that “Idle” could be considered to be synonymous to being “unfruitful”. God is telling us in this verse in 2 Peter that we should not be either of these. You see to be “barren” can also mean to not bear any fruit. Jesus cursed the fig tree in Mark 11 because it was barren. Do you think he was symbolically giving us some valuable clues to spiritual things? It is also interesting to see the context of this verse. Let’s look back at a preceding verse:
2Pe 1:4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
The promised land, symbolically represents these “exceeding great and precious promises” that God has given to us in His word. As this verse says, that these promises have already been given, we are now required to possess them. To become a partaker is the same as to become a possessor. God had given Moses and Israel the promise land and told them to “partake” of it. They did not believe God and therefore failed to obtain what was freely given. The promise land represents the blessings of God. The promises of God also represent the blessings of God. Because Moses did not believe he remained in the curses in the wilderness and died there. This is a powerful type and shadow of what we have facing us today. There are giants in our spiritual promise land today trying to intimidate us and keep us out of possessing it. How do we do this? We speak only words that are “useful”, “employed”, “working”, “productive”, “active”, “positive” and “fruitful” words. Then we avoid all spoken words that are “idle”, “unproductive”, “inactive”, “negative” and “unfruitful” words. This is the lesson of Moses found in Numbers 14 and Jesus and the fig tree in Mark 11. These are the words of Jesus found in Matthew. Avoid these “Idle Words” and you will be very glad when it comes to the judgment day and you have a much better opportunity to possess the promises of God in your life today. Thank you for studying the Bible on this website and please leave a comment if you would like to share your experiences in this area of life. God Bless!
If you would like to continue to read this series of lessons on spoken words, you can go to “Part 3“.
Many Will Be Called, But Few Chosen! Predestination Debunked!
(Ver 1.3) This is Part 2 in an important series of Bible lessons addressing the erroneous belief of extreme “Predestination”. If you did not read “Part 1” I would highly recommend that you start there and come back to this lesson. Today I will address the erroneous philosophy of “predestination” again using the Bible. In my last blog I talked about how some believe that God intentionally hardened Pharaoh’s heart so that God could work great signs and wonders in Egypt. I guess some people think that God was just wanting to show-off! I do not know how people can get such mixed up ideas, but I guess it takes all kinds. In this blog I want to talk about another “hard saying” found in the Bible that appears on the surface to indicate that God has preselected some people and others He has purposely rejected. It appears to me that some even take it and twist this message to say that God has predestined some for salvation and others for damnation. This of course to me is clearly in error and it violates the character of God and it turns Him into something that He is not. If this was true, it would make God the Great Nazi Deity in the sky, who kills the inferior races and only selects those who are worthy or superior enought to be saved. Isn’t this what Hitler did? Is God the same as Adolf Hitler? I do not think so! What we have is a classic example of what I call “taking ‘a’ truth and trying to make it ‘the’ truth”. This is a widely popular error found throughout the church body where men choose to wrongly divide the Word of Truth in order to believe in their incorrect interpretation of the Bible. People need to realize that there is more than one truth found in the Bible and in order to correctly interpret any verse you have to take into account all of the other related verses. This of course is a very challenging problem we all face, because none of us knows every related Bible verse. Bible study is like building a house or a building. You must start with a basic firm foundation of Biblical truths to begin. If you try to build on anything else your house of interpretations will fall down too easily. So what we do is learn everything that we can about the basics and then start to build upon what we know and correctly apply these things to the new things that we learn. That is the best that any of us can do. Truth always builds upon truth yielding a sound and tight fitting construction, which will result in a structure that is not easily blown down. True Bible Interpretation is not a house of cards that can be toppled easily. So let’s look at one of these Bible verses that seem to indicate “predestination” on the surface.
Mat 20:16 So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.
Here we have Jesus, God in the flesh speaking to us directly and you can very easily take it the wrong way. You can use your limited human mind to conclude that God is omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient and therefore, whatever God wants is what happens to everyone. You can take this statement by Jesus to mean that God has chosen some and others He has rejected. I mean on the surface it really looks like this is what it could be saying. However, if you think about it more closely you will see that interpretation is a house of cards. You see why would God call “Many” and only choose a “Few”? If God was only going to select a very few, you would think that God would already know who was going to be selected and not bother calling those that would not be selected! Don’t you think that makes logical sense? Why even call them if they are not being selected? That would make God a teaser and a tempter. Hang some bait out in front of someone and then yanking it away right before they get to it. Sorry, you were not selected! Is that your God? That is not my God, so either we have different Gods or one of us is deceived! However, there are other hard sayings found in the Bible that are equally hard to accept on the surface and here is one of them:
Rom 9:13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
This is a difficult verse on the surface. How can God choose one son over another? You could take this as a predestination act of God, if you wanted to. The verse before this one says that while the children were still innocent and were even still in the womb, that God said the “elder shall serve the younger”. What people do not realize is there is a major difference between “predestination” and “foreknowledge”. There is a major difference between causing something to happen and knowing what will happen. God clearly tells us that He makes known the end from the beginning. Is this because God has predestined the end, or is this because God lives outside of the dimension of time and can forsee the end results. I personally believe that God can see the end and this is what He reports, especially when it comes to the knowledge of what people will do like Jacob and Esau. God already knew the character traits of each child and what they would do and what they would not do. However, “predestination” would dictate that God predetermined what each child was purposed for and preselected one and rejected the other. In other words in the “predestination” theology man plays no role in who God selects. I talked about God being the great puppet master in the sky, pulling everyone’s strings making them do this or that depending on what God wants done at that time. This is a common religious philosophy that is widely taught in some churches. These people subscribe to a “no fault” religion. They believe whatever happens to them in life, it is just not their fault! They did not do anything to cause it and they could do nothing to stop it! That is very ignorant to believe like that, but many people do it any way! After all it relieves them of any responsibility or accountability for what they do.
So why would God choose Jacob and not Esau? If you recall Esau ended up selling his birthright. Jacob probably did some unethical tricks to get his father’s blessing but nonetheless Jacob has became the rightful heir to his father’s name and fortune. You also have to realize that Jacob and Esau and this story is a spiritual foreshadowing of events to come. This story has parallels in the natural that are patterns and types of what God was going to do in the spiritual realm. Jacob is a type of Jesus Christ. I believe Esau is a type of Adam, Jesus Christ’s older brother. But, I know I do not have time to teach this and I probably already opened a can of worms that is causing some readers to draw back, so I’ll stop there for now. What we must realize is that Jacob was selected by God, because of what Esau had decided and the actions that he had chosen. People play a role in what God does through people more than most people realize. What people want and desire, what people think, what people say and do all play a key role in whether God is able to use them. If you want to live in sin and be mightily used by God, guess what, God is not going to hesitate to look for someone else. You are the determining factor to whether God is able to use you!
So why would God hate one son and love another? What does God hate? Let’s look in the Bible for the answer to that important question:
Deu 16:22 Neither shalt thou set thee up any image; which the LORD thy God hateth.
It would appear that God hates it when people serve false gods and idols. Hate is a very strong word. If God hates something it must be very bad. Do you think that Esau could have been involved with another god or idol? Do you know that it is exactly possible, here is another verse that speaks about Esau found in the New Testament:
Heb 12:16 Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.
This verse in Hebrews is interesting, isn’t it? The verse is talking about “fornicators”. In the Greek this word means “male prostitutes”. Because Esau compramised his integrity and sold his birth right God selected Jacob. You should use your Bible search program and go through and study the verses you can find out about “Esau” for there are many references in the Bible to him. He is a natural type of something in the spiritual realm that God hates. But, also look for verses that refer to “Edom” for this is the nation of children that came from Esau and see what God says about them. It is a fascinating study. Maybe after you read all of these verses you can begin to see why I believe that Esau represents Adam and Satan.
So let’s move on to some verses found in the Bible that directly challenges the theory of “predestination”. These verses will cause a conflict that must be resolved in order to correctly interpret the Bible. I’ll start with one in Proverbs:
Pro 24:23 These things also belong to the wise. It is not good to have respect of persons in judgment.
You see on the surface you ask, why is this verse related to our subject and that is why the Bible is so difficult to understand for many. They just don’t put the pieces of the puzzle together correctly so they end up confused and wrong. This verse ends in a statement that a judge should be fair to everyone. If a judge gave one man a 10 year sentence and let another man off for no time for the exact same crime, would that be fair to the one that got 10 years? Does God have mercy on some people like this and others He does not let off the hook and throws them into hell? Isn’t God the Supreme Judge of the Universe? So does God judge differently than you should? Why do you think that God came to the earth in the flesh in the first place? I believe it was to set an example that we should follow. So we should be attempting to become just like God? I believe that we are. So if God tells us to judge without respect to persons, God is already this way! Do you get it?
Act 10:34 Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:
So God tells us what Peter the Apostle discovered. Peter says that God shows no “respect of person”. This Greek word has the following definition from the Strong’s:
From G4381; to favor an individual, that is, show partiality: – have respect to persons.
This Greek word is pretty clear in its definition. To be partial to someone means you look favorably towards them. It means you place a higher preference or priority upon one than the other. It means you esteem some and look down upon others. This is the Bible definition to having “respect of persons”. It is clear that this is not an attitude that we should possess towards anyone. But, that doesn’t mean we should accept everyone as they are either. If you do, you will have to let your pedophile teachers, teach your Sunday school classes and that would be crazy wouldn’t it?
Rom 2:11 For there is no respect of persons with God.
Unless you are spiritually blind you cannot read a verse like this and still believe in the philosophy of “predestination”. This verse clearly says that God does not show favoritism towards anyone. God does not play favorites. God does not grant favors to anyone. God is fair and treats everyone the same or God is being unfair. You of course can ask a lot of questions and refuse to believe that this applies to God, but you would be failing to see what God is saying in the Bible and that is a huge mistake. So God has said for us to be fair towards everyone, because I am fair to everyone. So what is the determining factor of why God chooses one and not the other? As we saw with Jacob and Esau, it had more to do with what they did and not so much with God forcing the decision. Here is another interesting verse that is certainly relevant to our subject of “predestination”.
Luk 10:42 But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.
Jesus is at Mary and Martha’s house teaching and Martha comes to Jesus and complains that her sister is not helping fix the food for everyone. What was God’s response to this question? Did God say, “Mary I have chosen her and not you, I have done all of this for a purpose and a plan that you do not understand”? You see that would be a true “predestination” theologian’s viewpoint. Fortunately for us God did not say this. But, God says “Mary has chosen to hear the good things and I will not take it from her”. It appears that Martha could have chosen the same thing that Mary chose and asked Jesus to feed them when they all got hungry, but she didn’t do that. Jesus seemed to think that Mary’s choice was better than Martha’s choice, can’t you see the difference? Did what Mary choose to do affect her personally and the results that she got? Did what Martha choose to do affect her personally and the results that she got? The answer to both of these quesdtions is, YES! The decisions people make are directly involved in God’s ability to use them and that determines what they get. People have more to do with what God does, than they can possibly imagine.
Rev 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
Apparently God wants to come in and have dinner with you! If God wants in the door, do you think that God is not powerful enough to come in? Why would the omnipotent God be standing on the outside knocking if He really just wanted to come in to eat with you? The answer to that question is because God is a Divince Gentleman. God will not force anyone into anything. They must choose to open the door to let Him in. Do you see how ignorant people can get with their invented religious ideas that God is in control of everything that happens to a man, to his house and him opening the door to let God in? If God was in complete control He wouldn’t be knocking and waiting for someone to let Him in would He? God is God and He is all powerful, but He does not violate your freewill choice. God will not force you to open the door to your heart and let Him in. You have the responsibility to open the door and invite Him in. If you do not do this, God is a perfect gentleman and will not kick the door down like a thief or a robber.
Let me end this blog with this new and different perspective to the subject of predestination. Many times people do not think when they read the Bible so here is something new to consider. If God only chooses some why does this Bible verse say what it says?
Psa 69:28 Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.
You see you can very easily read a verse like this and completely miss what it says and think that it does not apply to anyone or anything. However, Jesus thought it was important enough and says this about it:
Rev 3:5 He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.
So what does this have to do with predestination? It is because you do not see, that you do not understand. This verse says everyone’s name was written down in the “Lambs book of Life“, but that some of these names have now been blotted out. In other words, God expected everyone to be saved, but obviously there are many who did not accept the free gift. You see God did not write your name in the “book of life” after you got saved. The Lamb’s book of life had every name of every human that was supposed to be here on this planet already enter into it. We can therefore conclude that God wanted everyone to be saved and those that overcame are the only ones that their names now remain in the book. So if God predestined anything or anyone, God predestined everyone to succeed and to be saved, but some chose to reject God’s plan and do their own thing. The word “Blot Out” means that the name was already there and removed or covered over using “God’s Whiteout”. People who are young do not understand the concept of “whiteout”, but those who are older do, before computers were around people would type pages manually and have to cover mistakes up with a white liquid paper product. I think you can still buy this product, but I doubt if it is very widely used for anything. This is however, the concept given to us in Word of God. God writes every name in the Lamb’s book of life and then depending upon their actions and decisions, God is forced to remove their name, if they so choose. It is truly amazing what the Bible says when you can see it! God Bless you and may you be blessed with the knowledge of Him that freely gives us all things!
If you would like to continue to read about this subject you can go to “Part 3“.
Does God Cause Some People’s Hearts to Be Hard? What About Pharaoh?
(Ver 1.4) This is the Part 1 in an important series of Bible lessons addressing the primary subject of Extreme Predestination. Many times people read things into the Bible missing what God actually says to make their own independent wrong assumptions. Ignoring all of the words written on one subject they simultaneously jump to the wrong conclusions based upon selective reading. Today’s Bible lesson will be a prime example of this type of error in wrong Bible interpreation. Reading the Bible in isolation and not allowing God to interpret the Bible is one of the most dangerous approaches to take in Bible interpretation. The Bible will always explain the Bible, but we are required to search the Bible in order to find these explanations. The explations are not going to come to you and fall into your lap. I once talked to a man who had graduated from an unnamed theological seminary, who claimed that God causes some people to be saved while choosing for other people not to be saved. This belief is very much the classic manmade “predestination” mentality or philosophy. His reasoning was based upon a combination of the known omnipotence of God, the sovereignty of God and several other beliefs that he attempted to use to explain why things appear to be as if God controls what occurs in the world. Because God is omnipotent and sovereign, his claim was nothing happened unless God authorizes it or commited it. He was very pleased to show me scriptures in Exodus that appear to say that God purposely hardened Pharaoh’s heart so that God could do some spectacular plagues and signs to demonstrate His great power. It is funny how religious minds work and think sometimes. They think they are right, but when you actually study it out you can find something completely different in the Bible. Many times the simple basic things written on the surface of the Bible give way to more elaborate complex spiritual meanings, that can be taken completely different than the surface reading. So this seminary graduate chose to believe something on the surface and did not look any deeper to find out if that was really what the Bible actually said. We as Christians, must weigh every scripture using other scriptures that are relevant to the subject. We must use the Bible to interpret the Bible correctly, because only God knows what it all means and not us! Today I will attempt to give you the rest of the story and help you to see the difference. Here are a couple of the scriptures that my confused seminary brother in Christ used to say that God had hardened Pharaoh’s heart:
Exo 4:21 And the LORD said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go.
Exo 10:1 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh: for I have hardened his heart, and the heart of his servants, that I might shew these my signs before him:
The Bible is written in a style that it can literally be interpreted in many different ways simultaneously depending upon the readers point of view or perspective. From a single verse, 12 different people can read it and get 12 different individual interpretations. This however, does not prove that any of them are right. God purposely selected this method and style of writing the Bible so that mankind would have a choice in what they believe. However, this does not mean every interpretation is correct, just because God allows you to jump to these wrong conclusions. You see in Exodus 4:21 and Exodus 10:1, that God is speaking to Moses directly and God tells him what to do and then tells Moses what will happen as a result of what Moses does. Religious people like to think that God’s will is the only will that is ever accomplished on the earth. If God wants something done a certain way, then God’s will automatically overrides everyone else’s will and God gets His way. That reasoning does not make any sense to me and I haven’t been able to find any Bible verses that directly back that theory. You see that theory would make God the giant puppet master in the sky who pulls everyone’s strings to make them do exactly what He wants, when He wants it done. That does not match the character or nature of God revealed to us in the Bible. This does not match other scriptures that say God has given man choices and decisions to make. If God was calling all of the shots, why would God say “Today I have set before you life and death, therefore choose life”. Bible verses like these tell me that man has a choice and God makes a recommendation which one we should choose, but is not forcing you or I into making this right decision. Therefore, we have a conflict presented to us in the Word of God. Is God a good God, like the Bible says or is He an evil God to some and to others He treats differently. Has God given mankind a choice in the result of their lives and their destiny or has God predestined some to hell and others to heaven? Were angels given the ability to make right or wrong choices? Does God really control everything that happens in the world, good, bad or indifferent? Does it matter what I do today? Can my choices change the results that I get? Will what I do affect anyone else’s results? What is the character of God like? Does God require man to do something that He can do differently and God calls it OK for Him, but sin for man? You have to ask yourself these important questions. These are hard questions and I cannot attempt to answer all of these in this one blog.
I have to admit, that reading just those two verses that I gave you in Exodus, that it really appears that God purposely caused Pharaoh’s heart to become hard, so that He could do some great signs. I mean you can very easily take it this way if you want to, by ignoring the rest of the Bible. However, the Bible is One Book by One Author, who has intentionally revealed Himself in a very tricky way by spreading out little clues about himself from cover to cover. We are required to find these clues first and then to use these clues to interpret the other verses in the Bible using this information. Our interpretation of a single part of the Bible needs to be in harmony with all of the other verses found in the Bible on the subject. One verse cannot contradict or conflict with another. If you think it does, then you are wrong and do not understand what it says correctly! God is always consistent and constant in His character, and His treatment of all people.
Often times people confuse foreknowledge with predestination. Just because God knows your reaction to some event that happens in your life, does not mean that God caused it to happen that way. So when God tells Moses of Pharaoh’s reaction to what Moses was going to do, why didn’t Moses stop and ask God what else can we do that will actually work and let the people go? Don’t you think that Moses could have changed God’s mind and His approach to something that would have actually worked, if there was anything that was going to work? Well the problem is still the question did God intentionally harden the heart of Pharaoh in order to accomplish His greater plan for Israel? I think we need to start this study by defining what it means to be “hard hearted”. Isn’t that what we are talking about? If God made Pharaoh’s heart hard, how did God do this and what transpired or changed in Pharaoh when this occurred? Did God do something in Pharaoh that caused him to react how he did? Was there a specific something that changed within Pharaoh that forced this reaction? Instead of trying to get a definition of “hard hearted” from the dictionary, let’s see if God gives us a definition in the Bible:
Mar 8:17 And when Jesus knew it, he saith unto them, Why reason ye, because ye have no bread? perceive ye not yet, neither understand? have ye your heart yet hardened?
Here is a classic definition of being hard hearted directly from God. Jesus is speaking to the disciples about them having no bread. He ends the verse with a four part question that ends with “did you harden your heart”? So why did God ask this question, if God was hardening their hearts? Didn’t God already know if He was intentionally hardening their hearts for some purpose? Isn’t Jesus Christ God in the flesh? I hope you can begin to see how foolish people can be by believing in “predestination”. Here we have God in the flesh asking if “they” had hardened their own hearts by doing what? Part 1 of the question was by “reasoning”. This is a mental operation of an advanced feature of the human capability. You can train a monkey to do something that gives you a specified result, like play a song on a piano, but they will never be able to reason for themselves in order to come up with the notes to a song! If you think differently, you are wrong! Humans have the capability to “think”, to “reason”, to “consider”, to “dispute”, and to “muse”. These are all logical methods of coming to a conclusion and then they also have the ability to discuss their thought process of why they came to this answer. A monkey can do this only in an extremely limited capacity. Keep in mind that “reasoning” ability is based upon knowledge. People are only able to come to conclusions based upon what they know about the subject. The more they know, usually a better decision can result.
So apparently “being hard hearted” involves your mind, your thoughts and your reasoning capability, based upon your previous knowledge. Then Jesus asks parts 2 and 3 of the question, “didn’t you perceive what I said?”, “and didn’t you understand it?” The first word to “perceive” is a very interesting word. It means “to exercise the mind”. It means to “think”. It also means to “observe”. All of these things are mental operations of the human mind. Now the next word translated as “understand” means “to put together”. It also means “to become wise”. It also means “to comprehend”. These are also all mental operations of the human mind. So what was one of the determining factors to why the disciples hearts were hardened according to Jesus and God? It was because they did not understand or see what was being said. They used their minds to reason the wrong things and come to the wrong conclusions based upon the knowledge that they had up to this point. So was this God’s fault or the disciple’s fault? Who caused their hearts to be harden? Was it the words that Jesus spoke or the their own lack of sufficient knowledge and inability to understand what he said that caused their hardness of heart? This is a very important lesson to learn, because it applies to most Christians in the world today. Jesus could ask the same question to most people who write blogs on the internet and even to many who sit in the pews of our churches. I’ll go even further and say Jesus could ask most preachers who graduated from seminary, what are you thinking?
Mar 16:14 Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen.
Here is another determining factor in the definition of “hardness of heart” given to us by God. Jesus met with the 11 disciples after He was risen from the dead and He more or less rebuked them for their “unbelief”. Jesus appeared to some and not others and some went and then told the others, but at least some of the others did not believe what was told to them. Jesus called this being “hard hearted”. This is also a key factor to what we find wrong in our churches today, and it speaks to why people do what they do. They either believe what is being taught or they do not! Those who believe are said to be “tender hearted” and those who do not believe are said to be “hard hearted”. Of course we do not believe anything just because someone says it, we have to be smart enough to verify it in the Bible, but that is a different lesson. So what we have learned is that people have a choice in what they believe, don’t they? By making right choices in what we believe we become more “tender hearted”, by making wrong choices in what we believe we become more “hard hearted”. I hope you are grasping these concepts, they do apply to you right now.
Heb 3:13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
So this is now factor three in the definition of becoming “hard hearted”. In, this verse in Hebrews God says to us, that the deceitfulness of “sin” is a key factor to becoming hard hearted. Sin involves missing the intended mark of righteousness and holiness. We are all guilty of this and some more than others. However, it is a determining factor of who is said to be “hard hearted”. Now I do not think that I covered this subject completely, but I have given you several key factors to the definition of becoming “hard hearted”. So let’s review what we have learned as to what causes people to be hard hearted:
- The Ignorance of People Who Do Not Know Any Better!
- Inability to Perceive, Hear, Observe, See Spiritually
- Inability to Comprehend, Understand Mentally
- Distractions of Temptation and Sin Physically
The result of these factors will culminate into:
- Wrong Thinking
- Wrong Reasoning
- Wrong Believing
- Wrong Conclusions
- Wrong Assumptions
- Wrong Actions
So do any of these factors play a role in the life of Pharaoh? If you do not think so, you would be wrong again! God gives us basic clues and definitions throughout the Bible and we must apply them correctly, so here I go. Did what Pharaoh learn as a child make any determination how he would react as an adult? Would being the leader of one the most advanced nations on earth with untold power and riches factor into how Pharaoh would react? Does the fact that Pharaoh and his people worshipped false idols and imaginary gods play any factor into how Pharaoh would react? You know there are just so many different factors to consider that go into this decision process that Pharaoh had, that I cannot come up with them all. But, when Moses appeared to Pharaoh and said “The Jehovah God” has sent me! What would have been your reaction if you were Pharaoh? This was not one of Pharaoh’s gods? Who is this God? That is what I would have thought! What was Pharaoh thinking while Moses asked for the children of Israel to be freed? Here the ruler of Egypt who possessed around 2 million slaves, was being asked to let them go for free and what do you think he thought about a request like that? Do you see how these factors that we just learned of becoming hard hearted from the New Testament apply to what happened in Pharaoh’s heart? Pharaoh did not believe Moses! Moses did not come in the name of any of Pharaoh’s gods! So when the true God says something to someone who doesn’t believe He exists, what is their reaction suppose to be? I hope that you are beginning to see how complex the world and the Bible is.
Let’s continue through the Bible in Exodus and see what else God says about Pharaoh’s heart being hardened:
Exo 8:15 But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart, and hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said.
This verse is a little different than the first two that I gave you from Exodus. This time it says Pharaoh was the one that hardened his own heart. Moses had been commanded by God what to do and say before Pharaoh. During this time, Pharaoh’s magicians would counter the acts of God with their own similar tricks. Pharaoh saw these great signs of God as just being a magic potion of a sorcerer, which he could also cause to be produced using his own magicians. Whatever, God did, the magicians of Pharaoh countermanded them with their own spectacular results. So far God hasn’t done anything that was spectacular enough for Pharaoh to be impressed with. Pharaoh did not believe in the God of Israel, so there lies the root of Pharaoh’s greatest failure in judgment.
Exo 8:32 And Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also, neither would he let the people go.
Here we have another verse that clearly says Pharaoh was responsible for hardening his own heart. Do we have a contradiction in scriptures or just a simple misunderstanding of what it all means? Can God harden people’s hearts simply by them not believing in Him? Will what people think about what is said to them, affect what they choose to believe? Did God harden his heart or did Pharaoh harden his own heart? Can you see how both of these statements are true at the same time? God hardened the heart of Pharaoh and Pharaoh hardened his own heart are two perspectives of the same event. What if Moses had come in the name of the god “Apollo”? Would the reaction of Pharaoh had been different? I do not think so. So you cannot say that it was God’s fault for hardening Pharaoh’s heart. Pharaoh didn’t believe in “Apollo” any more than He did “Jehovah”. All Pharaoh knew was this was not his god so he was closing his mind to what else was being told to him. Christians do this in churches every day. A new teacher comes to town and says something that doesn’t fit what they think and they shut down and do not hear the rest. It didn’t matter if it was directly from God and the truth, it was just not what they wanted to hear so they ignored it. I know this happens with the things that I write on my blogs. Many read it, but do not believe it, understand it or accept it so they shut their minds down and ignore it all.
1Sa 6:6 Wherefore then do ye harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? when he had wrought wonderfully among them, did they not let the people go, and they departed?
In this verse we again see a comparison being made between the people of Israel and the people of Egypt ruled by Pharaoh. We can see very clearly that each of these people are responsible personally for hardening their own hearts. There is no contradiction to the scriptures and there is no predestination reality with God. God knows the decisions you will make, but you are still responsible for them, not God.
Eze 36:26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
Do you know this scripture is talking about you? If you are a Christian, you have this new heart available to you right now! Did you notice that God said I will take out your “Stony” heart? Isn’t a “stony” heart a formerly hard hearted person? This again can be taken incorrectly, as something that God is solely responsible for making happen. Some people still think like God is the spiritual surgeon who does a spiritual heart transplant surgical procedure in every believer! But, that would not be a good interpretation of this verse based upon what we have learned. God says I will replace your stony heart with a soft tender heart of flesh. Are these symbolic references? Yes they are! Is God responsible for this happening in you? Yes and No! You still have a part to play in the procedure. God never overrides your will and makes you do anything. God never takes anything away from you that you do not want taken away. God never gives you anything that you do not want to have. This is the character and nature of the God and Man relationship. However, without God doing anything we would all be hopelessly hard hearted. So it is a partnership between us receiving what God has freely given to us by faith. Here is an analogy that helped me tremendously when I studied this subject about the hearts of mankind. I heard a preacher teach this so I cannot take credit for it, but, I will share it with you, so that I can help you to see it also.
Jesus Christ is called Light. Jesus Christ is called the Sun of Righteousness. Jesus Christ is compared symbolically to the natural sun in our sky. The church is said to be in the “Day” and not in the “Night” or the darkness anymore. Darkness represents the domain of Satan and evil. So the church walks in the Light of God and Jesus Christ has risen in our hearts to give us this new glorious light. So what can we learn from this symbolic representation? Does the sun shine on everyone equally? Or does the natural sun in our sky shine only on the righteous and good people in the world? Of course the sun shines on everyone the same. What causes the same light to shine on everyone equally the same with no bias or prejudice towards anyone? Is this the nature and character of God exemplified in a natural part of creation? Are the hidden qualities of God being clearly shown to us by looking at the sun in our sky? Does God treat everyone the same? My Bible says God shows no respect of persons, so God must be fairly treating everyone the same. God has given the same Bible to everyone that contains His words of hope! Yet some believe it and some do not, is this God’s fault? Did God make one person hard towards the Gospel and another He made receptive and tender? Why does the same natural sun in the sky, both melts wax and hardens clay simultaneously? Is it the sun’s fault that these two objects react differently? It is the same heat and light source upon both objects isn’t it? But, the reaction to this light ray is completely different based upon the type of object absorbing or being bombarded by the light. Can people choose to be hard or tender to the Light of the Word of God in the same way? Do people have a choice in what they do, what they hear, is what they think important, what about what they say and how they react? Of course people have these choice everyday and that is exactly why some people harden their own hearts and refuse to hear the truth and others are receptive and open and learn the truth. The same Sun shines on everyone, but not everyone chooses to react the same to this constant light source. You must choose to be wax and refuse to be the clay or you will become harden in your heart toward God also.
This is precisely the situation of Pharaoh in Exodus. God said something that Pharaoh did not want to hear. God said something that Pharaoh did not consider important. God said something that Pharaoh did not think was relevant to him or his situation. God said something that Pharaoh did not believe. So, God knew that no matter what he said, Pharaoh was not going to let the Israel people go. Pharaoh wanted them for their labor and their lives of service for his own good. Pharaoh let power and influence determine his outcome and the result ended very bad for them. If you did not know it, Egypt is a type of the world. Pharaoh is a type of Satan. Moses is a type of Jesus, the deliverer and the children of Israel a type of the Church. These are all types that represents patterns of things that were to come in the spiritual realm in the New Covenant of God. Our spiritual Deliver is Christ Jesus who has freed us from the captivity of sin and Satan. You have to decide right now are you a child of Egypt or a child of Israel and choose to become hard or tender toward what God is telling you right now.
There are many other things to learn from these lessons of Pharaoh, but I have gone too long in this blog. I pray that you received something that was a positive benefit in your spiritual walk with God. God Bless!
If you would like to continue reading in this series about the subject of “Predestination” you may go now to “Part 2“.
Introduction to the Trinity of God, God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost!
(Ver 1.4) Today’s lesson is “Part 1” in an essential Bible series of truth concerning the revealed triune nature of the Godhead. This lesson will be focused upon an essential introduction of the subject. Because there are new Christians all the time, I realized people are like me and do not know everything. There are new people choosing to come into God’s family every day that need to learn the fundamentals of Christianity. Furthermore, this seemingly simple subject can become immensely technical and deep. So I will occasionally teach on basic Bible concepts that everyone should become intimately familiar with. By building a strong foundation on the Word of God, you are better able to defend your faith to others who may raise questions to why you have chosen to place your hope in and believe in the Bible (1 Peter 3:15). If you do not know anything the Bible says you are not able to share with others to help them enter into His truth. So today I want to introduce another basic foundational Bible concept. How can one God be viewed in three different ways? It is really not too difficult to understand these three personalities of God, if you research them in your Bible. They are easily seen, frequently named and usually only ignored by people who do not want to accept them. God is called first and foremost a Spirit (John 4:24). Therefore every other manifestation of God must originate from His Spirit. You see one manifestation of God is accomplished by Him giving Himself a new titled description for His Spirit. God the Father is a title or a name for the Spirit of God who procreates and has covenants, a family and children. God is the Father of all spiritual beings (Heb 12:9). If you have a spirit (and you do), it came from only God’s Spirit given to you in your mother’s womb at conception. This truth delegates the responsibility of all human spirits to acknowledge God to be the original Father of their spirit.
Then there is God the Son. This manifestation of God occurred when the Spirit of God came upon Mary the virgin and she conceived a male child named Jesus (Luke 1:35). The body of Jesus came about as a union of the Seed(Word) of the Father God and the egg in Mary’s womb. The combination of these two (physical egg and Spoken Spirit Word) produced a child that was not God, but yet had the Spirit of God in Him. It might seem rather confusing at first, if you have never been taught this way. You see the Bible says that “No Man” has ever seen God (1 Jn 4:12). But we know many men and women saw physical Jesus Christ when He was here on earth. But they all technically just saw the body that contained the Spirit of God and they never actually saw God who is a Spirit as we learned from John 4:24.
The plot thickens however, because Jesus did say “when you have seen me, you have seen the Father” (Jn 14:7). So Jesus did not separate Himself from the Father at any time. Jesus repeatedly said that He and His Father were One (Jn 10:30, Jn 17:11). So when Jesus walked the face of the earth and spoke to the people, whatever He said was God speaking, because Jesus was God in the flesh (Mat 1:23). Or we could also say that the Spirit of God was in the flesh of Jesus.
BIBLE FACT 1: ONLY ONE GOD
I think I will begin this lesson by establishing Bible verses that clearly declares that there is only one true God who created everything. There can be a potential problem when studying the trinity because of these three titles, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. These three titled manifestations of the God can easily lead some to believe we have 3 different Gods. But this not true. Only One God created everything we see and God gives credit to the operation of all three divine descriptions to have participated in creating us. Let us start with a basic law from God in the Old Testament:
Deu 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:
This is a classic verse written in the Law of Moses. God declares that He is One Lord! The children of Israel widely accepted this verse and believe in this One True Lord! However, when He visited them personally in the flesh, they put Him to death on a cross. Why didn’t they recognize their God? That is an obviously good question to consider and answer. It seems the Nation of Israel is still stumbling over the same things as they did back then. I have talked to Jews and they hate Christians and put them down as a false religion. Little do they know that they are the ones now in the false religion of works that will not save them.
Mar 12:29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:
Jesus, who was God in the flesh did not contradict the Old Testament law, but further confirmed that there was only one Lord God. Many times people have a tendency to limit what God can do and put God in their very small and limited religious box. God can do something so very radically different that the things we can think of with our simple natural minds.
In fact God has already done some very radical things that we are just now discovering in the Bible. But, these people in Jesus’ day did not recognize their God, because they did not expect Him to be standing in front of them in this humble form. Perhaps they had read about God in the burning bush speaking to Moses, or in the cloud on top of the mountain meeting again with Moses and they think that this is the way God always talks to men. So heaven forbid if God does something so new or radically different to come in person in the flesh and stand before them and speak! That just doesn’t make any natural sense for an omnipotent God to do, does it? Of course the Jews were not privy to all of the facts either. They did not know that the angel Gabriel had visited Mary when she was a virgin and said she would conceive a child by the Spirit of God. They were not privileged to know that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the city of David and the prophesied birth place of their Messiah.
The Jews only knew that Jesus was a man from Samaria and a city of Nazareth. They understood how, He had grown up like every other child in the region and nothing appeared to be different or unique about him. They assumed Jesus was just like the other children in the family of Joseph and Mary and no different than His natural half-brothers or His natural half-sisters. The Jews made wrong assumptions and never attempted to find out the truth by asking relevant questions. They were deceived by Satan and they killed the God who came to save them. Thank God, they did because we now are saved because of it. Obviously, God foreknew how they would react and what they would do, since He purposely chose this specific time in human history to be born into the world.
Mar 12:32 And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he:
Here is a verse of scripture that confirms what the Jews believed. They knew that the Bible said there was only One True God! This scribe declares that there are no other true gods except Him. But, yet he was talking to Him personally and never realized it either. That to me is a very sad story.
Jas 2:19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.
The devils and Satan know there is only one True God! They are extremely fearful of Him. In fact they are doing everything they can legally and illegally do to try to keep the plan of God against them from coming to pass. It is interesting to see how many men and women in the world are so passive toward God. So many could care less if there is a God, they are consumed with their own agendas. People’s priorities sure need to change, don’t you think?
Mal 2:10 Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?
Here is an interesting verse of scripture. It tells us that there is one true Father God. Then it also says there is only One True God who created us! The Bible is a very complex book and tells us many things that are difficult to wrap our human thinking minds around. The trinity of God is one of these concepts that is difficult to fully grasp for human thinkers not thinking in a higher spiritual God kind of way. How can one God be manifested in various ways using different names and titles? You see this verse calls God the One Father, but yet Jesus in John 8, in talking to the Jews said “ye are of your father the devil”. So obviously Jesus did not see them as his true spiritual brothers. Jesus clearly said that He had a different spiritual Father than they did. This partly demonstrates an ongoing problem of many religions in the world today. The Jews thought that God was their father, but Jesus declared something that was completely different than what they thought. So they were wrong and Jesus was right. Many people today want to be all inclusive and say every religion is just another path to the same god. But, they are also wrong. Let us look at another verse from 1 Timothy:
1Ti 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
You see the Bible declares something very different than what people think. That is why Christians are many times accused of being hateful and narrow minded. Those who see the truth, know that there are not many paths that lead us to the True God. For example, this verse in 1 Timothy declares the opposite. God says there is only one path way to God and that is only through the man Christ Jesus. The Messiah Jesus was God in the flesh! God came to the earth personally to accomplish everything that He needed to accomplish and He did it personally to insure that it was done correctly at the right time in the precise way. The term “mediator” is an interesting Greek word so let’s look up the definition and see what it reveals:
From G3319; a go between, that is, (simply) an internunciator, or (by implication) a reconciler (intercessor): – mediator.
The word “internunciator” carries a meaning of someone who speaks on the behalf of someone else. “Inter” can mean between and “nunciator” is someone who speaks. So Jesus became the one in between man and God who is authorized to legally speak to each opposing party. So a “mediator” is someone who is also a go between of the two parties often times in a legal battle. Both of these titles fit the situation the human race was in. We needed someone to be our legal attorney to plead our case for us, because we did not have a legitimate case without this help. God provided Himself an intercessor, a spokesman for the human race when we had no chance of salvation. Because God became a man, every man and woman now has a chance to talk with God personally. Humans were incapable of saving themselves and we were in dire straits without a hope of any future. God provided the way out of our dilemma, before we ever understood what a dilemma we were in.
You cannot be narrow minded when you read the Bible, if you are you will not be able to accept some of the radical concepts that God introduces you to. God is One God, but comes to us in different ways for different purposes.
Remember that the Bible says that “No Man” has ever seen God, but that doesn’t mean we cannot come to know Him. God being a Spirit, makes it difficult for natural men and women to grasp all of the hidden qualities of His nature and personalities. What we must do is become spiritually open to what God wants to do and realize that whatever He does will probably be different than anything we could have imagined. Learn the lesson of the Jews who did not recognize their God when He chose to walk in their presence in the flesh. You see the Bible says God is not a Man (Num 23:19)! That was a completely factual truth when these words were recorded in the Old Testament. But that does not mean that God could not become a man if He choses to do so. Jesus Christ was the Word (God) made to be a flesh body (Jn 1:14) and it was this human body that contained the Holy Spirit of God. But I do not believe that this manifested physical body containing God limited God in His spiritually manifested form to only be in the body of Jesus. In fact the Bible clearly tells us that every Believer who has accepted Jesus as their Lord now has the Spirit of God living on the inside of them. So obviously God’s Spirit is bigger than the individual body of Jesus Christ alone. Part of the Spirit of God is in me right now! If you are a real believer, then a part of the Spirit of God is also in you! Because the Jews put limits upon God and would not let Him out of their small mental box, they were unable to see Him clearly. Do not be guilty of putting God in your small box and miss Him either!
1Co 8:6 But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.
There are so many verses that declare and name God as being One! This verse speaks of two parts of the trinity as both being this One God that we are learning about today. God the Father, is the original spiritual father. But, Jesus Christ, the Son of God is also this same One Lord God! Notice that this One Lord Jesus Christ created all things. So you cannot separate the two manifestations of God and say they are two different Gods or Creators, they are just two personalities of the same One True God. Now let us shift focus from seeing God as being just Two to see how God claims to actually be Three in One.
TRIUNE = THREE IN ONE
1Jn 5:7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
This is one of the greatest scriptures in the Bible directly naming all “three” members of the unified trinity and calling each of them all One! However, notice that the Son of God is called the Word of God in this verse and that is a revelation that you need to get a hold of. In John the 1st chapter verse 1, God tells us very Clearly that God and the Word are One in the same. Then in verse 14, God tells us that the “Word became flesh and dwelt among us”. So we can now begin to understand how God could become a man called His Son in the flesh and still be God Almighty. I guess I should address the fact that this verse is widely reported to be false because it is not found in every manuscript. However, this is the ploy of Satan to attempt to delete these words to cause doubts in the minds of people. You see you can find this basic information in several other verses in the Bible and therefore I am confident in all of these verses of truth. Check in John 5:37 and see where God the Father is being a witness of God the Son. Read about Jesus being called the Word of God in Revelation 19:13. Look at 1 John 4:14 where it speaks of God the Father and God the Son. Look at John 15:26 where Jesus the Son of God describes the Spirit of God coming forth from the Father God to “testify” of the truth of Jesus. A witness in the Bible is always someone who can testify in a court of law under an oath, so again we see the trinity in very revealed self-evident terms. There are many verses in the Bible like this but I’m not going to do all of your Bible study for you today in this introductory lesson, so please make the effort and go and search to find more of them.
CONCLUSION
So this has just been a quick and simple introduction to the subject of the trinity of God. I concentrated mostly on scriptures that declare that God is One True God. But, I also introduced you to the fact that God can do things differently than we expect, if He wants to. It is interesting that God always worked in the Old Testament through a mediator, a go between. Either Moses, or another prophet would go to God and get the message that He wanted them to hear. God used this principle and pattern of a go between for literally hundreds of years. But, when God became the “go between” in the form of the man Jesus Christ, the majority wanted nothing to do with Him. God did something the same way that He had always done it, but implemented it in a different way and they automatically rejected Him because He was so different than what they thought. Jesus Christ became the Moses mediator of His day on earth and God’s own people refused to listen to Him. I guess being “narrow minded” applies to many people in the world. Everyone thinks they know what they need to know and when God does something different, we like to criticize it and brand it as a false teaching. What the Jews should have done was to search the scriptures and find out what God was going to do and then verify if what Jesus said went along with it. Instead of thinking they knew what was right and what was wrong, they should have been open to some new viewpoints of truth. We as Christians also need to search our Bibles and see what God is going to do and remain open to Him potentially doing something that we did not expect Him to do.
Finally, the Bible says that Satan will do everything that he can to deny the deity of Christ. The antichrist we are told in 1 John 2:22 will deny that Jesus is the Christ and claim that God had no Son. God says very specifically that this antichrist will deny the existence of both the Father and the Son. There is a major reason for this denial of truth, which I cannot get into today in this lesson. If it were not important God would not have warned you about this. I will say briefly two major religions of the world deny God had a Son and these are the Jewish and Islamic religions. That is very important for you to know if you miss the rapture. It is clear to me that Satan will do everything in his power to deny the trinity of God and will cause many people to fall into deception to believe this lie that there is not a trinity. You need to understand that this is why it is important to know and study this subject so that even you will not be deceived when this occurs. Thank you for reading and studying the Bible with us at Agapegeek.com. God bless you and please share this lesson with everyone you know. Press “Like” also and all of this will help others find us. God Bless you until next time.
If you would like to continue reading in this series, please proceed to “Part 2” now.
The Sin Unto Death! Part 2 The Unpardonable Sin!
(Ver 1.3) Today is Part 2 on the subject of “Once Saved, Aleays Saved”, “Eternal Security”, or “Unconditional Security” of the believer after salvation. I will continue to talk about this subject today in greater detail giving you a new perspective on the subject that I call the introduction of the unpardonable sin. Does an unpardonable sin exist? Can a Christian commit this sin and even lose their salvation? In the first lesson on this subject I contrasted the teaching of some churches that is often called the doctrine of “once saved, always saved”, to a new but clear reference found in the Bible of what God calls the “Sin Unto Death”. In that lesson I taught that God instructs us not to even pray for a person that has commited this type of Sin Unto Death. If you did not read this first lesson, I would strongly suggest that you go back and start your reading with “Part 1” and then continue forward to today’s lesson.
So what is the “Sin Unto Death”? As you recall from Part 1 of this series I determined that man still possessed a free will choice and that they could decide at any point in time not to be saved. This action would result in their rejection of the saving grace of God. That which God has given to them for free can be freely given back to God at any time. People will never lose the right to choose between good and evil, God and Satan, light and darkness even if it is an extremely stupid choice to make the wrong decision. I do not think that the people who teach “once saved, always saved” have taken this reality into account. They simply want to rely on the divine omnipotence of God to make all of their choices and decisions for them but God just does not do this. There are several references in the Bible that indicate people must strive and contend for the faith (Jude 1:3). That there is a struggle and an armed conflict raging in the spiritual realm (2 Tim 4:7). We have a spiritual enemy doing all that he can to deceive us and cause us to turn back to our previous ways. There are numerous scriptures that clearly inform us that people are not once saved and then can never make the choice to go back to their old life styles. For example:
Heb 10:26 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
This verse in Hebrews is another prime example of someone who was saved by the shed blood of Christ and who has now wilfully chosen to go back to sin. Wilfully displays a choice of their freewill. This verse describes a Christian that has learned the truth of God’s Word, but now decided to ignore it. I gave you another verse in the last lesson and it was interesting to see that this person was described as someone who has trodden or walked on the Son of God in verse 29. This is a common Bible term that is used for when someone defeats an enemy. So to this person, Christ is no longer their savior, but has become their enemy. When a person turns back to this old way, you can read here in vese 26 that there is no more sacrifices that can save them. This verse says that they had accepted the one true way to God but have now turned away from the truth and as a result have lost their salvation without any hope for salvation. That is a clear definition to what an unpardonable sin is. God clearly tells us that there is only one sacrifice for our sin, not two, three or more. Christ died one time on the cross, so do not take it lightly, thinking that it is OK to walk away from Christ and that you can come back whenever you like. This is the sin unto death that God is speaking of.
Here is a new problem that I was recently introduced to. One persons tried to explain away all of these verses in Hebrews 10 as not applying to Christians because they said this book was only written to the natural Jews or the Hebrews. Wow, people can become so deceived, can’t they? How ignorant do you have to be to not see this book was written to church? That means it was written to me! That means the scriptures apply to me. If you used their logic then the book of Timothy only applies to Timothy and we should it ignore it also. Using their logic the book of Romans was only written to the people in Rome so we should iginore that one also. I could go on and on like this through every epistle in the N.T. and explain each of them away using some ignorant human reasoning. I’ve seen this type of behavior by Christians and even seminary graduates repeatedly. Whenever they do not want to embrace a truth as being applicable to them, they say it was written to someone else. Heaven help them to see the truth!
THE UNPARDONABLE SIN
Now is the time to get into my new main subject verse that is very important for you to understand. Here is another key verse of scripture that has great significance to our subject of eternal security and to what I have been teaching on subject of the sin unto death. The Eternal Security Extreme Grace message is based solely upon the theory that there are no sins that are possible for a Christian to commit that will cause them to lose their salvation. I mean that would be a radical message, if that is what Jesus believed. However since Jesus didn’t even believe that I think I will not write off His words to believe in a false eternal security. Look here in this verse in Matthew, and see that Jesus is speaking and that He says some things that are very hard to accept for my Grace teachers so they have to ignore them or explain them away:
Mat 12:31 Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.
Apparently, according to what Jesus just said there is at the least one sin that will not be forgiven of anyone that commits it. If you did not understand that this was an all-inclusive statement that leaves no one out, then you are not reading it correctly. This verse would have to apply to all Christians as well as to all non-Christians equally since Jesus did not qualify the target audience. Jesus informs us that there are a whole bunch of different kinds of sins and blasphemies that will be forgiven a man or a woman on this planet. But, Jesus then says that there is one that will not be forgiven any man or any woman at any time and that is when they blaspheme the Holy Ghost. Therefore, if there is just ONE SIN that is unforgiveable, then salvation is no longer unconditionally secured, but has been transformed by definition to a conditional salvation. Remaining saved would then be totally dependent upon you not commiting the blasphemy of the Holy Ghost. That clearly changes salvation to an unsecured CONDITIONAL event! So let’s define this word blaspheme, using the Strong’s:
G987
From G989; to vilify; specifically to speak impiously: – (speak) blaspheme (-er, -mously, -my), defame, rail on, revile, speak evil.
Obviously, according to this definition, blasphemy is the spoken words of a person, that are directed against the character of God. As you can see it implies that God’s character and nature is good and yet I hear men constantly speaking of Him in terms of being an evil being. I would be very careful with what you say about God, after reading this verse. If you walk about speaking of God as being evil or being the reason for evil you do not understand the Bible and are in jeopardy of being guilty of blaspheming the Holy Spirit of God. I heard people speak of God being responsible for the 9/11 attacks of the terrorists and that to me is blasphemy. I have heard people claim God is responsible for the earth quake in Haiti, and that to me is also blasphemy.
Satan uses whatever he can to try to deceive you. I have been guilty of this in the past. Because of my ignorance of the Bible, Satan used my ignorance against me to his advantage when I was young. I remember when I was a kid growing up in church, a traveling minster came into the church and spoke. I do not recall everything he was talking about, but I do know that he spoke about the “unforgiveable sin”. Later in my life, as I was getting close to 21 years old, I was faced with a very hard set of circumstances. I was recently married and my father fell unconscious in his living room. It appears later that we found out that he had a stroke. They rushed him to the hospital and he lay there for a few days still unconscious. Now my father was a preacher a big part of my life. He went to Bible school and had a church that he was the pastor of and seemed to me to be doing the right things. One day as I drove by the hospital I was very discouraged and down about the situation and I said out loud “if this is the kind of God you are, I don’t want anything to do with you”. You see we had many Christians praying and God was not appearing to answer. What I did not know was all of the things that God had tried to do months earlier to get my father to change and fix the problem that was causing these results. My father either out of pride or rebellion did not heed the warning given to him by a great man of God that tried to help him. My father was sitting in a Bible class with this man one day and God showed the teacher that my father was going to die. God told the teacher what to say to him and asked my father to come see him privately to talk about it. This man prayed for my father in public, but did not tell anyone what he saw or what God said. Months later this same man spoke at my father’s funeral service. God put the responsibility of what happened to my father in my father’s hands and my father chose to ignore it as being unimportant. You do realize that God leaves your destiny up to you and you alone?
So now the years went by and Satan used the fact of what I said to God to convince me that I had committed the unpardonable sin against God. Satan used the words of a minster from my childhood to convince me that I could no longer by saved. Ministers need to learn to be careful what they say to who. If they are not careful they can affect someone just as easily negatively as they can positively. There were times that I thought of suicide and had a desire to just end it all. But, thank God for His mercy and His grace! You see later in my life I had another situation come up that I had no other place to turn, but to God. In crying out to God for help I started to seek Him to know Him better and to see if I could still be saved. I learned from my mother that God had tried to help my father months before he died in that Bible class. So it was not God’s fault that my father died. So even though I blamed God for it, it was because of my ignorance of the situation that caused me to say what I did to God. God as a result did not hold it against me and God could still and did forgive me. One night with my wife, after I had been seeking for more of God, God came upon me and then filled me with His Spirit on the inside. This was a manifestation of His Spiritual divine power like I had never experienced before or since. God solved Satan’s plan of deception with an experience that left no doubt in my mind that God was real and that He was on the inside of me and I belonged to Him. I now knew for sure beginning that night that I had not committed the unpardonable sin and that God cared about me personally enough to prove it. So I cannot guarantee you that God will do for you what He did for me in the exact same way. Rarely have I ever seen God do the same exact thing twice in the precise same way. However, God knows how to reach you if you are interested in being reached. If you believe in God, like I did you have half the battle won. If you want more of God and are truly hungry and thirsty for more of His Spirit, you are on the right path to allowing God to work in you, however He sees fit to make Himself real to you. God is sovereign and God is omnipotent. But, God will not override your will or your choices. God will remain hidden, until you make the choice to seek Him diligently.
So I gave you a mini version of my testimony and I usually do not talk about me in my blogs. My blogs are not about me! However, I think my experience might be able to help someone so I included it in hope that the right people would find it.
1Jn 5:16 If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.
If you are concerned that you have already committed the unpardonable sin, but are questioning it and reading this blog, you probably have not. Satan is very tricky, he definitely uses what you do not know to hurt you and deceive you any way that he can. Satan uses your thoughts against you. He puts doubts and thoughts in your mind to mislead you into destruction. Be hungry for the truth! Seek God with all of your heart! God will not let you down, He actually wants to show you how real He is.
Rom 6:16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
There will always be a choice set before you as long as you are on this earth in the flesh. God will never take your ability to choose away from you. You can choose to obey Him and His Word or select to go your own independent way. This verse in Romans clearly says that you still have responsibility and the choice to make and this verse was specifically written to Christians. There is still a “sin unto death” and this is also called by the synonymous title of the “unpardonable sin” that Jesus spoke of in Matthew. If you still do not understand what these are you should go back and reread these lessons and look up every scripture in your own Bible and study them more until you get them on the inside of you. I’m not through with this subject because God says many more things in His Word that we need to know about it. So I will continue “Once Saved Always Saved” in the future. God Bless!
If you would like to continue reading on the subject of Once Saved Always Saved you may continue with “Part 3“.
God In 3 Dimensions, God For Us, God With Us, God In Us!
(ver 1.1) The Bible speaks of God in many different aspects with various described characteristics. The New Testament also states that we in the church today are now in a better covenant than the one that came before (Heb 8:6). What makes our covenant better now than the one that was established with the natural nation of Israel? I will not attempt to fully answer that question, but I will give you some pertinent clues to why I think it is better now. In the Old Testament God was certainly for the nation of Israel. God was certainly with the children of Israel. But, I do not think that God was ever in the children of Israel. God dwelt with the nation of Israel only in things that were built with the hands of men. Moses made God a temporary dwelling place using tents. Solomon built God a temple in Jerusalem. But, all of these things were just temporary patterns made by men for something that was to come that was made by God. Let’s examine the Bible today for God’s realities and why we have a basis of a better covenant now.
We will start with God being with us and look for Bible verses to establish God’s presence with His people. What does it mean for God to be “with” us? One definition of the term “with” is to be in the company of. In other words to be in the same company. God is said to be in our company. You could say that God is said to be our companion. Here is a Bible verse that appears to convey this thought:
Psa 46:7 The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.
God is the Lord of hosts and this verse establishes the idea that God was with the children of Israel in the Old Covenant. We can read stories in the Old Testament when Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt, how God went before them in the day as a cloud and a fire by night. So we can clearly see how God was present with them during their time in the wilderness.
Isa 8:10 Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us.
We can clearly see that there are implied benefits for God being with us as this verse says that God was with Israel. This verse is speaking about the subject of spoken words and this verse implies that they can be weapons against us. But, elsewhere in the Bible God also said that no weapon formed against us will prosper, so we can see this is possible because God is with us. God is on our side, by our side and that is a very good thing. We have specific benefits, because God is with us.
Mat 1:23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
This verse in Matthew is a little different than the others. This time God is spoken of in terms of becoming a man like us and walking around with us on this planet. God in the flesh, walking around looking just like us. That is the powerful story of the salvation and redemptive plan of God. If God never came to be with us, we would all still be in dire straits. Let’s shift gears and look at the next dimension of God, God For Us!
Rom 8:31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
It is said that God is “for” us. This is contrasted as an antonym to the word to be “against”. I am certainly glad that God is not against us. However, I think that many religious people struggle with the concept of God not currently acting as the judge, the jury and the executioner. Whenever, 9/11 happened and terrorist flew planes into NY and Washington D.C., I heard many Christians try to say it was God’s judgment upon us. However, these are ignorant Christians who do not understand that God is “For” us and not “against” us. If God was “against” you and that was His judgment, no one would be alive to tell the tale. There is coming a day of judgment, but that is in the future. Right now Satan is responsible for all of the killing and murder going on in the world, not God! Satan is against you, God is for you. I could give you many more verses that speak to God being for us and not against us. But, I want to move on to the third dimension of God that makes our covenant much better than the Old Covenant God had with Israel. You see God was “with” Israel and “for” Israel, but never “in” Israel. We have this gift of God and it makes our covenant much better than the old.
Rom 8:9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
You see in this verse in Romans, God is saying that those who are born again, have the Spirit of God dwelling in them. God further stipulates that the Spirit of God is also called the Spirit of Christ. You cannot separate Christ from God nor God from Christ, they are one in the same. What is the difference between Old Testament prophets and New Testament Prophets? Both have a prophets anointing, but the New Testament prophet has God living on the inside of them and the Old Testament prophet did not. An anointing is like an outward pouring of the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God comes “Upon” a human and is anointed to do a specific job for God. David was anointed to be King by Samuel. The prophet poured the oil over the head of David and this was symbolic of how the Spirit of God came upon him. If David would have had the Spirit of God on the inside of him, David would have had to drink the oil. Little details like these are often times missed when casually reading the Bible.
Rom 8:11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
This is another verse in the same chapter of Romans, that declares that the Spirit of God dwells in the believer. This of course is very hard to describe to someone who doesn’t believe. I can tell them that I have sensed the presence of God within in me at times, in the past sometimes very strongly, like my insides were on fire. Other times I have felt nothing at all. But, regardless of the feeling or sensations that I perceived with my senses, I know He is there because His word says He is. He said He would never leave me nor forsake me, so I know He is there all the time. God can give you sensations that can be physically felt if He so desires and thinks that you would benefit from them. However, it is dangerous to pray and ask God to do this, because Satan can also manifest to deceive you. I never prayed or asked God to make me feel like I was on fire on the inside of my chest, God choose to do this because I guess He thought I needed it. Be very careful what you pray for, make sure it is based upon scriptures. I do not know of any verses that says God will give you any specific feeling in your flesh to confirm His presence.
Col 1:27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
There are many verses like this one that I could include, but they just go to confirm the fact that the Spirit of Christ now dwells in those that believe. This is truly a mystery to the world and to the natural Jews. They have never experienced this, but they do have the opportunity to participate in this great mystery if they choose to. The free gift of life and salvation is open to whomsoever will. What does it mean to have God dwell in us? To dwell somewhere implies a place or a location that we live. Say a specific address or a specific city. I dwell in Dallas, TX, some might be able to say. A dwelling also implies a home. God has made his home in us. We are now the new home of God. Where we were not His home we have become His home. This is really an awesome difference between the New Covenant and the Old Covenant. The church is the New Jerusalem, the spiritual city of God’s new home. We have become this spiritual city built up in Christ, Jesus Christ the chief cornerstone, where in we all fit together being built up in the spiritual realm.
So God is For You! God is With You! and God is In You! if you are a believer and have made Jesus your Lord and Savior.
Speak To Your Rock! Why Moses Didn’t Enter into the Promise Land!
(Ver 2.4) If you have ever read my blogs you know that I can be controversial. I say things that are new and different. But, I can only say what God teaches me to say and I have learned that God is different than anyone else I’ve ever met. So if I say what God says to me, it will probably be different than what most men say and teach. Today I want to explore some scriptures that God taught me many years ago. Why didn’t Moses get to enter into the promise land? What kept Moses out from the promised end of God’s plan? The examples written in the Old Testament are there so that we can learn not to repeat the same mistakes that they made. If we can learn these lessons from Moses, I think we can apply them to our situations today. We have a better covenant, established upon better promises, yet we do not possess them automatically. Even though God had already given the children of Israel the Promised Land, they were required to do something to possess it. This is an extremely valuable natural typology of a pattern that is repeated in the spiritual realm for the church. So let’s examine what kept Moses out of possessing God’s Promised Land.
I want to examine verses in the book of Numbers. In chapter 20 of Numbers, Moses has a big problem again. He is attempting to lead the people of Israel through a desert, there is little to no water to drink and the people and the animals are all very thirsty. Moses goes to God and asks for help and God responds with a set of specific instructions, so let’s now start reading with what God says to Moses in the desert.
Num 20:8 Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink.
God gives Moses a very specific set of instructions with a limited number of steps. These are not complicated steps, but yet people sometimes hear what they want to hear, instead of what God says and that get’s them into trouble in a very big way. As we read through the rest of this chapter we find that Moses did not do what God said to do. Let’s examine carefully the specific set of instructions that God gave:
- Take Your Rod.
- Get Your Brother Aaron.
- Gather the People before the Rock.
- Speak to the Rock.
- Give Everyone a Drink.
Five little things God told Moses to do. There were five little specific steps of instructions from God. Was this complicated? No! Was this different? Yes! God had never given these instructions to Moses before, so maybe Moses had a struggle with them or maybe Moses just assumed he knew what God had said. Maybe he heard in his mind something different? I do not know, I do know that it is interesting that Moses is the one that wrote this book of the Bible and if he made a mistake or didn’t understand it why did he write about his short comings? Interesting question isn’t it? What I learned from observing the instructions of God is that He rarely repeats exactly what He said for you to do before. If God told you to strike the rock last time, then guess what you will probably be doing something different the next time. I’ll talk more about that later. Let’s read through Numbers and examine what Moses did, instead of following God’s instructions:
Num 20:9 And Moses took the rod from before the LORD, as he commanded him.
Num 20:10 And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?
Moses makes a great start to obeying God, but a really lousy ending. Let’s examine what Moses did according to these two verses and list the steps that he took:
- Moses Took the Rod.
- Moses Met with His Brother Aaron.
- Moses and Aaron Gathered the People Together Before the Rock.
- Moses Then Said to the People.
The first 3 steps seem to be perfect matches to the instructions that God gave to Moses. So when did God ever tell Moses to say anything to the people? I know that you have to say something to them to gather them or assemble them before the rock, but when did God tell Moses to speak to the people after they were all gathered together? Did God tell Moses to preach to the congregation? Did God say to tell the congregation anything at all? I do not think that He did. This represents the beginning of the downfall of Moses. As soon as you start deviating from the plan of God, you begin to miss it and you fall into disobedience and there is the root of his problem. If we continue reading in the next verse we will see what Moses did next:
Num 20:11 And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts
Did you see what happened next? Let’s continue our list of what Moses did and analyze them to see what they say to us. We are now on step 5 of what Moses did.
5. Moses Lifted His Hand.
6. Moses Smote the Rock.
7. Moses Smote the Rock Again.
8. Moses Gave Everyone a Drink.
You can see that Moses did eight things to God’s 5 step plan of instructions. How many things is that, too many? Of course that is 3 things too many. God never told Moses to raise his hand. God never told Moses to strike the Rock. Why did Moses have to hit the rock twice? I think it was simply because nothing happened the first time Moses hit the rock. I believe that God realized that Moses wasn’t going to follow the plan so He was merciful and gave them water to drink anyway. Moses had to hit the rock twice before anything came out and I bet you that Moses was a little concerned after nothing happened the first time that he struck the Rock. What we must realize is that even though God still gave the people a drink, Moses’ actions taken had grave consequences attached to them. So what was God’s response to Moses and Aaron’s actions taken? Was God pleased? Of course not, God says something that is very profound:
Num 20:12 And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.
God reveals the reason Moses struck the rock instead of speaking to the rock, as being a case of his unbelief. Moses apparently had a problem with speaking to an inanimate object and expecting anything to happen from just your spoken words. I’ll bet you a lot of Christians are still like Moses today. God was trying to teach His servant Moses a valuable lesson about the spiritual law of words. Words have authority and power behind them and God was attempting to raise Moses’ expectation level and spiritual awareness. We know that previously in the wilderness that God had told Moses to strike the rock to bring out water for the people, but this time God changed the plan. If you did not realize it, God hardly ever does the same thing twice. By God’s instructions, Moses was supposed to speak to the rock before the people. So while the people were watching, the people would have learned a valuable spiritual lesson also. But, Moses failed and as a result God told him that he would not enter into the Promised Land that he had already given to them. 
That is a sad lesson, but that is not the entire story. You see you have not gotten the symbolism in this story found in Numbers. It is very important to see that this story is covered with types and shadows of spiritual things to come. The children of Israel are a type of the church. Moses and Aaron are types of the leaders in the church. The Rock is a type of Jesus Christ. The Promised Land is a type of the Word of God, the promises of the New Covenant. The wilderness can represent the time of trials or tests in the life of believers. The water is most often representative of the spiritual drink of God’s Word.
1Co 10:4 And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.
1Co 10:5 But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
1Co 10:6 Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.
So what are the lessons that we the church should learn from this one story in the Bible?
Let’s go back through the story again and this time look for the spiritual typology. God tells Moses to take his rod. The rod represents a symbol of power and authority. It can also be a symbol of correction. You can rule with a rod of iron and that would represent a strict control of intolerance or of a swift set of consequences for disobedience. However, God never tells Moses to do anything with this power symbol. God then tells Moses to get with Aaron his brother. I feel like this represents church leadership talking together and working together for a common goal for the good of the people. Then God tells these leaders to gather the people. The people represent the church and they should be meeting together to witness the example of the leadership of God’s plan in order to learn what God is doing. Now, here is the real lesson from the story. I believe that we can see and learn a lot from the next instruction that God gives to Moses. Step 4 God said for the leadership to “speak to the Rock”. What did the Bible say was the Rock? The Rock represents Jesus Christ. So what is Jesus Christ? Jesus Christ is the answer to your every problem. What was Moses’ problem? No water or angry upset rebellious people? Obviously Moses’ problem was his own people. You need to understand this, because it is very important to see. People are the biggest problem in any church. If it weren’t for people, church would be a great place to be. People are the biggest challenge any minister faces. People like to talk, gossip, complain, criticize and many other ungodly things. People will start divisions, confrontations, internal fights, and just complain about anything they think that doesn’t fit with what they want to see happen. People will start petitions, call for church meetings and votes to try to run the show and all along disregard God’s appointed leadership, his anointing, His plans and His purposes. God has placed leadership in the church. Pastors and teachers are called by God and appointed by God to do a specific job in a specific way. Most of the time God deals with the leadership of the church and tells them exactly what to do and say to the people. This is a significant learning point from the patterns found in the story of Moses and the children of Israel. God never addressed the congregation or spoke to anyone in the congregation directly about how to run the the group or what to do. God always went through His chosen leader recognizing spiriutal organization and sturcture. This is how a church is supposed to operate today. In the church it is a little bit different in that God is inside of every believer and He will speak personal direction to each individual believer. However, God still recognizes spiritual order and He will not tell anyone in the church how to run the church other than the pastor.
Where was Moses’ downfall? What was the first thing that Moses did that was not on God’s instruction list of 5 specific steps? If you recall the downfall came when he started talking to the people. This is a critical lesson for preachers as well as for the congregation members to take note of. Here is the principle that Moses failed in. Moses had a problem with the people in that they were thirsty which caused them to be rebellious. Why didn’t Moses just speak to the Rock and get the answer to his problem? Instead of speaking to the Rock and getting the answer, Moses called the people “rebellious rebels”. Here God is trying to teach Moses a lesson concerning a spiritual law of speaking the answer and Moses chooses to speak the problem instead. Wow, did you just hear what I said? That was more than worth your time reading this lesson if just you understood that one very important point. This is a critical lesson to learn and apply to our situations today. God never said to speak to the people, and speaking to the people who were the problem was not going to bring Moses the answer. You know if you tell someone who is a thief that they are a thief, it will never cause them to come up higher and change? If you speak to rebels and say they are rebels, they will never learn to change. Speaking to your problem and saying they are your problem will cause them to continue as they are and they will remain your problem because of your words spoken over them. The people of Israel never learned any lessons from this experience. Moses never learned any lessons either. God told Moses that he was not going to lead the people into the Promised Land because of his unbelief. Moses was probably one of the greatest Old Testament prophets of God and he came far short of the destiny that God had intended for him. Can’t you see how his example of failure applies to you and can it help you not to repeat his mistake? If you can, it will radically change what you say to who and when. Many times it would be better to keep your mouth shut and not say anything than to speak the problem and remain in unbelief and miss out on God’s answer to your problem. God told Moses that if he would only speak to the rock, that the rock would obey his words. That statement boggles most Christian’s religious minds. God will do what I say? If you would only study the Bible and what it says about the words that you speak, you would certainly change many of the things that you say. The problem is that most Christians fall into the same unbelief category and continue to speakto and about their problems. Earlier in the book of Numbers, God revealed two things to Moses and Israel that have a direct bearing on everything that I just said about Moses. You see it would be unjust if God punished Moses for doing something that God had not already told him to do and explained to Moses how things will work. If we go back and read we will discover that God had already given Moses two spiritual laws to learn and to follow. Take a look at what God says in these verses:
Num 6:22 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Num 6:23 Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them,
Num 6:24 The LORD bless thee, and keep thee:
God taught Moses and Aaron, that they could bless Israel with the words that came out of their mouths. By Moses speaking these positive good words over the people, God was able to bless them and cause them to prosper. As you read down in this chapter, Moses and Aaron are supposed to say several other words of blessing and then in verse 26, God concludes that “I will bless them“. Here is the principle given, you speak blessings and I will bless them! Did you get that concept? That is exactly the opposite of what Moses said and did. Moses looked at the people and called them “Rebels”. Can God bless these words? What you find is that Moses ended up cursing his own people with his words and that is a major problem. God cannot bless Israel because Moses did not follow the instructions of God and the spiriutal laws of God. To emphasize the point even clearer to Moses in couple of chapters God tells him directly something that is very hard to misunderstand:
Num 14:28 Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the LORD, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you:
These words were spoken directly to Moses and Aaron, the leadership of the nation of Israel some 6 chapters earlier than the “speak to the rock” chapter in Numbers 20. God reveals to Moses a spiritual law concerning his words that he speaks. This spiritual law applies across the board to everyone in the congregation as well as the leadership. God tells Moses that I will do whatever you say. This verse tells me that God listens to the words that come out of your mouth. Whatever you say, that is what God will do to you. I know most Christians do not believe this. That just doesn’t make any sense does it? Why would God do that? I do not know, but yet it is exactly what the Bible just said, isn’t it? I guess Christians think these people in the wilderness were different than us today. They were not really examples that we can learn anything from. I guess people do not realize they are our examples and we better learn from their mistakes, or we will be doomed to repeat their failures. There are many other Bible verses that I could go into right here to confirm what I have just said. You can study them for your selves and see if they are there, or you can simply ignore them all and think they do not apply to you. I’ll give you one confirmation to the words that I have just taught on and this is information found in the book of Psalms:
Psa 106:32 They angered him also at the waters of strife, so that it went ill with Moses for their sakes:
Psa 106:33 Because they provoked his spirit, so that he spake unadvisedly with his lips.
As you can read this is God’s commentary on the story of Moses that we just studied. In these verses God tells us that the children of Israel made Moses angry. God calls this the waters of strife. By making Moses angry we are informed that his spirit was provoked to speak unadvisedly with his lips. You can clearly see from this verse that it was what Moses said that was his problem and not his striking the rock. You should learn that what you say is also potentially your greatest problem area and learn to control your tongue even when angry or being upset. You can clearly see a connection of what you say coming from your spirit inside of you. This is an extremely valuable lesson to see and to learn from.
One of the most important subjects in the Bible to study and to understand is that about your spoken words. God tells us that He is listening to what we say and that He will do to us whatever we say. If we speak evil, that is what we will get. If we speak good things, that is also what we will get. Your words only affect your outcome and what you get. Because, the children of Israel, murmured and complained to God about their situation that is what they got. The older generation did not enter into the promise land, except for Joshua and Caleb. What made Joshua and Caleb different? What caused Joshua and Caleb to enter in where the other people their age all died? You should go back and read that story very closely and see what Joshua and Caleb said, when the others said the exact opposite. God did to Joshua and Caleb what they said and the others also got what they said. This is a prevalent reality found throughout the Bible, from cover to cover. You can read practically any story in the Bible and you can observe very closely exactly what they say, then read ahead and see what they got in life. It amazes me when I study the Bible like this and see what God’s response is to what people say. I know there are other spiritual laws in the Bible also; this one is not the only spiritual law that affects what people get in life. But, this one is certainly one of the ones’ that people do not have a clue about. Elvis Presley said he would never live to be older than his mother and he did not. My grandmother said that a crazy driver would be her end and two teenagers racing ran into the side of her car and killed her. If you look at what you have today and analyze it with what you said in the past, it will almost always add up to the same results. Learn to be careful what you say even in jokes. I’ll try to do more lessons on words in other blogs, but I have gone long enough today. God Bless!
If you would like to continue reading this series on words, you can go to “Part 2“.
Bible Creation Revealed! Pt 4 – The World that Was PT 2!
(Ver 1.1) This is now Part 4 of a series of advanced Bible study lessons about the creation timeline using God’s perspectives. If you have not been reading this series from the beginning I would recommend that you go and start with “Part 1“. In my last blog I introduced you to the “World that Was”. There are numerous Bible verses when viewed correctly, that reveal to us a civilization on our planet that was completely destroyed by God. This previous world system helps to explain the age of the universe, dinosaurs, and other factors that science conflict with what some Christians seem to teach about creation. You cannot look at a star in the night sky and say that it is only 6000 years old. It took significantly longer than that for the light from that star to reach where we are so that we can see it. Astronomers and scientist using radio telescopes, the Hubble telescope and other methods can look out into space and can view things that occurred millions, even billions of years ago. I have heard some Bible teachers claim that God only created things with the appearance of age. In other words they were saying God was a deceiver of mankind. Create a world that looks really old but call it new. Is this what your God would do? Does this fit the character of God’s integrity? I do not think so! So we have to put the pieces of the puzzle together correctly to see what God reveals to us about creation in the Bible and that is what I have been trying to do. I am attempting to put the puzzle pieces given to us in the Bible to discover the truth of creation.
There are many Bible verses that we need to see that speak to us and give us clues about creation and Genesis. Let’s look at some additional verses found in the Bible that at least imply other worlds existed other than our present world. Here is a verse that has clear implications written within it:
Gal 1:4 Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:
Do you understand that you do not need to qualify the noun “world” with the adjective qualifier “present evil” if this is the only world that ever existed or ever will exist? What we see is an implied reference to both a world that was before our current world and a world that will be after our present evil world. You have to be smart enough to see what the Bible says. Think about this, if there are only two world systems, the evil world and the good world to come, you do not need to add the word “present”. You only need to add the word “present” world if there existed a “past” world. Otherwise, you could differentiate our world from the good one to come by the one adjective “evil”. Do you understand this logic? The Bible is very tricky that way. God is so much smarter than us and He knows exactly how to say something so that you can gain a tremendous amount of information from just a few words, while making it difficult for you to see at the same time. If you can see all of this it will help you to understand other Bible verses. Here is another Bible verse that is more direct about the world that is to come:
Eph 1:21 Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:
You have to be blind not to see that God is telling us that we are living in a temporary world system right now that is not going to be the same world system in the future. God will implement a change and recreate the world system. God calls this a new heaven and a new earth in Revelation. If there will be a new heaven and a new earth and a new world system that is to come, you have to admit that it is at least possible that there existed an older world prior to our current world also.
Eph 2:7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
Here is one more verse that speaks of a world to come. This is the same Greek word translated in other places as “world”. It speaks of a coming time where God will bless those who are in Christ Jesus.
Heb 1:2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
We have seen several verses now that imply there is or was more than one world created by the Words of God. In this verse in Hebrews 1:2 we can again see a reference to us being in the last days of our current world. We can also see that Jesus created this world. But, since the word for “worlds” is plural in the KJV Bible as it should be, we can understand that not only is there another world that will come in the future by the Word of God, we also know that there was a previous world that was also created by the Word of God in the beginning.
Heb 11:3 Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
I believe I gave this verse earlier, but I want to emphasize the plurality of the word “worlds” in this verse. Some might try to say that this is only speaking of our solar system and the other solar systems in the universe and that is the plurality. That is an interesting misinterpretation of this Greek word. If you recall there are two words translated as “world” in the New Testament. One meaning an “orderly arrangement” and the other meaning an “age”. This word in Hebrew 11:3 means “ages”. As in multiple slices of time. We are living in a current world age, there is a coming world age and we have clearly seen that there was previous world age before Genesis 1:2.
So what happened to this world system that came before Genesis 1:2? Who destroyed it and why? We are not given a lot of clues in the Bible, but we are given some clues so let’s look at some of them:
Isa 14:16 They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;
Isa 14:17 That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?
These verses found in Isaiah are widely believed to be a description of Satan. I firmly believe that is exactly who these verses are talking about. But, then you also have to notice what they say about Satan. They are not prophetic words of any coming events, but they are more like the words of a news report of a past historic event. These verses speak of a catastrophic event that occurred within earth’s history. It speaks of a complete and utter destruction of a world system. A system with inhabitants, with organized cities, and all of the other qualities that we possess now. A city implies roads, buildings, walls, safety and security. It implies an organized government and the rule of kings with kingdoms. All of these things were destroyed between the verses of Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2 because of Satan. Let’s back up in the chapter and view the conformation to who this is speaking about and what God reveals to us in his description:
Isa 14:12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
Let’s analyze the first part of this verse. It declares that God is speaking about a spiritual “fallen” being named Lucifer. The Hebrew word for “fallen” means “to cast down”, “to perish”, “to overthrow”, and “to die”. We can clearly see that something happened to bring Lucifer down. This Hebrew word for Lucifer is also a fascinating word with a specific and direct meaning. It implies “brightness” like the sun. It also has the literal meaning of “the morning star”. The morning star is not Venus or some other bright star like object in the night sky. The “morning star” is our sun that rises in the morning. This is a very significant name and title. This verse calls Satan the “son of the morning”. I hope that you understand that the word “morning” means “early light”. God is giving us a very significant clue to the identity of Satan. God is calling him his son. We know in the New Testament that it declares that God is Light! So being called the son of the “early light” implies a son of God from a very long time ago. This verse has direct implications of being a long time ago by the word “early”. This implies “first light” or the time when light begins to form in the sky before the actual sun rises. If you have ever witnessed the sun rise, you can learn a very important lesson to what God is telling us about Satan. Satan was one of the first, if not the first creatures created by God. He would have been the equivalent to Adam the first creature of our world. Lucifer would have been a pattern or a model of Jesus that was to come. If you search your Bible you will find that Jesus gives us the same information in the book of Revelation for the name of Lucifer. Jesus informs us in Rev 22:16 that He is the true “Bright Morning Star” because He is the root and offspring of David. What Lucifer use to be, is what I really am, says Jesus.
Heb 1:5 For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?
This verse in Hebrews is an interesting contradiction to what I just said or is it? If you look closely at this verse God is speaking about angels. We know that Lucifer was the chief angel. So God is making and demonstrating a major difference between angels and His Son Jesus Christ. God did not become a natural Father to any creature except to Jesus. Because of the virgin birth of Jesus, Jesus has become the only son of God born of a natural woman. This makes Jesus radically different from Lucifer doesn’t it? Lucifer was never born naturally, so while he was a spiritual son of God, he was never a natural son of God. Jesus was both a spiritual and natural son of God and this makes Jesus the true “morning star”.
1Jn 3:8 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.
For this reason Jesus Christ came to the earth, to undo the works of the devil. What works were these that caused God himself to come to earth to undo what had already been done? That is an amazing question to ponder. This verse in 1 John tells us that Satan had been sinning from the beginning. Now that we have seen evidence for another world system that Satan caused to be destroyed, we can begin to understand why God created another new world system and came to earth personally to make sure it worked this time. So we can assume that Satan was sinning from the beginning of time and not just from the foundation of the current world. We must begin to understand that these two events are different times and different worlds.
Here are some more verses that are specifically related to the subject of the Bible account of creation. These verses that I will show you will further confirm the existence of the previous world and what happened to it. We will begin to read starting in chapter 4 of Jeremiah and verse 23:
Jer 4:23 I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.
I hope that you can see the significant similarities of this verse with Genesis 1:2. If you do, you will see they are directly parallel descriptions speaking of the exact same time period. This verse is God’s commentary to Genesis 1:2 and gives us additional information that is related to what happened to cause this condition of destruction. We can also see the declaration that the earth was covered with darkness. It is assumed that there is something blocking the sunlight from penetrating to the surface, something like very thick clouds or very deep water or both. We can clearly see that this verse is directly speaking of Genesis 1:2 and 1:3. In Genesis 1:3 God says “let there be light”, this would be God’s answer to the problem of “no light”. Let’s move to the next verse and see what else God is describing to us:
Jer 4:24 I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly.
I am not really sure how to take this verse, it says there were mountains, but yet it declares they were moving lightly. To me that would seem to indicate that the currents of the oceans caused them to move and shake. But, here is the verse that I want you to start taking note of for what it says:
Jer 4:25 I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.
Now we have a major clue that God is talking about Genesis 1:2. God says in this verse that there was no man or no Adam. The Hebrew word “man” is the same Hebrew word for “Adam”. God is saying there is no Adam yet and all of the birds that were in the sky have vanished. Why would God speak of birds vanishing before there was no man named Adam in the same sentence? Adam was created on the last part of day 6 of the recreation account in Genesis 1. The birds and other animals come on the 5th day of God’s recreation. So we can clearly see that whatever time God is speaking of is before both of these have occurred. Yes? There must have been birds back in Genesis 1:1 that all disappeared with the rest of God’s creation. There really is no other logical explanation for this verse. Now it is really going to get good, let’s read verse 26:
Jer 4:26 I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD, and by his fierce anger.
So what cities is God speaking of that was before Adam came along? Again we have to be smart enough to put the pieces of the puzzle together correctly, but this is a major clue to what happened in Genesis 1:2. God declares that the world that was changed from a fruitful place to a wilderness. God specifically says that in this world there existed inhabited cities. The Hebrew word for “city” in this verse means a place that is guarded by a watch. This implies a government, organization, leadership and a lot of inhabitants. But, God also informs us that these were all broken down. This Hebrew Word for “broken down” has the following definition:
A primitive root; to tear down: – beat down, break down (out), cast down, destroy, overthrow, pull down, throw down.
Isn’t that what God said to Lucifer? How are thou “fallen”. In this word it clearly means someone destroyed these cities intentionally. They were leveled as if they had never existed. God declares that He was extremely angry and this is why that world was destroyed. Because of the sin and ungodliness that existed in that time God had to destroy it.
Jer 4:27 For thus hath the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end.
In the next verse, God is still speaking of the time before Adam and says that world was completely destroyed and perished. The Hebrew word for “full end” can mean “completeness”. What God is saying is that just because that world perished, it was the not the end of all time. There was more to come, a new world that Adam would be given. All of these statements were given to us as clues to what happened in Genesis 1:2 before Adam was put on this planet. God specifically speaks of a destruction that occurred that caused the world to be “void” and “without form”. These are the descriptive terms given to us and they help us to see that these verses in Isaiah and Jeremiah are God’s commentary on the Bible creation account found in Genesis 1.
Because many people do not understand how God wrote the Bible, they do not know how to look for the hidden clues in the Bible. The Bible is not in chronological order, nor does it have all information on any given subject in any one location or book. God spread out clues in the Bible in widely dispersed random patterns, hiding them in and around verses that are not always related. God can jump from one subject to another subject using a wide perspective of time periods, people, natural vs. spiritual things, places and many other ways that He has used to conceal information from his enemies.
So all that I have been trying to do is to read the clues found in the Bible and put them together logically to help us understand what God is really saying. It involves work, research, study and a major effort to find all of these verses and then additional effort to understand them and put them together correctly. I know it is not easy to see, I know it can be taken other ways, I know there are many other possible interpretations, I know you can believe what you want to despite what I said. God will always allow people to be wrong. So I have presented a new perspective and at least given to you some new things to think about and to consider. I pray that you will study to show yourself approved unto God and not rely on me to do your Bible study for you.
There are still many questions that come to my mind about this world that God describes as being before our world. Here are some of my questions, maybe you can come up with some others.
- Why didn’t God come to the earth and offer salvation to that world?
- Who were these multitudes of earth inhabitants that perished? Angels?
- Did they all go to heaven after God destroyed this world?
- If the Bible says that death came by Adam, how could this world be destroyed and animals, birds and all the other creatures, plants and living organisms all have died?
- Why couldn’t God just throw Satan into Hell with his followers before He created our world?
There are just so many very tough questions to answer still. Obviously the Bible is a very complex book full of answers if we can figure them out or better yet when God shows us in the Word what it all means. I’ll end this blog with this verse of Jesus speaking:
Rev 1:8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.
Jesus Christ is speaking and calls himself the beginning and the ending of all things. The Lord that is, that was and the Lord which is to come. We can again clearly see the significance to three different and separate worlds mentioned in this verse. It says within the realm of time, Jesus existed in the world that now is, the world that was and the world that will be coming in the future. The Bible has many verses like this all over it, if you can find them and relate them to the subject. I never try to provide every scripture reference to a subject that I teach, that would be a very difficult task for anyone to do. So I try to provide at least two or three good references to help establish every word that I teach from the Bible. By doing this we can be assured that it is correct and then can go and try to find other confirming verses. If you know of other verses that I did not include I would be happy to hear about them. God Bless.
What in the World is God Waiting For? 3 Things God is Waiting for Before Jesus Returns!
(Ver 2.1) Did you know that God is waiting for specific things to occur before Jesus comes back? If you did not know this you could be a potential hindrance to when Jesus comes back. I know that doesn’t sit well with a lot of religious minded people. People widely believe that God is sovereign and because God is sovereign they believe that He also gets whatever He wants, whenever He wants it. Nothing happens they believe unless God commits it or permits it. If this was the way God really was, He would remind me more of an immature two year old who always wants their way and screams when they do not get it. I do not think God acts like a two year old. A two year old has no patience! But, God is described to be the God of Patience in Romans 15:5. You do understand that if God was not waiting for anything to happen, then God would have no need for the virture of “Patience”, right? The association of God with the term Patience reveals that God waits for things to occur and that He does not cause these things to occur. Of course it is more complex than this, because even the farmer has patience for his crops, but yet he is the one that planted the seeds to cause the predetermined future outcome of his crop. This is really a better anaology for God’s patience also. God awaits for His outcomes to come to maturity that He has planted and we will see this more clearly as we continue through this lesson. I hope that you understand what I just said about the concepts of paitiece and what the word means. You see, I do believe that God is sovereign, but I also believe that God has character, morals and principles that place self imposed limitations upon Himself to what He does and when He does it. This is called self-control and this is a clear sign of physical and spiritual maturity. Patience is also a Christian developed attribute or fruit that God is awainting to manifest in all of us.
There is a popular church doctrine called preminence that states Christ’s return is emminent and at hand. Meaning there are no scriptures left to be fulfilled in all of Bible prophecy for His soon return. There is two erroneous assumptions dictated in this doctrine. The first problem is that you assume that you know and understand every Bible prophecy and this is clearly a mistake from someone who has raised themselves beyond where they are presently in spiritual knowledge. No one but God knows every prophecy and understands them all. Are you God? Then there are the verses in the Bible like the ones that I’m going to give you today, that these types of teachers must explain away or ignore completely to hold fast to their doctrine of preimence. So what does the Bible tell us are the certain specific things that God is patiently waiting for to happen before Jesus returns? Today I am going to discuss three things that God is waiting for. When I read verses like these, I ask myself, if God wanted them to happen, why doesn’t He just make them happen? That of course is an excellent question. Apparently God is not in total control of everything like some people think He is. Before we start let’s define waiting. What is waiting?
WAITING: remaining inactive in one place while expecting something to happen
According to this defintion , the word waiting means to sit inactive in one place while expecting something to happen. Does God do this? To think of God being inactive blows my mind, and I know it is hard for people to conceptualize. However, you might be surprised that God does do this. You should actually read your Bible more closely and pay attention to find out what God does and what God doesn’t do instead of just assuming you know.
1. GOD WAITS FOR THE PRECIOUS FRUIT OF THE EARTH
Let’s look at an important verse found in the book of James that clearly tells us something that God is patiently waiting for, before Jesus returns to the earth:
Jas 5:7 Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.
What is this precious fruit of the earth that God is waiting for? This verse is clearly saying God is waiting for something in relationship to a prerequisite requirement that must occur before Jesus’ return. You do realize that God is the husbandman in this symbolic filled verse? One interpretation for this verse is telling us that God is waiting for people to get saved before Jesus returns. God wants everyone to get saved according to 2 Peter 3:9. If you read 2 Peter 3:9 you will find the word “longsuffering” associated with God and this is again referring to God’s great patience in waiting. If God wants everyone to be saved, why isn’t everyone saved already? Apparently it is up to others to go tell people so that they can get saved. Apparently people have to accept the free gift of salvation. So apparently God has done everything that He is going to do to get people saved and He is now waiting on us to go into all the world and preach the gospel (Mk 16:15). This verse in James tells us that God has “long patience”. Did you know that patience is a sign of maturity? If you do not make people do the right thing, then sometimes it takes patients to give people the opportunity to learn to do the right thing. This is one of the greatest qualities of the Omnipotent God! God wants people to get saved, but will not force anyone into making this decision. So God is waiting with great patience for as many people to get saved as can. There are many days on earth I look around and see all of the evil things going on and ask God “What about today? Send Jesus back today!”. But, I know there are so many more people who can be saved if we try to reach them.
The salvation process is also being called a farming process. A husbandman is the owner of a field where a crop was planted. The husbandman plants specific seeds into the field that He desires to see grow to produce specific mature crops and this created process always requires time to develop. What does a farmer do after planting his crop? Mostly a farmer waits for the crop to come up. This is an inactive time befor the coming harvest season. Is God’s crop ripe yet? Has this planted crop fully matured? You do know that the harvest season is upon us?
2. GOD WAITS FOR HIS ENEMIES TO BE MADE HIS FOOTSTOOL
So we have seen that God has long patience and can wait for what He wants to happen without forcing them to happen. What else is God waiting for, before Jesus comes back? In this next verse God informs us of something that is potentially controversial, yet I still believe what it says:
Heb 10:13 From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.
God is waiting for His enemies to put under His feet. A footstool is where you put your feet to rest them. The coming time of rest is a 1000 year millennial time period that corresponds to the 7th day of creation when God rested from His work in Genesis 1 and 2. God expects His enemies to be made His footstool before this happens. Where are God’s feet? The feet are in the body of Christ. Christ is the head, but the church is the body of Christ so where is God’s feet? Who are God’s enemies that He is expecting to be under our feet? It is Satan and his demonic host of angels. God expects them to be placed under our feet. Jesus will not return until this happens and I know that is a very controversial part of my blog. I have heard many preachers claim that Satan was put under foot by Jesus on the cross. However, the Bible has so much more to say about that and I will not attempt to elaborate on all of these verses in this blog. If you desire to learn more about this you can read my blog on “The Seed of the Woman, The Seed of the Serpent“. So the Bible says God is waiting for His enemies to be made His footstool, when is this going to happen? How is this going to happen? What is God waiting for, is it you again? I’ll give you a very quick overview to help get you started:
Rom 16:20 And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.
I will close this section with this verse helping to prove Satan is not underfoot yet. At the time of the writing of this book of the Bible, the Apostle Paul claimed that Satan’s head was not yet bruised. Paul wrote this well after Jesus was raised from the dead and had returned to heaven. The majority of preachers today teach that Jesus was the seed of the woman that bruised the head of Satan, but they have to ignore Romans 16:20 to adhere to that interpretation and that is a major problem. Therefore we can easily understand that Satan has not yet had his head bruised. If you recall this was a prophecy that God made in Genesis 3 speaking to Satan. God told Satan that the woman and her seed would bruise his head. Who is this prophetical woman and what is her seed? If you read the Bible study above you have a good idea already that this is the church body. The church is the bride of Christ called the coming woman in Genesis 3:15 and she is the woman that will bruise the head of the serpent.
3. GOD IS WAITING FOR THE MATURITY OF THE CHURCH
We are now at the third thing that God is waiting for before Jesus comes back. Again, we have more controversy with these verses, because they are difficult for many immature Christians to accept. It is many times like discussing Algebra with a 4 year old. They are just not ready to accept it and do not have the basic understanding of all of the necessary subjects to discuss these advanced topics. Nevertheless, here I go and I hope you will understand it:
Gal 4:1 Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all;
Gal 4:2 But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.
There is a parallel being given to us in these two verses of scriptures. They state that a child is not ready to rule until he or she has grown up and matured. As long as they are still a child, it says they are no different than a servant, even though they are ruler of everything. Children require teachers and governors so they do not hurt themselves or others either by accident or on purpose. Children do not have the maturity God is looking for to put His enemies under His feet. God is waiting for the church to grow up and to become mature. Quit bickering and fighting over trivial childish things and become a mature Christian. The church is the joint heirs with Christ that this verse is paralleling. Even though we are these heirs, many Christians are still developing and in need of maturation. God is waiting for us to grow up.
Rom 8:19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
God is waiting for the manifestation of His children. Even as a natural child is born physically and needs constant care and attention, over time they begin to develop skills that allow them to take more and more responsibility over what they do and how they do it. This is a natural process that corresponds to a spiritual process that God is trying to get us to see and understand.
1Co 3:1 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
In this verse God says that He could not talk to the people in Corinth about spiritual things, because of their immaturity. God is saying that every Christian starts as a baby Christian, but He expects them to grow up and mature. An immature Christian is mostly concerned with carnal or natural things. A mature Christian is more concerned with spiritual things. This is one of the signs of maturity in the body of Christ. Where does this put you in the spiritual growth chart?
Heb 5:12 For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
God’s word is spiritual growth food for your spirit. But, this spiritual food comes in two extremes of basic milk formula for children and strong meat for mature Christians. A new baby Christian requires to focus on the very basic milk concepts of God’s word in order to grow. God’s word has both basic milk simple subjects and complex advanced meat meat subjects. These advanced topics are the strong meat that God is referring to and a baby Christian will choke if you try to feed them these subjects. Just like little natural babies cannot eat any solid food for many months, spiritual babies cannot understand the strong meat of God’s word. Natural babies are introduced to small quantities of soft non-milk food and they eventually will develop enough to be able to eat anything. This makes it very difficult to teach any subject, since we are all in varying stages of spiritual development. I have a tendency to teach advanced subjects, but some people do not understand them simply because of where they are in their spiritual growth.
1Co 1:7 So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ:
So if you are like me, we are all waiting for Jesus to come back and take us out of here, but who is waiting for who? You have to ask yourself what can I do to help this process along. Is there anything God is needing me to do today? Do I need to grow up and become more spiritually aware? Do I need to mature spiritually? Do I need to do anything to allow God to put His enemies under my feet? Do I need to go and tell someone about Jesus today? Do I have anything to do with when the return of Jesus is? I hope that you see that you do. Share this lesson with your friends today to help them grow and learn that there are things that God is waiting on patiently before Jesus returns for us and by us cooperating we could help God end this thing more quickly. God Bless you and thanks for reading my Bible lesson today.
Biblical Significance of Water on our Planet
(Ver 1.1) One of the primary reasons that we have the capability of life on our planet is because of the created existence of a vast amount of a water supply that makes available this life. Without water there is no possiblity of life on our planet. There are also many other complex factors that position our planet as an ideal place for life to thrive. The sun and the distance of our planet from the sun are additional key factors for the existence of life on this planet. If we were any closer to the sun, it would be too hot, if we were any further from the sun, it would be too cold. It is what I sometimes call the Goldilocks creation principle, God created a place that was exactly just right for us to exist in. I am a firm believer that God created things in our world in a manner that demonstrates God’s hidden qualities. God is called light in the Bible (1 Jn 1:5). God is called the Sun in the Bible (Mal 4:2). God’s word is called seed (Luke 8:11). God’s words is called water (Eph 5:26). All of these are essential ingredients for natural life on our planet. I believe these are parallels to spiritual truths that reveal that spiritual life is essentially tied to God also. Let’s explore some scriptures that speak about water. Let’s start at the end of the book and go backwards to some extent:
Rev 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
We can understand that water quenches people’s thirst. Water is essential for our physical well being. The human body is approximately 2/3 water. Without water we would not be here. God calls water an essential ingredient to life. If God calls it “the water of life”. Do you think God is only talking about physical, natural H2O? I do not think that is all that God is talking about.
Rev 22:1 And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.
Did you know that water can be undrinkable? It can be contaminated, poisoned or have elements that make it harmful for us. A key quality of good water is pure water. The vast majority of water on our planet is undrinkable. The oceans contain over 98 per cent of the earth’s water supply and they are deadly to drink. That leaves less than 2 percent of the earth’s water as clean enough to drink. What do you think that God is saying to us about water in the way that He created this planet? God declares in Revelation that pure water comes from God’s throne, but what is this pure water that He is referring to? I do not think God is speaking of natural water, but I believe He is referring to spiritual water. After all God is a Spirit. If God, a spiritual being is the source of pure spiritual water, what is this water? How does this water differ from other implied waters that are not pure? You do understand that God is saying there are other waters that are not pure, don’t you?
Rev 14:2 And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps:
Rev 1:15 And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.
Apparently God is giving us a key to the puzzle in these two verses. If the throne of God has a river of pure water flowing from it, what does that water represent symbolically? According to these verses, it is representative of the voice of God. We have one verse that says a voice from heaven sounds like “many waters”. Then in Revelation 1:15 it says Jesus has a voice of “many waters”. Apparently spoken words are waters. Here is a lesson of what Jesus told a woman at a well that came for some natural water to drink:
Joh 4:10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have askedof him, and he would have given thee living water.
Jesus clearly informs the woman at the well that if she knew who she was speaking to, she would ask Him for a drink of living water. What was it that Jesus had, that He could offer her to drink? Jesus had no pitcher, had not draw down in the well to get any natural water, but yet He still offerred her a drink. We know that Jesus was God in the flesh, so we know that whatever he said were the key words of life (John 6:63). These are the pure waters that Jesus was offering the lady at the well. The words of God are the pure water and everyone else’s words are the words that are mixed with other potentially harmful things. You see God is not the only person that speaks in the world or in heaven, is He?
Rev 12:15 And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.
The symbolic serpent is Satan and he has opened his mouth and a flood has proceeded from his mouth to destroy the woman. You do understand these are words from the enemy of God and the church. These words are intended to harm and to deceive. These words are the only offensive weapon your enemy has against you. If he can get you to say what he says, he has you. The words from Satan’s mouth are not pure waters. They are corrupted and poisoned with hurtful and harmful things designed to bring you down. So who else has a mouth and speaks words?
Jas 3:11 Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?
You do realize that you have a mouth also? You speak words, how do your words differ from God’s words or Satan’s words? Who does your words resemble or sound like? Are your words a model of the pure water from God or from the corruptible poisoned water from Satan? If you study James 3 very carefully you will see that God is talking about the words that come from your mouth. Your mouth is referred to as a fountain that can either put out fresh water or bitter water. God is saying that your mouth can produce both of these, but not at the same time. You are either speaking God’s word or you are confused with some other perverted thing coming out of your mouth.
Joh 7:38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
People in the world who do not know God, cannot do anything, but speak evil things. But, to the people who know God and His word, Jesus Christ, we are told something should be different from what we speak and others speak. Jesus informs us that out of our bellies shall flow rivers of living water. If you recall that Satan spewed out a flood of water designed to destroy the woman in Revelation 12. But, we are informed that our mouths should be different than his. The living water is the same waters of life referred to in Revelation, isn’t it? If God’s words are pure life, we should be speaking and saying what He says. Only by learning what He has spoken can we can become these fountains that produce the pure water. Pure water is what spiritually dead people are thirsty for to quench their spiritual thirst and the draught they have experienced. This is speaking the truth in love so that they can tell there is a difference.
Water is a very powerful analogy of a spiritual truth that God is trying to get us to see and understand. God’s words are the pure waters of life and all other religions and words of philosophy or human reasoning are words designed to corrupt you, deceive you, to bring you down to a level of defeat. Like the earth’s water supply only a very small percentage is drinkable. If we compare all of the available books of the world to the oceans and waters of the world we can see that there are only a very few that contain the actual words of God. The Bible is the only word of God we have. Then there are a few good books that have been written about the Bible. But, the percentage of undrinkable water far outweighs God’s words. We are inundated with books, magazines, TV, movies, the internet and other words that are an overwhelming distraction for most people. This ocen of words are designed to distract you and eventually kill you. These words are designed to keep your attention and your focus off of the pure waters of truth. Wide is the path to destruction and many go that way. Narrow is the path to true life and it seems to me today that there are few that have actually found this path to life. What are you looking for? Are you thirsty for life yet? It is time to speak the pure words for others to drink and that is what I try to do. God Bless and thanks for reading my Bible study. I pray that it was a blessing to you. If you enjoyed it share it with someone else and help me spread the Good News of a better way to live.
Bible Creation Revealed! Pt 3 – Introduction to the World that Was!
(Ver 2.0) This is now Part 3 of a series of lessons on the Bible creation account. It has been a little different, I know. I recommend that you remain open minded and search your Bible to see if these things are so. If you have not been reading from the beginning of this series I would suggest that you start with “Part 1“. In the previous blogs, I talked about scriptures that established the beginning of time and matter and then I talked about the foundation of the world. This present world that we live in was said to have had a beginning, a middle and a coming end. I then showed you scriptures of a world that is prophesied to come after our present world. Today I want to show you scriptures that teach us about a different world that use to be, before God created our current organized world system. Some Bible teachers in the past have referred to this as a “PreAdamic” civilization and I guess that is what I am saying even though that word is not in the Bible, so I do not normally use it. Before I get there let me review again that we are living in the last days of our present world:
2Pe 3:3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
It is interesting to note how God reveals little clues about creation in randomly dispersed patterns in the Bible. In this verse it declares that we are living within the “last days” of God’s timeline for His current organized world system. These “days” of course could be figurative or symbolic words that are referring us to something else of much greater significance. I do not believe they are literal 24 hour days, do you? I have spent many hours studying this subject and I do believe that these days are symbolical representations for two 1000 year time periods. The phrase “last days” in the Bible is almost always referring to the last 2000 years of the allotted time given to the church. It might help you to see this by studying Genesis chapter 1 very closely and recognizing what happened on each day of creation. During this time period of these 6 days of creation, God does specific things on specific days and these events are all prophetic works of God that are symbolic of spiritual things that occur within our human history. According to the Bible God gives us another clue when He tells us that a “day” to the Lord is as a “1000” years and a “1000” years is even as 1 “day” (2 Peter 3:8). So when God tells us we are in the last days of time we can conclude that out of the 6 days of time given to man, the first two days represent a specific beginning period of time where there was no law and great sin. The middle two days would represent another time period dedicated to the Old Covenant and God’s Law. Finally the last two days would represent the end of the symbolic 6 days of creation and the New Covenant of God with the church when man finally comes to maturity in the spiritual realm. This 6000 year time period of recorded Bible history, is why many Christian have been taught that the universe is only that old. But, we need to see more in the Bible in order to make sure that is correct.
There are around 10 different verses in the New Testament that reveal the “Foundation of the World”. It is almost always spoken of as a starting point and several of the verses in the New Testament also allude to the coming “End of the World”. If our world had a start, then it also has a middle and an end that is reported to be a 6000 year period of time. Could it be possible there was another world that existed prior to this time period? I just wanted to start by asking you again, is it possible? If you do not think it is even possible, why not? What Bible verses do have that says there were no other worlds before ours? If one world had a start, a middle and an end could there have been any other worlds with these same attributes and qualities? If you still do not think so you again do not know what the Bible actually says on the subject. Let’s explore some verses that Peter recorded for God that speaks to us directly about creation and a world that use to be:
2Pe 3:5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
This is an amazing verse of truth. It is clearly easily misunderstood so let’s analyze what God is telling us. We can clearly see that creation was said to be a result of the spoken words of God. It does not directly tell us when this event happened, but it also declares that the heavens that we can observe are very OLD and not a recent part of creation. This verse would seem to refute the notion of a young earth and a young universe that many Bible teachers try to convince people of. God would have had a great opportunity to confirm a young earth theory in this verse, but instead He tells us the opposite is true. Next you can see a reference to Genesis 1:2, being stated, the earth standing out of the water and in the water. It would appear that God is referring to the universal global flood found in Genesis 1:2 and I’ll explain why it cannot be Noah’s flood soon. If you read the context of this verse you can see that Peter is talking about a group of people who claim that nothing in the world has ever changed. These people seem to declare that everything has continued like it is now from the very beginning of time. This almost sounds like some Christians professing a young earth. In fact let’s go back and read verse 4 in this chapter to see what they were really saying:
2Pe 3:4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
People were scoffing and criticizing the disciples saying where is this Jesus you say is coming back? These people believed that the earth had not undergone any changes since the beginning of creation. Everything is the same since before our fathers died. There is no resurrection, there is no coming messiah, there is no savior. Everything continues just like it always has since the beginning of creation. Did you notice that this time they did not say “since the foundation of the world”? You can assume that these people thought that the foundation of the world and the beginning of creation were one in the same events. They are specifically calling it young and making a clear reference to the beginning of all matter and time. Was this only 6000 years ago like they thought it was? God and Peter did not think so. Go back and read verse 3 and see what God says that the heavens are very old. God does not say 6000 years and God does not imply a young earth or universe. God says very clearly and specifically that creation occurred a very long time ago. This Greek word for “old” means “a long time”. Is 6000 years a long time to God? God wrote that in Revelation 12 that Satan is extremely angry knowing that his time is short. Since God declares this almost 2000 years ago, we can easily conclude that 2000 years to God is a very short time. So if 2000 years is a short time to God what is 3 x 2000 or 6000 years to God? A little bit or a short time multiplied by 3 is still not much to God. If you do not understand God’s perspective on the Bible you will be confused to what it means. To God a long time would have to be millions or billions of years and not a few thousand years. Keep in mind the author of the Bible is God and God wrote the Bible from His perspective and not yours. We also have to observe what else God tells us in this chapter. Let’s examine verse 6 and see what God is saying to us:
2Pe 3:6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
This is God’s response to these critics that say nothing has ever changed since the beginning of creation. God declares to us that there was a world prior to our world that was destroyed and covered with water. The net result of this covering was the complete destruction of this previous organized system. Remember that the Greek word kosmos translated as “world” means “an organized system” or “an orderly arrangement”. The Greek word translated as “then was” means “at that time”. We can clearly see that God tells us that time existed when this total destruction occurred. So sometime after the creation of the earth and before Genesis 1:2, there existed an organized world system that was completely destroyed by water. Many Bible teachers have attempted to explain this verse away calling it just Noah’s flood, but that cannot be so easily accepted as the truth, if you study the exact Greek wording very carefully. The Greek word translated as “perish” in this verse means “to destroy fully”. 
It literally means that this world being described was completely and utterly lost with no survivors. Meaning there were NONE as in NOT ANY living creatures that existed after this flood event or anything that was saved from the destruction. There is absolutely no way that we can make this fit the flood that occured during the time of Noah! Noah and his family were all saved (8 people in total) and they were all survivors of that flood. Plus all of the animals on the ark also survived that flood. After Noah’s flood God did not have to recreate any new trees or plants either. Everything that was there before the flood of Noah came back as if nothing happened after the flood of Noah. There was no utter destruction of the earth as described in this verse that speaks of the universal devestation of everything. Go and reread Genesis 7 the flood account of Noah and see nowhere does God speak of utter or complete destruction. God said in Genesis 7 that He would destroy the flesh of the earth, but this was not all-inclusive since God did not have to create any new flesh after the flood ended.
2Pe 3:7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
So why would God write about the “world that now is” being destroyed by fire if this universal flood was Noah’s flood? You can clearly see the distinction that this world that we are now in, is NOT the same world that was destroyed by this flood of water. We are now seeing a perspective of a world that existed that was completely destroyed by a universal flood of water. So when was this cataclysmic flood that caused everything to perish referred to in 2nd Peter? It has to be the flood that is mentioned to us in Genesis 1:2, where the earth was covered with water and darkness was on the face of the deep, it can technically be no other event that I have found in the Bible:
Gen 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
We can see a description of circumstances that is informing us that the earth as described in this verse was completely uninhabitable. It clearly describes a universal flood situation that has covered the entire face of our planet. It also states that darkness covers the earth meaning that the water was so deep that light could not penetrate to allow anything to live beneath the surface. Did you know that this state of creation directly contradicts other clues that God gives us in the Bible that tells us that this is not how God created the earth originally? This next verse is absolutely critical for you to understand:
Isa 45:18 For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.
This verse found in Isaiah represents God’s commentary on creation. God gives us some very important information in this verse and I guess many Christians do not understand the significance of it or just ignore it. This is a valuable clue to understanding the Bible creation account so pay very close attention to exactly what God is saying. We can see many of the same Hebrew words found in Genesis 1:2 repeated also in this verse. This helps us to establish subject relevance and relationship. In Genesis 1:1 it says “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”. This verse of scripture in Isaiah also declares to us that God created the heavens and the earth so God is definitely discussing the same event in both verses. But here in IsaiahGod says that when He made the earth originally, it was clearly an organized system created in an inhabitable and a useful state of existence. God clearly says I do not create anything in vain. The exact same Hebrew word is repeated in this verse in Isaiah that declares the earth to be “formless” or “without form” in Genesis 1:2. But, this time God tells us that I did not create the earth this way yet it was this way in Gensis 1:2 so we have a major problem that needs resolution. Do you think that God is giving us a clue by revealing this information to us? I think that God is giving us more than a clue, let’s review the Hebrew definition of this word found in the Strong’s:
H8414
From an unused root meaning to lie waste; a desolation (of surface), that is, desert; figuratively a worthless thing; adverbially in vain: – confusion, empty place, without form, nothing, (thing of) nought, vain, vanity, waste, wilderness.
This is a very strong word and leaves little to the imagination. This word calls the earth a worthless state of confusion in Genesis 1:2, and it clearly implies that something occurred to cause it to become this way. The earth is described in Genesis 1:2 as a place that is a wasteland, an uninhabitable planet, an empty place without any organization. To be “formless” and “void” you have to agree that the earth is not a livable place. Then you can clearly see that God says in Isaiah this is not how it was created in the beginning. So now we have a problem, we can see that many people have attempted to teach that the earth and the universe is only 6000 years old, but God is telling us some very different things in the Bible. We have to interpret the Bible using the Bible to get an accurate understanding of what it actually means. Only by interpreting the Bible correctly can we ever attempt to agree with true science. We can see that God is the creator and caused all time and matter to have a beginning. In Genesis 1:1 God created these things to be livable and inhabitable, but by reading Genesis 1:2 we can clearly see that the earth is not inhabitable so we have to conclude that something happened to destroy the earth and the livable organized systems that God had originally created. That is why we see in Genesis 1 the reestablishment of the organized systems of our current world. By God recreating the world, we have a place that is again livable.
I recently had a man discount this verse because he claimed that after God’s 6 days of creation the earth was created inhabitable and thus he explained away what is stated in the Bible using his human reasoning. This same man when confronted on another question said God created the universe with the appearance of age fully mature. That logic is a contradictory position of two different ways to explain why the Bible says what it does to justify a young earth theory. On one had he said the stars were created mature and on the other hand the earth was created without from and became mature or inhabitable. This is clearly contradictory to what God says in Isaiah. God specifically says I never create anything without form and since the earth starts out without form you must conclude God did not create it then. Do you see the problem? Genesis 1:1 says God did create the earth and Genesis 1:2 says it was without form so something else had to occur to change the earth from an inhabited starting point to an unimhabitable mess. God would not have created something from chaos by starting it out as something in a state of confusion and then changing it into what He intended in the first place. Everytime God said something during creation in Genesis 1 it occurred just exactly like He said. There were no transitional periods of evolution occuring. God spoke and there it was fully complete. If God would have said earth be, the earth would have been created and formed in its fully mature state as designed.
Let’s think about what Genesis 1 actually says. Many have tried to establish the 6 days of creation in Genesis 1 as being the beginning of all time and matter of our universe. But, if you look at the chapter carefully, using other Bible verses that we have already learned about, that everything was made by the Word of God, we can begin to see what really happened. Nowhere in chapter 1 of Genesis does God ever say “Let there be Space!”, “Let There Be Stars”, “Let There Be Earth” or “Let There Be Time”. These are all implied in Genesis 1:1, but never stated explicitly. However, approximately 7 times in the chapter God does say “Let there be…” something and it comes forth either into existence or back into prominence. You see on day 4 of creation it could be wrongly assumed that the Sun and the moon are created, but God only uses them as a prophetic statement of information for the coming of Jesus Christ. You see the Sun already has to exist for the earth to exist. The earth revolves around the sun and not the other way around. The earth is not older than the sun. Both of these have to come into existence simultaneously as part of God’s original creation. Then there is the statement of the 3rd Day of creation, that God creates plants, grass, trees and they all come forth. Do you know that sun light is an absolute requirement for the existence of any plant life on our planet? If plants existed on Day 3, then the sun also existed on Day 3. Without the sun, the existence of life on this planet would be impossible. So we have to be smart enough to recognize when God speaks and when He does not speak and what He says on everyday of the recreation account in chapter 1 of Genesis.
Let me give you another valid question found in Genesis 1. On day 1 of creation is a stated evening and morning day 1 of God’s timeline. Morning and evening are both sun based dependent concepts of the earth’s rotation around it. Because the earth rotates on its axis the sun appears to rise every morning and set every evening around the earth. Therefore the sun must exist on Day 1 for there to be any reference to these events. Without the sun’s existence we have no day or night, morning or evening nor do we have a calendar day. These are major problems that most young earth Bible teachers ignore or try to explain away using God’s sovereign power or ability to superceede natural laws that God has created. All earth time is based upon the existence of the sun. Without the sun we have no hours, days, weeks or years.
Now let’s further examine what God tells Adam in Chapter 1 of Genesis. In Genesis 1:28 God makes this very specific command to the man “Be Fruitful, Multiply and Replenish the Earth..”. Now the word “replenish” is a very unique English word. While there is no English word to “plenish”, to “replenish” carries a connotation of doing something again, and it still implies that the world was once filled with inhabitants. God is now telling Adam to refill the earth with inhabitants again. If God tells Adam to refill the earth, we can clearly see that something must have transpired to cause it to need this to happen. If I asked you to replenish the cold drinks in the refrigerator that tells you that there were cold drinks there once, but something happened to them and we need to put more in to get cold. This is not rocket science, so pay attention to what God is saying. I have heard many Bible teachers attempt to explain away this statement in terms that God is just telling them to fill the earth and not to refill the earth. However, God gives us another very important clue to exactly what this means when He uses the exact same words later in Genesis:
Gen 9:1 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.
So if after the flood of Noah’s day God tells Noah to replenish the earth we can clearly see that God is saying the earth use to have more people in it and I expect it to be filled again. A vast number of people perished in the flood of Noah’s day. God is giving us a clue into the Genesis 1:2 flood by repeating this exact set of instructions to Noah that God first gave to Adam. God was telling Adam that the world use to be covered with people, cities, organized inhabitation and now we need to redo that again. This helps us to explain and understand many things that science has been reporting. This knowledge gets us several steps closer to agreeing with true science.
Here is another potential major problem and conflict that modern Bible teachers and scientists have attempted to explain away with a more recent flood event theory ignoring the ancient flood Bible truth reality. You see there were two universal floods revealed to us in the Bible and many modern Bible teachers and scientists want to ignore the first flood in Genesis 1.2 in favor of a shorter duration flood event called Noah’s flood found in Genesis 7. You understand that since we are not told the duration of the flood event of Genesis 1:2 it could have been a flood of millions or even billions of years. Because I do not know how long it was I will not speculate to the given duration of time that occurred. However we do very clearly know how long Noah’s flood was and when it started exactly because God does give us this information in detail. There was 1656 years after the creation of Adam when the flood of Noah occurred and came upon the earth after it rained for 40 days a 40 nights (Gen 7:12). We know this by calculating the ages of every man from Adam to Noah and then reading that the flood came when Noah was 600 years old (Gen 7:11) and his triplet sons were 100 years old.
Now according to Genesis 7:24, the flood waters during Noah’s flood prevailed on the earth for only 150 days and not many years. This 150 day flood is what many ignorant modern scientists say caused the fossil record in the earth’s crust, all of the earth’s geological layers, water landscape formations and the fossil fuel layers miles beneath the surface of planet. That is some very creative science in my estimation that all of this formed in a flood that lasted a very short duration and less than 4500 years from present human time. People want you to believe that and these are baseless theories that are more imaginative than evolutionist’s theories.
There was a geologist named James Hutton that observed and studied the earth nearly 300 years ago and he came up with a theory then that many have said is the basis for modern geological science. I have included exerts of his writings below and you should read them with the knowledge of both floods in your mind and then try to determine which flood fits the description of his observations more clearly from the Bible record given to us. If you are open you should observe that only one flood event is more accurately described from the evidence presented in the earth’s layers.
The solid parts of the present land appear in general, to have been composed of the productions of the sea, and of other materials similar to those now found upon the shores. Hence we find reason to conclude:
1st, That the land on which we rest is not simple and original, but that it is a composition, and had been formed by the operation of second causes.
2nd, That before the present land was made, there had subsisted a world composed of sea and land, in which were tides and currents, with such operations at the bottom of the sea as now take place. And,
Lastly, That while the present land was forming at the bottom of the ocean, the former land maintained plants and animals; at least the sea was than inhabited by animals, in a similar manner as it is at present.
Hence we are led to conclude, that the greater part of our land, if not the whole had been produced by operations natural to this globe; but that in order to make this land a permanent body, resisting the operations of the waters, two things had been required;
1st, The consolidation of masses formed by collections of loose or incoherent materials;
2ndly, The elevation of those consolidated masses from the bottom of the sea, the place where they were collected, to the stations in which they now remain above the level of the ocean.
I read this theory and thought this was more the description of the conditions found in Genesis 1 and never Genesis 7. Nowhere in Noah’s flood does God separate water from water and cause the earth to rise above the level of the seas as He does in Genesis 1:6. While I do not agree with every word that James Hutton wrote in his theory it has many things that are clearly important to understand in light of the evidence given to us in the Bible. In the article that read about him it said this; he was more interested in the contemplation of the truth than he was in the praise of discovering it. Why are Christians today not following his example of searching for the truth? No, they are mostly searching for evidence to support their theories and this is fallacy and a misdirected effort to nowhere. I’m going to say this one more time; true science and true Bible interpretation will always agree because both were created by the same Author God.
I have just shown you significant evidence found in the Bible for the existence of a inhabited world prior to our world. This world would have had inhabitants, animals, cities, and other organized structure. I do not know how advanced or how primitive this civilization was. I do not know if the people were human beings like us, or more like angels. I would guess that this world was very primitive, but yet later I will show you verses that seem to imply some advancement in culture and organization. This information does help to explain dinosaurs and the fossil records that would indicate an old earth. Many Bible teachers have great difficulty trying to come up with a logical reasoning of where the dinosaurs went in the last 6000 years? Perhaps they just didn’t fit on the ark of Noah’s day? However, once you begin to understand that the earth is very old and that there existed an older civilization on this planet then you can begin to understand the Bible creation and how it fits with science. In this world that existed prior to ours, God declares that it was utterly destroyed, nothing was left from it and we can see this in Genesis 1:2 as being the state of our planet and the basis for God’s recreation in the remaining verses of Genesis chapter 1. I have heard some Bible teachers who claim a young earth say that dinosaurs were here with man at the same time. They have found fossils that include dinosaur footprints with human like foot prints inside of them. They would have had to exist together in order for the fossil to form and harden and preserve them for us to see. However, these Bible teachers have simply discovered evidence for the world that was and not the world that is. They prove nothing and still do not have an answer for where did the dinosaurs go in the last 6000 years. There must have been a tremendous number of dinosaurs, plants and other animals on our planet based upon the amount of fossil fuel we have beneath our surface. Oil and gas came as a result of a large biological decomposition of living things. How did these dead biological things get to be so deep beneath the surface of our planet? If you consider that the earth was completely destroyed in Genesis 1:2 and covered with water completely so that no life could exist you can begin to understand where these fossil fuels came from. Otherwise you have great difficulty in coming up with a young earth answer to the problem. God does not tell us how long the earth was covered in water in Genesis 1:2. It could be a few days or millions of years. Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 do not have any time periods specifically attached to them. After these two verses God starts talking of the 6 days of the earth’s recreation. But, before that there is no time table mentioned. Because it does not say we would be foolish to guess without either a specific Bible verse or some very strong scientific evidence.
In my next blog I will show you further scriptures that speak of directly of this world that was. If you would like to continue reading this series you can go to “Part 4“.
Bible Creation Revealed! Pt 2 – Introduction to the Foundation of the World!
(Rev 1.6) This is now Part 2 of a series of advanced lessons on Bible creation. If you have not read from the beginning, I would recommend that you go back and start with Part 1. Today, I want to introduce you to a potential new Bible concept. Maybe this is something that will be totally new to you or maybe not. In my last lesson I talked about the universe having a starting point with the origination of both time and all matter through the spoken Word of God. I basically tried to teach you that we do not know when this event occurred based upon the evidence given to us in the Bible. You cannot find the words “God said Let there be the universe and Let there be the earth in the Bible anywhere”. Since these events and creative words are not included in the Bible then we must conclude that God omitted them for a purpose and the rest of Genesis 1 is a separate event. Today, I want to introduce you to a new concept called the “Foundation of the World”. I think many Bible teachers have jumped to the erroneous conclusion that the “Foundation of the World” and the “Beginning” are one in the same events and that they occurred at the exact same time. But, I think you should reconsider that thought and try to see what else that the Bible actually has to say about both of these separate unique realities. After studying the Bible on the subject, I am convinced that they are two completely different historical events within the timeline of creation. Let me ask you a simple question that has a not so simple answer. Why would God refer to the same event in the Bible using different titles, names, descriptions or characteristics? If you have ever studied the Bible you should understand that this is a common technique used by God throughout the Bible. God, calls the same thing, by many different titles, names, descriptions, symbols and other identifying characteristics for some unkown and unstated reason. The net result of this technique is that it makes it very difficult for anyone to see what God is really talking about. It also makes it very difficult to associate them together and to relate them to each other correctly. You many times find yourself asking “Is it the same thing, or is it a different thing?” How can we tell if two different named things are the same thing or different things? What if there are two or three different named things, events, times or people and man thinks they are all the same? Again it makes it very difficult for us to figure out when God is talking about the same thing and when He is not. So here is our challenge for the day. Is the “foundation of the earth”, the “foundation of the world” and the “beginning” all the exact same events within time, just called by different names or are they just God’s way of describing completely different events?
Since we have already looked at verses about the beginning, let’s start today by looking at scriptures in the Old Testament that speak of a “foundation”.
Exo 9:18 Behold, to morrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof even until now.
2Sa 22:16 And the channels of the sea appeared, the foundations of the world were discovered, at the rebuking of the LORD, at the blast of the breath of his nostrils.
Psa 18:15 Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils.
Job 38:4 Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.
Psa 18:15 Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils.
These are just a few of the examples of verses found in the Bible that speak about the “foundation of the earth”, “the foundation of the world” and just the “foundation” in terms of an architectural building process. I hope you understand how houses are built. A laid foundation is always the beginning of a building process that implies there will come an ending to the process later in the future. When God provides us information that the earth and the world had a foundation, it means that they also have implied endings. Furthermore, when God’s builds one building foundation, God is also implying that He can build another building foundation and another and another. What do people do on the earth? If they don’t like an old building, they tear it down and start over to build a new one. This is a Godly principle and characteristic work that man learned from God. You need to understand what I just said, it was very important. So we need to go through the Bible now and see if the “beginning” and the “foundation of the world” are the same events.
Mat 13:35 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.
Jesus is described as the God who speaks things that were hidden from man and Satan since the “Foundation of the World”. This Greek word translated as “foundation” can also mean “conception” or to “conceive”. This is of course a term that would result in a pregnancy in a natural woman. The next word to inspect is the Greek word “kosmos” which is translated as “world” in this verse. This word from the Strong’s means “an orderly arrangement“. Anything that has this characteristic of a “kosmos” contains organized structure that is free from chaos. I want you to keep this word in your mind as we continue to discuss the chaos found in Genesis 1:2. Was the world an orderly arrangement in Genesis 1:2 or was it a ball of confusion, destrution and chaos? Do you understand what an orderly arrangement means? Look at my picture and see how the blocks are arranged in an orderly fashion and this is how the world was created according to God. That is a major Bible clue that God is giving us to correctly interpret the creation account found in Genesis. I have had some young earth theorists try to tell me that just because the eart was chaos in Genesis 1:2 it ends up as an organized structure by the end of the chapter and thus we are just observing God’s work methods to create our world. However, I want you to go back and reread Genesis 1 again and you tell me if you ever see God creating any transitional works. Does God not look at the darkness and say light be and light was in Genesis 1:3. There is no transitional phases of darkness to light. What God says happens exactly as stated. Do you see the major problem developing with a young earth theory? God would have never created the earth in a chaotic format to begin with. God is not stupid He know exactly what He wanted and He would have said earth be and there the earth would be formed exactly as envisioned in the mind of God. This is another key reason why the young earth theory is full of holes. God never in Genesis 1, not one time says “earth be” and the “earth was”. Uh oh? That is a problem isn’t it? If earth is defined to be dry land as I showed you by God’s definition in Genesis 1:10 then there is no mention of the earth being created other than the reference of Genesis 1:1 that said this occured sometime in the beginning. I have taught you that the Bible says the worlds were formed by the Word of God. Since we have no recorded words of God in Genesis 1:1 of God creating the earth we must conclude an implied stated reality that God said “earth be” somewher back in the time of Genesis 1:1. Then we must also conclude sometime after Genesis 1:2 God has to recreate the dry land again by dividing the waters because something happened to cause the chaos. I know this is proably some very new things that you have never heard before, but don’t throw them away until you confirm that is really not what the Bible says. For now just keep studying and reading.
This Bible verse in Matthew tells us that the world that we now live in also had a beginning. A foundation in natural building terms represent the start of the construction project. The foundation is therefore the beginning of the rest of the building. The current world system was conceived by God and spoken out of His mouth into existence as we have seen in several previous Bible verses. But, who said the “beginning” and “the foundation of the world” were one in the same events? God hasn’t told us that, so don’t even try to assume it to be the same events and close your mind to what God wants to teach you. I want you to read another verse found in the New Testament that also speaks about this “Foundation of the World”:
Heb 9:26 For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
This is a great verse to examine more closely. It actually has two different Greek words that are both translated as “world”. The first Greek word translated as “world” is kosmos again and it is still defined to be an “An Orderly Arrangement”, but the second Greek word translated to “world” is aion and it means “an age”. Here is an example of why English translations suffer grealty. An age is representative of a period of time. It almost never is used to describe all of time, but rather only a specific slice of the whole time pie. You could say that an “age” is a piece of the pie and not the entire pie. You can see this by science referring to the “Ice Age”, as a time period in past history where ice covered the majority of the earth. Knowing this we can derive some implied meanings to the term given to us as the “end of the world”. The “end of the world” in this verse is referring to the termination of a slice of the allotted time period and not the end of all time. I want you to grasp this concept because it is significantly important. This verse is referring us to the end of our current world, but that is certainly not the end of all time because we know reading later in Revelation that there will exist a time period of 1000 year where Christ will rule on the earth and then the new heaven and the new earth events take place and that is when time ceases. In other words we still have a lot more we need to learn.
You can see some very complex works of Christ being described in this verse in Hebrews 9:26. It declares that Jesus did not come to the earth in the beginning of the current world (age), because He would have had to offer Himself repeatedly for the sins of mankind. But, then it makes a statement that is also very difficult to comprehend. If the world (age) had a beginning, then it is also logical to conclude it to have a middle and an end portion. Like in any natural building project, the foundation is laid first and the roof is one of the last exterior parts of a building to be built. So as in every building project, it has a beginning, a middle and an end. This verse says that Jesus came nearer to the end of the world, so that he would only have to offer one sacrifice for all sin. So how can you say Jesus came at the end, when it has been close to 2000 years since He was here and died and was raised from the dead? To us and our perspective of time 2000 years is a very long time period, but is this how God views it? To understand the Bible correctly many times it takes a shift in natural perspectives to a spiritual perspective to see things as God sees them. Since we can mathematically calculate that it has been approximately 6000 years since Adam was placed on the earth and we know that Jesus came to the earth nearly 2000 years ago and that God said that this was near the end, we can subtract 2000 from 6000 and get 4000. Using this simple logic to calculate time periods, what would have happened if Jesus came in the year 2000, God would have been able to say that Jesus came near the beginning of the world (age). If Jesus would have come in the year 3000 it would be in the middle of our world’s history. But since Jesus came to the earth at year 4000, God calls this nearer to the end of the world (age). Think about that for a while and let it sink in and you will soon understand what I’m trying to say. According to young earth theologians all time has been 6000 years since the beginning of creation and here is the problem that starts to emerge. Why did God call it the end of the age and not just the end. God does know the difference between an age and the begining of all time why does God use different words to describe these events?
1 Peter 1:5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
Here is another witness to the fact that during the time of the early church, God considered this to be near the end. If that was near the end back then, how close do you think we are now to the end? I think we can begin to see we need to change our perspective of what time is to God.
1Jn 2:18 Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.
Again we see another verse that claims the early church was within the time that was near the end.
Rev 10:6 And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer:
This verse contains confirmation again of creation having a starting point. Prior to this starting point this verse implies that time did not exist. It is also a prophecy that this state of living outside of the dimension of time will come again. You can see that when it declares that there will be no more time, it also implies a clear ending to the world as we know it now. There is coming a change and an end to the world that we know. But, I do not anticipate the end of time for at least another 1000 years. If you recall from Genesis God created the world in 6 days, but on the 7th day He rested. We are informed of a coming day of rest and commanded to strive to enter into it (Heb 4:1). This would imply that there will be another 1000 years of human history on this planet prior to the creation of a New Heaven and a New Earth. Time would still need to exist and continue like it does today for at least another 1000 years before God eliminates it. Let me briefly introduce you to the new age that will come:
Heb 6:5 And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
Here in this verse in Hebrews there is a reference to a coming aion (age) that has not yet started. Here is a new concept that is given to us that we are in an aion (age) that is coming to end and there is another aion (age) that will follow that is not the same aion (age) that we are experiencing. The Greek word translated as “world” is the exact same word “aion” that we have already seen before. God is teaching you a brand new important concept about ages in the spiritual realm. If you can have one slice of the pie God is inferring there is potentially many more slices in the pie of time.
I have probably gone long enough in this lesson. Today I introduced you to two new concepts called the “foundation of the world” and these were the kosmos and the aion. Are both of these the same as the beginning? Are there any other worlds (kosmos or aion) either before ours or after our current world described to us in the Bible? I also showed you scriptures that prophesies an end of time. An end always implies there was a beginning of time. A coming ending of the kosmos and aion also implies there will be another new beginning. We have only scratched the surface to what we need to learn on this subject so we will continue to discuss more Bible verses that reveal the definition of what a world is in relation to the beginning in my next lesson.
If you would like to continue reading in this series please continue with “Part 3“
How Satan Uses People to Set Traps for You!
(ver 1.3) A trap is the hidden trick of an enemy to take you captive or prisoner. To trap wild animals, some have used a spring like device that usually has a concealed danger with an enticing lure or some type of tempting bait. Many times people would dig a big hole in the ground and cover it with branches and leaves so that others do not recognize the pit fall dangers as they travel in that area. People have walked down this path being unfamiliar with the danger and many have fallen into it and were caught. Whether you realize it or not, you are walking down a figurative trail in life and Satan has placed many concealed traps in your path in order to take you captive. We must learn to recognize these potential traps. In order to do this I believe that we need to become familiar with the examples found in the Bible of what Satan has used on other people. Only by learning and studying the devices and methods of our spiritual enemy, can we even begin to become familiar with the certain impending traps that will be presented to us. Only when we learn to recognize the traps can we learn how to avoid them.
Job 18:10 The snare is laid for him in the ground, and a trap for him in the way.
While natural traps are hidden dangers to your physical well being, spiritual traps are hidden pitfalls that are intended for your spiritual harm. Since Satan is not physically present in this world (at least until the anti-christ is revealed) and it is illegal for him to be in physical manifestation to harm you, he has adapted and changed up his attack and trap methods. Satan uses physical people in the world to set traps for other people. Satan works very hard to deceive everyone, but many times he concentrates on a select few which are easier to be deceived. These types of easy targets are usually the most ignorant of the truth found in God’s word. Satan then traps them into believing his lies and then uses them to deceive the others through their enticing baited words of partial truths. Let’s go through an example of this in the Bible:
Exo 23:33 They shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin against me: for if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee.
Here we have a great example of the deceived people on the earth deceiving God’s people. Many people have been deceived into believing that God has provided many religions and many paths that lead us to Him. However, God did not EVER say this, this was only man’s reasoning based upon them buying into Satan’s deception. Just because many religions exist in the world today does not mean that God started them, God endorses them, God accepts them or God subscribes to them. That is just a common planned trap of the enemy. Flood the world with the false to counter the True from God. In this verse in Exodus God warns the Nation of Israel that these foreign gods found within the other nations they encountered would become a “snare” to them. In other words this snare was another technique of their enemy to take them captive. By serving their false gods, God’s people would be deceived from knowing the truth and even depart from it. By serving the false, they would be led captive away from their true living God. So evidently every religion is not the right way to God! Clearly God was warning His people that these people did not know Him or His ways but were put there to be traps for them. God was clearly revealing the methods of entrapment and this information can still be applicable to us today in the church. Let’s take a look at another verse in Exodus:
Exo 34:12 Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee:
By associating with the wrong people and joining themselves together as one nation, God informs Israel that if they were not careful to avoid this, they would again become trapped into a situation that they do not want to be in. This is again speaking of a spiritual snare, a trap that the enemy has presented them using natural people. These people since they are not God’s covenant people would present themselves as friendly and introduce them to new ideas, concepts and things that God declares would become a trap to deceive them. This is a spiritual principle and a method that Satan still uses today with Christians. Become friends with the wrong people, hang around the wrong people long enough, and what they do and what they say will eventually become what you do and what you say. The bad influences in life will always drag you down to their level and you will not be able to pull them up to your level so beware of this trap.
Let me talk about another aspect of what this verse is saying. A covenant is a marriage in the eyes of God. You can learn this by reading Malachi 2:14. God reveals to us it matters who we marry. When a Christian marries a non-Christian they usually regret it. Many times a Christian lady will marry a man thinking he will change and go to church with her and this is usually a vast disappointment when this does not occur. The man may even promise and say the right things right up until the wedding day, but after the wedding the bride has joined herself to an unbeliever and become deceived. This is a common deception revealed to us in the Bible and if you learn now before you get married, you will avoid this trap.
Psa 38:12 They also that seek after my life lay snares for me: and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and imagine deceits all the day long.
The traps of the enemy are many times laced with enough truth and good that it appears to be something desirable. If you wanted to kill an animal you would not throw it just poison and hope that they ate it. No you wrap the poison in a steak, or something that is very desirable to the animal. This is a common practice of the enemy. They usually do not start with the blatant obvious lies, they always start with the truth and mix in a few lies here and there. By doing this they have disguised the lies and made them harder to recognize and easier to accept. This verse in Psalms tells us that Satan uses people to hurt people. This could be a physical pain or an emotional pain as this verse is talking about. By using words from one person to hurt and offend another, this is a common trap that people fall into, even in church. It could be an intentional hurt or an unintentional hurt, but the result is often times the same. Satan is working day and night to get to you and he will use anyone that he can to do this. It might be your pastor or your best friend, but do not fall into the trap. Recognize what it is and pray for them, do not confront them personally or you may be repeating the offense in a reverse attack. Do not let Satan use you to get back at someone that did you wrong.
Psa 119:110 The wicked have laid a snare for me: yet I erred not from thy precepts.
Here is a prevalent method of the enemy. To try to distract you from the truth of God’s word. All the enemy has to do is to get you interested in something else. Cause something else to become a higher priority than God’s Word. By distracting you, you become interested in the wrong things. It could be movies, it could be books, it could even be doing good things like feeding the poor. Whatever, it takes to distract you from what is suppose to be most important to you, that is what Satan will use to set a trap for you. The Psalmist says that he stayed focus on God’s Word and did not take the bait that was presented to him. Recognize where your priorities are right now. Evaluate yourself and examine what you think is important. Prioritize your life and make God and His Word number one and strive to keep Him at the top of your priority list.
Traps and Pitfalls, Common Mistakes in Bible Interpretation!
(Ver 1.4) In today’s Bible lesson I will discuss some of the common mistakes thattoo many people fall into when attempting to read and understand the Bible. If you can grasp these concepts it will help you tremendously in understanding the true meanings found in the Bible. I will give you a list of six or seven things that people tend to do that results in erroneous interpretations. By avoiding these common tricks, traps and pitfalls that the enemy Satan uses to distract, deceive and confuse us, we can help to avoid being tricked into the common pitfalls of deception and then we can continue to strive to walk in the paths of rightly diveded truths to learn what God desires for us to know today.
NO PRIVATE INTERPETATIONS
This is probably the number one pitfall to erroneous Bible teaching. It is absolutely esstential to let the Bible interpret itself. In the Bible, God tells us that no verse of prophecy is open to any private interpretation (2 Peter 1:20). God was smart enough to include explanations and interpretations to everything that He wanted you to know about a subject in the same book. So when you are reading through the book of Revelation for example, use the Bible to figure out what God is talking about. If you conclude that a reference is somehow a modern day empire and attempt to classify it as being the Roman Catholic church or the Pope, you are applying a private interpretation to the Word of God. Stick with the Bible and what God says and you will never be wrong. Come up with your own reasoning and logical explanations and you will be wrong 100 times out of 100 attempts. I’ll give you one more example that I’ve heard teachers attempt from Revelation. In the later part of the book there is a reference to a city surrounded by 7 mountains. This city is called the Great Whore of Babylon and many Bible teachers have attempted to associate it with Rome since it has seven prominent mountains. However, this again is a private interpretation, there is no Bible verses that I have found that say the city is Rome or that describe the region around Rome. So we have a problem, don’t we. When I searched the scriptures I was shocked to find 7 mountains mentioned in a specific region of the world, surrounding a specific named city. Since I don’t want to stir up a huge controversy in this blog, I’ll let you do the research yourself and see if you can find the same thing. I won’t tell you the name of the city, so good luck in your search.
THE BIBLE IS NOT TOTALLY SEQUENTIAL NOT IS IT IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER
Joh 5:39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
We know that the book of Genesis contains a lot of God’s account of creation , Noah’s flood, the rise of Abraham and the nation of Israel. We further know that the book of Revelation contains prophetic verses of the coming of the end of the age. All of the books in between these two while they are generally in time sequence, they can contain information that can be all over the board and anywhere in that timeline past, present or future. This is why Jesus told the Jews to search the scripture to find Him. If everything was obivously laid out, it would not be necessary to search to find anything in the Bible. There are verses in the New Testament that speak about both Adam and Eve and describe valuable information about the first man and woman and the fall of man. These are clearly out of time sequence with Genesis, but yet they give us some extremely valuable additional information that we must use to correctly interpret the verses in Genesis. If you only read the book of Genesis for the creation account, you will miss out on many of the details that explain key facts, events, participants and times. You have to understand that teaching the Bible involves researching your subject topographically. By examining the Bible by subject you gain a broader understanding of what God wants you to know. Not realizing that the Bible contains a widely dispersed random patterns of information on every subject, will cause you to miss a lot of the key points that you needed to know. Use key word searches to look for related verses. Many times God will purposely use the same exact Hebrew or Greek word to reveal to you related verses of scriptures. Other times, God will use completely different words or terminology to make it harder to find related scriptures. Let me give you one quick example about Abraham. His name is found 160 times in the Old Testament and 70 times in the New Testament. It is very obvious to me that if you want to study about Abraham you need to read all of these verses and see what God says about the man every where. If you only read Genesis and left out the other verses then you would miss around half of the total information given to you about Abraham in the Bible. Just know and understand that the information is spread out over the entire content of the Bible and not isolated to any specific one place.
JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS AND MAKING WRONG ASSUMPTIONS
Jumping to a wrong conclusion or making an incorrect assumption is one of the most prevalent errors that ministers and laymen make when studying the Bible. The Bible calls this private interpretation of the word of God. It is so easy to do, but yet it results in the spread of lies and confusion. Obviously confusion is what the enemy wants. Let me give you an example again of jumping to a conclusion or making an assumption. In the 12th chapter of Revelation we have a woman described as being pregnant with a male child. I know I’ve used this example before, but it is a classic example of what not to do. The conclusion has been made repeatedly that this woman is Israel because they assume the male child is Jesus Christ. Logically it doesn’t make sense that a symbolic woman is giving birth to a physical man Jesus Christ. I would say if the woman is symbolic, then the child is also symbolic. This is an example of both types of errors being exhibited from a single chapter and only a few verses. You know if someone could back that woman and child up with other scriptures showing their true identities I wouldn’t have a problem with what they were teaching. But, since they never give any verses to backup what they teach I categorically reject that as C.R.A.P. (Christian Reasoning Applied Poorly)! Please forgive my language and frustration. Most teaching on the book of Revelation that I’ve listened to is littered with private interpretations, assumptions and erroneous conclusions. People should stick with the Bible and leave their opinions out of the message and we would all benefit greatly.
USING MAN’S DEFINITION OF BIBLE WORDS INSTEAD OF GOD’S
God has given to us specific information in the Bible and once you see it and understand it, the true spiritual meanings can change Bible word definitions dramatically. What we must attempt to do in correct Bible interpretation, is to always seek God’s definitions for the words and subjects that we are studying. One huge mistake that many Bible students make is to look up words in Webster’s dictionary and think they know everything that a Bible verse is talking about using a man’s definitions of the words. Often times we read a Bible verse and think we know every word that is given to us and therefore we conclude that we understand everything that is being taught. What we do not realize is that God’s ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts. Unless you have completely renewed your mind you are normally thinking naturally. God most of the time is writing to us in spiritual terms, using some natural and some spiritual words interchangeably. The Bible is so much more complex than you can imagine and one way to insure correct interpretation of the Bible is to always look up God’s definitions of every word and subject that you encounter in a Bible verse.
TAKING “A” TRUTH AND TRYING TO MAKE IT “THE” TRUTH
Here is another prime example of a common error of incorrect Bible interpretation in action. While private interpretation is probably the number one problem with a lot of Bible teaching, this one is probably number two on my list of things to avoid. I’ve seen people do this so many times across the board in every denomination. So what does it mean to take a truth and make it the truth? It basically involves jumping to a conclusion again that is true in and of itself. But that truth is not the complete truth on the subject. Some people want to take a well known Bible fact and attempt to say it is this way and no other way. The mistake is made that they ignore all other viewpoints on the subject in favor of the one they like the best. To be fair to most, I would say the problem is rooted in the fact that they just haven’t seen or even aware that other views exist because they are so focused on the one thing that they do know. It doesn’t discount what they know as being in error, unless they say that every other point of view is wrong and only we are right. This is predominantly the root of every denominational war through the centuries. We are right and everyone else is wrong. I’ve got bad news for you only God is right and everyone else is at the least a little bit wrong.
I once heard it put into an analogy of climbing a mountain. If you are on the north side of the mountain you have one view, the south side a different view, the east side a different view, the west side as yet another view. Everyone is trying to say only our view is correct and yours must be in error. People we are climbing the same mountain, understand and know there are different ways to view the same thing.
I use this example, but I don’t name names of who said it. If you know who said it, please ask him to forgive me. I heard a teacher say the church is the body of Christ and not the bride. Search the scripture and you won’t find anything that says we are the bride of Christ. What an idiotic statement of arrogance and ignorance. I wrote a blog series explaining how the church became the body of Christ so I won’t attempt to repeat that lesson here. What we have though is an example of someone taking a truth and trying to make it the entire complete truth. You see I don’t have a problem with the church being the body of Christ, I can see all of the scriptures that tells us, that is what we are. But, I asked another question and that is, how did the church become the body of Christ and I found the answer explained in the Bible quite literally and explicitly. So most people who make this mistake of taking a truth and trying to make it the truth, have probably not asked enough questions.
So taking a truth and attempting to make it the truth is based upon an accumulation of other errors and mistakes that people make of which could be one or more of the following:
- Jumping to Conclusions.
- Making Wrong Assumptions.
- Using Man’s Definitions instead of God’s.
- Not asking the right Questions.
- Insufficient Knowledge. Not knowing enough of the facts (or all of the facts if that is possible)
- Not having sufficient understanding of the subject
What we all need to realize is that there is more than one truth in the Bible. These truths fit together and work in conjunction with other truths. We should all be striving to understand as much as we can about what the Bible says. We should all strive to correctly divide the Word of Truth. We should also all give others who make mistakes some extended effort of forgiveness. Jesus while hanging on the cross said Father forgive them for they know not what they do. People today are the same as they were back then and they still do a lot of stupid things and think they are so right in doing them.
THINKING YOU KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT ANYTHING
This obviously goes back to people having the wrong attitude and approach to Bible study. I’ve seen some people that are extremely arrogant in what they say and think. While some might try to confuse confidence with arrogance there is a difference. You can be confident in what you believe and still be humble enough to admit you might have been wrong. No man is God and knows everything. If you have studied the Bible for 50 years and think you have arrived and know everything that you need to know you have been deceived:
Gal 6:3 For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.
Compared to what God knows, what you and I know would not fill a thimble. Any man or woman that has a teenager type attitude of thinking very highly of themselves and their knowledge has already deceived themselves.
INTERPRETING VERSES OUT OF CONTEXT
This is what I think I mean by this. I once had a minister say that the Bible says “Judas went and hung himself”. Then he quoted a part of another verse that said “Go and do likewise”. This was a humorous attempt to show a mistake many have made with Bible interpretation. People many times attempt to take two or more unrelated verses or just part of them and put them together and make them say something that they never really said. Sometimes I watch late night comics and during the presidential election they would take the words of a candidate making a speech and re-edit them and put them together so that when played all together they would say something that is completely false and sometimes funny. Well preachers and teachers have been guilty of doing this and using it to promote some false teaching that God never came close to endorsing. Find out who the verse was originally written to. Find out why it was written. Figure out if the verse has any implied references, double references, symbolic references, etc and only after going through logical reasoning can you actually justify putting together two verses and organize them correctly. Remember Bible study is like a puzzle, and the pieces of the puzzle must fit together correctly and always show the right big picture which is most always Jesus Christ.
Bible Creation Revealed! Pt 1 The Introduction to Basic Bible Concepts!
(Ver 3.4) This will be an advanced Bible study of God’s supernatural divine creation. This study will involve an in depth analysis of the information given to us by God from within the pages of the Holy Bible concerning the events surrounding the creation of our universe and our world. And those are two different events in our history as we will learn. This series may or may not be what you currently believe to have occurred, but it will be what the Bible says, if we will seek to find the truth, to see it and understand it. I have been criticized because I pull verses from all over the Bible and put them together in a logical way that helps to reveal their hidden meanings. I did not write the Bible so I cannot help to explain to you why the clues found in the Bible are in such widely dispersed and random patterns. I cannot fully explain why a single verse of information found in John, Isaiah or Jeremiah can reveal something that was hidden by God simply by the words being omitted. , I believe that in the first chapter of Genesis, God gives us truthful and factual information designed for a specific introduction to the subject of creation. But I further believe from studying the Bible that Genesis 1 is incomplete information. I found that God wrote about creation from Genesis to Revelation and these other creation verses were written by God’s prophets and New Testament writers hundreds or thousands of years later. Because people do not understand how God designed the Bible with an enumerable number of hidden facts and clues, they simply criticize and like to call things heretical when they do not understand them or just because they are something new that they have never heard before. Coming into this lesson with a preconceived prejudice will cause anyone to close their spiritual eyes and ears to anything that God wants to say. But, that of course is an old religious spirit that got the Jews in trouble when Jesus walked among them, and they killed Him for no good reason.
There is a major debate raging in the Body of Christ about the age of the universe. Because science has declared the universe to be billions of years old, Christians have suddenly determined they need to believe in a young earth and universe and they have gathered their own scientists to counter what they view as a naturalistic perspective for the existence of all matter. The young earth proponents have developed a semi-convincing theory but it is really full of holes not unlike the evolutionist’s theory that is equally full of holes. As you can tell I do not endorse either theory. I am a proponent of letting the Bible interpret the Bible and that will be my goal in this series of lessons. What we need to do is start out by asking ourselves is our God a deceiver? I asked some young earth believers this question and they ignored it and tried to explained it away.
What is deception? According to the Bible deception is appearing to be who or what you are not. You can find this in the story of Jacob in the book of Genesis when he dressed up like his brother Esau and went in to get his brother’s blessing from his father Isaac. Jacob was fearful of being called a deceiver if his father discovered his acts deception. Wow, is that a lesson in itself. Again in another story of Genesis we find the deception of Tamar who dresses up like a prostitute to make Judah give her what was promised to her. In both of these stories clever deception was used by taking on the appearance of what they were not in order to gain what they felt they deserved. Ok, what do these stories have to do with creation? The problem with the young earth theory is that the scientists in the world can clearly see that light takes 2.5 million light years to reach earth from the galaxy of Andromeda. When a Bible teacher comes to us and says that the earth and the universe are only 6000 years old, they have in effect made God to be a liar and a masterful deceiver. They claim that God created something that looks very old, but that is actually very young. That is an act of clear deception no matter how you want to slice it. If the earth is not old then God is the primary contributor that has deceived many people into believing it not young. That is a major problem upon our reflection of the character of God, the nature of God, the love of God, the truth of God and I could go on and on. Rather than ignore this problem like Christians want to do, I’m going to address the problem in this series to see if God solves it in His Word.
If the universe has the appearance of millions or even billions of years and it is only 6000 years old God has deceived a tremendous number of people. Is that your God because that is not my God! The young earth theorists like to explain this by saying that God created the world and the universe in a mature state. They have concluded that creating light rays that take on the appearance of age is not and impossible feat for an omnipotent God. You know I understand that logic, God is certainly omniscient and omnipotent and He is certainly able to do anything. But, just because God is able to do anything does not mean that God has done any of these things that people give Him credit for doing. I’ll ask a new question. If God is able to do anything then can He lie? We all know from reading the Bible that it is impossible for God to lie. Keep this in mind when studying creation. If the universe was created 6000 years ago and the speed of light is 186k miles per second and it takes light from many galaxies billions of years to reach us we are clearly viewing events that took place a long time ago. This would be very clear deception and lies and this is impossible for God to do. However, we must find Bible verses that confirm our beliefs or we will find we are just believing in someone’s opinion.
As a foundation for this mature creation belief my young earth theorists have stated that Adam was created a mature man and thus this helps us with our beliefs of a mature universe creation. They have also further concluded that all the trees were created as mature entities. They have further concluded that all animals originated as mature entities. You know I absolutely agree with at least part of their reasoning for the necessity of maturity. You see if God would have created Adam as a newborn baby he would have died and never survived without a mother caretaker. Therefore, I believe God chose by His sovereign will to create a mature man, a mature woman along with mature birds, fish and animals. But here is where their theory begins to fall apart if you really start to analyze logically that type of thinking. Why didn’t God create a mature earth in Genesis 1:1? Instead of a fully mature earth God describes an earth that is uninhabitable and chaotic. This new earth had to be changed into an inhabitable planet by the end of the chapter in order to support life. That is the complete opposite of creating a fully engaged human male from the beginning. Isn’t it? Please answer the question, if you are able. Why didn’t God create a fully mature earth that was fully sustainable for all the soon coming life?
You can clearly see that there was no life on the earth in Genesis 1:2 and then at the end of the chapter there was organized structured inhabitation. Why didn’t God create it the way that He wanted it to begin with? What we are going to find out by studying the Bible is that God did create it this way and something major happened to destroy it in Genesis 1:2.
So I want to start this study by establishing Biblically that the universe that we currently exist within, had a stated beginning or a starting point somewhere in time past. Modern scientist have predominately ascribed to the notion of a historic concept that they refer to as the “big bang”. They say this occurred somewhere in our distant past probably close to13.8 billion years ago. They have concluded this based upon scientific observation of our rapidly expanding universe. The universe can be observed to be expanding in every direction around us and thus reversing this reasoning it can be logically deduced to have had a single point of origin. By reversing where we are right now and putting everything back to its original point of origin, science has concluded that there was a beginning point of all matter and time. Something occurred at this point in this beginning point of time to cause all matter to appear and to be accelerated into a widely dispersed explosive pattern of a powerful fashion that fast-tracked the chunks at astronomical rates of speed outwardly. Did you know that is what the Bible tells us also, that the heavens are expanding. Look at this verse found in Isaiah:
Isa 40:22 It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:
You can again see that true Bible interpretation and true science will always agree. The Bible recorded that the earth was a spherical circle long before man could prove the earth was not flat. Early religious leaders would excommunicate a scientist who thought the world was round and not the center of the universe. They had in their minds how it ought to be and if anyone disagreed they would reject them. Who was right back then? We are experiencing a very similar behavior in parts of the church today. Many claim the earth to be only 6000 years old and scientists today say the complete opposite. Knowing that the light that we see from distant stars took much longer than 6000 years to even reach us to see, who looks foolish? How can we attempt to reach a secular man with the salvation message who obviously knows more than we do about creation?
Then there is the “who spreads out the heavens” in that verse. This verse claimed that the universe that we can observe is expanding long before anyone had an idea that it was. The Hebrew word here means to “stretch out” to “spread out”. God told us that the heavens were expanding long before anyone could prove it. This verse also claims that the heavens are like a curtain of fabric. A fabric has closely joined threads that are woven together and this again describes the condition of what many scientist have reported. The fabric of space and time is a widely publicized scientific discovery. God wrote about it 1000’s of years before any man came up with this idea. So we must learn what the Bible really says and learn to accept God’s words as the truth. Here is another verse found in the Bible about the earth being round that was written long before man discovered it:
Pro 8:27 When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth:
This verse says the “compass” of the depth. The word “compass” means a circle. So again God declared the world to be a circle long before man discovered it. This verse was written by King Solomon hundreds and hundreds of years before Christ was born. How was Solomon smart enough to write this information if it was not given to him by God. Here is another verse about the expansion of the universe:
Job 9:8 Which alone spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves of the sea.
Again we see a reference to the an expanding heavens. This is the same word that means to stretch forth and to spread outwardly. This is clearly words that were written down for our benefit to see and understand the nature of creation and its harmony with the true scientific observation and study of many.
Job 26:7 He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing.
There are many Bible verses that can be found that say things that only a creator God could have written. In ancient times, many men believed that the world was held up by a god named Atlas and on his shoulders the world revolved. This was clearly a fantasy attempt to explain what they did not understand about the power of God to create the gravitational planetary and solar system that we live within. When the Bible declares that the earth hangs upon nothing within the time space continuum it clearly was written by someone who knew more than any man in the past could imagine or make up. This verse is clearly factually accurate based upon scientific observations of men and it was written in the oldest book of the Bible. You cannot deny that these facts not found in Genesis are truly amazing.
Now you can either be an ostrich Christian and bury your head into the ground or you can look and see if the Bible also says anything that will match the well-known scientific observations that are being taught today. What we must embrace as true Christians is the fact that true science and the true interpretation of the Bible will always agree. You might ask me, why do these have to agree? Because God created both of them and God does not make any mistakes nor does He ever contradict Himself. So what God says in the Bible must match what we find scientifically from what God has created and vice versa. Too many times I have seen preachers and theologians teach something that is 180 degrees opposite to what science has reported. I therefore, know that one of these two positions is wrong and potentially both are incorrect. For example, many scientists embrace a theory of evolution for the existence of the human race and all living things in our world. However, I know this directly contradicts the Bible and so the theory of evolution is man’s attempt to explain away the existence of a God as a creator. This is an example of Bible teachers being right and ignorant scientists being wrong. However, I have also heard many Bible teachers teach that the earth is only 6000 years old and scientist have estimated the age of the earth to be in the billions of years. There is a major difference between these two positions again and this time I tend to agree more with the scientists and not the ignorant Bible teachers. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that the earth is only 6000 years old! Nowhere in the Bible does it say that the earth was created 6000 years ago! If you think it does, you are ignoring a lot of scriptures that says otherwise. This is a religious man’s attempt to prove a theory of young creation by not reading what the Bible actually says about God’s creation. We must make true science and true Bible interpretation agree or we will be viewed as ignorant men and women. So I have given you two examples of the debate between Bible vs. Science where each side is right one time and wrong one time. So let’s find some more scriptures that speak of the existence of a beginning and for now we won’t worry about when this occurred.
Isa 40:21 Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?
In this verse found in Isaiah we can see that God is clearly telling us of a starting point. Two direct references are established. The beginning and the foundation of the earth. The foundation of the earth would imply the beginning of our planet. A foundation would also imply a structure that holds everything else together. So who created this structure and this system of the time and space fabric that holds it all together?
Joh 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
This Bible verse states that the universe had a point of origin. This Bible verse implies God existed prior to the existence of time and space as we currently know it today. This Bible verse gives us some insight into the creation of the world by this Supreme Creator. This creator God is called the Word. God is described in a paradoxical term, being both the Word and God simultaneously. How can God be the Word and the Word also be with God? I think that is one of the mysteries of God and I do not have a good explanation for it, I just accept it as being true. This Word God is said to have created everything that we can see in this next verse of scripture:
Joh 1:3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
All things were made by Him! Who is Him? It is the Word of God! God gives us some amazing information to how things were created in the world around us. By God speaking, things suddenly appeared. Do you understand that things were not created from nothing? I’ve heard preachers claim that everything appeared from nothing, in other words nothing became substance and now exists in the physical dimension of time. But, this is not what the Bible says happened and I believe we should become very picky to see exactly what God is revealing to us in the Bible.
Isa 48:3 I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I shewed them; I did them suddenly, and they came to pass.
The Bible declares that the universe was made by the Word of God. God spoke and it came to pass. Things sprang forth from the words that God had spoken. So, if you can read you can see things were made by Words and words are not nothing. The earth and the stars in heaven were made from words. Let’s explore another verse about this important subject of God’s Word:
Heb 11:3 Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
We have to understand what this verse is saying. It implies that all of creation was accomplished by God’s Words. It does not say that the things that we can see came from nothing. It actually technically says that the things that we can see came from things that we can’t see. Have you ever seen anyone speak? I know you can see their mouths move, but, you do not actually see any words coming out of their mouths do you? These sound waves are things that you cannot see with your natural eyes. The voice of God caused all matter that we can see to exist in the natural realm. Sound waves from God are the basis of all of creation. In this verse the Greek word translated as “worlds” comes from “aion” which means “an age”. This word refers to a span of time, either in the past, the present or the future. Time can always be viewed within one of these three descriptions, even though Einstein claimed this to be a convincing illusion. Einstein believed that all time occurs simultaneously, past, present and future. But our view of this illusion is that we have all had a past, we live in the present now and tomorrow is our future. In my next blog on creation I will expand this word for “worlds” and explore it with additional scriptures. But, for now let’s continue to look at the beginning of creation.
The verse in John 1:3 says that nothing that we can see came about by evolution or by accident. This verse implies an intelligent design by a very highly intelligent creator God. I have heard some scientists who have tried to analyze and prove the most rudimentary makeup of the elements in our physical world and heard what some now are saying. These scientist have split atoms, and examined parts and components of the most minute levels that they can measure and observe, and guess what they have said makes up every atom that we see in this universe? Sound waves! I have actually heard some report that it appears that sounds hold all things together. Did you know that this is what the Bible actually says?
Col 1:17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
This verse in Colossians again states that Jesus Christ existed before all things that we can see in our world. We can again conclude that this means there was a beginning. Jesus Christ was called the Word of God in John and other places in the Bible and we can see that in this verse in Colossians that Jesus Christ causes everything that we see to exist. This Greek word that is translated as “consist” in this verse means “to set together” or “constitute”. This verse is telling us that the world and the universe is held together with God’s Words. God’s words are the rudimentary component to everything that we can see around us. Let’s discover an additional verse concerning God’s Word holding things together.
Heb 1:3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
In this verse in Hebrews we can see that God is revealing to us the source of all of His power. This verse is primarily about Jesus Christ, but it also says that God is causing all things to be held together by His Words of Power. God’s Word is the source of all creation and everything exists because of sounds that came out of God’s mouth. These sounds represents God’s power and they surround us in everything that we can see, touch, taste, smell, perceive and sense around us. Words created all of the universe that we can see. I hope you understand this concept, because it is a very important part of the Bible to know.
Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
This is now the third Bible verse that I have given you today in this lesson that states the earth and the universe had an observable origination point also known as a beginning. In this very first verse in Genesis, we can see clearly that God is again referred to as the creator of the things that we can now see. It very clearly says that there was a defined starting point of all matter and time. Now here is where Bible teachers start to get confused and make many wrong assumptions. They have concluded that because you can mathematically calculate the duration of time from Jesus backwards to Adam that the world is now only approximately 6000 years old. What they have done is assumed that Genesis 1:1 goes with the rest of the chapter in a relative short time sequence. However, they do err, because they ignore what this verse says and many other verses found in the Bible that shows us other information and clues to a much older history of creation.
I want to point out one key Hebrew word in this verse that is very important to understand. The Hebrew word translated as “earth” is a word that means “to be firm”. It is used in the Old Testament in over 2000 verses. Therefore it is a widely verifiable word that can easily be understood by reading God’s usage of it. Over 1500 times in the Old Testament it is tranlated as “land” as in the land of Egypt. Therefor God is informating us that in the beginning He made our planet earth with inhabitable dry land. We can actually get God’s definition of this word earth simply by reading down in the chapter in verse 10:
Gen 1:10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.
The same Hebrew word is given to us that we observed in Genesis 1:1 and it is again transalated as earth but this time God defines what the word earth means. God called the dry land earth and the water He called seas. Why is this so important? If you read Genesis 1:2 you will begin to discover why this is so controversially important. The planet as described by God in Genesis 1:2 is said to be fully covered in water. There is no dry land mentioned in verse 2. Since we understand and can read in Genesis 1:1 that God states explictiy the earth (dry land) was created in the beginning, we have a major contradiction that needs resolution in a young earth theory. This little detail is simply ignored by most young earth theorists because they cannot explain it. To ignore God’s definiton of the words forces them into inventing their own definitions and this is why they are so vastly confused. If God says “earth” is dry land, then earth is dry land and I refuse to call it anything different. I guess you are free to do what you want and that will be between you and God.
Genesis 1:1 tells us clearly that there was a stated beginning and God created everything, but it did not say when this occurred. If you assume something and base your faith upon your assumption, most of the time you will be wrong. We must base what we believe only upon the scriptures found in the Bible and correctly put all of the clues together to see what God has been trying to show us. Unless you can find specific Bible verses to support your young earth theory, then I would reccomend you use wisdom and look for the truth. The Bible does not tell us anywhere the age of the universe and that is where Bible teachers start to fall into error. Teach only what the Bible says and quit guessing on what you think it means. I also started teaching you the imortance of getting God’s definitions to the words that are used in the Bible and this will greatly assist you in learning what they mean and what they say. So far we know from the Bible that there was a beginning of matter and time at some point in our past. We know that God created everything by speaking it into existence. But, we do not know when this occurred so please stop telling people that you do know.
So far let’s review the facts that we have learned about creation:
- God is the Creator!
- God Created Everything By His Word!
- God is the Word!
- The Universe had a point of Origin.
- All matter exists because of God’s Word
- Time had a Beginning!
- God Existed before Time!
- We do not know when the beginning of Time and Matter occurred!
- God defines earth to be dry land!
These are the basic concepts from Bible creation that you need to know for now! In my next blog I will talk about some new concepts and introduce you to some very new things to consider, but for now review what you have learned and go find more scriptures that talk about these 9 things that you learned today.
If you would like to continue reading in this series you can go to “Part 2“.
Are You Pretty In Your Prison?
(Ver 1.2) Did you know that a prisoner will never escape a prison when they do not know they are in one? If you grew up a free child and were wrongfully convicted of a crime and sentenced to a life behind bars after becoming an adult, would you want to try to be free again or escape? I believe that you would think about it every day. However, let’s say you were a baby born in a prison, raised in a prison, never saw the outside and the free world and did not know anything but prison. Would you still want out and try to escape? I don’t think so! You see this is the case that most of the world is in today. They have been born and raised within a spiritual prison system that has captured them, held them and they do not even know it. Because these people do not know any better, they are not looking to escape it. They exist in a state of unawareness of the spiritual reality of freedom that is available all around them. These people are consumed with the natural things that they see and can touch. They dress up in fine clothes and go out to clubs and party like there are never any consequences. These people do not understand they are in a prison, being held captive and controlled by an unseen spiritual force. They go about their lives living like today and right now is all that counts. People in the world are captives to a spiritual system that they do not see and are the servants of that system. To be a servant is the same as to be a slave and they certainly do not know it. When Jesus walked the face of the planet in the flesh, He gave us some insight into why He had to come in person. This is one statement where He quotes an Old Testament prophet and informs us of what He was doing here:
Luk 4:18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
This verse says many things, but I want to focus on the part that I underlined for us to see. Jesus said “I came to preach deliverance to the captives”. What is Jesus talking about? Who are these captives that He is declaring freedom for? Did you know this Greek word translated as “captives” means “prisoner of war”? You do understand what a prisoner of war is, yes? Jesus is speaking in spiritual terms about a spiritual war, which has spiritual prisoners. There is a spiritual warfare being waged even today as we observe the events happening around us in our natural world. Jesus came to free us from our flesh, sin, Satan and death. However, Satan is still the ruler of the darkness of this world (Eph 6:12). Satan no longer rules those who are saved and who are true Christians. But the others are still his prisoners. Those that have not been saved live within this domain and in the confines of darkness as slaves to sin and are held captive by Satan. So why did Jesus say He was here to preach in Luke 4:18? I thought He was here to save us? If we understand the Bible we also understand that no one gets saved unless someone preaches. This is God’s selected method for salvation. Someone goes to the world, tells them the good news of freedom from prison and they have the right to believe it and get saved or reject it and stay in their spiritual dungeon and prison of darkness. This verse in Luke is of course a quote from Isaiah, where Jesus opened the scroll and found the words to read. Here is what the original verse actually says:
Isa 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent1 me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
We can again see that Jesus is quoting a prophetic verse that He was here to “proclaim liberty to the captives”. It then speaks about these same people in another statement that is definitely related, “to open the prison of those who are bound”. You see Jesus has opened the doors to let people out of their prisons, but because these people do not know they are in a prison, they do not make any effort to come out of this open door. People live in a state of blissful ignorance and contentment . They are satisfied with what they have, because they don’t know there is anything better. This is true of many natural people in the world today who are raised in a specific set of circumstances and are content with their current state of being. But, even as it is true in the natural, so it is also true in the spiritual realm. Ignorance of the open door and the way out of their prison keeps people bound. Here is another prophecy from Isaiah that speaks to us on this subject:
Isa 42:7 To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.
Jesus was anointed to fulfill the plan of God and this included setting those in the chains of darkness free from Satan’s kingdom. This verse also speaks of people being blinded by Satan. Blindness is the inability to see the light. We know from the Bible that Jesus said He was the Light of the World, so those who are sitting in the darkness are unable to comprehend and see Jesus. The prison house is a place of darkness where Satan holds his captives hostage by their ignorance. If you do not understand Spiritual darkness and light I would suggest you read the lessons on “Understanding Night and Day”. Here are just a few New Testament verses that speak of this bondage and slavery to sin:
Gal 4:3 Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:
Gal 4:9 But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
Gal 5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
2Pe 2:19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he( brought in bondage.
2Ti 2:26 And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.
People in the world are being held captive against their will, but yet do not even know it. They have been deceived into believing that their prison of sin is normal and good. They are attracted to the darkness by the lusts and desires that keep them prisoners in their hearts. Even though they dress up and party to have a good time in their minds, the fun is all limited within the confines of the four grey spiritual walls of their hearts. They do what their warden Satan wants them to do, when he wants them to and they do not even understand the process. So we can dress up and look pretty and be the best looking man or woman in our spiritual prison cell. Or we can make Jesus our Lord and walk out of that dead end through the open door that Jesus Christ has given us for a new life of freedom. I would recommend that we choose this Life of Freedom!
Understanding Spiritual Laws in the Bible
(Ver 1.3) This is Part 1 in a lesson series about Bible Spiritual Laws created by God. I use to like to study natural and physical laws found in science when I went to school. We are surrounded by these natural laws, dominated by these laws and are completely dependent upon them for our continuing existence on this planet. After studying the Bible for many years, I have realized that God created natural things as patterns for things that are found in the spiritual realm. Every day we get up and get out of bed and never think about most of these natural laws that rule our lives. Yet they are affecting what we do and the results that we have regardless of whether we are thinking of them or not. The laws of motion, the laws of gravity, the laws of thermodynamics and the laws of aerodynamics are just a few of these scientific systems that we depend upon. God created these natural systems so that we could depend upon and have confidence in them every day by faith. You may or may not understand how these laws that I just gave you work, but yet you can believe in them and use them to your advantage or your harm depending on what you desire to happen. For example, if you want to go to California from New York, the law of aerodynamics can help your pilot override the laws of gravity and help you to get you there in a matter of a couple of hours or so by plane. This is just a small example of how natural laws help us in our everyday lives.
Introduction to Spiritual Laws
Just as there are natural and physical laws that rule and control our outcomes, there are also spiritual laws that control our eternal destiny. God is a highly organized being of supreme intelligence. Any organization in order to be organized requires structure and laws and so it is in God’s spiritual Kingdom. God operates under a set of strict spiritual laws that I would say most Christians do not understand. Religious minded people like to think that God is omnipotent and that means He can do whatever He wants to, whenever He wants to, to whoever He wants to. I have no doubt that God is powerful enough and has the capability to do exactly that, however, by reading God’s Word we can discover that God has imposed limitations and constraints upon himself by His own design. God has transferred spiritual ability, freewill, decision making capabilities, reasoning, thought processes and even authority to the human race.
Spiritual Law 1: The Law of Faith
In order to understand spiritual laws, you must first start by recognizing that there are spiritual laws. You cannot start to learn about what you do not know, until you learn that these laws exist and then how these spiritual laws govern the things that occur in our world. Here is a Bible verse that gives us just one spiritual law found in the Bible:
Rom 3:27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.
God informs us of many of the spiritual laws found in the Bible, but you have to look for them. This verse tells us that “faith” is a spiritual law. We can understand that faith is the ability of man to believe something that cannot be confirmed with our natural senses. For example, to have “faith” in an unseen God. You have never seen God, but yet believe that He exists. That is Bible faith! Faith is the belief of something that cannot be proven in the natural realm. If you could prove this thing existed, it wouldn’t be faith. The world likes to say “seeing is believing” but that is not Bible faith and that is not a true statement. If you can see something you know it exists and you do not have to believe anything. To know something is true is much different than to believe something is true. If someone came to me and told me that they saw a man walk on the lake barefooted. I would have to either choose to believe what they said or you would have to reject what they said, since I did not see it with my own two eyes. If I chose to believe it, that is putting faith in that person and what they said.
So faith is a spiritual law designed by God to teach us a principle that God thought was very important for us to know. When Jesus walked the face of the earth, if you were one of those that knew Him, you could see that He appeared to be no different than any other man. He ate, he slept and he did all of the things that you and I do. So how did Peter when asked by Jesus “who am I”, know that He was the Son of God? It had to be by faith. Sure Peter could see everything that He did and how that Jesus healed the sick and even raised the dead, but that still did not prove that He was God. Did you ever think about the fact that Judas saw the same things that Peter did and yet turned Jesus into the soldiers to be killed. How could both men see things so differently, who had witnessed everything that they did? One chose to believe and the other did not! Therefore, the law of faith worked for Peter but, Judas chose not to use it.
Spiritual Law 2: Sin and Death vs. Spirit and Life
Rom 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
Here is another verse found in the Bible that speaks of two spiritual laws that are diametrically opposed to each other. You might think of these like the laws of aerodynamics vs. the laws of gravity. The laws of aerodynamics overrule the laws of gravity and thus allows men to fly in airplanes. Well according to this verse, the spiritual law of Life in Christ Jesus has super ceded the law of sin and death. These are two scientific principles based upon the natural law of cause and effect. The result of natural sin is natural death. We can see this from Genesis 2 where God told Adam don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day you do you will surely die. The Bible tells us that death entered into the world through the sin of one man, Adam (Rom 5:12). But, it also tells us that by the obedience of one man, Jesus Christ all those who received it, would be made alive again. These are two spiritual laws that have different results. By embracing the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus we have overcome the law of sin and death that was passed upon us by our father Adam. Our spiritual father Jesus took upon Himself death that we might be a partaker of His life. That is an awesome trade for us.
Spiritual Law 3: Plant a Seed and Get a Harvest
There are many spiritual laws in the Bible and I cannot go into all of them. For the sake of understanding I will give you one more example of a spiritual law found in the Bible. This law governs men and women and their physical destiny almost more than any other that I can think of. Because, people do not understand spiritual laws, they do not know how they have arrived at and are faced with all of the predicaments that they are presently confronted with. People tend to believe in luck, either good luck or bad luck has dealt them what they have in their lives. Other people believe, in the Doris Day religious philosophy “Ka Sa Ra, Whatever will be Will Be!. Meaning no matter what happens to them it was not caused by anything that they did. However, God has revealed something else in the Bible that is much more relevant to know than to think that everything that happens to us hass just been our bad luck.
Gal 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
You see God gives us some very specific instructions in this verse. Because, He does not want us to be deceived by what happens to us, He tells us clearly a spiritual law that governs our lives. Sowing and Reaping is a spiritual law found in the Bible from cover to cover. Just as the Law of Faith occurs in the Bible as a predominate theme and pattern, you can find every spiritual law revealed in every story of the Bible, if you look closely to discover them. Sowing and reaping is a spiritual law implemented by God and it affects everyone equally, whether they realize it or not. If you do not understand this spiritual law you need to study about farming concepts. Farmers understand the law of sowing and reaping. They plant specific seeds to get specific crops and harvests. They do not plant corn seed to get cabbage. They understand that whatever they sow, is exactly what they reap. This is a spiritual law as well as a natural physical law.
Gen 8:22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
Written in the Law of God, in this verse in Genesis God is giving us some valuable information. Many times, God speaks both in natural and spiritual terms in a verse and gives us a law found in creation. God informs us as long as the earth is here, we will see a cycle of continuous nights and days and repeated seasons of warmth and cold. But, along with this information is another repeated cycle of planting seeds and reaping harvests. You can understand that God is speaking of how people will physically eat on this planet, but you can also apply this principle to the spiritual life of people. God is informing us how things work and we need to understand it, to be successful. If you walk around planting seeds of discontent, seeds of discouragement, seeds of gloom, seeds of despair, seeds of evil, hurt, harm, guess what you will reap? God said he would not be mocked, that a man or a woman would reap exactly what they have sown. There are just as many ways to sow seed in the spiritual realm, as there are in the natural realm. So every day you are planting seeds for your tomorrows. Today you are reaping the harvests of your seeds of yesterdays and the cycle goes on and on. If you don’t like what you are getting today in life, change what you are planting for your tomorrows.
So I talked about a small number of spiritual laws found in the Bible. These laws govern and control what you get out of life. God gives us great information about these laws in the Bible so that we can learn to use them to help us to live life to the fullest. God gives us a number of great examples in the Bible of people utilizing these laws to achieve great things. God also gives us examples of people who did not follow these spiritual laws and how they came to a less than admirable ending. By cooperating with the spiritual laws we are far less likely to fall into something that someone could call just your random bad luck! God Bless!
If you would like to continue readin about spiritual laws found in the Bible you can continue with “Part 2“.
Understanding God’s Spiritual Family Structure!
(Ver 2.1) This is “Part 1” in a series of very important advanced spiritual Bible lessons that will change your life and outlook on God and His Holy Word if you permit Him to do so. Do you know what a family is? How do we define a family in the modern world? Satan is diligently attempting to pervert the family definition and corrupt God’s original design but these lies still do not take away from God’s truth. Reading the Bible we can very clearly see that God created a specific family unit system and a very specific designed family structure here on the earth. Was this family design something brand new or was it patterned after something in heaven that already existed? Please let me give you a verse of great importance as a foundation to this entire series. It is found in the Book of Luke and is understood to have been spoken directly by Jesus quoting from an obscure minor prophet name Micah:
Luk 12:53 The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother-in-law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother-in-law.
Ok, this is the mystery verse that initiated this Bible study series. I have given it to you first to help you anticipate where God is taking us. When I read this verse a tremendous curiosity to what God was speaking of filled my heart. I just had a great desire to go and search the Bible to find out the answer to the mystery being spoken of by the Lord Jesus. I prayed and asked God to help me to understand and step by step over several years He taught me so very much about His Spiritual Family. After this study. a lot more of the Bible came into a much clearer focus and was so much more understandable than before.
Let us remember that it was that God created the first human family in our present world system, and this event is described to us in Genesis chapters 1 and 2. Take a moment and read these verses again. You should be able to observe that this created first family unit only consisted of one man called the husband and one woman called his wife. It is also important to note where the woman came from. The woman came from the body of her husband and was not created or formed separately or independently from her husband. This truth will become more important as you learn what this represents in the family of God. This earthly created family grew and expanded into numerous children and eventually became very large in numbers. In the terms of the current estimated human population on the earth today, the family of Adam has now grown to and exceeded nearly 7 billion people. We must therefore conclude from this very solid scriptural information that a real family by God’s definition and design is comprised of a single man, a solitary woman and at least some children. Does God have a spiritual family like this? Did God ever have a spiritual family that was the pattern for this created family of Adam? Here is a new question to also consider, what will the family of God look like at the end? Will the ending spiritual family of God in Revelation 22 be the same pattern of what has already come before? If you did not know it yet, God had a family exactly like this in heaven prior to creation and this is exactly how it will end up in the final chapter of Revelation. Therefore, the original design of God’s family in the spiritual realm will be how the final family of God will also be patterned in the eternal spiritual realm after this world that we live within is completed.
God in the Bible is defined to be an eternal Spirit being but, the natural universe that we are now a part of, it had a created starting origination point also called a beginning (Genesis 1:1, John 1:1). Therefore, I believe that whatever God created here in the natural realm must have originated from the pre-existing spiritual realm. I believe from years of Bible study that whatever was made manifest here in the natural realm had to be patterned from that which already existed in the eternal spiritual world. I know that you may not yet understand patterns and I will give you a good introduction to pattern concepts before I continue this lesson on the spiritual family of God. Can we at least begin by agreeing that the spiritual realm existed prior to the physical/natural realm? Surely, we can understand the concept of patterns by reading Genesis 1. 
Lets talk about light in Genesis 1 and where it came from! God is defined to us in the Bible as “light” where no darkness exists (1 Jn 1:5). Using this information, we can go and look at Genesis 1:2 and see that there was no light found to be present on the earth and darkness covered the face of the deep. However, remember that the Creator God was called a spiritual light and He definitely pre-existed in heaven before creation took place. In Genesis 1:3 God said “Light Be” and light then came into existence within the natural realm. What was this natural light patterned from? If God was the spiritual light found in heaven, then it must have been patterned after God. How do I know that? Well if you read the end of the book you will see in Revelation 22:5 that we will have no need for the sun, moon or stars or even candles because God will be our source for eternal light again. What I have tried to demonstrate is how light had to exist in the spiritual realm first and was then made manifest in the natural realm from a pattern of the spiritual dimension and then will again finally be transferred back into the completed spiritual realm of light in the end with no need for the natural anymore. Did you understand that? It is so important that you fully grasp these cycles of repeated pattern concepts.
What we are trying to do in this introduction of the subject is to establish that patterns were created by God for us to learn about hidden new spiritual things from the Heavenly. Spiritual Light had to eternally exist in heaven originating from God prior to the creation of the natural light here in this dimension. God in heaven had to be their only source for light because that is how it will end up in the end. Do remember what Jesus said? Jesus said, “I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end” (Rev 1:8). Jesus was saying that how it was in the beginning is how it will end up at the end because the Lord changes not (Mal 3:6). We also learn from reading in Ecclesiastes 1:9 that God says “the thing that has been is that which will be again…” In this verse God claims there are repeated patterns. Therefore, what pre-existed in heaven has now come into existence on the temporary earth in natural terms and after this age is completed the spiritual light of God will again be our only source for light.
I pray that we all understand these essential concepts. We have just learned based upon the verse in Revelation 1:8, Malachi 3:6 and Ecclesiastes 1:9 that how it was in heaven before the earth’s existence is at the least potentially how it is designed by God to be in the end and if not, then God has changed and must have lied to us in His word. So let me ask you this “Which came first, the spiritual or the natural”? If you answered the spiritual you would be correct. Then let me ask you “How will it end up”? Do you understand what I am trying to teach here today in this introduction? It is very much like the old human question which came first the chicken or the egg? In this classic human debate, people ask how can a chicken arrive on the earth without coming through an egg? Then the argument goes into a circular debate, how then did the egg get here without a chicken to lay it? What people fail to understand is that there was a more intelligent God than they are that was also involved in the entire process. That is a key point to remember in reading the rest of this lesson series. This more intelligent Creator God has some pretty amazing things hidden in the Bible that reveal many of the answers to the questions that we have all had at one time about things in the Bible and in the world around us.
I hope that you are beginning to see some new patterns revealed in the Bible how God teaches us that certain specific things existed in heaven before they ever existed here on the earth. Perhaps I should regress and speak briefly about what humans use patterns for in our natural world. A seamstress will use patterns to create new dresses, shirts, pants, or other pieces of clothing. Each usage of the pattern replicates the original design using whatever fabric or customizations that are desired to produce the final product. To the untrained eye it is often difficult to recognize several products that come from the same pattern. However to the expert it is usually obvious. This is exactly how the Bible is also, what I see as an obvious pattern will often be overlooked by a novice Bible student. Where do you think man learned the use of design patterned concepts in what they create in the natural? Since man was made in the image and likeness of God (Gen 1:26) it is clear to me that what man does that is successful and beneficial here in the natural must have originated from what God has previously done in the spiritual. People use patterns in almost every manufacturing and building process. It is a dominant business working model and best practice for success. Therefore, learn the lesson of patterns because I will be talking about them a lot in this lesson series.
I could give you many other verses to help establish the pattern truth in the Bible, but I am going to skip most of these verses to keep this lesson manageable and give you a couple of examples that are directly related to what I am trying to teach about this subject on the spiritual family of God. Begin today in this lesson by understanding that God created the natural things found in this world to give us insight into the unseen pre-existing spiritual things. What God created and how God created it reveal things that have been hidden since the foundation of the world. Another way to say this is that God created natural things as a vision, or view or a window into the unseen spiritual dimension. Here is a verse that might help you to better follow what I am saying:
Rom 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
This is an amazing verse of truth being presented to us from God. It speaks clearly and directly about the things that God created in the beginning. God said that the hidden qualities of God can be clearly observed within the views of our current natural creation. This would include the design, the components, the systems, the laws, the organization and the structure of our planet, the world and the universe around us. That is some highly informative information. God says that you can look around you and find the hidden characteristics of God in the things that surround you everywhere. This of course does not mean that we worship creation and ignore the Creator and that is what many in the government, Hollywood and TV do. What God is telling us in this verse is that the most isolated men in the darkest, deepest parts of the world who have never heard the Gospel preached are without excuse. Meaning they could easily find God, if they only looked closely around them and saw Him. This is technically only possible if the natural realm contains patterns from the spiritual realm. In the book of Hebrews chapter 11, God speaks to us about Enoch who walked with God and was taken because of his extreme close relationship with God. Let’s read this verse and then consider what it teaches us:
Heb 11:5 By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.
Did you ever think and consider that there were no preachers, no churches, no Bibles, no witnesses to the truth and nobody to talk with to confirm that there was a God when Enoch was alive? If you do the calculations from the dates and times of birth you will find that even Adam had died when Enoch was taken up to be with God. Thereofre, even Adam who talked with God in the garden was no longer avaliable to consult on the existence of God. In fact, in John 6:46 Jesus teaches us that no man including Adam and Enoch had ever seen God directly. How then did Enoch find this God and know Him so very well? I think that is a really good question to consider. Is this type of relationship with God still possible today for men to know God in this level of intimacy that God still takes us up? If you did not know it, it will happen very soon again and you could be possibly left behind like those in Enoch’s day. I believe it is possible for you to know God exactly like Enoch knew God and even greater! So let’s get back on the subject of God’s Spiritual Family Structure and prove this concept using the Bible that God had one of these in heaven.
Mat 10:25 It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?
Here in this verse in Matthew, Jesus is speaking to the disciples. This verse has great information within it, as long as you do not overlook what it says. Jesus is calling himself the Master and the Lord. He then tells the disciples that if the Jews said that the Master of the House is “Satan”, how much more will the servants and the members of the household be also called “Satan”. There are two very important key words found in this verse of scripture. First, is the word “master of the house” and this Greek word means the “Head of the Family”. Jesus is the Head of a New Family of God. The next key word is “household”. This Greek word means “relatives” and those that live in the same “house”. It implies a close relationship between the “Head of the House” and those who are part of His family.
So apparently God does have a spiritual family, with family members, relatives if you please that live in the same house. These relatives are us, the church now and here is another important verse that confirms this statement of truth:
Eph 2:19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
We can clearly see two contrasting groups of people being spoken of in this verse. One group of people are called “strangers” and “foreigners”. Have you ever been to a family reunion and not known some of the people there? Usually you know everyone that is present at the family reunion. However, if you come from a really big family you might sometimes not know every new child that is born since the last time you have gotten together. Then other family members marry new spouses and the family continues to grows and it can be challenging to keep track of everyone all the time. Nevertheless, what would you call someone who just shows up at your family party that no one there knows? They would be called a stranger to everyone. This was the exact way of God’s spiritual family when we were not saved, we were once foreign strangers to God’s spiritual family. Until we were saved, we were not members of that spiritual family, so something must have occurred for us to be known by God’s family. This verse in Ephesians ends with a statement that we (the church) are now in the “household” of God. Again this Greek word, means that we are now a member of the family and even a close relative of the same family or household. Something changed or happened to put you into this family of God. Do you remember what that was? If you do not you are in trouble. If you have not been saved, you are not a member of this spiritual family. These verses imply that not everyone will be saved, so those that teach Universal Salvation have a major theological problem that they must just ignore.
Now I am going to introduce you to a verse in the Bible that I have already alluded to. Maybe you did not realize it, but Jesus has established a new family of God. Why do I say that? Because the Bible seems to imply that the Old family of God had some significant problems with it.
Heb 3:6 But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.
Here we have another important verse that has great revelation if we choose to see it. Jesus Christ the risen Son of God is said to be the head or master of a new spiritual house (family). Did you know the Hebrew word for Son (H1121) is “ben” and it literally means a builder of the family name? Therefore, Jesus being a Hebrew walked the face of the planet and called Himself both the Son of God and the Son of Man. What we discover from this new information is that Jesus is a unique product combination and the manifestation of a son from two separate and distinct dimensions. One dimension was spiritual (Son of God) and the other dimension was physical (Son of Man) and Jesus embodies both of these realms simultaneously as a qualified Family Builder and name extender. Wow, I do not really know if you heard what I said but it was important. Therefore, only Jesus was capable of rebuilding a new family and restoring the natural family of Adam after he sinned and the spiritual family of God to create a brand new family that consists of chosen select members of each of these previous dimensions, while omitting and leaving out those that God does not desire in. That is very tricky and extremely intelligent, if you ask me.
Did God have a pre-existing spiritual family before the creation of Adam and Eve? Did this family have a wife? Was God her husband? Who were the spiritual children in the previous Family of God before the creation of Adam? What we must do is look at Revelation 20, 21, and 22 and see that if God has a bride and children there then He must have had those also before our world began or God has changed and we know that is not possible. There are so many questions to consider and answer. The Bible reveals a lot of information on this subject and I will continue it in another future lesson. Thanks for taking the time to read and study the Bible with me and I pray that I helped you to see a new spiritual perspective of an old familiar subject. God Bless!
If you would like to continue reading this series, please click here “Part 2“.
A Modern Example of Deception to Avoid – Part 5 Does God Need Your Militia?
(Ver 1.2) This is now “Part 5” in a series of commonsense Christian Bible lessons teaching us examples of modern deception that we should avoid at all cost. If you have not read this series from the beginning, you may desire to go and begin with “Part 1” first. But please understand that this lesson is not dependent upon any previous lesson for it to be understood and applied. Today’s lesson is about deception taking place that creates a worldly attitude that Christians are extremist crazy people that need to be imprisoned or killed. This is exactly the direction that Satan is trying to steer the unsaved world into believing about Christians. It is very much like what Satan did in the nation of Germany in the 1930’s when Jewish people were characterized as evil so that they could be exterminated. That is what is happening again today for Jewish people and for Christians.
MODERN DAY MILITIA
I was watching the news a while back when a concerning news story came across the television. Here was another example of extreme deception that we should avoid in the Body of Christ. I have said this before, but it is good to repeat it. If the news media puts a story on their valuable network time about Christians it is there for a purpose to drive Satan’s planned narrative. Therefore, take these stories and use wisdom to understand they are not there to make Christians look good.
In one state in the US, there appeared a group of people who call themselves Christians, who have armed themselves for a coming battle with the anti-Christ or so the news said. I don’t believe everything that the news always says, but if this is true these people are deceived into believing that their guns and military training is going to make a difference at the battle of Armageddon. How childish and ignorant this appears! The news story seemed to indicate that these people believed that we were living at the end of the age (which is the truth). They also believed that Jesus would be coming back to the earth very soon (which is more truth). They believed that the anti-Christ could be here already and that the end time battle for Jerusalem and the earth was soon to occur (this is also base upon Bible truth). So while they have all this truth mostly correct, they ignore the rest of the Bible and have bought into selective theology to justify their actions. In other words they have been deceived into believing a lie. They must not understand who Jesus is and how powerful that He is.
These Christians are thinking naturally and carnally and according to my Bible that is enmity against God. These people hopefully are saved Christians but they are lacking in a lot of spiritual knowledge, understanding and wisdom to know the POWER OF GOD. Not every person on the earth that calls them self a Christian is a Christian. I can call myself a car and go sit in my garage, but that does not make me a car.
Let us examine this carnal belief using the Bible. Let us start with Moses and the children of Israel leaving Egypt. What does God do? He parts the Red Sea and drowns all of the army of Pharaoh. Did God need anyone of the Israelites to do this? Were the Israelites armed with weapons of war that God required to fight this Egyptian enemy? Did you know that Egypt is a type of the world that we live in right now? That Pharaoh was a type of the anti-Christ and Satan. Did you know that the Bible says that what has been is the thing that shall be again (Ecc 1:9)? Will God need anyone to defeat the armies of the world led by the anti-Christ? I don’t think so! If God did need someone to defeat the anti-Christ , why choose a human? Why not some angels? God has millions or billions of angels that can kill everybody on the planet in a matter of seconds. God sent out one angel in 2 Kings 19:35 and he alone killed 185,000 human soldiers of Assyria. The current population of the earth is approximately 7 billion people. That would only take 38 angels to wipe them all out using the 2 Kings math. Let us read another Bible story about angels and there being no need for human weapons and fighting in a battle on the earth:
2Ki 6:16 And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.
In this story in 2 Kings, the prophet of God is confronted by his servant who asked “what are we going to do?” You see the enemies of God’s people had surrounded the hill side where they were and there were a whole bunch of them. In the natural they were vastly outnumbered, but Elisha did not panic, and even said “Fear Not”. He then exclaimed this, “There are more with us than there are with them”. At this point in time the servant could count, One + One = Two, against thousands and say what are you talking about? Then Elisha prays!
2Ki 6:17 And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.
Did you notice Elisha did not pray for God to help, or to send help or ask God to do anything, but rather the prayer was to open the eyes of his young servant? This is what these militia people need. They need a word from God’s prophet from His written Word and to pray for God to open their eyes. God did answer this prayer! When God opened the eyes of the young man, he saw the hills covered with the army of God in chariots of fire. Now the servant could see that there were more with them than there were that were against them. Did God need anybody else? Did God tell Elisha to get his sword and fight? You see people who do not understand the Bible think that God is incapable of repeating anything that He has demonstrated before. You have to understand that any spiritual army of God is no match for any natural army of the earth. You do understand that, don’t you? Angels are bigger and stronger than us and we do not want to mess with one of them, much less thousands of them.
These confused, deceived Christians need a revelation from God to understand the power of God. God does not need any gun to defeat the anti-Christ or his armies. If you think He does need you then you are deceived. If we would just read the rest of our Bible and believe that God is God, we will be far better off. Let us stop giving spiritually mature Christians a bad reputation just because some carnal thinking baby Christians have not seen the truth yet. But, the world lumps Christians all together in the same crazy boat. Whenever, some deceived person bombs an abortion clinic, thinking they are doing God’s work they make every Christian come across looking like the same type of foolishness. I know this is actually a plan of Satan to do this. discount and discredit true Christianity, by deceiving a few people to look like crazy evil people.
So how does God defeat Satan and the anti-Christ and those that are arrayed against Him? Like I said if you would only need to read your Bible to find out that Jesus uses only one weapon to defeat every enemy. And this weapon is not your gun or your muscle. So what is this weapon that Jesus uses?
Rev 19:15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
What part of this verse in Revelation sounds like God needs our gun or our whatever! The ONLY weapon that Jesus uses to defeat all of the nations of people arrayed against Him is His mouth. The Word of God is spoken and opponents fall down dead. Out of the mouth of the “Almighty God” will proceed a sharp sword and that is the only weapon that Jesus will need to defeat anybody that comes against Him. If we still do not understand that, I feel very sad for you, you have been deceived.
A PERSONAL APPLICATION
To believe that the Creator of heaven and earth requires human assistance to help defeat Satan, I believe is deception. I believe that this belief would be like little kids playing army. To a real soldier the kids would be amusing. Sometimes I believe God sometimes, sits in heaven and laughs at our childish behavior. So to the militia members and Christians that think that God needs your guns to defeat His enemy, here is our prayer for you!
Dear LORD, please forgive us for being so ignorant. Please give to us your Spirit of revelation in the knowledge of Christ Jesus. Help us to better understand His Power, His Position and His Plan for every human. LORD open the eyes of our spirit that we might perceive the truth as you have given it and intended it. Give us a hunger to read your Word and the vision of how you see your Words and their meanings. We are looking forward to your soon return to catch us up and away from the coming judgments upon the earth dwellers. Thank you, and we are looking forward to returning back to the earth with You riding on a White Horse to rule and reign for 1000 years. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
God bless you and please pray for us. Your prayers are priceless and we value them immensely. Have a blessed time preparing for His soon coming, but if He has not return before our next lesson is available, live in peace and be led by His Spirit.
Understanding God’s Spiritual Encryption System in the Bible!
(Ver 2.0) Is the Word of God encoded with hidden mysteries and meanings? Has the Word of God been spiritually encrypted so that we cannot see it naturally or understand it with our unsaved minds? I often times observe other bloggers and other websites just to see what they are writing about. It is amazing what many people think is important to write about and what they have determined to be the truth. It obviously causes me to ask God a very direct question. Why don’t people see what you have written in the Bible the same way? How is it that we can have so many differing opinions to what it all means? Some see one thing in a verse and others see the complete opposite from the exact same verse. The words didn’t change, they read the same for both readers. It looks like to me it was just a matter of what they wanted to see that determined what they got out of the verse. It must be that someone or both of the readers were just wrong. Every opinion cannot be RIGHT! It just doesn’t make any sense does it? Why can’t God get over His message so that we can all agree on at least some or most of what it says? Do you think this is beyond God’s capability to do something like this? Or is it just man’s inability to see and understand? Could it be that God has purposefully encrypted the information to make it unreadable until the appointed time for Him to reveal it? This is actually what I believe! God has encoded information in plain sight using many very tricky techniques. I have already blogged on many of these techniques giving you the basic concepts of how God implemented them. If you have not read any of these blog I would suggest that you go an familiarize yourself with some of these techniques. By understanding the concepts I believe you will better be able to understand the word of God. However, today I want to explore Biblical evidence for this spiritual encryption system of God. Does the Bible indicate that there are hidden truths in it? Concealed information? Of course there are many verses that lead us to believe this, if you are looking for them:
Dan 2:28 But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king….
This verse in Daniel reveals to us the nature of God’s character. It speaks to God’s methods of operation and to God’s ways of doing what He does. If God is a revealer of secrets, like this verse says, then it would demand that secrets existed. This is just basic logic and reasoning. To understand that God has encoded secrets within the Bible allows Him to reveal them to the kings of earth. That is you and I if you did not know it! This is what the king in Daniel said as a reply to the information that was revealed to him:
Dan 2:47 The king answered unto Daniel, and said, Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal this secret.
All it took was for God to reveal a truth and this king saw that Daniel’s God was the True Living God. Do you realize that God can do that again if He wants to? I believe that God is revealing the Bible in these last days to show us that He is God. But how did God do this in Daniel’s day? God used a man to present the information and nobody saw God, nobody could prove it came from God, nobody could verify the accuracy, nobody could go to a Bible expert to confirm it. Isn’t that an interesting concept? It sounds like the people that God was speaking to had to take some things by faith. They had to believe in a God that they had never seen or experienced. God simply used one man to reveal a secret and that changed the heart of the king. I pray that you are understanding this concept.
Pro 25:2 It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.
Here we have a critical confirming verse that God has hidden or concealed information for the kings of the earth to search out. Anything that is hidden means that it is not clearly visible, it could be camouflaged to blend in with its surroundings or it could be completely covered by something else. To hide your money in the backyard would be an example of someone who did not want it taken or stolen until they wanted to use it. So God has a purpose in hiding information for us, the kings of the earth to find. To search out a matter implies work, an effort of either digging into or studying the Bible with some level of physical work or mental effort. If you just read the Bible with a shallow surface understanding of the words, you are missing the good stuff that God wanted you to find.
Not everything in the Bible is hidden, however not everything in the Bible is clearly understandable either. We have a challenge presented to us from God to determine what is what and what it all means. If you think it is easy, you are mistaken. The words are very complex and intricately embedded with meaning that is not clearly seen.
Deu 30:11 For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off.
Here in this verse God says what I just said is not hidden from you. It also implies that there could be other things that are hidden from us. The verse ends in the statement that it is also not far off. This is a relation to distance and time. If something is a far off, it could take time to reach it. Since this verse is not a far off, we might could conclude that there are other verses that are potentially a far off, meaning they will be revealed only at the proper time whenever we reach that point. God has designed specific appointed times for certain events to occur. The coming of Christ into the world was at the “fullness of time” (Gal 4:4). This means that after the completion of the time period allotted, Christ came. Then there is Daniel 12:4 that tells us in the time of the end that knowledge shall increase dramatically. We can clearly see this can be taken of natural knowledge, but I firmly believe it also applies to the Knowledge of God’s Word!
Isa 48:6 Thou hast heard, see all this; and will not ye declare it? I have shewed thee new things from this time, even hidden things, and thou didst not know them.
This verse in Isaiah speaks about a point in time and how God had showed them “new things”. These “new things” were said to be hidden secrets and yet even after God showed them to the people it says they still did not understand them. Did you know that is my greatest challenge I face on my blog. How do I speak about new things that I found in the Bible and get anyone to understand them? It is much harder than you might think. People have a natural tendency to reject anything new or different, even if it came from God. Why do you think Paul and the other apostles were in prison and beaten and persecuted to the extent that they were? It was because they were teaching something totally new. Even though it came from the same source as what the Jewish leaders read daily in their temples, the message was new and different, so they concluded that it must have been wrong. Isn’t that what they thought? The Jewish leaders of their day were clearly right in their minds, but completely wrong in their hearts. That is a dangerous position to take and many Christians do it every day. To think that God cannot send you another man with a new message from the Bible is clearly a rejection of God and His message. You cannot reject one without rejecting the other.
Mat 10:26 Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known.
This verse has vast implications written all over it. Being that this is God speaking, I take this statement very seriously. To me it would seem to indicate that God will reveal the things that He has hidden to us before He returns for us. However, you can take it to mean that God will also reveal them after He has returned and taken us up to heaven. That is one of the tricky methods that God has used to make things not easily understandable. To not reveal all of the information in one location that you need to know to make the determination of exactly when this will occur. We can be assured that it will occur, but when is something we will have to find in the Bible.
Col 1:26 Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:
Using this verse it would seem to indicate that Jesus was speaking about a time that is before His impending return. This verse in Colossians you can see that there is a term that relates to “now” as being the proper time. Now would not be later, would it? God seems to tell us that they mysteries which have been hidden for a very long time is now been given to the “saints” to understand. Did you know if you are a Christian, that you are one of these saints? Some churches like to vote to make people “saints” and if they satisfy their definition of a “saint” then you become one by their transformation of a title. However, God’s system is quite different than man’s system. If you are born again and saved, you qualify to be a saint. Therefore, you are the one that this hidden information is to be revealed to.
1Co 2:7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our7 glory:
Here again in the verse in 1 Corinthians, we can clearly see that these hidden things are now being revealed to the church. God had a hidden plan from before the world began and this plan is now being revealed in the time of the church. This plan is called the hidden wisdom of God. This sounds like some very important stuff to know. If we could understand the wisdom of God, we would not make as many mistakes and could potentially derive great benefit from this information. It starts with gaining knowledge, but then it hinges on understanding these facts that you learn. Finally, wisdom is the ability to correctly apply what you have learned so that you make right choices and decisions.
2Co 4:3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
So the Gospel is still hidden to those who refuse to believe the truth. This implies that the spiritual encryption system that God has implemented is still in effect until we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior. This also could mean this is why there are so many denominations in the world today. The church is in varying stages of spiritual growth and development and not everyone sees these hidden things at the same time.
Mat 11:25 At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.
Jesus again speaking in a prayer to His Father, informs us of some other factors of who this information is still hidden from. Jesus clearly says that those in the world that exalt themselves and their wisdom will never know the secrets of the Kingdom of God. These are two distinct words that you should go lookup the definitions to. These are key factors why many people in the earth do not understand the Bible. The word “prudent”, means to “act piously” and to be wise in your own eyes. That sounds like they put on a show of how great they are. This can apply to Christians as well as to unsaved people in the world. Jesus did not qualify the statement, He only said that they would be revealed to those that have become like little children. Children are not usually arrogant are they? Children are usually hungry for knowledge and want to learn. Children are usually those that look to their parents for everything that they need. They are not self-sufficient, or able to care for themselves. So the opposite to small children would be those that think they know everything. Those who think they can take care of themselves. Those who think they need no advice or guidance. These are those that are wise in their own minds and thus are unable to comprehend the wisdom of God. I would suggest that you figure out where you fit in these verses that I have given you today. Since I am not your judge, I cannot judge you. I do not know where you are at. Only you can judge yourself or wait until God passes judgment. I hope you enjoyed this lesson on God’s spiritual encryption of the Bible. God Bless!
If you would like to continue reading about the methods that God has used to encode information into the Bible, please go to “Hiding the Truth in Plain Sight Part 1“.
I Said Ye Are gods! Understanding Hard Sayings to Accept In the Bible!
(Ver 1.3) This is “Part 1” of a series of lessons that I am doing on “Understanding Hard Sayings” found in the Bible. The Bible is full of many difficult and hard things that we wrestle to wrap our limited human minds around. God says some things in the Bible that are extremely hard to accept by a lot of people. Most of the time, Christians read a difficult saying in the Bible and just ignore it, because they do not know how to explain it. Heaven forbid that we just read a Bible verse and accept it for what it says! Hardly ever do you hear a preacher teach on any of these hard things found in the Bible and when they do they usually attempt to excuse them or explain them away as something that they do not say. I do not know if they are afraid of these verses or just do not want to take the chance of offending anyone so they just steer away from all of the controversy. I could give you many examples of this in the Bible, but I’m going to go into one that is extremely controversial in most religious circles and one that is hardly ever mentioned in any church. Human reasoning has attempted to say that man is a nobody and a worm of a being. Many think that man is a being of very low order and importance in the spiritual chain of command or you might call it symbolically, the spiritual food chain. I have heard many ministers get up and teach how unworthy we are and how we are nothing and that we can do nothing. Yet the Bible does not seem to indicate this at all. I would say from what I read that it actually says the opposite.
Let me start by asking you a question that I have thought of and maybe you have also. If man was so unimportant and low in the spiritual food chain, why did God have to come to the earth in person to pay for our sins with His own blood and life? I mean that is an amazing question to consider. Couldn’t God come up with some other way or plan to fix the sin problem of the human race? God of course is the “Most High” in the spiritual food chain. There was and still is no one higher than God and yet He chose to come to the earth in the flesh. Were there not anyother sinless beings in heaven? Couldn’t God have sent someone else? Let me ask you was there anyone else that could have accomplished what God wanted and needed to accomplish with Jesus Christ? I do not think there was anyone else, but I can’t tell you all of the reasons why in this lesson.
Here is today’s key controversial Bible verse and it is Jesus speaking to the religious leaders in Jerusalem. Let me tell you what is happening within the context of this verse so that you will understand it a little better. In this chapter of John, the Jews are speaking with Jesus and they are very upset and angry with Him. They ask Jesus to tell them plainly if He is the Messiah or not. Jesus tells them they do not believe the works that He does in his Father’s name so they would not believe if He told them anything else. They claim that Jesus has just blasphemed against God because He has called Himself the Son of God and they begin to pick up stones to kill Him and this is what Jesus says to them in this chapter 10 of John:
Joh 10:34 Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are Gods?
What do you do with a statement like that? It is truly a difficult saying to accept. You can clearly see why it has been so vastly ignored, like it is not in the Bible. I think most people just think Jesus didn’t know what He was talking about or Jesus must have lied. Surely He didn’t mean exactly what He said? How can men be gods? To hear people preach you would think that we were the lowest of the low. It would be impossible for most religious people to think of themselves in these terms. Do you think Jesus would say that again if He was standing in front of you in the flesh and you asked Him to? I have to admit that I struggled with accepting that statement. After all Jesus did not say it to me personally, or did He? You see once I realized that the Bible was written to me personally as a love letter and a guide or handbook for every human, then I looked at this Bible verse a lot differently. This is probably the greatest challenge most Christians are faced with. To read a Bible verse and claim it to be true for Me and You! As long as you read the Bible in an impersonal and indirect way like it was written for someone else and not you, you will never accept what it really says.
Let me briefly focus on the Greek word translated as “gods” in this verse. Because it is a very important word to understand. This Greek word G2316 is “theos” and it means “supreme deity”. It is used in the N.T. over 1000 times and mostly for the name for our “God”. Why would God use the exact same word to describe us as He uses to describe Himself? I find that a fascinating question to ponder. I believe it reveals more than we can possibly imagine. It is beginning to change my perspective considerably on where man was created on the spiritual food chain, but we will need to research and study in order to find the truth.
Did you know that Jesus only taught things that He learned in the Old Testament Bible? Jesus would walk around and teach things that He found from reading the Hebrew books of the Law. These books were given to them by God and they contained the laws of God. So once you realize that Jesus only spoke things that He learned in the Old Testament you begin to realize the significance of the Word of God. Jesus placed a very high priority on what was written in God’s Word. In this verse in John, Jesus was speaking to the Jewish leaders who knew the law. Jesus asked them a very simple question and one that could easily be verified. Jesus asked them “Is it not written in your law?” You see in this chapter the Jews were accusing Jesus of calling himself the Son of God and they called it blasphemy. But, Jesus responded to their accusation with a simple verifiable question. Doesn’t your Law say that you are gods? In other words God had called them gods a long time before Jesus said He was the Son of God and they ignored it like religious people still do today. Do you see the parallels found in our churches today? Do you see the religious patterns still prevalent in the minds of religious people today? Here is one of the verses that Jesus heard read from their law and Jesus learned this verse in their temple so they could not deny that it was written there:
Psa 82:6 I have said, ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.
In this verse in Psalms Jesus was taught that the Most High God called men gods. If Jesus could read and see this verse in the Bible, how is it that the religious leaders of the day did not understand what they had read in their own law? Did God blaspheme when He called men gods? This verse further goes on to call all men and women the children of the Most High. That means they were all called the sons and daughters of God before Jesus said He was the Son of God! If Adam was created a son of the most High God what does that make Adam? You see now we are getting into the problem that religious people have with all of these types of verses in the Bible. If Adam was a son of God that would make Adam an older brother of Jesus in the natural realm. That causes many people to choke when they hear me say that. You see I did not say Adam was God or “the Son of God”. Adam was just a child of the Most High like this verse tells us clearly. I certainly know how difficult the Bible is to understand and how complex it can get. I have had people say to me that I am giving you my opinion on what the Bible says. When someone says that to me, I know they do not know how to read or either they read it, but don’t want to see what it says. I rarely give you my opinion about anything. My opinion is not worth a dime to anyone, including to me. I could care less about my opinion. I am really only interested in what God’s opinion is and if you are not doing the same, you need to go to some other book and study it. If you are not interested in learning what the Bible says, you should be reading someone else’s blog.
I also want to speak of the Hebrew word translated as “gods” in this verse in Psalms. This word is again a very importan word found in the Bible. The Hebrew word H430 is the word “elohiym” and it is used over 2000 times in the O.T. for the name of God. Again we have the same confirmation that God is calling us gods by direct name association. That places such vast importance upon this subject that I cannot even describe it fully or begin to fully comprehend it all. Let’s briefly consider some more scripture from the book of Psalms:
Psa 8:4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
Here is an interesting question that many people are asking today. Who am I and why am I here? This verse asks why is man on this planet? And why did God have to come in person to visit us in the flesh, by the man called Jesus Christ. So here is God’s answer to the question of why we are here:
Psa 8:5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
Wow, more words religious people choke on. You see in this verse it has a grossly mistranslated Hebrew word. The translators were clearly choking on what it said in their minds and changed it to something else they thought was safer. The Hebrew word translated as “angels” is the same word “‘ĕlôhı̂ym” that is normally translated as a name of God. This verse in the original Hebrew is calling Adam a little bit lower than the Most High God. A little bit means a very small peck down the ladder and not a vast expanse of difference. Man was made a little lower than God and he fell down below the angels when Adam sinned. This verse says that “Man” was crowned. To be crowned means to be given “royal authority” and “sovereign authorization” or “power”. The term to be crowned with glory and honor is very significant and implies many good things were given to man by God.
Psa 8:6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:
These verses are an outstanding conformation for what God said to man in Genesis 1. Man was given “dominion” over the works of God’s hands. What were the works of God’s hands? It was everything that we can see or touch that is around us. To have “dominion” means to rule over, have authority over, to be in control of and to make decisions for. It implies that man was to take care of what God had given to us. It means that we were responsible to guard it and to keep those out that were not suppose to be here. It means a lot of things. It is like the United States government has “dominion” over the 50 state country. It is responsible to take care of it, protect it and defend it.
Psa 136:2 O give thanks unto the God of gods: for his mercy endureth for ever.
Here we have another verse that is often ignored. Who is the God of gods? We can easily recognize this to be our Most High God! However then who are the gods that He is God of? That becomes a mystery to many people. To make us those individuals would never cross the minds of the religious thinkers. However, I believe God is saying that we are those people called gods. Again God calls us gods in a remote verse of the Bible that is widely overlooked.
So YOU and I are NOT the Most High God, but yet we were made in His image and likeness and we have His nature. We do not have His Power or His ability, but yet for our lives we do have control of our own destiny. You see we do have some power, we have the power to choose right or wrong, we have the power to choose life or death, we have the power to choose between heaven or hell and that is a lot of responsibility that many are taking too lightly.
So if God and Jesus called men and women gods, who am I to argue? Who are you to say you are not? I think some day people will stand before God and find out they had more responsibility than they realized to what happened to them. I believe that God expects more out of us than you can imagine right now. I don’t know if this will happen before Jesus returns or not for I do know the time we have left on this earth is very short.
It bothers me when people blog and at the end of their blog they ask people a question like what do you think? When bloggers do this, they imply that what others think matters. I think that many times people are just trying to encourage comments and I guess that is OK. However, just as I am not interested in my own opinion, I am not interested in your opinion either. If you know a Bible verse that would directly contradict anything that I just said, I would be very interested in hearing about it. I am NOT God and I DO NOT know everything. So I like to learn new things if they are legit things from the Bible. If you just struggle with accepting the Words of Jesus, I suggest that you take up your questions and comments with Him and not me, because I was not the one that said it. God Bless!
If you would like to continue reading in this series about Hard Sayings Explained in the Bible, please continue with “Part 2“.
Understanding the Bible is the Word of God!
(Ver 1.3) If you are reading the Bible like it was just a book of fiction or a history book or a text book, or even a reference book or an encyclopedia, you are probably missing the most important thing that you need to know about the Bible. Hopefully, you are already a Christian and already know God and understand that this book called the Bible was God’s handbook and personal letter written for you and to you. The Bible is by far the most unique book that you will every encounter. It is written in a complex and unique style like no other book that you can imagine. This book written over a vast amount of time by numerous men who were given the task of recording it, is unique in quality and content. One of the most important things to remember when reading the book, is who the author is. If you are not a Christian, this will not matter, but if you are God is the author of the entire book. Just because God is not here physically, does not mean God is not here spiritually and that He has chosen to use people to give us His message of hope.
2Ti 3:16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
You can clearly see that this scripture in 2 Timothy claims that the Bible comes directly from God. This verse informs us that God inspired the writers what to write. The Greek word for inspiration actually means “divinely breathed or spoken”. That means the words came out of God’s mouth before they went recorded into the book. If you do not understand the significance of that statement you should read it a couple of hundred times until you do get it on the inside of you.
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.
Here in this verse in Jeremiah we can again see a verse of scripture that claims the words that Jeremiah wrote were the sayings of the Lord God. God tells Jeremiah directly what to say and then Jeremiah takes God’s words and writes them down for the nation of Israel to read and hear. This is a spiritual message delivery system that God created and utilized extensively. It is a mediator concept where a man is selected by God to be His messenger. God anoints this man for the job and then speaks to him to give him the message that He wants spoken to the people. We can clearly see that these words came out of the mouth of God before they ever were written down. God spoke them, men heard them and then finally wrote them down for us to read. God is a Spirit (John 4:24)! God is invisible to the natural eyes of man! God’s face has never been seen by any man in His spiritual form. So how would a spirit being talk with natural beings? I suppose he could just talk to men from the clouds like a giant loud speaker. It seems that when God did this when Jesus was baptized that some men heard it and others thought it thundered (John 12:29). So this does not seem to be the most effective way of communication. God could go around to everyone individually and give each one a dream and then everyone would have to figure out if it was the pizza they ate last night or if God was trying to talk to them. God could do any number of things, including writing on the side of a mountain using giant letters like a God sized bill board. However, whatever God does to try to get your attention, it would have be something that could possibly be interpreted as being something else also. If God did not do this He would violate your right of choice, if He presented you with any overwhelming evidence to His existence. So God gave His Words to a single man at a time. They were each given specific message pieces and specific words to write down. These words were then supposed to be distributed to the rest of the human race. This was God’s divine system of delivery. Hire a messenger, give them the message and we are supposed to do the rest.
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 by 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 commandments, laws, thoughts, warnings, feelings, ideas, knowledge, understanding and wisdom of God in word form. It is a direct and personal letter full of valuable spiritual information that is designed to help you to know the author and to know who you are and your importance to the author. You should approach the Bible with this attitude of reverence and read it with the expectation that you will be hearing something directly from the mouth of God. When you approach the Bible in the right way with humility, God will not let you down and He will speak to you. I know this for a fact and you can also! God Bless!
The Agapegeek Blog 