On 5 Sep, 05:38, Adam <[email protected]> wrote:
> There are some things that have worried and perplexed church-going
> people for centuries.
> For example.
> Why does God remain silent?
He doesn't. He speaks whenever you hear a voice.
>Why are prayers ineffective?
They aren't. But, sometimes, the answer is no.
>Why does He
> not interfere in men’s affairs?
He does. constantly. Men's affairs are not men's affairs, they're
God's affairs.
>Why does He not prevent evil?
Evil is perceived by men given limited knowledge. God, seeing all
with omniscience, knows better than to think of anything as evil.
>Why does
> He not punish evil doers?
Here or elsewhere? Have a quick peek into Hell and tell me if you
still feel that way.
>How does predestination work?
Through the mechanism of space-time.
>Are people
> saved by faith or works?
Neither. Salvation is not required. Understanding IS.
> I am going to try to answer all these question in this article.
> I will attempt to explain the reason for our existence as revealed by
> the Bible.
> I will also try to reveal the mind and purpose of God from the same
> source and explain His two plans of salvation.
> The Bible records that both Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit
> and they eventually died.
> The fruit contained drugs which had several effects on them both.
> Their knowledge was increased because their eyes were opened and they
> realised that they were naked. They became mortal and they became
> selfish. So the fruit contained a mind-altering drug, a slow acting
> poison that made them mortal and it changed their DNA structure to
> produce the “selfish gene” (a description invented by atheist Richard
> Dawkins). This selfish gene and the mortality would be passed on to
> all their offspring right up to the present time.
I would say that the fruit was the concept of choice. Once humans
believed they had free will, they were doomed to act as if they were
gods. Rather, they should accept that the only will IS God's and that
we perform God's will.
> These changes were not a punishment imposed upon the pair by God. They
> were the natural consequences of eating a drugged substance. God did
> punish them by imposing pain in childbirth upon Eve and hard
> unfruitful labour upon Adam. The punishments were designed to show
> them that their actions had caused pain to God and had made His work
> unfruitful.
Mortality was also given out as a punishment, BTW.
> God’s purpose in creating mankind was to produce a race of people
> willingly obedient to His word. He would then give eternal life to
> this race of people and dwell with them on the earth.
Well said. Too bad we have no faith in that anymore.
> This purpose has been delayed because of the sin of the original pair
> in the Garden of Eden.
No, the delay is because of humanity's lack of faith IN God. For
example, the Jews were commanded to build an ark and and ephod and a
breastplate, etc. Since these were lost, no one has bothered to
replace them. This is a GROSS oversight and is what is causing the
delay of ther Messianic period.
> Sin may be defined as “the failure to love God and neighbour”.
Insofar as both of those are as a result of human vanity, yes.
>The
> proof that we love God is if we obey His commands and if we obey those
> commands (which deal with the fair treatment of other people) then we
> love our neighbour. The two go together. Ignorance of God is also sin
> because we can’t love or obey what we don’t know.
Ignorance is not, of necessity, sin. However, once one has been
exposed to the concept, then (continued) ignorance becomes willing and
a form of vanity where one places themselves before God.
> The selfishness which is a part of every one of us is what theologians
> have called “original sin”. Some seem to think that we all bear the
> guilt of Adam’s sin. This is rubbish. We are not guilty of Adam’s sin
> but we do indeed suffer the results of it.
Adam's sin was to feel that he had a choice, i.e., that he could
actually defy God and 'choose' to act in any particular way. I assure
you that most humans are VERY guilty of that.
>The inherent selfishness in
> our bodies is “sinful human flesh” and it alienates us from God. We
> are all, then, classified as “sinners” by God and are doomed to die.
> In fact it is necessary for all of us to die to destroy the selfish
> gene within us all. This selfish gene is what is known as ‘the devil’
> in scriptural terms. So Christ destroyed the devil within himself by
> his death.
If that were true, then there would be no temptation after Jesus'
death. As that is NOT the case, Jesus' death did NOT perform that
destruction. Besides, who would Michael battle in Armageddon if Satan
were already destroyed? Small inconsistency there, Adam.
> After the disobedience of the first human pair God could have
> destroyed them and started again with a new pair. But he did not
> destroy them. He allowed them to procreate and bring about the human
> race as we see it today together with all its imperfections.
> After the flood God gradually reduced the lifespan of all humans to a
> maximum of 120 years but He apparently did not want everybody to die
> solely from old age. So He introduced many and varied ways of bringing
> about their death. Old age, epidemics and accidents were just a few
> ways of accomplished this end. There are also earthquakes and volcanic
> eruption and tidal waves and stillbirths, etc. This great variety of
> ways to die ensures that no one knows just how or when he will lose
> his life. In the light of this it is wrong to say that God has given
> us life. It is more accurate to say that God has lent us life for a
> relatively short time to see if we can overcome our inherent
> selfishness and treat our neighbours fairly.
A great insight there, Adam. We owe everything to God, our life, our
sense of self and all our environment.
>God has thrown us in at
> the deep end to see which ones of us can rise above our nature. Even
> the most primitive people know the difference between right and wrong
> because we all have a conscience which will either justify or condemn
> us on the day of judgement.
Right and wrong, like good and evil, are in the eyes of the beholder.
God doesn't see them. What He does see is selfishness, which is when
Man separates himself from God by claiming "I".
> In the Old Testament the word ‘heaven’ generally means ‘the sky’ but
> in prophecy it often has a symbolic meaning. It means ‘the place where
> the seat of government is located’ and the ‘earth’ means ‘the common
> people’ or subjects of that government. Thus God, being the supreme
> ruler of the universe, dwells in heaven somewhere, and on earth the
> various kings and governments also inhabit their local ‘heaven’.
God, being omnipresent, dwells everywhere.
> In Paul’s day the seat of government was in Rome so when he wrote that
> the gospel had been ‘preached to every creature which is under
> heaven’, he did not mean that it had been preached in Japan or on the
> American continent, he meant that it had only been preached throughout
> the Roman Empire.
Or, rather, that he was extending his version of the gospel to the
gentiles.
> Almost one third of the Bible is devoted to prophecy but I am not
> going to delve into it in this article except to say that Christ has
> promised to return to this earth and set up a kingdom here with its
> headquarters in Jerusalem. To help with the government of this kingdom
> certain men and women have been chosen to rule with Christ. These
> people are called ‘saints’ and they were predestined to be called to
> this honour since before the foundation of the earth. This is the
> extent of predestination in the Bible.
Nope. Predestination is extended throughout space-time. There is no
place you can go where it isn't.
>After the call was answered,
> the saints had the free will to remain faithful to their calling or
> not as they chose. There is no predestination for sinners.
Predestination is for all. It is the Law and the law is for all.
>We all have
> freewill.
No, you don't. you think you do, and that's something we've known,
now, for around 100 years. But people cling to it because it makes
them feel powerful (like mini gods). Rather, we are the agents OF God
and we'd better start acting like it.
>The saints were each given the Holy Spirit which taught them
> all truth and given at least one supernatural gift. The Holy Spirit
> was passed on to saints by the laying on of hands by one of the
> apostles. The call began when Christ started teaching but then ceased
> with the death of the last apostle because there was no one left to
> pass on the Holy Spirit. The church quickly became corrupt as the
> apostles predicted and there has been no true church since. The whole
> world is now in the darkness of ignorance and will remain so until the
> return of Christ.
The Christian church became corrupt because it was led by Paul,
who had never met Jesus. If the teachings of Jesus had been
untampered by Paul, you would have found Christianity yo be another
sect of Judaism, much like the Conservative/Masorti sect is now.
> The saints who have remained faithful unto death will be resurrected
> immortal at the return of Christ and be rewarded with positions of
> authority in the kingdom according to their works. Those saints who
> have fallen away from the faith have had their names removed from the
> book of life, the Holy Spirit has been taken away from them and they
> will not be raised at the return of Christ.
> It is predicted that the prophet Elijah will return to Israel to
> preach repentance to the Jews before the return of Christ.
Eliyahu ha-Navi (Elijah the Prophet) will ask all mankind to repent.
Mostly Christians, due to the fact that they have strayed the farthest
from the faith in one God. He will give you the key to ensuring that
God rules us from within (the Jewish 'circumcision of the heart') and
he will entreat the Orthodox community to begin to rebuild the
artifacts that will, at some point in the future, be placed in a
rebuilt Temple. He will also be an ambassador between Jews and
Moslems, as they expect him to return as 'Al-Khadir'.
>There are
> indications that a new generation of saints will receive the call at
> that time. Until that happens we sinners have been left to repent of
> our evil ways and follow the dictates of our conscience to treat our
> neighbours fairly.
Not just fairly. But you must treat them as if there is no difference
between you and them. How you treat others IS how you treat your
self. And that time is already upon us.
>If we can do this then we will receive a favourable
> judgement at the return of Christ and our names entered into the book
> of life. At the end of the millennium all the sinners will be
> resurrected and those whose names are not found in the book of life
> will be thrown into the lake of fire, which is the second death.
> Now the saints will be saved by faith (which produces works) but
> sinners who may have no faith will be saved (or otherwise) by works.
> So there are two different plans for salvation for two different
> classes of people. No one can become a saint unless they are called by
> God. It does not depend on man’s desire or effort but on God’s mercy.
> Now, why does God not answer prayers? It is because God doesn’t listen
> to sinners.
God listens to all. Rather, it is sinners who do not listen to God.
>Neither does he communicate with them. I have witnessed a
> whole congregation pray for the recovery of a sick woman with no
> response from God.
> God does not interfere or prevent sin because everybody is going to be
> judged by Christ at his return. It does not matter whether a person
> lives a long or short time in this life. God knows the mind of man and
> will judge fairly.
Another inconsistency. In God's omniscience, He knows who will repent
and who will not and He knew it long ago. God forgives us when and
where we forgive others ('forgive us our debts AS we forgive our
debtors').
>This is a time of probation and opportunity. To get
> things in perspective, we have to look at things from God’s point of
> view. We have no rights before God. He chooses who He wants for honour
> or destruction.
Correct. However this stands completely against your argument for
free will above. In THIS case, you are correct.
>Compared with the creation of the universe the nations
> are as a drop in the bucket.
> Now the church-going people have remained in ignorance for nearly 2000
> years because they have assumed that they, too, are saints and that
> the New Testament refers to them.
Yup! Nothing worse than selfishness. It's the laziness of the Jews
in rebuilding that which was lost that has added to the delay.
>They have closed their eyes to the
> fact that there are no Spirit gifts available today.
They are available. But we must walk towards God first.
>This alone should
> have told them something. Those money-grabbing fakes who claim the
> gift of healing should go and empty the hospitals or shut up.
> In trying to be brief I have perhaps not explained things very well
> but I can elaborate if requested.
> Adam.
Interesting thoughts, Adam. I hope you find mine interesting
too.
Cheers,
Pat
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