Man has superimposed a false religion over the true religion. Baptists do it as well as anyone else. The formalities and order of worship are a template that we use to structure our time together and keep things organized. Such things are not all bad unless they become the substitute for worship and true religion. True worship comes from the heart. True religion has positive, tangible effects in the lives of others as we minister to them in Jesus name. (James 1:27)
False religion is: Thinking that going to church is about you. Expecting services rather than serving. Accepting worldliness as a “normal” part of life. False religion is also: Superstitious (Acts 17:22-23), Superficial (Mat 23:23-28), Superfluous (Isaiah 40:19-22), Superimposed, Supersedes, Super social… However, it is not Superior to real worship (though often Preferred).
If you can come to an assembly of believers and sing the same songs, hear the same message, pray at the same time and say Amen to the same things and leave this place forgetting what manner of man or woman you are and unprepared to obey God and His Word then your religion is false. Your hypocrisy betrays you. But God is not mocked.
False Faith:
There may be those who in a given worship service, before they pass through the doors of that place are already planning their next sinful activity. Theirs is a false faith.
Maybe you are of the “freedom to fornicate” religion. Maybe you are of the “no drug is too bad” religion. Maybe you are into the “alcoholics anonymous” religion or the “Gamblers anonymous”, “I love my car”, “Money, money, money” or the church of “I’m better than you are.” The thoughts and intents of the heart are the very measure of one’s faith. If your heart is distracted from God, though you may be a believer, you cannot be actively living, walking or professing godly faith. Your faith is false (just for show) and God is not unaware.
False Doctrine:
In false religions you can go to church, read your Bible, pray the prayers, be saved, be baptized and be a member – as long as the church tolerates it. As you grow in the Lord and in His Word you may discover the things being taught are not the things being practiced. If you do not practice what you teach, even if you teach the truth, you are practicing a false doctrine.
God has given us His Word. It is to be our standard of Faith and Practice. It is the unique source of Divine Wisdom and Knowledge. All other sources are to be proved by it. We are expected to learn the things taught in the Bible with the leadership of His Holy Spirit. If we in any way question God’s Word, only believe the parts we want, strive to adapt the meaning to our own preconceived notions or willfully deny the expressed truths found therein we are teaching false doctrine.
In false religion you can believe, teach and do just about anything you please – but you cannot please God because you are serving the false god of self and the flesh and not the true and living God who paid the price for you sin on the cross. God is not impressed!
False Worship
To sing, pray, perform the religious ceremonies without love or passion for the True and Living God who gave His only begotten Son for our sins is false worship.
Real Worship and Religion are not the same: 1) Real Worship is an expression of our love for God to God. 2) Real Religion is practicing your love for God, love for one another (as God loves us), serving one another and obeying God (“If you love me, keep my commandments”).
If your worship is false you have nothing to authenticate your religion. Religion without worship is works without faith. When James spoke of faith without works being dead he was encouraging True Religion: Works based on Faith. If you have Faith (empowered belief) you shall have True Religion and Real Worship.
Real Religion
Real Faith (empowered belief), True Doctrine (believing, teaching and practicing God’s Word), and Real Worship (expressing your love for God) are the foundations of Real Religion.
Faith, without which it is impossible to please God, leads to knowledge and Wisdom of God which leads to real worship in Spirit and in Truth which leads to real religion that is true, undefiled, loving, ministering, giving and nurturing.
Jesus Christ (He is God) is the answer. Faith in Him is the healer of all our infirmities. His Word empowers our minds. Worship secures us emotionally. Real religion strengthens our character and gives us the ability to handle the challenges of life without fear from… being awakened in the night, that phone call, that bad news, that troubling conversation, that stabbing pain you felt for the suffering of another, the brokenness of personal failure, the sense of loss, that day when the Devil tried to take you apart piece by piece and you felt there was nothing you could do to stop it…
RLH
Monday, May 4, 2009
The Message of Ecclesiastes
Vanity and Vexation of Spirit
Solomon had the most glorious earthly life one could have desired in terms of the material and the carnal and the pleasures of this world. His life was “cart blank” (a blank check). He could have and do virtually anything he pleased. From his 300 wives and 700 concubines to his tremendous wealth to his fantastic construction projects (including the Temple that might have been his legacy) Solomon lived beyond the dreams of mankind. Add to it all his tremendous mental and intellectual capacity and Solomon is one of the “Super Men” of the Bible.
Yet, with all this Solomon declared his life to be empty (vanity) and frustrating (vexation of spirit).
I believe Solomon was a man of faith but throughout much of his life he did not live by faith. It appears that with his tremendous knowledge and wisdom came a thirst for experience that lead him down some very shady pathways in his life. When God loosed the reigns of Solomon’s human limitations Solomon ran wild, compelled to try everything and push all limits, running farther and faster than any before him but in the end, getting nowhere.
Solomon may be an illustration of man at his highest capacity with unlimited resources and potential. He may be a small sample of what mankind would have become had Adam and Eve been allowed access to the Tree of Life after the fall and they and their offspring’s physical and mental capacities remained intact from the time of creation.
Before we become too enamored with Solomon’s charmed life we need to keep in mind that in the end he regretted much of what he had done, repented of his selfish and carnal behavior and turned to God for comfort, personal fulfillment, peace, joy and purpose in his life. With all his wisdom (skill, intelligence, intellectual capacity, intuitive knowledge and higher reasoning) he had failed to include God into the equations of life and found only inequities and errors (vanity). He finally concluded that the answers to life’s problems – mathematically of otherwise- are found in faith (empowered belief) in God and obedience to His Will.
RLH
Solomon had the most glorious earthly life one could have desired in terms of the material and the carnal and the pleasures of this world. His life was “cart blank” (a blank check). He could have and do virtually anything he pleased. From his 300 wives and 700 concubines to his tremendous wealth to his fantastic construction projects (including the Temple that might have been his legacy) Solomon lived beyond the dreams of mankind. Add to it all his tremendous mental and intellectual capacity and Solomon is one of the “Super Men” of the Bible.
Yet, with all this Solomon declared his life to be empty (vanity) and frustrating (vexation of spirit).
I believe Solomon was a man of faith but throughout much of his life he did not live by faith. It appears that with his tremendous knowledge and wisdom came a thirst for experience that lead him down some very shady pathways in his life. When God loosed the reigns of Solomon’s human limitations Solomon ran wild, compelled to try everything and push all limits, running farther and faster than any before him but in the end, getting nowhere.
Solomon may be an illustration of man at his highest capacity with unlimited resources and potential. He may be a small sample of what mankind would have become had Adam and Eve been allowed access to the Tree of Life after the fall and they and their offspring’s physical and mental capacities remained intact from the time of creation.
Before we become too enamored with Solomon’s charmed life we need to keep in mind that in the end he regretted much of what he had done, repented of his selfish and carnal behavior and turned to God for comfort, personal fulfillment, peace, joy and purpose in his life. With all his wisdom (skill, intelligence, intellectual capacity, intuitive knowledge and higher reasoning) he had failed to include God into the equations of life and found only inequities and errors (vanity). He finally concluded that the answers to life’s problems – mathematically of otherwise- are found in faith (empowered belief) in God and obedience to His Will.
RLH
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Where Does Evil Come From?
Evil is that which is not of God. God is good. He creates good. He does good.
Evil is departure from the good of God. Since all of God is good and it is His Will that good be done the ultimate source of evil is disobedience to God.
Lucifer disobeyed God and became evil.
Adam disobeyed God and caused the evil of sin to fall upon all creation – including himself and his posterity.
Sin, by definition, is disobedience to God.
Evil is the “bad” associated with sin. It is inherent in sin. Note that some “good” may come of sin but it is inherently evil. One might justify steeling from the rich to give to the poor. However, the poor then become complicit in the crime. Lotto dollars may be used for schools and economic development but it in fact takes money from those who have false hopes and the innocent become dependent on the vices of the weak. Abortion may be seen as good to one who does not want to accept the responsibility or the inconvenience of a child but it means the slaying of the most innocent among us. These are evil results of sinful behavior.
If disobedience has brought sin and the subsequent evil, only obedience to God can restore the goodness and forgiveness of God through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.
Some would argue that if God created all things He also created evil. However, evil is not something created or generated by good. It is the consequence of the freedom God gave man to choose to obey Him or not. Such a design is risky can only serve one purpose: to prove love. Without a choice love is irrelevant, a mere glandular emotion that only complicates life and has no meaning. With choice love is still glandular and still complicated but when it is true and one chooses to love God who first loved us it is the greatest treasure and brings Him the Highest pleasure, glory and honor.
A perfect creation without love? Or a fallen creation to choose to love and be loved of (at least by some) in return? Creation will eventually be purged of evil but the love of God is forever!
RLH
Evil is departure from the good of God. Since all of God is good and it is His Will that good be done the ultimate source of evil is disobedience to God.
Lucifer disobeyed God and became evil.
Adam disobeyed God and caused the evil of sin to fall upon all creation – including himself and his posterity.
Sin, by definition, is disobedience to God.
Evil is the “bad” associated with sin. It is inherent in sin. Note that some “good” may come of sin but it is inherently evil. One might justify steeling from the rich to give to the poor. However, the poor then become complicit in the crime. Lotto dollars may be used for schools and economic development but it in fact takes money from those who have false hopes and the innocent become dependent on the vices of the weak. Abortion may be seen as good to one who does not want to accept the responsibility or the inconvenience of a child but it means the slaying of the most innocent among us. These are evil results of sinful behavior.
If disobedience has brought sin and the subsequent evil, only obedience to God can restore the goodness and forgiveness of God through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.
Some would argue that if God created all things He also created evil. However, evil is not something created or generated by good. It is the consequence of the freedom God gave man to choose to obey Him or not. Such a design is risky can only serve one purpose: to prove love. Without a choice love is irrelevant, a mere glandular emotion that only complicates life and has no meaning. With choice love is still glandular and still complicated but when it is true and one chooses to love God who first loved us it is the greatest treasure and brings Him the Highest pleasure, glory and honor.
A perfect creation without love? Or a fallen creation to choose to love and be loved of (at least by some) in return? Creation will eventually be purged of evil but the love of God is forever!
RLH
Monday, April 20, 2009
Does God Remember Forgiven Sin?
The Scripture indicates that God forgives our sin and separates it from us as far as the East is from the West and remembers it no more. (See following passages.) However, There is a Judgment of the Saints following the return of Jesus Christ where the redeemed will receive rewards and suffer loss according to their works in this life. (Romans 14:10; II Cor. 5:10) If God cannot remember the sin how could He rightly judge ones works upon the earth?
The key is in the timing of the separation of the sin. Though our sins are forgiven there is still an accounting. (I Cor. 3:13-15) Due process must be served and though sin is forgiven, a trial of our life must take place and a judgment be rendered as to our reward in Heaven. The verdict of "guiltless by reason of redemption by the blood of Jesus" is already determined. The rewards in Heaven are already laid up and ready to be awarded. Past indiscretions have been considered and judged rightly according to God's precise knowledge of our hearts and circumstances. (Matt. 4:22; 12:36)
Once this Judgment known as the "Judgment Seat of Christ" is complete all matters will be settled for eternity and the sins of our natural lives will no longer be an issue. In fact all will be completely forgiven and there will be no more need for a record, remembrance, appeal, correction or anything else. That sin will be remembered no more. The blood of Jesus has erased it from existence. It will not be able to come back to haunt us and in our glorified bodies there will be no more opportunity to sin.
11 For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.
12 As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
13 Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.
Psa 103:11-13
11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
Hebrews 8:11-12
16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;
17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
Heb 10:16- 17
The key is in the timing of the separation of the sin. Though our sins are forgiven there is still an accounting. (I Cor. 3:13-15) Due process must be served and though sin is forgiven, a trial of our life must take place and a judgment be rendered as to our reward in Heaven. The verdict of "guiltless by reason of redemption by the blood of Jesus" is already determined. The rewards in Heaven are already laid up and ready to be awarded. Past indiscretions have been considered and judged rightly according to God's precise knowledge of our hearts and circumstances. (Matt. 4:22; 12:36)
Once this Judgment known as the "Judgment Seat of Christ" is complete all matters will be settled for eternity and the sins of our natural lives will no longer be an issue. In fact all will be completely forgiven and there will be no more need for a record, remembrance, appeal, correction or anything else. That sin will be remembered no more. The blood of Jesus has erased it from existence. It will not be able to come back to haunt us and in our glorified bodies there will be no more opportunity to sin.
11 For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.
12 As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
13 Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.
Psa 103:11-13
11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
Hebrews 8:11-12
16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;
17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
Heb 10:16- 17
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Has God Failed?
A young man works long hours and has a long commute to work. One evening, coming home late and exhausted he falls asleep at the wheel, crashes his car and ends up in traction in the hospital. Has God failed?
While in the hospital he has some time to think and re-examine his life. He realizes how easily he could have died. When the pastor visits he decides to prepare for eternity and asks Jesus to come into his heart and gains a whole new perspective on life. During rehab he meets a young physical therapist named Judy. They develop a Christ centered relationship, fall in love and are happily married. Has God failed?
A young woman has an unhappy and abusive childhood. In her search for happiness and acceptance she becomes addicted to drugs, alcohol and cigarettes. In her search for love and through her own indiscretions she becomes pregnant. Has God failed? Unwilling to face the consequences of her moral dilemma and following he reasoning that it would be unfair to bring a new life into her world, and it is her choice, she has an abortion a the free clinic (sponsored by Planned Parenthood – now there is an oxymoron). Has God failed? As a result of the abortion she contracts toxemia and nearly dies. Has God failed? While in recovery she is visited by her godly aunt who has been praying for her. She realizes what a disaster her life has become and wants to get out of it but does not know how. Through the witness of her aunt she realizes her lost condition and cries out to God for forgiveness, salvation and deliverance from the drugs, alcohol and immoral life style that has bound her. When she is well enough she goes to church with her aunt and really enjoys the services, the people and the presence of the Lord. The next Sunday she goes again and is even more excited about what God can do in her life. She decides she wants to be a missionary and help the poor and starving in Africa. Has God failed? The following week she meets some of her old friends. They talk a while and the next thing you know she is popping a few pills and taking a swig of Jack Daniels that just happened to appear. Her aunt continues to pray but never sees her in church again. She dies before she is thirty, her body racked by drugs, alcohol and venereal disease. Has God failed?
11:15 Saturday morning a young man answers the door to find a middle-aged man with a church flyer in his hand inviting him to church. The young man’s grandfather was a Pentecostal preacher and though he loved and respected his grandfather he thought his religion was a little “over the top” and did not sync with reality. As far as he could tell God had failed. People suffered for no apparent reason, innocent children were abused, even by those who claimed to be Christians, there was war, crime, natural disasters… the world was a mess. If there really was a God he had failed and He didn’t want anything to do with Him. The young man was polite but voiced his opinion briefly. After a short exchange he took the flyer and said “goodbye” and closed the door. Had God failed?
The obvious, but not so objective answer is “No.” God has not failed. We accept the assumption that God cannot fail. Our theology will not allow it. He would not be the God we claim and love and serve. If He failed then He would have to be some lesser god that would be unable and unworthy of our devotion.
God cannot fail. But He created a world that is riddled with failure – death, pestilence, destruction… Isn’t that a failure?
If it was wrong to give man a choice, the ability and privilege to make his own decisions and the responsibility to live (or die) by them, then I suppose God has failed. However, if in that freedom of choice or “free will” mankind were to choose God and to live rightly before Him how much more glorious that would be!
So who has failed? If you have to blame someone for the woes of the world who should it be? The one who made it all perfect in the beginning or the one who “chooses” to mess it up?
Incidentally, failure is a very subjective thing. Often our greatest successes are built on multiple failures. An experiment is typically a series of controlled failures that are adjusted and repeated until the desired result is found. If we are wise our failures teach us what to avoid whether personal, social, national, historical… We should be able to learn from our mistakes.
God does not fail. People do.
Every choice, every action, every decision will set in motion a chain of events with its own inevitable conclusion. All the chains are woven together in a fantastic tapestry of the moment. We affect it continually. It flows with the currents of time like a large flag billowing in the breeze. But where a flag is a two dimensional surface being folded into the third dimension of depth. We live in a three dimensional world that is ever “unfolding” through time.
The earlier scenarios are fiction except the last one. Yes, that middle-aged guy was I. But the events depicted, with some variance, have happened and are happening all the time. People meet and fall in love under the strangest or tragic circumstances. Others are freed from sin through faith in Christ but allow themselves to become bound by it again to their own destruction. Some are embittered by a philosophy of anger toward God and hopelessness in life. There are many other stories of tragedies as well as blessed lives. Has God failed some and been overly generous with others? God is not willing that any should Parrish but that all should come to repentance. He is also unwilling to force His perfect Will upon us because He loves us and desires that we love Him in return. God does not fail. But men and women fail to love Him and obey Him and one bad thing just leads to another.
RLH
While in the hospital he has some time to think and re-examine his life. He realizes how easily he could have died. When the pastor visits he decides to prepare for eternity and asks Jesus to come into his heart and gains a whole new perspective on life. During rehab he meets a young physical therapist named Judy. They develop a Christ centered relationship, fall in love and are happily married. Has God failed?
A young woman has an unhappy and abusive childhood. In her search for happiness and acceptance she becomes addicted to drugs, alcohol and cigarettes. In her search for love and through her own indiscretions she becomes pregnant. Has God failed? Unwilling to face the consequences of her moral dilemma and following he reasoning that it would be unfair to bring a new life into her world, and it is her choice, she has an abortion a the free clinic (sponsored by Planned Parenthood – now there is an oxymoron). Has God failed? As a result of the abortion she contracts toxemia and nearly dies. Has God failed? While in recovery she is visited by her godly aunt who has been praying for her. She realizes what a disaster her life has become and wants to get out of it but does not know how. Through the witness of her aunt she realizes her lost condition and cries out to God for forgiveness, salvation and deliverance from the drugs, alcohol and immoral life style that has bound her. When she is well enough she goes to church with her aunt and really enjoys the services, the people and the presence of the Lord. The next Sunday she goes again and is even more excited about what God can do in her life. She decides she wants to be a missionary and help the poor and starving in Africa. Has God failed? The following week she meets some of her old friends. They talk a while and the next thing you know she is popping a few pills and taking a swig of Jack Daniels that just happened to appear. Her aunt continues to pray but never sees her in church again. She dies before she is thirty, her body racked by drugs, alcohol and venereal disease. Has God failed?
11:15 Saturday morning a young man answers the door to find a middle-aged man with a church flyer in his hand inviting him to church. The young man’s grandfather was a Pentecostal preacher and though he loved and respected his grandfather he thought his religion was a little “over the top” and did not sync with reality. As far as he could tell God had failed. People suffered for no apparent reason, innocent children were abused, even by those who claimed to be Christians, there was war, crime, natural disasters… the world was a mess. If there really was a God he had failed and He didn’t want anything to do with Him. The young man was polite but voiced his opinion briefly. After a short exchange he took the flyer and said “goodbye” and closed the door. Had God failed?
The obvious, but not so objective answer is “No.” God has not failed. We accept the assumption that God cannot fail. Our theology will not allow it. He would not be the God we claim and love and serve. If He failed then He would have to be some lesser god that would be unable and unworthy of our devotion.
God cannot fail. But He created a world that is riddled with failure – death, pestilence, destruction… Isn’t that a failure?
If it was wrong to give man a choice, the ability and privilege to make his own decisions and the responsibility to live (or die) by them, then I suppose God has failed. However, if in that freedom of choice or “free will” mankind were to choose God and to live rightly before Him how much more glorious that would be!
So who has failed? If you have to blame someone for the woes of the world who should it be? The one who made it all perfect in the beginning or the one who “chooses” to mess it up?
Incidentally, failure is a very subjective thing. Often our greatest successes are built on multiple failures. An experiment is typically a series of controlled failures that are adjusted and repeated until the desired result is found. If we are wise our failures teach us what to avoid whether personal, social, national, historical… We should be able to learn from our mistakes.
God does not fail. People do.
Every choice, every action, every decision will set in motion a chain of events with its own inevitable conclusion. All the chains are woven together in a fantastic tapestry of the moment. We affect it continually. It flows with the currents of time like a large flag billowing in the breeze. But where a flag is a two dimensional surface being folded into the third dimension of depth. We live in a three dimensional world that is ever “unfolding” through time.
The earlier scenarios are fiction except the last one. Yes, that middle-aged guy was I. But the events depicted, with some variance, have happened and are happening all the time. People meet and fall in love under the strangest or tragic circumstances. Others are freed from sin through faith in Christ but allow themselves to become bound by it again to their own destruction. Some are embittered by a philosophy of anger toward God and hopelessness in life. There are many other stories of tragedies as well as blessed lives. Has God failed some and been overly generous with others? God is not willing that any should Parrish but that all should come to repentance. He is also unwilling to force His perfect Will upon us because He loves us and desires that we love Him in return. God does not fail. But men and women fail to love Him and obey Him and one bad thing just leads to another.
RLH
Access Denied
After the fall of Adam and Eve and the subsequent expulsion from the Garden of Eden God placed cherubim with a framing sword in a strategic location to “keep” or guard the way to the Tree of Life.
God states His concern in Genesis 3:22 that Adam and Eve might have been able to eat the fruit of the Tree of Life and live forever. By so doing they would have sealed their fate as a fallen people who, though dead spiritually, would never die physically. It might have been the eternal “night of the living dead.”
But God said, “No.” He already had a plan of Salvation and spiritual restoration for Adam and Eve and their posterity.
The Tree of Life is a type of Christ who is the only source of true life in all of creation. If Adam and Eve had taken of the fruit of the tree they would have had life without redemption. Their sin would have become unforgivable, their wages unplayable.
God’s plan of redemption required the ultimate price: the death of the sinner. He was willing to accept a substitute but unless someone died and their shed blood made an atonement there could be no forgiveness or remission of sin and it’s results.
The fall of Adam left man estranged from God and without hope of redemption on his own. However, in His mercy and Grace God made a covering for the sins of Adam and Eve. It required the death of the innocent on their behalf. God gave them animal skins for clothing to cover their nakedness and shame. He could have created fine fashioned firs or denim jeans with a cotton shirt but most likely He took the life of an animal (or animals). This would have set a precedence of sacrifice that Able would later follow when he made an acceptable offering before the Lord.
The shedding of animal’s blood on behalf of man as an act of faith, obedience and atonement for sin was practiced by Able, Job, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and others up to the time of Moses when God made it a distinct part of His Law. In all this it was understood that the sacrifices were only symbolic or types of a greater, more perfect sacrifice that would once and for all pay the price of all sin.
When Jesus came and died on the cross He fulfilled all the types and symbols of the Law, the Tabernacle, the sacrifices and the atonement in Himself. With His death, burial and resurrection eternal life has now become accessible to mankind, not in a garden hanging from a tree, but on a hill hanging from a cross. Jesus “became sin for us”…”that we might be made the righteousness of God…” (II Cor. 5:21)
The wages of sin have been paid, the fruit of life is now man’s for the asking. With faith and repentance comes Salvation and Eternal Life.
Before the cross Eternal Life was a promise on credit. After the cross Eternal Life is a receivable asset. From Adam to the cross men and women who died in faith were still unrestored with God. They were still forbidden from the Tree of Life. It was a done deal, a Holy Covenant, a contract with God, yet the actions demanded had not yet been executed. The Old Testament saints had to wait for the cross.
Jesus told the story of the rich man and Lazarus. He did not introduce the story as a parable but told it as an actual event. I believe there really was a poor Lazarus and a selfish rich man.
When they died they both went to the place of the dead or Scheol. Job spoke of it, David talked about it and there are various references to it in the Old Testament. Jesus described Scheol as having two parts with a great chasm between. There is the part called Torments where the dead in trespasses and in sins go and there is the part called Abraham’s Bosom or Paradise where the believing dead go.
In Ephesians 4 we read how Jesus descended into the depths at his death, preached to the saints and lead captivity captive. This appears to mystically describe Jesus going into Paradise and telling Adam, Abraham, Moses and all the other Old Testament saints that the atonement they looked for was accomplished once and for all, the bill or wages of sin had been paid. With this action and the presence of the life and light of the world they received their long awaited gift of Eternal Life. They no longer belonged in the place of the dead. Their atonement complete and eternal life received and communion with God fully restored (as in the Garden before the fall) Jesus took them to the very presence of God where all Old and New Testament Saint who have died in faith await the resurrection and subsequent events of the redemption of creation described in Revelation.
In the end we find the Tree of Life with full access. Its leaves are for the healing of the nations. It bears several kinds of fruit. There is no guarding cherubim or sword.
One might wonder, “Why is there a Tree of Life in the midst of Heaven where there is no death or sickness?” If the Tree of Life was a type of Christ in the beginning it is still a type of Christ in Eternity. Maybe it is a memorial (as if we will need one) of God’s redemptive capacity, encompassing the antiquity of man’s original state of innocence in the Garden to God’s sacrificial atonement on the cross to the eternal glory with God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) in Heaven. Just because it is there does not mean it is needed any more than the gold that will pave the streets or the pearls that make up the Gates.
RLH
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Baby Martyrs
We typically associate martyrdom with those who have stood faithfully for a cause and been slain by those who have a contrary agenda. Often when persecution raises its ugly head a lot of innocent people get swept up in the violence. Believers who are not as overt or active as the leaders still suffer and die for the cause.
Millions of innocent unborn babies have been caught up in the ungodly agenda of the abortion movement. It is masked as a measure of freedom and feminine autonomy where a woman can choose to control her own body (When the ultimate choice is taken away they call it rape.) but the most innocent and vulnerable are swept up in the ungodly agenda and selfish purposes of social and political idealisms that forsakes the most basic standards of Truth, life and freedom for falsehood, death and ultimate bondage. These innocent lives, though early in development, become human sacrifices to the gods of self, globalism, population control, social engineering, environmentalism and anti-Christ (not The Anti-Christ). They are martyrs and may well wear the martyr’s crown in glory.
RLH
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)