Randy Green's Blog, page 491
January 16, 2012
Hot and Cold – Part 2
Moses…saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. So…he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand…(The Lord said), “Now, behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to Me… I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?” [Exodus 2:11-12; 3:9-11]
Moses figured he was now a Midianite. He was born a Hebrew and became an Egyptian and tried to rejoin the Hebrews, and now he was a Midianite. Talk about a cockamamie life! Boy, was Moses’ life whacky.
“Not so fast, Moses my man,” said the Lord. “You may graze sheep in Midian and Sinai, but you cannot go far enough away to escape Me!” So there was Moses and there was a burning bush and there was the Lord in the bush. He told Moses that He chose Moses to be His mouthpiece to Pharaoh. “So get yourself on back to Egypt, Moses, and I’ll tell you what to do and say. I’m ready to deliver My people Israel from slavery and fulfill the Abrahamic Covenant by giving them the Promised Land as their national habitation.”
Forty years prior Moses was champing at the bit to deliver the Hebrews from Pharaoh’s enslavement. Now he couldn’t squirm hard enough or stammer long enough to express his utter lack of desire to go back to Egypt. You see, he was young, brash, and impulsive forty years prior. He was like a teenager—you know, knows it all and doesn’t need to learn. Fast forward four decades: Moses finally understood that HE wasn’t able to deliver the Israelites.
Still, Moses hadn’t yet learned of the necessity for depending on the Lord for direction and strength. Moses heard the Lord’s words, but he understood them as requiring that he carry them out in his own power and by his own reasoning. It actually took the Lord to twist Moses’ arm several times and give in to Moses’ need to cling to Mommy Aaron’s apron strings, before Moses was ready to obey the Word of God. Moses was still that spiritually immature.
In fact it wasn’t until the fourth plague that Moses finally began trusting the Lord enough to confront Pharaoh without clinging to Mommy Aaron’s apron strings. This is an extremely important principle we are to glean from the life of Moses, as well as from the other men and women of God in the Bible. Just as we have to grow by steps in the sphere of nature, so too must we grow step by step in the spiritual sphere.
We mustn’t hie off half cocked to serve the Lord. First we must sit at His feet with Bible opened and allow Him to teach us. We send our kids through twelve grades of school and even on to college and beyond. We ourselves need to go to school at the feet of the Lord Jesus for a lifetime because we never fully know Him or His Word. Notwithstanding this, after seriously attending school with Headmaster Jesus for a few years, we should be spiritually mature enough to grow in discipleship. We should become ardent servants of our Lord. But it takes baby steps at first and then bigger steps as we go along.
Let’s examine our lives, our hearts, and our minds. How long have we been born again? How many times have we read the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible? How often do we spend time alone with Jesus, and for more than a few minutes at that? Are we really desirous of knowing our Lord and Savior? Or are we putting it off until we get to heaven?
Tough questions, these. Let’s tackle them once and for all, shall we? Lord Jesus, have your way in each of our lives, we pray. Amen.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Exodus: Volume 2 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
Moses figured he was now a Midianite. He was born a Hebrew and became an Egyptian and tried to rejoin the Hebrews, and now he was a Midianite. Talk about a cockamamie life! Boy, was Moses’ life whacky.
“Not so fast, Moses my man,” said the Lord. “You may graze sheep in Midian and Sinai, but you cannot go far enough away to escape Me!” So there was Moses and there was a burning bush and there was the Lord in the bush. He told Moses that He chose Moses to be His mouthpiece to Pharaoh. “So get yourself on back to Egypt, Moses, and I’ll tell you what to do and say. I’m ready to deliver My people Israel from slavery and fulfill the Abrahamic Covenant by giving them the Promised Land as their national habitation.”
Forty years prior Moses was champing at the bit to deliver the Hebrews from Pharaoh’s enslavement. Now he couldn’t squirm hard enough or stammer long enough to express his utter lack of desire to go back to Egypt. You see, he was young, brash, and impulsive forty years prior. He was like a teenager—you know, knows it all and doesn’t need to learn. Fast forward four decades: Moses finally understood that HE wasn’t able to deliver the Israelites.
Still, Moses hadn’t yet learned of the necessity for depending on the Lord for direction and strength. Moses heard the Lord’s words, but he understood them as requiring that he carry them out in his own power and by his own reasoning. It actually took the Lord to twist Moses’ arm several times and give in to Moses’ need to cling to Mommy Aaron’s apron strings, before Moses was ready to obey the Word of God. Moses was still that spiritually immature.
In fact it wasn’t until the fourth plague that Moses finally began trusting the Lord enough to confront Pharaoh without clinging to Mommy Aaron’s apron strings. This is an extremely important principle we are to glean from the life of Moses, as well as from the other men and women of God in the Bible. Just as we have to grow by steps in the sphere of nature, so too must we grow step by step in the spiritual sphere.
We mustn’t hie off half cocked to serve the Lord. First we must sit at His feet with Bible opened and allow Him to teach us. We send our kids through twelve grades of school and even on to college and beyond. We ourselves need to go to school at the feet of the Lord Jesus for a lifetime because we never fully know Him or His Word. Notwithstanding this, after seriously attending school with Headmaster Jesus for a few years, we should be spiritually mature enough to grow in discipleship. We should become ardent servants of our Lord. But it takes baby steps at first and then bigger steps as we go along.
Let’s examine our lives, our hearts, and our minds. How long have we been born again? How many times have we read the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible? How often do we spend time alone with Jesus, and for more than a few minutes at that? Are we really desirous of knowing our Lord and Savior? Or are we putting it off until we get to heaven?
Tough questions, these. Let’s tackle them once and for all, shall we? Lord Jesus, have your way in each of our lives, we pray. Amen.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Exodus: Volume 2 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
January 15, 2012
Hot and Cold - Part 1
Moses…saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. So…he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand…(The Lord said), “Now, behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to Me… I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?” [Exodus 2:11-12; 3:9-11]
The lives of the men and women of God are recorded in the Bible to teach us. Sometimes we learn from them positively, other times negatively. Sometimes we learn by their example what to do, other times by their example what not to do!
We took a brief glimpse at the life of Jacob/Israel in our last study. We learned from his life both what to do and what not to do. Even more, we saw that it’s not how we begin the race but how we finish it. We learned that we must forget what lies behind and press forward to what lies ahead, ever onward to the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
The life of Moses is another fascinating case study of how to go from spiritual infancy to spiritual maturity. God is our heavenly Father. It is His job to rear His kids into spiritual adults. And He does! Sometimes He succeeds simply through His Word, other times not so much. If we listen and learn from His Word, and then obey what we learn, we needn’t visit the wood shed with Him.
As we saw with Jacob’s life, so too with Moses’ life. The several verses from Exodus 2-3 with which we began this study illustrate this. Moses made his choice to be a part of the people of God, rather than be an adopted Egyptian. He was raised in Pharaoh’s palace as Pharaoh’s daughter’s son. But Moses learned of his Hebrew ethnicity and of his being God’s deliverer to the Hebrew slaves. Moses rejected the palace for the high calling of God.
Trouble was, Moses didn’t know God enough to understand Him. Moses hadn’t an inkling of what God wanted or how he was to go about it. Moses simply rushed into the fray headstrong and slapdash. He would deliver the Hebrew people from their slavery. The first item on the agenda was to kill an Egyptian taskmaster because he used his whip on a Hebrew slave.
Having done that Moses figured the Hebrew people would embrace him in their arms as God’s gift to them. Turns out Moses was wrong. The Hebrew slaves saw Moses as a Hebrew wannabe, a spoiled little rich kid from Pharaoh’s palace. They wanted nothing to do with him. Moses put himself between Scylla and Charybdis. On one side were the Hebrews who rejected him, on the other Pharaoh who wanted to kill Moses for killing the Egyptian slave master. What to do?
It didn’t occur to Moses to consult God before he took it upon himself to kill the Egyptian. And now when he stepped in it he again didn’t think to consult God about what to do. You see, it takes a certain measure of spiritual maturity to even know of our necessity to consult God for His will in all matters.
So Moses made his own decision once again. He hied off from Egypt to parts unknown on the other side of the Sinai Peninsula, where he lived for the next forty years. He was in Midian, where married a Midianite woman and had two sons by her. The names he gave his sons are revealing. They show that Moses figured he’d never be back in Egypt again, and that he would never see his people again. He was now a Midianite! Thenceforth Midian was home.
Let’s pause here and allow the food to feed our spirits. We’ll continue this topic in our next study.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Exodus: Volume 2 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
The lives of the men and women of God are recorded in the Bible to teach us. Sometimes we learn from them positively, other times negatively. Sometimes we learn by their example what to do, other times by their example what not to do!
We took a brief glimpse at the life of Jacob/Israel in our last study. We learned from his life both what to do and what not to do. Even more, we saw that it’s not how we begin the race but how we finish it. We learned that we must forget what lies behind and press forward to what lies ahead, ever onward to the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
The life of Moses is another fascinating case study of how to go from spiritual infancy to spiritual maturity. God is our heavenly Father. It is His job to rear His kids into spiritual adults. And He does! Sometimes He succeeds simply through His Word, other times not so much. If we listen and learn from His Word, and then obey what we learn, we needn’t visit the wood shed with Him.
As we saw with Jacob’s life, so too with Moses’ life. The several verses from Exodus 2-3 with which we began this study illustrate this. Moses made his choice to be a part of the people of God, rather than be an adopted Egyptian. He was raised in Pharaoh’s palace as Pharaoh’s daughter’s son. But Moses learned of his Hebrew ethnicity and of his being God’s deliverer to the Hebrew slaves. Moses rejected the palace for the high calling of God.
Trouble was, Moses didn’t know God enough to understand Him. Moses hadn’t an inkling of what God wanted or how he was to go about it. Moses simply rushed into the fray headstrong and slapdash. He would deliver the Hebrew people from their slavery. The first item on the agenda was to kill an Egyptian taskmaster because he used his whip on a Hebrew slave.
Having done that Moses figured the Hebrew people would embrace him in their arms as God’s gift to them. Turns out Moses was wrong. The Hebrew slaves saw Moses as a Hebrew wannabe, a spoiled little rich kid from Pharaoh’s palace. They wanted nothing to do with him. Moses put himself between Scylla and Charybdis. On one side were the Hebrews who rejected him, on the other Pharaoh who wanted to kill Moses for killing the Egyptian slave master. What to do?
It didn’t occur to Moses to consult God before he took it upon himself to kill the Egyptian. And now when he stepped in it he again didn’t think to consult God about what to do. You see, it takes a certain measure of spiritual maturity to even know of our necessity to consult God for His will in all matters.
So Moses made his own decision once again. He hied off from Egypt to parts unknown on the other side of the Sinai Peninsula, where he lived for the next forty years. He was in Midian, where married a Midianite woman and had two sons by her. The names he gave his sons are revealing. They show that Moses figured he’d never be back in Egypt again, and that he would never see his people again. He was now a Midianite! Thenceforth Midian was home.
Let’s pause here and allow the food to feed our spirits. We’ll continue this topic in our next study.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Exodus: Volume 2 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
January 14, 2012
Tit for Tat
And (Isaac) said (to Esau), “Your brother (Jacob) came deceitfully and has taken away your blessing”… And (Jacob) said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served with you? Why then have you deceived me?” [Genesis 27:35; 29:25].
When I was a child I behaved like a child. My childishness was not unique, not even close. When no one bothered to correct me, I went right on committing dumb acts! If I got by with it long enough, the acts became even dumber and my response increasingly witless. And if others joined in and egged me on—well, let’s not even go there.
You see, it’s in human nature to do wrong because all of us are born with a sin nature, and that’s the nature of sin. So here we are, very young or not so much so, and we come to know the Lord. We are born again, and now the Lord has another son to rear.
Like any good father, our heavenly Father desires the best for His kids. But there we stand, spiritually childish as all get out, committing one dumb act after another. So what’s a good heavenly Father going to do about it. He’s going to give us incentive to stop the childish behaviors, that’s what. To do this He disciplines us. This can consist of all sorts of good stuff, like, for instance, taking us to the woodshed to become acquainted with the hickory stick.
But in His discipline of His kids, the Lord isn’t limited to just the wood shed. Often He directs our lives so that we receive tit for tat. We have a superb example of this in the Bible verses with which we began our study. Jacob was the Lord’s chosen son. In fact Jacob was chosen while Esau his twin brother was not, even while they were still in the womb. The Lord told Mommy Rebekah as much while she was carrying the twins.
The story of Jacob’s life as recorded in the Book of Genesis is meant to illustrate the parental aspect of the Lord, as He takes His finagling son through life’s process. Along the way Father God directs the affairs of Jacob’s life so that he keeps bumping his head into a brick wall. Sooner or later—in Jacob’s case it was later, much much later—this was meant to knock some sense into the childish urchin, so that he would stop committing dumb acts and seeks the Lord’s will in his life.
And that is just what happened with Jacob…in the end. Jacob connived to steal his older twin brother Esau’s birthright. Then he machinated against Father Isaac to steal Esau’s blessing. The Lord had already told Mommy Rebekah that Jacob would be the child to receive the rights of the firstborn, even though Esau was the natural firstborn. But Jacob had to help the Lord out by seizing them in his own strength according to his own reasoning. In fine, Jacob walked in the flesh and considered that serving the Lord.
Needless to say, but Brother Esau looked none too kindly on Jacob’s maneuverings. He plotted to kill Jacob, so Jacob had to be sent away from the family home in Beersheba to stay with Uncle Laban in Paddan-aram. If you look at a Bible map you will see that this was a trip from the far south of Canaan all the way past Damascus to northern Mesopotamia—a not so minor distance on foot back in the day.
Anyway, to teach Jacob discipline, the Lord used Uncle Laban to give Jacob a taste of his own medicine. Laban repeatedly manipulated and schemed to cheat Jacob, in order to further Laban’s income. The Bible verses with which we began our study is a case in point. Jacob liked Laban’s daughter, so he agreed to work for Laban seven years in order to marry her. After the seven years were up, Jacob had his wedding. When he went to the bedroom for his conjugal rights, it was dark. Laban substituted his older daughter Leah in place of Rachel. Jacob was none the wiser…until the morning light revealed the truth!
Well, you get the point. Jacob deceived Father Isaac to get his way. The Lord’s discipline was to use Laban to deceive Jacob to get his way. Tit for tat. After several of these tit-for-tat rebuttals, Jacob did finally mature spiritually and begin to walk in the Spirit in serving the Lord. This occurred at Peniel, where Jacob was renamed Israel by the Lord.
So how goes it with you? Are you responding as a good son to the Lord’s discipline and maturing spiritually? I hope that all of us are, or there will continue to be tit for tats on the horizon. And they’re no fun!
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
When I was a child I behaved like a child. My childishness was not unique, not even close. When no one bothered to correct me, I went right on committing dumb acts! If I got by with it long enough, the acts became even dumber and my response increasingly witless. And if others joined in and egged me on—well, let’s not even go there.
You see, it’s in human nature to do wrong because all of us are born with a sin nature, and that’s the nature of sin. So here we are, very young or not so much so, and we come to know the Lord. We are born again, and now the Lord has another son to rear.
Like any good father, our heavenly Father desires the best for His kids. But there we stand, spiritually childish as all get out, committing one dumb act after another. So what’s a good heavenly Father going to do about it. He’s going to give us incentive to stop the childish behaviors, that’s what. To do this He disciplines us. This can consist of all sorts of good stuff, like, for instance, taking us to the woodshed to become acquainted with the hickory stick.
But in His discipline of His kids, the Lord isn’t limited to just the wood shed. Often He directs our lives so that we receive tit for tat. We have a superb example of this in the Bible verses with which we began our study. Jacob was the Lord’s chosen son. In fact Jacob was chosen while Esau his twin brother was not, even while they were still in the womb. The Lord told Mommy Rebekah as much while she was carrying the twins.
The story of Jacob’s life as recorded in the Book of Genesis is meant to illustrate the parental aspect of the Lord, as He takes His finagling son through life’s process. Along the way Father God directs the affairs of Jacob’s life so that he keeps bumping his head into a brick wall. Sooner or later—in Jacob’s case it was later, much much later—this was meant to knock some sense into the childish urchin, so that he would stop committing dumb acts and seeks the Lord’s will in his life.
And that is just what happened with Jacob…in the end. Jacob connived to steal his older twin brother Esau’s birthright. Then he machinated against Father Isaac to steal Esau’s blessing. The Lord had already told Mommy Rebekah that Jacob would be the child to receive the rights of the firstborn, even though Esau was the natural firstborn. But Jacob had to help the Lord out by seizing them in his own strength according to his own reasoning. In fine, Jacob walked in the flesh and considered that serving the Lord.
Needless to say, but Brother Esau looked none too kindly on Jacob’s maneuverings. He plotted to kill Jacob, so Jacob had to be sent away from the family home in Beersheba to stay with Uncle Laban in Paddan-aram. If you look at a Bible map you will see that this was a trip from the far south of Canaan all the way past Damascus to northern Mesopotamia—a not so minor distance on foot back in the day.
Anyway, to teach Jacob discipline, the Lord used Uncle Laban to give Jacob a taste of his own medicine. Laban repeatedly manipulated and schemed to cheat Jacob, in order to further Laban’s income. The Bible verses with which we began our study is a case in point. Jacob liked Laban’s daughter, so he agreed to work for Laban seven years in order to marry her. After the seven years were up, Jacob had his wedding. When he went to the bedroom for his conjugal rights, it was dark. Laban substituted his older daughter Leah in place of Rachel. Jacob was none the wiser…until the morning light revealed the truth!
Well, you get the point. Jacob deceived Father Isaac to get his way. The Lord’s discipline was to use Laban to deceive Jacob to get his way. Tit for tat. After several of these tit-for-tat rebuttals, Jacob did finally mature spiritually and begin to walk in the Spirit in serving the Lord. This occurred at Peniel, where Jacob was renamed Israel by the Lord.
So how goes it with you? Are you responding as a good son to the Lord’s discipline and maturing spiritually? I hope that all of us are, or there will continue to be tit for tats on the horizon. And they’re no fun!
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
January 13, 2012
God’s Hall of Faith
All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth…But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them [Hebrews 11:13, 16].
There are two perspectives on sin we need to be aware of, as it pertains to the thrice holy God. First, He cannot tolerate it, any of it, not even the most miniscule trace of it! Secondly, He paid the penalty for sin by giving His one and only Son as a propitiation for all the sins of mankind. Those who have true Biblical faith are already declared by God to be justified, to be not guilty. They don’t have to wait until eternity to be judged. Those without true Biblical faith are guilty as sin and will be so judged at the Great White Throne Judgment in eternity (cf., Revelation 20).
Are we to conclude from this that nobody identified in the Bible but Jesus ever had true Biblical faith? What I mean is that in Scripture everybody sinned and it is recorded therein to note this condition of all mankind. If we are already adjudged not guilty, why are sins recorded for those who supposedly did have true Biblical faith?
Hebrews 11 was recorded to shed light on this very issue, dear people. When we page through the Old Testament and read the accounts therein of all the “celebrities” itemized in Hebrews 11, we find a stark contrast between the accounts in the Old Testament and Hebrews 11. No, there are no contradictions between the two accounts. The contrast is between putting the finger on sin in their lives as recorded in the Old Testament, and leaving their sins unrecorded in the Hebrews 11.
The reason for this contrast has to do with another contrast between the Old Testament and Hebrews 11. The Old Testament accounts are a record of the lives of these “celebrities” as they took place while they walked the earth with a sin nature. The accounts in Hebrews 11 are a record of their remembrance in eternity without a sin nature.
Because each “celebrity” did have true Biblical faith while walking the earth, they were justified, declared not guilty, by the Lord even during their sojourn on earth. Nonetheless, they did commit sins and had to be forgiven by the Lord. But it is all water under the bridge, once we are promoted to eternity. God no longer remembers our sins in eternity. He casts them behind His back, never to turn around to look at them again. He buries them in the deepest depths of the sea, and He doesn’t go fishing either!
Heaven will be home for all eternity to everyone who has true Biblical faith. In heaven the Lord has His own Hall of Fame; but since it is based on faith, the better title for it is God’s Hall of Faith. Everyone in heaven has his/her own bust prominently displayed on a pedestal. Not one former sin of any person in heaven is ever mentioned in heaven. Practically speaking, no saint has any sins, and history books of their lives don’t record them as having sinned either.
Praise God for His Hall of Faith! Praise Him for recording Hebrews 11 for our consolation and edification! May His name be glorified both now and forevermore!
Thank you, Jesus. Let’s do that now, shall we?
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
There are two perspectives on sin we need to be aware of, as it pertains to the thrice holy God. First, He cannot tolerate it, any of it, not even the most miniscule trace of it! Secondly, He paid the penalty for sin by giving His one and only Son as a propitiation for all the sins of mankind. Those who have true Biblical faith are already declared by God to be justified, to be not guilty. They don’t have to wait until eternity to be judged. Those without true Biblical faith are guilty as sin and will be so judged at the Great White Throne Judgment in eternity (cf., Revelation 20).
Are we to conclude from this that nobody identified in the Bible but Jesus ever had true Biblical faith? What I mean is that in Scripture everybody sinned and it is recorded therein to note this condition of all mankind. If we are already adjudged not guilty, why are sins recorded for those who supposedly did have true Biblical faith?
Hebrews 11 was recorded to shed light on this very issue, dear people. When we page through the Old Testament and read the accounts therein of all the “celebrities” itemized in Hebrews 11, we find a stark contrast between the accounts in the Old Testament and Hebrews 11. No, there are no contradictions between the two accounts. The contrast is between putting the finger on sin in their lives as recorded in the Old Testament, and leaving their sins unrecorded in the Hebrews 11.
The reason for this contrast has to do with another contrast between the Old Testament and Hebrews 11. The Old Testament accounts are a record of the lives of these “celebrities” as they took place while they walked the earth with a sin nature. The accounts in Hebrews 11 are a record of their remembrance in eternity without a sin nature.
Because each “celebrity” did have true Biblical faith while walking the earth, they were justified, declared not guilty, by the Lord even during their sojourn on earth. Nonetheless, they did commit sins and had to be forgiven by the Lord. But it is all water under the bridge, once we are promoted to eternity. God no longer remembers our sins in eternity. He casts them behind His back, never to turn around to look at them again. He buries them in the deepest depths of the sea, and He doesn’t go fishing either!
Heaven will be home for all eternity to everyone who has true Biblical faith. In heaven the Lord has His own Hall of Fame; but since it is based on faith, the better title for it is God’s Hall of Faith. Everyone in heaven has his/her own bust prominently displayed on a pedestal. Not one former sin of any person in heaven is ever mentioned in heaven. Practically speaking, no saint has any sins, and history books of their lives don’t record them as having sinned either.
Praise God for His Hall of Faith! Praise Him for recording Hebrews 11 for our consolation and edification! May His name be glorified both now and forevermore!
Thank you, Jesus. Let’s do that now, shall we?
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
January 12, 2012
Apples and Oranges – Part 2
For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace [Isaiah 9:6].
Consider the first part of Isaiah 9:6 as an example of Biblical Hebrew parallelism:
For a child will be born to us,
A son will be given to us.
The two lines are synonymous, brothers and sisters. What we have to realize, however, is that this doesn’t mean they have precisely the same meaning in all aspects. No! The two lines run parallel to each other by presenting much of the same meaning…but not all of the same meaning. Just recall the distinction we made when we began this post. To be “born” is not necessarily the same as to be “given”.
The latter part of Isaiah 9:6 identifies who the “child” and “son” would be. Those words point out that He was to be the Messiah, somehow a man and somehow God. Don’t believe me? Read the latter part of the verse again. Do they not specifically state that this person was “Mighty God”? And did the verse not begin by telling us “a child will be born to us”?
When was God born? Uh, that would be NEVER! Humans are born. Am I not right? So a human would be born to us, and this human would be “Mighty God”. Now where have we heard this before? Hmm. That’s a toughie. Let’s see. Was it in Aesop’s fables? No, that wasn’t it. Perhaps it is in the U.S. Constitution. Not so much. Ah, yes, I remember now. It is in the New Testament. Come to think of it, it is the most fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith!
The words “a child” and “a son” run parallel with each other, you see. The words “will be born” and “will be given” also run parallel with each other. But that is the extent of their being synonymous, dear friends. The Messiah later was born and named Jesus. The word Christ is the Greek form of the Hebrew word Messiah. The phrase Jesus Christ is not a name. Jesus is His human name, while Christ is His title. He is Jesus the Messiah.
Jesus was born a true human male, yes. A Jewish virgin Mary was His mother. But Jesus had no human father. The Holy Spirit miraculously impregnated Mary with the eternal Son of God. This is inexplicable to our finite minds, but the Bible teaches it straightforwardly enough. Either we believe it, which is the meaning of having Biblical faith, or else we don’t and remain in our sins.
In this context consider how much more is stated by Isaiah 9:6 than is at first blush ostensible. “A child is born”—that occurs every day, so we wouldn’t put much stock in the phrase if it stood alone. But it doesn’t! It runs parallel with “a son is given”. In light of the further revelation we have from the New Testament, consider Who this child is.
The “son” of Isaiah 9:6 is the eternal Son of God, which makes Him God. He exists from all eternity with God the Father. Our heavenly Father GAVE him to us. The “child” of Isaiah 9:6 is the human Son of Mary through a miracle by the Holy Spirit. This Person is both God and man simultaneously, fully, and thenceforth eternally.
The Old Testament presented many mysteries which could not be understood back in the day. The revelations in the New Testament explain them to us. Isn’t God good? Yes, He is…all the time. Let’s go visit with Him now and tell Him so.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
Consider the first part of Isaiah 9:6 as an example of Biblical Hebrew parallelism:
For a child will be born to us,
A son will be given to us.
The two lines are synonymous, brothers and sisters. What we have to realize, however, is that this doesn’t mean they have precisely the same meaning in all aspects. No! The two lines run parallel to each other by presenting much of the same meaning…but not all of the same meaning. Just recall the distinction we made when we began this post. To be “born” is not necessarily the same as to be “given”.
The latter part of Isaiah 9:6 identifies who the “child” and “son” would be. Those words point out that He was to be the Messiah, somehow a man and somehow God. Don’t believe me? Read the latter part of the verse again. Do they not specifically state that this person was “Mighty God”? And did the verse not begin by telling us “a child will be born to us”?
When was God born? Uh, that would be NEVER! Humans are born. Am I not right? So a human would be born to us, and this human would be “Mighty God”. Now where have we heard this before? Hmm. That’s a toughie. Let’s see. Was it in Aesop’s fables? No, that wasn’t it. Perhaps it is in the U.S. Constitution. Not so much. Ah, yes, I remember now. It is in the New Testament. Come to think of it, it is the most fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith!
The words “a child” and “a son” run parallel with each other, you see. The words “will be born” and “will be given” also run parallel with each other. But that is the extent of their being synonymous, dear friends. The Messiah later was born and named Jesus. The word Christ is the Greek form of the Hebrew word Messiah. The phrase Jesus Christ is not a name. Jesus is His human name, while Christ is His title. He is Jesus the Messiah.
Jesus was born a true human male, yes. A Jewish virgin Mary was His mother. But Jesus had no human father. The Holy Spirit miraculously impregnated Mary with the eternal Son of God. This is inexplicable to our finite minds, but the Bible teaches it straightforwardly enough. Either we believe it, which is the meaning of having Biblical faith, or else we don’t and remain in our sins.
In this context consider how much more is stated by Isaiah 9:6 than is at first blush ostensible. “A child is born”—that occurs every day, so we wouldn’t put much stock in the phrase if it stood alone. But it doesn’t! It runs parallel with “a son is given”. In light of the further revelation we have from the New Testament, consider Who this child is.
The “son” of Isaiah 9:6 is the eternal Son of God, which makes Him God. He exists from all eternity with God the Father. Our heavenly Father GAVE him to us. The “child” of Isaiah 9:6 is the human Son of Mary through a miracle by the Holy Spirit. This Person is both God and man simultaneously, fully, and thenceforth eternally.
The Old Testament presented many mysteries which could not be understood back in the day. The revelations in the New Testament explain them to us. Isn’t God good? Yes, He is…all the time. Let’s go visit with Him now and tell Him so.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
January 11, 2012
Apples and Oranges – Part 1
For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace [Isaiah 9:6].
It was one of the most memorable days of my life, the day my son was born to my wife and me. Yes, on that day “a child was born to us”. It was not so memorable a day to me, the day presents were given to us for our child. Yes, on that day presents “were given to us”. It’s not that the gifts were unappreciated. Not in the least! It’s just that, well, on the one hand we had a son and on the other we had presents. I believe the distinction should be clear enough to everyone, don’t you thing?
In the context of this distinction, read Isaiah 9:6 once more. On the one hand a child will be born to us. On the other hand a son will be given to us. I fear the words are often understood to mean the same thing. But we know by the distinction we presented in the first paragraph that this is not necessarily so. Truth be told, in Isaiah 9:6 it is definitely not so!
We’ve descanted on the idiosyncrasies of Biblical Hebrew poetry in a prior post. We’ve also done this much more extensively in Volumes 1-5 of our Heavenly Citizens series. I encourage you to go to the Amazon website listed at the end of this post and purchase your copies. Dig into the solid meat and stuff your spiritual appetite until you are surfeited! You will mature spiritually much fuller and much quicker, if you study entire books of the Bible in context chapter-by-chapter and verse-by-verse.
But I digress. Let’s backtrack to Biblical Hebrew poetry’s idiosyncrasies. Today we write poetry by making the words at the end of lines rhyme, and by making the lines to have the same number of beats or measurements. For example,
Roses are red, violets are blue;
Sugar is sweet, and so are you.
That’s poetry to the average Occidental today. Not so with Hebrew poetry however! Hebrew poetry didn’t rhyme the words at the end of lines: it rhymed ideas between one line and another. This is another way of saying two lines run parallel to each other in some way. Sometimes the ideas are the same or synonymous, giving it the name synonymous parallelism. Other times the ideas are opposite or antonymous, affixing it with the name antonymous parallelism.
The day has been long and the sun is now setting. Let’s pause for supper at the Lord’s table and take our rest. We will continue on the morrow, if you please.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
It was one of the most memorable days of my life, the day my son was born to my wife and me. Yes, on that day “a child was born to us”. It was not so memorable a day to me, the day presents were given to us for our child. Yes, on that day presents “were given to us”. It’s not that the gifts were unappreciated. Not in the least! It’s just that, well, on the one hand we had a son and on the other we had presents. I believe the distinction should be clear enough to everyone, don’t you thing?
In the context of this distinction, read Isaiah 9:6 once more. On the one hand a child will be born to us. On the other hand a son will be given to us. I fear the words are often understood to mean the same thing. But we know by the distinction we presented in the first paragraph that this is not necessarily so. Truth be told, in Isaiah 9:6 it is definitely not so!
We’ve descanted on the idiosyncrasies of Biblical Hebrew poetry in a prior post. We’ve also done this much more extensively in Volumes 1-5 of our Heavenly Citizens series. I encourage you to go to the Amazon website listed at the end of this post and purchase your copies. Dig into the solid meat and stuff your spiritual appetite until you are surfeited! You will mature spiritually much fuller and much quicker, if you study entire books of the Bible in context chapter-by-chapter and verse-by-verse.
But I digress. Let’s backtrack to Biblical Hebrew poetry’s idiosyncrasies. Today we write poetry by making the words at the end of lines rhyme, and by making the lines to have the same number of beats or measurements. For example,
Roses are red, violets are blue;
Sugar is sweet, and so are you.
That’s poetry to the average Occidental today. Not so with Hebrew poetry however! Hebrew poetry didn’t rhyme the words at the end of lines: it rhymed ideas between one line and another. This is another way of saying two lines run parallel to each other in some way. Sometimes the ideas are the same or synonymous, giving it the name synonymous parallelism. Other times the ideas are opposite or antonymous, affixing it with the name antonymous parallelism.
The day has been long and the sun is now setting. Let’s pause for supper at the Lord’s table and take our rest. We will continue on the morrow, if you please.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
January 10, 2012
Interstate Billboards – Part 2
When they came to the place called “The Skull”, there they crucified Him and the (two) criminals, one on the right and the other on the left [Luke 23:33].
Here’s the thing. Just as in the Old Testament God wanted to call sinful man back to Himself, so too does He in the New Testament. Just as in the Old Testament God employed the Law to do this, so too in the New Testament does He employ grace to do this. The word grace refers to God’s free gift of salvation to sinful man, which was earned by His Son Jesus on the cross. Just as in the Old Testament God created the earthly nation of Israel to be His witness to sinful mankind, so too in the New Testament did He create a spiritual nation, the Church, to be His witness to sinful mankind.
And this is where the story or the three crosses on Calvary comes in. Just as the Promised Land was smack dab at the crossroads of the two world empires back in the day, so too was Jerusalem smack dab at the crossroads of the Roman Empire back in the day. Calvary was located on a main street outside the gates of Jerusalem, where everyone passing through the city would witness the crucifixion.
Israel in the Promised Land was a gigantic neon billboard along the interstate, advertising God’s righteousness and man’s sinfulness. Jesus on the cross was a gigantic neon billboard along the interstate too, advertising God’s righteous judgment on man’s sins and His offer of grace for whoever will receive it, His forgiveness through the substitutionary death of His one and only Son.
Let’s take a gander at this billboard. In the center was a cross with Jesus dying on it. Jesus being God, He has no sin. He is holy. His death wasn’t for His own sins. He willingly laid down His life in order to pay the penalty for mankind’s sins. That was the purpose of God taking on flesh in the first place, viz., so that He could die on sinful man’s behalf. Therein lies real love, dear friends.
Two criminals were crucified with Jesus, one on Jesus’ right side and the other on His left. People passing along the road stopped and mocked Jesus. The Jewish authorities stoked the fire by mocking too. The Roman soldiers thought it was funny and joined in. What with all this mocking going on, even one of the crucified criminals took part in making fun of Jesus. Yes, Jesus was the laughing stock of the day.
The second criminal also spoke up, but not at all like the first criminal. He rebuked the first criminal for mocking Jesus. He confessed that Jesus had done no wrong and didn’t deserve to be on the cross. He admitted his own sins and chided the first criminal for being a sinner himself. How could he mock the holy Jesus, all the while he was so sinful and deserved to be on the cross?
That is the billboard the Lord set up along the world’s interstate, dear people. During the times of the Gentiles it replaces the billboard of Israel in the Promised Land. Israel as a nation is temporarily set aside as the Lord’s witness to the world. During the Church Age His spiritual nation, the Church, fulfills this function.
The billboard of the Law fulfilled its purpose and is no longer in effect. The billboard of God’s grace through His Son Jesus the Messiah is now in effect. That is the picture story painted on Calvary. At the center of it all, the axis of God’s grace is Jesus Christ. His cross was situated at center stage on Calvary.
Two criminals were crucified alongside Jesus, one on His right and the other on His left. Every human being aside from Jesus is born a sinner. Each one of us is a criminal, a rebel against God’s righteous rule. Each and every human being has, does, or will fit into the mold of one or the other of those two criminals. Either we mock Jesus and die in our sins, or else we confess that Jesus is sinless, is holy, and ask Him to receive us into His Kingdom.
All that’s left for us to do now is to decide which criminal we choose to be. The billboard paints the picture, my dear friends. What response will you make to it?
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
Here’s the thing. Just as in the Old Testament God wanted to call sinful man back to Himself, so too does He in the New Testament. Just as in the Old Testament God employed the Law to do this, so too in the New Testament does He employ grace to do this. The word grace refers to God’s free gift of salvation to sinful man, which was earned by His Son Jesus on the cross. Just as in the Old Testament God created the earthly nation of Israel to be His witness to sinful mankind, so too in the New Testament did He create a spiritual nation, the Church, to be His witness to sinful mankind.
And this is where the story or the three crosses on Calvary comes in. Just as the Promised Land was smack dab at the crossroads of the two world empires back in the day, so too was Jerusalem smack dab at the crossroads of the Roman Empire back in the day. Calvary was located on a main street outside the gates of Jerusalem, where everyone passing through the city would witness the crucifixion.
Israel in the Promised Land was a gigantic neon billboard along the interstate, advertising God’s righteousness and man’s sinfulness. Jesus on the cross was a gigantic neon billboard along the interstate too, advertising God’s righteous judgment on man’s sins and His offer of grace for whoever will receive it, His forgiveness through the substitutionary death of His one and only Son.
Let’s take a gander at this billboard. In the center was a cross with Jesus dying on it. Jesus being God, He has no sin. He is holy. His death wasn’t for His own sins. He willingly laid down His life in order to pay the penalty for mankind’s sins. That was the purpose of God taking on flesh in the first place, viz., so that He could die on sinful man’s behalf. Therein lies real love, dear friends.
Two criminals were crucified with Jesus, one on Jesus’ right side and the other on His left. People passing along the road stopped and mocked Jesus. The Jewish authorities stoked the fire by mocking too. The Roman soldiers thought it was funny and joined in. What with all this mocking going on, even one of the crucified criminals took part in making fun of Jesus. Yes, Jesus was the laughing stock of the day.
The second criminal also spoke up, but not at all like the first criminal. He rebuked the first criminal for mocking Jesus. He confessed that Jesus had done no wrong and didn’t deserve to be on the cross. He admitted his own sins and chided the first criminal for being a sinner himself. How could he mock the holy Jesus, all the while he was so sinful and deserved to be on the cross?
That is the billboard the Lord set up along the world’s interstate, dear people. During the times of the Gentiles it replaces the billboard of Israel in the Promised Land. Israel as a nation is temporarily set aside as the Lord’s witness to the world. During the Church Age His spiritual nation, the Church, fulfills this function.
The billboard of the Law fulfilled its purpose and is no longer in effect. The billboard of God’s grace through His Son Jesus the Messiah is now in effect. That is the picture story painted on Calvary. At the center of it all, the axis of God’s grace is Jesus Christ. His cross was situated at center stage on Calvary.
Two criminals were crucified alongside Jesus, one on His right and the other on His left. Every human being aside from Jesus is born a sinner. Each one of us is a criminal, a rebel against God’s righteous rule. Each and every human being has, does, or will fit into the mold of one or the other of those two criminals. Either we mock Jesus and die in our sins, or else we confess that Jesus is sinless, is holy, and ask Him to receive us into His Kingdom.
All that’s left for us to do now is to decide which criminal we choose to be. The billboard paints the picture, my dear friends. What response will you make to it?
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
January 9, 2012
Interstate Billboards – Part 1
When they came to the place called “The Skull”, there they crucified Him and the (two) criminals, one on the right and the other on the left [Luke 23:33].
Israel in Old Testament times was a nation ruled by the Law of Moses. The Lord (aka YHWH) was her King, and He gave Israel her Law through His prophet Moses. King YHWH also gave Israel the Promised Land as her terrestrial abode.
In other words the Lord created a new nation. He began with one man, Abraham, and grew him and his progeny into a multitude. Then the Lord delivered them from Egyptian slavery, took them to Mt. Sinai where He gave them the Law to govern their lives, and brought them into the Promised Land and gave it to them as their inheritance.
There was a purpose for the Lord doing all this. He created the heavens and the earth and planted man in His beautiful garden to tend it for Him. He looked over His creation and saw that everything was very good. That sly critter named SIN didn’t exist in man. Everything God made was very good.
Alas, but it didn’t stay that way. Satan was at odds with God, thinking to elevate himself to the throne of God. He wound up being “elevated” downward—far, far, downward—when the Lord booted his sorry rump out of heaven. Satan’s behavior made him a sinner. When the Lord created the heavens and the earth, Satan brought his sin along and shared it with Eve. She in turn shared it with Adam. Thenceforth mankind universally has been comprised of sinners.
That was where the Law of Moses and the nation of Israel came in. The world was filled with sinners, peoples and nations who shook their fist at God and refused to submit to His rule. The two major civilizations back in the day were Egypt and Mesopotamia. If you take a gander at a map of those times, you will see Mesopotamia on the east and Egypt on the west, and…the Promised Land smack dab in the middle.
Yes, the Lord created a new nation to represent Him to the world, to show sinful men that they were sinners, separated from Him and needing to return to Him. He gave Israel the Law and His tabernacle worship structure to accomplish this feat, and He planted Israel smack dab in the middle of the civilized world of the day so everyone would see this.
Israel, you see, served as a gigantic neon billboard along the interstate between Egypt and Mesopotamia. All commerce passed between those two civilizations, so everyone learned the truth about God from Israel—even during times when Israel wasn’t much to look at righteousness-wise. Israel was God’s witness to the world, sometimes for good and other times for ill.
Well, the Law was in effect only until the fullness of the time had come (Galatians 4:4). That time came when the eternal Son of God became a man named Jesus. Jesus is the God-man, fully God and fully man simultaneously. He came to earth to fulfill the Law for mankind. He then went to the cross and died to pay the penalty for all mankind’s sins. He rose out of death on the third day and ascended into heaven.
From heaven Jesus sent the Holy Spirit on Pentecost to create a new nation, a spiritual nation, known as the Church. Whoever will call upon Jesus in order to accept His payment for the penalty of their sins receives forgiveness of sins and is born again into the family of God, the Church of Jesus Christ. Originally this offer was given to Israel, to the Jewish people. Since then it has also gone out to the Gentiles, i.e., all non-Jewish people.
Let’s pull off the interstate into this shady arbor along the road. It’s time to take a breather and spend time alone with the Lord Jesus a while. We will continue this study in our next post. See you then!
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
Israel in Old Testament times was a nation ruled by the Law of Moses. The Lord (aka YHWH) was her King, and He gave Israel her Law through His prophet Moses. King YHWH also gave Israel the Promised Land as her terrestrial abode.
In other words the Lord created a new nation. He began with one man, Abraham, and grew him and his progeny into a multitude. Then the Lord delivered them from Egyptian slavery, took them to Mt. Sinai where He gave them the Law to govern their lives, and brought them into the Promised Land and gave it to them as their inheritance.
There was a purpose for the Lord doing all this. He created the heavens and the earth and planted man in His beautiful garden to tend it for Him. He looked over His creation and saw that everything was very good. That sly critter named SIN didn’t exist in man. Everything God made was very good.
Alas, but it didn’t stay that way. Satan was at odds with God, thinking to elevate himself to the throne of God. He wound up being “elevated” downward—far, far, downward—when the Lord booted his sorry rump out of heaven. Satan’s behavior made him a sinner. When the Lord created the heavens and the earth, Satan brought his sin along and shared it with Eve. She in turn shared it with Adam. Thenceforth mankind universally has been comprised of sinners.
That was where the Law of Moses and the nation of Israel came in. The world was filled with sinners, peoples and nations who shook their fist at God and refused to submit to His rule. The two major civilizations back in the day were Egypt and Mesopotamia. If you take a gander at a map of those times, you will see Mesopotamia on the east and Egypt on the west, and…the Promised Land smack dab in the middle.
Yes, the Lord created a new nation to represent Him to the world, to show sinful men that they were sinners, separated from Him and needing to return to Him. He gave Israel the Law and His tabernacle worship structure to accomplish this feat, and He planted Israel smack dab in the middle of the civilized world of the day so everyone would see this.
Israel, you see, served as a gigantic neon billboard along the interstate between Egypt and Mesopotamia. All commerce passed between those two civilizations, so everyone learned the truth about God from Israel—even during times when Israel wasn’t much to look at righteousness-wise. Israel was God’s witness to the world, sometimes for good and other times for ill.
Well, the Law was in effect only until the fullness of the time had come (Galatians 4:4). That time came when the eternal Son of God became a man named Jesus. Jesus is the God-man, fully God and fully man simultaneously. He came to earth to fulfill the Law for mankind. He then went to the cross and died to pay the penalty for all mankind’s sins. He rose out of death on the third day and ascended into heaven.
From heaven Jesus sent the Holy Spirit on Pentecost to create a new nation, a spiritual nation, known as the Church. Whoever will call upon Jesus in order to accept His payment for the penalty of their sins receives forgiveness of sins and is born again into the family of God, the Church of Jesus Christ. Originally this offer was given to Israel, to the Jewish people. Since then it has also gone out to the Gentiles, i.e., all non-Jewish people.
Let’s pull off the interstate into this shady arbor along the road. It’s time to take a breather and spend time alone with the Lord Jesus a while. We will continue this study in our next post. See you then!
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
January 8, 2012
Who dat? - Part 3
There was evening and there was morning, one day…there was evening and there was morning, a second day…There was evening and there was morning, a third day…There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day…There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day…there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day [Genesis 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31].
As one last evidence in our remonstrance against DAT, let’s practice what true science preaches and test the feasibility of DAT that way. True science teaches that we are to form a hypothesis, and then take it to the lab to test it in a controlled environment. This means we are to test the hypothesis in an environment where we can account for all the variables. Once the hypothesis has passed the test in the controlled environment, then and only then do we put it into practice in the real world to see how it fares out there.
I hope you caught my reference to “true science”. This is important. History, of which geology perforce belongs, cannot be tested in the lab. How can we take the past into a lab? Uh, that would be a “we can’t”. History and geology are not true science. They are fields of speculation, of surmises, especially when dealing with pre-history where we cannot even read the words of men who were contemporaries during those times. We can state nothing in our studies of those times but surmises.
Here’s how it works in reality, dear friends. Some musty-smelling old geology gent makes a visit to the Grand Canyon. He looks at how deep it is, watches how fast the river waters are moving through it, checks the density of the rock, and pulls out his abacus to do some calculating. “Ah ha!” he blurts out. “I’ve figured out how long it would take for this here river, running at its present rate across the rock we now have showing, to cut through the rock to form the Grand Canyon.
Listen to 2 Peter 3:3-4:
Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking following after their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.”
That is the definition of uniformitarianism, my friends. Uniformitarianism teaches that all things have occurred, still occur, and will continue to occur, at the same rate they now occur. Hence our musty-smelling geologist gent did his figuring on the basis of the rate which the river now flows and figured the rock was the same as it is now. This is because the central premise of uniformitarianism is that all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.
Oh, there is so much more we could share on this subject, but we mustn’t unduly lengthen this post. Read my book Genesis: Volume 1 for a more in-depth investigation. Before we close I said we would practice what true science preaches and test DAT by the Word of God. Yea, 2 Peter 3:3-4 exposes uniformitarianism. But we still haven’t applied DAT to any actual Scripture. So let’s do so now, and then we’ll close on that note and spend time alone with the Lord Jesus a while.
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy [Exodus 20:8-11].
Now let’s apply DAT’s teaching about the word “day” to this text.
Remember the sabbath multi-millions of years, to keep it holy. Six multi-millions of years you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh multi-millions of years is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. For in six multi-millions of years the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh multi-millions of years; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath multi-millions of years and made it holy.
If you think that makes sense, methinks you must’ve been sniffing something illegal! Tada.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
As one last evidence in our remonstrance against DAT, let’s practice what true science preaches and test the feasibility of DAT that way. True science teaches that we are to form a hypothesis, and then take it to the lab to test it in a controlled environment. This means we are to test the hypothesis in an environment where we can account for all the variables. Once the hypothesis has passed the test in the controlled environment, then and only then do we put it into practice in the real world to see how it fares out there.
I hope you caught my reference to “true science”. This is important. History, of which geology perforce belongs, cannot be tested in the lab. How can we take the past into a lab? Uh, that would be a “we can’t”. History and geology are not true science. They are fields of speculation, of surmises, especially when dealing with pre-history where we cannot even read the words of men who were contemporaries during those times. We can state nothing in our studies of those times but surmises.
Here’s how it works in reality, dear friends. Some musty-smelling old geology gent makes a visit to the Grand Canyon. He looks at how deep it is, watches how fast the river waters are moving through it, checks the density of the rock, and pulls out his abacus to do some calculating. “Ah ha!” he blurts out. “I’ve figured out how long it would take for this here river, running at its present rate across the rock we now have showing, to cut through the rock to form the Grand Canyon.
Listen to 2 Peter 3:3-4:
Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking following after their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.”
That is the definition of uniformitarianism, my friends. Uniformitarianism teaches that all things have occurred, still occur, and will continue to occur, at the same rate they now occur. Hence our musty-smelling geologist gent did his figuring on the basis of the rate which the river now flows and figured the rock was the same as it is now. This is because the central premise of uniformitarianism is that all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.
Oh, there is so much more we could share on this subject, but we mustn’t unduly lengthen this post. Read my book Genesis: Volume 1 for a more in-depth investigation. Before we close I said we would practice what true science preaches and test DAT by the Word of God. Yea, 2 Peter 3:3-4 exposes uniformitarianism. But we still haven’t applied DAT to any actual Scripture. So let’s do so now, and then we’ll close on that note and spend time alone with the Lord Jesus a while.
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy [Exodus 20:8-11].
Now let’s apply DAT’s teaching about the word “day” to this text.
Remember the sabbath multi-millions of years, to keep it holy. Six multi-millions of years you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh multi-millions of years is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. For in six multi-millions of years the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh multi-millions of years; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath multi-millions of years and made it holy.
If you think that makes sense, methinks you must’ve been sniffing something illegal! Tada.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
January 7, 2012
Who dat? - Part 2
There was evening and there was morning, one day…there was evening and there was morning, a second day…There was evening and there was morning, a third day…There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day…There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day…there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day [Genesis 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31].
Yes, it is perfectly true that the sun and moon were not created until Day 4. If the only way there could be a literal 24-hour period of time was for there to be a sun and moon first, then our Bible-believing geologists’ presumptions would have a logical foundation. But light was created at the very start of creation (Gen.1:3). The opposite of light, viz., darkness, existed already (Gen.1:2). Hence part of the earth had light and part had darkness. Is that not “day” and “night”?
When God speaks, He only tells truth. He said there was an evening and then a morning, the first day. Whatever way He determined to use in measuring a literal 24-hour period of time, we don’t know because He didn’t explain it to us. But that He had a literal 24-hour period of time He did tell us. He employed the sun and moon to measure time for man’s benefit.
But they weren’t needed by Him to measure time. He already knows how long a literal 24-hour period of time lasts, even without the sun and moon. We mustn’t limit God to our finite understanding, dear people, or we make His Word to mean what we think. In that case we are conformed to the world, when we are supposed to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2).
As for the Hebrew word for day, when it is used in the Bible in a generalized way, then it doesn’t per se mean a literal 24-hour day. But it does mean a relatively brief period of time on the measuring stick of history. Often the prophets used words of time to express periods of time. Still, when they did so, a “year” expressed a considerably longer period of time than a “week” expressed. And a “week” expressed a noticeably longer period of time than a “day” expressed. In that context we must have been born last night to believe we can stretch a generalized usage of the word day to mean multi-millions of years! No! even if we were born at night, it wasn’t last night!
We’ve not finished with vetting their surmises just yet, so don’t go away! The prior paragraph referred to a GENERALIZED usage of the word day. An example of this would be the phrase “the day of the Lord”. No one in their right mind reads that, giving it some thought, and concludes it HAS to be a literal 24-hour period. No! But it has to be a relatively short period on the measuring stick of history. What’s more, it refers to a GENERAL period of time, not necessarily a literal 24-hour period of time.
Now read the quote from Genesis 1 with which we began this post. Do you see a GENERALIZED usage for each “day”? I certainly hope not. Each “day” was a specific period of time: one day, a second day, a third day, etc. Every single time—NO exceptions!—but every other time in the Bible when the word “day” is used with a number, it refers to a literal 24-hour period of time.
Don’t take my word for it. Do a search of the word “day” and cull the times it occurs with a number. Every time without exception a specific usage of the word “day” occurs, it unmistakably refers to a literal 24-hour period of time. Would someone please hand the Kleenex box to our Bible-believing “Who’s DAT?” supporters. They need to wipe their eyes.
Let’s stop here for today and allow them time to have a good cry. They’ll need it before we zap them again with some more Bible. Praise the Lord Jesus! That sounds like a plan. Let’s go do it.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
Yes, it is perfectly true that the sun and moon were not created until Day 4. If the only way there could be a literal 24-hour period of time was for there to be a sun and moon first, then our Bible-believing geologists’ presumptions would have a logical foundation. But light was created at the very start of creation (Gen.1:3). The opposite of light, viz., darkness, existed already (Gen.1:2). Hence part of the earth had light and part had darkness. Is that not “day” and “night”?
When God speaks, He only tells truth. He said there was an evening and then a morning, the first day. Whatever way He determined to use in measuring a literal 24-hour period of time, we don’t know because He didn’t explain it to us. But that He had a literal 24-hour period of time He did tell us. He employed the sun and moon to measure time for man’s benefit.
But they weren’t needed by Him to measure time. He already knows how long a literal 24-hour period of time lasts, even without the sun and moon. We mustn’t limit God to our finite understanding, dear people, or we make His Word to mean what we think. In that case we are conformed to the world, when we are supposed to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2).
As for the Hebrew word for day, when it is used in the Bible in a generalized way, then it doesn’t per se mean a literal 24-hour day. But it does mean a relatively brief period of time on the measuring stick of history. Often the prophets used words of time to express periods of time. Still, when they did so, a “year” expressed a considerably longer period of time than a “week” expressed. And a “week” expressed a noticeably longer period of time than a “day” expressed. In that context we must have been born last night to believe we can stretch a generalized usage of the word day to mean multi-millions of years! No! even if we were born at night, it wasn’t last night!
We’ve not finished with vetting their surmises just yet, so don’t go away! The prior paragraph referred to a GENERALIZED usage of the word day. An example of this would be the phrase “the day of the Lord”. No one in their right mind reads that, giving it some thought, and concludes it HAS to be a literal 24-hour period. No! But it has to be a relatively short period on the measuring stick of history. What’s more, it refers to a GENERAL period of time, not necessarily a literal 24-hour period of time.
Now read the quote from Genesis 1 with which we began this post. Do you see a GENERALIZED usage for each “day”? I certainly hope not. Each “day” was a specific period of time: one day, a second day, a third day, etc. Every single time—NO exceptions!—but every other time in the Bible when the word “day” is used with a number, it refers to a literal 24-hour period of time.
Don’t take my word for it. Do a search of the word “day” and cull the times it occurs with a number. Every time without exception a specific usage of the word “day” occurs, it unmistakably refers to a literal 24-hour period of time. Would someone please hand the Kleenex box to our Bible-believing “Who’s DAT?” supporters. They need to wipe their eyes.
Let’s stop here for today and allow them time to have a good cry. They’ll need it before we zap them again with some more Bible. Praise the Lord Jesus! That sounds like a plan. Let’s go do it.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
