SITTING ON A VOLCANO
"‘Peace,
peace!' When there is no peace. ‘Peace, peace!’ When there is no peace.” (Jer.
6:14; 8:11).
“They
have seduced My people, saying, "Peace!' when
there is no peace. . . “The prophets...
prophesy... and see visions of peace when there is no peace;
therefore
you shall no longer envision futility nor practice divination; for I will deliver My people out of
your hand, and
you shall know
that I am the LORD.''
(Ezek
13:10, 16, 23).
Peace in Bosnia; Peace in Chechnya; Peace
in Sri Lanka; Peace in Northern Ireland; Peace in Cambodia; Peace in Rwanda;
Peace everywhere. Almost all of a
sudden, the world is awash with peace.
Even in the Middle East, an area that has not known peace for nearly 50
years, since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, peace has broken
out with the signing of the peace accord between the Palestinians and the
Israelis. What if people continue to
die in most of these places long after they have been declared “peaceful”, if
politicians tell us that they are at peace now what are we supposed to do but
to believe it? The families that keep
loosing their sons in this “peace” might wish that they were at war.
After the accord, the Palestinian
authorities received arms to enforce peace in their areas. And what happened this year when Israel
opened a tunnel near the Al-Aqsa Mosque? Those guns were turned on the Israeli
soldiers themselves. When asked to
comment about it, Shimon Perez, the architect of that peace, said: “Peace is
not poetry! Peace is not a song!” (Lateline, ABC TV, Oct. 10, 1996). And we who thought that peace were poetry and a song!
Politicians - a wonderful
breed of people - have given us a new meaning for the word “peace”. They made sure that we know exactly what they
mean when they talk of peace. Yet,
strangely enough, the Bible does not condemn them for giving the world a false
vision of peace, but the “prophets”.
Why? Because traditionally
national leaders have not been responsible for people’s spiritual education,
for giving them a vision of the future and telling them what life is all
about. This has been the role of the
prophets, a role which they have conveniently abandoned exactly when their
voice needs to be heard the loudest.
The Bible ascribes the
title of “prophet” to anyone who holds a spiritual position and is involved in
preaching or teaching spiritual matters. In Old Testament times, God made a
clear distinction between Israel’s national leaders and its prophets. The
prophets were God’s messengers, and the leaders His executive bodies. This was to become a model for all nations,
but the system has failed not only in Israel, but also in the entire world.
This is why God says that the time will come when the present
politico-religious systems will be replaced by a new, universal system, in
which the leaders will play the roles of both priests and kings.
“The Revelation of Jesus
Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants-- things which must shortly
take place. And He sent and signified it
by His angel to His servant John, who bore witness to the word of God, and to
the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear
the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for
the time is near. John, to the seven
churches which are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was
and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, and
from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who
loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and
Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” (Rev 1:1-6).
And I looked, and behold,
in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst
of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and
seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent
out into all the earth. Then He came and
took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne.
Now when He had taken the
scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before
the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the
prayers of the saints. And they sang a
new song, saying: ‘You are worthy to
take the scroll, and to open its seals; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of
every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and
priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth.'' (Rev 5:6-10).
It is a well-known fact
that messianic religions expect major prophetic developments around the turn of
this Millennium. Cynics however say that
there is no difference between this and the end of the first Millennium. Many
people expected major developments then, yet nothing happened. But how right are they, is there no
difference between then and now?
In the
first case, people’s expectations were based on the fact that religious
deception had already covered the world, and the Church of God had suffered
major persecutions and been forced underground. The true believers saw that as an omen and
an opportune time for the return of Jesus Christ. They hoped that the much waited for
Millennial Kingdom would be established then and there, and they would be saved
from their troubles. Yet their expectation proved to be in vain. Why?
The reason is quite simple: their understanding of biblical prophecies
about the end of this age proved to be very limited. All major biblical prophecies have been
written in such a way that they could be understood only in the context of
their own time. The difficulty with this
prophecy came from the fact that some of the signs connected with the end of
this age have been manifest in the world ever since
the time of Jesus Christ. This is why, throughout the history of Christianity,
there have been people who have fallen victim to premature expectations.
When we look at the most
comprehensive prophecy about the end of this age, we find that the theme of
religious deception runs through it from the beginning to the end. This could easily have led people to believe
that the return of Jesus Christ was possible at any time. As long as they did not become disheartened
and lost their zeal, or abandoned their struggle, this was not necessarily a
bad thing, for it kept them on their guard.
This time however is different. There is ample evidence that virtually
all the signs leading to the conclusion of this age have been fulfilled except
the one about the “abomination of desolation”, and this is now in the final
stages or its preparation. Let us have a
look at that prophecy:
“Then Jesus went out and
departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings
of the temple. And Jesus said to
them, ‘Do you not see all these things? Assuredly,
I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be
thrown down.’ Now as He sat on the
Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, ‘Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?’ And Jesus answered and said to them: ‘Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My
name, saying, "I am the Christ,” and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of
wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass,
but the end is not yet. For nation will
rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines,
pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.
All these are the beginning of sorrows.
Then they will deliver you
up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name's sake. And
then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one
another. Then many false prophets will
rise up and deceive many. And because
lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved.
And this gospel of the
kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and
then the end will come. Therefore when
you see the "abomination of desolation,” spoken of by Daniel the prophet,
standing in the holy place’ (whoever reads, let him understand), ‘then . . .
there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of
the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no
flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened.
Then if anyone says to
you, "Look, here is the Christ!” or "There!” do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will
rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.
See, I have told you beforehand . . .
Immediately after the
tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give
its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will
be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of
Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and
they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and
great glory. And He will send His angels
with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from
the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Watch therefore, for you do not know what
hour your Lord is coming.” (Matt 24:1-31, 42).
We are much too familiar
with religious deception, wars, famines, pestilences, earthquakes,
persecutions, lawlessness, and the like, things which have been fulfilled many
times over during the centuries since the time of Jesus Christ. But nothing equals what has happened this
century when it comes to wars and rumors of wars, and what has been happening
in the last few years, since we started this work, in regard to pestilences,
famines and natural disasters. As if on
clue, these things have intensified to such an extent that it is not uncommon
now to hear people in authority talk about the real possibility of extinction
of all life on earth. Here is a sample
of how bad things are out there in the world:
“DISASTROUS YEAR.
MUNICH: The world was shaken by a record number of natural disasters in
1995, with damage from floods, earthquakes, storms and volcanic eruptions
trebling to $244 billion compared with last year, according to Munich Re, the
world’s largest reinsurer.” (Reuters, Sydney Morning Herald, December 29, 1995).
From 1990 until last year
the damage from these disasters has been between $80 and $100 billion a year,
in itself way above previous averages.
This year, the damage from floods in China alone has been estimated to exceed
$100 billion. This is why the end of
this Millennium is different from the first. But there is one other major
factor which was not present at the end of the first Millennium: the existence
of nuclear weapons which could destroy life on earth in one big conflagration.
Russia may have collapsed
economically, but its strategic forces still pose awesome destructive
power. What is happening in that country
at present is hard to imagine even by the standards of third world countries. A catastrophe beyond
imagination. After his re-election,
President Yeltsin appealed to his countrymen to pay their taxes so that the
government can pay the soldiers and workers who have not been paid for
months. In other words, Russia’s
infrastructure is such that the government cannot even collect the money it
needs to keep the country going.
Can anyone imagine what
would happen if the American or European workers and soldiers were not paid for
months?
Now what will those hungry
people, with their finger on the nuclear trigger, do when hunger reaches their
bones? Or what will the man who will
soon replace Yeltsin do to pull the country out of its mire? We all know what
Zhirinovsky said he would do if he became president. He would force the West
Europeans to pay. If the Israeli people suffered grievously during the Second
World War to be entitled to the billions of dollars that have been pouring into
the country since then, the Russians suffered more, he said. The West breathed a sigh of relief when he
failed in his bid for the Presidency, but who knows what the new leader will do
to help his countrymen? One thing is
sure, things cannot continue much longer the way they are now. In 1993, in the No 3 edition of The Christian
Herald, we wrote:
“The former Soviet Union
gave us Chernobyl then it collapsed. The
world breathed a sigh of relief in the hope that the Cold War and the danger of
nuclear confrontation were over. What
the world did not know then was that the legacy of communism is just as
catastrophic for the world as the danger from its nuclear arsenals: "Russia's nuclear-powered submarines and
ice-breakers pose a greater danger of nuclear accidents than do its atomic
power plants, according to Jane's Intelligence review" (The Sun-Herald, Aug. 8, 1993).
People who are
environmentally conscious know about the devastation caused by the Exxon Valdez
oil spill in Alaska. But how many people
know that in the vast Russian wilderness, four times that amount is being
spilled every day from the decaying antiquated oil installations? The damage done to the environment by the oil
spill and its many accompanying fires is incalculable. The topsoil is being destroyed and the ground
below, which was permanently frozen, is beginning to melt. Scientists fear that this will affect the
global climate. Already in 1990, the
temperature in the Arctic Circle reached 40 degrees Celsius, eight degrees
above the normal.
On the political scene,
things are hardly better. The West has
put all its hopes in President Yeltsin's ability and determination to introduce
democratic reforms in Russia. But what
will happen when he is no longer on the scene?
He is in poor health, and while there seem to be no obvious contenders
who can step in his shoes and continue his reforms, there are many powerful
rivals who call for the restoration of Russia's empire. On the economic sphere, the one great
resource that gives Russia its hard currency and keeps its grossly outdated
industry going is oil. But now it has
been estimated that its oil reserves will dry out within a decade. What will the political and military leaders
do when they see their people being decimated by hunger and their nuclear
arsenal brought to nothing for lack of fuel?
The dangers coming from that part of the world are yet to be
comprehended.”
We are already seeing the
people of Russia being decimated. The question is how long will they meekly
accept their fate? Having been
brutalized psychologically and physically by seventy years of communism, they
need a little time to rise again. Make no mistake about it, rise they will,
because God Almighty has given them a great role to play at this time.
Now compare what we wrote
in 1993 with the current state of the world in regard to oil reserves and
supplies:
“Running on empty” “All numbers are wrong - that much we
know. The question is: “by how much?” ask international petroleum geologists Dr
Colin Campbell and Dr Jean Laherrere at the beginning of their landmark, but
controversial, study of the world’s oil supply.
In a report for oil industry analysts Petroconsultants, the two turn the
conventional view about the continuing availability of cheap oil on its head,
drawing conclusions that market conditions are fast approaching for another oil
price shock similar to the two in the 1970s that played havoc with the world
economy. Unlike both industry and
government forecasts, the data in the Swiss-headquartered Petroconsultants’
report brings forward the timing of the peak in world oil production by several
decades, from the middle of the next century to as soon as 2000. They forecast a sharp decline in the supply
of cheap-to-extract crude oil thereafter. . .
US Department of Energy
deputy assistant secretary Dr Joseph Roman was quoted in a news report last
January as saying: “it’s pretty clear there is going to be another oil crisis
some time. I would say in the next 10 years”. . .
At the time of the first oil shock in late
1973, the world had consumed 250 billion barrels of oil out of a total
estimated global reserves of about 1800 billion barrels. By 1995, it had consumed 800 billion barrels,
with consumption running at 25 billion barrels a day and only about 7 billion
barrels a year being discovered in new fields.
. .
Without cheap oil,
economic globalization would come to a shuddering halt and many of the private
tollways either proposed or being built would become uneconomic, especially if
the price of crude oil was to double or triple - as Campbell believes it will
do once the crunch approaches.” (The Australian, Oct. 24,
1996).
Does anyone remember what
effect the rise in oil prices in the 1970s had on the world economy? Third world countries became bankrupt
overnight and the USA turned from being the world’s biggest creditor to the
world’s biggest debtor nation. At
present, the USA owes more than 6 trillion dollars and is unable to pay even
the interest on that amount. Each year
part of the interest is being added to the main with the result that the debt
keeps growing with no end in sight. One way the Americans could slash that debt
is by devaluing the dollar. But that
would mean an astronomical rise in inflation and an end to the much-vaunted
American way of life. Like the Germans
before Hitler came to power, the Americans would go shopping with bags of money
to buy one loaf of bread. But such
things could not happen in America, could they?
The reason the American
economy has been running smoothly so far is that foreigners have been pouring
money into the country. Why? Because the United States offers a safe and secure environment. Safe and secure, that is, until the next
crunch or until they get a leader who says enough is enough - let everyone pay
their way. Now if the first oil crunch
had such a devastating effect on the world, what will the next one do? Bear in mind that the first time there was
still plenty of oil around and only the price increased. But this time not only will the price go up,
the oil sources will begin to dry up too.
The question is, will the leaders take the
necessary measures to prepare their countries for this eventuality, or will
they wait until they are forced to do so?
The place to start would be with agriculture. At present this is in a
shambles worldwide. While parts of the
world experience famine and starvation, others waste enormous amounts of
resources on poor farming practices. The
next oil crunch will put an end to economies of scale in farming. That is
because such farming relies heavily on petrochemicals.
What happened in Russia
after the collapse of communism, when the farmland became littered with
abandoned machinery, will happen in the rest of the world. A nation can survive without advanced
industry, but not without farm produce.
The worldwide trend of people moving from country to city will reverse,
and farming will once again become an honorable occupation. Now given the importance of that report you
would think that such information would make front-page headlines in the world
media. Or, if not front-page, maybe the second or the third
pages. Or even the ninth and tenth pages where world events are usually
reported. But no, that article was
buried on page 27, in the business section amidst the usual chain of trivial
business news and advertisements. You
see, that kind of information in not for the general consumption. It is for the
business leaders who know how to take such news in stride and keep quiet about
it lest they rock the boat and loose their jobs. If the general population knew
about what lies ahead they might stop buying those cars and bring the industry
to a standstill.
Have you ever wondered why
they keep on building cars that are unsuited for the purpose for which people
use them? They have enough power to
carry two tons when they only need to carry a few people, and can travel at
speeds that exceed 200 kilometers an hour when the speed limit is usually half
that. They could slash fuel consumption
by building cars that are slower and safer, instead of those destructive petrol
hungry machines that appeal to the hotheads who should not even be on the road. The world would slow down and be a safer and
more enjoyable place, and people would find time to talk to each other instead
of being on the run all the time. But
since the leaders are unlikely to engineer such changes of their own volition,
nature will force it on them. Nature or,
shall we say, God? There is a reason why
the Bible talks about the need for a great tribulation at the end of this age.
The world simply needs to be cleansed of its pollutions and its polluters.
Notice how shortly after
the Gospel is witnessed to the world God will destroy “those who destroy the
earth”:
""And I will
give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred
and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.
These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the
God of the earth. And if anyone wants to
harm them, fire proceeds from their mouth and devours their enemies. And if
anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this manner. These have power
to shut heaven, so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy; and they
have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to strike the earth with all
plagues, as often as they desire. Now
when they finish their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless
pit will make war against them, overcome them, and kill them. And their dead bodies will lie in the street
of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our
Lord was crucified. Then those from the
peoples, tribes, tongues, and nations will see their dead bodies
three-and-a-half days, and not allow their dead bodies to be put into
graves. And those who dwell on the earth
will rejoice over them, make merry, and send gifts to one another, because
these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth.
Now after the
three-and-a-half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood
on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. And they heard a loud voice from heaven
saying to them, ‘Come up here.’ And they ascended to heaven in a cloud, and
their enemies saw them. In the same hour
there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. In the earthquake
seven thousand men were killed, and the rest were afraid and gave glory to the
God of heaven. The second woe is past.
Behold, the third woe is coming quickly.
Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven,
saying, ‘The kingdoms of this world have
become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and
ever!’ And the twenty-four elders who
sat before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshiped God,
saying: ‘We give You thanks, O Lord God
Almighty, the One who is and who was and who is to come, because You have taken
Your great power and reigned. The
nations were angry, and Your wrath has come, and the time of the dead, that
they should be judged, and that You should reward Your servants the prophets
and the saints, and those who fear Your name, small and great, and should destroy those who destroy the earth.’''
(Rev 11:3-18).
Now are these things mere
coincidences? Is it so difficult to
understand that we are living in those times?
What this passage indicates is that the great tribulation, which will
“destroy those who destroy the earth”, will erupt shortly after the two
witnesses finish their mission and are killed by “the beast that ascends out of
the bottomless pit”. The question, of
course, many people would want to know is, who is this “beast”? We have written extensively on this topic
(See The Christian Heralds Nos. 3
and 4), so we won’t spend time on this now. Sufficient to say that this has
been identified with the one who holds the title of Pontifex Maximus. Here is a
passage which we wrote in 1993, which has particular relevance at this time:
“Jesus Christ said that if
we want to be the sons of God we must love even our enemies . . . This raises
the question, must we forgive the "abomination of desolation" and the
false prophet? The answer could only be
‘yes’. They are the enemies of the
people of God, but Jesus Christ told us to love our enemies, and since we are
His followers we obey Him. We do not
avenge ourselves on anyone, regardless of what they may have done to us. Vengeance belongs to God (Rom. 12:19). We lay our problems and burdens before Him
and before our Savior, knowing that "all things work together for good to
those who love God" (Rom. 8: 28).
“At the time of writing
this article, it was announced that the Israeli government has extended a
formal invitation to the Pope to visit that country. The Pope is said to have accepted the
invitation with tears in his eyes. It
will be the first time in the history of Israel that a Pope has visited that
country and its capital Jerusalem. A
visit to Jordan and parts of Jerusalem in 1963 by Pope Paul VI,
can be discounted as having served any prophetic purpose for the following
reasons: (i) Daniel's prophecies are
about the Jews and the people of God, not about the Arabs. (ii) At that time it was not known who the "abomination
of desolation" was, or where the holy place located. Since Jesus Christ said that if people are
not aware of their sins they are not held accountable, Pope Paul VI could not
have profaned the holy place even if he happened to pass unwarily over it. (iii) Jesus Christ said that when the
"abomination of desolation" stands in the holy place, it would be the
beginning of the great tribulation and the end of this age. Since neither of these events has occurred,
that visit could not have fulfilled the prophecies associated with the end of
this age. However, when the present day
Pontifex Maximus goes to Jerusalem and steps on the holy ground, it is a
different story.
The significance of this event is well known
because we have sent this magazine to the leaders of all nations, including the
Pope and other religious leaders. How
soon after this event do we expect to see the world plunged into
catastrophe? We cannot tell. All we can do is quote what Jesus Christ
said. You draw your own conclusions from
this . . . Bear in mind that 1997 is the last year of what we call the ‘age of
man’ - six thousand years since the creation according to the chronology of
Bishop Usher - and the beginning of a new age, the last thousand years called
the Millennial Kingdom. This transition
cannot happen overnight. The years
immediately prior to and following this event are fraught with danger for the
world.
There are people who have
gone to great lengths to calculate the exact date of the return of Jesus
Christ. Most of the dates they have come
up with revolve around that year. We
believe that even if this is correct, it is a very dangerous practice. Jesus Christ said that it is not for us to
know the exact date of His return, that only God knows that (Matt. 24:36). And that for a very important reason: human
beings are to be ready to receive their Lord at any time. Setting dates could cause them to lose their
guard and be caught unprepared. Anyone
who tries to outguess God places himself in competition with Him, and that is a
sin. Jesus Christ spoke in general terms
about the signs leading to that event, and we advise you to read the entire
24th chapter of the book of Matthew. The
only sure sign He gave as indicating the imminence of those events, is the one about
the "abomination of desolation" standing in the holy place. That is the one discussed and revealed in the
pages of this magazine for the first time.
It is not a mere coincidence that God has revealed this mystery to us
now just prior to its fulfillment and so close to the conclusion of this
age. This is a sign that He is about to
intervene in world affairs, to bring humanity to account for its
waywardness. The Polish priest who is
now in the chair of Pontifex Maximus does not have to be the man who profanes
the holy place. He can drop his garbs,
get on his knees before the Almighty, not before the statue of Mary or
whatever, declare that he was not aware of what he stood for, ask for
forgiveness, then run from that place as fast and as far as he can go. He can let another take his place, for there
are many people who care little about pleasing God, and more about pleasing
themselves. Anyone who goes to
Jerusalem as Pontifex Maximus and steps on the ground in which Jesus Christ
shed His blood, conscious of what that gesture means, makes himself the
"abomination of desolation." That sin will not be forgiven in this
world or in the world to come.
‘For if we sin willfully
after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice
for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation
which will devour the adversaries.
Anyone who has rejected Moses' law dies without mercy on the testimony
of two or three witnesses. Of how much
worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has TRAMPLED
THE SON OF GOD UNDERFOOT, COUNTED THE BLOOD OF THE COVENANT BY WHICH HE WAS
SANCTIFIED A COMMON THING, AND INSULTED THE SPIRIT OF GRACE?’ (Heb. 10:26-29,
emp. added).” (The Christian Herald, No 3, pp. 38, 39).
If you wonder what is
wrong with Pontifex Maximus and why he is such a despised figure in the Bible,
this is why: a) He was the spiritual
leader of the Roman Empire at the time Jesus Christ was crucified, and is held
responsible for that act and for countless other crimes against the people of
God. Bear in mind that this is a title
and an office, and Jesus Christ referred to this, not to a specific
individual. People have the choice of
taking on this mantle or not. It is not
imposed on them. They freely do so, knowing full well what that means.
b) One of the main
characteristics of people in this office has been their infatuation with
idols. The men who have held this
position have raised idolatry to a fine art.
The effect this has had on their followers has been devastating. Notice:
“For the
wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what
may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His
invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are
made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because,
although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but
became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and
changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible
man-- and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to
uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among
themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and
served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
For this
reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the
natural use for what is against nature.
Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their
lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving
in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God
in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things
which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual
immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder,
strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of
God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to
parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who,
knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are
worthy of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice
them.” (Rom. 1:18-32).
Have you ever wondered why
the Catholic Church and its priests have been embroiled in so many homosexual
scandals? This biblical passage should
give you an idea. Next time you see the images of “corruptible men-- and birds
and four-footed animals and creeping things” adorning their buildings think of
the words of Apostle Paul.
c) One of the greatest
blasphemies human beings can commit is assuming one of God’s titles. Jesus
Christ specifically told his followers: “Do not call anyone on earth your
father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven”? (Matt 23:9). What title has Pontifex Maximus
assumed for himself? “Holy Father”. What do his followers call him? “Holy
Father”. Do they honor Jesus Christ when
they so blatantly do what He told them not to do? Yet, they still call themselves
Christians.
Do you see now what
Apostle Paul meant when he wrote?
“Now, brethren, concerning
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you,
not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by
letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that
Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is
revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that
is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God [as "Holy
Father"] in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God ["Holy
Father"].” (II Th 2:1-4).
d) In October this year,
the Pope delivered a lecture to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in Rome in
which he said that: “Charles Darwin’s
theory of evolution was ‘more than a hypothesis’” (Sydney Morning Herald, Oct. 5, 1996). Charles Darwin was an
atheist. So the man who goes around the
world as “Universal Shepherd”, who sits in the temple of God as “Holy Father”,
challenges God to His face, defies the Lord whom he claims to serve, undermines
the Bible publicly, and honors at atheist who has done more to destroy people’s
faith in God than any other man in history except Pontifex Maximus
himself.
Is it a mere coincidence
that at this particular junction in world history, as this age draws to a
close, that this man reveals himself for who he is and what he stands for by
upholding an anti-God philosophy? Can
you see now why Jesus Christ said that when this man will stand on the ground
in which He shed His blood, the world will explode into a tribulation such as
the world has never seen?
The Vatican announced
recently that next year - in 1997 - Pontifex Maximus would visit
Jerusalem.
The world is indeed
sitting on a volcano ready to explode.
RELIGION UNDER MORTAL ATTACK
‘But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other
gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.” (Gal
1:8). “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves
into apostles of Christ. And no wonder!
For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his
ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end
will be according to their works.” (2 Cor. 11:13-15).
Has science finally landed
a fatal blow to religion? Darwin’s
theory of evolution did not prove to be the mortal danger many people thought
it would - future generations will wonder in disbelief how so flimsy a theory
should have taken hold of a world that prided itself in being enlightened and
progressive - but recent scientific discoveries in the fields of medicine,
molecular biology and psychology have rocked religion to its core and thrown in
disarray some of its most cherished beliefs and practices.
Scientists are now telling
us that human behavior and attitudes are not so much the result of education,
environment and social influences, as the product of one’s own biological
make-up. In-born genes determine not
only our physical shape, but also our character, sexual orientation, predisposition
to crime, moods, etc.
“Genes are suddenly seen
as being responsible for everything, from poverty to privilege, misdemeanors to
murder. I seem to recall watching television one night and seeing a man on
murder charges offer as a defense the presence of a ‘criminal gene’ in his
family . . .
“The problem with genetics
and this new particulate understanding of ourselves, it occurred to me, is that
it’s at once so central to who and what we are and yet so beside the point of just
being us, of going about the business of living.” (Charles Siebert, “Living With Toxic
Knowledge”, SMH - Good Weekend Magazine, March 9,
1996).
If this is true, if nature
rather than nurture determines who we are and what we do, then the traditional
notions of salvation must be discarded, and a more adequate explanation for the
purpose of human life must be found. We
have been led to believe that salvation depends on people’s ability to repent
and change their way of life. But if people are beholden by their nature to a
way of life which is not conducive to repentance, what purpose does it serve
preaching to them about salvation?
People cannot be saved if they cannot repent, and they cannot repent if
nature rather than logic rule their life.
What these scientific discoveries have done is turn traditional wisdom
on its head, open a Pandora's box which many thought was closed long ago, and
turn the clock back thousands of years - to the very beginning of the debate of
free will versus predestination. For in
the final analysis, this is what the current debate is all about.
Since ancient time people
have wondered, searched, debated, and fought over the question of the purpose
and destiny of human life. At the root
of it all is the question of salvation - is this the result of free will or of
predestination? Each of these notions
ascribes a different role to God and to human beings. If predestination is true, the destiny of
human life is entirely in God’s hands and salvation is a grant from Him. But if free will is true, then man is master
of his own destiny and salvation is a reward for the good use of his free
will.
Over the years, the
tendency has been a move away from predestination, and towards free will.
Ancient people were particularly
fond of predestination, ascribing all things to divine powers - fortune and
misfortune alike. But modern religions are more kind to God. They lay the blame
for man’s misfortunes entirely at man's feet.
This, of course, is where the problem lies. Science is now telling us that this is not
the case: people are committing all sorts of misdemeanors and anti-social acts,
or are leading unconventional life styles (e.g., homosexuality), not because
they freely choose to do so, but because they have been programmed that way
from their mother’s womb. The question
is, can religions afford to be seen to be constantly contrary to science? At
stake are not only the reputations of many people, but also the reliability of
the Bible and the faith of billions of people.
Put simply, the inspired Word of God and true science cannot be at odds
with each other. That is why we must
establish once and for all whether science or religion is right, whether
science and the Bible are indeed at odds with each other, whether religions and
the Bible are in agreement, and whether salvation is determined by man’s free
will or by divine providence. For this
reason, we will have a careful look at what the scientists have been saying
lately, at what the churches have been preaching, and at what the Bible has had
to say on these matters from the very beginning.
Here are some of the reports of the scientific discoveries that have led
to the current controversy:
“Mean gene’ theory sparks racism
controversy in US” “Are some kids born to be bad? Can there be a ‘treatment’ to block them from
murder? These explosive questions are back.
And the even more explosive answer, in some quarters, is yes.
The renewed
debate is sending chills down the spines of those who fear it will bring a
Brave New World of mind control to the children of America's violent inner
cities. The issue, which has simmered for decades, owes its latest revival to a
University of Maryland conference this weekend on the eastern shore of
Chesapeake Bay, about an hour from Washington.
The conference for the first time will gather scholars from a wide
array of disciplines to discuss the ethical implications of research seeking a
genetic foundation for violence and other criminal behavior. Authors of the research and their supporters
say it is hardly sinister. "Almost
every day, we're hearing about a gene for this and a gene for that," says
David Comings, a medical geneticist at the City of Hope Medical Centre in
Duarte, California. If you can have a
gene for obesity, it certainly can become acceptable that a gene can be
involved in violent behavior." But
opponents say the research raises the spectre of Nazi eugenics - the science
of breeding people in quest of a superior human race. They foresee frightening possibilities such
as compulsory genetic screening, sedation and sterilization, and believe the
research discriminates against blacks.”
(The Sunday Telegraph, October 1, 1995).
“The brains behind our sex life” “Homosexuals, heterosexuals and transsexuals
are born, not made, claims a leading United States neuroscientist who says that
sexual orientation is wired into the brain before birth. Research shows that sexual preferences can
be detected in tiny structures in the limbic or emotional, centre of the brain,
according to Professor Roger Gorski, of the University of California at Los
Angeles School of Medicine. The
differences are produced in the womb, said the man who first discovered 20
years ago that the brains of male and female mammals are different. The findings raise the possibility that in
the distant future sexual orientation may be open to medical manipulation. ‘This work is at the very beginning but it’s
profound,” said Professor Gorski, adding that the events which produce
homosexual, heterosexual and transsexual brains probably result from a
‘complex’ interaction’ of sex hormones, genes and environmental
circumstances. But sex hormones are vital
to setting the orientation of the unborn child, said professor Gorski. A hormonal alteration at a given time in
development might alter one component of brain function which could lead one to
become homosexual or transsexual. That’s the theory.’ Professor Gorski told the Herald that his
research - along with that of Dr Simon Le Vay, formerly with the Salk Institute
in California, and Dr Richard Swaab of Amsterdam - shows that these changes
appear as differences in tiny structures in the brain called the interstitial
nucleus of the anterior hypothalamus (INAH).”
(SMH, Oct.
27, 1995).
“Genetics link with petty crime
claimed” “London: Pimping and petty theft
appear to be genetically conditioned - but a person’s genes have little
influence on their propensity for committing crimes of violence, according to
research unveiled at a controversial scientific meeting in London yesterday.
Two American studies comparing identical twins, who share the same genes, with
non-identical twins, have supported the contentious suggestion that some
criminals may be born, not made” (SMH,
Feb. 15, 1995).
“The Common Face of Evil” “In 1993, Dr Lyll Watson sat in on the trial
of the two English schoolboys charged with murdering the toddler James
Bulger. Though this killing convulsed a
nation, perhaps the sharpest impression made on the best-selling author and
biologist came from outside the court, where "terrifying lynch mobs were
howling for blood". "These
were perfectly ordinary people, neighbours and friends of the family, suddenly
behaving like something out of the wild west
frontier," Dr Watson recalled in Sydney this week.
The famously
unorthodox scientist understood that parents reacted in this way because of a
fear that the child tortured to death beside a railway track could have been
their own. But he also asserts: "I
think an even larger part of that [the mob's reaction] is this real fear that
it could have been your children doing the killing. That's much more frightening." In this comment, and in his latest book, Dark Nature, Watson, 57, up-ends one of
the articles of faith of Western civilisation - the innocence of childhood.
(It was the Bulger trial that sparked his interest in writing a book about
evil.) In Dark Nature, he asserts that there is a biological equivalent of
original sin, and that if we don't confront this, current social and
environmental upheavals will draw us irrevocably towards a new barbarism...
Humans, like
animals, are genetically programmed
for a ruthless selfishness that is often bad or evil. Or, as Watson puts it:
“Every child is born with genetic instructions which say, 1. Be nice to
insiders because they're your own people, you share genes with them; 2. Be
nasty to outsiders because you don't (share genes with them); and 3. Cheat,
lie, steal, kill to get your own way."
Crucially - and unlike animals - humans have long realised the importance
of suppressing evil impulses, and of acquiring the pragmatic altruism necessary
for workable societies. But as we
approach a new millennium, Watson thinks the tremendous pressures of
overpopulation, poverty and social dislocation increasingly put us at the mercy
of primitive genetic urges - and not just in war zones such as Bosnia...
The author,
whose previous subjects have included the nature of crowds, the paranormal and
the wind, found himself reflecting on mass murder (and even pack rape among
ducks) because he thinks theologians, moral philosophers and criminologists
have failed to understand the nature of evil.
He admits his findings are "cavalier in some ways because many
theologians have thought about this very carefully, but they haven't come to
any useful conclusions. They are tied by
religious necessity to believe that everything that is good comes from God, and
everything that isn't comes from the devil. They have created this polarity, which is
wrong. We all have good and bad in
us. Every one of us" (The
Weekend Australian, November 4-5, 1995)
“The Secrets Twins Tell Us” “The evidence is finally in from a battery of
tests on separated twins. And they challenge our most cherished beliefs about
human nature... A set of identical twin
girls were surrendered to an adoption agency in New York in the 60s. The twins, who are known in psychological
literature as Amy and Beth, might have gone through life in obscurity had they
not come to the attention of Dr Peter Neubauer, a prominent psychiatrist at
New York University's Psychiatric Institute.
Neubauer,
who was also an adviser to the adoption agency, believed that twins posed such
a burden to parents, and to themselves in the form of certain developmental
hazards, that adopted twins were better off being reared apart from each other.
It was clear
that such a separation would also offer Neubauer exceptional research possibilities. Studies of twins reared apart are the most
powerful tool that scholars have for analysing the relative contributions of
heredity and environment to the make-up of individual human natures. Identical twins are rare, however, and twins
who have been separated and brought up in different families are particularly
unusual... Broadly speaking, the differences
between the girls as they grew older would be a measure of the validity of the
most fundamental assumption of analytical psychology, which is that - and, in
particular, our family background - shapes us into the people that we
become.
The agency
that placed the children shortly after their birth informed each set of
potential adoptive parents that the girl they were adopting was already involved
in a study of child development and strongly urged the adoptive parents to
continue it. However, neither the
adopted parents nor the girls themselves were ever told that the subject of the
study was twins... The girls were
adopted into families that were, in certain respects, quite similar - both were
Jewish and lived in New York State...
All in all, the research team characterized Amy’s family as a well-knit
threesome - mother, father and son - plus an alienated Amy. It was a family that placed a high value on
academic success, simplicity and emotional restraint. Beth’s family, on the other hand, was
sophisticated and full of energy - “frenetic” at times. It tended to put more emphasis on material
things than on education. Clearly, Beth was more in the centre of her home than
Amy was in hers... In almost every
respect, Beth’s personality followed in lockstep with Amy’s dismal development.
Thumb-sucking, nail-biting, blanket-clenching, and bed-wetting characterized
her infancy and early childhood. She became a hypochondriac and, like Amy, was
afraid of the dark and of being left alone. She, too, became lost in
role-playing, and the artificial nature of her personality was even more
pronounced than Amy’s.
She had
similar problems in school and with her peers.
On the surface, she had a closer relationship with her mother than Amy
had with hers, but psychological tests revealed a longing for maternal
affection which was eerily the same as her identical sister’s. Beth did seem to be more successful with her
friends and less confused than Amy, but she was also less aware of other
feelings.
The
differences between the girls seemed merely stylistic; despite the differences
in their environments, their pathology was fundamentally the same. Did their family lives men so little? Were they destined to become the people they
turned out to be because of some genetic predisposition towards sadness and
unreality? And what would psychologists
have made of either girl if they did not know that she was a twin? Wouldn’t they have laid the blame for the
symptoms of her neurosis on the parents who raised her? Finally, what did all this say about the
fundamental presumptions of psychology?
But the story has a darker and more threatening side and this may be the
real secret of its grip on our imaginations.
We think we know who we are. We
struggle to build our characters through experience; we make ourselves unique
by determining what we like, what we don’t like, and what we stand for. The premise of free will is that we become
the people we choose to be. Suppose, then, we meet an Other who is, in every
outward respect, ourself. It is one
thing to imagine an identical Other who, having lived a separate and dismal life,
has been marked by it and become different from us. But what if, in spite of all the differences,
we and the Other arrive at the same place?
Isn’t there a sense of loss? A
loss not only of identity but of purpose?
We are left wondering not only who we are but why we are who we are.
The Neubauer
twin study is just one among thousands that have raised these questions. Over the past decade, there has been a tidal
wave of twin-based scholarship. Recent
studies of twinship have challenged our most entrenched views of human
development and have capsized cherished beliefs about human nature - in particular
the bedrock notion that character is created by experience. But then, twins have been confounding
humanity from the earliest times - almost as if they were a divine prank
designed to undermine our sense of individuality and specialness in the
world. If twins are important to science
because they allow us to ask how much of our nature arises from our genes and
how much from our circumstances, the answers have equally profound implications
for social policy. The hallmark of liberalism is that changes in the social
environment produce corresponding changes in human development. But if people's
destinies are written in their genes, why waste money on social programs? Even matters that would seem to be entirely a
reflection of one's personal experience, such as political orientation or the
depth of religious commitment, have been shown by various twin studies to be
largely under genetic influence. ... And
yet twins may have a different lesson to teach us. It may be threatening to see ourselves as
victims of our genes, but that may be preferable to being victims of our
environment. A trait that is genetically
rooted seems somehow more immutable than one that may have been conditioned by
the environment. This seems to leave
aside the possibility of free choice - or even consciousness of choice at
all. And yet people who are aware of
their natures are constantly struggling with tendencies they recognize as
ingrained or inborn. It makes little
difference how such tendencies were acquired, only how they are managed. If it is true that our identical clone can
sort through the world of opportunity and adversity and arrive at a similar
place, then we may as well see that as a triumph of our genetic determination
to become the person we ought to be.” (Sydney
Morning Herald, Nov. 4, 1995).
Well, there you have
it! There cannot be much argument about
it. It is quite obvious that these findings are accurate, reliable and
convincing. They are based on extensive
research and carry the signatures of renowned personalities in the fields of
medicine, biology and psychology from as far a field as Marylands, Los Angeles,
Amsterdam, New York, Baltimore and London.
The evidence that all human beings are not equal, that some are
predisposed from their mother’s womb to anti-social behavior is so overwhelming
it cannot be dismissed even with the perennial and ubiquitous, “more research
is needed”.
These discoveries will
have a great impact on human society. Governments will want to know whether it
is wise spending large amounts of taxpayer’s money on correctional programs for
people that get little benefit out of them.
Educational authorities will wonder whether their teaching strategies
get the best results knowing that the outcomes are determined more by the
pupils’ natures than by the amount of money, time and effort spent on
them. Insurance companies will want to
screen people to find out those that pose the greatest risk. Parents will want to know what will become of
their children. Will they be tempted to
terminate their pregnancy if they discover that their children’s genes
predispose them to unconventional behavior - crime, homosexuality, etc.?
But the greatest impact
will, no doubt, be felt by religions.
The universal message of salvation, which holds that all human beings
have an inborn ability to choose to live a godly life, preached in its various
forms by virtually all religions, is suddenly on shaky grounds. We now know that human beings are neither
equal nor equally capable of repenting.
Some people are predisposed from conception to live a life that is not
conducive to salvation. This means that
the traditional message of salvation has been based on false premises all
along. The question is how did religions
get it so wrong? Did they get their
message out of the Bible or out of their own imagination? This is what we intend to find out now.
The New Catholic Encyclopedia has divided this topic in three
sections: “Predestination in the Bible”, “Predestination in the Catholic
Theology”, and “Catholic Teaching”. One
might have thought that “Predestination in the Bible” is the same as that in
“Catholic Theology” and “Catholic Teaching”, but, apparently, this is not the
case. We shall see.
“Predestination in the Bible” “In the sense that all things are foreknown and
foreordained by God, predestination is coextensive with the providence of God
and is a constant theme of the OT and the NT.
Predestination, in the sense of foreordination of man to glory, is
clearly taught only in the NT.
Predestination is just as clearly taught in the Old Testament, as we
shall show.”
Hmmm! Does this make sense to you? “Predestination
. . . is clearly taught only in the NT.
Predestination is just as clearly taught in the Old Testament.” If an undergraduate student went to his
lecturer with this kind of logic, you can well imagine what mark he would
get. But these people are Doctors in
Theology, and who can question their wisdom?
“The ‘book’ mentioned by
Moses when he said "strike me out of the book that you have written"
(Ex 32.32) is undoubtedly the Book of Life, which is mentioned also in Ps
68(69).29 and Dn 12.1. But in the NT,
when Our Lord says “Come, blessed of my Father, take possession of the kingdom
prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Mt 25.34) or tells His
disciples "Rejoice rather in this, that your names are written in
heaven" (Lk 10.20; see also Jn 10.29), He is teaching predestination.
It is in St. Paul,
however, that one finds the most explicit statements on predestination. ‘Now we know that for those who love God all
things work together unto good, for those who according to his purpose are
saints through his call. For those whom
he has foreknown he has also predestined to become conformed to the image of
His Son, that He should be the firstborn among many brethren. And those whom He has predestined, them He
has also called; and those whom He has called, them He has also justified, and
those whom He has justified, them He has also glorified’ (Rom. 8.28-30). In these verses Paul sees the unique and
eternal act of God as involving five decisions: elective knowledge, predestination,
calling, justification, and glorification.
The first two are invisible and outside of time; the second two are on
earth; and the last is properly in the next world.”
While this passage appears
to make a good case for predestination, the next one makes just as good a case
for free will.
“Man's freedom still
remains: he must respond to the love and call of God. Nor in St. Paul's concept is there any
initial confirmation in grace, for he tells the Philippians to work out their
salvation ‘with fear and trembling’ (2.12).”
Then again we are brought
back to the notion of predestination:
“In another important
passage, Eph. 1.3-14, Paul repeats 10 times that predestination is ‘in
Christ’: ‘He chose us in him before the foundation of the world’ (v.4); it was
done according to the ‘good pleasure of
his will . . . to the praise and glory of his grace . . . in his beloved Son’
(v.5-6). Predestination is clearly a
free act of God, a choosing of all men for glory, in, with, and through His
Incarnate Son. There is no basis in St.
Paul for any doctrine of positive reprobation: ‘For there is one God, and one
Mediator between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself a
ransom for all’ (I Tm. 2.5; see also 1 Tm. 4.10; Mt 18.14).”
This is all the New Catholic Encyclopedia has to say
about predestination and free will in the Bible. Not very much, you would agree.
If you are confused, you
are not alone. First we were told that
God “predestined [us] to become conformed to the image of His Son”, then that
our “freedom still remains”, then again that “predestination is clearly a free
act of God.” Now, can one be
predestined and retain his freedom at the same time? The implication is that
this topic is not very well covered in the Bible. That is why people need the next two
chapters, “Predestination in Catholic Theology” and “Catholic Teaching”. This is perfectly in line with the Catholic teaching
that the Bible is incomplete. Catholic
leaders maintain that people need the wisdom gained from tradition and the
church “Fathers”, and especially from the revelations of the Pope, to come to
the full knowledge of the truth. For
those of us who believe that the Bible is complete, this is anathema. It would
be enough to cause us to abandon any further study of their sources. Nevertheless, in our search for truth, we
must leave no stone unturned. So let us
see what they have to say in the next two chapters.
“Predestination is the
plan eternally conceived by God whereby He conducts rational creatures to their
supernatural end, that is, to eternal life.
Of necessity this plan is very complex.
It must be concerned, first
of all, with the ‘supernatural order: its end, which is eternal life; its
means, the complexus that we term supernatural grace (sanctifying and actual,
efficacious and sufficient grace, the infused virtues, and the gifts of the
Holy Spirit). Predestination also
closely involves the divine foreknowledge of future free acts, the exercise of
the free will of man, and divine predilection.”
Catholic theologians have
raised the art of prevarication and obfuscation to a high level. Here we have a deliberate juxtaposition of
the two doctrines. How can predestination
involve “the divine foreknowledge of future free acts, the exercise of the free
will of man, and divine predilection”?
By their own definitions, predestination and free will are opposites and
incompatible with each other.
“Predestination and Related Concepts” “In its most general sense, predestination is
a decree of God, an inner decision of the divine wisdom and will, whereby God
resolves and determines what He Himself will bring to pass.”
“According to St. Paul, it
is the counsel of the divine will whereby God works all things (Eph. 1. I 1),
or, according to St. Augustine, it is that whereby He disposes within Himself
what He intends to accomplish (Persev. 17.41;
PL 45:1018). In this general sense,
divine predestination has a bearing on all the works of God. Everything that He does and effects is predestined by Him through an eternal decree
before it is carried out in time. More
precisely, however, predestination signifies the ordination of God by which
certain men are led efficaciously to the attainment of salvation. On the part of God, this divine ordination
involves two actions. There is, first,
an act of the divine intellect, by which God infallibly foreknows which men are
to be saved and the precise means whereby they will attain this
salvation.”
“Second, it includes an
act of the will of God by means of which He decrees to save these men in the
very fashion that He Himself has planned.
For this reason, St. Augustine has defined predestination as ‘the
foreknowledge and preparation of those gifts of God whereby they who are
liberated are most certainly liberated’ (Persev.
14.35; PL 45:1014).” “According to
Augustine, the object of predestination is salvation, the freeing from
servitude of sin, and all the benefits through which salvation is attained,
i.e., efficacious graces, including the gift of final perseverance. The infallible connection between these
benefits, that is, the means and the freeing from servitude, has its ultimate
foundation in God Himself. The subject
of predestination is all men who are in fact saved.”
Well, what do you make of
that. Would you trust your salvation and
eternal life to someone who tells you that, “they who are liberated are most
certainly liberated”, and “The subject of predestination is all men who are in
fact saved”? If people are already
saved, why predestine them any more?
Isn’t this what predestination is supposed to do - to assure them of
salvation?
" . . . Viewed therefore, in its totality, predestination includes
on the part of God the following: (1) the provision of the end; (2) a
determined grade or degree of glory; and (3) the ordination of the means. These three factors are concerned with acts
of the divine intellect. In addition,
there are the following, which are concerned with the divine will: (I) the
first calling of the elect to justification; (2) the decree to confer efficacious
graces; and (3) the decree to confer the final perseverance.”
“Although the act of the
divine will is most simple, it nevertheless does not attain its created
objectives in the same way. Hence,
predestination has been considered by the theologians in concepts of varying
comprehensiveness.
( I ) Predestination
viewed in its totality. This is predestination
insofar as it is concerned with the complete series of graces by which man is
saved. Predestination in this sense
considers the entire process from beginning to end, from the first calling of a
soul to the way of salvation to the conferral of final glory.
(2) Predestination partially viewed.
This is predestination
considered in only one aspect of the entire series of effects. It is derived from the division of the entire
process of predestination into its logical, component parts. Thus, one may consider predestination faith
alone, predestination to justification
alone, or even predestination to glory alone.”
The Bible makes no such
divisions and differentiations. They
complicate the issue by introducing concepts that are irrelevant,
incomprehensible, or plainly unbiblical.
It makes one wonder, who are these people writing for? Obviously not for the average people like you
and me. They have forgotten that
theology is supposed to be expressed in simple language, like the Bible, so
that all people understand it. Did not Apostle Paul write that God prefers the
simple people to those who think that they are wise?
“For you see your calling,
brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many
noble, are called. But God has chosen the
foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the
weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the
base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and
the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no
flesh should glory in His presence.” (1 Cor. 1:26-29).
This chapter is hardly
more enlightening than the first one.
But, we must not despair, for we are yet to look at the “Catholic
Teaching”. Surely, they won’t leave
millions of their followers in suspense about such an important matter.
“CATHOLIC TEACHING”
“The mystery of
predestination stands in the middle of two extremes each of which either
completely abandons one or the other of its two organically
connected elements, or, at any rate, puts such excessive emphasis on one
that the other is neglected. Either
the independence and self-activity of man is overly stressed to the exclusion
of God's initiation and guidance of man's preliminary steps and continued
progress (Pelagianism and Semi-Pelagianism), or the divine initiative and
guidance is represented as inexorably driving and hurrying man along in such a
way that his own free movement and advance are obscured or completely denied
(predestinationism).”
“Prior to the time of St.
Augustine the Fathers of the Church were not preoccupied with the problem of
predestination.”
This is a very
important statement that tells us much about the state of affairs in the early
church. It forces us to ask why is it
that predestination and free will were not a major issue with the early
Christians? Could it be that they knew
the answer? We shall find out.
“It was the bishop of
Hippo who first treated the mystery exhaustively, with the theological decisiveness
so characteristic of him.
From 418 until 531, there
took place in the Western Church many grave controversies concerned with explaining
the ultimate foundation for the salvation of those who are saved (the elect) as
well as ascertaining the reason for the condemnation of those who are in fact
not saved (the reprobate). This
theological ferment centered around the Pelagian and Semi-Pelagian controversies.
“
Notice that this became a
major problem only after “Christianity” became the official religion of the
Roman Empire. (For a detailed analysis
of what really happened then and why so much “theological torment” ensued
afterwards, see The Christian Herald
No 4).
“Pelagianism” “This heresy denied the
necessity of supernatural grace and consequently did not admit of
predestination in the true sense of the word.
It maintained that man, by the mere use of his free will and by his
other natural powers is able to believe and act in a salutary manner without
the assistance of supernatural grace and thus obtain eternal beatitude. According to this doctrine, some species of
predestination could be admitted. It
would be nothing more, however, than the foreknowledge of God through which He
foresees which men will attain salvation through their own efforts. Consequently God, through His divine
prevision, chooses as the blessed those whom He has foreseen would be saved
solely through their own powers.”
Although the Pelagians
come under criticism here, their theology does not appear to have been very
different from that of present day Catholic theologians. The idea that God, through His divine
prevision, foresees and chooses those who are saved “solely through their own
powers” was present in the previous chapter too. If human beings have free will and attain
salvation through their own actions, not even God can have foreknowledge of
those who will be saved. By its very
definition, foreknowledge means predestination, and predestination implies the
absence of free will.
“Semi-Pelagianism.” “On the other hand,
Semi-Pelagianism attempted to mitigate the extreme position of
Pelagianism. It affirmed that without
the assistance of divine grace fallen man is unable, by his natural powers,
either to be justified or to posit acts that would be meritorious of
eternal life. But above all else, the universal salvific will of God must be
maintained. It was felt that this
salvific will would really be denied, unless it was unequivocally affirmed that the ultimate foundation for the salvation of the saved and the
condemnation of the reprobate is to be found in the good use or abuse of human freedom. If God truly and sincerely desires all men to
be saved, He must, on His part, will the salvation of all with a complete
equality and indifference. He must show
no favoritism or special preference regarding the salvation of one man over
that of another. If this were not the case, then the salvation
of one man and the damnation of another would he directly due to God's
action alone. This would destroy any
semblance of a universal salvific will and would be unjust.”
Do human beings have the
right to judge God by their own standards?
Has He not made it clear that He does not give men the right to define
or question His sense of justice? What
did Apostle Paul write in his epistle to the Romans?
“For the Scripture says to
Pharaoh, ‘For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power
in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.’ Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and
whom He wills He hardens.
You will say to me
then, ‘Why does He still find fault? For
who has resisted His will?’ But indeed,
O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who
formed it, ‘Why have you made me like
this?’
Does not the potter have
power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and
another for dishonor? What if God,
wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much
longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might
make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had
prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom He called, not of the Jews only,
but also of the Gentiles?” (Rom. 9:17-24).
It is obvious that
whatever differences there may have been between the Pelagians and
semi-Pelagians, they had one thing in common: they both believed in salvation
through the good use of one’s free will.
“Semi-Pelagianism claimed,
therefore, that Augustine's basic principle, of the gratuitous predilection and
preelection of God being the ultimate reason for the salvation of the elect,
is irreconcilable with the dogma of the universal salvific will. The ultimate foundation for salvation must be
found in man, not in God. Man, though he
is fallen, is able through his own natural powers to desire and ask for
salvation. He is able to believe and
thus posit the first step in the process of salvation, which is faith. God then comes and confers the rest, i.e.,
justification, meritorious acts, and glory. Despite the disparity between man's
meagre natural efforts and the conferral of the supernatural gifts by God, it
is, nevertheless, this unaided free use of his will directed toward God that is
the ultimate reason why one man rather than another attains justification and
salvation.” (The New Catholic
Encyclopedia, Vol. XI, Mc Graw-Hill, 1967, pp. 713-715).
So, the Semi-Pelagians,
who were supposed to “mitigate the extreme position of Pelagianism”, assured us
in the end that, “The ultimate foundation for salvation must be found in man,
not in God.” One wonders what would they
have made of these statements:
“O LORD, I know the way of
man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.”
(Jer. 10:23).
“No one can come to Me
unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last
day.” (John 6:44).
THE
AMERICAN ENCYCLOPEDIA
“In Christianity, this is
the doctrine that God foreordains, or wills, some men to eternal life. In its broadest sense predestination is God's
providence or plan for all things toward reestablishing harmony with him. More narrowly, it is the doctrine of
election, holding that some men are elected, or chosen, by God to fulfil his
purpose. "Election" usually
refers to chosen groups and individuals, while "predestination"
tends to refer only to individuals.
Predestination is based on the Old Testament concepts of Israel as God's
chosen people and of chosen persons such as judges, prophets, and kings. It is
further developed in the New Testament concept of the church, or body of
believers, as the elect. Paul is
especially concerned with the predestination of individuals (Romans 8:28-30).
The Bible does not make clear, however, how many are to be saved. On the one hand, God wills salvation for all
(Matthew 18:14;
A further problem arises
in that Paul and other biblical authors insist that predestination to salvation
is by God's free gift of grace undeserved by sinful man. Yet they also maintain that it does not deny
man’s free will and responsibility.
Christian thinkers since
biblical times have wrestled with these difficulties. Augustine was one of the earliest to develop
the doctrine, but he left room for much reinterpretation. At one extreme is the deterministic doctrine
of double predestination, which holds that God grants irresistible grace to
those sinful men whom he predestines to salvation and withholds it from those
others, no more sinful, whom he predestines to damnation. Such a view, originally stated by a 5th
century priest, was developed by Luther and especially by Calvin, who
maintained that sinful man has no right to question the justice of God's
arbitrary actions. At the other extreme
are universalist views that deny or modify predestination by maintaining that
a just God desires salvation for everyone. Pelagianism, a 4th century doctrine
opposed by Augustine, held that man can attain salvation through his own
effort, without grace. Semi-Pelagianism
held that grace is necessary, but man must request it on his own
initiative. God predestines those whose
merit he foresees. According to
Arminianism, developed in the 16th century, God knows who will freely choose
his resistible grace and who will reject it, but he does not will their
rejection. Arminianism, adopted by
Methodists, modified most Protestant teaching.
The Catholic view, stated most concretely by Aquinas, tries to maintain
a balance between the extremes. It holds
that God wills salvation for all and offers sufficient grace to all, which man
can freely reject. But God also grants
an additional, irresistible, efficacious grace to the elect predestined to
salvation. The coherence of these juxtaposed
doctrines is a mystery. Predestination
is part of Judaism and Islam in the
broad sense that everything is under God's providence. Islam also teaches individual predestination,
which on the popular level is fatalistic and on the theological level is linked
with free will in a mystery.” (American
Encyclopedia, 1992, Vol. 22, p. 536).
This pretty well sums it
all up. “The coherence of these juxtaposed doctrines is a mystery” not only in
the Catholic Church, but virtually in the theology of all who have tackled this
subject. We are no closer to knowing
whether salvation is a matter of divine providence or a reward for one’s good
actions, than we were at the beginning of our search.
“PREDESTINATION
IN NON-CATHOLIC THEOLOGY”
For this purpose, we
return briefly to the New Catholic Encyclopedia. We found this encyclopedia to offer a better
explanation of non-Catholic theology than their own theology.
“At the very beginning of this
article it should be clearly stated that actually there is no single doctrine
concerning predestination that would be acceptable to all branches of
Protestantism. Therefore, it would be
inaccurate and ill advised to present this article as being the Protestant
theology of predestination. All that one
can do is treat of historic Protestantism as it has faced the problem of
predestination, i.e., trace the theories of election and reprobation that can
be found in the main currents of Protestantism as it has flowed through the
history of the past 400 years . . .”
“Martin Luther” “The two men who played
key roles in the early history of Protestantism, Martin Luther (1483-1546) and
John Calvin, were both deeply influenced by the theological thinking of the
centuries previous to those in which they lived. St. Augustine, as understood by them, was a
great influence. So were Gottschalk of
Orbais in the 9th century and, more proximately, John Wyclif in the 14th. Luther, in his earlier years at least, maintained
as extreme a doctrine of predestination as Calvin himself was later to
profess. This is important to note
since, by and large, modern Lutheranism rejects the extreme approach to
predestination that was so emphatically taught by its founder. There are some who claim that in his later
years Luther mitigated his doctrine of predestinarianism to a less rigid form
of predestination. Actually, however, it
seems that although there is a difference in the technical terminology utilised
by Luther in the first and later form of his theology, nevertheless the later
form does not constitute a radical departure from his earlier conception.
When Luther first began to
grapple with the problem of predestination, about 1509 or 1510, he accepted the
solution that was common among the schoolmen, that predestination is in some
way to be explained by God's foreknowledge of man's conduct. But upon more assiduous study of the Bible
and St. Augustine, Luther gradually underwent a complete reversal of opinion
and finally professed the doctrine of predestinarianism, which he claimed to be the true teaching of the Bible as well as of St.
Augustine.
The most complete sources
concerning Luther's teaching on predestination are his commentary on the
Epistle to the Romans and his work De
servo arbitrio (The Will Enslaved), the latter being written in answer to
Erasmus's attack on his doctrine, De
libero arbitrio (Free Will). Essentially, the doctrine contained in these
works may be summarised as follows.
There exists on the part of God an irrevocable election of some souls
to eternal beatitude and positive rejection of the rest, who go to eternal
perdition. As proof, Luther gives Paul's
references to the scriptural stories of God's election and rejection in the
three cases of Isaac and Ismael, of Jacob and Esau, and of David and Saul. According to Luther, all objections to
predestination, as he understands it, come from human reason and not from the
wisdom of God. The objections:
1. Man has been given a
free will by which he can earn either merit or demerit. (Luther replies that
man's will in itself has not the least ability to secure justification, because
the will itself is totally corrupt, totally unable to choose anything but
sin. Indeed, the will is not free but captive.)
2. Predestination, as held
by Luther, is inconsistent with the teaching of Sacred Scripture, which states
(I Tm 2.4) that "God our Saviour . . . wishes all men to be saved."
(Luther's reply is that all such statements are realised properly in the elect. One must make a distinction between “the
apparent will" and "the hidden will" of God. It is interesting to note that in his
translation of I Timothy Luther renders the above as "God wills that all
be assisted."). (The New Catholic
Encyclopedia, Vol. XI, Mc Graw-Hill, 1967, p. 715).
Luther started well, but
in the end he stumbled over the notion of divine justice. When he could not
explain it, he decided to change the Bible.
His remodeling of I Timothy 2:4 from, “God our Savior . . .wishes all men
to be saved”, to, “God wills that all be assisted”, places him on a collision
course with Jesus Christ, who gave a strong warning to anyone who dared to
tamper with the Scriptures. (Rev. 22).
Luther’s “apparent” and “hidden” wills of God are also
non-biblical. Friedrich Richter quoted
Luther as having said that, “God acts according to an arbitrary will, and there
is no telling what He will do”. (Martin
Luther and Ignatius Loyola, trans. from German by L. Zwinger, Newan Press,
1960, p. 103). Any wonder that people
have lost their faith in God and in His sense of justice? Other people who have written on this topic
include Huldrych Zwingly, Phillip Melanchton, Jacobus Arminius and Karl Barth,
none of whom having resolved the dichotomy between predestination and free will
or adding anything new worth mentioning here.
FREE WILL IN THE JEWISH
THEOLOGY
“Free will, a
philosophical and theological notion referring initially to the observation
that man is able to choose between a number of possible courses of action,
becoming, through his choice, the cause of the actions which he selects. Among philosophers some accepted this
observation as the true account of how men act, while others held that though man
appears to be free to choose, his actions are, in fact, compelled, either by
God or by laws of nature. While there were some Jewish philosophers who
inclined toward a deterministic position, the majority affirmed that man,
through choice, is the author of his own actions. Jewish philosophers generally considered a
doctrine of free will as indispensable for accounting for man’s moral
responsibility for his own actions, and they considered it necessary for
explaining God’s justice in punishing evil-doers. Closely related to the notion
of free will are those of divine providence and divine omniscience.”
As was the case with their Catholic and
Protestant counterparts, Jewish theologians also stumbled over the question of
divine justice. While some people
inclined towards predestination, the vast majority believed that only free will
could hold people morally responsible for their actions and explain divine
justice. Encyclopedia Judaica, from which we took this quote, went on to
list a long line of theologians who have written on this topic. Here are the views of some of the most
prominent:
Philo. “The question of the
freedom of man’s will is discussed in a number of places, but his position on
this matter is not sufficiently defined . . . Pilo's notion of man’s free will
contains a certain innovation in contrast to traditional Greek philosophy,
since Aristotelians, for example, tended to view man’s free choice as a defect
and deficiency, contingent on his material being.”
Saadiah Gaon. “It appears that according
to Philo, there is almost no connection between the notion of man’s free will
and the problem of divine justice. In contrast, Saadiah, who was heavily
influenced by Mu’tazilite philosophy, maintains that the idea of God’s justice
necessarily implies the freedom of man’s will.”
Bahya Ibn Paquda. “He briefly presents the ideas of
those who believe that all of man’s actions are predetermined by God, as well
as opposing views, which maintain that man’s will is free. He reaches the
conclusion that whoever delves into this question must fall into error.”
In Talmud and Midrash. “The doctrine of free will,
expressed in the idea that man is free to choose between good and evil, was at
the core of Pharisaic outlook. Josephus indeed characterises the differences
between the Pharisees and their Sadducean and Essene opponents as between those
who accepted both the freedom of man and divine providence (the Pharisees),
those who ascribed everything to chance, denying providential guidance (the
Sadducees), and those who denied human freedom, maintaining a doctrine of
predestination (the Essenes).”
In Modern Jewish Thought.
Mordecai Kaplan believes that the idea of free will as it was formulated in the
past is out of step with the spirit of the present which looks for causality in
everything. He therefore interprets the doctrine of free will as the expression
of the idea that there can be no responsibility without freedom. The problem of
freedom therefore becomes a spiritual one having to do with the significance of
individuality and selfhood on the one hand, and liberation of personality from
self-worship and desire for power, on the other.” (Encyclopedia Judaica, Vol 7, 1971, pp. 126 - 132).
And so it is that our
search through religious literature led us to nowhere. Theologians of all persuasions, from ancient
time to the present, have embraced the belief in free will, not because God has
revealed it to be so, but because they reasoned that this is the only way to
reconcile man's moral responsibility for his actions and God's notion of divine
justice.
This places them at odds
with science. As we’ve seen, the latest
scientific discoveries, which we established are both credible and irrefutable,
tell a different story. It is not free will that determines who will or will
not be saved, but one’s own genes and make-up.
This raises serious
questions about the theologians' credibility.
But all is not lost, for we are yet to look at the wisdom of the
academic theologians. Since they are not
bound by religious dogma, and always speak the truth with authority, they must
surely have found the answer and come to the rescue of their religious
counterparts.
ACADEMIC SOURCES
Two academic theologians
who published their views in the prestigious Sophia magazine gave a new twist to this debate recently. First, David
Basinger, of John Wesley College, Michigan, said:
“The orthodox (classical,
traditional) Christian God is usually described as a transcendent, infinite,
totally self-sufficient being. It should therefore not be surprising that
orthodox Christians affirm the following four statements: (1) God exists, (2) God is omnipotent, (3) God is omniscient, and (4) God is wholly
good. But such theists also acknowledge
that, (5) Evil exists.
Some philosophers have
claimed that to affirm (1-5) is self contradictory. The orthodox Christian, it is argued, must
deny one of the five statements in question or abandon his belief in the
existence of the orthodox God. In
response, the Free Will Defence (FWD) is often proposed. This theodicy has a number of variants, but
the most sophisticated seem to incorporate the following line of reasoning:
(6) God cannot bring it
about that a moral agent (human or non-human) do X and yet X be freely chosen.
(7) Free choices can
result in either good or evil consequences.
(8) Therefore, an omnipotent God cannot create any
co-possible set of free moral agents without also bringing about the
possibility of evil.
. . .
(14) The existence of a
created universe containing moral agents who freely perform both good and evil
actions and contains more good than evil overall is a more valuable
state-of-affairs than the existence of a created universe containing only
robots who must always do what is right or a state-of-affairs in which there is
no created universe at all . . . A
number of these premises can be (have been) challenged most notably (6) and
(14). But my purpose is not to discuss
the soundness, nor even the validity, of (6-20). I am concerned rather with the
relationship between the concept of divine omnipotence entailed by the FWD and
the concept of divine omnipotence implicit in orthodox Christian thought. I shall argue that these two concepts are
fundamentally incompatible and that, even if such were not the case, the FWD
would be of very limited apologetical value for the orthodox Christian theist .
. .
The FWD (free will
defence) is normally proposed to circumvent well known problems surrounding the
affirmation of (a-c). The basic
strategy, we have seen, is to attempt to transfer responsibility for the
possibility (or actual occurrence) of gratuitous evil from God to free moral
agents by denying that God can bring it about that moral agents always freely
make the decisions he desires them to make (i.e., by affirming (6)).
But if the free will
accorded moral agents is responsible for the possibility (or actual occurrence)
of gratuitous evil, in what sense can it be said that God maintains control
over his created universe? . . . According
to the FWD, because God cannot bring
it about that moral agents always make the free choice he desires of them, God
cannot create any copossible set of free moral agents without also bringing
about the possibility of gratuitous evil for which he is not responsible. In other words, the Free Will Defender must
acknowledge that in any given universe containing free moral agents, some
events might occur which his God does not desire but cannot prohibit (e.g.,
instances of gratuitous evil resulting from the free choices of moral agents) .
. . I believe the FWD successfully
demonstrates that no being can both create a world containing free moral agents
and insure that that such agents will always freely choose to do right (i.e.,
successfully demonstrate that the Free Will God cannot create just any
logically possible state-of-affairs he can conceive) . . . We must conclude then that the FWD has
functioned as an abused overused apologetic tool for the orthodox Christian. As
a response to the traditional logical problem of evil, it is an irrelevant
solution to the main issue and a trivially true response to the issue to which
it is usually addressed. This is not to deny that the concept of a FWD is
coherent. But even this fact is of limited value to the orthodox Christian since
the concept of a Free Will God is incompatible with the type of omnipotent
being to which such a theist must give allegiance.” (“Christian Theism and the Free Will
Defence”, Sophia, Vol. 19, July 1980,
pp. 20-33).
There are a number of
problems with Basinger’s theology.
First, as you may have noticed, he contrasts man’s free will with God’s
omnipotence, rather than with predestination.
Why so? Because predestination is
linked with salvation, and salvation is not a topic of discussion among academics. To use the words of one of their own, who
said, “Many people would sooner die than think. In fact they do” (Bertrand
Russell, Thinking about thinking) -
Academics would sooner die than acknowledge salvation. In fact they do.
Second, Basinger’s conclusions
are based entirely on his own reasoning.
Not once did he refer to the Bible to support his views. He believes that he can find the truth about
God, human beings and the universe without looking, at least out of curiosity,
into those books which are said to be inspired by God. This is what passes as academic wisdom these
days.
Third, given his mastery
of the Scriptures, not unexpectedly, he makes sweeping generalizations which
are contrary to what the Bible teaches.
He assures us that: “no being can both create a world containing free
moral agents and insure that such agents will always freely choose to do
right”, because such a world can only contain “robots”. Had he known the power of God and His plan
for mankind, or the history of Christianity, he may have understood why
thousands of people have given their lives to become “robots” in a world which
contains no evil, yet in which they enjoy complete freedom of the will.
Basinger says that the present
world is perfect because human beings have free will. Their ability to commit
evil is his guaranty of that. Now, given
the fact that they have used their freedom to bring the world to its present
sorry state, is this really such a great virtue? Would it not have been better if human beings
had been conditioned by God to always do what is right, just, good, true, and
live in a harmonious, clean and peaceful world, than to benefit from such
freedom and live in a world in which the law of the jungle prevails?
Why is it imperative that people commit evil
in order to prove that they have freedom of the will? Is it not more reasonable
to expect that left on their own, thinking people would use their power of
reasoning to create conditions that ensure the preservation of life rather than
the wanton destruction we see all around?
What do all these things prove?
Either that human beings are shortsighted fools, or that they have
unwittingly been driven by forces which are inimical to their survival.
Basinger found himself a
critic in Thomas P. Flint of the
University of Notre Dame (“Divine Sovereignty and the Free Will Defence”, Sophia 23, July
1984, pp. 41-52).
Unfortunately, his
writings exhibit all the weaknesses of Basinger, plus a few of his own. He agrees with Basinger in most points, but
takes issue with him in the question of free moral agency and God’s
omnipotence. He says that these are not
incompatible because God had a choice: He could have avoided the situation in
which His omnipotence is being questioned by not creating human beings in the
first place.
This may be a convenient
explanation, but one can hardly answer a fact with a hypothesis. The fact is,
God did create the world, placed human beings in it, then allowed them to
commit evil and bring catastrophe upon themselves.
The question is why, and
how can they get out of it? How can they
save themselves from their present sorry condition? Can they do it on their own, through the
exercise of their own will power, or do they depend entirely on God’s grace for
their salvation?
Since no source has given
us a satisfactory answer, our only choice is to go directly to the Bible.
THE BIBLICAL CASE
FOR FREE WILL
There are not too many passages in the
Bible which directly support the idea of free will, but the few that are, are
invariably quoted by those who subscribe to this belief. The most often quoted
example is found in the New Testament, in one of Apostle Paul’s epistles:
“Therefore, my beloved, as
you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my
absence, work out your own salvation
with fear and trembling.” (Phil 2:12).
Since men can work out
their own salvation, the reasoning goes, they must have free will.
Another powerful example,
this one in the Old Testament in the book of Deuteronomy, says this:
"I call heaven and
earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and
death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your
descendants may live.” (Deut. 30:19).
These two statements form the main support
for the belief in free moral agency. For
people to be able to work out their own salvation or choose between life and
death, they must have freedom of the will.
Therefore it can be said that this doctrine is based on solid biblical
principles. Other examples which support
this doctrine, are usually associated with God’s warnings that if people commit
wrongdoing, and transgress His statutes and commandments, they will be
punished. The argument being that He
would not punish them if He did not consider them to be morally responsible for
their actions. There are many such
examples in the Bible, and we cannot look at them all, but here are couples
which are typical.
“Run to and fro through
the streets of Jerusalem; see now and know; and seek in her open places if you
can find a man, if there is anyone who executes judgment, who seeks the truth,
and I will pardon her. Though they
say, ‘As the LORD lives,' surely they
swear falsely.’ O LORD, are not Your
eyes on the truth? You have stricken them, but they have not grieved; you have
consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made
their faces harder than rock; they have refused to return. Therefore I said, ‘Surely these are poor. They are foolish; for
they do not know the way of the LORD . . .’
‘For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very
treacherously with Me,’ says the LORD. They have lied about the LORD, and said, ‘It is not He.
Neither will evil come upon us, nor shall we see sword or famine. And the
prophets become wind, for the word is not in them. Thus shall it be done to them.’
Therefore thus says the
LORD God of hosts: ‘Because you speak this
word, behold, I will make My words in your mouth fire,
and this people wood, and it shall devour them.
Behold, I will bring a nation against you from afar, O house of Israel .
. .’ And they shall eat up your harvest and your
bread, which your sons and daughters should eat. They shall eat up your flocks
and your herds; they shall eat up your vines and your fig trees; they shall
destroy your fortified cities, in which you trust, with the sword.
Nevertheless in those
days,' says the LORD,
‘I will not make a complete end of you. And it will be when you say, "Why does
the LORD our God do all these things to us?” then you shall answer them,
"Just as you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so you
shall serve aliens in a land that is not yours.”’” (Jer 5:1-4; 11-19).
In the end, both Israel and Judah paid
heavily for their disobedience. The
conclusion being that they had freedom of the will and exercised it
wrongfully. A conclusion which could
also be drawn from the following passage:
“Son of man, when the
house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own ways and
deeds; to Me their way was like the uncleanness of a woman in her customary
impurity. Therefore I poured out My fury
on them for the blood they had shed on the land, and for their idols with which
they had defiled it. So I scattered them
among the nations, and they were dispersed throughout the countries; I judged
them according to their ways and their deeds.
When they came to the
nations, wherever they went, they profaned My holy
name -- when they said of them, ‘These are the people of the LORD, and yet they
have gone out of His land.' But I had
concern for My holy name, which the house of Israel
had profaned among the nations wherever they went. Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD:
“I do not do this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for My holy
name's sake, which you have profaned among the nations wherever you went. And I will sanctify My great name, which has
been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst; and
the nations shall know that I am the LORD,'' says the Lord GOD, “when I am hallowed
in you before their eyes.” (Ezek 36:17-23).
The idea that man has free will and is in
charge of his own salvation, correlates well with modern philosophy which holds
that man is the center of his universe and master of his own destiny. By judicious use of his will, he can either
save or destroy himself.
The role of the Holy Spirit has been
diminished to the point of almost total exclusion from the process of
salvation. As Friedrich Richter pointed
out, “In time, the work of the Holy Spirit loses its universal character and is
limited to the subjective experience of the individual. Rationalism eventually supplants the Holy
Spirit with the spirit of man.” (Op. cit., p. 109).
THE BIBLICAL CASE FOR
PREDESTINATION
The most obvious examples of
predestination also come from Apostle Paul, the one who provided the ammunition
for those who believe in free will too.
“Paul, an apostle of Jesus
Christ by the will of God, to the saints who are in
Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual
blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to
Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory
of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood,
the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to
abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the
mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in
Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather
together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on
earth-- in Him. In Him also we have
obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who
works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first
trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.” (Eph. 1:1-12).
“And we know that all
things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the
called according to His purpose. For
whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son,
that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also
called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these
He also glorified.” (
You can see that here,
unlike in previous examples in which the words “free will” or “freedom of the
will” or “free moral agency” were never used, but merely implied, the word “predestined” is specifically mentioned
several times.
Other statements indicate
that God has a Book of Life in which He wrote the names of those who are to be
saved before the world was created. In
other words, they were predestined to be saved before they were born.
"Nevertheless do not rejoice
in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your
names are written in heaven.'' (Luke 10:20).
"Then the King will
say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the
kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’” (Matt 25:34).
“And I urge you also, true
companion, help these women who labored with me in the gospel, with Clement
also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the Book of Life.”
(Phil 4:3).
"The beast that you
saw was, and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to
perdition. And those who dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names are not
written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, when they see the
beast that was, and is not, and yet is.” (Rev 17:8).
This idea is also found in
the Old Testament:
“Then Moses returned to
the LORD and said, ‘Oh, these people have committed a great sin, and have made
for themselves a god of gold! Yet now,
if You will forgive their sin – but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book
which You have written.’
And the LORD said to
Moses, ‘Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book. Now therefore, go, lead the people to the
place of which I have spoken to you.
Behold, My Angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I
visit for punishment, I will visit punishment upon them for their sin.’” (Exod.
32:31-34).
Other examples that
support the idea of predestination include the following:
“The
burden of the word of the LORD to
Apostle Paul amplified
this in his epistle to the Romans:
“As it is written, ‘Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have
hated.’ What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! For He says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whomever I will have
mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.'‘ So then
it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.
For the Scripture says to
Pharaoh, ‘For this very purpose I have
raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be
declared in all the earth.’ Therefore He
has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.
You will say to me
then, ‘Why does He still find fault? For
who has resisted His will?’ But indeed,
O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who
formed it, ‘Why have you made me like
this?’
Does not the potter have
power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and
another for dishonor?
What if God, wanting to
show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the
vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might make known the
riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand
for glory, even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the
Gentiles?” (
These examples not only
prove predestination, but emphasize the fact that it is the will of God which
determines who is to be saved and who is not, rather that the will of man. “He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He
wills He hardens.” Our problem comes
from the fact that Apostle Paul seems to have contradicted himself. Could he be
so lose in his thoughts as not to realize that in one place he supported free
will and in another predestination?
Something isn’t right, but what? Since predestination has a stronger
biblical case than free will, we have no choice but to go back to the Bible and
examine once again those Scriptures that appear to support free will.
FREE
Before we look again at Paul’s letter to
the Philippians, which assured us that people can work out their own salvation,
we will have a brief look at another Pauline statement which just as strongly
seems to deny this fact.
‘What shall we say then?
That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to
righteousness, even the righteousness of faith; but
Here, Apostle Paul speaks of two kinds of
righteousnesses: one attained by faith and another by works of the law. Righteousness by works of the law can be
equated with working out one’s own salvation: both ideas relying on people’s
active involvement in working out something that leads to their salvation. Now while work can be a reflection of one’s
faith (''Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by
my works”, James 2:18), work can never generate the faith required for
salvation because this is a gift from God:
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves;
it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” (Eph.
2:8-9). This creates a major problem for
those who use Philippians 2:12 as proof of free will in man. How can one work out his own salvation if
this is entirely dependent on God’s grace and gift of faith? The Scriptures never contradict themselves,
yet those who preach free moral agency would have us believe that they do. How then do we explain that statement in the
epistle to the Philippians? Let us have
another look at it.
“Therefore, my beloved, as
you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my
absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who
works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” (Phil 2:12-13).
Did you notice the
difference? We were naughty here in that
we quoted the entire verse rather than just part of it. The result is nothing short of
electrifying. All of a sudden the free
will case is on a shaky ground. Rather
than proving free will, or free moral agency, or whatever they call it, this
verse proves the very opposite - it proves predestination?
Those who have used this
verse to “prove” freedom of the will have invariably stopped at the word
“trembling”. They have left out the most
important part of the verse, the one which qualifies it and gives it proper
meaning: “for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good
pleasure”. Now if it is God who, at
His own pleasure, puts it in human heart to will and to do something, how can
anyone claim that they do it out of their own volition? Isn’t it rather obvious that whatever human
beings do it all comes from God?
What about the example in
Deuteronomy, have theologians placed a veil over people’s eyes with this one
too? Let’s see.
"See, I have set before
you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love
the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His
statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the LORD your
God will bless you in the land which you go to possess.”
“I call heaven and earth
as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death,
blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants
may live; that you may love the LORD your God, that you may obey His voice, and
that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and
that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.'' (Deut. 30:15-I6; 19-20).
Again, can you see the
miraculous metamorphosis taking place when we look at the whole passage rather
than just part of it, and do a little independent thinking? When God set before His people life and
death, He did not give them a choice between one and the other, He commanded them to choose life. Now I suggest to you that a command is not a
choice.
Think of a parent who
places an apple and a pear in front of his child, then commands him to choose
the apple. If the child stretches out his arm to take the pear he gets a smack
on his hand. The father repeats the
exercise as many times as it takes for the child to learn the lesson and always
take the apple. Now is that a choice? This is exactly what our heavenly Father does
with us, His children. He places life
and death before us, and then commands us to choose life. Every time we choose death by sinning, He
chastens us, and then gives us a new chance.
Notice:
“Therefore we also, since
we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every
weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance
the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of
our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising
the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who endured such hostility
from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your
souls. You have not yet resisted to
bloodshed, striving against sin. And you
have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: ‘My son, do not despise the chastening of the
Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; For whom the Lord loves
He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.’ If you endure chastening, God deals with you
as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which
all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.
Furthermore, we have had
human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much
more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us
as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His
holiness. Now no chastening seems to be
joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the
peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” (Heb.
12:1-11).
God places life and death before
His children, then chastens and trains them until they learn their lesson. Is it not clear then that when God commands
people to follow a certain course of action, they have little freedom but to
obey? Deuteronomy is another example of
a Scripture that has been used for the wrong purpose. Like Philippians, rather
than proving free will, it proves predestination. Now what about the other examples? Again, let us have a look at them in their
context.
“Run to and fro through
the streets of Jerusalem; see now and know; and seek in her open places if you
can find a man, if there is anyone who executes judgment, who seeks the truth,
and I will pardon her. Though they
say, ‘As the LORD lives,' surely they
swear falsely.’
O LORD, are not Your eyes
on the truth? You have stricken them, but they have not grieved; you have
consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made
their faces harder than rock; they have refused to return. Therefore I said, ‘Surely these are poor. They are foolish; for
they do not know the way of the LORD . . .’
‘For the house of
Therefore thus says the
LORD God of hosts: ‘Because you speak
this word, behold, I will make My words in your mouth
fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them. Behold, I will bring a nation against you
from afar, O house of
Nevertheless in those
days,' says the LORD,
‘I will not make a complete end of you. And it will be when you say, "Why does
the LORD our God do all these things to us?” then you shall answer them,
"Just as you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so you
shall serve aliens in a land that is not yours.”’” (Jer. 5:1-4; 11-19).
Now notice what happens if we add the next
four verses to this passage:
“Declare this in the house
of Jacob and proclaim it in
If “this people has a
defiant and rebellious heart”, who made them that way if not God? Remember: “The king's heart is in the hand of
the LORD, like the rivers of water; he turns it wherever He wishes.” (Prov.
21:1), and, “O LORD, I know the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man
who walks to direct his own steps.” (Jer. 10:23). But also:
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt:
who can know it? I, Jehovah, search the mind, I try the heart, even to give
every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.” (Jer.
17:9-10). The next example tells us
very clearly who determines what kind of heart is in human beings and how that
can be changed. We will not quote again
Ezekiel 36:17-23 but will go straight to verses 24 to 36 of this chapter.
“For I will take you from
among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own
land. Then I will sprinkle clean water
on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and
from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within
you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart
of flesh. I will put My Spirit within
you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do
them. Then you shall dwell in the land
that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your
God. I will deliver you from all your
uncleannesses. I will call for the grain and multiply it, and bring no famine
upon you. And I will multiply the fruit
of your trees and the increase of your fields, so that you need never again
bear the reproach of famine among the nations.
Then you will remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good;
and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight, for your iniquities and your
abominations. ‘Not for your sake do I
do this,’ says the Lord GOD, ‘let it be
known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel!’
Thus says the Lord
GOD: ‘On the day that I cleanse you from
all your iniquities, I will also enable you to dwell in the cities, and the
ruins shall be rebuilt. The desolate
land shall be tilled instead of lying desolate in the sight of all who pass
by. So they will say, “This land that
was desolate has become like the Garden of Eden; and the wasted, desolate, and
ruined cities are now fortified and inhabited.”
Then the nations which are left all around you shall know that I, the
LORD, have rebuilt the ruined places and planted what was desolate. I, the
LORD, have spoken it, and I will do it.’''
As long as the people had
a heart of “stone” they continued to go after other gods, but when God put “a new heart and a new spirit” in them, they became His people and they no
longer departed from His ways. The
message could not be clearer: God allows human beings to stumble and see the
limitations of their ways until they turn to Him with humility in prayer and
worship and admit that apart from Him they can neither survive nor save
themselves. Christians can take comfort
from the fact that there is no conflict between the latest scientific
discoveries and the Bible. The conflict
is only between science and those who have been preaching a false doctrine and
a false gospel. They have chosen the
easy way out of a difficult situation.
In spite of all the evidence to the contrary, they have abandoned
predestination in favor of free will because this absolved them of any further
need to explain divine justice. It became
very easy for them to place all the blame on human beings and make them morally
responsible for all the evil in the world. Then they sat on their laurels until
science came along and exposed their deception.
The problem therefore is
not in finding an answer to the question of free will versus predestination -
science and the Bible are in agreement that predestination is a fact - but in
explaining the notion of divine justice in view of the fact that God “desires
all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2:3-4),
and that He “shows no partiality” with human beings (Acts 10:34), when we know
that some people have been predestined to be saved and others to be damned.
Since human beings have
not been able to come up with this explanation, our only choice is to go before
the throne of God Almighty and seek the answer directly from Him. This is what we intend to do now.
HEAVENLY SUPPER
“It is doubtless not profitable for me to boast. I will come
to visions and revelations of the Lord:
I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago-- whether in the body I do
not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows-- such a one was
caught up to the third heaven. And I
know such a man-- whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God
knows--how he was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which
it is not lawful for a man to utter.” (2 Cor. 12:1-4).
The occasion: a
meeting of the Imperial Executive. The
location: God’s Imperial Palace. The
place: the Banquet Hall. Around a
horseshoe shaped table, the guests are seated on the outside and the attendants
are serving from the inside.
At the head of the table, shining like the
sun, God Almighty is flanked on the right by Jesus Christ and on the left by
the Holy Spirit. The guests, shining
like stars, include Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Elijah,
Daniel, Job, other patriarchs and prophets, John the Baptist, the Apostles,
other saints.
The attendants, impeccably dressed and
gliding like swans, are serving exquisite, mouth-watering delicacies. When I
asked one of them why it looked like a Chinese banquet, he said that it just
happened to be the turn of the Chinese to provide the food and the Japanese the
drinks. Last time it was Italian food and German drinks. Next time it will be
Indian food and Australian drinks. Each
nation has a chance to show its culinary expertise and delicacies.
When the banquet is over, he added, you
will sit down with us and enjoy some of these delicacies too.
The meal was conducted in an atmosphere of
jovial cordiality, with toasts being offered by various speakers to one thing
or another throughout the meal. A
chamber orchestra, on a stage in an alcove in the far side of the room, was
filling the air with soft and soothing classical melodies. Wherever one looked, the eye and the mind
were dazzled by the breathtaking architectural splendor of the Palace and an
opulence that defied description. The
ceiling, with delightful paintings and brilliant relief carvings, was resting
on ornamental double columns lined up near a semi-circular wall. In the middle of the ceiling, a glass cupola
revealed a deep blue sky and soaring birds of exquisite beauty and songs.
Between the columns, tall narrow stain
glass windows, wonderfully glazed with floral and geometric designs, flanked
individual alcoves in which additional guests were being entertained. Indoor lush green plants, some in bloom, in masterfully
crafted large vases, were interspersed between the columns and the alcoves,
creating both a sense of seclusion and a natural uplifting ambience.
Magnificent tapestries on walls
complimented a carefully chosen color scheme. In the middle of the wall, in
front of the head table, a large clear window, framed by ceiling to floor
curtains, opened up to an outside garden from which a fresh sea breeze was
filling the room through a gently fluttering veil of transparent silk. The room, located on the second floor,
offered the view of a dazzling panorama of colors from beautifully landscaped
beds of flowers and tropical plants covering the entire length of the
Palace.
On the other side of the garden, a ring of
nicely lined trees was making the transition to another ring of dense tropical
forest. Beyond that, a few hundred
meters away, a sea of crystal clear waters with white sandy beaches stretched
on either side of the Palace as far as the eye could see. An opening through the forest, led all the
way from the Palace to the beach. Far on
the horizon, across the waters, in a distant mist, one could see the faint
outline of snow-capped peaks of a chain of mountains soaring into the clouds,
indicating perhaps that the waters belonged not to a sea but to a very large
lake. Whatever, it was big enough to
make ideal surfing waves.
On either side of the Palace, at a fair
distance, two navigable rivers were discharging their healing waters into the
lake. They had their origin in front of
the Palace from where they flowed together in a parallel formation a long way
until they split and wound their way through towns and villages until they came
back to the lake, forming as it were the shape of an open heart. This reminded
me of the following biblical passage:
“And he showed me a pure
river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and
of the Lamb. In the middle of its
street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore
twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree
were for the healing of the nations.” (Rev 22:1-2).
On the beach, groups of
people and children were sunbathing, surfing and frolicking in the water. Right
in front of us, a group of children were playing with birds and fish which,
instead of running away from them, seemed to enjoy their company. Some of the children were performing
balancing acts on the back of whales and dolphins, holding birds in their arms,
heads and shoulders, while others were flying through the air propelled by
whale tails.
Near the Palace, in an
opening in the forest on the right, a dozen deer and gazelles were blissfully
grazing away unperturbed by a family of lions which were lazing nearby.
A little dog, a lion cub,
and two deer kids were playing a kind of catch-me game. The kids were running
in circles jumping over the dog and the cub, while these were trying to catch
them by the tail.
As I was happily watching
this sight I came to realize that the little dog looked very much like one of
my former pets. This made me think about the destiny of animals. Wouldn’t it be wonderful, I thought, if animals, people’s pets in particular, were given a
place in the Kingdom of Heaven too? But
then I remembered a sad incident and a discussion between a lady and her priest
regarding the fate of animals. She had a
little dog which she loved very much but which died in an accident. She went to her priest and asked him whether
she will ever see her dog again. He said
no, because "animals have no souls and cannot go to heaven. They are here for our use, and when they die
they are finished.”
She became very upset and
started crying. But her friend, who was
sitting nearby, said: “Most certainly
animals go to heaven.”
“How do you know that?”
she asked.
“Because without pets
heaven would not be heaven!”
The priest, perhaps
wondering that a woman would contradict him, ended the discussion by walking
away slowly.
Now who do you think made
more sense: the priest who based his views on religious conviction, or the lady
who based hers on logic?
A priest once told me that
when he was a seminarian it was only in the third year that he was introduced
to the Bible. Most of the time was taken
by learning the church’s doctrines and how to administer the parish. This is
why whenever I want to find the truth about anything heavenly I go directly to
the Bible.
The question to which we
want an answer now is this: if God created the enormous variety of birds, fish
and animals for our enjoyment in this temporary world, would He deny us such a
pleasure in His eternal Kingdom? Would
it be unreasonable therefore to imagine that He will please His children by
resurrecting the pets which were once their lovable companions? Did not Jesus Christ say that with God all
things are possible? (Matt 19:26;
The problem is, what do we do about the soul? If animals have no soul how could they be
resurrected? Our only hope is for the
priest to be wrong and the lady right.
If this is the case, the implication is serious: every church and denomination in the world
would need to change its beliefs and doctrines, for they all preach the same
thing. So what is the truth?
As I was thinking about
this topic, my mind took me right at the beginning of God’s creation. When He created the world and breathed life
into His creatures, He used the same word 'nefesh',
meaning soul, for both animals and human beings? This is what the New Catholic Encyclopedia says:
“In its most ordinary present
day usage, the term soul (Lat. anima), when used alone, refers to the human
soul; to say soul is to mean human soul. If one intends to speak about other
sorts of soul, he uses expressed qualifiers; e.g., he says plant soul, or
animal soul. There is nonetheless a use of the term soul that means simply a
principle of life, or a source of life activities, at least that of
nourishing. According to this usage,
soul designates the mark of a living thing, or what separates the living from
nonliving.” (New Cat. Enc., 1967, Vol. 13, p.447).
And the Encyclopaedia Judaica:
“The personality was
considered as a whole in the biblical period. Thus the soul was not sharply
distinguished from the body. In biblical
Hebrew the words neshamah and ruah both meant “breath” and nefesh refers to the person or even the
body (cf. Num. 6:6). (Enc. Jud. 1971,
Vol. 15, p.172).
Now compare this with Wilson’s Old Testament Word Studies:
“The animal life, or that
principle by which every animal, according to its kind, lives; hence life,
vital principle, animal spirit, which is often translated soul, or spirit . . .
The rational soul, mind, animus, as
the seat of the feelings, affections, emotions of various kinds.”
If soul is the seat of
feelings and affections, then clearly animals have soul. Any observant pet owner would tell you that
animals have feelings and affections, and show signs of pleasure, anger and
curiosity. This is confirmed by Vine’s Expanded Expository Dictionary of New
Testament Words who says that:
“Soul Psuche denotes the breath, the breath of life, then the soul, in
its various meanings: (a) the natural
life of the body, Matt. 2:20;
Here we have a very
important observation, and admission that people have not been able to
distinguish between soul and spirit. But
more on this later. First let us look at
what Solomon, one of the wisest men who ever lived, recorded in the Bible about
humans and animals:
“I said in my heart, ‘Concerning the condition of the sons of men,
God tests them, that they may see that they themselves are like animals.’ For what happens to the sons of men also
happens to animals; one thing befalls them: as one dies, so dies the other.
Surely, they all have one breath; man has no advantage over animals, for all is
vanity. All go to one place: all are
from the dust, and all return to dust.” (Eccl. 3:18-20).
He saw no difference
between men and animals - they both go in the same place. So then, if some people “go to heaven” is it
all that unreasonable to expect that animals could “go to heaven” too? At least people's pets? The fact is, as in so many other things,
theologians have made a mistake about the soul too. They have confused 'soul' with 'spirit' and
'Holy Spirit'.
All living things, human
and animal, have a soul, but not all have a spirit. The Bible speaks of the
spirit in man as distinct from his soul:
“But there is a spirit in man, and the breath of the
Almighty gives him understanding.” (Job 32:8).
“The
burden of the word of the LORD against Israel. Thus says the LORD, who stretches
out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him...” (Zech.
12:1).
“And I will pour on the
house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they have pierced; they will mourn for Him as one
mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.”
(Zech. 12:10).
“‘It shall be in that
day,’ says the LORD of hosts,
‘that I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, and
they shall no longer be remembered. I will also cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to depart from the
land.’” (Zech. 13:2).
Notice how idolatry is
linked with “unclean spirits” and the Holy Spirit with the “Spirit of grace and
supplication”. Human beings are under the influence of one or the other at all
times. Here is further proof:
“But My servant Caleb,
because he has a different spirit in
him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and
his descendants shall inherit it.” (Num. 14:24).
“But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul,
and a distressing spirit from the
LORD troubled him.” (1 Sam 16:14).
“Are the consolations of
God too small for you, and the word spoken gently with you?
Why does your heart carry
you away, and what do your eyes wink at,
That you turn your spirit against God, and let such words
go out of your mouth?
What is man, that he could
be pure? And he who is born of a woman, that he could be righteous?
If God puts no trust in
His saints, and the heavens are not pure in His sight,
How much less man, who is
abominable and filthy, who drinks iniquity like water!” (Job 15:11-16).
These quotations tell us
the following things:
1. In their natural
state, there is no difference between human beings and animals - they all have
a soul.
2. Before they repent
and are 'born again', people are under the influence of “unclean” or
disobedient spirits.
3. Of the three - soul, spirit and Holy Spirit - only the last
guaranties eternal life in the Kingdom of God.
The other two are not immortal, though God can make them so.
Human beings take on the
character of the spirit by which they are guided. Jesus Christ told His disciples that, in
their natural state they have no chance of making it into the Kingdom of God.
“At that time the
disciples came to Jesus, saying, ‘Who
then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’
Then Jesus called a little
child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are
converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom
of heaven.’” (Matt 18:1-3).
“There were present at
that season some who told Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had
mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus
answered and said to them, ‘Do you suppose
that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they
suffered such things? I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all
likewise perish.
Or those eighteen on whom
the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse
sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, no; but unless you repent you
will all likewise perish.’'' (Luke 13:1-5).
The following passage
makes it even clearer that human beings are possessed by hostile spirits before
conversion:
“Now it came to pass, when
the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face
to go to Jerusalem, and sent messengers before His face. And as they went, they
entered a village of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him. But they did not receive Him, because His
face was set for the journey to Jerusalem.
And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, ‘Lord, do You want
us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?’ But He turned and rebuked them, and said, ‘You do not know
what manner of spirit you are of. For
the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them.’ And they went to another village.” (Luke
9:51-56).
This is why human beings
need the presence of the Holy Spirit to be able to come out of the disastrous
condition in which they had fallen as the result of sin. Animals do not sin. Nor could they take a conscious decision to
repent and be baptized in order to receive the Holy Spirit. They only do what God has put it in their
hearts to do, unlike human beings that often do what they ought not to.
So while all living things
need a soul to be alive, human beings, being made of carnal nature, come under
the influence of disobedient or unclean spirits from the moment they are
born. Here is proof from both the Old
and the New Testaments of this fact:
"Behold, I was
brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me." (Ps
51:5).
"For I delight in the
law of God according to the inward man.
But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind,
and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me
from this body of death? I thank God-- through
Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God,
but with the flesh the law of sin." (Rom. 7:22-25).
“There is therefore now no
condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the
flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ
Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
For what the law could not
do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,
that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not
walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set
their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the
Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to
be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law
of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please
God. But you are not in the flesh but in
the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not
have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.
And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit
is life because of righteousness. But if
the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised
Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His
Spirit who dwells in you. Therefore,
brethren, we are debtors-- not to the flesh, to live according to the
flesh. For if you live according to the
flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the
body, you will live. For as many as are
led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage
again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out,
"Abba, Father.''
The Spirit Himself bears
witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then
heirs-- heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him,
that we may also be glorified together.
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy
to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation
eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility,
not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the
creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the
glorious liberty of the children of God.
For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs
together until now. Not only that, but
we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within
ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. For we were saved in this hope, but hope that
is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we
hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. Likewise the Spirit also helps in our
weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the
Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be
uttered.
Now He who searches the
hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for
the saints according to the will of God.
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love
God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to
be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many
brethren. Moreover whom He predestined,
these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified,
these He also glorified. What then shall
we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but
delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all
things? Who shall bring a charge against
God's elect? It is God who justifies.
Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also
risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for
us. Who shall separate us from the love
of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or
nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is
written: ""For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted
as sheep for the slaughter.'' Yet in all
these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor
life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things
to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to
separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 8:1-39).
Jesus Christ was a Man
born of carnal nature like you and me, but He had the seed of the Holy Spirit
in Him from conception, and that gave Him the power to keep under control the
pulls of carnal nature and withstand Satan's temptations.
As humans grow and become
conscious of their condition, and become aware of the possibility of eternal
life in a better world, they must ask God to grant them the Holy Spirit (Luke
11:13). The act of repentance, conversion,
baptism and laying on of hands by people who possess
the Holy Spirit results in them receiving the Holy Spirit too. From then on they begin to develop a new
character, one which eventually allows them to become “free moral agents” in
the Kingdom of God, not in this world.
In this world no one is a free moral agent. People are either guided by their natural
rebellious spirit, or by God’s Holy Spirit.
The presence of the Holy
Spirit is what makes Christianity different from other religions. True Christianity, that is. Other religions have no such concepts. That is why the Bible says that there is no
other name under heaven by which men can be saved:
“Then Peter, filled with
the Holy Spirit, said to them, ‘Rulers
of the people and elders of Israel: if we this day are judged for a good deed
done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, let it be known to
you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man
stands here before you whole. This is
the "stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief
cornerstone. Nor is there salvation in
any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we
must be saved.’’’ (Acts 4:8-12).
Animals do not need to go
through trials in order to develop a new character. They are led by instinct, not by spirits, and
God can change that anytime, without the need for repentance, baptism and
laying on of hands. Moreover, the
Scriptures make it clear that animals will be given a new instinct in the
Kingdom of God.
"The wolf also shall
dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and
the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead
them. The cow and the bear shall graze;
their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the
ox. The nursing child shall play by the
cobra's hole, and the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper's den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My
holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the
waters cover the sea.” (Isa. 11:6-9).
Many animals and pets have
suffered grievously at the hands of cruel people. They too demand their
justice. The Kingdom of God cannot be
established until all injustices and injuries done to any of God’s creatures
have been atoned for.
Jesus Christ said “for
every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of
judgment.” (Matt 12:36). If men will
give account for every idle word, how much more will they give account for
every evil thing they have done?
Therefore people ought to be careful how they treat their animals, for
in the Day of Judgment they will certainly to give account of their
actions.
As I was thinking about
these things, it occurred to me that being so close to the Father and the whole
Heavenly Executive I could go and discuss these things with Them. That is, if I
gathered enough courage to go and present myself, in my filthy condition,
before them. But when I turned around
and looked at the Father, He was looking at me with a benign smile as if to
say: “Son who do you think has put these
thoughts in your head? What you thought is perfectly all right. In My Kingdom there is certainly enough room
for My children’s pets too.”
At that time one of the
attendants approached the Father and said:
“Father, have you seen what the children have been up to lately?”
“What son?”
“Can You come to the
window to see?”
As the meal was finished
and it was time to clean the tables, the Father said: “All right, let us all go
to the window and see”.
In another opening, on the
left side of the palace, a group of children had gathered an array of animals
and were performing a show that would have put to shame an earthly circus. Two of them were racing a horse and a
giraffe, apparently in an attempt to find out which run the fastest. It was a dead heat, though I think the
giraffe just stuck its neck in front.
But the animals did not appear to over extend themselves. I think they
were more concerned not to bounce the children off their back than to set new
records.
Other children were
playing a balancing act on a beam high up between two tall trees. Below them, a
group of alpacas were forming a soft landing bed. As I looked closer to see why they were
falling down so easily, I realized that the slippery beam was not a beam at all
but a giant anaconda stretched out between the trees.
Other children were flying
through the air like trapeze artists, being propelled by the swinging heads of
a number of giraffes set up in a wide circle.
Some of the heads did not seem to belong to giraffes at all but to
prehistoric animals like dinosaurs.
Indeed, their huge and cumbersome bodies were largely hidden by the
forest, but their heads and necks were surprisingly agile for the size of the
animals.
Then one of the children
noticed the distinguished audience at the window and alerted the other
children. They all stopped playing, ran
towards the window, knelt down and bowed their heads in a sign of worship and
respect. Amazingly, the animals followed
suit, knelt behind, and they too bowed their heads.
After a few minutes, the children
looked up, and the Father smiled, clapped His hands, and said: “Well done
children!” The other guests clapped
too. The children then stood up, waved
their hands, and took off in the direction of the lake, running, shouting and
calling on their pets to follow suit.
When they reached the lake, they playfully started scrubbing and washing
their pets in a cacophony of noises that could be heard from miles around. On the shore, a little piglet was crying his
heart out trying to say something, but no one seemed to notice. Then a little
girl saw him, came near and asked, “What’s the matter, babe?”
“I can’t swim, I can’t
swim!”
“C’mon dear, I will teach
you how to swim”.
“Promise you won’t let me
drown?”
“You promise to play with
me afterwards?”
“Yes, I will, I will,”
said the piglet.
“Then I promise not to let
you drawn.”
So they went into the
water and disappeared among the other children and animals.
By this time, the guests
had returned to their places and were getting ready for the business section of
the meeting. Much as I would have liked
to continue watching the children and their pets at play, I had to settle down
in my corner and take notes of the proceedings. So here they are, notes of the
world's first eyewitness account of heavenly proceedings, unedited and
uncensored.
HITLER’S JUDGMENT
The Father began by
calling everyone to attention. He made a few comments about the wonderful meal,
the great service; the “unexpected” show presented by the children, and then said,
“Let us begin by reviewing the proceedings in the Judgment Hall”.
Looking at Apostle Peter,
He said, “Last time we decided that you,
being the Apostle to the ‘circumcised’, should judge Hitler, the man who caused
the holocaust among your people, while Paul, the Apostle to the ‘uncircumcised’
should judge Stalin, the man who decimated the Christians. So how has it been going?”
“Wonderfully, Father. At times it was almost comical. But I think we should see the proceedings on
the screen.”
A virtual reality film,
projected widely on a wall, showed Hitler raging and extolling the achievements
of his great empire, one which "he had built with his own hands, but which
was betrayed and dismantled by an inferior race, the rotten Jews, and sold to
the filthy Bolsheviks.”
“It wasn’t all that great
if it was so easily dismantled and sold by a handful of people, was it? And how did this ‘inferior race’ do this to
your empire" asked Peter.
“They did it through an
international conspiracy organized by the Jewish bankers and media moguls”.
“Those Jewish bankers of
whom you said you would wipe off the face of the earth if they started another
war against your nation?”
“Well, I said that earlier
in my reign, but I did not really think they would actually do it to us again
as they did in the First World War.”
“And why did they do these
things to you?”
“Because we stood in the
way of their empire.”
“What empire?”
"Don't you know
it?"
"No, I don't, but I
am sure you will enlighten me."
“The Bolshevik empire. What do you think that was all about?”
“What?”
“It was a Jewish empire in
disguise. The idea was Jewish, the
founders were Jewish, the first government was dominated by the Jews, the
security apparatus was in Jewish hands, and the finances came from the
Jews.”
“Given the problems they
had among the Gentiles, could you blame them for wanting to establish a
communist empire in which brotherhood and co-operation was emphasized and
religion and nationalism were abolished?”
“Brotherhood and
co-operation? They treated their
subjects, their supposed brothers, worse than we treated our slaves.”
“Could that be
possible? What was the difference
between their empire and yours?”
“We were national
socialists, and they were internationalists. They emphasized the supposed
equality of all nations while we emphasized the superiority of our nation. Those who obeyed us did very well under our
rulership.”
“Why do you say ‘supposed
equality’?”
“They pretended to be
equal, but in fact their subjects became slaves in their own lands.”
“What is worse, being a
slave in your own land or being burned in an oven?”
“Ah, there you are, you
fell victim to their propaganda too. We
never burned healthy people. We weren’t
fools; we needed them for work. We only
burned the sick, the weak, the old, the young, the gypsy, the homosexuals, the
communists, and the subversives.”
“Is that all?”
“Absolutely!”
“And the Jews?”
“That goes without
saying. They were not people, they were
sub-humans.”
“What about the other ‘sub-human’
people, what would you have done with them if you had won the war?”
“Oh, I would have built a
wonderful civilization. My superior
Aryan people would have ruled the world and the other races would have gained
their pleasure from serving them. As the song goes: ‘Germany
uber alles’”.
“And the Americans, what
would you have done to them?”
“Well, if they had behaved
and played by the rules, they would have retained most of their country and
lived in peace.”
“What rules, and what part of the country
would they have lost?”
“The rules set by me and
my generals. They would have had to stop
meddling in other people’s affairs, would have renounced any pretence of
greatness, and would have accepted the size of army and navy I would have dictated
for them. I would have been quite
generous to them. They would have lived
safely in their own land and never would anyone have invaded them. We would have been neighbors.”
“Oh, how is that?”
“Well, you see, the
southern belt of their States, from Florida to California, plus northern
Mexico, Hawaii and their other overseas possessions, would have made a
wonderful colony for my generals and their families.”
“All that land for just a
few generals and their families?”
“Are you kidding? My whole
nation would have become a garrison of generals. How do you think we would have been able to
keep in submission those inferior Slavic races from the Balkans to the
Pacific?”
“Those races that were
going to get their pleasure from serving your Aryans?”
“Precisely!”
“And the British, what
would you have done to them?”
“Oh, Britain without America would have been
nothing. But I would have been generous
to them too. I would have allowed them
to live peacefully in their island.
Without their empire, of course.
They would have been governed by a national socialist government, and on
their throne there would have been a friendly monarch.”
“Which one?”
“The Duke of Windsor, of
course.”
"And
France?”
“France would have become
part of my Greater Germany. The French
Empire, like the British, would have been incorporated into my Reich. What a world of happiness that would have
been.”
“How unfortunate that
those ‘inferior races' dismantled your Reich.”
“Yeah, I knew you would
understand me. That’s the most unfortunate thing that happened in the history
of the world.”
“Do you regret any of the
things you have done?''
“Like what?”
“Like what you did to the
Jews?’
“The Jews? Regret? Yes, I regret! I regret I did not start earlier and finish
them off.”
“Why did you hate them so
much? What have they done to you?”
“What have they done to
me? It is not what they’ve done to me;
it is what they have done to the world? They killed Christ, didn’t they?”
“But Christ forgave them,
why didn’t you?”
“Forgive them? Me?
What do you think I am God? I never forgive anyone. Certainly I would never forgive those filthy
mongrels.”
“So you do not repent of
anything you have done in your life, do you?”
“Repent, forgive! Why don’t you ask me to go embrace and kiss
them too? Never! I will never give them the pleasure of
touching me, or even coming near me, even if I have to spend my life in a
concentration camp and end up in an oven as they did.”
“They must be heart-broken
to hear you say that. Nevertheless, as
you have spoken, so it shall be done. You shall spend your life in a
concentration camp until you are old, then you shall end up in an oven like
your prisoners. And while you are there,
some of your own doctors and fellow prisoners will perform on you the kind of
medical experiments you performed on your prisoners. Like castrating you and cutting off limbs
from you, all live and anaesthetized, then giving cold showers in the dead of
winter, so that you may know how your prisoners felt. Then, as I said, when you are old and no
longer fit for anything, you will be finished off in an oven alive, and your
memory shall be wiped off from the land of the living forever. That should atone for the sins you committed
against mankind and God's creation.”
“This is how we finished the judgment of this
fiend Father”, said Apostle Peter. “We
gave him the opportunity to defend himself, yet all he did was to sink even
deeper in the morass of his horrible crimes.
We found no redeeming features in him at all. We had no choice but to finish him off that
way.”
“You did well, Peter. I don’t think anyone would have relished the
thought of meeting that creature even in the furthest corners of the
universe. Had you decided otherwise, you
would have had to do a lot of explanation to those who were his victims”, said
the Father and adjourned the meeting until next time.
STALIN’S JUDGMENT
At the next meeting, the
Father asked Apostle Paul how Stalin’s judgment went.
“Quite an event,
Father." Stalin’s fury was against the Christians just as Hitler’s was
against the Jews. He filled his labor camps with the Christians just as Hitler
filled his concentration camps with the Jews.
But shall we see the recording of his judgment?”
“Of course, let us see
it.”
Stalin
was seen in his generalisimo attire being led by two polite attendants to the
Judgment Hall, then being offered a seat in front of the judging panel. Before sitting down he ordered the attendants
to turn the armchair towards the window.
As he sat down, he yawned widely and said: “Umm, I feel as if I’ve just woken up from a
long sleep. Anyway, what are we gathered
for here today for? No, don’t tell me,
let me guess it. We are here to see whom
we are nailing to the wall today.
Who are our latest
enemies? You know, Beria, I think you
did a marvelous job with those stubborn Ukrainian peasants. They drove me crazy
with their refusal to join the collective farm.
The idea to starve them to death was marvelous. It looked as if everything was natural. Well, we couldn’t allow a bunch of peasants
to stand in the way of glorious communism.
Look, let me make this absolutely clear: the end justifies the means. The future of the world depends on us
building a perfect society here in the Soviet Union. This is why we must show no mercy to the
‘enemies of the people’.
Hah, ‘enemies of
the people’, what a joke. But it works.
It helped me get rid of my enemies. And
my enemies are your enemies.
The point is how much is a
leader like me worth it? Let’s face it,
when a country invests so much in a leader, it cannot afford to change him
often as they do it in the West. It
needs to keep him in power long enough to make that investment worthwhile. This is why when I place someone in a
position of leadership in any satellite country, he stays there for life. Or
until he crosses me, in which case he is finished before he knows what happened
to him.
Communism cannot be built
without a wise and strong leadership.
Millions of people in the Soviet Union and in the satellite countries,
and soon in the whole world, trust me and extol my virtues. This is why no one can stand in my way – all
my enemies end up being crushed.
You know, it’s funny how
the world condemns Hitler for his atrocities against the Jews. I created havoc among my enemies; I
destroyed churches, I imprisoned Christians, and filled labor camps in freezing
Siberia with all who opposed me. My
secret police, as you all know, is more effective than his Gestapo. Put it this way: who needs gas ovens when you
have a place like Siberia. Ten times more people perished in our prisons and
labor camps than did in their concentration camps, yet no one says a thing
about me, while everybody condemns Hitler and his regime. This is what I call a good propaganda
machine.
Of course, there is one
other major difference between us: we won the war and they lost it. It is the victor’s justice, but who dares
call it that way? Naturally, the Jews
have their brothers - the media barons in America and elsewhere - to speak for
them and to denounce Hitler’s crimes, whereas my victims have no one to speak
for them. But, that’s life, it’s
nobody’s fault.
It’s a pity that that fool, Trotsky, forced me to lay my hand on him and on a few
of his fellow Jews. But in the end it
worked out to their advantage. They
could claim that they were as much a victim of communism as everyone else.
Can you imagine what would
happen if the true history of communism was ever made public? You know, I laughed the other day when
someone told me the definition of a communist historian: one who predicts the
past. Was it you, Beria, who told me
that? It must have been you, for I
cannot imagine anyone coming to me with that kind of slander at our
historians.
Of course, that
is the kind of propaganda Hitler spread about us. That imbecile - he nearly gave it to us. I trusted him and the peace treaty that he
signed with us, yet he crossed me and betrayed us all. I couldn’t recover for
days from the shock of his invasion.
When he proved to be unstoppable in the first few months, and we were so
close to giving in, I nearly fell on my knees in prayer. Would you believe it, me, the atheist, who abandoned
a seminary to become a communist, and killed people for their belief in God,
praying to God for help in my hour of need? Don’t you think that’s funny? Imagine what my enemies would do with this
kind of knowledge, but how are they ever going to know about it?
Coming to think about it, would
any of you ever betray me? See I trust you with my innermost secrets because I
regard you as my friends. Well, I don’t
think I need to remind you what would happen to you if you ever crossed me? Think of Trotski. He was a lot stronger than any of you. He had the army under him, but it amounted to
nothing, because I had the brains and the ideology. And in this country he who is faithful to the
ideology wins. Think what would have
happened if Hitler had won the war, where would you all be now? You would all be in big trouble, wouldn't
you? Or maybe you would have changed
your colors too. Would you? Would you have become traitors and changed
your allegiance from communism to National Socialism? I see, you’ve all lost your voices now.
This is getting serious;
why isn't anyone saying anything? Why are you all suddenly afraid to
speak?”
Startled by the silence,
Stalin turned around and faced the panel.
He looked intently at the people behind it, rubbed his eyes, and then
looked again. His face tuned red and he
shouted angrily: “Who are you? I don’t recognize any of you?”
The panel remained silent,
some smiling in anticipation of what he might do when he realized where he was.
He turned around, walked
briskly to the window, pulled the veil aside, and then remained transfixed for
a few minutes. He could not believe his
eyes. Was it a dream; was it reality,
what was this?
Through heavy falling snow
he could see the stooped silhouettes of human beings laboring heavily in a
Siberian labor camp. Among them, he
could recognize many of his friends and comrades in arms: Lenin, Beria,
Molotov, others from his Politburo.
Stunned and in disbelief,
his legs began to weaken and his face changed from red to pale. He turned around, faced the panel again, and
said in a weakening voice: “All right,
guys, who are you? Why did you deceive
me? Why did you let me reveal all those
state secrets? What power do you represent and who conquered my empire and
turned things up-side down like this?”
“No one deceived you,
Stalin”, answered Apostle Paul. “You
never gave anyone a chance to speak.
Wasn’t this the rule in your empire? When you spoke, no one was allowed,
no one dared, to interrupt you. So we
let you speak your heart out. Out of
your own mouth you revealed the crimes of which you are guilty, and the
punishment you deserve.”
“I see, so this is the
judgment of God, is it? I should have
known. No earthly power could have
overturned my empire. I should have realized
that God had a hand in this disaster.
Well, if you represent God, and if God really exists, why did you not
reveal yourselves to us and stop us from committing all those crimes?”
“God gave everyone an
equal chance. It was a matter of trust,
faith and belief. God revealed Himself
to those who obeyed Him, who loved and worshiped Him, and who endured patiently
the trials that you subjected them to.
You started well, but then changed and became a deadly enemy to God’s
people. Like everyone else, you had the
Bible, and a lot of people who were willing to show you the way. But instead of listening to them, you
tortured them, killed them, and threw them in freezing prisons and
concentration camps from which few came out alive. Now it’s your turn to taste that
medicine.”
To everyone’s
astonishment, Stalin fell on his knees pleading for his life. “I am sorry; I did not know that there would
be a judgment. Forgive me, please! If I had known I would not have done what I
did.”
“But would it be fair to
your victims if we forgave you?
Nevertheless, since we cannot turn our backs on people who seek
forgiveness, we will do a deal with you.
We will show you as much mercy and forgiveness as you have shown to all
of your victims put together. Surely,
that would be enough to save you and your comrades. Fair enough, isn’t it?”
“I suppose you expect me
to say that this fair, but I know that this won’t save us. We never showed mercy and forgiveness to
anyone.”
“To no one? You mean to
say that in all the years that you ruled that empire, you never forgave and
showed mercy to anyone?”
“Mercy? We did not build
our empire on mercy, we built it on terror!
Those who showed mercy to their victims became victims themselves. I do not know how your empire can survive if
you built it on mercy?”
“Not only mercy, Stalin,
but love, charity, truth, humility, justice, sacrifice, and whatever other
virtues there are that make life worth living.
Had you tried these things, your “invincible empire” would not have collapsed
like a house of cards, or a castle built on sand.
You didn’t practice these
things because you were evil. You were
bent on destroying people not on building them. You deserve harsher punishment
that we can give you.”
Turning to the guards
nearby, Apostle Paul said: “Take this
creature out of my sight and put him where he belongs, alongside his beloved
friends and comrades in that labor camp.
Let them rot in there until their days come to an end and then finish
them off in the lake of fire. Then let
their names be removed from the Book of the Living and never be heard of again
forever.”
JESUS’ “JUDGMENT”
At the next meeting,
Apostle John, who was sitting near Jesus Christ, opened a little magazine and
said: “Lord, have you seen what the ‘free moral agents’ want to do to
you?”
“What, John?”
“They want to judge You
again.”
“Do they? And why, pray
tell, would they want to do that to Me?”
“Because You let their little sister die, because You did not stop
the massacres in places like Bosnia, Somalia and Rwanda, because You allowed
famine and disease in the world and, strangely enough, because you gave them
the freedom to choose between good and evil.”
“Really? And who are those ‘free moral agents’?”
“The
Seventh Day Adventists.”
“The Seventh Day
Adventists? Let Me see!”
“Lord, I ... don’t
... think it is a good idea to read
this.”
“Why not?”
“You won’t like it. They
say nastier things than these.”
“Like what?”
“They call Your work a
''messy thing'', they doubt Your wisdom, they question Your ways, they want to
know why You created Satan, why You did not destroy Adam and Eve, why was it
important for humans to choose between good and evil, etc.”
“Let Me have that
magazine” said Jesus Christ angrily as He took it from John’s hands. Then He
read this article:
“No harps for me” . . . “I have so many questions to ask of
Jesus. Why did my older sister have to
die when she was born? Why does anybody
have to die? I'm angry about death and I
want some answers. I'm looking forward
to the time when Jesus can tell me why.
And what about events like the killings in Bosnia and Somalia and
Rwanda, and what of famine and AIDS? Why
is there pain and suffering? I believe
that Jesus is all-powerful. So if He's
all-powerful why can't He - won't He - stop things like Rwanda from
happening? Sure there's a war going on
between good and evil. But sometimes it
seems like evil is winning.
I get really frustrated
because I know Jesus could stop it all right now if He wanted to. Which brings me to the main reason why the
second coming is important to me. For
most of my life I’d thought that when Jesus comes back all the people who ever
lived would be judged. I thought that
was the reason for the second coming.
But it's almost the opposite. I’ve gradually come to the realization
that what is really going to happen is we're going to judge Jesus. We’re going to look at Him and ask Him those
questions.
Why did He even make
Satan? Why did He let sin happen in the
first place? Was His way of handling the
whole messy business the best way? Why
didn't He just wipe Adam and Eve out?
Was it really important that human beings be free to choose between good
and evil? Look at the massive suffering that’s happened in this world because
we were given free choice. I'm really
looking forward to the second coming of Jesus.
I don't expect it to be easy.
After all, it's the end of the world.
But I will finally get to be
with Jesus. I can ask Him all those
questions. I can thank Him for dying for
me. But best of all, I'll be able to
relax in His closeness. Jesus is going
to be there. And I'm going to be there
with Him.” (Trudy Rankin, “No Harps for Me”, Signs of the Times, Vol. 110, No 6, p.43).
“So, this is what those
who call themselves My ministers are writing in their publication. And they call it Signs of the Times”. A more
appropriate name would be, Signs of the Adventist Church.”
“What signs would these
be, Lord?”
“Blasphemy, ignorance,
Satanism. They plant doubt in people’s
hearts about God’s ways and wisdom just as Satan planted doubt in Adam and
Eve’s hearts about God’s intentions in the Garden of Eden. And are they so ignorant about the purpose of
human life that they don’t know why God created Satan? Don't they know that human beings have to undergo
certain trials in order to qualify for eternal life in a better world? Who can provide those trials if not Satan?
Like those academic
theologians, they consider this world to be a finished product and an end in
itself. They do not know that this is a
temporary world designed to prepare people for eternal life in the Kingdom of
God. Nor do they know the power of God,
how He can resurrect people and reward or punish them in accordance with the
kind of life they lived. Have they
forgotten that before that little girl became their sister she belonged to God
and that He can do what He wants with His creation? As for the suffering in the world, has anyone
suffered more than I have? Yet did I
question God’s ways or complain that He gave Me over
to be crucified by wicked people? And for what, for My sins?
No, for theirs, yet they want to judge Me
again. What did I say in My moment of grief: “Father, if it is Your will, take this
cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.’’ (Luke
22:42). And before I gave up My soul, I prayed to the Father and said, “Father, forgive
them, for they do not know what they do.'' (Luke 23:34). Now, instead of being grateful for having had
their sins forgiven, and the threat of death removed from them, they question
God’s wisdom, and want to judge me again. Well, we shall see who will judge
whom.
They think that they are
smart by not addressing their questions to God but to Me,
thinking perhaps that they are safe from committing blasphemy. No doubt they remember these words of Mine:
“Therefore I say to you,
every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the
Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone
who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever
speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age
or in the age to come.” (Matt 12:30-32).
When I was in the world I
was the Son of Man. I showed human
beings what they could become if they followed Me. At that time, when they did not know who I
was, they were forgiven for speaking against Me, for thinking that I was just
another person. But now it is
different. They know, or should know,
that after I was resurrected I became One with My Father. Why do you think I commanded you not to tell
anyone who I was when We came down from the mountain? Remember?
“Now as they came down
from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, ‘Tell the vision to no one until the Son of
Man is risen from the dead.’'' (Matt 17:9).
It was to save people from
committing blasphemy. But after I was
perfected and raised to heaven, it became a common knowledge that I was more
than the Son of Man, I was the Son of God, I was God. Therefore when they speak against Me now, they
offend the Father and the Holy Spirit.
And why do they do it? Because
they neither know, nor believe the Scriptures.
Their ignorance will cause them to lose their salvation.
“Which Scriptures are You
referring to, Lord?"
“These:
“But indeed, O man, who
are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it,
‘Why have you made me like this?’ Does not the potter have power over the clay,
from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?”
(Rom. 9:20-21).
And these:
“If a man begets a hundred
children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his
soul is not satisfied with goodness, or indeed he has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better than he--for
it comes in vanity and departs in darkness, and its name is covered with
darkness. Though it has not seen the sun
or known anything, this has more rest than that man, even if he lives a
thousand years twice--but has not seen goodness. Do not all go to one place?”
(Eccl. 6:3-6).
And these:
“And He said to me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ So I
answered, ‘O Lord GOD, You know.’
Again He said to me, ‘Prophesy to these bones, and say to
them, “O dry bones, hear the word of the
LORD!
‘Thus says the Lord GOD to
these bones: “Surely I will cause breath
to enter into you, and you shall live.
I will put sinews on you
and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you; and you
shall live. Then you shall know that I am the LORD.’”’” So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I
prophesied, there was a noise, and suddenly a rattling; and the bones came
together, bone to bone. Indeed, as I
looked, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them
over; but there was no breath in them.
Then He said to me, ‘Prophesy to
the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, “Thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Come from the four winds, O breath, and
breathe on these slain, that they may live.’”’” So I prophesied as He commanded me, and
breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an
exceedingly great army. Then He said to
me, ‘Son of
man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They indeed say, “Our bones are dry,
our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off!”
Therefore prophesy and say
to them, ‘Thus
says the Lord GOD: “Behold, O My people,
I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves, and bring
you into the land of Israel. Then you
shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and
brought you up from your graves. I will
put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own
land. Then you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken it and performed it,''
says the LORD.' '' (Ezek.
''Don’t these Scriptures
and many more, make it clear that this life is not the end of it all? As I said, they don’t know that this life is
but a preparation for something better, that God will resurrect young and old
alike and judge them. The people who
have died young are in a better position than those who have grown old and
remained ignorant.
These people have not only
wasted their life, but also put it to an evil use. Their writings raise doubt in people’s hearts
about God’s power, ways and wisdom. Doubt,
being the opposite of faith, is the enemy of Christianity, and the death of
humanity. What do the Scriptures say
about those who do not believe?
“‘Then the Jews surrounded
Him and said to Him, ‘How long do You
keep us in doubt? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.’ Jesus answered them, ‘I told you, and you do not believe. The
works that I do in My Father's name, they bear witness of Me. But you do not believe, because you are not
of My sheep, as I said to you. My sheep
hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall
never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is
greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand. I and My Father are one.’
Then the Jews took up
stones again to stone Him. Jesus
answered them, ‘Many good works I have
shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?’ The Jews answered Him, saying, ‘For a good work we do not stone You, but for
blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God.’ Jesus answered them, ‘Is it not written in your law, "I said, ‘You are gods’”? If He called them gods, to whom the word of
God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), do you say of Him whom the
Father sanctified and sent into the world, "You are blaspheming,' because
I said, "I am the Son of God’”? If
I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do, though you
do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the
Father is in Me, and I in Him.’”
Therefore they sought
again to seize Him, but He escaped out of their hand. And He went away again beyond the Jordan to
the place where John was baptizing at first, and there He stayed. Then many came to Him and said, ‘John performed no sign, but all the things
that John spoke about this Man were true.’
And many believed in Him there.” (John 10:24-42).
These people do not
believe in Me, for if they did they would believe the Scriptures and would know
this:
“For behold, I create new
heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered or come to
mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in
what I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing, and her people a
joy. I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and
joy in My people; the voice of weeping shall no longer
be heard in her, nor the voice of crying.
No more shall an infant from
there live but a few days, nor an old man who has not fulfilled his days; for
the child shall die one hundred years old, but the sinner being one hundred
years old shall be accursed. They
shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their
fruit. They shall not build and another
inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for as the days of a tree, so
shall be the days of My people, and My elect shall long enjoy the work of their
hands. They shall not labor in vain, nor
bring forth children for trouble; for they shall be the descendants of the
blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them. It shall come to pass that before they call,
I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together,
the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent's food.
They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy
mountain,’ says the LORD.” (Isa. 65:17-25).
Had these people
understood My parables of the talents (Matt. 25), they would have known that
ignorance is not the way to salvation. Those who grow in knowledge and
spiritual understanding receive ample reward, but those who make no profit will
lose even what they have.
They are asking about the
events in Bosnia and Rwanda, and the pain, suffering and evil in the world, and
say that, “sometimes it seems like evil is winning.” Have I not told them that My Kingdom is not
of this world, that these things will happen before I return to take those who
believe in Me to where I am? (Matt.
24;
Why do they want Me to get involved in a world that is not Mine, but
Satan’s? What did Satan say when he
tempted Me?
“Then the devil, taking
Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment
of time. And the devil said to Him, ‘All this authority I will give You, and
their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I
wish. Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours.’ And Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written,
"You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall
serve.”’” (Luke 4:5-8).
This world was created the
way it is and was given over to Satan so that people may aspire for a better
world. Those who have set their heart on
this world cannot enter the Kingdom of God.
Isn't this what the Scriptures say?
"We must through many
tribulations enter the kingdom of God.'' (Acts 14:22).
“My brethren, take the
prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and
patience. Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the
perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord-- that the Lord is
very compassionate and merciful.” (James 5:10-11).
“For this is commendable,
if because of conscience toward God one endures grief, suffering wrongfully. For what credit is it if, when you are beaten
for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you
take it patiently, this is commendable before God. For to this you were called, because Christ
also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps:
Who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth; who, when He was
reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but
committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; who Himself bore our sins in
His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for
righteousness-- by whose stripes you were healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but
have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” (1 Pet 2:19-25).
“And do not seek what you
should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind. For all these things the nations of the world
seek after, and your Father knows that you need these things. But seek the kingdom of God, and all these
things shall be added to you. Do not
fear, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the
kingdom. Sell what you have and give
alms; provide yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in the
heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor
moth destroys. For where your treasure
is, there your heart will be also.”
(Luke 12:29-34).
These people’s heart is
set on this world, therefore this is what they shall have. And to those who want to judge Me again, and question
My ways and My wisdom, this is My answer:
“It is impossible for
those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have
become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and
the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to
repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him
to an open shame.” (Heb. 6:4-6).
ADAM AND
EVE’S SIN REVEALED
Lord, what about Adam and Eve?
There seems to be a lot of confusion in people’s minds about their sin. You saw what the Seventh Day Adventists
said:”
“Why did He even make
Satan? Why did He let sin happen in the
first place? Was His way of handling the
whole messy business the best way? Why
didn't He just wipe Adam and Eve out?
Was it really important that human beings be free to choose between good
and evil? Look at the massive suffering that’s happened in this world because
we were given free choice.”
“You
know that certain sections of the Bible are written in symbolic language and
require interpretation”, said Jesus Christ. “Such is the case with the book of
Genesis. The tree of life is symbolic,
the tree of knowledge of good and evil is symbolic, the snake is symbolic, and
so on. But all these things could be
understood in light of ulterior developments and revelations.
The idea that the
forbidden tree was an apple is a late invention and it is not true. There was
no literal tree of life or tree of knowledge of good and evil. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if people could just
eat of a fruit and attain eternal life?
I went into the world to show them that eternal life can be achieved
only through the death of the old self and the rebirth of a new person. That way, death no longer has any power over
a person.
""Most
assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and
dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it, and he
who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and
where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father
will honor. Now My soul is troubled,
and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me
from this hour'? But for this purpose I came to this hour. ‘Father, glorify Your name.’ Then a voice
came from heaven, saying, ‘I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.”
(Jn. 12:24-28).
“True Lord, but what these
people are saying is that if Adam and Eve had not sinned, if they had not been
given the freedom to choose between life and death, there would have been no
need for You to come into the world and die, nor for anyone else to die.”
"Yes, I know that
this is what they are saying, but they say so because they do not know the
Scriptures. Does not the Bible tell them
that I was predestined to die for the sins of the world before the world was
created?'
"And now, O Father,
glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.”
“Father, I desire that
they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My
glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.” (John 17:5,24).
“Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual
blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we
should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to
adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of
His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us
accepted in the Beloved.” “In Him also
we have obtained an inheritance, being
predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according
to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to
the praise of His glory.” (Eph. 1:3-6, 11-12).
“For we who have believed
do enter that rest, as He has said: ‘So
I swore in My wrath, they shall not enter My rest,’ although the works were finished from the foundation
of the world.” (Heb. 4:3).
''And if you call on the
Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves
throughout the time of your stay here in fear; knowing that you were not
redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless
conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of
Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the
world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe
in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and
hope are in God. Since you have purified
your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the
brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed
but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever.” (1
Pet 1:17-23).
So then, if the works of
God were finished from the foundation of the world and I had been foreordained
to die for the sins of the world before the world was, if God has chosen His
people before the foundation of the world and has determined that they must be
born again in order to receive the Holy Spirit and made ready for eternal life,
how can anyone say that things could have been different if Adam and Eve had
not sinned? Is it not obvious that I
died for their sins too, and that they were expected to sin? How did God know that they were going to
sin? He knew it from the fact that they
did not have the Holy Spirit. They had
the spirit of the world, a spirit which is in bondage to Satan and not obedient
to God. Notice:
“Because the carnal mind
is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can
be. So then, those who are in the flesh
cannot please God. But you are not in
the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if
anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead
because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus
from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give
life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors-- not to
the flesh, to live according to the flesh.
For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the
Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
For as many as are led by
the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you
received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father’.” (Rom.
8:7-15).
“The problem with Adam and
Eve was not that they sinned, but that having done so they did not face up to
their responsibility. In other words,
they did not repent of it, but blamed someone else for it.
Being the first humans
they knew that they had a greater responsibility than the people that would
follow them. When they sinned, they did
not just disobey and dishonor a human being but their Creator God. By preferring Satan’s advise to that of their
heavenly Father, they elevated Satan to equality with Him. That is why their sin can not be forgiven.”
“Lord, we understand this
now, but what about the trees? If they were not literal trees, what were they?”
“Aha, you must tell Me
this.”
They looked at each other
and shook their heads as a sign that they had no idea.
“All right boys let us get
back to the Bible. What is sin?"
said Jesus as He broke the silence.
“The breaking of the law”,
answered Apostle Paul.
"Right Paul. Now
which law did they brake? Let us discuss every commandment.
‘You shall have no other
gods before Me.’ (Ex. 20:2-3). Could
they have broken this commandment?”
“They did accept Satan
before God, but the context of their rebellion indicates that this was not
their sin.”
“Correct!
What about the second commandment: ‘You shall not make for yourself a
carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is
in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not
bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God,
visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth
generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who
love Me and keep My commandments.” (Ex. 20:4-6).
“This was not their sin
either. They had no reason to make any
idols, and probably did not know how to make them anyway. ”
“Right again. What about the third commandment: ‘You shall not take the name of the LORD your
God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in
vain.” (Ex. 20:7).
“No, this wasn’t their sin
either” answered Apostle Paul.
“And the fourth
commandment? ‘Remember the Sabbath day,
to keep it holy.’ (Ex. 20:8).
“Clearly, this was not
their sin either”, answered Apostle Thomas.
“Right, Thomas! So then, the first four commandments, which
regulate man's relationship with God, were not the cause of Adam and Eve’s
fall. Therefore their sin must have come from breaking one of the commandments
which regulate human relationships, and since there were no other human beings
on earth it must have had something to do with the relationship between
them. So what could they have done that
constituted such a grievous sin? Which
commandment did they break?”
“None of them seem to have
been broken, Lord,” said Apostle Thomas again.
“Can you explain,
Thomas?”
“Well, the fifth
commandment says: ‘Honor your father and
your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God
is giving you.’ (Ex. 20:12). They had no
human parents, therefore this commandment is ruled out.
The sixth
commandment: ‘You shall not murder’ (Ex.
20:13), could not have been broken because they had no one to murder.
The seventh commandment:
‘You shall not commit adultery.’ (Ex. 20:14), could not have been broken
because there was no one to commit adultery with. The eighth commandment against stealing (Ex.
20:15), the ninth against bearing false witness (Ex. 20:16), and the tenth
against coveting the things that belong to one's neighbor (Ex. 20:17), could
not have been broken for exactly the same reasons - there was no one against
whom they could have done these things.''
“So they did not sin
then?'' said Jesus.
“No, Lord, they did sin,
but we cannot tell how?”
“Tell Me Thomas, and also
the rest of you, were these the only commandments God gave humanity? What about the laws regarding sexual conduct
in the book of Leviticus and elsewhere?
What did Adam and Eve do immediately after they sinned?”
“They hid themselves from
God, they covered their sex organs, and became shameful.”
“Right! Now why do you think they did that
Thomas?”
“Perhaps because their sin
was of a sexual nature?”
“Precisely! Now what could two human beings - a husband
and wife, in this case - do that would constitute sin?”
“Oh, no. I can’t believe it ... they didn’t!”
“They didn’t what,
Thomas," asked Apostle Peter.
“Can’t you see it, Peter?”
“See what?”
Jesus and the Father
smiled as the two Apostles engaged in a little fracas.
“Can’t you see why they
covered their sex organs and became shameful? They committed sodomy and felt
dirty, that’s why.”
They gasped in disbelief
and fell back in their seats.
“But what about the Garden
of Eden and the trees of life and of the knowledge of good and evil. What are
they, Lord?" asked Thomas.
“Symbolically, the Garden
of Eden is the woman” answered Jesus.
“Her sexual organ represents the tree of life - that’s where life comes
from with human beings. Her anal organ represents
the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Good when it is used for the purpose for which God intended it; evil
when it is used unnaturally.
Eve allowed Satan to plant
doubt in her heart about God’s intentions.
He made her feel curious about sodomy.
She started wondering why God would want to prevent them from doing
something that would make them wise?
The more she toyed with the idea that by sinning they would become wise
and immortal like God, the more difficult it became to withstand Satan's
influence. In the end she decided to
"liberate" herself and her husband from the ‘shackles’ imposed by God
and told Adam about it. Adam shuddered
at her suggestion at first, but faced with her rebellion and insistence he
relented and did what she wanted.
Now although this sin is
not specifically listed among the Ten Commandments, there are plenty of
warnings in the Bible of what happens to those who engage in it. This sin is so abhorrent in the eyes of God,
that those who practice it place themselves outside the human realm. Nevertheless, there is hope for those who
repent of it. Remember what I said when
I was into the world?
“Then He began to rebuke
the cities in which most of His mighty works had been done, because they did
not repent:
‘Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe
to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in
you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in
sackcloth and ashes. But I say to
you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the Day of Judgment than
for you. And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades; for if
the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have
remained until this day. But I say to
you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the Day of
Judgment than for you.’ At that time
Jesus answered and said, ‘I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and
have revealed them to babes. Even so,
Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight.’” (Matt 11:20-26).
“So, those who have been
entrapped by Satan, but who repent, have nothing to fear - they will be
cleansed of their sins through faith like everyone else. I have died for all sinners, and I have power
to save all who repent and believe in My power of salvation.
Satan was very fond of
this sin. It could have stopped humanity
in its tracks before it even had a chance to establish itself. But God intervened and restrained him, and
gave humanity another chance. Don't you
know what happened in the world by the time of the end? This sin became so widespread, it was even
defended by legislation by national and international governing bodies, so that
it became a crime to speak against it.
Those who did so paid heavily for it.
This is why the world had to be cleansed a second time - only that this
time it would be by fire not by water.”
WHOSE ‘TOYS’ ARE
WE?
Apostle John, who was shuffling through
the pages of another magazine, turned to the Father this time and said:
“Father, have You seen
what the Charismatics are preaching?”
“What, John?”
“That they are not Your
‘toys’, and that salvation must be a matter of choice.”
“Oh, really? And who are these Charismatics, John?”
“Those whom Paul taught to
babble in tongues.”
“What are you talking
about?” jumped Apostle Paul.
“Don’t tell me you do not
know what they have done with your writings?” answered Apostle John.
“They have done what? You are in charge of the library and the
archives, so tell us.”
“They babble like mad when
they come together and say that it is the spirit who inspires them to do
so.”
“Inspired by a spirit they
may be, but not by the Holy Spirit. Did
I not tell them that if there are people who speak in foreign tongues they must
do so in an orderly manner and not unless there are other people who can
interpret?
“Therefore if the whole
church comes together in one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come
in those who are uninformed or unbelievers, will they not say that you are out
of your mind?”
“If anyone speaks in a
tongue, let there be two or at the most three, each in turn, and let one
interpret. But if there is no interpreter, let him keep silent in church, and
let him speak to himself and to God.” (1 Cor. 14:23, 27-28).
“O, they have
interpreters, no worry about that. They bubble too.”
“But if they babble in
incomprehensible tongues, what do they interpret, and who understands
them?”
“That is what I would like
to know too.”
“That vile creature,
Satan, twisted my words and deceived these people just as he deceived Adam and
Eve.''
“Let Me read what these
Charismatics are saying" said Jesus as He grabbed the magazine from John’s
hand.
“Priceless Pearls.
Did you make any resolutions this New Year? Is there some old
acquaintance, some continuing problem or past failure, that you'd like to
forget?
In a court of law, you
have to pay the price for the past. New
Year resolutions and singing "should auld acquaintance be forgot"
won't save you. Even if the judge wants
to be merciful, you can't go scot-free.
The judge has to make you an example of what happens when people do
wrong.
In God's court you can receive both justice and mercy. He wants to make
you an example of what happens when people do good. He knows all the problems and all the
failings. He longs to make all things
new. But we're not His toys - it has to be our
choice. We have to choose to plead
guilty and accept that He paid our price on the cross. We
have to choose to bury the past and ask Him to make all things new.
"And I will not
remember your sins. Put Me in
remembrance; Let us contend together; State your case, that you may be
acquitted." (David Green, The
Berowra Telegraph, NSW, May 16,
1996; emphasis added).
“I see”, said Jesus when
He finished reading it. “First they are
encouraging people to keep Pagan observances such as their ‘New Year’, then
they preach that people must be able to choose:
“Choose to plead guilty” and “choose to bury the past”, because “we are
not His toys - it has to be our choice”.
“Well, if they want to
choose I will let them choose. Then I
will see how good their choosing has been.
This preacher does not know that people can’t choose to be saved, that
it has to be an initiative from God:
“No one can come to Me
unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last
day.”
“Therefore I have said to
you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My
Father.'' ( John 6: 44, 65).
“For by grace you have
been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
not of works, lest anyone should boast.” (Eph. 2:8-9).
“Like Adam and Eve, they
do not want to trust Me and rely on Me for their salvation”, said the Father.
“They want to be able to make their own choice - they want to be ‘free moral
agents’. So let them be! Satan wanted to
be a free moral agent too, and ever since he has been teaching those who listen
to him to follow suit.
If they want to be able to
choose, we must give them that opportunity.
They have already distinguished themselves by ‘choosing’ to babble in
tongues, as if I do not understand normal languages. Have I not created people's tongues? What makes them think that I am happy to
listen to their unintelligible utterances?
Since they did not want to
be My ‘toys’, they will find out in due course whose ‘toys’ they
became."
With this, the Father
adjourned the meeting until next time.
DIVINE JUSTICE
At the next meeting,
Abraham, who has been following the proceedings quietly in his corner, looked
to the Father and said:
“Father, can I also ask
you a question?”
“Of course, My friend!”
“We, who lived in the Old
Testament times, are somewhat in the dark about many of these things for we did
not have the knowledge that became available in the New Testament. I am still having difficulty understanding
one thing. The Scriptures say that You show no
partiality with anyone (Rom. 2:11), and that You desire all men to be saved and
to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim 2:4)?”
“Not only do I desire them
to be saved, I make sure that they are
being saved", said the Father.
Notice:
“For I am persuaded that
neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things
present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing,
shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our
Lord.” (Rom. 8:38-39).
“But, Father, if some
people are predestined to be saved and others to be damned, doesn't this go
against the principle of impartiality?”
“I condemn no one to
death, son! They condemn themselves. I
cannot save those who do not believe.”
“‘Whoever believes on Him
will not be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek,
for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For ‘whoever calls
on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’'' (Rom. 10:11-13).
“Those who do not call on
the name of the Lord cannot be saved.
Salvation is for those who are righteous, and righteousness comes
through faith. You yourself gave them a
good example. Have you seen what Paul
wrote about you?
“What then shall we say
that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has
something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture
say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was
accounted to him for righteousness.’ Now
to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him
who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is
accounted for righteousness, just as David also describes the blessedness of
the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works: ‘Blessed are those
whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; Blessed is the
man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin’ . . . For the promise that he would be the heir of
the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the
righteousness of faith.” (Rom. 4:1-8, 13).
“I understand this Father,
and yet the Scriptures also say that faith is a gift of God: ‘For by grace you have been saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.’ (Eph. 2:8). Why then is this gift made available to some
and not to others?”
“Oh, you are mistaken
here, Abraham. This gift is made
available to all human beings, but not all of them avail themselves of it. Have a look at this parable.
“A certain nobleman went
into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. So he called ten of his servants, delivered
to them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Do
business till I come.’
But his citizens hated him,
and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We will not have this man to reign
over us.'
And so it was that when he
returned, having received the kingdom, he then commanded these servants, to
whom he had given the money, to be called to him, that he might know how much
every man had gained by trading. Then
came the first, saying, ‘Master, your mina has earned ten minas.' And he said to him, ‘Well done, good servant;
because you were faithful in a very little, have authority over ten
cities.' And the second came, saying,
‘Master, your mina has earned five minas.'
Likewise he said to him, ‘You also be over five cities.' Then another came, saying, ‘Master, here is
your mina, which I have kept put away in a handkerchief. For I feared you,
because you are an austere man. You collect what you did not deposit, and reap
what you did not sow.'
And he said to him, ‘Out
of your own mouth I will judge you, you wicked servant. You knew that I was an
austere man, collecting what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not
sow. Why then did you not put my money
in the bank, that at my coming I might have collected it with interest?' And he said to those who stood by, ‘Take the
mina from him, and give it to him who has ten minas.' (But they said to him, ‘Master, he has ten
minas.') For I say to you, that to
everyone who has will be given; and from him who does not have, even what he
has will be taken away from him. But
bring here those enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, and
slay them before me.' '' (Luke 19:12-27).
“This parable shows that
everyone receives the same gift. The next one shows why some people make good
use of it while others don’t.”
“Behold, a sower went out
to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and
devoured them. Some fell on stony
places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up
because they had no depth of earth. But
when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they
withered away. And some fell among
thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. But others fell on good
ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who
has ears to hear, let him hear!
And the disciples came and
said to Him, ‘Why do You speak to them in parables?’
He answered and said to
them, ‘Because it has been given to you
to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been
given. For whoever has, to him more will
be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he
has will be taken away from him.
Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see,
and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.
And in them the prophecy
of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: ‘Hearing
you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not
perceive; For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of
hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes
and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and
turn, so that I should heal them.' But
blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; for assuredly,
I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see,
and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. Therefore hear the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom,
and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what
was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside. But he who received the seed on stony places,
this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has
no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or
persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.
Now he who received seed
among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the
deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. But he who
received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it,
who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some
thirty.'' (Matt 13:3-23).
“Right, Father! So if I understand it right, all human beings
receive gifts which they are expected to put to good use and increase their
value. Some do and some don’t. Those whose seed fall on good ground and
bring forth fruits are the ones who are predestined to be saved, and those who
have no depth, whose seed falls by the wayside, on stony places or among thorns
are the ones who become unfruitful and are damned.”
“Right! Now what is wrong
with that?”
“But if their fate is
determined before they are born, what about those who end up being
damned?”
“This has been a great
mystery, Abraham. And yet the answer has
been in the Scriptures all along. Take a
look at this
parable now:
“The kingdom of heaven is
like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy
came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced
a crop, then the tares also appeared. So
the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed
in your field? How then does it have tares?'
He said to them, ‘an enemy
has done this.' The servants said to
him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?' But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up
the tares you also uproot the wheat with them.
Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I
will say to the reapers, ‘First gather together the tares and bind them in
bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.’” (Matt 13:24-30).
“So what does this tell
you, Abraham?”
“That some human beings
are not your people. But if they are not
yours, whose people are they, Father?”
“Well, again, what do the
Scriptures say in this regard?
“You are of your father
the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from
the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in
him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar
and the father of it.” (John 8:44).
“O full of all deceit and
all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not
cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord?” (Acts
13:10).
“He who sins is of the
devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of
God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” (I Jn. 3:8).
“Certain men, the children
of Belial, are gone out from among you, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of
their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which ye have not known.”
(De. 13:13, KJV).
“Now the sons of Eli were
sons of Belial; they knew not the LORD.” (1 Sam 2:12, KJV)
“But Father, what is the
difference between one human being and another, between Your children and Your
Adversary’s children? How would one
know who is who?”
“The Scriptures tell you the
difference. Notice:
“Enter by the narrow gate;
for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there
are many who go in by it. Because narrow
is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who
find it. Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they
are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do
men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit,
but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good
tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is
cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know
them.
Not everyone who says to
Me, "Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the
will of My Father in heaven.
Many will say to Me in
that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in
Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?'
And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you
who practice lawlessness!’” (Matt 7:13-23).
“Two important things are
emphasized in this passage: first, that human beings are known by their fruits,
and second, that although they all look alike on the outside, they are not all
human beings on the inside.”
“What are they LORD?”
“Whatever the Scripture
calls them:
“Therefore take heed to
yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you
overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own
blood. For I know this, that after my
departure savage wolves will
come in among you, not sparing the flock.
Also from among yourselves men will rise up,
speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves.” (Acts
20:28-30).
“Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and
tear
you in pieces.” (Matt
7:6).
“Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil,
speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth
speaks.” (Matt 12:34).
“Woe to
you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of
heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those
who are entering to go in. Woe to you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses, and for a
pretence make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is
won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves . . . Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have neglected
the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought
to have done, without leaving the others undone. Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and
swallow a camel! Woe to you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but
inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of
the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful
outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Even so
you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of
hypocrisy and lawlessness. Woe to you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets
and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers,
we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.' Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves
that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the
measure of your fathers' guilt. Serpents, brood of vipers!
How can you escape the condemnation of hell?” (Matt 23:13-15, 23-33).
“Well, we thought that
these were just figures of speech, Father.”
“Figures of speech? Do you think that I would allow anyone to
call My children ‘savage wolves’, dogs', ‘swine’, ‘vipers’, and the like? We don’t play word games in the Bible, son. When I say that someone is a ‘savage wolf’, a
‘dog’ a 'swine', or a ‘viper’, that is what he is at heart.
These are the people who
have been predestined to be damned before they were born. They have been taking advantage of My
children from the very beginning, causing them all sorts of trials and indignities?”
“But Father, if
the Devil and his followers are responsible for these things, why did You not
destroy both him and them from the beginning?”
“Because I needed them,
son. My children could not have caused
the sufferings needed for creating the right character in their brothers -
those who were predestined to be saved.
My children are known for their love, mercy, humility, cooperation,
compassion and spirit of sacrifice, whereas Satan’s children are known for
their ruthlessness and desire to advance to comfortable positions at the
expense of those who stand on their way.
Remember what the Scriptures say:
“We must through many
tribulations enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22).
“The earth, O LORD, is
full of Your mercy; Teach me Your statutes.
You have dealt well with
Your servant, O LORD, according to Your word.
119:66 Teach me good judgment and knowledge, For I
believe Your commandments.
119:67 Before I was afflicted I went astray, But now
I keep Your word.
119:68 You are good, and do good; Teach me Your
statutes.
119:69 The proud have forged a lie against me, But I
will keep Your precepts with my whole heart.
119:70 Their heart is as fat as grease, But I
delight in Your law.
119:71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted,
That I may learn Your statutes.
119:72 The law of Your mouth is better to me Than
thousands of coins of gold and silver.”
(Ps. 119:64 – 72)
“My children know that
this has been the only way of attaining eternal life, but such talk is
foolishness with Satan’s children. My
children hated their life, but Satan’s children loved theirs. That is why the
first receive eternal life in My Kingdom, while the latter eternal damnation in
the lake of fire.”
“Now I understand why the
following Scriptures speak in these terms about Your righteousness,
Father:
“‘You are righteous, O
Lord, the One who is and who was and who is to be, because You have judged
these things. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and You have
given them blood to drink. For it is their just due.’ And I heard another from the altar
saying, ‘Even so, Lord God Almighty,
true and righteous are Your judgments.’”
(Rev 16:5-7).
“Father, would You, please,
allow me to ask You just one more question?’
“You may ask Me as many
questions as you like, Abraham."
“What would You have done
if Lucifer had not rebelled against You and become Your Adversary? Who would have created the trials needed to
develop Your children’s character?”
“Well, if it wasn’t
Lucifer it could have been Michael or Gabriel.”
“I do not
understand!”
“Isn’t it obvious, son,
that I created the Devil? After I
created the three leading cherubs I determined that one of them must become My
Adversary. And so, I gradually increased
their power, beauty and wisdom until one of them snapped. Lucifer became vain, corrupted his ways and
compared himself with Me. I then sealed
them all in that position: Michael and Gabriel became My great obedient
cherubs, and Lucifer My great Adversary.
After I unceremoniously cast him down to earth, he mobilized his angels
and rebelled against Me again. He
wanted to elevate himself to My position, but when he saw that he could not
reach Me, he went after My creation. He
caused so much havoc in the old world, I had to destroy and cleanse it of its
filthiness through a flood. That was the time of Noah’s Flood.
Satan did not realize that
in everything he did he was fulfilling My plan.
Unfortunately sometimes he went beyond what I expected, causing more
damage to the world and more pain to My children that I would have liked. Nevertheless in the end it all worked out
well. My children rose to the occasion
by withstanding his wiles, thus proving themselves worthy inheritors of eternal
life in My Kingdom.
When Satan saw that he
could not usurp My position here in heaven, he installed himself “like the Most High” in a temple down on
earth, attributing himself My title of
“Holy Father”. He did on earth
what he could not do in heaven, and from that position he deceived the whole
world.”
“Father”, said Apostle
John, “if You were in control of this process and it all worked out according
to Your plan, why do the ‘free moral agents’ say that Satan created
himself? Have You seen what one of their
great prophets wrote?”
“GOD DID NOT CREATE THE
DEVIL, but a beautiful, perfect superangel.
But God did give to His angels free moral agency – minds that were free
to think and reason--the right of free choice . . . So God did NOT create a devil. He created a cherub, Lucifer--and Lucifer
transformed himself into a devil by rebellion against the Government of God!”
(H. W. Armstrong, Did God Create A Devil?
Worldwide Church of God, Pasadena, California. Emphasis in the original).
“This is part of Satan’s
deception, son. He influenced his
ministers to believe that I am a God with a broken heart, that he created
himself against My will, and that he wrecked My creation. Did you not see how
they bemoan the fact that evil appears to win the battle for the souls of human
beings, not understanding that everything has a purpose and that this world is
only of a temporary nature? Satan has
the ability to place his thoughts into the minds of his children, just as I have
the ability to place My thoughts into the minds of My children. As the Scriptures explain:
“Now when they bring you
to the synagogues and magistrates and authorities, do not worry about how or
what you should answer, or what you should say.
For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to
say.'' (Luke 12:11-12).
“You are of your father
the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer
from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth
in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a
liar and the father of it. But because I
tell the truth, you do not believe Me.” (John 8:44-45).
I placed My mind in Jesus
when He was a human being, and because He obeyed Me in all things, even to
death, He earned the right to become My Son, and My equal. Compare this with what Satan did: he wanted
to become My equal not through obedience but through rebellion. I have no problem with My children being
thought of as My equals. As long as they
understand their position and respect Me for who I am - their loving and
benevolent Father - and know that everything I created was for their benefit,
it is all right with Me. What do these
Scriptures mean?
“Let this mind be in you
which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider
it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the
form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He
humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of
the cross. Therefore God also has highly
exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name
of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and
of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence
only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear
and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His
good pleasure. Do all things without
complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children
of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among
whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that I
may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in
vain.” (Phil 2:5-16).
“This is why I subjected
My children to such intense trials and tribulations. Placing My mind in them and conditioning them
to always do what is right, and think the way I would think in any given
circumstance, has not been easy. But
when all is done and over, My children will never rebel against Me, for that
would mean I am rebelling against Myself. Nor will they remember the old
problems anymore:
“Now I saw a new heaven
and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also
there was no more sea.
Then I, John, saw the holy
city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride
adorned for her husband. And I heard a
loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Behold,
the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall
be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their
eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no
more pain, for the former things have passed away.’ Then He who sat on the throne said, ‘Behold, I make all things new.’ And He said to me, ‘Write, for these words are true and
faithful.’ And He said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega,
the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life
freely to him who thirsts. He who
overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My
son. But the cowardly, unbelieving,
abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars
shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is
the second death.'' (Rev 21:1-8).
“The problem with Satan’s
children”, continued the Father, “is that they refuse to submit themselves to the
kind of trials that would allow Me to place My mind in them. They want to be free to do what they want in
this life, and then they want to “go to heaven when they die”. To use one of their expressions: ‘they want
to have the cake and eat it too’. Sorry,
it does not work that way: it is one world or the other.
Since I cast Satan down to
earth, he believes and behaves as if he has the freedom to do what he wants,
and has inspired his servants to believe and do the same. That is why they are obsessed with 'free moral agency'. But, of course, this is only an
illusion. No one is free to do what he
wants. People either do what I inspire
them, or what Satan inspires them. My
children believe Me; his children believe him.
My children have placed their life at My disposal; his children have
placed their life at his disposal. The
tragedy comes from the fact that they all think they serve Me. They do not know
that they are deceived. But that is
their fault, for they have not tested the spirits as the Scriptures say they
should.
“Beloved, do not believe
every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false
prophets have gone out into the world.” (I Jn. 4:1).
My children know, believe
and allow Me to be in control of their lives, just as his children want to be
free to choose for themselves. In other
words, My children believe in predestination, his children believe in free
moral agency. What they do not know is
that no one can cross from one side to the other. They were all sealed to be that way from
before they were born.
One of the characteristics
of Satan’s preachers is that they always quote Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14 to
prove that he created himself against My will, but avoid like the plague the
more important, and more direct, Scriptures which prove that I was, and am, in
command of everything:
“The LORD has made all for Himself, yes, even the wicked for
the day of doom.” (Prov. 16:4).
“Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and
good?”
(Lam 3:38,
“I, even I, am He, and there is no God besides Me; I kill
and I make alive; I wound and I heal; nor is there any who can deliver from My hand.” (Deut. 32:39).
“The LORD kills and makes alive; he brings down to the grave
and brings up.
The LORD makes poor and makes rich; he brings low and lifts
up.” (1
Sam 2:6-7).
“I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and
create evil: I the LORD do all these things.” (Isa. 45:7, KJV).
“Then Moses said to the
LORD, ‘O my Lord, I am not eloquent,
neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of
speech and slow of tongue.’ So the LORD
said to him, ‘Who has made man's mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing,
or the blind? Have not I, the LORD? Now therefore, go, and I will be with
your mouth and teach you what you shall say.’'' (Exod. 4:10-12).
“Now Moses called all Israel and said to
them: ‘You have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of
Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land--the great trials
which your eyes have seen, the signs, and those great wonders. Yet the
LORD has not given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear,
to this very day.’” (Deut. 29:2-4).
“And though the Lord gives you the bread of adversity
and the water of affliction, yet your teachers will not be moved into a
corner anymore, but your eyes shall see your teachers.” (Isa. 30:20).
"They wanted to
absolve Me of every evil in the world, and in so doing they played right into
Satan’s hands. He is now feared by more
people than I am, even though the Scriptures make it clear that people ought to
fear Me not Satan.
“Oh, that they had such a
heart in them that they would fear Me
and always keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them and with
their children forever!”(Deut. 5:29).
(See also Jer. 32:37-42; Matt. 10:20; Rev. 19:5).
With this the Father
brought the meeting to an end until next time.
GOD IN THE
WORLD
At the next meeting,
Apostle Paul began by asking the Father the following question:
“Father, it must have been
a terrible experience for You to see Jesus hanging on that cross?”
“It certainly was,
son!”
“Did You ever wish that it
was You rather than Him then?”
The Father and Jesus
smiled broadly knowing very well what Apostle Paul was getting at.
“Of course, I did it,
Paul!”
“Excuse me for saying
this, but why did You not go into the world Yourself instead of sending Your
Son, Father?”
“Oh, I did that too, son!”
“I know You
did it, like when You met Abraham at the time of Sodom and Gomorrah. As the Scripture says:
“And the LORD said, ‘Because the outcry against Sodom and
Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave, I will go down now and
see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry against it that
has come to Me; and if not, I will know.’'' (Gen. 18:20-21).
“But what I mean is why
did You not go down and live the life of a human being from birth to death,
like Jesus did?”
“I did that too, son!”
“You did it? Then why don’t the Scriptures speak about You
as they speak about Jesus?”
“Oh, they speak about Me
too, but not to the same extent!”
“Which Scriptures,
Father?”
“You know, Paul, if anyone
should have known this, I would have expected it to be you.”
“Sorry, Father, this beats
me too.”
“All right, boys, I can
see that you are all in the dark about this.
Tell Me now; what is the meaning of these words?”
“The four living creatures,
each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not
rest day or night, saying: ‘Holy, holy, holy, lord God Almighty, who was and is
and is to come!’'' (Rev 4:8).
“Where do you think I was
supposed to go, on holiday? No, in the
world!”
“But then, if this refers
to You, it means that You went into the world three times. When was that,
Father?”
“Before I tell you that,
let us establish something important about this prophecy. The words, “was and
is and is to come” indicate the timing of the revelation of this prophecy. The word "is", is showing us that
it will be revealed during My second time into the world. As for its historical setting, have a look at
the following Scriptures, from the Old and the New Testaments, and tell Me what
you think they mean?”
“‘Return, O backsliding
children,’ says the LORD; ‘for I am
married to you. I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I
will bring you to Zion.’” (Jer. 3:14).
“Behold, the days are
coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah – not according to the covenant that I made with
their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the
land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them,
says the LORD. But this is the covenant
that I will make with them . . . after those days, says the LORD: I will put My
law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and
they shall be My people.” (Jer. 31:31-33).
“But now He has obtained a
more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant,
which was established on better promises.
For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have
been sought for a second… But Christ
came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more
perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but
with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained
eternal redemption. For where there is
a testament, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For Christ has not entered the holy places
made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to
appear in the presence of God for us; not that He should offer Himself often,
as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another
– He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but
now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the
sacrifice of Himself. And as it is
appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was
offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He
will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.’ (Heb. 8:6-7; 911-12, 16, 24-28).
“If I understand it right,
Father, the God of the Old Testament became the Lord of the New Testament. Because You had a
Testament with earthly Israel, You needed to die in order to be free to create
a New Testament with spiritual Israel.
Therefore Jesus Christ was none other than You. That must have been the first time You went into the world.
But when were the second and the third times,
and what purpose did they serve?”
“Very well, Paul. To answer your question you must first tell
Me what the purpose of creation is?”
“To reproduce Yourself!”
“Correct! One person became a Trinity. Three people in perfect harmony at the top
followed by a large number of children, such as you, each with their own role,
position and rank in My Kingdom. Now do
you remember the following discussion between Jesus and His disciples?
“Then the mother of
Zebedee's sons came to Him with her sons, kneeling down and asking something
from Him. And He said to her, ‘What do you wish?'' She said to Him, ‘Grant
that these two sons of mine may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on
the left, in Your kingdom.’ But Jesus
answered and said, ‘You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup
that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized
with?'' They said to Him, ‘We are
able.’ He said to them, ‘You will indeed drink My cup, and be
baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with; but to sit on My right hand
and on My left is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared
by My Father.’'' (Matt 20:20-23).
“Jesus knew about the
Trinity and spoke about it later when He told His disciples to go and make
disciples of all nations:
“And Jesus came and spoke
to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on
earth. Go therefore and make disciples
of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded
you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’ Amen.” (Matt
28:18-20).
“Jesus had a free hand to
appoint the Twelve Apostles, but He knew that the two positions, on His right and
on His left, were of a different status and rank. He knew that they were reserved for people
who would undergo the kind of trials and tribulations that He Himself did –
trials which were far greater than those reserved for the ordinary people. What did the two disciples say when Jesus
asked them whether they were able to drink the cup that He was about to drink,
and be baptized with the baptism that He was going to be baptized with? They said, ‘We are able.’ And were they able? What happened when He was arrested, judged
and crucified? Did they go and stand
alongside Him to be judged and crucified with Him? They all abandoned Him. Jesus knew that they would not be able to stand
such trials until they received the Holy Spirit, but He was not going to enter
into a long discussion with them then, for He knew that they would not have
been able to understand it anyway.
So then, the first time I
went into the world I took the identity of Jesus Christ or, as Jesus wisely put
it, the identity of a “Son of Man”.
Jesus Christ became the Savior of the world; He became My alter ego, so
to speak.
The second time, I became
Elijah, the Restorer of all things. The
third time is yet to come.”
“Can I
venture a guess here that the third time You will go into the world it will be
for the Holy Spirit, and that You will take the identity of a woman, and that
this will happen at the end of the Millennium?”
“You are absolutely right,
Paul.”
“But Father, Jesus said that,
“Elijah is coming first and will restore all things?” (Matt 17:11). If You restored all
things and You were Elijah, how were people supposed to know who You were and
listen to You?”