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I will attempt to wrap this up for now; although admittedly this is a subject which could easily call for many more postings. God in His infinite yet mysterious plans allowed for a created being to usurp 1/3 of the angels; and to deceive most of mankind throughout history. ( Matthew 7:13-14). Through the offspring mentioned in Genesis 6 he produced numerous giant beings (I can't see it being any other explanation) and therefore only Noah and his family were saved at the flood as it seems all the rest of mankind was corrupted genetically and by default morally beyond repair. (see Genesis 6:9 on Noah being "perfect in his generations"). He also later attempted the same thing on a more limited scale after the flood; resulting in Israel wiping out all the giants (with Goliath being the last one in the surrounding nations Israel had to conquer). Satan continued to attempt to wipe out all of God's people by the ordinance of Haman to wipe out all the Jews which was thwarted in Esther; the Holocaust and will almost succeed in Armageddon when half of Jerusalem is taken before Christ returns. He is the god of this world and Jesus didn't argue with him having control as a "usurper" type leader of all the Kingdoms of the world. Satan also will be given the limited short space of the last half of the Tribulation to more or less control the world but again he will fail to totally destroy the earth because God Himself makes the time short (see Matthew 24:22). Again; God is the one who allows these things; including the "strong delusion" He sends to decieve all those who didn't LOVE the truth but enjoyed unrighteousness ( 2 Thess. 2:11-12 rough translation). Once again at the end of the Millennium he has the final stand; which ends in his judgment cast into hell; and a mass of people as the sand of the sea; amazingly perishing despite seeing Christ on earth and living a utopian existance in the millennium.
I do not believe Joseph or Jesus had anything to do with the crucifixion crosses, Jesus had been 3.5 years in His ministry. There is something else you may be interested in studying that relates to the binding of Isaac which is the Tamid. The Tamid is the morning and evening daily sacrifice of Exodus 29:38-42. It parallels the day Jesus was crucified not just the day but to the hour of that day and I feel Jesus fulfilled it. They saw the Tamid/daily sacrifice as a kind of reiteration of the sacrifice of Isaac.
You may know about the Tamid and if so let me know. If not, I will try to get back to you soon maybe tomorrow with more on it.
God bless.
RLW
Man is incapable of knowing how Holy and Just God is and we're also incapable of knowing how evil man is apart from the restrainer.
We see a picture of the evil of man in Revelation when the nations take up war against the Lord.
Also look at the evil condition of their heart here in Revelation 16:9-11 while being tormented.
Also see Psalms 2:1-12.
Romans 11:33 states. "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
God gives life and he can take it!
The trouble with atheist is that they don't believe God gave life!
They have no understanding of deity.
See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.
For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever.
If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me. Deuteronomy 32:39.
God gives and he takes away.
God bless.
Ultimately; whether it be Armageddon or the final Great White throne judgment; or the individual demise of every person outside of the faith since Adam fell; the fate of unregenerate man is horrible beyond imagination. The biggest problem is that we don't know who Christ is; the eyes of those under Satan's power are blinded ( 2 Corinthians 4:4). Once we can see clearly we will be on our face; so it is better to do it now than under compulsion at judgment. The righteous also are constrained but by His love to praise and worship the Lord. The Holy Spirit when we are fully surrendered will fill our entire being with praise.
For now; it wouldn't surprise me a bit if an atheist would have less of an issue with say capital punishment as many who call themselves Christian. The Antichrist himself is called the "lawless one" and indeed at least one atheist I met was from a worldly standpoint a very "moral" person. What the law does is serve as a "schoolmaster" ( Gal. 3:24) to bring people to faith.
This explains why it is possible for the vilest sinner (such as possibly occured with Jeffrey Dahmer) to change. As Christians we shouldn't have a double standard we can exact justice to protect the innocent but still have an attitude of unconditional love and forgiveness which wouldn't be comprehended by an atheist.
Anyway another good point is that Christ never said the adage that God helps those who help themselves. If there was any other way certainly God would not have allowed His son to go through the suffering on the cross; or turn His back on Him at that instant of time. This shows sin is DEADLY serious.
Also of course 1 Corinthians 11:30 shows that even God' speople can have a shortened life living in disobedience. God delivered a man over to Satan so that at some point before death he would repent (apparently the man came to his senses and eventually was restored to fellowship). Better to make it to heaven through fire than hell.
Romans 5:12 says Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
The fact is that we are all born with Adam's sin and hence at enmity with God. Our hearts are as Jeremiah 17:9 says "desperately wicked." No one does good ( Romans 3:10-12 and in Psalms); and we are estranged from the womb ( Psalm 58:3). So the first issue is the thought that anyone is "good" which inevitably comes from comparing ourselves to another "worse" person like Hitler (unless we are that bad ourselves and we can't appeal to anyone worse; in that case we probably wouldn't want to concern ourselves with doing good deeds. Our deeds also; BTW are evil; even our best deeds as "filthy rags". ( Isaiah 64:6). This "grace Gospel" as it is known is obviously taken from Romans as a primary source but reflects many scripture verses. Or as someone once said "a hundred percent sinner needs a hundred percent savior" (can't seem to find this entire phrase quoted by anyone).
Now death; of course in the law comes in two ways; MURDER or justifiable killing whether to exact a punishment "a life for a life" (part of Deuteronomy 19:21). It also is involved with the wars and conquests of Israel with the admittedly hard verses about exterminating entire peoples including women and children in certain circumstances. The understandable aspect of this is when the descendents of the Nephilim (or angels with women producing giant hybrid offspring) were exterminated; being an aberrant being without and eternal soul perhaps the proper interpretation of Isaiah 26:14. That is a deep study; but no doubt this is easier than explaining extermination of human beings. Those nations which were conquered had common practices of child sacrifice with idol worship; therefore it could have saved the children from a worse death. Genesis 15:16 shows how God waits until iniquity is full before utter destruction.
Simple rule for a Christian is to know he is not obliged to answer every atheist. Now as a believer understand the verse "Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people." (He.2:17) Without shedding of blood there is no redemption. God did not spare His own Son and his death for for the redemption of all mankind. A Christian is one who believes in his death and resurrection. His faith and works are not apart from him but is in him "Without me you can do nothing." Thus we die to the world so we may live with him forever. From this what do you think of Godly kill? He did it because He is Love. And this kill released man from his bondage to sin and death. So the kill the atheists talk about and what God speaks of are entirely two different things.
Now what is a Thanksgiving dinner without a turkey? Turkey lives off little creatures and these little 'critters; on something else.
Laws of nature show every life-form lives off another. This is at the bottom level. Whereas the Son made himself as an intercessor for the world so whoever partook him in faith has abundant life. As God made manifest His love we are to place ourselves even as he did. This is shown in the example of Seth stepping in place of Abel who was murdered by the wicked Cain.
Psalm 28:13,
Mat 18:19-20, Mat 8:7, Psalm 31:7, Psalm 147:11,
Psalm 66:16, Psalm 31:19.
God bless you Paul. In Jesus Mighty Name. Alleluia.
God bless you Robert. In Jesus Name.
Atheists often ask why God kills or asks others to kill, despite "do not kill".
The world generally views people dying as "bad" and people living as "good", even if its extremely wicked people.
How do you defend God and the Bible when someone asks this question?
Luke 17:26-27
As it was in days of Noah,so it will be in the days of the Son of man.They ate,drank,married,gave in marriage,until the day Noah entered the ark,the flood came and destroyed them all.So"This was the"modus vivendi" in Noahs'days.
We would say it was the same 'modus vivendi' of society in recent times,say around 1950-1985,it was similar to society in the days of Noah.It was common to eat and drink with development of large malls around the world at that time,it was common the celebration of weddings,existence of strong family ties,but as time went by,it began to deteriorate morally as in the time of Noah,when the sons of GOD mixed their seed with seed of the evil ones,giving rise to a corrupt and evil society- Genesis 6:2-3, due to the proliferation of adulterers and adulteresses.And the punishment came,yes,the flood came and only 8 people were saved by the Ark.
Comparing the society of Noah's days with a posterior society of Sodom and Gomorrah,at the time of Lot,let's see the differences,according Scriptures:
Luke 17:28-30 reveal:
28 Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded;
29 But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.
30 Even thus shall it be in the day (in the current time) when the Son of man is revealed.
society of Noah's day..........................society of Sodom/Gomorrah
they ate and drank ..............................they ate and drank
they married and gave in marriage ....they bought and sold,they planted and built
Men of Sodom were wicked,immoral exceedingly,and sinners before the Lord- Genesis 13:13.There was no marriage,society was polluted of prostitutes,sodomites/ effeminate(gays),society was infested of prostitution and great sinners. The same occurs today. Lot was vexed with filthy conversations seeing and hearing their unlawful deeds- 2Peter 2:7-8 & Jude 1:6-7.
Plus another friend whose husband has been diagnosed with a form of nuropathy affecting his feet/legs hand and arm movements with unknown cause. He faces a daily battle to move.
I pray in our Lords name
The enemy of our souls has a problem (actually as sick as he is a lot of issues) but I am focusing on one in particular. He can't stand humans; in reality even those who do his bidding but is out of necessity offering many temporary pleasures to turn men away from God and in reality; of course put people into bondage. Since he can't stand God; Christ or His holiness as well as human beings the last thing he wants is to see someone be drawn to Christ's mercy and salvation through God's love. No doubt that sickens him. Some say his primary motive is to have us in hell with him. Since he hates us already having our company there isn't going to make him feel better; and of course he will be too busy suffering himself to care anyway. It may give him pleasure for now; since he misses out on such suffering until the confinement period of the Millennium is over and the final conflagration occurs; to think of men in constant agony. What he really wants as from the beginning is worship. His motive is simply overthrow of God and heaven which his demented mind still thinks can be attained; but at the same time he probably knows better since his time is short. Daniel 8:10 even seems to suggest he tramples on some of his own demonic horde when cast out of heaven in the Tribulation; likely enraged that they couldn't fight hard enough to keep his position up there any longer.
The whole Satanic mantra (Such as Aleister Crowley's "do as thou wilt") in a nutshell explains all of the enemy's tactics.
The devil only wants to serve himself. He will use his best tool music (read Isaiah 14 or Ezekiel 28) to delude the masses.
He doesn't rule over hell; at least after the cross as souls now go straight to heaven and not remain in the paradise under the earth. His contracts with people can't hold water with the shed blood on the cross of His atonement. 1 Corinthians 15:56; Romans 6:23). Christ conquered sin at Calvary.
Slavery in all it's ugly reality from the 1800s in particular in the USA is something most citizens in our nation haven't seen in the better part of 200 years. Sadly with the uncontrolled child slave labor and sex slavery today it may be closer to our backyard than we think. The reality of this should teach us a lesson in regard to how we in the spiritual dimension are basically OWNED and controlled by either Satan or Christ. This is how a book like Philemon could be written; it wasn't that cruelty was to be exonerated (as shown by other verses on the subject of slaves and masters) but it was that our spiritual state superceded whatever our earthly position happened to be in a particular time; culture or nation. John 8:33 shows the myopia of the Pharisees stating that they were never slaves despite the obvious biblical precedent from Egypt in particular as well as Babylon to some extent. The bigger problem; of course was being a slave to sin which means a soul is being held captive by Satan. It also means a soul is estranged and in enmity with God ( Romans 5:10). God is merciful and longsuffering; but that doesn't last forever without repentance.
There are many ways Satan will come after our soul but they all pretty much amount to the same thing. There are myriads of other faiths besides Christianity and the true God of the Jews in the Old Testament but they all lack definite assurances of a good afterlife; or any individual that has overcome death. They can only use methods of man in reality; whether war or conquest; philosophy; wisdom; etc. We see the same tactics of cults especially in tandem with polytheistic idol worship; these include "Kundalini" experiences; "sweat lodges"; mushrooms and other psychodelic methods of having a "spiritual" experience.
New Age no doubt uses seduction and enchantments to entice men to commit fornication; along with other "darker" spells to inflict harm.
Having explored with gravity the situation of those afflicted with emotional problems of darkness and depression we also have to look at other things such as anger; and euphoria. I cannot emphasize enough this point that I am about to make; there is NO love like God's and what His saints will share in heaven and on the new earth for all eternity. Of course Satan will stop at nothing to find ways to circumvent God's laws particularly related to marriage to find a "soulmate" on earth. Without going once again into the subject of what is considered a legitimate marriage; I will leave it at this; a marriage in the Lord is part of God's community and Christ's body on earth. While the struggle with desires of the flesh isn't something unusual; the fact that many who already in theory should be having their needs met are looking to find grass that's greener elsewhere is a peculiar trait to human beings. Somehow we think that we can shortcut God's plan; looking at Abraham and Sarah we see how well that worked when she pushed Hagar on him after the fact. The fact that some seem to find better success finding their future spouse in a bar than even an online "Christian" dating service is telling; and it seems a foreign concept to expect the Lord to provide someone simply by obediently attending church (although the demographics in my church for example are more to old folks like myself).
Looking beyond trying to find love in all the wrong places; we often forget that our other emotions (jealousy; rage; anger and other bad fruits) often get in the way of reaching out to others for a viable friendship so that anything more is snuffed out at the inception. Again; it is our own deception that makes us think we can change someone after we marry them. I would STRONGLY advise premarital counsel in the church to avoid what happened to me (a divorce after 25 years of marriage).
I have seen how uncontrolled rage can destroy.
In today's society an often soft fabric of emotionally immature individuals CAN be some advantage over the proud generations of parents and especially the grandparents from two generations ago. We see many young people brought up in church and perhaps having some childhood faith going strong into the world; but if they survive long enough they come back to their senses. The problem is of course that many are drawn into a church that appeals to their emotions or worse tickles their ears.
Of course we have the enemy taking advantage of both sides as he always does; being loyal to no one but himself but gladly pitting his subjects against each other; and if we aren't paying attention; his enemies as well.
On a personal note; I lost a friend about 13 years ago to suicide. She was bipolar; and seemed to have a viable testimony of faith. She was joyful to be around on her emotional high but I saw her once in an extreme low. Sadly she decided to stop taking medication and she was found dead a few months later. I won't detail it since where I lived someone may be familiar with it in regard to where she was found. What I will say is that in her case her emotions dictated what she felt was her necessity to stop taking meds (perhaps rationalized in her mind). I feel it is necessary to state this here because some will give advice to give everything to the Lord and quit taking medicine. I would just go to scripture and say that we should go to the physician (at that time the priests) to verify healing. This also shows that some need to have supervision; especially anything involving substance abuse or mental illness. I am certain some have in fact been able to get off medicines; but the best way we can help others at times is to make sure we are doing the best to take care of ourselves with God's guidance.
That being said; there is no doubt the enemy is behind the insane number of suicides in our nation today.
Part Two: The battle of the mind.
In my last post; I ran out of space again; but was getting into the verse where Jesus told Satan to get behind him when Peter was stating that basically going to the cross was not fit for Jesus to do. This shows how Christ expects us as His disciples to rely totally on the Spirit to allow the flesh to be dead. Luke 4:8 is the other verse where Jesus says this to Satan after the temptations in the wilderness. We see a difference between Peter then and after Pentecost as Jesus foretold after he denied knowing him. In all fairness since ALL the disciples ran off their fear for their lives superseded their love for Christ. This truly shows how only trust in the Spirit of God will enable us to face death with courage should it be in the time and place God has chosen. As I have said before it is the end of a life of obedience that Christ and in fact all the Disciples except for John met their fate; the spiritual man grows and matures through self denial and service to that point.
Our thought processes are determined merely by our old man at birth. Thus characteristic behaviors and routines develop which tend to linger with us even post salvation. There are; of course the affects of nurturing vs cruel parents; abundance or poverty in youth which the Lord is aware of but also weigh in on the enemy's game plan. Of course with the mind along with everything else the enemy attacks us with the easiest thing to do is be determined to TRUST God and reject any thought which isn't captive to His (God's) will ( 2 Corinthians 10:5); compare with 2 Timothy 2:26. We learn to recognize the enemy's patterns after hopefully only a few similar assaults at our weakest points. We learn to discern the Spirit of God which is outside of self from Satan's devices; which always appeals to the flesh and exalting self. RUN IF IT GOES AGAINST SCRIPTURE!
Thank you, brother, After the first resurrection, their judgement and rewards, Revelation 20:4 and after the 1000 years is the day of judgment for the rest of the dead. Daniel 12:2 John 5:28-29 2 Corinthians 5:10 Revelation 20:11-15.
This is our hope, and the promise God has given to us 1 Corinthians 15:51-58, those who are not the chosen and faithful in the first resurrection sleep in death until the day of judgment for all who have lived, Revelation 20:11-15.
God bless,
RLW
It also avoids presumptuous action as well as acting out before the proper time and without the direct command of God which involves a pride of sorts that Lucifer himself was brought to his downfall. In any case; what causes fear is either our own sin which God allows the enemy to torment us with and accuse us; or an unhealthy obsession with the media representation or occult practices rather than avoiding every appearance of evil. Knowing that Satan is the god of this world and offered all the Kingdoms to Christ and that everyone's name that is NOT in the book of life worships his masterpiece the Antichrist Beast we do well to heed to the warnings not to trivialize the enemy we face but to have an Ephesians 6 mindset.
Satan's "machinations"
Part One.-Self
John 12:25 states that if we love this life we will lose it and if we hate it we gain eternal life. Proverbs 16:18 says that pride comes before a fall. Jesus gave his life as a ransom for many ( Mark 10:45) and the verse begins talking about Him serving others than being served. I will discuss Matthew 16:23 next post.
Yesterday perhaps the enemy (although I suspect it is my pinkie left finger touching the esc key) caused the first part of what will probably be a lengthy dissertation on Satan's methods to be wiped out. It gave me an opportunity to think about some more stuff today. I thought an outline at present would help; perhaps finding some interest out there to detail a particular area.
Here's a brief summary of what I was starting yesterday.
1. Self-We are our own worst enemies.
Attacks on emotions; mind and soul (will present scriptures to follow).
I wanted to touch on "presumtion" along with other thought patterns within fallen man that can trip us up as well.
2. Others-Peer pressure; manipulation; flattery and any wrong done by others. This of course is rarely not associated with our own actions; particularly ruminating and fretting rather than taking things to God in prayer
3. Spiritual warfare: Again; not isolated but oppression for a believer; possession possible for non believers; and all things in the world system. This would include false religions.
4. Deception. This may be the most concerning and potent weapon the enemy has. The "Trojan horse" approach allows the enemy in the gate whether it is in our hearts or in a particular local church in general.
General thoughts before we begin the main study.
When we look at the Antichrist (Satan's main exhibit) we see characteristics of a SUBSTITUTE for as well as blatent blasphemy AGAINST the true Christ. The enemy will always work in two ways; either giving us what we want (in reality being void of real substance); OR he will directly cause persecution (usually through people and often in seemingly ordinary events) but at times goes full force. This outward persecution shows that he has failed in deception and therefore we understand why Paul said he thanked God he was worthy to suffer persecution for His Name's sake. God ultimately allows all Satan does