Our Part in God’s Plan for the Reconciliation of Man: Part I
August Company:
There are those who presently write for Rapture Ready and, of course, those few other credible commentators, both churched and unchurched as pastors/teachers, who could do this better. These are they who steadfastly refuse to compromise the Word of God. Many have spent years of literal, theological study in asking and seeking and attaining answers for these very same questions I have attempted to tackle.
Pray God that I haven’t bitten off more than I can chew as I give special thanks for sources such as Got Questions!
In the course of this commentary, I have submitted myself entirely to the hand of God. Even more so than usual, I did this in order that Satan could not beguile me. That unafraid, I would write and state what needs to be said. For just like you, Satan confronts me each and every day. And everywhere I turn, he attempts to anoint both you and me with the smothering oil of his heresies. Worse, he increasingly speaks to us from the pulpit, and we often are simply too ignorant of scripture to see either error or lie.
Attributed to the unlamented Dr Goebbels of the Third Reich is the following: “Tell the lie often and keep repeating it, and the masses will believe it.” In fact, the bigger the lie and the more pretentious, the greater the chance of its acceptance. Both Hitler and Goebbels actually accused the Jews and the English of employing this tactic when, in fact, it was the tactic of Hitler’s Third Reich: accuse the other side of what you’re actually doing (psychological projection).
Satan’s Ongoing War Against God’s Special Creation:
The preamble to our story is the Creation of man and his helpmeet, Eve, in the Garden of plenty that God created for both man, woman and the creatures he made to inhabit ‘the Garden.’ It included all the good things necessary to provide for each of them.
From the moment that God said on the sixth and thus the last day of creation (for He rested on the seventh day, prescribing it as a Shabbat Rest forever), that He would make man in ‘our’ image, Satan declared war. Hitherto, Satan, the most beautiful of the angelic host, had enjoyed a special place before the attention of God. Then God said:
“Let us make man in our image, in our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). Thus, He finished His work with a “personal touch.” God formed Adam from the dust and gave him life by sharing His own breath (Genesis 2:7).
Accordingly, humanity is unique among all God’s creations, having both a material body and an immaterial soul/spirit.
The Weapons Used By Satan:
Satan bided his time until the creation of woman and then beguiled her with blandishment and temptation, convincing her to eat the one fruit (of the knowledge of good and evil) that God had expressly said was not to be eaten. Satan did this as his attempt to destroy their special place of attention and affection that they had been given in the eyes of God.
It is widely believed that (in Satan’s view) the man Adam and his helpmeet apparently had supplanted his own place before the Throne of God. Satan is seen to have commenced his age-long war against us because of jealousy. We had, in his eyes, supplanted him.
Satan has never given up on his desire to destroy us. And that includes any attempt to restore our fallen state. His chief weapons at this time, using the media particularly, are lies and heresy. He manipulates and distorts the Word of God, specifically as it applies to the Commandments, because these rules were given mankind as a basis for a loving, worshipful, relationship with our Heavenly Father. And where believers are concerned, Satan works constantly to destroy that relationship
Satan’s Heresy to Explain Creation:
Lying heresy has always been the chief weapon favoured by Satan. And mankind has always been a sucker for a shill. Lies are the basis of fraud. Fraud is always presented in the most appealing way. Usually a positive reward is indicated to reel the sucker in. The fraudster seeds his appeal with a grain of truth and offers something, apparently for nothing, ‘out of the goodness of his or her heart.’
In its present-day form, it is heresy which now denies the very fabric that God created. Originally, God made man to rule as king over the animal kingdom and to be overseer-in-chief in his role as the husband over the Garden itself. This was prior to the LORD’S creation of the woman, Eve.
In this day and age of imminency, where Satan knows that his time is short, science and technology is his seed. Of course, he manipulates truth. Climate Change is a good example.
It cannot be proven that man (who has been around for such a short time) can possibly cause what one huge volcano can achieve in a week of huge, violent eruption. Many true scientists have argued this and produced the contrary evidence.
Satan moves quickly to instruct his minions to destroy truth in the form of any emerging contrary viewpoint. This is so his evil narrative can continue to ‘gather legs’ and be sustained amongst the gullible. The latter is made up of an increasing number of ‘deniers,’ most of whom tend to be those who also deny God Himself. And where true, proven science conducted under auspices of strict science methodology can be verified by other genuine researchers, they not only deride that research, they set out to immediately destroy it by discrediting the messenger – and worse, ruining the careers of those involved.
For instance, Darwinism (The Origin of the Species) is being refuted every other day. In Montana for instance, huge (and I mean huge) caches of bones of animals that at first face appeared to be millions of years old have been found in recent years. They have been found with a deep covering of what would have been sweeping, choking mud, as in a giant tsunami or something like that huge, man-made mining dam that recently collapsed in Brazil, entombing dozens of people in an instant. Another example can be found on YouTube if you watch the horror of the in-sweeping tsunami that devastated Japan, including its nuclear facilities. Another fascinating facet that has arisen from the Montana find is that DNA and carbon dating have revealed that the catastrophic event/s took place in very recent history.
In Montana, it is now being shown that these creatures appeared to have been fleeing en masse. Given the mud of their entombment, there seems little doubt that it was a huge flood that wiped them out.
So, when I write (irrespective of my sources, attempting to explain the Word of the LORD), I am always cognizant of one plain fact. Science and its bondservant, technology, has never, can never, hope to explain God any more than it can yet explain His Creation (the Universe, the Earth and both creatures and mankind which He placed upon the Earth).
To their disappointment and chagrin, neither has science yet satisfactorily dated the alleged ages of the Earth: much is still in the realm of conjecture. So bring on your quantum physics and computers, artificial intelligence and the ‘might’ of Cern as it attempts to isolate and unlock the core of creation. The Word of God itself says that you are doomed to failure.
What ‘Do’ We Actually Know (not withstanding our Faith)?
Assuredly, we see through a glass but darkly. For God did not choose to share the core of His own Majesty with the clay of His own creation. Nor have we yet uncovered much of our past because He has not yet chosen to reveal more than tantalizing glimpses.
1 Corinthians 13:12, King James Version (KJV):
“For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”
What I Know Myself To Be:
However, of this I am certain (implicitly and totally convinced): My Faith in God has given me the understanding and partial wisdom to ‘see’ at least one particular thing clearly. It is this:
‘Although I come from the dust and will to dust return, my very essence of conception was/is God-breathed. I was and am, even before He breathed into me the breath of living life itself to enable my first breath outside my Mother’s womb.’
I have ‘being.’ My very D.N.A is of divinity Himself. I am a creature created of the divine inspiration of the Living God; and thus, my conception could not have ensued if He had stayed his ‘hand.’
To Deny Or To Believe?
And so, my very ‘being’ was and is foreknown. Even it was, before my conception and final ejection from the womb of my mother. And finally, the day I die (‘the first death,’ destined for all flesh), my destiny is pre-destined because of two things:
1) The totality of God’s power over this God-breathed clay vessel that He made
2) The exercise of free will given me that allows me either to accept or deny the potter who made me and which (God knows and has so commanded) will determine my ultimate destination when I appear before Him.
At that appointed time – there being no denial in my soul but only loving acceptance of the Son and His sacrifice for me as his blood washed away my sins forever (thus hiding them from the Father’s sight) – I will receive my promised crown, commensurate with my proven worthiness.
Brethren, there will be many ahead of me and far worthier than I; but oh, the joy, the wonder as my God recognizes ‘me.’ That in itself surely is a ‘crown’ of glory.
Picture in your minds-eye a weary traveller. He is returning home after a long, long, absence. Alighting from the train and descending onto the platform, his face lights up and his heart leaps within him as he sees his beloved father and mother pressing forward to greet and clasp him in the loving warmth of their embrace.
And so will it be when my Eternal Father is pleased to receive me, ‘Home At Last!’ What a welcome that will be.
Convicted By Denial
But for those called before the Great White Throne of Judgment, having departed the flesh, their souls still locked in almost pathological denial (many with hatred still seething within them at the moment of their departure) I cannot say, ‘God help them!’
Why?
Because no one can help them. Nor should we think we are entitled to say this.
To paraphrase a bacchanalian chorus from an old drinking song:
“Here’s a health to the King and lasting peace,
to faction an end and wealth increase.
Come, let’s drink it whilst we have breath,
for there’s no drinking after death.
And those that will this health deny,
down amongst the dead men,
let him lie.”
(“Down Among the Dead Men” is an English drinking song first published in 1728, but possibly of greater antiquity.)
The song begins with a toast to “the King” and continues with obeisance to the god Bacchus which become increasingly less subtle descriptions of the benefits of alcohol in procuring opportunities for sexual intercourse. At the conclusion of each stanza of the song, those who deny the song’s declarations are condemned to lay “down among the dead men,” a euphemism for drunken unconsciousness.
In using the Drinking Song in a metaphorical sense, ‘Down among the Dead Men,’ I have applied it as a metaphor for the Second Death’ awaiting deniers.
“What Then Is The Second Death?” (Got Questions direct quotation)
Answer: The second death is mentioned on multiple occasions in the book of Revelation and is synonymous with the lake of fire. It is a “death” in that it is a separation from God, the Giver of life. It is called the “Second” one because it follows physical death.
Revelation 21:8 explains the second death in the most detail:
“The cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars – their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulphur. This is the second death.”
[This speaks to those appearing before God still unrepentantly locked to their sins and denying the ‘right’ of the Master to censure them.) It is now too late to seek mercy. None is to be offered. Implacable denial was offered God. An implacable God now denies the denier.]
Three other places in Revelation also mention the second death. The first is Revelation 2:11:
“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death.” In this verse, Jesus promises that believers (“overcomers”; see 1 John 5:4) will not experience the lake of fire.
The second death is exclusively reserved for those who have rejected Christ. – source
And in the rejection of Jesus Christ (Yeshua-h), you reject God Himself.
John 8:58 “Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.’”
As Jesus said, the ‘second death’ is not a place believers in Christ should fear. It is therefore spiritually impossible, nay forbidden, than that we would or should attempt to pray for the souls of the dead.
In plain language, our lives bring before the Throne of God the life-testament of our ‘journey’ within the fleshly capsule of our souls.
God has clearly told us (through the testimony of His Son) that those who die in denial of The Living God have freely denied themselves the glory of His loving recognition of His reconciled creation and the welcome that awaits them.
For deniers, there is no ‘welcoming home of a prodigal son.’ Their own stone-cold hearts of denial (many having influenced others to join them in their false, self-appointed roles of pastors/priests, prophets, evangelists and even more vaunted claims of direct appointment and concourse with God Himself) are now forfeit.
The papacy has for centuries confirmed and re-affirmed constantly in their Councils and the papal encyclicals that Pontifex Maximus speaks as the voice of God on Earth. I would submit that the pontiff may speak for someone, but I seriously doubt it is God. Rather, I had another more suitable candidate in mind.
Bereft of God by choice, God now is bereft of all deniers. This to me is a horror beyond all imaginings. My horror is compounded by the knowledge (from the Word of God) that there stands ready a worldly multitude who are to be swept away, for our ‘future’ is now truly, truly, imminent.
For ‘if’ our choice is ‘denial’ of the Son, then we deny God Himself. And thus, God, through His Son, will ‘deny’ us.
The Denier Asks, “Does God Exist and Who Made Him?”
No believer can sustain or should attempt to bring life to the question, ‘Does God exist and if so, who made Him?’
Such is the puny nature of both our intelligence and true understanding (for we were not given this depth of wisdom) that we do NOT have this knowledge, nor were we meant to possess it.
To the ‘denier,’ arguing through ‘logic’ of post-modern types of Gnosticism, this constitutes the Achilles Heel of our belief in God and in their denying eyes, utterly crushes the basis on which our faith is built.
I would in turn offer the counter-argument: that, if we could answer such questions, then of what value would be the faith through which comes repentance for sin (particularly where, previously, denial may well have existed)? For you can clearly see that the test put upon us by God, is FAITH. Not just in His existence, or His majesty, but in the means that He provided us to be reconciled back to what man was meant to be and was, before the Fall. And the key to faith is, of course, Jesus in His role as the sacrificed paschal lamb, thus permitting us to ‘Pass-Over.’
The Basis Of Sin And What It Consists Of:
For ALL sin is based upon denial of God. Sin is the symptom. Denial is its root cause.
Dearest brothers and sisters, ‘see’ this and you both understand and have gained true wisdom. And this wisdom, gained at last through your understanding (given you by revelation from the Holy Spirit), is the precursor necessary to overcome ALL. For when you truly (absent denial) accept Jesus, the Christ of the Living God, in His sacrificial role, you cannot help but be moved to repentance. Your denial has ceased at that point. You accept God and He accepts You.
In putting ‘paid’ to our denial, we now seek only the will to fight the ‘good’ fight with ‘all of our might’ and win each battle as we are confronted by Satan and his earthly and spiritual minions.
Faithful TRUST in Yeshua and the power of His Grace, granted and given ‘legs’ by the Holy Spirit, provides us with the weapons we need to face and defeat Satan in the many ongoing battles to come. No, you ‘heard’ me! I said, ‘battles to come,’ for our adversary never gives up; and that is why the road Home is described as narrow and the analogy given that not many end up walking it to its end.
But, our ‘sin,’ the symptom of the dread disease of separative denial, does NOT (cannot, will not) pass before the burning eye of God Himself, because the Grace of redemptive salvation of our souls through the blood of Yeshua has lovingly covered us.
For we have been ‘passed over.’
Now we must stay the distance. Remember well that the firstborn of the Hebrews were passed over; and that very night, the embryonic nation set out into the desert, released by Pharaoh. Yet what they thought was to be a short way home took over 40 years because of their inability (lack of faith) to stay the distance.
Are you saying, “Come on…all this is just simply too hard?” Of course it is. Are you presently attending a ‘church’ whose priests and pastors tell you differently – or worse, don’t touch on this at all? Then, if you are, you have been sold a wooden nickel. Bite down hard on it, and it will split open; for it has no substance. And neither is there substance in their message.
Get OUT. There is nothing here for a true believer.
As surely as the firstborn of the Hebrews was spared the Angel of Death – because the blood of a firstborn lamb was slaughtered and sprinkled over the lintels of the doors of their hovels, thus providing a sign of spared redemption from physical death – so now are we spared, and that by the precious, pure blood of the human paschal unblemished lamb.
He is the lamb who died for us in sacrifice, that we might, in acceptance of His amazingly wonderful gift, be granted eternal life.
Be in no doubt, that the blood of the Christ has been sprinkled over the lintel of your respective hearts. Through this and only this are you saved to Eternal Life. Thanks be to God!
“What is the breath of life?” (Got Questions)
The answer provided by ‘Got Questions’ is true to the Word of God, and I am more than happy to accede to the inspired scholarship inherent in the answer below.
Answer: The climax of God’s creative work was His extraordinary creation of man. “The LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7). The supreme Creator of heaven and earth did two things in creating man. First, He formed him from the very dust of the ground, and, second, He breathed His own breath into the nostrils of Adam. This distinguished man from all of God’s other creatures.
This one passage contains three significant facts about man’s creation.
The first is that God and God alone created man. Man did not evolve from other creatures. Impersonal forces did not form man. All the cells, DNA, atoms, molecules, hydrogen, protons, neutrons, or electrons did not create man. These are only the substances that make up man’s physical body. The Lord God formed man. The Lord God created the substances, and then He used those substances to create man.
The word formed is a translation of the Hebrew yatsar, which means “to mold, shape, or form.” It conjures an image of a potter who has the intelligence and the power to form his creation. God is the Master Potter who had the image of man within His mind and who possesses the power and the intelligence to bring that image to life.
Second, God breathed His own breath of life into man. Man is more than “dust” or physical substance. Man has a spirit. We can picture it this way: Adam’s body had just been formed by God from the dust of the earth—a lifeless human body lying on the ground. Then God leaned over and “breathed” His own “breath of life” into the man’s nostrils; God is the Source of life, and He directly placed life within man. This breath of life is seen again in John 20:22, as Jesus imparts new life to His disciples.
Third, Genesis 2:7 tells us that man became a living soul (KJV). The word soul in Hebrew is nephesh, meaning “an animated, breathing, conscious, and living being.” Man did not become a living soul until God breathed life into him. As a physical, animate, rational, and spiritual being, man is unique among all living things upon the earth.
What is the Breath of God?
It is the life and power of God, given to man to animate him. – source
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(A Personal Anecdote):
It was with the greatest of joy, when recently, in the weeks immediately prior to the passing of my late Wife, Laraine, late in December 2018, that she, of her own volition (following a lifetime of doubt as she teetered between acceptance and denial) finally ceased her denial and gave herself completely to Jesus. Nothing I had previously said had convinced her. And sadly, my own conduct had, on many occasions, not provided her with a supportive view of a Christ-centred role model.
That to my eternal shame and regret. We cannot undo that which we have done nor allay its damage: only repent it at the foot of the Cross.
In those last days and hours however, we spoke at length about this very subject. How fortunate and blessed we both were that God gave us sufficient time for this. It was also a time for the baring of our souls to each other: of forgiveness and the fervent renewal of our vows and love over nearly fifty-seven years.
I pointed out that denial was the only obstacle, and the one thing that would occasion her eternal separation from God. Finally, she commenced, over some days, to pray and to ask Jesus to take her HOME. From that moment of time onward, we prayed every day; and she, of her own volition, would start to pray as I entered her room each morning.
I would like to say that this was easy for her. Stricken with an oesophageal cancer, it was increasingly both difficult and painful for my wife to converse. Sometimes our ‘conversations’ consisted of me reading to her, singing hymns and also those old love songs that she liked so much. Sometimes we just spent the hours holding hands.
Another relative, also a believer, came one morning also. She prayed with and over my wife. Finally, that lady left to go home. About ten minutes later, she unexpectedly returned, took my darling by her hand and directly asked her,
“Laraine, I had to come back to ask you, are you sure you have given yourself to Jesus?” My beautiful girl replied, “Yes, I have!”
Her doubt and thus her denial were washed away in the blood of the paschal lamb. And I am convinced she knew at last, her assured destination and acceptance. The hospital chaplain who had come a number of times to chat with her was also of this conviction.
Thanks be to God through the Saving Grace of His Son.
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END OF PART I
Denis Bowden