Acts Of God
What is the purpose of human life? Should there be a purpose? Let me propose that there is a reason for our existence but it may not appear so obvious at first. Let us go back to some fundamental basics and leave behind all our preconceived notions about God and how he relates to man.
First Among Equals
God is made up of three persons united in one entity. Much like the basic element of water, H2O, this particular element can coexist in three forms and still maintain its watery essence: as a solid such as ice, as a gas such as vapor, and as a liquid as in water. These three forms of H2O can exist together in this manner all at the same time and subsequently is the only element able to do this. Each form additionally has its own characteristics that distinguishes one from the other. In like manner, God is able to share his own essence among the three persons of the Trinity and yet each person of the Trinity has his own personality.
They too have a hierarchy. This hierarchy has been described in the Bible in familial terms for doctrinal reasons and the first person of the Trinity is God the Father. He is the architect of all the plans set in motion and is invisible to the eye. The second person of the Trinity is God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the executor of the estate of God and is the only visible member of the Godhead. The third person of the Trinity is God the Spirit. He is invisible to the eye but is able to be emotionally and physically felt by mankind.
God is eternal and is not bound by the constricting laws of time. He is also free to do as he pleases but this is not some divine lasciviousness but it is the liberty by which we all have come to know: freedom with integrity. This "integrity" means that God must maintain his perfect state without letting imperfection corrupt it. Thus, when man rebelled against God in the Garden of Eden they were expelled from his physical presence and ushered in the history of mankind as we know it. Man, like God, has free-will to do as he pleases but with the knowledge of good and evil fully embedded in both mind and body mankind has been quarantined and judged by the perfect character of God.
The Almighty has judged all mankind condemned from the moment we are born due to the actions of Adam. This may seem unfair were it not for the fact that this judicial pronouncement paves the way for God to redeem all mankind through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. If the disobedience of Adam in the Garden condemns us then the obedience of Jesus Christ on the cross justifies us. It was the integrity of God that condemned Adam and consequently all humanity thereafter and it is the integrity of God that justifies all humanity, past, present and future, by the voluntary work of Christ on the cross. One man brings rejection by God and one man brings reconciliation by God. Hence, at the Judgement Seat of Christ for the righteous and the Great White Throne Judgement for the unrighteous, sins are no longer an issue to be judged by God as this was paid by Christ at Golgotha. The eternal issue thus is not sins but as it always has been, what think ye of Christ? The algebraic equation of condemnation (x) and justification (y) by God thus produces a "z" that we ourselves must fill-in for eternal life to be complete. That "z" is faith in the Lord.
Days of Noah, Days of Lot
Why did God destroy the earth by flood and the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by fire and sulfur? Was it because of "sins" or was something else going on here that too many have overlooked?
"Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.
"It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. Luke 17:26-29
Did God destroy the antediluvian civilization and the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because the people were "sinners"? Were they destroyed because they were "gay" or because they were "bad" people? Furthermore, did God judge them insufficient to live because they were "marrying, eating, drinking, building" and basically just living out life to the fullest? No to both questions! No, the link to both judgments is related to what the people were thinking, not what they were "doing". The doing in this case is the symptom(s) but the larger disease itself is unbelief in the Lord. Put another way, they were giving time to their own lives such as marrying and eating but were not giving time to the Creator. Their "neutrality" towards God would ulitmately make them enemies of God and enemies of them that owe their fealty to God. Thus, they were destroyed because their thoughts were continually evil. Genesis explains the reason for their evil thoughts was that the people lived life in unbelief absent from the presence of God in their minds. What think ye of Christ?
In the case of Noah, only he and his immediate family were righteous. In the case of Lot, the offset was even narrower in that only Lot himself was righteous whereas his family was not. In both cases, when the righteous people were removed from the scene did the judgment of God become operational. When Noah and Lot were in their respective environments then and only then was the hand of God's Judgement stayed. In other words, the difference between life and death on a regional and even on a global scale depended on the viability of the righteous within their locale. When the righteous are removed from their environment then the destructive acts of God fills the vacuum. He at times directly intervenes and at other times he lets others do his bidding be they man or be they angel. Hence, the righteous are called the "salt of the earth" and without the righteous the rot of evil and all of its concomitant and tangled machinations come to life thus attracting the wrath of God.
The Day Of the Son Of Man
Christ mentioned in the Book of Luke that the Second Advent would occur in a vacuum. In this case, just as in the days of Noah and Lot, the vacuum created by an unbelief in the Lord will precede our Lords advent:
"It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. On that day no one who is on the roof of his house, with his goods inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. Remember Lot's wife! Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left."
"Where, Lord?" they asked. He replied, "Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather." Luke 17:30-37
The Church Age since 30 AD has been a period of time in which the Gospel of Christ has been ever expanding in the world. Beginning in Israel the gospel radiated outward to the four corners of the earth for 2000 years. However, sometime in the future (if not now) the evangilization of the world will reach a point where the iron law of diminishing returns will take effect. People will slowly grow weary of the Gospel including the whole realm of Bible Doctrine and will reject Christianity wholesale:
Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,
That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. 2 Thess 2:1-4
The "falling away" from Christianity as mention in 2nd Thessalonians also creates a vacuum in which false doctrine is able to permiate and grow:
For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 2 Tim: 3-4
And finally the coup de grace in which false doctrine darkens the soul and civilization gives way to barbarism and a return to the days of old:
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. Romans 1:21-28
As the world rejects the Son of Man (Christ) they will embrace the Man of Sin (anti-Christ) in his place. Negative volition will be de riguer among the nations of the world. Unbelief will reign supreme and the Wrath of God will become operational. And yet, the wholesale rejection of Christ has yet to be consumated and the righteous have yet to be Raptured by God in these darkening days of the Church Age.
The acts of God encompass the whole realm of humanity from the environment to the spirit. Whether redemptive or whether destructive the acts of God are real and should be respected in solemn humbleness by friend and foe alike. As the divine programmer of all things extant it is God that gives life and he is free to take it away.
The purpose of life ultimately is to glorify God and by believing in Christ this sets the example around us that we are unique and the power of God can be used through us since we are the adopted sons and daughters of God. In this Church Age, God may not speak directly to us but through our faithfulness to his Son, Christ the Lord, our actions and thinking might prevail among the people and subsequently offset the Wrath of God which after all is said and done we quite rightly deserve.
First Among Equals
God is made up of three persons united in one entity. Much like the basic element of water, H2O, this particular element can coexist in three forms and still maintain its watery essence: as a solid such as ice, as a gas such as vapor, and as a liquid as in water. These three forms of H2O can exist together in this manner all at the same time and subsequently is the only element able to do this. Each form additionally has its own characteristics that distinguishes one from the other. In like manner, God is able to share his own essence among the three persons of the Trinity and yet each person of the Trinity has his own personality.
They too have a hierarchy. This hierarchy has been described in the Bible in familial terms for doctrinal reasons and the first person of the Trinity is God the Father. He is the architect of all the plans set in motion and is invisible to the eye. The second person of the Trinity is God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the executor of the estate of God and is the only visible member of the Godhead. The third person of the Trinity is God the Spirit. He is invisible to the eye but is able to be emotionally and physically felt by mankind.
God is eternal and is not bound by the constricting laws of time. He is also free to do as he pleases but this is not some divine lasciviousness but it is the liberty by which we all have come to know: freedom with integrity. This "integrity" means that God must maintain his perfect state without letting imperfection corrupt it. Thus, when man rebelled against God in the Garden of Eden they were expelled from his physical presence and ushered in the history of mankind as we know it. Man, like God, has free-will to do as he pleases but with the knowledge of good and evil fully embedded in both mind and body mankind has been quarantined and judged by the perfect character of God.
The Almighty has judged all mankind condemned from the moment we are born due to the actions of Adam. This may seem unfair were it not for the fact that this judicial pronouncement paves the way for God to redeem all mankind through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. If the disobedience of Adam in the Garden condemns us then the obedience of Jesus Christ on the cross justifies us. It was the integrity of God that condemned Adam and consequently all humanity thereafter and it is the integrity of God that justifies all humanity, past, present and future, by the voluntary work of Christ on the cross. One man brings rejection by God and one man brings reconciliation by God. Hence, at the Judgement Seat of Christ for the righteous and the Great White Throne Judgement for the unrighteous, sins are no longer an issue to be judged by God as this was paid by Christ at Golgotha. The eternal issue thus is not sins but as it always has been, what think ye of Christ? The algebraic equation of condemnation (x) and justification (y) by God thus produces a "z" that we ourselves must fill-in for eternal life to be complete. That "z" is faith in the Lord.
Days of Noah, Days of Lot
Why did God destroy the earth by flood and the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by fire and sulfur? Was it because of "sins" or was something else going on here that too many have overlooked?
"Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.
"It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. Luke 17:26-29
Did God destroy the antediluvian civilization and the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because the people were "sinners"? Were they destroyed because they were "gay" or because they were "bad" people? Furthermore, did God judge them insufficient to live because they were "marrying, eating, drinking, building" and basically just living out life to the fullest? No to both questions! No, the link to both judgments is related to what the people were thinking, not what they were "doing". The doing in this case is the symptom(s) but the larger disease itself is unbelief in the Lord. Put another way, they were giving time to their own lives such as marrying and eating but were not giving time to the Creator. Their "neutrality" towards God would ulitmately make them enemies of God and enemies of them that owe their fealty to God. Thus, they were destroyed because their thoughts were continually evil. Genesis explains the reason for their evil thoughts was that the people lived life in unbelief absent from the presence of God in their minds. What think ye of Christ?
In the case of Noah, only he and his immediate family were righteous. In the case of Lot, the offset was even narrower in that only Lot himself was righteous whereas his family was not. In both cases, when the righteous people were removed from the scene did the judgment of God become operational. When Noah and Lot were in their respective environments then and only then was the hand of God's Judgement stayed. In other words, the difference between life and death on a regional and even on a global scale depended on the viability of the righteous within their locale. When the righteous are removed from their environment then the destructive acts of God fills the vacuum. He at times directly intervenes and at other times he lets others do his bidding be they man or be they angel. Hence, the righteous are called the "salt of the earth" and without the righteous the rot of evil and all of its concomitant and tangled machinations come to life thus attracting the wrath of God.
The Day Of the Son Of Man
Christ mentioned in the Book of Luke that the Second Advent would occur in a vacuum. In this case, just as in the days of Noah and Lot, the vacuum created by an unbelief in the Lord will precede our Lords advent:
"It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. On that day no one who is on the roof of his house, with his goods inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. Remember Lot's wife! Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left."
"Where, Lord?" they asked. He replied, "Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather." Luke 17:30-37
The Church Age since 30 AD has been a period of time in which the Gospel of Christ has been ever expanding in the world. Beginning in Israel the gospel radiated outward to the four corners of the earth for 2000 years. However, sometime in the future (if not now) the evangilization of the world will reach a point where the iron law of diminishing returns will take effect. People will slowly grow weary of the Gospel including the whole realm of Bible Doctrine and will reject Christianity wholesale:
Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,
That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. 2 Thess 2:1-4
The "falling away" from Christianity as mention in 2nd Thessalonians also creates a vacuum in which false doctrine is able to permiate and grow:
For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 2 Tim: 3-4
And finally the coup de grace in which false doctrine darkens the soul and civilization gives way to barbarism and a return to the days of old:
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. Romans 1:21-28
As the world rejects the Son of Man (Christ) they will embrace the Man of Sin (anti-Christ) in his place. Negative volition will be de riguer among the nations of the world. Unbelief will reign supreme and the Wrath of God will become operational. And yet, the wholesale rejection of Christ has yet to be consumated and the righteous have yet to be Raptured by God in these darkening days of the Church Age.
The acts of God encompass the whole realm of humanity from the environment to the spirit. Whether redemptive or whether destructive the acts of God are real and should be respected in solemn humbleness by friend and foe alike. As the divine programmer of all things extant it is God that gives life and he is free to take it away.
The purpose of life ultimately is to glorify God and by believing in Christ this sets the example around us that we are unique and the power of God can be used through us since we are the adopted sons and daughters of God. In this Church Age, God may not speak directly to us but through our faithfulness to his Son, Christ the Lord, our actions and thinking might prevail among the people and subsequently offset the Wrath of God which after all is said and done we quite rightly deserve.
posted by Bruce R. McConnell | 2:45 AM
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