First mention of a solution against death 4 A seed for mankind

Vanity and the hope to be as God, knowing everything and being able to do everything, man made the wrong choice, going in against the Will of God, disobeying His mitzvot not to touch or eat of the tree of knowledge of good and bad.

The Divine Creator is a God of order, clarity, Who does not tell lies (= always telling the truth) and does not create chaos or confusion. (1 Corinthians 14:33) Man should have known that God always told the truth. But by letting his thoughts wander about, he was caught by his own bad thoughts that God would keep something hidden from him or did not want to give him what he also should own.

As He had promised they would get to know life and death, He cursed them to the hard labour which they previously never had to do. And having made out of dust, God told them they would return to it, becoming dust again, meaning to die and then to decay. (Genesis 3:19)

 (Genesis 3:19 ASV): “in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”

In the previous chapters we discussed that what happened to Adam and Eve still happens to us every day. Temptation today still follows the same pattern with us as it did with Eve in the Garden of Eden. Always there is first the arousing of desire; then the mind, seizing upon that desire, rationalizes it to make it seem reasonable, proper, and profitable. Then the will acts — and often immediately confusion, guilt, blame, and a sense of limitation follows without fail. The process is absolutely relentless.

Adam and Eve thought, like we often do, that we can hide ourselves. We may think that we have hidden things we did from the eyes of man, and oftentimes many of us are deluded into thinking that because no human being knows about our guilt, nothing has happened.

Yet within us, whenever we yield to evil, a darkness falls and death tightens its grip upon our throat. {Ray C. Stedman}

When addressing the evil God shows His understanding and shows His willingness to provide help in their hopeless situation. It is not that man shall be able to escape for what they have done. No, there is the curse for the woman and for the man. and to the evil or the adversary of Him, Jehovah says

Genesis 3:15 NHEBJE  I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel.”

The evil or satan shall become subject of a war  to the “death”. The thoughts Eve had, would now also come to her children, dwelling in them they shall be troubled by desires, vanity, and other bad things, bringing them into captivity to the law of sin which is in their members

Romans 7:18-23 NHEBJE  For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing. For desire is present with me, but to do that which is good is not.  (19)  For the good which I desire, I do not do; but the evil which I do not desire, that I practice.  (20)  But if what I do not desire, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me.  (21)  I find then the law, that, to me, while I desire to do good, evil is present.  (22)  For I delight in God’s law after the inward man,  (23)  but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members.

For those who have that incapacity to be fully correct or without fault, God did not want that they would not have to face total destruction. Speaking out His judgement over Adam and Eve the Divine Creator spoke about a future saviour. Some one who would be able to break the curse of death. Between the bad thoughts and the way of righteousness shall be a battle. Those who would like to follow their own self-love and what made Eve from this world shall find tribulation and lots of problems in this world, not strong enough to fight them. Though others who not want to be of that world shall be able to be stronger and find their way out, though the world may hate them.

John 15:19 NHEBJE  If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, since I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

John 16:33 NHEBJE  I have told you these things, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have oppression; but cheer up! I have overcome the world.”

Yes, there will be one coming, by the promise of the Most High, who can call himself the only begotten son of God. Though the mind of the flesh may be hostile to God (Romans 8:6-7) this provider foreseen by God in the Garden of Eden, after the fall of man, long before Abraham, is the one we all have to look for and have to find. In him we shall have to put our faith to come away under the curse of death. He is the only man who succeeded to be without fault. He always managed to do God His Will. Though he was tempted many times (in the desert, in the square of the village and in the town, in the temple, in the garden of Gethsemane) he never gave in to the temptation, always wanting to do God His will instead of his own will.

Luke 22:41-42 NHEBJE  He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and he knelt down and prayed,  (42)  saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”

The writer of Bereshith notates God’s declaration that there shall be a separating of the serpent (the evil, the temptation) from the woman, and tells about the provision of a solution, which we shall hear about in later books as well. In the third chapter of Genesis we find  the basis for the first promise of redemption which must be interpreted allegorically. In that light, the serpent stood for what it proclaimed:

“Ye shall not surely die” (v. 4).

This error was an emanation of the thinking of the flesh called “the carnal mind” by the apostle Paul, which, he declared

“is enmity against God” (Romans 8:7).

Moses lets us understand that there in the Garden of Eden was the base of our problems. There the first man and woman doubting God and His honesty, they becoming adversaries or enemies of God. Eve her thoughts are represented as the creeping animal, a serpent which became “the father of lies“, and all who endorse or proclaim error are considered as its seed, or children.

John 8:44 NHEBJE  You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. 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 on his own; for he is a liar, and its father.

 

English: Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil עב...
Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil עברית: חטא עץ הדעת – ד”ר לידיה קוזניצקי (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Accordingly, in the allegorical signification of this statement, the serpent represents the spirit of error and deceit as it emanates from the carnal mind. It is frequently used for those who oppose the Truth (Psalms 58:4; 140:3; Matthew 23:33; Revelation 12:9), manifesting themselves as adversaries of the righteous. Its error stemmed from its presumption in reasoning upon Divine law from the standpoint of the flesh. This philosophy caused Eve to view the forbidden tree anew, and its attractive appearance aroused in her the latent propensities of the flesh which then became active and demanding.

“The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life”

which John teaches is

“not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2:16)

were inflamed, and became “the word of the serpent” made flesh in her.

Adam and Eve wanted so much to have that knowledge of good and evil. Their aspiration to own that knowledge was fed by their lust for more. Paul calls such ‘wants’ “lusts” and gives them the title of sin in the flesh (Romans 8:3), or “sin that dwelleth in me” (Romans 7:20).

Romans 8:3 NHEBJE  For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh;

The sending of that son is God’s solution for mankind. Though evil shall do everything to try to destroy him, it shall not succeed.

Michelangelo Bounarotti - The Fall and Expulsi...
Michelangelo Bounarotti – The Fall and Expulsion of Adam and Eve – detail (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By the offspring of the woman the world shall come to see a Virgin Birth where “It” (AV), a singular seed, shall “bruise” (AV), or “Shuwph” = to crush (Job 9:17).  This enmity which had come into existence, between man and God, is seeking the destruction of the higher interests of man. While it will inflict injury, this enmity is subject to the ultimate conquest of man.

The sorrow of woman consequent upon the Fall brings God now having a woman bringing life to a man, but this time not without pain. Also the seed God provides shall bring lots of pain to his mother and generations shall look up at that miserable pain this son of hers had to endure.

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Preceding articles

Creation of the earth and man #22 Man in the image and likeness of the Elohim #6 Spirits, spiritual bodies and illusory perception

Necessity of a revelation of creation 1 Works of God and works of man

Necessity of a revelation of creation 4 Getting understanding by Word of God 2

Genesis – Story of creation 6 Genesis 3:13-24 Enmity and curse

Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden 1

Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden 2

Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden 3

What others think about the tree of knowledge of good and evil

A multifold of elements in creation and a bad choice made

Not trying to make the heathen live like Jews #1

Not trying to make the heathen live like Jews #2

First mention of a solution against death 1 To divine, serpent, opposition, satan and adversary

First mention of a solution against death 2 Harm or no harm and naked truth

First mention of a solution against death 3 Tempter Satan and man’s problems

Necessary to be known all over the earth

Next: First mention of a solution against death 5 Evil its law of death

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Additional reading

  1. Challenging claim 4 Inspired by God 3 Self-consistent Word of God
  2. Creator and Blogger God 3 Lesson and solution
  3. Possibility to live
  4. Dying or not
  5. A learning process for each of us
  6. Together tasting a great promise
  7. The Devil Not A Personal Super-Natural Being
  8. Satan the evil within
  9. Satan or the devil
  10. Lucifer
  11. Redemption # 1Biblical doctrine of salvation
  12. The Song of The Lamb #3 Daniel and Revelation
  13. Story of Jesus’ birth begins long before the New Testament
  14. Marriage of Jesus 10 Old and New Covenant
  15. God Our Refuge
  16. On the Edge of Believing
  17. What is life?
  18. Dying or not
  19. Mortal Soul and Mortal Psyche #6 Summary
  20. People Seeking for God 5 Bread of life
  21. When believing in God’s existence and His son, possessing a divine legislation
  22. The redemption of man by Christ Jesus
  23. Suffering redemptive because Jesus redeemed us from sin
  24. Looking for a primary cause and a goal that can not offer philosophers existing beliefs
  25. 1 Corinthians 15 Hope in action
  26. How we think shows through in how we act
  27. Not staying alone in your search for truth
  28. Doing the works of God
  29. Being fit to take care of a garden
  30. Be holy
  31. We have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace
  32. Aim High: Examples of Godly Characters to follow
  33. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #10 Prayer #8 Condition
  34. Mortal Soul and Mortal Psyche #2 Psyche, the word
  35. Departed Souls Await Judgment

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Further reading

  1. Daily Reading: 29 March – The Fall – Genesis 3 ~ paradise lost
  2. The Original Sin
  3. Were We Ever Cursed?
  4. The fall of “The Fall” Part 2
  5. Genesis 3 – would you Adam and Eve it?
  6. Why We Sin…and the Truth That Sets Us Free
  7. Death, Life, and Trees
  8. Fear & Loathing In… God?
  9. Significance of Jesus wearing a crown of thorns?
  10. Christ’s Sacrificial Love
  11. Children of the Free
  12. How Great The Fall
  13. Practising Ministry 5: It All Went Wrong
  14. Pastor Wrinkles: Unintended Consequences Pt. 5
  15. Pastor Wrinkles: Unintended Consequences Pt. 6
  16. Tradition or the Bible – your choice.
  17. The Answer for Pain
  18. More Grace Needed Here!
  19. A Tale of Two Skywalkers
  20. Redemption and Restoration
  21. The Poetry of George Herbert: “The Sacrifice” (Pt. 2)
  22. Rejoicing in Christ
  23. In A Perfect World…
  24. Reasons not to compromise with theological compromisers
  25. No Longer Slaves!
  26. +++
  27. Further reading
  28. Is Eve Responsible?
  29. To The Weary…
  30. Ripped from the headlines: Bring on the so-called “Catholic” guilt
  31. Empathy and Guilt
  32. 5 Steps: Overcoming Guilt
  33. Guilt and Regrets
  34. The Voice of Guilt
  35. Guilty of Being Human
  36. Living With Guilt
  37. Guilt, Shame & the Atonement: A Foreword
  38. Daily Obstruction: Religious Obstructions
  39. No More Guilt
  40. Guilt Free
  41. Condemnation Never Comes from God
  42. It’s On You, It Always Has Been
  43. Here’s to You: Your are Right in His Sight
  44. Who is evaluating you?
  45. The Offerings in Leviticus (1 of 2)
  46. The Offerings in Leviticus (2 of 2)
  47. Perfectly Imperfect
  48. The Path to your Potential
  49. No short cuts to heaven..!
  50. The Purpose in it All
  51. Not For The Faint Of Heart
  52. Redemption
  53. Deliverance
  54. What Lie We Often Fall For
  55. Why does God allow deception?
  56. The Father of Tall Tales
  57. The Father of Lies
  58. Satan, Who? Is Satan Real?
  59. Dear Father of Lies
  60. Look at the Lamb (Day 8)
  61. The Importance of Biblical Discernment
  62. God Is and We Aren’t
  63. Jesus Free Man From Sin
  64. Are people willing to die for something they know is a lie?
  65. Liars & Murderers – God Says They Are The Same!

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No other god besides Jehovah who gives all explanation

Lots of people do think they are not able to understand God’s Word without the explanations of theologians. They are mistaken and have a wrong idea about the Divine Creator Who is a God of order and clarity.

From the beginning of creation the Maker of everything let His Voice resound in the universe. He wanted everything to hear His Voice. He also came to make human beings in His image and wanted that they knew Him and listened to His Voice, His commandments, His statutes and would follow His Wishes.

Being created in the image of God each human being has certain elements or qualities of God in him or her. Every created human being has something in him or her which has the quality or feeling of the Divine Maker. As such every human should be able to feel that there is a Divine Creator. He is the Father of universe Who let His Voice hear and let His products of His Hands show the wonders and glory of His Majesty.

Wherever people dwell they can look around them and see the wonders of nature. Nature can speak for itself. In the magnificent glory of the universe every human being should be able to recognise the Hand of God.

Those who are willing to seek the Lord God shall be able to find Him whenever they shall seek Him with all their heart, and with all their soul in their affliction.

Deu 4:29 NHEBJE  But from there you shall seek Jehovah your God, and you shall find him, when you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.

Deu 30:1-3 NHEBJE  It shall happen, when all these things have come on you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you shall call them to mind among all the nations, where Jehovah your God has driven you,  (2)  and shall return to Jehovah your God, and shall obey his voice according to all that I command you this day, you and your children, with all your heart, and with all your soul;  (3)  that then Jehovah your God will turn your captivity, and have compassion on you, and will return and gather you from all the peoples, where Jehovah your God has scattered you.

2Ch 31:21 NHEBJE  In every work that he began in the service of God’s house, and in the law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart, and prospered.

Psa 119:2 NHEBJE  Blessed are those who keep his statutes, who seek him with their whole heart.

Jer 29:13 NHEBJE  You shall seek me, and find me, when you shall search for me with all your heart.

Page of Polish "Biblia Nieświeska" (...
Page of Polish “Biblia Nieświeska” (Nesvizh Bible) translated by Szymon Budny (1572). Including God’s Name “Jehovah” (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the beginning of times nor in the old times there where people who called themselves theologians or had the idea that they alone could truly understand the Words of God and give people insight. Those who claim to be the only ones who can fully understand the Bible and give the only right explanation are passing God’s Words and forgetting that it is God Himself Who calls and gives insight.

To come to know God we can look around us and see what nature has to offer us. We should open our eyes and see the micro-cosmos with its many wonders. Becoming aware of the nissim or miracles in nature we shall be able to recognise the invisible Hand of God.

Jehovah also has raised up for us prophets, men of God, His servants who wrote down God’s Words and tried to help people find the Most High Lord of the universe. Jehovah of Hosts, the Elohim of Israel, wants us to find Him and has taken care that His words were correctly written down and delivered from one generation unto the next.

The Elohim has gone forth to take to Himself a nation from the midst of a nation, by trials, by signs, and by wonders, and by battle, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that He, the Most High of all beings, shall be known as the One Who Is The Being Itself, the I Am Who Is’ or “I am that which I am” [ayah ashar ayah. This is not His Name, but it is an explanation that leads up to the revelation of His Name in v. 15, namely: יהוה  {Jehovah}] Who did so many things for those who lived on the earth, so that they could come to see Who is behind it all.

Elohim His a strong hand and outstretched arm we should allow to come over us. We should allow it that by great fearsome deeds, according to all that יהוה  {Jehovah} our Elohim has done in the past we shall get to know Him better by having our eyes and ears open for Him more than for human words and tricks. When opening ourselves for Him He shall let Him be known and shall recall to our heart that יהוה  {Jehovah} Himself is Elohim in the heavens above and on the earth beneath; there is none else beside Him.

God has at all times given His Words and has provided means so that people could find Him and could come close to Him. The only thing what He requires is that people listen to Him and guard His laws and His commands which He has given to man and which are recorded in the Book of books.

Deu 4:34-40 NHEBJE  Or has God tried to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that Jehovah your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?  (35)  It was shown to you so that you might know that Jehovah is God. There is no one else besides him.  (36)  Out of heaven he made you to hear his voice, that he might instruct you: and on earth he made you to see his great fire; and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire.  (37)  Because he loved your fathers, therefore he chose their seed after them, and brought you out with his presence, with his great power, out of Egypt;  (38)  to drive out nations from before you greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as at this day.  (39)  Know therefore this day, and lay it to your heart, that Jehovah he is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is none else.  (40)  You shall keep his statutes, and his commandments, which I command you this day, that it may go well with you, and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land, which Jehovah your God gives you, forever.

Exo 3:14 NHEBJE  God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM,” and he said, “You shall tell the children of Israel this: ‘I AM has sent me to you.'”

Jehovah gave His remembrance to all generations and His Word’s notated in the Holy Scriptures should be sufficient for us to come to knowledge. when we are willing to hear God speaking to us in His infallible Word, the Bible, we should not worry about learned scholars, theologians or not being sufficient educated to find and understand God. God does not hold back necessary information for any body. He wants to give everybody, learned or not educated the chance to find Him and to worship Him.

God stretches out His Hand and, like all that Jehovah our God did for His people in Egypt before the eyes of the world, He is still present to bring trials and signs and wonders and even war, with an outstretched arm and with great and awesome deeds. Many may find it strange God allows fighting and wars going on, but may not forget that man himself wanted to be master of the world and arrange everything themselves. It is up to man to take care of their own life and their own environment, though those who want God near them, God shall not leave them abandoned but shall come to their guidance and help.

With the Holy Scriptures we have been given a very handy tool and a manual for life. We all are shown the wonders of God in order for us to acknowledge that Jehovah is the God; there is no other God besides him.

Exo 15:11 NHEBJE  Who is like you, Jehovah, among the gods? Who is like you, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?

We should trust God and follow His words. No other man or god besides Jehovah shall be able to  give all explanation and would be mightier or better than the Word of God itself.

It is by reading the many books of those prophets that we can come to know God, His Works  and His son, who also used those books to explain what he came to do and to show who the Messiah was.

Luk 24:26-27 NHEBJE  Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and to enter into his glory?”  (27)  Beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he explained to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

Luk 24:31-32 NHEBJE  Their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he vanished out of their sight.  (32)  They said one to another, “Weren’t our hearts burning within us, while he spoke to us along the way, and while he opened the Scriptures to us?”

Luk 24:44-45 NHEBJE  He said to them, “This is what I told you, while I was still with you, that all things which are written in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms, concerning me must be fulfilled.”  (45)  Then he opened their minds, that they might understand the Scriptures.

Like in the old times many persons their eyes may still be closed. Many people their minds are also still closed. Our minds may like the apostles their mind still being covered with the same veil as they read the books of the old covenant. We should know that it are not the theologians who are going to remove that veil because it is removed only when a person is joined to Christ.  Even today, whenever they read the Law of Moses, the veil still covers many so called ‘Christians‘ their minds.  But it can be removed, as the Scripture talks about Moses his veil being removed when he turned to the Lord Most High. Also at the time that Christ Jesus was afraid for what was going to come he wondered why God had abandoned him and cried unto God. We too like Christ can call unto his heavenly Father and in the same way as Christ found guidance from God in the Holy Scriptures, we too can find guidance in it. God’s Spirit accompanied Christ Jesus who was keeping to the Word of his heavenly Father, the Only One God. Like him we, when letting the Spirit come into our heart can find liberation of human doctrines and find freedom.

Those who call themselves followers of Christ Jesus should listen to his words and to the words of the heavenly Father Who sent Jesus to this world. Those willing to become a Christian should get to know the Holy Scriptures like Jesus knew the Scriptures very well.  With uncovered faces, not afraid to take the words of the Bible like they are written down, we should reflect the glory of God  יהוה the Spirit, and where the Spirit of יהוה {Jehovah} is, there is freedom, finding transformation into His likeness in an ever greater degree of glory.

2Co 3:14-18 NHEBJE  But their minds were hardened, for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains, because in Christ it passes away.  (15)  But to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart.  (16)  But whenever one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.  (17)  Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.  (18)  But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit.

Isa 29:18-19 NHEBJE  In that day, the deaf will hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind will see out of obscurity and out of darkness.  (19)  The humble also will increase their joy in Jehovah, and the poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

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Preceding:

Gone astray, away from God

Necessity of a revelation of creation 11 Believing and obeying the gospel of the Kingdom of God

Necessity of a revelation of creation 12 Words assembled for wisdom and instruction

Necessity of a revelation of creation 13 Getting wisdom

Necessity of a revelation of creation 14 Searching the scriptures

Theologians and a promised Spirit to enlighten us

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Additional reading:

  1. The business of this life
  2. A Living Faith #5 Perseverance
  3. A Living Faith #10: Our manner of Life #2
  4. Seeking for God
  5. Lord and owner
  6. Without God no purpose, no goal, no hope
  7. Trusting, Faith, calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #3 Voice of God #6 Words to feed and communicate
  8. Blinkered minds
  9. Looking at three “I am” s
  10. True God giving His Word for getting wisdom
  11. Counterfeit Gospels
  12. I can’t believe that … (3) miracles can happen
  13. Truth, doubt or blindness
  14. Wisdom lies deep
  15. Something Most False Christians Have In Common
  16. Being Religious and Spiritual 5 Gnostic influences
  17. Being Religious and Spiritual 6 Romantici, utopists and transcendentalists
  18. Increased in wisdom in favour with God
  19. Glory of God appearing in our character
  20. Be like a tree planted by streams of water
  21. Change
  22. God is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him
  23. Daily Spiritual Food To prepare ourselves for the Kingdom of God
  24. Genuine message of salvation
  25. Good or bad preacher
  26. Writers needed to preach to non-believers
  27. Perishable non theologians daring to go out to preach

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Further reading about theologians:

  1. Quotable Quote
  2. To Know What Is Real
  3. I Believe
  4. Devotional for the Theologian (official and unofficial)
  5. A Man and His Vision
  6. … 506 years ago
  7. The Severe Handicap of a Traditional, Western, Religious Mindset…
  8. Dr. Cornelius Van Til – The Christian View of Education and Culture
  9. Essay – Out of the Abundance of Struggles the Mouth speaks
  10. Faith That Yields a Bountiful Harvest
  11. Why I’m Passionate About Lancaster Bible College
  12. Richard Hays on Being Pastoral-Theologians like Paul
  13. May 2 – Athanasius
  14. Nov 3 – Richard Hooker
  15. Book Recommendation … Jonathan Edwards
  16. I Resolve …
  17. John Piper
  18. Puritan John Owen – The Power of Sin in the Lives of Professorsur
  19. Timothy Keller
  20. The Golden Dawn
  21. Catharsis and the Nous
  22. Who am I to be a Theologian?
  23. The 36 Doctors of the Catholic Church
  24. On the Question of Doctoral Studies (By a “lay” theologian)
  25. Do you want to be a Pastor?
  26. Theologian ~ Pain of the Saints
  27. The Theologian as Artist
  28. The hardships of Biblical Scholar’dom (or, Beware the buzzwords, my son!)
  29. Paul Molnar’s Advice on How to Get an Academic Job
  30. Every Christian is a Theologian
  31. I think that every Christian ultimately is a theologian…
  32. Why Theological Study Is for Everyone

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Parsha Bo: Creation, Exodus and the Rescue from Oblivion (Exodus 10:1-13:16)

Lots of people do want to divide God in different entities and different characters, and then so called have a figure which is beyond human comprehension.

But the God of gods is a God of clarity and order, who ordered everything, giving it a place, having it to become ordered by the end of the present times, coming into its coming to entirety at the end of times.

We should be happy that God continues to work at His Plan, which in the end shall come to be finished like He wants it to be, whatever man might do. Until then He is patient and lets human beings try out things and lets them bungle, in the hope man would learn form their mistakes and shall try not to blunder over God’s creation.

God has given His message of love to the world, now its time for the world to do something with that message of hope.

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To remember:

read Bible long enough => begin to see patterns ><<= biblical gematria

certain themes keep repeating themselves

an archetype or instance found in Tanach will repeat itself much later in the life of Jeshua or his apostles

== fractal aspect to Scripture = Seemingly divergent and disconnected parts resemble each other, and a part resembles the whole

Scripture = fractal. Nature = fractal.

Genesis 1:2 “tohuva’bohu” = “without form and void” or “waste and welter” > presents some interesting questions as to the cosmology described in Genesis 1.

Genesis 1 plausible translation by Robert Alter:

“When God began to create heaven and earth, and the earth then was welter and waste and darkness over the deep and God’s breath hovering over the waters, God said, ‘Let there be light.’ And there was light.”

> story mysteriously starting with the world in the state of mess and ruin.

God in Bereshith is taking this Tohu va’bohu and reforming it into something very good.

In same sense Hashem brings humanity out of the waste and welter of the primordial chaos he brings Israel out of Rameses and Egypt and us out of the chaotic world system.

==> Creation is our exodus from oblivion

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  • The Origins Of Human Beings According To Ancient Sumerian (thecontroversialfiles.net)
    When in the height heaven was not named, And the earth beneath did not yet bear a name, And the primeval Apsu, who begat them, And chaos, Tiamut, the mother of them both Their waters were mingled together, And no field was formed, no marsh was to be seen; When of the gods none had been called into being, And none bore a name, and no destinies were ordained; Then were created the gods in the midst of heaven, Lahmu and Lahamu were called into being…
    Sumerian mythology claims that, in the beginning, human-like gods ruled over Earth. When they came to the Earth, there was much work to be done and these gods toiled the soil, digging to make it habitable and mining its minerals. The texts mention that at some point the gods mutinied against their labour.
  • One of the ‘secrets’ being discussed in my new book… (docjp.wordpress.com)
    How careful we are on the Earth to keep our records private, when everything we do is public knowledge on the Astral region. Just one more thing most people do not realize about the Reality of Life. But perhaps more people should be aware of this… what do you think?
  • Why are we on earth? (meditationscatholiques.wordpress.com)
    To be a human being means to come from God and to go to God. Our origin goes back farther than our parents. We come from God,  in whom all the happiness of heaven and earth is at home,  and we are expected in his everlasting,  infinite blessedness.  Meanwhile we live on this earth. Sometimes we feel that our Creator is near; often we feel nothing at all. So that we might find the way home, God sent us his Son, who freed us from sin, delivers us from all evil, and leads us unerringly into true life. He is “the way, and the truth, and the life” (Jn 14:6).
  • Passover: Liberty & Freedom are the Inalienable Rights of Every Human Being (blogs.timesofisrael.com)
    I have been blessed with many different seder experiences that exemplify this notion of “liberty” and “freedom”. Not long after Glasnost and Perestroika, I went to the Former Soviet Union for two years with congregants during Pesach. We brought in much needed medical supplies, taught about Pesach and led Pesach seders in Minsk, Vitebsk, Gomel and Mogilev (all in Belarus). After the first seder, one woman approached us with tears streaming down her face, “I am 40 years old and this is my first Pesach seder. Thank you!” Up until then, the Jewish community had not been allowed to celebrate, and there was no one who knew the rituals.
  • Bible lesson # 17: There are male shrine prostitutes who promote idols (ivarfjeld.com)
    Men like to brand prostitution like trade in sexual favors. Buying and selling of sex. But God of the Bibles have a different view on this, and explains to us that prostitution is much more than buying and selling of unlawful sex. The Bible speaks about Spiritual prostitution. This kind of adultery towards God starts with making an image or an idol. The moment you brand such production as anything but sin, you have become a member of a prostitution racket.
  • Your Body, your Health, your Responsibility (reve-pavilion.co.uk)
    We are informed that the average length of people’s life is getting longer. The main factors that account for the fact that the average age to which people live has increased since Victorian times are also multiple. Many more babies survive thanks to medical improvements than used to be the case. Improved living conditions, housing, safer working conditions, clean water, better management of waste and improved diets have played a good part.
  • Stop Using God To Justify Hate And Discrimination (benniewiley.com)
    Will God judge America for gay marriage and abortion? And if He does, when will God do it? Fundamentalist, evangelicals and conservatives on the religious right are quick to tell us that “God will judge America for gay marriage and abortion”. Apparently they believe God loves fertilized human female eggs more than God loves many of the “little bastards” after they are born and become real living human beings.

    But if God decides to judge America for gay marriage and abortion, isn’t there a longer list of atrocities and abominations for which God might judge America before God gets around to judging America for gay marriage and abortion?

  • The grain of wheat must die to bear fruit the human being is always already beyond (manilatimes.net)
    The ancient Filipinos have a saying: Madali maging tao, mahirap magpakatao – It is easy to be born, it is difficult to become human. To struggle to become oneself is the struggle to free oneself from various forms of alienation which seek to annihilate the self, make one conform to everybody else, to betray oneself, and to be destroyed spiritually.

    There is always the consciousness of incompleteness in us – we are not only what we are, we are also that which we are not, everything that we still lack. And so we strive to fill the realm of possibilities we find before ourselves.

  • What does the Bible say about racism, prejudice, and discrimination? (don-overton.newsvine.com)
    The first thing to understand in this discussion is that there is only one race—the human race. Caucasians, Africans, Asians, Indians, Arabs, and Jews are not different races. Rather, they are different ethnicities of the human race. All human beings have the same physical characteristics (with minor variations, of course). More importantly, all human beings are equally created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26-27). God loved the world so much that He sent Jesus to lay down His life for us (John 3:16). The “world” obviously includes all ethnic groups.

Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden 2

People should not doubt that the Supreme Divine Creator is all-powerful. It is wrong to think He needed to test Adam and Eve at all. {Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 1)}

God had given an instruction to safeguard them. God knew what could happen but they did not listen out of their own choice. When He fretted that Adam had become “like one of us“, God was not talking to some other gods or other beings but speaking in the Royal We, like any higher person still uses the Pluralis Majestatis today. (Genesis 3:22) The author of the Testimony of Truth wants us also to look negatively at the Maker and says:

But what sort is this God? First he maliciously refused Adam from eating of the tree of knowledge, and, secondly, he said “Adam, where are you?” God does not have foreknowledge? Would he not know from the beginning? And afterwards, he said, “Let us cast him out of this place, lest he eat of the tree of life and live forever.” Surely, he has shown himself to be a malicious grudger! And what kind of God is this? For great is the blindness of those who read, and they did not know him. And he said, “I am the jealous God; I will bring the sins of the fathers upon the children until three (and) four generations.” And he said, “I will make their heart thick, and I will cause their mind to become blind, that they might not know nor comprehend the things that are said.” But these things he has said to those who believe in him and serve him! {Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 1)}

It is the same as parents who noticed their children having done something wrong. They know where they are, and when they are hiding they mostly also know exactly the place where they are hiding, though still ask them to say where they are, trying to give them a chance to come out themselves and to show themselves in the condition they are.

 

English: Yale Papyrus Fragment from the Nag Ha...
Yale Papyrus Fragment from the Nag Hammadi Gnostic Library Codex III, containing The Dialogue of the Savior (Yale Beinecke Library). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Alexander Rivera of The Aeon Eye dedicated to research and ideas regarding scholarship in theology, various ancient texts spanning different cultures of all ages, comparative mythology, philosophical exegesis, apocrypha, patristics, the Nag Hammadi Library and the Bible, believes the author of the Testimony of Truth designating the serpent as a positive figure, telling the story from the view of the serpent.

Concerning the text also distinguishing Christ as the “Son” or messenger he talks about the “unknown Father” which is distinct from the “Lord God” of Genesis or the Lawgiver which was equated by many Gnostic groups such as the Sethians, Naasenes and the Valentinians with the Demiurge or the “Craftsman” who fashioned the cosmos from a chaotic pre-existent “prima materia”.

The Marcionites held a similar position, but lacked the speculative and imaginative cosmologies that were a staple in later Gnostic mythology, but held both the creator god as a lesser god and the Good, Supreme God as distinct, but co-eternal beings in a constant state of antagonism (we see this idea carried into the later doctrines of the Manichaeans and the Cathars). The Demiurge did not derive from the Supreme God by emanation or by a fall of another aeon. {Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 1)}

Scripture wants us to believe the Maker of all things, the Maker of the Universe is a God of Order and Clarity, who is a God of Love.

Marcion, much like his Gnostic predecessors denied that the God of goodness could have created the cosmos of corruption and entropy. Therefore, in his place, the creator god was assigned as author of the physical universe, while treated as an inferior being, not good, but only just. He is also the author of evil (as Isaiah 45:7 boldly asserts), as he is as much a lover of war (Exodus 15:3), erratic blood-lust in his constant demand for animal and human sacrifice, rejoicing in death (Deuteronomy 28:63), condoning slavery including sexual (Exodus 21:1-11), commanding the Israelites to rape, pillage and destroy at a moment’s whim (1 Chronicles 21, Deuteronomy 3, Joshua 6) all the while contradicting his own commandment of “Thou shalt not kill”. At his express command, the world is turned into a place of pain and “thorns” (Genesis 3:18)

English: A lion-faced deity found on a Gnostic...
A lion-faced deity found on a Gnostic gem in Bernard de Montfaucon’s L’antiquité expliquée et représentée en figures. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The saying by the prophet Isaiah that the Elohim would be a God of evil is indicating that the Most High Maker Who has no peer, no God but Him, allows evil to come over people, even making His People arm them for battle. It is true that the Bible says even though man does not recognize Him, He does this so people will recognize from east to west that there is no God but Him. Already early at the Creation God made it clear that out of the void it was Him Speaking and making it to happen. From the very start of the universe the living creatures had to know that it was Him Who made them. All had to understand that it is Him The One Who forms light and creates darkness. It was Him Who created out of chaos order and brought about peace and created calamity. Waters had to flow, air had to flow, but now that man had interfered with creation and disturbed the peace and tranquillity they themselves brought great misfortune over themselves, not out of God’s Will but out of their will. It where they who wanted to rule the world and have everything to say, so God allowed them to arrange the things like they want to do it. But up until now they still not have given any proof to be capable to order the world decently.

True, God by giving everything in the hands of incompetent human beings made that affliction became master of mankind. Though He allows all those things to happen in the hope that at one point those people will come to recognise that He alone is the Divine Supreme Maker Who deserves all worship and honour. God is patient enough to find enough people who are willing to recognise that the Elohim Hashem Jehovah is the Most High Lord over the Lord of lords, Who accomplishes all these things.

People shall also have to notice that certain things that happen may look at one moment good but at an other may look bad, like the changing skies with clouds sending down showers of deliverance. Also figuratively people shall get to see that the earth shall have to absorb the ‘showers’ from God so salvation may grow, and deliverance may sprout up along with it. This all in the knowledge that it is the Divine Supreme Being Who creates it.

Isa 45:5-8 MKJV  I am Jehovah, and there is none else, no God besides Me; I clothed you, though you have not known Me;  (6)  that they may know from the rising of the sun, and to the sunset, that there is none besides Me. I am Jehovah, and there is none else;  (7)  forming the light and creating darkness; making peace and creating evil. I Jehovah do all these things.  (8)  Drop down from above, O heavens, and let the clouds pour down righteousness. Let the earth open, and let salvation bear fruit; and let righteousness spring up together. I Jehovah have created it.

 

Lots of Christians accuse Muslims to have a cruel God (Allah), because they hear stories of what that God says and do not seem to know that they have the same God saying naturally the same things. But those hard words God speaks in the Old Testament, which many Christians do not know, are part of God reacting on the bad things the people did.

That God allows it all to happen is that otherwise an intervening God would again being able to become the accused as being a dictator, only allowing that to happen what and how He wants it, not giving any liberty to man. That was the charge in the Garden of Eden. God was wrongly accused as wanting all right to govern Himself. Man forgot that they were given freedom to name and manage their own world.

Those who want to believe the world that God only executes the law without mercy or compassion when it is convenient for Him are the one the Bible is calling satan or adversary. The opponents of God, the antagonists and objectors are the ones who are mentioned many-fold in the Bible. The ones who want the world to believe that God would be a person of king-like jealousy and pride, with great appetite for praise and sacrifices are the ones who gave breath to the enemy and what motivated many early Christians to interpret “the Lord God” as either an ignorant but just creator or at worst, a malicious and belligerent demon called “Ialdaboath”. {Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 1)}

Many assume wrongly that Jesus is talking about his heavenly Father being the father of evil and the one owning this world, but The Elohim has given the world in the hands of man, God’s adversary. It is not about God when there is said

He was a murder from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. {John 8:44 / Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 1)}

Jesus is giving reference to the “father of lies” who is not his heavenly Father, but the master of evil, God’s adversary (the ‘devil‘), who can be any human person who doubts the existence and the right of power of God.

Alexander Rivera points out:

it was Yahweh who said that they would die if they ate from the Tree of Knowledge, whereas the snake said that they wouldn’t—and of course, as we know, they didn’t. All that they Serpent said is that they would become as gods, which Yahweh confirms when he says, “Look, they have become as gods. Now we must remove them from the garden, lest they eat of the tree of life and live forever.” The night preceding his crucifixion, the Johannine Jesus says in John 12:31-33:

Now is the judgment of this world. Now the prince (archon) of this world will be cast out.

The prince or “archon” is a direct reference to the Demiurge, the “god of this aion” as Paul calls him 2 Corinthians 4:4. Before, the creator God said to both Adam and Eve “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” On the other hand, the Serpent said pointedly: “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” {Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 1)}

The author of Genesis let us know that Adam and Eve where cast out of the Garden of Eden and would have to face death, because God told them so and that all their offspring would have to face the problems and will have to die as well. This penalty form one to the other generation is a thorn in the eye of many Christians as well, but otherwise God would intervene again and could be accused of favouritism, giving partiality to His own people.

The eyes of both of them were opened, making them aware of what they had and what they now had to loose. Eve in her heart had hoped to get more wisdom. She did not want to believe that they would die. How could the one Who made them, losing them again? Reason why we do not follow the Gnostic writings is that they continue to follow the path of Eve and the adversaries of God who want us to believe that it was the Serpent who was right and  the creator God Who was the one who had lied.

He said that Adam and Eve would die if he ate the fruit, but neither died. Instead, the Serpent was telling the truth. As a matter of fact, the creator himself ended up agreeing that the Serpent was right! The creator Lord God had proved himself to be a chronic liar as well as plagiarizer. To the Gnostics, the entire stratum of material creation was a failed and botched attempt to imitate an unknowable world of light. Likewise, the “Good Book” or “Word of God”, which being the Bible itself is based principally on pre-Biblical Babylonian and Egyptian texts. {Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 1)}

Rivera looks also at the claim of St. Augustine of Hippo in Adversus Haeresis, 46, 147-153, that the Manichaeans had also taught that “Jesus the Splendor” or the “Third Messenger” was the Serpent that illuminated the minds of both Adam and Eve of their predicament and their divine origins.

Before the arrival of the Serpent in the Garden, man was in a state of ignorance and was blinded to his true position—as automatons in blind servitude to their creators. This is confirmed by an unnamed Manichean text in which the 8th century historian, Theodor Bar Konai quotes:

Jesus the Splendour approached sinless Adam and awoke him from the sleep of death, that he might be delivered of innumerable demons… Then Adam examined himself and realized, who he was. {Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 1)}

Man has always played with the idea of being master of creation becoming superior to its Creator. In the races of worldly people, human artefacts have become objects of fear for their creators – for example statues and images and everything that is made by human hands as representing a god. In Christendom we still find many Christians who have that urge to bow down in front of graven images, though the Maker has clearly demanded not to do so. Several Christians made them crosses, statues of Jesus, Mary and several saints where they bow for and where they burn candles for or in certain countries even provide food and clothing. Though this is all abomination in the eyes of God.

People made themselves many male and female gods and also in Christendom we can find people who worship a ‘mother of god‘, though the God of gods has no mother and no beginning being an eternal Spirit.

We can agree with Alexander Rivera who writes in his blog The Aeon Eye:

Ultimately, the aim of the creator god is to align mankind as the reflection of the creator rather than something far grander. {Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 1)}

Trees, fruit and seeds have always played an important role in many cultures and were often used symbolically as well.

Rivera writes:

As we can see, the Tree was an important universal symbol for not only the Gnostics, Simonians, Valentinians, etc, but to groups like the Jewish-Kabbalists, alchemists and many occult groups throughout the ages. The Tree is highly associative with the idea of the descent and crucifixion (and eventual ascent and resurrection) of spirit into and from matter as seen in Sophia-Achamoth’s fall from the celestial world and into the prima materia which parallels the Genesis account of the fall of Eve, the “mother of the living”. In Plato’s Timaeus, do we find the account of the Fall of Atlantis, (as strange as it might sound) which could be read as symbolic of the Divine tragedy and catastrophe so predominant in Gnostic cosmology and theology. {Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 3)}

We too look at the seed of Adam which brought forth the seed of Abraham, giving us the servant David, giving seed to next generations bringing into the world a new light, a seed without intervention of a man.

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Please do find the very interesting articles by Rivera:

Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 1)

Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 2)

Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 3)

Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 4)

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Preceding posts:

Coming to the creation of human beings in the image of God

Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden 1

Scripture about Creation and Creator Deity

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Additional reading:

  1. Creation Creator and Creation
  2. Creator and Blogger God 1 Emptiness and movement
  3. יהוה , YHWH and Love: Four-letter words

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  • Gnostic Salvation And Rebellion Against God’s Law (hammeringshield.wordpress.com)

    For Gnostic Christians, the story of salvation is the story of human beings learning of their true position in the world and of their taking the necessary steps to escape the bondage of the evil Creator God. The Gnostic goal was the return of their Spiritual Light, which the Creator God had trapped within their bodies, to the Father Of Light.

    Many Gnostics believed that the Savior was sent by the Father Of Light to help us in this quest. Others, like Marcion, believed that the Savior was sent by another deity entirely, an “Alien God” completely uninvolved in the creation of our particular cosmos, but who, knowing of our condition, took pity on us and sent the Savior to deliver us.

  • What If God Were NOT Good? (hammeringshield.wordpress.com)
    The beliefs we today associate with Christianity and the Bible became the orthodox set of beliefs, the form of Christianity in which God is good. But there was another form of Christianity, that of the Gnostics. Unlike the Orthodox Christians, many Gnostic Christians believed God to be a malevolent being. Both types of Christians believed in the Savior, but they had different versions of his mission. And whereas Orthodox Christians believed in salvation via faith in the divinity of the Savior, the Gnostics believed that salvation is to be obtained via knowledge (“gnosis“) of our true condition, hence their name.
  • Deceptive Practices (culturalatheist.wordpress.com)
    The first lies recorded (although we know he was already telling them in heaven) are the the lies about God’s character. He lied to Adam and Eve about God’s love and care for them. The lies were relational.What if Satan’s deceptive practices begin with or are grounded in lies about others? It would be in his best interests if we think the worst about others – their beliefs, their practices, their intentions and character. I also suspect that we reveal our acceptance of the lies and our culpability in spreading them when we say, “All (insert person or group) are (insert belief, practice, intention).”
  • Can a Gnostic army fix the world? (vaticproject.blogspot.com)
    God gave us dominion over the animals to care for them, and that is in Genesis.  And Christ reinforced those sentiments, so I don’t know where he got that, unless he has not read the Bible, which is possible.  In fact, it was Christ who brought a new coverant stopping the slaughter of animals by the Jews and instead offered himself as the redeeming sacrifice.  So, I am not sure where he got that, but be it as it may,  just focus on the recommendations which I think are reasonable, actually.   How do you protect society from those that murder at will for no earthy good reason, especially little children and babies.
  • Humble beginnings: a rib and an apple (annabelfrage.wordpress.com)
    As a little aside, when God in Genesis 1 creates Adam, the name denominates mankind rather than a specific dude. In Genesis 2, however, God moulds Adam the man from the earth and breathes life into him. It is this Adam who is gifted with Eve, lest he become too lonely playing with himself.
    +
    The tree, however, was always on their minds, a little teaser that now and then had them taking a couple of steps in its direction before remembering it was out of bounds. Eve would pick an apple from another tree and bite into it, eyes stuck on the perfect, Christmas-red apples that hung from the Tree of Knowledge. She bet those apples tasted sweeter, were crunchier and jucier. Adam would pick an apple and eat it while watching Eve, considering just what he would do to her after their meal. men are, at times, rather singleminded…
  • Great Day (theotherjc.com)
    God is…my Father. That’s a revelation that doesn’t come easily to everyone but one we need to get. We can be disappointed by our own Father but without realising it not notice that God has filled our lives with many Fathers. Thanks to Rachael for sharing her journey in this in such an honest way.
  • Jesus the Phoenician – Karim El Koussa on GW Radio (gnosticwarrior.com)
    “Yāwshu (Jesus) is the son of the Canaano-Phoenician Most High God Ēl-Alyon, being the Son of the Virgin Lady Maryām by the Divine Will of the Lord, who blessed this conception of a child that would be named Immanuel. He would live among us as “God Ēl with us,” a Nazarene, sacredly chosen to consecrate himself for keeping the word of God in his heart, mind, and spirit, healing the human race from its many errors and sins. He is the Galilean Meshiha (Messiah) who would anoint the people—who believed in him, his mother, and Father, and who believed in the Great Message he came to deliver, Love and Peace—with sacred water, the purest form of what is considered as the origin of life here on earth. He is the Khristós (Christ) who came and had himself crucified on the altar of life so that we may be clean and have life abundantly. He is the Good Shepherd.”
    ― Excerpt from Jesus the Phoenician
  • Fear & Loathing In… God? (cwoznicki.com)
    How can God loath his chosen people? How does that even make sense? In one of John Webster’s sermons on this very Psalm he addresses how this can be. Honestly its one of the best explanations of God’s wrath and hatred and anger that I have ever read…
  • Trust (activeinspiration.wordpress.com)
    Trusting in riches instead of our Father means you can’t attain to a relationship with God, you have replaced God with riches, thus you can’t attain, only fall.
  • Scripture of the Day, 3/13 (sowegalive.com)
    1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,