Messianic prophesies 2 Adversary – Root of the first prophecy

The first human beings had chosen to go their own path. As any good father would do when his children had done something wrong, God punished them. But as a loving Father He in His great mercy promised for a solution and preserved David’s bloodline and the Messianic promise.

Mankind had chosen Yet, we each must recognize the adversary’s strategy to lure us into desiring and acquiring pride, glory, power, anything more than God Himself — and understand the dire consequences of choosing to follow those desires.

In Scriptures we can find sayings which should come to recognise the one who God sent to the world to show the Way to God and to brake the curse of death which came over Adam and Eve. God provided some one, people can follow as an ideal example, namely the Messiah, who we shall see is Jeshua, who in certain countries is better known under the name Jesus, or Jezus, Jésus, Jeesus, Chesu, Jezis, Xesus, Isus or Ishi/Isha.

Throughout the Brit Chadashah, we find satan tempting, prowling, seeking whom he can destroy. That sent one from God became even his primary target. God is the only one Who cannot be tempted, but all other beings can be tempted. Also Jeshua or Jesus Christ was tempted more than once, but he resisted every temptation even during great physical weakness.
How? He confronted every satan he encountered with the Word of God, while being full of the Spirit of God. In doing so, he exited the wilderness victorious and empowered and left Peter ashamed.

When he did not succeed in destroying Jeshua, the adversary focused his slander and deception toward luring others away from God’s Word and His Kingdom. Knowing what went on and what shall come, we should not have to fear the serpent‘s schemes to destroy our eternal destiny.

Though we will certainly die physically, we don’t have to die spiritually. God placed hope for our spiritual victory over death back in the first pages of Genesis.

Who Is Our Hope?

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring [seed/ zera] and her offspring [seed/ zera]. He will pound your head, and you will bite his heel.” (Genesis 3:15)

In the previous posting you could already read how God first revealed the hope for all mankind against the adversary when he promised that Eve’s seed / offspring (zera) would pound or crush the head of the serpent.

When we talk about an offspring, literally “those who spring off (someone,)” from off + springan “to spring” (see spring (v.)) we think of progeny coming from Old French progenie (13c.) and directly from Latin progenies “descendants, offspring, lineage, race, family,” from stem of progignere “beget,” from pro “forth” (see pro-) + gignere “to produce, beget” (see genus) and look at descendants or a posterity.

It can be that it is about a (singular) person’s child or the young of a person, an immediate descendant or descendants of a person or animal. Though it also may mean more than one person of one pair of people, in that instance talking about a lot of people, such as a nation of Israel or all humankind. When we look at Jewish theologians or scholars their writings we may find lots of debate going on about that.

For most Christians the seed mentioned several times in the Pre-Messianic Scriptures or Old Testament refers to a coming Messiah — Jeshua (Jesus Christ). To know for sure we shall look not only at the first mention of such seed but look at the further writings given to mankind to get to know what God His Plan is with mankind and in which The Master Maker reveals how we can see who shall be the Messiah.

The first five books (the Chumash or Pentateuch), written by Moses speaks of a male. Also in other ancient Jewish sages we find the mention of a “he”. enlightened by the Highest Ruach (the Power of God) Moses did not only wrote about the beginning of times. In 1300 BCE, Moses wrote about the last days (acharit-hayamim, בְּאַחֲרִ֥ית הַיָּמִֽים), which indicates that he likely understood a final deliverance and deliverer would one day arrive. (Genesis 49)

“So now, here, I am going (back) to my people; come, I will advise you as to what this people will do to your people in future days.”
(Numbers 24:14 SB)

“When you are in distress because there befall you all these things, in future days, you shall return to YHWH your God and hearken to his voice.”
(Deuteronomy 4:30 SB)

At the days of Jeshua people also got to hear what God said in the Garden of Eden

“I put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed: they will bruise you on the head, you will bruise them in the heel.”
(Genesis 3:15 SB)

They heard it in their common language of Aramaic, the language Jesus also spoke. In that language we can still find it in the translation, known as Targum Yonatan [Targum Jonathan (תרגום יונתן בן עוזיאל)], the official eastern (Babylonian) targum to the Nevi’im. In that “Translation,” or “Interpretation” Book (hence “Targum”) unlearned Jews to whom the Hebrew of the Old Testament was unintelligible, could hear how we all are in a power struggle with the adversary in choosing to do good while resisting our selfish, evil desires. When Scripture was read aloud in the synagogue, it was translated aloud by a meturgeman, or professional interpreter, for the benefit of the congregation. The translator tried to reproduce the original text as closely as possible, but since his object was to give an intelligible rendering of the biblical text, the Targums eventually took on the character of paraphrase and commentary, leaving literal translation behind.  The read text was utilized as a vehicle for conveying homiletic discourses, traditional sayings, legends, and allegories is abundantly illustrated by the later Targums, as opposed to the more literal translations of the earlier Targums. In both of them there is also spoken of that time to come and more in particular of that person to come. The Targum Jonathan affirms that the world was waiting for the coming of “King Meshiha” (Messiah in Aramaic) to heal the wounds caused by the adversary when we sin, and to win us an everlasting freedom.

It is from the Targum Yonatan that several Jews in later years also came to see a Messiah in certain people, like we may find followers of Simon Bar Kokhba, Nehemiah ben Hushiel also known as Mashiach ben Yoseph or Messiah ben Joseph, of als Mashiach bar/ben Ephraim, Sabbatai Zevi or Sabbatai Zebi/Shabsai Tzvi, Jakob Frank (Jankiew Lejbowi) or the contemporary adored Menachem Mendel Schneerson. They and their followers where taken by the text

“they shall make a remedy for the heel in the days of the King Meshiha.” (Genesis 3:15, Targum Yonatan, which is attributed to the work of Jonathan (Yonatan) ben Uzziel, c. 50 BC)

Today still like in the past, Orthodox worshippers pray, sing, play the violin, and dance in the synagogue at what they consider King David’s Tomb.

Title page, Midrash Tehillim

When we look at the first and second century Rabbinic commentary (known as a Midrash) the seed as Messiah is defined as:

“Rabbi Tanchuma said, in the name of Rabbi Samuel: Eve had respect to that seed (“offspring”) which is coming from another place. And who is this? This is the King Messiah.” (Midrash Genesis Rabbah 23:5)

A millennium later, the European scholar of the Hebrew language whose writings on Hebrew lexicography and grammar became standard works in the Middle Ages, David Kimhi or Kimchi (RaDaK) also seems to point to the seed as Messiah, writing:

“As You went forth for the salvation of Your people by the hands of Meshiha, the Son of David, who shall wound satan, who is the head, the king and prince of the house of the wicked…” (Commentary on Habakkuk 3:13)

And yet, with all this evidence pointing to a single man, the Messiah, as the seed, some Bible translations have led us toward a very different understanding of “the seed.”

Altered Identity

A problem with certain translations is that sometimes translators did not have an equivalent for the Hebrew word in their language or thought something to be a particular figure or person, instead of a situation or any person who took on a certain attitude, like a satan who is an adversary but became in many translations the Satan, a devilish figure. Or the temptation “nachash” , our battle or struggle against inner thoughts, (the fencing in life) becoming a literal snake or serpent.

Concerning the seed certain writers or bible-translators where too much carried away by their own doctrinal visions and tried to translate  their version from that doctrinal viewpoint, hereby creating confusion, like for example using the word Lord for Jehovah God as well as for Jesus, the son of God, so that people could not any more see clear about whom was be spoken and could come to consider Jesus to be the same as God, which he naturally is not.

Sometimes, ideas about the identity of the seed are so deeply held that, to support those ideas, even basic Hebrew words are mistranslated in Jewish Bible versions.

One such translation tells us the seed is not a single person:

“And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; they [in Hebrew, hu] shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise their [instead of ‘his’] heel.” (Jewish Publication Society (JPS), 1917)

Even though the original Hebrew text uses the word “hu”, which means “he”, the JPS Bible version uses the word “they.”

So, instead of a single man doing the bruising and being bruised, we read that a multitude of people, the nation of Israel, are involved in the struggle with the serpent as well as the victory over him.

Though most Jewish translations do not make this grave translation error, it illustrates how important it is to diligently search for the truth of God’s Word and how it is best not to stick to just one translation or even not to just one language.

This is true regarding Christian translations of the Bible as well.

St. Jerome, who, in 382 CE was commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Vetus Latina (“Old Latin”) collection of biblical texts in Latin then in use by the Church > widely adopted and eventually eclipsed the Vetus Latina and, by the 13th century, was known as the “versio vulgata” (the “version commonly-used”) or, more simply, in Latin as vulgata or in Greek as βουλγάτα (“Vulgate”).

Page from the Dutsch Professorenbijbel (“Professors Bible”), a translation of the Latin Vulgate of the Books of the New Testament. This part, covering the Pentateuch, was published in 1904. – De Heilige Boeken van het Oude Verbond. Vulgaat en Nederlandsche Vertaling met Aanteekeningen, part I – Petrus Laurentius Dessens (1851-1929)

When we look at the early Church’s official translation of the Bible completed in 400 CE by Jerome, we read in that Latin Vulgate translation that “he” has even become a “she”, though in the Vulgate of Hieronimus we find ‘yours’ (though also referring to “the seed of the woman” allowing it to be male or female):

“inimicitias ponam inter te et mulierem et semen tuum et semen illius ipsa conteret caput tuum et tu insidiaberis calcaneo eius” (Genesis 3:15 VULGATE)

“I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed and she [in Hebrew, hu] shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.” (Douay-Rheims Bible, which is based on the Latin Vulgate manuscript)

Here again we have to note that looking at the Hebrew text which uses the word “hu” (meaning “he”) the Latin Vulgate and those working form that work translate it to “she.”

Protevangelium of James, pseudepigraphal (noncanonical and unauthentic) work written about the mid-2nd century ad to enhance the role of Mary, the mother of Jesus, in Christian tradition. Mary crushes the serpent.

Several of the early Church fathers, such as Justin Martyr (160 CE) and Irenaeus (180 CE) regarded this verse “as the Protoevangelium, the first messianic prophecy in the Old Testament.”

For centuries, the above mentioned one little pronoun change led to the false teaching that Miriam (Mary) either on her own or as a co-redemptrix with her son Jeshua, crushed the serpent and claims the victory. In many Christian denominations we find such confusion and paintings referring to that crushing by the “blessed” virgin Mary.

Fortunately, more recent translations of the Catholic Bible correct this error. The 1997 Catechism of the Catholic Church (2nd edition) tries to correct it as well by stating:

“This passage in Genesis [3:15] is called the Protoevangelium (“first gospel”): the first announcement of the Messiah and Redeemer, of a battle between the serpent and the Woman, and of the final victory of a descendant of hers.” (Par. 410)

From the masculine singular Hebrew pronoun in Genesis 3:15, we see that the seed of the woman is a man, to whom may be referred to in in Romans 16:20 him being called a god, or higher/important person of peace, which identifies him as the Jesus Christ.

Romans 16:20 NHEBJE  And the God of peace will quickly crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

Those who look at the offspring and hers find that it is all about human beings and may find that

for in context it describes those who “by smooth talk and flattery” “deceive the minds of naive people”. Particularly, this may mean the Judaizers, who sought to draw other believers — esp Gentile believers — away from their freedom in Christ into an enforced bondage to the Law of Moses. {Agora commentary on Romans 16:20}

To do away with all doubt and confusion over the identity of the seed, we can go to the apostle John who clearly tells us who the victor of the adversary is:

1 John 3:8 NHEBJE  He who sins is of the devil [diabolos], for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. To this end the Son of God was revealed, to destroy the works of the devil.

Behemoth and Leviathan, by William Blake

The committer of sin being of the adversary is at the origin or reason to have a foreseen figure having Jehovah with His relentless, large, strong sword will bring judgement on Leviathan, the fleeing and twisted serpent, slaying the monsters of this world

Isaiah 27:1 NHEBJE  In that day, Jehovah with his fierce and great and mighty sword will punish leviathan, the fleeing serpent, and leviathan the twisted serpent; and he will kill the dragon that is in the sea.

And unclean men might have questioned what that man from Nazareth, born from the Essene woman Miriam, came to do in the temple, though there was one who told it to those around him. And there was the moment the adversary would fall.

Mark 1:24 NHEBJE  saying, “What do we have to do with you, Jesus, you Nazarene? Have you come to destroy us? I know you who you are: the Holy One of God!”

Luke 10:18 NHEBJE  He said to them, “I saw Satan having fallen like lightning from heaven.

The Nazarene saying to his disciples that he gave them the authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, them having to know if they believed in him they should not worry because nothing at all would harm them.

Luke 10:19 NHEBJE  Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will in any way hurt you.

For Jesus it was clear that the voices which came from the heavens declared who he was and came, not for him, but for those around Jesus and for us. First there was the Pneuma or Spirit of God telling that he was the only begotten son and secondly there where the angels telling that at the moment, the judgement is of this world, having its own ruler. But that ruler of the world shall be cast out, whilst the seed of the woman shall be lifted up from the earth and will draw all people to himself.

John 12:30 NHEBJE  Jesus answered, “This voice hasn’t come for my sake, but for your sakes.

The world has to come to understand that we have man going wrong from the beginning, i.e. sinning, and that it is for this purpose that the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of evil and the trespassers or aggressors.

1 John 3:8 NHEBJE  He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. To this end the Son of God was revealed, to destroy the works of the devil.

In the next postings you shall come to see how through later prophecies we can discover that only Jeshua could be the seed of Genesis 3:15 and the one to restore our relationship with the divine Creator, our heavenly Father, and what the importance is of that Nazarene man, who we have to recognise as the Son of God, and not a god son, God dwelling in him, so that God also may dwell in us and we in Him.

1 John 4:15 NHEBJE  Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him, and he in God.

The Victory Is Ours to Share

The 1st Adam, being made in the image of God, was followed up by the 2nd Adam, also made in God’s image, like we are made in God’s image. All being children of flesh and blood, having our own weaknesses. Jesus also a man of flesh and blood who also shared in our humanity, put his own will aside so that he might destroy the originator of evil, the tempter or nachash, the ‘serpent‘ who holds the power of death, most people do know by the name “devil”. By his ransom offer Jesus could free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

Hebrews 2:14-15 NHEBJE  Since then the children have shared in flesh and blood, he also himself in like manner partook of the same, that through death he might bring to nothing him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,  (15)  and might deliver all of them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

It is by Christ offering himself for all mankind that we are liberated and have a prospect for a better future.

“When Christ [Messiah] died for our sins, Satan was disarmed and defeated. The one eternally destructive weapon that he had was stripped from his hand — namely, his accusation before God that we are guilty and should perish with him,”  {John Piper (Desiring God)}.

Conclusion

We have seen how the first human beings (the man and mannin) already early at the beginning of times rebelled against their Maker. They had gone in into their own false thoughts that God would withhold something for them, or on purpose kept certain things secret for them,so that they would not get the same power as God. They had everything they could wish for but wanted more.

Having gone wrong they had to learn that there was a severe consequence of obeying the slanderer, destroyer, and adversary of God. It has been mandatory and expensive, namely the separation from direct contact with God, not always seeing and feeling the love of God.

We as descendants of the offspring of the progeny of those who came in the lineage of the children of Adam and Eve, we too have the defects of the damaged cake mould. Today we do have to make our own choice like Eve and Adam had to choose. Today we should be able to come to see who the bruiser is and who the one man is who can bring salvation for us.

While there may also be consequences in our lifetime to obeying the adversary, the eternal consequence of trusting in the Nazarene rabbi Jeshua, son of man and son of God, as our Messiah and Deliverer shall bring us the hope to enjoy a magnificent security, safety, and God’s chesed (merciful love) that can never be taken away from us, even when so many around us may try to destroy us or to make our life agony. whatever may happen to us, serious accidents, horrible things, when we trust Jesus we shall have the assurance of the hope, and then there shall be nothing able to separate us from the love of God that is in Messiah Jeshua our lord.

Romans 8:38-39 NHEBJE  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,  (39)  nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

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Preceding

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

Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden 4

Out of the seed of Eve

Messianic prophesies 1 Adversary – Root of the first prophecy

A solution for a damaged relationship 3 Insight and prophesies given

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

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

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

First mention of a solution against death 6 Authority given to the send one from God coming out of the woman

First mention of a solution against death 7 Human sacrifice

Not trying to make the heathen live like Jews #1

Not trying to make the heathen live like Jews #2

Necessary to be known all over the earth

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Additional reading

1. Creator and Blogger God 3 Lesson and solution
2. A Tool to shed light over the qualities in our life 2 Jews for a Messiah
3. An other tool bringing words for understanding and wisdom
4. Reading to grow and to become wise concerning the most important thing in life 3 Light and wisdom in words
5. The 1st Adam in the Hebrew Scriptures #1 Beginning of everything
6. The 1st Adam in the Hebrew Scriptures #7 Promise and solution
7. The 1st Adam in the Hebrew Scriptures #8 Looking for the 2nd Adam
8. A “seed” for the blessing of all mankind would come through the family of Abraham
9. Seeds and weeds for being the greatest nation
10. The language of Jesus and the title of God
11. Revival of Jesus’ language at Oxford
12. The Sabbatean Prophets
13. Sabbatai Zevi (Jewish Convert To Islam)
14. Converso Involvement in the Sabbatai Zevi Movement

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Further literature of interest

1. Tell me a story [43a]
2. Adam and Eve
3. I don’t want to be a gardener
4. Genesis 3
5. Lingering: Genesis 3:1-2
6. Daily Verse Reading – Genesis 3:9-15,20
7. It Took an Apple to Create Murder (figuratively)
8. Desire of the Woman
9. Eden Another Perspective [77a]
10. Eden Another Perspective [77b]
11. Eden Another Perspective [77c]
12. In The Beginning, Part III
13. Eve and Adam not Adam and Eve says Anthony Sargeant
14. What is the big mistake of Adam and Eve? (part 2)
15. A Serpent and a Savior
16. Born of a Woman
17. Jesus the Better Adam
18. Day 19: The Snake-Stomping Baby
19. Conversation
20. Questioned by a Serpent
21. The Serpent
22. Why did Satan use a Serpent? (1 of 2)
23. Why did Satan use a Serpent? (2 of 2
24. Did Adam’s Garden Have a Talking Snake?
25. The Talking Serpent
26. Fear?
27. The Endowment of Free Will in Spiritual Things
28. A Serpent and a Savior
29. Serpent Destroyed
30. The Fall of the Deceived
31. Enmity
32. The serpent trail [133b]
33. The serpent trail [133c]
34. Give Me A Minute – Who Is The Devil?
35. Accurate Answer
36. Answer with Truth
37. Bereishis – Why the Snake was Punished — By Ben
38. Battling the Serpent
39. The First Superstition
40. Judge Not
41. Have You Been Bit and Don’t Know It
42. Scripture at Sunrise 1.11.2017Ephesians 6:12
43. The Bible Tells One Story – Andrew
44. The Creation story 2
45. Satan will be cast out in the end by Me – December 19, 2016
46. Good & Evil: Battle Continue
47. Be Skeptical of the One Who Offers You Power
48. He Shall Bruise You on the Head
49. What Broken Fellowship With God Is Like
50. An Enemy Of God
51. ‘enmity’ ….. mentioned in the Holy Bible (KJV)
52. Christ Crucified: The Seed of the Woman
53. End – Time Prophecy
54. Raising Tyrants
55. The Signs of Revelation – Part V: The Animal Symbols of the Battle
56. Human Sins
57. Second Death

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Related articles

• Would you Adam & Eve it? Fruit may have been the making of mankind
• Rule #5: Ponder the Brevity of Life (8 Rules for Growing in Godliness)
• Sunday reflection: Matthew 4:1-11
• INSPIRATIONAL: You Can’t Return to Eden
• What Exactly Is Written About You?
• Mark the start of Easter holy week with a Palm Sunday salad
• For Getting to know Jesus
• The 1st Adam in the Hebrew Scriptures #5 Temptation, assault and curse
• Out of the seed of Eve
• Messianic prophesies 1 Adversary – Root of the first prophecy

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” (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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Related articles

• The Origin and Purpose of the Bible
• Bible of the Revolution: Among rarest of books
• Your’s, Mine, and the Truth
• Sunday, 12 July 2015 : Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Bible Sunday (Homily and Scripture Reflections)
• Elohim, Mar-Yah showing His wonders
• Seek Jehovah
• Consciousness Driven Evolution
• God’s wisdom for the believer brings peace
• Not following the tradition of man
• Perishable non theologians daring to go out to preach

Something from nothing

Is it possible to get something from nothing?

When we hear the story of the creation of the universe we might get that impression.

WMAP image of the (extremely tiny) anisotropies in the cosmic background radiation (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the Holy Scriptures we get to read that there was void or a “ Containing of no matter“. There was or was not something with something ” completely lacking”. At first there was a “Having no legal force or validity” but than out of nowhere seemed to come a Voice of Some One Who spoke.

The Bible tells us that every time that One Spoke His Voice brought into being. We do find the principle of something not being there but “God said…” and it was done. The prophet Isaiah quotes the Lord as saying:

I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded (Isaiah 45:12).

So, there was not only The Voice but there where also Hands. Out of nothing we do seem to get Sound, from emptiness creating things. This means that there was a power. This incredible Power we consider to be the Most High Power. It is the Force of bringing to life, or the Force of life.

Galaxies are very important fundamental building blocks of the Universe. Some are simple, while others are very complex in structure. As one of the first steps towards a coherent theory of galaxy evolution, the American astronomer Edwin Hubble, developed a classification scheme of galaxies in 1926. Although this scheme, also known as the Hubble tuning fork diagram, is now considered somewhat too simple, the basic ideas still hold… (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This creative Power of God is mentioned many other times in the Scriptures, but, as always, the mechanistic details are not supplied. It is hard to imagine, for example, what would have happened if instead of saying let there be light, the Bible had written out Maxwell’s equations of electromagnetism. Even if the Bible had given us the formulas explaining the physical details, no one in ages past would have understood them, or if somehow they could have achieved comprehension, they would surely have abused the information!

There was the void or open space which could or could have not a continuity or a break in continuity, a vacate space.

About when and how the universe came into being, science and scripture may come up with the same unambiguous result, namely, in the beginning (Genesis 1:1).

The scientist is not let off the hook, for an eternal universe would also have solved a whole host of scientific problems. According to the model pictured by classical physics, an eternal, everlasting static universe would have been just fine, but these ideas were overturned by the astronomer Hubble in 1929, and still later unambiguously verified by observations made in the mid-1960’s on the universal microwave background.

In 1929, Edwin Hubble, an astronomer working at the Mount Wilson Observatory in Southern California, discovered that all the galaxies in the universe appeared to be moving away from the earth and the further away they were from us the faster their speed of recession. The conclusion was that the universe could not be static but was undergoing dynamic expansion. (See e.g. G. E. Christianson, Edward Hubble: Mariner of the Nebulae, (1995) )

Arno Allan Penzias (born 26 April 1933) is an American physicist, radio astronomer and Nobel laureate in physics who is co-discoverer of the cosmic microwave background radiation, which helped establish the Big Bang theory of cosmology.

In 1965, two physicists at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey studying antenna noise discovered that the entire universe appeared to be bathed in a radiation afterglow of a singular event of vast energy taking place in the far distant past. This event has come to be known in popular terms as the “Big Bang”. We will have more to say about this in a later chapter. See: A. Penzias and G. Wilson, A Measurement of Excess Antenna Temperature at 4080Mc/s, ApJ, 142, 419, (1965).

The book of Genesis does not want to present a factual account but in a certain way wants to bring a tale or narrative comprehensible for most people.

Genesis simply and beautifully describes God’s initial creation, as well as His declaration of His creative purpose. It then describes the coming of sin into the world through the choices made by Adam and Eve, and the consequences of those choices for them and their descendants. Then Genesis follows their descendants’ decline into lawless violence — a decline that God brought to an end by sending a great flood, while saving eight people for a new beginning.

Genesis bringing an account from the creation of the world to the death of Joseph in Egypt, we may later find references to the course of events by the New Testament writers, by which John loves to construct his books in the same manner as the Bereshith, talking of the Word spoken and a Word bringing into being. He looks at the Old world and compares the happenings to the New World. He was convinced that in the Garden of Eden the Word spoken by God, the promise made to the first male and female creature of the human line or human tree, had come into existence with the birth of the Nazarene Jeshua from the lineage of king David.

Physics of Sound Sensory System of the Inner Ear & Space Time Continuum – By Doctor Emad kayyam (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Out of nothingness there was sound. That What had been for ever and is everlasting, has no beginning and no end, has no birth but also no dying or no death, and Which is an incredible Power, a Supreme Being, the Only One capable to create something from nothing. this may be very difficult to believe and is what we consider the only dogma a person of faith has come to take for truth. All other thoughts in our faith are easy to proof and are particularly explained in the Book of books,which we consider the infallible Word of that One and Only One God Who is One.

The question of how to reconcile suboptimal design with special creation is one that has puzzled many Christian groups as well as the Christadelphian community.

While the existence of suboptimal design is not ‘proof’ of evolution, for any special creationist who appeals to design in nature as evidence of special creation, the existence in nature of suboptimal design that directly leads to morbidity and mortality is a problem that is too often ignored.

Too many people want to take the Bible as an minute per minute or literal day to day account, forgetting that one day in the eyes of God is like a thousand years in the eyes of man. And they are also forgetting that perhaps God does not see any reason to have a detailed scientific account of all things when the uneducated also has to understand His Word.

God has given man, created in His image the possibility to see, hear, speak and think, using their brains to make up their minds and to come to conclusions. God has given in nature proof for all things. In it we should come to see how and what and should come to understanding.

In this contemporary world there are still too many Christians who do not want to see what God provided in nature and which treasures He left behind to be discovered by man in time.

The challenge of how to explain the scientific evidence for a very old earth, filled with fossil remains of countless generations of extinct species which are increasingly complex, has been faced by Christadelphians since the earliest days of our community.

Brother Roberts and other early expositors explained this evidence as the product of numerous creations being made and destroyed by God in succession. [1] [2] [3] Later Christadelphian commentators found this solution unsatisfying. Brother Walker objected to it on scientific grounds, pointing out that there was no break in the fossil record providing evidence for the destruction of a previous creation, and that the fossils showed earlier extinct animals had a close physical relationship to modern species which were still alive, indicating a continuity of life rather than a break.[4]

However, a far more challenging problem with which Christadelphian commentators have wrestled, is the issue of sub-optimal features within the creation. Our community has long recognized the imperfections of the human eye, acknowledging it has a blind spot.[5]

We should learn from geology, geographic changes, and take not of the many findings of people who studied several sciences. We not always should accept that they are totally right. Look at some findings, which a few years ago where considered the discovery of the time and the truth which are now considered as outdated and no longer valable and incorrect.

We should not have to expect from the Bible to give a detailed account, but should see the general line. This over the whole line of the canonical Bible Books has been proven to be happened like it is told and should be enough information to be provided for all people to come to understanding the Works of God.

The Book of the Beginnings teaches us much; it speaks of a time and creation on this earth when animal life was not like it is now and people did not look like we recognise other human beings today. Appearance was totally different.

We should not expect the Bible giving us all details of the creatures, how they looked like or how they behaved. It does not want to specify that humans and apes have are missing an enzyme that would allow them to make their own vitamin C, like other animals do.

To come to faith people do not need to know all sub-optimal features of all living elements.

Many creatures may have features which are sub-optimal, and may let people think this would not be the work of an omnipotent and omniscient Designer. In fact brother Matthew’s description of creation was that “the evidence implies problem, failure and imperfect solution”.[6]

There are several people who also do want to believe like Brother Matthew who proposed that the angels were responsible for creation, rather than God and suggested that since angels are less powerful than God, and closer to humans, it should be expected that their characters and work would be subject to weaknesses and limitations similar to those of humans. Because of that we can see so many ‘faults‘ in creation.

But we should know better and follow the Biblical account which explains what went wrong with creation. The Bereshith tells us how the first human beings reposted and went against the wishes of their Maker, resulting them willing to go on their own, God allowing them to be their own master, with all consequences, we having to face so many problems.

We do not believe God left the work to unskilled, uninformed, and largely unsupervised agents who were compelled to learn on the job as they muddled through generation after generation of mistakes. We do know that every high person speaks in the plural form, using the pluralis majestatis or Royal we, to have their words being taken seriously and as important.

When looking at creation we should consider that it all happened over a long period of time, many thousands of years. God was the Only One Maker Who established a natural biological process of speciation, which accounts for the variety of creatures in the fossil record and those we see today. That process followed rules established by God in the beginning, and was not blind, random, or accidental. Man revolting against their Maker choose to go their own way and where allowed to go into their own universe. In their own world they could give plants and animals and everything they created a name. they themselves had to cultivate it and work it out how to survive in the world they chose themselves. However, being a natural process without constant guidance from an intelligent being, its results were imperfect. God has always been prepared to work with a less than perfect creation, and it is a Biblical principle that His glory shines with great brightness when His character is reflected by fallible creatures.

The tendency for the evangelical Christian church to source their information outside of mainstream science [7] tends however to blunt the impact of such scientifically informed Christian warnings both against science denialism and basing first principles on demonstrably false views of the natural world. Deconversion anecdotes such as these, culled from a 2002 TalkOrigins post of the month [8]  are representative of the one-way traffic towards unbelief that often results when science and faith are pitted against each other.

Young earth creationist organisations remain stubbornly wedded to an a priori commitment to a fundamentalist reading of Genesis. Terry Mortenson, a YEC theologian and historian regards adherence to Biblical literalism as important because he regards it as fundamental to his theological world view:

None of us, including any particular scholar (no matter how respected he is), or even the majority of scholars or Christians, can be the final authority for determining truth. God’s Word must be the authority. And it clearly teaches creation in six literal days about six thousand years ago and a global catastrophic Flood at the time of Noah. We must graciously but uncompromisingly contend for the literal historical truth of Genesis 1–11, which is absolutely fundamental to all other doctrines in the Bible. [9]

What Mortenson fails to so convincingly is justify why a Christian must interpret Genesis 1-11 literally or exactly how our salvation depends on recent creation in six days or a literal world-wide flood. Instead he damns respected 19th century Christian scholars such as Torrey, Warfield and Dana as ‘compromisers’ for being willing to follow the scientific evidence where it led them, even if it contradicted with a particular interpretation of the creation narratives.

This refusal to engage with modern science is particularly acute given that the scientific evidence is overwhelmingly against flood geology and recent creationism, and in fact was recognised by conservative Christians well before Darwin. To be blunt, any Christian doctrine that hinges on a literal world-wide flood that laid down the fossils or recent creation in six days has been falsified, and no amount of appeal to a literal reading of Genesis will change observable reality. [10] Mortenson and his colleagues at Answers in Genesis may pride themselves on not compromising on what they believe to be a fundamental principle, but all they are doing is forcing believers to choose between observable reality and dogma, which as the Barna Group has shown is not a strategy for long-term growth of Christianity. More importantly, it is forcing believers to base fundamental doctrines on a description of the natural world that is demonstrably false.

*
Notes:

[1] ‘Interested Stranger.—No doubt the earth has gone through changes. Christadelphian. — Have not these changes been in the nature of progress—an advance from a crude to a more perfect state? Interested Stranger.—It has doubtless been so. Christadelphian.—From what sort of a state did this process make its start? Interested Stranger.—That, I think, we cannot ascertain. Christadelphian. — Not in an exact sense perhaps; but are we not justified in saying that if we go far enough back in the record of the earth’s physical history, as written in the rocks, we come to a time when the earth was a molten mass, incapable of sustaining life, either vegetable or animal? Interested Stranger.—That is believed by the geologist; and I do not see that any thing can be said against it.’, Roberts, ‘A Page for the Interested Stranger – No. 2’, The Christadelphian (22.255.405), 1885.

[2] ‘Geology teaches us much; it speaks of a time and creation on this earth when animal life, if not totally, was nearly unknown, and only the lower order of vegetable life covering its face, and this must have existed many thousands of years; and during the whole of that long period, the earth was undergoing wonderful and necessary changes to fit it for a creation of a higher order, and evidently with the creature man in view. There are evidences to show that when this early period had done its work, it was replaced by a creation of a higher order , when animal and vegetable forms of a far more wonderful structure were brought into existence and most admirably adopted to the atmosphere, climate, and peculiarities of that creation; and this, again, must have lasted for many thousands of years, and in its turn been swept away, and a grander creation built on its ruins. And so on, stage after stage.’, Simons, ‘Why Man was not at once made Perfect’, The Christadelphian (21.238.177), 1884.

[3] ‘There can be no reasonable doubt that when the non-fossiliferous rocks were first formed t he heat of the earth’s matter was too intense for vegetable and animal life to exist. There can be no reasonable doubt that it was only in a later age that the lower forms of plant and animal life could exist . And there can be no reasonable doubt that the succeeding ages allowed the creation of still higher and more perfect forms, till we reach the age called the “Tertiary,” and the “Post-pliocene” period of that age, when we are told remains of man are found for the first time. All of this, I say, I do not doubt. The facts of old mother earth’s storehouse are too convincingly inscribed upon her crust to allow me to doubt. At the same time, and amid it all, I have the most implicit faith and unbounded trust in God and His sacred word.’, Welch, ‘Knowledge.- No., 12 Geology’, The Christadelphian (28.329.416), 1891.

[4] ‘If we suppose a sudden and absolute break some 6,000 years ago, or before, resulting in the destruction of all life, and that the creation account of Genesis describes a new creation following, we ought to find some evidence of the break, and we cannot well account for the apparently close relationship that obtains between extinct and existing forms. There are forms becoming extinct in our own day from slow and natural causes. May it not have been so in pre-Adamic times? The professors tell us for instance that some of these ancient birds, whose strides we can see for ourselves from their footprints were from four to six feet long, were like gigantic ostriches.’, Walker, ‘Genesis’, The Christadelphian (47.557.501), 1910.

[6] “So to take the human elements, the frustration, the changes of plan and the solution along with God allowing that process to work its way through, and applying it to a creative environment where the evidence implies problem, failure and imperfect solution.”, Matthew Wigzell, email on his email list “Watchmen“, 17 January, 2013; (brother Matthew has explained this email list was not private, and both he and other members have shared publicly emails by various members of the list.)

[7] Giberson K “Why Evangelicals Are Fooled Into Accepting Pseudoscience” Huffington Post 23rd September 2011

[8] http://www.talkorigins.org/origins/postmonth/nov02.html

[9] Mortensen T “Exposing a Fundamental Compromise” Answers June 3rd 2010

[10] See for example Alan Hayward’s “Creation and Evolution – The Facts and Fallacies” (Triangle Books, 1985). Although his arguments against evolution were flawed even in the early 1980s, and are utterly dated now, his critique of flood geology and young earth creationism still hold up today.

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Preceding articles:

Scripture about Creation and Creator Deity

The very very beginning 1 Creating Gods

The very very beginning 2 The Word and words

Genesis – Story of creation 1 Genesis 1:1-25 Creation of thing

Genesis 1:26 God said “Let us make”

How Many Persons Created the Heavens and the Earth?

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Please do find to read:

1. Bible and Science (2): In the Beginning
2. Nothingness
3. Suboptimal design and special creation
4. Understanding God’s Word through His Creation -2
5. Here is why an increasing number of Christadelphians are accepting evolution
6. YECS: don’t compare yourself to Galileo. Unlike you, he had evidence on his side.
7. The “aha” moment – Biblical Scholars Tell Their Stories. Part 5
8. Andrew Perry shows how not to discuss evolution and creation – 1
9. Bible and Science: Scientific Facts and Theories
10. Is it “Wrong” to Believe that the Earth is a Sphere?
11. Cosmogony
12. Science, scepticism, doubts and beliefs
13. Science, belief, denial and visibility 1
14. Science, belief, denial and visibility 2
15. Ian Barbour connecting science and religion
16. Are Science and the Bible Compatible?
17. Reconciling Science and Religion
18. Science and God’s existence
19. People Seeking for God 1 Looking for answers
20. Challenging claim 2 Inspired by God 1 Simple words
21. Challenging claim 4 Inspired by God 3 Self-consistent Word of God
22. Interpretation of archaeological data
23. Science, 2013 word of the year, and Scepticism
24. The Immeasurable Grace bestowed on humanity
25. Sharing thoughts and philosophical writings

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Additional related articles:

1. Discovering or Destroying the “Recipe for Belief in Creationism”?
2. Do Evolutionists Believe Darwin’s Ideas about Evolution?
3. Deep Time Evolution

 

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Background to look at things

The articles presented on this site shall be looking at what people say and at what is really written in the Bible. We do advice everybody coming along here to check for themselves what is really written in the Scriptures.

Quadruple combination opened to the Book of Isaiah – note the cross references between Biblical and Latter-day Saint scripture in the footnotes (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There are many Bible translations of which some may be translated in a confusing way, paraphrasing more what was in the original writing and often letting out the names, replacing them with words like ‘lord‘ not keeping it clear any more about which lord is spoken in the verse. This way a lot of people got confused about Jesus and God and did not come to see clearly who said what.

We advise you therefore not necessarily to stick to one Bible translation and to compare sayings in your Bible on one place with sayings at another place in the same translation.

For us the Book of books, a library of 66 works written by men God has chosen to write down His Words, we consider the most valuable guide to give us insight in the Works of God and in the Wants of God. We prefer to stick to what is written in those 66 books and do not have any need to stick to human doctrines. God is a God of clarity and order, not of confusion. He shall give in His Word what we do need to know, and that what He finds not relevant and did not let notate it down shall also be of no relevance for having something to take as a belief matter. This means that we allow people to have different opinions about matters which are not clearly indicated in the Bible.  Each individual has received brains and can use them in different ways. How a person want to say things is the freedom of each. We as followers of Christ want to speak in accordance of Jesus’ will, asking us to be like brothers and sisters united in his body. that union does not have to mean we all are and say exactly the same. That is a big misunderstanding of what unity means.

Our background and Guide is the Word of God and our wish to do the Will of God. Believing in Only One God, like our forefathers in the lineage of the patriarch Abraham did, we also do take Abraham as our patriarch or father, and like Christ Jesus did worship this God of Abraham we worship that God of Abraham. In believing in the words of Jesus and the other prophets we find unity, following the commandments of God.

We would like to ask you, like we do ourselves, not to keep to the human teachings and human doctrines, but to take as main guide the Bible itself, the words like they are printed black on white.

Put away your old you and everything you might have learned in your previous life, and dare to look at the Bible as a fresh newborn baby. Getting from the start, learning more and more, little bit by little bit, giving your self time to absorb and to learn what is really written in the Bible and not taking the footnotes as divine words but concentrating on the Bible text itself.

We want to take Jesus as our master teacher and belief what he himself believed.  We may come form all different backgrounds, be from all different cultures, but as main background we want to consider us as descendants from the same first Adam, wanting to become the same descendants from the second Adam (Jesus).  Together we want to go for the same believes Jesus had and appeal to the Lord Messiah for guidance in identifying the true God.

Happily we have a clear record of Jesus’ belief about who God is. Not only that — his creed is doubly confirmed by the fact that the Jew Jesus is in perfect agreement with a Jewish scribe, as together they discuss the greatest of all questions we humans must face. Who is God? So prepare now to hear what Jesus commands us in terms of our definition of God.

“One of the scribes [professional Bible teachers]… seeing that Jesus had answered them well, asked him, ‘Which commandment is first of all?’ Jesus answered, ‘The first is this: “Listen, Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and you are to love the Lord your God with all your heart…

”’ And the scribe said to him, ‘Well said, teacher; in truth you have said that He is one and there is no other besides Him” (Mark 12:28-32).

That Nazarene teacher which told many parables and did many miracles not only astonished many people in his time, he still can surprise us. Standing in wonder for him, we want to share with others the acts of this wonderful, special man, who was called ‘son of man‘ and ‘son of God‘.

Our and your background to come to the faith should be the willingness to study the Word of God and the will to look for what is really written there and to  understand what God wants to bring in His Message, His Word which has stand the wear and tear and sustained all adversary by human beings. whatever man did to destroy the book of books, they did not succeed and it still stands strong and can be found in many hands all over the world.

Jesus asked his followers to study that Word thoroughly and to go out in the world to preach the message, the Good News, of the coming Kingdom of God. that message is our backbone, and should also be or become yours.

Jesus is our cornerstone. On him we try to build our community and want to unite as brothers and sisters in him, all over the world.

With our eyes directed in the Book of books, the infallible Word of God, we want to build our lives according to the guidelines of that precious book. The knowledge we receive from it we want to share, not as being it our own, but as being Words given freely to us, to share with others in love and peace, for becoming children of the One and Only One True God.

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Additional reading:

1. “Who is The Most High” ? Who is thee Eternal? Who is Yehovah? Who is God?
2. Words to push and pull
3. Being Religious and Spiritual 7 Transcendence to become one
4. Being Religious and Spiritual 8 Spiritual, Mystic and not or well religious
5. People Seeking for God 2 Human interpretations
6. Seeing or not seeing and willingness to find God
7. Being Religious and Spiritual 5 Gnostic influences
8. Caricaturing and disapproving sceptics, religious critics and figured out ethics
9. Building up the spirit of the soul
10. You do not belong to yourselves,for you were bought with a price
11. We are redeemed; we are “bought with a price”
12. To mean, to think, outing your opinion, conviction, belief – Menen, mening, overtuiging, opinie, geloof
13. Religions and Mainliners
14. Jerusalem and a son’s kingdom
15. The Bride New Jerusalem
16. A participation in the body of Christ
17. Marriage of Jesus 6 Jesus said to them “My wife”
18. Marriage of Jesus 9 Reason for a new marriage
19. Marriage of Jesus 10 Old and New Covenant
20. Reply to questions concerning The Bride of Christ
21. Congregate, to gather, to meet
22. Character transformed by the influence of our fellowships
23. Integrity of the fellowship
24. Fellowship
25. Atonement And Fellowship 3/8
26. Atonement And Fellowship 4/8
27. Atonement And Fellowship 7/8
28. Atonement And Fellowship 8/8
29. Disciple of Christ counting lives and friends dear to them
30. Philippians 1 – 2
31. Synagogue, Church or Ecclesia for the Christian
32. Those who call the Christadelphians a cult
33. Vision blurred by cumulative burden of divisions
34. Quibbling siblings united or allied children of an organisation or a church
35. Priority to form a loving brotherhood
36. A small company of Jesus’ footstep follower
37. Intentions of an Ecclesia
38. One Mind, One Accord
39. Manifests for believers #5 Christian Union
40. United people under Christ
41. Major points of belief
42. Christadelphian people
43. About Brothers in Christ
44. What are Brothers in Christ
45. Who are the Christadelphians
46. What Christadelphians believe
47. Christadelphian people
48. Often asked questions: faq – English
49. Our Christadelphian faith
50. Our Creed and Practice
51. What Christadelphians teach
52. Our openness to being approachable
53. Equal?
54. Evangelisation, local preaching opposite overseas evangelism
55. Those who love Jesus
56. The Law of Christ: Law of Love
57. The first on the list of the concerns of the saint
58. Agape, a love to share with others from the Fruit of the Spirit
59. The task given to us to love each other
60. Christianity is a love affair
61. The Greatest of These is Love
62. Unarmed truth and unconditional love
63. Unconditional love
64. Compassion and Discipline
65. Good or bad preacher
66. Writers needed to preach to non-believers
67. Learn how to go out into the world and proclaim the Good News of the coming Kingdom

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