Category: fall of man

God’s Perfect Timing

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

“But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons” (Galatians 4:4,5 KJV).

As today’s Scripture indicates, the birth of Jesus Christ was no accident—God planned its exact moment from eternity past.

When God placed the first man, Adam, on earth, He purposed that man would “subdue [control] it,” to “have dominion” over it and everything on it (Genesis 1:28). Nevertheless, Adam sinned by joining Satan in his rebellion against God. Because of sin, man was now unable to accomplish on earth what God originally created him to do. God left the human race a promise, however, that there would come a Man, who would do what Adam failed to do. Instead of cooperating with God’s adversary like Adam had, this “seed of the woman” would “bruise [Satan’s] head” (Genesis 3:15).

Traveling up through the Scriptures, we see how God lays the groundwork for that seedline. In Genesis 12:1-3, or 2,000 years after Adam’s sin, we read God’s covenant with Abraham, that through Abraham a nation, Israel, will be born, and salvation and blessing will flow to the Gentiles through Israel. The seed of the woman becomes the seed of Abraham (Galatians 3:16).

In 2 Samuel 7:12-16, and 1,000 years after Abraham, we read of God’s covenant with King David, that “his seed” will inherit his throne and reign forever. The seed of the woman and of Abraham becomes the seed of David.

About 1,000 years after David, Matthew 1:1 speaks of Christ’s birth, and declares, “…Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” This is exactly what God had promised for thousands of years!

Jesus Christ’s birth was not some haphazard event of nature. God the Father had preplanned the exact moment of the incarnation of His Son, Jesus Christ (today’s Scripture). Over a period of some 4,000 years, the three members of the Godhead worked to bring about the birth of man’s Redeemer, a plan they had even before man was created! Amazing!

Cain Came and Brought Shame #2

Monday, June 23, 2014

“And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD” (Genesis 4:1 KJV).

Can you identify the very significant phrase our King James Bible contains in today’s Scripture, and why it was said?

Moments after Adam and Eve—literally, all of mankind—fell into sin, the wise Creator God promised the first Good News (or Gospel) recorded in Scripture: “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:15). Essentially, God promised that He would send a Man who would destroy Satan’s works, a Man who would do what Adam failed to do.

We see Adam’s faith demonstrated in verse 20: he called his wife’s name “Eve” (meaning “life-giver,” or “the mother of all living”). Adam knew that he and Eve would physically die as the result of sin (verse 19), but he believed God’s promise that he and Eve would live long enough to have children (verse 16).

An indeterminate period of time passes, and Adam and Eve have two sons (Genesis 4:1,2). Cain is “a tiller of the ground” (farmer) and Abel is “a keeper of sheep” (shepherd). Recall that God had placed Adam on the earth to “dress and keep” (cultivate and reign over) the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:15). Cain works with his father Adam in the “family business” of farming, while Abel is an outcast and a herder of (stinky!) sheep. These facts provide insight into why Eve said in today’s Scripture, “I have gotten a man from the LORD.”

When Eve conceived her first son, both she and Adam remembered the Good News God had spoken to them just after their fall, that “her seed” (one of her descendants) would defeat Satan. Adam and Eve concluded that Cain was that special Man, which is why they named him what they did (“Cain” in Hebrew is related to a Hebrew word meaning, “recover, redeem, possess”).

Nonetheless, to Adam and Eve’s heartache, Cain would not destroy Satan’s plan of evil. Cain would actually advance it….

A Mind Worth Guarding

Friday, May 30, 2014

“I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well” (Psalm 139:14 KJV).

Verily, verily, the human mind is “fearfully and wonderfully made!”

A neurosurgeon recently described the miraculous, mindboggling human brain (surely not the result of random, mindless evolutionary processes!). We could learn one new fact every second, and our brain would take three million years before it would overload! Even in its fallen state, our mind can process two million bits of information per second! Our most powerful supercomputers cannot compare to the “computer” the Lord Jesus Christ made inside our craniums.

Every image we have ever seen and every book we have ever read, we do not remember them immediately, but these thoughts are deep inside our minds. In fact, the neurosurgeon said a certain medical procedure could stimulate our brains and cause us to access any and every memory we have acquired throughout our lifetimes. What was most amazing of all, he said that, if stimulated by such a procedure, we could even quote verbatim a book that we read several decades ago!

Due to the curse of sin, we actually use a very small percentage of our brain’s capabilities. We can only imagine the intelligence that Adam and Eve had just prior to their fall into sin. Recall what Adam did when he was just hours old: “And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field…” (Genesis 2:19,20).

Saints, our minds are powerful, so we need to be careful what we let into them, for what we let in will literally remain there for the rest of our earthly lives. “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things” (Philippians 4:8).

Heart Service #7

Friday, May 2, 2014

“But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you” (Romans 6:17 KJV).

Today’s Scripture is the key to being delivered from and guarded against today’s apostate Christendom.

The moment we trusted exclusively Jesus Christ’s bloodshed, death, burial, and resurrection as the sufficient payment for our sins, we received the very life of God Himself. We died with Christ, we were buried with Him, and we were resurrected with Him (verses 3-11). God could do nothing with our flesh, our ability, so He killed it. He made us a “new creature [in Christ]” (2 Corinthians 5:17), a new type of humanity, identical to Adam’s righteous standing before the fall!

Follow the logic, the way God thinks, how He would have us to think. It is senseless for us Christians to return to our old identity in Adam, to think those old, vain, sinful thoughts that only lead to wrecked Christian lives. It is senseless to place ourselves under any law-based system: “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace” (Romans 6:14). The Bible says sin will dominate your life when you return to religious performance, whether it be the Mosaic Law, a church’s law, a preacher’s law, my law, your law, any system that makes you the issue.

The verse that follows today’s Scripture says, “Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness” (verse 18). How do we have victory in the Christian life? We already have it in Christ by God’s grace! Jesus Christ paid the price to liberate us from sin’s dominion. “But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:22,23). Dear saint, if you want the eternal life, God’s life, you already have in Christ, to be brought into your experience, it is through Jesus Christ our Lord, not through you!

Oh, the wonderful grace of God….

The Natural View and the Spiritual View #8

Sunday, February 16, 2014

“Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:7 KJV).

We continue addressing the associated objections and misconceptions concerning the recent Ken Ham/Bill Nye Creation/Evolution online debate….

THE ORIGIN OF LIFE. “Obviously we cannot take a time machine back 4 billion years and determine with certainty how these events occurred. Instead, scientists study the existence of modern life, as well as geological processes and fossils, and speculate about the conditions that existed on primitive Earth. This approach has led researchers to a variety of hypotheses [ideas] regarding the origin of life, none of which can be firmly verified. Nevertheless, certain possibilities are becoming more plausible [likely] and perhaps even compelling” (My college-level textbook, Biology, Brooker et al., 2008, page 458). (Bold emphasis mine.)

Evolutionists openly admit that they do not know how life began on earth: none of their various hypotheses are definite. They concede that they are “speculating,” so why do they reject the Creationist’s Bible as “speculative?” Frankly, they know that if the Bible’s “speculation” is correct about the origin of life, it just may also be right about the origin of DEATH and their need for a Saviour to rescue them from their sins!

COMMON ANCESTRY. “Humans Evolved from Ancestral Primates. Although humans are closely related to chimpanzees and gorillas, they did not evolve directly from them. Rather, all hominoid species shared a common ancestor” (Biology, page 738). Right from their own literature, we learn that gibbons, orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, and humans all share one common ancestor!

Scripture says God “formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7). The Bible says God used dirt, not preexisting primates, to form the first man, and man alone received from God the “breath of life!” This is one of many blatant contradictions between evolutionary theory and Scripture. Now we see why people want to re-interpret Genesis chapters 1 and 2 as figurative rather than literal.

More will be said about this later, but for now, we move on to related topics….

The Natural View and the Spiritual View #2

Sunday, February 9, 2014

“Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:7 KJV).

We continue addressing the associated objections and misconceptions concerning the recent Ken Ham/Bill Nye Creation/Evolution online debate….

ORGANIC EVOLUTION VIA NATURAL SELECTION. Evolutionists disagree about life’s origin on earth. The many hypotheses offered—extraterrestrials, meteorites, lightning/atmospheric phenomena, and deep-sea vents are popular—are not infallible (thus, they remain “hypotheses,” ideas subject to change).

Furthermore, every organism’s genome is its entire genetic “blueprint” complete with deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). DNA is a language that governs how the organism (in embryonic stage) will be organized (its physical traits) and how it will develop and function (its growth rate, role in nature, et cetera).

Charles Darwin argued that when an environment grows hostile toward an organism (predation, food shortage, et cetera), mutations (changes in its genetic material) equip the organism to adapt to its surroundings, survive, and pass those new traits to its offspring. Nature selects against organisms that fail to adapt to their environments, and thus, they die, but nature selects for the individuals that adapt, so they survive and reproduce (“natural selection”). Just how mindless, random nature “selects” these advantageous traits before the organism/species dies out [and then it cannot “evolve”] is a “mystery” to Evolutionists [they admit it], since only intelligence [such as God] has a capacity to make such critical selections.

Over many millions of years, innumerable random mutations allegedly generated significant genetic changes: a bacterium evolved into the first fish, a fish evolved into the first amphibian, a dinosaur evolved into the first bird, a great ape evolved into the first human, et cetera. Mutations are actually rarely beneficial, and my physician re-affirmed to me that genetic boundaries cannot be crossed as evolutionary theory teaches (all species could not have descended from one ancestor).

Rather than embracing random genetic mutations and universal common ancestry as origin of the species, the Bible creationist understands that the Creator is the Lord Jesus Christ, Who, at creation, crafted into the perfect original organisms of their “kind” (“family”) all pertinent genetic material. Once man’s fall and the curse of sin, the Lord “switched on” that information to ensure survival.

Proceeding onward….

The Natural View and the Spiritual View #1

Saturday, February 8, 2014

“Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:7 KJV).

Herein is offered the first of several (brief) devotional arcs addressing the associated objections and misconceptions concerning the recent Ken Ham/Bill Nye Creation/Evolution online debate.

As a Bible teacher and student, and a geologist (Earth scientist) pursuing my Master of Science degree (anticipated later this year), I enjoyed the debate. Raised in a Christian home where Bible creationism was believed, and spending nearly two decades in public schools learning evolutionary theory (over seven years in university), I will here evaluate both views and reduce them to “layman’s terms.”

Unfortunately, many professing Christians vacillate concerning, or completely avoid, the Creation/Evolution issue. Sadly, they are unsure how to answer the “scholars’” anti-Bible theories and “evidence,” or they prefer to avoid the “superstitious Bible-toter” stigma and exemption from the “in-crowd”—mainstream scientific community and its agreeing public.

The Creation/Evolution issue actually predates Christ’s earthly ministry. It has been especially controversial during the last 150 years, since British naturalist Charles Darwin published his book, “The origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life” (notice this full title [rarely seen or reported] conveys racial undertones—evolutionary theory was once utilized to teach there are superior human races!).

It is now imperative to define terms.

Evolutionary theory asserts that all life forms (bacteria, plants, animals, humans) descended from one original ancestor (which itself “evolved” when random organic molecules mysteriously combined), and this morphing of one organism into totally different species we see today—in order to adapt to environments and survive predation—involved a four-billion-year-long process of genetic mutations (man is considered “most evolved”).

Bible creationism, embracing the Bible’s creation account (Genesis chapters 1 and 2 especially) as literal, historical narrative, teaches that all life forms (bacteria, plants, animals, humans) are not genetically related, but each “family” of organisms was created perfectly by the Lord Jesus Christ within six literal days in the recent past, but which species then used pre-inserted genetic material to adapt to a fallen world (the curse brought on by man’s sin).

Proceeding onward….

God’s Family #6

Thursday, February 6, 2014

“Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God” (Ephesians 2:19 KJV).

How enjoyable it is to fellowship with other members of God’s family!

The Bible’s first verse says, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). God needs a body of individuals to execute His will in both realms (originally, these agencies were angels and mankind, respectively). When Lucifer/Satan polluted heaven with sin, and when Adam joined Satan and corrupted earth with sin, God began His two-fold plan to restore heaven and earth to Himself. Most of the Scriptures discuss God creating the nation Israel to function as His earthly people, but what about His restoration of the heavenly places? God kept His plan for heaven secret until the Apostle Paul’s ministry (Ephesians 3:1-11).

God already had the nation Israel’s believing remnant as His people, but that was just part of His will. Why is God forming the Church the Body of Christ? God the Holy Spirit through Paul wrote in today’s Scripture and its context: “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit” (verses 19-22).

Now, God has revealed His secret will—heaven’s restoration (Ephesians 1:9,10). In Paul’s epistles alone, Romans through Philemon, we learn that God is currently creating a body that will fulfill His will in heaven (as Israel will fulfill His will in earth; note Matthew 6:10). God is forming the Body of Christ to be His dwelling-place, a body through which His life is to be lived now and forever (Ephesians 2:21,22)! Just as Jesus Christ will live His life in and through Israel on earth (Jeremiah 31:33,34; Matthew chapters 5-7; John 1:12; 2 Peter 1:3,4; et cetera), our grand reunion with our deceased brothers and sisters in Christ in heaven is just the beginning of God’s will for heaven….

The Prince of Peace, Born in the Middle East

Saturday, December 21, 2013

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6 KJV).

Ironically, God’s wisdom ordained the birthplace of the Prince of Peace to be the contentious Middle East….

Almost from the very beginning of time, the Middle East has been a battleground, the chief war zone of good and evil. Originally the peaceful home of Adam and Eve, today it is the most contentious region on the globe. Because of Adam’s sin, what was a paradise is now known as the area where man joined Satan in his rebellion against God. Adam and Eve utterly failed to reign over the earth for God’s glory (Genesis 1:26-28). Instead they united with the opposition, and were banished from God’s presence and the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:23,24).

“Wherefore, as by one man [Adam] sin entered into the world, and death by sin” (Romans 5:12). Verse 14 says that Adam “is the figure of him that was to come.” God would send another Man, Jesus Christ, and He would accomplish what Adam failed to do: glorify God on the earth by dispossessing it from Satan, and reigning in righteousness. This is the “government” spoken of in today’s Scripture.

“For if by one man’s [Adam’s] offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ” (verse 17). Adam plunged the human race into sin and made it God’s enemy; Jesus Christ offers mankind eternal life, forgiveness of sins and a reconciled relationship with God! This was God’s goal in sending Jesus Christ.

As our world desperately continues to seek peace, let us remember there will be no peace on earth until the Prince of Peace returns to His nation, Israel, and rids our planet of Satan and his policy of evil (the root of the Middle Eastern turmoil). At Christ’s Second Coming, there will be peace on earth (Luke 2:14), and especially in the Middle East.

Final Arrangements #1

Friday, December 13, 2013

“He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life” (1 John 5:12 KJV).

When all of life is over, all of life has just begun, so when all of life is over, be sure you have the Son!

A lost person once inquired, “What is the point of living if we are all going to die anyway?” This is an excellent question, and the Bible has an excellent answer! Dear readers, the simple fact is that death was not God’s original plan for us. Adam and Eve had complete, unbroken fellowship with each other and with their Creator, the Lord Jesus Christ. On the same day Adam rebelled against God, he and Eve died spiritually—they were spiritually separated from God and thus they hid when He approached them (Genesis 2:17; Genesis 3:7-11).

The three Persons of the Godhead said, “And now, lest he [mankind] put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever” (Genesis 3:22). Adam and Eve were already dead spiritually, but in order to prevent them from eating the tree of life (which would have enabled them to physically live forever, except now they had sinful souls and spirits), God forced them out of the Garden of Eden. He placed Cherubims, angelic-like soldiers, to guard Eden, and a flaming sword to guard the tree of life. Adam and Eve eventually died physically, having never set foot in that paradise again.

Since sin is present, and man no longer has access to the tree of life, physical death is certain. Adam and Eve were literally destined to physically live forever and ever in harmony with the Lord Jesus Christ, but Adam willfully relinquished that life, that eternal life (and it affected all of his descendants). Our Lord Jesus defined “life eternal” as “knowing the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom [he hath] sent” (John 17:3)—eternal life is enjoying God’s life and God’s fellowship. However, man in his natural (lost) state is “alienated [separated] from the life of God through the ignorance that is in [him]” (Ephesians 4:18).

This is why the Son is necessary….