By the Numbers

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Has God Made Himself Known to Us?

                      Has God Made Himself Known to Us?.

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#World-Views   #God-knowledge
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Can we be honest with the facts whether we like them or not? Some statements are true and others false--opposites can't both be true in the same way at the same time. The universe either exists, or it doesn't. Some actions are right and others wrong--if it's wrong to mistreat you, it's wrong to mistreat anyone. If you as a human being have rights to your life and beliefs, then so do all human persons. Now, without these principles of human dignity, rationality, equality, ethics, and free speech can we even survive? Is there an ultimate reality we can stand on that ties it all together and insures human survival and well-being? Let's think it through. 

Aren't these ideas mistakes destructive to human life?

Atheism assumes that nothing of itself exploded into everything and that mindless atoms arranged themselves into all life forms (macroevolution). Atheism takes many forms some being as follows. Materialists say matter exists but not mind. Naturalists claim all is nature and there can't be anything supernatural such as miracles. Secularists affirm anything sacred is superstitious and to be rejected. And humanists hold there's nothing higher than we human animals. Atheist assumptions are contrary to science, logic and common sense. Further, they reduce human beings to soulless dirt, ethics to conflicting human opinions, destroy hope for life after death, and make life a chaotic and manipulative power struggle--survival of the fittest. Elites who get the biggest stick beat down all the rest of us as with laws, taxes, poverty, dependence, secret policing and maybe a blood bath revolution.
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Agnosticism is either a dogmatic assumption or an unwillingness to search out the facts. Some agnostics say we can't know any kind of god exists. Now like atheism this is another dogmatic claim to exhaustive knowledge. Or, if the agnostic means, "I just don't know." this leads to the same problems and becomes a practical atheism.
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Polytheism and  subjective relativism are contradictory destructive absurdities. Animism is the belief in spirits in trees, animals, and things. Polytheism raises spirits to gods that control forces of nature, are worshiped by certain tribes, or have their own domains. It's still alive and well in parts of the world.  Logically, however, there can't be but one absolute. These gods arise from nature and can cease to exist. They are finite  and give no visible evidence of their existence. So they are fears of nature's forces or projections of human desires and imagination. Makers of idols have powers to see, hear, talk, and move that their idol gods lack. It's all absurd.
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Moderns have largely lost faith in one Almighty, holy and loving God. So everything becomes relative, uncertain, chaotic, subjective, competitive. The only sin is to believe in real truth and righteousness. Is this not a prescription for warfare, destruction, disease and death? And what is the philosophy of politically correct but tyranny? Is there a basis for recovery? I believe so but it would require honesty, courage, maybe death!
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Monism (reincarnation philosophies and religions) is the claim that God is all that exists and the world is illusion. God is conceived as a great pool of energy whose parts stretch out temporarily to assume every form or identity plants, puppies, people, everything only to return to the pool. This happens repeatedly and things can assume different identities until final absorption. Consequently, nothing has any real identity or permanent existence. So nothing is considered real and important--all is God the great pool of energy and the material world is illusion. In effect, truth, pain, good, evil, life, death, success, failure, history, nothing is ultimately important. What will be will be--the only goal is final absorption. This results in a stagnant depressed compassionless society. It doesn't ultimately matter if we be ministers or murderers. See my article on Understanding Reincarnation.
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Deism claims a Creator God who forsook us. Deists say a real personal infinite Creator God exists. For this dependent universe requires a first cause. And design throughout nature points to an intelligent Creator. But the world is a closed system of cause and effect so only natures laws guide us and can't be violated by miracles or divine revelations.. Some deists believe our spirits survive death and are rewarded if good or punished if bad.  Persons who feel their prayers go unanswered and see no evidence of God think no caring God exists. It's a sort of practical atheism like above that assumes exhaustive knowledge. Now, we need more than a Creator of stars  and planets. Can we be open to evidence that the God we need may really exist, love and want to save us?

Can we be open to God acting in our world? 

 If we've been taught a particular way of believing all our lives, or one way has been forced upon us and we've never heard anything different, how do we know there is anything different, or that God and the world is different from all that we've heard? Can we be courageous, open and honest to consider another way of seeing things that might be greatly beneficial and even true? Three great religions each claim a personal, ethical Creator God exists.
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Could God's angel have made God known to Muhammad? Like Christians, Muslims believe in one God, angels good and evil, heaven, hell, and a judgment day. Muslims say the angel Gabriel told Muhammad all we need to know in the Quran. Muhammad accepted some of the Jewish Scripture and Christian New Testament, said Moses, David, and even Jesus were prophets. But Jesus is not God's Son, didn't die on the cross for our sins nor rise from the dead. There are so many problems with Islam, it's really difficult to accept and to explain in this three page article. Basically, Islam wants to force the world into submission if need be.
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Could God have made Himself known to Israel? When we survey Israel's history recorded in its Scripture (O.T.), incredible events occur. Israel's God sends plagues to kill Egypt's firstborn, waters stand up in walls to let Israel through, they're fed mysterious manna in the dessert forty years while their clothes never wore out, and they defeated seven nations stronger than themselves. Now we don't know of such things happening today, but we do know of other nations claiming gods and fantastic tales so shouldn't we carefully examine such claims and try to be objective?
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When we do examine them, we notice significant differences with Israel's God. He's not like spirits in trees or families of gods of the other nations--Egyptians, Canaanites, Babylonians, Greeks, Romans. Israel's God is the universe's creator who made man in his image and entered into relation with people. He is fiercely moral who imposes moral standards nobody can attain and issues warnings for disobedience. He imposes a sacrificial system to teach his people there is no forgiveness without the shedding of a blood sacrifice. He establishes unconditional covenants with Israel to become the head nation with a Messiah to bless the world. See my article, God's Unconditional Covenant Promises to Israel.
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The problem with Israel is that it was always going astray. God sent prophets and warnings and promises. But like us today, Israel was sinfully human and rebellious. The predicted forerunner, John the Baptizer (Isa. 40:3-5; Matt. 3:3; John 1:29) appeared and pointed to Jesus saying, see the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Wanting and expecting a political and military Messiah to deliver them from Roman oppression, the Jews had no thought of a Savior of sinners. Jesus, however, did everything the prophets said of the Messiah to die for the sins of his people. And while some rabbis were confused by prophecies of a suffering Messiah as well as a reigning king, Jesus died rejected and ridiculed by his people.
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Could God have made Himself known to humanity in Jesus Christ? If there exists a great Creator God who cares for us, how can we know this? Surely not by ignoring or abandoning us. Wouldn't it call for doing things nature and men are not known to do in order to get our attention and demonstrate he is truly Lord of his creation? How about predicting events impossible for us to know or imagine like a virgin birth and ascension into heaven? How about walking on water and healing all kinds of diseases immediately? Wouldn't these do it especially with him explaining at the time that he is our God?
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While Bible events are supernatural, they are not like the silly things found in other religions of once upon a time in some impossible to go place. They speak of real persons, nations, events, practices known to history. Even a time line can be established. Its heroes are very normal and imperfect. The Jews, unlike what the critics make out, knew nature's laws and were skeptical as persons today. Such events and their teachings could never have been accepted if made up stories or myths. Bible prophets and apostles would never have endured such tortures and horrible deaths had their writings been pure lies.
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Only biblical Christianity supplies the needed principles mentioned in the introduction and ties them together to give us humans a foundation to stand upon. But we will sink back into barbarianism again, if we don't strongly embrace the Lord Jesus again as our Lord, Savior, and Guide for our world and our personal lives.  Won't U say YES to Jesus?
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See booklist below.

Saturday, June 1, 2013

What Is The Bible's Lake of Fire?

                         What Is The Bible's Lake of Fire?

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Some persons simply reject Hell. To them a God who throws people into a fire to burn forever seems horribly cruel and really merciless. To them Jesus is not that kind of God! Justice is not served if the most wicked and least wicked burn together in a lake of fire. If it's true, why even try to be good.  Yes! But are there other things said of Hell that never get mentioned? Could the fire be something other than the physical fire we imagine? Can we examine arguments about this painful subject with an open mind?
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1. Yes, Jesus spoke many times of Hell as eternal fire (Matt. 5:29-30; 22;13). He used vivid figures of speech to capture attention, warn us, and save us from sin that corrupts and confines us away from God and all his blessings. He explained Hell's worse than losing an eye, foot, or hand. It's outer darkness, weeping and gnashing of teeth. Now that's not physical consuming fire; it's great loss and inconsolable grief, unremitting torment. Jesus' warnings show great compassion for human well-being.
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We shutter at  Hell and  delight in  Heaven.  But if there's no Hell,  neither can there be Heaven. Unbelieving rebels would do the same wicked things  in Heaven they do here (Mark 7:21-22; Rev. 21:11). Ultimately, it wouldn't matter how we believe or behave. Laws, police and jails don't prevent our evil passions or keep us safe. Jesus,  the God-man, is our ethical authority (Matt. 25:46), or we're at the mercy of a dictator's whims and human chaos.  Wisdom then dictates we need to get it right about the prospect of Hell!
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2. Are some sinners in Hell whipped more than others? In  Luke 12:47-48, Jesus said the wicked servant who knew his master's will but didn't do it will be beaten with many strips, but the one who didn't know it yet deserved punishment, would be beaten with few strips. Isn't this just a way of saying Hell  is degrees of punishment? Mom's lying about her age then would never be punished in a lake of physical fire with Hitler who caused the deaths of millions of people? So many passages that plainly teach Hell is degrees of punishment make it difficult to believe in a lake of physical fire where all would be burned, consumed, or be punished equally. For degrees see also Matt. 10:15; 11:22, 24; Mark 6:11; Hebrews. 10:29
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3. The Bible says Hell was made for the devil and his angels (Matt. 25:41).  Angels as spirit beings who wouldn't be burned or consumed by physical fire. But later the beast, false prophet, and the devil are  said cast apparently meaning bodily into the lake of fire and brimstone forever but said only to be  tormented (Rev. 20:10). Could the fire be a metaphor used to depict its serious nature?
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4. Jesus said the worm doesn't die and the fire is not quenched (Mark 9:44). That' s another powerful figure of speech.  Jerusalem's garbage dump was always burning dead carcasses with maggots eating rotting flesh, and fires that never went out. Jesus borrowed that loathsome sight to illustrate Hell. Of course there are no maggots in Hell. The worm is used to express contempt as used of Jacob and of Jesus (Isa. 66:24; 41:14; Ps.22:6), and the physical fire we know can go out. Could the fire then be something like the burning bush that attracted Moses because it didn't burn up (Exodus 3:2).

5. Jesus told about a rich man in Hades and Lazarus in Abraham's bosom (Luke 16:19-30). Unbelievers such as this rich man at death went to the place of torment or anxiety as  mentioned here four times.  This tormented man was concerned for his five unrepentant brothers. Jesus said that if they would not heed Moses and the prophets, they would not believe even if one rise from the dead.  His undying memories, lost opportunities, and eternal despair were agonizing. Revelation 20:10, 14 says plainly the lake of fire and brimstone where Death and Hades will be cast, is torment, forever torment. Torment is agony of mind, not torture of body as in physical fire.

6. Our Lord's brother, Jude, says several things about Hell that never seem to get mentioned. Speaking of doomed sinners, he says they are "clouds without water carried about by the winds, late autumn trees without fruit twice dead and pulled up by the roots, raging waves of the sea foaming up their own shame, wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever" (Jude 12-13).  Here persons in Hell are pictured as empty, fruitless and spiritually dead, in rage and shame, lost, and  alone in darkness forever. Daniel 12:2 and 2 Peter 2:17 say similar things. That's the meaning of Hell.
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7. Pure justice is that we reap exactly what we sow. If we sow to  sinful desires it brings  corruption and death, but  to sow to the Holy Spirit leads to everlasting life (Gal. 6:7-8). Only God who knows our secrets and everything about us can ensure true justice (Gen. 18:25). According to the Bible, trusting Jesus is what decides whether we go to Heaven or Hell (John 3:16, 36). But Scripture everywhere says we're rewarded in Heaven or punished in Hell according to our works which is different with each of us. Believers are rewarded at the Judgment Seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5:10; 1 Cor. 3:9-15). Unbelievers condemned at the Great White Thrown (Rev. 20:11-15)
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8. Bible lessons are literally true (spiritually), but not necessarily true literally. The fire is real, but not necessarily physical to burn or consume. Persons in Hell have imperishable physical bodies unaffected by fire as we know it (John 5:28-29; Rev. 20:13-15). Moreover, Jesus and others of his day used exaggerated speech or hyperbole to drive home a point. For example, Jesus said his disciples are to hate family in comparison to loving him (Luke 14:26). Strong faith  can move mountains into the sea (Mark 11:23). Lake of fire, furnace, flames, smoke, brimstone are exaggerated metaphors to get attention and drive home the point.

It's unfortunate that Hell fire is sometimes screamed at us without careful explanation. We  have trouble believing God is love when he seems represented so cruelly. Hell is not God torturing us in physical fire--it's our choice of self-torment without God alone in an eternity of darkness. When we turn from God's love, truth, righteousness, and gospel, he gives us up to uncleanness, vile passions, and a debased mind (Rom. 1:24, 26, 28). We are then without excuse (Rom. 1:20; 2:1).
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What then is the Bible's lake of fire? We already seen above that rebels in Hell will have imperishable physical bodies. I believe those who won't obey the gospel experience Hell as God's fiery wrath judging sin (2 Thess. 1:7-9). They love evil, won't repent, and live in darkness (Jn. 3:19-21). John 3:36 tell us what Hell is, "He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." Hell is the wrath of God felt by everyone who chooses to reject the Lord's truth, love, righteousness, and gospel (good news) of  Jesus dying on the cross to pay for our sins. Love and righteousness can't be forced. God lets unbelievers have their own way forever. So all who reject God  feel his fiery wrath in their anger, hate, guilt, contempt, shame, darkness, despair (Rev. 21:11-15). Can anything be more serious?
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The Bible is clear that God is love and it's not his will that anyone perish or burn. A loving  God  doesn't and can't force us to trust him when we don't want him in our lives (2 Peter 3:9). A guilty conscience, the promptings of God's Spirit, the beauty and design of nature, the Bible, Christian witnesses, all testify to a personal ethical Creator. He is known to us as the Lord Jesus Christ. Won't U say, Lord Jesus, I trust You now as my Lord, Savior, and Guide from this moment on to live for You and to see You some day in Heaven.
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