Sat, Sep 29th - 11:27AM

WHO AND WHAT IS SATAN?

Wed, Sep 26th - 7:09AM

WHO AND WHAT IS SATAN?

"Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, Yes, has God said, You shall not eat of every tree of the Garden? And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the Garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the Garden, God has said, You shall not eat of it, neither shall you even touch it (Genesis 3:1-3)."

   Since we now know that Satan was once upon a time living in heaven but got himself kicked out by his rebellious actions, we shouldn't be surprised to find something like this happening early in the Book of Genesis.  Here he is, possessing a serpent in order to slip into the presence of Adam and Eve.  Why? In order to initiate a conversation about that tree growing in the middle of the Garden of Eden.  In order to seek out a way to corrupt God's Creation.  Subtle means finely textured; crafty; cunning; elusive; difficult to discern or understand. Here then we have a creature that is reptilian in nature but is also rather difficult to pick out of its surroundings.  It moves cunningly, is elusive to pin down out in the open, and is a very beautiful looking creature. 

   It is this creature that Satan has chosen to use so that he can mislead Eve into disobeying God. He begins his attack upon her by asking a seemingly harmless question.  "Hasn't God told you guys that you can't eat the fruit of any of these trees within the Garden?"  Satan knows that this isn't true, but he does this to begin directing her thoughts towards the subject of his choice.  Eve corrects him.  But she also goes well beyond simply telling the serpent "NO."  She volunteers more information than the question asked for.   This is what Satan hoped for, and he attacked his opening with vigor. Satan tempts Eve by adding to the Word of God spoken to her and Adam. He does not accurately quote God's Word. Eve accurately quotes God's Word back to the serpent.  But in the ensuing verses Satan continues to twist God's Word, testing their faith and trust in God. Satan's second temptation comes in the form of a lie clothed in God's Word. He followed that one immediately with the temptation of Eve's pride.  He pointed out that they both would become like God for they would know good and evil. He insinuated that God had been keeping secrets from them. Verse six then records the results of Satan's words, Eve looked upon the tree and saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasing to look at, and something to be desired. Temptation comes at us through our physical senses most of the time.  We see things that others have and we don't, suddenly we desire to have them as well.  We may choose to work to earn them, or else we may choose to steal them for our own. At times our pride comes into play and misleads us into trusting our own wisdom more than God's wisdom. That is when we make bad choices and suffer immensely for them.

   So Eve takes and eats of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the Garden of Eden and gives some to Adam as well.  He accepts and eats of the fruit as well and their eyes are, in deed, opened.  They have lost their innocence and realize that they stand naked, and become afraid.  What happened here is what happens with people today.  They read God's Word and come to believe what it says.  But someone comes along and begins to question their belief.  They misquote what is in the Bible, they make improper interpretations of scripture, or even outright question what Christ Jesus said.  The believer does not trust God has spoken the truth to them, they hesitate, and begin to harbor doubts.  They have been tempted, and they have surrendered to the temptation to doubt God. 

   As we continue in this chapter of Genesis, we find that a little later God comes into the Garden seeking to converse with Adam and Eve.  But they are hiding in the trees after sewing themselves a couple of aprons to cover their nakedness with.   God knows where they are, He knows what has happened, and wants to hear them speak about it. As soon as Adam speaks about being naked and being afraid God has only one question for them: Who told you that you were naked?  And now we discover the fingerpointing methodology of our children.  Adam claims that it was because Eve gave him the fruit.  Eve says the serpent beguiled her.  It is the good old "pass the buck" ploy, simply trying to avoid having to admit doing something wrongly, trying to avoid the consequences of disobeying God.  Then God turned to the serpent.  No questions asked of the serpent. God knew who was possessing this serpent and why. Adam had had his opportunity to step up and tell Eve to stop listening to the serpent, and to not even touch that tree.  But he didn't do so.  That is often a problem in marriages, not wanting to make your spouse upset, angry, or even disappointed in not getting their wishes fulfilled. So you go along with them.  Can be deadly.

   That is all for this morning, beloved.  Next time we shall look at what all of the consequences of listening to , and believing, Satan's words were.  I will list seven elements of the covenant that God made with Adam at this time.  They lay out for us explanations for why our world is the way it is today.  Grace and peace this day for you!

2:00 PM 9/26/12

Who and What is Satan?

Here in Genesis 3 we become informed of what can be called The Adamic Covenant.  This gives to us the conditions of the life of fallen man.  These are conditions that not only affected Adam and Eve and their children, but were conditions that became passed on to each successive generation for they are intrinsic to man’s nature.  These conditions must remain in effect until the kingdom age when mankind and all of the creation will delivered from the bondage of corruption due to sin,  and all believing people will enter into the glorious liberty of the children of God (Romans 8:21).

The basic elements of this covenant are:

1)  The serpent, Satan’s agent/tool, is to be cursed (verse 14), and it becomes God’s illustration in the natural world of the effects of sin – going from the most beautiful and subtle of creatures to a loathsome reptile.  Even so, Christ is typified by the brazen serpent(Numbers 21:5-9; John 3:14-15; II Corinthians 5:21).  Brass speaks to us in scripture of judgment; in the brazen altar, of God’s judgment, and in the laver, of self-judgment.

2)   The first promise of a Redeemer (verse 15). This begins the path of the Seed that can be traced throughout the Old Testament to Immanuel-Christ.

3)   The changed state of woman (verse16).  There would be multiplied conception; motherhood to be linked with sorrow; and the headship of the man.  Sin, which is disorder, entered in and makes necessary a headship, and it is vested in man.

4)   The earth to be cursed (verse 17).  This was done for man’s sake.  It is better for fallen man to struggle with a reluctant earth than to live a life without need of any labor.

5)   The inevitable sorrow of life (verse 17).

6)   The easy living conditions of Eden changed to burdensome labor out in the corrupted world.

7)   Physical death (verse 19).  Originally intended to not die, Adam and Eve were to face separation from God and physical death.  Sin having corrupted human nature, and that of the entire creation, physical death became the new reality in the entire natural world. That which had not been carnivorous now was.  That which had not been parasitic now was. That which had born sweet fruit, now did not. Pernicious weeds now grew, competing with the more beneficial plants for space in creation, crowding them out and killing them.  The creation was no longer a safe place in which to exist.  Disorder had been introduced into it, and nothing would be the same until the time appointed by God when He would create a new heaven and a new earth that would be free of sin and death.

 God did not bother with questions such as, "Why did you go and tell them that they were naked?" "Why did you trick them into eating the fruit on that tree in the middle of Eden?" No, God simply laid out judgment upon the serpent and Satan. Ther serpent obviously had not been slithering about before this like a snake does today, it must have had legs. Logic dictates this otherwise the vocabulary found here would be nonsense. The poor serpent is always being stomped on by animals and people alike today. People are unnaturally afraid of snakes, all kinds of snakes. I figure that this is due to the "emnity" created between man and the serpent in the Garden. If I had been Adam and Eve I would not want to ever see another snake or serpent the remainder of my days. It would not be a welcome reminder of why I am struggling to grow food out in the world where before I only had to walk around and pick fruit off of the trees to eat.   

Moving on in chapter four we find the first two sons of Eve, Cain and Abel. Abel is a "type" of the spiritual man in that his sacrifice was one in which atoning blood was shed. This was a confession of his sin and the expression of his faith in the coming of One to substitute Himself in his place. Cain is a "type" of the man of the earth. His religion was devoid of any sense of sin, or any need for atonement. "I'm, okay; you're okay." Sounds like it could have been Cain's motto. Here are some things to be said about Cain: He worships in self-will; is angry with God; refuses to bring a sin-offering; murders his own brother; lies to God; becomes a vagabond; is nevertheless, the object of the divine outreach of grace. Cain is the result of man listening to the lies of Satan and not believing the Word of God. It can't even be said that Cain did not know God, for he spoke to God in conversation. Cain simply wanted to do things his own way. He also could not bear to be reminded, however, that he was not pleasing God. So when Cain looked upon his brother who did please God, he chose to murder him so that he would not have to look at him any longer. Sin corrupts a man to the point where he ends up going to places he never ever realized he could end going. When they were just kids growing up I do not think Cain thought to himself, "One of these days I am simply going to have to kill him." No, Satan whispered in his ear over a period of time and Cain never rebuked him by quoting God's Word back at him.

   Looking next in the Book of Job I find a source to help explain why the godly suffer in this world.  Bad things happen to good people. Job was a pious man who offered up burnt-offering for all of his household because he admitted to himself that he did not know if any of his sons had sinned and even cursed God in their hearts.  But Satan fastened upon Job because Job was a righteous man who loved God.  So Satan goes up into heaven for a visit, and God asks him why he is there and where has he come from.  Satan gives God a straight answer: I have been walking back and forth in the earth and up and down in it as well.  Satan dwells upon the earth since being booted out of heaven.  Then the two of them have an interesting conversation.  God presents Job as a fne example of a person who is perfect and upright, one that fears God and rejects evil. Satan doesn't buy it, saying that Job only fears God because nothing ever happens to him. Satan proposes that if God were to reach out and take away all that he owns that then Job would curse God to His very face.

 God takes Satan up on this "bet." He tells Satan to go ahead and do what he wishes to Job, he just can't harm Job himself. Satan ends up taking away everything and everyone that Job had around him. Job's own wife tells him to just go ahead, curse God, and die. Job simply remembered that God gives and takes away. Satan went back to visit heaven and God allowed him to go back to earth and afflict Job up to the point of death but not beyond. What then is the end result of Job's trials and tribulations? Chapter 43 reveals to us the bottom line. Job said, "I know that You can do everything, and that no thought can be hidden from You. I have spoken that I did not understand things too wonderful for me, things which I did not know. Verse six is an expression of Job's being revealed to himself in the presence of God. This is the state that each person finds themselves when they enter into the presence of God. "Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." This is the reaction of Isaiah and Peter. We discover our true state when we find ourselves in God's holy presence. It is humbling to find oneself there before God.

Blessings to you today!

~Eric

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Mon, Sep 17th - 7:51PM

WHO AND WHAT IS SATAN?

"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks around, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are out in the world (I Peter 5:8-9)."

   We find here that the devil, Satan, is our adversary.  We are given a vivid illustration of his approach towards us.  As a lion stakes out his territory and defends it against any other male lions, so too, Satan defends his territory fiercely against any who determine to invade it.  This illustration also implies that the entire population of mankind is Satan's territory, that he is roaming all about it, searching for those whom he can consume.  This also reveals to us that there can be no accomodation reached with Satan concerning a position of power alongside him. He is a consuming spirit, one that must be resisted through faith in God. It is also revealed to us that we are not alone in this struggle.  All other believers in Christ, all around the world, are experiencing the same types of afflictions as are we.  Our response therefore is to always be sober and to be vigilant.  We can't afford to become lazy, complacent, and compliant with the morals and ethics of the society in which we find ourselves.  Society is not to change us, we are to change society.  As agents of change we are to work this transformation, not through social activism or political activism, but through changing one heart at a time through the power of God.  Each time a person repents and accepts Christ a new "beachhead" has been created in enemy territory and it must be defended while it becomes well established and then enlarged. Make no mistake of this fact of life:  We live in enemy controlled territory each and every day.  Snipers lay in wait, seeking opportunities to take a shot at taking believers down, and out of action.  There are mine fields laid down and camoflaged very, very, well.  Our current society is structured now so that personal indiscretions can be exploited to the utmost in a matter of minutes, not hours or days. Kate Middleton has found this out the embarassing way.  Hopefully she has learned her lesson.  Everyone needs to think before they speak in public, act out in public, or go partying in clubs. 

"And He said to them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven (Luke 10:18)."

   Jesus plainly relates to us that He watched as Satan fell from heaven as does the lightning.  It was not an invisible event, it was quite spectabular.  It ought to lead us to ponder why he was falling from heaven to earth, and what caused such an event to happen in heaven.  It also informs us that Satan does not dwell up in heaven but here on earth among us.   The context of this verse in the Bible is within the joy of the seventy disciples who had returned from preaching the gospel message and casting out demons.  So what happened in heaven?

"And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, and did not prevail; neither was their place found in heaven any more. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceives the entire world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him (Revelation 12:7-9)."

   We discover here that there was a war up in heaven long ago.  Michael is an archangel (Daniel 10:21; Jude 9) who led the loyal angels against the rebellion incited by Satan which ended up involving one third of the total angelic population of heaven going over to Satan's side.  The rebels lost the battle in heaven and were kicked out and not allowed to live there anymore.  They ended up on earth.  Satan is referred to as the great dragon, the old serpent, the Devil, and that provides us with clues as to where else to continue seeking out information about this creature.  Some people would say at this point that that is great news!  Angels exist here on earth among us!  Yes, it is very true that angelic beings have existed among us for a very long time.  But these are not holy angels.  They are the fallen angels who sided with Satan against God Almighty.  They are the ones who got whipped up in heaven and were cast out for ever.  They are not very happy campers at all having to exist down here on earth rather than up in heaven.  We will get back to those fallen angels a bit later.  Satan/the Devil attempted a hostile takeover of God's throne and failed miserably.  Now he must roam the earth and its atmosphere seeking who he will devour.  He seeks to drag down as much of God's creation as he possibly can, forcing it to go with him into eternal damnation and torment.

   Satan is identified here as a deceiver, deceiving not just a few gullible people but the entire world.  I would have to say that he has succeeded greatly.  Very few people even believe that he exists.  Most think of him as having horns, goats' feet, a long tail, and red skin.  That is the Hollywood version.  Satan succeeds in deceiving people into thinking that they can work their way into heaven, or that they can create the kingdom of heaven on earth through their human efforts and then Jesus will come to congratulate them.  These are all false concepts fostered by Satan to mislead people into thinking that they are going to enter heaven when they die.  Satan doesn't really make deals with people, that is Hollywood all over again.  He simply provides an illusion of liberty or prosperity as being unassailable, then watches as both drift away like smoke in the wind.  What is left behind is a destroyed life, despair, depression, guilt, hopelessness, and often suicide. And another soul has been prevented from accepting Christ as its Savior, they go off into eternity separated from God for ever.   Satan succeeds.  It is not that God fails, just that another human being given the ability to freely choose what to do with its life has failed to choose wisely and must suffer the consequences.  All Satan needs to do is create confusion in a person's mind sufficient to distract them from ever taking time to decide to believe in Christ.  He knows that we are mortal creatures, unlike himself who is immortal (more on that later as well).

   That is all for tonight, beloved.  I encourage you to read the surrounding verses in Revelation 12 to find out more concerning Satan and his activities. There is a wealth of information about him in the Bible, if you know how and where to look for it.  Grace and peace be with you this night!

~Eric

Thu, Sep 13th - 6:35PM

WHO AND WHAT IS SATAN?

   It seemed natural to go in this direction after studying who Jesus is.  Some basic questions to ask, and find answers for are the following:  Who is Satan?  What is he?  Where is he? Where did he come from? Is he a good guy?  What is so special about him anyways?  Is he on our side?  All of these questions must be answered, and probably others as we proceed through this study.  So where to begin?  Perhaps we ought to begin by defining what devil means and where it originates from in our language?   The English word "devil" is derived from diaballo which means to accuse, to malign. From this, by extension it also means to slander. Daimon, a demon, is frequently but wrongly translated as "devil" when it should only be translated as "demon." As will become apparant, there is only one Devil while there are multitudes of demons.

"He that commits sin is of the devil; for the devil sinned from the beginning. For this reason the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil (I John 3:8)."

   Here in I John we find that there is a devil, and that he has been here from the beginning.  Because of these things Jesus Christ was manifested on earth in human flesh so that He could destroy all of the things that the devil was doing and influencing others to do as well.   But we should also consider the following verses here as well: "Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin: for His seed remains in him: and he cannot sin because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever does not do righteousness is not of God, neither he that does not love his brother (I John 3:9-10)."  So, there is a definition of who is a child of God and who is a child of the devil.  "His seed" refers to Jesus Christ.   Being born of God means having been born again through acceptance of Jesus Christ.  As can already be seen, there is a very clear, sharply delineated, line drawn across human conduct.  It is the "either/or" line. If you witness people around you doing things that most certainly are not righteous in nature, then you could pencil them into the column labeled "child of the devil."  What is righteousness?  Looking back to verse seven we are forced to answer this question. Under the Mosaic Law a righteous man became thus by doing righteously; but under the grace of Christ Jesus he does righteously because he has been made righteous. "Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ to all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference." "For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God." (Romans 3:22; 10:3).  What we see is that the devil has influenced mankind into believing that if they create their own conceived righteousness that they will be "good" and can enter into heaven.  Or else, heaven does not really exist and that they are living a good life by doing these things. All that they have managed to create is self-righteousness, a legal means to work out an acceptable character which a God can approve if He really does exist.  The acceptable aspect only exists in man's mind, not in God's.  True righteousness therefore comes to mankind as a result of individuals reaching salvation through Christ.  But for some reason man feels that this belief is "foolishness."  Wonder where that thought ever came from?

   So we have discovered that the devil has existed since the beginning. He does not do righteous things and does not love his brothers. He seemingly is more interested in self righteousness than in God's righteousness. He wishes to establish his own brand of "righteousness" which would mean that it will change according to how he feels or what he happens to need. Going back to I John we can see in 3:12 an example of a person who was the devil's child.  "Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And why did he slay him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous." You see, Cain didn't kill his brother just because he was happening to have a "bad" day.  It wasn't because Cain was stressed out by his job. It was because he had chosen to do evil things and having his brother's righteous works staring him in the face every day stuck in his craw.  He finally decided to rid himself of this reminder of his shortcomings.  He cold-heartedly murdered his brother.   No remorse was evident.  Don't we have people acting like this today?  Christian, there are people who hate you simply because you are righteous in Christ Jesus and they are not. They will call you intolerant, hateful, spiteful, bigoted, ignorant, uneducated, and gullible.  In some cases they will resort to violence against your person simply because they can't tolerate righteousness to be near them on a regular basis.  It makes them self conscious of their own wickedness.  Instead of repenting, they choose to remain wicked and erradicate the irritating presence of whoever is righteous. The scary thought here is, what happens when an entire government of any nation reaches this point?  Do they decide to simply round up those people who irritate them and have them executed "legally"? Food for thought for sure.

   Well, that gets us started in this study.  Next time I plan on diving into this a bit more deeply.  May Christ bless you and keep you each and every day!

~Eric

Tue, Sep 11th - 8:41PM

WHO IS THIS JESUS?

"These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for He is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with Him are called, and chosen, and faithful (Revelation 17:14)."

   I ask you who do you think "these" might be? Looking back a few verses it is discovered that "these" are part of the last form of Gentile world power/government. There will be ten kings, or rulers, who will give their sovereignty over to the beast, who shall be the one world ruler.  Power is given to them to make war with Jesus Christ, but He shall be victorious over them.  It is in the above verse that we are told once more that Jesus Christ is Lord of lords and King of kings.  All power and authority have already been given to Him and during the End Times He shall exert all of His power upon the earth.  But we ought to also pay close attention to the fact that Christ does not become victorious over these rulers by Himself.  There is this group with Him that have been called, and chosen, and faithful.  Who are they?  None other than the believers in the name of Jesus Christ.  We all have been called to repent of our sins.  We all have been chosen to be heirs, and joint-heirs, with Jesus Christ.  We have been adopted into God's family of children.  We have also, I sincerely hope, remained faithful to Christ and the gospel of grace.  Hopefully we have all properly defended the Word of God against liars and slanderers. 

"And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and He that sat upon him was called Fathful and True, and in righteousness He does judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but He Himself. And He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations: and He shall rule them with a rod of iron: and He treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he has on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS (Revelation 19:11-16)."

   Here in these verses we are allowed to see Jesus Christ returning from heaven to earth.  This passage comes immediately after some verses describing the marriage of the Lamb of God to His "wife."  All of these verses are rich in pictures and in meaning.  Christ's wife is the naturally "the bride" as spoken of later in Revelation 20:9 and who was alluded to in the much earlier parable about the ten virgins with their lamps.  This "bride" is none other than the Church which is identified with the heavenly Jerusalem from Hebrews 12:22-23. This bride is to be distinguished from Israel, the adulterous and repudiated "wife" of Jehovah, who is yet to be restored. This heavenly wife can't be Israel for a forgiven and restored wife can't be called either a virgin or a bride (II Corinthians 11:2-3).

   The "fine linens" are mentioned in verse eight of this chapter in Revelations and are symbolic of righteousness. In an ethical sense these garments symbolize "the righteousness of God upon all of them that do believe."   The fine linens mentioned in verse fourteen are said to be white and clean, symbolic of spiritual cleanliness, free of the corruption of sin.

   This vision given to John of heaven opened up is of the departure from heaven of Christ Jesus, the saints, and the angels prior to the catastrophe in which Gentile world -power, governed by the Beast, is struck by the "stone cut out without hands(Daniel 2:34-35)." We see Jesus Christ having been given two names and an identifier phrase.  First He is called Faithful and True, which recalls Revelation 3:7 to mind.  Christ is pure, holy, just, and has absolutely no variance within Himself.  He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. What He said two thousand years ago remains true to today and will remain true two thousand years from now in the future.  Christ is also called The Word of God.  A vesture is a robe that covers all over clothing items worn. Christ's robe here is dipped in blood, reminding us all of His giving of His life to pay our sin-debt.  His robe also has this title written upon it, signifying that Jesus at all times has been, and will be, the Word of God.  Jesus is the spoken will of God, the revelation of God, the manifestation of God in bodily form. At one and the same time Christ is the Written Word, the Spoken Word, and the Living Word.  He is all of these, and so much more. When we sit down and read God's Word, we are involving ourselves with Christ Jesus.  When we listen to the spoken Word of God we are involving ourselves with Christ Jesus. Upon accepting Jesus into our hearts upon repentance from our sins we are involving ourselves with the Living Word of God for it now dwells within us.  Jesus becomes closer to us than the very air that we breathe in and out with each and every breath that we take.  He is to become as involved in our daily lives as that oxygen is involved in our bodies on a daily basis. 

   What comes out of His mouth is said to be a sharp sword. This sword was mentioned in chapter one, verse 16. It is also alluded to in II Thessalonians 2:8 where it is called the spirit of His mouth. What this vivid picture ought to spell out clearly for all of us is that God does not need to wave a physical sword about, slicing and dicing His enemies.  All He needs do is to speak.  Jesus spoke and the wind and the sea stopped immediately.  Jesus spoke and Lazarus came back to life. Jesus spoke and the demons left the possessed man and went into the herd of pigs. In Genesis He spoke and things were created from out of nothingness.  He spoke to Moses from out of a burning bush that didn't become consumed by the fire. He spoke from heaven.  He spoke from within the column of smoke or fire. All God needs to do is speak and that is all sufficient for things to be accomplished according to His will.  Jesus Christ shall come again in glory with His church alongside Him and speak God's Word, all shall fall down at the sound and Satan along with his demons shall be chained and cast into the Abyss.  This picture is one that we simply can't wrap our human imaginations around.  How can it be that one's words can be so powerful, so effective?  Our limited minds can't conceive of such a thing.  And yet this, too, is quite true.  God is a Being that is quite beyond the bounds of human reasoning, logic, and imagination.  Just when we begin to think that we have found the means to completely comprehend God, we then discover something else that casts us back to the very beginning once more.

"And He said to me, It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to him that is thirsty of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcomes shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be My son. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake of fire and brimstone: which is the second death (Revelation 21:6-8)."

   This chapter of Revelation reveals seven new things, among which are the new heavens and new earth. But here in this passage we see that Jesus announces that He is the beginning and the end.  When nothing existed, there was Christ.  If nothing exists at some point in the future, there will still be Christ.  He also announces that unlike in the Garden of Eden, He would soon freely give of the fountain of the water of life.  The Living water of Life would be available whenever wanted or needed. We are given more hope here: He that overcomes shall inherit all things.  God states that that person will be considered to be His son/daughter.  But there is the other side to this coin.  To those who refuse to believe, who continue to worship idols, love money, love wickedness, and choose to wallow in wickedness and sin, there is to be but one final destination: the lake of fire and brimstone where their eternal souls shall be tormented continuously for ever more.  It is the same destination for the fallen angels who freely chose to believe what Satan told them rather than believe what God had already said to them. Satan will spend eternity in that same lake along with all other unrepentant sinners.  There shall be no partying, there shall not be anymore Monday Night Football parties, no more Saturday tailgate parties before college football games. No bachelor parties, no sleepovers with mixed gender, no more one night stands.  Likewise, that means that there will no longer be any STDs,  no addictions, no cancers, no parasitic infestations, no plagues, no viruses, no bacterial infectious outbreaks, no sickness, and no genetic defects.  All will be gone. 

   So it can be clearly seen that to reject Jesus Christ as God manifest in human flesh has dire consequences.  Even if you die before He returns from heaven, it will not allow you to elude paying the consequences of your freely chosen actions while alive.  God called Lazarus from the grave, and He will call your soul back from death in order that you pay the penalty for your unbelief in a holy, eternal, God.  Revelation states that all who have ever lived, and died, shall be brought before His throne for final judgment. Jesus may have come the first time as the Lamb of God, willingly giving up His life so that all of us had the opportunity to be redeemed by His shed blood. But when He comes the second time He comes as the King of kings, He comes to execute judgment upon all of mankind and the fallen angels. He comes to return His Creation to its original pristine state where no sin will ever again be found.  Amen!

   That concludes this entire study about Who is this Jesus?  I hope that you enjoyed it as much as I have in blogging it here.  Now, I wonder what we could study next...

~Eric

Fri, Sep 7th - 8:30PM

WHO IS THIS JESUS?

"And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. To Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood (Revelation 1:5)."

   This verse is part of the salutation at the very beginning of this Book. Verse five contains plenty of concepts to keep us busy mentally.  Who is Jesus?  He is the faithful witness. This comes from out of Isaiah 55:4 where we can read that God has given the people a witness, a leader and commander. Verse three of that chapter in Isaiah informs the reader to incline their ear, come to God, and their soul shall live; God will make an everlasting covenant with them.  Jesus is our witness before the throne of God the Father.  Jesus is also the first begotten of the dead.  Nothing morbid in this, He is the firstborn from among the dead since He died, was buried, and then rose in newness of life. He leads the way for mankind to follow, to die to self and live to gain eternal life. Jesus was willing, and obedient, to God's will. He accepted the humiliation and shame of the Roman cross and converted it into a symbol of redemption and metamorphosis.  By coming to His cross, accepting it as our own, and passing on to what awaits us on the other side of that cross, we are able to gain forgiveness, grace, a new spiritual nature, and the presence of the Living God within us.  By allowing Jesus to nail our sins to that cross we can then accept His loving gift of salvation, a gift lovingly offered unconditionally.

   We also can see in this verse found at the beginning of the Book of Revelation that Jesus loves us so much that He willingly washes us of all of our sins by using His own blood shed for us. The ultimate gesture of love: sacrificing oneself to gain the life of another.  In Jesus' case, He gained the life of every single person ever alive IF they would only accept His gift through faith in Him.  We also see that Jesus is the prince of the kings of earth.  He is the ruler of all authorities.  He will one day rule over every single government on this earth, all will acknowledge Him as God even if they do not wish to. 

"And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever(Revelation 11:15)."

   Here it is found that all of the kingdoms of earth are to become those of God.  Christ Jesus is said to reign for ever and ever.  Why can we be confident that this refers to Jesus? Because the next verse says," Lord God Almighty, which are, and was, and are to come;" This identifies Christ as God.  The two are one and the same.  Jesus was, He came, and He will come again.  Jesus is eternal.  He is the Lamb slain from before the foundations of the world.  Before anything in this universe was created by God, He had already in effect been crucified upon that Roman cross.  Time is not the same to God as it is for us.  We are corporeal beings while God is a spiritual being unshackled by time and space.  We are constained by time and by space.  Time runs linear for us, we can't conceive of it wrapping itself around and around to the point where the future is as "now" as the present is, or the past could be. God is fully able to pop in and out of the time continuum for to Him it is all happening vitually instantaneously. 

"And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are Your ways, You the King of saints (Revelation 15:3)."

   To find Moses' song we must go back to the Book of Exodus, chapter fifteen, verse one.  It continues on for several verses, being the song of the redeemed. This will be sung in heaven in the future.  Wed can gain a measure of understanding what the song of the Lamb might contain by looking back in Psalm 22:22.  It is the point in that psalm where there is the break from crucifixion to resurrection.  We also are reassured in verse 28 of that same psalm that the kingdom is the LORD's, that He is the governor among the nations of the earth.  He is the chief ruler over mankind and He is scheduled to return to earth to rule from the throne of David in Jerusalem.

   "King of the saints" informs us of our position relative to God. We are His children upon accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and repenting of our sins. But He is the supreme ruler of everything and He will enforce that fact at His appointed time in the history of man.  Satan is to be chained and removed from earth for a period of one thousand years, unable to trouble and interfere in the affairs of mankind.  All people will confess verbally that Jesus is God and every knee will bow before Him. 

   The reader is informed that all of God's works are marvelous and great.  All of His ways are just and true, there is no shadow of darkness in them nor is there any sort of injustice present in any of them.  Everything within the bounds of God's plan is just and true.  Mankind may not agree with that assessment but that is because mankind is corrupted with sin and under the influence of Satan.  People continually tell me online that God is a beastly being. He is wicked and evil, a spiteful and intolerant being bent upon setting people up to fail just so that He can torture them for all of eternity.  Their picture of God is created from out of their own experiences of how people have treated them and those close to them.  Rather than accept the reality of sin they stubbornly choose to believe what other men think is real.  Little do they realize that they merely are engaged in philosophical exercises of futility.  Vain imaginations, error-filled concepts, all concocted to give them an illusion of control over themselves.  Is this not part of what has fueled the global warming fiasco of blaming it all upon mankind?  What are the truly normal climate conditions of earth?  Are we to be so arrogant as to presume that what we have experienced in the past two to three hundred years is "normal?"  How can we possibly know the answer to that question?  And it is the first question that ought to be answered to the best of our ability.  Yet it is not even being considered by the so-called experts. How much money shall be wasted in efforts to reverse a treand in our global climate that probably is far beyond our best efforts to change?  Shall we bankrupt ourselves in the effort? Much better would be to adjust population settlements away from those areas seriously affected.  Build better seawalls and levees, better locks and canals to handle excess rainfall.  Better management of freshwater surface runoff from storms for future use by people is mandatory now, not fifty years from now.

   I graciously step down off of my soap-box now.  I pray that you have a most glorious weekend.  I know that I am looking forward to that.  Grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all!

~Eric

Mon, Sep 3rd - 4:40PM

WHO IS THIS JESUS?

"But to the Son He said, Your throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom (Hebrews 1:8)." " Therefore in all things it behoved Him to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself has suffered being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted. Therefore, holy brethren,  companions of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus (Hebrews 2:17-3:1)."

   Verse eight of Hebrews 1 is part of a quotation from Psalm 45:6-7. Here it is revealed that the psalm is one of the Messianic psalms. This "One" who is coming is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. He will rule in righteousness. God has not given any angel the authority to rule over the earth. It is here that we find God the Father calling the Son God. If I choose to deny that Jesus Christ is God manifest in human flesh, then I am going directly against God Himself, I am choosing to contradict God. 

   Christ Jesus did not become like one of the holy angels.  He became like us, His brethren. If He had become like an angel He would not have been able to personally identify with people and all that people suffer through on a daily basis.  We must not ever forget that Jesus willingly suffered all the way to being nailed upon a wooden cross, hoisted up into the air, became spear-pierced, and gave up life just so that He would understand on a personal level all that we experience in our lives.

   Christ came into our world in the likeness of man. He came as a Servant to others. Jesus experienced poverty, temptation, hunger, thirst, violence, and unmerited death. He could have chosen to be born in Caesar's palace in Rome, but He chose instead to be born in poverty out in a poverty-stricken town.  He immersed Himself where you could see sin manifested in our world. It is tragic when innocent people suffer in this world.  When someone is struck by cancer, not once but twice.  When it hounds them to death's door, and there is not anything that the doctors of this world can figure out to defeat it; that is tragic.  But Jesus knows what tragedy is all about, for He lived through it first hand. In the Middle East there are Arabs who have been forced to live in refugee camps since 1948 when Israel was allowed to form itself into a nation once again.  It might be argued that the Israelis are the ones to blame for this peoples'plight, but what about their fellow Arabs?  What is wrong with them, that they refuse to let their brethren relocate within their countries to live?  Or do they refuse in order to foment bitterness against the Israelis?  Do they do so at the expense of their own brethren?  Do they do this without any compassion in their hearts?  Jesus Christ understands how it feels to not have a home to call His own.  He understands what it feels like to be held up and used as an example by those in power. He understands how it feels to experience people saying one thing but doing the exact opposite.

   The people forced to live in refugee camps in the Middle East all of these long years live in abject poverty.  Christ grew up living in abject poverty and thus understands what they feel. He was born into a race of people who lived under the heel of Imperial Rome, they lived in subjection to Rome. As a child one would not have been able to pick Him out of a group of children for they all would have been dressed alike, in dirty clothing of no particular color. Because Jesus has already experienced everything that you could possibly experience today He is qualified to be a merciful and faithful High Priest for us.

   Christ made propitiation for my sins, and for yours.  He made a mercy seat for you and me to come to. You and I most certainly need mercy, for without it we would be subject to God's immediate judgment and execution of justice.  Thankfully, God has a great supply of mercy towards mankind for Jesus made a mercy seat, and we can now go there and get all that we require. Christ was not tempted just while He was out in the wilderness, He was tempted during His entire life. Could Jesus have fallen into sin?  Is it possible? The answer is NO. Saying that someone is tempted to do something wrong does not equate to we having the desire to do wrong.  Desiring to have sex with a scantily clad woman in the dark movie theater is sinful; being tempted by a scantily clad woman in a movie theater to desire having sex with her is not sinful.  One is being presented with the opportunity to desire to do wrong, while the other is being presented with the opportunity and then following through with the desire.  Jesus Christ never desired to do wrong when tempted. It is because He was never a sinner. Why was He tested then? To prove that He was who He said He was.

   "Succor" means to come to the aid of, help, assist. Having been tempted repeatedly, Jesus now knows how to help us when we are tempted as well. He knows how to provide us with the means to escape the temptation before we begin to desire to do wrong. Verse one of chapter three of Hebrews contains the hinge word "therefore" or "wherefore." These terms swing both ways in pointing us in the correct direction of meditation upon God's Word. Having read the preceding verses, we must now consider Christ Jesus as being the Apostle and High Priest of our professed faith in Him. The holy brethren here are fellow Hebrews. They were already separated unto God through acceptance of Jesus Christ, they belonged to God.

   "Companions of the heavenly calling" reflects a change from nation Israel's earthly calling. All of the promises in the Old Testament given to Israel had to do with this earth.  The promised them rain from heaven; He promised them fertility of the soil and bountiful crops. All of these are physical blessings, as are the promises of having a Promised Land in which to dwell.  God also promised them spiritual blessings as well. In Hebrews we find that brethren are now part of a heavenly called group of people who essentially are the "now" generation. They have moved from physical promises to spiritual promises; from the restrictions of the Mosaic system to the liberty to be found in the grace system. The earthly calling hasn't necessarily disappeared, but it has been changed for the heavenly calling.

   We are to consider Jesus as our Apostle.  What is an apostle? They are one who is sent.  Jesus was sent from God to this planet. He is a messenger of divine truth, the revelation of who God is.  We are to consider Jesus as High Priest. This entire epistle of Hebrews is about Jesus as our High Priest. A High Priest goes from man to God; He represents man before a holy God. He labors on our behalf before the throne of God the Father. Christ is unlike any earthly high priest before Him. Christ advocates our righteousness in the very presence of God, there is no veil of separation. He also does not utilize the shed blood of animals to atone for our sins, He has already applied His own shed blood upon the mercy seat in heaven, once for all for all of eternity. 

   That is all for today, beloved. Next time I shall attempt to wrap up this study by looking at some verses in the Book of Revelation.  Hope you all come on back for more food for thought!  Grace and peace be yours today!

~Eric