From the Vault

Ye Shall Be As Gods

When a team hits on a winning tactic, then logic dictates that it should continue to use that tactic as long as it remains effective. Team Satan is no exception.

Way back in the Garden of Eden, Satan set the standard for false doctrine, outlining in a single sentence the roots from which all heresies spring.

It began with God issuing a prohibition to Adam and Eve regarding the fruit of one particular tree in the Garden of Eden.

“And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17)

It was a simple and straightforward prohibition — there wasn’t much room for misunderstanding. Indeed, that was the purpose of the prohibition. The choices were black and white — there was no room for shades of gray.

When the serpent came to tempt Eve, he did several things. First, he cast doubt on God’s Word; (“Yea, hath God said?”) and Eve responded by ADDING to God’s Word.

“. . . Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto 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 midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.” (Genesis 3:1b-3)

What God really said was:

“But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Genesis 2:17)

Eve added the part about ‘touching’ it — and the rest, as they say, is history. Once God’s word has been ‘bent’ it is only a matter of time before it gets broken. Eve entered into a battle of wits without knowing she was unarmed.

Note Satan’s reply. First, he calls God a liar:

“And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die . . .”

Then, to support the charge, he makes God out to be the ‘bad guy’.

“For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:3-4)

Skeptics often point to the Garden of Eden as an example of the ‘contradictions’ in Scripture. After all, God said that Adam and Eve would die the very day they broke God’s prohibition, yet Adam lived another eight hundred years.

There is no contradiction. In the first place, on the day they sinned, they died spiritually. In the second place, twice in Scripture we are told that a ‘day’ to the Lord is as a ‘thousand years’ is to us.

By that standard, neither Adam nor Eve survived that ‘day’.

Let’s examine the rest of the Lie. First, there is the promise of hidden knowledge — “your eyes shall be opened.” That leads to the second lie; that knowledge will make us little gods. And finally, as gods whose eyes have been opened, we can tell the difference between good and evil.

Good and evil are outcomes — and outcomes are known only to God. There is an old saying to the effect that ‘no good deed goes unpunished’ because oftentimes, we set out to do something good for somebody, only to have it blow up in our faces.

For example, you buy your immature teenager a new sports car. You mean it for good. (It is possible to do something stupid with good intentions — I do it all the time)

But when your teenager is killed drag racing, you realize that what you meant for good brought you nothing but evil.

Conversely, you refuse to let your teenager have a car until he is mature enough to handle the responsibility. Because he hasn’t got his own car, he gets picked up hitchhiking and is never seen again.

You meant it for good, but in both cases, the outcome was exceedingly evil.

The day that our eyes are opened to the degree that we know good from evil is the day we will stand in God’s presence. On that day, we will know just how presumptuous we were.

If it wasn’t such a tragedy, I’m sure the angels would be rolling on the floor with laughter. “Ye shall be as gods.”

You’ve gotta be kidding!

Assessment:

We touched on this topic a few days ago, but from some of my emails, there is still some misunderstanding about the point I was trying to make.

We were discussing the controversy about tongues in the modern Church era, and whether or not it is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit.

But the point wasn’t tongues, it was heresy and heresy-hunting. What is our obligation? Is it to expose the heretics by name? Is it to go among the deceived to publicly proclaim the heresy and correct their doctrinal errors?

One could make an argument from Scripture that is indeed the responsibility of every Christian. For the sake of argument, let’s assume that we are sincere in our bedrock doctrinal beliefs, even though we disagree on certain issues.

For example, you are a pretribulational Dispensationalist who believes that the Church Age concludes with the Rapture of the Church.

I, on the other hand, am just as sincerely convinced that the Rapture takes place at the conclusion of the Tribulation Period.

You’ve been in such discussions where somebody has tried to convince you that you were the heretic. How convincing was that?

You’ve got your Bible, you’ve got your verses, you’ve been down this road a million times — and you are immovable.

Are you right? Of course, you are. But are you right? (Well, you sincerely believe the answer is yes again, but you’d rather not say so out loud. After all, infallibility is what your opponent is claiming).

Here’s the rub. It is possible to be infallible for yourself in matters of doctrine — that is the definition of ‘faith’. I believe with all my heart that I am infallibly correct on matters of settled doctrine — but I also know in my heart that I am NOT infallible.

Logically, I must content myself with the understanding that the Holy Spirit IS infallible, and He has shaped my doctrinal worldview according to His purposes. I must trust Him that I can trust His leading.

The problem is, the other guy believes exactly the same thing, if he is a sincere Christian.

Now, we get to the meat of our debate. Which one of us, in this example, is the ‘little god’ whose eyes have been opened by the fruit of knowledge, so that he can tell good from evil?

If you answered, “both of us” then you’ve pretty much nailed it.

How, then, do we learn? More than that, how do we teach? After all, we learn by discussing various doctrinal differences, taking the insights of like-minded believers and comparing those insights to the Revealed Word.

Having determined our doctrinal worldview, we then teach it to others the same way we learned it ourselves. By discussing the various views and determining for ourselves which view best lines up with Scripture.

But wait! That’s what the other guy did, too. He learned his doctrine the way you did, comparing it to the Scriptures and determining which view lines up best with his understanding of the Word of God.

Having adopted his doctrine as being the correct one, like you, he feels it is necessary to correct the heresy of others for the ‘good of the Church’ — just like you.

Personally, I have absolutely no problem in pointing out doctrinal error. I do it all the time. Where I have to remember to draw the line is in claiming doctrinal infallibility.

I don’t believe that my doctrine is flawed — indeed, if I had any doubts, I wouldn’t teach it. Anymore than I would allow somebody else to teach me if I believed his doctrine was in error.

But there comes a point in a doctrinal debate where a line is crossed — where one goes from being a teacher to a dictator.

And we’ve all crossed that line at some point. No?

Have you ever reached the point where you’ve accused somebody of not being saved because they don’t agree with you? (Or, put another way, that you don’t agree with them.)

Now, WHO is it that has the authority to pronounce someone saved or lost? A little god? Or the One Who shed His Blood that men might be saved?

When Jesus sent the Apostles out to preach the Gospel, He didn’t send them out to browbeat the unwilling, but just the opposite;

“And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.” (Matthew 10:14)

“But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant.” (1st Corinthians 14:38)

Many of us take the Great Commission as evidence that our eyes have been opened, and, whether we care to admit it or not, that we are as gods, knowing good from evil.

In a sense, there is truth in that, but that is only true to a limited degree.

Our eyes HAVE been opened (to our sin) we ARE as gods (by virtue of our imputed righteousness) and we know ‘good from evil’ to a limited degree: (ie., God is good, we are evil.)

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)

But when we begin to think that WE can infallibly determine good and evil by virtue of our eyes having been opened by our understanding of Scripture, then we’ve crossed the line from heresy hunter to ‘heretic’ ourselves.

It is a fine line, but not really as fine as all that.

“Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.” (1st Timothy 4:15)

This Letter was written by Jack Kinsella on March 10, 2008

 

Tribulation Saints and ‘The Mark’

Tribulation Saints and ‘The Mark’ By – Jack Kinsella
Vol: 29 Issue: 29 Wednesday, November 29, 2017

I received an email from a member asking, “Upon what grounds will a believer be saved during the Tribulation Period?” It was an intriguing question, one that we’ve not touched upon in any great detail in previous discussions.

My correspondent framed his question around the acceptance of the Mark of the Beast and a ‘paradox’ he sees facing those who might accept it under coercion.
Specifically, he asked,

“During the Tribulation, if a “believer” is threatened with the choice between either taking the Mark upon himself, or becoming “responsible” for a horrendous evil act otherwise aimed upon their child, doesn’t a feasible scenario present itself whereby a believer may choose to take the Mark. How can these two apparent “truths” occur coincidentally, and form a contradiction?”

Another excellent question. Researching the answers was most illuminative, and I thank my correspondent for posing them. At the same time, the answers themselves are among those ‘hard sayings’ of Scripture.

Let’s go with the Mark first.

The Mark of the Beast is not merely an economic medium of exchange, like a debit or credit card, although it will incorporate that function. If that were all there was to it, my correspondent’s paradox would be valid.

The Mark of the Beast is first and foremost a worship system. So now, we have crossed over from the material to the spiritual.

“And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not WORSHIP the image of the beast should be killed.” (Revelation 13:15)

The Mark is a symbol of membership in the ‘church’ of antichrist, and among the privileges of membership under his rule is the right to life, a form of liberty and the right to pursue a form of economic happiness.

But the Bible makes plain that no man can serve two masters.

To the question of whether or not accepting the Mark to save a life is paradoxical, James answers that question with a question of his own:

“For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” (James 4:14)

There are two distinct and separate understandings of ‘life’ at work here. There is our understanding of life, under which one might be tempted to take the Mark of the Beast, say, to save one’s child.

Then there is God’s understanding of life. Physical life is granted to us so that we can choose where we will spend eternity.

Since the main purpose in the spiritual sense for our physical existence is to exercise that choice, the choice we make is of far greater importance than the physical existence that provides the opportunity to choose.

Is the Bible specific concerning the choice to accept the Mark of the Beast and worship his image?

“And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.” (Revelation 14:9-11)

There is no paradox here. The choice is the same as it has always been. It was the same choice that Joshua offered the children of Israel more than three thousand years ago.

“And if it seem evil
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unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24:15)

During the early persecution of the Church, many martyrs were given the choice between worshipping Caesar or seeing their entire families thrown to the lions.

Those who accept a martyr’s death are promised a crown, but nowhere does the Bible grant an exemption for those who reject Jesus, coercion notwithstanding. Not in the Church Age, and not during the Tribulation.

“Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.” (Luke 17:33)

The second question asks, “Upon what grounds will a believer be saved during the Tribulation?” The short answer would appear to be, “the same grounds upon which believers are saved during the Church Age” — salvation by grace through faith. But that isn’t exactly accurate.

During the Tribulation, God’s grace, as we understand it in this Dispensation, is withdrawn. The Age of Grace concludes with the Rapture. The Tribulation Period is the final, unfulfilled week of the Age of the Law.

Revelation Chapter 7 describes an event so unique that Jesus devotes an entire chapter to its discussion. It describes a special ‘sealing’ of “the servants of our God in their foreheads.” (Revelation 7:3) These ‘servants of God’ are twelve thousand Jewish male virgins chosen from each of the twelve tribes of Israel — 144,000 in all.

They are sealed in a miraculous manner, by the direct intervention of God, in exactly the same way Church Age believers are, through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus was sealed by the Holy Spirit.

“And Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:16-17)

Church Age believers are sealed. “. . . in Whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise.” (Ephesians 1:13)

The sealing work of the Holy Spirit is the basis for our eternal security during the Church Age. Among the spiritual benefits of being sealed by the Holy Spirit are:

1) Men receive courage to rebuke sin: Matt. 3:8

2) Men are enabled to speak with confidence: Acts 4:31-33

3) Gives spiritual and moral strength: 2 Samuel 22:40; Isaiah 28:26; Isaiah 40:31;41:10; Daniel 11:32; Ephesians 3:16

4) Provides strength in weakness: 1 Corinthians 1:27; 2 Corinthians 12:9; 13:4

5) Provides spiritual gifts: Romans 12:6; Ephesians 4:11

Returning to the question at hand, the 144,000 evangelists are sealed by the Holy Spirit to empower them as evangelists during the Tribulation Period, because it is only through the conviction of the Holy Spirit that men can be saved.

The doctrine of eternal security is due to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in all believers during the Age of Grace.

During the final Week of the Age of the Law, the universal ministry of the Holy Spirit is withdrawn. (2nd Thessalonians 2:7)

He then indwells believers only selectively, as He did during David’s time, when David cried out, “Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.” (Psalms 51:11)

There will be believers in the Tribulation who will succumb to the antichrist’s coercion and accept his mark to save their families. And Scripture is clear that those who do are forever lost.

Tribulation believers will be saved by faith in Christ and enduring until the end, as in the Church Age, but without the guarantee of eternal security or the automatic indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus described the tribulation as, “such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.”

He warned that, “except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.” (Matthew 24:21-22)

It is our job on this side of the Tribulation to give the warning of what is to come. It is coming. And it is coming soon.

Our blessed hope is found in the Scripture’s promise that Jesus comes for His Church first.

“Wherefore, comfort one another with these words.” (1st Thessalonians 4:18)

This Letter was written by Jack Kinsella on  November 5, 2005

Featured Commentary: The Doomsday Donald ~Wendy Wippel

From the Vault

Photo by Josh Sorenson on Pexels.com

Heaven From the Cesspool
Vol: 137 Issue: 28 Thursday, February 28, 2013

It’s been observed that, ‘Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die’.  It makes you wonder – why is that?  Since the worst thing anybody can do to another human being is kill them and the most desirable outcome for any Christian is to go home to glory. . . what’s up with that, anyway?

The Bible describes heaven as a place where the streets are made from gold, and where the ‘pure river of the water of Life proceeds out from the throne of God and of the Lamb’ where there shall be no night, since God Himself with illuminate it and so on.

What kind of mental image does this give you?

To me, it sounds pretty neat, but . . . somehow, not.

Please don’t run screaming from the room screaming ‘blasphemy’ just yet – I’m not finished.  Give me a few more lines.

I recall sitting between a couple of sand dunes, surveying the wind-swept beach on one of North Carolina’s Outer Banks, watching as the breakers crashed into the pilings on the nearby pier.  The sun was shining, the breeze was warm; it was altogether an idyllic scene.

The beauty was breathtaking.  Alone with the Lord, I mused about what heaven must REALLY be like, if this wasn’t it.  Indeed, as I pointed out earlier, John’s description of heaven was, um, nice, but where I was sitting was pretty nice, too.  There were no rivers of living water, but I know that I am saved and have eternal life already.

The sand isn’t made of gold, but what value will gold have in eternity, anyway?  It will pave the streets, as common as the sand.  I like the sand.

And I LIKE the night; I’ve sat in that exact same spot at night, and when the breeze is warm and the stars are out, with the moon reflecting off the ocean it is no less idyllic than it is during the day.

I inquired of the Lord, and I began to get a bit of the Big Picture, as seen from outside of space and time.  (No, I wasn’t smoking anything and I didn’t start to hear voices).

Instead, I thought about what the Bible said about heaven, and more to the point, what the Bible says about our Big Blue Marble.

The Bible describes the fall of Lucifer, his sin, and his ejection from heaven, together with the third of the angels who rebelled with him.  When they were cast from heaven, where did they go?

The Book of Job says:

“And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.” (Job 1:7, 2:2)

It has been my experience in studying God’s Word that when He causes something to be repeated, as in this case, it is worth giving it an extra look.

When Satan and his crew cast from heaven, they were cast to the earth, what the theologians call the ‘cosmos diabolicus’ or literally, a world of evil.  To the angels, it was the worst place they could imagine — a place of involuntary and horrific exile.

Planet Earth is the one place in the universe where sin can exist without throwing the entire universe out of balance, thanks to the fact it has an environment that contains it.

Our environment, which sustains us, also contains us and keeps us from doing to the universe what we have already done to our planet.

Indeed, we managed to get to the outer fringes of our planet and what did we do?  Filled it with orbiting space junk, some of which threatens OTHER orbiting space junk, such as the international space station.

Meanwhile, back on earth . . . when the fallen angels were cast to earth, it was an astonishing drop.

“How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!” (Isaiah 14:12)

Assessment:

To the angels, the beautiful seaside scene I described earlier is a cesspool of sin, a place of punishment to the angels who rebelled, a place so horrible, that seen from the heavenly perspective, merely being stuck here was enough to turn Lucifer the Archangel into Satan the Destroyer.

Imagine our planet from God’s perspective.  Everything is stained by sin.  The beautiful beach scene?  Stained by sin.  The ground we walk on?  Stained by sin.

I tried to imagine that stain for what it is, and of course, I cannot.  I can only defer to the Bible’s description of sin.  It is so filthy, so repugnant, so disgusting, that God can’t bear to view it.

When God created Adam, He created a special place for him.  The Garden of Eden.  When Adam and Eve fell, they were first cast OUT of the Garden, and into the cesspool where sin was allowed to operate freely.

Jerusalem sits in the middle of the cesspool.  In the center of Jerusalem was the Temple, a place kept scrubbed of the taint of sin by the Levitical priesthood, and the Holy of Holies, a place scrubbed even more carefully.

The only place where God would commune with sinful man on this sin-stained planet was that tiny place where the muck of sin was scrubbed away as much as possible.

Until even that place became so buried in the muck and mire of sin that, after four hundred years of silence, He decided to Personally scrub it –and us — clean of it, once and for all.

Scripture says the angels were astonished that the Lord of Glory would assume human form, step out of sinless and perfect eternity, and wallow in the mire of sin with sinful humanity.  Every step for Him must have been an agony, like walking knee-deep in sewage.

“But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.” (Hebrews 2:9)

It is a measure of how disgusting sin is to God.  The fact it was the place God cast the rebellious angels is revealing.  To the angels, our beautiful planet earth is a leper colony.  We mortal humans are little more than bugs, willingly wallowing in the yuck of sin, yea, REVELING in it.

Yet the Scripture says that the angels are fascinated by us, and by our plight, and astonished by our unwillingness to climb out of the muck.  It amazes them that men love the world, since they see it for what it is, and have some basis for comparison between it and the things of the spirit.

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with SO GREAT A CLOUD OF WITNESSES, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us . . .” (Hebrews 12:1)

“For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and TO ANGELS, and to men.” (1 Corinthians 4:9)

Scripture tells us that;

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)

We cannot imagine heaven, we can only compare it to earth and all its beauty and wonderment, and realize that the earth is the universe’s garbage dump.  Heaven is like the Bible describes it; but it is much more.

“But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9)

What IS death, that we fear it?  In a word, separation.  Death separates us from our loved ones.  Death takes our loved ones from us, separating us from them until eternity.

Sin is a form of death. It separated the fallen angels from fellowship with God.  It separates the unsaved from God.  Revelation 20:14 speaks of the Great White Throne Judgment in which unbelievers are cast into the Lake of Fire as ‘the second death’ — a second – and permanent separation.

Sin separates us from God, our sin nature blinds us to that fact and so we love the world, and thereby astonish the angels.  Picture the nastiest, gooeyest, smelliest substance you can think of, and imagine being in it up to your neck.  From the angelic perspective, that’s where we are, and most of us are loving it, until we get saved.

Jesus said,

“Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.” (Luke 15:10)

The angels know what that sinner has just escaped from.

Jesus also describes what we become in eternity in Luke 20:36,

“Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.”

Paul tells us that we will receive new, immortal bodies.

“And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.” (1 Corinthians 15:49-50)

What is heaven like?  I don’t know.

But I know what a beautiful, sunny day, a warm ocean breeze and the sights and sounds of the waves as they gently break on the shore is like.

And compared to heaven, it’s a cesspool.

To the angels, it is a place of exile, a leper colony, a place where the fallen angels were sent to await their fate at the Great White Throne. Our ‘beautiful’ planet is the angelic ‘hell’ to which they were cast to await sentencing to the Lake of Fire.

But we will be ‘equal to the angels’ says the Lord, in our immortal, sin-free bodies, and equal to the angels in understanding just HOW evil and repugnant this place really is, from the perspective of the spirit.

Why is it, then, that everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die?

Because if we knew what awaits us there, we’d all jump off a cliff tomorrow.