Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
Prophe-Zine Issue 082
PropheZine #82
Aug 1, 1999
Bob Lally Publisher
Mimi Nila Senior Editor
Rick Woodcock Asst. Editor
Abraham George Asst. Editor
Lori Eldridge Asst. Editor
Bob Ippolito Asst. Editor
ARTICLES
Lori Eldridge..........The Great September 11, 1999 Rapture Hoax
Bruce Scott.................The Judgment Seat of Christ
Lambert Dolphin..........Does God Need A Temple?
COMMENTARIES
Berit Kjos.....................Al Gore's Vision of Planetary Oneness
****************************************************************
Hi!
Sorry for the strange email everyone received the other day. I sent the email to the wrong address. Ok, so it's never happened to you! (ha-ha)
Lambert Dolphin spoke at the PropheZine International Prophecy Conference in LA 2 years ago. His audio message from the conference is on PropheZine and you may want to listen. He is a very interesting fellow and, for us science types, I would recommend hanging around his website (http://ldolphin.org/). He has some very interesting articles.
I am looking for prophecy related non-english websites that I can contact to see if we can reach an arrangement to cross post articles. I am also looking for non-english audio and video messages. Since a high portion of our subscribers are outside the United States, I assume many of you visit non-english web sites. Please send their web addresses (URL') to me so I may contact the owners. I feel that this is something the Lord really wants us to do. Send an email to bob@prophezine.com
Scott Pearson, Gary Kah and Bill Cloud, this past week, spoke at a Spanish speaking conference in LA. I have asked for audio tapes to place on PropheZine. I'll let you know when I have them on the site.
May the Lord keep you under His wing;
Bob Lally
PropheZine
bob@prophezine.com
****************************************************************
|==========================================
|
| The Great September 11, 1999 Rapture Hoax
| by Lori Eldridge
|
The following is a critique of a collection of codes found by B entitled "Exodus 19 & 20 and the Third Day." Bonnie proclaims the Rapture will occur on September 11, 1999 because of the codes she found in Exodus 19 & 20. This critique will endeavor to show that this collection of codes, although it looks convincing at first glance, is not relaying the truth of what is actually "encoded" in this passage. The original document can be found on Bonnie's web site at <http://watch.org/articles.html?mcat=18>, however you will need a plug-in on your browser that can read PDF files.
This critique will only cover the codes in Bonnie's first matrix. It is recommended that you print out and read at least the first two pages of her document, including her first matrix of codes, so you can understand the terms used in this critique. Bonnie's claims about "The Third Day" can be ignored as I will show later and keep in mind that Gematria is even less reliable than the codes.
I have also provided comparative matrixes in a replica of this article in the Tcode Archive that you will need to see in order to adequately assess the validity of Bonnie's codes. It can be found at <http://www.prophezine.com/tcode/rapthoax.html>.
Below you will find a list of the spellings and skips of Bonnie's codes (she chose not to provide these in her article) (see either Bonnie's article or the one I mentioned above in the Tcode Archive-rapt1.gif):
Rapture:
(shin lamed hey vav bet) at a skip of -2 Exodus 19:16.
1st Tishri (i.e., Rosh Hashanah--our Sept. 11, 1999): (aleph tav shin resh yod) at a skip of +53 Exodus 19:15-16.
Trumpet:
(yod vav bet lamed) at a skip of +159 Exodus 19:16-19:23.
5760
(Jewish year after Sept. 11, 1999) (Hey tav shin samech) at a skip of -159 Exodus 19:11-20.
Bride:
(kaf lamed hey) at a skip of +1 (2 words) Exodus 19:16 and at a skip of -53 Exodus 19:12-14.
Deliverance:
(yod shin hey) at a skip of -106 Exodus 19:16-20.
Third Day:
(bet yod vav mem hey shin lamed yod shin yod) at a skip of +1 in Exodus 19:16 (surface text) This is NOT a valid code!!!
VERY IMPORTANT: A code at a skip of +1 relaying the same words as the surface text (even if the author chooses to interpret them differently) is not a valid code. The English text of Exodus 19:16 says, "And it came to pass, on the third day, . . ." (KJV). "The "code" "Third Day" will therefore, not be considered below. This also means Bonnie's whole theory about the third day is invalid right from the start. Also, Bonnie claims that these words say "Third Day," but any student of Hebrew can tell you they "actually" spell out "On The Third Day." If she would have told us that these words are in the surface text that would have been acceptable. However, she has instead chosen to imply they are a valid code.
The codes in Bonnie's first matrix run from Exodus 19:11 to 19:23. However I have increased the matrix by three verses to include verse 8 so the main term "1st Tishri" will appear in the center of the matrix which makes room for an equal number of ELS's to the right and left of that key code (this shouldn't be a problem since she claims these codes are found from Exodus 19-20 anyway).
DOES BONNIE'S MATRIX RELAY THE FACTS?
It can be deduced, from the way the codes are arranged (1st Tishri and the year 5760 running vertical, Rapture running horizontal, etc.), that the "actual" code matrix has a width of 53 characters. However, Bonnie's matrix is only 14 characters wide. Why the discrepancy? She doesn't tell us that any of the characters are missing but this was obviously accomplished by cutting off a major portion of the letters surrounding these codes to make them appear more appealing, i.e., more compact. However these codes fit nicely within the bounds of an average size page if the width of the gif is adjusted accordingly, so this isn't the reason they were cropped off (see the rapt1w.gif on the Tcode article).
WERE BONNIE'S CODES FOUND BY PURE CHANCE?
Is it plausible that the above skips were chosen at random and then a close fitting matrix of codes miraculously appeared without further searching?
Not likely. It is much more plausible that these codes were chosen because they produced the most visually appealing code array in a portion of text that Bonnie claims supports her rapture theory.
The three major codes in this matrix (Rapture, 1st Tishri and 5760) occur only once between Exodus 19:8-23 at a skip of -2, +53 and -159 respectively. Yet Bonnie claims in her article that the word Rapture occurs up to 5 times in this area of text. How can that be? Possibly because she repeatedly claims these codes are found from Exodus 19-20, yet, as has been shown above, the codes for "this" particular matrix (one of six) were all found within the few verses of Exodus 19:11-23 (which I enlarged to include verse 8) and don't even venture into chapter 20 at all. This leaves the door open for her to use much larger skips in the other matrixes. Since she doesn't tell us what the skips are this is very hard to verify.
Exodus chapters 19-20 contain about 2500 characters and the word rapture contains 5 letters so the maximum this code could appear would be a skip of 500. I searched for the word Rapture in these two chapters of Exodus from a skip of 1-500 and it does indeed occur 5 times. Amazing! Bonnie's other code matrixes will not be analyzed, however, as this one should give us enough clues to their validity.
There is something else very interesting about these code skips. If you divide 53 into 159 you will see that it divides evenly 3 times, i.e., with a matrix width of 53 characters, a code at a skip of 159 characters will occur on every third line. If you will look at the list of Bonnie's codes found in this area, all of the codes in this matrix occur either at multiples of 53 or a bare minimum of one to two skips. This was done so they will all appear on either horizontal or vertical lines. Does this mean these were the only codes available? Hardly. However, it does indicate these codes may have been chosen to provide the most convincing array and not necessarily what is really encoded in this passage.
HOW MANY TIMES DO THE SMALLER WORDS OCCUR IN THIS PASSAGE?
The matrix in question spans Exodus 19:8-23 which has a total of 890 letters. The maximum skip for three letter words, such as "Deliverance" and "Bride," in this size text, would therefore be 445. The maximum skip for a 4 letter word, such as "Trumpet" would be 296. The word "Trumpet" actually occurs 10 times in this matrix. Bonnie chose to only utilize the skip of +159 (3x53). "Deliverance" occurs a total of 129 times in this matrix, and again, Bonnie chose to only utilize one of those skips also, which occurs at -106 (2x 53). The word "Bride" occurs a total of 139 times in this Matrix.
Are there going to be 10 trumpets blowing at the Rapture? Are there 129 deliverances? Are only 139 of the millions of Brides going to be raptured?
According to scripture there is only one Bride of Christ, one trumpet and one delieverance of the Bride. What does the occurrence of all these extra words mean? With such a large assortment of codes to choose from what could have prompted Bonnie to show only the ones that occur in her matrix?
Also, regarding the "Bride" codes, instead of using only one code for each word, like with all the other words, Bonnie opted to utilize two of these codes--one at a skip of +1 (spanning two words--which is a valid code), and the other at a skip of -53. Why did she use two "Brides," but only one "Deliverance," one "Trumpet," one "1st Tishri," one "Rapture," etc.?
There are six different code matrixes in Bonnie's article and she has chosen to produce "twin" Bride codes in three of them yet she only uses the other words once in each matrix. Why? Could it be that she believes in the Partial Rapture theory and having two bride codes appear in each one is supposedly proof of this theory? However, as was pointed out above, she neglected to tell us that there are multitudes of other bride codes in each of these matrixes.
The reason there are multitudes of the word "Bride" is because (besides only having 3 letters) it is also made up of some of the more common letters in the Hebrew alphabet and will thus occur more often in any normal Hebrew text.
DO THE THREE MAIN TERMS OCCUR CLOSE TOGETHER ELSEWHERE?
Another question arises--If the words Rapture, 1st Tishri and 5760 only occur once in this area, and they ALL have skips that are multiples of 53, or a small enough skip to fit on one line, does this mean this was a divine message from God?
Lets look at some of the facts. A search was performed on the following words utilizing the whole of the Torah and this time limiting the skip to 250 because these words have up to 5 letters.
The word Rapture occurs about 243 times. 1st Tishri occurs about 275 times.
The year 5760 occurs about 258 times.
Is it possible that there are other areas where these words occur close together? Quite likely. It is also possible that other word choices, or spellings could be used. For instance, a word portraying the Rapture can be spelled many different ways and would occur just as close together, and be just as "convincing," as this group of codes we have been examining above.
In fact these codes do occur in a much tighter configuration in Deuteronomy 16. (see the above mentioned article in the Tcode Archive. Look for the deut16.gif. The extra letters of the matrix were cropped off for demonstration purposes):
1st Tishri (aleph tav shin resh yod) at a skip of -1 in Deut 16:20 Rapture (shin lamed hey vav bet) at a skip of -132 in Deut 16:11-20 The Year 5760 (hey tav shin samech) at a skip of -115 in Deut 16:16-20
With a width of 132, the word Rapture occurs vertically, 1st Tishri
horizontal (sharing a shin with Rapture) and the word for the year 5760 is on an angle off the left side.
IS FIRST TISHRI THE ONLY DATE ENCODED IN THIS PASSAGE?
Is a code with the words 1st Tishri/Rapture/5760 a divine message from God that this is the date of the Rapture? Exodus 19:8-23 was searched for alternate dates and the following appeared:
2 Tishri
5th Tishri
6th Tishri
10th Tishri
Why was 1st Tishri chosen when so many other dates were available in this passage? One reason may be that it occurs at a skip of 53 which is compatible with the other words with multiples of 53, i.e., it will show up on a matrix with a width of 53 and the other words won't. However the other dates are still there--it just depends on how wide you make the matrix. Is this sufficient proof of the date of the Rapture?
IS 5760 THE ONLY YEAR ENCODED IN THIS PASSAGE?
The year 5762, which starts in our September 2001 (hey tav shin samech bet) is also encoded in this passage. IN FACT this is the exact same code that Bonnie found for the year 5760 except it has the letter "bet" on the end of it (bet stand for the number two). Therefore Bonnie has not given us all the facts again. Could it be she was holding back this information in case there is two year delay like Drosnin claimed?
One interesting fact about our current year of 5769 (pre September 1999) is that it contains the letter "tet" (hey tav shin nun tet). The letter tet in the surface text does not occur anywhere from Exodus 10:1 to Exodus 20:20.
This means if you limit your search to just this portion of text the year 5769/pre September 1999 will NEVER show up in code. And the same applies to any other year ending in the number nine.
WHY WAS ROSH HASHANAH CHOSEN TO DEPICT THE RAPTURE?
The Rapture words encoded in Deuteronomy 16 fall in a passage talking about the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Tabernacles. Why wasn't this matrix used instead of the other when the main terms are closer together? Possibly because she believes the Rapture happens on Rosh Hashanah (1st Tishri/Sept.
11 in 1999) and a passage talking about other feasts just won't do. She needs a passage of text that speaks of Rosh Hashanah.
However, even Exodus 19:8-23 doesn't talk about Rosh Hashanah--this is where God calls Moses up to the mountain before receiving the Ten Commandments. If you read any book of Jewish festivals you will see that Rosh Hashanah does not depict any historical event other than celebrating the birthday of the world. It is a time of preparation, a time of reflection, fasting and prayer when Jews believe you need to get your relationship right with God before the Day of Atonement (Day of Judgment which occurs about 10 days later) or God will not write your name in the Book of Righteousness for that year. Do "True" Christians need to get their relationship right with God or loose their salvation? No.
The only obvious comparison between this festival and what Bonnie is proposing with the codes she chose to display (besides the invalid "Third Day" code) is that Trumpets are blown on Rosh Hashanah. Is this the only feast when Trumpets are blown? No.
However, if the Rapture doesn't occur on Rosh Hashanah/Sept. 11, 1999 like Bonnie claims, how much would anyone be willing to wager that this alternate code will be used instead--the Feast of Tabernacles occurs about 21 days after Rosh Hashanah.
ARE THERE ANY NEGATIVE CODES IN THIS MATRIX?
Several words in Bonnie's matrix are joined by either the word "no" (lamed, vav aleph-- pronounced low') or "there is no," (aleph yod nun, pronounced 'ayin). For instance, the word "no" is connected to the hey of the year 5760 at a skip of -3, crosses over "trumpet," at a skip of +3, runs parallel and right next to 1st Tishri as well as sharing a vav with "trumpet" at a skip of -106. Also there is another "deliverance" in this matrix, that Bonnie chose not to include, also at a skip of -106 which has the word "there is no" (aleph yod nun--ah' yin) crossing over and sharing the yod of deliverance and another "there is no" next to the shin of the same word.
The negative codes can be seen in the article mentioned above in the Tcode Archive. Look for the rapt1w.gif.
So, if we interpret these words in the same manner as Bonnie interprets her disjointed "codes," these negative codes appear to be saying "No 5760," (or "No 5762) "No Trumpet," "No 1st Tishri," and "There is no Deliverance." Is it true there will be no Deliverance of the Bride of Christ? If not, can this truly be a message from God?
HOW MANY WORDS ARE "ACTUALLY" ENCODED IN EXODUS 19:8-23?
Dr. James D. Price (Ph.D in Hebrew, BS in Electrical Engineering, M.Div. as well as a top notch code researcher) ran an exhaustive test on Exodus 19:8-23 and found the following:
"The search is exhaustive in that it searched for all the uninflected Hebrew words in the Bible at least 3 letters long, and in that it included all possible skip values from +/- 2 to the maximum possible skip for each individual word. "
"There was 8553 words on the list, the number of Hebrew words = 7878, and the number of Aramaic words = 675. Of the 8553 words, 5325 have at least one ELS in that segment--that is, 62% of all the uninflected words in the Hebrew Bible. There was a total of 211,726 ELS's all together, making an average of approximately 4 ELS's per word found."
"For Exodus 19:8-23 Number of Verses = 16 Number of Words = 251 Number of Letters = 892"
"Here is a breakdown by length of word:"
"Num. letters = 3; Num. words =3773; Num. hits = 3399; Num. ELS = 201998 Num. letters = 4; Num. words =2567; Num. hits = 1704; Num. ELS = 9449 Num. letters = 5; Num. words =1376; Num. hits = 214; Num. ELS = 270 Num. letters = 6; Num. words =541; Num. hits = 7; Num. ELS = 8 Num. letters = 7; Num. words =182; Num. hits = 1; Num. ELS = 1 "
"In other words, there was 90% of the 3 letter words found in the segment with a total of 201,998 hits, making an average of about 59 hits per word found. There was 66% of the 4 letter words in the segment with a total of 9449 hits, making an average of about 5.5 hits per word found. And so forth. "
"With that abundance of ELS codes in that segment, all in close proximity, one could imagine any possible message he desired, either positive or negative. "
The entire report, just indicating how many ELS's exist for each word, would fill 119 single-spaced pages, so that report will not be included in this article.
SUMMARY
The following inconsistencies were found in Bonnie's first matrix:
1. A major portion of the code matrix was eliminated.
2. The code skips and spellings were not provided so they could be verified.
3. The words "Third Day" are not a valid code.
4. The words "Trumpet," "Deliverance," and "Bride" occur multitudes of times not just once or twice.
5. The word "Bride" doesn't occur just twice in this matrix but 139 times.
6. Several of the codes occur at skips of 53 or multiples of the same, leading to the possibility that this matrix was predesigned.
7. Bonnie's article cannot be viewed by a normal browser unless it has the capability to read PDF files, i.e., a program like Acrobat Reader.
8. There is a text version on the Internet but it would be impossible to determine the true skips of these words from that article so you can validate the codes.
9. The main terms in this matrix are found encoded elsewhere and closer together and in fact they share a letter.
10. First Tishri is not the only date encoded in this passage.
11. 5760 is not the only year encoded in this passage.
12. Rosh Hashanah does not depict the Rapture but judgment instead.
13. There are negative codes that cancel out most of the codes.
14. There were a total of 211,726 words found encoded in this small portion of text.
FINAL CONCLUSION
What does this mean? Whatever you want to say in code you can find it, if you look hard enough. And if you don't betray the facts of your research people can't verify your claims and it will be easier to get them to believe anything you want--like a Rapture occurring on Rosh Hashanah/1st Tishri/Sept. 11, 1999.
Lori Eldridge lorel@ior.com copyright 7-12-99
Lori is a former believer in the codes, a former owner of the Tcode mailing list and maintains the Tcode Archive which gives both pro and con views on the codes and all the links to the latest code research.
God Bless,
hestotas epi te petre (Standing on the Rock)
Lori Eldridge
http://www.prophezine.com/poetry/index.html
Jesus is coming for his church soon!!! Keep looking up.
|==========================================
|
| Israel My Glory
| http://www.foigm.org/IMG/judgment.htm
| The Judgment Seat of Christ
| by Bruce Scott
Many successful businesses engage their employees in an annual ritual known as the "year-end formal performance review." On those occasions, a manager sits down with an employee, report in hand, and surveys the employee's job performance over the past year. Did he meet his goals? Did he do well with the resources made available to him? What were his accomplishments? In what areas was he strong or weak? The year-end review is not only a time for the employee's job performance to be measured against his work objectives, it is also a time for the manager to bestow praise and recognition. In a similar but far greater way, all Christians will one day give an account of their lives to the Lord Jesus Christ. This lifetime "review"
will take place at the judgment seat of Christ.
Backdrop to the Judgment Seat of Christ
In speaking of a judgment seat, the Scriptures use the Greek word bema. In its simplest usage, bema referred to a step, as in a footstep (Acts 7:5). Bema was also used to describe a raised platform from which an orator would speak to the public. Acts 12:21 records that Herod Agrippa I sat on his "throne" (bema) to deliver a speech. The Romans called the speaker's platform a rostrum. Many major cities throughout the Roman empire patterned their centers of public gatherings and commerce after the imperial forum in Rome. Often in the middle was a bema or rostrum from which to address the crowds.
The bema was also a place to hear court cases and make legal decisions. A Roman magistrate, acting as judge, sat in a designated chair on the bema or tribunal, with the defendant and plaintiff standing before him. Paul stood before the judgment seats of Festus in Cæsarea (Acts 25) and Gallio in Corinth (Acts 18:12-17). Archaeologists have unearthed the bema in Corinth, and it can be seen today. In numerous places the bema was located, not in the region of the forum, but at the place where the Roman official decided to execute justice. In those cases, temporary platforms were erected with ceremonious chairs placed upon them (see Josephus, Wars 2.14.8). The most well-known biblical example of the bema is when the Lord Jesus stood before the bema of Pilate, placed in front of the Prætorium (Mt. 27:19; Jn. 19:13).
The Roman tribunal was not just a place to mete out judgment. It was also a place to distribute rewards. After the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., the Roman general Titus set up his tribunal, commended all of his troops, and rewarded those soldiers who had served with valor (Josephus, Wars 7.1.2-3).
Characteristics of the Judgment Seat of Christ References to the judgment seat of Christ can be found in Romans 14:10-12 and 2 Corinthians 5:10. It is implied in such passages as 1 Corinthians 3:12-15; 4:1-5; and 2 Timothy 4:8. In these and other passages, certain characteristics of the judgment seat of Christ stand out.
First, the judgment seat of Christ is not a judgment of unbelievers but of believers. Paul described the person at the judgment seat of Christ as one who is saved and a brother.
Second, all believers will be there. Paul said we "must" appear, a word denoting obligation and necessity. It is the same word Paul used in Acts 25:10: "I stand at Cæsar's judgment seat, where I ought to be judged" (italics added).
Third, although all believers will be present, this will not be a group evaluation. It will be strictly a judgment of individual believers.
Fourth, the purpose of the occasion is to give an account of ourselves, but not for our sins. Because the Lord will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin (Heb. 9:28), and because our sins and iniquities He remembers no more (Heb. 10:17), God will not bring up our past sins at the judgment seat of Christ. All of our sin was judged at the cross. The judgment seat of Christ, therefore, is not a judgment to determine salvation. Rather, it is a time when, as God's servants and stewards, we will stand before our Lord and Master and give an account of what we did with what He entrusted to us.
As is required of all stewards, the question to each of us will be, "Have you been faithful?" To answer that question, we will undergo a thorough examination focusing on "the hidden things of darknessÉthe counsels of the hearts" (1 Cor. 4:5). Only God can see these parts of our lives. As the one who searches the minds and hearts (Rev. 2:23), Jesus will carefully examine the motives of our earthly service when we stand before His judgment seat. Another focus of the examination will be our deeds. Jesus promises to "give unto every one of you according to your works" (Rev. 2:23, italics added).
In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul used the analogy of building materials to describe the Christian's deeds of service. On the day of judgment, each person's works will be subjected to a trial by fire to reveal what kind of materials they are. Christian deeds that are like gold, silver, and precious stones will survive the test and remain. The deeds that are like wood, hay, and stubble will be burned up.
Another purpose of the judgment seat of Christ will be to receive praise and rewards. This will happen only after the accounting. Continuing with Paul's analogy of building materials, those works that survive the test will merit praise and reward. The works that do not survive will receive no rewards. Believers who suffer loss of rewards will themselves be saved, but as though through fire. The picture is of a builder who escapes his burning house made of thatch and highly combustible material. The builder survives, but his work does not.
What sort of rewards will the Lord give to us?
In Paul's day, crowns and decorations were given to athletes and soldiers. It is possible that in the spring of 51 A.D., Paul attended the Isthmian Games held every two years at a site about ten miles from Corinth. There he would have seen the winners of athletic contests receive crowns or wreaths made of withered, wild celery. Thus he could write in 1 Corinthians 9:25, "they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we, an incorruptible." Crowns were also awarded to heroic Roman soldiers. There was the "corona obsidionalis, a grass crown given to the deliverer of a besieged armyÉ[and] the corona civicaÉan oak leaf crown awarded to a soldier who saved the life of a fellow. There were also two gold crowns: the corona muralis, awarded to the first man over the wall in a siege, and the corona vallaris for the first man over the rampart during a siege" (Peter Connolly, The Roman Army, p. 68). The writers of Scripture often used the imagery of crowns to depict the believer's rewards. There is the "crown of righteousness" (2 Tim. 4:8), the "crown of life" (Jas. 1:12; Rev. 2:10), and the "crown of glory" (1 Pet. 5:4). Paul described the people to whom he had ministered as his "crown" (Phil. 4:1; 1 Th. 2:19).
Some people wonder if the Lord will review our lives and distribute our rewards publicly for all to see, or if He will do it privately. If the historical function of the bema is any indication, the event will take place publicly, as was customary in ancient days. Also, Matthew 6:4, 6, and 18 speak of God rewarding "openly" that which is done in private. The twofold purpose of the judgment seat of Christ, therefore, is to give an account of our faithfulness and to receive our rewards.
The fifth characteristic of the judgment seat of Christ concerns the judge-the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. As the judge of both the living and the dead (Acts 10:42), He alone has the final say at the final review. There will be no jury or deliberation. The ultimate verdict concerning our faithfulness will be His and His alone. Because Jesus is "the righteous judge" (2 Tim. 4:8) who, with the authority of the Father, will judge "without respect of persons" (1 Pet. 1:17; Jn. 5:26-27), we will not have to worry about receiving a fair trial.
The sixth and final characteristic of the judgment seat of Christ is the timing. Jesus said, "And, behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be" (Rev. 22:12). Paul indicated in 1 Corinthians 4:5 that before the future time of judgment can commence, the Lord must first return. Hence, a Christian's appearance before the judgment seat of Christ will not happen immediately after he or she dies, but upon the return of Jesus Christ for the church.
Incentives from the Judgment Seat of Christ The truths concerning the judgment seat of Christ provide numerous incentives for Christians. One is to have honorable motives for service.
Paul stated that our appearance before the judgment seat of Christ is an incentive to strive to please the Lord with our labor (2 Cor. 5:9-10).
Knowing that we must all stand before the judge of the universe and give an account of ourselves is an excellent reason to live out our days in the fear or reverential awe of the Lord (1 Pet. 1:17).
The judgment seat of Christ also points up the fact that we are accountable to God for ourselves only. In the surrounding context of Romans 14:10, Paul's objective in mentioning the judgment seat of Christ is that we will no longer judge one another. He reiterated this point in 2 Corinthians 4.
As servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God, Christians are required to be found faithful. But found faithful to whom? Paul considered it a trivial matter whether he was judged by other believers or by any human court. He did not even judge himself. His own conscience did not acquit him before the judicial bench. There is only one judge-the Lord. Paul therefore commanded his readers to judge nothing before the return of Christ, at which time He alone will do the judging.
Like the Corinthians, and the Apostle Peter in John 21, it is easy to fall into the trap of comparing our ministry and its successes to someone else's. We look at our brother and ask, "Lord, and what shall this man do?" (v. 21). Jesus' response to Peter also applies to us: "what is that to thee? Follow thou me" (v. 22). Because all believers, being imperfect servants, will have at least some of our works burned up at the judgment seat of Christ, why be judgmental now over someone else's faithfulness? On judgment day we will stand alone before the bema of Christ, answerable for no one but ourselves.
The judgment seat of Christ also provides incentives for our deeds. What we have actually done and accomplished in the body will be judged, not our plans or good intentions. Deeds that have value and survive the fiery examination are those performed in accordance with the Word of God, by faith, in the power of the Holy Spirit, willingly, sincerely, as to the Lord and not as to men (Eph. 6:5-8). People who strive to be men-pleasers in their service already have their reward (Mt. 6:2-6, 16-18), but their deeds will account for nothing at the judgment seat of Christ. Knowing that the true nature of our deeds will be revealed on that day, we must be careful how we build on the foundation, which is Christ (1 Cor. 3:10-11).
When the day of our final "review" comes, we will have something to which we can look forward. On that occasion "shall every man have praise of God" (1 Cor. 4:5). And that is what really matters-to hear from the lips of the Master, "Well done, good and faithful servant" (Mt. 25:23).
|==========================================
|
| Does God Need A Temple?
| by Lambert Dolphin
|
The word which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come, and say: "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. (Isaiah 2:1-4)
Why a Temple?
Primitive religions are replete with examples of buildings and shrines as a house or shrine to an idol or a god. Animistic religionists believe that spirits live in trees, rocks, caves, or sacred groves. The Egyptians deified crocodiles, cats, cows, birds and beetles. The Greeks and Romans assigned to their gods splendid mansions and palaces as their dwelling places.
But the God revealed in the Bible is fundamentally different than the gods of the nations. He does not need houses or temples to dwell in---the entire universe is God's house, "the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him" and His infinite Spirit can not apparently be confined in any way to man-made dwelling places:
Thus says the LORD: "Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool; what is the house which you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? All these things my hand has made, and so all these things are mine, says the LORD. But this is the man to whom I will look, he that is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word." (Isaiah 66:1)
"Am I a God at hand, says the LORD, and not a God afar off? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? says the LORD. Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the LORD. (Jeremiah 23:23, 24)
Disturbed in his spirit by the profusion of false gods, images and shrines when he visited Athens, the Apostle Paul boldly reasserted that God assuredly did not dwell in buildings made by men:
...while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. So he argued in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the market place every day with those who chanced to be there. Some also of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers met him.
And some said, "What would this babbler say?" Others said, "He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities "--because he preached Jesus and the resurrection. And they took hold of him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, "May we know what this new teaching is which you present? For you bring some strange things to our ears; we wish to know therefore what these things mean." Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. So Paul, standing in the middle of the Areopagus, said:
"Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along, and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, `To an unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all men life and breath and everything.
And he made from one (man, i.e., Adam) every nation of men to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their habitation, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel after him and find him. Yet he is not far from each one of us, for `In him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your poets have said, `For we are indeed his offspring.' Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the Deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, a representation by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all men everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man (Jesus) whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all men by raising him from the dead." (Acts 17:16-31
The Tabernacle of Moses
Yet in spite of these clear teachings throughout the Bible that God does not live in man-made buildings there is an apparent paradox the moment we join the Jews in the wilderness at Mount Sinai: God Himself, at Mount Sinai gave Moses specific instructions concerning the building of a remarkable tent, or tabernacle, in which, He, the Most High God would dwell:
And let them make me a sanctuary [Hebrew, miqdosh, sanctuary, i.e., a holy place], that I may dwell in their midst. According to all that I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle [mishkan, dwelling-place. This word gives rise to the Hebrew Shekinah which denotes the personal presence of the Divine God], and of all its furniture, so you shall make it...And see that you make them after the pattern for them, which is being shown you on the mountain. (Exodus 25:8,9; 40)
The tabernacle, mishkan, is referred to 139 times in the Old Testament, primarily in Exodus and Numbers. 100 times it is referred to as the "dwelling place" of God! Incidentally, in the New Testament (1 Cor. 10, Hebrews 3,4) may be found specific references concerning the personal presence of Yeshua, the Son of God with His people in the wilderness. The Tabernacle gave tangible evidence that God was with His people as did the Pillar or Cloud by Day and the Pillar of Fire by Night (the Shekinah).
And I will make my abode among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people. I am the LORD your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves; and I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.
(Leviticus 26:11-13)
The First Jewish Temple
Whereas the tabernacle was mobile, and served Israel for forty years in the wilderness, during the conquest of the land, and for nearly 400 years at Shiloh during the time of the Judges, the temple was anchored to bedrock at a fixed, specific spot on Mount Moriah, the Temple Mount, in Jerusalem. Now when the king (David) dwelt in his house, and the LORD had given him rest from all his enemies round about, the king said to Nathan the prophet, "See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent." And Nathan said to the king, "Go, do all that is in your heart; for the LORD is with you." But that same night the word of the LORD came to Nathan, "Go and tell my servant David, `Thus says the LORD: Would you build me a house to dwell in? I have not dwelt in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling. In all places where I
have moved with all the people of Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, "Why have you not built me a house of cedar?"'
Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David, `Thus says the LORD of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel; and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. And I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover the LORD declares to you that the LORD will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He (Messiah) shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever. (2 Samuel 7:1-13)
David desired to build a temple in Jerusalem after the unsettled years of the Exodus, the conquest, and the period of the Judges. His son Solomon was given the actual task. Yet even Solomon recognized that God could scarcely be contained in a stone building:
"But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain thee; how much less this house which I have built!" (1 Kings 8:27, cp. 2 Chron. 2:6, 6:18)
The First Temple, usually called Solomon's Temple, was finished after a construction period of seven years, employing some 30,000 workmen in the task. That God approved of this building and accepted it as his house is more than evident from the record of the temple dedication service recorded in 2 Chronicles:
When Solomon had ended his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. And the priests could not enter the house of the LORD, because the glory of the LORD filled the LORD's house. When all the children of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the LORD upon the temple, they bowed down with their faces to the earth on the pavement, and worshipped and gave thanks to the LORD, saying, "For he is good, for his steadfast love endures for ever." Then the king and all the people offered sacrifice before the LORD. King Solomon offered as a sacrifice twenty-two thousand oxen and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated the house of God. The priests stood at their posts; the Levites also, with the instruments for music to the LORD which King David had made for giving thanks to the LORD ---for his steadfast love endures for ever---whenever David offered praises by their ministry; opposite them the priests sounded trumpets; and all Israel stood.
And Solomon consecrated the middle of the court that was before the house of the LORD; for there he offered the burnt offering and the fat of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar Solomon had made could not hold the burnt offering and the cereal offering and the fat. At that time Solomon held the feast for seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great congregation, from the entrance of Hamath to the Brook of Egypt. And on the eighth day they held a solemn assembly; for they had kept the dedication of the altar seven days and the feast seven days. On the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people away to their homes, joyful and glad of heart for the goodness that the LORD had shown to David and to Solomon and to Israel his people. Thus Solomon finished the house of the LORD and the king's house; all that Solomon had planned to do in the house of the LORD and in his own house he successfully accomplished.
Then the LORD appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him:
"I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place. For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that my name may be there for ever; my eyes and my heart will be there for all time. (2 Chronicles 7:1-16)
The downward course of spiritual and national life in ancient Israel from the time of Solomon to the Babylonian captivity is thoroughly described in the books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles, as well as by the prophets, both major and minor.
A vivid summary of the Lord's displeasure with both the whole house of Israel was recorded about the time of the captivity of the ten northern tribes:
...Then the king of Assyria invaded all the land and came to Samaria, and for three years he besieged it. In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria captured Samaria, and he carried the Israelites away to Assyria, and placed them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. And this was so, because the people of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods and walked in the customs of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel, and in the customs which the kings of Israel had introduced.
And the people of Israel did secretly against the LORD their God things that were not right. They built for themselves high places at all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city; they set up for themselves pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree; and there they burned incense on all the high places, as the nations did whom the LORD carried away before them. And they did wicked things, provoking the LORD to anger, and they served idols, of which the LORD had said to them, "You shall not do this." Yet the LORD warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer, saying, "Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, in accordance with all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets."
But they would not listen, but were stubborn, as their fathers had been, who did not believe in the LORD their God. They despised his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and the warnings which he gave them. They went after false idols, and became false, and they followed the nations that were round about them, concerning whom the LORD had commanded them that they should not do like them. And they forsook all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made for themselves molten images of two calves; and they made an Asherah, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings, and used divination and sorcery, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger. Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight; none was left but the tribe of Judah only.
Judah also did not keep the commandments of the LORD their God, but walked in the customs which Israel had introduced. And the LORD rejected all the descendants of Israel, and afflicted them, and gave them into the hand of spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight. (2 Kings 17:5-20)
Some of the events leading to the destruction of the Second Temple and the fall of Jerusalem on the 9th of Av in the year 586 BC are known from secular sources. The Assyrians who plundered and pillaged the ten Northern tribes, finally capturing the capital of Samaria in 722, had disappeared from power by 586 BC, (136 years later) exactly as foretold by prophets such as Isaiah who warned that the threat to Jerusalem would come from the rise of the new power known as Babylon.
Solomon's temple was not only magnificently beautiful but adorned within with many billions of dollars in gold and silver, to say nothing of the monies and temple treasures stored in underground rooms beneath (See separate essay on the Temple Treasures). The Babylonians had waited covetously more than a hundred years, for the opportunity to plunder the temple:
At that time Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent envoys with letters and a present to Hezekiah; for he heard that Hezekiah had been sick. And Hezekiah welcomed them, and he showed them all his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his armory, all that was found in his storehouses; there was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them.
Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and said to him, "What did these men say? And whence did they come to you?" And Hezekiah said, "They have come from a far country, from Babylon." He said, "What have they seen in your house?" And Hezekiah answered, "They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them." Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Hear the word of the LORD: Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left, says the LORD. And some of your own sons, who are born to you, shall be taken away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon." (2 Kings 20:12-18)
The Second Temple
So modest was the Second Temple compared to the First that some of the old-timers who had left Jerusalem at the time of the captivity were deeply disappointed at the unimpressive, small, and unimportant temple the returning exiles were building. Encouraging them that their efforts would be blessed beyond all their expectations the prophet Haggai urged the people to finish the building and put it into service. In an amazing and far reaching prosperity the Lord declared that this Second Temple would not only come to be filled with gold and silver, but receive a higher honor than mere riches. It was into this Second Temple, enlarged and expanded by King Herod, that the Messiah himself, Jesus, Son of David would appear.
In the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet, "Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to all the remnant of the people, and say, `Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not in your sight as nothing? Yet now take courage, O Zerubbabel, says the LORD; take courage, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; take courage, all you people of the land, says the LORD; work, for I am with you, says the LORD of hosts, according to the promise that I made you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit abides among you; fear not.
For thus says the LORD of hosts: Once again, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land; and I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with splendor, says the LORD of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the LORD of hosts. The latter splendor of this house shall be greater than the former, says the LORD of hosts; and in this place I will give prosperity, says the LORD of hosts.'" (Haggai 2:1-9)
Closing the canon of the Old Testament, the prophet Malachi spoke of Messiah's forerunner, John the Baptist and also announced that the Lord Himself, Israel's true Messiah would himself visit the Second Temple:
"Behold, I send my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? "For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, till they present right offerings to the LORD. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD as in the days of old and as in former years. "Then I will draw near to you for judgment; I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow and the orphan, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the LORD of hosts. "For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed. From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts. (Malachi 3:1-7)
God "Tabernacling" Among Men
The New Testament opens with a four-fold announcement that the long-awaited Messiah has come.
It was in the Second Jewish Temple that the month-old infant Jesus was dedicated by his parents (Luke 2:22-38). At the age of 12 at Passover, Jesus remained alone in the Temple apart from his parents in what was probably the equivalent of a Bar Mitzvah dedication to the Lord. It may have been at this age of accountability that Jesus first realized He was the promised messiah with a specific mission and calling to fulfill (Luke 2:39-52).
At the beginning of his three-year ministry (John 2:13-17), and again at the end, following his entry on Palm Sunday (Matthew 21:12-13), Jesus drove out the money-changers. On the second occasion Mark's gospel (11:15,16) records that He would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. It is likely, therefore, that he stopped the temple sacrifices (at least temporarily) on this second occasion, giving notice to all that they were no longer valid and had been set aside by God. Jesus, the Paschal Lamb of God was about to offer himself as the once-for-all-time perfect sacrifice for all sin. In weeping over the fate of Jerusalem he declared "See your house (the temple) is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall not see Me again until you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.'" (Matthew 23:37-38)
That seem week Jesus presented his disciples with a sweeping prophecy of the next two thousand years of history. He began by speaking of the approaching total destruction of the Second Temple, "Do you not see all these things? Assuredly I say to you, not one stone will be left here upon one another, that not be thrown down."
Fulfilled literally and in detail by the total destruction of the temple during the siege of Titus in A.D. 70, this prophecy of Jesus has long since come to pass. No Jewish Temple has stood on the Temple Mount to this day.
The emphasis in the New Testament after brief accounts of the early history of the church in Jerusalem in the Book of Acts shifts abruptly away from Jerusalem and Jewish community life. The temple in Jerusalem is no longer the central focus point for God's presence in the world.
In comparing Jesus and Moses and the Exodus, the writer of the Epistle of Hebrews in the New Testament comments:
Therefore, holy brethren, who share in a heavenly call, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession. He was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in God's house. Yet Jesus has been counted worthy of as much more glory than Moses as the builder of a house has more honor than the house. (For every house is built by some one, but the builder of all things is God.) Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ was faithful over God's house as a son. And we are his house if we hold fast our confidence and pride in our hope. (Hebrews 3)
A New Meaning for God's Temple in the New Testament
The house of God in this, and similar passages now refers both to the tabernacle (or the temple) and the people of God. Stephen the first martyr of the Christian church comments as follows:
"Our fathers had the tent of witness in the wilderness, even as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it, according to the pattern that he had seen. Our fathers in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations which God thrust out before our fathers. So it was until the days of David, who found favor in the sight of God and asked leave to find a habitation for the God of Jacob. But it was Solomon who built a house for him. Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made with hands; as the prophet says, `Heaven is my throne, and earth my footstool. What house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest? Did not my hand make all these things?'" (Acts 7:44-50) These discussions pave the way for the New Testament teaching that church buildings are never to be called "the house of God." The New Testament does refer to a "temple of God," but following the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem the only temple of God is a group of people---never a building. During the entire present era of the outcalling of the church, God lives in individuals who live in a personal, covenantal relationship with Him through Yeshua the Messiah. This era of Biblical, redemptive history extends from Pentecost to the Rapture. This time period when Israel would have neither temple nor sacrifice nor national homeland was predicted by the prophet Hosea:
For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or teraphim. Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and they shall come in fear to the LORD and to his goodness in the latter days. (Hosea 3:4-5)
The New Testament's bold assertion that man is the dwelling place---the
temple---of God begins with the announcement of the Apostle John that the Second Person of the godhead had now become a man and come down to earth as Immanuel---"God with us."
And the Word became flesh and dwelt (Greek: eskenosen =tabernacled) among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father. (John 1:14)
Shortly after at Passover in Jerusalem Jesus confirmed that He was in some special sense the actual temple of God, greater and more important that the Second Temple he was visiting:
The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers at their business. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all, with the sheep and oxen, out of the temple; and he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, "Take these things away; you shall not make my Father's house a house of trade." His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for thy house will consume me." The Jews then said to him, "What sign have you to show us for doing this?"
Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I
will raise it up." The Jews then said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?" But he spoke of the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken. (John 2:13-22)
Paul the Apostle in his clear reaffirmations of the moral demands of Torah and their applications to Christians of the present era teaches that the Shekinah---the Holy Spirit---of the living God now makes His sanctuary in the body of all those who believe in Jesus and who subject themselves to his Lordship:
Our normal, reasonable, daily service, he says, is to present our bodies, as temples to God's service:
I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1, 2)
and,
Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If any one destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and that temple you are. (1 Corinthians 3:16-17)
Paul continues,
Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I
therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that he who joins himself to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, "The two shall become one flesh." But he who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee immorality. Every other sin which a man commits is outside the body; but the immoral man sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (1 Corinthians 6:15-20)
In his Second Letter to the Corinthians the Apostle again speaks of God's people as a collective temple,
Do not be mismated with unbelievers. For what partnership have righteousness and iniquity? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, "I will live in them and move among them, and I
will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore come out from them, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch nothing unclean; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty." (2 Corinthians 6:14-18)
The New Testament also teaches that God corporately in the midst of the gathered community of his people. Each believer, a living stone, has been fitted into an invisible building which constitutes a dwelling place for God in the Spirit:
Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands---remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near in the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit." (Ephesians 2:11-22)
The Jewish Temple and its Future
The New Testament does not negate the re-establishment of stone and cedar temples in Jerusalem in the days to come. Indeed the existence of an actual, operating, consecrated and legitimate Jewish temple in
Jerusalem is clearly implied by at least three passages of scripture in the New Testament.
The Coming Temple in Jerusalem---The Third Temple---soon to be built is not the last word in temples. The Bible teaches that Messiah will Himself build a temple in Israel, though not actually in city of Jerusalem. This edifice is most likely the temple described in great detail in the closing chapters of Ezekiel. Quite likely Ezekiel's Temple will follow the destruction of the Third Temple in a great earthquake that closes the tribulation period.
If so it can be properly called the "Fourth Temple."
But the New Testament also sheds further light on the statements of Exodus that the tabernacle built by Moses, and the holy utensils and furnishings were patterned after another, invisible, eternal temple of God existing in the heavens. This subject is cloaked in mystery. Why a heavenly temple?
What is its purpose? The major references to this eternal temple are in the last book of the Bible, the Book of the Revelation:
He who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God; never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name. (Revelation 3:12)
Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night within his temple; and he who sits upon the throne will shelter them with his presence. (Revelation 7:15)
Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple; and there were flashes of lightning, voices, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail. (Revelation 11:19, cp. 14:15,17; 15:5, 8; 16:1, 17)
Revelation also speaks of a New Jerusalem, a great satellite city measuring 1500 miles on a side, which God has prepared as a dwelling place for his people. That heavenly Jerusalem has no temple:
And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. (Revelation 21:22)
Many Bible scholars believe that the city of New Jerusalem is already in existence, though it does not physically come down to earth until the end of the millennium (Revelation 21). This magnificent city may well be the special place prepared for us by Jesus when He announced to his disciples,
"In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I
have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also." (John 14:2, 3)
During the millennial reign of Messiah upon the earth, Yeshua will rule (Greek: shepherdize) the nations with a rod of iron. Believers will rule and reign with him. Yet sinners will continue to be born on the earth, and will each need to make a choice during their lifetimes to chose or reject God's rule in their hearts. During this thousand year reign of Christ on earth, believing Jews and Gentiles who have already received their resurrection bodies will be free to come and go upon the earth, though their home will likely be the New Jerusalem.
Jewish Bible scholars at the Temple Institute in Jerusalem believe, even today, that the new temple(s) yet to be built in Jerusalem will not only be houses of worship and fellowship with the living God---the Holy One of Israel---but portals or gates into the heavenly realm.
The Ultimate Meaning of the Temple
There remains yet much mystery as to the meaning of the Jewish tabernacle and temples with their precise measurements, strange appliances and rituals, all given by God according to a precise set of divine blueprints.
What does God wish us to learn from all this?
Some things are clear. Sinful men can not approach a holy God without a suitable sacrifice. The shedding of blood is somehow necessary to make atonement for human evil. Even forgiven sinners need washing and regular cleansing in order to enjoy fellowship with their Creator. No man can approach God directly without a proper Mediator. Men are weak and need not only a Savior, Kinsman-Redeemer (Goel), but a priest to intercede for them. The problem of human sin is deep, troublesome and persistent. Men sin against one another, against nature and above all against God. Yet God in His love wishes to teach us the depths of his love and forgiveness and mercy through the symbolism of the temple.
The temple, therefore, is a picture for all time of man as in relationship with God, a picture of God as man intended him to be.
"Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away." And he who sat upon the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." Also he said, "Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true." And he said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the fountain of the water of life without payment. He who conquers shall have this heritage, and I will be his God and he shall be my son. (Revelation 21:3, 7)
For additional study: Nancy Missler, The Way of Agape, a study of the symbolism of the temple and the nature of man, available from Koinonia House
Web Pages: http://ldolphin.org/
dolphin@best.com
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Prophezine Commentaries
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Al Gore's Vision of Planetary Oneness
by Berit Kjos <www.crossroad.to>
"Al Gore's celebrated new emphasis on 'religious values' is as phony as a three-dollar bill," said WND editor Joseph Farah in his July 16 column. "... I truly believe Al Gore is the point man in a campaign to set a fatal trap for America's churches and Christian charities."
Mr. Farah is right. Vice President Gore's "faith-friendly" campaign hides beliefs that oppose Christianity and his Baptist roots on every point. The evidence is in his book, Earth in the Balance - Ecology and the Human Spirit.1 It calls for a "panreligious perspective" that would squeeze Christianity into a universalist mold. The old biblical absolutes simply don't fit the new global spirituality needed as a foundation for a global earth-centered ethic. Whether Buddhist, Baha'i, Native American, or "Christian" (without the cross), each model for this blended spirituality must be:
· pantheistic: god is all, god is in everything · monistic: all are one, all are spiritually interconnected · evolving: always ready to adapt to the changing requirements of our globalist leaders and of the Total Quality Management process used to "re-invent government."
Hard to believe? Then ponder the quotations below. In his book, Vice President Gore --
1. Attempts to diagnose the root problem of our Western culture:
"...we feel increasingly distant from our roots in the earth... we lost our feeling of connectedness to the rest of nature." (page 1)
2. Finds answers in pantheistic connectedness:
"A modern prayer of the Onondaga tribe in upstate New York offers another beautiful expression of our essential connection to the earth: 'O Great Spirit, whose breath gives life to the world and whose voice is heard in the soft breeze... make us wise so that we may understand what you have taught us...'" (page 259)
3. Seeks wisdom from the world's earth-centered religions:
"The richness and diversity of our religious tradition throughout history is a spiritual resource long ignored by people of faith, who are often afraid to open their minds to teachings first offered outside their own system of belief. But the emergence of a civilization in which knowledge moves freely and almost instantaneously throughout the world has. . . spurred a renewed investigation of the wisdom distilled by all faiths. This panreligious perspective may prove especially important where our global civilization's responsibility for the earth is concerned." (pages 258-259)
4. Points to Native Americans as spiritual models:
"Native American religions, for instance, offer a rich tapestry of ideas about our relationship to the earth. One of the most moving and frequently quoted explanations was attributed to Chief Seattle in 1855. . . [It was actually written by Ted Perry for a 1971 environmental movie]: 'Will you teach your children what we have taught our children? That the earth is our mother? . . . This we know: the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all.'" (page 259)
5. Validates ancient goddess worship - which, according to Al Gore, preceded our biblical heritage:
"The spiritual sense of our place in nature . . . can be traced to the origins of human civilization. A growing number of anthropologists and archeo-mythologists. . . argue that the prevailing ideology of belief in prehistoric Europe and much of the world was based on the worship of a single earth goddess, who was assumed to be the fount of all life and who radiated harmony among all living things. . . .[Ceremonial sites] seem to confirm the notion that a goddess religion was ubiquitous throughout much of the world until the antecedents of today's religions--most of which still have a distinctly masculine orientation--swept out of India and the Near East, almost obliterating belief in the goddess. The last vestige of organized goddess worship was eliminated by Christianity . . . . [I]t seems obvious that a better understanding of a religious heritage preceding our own by so many thousands of years could offer us new insights . . . ." (page 260)
6. Endorses feminist substitutes for God:
"One modern Hindu environmentalist, Dr. Karan Singh, regularly cites the ancient Hindu dictum: "The Earth is our mother, and we are all her children. . . . Guru Nanak [founder of Sikhism] said, 'Air is the Vital Force, Water the Progenitor, the Vast Earth the Mother of All.'" (page 261)
7. Promotes a "new faith in the future" as essential to humanity, religion, and the sanctity of the planet:
"The religious ethic of stewardship is indeed harder to accept if one believes the world is in danger of being destroyed -- by either God or humankind. This point was made by the Catholic theologian, Teillard de Chardin when he said, 'The fate of mankind , as well as of religion, depends upon the emergence of a new faith in the future.' Armed with such a faith, we might find it possible to resanctify the earth." (page 263)
8. Blends Christianity with pantheism:
"My own faith is rooted in the unshakable belief in God as creator and sustainer, a deeply personal interpretation of and relationship with Christ, and an awareness of a constant and holy spiritual presence in all people, all life, and all things." (page 265)
9. Demands total commitment to do whatever it takes to involve everyone in the earth-centered vision. Would "every tactic and strategy" include compromise, lies, deception, and propaganda?
Would "every law and institution" include unconstitutional laws and regulations? His quote below, together with his words and actions during the last few years, seem to indicate that any questionable means would be justified by the alarming end: to establish a global management system that would execute the UN plan for sustainable development 2 and build "consensus for this new organizing principle:"
"Adopting a central organizing principle - one agreed to voluntarily - means embarking on an all-out effort to use every policy and program, every law and institution, every treaty and alliance, every tactic and strategy, every plan and course of action - to use, in short, every means to halt the destruction of the environment . . . . Minor shifts in policy, moderate improvement in laws and regulations, rhetoric offered in lieu of genuine change-these are all forms of appeasement, designed to satisfy the public's desire to believe that sacrifice, struggle and a wrenching transformation of society will not be necessary." (page 274, Emphasis added)
10. Calls for a global environmental education plan that would change public consciousness and our understanding of reality:
"The fifth major goal of the Global Marshall Plan should be . . . to organize a worldwide education program to promote a more complete understanding of the crisis. In the process, we should actively search for ways to promote a new way of thinking about the current relationship between human civilization and the earth."(page 355) This "new way of thinking" is the primary goal of UNESCO's worldwide program for "lifelong learning." No document summarizes it better than Our Creative Diversity, the 1995 book-sized report from the UN Commission on Culture and Development. Published by UNESCO, it tells us that --
"The challenge to humanity is to adopt new ways of thinking, new ways of acting, new ways of organizing itself in society, in short, new ways of living."3
The "new ways of thinking" about our relationship to the planet and to our communities are essential to solidarity and sustainable development. Each person must be assessed for their conformity to the new global values and spirituality. All must be trained and managed in groups and show readiness to compromise for the sake of unity and peace.4 These partnerships are central to the global management system.
They would link health care and schools, schools and workplace, business and community, community and churches, churches and welfare. Each part of the massive network of partnerships would function on the basis of Total Quality Management and the consensus process.5 Already, compliant churches are embracing the new management system which trades accountability to biblical truth for compliance with TQM guidelines.6 Most mainline denominations have also signed the U.S. Department of Education's contract titled "Statement of Common Purpose of Religious Leaders." It commits churches across the country to participate in the government program of "helping parents in the education of their children."
Churches learn from the state (or private partners to the state) how to "help parents" teach their children. Parents are then persuaded to participate in the consensus process - thinking collectively rather than individually -- both in church groups and at home. In church as well as in our global culture, solidarity and compliance are in. Separateness and biblical accountability are out.
Al Gore unveiled the heart of his political vision and education program in 1991. "Seeing ourselves as separate is the central problem in our political thinking,"7 he announced at a Communitarian conference in Washington.
Five years later, at his 1997 White House Conference on Hate-Crimes, President Clinton would repeat the battle cry against cultural separation: "There would almost have to be some sort of club or organization at the school -- because if you think about it, your parents are still pretty well separated.
Most houses of worship are still fairly segregated. . . . We [the government?] have to find a disciplined, organized way out of this."8 Perhaps our two "Baptist" leaders in the White House don't know that the biblical God tells His people to separate from an immoral culture and other gods. Or perhaps they fear identifying with a practice so politically incorrect that Clinton now equates it with hate. One thing is certain, their political agenda and vision of oneness is totally incompatible with biblical truth.
As Joseph Farah said in his July editorial, "Al Gore has something else in mind." Indeed, if he becomes president, he would not only continue to nurture the partnerships between church and state which began under President Clinton. Gore would also have to change the church to fit the state. The politically correct church would have to compromise, and its eternal truths would be conformed to the new global ideology. The God of the Bible would be replaced by the god of political expediency.
Our cultural problem is separation from God, not from nature. While God told us to care for the earth, He warned us against pagan religions. Contrary to the revised and idealized myths now flooding the western world,9 nature-worship brings violence and destruction, not peace and harmony.10 God alone shows the way to genuine harmony and oneness. To those who love Him, all of nature demonstrates the glory, wisdom, love and power of God - not because He is one with all forms of life, but because only an all-wise, all-powerful Creator could make such a beautiful planet.
He who created all life also knows best how to educate our children and build strong churches that honor Him. He has already shown us the steps. To the embarrassment of politically correct churches, these steps include spiritual separation. His people must be "in the world but not of the world," ready to love and care for the needy, but yoked to Christ, not to government programs with their rules and restrictions. As He told us long ago:
"Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers.
For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness?
. . . And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. . . .Therefore 'Come out from among them and be separate," says the Lord. "Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters." 11
A personal postscript :
Some readers have expressed their indignation at my personal Christian bias and "religious intolerance." I so appreciate their honesty - and the right we still share in America to freely express our beliefs and opinions. While writing the above report, I was concerned that I might sound "intolerant" to those who didn't share my beliefs. But like them, I must follow my convictions and conscience. So I wrote the article as a warning to everyone. It is not an attempt to impose my faith on anyone else, since I believe that Al Gore as well as all other Americans must be free to believe whatever they choose.
Aside from Al Gore's political clout, the main reason for my concern over his earth-centered spirituality is his hypocrisy. He still calls himself a Baptist and poses to the Christian community as a practicing Christian. Therefore many still trust him and see him as a brother. That makes him all the more dangerous.
I'm sorry if I have offended you. But this is a public message, one not directed at any individual person. In a nation like ours, any position will offend a sizeable group of people. The consensus process, which is squeezing much of America into its new mold, rules out any expression that would violate someone's comfort zone. As you can see, I don't follow those rules. Nor do I believe that any true American should obey the consensus guidelines. Our nation was founded on individualism and freedom. Let's not give those up in the name of tolerance or consensus.
I thank those of you who have taken time to respond to my article and share your disagreement. I appreciate you a lot -- and all the more because you don't share my beliefs.
Gratefully, Berit Endnotes:
1. Al Gore, Earth in the Balance; Ecology and the Human Spirit (Houghton Mifflin, 1992) 2. Sustainable development refers to the 3 E's: Environment, Economy, and Equity. Not only does it use the environmental crisis to establish unthinkable regulations in order to control natural and human resources. It would also redistribute the world's (mainly America's) resources under the noble banner of worldwide social equity. For practical answers to the pseudo-scientific arguments used to validate global warming and other environmental crises, see Chapter 5 of Brave New Schools.
3. Our Creative Diversity (UNESCO, 1995), page 11.
4. See The UN Plan for Your Mental Health 5. See The UN Plan for Your Community.
6. I hope to write a report on this topic in the near future.
7. Corinne McLaughlin and Gordon Davidson, Spiritual Politics (New York: Ballantine Books, 1994), 147.
8. For more information on President Clinton's White House Conference on Hate-Crimes (WHCHC), November 10, 1997, see Clinton's War on Hate Bans Christian Values.
9. See Brave New Schools, chapter 4 and 5.
10. Documented by archeology and history. See warnings in Deuternonomy chapters 8, 9, 18, 28.
11. 2 Corinthians 6:14-18
Berit Kjos at www.crossroad.to
andy-berit@crossroad.to
********************
********************
Bible Study
********************
********************
Email from a Skeptic: Why Does God Allow Evil?
by Mark Eastman, M.D.
In my experience, it is the most commonly asked question by honest skeptics: "If God is real, if God is personal, if God loves us, why does God allow evil?" A proper understanding of this issue not only provides great insight into the nature of God, it ties together a comprehensive understanding to some of life's ultimate questions: the answers to my origin, meaning, morality and destiny!
Email from A Skeptic
The question of evil was brought into clearer focus in an email I recently received from a skeptic:
The Christian worldview is an impractical, even phony, view of the Cosmos because it embraces a God who is either incapable of stopping evil and suffering, and he is therefore not omnipotent, or is unwilling to do so and therefore a devil!
The skeptic's point is well taken because the Bible states that one of God's attributes is love. "He who does not love does not know God, for God is love." (I
John 4:8) In the book of Romans, Paul the Apostle stated that the invisible attributes of God "are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead."1 However, what the skeptic is saying, in effect, is this: "If your God is love, I see no evidence of that attribute in creation. All the death, disease, pain and suffering seems to be out of place if this God of yours is love. Surely an all-powerful God could, and a loving God would, eliminate all evil. Since evil exists, then no such God exists."
To answer this objection we need to examine some principles of logic, the nature of God, the nature of man, the nature of love and the nature of evil.
Evil and Moral Law
When someone states that they do not believe in God because a good God would not allow evil, they make a fatal error in logic. First, the recognition of evil is the recognition that certain actions are "right" and certain actions are "wrong." But how do we determine what actions are morally right and morally wrong? We discern this on the basis of a moral law: a universal sense that certain states of affairs are right and others are wrong. Even most atheists will admit that certain actions are universally wrong and, conversely, universally right.
For example, no one could seriously argue with the statement that it is better to love a child than to torture it. The point is that there is an innate, universal sense of right and wrong within all of us. What is the basis of this moral sense? Some would argue that it is based on cultural customs or traditions. But can this be so?
The famous atheist Bertrand Russell once debated a Christian who asked him if he believed in right and wrong. Russell replied "of course." Then he asked him how he determined what is right and wrong. Russell replied that he determined right and wrong on the basis of his feelings. His opponent replied, "Well, in some cultures they feel it is okay to eat you, and in others they don't. Which do you prefer." The point is that social customs, attitudes, traditions or feelings cannot determine a universal sense of right and wrong.
A universal sense of moral right and wrong can only come from a source outside of ourselves: a transcendent source, a moral Lawgiver. So the recognition of moral law is by default the recognition of a moral Lawgiver. To argue that the existence of evil proves that there is no God is equivalent to stating that the existence of moral law proves that there is no Lawgiver! It's like declaring that the Chrysler automobile that I drive proves without a doubt that there is no Chrysler Motor Company!
Atheists often present the problem of evil to theists as if it is a fatal argument for the existence of God. Nothing could be further from the truth. In reality, it is an absolutely unsolvable problem for the atheist. How does the atheist explain evil-the sense of moral right and wrong-in the absence of a moral Lawgiver? They can't! If there is no moral Lawgiver, then there is no way to explain the sense of moral wrong and moral right we all possess. C.S. Lewis said that evil is God's megaphone to a non-believing world. Evil speaks of moral law. Moral law demands a moral Lawgiver, and it is He that we call God!
Evil Often Begets Good
A second principle of logic we need to consider is the fact that an apparently evil state of affairs will often bring about an even better state of affairs. The problem is that we often do not recognize this fact until we have the advantage of hindsight. In my own field of medicine I see this on a daily basis: the process of childbirth, surgical intervention, and many medical therapies often present physical pain (an evil state of affairs according to non-theists), and yet they bring about an even better state of affairs: improved health. Physical pain is often highly beneficial as well. When a child touches a hot stove, the nervous system sends a neurological signal to the brain which is perceived as pain (a form of evil). Yet without that sense of pain, an even worse state of affairs would arise: the destruction of the limb.
The skeptic might object that while this provides a partial answer to the problem of evil, it does not address some of the most disturbing forms of evil:
war, murder, rape, incest and the senseless death of the innocent.
God, Freedom, and Evil
The problem of human evil is rooted in the nature of God and the nature of love and the nature of mankind. I argued in last month's Personal UPDATE that God is a personal being because an impersonal force is an insufficient agent to create personal beings.2 What is the greatest passion of personal beings? I would argue that, above all else, personal beings desire personal relationships with other personal beings. So it makes sense that God, as a personal being, would desire to create us in such a way that He could have a meaningful, personal, and loving relationship with us.
But this has a severe price.
Let us consider the nature of love and its consequences. I cannot experience love from you unless you have the capacity to do otherwise. If you have the capacity to not love me, and you choose instead to love me, then that choice has validity. It has meaning. You cannot have a love relationship with a computer. It is pre-programmed to serve you. Love requires choice: unencumbered choice. And that's where the problem lies.
When God created mankind, He too had a choice. If He created us as beings that were pre-programmed to follow and serve Him, there could be no love. But, if He created us with the capacity of choice, the capacity to love and serve Him, and the capacity not to do so, then there is the possibility of relationship: the possibility of real love. As a personal being with the capability of creating us in the first place, it makes sense that He would want to create us as personal beings with the capability of choice (free will) and, thus, the capability of love.
But where there is choice and the capability of love, there is also the capability to choose wrong and to do great evil.
But the skeptic says, "why did God do this when he knew in advance that the result of free will would be so disastrous? Did this God of love not care that war, murder, rape and so much senseless violence would be the result of his choice to give us free will?" A real life illustration will help us to understand.
The Love of a Mother
During my 15 years as a physician I have seen an enormous amount of physical suffering. During that time I have had five children in my practice die by disease and injury. All of these children came from Christian families. Several months after the death of one of these children, the child's mother was in my office and was very distraught over her loss. She asked me, "Why did God allow this? I love God. Why did this happen?"
What could I say in this situation? Rather than providing an answer I asked her this question. "You have three children. One of them has died. If you could go back to the time before you had any children, with the knowledge that one of them would die this horrible death, would you have children again?"
After a long pause, with many tears in her eyes and a broken heart she said, "Oh yes. Oh yes. yes I would. Because, you see, the love and the joy and the happiness I have received from my children far outweighs the pain, suffering and misery I experienced from the loss of that one child. Oh yes. Oh yes. I would have children again."
In this tragic story we see an incredible insight as to why God allows evil to exist. As discussed earlier, a loving God can allow an evil state of affairs to exist if, in allowing it to occur, it brings about an even better state of affairs. For this woman, the loss of her child was an unequalled and tragic evil. But, with the advantage of hindsight, she said she would do it all again because the love she received as a result of being a mother outweighed the evil state of affairs in the death of her child.
In the hypothetical scenario I presented to this woman, with the advantage of hindsight (foreknowledge in this case) she was in a position comparable to God's before He created humankind. Because He is outside time and knows all things, He knew that there would be tremendous pain and suffering as a result of His decision to create a people with the capacity of choice and, consequently, the capacity to sin (moral evil).
But God, like this mother, knew that the love He and his human creatures would experience would outweigh the pain and suffering that would result from His decision to create us as He did. But the consequences of God's decision were not unforeseen. They were foreknown!
The Incredible Answer
The skeptic that emailed me stated, in effect, that if an all-powerful God did not eliminate evil, then He was a devil! The implication is that the removal of all evil would permit a better, more loving world. A truly loving God, the skeptics assert, would have desired and created such a world because it is clearly superior to the one we have. Any God that did not follow this logic was not a God of love, but an evil tyrant.
As we have seen, this logic crumbles under its own weight. The existence of evil is the "side effect" of creating a world with love. But as we have seen, there are compelling arguments that a world possessing both evil and love is superior to a world where neither is possible. For God to eliminate evil, He would have to eliminate our capacity of choice and thus our capacity to do both evil and good. And such a world is inferior to the one we have: one where love is possible, despite its inherent evil. What kind of God would do this? Only one kind. A God of love.
Why does a God of love allow evil? Because He is a God of LOVE
So Great a Salvation
So, how practical is Christianity? The Bible presents an infinite Creator with the very attributes we would expect when we examine the things that are made. And God, as a personal Being, in order that He might have a love relationship with us, gave us the capacity of choice. In order that we might have a practical revelation of His love, His wisdom, His power, His glory, He became one of us in the person of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
In order that we might not suffer the penalty of our evil choices (sin), He, like a loving father, paid the penalty for our sins. He allowed his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to be murdered on a Roman cross (arguably the most evil act in the history of the universe, if He is indeed God's Son). But this act of great evil gave rise to an even better state of affairs, and the greatest act of love in the universe: paying the penalty for the wrong choices we make, which were the result of the way He created us in the first place! In the cross of Christ He has provided a full pardon from the consequences of the evil in our lives. Consequently, we cannot look to God and declare that He is unfair. Far from being a devil, in this examination of the problem of evil, God becomes the hero of the plot and the solution to the problem of evil. And it all hinges on LOVE. Indeed, God is love.3 What must we do to receive this pardon?
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
John 3:16
If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
Romans 10:9
Notes:
1. Romans 1:18-20.
2. Personal UPDATE, May 1999.
3. For those that would like an in-depth treatment of the problem of evil and a God of love, I highly recommend Alvin Plantinga's book, God, Freedom and Evil.
********************
********************
Poems...etc.
********************
********************
Going Home
And now the day has come, to spread my wings and fly,
Climbing, ever higher, the clouds are falling by.
Looking down I see them, shrinking ants against the ground.
For all their work and toil, what answers have they found?
Do they understand the peace I feel, as I rise to meet the Lord?
Or, do they seek an answer to how much can they afford?
I know just what they're thinking, 'cause once I was down there -
Living life like they do, chasing wind and catching air.
But now my life has ended, the years have all flown by,
I see what I am leaving - why did I fear to die?
I loved Him then, I love Him now, the Lord I climb to see -
No longer must I just have faith - with Jesus I will be!
Though I've left them all behind me, and love is all I feel,
I wish somehow to tell them - Wake up you fools! He's real!
But I had my chance - it's over now; I'll have to wait and see,
If God will send another to reach the souls assigned to me.
Climbing, ever higher, something distant all looks new.
I see a man, He's coming, leaving footprints in the dew.
Closer now, I see the Lord, as He reaches out His hand.
Right now, this very moment, at last I understand!
This is all the love of God, expressed in human form,
The power and the might of Him, who calms the raging storm.
He's reaching out to take my hand, I'll touch Him soon it seems.
Then suddenly I wake up! Lord, I love and hate those dreams!
Mark A. Carpenter
Mcarpenter@3m.net
