The Creation versus the Theories of Man (A living-growing Bible study)  July 31, 2010  (10.7.7)

Starting on (January 09, 2010), we here at Bible Byte Communications will begin posting a study on this page a new concept about God's Creation that will continue to grow larger over time.

When we add new material to this study on the Creation, the added text will be below a grey line, so that if you are following along with us you will easily be able to find the place where the study previously ended. To quickly see if a new section has been added to this study, just notice the date of posting of this page; if it is newer than the last time you visited, then the study has been updated with additional material. By adding to this study from time to time, it will stay within the framework of our mission of sharing byte-sized studies. We pray that you enjoy this new and exciting concept of a growing Bible study, as we continue growing in the nurture and admonition of the Lord!

The Creation versus the Theories of Man

A Forward:

Date added, January 09, 2010

You have been served! The Christian community has been served a smorgasbord of theories that refute the Creation of God, and herein we will take God's side to show the biblical perspective that His Word reveals. This study will also show how the existence of dinosaurs and prehistoric man fits in perfectly with the Creation of God from His perspective, and that without any contradictions from the Holy Bible. Since this study will be rather extensive and very detailed, we have decided to present this to you with five separate parts (or chapters) in an overlay format, wherein each new part will pass over some of the same circumstances and/or timeframes, while supplying additional significant information with each new paragraph/page. With this format of ever-advancing layers, we can look into our subject from many different angles with their intricate details to help show you a most clear picture of the subject, The Creation versus the Theories of Man.

We have a book titled, Trans-Vision Handbook of Health, copyright 1979 by Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., and through the pages of this handbook there are full-page anatomy depictions of a male and a female, and the center pages are made of a clear plastic material with certain illustrations on them in order that we can see through into the human body. When we turn the pages with their colorful images of the different body systems of either the male or the female illustrations, we see, for instance all the muscles from a front view, and when we turn the page, we can view all the muscles from the back. As well, we can continue turning the clear pages and see all the many different organs and the veins, blood vessels, the heart, and so forth from either a forward or a backward view, and we can see all the way inside of the human body down to the actual skeleton. This is really an incredible way for the layman to take at least a glance at what physicians study and what surgeons see and operate on in real life.

From our standpoint, we believe that following the above overlay illustration is an excellent blueprint to help us present this information to you, as our study is intricate and detailed. We believe this is the first time a study like this one has ever been carefully laid out to such minuteness, not simply in the superposition aspect of its presentation, but the contents within the study. Each of the five separate parts build from the first paragraph to the next, as all five parts (or chapters) are a feature of the same continuous study, and so for you to receive the greatest benefit and blessing from this study, we recommend that you read these in the order they are presented from beginning to end.

Please be mindful that this Bible Study, as well as all of our studies on this website, are copyrighted material and not to be reposted in any form ― thank you for respecting our wishes and our rights. So long as our rights are preserved, we will continue adding to this study until all five parts are posted.

We pray that God our heavenly Father may continue blessing you and yours richly!

Warmly Yours,

The Staff

The Creation versus the Theories of Man

Part One (one of five)

A Backward Glance

"One Thing I Know, That, Whereas I Was Blind, Now I See" John 9:25

Date added, January 09, 2010

By Larry M. Jaynes:

At the beginning of each of the four seasons, we usually post studies about the graces of God that He has given to His people in this age. This year we will continue with this same theme by embarking on a journey backward in time with the intent of shining more light on this current age. Recognizing where we are today in grace by focusing on the past is simultaneously opening a door of understanding regarding our bright and glorious future.

II Corinthians 4:18:
While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Today our goal is to come to a further understanding of the things which are not seen are eternal, and we can do this through glancing beyond the things that are present and are temporal, and therefore we will open up God's Word as our guide into His eternal truths. Right now we live in a period that the Bible refers to as an age of grace, that is to say, that we are living in a time of God's favor on the lives of those who have accepted Salvation through Christ and his redeeming work on their behalf. This moment in time is displayed in the Scriptures as being between the resurrection of Christ the Lord and his return to gather up the church of believers to their heavenly inheritance. After this gathering, there will be a time of wrath, and then Christ will return to this earth as the King of kings and Lord of lords, he will execute the judgments of God and set up his kingdom for a millennium, and then following that time, the new heavens and earth will be established forever and ever.

To fully appreciate this season of divine grace that we are enjoying, we propose to look back over the history of God's Creation from His Word to bring out just how blessed we really are in and with God's grace. Man has many ideas and theories about how life began and from whence we came that really have nothing to do with what God's Word reveals to us; some of these notions are indeed well thought out theses and are, in their own right, noteworthy. Still other speculations, simply put, are just plain senseless, not worth the paper on which they are written, and are a total waste of time to even consider. However, in this study before us, we will begin by presenting to you that first of all, "God be true" (Romans 3:4), and that His Word is our guide into truth and biblical enlightenment as to His creation and man's part on this earth, and in that which is to come.

Only if and when man's theories agree with God should we accept them, and God's Word in this series has our first allegiance and preeminence; all other concepts will simply have to take a back seat, and that is the end of the argument for us because we believe God! The goal of this series is to help the Bible believing Christian see the truth of God's creative work. His masterful work has been obscured partly, if not entirely, because of the evolutionary movement that denies basically everything God has ever done, but that we can read about from the Book of Genesis, especially in the beginning chapters. The perfection and truth of Genesis has withstood many atheist assaults that claim that the book is manmade, is myth-based, and full of errors, but what we shall see plainly is their ploy to replace God's Word with what, in fact, is manmade, is myth-based, and is full of errors.

Man's evolutional theories are a slow and arduous process in the ascent of man from nothing to something, and the truth of God's Word is nowhere to be found in man's wisdom. Man is always working, scheming, and advancing his ways into a paradise of his own design and future hopes of life without God. If man continues walking without God or always walking away from Him, he will find that path leads straight into the abyss. Isaiah 45:12 reads, "I {God} have made the earth, and created man upon it," but where can we find that God created man in water or from a single cell? You know, it is impossible for God to lie (Hebrews 6:18). Romans 3:4 reads, "let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged." In Jesus' own words, he warns in Matthew 12:36, "every idle word {or man's words that oppose God's Word} that men shall speak, they shall {shall is an absolute future tense} give account thereof in the day of judgment."

Indeed, a good many Christians these days have accepted the concept of evolution in whole or in part and in varying degrees and passively flow in the current of mainstream beliefs propounded by evolutionists, and in all honesty, the Christian has lost almost every augment and debate they have ever held about creation versus evolution. The Christian has fallen prey to that preposterous doctrine that is rising to its meridian of acceptance, dominance, and deception around the globe. The Christian has lost so much ground that he is now literally standing, not on truth, but on false concepts and ideas, and as II Timothy 4:3 speaks out a warning to all believers, "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine," and believe me, that time has indeed come. All too many Christians do not endure sound doctrine but rather have joined in or simply have swayed and have fallen prey to the apostasy of evolutionary concepts, as so many have almost wholly replaced the truth of God's Holy Word with the infusion of manmade fables about the creation. II Timothy 4:4 continues with a reprimand to believers that when they fall, they also, "shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables," and unfortunately, many God-fearing people have turned to these fables and have abandoned the truth.

Many Christians absolutely do not believe in evolution in the least, and still they have no biblical or logical answers when the evolutionist presents them with serious discussions, debates, and explanations. When deliberating over such things as dinosaur bones or an unending myriad of other fossils that continue to surface, along with a constant stream of copious amounts of theories and unearthed evidences, the Christian truly cannot confidently explain them. Some Christians simply brush those questions aside by saying such impractical things as it was God Who put all the fossils and such things into the earth simply to discombobulate paleontologists, geologists, as well as all the other "ologists" and unbelievers that are questioning and doubting out there. The religious often tout, stubbornly, "That if God did not mention dinosaurs and wooly mammoths or mention an ice age in the Bible, then, they never were," or certain prehistoric events (discovered and proven events), "could never really have happened." I'll tell yah, the Bible has more to say than you might imagine, and through this series we will delve further into these matters as we proceed backward into time while further advancing into God's truths about these matters.

Even in the face of clear, well put, and factual research and evidence that honestly cannot be denied, some professing Christians will still deny all the unearthed fossils, as well as refuting all carbon dating, uranium-thorium dating (sometimes referred to as thorium-230 dating), and stratigraphy, etc., simply to hold onto their beliefs that oppose all the revealed evidence. Still, for those who do believe in the precision and accuracy of these dating methods and in view of the overwhelming evidences, feel free to bet the farm on them if you like, but for the record, I would not be betting my eternity on them because they, more often than not, do contradict each another. As well, many Christian faiths also have contradictory beliefs of creation set in direct opposition to each other about how all of the visible proofs are explained. Collectively, the folly and confusion of these different beliefs lend fuel to more unbiblical concepts while at the same time are laughable to the serious questioners and those who are of a scientific mindset who have formed plausible theories based upon all the unearthed evidence.

Some religions give credence to the unearthed evidences by going so far as to state in both doctrine and on artsy murals that Adam and Eve were living among the dinosaurs etc., and that Noah brought into the Ark all those prehistoric beings. Then they claim that it was after the flood of Noah's day when all those archaic beings suddenly died off, which is totally unscriptural and unscientific, as the evidence is way too old for them to have been around when Adam, Eve, and Noah lived. Indeed the Bible shows us that prehistoric beings were not around in the time of Adam and Eve or in Noah's day, but the question is, were they ever here, and what is the biblical evidence? To answer these questions, we are on our way into God's Word to reveal what He supports and explains to His children.

We certainly hope and pray that this series will give you believers (as we are not writing to unbelievers) some very clear understanding about what God's Word actually states regarding these questions and concerns. I do not have to tell you why the unbeliever is wrong and scrutinize all their theories for you, but I so want to show you what God's Word reveals, for His Word alone can dispel all forms of darkness and unbiblical theories and summations. And yes, we will most certainly be discussing the fossil evidences, etc., the further we go back into the Scriptures. We believe that God in His Word has the answers and/or responses that contain, "all things that pertain unto life and godliness" (II Peter 1:3). This includes honest and upfront reactions about the genesis of life and of creation itself, and we will be sharing many of these biblical responses and discoveries with you as we proceed.

Date added, January 13, 2010

To begin on our journey into biblical enlightenment, let us now commence traveling backwards in time, not to the beginning (at first), because we want to make a number of stops along our way and pick up some vitally important information and clues that will ultimately shine light on the beginning of God's creation for us. On our way, traveling backwards to the beginning of the genesis of creation, we will first commence by stopping off in Genesis at the flood of Noah's time, called "the waters of Noah" in Isaiah 54:9, and "the days of Noe" in Matthew 24:37. We should note upfront that no one and no institution, religious or secular, could lay claim to having and knowing all answers, but from our perspective we do know Him Who created everything and He has all the keys as well as all the answers to the quest before us. We will begin by teetering back and forth between the time of the flood and just after the time of the flood to reinforce some foundational truths and concepts that will help support us in our adventure back to the beginning (please take a few minutes to read and familiarize yourself with Genesis 6:9–9:29).

After becoming familiar with this section of Scripture, we will have noticed that Noah brought into the Ark all the required food for his family and the living creatures, and he brought in the animals, the creeping things from the insect kingdom, and the birds. Did you happen to notice from the narration that Noah did not bring in all the living creatures "two by two, a male and a female" like all the legends, fables, and songs have described the actual event? Noah not only brought in some animals and birds two by two, but some titled as "clean," he brought in by pairs of sevens (Genesis 7:2). These creeping things, and the pairs of sevens that Noah brought into the Ark do not agree with the song that many Christians and atheists teach to children in school or Sunday school or around campfires about how the animals went into the Ark "two by two, hurrah" ― huh! This song in all the various ways it is sung is simply put, a fable! After reading Genesis 6:9–9:29 we have seen that that song is not true in the least, but hey, it's only a song ― right? They were not entering into the Ark just to "get out of the rain" as the song sings, because it was not raining at that time; in truth, it had never rained on this earth until the flood; anyone can understand this detail just by simply reading through the first six chapters of Genesis.

In Genesis 2:5, we read about the early days when man lived in Paradise and on the Garden of God that, "the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth." And as we know now, the rain never fell until the flood, and then the rain commenced raining periodically upon the earth as it still does even in the present time.

Psalms 147:8:
Who {God} covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain for the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains.

Ecclesiastes 1:7:
All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again {this is the continuing cycle God made at the time of the flood}.

Here is some information for skeptics who say, "The reason the Bible is wrong is because God said He gave Noah the promise that no more floods would destroy the earth, and the proof was in the visual rainbow above." Then doubters go on to surmise that, "Rainbows had to have existed before the flood! So we cannot trust or believe in your Bible." But if there was no rain before this flood, then, guess what? There could not have been clouds, and thus, there would be no rainbows! That's right, no one ever saw a rainbow until Noah and his family walked out of the Ark; they were the very first people on this earth to ever see the colorful spectacle. This is why God promised that rainbows would not cease commencing from just AFTER the flood, "I do set my bow in the cloud {from this time forward}, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth," and, "between me and you and every living creature of all flesh" (Genesis 9:13, and 15). But in the song, that we discussed there is no mention about God or His promise, no mention of Noah, no mention of the prophesied Savior of whom Noah, the preacher of righteousness spoke, and no mention of sin, or of corruption, or of wickedness, and no mention of "the total extinction" of all the living that remained on earth. In truth, in the song there is no logical reason for entering into the Ark other than to form a melody with catchy phrases that are totally void of any biblical purpose, reason, or truth, and in other words, the song is nothing more than a fable.

I know some people will conclude that we just caught a so-called "lucky break" because the words "rain and rainbow" were never used in the Bible until the flood. But before this series is over we will have run across so many "lucky breaks," that even the most skeptical reader will have to admit that the Scriptures are more than a simple collection of books and fables written by happenstance and backwoods folks, but rather they are nothing short of absolute, Divine Inspirations! And like our theme verse, we will articulate with conviction, "One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see" John 9:25. Every word in the Word of God is placed precisely where they are set in the Bible by design, and is written to give the reader understanding, direction, and purpose into the way of God, the way of His Son's redemptive purpose, and man's way into eternity. Sure, the skeptics laugh today (Psalms 80:6; and Luke 6:25), while we today partake of grace, and come to visions and revelations, and will further rejoice throughout an eternity of tomorrows in laughter (Psalms 52:1–9; and Luke 6:21) because we have accepted "the way of God in truth" (Matthew 22:16; and Psalms 31:5).

This song about coming into the Ark, two by two, apparently satisfies man's basic quest for forms of religious activities, and essences of spirituality, and as well is something unbelievers can also appreciate because it is not the truth of the Bible. The song simply represents, "a form of godliness, but denying the power {and the truth} thereof" (II Timothy 3:5), and the only point in singling out the song has nothing to do with a dislike for the song; I have sung it countless times growing up in school, and have sung this with my children when they were younger. The mention of this song is only to highlight some contradictory concepts that will become more meaningful to you the further we travel back into the past as we point out more and more errors that man has introduced into our psyche that deflects one away from the way of truth that is recorded in God's Word.

Typically, when we have stories and songs about the Bible's history, they are habitually incorrect and not the actual truth that is correctly recorded in the Scriptures, and yet so often Christian people end up forming some of their foundational beliefs on the songs or stories they have learned. Many unbelievers also use the Scriptures when trying to show the folly of what Christians think, believe, and speak; an agnostic will go to the Bible and point out the errors saying, those Bible thumpers believe this or they think and say such and such, and here the Bible actually says something completely different.

As an example, we know that some Christians refer to their minister as "Father," and a good many unbelievers have found the verse that Jesus taught to his disciples, "call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven" (Matthew 23:9). The unbeliever holds onto this verse and saves it in his arsenal, as if he has found a ready weapon; he lies in wait to confront an unsuspecting believer who refers to his minister as father. When the unbeliever does this, he uses God's Word purposefully to hurt and cut a believer to the quick, when the truth of what Jesus was actually teaching is about those who love to be called by one of God's titles ― "Father." The meaning here is that some ministers assume they are above or better than others and desire to be served, while Jesus taught us that, "If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all" (Mark 9:35), and "The servant is not greater than his lord" (John 13:16).

Jesus was not teaching about what people say in Matthew 23:9, rather this teaching was a discourse concerning some issues of the heart in regards to some people who desire praise and glory for themselves from their fellow man. The accusing unbeliever who uses Matthew 23:9 to hurt obviously never looked up to see the context, upward to the Father, which is in heaven, rather he is looking obliviously downward (down his nose at the believer in contempt)! The unbeliever who uses Scripture for spiteful reasons can be assured that in the judgment there will be an inexorable reckoning. Anyone who uses Scriptures like Matthew 23:9 simply to hurt a believer, best hope that he is not a father, especially on Father's Day, or by his accusative logic, he would be under the same condemnation (Romans 2:1)!

Even though the unbeliever is not a biblical scholar, nor does he believe the words that are even written on the cover (The Holy Bible), let alone its contents, he so often feels compelled to blow the dust off his Bible and pretend he is an authoritative expert. He becomes ever more emboldened to boast his findings to his comrades, and evermore so when he can use his scheming evidence against the average religious person's beliefs about the Bible.

Whenever an unbeliever comes at you for an augment on Scripture (rather than for an earnest logical conversation), then look for the Pharisee in him, it is usually self-evident before the first sentence spills off his lips (II Timothy 2:16–17). Jesus taught us to be perceptive and to be aware of what is really going on around us. Jesus warns and encourages, "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves" (Matthew 10:16), and as Paul also expresses, "Be not deceived: evil communications {evil associations or acquaintances, can} corrupt {your} good manners {and morals and character}. Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God" (I Corinthians 15:33–34).

Date added, January 16, 2010

Unbelievers so often attempt to get Christians to defend what the unbeliever could care less about other than to elevate his purpose in maintaining that Christianity is only for the weak, the feeble, and the loser. When believers ague with the unbeliever over biblical concepts and semantics, the truth is, and history bears this out, that believers usually end up losing the majority of these quarrels and especially the arguments dealing with evolution (especially in courts of law).

Some professing Christians, in an unprecedented sellout to the contradictory views of the unbeliever begin admitting, "Yes, perhaps we are descended from the Neanderthals," as believers begin imagining that maybe what the unbelievers say about evolution is based on true principles and research. They imagine that perhaps God created, or commenced, or at the least had His hand in this world's evolutionary theories and processes. These concepts allow God in the back door, and keep Him somewhere in the shadows of discussion just in case there really is a God, as though embellishing God's Word to agree with man's theories is helpful to God, when the Word itself is perfect as it was originally given to man. Some Christians go so far (or so low) as to claim that a day in Genesis chapter one could have actually been more like a thousand days or ten thousand years, as he begins singing the praises of the ascent of the evolved man from a single cell up to what he has become today ― "without God" (Ephesians 2:12). This placation places one in the exact opposite view of God's Word, and thus in conflict and in opposition to God Himself, as that man or woman begins accepting that man's wisdom is equal to or so much wiser than God's. This thought process, by the way, was how our first parents originally fell from grace; you see, they bought into the serpent's lie, "your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods" (Genesis 3:5), while the exact opposite happened to them, as you Christians should know, and as we shall further observe.

Did you know that in the early, preflood days in Noah's time that the animals were not in the least afraid of man, nor was man afraid of them? It is true, because for one thing, in the beginning of modern man, from the time that God in Genesis formed, made, and created Adam and Eve, onward, flesh was not a food source for either man or beast or fish; that is the doctrine of the Scriptures – no carnivores – only vegetarian. Genesis 1:30 reads, "And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat {for food}," in other words, every living creature ate only what grew out of the ground or what grew in the sea!

Originally God also gave man only what came out of the ground to eat, as Genesis 2:9 confirms, "out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food" (Genesis 2:9). "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat" (Genesis 2:16), thus, none of the living creation on the land, in the air, or under the water were ever eaten by another. Therefore it was quite easy for Noah to get all the living creatures from the land or in the air to willingly enter into the Ark. Although man had DOMINION "over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth" (Genesis 1:28), man today affirms that it would have been impossible for Noah to herd everything into the Ark. So which is true, God's Word, or man's word? ― you decide! Plus, as God requested, "Come thou and all thy house into the ark" (Genesis 7:1), and Noah and family entered. God also "commanded" (Genesis 7:16) all the living pairs to go into the Ark and they all obeyed the command.

The animals were not afraid of man, and had no reason whatsoever to be afraid of them until after the flood, as all of God's living creation were herbivores, and never ate meats of any kind. (Again, could this be another "lucky break" that the eating of flesh was not mentioned until after the deluge?) Only after the flood was the animal, fowl, and fish supplied by God Himself to this world's food supply (along with the green herbs, fruits, nuts, and vegetables), and only after the flood did animals, birds, and fish become afraid of one another.

Genesis 9:2–3:
-2: And the fear of you {man} and the dread of you {from this day onward} shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered {i.e., you will still be master over the living creation, see James 3:7. Again, God placed man at the head of the line and above every living thing by His sanctioned permission, rather than man evolving upwards from nothing to take over the earth}.
-3: Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat {food} for you {placing man at the head or pinnacle of the food chain}; even as the green herb have I given you all things.

The purpose for entering into the Ark was twofold (besides the obvious reason that God not only commanded them to get in, but that He also closed the door behind them, Genesis 7:11–16). One, was to preserve the human bloodline so that the prophesied seed of the women (Genesis 3:15) could come to redeem humanity though a descendent of Adam and Eve. This prophecy began to be fulfilled with the birth of Jesus Christ, through Mary (the woman who is traced all the way back to Adam in the Gospel of Luke), and culminating with his death and resurrection in the Gospel age. The second reason was to preserve those who would believe on and accept that seed, which (or who) is Christ the Lord (now read the progression of that seed, from (or of) Christ to (or into) believers, in Galatians 3:16, 19, 29, and I Peter 1:23). Those who accept Christ will pass safely through the upcoming destruction and "total extinction" of this sinful world as had Noah who believed. These two aspects are wonderfully summed up for us in one wonderful verse of Scripture and links the believers with Christ, "Who {Christ} verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you {FOR YOU!}" (I Peter 1:20).

Date added, January 19, 2010

In the future, coming age, "the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat" (II Peter 3:12). This foreshadows a parallel to the rescue of Noah and his family, "eight souls" in total (I Peter 3:20), who were lifted above the destruction of this world. Just as they had passed over the deluge of their time, and left the "old world" behind (II Peter 2:5), and were safely brought back down to earth, we, too, shall be safely lifted up to the clouds, then up, "higher than the heavens" (Hebrews 7:26), and preserved in Christ from that age of wrath and burning judgment (Romans 5:9; and I Thessalonians 4:14–18)!

Now, what was the reason God asked Noah to bring in the clean animals and birds into the Ark by sevens? These were used for sacrifices, and still some pairs of them would be left to again replenish and renew the earth after the flood, plus some species need more than just a single male and female to actually procreate successfully, as zoologists know all too well (again, this is just another "lucky break"). One other thing that came over from the old world and into the new is the nature of sin, and this sin nature is everywhere and passes down (or through) every subsequent generation from Adam to the present day (Romans 5:12–21). This sin nature has everything to do with why all men still needed a Savior even in today's world, "Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began" (II Timothy 1:9).

To answer what did the word "clean" represent? A clean (i.e., without blemish) bird or animal was for sacrifice, and these were the only acceptable offering that God could accept from sinful man as his substitute (see Leviticus 1:3, 10, 3:1, and 6). Sacrificing an unblemished animal was how sinful men were enabled to approach the Living GOD to receive forgiveness, guidance, and direction as Hebrews 9:22 reads, "without shedding of blood is no remission." Genesis 8:20–22 shows that this is exactly what Noah did with some of these clean beasts and fowls, "And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took {some} of every clean beast, and {some} of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more {than it already is, see Genesis 3:17} for man's sake," this is the saving grace that a sweet savour affords to all believers. Through the burnt offerings of Noah, as the smoke ascended up to God being a sweet savour of substitution, we today, in grace have, through Christ, our own substitution. "Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us {FOR US} an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour" (Ephesians 5:2), and thus, we are now and forever "unto God a sweet savour of Christ" (II Corinthians 2:15).

The word Christian means Christ-in–you, (Colossians 1:27), and being a Christian, we have the saving savior within ourselves as a treasure, "we have this treasure in earthen vessels" (II Corinthians 4:7). This treasure assures us of our journey into eternity, and we will be totally unscathed, escaping the destruction that is coming because "the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin" (I John 1:7). This is a promise in the Word of God, and is a good reason why we should believe what is written, as Jesus taught, "Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you" (John 15:3), and he is the Word (John 1:14).

I Corinthians 6:9–11:
-9: Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived {and oh have we been, as so many religions now claim everyone can go to heaven no matter how deviant or how unrepentant they are}: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind {homoerotism, see Romans 1:26–27; and I Timothy 1:9–10},
-10: Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God {the same types of devious activities God and Noah left behind in the flood}.
-11: And such were some of you: but ye are washed {i.e., clean, purified by a complete atonement for sin and made free from the guilt of sins, I John 1:5–10}, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

II Timothy 2:19 states "Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity {wrongdoing}." Why depart? Well, because forgiveness is always available no matter how far a believer may fall (even if the believer was or is into the aforementioned activities above); this is why forgiveness is by grace, divine, and unending grace for believers.

Today in grace, we have been saved through the sacrifice of Christ who gave and offered himself for our sins, and therefore no more sacrifices will ever be required of us ― ever, as Hebrews 10:10 states our emancipation from all sacrifices, "we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all {of us}." For this reason the "precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot {in other words "clean"}: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world {and therefore before the waters of Noah}, but was manifest in these last times for you {YOU}" (I Peter 1:19–20). And as Hebrews 9:14 illustrates, "How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works {and sacrificing animals and birds is about as dead of a work as you can get} to serve the living God."

Now we do a living work, and that work is to believe in the living Word of God as Jesus taught us, "the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life" (John 6:63).

Date added, January 23, 2010

After Noah made the sacrifice of a sweet savour, a covenant was then sanctioned between God and Noah, God and the earth, and God and all the living with the visible token of the rainbow. After this, God gave to Noah (and you and me) one of the most amazing verses in the entire Bible, expressing the fullness of all the God-given blessings in a double, four-folded description in Genesis 8:22 (below). Psalms 100:5 reads, "For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations," and therefore the rainbow still stands for something truthfully beautiful as it was and still is to this very day!

God explained to Noah about new seasonal changes that would begin occurring on a timely schedule. This also means that global weather systems were very different than they are now, especially in the sense that there would be moisture in the air and in the clouds in the form of fog, rain, snow, and ice/hail with the signs of all the different climates, temperatures, and weather systems that we to this day experience globally.

You, being God's child with active trust in Him, have no real worries, at least none that "the world order" of things can threaten you with, as we read, "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels {good or bad, glorious or fallen angels}, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come. Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature {or creation}, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord {and Christ is where? He is in you Christians, recall, Christ-in–you!}" (Romans 8:38–39).

Psalms 135:5–7:
-5: For I know that the LORD is great, and that our Lord is above all gods.
-6: Whatsoever the LORD pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places.
-7: He causeth the vapours {in the Hebrew Text vapours is the word nasi meaning what is lifted up and exalted to govern and protect; specifically, the earth's magnetic field invisibly shielding our planet from radiation and solar winds} to ascend from the ends of the earth {i.e., both poles have flipped direction from positive to negative through earth's history}; he maketh lightnings {to maintain order and balance (nasi) of earth's magnetic field. And} for the rain; he {God} bringeth the wind out of his treasuries {thus preventing lightening from always striking in the same place repeatedly}.

Psalms 147:15–18:
-15: He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth: his word runneth very swiftly.
-16: He giveth snow like wool: he scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes.
-17: He casteth forth his ice like morsels: who can stand before his cold?
-18: He sendeth out his word, and melteth them: he causeth his wind to blow, and the waters flow.

God is the source and power behind everything in nature, yet man hardly ever acknowledges Him, or is grateful for His creation. In the "old world" between Adam and the flood, the earth had no rain or snow, nor had man a specific harvest time as he now does. In the geographical areas where man lived, the climate must have been quite moderate all year round because there is never mention of anyone ever being cold or hot as we now experience (again, another one of those "lucky breaks"). When we read that Adam and Eve, "heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day" (Genesis 3:8), this was not referring to the time of the day or the temperature in which God was walking. The phrase the cool of the day means "the Spirit of the day," as the word cool in the Hebrew Text is the word Ruach, meaning the Spirit and implies the refreshing winds that He blew across His Garden to announce His presence. The Psalmist wrote that God "did fly upon the wings of the wind" (Psalms 18:10), and that He "walketh upon the wings of the wind" {Psalms 104:3). God was present and sustaining all the life in that Garden, this is what our first parents saw and felt all around them, for they knew that God was in their midst, as so many today do not when they look out over God's creation. God is the life behind all life as Acts 17:25 reveals that He, "giveth to all life, and breath," and as we read in Job 12:10, "In whose hand is the soul {life} of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind."

Often when God is announcing a change of something different, we find the wind or forms of wind associated with the changing movements of God and of times or ages. For instance, when man fell from grace in the Garden of Eden, we have the word for Spirit Ruach, which is one of the many synonyms comparing God with Wind (also Whirlwind, Windy, Air, Tempest, Blast, Quarters, as in four winds or quarters, and Side or Sides as in the four sides of the wind). We also have God associated with wind in Genesis 8:1, "And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged {abated}." Again, when God delivered Israel from Egypt we have the working of God and wind, "And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left" (Exodus 14:21–22). On the commencement of Pentecost, and the introduction of this age of grace, we have God in action and again associated with wind, Acts 2:2 reads, "And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting." In the future, to announce something not so pleasant, the wind will be halted from blowing on the entire earth (Revelation 7:1), because God will withdraw His wind, returning its power back into His treasuries (Psalms 135:7 above).

Genesis 8:22:
While the earth remaineth {implying that there is an end to the earth, referring only to the time remaining, recalling the things we see "are temporal"}, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

Interesting that God mentions four separate things along with their four exact opposites with the sevenfold usage of the word ― and. The first six words, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter are first introduced to Noah and his posterity commencing after the flood. Adding the words day and night to this amazing ensemble consists of the height, depth, width, and breadth of everything man does, knows, and will learn about life in the world around him, as all the activities of man are contained within these eight words. The purpose of this verse was to show the Noah family the commencement of a different world altogether. This verse is the summation of the newness as well as the differentness of life they would find all around them, with different rules, principles, laws, and new circumstances as seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter began springing up all around them in time, in sequence, and in their day-to-day lives.

Everything they would see, discover, feel, and do would be structured within the scope of these six new words; life as they discovered it would be completely different from what they had known and experienced before that moment when they stepped out of the Ark into this new world.

Date added, January 30, 2010

As they walked out of the Ark onto the dry land, they would have first noticed that, "every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth" (Genesis 7:23). The Hebrew word for destroyed in this verse (used twice) is machah, and it means to be blotted out, wiped away, or completely washed, as the Psalmist prayed, "O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out {machah} my transgressions" (Psalms 51:1).

What is interesting about our English word destroy is that it basically means to ruin or to deprive of life; however, in the Hebrew Text we find fifty-seven different Hebrew words that have all been translated into our one English word destroy, and not all of them mean destroy in the sense that we perceive the word destroy. Every Hebrew word has its own specific meaning, each word adding color, shade, and dimension that furnishes depth and understanding to the word used which we do not find or scarcely ever notice when reading in our English Bibles. The "old world" (the land itself) was not literally destroyed as the English interpretation suggests, but only washed clean of its life; cleaned away to give man a new beginning, as God gave him a brand new start in life, a do-over, or you could call it a second chance if you like.

In Isaiah 25:8, we read "the Lord GOD will wipe away {machah, this is same word translated destroyed in Genesis 7:23} tears from off all faces." This verse is referring to the future age that we read about in Revelation 21 and 22, when God will create the new heavens and the new earth, and then He "washes away" the tears from off all faces. It is obvious that the use of machah was not referring to destroying all faces; rather the context in Isaiah is actually speaking about cleaning up sad countenances, making things right, and putting smiles back on all faces. You see how the word destroyed in Genesis 7:27 was actually a poor rendering for the word machah, when God meant something completely different, more vibrant, and wonderful following a horrific event because the word introduces something new and exiting ― a new or refreshed world.

God promised Noah that, "neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy {shachath} the earth" (Genesis 9:11); the word shachath translated destroy is a different word than machah and also has a different meaning than our English word for destroy. This word is another one of those fifty-seven Hebrew words that were translated into our English word destroy. The word shachath in the Text means to lay waste, and is used to express the result (or the fruit) of sin, of wickedness, of evil, and of violence, as these were the direct cause of the corruption and flood of the world (Genesis 6:5–13).

These two words, machah washed away, and shachath to lay waste will become important as we go along. For now let us understand from these two words that the land itself with everything on it was laid to waste shachath, and that all of the living on the earth was washed away machah, that is excluding the people and provisions in the Ark that had life in itself or in themselves, and had survived through the flood to rejuvenate the earth.

The only living beings that survived the flood were what God (and Noah) had brought into the Ark, and it is interesting to note that all the sea life was not affected by the flood. All the life and all the creatures that God brought forth in the sea (Genesis 1:20–21) survived beyond the flood and are (for the most part) still around to this day. "The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land {including the Grand Canyon and everything else we see}" (Psalms 95:5). There will be many more Scriptures on the forming of the features we find on earth and notice in the universe in the coming parts of this series.

Another note of interest is that all the life that God made, from the least to the greatest of animals including every living thing, were originally made to be in support of man's life. God designed this earth and everything on it to sustain man's life and all his activities. Without the living creation of animals, fowls, fish, etc., and all the life of plants, trees, grasses, etc., and without everything they produce in nature, man could not exist, that is right, they were made for man inasmuch as man was formed, made, and created for God.

Everything God made knows their place or duty or function in this life instinctively through conscience or imprinting or nature, etc., and all are working by commandment of the Creator from the lowest life forms to the highest, from the birds to the bees, from krill to whale, even when God "established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep {recently discovered by the scientific world}" (Proverbs 8:28), along with the rest of His myriad handiwork. But man alone is the only exception and does not know his rightful place in this world or in his God, "For in him we live, and move, and have our being" (Acts 17:28). This is why if God was going to save man from the flood, He would also need to save the beasts of the fields, the fowls up in the air, the creeping things down in the earth, and everything that has growth life within itself. They are linked to man's survival on earth, inasmuch as God is linked to man's eternal survival beyond the existence of this earth which, mind you, will melt away at the end of this life, rather than wash away as in Noah's day.

In Genesis chapter 1, God had made everything that existed before man in order that the safety net of His creation would be in place to support His man (especially if he fell, and he did). Man did not somehow mutate to become masters of earth. God put man in this elevated position in the Garden and man remains master over the living creation even while on the outside of God's original plans. God gave to humanity the freedom of will to choose their own destinies, and only those who will freely choose God through Christ are destined to eternity, because God will accept and reveal Himself to them and reveal the spiritual truths behind His liberating Word. How surely Noah and company must have realized these truths, especially on the day that they walked out of the Ark and knew how vitally precious their lives were and how linked they were to their cargo, and how thankful they must have been to God Who chose them to now flourish out in this new world!

Date added, February 06, 2010

After the flood, a new world of hope began, and as human history commenced all over again, there was a new chance to make things aright, having left behind "the wickedness of man {that} was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Genesis 6:5). However, as we Christians know (or should know), mankind, as a race did not, could not, and would not even try to better themselves or the world they found themselves in; rather they, as a whole, would continue walking on in the same way as man had since the original fall from grace. Man continued in sin, in mischief, and in rebellion against God, as we will examine in our next study when we come to the example of Nimrod and his city and tower. (In an upcoming study titled: A Forward Glance, in this study we will pass through this stage when we study Nimrod's world domination experiment, which is the way of the world; the way of sin, the way of Cain, for it is the way of man without his God.)

After the flood, all the creatures not only became afraid of man, most of them became afraid of each other, while some moved over into the category of becoming prey and the remainder moved over into predator as a hierarchy of dominance began to flourish throughout all the various kingdoms of the world. Today we look at this life and the nature of things as being this way always or having evolved into this way over much more time than the Scriptures allow. Yet, it was not this way originally, it just became this way, commencing from the landing and exodus from the Ark "upon the mountains of Ararat" (Genesis 8:4), as the people and the living creation began spreading again over this globe. The life God put into all the seeds of His living creation (Genesis 1:11–12, and 29), began again to be sowed over the earth. However, this time they sprang up by passing through the digestive systems of every living thing, everyplace they moved and as well, they spread themselves as the fruits with the seeds in themselves dropped onto the earth in their seasons. Many seeds were scattered to all corners via the winds, and other seeds were sown by deliberate foresight of man to cultivate foods he desired.

Originally, in Genesis chapters 1 and 2, God and only God sowed, but after the fall, and even more so after the flood, the people, and all of God's creation, began sowing on their own. Recall, that in Genesis 2:8, "the LORD God planted a garden {this garden was planted for man to enjoy the work and presence of God Himself}." However, after the flood we read that, "Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard" (Genesis 9:20), so it was out of necessity that Noah had to work the ground because all of life had changed and the labor of man greatly increased. Man's labor became the new way of life and literally labor became the way of mankind's survival, "There is nothing better for a man {these days}, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour" (Ecclesiastes 2:24).

In II Peter 3:4 we read, "for since the fathers fell asleep {passed on, expired}, all things {only appear to} continue as they were from the beginning of the creation." And yet even though all the things that we experience today in the world and in nature seem to just go on as normal, the truth is that everything changed after the flood into what is now the norm (thou still temporary). Even in this, as the Apostle wrote, "The creature {creation} itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together {with man} until now {even to this very moment in time}" (Romans 8:21–22). But there is a day coming when creation will again be perfect without death and sorrow, and that day will be when the children of God walk in complete harmony with their Savior and their God, and that day is coming, is certain, and for that day, we wait in hope and in expectation because this is promised us.

When the return and personal presence of Christ comes and the millennium of his reign on earth begins, then things will change. Life all around this world will again be as it was before the flood, yet not as things were before the fall of man in Paradise when life was perfect and sinless and was as a heaven on earth. That time, age, and world without end comes back only after Christ's millennium, with the new heavens and new earth when God wipes away all tears. In the millennium when the King of kings and Lord of lords reigns supreme on this earth, many, many things will revert to the way things were before the flood, including the vicious cycle of being either the hunter or the hunted as regards man and beast. "The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust {that which grows up from the ground} shall be the serpent's meat" (Isaiah 65:25). Oh, what a grand day, what a promise, and what an awesome future the believers have to anticipate.

II Corinthians 4:14–18:
-14: Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.
-15: For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.
-16: For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
-17: For our light affliction {the pressures of the day and the life in which we find ourselves}, which is but for a moment {in comparison to our eternity}, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
-18: While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Not only is harmony coming to this earth, but also longevity will again be restored to man's life as he had before the flood; for in Christ's kingdom nobody becomes sick (Isaiah 33:24), or dies, for all believers will be enjoying eternity. "And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands" (Isaiah 65:21–22). Man again will rest in refreshing meadows with lions and other beasts, and so many more blessings, much more than we are able to comprehend right now will be revealed to us and enjoyed by us! Isaiah 35:1 reads, "The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose," oh, what a wonderful day to anticipate in hope.

Date added, February 10, 2010

I want to look at a few verses from the Amplified Bible, and then show you something most wonderful:

Isaiah 11:6–9 (The Amplified Bible**):
-6: And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb {kebes}, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid {gediyyah}, and the calf and the young lion and the fatted domestic animal together; and a little child shall lead them.
-7: And the cow and the bear shall feed side by side, their young shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
-8: And {IF} the sucking child shall play over the hole of the asp, and {IF} the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den.
-9: They shall not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain {My holy mountain is a phrase to represent that one part is expressed to represent the whole ― the whole earth, or everywhere without exception}, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

We have a very interesting word in the Hebrew Text for the word kid used in verse 6 above, it is the extremely rare word gediyyah. This word is used only twice in the entire Bible. Many Bible concordances, dictionaries, and commentaries suggest that this gediyyah was either a young lamb or a young goat, yet there are other Hebrew and Greek words for both lambs and goats, and the reason being is that the gediyyah is not a lamb or a goat, and besides, we already have a lamb, a kebes in verse 6. But, before we give you an explanation of what a gediyyah was, let us first see the other usage of the word gediyyah in the Bible, "If thou know not, O thou fairest among women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed thy kids {gediyyah} beside the shepherds' tents" (Song of Solomon 1:8).

In the Bible, we have lambs everywhere; in fact, we have so many of them that it would be quite difficult if we tried counting them all without falling asleep. A gediyyah is not the word for a baby lamb or a baby goat as many suspect, for there are completely different Hebrew words for describing both of them throughout the Old Testament, and they are scattered throughout the Bible. For instance, a kebes is a word for a lamb, a keseb is also a lamb, a tson or tsoneh or tsone are the words for Sheep, a rachel is a ewe or a lamb, and a seh is a young lamb or a kid; these are the Hebrew words used in the Bible to describe all the lambs. As well, for goats the Hebrew words are es for a goat or as a he goat, an attud is a he goat or chief goat, a tsaphir is also a he goat, a sair is a goat or kid or a hairy goat, a tayish is a male goat, and the word yeelim is the word for mountain goats. Still not one of these words for the goats or for the sheep is used to describe the gediyyah, either in the Song of Solomon or in the Book of Isaiah or anywhere else in the Bible.

The reason why we do not know what the gediyyah was is because they have gone extinct and therefore we cannot describe one in any detail for you. We do not know without guessing, and guessing has been the plight of man since his fall, but we can simply accept the truth that as the gediyyah shall return in Christ's millennium, so will everything else that has gone away. What was it that Solomon wrote? "The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be" (Ecclesiastes 1:9). Yes, this one wonderful thing we may know for certain, for it is a promise of comfort according to Isaiah, and that is that the gediyyah will be up and about in the future and they will be laying around with the leopards in complete safety.

These gediyyah were in the presence of the shepherds during Solomon's day and obviously, they were well known, and in fact, they were right outside their tents. However, by the time Isaiah wrote (about 350 years after Solomon), the gediyyah had became totally extinct; how dreadfully sad that this trend has not stopped happening to this very day. What was a shepherd if not a caretaker, a watchful person over the living and helpless creatures, they were not unlike many today in watch groups and scientists who observe the escalating extinctions of all too many species in the air, on the land, in the sea, and for the most part, they are almost totally helpless to help. Finding gediyyah only beside a shepherd's tent in the past, and then lying down with a leopard in the future is the only place and times that we will ever find gediyyah in the entire Bible or anywhere else in the world.

This of course means that the gediyyah will be restored in the future, in Christ's kingdom, thus, there is hope for all things that the scientists claim are lost to the ages, like the dodo bird and so many others, because they will be reestablished by the Creator Himself upon this earth! All the animals and plant life that have gone extinct from this world will again flourish, to include such animals as the large cats and rhinoceroses (which is the Hebrew word rēem usually translated as "unicorn(s)" in the Bible, see Job 39:10; Psalms 92:10; and Isaiah 34:7 see margin). Everything else that has or will disappear before Christ's return – plants, sea life, and the creatures that were made in Paradise during the six days of creation and have gone missing because of natural disasters, sicknesses and diseases, famines, carnivores, omnivores, or from the ill treatment of man – they will be brought back for us to enjoy and pet, and thank God, "For with God nothing shall be impossible" (Luke 1:37).

Whenever someone is trying to make, clone, or twist the laws of nature to "create" and bring back a species, make no mistake that they are playing God, and have fallen prey to the theses of the Serpent and his lie that man shall be gods. Yes, this is done in the guise of real science and for the preservation of certain species. They are trying to do this because they do not believe God or His Word, and they will be judged accordingly, when the books are opened in the final judgment.

According to the Bible, only God's creations will be restored, but not man's freakish, frankenstein-like formations of the elements, and this goes for food and everything else man has hybrid and crossbred and altered and/or extinguished the very life within; that life which God originally created "in itself," "after their kind," or "after his kind" (Genesis 1:11–12; and 21–22). It will make no difference to God if some people or corporations have patented their engineered seeds, etc., and altered the life within, as they insist on complete control over many foods and livestock. This is as Jesus taught us, "Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up" (Matthew 15:13), note that there are plants that God did not plant. Therefore, their seeds and so forth will not grow in the future Kingdom or on the new earth, and accordingly their patents will be worthless.

Certainly good times are a comin' and yes, today we have hope, hope in God for our bright and heavenly futures!

Isaiah 35:1–7:
-1: The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.
-2: It {the life that will grow within the wilderness, the solitary place, and the desert} shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the LORD, and the excellency of our God.
-3: Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.
-4: Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you. {Therefore, His vengeance is not, and cannot, and will not be against YOU the believer, and everyone who says different has lied to you. "Let God be true, but every man a liar" (Romans 3:4)! God's fight has never been against anyone but Satan and his minions, and Satan is the enemy of everybody, but our heavenly Father is, "light, and in him is no darkness at all" (I John 1:5), and He is love and He loves each one of us (Jeremiah 29:11; John 3:16; and I John 4:8).}
-5: Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
-6: Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing {Wow ― what a joyful day}: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.
-7: And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.

After the flood, Noah and his wife, their three sons and their three wives discovered this new world that was set up with new rules, a new environment, and totally different circumstances, as a new age began. Everything was different, and although some things were perhaps new and exciting, all things became drastically changed. From the first birth after the flood till now, the world we experience is the same one they saw when they walked out of the Ark. God explained to Noah many of the changes out there, and as we have seen, some things were harsh in comparison to the old, the same circumstances that we today simply take for granted. Yet we are so far removed from both the life our first parents enjoyed in Paradise and the fallen life they fell into when they left the home originally prepared for them by God.

The Creation versus the Theories of Man

Part Two (two of five)

A Backward Glance

"One Thing I Know, That, Whereas I Was Blind, Now I See" John 9:25

Date added, February 27, 2010

By Larry M. Jaynes:

Even though we are looking at several future events in this study, we are still proceeding with a view to the past, as the end of this earth will repeat pretty much the way it opened because God's as yet unfinished will, will be done. Everything that was introduced in the Book of the beginning will come to its fruition and/or conclusion as is explained to us in the Book of the end, because they are the alpha and omega of all spiritual understanding and reveals man's origin and his ultimate "destinies." ("Destinies" plural because not all people will end up in the same place, contrary to some so-called religious doctrines.) Everything in between the beginning and the end is centered on man's Redeemer and our redemption and how our God is holding everything together until all Prophecy (which is His-story) is fulfilled. (In our eBook, The Golden Thread, Book One, we have an interesting chapter titled, "The Alpha and The Omega, The Beginning and the End, the First and the Last," Part One, Chapter 3, which details many events and things that began in the Book of Genesis and that either ends or is fulfilled in the Book of Revelation.)

Thusly, the further we go backward in time on our search for truth, we must also go where the trail and narration itself leads throughout the Word, hence as we are proceeding backward, we inevitably will be venturing forward in time to distinguish and set the Scriptures' perfect balance, (or you could call it, "seeing both sides of the coin"). This helps triangulate our current position in this, our day and time in our existing season of grace, and reveals the placements and parameters that God's Word sets for His children, and I call this, God's Positioning Scriptures (GPS). Well, God is much higher up than our manmade satellites and, believe me, He knows where He and we are at all times, and we are assured of this every time we look into our handheld Bibles (GPS).

God's Word is structured perfectly to reveal His explicit Word and will; this is why the further back in time we travel into the Word, the more of our wonderful future proceeds to open up to our understanding. Once we locate some of these biblical parameters and visit them in their biblical orders, they will help us realize where we are in the Scriptures, then so very many, many things will effortlessly fall into their proper perspectives and reveal themselves in the light that God's Word has been shinning forth to us from within His Word.

Isaiah offers an interesting section of Scripture that encourages us to, "see, and know, and consider, and understand together," certain truths relating to the future Kingdom of Christ that when known will certainly give us, the children of God, great hope of expectation in today's world for our bright futures. As well, the Scripture presents many insights into how ornate and lively things were arranged for man in the past days of Eden.

Isaiah 41:18–20:
-18: I will open rivers in high places, and fountains {or springs} in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness {uninhabitable places having insufficient water supplies} a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.
-19: I will plant in the wilderness {uninhabitable places having insufficient water supplies} the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert {an even more uninhabitable place, having even less waters than the wilderness} the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together:
-20: That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the LORD hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it.

These day's fountains open up and spring forth in high places, while rivers begin flowing from these springs downward through their perspective valleys below, but in the future, these will reverse (verse 18), not in direction of water flow but in where they emanate. What an amazing prophecy, what exciting things to read and discern, and what a blessing it is for us to understand together that in that day we will see all of this come to pass because we believe in Hs-story today!

In verse 19, we have a promise that God will do something quite impossible because, "with God nothing shall be impossible" (Luke 1:37), as He changes parched, fruitless sands into moist, fruitful soils and a miracle grow of life will blossom without the use of chemicals or manmade watering systems. In the future, God will plant trees in opposite places that they could grow in today's world, even if they had a sufficient supply of water. God will plant trees that not only do not grow together, but also cannot grow in the wilderness or the desert climates of nowadays, and provides us with a window into some of the attributes and lushness that was in Eden.

Unbeknownst to so many people, prophecy is not limited to what some call, "predictions of future events," because all of the Scriptures are prophecy (without any exception). A great deal of prophecy is unmistakably and simply "forthtelling," i.e., a straightforward communication of actual truths, as the Scriptures are not only "foretelling" about yet-to-happen events, but straightforward information. For instance, "And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good" (Genesis 1:31); this section of Scripture is prophecy, but it is not in the least "foretelling" us of future events, therefore it is distinctly "forthtelling" us of a present, biblical truth. "Beloved, now are we the sons {and daughters} of God. . ." (I John 3:2); this is also a prophecy, though not about a future time or event either, but an eternal and ever present reality of right now, as John was plainly "forthtelling" us something very wonderful to bless us every time we would read this section of prophecy.

Then John 3:2 continues with, ". . . and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." This part of the verse is prophecy as well, but this section is "foretelling" us about our glorious future. You see, we do not and can not fully appreciate or comprehend what being a son or daughter of God will mean to us in the future because we have not been there or experienced it yet. Nevertheless, it is going to be great because as the Scripture informs us ― we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

At this moment in time, we are beloved and now are we the sons of God and this is very good, but in the future, all of the details of this goodly, anticipated reality will manifest itself "in us" because as the prophecy continues we learn that we will become just like him, hip-hip-hooray and yippee! Well, no words of mine could ever express our heavenly futures that hold us in such lovely esteem as being the essential and intricate members of His-story, "Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift" (II Corinthians 9:15).

Prophecy is "history," or even more so, it is His-story revealed; His-story which has happened or is happening or is yet to happen, as Numbers 23:19 confirms, "hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good," and the unequivocal answer is a confirmative ― yes, God shall make His Word good! God prophesies in Isaiah 55:11, "So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void {empty, useless}, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." So that whether prophecy is past, present, or future, it has, is, or will happen.

The Bible itself was never written to prove history (man's), but to reveal His-story (God's), as so often the two stories are running in opposite directions and views and rarely ever intersect, one demonstrating man's evolving and revolving door of destruction, and one illuminating on God's way of man's salvation through Christ. Whenever history and His-story intersect, man will usually find fault with God's version, leave one with doubts and skepticisms about the Bible, and laud to the skies the versions of man.

All the prophecies that are in the category of foretelling future events will eventually become fulfilled. In this present time, a great deal of the Bible's prophecies have already come to pass to the exact letter of the Word, proving and pointing out to us that the unfulfilled portions of prophecy must soon follow and be completely fulfilled down to every jot and tittle (Matthew 5:15). For just one example, God told Noah about the flood before it actually happened, that is His-story (prophecy); then the flood came just as God prophesied, that is His-story (prophecy) happening; and then the flood ended just as God prophesied, that is His-story (prophecy) fulfilled. The overall history of this world from its beginnings to its endings is already written in the Bible, and that is the fullness of His story; if one only knew and understood this and how to apply this knowledge to one's present and eternal benefit ― now that is His-story enjoyed today and forever days!

Isaiah 46:9–10:
-9: Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me,
-10: Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:

Date added, March 06, 2010

Isaiah 55:13 prophesies, "Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off." This verse is foretelling us about the future Kingdom of Christ, and God is revealing some of the differences between this age in which we live and some details regarding a future age. The thorn we are all relatively familiar with for they are everywhere, and if not everyone, then nearly everyone on earth has accidently brushed up against at least one and scratched themselves, but why mention Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree? The fir tree in the Bible is one of the three trees that are specifically mentioned as being in God's original Garden (see Ezekiel 31:8), and His Garden was ever green and ever colorful. Before the fall of man there was no fall or any of the four seasons, but things were in every respect paradisiacal.

At the time of Eden, trees grew without any thorns around them, and without the root systems from thorn bushes that could have chocked off the root systems of the trees from under the soil, as God, in the Book of Isaiah is promising (and thus prophesying) that He will again replant trees as He had planted in Eden. Also, at that future time, thorns will not be growing above the soil; this implies that man will have easy access to approach all of God's trees, plants, and all of His created life without concern.

In the Bible, fir trees offered man the particular type of wood that was very desirable for crafting many musical instruments. "Fir wood" is specifically identified in the making of five particular types of instruments that King David and the house of Israel played on before the LORD (five is the biblical number associated with God's grace). "And David and all the house of Israel played before the LORD on all manner of instruments made of fir wood, even on harps, and on psalteries, and on timbrels, and on cornets, and on cymbals" (II Samuel 6:5). And as you may know, many of David's Psalms were originally penned, then sung, or voiced to musical melodies, music that David and other Prophetic Psalmists wrote specifically to be accompanied on instruments of fir wood. In the future, we will hear these melodies just as they were originally composed and sung, oh what a day of hope we have been given to anticipate with expectation, "the singers as the players on instruments shall be there {on Zion, in Christ's Kingdom}" (Psalms 87:7). The fir tree represented to men, women, and children the sounds of joy, merriment, and grace as will be experienced in the Kingdom of Christ, because the earth will be without the hindrances, pains, or impediments of any thorns.

On that future day of Isaiah 55:13, the whole earth will be at rest, therefore, "Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice" (Psalms 96:12). And as the very creation will exist without any negative influences (no thorns), we are brought to the wonderful understanding that in Christ's Kingdom there will be peace and safety. In that age, man will live without negative or devilish influences that are, these days, intended to obstruct one's life, joy, and happiness, and nothing will obstruct the living creation from growing as it previously had in the Garden of Eden before man fell from grace.

Isaiah 14:7–8:
-7: The whole earth is {to be} at rest, and is quiet {i.e., the whole earth will become wholly at peaceful rest}: they break forth into singing.
-8: Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee {at you ― Wow!}, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down {in peaceful rest}, no feller {no man, beast, or thorn} is come up against us.

This is much more of a certainty than wondering off to the fictional Land of OZ, as in that dream world the trees threw apples, but in the future Land of Promise when the whole earth is at rest; then and there, the trees will serenade our complete serenity!

True, trees do not rejoice over you now (yet they do praise God – right now – Psalms 148), yet they (and all creation) do grow in pain together with humanity right now (Romans 8:22); however, as promised the trees certainly will rejoice over you in the future!

We can doubt that this could ever really happen, but listen to what Jesus once said, "stones would immediately cry out {in praise}" (Luke 19:40), and Jesus would not and could not have said this if it was not possible. Jeremiah 32:17 reads that "there is nothing too hard for thee {God}," and if nothing is too hard than nothing is too hard or difficult for God, and extra especially so if God's Word specifically says so!

If inanimate objects like "stones" could offer up praise, or "stones" could be turned into bread (Matthew 4:3), or "stones" could actually become the children of Abraham (Luke 3:8), then why not expect the living creation will rejoice at thee? Recall, Balaam had a verbal conversation with his four legged dumb ass in the Book of Numbers, chapter 22.

In the Gospels, Jesus spoke directly to trees and they obeyed him (Matthew 21:18 and Mark 11:18), and to the elements and they complied with his commands (Mark 4:4). In the future day of wrath, even the unbelievers will be compelled to speak frankly to the "mountains and the rocks {note: inanimate objects}" and request that they should fall on them (Revelation 6:16), Jesus' words will be fulfilled for them, "Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep" (Luke 6:25). Oh boy, glad to be a believer wherein we can request for much nicer things than the unbelievers will want and receive.

Believers today have an amazing promise from Jesus, "verily I say unto you {YOU}, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain {a relatively large inanimate object ― a MOUNTAIN}, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass" (Mark 11:23). Man, for the most part, does not have a clue how dynamic their lives could possibly become by simply believing without doubt. Even though we normally do not need to have mountains moved, why not, at the very least, believe to make it through the day with the favorable graces of God upon our lives, which at certain times in our lives would be as astounding as moving mountains into the sea?

The word for brier in Isaiah 55:13 (above) is unique; in the Hebrew Text, it is the word sirpad, meaning nettle. The Vulgate Text (the Latin Bible), uses the word urtica, for the word brier and is nettle yielding fiber resembling flax with "stinging stems and foliage." The most prominent member of the nettle family is the genus and species of urtica dioica, and are known as the stinging nettles, these types (of brier) are native to almost every continent, with dozens of varieties in trees, plants, and shrubs, and some parts of these can be used in herbs, medicines, textiles, and even as food garnishes. Studies of herbal medicines have shown that nettle can help to relieve gout, high blood pressure, hay fever, scurvy, and other ailments. To get any practical use out of nettle (or urtica) is somewhat labor intensive. However, nettle in all its variations and families will not grow in the Kingdom of Christ; there will be no need for what they offer man because the believers will be free of all their ailments and sicknesses as its members will be entirely whole (see Isaiah 35:1–7, above), and without any missing limbs or organs.

In the future, God will plant the opposite, the fir tree rather than the thorn, and the myrtle tree in exchange for all of the urtica dioica.

In the Bible, the myrtle tree represented quality of life enjoyed in peace and rest and the branches strewn on the floor released pleasant fragrances to remind them of this serenity. At that time, God will be man's complete provider in every category of life as He was at the beginning for "The Man" and "The Woman" (more on these two titles, later).

Isaiah 55:12:
For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

When this day of Isaiah 55 finally becomes a reality and the trees clap their hands, feel free to take a bow for believing God today, because you have made it through to the end, i.e., the new beginning, beginning with your applauses from the creation itself. And please feel free to break dance and join in when the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and enjoy the standing ovations!

Date added, March 13, 2010

On the new earth (Revelation, chapters 21 and 22); God will again give man a very special "tree of life," for our sustenance, joy, and for the healing of the nations. And no sly voice will ever suggest, "Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden" (Genesis 3:1), because every permission and courtesy will be awarded to you and yours and everyone who would desire to eat will be blessed with health, and when you have your health, then you truly do have your wealth! A most wonderful thing about this time is that this is the end ― but with a great turn of events in our eternity, because the greatest ending of all endings IS that there IS NO ENDING, and this, my companion, we are invited to and going into, to ever be with Christ our Lord, and with our heavenly Father!

Revelation 22:1–5:
-1: And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal {without ripples, and thus this will be a place of peaceful calmness}, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.
-2: In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river {of the water of life}, was there the tree of life {one tree growing on both sides of the river}, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month {Not one fruit per month or the same twelve fruits every month, but a tree with twelve different fruits every month, i.e., one-hundred and forty-four types of fruit every twelve months. Imagine staying a whole year to try every single fruit without losing even one minute of your eternal life.}: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
-3: And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him:
-4: And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.
-5: And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.

To taste those winsome fruits, to drink of that energetic water, to allow just one of those curative leaves to dissolve and delight the tongue, to experience that promised healing within; oh, the anticipation of it all coming into a present day reality! What a hope we have, what an exciting day to look forward to, as we definitely are a, "partaker of the glory that shall be revealed" (I Peter 5:1), and oh, how thankful we will be in that glorious, never-ending day because we believed this through these tremulous times!

In the future, the curse of the ground will be lifted; the thorns and thistles that began growing because of the fall of man and continue until now will be abandoned to a forgotten age as we joyfully live His-story in (and with) His fullness in our lives.

Today, man has memories of the so-called, "good ol' days," and he harbors fears of the approaching evils of the impending day of frightful darkness, but in the coming age with the personal presence of Christ, everything reverses. The terrifying days will all (and forever) be in the past, and wonderful enjoyments and great expectations will be our harbinger of the waking call at each new, exciting, and glorious moment of our eternities!

In these upcoming magnificent times, the poets and the lyricists will be compelled to restructure their verse of the rose to be without thorns as they were in the Garden of God. Wow, what a glorious day for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

In the fall, God said to Adam, "cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee" (Genesis 3:17–18). Still, as promised, a great and glorious day is coming when Revelation 22:3 becomes a reality and there shall be no more curse.

God will restore all His creation, including the extinct gediyyah that we looked at in Part One (above). I imagine that we will certainly be "giddy," yah, and very much elated on that day (and my wife is hoping that the gediyyah will be purple); in any case, we will see every living thing that has been lost to the ages.

Date added, March 19, 2010

God will also bring back the gopher tree from which the Ark was constructed, along with all of the trees, plants, herbs, etc., that God originally planted in His Garden at the East of Eden, and where He formerly had placed His lovely man and his beautiful bride! And then and there will be a new wedding between the Lamb and his bride (Revelation 19:7), and love, and peace, and joyful partying will be the guarantees of man's awarded, celebrated, and eternal life. However, in man's artificial ascent up into his own paradise (without his God), he pursues and attempts to achieve many of these wonders through his own cultivation, research, and technology, because his senses recognize there should be more to man and his world than he currently possesses or understands.

Now, as we are still on our way back to the beginning, let's return to Noah's Ark and pick up some more details. From the moment that they walked out of the vessel, the sounds of nature, the feel of the environment, and the look of life had changed so completely. They must have initially wondered why did the song birds begin crying in the dark, what had put the bees to flight, and why had the chattering, twittering, and cooing birds commenced mourning along with all of nature and man. The lions began roaring, and dog eats dog became the new normalcy of life, as the Prophet confessed, "Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter: I did mourn as a dove {thus birds do cry}: mine eyes fail with looking upward: O LORD, I am oppressed" (Isaiah 38:14). He must have asked himself, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death" (Romans 7:24), and when will the promise be fulfilled that, "the creature {creation} itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of {or with} the children of God" (Romans 8:21)?

His answer, our answer, is when Christ the Lord from heaven returns ― then, "mortality might {or rather "shall"} be swallowed up of life" (II Corinthians 5:4). And in Jesus' own visionary words, "Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh" (Luke 6:21), and oh, how deeply we do long and hope and need and desire for this glorious day of eternal laughter wherein all the losses of life and sadness of the heart will cease to exist. For then and there our heavenly Father answers our every question, washes our tears away in love, and all losses will give way to great and glorious gains when He presents to us our eternity wherein we begin enjoying a never-ending reunion with families, loved ones, and friends.

On this present earth, the same earth Noah drifted down onto, he witnessed, "The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God" (Psalms 104:21). Man and beast began thirsting for meat (or flesh) which became the new standard of life, rather than gazing at the wonders of life with the way it was and shall be again in the future when, "The wolf and the lamb shall feed together {again}, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock" (Isaiah 65:25). There is an age coming when all the stresses and worries of this life will cease, but for now, a hierarchy of the survival of the fittest abounds, and all life still functions this way to this very day.

To watch for instance, in a documentary or in person out in the field, a lion crouch up and take down, kill, rip apart, and eat another animal is not a picture of beauty, it is not a show of grace or a wonderful display of the powerful forces of evolution, oh good grief ― really? ― It is brutally cruel! "Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God" (I Corinthians 15:34). If you could actually listen to and understand the screaming pleas of the world's prey caught in the grips of vicious death, clearly audible, you would feel their heart-wrenching pains and be overcome with remorse and grief of the original sin. It is probably a very good thing that we do not understand the precise communications of the living planet, which could easily fill all the space ever made and reserved for sound. Rather than a thing of amazing beauty as some would have us to believe, this is actually a display of the continued manifestations of the sin nature and its enormous assault imbued onto all of God's (original) perfect creation. We have become calloused to its real, painful horrors and causes that are directly linked back to the day of man's fall from grace and his consequential exodus from Eden.

Originally, man, beast, and fowl; and beast, fowl, and insect; and fowl, insect, and man enjoyed a sense of communication between each other that encompassed a predisposition and a propensity for understanding and feeling each other's affections and needs that has become totally lost to that wonderland age of Paradise. Then, in those preflood days, this relationship was still in play but was to a much lesser extent as is evident by the fact that no part of the living creation was afraid of each other and the ease Noah had when filling the Ark with all the animals, birds, insects, and so forth.

These communication skills were a type of what people may refer to as being a sixth sense, but it was in actuality a heightened spiritual sense that has subsided into dormancy in this age. Since the flood and man's departure out of the Ark, the relationships between the beasts, man, and nature became utterly unconnected, disturbed, and completely foreign, although in the future this connection or "communion" – if you will – will again be reactivated by God.

Our companionship with the creation will (again) be much more than an inaudible whisper because we will have a clear, uninterrupted confluence of dialogues with all of God's creation. These days, humanity is not in the process of evolving upwards by any stretch of the imagination, but perhaps we could call it, "reversed evolutionary engineering," as man has been in a descent since his fall.

Yes, there really is something to be said about talking or singing to your plants as they do somewhat respond in kind, but what is missing is hearing them singing right back at you, and smiling up at you, and as Adam would approach them they would freely offer him their purest fragrances or their extraordinary abundant produce. However, this has not been seen or experienced since Eden, but thankfully, this will again be just as magnificent in the future as ever it was in the Garden.

In the water world, every living creation within could communicate much more so than the little that we can get out of the dolphins nowadays. The sea life along with the whales have shed enough tears since the fall to fill an ocean, and the creation itself has cried loud enough in painful agony that they could be heard out at the furthest reaches of the firmament. Mankind is not alone in his struggle against evil and sin because the entire creation took a severe hit when man fell, and we know that all of the past wonders that were will again begin returning with the second coming of Christ, and will be completed when God creates the new heavens and earth!

Date added, March 27, 2010

You may recall the time in the Gospels when Jesus was in the wilderness for forty days at the outset of his ministry, and he was "tempted of Satan" (Mark 1:13). Jesus also "was with the wild beasts" (Mark 1:12). Many people suspect that these wild beasts were chasing Jesus around for forty days as part of those temptations, but the Scripture does not support such theatrics. The word used for with is the Greek preposition meta, and denotes association and companionship with the wild beasts. Jesus uses this preposition meta in Matthew 12:30, "He that is not with {meta} me is against me," this certainly demonstrates that Jesus was with the wild beasts rather than them being against him.

Jesus Christ is referred to in the Bible as "the last {or second} Adam" (I Corinthians 15:45), and being in many ways as Adam was, Jesus was also born sinless, he was "the innocent blood" (Matthew 27:4), and his mind was as functional as Adam's was before he fell. Thus, the wild beasts were with Jesus to provide him with comfort and companionship through his torments, and therefore, there must have been some forms of real, heartfelt communications between Jesus and those wild beasts.

God provided Jesus with aid and comfort from His original creation of animals until the angels arrived and ministered to him some forty days later. How fitting, and how profound this had to have been for Jesus to be visited by the wild kingdom at the beginning of his life's ministry just as Adam was at the commencement of his life with the presentation of the animals (Genesis 2:19). We cannot fully grasp this companionship and communication that Jesus had to have had with those wild beasts, except perhaps if we have experienced the way our domestic pets and animals cuddle up and caress us in times of great distress. When we are saddened or under duress or terrified of something, our pets do seem to "sense" our "feelings" of hurt, or pains of loss, or fears, or when we are emotionally distraught, they seem to understand by providing us with comfort and solace at times. This is a semblance of what Jesus had experienced with those wild beasts.

Today it is said by the people who claim to know about these things that man is only using about ten percent of his actual brain power and/or his mental capacities. Some research indicates that we may use more than ten percent, but how much more is still up in the air. This fact in terms of man's theory of evolution does not actually add up to the supposed progress of man from a single cell to present day man, but rather displays a much lesser evolvement of our species. By the sheer logic of man's reasoning out from his (remaining) ten percent mental capacities, he must deduce that at one time in his past his entire brain had to have functioned or it would not have existed, evolved, and grown to such a size in the first place.

Thus and therefore, man must not be increasing or evolving, but rather and logically, he is decreasing or he would ever be growing into and using more of his mental faculties, because one cannot evolve upwards by going downwards as is evidenced by his shrinking mental capacities. Man's increasing fallibility is no evidence of evolution; one is not advanced by displaying more ignorance. It would behoove us to realize "the wisdom of this world {really} is foolishness with God" (I Corinthians 3:19).

In Genesis when God formed, made, and created man, He gave man the full use of his entire brain as Adam had a PhD in the knowledge and wisdom of this world and had advanced degrees in the practical applications of all of God's Word, in both its physical and spiritual applications.

We are told that studies have shown that if we apply ourselves by exercising our minds then we could cultivate and increase our memories. Still, even with the most diligent efforts one can only increase his mental capacity one or two percent. I know there are always exceptions as people do display more brain power in certain areas such as in math, art, or music. But man, without his God, cannot use his mind towards the purpose for which it was originally created. The mind of man was designed by God to hold and propagate spiritual wisdom, and that towards benefiting one's own personal life in his walk with God.

Today in grace, even with all we know and in all that we can learn, "we {still} see through a glass, darkly; but then {then when Christ returns and we see him} face to face {then, we will clearly comprehend}: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known" (I Corinthians 13:12).

Psalms 17:15 reads, "As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness." This is a future promise from God revealed to us by King David, a promise that many past believers had hope in; it is the promise to wake up (spiritually) and with all our mental faculties and with the likeness of the Savior. This future hope is promised to all believers who will awake, with thy likeness, as we will see him face to face, and we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

Philippians 3:21:
Who {Christ Jesus} shall change our vile body {our current humiliated bodies}, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body {the body that was raised from the dead}, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.

Date added, April 03, 2010

Jesus said, "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered" (Matthew 10:29–30). Nothing falls without God knowing about it. His watchfulness and concerns for us is beyond all human comprehension. "Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you" (I Peter 5:7). Matthew 10:29–30 is familiar to most of us, and I have heard it said that God knows how many hairs we have at any moment in time, and this is true, yet verse 30 goes way beyond those calculations, for God has actually numbered each and every one of our hairs! He knows which hair He has numbered one and all the way through to the very last hair. God's care and concern and vigilance over us is unfathomable in comparison to how we care for and think of ourselves, let alone Him. God has numbered the very hairs on our heads, and I'll lay wages that God even knows where each hair we have lost has fallen right down to the last split end and particle.

When God resurrects every single person who lived on this earth since Eden, He will find every particle of their dust in order to bring them to life, and thus He knows where they all are. This is a fraction of how well we will know and understand matters when Christ returns and we awake in his likeness, and this is not evolutionary but is revolutionary.

We will be able to comprehend everything we cannot grasp today, smell and taste colors, hear words and thoughts and emotions from across the universe, and understand all body language given off from every living entity in the new creation, because God will give us the full use of our original created minds. There has never been, nor will there ever be a fantasy written that could ever hold a candle to the bright and mighty reality that is absolutely coming! Jesus (our example) was able to comprehend unspoken communications and he was able to reprove people before they could speak their thought, "Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts" (Matthew 9:4)? Jesus not only "knew all {universally}," but he, "needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man {individually}" (John 2:24–25). Jesus instinctively understood peoples life's histories without any previous knowledge (see John 4:17–18, 29), and speaking of himself regarding his wisdom and knowledge, "a greater than Solomon is here" (Luke 11:31).

In the future, every question we have ever considered will be answered and every lost idea will be found and carefully rethought-out and brought to its most satisfactory conclusion. Proverbs 1:5 teaches, "A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels," and so very much of this hearing, learning, understanding, and wise counsel is obtained from the Scriptures. "Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning" (Proverbs 9:9). Yet our full understanding of all spiritual wisdom will not be complete until the return, but today, we who are in Christ, may grow in grace and in the knowledge and in the wisdom that God's Word does impart in order that we may become more gentler, Christ-like, God-nurtured, and inspired individuals!

This wisdom in God's Word, Jesus described: "the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life" (John 6:63), and this spiritual life contained in Scripture is more than sufficient to help us to pass through these days of our sojourning with meekness and respect for God and our fellow man. Hebrews 4:12 reads, "For the word of God is quick, and powerful," and the words quick, and powerful can be translated into the words "living energy."

Now when this living energy of God's Word is placed in the mind and heart of man it will begin stimulating our spiritual senses, and then as Jesus said, "blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear" (Matthew 13:16).

God's Word, on the spiritual side of life, was and still is designed to fill in and inspire the gray matter and keep one in the pink, "For God hath not given us {believers} the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound {or "whole"} mind" (II Timothy 1:7). "To whom he {Jesus} was not spoken of, they shall see {him}: and they that have not heard shall understand" (Romans 15:21). The spirit enlightens the spiritual senses, and just as we have five senses, Christians have access even today to our spiritual senses that we have been given in Christ. (For coming in touch with the spiritual senses, look up smelling in Mark 9:25, seeing in Matthew 3:16, touching in Mark 5:30, tasting in Hebrews 6:5, and hearing in Acts 9:4.) The Bible is filled with illustrations of the spiritual senses, and all for one reason, so that believers may become more in tune and in touch with spiritual understanding, so that the "eyes of your understanding being enlightened" (Ephesians 1:18), and as John wrote, "He that hath an ear {a spiritual ear}, let him hear what the Spirit saith" (Revelation 2:7).

The greatest thing God ever made was man, for we are His workmanship, i.e., His masterpieces (Ephesians 2:10), and man was originally placed in headship over the rest of God's earthly creations in Genesis. Initially God commissioned man on earth with "dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth" (Genesis 1:28), "Thou madest him {man} to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet" (Psalms 8:6). God said this, thus this must have been true in Genesis, and this would not have worked or have been true if man could not have had real communications with, first of all God, and then all the animals and so forth.

The reason why we do not have this ability to be understood by the living creation today is because of man's fall from grace. We are now deficient in our original thinking and communicating skills that had to have been a vibrant part of what is not being used today as it lays dormant somewhere in that ninety percent of so-called wasted space between the ears.

If one of Noah's over one hundred-year-old children would have gone down into one of the, "rooms {nests}" (Genesis 6:14), and play wrestled with the lions onboard the Ark, the lions would not have scratched or bitten him or anyone else for that matter. Lions were about as docile and cuddly as house cats, especially in comparison to how ferocious lions became from the moment they pranced in the animal parade out into this new world.

Date added, April 10, 2010

Minutes after leaving the Ark none of Noah's family would have been able to approach or pet or even want to encounter any of the lions and vice versa because their new nature began adjusting to what they are today. They became totally aware of their new predatory dispositions that were growing ever stronger until their new instincts and fears became utterly developed, and again, this is not evolutionary, but a total downgrade.

From that moment forward, all the predators including the lions ceased to eat straw like the bullock, while now lions moved up to the head of the class and will remain the head of all predators (excluding man) until the King of kings comes and sets up his new Kingdom in peace. Since leaving the Ark the lions became the kings of the animal kingdom, although some have claimed and promote that lions are not, God's Word says they are, "A lion which is strongest {the mightiest, supremely triumphal} among beasts, and turneth not away for any" (Proverbs 30:30). And as we quoted earlier, in Part One, we believers are to "let God be true!"

Any theory that is opposed to God's Word is set in direct opposition to God. If one wants to doggedly hold on to nonsensical theories ― good luck with that and please read Matthew 12:36–37. I do believe that God would be quite saddened to hear someone say, "You are not my Maker," and deny, "that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves" (Psalms 100:3). Psalms 95:6 reads, "O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker."

Wouldn't it be terrific if people studied and searched to prove the realities of God by taking honest delves into the Word of life, rather than trying or attempting to prove that He does not exist? After all ― God, "is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him" (Hebrews 11:6). And it would certainly be nice if some of us got these rewards in the here and now, and of course this would help believers to stockpile a little nest egg for their futures, "For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out" (I Timothy 6:7). Still, through our believing in God's Word today, we certainly will be placing heavenly treasures on the other side of the cleansing fires, because the Word lives and abides forever (I Peter 1:23), and this Word that we accept and believe today will reward us in the hereafter and thereafter, too!

In grace, in today's world we are encouraged to come to God's Word knowing in our minds that His Word is much more than just an adequate document that is nearly reliable, but so that we, "may prove {PROVE} what is that good {GOOD}, and acceptable {ACCEPTABLE}, and perfect {PERFECT}, will of God {WILL OF GOD}" (Romans 12:2). It is the Word that we believe and rely upon in this season of grace that brings us everlasting, heavenly treasures that cannot lose its value (to us personally), as Jesus taught us in Matthew 6:20 to, "lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:"

After the flood, God changed many of the dispositions of the animals from lackadaisical to ferocious meat eaters. Coming to understand this truth is much more beneficial than wasting time trying to figure out which of the cats or gorillas and so forth would actually win in a fight to the death, as a number of people waste valuable amounts of time contemplating over just these types of silly studies. Oh, well that's what a ($200,000 +/–) education can lead one to these days. (Again, I draw your attention to the FREE information in Proverbs 30:30, above.)

For the believer, when God says something regarding life, then that settles any and all controversies for us and puts things in their proper perspective and in the light of His creative and rewarding truth.

God found a way to humanity, to you personally; He sent you a Savior, and He sent you His Word, His will, His testament, and His-story about your past, present, and future, and it is man's turn individually to accept Him or not, and that is about as simple as this can be stated. Paul quoting the Book of Isaiah chapter 45 wrote, "So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God" (Romans 14:12), and oh yes, believe it or not, that day is definitely coming. I have so many questions and would love to know the answers. The Bible states, we see through a glass, darkly, and that is so true, and it is not a sin to want to know about life FROM God, nor is it a sin to have and ASK God questions (James 1:5), but it is to call God a liar. "Blessed is that man that maketh the LORD his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies" (Psalms 40:4).

Today in this season of grace, we are in the age of decision because in our day and time our destinies are in our hands; we can accept our salvation (Acts 2:40), our eternity (Romans 13:11), and have the right to be lifted above the wrath to come (I Thessalonians 1:10, and 4:14–18). We can escape out ahead of the consuming fires (II Peter 3:13), as Noah escaped the deluge of his day by believing God's Word, the same God and same Word we have to believe in ― in our day.

Date added, April 17, 2010

In the Ark, all the living from man, beast, and fowl to all the insects consumed only from the provisions that Noah stocked for the journey, which was fruits, vegetables, nuts, herbs, and all the growth produce that developed out of the good earth. Noah not only stocked the Ark with food that he and his family enjoyed eating, but he had to provide enough groceries to suffice the diets and appetites of every living herbivore that journeyed with his family. "He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man {service is a well fit word, in the Hebrew Text service is abodah, meaning to receive a personal benefit}: that he may bring forth food out of the earth" (Psalms 104:14). The herbs and the food out of the earth is all that Noah provided to serve and benefit his family and guests for the journey.

Today, when you look around on this world, everything you see growing are the offspring from the kingdoms, divisions, classes, orders, families, genus, or species of all that passed over the deluge IN the Ark because everything that was growing in the earth was washed away, completely, and died. (Recall our study of the two Hebrew words shachath and machah translated into our English word destroy). God instructed Noah, "take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them" (Genesis 6:21).

Within the individual species, once released from the Ark they were and still are evolving but only in the limited scope of shapes, sizes, colors, habits, diets, and geological locations, but no changing occurs from one species into another species or a transformation from one kind into something completely different. This goes for all the living growth life of plants and trees, etc., as you can have red roses, you can have many other colors, appearances, sizes, smells, and shapes, but a rose is a rose is a rose (Latin, rosa). And birds still make their nests just the same as they did the day they flew or walked out of the Ark, and beavers went to work damming as they still do, etcetera and so on.

From the time of the flood until now, we cannot find even one instance of the living creation evolving into different or new species or becoming something completely separate and departing out from their original family trees or designs and plans God implanted, formed, made, and commanded.

For now, we are looking back only to the time of the flood up to the present, but we are not discussing what may of transpired millions of years ago on earth, which we will be examining in this study.

From the flood until now, only theory but no evidence exists to prove that evolution has actually occurred within the timeframe we are looking into, and our questions and answers will come to us from God Who created the heavens and formed and made the earth that we inhabit. Isaiah 45:18 reads, "For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else."

It is true that life changes through time, and everything is ever adapting to its changing environment, climates, and circumstances, including plants, animals, insects, and man, along with all the other species from the original, living creation, and that many species can and have altered their basic habits over time. We do not dispute that new species are still being discovered; however, this does not mean these discoveries just appeared from absolutely nothing, like the so-called prehistoric fish, the coelacanth (pronounced SEEL-uh-kanth) that have been recently found still alive, insects are being discovered almost daily, and new plants and shrubs pop up now and again. They may have been unknown to us and thus never cataloged or seen or realized before or were thought to have died off, but if it is sea life, its origins are from Genesis chapters 1 and 2, and if it is earthly life, their origins are also from Genesis 1 and 2, though reintroduced into the world with their exodus from the Ark.

Thus, there is a limited form of evolution in today's world, but only in the confines that they evolved (at best) "sideways" (for a lack of a better word) and remaining within their species, but never upwards and departing outside of their species.

Still, in terms of "evolution," man and every living thing did not advance and did not progress upwards, but backslid and spiraled further downwards into more degradation and denigration from their perfect origins that began in God's Garden. That is the truth even though the diehard evolutionist cannot tolerate this, and do you know what, I do not care, I am more concerned with what God says, and what He will tolerate someday soon!

Recall God commanded every living thing to develop only "after its kind {Hebrew min, species, genus}," ten times He commanded this in Genesis chapter 1:11, 12 (x2), 21, (x2), 24 (x2), and 25 (x3), and what came first? The chicken – then the egg, the herb – then the seed, the tree – then the fruit, the whale – then the calf, The Man – then The Woman ― and then their offspring. How foolish it is to argue over these silly questions of what came first when God stated it for posterity so succinctly in His Word. Of course, those who study any part of the creative work of our God without the blessing of the Creator on their work studies will inevitably yield findings that exclude Him as they produce theories that do (and must subsequently) evolve outside of truth. These manmade theories will always lead away from the fundamentals of genuine light, but they will never be lead into the truth revealed in God's Word.

God is "the LORD GOD of truth" (Psalms 31:5), and without Him one is spiritually blinded and hindered from His truths; however, "he who blesseth himself in the earth {in his labor in a search for God's truths} shall bless himself in the God of truth" (Isaiah 65:16). Deuteronomy 32:4 reads about our truthful God that, "He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment {true, right, and just}: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he."

Date added, April 24, 2010

All of the substances that God originally made and that grew out of the earth had life "in itself" (see Genesis 1, and view the five verses offered above). What an awesome foresight by our God in first Genesis (oh, what another so-called, "lucky" find), because in the flood, "every living substance {i.e., living, standing things} was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground" (Genesis 7:23). A reseeding, a replanting, and a rejuvenating process of the living creation again began, as God instructed Noah, "Bring forth {out of the Ark} with thee every living thing {LIVING THING, not only the birds, animals, and insects, but all the living growth life} that is with thee" (Genesis 8:17).

When Noah had passed some time, oh let us say to one year after the flood, walking around and looking over the earth, every plant, every tree, everything that was growing was no older than that first year and the same for the second year and ten years and so forth. Today every living thing we see cannot be any older (excluding what was living and growing in the sea) than the age it was from that first day of Noah's evacuation of the living creation that was saved, preserved, and resided within the Ark. There are a few exceptions, like Noah, he was 601 years old when it was one year after he came out of the Ark, and his children and their wives, and whatever else they brought such as household items, some clothes, pots, utensils, the Ark itself, and perhaps other necessities.

Recall when Noah first offered the burnt sacrifices to God when he came out of the Ark into this new world, this, by the way, was the first time burnt sacrifices were prepared and offered and mentioned in the Bible. Picture this scene with me for a moment; God had given man the desire to eat meat (flesh) from the moment they departed out of the Ark, and therefore the smells of those sacrifices cooking and releasing its smoky aromas on the fire over the altar must have pulled on Noah's heartstrings, senses, and hunger pangs. Noah was a vegetarian for over 600 years up to this time, and I imagine that the sight of any carrion of animal or bird and their pungent odors would have been very repulsive to Noah's senses, his whole lifelong. Now all of a sudden – a change – Noah began noticing the smells of that very first barbeque in all of history, as he must have started sensing and even desiring those aromas of that new and compelling, sacrificial bouquet in his senses.

I imagine that Noah would have had great deliberation over those odors while thinking, "These scents are something I could want," because cooked meat all of a sudden became something very desirable to him. Those burnt sacrifices must have been driving him almost nuts, and I'm sure the sweet scents of cooking food made him craving hungry even while sacrificing to God. The point is, cooked meat became attractive to the senses and palate of man, just as flesh became something sought by all the living creatures that became carnivores or omnivores as they were making their way out of the Ark and migrating around the globe. In one sense, we could say that man has evolved from vegetarian to omnivore, but not upward, and thusly humanity along with the living creation went more off-kilter.

Noah was a man of God and obeyed Him implicitly or the world would not have been saved, and without God's overt, verbal communication to him, he would never have eaten meat, thus, God commanded, "Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you" (Genesis 9:3). With God's permission, He settled all the questions and concerns Noah must have had, and for the rest who would come after Noah's generation.

Noah (and humanity) being attracted to cooking food reminds me of a next door neighbor of ours who used to come over to the house with his own plate and utensils every time I cooked outdoors on the grill. You see, the smells alone drove him directly to our dooryard. God using the phrase, "we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ" (II Corinthians 2:15), represents to us just about the same thing to God as it did for my neighbor. You see, God is drawn to us through Christ our Savior, whom we have invited into our lives and hearts and who provides for us the sweet savour our God will always accept and notice. So no matter what we may think ― we do not stink to God, but we are a pleasure for Him to behold as He is attracted to His children by way of the sweet savour of Christ emanating from within us.

"Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour" (Ephesians 5:2), and because Christ is in us yielding a sweetsmelling savour we are encouraged to, "Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you" (James 4:8). This is the hope of our calling (Ephesians 2:18, and 4:4). It is now our opportunity to turn towards, "a better hope . . . by the which we draw nigh unto God" (Hebrews 7:19), and when He is drawn to us and we to Him, God uses the analogy of the sweetsmelling savour of sacrifice as He is appealing to our basic, genetic, and natural senses while revealing to us a spiritual reality. "My God," what a wonderful opportunity we have been given to understand and enjoy a savory relationship with our heavenly Father through Christ that will be eternally fulfilling.

Imagine this, that without giving humans the desire to notice the assorted aromas of foodstuffs by giving us the longings for the wonderful smell of cooking foods, (not to mention the cornucopia of wonderful other fragrances), God could never have used or even implied such phrases as we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ or that we are a sweetsmelling savour in Christ. These express God catering to man's basic (or primitive) omnivorous instincts that He gave to us in the first place after the flood, so it is not a sin to desire or partake of meats. To refuse meat is a personal choice and it is not against God, see Matthew 15:11, Mark 7:20–23, Luke 24:42–43, Acts 10:11–15, Romans 14:13–15, I Corinthians 8:8, and I Timothy 4:3–5.

How many more things pertain to this life in which we find ourselves that are prearranged and/or are foreordained by our God? This alone should bring our thinking process to further consider how many more things, still unknown to us, has God done for His Masterful Creation of man to help lead us, individually, further into His ways. It seems that the further away from God man wanders, the more intense God is actually reaching out to us. LOOK, grasp this ― God offered man His living, breathing creation of birds, fishes, and animals, and by doing this, He stepped outside of His original plans of the Garden life for man to demonstrate the extent of His love and desire to preserve us.

The more the earth deteriorates, the more the living creation has to adapt its behaviors or compulsions to adjust. If we run out of something, we improvise to get by as we go along making ends meet. Plato once coined the phrase, "Necessity is the mother of invention." This is so true in nature and in the affairs of man. This behavior is not, in the strictest sense of the word, that we are "evolving," but rather that we are "surviving," and this is precisely what the living creation itself is doing all around us out there in nature to fulfill their created purposes; as the Scripture explains, "Thy will be done." The adapting of the living world around us many people deem to title "evolution," which is nothing more than rubberstamping the continuation and further advancing of the original, great scam, i.e., the swindle of the ages, that produced and still fosters unbiblical concepts that always (has and always will) lead one away from God's Word, His love, and direction.

In evolution, one does not stem from or need God.

The unbiblical concepts of the theories of evolution produce an illusion; a strong hallucination of disorganized ventriloquisms calling out from every conceivable direction and concept and steeped in utter vainness that deceives man into thinking that he actually is evolving into something he cannot possibly ever become, and that is self-developing, self-evolving, and self-changing. The further one goes into the "theory" of evolution, the further away one axiomatically goes away from the truth of God's Word, as they are opposing each other, God in doctrine and man in theory. Man cannot evolve himself by sheer wishing him up into being something he was not formed, made, and created to be by his Maker. Man is not able to live onward (or forever) in his so-called changing state, which biblically is a fallen state of trespasses and sins. He may believe he can change his ultimate destiny, but the truth is that he cannot modify God's Word by recomposing himself into something he wishes to become no more than he could eat cheese off the moon's surface no matter how yellow or delicious it may appear to him from earth.

Acts 17:24–28:
-24: God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands {there is a great lesson here for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, Ephesians 2:19–22};
-25: Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;
-26: And hath made of one blood {not "one blood TYPE," but one source or origin from whence his lifeblood came} all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation {our beginning to our end, see Isaiah 46:9–10};
-27: That {the reason} they {people, you and me} should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:
-28: For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets {deep thinkers} have said, For we are also his offspring {i.e., deep thinkers who have earnestly labored to conclude that all humanity must have originated from one Springhead ― from God, in Whom we live, and move, and have our being}.

Interesting to notice that the Apostle Paul was up on Mars Hill in Athens when he orated the above teaching; this place was where some of the world's smartest minds came together to discuss, reason out, lecture, debate, educate, and write as they gathered to further understand and brainstorm and contemplate on the secrets of the universe. The collective intelligence of "certain" of these learned men were the so-called poets that Paul was specifically referring to, as they had concluded that humanity were indeed the offspring of God (as apposed to evolving, I will add). These men were not just sitting around trying to make words rhyme or to construct verses about flowers and matters of the heart or of the tragedies of life, rather they earnestly were engaged in understanding and unlocking the keys that would reveal some of the mysteries of the universe. Some of these learned, esteemed men were, "certain philosophers {Greek, philosophos, from "philo loving" and "sophia wisdom"} of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks" (Acts 17:18), as God was at the center of conversations of many of these question and answer sessions when they reasoned out that something greater than just happenstance made everything.

Oh, why have the majority of the collective chairs of educators fallen from this esteemed outlook on life when man loved the search for the origins that come from The One Fountainhead, from "the only wise God" (I Timothy 1:17)?

The belief in man's theories of evolution is to believe in a myth that can only live and grow in the heart of the dream world of fantasy, ever consuming time with terminal philosophies by denying God and refuting His power and His creativity and shunning His Word. This is the same old primitive hoax that the Serpent (Satan, Revelation 12:9) used in Genesis to scam man out of his blessings, as the Serpent pried Adam and Eve free of their perfect standing with their Creator, and this was achieved (by the Serpent) in the guise of man's self-gratification and glorification. They believed to never die because of their actions in disobeying God. They believed they would be as wise as God was, however, this ruse denies God His place in one's heart and the result of their actions banished them and their progeny from a life on Paradise.

Man has been ever trying to advance back to his original standing, but without his God, and he has and still is failing ― miserably.

Following the original sin, Adam and Eve both through their self-gratification hid themselves from God. They did not become wise as the lie suggested, they did not live forever as the Serpent told them, and they did not become as gods as the false hope promised, and they accepted the lie and were banned from Eden, and lost their personal fellowship with God.

This was the consequence of accepting the lie, it always has been, and it will always be the consequence. Instead of being nurtured by the hand and breath of God and rather than being enabled to freely eat, being the intimate children with God caring for them in every aspect of their lives, they were expelled and had to feed themselves, work the land, being made subjects to the new and downward course of this world. Man began struggling through life, "For the creature {the creation itself} was made subject to vanity, not willingly" (Romans 8:20), for it was imposed on them by their actions. Man had to hope that the land, the good old earth would continue providing in God's stead; this was what they were subjected to as well as their progeny.

It is a hard pill to swallow for some people, but the earth itself began sustaining man in the direct absence of God, and thankfully, God had made the creation with "life ― in itself" or man would have died off right there and then (another lucky break?). This was God's providence and His prerogative. God with graceful compassion ordered the creation itself to continue onward after the fall of man, however, the creation itself is in its eleventh hour because of sin; the earth itself has peaked, and is producing less, time itself is running out, and at a much faster rate than we may realize, and we are indeed approaching the last days. The end is near, and it doesn't take an Environmentalist or a Prophet to realize that we are advancing, unstoppably towards the end conclusions.

Grace was (and still is) favor, unearned and underserved favor from God. It was grace that saved humanity from destruction, grace is what Noah found, grace is what saved the world, grace is what brought you and me back to God and His gracious Word. And in grace is where we will continue (in Part Three), while we take an exhilarating look into those big beautiful eyes of God, just as Noah had done years ago back in Genesis.

The Creation versus the Theories of Man

Part Three (three of five)

A Backward Glance

"One Thing I Know, That, Whereas I Was Blind, Now I See" John 9:25

Date added, May 14, 2010

By Larry M. Jaynes:

There is always a reason and a purpose for why God commands, inspires, or instructs, and the way of all life is in the design of God to fulfill His purposes. Jesus said of his Father, "Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10), and in Psalms 135:6 we read, "Whatsoever the LORD pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places."

Psalms 119:89–90:
-89: For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven.
-90: Thy faithfulness is unto all generations: thou hast established the earth, and it {still} abideth.

Please be aware that God is also apprized of everything that is going on in this world, such as the shifts in global changes, and for many of which changes God has already made provision. God also knows how destructive the human race often is to one another and to all of God's creation and how detrimental man is to the world's environment.

True, we do not understand everything that is going on and all too many things are not perfect or right on earth because there is still the Devil and wickedness in all corners and spheres. Good and evil (NOT good OR evil) are still working in a parallel dichotomy, to and fro, in and throughout all of life, as Paul stated in Romans 7:19, "For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do." We will have to deal with the rivalry of good and evil for now: "I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was {also} there; and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was {also} there" (Ecclesiastes 3:16). Job confessed, "When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I waited for light, there came darkness" (Job 30:26). Proverbs 15:3 reads, "The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good." So when we say or wonder, "If only God knew about all the evils in this world," well, He knows, as He sees all, and He has a recompense to be given out, but at a place and time of His choosing (Luke 21:36; and Romans 14:12), and it is not up to us to decide what, how, when, or where.

Ecclesiastes 6:1 informs us that, "There is an evil which I have seen under the sun {i.e., meaning it is seen everywhere}, and it is common among men." Ecclesiastes 7:20 reads, "For there is not a just man {or woman} upon earth, that doeth good {all of the time, 24/7}, and sinneth not." Indeed, there are just {righteous} men upon earth, there are just none who always go about doing ONLY good because of that evil thing (good and evil), which is always tugging on man's inner weaknesses and causes him to falter now and again. However, each and every believer has forgiveness available to him or her 24/7 (see I John 1:8–10, below) to help them individually become more than conquers in this life! Now I know that a good deal of "just" men and women claim that they never sin, but the truth is, "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23), yet God continues in the next verse, "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." Even though the believer still comes up a little short from time to time, God gives him or her justification and His grace.

I John 1:8–10:
-8: If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
-9: If we confess our sins {to God} he {God} is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
-10: If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Although good and evil are both manifested and common among men, anything that can be used for good intentions can also be used for evil purposes. Take a lifesaving instrument such as a scalpel; it can and certainly has been used to save lives, and there is no need to mention what one could do with it in the wrong hands. Take the most purest quality man has, that being his innate ability to love and accept love, yet have you heard that love stinks, cuts like a knife, is cruel, pricks like a thorn, causes pain, disrupts lives, and even destroys some? Our most basic need to love and be loved has a flaw built right into it and, as we know, some people are terrified of love and do not want to take the chance of ever being in love so they will not get hurt by love. Thankfully, God gives the believer His love through the spirit, and the love of Christ that has no negative effects built into it ― it is a higher, spiritual, and most pure, heavenly love, and Romans 13:10 promises "love {God's spiritual love} worketh no ill to his neighbor" (I Corinthians 13:1–13; Ephesians 3:17–19; and I John 4:7–21). God's pure love can only be used for good, for uplifting, for encouragement, for inspiration, and it can even be used to conquer over evil and over one's fears.

Jesus taught us "out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts" (Mark 7:21), and thoughts are the foundations for all human actions. However, for the Christian man and woman, when the love of God is introduced into their hearts (Romans 5:5–8), then this heavenly love helps change their mindsets to produce good thoughts that can literally overcome evil thoughts, and thus love can definitely change the behaviors of man. God's love inspires believers to be pleasing to God, love enables His children to "overcome evil with good" (Romans 12:21). This kindlier love is often translated in the Bible into the word "charity," and charity, "thinketh no evil {NO EVIL}" (I Corinthians 13:5), because God's love produces the lovely fruit of love (Galatians 5:22). You see, love is "after HIS kind" ― God. The Christian with God's love in his or her heart can become a genuine lover, of God, of fellow men, and of self, for it is impossible to think evil through the eyes of God's spiritual love, and therefore, as promised, "Charity never faileth" (I Corinthians 13:8).

Jeremiah 29:11:
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart {and thus He can know it}. I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings" (Jeremiah 17:9–10), and, "the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil" (Ecclesiastes 8:11), and as well, "out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts" (Matthew 7:21). The thing that changes all this is receiving God's love and basking in its delights. David prayed (as we can), "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me" (Psalms 51:10), as only God can supply one with, "another heart" (I Samuel 10:9), and this creation within is love-filled with the desire to walk with God as our fellowship with Him grows in the light of spiritual love. God encourages, "be renewed in the spirit of your mind {this is the renewing of the right spirit within}; And that ye put on the new man {the spirit within}, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness" (Ephesians 4:23–24).

Date added, May 22, 2010

One major question that most people have is, "How come God does not intervene when things go amiss, when evil is about to strike someone down?" Most of our Bible authorities have vague and/or conflicting answers that are downright confusing, and some are quit lame when thought out. Through this series, we will give you some very clear answers that will satisfy those concerns.

(FYI, the human race has Adam and Eve to thank for good and evil prevailing in today's world, as the evil and the good is what they sought, is what they desired to have, is what they partook of, and unfortunately this is what they also earned and received for themselves because of their disobedience (Genesis 2:17, 3:5; and 22). Good and evil are opposing forces that produce a never-ceasing instability, forces a never-ending state of flux, but the spirit of (or from) God and His love is man's great equalizer. It was never man's idea to be good or bad, man was originally made to be always righteous and perfect, and without any conflict or inequality. Our first parents allowed all of the unrighteousness of sin to enter in this world when they chose the Serpent's word over God's Word. God warned that if they disobeyed their one and only commandment that, "thou shalt surely die" (Genesis 2:17); the Serpent promised, "Ye shall not surely die" (Genesis 3:4). Only one told the truth, only one lied, but the Man and the Woman chose the lie and they reaped the results. Their eyes were opened, and they knew good and evil as an indwelling reality, the same reality of good and evil that still flourishes in today's world. The evil and the good is what has been passed on down through the progeny of man, as Jesus in his own words tells us, "the flesh is weak" (Matthew 26:41), and as the flesh is weak so also became the offspring of every living thing "after its kind," that was initially created in complete perfection.)

However and thankfully, a wonderful day is coming when sin will end, when only righteousness will prevail, and when the constant struggle and inner conflict with good and evil terminates, when man will not wrestle with his so-called inner demons and when the "sin which doth so easily beset us" (Hebrews 12:1) will be easily set aside ― forever. And then, at that time, only the best, life, peaceful rest, and righteousness prevails and lives on and on through eternity. And thank God, we are invited to participate in this by our accepting the completed work of our Savior, Jesus Christ!

Some Christians seem to think that all of the sin of the world was dissolved when Christ died, they could not be more wrong, only Christ himself conquered sin, death, and the Devil, not the entire world of sin, until he returns. Yes, when Christians walk in Christ, they have a refuge, forgiveness, and inner spiritual strength to be more than conquerors in this life, but the nature of sin still thrives in the flesh and saturates the entire world. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (John 3:6), and so long as we are in this body we have all its tendencies and weaknesses. However, when we become born again of the spirit, then we also have the tendencies and strengths of the spirit (John 3:3; I Peter 1:23; Galatians 5:16–26; and Ephesians 6:6). If Christians would just lift their heads up out of the sand and simply look around (or within), they would realize that sin still reigns mostly unhindered throughout this whole world (and it is getting worse, Philippians 2:15). Sin will reign on this earth until the Devil, death, and hell are cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:10–14). So there is something beyond death and hell ― the lake of fire. While the believers' end reads like this, "Ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life" (Romans 6:22).

John 6:40:
That every one which seeth the Son {perceives him either in person or in the Scriptures}, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day:

I John 3:8 records, "For this purpose {or To this end} the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy {Greek, luo} the works {Greek, ergon} of the devil." Many Christians read this verse and assume that the works of the devil were destroyed, and that the Devil is presently subjugated to live a lowly existence in and around the fires of hell with his pitchfork in hand and a pointed tail, awaiting his trial while tossing others into the unquenchable fires. Of course, these concepts are totally unscriptural, and are founded upon the errors of satanic-infused conceptions because man is, "giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils" (I Timothy 4:1).

This notion of the Devil's destroyed works totally voids out all so many Scriptures, for instance, I Peter 5:8–9 reads, "your adversary the devil, {whose adversary? YOUR ADVERSARY; as all Christians have a personal Savior, they also have a personal Adversary, and that Adversarial Devil is} as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist." How can one resist what is destroyed? This clearly shows us that the Devil is up and about and into no good deeds, while he is still looking to trap and to devastate and to devour! "And that they {after they "acknowledge the truth," II Timothy 2:25} may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will" (II Timothy 2:26). One cannot have all of this freedom of will to meander about setting traps and capturing people if one is, in fact, locked up in hell and his works are already destroyed. In truth, if the Devil's works were completely destroyed, then nothing of the Book of Revelation can ever happen when the Devil "supposedly" will wrack and ruin and destroy, but this must transpire or he will never be totally defeated and then thrown into the lake of fire as is promised in God's Word!

The Greek word in I John 3:8 for destroy is luo, meaning to loosen, to unbind, to unravel or to untangle, and the Greek word for works is ergon, meaning deeds, actions, or the things wrought. The purpose for this verse is to show believers that the Son of God uncovered or exposed the Devil so that we could see how he operates, "for we are not ignorant of his devices" (II Corinthians 2:11), but if we think he is in hell, then ignorance of his devices truly abounds. Ephesians 6:11 encourages, "Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles {methods} of the devil," yet if he is in hell, then who needs any armour, let alone the whole armour of God, as His Word requests? The belief that the Devil's works are destroyed is a scam orchestrated by the Devil himself to cause people to imagine that he is sitting around in hell, and thus out of sight and out of mind, which is a lie; it is his lie because he is still setting traps, still devouring, and still at large.

The Son of God uncovered him so that we could be aware and defend ourselves from his evil intentions. The Greek word luo is first used in the Gospels when John the Baptist said, "There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose {luo}" (Luke 17). John was not suggesting that he was unworthy to destroy Jesus' shoes because that is just plain stupid as luo does not imply destroy and it is wrongly translated destroy in I John 3:8, where luo should have been the English word unloose, or to unbind, or to unravel or to untangle. One loosens a shoe only when taking it off, and in Jesus' day they wore sandals, no stockings, thus when the sandal comes off, the whole foot is exposed. In I John 3:8, we are to know that the Son of God has taken off the cloak of secrecies that the Devil once moved in and this has been removed so that we can perceive his motives, his true evilness, as is evidenced through observing his dreadful deeds (ergon), that are confirmed for us throughout the Scriptures.

Date added, May 29, 2010

Ephesians 4:8 reads, "When he {Christ Jesus} ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men." This verse literally means that Christ captivated devilishly-empowered captivity that otherwise could have held believers captive, including all the spiritual forces of darkness that would have normally defeated the believer; these have all been nullified in Christ. To be in Christ is to know the truth and to not have accepted the lie that the Devil is destroyed, because when one imagines that he is destroyed, then the Devil can confidently work his devastating and captivating will. The meaning of led captivity captive relates to the Roman's triumphal procession, as the victors would parade their captives before the cheering citizens of the empire. As the victors would display all the spoils of war and present them as gifts to the emperor, Christ also had done the same with the spiritual forces of darkness, for he defeated them for us and exposed them to us in the Word, and then he gave gifts unto men ― to believers!

Colossians 2:15:
And having spoiled principalities and powers, he {Christ Jesus} made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

Jesus not only exposed the works of the Devil for us, but he has given us power to tread over spiritual forces and triumph wherever we are and in "every place" we walk, for God in Christ has made us to be more than conquerors (Romans 8:37–39).

II Corinthians 2:14:
Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us {you and me} to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.

Psalms 139:8–10:
-8: If I ascend up into heaven, thou {God} art there {with me}: if I {happen to} make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
-9: If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;
-10: Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.

Jesus triumphed over the evil in the world and gave us his ability to overcome evil as well, through our "believing faith" in him as our triumphal Savior.

I John 5:4–5:
-4: For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith {believing faith}.
-5: Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?

God in Christ Jesus is in us wherever we go, and with them we have victory, victory that overcomes the world (John 16:33). When the thought arises to either do your best or take the easy road and buckle under a pressure and take the simple way out, think about that you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you (Philippians 4:13), and sure enough, you will be empowered to succeed (Ephesians 1:19; 3:20). You can "mount up with wings as eagles" and soar into victory as I Corinthians 15:57 promises, "thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." This is the permission and commission you have been given through our Lord Jesus Christ, and in following through with Jesus' instruction in John 14:12, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father." And do you know what, he has gone unto his Father (Mark 16:19), and so we can ― do!

Isaiah 40:31:
But they that wait {not wait as one who stands around, but one who is waiting and simultaneously serving} upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

They that wait upon the LORD become those who joyfully serve the LORD, and Psalms 59:9 gives us a good reason to wait upon the LORD, "Because of his strength will I wait upon thee: for God is my defence." The benefits received for serving the LORD are tremendous, for these believers shall renew their strength and they shall be uplifted with the light of Christ within and spiritually awakened with God's strength. The believer shall mount up with wings as eagles to soar upon high with spiritual insight that will bring us ever closer to our God, as He said in Exodus 19:4, "I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself." Oh, what a joyful and uplifting experience!

Another benefit for serving the LORD is that the believer shall run with endurance and not be weary, as Galatians 6:9 promises, "let us not be weary in well doing: {and why?} for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." The believer shall walk moment by moment and day by day with the LORD and with our Savior forming lifelong habits via the inspiration of God working within, that lift the individual believer up and out of the trenches of despair, and thus they need not faint.

Believers have a heavenly source from which to renew their strength; strength to mount up with wings as eagles, strength to run without fatigue, and strength to walk energetically and wholeheartedly with the power of Christ in their lives.

Recall Philippians 4:13 encourages that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. If we are really going to believe this verse ― it will take some action on our parts because believing is a verb that signifies action. When we believe on what the Word encourages, then all kinds of things that used to defeat us, things that seemed too big and appeared unobtainable suddenly seem to become reachable because Jesus said "all things are possible to him that believeth" (Mark 9:23). And, since Jesus has exposed the Devil for what he is, and we know that Christ in us is greater ― we can come to realize that most of the things we feared and overcame us were (and are) in fact the foul breath of that roaring lion or his traps he set to capture the unsuspecting believer. But now thankfully, we can say in confidence, "Bye-bye, you old Devil, get under my feet and stay there while I follow my life's dreams and succeed (Psalms 37:3–6)."

Romans 16:20 reads, "And the God of peace shall bruise {crush} Satan under your feet shortly {thus, not quite yet}." What is interesting about this verse is that we have the words the God of peace used in contrast with the words bruise Satan, because in order to have everlasting peace as an eternal reality for man, this will take the destruction of Satan. Satan embodies all of the contrasting elements of the God of peace. Never-ending peace cannot coexist while Satan is at large, and therefore one must go, and thankfully, it is not going to be the God of peace. God's Christ defeated Satan for the believer of today and when or if the believer will walk with the truths of God's Word in their lives, then they can be more than conquerors over Satan and his works.

One of the future rewards for the believer who rises above satanic influences is that he or she will have the awesome privilege, being members of Christ's body, to crush (bruise) Satan underfoot. Hebrews 2:8 informs us that, "but now we see not yet all things put under him" meaning that even today Satan and his evil works are still up and about, but the believer has been enabled to rise above the works of Satan until he is finally bruised underfoot.

Date added, June 5, 2010

Now who is Satan? I propose this question because all too many dictionaries, theologians, and ministers have an erroneous interpretation as to his real identity, even though the Son of God has already exposed him to us in the Word. Some say that Satan is one entity, while the Devil is someone or something else altogether, and the Adversary is another being, and the Serpent is even another. The Bible shows us that they are all one and the same. Revelation 12:9 reads, "the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan," and Revelation 20:2 confirms these four main titles as being one and the same entity.

The different names for him in the Bible all display his unique attributes and behaviors displaying separate characteristics. For instance, the name the dragon is used for the Adversary's consuming vehemence that he uses in the realm of spiritual warfare (Revelation 12:7, 17). The old serpent is used to articulate to us the Adversary's sly, crafty characteristics when introducing lies in exchange for truths, just as he introduced lies to Eve in the Garden of Eden that contradicted God's Word (Genesis 3:13, II Corinthians 11:3). The name the Devil applies to the Adversary's direct, headlong, or hands-on meddling in worldly or human affairs (Matthew 13:36–39, Luke 4:5, and Revelation 12:12). The name Satan is used in the Bible to express the Adversary's indirect dealings (Luke 16:23) when he is hiding behind the scenes while pulling on unseen strings, often using people, the environment, and horrific worldly events to shield and conceal his true identity and motives (Luke 10:18, and II Corinthians 11:14). Satan has been so successful at concealing his true identity since the time of the Gospels that most people in today's world are completely unaware of his movements, and why would they be aware? They think he is destroyed or sitting in hell or is totally powerless. This is more than evident by the fact that the whole world blames God for Satan's destructive acts around this world.

Also in Matthew 4:1 we read that Jesus was "tempted of the devil," showing us where temptations originate. In Matthew 4:3, we are given another name for the Devil ― the Tempter who in this instance tempted Jesus with self preservation, encouraging him to turn stones into bread. The name Tempter is in reference to being lured away from the truth with a lie fashioned to save yourself at any cost. If you hear someone say, "I had to lie to protect my good name," we can see the self-preservation here and the Tempter at work. Jesus expressed in John 8:44, "for he {the Devil} is a liar, and the father of it." A lie always lures one away from the truth and the father of lies is the Devil ― lurking under the auspices of the Tempter, thus God exposes for us that "no lie is {ever} of the truth" (I John 2:21). Although many imagine that God tempts His children, the actual Word of God declares different. James 1:13 records, "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man."

Recall in the Gospels that the Devil himself personally showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world in Matthew 4:8–9, although Jesus turned and rebuked not the Devil who showed him all these kingdoms, but Jesus rebuked Satan in verse 10, and then we read that, "the devil leaveth him" in verse 11 (after rebuking Satan). This exposes the truth that Jesus was tempted by only one entity although we have been given two of his names. This lesson uncovers for us the subtle characteristics in his name, as the name Satan (hiding behind the environment) was used in an attempt to extract from Jesus the worship of the creation in exchange for worldly power. Worshipping of the creation is a link that leads directly back to Satan who was hiding within or behind those worldly kingdoms (more on the worshipping the creation in Part Four).

In Genesis 3:14–15 we read that the Serpent (who we now know is Satan, the Devil, the Dragon, the Tempter, and the Bible gives us many other names for him but these will suffice for now) would bruise the promised seed's heel, which prophecy became fulfilled when Jesus was crucified. Then we also read that Christ, this promised seed, will bruise the head of the Serpent; this has yet to transpire, but when it does, the believers will have an intricate part as we read that the God of peace shall bruise, or rather, crush Satan ― his head, his power, and all his authority under our feet shortly.

When we put on the truths of Christ by placing God's Word on in our minds, then we will understand the true spiritual knowledge that is within the Word, and the thoughts revealed therein will give men and women true spiritual understanding with heavenly glimpses of God. "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind" (II Timothy 1:7). When we renew our minds with the mindset of putting on the words of truth, then, we will begin to enjoy a spirit-to-Spirit connection with our God, one that gives us spiritual power and love that is empowered by sound biblical and spiritual thinking.

Romans 13:14:
But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ {in our hearts}, and {then you will} make no provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.

To make provision for the flesh is to make excuses for not being victorious with a God given desire or promise, such as putting on the Lord Jesus Christ in your mind, which is to have his ability in you to be the best person for the tasks that are daily laid before you. You can look at this as your golden opportunity to tread over your Adversary who does not want you to be successful in any of your endeavors, and extra especially, if your goals are in a God-inspired adventure. For an example, a task is before you, but you begin thinking, "oh well, I do not really need to do that," then regress to thinking, "I cannot do that," to a further regression to imagine, "it is actually better not to do that, and in fact, I really do not want to do that because no one can really do that." This is as Jesus said in Mark 14:38, "The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak." All the while, the spirit within was given to help us become ready conquerors, bringing about victorious living as is realized and brought into reality through active believing towards our goals and desires in this life.

With the entrance of good and evil (the manifestations of the sin nature) into and over this earth, even when the sun is shining and things appear sort-of right, they are not so perfect because they are fleeting, and when things look like they are sort-of perfect, they are not so right because they are temporal. The whole creation is groaning together with man in anticipation for another day (Romans 8:22–23; and II Corinthians 5:1–4), beyond today (Philippians 3:20–21), further ahead of that coming wrath and the day of great darkness (Zephaniah 1:14–15), hereafter, beyond the millennium of Christ (Revelation 20:1–3), and is reaching henceforward outward to that great and glorious day when God creates anew wherein everything will be perfectly right (Revelation 21ff), rather than just sort-of mostly – not so bad – from time to time okay!

A rightly perfect and never-ending day is coming, a day where no strife exists, no death consumes, no opposing concepts of good and evil will undulate to and fro through our day to day lives, and only "life and immortality" (II Timothy 1:10) reign supreme within the entire creation. And then and there, the complete manifestation of the sons and daughters of God shall absolutely live together in joyful harmony and safety in the heavenly home of the Creator and on earth and everywhere between the newly created heavens and earth.

Date added, June 12, 2010

When we say everything in nature is running as per God's plan, that is true, still everything is in a state of default and is in a downward spin, and the reason is sin, sin is the effect of man's fall from grace. The Serpent was the original cause who infected and spoiled Paradise and, eventually, the whole world. Eve was the catalyst that carried it to Adam (I Timothy 2:14), and Adam became the fulcrum that lifted it to all the living (I Corinthians 15:22), as he (with The Woman at his side) was the head of this earth until the fall (Genesis 1:26, 28; Psalms 8:6; and Romans 5:12ff). "And the devil said unto him {Jesus}, All this power {from "all the kingdoms (from microcosms, plants, and all the way through to the kingdom of men) of the world" Luke 4:5} will I {the Devil} give thee {Jesus}, and the glory of them: for that is delivered {DELIVERED} unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it" (Luke 4:6).

We know that Adam had these dominions in Genesis, but here in the Gospels, the Devil was offering them to Jesus! How frightening is this reality? You see, Adam had it, now the Devil has it, or he could not have tempted Jesus with it. The Devil is as powerful today as Adam was in Genesis, and this is the reason why man is so very much diminished from his original standing, as he originally chose good and evil, and that over the "good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God" (Romans 12:2).

There is a schism in the schematics of life itself since the fall of man; we notice life's tragedies in all life forms (that did not exist in Eden, as we shall further see), in their trials, in their errors, in their adaptations, in their mutations, and in their failures that are relentlessly ongoing and are unpreventable. (These some deem as being proofs or evidences of "evolution"). Psalms 34:10 reads, "The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger." Even with all the provisions God provided, the sin nature is relentlessly overcoming this world, poisoning, destroying, and killing everything at a much faster rate than it can adapt and recover; even man begins declining usually by age thirty which is a far cry from eternity that Adam originally had.

The truth is, everything (in the entire universe) is hanging on a bare thread that is ever stretching to its veritable limits, that at any second could break and release all the air out, that could collapse gravity, that could nullify all the laws of the universe, the natural, the physical, and the spiritual. The only thing holding everything together is the grace of God and this is the very best that He could offer man and the world ever since Paradise and man's fall from His perfect grace. We cry, "Oh why, why do we die?" Humanity cannot believe it is because of sin (rather, he confesses, "It is not sin, it must be something else, its evolution, its anything else, but not sin"), "sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death" (James 1:15), for sin is the cause ― death is the effect, manifested sin was the root, manifested sin is the fruit. "For since by man came death" (I Corinthians 15:21), and this is why the Apostle stated it was sin that "deceived me, and by it slew me" (Romans 7:11).

Every germ, virus, pest, everything that seems not to fit, sitting out of order, had an original purpose, and even though some have gone amuck, they are still trying to function, ever adapting, or mutating, but the disbeliever touts that, "If there really was a God, He would not have made anything detrimental for His man or His creation." Therefore, he concludes that there is nothing up or out there to believe in or accept, not understanding that "The earth mourneth and languisheth" (Isaiah 33:9), and all because of sin. Psalms 82:5 reads, "They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: {not knowing that} all the foundations {plates} of the earth are out of course {are moved or are displaced dangerously close to ruination," "the foundations {plates} of the earth do shake"― Isaiah 24:18}.

The "course of this world" is now set by the "prince of the power of the air {another name for the Devil}" (Ephesians 2:2), and this power was delivered to him when man fell from grace. Man by his confessions of disbelief of God becomes stranded all alone on this unstable, and out of course earth, and unfortunately, this is right where the Adversary wants him, and he is totally unawares. And thus, "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God" (Psalms 14:1), "Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker" (Isaiah 45:9), and "Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices" (Proverbs 1:31). What this doubter is unable to fathom is that it is sin and the sin nature that is producing the defunct mechanisms imprinted onto the blueprints of life. God did not do this ― Satan did, his evil fingerprints, darkness, and foul stench has permeated all over God's creation.

Man says, "Not so," but men were created to walk with and love God and fellowship with Him, but (please ask yourself this) do all men? No, and if not all men do, well then why can man not realize that this disruption and disobedience has wicked through and stained all of God's creation? I will tell you why man cannot accept it ― it is because he will have to abandon his wrongful thinking, as Jesus said in John 3:19, "And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light." Some people just cannot accept the truth, and as Paul taught us that some people, "received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved" (II Thessalonians 2:10), and thus they are stranded in the doldrums of life.

Job 12:24–25:
-24: He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth, and causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way.
-25: They grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man.

"The earth also was corrupt before God" (Genesis 6:11), however, there is a wonderful day coming when the entire creation will again be purely perfect, when the curse and corruptness of the earth itself ends, "cursed is the ground for thy sake {i.e., because of Adam!}" (Genesis 3:17) "And blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen" (Psalms 72:19). Habakkuk 2:14 promises, "the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea." This does not happen by door to door campaigns, but by resurrection and a newly installed Kingdom. Hebrews refers to this exciting day, "And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for {BECAUSE} all shall know me, from the least to the greatest." And on this day the corruption in the earth, and the corruption in man will have subsided, and everyone and everything will rejoice in the glory of the LORD.

Date added, June 19, 2010

We look down into society, oh yes, right there sin and its nature are at the bottom, at the underpinnings of all societies, and it rises to its apex in one and all the closer we look. Man cannot wash it off, wipe it out, take a pill for it, or relieve its pains. Man cannot drink purified water and clean himself of it, or exercise it away, because it is sown into the fibers of his very nature as it is flowing through his life's blood. (This is not to say we do not do our best to take care of our earthly tabernacle where we carry Christ in us!) "For the life of the flesh is in the blood," "For it is the life of all flesh; the blood of it is for the life thereof" (Leviticus 17:11, and 14). But men say, "Sin is not in nature, it is only produced or replicated in the activities of man." Still when man looks closer and deeper, oh, yes, there is something down there that is undetectable to the naked eye and no matter how much one magnifies the view, there is something decaying and is wasting, destroying, and is dying and/or killing everything, and that something is sin; the motions of sin brings forth death.

When we look at the most beautiful, perfect person in the whole wide world, oh I don't know, how about looking at me :) as an example. The closer you look, the more intently you observe, the more flaws you will find because the more you look the more faults :( will surface – its true, its built into all of life – everywhere. The only perfect constancy on this entire earth at this time is God's Word (Romans 12:2), and Christ's spirit (Romans 8:1ff) in you (Colossians 1:27–28), and as Solomon came to realize, all else is vanity of vanity!

Man says, "Well, everything is just returning back to its original state," it is a part of life in as much as death is a part of life, a no-brainer science theory. Not so fast, death is not a part of life, it is the express opposite of life, and it is a stinking, rotten enemy! Yes, science can explain how we gain and lose nothing of the elements, but God said this, first, and made a Law for it, "for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return" (Genesis 3:19, and see Ecclesiastes 1:6–7). BUT before this pronouncement, before sin entered into this world (by man's disobedience), this was not true, man was to live forever as God gave the dust of man ― "the breath of life" (Genesis 2:7), and nothing was to be returned.

Yes, so long as Adam and Eve did not break their one and only commandment, God had no return policy in place. "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity" (Ecclesiastes 12:7–8). Recall, "Everything that was introduced in the Book of the beginning will come to its fruition or its conclusion as is explained to us in the Book of the end." This is one prime example of created life, though affected with the effects of sin, it will be cleansed and again live onward through eternity, "The last enemy {ENEMY} that shall be destroyed is death" (I Corinthians 15:26). Even elements that would take a million years to return to their original compositions, could return in the blink of an eye if God so chose, as He will make all things right, sound, and perfectly righteous, when the enemy ― death is finally destroyed in the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14).

Isaiah 40:26–28:
-26: Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.
-27: Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over from my God {that God has no clue what we are doing or what is going on in this world}?
-28: Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding {by man}.

Searching His understanding is something man should do, for He knows more than man, and in truth, even "the foolishness of God is wiser than men {and all his theories to explain away the Word of God and form a better thesis}; and the weakness of God is stronger than men {and all his strength to advance and create a better world or universe for his fellowman and for himself}" (I Corinthians 1:25).

Isaiah 40:12:
Who {God} hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span {God's measuring devices, i.e., His ruler and compass and scale, etcetera}, and comprehended the dust {every particle} of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? {Hey, man ― that's heavy.}

Jeremiah 33:22a:
As the host of heaven cannot be numbered {by man}, neither the sand of the sea measured {by man, yet God did, see above verse}. . .

Of course, the answer to all of these questions is GOD, it is He, and He alone, Who has done all this! "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" (Genesis 1:1).

Isaiah 42:5:
Thus saith God the LORD, he that created the heavens, and stretched {is stretching or is expanding} them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit {life} to them that walk therein:

Did you know that Adam was not the first man in the Bible? It is true, and in fact, there are no men in the Bible, no women either, there is none to be found living in there, as well there are no trees, and no creation, a Canaanite has never run out of my Bible, it is just words. But Adam was the first man in Eden, on this earth; it is not a fictional story, like the song we mentioned in Part One (above) about the animals going into the Ark two by two, as man's wisdom so often trivializes God's Word as though it emanates from the kiddy land of fairy tails. Rather then, as we are distinguishing the differences between truth and error, the Bible is the document of man's survival and handbook to life ― this life, and to the next.

The mass of the human body is made up of just six major elements ― oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus, and lesser amounts of potassium, sulfur, sodium, and magnesium, and at least trace amounts of copper, zinc, selenium, molybdenum, fluorine, chlorine, iodine, manganese, cobalt, iron, lithium, strontium, aluminum, silicon, lead, vanadium, arsenic, bromine, selenium, cobalt, and perhaps even other lesser or misunderstood particles. Do you know what elements in the human body are also found in soil? Well, all of them, but not all of the elements of the soil are found in the human body. Still, it is God Who gave life and consciousness into that mass of elements and gave it life, Job 33:4 reads, "The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life." Psalms 119:73 reads, "Thy hands have made me and fashioned me," and "there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding" (Job 32:8).

The elements returning to dust, back to their original forms, is the result of the original sin. Sin itself is spiritual, and thus sits just outside of man's sensory perceptions; no magnification can show man this sin, for man is banned to only his five senses (that is, man without God in his life). But God reveals the sin of the world throughout His entire Word and Jesus Christ exposes sin (John 16:8–9).

The Word, and Christ relieves believers of sin consciousness by giving them the spiritual life of Christ, himself (Romans 5:1 through 8:39), which is our treasured pacification from sin and its results until we receive the fullness of our changed, perfect, spiritual bodies. We know we are redeemed (I Peter 1:18), and this is a present-tense reality, as the Bible explains.

However, that is not the full measure because we are waiting to receive even more, as Romans 8:23 explains: "And not only they {the entire creation is also waiting}, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit {to know}, the redemption of our body." You see, even though we who believe, "are sealed {with the first fruits of the spirit} unto the day of redemption" (Ephesians 4:30), we still must be patient until Christ returns and we receive our changed, redeemed bodies, and the old body with its sinful nature is forever dissolved.

Ephesians 1:13–14:
-13: In whom {in Christ} ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
-14: Which is the earnest {i.e., this spirit is a token, a little bit or a small portion, the earnest} of our inheritance until {UNTIL} the redemption of the purchased possession {you!}, unto the praise of his glory.

Today we have and enjoy our "treasure in earthen vessels {this is the token}, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us" (II Corinthians 4:7). In the flesh we are, "vessels of wrath fitted {or ready for and ripened} to destruction" (Romans 9:22), but thankfully we also have God's honored treasure in the heart of our hearts, "All the ways of a man are clean {right or just} in his own eyes {whether true of false}; but the LORD weigheth the spirits" (Proverbs 16:2).

God weighs the thought and intents of the heart (Hebrews 4:14), and He notices His treasure, "That good thing {ah, this is so much better than a "no good thing," which we will look at momentarily} which {that good thing} was committed unto thee keep {in you} by the Holy Ghost {holy spirit} which dwelleth in us {IN US}" (II Timothy 1:14). God has given us the first fruits of the spirit to hold us over until we receive all that is promised us, and this holy spirit is our immediate connection to both God and our Savior, as well as providing us with more power and strength then the Devil possesses. (See study titled, Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge, dated June 19/2010 on our News and Updates webpage for a perspective of being in Christ and our treasure within.)

Date added, June 26, 2010

If we were to look down into just one insect species or colony, and observe how busy they are, we would observe they are ever adapting to whatever is left to them to work with (especially after man is finished mucking up the works). They are not just busy for the sake of being busy, but for the sake of man, as this is their created purpose. They are doing everything they can possibly do to keep themselves alive, with one worldwide unity of purpose amid every other living thing, and that is so they can take care of this earth. The earth is in support of man, and the living creation is working for God for this very reason; serving as earth's caretakers and are in God's personal stead.

As God was over man as his provider, the creation is now under man as his provider. Some of the living creation has to alter their original habits over and again to accommodate their commissions, and continually adapt to the world we are making and leaving to them, but all is for man directly or indirectly, implicitly or explicitly. The living creation is not developing up (or evolving) to anything more than to fulfill its created purpose, they are not trying to overtake and surpass one another by mutating into higher species, and absolutely they are not trying to surpass man, for man is their very reason for being.

Take away man and the creation has no purpose for being. If we take just one thing away from them that they consume, recompose, or need, well then, they will be compelled to find a substitute; it may not be as good, but it is survival. If we disturb their environment, they will get along with what is left to them or move somewhere else or go extinct, but they will go down trying to fulfill their purpose with all their God-given might for as long as they possibly can, for God, for man ― for his survival.

The birds are still making their nests just as they did when they flew out of the Ark. Even though birds may be using yarns, strings, plastics, twigs, pieces of wire, or an assortment of other trash to construct their homes, they are still working exclusively for the benefit of man, but with a continuous heavier workload as this earth deteriorates.

This is all being done by them to show and give (provide) man with the best possible chance to make their way up to God's grace, "That they {you and me} should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us" (Acts 17:27). You do not find grace by knowing or looking up its meaning, and cannot find grace just because you can read about it in your Bible, as anyone, even sinners of the highest magnitude can read the Bible (and often do), but you find grace when you feel its presence, begin enjoying its uplifting delights in your heart, and follow its path that leads you to the harbor of your heavenly Father's love, and His refuge given you in Christ from the storms of this life ― then grace, true heavenly grace appears in abundance!

Oh, something imperfect is at work on every level and in every field and it is a part of the same diabolical system that was introduced with the fall of man, and even though man cannot see what is really wrong, its effects are evidenced through the manifestation of sickness, decay, or death woven into every facet of life. We blame it on man of today and/or on his recent careless wastefulness, and we claim that we can fix it, that we can make a paradise; why, we have become so bold that we say that we are destined to colonize and govern ourselves out in the universe. We say this because we believe that we have evolved enough to scheme that big, and because we think we can do so we should do so, as another tower of Babel concept is reemerging, though in a different costume; same shrouded story, just printed on newer paper, and cloaked with different terminologies.

Our way out of this corrupt world is not with a spaceship, but is with our fellowship with both God and Jesus Christ (I Corinthians 1:8–9, and I John 1:3, 7). And if truth be told and seen for what it really is, we would learn that the whole living creation is working in the support of man on earth only because God still loves the world, while man is ever working towards its utter destruction. Only God's grace can rescue man from falling headlong into the approaching abyss, and not all men, but those who will accept the truth of the Gospel and redemption that is given us through the "gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ" (II Thessalonians 1:6–10)!

"For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not" (Romans 7:18), as Jesus exposed, "the flesh profiteth nothing" (John 6:36). Man tries so hard to perfect that no good thing; he is relentlessly selling and buying and using almost anything under the sun to help that thing along and hopefully keep that thing living longer so that thing can buy more stuff to keep the whole cycle of recycling himself going. This seemingly endless circle continues because, how to perform that which is {really, truly, and honestly} good I find not.

God says WE cannot perfect the flesh, and He went so far as to tell us this in no uncertain terms in His Word, saying that it is a no good thing so that we would not put any stock in it, but He can and will restock us by changing our bodies when Christ returns (I Corinthians 15:51–54, and Philippians 3:21). For now, God is vested in us greatly, by placing the seed and spirit of His Son into our hearts, by giving us His Word, and by showing us how to live with these good things in our lives as they help aid us through today's world until the return and the redemption of our bodies (Romans 8:23).

Philemon 1:6:
That the communication {i.e., the fellowship} of thy faith {believing faith} may become effectual {may become actively energized, But how?} by the acknowledging of every good thing {Good Thing} which is in you in {or from} Christ Jesus.

We are in the family of God and have Christ within; and coming to know this privilege is acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. Our heavenly Father is continually blessed with His eternal family (Ephesians 3:14–21). The more we learn about Jesus Christ, his sacrifice, his death, and his resurrection as Christ Jesus and the subsequent new life that God gives to us in Christ, then ― the more we will be able to walk with our heavenly Father equipped now with understanding. Peter wrote, "the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus" (I Peter 5:10), and "Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus" (I Peter 5:14). We are endeared and endowed with Christ "In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Colossians 2:3). This is the "hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world {even began} unto our glory" (I Corinthians 2:7), and is given to us, today, so that we may be empowered to boldly walk in the knowledge and power of Christ Jesus, our risen Lord and Savior.

Date added, July 3, 2010

The origin of the blame for that no good thing rests solely on Adam and Eve, and its hope of complete restoration rests wholly on the Savior of the whole world, who "taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29), and that is the truth, and, may I say, "Thus saith the LORD!" Recall God has given us a "good thing" (II Timothy 1:14), which is the holy spirit. Man's earthly DESTINY is linked to Adam and is tied to this decomposing earth, "For as in Adam all die" (I Corinthians 15:22a), but man's heavenly ETERNITY is linked to Christ Jesus and is tied to his perpetual, heavenly home, above, "even so in Christ shall all be made alive" (I Corinthians 15:22b). "And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly" (I Corinthians 15:49). In Adam, we all will die (and a little more each day, "though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day" II Corinthians 4:6), however, in Christ, we all will live, "For now we live, if {since or when} ye stand fast in the Lord" (I Thessalonians 3:8).

Christ was foreordained before Adam, though came after Adam in order to redeem us from Adam's fall, from sin and its decaying nature, and Jesus accomplished this so that he could bring us unto God. This is what Jesus was referring to when he said in John 8:58, "Before Abraham was, I am," for he was prophesied (see II Timothy 1:9 below). John the Baptist also made mention of Jesus, "saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me." "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins {not his sins but ours, II Corinthians 5:21}, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened {made alive} by the Spirit" (I Peter 3:18, see also Romans 4:25). As well, Jesus identified himself as being the, "Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty" (Revelation 1:8). You see, we have "hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised {when?} before the world began" (Titus 1:2). Man, without Christ, is grounded only in Adam, and destined only to his ultimate destiny of a temporal, earthly life; but man with Christ is called into an eternal life, and a heavenly destiny.

II Timothy 1:9:
Who {God} hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works {no matter what we do}, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before {not after} the world began.

Man's calling into grace was in the mind of God from before this earth began, and so even though we have our earthly identity in Adam and have inherited by birth an inborn sinful nature, God called us into a new life with a new nature; this is the purpose of the ages. You see, Jesus Christ "was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you" (I Peter 1:20). In grace, thankfully, we have our heavenly identity in "Christ, who is our life" (Colossians 3:4). Today in grace we become born again into God's heavenly family, receiving what the Bible calls "the new man" (Ephesians 2:15, 4:24, and Colossians 3:10), which is Christ in you (and me), and this gives us access to a new heavenly, divine nature.

The new man is received and enjoyed through our finding and then accepting God's grace as we become spiritually linked to eternity through our Savior. "Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet {worthy} to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son" (Colossians 1:12–13). "And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life" (I John 5:11–12). I did not write this, it is God's Word, and that is what He declares, if we have the Son ― we have eternal life!

Date added, July 10, 2010

People question why God allows such and such to occur when catastrophes happen and people get hurt, suffer pain, or are killed. Some religious people try and explain this away by suggesting that we just cannot understand God or His ways. But we have seen who is in control of this world, and that is the Devil (who has the power of death, Hebrews 2:14), he offered Jesus all the wealth, the kingdoms, and the glory of this world. "In whom the god of this world {this is not our God, the Father of Jesus Christ, but he who offered Jesus the world, and who has dastardly, future plans, II Thessalonians 2:4, and today he} hath blinded the minds of them which believe not {still so very true}, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them {and bless them for ever}" (II Corinthians 4:4). The truth is, Jesus did not want this world or he would have accepted the Devil's offer (who is the god of this world), because Jesus knew, just as we are learning, this world's ending, as it will become too hot to handle, so-to-speak, when all "the elements shall melt with fervent heat" (II Peter 3:10).

John 18:36:
Jesus answered {Pilate}, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence {though he will have a kingdom for a thousand years, and then a permanent, eternal kingdom on the new earth}.

Jesus knew what we are coming to understand, "know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God" (James 4:4). This does not mean to hate where we live and everything about the world, oh no, but it means to rise above the course of the world (Ephesians 2:2–3) by believing in Christ and walking with God (Ephesians 2:4–22). James is stressing that we should not be accepting the extended hand of friendship offered by this current evil world which is attached to the mind, will, and purposes of the god of this world. Paul taught that we (humanity) were, "sold under sin {i.e., sold down the river}" (Romans 7:14); this was man's deathblow which expelled him from Paradise, and it was during that time when the god of this world received the worldly powers that Adam formerly received from God. Adam was in ownership and had stewardship of all the power, glory, wealth, and kingdoms of this world, but now Satan possessed all the authority that Adam was originally given by his Maker, Who "madest him {Man} to have dominion over the works of thy hands" (Psalms 8:6).

Recall, the Devil said to Jesus, "All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me" (Luke 4:6). You see, it was sold over to him by Adam and Eve (for they were joint-owners ― Genesis 1:28), however, they accepted the lie that they shall be as gods. This is so very unfortunate and deeply sad when you think about it because they already were like gods as they were given dominion over the works of God's hands. Thankfully, as we also know, Jesus Christ bought us back, by the price of redemption, that specifically being his life's perfect blood (Matthew 27:4, I Corinthians 6:20, 7:23, and Ephesians 1:7, 2:13), and therefore we are not under the blinding powers of this world's course if and when we decide to walk with God.

Thankfully, Jesus did not worship the Devil; he came to destroy him and his work, rather than attempt to regain this power back for man. Why? For that power was now contaminated and tainted with evil and devoted completely to darkness and destruction. Jesus would bring to man newer and greater heavenly power that would aid believers into their "desired havens" (Psalms 107:30), and destroy the earthly, devilish works that the Devil's power produces. By the light of God's Word, Jesus totally exposed the Devil for the first time in all of history (since Adam and Eve) so that the believers could finally recognize the Devil to be the parasite and the destroyer he really is throughout this world. The Devil crafted and introduced sin into this world, and forged the keys of hell and founded his kingdom of death. Finally, in Christ, believers could receive enough spiritual power so they could reign supreme over the Devil, and escape, yes, completely escape his subduing power of sin, hell, destruction, and death, and give man the ultimate gift, a refuge from the storm with power from on high.

There was a song years ago, that sung something like, "Stop the world and let me off," and the only way this can biblically happen is to get on board our fellowship with God in Christ, then we are on our way and off to eternal bliss. In I Corinthians 15:57 we read that God "giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" and with this victory we become the overcomers of this world and this will bring us into the next, "this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith" (I John 5:4).

I Peter 1:18–21:
-18: Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;
-19: But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
-20: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world {before Adam fell}, but was manifest in these last times for you,
-21: Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.

We know that this world and age of satanic influences are temporal (thank God), and we will not want to go down with that ship when it finally burns away into nothingness, and is destroyed in the burning abyss of the lake of fire. Our God has never stopped sending humanity help, Noah for one, all the Prophets, and God so loved the world that He sent help in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ (and if God so loved the world, John 3:16, then why would we want to hate it) even though we know what people in the world did to Jesus? Well, they did not bake him a cake; they crucified him, but in truth, God did send help, and every time help comes from above, man, as a whole, refuses it wholeheartedly. We are Ambassadors for Christ (II Corinthians 5:20), with diplomatic immunity on this earth, as long as we walk in His ways (I John 2:1–11), and then and there our help comes.

Today in God's grace, God's help is a personal connection between God and the individual who has accepted Him through Christ. Since the time that Jesus Christ was rejected and crucified by this world, God's help in this age of grace comes to the individual believer who has accepted Christ's sacrifice on their behalf. True the world still cries that God does not care, but the truth is He so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son. God's love, through His Son, reaches the individual believer who is reaching out to Him and makes the spiritual connection.

Date added, July 17, 2010

The Christian usually explains that the Jews killed Jesus and the Jews claim the Gentiles killed Jesus to shift the blame out from either group. But the Bible clarifies they all partook in killing him, as this is the nature of sinful man. The Gentile Romans were the instruments and the Jews were the instigators. To find him today we must recognize that we have (spiritually) died ― with him, and if we cannot go there, we will miss his help, and the present day reality of him in our hearts completely, as he is still (right now) the help God sent. When we become saved, we are – with him; when he died, we died to this world – with him; when he was raised up, we were risen up – with him; when he was seated at God's right hand, we were seated – with him; and then from there, from our elevated position – with him – we can see him working in our lives. The natural-minded apostate Christian dwells almost entirely on sin and its nature and does not find the forgiving qualities of the new man within that is trying to get out and uplift him in today's world.

Ephesians 2:5–8:
-5: Even when we were dead in sins, {God} hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
-6: And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
-7: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
-8: For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

We are saved right now through grace, but the riches of His grace are reserved for a little later, and that is to be God's kindness to the extreme, kind of like bringing out the good desserts after all the unwelcomed guest leave the premises, as God will then lavish us in the riches of His grace. In Romans 4:6, we read that, "we should walk in newness of life," because we were raised up with Christ. This is a godly perspective and spiritual point of view that God's Word continues revealing repeatedly to His children. With this perspective, we may walk in Christ right now with a new and vibrant relationship that God's Word reveals to His children. Colossians 3:1–2 informs us that, "IF {or Since} ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection {minds} on things above, not on things on the earth." Paul taught, "That I may know him {Christ}, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings {this includes all that we have been looking at on this webpage}, being made conformable {i.e., like Jesus was} unto his death" (Philippians 3:10). "And if {or since} Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit {in you} is life because of righteousness. But if {or since} the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken {energize, uplift} your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you" (Romans 8:10–11), well praise the LORD!

Colossians 2:11–14:
-11: In whom {in Christ} also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands {because it is spiritual, See Galatians 6:17–18}, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:
-12: Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.
-13: And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;
-14: Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross.

The natural-minded man has a difficult time to imagine what Jesus meant when he talked about plucking out an eye or cutting off a hand (Matthew 5:29–20), or a foot (Matthew 18:8), in order to enter into heaven. Not understanding what the Spirit was revealing, some well-intended but very misguided people have literally followed Jesus' words, and plucked out or chopped away only to discover nothing had changed for them, except for the fact that they made life much more difficult to get around. But in grace, the believer is to recognize something so much more than a hand, foot, or an eye. He or she must reckon themselves completely dead to this world with Christ, and thus dead to sin with Jesus, and totally severed from the old self, and yet risen again and alive unto God as being a new creation in Christ, a new man or woman in Christ with newness of life spiritually flowing though their soul, mind, heart, and strength. "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature {CREATION): old things are passed {or passing} away; behold, all things are become{ing} new" (II Corinthians 5:17). What you bring to the table is nothing of the old nature, for in grace, Christ washes it all away (Revelation 1:5).

Romans 6:4–14:
-4: Therefore we are {were} buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
-5: For if {since} we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also {raised} in the likeness of his resurrection:
-6: Knowing this, that our old man is {was} crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
-7: For he that is dead is freed from sin.
-8: Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:
-9: Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.
-10: For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
-11: Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
-12: Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
-13: Neither yield ye your members {such as an eye, hand, or foot} as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves {the whole raised person IN Christ} unto God, as those that are alive from the dead {Wow}, and your members {your faculties, everything that makes you ― you, that is with the risen Christ now within you} as instruments of righteousness unto God.
-14: For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

The Bible refers to all those that are alive from the dead as being "spiritual" (I Corinthians 2:15), for they have "the inward man" (Romans 8:6, and II Corinthians 4:16), who resides in their hearts ― this inward man is "Christ in you" (Colossians 1:27). Having Christ within means that believers may experience and enjoy, "the hidden man of the heart {Christ in you}, in that which is not corruptible {i.e., totally separate from that NO GOOD THING}" (I Peter 3:4), for believers have the "incorruptible" seed of Christ (I Peter 1:23). "But though our outward man perish {reckoned as dead}, yet the inward man {the Christ within} is renewed {raised and living in the knowledge and power of Christ's resurrection} day by day" (II Corinthians 4:16). Believers become more and more renewed by placing God's Word in their minds day by day, as Paul wrote, "For I delight in the law of God {delighting in His Word} after the inward man" (Romans 7:22). For the inward man builds up the believer from within as he or she renews their minds to the Word of God (Romans 12:1–2), which allows this new man to shine with effervescence, enabling us to easily reach out and build up one another with the love of God (Ephesians 4:15–16).

Recall from above, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature {CREATION): old things are passed {or passing} away; behold, all things are become{ing} new (II Corinthians 5:17)." Without coming to a true, spiritual understanding of the new creation within and your new identity IN Christ, it is impossible to truly recognize the real condition of the old physical creation WITHOUT, i.e., the temporal condition of the cosmos and the creation of everything and everyone that lives therein. To truly discern the prehistoric era that God's Word reveals from the fictional prehistoric errors that men of today pawn off on us, let us take a walk on the risen side of life with him who "is risen" (Matthew 28:6, Mark 16:6, and Luke 24:6). We can walk with him who is the Bright and Morning Star (Revelation 22:16) because this Star arises within our own hearts (II Peter 1:19), and then from our elevated view, truth (which trumps theory) and reality (which trumps speculation) become perfectly clear.

The old creation currently exists in the ever-present fallen state of sins (the original sins). Yes, there were TWO original sins:
1) The original, rebellious sin of Satan (who was once named Lucifer, the star of the morning), which sin as the Scripture reveals, first ensued in heaven and his sin has hemorrhaged throughout the entire cosmos as he destroyed one-third of the original stars (intricately revealed throughout this study). "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son {or star} of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground {from heaven to earth}" (Isaiah 14:12, also see Revelation 12:4).
2) The original, rebellious sin of man, which sin as the Scripture reveals, first ensued on earth in Paradise and his sin has hemorrhaged throughout the entire earth (intricately revealed throughout this study). "For as in Adam all die" (I Corinthians 15:22, also see Romans 5:14).

Thankfully, God will create "a new earth" and "new heavens," and these (along with the born again believers) are reserved for the true hope and purpose of the ages and world without end (Ephesians 3:21). "For, behold, I create new heavens {heavens ― plural, to include a new cosmos (or firmament) with new stars and planets, etc.} and a new earth" (Isaiah 65:17, also see II Peter 3:13). The new heavens will not be messes of burnt out, toxic cinders churning in total ruination throughout this universe, but will be livelier than we can presently imagine, and much more colorful than any animator can produce in spectacular 3D video images. The entire firmament will be filled with understandable purpose being entirety perfect; and you ― you who are "born again" will be there to witness its creation (and you will get a big bang out of it) and you will enjoy it all thoroughly.

The scientific community often touts that there are beautiful worlds to be discovered, explored, inhabited, and intelligent life forms waiting for a reception with us earthlings, but no, they cry, "There is not a kingdom of God, no heavenly life forms, such as God or Christ or angels or cherubs," let alone "the whole family in heaven" (Ephesians 3:15). They declare, "That's absurd!" But Jesus proclaims, "woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer {allow} ye them that are entering to go in" (Matthew 23:13, also see Luke 11:52). The Word of God is from heaven itself, we have been contacted through His Word (read the Gospel of John and you will discover where the Word came from), but the natural man only has his own words upon which to rely and build the hopes of his fellowman as he speculates, most wrongly, about both his past and future.

What does the scientific community truly possess (besides a false hope) for evidence of aliens living up there somewhere; well, they have telescopes, probes, satellite dishes, theses, cameras, most of the cable networks to propound their hypotheses, and piles of rocks, and on these they have built whole infrastructures and schools of learning on pure guesswork. What do Christians have for proof of life (besides the true hope of the next life in Christ)? Well not too much according to the so-called experts; however, according to God's Word we have faith, pure faith, faith from above, it is the faith of Christ himself (Romans 3:22, Galatians 2:20, Philippians 3:9, and "Jesus the author and finisher of our {OUR} faith" ― Hebrews 12:2). This faith is titled "EVIDENCE (proof)" (rather than vapor or a mystical dream) in Hebrews 11:1, because this faith brings you directly into contact with God (Romans 3:3) on His Big-G network where His communication lines are always free and open since we "are risen with him {Christ} through the faith {FAITH} of the operation of God" (Colossians 2:12)! We have been given the faith of God, the very same faith that it took to raise Jesus Christ from the dead. (More on the "evidence" of faith, in Part Five and much more on the past, the creation and dinosaur eras, and prehistoric beings, as there is more written in the Bible on these subjects than you may have realized.) Prehistoric man cannot be linked to modern man at all, but to God, their Creator, and in this study we will be putting the missing link back in its rightful place. No prehistoric being is linked to Adam who was the first man of an entirely new race of people created in God's image. Adam's Father and Creator was God, and man of today commenced from Adam and his descendants.

God has already made first contact, plus, a second, third, fourth, etc., but every time He does, man as a whole turns Him down. They actually killed and crucified the actual proof of God's love for the world, still "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4). These are the words that originated from the throne of heaven, from the heart and love of God ― our contact from above, and when we accept Him, then a whole universe of understanding begins to open up as we receive both, "visions and revelations of the Lord" (II Corinthians 12:1)!

John 3:3:
Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see {SEE} the kingdom of God {this explains why so many people cannot see the realities of the kingdom of God, or find the living Christ}.

I Peter 1:23:
Being born again, not of corruptible seed {the first birth}, but of incorruptible {seed, the new birth}, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

When the born again child of God begins recognizing the spiritual transformation that is transpiring from within their heart by having and enjoying Christ within, well then, it is because he or she has not only discovered their Savior, but are enjoying their salvation and supernatural fellowship with God with glimpses of the kingdom of God. From that elevated viewpoint (seated in the heavenlies with Christ), the believer can commence a One-on-one relationship with the Creator. Through the Son, one reaches the Father with Whom he or she will know and understand as a heavenly reality for he or she will effortlessly be brought into a Spirit-to-spirit connection with heaven's Holiest. Jesus said, "Except a man be born of water {the first birth} and of the Spirit {the new birth, being born again}, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God {emphasis supplied}" (John 3:5). Have you ever heard that a child is born after the water breaks? Well, when we become born again, we receive holy spirit, and this spirit does not break, but will fix what is broke as it seals us for all eternity and makes one spiritually whole in Christ (Acts 4:10). You see, God "sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts" (II Corinthians 1:22). Right now, in and through God's grace, the believer can see {the spiritual realities of} the kingdom of God, and further, the born again believer is promised that when Christ returns, those who are born again will be able to literally enter the kingdom of God!

Ephesians 1:13–14:
-13: In whom {In Christ} ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
-14: Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession {YOU!}, unto the praise of his glory.

From heaven's Holiest, the believer is reborn into a new beginning, a beginning into an eternal life that will be inherited on the new earth, in the new heavens, and throughout the new universe because the believer becomes "heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ" (Romans 8:17). I know it is kind of huge, but it is immensely true! Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by {or through} me {and he meant it}" (John 14:6), through him and him alone we can discover the true way – without him – forget-about-it! "Neither is there salvation in any other {other than Jesus Christ}: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12, also see Romans 10:9–10); this is "the truth," and according to God's Word, TRUTH liveth and abideth forever. You personally took no part in the decision-making process of your first birth, but you are solely responsible to partake in the second birth as you are completely in charge of the decision process of accepting your salvation. To the potential child of God, Jesus says, "Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein" (Mark 10:15, also see Luke 18:17). With the heart of a child, great understanding and vision begins to open up to the believer, the new, reborn child of God who is learning to walk with God from his or her new birth perspective. "I am the door {Jesus says}: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture" (John 10:9).

It is unfortunate that some people will not want to know "the truth" for they doubt it exists and, unfortunately, some cannot tolerate it for it conflicts with the error that they have latched onto. Then there are others more unfortunate, who will only quest the kind of truth that they imagine "will set them free" which is a false security blanket because, alas, truth does not set anyone free (never has and never will; it is an empty platitude). However, there are a few, fortunate people who will desire the TRUTH that will "make them free" (which by the way is what Jesus taught us, "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make {not "set" but make} you free" ― John 8:32). "Christ hath made {MADE} us free" (Galatians 5:1), and they who receive his truth and make it their own spiritual truth and a real part of their life will understand, love, and enjoy the spiritual freedoms that Christ's truth delivers for all of their personal eternities.

Coming to this truth is coming to Christ's truth that will make one free to walk above "the course of this world" (Ephesians 2:1–5), for truth allows one to experience "Christ {being} formed in you" (Galatians 4:19). Having Christ formed in you is not alien but foreign to most believers, you see, "He that hath the Son hath life {in himself}; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God" (I John 5:12–13). Do you want to talk about what it means to be "made free"? Let's try this on, God has, "made {emphasis supplied} us accepted in the beloved {in Christ Jesus) (Ephesians 1:6), the truth is God made us acceptable! God has "made {emphasis supplied} known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself" (Ephesians 1:9)! God has "raised us up together, and made {emphasis supplied} us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:6), and "in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off {way out there, or perhaps imagining they are set free, however, in Christ we} are made {emphasis supplied} nigh by the blood of Christ" (Ephesians 2:13)! "For he {Christ} is our peace {with God}, who hath made {emphasis supplied} both one" (Ephesians 2:14), that is (in part) what it is to be MADE FREE, rather than set free to wander off into doubt, skepticism, or oblivion! Being simply set free has no standards or boundaries to follow; however, being made free reveals a true and eternal standard with heavenly boundaries that the children of God can accept, follow, and enjoy. Jesus instructed that the true key for being made free is to CONTNUE in his word, for his word reveals the precise standard. "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:31–32).

Someone may be wondering, "How come I have never heard of all this Bible stuff before, I never heard of the new man, Christ within, or my spiritual seating with Christ? Well, I do not know, it has been written in the Scriptures for nearly two thousand years. I guess when people start looking for something newer or a so-called, better way, then they will find what Jesus said they would, "wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat" (Matthew 7:13). Seems the nature of man is to stray and forget about genuine truth that leads to him who is the way; as Jesus said, "narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it" (Matthew 7:14). The last word "it" is Jesus and he has said of himself, "I am the way" (John 14:6), and with him one finds the truth. You see, "the truth is in Jesus" (Ephesians 4:21), and Jesus is the incarnate Word (John 1:14)! This truth is just as true, powerful, and vital today as it was in the day and time when the Word was first revealed from heaven and given to men and women of God. God's Word always works and when the Word is received in the heart and believed on in the mind ― then prosperous things being to happen in and around the believer's life; it is just that simple. The Prophet, writing for God wrote, "So shall my {God's} word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void {empty, useless}, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it" (Isaiah 55:11). When we return to the fountainhead of truth, to the delivery spout, well, in this well we will find the endless supplies of refreshing truth (Jeremiah 2:13, John 4:13, and Revelation 21:6).

I Thessalonians 2:13 (The Amplified Bible**):
And we also [especially] thank God continually for this, that when you received the message of God [which you heard] from us, you welcomed it not as the word of [mere] men, but as it truly is, the Word of God, which is effectually at work in you who believe [exercising its superhuman power in those who adhere to and trust in and rely on it].

Have you ever examined the two prayers in the Epistle of Ephesians simultaneously? Below I have provided you with a very brief overview with the structures of both prayers that are uniquely divided into five connecting sections; example ― read both bold introduction headings and then read the italicized headings in number 1 in both prayers. Then read the heading in number 2, etc., down through number 5, and enjoy the insight while you pray and bask in the two actively current, God given, prayers for you.

First prayer – Ephesians 1:16-23:

You – IN Christ:
(The fullness of Christ who fills all in all with all blessings)

Prayer (offered on your behalf), addressed to "The God of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Based on Ephesians 1:1-15, and further illustrated from Ephesians 2:1-22)

1) You in Christ (your heavenly standing, i.e., your heavenly sonship with God):
16: Cease not to give thanks for you {insert your name here}, making mention of you {insert your name here} in my prayers;
17a: That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ. . .

2) He may give (grant) unto you . . .:
17b: . . . the Father of glory, may give {grant} unto you {insert your name here} the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
18a: The eyes of your {insert your name here} understanding being enlightened {a spiritual enlightening of the new man in Christ}. . .

3) The purpose of this indwelling knowledge of God (a personal relationship with Him):
18b: . . . That ye {insert your name here} may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints {you being one of the saints},
19a: And what is the exceeding greatness {surpassing greatness} of his power to us-ward who believe {insert your name here}. . .

4) According to (the standard of) God's mighty power in Christ:
19b: . . . according to the working of his mighty power,
20: Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places {where you spiritually are seated},
21: Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:

5) Result – Christ's (everlasting) fullness established throughout the church:
22: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,
23: Which is his body {you are a member of "his body" and all things under your feet – this is "the riches of His grace" enjoyed, 1:7; 2:7}, the fulness of him {Christ!} that filleth all {spiritual truths} in all {the believers, including you ― Amen}.

Second prayer – Ephesians 3:14-21:

Christ IN – You:
(The fullness of Christ who fills you with all the fullness of God)

Prayer (offered on your behalf), addressed to "The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Based on Ephesians 3:1-13, and further illustrated from Ephesians 4:1-6:24)

1) Christ in you (your earthly state, i.e., your earthly fellowship with the Father):
14: For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
15: Of whom the whole family in heaven {you in Christ} and earth {Christ in you} is named,

2) He would grant (give) you . . .:
16: That he would grant {give} you {insert your name here}, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened {a spiritual strengthening} with might by his Spirit in the inner man {– Christ in you};

3) The purpose of the indwelling Christ (a personal friendship with him):
17: That Christ may dwell in your {insert your name here} hearts by faith; that ye {insert your name here}, being rooted and grounded in love,
18: May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
19: And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge {surpassing beyond knowledge}, that ye {insert your name here} might be filled with all the fulness of God.

4) According to (the standard of) the Father's power within you:
20: Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we {including you, so insert your name here} ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us {including you, so insert your name here},

5) Result – Christ's (eternal) glory established throughout the church:
21: Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end {you are called into eternity – never to be in any condemnation – this is "the riches of his glory" realized, 1:18; 3:16}. Amen.

All the great truths revealed in the Epistles are written to build up and strengthen spiritual men and women of God who are aware by their conscious decisions that they are spiritually seated up with Christ, who now have a renewed life to begin walking with him in grace, in power, and in the light of understanding.

Date added, July 24, 2010

You now come to a godly banquet empty-handed, but bidden by Christ, as the doorkeeper says, "Let this one pass right to the head table," and you proceed free of all worldly hindrances because in Christ you are prepared to receive. All you brought before was the nature and works of the old man and old world character (I John 2:16–17). But leaving this behind (as best you can, as no one is perfect) you now bear a heart's desire to know and sit with him (Ephesians 2:5; and Revelation 3:20), a heart that has been touched by heaven's Holiest, as you become filled with spiritual life and heavenly light. And there you come to "know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God" (Ephesians 3:19).

Then you rise up from the prepared table of life filled and become an ark carrying "all spiritual blessings" (Ephesians 1:3), a new vessel outfitted for eternity with God's good thing in you, as you become a partaker of the "divine nature" (II Peter 1:3–4). "Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest {from spiritual slumber}, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light" (Ephesians 5:14)! Not the light of the sun or the moon or the stars or bulbs or candles, that is what natural man sees flickering, but the light of God Himself shining brightly in you, "thou hast prepared the light and the sun" (Psalms 74:16). Do you see the two lights in this verse? Well, the natural man only sees the light of one ― the sun. But it takes the light of God's Word in your heart to walk in the light of the other one ― the Son.

The Prophet wrote, "unto you that fear {respect, honor} my name shall the Son of righteousness arise {within the heart of your understanding} with healing in his wings {to uplift your personal walk with God}" (Malachi 4:2). Recall we were called and chosen in Christ before the world began, and this calling was before the physical sun was made. God said, "Let there be light: and there was light" in Genesis 1:3, this was way before He placed the sun out in the firmament above (Genesis 1:14). Psalms 119:130 enlightens, "The entrance of thy words {is what} giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple {the sincere or honest}." John 1:1 reveals that, "in the beginning was the word."

II Corinthians 4:6:
For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts {I'll tell you what, that is a place where the sun does not shine, but gratefully the Son does, as he is the "day star" who rises in your heart, II Peter 1:19}, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Every ounce of truth we see emanating from God's living Word confirms and builds up the new man, the reality of Christ in you, "the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32), free from the old man nature and the bonds of corrupt self-conflict and world-conflict; the new man awakens and grows in the truth of the light through CHRIST! As Jesus taught his disciples, "Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it" (Luke 17:33). We can lose the old self and discover the new man, our Christ within, our new self, and know that we are preserved in Christ (John 12:25). So then, we can trade in the old lifestyle of walking dead in trespasses and sin, and whosoever surrenders all to and in Christ will awaken with Christ in their heart and begin to walk in the true newness of life and light in this world and into the grace that God, our heavenly Father, provides. These are those "whose heart the Lord opened" (Acts 16:14), "whose hearts God had touched" (I Samuel 10:26), and "in whose heart the LORD had put wisdom" (Exodus 36:2).

Date added, July 31, 2010

Genesis 6:8:
But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.

Noah found grace; God did not just come over to Noah's house one day and spread some grace around on a whim, and simply choose Noah out from all the people in the world to be the one who would save the world and survive beyond the coming flood. Noah found, Noah looked, Noah searched for grace until he found grace in the eyes of the LORD and this is what saved him and his family. When we look out at the world or into nature, what do we see? Is it only the trees, the sun, the moon, the stars, all the pretty flowers, all the little critters, the birds, fish, bugs, mountains, valleys, forests, fields, and water, streams, lakes, seas, all the elements, and people all hurriedly going to and fro? Even the stars have God-ordained purposes as they were (for one specific purpose) to, "be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so" (Genesis 1:15). No matter how diffused the light may be shinning out and around in the universe, its very purpose was to give light upon the earth. What if everything we observe out there in nature had one single Maker and was made for just one solitary purpose and what if we looked for this Maker, found the purpose, and the one power source behind everything, what would we find? We would find the grace of God because we would be looking directly into His, the Maker's very eyes!

You see, the spiritually-minded man has avenues in which to "look over" what God reveals and provides, while the physical eyes so often "overlook" what is to be seen in our mind's eye from a spiritual perspective. The spiritless man of the senses as well as apostate Christians, false apostles, and prophets have, "changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature {the creation is the Text} more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever" (Romans 1:25).

There are those out in the world who just love the out of doors, so much so, that they end up worshiping and serving the creation and never acknowledge the power source behind all they behold, the God of Creation Who is sustaining all they see, as Jesus taught us only God should be worshipped (John 4:24). "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God" (I Corinthians 2:9–10). And as Jesus explained that, "flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 16:17); this is because when we search for truth we are shown by God Himself, "For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened" (Matthew 7:8). Then God shows you His true grace in and through everything, which God originally created for and with you in mind.

We can see that through God's creation that He is reaching out to all humanity as far as He can possibly reach to sustain His creation that has fallen to sin and its consequences. "For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them {people} by whom it is dressed {by God, and thus we} receiveth blessing from God" (Hebrews 6:7). God, "Who in times past {commencing at man's fall from grace up until the present} suffered {or allowed} all nations to walk in their own ways {without God, and see Isaiah 55:8–9}. Nevertheless he left not himself without witness {or without a testimony}, in that he did good {as much as He could do}, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness" (Acts 14:16–17, and see Ecclesiastes 3:13), and if not there would be no life or people left on earth today.

Recall Genesis 8:22 that we studied in Part One (above), "While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." We can discover that our God is behind this life and its bountiful blessings which we are looking into, live in, move through, and enjoy as He is "upholding all things by the word of his power" (Hebrews 1:3). We read in Psalms 145:9 that, "The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works," and as we behold all His works, we certainly will be viewing His tender mercies. When (and if) we realize this, then we will be looking straight into the eyes of the LORD, and we would find the grace of the LORD that He has been daily revealing! In the stillness of the day we can notice our God, "Be still, and know that I am God" (Psalms 46:10); in the stillness of our hearts we can recognize His continuous presence, as Isaiah wrote, "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else" (Isaiah 45:22). "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world" (Psalms 19:1–4).

God is the provider of all the food that we eat; this is a living part of His witness to us, "For every beast of the forest is mine {God's}, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine {God's}. If I {God} were hungry, I would not tell thee {so that you could eat}: for the world is mine {God's}, and the fulness thereof" (Psalms 50:10–12). The world is given to preserve man, and God is saying that even IF (which is literally impossible) God was hungry and He needed your food, He would not tell thee, so that you could eat without the thought that you are taking anything out of the mouth of God. All the fathers and mothers around the world would do this so that their children could eat. This is a demonstration of just how much God really loves – you, and is concerned about – you – individually! God loves you so much that He "gave his only begotten Son" ― for you!

John 3:16:
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 contains the most preeminent love story ever told: For God – the supreme Creator and our heavenly Father, so loved the world – the loveliest act of a commitment ever made, that He gave – the ultimate present, His only begotten Son – the most perfect being, that whosoever believeth in him – the greatest offering to one and all, should not perish – the endless promise, but have everlasting life – this is YOUR eternal reward for looking for and finding the grace of God! . . .

To be continued. . .

**Scripture taken from THE AMPLIFIED BIBLE. Old Testament copyright (c) 1965, 1987 by The Zondervan Corporation.
Used by permission.