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| For Whom the Bell Tolls [message #13822] |
Thu, 14 April 2022 15:24  |
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 william
Messages: 1463
Registered: January 2006 |
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I've been posting stuff on Facebook and in the process have neglected the forum so I'm going to re-post here. As I read the bible certain things pop out and while it may be old-hat to some there's a chance that some of it might generate new sparks of interest in your own studies! (I hope you too will be inspired to post your thoughts!)
For whom the bell tolls
What's on my mind? Facebook asks?
Well, I'll tell you... like most of you, in my spare time, which is just time when I'm not focused on something else more specific, I muse about where I might fit into this great plan called God's creation.
The specifics (i.e. not spare-time-musings) include all of the mechanical things we do during the course of the day--making coffee, job tasks required for work, eating, showering, etc.. Of course these are the things often referred to as the necessities of life. Life is a mixture of these mechanical ingredients and those things that occupy our attention outside of the pure necessities. I'm only trying to make a loose separation here because in reality our lives consists of all that we do--specifics and everything else.
At a base level we could say that breathing is necessary and what we think about while breathing is spare-time.
At this level one of our first thoughts would be, "Why are we breathing"? "What is the purpose of my life"?
Fortunately, God had the forethought and wisdom to anticipate our question and plotted out a way to communicate His answer to us in a clear and unmistakable format--the Bible.
I know what some of you are thinking, "What about those before that great King James Bible was printed? What about those people?"... as if merely asking the question is going to destroy all of my careful analysis, cultivated by my spare-time musing! Well! I'll answer these critics with my own question--"Are those folks still breathing?" "Do they now need answers from my Waterproof Bible?"
That should be enough to send those critics back to the ooze they slithered out from! Well, of course, I'm jesting. God's Word has been ringing in man's ears from the beginning in various forms, it's just that presently, for the whole English speaking world, the KJV happens to be the bell that is chiming for us!
Okay, back to the subject at hand:
The message that you'd expect is the one that God endeavors to give us concerning the question of our purpose in being here but He starts with a revelation of Himself. Before we get to the multitude of benefits that go along with this knowledge we first must grasp the fact that our knowledge of Him is crucial. Without this understanding our own purpose is meaningless.
The creation account gives us some understanding of His great power and knowledge (He's Omnipotent--all powerful, He's Omniscient--all knowing).
Then, in His instructions to mankind (Adam & Eve) He establishes His Holiness.
I don't think it is possible to get, or to have any kind of understanding, about God or about His revelation to us, the Bible, unless our conception of this point is spot-on. Nothing will make sense--the reason for sacrifices, the idea of clean and unclean, the presentation of heaven and hell, good and evil, nothing will make sense unless we start here.
Looking for purpose in life? This passage puts the purpose of mankind front and center:
: And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. Genesis 2:15-17
There's a lot expressed in these first words recorded from God to Adam (and by extension--all of mankind!).
I'm running out of "spare-time" today but I'd encourage those interested in these first instructions by God to us, to spend some of your spare-time thinking about these words. I've mentioned the concept of holiness, and while the actual word "holy" isn't used, it is expressed in this passage along with some other important truths.
Hey, since I believe that God's revelation concerning Himself and our purpose as it relates to Him is absolutely foundational to our existence it seems appropriate that His first words to us would address this most important concept.
Feel free to comment!
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For Whom the Bell tolls - II
If you all will indulge me for a bit I'm going to continue where I left off in the last post.
I'm not a big fan of creeds, for one reason, they focus your eyes off of the Bible and, if you let them, they begin to slip into that place that should be only reserved for God. If you can avoid that danger though, creeds can be a source for a lot of thought-provoking fodder. I've found one statement in one of the Creeds of Christianity that absolutely attempts to sum up the whole plan for man. Now that's a large task but if somehow someone could do it with a sentence or two, we ought to at least take a look!
Alright, if you're interested, this is the claim (and what a claim it is!):
MAN'S CHIEF END IS TO GLORIFY GOD, AND TO ENJOY HIM FOR EVER.
Now keep in mind that this language is deeper than we're used to getting in our everyday lives especially since it deals with the whole purpose of man (every human being!) and attempts to boil that purpose down into a nifty little bumper-sticker-like placard that represents our whole reason for existence!
I'd say that it does a pretty good job of summarizing why we're here!
Last time I left off with the claim that the Bible is God's self-revelation to us in order that we might understand why, and for what purpose, we are here. You'd expect that God wouldn't leave His creation in the dark about His plan which is why we can be assured that we've been given a perfectly preserved owner's manual that, rightly understood, reveals His own excellent qualities and then shows His plan for us.
There are a number of "things" about God (theologians call them "attributes of God") set forth in the Bible's pages--remember, it's called God's Revelation to us!--and as you would expect, some of the revelation concerns Himself and some of it concerns us.
A few things about God can be seen from the creation account in Genesis 1:
1) He is ALL-POWERFUL
2) He is ALL-KNOWING
3) His Eternalness
4) His Self-Existence
5) His Transcendence (existing apart from and not subject to the limitations of the material universe.--Oxford Dictionary)
6) His Sovereignty (Obviously the Creator is the King of His Creation!)
Genesis 1--the creation account--clearly shows that He's all-powerful and all-knowing, two concepts that we're able to grasp and at least partially understand. His Eternalness, Self-Existence, Transcendence, Sovereignty also fall into this category, but some of the other attributes (qualities of God) would escape our knowledge were it not for what happened next, after creation. For instance, how would you, if you were God (HA!), explain to your perfectly created human beings--Your Justness? Your Mercy? Your Righteousness? How would you even begin to reveal to them the concept of your Love? Your Grace? What about Faithfulness?
So, to begin to tie some of these ramblings together, i.e. God's Self-Revelation and His Plan for us, I quoted in the last note Genesis 2:15-17, which happens to be the first recorded instructions that God gave to mankind:
: And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. Genesis 2:15-17
Have you ever wondered why THAT tree is called: The knowledge of good and evil? Well, I'm not saying that I have all of the answers but if you've been following along you've no-doubt leaped to the conclusion that without this "knowledge" one could never conceive some of those Attributes of God mentioned above: Justice, Mercy, Righteousness, Love, Grace, Faithfulness.
Now before anyone charges God with creating evil in order to reveal Himself to His creation you might want to wait a bit and consider some of the rest of His revelation before jumping to such conclusions. Let me just say, that in His instructions to mankind, He commanded them sternly--NOT to eat of that tree.
I can see that this is taking a lot longer than anticipated so a third part is going to be necessary--my apologies!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itUNSwS4q9E
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For Whom the Bell Tolls - III
So far, it seems, I've managed to chase about six or seven rabbits. If you've been reading the last two posts one thing is obvious--I'm torn between going in one direction and then, about the time I get started, wham! there's Mr. Br'er Rabbit over yonder in the briar patch shifting my attention to his location. What's a person to do? I can't just "cut to the chase" cause there's too many to follow!
I think I'm going to leave those other fruitful areas of study to someone else and get back to my original point which is--Why am I breathing? What's my purpose in God's plan? Others have attempted to answer this question and I think that the best summation was found in the Westminster Shorter Catechism which stated:
MAN'S CHIEF END IS TO GLORIFY GOD, AND TO ENJOY HIM FOR EVER.
To glorify Him and enjoy Him we first must know Him. This knowledge is impossible without an introduction. His Word, recorded for us in the Bible, is His introduction. (This was where the rabbit chasing started because God begin to reveal a bunch of things about Himself in the first verse!)
Adam, (mankind's first representative) didn't have a good English KJV to peruse so he got his first introduction from God Himself. We don't know exactly how much was said to Adam concerning the creation of the world (Genesis 1) but if we can assume that God was as generous to Adam as He has been to us, his knowledge surely mirrors what we know from the Genesis account.
Then we're told:
: And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. Genesis 2:15-17
Throughout the Bible there is one thing that stands supreme--God's Holiness. Over and over we are reminded that God is Holy. Not only that, we will never see the Lord unless we are holy!
: Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: Hebrews 12:14
: But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; I Peter 1:15
It's no surprise then that Genesis 2:15-17 would reveal the concept of Holiness since this is the first recorded instructions to the first man, Adam.
The word holy at its base level simply means apartness, or separateness. So for something to be holy it has to have a contrast, or something that is by definition--not holy. That contrast is seen in the words good (holy) and evil (not holy).
For there to be a contrast there first must be some sort of division. Kinda like the division that we see in Genesis 1 where God divided the light from the darkness (1:4), the firmament being the dividing line between the waters (1:6), then the lights in the firmament dividing night from day (1:14).
Not surprisingly, in our passage (2:17) there is an implied distinction between good and evil. This division can only be made by one thing--God's command. Every division that occurred with the waters, the lights, the firmament, were pronounced to be good so the only thing that would be considered "not good" was to disobey His command.
Right here a sidebar about the "free will" of man is a rabbit trail we'll avoid but let's just say that free-will seems to fall into the "good" category even if it did become the vehicle that brought about the fall of mankind! Anyway, what fun would there be in a bunch of robots programmed to glorify (remember the chief end of man--to Glorify God...) their creator?
So, now that we have a contrast (God's command not to eat of this one tree) the revelation of God's Holiness can be established.
The holiness of mankind depended on Adam's obedience to God's command to not eat of that tree! Adam would have remained holy if the command had been obeyed but his knowledge about holiness (both his and God's) might have been a bit more on the academic side!
We know how it turned out for Adam, and by extension all of us, but consider this: the rest of the Bible seems devoted to establishing the knowledge we need to understand this distinction between the holy and profane; the clean and unclean; good and evil. The Mosaic Law seems almost obsessive in its attempts to physically represent the concept of holiness even down to designating distinctions between one vessel as being clean and the other unclean. Some animals were declared clean and others unclean.
The purpose, I believe, was to establish in the minds of His people this idea of holiness. The particulars (meats, holy days, washings, etc.,) became the main message in the minds of those inclined to outward religious observations but Jesus gets the message back on track by showing them that they were missing the very foundation of the OT revelation and upbraided them for their lack of understanding!
I've only mentioned "sin" in its original context--disobeying God's command to Adam--but when he did disobey that one commandment we're told that "sin entered the world"
: Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: Romans 5:12
The Genesis 2:17 passage states clearly the consequence of man's disobedience: ...for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. Genesis 2:17
This highlights the necessary contrast to holiness which is, of course, the unholy, the evil--death being its result.
If the Bible spends so much of its time revealing this idea of the Holiness of God you'd expect the counterpoint of evil/sin/death to be prominent too. Well, we're not to be disappointed! It's all there--in all its flagrance! But if our chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, the way forward is as clearly revealed as God Himself is revealed in its pages!
But don't despair, death has entered the world but God has other things to reveal about Himself. There's mercy, there's grace, there's love, to go along with His justice. If our chief end is to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever then there's more to be told!
: For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. Leviticus 17:11
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhU-Omwg2rU
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Blessings,
William
I want to believe!
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| Re: For Whom the Bell Tolls [message #13823 is a reply to message #13822] |
Thu, 14 April 2022 15:28  |
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william
Messages: 1463
Registered: January 2006 |
Senior Member
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Along the same lines is this bassackwards post from today:
Sometimes the best way to derive meaning from a project is to start at the end.
Last week I was thinking about the very beginning of God's revelation to us and the thought that looking at the very last part of His revelation to us would help to sum up all of the parts in between.
My grandfather (Papaw!) would have no doubt labeled this as Bassackwards-ism. Well, he probably would have left out the "ism" part but you get the point--looking at something in a completely backward way!
Here's the bassackwards outline:
I. Revelation 22:1-21 This is the last chapter of God's revelation to us and it shows the end result of the complement chapter found in Genesis 1. I'll encourage you to read it all but I'm only going to focus on a few of the verses. One notable factor is that this chapter ends in a perfect setting just like the end of Genesis 1:
: And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Genesis 1:31
There are a lot of similarities in this ending chapter. We can't help but notice the trees in this city and think of the trees in the initial garden of Eden:
: And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. Revelation 22:1-2
If you read over the above verse too quickly you might miss the statement about "time" in this new order of things. The trees are going to be producing fruit every MONTH! I'll leave it to the scholars to explain that one!
Interesting to note also that the curse on mankind pronounced by God in Genesis 3, is no longer applicable at the culmination of all things:
: 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: Revelation 22:3
Close communication with God is restored:
: And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. Revelation 22:4
Some people view the Bible as a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma (Churchill's quote describing Russia!) but this shouldn't be the case for God's servants... think about it, God would be working against Himself if He gave us a revelation that couldn't be understood:
: And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done. Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book. Revelation 22:6-7
And later that theme is continued:
: And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand. Revelation 22:10
We like to talk about our "rights", well, this next verse gives us a "right" that we should all want to claim:
: Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. Revelation 22:14-15
Above, in Revelation 22:3, we saw that in this wonderful paradise there is no curse but the next verse jumps back a little bit to the time before this last event and warns us that a terrible curse is on those who would hear the words of this book of Revelation and then add to, or subtract from, the contents.
: For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. Revelation 22:18-19
Finally the last words of this book reiterates the oft repeated promise of His Second Coming!
: He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. Revelation 22:20-21
Someone once said that you can't have an outline without at least two headings so we've got to have a bassackwards part II, (Thank you Mrs. Etheridge!)
I'll be brief but you'll get the idea:
II. The Millennium--God's restored earth! Revelation 20. This of course would be contrasted with Genesis 3 and the curse on the earth. Paradise, Paradise Lost (the middle part!), and Paradise Restored. All the while learning about our Creator!
Okay, the whole point that I'm trying to make is to show: 1) God's initial plan/purpose for mankind, 2) God's middle plan/purpose for mankind, and-- 3) God's end plan/purpose for mankind--It's all one unified plan!
Broadly it includes: The revelation of Himself, the revelation of His purpose for us, the revelation of how He's going to bring it about, and finally, the purpose completed!
We see the culmination of His purpose/plan--which is restitution--in Revelation 22, just as we see the beginning of the purpose in the earliest chapters of Genesis. He never wavers in His design.
Peter affirms this by saying the middle part of the bible cohesively ties the beginning to the end with these words:
: Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. Acts 3:19-21
The beginning through to the end: God's message to us is the same.
: Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. Hebrews 13:8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIaT8Jl2zpI
Blessings,
William
I want to believe!
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| Re: For Whom the Bell Tolls [message #13824 is a reply to message #13823] |
Mon, 18 April 2022 07:02 |
Marilyn Crow
Messages: 598
Registered: September 2013
Location: Australia |
Senior Member |
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Hi William,
Acts 3: 19 - 21. great scripture you have quoted. And the `times of restitution` (which the Prophets spoke about) starts with the Lord connecting with His Body.
(Father sends Jesus) taking them to His own throne where He is visible acclaimed. From there He proceeds to put down all rule and authority and power.
This is the beginning of the fulfilling of the Father`s great plan to have all rule under His Son.
God the Father .....having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which he purposed in Himself that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth - in Him.`(Eph.1: 9 & 10)
regards, Marilyn.
[Updated on: Mon, 18 April 2022 07:03]
Marilyn C
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