Works of the Law verses Works of Faith

     There has been confusion about the idea of works and faith for well over 1900 years  because in some places in St. Paul's writings it seems that he was saying that one only need have faith alone, but St. James comes in and says faith without works is dead. It turns out Paul wasn't talking about the works of faith we find as taught by our Lord Jesus Christ, Paul was talking about the rituals of the Old Testament such as circumcision, sabbath keeping, ritual washing, avoiding what's ritually unclean, etc... doing these things were proper to do, before the New Testament, and part of the full body of those works required by God, but these things were really outward expressions, shadows of the true essences of the Law. The true essence of the Law is to love God, by loving those made in his image, including oneself. The commandments in the Sermon on the mount, all have to do with unselfish Love for one's neighbor, there is little mention of outward rituals there. Every commandment is a work that actually requires faith to do, i.e. Works Of Faith, and is an expression of love toward another. Not that the works of the O.T. weren't works of faith, if the person's heart was in the right place. For example, who would believe they needed to be circumcised to please God and do it without some measure of faith? But the Jews put too much emphases on these outward expressions of faith, works that would tend to give a public display of their piety, rather than the more important matters of love for neighbor, their hearts were in the wrong place. Because of this, their faith was tainted by selfish motivation, and not only for rewards from God, but from men who saw what they did. Now the Jews have a dilemma, an enormous leap of faith is required of them. They must honor and worship, as God, a man who died and was resurrected and is now in Heaven, a place they have no access to, not even in their own Earthly temple. Moreover, to worship a dead Jew on a stick, as some of them told me, would be idolatry, according to the Law. But just as the serpent on the pole was also an idol commanded by God to be made and looked upon for healing, after God commanded no idols to be made, in the same way those Jews who confess Jesus Christ as LORD, will be set free of the deadly curse of sin. Honoring Jesus Christ as God, takes precedence over all the other commandments. So an interesting concept of the kind of faith based works taught in the N.T. is the purity in the person's motive doing them as Jesus taught, the works become works of faith, because it requires faith to do them. It's not that people didn't believe in God in those days, they just didn't really put all their faith in the Almighty. 

   Let me give an example, suppose you have a paying job, and you the reader would like to advance in your career. You do whatever the person paying you says (i.e. your boss, master, lord, customer), plus some, and when he sees that you are a faithful hard working, innovative, motivated worker, you hope he will give you a good report, right? Very well, but this situation is a purely selfish one. The reason is, you have proof of the rewarder, the lord, the boss, the paying customer, and you only need put faith in that person's word to pay you and to give you a good report for advancement. 

   So what about an atheist, who doesn't even believe in God? This is also a good answer for an atheist, who wants proof of a God. If we had proof that God existed, or could empirically prove that Jesus Christ is LORD, then the works we did for God might also be tainted, by possible selfish motivations. Because we can't prove God exist, although we do the good works commanded by God for a later reward, and of course to avoid punishment, there's nothing to substantiate that motivation other than faith.  And because there's no way to substantiate our motivation, aside from blind faith, it cannot be selfish, given we do the commandments as Jesus taught. This is perhaps why God does not give us explicit evidence of himself, and requires us to have faith, it's for our own protection, and of course, to teach us to rely on his invisible help through difficult situations. It also teaches us that loving others unselfishly is so much better than being selfish, and hopefully in time, this loving behavior becomes second nature, not something we have to fight ourselves with, just to attempt.

Romans 3:31 GNB  Does this mean that by this faith we do away with the Law? No, not at all; instead, we uphold the Law.

Romans 13:8-10 GNB  Be under obligation to no one---the only obligation you have is to love one another. Whoever does this has obeyed the Law.  9  The commandments, "Do not commit adultery; do not commit murder; do not steal; do not desire what belongs to someone else"---all these, and any others besides, are summed up in the one command, "Love your neighbor as you love yourself."  10  If you love others, you will never do them wrong; to love, then, is to obey the whole Law.

So then what can be meant by Paul when he says that it was imputed to Abraham as righteousness, when he believed God's promise to him? It was a kind of verbal agreement that would later require a test, and that test did come. The test was God's request of Isaac as a burnt offering. 

Below is a list of "Works Of Faith" in the Sermon on the Mount from the Good News Bible, notice they have to do with LOVE for neighbor, in a pure unselfish way.  

Matthew 6:1-8 GNB "Make certain you do not perform your religious duties in public so that people will see what you do. If you do these things publicly, you will not have any reward from your Father in heaven. 2 "So when you give something to a needy person, do not make a big show of it, as the hypocrites do in the houses of worship and on the streets. They do it so that people will praise them. I assure you, they have already been paid in full. 3 But when you help a needy person, do it in such a way that even your closest friend will not know about it. 4 Then it will be a private matter. And your Father, who sees what you do in private, will reward you. 5 "When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites! They love to stand up and pray in the houses of worship and on the street corners, so that everyone will see them. I assure you, they have already been paid in full. 6 But when you pray, go to your room, close the door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen. And your Father, who sees what you do in private, will reward you. 7 "When you pray, do not use a lot of meaningless words, as the pagans do, who think that their gods will hear them because their prayers are long. 8 Do not be like them. Your Father already knows what you need before you ask him.

Matthew 6:30 GNB It is God who clothes the wild grass---grass that is here today and gone tomorrow, burned up in the oven. Won't he be all the more sure to clothe you? What little faith you have!

Matthew 5:38-48 GNB "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.' 39 But now I tell you: do not take revenge on someone who wrongs you. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, let him slap your left cheek too. 40 And if someone takes you to court to sue you for your shirt, let him have your coat as well. 41 And if one of the occupation troops forces you to carry his pack one mile, carry it two miles. 42 When someone asks you for something, give it to him; when someone wants to borrow something, lend it to him. 43 "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your friends, hate your enemies.' 44 But now I tell you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may become the children of your Father in heaven. For he makes his sun to shine on bad and good people alike, and gives rain to those who do good and to those who do evil. 46 Why should God reward you if you love only the people who love you? Even the tax collectors do that! 47 And if you speak only to your friends, have you done anything out of the ordinary? Even the pagans do that! 48 You must be perfect---just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

Luke 12:4-5 GNB "I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot afterward do anything worse. 5 I will show you whom to fear: fear God, who, after killing, has the authority to throw into hell. Believe me, he is the one you must fear!

Matthew 10:26-30 GNB "So do not be afraid of people. Whatever is now covered up will be uncovered, and every secret will be made known. 27 What I am telling you in the dark you must repeat in broad daylight, and what you have heard in private you must announce from the housetops. 28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather be afraid of God, who can destroy both body and soul in hell. 29 For only a penny you can buy two sparrows, yet not one sparrow falls to the ground without your Father's consent. 30 As for you, even the hairs of your head have all been counted.

Biography: Confucius

Movie Review: A&E's Biography: Confucius

The reason I am doing a review on this particular movie is because, as a Bible reading Christian, three verses popped out at me that made me wonder if people who had never heard of Jesus Christ or hadn't been exposed to anything about the Law of Moses in their lifetimes could have had the Spirit of Christ Jesus in them, and therefore be saved on judgment day. Here are the verses:

Rom 2:13 For merely listening to the law doesn't make us right with God. It is obeying the law that makes us right in His sight.

Rom 2:14 Even Gentiles, who do not have God's written law, show that they know His law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it.

Rom 2:15 They demonstrate that God's law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right.

Now what I am saying about this has nothing to do with anyone in this day and age, because the word of God has reached every corner of the globe. Thus anyone who does not accept Jesus Christ as the LORD and obey him will not find themselves in a happy position when judgment day comes.

Joh 3:16-21 "For God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him. 18 "There is no judgment against anyone who believes in Him. But anyone who does not believe in Him has already been judged for not believing in God's one and only Son. 19 And the judgment is based on this fact: God's light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. 20 All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. 21 But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants. "

Nor can anyone teach Jesus' teachings and deny Jesus as Messiah and LORD and be saved. I at one time thought that perhaps if a person rejected Jesus Christ, and yet did good works, he would be saved, but it turns out that if anyone does not acknowledge Jesus Christ as LORD (YHWH), and do as he teaches, they will not be given the Holy Spirit and their works will be surrounded around their flesh. It is impossible to overcome the flesh without the Holy Spirit, and it is impossible to receive the Holy Spirit without acknowledging Jesus Christ as LORD and simultaneously doing what he teaches.

Joh 10:1-18 "I tell you the truth, anyone who sneaks over the wall of a sheepfold, rather than going through the gate, must surely be a thief and a robber! 2 But the one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice. 5 They won't follow a stranger; they will run from him because they don't know his voice." 6 Those who heard Jesus use this illustration didn't understand what He meant, 7 so He explained it to them: "I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who came before Me were thieves and robbers. But the true sheep did not listen to them. 9 Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through Me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures. 10 The thief's purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life. 11 "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices His life for the sheep. 12 A hired hand will run when he sees a wolf coming. He will abandon the sheep because they don't belong to him and he isn't their shepherd. And so the wolf attacks them and scatters the flock. 13 The hired hand runs away because he's working only for the money and doesn't really care about the sheep. 14 "I am the good shepherd; I know My own sheep, and they know Me, 15 just as My Father knows Me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice My life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep, too, that are not in this sheepfold. I must bring them also. They will listen to My voice, and there will be one flock with one shepherd. 17 "The Father loves Me because I sacrifice My life so I may take it back again. 18 No one can take My life from Me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what My Father has commanded."

Joh 14:6 Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through Me.

Joh 14:22-24 Judas (not Judas Iscariot, but the other disciple with that name) said to Him, "Lord, why are You going to reveal Yourself only to us and not to the world at large?" 23 Jesus replied, "All who love Me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and We will come and make Our home with each of them. 24 Anyone who doesn't love Me will not obey Me. And remember, My words are not My own. What I am telling you is from the Father who sent Me.

Rom 7:22-8:9 I love God's law with all my heart. 23 But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. 24 Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? 25 Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God's law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin. 8:1 So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. 2 And because you belong to Him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. 3 The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent His own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin's control over us by giving His Son as a sacrifice for our sins. 4 He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit. 5 Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. 6 So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. 7 For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God's laws, and it never will. 8 That's why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God. 9 But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to Him at all.)

Another concern I had is the judgment of those in the great white throne judgment, as seen in the book of Revelation:

Rev 20:11-15 And I saw a great white throne and the One sitting on it. The earth and sky fled from His presence, but they found no place to hide. 12 I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God's throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books. 13 The sea gave up its dead, and death and the grave gave up their dead. And all were judged according to their deeds. 14 Then death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire. This lake of fire is the second death. 15 And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire.

I personally believe that Confucius will be in that Judgment, and will be judged right and given life-everlasting. With that said, we can return to the Movie review at hand.

Confucius' road to wisdom was a trail of tears. He once concluded about mankind:

" Man is the greatest of all that Heaven has produced, and Heaven's purpose is contained in our nature."

Sho-yung-ho was a great warrior, very loyal, strong, tall, and ugly. He was appointed governor of the city of Qufu, in the Chinese State of Lu, where he settled down and had nine daughters and a crippled boy. He longed for a healthy son, and at seventy he took a young sixteen year old girl named Chang Chi. She conceived and gave birth to a boy around the year 551 B.C.E. The Baby was huge and ugly with a crooked head. He was given the name Chew and later named Kung-fu-tzu. Kung was his father's ancestral name. His father died three years after his birth. The first two wives would not share the wealth of Sho-yung-ho's inheritance and forced the young mother and her son out of their town. (The name Confucius comes from Christian missionaries 21 centuries later.) Confucius had to work to take care of his mother but he also loved to learn. As a child, he was ugly and strange looking, and few children would play with him. His mother pushed him to learn as much as he could, although they lived in poverty. In order to keep himself occupied he invented his own games with clay figures he made himself. In his teen years he studied all the Ancient poets and writers. He was relentless in his studies and in the improvement of his character. He once said:

"Only when the coffin is nailed shut, should we stop learning."

He married a young girl named Qwi-qwan at nineteen, and she had their first child Kong Li when he was twenty. At the age of twenty-three, his mother died, the only person who truly loved him. He buried her near his father's grave. Confucius would convert life's bitter punishing blows into powerful unforgettable lessons. Years later he would proclaim that noble deeds, not noble birth, bestowed upon a man and a families love was a greater gift than gold. He was likely six feet five inches tall, and as ugly as his father. A noble family gave Confucius a job over their granaries, but by the age of 30 Confucius became bored with his job. He was also having marital problems. He dreamt of becoming a minister of state ending corruption and bloodshed, and restoring peace to the land. Many others wanted to just drop out and live as hermits, but Confucius felt that he could not herd with birds and beasts, but was human and should be with humans, he was an activist. He did lots of study in history and in the writings of the ancient poets when he finally proclaimed a radical idea! Distinctions between classes disappear if people are educated. Education was the meaning of life. He started his own school, and said the following:

"If the sons of emperors and princes are without quality, they should be reduced to the ranks of the common people. If the sons of the common people have quality, they should be elevated to the ranks of the rulers.

The school of Confucius taught a mixture of rich students and the poor students, whom all meet as equals, forgetting their class distinctions. They forged a new bond with a shared yearning for justice and truth. With a burning conviction burned in his heart by his own difficult youth, Confucius urged his students to become what he called "Superior men", an aristocracy of noble character, rather than noble birth.

"Anyone can become a superior man, it is only necessary to decide to be one."

But that necessary condition wasn't a sufficient one, for Confucius demanded absolute honesty, rigorous self-control, and unyielding virtue, for those who followed him.

"A superior man thinks of what is right, a simple man thinks of what is profitable, a superior man demands much of himself, a small man demands much of others, a superior man accepts his lot to come, a small man is full of complaints"

Confucius grew far apart from his family and became more devoted to his students. Year after year he sought after a government position, and year after year he was given honors, but not power. At the age of fifty a young ruler, the Duke of Lu, begged Confucius to be his adviser and he made him governor of Lu. Today some of Confucius' reforms seem bizarre, such as his decree that men and women must walk on opposite sides of the street, but others seem remarkably farsighted, such as his order that the poor young children and the elderly be feed at state expense. He was centuries ahead of his time.

"Anyone can judge a case as well as I, what I would like to do is to correct such conditions that bring such cases about."

He somehow developed a vision of teaching others how to be a righteous and perfect people, as a series of concentric circles. You start with the person, then the family, then to the neighborhood, then to the society, the nation, and then to the world and beyond.

"From the loving example of one family, love radiates to the state, its kindness becomes the kindness of society."

Confucius put forth an idea of humility and kind-heartedness, he said:

"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

"You should give knowledge and education to the common people instead of ignoring or subjugating them."

While he governed Lu, the streets were safe, crime virtually disappeared, merchants no longer cheated their customers. During this time his face shown with joy, his dream of saving China became a reality. But his successes and his radical ideas were making him dangerous enemies. Fearing his power, the three families of the surrounding cities united against Confucius. They realized that he was a dangerous reformer who had to be stopped. They put their heads together and hatched a simply seductive plot, they searched their dominion for the three most beautiful women in the region and gave them as a gift, not to Confucius, but to Duke Dain, and just as his conspirators hoped, Duke Dain spent his days and nights with the entrancing gift his enemies gave him. Shortly thereafter, Confucius' reforms were forgotten. Stunned and humiliated, Confucius lead his disciples away from Lu. They say as he left his home, he sang a mournful song:

"Women's songs have foiled me, and women's smiles despoiled me. O woe, wondering until life's end."

Confucius searched for a prince to take on his reforms, he was fifty-four years old when he left his home, and he wondered the length and breath of china in his search for thirteen years. Over his journeys his disciples and he witnessed the terrible suffering of the peasants crushed by taxes, neglected by their rulers, and slaughtered by invading armies. On one occasion he meet a woman whose son and husband were both eaten by a tiger. So Confucius' disciples asked the woman why she didn't move away to another town, safe from this man-eating tiger? The the woman replied: "If I move away, I might find a more oppressive government." Confucius replied:

"This is so true, an oppressive government is much worse than a man-eating tiger."

His heart was with the people but his head kept him in the company of rulers. Confucius believed that if he could influence the nobility, the virtue of the rulers would radiate out to the people, as if a contagious virus. No one would buy his teachings, they were interested in enjoying themselves as much as they could in their private lives and they were trying to expand their territory and power as much as they could. Ruler after ruler listened to Confucius, and ruler after ruler dismissed him. Instead he found resentment and hostility. Some say that it was Confucius' lack of tact that caused his failure. During his travels, Confucius meet another renowned philosopher, the mystic Lao-tzu, the founder of Daoism (also know as Taoism). Lao-tzu warned him about speaking his mind, he said: "Your intelligence allows you to evaluate people critically, and because of this you bring danger upon yourself." Lao-tzu was correct in what he said, because Confucius made many enemies where his life was in great danger. He was almost killed by a ruler who vowed to kill him. Most of the elect just ignored him which was just as bad.

After thirteen years of wandering China, Confucius got news that one of his disciples had become a powerful ruler in Lu, his home town. This ruler persuaded Confucius to come back home to Chew-fu in Lu. When he returned the ruling warriors in Lu asked him for advice. One asked him how to get honest officials, Confucius' answer was painfully blunt:

"Be honest yourself."

They would not honor him with a place of power. In his old age his students were his true family and his hearts delight. Only seventy-two of his disciples were his truly dedicated ones. Over the years one of his disciples become his favorite, named Young-wae. Confucius said of him, that Young-wae was always happy, even though he was so poor, and lived in a very narrow ally, he was always content. Contentment in poverty and love of learning were the two virtues Confucius singled out in Young-wae. Confucius felt that Young-wee would carry on his work, but at the age of forty-one, Young-wea fell ill and died. Young-wae's death was to much for Confucius, he broke down and wept, he said:

"Now I know that the will of the heavens has its own will."

Confucius' last words were a bitter plea:

"Will no ruler come forward and take me as his master?"

Confucius died perceiving himself a failure, and not having much influence on China. However Confucianism has become the dominate mold and philosophy of the surrounding regions for many centuries. Confucius wrote down very little of his philosophies, but his disciples remembered what he taught and wrote it down. Confucius believed that the human heart could improve itself, in his last years he said:

"At the age of fifteen, I set my heart on learning, at forty I knew exactly where I was going, at sixty I could bow to immovable truth, at seventy I could follow my heart's desire and never transgress what is right."

Newton’s Dark Secrets

Movie review: "Newton’s Dark Secrets"

Isaac Newton was born in the same year Galileo Galilei died. Galileo had risked his freedom by challenging the fact that the earth travels around the sun. It was a new age when Science and Reason would redefine the whole world. Newton was gripped by this age of looking at things empirically. As a child he did all sorts of experiments which freaked out the neighbors. For example he flew a kite with candles on its tail one night which looked like a commit. There is another side to Newton’s childhood, when he was born his father died. By the time he turned three his mother re-married and moved away leaving Newton with his grandparents. Newton confessed that he was so enraged that he considered burning down the new house his mother and her new husband had while they were in it. When Newton was old enough he headed off to Cambridge, where he buried himself in his studies.

Isaac Newton: “Truth is the offspring of silence and unbroken meditation.”

He didn’t go anywhere he drove himself and worked seven days a week eighteen hours a day. He had his own library of 16,000-18,000 volumes. His world was a world that came through printed matter or manuscripts from others. His fellow classmates would go off to the local villages looking for bad women and fun but Newton wanted no part of it. To resist temptation Newton came up with a plan that he would stick to for the rest of his life.

Isaac Newton: “The way to chastity is not to struggle directly with incontinent thoughts, but to avert your thoughts with some other employment, by reading or meditating on other things, or by converse, for he who is always thinking of chastity will always be thinking of women.”

His only friend was John Watkins. They became roommates after both became unhappy with those who put pleasure before work. They lived in the same room for 20 years. Newton, as a student, devoured the latest scientific ideas. It was widely accepted that the planets revolved around the sun, but the question now was how did the planets move? What held them in their orbits? Newton was not satisfied with the popular theories such as that of René Descartes that the universe worked like the mechanics as found in a clock. Newton thought that the only kinds of statements that are acceptable are those that can be tested in the laboratory. But just as he was beginning to question the theories of Descartes the plague struck and the University was closed. Newton returned home to avoid infection. Isaac, in his old age said that the fall of an apple in his orchard at home was what told him what it was that held the planets in their orbits. An invisible force called gravity. Newton then invented Calculus, the quantitative study of the way things change, was a new branch of Mathematics, that is found today in Physics, Chemistry, Population Growth, Stock Market, Global Climate Change, and many other places. At the age of 22 he was the greatest Mathematician anyone had ever seen, and yet no one knew it because he kept it to himself. If that wasn’t enough, Newton overturned ideas of light. At first he used his own eye to perform experiments on light but later he employed a safer way to investigate light. He used a prism to separate the light, he then used a second prism to try and separate the other colors, but they remained the same color. He thought of the prism as a kind of separator of white light. Newton kept all this to himself. After the plague subsided he returned back to Cambridge where he worked his way up to Lucasian Professor of Mathematics. He became well know for his premature gray hair and his long winded lectures on light. Newton had little time for students and they had little interest in him.

Newton’s Lab assistant “So few went to him and so few understood him that often times he did in a manner, for want of hearers, read to the walls.”

Fifty years prior to this, Galileo had made use of the telescope in order to view the stars and planets. But the telescope had a problem because its lens edges behaved like a prism separating the light from its original form and distorting the image. Newton figured out a way around this by using mirrors instead of lenses. Mirrors did not separate the light at all, so Newton made a small device about the size of a tall drinking cup.

Newton bragged that “it could magnify 40 times in diameter, more than any six foot device could do, I have seen Jupiter with it, distinctly round, and its satellites.”

Our huge telescopes are based on Newton’s design. Newton thought of this design as just a toy, until a colleague saw it and took it to King Charles the second. The effect his telescope had on Newton’s contemporaries was immediate and dramatic. It brought Newton on to the world stage of science. Newton was elected as a member of the Royal Society of London, a group of leading scientist in London. At this time however Newton had been working on Alchemy. The same year he became a professor he bought two furnaces, a set of chemicals and a strange set of books. It is said that with the right mix of chemicals an Alchemist could produce the philosopher’s stone. With this stone it was said to be able to perform miracles, cure diseases and turn lead into gold. While Newton was immersed in Alchemy his paper on light had ignited a firestorm in London. The man responsible for evaluating Newton’s paper in the Royal Society was Robert Hook, who would become Newton’s life long nemesis. Hook said that he accepted Newton’s experiments but whatever was new in them he had already done, and all of his claims about light were wrong. Newton was not very good at taking criticism, and threatened to leave the Royal Society. Unable to convince everyone of what he said about light, pushed him away from wanting to publish anything he did. By the 60’s and 70’s he withdrew from science completely.

Newton’s Lab assistant “What his aim was I was not able to penetrate into but his pains, his diligence, those times made me think he arrived at something far beyond the reach of human art and industry.”

Scientist consider his Alchemy as scientifically worthless. Newton believed that in the distant past people knew great truths about nature and the universe. This wisdom was lost over time but Newton thought it was hidden in ancient Greek myths which he interpreted as alchemical recipes. (See “The Book of Enoch”, and “The Secrets of Enoch”)

For most of his life Newton held a dangerous secret. As a fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge, he was required to become a minister in the Church of England, but this was something he violently opposed. Newton became convinced that the central doctrine of the trinity or the Idea that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were all equally divine was not true. The more ancient texts he read the more he was convinced that Jesus was the Son of God, but not God’s equal. Newton read himself into heresy. Newton comes to the conclusion very early on that the trinity is a blasphemy of the first commandment, which said “Thou shall have no other gods before me.” And the worship of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as equal and divine was a heresy, but denying the trinity was illegal, and Newton was risking everything by these beliefs. If Newton had been exposed, while at Cambridge as an anti-Trinitarian, his career would have been over. He would have been ostracized although it would not have involved being put to death, but prison would have been one possibility. Newton was excused from being a minister, but in his life time and in his own privacy he wrote more about Theology and Alchemy than Science and Mathematics combined. For Newton science and religion were inseparable, two parts of the same lifelong quest to understand the universe. Newton's world was very much motivated by theology unlike the way he was portrayed by the world as cold and calculating.

Isaac Newton “A most beautiful system of the sun planets and commits could only proceed from the council and dominion of an intelligent and powerful being.”

He had more than 30 bibles and he examined them more rigorously than he did anything else. Correlating Biblical passages with astrological information he re-dated ancient history drawing up elaborate charts and chronologies that show civilization starting at around 980 BC. He worked on this over a period of 30 years. Newton also combed the Bible for keys to the future. What he was trying to do was determine when the end would come, when Christ would return, when all the apocalyptical events of the end times would come to a head. He came to the year 2060.

In Newton’s 40’s he got a visit from an Astronomer named Edmond Halley. Halley asked Newton an esoteric question about planetary orbits.

Edmond Halley “What kind of curve would be described by the planets supposing the force of the attraction toward the sun to be reciprocal of the square of the distance from it.”

Newton “An ellipse.”

Halley “An ellipse? How do you know?”

Newton “I’ve done the calculation.”

Halley “You have? How did you calculate it?”

Newton “I’ll re-calculate it and send it to you.”

Four months later what Halley received would change science forever. Through observation, Astronomers discovered that the planets moved around the sun, not in perfect circles, but in elliptical orbits, but no one could explain why. Halley and others guessed that the planets had to be attracted to the sun by an invisible force called the inverse square law:

F=1/r²

But no one had been able to prove that this resulted in elliptical orbits. Halley received the proof that a planet traveling around the sun must travel in an elliptical orbit. Newton likely used Calculus to prove this but he wrote the proof using Euclidian Geometry. Newton wanted more than a mathematical proof; he wanted to know how the planets moved through space. For the next 18 months Newton worked on this question day and night. When he was done he submitted a 500 page masterpiece, “The Principia Mathematica” to the Royal Society of London. Newton was providing a new framework for understanding the universe, building on centuries of work from his contemporaries. Newton devised the three laws of motion.

1.) An object in motion will remain in motion forever unless acted upon by an external force.

2.) An object’s rate of acceleration is proportional to the force acting on it.

3.) For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Newton devised a thought experiment to show that the orbits of the moon and planets were the same as objects projected from earth. He imagined a canon fixed from an extremely tall mountain. In a bold leap, Newton proclaimed that his invisible force operates everywhere in the universe. Newton called it the universal law of gravitation.

F _g = g • (m₁ • m₂)/r²

It answers the question as to what causes the rise and fall of the tides. The rest of science today has built off of that foundation. Newton’s critic Hook claimed that he had come up with the key ideas first. Later others criticized the fact that Newton did not explain what gravity really was, just how to calculate its strength, Newton didn’t understand it himself. After Newton recovered from a breakdown, likely from exhaustion combined with mercury poisoning, he moved to London and became Master of the Mint, a well paying job that put him in charge of issuing new currency and cracking down on counterfeiters. About two dozen counterfeiters were executed while Newton was in charge. Newton became a Member of Parliament, president of the Royal Society and was knighted. A year after Robert Hook died Newton published his second greatest masterpiece OPTICKS, in which he expounded his corpuscular theory of light. At the end of this book Newton finally wrote some of his key ideas of Calculus, 40 years after they were conceived. Right up to his death Newton tried to keep his belief about the trinity a secret and he felt that there was no point in trying to convince others of this because the time was not right. People were not fit to receive the kind of word he was giving out. He died at the age of 84.

Question Begging language in Christianity

It has come to my attention that there are many strange teachings out there about God, which do not line up well with God's Word. At first I was surprised, but that shouldn't have been a surprise, because even before and during the time Jesus walked the earth, these kinds of teachings existed, and they were taught by the well respected, highly educated, members of the community at that time, as they are now. This does not mean that all those in such a position should be disrespected, but we shouldn't believe everything we hear either.

Mark 7:5-13 GNB So the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law asked Jesus, "Why is it that your disciples do not follow the teaching handed down by our ancestors, but instead eat with ritually unclean hands?" 6 Jesus answered them, "How right Isaiah was when he prophesied about you! You are hypocrites, just as he wrote: 'These people, says God, honor me with their words, but their heart is really far away from me. 7 It is no use for them to worship me, because they teach human rules as though they were my laws!' 8 "You put aside God's command and obey human teachings." 9 And Jesus continued, "You have a clever way of rejecting God's law in order to uphold your own teaching. 10 For Moses commanded, 'Respect your father and your mother,' and, 'If you curse your father or your mother, you are to be put to death.' 11 But you teach that if people have something they could use to help their father or mother, but say, 'This is Corban' (which means, it belongs to God), 12 they are excused from helping their father or mother. 13 In this way the teaching you pass on to others cancels out the word of God. And there are many other things like this that you do."

Thus the reason we have to seek wisdom with everything we have. For whatever reason teachings like this were created, they end up causing more harm than good. If we assume that the reason these little lies were created is to help rather than harm, the harm we find is worse than it's intended purpose to help. So the trinity might have been created in order to help people understand the nature of God, but the problem is that the trinity has so many contradictions to it, as found in the Word of God, that it places the only source of God's message into doubt. Someone might tell a little white lie in order to keep another's feelings from being hurt, or perhaps they do it to simplify a concept, but in the end, a little fib may avalanche into something far worse. One lie may contradict other scriptures elsewhere, and one is forced to change the simple meaning of those elsewhere scriptures, but then each of those new meanings will contradict some other scriptures elsewhere, and so the cycle begins again, until the entire word of God is of no value at all, because nothing in it has a reliable meaning any more. Or in order to understand it we need a person with a PhD to keep all the twisted meanings straight.

Those who believe salvation can never be lost have that idea imbedded so deep in their brains that it has become a kind of definition of salvation to them. They have defined for themselves what salvation is, despite the fact that the Bible's message is contrary to their definition. The problem with our own "made up definitions" is that, there can be no way to argue against them despite the evidence, if the one who accepts it, refuse to change that definition, definitions are just that, definitions, and can't be changed. The attitude we see here in the OSAS beliver is:

Proverbs 26:12 KJV Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? there is more hope of a fool than of him.

Because they refuse to look at anything else in the Bible, contrary to their belief. In Christianity, just as the trinity is a made up definition about the nature of God, so too is the Once Saved Always Saved doctrine a made up definition of what Salvation is. These teachings at first seem simple, and yes, it's nice to think that we can never lose our salvation, but if it's not in the Word, it's wrong. It begs the question "What about these counter-examples to such a definition?" because, despite the evidence against it, the definition goes contrary to it, but we are not able to argue against a definition, because a definition is settled. If this definition proves to be false then it gave those who believed in it, a false sense of security, they thought it was okay for them to sin. There are some scriptures which appear to imply unconditional salvation, but remember that we can't ignore the many other scriptures that show otherwise. And we should perhaps take a closer look at the scriptures used to defend the OSAS belief, and make sure they mean what someone has told us they mean.

In order to give an illustration of the absurdity found in question begging language, suppose I were taught that all coffee mugs were cream colored and that anything other than a cream colored coffee mug was not a coffee mug. You might show me something that looks exactly like a coffee mug, it holds coffee, it has a handle just like a coffee mug, it even keeps the coffee warm for a long time, and says "coffee mug" on it, but it isn't cream colored. Now suppose you have it sitting on the kitchen table, full of some fresh hot coffee, and you offer it to me, saying:

"Sean I just fixed you a cup of coffee over there in the coffee mug."

Now because you don't know my definition of what a coffee mug is, nor do you know the obsessive compulsive attitude I have about drinking out of a true coffee mug, you are about to discover what it means to beg the question. I might reply, "Where is the coffee mug?" Then you might reply, "It's right there on the kitchen table." I might reply: "That's not a coffee mug. A coffee mug is cream colored." Then you might say: "No that's not true, I have all kinds of coffee mugs all different colors." Then you might proceed to show me some of your coffee mugs. I will say "Those aren't true coffee mugs, they're false coffee mugs, you're preaching a false coffee mug." Then you might say, "What are you talking about, just because the coffee mug isn't cream colored, doesn't negate the fact that it's still a coffee mug?" Now by that time you might think to yourself, . o O(this guy is insane.), but to be nice you might just say "Okay, but will you drink the coffee even if it isn't in a true coffee mug?" And I might say "No way! that's heresy, get me a real coffee mug." So you might ask: "Here are all my mug's, why don't you choose the mug that's a true coffee mug?" But it might turn out that you have no cream colored coffee mugs, and so I might say: "Sorry but I can't drink coffee from those false coffee mugs, perhaps you have a true tea cup, and you can make me some tea." So you might ask, "Will you drink the tea from one of the false coffee mugs, or do I need to have a true tea mug?" And I might reply, "No silly, it's not called a tea mug, it's called a tea cup."

Now that we can understand the nature of the fallacy made by the Once Saved Always Saved definition, let us show an example of what it does to the message in the Bible. I might now show a OSAS believer the following scriptures in the Bible:

2 Peter 2:20 GNB If people have escaped from the corrupting forces of the world through their knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and then are again caught and conquered by them, such people are in worse condition at the end than they were at the beginning.

Hebrews 10:26-29 GNB For there is no longer any sacrifice that will take away sins if we purposely go on sinning after the truth has been made known to us. 27 Instead, all that is left is to wait in fear for the coming Judgment and the fierce fire which will destroy those who oppose God! 28 Anyone who disobeys the Law of Moses is put to death without any mercy when judged guilty from the evidence of two or more witnesses. 29 What, then, of those who despise the Son of God? who treat as a cheap thing the blood of God's covenant which purified them from sin? who insult the Spirit of grace? Just think how much worse is the punishment they will deserve!

We should be able to predict what a once saved always saved believer will say to this, first off they might say something like: That's not the King James Version, so it's a false Bible, then you might proceed to show them the same verses as found in the KJV:

2 Peter 2:20 KJV For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.

Hebrews 10:26-29 KJV For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, 27 But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. 28 He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: 29 Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?

Then they will say, those people were never really saved, they were never really born again, they were the false prophets. Then you might show them the following verse from the Gospel according to Matthew:

Matthew 6:14-15 KJV For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: 15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Some of the hard core OSAS believers will say that the commandments in the Gospels according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John applied only to the Jews, not to the Gentiles, and only applied before Jesus Christ died on the Cross, and then they might accuse you of preaching a works based salvation, that is, they might say that you are trying to earn your own salvation, or keep your own salvation. And then they will quote Paul:

Ephesians 2:9 KJV Not of works, lest any man should boast.

It should be obvious that what these people are trying to do is create excuses to sin, so they might try to say that if you work against your flesh and try not to sin then you are boasting of works, but at the same time they will say that a true born again Christian won't sin, because they have the Holy Spirit in them, and they have become a new creature in Christ and they will even show you the following scripture:

1 John 3:9 KJV Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.

What they are doing is turning light into darkness and darkness into light. Then you might show them the following verse:

1 John 1:8 KJV If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

Then they will say that the blood of Christ is what blinds their sin from the eyes of God, and they will quote:

Romans 4:3-8 KJV For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. 4 Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. 5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. 6 Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, 7 Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. 8 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.

So one argument I have heard them make is that because they are born again they have "imputed righteousness" as did Abraham. At that point it might occur to you that it is impossible to get through to these people but you might then say, well what about these scriptures:

1 Corinthians 9:27 KJV But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

James 2:17 KJV Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.

1 Timothy 4:16 KJV Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.

1 Timothy 5:22 KJV Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men's sins: keep thyself pure.

1 Timothy 6:12 KJV Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.

Hebrews 2:10 KJV For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

Hebrews 3:6-12 KJV But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. 7 Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, 8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: 9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. 10 Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. 11 So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.) 12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.

Luke 16:16 KJV The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.

Matthew 5:17 KJV Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

Romans 3:31 KJV Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.

Romans 13:9 KJV For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

And many many other scriptures that contradict their OSAS belief, they will be forced to twist every scripture, clearly contrary to their belief or they might just water the scripture's meaning down, so much, that it makes not sense, or they will attempt to minimize it's significance, by accusing you of taking it out of context. If we can see through the lie going on here, we might want to try to understand the underlining agenda for such a lie. One reason this lie might have cropped up is that many people like to feel secure even if they are not, so it's a false security blanket. Another possibility is money, the easier it is to get into heaven the more people it will attract, and the more people the more money a preacher can make. Still another reason people accept this teaching is simply because they what to get into heaven without having to do a single thing against their flesh. They want the reward of everlasting life while at the same time reaping the rewards of the pleasure they get from satisfying their fleshly desires. Then there are the innocent souls who have been raised up with this teaching, and so they therefore know no other way because it has been drilled in their head since the day they learned about Jesus Christ. Now there may be other reasons for this lie, but the most important reason is because it's prophesied in the Bible, a few places are in Second Peter, Jude, but even in the Gospels we see that these things must happen and why. So all I can say to my fellow Christians is to obey our Lord Jesus Christ and know what to obey by OPENING UP YOUR BIBLES AND READING IT FROM COVER TO COVER AND SEEK, WITH ALL YOUR HEART, TO UNDERSTAND ITS TRUE MEANING AND BELIEVE WHAT IT SAYS:

Matthew 7:21-23 KJV Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

John 3:20 GNB Those who do evil things hate the light and will not come to the light, because they do not want their evil deeds to be shown up.

Question-Begging Definition This fallacy consists in making a claim true by definition, by subtly importing a highly questionable definition of a key word into one of the premises.

Example: Suppose that Paul maintains the empirical claim that "true love never ends in separation or divorce." When he is presented with examples of true love followed by divorce, he insists that such cases were not genuine cases of true love. His "evidence" that they were not cases of true love is that they ended in divorce. Paul is hereby settling the issue by definition, for his judgment is that any marriage that ends in divorce could not have been a case of true love. Hence, no empirical evidence is allowed to count against his claim. It is when this evidence is presented and rejected that it should become evident to other discussants that the alleged empirical claim is really a definitional one. The argument in standard form should clearly reveal the flaw:

Since true love is defined as a love that will never end in divorce or separation, _________________________________________________________
Therefore, true love will never end in divorce or separation.

Attacking the Fallacy If you suspect that an arguer has employed a question-begging definition in an argument, ask the arguer whether the conclusion is a definitional or empirical claim. If he or she is puzzled by your question, it might be necessary to explain, as simply as possible, the difference between a definitional and an empirical claim. If the claim is found to be definitional, it is obviously not subject to falsification, although the arguer should be prepared to defend the questionable definition against alternative definitions base on ordinary language or the thinking of relevant authorities. If the claim is found to be empirical, the arguer has the burden of proving empirical proof for the claim and must, of course, be willing to consider any counterevidence to the claim. ["Attacking Faulty Reasoning", By T. Edward Damer]

If Adam had not sinned?

If Adam had not sinned?

I have been burning lots of gray matter on the possibilities as to what might have happened, and they are purely speculative. The only thing I can say for certain is that it was part of God's plan for his children. In other words, Adam's sin was meant to happen as an object lesson for God's children in Christ. When Jesus Christ came to earth and died, in his resurrection he revealed this deep hidden secret through the Holy spirit which he poured out upon his chosen ones. One might ask: How can a God of love use the mistakes of those created in his image at the expense of those he chose? God answers this question in his Word:

Romans 15:4 GNB Everything written in the Scriptures was written to teach us, in order that we might have hope through the patience and encouragement which the Scriptures give us.

Proverbs 22:3 GNB Sensible people will see trouble coming and avoid it, but an unthinking person will walk right into it and regret it later.

Isaiah 29:16 GNB They turn everything upside down. Which is more important, the potter or the clay? Can something you have made say, "You didn't make me"? Or can it say, "You don't know what you are doing"?

Romans 9:15-23 GNB For he said to Moses, "I will have mercy on anyone I wish; I will take pity on anyone I wish." 16 So then, everything depends, not on what we humans want or do, but only on God's mercy. 17 For the scripture says to the king of Egypt, "I made you king in order to use you to show my power and to spread my fame over the whole world." 18 So then, God has mercy on anyone he wishes, and he makes stubborn anyone he wishes. 19 But one of you will say to me, "If this is so, how can God find fault with anyone? Who can resist God's will?" 20 But who are you, my friend, to talk back to God? A clay pot does not ask the man who made it, "Why did you make me like this?" 21 After all, the man who makes the pots has the right to use the clay as he wishes, and to make two pots from the same lump of clay, one for special occasions and the other for ordinary use. 22 And the same is true of what God has done. He wanted to show his anger and to make his power known. But he was very patient in enduring those who were the objects of his anger, who were doomed to destruction. 23 And he also wanted to reveal his abundant glory, which was poured out on us who are the objects of his mercy, those of us whom he has prepared to receive his glory.

Ephesians 1:4-11 GNB Even before the world was made, God had already chosen us to be his through our union with Christ, so that we would be holy and without fault before him. Because of his love 5 God had already decided that through Jesus Christ he would make us his children---this was his pleasure and purpose. 6 Let us praise God for his glorious grace, for the free gift he gave us in his dear Son! 7 For by the blood of Christ we are set free, that is, our sins are forgiven. How great is the grace of God, 8 which he gave to us in such large measure! In all his wisdom and insight 9 God did what he had purposed, and made known to us the secret plan he had already decided to complete by means of Christ. 10 This plan, which God will complete when the time is right, is to bring all creation together, everything in heaven and on earth, with Christ as head. 11 All things are done according to God's plan and decision; and God chose us to be his own people in union with Christ because of his own purpose, based on what he had decided from the very beginning.

Revelation 13:8-9 GNB All people living on earth will worship it [the beast], except those whose names were written before the creation of the world in the book of the living which belongs to the Lamb that was killed. 9 "Listen, then, if you have ears!

1 Corinthians 2:7 GNB The wisdom I proclaim is God's secret wisdom, which is hidden from human beings, but which he had already chosen for our glory even before the world was made.

Ephesians 1:9 GNB God did what he had purposed, and made known to us the secret plan he had already decided to complete by means of Christ.

Ephesians 3:9 GNB and of making all people see how God's secret plan is to be put into effect. God, who is the Creator of all things, kept his secret hidden through all the past ages,

Colossians 1:26-28 GNB which is the secret he hid through all past ages from all human beings but has now revealed to his people. 27 God's plan is to make known his secret to his people, this rich and glorious secret which he has for all peoples. And the secret is that Christ is in you, which means that you will share in the glory of God. 28 So we preach Christ to everyone. With all possible wisdom we warn and teach them in order to bring each one into God's presence as a mature individual in union with Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:45 GNB 45 For the scripture says, "The first man, Adam, was created a living being"; but the last Adam is the life-giving Spirit.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 GNB All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching the truth, rebuking error, correcting faults, and giving instruction for right living, 17 so that the person who serves God may be fully qualified and equipped to do every kind of good deed.

The first fibber

Where did Satan come from and how could God allow such a person to fibb to his creation? Given that Adam's sin was God's will, one comes to the conclusion that Satan was designed by God to do just what he does best; lie. Satan's first lie was so very little but its effect was so damaging. What the lie did was remove the fear of God, it removed the consequences of disobeying his commandments. With that fear removed we see something interesting happen, we see the woman's first desires for something she can gain on this earth, wisdom of a God through something she could see with her eyes, namely the fruit. But notice that it's not until after the woman gives the fruit to her husband that we know they both feel the effects of what they have done. They realize their nakedness, and therefore their sexuality. It is likely that after the woman ate she did suddenly feel a sexual desire for her husband, but because he had not eaten the fruit, his sexual desire was lacking. In her case she felt no shame, because she was deceived into believing it was perfectly fine. Therefore she likely persuaded Adam to eat along with her in order to gain the feelings she was having. Now the woman had yet to see any powerful works by God, all she had to go on was what Adam told her. Adam however had seen the the wilderness wasteland from which he came and he had witnessed the creation of his wife from his own flesh, he had also seen God create animals to which Adam named. So in this case Adam knew better than to listen to his wife. After he ate he came to realize his sexuality and saw his wife and was likely aroused, but at the same time he was also ashamed, in that he knew he had done something very very bad. So with man's knowledge to create life through sex , he simultaneously lost the ability to live forever. It is interesting to note all the sinful behavior that goes along with sex and our desire for things seen with our eyes in this world today. Although there was a tree of life in the garden and although it was free to eat from, what really mattered was for man to continuously obey God, in order to live forever. The trees therefore only had a symbolic meaning. God expelled Adam from the Garden because it would be an oxymoron for God to allow Adam to eat from the tree of life after he promised him he would die for eating from the forbidden tree. Moreover the point of placing mankind in the Garden was to show us the difference between what our Father will do for us if we obey him and the difficult time we will have if we disobey. Suppose Adam had not sinned? We'll talk about this in the next posting "God willing".

Adam's Sin Was God's Will.

This is an analysis of Genesis Chapters one, two, and, three on Adam and Eve, from what I could discern from my interlinear Bible project found at http://www.UnravelingTheWord.info (note that the English text is read as Hebrew: form right-to-left). First of all we must understand that at one time there was never such a thing as chapters and verse in the Bible. Each book consisted of a continuous scroll of un-pointed un-punctuated Hebrew text. This fact is helpful in understanding how the many stories in the Bible are written. Generally a story is first summarized, then the significant details are presented thereafter. So if we look a the creation account with these facts in mind we see that in Chapter two it starts out with God resting on the seventh day from all his work from the previous six days of creation and then it goes into detail about the sixth day when God created Adam and Eve. What we see, seems as if Adam is created before any plants or animals, as if no animals existed on the earth, and then God creates the animals and brings them to the man to name. It is likely, however, that God created Adam in a region on the earth which was desert like in nature and at first void of trees or animals in order to show Adam a distinction between what good God can give him and what bad there can be without God's guidance. Adam was simply in a place where no animals or plants yet lived, and the Garden was likely made this way too, in a place surrounded by desert. So the animals existed, just not where Adam happened to be. It also seems as if the Garden was planted after Adam was created but it was likely planted before he was made. It is therefore likely that Adam spent a sufficient amount of time outside the garden in order to know where he came from, before he was placed in the Garden where he would have food and shade. After his sin he was to till the ground he was originally made to till but rather than having to tend to the beautiful fruit trees as found in the garden, he is to tend with thorns and thistles working on his own power to get food to grow, then die in the place he was made. Thus a clear distinction between life and death, and good and bad. Adam finds out the meaning of the difference between the knowledge of good and evil. The knowledge of good is for Mankind to obey God and the knowledge of evil is for mankind to disobey God. That simple! We find that the garden was made in order to discipline Adam in this way, we also find that because Adam and Eve were without shame before they ate they at least came to know about sex after they ate and what sex was for, namely to make children. Because of these facts we are forced to conclude that Adam's sin occurred on the sixth day and not as most assume on the seventh. Notice that after Adam sins he gives his wife the name Eve which means life-giver, because she was to become the mother of everyone living. But notice also that after God created both the male and female humans in his image, as found in Genesis Chapter one, we see that they are commanded to fill the earth, the place Adam was taken, and to subdue it, then we see the sixth day end on a very good note. This all shows that they sinned on the sixth day, not the seventh, it shows that Adam was set up to fail in order to be disciplined, and it shows that it was all very good in the eyes of God. Another line of evidence pointing to God's will for Adam to sin, is that Adam's expulsion from the Garden is foreshadowed by God after Adam is given his wife found in Genesis 2:24, one way to translate it is that Adam would forsake his Heavenly Parents and become one with his wife, but this would extend to Adam's sons too. And we know that Adam and Eve must have both existed on the sixth day from Genesis 1:27. (more to come)