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CORRUPTION ERUPTION: THE ROT HAS SET IN
“The axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
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THE FATE OF EVIL
All evil will be judged. Everyone and everything associated with it will be dealt with. Those who join up with evil and make the free choice to be connected to it and engage in its practices, whatever their reason, will suffer the same fate. The time will come when all evil and all evil people will be judged, sentenced, and cease to exist. Evil will never make the transition to eternity. It will be incinerated.
“Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” [Matthew 10:28]
TWO OPTIONS
“All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.” [Matthew 25:32]
The Word of God reveals a clear dualism. There is good and there is evil. There are the righteous and there are the unrighteous. There are sheep and there are goats. There is wheat and there are tares. Every human being who has ever existed or ever will is in one group or the other. There is no middle ground.
The Word of God also defines sin. No other definition matters. Any other definition is false. Therefore whoever makes the choice to live according to God’s commands knows that God is the sole Author of His commands and made them for a reason. A person has no choice, then, but to accept God’s parameters for living. One cannot make up his own rules and be right with God. He or she cannot choose some of God’s commands and reject others. His commands have already been established. Thus, it is simply a matter of a person living for God to the full or not living for Him at all. Again, there is no middle ground.
When God gave the Law to Moses He made no provision for alteration. There was no amendment process. He never allowed for the later “Oral Law” which corrupted His Word (and is still in effect today). His Laws were not suggestions. They were not experimental applications seeking personal and societal solutions. God already knew what worked and what didn’t. He already knew what was evil and what was good. He already knew what good and acceptable behavior was and what behavior was evil and unacceptable. He didn’t need anyone telling Him what He already knew. He didn’t need someone with an extremely limited level of knowledge and life experience telling Him what He had known for multiple centuries regarding the behavior of human beings. He created human beings. Every human being who has ever lived has an extremely limited level of knowledge and life experience compared to God. The same holds true for generations. Entire living generations of human beings existing at any one time are collectively grossly inferior to God. It is therefore laughable for anyone to suppose he or she knows better than God. An honest courageous person thus understands that the best way is God’s way, that God knows best, and that all one needs to do is do one’s best to trust God, obey His commands, and live for Him.
The dishonest rebellious person, however, refuses to accept this course of action. Such a one would rather submit to his or her own will or that of another rather than God. Consequently, he or she will question God and will question His commands. He or she will attempt to eliminate some or all of His commands, accept what he or she happens to agree with, and will refuse to accept the rest. He or she will desire to modify, alter, amend, change, or revise God’s commands to suit himself or herself not understanding or caring that such is a purely selfish course of action which can never be applied universally. The only universe such people care about is their own. The dishonest rebellious person, then, is not concerned with pleasing God but only pleasing him or herself. He or she does not care about an actual relationship with God. If the only way to be right with God and have a good relationship with Him is to obey His commands, such individuals would rather not be in relationship with Him at all. Their personal freedom, including the freedom to sin, is more important to them. They are thus contemptuous of God and His commands. They will violate any law, rule, or social more, usually to the degree they feel they can get away with (because most are cowards at heart), for personal pleasure and enrichment.
CORRUPTION ERUPTION
This is exactly where corruption originates. It starts small and grows over time. When a person commits sin for the first time, always at a young age, his or her future course depends on how the sin is dealt with. Though God has blessed humanity with a working conscience which convicts a person of sin and which assists in one learning right from wrong, some people learn to reject the conviction of their conscience and eventually deaden their conscience to the point that they have no problem with sinning and engaging in ongoing sin. This is an otherwise obvious form of mental illness but when everyone else is mentally ill the mental illness does not register. When everyone else in one’s chosen group rejects God and chooses sin, are they actually living in sin? From God’s perspective the answer is yes indeed, of course, but from the perspective of those within that sinful group, society, or culture, since everyone adheres to the same principles and beliefs and behaves the same way, there is no comparative by which to judge. The people therein are therefore unaware of any acceptable alternative since they reject the possibility of all others and remain smug and secure within their own group and are constantly confirmed of one’s rightness by each other.
In other words, if all the animals in a particular enclosed pasture are goats, then goat behavior is perfectly acceptable because no one there will ever challenge goat behavior because everyone there is a goat. Goat behavior thus becomes the norm and any animal not a goat is perceived as a vile deviant that must be hated, rejected, censored, cancelled, ripped off, run off, and/or murdered, likely with malice. (That will teach them to mess with perfection.)
As another case in point, Cain and Able had a difference of opinion. Abel loved God, obeyed God, honored God, and served God. Cain did none of those things. Since Abel had love in his heart, he had the ability to put up with Cain’s sin and bad attitude. He had no evil intent toward Cain. He knew it was not his place to do anything about his brother except do his best to remain positive about him and pray for him. Cain, however, had no such ability or attitude. He grew to despise his brother. He was jealous regarding Abel’s walk with God. His hatred for Abel’s excellent attitude and good behavior grew until it reached a boiling point. Rather than repent, change, conform to God’s will, and eliminate his bad attitude and sinful lifestyle as well as create a happy union with both God and Abel, Cain chose instead to violently murder his brother and thus eliminate him. He did this in part to create his own “pure society” playing by a different set of rules in opposition to God’s Kingdom.
He also did it to remove the source of his conviction.
This is how it always happens. Rather than accept and conform to God’s perfect universal commands for living, rebellious sinners who oppose God make their own set of rules which benefit themselves and force everyone else within the range of their influence or authority to conform to them. Since all such subsets of rules are insufficient and even immoral and fraudulent compared to God’s, and since any number of such societal subsets exist simultaneously, they cannot help but spawn greater hate and ever-greater division. Some such societies and cultures will gain greater traction and overcome others. This allows for a strongman or chieftain to arise who plays the part of God and battles other such chieftains. The end result is incessant killing and perpetual warmongering. It is the end result of rejecting God and His commands. It is Cain killing Abel on an ever-increasing scale. In time, eventually, the pack of evil, selfish, unrighteous cowards will wipe out all the good, unselfish, courageous, righteous ones. The evil will eliminate the good from the earth. The goats will win. Sound familiar?
Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. [Genesis 6:11-12]
BEYOND THE POINT OF NO RETURN
I remember when I was a kid and learned about what happens when one flies an airplane too far out to sea with no opportunity to refuel. Once the pilot reaches the point of no return he will not have enough fuel for the return trip and is doomed. And I wondered why anyone would do that and not make sure it wouldn’t happen. I also remember a small factoid regarding the Japanese kamikaze pilots bombing American ships out to sea in WWII: They were only given enough fuel to make it to the target. Those guys were so dedicated, and they only chose the most dedicated, that they wouldn’t have turned back anyway. But just in case…
The same holds true for societies and cultures. Those who research the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, for example, become aware of certain societal signs to watch for which indicate the downward slope of a nation in decay. I studied this a long time ago and was certainly intrigued by seeing those exact early signs in my own country at that time. America was starting to look just like Rome in its declining phase. Things have grown steadily worse since then, much worse than most people would have ever thought, and we are now in the exponential days in which cultural decay is proceeding rapidly. There are no longer any sufficient societal checks to keep the inevitable from taking place. America has gone beyond the point of return.
People who used to have high moral standards have allowed their morals to slip. Many formerly strong people regarding societal mores have allowed themselves to be overcome by the upcoming lawless culture. They used to know what sin was and stood against it but stopped standing and laid down. Salt and light is at an extremely low ebb. Many in the older generation who had much better morals and a Biblical worldview have grown tired of standing against the incessant onslaught of sin and corruption. It is such that no one has escaped it. Evil has come against every segment of society. No one is immune.
Even many Christian ministries and churches have gone the way of the world. A majority have adopted whatever new cultural mores have come forth, mores which oppose real Christianity. A new agenda has replaced the former. Rather than living for the Lord and accepting, believing, and practicing the full Gospel, the new agenda calls for mere financial survival and ministry in general is now tailored toward making money and serving mammon. Sin, even egregious sin, is rarely or never addressed. This is just a fact. It cannot be denied. Money is now first. This means, according to the statement by the Lord Jesus, that most of Christianity is not serving Him but serving wealth. This means there is no longer any effective witness from American Christianity against the wicked traditional servers of money. These two used to be at loggerheads but now are joined at the hip. One has an infinite supply of ready cash and the other needs increasingly greater amounts. American Christianity has thus grown as corrupt as the corrupt ones it used to rebuke. There is no longer any effective rebuke. And this is in part why the evil ones are presently going in for the kill.
American Christianity in general grew weak and corrupted because it kicked out the strong honest Christians it could not control who were trying to save it.
The same thing happened in the secular and civic realm. Those trying to save the country clashed with those trying to destroy it. I revealed this destruction protocol in my prior post though few of you read it. I understand that such articles are not popular. I suggest to those who have yet to read it to take a look, though. I told you in advance. Yesterday marked another one of those points in history in which everything is made clear to those paying attention.
Regardless of this present darkness and the corruption therein, however, the Great Awakening continues. Praise God for that. May many more wake up and get right with God.
Otherwise, consider the following:
“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.” [Matthew 5:13][1]
© 2022 by RJ Dawson. All Rights Reserved.
[1] Unless otherwise noted all Scriptures are taken from the New American Standard Bible, © 1960, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
THE MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION: Announcing Part 4
Hello everyone. Hope all is well. I completed Part 4 of this series and will likely be posting it on Monday morning, March 29. It is entitled Spiritual Resurrection. There are many Biblical facts within it that some may not be aware of so I hope it will be interesting to you and fill in some gaps in your understanding. I wrote it on Thursday and it turned out to be five pages but I think it reads well. Because it’s been several days since I posted Part 3 I am making this announcement to make you aware it is on the way and to prepare for it.
The Lord Jesus greatly desires reconciliation with everyone and has done all He can to make that happen. When we do our part it does happen. The following is the central passage in His Word revealing The Ministry of Reconciliation:
Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. [2Corinthians 5:18-20]
Thanks to all of you who have read all or parts of this series so far, and thanks for the many excellent comments that have added to our understanding of the subject matter. You are all appreciated. If anyone wants to read parts they may have missed I have added links and their titles below. Be blessed. See you on Monday.
3/11: THE MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION: RESTORING RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD (1)
3/14: THE MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION: WORD STUDY AND APPLICABLE VERSES (2)
3/17: THE MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION: THE REMOVAL OF SIN (3)
3/29: THE MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION: SPIRITUAL RESURRECTION (4) Coming Monday
THE MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION: RESTORING RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD (1)
God’s great desire is to be reconciled with everyone. He has already done everything He possibly can do on His part to achieve this and has made it as easy as possible for us.
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Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation… [2Corinthians 5:18]
WHERE AM I?
Many people grow up perceiving the world at large as a great unknown and somewhat of a mystery. We don’t necessarily see our own immediate surroundings that way, however. From the beginning of awareness at a very tender age we are presented with a family structure we must live within. This structure, whatever it may be, wherever we may live, contains certain expectations we must adhere to even though much within our young lives is granted as a gift, though we do not initially recognize it as such. We are not aware of the great effort it took to bring us into this world or the extreme care and expense required immediately afterward. We have no knowledge or memory or those early months when we were completely helpless and dependent on 24 hour-a-day attention and devotion prior to our later conscious understanding. We simply have no conception of the meaning of love at that time.
When we do begin becoming aware of our surroundings and are able to make cognitive connections we only know of our limited direct environment and this is usually filled to overflowing. We become as thirsty sponges taking it all in. There is so much to know and learn. We must develop as little humans and it is a fulltime endeavor. We continue to major on receiving and expect that our needs will always be met. Some children, of course, are not so fortunate to be blessed with the level of stability and protective environment necessary for proper development in the first years of life, but development continues onward anyway. Time waits for no one. Growth proceeds ready or not.
Regardless of parental love for children, and most parents are very good in this regard, they can only do so much. Most parents are limited. They are limited regarding what they would like to do for their children compared to what they can do. They are not necessarily limited in love and may attempt to love all the more to make up for perceived deficiencies. It must be understood, though, that love comes in many forms and people express their love in different ways. Sometimes love is not appreciated because it is not acknowledged or understood. Sometimes parents go way out of their way to get their children the best life possible according to their conception of whatever that may be but it is not appreciated. And it is sometimes the case that children of poor parents remain well adjusted in life despite not having much at all growing up. There are several reasons for such outcomes and it can be complicated, but maybe the common denominator is whether or not one understands loving intentions.
LOST RELATIONSHIP
And they were bringing even their babies to Him so that He would touch them, but when the disciples saw it, they began rebuking them. But Jesus called for them, saying, “Permit the children to come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.” [Luke 18:15-17]
Children are close to God. They may not understand this but it is true. We know it is true because the great separator of people from God is personal sin. Young children have no sin. Regardless of their actions that sometimes do not reveal them as saintly, they are simply not accountable for their actions. For the most part they are innocent, open, and kindhearted. They also have greater perception of heavenly things. They are not weighed down by sin. Because of their lack of sin they remain in close contact with God even though there may not be any overt communication on their part. Yet, God does communicate with children, though on a level they can understand and through a means they can receive.
But the inevitable always happens. The children grow older and begin to sin willingly. At first their conscience may bother them terribly and they will respond with fear. In other words they know whatever sinful actions they engage in are wrong. They are able to know right from wrong. In much the same way God has created the means and ability for incredibly complex language skills that come forth almost automatically in a relatively very short period of time, so has He blessed each person with a working conscience. This functions as an automatic right/wrong indicator. It allows a young growing child to know what bad behavior is and to steer clear of it. Parental and societal rules certainly play a part in this and there is also a certain level of fear of both when rule-breaking is involved. Nonetheless, once a child even thinks about engaging in sin his or her conscience kicks in and red lights starts flashing. What else can this be but a built-in warning system placed there by the Creator?
Eventually, of course, the warning system will be bypassed. It only has the ability to warn but never stop one from acting on sinful desires. And though it will continue to work as designed it becomes less effective the more it is overridden. There is a long-term danger here, however. A person can neglect and reject the warnings of the conscience to the point that it actually will effectively stop working in the sense that it can be so tuned out its warnings do not register. This means a person will no longer have a working conscience. And this means he or she loses any and all conception of personal sin. Paul gives a good illustration of this in the following from his first letter to Timothy: …by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron…
Most people may never arrive at that place but learn to deal with their conscience differently. The red light warnings may simply be overridden by a competing set of rules which justify sin. You see, the human conscience is programmed according to God’s definition of sin and no other. This is the default position. Sin is what God says it is and the conscience will always warn on that basis. However, if one adopts a different set of moral rules (or decides on no rules whatsoever) that conflict with the default, one can eventually override the default in the same way one can destroy his or her conscience by repeatedly rejecting the warnings. This is in part why so many people are able to sin without remorse and remain for all intents and purposes contributing members of society. They teach themselves how not to be bothered by their sin by simply convincing themselves it is not sin. They allow their desires to define good and bad behavior. As Eve did, on that terrible day in the Garden, people choose to imbibe and fulfill the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life rather than resist such soul-shattering temptations. This is why and how everyone eventually falls out of contact with God. Their willing personal sin destroys the lines of communication with Him. The contact they had with God when they were small children, innocent and pure, becomes lost. When communication is lost, the relationship is lost.
LOST IN A LOST WORLD
When the majority is lost it appears on the surface to not be lost at all. This is because sinful people usually invoke the tenet of majority rule with regard to moral standards. This social majority rule ideology simply means that whatever the majority within a culture decides is morally right is what is right. The majority sets the standard. Such standards vary by majorities which can be relatively small or composed of millions. If the majority does not convict a person for some personal sin then that person makes peace with such sin. It is as if there is no law against it. He or she may know on some level it is wrong but because no one in his or her sphere of influence holds him or her accountable, one effectively gets away with it so to speak. If everyone one hangs around with thinks the same and engages in the same sinful practices then sin as sin disappears. It becomes nothing more than what everyone else partakes of and is commonplace. Rather than there being any bulwark against it there is instead the cultural acceptance of it. Of course, sin is still there, behind the scenes as it were, destroying and eating away at the good. It is surely progressive but often works relatively slowly and the damage being inflicted does not register. Such will certainly register eventually, however, and show up in a form that appears to have a different source.
Majority rule regarding moral standards rather than God’s law is why some cultures fall to the point of adopting particular sinful activity as a vital component of their culture. When the majority accepts it, engages in it, and even honors it, it becomes part of a traditional belief system. We can think of the worst and most heinous examples of such cultures, such as those which are cannibalistic or those which practice infanticide. World history reveals many such cultures dating from ancient times. Historical accounts in the Bible give us several examples as well. Such heinous sins also exist in the present within so-called higher cultures.
But not all of these are so egregious on the surface. There are some cultures within an outer culture that engage in truly disgusting and vile sinful practices but keep it fairly well hidden. These have an outer cloak of respectability. The general rule of thumb, therefore, is to watch out for those who love to dress up in overtly “respectful clothing.” Such people must forever put forth the effort to hide what they really are. They know people are surface oriented and are easily deceived by mere appearances. If one dresses right, looks right, and acts right, one will largely shield himself from further inspection. These people know the majority will essentially revere them as people they wish they could be and will try to live vicariously through them. It is why celebrity status works so well. It is why celebrities in any field not only capture the hearts of masses but also shield themselves from close inspection. They know that such easy to deceive people are obsessed with image and not reality, and that they perceive the image to be reality. Thus, for them, image is everything.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. [Matthew 23:27-28]
Did anyone other than the Lord know these outwardly righteous religious leaders were actually filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness? Had they fooled everyone else? Or did others know it as well but the Lord was the only one courageous enough to expose them? Why was everyone else so fearful? Have you ever noticed that regular people never came to the defense of the Pharisees?
Making peace with personal sin is not good and has an expiration date. Those who not only make peace with sin but insist they actually have no sin are another story altogether. If people ever figured out that such individuals are the opposite of what they claim to be and are just as sinful as anyone else, if not much more so, their entire lives would come crashing down. On the other hand, many people know they are sinners, wish they were not sinners, and have tried to stop sinning but to no avail. They do their best to cover it up and act like it isn’t there in order to get along in life and keep some semblance of respectability but remain blessed with a conscience in good working order. Still, without a cure what are they to do? We get an answer here:
He then addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else.
“Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, ‘O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity—greedy, dishonest, adulterous—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.’ But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’ I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” [Luke 18:9-14] [1]
© 2021 by RJ Dawson. All Rights Reserved. [To Be Continued]
[1] Unless otherwise noted all Scriptures are taken from the New American Standard Bible, © 1960, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
THE MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION: WORD STUDY AND APPLICABLE VERSES (2)
LOVE IS THE FULFILLMENT OF THE LAW
We are taught while growing up that there are certain borders we must never cross. There are boundaries established by the authority figures in our lives that are designed to protect us, but often do much more.
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They stifle us. They destroy our dreams. They force us to conform to a very low common denominator in which everyone looks the same, acts the same, and lives in fear of the inevitable consequences of violating the code.
It’s called culture. And the worst cultures are religious cultures.
There was a time in the American culture when almost everyone bowed to the dictates of a so-called religious moral code that superseded much of what our hearts were designed to experience.
Rather than being loved-based, it was fear-based. And the sad thing about it all was that it played right into the devil’s hands. Though there was undoubtedly limited success against sin in the code, there was also success against life. Proverbial babies were constantly being thrown out with the bathwater.
Have you ever wondered why the God of all creation made it so easy to sin? It did not matter how oppressive a culture might be, or how strict the mores of that culture might bind a person up into a little shell of being becoming too fearful to take a chance on venturing forth. If a person wanted to sin, a person could always find a way.
But while all the authority figures were displaying their very heavy hand at stopping any potential moral failure or embarrassing cultural code-breaking by the young deviants among us, where was God? Why didn’t God surround everyone with angels with big sticks ready to whack us all into kingdom come when we stepped out of line? Where was God when and if we decided to test the boundaries of our cultural arrangement?
Why does God seem to take the attitude that we can do whatever we want but He will get us in the end? Why does it seem as though God doesn’t seem to care all that much about our little lives but is taking big notes that He will use against us at our final trial?
And how in the world have Christians in general bought into this picture of God even though God’s great act of love blares out at us day after day and hour after hour through any one of thousands of reminders, most notably a simple cross?
God became one of us!
We must throw our false religious garbage and idiotic moral codes right out the window if they do not address this simple fact.
God became one of us, and He lived among us, and He knows how hard it is, and He knows how lonely people are, and He cries inside all the day long about how broken people have become and how our hearts are often destroyed by the very nature of this fallen world and the evil among us.
And He wonders how His wonderful perfect creation could all go so wrong…
But there was no other way.
There was no other way to create people just like Him unless He also blessed them with the freedom to choose their own path.
And that’s what this world is all about. It’s the simple answer to the philosophical problem from evil. Human choice creates bad stuff and sometimes some really, really bad stuff. And free will is why God does not stop us from making bad choices. Oh, He will try to convince us otherwise. He will try to reason with us. He attempts to tell us about the eventual fallout when what appears to be a good decision will turn into a complete disaster later on. He really does try to guide us and stop us from doing stupid things. That’s essentially what the Law of Moses is all about.
But at the end of the day He will not deny our free will. He will allow us to choose incorrectly. He will let us have the final say.
What I am saying is this: the Law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise. For if the inheritance is based on law, it is no longer based on a promise; but God has granted it to Abraham by means of a promise. Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator, until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made. Now a mediator is not for one party only; whereas God is only one. Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God? May it never be!
For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law. [Galatians 3:17-21]
But righteousness is not based on law. Tell this to all the moral cultural crusaders throughout history, especially in America, who tried to force compliance toward morality. Tell this to all the dimwitted quasi-Christians who refuse the fullness of a walk with God because it violates their religion and false Christian doctrines and stupid lame-brained attitude that continually attempts to force God to be like them, instead of surrendering their lives completely to be like Him.
Many people think America took a nose dive in the 1960s but refuse to consider the actions of the previous generations that were the real cause of the cultural breakdown. The 1960s in America was actually the time of a great Spirit outpouring and spiritual awakening in that Christians in all denominations and people everywhere were being filled with the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues and engaging in miraculous works. But most churches were against it all, and fought it, and opposed the Lord Jesus because He didn’t do it their way! And many fake Christians continue to oppose God and insist on their lifeless religion, negative attitudes, and dead churches to this very day.
How much of this is based not on the unconditional love of God, his unmerited grace, and one’s total dependence on Him, but on a giant misapplication of Scripture? Sound familiar? Though the Law of Moses seems to be filled primarily with Thou Shalt Not’s and that the heavenly Author is a negative NO! God always preoccupied with stifling the free wills of His creation, the truth is actually the opposite.
A parent tries to tell a child, “Please don’t do this because if you do it will hurt you,” but then must watch as the child does it anyway and feels just as much pain as the child does if not more when the bad results come forth. Yet parents know the child will eventually have the final say.
Is it any different with God? He knows we will mess up. He knows we will mess up repeatedly. But He has the ability, the strength, and the means to clean up our messes. And this ability, strength, and means stems from His great and powerful love for us. He is able to cleanse our hearts with His precious blood spilled on our behalf, no matter how much we may be stained with sin. And He has the power to raise us to new life!
So why does God seem to be aloof and uncaring even though the direct opposite is true?
Because living right is not about force or religious compliance.
It is about love.
And no one can make a law that forces a person to love someone.
And God will never attempt to force anyone to love Him.
It is not about living a perfect life but finding a perfect love.
God loves us just the way we are. He does not condemn us for the sins we have committed. His great desire is to guide us as the Good Shepherd He is into the green pastures of abundant life where His grace and perfect sacrifice cleanses us and allows us to be free. Things are the way they are on this planet because it is the only possible means of allowing free-willed beings to love God as much as He loves them.
God is Love, and—
Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. [Romans 13:10][1]
© 2012 by RJ Dawson. All Rights Reserved.
[1] Unless otherwise noted all Scriptures are taken from the New American Standard Bible, © 1960, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
Love is the Fulfillment of the Law (2012)
We are taught while growing up that there are certain borders we must never cross. There are boundaries established by the authority figures in our lives that are designed to protect us, but often do much more.
They stifle us. They destroy our dreams. They force us to conform to a very low common denominator in which everyone looks the same, acts the same, and lives in fear of the inevitable consequences of breaking the code.
It’s called culture. And the worst cultures are religious cultures.
There was a time in the American culture when almost everyone bowed to the dictates of a so-called religious moral code that superseded much of what our hearts were designed to experience.
Rather than being loved-based, it was fear-based. And the sad thing about it all was that it played right into the devil’s hands. Though there was undoubtedly limited success against sin in the code, there was also success against life. Proverbial babies were constantly being thrown out with the bathwater.
Have you ever wondered why the God of all creation made it so easy to sin? It did not matter how oppressive a culture might be, or how strict the mores of that culture might bind a person up into a little shell of being becoming too fearful to take a chance on venturing forth. If a person wanted to sin, a person could always find a way.
But while all the authority figures were displaying their very heavy hand at stopping any potential moral failure or embarrassing cultural code-breaking by the young deviants among us, where was God? Why didn’t God surround everyone with angels with big sticks ready to whack us all into kingdom come when we stepped out of line? Where was God when and if we decided to test the boundaries of our cultural arrangement?
Why does God seem to take the attitude that we can do whatever we want but He will get us in the end? Why does it seem as though God doesn’t seem to care all that much about our little lives but is taking big notes that He will use against us at our final trial?
And how in the world have Christians in general bought into this picture of God even though God’s great act of love blares out at us day after day and hour after hour through any one of thousands of reminders, most notably a simple cross?
God became one of us!
We must throw our false religious garbage and idiotic moral codes right out the window if they do not address this simple fact.
God became one of us, and He lived among us, and He knows how hard it is, and He knows how lonely people are, and He cries inside all the day long about how broken people have become and how our hearts are often destroyed by the very nature of this fallen world and the evil among us.
And He wonders how His wonderful perfect creation could all go so wrong…
But there was no other way.
There was no other way to create people just like Him unless He also blessed them with the freedom to choose their own path.
And that’s what this world is all about. It’s the simple answer to the philosophical problem from evil. Human choice creates bad stuff and sometimes some really, really bad stuff. And free will is why God does not stop us from making bad choices. Oh, He will try to convince us otherwise. He will try to reason with us. He attempts to tell us about the eventual fallout when what appears to be a good decision will turn into a complete disaster later on. He really does try to guide us and stop us from doing stupid things. That’s essentially what the Law of Moses is all about.
But at the end of the day He will not deny our free will. He will allow us to choose incorrectly. He will let us have the final say.
What I am saying is this: the Law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise. For if the inheritance is based on law, it is no longer based on a promise; but God has granted it to Abraham by means of a promise. Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator, until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made. Now a mediator is not for one party only; whereas God is only one. Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God? May it never be!
For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law. [Galatians 3:17-21]
But righteousness is not based on law. Tell this to all the moral cultural crusaders throughout history, especially in America, who tried to force compliance toward morality. Tell this to all the dimwitted quasi-Christians who refuse the fullness of a walk with God because it violates their religion and false Christian doctrines and stupid lame-brained attitude that continually attempts to force God to be like them, instead of surrendering their lives completely to be like Him.
Many people think America took a nose dive in the 1960’s but refuse to consider the actions of the previous generations that were the real cause of the cultural breakdown. The 1960’s in America was actually the time of a great Spirit outpouring and spiritual awakening in that Christians in all denominations and people everywhere were being filled with the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues and engaging in miraculous works. But most churches were against it all, and fought it, and opposed the Lord Jesus because He didn’t do it their way! And many fake Christians continue to oppose God and insist on their lifeless religion, negative attitudes, and dead churches to this very day.
How much of this is based not on the unconditional love of God, his unmerited grace, and one’s total dependence on Him, but on a giant misapplication of Scripture? Sound familiar? Though the Law of Moses seems to be filled primarily with Thou Shalt Not’s and that the heavenly author is a negative NO! God always preoccupied with stifling the free wills of His creation, the truth is actually the opposite.
A parent tries to tell a child, “Please don’t do this because if you do it will hurt you,” but then must watch as the child does it anyway and feels just as much pain as the child does if not more when the bad results come forth. Yet parents know the child will eventually have the final say.
Is it any different with God? He knows we will mess up. He knows we will mess up repeatedly. But He has the ability, the strength, and the means to clean up our messes. And this ability, strength, and means stems from His great and powerful love for us. He is able to cleanse our hearts with His precious blood spilled on our behalf, no matter how much we may be stained with sin. And He has the power to raise us to new life!
So why does God seem to be aloof and uncaring even though the direct opposite is true?
Because living right is not about force or religious compliance.
It is about love.
And no one can make a law that forces a person to love someone.
And God will never attempt to force anyone to love Him.
It is not about living a perfect life but finding a perfect love.
God loves us just the way we are. He does not condemn us for the sins we have committed. His great desire is to guide us as the Good Shepherd He is into the green pastures of abundant life where His grace and perfect sacrifice cleanses us and allows us to be free. Things are the way they are on this planet because it is the only possible means of allowing free-willed beings to love God as much as He loves them.
God is love, and—
Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. [Romans 13:10][1]
© 2012 by RJ Dawson. All Rights Reserved.
[1] Unless otherwise noted all Scriptures are taken from the New American Standard Bible, © 1960, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.