We need the Truth, not falsehoods no matter how soothing
Jesus, wonderful, wonderful Jesus.
He was famous to some, he was infamous to others, he was sent of God to earth as a babe knowing life as a created being, becoming a creature, and yet the creator.
John
{1:1} In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
{1:2} The same was in the beginning with God.
{1:3} All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Stepping out of endless time and space into a finite body, giving up the infinite and taking on the body whose sole purpose has become to live for a short while then deteriorate until death. Taking off perfection and putting on a cloak of flesh prone to cold, to heat, to sickness, accidents. Living forever painless and yet taking on a body subject to pain.
How many people would truly trade places with an animal? We see movies where people turn into dogs and such, but in reality, how many would choose to leave their humanity behind and become an ant? You shake your head and say no way, it would have to be a being like me- that's what Jesus did. He didn't become something unlike Himself, we are made in the image of God and part of us is spirit so we can relate to the spiritual, whereas an ant hasn't the thought processes, or anything spiritual to relate to us with. I can't argue with that. What I can say is would you find the most downtrodden of all people, a person abused daily, suffering hunger and thirst constantly, living life with nothing but pain and heartache, would you find that person and trade places with them? You can't say they are not like you, that you couldn't relate to them, you could. You'd feel their pain and understand their heartache. Would you trade places? On a much grander scale beyond anything we can fully comprehend, Jesus took on human form leaving His spiritual self and became a man. It wasn't some little ruler domination game either, testing to see how the little people live and then hurrying back to a life without any of the pain of being sin proned as humans became after the fall in Eden.
It wasn't curiosity that caused Jesus to shed his non-corporeal form and become corporeal. It was love.
Jesus offered salvation from the beginning.
A contingency plan was in place, a plan that no one wants to have to use, hoping the first plan would work without a hitch. The hitch came and the contingency plan was needed. That is why Moses could point the way to the Messiah coming, that is why the prophets of old could prophesize of the savior, that is why the books of the Bible available during Jesus' life here on earth, what we know as the Old Testament tell of Jesus' coming and suffering, a savior who would have to die to save.
That is why John the Baptist could herald the way of the coming Lord and bore witness of Jesus, all because His arrival was a plan in place from the beginning and unfortunately it became necessary to be enacted after man chose sin over God.
Jesus said...
John
{5:32} There is another that beareth witness of me; and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true.
**
He's speaking of John the Baptist that he bore witness of Him and that witness of Him was- true.
John
{5:33} Ye sent unto John, and he bare witness unto the truth.
**
Witness unto the truth.
Jesus said that John bore witness of Him, that he bore witness to the truth.
Jesus is the truth, this is something that can never be forgotten or trivialized. It can't be thought of in an abstract way, but must be realized fully.
Jesus IS THE TRUTH!
Is life messed up and confusing to you? All around you is there pain and heartache? Do you grieve for the life you are living and the life you know isn't supposed to really be this way? Are you grasping at things to bring you some measure of peace? Are you shoving aside the things that prick your heart and conscience? Do you really want the truth or would you rather remain without the truth, living a lie of false and very temporary happiness that isn't even partially good the majority of the time? We can cling tight to things that give us temporary happiness because the truth is too much to handle, but the lies will never save us. The lies will never give us peace everlasting. The lies will destroy us forever, you who are will be no more, and while part of you might think that's a good thing- to not be, to no longer exist in any way, shape, or form, to be blotted from existence is something most of us simply cannot understand because we do exist. The truth is found in Jesus, the truth all about life now and everlasting. The truth is there to embrace or deny.
Jesus went on to say...
John
{5:34} But I receive not testimony from man: but these things I say, that ye might be saved.
{5:35} He was a burning and a shining light: and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light.
**
John the Baptist was brilliant and rejoicing in the light of his brilliance as he herald the coming of the Lord was something many did without qualm.
John
{5:36} But I have greater witness than [that] of John: for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me.
**
While John was a wonderful witness, he was just that, a witness to the truth, he was not truth himself.
John
{5:37} And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.
{5:38} And ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not.
{5:39} Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
{5:40} And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.
{5:41} I receive not honour from men.
{5:42} But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you.
**
What's all this? Jesus knows that because He didn't come in a kingly, majestic form to rule with His greatness as some imagined a Son of God doing, because He didn't wrap Himself in glorious earthly trappings and insist men bow down to Him, because of all that, people would not believe He was the Messiah. The love of God is so totally and completely not how mankind envisions love, equating love and kingship with power and domination. God NEVER EVER wanted to rule man out of fear and domination. God NEVER EVER wanted to be dictator, controlling all life and all action. Oh, He could if that's what He wanted, but He's not like that! God is love. God wanted people to love Him out of love and reverence as their creator, but He wasn't about to force the worship, what's forced isn't love.
Jesus knew that people filled with sin and darkness couldn't, wouldn't, didn't want to believe that the God they worshipped was there to serve and not be served. That went against all they imagined.
John
{5:43} I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.
{5:44} How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that [cometh] from God only?
**
It's easier for people to follow and believe in someone that glories in the honor bestowed upon them by others, than a humble servant, God revealing love to all of mankind.
John
{5:45} Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is [one] that accuseth you, [even] Moses, in whom ye trust.
{5:46} For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me.
{5:47} But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?
**
In truth, Moses was given the laws, all of them. Two Commandments contain the harmony and fullness of the Ten Moral Laws given. Love God. Love Man. The sacrificial system of laws given pointed to Christ and His great sacrifice. Other laws given were to guide to and in harmony with the moral laws.
Love.
Truly we cannot believe in Jesus and all He's done, if we can't believe in Moses and that Moses was too led by God- and this is something Jesus Himself said plainly.
John
{5:46} For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me.
{5:47} But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?
**
The truth is Jesus. John bore witness of the Truth, of Jesus. Moses wrote of Jesus, of the Truth.
We need the Truth, not falsehoods no matter how soothing to our ears they may be.
10/23/09
Revelation
Excerpts from --
Daniel and the Revelation by Uriah Smith
Revelation Chapter 20
The World's Millennial Night
Verse 1 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, 3 and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
The event with which this chapter opens seems to follow the events of the preceding chapter in chronological order. The inquires that here arise are, Who is the angel that comes down from heaven? What are the key and the chain which he has in his hand? What is the bottomless pit? What is meant by binding Satan a thousand years?
Is this angel Christ, as some suppose? Evidently not. A direct ray of light is thrown from the old typical service directly upon this passage.
Satan is the Scapegoat.--
Christ is the great High Priest of the gospel age. On the Day of Atonement anciently two goats were taken by the priest, and lots were cast upon them, one for the Lord, and the other for the scapegoat. The goat upon which the Lord's lot fell, was then slain, and his blood carried into the sanctuary to make an atonement for the children of Israel. After this the sins of the people were confessed upon the head of the other, or scapegoat, and he was sent away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness, a place not inhabited. As Christ is the priest of the gospel age, a few arguments will show Satan to be the antitypical scapegoat.
The Hebrew word for scapegoat, as given in the margin of Leviticus 16: 8, is "Azazel." On this verse, William Jenks remarks: "Scapegoat. See diff. opin. in Bochar. Spencer, after the oldest opinions of the Hebrews and Christians, thinks Azazel is the name of the devil; and so Rosenm., whom see. The Syr. has Azzail, the 'angel (strong one) who revolted.' " [1] The devil is here evidently pointed out. Thus we have the definition of the Scripture term in two ancient languages, with the oldest opinion of the Christians, in favor of the view that the scapegoat is a type of Satan.
Charles Beecher says: "What goes to confirm this is that the most ancient paraphrases and translations treat Azazel as a proper name. The Chaldee paraphrase and the targums of Onkelos and Jonathan would certainly have translated it if it was not a proper name, but they do not. The Septuagint, or oldest Greek version, renders it by {GREEK CHARACTERS IN PRINTED TEXT}, apopompaios, a word applied by the Greeks to a malign deity sometimes appeased by sacrifices. Another confirmation is found in the book of Enoch, where the name Azalzel, evidently a corruption of Azazel, is given to one of the fallen angels, thus plainly showing that was the prevalent understanding of the Jews at that day. Still another evidence is found in the Arabic, where Azazel is employed as the name of the evil spirit." [2]
Here is the Jewish interpretation:
"Far from involving the recognition of Azazel as a deity, the sending of the goat was, as stated by Nahmanides, a symbolic expression of the idea that the people's sins and their evil consequences were to be sent back to the spirit of desolation and ruin, the source of all impurity." [3]
In a striking manner these views harmonize with the events to take place in connection with the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary, as revealed to us in the Scriptures of truth.
In the type we see the sin of the transgressor transferred to the victim. We see that sin borne by the ministration of the priest and the blood of the offering into the sanctuary. On the tenth day of the seventh month we see the priest, with the blood of the sin offering for the people, remove all their sins from the sanctuary, and lay them upon the head of the scapegoat. And we see the goat bear them away into a land not inhabited. (Leviticus 1: 4; 4: 3-6; 16: 5-10, 15, 16, 20-22.)
Answering to these events in the type, we behold in the antitype, the great offering for the world made on Calvary. The sins of all those who avail themselves of the merits of Christ's shed blood by faith in Him, are borne by the ministration of Christ into the new-covenant sanctuary. After Christ, the minister of the true tabernacle (Hebrews 8: 2), has finished His ministration, He will remove the sins of His people from the sanctuary, and lay them upon the head of their author, the antitypical scapegoat, the devil. The devil will be sent away, bearing them into a land not inhabited.
"Let us contemplate that scene at Christ's return to earth. The Church has been judged; Israel has been judged; the Gentile nations have been also judged. . . . Now it is Satan's turn to be judged also; and our High Priest is seen 'putting' the moral blame to where it rightly belongs; judging the great corruptor and banishing him to a place of separation from the affairs of men." [4]
"Satan is not here, as some allege against this opinion, put on an equality with God; for the two goats were both brought 'to Jehovah,' and were His; while the very casting of lots, which was in itself a solemn appeal to God, shows that Jehovah claimed the power of disposal. Neither can it be objected that this was in any sense a sacrifice to Satan, for the animal was not slain to him; it was only sent to him in disgrace. Bearing upon it sins which God had already forgiven, it was sent to Azazel in the wilderness.
"The phrase 'scape,' by which the strange term Azazel is rendered in our version, came from the 'hircus emissarius' [goat emissary], of the Vulgate. The term Azazel may mean the 'apostate one'--a name which Satan merits, and which he seems to have borne among the Jews. It was Satan that brought sin into the world; and this seduction of man adds to his guilt, and consequently to his punishment. Sin is now pardoned in God's mercy. The one goat was sacrificed as a sin offering; its blood was carried into the holy place, and the mercyseat was sprinkled with it. Guilt was therefore canceled; by this shedding of blood there was remission. But sin, though pardoned, is yet hateful to God, and it cannot dwell in His sight: it is removed away to a 'land not inhabited'--severed from God's people, and sent away to man's first seducer. The sins of a believing world are taken off them, and rolled back on Satan, their prime author and instigator. Though the penalty is remitted to believers, it is not remitted to him who brought them into apostasy and ruin. The tempted are restored, but the whole punishment is seen to fall on the archtempter. Hell is 'prepared for the devil and his angels.' "
This we believe to be the very event described in the verses under notice. At the time here specified, the sanctuary service is closed. Christ lays upon the head of the devil the sins which have been transferred to the sanctuary, and which are imputed to the saints no more. The devil is sent away, not by the hand of the High Priest, but by the hand of another person, according to the type, into a place here called the bottomless pit.
We need the Truth, not falsehoods no matter how soothing
10/23/10
10/23/11