Chapter 12: Final Exhortations

In this chapter, peradventure anyone has read this far and is still sitting on the fence, I want to make a specific appeal to certain groups of people, both the Jew and the gentiles.

23 In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians.
24 In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land: 25 Whom the LORD of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance.
Isaiah 19:23-25

Christ died for the whole world, so that the whole world may be reconciled back to God the Father, in Him, the Son. Even all of Egypt, all of Assyria and all of Israel, both Jew and Gentile.

Exhortations for the descendants of Ishmael

15 And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. 16 And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her.
17 Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear? 18 And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee!
19 And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him. 20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. 21 But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.
Genesis 17:15-21

In verse 18, we see the cry of the father for his son: O that Ishmael might live before thee! Ishmael was born of the will of the flesh, of the will of Abraham, out of the fear of Sarah his wife, by her Egyptian handmaid, while Sarah was barren. Biologically, there is nothing wrong with Ishmael and Abraham loved his first son with all his heart. Yet, when God began to speak to him of another child to be born, not of the will of the flesh, but according to His own will, Abraham had to intercede for this child of his.

One may read the above text and think that because God blessed Ishmael to make him fruitful and multiply him, to make him a great nation, this was the answer to Abraham’s prayer, but it was not. We know that this wasn’t God’s answer to Abraham’s prayer, because in the preceding chapter, God had already decided to bless Ismael. God had even named the child:

3 And Sarai Abram’s wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife. 4 And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived: and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes. 5 And Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be upon thee: I have given my maid into thy bosom; and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes: the LORD judge between me and thee.
6 But Abram said unto Sarai, Behold, thy maid is in thy hand; do to her as it pleaseth thee. And when Sarai dealt hardly with her, she fled from her face.
7 And the angel of the LORD found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur. 8 And he said, Hagar, Sarai’s maid, whence camest thou? and whither wilt thou go? And she said, I flee from the face of my mistress Sarai.
9 And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands. 10 And the angel of the LORD said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude.
11 And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction. 12 And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.
Genesis 16:3-11

So, you see, while the child was yet in the womb, even before he was born, God had already named the child and blessed the child! So, when Abraham prayed for Ishmael: O that Ishmael may live before thee, what God said afterward, about blessing Ishmael and making a great nation out of him was not the answer to Abraham’s prayer!

When and how was God to answer Abraham’s prayer?

Abraham’s effort was valiant. By applying the “wisdom” of his wife, he now had a child! Abraham was ecstatic. However, one thing we must realize, is that our best efforts are pitiful at best in His sight, and He is hardly impressed. Did God not know that Abraham needed a successor? Did He not purposely seal Sarah’s womb that she wouldn’t bear children? All things come about according to His plan, His will, and His way, in His time. Hence, it is written:

8 Thus saith the LORD, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages;
Isaiah 49:8

Only in an acceptable time, an appointed time does the plan of God unfold. His plan to unlock Sarah’s womb came when she was 90 years old! It did not matter if Sarah was 200, if it was time, Sarah would surely have a child, so long as God has determined it. He called this physical world into existence by the Word of His mouth, how much less to unlock a womb at whatever age?

What is God’s plan that Ishmael may live? It is His plan for us all. God’s salvation, God’s plan for the life of all men is in Christ Jesus. There is no other plan and no other way. All efforts of man, however noble are feeble at best. Look at this:

18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
20 Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. 22 For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: 23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; 24 But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. 25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
26 For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: 27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; 28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: 29 That no flesh should glory in his presence.
1 Corinthians 1:18-29

Verse 29: That NO FLESH should glory in His presence, He calls the things that are from the things that are not, He confounds the wisdom of the wise, choosing the base and foolish things to confound the mighty. And so, I went into exceptional detail in the earlier part of this book about how man’s self-righteousness is not good enough. It is more striving after the flesh.

Not only are the efforts of man pitiful, but Jesus also says it is IMPOSSIBLE for a man to be saved outside of God. Look at this:

16 And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?
17 And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.
18 He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, 19 Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
20 The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?
21 Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.
22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.
23 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. 24 And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
25 When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved?
26 But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.
Matthew 19:16-26

Do you imagine that you are more religious or more holy than this man, who had kept the commandments from his youth? If his righteousness was enough, why didn’t Jesus say so? Rather, Jesus is telling the man here that it was still not enough! Do you imagine that Jesus was lying to the man? What was His recommendation? Sell all those riches, give to the poor and come and follow me. Hence what is Jesus saying is the way to life? FOLLOW HIM!!

The flesh cannot be redeemed. The only way into life, is that the flesh must die; there is no other way. For this reason and this reason alone, is all our righteousness as filthy rags before Him. (Isaiah 64:6) For the same reason, all our “goodness”, doesn’t impress God outside of Christ. Why? Because despite all, the flesh yet lives! For this reason, all pompous religiosity avails nothing, outside of Christ. All praying in your efforts, all attempts to “tame” the carnal nature, to make it behave, to make it conform to your will, to make you worthy of the kingdom of God, to enter into heaven by your own strength, whether by praying five times a day or twenty times a day, whether you fast often or give lots of alms, all these will make you a good citizen and a model of morality in the eyes of men and lead you into denial of the hopelessness of the situation, why? Because all we succeed in doing is putting the flesh to sleep. And for us to enter life, the flesh MUST DIE!

And we cannot kill the flesh by acts of righteousness. Only in Christ WAS THE FLESH ACTUALLY CRUCIFIED.

How?

Christ, who knew no sin, was made sin for us and not just sin, He was made a curse for us, for scripture says: Cursed is he that is hanged. So, God the Father took the sin of the world and laid it upon His Son, to kill sin.

20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. 21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
2 Corinthians 5:20-21

22 And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree: 23 His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.
Deuteronomy 21:22-23

Now, one would argue that the saints of the Old Testament who lived before Christ surely killed the flesh. Yes, but they all walked with Christ. What? But Christ wasn’t even born then! How could they walk with Him?

Be patient and let me show you that He was always there!

17 And the LORD said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name. 18 And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.
19 And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy. 20 And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live. 21 And the LORD said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: 22 And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: 23 And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.
Exodus 33:17-23

So, in Exodus 33:20, God tells Moses that no man can see His face and live. Yet look at what the scripture says earlier in the book:

11 And the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle.
Exodus 33:11

Why does the bible say, no man can see my face and live, yet it says in an earlier verse, and the Lord spoke unto Moses FACE to FACE! Agnostics and atheists see this and jump on it, saying the bible is riddled with errors and contradicts itself. But no, that is not so. When Moses spoke face to face, he was speaking to none other than Christ!! In subsequent verses, Moses requested to see the glory, the MAJESTY of God and Christ was to reveal the Father unto Moses! But no man can see the Father and live and so Moses was told that the hand of God would cover him when the Father passed by, or else, Moses would die…so Moses could see the form or similitude of the Father but not see His face.

This is where this is written:

1 And the LORD said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest. 2 And be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning unto mount Sinai, and present thyself there to me in the top of the mount. 3 And no man shall come up with thee, neither let any man be seen throughout all the mount; neither let the flocks nor herds feed before that mount.
4 And he hewed two tables of stone like unto the first; and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up unto mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone.
5 And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. 6 And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, 7 Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.
8 And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped.
Exodus 34:1-8

Look at verse 5: And the Lord descended in a cloud and stood with him (Moses) there. Verse 6: And the Lord passed by BEFORE Him and proclaimed: “The Lord, the Lord God…” Verse 8: And Moses made haste and bowed and worshipped.

In chapter 33, verse 11, Moses spoke face to face with Christ, the Son of God. In verse 17, God the Father told him: no man can see my face and live, so I will hide you with my hand WHILE I PASS BY and then I will take away my hand so you can see my back parts, but not my face.

So, when we look at verse 5, who is standing right there with him and who is passing by him in verse 6? The Son is standing with him in verse 5, proclaiming the Father in verse 6, who is passing by. Until the Father passes by, Moses was standing with the Son in verse 5. When the Son began to proclaim: “The Lord, the Lord God…” and the Father began to pass by, then Moses made haste to bow down to worship the Father. Do you see?

Let us look again at what King David said:

1 {A Psalm of David.} The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.
Psalm 110:1

Who is David talking about? Who is God speaking to here? The LORD said to my Lord. Who is David’s Lord? An angel? No, David’s Lord is the same that had appeared to him several times, that he knew, even Christ, the Son of God. God is not referring to an angel here and saying the angel has enemies, but to the Son.

This is the same Lord that appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The same that appeared to Moses!

This is what Jesus meant in the book of Matthew:

25 At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. 26 Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight. 27 All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.
Matthew 11:25-27

No man knows the Father but the Son, AND he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him, meaning only them that the Son will allow to “see” the Father, can see Him. In the same vein, no man can come to know Christ the Son, UNLESS the Father allows it.

13 When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?
14 And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.
15 He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?
16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
Matthew 16:13-17

Only the Father can reveal who Christ is to a man. This is also why Jesus said:

28 Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?
29 Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.
30 They said therefore unto him, What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee? what dost thou work? 31 Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.
32 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.
34 Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.
35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. 36 But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believe not. 37 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. 38 For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. 39 And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. 40 And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.
John 6:28-40

Look at verse 37: All that the Father has GIVEN me, shall come to Me and verse 39: “…that of all which He hath GIVEN ME, I should lose nothing…”

So, do you now understand? No man knows the Father, but the Son and no man knows the Son but the Father. We can only know Christ when God points Him out to us. And how does He do this? By convicting us in our spirit, by His Spirit! You feel convinced on the inside! We can only believe on Him when God in His infinite mercy and goodness shows Him to us. Why would God do this? Out of His love for us…He points out the way to LIFE. Look at verse 35: The people were desperate, in verse 34, they said: Lord evermore give us this bread! And what did Jesus say? I am the bread of life!

This is God’s answer of life to all of humanity, even to Ishmael: Look at my only begotten Son. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life! No man can come to Me, but by Him!! Therefore, God told Abraham:

19 And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.
Genesis 17:19

So, do you now understand? Let me show you some more:

1 And the LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did unto Sarah as he had spoken. 2 For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. 3 And Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac. 4 And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac being eight days old, as God had commanded him. 5 And Abraham was an hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born unto him.
6 And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me. 7 And she said, Who would have said unto Abraham, that Sarah should have given children suck? for I have born him a son in his old age.
8 And the child grew, and was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned. 9 And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking. 10 Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac.
11 And the thing was very grievous in Abraham’s sight because of his son. 12 And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called. 13 And also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed.
Genesis 21:1-13

The Jews of Jesus’ day felt very proud of this chapter in Genesis and consequently, they were puffed up, thinking that they were the seed being referred to by God in this chapter, as opposed to the sons of Ishmael. And yes, to an extent that is true. But the word seed is the same word in the singular and in the plural, when referring to seeds of the same kind. For this reason, the Jews of Jesus’ day thought in error. How do we know this? By the very words of the Lord himself, but even before the Lord chided them, John the Baptist had warned them:

7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: 9 And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.
Matthew 3:7-9

John the Baptist knew the source of their confidence and gave them the warning in verse 9. The Lord was even more cutting:

31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; 32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
33 They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?
34 Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. 35 And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever. 36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. 37 I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you. 38 I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father.
39 They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham. 40 But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham. 41 Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.
42 Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. 43 Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. 44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. 45 And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not. 46 Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me? 47 He that is of God heareth God’s words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.
48 Then answered the Jews, and said unto him, Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil?
49 Jesus answered, I have not a devil; but I honour my Father, and ye do dishonour me. 50 And I seek not mine own glory: there is one that seeketh and judgeth. 51 Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.
52 Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest, If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death. 53 Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead? and the prophets are dead: whom makest thou thyself?
54 Jesus answered, If I honour myself, my honour is nothing: it is my Father that honoureth me; of whom ye say, that he is your God: 55 Yet ye have not known him; but I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know him, and keep his saying. 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.
57 Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?
58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.
59 Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.
John 8:31-59

Please do yourself a favor and read the above passage repeatedly until you understand it. In verse 33, they declared unto Him that they are of the seed of Abraham. In the same way, even the sons of Ishmael are also of the seed of Abraham. In verse 37, the Lord acknowledges that they are the seed of Abraham, but in verse 39, tells them that they were not the children of Abraham, otherwise they would walk as Abraham walked. Look at what He said in verse 40: You seek to kill me, but Abraham did not!! Apparently, they missed what He said there, because they continued to argue that God was their Father.

Yet the Lord said, though they were Abraham’s seed, yet they were neither Abraham’s children, not children of God, because they neither walked in Abraham’s example, nor did the will of God. Rather, they did the will of their father – the devil! Look at verse 44: Ye are of your father, the devil! Why? Not because they biologically came from the devil, but because they walked in his ways and did the things that he did: he was a liar and a murderer from the beginning! After all these, they concluded that He was possessed of the devil because He said that if any man keeps His saying, He will never taste death; yet Abraham and all the prophets were dead. Then the Lord repeats what He said earlier in another way, that Abraham knew Him! In verse 56, Abraham rejoiced to see His day and was glad. And look at verse 58: Before Abraham was, I AM. Not I was, but I AM.

The Jews recognized that only One, in the scriptures referred to Himself as I AM, even God, when He spoke to Moses. Therefore, they immediately rushed upon Him to kill Him, but it was not yet time.

2 And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the LORD: 3 And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them. 4 And I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers. 5 And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered my covenant.
Exodus 6:2-5

In the dictionary, the word “appear” means to come into sight, or to become visible or noticeable. In verse 3: I APPEARED unto Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Yet, we know from Exodus 33:20, that no man can see the face of God and live. So now we understand the words of the Lord. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob saw the Lord Jesus Christ, not the Father, but the Son. If He remained invisible and they never saw Him, then the text wouldn’t say: He APPEARED unto them! He APPEARED unto them means they SAW HIM!! So, was Jesus lying? Or did the Jews just not get it?

Why did the Jews react the way they did, when the Lord said: Before Abraham was, I am? Because they recognized the name I am, from God’s encounter with Moses:

13 And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?
14 And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.
Exodus 3:13-14

Now, O ye sons of Ishmael, please understand! Ishmael shall live, because Abraham prayed for Him, and we know that God loved Abraham and always answered his prayer. Yet the life God promised to Ishmael was not in making him a great nation, nor any kind of physical life; he had already blessed Ishmael, even before Ishmael was born. Rather, God is speaking of eternal life, which is found only in Christ Jesus. Please consider carefully with an open mind, all that you have read in this section! Consider it and hear it that Ishmael may live!!

But I can hear your “buts”. But your holy text says God has no son! And God is a forgiving God! So, if you keep trying to live righteously, He will save you because He is forgiving and merciful, right?

The path to salvation for all mankind as far as the religions of the world is concerned, is that one should do good to their neighbor. But you must ask yourself: Will my good deeds erase the bad that I have already done? If I do a good thing in the town that I live but have broken the law and the police come to arrest me for the thing which I did wrong, can I claim before the judge that I am a good man? That my good deeds should outweigh the bad that I have done? That even though I stole some money twenty years ago, I have since given alms to the poor, built schools and hospitals? Will the courts then pronounce me innocent? If the courts of man will not do this, why do you think that God’s court will do this? If man’s court will at best, considering the good deeds I’ve done, reduce my sentence, they still wouldn’t say I am innocent, I would still be guilty of the crimes! So, will man’s courts be more righteous than God’s? Can man be more righteous than God?

But you are taught that God is a forgiving God. And yes, I agree that He is a forgiving God. But He is also a just God. And man can never be more just than God. God will always be more just than man. So, if man’s courts will still say the man is guilty and man’s courts are LESS JUST than God’s courts, how can God say the man is innocent?

There is only one way that God could bend over backwards: He paid the debt that the man owed in the courts. If the man was worthy of death, God died for Him. If the punishment is worthy of a fine or imprisonment, God paid the fine or went to prison for the man. How? By offering His Son to pay the price! This is the MOST LOVING AND MOST FORGIVING THING THAT GOD COULD EVER DO. But will we accept God’s payment, or will we still seek to make our own payment? That is the question we must answer!

Or maybe you think you are not such a bad person, after all you haven’t killed anyone, you haven’t taken another man’s wife or another woman’s husband, you haven’t stolen anything. Let me ask you this. Have you ever sinned? Have you ever told a lie? If the answer is yes, which it must be because the scripture tells us: All have sinned. So, who has not sinned among us? None of us deserve to live! Why? Because the wage of sin is death! The scripture doesn’t say the wages of rape is death, or the wage of murder is death, it says the soul that sins shall SURELY die! But God made a way out: The gift of God is eternal life. This is His mercy and His forgiveness, in that even before you or I was born, Christ died for us. God sent His Son to die for us, even before we were born. What can be more forgiving than that?

To explain forgiveness, Jesus told the people about a men that owed money to a king. The man owed 10,000 talents. Now, a talent in Jesus’ day is the equivalent of one year of salary for a laborer. So, 10,000 talents is a lot of money. The king, after His servant begged Him, forgave all his debt.

For us as humans, when we sin, we are disobeying the King, even God and in doing so, we begin to incur very big fines for each sin committed, for which the penalty is death. If someone in this world commits a crime and the punishment is death, the money to bail that person out of jail will be a very large sum. Now, that is for one crime. For one sin. How many sins have you or I ever committed? How many sins do we commit every day? Even if it is just one sin per day since we turned say ten years old, the debt is very great, we cannot pay it!!

Rather than realize we cannot pay it, we add insult to injury. God so loved the world that He paid the price for our sin by sending His son as the blood sacrifice payment. This is the evidence of His forgiveness. This is the proof to show that even before anyone of us reading these words was born, God ALREADY FORGAVE us, AND PAID our fines for the sins we would commit. How much more loving and forgiving can He be to us? And this payment was made by the sacrificial death of His Son.

Now, when we reject this payment, and choose to try to make payments by our self-righteous acts, which Isaiah 64:6 tells us are like filthy rags before Him, and then turn around and ask for another forgiveness, WE ARE PAYING HIM in FILTHY RAGS! it is either simply foolish or being deceived or being stubborn, which is another kind of foolishness! Ask any prisoner on death row if you are not sure, if they will rather spend the rest of their life in jail or be able to walk out of the jail cell, all forgiven. Ask and see how they look at you as if you are insane. But that is what we do when we reject this payment!

Moreover, see what the scripture says concerning those who tried to work out their righteousness by keeping the Law of Moses:

10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. 11 But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. 12 And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them. 13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: 14 That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Galatians 3:10-14

Cursed is anyone who is not faithful in keeping the law! That is a very fearful thing!! The Law of Moses was almost impossible to keep FAITHFULLY! And anyone who failed to faithfully keep it was under a curse from God. Does that sound like a good thing to you? Why would you risk being under a curse from God rather than accept the FREE PARDON OF ALL YOUR SINS IN CHRIST JESUS?? To not accept is to be out rightly deceived or to be under a spell or to be completely insane!!

Rather, scripture says, The Just shall live by FAITH. What does this mean? Abraham who lived before Moses was declared righteous by God, not due to keeping the Law (because Moses was not born to give the Jews any Law), but because Abraham believed God. I already covered this extensively in chapter 4.

How then do we live by faith? We live by faith when we take the payment God has already made before we were born. We take this payment by believing on the sacrificial death of His Son for us. We believe that He has already ACTIVELY forgiven us by sacrificing His Son for us. That is the Faith. Faith in Christ. Christ was made a curse for us, that the blessing of Abraham may come on us: That Ishmael may live before God, that Abraham’s God may be your God!!

God calls Himself the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. You reject the text of the bible because your scriptures tell you that God does not have a son, and so you think that Jesus Christ was at best a prophet and at worst a liar or maybe even came from the devil himself as the Jews of His day thought. For this reason, I have spoken to you out of the Old Testament, before the ministration of Jesus. If Jesus is only a prophet like you think He is, then you must acknowledge that He was the greatest prophet to ever live, greater than Moses, greater than all that ever lived before Him or all that can ever live after him.

Maybe you imagine that your prophet is greater than Jesus? Maybe someone told you this? Look at what the scripture says: He who knew no sin was MADE sin for us!

20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. 21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
2 Corinthians 5:20-21

The verse explicitly tells us that Jesus knew no sin. When the religious Jews of His day didn’t believe, Jesus asked them:

45 And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not. 46 Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me?
John 8:45-46

Now, do yourself a favor. Go and search your scriptures and find where it is written that your prophet had no sin. You will not find it. But it is written in the bible that Jesus had no sin. Rather, your scripture gives direct evidence written that your prophet had sin. See Surah 40:55, 48:1-2 and 47:19. Anyone trying to tell you that your prophet had no sin, is telling a fiction and is deceiving you! It is NOT written in your scripture. They are desperately trying to make your prophet greater than or equal to Jesus.

Want more proof that Jesus is greater than every single prophet, past, present, and future, including your prophet?

5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. 9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:5-10

Go back to chapter 6 and see how Jesus was in the form of God. I covered this extensively there. But turn your attention to verses 9 to 11. God has highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, in heaven, in earth and under the earth. And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Who is every knee? My knee, your knee, the knee of every angel, every saint, every demon, the knee of the devil, the knee of every power in the universe, of every god everywhere, the knee of every prophet, and yes, sorry, but that also includes the knee of your prophet. EVERY KNEE SHALL BOW. AND EVERY TONGUE SHALL CONFESS. In heaven above, on earth beneath or in hell below. THAT JESUS CHRIST IS LORD, TO THE GLORY OF GOD THE FATHER.

Why do you still resist?

Please I am begging you, choose life, that you may live. Any other way will disappoint you. Let Ishmael live! Why do you remain obstinate? If Christianity had lost its way as you have been told and God wanted to send an angel to correct them, why did the angel not go to the Israelites to warn them? Why did he not go straight back to Israel after all the prophets that were sent to Israel? Why did he suddenly start saying God has no son, after first saying that Jesus is His Son? (Re-read chapter 6) Why did the angel not go right away, why wait six hundred years and then go visit your prophet?

19 Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. 20 For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel. 21 For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. 22 For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: 23 That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.
John 5:19-23

Look at what Jesus was saying here. Look at verses 22 and 23: The Father judges no man but all judgement is committed to the Son. Why? Verse 23 tells us why. So that ALL MEN (including you and I) should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that doesn’t honor the Son, doesn’t honor the Father that sent Him.

10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
2 Corinthians 5:10

We must all appear before whose judgement seat? CHRIST’s!! Every single one of us who has lived as a human in this world, including every prophet, including your prophet is going to stand before Christ for judgemet!! God the Father set this up, SO THAT ALL MEN MAY HONOR THE SON AS THEY HONOR THE FATHER! (John 5:23)

Why remain obstinate and not submit now to Jesus before it is too late?

Jesus died on the cross for Ishmael.

This was God’s answer to Abraham’s prayer. God the Son died for Him! That is how much God loved Ishmael, even from the womb, God had blessed Him! All you need to do is BELIEVE God. God cannot lie to you. God loves you and had His Son die for you. Greater love hath no man than to die for his friends. But God commendeth His love toward us that while we were yet sinners, while we were yet enemies of God, Christ died for us. Why? That we may live!

O that Ishmael may live before thee!

Abraham is calling you now to believe that He prayed for you! That you may live! That you may live! That you may live! Accept Jesus and live, O Ishmael! There is no other way! Do not gamble with your eternity on your righteousness. Your righteousness is not enough. Live O Ishmael! Let Abraham rejoice even today!! Let Him weep and dance for joy over you, even today! Do not postpone this decision! As many as hear the cry of Abraham, as many of you have tears running down your face even as you read these words, this is for you! God is calling you! Abraham is calling you! Accept Jesus today and LIVE!

Exhortations for the descendants of Isaac

1 I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, 2 That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. 3 For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: 4 Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; 5 Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.
6 Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: 7 Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. 8 That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. 9 For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sara shall have a son. 10 And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; 11 (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) 12 It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. 13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
Romans 9:1-12

In Paul’s letter to the Romans, he bemoaned the spiritual state of the nation of Israel. With great heaviness, he wished that he could be cursed that his kinsmen after the flesh, that his fellow Israelites might live. After the carrying away of the ten tribes and their scattering on account of continued disobedience to God, other non-Israelites were settled in the land, in Samaria where the kingdom of Israel was (that is, where the king of the ten tribes ruled). These people were later referred to as the Samaritans. For this reason, Paul acknowledged that they are not all Israel that are of Israel (verse 6). That is, they weren’t all the sons of Isaac. The carrying away of Israel began with Tiglathpileser, King of Assyria, during the reign of Pekah as king over Israel and ended with Shalmanesar, during the reign of Hoshea the son of Elah as king over Israel.

27 In the two and fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah Pekah the son of Remaliah began to reign over Israel in Samaria, and reigned twenty years. 28 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD: he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.
29 In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abelbethmaachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria

1 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah began Hoshea the son of Elah to reign in Samaria over Israel nine years. 2 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, but not as the kings of Israel that were before him.
3 Against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria; and Hoshea became his servant, and gave him presents. 4 And the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea: for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and brought no present to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year: therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in prison. 5 Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years.
6 In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
7 For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods, 8 And walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made. 9 And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the LORD their God, and they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city. 10 And they set them up images and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree: 11 And there they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the heathen whom the LORD carried away before them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the LORD to anger: 12 For they served idols, whereof the LORD had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing. 13 Yet the LORD testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, and by all the seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets.
14 Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the LORD their God. 15 And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the LORD had charged them, that they should not do like them.
16 And they left all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. 17 And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.
18 Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only. 19 Also Judah kept not the commandments of the LORD their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made. 20 And the LORD rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight.
21 For he rent Israel from the house of David; and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king: and Jeroboam drave Israel from following the LORD, and made them sin a great sin. 22 For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they departed not from them; 23 Until the LORD removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day. 24 And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof.
2 Kings 15:27-29 & 2 Kings 17:1-24

In Romans 9:7, Paul reiterates God’s word to Abraham, that in Isaac shall his seed be called. God made a further division even in Isaac of Esau and Jacob. Why was Jacob loved, but Esau hated? Because being heir to the birthright as the first son that opened the womb, he despised this birthright, selling it to satisfy his lust, while Jacob sought for the blessing with all his heart.

29 And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint: 30 And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom.
31 And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright.
32 And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me?
33 And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. 34 Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.
Genesis 25:29-34

Not only did Esau sell his birthright, but he also willingly walked in disobedience to his parents, Isaac, and Rebekah, despising the word of the Lord:

34 And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite: 35 Which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah.
Genesis 26:34-35

6 When Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob, and sent him away to Padanaram, to take him a wife from thence; and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan; 7 And that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and was gone to Padanaram; 8 And Esau seeing that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father; 9 Then went Esau unto Ishmael, and took unto the wives which he had Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife.
Genesis 28:6-9

Note that in Genesis 26, Esau had already married a Canaanite in marrying the daughter of Elon the Hittite. To add insult to injury and begin a new era of strife which lasts even to this day, Esau joined himself to Ishmael in taking his daughter to wife. Now, do you think that since Ishmael was sent out of Abraham’s house, that he did not have resentment for Isaac? So, Esau cemented this resentment by giving it focus; focus against Jacob whom the Lord called Israel.

We come full circle now and see the heart of God in the yearning of Paul for his brethren, even the Israelites, not just of Judah and Benjamin and the Levites which dwelt among them, but for the other sons of Jacob scattered into all the world. Several people doubt who Paul was as even the Jews began to hate him. Why? Because in his day, he was a proponent of the Law of Moses, until he turned his back to follow this so-called Messiah, even Jesus:

3 For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. 4 Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more: 5 Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; 6 Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
7 But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. 8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, 9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
Philippians 3:3-9

I reiterate what Paul has to say, in Christ alone is salvation found. Look at his pedigree: A Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee, zealous after the Law of Moses, persecuting the church and blameless in the law. Yet, he counted ALL THESE THINGS as dung that he may win Christ. That he may come to know Christ by not having his own righteousness of keeping the law, but the righteousness which is of God by faith in Christ.

Do you who think you are good think you are more righteous than Paul was? Let’s say for the sake of argument, that you are. If he was so good, why did he choose to suffer the loss of all these things? His position of power and prestige among the Jews, to become a fugitive. When arrested in Jerusalem, this was his defense:

1 Men, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my defence which I make now unto you. 2 (And when they heard that he spake in the Hebrew tongue to them, they kept the more silence: and he saith,) 3 I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as ye all are this day. 4 And I persecuted this way unto the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women. 5 As also the high priest doth bear me witness, and all the estate of the elders: from whom also I received letters unto the brethren, and went to Damascus, to bring them which were there bound unto Jerusalem, for to be punished.
6 And it came to pass, that, as I made my journey, and was come nigh unto Damascus about noon, suddenly there shone from heaven a great light round about me. 7 And I fell unto the ground, and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
8 And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest. 9 And they that were with me saw indeed the light, and were afraid; but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me.
10 And I said, What shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said unto me, Arise, and go into Damascus; and there it shall be told thee of all things which are appointed for thee to do.
11 And when I could not see for the glory of that light, being led by the hand of them that were with me, I came into Damascus. 12 And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, having a good report of all the Jews which dwelt there, 13 Came unto me, and stood, and said unto me, Brother Saul, receive thy sight. And the same hour I looked up upon him. 14 And he said, The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know his will, and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth. 15 For thou shalt be his witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard. 16 And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.
17 And it came to pass, that, when I was come again to Jerusalem, even while I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance; 18 And saw him saying unto me, Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem: for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me.
19 And I said, Lord, they know that I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue them that believed on thee: 20 And when the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting unto his death, and kept the raiment of them that slew him.
21 And he said unto me, Depart: for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles.
Acts 22:1-21

The question to ask, is, if Paul was doing God’s work in persecuting the church, including overseeing the martyrdom of Stephen, was it the devil that appeared to him in this great, blinding light on the road to Damascus? Because if it was the devil, you mean to convince me that the devil whose sole purpose is to steal, to kill and to destroy, wanted Paul to stop the killing of the early preachers of Christ as Messiah? But if it was Jesus who appeared to him, was it just to ask him nicely to stop persecuting the church? Look again at verse 8 of Philippians 3. He counts all things lost, that he may win Christ. Let’s examine one more passage about Paul:

22 Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I. 23 Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. 24 Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. 25 Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; 26 In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 27 In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.
2 Corinthians 11:22-27

Do you see the radical change in Paul, from persecuting the church to serving Christ? What prompted this faithful keeper of the law of Moses to become an ardent follower of Christ? Do you dare dismiss this? Shouldn’t it make you pause and wonder and reconsider your entire stance? Did Paul suddenly become insane?

I see Israel split into three camps. Those that call themselves the Messianic Jews, who believe that Jesus Christ is the promised Messiah, make up the first group. The second group is of those who believe that like the religious Jews of His day, Jesus was an imposter or a madman or had a devil, who believe that he was not the Messiah, that the Messiah is yet to come. The third camp consists of those who simply don’t know any better. It is primarily to this third group that I am after, but if you belong to the second group, even though you never heard Jesus’ words, I pray that you will hear mine.

Consider Isaiah the prophet!

You believe in the Law and the Prophets, so look at Isaiah! What did he say about the Messiah to come?

6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.
Isaiah 9:6-7

1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? 2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. 3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. 8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. 9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. 11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Isaiah 53

Who in your history O Israel, is Isaiah talking about? Did the man Jesus ever live? Or is this not in your history? Consider all that He did when He walked among you. Do you seriously think that this prophesy of Isaiah is yet to come? Or do you think this passage does not refer to the Messiah to come, but to some prophet? What prophet? Do you see the LOVE of the Father for you? Do you see the LOVE of the Son? As a lamb to the slaughter, as a sheep before her shearers, he opened not his mouth, but was led of GOD the Father to DIE for you. That you may live! It pleased the Almighty to put Him to grief for your sakes! Please, please, please, and please, do yourself a great favor and read the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah repeatedly.

Isaiah in chapter 9 calls Him the Mighty God, the EVERLASTING FATHER! Who in all of history qualifies for this? Who in history has done greater works than what Jesus did?

29 And Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel in the breastplate of judgment upon his heart, when he goeth in unto the holy place, for a memorial before the LORD continually. 30 And thou shalt put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim; and they shall be upon Aaron’s heart, when he goeth in before the LORD: and Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before the LORD continually.
Exodus 28:29-30

Jesus is our High Priest forever, bearing the judgment, not of the children of Israel alone but of the whole world, bringing in His own blood to make atonement for our sins, not the blood of animals, but the blood of the Son of God!

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? 30 For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people. 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Hebrews 10:28-31

God paid the ultimate price to have a relationship with man. He sacrificed His Only Son. Why will you not believe this? Do not despise the blood that was shed. Do not turn from the outstretched arms of God even to you, O Israel, you who as Paul said in Romans 9:4, you who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenant, the giving of the law, the service of God and the promises.

3 And Moses went up unto God, and the LORD called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel; 4 Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself. 5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: 6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.
Exodus 19:3-6

Rather than remain obedient to God, Israel of old turned to routine sacrifices for sin, trying to eat their cake and have it, as most of us are wont to do even today. Rather than become this holy nation, Israel played the harlot and became as Sodom and Gomorrah:

10 Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. 11 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. 12 When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? 13 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. 14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. 15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; 17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. 19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: 20 But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
Isaiah 1:10-20

And so, God had to send His Son to reconcile the world back to Himself, to the Jew first and then the Gentiles.

1 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. 2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. 3 But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. 4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.

11 And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: 12 But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;
Hebrews 10:1-4 & 11-12

Now Christ is the Messiah, the High Priest who makes intercession for us, not offering the blood of bulls and goats, but His own blood. He offered the ONE sacrifice for sins forever and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

God took you through this history, the history of the offering of sacrifices. If any should understand this, you should. So why will you continue to reject Him? If the religious Jews rejected Him for their selfish reasons, what about you? What is your excuse? Do you not see the burden of the animal sacrifices and the futility of trying to keep the law? Do you not see that if only for the sake of the works that Jesus did, He is to be believed if not for anything else? The miracles at the hand of all the Old Testament prophets combined is but a tiny fraction compared to the recorded works of Christ. Hence believe for the works sake!!

Accept Him now and take your place that was prepared for you!

5 And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him, 6 And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.
7 And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him.
8 The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. 9 For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.
10 When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. 11 And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 13 And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour.
Matthew 8:5-13

Look at verses 11 and 12. The Lord says that many shall come from the East and the West and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But where will the children of the kingdom be?

Please, understand that Jesus Christ is the promised one spoken of by the prophets. There is no other. You, even you did the Lord choose out of all the peoples of the earth, even to be a holy nation and a peculiar people unto Him. His inheritance!

5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: 6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.
Exodus 19:5-6

So, what is your excuse for rejecting Christ? This is the one spoken of by Isaiah. Is it so that you can still cling to the animal sacrifices? If those were still relevant, then why did God send his prophets? Why was Isaiah sent to prophesy of His coming? You are the ones through which the Father decided to bring His son into the world, even to fulfil His promise to King David, that there shall not fail a man of his house to sit on the throne. The King has come and there is no other one to come! And for this reason, salvation is of the Jews!

The time has come now for the Jews to turn back to the Lord. The time is now at hand.

1 Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? 2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, 3 Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.
4 He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. 5 Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. 6 Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.
7 I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. 8 Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. 9 Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.
10 Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. 11 Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. 12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.
Psalm 2

Who is the Son being referred to in Psalm 2? Jesus Christ!! What more proof do you need? The Lord loves you and died for you. Just turn to Him in submission. Admit your guilt before Him. Repent of your ways, turn to Him, and forsake them and He will abundantly pardon, and He will abundantly save you. You are the children of the kingdom! Harden not your hearts. The time is at hand. Repent now and live!

37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! 38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. 39 For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.
Matthew 23:37-39

The time is ripe to heed the call of the Lord. Do not be full of your own ways.

1 I am sought of them that asked not for me; I am found of them that sought me not: I said, Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name. 2 I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts;
Isaiah 65:1-2

Humble yourself before the Almighty and accept His salvation. He longs for you. He died for you that you may live! His was the innocent blood that was shed. The Lamb of God without spot or blemish that was slain from the foundation of the world. Kiss Him now, kiss Him now and live!

Exhortations for Jehovah’s Witnesses

If you happen to be a Jehovah’s Witness, one of the things you believe is that Jesus is a god. If this is your belief, then this section is for you.

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
John 1:1-5

In your translation, John 1:1 reads: “and the Word was a god”. You believe that Jesus is the Son of God, but that He is a god. So, here are some questions for you: How many Gods are there? Or rather, how many gods? Are there 2 Gods? Or are there One God and one god? Or are there many gods, but only one God?

Let’s address these questions:

4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:
Deuteronomy 6:4

Okay, so we know that there is only one God.

5 I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me: 6 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else. 7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
Isaiah 45:5-7

11 Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit. 12 Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the LORD.
Jeremiah 2:11-12

From these two passages of scripture, we affirm that there is no God beside God. Also, in the eleventh verse of Jeremiah, we affirm that that which are called “gods” are yet no gods. So, if Jesus is a god, verse 11 tells us that He is yet not a god! So, if He is yet not a god, how come in the subsequent verses to John 1:1, we have in verse 3, that all things were made by Him? How can the one who made all things be a god? Directly contradicting Jeremiah 2:11?

1 {A Psalm of Asaph.} God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods. 2 How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah. 3 Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy. 4 Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked.
5 They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.
6 I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High. 7 But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes. 8 Arise, O God, judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all nations.
Psalm 82

In Psalm 82, we see God judging “among the gods”. We see God as the judge of the gods. Verse 6 then says “Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the Most High”. Who is being referred to in verse 6? Is Jesus, by whom all things were made in this category of one to be judged by God (verse1) as well as in verse 6: Is He part of the “all of you” Who are the ALL referred to? Spiritual entities? Angels? Or human beings?

We must conclude that He is referring to human beings here, because He says to defend the poor and the fatherless, the afflicted and the needy and not to walk in darkness. He says because they who are gods are going to die like mere men. We make this conclusion, because what is the business of any spiritual entity or angel with the poor and needy or the fatherless and afflicted? Therefore we must further conclude that Jesus is not in this category being spoken of in Psalm 82.

6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.
Isaiah 9:6-7

Who is Isaiah referring to here? Who is the Child that is born, the Son that is given? Is this not Jesus? And why does the prophet say He shall be called, The Mighty God? I once had a Jehovah’s Witness landlord, who said Jesus is Mighty God, but God is Almighty God. Oh, so He is no longer a god, but a Mighty God? And who is Everlasting Father? Is God not Father? So, why is the Son also referred to as Everlasting Father? So, you see that your translation of John 1:1 has to be in error?

8 But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. 9 Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
10 And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands: 11 They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; 12 And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.
Hebrews 1:8-12

Look at verse 9. Not just here, go look it up for yourself in your bible: “…therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.”

What more proof do you need? Why do you continually struggle against these truths that stare you in the face? You are currently wondering why this makes any difference in the world, Afterall, you acknowledge Him as the Son of God, correct? And you believe that He died to save you from your sins, so what is the hullabaloo all about? Because it is in the Person of Jesus Christ that Christ dwells with man. No man can see the Father and live and no man knows the Father except the Son reveals the Father to Him. When we see God in the Person of Jesus Christ we can dwell with God, not with a god! And we honor the Son, even with the same honor that we give the Father! This makes all the difference in the world. Whoever looks at Jesus as any less than the Father will not give Him the honor they reserve for the Father. Yet He existed with the Father from the very beginning: And the word was with God and the Word WAS GOD. That is the correct verse of John 1:1.

Now you may still insist that you acknowledge everything else about Him, except this and why is this still a big deal? Well, if you will not worship the Son as you do the Father, with the SAME honor, then judge for yourself what the consequences of that may be. I will not judge you; you judge for yourself.

8 Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.
9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
John 14:8-9

27 All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.
Matthew 11:27

22 For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: 23 That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.
John 5:22-23

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The Spirit of God is also a confusion to you. You see the Spirit of God as the Power of God. He is this and much more. Yet, if the Spirit of God is merely the Power of God and not another Personification of God, why did God say:

3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
Genesis 6:3

Is God’s Spirit not a part of God? So, you would translate this as my Power shall not always strive with man? If this was so, why does Paul say:

30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
Ephesians 4:30

Can you grieve some power like electrical energy or nuclear energy?

Why does Jesus refer to the Spirit as a “HIM” or a “HE”?

15 If ye love me, keep my commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; 17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. 18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
John 14:15-18

25 These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. 26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
John 14:25-26

The Holy Ghost is a HE, not a WHAT. HE shall teach you all things. Again, you might be asking yourself, what difference does this make? Well, you need to consider for yourself, if your doctrine deviates from these basic truths, what other errors are lurking in that doctrine? Why will you continue to resist after being confronted with these truths?

Exhortations for believers in the Greek, Asian and African Pantheons

In both Asia and Africa, the belief in several deities prevail. This is not to single out these continents as this belief runs rampant the world over and predates even the birth of Jesus Christ and we see this even in Greek mythologies. If you happen to be a believer in one of the many gods of the world, which I call the pantheon, this section is for you.

The justification for the belief in the pantheon is made from the observation that while adherents of these religions believe in the existence of a Supreme Being, they also believe in the existence of lesser gods who must be worshipped or served to curry their favor or stave their wrath, who they believe oversee the different aspects of the creation of the Supreme Being.

Farmers for instance may worship the god of harvest, sailors the god of the seas, women, the goddess of beauty, and so on and so forth. For these reasons, people over the years have worshipped some god or goddess: goddess of fertility, god of iron, god of thunder, and the list is endless. They justify this worship by saying that the Supreme Being already put these in charge of the various aspects of creation and so they go to such and such for such and such. If one thinks of the way a human organization or government is run, then this makes sense, if it were true that the Supreme Being actually did this.

In the bible, this Supreme Being is called the Lord God. In the Bible, He also declares:

5 I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me: 6 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else. 7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
Isaiah 45:5-7

So, here, the Supreme Being declares that “there is no other God beside Him”. Hence, all that humans regard as gods are indeed not gods. Now, don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that there aren’t any spiritual entities out there. When a human being encounters such an entity, their first instinct is to be awestruck by their appearance or their manifestations, to cower in fear and hence deign to worship such a being. This doesn’t mean that such a being should be worshipped. In fact, the Supreme Being forbids it.

1 And God spake all these words, saying, 2 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me
Exodus 20:1-5

Thou shall have no other gods before me, thou shalt not make a graven image of the likeness of anything in heaven, on earth or beneath the earth to yourself, to bow down to them, nor serve them. This injunction is crystal clear. Scripture declares that no man can see God and live. He has not shown Himself to any man alive, so man should not fashion any kind of carving of any kind, either of bird, beast, or of any type of creature of heaven earth or beneath the earth to begin to treat this with any kind of respect, worship, or service. This should be reserved for Him only. The scriptures couldn’t say that in any clearer language. Yet, worshippers of gods, do this very thing: have a statue and say the statue represents a god or goddess and begin to bow before it and venerate it and pray to it and serve it.

God concludes in verse 5, that He is a jealous God. We tend to equate jealousy as having a negative connotation. But this is far from the case. Envy and not jealousy, is negative. An envious person may want to have what someone else has and so becomes envious of that person. It becomes envy when they wish they and not the other person has such and such. It becomes envy when they begin to wish some ill to that person. They thus delight and rejoice when the object of their envy suffers any set back.

The jealousy of God however, springs from love and desire. A husband or wife may become jealous if their significant other, the object of their love, desire and affection spurns them and seeks to curry the love and affection of others. This is the jealousy that God has for us. It is borne of His infinite love for us.

16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
John 3:16

7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. 8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:7-8

13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
John 15:13

Due to His great love for us, God sacrificed His Only begotten that we may live and not die. While we were yet sinners, still enemies of God, Christ died for us. Scarcely would one lay down his life for friends and family, talk less of their enemies. Yet God demonstrated His love for us with the sacrificial death of His only begotten Son.

So, what happens when you spurn such a love? Jealousy arises! And for this reason, this is the very first commandment of God: Thou shalt have NO OTHER gods before Me. So, all believers in these pantheons are breaking rule number one. Hence, the notion that the Supreme Being designated others to receive the worship that is due to Him alone, is in error and is a horrible lie.

What about the other thing about designating things to the lesser gods, etc.? God has an answer for that as well: Angels!

13 But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool?
14 Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?
Hebrews 1:13-14

Angels are ministering spirits. Ministering means serving. They are not servants of humans but servants of God, sent to do His bidding. They are ALL ministering spirits. So, when one prays to God, God’s response often may be brought by an angel. We see this clearly in the book of Daniel:

1 In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a thing was revealed unto Daniel, whose name was called Belteshazzar; and the thing was true, but the time appointed was long: and he understood the thing, and had understanding of the vision.
2 In those days I Daniel was mourning three full weeks. 3 I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled. 4 And in the four and twentieth day of the first month, as I was by the side of the great river, which is Hiddekel; 5 Then I lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a certain man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz: 6 His body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in colour to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude.
7 And I Daniel alone saw the vision: for the men that were with me saw not the vision; but a great quaking fell upon them, so that they fled to hide themselves. 8 Therefore I was left alone, and saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me: for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength. 9 Yet heard I the voice of his words: and when I heard the voice of his words, then was I in a deep sleep on my face, and my face toward the ground.
10 And, behold, an hand touched me, which set me upon my knees and upon the palms of my hands. 11 And he said unto me, O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto thee, and stand upright: for unto thee am I now sent. And when he had spoken this word unto me, I stood trembling.
12 Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words. 13 But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia. 14 Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days: for yet the vision is for many days.
15 And when he had spoken such words unto me, I set my face toward the ground, and I became dumb. 16 And, behold, one like the similitude of the sons of men touched my lips: then I opened my mouth, and spake, and said unto him that stood before me, O my lord, by the vision my sorrows are turned upon me, and I have retained no strength. 17 For how can the servant of this my lord talk with this my lord? for as for me, straightway there remained no strength in me, neither is there breath left in me.
18 Then there came again and touched me one like the appearance of a man, and he strengthened me, 19 And said, O man greatly beloved, fear not: peace be unto thee, be strong, yea, be strong. And when he had spoken unto me, I was strengthened, and said, Let my lord speak; for thou hast strengthened me.
20 Then said he, Knowest thou wherefore I come unto thee? and now will I return to fight with the prince of Persia: and when I am gone forth, lo, the prince of Grecia shall come. 21 But I will shew thee that which is noted in the scripture of truth: and there is none that holdeth with me in these things, but Michael your prince.
Daniel 10

When Daniel prayed, an angel was sent to him to deliver God’s response. But the said angel was withstood by the prince of Persia. But as Daniel kept praying, God sent Michael to deliver the angel that had been captured. Some reading this may recognize the name Michael, who is of the archangel class, a leader of God’s army of angels. The prince of Persia is a principality over the land of Persia; principality meaning one of the principal fallen angels that follow Lucifer as their lord, rather than the Most High.

In other instances, when John the Baptist was to be born, his father, Zachariah was visited by angel Gabriel, as was Mary, when Jesus was to be born:

8 And it came to pass, that while he executed the priest’s office before God in the order of his course, 9 According to the custom of the priest’s office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. 10 And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense. 11 And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. 12 And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. 13 But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. 14 And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth. 15 For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb. 16 And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. 17 And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.
18 And Zacharias said unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years.
19 And the angel answering said unto him, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God; and am sent to speak unto thee, and to shew thee these glad tidings.
Luke 1:8-19

26 And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, 27 To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. 29 And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. 30 And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. 31 And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. 32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: 33 And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.
34 Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?
35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
36 And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. 37 For with God nothing shall be impossible.
Luke 1:26-36

In these instances, one may argue that it appears that the angels are message deliverers. What about when I need help? Well, what about the angel that killed all the firstborn of the Egyptians when the Pharaoh wouldn’t let them go?

12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD. 13 And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.

21 Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said unto them, Draw out and take you a lamb according to your families, and kill the passover. 22 And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the bason, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the bason; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning. 23 For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.
Exodus 12:12-13 & 21-23

In verse 23, when the Lord passes over Egypt, on every house that the blood of the sacrificial lamb was placed, he would not allow the destroyer to come in. But on every door that had not this token (see verse 1) of faith, this blood on the lintels the destroyer would go in and smite the first born, from the Pharaoh on the throne to the beast of the field. And if just peradventure any man of Israel didn’t believe Moses to do what was asked, they would receive a visit from the destroyer as well, but we have no record of that. Who is this destroyer? An angel.

One last example of the ministry of angels. When Hezekiah was King, the Assyrian army surrounded Jerusalem and taunted the people and mocked the Most High God:

28 Then Rabshakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jews’ language, and spake, saying, Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria: 29 Thus saith the king, Let not Hezekiah deceive you: for he shall not be able to deliver you out of his hand: 30 Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, The LORD will surely deliver us, and this city shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.
31 Hearken not to Hezekiah: for thus saith the king of Assyria, Make an agreement with me by a present, and come out to me, and then eat ye every man of his own vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every one the waters of his cistern: 32 Until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of oil olive and of honey, that ye may live, and not die: and hearken not unto Hezekiah, when he persuadeth you, saying, The LORD will deliver us. 33 Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered at all his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? 34 Where are the gods of Hamath, and of Arpad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah? have they delivered Samaria out of mine hand? 35 Who are they among all the gods of the countries, that have delivered their country out of mine hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of mine hand?
2 Kings 18:28-35

What was God’s response?

35 And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. 36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.
37 And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Armenia. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.
2 Kings 19:35-37

God’s angel(singular) killed off 185,000 soldiers in one night. He left the king to see it. And when the king saw it and still foolishly went back home to bow down to his god, his very sons killed him. The end.

So, there is no need and absolutely no justification to put your trust or your hope in any so-called god! God is able! Abundantly able, to save and to deliver those who TRUST IN HIM! There is One Creator of ALL THINGS. He alone is to be worshipped and served. He alone deserves our praise. He alone loves us. He alone sacrificed His best for us. What should we do in return? What does He require of us?

6 Wherewith shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? 7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
8 He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
Micah 6:6-8

Turn now and live! Hearken unto Him! Do not put your faith in any other that cannot save you. Get a bible or two. One in the King James 1611 translation and the second (if necessary), in the Amplified. Do not try to take the short cut. People justify other gods because they are not willing to first be obedient. To come to God, you MUST be willing to first obey Him. Otherwise, your very prayers are an abomination to Him. You cannot worship a god of your own imagination. It is not what you think is right that is right, but what He says is right. Otherwise, you are wasting your time. For this very reason, because the children of Israel worshipped the host of heaven, rather than God and for this, they went into exile.

The devil has been peddling this lie from the beginning. That he can show us a shortcut to riches and fame. And yes, if you worship him, he will give you what appears to be riches and fame but at what cost? Will you for a maximum of 120 years on earth sacrifice an eternity in hell and torment? What kind of bargain is that? What right thinking man will exchange 100 or so years of bliss for an eternity of suffering? Do not believe the lie. He will try to convince you that the whole notion of eternal suffering is a lie. He will call God a liar, that your existence ceases when you breathe your last on earth, so why not enjoy it? This is a lie!

The children of Israel believed this lie and began to worship Ashtaroth, the queen of heaven. If you are Catholic and you believe that Mary is the Queen of Heaven, you better repent! Mary DOES NOT want you making any images OF her, praying TO her, venerating her, adoring her or any such thing! She is not the queen of heaven, beware! Beware the deception!

16 Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee. 17 Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger. 19 Do they provoke me to anger? saith the LORD: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces?
20 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.
Jeremiah 7:16-20

To add insult to injury, when Nebuchadrezzer king of Babylon besieged and carried Judah into captivity, many of them ran back to Egypt, putting their trust in Pharaohhophra of Egypt, after God had forbidden them from ever returning to Egypt:

15 Then all the men which knew that their wives had burned incense unto other gods, and all the women that stood by, a great multitude, even all the people that dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying, 16 As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the LORD, we will not hearken unto thee. 17 But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: for then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil. 18 But since we left off to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, we have wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine.
19 And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven, and poured out drink offerings unto her, did we make her cakes to worship her, and pour out drink offerings unto her, without our men?
20 Then Jeremiah said unto all the people, to the men, and to the women, and to all the people which had given him that answer, saying, 21 The incense that ye burned in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, ye, and your fathers, your kings, and your princes, and the people of the land, did not the LORD remember them, and came it not into his mind? 22 So that the LORD could no longer bear, because of the evil of your doings, and because of the abominations which ye have committed; therefore is your land a desolation, and an astonishment, and a curse, without an inhabitant, as at this day. 23 Because ye have burned incense, and because ye have sinned against the LORD, and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD, nor walked in his law, nor in his statutes, nor in his testimonies; therefore this evil is happened unto you, as at this day.
24 Moreover Jeremiah said unto all the people, and to all the women, Hear the word of the LORD, all Judah that are in the land of Egypt: 25 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying; Ye and your wives have both spoken with your mouths, and fulfilled with your hand, saying, We will surely perform our vows that we have vowed, to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her: ye will surely accomplish your vows, and surely perform your vows.
26 Therefore hear ye the word of the LORD, all Judah that dwell in the land of Egypt; Behold, I have sworn by my great name, saith the LORD, that my name shall no more be named in the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, The Lord GOD liveth. 27 Behold, I will watch over them for evil, and not for good: and all the men of Judah that are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by the famine, until there be an end of them. 28 Yet a small number that escape the sword shall return out of the land of Egypt into the land of Judah, and all the remnant of Judah, that are gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall know whose words shall stand, mine, or theirs. 29 And this shall be a sign unto you, saith the LORD, that I will punish you in this place, that ye may know that my words shall surely stand against you for evil: 30 Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will give Pharaohhophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of them that seek his life; as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, his enemy, and that sought his life.
Jeremiah 44: 15-30

What more proof do you want? The excuse of the Israelites was that when they stopped sacrificing to the queen of heaven, they wanted for all things (verse 18). To get anything from God, you need to repent of all evil and turn to Him. They stopped their sacrifices, but did they wholly obey Him? When they saw that He didn’t respond to their half-hearted obedience, they resumed their worship of other gods. And this is the lie that the devil perpetrates: That God does not love us, but that he (the devil) does and will take care of us, if only we will worship him. But nothing can be further from the truth. Make no mistake about it. The devil hates every human being with a pure, unadulterated hatred. His thoughts for us are pure evil, to bring us to utter and absolute ruin! Yes, you may enjoy a few pleasures until you face sudden destruction. Even the devil himself will face this same judgement. In fact, he is judged already:

12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! 13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. 15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
16 They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; 17 That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners? 18 All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house. 19 But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcase trodden under feet. 20 Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain thy people: the seed of evildoers shall never be renowned. 21 Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities.
Isaiah 14:12-21

Now, someone reading this may wonder why I am bringing the devil into this. Afterall, they appear to not be worshipping the devil. Look at verses 13 and 14 of Isaiah 14: Lucifer said in his heart: “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will ALSO sit on the mount of congregation (where God sits), in the sides of the north; I will ascend the height of the clouds, I will be LIKE the Most High! Reading these verses, what does he want other than to be worshipped as God is worshipped? I hope that much is obvious.

So, while you may not be directly worshipping the devil, but if you consider that the Supreme Being’s Rule #1 is that you should have no other god beside Him, you are flouting that rule; and whatever god accepts this worship is in opposition to the Supreme Being and the entity called the devil is documented as being in utter rebellion against Him. So, whether you worship him or not, worshipping any other god is aligning yourself with an entity that is in opposition to the will of the Supreme Being and while this may not be THE devil, it is most certainly by this definition, A devil.

The instructions are clear. If you do believe that a Supreme Being does exist, and He surely does, whether you believe it or not, if you want to do the right thing, turn from your ways and do His will as He wants it done, not according to your own imaginations but according to His Word. God bless you as you as turn to Him.

Exhortations for Atheists and Agnostics

A common question among skeptics, of the existence of God, is: If God exists, why do bad things happen to good people? A plethora of other reasonings is proffered, including such as: If the earth is billions of years old, how did creation take place in 6 days? Other people complain about how they pray, and nothing ever happens.

In this exhortation, I am not going to attempt to answer every question that a skeptic or atheist has, concerning the existence of God. Rather, like always I will point you to scripture. It is left for you reading this to either open your eyes to the truth or continue to keep them closed.

Starting with the often-asked question: Why do good things happen to bad people? I have covered this earlier in the book, but it bears repeating. According to God’s standards, scripture tells us, that we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. All means everyone. So the oft-asked question is fallacious!

23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Romans 3:23

When someone addressed Jesus as good, He asked the man why he called Him good and said there is none good but the Father.

18 And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
19 And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God.
Luke 18:18-19

Jesus says there is none good, save God. This means that the question: Why do bad things happen to good people, is a flawed question, a fallacy. Its premise is incorrect.

But God further speaks specifically to those who say there is no God. He calls them foolish and declares that they are all unrighteous, not even one of them is righteous.

1 {To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.} The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. 2 The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. 3 They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
Psalm 14:1-3

So, what does the scripture say: We are all, every single one of us, fallen creatures. None of us should call ourselves good. If Jesus wouldn’t call himself good, why do you, O man think you are? In Psalm 14, God also speaks to the person who says that He doesn’t exist. He calls such a one foolish and says there is not one of such that is good. Why? Because man wants to be good without Christ and it is impossible. Man wants to say: Why can’t I be good without God? Why bring God into it? And the answer is that yes, you have some form of goodness, but by His standards, all that goodness is as filthy rags before Him.

6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. 7 And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities.
Isaiah 64:6-7

You must understand that it is not according to YOUR standards, but according to HIS standards. By our standards, most of us would conclude that we are good people. If we do anything “bad”, we had a very good reason for it, a good, honorable motive, right? But it is not according to our standards, but according to His.

12 There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
Proverbs 14:12

Back to the original question: Do you see that the point is moot? The people you and I may call good, may not be considered good by God. Another version of this question is: Why would God allow innocent children to suffer? If we grudgingly admit that the adults are not good, what about the two- and three-year-olds? Are these not innocent?

Let me let you know one thing. Children as innocent as they are, still don’t meet the standards for God’s goodness. Nevertheless, unlike adults that are guilty of willful sin, we can conclude that young children don’t have this “issue”. So why would God let bad things happen to them?

Sometimes, in His mercy, He allows “bad” things to happen.

Hold your horses. Let me clarify. Eternity is forever and has no end. Now, if God allows a child to die which would have ended up living a life of sin, only for that child to spend eternity in hell, though it may seem as a bad thing to the parents who love their little one and can’t imagine why any God would allow the child to be sick of say cancer, but from God’s viewpoint, is it not mercy to have the child taken away early that they may have eternal life with Him? Should He rather allow them live and spend an eternity in hell?

Put another way, if anyone of us knew for certain that if we took a certain trip, we would end up having an accident and die or worse our family would die in the vehicle, would we make the trip? From the viewpoint of the rest of the family looking forward to a nice vacation somewhere, wouldn’t we seem like the bad guy when we cancel the trip?

Some people reading this are still not satisfied, because to them this God doesn’t even exist in the first place, so how can there be an eternity, a hell or a heaven? And this is one of these truths that I cannot prove to you. You either take it or leave it. You either believe His word or you don’t.

But more on God’s perspective and the way the world is as it is today. You can take it or leave it:

God has given earth to be under the dominion of man.

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. 29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. 30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. 31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Genesis 1:26-31

Not only does man have dominion over the earth, but God WILL also NOT intervene in the affairs of men, unless EXPRESSLY asked. Unfortunately, the devil beguiled man. Man was supposed to live according to God’s word and all of earth would be in peace. Look at verse 29. Man’s diet was of the fruits and vegetables. Look at verse 30: To EVERY BEAST OF THE EARTH, including yes: LIONS, TIGERS, WOLVES, LEOPARDS, and all manner of what we call carnivores today: They were ALSO given every green herb for their meat, just like man. God had only one rule. Man could eat of every tree, except one. The tree called the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God told man if he ate of the tree, he would die.

15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Genesis 2:15-17

Then fast forward to chapter 3:

1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. 6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
8 And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. 9 And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
Genesis 3:1-11

In chapter 3, we see that the serpent beguiled Eve. It may seem a thing of fairy tales to hear an animal speak, but this is not the only account of an animal speaking, in the scriptures. The serpent immediately calls God a liar (verse 4). God said that they would die, and he said they wouldn’t. Moreover, the woman compromised on the instruction she had been given of her husband. She was created after Adam was created and the instruction in chapter 2 was given to Adam not to her. So, she heard “reported speech” from Adam. She didn’t hear God say it, only that Adam told her that God said it. Maybe this is why the serpent targeted her? Maybe that is why she “got confused”?

Nevertheless, verse 6 also says that she ate the fruit, and gave it to her husband WITH HER. So, was he asleep when the conversation was going on, such that he didn’t know what he was eating? Or was he fully aware like some theologians say and yet ate the fruit to please his wife? Whatever happened, they immediately found themselves to be naked. They had lost their innocence. Some theologians say that they were naked the entire time, but the glory of God covered their nakedness, so they couldn’t tell that they were naked.

The result of this disobedience nevertheless was death unto them and death unto the whole of humanity. Humanity fell from the glory of God. Sin was birthed in us. Hence, we say we inherited the Adamic nature, which is the propensity to sin. Immediately Adam sinned, his spirit died, his soul began to die, and his body ultimately died.

Remember that man is a living soul, put in a container of flesh and blood called a body.

7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Genesis 2:7

The word soul can be substituted for mind. Man came alive as the breath of God (Spirit), encountered the body. The real man is the mind of the man (thoughts, emotions and will) as well as his heart(desires).

7 For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he…
Proverbs 23:7a

The spirit of the man is the means by which the man has access to the heavenly realms, the part of him that can hear and communicate with God lost this connection INSTANTLY, the moment Adam disobeyed. Just like a TV set will lose power once its connection to electricity is broken, man lost his connection to God instantly. Since God is the source of ALL Life, to lose this connection is to suffer death. Hence though his spirit was alive in the man, it died from loss of connection to God. This death was also communicated to Eve as she came forth from Adam and to every child that has ever been born into this world.

Not only that, but his mind also began to die. Since the spirit fell from glory, from its lofty place in God’s presence, man no longer knew the will of God. Rather, the mind of man fell into darkness having lost the light (or enlightenment from the spirit) and turned to the “knowledge of good and evil” to dictate his actions. He turned to “soulish” reasoning. As he could no longer discern spiritual things, the man became CARNAL, living by the dictates of his fleshly appetites. Are you hungry? kill and eat, steal if needed. Man’s self became his god. His primal instinct became self-preservation and self-aggrandizement. This death was also perpetrated to all of creation as all of creation became corrupt. Man, who was the head of God’s creation on earth was corrupted, so all of creation became corrupt as a result. The head was sick and the whole being became sick.

1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. 3 The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.
4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.
5 Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. 6 From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.
Isaiah 1:1-6

Animals became wild, turning from fruit and vegetables to being meat eaters, and so forth. All of life corrupted in God’s sight. Why? Because the created being followed its own way, rather than the way of the Creator. God created man to be an intelligent being and gave man his own will. Man can choose his own way in the earth. Without the knowledge of good and evil, man would have continued to follow God and do what God instructed and when in doubt, would have asked Him. But man, having lost knowledge of the will of God turned to the imaginations of his heart and self to direct his path, which though it seemed right to the man, ended in death.

We train up our children in the best way we know how, but if the children pay no heed to our instruction, they are apt to get into very bad trouble. God, our Creator, our Manufacturer if you will, designed us to operate within certain parameters. But in our disobedience, we chose to walk contrary to Him, to do our own will. Rather than doing God’s will, we’re now exposed to all the wiles of the enemy of our soul, even the devil. His sole purpose is to lead us into ever more perversity from the original design of our manufacturer. This perversity is called sin, no matter how innocuous it may seem. Man, thus began to drink iniquity as water and every thought of his heart was only evil continually, such that he broke God’s heart!

5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
Genesis 6:5-6

14 What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? 15 Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight. 16 How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water?
Job 15:14-16

Do you see how from God’s perspective, man is not only not good, but he is abominably filthy?

Death proceeded from the soul of man also to his body. The corruption spread and physical death was the result. At the conclusion of his corrupt existence on the earth, the man was to then suffer for eternity as his soul was committed to an eternal death. So, you see, the moment man disobeyed God, he died.

Today, man is still free to continue to walk in disobedience, continuing to grope in the darkness of his so-called intelligence, but to no avail. This is the truth. Every other way, every other imagination of the heart is foolishness and will lead to ruin.

Others, scientifically minded look to what can be measured, what can be sensed. So, because you cannot sense it does it mean it is not real or does not exist? If we go back a thousand years and tell a man from that time that airplanes exist and about microwaves and radio waves, will he not think you insane? So, because you haven’t been able to detect a spirit you claim it is not real? Well, a thousand years ago, men of that time would make the same arguments that such things as microwaves and x-rays and radio waves couldn’t exist because they had no way at the time of PROVING they existed. So, the argument of trying to prove existence by what is measured is again foolishness! At best, the intelligent man will say, hitherto, I have not been able to prove the existence of such and such, but they could very well exist. The foolish man however will say, because I cannot prove its existence, it does not exist. Yet the latter is the position of much of our scientific community today! How foolish they are? Brilliant and yet foolish and groping in darkness!

What about creation? How could the earth be created in 6 days?

What does the science currently teach?

That there was a big bang and suddenly life evolved. Well, from my experience, nothing arises just out of nothing. And though it takes a zillion years, I need more faith to believe that the known universe, especially the earth we live in and all life on earth, with the billions of neurons in our brains and complex circulatory, respiratory, excretory, sensory and all systems just came about because of some big bang that all aligned itself in the right order. How many zillions of tries would it take to get this right for everything to work in order, that earth is at the right distance from the sun, that all the planets are also in alignment, that we have the right levels of gases to breathe on this earth to ensure our survival? It takes less faith for me to believe that an intelligent being is behind it all than to believe that it all just happened out of thin air.

All life from birth degrades, rather than improves. All things are born to die so to speak. Yet we have a model from science that tells us otherwise. That the created universe of its own accord, of its own nature, did the opposite and improved itself, that the degradation is man’s fault with burning of fossil fuels and eating the wrong diet. And they would be correct, in the latter, but not in the former argument. As I stated earlier, man corrupted all of creation. But this creation was made PERFECT, by the CREATOR, not by nature. Nature is under the influence of fallen man and so by definition cannot create itself, cannot create life and certainly didn’t create a human being! And outside of man’s influence, again, it would take more faith to believe in a big bang than in an intelligent God who designed it perfect from the beginning. The creation may have started with a big bang, but the big bang wasn’t what caused creation, it was just a sign that creation had started.

And the six days?

People read the creation story and assume that it all occurred in six consecutive days, like Monday through Saturday. But where do they get this from?

1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
Genesis 1:1-3

And the evening and the morning were the first day. First day of What? OF CREATION. The second day OF CREATION may have occurred one-million-man or one billion man years after the first day. Besides, we are discussing a creation by an IMMORTAL BEING. Does time have any meaning to an immortal being? Does an immortal being go by the Gregorian calendar?

Following the text, the sun and the moon began to mark the day and night upon the earth and at this point we have that once this was set up, we began to count day and night; hence, the first day.

The other argument from science is that of the earth is 4 or so billion years old, what is the age of man on the earth? Is man only six thousand years? What about the fossil record? What about all those Neanderthals and homo this or that? What about Darwinism and the theory of evolution? The missing link and so forth?

Everything brings forth after its own kind. An orange tree will one billion years from now only bring forth oranges. It cannot bring forth anything else. From science, we know about the influence of DNA in every species. If there is no pear or grape or banana in the DNA of an orange tree, it can NEVER EVER evolve to produce a banana or pear or grape.

Hence what creature is it that looks man-like? Which we call homo something or the other? Now, if at some point, copulation between some kind of ape and something produced a homo something or other, then that’s what produced it. What we call homo sapiens today will only continue to produce homo sapiens for the next one billion years unless something is either added genetically to the material or removed from the genetic material or the homo sapiens copulates with another creature to form the new species. So, no, I absolutely reject the notion that a man has an ape as his ancestor. Rather, some other creature copulated with an ape or ape-like creature to beget this other thing that some call the ancestor of man.

20 And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man, of Kabzeel, who had done many acts, he slew two lionlike men of Moab: he went down also and slew a lion in the midst of a pit in time of snow:
2 Samuel 23:20

What kind of creature is a lionlike man? Homo what shall we call him? Yet the author of this book has no other name for the creature but to define it as a lionlike man; likely because it had features of both. One may argue that there was no way at the time to extract the DNA of a lion and mix it with that of a man back them. Also, it is hard to fathom a lion copulating with a man. They would argue this, to state that the bible is in error, but I say otherwise: Well, what do you know of the technology back then? What kind of technology built the pyramids? How did Stonehenge come about? We don’t really know for sure. Earth movers of today cannot move 50tons of stone, so how was the pyramid assembled? How do you know that the lionlike man came from a man and a lion? Why do you assume such?

1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, 2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. 3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. 4 There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.
5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. 7 And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. 8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.
9 These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. 10 And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. 13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
Genesis 6:1-11

Look at verse 4: The sons of God came into the daughters of men and bare children which became mighty men of old, men of renown. These became what the scriptures refer to as giants, which other translations use the word, Nephilim, from the Hebrew word, Nphil, which means fallen. So, the fallen ones began to copulate with mankind and birthed all kinds of creatures in the earth, including giants! Of course, you will argue that you are yet to find the fossil of a giant man, but they exist; they are just not acknowledged by your science, to continually keep you in darkness. What lies in the hidden section of the Smithsonian, really? A google search will reveal pictures of these giant fossils, but your argument would be that it was a conspiracy that put them there. Really?

Who are these fallen ones? Scripture enlightens us:

5 I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. 6 And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. 7 Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
Jude 1:5-7

The angels that left their own habitation, which kept not to where they were assigned. These most likely began to breed with God’s creation and corrupted it more, hence the flood of Genesis 6; because all flesh had become corrupt in the sight of God (look at verses 11 and 12). Who is to say they confined their nefarious activities to copulation with human beings? Could these beings not copulate with animals such as lions and birth lion-like men? Who knows the extent of their lawlessness? If it was only man’s sin, God would have destroyed just man, but all flesh had become corrupt because the fallen had corrupted His creation such that they had to be destroyed to remove the abominations that arose from the mixture and preserve a human being alive that His Son could die for. ALL flesh includes human flesh, animal flesh, flesh of birds and flesh of fishes. So, what actually created the “lionlike man”? If humankind ceased to become human and was no longer in the likeness of God, Christ’s death would be in vain, so God purged out the abominations that arose from the mingling, keeping just Noah and his family alive to start afresh.

As to the first question: Why do bad things happen to good people? By this question, those asking expect that if there is a God, He should intervene to prevent bad actors, right? But the question must be asked, how much intervention can God enact without infringing on the free will of man? If His plan was to intervene (and He does intervene, I assure you), where would you draw the line? How much intervention is needed? What might be needed for someone may not be enough for another. So, some will still complain that He doesn’t intervene, while others will say His intervention is suffocating. And if this was His plan all along, why not create the human being to be an automaton in the first place? Since humans are not programmed robots therefore, but free agents, it stands to reason that He will only intervene when it is absolutely needed.

When might this be? When it’s time for judgement for instance. During the time of Noah, God decided to destroy all of creation, because creation had become not just corrupt, but abominable in His sight. After the angels who left their first estate came to earth, not only did they begin to marry human women to produce human-alien hybrids in the earth, but they also experimented with animals, such that lion-like men and so forth, walked the earth. God decided to destroy creation, preserving just a few, because humanity had strayed from His original design.

Some will say, maybe He could have prevented this from happening in the first place; but again, we will get into the circuitous argument of how much intervention is enough. God gave man His rules to be followed. Follow the rules and be blessed. Disobey and be cursed. But man wishes to have nothing to do with God. Man loves his free agency so much, that they want God to intervene when things are going bad for them, but to stay out and “mind His business” at all other times. I’m sorry my friend, you cannot eat your cake and have it.

What about the “innocent” children that were destroyed in the flood? Have you considered that the dying in the flood may mean an eternity of bliss for them? Further if Jesus Christ says that there is none good except God, why do you call even an innocent child good? Scripture tells us: For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All includes innocent children as well.

We can go round and round in circles with all manner of ifs and buts, but I kept this final exhortation to the end because some will still not be satisfied and will still look for proof. Man looks for proof of God and God’s answer is in His creation. The air you breathe, to start with. You think nature gave you that? In exactly the right proportions to sustain life on earth? Really? What is the source of life? If a person is put on a life-support machine, can their life be brought back once it is gone? So, science is trying to solve the problem of death, but they can never solve this problem without God. Why? Because He is the Source of all Life. Outside of Him, is only death. You may succeed in uploading a human brain to the computer, but a man is far more complex than a biological brain. It is foolishness, it will never work, it will not be a man.

Consider the stars, the planets, the galaxy, space, the green grass, the trees, the birds. All of creation points to Him. Why do you continue to resist? You will keep digging into darkness. The more you look, the less you will see! How unfortunate! Turn to God and live. Put aside this foolishness and turn to Him.