“This
web site is designed to spread the vicious truth about the Bible. For far
too long priests and preachers have completely ignored the vicious
criminal acts that the Bible promotes. The so called “God” of the Bible
makes Osama Bin Laden look like a Boy Scout. This God, according to the
Bible, is directly responsible for many mass-murders, rapes, pillage, plunder,
slavery, child abuse and killing, not to mention the killing of unborn
children.”[i]
The above quote was taken from a website
with the sub heading “Fighting Against the Immorality in Religion”. When we
read something like this we may be faced with a crisis in faith. How do we
answer this kind of question if someone asks us?
On the other hand, Moses said that the
commandment, which came from the Lord, where not hidden or a long way away. The
people didn’t have to go up to heaven or beyond the sea but the word was very
near, in each person’s mouth and heart[ii]. While
this was written about the Law that had just been given to the new generation
of Israelis who were ready to enter the Promised Land, it is logical to apply
this to all the books of Moses. The Lord Jesus Christ spoke to his disciples
and told them that no one would enter the Kingdom of Heaven unless they were
willing to be humble and become like a little child[iii]. This
would lead us to believe that the message the Lord gave to us in the Bible is
simple and easy to understand. Therefore there must be simple answer to this
paradox.
During the reigns of Kings Uzziah of Judah
and Jeroboam 11 of Israel both these countries experienced a period of peace
and prosperity[iv].
While the people were congratulating themselves on how good they were and how
much they deserved this prosperity, the Lord sent prophets to call them back to
Himself. Isaiah was one of these prophets and he saw the destruction of the
city of Samaria. He prophesied to Judah but he also had messages for Israel. He
gave a message to the “drunkards of Ephraim” and told them that the Lord would
judge them[v].
They thought that they understood everything but they had forgotten the Lord’s
true knowledge and needed to learn this again. The Lord told them that they had
to carefully study his word; they would have to study “order upon order, line
upon line, here a little there a little”[vi]. This means that we can
carefully study the words of the Bible, in order, to discover what is written
there for our information and we can take that as God’s truth.
The first chapter of the
Bible tells us about the beginning but it was also given to introduce us to the Lord God so that we might know His role
in creation. We discover that God was there before the beginning and that He
made everything from nothing. The first verse acts as a heading to the first
section. This verse gives a simple statement telling us about God and His
creation and the rest of the chapter expounds how that happened. God Himself
wrote the first section of the Bible, in the same way that the Law was written
by the Lord’s hand, the first time[vii].
The words “God said...” appear 10 times
in Genesis 1[viii],
this tells us that God is active and that God speaks. After God speaks we see
the words: “God saw... was good” 6 times[ix] and, when
God was finally finished we see, “God saw... it was very good”[x].
We can learn from this that when God acts the consequences are good. In fact
Moses wrote about God, “His work is perfect”[xi]. We can
conclude from both God’s and Moses’ evidence that God only does perfect things.
As we move into Genesis chapter 2 we find
that God finished His creation on the seventh day and then He rested from the
work of creation. God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it[xii].
We then come across the sentence, “These are the generations of the heavens and
of the earth when they were created,”[xiii] This
sentence, if one believes the Tablet Theory of P. J. Wiseman and D.J. Wiseman,
contains a “colophon phrase” demonstrating that it is the end of an ancient
tablet[xiv].
The second tablet actually beings in the middle of verse 4. The second tablet
ends with the phrase, “This is the book of the generations of Adam.”[xv]
Adam wrote the majority of Genesis 2 and that contains his memory of creation.
As Adam was only there on the sixth day, he wasn’t in a good position to give
the history of the first five days so he didn’t. This means that there are no
contradictions between Genesis 1 and 2 but there are two accounts of creation:
God’s and Adam’s.
Among other things, Adam gave an account of his relationship with
the Lord God. He told us that God formed him out of the dust of the earth and breathed
the breath of life into his nostrils[xvi].
After the Lord God made Adam into a living soul, He put him the Garden of Eden
to care for it. Then the Lord God gave Adam a command telling him not to eat
the fruit of a particular tree. If we examine this command we see that the Lord
actually gave Adam a choice. For the Lord told Adam what would happen if he ate
fruit from that tree. This first command defines the Lord’s commandments to us.
He doesn’t force us to accept His goodness but we are bound by the consequences
of whatever choice we make. There is one overriding issue, “The Lord is gracious and merciful; Slow to
anger and great in lovingkindness.”[xvii]
While the Lord will give us the consequences of our choice, He will take His
time to give us a chance to repent and confess that we have chosen to reject
His recommendation.
There is another issue to consider when we are discussing the way
that the Lord deals with the choices that we make. “Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful
God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation
with those who love Him and keep His commandments; but repays those who hate
Him to their faces, to destroy them; He will not delay with him who hates Him,
He will repay him to his face.”[xviii] The
Lord is faithful and will deal faithfully with those who choose to follow His
recommendations. On the other hand, the Lord is also faithful with those who
choose to reject His recommendations. There is no integrity in giving someone a
choice and then protecting that person from the consequences if he or she makes,
what we believe is, the wrong choice. However, because the Lord is slow to
anger, He gives individuals time to reconsider the choice they have made. At
first, He will allow us to experience the consequences of our choice in a small
way so that we can make sure that we really want those consequences. If we
choose to accept the Lord’s recommendation then we will come under His perfect
ways, ways that are ordered and predictable. If we choose not to accept the
Lord’s recommendation then we will revert to the formless void, that is chaos,
and dwell in darkness[xix].
At that stage the Lord God and Adam were
friends. We know this because the Lord only speaks face to face with someone
who is His friend[xx].
After He made Adam, the Lord warned Adam about eating the fruit of the Tree of
the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This showed that the Lord was treating Adam
with integrity allowing him to understand that there were consequences for that
action. Next, the Lord gave Adam the opportunity to give names to all the
living creatures. Not only was Adam the Lord’s friend at that stage, he was
also a living soul, that is, a spiritual being made in God’s own image. The Lord
saw that Adam was alone and He decided that Adam needed a companion so He made
a companion for Adam and Adam was allowed to give her a name as well. The
second chapter of Genesis ends with everything at peace. The Lord saw that
everything He had made was very good and He rested. The Lord and Adam were
friends and Adam was not alone but had a companion who was suitable for him.
The serpent came into this idyllic scene
determined to cause destruction. He was determined to make himself greater than
God and rule the world in the Lord’s place. His first step was to attack where
he saw a weakness. Eve wasn’t there when God gave Adam the first command and we
assume that Adam didn’t give her all the information. The serpent, Satan, is
the father of lies[xxi].
Satan’s specialty is making lies rather than telling outright lies. He uses a
part of the truth and then manufactures a lie. In that case, Satan made Eve
doubt that the Lord was acting faithfully and with integrity when He told them
not to take of the fruit of the tree that was in the middle of the garden. The
tempter was crafty as he seduced Eve. First he told her that she would not die,
this was a direct contradiction of what the Lord told Adam. Instead he impugned
the Lord’s integrity by suggesting that Eve’s eyes would be opened and she
would become like God. Satan didn’t want Eve to become like God, he wanted to
become like God himself[xxii].
When Eve looked at the fruit, she believed that she would be wise so she took
the fruit and ate it. The real temptation was to be able to define what was
good and what was evil rather than trust the Lord to provide the correct
definition of what was good and what was evil[xxiii]. At
this stage, tension entered the creation history; a tension between God’s
heavenly definition of good and evil and Satan’s earthy definition of good and
evil, that is, an image bearing the image of the man of the earth[xxiv].
This tension remains for the rest of time and will not be resolved until there
is a new heaven and a new earth[xxv].
We discover, later, that Adam and Eve hid
themselves because they knew that they were naked and they didn’t want the Lord
God to see them in that state[xxvi].
We can assume that Adam and Eve were expecting the Lord to come and meet with
them because they made coverings for their nakedness and they hid among the
tree of the garden. We know, from elsewhere in the Bible, that the Lord is
omnipresent and knew what was happening[xxvii].
However, the Lord offered Adam a choice and gave him the freedom to make that
choice without interference. This is because the Lord is faithful to His word and
will not interfere when we make decisions. Adam had all the information that he needed and he was
close enough to take the fruit so he must have observed the whole incident
without making any effort to interfere and protect Eve from the serpent’s
attack. It is important to notice, at that stage, the Lord was not involved in
the incident at all. Therefore the Lord is entirely innocent of any
consequences of this decision.
The next question that we have to
consider is, “Was the serpent correct when he told Eve that she would not die?”
We know that Adam lived for 930 years before he died[xxviii]. The
Lord said, “or in the day that you eat from it
you will surely die.”[xxix]
On the day that Adam and Eve sinned they immediately knew that they were naked,
they were ashamed[xxx]
and they were afraid[xxxi].
At that moment they understood that their relationship with the Lord was over,
they were no longer friends with God, they were afraid of God. They died
spiritually, they also experienced emotional death because we see that Adam
blamed Eve and tried to absolve himself of the crime[xxxii]. They
were no longer joined together as before but were in competition. They also
began the long, slow, painful process of physical death that, in Adam’s case,
took less than 930 years. The Lord treated them with grace and gave them time
to repent of their sin. The Lord also gave them time to produce children for He
promised Eve that one of her descendants would bruise the serpent’s head[xxxiii].
Adam and Eve clothed themselves with fig
leaves after they sinned to hide their nakedness. However fig leaves do not
last for a long time so the Lord God made a coat of skins to clothe them. It is
impossible to take the skin from an animal without killing the animal so we
know that the Lord killed the animals before He took their skins to clothe Adam
and Eve. In this way, some animals died on the day that Adam and Eve sinned. So
even though Adam and Eve did not die physically on the day that they sinned,
they just started the long process of physical death, the Lord did sacrifice
the animals to provide them garments of skins. This is the first time that the
concept of substitution is introduced into the Bible. Paul said, “but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.”[xxxiv] After
this, the Lord was willing to accept sacrifices for sin.
From this point forward the Bible became
the story of redemption. It explains how the Lord God, who was wronged in the
Fall, planned to affect reconciliation with the descendants of Adam and Eve. After the Fall, Adam and Eve were give
the consequences of their choice. They rejected the peaceful world that God
gave them and lost the rest that came on the seventh day when God rested from
His work of creation. No longer was Adam the custodian of the garden, he had to
battle with the ground to produce his food, his life became a constant struggle
with thorns and thistles and he could look forward to returning to the ground[xxxv].
The struggle that began on the day that
Adam and Eve sinned continued in the lives of their children. Eve’s first child
was called Cain, she believed this son would be the promised son who would
bruise the serpent’s head because she said, “I have gotten a manchild with the help of the
Lord.”[xxxvi] In
time Cain and his brother Abel grew to the stage where they had to struggle
with the ground as well. Cain grew crops and Abel looked after flocks. The
brothers decided that they would bring an offering to the Lord and they brought
from the fruit of their struggle[xxxvii].
The Lord regarded Abel’s offering but He didn’t regard Cain’s offering. Cain
was very angry after this. The Lord did not regard Cain’s offering because He
preferred animal sacrifices to crop sacrifices; the Lord looked into the hearts
of both men and saw that one came in pride while the other came in humility.[xxxviii]
After this Cain was extremely angry and
his face fell, he made no effort to hide his emotions. The Lord saw that Cain
was angry and, in grace came and spoke to Cain. The Lord asked Cain why he was
angry and reminded him that he would be accepted if he did well. We can see,
from this, that the Lord had examined Cain’s attitude and knew that he came
with a proud heart. The Lord also told him that sin was waiting to come and
take possession of his life but he had the choice to rule over this sin. Cain
decided that he would not accept the Lord recommendation and he allowed sin to
master him rather than mastering sin. Cain took his brother out into the fields
and killed him. God gave Cain an extra curse for his refusal to master his sin.
The ground would no longer give him any food and he would wander on the earth
for the rest of his life. We also discover that there were other people on the
earth at that time and we assume that they were also children of Adam and Eve.
Cain made a choice and he was bound by the consequences of that choice but the
Lord was entirely innocent of that crime. In fact, the Lord even warned Cain
that he could overcome the urge to kill his brother if he chose to.
We find out that the choice of earthy
wisdom, dictated, primarily by what I believe is good for me, works its way through
the population. Cain was a killer and was protected by God but, before long,
there was another killer[xxxix]
who boasted to his wives that he had killed a man. He also proclaimed that he
was superior to Cain by suggesting that he would avenged eleven times Cain’s
vengeance[xl].
Things progressed downhill from that
point as the people on the earth became progressively more selfish and the Lord
finally decided that He would destroy all the people on the earth[xli].
While all this was happening Adam and Eve had another son called Seth. One of
his descendants, Enoch, so pleased the Lord that the Lord saved him from the
long, painful, slow process of physical death and took him away from the earth[xlii].
When the Lord decided to destroy the earth, He found a good man called Noah[xliii]
and decided to continue his plan of redemption. After all, the Lord had made
Adam and Eve in His own image so that He could have a relationship with them.
This reveals another part of the Lord’s plan, the Lord will only use good men
to further his plan of redemption while the Lord allows people who reject his
recommendation to be dealt with by the kind of people they have chosen to be
themselves.
After the Lord preserved Noah from the
destruction of the earth, He continued with His plan of redemption. Sin
multiplied but the Lord found a man called Abraham[xliv]. The
Lord commanded Abraham to leave the place where he was living and head out to
an, as yet unknown, destination. Abraham heard the Lord’s call and set out as
the Lord commanded him. In this case, Abraham heard the Lord’s recommendation
and chose to accept the Lord’s command. We discover, later, that Abraham
believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness[xlv]. This
leads us to another principle in the way that the Lord God deals with mankind; if
we believe God then we are counted as being righteous. Adam and Eve preferred
to reject the Lord’s recommendation when the serpent tempted them in the
garden, that is, they didn’t believe God. On the other hand, Abraham chose to
accept the Lord’s recommendation, that it, he believed God.
When God called Abraham, He told Abraham
that his plan was to bless all the families of the earth through Abraham and
his descendants. When the Lord God first created living creatures, He blessed
the and told them to be fruitful, multiply and fill...[xlvi] The
Lord blesses His creatures by giving them room to expand and enjoy all the
abundance of His goodness. The Lord’s plan for Abraham was that he should be
the source whereby all the families of the earth would have access to the
abundance of the Lord’s goodness. This came with believing God and accepting
His recommendation. People who choose to bless Abraham and his descendants show
that they accept God’s recommendation while people who choose to curse Abraham
and his descendants show that they reject God’s recommendation.
In order to continue His plan of
redemption, the Lord chose to use Abraham’s descendants because Abraham
believed God[xlvii].
The Lord promised Abraham that his descendants would become a great nation and
they did, then God used them to be the means of blessing every family on the
earth. However, the Lord didn’t change His principles or His basic assumptions.
The Lord will only use a good person, that is, a person who believes in Him, to
further His plan of redemption. This was the reason that the Lord gave the Law
to Israel: so that they could be a shining example of the Lord’s goodness in
the earth and then they would draw the families of the earth to Him.
In order for this to happen, Israel had to acknowledge the Lord had
the wisdom and authority to recommend a particular way of life to them. This
way of life was codified in the Law that the Lord gave to Moses. When Israel
was finally ready to enter the Promised Land, the Lord told them that they
would have to agree to His contract, or covenant, if they wanted to continue to
live in the Promised Land. They agreed to keep the contract[xlviii]
and accept the Lord’s recommendation. However, the real issue with the contract
wasn’t expressed until the Israelis had been told all the blessings and the
curses. “So it shall be when all of these things have
come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you
call them to mind in all nations where the Lord your God has banished you, and
you return to the Lord your God
and obey Him with all your heart and soul according to all that I command you
today, you and your sons, then the Lord
your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will
gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord
your God has scattered you.”[xlix] The
Lord used the curses to bring His people to their knees so that they would
finally accept His recommendations and submit to His plan of redemption.
This is further supported through the
Lord’s words to Jeremiah the prophet. When the Lord, finally reached the stage
of giving Israel over to the Babylonians because they had chose to follow the
wisdom of the earth rather than the wisdom of heaven, He gave Jeremiah the task
of telling the people to accept His plan and submit to it. He told Jeremiah
that He remembered the agreement they had made and was intending to send them
into exile. However, the force of the message is that the Lord intends to bring
His people to the place where they are satisfied with His goodness.[l]
No one can be satisfied with the Lord’s goodness unless they first accept the
Lord’s recommendations and submit to His plan of redemption, leading to
reconciliation.
If we are willing to read Israel’s
history in the context of the Lord’s pure character and His plan of redemption,
we will never misinterpret the Lord’s intentions or blame Him for things that
He has not done. Every time a person refused to accept the Lord’s
recommendation and chose to follow the wisdom of the earth, the Lord, in His
faithfulness, gave that person the consequences of that choice. The Lord’s
anger is not arbitrary or vindictive, it is designed purely to bring a person
to the place where they accept His spiritual wisdom and appreciate that His
recommendations are best, personally and individually as well as corporately
for the whole of mankind. However, even though the Lord is patient and slow to
anger, He will eventually allow a person to receive the full consequences of
any choice that person had made. If we choose to follow that pathway of earthy
wisdom we will become subject to our own selfish desires and well as the
selfish desires of other people who have made similar choices. The Lord is not
responsible for the choices that we make and is entirely innocent of any
consequences that we have chosen. Therefore we can conclude that the statement quoted at the beginning of this paper is wrong, the Lord is entirely innocent of anything that is the consequence of people choosing to reject His recommendations.
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