Author Archives: Dave

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

January 4, 2022

Posted under

Death, Origins

What would have happened if Adam and Eve had eaten from the tree of life?

When God created humans He made two people. He named the man Adam and the woman was named Eve. God also planted a special garden for them. He put Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and gave them all kinds of fruit trees from which they could eat, including the Tree of Life. God also placed in the garden a tree which they were forbidden to eat- the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. God warned Adam and Eve that if they ate of the forbidden fruit they would die.

Some have viewed the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil as possessing some special quality that had the ability to grant knowledge previously unknown to Adam and Eve. The fruit itself did not give knowledge of evil, but the act of disobedience did. By disobeying God they learned evil and thus, to their sorrow, they learned the difference between good and evil. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God He punished them. This punishment included death as God had warned them. Because Adam disobeyed, God told him, “From dust thou art, unto dust thou shalt return.”

What if they had eaten from the Tree of Life? We do not know how long Adam and Eve lived in the Garden before they sinned. Some Bible scholars think it could have been as long as one hundred years. If they lived in the Garden of Eden for much time at all then it seems probable that they ate of the fruit of the Tree of Life. They were not forbidden to eat from that tree. They could eat it’s fruit just as readily as they could eat an orange or an apple. Though they may have eaten of the Tree of Life before their sin, it did not protect them from the wages of their sin. Because they sinned they fell under the curse of death.

The Bible says what would have happened if Adam and Eve continued to have access to the Tree of Life after they sinned. God drove them out of the Garden of Eden and placed an angelic guard outside the garden lest they, “take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:” (Genesis 3:22) If they had been able to eat of the tree of life, Adam and Eve would have lived forever, which would have been tragic.

In His mercy God prevented Adam and Eve from eating of the tree of life, otherwise they would have been condemned to an unending life in sin cursed flesh. Even worse, they would have been without hope of salvation. Jesus’ death on the cross saves by taking the punishment of man’s sin. Christ died because we are condemned to death. If man could have unending life without Jesus by simply eating from the Tree of Life then Jesus’ death would be worthless. Eternal life without Jesus would be Hellish. Existing without God is one of the torments of hell, “Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord.” (2 Thessalonians 1:9) If Adam and Eve had eaten from the Tree of Life after they sinned, they would have been able to live forever but the Tree of Life would not take away their sin. The tree on which Christ died is required. Without the cross there is no forgiveness of sin. Without forgiveness, there is no relationship with God. Through Jesus we can have eternal joy because in Jesus is forgiveness of sin and a right relationship with God.

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

December 24, 2021

Posted under

Uncategorized

Merry Christmas

“O amazing condescension of the Lord Jesus Christ, to stoop to such low and poor things for our sake. What love is this, what great and wonderful love was here, that the Son of God should come into our world in so mean a condition, to deliver us from the sin and misery in which we were involved by our fall in our first parents! And as all that proceeded from the springs must be muddy, because the fountain was so, the Lord Jesus Christ came to take our natures upon him, to die a shameful, a painful, and an accursed death for our sakes.”
-George Whitfield

Merry Christmas! May you have joy and rejoicing in the celebration of the birth of our Savior and God.

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

December 14, 2021

Posted under

Holidays, Jesus, Prophecy

Repost: In what way is Jesus begotten of God?

“For God so loved that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

At Christmas we remember the birth of Jesus. His birth is of paramount importance because He is God who set aside His Divine prerogatives, clothed Himself in humanity and suffered the punishment of man’s sin so men could be saved. John 3:16 famously describes Jesus as the “only begotten Son.” That Jesus is begotten of God may seem to be at odds with the Biblical doctrine that Jesus is the eternal God. If Jesus is the eternally existent God in what way is He begotten of God?

Psalm 2:7 presents a powerful promise of the coming Messiah. God comforted His servant David with the promises He would establish His own Son as King of Jerusalem. The Son of God would reign from Jerusalem over all the earth. God’s promise to send a King was certified by the Divine decree, “Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten Thee.” In the New Testament Paul declares that Jesus is the Son who was promised by God in Psalm 2. The begottenness of Jesus is the eternal decree of God to establish God the Son as the Messiah of Israel who would reign as King over the entire earth.

John 1:14 connects the incarnation- God the Son’s taking upon Himself humanity- with His being begotten. Jesus was begotten of God in His birth into the world. Jesus was not conceived by natural means but by the power of God uniquely working to generate a child. Jesus’ begottenness is the working of God to miraculously create a body for the Son within Mary’s womb. Jesus is begotten of the Father thorugh the work of God to send make the Son of God the seed of the woman and the Savior of man.

God the Son is the eternally existent God who created all things. He is fully God and equal with the Father in existence, eternality, infinity, majesty, power and glory. The begottenness of Jesus does not imply any inferiority of person or existence. The begottenness of Jesus does not imply a point in eternity in which the Father existed alone without the Son or the Spirit. Jesus is begotten because of the Divine decree that the Son would take upon Himself humanity. Through His humanity Jesus became the Savior of those who trust Him. He is the conquering King who will one day rule all the earth. Jesus is begotten in His human personage and in His Messianic work.

God the Son did not spring into existence on Christmas day (or nine months before His birth). God the Son has no source nor origination. Jesus is the Son of God. He is fully God, the second person of the Trinity, who shares entirely in the identical, eternal essence and existence of the Triune Godhead.

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

December 7, 2021

Posted under

Jesus

Repost: What’s so important about the virgin Mary?

Every Christmas, we are confronted with images of a manger, a little baby, loving parents, a few vague men in the background, an angel or two and a collection of miscellaneous farm animals. Otherwise known as the nativity scene. Of course, the baby in the manger is the central character, but one other person gets nearly as much attention. The virgin Mary gets nearly as much attention as the baby Jesus.

In our day of sexual freedom, being a virgin is not generally considered a praiseworthy thing. To identify someone as “the virgin Charlene” would most likely be viewed as an slur. So why do we call Mary “the virgin”?

The answer to this question is found in Biblical prophecy, in the angelic pronouncement and in the character of Jesus. Over 700 years before Jesus was born, the prophet Isaiah wrote, “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14) The prophecy of a virgin birth is one of many prophecies in the book of Isaiah that describe the coming Messiah. God promised through Isaiah that the sign of the Messiah will be a son born of a woman who had never entered into sexual relations with a man.

About nine months before Jesus birth angels visited the loving parents from the nativity, Mary and Joseph. Luke 1 describes the angelic visit to Mary. The angel declared to her that she was going to give birth to a son. Mary responded with a pertinent question, “How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?” “Know not” means “never had sexual intercourse.” Since Mary understood the process by which children are conceived, her question is very logical. Mary, being a virgin, knew she could not have a baby. The angel goes on to explain that God’s power would cause Mary to miraculously conceive a child without any human father.

Matthew 1 tells of the angelic visit to Joseph. When Joseph discovered Mary was pregnant he intended intent to call off their impending wedding. Before he could act on his intention the angel declared that Mary was not pregnant through on immoral action, but “that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.” The angels declared that Jesus was conceived in the womb of a virgin.

Mary’s virginity is not important for Mary’s sake, but to show the character of Jesus. Mary later conceived other children through natural means. Mary did not remain a perpetual virgin. Her virginity at the birth of Jesus is of importance because of what it says about Jesus. Jesus is God who became human, but He became man without taking on Himself the sin nature. Romans 5 teaches that sin has passed to all men from Adam. The implication is that the sin nature is passed from one generation to the next by the father. For Jesus to be born without sion, he must have been born without a human father.

Through Mary God kept His Word to give His people an unmistakeable sign of the coming of His Messiah. Mary is important because her lack of sexual contact makes plain that the child born of her was not Joseph’s or any other man’s. Mary’s viriginity leaves no room for the baby Jesus to be anything but the Son of God.

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

November 30, 2021

Posted under

Current Events, God

Should Christian’s Call God “Father”?

Mark Silk authored a recent essay in which he declared that the terms for God are metaphorical and can be easily replaced. Mr. Silk suggested calling God “they” to avoid patriarchal language. “A phrase such as ‘God the Father’ should be treated as a metaphor- and for those concerned about the embedded misogyny of the tradition, to say nothing of post-binary folks– a deeply problematic one.”

This is not a new suggestion. For many years some preachers and teachers have been using feminine pronouns to speak of God. For example, some have rewritten the Lord’s prayer to begin, “Our Mother which art in Heaven.” Is this an acceptable change? Given the many abuses that have been perpetrated by male church leaders, should Christian’s avoid masculine and fatherly terminology to describe God?

Mark Silk is accurate when he says the references to God as Father are metaphorical. God is not male in any biological sense. God is not a Father in any reproductive sense. God did not sire any children. Jesus is God the Son but that title speaks only to how members of the Trinity relate to one another. The name God the Son does not indicate that the second person of the Trinity is somehow the offspring or product of God the Father. God the Father and God the Son are equally eternal. Neither owe their existence to the other. Likewise, the description of the Christian as the child of God is a reference to a relationship that exists by adoption, not to any physical procreation on God’s part.

Since much of the Biblical language used of God is metaphorical, can we therefore replace problematic terms with ones less troublesome? No, Christian’s cannot call God by any extra-Biblical title or description they find most Biblical. God has revealed Himself in certain terms. Man dare not devise new descriptions of God. Biblical terminology about God is not literal, but it’s non-literalness does not imply inaccuracy. Rather, the metaphorical nature of many descriptions of God suggests truths greater than any one can understand.

The Bible is not the product of the mind of deeply religious men. The Bible is the product of God. Scripture was given directly by God the Holy Spirit through holy men of God. The human authors of the Bible wrote exactly what God intended. Every Word of God is true and accurate. Because the Bible is the Word of God it is the Christian’s authority. Because every Word of God is pure the Biblical language used to describe God must be submitted to. While God is not male in the physical human sense, He is undoubtedly masculine with a masculinity that transcends biological maleness. God is the Father of all creation and the Father of all saints in a way that transcends siring children. These terms are descriptions of God that accommodate the limitations of the human mind and they are also the only authoritative guides to understanding God.

Consider, not one time in the thousands of references to God does the Bible speak of God as “she.” Even in situations where mothering analogies are used, like the image of a mother hen sheltering her young under her wings, the pronouns for God remain masculine. “He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust.” (Psalm 91:4) Past experiences may cause some to be uncomfortable with fatherly terminology, but the corrective is not a change of the way we describe God. The corrective is to develop a right understanding of God that we may think rightly about God our Father.

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

November 15, 2021

Posted under

Current Events

Does the greater good justify using aborted fetal cells to develop vaccines?

Andrea Gambotto, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh, said about the controversy over the use of aborted fetal cells in the development of the coronavirus vaccines, “It’d be a crime to ban the use of these cells.” He added. “It never harmed anybody — it was a dead embryo so the cells back then, instead of being discarded, they were used for research.” Is this argument valid? Can the use of aborted fetal cells in medical development be justified by the good it accomplishes?

Before answering this question, a few disclaimers need to be given. This article is not about the morality of the use of aborted fetal cells in the use of vaccines or any other medication. This article is not about if people should get vaccinated or about the various vaccine mandates in America. The question at hand is narrow and regards the perception that the greater good justifies wrong behavior.

Another repsonse, similar to Mr. Gambotto’s, protests that if it is immoral to use products developed wth aborted fetal cells, then say good bye to modern medicine. Is this a valid argument? Does the great good accomplished by vaccines or other modern pharmacology outweigh any harm that may have been caused in the origin of the fetals cells?

A simple illustration may make the question more clear. Doctor’s discover that a young man has a an enzyme in his blood which immediately stops the spread of any cancerous cells in his body. Even more amazing, this enzyme is reproducible and can quickly be made available at low cost to cancer patients around the world. This one man’s blood could end cancer for everyone. This hypothetical scenario has two difficulties. First, to get enough of the enzyme to assure success doctor’s will have to drain his body of blood, killing him. Second, he does not want to die and will not consent to the procedure. Is it ethical or moral to take that man’s life so cancer can be completely cured?

Of greater importance than our feelings about the justification of certain ethical and moral decisions is the Bible’s evaluation. What does the Bible say about judging immoral actions by the good they produce. Two examples from the Old Testament should be sufficient to show God’s perspective. The first example involved King Saul. In 1 Samuel 13 King Saul was preparing to lead the army of Israel against the Philistines. Before the battle they waited for the prophet and priest Samuel to offer a sacrifice to God. But Samuel did not show up at the appointed time, and the army of Israel began to drift away. The Philistine army approached and it seemed the army of Israel would be routed. So King Saul called for sacrificial animals to be brought to him and he offered sacrifices to God. The problem is, Saul had no right to offer sacrifices. Only the priests could do that. Saul did wrong in order to maintain the army of Israel and gain the victory in battle against the Philistines. Considering that God had commanded the Israelites to defeat the Philistines, this is a good result. However, God was not pleased. Through Samuel God told Saul, “Thou hast done foolishly: thou hast not kept the commandment of the LORD thy God, which he commanded thee: Now thy kingdom shall not continue.” (1 Samuel 13:13-14)

On a later occasion, during the reign of King David, God shows again His view about doing wrong to accomplish a greater good. The Ark of the Covenant had been stolen by the Philistines, but was returned to Israel. Because the Ark of the Covenant was the center of Jewish worship and the place where God’s glory rested in the Tabernacle, King David went out to bring the ark to the capital city of Jerusalem. However, David made a serious error. He had the ark hauled on an ox cart instead of carried by priests as God had commanded. At one point in the journey the cart shook and the ark began to fall off. Uzzah reached up and held the ark on the cart. God had specifically commanded no one was to touch the Ark of the Covenant and warned that whoever touched it would die. (Numbers 4:15) God struck Uzzah dead. Uzzah’s action accomplished great good, keeping the ark from falling to harm. But God requires obedience, not pragmatism. He punished Uzzah for disobedience.

God is not impressed with human justificaitons and rationalizations. He requires obedience to Him above all else. Any good that may come from doing wrong never justifies the wrong done.

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

November 9, 2021

Posted under

God

Is God Just and Righteous?

The character of God is declared in the Bible and is revealed in His actions to humanity. For example, Scripture says that God is both just and righteous. “The Lord our God is righteous in all His works.” (Daniel 9:14) “The just Lord is in the midst thereof: he will do no iniquity.” (Zephaniah 3:5) The Bible affirms repeatedly the justice and righteousness of God. What does this mean?

The Biblical words translated “just” and “righteous” do not mean precisely what is meant by those same words in modern English. In English the word “just” has a connotation of legal justice that does what is right in dispensing the law. A just judge passes judgment rightly, lawfully and without bias. A just rebuke is one that is rightly deserved. In English the word “righteous” has the connotation of moral behavior. The righteous man is honest, faithful and ethical. Just is often perceived as having a bent towards the judicial and legal. Righteous is seen as referring towards the personal and moral. This distinction did not exist in Hebrew or Greek. Instead, the Bible brings both concepts together into one package. One Hebrew word is translated as “just” in some places and as “righteous” in others. The same is true in Greek. In the original languages, the words translated just and righteous are identical. The Bible does not consider just and righteous to be two different ideas.

The Biblical words combine the legal and the moral aspects. To be righteous and just is to live in accord with the law of God. The just one keeps the moral and civil laws of God. The one who is just and righteous will respond fairly to all. The just business man will not cheat his customers. The righteous ruler will not bend the law to suit his own ends, or show favoritism in passing judgment. One who is just and righteous always acts in accord with the law of God.

To say that God is just and righteous is to say that God always acts in accord with His own law. His actions never violate His law and He always judges fairly. When Abraham pled with God for Lot he appealed to the justice of God. Because justice gives to all men what they deserve and does not punish the innocent Abraham pled accordingly. He knew the character of God. Because God is just He will not punish the righteous for the actions of the wicked. “That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18:25)

The justice of God is also a perfect justice which judges according to complete knowledge of the situation and the individual. (Psalm 7:9) When God condemns, His judgment is always accurate and right. (Revelation 16:7) He never condemns the innocent or acquits the guilty. Every decision and ruling is always the correct ruling and in perfect keeping with all His laws.

To say that God is just and righteous is also to say that He is always moral and upright in His deeds. God never acts immorally or unfaithfully. He always does what is proper and right. He does not sin. (Zephaniah 3:5) This means all can trust God to do what is right, to execute perfect judgment and to always act in accord with His perfect law.