These are fair questions at face value. I’ve answered them,
but haven’t fully answered them. It goes back to the God that chooses. Why
would He choose Jerusalem? Why would He choose Zion? Why would He choose
Israel? Why did God choose Gideon? Why did God choose Samson? Was there
something intrinsic in Gideon or Samson that God saw? Or was it quite the
opposite?
If we think that Samson was some muscular man that was 7
feet tall and 250 pounds of pure muscle, then we have a wrong basis from which
we perceive. God chooses that which is foolish and that which weak to confound
the wise and strong. It is not so much about the person of God’s choosing that
make the man spectacular. It is the God that chooses that makes the man
spectacular. This needs to register deep within us. If we think that God would
choose us as the mostly Gentile Church to be that end time people to intercede
for Israel because of our merit or qualifications, then we have left the faith.
It is not in our strength that God is calling us, but in our weakness.
The whole view comes from a much larger view. So in order to
answer the rebuttals that claim I don’t know whether God would or would not act
and react in this or that manner, we need to step back and view things from a
cosmic level. We find such a cosmic level in Genesis. Of all places in
Scripture, the book of Ephesians and the Garden of Eden are the 2 that most
specifically address the cosmic and eternal perspective.
8 And the Lord God planted a
garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
9 And out of the
ground made the Lord God to grow every
tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in
the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
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 2:8-9, 15-17
Genesis 2:8-9, 15-17
Something that is a good study is to look up the Hebrew.
What did God command that Adam not do? What would be the result? Then you cross
reference with the next chapter and read what Eve says, it is completely
different. Though the sentence in English looks the same, the Hebrew is very
distinct. Then the serpent repeats what God really did say. Satan deceived the
woman by telling her the truth.
But here in our study, I want to examine this text closely.
Nowhere in the text does God say that Adam was to not eat of the tree of life.
He was only told not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. What
is it about knowledge of good and evil that God would forbid Adam to eat of
this tree? What is it about the tree of life that Adam would choose to not eat
of it?
Do you understand my questions? Out of all of the things
that God could have set up in the garden and said not to partake of, why was it
a tree that would reveal to Adam good and evil? Does God intend for humanity to
be undiscerning? And what was so repelling of the tree of life that Adam would
have possibly been in the garden for 100 years and not once taken from that
tree of life? Did it look displeasing, whereas the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil looked pleasing?
There are zero Scriptures anywhere in the Bible that will
tell you what the trees looked like. There are also zero Scriptures that will
tell you what these trees represent. This is something that needs to be
discerned collectively and by the Holy Spirit. So lets start with the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil. Why would God forbid Adam to take of that
fruit? Is there something about knowing good and evil that God does not desire
for us?
I think that this is easiest to answer. Obviously, God wants
us to know the difference between good and evil. He tells us to discern right
from wrong. He tells us to discern the spirits. He tells us to separate the
precious from the vile. He tells us to walk in the light instead of in the
darkness. He tells us to be holy as He is holy. He tells us to choose life over
death. How can God require this of us if we aren’t to be discerning?
This is a different kind of discernment. What the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil represents is human efficiency. This is what we
are able to accomplish outside of God. We can establish morale. We can use our
rationale and our intellect to determine that it is wrong to rape, kill, and
steal. We don’t want someone to come up to us and stab us, so that is obviously
“wrong.” But by what basis do we judge others if atheism is true? To what
degree is there a moral standard that is universal? At best, we can determine
according to communities, societies, nations, and maybe even internationally
what is good and bad. But can we truly decide whether Hitler was a good or bad
person?
By what means, outside of God, do we gain our morality? This
is key. Is morality simply a list of do’s and don’ts? Is there something else
to morality? I think so. Morality is a necessity. But it goes beyond what is right
and wrong. We think that morality is living life in a way that we dodge the
“big sins.” Yet, we lack the understanding that morality doesn’t stem from what
we do. It stems from who we are.
The grotesque sins that we can commit aren’t always
connected to something obviously vile. I’ll give you an example. I know a
family that has two kids. Both of them have grown up to be hellions while still
being involved in their church. She is quite sexually active, and he is always
doped up on drugs. What caused this? When you take a look at the family as a
whole, the parents are very lenient. They have the attitude that you can’t
decide for yourself until you try it. So they allow their kids to be demons and
hooked on drugs and sexuality with full expectation that they’ll grow out of
it. But then it doesn’t stop with the sex and drugs. Now they disrespect their
parents. Why?
The question doesn’t start with the disrespect. That is what
the parents are so offended about. It doesn’t start with their lack of
obedience. The place to start looking is the parent’s lack of love. It was
their lack of being parents that led their children to find some other fill. It
was that drive to find another fill that led to the bigger problem: a hatred of
their own parents. The hatred isn’t the problem. That is a side effect of the
problem.
I’ll give another example. I know someone who is divorced.
They had a child out of wedlock. Their relationship to their ex-spouse is
rocky. What came first: the rocky relationship or the divorce? Well, common
sense would say the rocky relationship. That isn’t the case though. They had
both divorced one another before even having trouble in the relationship. I
don’t mean that they left one another. I mean that they were still allowing
their interests in other men or women dictate. They were still flirtatious.
They were still willing to show their love to another at their spouse’s
expense. This was from both sides. The sin wasn’t the divorce. It wasn’t the
child out of wedlock. The child out of wedlock and the wedding were both
attempts to try to keep the relationship going. The downfall was that neither
one of them were devoted.
What am I getting at with this? We need to be people who are
willing to plumb the depths of our sins. We need to be willing to see it for
what it really is. Morality doesn’t start with a question of right and wrong.
Morality starts with devotion and determination that nothing will go unchecked
and unnoticed. Everything that we do in life will be observed carefully to see
if there is anything behind it that is evil in disguise.
It is a nice thing to pick up the check for someone else at
the dinner table. What is the motive? Are you trying to be nice? Are you trying
to show off? Are you trying to hold it over their head so that next time you
can say they owe you? The righteous does righteous acts and doesn’t even
realize they have done it. You can bring it up to them that the way they
conduct themselves is very righteous. They wouldn’t have noticed.
For example: it says in Deuteronomy 15 that we are to take
care of the orphans, widows, foreigners, traveler, family, and that we should
not knowingly try to oppress anyone. This isn’t hard for the righteous. They
just live in that kind of lifestyle. They are generous. When someone is seen
without a coat, they give him or her their coat. They don’t even have to think
about it. That is just who we’re taught to be by God. You see someone in need,
so you supply the need.
This is where morality starts. It starts with motives and
core actions. If you are an introvert, there are certain things that you need
to be careful of. You need to be careful of not keeping quiet when it is
necessary to speak. If you are an extrovert, you need to be careful not to
speak when you need to be quiet. It isn’t about whether it is right or wrong.
The issue is over a love of truth.
There are certain situations where it is more loving to keep
quiet and allow someone to suffer and ask, “Why would God allow this?” There
are times where if you keep quiet, you are now doing disservice. It takes
discernment. It also takes a lot of agony. God will form you. I won’t say that
I have arrived because this is the biggest struggle I have. Trying to find the
absolute root of things is tough.
But this is what morality is. Morality is searching to the
root. It is digging up everything until you find that first initial problem.
This doesn’t always involve your own life (although that is most frequent).
Would it have been the moral thing to do if Dietrich Bonhoeffer would have succeeded
in killing Hitler? Hitler was a monster, but the Bible says to submit under the
governmental authority. It says that vengeance is the Lord’s.
Probing the depths of morality takes effort. It takes more
than effort. It takes a certain kind of moral stamina. It is easy to raise
questions of whether it is “right or wrong.” It is much more painstaking to not
be content with right or wrong but digging to the root to see where the issue
really lies. Is it okay to kiss before marriage? Is it okay to display any kind
of physical affection outside of marriage?
When we have a moral deficiency in any area, that deficiency
will expose itself somewhere. This is certain: your sin will find you out.
Moral deficiency isn’t about addictions to cigarettes or pornography. Moral
deficiency is about a lack in even believing that there is a right or wrong in
certain matters. Where were those parent’s morals when they allowed their
children to grow up watching sex and drug filled movies? Where were those
parent’s morals when they allowed their kids to go out partying all night? Now
suddenly when they don’t have respect from their kids they want to play the
morality card. You forfeited your morality when you allowed blatant sin and
corruption to be displayed before their eyes daily in your own home.
I see a lot of people who have pictures of their whole
family in a certain sport jersey. Then they want to talk about how their lives
are devoted only to Jesus. You can’t have them both. If you have that severe of
a pride for your favorite football team that your kids are forced to wear the
jerseys before they even understand the sport, then you aren’t devoted to God.
You can take your pick.
Morality must issue from God. He is the only fully moral
being. Anything that will block us or keep us from seeing Him clearly and
expressing Him clearly to others through our actions is not moral. Any kind of
deception, whether inward or outward, is amoral. To be amoral is to reject
morals. It is to say that morality doesn’t exist. There are no morals; there
are only my own desires and lusts.
Lets take this back to the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil. If man is the one deciding what is good and what is evil, then can there
be true morality? Do we have that desire to probe the depths? Do we have that
ability to discern the root of sin? It takes God’s speaking and discernment
from His Holy Spirit to reveal to us the depths. The tree of the knowledge of
good and evil is a cheapie. It is a cop-out, an evasion.
This is the struggle. We have two systems that have been
established: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life.
The one says that we can decide what is good and evil, the other claims there
is none good but God. To which do you prescribe? Does the basis of all morality
come from God? Do you search the inner depths of self to see if there is
anything that comes from something outside of God? Jesus got to the root when
He said that to look upon another woman with lust is adultery.
This is the definition of the two trees. One is morale; the
other is life. To one we grant access that we are all supposed to be “good
people” and that we ought not to be unkind and this is how civilized people
ought to live and move and speak and treat one another. There are certain
standards that have been made by society. It is improper to go around yelling
the n-word. But why? Is it wrong because it is offensive, or is it wrong
because the root comes from ungodliness?
If morality is merely doing and performing the things that cause
the least amount of offense or human pain, then we have a cheap morality. And
this is only setting the stage. The true depths come when we add in Ephesians.
This is only describing the two sides. This is only defining terms. We have the
wisdom of God versus the knowledge of men. But where does that knowledge come
from? Who is it that gave the knowledge to man?
Here is where the plot thickens. Satan deceived Eve, and in
that has given us our morality. The devil doesn’t care how moral we are. We can
be good people. He will still destroy us in our morals. There are good
atheists. They aren’t all evil. Some are. But by what definition do we
prescribe someone as good or evil? If Jesus Himself questioned the rich young
ruler for calling Him good, then why would any of us take the title of good?
Even Jesus said that God alone is good; we ought all the more to recognize our
failure.
8 Unto me, who am
less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach
among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;
9 And to make all
men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the
world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
Ephesians 3:8-9
Ephesians 3:8-9
I did not put the full statement here on purpose. I don’t
want to rush into this. Let it sink in. Paul was given the ability to see this
mystery because he really believed that he was the least of all saints. It is
from this that he goes into the depths of this mystery mentioned in verse 9.
But let me prelude. This is a mystery, but Paul calls it, “the fellowship of
the mystery.” Why would he call it that? It is because it is from fellowship
that this mystery is obtained. I haven’t told you what the mystery is yet. But
view carefully what is being said. Outside of fellowship with God and with each
other, this mystery has no place.
We find in chapter 2 the kind of fellowship that Paul is
talking about. He mentions that there is no distinction between the Jew and the
Gentile. When we read Paul, we have to take him at all the words that he has
spoken. We can’t just read the epistle to the Ephesians and suspect we know
what he is talking about. The Romans are the only Church he wrote to that he
did not also visit before he wrote.
It is within the Book of Romans (chapter 11) that we find
Paul explained that we as Gentiles have been grafted into the House of Israel.
So when we see Paul expound that there is neither Jew nor Gentile, he is saying
that we are both grafted in.
This is extremely important. The better we can view and
believe that, the better we can prepare
and believe the rest of the eschatological Scriptures. Do you truly believe
that you have been grafted in and are now a part of Israel? You, though you
might be Gentile, are now the Israel of God. But that does not diminish Israel
at all. It paradoxically fulfills Israel even more. Because we are grafted in, God now has an Israel (both Jew
and Gentile alike – whether saved or unsaved (Romans 11:26)) that is a fuller
representation of who He is in the Earth.
10 To the intent that now
unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the
church the manifold wisdom of God,
Ephesians 3:10
Ephesians 3:10
It is from this Israel that is the fullness of Him who fills
all things that God is going to display to the principalities and powers (demons) the manifest wisdom of God. What is the manifest
wisdom of God? It is the value system. It
is everything we have been discussing about morality up to this point. There is
an entire system that has been made where people follow and believe they are
doing rightly, and yet are completely duped. God’s wisdom is to give strength
to the weak. God’s wisdom is to use the fool to confound the wise. God’s wisdom
is to take a sinner and be able to show the world through that wretch the
righteousness of God.
How is it that we can display God’s wisdom? It is through
being that Israel. It is from accepting the Jew, whether saved or unsaved, as
part of the Kingdom because they are under the same Head – whether they know it
or not. We are brothers and sisters with them. We are incomplete without them.
They are incomplete without us. It is in unity that we are able to display the
character of God. What kind of characteristic are we displaying? Drum roll,
please.
God is a trinity. Jesus did nothing of Himself. In all
things, He did only what He saw the Father do. He spoke only the words of the
Holy Spirit. The Father only did that which would glorify the Son. He used the
Holy Spirit to give strength and edification to Jesus. The Holy Spirit only
desired to reveal the Father through Jesus. They were all interwoven together
where you cannot see the one without seeing the other two. This is the basis of
community. When you see me, you see my wife. You see those saints that God has
put us in community with.
This is the fellowship of the mystery. When we can live
sacrificial lives where our only desire is to promote and glorify our brothers
and sisters (yes, that even means Israel), then we have come of age and are now
qualified to rule and reign with Christ. It is by losing your life that you
gain it. In living solely to glorify God and to promote those around you and to
deny your own life so that Israel might live, you have now performed the
priestly function of intercession. This is how God intends to display the
manifest wisdom of God to the principalities and powers. This is how He intends
to defeat Satan. By our deaths, and by the Antichrist overcoming us, we gain
the victory. It is the same wisdom of the devil that put Jesus upon the cross.
It is the same wisdom of God that raised Jesus from the dead and defeated Satan
and death.
But there will be an ultimate triumph over both Satan and
death. It awaits the consummation of the ages. It takes our death and sacrifice
for Israel to defeat the powers that
blind them. It takes Israel’s death and Calvary experience through the nations
that defeats the demonic forces blinding the nations. It is in the death and
resurrection of the saints that life is given to Israel. It is in the death and
resurrection of Israel that life comes to the nations. As it is written:
12 Now if the fall
of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of
the Gentiles; how much more their fullness?
13 For I speak to
you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine
office:
14 If by any means
I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of
them.
15 For if the
casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving
of them be, but life from the dead?
Romans 11:12-15 (emphasis mine)
Romans 11:12-15 (emphasis mine)
It is with this perspective that we can rightly appreciate
and perceive the eschatological framework. Therefore, I will give an overview
of the end times for those who are going to need this repeated several times.
In this overview, we will not be examining too many of the details. That will
come in with Daniel and Revelation.
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