Faith is a
variable. It’s not even linear. Everyone has peaks and valleys with their
faith. Doubt is the valleys and trust are the mountains. Christians are
constantly attacked with doubt – one of the most potent “fiery darts” of Satan.
219 Those darts from the evil blow-gun are usually pleasures,
prestige, or wealth – what seems to be the primary fruits of the forbidden
tree. Those are the things with which Satan vicariously kills God by the substitution
of mankind.
God was crucified on a tree.
Satan deceived mankind on his tree. All of mankind was under Satan’s tree and
there Satan was resurrected to prince-hood. Not even most of his apostles stood
under God’s Tree and He died. That kills God. He wept as He saw Himself die by
rejection. As always, since the beginning, mankind stood under the wrong tree
and ate of the wrong fruit. God was angry the first time he was abandoned and
punished mankind severely. When his followers went not to Calvary, God was more
gracious. He rewarded mankind. In the former mankind was died with Satan who
had been cast out, and in the latter, mankind was rewarded although the Tree
was for them!
Doubt sinks people low as faith
varies. Each time temptation is fired from the Satanic blow-gun, people make
decisions. It is their will or God’s will; which shall it be? “Will” is the
outcome of the decision process. God has already decided all matters. That is God’s will. The Lord’s Prayer follows: 220
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours
is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.[
Since mankind was made in the image of God, he has his own will. Doing
what is right – God’s will – or “doing what is right in our own eyes”. 221
Natural man usually considers that latter. Therefore, everyone must pray to
God, “Your will be done”. How is that to come about? To do things on “earth as
in Heaven.” That prayer is essentially for God to keep man safe against the
evil one! Those who do God’s will know that their own will is that God should
die!
How many teenagers have had the
thought, and maybe actually said it, “I wish Dad and Mom were dead so I could
do what I want?” Many teenagers hate their parents and rebel because they want
their freedom to do their own will. Well, the same is true in man’s
relationship with God. People may not actually want to kill God but to merely
remove His influence from their lives. The death of God is removal of His
influence wherein mankind rejects His authority. Rejection of God’s authority
is irreverence. It is having “other gods besides Him”. 222 Like
Satan, mankind desires to be his own god! In order for that to be, God must be
dethroned and His Kingdom destroyed so as to construct a heavenly kingdom in
the image of the earth, whereon God’s will is not done. The Law of God is to be
replaced in Heaven with the law of sin. That’s what Nietzke meant with Gott ist tot. When God’s death is when
His authority is denied by most just as at the deluge. God refuses to and
cannot die!
In the Lord’s Prayer “debtors”
is mild. It should be transliterated “sinners” because that is what it means: forgive my sins as I forgive other sinners! Lack
of forgiveness does not a product of God’s will, but forgiveness is. Satan’s
will is that that prayer be ignored. God wants people to pray for divine
assistance in forgiveness – what should be a demonstration of love! Christians
and others often say, even with animosity, I’ll
forgive but I’ll never forget! That is not God’s will nor what He would do.
Not only does God “forget” 223 but he still loves and remains a true
friend! What if God forgot but still dismissed friendship? That would be merely
feigned forgiveness. Failing to love after so-called forgiveness is hatred.
Pride demands that you be on the throne, judging others harshly! 224
The inability to forgive is a
fiery dart, ironically which you, the Christian, fires at yourself. Because
mankind sees themselves as gods, they
perceive themselves as invulnerable. People think they can do anything and
still not die. Sin is self-destructive, and it is Satan’s will that Christians
die. Satan believes all Christians should have died on their trees along with
God. Christians, for Satan, are little more than collateral damage in his war
with God. At most, mankind are pawns in the spiritual chess game. Ironically,
many sacrfice themselves, not for God, but for Satan.
Sin is a process. Satan tempts,
and each time people choose. That is exercising their own wills. Foolish decisions result in sin, and wise ones in
righteousness. Thus, temptation is the cause, and sin is the effect. Usually,
sin is also an affect because it’s a feel-good situation. That feeling is what
Scripture calls the flesh. Although people may not quote it, but “the spirit is
willing but the flesh is weak” 225 is so true. Those not born-again
are not spiritually willing. They do
their own will with impunity. Because
they are unwilling to do God’s will, or even apathetic to it, there may no
longer be a struggle. Those persons are spiritually dead, and one stone which
should be in the Church is missing. Those who either have no guilt, or who
repress it continually, are in danger of spiritual death – reprobation – where
damnation is assured. Reprobation is God giving one over to their debased mind.
226
In psychology, the debased are
psychopathic. Psychopaths are the mentally imbalanced who are “characterized by
persistent antisocial behavior, impaired empathy, impaired remorse, bold,
disinhibited, and egotistical traits.” 227 Psychopaths are
impervious to guilt. Indeed, they do wrong without remorse! Those who are
reprobate are spiritual psychopaths. Examine the traits of the psychopaths and
compare to reprobates: haters, failure to feel God’s or others distress,
inability to feel guilty, bullies, able to do anything for pleasure, and
self-aggrandizing – as gods. Reprobation
is where Satan wants them – with no reverence for God and blind or rebellious
to His will. That’s where Satan wants everyone, and when that happens, in his
eyes, God will be dead.
The spiritually dead person is
the one without faith. If all the angels rejoice when a person is born-again, 228
then it seems certain that angels mourn for those who have no faith by their
denial of God. Remembering that denying God is killing Him, or at least
attempting to murder Him, then those who deny that God did the creating, deny
God. That sounds intolerant to say that, but even “Christians” who deny God,
deny the One who died to save them!
Never can God be separated from the concept of Savior.
Chaos is when things are out of
control. The particular “thing” Satan in which Satan creates chaos is faith. He
places the valleys, it seems, soon after God does the mountains. Surely, the
more one desires righteousness, the more that person is attacked.
This book is not about me for
that would be prideful. However, this type of chaos happens to all Christians. Some
believe that particular people are elected for salvation. They are rewarded for
just existing. That election is point is the “U” in “TULIP”, the acronym for
the five points of Calvinism. 229 Others believe that one must make
a decision using their own free will – Arminianism. A minority such as United Baptists practice
begging for salvation. Indeed, people are to be that meek, but in the case of
Larry Herrin, God called me but Satan kept dragging me back. It took two-weeks
and several trips to the altar to submit to God by rejecting the law of sin,
and its author. Oftentimes before that, Satan had successfully killed God
within me. God’s Spirit was trying to create a new Larry but Satan was hanging tight to the old Larry. If even one person dies to God, then one stone from the
living Church is missing.
Believing but not changing is
Satan winning. When the Light shines forth a new creature with bright eyes and
a bright nature should be created by God. Satan, before that new creature is
finished, steps in and mutates him. Something is missing, and that is the will
to do God’s will! Sin is still the law which the mutated creature still lives
by. Not to judge too harshly, but maybe those who fail to finish the struggle,
are not still lost but misled. God is patient and kind. He believes in
forgiving seventy-times-seven! 230 Forgiveness is the mortar which
holds the Church together. Satan is the substance which disintegrates the
mortar. Without forgiveness from God, there is no mortar. Without forgiving hearts
the mortal crumbles, and the stones fall. When nothing but the foundation
remains, what God built is destroyed but the Cornerstone is still alive and
well right there as the foundation.
Enduring faith
is what protects. Faith can be lost. Each time anyone sins, there are two
reasons: (1) God will not punish for the sin, or (2) the sin is worth the
punishment. Either of the two is exercising your
will, and disregarding God’s will.
Even worse, it is denying God’s authority. When sinning occurs on a regular basis, it is compounded as
Christians get acclimated to sinning. Acclimation becomes standardized sinning
which is called iniquity which is living without God. 231
One cannot be a Christian and live the law of sin. Living in iniquity is because
faith has faded like a rose in the summer heat, gradually one day at a time without
the living water.
Since iniquity is living in sin,
232 it is neglecting God. A neglected God is one who is dead to one
in iniquity. There are many definitions of sin but strictly speaking not having
the desire to accept God’s authority is sin. It’s not the sin which is damning
but the unwillingness to please God by obedience to His Law. Obedience is
legalism but willingness is a demonstration of love. It’s the attitude of the
law-keeper that is the deal-breaker.
God made a deal with Abraham. It
was simply stated: Walk my Way and be without iniquity and you will prosper. 233
Prosperity was more than the Promised Land; it was the Promised Savior through
Abraham’s seed. The Abrahamic Covenant was therefore forever. When mankind
breaks the deal, then they are not covenanted with God. Of course, circumcision
of the flesh sealed the deal but that was symbolic of circumcision of the
heart. 234 The foreskin can never be revived but the foreskin of the
heart can become corrupted as Satan shoots his many darts. There is a method to
prevent that and will be discussed in a later chapter.
God will never leave nor forsake
the Christian, 235 but unfortunately mankind can leave and forsake
God. God can never break His covenant, but the seed of Abraham can. Keeping the
faith is the covenant. Faith can be traded for pleasure. That is fatal to the one
in apostasy, and disappointing to God. One of the lively stones in His Church is
missing, and when two many are missing the Church can fall.
219 Holy Bible; Ephes 6:16
220 ibid; Mat
6:9-13
221 ibid; Deut 12:8
222 ibid; Exod 20:3
223 ibid; Acts 3:19
224 ibid; Luke 6:37
225 ibid; Mark 14:38
226 ibid; Rom 1:28
227 Wikipedia; “Psychopathy”
228 Holy Bible;
Luke 15:10
230 Holy Bible; Mat 1822
219 Holy Bible; Ephes 6:16
220 ibid; Mat
6:9-13
221 ibid; Deut 12:8
222 ibid; Exod 20:3
223 ibid; Acts 3:19
224 ibid; Luke 6:37
225 ibid; Mark 14:38
226 ibid; Rom 1:28
227 Wikipedia; “Psychopathy”
228 Holy Bible;
Luke 15:10
230 Holy Bible; Mat 18:22
231 ibid; 2 Tim 2:19
232 ibid; Psalm 51:5
233 ibid; Gen 17:1-2
234 ibid; Rom 2:29
235 ibid; Heb 13:5
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