I Can Sense It Dying

     I just finished writing the book "Killing God", and posted it in rough form with many mistakes but I felt it important not to wait. My fear is that few will read it but my solace is that some might. It may change how they take the Church for granted and God because He is the Head of the Church! (Church is capitalized when it is about the invisible universal group of believers without regard to denomination.)
     Of course, God cannot and will not be killed! Thus, the only way to "kill God" off is to make Him insignificant. God IS Glorious! The rhetorical question asked of Moses follows:

Exod 15:11 (ESV) “Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?

     In scripture, then, "glory" is always in the presence of God. Thus, when Christians die, they must be perfect for God is perfect.

Deut 32:4 (ESV) “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he. 

    "Perfection" is without flaw or in the divine scheme of things, "truthful". God Is Truth! (John 14:1). To kill God, He must be made out to be a liar! The first lie is that God did not create the heaven and the earth. God claimed otherwise in Genesis 1:1. If He did not, He would be a liar, and perhaps He would not have the power to save anyone!
     What makes a God? Omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence. What does it take to create? Infinite knowledge, existence, and power; those three attribute respectively. Thus to be "God" is to be all-knowing, everywhere present, and with supreme power. What is the surest way to make God insignificant? To deny Him as Creator! That denial, even within Christian circles, has diminished God. He is not dead of course but mankind is!
     When God is reduced to insignificance, as He was when Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit, then who dies? God said that mankind would surely die! (Gen 2:17). Get this straight: God won't die but you can! Essentially, mankind's feeble attempt to make God less significant, kills himself. Of course we are as gods (Gen 3:5), not God, and we can die; He can't. Rebellion then against the Creator kills ourselves.
     Adam and Eve, after rebellion, remained very much "alive" after they trivialized God's will. That's why Adam ate: he saw that Eave didn't die! Then, just as today, people fail to understand the concept of death. It is not when the flesh dies but the soul. Contrary to the opinion of other writers, I don't believe the soul and the spirit are the same. It seems to me that the soul is the "cup" which contains the "living water" - God's Holy Spirit. Thus death, is not having God inside. As such, non-Christians are the walking dead until iniquity is removed from within and the soul and filled with "goodness".
    Without repentance, Adam and Eve were as good as dead but immediately those two felt guilt, demonstrated by endeavoring to cover their own sin. However, by grace God covered their sin by killing an innocent animal. They died but an all-powerful God recreated them just as he had recently created them. The old creation began anew!
    God removed the iniquity from contrite hearts, allowing Adam and Eve to live again! They are still alive in Paradise, merely waiting on glorious bodies at the General Resurrection. On the other hand, Cain is still dying and always will be! Just as life never ends, neither does death. If you dread the sting of death, without God it will be forever stinging! It's imperative to realize that it's not God that you are killing but you!
    The "Church" is made up of all the corporate souls which are all imbued with God's Holy Spirit. The Spirit is what makes the stones "lively" (1 Pet 2:5). The Church needs "you"! I can sense the Church dying even though God cannot die. It is dying slowly but surely, and the symptoms are obvious:

• God denied as Creator.
• Jesus denied as God.
• Heaven and Hell denied.
• Satan claimed to be a myth.
• Church more about the congregation..
• Doctrine more about the preacher or denomination.
• God's will secondary to society's dictates.
• The singing more important than the message.
• The ritual more important than emotion.
• Dress overly important for the occasion.
• Accord mostly cliques or family groups.
• Lack of inclusion.
• Church a respecter of persons.
• Church neglect of persons.
• In pretense of praising God, people praised.
• Haters within the Church.
• Gossipers within the Church.
• Self-esteem rather than Christ-esteem.
• Jealousy - who will be first in "heaven" (or the Church).
• Prayer more on the physical than the spiritual.
• Narcissism
• Nepotism.
• Poor selection of deacons or bishops.
• And even sins of Nicolaitanes.

     I can sense it dying. I'm not specifically speaking of my own church but God's Church. It is dying everywhere as the Church walks slowly but surely toward the world. God won't die but we will!