- Jul 22, 2014
- 41,508
- 7,861
- Country
- United States
- Faith
- Non-Denom
- Marital Status
- Married
God didn't intend that scripture would be easy to understand. The only way to understand what God intended was to rely on God's Holy Spirit but people are prideful and think that they can understand it through using their intellect. That is why understanding is confused.
I think it is a combination of using both the Holy Spirit and intellect. God is a God of order and not confusion. Intellect or intelligence or logic is merely a thing God created us to use. God gave us a brain for a reason. But of course this is not at the expense of the Holy Spirit guiding us ultimately into all truth. We must pray to the Lord and ask for the Spirit’s understanding on what He is saying and not how we want things to be. One has to also read the context or the proceeding chapters (and sometimes a few following chapters) to get a general flavor or theme overall when looking at a verse or word in Scripture, too. Many times Christians tend to rip verses or words out of the Bible out of context.
You said:Many years ago the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, " The Tree of Life is Jesus, the Tree of Knowledge is the Law, and the Tower of Babylon represents all those who try to attain heaven through their own means, including many Christians".
I think most Christians have come to the conclusion that the Tree of Life is Jesus (Which is something the Spirit will no doubt teach those who are open to such a truth). We all must first be saved by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ without any works or any kind of Law. Being initially saved by God’s grace can include believing the gospel in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 in that Christ died for our sins, He was buried, and He was risen three says later for our salvation. Being initially saved by God’s grace can include seeking forgiveness of one’s sinful past life with the Lord Jesus Christ by way of prayer to Him (Romans 10:13). Being initially saved by God’s grace can include receiving Jesus as one’s Savior and or simply believing in His name for their salvation (John 1:12).
But being initially saved by God’s grace is not the same as the secondary aspect of salvation that continues in a believer’s life (after they are first saved by God’s grace), though. For while we are saved initially by a belief in the gospel in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 (salvation by God’s grace), we also need to answer the call of the gospel in 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14. The call of the gospel (not that it is the gospel) is that… God has chosen you to salvation through Sanctification of the Spirit and a belief of the truth. Please read the passage for yourself. Read it and believe it. However, most Christians simply reject the plain reading of this passage because of what they have been taught by their church that allows for them to sin and still be saved on some level.
For a more in-depth explanation on the next step of salvation for the believer after being saved by God’s grace, check out this CF thread here:
The Four Aspects of Salvation.
As for your statement that the Tree of Knowledge is the Law:
This sounds like you are referring to the Mosaic Law (the 613 Laws of Moses). If this is the case, then such a statement would not be accurate for our day. Maybe this would have been true when the Old Covenant was in effect before the death of Christ. But this would not be true today because the 613 Laws of Moses was a contract given to Israel and not the church. Yes, certain moral laws (like do not murder, do not steal, do not covet, etc.) have been repeated by the commands given to us by Jesus and His followers in the New Covenant (or New Contract), but we look to the New Testament primarily to follow the Lord now and not the Old because we are New Covenant believers and not Old Covenant believers. So believers today (Christians) do not have to keep things like the Saturday Sabbath, circumcision, dietary laws, holy days, animal sacrifices, and they are not required to throw stones at others if they break the OT Law. This is why Hebrews 7:12 basically says the Law has changed.
Now, Paul also could have maybe said this phrase (i.e. The Tree of Knowledge is the Law) as a reference to God’s current NT moral Laws repeated out of the Old Law in how they are being misused. For Paul would have to word this message in such a way so as to attack Law ALONE Salvationism as a way of pointing to how the believer can only obey New Covenant Law properly (if ONLY after they first saved by God’s grace). For you have to understand that the Jews rejected their own Messiah and made salvation all by the Works of the Law of Moses (that rejected God’s grace). Paul could say that Law in general (even obeying God perfectly) will not save a person if they are not first saved by God’s grace and their past slate of sin is wiped out.
Anyways, speaking of the Jews desire to make salvation all about the Law:
You must know that there were a certain sect of Jews who were trying to deceive Christians into thinking they had to first be circumcised in order to be saved. Please read Acts of the Apostles 15:1, Acts of the Apostles 15:5, and Acts of the Apostles 15:24. Okay. Did you read these verses? Stop if you have not done so. Please carefully examine all the words being spoken here in the King James Bible. Please read very slowly and digest the words in what these verses say. It’s clear if you were to have read these three verses that Jews were trying to deceive Christians into thinking they had to be INITIALLY saved by being circumcised. This is a huge problem. For if a person under the New Covenant thought they had to be circumcised in order to FIRST be saved then they would be making a WORK or the LAW the entrance gate and foundation of their salvation and not faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior and His grace and mercy. This is why Paul spoke in the way that he did in Ephesians 2:8-9, Romans 4:3-5, and Titus 3:5. For Paul also fought against this heresy of being circumcised initially to be saved. For Paul said if you seek to be circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing (Galatians 5:2).
For Paul was not against holy living by the Spirit as a part of God’s plan of salvation after we are saved by God’s grace. For Paul said shall we continue in sin so that grace may abound? God forbid (Romans 6:1-2). Paul basically says a person can deny God being reprobate unto every good work (Titus 1:16). Paul says if any man does not agree with the words of Jesus Christ and the doctrine according to godliness, they are proud and they know nothing (1 Timothy 6:3-4). James 4:6 says God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. In other words, obviously if a person justifies sin, they are proud and they are resisting God’s grace. For God’s grace teaches us to deny ungodliness and that we should live righteously and godly in this present world (Titus 2:11-12). For God’s grace is not a license for immorality (Jude 1:4). Also see Romans 8:13, too.
You said:In Genesis, God confused the languages of the people. This could be used to show the many interpretations of scripture and how the are so many different Christian Churches. The differences started shortly after Jesus's death and got worse over the years.
I can see the parallel between what happened at Babel and with the differences of beliefs in the churches today.
However, it must be noted that even the nation of Israel misunderstood His Word. They missed their own Messiah and thereby missed all the meaning of all the Messianic prophecies. So it’s nothing new that men do not understand His Word. Even Christ’s own disciples did not understand Jesus’ words on what He meant when He spoke of His death and resurrection. Even when Jesus had risen from the grave, the disciples (except for John) were still in disbelief when the women told him about how they seen Jesus. Peter and the other disciples did not understand the great commission initially when Jesus gave those words to go out unto all nations and to preach the gospel to every creature. They thought initially this would be the Jewish person in every nation. For Peter and the other Messianic Jews ended up learning later of the inclusion of the Gentiles into God’s program with Cornelius. There was also heresies that Paul himself was addressing in the early church. So misunderstanding of God’s Word is something that was even in the early church. Did it get worse since the early church? Well, in the last days men shall be lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. They will have a form of godliness but they will deny the power thereof. Meaning, they deny the power of God to overcome mortal sin in their lives. They think they will be slaves to grievous sin (the Bible condemns), and yet they are still saved while they do such sins (on occasion or all the time).
We know unbelievers receive not the love of the truth (Jesus) that they might be saved.
2 Thessalonians 2:10-12 says,
10 “And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”
But I think receiving the love of the truth also includes the test of receiving the words of Jesus and the words of His followers (According to NT Scripture), too. Believers need to live righteously. For unbelievers are damned because they believed not the truth (Jesus and His words) and they had pleasure in unrighteousness (sin - or the breaking of our Lord’s words). For this reason any who does not receive the words of Jesus and they have pleasure in unrighteousness, God will send them a strong delusion to believe a lie (Which include even the self professing believer in Jesus). For the Jesus we read in the Bible never justified sin or allowed anyone to think the same way. Yet, when I look at most churches today, they are not for holy living as a requirement to enter the Kingdom after they are saved by God’s grace. They actually teach one can sin and still be saved on some level. Some try to scramble and back end holy living into the mix by saying a true believer is not saved by living holy but they will automatically do so because of their changed nature in being born again. But see…. This is still an excuse or safety net to sin if holy living is not a requirement in the salvation equation. It gives room for the believer to live like the prodigal son their whole lives or at certain points of their life up until they die (with them being defeat to their true Master… which is sin). However, Paul says sin shall not have dominion over us.
Last edited:
Upvote
0