Beginning with God as the 1st Principle

[Humble Penny]

“When all had signified by their applause their agreement with the answer, the king said to the philosophers (for not a few of them were present),

'It is my opinion that these men excel in virtue and possess extraordinary knowledge, since on the spur of the moment they have given fitting answers to these questions which I have put to them, and have all made God the starting point of their words.’

And Menedemus, the philosopher of Eretria, said,

'True, O king, for since the universe is managed by providence and since we rightly perceive that man is the creation of God, it follows that all power and beauty of speech proceed from God.'

When the king had nodded his assent to this sentiment, the speaking ceased and they proceeded to enjoy themselves. When evening came on, the banquet ended.”
-Letter of Aristeas (emphasis added mine)

Dear reader, do you see how the right understanding of all principles begins with understanding that God is the 1st Principle of all things? The world and everything in it exists because God created them and brought all things into existence. And everything works in accordance with nature because God from the very beginning defined and determined the nature of all things.

Since man is made in the Image and Likeness of God as Moses tells us, it follows that we bear the image and likeness of our parents who birthed us. The family then was meant from the beginning of Adam and Eve’s creation to reflect the Image and Likeness of God on earth by the parents living in a godly and holy manner, and producing godly children.

The Enemy Satan, who is also called the Devil and the Old Serpent but before his fall he was called Lucifer “Light Bearer”, was the first to abandon God as the 1st Principle of all things as he sought to make himself the 1st Principle of All Things in place of God. We see from the very beginning how stupid our Enemy truly is, for how can that which is created by God overcome Him? As a result the Devil was the first to deceive himself, and sadly his political artifice fooled a third of the heavenly angels whom he caused to be cast out of Heaven with himself. And how exactly did this self deception begin with Satan? The prophets Isaiah (chapter 14) and Ezekiel (chapter 28) tell us that he became conceited through admiration of his great beauty, riches, wisdom, and exalted position: in short Satan was the first narcissistic being filled up with pride who thought more highly of himself than he should have. Our Enemy Satan confused the meaning of his former name Lucifer “Light Bearer” with him actually being the light, when in reality he was only meant to hold what The Light (i.e. YHWH) gave him. John the Baptist was wise when he said that he was not the Light but came to bear witness of the Light.

After his fall from power and grace he saw he could not ever receive redemption, so he fooled the Serpent into helping him with his plans to eliminate Adam and Eve whom God made as the crowning glory of all His work which He had made. After exciting the Serpent to the same jealousy he had of Adam and Eve and delivering false promises of power, divinity, wisdom, and riches: the Serpent spoke the same deceptive words to Eve in the garden of Eden telling her that she could become a god if she didn’t listen to God, and that she could become wise on her own power and define good and evil on her terms. Unfortunately Eve was so wrapped up in the flowery words of the Serpent and what he asserted and promised her that she forgot she was already made in the Image and Likeness of God who created her and Adam! From here her and Adam ate of the forbidden fruit and brought sin and death into the world.

Since the rise and fall of Adam and Eve all men and women have struggled with the same problems they did in the garden of Eden: do we take God as the 1st Principle of All Things and accept His definitions of what is good and evil? Or do we eat the forbidden fruit and determine by our own mind what is the 1st Principle of all things and define what is good and evil for ourselves?

In closing we learn two valuable principles from the rise and fall of Lucifer, and the rise and fall of Adam and Eve:

1. The beginning of missing the mark is pride. And the beginning of pride is turning away from YHWH God.
2. The beginning of hitting the mark is humility. And the beginning of humility is turning towards YHWH God.

All of the world's problems stem from abandoning God as the 1st Principle of All Things and explains the rise and fall of all kingdoms and peoples.

 

[Humble Penny]

I pray that all reading this will understand that if you don't use God as your foundation for history and timekeeping then you will be utterly confused and run into many errors. For if what you have come to learn in the world is found to be at odds with God then either your reading is incorrect or, the doctrine which you learned is entirley false.

 

[Halbhh]

Luke 18:19 "Why do you call Me good?" Jesus replied. "No one is good except God alone.

Christ taught that even the most advanced philosopher, or men who 'excel in virtue and possess extraordinary knowledge', as it were, are still not good, on their own. So, not even doctrines (that men picked out or devised) then are the right place to put our trust, not any more than mortal men, preachers, kings, "Put not your trust in princes, in mortal man, who cannot save." (Psl 146), and not even in our own understanding (Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding;).

So, therefore, every doctrine you think is right, every man/preacher/philosopher -- none of them are ultimately reliable for your deep trust for your salvation. And that's good news -- because there is Someone Whom we can put that trust in, Someone Who is reliable. Christ Jesus, alone.

 

[Humble Penny]

Luke 18:19 "Why do you call Me good?" Jesus replied. "No one is good except God alone.

Christ taught that even the most advanced philosopher, or men who 'excel in virtue and possess extraordinary knowledge', as it were, are still not good, on their own. So, not even doctrines (that men picked out or devised) then are the right place to put our trust, not any more than mortal men, preachers, kings, "Put not your trust in princes, in mortal man, who cannot save." (Psl 146), and not even in our own understanding (Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding;).

So, therefore, every doctrine you think is right, every man/preacher/philosopher -- none of them are ultimately reliable for your deep trust for your salvation. And that's good news -- because there is Someone Whom we can put that trust in, Someone Who is reliable. Christ Jesus, alone.

You misunderstand what I wrote. This post isn't about putting your trust in men...instead it actually says to begin with God as your starting point: therefore we are to begin our reasoning and philosophy with God.

 

[Halbhh]

You misunderstand what I wrote. This post isn't about putting your trust in men...instead it actually says to begin with God as your starting point: therefore we are to begin our reasoning and philosophy with God.

I thought your post #1 was quite good actually. I forgot to click a response, and just did. Good stuff.
(I won't say anything about post #2, except perhaps it sounds like some other topic you may want to remove to avoid confusing or diluting the good thing above it)

 

[Humble Penny]

I thought your post #1 was quite good actually. I forgot to click a response, and just did. Good stuff.
(I won't say anything about post #2, except perhaps it sounds like some other topic you may want to remove to avoid confusing or diluting the good thing above it)

Thanks for your kind words and comments. Post #2 was only written to emphasize that if people's history, science, philosophy, etc. don't line up with the Word of God then there's either a problem in the way they're reading the text or, the doctrine they've adopted is completely wrong. I have found from my own work that the Bible is the only historical text which helps us to synchronize all of the otherwise disjointed dates of kings and governments that we read of in world history.

 

[Humble Penny]

Luke 18:19 "Why do you call Me good?" Jesus replied. "No one is good except God alone.

Christ taught that even the most advanced philosopher, or men who 'excel in virtue and possess extraordinary knowledge', as it were, are still not good, on their own. So, not even doctrines (that men picked out or devised) then are the right place to put our trust, not any more than mortal men, preachers, kings, "Put not your trust in princes, in mortal man, who cannot save." (Psl 146), and not even in our own understanding (Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding;).

So, therefore, every doctrine you think is right, every man/preacher/philosopher -- none of them are ultimately reliable for your deep trust for your salvation. And that's good news -- because there is Someone Whom we can put that trust in, Someone Who is reliable. Christ Jesus, alone.

After reviewing your first comment I realized you may not be familiar with this text I have shared. To give you context about the Letter of Aristeas, it is the primary source text for the story of the first official translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into the Greek tongue; and this took place in -284 BC during the reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphus who commssioned the then high priest Eleazar to bring with him the best men of his country to translate their Holy Books into Greek so that he might add them to the Library of Alexandria.

The quote I wrote above is the first day of the seven day feast Ptolemy II Philadelphus hosted for Eleazar and the 72 Elders he brought with him from the 12 Tribes of Israel. During this feast he asked each of the elders a question in regards to the Art of Ruling: what I quoted in my OP are the words spoken by king Ptolemy II and his philosopher after the 10th question to the 10th of the 72 Elders had been asked by the king.

 

[Halbhh]

After reviewing your first comment I realized you may not be familiar with this text I have shared. To give you context about the Letter of Aristeas, it is the primary source text for the story of the first official translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into the Greek tongue; and this took place in -284 BC during the reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphus who commssioned the then high priest Eleazar to bring with him the best men of his country to translate their Holy Books into Greek so that he might add them to the Library of Alexandria.

The quote I wrote above is the first day of the seven day feast Ptolemy II Philadelphus hosted for Eleazar and the 72 Elders he brought with him from the 12 Tribes of Israel. During this feast he asked each of the elders a question in regards to the Art of Ruling: what I quoted in my OP are the words spoken by king Ptolemy II and his philosopher after the 10th question to the 10th of the 72 Elders had been asked by the king.

Interesting.

 

[visionary]

With God leading, there is light on the path, without there is darkness and all its entanglements.