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miamited said:

Hi @Blaise N

Just stopping by to offer some encouragement and advice as pertains to your questions.

I think the first thing that we need to seek, is to be born again. Born of the Spirit of God and this does not come by just being a 'christian' anymore than it came under the old covenant by just being a Jew. Jesus spoke to Nicodemus, and he quite obviously did not understand what Jesus was talking about when he spoke to him about being born again. So, I believe that this particular subject is something that a lot of christians don't understand any more than Nicodemus did in his day. Jesus told Nicodemus that he 'must' be born again and then brought him up by saying to him, "Are you, 'the Teacher of Israel,' and yet do you not understand these things?"

So, personally, I think that this issue of being born again is a very, very important matter according to Jesus and so that's the first encouragement I would give you. Seek to be born of God's Spirit.

Now, why is that so important? Well, Jesus also tells us that it is this Spirit that gives us wisdom and discernment of the truth of God. So, without the Spirit of God, it's very possible that questions such as you are having and doubts, are just the natural working out of being a 'christian', but not being 'born again'.

So, you may ask, why are there christians who aren't born again and how do we know this. Again we turn to the words of Jesus. In his last days upon the earth he spoke to his disciples concerning the day of his Father's judgment. He told them that on that day there would be many clamoring before him, "Lord, Lord!" "Did we not do great miracles and mighty deeds and cast out demons in your name?" Jesus mentions that they will be crying out three different practices that they held to while living on the earth, and for every one of them he concludes with them saying, "in your name".

"On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’"

Now, I've known a lot of Muslims. I've listened to their prayers and I've seen them do their good deeds. But I have never once heard them say that they are doing such good deeds in Jesus' name. I know of many Hindus and I know that they believe in doing good to one another, but I've never heard a one of them say, when doing their good deeds, that they are doing so in the name of Jesus. I think it safe to say that these people that Jesus is speaking about on the day of his Father's judgment were people who everyone upon the earth looked at as being christians. Judging by the things that they are claiming to have done, I imagine they were considered to be pretty special christians by their respective fellow believers. Yet, Jesus turns to all of them and says that he never knew them!!!! HUH??? It would appear that these were 'christians' without the born again Spirit within them.

Paul writes that this Spirit is given as a guarantee of our salvation. Was Jesus wrong? Was Paul wrong? No, not at all. Christains are pretty much just like Jews in the practice of their faith and depth of their belief. God speaks ad infinitum of how rebellious and stiff necked the Jews, as a whole body of people were. He often made the comment that there was only a remnant that was faithful to him. I believe this is just as true of the christian faith. As a whole body of 'christians' living upon the earth we are actually still pretty wicked people in God's sight and have not received His Spirit. That guarantee of our soon coming salvation. So go to the Lord in prayer and supplication and cry out to Him to give you His Spirit. For it is only by that Spirit that any of us gains discernment and wisdom of the things of God.

As for your questions, I'll explain my position, but again, without the Spirit's discernment and wisdom you'll likely just not understand. The answer to question #1 is just what I've explained to you. If you want to understand the Genesis account more deeply, than you have to ask for the Holy Spirit to guide you into all truth. Whenever I sit down to read the Scriptures, I always start by spending time with my Father asking that His Spirit give me wisdom and discernment of the things that I'm reading. And it's not a quick, "Give me your Spirit God. Thank you. Amen!"

#2 I'm not really sure what you mean by 'deeply' understand. Just understanding the flood is all that we need to understand. I hear people sometimes say, "Why does God let evil exist?" Or, "Why does God let bad things happen?" Listen God has the power to stop evil and bad things happening. Unfortunately, if He were to do that, we'd all likely be wiped out. He did it once before and it was by a flood. God saw that the heart of man was bent towards wickedness all the time and He destroyed everything except 8 people. What do you think? If God were to do it again would you be one of those 8? So, I always caution people when they wonder why God doesn't do away with evil that they had better hope that He doesn't yet. But He will. It's in the account of the new heaven and the new earth that there won't any longer by any evil where His children live.

The flood happened. It flooded the entire earth and wiped out every living thing that walked about on the earth. In total, until the ground was again as dry as we know it today, it lasted about one year. It's purpose was to cleanse the earth. I'm not really sure how much 'deeper' that needs to be understood. My guess is that you're real issue is with believing it as it has been written in God's word.

#3 I honestly wouldn't even encourage you to yet be concerned about understanding the demon locusts, but as with many prophecies of the Scriptures, we aren't really likely to fully understand them as to their exact working out physically, until they come to pass. Just know and be assured that in the last days, as God pours out His wrath upon the unbelievers, there will be some kind of locust like creature that will torment people. I mean, God made every creature both in and on the earth, I don't think it would be any difficulty to create some new type of creature for just His purposes in those days.

#4 Will again require some work of the Holy Spirit. Many of the miracles of God's work are tough things for the simple mind of man to understand. How did God cause the shadow cast by the sun, on one particular day and at one particular moment to actually go backwards from the normal movement of a sun cast shadow? Even the king agree that this was the only way to know that God was at work in doing this. King Hezekiah said to the prophet Isaiah, when asked whether he wanted God to make the shadow go forward or backward 10 degrees, "It is an easy thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees, no but let the shadow go backward ten degrees." King Hezekiah knew that to make the sun's shadow go forward would just be a matter of waiting. After all, the sun's shadow moves forward all the time. But to make a shadow go backward...well now, that's a miracle that only a God who controls the whole of the universe can do.

But, in today's world, just as you've mentioned with the Adam and Eve account, many people, even some christians, will explain such events away as not being real events happening in real time in the lives of men and women of the Scriptures.

So, you want to believe God? Then go to Him in prayer and pour out your desire to know more about Him and all that He has done and plead for the indwelling Holy Spirit to give you insight and wisdom and discernment concerning God. I pray that this helps you find your way.

God bless,
Ted

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coffee4u said:

Okay good to know, thank you. Please reply back to me and let me know if what I said helped, if you want calcification on any point, ect. The board is here for a conversation. I can't have a conversation with you if you never reply.

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coffee4u said:

Understand that the real meaning is that there was no death before sin.
This idea that evolution occurred for millions of years with death occurring naturally for millions of years as things evolved is a direct lie from Satan. He wants you to think that death is just a normal byproduct of life. It is not. Death is the direct result of sin and the wages of sin are death.

Romans 6:23


23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Death of the body and spirit is not a normal part of the creation, it came in due to man's sin. Death is God's enemy, he would have never have watched and used his enemy in his creation process. When God had finished creating he said it was 'Very good" Nothing about death and decay are very good.

Romans 5:12
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—

All people because we all come from Adam.

If someone says oh that's just spiritual death, not physical; physical death was part of the curse. The Bible talks about spiritual and physical death. It wasn't something that was already occurring while Adam was in the garden, the body dying and returning to dust was part of the curse.

Genesis 3
17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’

“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.”

Because of what he did death and returning to dust is the fate of the body -unless Jesus returns before we die.

You can't have millions of years of evolution and no death. The two do not fit together.



The flood was global. When God says destroy all life he means all life. The same way Jesus died for all people. It's not a section of the people or a section of the land, all means all.

The flood was a supernatural event, those who try to put spokes into it are claiming things about nature and the natural laws. Miracles have nothing to do with the natural laws of nature. God sent the animals, who at this time were far fewer then now. God closed the door, he sent the flood. The flood wasn't just rain from the canopy that surrounded the earth at that time but also from the deep, under the crust. Volcanoes erupted putting ash into the sky. This caused an ice age, the only ice age. The flood also broke apart the one land mass creating the continents.
There are numerous articles around about that The Ice Age and the Genesis Flood
Because of this new harsh climate God at this point says man may now eat meat.
Genesis 9:3
Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.



That is really another topic. You might want to ask about that on the end time area.




Proverbs 3:5-6


5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
6 in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.

Submit to God, pray and read his word, believe in his word.

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coffee4u said:

It's a big subject and I only touched on parts. Those who expound evolution can sound convincing, they will use graphs and big words and make your head spin.

The things to remember are:
They were not there to see how God created. We don't know how God created matter how he manipulated it, how he created and possibly bent time. Did God create a star and move it with his 'hands' across space into place? Possibly.
Psalm 8:3-5 “When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers— the moon and the stars you set in place

The world that God created is not the world we see now. The world at creation was pristine and perfect.
All animals were herbivores.
30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.
Animals were not hunting and tearing into flesh, that is a result of the fall a sign of the corruption it caused.
Everything was good and beneficial. A mosquito would not have bitten and drunk blood, its purpose would have been 'very good' but the fall corrupted how all organisms function.
There was no disease no stinging poisonous plants. All of this is part of the corruption.
Genesis 3:18
It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.
Not a part of the created world, a part of the fallen world. That world is gone.

God says in the end he will defeat death and remake the world back to how it was. How it started is how it will end.
Revelation 20:14
Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.

Revelation 21


21 Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

Isaiah 11:6
The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.

Animals do not act like this now. It occurred before the fall and it will occur again on the new earth. The one clue that Genesis gives is that all animals were given plants to eat. If the leopard and wolf ate plants then yes a goat, lamb and child could safely sit with them.
The Old Testament is a shadow of the new. The garden of Eden was a shadow of the new world pictured in revelation. It was a taste for man to sample. Of how living with God would be like.
If evolution were true and the world began as survival of the fittest with random mutations and death and rotting flesh, that would be a picture of hell.

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coffee4u said:

Pornography is a snare and a strong trap. People often don't realize how dangerous it is. Understand it is the pit of vipers, deadly to your spiritual walk and very addictive. People talk about drugs and alcohol, pornography is every bit as addictive as heroine.

This may be your thorn in the flesh to overcome again and again. I pray you will have strength through the Holy Spirit brother.

Romans 10:9
If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
People try and make things complicated, it isn't.

When you fail Satan may try and tell you that you are not really born again. Speak scripture aloud or inside your head and pray.
James 4:7
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Notice how these verses always start with submit to God? That is the key.

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miamited said:

Hi @Blaise N



I would be happy to help you out in any way that I can. I must admit, though, that I'm not particularly knowledgeable about the ways of OCD. I've seen the things that people do as regards the compulsive behavior, but I really don't have any idea what makes one's mind seem to constantly entertain such thoughts.

However, I believe that just as working through and with God's Spirit to overcome pornography addiction, which is also a desire of the mind to continue deviant behavior, that same power can give you victory over OCD related doubts that your mind may conjure up. If you have been born again, then you can be assured that God is always with you. Yes, He does often seem to let us do what we desire to do over what we know is what He desires for us to do, but He is there with you.

What I believe is a fair test of whether or not one is born again, is whether or not they see the reality of life as God sees and knows it to be. For example, and let me quickly add here that I'm not intending to start a great debate on the specific issues mentioned, but for the one who has God's Spirit, that person knows, yes he absolutely without a doubt knows, that God's word, the Scriptures that we hold in our hands, are true in absolutely everything that they reveal to us.

In the law, according to the Scriptures, written by the very finger of God on stone tablets, He caused to be written: For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them,... Now, I've talked to a lot of christians who will tell me that God never says when He created the earth, therefore, while the history of man may only be about 6,000 years, science has proven that the heavenly bodies have stood for billions upon billions of years. Well, news flash! God has told us 'when' He created the earth. He Himself has written to us that the earth was created in that same time span in which He created all of the heavens, just as it is revealed to us in the Genesis account of the building of this realm of His creating.

This is the God that you and I are depending on for our coming salvation. Our eternal life of peace and security and joy of spirit with Him and His Son in the great city of Zion that comes down from heaven as a splendid and beautiful place for us to live our eternal days. He isn't trying to make His revelation to us difficult that it takes some master degreed theologian to figure out all that He has told us. Let's consider for a moment that God delivered His Scriptures to the Israelites beginning some 4,000 years ago when there weren't even such things as college degrees and great scientific minds such as we seem to be enamored of today. I believe that God expected the Jews of the old covenant days to understand what He had revealed to them as much as He expects us today. Without a lot of 'great knowledge' from some institution of higher learning.

But, I believe that these things are most clearly revealed to those who have the Spirit of God and call on that Spirit to give them wisdom and discernment of the things of God. I believe that we can only trust that claim when we fully understand what it means to have the Spirit of God. We have the same Spirit living within us that oversaw and gave men the understanding to write the things that have been written in the Scriptures. That exact same Spirit!! We have, according to Jesus, that same Spirit that Jesus had. That exact same Spirit!! So why, I would have to ask, would the very Spirit that caused all of those things to be written, allow us, who have that same Spirit, to believe or understand things differently today than they were understood when He caused them to be written?

The Spirit of God is really quite clear on the creation account. People get caught up, because the sun and moon weren't created for several days after the earth was created, about there having been 'days' before the sun stood in the sky. Such nonsense!!! The sun has nothing to do with the length or time span of a day. It merely gives us the daylight hours of a day. A day, has now and forever shall be, determined by how long it takes the planet earth to make one full revolution/rotation on it's north/south axis. So, if God, when He commanded that the earth appear from nothing, which is also what the Scriptures declare, it was spinning, which I believe it would have to have been doing for the water to remain upon its surface, then the first day would have passed within roughly what we count as 24 hours. It's all really just that simple!

We live in a realm of existence that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; the God who brought the flood waters to cover the whole earth; the God who stopped the sun in the sky over Israel, created as a place for man to live. He spent six rotations of the earth to build that home and then He placed Adam and Eve in it to populate it with people. For it was always God's plan, from the moment that He declared "Let there be light!" in this realm, that He was going to provide a way that sinful man could be forgiven his sin and enjoy an eternal life with their God. That was always the end game of God's creating this realm. That He would one day reap a body of people from the earth who loved and cared and worshipped Him for who He is!!!

God also created the angelic realm, just as He created our realm. While it isn't widely covered, the Scriptures do tell us that there was a time that the angels were created. But, we know that it was before the earth was created because the Scriptures also tell us that the angels were rejoicing when God created the heavens and the earth of this realm.

I believe that anyone born of God's Spirit will believe these things and all of the events and circumstances that the Scriptures reveal to us of all the work that God has done that we might even have life. Take up your Scriptures, even though it may seem hard, and sit down and calmly and sincerely pray that God give you wisdom by His Spirit. Do that for one week. Set aside 15-30 minutes to sit down with God's word, offer prayer for wisdom and understanding and read Genesis chapter 1.

Keep in touch.

God bless,
Ted

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miamited said:

Hi @Blaise N

So, let me ask you. What do you think it would take for you to have confidence that you have received the guarantee of the Holy Spirit that Paul writes to us about?

God bless,
Ted

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coffee4u said:

And what a shame that is.

The OP does not, learn to respect that.

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