Is the world on Satan's side?
. God said, "You shall surely die" [Genesis 2:17]
. Satan said, "You shall surely not die" [Genesis 3:4]
. Most Protestant theologians say, "You shall surely not die"
Alexander Campbell in his preface to "The Living Oracles" his translation of the New Testament says, "The reader will please to consider, that, when God spoke to man, he adopted the language of man. To the fathers of the Jewish nation he spoke in their mother tongue. By his Son, and his Son by the Apostles, spoke to every nation in its own language. When he spoke to any nation, he uniformly adopted the words of that nation in expressing his will to it. And that he used their words in the commonly received sense, needs no other proof than this, that if he had not done so, instead of enlightening them in the knowledge of his will, he would have deceived and confounded them: than which, no hypothesis is more impious. For example: were God to speak to us in English, and select from our vocabulary the words death, punishment, perpetual, and wicked; were he to use the last term as we use it, and annex to the others a significant different from that
we affix to them--such as to mean life by the term death, happiness by the punishment, and a limited time by the word perpetual; and without apprising us of such a change, in their meaning...what a deception would he practice on us!" HOW MANY CHANGE "DEATH" TO "LIFE," BY CHANGING "THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH" TO "THE WAGES OF SIN IS ETERNAL LIFE WITH TORMENT"?
William Robert West
PERFECT!
The first lie recorded in the Bible is Satan contradicting God's word,
"Ye shall not surely die"
God said,
"But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."
Since we know that Adam did not appear to die "in the day" that he ate the forbidden fruit, we know that his "death" happened that day in some other way than natural mortal death. That day, his soul was condemned to death so that when his body died, his soul would "perish" as well.
4 Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die. (Ezekiel 18:4)
Fortunately, God's plan for salvation was planned before the foundation of the world, at which time, the Lamb of God was slain. God covered Adam and Eve with "skins" of sacrificed animals to "cover" their nakedness (sin). This is a foreshadow of the atonement of Christ.
For some reason, we cannot accept that humans are not "eternal" beings. Despite the fact that God says we are mortal, we agree with the lie of Satan, "Ye shall not surely die".
I agree with the Lord, we will surely die unless we are given eternal,
everlasting life that only Jesus gives.
Once we are given eternal life, we are then on a path to our promised inheritance, the kingdom of heaven. Just as the Jews were "saved" from the curse of death by putting the blood of a lamb on their doorpost and were "passed over" by death, so we accept the blood of the lamb Jesus and escape the judgment of death and are freely given eternal life. In both cases, a covenant was sealed in sacrificial blood.
However, The Jews were not yet in the promised land (their inheritance). They had to leave Egypt (a type of the world), go to the mountain where the Law was brought down (a type of Pentecost that actually happened on Pentecost), go to the land promised by God to Abraham and possess it. Because of fear and unbelief, they refused to fight "giants" for a land that God said was theirs
already. Consequently, they forfeited their inheritance.
Similarly, we are warned that we must "strive to enter the kingdom of heaven". We are told by Jesus that if we want to go where he was going, that we must deny ourselves pick up our cross and follow Him. This inheritance is paid for and secure, but we, with the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, must fight our own flesh and pull of the world to obtain what has been purchased and promised.
4 Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.
5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?...
...16 Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.
17 For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. (Hebrews 12)
This warning is for "sons". Paul is unambiguously saying that our inheritance of the kingdom of heaven that is promised can be forfeited by failing to respond to our Father's chastening. We will not lose our "salvation" from death, we will be alive in eternity, but may be cast out "where their will be weeping and gnashing of teeth".
12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end;
15 While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
16 For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.
17 But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness?
18 And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?
19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
This is not about "salvation". Paul is speaking to"brethren" and warning them (us) that we may not enter the kingdom of heaven despite the fact that we have entered into a blood covenant with Christ and have a promise yet to be possessed.
Our Father has expectations from his sons! We are not earning anything. We are demonstrating that we value what He has given us by the way we love and obey Him.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field. (Matthew 13:44)
Jesus is not saying that we "buy" the kingdom of heaven. He is saying that once we "see" the kingdom of heaven promised to a believer, we will order our lives at whatever cost to make sure we possess what has been promised.
Can those who are not "saved" see the kingdom of heaven?
3 Jesus answered and said unto him, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John 3)
Therefore, Jesus is saying that only those who are born again can "see" the kingdom and value it enough to transact one's life to possess the promised inheritance. These are also the only ones who can neglect so great a salvation and promise so as to forfeit it.
Check out the video summary of the study:
www.WhoGoesToHell.com
