By Bob Barney
I have run the Garner Ted Article
article (below) before, and do so after many tragedies. Many often
wonder how these things could happen in a modern world. People ask,
“how could a loving God allow such tragedies?” People blame God,
guns, conservatives, the media, and everybody else – other than
themselves. Where is God when tragedies like these occur? Where is
God when a million abortions a year are slaughtering the innocence in
the womb? The Plain Truth is that God is where THEY (YES 'THEY' –
as GOD is the English word that means Jesus and the Father) have been
for most of the last 6,000 years. God id in heaven, allowing us to
run our own lives, follow our own ways, worship our own false gods
and follow pagan holidays that God has nothing to do with. Most
people do not want God in their lives. It's a hard simple fact. Most
do not want to follow the Law of God, when it does not suit their
needs. We want to be free to do what we want to do, since the time we
first walked up until the time we draw our last breath of life. We
want a God of convenience, and not a God who orders us to obey
physical and spiritual laws. We want to follow Christmas, not
because it is found in the Bible, but because it makes US feel good.
We really don't care what God thinks about the holiday – we really
don't care, because if we did, very little research would make us
draw a conclusion on our lives, that we do not want to face.
We are also in a form a denial. We
deny God and God's way. We deny that such tragedies will actually
happen to us. Jesus was asked this question 2,000 years ago. It is in
Luke chapter 13! 1-5 “Now there were some present at that
time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed
with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, “Do
you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other
Galileans because they suffered this way? I
tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or
those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do
you think they were more guilty than all the others living in
Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will
all perish.”
Repent
of what? SIN! And what is the Bible definition of sin? There is one
place in all of your Bible that says “Sin is” – and it is found
in 1 John 3:4: “Whosoever
commits sin transgresses also the law: for sin is the transgression
of the law.”
Did you read that? SIN IS BREAKING GOD'S LAW! Then the next
question, “what law?” The TEN COMMANDMENTS! (John 14:15), one of
which is the Sabbath Command. However, for most of the Christian
world, “loving Jesus, and believing ON Jesus,” is all we really
have to do…. Yet Jesus said, “Why
do you call me LORD LORD and not do the things I say to do!”
You find here:
Matthew
7 13-28: (NIV version)
“Enter
through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road
that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small
is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few
find it.
True and False
Prophets
15 “Watch out for false prophets.
They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are
ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do
people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise,
every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A
good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good
fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and
thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize
them.
True and False
Disciples
21 “Not
everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of
heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in
heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not
prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your
name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly,
‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
The Wise and Foolish
Builders
24 “Therefore everyone who hears
these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man
who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams
rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not
fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone
who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is
like a foolish man who built his house on sand. (like
all of those today who love to build their houses on the sand like in
Florida, The Outer banks and New York and New Jersey) The
rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against
that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
28 When
Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his
teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as
their teachers of the law.
It's not hard figuring out why God
allows tragedies. The majority refuse to obey God, and therefore all
of us suffer because of this fact. We want “democracy” and God
has allowed us to get what we ask for. Until God returns and
establishes THEIR Kingdom, we will continue to experience that fate
of those who are in rebellion against God.
Oh God,
Where
Were You When
I Needed You?
The family was shocked beyond comprehension!
Caught in a snowstorm in Alaska, they had kept their heater running. The snow
had piled high around the car and, without their knowledge, deadly carbon
monoxide had seeped into the automobile. The gas—heavier than air—had first
reached their twin boys, asleep on the floor Groggy, wondering what was causing
their sleepiness, the parents gradually became aware something was wrong. The
father struggled to open the windows to change the air! They grasped their twin
baby boys-shook them, rubbed their little arms and tried frantically to awaken
them. But it was too late! Their cries of anguish were lost in the blackness of
that Alaskan night with its billions of softly falling flakes. But WHY? WHY,
if there is a loving God in heaven, do such tragedies strike? WHY DID GOD
LET THOSE BABY BOYS DIE?
By Garner Ted Armstrong [printer-friendly]
[pdf format] {LINK to article ONLINE}
The preceding
story was related to me by the father of the boys, an executive in
the radio business from Alaska, when he attended the National
Association of Broadcasters convention in Chicago, Illinois.
I had been invited to give the
invocation at a dinner for about 2,000 radio-station owners and
managers from all over the country; the main speaker that day was
Paul Harvey.
During the recess after lunch,
one of the radio executives asked if he might ask me a personal
question. He then related the tragic story of his two baby sons'
death. He had already asked his own pastor, or perhaps two or more
ministers. He and his wife were searching for some understanding;
they needed to know WHY—WHY would a loving God allow this to
happen?
How WOULD YOU ANSWER?
If there IS a God, and if
GOD IS LOVE, then WHY?
Now, if someone asks some other person that
question, he has a perfect out. All most people have to do is to
cluck away sympathetically, or, if genuine emotion is really felt,
show some sincere empathy with such a tragically bewildered parent.
However, it only requires a polite disclaimer: "I've always
wondered about that too," or, "Well, I don't know.
I lost a son in Vietnam, and I have never understood why he had to
die when all these others…"
But this was different.
I am a minister.
He had asked a minister: a man who had been preaching the Word
of God over his radio station for years, a man who had just finished
delivering a heartfelt prayer to God in front of 2,000 hard-bitten
businessmen.
No minister could simply shake his head and profess he didn't
have the answer to such a tragic, perplexing question. But
the gentleman told me he had already asked two or three others, and
they merely muttered something vague about "mysterious"
ways of God and faith and such, and allowed as how "His ways are
past finding out."
By the time the man and his wife wrestled with these vague
generalities for a while, they were as distraught and puzzled as
ever. Hurt, bewildered, feeling deserted in their most desperate hour
of need, they kept reliving their anguished attempts for hour upon
hour to revive their twin boys, their frantic mouth-to-mouth
resuscitation, their desperate tears, their prayers.
"WHY DID GOD LET MY TWO BABY BOYS DIE?"
I began to explain.
Tragedies—by the Millions
I told the man
I could only try to understand the depth of his grief and that I
would fall short—that only a parent who had actually experienced
such heartbreak could really empathize with him. Then, in
nowhere near so detailed a fashion, I began to explain why God had
not stepped in to prevent their deaths.
The man
and his wife were not alone in their suffering.
That same
night—from Africa to Japan, from China to Brazil, from Canada to
Australia—millions of tragedies were unfolding. Tiny babies were
dying of malnutrition and starvation, a slow, terrible death of
hunger far different from drifting off to sleep, the sleep becoming
deeper and deeper until death.
I
mentioned, without attempting to overstate the case, about the
distraught parents I had seen interviewed on TV whose children had
been kidnapped and killed, about the hundreds of automobile accidents
that same night, about those born deformed, blind and diseased. I
tried to show, in a brief few moments, that the whole world "groans
and travails in pain" (Romans 8:22).
In war, it
seems, it is always the innocent bystander, the children, the women
and the elderly, who are victimized. Today, in nations all over the
world, vicious terrorism is aimed at the helpless civilians whose
only crime is being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Despots
carry out vicious pogroms, attempting to eliminate all opposition.
WHY do
about 50,000 Americans die every year in automobile accidents? What
about the tens of thousands who LIVE THROUGH THE ACCIDENTS to spend
the remainder of their lives disfigured, crippled and in pain?
And WHY
WAR?
WHY
does God allow such a mountainous pile of human woe and misery? Human
ears cannot hear the wails and weeping of the hundreds of thousands,
the screams and sobs of the injured and dying, the moans of those in
their hospital beds. But GOD CAN!
So WHY
does HE ALLOW IT?
If God is
God, then He is ALL-powerful! God's Word says He knows every hair on
your head, every sparrow that falls. He says He cares even for the
birds that fly and other living creatures—and that HE CARES FOR
YOU!
Then WHY?
Not God's World?
This is not
God's world! That's right, it is not God's world, not His
society, not His social, economic, religious, cultural
or governmental system. It belongs exclusively to man,
but it is under the invisible sway of a great archdemon
called Satan the devil!
He is
called the "god of this world." Notice! "In whom the
god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe
not…" (2 Corinthians 4:4). He is the "prince of the power
of the air" (Ephesians 2:2), utilizing the very elements
(as in the case of Job and the whirlwind that destroyed his
family) of this earth for his evil purposes.
He is a
"roaring lion" walking about, seeking "whom he
may devour" (1 Peter 5:8). He is that great fallen archangel,
called a "dragon," who deceives the whole world!
(Revelation 12:9). He currently possesses rulership, the control
and sway over governments of the world, over the nations.
On the
other hand, God says the "world is mine, and the fullness
thereof!" God is the supreme RULER in heaven who says, "Behold,
the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small
dust of the balance: behold he taketh up the isles as a very little
thing … It is He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the
inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the
heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell
in…" (Isaiah 40:15-22).
How can
this be?
Is it
Satan's world? Or is it God's world?
The answer
is it is GOD'S EARTH, God's "world," in the sense of the
good green spaceship earth He gives us to live on and from which we
came. But it is SATAN'S SOCIETY, Satan's CIVILIZATION!
Jesus
prayed: "I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated
them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the
world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the
world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
"They
are not of the world" (John 17:14-16).
From the Beginning
From the very
beginning of recorded civilization—from the Garden of Eden—mankind
has rejected God's laws, God's way of life, God's rule over
mankind! Adam and Eve began the first "scientific
experiments in attempting to follow Satan's wily "advice"
and try to determine for themselves, apart from God's
revealed knowledge, whether the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil was fit for them.
From the
days of the ancient patriarchal society until the flood, only a small
handful of men would follow God's laws, His way of life. The majority
went their own way until God said, "My spirit shall not always
strive with man, for that he also is flesh…" (Genesis 6:3),
and the whole world, save Noah and his family, was destroyed by a
flood.
Soon Nimrod, a
"mighty hunter," and his mother-wife, Semiramis, a high
priestess of Baal worship, organized some of the first cities
on earth, gathering people together into a manmade "society,"
the first true "city-states" of history.
He built Babel (called Babylon), and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in
the land of Shinar (Chaldea) (Genesis 10: 9, 10).
By the
time of Abraham, the whole of the earth, save a tiny handful of men
who were obedient to God's laws, was in the spiritual darkness of
Satan's sway, having gone into polytheism (the worship of nonexistent
pagan "gods" of their own imagination) and suffering every
evil as the result.
Following
the generations of Abraham, to his grandson Jacob (whose name was
changed to "Israel") and his sons, who are the progenitors
of the "twelve tribes of Israel," the Bible shows God once
again intervened in the affairs of manmade governments. He called HIS
OWN NATION out of slavery, under Moses, and established them as a
"kingdom," a human society under an appointed human
government, which was under God!
But, even
before coming to Sinai and the giving of the Ten
Commandments, the people began to murmur against Moses and began
rejecting the government of God!
"How
long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?" asked God,
before He gave the codified Decalogue! (Exodus 16:28).
Then came
the delivery of the Ten Commandments. One of the most important
principles of Scripture is revealed in that context during the great
and awesome ceremony of the quaking, smoking and fiery mountain, the
giving of the Ten Commandments and the people's acceptance of God's
laws!
Earlier
the people had said, "All that the Eternal hath spoken we will
do" (Exodus 19:8). But, following the spectacular sights of the
mount, and the delivery of the law, notice what happened! "And
all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise
of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it,
they removed, and stood afar off.
"And
they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but LET
NOT GOD SPEAK WITH US, lest we die" (Exodus 20:18,19). The
people didn't want any direct communication from God; they
wanted God to go off somewhere and disappear and not frighten them
like that; they wanted a go-between, an intermediary!
Following
the establishment of Israel in their own homeland, God ruled over the
people through His human servants the judges. It was like a
theocracy: God dealing directly with the judges and they in turn
dealing with the people.
But during
Samuel's day the people decided they wanted a KING, just like other
nations! They wanted a tall, attractive, human ruler, a
person who would be a mighty military leader, a person of striking
appearance and charm. "But the thing displeased Samuel, when
they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the
Eternal.
"And
the Eternal said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in
all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but
they have rejected ME, that I SHOULD NOT REIGN OVER THEM!"
(1 Samuel 8:6,7).
Through
Ezekiel, God showed that His people had continually REJECTED His
laws, His statutes, His WAY OF LIFE, down through the centuries!
"Because they had not executed my judgments, but had despised my
statutes, and had polluted my Sabbaths, and their eyes were after
their father's idols. Wherefore I gave them [over to] also statutes
that were NOT good, and judgments whereby they should NOT live. And I
polluted them in their own gifts [pagan sacrifices], in that they
caused to pass through the fire all that openeth the womb, that I
might make them desolate, to the end that they might know that I am
the Eternal" (Ezekiel 20:24-26).
Over and
over again, God's Word stresses how His people TURNED AWAY FROM HIM!
Time and again He shows how the "whole world lies in darkness"
and says, "There is NONE that is good, no not one!"
From the
days of the ancient Israelites until now, people have not wanted God
to interfere in their daily lives!
Put
another way: People don't want God "Sticking His nose into their
business"! They want to be FREE to make choices and decisions,
live their lives as THEY see fit without any outside interference,
restrictions, laws or penalties!
Notice! In
speaking of the period of the judges God says, "In those days
there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right
in his own eyes" (Judges 17:6), and "In those days there
was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in HIS OWN
eyes!" (Judges 21:25). This is the LAST verse of one of the
bloodiest books in the Bible-filled with the wars, murders, intrigue
and heartache of carnal human nature. And the reason for all
this is plainly stated: "Every man did that which was fight in
his OWN eyes!"
That is
the very ESSENCE of human nature!
Human
nature is vanity, jealousy, ego, greed and lust! It is a
SELF-oriented, SELF-willed, SELF-determined, SELF-centered spirit of
SELF-seeking! Perfect self (complete, not "perfect"
spiritually) is found in the major ingredients of self: (1)
self-preservation, (2) self-determination and (3) self-perpetuation!
People do
NOT WANT GOD INTERFERING IN THEIR PRIVATE, PERSONAL LIVES!
Consider the smoker or drinker, or the person who habitually
exaggerates or lies. Do such persons want an invisible presence to
STOP them from reaching for their cigarettes? Do they want God, in
unseen, spiritual POWER, to PREVENT them from satisfying their
physical lusts? Would a person wish God to prevent him from
tipping a glass of liquor to his lips or cause him to be tongue-tied
and UNABLE to speak each time he lies or exaggerates?
Can you
imagine the scene?
A person
would attempt to reach into his shirt pocket for a cigarette. But a
strange look would come over his face as his arm stopped halfway up,
and his fingers could not reach his shirt! He would struggle, try his
other arm, try forcing the one arm up there with the other hand! His
face would grow beet-red with anger and frustration! He would begin
to thrash around in his chair and then fall to the floor in every
conceivable, contorted position. He would desperately struggle to
reach those cigarettes! He would be screaming, yelling, and cursing!
He would call upon a friend and ask him to give him a
cigarette, only to find the friend, TOO, couldn't
reach HIS!
Can you
imagine it? They would probably go completely CRAZY in
frustration—probably go mad.
No, people
don't WANT God around on a moment-to-moment-basis, interfering in
their private lives, forcing them to do what is RIGHT and what is
GOOD for them, instead of allowing them to do what is NOT
RIGHT and what is BAD for them.
It is Your Own Choice
You are a free
moral agent! You are a creature of free choice. God MADE you that
way! You are a tiny spark of life in the black vastness of a
limitless universes human being, on planet earth, with the vast
potential of being made a very son of God, being born into His very
FAMILY someday, becoming LIKE HIM! (1 John 3:2).
But,
believe it or not, God has not willed to produce "Instant
character"!
He knows
that perfect character takes VOLITION; it takes the cooperation of
the person who is building that character! Character is the
ability to discern the right from the wrong, and then the WILLpower
to FORCE the self to CHOOSE THE RIGHT WAY!
That is a
choice God will NEVER make for you!
Notice
this! "See, I have set before thee this day life and good, death
and evil; in that I command thee this day to love the Eternal thy
God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments, and his
statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest LIVE AND MULTIPLY: and
the Eternal thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest
to possess it.
"But
if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shall be
drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them;
"I
denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely PERISH, and that ye
shall NOT prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over
to Jordan to go to possess it.
"I
call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set
before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore CHOOSE
LIFE, that both thou and thy seed may live" (Deuteronomy
30:14-19).
God says
we must CHOOSE!
He
earnestly hopes, yearns and wishes that we might choose the way HE
wants us to choose—to choose life! But He decreed that WE
MUST MAKE A CHOICE!
Few
realize that by delaying their choice—putting off their
choice, as if attempting to defer the final day when they
must "choose ye this day whom ye shall serve," as Elijah
said to those who were following the prophets of Baal—they are
actually CHOOSING DEATH! By failing to choose LIFE, they do
not realize they are NEGLECTING salvation!
"How
shall we escape, if we NEGLECT so great salvation; which at
the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us
by them that heard him … ?" (Hebrews 2:3).
We are
completely free to CHOOSE the way of life we wish.
Do you
know you could choose, if you wish, to WORSHIP THE DEVIL? God will
not interfere. He will not intervene. You are free to do so
if you so will it.
Many times
sincere Christians are simply AMAZED at how God seems to stand by,
NOT PREVENTING evil actions of evil men. Years of patient service, of
church-going, prayers, study and striving to live a clean, righteous
life can make many people unaware of the immense capacity
for EVIL of other men. Often the sincere sheep of Christ's fold are
simply AMAZED that God seems to allow various assorted forms
of evil to occur, almost as if, once a person is in God's own
protections member of the very Body of Christ, the Church—it is
IMPOSSIBLE for him to act in such a terrible fashion!
Many times
people are INCREDULOUS that God "permits" other men to act
in satanic, evil fashion—failing to realize that God DOES NOT DEAL
IN PREVENTIVE LAW!
This is a
vitally important point!
It is
paramount in understanding WHY God allows human tragedy,
human suffering or human failure!
Think for a moment! Do the Ten Commandments PREVENT SIN? No,
they only point out WHAT IT IS! They tell men: DO NOT SIN!
God shows
elsewhere (Romans 6:23) that the wages of sin is death, death for all
eternity, death from which there is no resurrection! He says
(Romans 3:23) that all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God. Could anything be clearer, concerning the LACK OF
intervention in His creation, the attitude of letting MAN make the
decisions, the concept of free moral agency? Call it a "hands
off" policy, if you will!
God says,
"DON'T SIN!"
He says,
"CHOOSE LIFE!"
He urges
men NOT to sin, and then shows that all have sinned! He shows,
then, that HE HAS NOT PREVENTED man from sinning! The law
exists—immutable, unchangeable and eternal. But the law of God is
not being enforced by unseen policemen. There are no arrests made for
breaking it, only for breaking the laws of man, if and when some of
man's laws happen, albeit by accident, to overlap the laws of God.
No
attorney files charges against you for lusting, for having another
god in place of the real God, for lying, stealing or
Sabbath-breaking. No judge passes sentence on you to punish you for
these sins, which God says are worthy of the death sentence!
But God
DOES take note! In His heavenly "court" each sin is
carefully noted, each infraction written down, as it were. But, when
those sins are REPENTED of, the slate is wiped clean through the
atoning blood of Christ, and God says He will remove your sins as
"far as the east is removed from the west," and "their
sins and their iniquities will I remember no more!" (Hebrews
8:12).
Though
God's law is SPIRITUAL, and just, and holy, and good (Romans
7:12-14), it is not yet being enforced in human societies!
Though there is an automatic penalty for breaking God's
laws—the penalties of sullied conscience, broken character and
ruined lives—the millions are UNAWARE that their daily problems
come from the consequences of rejecting God's laws, from inviting God
to "get out" of their lives!
So God
pleads with all flesh to CHOOSE LIFE. He shows we are free moral
agents, free to make any choice we please. He shows that He will
not—NOT YET—interfere with whatever choice we make, even though
He urges us to make the RIGHT one!
Choosing
to repent—to get on your knees before your God and your Savior,
Jesus Christ, and call out to Him for forgiveness for your sins, to
ask Him for His saving grace, the undeserved PARDON for iniquities,
to apply the sacrifice of His shed blood to cover YOUR sins—all
this is YOUR PERSONAL, PRIVATE CHOICE!
When and
if you ever MAKE that choice, then, and not until then, will
God begin intervening in YOUR PERSONAL, PRIVATE LIFE!
"Just in Case"
Millions have
a "just in case" religion! They may go to religious
services a few times a year, or even regularly, as a habit, as a part
of the expected daily way of life of a religious community.
But many
of these same people would not hesitate to lie just a little, to
cheat a little, to minimize or exaggerate the truth just a little, to
lust after material goods or other persons, to dishonor their parents
or cut a few corners on their income tax reports, or to break God's
Sabbath day in either ignorance or intent.
But when
trouble strikes they hope God will be RIGHT THERE—on the
spot, NOW!
It has
been said there are no atheists to be found on life rafts after days
at sea with no food and water; no atheists to be found hopelessly
lost in the woods; no skeptics, doubters and agnostics suspended by a
fraying rope near the bottom of a well.
Dozens of
thrilling escape stories—whether during war or from the hazards of
shipwreck, landslide, flood or fire—relate how people, in extreme
moments of terrible stress and fright, will call out to God!
Usually
they're PRETTY DIRECT ABOUT IT!
Though
they may be a little embarrassed by having to "say grace"
over a meal, or be called upon for a reading or a prayer in
church—maybe a little taken aback by being chosen to prepare a
study for the businessman's Bible study—now, suddenly, they cut
through all the embarrassment, all the formality! They call out
to God, probably even forgetting to say anything by way of
introduction! Thousands have yelled at the top of their lungs, "O
GOD! SAVE ME! "
Sometimes
God has done just that! Other times it seemed He didn't hear or
didn't act!
Who
can say why, in different circumstances?
But many a
person has made a "pact" with God in such times of dire
stress. A famous movie star had a skiing accident on the slopes. A
ski pole became embedded in his chest and actually partially pierced
the outer wall of the heart! He was millimeters from death. A big,
rugged, muscular man, about six feet, six or seven inches and
extremely handsome and masculine, he lay there with the realization
death was upon him.
Months
later, after skilled surgeons and specialists had removed the deadly
metal and attended his wounds, he had recovered. He related on
national television how he had come to a very deep, personal
relationship with God during that time, that he had dedicated his
life to an entirely new set of values and standards, that the very
purpose in living and the meaning of death had become
profoundly interesting and important to him.
How many
people have called out, "O God, if you'll only do this or that
or the other, then I'll do this and that and the other"? How
many millions have silently promised they'll quit smoking, or
cussing, or drinking; that they'll start going to church somewhere or
in other ways "turn over a new leaf' and start cleaning up their
lives, if only God will grant them a special miracle, perhaps save
the life of a loved one, a child?
MILLIONS
suspect there may be a God.
They
express it in many ways, usually in vague terms about the "great
Someone out there somewhere," as in "somebody up there
likes me!"
And those
suspicions are right. There IS A GOD! And, without their
knowing it, He is only a prayer away. He is NEAR unto those who call
upon Him—not "way off somewhere" in the great nothingness
of space, unable to intervene or help!
But, you
see, there is an AUTOMATIC breaking of that connection, just like
someone blowing up a power station and plunging a whole city into
blackness, if you only give token lip service to Him, only
have Him in your mind "just in case," but do not let him
RULE in your daily life!
All have
sinned! And sin is the transgression of God's perfect LAW, the Ten
Commandments! (1 John 3:4). Jesus said, "REPENT ye, and believe
the gospel!" (Mark 1: 15).
This is
the same as saying CHOOSE LIFE!
But, by
merely living what most people would call a "good life"
apart from the daily obedience to God's perfect law, you
AUTOMATICALLY separate yourself from God! HE DOES NOT
SEPARATE HIMSELF FROM YOU; it is YOU who breaks the "circuit."
The Holy
Spirit of God is described by Jesus Christ as "rivers of living
water" (John 7:38). He describes God's Spirit as wind
that flows back and forth (John 3:8). Electricity and magnetism
are not "inventions of man" but the miracles of a divine
Creator Being who set in motion the forces, energies and laws that
regulate matter! There is DUALITY throughout God's creation. Positive
and negative, north and south, the magnetic poles of the earth!
You have
been created to need God's Holy Spirit! The "spirit in
man," which is that spiritual essence that lifts the brain of
man to the level of MIND, far, far above that of animals, is capable
of being begotten with GOD'S HOLY SPIRIT! Think for
a moment of the analogy of human, physical birth! The male sperm cell
must unite with the female and the union of the two produces
a new, separate HUMAN LIFE!
Christ is
the firstborn of many brethren (Romans 8:29), and we are to become
HEIRS of God, BORN of God, by a resurrection When we are BEGOTT'EN of
God, a new spiritual being has begun, is being formed, as
surely as tiny, microscopic human babies begin in the womb of the
mother at conception!
But God's
Holy Spirit doesn't enter our elbow, or our knee, or our big toe! It
comes INTO OUR MIND! Perhaps we are "negative" and God's
Spirit could be likened to "positive." When the TWO unite,
a spark of life is struck, a current begins to flow, and we are
spiritually alive!
When you
turn on your light switch, you are establishing a connection which
permits a current of electricity to flow! The current flows
through the incandescent bulb, heating its element white hot
and giving off light. Break the current and the light is shut off!
God
Almighty is NEAR to those who want to establish a DAILY RELATIONSHIP
with Him, who want to receive of HIS HOLY SPIRIT through repentance,
baptism and the laying on of hands! But those who have NOT received
of that Spirit are NOT CONNECTED to God—there is a barrier
between them, a separation!
But WHO
CAUSED THAT SEPARATION? Who threw the switch? Who cut off whom?
People wonder why God does not seem to be instantly available
when they need Him—and usually they only need Him when they really
"need" Him.
"Behold,
the Eternal's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his
ear heavy, that it cannot hear: but your sins have hid his
face from you, that he will not hear" (Isaiah 59:1,2).
No, God is
not inferior, ill-equipped or unable; HE is not weak or sleepy and
inattentive to answer when we call, but He says OUR SINS have created
a BARRIER between the human race and God! He says WE are responsible
for "pulling the plug" and causing that separation! He says
WE are the ones who have broken the circuit—HE isn't! God says we
have it backwards!
He says we
ought to be asking, "O man, where were you when you needed
God?" NOT asking, "O GOD, WHERE WERE YOU WHEN I NEEDED
YOU?"
The
difference is, we need God ALL the time, and we begin to think we
only need Him in emergencies!
But most
people do not feel they are separated from God, do not feel cut off,
rejected of Him, as if they are outcasts and contrary to
God! Most people feel they are reasonably "good," that they
are undeserving of life's tragedies, miseries, disappointments and
unhappiness. Millions
of us ask, "Why me, O Lord?" when problems come.
Being Carnal is not an Insult
What is
our "goodness" before God? Millions of us feel we're
not so bad, feel we're making reasonable efforts at being good
people—minding our manners, being friendly, striving to measure up
to acceptable behavior before our friends and neighbors. Millions of
us might be embarrassed to sit down to dinner with robbers or
murderers. We don't count ourselves "criminal" or "bad
people" in any sense of the words. We do the best we can. So
what's wrong with that?
There may
not be all that much "wrong" with millions of people who
feel they are "good people" in the sense of criminally
wrong, evil through and through. Oh, they might scream or yell at
their mate, or cuss just a little now and then, or maybe they smoke,
or some of the more liberated ones even sample a little marijuana on
occasion. Probably they don't feel especially sullied at going to
R-rated movies or telling sex-oriented stories or purchasing one of
the many pornographic magazines.
Life the
way millions live it can be pretty tedious. What with the continual
conversations about injustices on the job, low pay and high prices,
terrible tax burdens, consumer rip-offs by profiteering companies who
seem to care more for the dollar than their customers' health or
wellbeing, it's enough to keep most people a little on the sour side.
We have
our minds on the mundane, the day-to-day struggles of living in this
clashing crescendo of too much, to fast, too soon, or not enough, not
when we want it, and much too late. We're occupied with ourselves,
our own self-struggles, the day-to-day pursuits that secretly drive
us, that urge us onward, that make us what we are.
"For
they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but
they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit" (Romans
8:5).
To be
"after the flesh," the way the old King James translation
has it, means merely to be human, to be earthly, fleshly and minding
the things of our own humanity. It is not meant to be an insult,
saying we're less than human or somehow so evil that we
ought to be taking the kicks and curses every day. It is only stating
the simple facts of our fleshly humanity.
"For
to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life
and peace" (Romans 8:6).
These same millions, including millions of church-going people
who feel they are "good folks," can be carnally minded.
That is, they are mostly concerned, in a day-to-day sense, with the
problems of our own environment, our own personal problems, our
desires, hopes, dreams, lusts, secret inner urges, our irritations,
jealousies, resentments and hates.
The word
"carnal" means "fleshly." In Spanish, the word
for meat is carne. When you buy a can of "chili con
came" you're reading a Spanish label, not an English one, which
says you're buying chili with meat in it. Perhaps God means to tell
us all we're really only a group of "meatheads" who think
in the mundane sphere of our own personal,
physical
senses, looking out at the world around us as though we wore the
proverbial card shark's green eyeshade, pulled well over our brows,
so we can see only the "around," only the immediate
horizon, never looking up, as it were, at the broader vastness of
God's great realm in the whole universe.
God
doesn't mean to insult us by telling us we're carnal! Our
babies are born that way—we were that way—and there is nothing
sweeter to loving parents or to God Himself, probably than a newborn,
tiny baby.
Perfect
humanity, perfect carnality (which is not perfect in a spiritual
sense, but is "complete" in its fleshliness, its
earthliness), is pretty well incorporated in the mind of a tiny
child. Innocent of any evil thoughts in a calculating way, the little
baby is nevertheless a collection of the unbridled, unrestrained,
uncontrollable impulses, emotions, bodily processes, lusts, appetites
and fleshly senses that make us what we are. Hungry? The child will
cry, waving its little arms and legs about, knowing no other way to
express the physical discomfiture or to cry out for the warm,
satisfying feeling of a full tummy and mother's comforting smell and
touch. So what's so ugly about the carnality of a sweet baby? Nothing
ugly about it at all; it's the way we were MADE! But we were created
as if partially incomplete! We were created as a potentially
far greater being than we are! Our great potential, our immense,
awesome, breathtaking spiritual possibilities—are beyond our human
comprehension!
God has
made us as vessels, incomplete without the missing
ingredient of His Holy Spirit! Without it we can still be "good"
part of the time or even most of the time. "Good," that is,
according to man's own rationale, according to the assessment of the
world around us, which the Bible proves is not God's world, but under
the invisible sway of the archenemy of mankind, Satan! (2 Corinthians
4:4; Ephesians 2:2; Revelation 12:9).
Within our
humanly devised societies, we can conform to standards that we feel
are good and decent and still be totally "carnally minded"
in the sense that we are omitting a vast dimension from our
lives, NEGLECTING to do many things which God wants us to do—omitting
thought, commitment and action which we should have as a very part of
our beings!
God does
not hate these carnal vessels He has created and made subject to
vanities! "For the earnest expectation of the creation waits for
the manifestation of the sons of God [the resurrection to
IMMORTALITY!]. For the creation was made subject to vanity [a useless
striving after wind, false goals, false hopes, false objectives], not
willingly, but by reason of him who has subjected the same
in hope"' (Romans 8:19,20).
God is the
Designer of the human mind and body, and He designed our human minds
to need His Spirit! Without it we are carnal, taking chances
with every other person in a fatalistic, worldwide game of "Russian
roulette."
Here we
are in a motorized, mechanized, glittering world of technology, of
machines and smoking engines, of aircraft, ships, trains and
automobiles, of rushing traffic, humming elevators, screeching
subways, purring fans and silent electrical switches. Sometimes our
machines betray us, as did the automobile on the black, frozen night
on the road from Fairbanks to Anchorage when a couple cried out in
their anguish and despair.
From the
hapless millions of the "third world," the "have-nots"
of the world who suffer from malnutrition and starvation, to the more
than 50,000 Americans who die every year in automobile accidents, we
take our chances with life-separated from God's daily intervention,
carnally minded (which is "death," eventually), living our
lives as best we can and looking about in outrage, bewilderment,
helplessness, anger and shock when sudden tragedy overtakes us,
wondering, "Why me, O Lord?"
No, it's
no insult to be carnally minded—to be told we are—but it is an
insult to God for us to STAY that way once we know!
Time and Chance, and Circumstance
People of all
races, languages and religions have differing concepts of God, of
life, and death, and the hereafter. By the millions we humans like to
believe our own concepts are the best. After all, it is our
concepts we live with, not those of others.
Millions
of us like to imagine, we have some sort of halfway relationship with
"God," either a cozy, personal relationship or a more
distant, philosophical, fatalistic one. But the instant tragedy
strikes—the moment we feel we really NEED the quick intervention of
God—we call out to our concept, to our God, and stand bewildered,
hurt and confused if the answer we seek is not immediately
forthcoming.
The Greeks
at Ephesus, in the first century, had many concepts of divinity. They
were polytheistic, believing in "Diana" of Ephesus, to whom
a massive, elaborate temple was dedicated, complete with its own
prostitutes, whose trade was a practical part of the temple worship.
There was "Askiepios," the great "healing god,"
who had another temple, and various ones dedicated to the cult of the
worship of the emperor.
The people
were as real as you or I.
They had
concepts of a god, or perhaps several gods. And to them, as they
talked to their gods and fingered their amulets, or prayed to their
little statues in the niches of their homes or went to one of the awe
inspiring temple services to watch the sacrifice of animals, or
perhaps even of humans, they were quite "aware" of the
other world in which their various deities dwelt.
They too
had their concepts. They too had various cozy, personal relationships
with the ideas in their own minds.
But Paul
said of these Greeks' former way of life, "That at that time ye
were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of
Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope,
and WITHOUT GOD in the world" (Ephesians 2:12).
Oh, they
thought they were godly enough; they went to their religious
services, they had their philosophic and even deeply personal
relationships with their various "gods." Perhaps, in their
own way, according to their own sociological customs and traditions,
they were good people" too.
But Paul
said, "Wherein in time past you lived according to the course of
this society—according to the prince of the power of the air, the
spirit that now works in the children of disobedience—among whom we
all had our daily way of life in times past following lusts of our
flesh, fulfilling the desires and appetites of our physical bodies,
and of our minds. And we were, naturally, the children of wrath and
hatreds, just like other people. But God, who is rich in mercy, for
His great love toward us … has raised us up together and made us
sit in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:2-6
paraphrased).
Though the
Greeks in Ephesus were "good Greeks" in many ways—and
though they thought they had a relationship with "God"
in one way or another—the truth was they were "without Christ"
and without God in the world!
But,
people reason, they just were dumb, polytheistic, ancient
Greeks, and we know better!
But DO
WE, really?
Then why
do we observe some of the same ceremonies and customs they did? Why
do we call our months by the wrong numbers and pagan names? Janus was
a pagan deity, and we still use "January"; September is the
ninth month, but "September" means the seventh, "October"
the eighth, "November" the ninth and "December"
the tenth, when they're actually the ninth, tenth, eleventh and
twelfth. That's because pagan Roman emperors had to name months after
themselves, to elevate themselves to the level of "Juno"
the goddess of love, sex and fertility (which is why we have "June
brides"), so, when Julius Caesar gave himself thirty-one days,
Augustus, not to be outdone, decided to have the same number and
"stole" the day from "February." Millions
still observe the "Satumalia" under the name of "Christmas"
with its symbols of sex and fertility (holly berries and mistletoe),
with its identical trappings of the same ceremony that antedates all
Christianity.
We observe, by the
millions, the same "Ishtar" (pronounced "Easter")
in commemoration of Nimrod's wife, Semiramis, found as "Isis"
among the Egyptians and "Diana" among the Ephesians and
Greeks. The trappings are the same: rabbits for rapid procreation and
fertility, eggs as a sign of life and sex, lilies because of their
obvious symbolism representing copulation—but the same millions who
do all this do not see the ancient pagan mysticism and instead claim
to see "Christ."
In these and
literally dozens of other ways, we live our daily lives in a
paganized society, oblivious of the origins of our customs and
rarely, if ever, asking WHY we do the things we do!
In our own way, we are
just as paganized and "without God in the world" as were
the ancient Ephesians and Greeks. The difference is, our names for
God are not "Zeus," or "Diana," or "Askelepios";
they are "God" and "Jesus."
But do these names
we use remind us of the real divinity of which they speak? A
name should have meaning; it should convey the personality and being
of the person or object being named. Many times, in discussion,
someone has asked you if you knew a certain person. Your mind scans
your memory bank of that name and tries to select a face, color of
hair, a personality. Sometimes you have made the mistake of saying
you thought so and found later that you didn't really know the person
being spoken of—It was someone else. Sometimes you have answered
yes and you were right.
Job thought he knew
"God." He prayed, worshiped, spoke endlessly of this "God"
he thought he knew. Read the laborious arguments he advanced in his
own self-righteous cause against his antagonists in the book of Job!
But finally God Himself spoke with Job, as the account goes, and
began showing Job some things about the real God—His creativity,
His omniscience and His power! In self-effacing humility, and in near
shock over his stunned surprise at the great magnitude of God—at
the incredible difference between the way he had imagined God to be
and the way He really was—Job said, "…I have spoken things I
didn't understand, things too wondrous for my mind, which I didn't
even know. Hear, I beseech You, and I will speak; I will urgently
request of You, and please tell me—I have heard of You, God, by the
hearing of the ear—but now my mind's eye REALLY SEES You. Because
of this I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes!" (Job 42:3
paraphrased).
Like millions of us
today, Job had a concept in his mind about "God." When the
name was spoken, his memory caused a certain image to leap into his
mind. But, without his realizing it, the image that came to mind was
false, a false image, just as surely as if Job were guilty
of "idolatry," of having another "god" before the
REAL God—a different personality and being from the REAL
God. The ancient Ephesians were not different. They too had various
false, imaginary images of who "God" was, and they were
even farther afield than Job.
What about you?
What about those who suffer with the day-to-day fatalisms of time,
and chance, and circumstance? Most have totally false, ethereal
concepts of "Jesus Christ" and "God"
Millions do not
know the REAL God, the real Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
So, clothed in our
own "goodness," rationalizing ourselves into a reasonably
acceptable behavioral pattern, thinking our own thoughts of religion,
philosophy and moral codes, we feel cheated, hurt, bewildered,
betrayed, when terrible times strike!
Jesus knew people
were perplexed with these same questions during His day!
There had been two
sensational mass deaths—one a mass murder, the other sheer
accident—wherein many died. People were asking the same questions
then that they ask today. "Why those poor people? Where was God
when they needed Him? Why did God allow this to happen?"
Some of the
religious leaders may have been equally as cruel, shallow and
guilt-ridden as some today and might have answered, "Perhaps
there were lessons they needed to learn."
But does someone
"learn a lesson" who is suddenly killed by tons of falling
brick and mortar? Does a tiny, sweet child, going to sleep against
the cold in a stalled car and then slipping into death through
breathing poisonous gas, learn something? Do the anguished parents
need this brutal lesson to shock some terrible sins out of their own
lives?
Many miss the
point entirely!
This is NOT GOD'S
world! The millions have invited God OUT of their lives through their
own free choice, and God is cooperating with them—showing it is our
own way of life, our "sins and iniquities" (which we call
"good") that have separated us from God.
We are "without
God" in the world, in spite of our form of religion!
Jesus was asked
about two tragedies by people who had the same ideas of mysterious,
selective punishment. "There were present at that season some
that told him of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with
their sacrifices.
"And Jesus
answering said unto the, Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners
above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell
you NO! But, except you repent, you shall likewise perish!"
(Luke 13:1-3).
Jesus was not
saying these men "deserved" some terrible death—having
been discovered sacrificing in some manner against Pilate's decrees
and having been summarily murdered on the spot! He said NO
to the idea they must have been guilty of greater sin and specially
singled out for God's wrath! He said, in effect, it was simply a
matter of "time, and chance, and circumstance." And, except
we repent, except we break down that barrier that separates us from
God, except we establish a daily connection with HIM, "you
shall all likewise perish." He means we are only out here, in
our technological world of machines which sometimes betrays us,
taking our chances APART from any direct interference from God one
way or the other!
He continued, "Or
those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them. Do
you suppose they were sinners above all the men that dwelt in
Jerusalem? I tell you No, but, except you REPENT, you shall
all likewise perish!" (Luke 13:4,5).
Here He speaks of
sheer chance. A mere accident. Ancient mortar finally loosened from
its hundreds of years' exposure to the wind and rain and a section of
tower wall came crashing down on a group of eighteen men! This
tragedy was well known, a mass death. The people had come to Jesus
plainly puzzled over the deep spiritual questions about these two
cases of mass death—one plain murder and the other sheer chance.
Obviously, since Jesus so strongly addresses the questions of
"sinners above all else," the people had supposed this was
the case. They were assuming God was RIGHT THERE. They
assumed these men were going about their daily lives with their own
concepts, their own values and standards, their own personal
relationships with "God," and could not imagine why that
"God" was not INSTANTLY there to PREVENT
such terrible tragedies!
Jesus showed God
had NOTHING TO DO WITH IT WHATSOEVER!
God was not even IN
the picture—for He had not been INVITED in! No, these men
were not "sinners above all else"; they were sinners JUST
LIKE everybody else! They didn't think of themselves as
"sinners," for most human beings have trouble living with
too much of a guilt complex. They, like most of us, probably
rationalize around in their minds to the point they felt like
reasonably "good people."
Surely their
friends and relatives who came to Jesus thought them deserving of
better treatment at the hands of God than they got! But they, like so
many millions today, didn't understand that it was MAN who
first invited God to get out of His world! It was MAN who
said, "Don't let God speak with us!" It was MAN
who said, "Make us a king like the other nations." It was
MAN who cut himself off from God by his own societies, his
own governments and socioeconomic systems, and his own free
religions! It was man, through exercising his own free choice,
who pulled the plug and separated himself from God so that he became
without God in the world."
God simply was
NOWHERE AROUND when these tragedies struck. And, in that
lonely, isolated car in that black Alaskan snowstorm, when those two
terribly stricken parents tried to revive their little twin boys are
in the millions of huts and hovels from Bangladesh to the Sub Sahara,
from China to Brazil, where hundreds of thousands of little babies
were likewise dying, though from slow starvation or the ravages of
disease, and in all the trenches, foxholes, tanks, ships and aircraft
of all our wars, as young men have been killed by the millions—God
simply was not a part of it. He wasn't in it, not involved. It wasn't
"His war"; it wasn't "His society."
God doesn't bother
with your life unless YOU ASK HIM TO IN ADVANCE!
Jesus said, "Except
YE REPENT" you shall all "likewise" (though sheer
time, and chance, and circumstance) perish!
It is only when we
finally realize that we need God all the time—when we know
we must repent of our sins and call out to God in repentance, calling
upon the saving grace of the shed blood of Jesus Christ to cleanse us
of our carnality, when we are baptized (Romans 6), and when we OBEY
the command of God to "REPENT, and be baptized every
one of you for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift
of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38)—that God says He is willing to
make Himself a PART of our everyday lives!
God does not deal
in preventive legislation. He does not PREVENT man's wars,
or our bad diets, or religious taboos and superstitions. He does not
prevent us from manufacturing deficient automobiles that can kill us
in bizarre circumstances. He does not PREVENT us from
forgetting to leave windows open, if we are in an enclosed place, or
shutting the engine off. He does not PREVENT ancient mortar
from weathering, or brutal soldiers from killing.
But God promises to
be a daily PART of our lives if we establish that
connection! If we approach HIM. If we seek Him!
God says, "I
have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people which
walk in a way that is not good, after their own thoughts. A people
that provoke me to anger continually to my face … that say, 'Stand
over there by yourself' to me and, 'Come not near me"' (Isaiah
65:105 paraphrased).
He says, "Seek
ye the Eternal while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is
near: let the wicked forsake HIS WAY, and the unrighteous man his
thoughts: and let him return unto the Eternal, and he will have mercy
upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon!"
(Isaiah 55:6,7).
Those poor parents
weren't being punished. They weren't sinners above all else; they
were good people, according to our own concepts of goodness. But God
was not involved in their terrible loss any more than He was involved
in the mass deaths during Jesus' day, or in the wars and sufferings
of man from the first murder until now.
YOU can
have God's tender mercies; YOU can have His DAILY
intervention in your life; you can have the very mind and
presence of Jesus Christ living His life over again within you, if
you will do what Jesus asks!
"REPENT,"
He says, "COME UNTO ME," and says His yoke is easy and His
burden light! He says He will draw all men unto Him and that He is
"not willing that any should perish but that all should have
eternal life!"
And those parents?
Their dead twin boys? Probably they do not yet realize that in a very
short time now those little boys will be RESURRECTED TO LIFE
again—and, hopefully, their own parents by that time may well be in
Christ's OWN KINGDOM!
Spiritual beings,
as loving parents, can take care of children MUCH more effectively
than fleshly ones! God intends a happy ending, finally, even for the
terribly stricken family who cried out, "O GOD, WHERE WERE YOU
WHEN I NEEDED YOU?"
YOUR life can have
a happy ending, from now on, if you are willing to discover the REAL
Jesus Christ, willing to find out what is sin and to REPENT of sin,
calling out to God to forgive you and to wash away your sins under
the shed blood of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Then you will
always know your God is near; you will know you need Him all the
time, every day! He has already made it plain He wants You in His
Kingdom, or you wouldn't be on this earth in the first place!
It is you
choice—your decision.
-End-
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The Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic
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