God vs Mankind

[itgwfdisciple]

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Broken commandments

Since the beginning Man has always been at odds with God when it has come to keeping his commandments. The cause of all the grief that we currently have stems from Adam feeling that the commandment that God gave to him was not that serious. If you look at the 40,000+ Christian denominations you will probably find that each of them has a part of the Bible that they try to avoid, or they will insist that the words that are written in the Bible are being read wrongly, for the odd commandment or two that they are having a problem with, and that you suddenly need to change the way you think when you read these particular words. If we all decided to take the advice of Moses in Deuteronomy 4:1-2 "Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the LORD God of your fathers giveth you. Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you." then we might find that God would not be as distant from us as He is now.

God is still waiting

If we have a look at Deuteronomy 4:25 "When thou shalt beget children, and children's children, and ye shall have remained long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, and shall do evil in the sight of the LORD thy God, to provoke him to anger: I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess it; ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed. And the LORD shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the LORD shall lead you. And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the LORD thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice; (For the LORD thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them." we can see that God knows in advance when his commandments are going to be broken, but has said that he will never forsake anyone who turns to him even in the latter days.

Watered down commandments

If you go to one of the 40,000+ different Christian churches you will probably find them saying that you only have to worry about some of the commandments and that you can mostly carry on with life just as it is and that you just have to worship God how they do, but if you read in the Bible you might be shocked to find that Jesus had a very different opinion. In Matthew 15:7-9 it says "Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." and we see here that Jesus says that the quality of the commandments followed is more important than the quality of the worship. In Matthew 5:17-19 it says "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." and we see here that, no matter how small the commandment that one of the 40,000+ different churches break, it will still cause that church to be the least in the kingdom of heaven along with the others.

Finding your assurance

Another of the important things that you will find that the 40,000+ churches will not be able to give you is the assurance that you will actually be able to obtain your eternal life by doing what they say. Ever since the power of God has left the church, they have had to come up with various ways of making it seem as if the Holy Ghost is still with them and you will find that a lot of the ways involve loud music with singing and a little bit of dancing and none of them are able to give you the assurance that you should have. God, on the other hand, does have a means by which He can give you this assurance. Jesus mentions how to get started in Luke 12:29-34 "And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you. Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." and once you have sold all your goods you will then find yourself on the streets like the disciples and this is the point at which your assurance will kick in because God will then have to fulfill the "and all these things shall be added unto you" part of Jesus' words. This method has also been tried and tested because in Acts 2:44,45 it says "And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need." and if God's power is valid now then so are those words.

Beware of the deceiver

After reading this far you might think that it is natural for Man to be against God because of the strictness of some of the commandments, but the Bible indicates that there is a more sinister reason for the things that are happening. In Revelation of John 20:1-3 it says "And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season." and if we make a note of where it says "that he should deceive the nations no more" we see that the Devil has a means by which he can get people to do things for his benefit and these things will of course hamper anyone who is trying to get closer to God, but will not hamper anyone who decides to chose mankinds side. In Revelation of John 20:7,8 it says "And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea." and we see here that the minute Satan is loosed he is able to deceive the nations again and to make them gather all of their armies. Deception on this scale is something that we have to be fearful of all the time and if you decide to chose mankinds side in this confrontation then you can be sure that Satans deception will always be nearby. If on the other hand you decide to fully chose God by following Jesus' advice then you can be assured that one of God's invincible hedges will be there to ward of any deceptions that Satan might have in store.

Time to chose your side

The final piece of advice comes from I John 2:15-17 where he says "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever." and you can use this advice to determine the state of any of the 40,000+ different churches that you might visit. If you find that the members are enjoying the things of the world a bit too much then you might as well try the next one. If, after searching, you cannot find a church that agrees with the above advice from Jesus, then it is time to change sides in the God vs Mankind battle and to fully give up this life so that God can give you that assurance that you should be looking for.

[itgwfdisciple]

-
Broken commandments

Since the beginning Man has always been at odds with God when it has come to keeping his commandments. The cause of all the grief that we currently have stems from Adam feeling that the commandment that God gave to him was not that serious. If you look at the 40,000+ Christian denominations you will probably find that each of them has a part of the Bible that they try to avoid, or they will insist that the words that are written in the Bible are being read wrongly, for the odd commandment or two that they are having a problem with, and that you suddenly need to change the way you think when you read these particular words. If we all decided to take the advice of Moses in Deuteronomy 4:1-2 "Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the LORD God of your fathers giveth you. Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you." then we might find that God would not be as distant from us as He is now.

God is still waiting

If we have a look at Deuteronomy 4:25 "When thou shalt beget children, and children's children, and ye shall have remained long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, and shall do evil in the sight of the LORD thy God, to provoke him to anger: I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess it; ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed. And the LORD shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the LORD shall lead you. And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the LORD thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice; (For the LORD thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them." we can see that God knows in advance when his commandments are going to be broken, but has said that he will never forsake anyone who turns to him even in the latter days.

Watered down commandments

If you go to one of the 40,000+ different Christian churches you will probably find them saying that you only have to worry about some of the commandments and that you can mostly carry on with life just as it is and that you just have to worship God how they do, but if you read in the Bible you might be shocked to find that Jesus had a very different opinion. In Matthew 15:7-9 it says "Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." and we see here that Jesus says that the quality of the commandments followed is more important than the quality of the worship. In Matthew 5:17-19 it says "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." and we see here that, no matter how small the commandment that one of the 40,000+ different churches break, it will still cause that church to be the least in the kingdom of heaven along with the others.

Finding your assurance

Another of the important things that you will find that the 40,000+ churches will not be able to give you is the assurance that you will actually be able to obtain your eternal life by doing what they say. Ever since the power of God has left the church, they have had to come up with various ways of making it seem as if the Holy Ghost is still with them and you will find that a lot of the ways involve loud music with singing and a little bit of dancing and none of them are able to give you the assurance that you should have. God, on the other hand, does have a means by which He can give you this assurance. Jesus mentions how to get started in Luke 12:29-34 "And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you. Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." and once you have sold all your goods you will then find yourself on the streets like the disciples and this is the point at which your assurance will kick in because God will then have to fulfill the "and all these things shall be added unto you" part of Jesus' words. This method has also been tried and tested because in Acts 2:44,45 it says "And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need." and if God's power is valid now then so are those words.

Beware of the deceiver

After reading this far you might think that it is natural for Man to be against God because of the strictness of some of the commandments, but the Bible indicates that there is a more sinister reason for the things that are happening. In Revelation of John 20:1-3 it says "And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season." and if we make a note of where it says "that he should deceive the nations no more" we see that the Devil has a means by which he can get people to do things for his benefit and these things will of course hamper anyone who is trying to get closer to God, but will not hamper anyone who decides to chose mankinds side. In Revelation of John 20:7,8 it says "And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea." and we see here that the minute Satan is loosed he is able to deceive the nations again and to make them gather all of their armies. Deception on this scale is something that we have to be fearful of all the time and if you decide to chose mankinds side in this confrontation then you can be sure that Satans deception will always be nearby. If on the other hand you decide to fully chose God by following Jesus' advice then you can be assured that one of God's invincible hedges will be there to ward of any deceptions that Satan might have in store.

Time to chose your side

The final piece of advice comes from I John 2:15-17 where he says "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever." and you can use this advice to determine the state of any of the 40,000+ different churches that you might visit. If you find that the members are enjoying the things of the world a bit too much then you might as well try the next one. If, after searching, you cannot find a church that agrees with the above advice from Jesus, then it is time to change sides in the God vs Mankind battle and to fully give up this life so that God can give you that assurance that you should be looking for.