My Faith.

Through these thoughts I have attempted to create an outline for the foundations of my faith in Jehovah, God.

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Human life is filled with suffering and confusion.  Darkness and sorrow plague the better part of our time on this strange earth.  Yes, the world and the universe in which it bathes is a magnificent mystery yet to be fully comprehended by any one, but the mystery of a man’s soul is even deeper an enigma.

There was once a man, a king who gave his heart “to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven”(Eccl. 1.13).  He gave his heart to search out what is the purpose of all things, the meaning of all things.  He plunged into the depths of his soul to find it’s meaning.  He explored the darkest things of life, and the things filled with light.  He gave himself to know wisdom and folly intimately, not just theoretically (Eccl. 1.17), a knowledge that is so fearsome very few men have the courage to seek it out.  Men often fear knowing wisdom as much as they fear knowing the true darkness and death that is in their souls.  For to know wisdom and folly, to know them intimately is to realize the position of one’s soul before the One who created it.

“For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.” John 3.20.

But this King Solomon took the fearsome journey because his love for the Truth was greater than his love for the pleasures of ignorance.  And he wrote the book of Ecclesiastes.  In this book Solomon wrote of human life alone, that it is empty and full of uselessness and suffering more than happiness and fulfillment.  He wrote of death alone, that it is better than life because in it there is no suffering, that the miscarried child who never sees the light of day is more blessed than the child who is born into this life (Eccl. 4:1-3).  He wrote of wisdom alone, that it is better than folly and yet the same because both the wise man and foolish man meet with the same end, silence and the grave, and the rewards of the wise man’s labors go to other men who did not labor for it (Eccl. 2:18-23).  Hardship and injustice come to the wise man and the foolish.  These observations made Solomon bitter and confused.  What is the point of striving to be righteous?  What is the meaning of all this suffering?  What is the meaning of the pleasure?  What is life a part from God?  It is like a worthless piece of clay without a Potter to mold it, like paints and canvas and no Painter to give them purpose and meaning and life.

Solomon finally came to the point when he understood that only with God in the picture are all other things made significant, is wisdom made perfect and life made real and worthy.  Only with God are things deserving of judgment, whether it be glory or condemnation, life or death.  Only with God is truth and justice, mercy and redemption made possible in the confusion and noise of the world and it’s groaning.  Solomon came to understand that through all of a man’s life, the pleasures and the shame, to question the existence of God is futile, for GOD IS, there is no other option.  The conclusion of the whole matter, the end of Solomon’s journey into heaven and hell was this, to fear God and keep His commandments, for if nothing else in this life is sure in the end, God’s judgment certainly is.

But just who is this “God” exactly?  There are so many deities out there who are called “God” or who claim some sort of divinity, but how can a house stand that is divided against itself?  How can so many, different deities all claim to be “God” if they do not agree with one another?  Which one is right?  Is it even possible to make a reasonable guess, much less to actually know for sure who “God” is?

From the beginning of time there has been one God Who has maintained a large and faithful following from all over the world.  That God is the Jehovah of the ancient Jewish Scriptures and the ancient Christian texts which can be read today in numerous different languages and versions.  Early copies of these Scriptures have been preserved so well from their ancient origins that many scholars are convinced that the Jewish and Christian God is the true God who has supernaturally preserved His Word from being tainted and corrupted by the fallibility and evil of men.  Yes, there are many versions of the original texts which have perverted the meaning of some portions of Scripture, but considering the difficulty involved in translating Hebrew and Aramaic and Greek into English texts and other languages around the world, there is still the same, general understanding among all the different nations of this God Jehovah, who He is, what He desires of mankind, and that He is coming again.  And among the Christians from all the different nations of the world there is the same faith in Jehovah as the only God, the same worship, the same knowledge of Jesus Christ as the Son of God and as their Savior from the punishment of their sins, and the same knowledge of the Holy Spirit of God that dwells within every believer, the same Allelujah and the same Amen.

The ancient, Hebrew prophet Isaiah gave these words from this God:

“For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited),

‘I am the LORD, and there is none else.

I have not spoken in secret,

In some dark land;

I did not say to the offspring of Jacob,

‘Seek Me in a waste place’;

I, the LORD, speak righteousness,

Declaring things that are upright.

Gather yourselves and come;

Draw near together, you fugitives of the nations;

They have no knowledge,

Who carry about their wooden idol

And pray to a god who cannot save.

Declare and set forth your case;

Indeed, let them consult together.

Who has announced this from of old?

Who has long since declared it?

Is it not I, the LORD?

And there is no other God besides Me,

A righteous God and a Savior;

There is none except Me.

Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth;

For I am God, and there is no other.

I have sworn by Myself,

The word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness

And will not turn back,

That to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance.

They will say of Me, ‘Only in the LORD are righteousness and strength.’

Men will come to Him,

And all who were angry at Him will be put to shame.

In the LORD all the offspring of Israel

Will be justified and will glory.”

Isaiah 45.18-25

This true God is the One who walked with the ancient Patriarchs at the beginning of Time, whose words were the first of a divine Being to ever be recorded by men.  His name has been known from the beginning, His blessings and curses have been proven, His prophecies have come to pass, and His sovereign power over all things has been made manifest throughout the centuries of Jewish and Christian history.  This great God, this Almighty One, whose name is Jehovah, He is the only, eternal, self-existing God who created heaven and earth and all that is therein.  He rules and sustains all things with a mighty hand, for His glory that is due Him and for His purpose.  His Word is true, His ways are righteous and just, and with Him there is no shadow of turning (James 1:17).  He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the One who is, who was, and who is to come. (Rev. 1:8).

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and He created Man as a perfect being, man and woman He created them, a perfect reflection of God Himself (Genesis 1:26-27).  There was no suffering on the earth with Man, no perversion, no darkness mixed with the light, no confusion.  God communed with Man face-to-face because Man was holy as God is holy.  But perfect union with God did not last, for Man was quickly seduced by the desire to know what was forbidden for him to know,  Evil.  They questioned the Word of God which was that they would die if they ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  “You shall not surely die”, said the Serpent who tempted Eve with the fruit (Gen. 3:4).  And so Eve wanted to believe the seductive Serpent rather than the loving God who created her, for the fruit looked so good and the Serpent had told her that it would make her wise and powerful just like God Himself.  So she ate of the fruit and did not die.  She went to Adam and told him that God was wrong, that death is not in the fruit and that it is delightful to eat, and so Adam also ate and did not die.  But something inside of them died, for immediately they felt naked and exposed and wanted desperately to hide themselves from their Creator.  Innocence and purity had vanished from their souls, and their eyes were opened to guilt and shame.  A slow, subtle death was brought upon them just as God had said.  But this death did not just affect Adam and Eve, for through Adam the curse of sin and death was brought upon all of his offspring.  And so through Adam’s rebellion against the God of Life Mankind became the enemy of God and therefore the enemy of Life.

Death is not something that happens quickly to us like the sudden passing of a soul from a body.  No, it is more like a disease which we are each born with, something in the body and the soul that hinders us from knowing full happiness and prosperity in this life.  Death is like a disease that gradually eats away a man’s soul for eternity, like a worm that never dies, constantly eating away at a soul that never dies but is continually dying.  Because of his sin a man’s position before God is one of condemnation to eternal death.  But that is man alone…

The ancient, Hebrew prophet Jeremiah wrote a book of sorrows which we know as the Book of Lamentations.  In this book he pours out his feelings about the intense suffering of of this life and of dying.  But in the midst of this grovelling in desolation and despair toward God, Jeremiah saw something wonderful in the distance, a great hope of light and salvation at the end of his dark journey.

“My soul has been rejected from peace;

I have forgotten happiness.

So I say, ‘My strength has perished,

And so has my hope from the LORD.’

Hope of Relief in God’s Mercy

Remember my affliction and my wandering,

the wormwood and bitterness.

Surely my soul remembers

And is bowed down within me.

This I recall to my mind,

Therefore I have hope.

The LORD’S lovingkindnesses indeed never cease,

For His compassions never fail.

They are new every morning;

Great is Your faithfulness.

The LORD is my portion, says my soul,

Therefore I have hope in Him.

The LORD is good to those who wait for Him,

To the person who seeks Him.

It is good that he waits silently

For the salvation of the LORD.’”

…

Why should any living mortal, or any man,

Offer complaint in view of his sins?

Let us examine and probe our ways,

And let us return to the LORD.

We lift up our heart and hands

Toward God in heaven.

Lamentations 3.17-26, 39-41.

What is the salvation of the Lord?  And where is it found?  There is so much talk of this Jesus Christ as the person who is our salvation, but is this true and how?  If God is just and His Word is true, then how can a condemned man ever be saved by God and God’s justice still prevail?  These questions are necessary steps in understanding the meaning of the salvation of the Lord.

Yes, God is just, but what if in His justice and His righteousness He provided a way for a condemned man to be redeemed back unto holiness with God?  In order for this to happen there would have to be a substitution payment for the sin of Mankind, something or someone to take a man’s punishment of eternal damnation in his place.  The punishment for Adam’s sin was commanded from the beginning to be death.  But what if God took the punishment of death upon Himself in the place of a man, just as a man might give his life for his dear friend so that his friend might live?  What a beautiful act of love this would be!

Has God really died for us?  Is He dead?  How did He do this?  Is Jesus God?

The man Jesus of Nazareth was either a lunatic liar or he was who he said, the Son of God, Emmanuel, the Jewish Messiah who was prophesied by the ancient, Hebrew prophets of the Old Testament.  He did die the death of a criminal on a Roman cross but lived the moral life of a perfect man who forgave sins, healed the sick and brought dead men back to life.  He was buried but his body cannot be found.  What one believes concerning this man Jesus has everything to do with what one believes concerning His words and the words of those Apostles who knew him and wrote of Him.  What one believes about Jesus Christ has everything to do with what one believes concerning his own life, his sins, his good deeds, and his eternal destiny.  What God said to Adam  in the beginning could be said to Adam today as this, “If you live as your own god through the flesh, you will surely die, but if you live through Me through faith, you will surely live.”  And so it is, Amen.

Isaiah 53.

John 5.24.

John 8.

“These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:  As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.  And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.  I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.  And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.”  John 17.3.

Revelation 21, 22.

The salvation of the Lord is real to them who have it.  And His word speaks for itself to them, for by it they obtain and preserve their understanding and their faith.

Romans 10.

The Word of God is so pure, so rich in the greatest treasures of knowledge and wisdom that man can ever find.  And yet it is still the tendency of men as self-centered creatures to seek out the words of other men to be enlightened concerning God and themselves.  Why do they not seek out the Word of God?  There is nothing as powerful as the Word of God, for in the end it is God who has the final say after all.  According to Jesus the Word of God is more important than bread and water in this life.

“Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.  And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward very hungry.  And when the tempter came to him, he said, ‘If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.’  But Jesus answered and said, ‘It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”’  Matthew 4.1-4.

Jesus said that Man shall live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.  Live.  Thrive.  Prosper.  Living by the Word of God is the creating and sustaining force behind everything good on this earth just as in the beginning God spoke and created the heavens and the earth and the light by His own words.  Food and water are essential to surviving this physical life, but Jesus, in responding to Satan’s temptation to fulfill the great desires and needs of His flesh, alluded to a greater reality than bread and water that is necessary to survive the life beyond this life, the life of eternity.   And yet how can we live by a word which we do not know or believe or cannot understand?

If God gave us His Word, and if it is this Word that and His wisdom by which He creates and sustains all things, then what knowledge or wisdom or understanding is greater than His?  If we desire to know God and our own souls, we must be bold and pray to God, asking Him for what we need.

“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.   But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.”  James 1.5,6.

We must have faith in Jesus Christ.  We must be baptized with the Holy Spirit and immerse ourselves in the Scriptures, meditating on them, searching them out, proving them.  We must let those words know our heart so that they may open our eyes to the wisdom of God and our ears to His voice, not the voices of other men.

“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.  Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?  Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.”  Matthew 7.15-17.

“For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you beware of this… For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.  No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.  Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds.”  2 Corinthians 11.4,13-15.

It is vital that every Christian know the Word of God for himself that he may use this spiritual sword to discern unrighteousness, false prophets and demons and to wage war against them in the name and power of Jesus Christ.  If we believe in God and have faith in the redemption offered us of Jesus Christ, then we are children of light in a world of darkness and deception.  There will be conflict.  There will be persecution even by the hands of those we thought were our friends, by those we thought were fellow-believers, by wolves in sheeps’ clothing, by devils in angels’ clothing.  The forces of darkness are most deceptive and will do anything to destroy the Truth and compromise the light of God.  But we are not of this world.  We are of Christ, and our hope and love is everlasting.

I would like to end this statment of faith with a letter by the Apostle John to one of his beloved churches on what it means to be a Christian and to know the true God.  “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who remains faithful will not be hurt by the second death.”(Revelation 2.11).

“The elder to the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in truth; and not only I, but also all who know the truth, for the sake of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever: Grace, mercy and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.

I was very glad to find some of your children walking in truth, just as we have received commandment to do from the Father.  Now I ask you, lady, not as though I were writing to you a new commandment, but the one which we have had from the beginning, that we love one another.  And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it.  For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.  Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward. Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son.  If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting; for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.

Though I have many things to write to you, I do not want to do so with paper and ink; but I hope to come to you and speak face to face, so that your joy may be made full.

The children of your chosen sister greet you.”

(II John).