Covenant Hearts’ Blog

Deuteronomy 21:22 And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree:

23 His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged [is] accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the LORD thy God giveth thee [for] an inheritance.

Galatians 3:13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed [is] every one that hangeth on a tree:

Trees represent life. Especially the tree of life. But in general trees represent life. In the garden which was in Eden God gave man the fruit of every tree to eat as food save one. Trees = life.

What happens when you turn an instrument of life into an instrument of death? You are cursed. This is not some voodoo hex I’m talking about, it is simply the sanctions God imposes upon sin. Blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. If you turn tools of life into tools of death you are cursed and the curse of God is upon you/your nation.

Abortion is an obvious reference. But what about hanging on a tree? If you kill/are killed by hanging on a tree this is the curse of God. The Roman nation was cursed and is no longer around today. Jesus Christ was cursed. (Sounds kind of sacrilegious to say.)

Maj. premise: Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.
Min. premise: Christ was hanged on a tree.
Concl: Christ was cursed.

But that is not to say that Christ was paying a penalty for a sin He committed…He was paying the penalty for sin. Again He was cursed.

Isaiah 53:5 But he [was] wounded for our transgressions, [he was] bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace [was] upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

I Peter 2:24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.

Copied from Blue Letter Bible.

Thanks be to God for His sovereignty and providence without which none could be saved.

God created woman for man, saying “It is not good that the man should be alone” (Gen 2:18). In fact a man’s true wealth can be seen in his family, for his “wife shall be as a fruitful vine…and [his] children like olive plants” (Psalm 128:3). Additionally, a man that has a family is fulfilling the commission of God to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion…over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Gen 1:28).

Some say that the Bible teaches that it is better that man should be alone for these days are evil, for Paul the Apostle said “I wish all were as I myself am” that is single. But it is clear when it says that “some will depart from the faith…who forbid marriage” (I Timothy 4:1-3). “But if you do marry, you have not sinned” (I Cor 7:28). And that if you, well, have a sex drive then “each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband” (I Cor 7:2). The fact is most people have a sex drive that God put there. Without it, the human race would perish on the earth. The reason Paul made such a statement was that in singleness he could devote himself entirely to ministry. But the truth is that God has not called all to be an apostle/missionary church planter. “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ” (I Cor 12:12). Thus, celibacy is not for everyone. In fact, it is not for the majority to be celibate. In response to the statement “It is better not to marry” (Mt 19:10), Jesus said, “Not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given” (Mt 19:11). So the Scripture is clear only some are given by God to be Spiritual Eunuchs for the sake of the Kingdom.

Posted by Michaelsei (that’s me!) on Helium.com

God is sovereign. God is Holy, Pure, and Just. God hates sin and evildoers. God created man in His image.

Man erred from conforming to God’s attributes. Thus, sin was brought into the world. From Adam, the sin nature passed from father to son, on and on. All have sinned. God cannot stand sin to be in His presence.

Hell is real, but hell is not a place. It is being without a place. It is being away from the presence of God. Hell may be depicted as a place of fiery torment, but it is usually depicted as a place of outer darkness. A cold, dank morgue where solitude and fear reign over you. You scream and cry out for death to take you, but death has already taken your mortal body. You are experiencing what is called the second death. Your immortal soul is separated from your creator. You have been cut off from your source of life, but again not in the corporeal sense. This death is not a perishing away but an eternal perishing that ceases not. This is hell.

It ought to deter evildoers. The commandments given to the nation of Israel served to conform them to God’s image. In so doing, evil was not allowed to persist. Capital crimes required capital punishments. Lesser crimes required retribution. If I was starving, I may steal to replenish my strength, but I would be required to pay back many times more than I stole. If I took a life in premeditated murder, my blood would be required; however, if I committed manslaughter in the heat of a struggle unpremeditated, then I would have refuge according to the Law. Capital crimes are deterred by capital punishments, this is God’s design. On the contrary, not every individual is unilaterally deterred from doing what they will. They will serve as examples and will be punished.

On deterrence, another example is Genghis Khan. Genghis Khan was an authoritarian ruler who went far beyond God’s perfect justice to his own form of deterrence. I use him only as an example of how punishments are deterrents. He used capital punishment even in cases of lesser crimes. He achieved a peace that would still be seen in his grandson’s lifetime. When Kublai Khan was in power, Marco Polo passed through the region, living the adventure story that he would later bring home.

Ultimately, God determines the number of the elect. However, in a society where God’s justice is utilized, the restraint of the Holy Spirit will be seen at work in that nation against evildoers. Hell can be lauded as the final punishment for evildoers, and for some, I hope and pray that it is a deterrent from evil. The only thing that he would lack is to seek after Jesus Christ and His salvation.

Posted by Me on an OAO Message Board:

joem said:…exhaustive foreknowledge…equals exhaustive predestination…

jesse said:…If God eternally foreknew all that will unavoidably occur, God could never decide what will occur…

I think these statements are mutually exclusive. And as such, one or both statements must be wrong. And if wrong, then the philosophical underpinnings of these statements must also be wrong. So which one is wrong?

I agree with foryou that in God’s perfection He could foreknow all events in time including His active role in it and not need to change anything. God is powerless to originate a current idea/action in the same way that He is powerless to sin, IE change from being perfect.

Malachi 3:6 For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.

In addition, God is the creator…Including being the creator of time. If you say He sovereign; He is not limited by time. There can be no “moment” for Him in eternity. To discuss sequence or moments, presupposes that He is limited by time. Is God in time or eternity? Time begins and ends. God has given us this picture in creation/natural revelation. God has no beginning and no end. If you can comprehend this, you can comprehend the incomprehensible.

I being a creature in time and space cannot fathom anything that is beyond time or space. This is why God has to reveal Himself for someone to know Him. That is why He uses Parables, analogies (heck, all knowledge is analogical), poetry, allegories, prophetic imagery and such the like. He cannot say I am like “X”. Because there is only one “x” like Him and that is the “X,” IE Himself; thus all knowledge of God is derivative and is in universal terms: the three “universal” omni’s or universal negative (versus affirmative) definitions: eternal (without time) and pure/holy (without blemish). For we know not what “eternal” or “pure” really mean since we experience neither eternity nor consummate holiness.

I agree with foryou that we must always return to scripture. We cannot start with the scripture and finish with philosophy. We must start with scripture, and be always checking our philosophy each step of the way by scriptural principles; concluding with something that does not contradict scripture or else we have erred in our surmising.

Posted on OAO Message Board, Topic: The future as both CERTAIN and CONTINGENT

I believe that God created the world, because that’s what the Bible says. I believe that God has an elect and that He will lose none of them, because that’s what the Bible teaches. But I think that we are missing something, all of us. How do we determine these ideas to be philosophically equivalent? But that is what God is calling us to. The Bible is true, it is God’s word. We are required to understand His Word comparing scripture with scripture. I don’t really have a great answer for the scripture you quoted (scriptures which seem to imply that man is a free moral agent), I can give you the textbook response:

God’s eternal decreetal [perfect] will is what must happen because God has determined that it will be so. And yet nothing happens but by the will of God, thus it is by His permissive will that He foreordains that sin will enter the world and His plan of redemption executed (no pun intended).

God doesn’t want some poor soul to be raped, murdered, mutilated, castrated or incarcerated/tortured. Except for the restraining work of the Holy Spirit, we would see quite a bit more evil in this world. It is not that he chose this person to be decimated, but that He chose you or me not to be…THIS is the grace of God…God hates sinners, while I was a sinner Christ died for me, Christ died for someone He hated. Love is a decision that God made according to His own pleasure.

If the Bible teaches that God has predestined the elect and yet calls all men to repentance, then we must hold both as scriptural not rejecting the one we don’t like. One day we will fully understand how they are consistent with each other.

If the Bible teaches that God hath declared the end from the beginning and that He is not the author of sin, then we must hold both as scriptural not rejecting the one we don’t like. One day we will fully understand how they are consistent with each other.

If the Bible teaches that God changes His mind and says that He changeth not, then we must hold both as scriptural not rejecting the one we don’t like. One day we will fully understand how they are consistent with each other.

Posted by Michaelsei (that’s me!) on Helium.com

In everything that you do, you are investing in your future. If you live like hell today, you should expect to receive hell tomorrow (’you reap what you sow’). This principle speaks succinctly to the issue of premarital sex. There are no rewards for having sex before marriage: instant and immediate gratification of lust will only bring the judgment of God. In the long run, there can only be negative results. If you engage in this immoral behavior, you will have sinned against God, you will have sinned against your own body, and you will have sinned against the one with whom you had sexual intercourse.

In the seventh of the Ten Commandments, God has commanded all of mankind to be morally pure: “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” Although it seems like a stretch to apply this command to premarital sex, it must be understood that this commandment is really a summary of all the commands like those found in Leviticus 18, which are considered a definition of the seventh commandment. The Westminster Shorter Catechism states: “Question 71: What is required in the seventh commandment? Answer: The seventh commandment requires the preservation of our own and our neighbor’s chastity, in heart, speech, and behavior.” Furthermore, Jesus Christ stated: “Ye have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Matthew 5:27-28 (RSV). What an indictment! No man will ever be found guiltless of committing this sin. I think that if Jesus Christ condemned guys “checking out” girls, then He severely condemns premarital sex.

You also sin against your own body and the one you are involved sexually with when you engage in sexual intercourse outside of the marriage covenant. You take the risk of contracting an STD and/or getting pregnant. Abstinence until marriage is the only ’safe sex’ and ‘no fail’ contraceptive.

Our bodies were made for God’s glory not our own pleasure. On the other hand, God extends to us these pleasures inside of the marriage covenant. “Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled…” Heb 13:4 (KJV). We rob ourselves and pillage our future delight with the wife or husband of our youth. We trade our birthright for a pot of porridge, so to speak. We have the opportunity to give our future spouse a beautiful gift on our wedding night, ‘you are the first, I have remained true to you even before we met.’

Everyday the number of single parents increases. Consequently, there is a major problem with thinking that premarital sex is okay. For those who value long-term commitment, it is clear to see that if there is no marriage covenant; there is no assurance of true commitment.

Posted by Michaelsei (that’s me!) on Helium.com

This is truly the wrong question to ask. As usual we approach thinking about God in a self centered way. “Why, God, do I deserve to be punished?” Instead we ought to raise our level of awareness to the depth of reality; which is: God is righteous. When we think in this way about God, the issues become clearer. That is not to say that we will like the conclusions, but that they do begin to make sense.

If you will accept the statement, “God is righteous,” as a premise, then I can show you by this thinking: (1) that God must send people to hell, (2) God is loving, and (3) hell is not what we should be worried about.

In order to really understand what it is at issue, we need to decipher this statement: God is righteous. First, when I say “God” I am personally talking about the triune God of the Bible. Second, when I use the word “righteous” I really mean that righteousness as we know it is simply a reflection of who God is and what He is all about. God holds the moral high ground and as such is righteous and without sin. Note: He is without sin. As a consequence He cannot sin. That is to say God cannot contradict Himself. Furthermore He cannot allow sin to enter His presence (or glory; truly God is everywhere and sin is too so that makes me a liar. No, for the sake of simplicity I will use the word “presence” what I really mean is “glory.”). We know this concept anecdotally as, “I’ll burst into flames if I go into church!” and/or as a phrase, “No man can see God and live.” Thus it is clear to see that God must send people to hell because God is righteous and cannot allow sin in his presence.

If God is righteous and is the standard of righteousness, then we who are mere mortals are bound to His Law-Word. Let me ask you a question; have you ever sinned? Let me be more specific; have you ever lied? cheated? stolen anything? Perhaps you have had anger without merit towards another (even if you think you were justified, your thinking was clouded by emotion so how can you be sure?). Maybe you have lusted after someone. If you have done any of these you have broken God’s Law-Word. God calls this sin. In light of the previous paragraph you can only conclude that all men must be headed for hell. Who can say that they have not sinned? If you can show me someone like that then you may have found a liar. So God destroys all of humanity in a vengeful spirit, end of story. No. He sends His Son to take the punishment for sin and makes a way to seek and find Him in this dark and fallen world. Not all are saved. Not all want to be saved. But for those who are saved, the love of God is not merely an intellectual idea but an experienced ideal. So what is the love of God? The love of God is that He is not allowing everyone to perish in their sins but He is saving some. That is real mercy and grace. “To err is human, forgive divine.” Why do we say this? Because it is so hard to forgive. God does forgive, this is love. Seek and find Him and you too will experience that love.

What can be worse than hell? Well, what God says is worse than hell for starters. What place has God prepared for the devil and his demons from before time began? Where will He send all of the unrepentant sinners on that Final Day of Judgment where time will end and [for us] eternity begin? The answer: what the book of Revelation refers to as the Lake of Fire. The lake of fire is not hell. It is not synonymous with hell and should not be confused with hell. Hell is bad, yet it is only temporary. The lake of fire is worse, but it is everlasting. If this does not unnerve you then do not ever say, “I wasn’t warned.”

Yes it is true that if you end up in hell you cannot change your religion, start serving God and go to heaven after all is said and done. Your chance to go to heaven really does exist. God is love and has made a way for you to avoid the lake of fire. Seek after Him and find Him. Acknowledge His existence, then follow Him. Read His Law-Word and obey it. If you believe Jesus (i.e. believe what He taught) and that God raised Him from the dead, then you will be saved. If you persevere in this faith you will be saved. Obey Him by getting baptized. But if any of these elements are missing then you have reason to doubt your salvation (if you “used to be” a Christian but are not persevering then it is probable that you never were saved). If there are any doubts as to the truth of my statements then seek the truth and you will find it. Or contact me.

How could a loving and righteous God NOT punish unrepentant sinners? If He did not punish them, how could He reward the repentant sinners (now called saints)? Reward and punishment are two sides to the same coin (two “faces” of the one God). That is, whatever face of God we are beholding when we die is the face of God we will experience for eternity. So in a way, bear with me, we could say that a loving God could not send people to hell. Let me leave you with this last thought: God’s wrath sends people to hell, but God’s love saves some from hell.

To introduce this topic let me give a bit of my background.

I was raised in a Christian home. So naturally I became a Christian because I believed everything I was told, right? NO! I believed what my parents taught me was true, but that did not make me a Christian; in fact I resisted it.

In my teen years, as many others do, I was searching for identity. But did I look to Christ first? No. I looked elsewhere. I was particularly interested in mythology. But any thinking person could not accept mythology as true. It cannot be true. There is no basis for morality in mythology (specifically the Greek/Roman types). So I continued searching.

I started looking into other more modern myths such as vampirism, but was quickly dissuaded. I came to the realization that Christianity seems to be the most reason-able religion, but really just based upon my limited experience and introspective reflections. So then I accepted what my parents believed then, right? Have you learned by now that I do not do that. I did not.

I wanted to know if maybe other “Christian” branches had the truth; I looked into Catholicism then the Eastern Orthodox. But I did not find truth there either. This took place when I was about fifteen. I had not found the truth for myself. I believed my parents’ faith to be true, so by default I accepted what they believed as true.

In the winter I was seventeen going on eighteen, I had what Christians call a conversion experience. The faith of my father became my own faith. I had finally found the truth. Something awakened inside of me and I yearned so much for the truth of God’s Law-Word that I read it every day, every chance that I got.

This is how I came to believe in God. But that is not to say that I have no rational basis for belief in His existence. I do. But as a caveat let me note that no one will become a Christian just because they read what I say and believe in the existence of God. God has to reveal Himself to the individual for them to truly put their faith in Him.

Transcendental Argument for God’s Existence*:

There is proof that God exists. But if you expect me to upload a picture of that proof you are severely mistaken as to the nature of the question: “Does God exist?” The proof is not materialistic and it is not empirical. It is philosophical. Now, I am not a trained philosopher, but I will do my best to open up for you the enigma that is the philosophical proof of God’s existence.

Normally we argue and debate about things we believe or do not believe, but this proof goes beyond that. In order to deal with the claim of God’s existence we call for proof. But in order to provide proof we must first deal with what qualifies as proof. Do you see how you have to keep going backwards until you find the starting point?

So what qualifies for proof? Some might say a miracle or an appearance of God. But is that the only thing that can qualify as proof? To an empiricist or a skeptic, yes. I believe that would be the only thing they would accept as proof. Wait a second, what is up with the “empiricist” or “skeptic” talk? What I am saying is that there are differing philosophical schools of thought; and differing schools have differing criteria on how they arrive at their conclusions. If a “monist” and a “dualist” get into a debate they will most likely “speak past” each other. Why? The reason why communication breaks down is because everything known by a person is interpreted by their understanding. That is to say, your world view affects everything you believe; and people who hold differing world views cannot rationally resolve their disagreements without first dealing with the problems between their world views. What is next?

You have to talk about presuppositions and the pre-conditions of intelligible experience. This is the only way to rationally resolve the differences between world views. The proof of the Christian God is that without Him no other world view makes any sense. Without Him no other world view can rationally sustain an argument as to the origins of laws of logic, scientific laws and laws of morality. No other world view besides the Christian theistic world view can account for these laws in a consistent and internally coherent manner.

As to the laws of logic, the atheist cannot “logically” prove why we must use the laws of logic. As to the laws of science, the atheist cannot prove the basis for scientific laws. As to the question of morality, without God who is the arbiter of right and wrong? They cannot give a reasoned response. Morals are either conventions, stipulated or arbitrary. How then can they be laws?

The Christian theist has answers to these questions. What is the basis of these laws? The laws of logic are a reflection of the thinking of God. Morality is a reflection of the character of God and scientific laws reflect the way in which Gods sustains the creation. How do we know this? God has revealed this to us by His Law-Word.

The Bible reveals to us who God is and what He is all about. Consequently the world reflects this (general revelation). We see this in our everyday experiences. We view the world through our understanding and it logically makes sense because we know God. The atheist views the same world. Surprisingly it makes sense to him too. But the problem is he has borrowed the Christian theistic world view in order to make use of the tools of logic.

The laws of logic do not arise organically from an atheistic perspective and as such they cannot hold to a non-contradictory view of the world. Thus at the root atheism is irrational.

The proof of the existence of God is that without Him you cannot prove anything.