The Scourge Of Racism
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Just as a matter of human theological construction many professing Christians and their leaders want (and obviously need) a once and for all salvation with no continuing requirements such as faith, holiness or righteousness placed on them to walk in it, so also they want and have obtained for themselves a once and for all forgiveness that relieves them of the burden of continual confession and repentance! The days of God Almighty’s tolerance of such corruptions of the faith and His Word used to support them are nearing their end to His glory and sweet vindication of the faithful saints; every aspiring strong man and great woman of God in the image of Jesus Christ--hallelujah!
This nearly now two thousand year span of time God the Father has permitted to accomplish His purposes in the Gospel of His Son and the chastening of Israel is drawing to its fitting close in His judgment of all things human (Matthew 24:14; Luke 21:20-24). As is absolutely righteous, He has begun judging at His own house and before He is finished the whole world will know the wrath of the holy God against unrepentant sinners (1 Peter 4:17-19; Revelation 16:17-21)! The kingdoms of mortal man are brought down; their glory in riches, splendor and technological achievement bound up with evil allowed by God to prove their spiritual poverty apart from Him gone forever (Isaiah 2:10-22)!
Just as the prophets, our Lord and His apostles foretold would be the case near this end of the world as it has existed under the reign of Satan since man’s fall in Eden, darkness, violence, chaos, confusion and intensifying rebellion against the righteous ways of God fill it. In the midst are many professing Christians and their leaders in denial about the times, reveling in their sins and even re-defining sin to allow for example, setting aside the order of God’s house; who are also angry with anyone that might suggest they should repent because their souls are in peril. No, this group is comfy, cozy because they have constructed themselves a foolproof doctrine of salvation wherein God is locked into honoring their once and for all declared faith that Christ died for their sins.
However, while it is certainly true Christ died for our sins “once for all” meaning He in place of all men and no more sacrifices are needed or forthcoming, God’s gracious gift of salvation built on it is entered into through repentance from sin and faith as a beginning point which is expected to continue until death or the Lord’s return (Romans 1:16-17; Hebrews 10:10, 35-39, NKJV). Salvation then at present, is only a done deal in accord with the promise of God in the Gospel, His power and guarantee through the Holy Spirit along with our continuing, growing faith in Him and His Word demonstrated by faithful and obedient lives of godliness (Romans 8:24-25; Ephesians 1:13-14; Colossians 1:21-23; James 2:20-26; 1 Peter 1:3-5; 2 Peter 1:1-11). Interested persons can learn more about biblical salvation in blog reposts, The Faith That Saves under the category, The Faith.
God is so committed to seeing every soul that initially comes to Him persevere, He helps us in our weakness and has suffered this long from Christ’s first coming giving men time to repent because He does not desire to see any soul perish (Romans 8:26-27; 2 Peter 3:9). Alas, though, the end is at hand and the sober truth is many have and will perish among professing Christians and their leaders because they in free will refuse to repent from their sins. No sinner practicing the deeds of the flesh will inherit the kingdom of God and eternal life (2 Corinthians 6:9-10; Galatians 5:19-21). Truly, salvation by God’s grace through our faith is not a license to sin without temporal and eternal consequences as the Lord judges (Romans 2:1-11, 6:1-23)!
Knowing sin which Christ died for offends Him, we who believe, love and honor our holy God seek to steadfastly obey His Word while confessing and repenting from our sins daily, as they occur and/or are revealed by the Holy Spirit. The title and words of that most excellent 1983 song by Candi Staton sum it up nicely for the aspiring strong man and great woman of God: Sin Doesn’t Live Here Anymore! I have heard it said a few times in my journey though, “it’s too cumbersome to do all of that confessing and repenting.” Are you kidding me? God only asks us to confess and repent before Him in prayer to include quietly in our hearts or would you prefer Israel’s system of daily and the annual Day of Atonement animal sacrifices Christ’s superior once for all sacrifice as our High Priest replaced (Hebrews 7:11-10:18)?
Also, spiritual maturity lessens our sinning and therefore, the frequency to confess and repent over time (Philippians 3:7-16). However, the willfully weak in spiritual immaturity enjoy no such experience (Hebrews 5:12-14). Though in Christ’s sacrifice our sins are atoned for forever, this speaks to the thoroughness of God’s satisfaction not the lack of necessity for us to continually confess and repent from our sins to draw upon the unending river of forgiveness He wills to release to us as a benefit! When we enter salvation through repentance and faith, all of our past sins are forgiven through the shed blood of Jesus; as we have need (and we do), in confession and repentance going forward our sins are forgiven through the shed blood of Jesus, the eternal “Advocate” of the willing who look to Him by continuing faith (Hebrews 4:14-16; 1 John 1:9-2:2, NKJV).
Otherwise, know that God remains eternally opposed to sin and His holiness demands the death of the sinner whether he calls himself a Christian or not (Ezekiel 18:4, 20; Matthew 7:21-23; Galatians 6:7-9; Hebrews 3:7-19, 10:19-31). Pastors, elders, church leaders and teachers who truly love Christ’s sheep with His love will teach them this truth. Others of you need to repent and in fear take heed to the terrifying warnings of James, pastor of the first local church at Jerusalem and the apostle Peter (James 3:1; 2 Peter 2:1-22). Stop this sentimental, make them feel good, “we are all going to Heaven anyway” lying you are doing to unrepentant sinners dressed in sheep’s clothing that gladly fill your auditoriums and dreams for worldly success about to end. The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, "Who is on the Lord's side?"
In the post the Lord led me to write, The Right Side Of History, I am blessed by Him to present and explore His timeline vision of events given to Daniel that lead to the end of this present age.1 Among those events is the singularly most important of all: the variously foretold coming of God’s Messiah to Israel that was fulfilled in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth! All along God had planned what His Jewish prophets did not realize: that the Messiah they spoke of would come twice. His first coming would be to offer Himself for sin. Then, at God’s appointed time after His death, burial, resurrection and ascension, He would return to fulfill the many promises of salvation.
Neither the prophets before nor first century Jews while He walked among them understood about the first coming of Messiah until they were illumined by Him and the Holy Spirit after His resurrection (Daniel 9:24-26a; Luke 18:31-34, 24:44-49; John 16:5-15; Acts 2:1-39, 3:11-26). Among those the Holy Spirit uses to unveil God’s mystery of Messiah’s two comings is the apostle Paul who formerly persecuted Jewish believers until he became one (1 Corinthians 15:1-11; 1 Timothy 1:12-17) and the absolutely known to God writer of Hebrews (Hebrews 1:1-4). Paul unfolds why it was necessary for the Messiah to come first to deal with sin (Romans 3:9-31, 5:6-21, 6:15-23).
In warning any flagging in their faith (Hebrews 2:1-4), the writer of Hebrews goes deeper into the details of Messiah’s first coming for sin in terms His Spirit-filled Jewish and Gentile followers could appreciate and be encouraged to faithfulness (Hebrews 2:5-3, 4:14-16, 6:9-20, 8, 9:11-22). For it was to save man from sin and redeem us back to God that Messiah came “once at the end of the ages…to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many,” (Hebrews 9:23-28a, NKJV). To this end, the prophets including Daniel were shown His suffering and death (Isaiah 52:13-53:9).
The accomplishment of this first part of His mission is bound up in His final words from the cross, ‘“It is finished,’” (John 19:30, NKJV)! His words also telegraph the successful achievement to follow of every other purpose of God involved in sending Messiah, His Son, into the world; even Jesus--praise His name (Matthew 1:18-21), whom God raised from the dead on the third day as He foretold and signaled through the prophets as well (Psalm 16:8-11; Isaiah 53:10-12; Matthew 12:38-42, 16:21)! So now, at the Lord’s command after His resurrection and ascension the Gospel about Him has been preached nearly 20 centuries to earth’s ends and mankind exhorted to be saved from sin by faith in Him (Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 1:4-11; Romans 1:16-17, 10:1-13; Hebrews 10:1-23).2
1 See the January 30, 2022 post, The Right Side Of History, under the categories Bible Prophecy and Biblical Worldview.
2 To hear a straightforward, biblical presentation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for yourself and perhaps, with someone you care about, please view one or both of our 30 minute videos on this Ministry’s Strong Man Of God Online Rally YouTube Channel.
The Son of Almighty God came riding a donkey humbly into the city of Jerusalem on this day almost two thousand years ago to celebratory shouts of praise and laying of palm branches before His procession. Christians call this day Palm Sunday because of this event which occurred in precise fulfillment of prophecy (Zechariah 9:9) and is recorded in all four New Testament Gospel accounts (see for example John 12:12-15). The Lord Jesus rode into the holy city openly presenting Himself as God’s Anointed One and King! By Friday He would be soundly rejected as the religious leaders and many of the people following their leadership called for His crucifixion (Luke 23:13-25).
The foretold spiritual realities and truths surrounding all of the foregoing are intended by God to remain unchanged forever! For in them and all that follows bound up in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the glorious outcomes are issues of eternal life and death for mortal man. And yet, nearly two millennia later, professing Christianity is completely twisted and conflicted on even the most basic elements of God’s salvation through the Gospel and written instruction that comprises “the faith” as proud men and women in the thousands clash over their personal theologies. In the edited 2012 blog repost for this Palm Sunday, I exalt the one Lord and one faith He has established for us through His blood as it is written in Holy Scripture (Ephesians 4:1-6).
Originally Posted March 25, 2012
As the annual commemoration of the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ approaches, I am reminded from the New Testament accounts of His ministry that He never allowed for anyone to believe He represented any way to God but one: through Him (John 14:6)! Similarly, Jesus always stood on the righteousness and wisdom of God as already written in the Old Testament Scriptures (Matthew 4:3-10). He is never quoted as citing the writings of the great minds of history to give authoritative weight to His teachings. He also never offered opinions but taught the people in the absolutes of authority. No mystery here as to why since He is the eternal Word of God made flesh (John 1:1, 14-18). He was faithful to all of His own previously written Word and the divine will.
While even the Lord’s eyewitness apostles initially struggled to fully grasp and faithfully disseminate the essential Gospel and instructions of the faith to believers in the early years of Christianity (Acts 10:1-11:18, 15:1-29), the apostle Paul was absolute by the late fifties of the first century that there was only one Gospel and called for the divine destruction of any one preaching another (Galatians 1:6-9). Certainty does not elude Jude, the half-brother of the Lord either when he writes his short epistle calling for believers “to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints,” (Jude 3, NKJV). Most Bible students would agree Jude writes well after Paul wrote his Galatians epistle. The point being that contrary to the madness that exists in the world today, the Bible unapologetically asserts there is only one way to relationship with God and that is through faith in the one Gospel of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1-11).
Too, in spite of the insane confusion that exists doctrinally in and among the churches today, there is only one faith plainly presented in the pages of Scripture and gladly illuminated by the Holy Spirit to all who will take the time to seek Him. Otherwise, those that are presenting their many different theologies supposedly taken from the Bible would have us believe contrary to it that God is confused and tolerant to the point He is the author of confusion among those He loves (1 Corinthians 14:33). This is outrageously evil beyond words and blasphemy! There is a such thing as error which is clearly seen when any doctrine of sinful men arises that does not only line up with a particular passage of Scripture, but the whole thrust of instruction in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation inspired by God (Galatians 2:1-4:31; 2 Timothy 3:16-17).
Yes, believers are free in Christ to live and conduct our lives how we please before God as it concerns personal freedom. But this freedom is by no means a license to sin, invent doctrines that flow from our own prideful flesh or speak authoritatively on spiritual matters apart from drawing directly out of Scripture (Romans 14:1-15:6; Galatians 5:1-15). In my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics, I present faith in Christ crucified, buried and risen as the only way to salvation. I also declare Him to be the One bidding men to follow Him in the one and only faith He and His apostles present from the whole counsel of God existing in the Bible. Aspiring strong men of God in the image of Christ embrace the one, true biblical faith and are ready to die in contending for its veracity, their Lord and hope in Him (Luke 9:23-26). In His footsteps, truly, a number have died and will die doing so in days ahead in accord with God’s eternally enduring Word (Luke 21:12-19, 33; Revelation 6:9-11, 12:7-12).
Seeing actor, Will Smith, walk up on comedian, Chris Rock, and slap him in the Oscar clips seen globally was greatly disturbing though, nothing I had not ever seen before. Indeed, the imagery brought back my shame for letting my own anger best me in similar uncontrolled moments during the course of my life. Will was wrong as I was and anyone else guilty of such violence which is sin in the sight of God Almighty! For those past acts of violence and all of the other ways I still come short of the glory of God missing the mark of His perfect righteousness, I am glad Messiah Jesus came into the world to save sinners through His once for sin sacrifice as I wrote about in my last post.1
On April 10, 1977 which that year was Resurrection Sunday, I sincerely prayed with one time fellow Seaside, CA resident and lifelong family friend, momma Altamese Lee (who departed to the Lord in 2021) in her Jacksonville, FL home to receive Messiah Jesus as my Savior and Lord after attending church service. Though I came away from that prayer with all of my sin issues and shackles intact along with some doubts about what I had just done and the reality of hearing a voice in my heart I had never heard before say to me, “As your faith grows, so shall you,” I had hope maybe my life could be better than it had been when I lived without concern for being a sinner to that point.2
Now, on this Palm Sunday forty-five years later, the words of the voice I came to know as that of Messiah Jesus are continuing to be fulfilled to overflow in my life! And while I will not officially mark the day of my salvation and new birth until this upcoming Resurrection Sunday, I have already been celebrating; rejoicing with the God of my salvation in over the top gladness for the once for sin sacrifice His Son, Messiah Jesus, accomplished as the express mission and work of His first coming for me and all mankind as sinners (Matthew 18:10-14; Luke 15, 19:1-10, 28-40)!3 What an awesome thing to ponder that God loves us so much He sent Messiah to save us from our sins (Romans 5.6-8).
For this cause, as the head of a Ministry by God’s appointment charged with a first priority to restore men through the Gospel as a starting point,4 I encourage Will Smith and every man including Chris Rock He makes painfully aware of our wretched condition as sinners to press hard into Messiah Jesus not only for forgiveness, but the progressive spiritual growth He leads us into over a lifetime. I am a witness that Messiah’s victory on the cross wherein He broke the power of sin can be made real by Him one sin issue and shackle at a time in our lives (Romans 6:1-14, 7:14-8:13). Not that we arrive at anything like perfection. But we “press” hard into Messiah until the day when this life ends or He returns as is our hope in Him and His perfection becomes ours (Philippians 1:3-6, 3:1-16, NKJV)!
(I will be taking Resurrection Sunday off continuing to celebrate my 45th spiritual birthday as our regular readers already know. Thank you for taking the time to read and reflect on what the Lord gives me each week. He willing we see it, my next post will be on April 24th. May your celebration of what Messiah Jesus accomplished for us be fresh and refreshing with all joy in Him!)
1 See the April 3, 2022 post, Messiah Comes Twice: Once For Sin, under the category, The Faith.
2 Read the April 9, 2017 post, Forty Years A Christian, and on February 17, 2019 the post, Surrendering All To Jesus, both under the category, Glory To God!
3 This holiday season I urge you with someone you know that is unsaved to view one or both of our 30 minute videos on this Ministry’s Strong Man Of God Online Rally YouTube Channel where you can be certain the biblical Gospel is presented. Stirring images of the Easter season especially punctuate the video, Hallelujah, Free!
4 Learn about Strong Man Ministries on the Ministry Web Site.
“Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity and in whose spirit there is no deceit,” (Psalm 32:1-2, NKJV). Hallelujah! I continue to rejoice in God’s salvation as I experience the awesome reality of His forgiveness of all my past sins when I first believed the Gospel and every day since as I have obeyed His Word to “confess” and repent from them as they occurred or upon later conviction (Psalm 32:3-5; 1 John 1:5-2:2, NKJV).1 While God’s salvation begins with forgiveness, its blessed benefits do not end there. As biblical Christianity, they bountifully and gloriously expand reaching into eternity!
God’s forgiveness opens the way for sinners to be reconciled to and enjoy familial relationship with Him as well as to receive all of His promised benefits. Of the many benefits as spiritual blessings God has packaged in His salvation from sin by grace through faith in the Gospel of His Son, Jesus Christ, forgiveness of all past sins is foremost and foundational (Romans 4:5-8, 5:10-11; Ephesians 1:1-10). As David testifies, God’s forgiveness for sins committed thereafter is absolutely essential to avoid the spiritual, mental, emotional and physical issues that consequentially arise from being unwilling to confess them to Him in all repentance. Sin guilt will make you sick and destroys!2
Enjoying peace with God by His forgiveness of our sins through the blood of Christ,3 the saved in Him are also indwelt and brought to spiritual life by the Holy Spirit; having an eternal inheritance as adopted sons (John 3:1-8; Acts 2:38-39; Romans 8:14-17). The spiritual life we have by the indwelling Holy Spirit is nothing short of the very life of God dynamically and eternally flowing as “rivers of living water” in our inmost being (John 7:37-39, NKJV)! There is nothing in all of human experience to which this can be compared.4 This is uniquely of God “the fountain of life,” “everlasting” and abundant David and the Lord Jesus speak of (Psalm 36:7-9; John 4:7-14, 10:10, NKJV).
The life of God in us by the Holy Spirit is evident in the display of the divine eternal nature beginning with love, character and power (Romans 5:5; Galatians 5:22-25; Ephesians 3:14-21, 5:9; 1 John 4:8). The presence of the Holy Spirit in believers seals us not like contents in a closed jar that cannot escape, but as a living imprint that marks us out as belonging to God. Too, He is “the guarantee” and earnest payment of the Father fulfilling all He has promised us in His great salvation! As our eternal “Helper” (Comforter) and Companion, He oversees and actualizes our regeneration as well (John 14:16-17; 2 Corinthians 1:3, 19-22, 3:17-18, 5:17; Ephesians 1:11-14; Titus 3:4-5, NKJV).
As if the foregoing were not enough, the Holy Spirit carries out the will of the Father and Christ in answering our petitions for protection and deliverance (Psalm 32:6-7). He is also our Teacher teaching us the riches of God’s way in Christ through the written Word; guiding us with His “eye” that has seen and knows all past, present and future if we will be submissive to learn (Psalm 32:8; John 16:12-15; 1 Corinthians 2:6-16, NKJV). Believers as disciples are not to be stubborn, resistant and without understanding like an unbroken “horse” or “mule” that have to be forcefully “harnessed” and controlled or “they will not come near you” much less be teachable (Psalm 32:9, NKJV).
Submission to learn is God’s perfect will for everyone He saves! A submissive heart to learn describes Christ who is the perfect display and example of what a disciple is (Isaiah 50:4-5; John 8:28-29) and who commanded that His disciples be taught (Matthew 28:18-20). Further, being taught the Word of God leads to spiritual growth and maturity which are still more benefits of God’s salvation (Ephesians 1:15-23; 2 Peter 1:1-11)! Otherwise, any professed Christian that will not be taught walks in the way of the unbroken horse, mule and "the wicked" suffering “many sorrows” in contrast to those who submit to and obey God’s will through faith and experience His "mercy," (Psalm 32:10, NKJV).
Indeed, for those believers who submit to and obey God’s will through faith--even every aspiring strong man and great woman of God in the image of Christ--the Holy Spirit willingly serves as our Intercessor interceding for us with the Father when in weakness we have no clue (Romans 8:26-27).5 He is also our Equipper and Source of ability to serve God and fellow man through spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 12:1-11). In briefly addressing just some of the benefits of God’s salvation as biblical Christianity, it should be easily seen why those of us that are His “righteous” by grace through faith are “glad in the LORD” “and shout for joy,” (Psalm 32:11, NKJV)! Forgiveness of sin in Christ is only the beginning of these blessings that create the joy of salvation in us! Won’t you share in our joy?
1 It is deceit for any unsaved person or professed Christian to believe one can hide or God not notice or care about their sins no matter how small in human eyesight! There
is no possible way to deceive God so, why try? “...you have sinned against the Lord; be sure your sin will find you out,” (Numbers 32:23, NKJV). Christians are supposed
to walk before God and “worship in spirit and truth,” (John 4:23-24, NKJV). And forget the "nobody is perfect" argument--He already knows this while still expecting our
sold out heart attitude to obey His whole Word (not just the parts we agree with) out of love (John 14:15). His way freely offered in love is for us to own our rebellion,
missing of the mark of His perfect righteousness and perversion of His straight ways so that He can forgive these in Christ!
2 For the professed Christian David says particularly in Psalm 32:4a about the time he spent refusing to confess and repent from his sins: “For day and night Your hand was
heavy upon me,” (NKJV). There is no way a blood bought, Spirit-filled believer can sin without sooner or later experiencing His convicting work which may be quietly
resisted in denial and pretense nothing was done wrong, but as David is explaining, this does not turn out very well for the person doing so.
3 Peace with the living God is a blessing beyond description since it includes not having to fear the Day of His wrath!
4 Having been an abuser of drugs and alcohol and committed hedonist in my unsaved youth, I know what I am saying.
5 Read about the aspiring strong man of God and great woman of God in the image of Jesus Christ in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics, published by Open
Door Communication Ministries, Inc. and available in print or digital formats at major internet booksellers. You can also purchase a print copy in the Strong Man Store.
It is staggering to me now, looking back, how it is many so close after the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. did not among the many moral issues related to Civil Rights galvanize against abortion as it made its way to the 1973 Supreme Court decision. Who could be more disenfranchised than an unborn child targeted for murder? Important figures in the Civil Rights Movement actually endorsed and advocated for abortion to make it as it is to this day for them a matter of women’s rights. Like ancient Israel forced to turn back from entering the Promised Land and wander in the wilderness because of unbelief, so, the Civil Rights Movement turned left away from biblical morality on abortion and other issues into the spiritual wilderness of sin seeking allies of mortal flesh rather than God (Numbers 14:11-25; Proverbs 14:34).
Even the most casual reading of the Bible will yield the straightforward understanding that human life is precious to God, humanity’s Creator (Genesis 4:8-15; Exodus 20:13; Mark 10:17-19). So, in this edited 2010 Commentary I have combined with a similar 2012 blog, I declare that men in the lead and women are to protect their children whose existence actually begins in the mind of God long before conception which He is also intimately involved with (Isaiah 45:1-7)! Therefore, in a biblical worldview, not only is abortion murder for the guilty parents, but also all who advocate for and perform it as accomplices. They will be held accountable by God in this life and on Judgment Day unless they embrace their only recourse I write about in this post.
Originally Published January 2010
Here in Portland, Oregon, Planned Parenthood the birth control and abortion provider is soon to finish construction on a new facility in an area that has been traditionally populated by black Americans. This is strategic on their part since black females have more abortions than any other racial group.1 Yet, the silence of most black clergy and open advocacy of others has been shocking. In the peaceful protests I have attended it has been primarily our white brethren that have represented the very clear scriptural mandate to revere human life (Genesis 9:5-7); life that begins at conception in the handiwork of God our Creator (Psalm 139:13-16; Zechariah 12:1).
Abortion as a concept at its root is not a black or white racial issue nor is it about women's rights. Men and women from all hues should be vitally concerned about what is very thoroughly a spiritual and moral matter. Men--especially those that aspire to be strong men of God in Christ's image--ought to be deeply affected by the slaughter of defenseless human lives. God has wired us with a heart like His and holds us responsible to defend the defenseless (Psalms 68:5-6, 82:1-4). But with steely precision abortionists around this nation routinely kill the unborn men have fathered for the sake of parental convenience. I know all about the convenience thing.
As a teenage father before I came to Christ, I either pushed for or passively offered no objection to the killing of my children on a number of occasions with different females.2 Years later I still wonder at times how I could have been so selfish and deceived. Then I remember the deceitful craftiness of the god of this world and my own fallen nature as a sinner and come to my senses. Spiritually speaking, we kill our unborn because we are dead in our sins to God and purposely deceived. It is not rocket science to understand the matter-of-fact reason we do so either: if there is no baby, then there is no responsibility or possible change in life plans.
Satan’s deceptive spin last century that morphed abortion from an issue of biblical morality into one that has to do with a woman’s rights over her body is of the success he enjoyed with Eve in Eden (Genesis 3:1-6a; 1 Timothy 2:14). And if they are not the instigators, just as Adam did not intervene while Satan deceived his wife and passively followed her lead in disobedience (Genesis 3:6b), so, many men today are doing the same thing in the decision to kill their unborn children. But now, made alive by God to God through faith in Christ, I have received forgiveness and instruction from His Word to fulfill all of my responsibilities as a father to my children (Ephesians 2:1-10).
In a truth I fully explain in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics, none other than God the Father Himself has shown us men what a father is and does.3 Besides initiating Adam's existence, the Father also led, taught, provided for and protected him. In protecting Adam, God put him in the Garden of Eden as a shelter among other reasons and watched over him (Genesis 2:7-18). Even when Satan came to the garden please note he was not allowed to touch Adam or his wife, but only to deceive them if he could (Genesis 3:1-6). If it had been left up to the devil he would have killed the two humans where they stood (John 8:44). But God protected them!
God has given all men the responsibility to protect the lives we initiate through our seed released in the sexual intimacy of marriage or otherwise as well as those that are adopted. Our responsibility begins the moment of conception and continues until the new or adopted life attains the age of majority and departs from under our protective care (Matthew 1:18-25 2:13-15, 19-23; Luke 2:41-52). When men demand or passively allow the death of their children through abortion, it is a purposeful rejection of the responsibility that God has assigned to and holds us accountable for. We may only drop them off at the clinic, but we are just as guilty as the women for the murder that takes place.
So now, in these latter days Satan has gotten us to do legally what he was forbidden to do thousands of years ago in the garden: murder human life! For the record, only the bodies of the unborn are destroyed. God takes their spirits and souls back to Himself in Heaven to await the resurrection (Ecclesiastes 12:6-7). However, the parent's lives are eternally destroyed without repentance. Therefore, let every man and woman reading this who is guilty turn to God in all confession and repentance from your sins. By faith receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ believing that He died on the cross for our sins, was buried and rose again on the third day. All who sincerely do this will receive God’s forgiveness, healing, instruction, a restored mind and heart with eternal life!
Unlike in our former godless and selfish mindset, God expects His sons and aspiring strong men in the image of Christ to welcome the pregnancy of our wives with joy and thanksgiving to Him! His sons are never to father children out of wedlock. However, if this should happen, in repentance He wills that you embrace your child and the mother in marriage if possible. In all instances, we are to fulfill our responsibilities to our children to include protecting them with the wisdom, help and strength God supplies. Also, brothers, stand up like men indwelt by the living God and speak out against the slaughter of the defenseless unborn in the protecting responsibility He has given us. The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, "Who is on the Lord's side?"
1 "Abortion Number For African-Americans Rising," Life In Oregon, April-June 2008 Issue, p. 7. Also, see black Abortion Facts on theurbanprophet.org Web Site. The
facility referenced was completed and remains a hub of activity.
2 That God may always be glorified in His amazing work to save and transform sinners through my life; I share my shame at having been an unsaved, unmarried and ire-
sponsible teenage father of two children that lived, but others that were murdered in their mother’s wombs. I am not just some moralizing preacher who knows nothing
at all about the real fear and selfishness that goes into the decision to abort or after birth, abandon a child God has charged men in the lead with the responsibility to pro-
tect.
3 The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics is available through all major internet booksellers, by order from your favorite brick and mortar bookstore and in the
Strong Man Store.
On the heels of such an incredible journey through God’s Word tracking Christ’s post-cross activity and resulting promise of the Christian’s glorious destiny in Him just concluded in the April 2016 blog reposts, my great desire is to continue on. Lord willing, I will return soon to the subject of the resurrection and immortality of faithful Christians. However, my focus has been painfully diverted momentarily from the glories to come to the currently escalating rebellion against God that is participated in even by many professing Christians and their churches falsely claiming He has changed His program for mankind in this present, mortal age (Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8).
Amazingly, from the question of to whom does it belong to what one’s rights are with it, the human body is at the center of this very open rebellion against God in these latter days. And why would this not be so? If human beings are going to rebel against their Creator, then it stands to reason that everything, absolutely everything including the human body tied to His will for them would be the object of resistance as is fully implied in His foretold Word about this rebellion (Psalm 2:1-3). I have been down this road a few times in my blogs, but the May 2014 posts, "The Body Beautiful," Pt. 1 and 2 under the same category as this blog, God’s Creatures, serve as excellent related posts.
Those posts and this edited 2013 repost are intended to state again briefly what God from His Word instructs as a foundation about males, females, their natural, mortal bodies and corresponding roles and responsibilities in this present age written not for worldly rebels as a first priority, but those professing to be Christians in the churches so they might repent before it is too late. For if we as fallen creatures are ready to visit punishment on our children for rebelling against our instructions, how much more the living, just and holy God our Creator (Isaiah 13:11-12)? This repost also forms the basic underpinning for next week’s blog and those to come discussing the immortal body.
Originally Posted May 5, 2013
Men and women have natural bodies designed by God to fulfill the divine will and purposes for this present, mortal age. Their bodily forms follow the respective functions male and female have in the divine purposes of governance and procreation (Genesis 1:26-28). God created Adam the male first making him the federal head of the human race. He then created the woman by taking a rib from Adam and dividing him functionally into two, bringing them back together as one in marriage (Genesis 2:7, 21-24). From His actions as Creator, clearly, God is the Owner of the human body and the soul that inhabits it! As a result, human beings cannot just do as they please with their bodies and lives in opposition to the divine will without consequences (Genesis 2:16-17; Ezekiel 18:4).
Concerning men as males and women as females, as I write in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics, they are “different by design.” For example, in general historically, men are geared in brain function toward logic, reason and objectivity critical for problem solving, take charge leadership. Women, on the other hand, major in multi-tasking as managers and are more subjectively inclined. These and all other seemingly distinctive behavioral characteristics of males and females are those of the one man, Adam, divided and accentuated in each by God’s intentional design of their respective natural bodies in accord with His will. Thus, individually and together male and female are man (Genesis 2:23)!
In the image and likeness of God who alone "gives life to all things" (1 Timothy 6:13a, NKJV), Adam as a male was equipped in his body with the means to initiate human physical life. The testicles of man produce, store and deliver living seed that not only initiates human physical life, but also powerfully determines whether that life will be male or female. God gave the man a sex organ which is a perfectly designed instrument for the pleasurable delivery of his seed during the course of intimacy with his wife. While biologically it is possible for unmarried males and females to procreate, this occurs outside of God’s will that children be conceived in the context of marriage (Genesis 4:1).
So concerned was God that a man be interested in sex that leads to procreation, He also designed his testicles to produce a hormone called testosterone that in cooperation with his brain gives him a highly intense desire to have intercourse with his wife. Barring reproductive issues in either the man or his wife, lots of sex would yield lots of children in accord with the divine purpose for fruitful procreation affirmed after Noah’s flood and again following the wrath of Christ’s Second Coming among surviving mortals beginning with the Jewish remnant (Genesis 9:1; Deuteronomy 30:1-10; Isaiah 65:20-25; Jeremiah 31:1-9, 27-28; Ezekiel 36:7-15, 37-38; Romans 11:25-27; Revelation 7:1-8).
The reproductive system in the natural body of the woman is more involved than the man’s. God designed her body to enjoy intimacy with her husband and to also produce hormones that heighten her sexual interest. Not only does she receive her husband’s sex organ by way of a special body cavity that dually serves as a birth canal, but God gave her the apparatus to produce living seed to conceive after mingling with his. When a woman of childbearing ability does not become pregnant, her seed dies and God designed her body to expel it during a menstrual cycle.
God designed the woman’s body to have a womb in order to host a newly conceived human being for nourishment and development in its protective walls until time for birth. Upon birth, God designed the woman to be able to feed up to two babies at once with milk from her breasts that have been awakened for service by hormones in her body. Plainly, to the glory of God as the male body is purposely constructed to initiate human physical life, the female body is purposely and intricately built for conceiving and bearing that life! In the image and likeness of God too, the woman as a mother bonds with and nurtures her children (Genesis 3:8-9; Deuteronomy 32:9-12; Matthew 23:37).
Tragically, because of sin, the natural body does not always form as designed nor does it or the human soul that inhabits it function perfectly. In fact, the body begins to undergo decay leading to death after only a relatively short time (Genesis 3:16-19). Males with no or malfunctioning testicles and women that have been barren, missing reproductive parts of the body or that miscarry are seen throughout history. Too, in willful rebellion against God’s purposes men and women driven by a corrupt lust for pleasure have selfishly misused the sexual function of their natural bodies and murdered its fruit justly bringing divine wrath upon themselves (Romans 1:18-32). The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, “Who is on the Lord’s side?”
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