And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. 1 Corinthians 15:49

Sunday, November 20, 2022

What Is The Vengeance Of God?

"Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord."  Romans 12:19

"Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not. Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep. Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits. Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as lies in you, live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." 
 Romans 12:14-21

In many of the previous posts that I have written, I have talked about context giving us the best understanding of what is being said, and how to apply those Truths to our own lives. I separated Rom. 21:19 to show how it is often only quoted out of context, and how easily it can be taken to mean something other than what it does mean in context to the other verses.

Most times this verse is quoted, it is in response to our personal desire to; "let someone have it", or to payback someone in retaliation for their wrong doing, or to "even the score"! The idea is that God in His wrath and anger and vengeance will even the score and make them pay on our behalf. He will stand up in our defense and then they will regret they ever messed with us as God's servant! However, this reasoning is because of a long believed error about the nature and character and purpose of God held by most non Christians AND Christians!

The long held belief is that God is angry! That God is watching and waiting for man to slip up so that He can let them have it! The wrath of God is believed to be His natural state. It is believed that God is just mad at mankind all of the time, and is just trying to fix what went wrong in the Garden of Eden, so that he can salvage something in the end with a few trusting souls.

Oh, dear reader, that is such a centuries long held error designed to keep people in fear hoping that such fear would prevent people from doing evil things. The truth is that we have been fed and believes such a distorted view of God for such a long time, we think the distorted view is the truth, but nothing could be further from the Truth!

While there are Christians that believe this distorted view of God, they also believe that Jesus came to stand between God and man so that He could mediate God's wrath upon Himself in our place. Even I was taught and believed this error for quite some time, just like I was taught and believed this wrathful God would send the majority of His creation to a fiery torment in hell forever. But oh how much I am grateful to no longer believe such a slander against this merciful God of love and kindness!

In the last couple of years I have listened to about five years of sermons by Brian Zhand, whom I have mentioned in previous posts. A common declaration he makes has also become a mantra of mine. While we think that Jesus is kind and loving in the New Testament appeasing an angry God in the Old Testament, this mantra corrects that false belief. It goes like this: "God is like Jesus. God has always been like Jesus. There has never been a time when God was not like Jesus. We haven't always known this, but now we do!"

  We are told in several places in Scripture:

 "He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power" Heb. 1:3

"In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." 2 Cor. 4:4

"I and the Father are one.” John 10:10

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." John 1:1

There are many more verses that confirm what these verses are affirming, which is that God is not schizophrenic Jesus and God are one in the same. Jesus is the visible manifestation of the invisible God! If you have seen Jesus, you have seen the Father. If you see a different image of the Father that is not like Jesus, then the image you are seeing is False!

Okay so what about the: "...Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord."  Romans 12:19? That is true of course, but not the vengeance we think. God does not tell us to love our enemies, and He hates His. But rather it is "...not knowing that the goodness of God leads thee to repentance?"  Rom. 2:4.

In the beginning verses of this post, I separated this one verse Romans 12:19 out from the verses before and after in order to show how when separated it has been so easily taken out of context and the meaning distorted, to give an grossly inaccurate portrayal of God. So now read those verses altogether again, and begin to see the more accurate portrayal of God which is one in which God's vengeance against anyone is to Love them with such a perfect Love that they have no choice but to stop resisting that Love which leads them to repentance! God will do what He asks us to do, which is to Overcome evil with Good!

Indeed, the wrath of God is NOT against men as some misquote, but rather  "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness OF men," Rom.1:18. It is against the ungodliness and unrighteousness; not against men. This is not un-similar to to the verse in Psalm 1:6 "For the Lord knows the way of the righteous: but the WAY of the ungodly shall perish."  Notice it does not say the ungodly shall perish, but the WAY of the ungodly perishes. Since the way of the ungodly perishes, then what is left but a Godly way! Evil has been overcome with good.  Now you know the answer to the question asked in the title, What Is The Vengeance Of God?



Sunday, November 13, 2022

Higher Thoughts And Higher Ways.


"For My thoughts are not your thoughts,Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:8-9

This is another one of those very familiar verses in the bible where if you only know this one verse out of the chapter, you do not have enough context to know what is actually being said here. And I have been just as guilty, until lately because I only had a limited understanding before considering this verse for a post. 

We see that God is detailing his thoughts and ways are higher than man's, which lead many to believe that it is God's way of showing how separated He is from us---He is up there, and we are way down here---But nothing could be further from the truth. In no way did God ever indicate that had to be the unchanging position of man, to think with lower thoughts and act with lower ways, but rather it is an invitation to come up higher, and to think with His higher thoughts and to act on His higher ways!

The first obvious point to make is that the verse is not dealing with altitude such as the cloud is higher than the flower, but rather a higher form of a position of attitude and nature. Such as the order of things, like the rank order of: plants, fish, animals, and man. Or also a higher order of learning, such as: elementary, high school, college, and university etc.

God is saying that man is thinking according to his fallen earthly Adamic thoughts and ways. That kind of thinking is what got him into trouble in the first place. But now God is saying that man needs to get his mind into the heavenly realm and inviting us to learn, and to begin to think with heavenly thoughts, and act according to heavenly ways.

So, that much I already understood for a long time. Then something new was pointed out to me, with the question: What ways and thoughts was God referring to? Was it just general thoughts and ways or something specific? Ah. Context! For that we need to consider the conversation from whence this verse started.

"Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the Lord, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon." Isaiah 55:7. This verse is what precedes the higher thoughts and ways verses. The fact that God will abundantly pardon and have mercy on the wicked, is what God is calling us to learn. That is the higher thoughts and ways. The whole story of the bible and God's relationship with man is one of mercy and forgiveness! God has spoken a couple of chapters detailing his blessings to the children of Israel, and now also includes ALL nations because of Israel into those blessings  None is excluded . 

 Do not let the son of the foreigner Who has joined himself to the Lord Speak, saying, “The Lord has utterly separated me from His people”; Nor let the eunuch say, “Here I am, a dry tree.” Isaiah 56:3 In other words, don't let anybody make any excuses as to them being disqualified from the blessing of God. For the verses continue: "For thus says the Lord:“To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, And choose what pleases Me, And hold fast My covenant, Even to them I will give in My house And within My walls a place and a name Better than that of sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name That shall not be cut off." Isaiah 56:4-5.

I learned recently how perhaps this verse gave hope to a character we were introduced to in Acts 8:26-39, The story of Phillip and the Ethiopian eunuch. Perhaps you remember? But it would be good to read the whole story first, so these comments will make sense. It is important to know that in Deuteronomy 23 there are a lot of laws that forbid certain people from entering into the "congregation" of the Lord. Meaning they could not partake in the temple worship etc. It would be like saying that they were forbidden from going to church, or were excommunicated. In 23:1 it says: "He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord." It is a polite way of saying that a man was unable to reproduce by force, or accident, or choice. 

Knowing that background, we are introduced to this "Ethiopian eunuch, of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure" who was on his way home after having traveled all the way to Jerusalem to worship at one of the Jewish feasts, where he was not even allowed to participate! He would be kept out in the court of the Gentiles and could only watch from a distance. Still, the difficult journey and isolation was worth even the little he could enjoy. And now, we are told that Phillip was instructed by the Spirit to join himself to the man, and overheard the eunuch reading from a passage in Isaiah 53 where upon Phillip began to explain to him, the meaning of what he was reading. was about Jesus! When they came to some water, the eunuch asked in Acts 8:36 "... See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?"  

This eunuch has been told all of the time he was a eunuch,  that he could not participate in the worship activities in the temple, that he was an outsider, and restricted from any religious activity. And now, while we can know the passage he was reading was from Isaiah 53, but it is also within the realm of probability that Phillip showed him the passage a few pages later where it says "For thus says the Lord:“To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, And choose what pleases Me, And hold fast My covenant, Even to them I will give in My house And within My walls a place and a name Better than that of sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name That shall not be cut off." Isaiah 56:4-5. Indeed there was NOTHING that prevented him from fully participating in the feast and festivals and worship of God! He is no longer an outcast, and excluded from a relationship with God and is now accepted into all the promises of God which are yes and Amen!

God's ways and thoughts are higher than the Adamic, earthly thoughts of man. Earthy thoughts, because it is this lower realm of thinking that keeps us from enjoying a relationship with God, and the lower realm of thoughts and ways is a form of self attainment to a set of rules and laws that you think will make you acceptable to the perfection of God. That is the wide gate found in Matt. 7:13 For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.It misses seeing that "the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be" Rom. 8:7 Therefore, if it is not about keeping the "law of sin and death", and is instead about living in the higher realm of heavenly thoughts and ways, then we can see that is open to everyone! "Whosoever will may come" Rev. 22:17. And if you can understand that truth, you are indeed now thinking in the heavenly realm of  Higher Thoughts And Higher Ways.