Joseph’s Alabaster Box

Recently I sent the people on my mailing list a very joyous message relating what I had just heard Dr. Adrian Rogers say on bbnradio.org. Dr. Rogers, who has been in glory for several years, said that we invite people to walk down the aisle of our church because a bride should walk the aisle to meet her husband-to-be. A bride is dressed in white, and places herself to be seen by everybody. A sinner who has just trusted Christ Jesus as his Saviour has suddenly been made pure white by the blood of the Saviour. He will want everybody to see that he has trusted Christ Jesus as Saviour. My email message was well received by the Believers on my mailing list, and many wrote me to express their joy in hearing it. Most, like me, had never heard such an application of truth.

But there were some folks on my mailing list who were offended that a man could be a bride! And they didn’t believe it. This did not surprise me in the least, because I know that people who don’t believe the Bible give all sorts of reasons why the Bible can’t be believed. Culture and time seem to be the biggest hangs ups. Some, of course, like some atheists on my mailing list, don’t even believe there is God. The idea of a man-bride is so repulsive to me that it churns my stomach as it does the unsaved man who is not perverted. The notion that two men can marry is offensive in the extreme. I love sodomites, but I hate what makes them that.

Marriage is so holy that the least impurity in it makes it the foulest of corrupted things. Like a fly in the ointment, it stinks. Of course, perversion is the first thing that pops into the mind of the natural man when a man-bride is mentioned. Christians must remember that a great number of unsaved people are good, fine, honest, decent people. They are not wicked. They are not guilty of gross sins. We must somehow convince people that it is not the sins of the flesh that send people to Hell; it is refusing to be saved by the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Most people don’t understand that all human beings are born sinners; they do no become sinners by sinning. By sinning they only increase their punishment.

The idea that being a member of the bride of Christ makes a man effeminate is also repulsive to me. I can’t list the things that prove I am a man (truck driver, bass fisherman, etc.) because women do those same things. But I am a man. I am not effeminate. God hates that. Yet, I have walked as a bride down the aisle to meet my Saviour at the altar. I have a friend not three miles from me who is a Medal of Honor winner (and has a half dozen other medals, besides: silver star, etc.). When he enlisted as a country boy private, he was blind in one eye. He fought in Korea and Vietnam. It is unbelievable what he did as a foot soldier. He retired a bird colonel. He loves one of my sons and his family. He claims Jim as his own son. This man loves the LORD, and faithfully serves Him each week in worship, in spite of his disabilities from being shot to pieces. He is a member of the bride of Christ.

A past president of the Southern Baptist Convention was at our church last year in a men’s conference, and I had the privilege of shaking his hand. This man was a marine captain in Vietnam. His camp was under attack every night by the enemy. One day it became necessary for the captain to lead a patrol into the jungle to eliminate this problem. As he went through the jungle, he came to a trail he had to cross. As he stepped out of the growth onto the trail, he was shot in the right chest. The bullet went through his chest, and exploded out the other side of his body with a large chunk of his body tissue. The colonel who commanded his company landed in a helicopter nearby, and found the captain’s body. It was carried to the helicopter, and thrown in on a pile of dead marines. When the helicopter landed at their headquarters, they noticed that the captain was still alive. They loaded him on a medivac helicopter, and flew him to a nearby hospital. The captain is now traveling over the world connecting American churches to foreign churches in a missionary work. He is a man. He is a member of the bride of Christ.

“And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” Revelation 21:9. The Lamb’s wife is made up of men and women, boys and girls of all denominations and races who have claimed Jesus as Saviour. This great conglomeration is called the Church, as well as “the Lamb’s wife.” Right now, we are the bride.

But I must stop now, and tell you something that is apt to raise your hackles, and cause you to be offended if you are not a believer in Jesus Christ. I would be offended, too, if I were you. I understand. The Bible not saying that you are not intelligent, or that you do not know anything. This is what God says, and it will explain to you why the business of man-brides doesn’t make any sense to you. The statement is in I Corinthians 2:14: “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know [them], because they are spiritually discerned.” You see, you cannot understand the Bible because it is a spiritual book, and you’ve rejected the spiritual. Isaac Asimov was as educated and brilliant as a man could be, but he didn’t understand the Bible, even though he wrote commentaries on it. Isaac Asimov was an atheist. God did not write the verse to insult anybody, but simply to state a fact. Natural men do not understand spiritual things. They shouldn’t expect to, since they have rejected the spiritual God. A natural man is one who has not acknowledged Christ Jesus as his personal Saviour and LORD. The natural man can understand the Gospel, and he must be saved thereby. But he understands the Gospel by the faith that God will give him at the time. The truth of what I am saying is demonstrated by the fact that the saved people, the Believers, on my mailing list understood perfectly what I reported, and rejoiced in it as I do.

When a couple has been married for many years, they often lose their reproductive drive. Drugs and weakness make the reproductive act impossible. That doesn’t mean the marriage is over. On the contrary, the marriage ripens into a delicious, warm relationship that exceeds in benefits the relationship they had before. An old man looks upon his wife as his precious lamb whom he nourishes and cherishes, protects and shelters. She belongs to him. She is his child-bearer who has borne him children. She is a divine gift that he delights in after the inward man (his heart, his soul). It is no longer her outward beauty that he glories in. It is the beauty of the inward person that he gazes upon with such satisfaction. This is exactly the relationship of Jesus Christ and His bride, and the thoughts of Christ Jesus toward His bride.

The old bride takes the confident attitude that makes her leave locking the doors at night in the hands of her husband. She leaves the provisions of food, shelter, and raiment in the hands of her husband. She revels in his loving care of her. She does little or no worrying about the affairs of the family. She loves being his pet. She understands him, and knows about him. The old bride has a sense of security because of the fact that she is loved and claimed. She delights to serve him. To her, the greatest thing in the universe is to belong to a good man. I know all these things because it is written for our learning in the Bible, blessed book. And I also know that these are the very things that women’s lib hates, and has, for the most part, destroyed in our society. Result? Divorce. Unhappiness.

There are many Saints all over the world who endure great persecution for their faith. Some are tortured and killed. Some suffer worse fates. The Muslim child who ran away from home a while back, ran away because of a fear of her father. She had become a Christian. These persons are strong, courageous people whom we can admire.

I have likely made a complex (spiritual) subject even more complex, but in the hope it might be of value, I offer it. You natural men, I urge you to rely on Jesus Christ to save you from eternal loss, and put light into your mind.

The Resurrection and the Priesthood of Christ Jesus

The Resurrection of Christ Jesus was the most important event in the history of Earth. Saying “most important” raises many questions. Life on Earth demands certain elements. Which is the most important? Is oxygen the most important, or is water? How about sunlight, hear, food, favorable environment? All of these are essentials, but which one is the most important? What criteria shall we use to decide? Will our opinion be only our opinion, or can we establish it as a fact? Life can survive without water for several days. Life can survive without food for about 40 days outside. A favorable environment can probably be tolerated for many years. But oxygen is required to live for only a few minutes. I assert, and I thin I have proven, that oxygen is the most important element to life.

In his fine compilation of what he believes to be the greatest sermons on the Resurrection, Dr. Curtis Hudson, my friend of long ago, writes, “The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the foundation for all Christian belief. It is the keystone in the arch which holds the other stones in place. … The resurrection of Christ distinguishes Christianity from all other religions of the world.” (Curtis Hudson, The Sword of the Lord Publications (Murfreesboro, Tennessee, 1984), Preface.)

The word “resurrection” does not occur in the Old Testament, and concept of resurrection only appears in the types. Since no one could go to Heaven without the resurrection of Christ Jesus, the fact of resurrection was generally unknown, and we are left to wonder what was in the minds of the Jews. If anyone knows, I would be grateful to learn about it. There was something there, however, for Job, the perfect man who repented (Job 1:8; 42:6) believed he would rise from the dead in the presence of God. In chapter 9 of Job, and verse 25-27, he makes that startling statement, Job 19:25 “For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:” Job 19:26 And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Job 19:27 Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.” But what about historical events? There would be a debate about which events were actually important to the entire world. There is the Creation, the Exodus, the dispersion, all very important to the Jews, and therefore important to all of us. There is the birth of Jesus, and His crucifixion, both essentials to human kind. Consider the importance of the discovery of America, the Magna Carta, and the 1611 King James Bible. Both of these we consider essential to the salvation of man, even eastern men. Can we discover the importance of these events by placing them in chronological order? All events before the Resurrection led up to the Resurrection, and all events afterward were made possible by the Resurrection. For that reason, which obviously, is only my opinion, I choose the Resurrection as the most important event in world history.

The resurrection of Jesus established His eternal Priesthood. As a sojourner on Earth, Jesus could not be a priest because of the tribe into which He was born. Jacob fixed the futures of his twelve sons as he lay dying, as recorded in Genesis chapter 49. Levi was the name of the third son, and his descendants became the priests in Israel. They became priests because God showed His unlimited grace in choosing such a criminal to be the progenitor of the priests. Jacob said, “… I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.” (vs. 7) The priests were scattered in Israel, for they had no inheritance in Israel, and had to live among the other twelve tribes. Jesus was not born into this tribe.

Jesus was born into the tribe, as we call the descendants of Judah, the fourth-born son. Judah had not been a good man, but he was about the best of the twelve sons (ch. 38). Jacob gave him the scepter (49:10). Judah, therefore, would become the progenitor of the kingly family, David, Solomon, etc. Jesus descended from David (Matthew 1:6-17). Therefore, Jesus could have been a king. You see the implication of this? Mary and Joseph both were descendants of David. Therefore, they and their divine Son were princes – members of the royal household.

Let’s check the Old Testament’s authentications of the priesthood. It is found in Exodus 17, but first we will look briefly at chapter 16. In chapter 16 is recorded the rebellion of Moses’ and Aaron’ cousin, Korah, backed by many others of the Levitical family, and Reuben’s descendants. Korah complained that Moses and Aaron took too much upon themselves. The result of Korah’s rebellion was getting his name into the New Testament: Jude 11. The result also included the act of God by which He opened the earth, and swallowed the Korah Levites, and all that pertained to them. Then God sent fire to destroy the rest of the rebels. The people still complained, and God’s wrath carries over to chapter 17 where we learn a matter that is important to all saved people. Read and rejoice.

God told Moses to command the twelve princes of the twelve tribes to produce a rod upon which they would write their names. Aaron, too, as the prince of the tribe of Levi, must provide a rod. The princes brought their rods to Moses as he commanded, and he told them the rods would be laid up in the Tabernacle of the congregation before the testimony. In the morning the rods would be examined before them all, and in the presence of God. The rod that budded would designate God’s chosen priest. The dead rod that would come to life would point to nothing else but the fact of resurrection.

During the black night in the cold desert air, the dead rods lay on the sand before the Ark of the Covenant. But God did a marvelous thing. He chose Aaron’s rod, and caused the thing to bud, to bring forth buds, “blossomed blossoms”, and even almonds. What sort of wood the rods were we do not know. They may have been acacia, shittim or even hyssop, whatever, but God made Aaron’s rod and almond stick! No doubt all the rods were the same sort of wood, but they were all dead, perhaps even worn smooth by years of us by the owner. God disturbed none of them buy Aaron’, the high priest, and founder by the grace of God of the Levetical priesthood.

God had already chosen Aaron, Moses older brother (by three years, Exodus 7:7) for the task of being Moses’s “prophet,” or spokesman. That was before the exodus. In Exodus 28 Aaron and his four sons are consecrated as priests. The events of Numbers 16 and 17 occurred was twenty years (Usher’s chronology according to Scofield.) after Aaron and his sons are consecrated as priests (sons: Nadab and Abihu, who were slain for offering strange fire [Leviticus 10:1; Numbers 3:4; 26:6; and Eleazar and Ithamar). for more than twenty years the Israelites had be bellyaching, and God was fed up with it.

After the destruction of the “men of renown” (15:2), and the rest of the rag tag rebels with fire from Heaven, God sent a plague among the people who were still complaining, and killed 14,700 of them (16:49). (Since the Israelites went up out of Egypt as “a mixed multitude” [Exodus 12:38] I believe God never harmed a Jew who believed Him when He sent these plagues and killer animals among them, I believe it was for the persons in the “mixed multitude” who were the instigators of the problems, and the objects of God’s wrath.)

Now we enter the great seventeenth chapter where the business of the rods is recorded. I would put this chapter down here, but everybody has a Bible (1769 A.V), and I strongly urge you to read this chapter there. After God performed His creative miracle during the night, Moses went into the Holy of Holies where the rods spent the night, and gathered them up and brought them out before the congregation. He likely held Aaron’s rod aloft, and proclaimed that God had divinely, miraculously caused Aaron’s rod to come to life. This was God’s absolute authentication of Aaron’s priesthood. The rods the were placed into the Ark of the covenant, where they remained, fresh and living and grand as long as the Ark remained as a testimony to resurrection and Aaron’s call.

Next, let’s turn to that character Jonas. Jesus was very gracious and generous when He called Jonah a prophet. I’d call him a low-down rascal, but in that, I’m guilty of sin. As I’m sure you remember he is the man who ran from God, and detested the very people God sent him to minister to. God had to put him through a grinder to make him obey. I guess anybody would be revolted to have to minister to the Ninevites. Anyway, when God commanded him to go preach to Nineveh. Jonah 1:3 tells us that when God commanded him, “… Jonah rose up to flee … .” That means he ran like a hant (or Haunt, if you like hat bennter). I spend time in prayer begging God to make me one of His servants, pleading for opportunities to speak for Him, and here this bird receives a special privilege, and he flees! Shame.

Jesus also said that Jonas was a sign to the Jews. It is important to note every word Jesus said in this verse: “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Notice that Jesus said “as.” A type must be a picture of the actual thing it is a type of. If Jesus died, then Jonah died in the fish’s belly. Note what Jonah said in 1:17 – 2:2, “Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish’s belly, And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, [and] thou heardest my voice.”

No need for argument about whether Jonah was dead in the fish’s belly. He was a type of Jesus’ Resurrection, therefore Jonah was dead for three days and nights in that fish’s bell just as Jesus was dead for three days and night in the tomb of Joseph. Jonah was not down in the fish sitting on a pile of fish bones, ankle deed in digestive juices trying to breathe. He was as dead as Aaron’s rod, and the crucified Lamb of God. Cold in death. While he was in the fish, the digestive juices must have bleached him as white as snow. When Jonah completed the required three days and three night, God made the fish sick, and the fish hurried to a beach, and puked up this rotten prophet. (Forgive me, LORD.) And Jonah made haste to Nineveh.

Jesus and Jonah were dead for three days and three nights. Let’s count: Thursday 1, Friday 2, Saturday 3 = three days; Thursday night 1, Friday night 1, Saturday night 3 = three nights. In the absence of any Bible declaration that a miracle was involved, we can conclude that Jesus was crucified on Thursday, not Friday – right? Wrong. I believed that for a long time because I read it in a book. But when I research the Bible on the matter, I learned I was wrong. “Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” (John 2:19 see also Matthew 26:61; Mark 14:58). “Now when [Jesus] was risen early the first [day] of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils.) (Mark 16:9 see also Mark 16:2; Matthew 28:1). These two verses settled the matter of what day of the week Jesus was crusified. He was crucified on Friday. Sunday 3, Saturday (Sabbath) 2, Friday 1 – right? Right.

Don’t believe anything you hear or read (including here) without checking it out in the Word.

Jonah had a greater ministry than he thought. He was actually a type of Christ Jesus.

Just as the “resurrection” of Aaron’s rod authenticated the priesthood of Aaron, Jesus’ Resurrection made His priesthood possible. As a man born in the tribe of Judah, the royal tribe that held the scepter (Genesis 49:10), He could be a king, but not a priest. Priests had to be born into the tribe of Levi, and be descendants of Aaron. Jesus rose from the dead as a High Prist, but not a High Priest after the order of Levi or Aaron. Jesus’ priesthood is after the order of Melchisedec (Hebrews 17:7) , that ancient, mystical priest to whom mighty Abraham paid tithes (Hebrews 7:2; Genesis 14:10), and who blessed Abraham.

The Resurrection is the authorization, the foundation, the genesis, the enablement of Christ Jesus’ priesthood. It is this priesthood to which we belong who are saved (I Peter 2:9).

Believest thou this? Believing it honors God,  and saves you. Denying it infuriates God, and, well, if you don’t know, write me, and I’ll tell you plainly.

Genesis 3:8 contains a phrase that all of us should take note of. Let’s read the verse and discuss it. “And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.”

The words, “voice of the LORD God” are found forty-eight times in the Bible in that order, and many more times in different orders. Mighty Stephen informs us that Moses heard the voice of the LORD as he stood at the burning bush (Acts 7:31). The Israelites heard the voice of the Lord, and it nearly scared them to death (Genesis 19 ff). The voice of the Lord is an awesome thing. It is common for people today to say that God spoke to them. The Lord has spoken to men, and though the components of their ears did not vibrate with physical sound, the strings of their heart vibrated with spiritual sound.

But let us rather concentrate our thoughts on the thought of the presence of the Lord. I have long been an admirer of Dr. Lee Roberson. Years ago when I was a young pastor, he came to Bristol to address the pastor’s conference, and I was happy to be close to such a great man. After the service at Tennessee Avenue Baptist Church, we all went to a local shop to conduct a service during the lunch time. I got into the back seat of the car next to Dr. Roberson, and I felt very honored. I was in the presence of a great man.

When I was in college at Tennessee Temple University(‘66-69), I met Dr. Henry Morris. I had the opportunity to shake hands with him, and talk to him briefly. Again I was honored to be in the presence of a great, godly man. I met Dr. R. G. Lee, John Rice, and other men of renown. Some of the great men I have met have never been heard of outside of their own town. There are pastors of small churches who are great men. I am honored to have meet them, and work for them.

When I was a school principal I sought out people of prominence to invite to the school so the students could at least see them. I wanted children to admire good people. To be in the presence of a noble individual is an uplifting experience. Whether we like it or not, we are affected for good or bad by other people. But there must be an early end to boasting.

Often the influence of a good person on an evil person has the opposite affect of what we hope. Often devout people with consecrated lives are hated by people who should see them as an example of how a person should live and behave. Saints are salt and light in the world; two essentials for life on Earth. Most scientists hate spiritual salt and light, but without these, there would be no science today, for without the old scientists who were themselves salt and light, we would be like the eastern world, and Africa, living in dirt, and ignorance; worshiping gods of wood and stone.

Adam and Eve had the unique experience of walking in the garden of Eden with Christ the Creator. We are not told specifically that they did that, but in our verse we learn of “. . .the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day:. . .”, and we can assume He was walking with Adam and Eve There’s a lovely song that says, “My God and I go in the fields together. We walk and talk as good friends should and do … .” We love to sing about leaning on the everlasting arms. One of my favorite hymns is “Near to the Heart of God.” “There is a place of quiet rest, near to the heart of God, A place where sin cannot molest, near to the heart of God. O Jesus, blest Redeemer, sent from the heart of God, hold us who wait before Thee near to the heart of God.” What a lovely thought!

The joy of being married to one dearly loved is greatly enhanced by bringing the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ into the relationship. Adam and Eve had been innocent. They had no dark corners in their hearts before they rebelled. They had nothing to hide. No shadows, no gloom. No subterfuge. No deception. There was a three way communication that was perfectly open and honest. The precedence of God was welcome.

The presence of God before the world today is in we who are the Elect, the Saints, the Christians. He leaves us in the world to serve as salt and light. But men love darkness rather than light, and salt burns and stings their fractured souls. Yet, when we look at the world as a whole, we are forced to see that the most highly civilized areas of the earth (the “West”) are the areas where the God of light and salt has been honored, and His book given prominence over all other books.

The presence of the Lord is made possible by the Bible He provided for us. The Bible was George Washington’s guide. America is the only country in the world who had a George Washington, a humble man who considered himself a servant. Mad Napoleon, self-loving George III, and pompous Giovanni Anbilico Braschi preferred self to nation. Rather than salt and light, they were dark rot and decay. How different were their experience when they stood in the presence of the LORD.

God created man for fellowship. He wanted a creature that would be blessed by the joy of being in His presence. God did not need man, but He had something to give, and He created a creature that He could give it to. He had love and all the benefits that could go with love. . Love is like electricity, it must have a return circuit. No one realizes a benefit from being loved, unless they love in return. That is why a free will was required for all created things. To receive and return love, man must be able to decide whether to love or hate.

Christ and Adam and Eve had been close. But now, there was fear and suspicion and shame in the Adams, and all that comes with a knowledge of evil. Adam and Eve had known only good before because everything they knew was was good. The universe was “… very good …”, with nothing to dim the eye. The circle had been broken. The fellowship was ruined. The presence of their Creator that had before had been so – suddenly, I realize there is no word to descripe the experience of being in the presence of the LORD. The thought of facing Christ now struck terror into their hearts. They trembled behind the bushes in their fig leaf aprons. The ground must have shook beneath them as the Creator approached.

As a child, there was nothing more pleasing than the arrival of my daddy in the evening. I was always glad when he got home from work. He was always very tired after his fourteen-hour day, but he was always loving and kind. I loved life. I ran and chased and played all afternoon. I loved to be outside pretending all sorts of things, and climbing trees almost like a squirrel. I loved to roll my old roller skate around on the ground. One day it was a tank. The next day it was a big truck. The next day it was a locomotive. The next day it was an earth-mover. Sometimes I was bad. Then my day was dark. The afternoon was miserable, and I dreaded to see my daddy come home. I was going to be punished.

What could Adam say to the Lord? He tried his best to think of an excuse. He certainly couldn’t give a good reason. He couldn’t just come out, and tell the Lord what he had done, and why. What agonies humans can suffer because of sin! How the stomach twists, and the heart hurts, and the brain burns. There is pain from the top of the head to the sole of the foot. I can’t face that judge. I can’t face my wife. I can’t face my boss. I can’t face my teacher. I can’t face my preacher. I can’t stabd in the presence God. Let me flee even into hell to escape. O that I had never been born!

But the presence God cannot be avoided. In Heaven or Hell, we cannot escape the presence of God. Sooner or later, we must come face to face with Him. Will His face be wreathed with a smile of acceptance, or will it be grotesque with rage? We must all stand in the presence of God.

Standing in God’s presence can be the most glorious experience of all. It will be so glorious that our mortal body could not bear the joy. If we come into His presence with the blood of His only begotten Son, we will come as His own children. We can have the same fellowship, the same joy as Adam and Eve had before they sinned. We can be restored. We can be redeemed by the sacrifice of our Creator. He wants no man to fear being in His presence. He has made a way to eliminate the fear.

I have no fear of Satan because I am in Christ where he cannot touch me. I’d rather die at the hand of one who loves me, than one who hates me. Being killed in battle by a stranger who doesn’t know you is not so bad as being killed by a relative who hates you. Matthew 10:28 advises, “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”

The wicked do not fear God. Romans 3:18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” The righteous, who have nothing to fear from God, fear Him, while the wicked, who have everything to fear from God, do not fear Him. Isn’t that strange? Can you explain it? That, of course, applies only to this life. Take note of this sober clip from God’s Word:

Revelation 20:11 “And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.” Revelation 20:12 “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.”  Revelation 20:13 “And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.”  Revelation 20:14 “And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.”

How do you want to stand in the presence of God in reality?

“Sticking one’s head in the sand” has long since been shown to be an unsatisfactory solution to existing problems. This is true, both spiritually and worldly.

Examining the world around us unemotionally and objectively (both same thing) usually results in a rational decision, though the decision may not be what we would like for it to be. Truth is not like smoke. It is more like a tree planted by a river.

Some say laughter is the best medicine. If that is true, then I can understand why I have lived so long. But I have found that truth is far more solubrious to the human psyche. And truth is never found in the human head (nor my dog’s). Truth is too big to be found in such a small place. Truth, like God, is bigger than the universe, for God is Truth, and He is bigger than the universe.

Fortunately for us, He has provided us with a Book of Truth. In it, we can find all the wisdom and understanding we need to survive and thrive.

If the Book needed any recommendation, I would gladly add my recommedation.

The human race has lost something. The human race doesn’t know that it has lost something. People in the western world think that the people of the eastern world are not very intelligent. It is the western world that has sent man to the moon, and discovered how to mend sick hearts in the hospitals. We may discover how to cure cancer – or better yet, prevent it. We will probably discover how to cure colds and flue, providing the western world can escape the clutches of Islam which will set the world back to the black ages. What the western world has lost is its faith. The eastern world continues to believe that there is a God in the universe that man is responsible to. We can know that because the eastern world still worships what they think is God, while the west worships nothing.

The eastern world continues to hold religion as an important element in their life. This is seen in the faith of Islam in which people die for their faith. It is seen in other religions in India, and other countries. China and Japan have come under the influence of the western idea of Darwinism, and have lost their faith. Faith is something man can have that is based on a false assumption, like Darwinism and Allah. It is the eastern world, and the pre-Christian world of the west that has left us countless idols. These idols are the evidence that eastern people had faith that there is a God. They just took a wrong turn in trying to find Him or learn the truth about Him. Since eastern peoples could not believe that God was bigger than the creation around them that was obviously the work of a Creator, they reduced God to stone or wooden images, and imagined that He lived in those things.

Oddly enough, their gods were hideous, evil, and angry. This is not because they were unable to carve, chisel, or fashion things of beauty. The reason their gods were more like devils than gods is because man has had a sense of his sinfulness ever since Adam disobeyed God. They could not explain their guilty feeling; yet they knew that they were responsible to God. They did not know how to be prepared to stand before Him. They knew God was angry with them, but they did not know how to make Him happy. I am not discussing people with little intelligence. I am thinking of people who built the tower of Babel. the pyramids, the temples of South America, Even people who existed in jungles and frost had their gods made by their own hands.

The peoples of the western world living as they did in forests, also had their gods. That is, until the truth of the Gospel entered Europe about two thousand years ago. Then things began to change, though for more than a thousand years the Catholic church, actually the decayed Roman empire, withheld the Bible from the populace. The church lost control of the Bible, and the people when the printing press was invented. The Catholic church has left us its gods, too. All the great cathedrals they built are filled and covered with their idols.

The inventiveness of Islamic scholars was limited because Allah was a false god who could not lead man to the truth that God had created all matter, and the laws that govern it. If God could not command matter, then matter could not be controlled. If matter did not obey certain laws, then it could not be made into a thing that would print words on paper, or fall to the earth when it came loose from a tree limb. If matter were as lawless as man, then it would be impossible to make it into a hoe to chop weeds, or an airplane that could life hundreds of people. If you put an atom or molecule somewhere, you had to depend on it staying there.

The fact that matter is under the control of God, and God has given part of this control to man, was not learned by accident. It was learned from the Bible. The scientists of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries who established the disciplines of science were men who believed God, and believed that He was the Creator of all matter and physical laws. These were the greatest scientists of all time. Newton learned that matter did nothing. If matter were not under a law, it could go up as well as down when it came loose from the limb. He knew matter could do nothing because it could not move or stop moving unless something moved it or stopped it. Matter is inanimate. It does nothing of itself. Only matter with life in it can do anything. Only the Bible can explain life in a rational manner. Newton and his sort knew this. They were men of faith as well as science. They understood the basic fact of science: matter is created stuff that is governed by laws. Matter does not possess any intelligence at all.

Then a character comes along who can no more be compared to Newton than I could. In fact, he had only a M.A., whereas I have a doctorate. Newton was president of the Royal Society of London even after he had given up science for Bible study. Darwin decided that he would not believe there was a God because God judges people, and he didn’t like that. He decided that Christianity was evil because if what Christianity taught were right, most of his drinking buddies were in Hell, and he didn’t like that. His granddaddy Erasmus was a physician, and he wrote much stuff about evolution, but nobody had paid any attention to him. Darwin plagiarized much of this stuff into his book, and people paid attention to him.

Darwin did not reject God because his observations on his “hound dog” trip around the world demanded it. He twisted his observations of nature to prove what he believed before he got on the Beagle. He was not a scientist, and what he did was not very scientific, but what he did gave unbelieving men a foundation for what they believed. Men don’t believe there is no God, or that God didn’t create the universe the way He says He did, because science proves it or even suggests it. Men reject God because their very concept of God is like the frowning idols found all over the world. Their idea of God is exactly what that ancient artisan had in mind while he made that idol god. How do I know that? Listen to this from a leading evolutionist: No god can (or will) save us, we must save ourselves. Save ourselves from what? Why won’t God save us? This is the mind-set of the world today. The western world has rejected the ancient prophets who knew God, and swallowed Darwin hook, line, sinker, rod, and reel.

What the western world has lost is their natural-born belief that there is a God. The contemporary wester world is too dumb to realize how much priceless knowledge it has eschewed. The western world celebrates, not Christmas, but “Shopfrenzymas.” Mankind seems to have no longer the capacity to think, or reason. Matters of lasting importance are alien to the mortal brain. We have given up reason for the mind-opium of t.v. and sports.

We use the word “God” without thinking about what it means. Dictionaries give definitions of “god,” but they don’t capitalize the word as they do “Adolph Hitler,” and others. Their definitions are not much better than the infantile thoughts of the ordinary man on the street. Some do use words like “omnipotent,” and the like. God can be anything to anyone. According to the dictionary definitions, God can be anything you choose to worship as God. We can know about God by reading His Word, but western Christianity has just about destroyed God’s Word as an authority on anything. But since God is bigger than the universe, how can we visualize Him? How can we know Him personally. How can we meet Him? These questions stop humans in their tracks.

And that’s where Christmas fits in. God knew we could not conceptualize Him. He knew we could not understand Him. God was so gracious that He took upon Himself human flesh, like putting on a pair of coveralls, and entered the world with the shadow of a cross over Him. In Him we can see clearly all the marvelous things God has revealed in His book abbot Himself. He helps us see into the mysteries of the universe, time, matter, and space. The things that matter after all, are made clearer to us. We can give up our silly ideas for His eternal truths. I am not just 239 pounds of matter. I am that, but more than that, the matter contains the greatest mystery of all – life. I don’t profess to know what life is, but I do know where it came from, and I know it is of inestimable value. We generally call it the “soul.” If man valued his soul as God does, he would do something to save it, for he can’t save it himself.

Christmas? Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth, peace and good will to men. Christmas is a celebration of God loving man, and dying on a cross for him.