Joseph’s Alabaster Box

Human government means exactly what it says, “Government for Humans.” It includes every human on earth, every nation on Planet Earth. How can government be the same for peoples in Africa, America, China – all the humans on this earth? We must understand that all humans, regardless of color or language or culture, have certain things in common because we are all human. All of us are descendants of the first pair of humans. Here may be the first point of disagreement with some folks, for there are those who think evolution made us what we are. It’s as though a god named evolution, did this to us single cells. So if you don’t believe humans are divinely created beings, you won’t give a thought to the rest of this essay. The same authority that informs us about our origin, informs us about how we should govern ourselves. Surely, you would not think that God would create a thing like a human, command man to reproduce, and then fail to give instructions as to how these humans should behave among other humans. God Almighty is rational. He has thought of everything.Humans are not the only creatures who need government. From ants to elephants, creatures in the animal world must have rules and regulations (government) in order to survive and interact safely and productively. Biologists study these creatures, and we have learned much about animals. If biologists could shed the evolution blinder, we could know much more. Biologists recognize this government among animals though I haven’t heard any of them speak of it as government, they simply talk about groups having leaders. Some animals have female leadership, usually an old grandmother who has shown herself worthy of leadership. Elephants go with her regardless of where she goes. God programmed these creatures to behave like this.

Adam and Eve were created as innocent adults, like little children with extreme intelligence, but they had government. God was the LORD of the universe. He gave Adam a certain command that was the first law. He gave only one law. God was the LORD because He was the Supreme Being of the universe. He was the owner of the universe because He had made it. He had the right to rule it as He pleased. It was a theocracy. We will have that sort of government again. Even the plants, the elements, the heavenly bodies all had parameters in which they moved. All these parameters were in God, “For in him we live, and move, and have our being; …” (Acts 17:28). The laws of thermodynamics, and the law of gravity for example. Squirrels climbed trees, rabbits ran along on the ground, fish would swim, birds would fly. They could do nothing else. They are governed by what they were.

Man was the only creature who defied his LORD. Animals have stayed in their parameter. Animals have never sinned. Adam was the Lord of Earth because God gave him that privilege. If a tiger had disobeyed God, we can believe that God would not have cursed the entire universe. He might have cursed the tiger and his descendants, but since the tiger was not responsible for man, we don’t believe God would have cursed man along with the tiger and all that pertains to him. God gave the whole universe to man, and when the Lord of the Universe failed, he brought down the universe with him.

Soon after creation Adam’s oldest son murdered his younger brother. We will learn later in the Bible (Leviticus 17:14) that blood is the life of the flesh. The sin of Cain was not first of all the killing of his brother. The real sin of Cain was in violently opening the circulatory system of his brother so that his blood drained out onto the ground. This naturally resulted in Abel’s death. Since God had not given the Law, including Exodus 20:13, the sixth commandment, God could not execute Cain (Romans 5: 13-14) . God did not give His laws before the fact. He did not give laws until the need of them arose. He had not yet said, “Thou shalt not kill.” In fact, God placed a mark of some kind on Cain to warn others not to kill him in vengeance. Cain’s father, Adam, or one of his brothers may have tracked him down and killed him.

Lamech was the next bloody murderer. Lamech also has the low-down distinction of violating God’s principle that a man have only one wife. As the first pervert, Lamech had two wives, and he bragged to them about killing two young men. It has been suggested by some that one of these two wives was guilty of adultery. Lamech was the fifth generation of Cain’s line, and was contemporary with Jared who was the granddaddy of Enoch, the mighty preacher of righteousness. By the time of Lamech wickedness had engulfed the world, and would continue to get worse until we have the condition of man’s morals as recorded in Genesis 6. By the time we get to Genesis 6, and Noah, men have become so wicked they are demon possessed.1 Violence was so common that men were killing each other by the thousands. It is estimated that at the time of the flood, there could have been billions of people on Earth, but the bloodshed was so common there were many fewer than that.

It was at this lawless time that Jehovah was ready to destroy the earth and its air-breathing creatures with a mighty world wide flood. There were only three righteous men on Earth, Noah’s daddy and granddaddy, and they would die before the rain began the deluge. Noah, his wife, three of his sons, and their wives were the only survivors of the flood. As soon as the flood was over, Noah and his boys knocked pieces off the ark, and having built a an altar of some sort- maybe of mud bricks, they offered sacrifices to God. God was pleased with the sacrifices, and the faith of the men who offered them.

God was determined to do all He could, given man’s free will, to prevent the world from becoming a place of violence and murder again. He gave Noah and the surviving creation a covenant. God gave the covenant, and man had nothing to do with it except to live in it. God established His new order for the happiness and security of man. Everything God has every done, it has been for the benefit of man. The only time God is violent is when He is forced to be so by the wickedness of man which endangers the peace and prosperity of His own children who obey Him.

Human government was established in Genesis 9:5 and 6. “And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.”

Herein we discover a truth that probably not a single government on Earth is aware of. Human government is established to keep order. Since we live in the devil’s world, this means we must have policemen and soldiers to defend innocent, law-abiding people. A policeman does not wear that pistol on his side as ballast, and a soldier does no carry a rifle for calisthenics. An executioner pulls the electric chair lever for the protection of the helpless.

Most people in government think that the purpose of government is to rob the rich and give to the poor. They sit around in mahogany offices thinking up ways to increase “revenue,” and how to spend it. Unfortunately, the citizens have the same pie-in-the-sky notions. Governments all over the globe do not have the foggiest notion of why they exist. Many nations consider their armies as something to be used to take what belongs to others.

With the enormous responsibility of taking a human life given to him, man would have to form himself into a government to carry it out. They would have to employ individuals to carry out their judgments: executioners, policemen, soldiers, and other law enforcement personnel as needed. The persons who would be the government would be acting for the people, and the people they employed would be active for them. The safety of the violent individual must be guarantee until he is found guilty of innocent. But how will we find a man guilty of innocent of a crime? Will we make him run through a fire to see if he is burned, and declare him innocent of guilty on the results of his ordeal? All sorts of like trials have been used, but all were foolish.

The Bible tells us that a man on trial must be condemned by two witnesses. In the absence of witnesses, evidence must be presented. The government must be sure that the person accused of a crime is guilty. There must be no revenge involved. Vengeance belongs to God. There must be no vigilantes riding through the night. After all, the blood of the accused one must not be shed until we are certain he is in fact, the murderer. His blood is precious, too. (There are no doubt some who will argue with the word “certain” in the last sentence. Human frailties will cause an innocent person will be executed now and then. That does not invalidate the nessesity of the law.)

How does God’s order of government work out in real life? The great King David, who was a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22) who would do all of God’s will was a man who had killed his ten thousands (I Samuel 18:7) in war. He was also the high general over warriors of enormous fighting ability. Though he was a man after God’s own heart, he was not allowed to build God’s temple. I will not go into the reasons for David’s warfare at this time, but I can justify it if I have to. God did not condemn him because he was a warrior.

A policeman often has to kill. Is he a murderer. It is the business of keeping the innocent safe in their environment. If an individual is so determined to disrupt the security of the innocent that nothing will deter him, he often has to be killed. The state kills this individual, following God’s desire that the innocent are to be protected. It is not the policeman who kills, but the state who hires him and supports him in his duty. The same is true for a soldier who is called up (or volunteers as I did) to defend the country from foreign governments or people who would endanger our citizens. These soldiers do no murder when they kill the enemies of our peace and security. The soldier who enjoys killing and does it for his own pleasure must answer to God on an individual bases.

Humanity could not exist in the devil’s wicked, violent world without the protection of duly appointed governments and persons who will do the actual work of protecting us. People who understand that this is a world under the domination of the devil and his angels should understand better than anybody the need for enforced peace. There is no tranquility among men without force. I stand in opposition ro war or violence as a means of resolving disputes,” but I am not going to roll over and play dead if the disputer is demanding the freedom, safety, and security of my family. I’m going to kill him, myself if necessary, but ideally with my army or policemen if possible.

I honor our soldiers and policemen who themselves are honorable peace-loving men with families of their own, who are committed to keeping our neighborhoods out of the hands of criminals and thugs. I am glad that I and my sons do not have to protect our families ourselves. We could not do anything productive for fear of a thug attacking our children. And how much happier would our people be if left alone by government which understands its duty. As long as we’re no more that “revenue” providers to be robed for the benefit of the unworthy, governments will continue to fail as they have for millenniums.

God’s plan for government has never changed. He did add, “Thou shalt not murder.” , the message being, and if you do kill, my servants are going to kill you. I’ll not have my good Earth splattered with blood again.
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1. Henry M. Morris, The Genesis Record” (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1991), p. 164 ff.

Here is an ancient old conflict. Ever since Satan sat out to prevent the Seed of the woman from being born, there has been bloody warfare on this planet as well as psychological and philosophical conflict. Lucifer attacked God in an effort to assume God’s throne. God will not permit anyone to take His throne, and so there has been spiritual warfare ever since. This spiritual warfare often takes physical forms, and Believers’ blood is shed, and pain is experienced. There is a great amount of violence and bloodshed in the Old Testament, but God is not responsible for it. He loves His own children (Believers in God) too much to allow Satan to take them. So the resistible force meets the unmoveable object.

God expects His people to join this fight. Israel marched into the land of promise with swords and spears. Of course, the fight is not like as of old, because Christ defeated Satan when He rose from the dead. The war is different now because Christ won the victory by shedding His own blood. The war today is Hate against Love. Hate sheds its adversaries’ blood while Love woos the enemy with offers of mercy and grace. Here are our orders: “Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” These orders are not only for our personal safety, though they are for that, they are for the defense of the gospel. We must put this armour on, and never take it off. The church should be our city of refuge. We should be able to go into the church and find relief from the world’s attacks. Instead, the church is full of the sound of night clubs and dance halls. The problem is that some watchmen on the wall go out without their armour, and get shot down on the wall. The enemy comes flooding in with all their music and bogus bibles, and overwhelm us with guile. Satan is able to deceive the very elect, and if we are not vigilant, even the best of men will lead us astray. Satan’s cohorts lead multitudes of God’s simpletons out of the church into all sorts of cults and three-dollar religions.
Satan’s imps persuade many Saints that the ways of the world are the most effective ways to win and keep people. Instead of wearing their armour (which many folks find very uncomfortable), they put on worldly garb and disappear into the masses of the world. These spiritual ignoramuses smoke, cuss, gossip, tell dirty stories, cheat, litter the earth, criticize their church, sleep in on Sunday mornings. They think thoughts of material gain. They prefer a pocket knife over the sword of the LORD. They are selfish, lethargic, shallow. They ignore their soul’s pleas for prayer, Bible study, worship, and quiet. They’d rather believe the tv than their pastor. Their itchy ears are dull of hearing, and their feet are shod with vain entertainment.
The world is rapidly winning the war. It’s hard to win a baby with spinach when an enemy is offering it candy. Atheists, evolutionists, liberals, sodomites, drug peddlers, abortionists and all the evil morass that goes with them are rapidly gaining the upper hand. Now God says, “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean [thing]; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”
Ah, that a Saint full of leaven could be dried out. Where is the preacher who could bring the church to her knees with the mighty power of God? Where is the living preacher who prefers the Sword of the LORD to sandpaper? Where are the teachers who will teach their lambs that the safest place for lambs is behind a formidable wall?
The American people have been conditioned, like Pavlov’s dog, to salivate when a promise of personal ease is offered. People have been conditioned by our culture to think that their personal pleasure and happiness are more important than holiness. How can they be persuaded that God did not create man for happiness, but for holiness? Seeking happiness cannot gain you holiness, but seeking holiness can gain you both.
I pray that God will spare my family and friends from the wrath that is upon us.

GENESIS 1:5

DAYS

One of the greatest points of controversy between evolution philosophers and creationists is the age of the universe. Evolution requires vast ages of time for the changing of one sort of creature into another. It requires a vast amount of time for a reptile scale to move one bit closer to being a feather. Talking of vast time periods makes one somehow seem mysterious and priestly. The controversy is over the word “day” in Genesis 1. Everybody knows what “day” means except the scholars who are unsatisfied with simple things that tend to stop debates.
A real and present problem is caused by scholars refusing to correct errors they know their colleagues have made when they announce “new discoveries.” I have a book in my library that I have had since I don’t know when, and don’t know where I got the thing. It has no publisher’s name in it, and only some notes on a back page which are full of misspelled words. I probably bought it at a flea market. It was written back in the early twenties by Dr. John R. Sampey, a professor of Old Testament Interpretation at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Dr. Sampey wrote, “Many Christian students now recognize the six days of creative activity as standing for periods of indefinite length,” and goes on to say, “Just as the seventh day of rest from creation seems, according to Genesis, to stretch all the way from the creation of man to the present time, so the preceding days of creation activity were almost certainly long periods of time. In the language of the Bible the word day often refers to a period of indefinite length.”1
Dr. Sampey refers, of course, to that line we hear so often about in II Peter 3:8 which says, “But, beloved be not ignorant of this one thing that one day is with the LORD as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”
God is not speaking to Himself in Genesis 1 when He uses the word “day.” He is speaking to the human race who understands “day” as being a period of light of about twelve hours when man works, and then a period of darkness of about twelve hours when man rests from his labor. A man who is not a scholar comes home from work. At evening he sits down to read to his children about the creation. He will not go to Peter and discuss the Hebrew and Greek languages and draw sill conclusions from his educated brain. He is going to read that God made certain things on certain days, and he and his entire family will know exactly what God said, and that is what God intended. God intended for the uneducated to read and understand His Word, within the scope of their ability, just the same as the person with a big brain. Scholars are welcome to read and study the Word of God, but they are not welcome to change around the meanings of words for us, and confuse the very straight forward messages in the Bible that God intended for all people to know.
Scholars should know that the word “day” in Genesis 1 is translated from the Hebrew word “yom” which means exactly what the non-scholar thinks of when he reads the English word “day.” All of this controversy is ridiculous, and could not endure if Christians would simply stand on the Word of God without fear of offending somebody unnecessarily. “And God said, Let there be light and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness And God called the light Day and the darkness he called Night And the evening and the morning were the first day.” There is absolutely no way that those words can be made to say that a day was millions of years long. There would be no sense in the statement at all. Are we to believe that there was a few million years of darkness? Or perhaps there was light in the eastern half of the sky while the western half was dark. If a day was made up of a million years of ordinary days, then what would we call the a million-year-long day? Words soon lose their meanings if we trifle with them too much. Many verses in the Bible would lose their meaning if the word “day” meant long eons of time.
Marcus Dods, an evolutionist and Hebrew scholar, stated: “If for example, the word (day) in these chapters does not mean a period of twenty-four hours, the interpretation of scripture is hopeless. If sense cannot be made of the creation account, which is the basis of all the rest, then believing the rest of Scripture becomes unrealistic.”2 The most irrational people are those who profess to believe the Bible, but in practice, do not.
According to Mr. Ian Taylor in his fine book, In The Minds of Men, the “. . .day-age theory (was) put forth by Hugh Miller (1802 -1856), who was a stonemason, geologist, and author. Miller, who shot himself in a fit of depression on Christmas Eve, published his book Footprints of the Creator in 1859, the same year Darwin published his book. The day-age notion was an effort to compromise the Bible with what Charles Lyell and others were saying about a local flood and millions of years of evolution.”3
Evolution made such an impact on the world when Darwin published his book in 1859, that great numbers of Christians thought it was true that the earth had to be millions of years old. Mr. Miller tried to make the Bible say what he thought it must say to be scientifically accurate. Mr. Miller thought he had rescued the Word of God when he thought up the idea that “day” in Genesis could mean periods of millions of years.
Today, after 150 years of scientific research in the matter, there is still a shocking absence of supporting evidence for evolution theory, and the truth comes to light that evolution is nothing but a fanatic religion. There is no scientific reason to believe in evolution. The creation model is far superior in explaining the universe and its behavior than is evolution. We no longer feel obligated to rescue the Bible from scientific research. Having failed to discredit the Bible, evolutionists have turned to making unfounded statements. God will never be surprised by anything man discovers, for God is far ahead of man in scientific knowledge and experience. Poor Mr. Miller could have saved himself a great deal of pain if he had stuck with the Scriptures, and waited for further scientific proof to determine the truth.
The dictionary says that truth is reality. Truth is being true to knowledge. Truth conforms to knowledge. The hallmark of false religions is their make-believe mind set. Believing something does not make it true. Believing in the great pumpkin did not cause the great pumpkin to rise from the pumpkin patch, in spite of all the little boy’s faith that it would. The raw truth is that in the world of reality, there is no great pumpkin. In the real world, all men are sinners with only the vicarious death of God’s only begotten Son to redeem him. Imagination station can be a fascinating place, but Imagination Station Church will cause people to be eternally lost. This teacher does not pretend to be a scientist, nor one who knows all the answers. I would rather be a preacher than a scientist. As a preacher, I am pretty familiar with the Scriptures, and as a student, I am pretty familiar with science. As a Christian I love honesty, and prefer honesty to any other aspect of human experience. The Bible is true. If there is a fact on Earth, and it can be known, it is the fact that the Bible is the Word of God. Man must be very cautious about his attitude toward the Bible. To make a mistake in evaluating the Word of God could result in eternal damnation. If you think that is a possibility for you, I highly recommend you take immediate action to remedy the situation in your own life.
Christ Jesus is the only begotten Son of God. He is God the Son, and God the Creator. He became a man in order to save man from his sins. This is the record that God gave of His Son.
“My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope. (Job 7:6).
Psalm 90:10, “The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.”
Psalm 90:12, “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”
Psalm 90:14, “O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.”

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1. John K. Sampey The Heart of the Old Testament Nashville: Broadman Press, 1922), p.17
2. Fred Wilson, “Impact,” Institute of Creation Research: 247).
3. Ian Taylor In the Minds of Men Toronto: (TFE Publishing, 1992), p.361-362.