Joseph’s Alabaster Box

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?

It is safe to say that every criminal and every abuser of mankind, such as Rockefeller and Carnegie, were evolutionists. The fact that Hitler was an evolutionist is well documented from his own writings, speeches, and behavior. Karl Marx, too, was a rabid evolutionist, and his economic theory, the basis of communism, was evolution in motion. All evolutionists are a threat to mankind because they teach a dogma that develops the worst behavior in man. When man considers other men animals, then he is more prone to treat him like an animal. Belief in evolution is a gross sin because it contradicts the LORD God, and makes His Word of no effect. It also robs Him of His glory as the Creator of all things.

Eve had an extraordinary mind, just as Adam did, but there must have been something in her that made her more naive than Adam because it was she that Satan went after. What she thought or did not think is not revealed to us in the Word, and so we cannot know, but we have evidence from her behavior to give us an idea of what she thought. Surely, if she had believed, or remembered, that God was her Creator, she would not have disobeyed Him so readily. Females are still more naive as we can detect in their propensity to believe commercials. A commercial can use the word “save” instead of the word “spend,” and the ladies don’t seem to know the difference.

If my idea is true, then Eve was the first evolutionist. Certainly, what she did indicates that she had rejected the LORD as Creator. The Lord at that time was not, in fact, her Redeemer, because she did not need a Redeemer, but God had certain rights to her life, body, soul, and spirit just the same. And so Mr. Darwin was not the first evolutionist, Eve was. Evolution sin goes all the way back to the garden of Eden.

Eve’s desire to be as God also indicates her evolutionary bent. The notion that man is as good as God, and just as deserving to be god as God, is the reason evolution theory survives all the scientific and common sense evidence that disproves it. Dr. Henry Morris writes: “…a professor of history at Calvin College … a witness for the evolution side at the 1981 Arkansas creation law trial, admits, ‘In any case, creation scientists are correct in perceiving that in modern culture evolution often involves far more than biology. The basic ideologies of the civilization, including its entire moral structure, are at issue. Evolution is sometimes the key mythological element in a philosophy that functions as a virtual religion’.”1

Let’s read our text, Genesis 3:6,7: “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.”

Humans living under sin cannot restore themselves to their innocent state by going naked. The human body may be beautiful to innocent eyes, but the human body is not beautiful to eyes that can lust, for nothing sinful is beautiful, and lust for something unlawful is sin. Ham’s son Canaan was cursed because Ham looked on the nakedness of his daddy. God forbade his priests to go up to the altar by steps because of the possibility that their nakedness might be seen. In Leviticus 18:8 the Jews were commanded, “The nakedness of thy father’s wife shall thou not uncover: it is thy father’s nakedness.” Of all the changes that must have taken place in the total human when he sinned, this is the only thing that is recorded. Nakedness reduces a human being to the state of an animal more than anything else. The shame of modern civilization is nakedness.

A handful of cloth is not sufficient to clothe a person. Nakedness is not freedom, as some have mistaken it. The Supreme Court may not know what pornography is, but most people you meet in church know what it is.

Eve’s decision helps us to realize how dangerous it is for us to make decisions. I feel sorry for young people who must make a decision about whom to marry. Getting engaged is more dangerous than a bungy jump. It is very difficult today to decide what to believe about eternal matters. The devil has stirred up such a mass of religions that the average person on the street is completely confused. I spend much time thinking about how I can persuade people that I am telling the honest truth. The best way I know of to convince an unbeliever that I am telling him the truth is to convince him that my own salvation was perfected, completed, by Christ Jesus on the cross of Calvary. We don’t have to win souls to go to Heaven. As an individual member of the human race, it is none of my business whether a person gets saved or not. That is a matter strictly between the individual and God. I am going to Heaven whether anybody else goes or not. It’s not nice to say it, but if a sinner doesn’t get saved, it’s no skin off my nose. I must admit, it is some skin off my heart, though, because Jesus Christ died for that person, and the suffering of my Saviour is wasted on that sinner’s account if he goes to hell.

Eve made the wrong decision. Like all such decisions, her decision did not affect her alone, “For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.” according to Paul in Romans 14:7. Eve was about to hurt her husband more than she could ever have imagined. The greatest harm she was about to do him was to put him in the position where he had to choose between her and the Lord. After Eve bit into the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the devil didn’t need the serpent anymore. If he faced Adam at all, which he probably did not, he probably stepped out of the serpent, and faced Adam with sneers and scorning when Eve revealed to Adam what she had done.

Can you imagine how Adam must have felt when Eve approached him with that fruit in her hand? I can just see the scene. There she is so happy and proud of what she had done, holding her half eaten fruit in one hand, and holding out a fresh fruit to Adam. Adam had no choice but to eat. The Apostle Paul said, “For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:. . . .” What a shocking thing to think about. If Paul would be willing to go to Hell for his brethren, how much more would Adam be willing to go to Hell for his wife? There may have been no Hell at that moment, and certainly Adam would not have known about it, but he chose to give up his Creator for his wife, and that was the same thing. Adam had to make a choice. His wife had transgressed the law of God. He knew the penalty, and he knew God would carry it out. It was Eve or God. I have known people to choose the devil rather than their spouse. I know a man who was wealthy and popular, good looking and witty. He and his wife were socialites. They partied and lived according to the good times of the world. But he got saved. Suddenly, he was no longer a party-goer. He was a church-goer. No more pleasures of sin for him. His wife gave him an ultimatum. Give up this stupid religious fanaticism, or I go. This man did his best to win his wife, but she decided for the devil rather than the LORD Christ and her husband. She divorced him. To make his pain even worse, many Baptist preachers would not allow the man to speak in their churches because he was a divorced person. He had not divorced his wife, she had divorced him. He was not the criminal – she was. But prejudice is irrational, and this man was treated worse that a robber, even though it was he who had been robbed.

Adam’s rib, Satan’s fib, women’s lib. Adam’s sin, Satan’s win, women’s men. That combination can never equal anything but misery. Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves together. We cannot know how many trees of knowledge there were in the Garden, but it is possible that the tree of knowledge was a fig tree. People are still sewing fig leaves. Baptism, good works, church membership. Anything but the blood. Deliver us from a bloody religion, they say. Fig leaves hide no shame, and works hide no shame.

Regret can be indescribable agony. How many poor souls on this earth suffer regret! Words that can never be recalled. Deeds that cannot be undone. Thoughts that linger to haunt and accuse. Regret is like the gloom of a damp cavern where nothing lives. Regret is such an awful word, it isn’t even found in the Bible. Regret can whittle down one’s will to live. Regret must have haunted Adam and Eve till their dying day. Their inability to forgive themselves may have been the worst curse of all. Remorse stands in dark corners like apparitions waiting to pounce on you if you have a happy thought. Remorse chilled poor David in his final hours. All the Abishags on Earth cannot warm a soul frozen by remorse.

1. Henry M. Morris The Long War Against God (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1989 (quoting George M. Marsden, “Creation versus Evolution: No Middle Ground,” Nature 305, [Oct. 13, 1983]): 574.

What awful fires rage down in Hell,

That fearful place where nothing’s well

Where souls of men are combustible,

And their life sentences are not adjustable.

“If only” echoes through each room

As wretched souls contemplate their doom.

Every soul in Hell believes in Him

Who died upon the cruel cross for them.

Brimstone makes a fearful fire

For foolish men whose sins are dire.

God will not be mocked, He plainly said,

And He will get you when you’re dead,

In sweet, cool water dip your finger,

And touch my parch’ed lips – don’t linger.

For I am tormented in this flame

Because I scorneded God’s holy name.