> Transcripts of Ray's Audio's and More Teachings
THE FATHER'S WILL? Mobile Conference 06 Transcript added - A Word About Humility
Craig:
2006 Mobile Conference
http://bible-truths.com/audio/9-2-06MobileConf.1.mp3 (this 1st link has poor audio, but the rest are okay)
http://bible-truths.com/audio/9-2-06MobileConf.2.mp3
http://bible-truths.com/audio/9-2-06MobileConf.3.mp3
http://bible-truths.com/audio/9-2-06MobileConf.4.mp3
http://bible-truths.com/audio/9-2-06MobileConf.5.mp3
http://bible-truths.com/audio/9-2-06MobileConf.6.mp3
http://bible-truths.com/audio/9-3-06MobileConf.7.mp3
http://bible-truths.com/audio/9-3-06MobileConf.8.mp3 A Word About Humility
Audio 1
WHAT IS "THE FATHER'S WILL?"
[No one will enter God’s Kingdom unless he “does the Will of the Father,”
Yet only the Chosen Elect Few even know what it is]
A STERN WARNING:
“Not every one that says unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven;
but he that does the will of My Father which is in heaven” (Matt, 7:21).
This is the only way into the kingom, he that does the Will of My Father.
BUT WHAT IS THE FATHER’S WILL?
“And this is the Father's will which has sent Me, that of all which He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day” (John 6:39). But what is it?
“For whosoever shall do the will of My Father which is in heaven, the same is My brother, and sister, and mother” (Matt. 12:50 & Mark 3: 35) What is it.
“Even so it is not the will of My Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish” (Matt 18:14) What is it?
“I can of Mine Own Self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and My judgment is just; because I seek not Mine Own will, but the will of the Father which has sent Me” (John 5:30) What is it?
“Now we know that God hears not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and does His will, him He hears” (John 9: 31).
“If any man will do His [God’s] will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of Myself” (John 7:17). But what is it?
“Cast not away therefore your confidence, which has great recompence [compensation] of reward. For you have need of patience [ endurance--Matt. 24:13] that, after you have done the will of God, you might receive the promise” ( Heb 10:35-36).
WHO IS THE FATHER?
There is a big misconception, in the whole Christian world They read the OT and it talks about God, the Lord, and Jehovah, and they think this is God the Father... it is not, this is not The Father. Few Christian alive understand, until Jesus Christ came no one on earth knew anything about this entity called God the Father Nobody ever heard of God the Father, they heard of God, they thought God was the one who dealt with Israel, the prophets, Moses, and Adam and Eve in the OT, that’s God.We learned that was not God the Father. He was there, but not specifically referred to in most of those scripture. Paul says there are many gods, pagans have their gods...
“But to US there is but ONE GOD THE FATHER, OF Whom are all things [all things?], and we in Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him. Howbeit, there is not in every man this knowledge…” (1 Cor. 8:5-7)
The word 'things', in this verse should be, ‘those’ not things, it’s talking about people, beings.
Who has that knowledge, let’s analyze this. I’m amazed at how much we can learn from so little. The Bible does not give 20 page explanations of different things But there are little words and phrases, if you understand them, will explain a whole gamut of things. We just read over these words. Pay attention to the words. Don’t just read over them and try to get an overview. Pay attention to the words, all the words. Man should live by every word (Luke 4:4). All scripture are by inspiration of God, all these words are important.
Notice what it said “But to us there is but one God the Father, of whom are all…”. What is the all? Well, what is not of the Father, nothing. What about Jesus, is Jesus of the Father or is He His own God? It says, of the Father is all, that would have to include Jesus. “…and we in Him…”, what does this mean? There is one God and we are in Him. How are we in Him? There are other scriptures talking about God being in us.
Acts 17:23 For as I passed by and saw the things you worship, I also found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Not knowing then when you worship, I make Him know to you.
The Greek had all these gods, they thought maybe there was one they didn’t know about. So they even made an altar to the unknown god, and Paul said, the one you call the unknown god, is the One I worship.
God made the world and all things there in. How does that stack up with modern religion? Where do they go to worship, in a church building. Where does God say He does not dwell ( Act 7:48; 17:24), in a building made with hands. There was a time when God dwelled in the Holy place, both in the tabernacle and in the temple in Jerusalem. But after He ushered in the NT, He destroyed that temple, and tore down the curtain that separated man from God. We go directly to God now.
“For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am in the midst of them,” (Matt. 18:20).
You do not have to go to a church. God does not dwell in church buildings. Neither is He worshipped with man’s hands. As if He needed anything, seeing that He gives us all life and breath, and all things.
Acts 17:26 He has made of one blood, all nations of men, for to dwell on the face of the earth. And He is determined their appointed seasons and boundaries of their habitation,
v. 27 that they should seek God, if haply they might feel (grope) after Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;
Now we have another false concept, where is God? in heaven? Well, where is heaven? Waaay up there?
He is not far from any one of us, but what does that have to do with the theory, you have to go worship in a church or on this day or that day? He is not far from any of us! We don’t pay attention to the words.
GOD IS SPIRIT, but nowhere in scripture does it say, God is a Spirit, God IS Spirit.
v. 28 For in Him we live, and move, and have our being (we exist in Him), as certain even of your own poets have said, for we are also His offspring.
Whenever Paul could make a connection with their pagan beliefs, he made the connection, so they would say, this man knows what he is talking about. Paul said, I am become all things to all men to gain some, (1 Cor. 9:22). When you go to Japan, you take off your shoes before you go in the house, he didn’t say I’m not going to take off my shoes for nobody.
Rom 13:7 Render to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.
So here he was siding with them, look your own poets have said that we are God’s own offspring. They were pagan, but they were right, in some things they were right.
So let’s think about this a little bit, who is the Father? In Him we live and breath and have our being. Liken the ocean to the Spirit of God, and liken us to the fish. The fish are 95% water, the ocean is in the fish, and the fish are in the ocean, get it?
A bird has very porous bones, because they have to be very light. It flies in the heavens, it breaths fast, because it needs strength and oxygen. So the air (which is like the Spirit of God, which is what he calls it in the NT, Greek word for spirit is pheuma), the expanse is even called heaven, where the bird flies, and liken the air to the Spirit of God. The bird has air in him and is flying through the air.
Now this is what the Scriptures say, we are in God and God is in us. So, get it out of your head that God is a man, sitting on a stone throne, like Abraham Lincoln in Washington D.C., an old man with gray hair. God is right here, it (Bible) says so, we have to just listen to the words.
God is Spirit, it also says God is invisible, you can’t see Him, not literally. We can see Him in Spirit, as in our heart, in our mind, our soul, our spirit, in our innermost being.
The thing that makes us different from plants and other animals, is we can 'see' God. I’m trying to help you right now, to see God. So when you leave here, you will see God in a way you didn’t, when you walked in here. If God opens it up to you, I can only tell you, but God must open it up for you to grasp it.
God is here, not here because we are here, but He was here before we got here and He’ll still be after we leave. Because this desk is here and this desk has it's cohesion in Jesus Christ. It is through Jesus Christ that this desk holds together or it would fall apart. It takes energy and power, what is the source of the power, Jesus Christ, which comes from the Father and it’s passed off out of Him. One Father, one God, all and everything is out of Him. GOD IS ALMIGHTY!
What did Jesus say when He left His apostles and vanished out of their sight.
He said, “all power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth,” (Matt. 28:18).
That’s why He has come, He’s not the Father, but He’s God and He possesses all power in heaven and earth. By being the One, who possesses all power in heaven and earth, He is God. He didn’t have all power in heaven and earth from all eternity, it was given to Him. One God, everything is out of that God. We’re in Him and He’s in us, because He’s Spirit. Not a Spirit, in some geographical location. The reason God knows everything is in all places at all times, is because that’s where He is. He’s Spirit and He refers to Himself as Spirit. My Spirit is here, there and everywhere.
David was inspired to write, where can I go to get away from you God, up to heaven, down to sheol, (Psalms 139:7-12).
There’s no place I can go, where you are not. Why? God is Spirit, God is not a man, get that out of your head. He (God) tells us that, God is not a man... Jesus Christ is a man.
Where is God? EVERYWHERE!
If you're in a life raft, out in the middle of the ocean, you don’t have to cry out to God, to help you. God can see you, in the big ocean. He’s there, whether He’ll help, that’s a different story. But He is there.
I clipped this saying years ago and pasted it in the front of my Bible,
'Thy ocean, O Lord, is so great and my boat is so small.'
It’s the truth, we are pretty small in the universe. Everything is out of God.
So there was a time, before everything was out of God, when there was just God. That is a hard concept... take away people, take away the earth, the stars, the planets, the solar system, the galaxies, and the whole universe, take it all away and what do you have? If you take away the creation, what is left? Would it be dark or light? You have to pay attention to the words. Take away the creation of the universe and you’re not left with blackness of outer space. I’m just going to read it to you.
Isa 45:5 I am Jehovah, and there is none else; besides me there is no God. I will gird thee, though thou hast not known me;
v. 6 that they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none besides me: I am Jehovah, and there is none else.
v. 7 I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil. I am Jehovah, that doeth all these things.
So if we do away with the created universe, what do you have? You have God and light. He created the darkness. But I had someone say to me, cold is the absence of heat, and darkness is the absence of light, it’s not something, it’s the absence of something. I say, I know that sounds very scientific, but God’s thoughts are not your thoughts, neither His ways our ways, and God created darkness. Except that there be, this envelope of darkness that shrouds us from God, it would be light all the time, everywhere. There is no darkness with God. Only in His creation did He create darkness.
So don’t think before God created the universe, He was drifting around in outer space, with nothing to sit on, nowhere to go and nothing to do. It doesn’t even say that there was nothing. It doesn’t say in the beginning there was nothing and God made something. It says in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, but God doesn’t live in things that are created. He doesn’t need that for habitation, because He existed before He created those things. Now He resides in heaven, the heavens being (among other things) us. Our spirituality is of heaven and He dwells in man. Don’t you know your body is a holy temple of God. There are multiple heavens.
Back to verse 5. How can there be no other God besides Jehovah? He is Yahweh and Elohim is part of Yahweh. So He says I am the Lord and there is no God besides Me. Now when it says, in the beginning God (Elohim) created the heavens and the earth, it’s a plural. That’s why God said let US be making man in OUR image. How can one person say Us and Our? It’s because God is from the Hebrew word Elohim and it’s plural. Jehovah is part of that plurality. He is part of the Us, so really there is no Us. But whoever God represents, is Us.
Sometimes He even represents us, as an angel of the Lord, but sometimes I have a feeling that it’s Jehovah, but it could be a special angel of the Lord, that is not Jehovah. And when He speaks on behalf of God, people took that as God.
Like an ambassador of our country, you would represent your country, tho you are not our country, you are the highest representative of your country. But Jehovah is part of the Elohim, the One God.
I know this is a little bit of a stretch for most people, but God is not the first name of the Father. God is a title, it means the supreme Being of the universe, the supreme Deity, that’s what God means and represents. In most languages that’s the title, not the personal name of some being, it’s a title.
Smith is the title of who I am, I’m a Smith. I have a son, Blake Smith. If someone says to him, are you a Smith, he’ll say yes and Ray is my father. He’s a Smith and I’m a Smith, I’m his father and he’s my son. But, he’s not me. I’m in him, because he came out of me. He deserves the title Smith, just as much as I do.
Jesus Christ looks like God, acts like God and thinks like God, has all the power, majesty and glory of God.
HE'S GOD!
So before the universe there was God. Was there anything besides God? I don’t know, it doesn’t say. It just tells us when the heavens and earth were made. It does not tell us if there were spiritual things that were, or were not made, before or after this.
Understand the Bible is very limited. The bible talks to humanity from the reference of the earth. It doesn’t go much farther than that. The Bible says virtually nothing about, before God created the heavens and the earth. And it says virtually nothing about when we will be in the kingdom or born into the family of God. Just a little phrase here and there.
So what is God? We know He is Spirit, He’s everywhere, He’s light, and He’s all powerful, all these things.
Not some lonely Being before He made heaven and earth.
But this God, that is everywhere, this light, bright, brilliant power, majesty, glory, all knowledge and wisdom, represents Himself to humanity, as a Father.
So if you wanted to know what kind of a God He is, He’s like a Father! That’s as close as you can come to what God is like.
Craig:
This is a transcript of most of part 2, off the 5th and 6th audio
there are insertions throughout from the notes Ray handed out,
a section was left out that was covered in the love transcript.
2006 Mobile Bible Conference
Part 2
HOW DID JESUS DO “THE FATHER’S WILL”
[What did Jesus do that defined His Father’s Will in His life?]
Jesus is surely a main part of “The Will of the Father.”
But just where did Jesus come from?
What part does Jesus play in "The Father’s Will?"
Who is God the Father?
Who was He, where was He, what is He?
Is God a fix up man? No. Where can you go to get away from Him?
He’s in you and further more you’re in Him.
What analogy could you use to demonstrate that? Like the fish in the sea, and the birds in the air. The fish is in the water and the water is in the fish. The bird is in the air and the air in in the bird.
God is everywhere! He is in us and we are in Him, because He is spirit, not 'a' spirit - spirit. He is invisible and God is love. Now it is difficult for humans to understand how spirit can be anything. But understand that spirit is a whole lot more real than the physical, because the physical is temporary and spirit is eternal. With all physical you have the laws of thermodynamics always enforced. Everything in the universe is doing three things, cooling down, slowing down, and deteriorating. Spirit doesn’t cool down, slow down, or deteriorate. Spirit is eternally youthful, for God does not have gray hair or wear glasses.
So we’re talking about where Christ came from. It said in the beginning there was nothing physical we know of, and God created the heavens and the earth and the whole universe.
What was it like before creation when there was only God? First of all we don’t know that there was “only” God. There was no “heaven and earth,” but that doesn’t prove all was total void. Was God alone in a giant space of darkness? What darkness? He created the darkness (Isa. 45:7). God is not darkness. God is in perpetual light, He’s the Father of light, the Father of spirit. There is no darkness in Him, there is no night only bright (Rev. 21:23; James 1:23; 1 John 1:5). God is light; there is no darkness in Him forever.
Now one of the attributes of God is that He never changes, which may sound like somewhat of a contradiction, because there wasn’t a universe and now there is. What made Him change His mind from not having a universe, to wanting a universe? Well you can not really say He changed His mind. Now when the scripture says He changed His mind, like in Numbers 23:19, where it says, God doesn’t repent (be sorry, repent, change mind, avenge). He does not change His mind, it doesn’t mean He doesn’t do anything. It means that He Himself does not change His mind or what He is, that never changes.
1Samuel 15:19 God does not change His mind.
Malachi 3:16 I am the LORD, I change NOT.
James 1:6 …the Father of lights, with Whom is no variableness.
Romans 11:29 For the gift and calling of God are without repentance [Gk. irrevocable].
Heb. 13:08 Jesus Christ the same [Gk. ‘same One; same Self’] yesterday, today, and forever.
It is paramount that God never change, therein lies the ultimate stability of eternity - GOD WILL NEVER EVER CHANGE. One doesn’t change total perfection. Creation will change, albeit God will never change.
Phil. 2:5 Let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.
Why? 1 Cor. 1:10; Phil. 2:2; Phil. 3:6; 1 Peter 4:1; Eph. 4:1-6 --- UNITY; no divisions.
We read these things, God doesn’t change, but nobody thinks about it. It’s very important that God does never change and will never change. Why do you think that’s important? Would it be better if He was flexible and changed a little bit? You don’t improve perfection. Was God always perfect? I don’t know.
We learn. Did God ever learn? Now He knows everything, but did He ever learn? I don’t know. It doesn’t say. But we know this, by the time He made the creation He either always was or reached perfection. How could an imperfect God (I don’t mean flawed or evil, but a God that was not perfect), how could He make a creation of humanity and say I’ve still got to work out a few bugs, in this theory of what we are doing and where we are going?
Do understand I say these things humbly, I don’t mean to be the least bit demeaning, when I say I don’t know if God ever learned. We know, that He knows now. So how do we know if He learned? He doesn’t tell us. But in one sense it doesn’t matter, all we know is He’s perfect How does He know He’s perfect? Well in order to claim perfection, you have to know what it is. He would have to have such a vast knowledge of everything, to know whether there ever existed a possibility of ever becoming better than He is. Think about that. He knows so much, I mean one centimeter of brain could contain trillions and trillions of encyclopedias on end. He knows so much, that He knows not only there is no one else like Him, He says I’m the only God,” (1Tim. 1:17; Jude 1:25). There is nothing better He can achieve than what He is. He’s perfect, now whether He always was or achieved it, there your brain only goes so far.
We like to think in terms of back then and the future out there. This was back at creation and now we are headed for eternity... no? You can’t look at it that way, it doesn’t work.
If you want to come up with an analogy of where God is in His own realm, as far as time goes. The closest physical analogy you could come up with is a circle. Not starting back there and going this way, that way is the past and this way is the future.
Now if the realm of eternity is as a circle, can somebody point to where eternity begins on a circle? Can anyone show me, on this circle, where eternity ends? You can’t, can you.
Now I’ll give you another little mind boggler, not only can you not show me where it begins or where it ends, I’m telling you it has no beginning and it has no end. It doesn’t move in a circle, it is a circle. Therefore time has nothing to do with eternity.
Even your dictionaries most of them, not all, say eternity is an endless period. Eternity has nothing to do with time, time starts here and goes to there.
Eternity is like a circle, you can’t find the beginning and you can’t find the end. Because it has no beginning and it has no end. Therefore in that sense a circle is ultimate truth. So God knows there can never be any thing more perfect than He is. That’s where He introduces Himself to us. We are introduced to a being who is perfect.
There’s nothing that says He can’t build a kingdom and make it bigger and bigger. But it does say that He is perfect, and He doesn’t change. That is the most solid and stable thing we could hang our hopes and dreams on. Our God will never change and that He is already perfect, wow!
Now the Bible does use physical analogies, like a rock. He is like a rock, solid, immovable and unchangeable.
1Cor. 10:4, “…and that Rock was Christ.” It says that all drank of that spiritual drink and they all followed that Rock and that Rock was Christ. So God in the physical analogy of things is a Rock, He is unchangeable because He reached perfection and you don’t change perfection.
All the pagan gods change, they are fickle. Read about all the pagan gods from any country, they’re fickle, they change with every whim and fancy and notion that comes along. They’re in many ways more carnal and stupid, than the servants that worship them as gods.
But God never changes, because He is already perfect, that’s our God. But God’s kingdom does change, but always in an upward, onward, forward, and larger proportion.
Isa 9:7, Of the increase of His government [empire, kingdom, Lordship, dominion], and peace [prosperity; friendly, health, safety, happiness, welfare, rest, peace, ect.-Strong’s Hebrew dictionary] …there shall BE NO END…
We can’t really wrap our minds around the spiritual things of God, with a carnal brain. So you have to do the best you can with what God gave us, until He increases our mental capacity or spiritual capacity or whatever. We are limited.
I’m a retired roofer, so we’re doing the best we can here. Now if you know some place on the internet we can go and learn all this stuff, you let me know. Or if you know about some hot book, like that book ‘The Purpose Driven Life,” ridiculous nonsense.
Now there is no word in the Hebrew or Greek in the Bible that means forever, eternity, forever more, for ever and ever, there is no such word. So whenever endless time is meant you have to use more than one word. About the only phrase that is ever used to show that something doesn’t ever come to an end, is just to say it, ‘it never comes to an end.’ There is no word eternity in the Bible, but it has the same meaning when it says, there shall be no end. But you don’t find a scripture that says, the torture of mankind in this place called hell, will have no end. There is no such scripture, trust me. Some people get confused and think Christ is going to rule for ever and ever. But it doesn’t say that, at all. You know His rule comes to an end in 1 Cor. 16:24.
Luke 1:33 And He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever (eons), and of His kingdom there shall BE NO END.
Oh, He’s going to rule endlessly. No, no, no. He’s going to rule for the eons. Of His KINGDOM, not Christ as the king, but of the kingdom, that He did rule over, of that “kingdom there shall be no end.”
1Cor 15:24 then is the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God, even the Father; when He makes to cease all rule and all authority and power.
v. 25 for it is right for Him to reign until He has put all the enemies under His feet.
v. 26 The last enemy made to cease is death.
v. 27 For He put all things under His feet. But when He says that all things have been put under His feet, it is plain that it accepts Him who has put all things under Him.
v. 28 But when all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subject to Him who has subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all things in all.
He gives up this kingdom to God, He was the King of this kingdom and it comes a time when He gives it up to God, even the Father, when He shall have put down all rule, all authority, and all power and He must rule till (means until) He has put all enemies under His feet. He no longer rules because He doesn’t require that type of rulership. That Christ rules with a rod of iron, the Kingdom that is established. That is the subduing of all humanity, all enemies, all angels in heaven, all subdued and coming under His authority and government. All is in peace now, no enemies, He then turns over the kingdom to His Father. He’s no longer the King, the Father becomes the Patriarch of the family of God. The kingdom just keeps growing and going and growing and going and like it said in Isaiah, it has no end.
Now think about this. We have a perfect flawless God, with all wisdom, all knowledge, all power, and He’s love. Not just love like a king loves his subjects. But like a Father loves his sons and daughters. This is a pretty nice relationship and He will never change.
He is a rock solid, He can be depended on for all eternity, and nothing will ever go amuck in His kingdom.
But the kingdom will keep growing, we will not be bored out of our gourds with nothing to do, no place to go. There will be activities and growth forever. What? Well He doesn’t tell us, we just have to accept it on faith that what He tells us is true. He said that pleasures are at God right hand (Psa. 16:11), you just have to accept it on faith.
That He is telling us the truth, that’s what faith is - faith is believing, it’s the same word in Hebrew and Greek, the word for faith and the word for belief, it is the same word. It all depends if you are using a verb or a noun. Faith is a noun and belief is a verb, it’s the same word. So you just have to believe God and what He said is true and He tells us He can’t lie and He’s perfect and never changes.
Now we are going to be part of a kingdom, where there is going to be nothing but prosperity; friendly, health, safety, happiness, welfare, rest, peace, ect., with no end. Pleasures at His right hand and growth into the circle. The reason we’re not more excited about this, is for one thing, we don’t think about these things. Because they’re not real to you, it’s sometimes you come to listen to me say and then you go home and just forget about it. You don’t believe it is real, something that is just so many years down the pike, that‘s how close it is.
Like Paul said, “Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed." (Rom. 13:11)
When is Christ coming? I don’t know, but it’s closer than it was yesterday. It is close and I don’t care if you live to be 118, it’s close, with the magnitude of the universe and how long it’s been here, it’s close.
Now this unchangeable God, He makes things, He never changes, but He’s a creator, He creates things.
One of the things He made was His Son.
Now we get into the Trinity business, and oh I thought Christ was God and He existed with God for all eternity. No, He did not.
Remember the scripture...
1Cor 8:6 but there is to us only one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we by Him.
Is Jesus Christ something? Yes. What is He? He’s of God, all is of Him, of the One God. All is of Him, Jesus Christ is of Him. It interesting that Jesus Christ is called the Firstfruit in 1Cor 15:20, "But now Christ has risen from the dead, and has become the Firstfruit of those who slept."
Gene 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
But that’s not the way that word (beginning) is translated in most places in the Bible. Let’s step back a second, lets decide who created the heaven and the earth.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
A guy argued with me for 3 months, back and forth, telling me that was the Father, “In the beginning was the Word.” The right order of the words in the linear is, ‘and God was the word.’ “and the Word was WITH God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning WITH God.” Now it’s pretty hard for something that is something, to be with itself, see what I’m saying, that does’t quite work grammatically, does it?
John 1:3 All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made.
So whatever this Word was, He made everything, everything was made by Him.
v. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
What is light? This light that shines in darkness, what was this light? It was the Word.
What did the Word do? It made all things and nothing was made that He didn’t make.
v. 6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
v. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the Light, that all might believe through Him.
v. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the Light.
v. 9 That was the true Light, which lights every man that comes into the world.
v. 10 He was in the world and the world was made by Him.
We just read that He was in the world and the world was made by Him.
It repeats it (verse 3 and 10). The world knew Him not.
v. 11 He came to His own, and His own received Him not.
v. 12 But as many as received Him, He gave to them power to become the sons of God,
even to them that believe on His name,
v. 13 which are born(begotten) not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man, but of God.
v.14 And the Word made flesh, and dwelt among us with the glory of the only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and of truth.
v.15 John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, This was He of whom I spoke:
He who comes after me has been before me, for He was preceding me.
v.16 And out of His fullness we all have received, and grace for grace.
v.17 For the Law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
Who is this Word, who is as with the Father, who was with God, who made all things, who was the light of men, who was made flesh, who dwelt among men,
who was the only begotten of the Father? JESUS CHRIST !
v. 18 No one has seen God at any time; the Only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father,
He has declared Him.
In the bosom of the Father, That means a close intimate relationship, He (Jesus Christ) has declared Him (the Father). Nobody has ever known anything about God the Father, except through Jesus Christ. Before the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem, nobody on the face of the earth, ever knew anything about God the Father. But didn’t they know about God (in the OT)? That was Jesus Christ.
Craig:
Jesus / page 2
That spiritual Rock that they followed out of Egypt, through the wilderness for 40 years. That was Christ. But didn’t Moses see God?
Nobody has seen God (John 1:18; John 5: 37; 1 John 4:12).
Oh he saw somebody, he saw Christ, in His glorified state. Jesus Christ is the GOD OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. Jesus Christ WAS God and Jesus Christ IS God. Yes, Jesus always had and still has a God (Eph 1:17). But the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, has NO God. It was Jesus Christ (Elohim - US) who created the heavens and the earth and humanity, “…in OUR image.”
In Rev. 19:16 it says Christ had, “on His thigh He has a name written,” the Word of God.
There’s no getting around it, the Logos, the Word is Jesus Christ.
The creator of heaven and earth is Jesus Christ.
The creator of the human race is Jesus Christ.
No man has ever seen God, only Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ when He acts on behalf of God, with the power of God, The knowledge of God, wisdom of God, and the love of God, with the strength of God and the character of God, IT IS GOD. But He is not the Father. He came to reveal the Father.
John 7:29 But I (Jesus Christ) know Him (the Father), for I am from Him, and He has sent Me.
Now you know the one that sends someone is greater than the one who was sent.
John 13:3 Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands,
and that He had come from God and went to God,
Where did Jesus Christ come from? Well was it the Trinity, the third part of the Trinity? A third part of the Trinity, equal with the other two parts of the God Trinity? NO, He came from God.
So in John 13:3 "and that HE CAME FROM GOD,” that’s where Jesus came from, GOD. Not from the Godhead, not from the Trinity, FROM GOD.
John 16:27 for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I CAME OUT FROM GOD. (Just like Eve came out from Adam)
v. 28 I CAME FORTH FROM THE FATHER, and have come into the world.
1John 4:9 In this the love of God was revealed in us, because GOD SENT HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON into the world that we might live through Him.
1John 4:14 And we have seen and testify that THE FATHER SENT THE SON to be the Savior of the world.
Heb 1:2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom HE HAS APPOINTED heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds,
If Jesus Christ was part of a triune god, a trinity, then nobody’s appointed anybody, nobody is sending anybody. There is not one greater authority in a perfect equilateral triangle. But Christ said, My Father is greater than I, (John 14:28).
Rev 3:14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;
The beginning was the Word of God, what did God began with? Jesus Christ, right? The Word, that’s what God began with, Jesus Christ is the beginning.
Gen. 1:1 In the beginning[ Heb: reshiyth - spec. Firstfruits] God [Heb: Elohim] created the heavens and the earth.
1 Cor 15:20 But now Christ has risen from the dead, and has become the Firstfruit of those who slept.
That Jesus Christ “became the Firstfruit of those who slept.” Who is the Firstfurit? JESUS CHRIST.
Where did Jesus come from: John 7:29; John 13:3; John 9:42; John 16: 27-28; 1 John 4:9, 14.
Jesus was created by the Father; Heb 1:2; Rev 3:14. Jesus Christ was created and than became the Creator of all. So when you talk about Jesus Christ, you are talking about God. But you are talking about the One who was begotten in the God family, and one who could be emptied and formed such as a man.
A couple of other points here. Christ said to the Pharisees, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am." (John 8:58). He didn’t say I was, He said “I am.” What did He tell Moses? Moses said who will I say sent me and He said tell, “I AM THAT I AM” (Exo. 3:14), or I Am what I will be, is what the Hebrew indicates.
So Adam, Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Jacob and the Hebrews, never knew God the Father, they knew Jesus Christ - Yahweh. When they hung Christ on the cross, they crucified their own Creator.
In 1 Cor 10:4, that Rock was CHRIST. It also says in verse 9 that follows that “we should not tempt Christ.” When they tempted “the Lord” (Exo. 17:7) back then, they murmured against(tempted) Christ (Deu. 1:27; 1 Cor. 10:10), is what it tells us.
So Jesus Christ is the God of the Old Testament. He is the reason Elohim is plural and God said "let US."
So the Father is doing the creating, but it is done through His Son, Jesus Christ, His first born. Now for scriptural proof, in Heb. 1:8 it says "Thy throne, O God, is for the eon of the eons ...” Now I know the Jehovah Witness and I’ve read all their stupid ways of trying to get around that verse, and it just won’t smoke. It means what it says, God addresses Jesus Christ as “Thy throne, O God,” and the O is in there, it’s in the Greek and it’s back in the Hebrew where this verse is quoted from as well.
Only God is to be worshipped, the leper came and worshipped Him (Matt. 8:2), the chief, worships Him (Mat. 9:18), and the woman came and worships Him (Matt 15:25). Rev 1:8 "I am the Alpha and the Omega … the Almighty." That’s Christ, God. “And the Word was God,” (John 1:1) Thomas said, when he felt the holes in Christ’s body, "My Lord and my God!" (John 20:28). Christ did not correct Him.
Titus 2:13-14 ...the Great God and Savior Jesus Christ. Who gave Himself for us…
So He is God, but He is not His own Father. Jesus Christ came to reveal the Father; Luke 10:22; John 6:46;
Matt 11:27, Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son will reveal Him.
Nobody knew anything about God the Father, until Jesus Christ revealed Him. The only God that anybody knew was Jesus Christ.
Here’s an enigma.
Since Jesus Christ was the God of the Old Testament, and He was so powerful that Moses couldn’t even look upon, but a little bit of His hind parts. How does God become a man? How can God die?
Exo 33:22 And it will be, while My glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by.
How can a Creature like that die? How can you reduce God down to a man? Well we’re not talking about the Father, we’re talking about somebody who God did create. We are told very little about it and even that is shrouded in poor King James language. We have a couple records that it was done, but how it was done we only have one reference.
Phil. 2:6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
Why did He think it not robbery to be equal with God? Because God gave Him everything He has, “all power in heaven and earth is given to Me.” (Matt 28:18). But He wasn’t the originator of the power, it had to be given to Him. The giver is always greater than the receiver, the sender is always greater than the one sent.
Phil. 2:7 but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Himself the form of a servant (should be slave), and was made in the likeness of men.
You don’t learn to much from the King James there. What is this made in the likeness of man, and that word ‘was’ is out of place there, ‘was’ means emptied. It’s just a very poor choice of words. He wasn’t just made, He emptied Himself. How do you do it? I don’t know how you would do that, but He did, it said He did. He was God and He emptied Himself of all His power and glory and majesty and divinity. So He could be made and fashioned into a man, so He could die.
Now imagine you being God and you created the universe and all that’s in it, including the human race, that’s what you are - God. Now you are going to be reduced down to a fleshly body, that’s perspires and stinks, no power or glory and you're going to die. Why would you want to do that? First of all, how did He? I don’t know, but if God made Him in the first place, He could reduce Him down. But it was voluntarily. Does God force this on Him, against Himself will? Nope, He volunteered. Christ always volunteered, He always wanted to do the will of the Father. Was it the will of the Father that He do this? Yes, so He did it. He emptied Himself of all of His glory and everything that He had.
Heb 2:5-12 Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death …
He emptied Himself voluntarily, down into a human being, lower than even the angels themselves so that He could die. He wanted to die. Not because it was going to be a grand and glorious thing to do, and I’ll show you why. Jesus knew His mission by the age of twelve.
Luke 2:49 … I must be about My Father's business [Gk: the things {courts} of My Father‘s]?
I have to do the will of the Father. So whatever He did was the will of the Father. The one who did the will of the Father is the one who really loved the Father of humanity, Jesus Christ, the creator of heaven and earth and the human race.
Jesus Christ accomplished many, many things. I just want to cover three giant things He accomplished as a human being.
[1] “I have overcome the world” (John 16: 33). As a human being He overcame all the pulls of the world.
[2] “For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered FOR US, leaving us an example, that ye should FOLLOW HIS STEPS: Who did no sin, neither was there guile [deceit] found in His mouth” (1Peter 2:21-22). He came to set an example, of how to do it.
[3] “Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father” (Gal. 1:4)
Three things - He came as a human being and He overcame the world and He suffered for us. So He set the example that we should overcome the world as He did. Isn’t that what it says in the conclusion to the church of the Laodicea, in Rev. 3, where it says, v. 21 “To him who overcomes…. even as (means in the same way) I also overcame…” He is the example, that’s how Christ did the Father’s will. How are we to do it? In the same way.
Gal 1:4 who gave Himself for our sins TO DELIVER US from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,
We will be delivered into the family of God, the firstfruits, because we are a type of firstfruit.
“In the beginning (firstfruit) God Created the heaven and the earth.” (Gen 1:1)
He is the Firstfruit of those who slept, He’s the first of everything, that His name may be first preeminent above any and every and all, because He is the Creator. He emptied Himself, became the Savior of the world. He will forever be the preeminent One, in the whole universe.
JESUS: The Personification of God’s Will due to Humility.
Because humility goes hand in hand with qualifying for the kingdom of God, doing the will of God, and being in the state of mind that understands spiritual things. If your not humble then it won’t work. A major point is Christ always did the Father’s will, with humility. You have to understand Christ knew who He was, He knew He was the only begotten Son of God. He knew He was the spoken Word of God, the Logos, the Firstfruit, the Creator, the God of the Old Testament, He knew that. He took on the form of a slave. He could have come as the king of Persia or something, you know. But He took the form of a slave, a lowly servant. He said I’ve come to serve, not to be served.
John 5:21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom He will.
Jesus could raise anyone He wanted to from the dead, He said He could, He had the power to do it. He did raised a few people, Lazarus, and the girl, He could raise anybody, He had the power. But did He flaunt it? No.
It’s an amazing thing, God is perfect, He knows He is perfect, all wise, all knowing, all love - perfect. But Jesus Christ as God, is humble. It just doesn’t seem to go together, but actually it fits very nicely. Now it doesn’t say that the Father is humble, not that He is vain. But it does not say He is humble.
But Christ had to realize, He was not always. He knows He wasn’t always here as God. He had always known that God had made Him what He is, and it’s humbling you know.
Craig:
Jesus / page 3
Proof of Christ’s Messiahship and Sonship~
(scriptures on Christ)
John 5:17 My Father works hitherto and I work.
John 5:21 Jesus could raise anyone He wanted to from the dead.
John 5:22 The Father has committed all judgment to the Son.
John 5:26 The Father has given Christ to have life within Himself.
John 5:30 I seek not Mine Own will, but the Will of My Father.
This is the Creator of the whole universe talking here, who made the constellations, the galaxies, stars, the milky Way, He made the mountains, and the oceans too. But He can do nothing, He got it all from the Father. God is from the Father, He got life from the Father. Now if you don’t exist except by the Father, how can you take credit for anything?
If someone has a great singing voice and some of them are thankful and realize it is a gift of God. It’s a gift, you can’t take credit for a gift. You can posses it and use it and appreciate it, but you can’t take credit for it. That should humble you.
John 5:36 Jesus did all the works that His Father gave Him to do.
How do you do the will of the God? You do all the works that the Father gives you to do. Well how do we know what those works are, well what did Jesus do?
Now it does mean when you follow in His steps... not that you are going to hang on a cross and die for the sins of humanity. But you do have to hang on a cross.
Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.
Rom 6:3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
You can’t take credit for what Christ did for you, see? So Christ gave us the example of what to do and with what attitude to do it. You will find there is no deviation from that, because Christ is the same yesterday, today and for ever. He patterns everything He does after the Father, who never changes.
John 6:44 No man can come to Me except the Father draw him…
John 8:28 Jesus taught only what His Father taught Him.
John 8:29 I do always those things that please My Father.
John 8:49 I honor My Father.
John 10:15 I know the Father, and I lay down My life for the sheep.
John 10:17 My Father loves Me because I lay down My life.
John 10:18 No man takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself.
John 10:25 The works I do in My Father’s name bear witness of me.
What works done in His Father's name? They’re all done in His Father’s name. That’s why He said if you don’t believe me, believe the works. Well what did He do?
John wanted to know if He was the Messiah, the One that I baptized, was that the Messiah? Christ said you go tell John, that the gospel is being preached to the poor, I heal all the sick, I raise the dead, and see what he thinks. John probably thought, yep that’s Him.
John 10:29 No one is able to pluck them out of My Father’s hand.
John 10:30 I and My Father ARE ONE.
John 10:37 If I do not the work of My Father, believe Me not.
John 11:42 Father…I know that You hear Me ALWAYS…
Why? Because He did the Father’s Will. He always did what pleased Him. Through works that He did, the thoughts that He thought, the deeds that He did, the words that He spoke, they were all of the Father. He did it in humility.
John 12: 29 The Father gave Me commandments what I speak and say.
Christ gets credit for nothing, nothing at all.
John 13 :3 Jesus knowing the Father gave all things into His hands.
John 14:6 No man comes to the Father except by Me.
Why? Because that’s the way the Father ordained it.
John 14:10 The Father that dwells in Me, He does the works.
John 14:24 The word that you hear is not Mine but the Father’s.
Do you begin to see how Christ did the Father’s Will. Everything He thought, everything that He said, every deed, every work done, was of the Father. That’s the Father’s Will.
We have many pages in the Bible, if you have a red letter Bible, you can read not only what all the apostles, but what everyone said about Christ. It said Christ went about doing good, Christ didn’t say that, someone else said that about Him. Read the black and red letters about what Christ was saying. All that I’m telling you now (these scriptures in John), are the words of Christ Himself.
John 14:28 My Father is greater than I.
John 15:9 As the Father loved Me, so I loved you.
John 15:10 I have kept My Father's commandment…
John 15:15 All that I heard of My Father I made known to you.
John 15:16 Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you.
John 17:1 Father glorify Thy Son that He may glorify Thee.
Gal. 4:6 - Through Christ’s spirit we now cry out: “Abba Father.
Why did Christ want to be glorified? So He could glorify the Father. When Christ said, “When you understand these things, you will say, Abba Father.” Abba is a Aramaic word, and scholars say it goes back to when little children, toddlers or babies would call their father Abba, or maybe we would say, Dada. A very endearing term. That He’s not just the great God the Father, but Daddy and as Daddy He calls us little children.
Eph. 2:15 Through Christ we have access to the Father.
1 John 2:1 We have an Advocate with the Father- Jesus Christ.
1 John 4:14 The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.
The churches say it will never happen, isn’t that disgusting. God Almighty commissioned His Son to be the Savior of the world. He said, Son I’m going to send You down there to be the Savior of the world, and all the ministers say as one, it will never happen, You can never pull it off God. Who do you think you are, is what they say to God. It’s incredible how that the biggest blasphemers of God Almighty, is the church.
But don’t be to hard on them. Let me tell you something. God doesn’t call everybody to be one of His favorite chosen, elect, except from the church. So we don’t want to poo poo the church too bad, because that’s where He gets the elect from. I have never heard or known of an atheist converting and becoming one of God’s elect. They always go into the church first, to be corrupted by the church and then they’re shown the truth and they come out.
Rev 18:4 And I heard another voice from Heaven, saying, Come out of her, My people,
Where are God’s people, in the corrupt church of Babylon.
Rev 17:5 And on her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
God said, guess what that’s where My people are. But they are not His elect until He elects them out. Then they become His chosen favorites, as will the rest, but not yet.
Act 10:38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.
Mat 4:23 And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.
John 5:36 …the Father has given Me to do the same works that I do, bear witness to Me that the Father has sent Me.
How He accomplished this: He healed the sick and raised the dead, fed the multitudes (can consist of 5000 or more). There was always multitudes around Him and innumerable multitude (the word innumerable in the Greek is a specific number, 10,000, it’s not really innumerable, but when they translate it into English that’s what you get), and He did this over and over again. As He did everything He did it to perfection.
1Peter 2:22-23 Who did NO SIN, neither guile found in His mouth. Who when He was reviled [vilified], reviled not again; when He suffered He threatened not; but committed Himself to Him [His Father] that judges righteously.
Heb 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
v. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Some of you are now in a time of need. This is the time to go to God for mercy. Sometimes you just have to cry out for mercy, you say I don’t mind troubles Lord, but it’s just getting too heavy.
Mat 11:28 Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
v. 29 Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
v. 30 For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.
So what do I do when I come to You? “take My yoke.” Wait a minute, I am heavy laden and you want to take a yoke, isn’t that work? Listen, what is a yoke? You don’t pay attention to the words. How many have heard this scripture, “come unto Me…. take My yoke…. learn from Me…” you have all read that. What is a yoke? It‘s a connecter bar with two loops that go down around the necks of oxen. Two, it’s for two. Christ didn’t say put a yoke around your neck and drag it around all day and you’ll do fine. He said, take MY yoke. There are two places on a yoke, there are two oxen pulling. The yoke connects the two oxen and they pull together, because there is more power that way. Christ said take MY yoke, and put it on. So if you're in one and it’s Christ’s yoke, who is going to be on the other side? Christ. He is pulling the other side, He is right there with you, you're not doing it yourself. Again when He talks about the yoke, He says I’m meek and humble.
Phil. 2: 7-8 But He made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made [emptied Himself of His glory and privileges] in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also has high exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting (Eonian) life.
Why did God do that? Why did Christ volunteer to go to the cross? Well I’ve been told all my life that He died for my sins. But did He have to? Did He have to die for our sins? Is there no way to pardon sins, out of His love and mercy? Couldn’t He say, 'okay you have sinned, but I pardon you.' After all what is grace.
Eph 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith.
Grace will save you, so why die? Did Christ have to die? Why did God want to die? Why would God want to become a man? When I say God I’m talking about Jehovah, Jesus Christ. Did the Father ‘make’ His Son Jesus die? Did He ‘take’ His Son’s life? NO!
John 10:17 For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it up again.
v. 18 No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from My Father."
Jesus VOLUNTEERED HIS LIFE for us!! While we were yet sinners (Rom. 5:08). What the law couldn’t do and we couldn’t do, CHRIST DID (Rom. 8:3).
We must experience sin before we can be saved from it! How did Elohim come to a knowledge of “good and evil?” We aren’t told.
Why did God want to become a man and die? Well there are a number of reasons. Jesus Christ is the First fruit, He is the Word, He is the Creator of all and so on. He made this human race and He gave them (all with the direction of the Father - Elohim) an experience of evil, which is not a nice thing. God did not say there is nothing wrong with evil, just sit back and enjoy it, He doesn’t talk like that.
Eze 33:11 Say to them: As I live, says the Lord Jehovah, I have no delight in the death of the wicked,
God made us, He put us through it, but we will never in all eternity, be able to have a one-upmanship over God, by saying you don’t know what it’s like. It’s already decided. First of all, God gave up His Son, and for any of you that are parents, it is harder to give up a son than it is to give up yourself.
Now Christ is the actual Creator, He reduced Himself down to the very humans He made, to be just like them. Except He had the Spirit of God. So He came down to show us how to live as a human being, under all the duress, stress, and mess and He did it humbly and perfectly.
So He set us an example and He could have stopped there. He could say I went through hunger, they tried to throw me off cliffs, they slapped Me, they mocked Me. They put spears in My side and He could have zapped them in a second. He let them do that for 33 years and never fought back, and never had a evil thought against them.
He showed you how to live and He could have quit. But after He did all that, He said now I’m going to die for you, because I love you. Think about it, He didn’t have to die, nobody took His life. He said I lay down My life and “no one takes it from Me,” (John 10:18). He died to prove to us that He loves us. He didn’t have to, He just did it, so we would know that He loves us. We can’t say, but our Creator had it made in the shade, no. He came down and was under the same temptations, under the same rules and regulations and then He went to the cross and died, voluntarily. He says in effect, if that doesn’t show that I love you, I don’t know what else I can do.
So that’s what He did and that’s why He died, because He loved us and He wanted to prove it. So He died for our sins. God accepted that for a sacrifice, but it was a voluntary sacrifice. It wouldn’t have needed to be done, they did it that way, but it didn’t need to be done that way.
They (Israelites) were forgiven for a whole year, just by the sprinkling of a goat’s blood, in the Holy place on the Day of Pentecost. But Christ wanted to prove to the human race that He was every bit as good of a man, as any other man was. He doesn’t sit in His ivory tower telling us how great He is. He did it as a man. God became a man and died, because He loves His creation and He wanted us to know He loves us.
This is awesome stuff! It’s like a fairytale from Greek mythology, but it’s not, it's the Bible.
So He puts us through hell to get us in His family. It’s necessary to go through this pain and suffering and evil, to become holy, righteous, and good, you have to go through it.
I got as email just yesterday, a man said anybody that couldn’t do what God wants to do for humanity, instantly, is not God. Some things, by there very nature, require time and circumstances. The gift of the Holy Spirit is patience, well I want it and I want it now, no. Patience is waiting for something under duress and the pain of not having it, that’s patience. How can you develop that without time and duress. The more you think about it, just try to think of one virtue, love, kindness, faith, any virtue that you try to think of, that is not in some way, shape or form the result of overcoming some form of evil. To be good you must overcome evil. Because your tendency is to be evil.
1Cor 15:1-4 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you--unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures;
We have yet much to learn!
Kat:
This is a transcript taken from the 2nd and 3rd audios.
Some notes Ray handed out at the conference and scriptures have been added.
Adam and Eve
God introduces something that I think we read over. In recent years I’m starting to pay attention to the words, those words are in there for a reason.
Gen 1:26 And God said, Let Us make man [humanity] in Our image, after Our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creepers creeping on the earth.
v. 27 And God created man in His [Own] image; in the image of God He created him. He created them male and female.
In the Hebrew Interlinear, reading from right to left:
"And He is creating, Elohim, the human in the image of Him, in the image of Elohim He creates him, male and female He creates them.”
And now from the Concordant Version:
“And creating is the Alueim [God] humanity in His Image. In the Image of the Alueim [God] He creates it. Male and female He creates them.”
Did you get that? God is creating man in OUR image. Clearly the point is made that creating mankind in the image of God is in the indefinite tense [past/present/future] and not in the past tense as in the King James and most bibles. This creation continues.
God wants children in HIS VERY OWN IMAGE. This is God’s plan. This is God’s purpose. This is the reason for the creation of humanity. This is “The WILL of the Father.”
Old Testament: “And creating is God humanity IN HIS IMAGE. In the image of the God He creates it. Male and female He creates them.” (Gen. 1:27)
New Testament: “ For whom He [the Father] did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be [complete is yet future] COFORMED TO THE IMAGE OF HIS SON, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Rom. 8:29).
Look there are two things here. God creates man in His own image. “In the image of God creates He him, male and female creates He them.” So man is created in the image of God, right. But did you catch it? The female is created in the image of God. Did you miss that? The female is created in the image of God, therefore God is female. But we call Him ‘Him,’ so He’s male too. HE’S BOTH.
It doesn’t say God is evil, He has a knowledge of good and evil. But He is good.
But when it comes to male and female, they are both equally in the image of God, or being made in the image of God, or in the image of God He’s making ‘them.’ It’s both ways. They’re being made into His image and He is making them in His image. You see that? You see how it’s repeated twice there.
“Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness.” So God created man in His image, “in the image of God.” The verse says “in the image of God created He them, Male and female,” see God created man in His image, but then in the image of God, “He created them male and female.” Female is in the image of God, God is female. God is male and female. Where did God ever get the idea for a female? Is this something that doesn’t exist in His being? Is this something foreign to God? Femininity is in God. That’s why He took that and made a representation of that, in the form of a woman. That’s God! Just as much as the man is God.
I think some of you women have felt slighted over the years, that God is not a woman. Well some religious groups refer to God as she, you know. God in His image He created a woman, yet the only way He could do that, is that woman was in God. Then He created out of that (from Himself), the woman.
I heard someone say El-Shaddai, El - being God, Shaddai - breath. El- Shaddai the God with breath or the breath of God.
So when we talk about the man and the woman now, we’re talking about in the image of God Himself, in both of them. Man is in God’s image, so the woman is the feminine side of God.
I don’t want to get in trouble with this next thing here. I’ve shied away from it a little bit. That is, how long were these days of creation. People just get highly offended and I don’t have all dogmatic proof yet, that I would really want before I make a dogmatic statement on it. But, I have felt for many, many years that the creation days are not 24 hour days.
First of all, and it came to be, morning and it came to be evening the first day. It came to be evening and it came to be morning, day one. There is no such phrase like that one, no where else in the rest of the Bible, that’s very unique, nothing like that, no where. There is nothing close to that anywhere in the Bible. The phrase is 6 times for the creation days, but nowhere else.
Let me preference with this in Gen 2:15. If we pay close attention to the words, sometimes the simplest little word, we can learn so much. If we just believe God, that He used a word, that really means something, you see.
Gen 2:15 The LORD God took the man [not the man and the woman, He’s recapping, we’re going back now with a little more detail, how He did all this creating; chapter 1 He talks about everything quickly, chapter 2 He fills in some of the details], and put him in the garden of Eden to dress it and keep it.
What is that? How did he dress and keep the garden? If you have a one acre yard and garden and maybe you have a few fruit trees, cucumbers and tomatoes or whatever. I told you I was going to have to leave for a couple of months and I wanted you, while I was gone, to dress it and keep it for me. Would you have any idea what I was talking about? Maybe it’s tend to it, but how would you tend to it? Pull out the weeds, what else, I mean we are in a little different age, and God cursed the land, it was a little different. But the meaning of these words have not changed
It means to cultivate, to till the ground, to guard it (against varmints or whatever would come in and eat it) maybe prune the trees. The Bible speaks of such things, because when you prune trees they produce more fruit, right.
Now do we believe that God made the creation and then later in the six days, remembered He made them male and female on the same day He made the animals, right? Now lets say this is the 24 hour period and He made 6000 species of animals, how long did that take? I would suggest it was past lunch time before He got to man, maybe coming towards evening, right. Because the last thing He made on that day was man. If that was a 24 hour period, can you believe God made man about 3:30 or 4:00 in the afternoon and then said I want you to dress and keep the garden until the sun goes down.
Well we got another problem, in verse 18;
Gen 2:18 Then the LORD God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone;"
The word ‘be’ there is translated by Rotherham, and in some as ‘continue’ or ‘remain.’ Sometimes the King James will just throw you off completely on a verse, with one simple little word like ‘be.’ God said, "It is not good that the man should be (remain or continue) alone;” Well if He made man at 3:30 in the afternoon and the sun is going down at 6:00 and another two and a half hours he’s got to tend and keep the garden. How long did he have to be alone before he gets a wife? Because he’s going to make a wife on the sixth day too it says, right? He couldn’t make it for two hours?
I mean before I quite my job I was away from my wife, for at least 8 hours every single day. Adam here is created 3:00 or 4:00 in the afternoon and pretty soon the sun is going down, and God said it’s just not good for man should remain alone, it’s just not good.
So man is tending the garden here, tilling the soil, pulling the weeds, you say what if it didn’t have weeds? Well you don’t know that, look up what those words mean, it means to till and all that and it means to guard. God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him." But not today, we got work to do?
Gen 2:19 So out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.
I don’t know how many thousands of animals there was, but there are a lot of species. Somebody suggested 6000. How did Adam name these animals? He named them according to their characteristics. An elephant was a big bulky thing and he probably called it, in Hebrew ‘the big bulky thing,’ you know. An ant eater, ‘a nose ground eater,’ he eats on the ground with his nose or whatever. But before he could name them, he had to observe them, he had to know what their characteristics, what they did and how they acted. Now had Adam said, I guess I’ll call this a duck. God would say, that’s good whatever you want to call them, that’s what we’re going to call them. Six thousand species he named, between 4:00 and sundown. Are you kidding me? After naming those 6000 species, it said at the end of verse 20, “and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.” He noticed that they all had a partner, they all had a partner, except him.
Do you really think this all took place between 3:30 and 5:00 or 6:00 in the afternoon? That he had no mate, and God said you know it’s not good that man should be alone, it’s not good that man should remain alone, it’s not good that he should continue to be alone, it’s not good that he should stay alone. But then He gave him more things to do. Now we got to name all the animals, how many weeks did that take, how many months did it take? How many years did he take care of the garden?
I just don’t believe it says he tended and kept the garden and tilled the ground, named all 6000 species and all this in 2 hours. I believe this took years. Adam didn’t have a mate for years. He longed for a mate, everybody had a mate, the elephants had a mate, the chickens had a mate, they all had a mate, but he didn’t have a mate.
Gen. 2:18 (God said) It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him.
But not now, we have to name the animals, and keep tilling the garden, we’ll just keep doing this. But if you going to believe orthodoxy, it’s 6 literal days, you got to fit it in there. It all happened in late afternoon, you know, between 3:00 and 6:00, well whatever.
God did not have to repeat that it’s not good that this man should stay alone, because he went 2 hours without a mate, give me a break. I mean I’m sure he had a lot of testosterone, but I don’t think that he couldn’t go 2 hours. I’m thinking it was years.
Now they have about 10 ways, that they can date the universe or the earth. You know they put the earth at about 5½ billion and the universe at 15 or 20 billion years. Now I don’t know if it’s that huge a thing, but I believe the creation days are more than 24 hours. I’ll prove to you from Genesis, the first Chapter itself, that even the Bible says that all of those creations days were ONE day.
Gen 2:4 These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in THE day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.
What does it say? When did He make the earth and the heavens? In ONE DAY. But we just read it was 6. Now 6 days are called THE day.
Day has different connotation, when the sun comes up you say it’s day. From sunup to sunset is day. But from sunup until sunup, the night and the day is called day. God said a thousand years to Him is but a day.
Then we have the day of God's wrath. That great and terrible day of the Lord. I don’t have this one down yet either, but I’m getting there and I’m studying it, off and on, in the back of my head and with the scripture. I believe ‘the day of the Lord,’ starts when Christ returns. He returns in wrath and I think that wrath continues through judgment. Those coming up in judgment are going to have God’s wrath poured upon them (If they didn’t have it poured upon them when they were in the flesh, the first time around, before they died), and then they come up in the second resurrection.
Then it says they are going to store up for themselves wrath. Well if they died and didn’t get it and at sometime they’re going to get it. They don’t come up until after the millennium? We know that the beginning of the millennium God comes back in wrath, so we are talking about several eons or millenniums of time called ‘a day.’
So am I totally off base, when I say a day can mean more than 24 hours? I don’t think so. There are 10 ways that they date the earth, you know. The more recent, that go back about a 5000 years. They use radio carbon 14 dating, beyond that it’s not very accurate. Then they use isotope dating and they have 10 of them and ironically all 10 of them project the age of the universe is somewhere between 10 and 20 billion years, all 10 of them. Except it’s not that way. But I don’t know, they know there’s some inconsistencies in those things and the way they operate now, maybe they didn’t always operate that way, under climatic conditions or whatever.
But there is one very physical way that I think we can probably agree that the earth is more than 6000 years old and that the creation days are more that 24 hour periods.
Now you all know if you cut down a tree it has rings, right. One ring for one year, winter and summer produces a ring. Even modern times you still have rings. They are physical, you can’t say that I think these 3 rings are all one year, it doesn’t work that way. One ring, one year. You know there are trees that are 4000 years old. Bristlecone pines out in California and Arizona you know some are 4000 years old. They were little saplings when Moses crossed the red sea, maybe. They’re still alive, and they have rings.
When it snows every year and you have a warm and a cold climate, you have a lot of snow or not much and you cut down through the ice layers, they’re like the rings of a tree. They took a core, back in 1982 or 1982. I think it took them a whole year to do it, in Russia. They went down to a very deep ice field, 2096 meters, and took a core. Of course they chopped it into pieces and lined them up and put them in freezers, and then they started to study them. You start at the top and you go back and you can count the seasons. So they have a piece of ice 2096 meters long, that’s like 6000 ft., that’s a mile and a quarter, right?
The ice field where they took this sample goes down another 1700 ft. The reason they didn’t go any further is because when you get down that deep, the weight of the ice is so enormously heavy that it crushes the seasonal rings. So that they are indistinguishable, you see. The tremendous weight just crushes them together, like an accordion. But in the 2096 meters of ice, guess how many of those seasonal rings there are? 100,060.
Now unless God is playing tricks on us and producing rings in trees, in years that didn’t exist you see and He produced layers of seasonal ice that didn’t exist, then we don’t have to go into isotope dating or any of that stuff. We got physical rings and layers and you can count them.
So to help verify it, they go back and say we know that there was a eruption in this part of Russia or Asia are in some place. A huge eruption of a volcano in 622, lets see if we can go back on the rings, to where we think it’s about 622 and see if there are any volcano deposits in the ice. They find them. So they know that this is pretty accurate and it’s physical. 100,060 layers that they can count. So maybe the earth is more than 6000 years old.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version