Deciphering Truth

I myself have many questions about these things, but its important to remember that we cannot expect to know everything about everything. Some questions just won’t be answered in our lifetime. The website, “Answers in Genesis”, I forget the exact URL, but you can Google them, provide some pretty decent explanations. I also thought the following quote was pretty useful also.

“In numerous places the Bible clearly links the Lord as Creator with the Lord as Redeemer, a link that provides more evidence that evolution cannot be reconciled with the Bible, especially with the teaching of the Cross. Otherwise, what? The Lord would have incarnated into an evolved ape created through the vicious and painfully murderous cycle of natural selection, all in order to abolish death, “the last enemy” (1 Cor. 15:26)? But how can death be the “enemy” if it was one of God’s chosen means for creating humans, at least according to the evolutionary model? The Lord must have expended plenty of dead Homo erectus, Homo heidelbergensis, and Homo neanderthalensis in order to finally get His own image (Homo sapiens). What this would mean, then, is that Jesus came to save humankind from the very process He, as Creator, used to create it in the first place. If that sounds ridiculous, it’s because it is.” - Jo Ann Davidson.

This topic on the Holy Spirit is a fairly complex one, in terms of the familiarity of Biblical richness required to paint a whole picture of the doctrine. It’s still relatively easily grasped, given the appropriate dedication to commit in study of it. Therefore, it is not something I could write an Biblically substantiated answer to here. Any such attempt would result in a stream of text far too extensive to be an effective response for the casual reader.

I have been listening to a series of presentations, recorded at the Generation of Youth for Christ conference just last month, focusing on the Holy Spirit and His role in the Trinity. They were an absolute blessing in addressing some of my own questions on the topic, and, I believe, provide adequate and Biblically sound answers for the Holy Spirit’s role, both before, and after the events at Calvary.

MP3 recordings of the presentations are available at the links below. You can right click, and save the MP3 files to your hard drive for future listening. Nevertheless, I will give a brief summary of what you may find therein.

Christ’s relationship to the Father is similar to that of the Holy Spirit’s to the Son. Part of the Holy Spirit’s purpose is to amplify the ministry of Jesus, while Jesus’ purpose is to reveal the glory of the Father to, and through mankind. The Word bridges the gap (caused by sin), and establishes a connection between the Father and His creation. The Spirit bridges the gap and facilitates a connection between humanity and the Son.

The Holy Spirit works on us, that we may be converted. The Holy Spirit works in us, that the image of God may be restored within us. The Holy Spirit works for us, in maintaining our connection with heaven. And the Holy Spirit works through us, that the world may witness the revelation of Jesus Christ, and the glory of God. This is no different now, from what has always been. 

I will also add that this series was presented to, and for an entirely Seventh-day Adventist congregation. As such, there may be certain concepts and lexicon specific to the nomenclature of Adventism, so don’t be alarmed if you hear something new, or even something diametrically opposed to what you have always assumed/thought/believed true. Pray, listen objectively, and study the Scripture for yourself.

MP3 Links (right click, and save as to download)

The Holy Spirit: Foundational Principles Part I

The Holy Spirit: Foundational Principles Part II

The Holy Spirit: Theological Realities

The Holy Spirit: Apologetic Issues

- Jamie

There is a statistic that 80-90% of new converts fall away from Christianity not long after converting. So, can you lose your salvation? I think a better question is did you ever have salvation?

Jesus says that there will be people that think they are true followers of Christ and when they meet Him He will say ‘I never knew you, away from me.(Matthew 7:21-23)

I believe that if you are truly a follower of Christ, nothing will change that. God bless

-Rob

The mark of the beast seems to be a scary topic for most Christians, and I remember as a young child, sat listening with morbid trepidation as older folks in church talked about such things. I think in answering this question, it helps to understand exactly what both the ‘mark’ and the ‘beast’ are. The mark of the beast, is simply the “mark”, “of”, “the beast”. In other words, it is an indentifying sign of those who have given their allegiance to the beast system.

To say that this topic requires your own study is a huge understatement, however I will try my best to point you in the right direction in as short a post as possible…

Many people find Revelation a difficult book to read, and that is understandable given that it has some fairly gruesome and cryptic content.  Much of the content of Revelation, is found elsewhere in the Bible, so understanding many of its symbolisms is a matter of comparing what the rest of Scripture says on the matter.

John first describes this particular beast, in Revelation 13. There is mention of other beasts, particularly the beast from the bottomless pit in chapter 9, and the beasts around God’s throne in some of the earlier chapters.

The first point to note is that all three of these illustrations do not share the same context. The second point is that John creates a strong referencing point for this beast in chapter 13, by describing it in similar terms to the beasts of Daniel 7 (Rev. 13:2). The third point is that John seems to list the attributes of the beats in Daniel’s vision but in reverse order, in describing the beast of Revelation 13.

In my opinion, John is doing two things here; first he is describing the 4th and last beast in Daniel’s vision (Dan. 7:7), and secondly, he is drawing our attention to the consideration that Daniel was standing at his point in history (500+ years previously) looking forward through time, while he, John, seeks to establish the context in which this beast, of which he now writes, should be understood. This is done by creating the perspective of standing at his point in history, looking back through time. The result is that John’s lets us know that the content of his vision is inseparably linked to Daniel’s.

This all begs the question, what are the beasts?

“And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth. Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.” Dan. 7:3, 17, 23.

Bearing in mind that John has firmly rooted the description of the beast of Revelation 13, in the context of Daniel 7, we can safely conclude that this great and terrible beast is in fact a king/kingdom. In other words, a globally prominent geo-political power that was either ruling, or, was shortly to begin ruling at the time of John’s prophecy. A key point of both passages in Dan. 7 and Rev. 13, is that the beast was/is also very heavily involved in worship and religious affairs, in which case I suppose you could classify it as a globally prominent religio-political power.

As Revelation 13 progresses, and we find another beast, initially innocent looking, arise to prominence while the first beast suffers a seemingly fatal wound. This innocent looking beast begins to speak with devilish intonations, while the first beast recovers from its injury. However, it is only AFTER the first beast has fully recovered to resume global prominence that the ‘mark’ is enforced.

To summarise, starting from John’s time in history and onwards, a globally prominent religio-political power begins a systematic persecution of anyone who stands in opposition to it; particularly on the grounds of worship. This power is then significantly weakened, almost to the point of total destruction, which leaves open a void for another geo-political power to rise to global prominence. At first, it seems innocent, gentle and extolling universally enviable virtues. However, these qualities are eventually replaced by tyranny similar to that exercised by the religio-political power which ruled before it.

While this is going on, the first power begins to recover its strength, and begins to put into effect the agenda of despotism it had previously sought to implement. It is implied that the real force behind both of these powers, is a Satanic one (compare Rev. 13:11 with Rev. 12:9). This agenda of despotism is characterised by a system of worship that is by and large accepted by the whole world, whether by deception, emotional coercion, or judicial force. It reveals itself as a defining tenet of the first religio-political power, and thus it is Satan who is considered to be both the author of the system, and the receiver of the worshipper’s allegiance. The definition of the mark of the beast, is the conformity to this agenda and system of worship, irrespective of whether by force, or by will (Rev. 13:14-16).

I do not believe the first beast/religio-political power has yet fully recovered. However, when it has recovered, then shall it begin the process of enforcing the ‘mark.’ The seal of God, which is the logical antithesis of the mark of the beast, would supposedly happen around the same time.

- Jamie

Could you please rephrase your question?

Some would say that God holds a gun to our head, others would say that would be much more peaceful. The bottom line is that God loves all of us, and wants us to love him as well. We have the option to accept the gifts given to us, or deny them, God offers these gifts unconditionally and does not hide them or try to trick you, in fact He makes it rather obvious to those who really open their eyes. If God were really holding a gun to our head then there would be no question as to His existence, just His motives, and as some people are still blissfully ignorant to the truth I would say we hold that gun to our own heads.

-Rob