The Hopes of God

Posted by on Nov 22, 2016 in Theology

THE HOPES OF GOD              Philip Ney            14/9/16

 

  1. PURPOSES OF THIS PAPER I write this short paper with considerable trepidation and ambivalence. I do not want to misrepresent God, yet I want to share insights that will:
  2. i) glorify God, which is to describe Him as He * really is,
  3. ii) get to know Him better and better as Sovereign, Saviour and Friend.

*Use upper case to help ensure I don’t think He is a large human, part of a colossal powerful empire threatened by no one since the devil was defeated and is now under suspended sentence.

** Use New Living Translation even though I prefer the cadence and beautiful language of KJV, self explanation of The Message and inerrancy of the NIV, because it is a reasonable compromise of all 3 criteria.

iii)  help us to better know what will happen next by understanding God’s character.

iv)  help others know Him intimately and so gain brothers and sisters in the Spirit.

  1. v) avoid disasters which arise from misunderstanding God’s nature and thus how He is likely to react.

God does not take kindly to being misrepresented (II Cor. 4:4) and I want to stay in His good books. God rewards those who seek Him with even more wonderful revelations. God is a Spirit and those who wish to worship Him must do so in Spirit and in truth (Jn. 4:24) God is the rewarder of those who earnestly seek Him. (Heb. 11:6).

II GOD WANTS US TO KNOW HIM

  1. God personally invites us to know Him personally. He is never content for us to know about Him. “The devils know about God and they tremble at just the thought of Him. (Jas. 2:19) God insists that we know Him as a person, person to person something like a neighbour. He wants to get inside us and invites us to get right into Him and to stay there.
  2. B. God repeatedly invites us to know Him.
  • My people are foolish and do not know me, says the Lord. They are stupid children who have no understanding. (Jer 4:22).
  • My people bend their tongues like bows to shoot out lies. They refuse to stand up for the truth. They only go from bad to worse. They do not know me.  (Jer 9:24).
  • But those who wish to boast should boast in this alone: that they truly know me and understand that I am the Lord who demonstrates unfailing love and who brings justice and righteousness to the earth and that I delight in these things. (Jer22:16).
  • He gave justice and help to the poor and needy and everything went well for him. Is that not what it means to know me? (Jer 31:34).
  • “I will be faithful to you and make you mine and you will finally know me as the Lord. “ (Hosea 2:20).
  • My people are being destroyed because they do not know me. (Hosea 4:6).
  • Since you priests refuse to know me, I refuse to recognize you as my priests. (Hosea 6:6).
  • I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices. I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings. (Matt 26:34).
  • Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth Peter—this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny three times that you even know me.” (Matt. 26:75).
  • At that moment the Lord turned and looked at Peter. Then Peter remembered that the Lord had said, “Before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will deny three times that you even know Me.”
  • While Jesus was teaching in the Temple he called out, “Yes you know me and you know where I come from. But I am not here on my own. The one who sent me is true, and you do not know him.” ( John 10:14).
  • “I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep and they know me.” (John 13:38).
  • And they will not need to teach their neighbours, nor will they need to teach their relatives, saying, “You should know the Lord, for everyone, from the least to the greatest will know me already.”

“Even my own brothers pretend they do not know me; they treat me like a stranger.” (Psalms 87:4).

  • So my people will go into exile far away because they do not know me. (Isaiah 43:10).
  • “But you are my witnesses, O Israel,” says the Lord. “You are my servant. You have been chosen to know me, believe in me, and understand that I alone am God. There is no other God—there never has been and there never will be.” (Isaiah 45:4)

 

God almost never gives up on trying to find some means not tried before, to get our attention, to get us to at least take a peak in His direction. Yet, because He gives us the freedom to choose, eventually, He must acknowledge and accept our, “Thanks but no thanks.” That is why most people end up in hell. That is what they kept choosing. So God if effect says, “You get what you deserve which is what you have been choosing all along.”

  1. God veils Himself. At the same time He invites us to know Him; He hides Himself so that our seeking is to really understand who He really is, so He usually tests our motivation by making it not easy. His veiling Himself should build our determination which in turn helps us discover more of His deeper qualities. Even though it is difficult and frustrating, when we make a discovery of some hitherto aspect of God, we are thrilled and want to share, even if it is not entirely new to others.

He was so often misunderstood that God sent His only son Jesus to show us who He really is. God makes it both difficult and easy to find and know Him. When the apostle Philip asked to see God, (Please Jesus, just once and we will be eternally grateful)  You can sense Jesus’ exasperation. What are you talking about Philip, you are at this very moment, looking straight at Him. I am God.  Don’t you get it? (paraphrased, John 14:9)  Philip didn’t get it partly because he was partly Greek. It seems the Greeks enjoyed doubting and arguing about almost everything. (Acts. 17: 18-34).

  1. God is not interested in perpetual mysteries. If there is something that appears mysterious, investigate and find out how it works. God gets no satisfaction from mysteries. He is not impressed by those who constantly invoke mysteries to impress the uninitiated so they can have power. In every religion, the priests have mysteries and incantations that only they understand. They may teach the uninitiated but do so only if you acknowledge their power and pay them to teach you.
  2. Miracles need scientific explanations. We need never fear that by discovering natural explanations for God’s miracles that we would detract from the reverence that God is due. Why? Because every scientific discovery leads to more questions (mysteries) that also need explaining in an ever expanding sphere. I really hope when I get home God will equip me with a well-equipped lab, a few assistants, a remarkably fast rocket, my dog and guitar and a chance to explore some remote part of His creation.

When I refer to natural explanations, I mean all those which are true and which are part of God’s nature and creation. God is the essence and beginning of all nature so every discovery is a comment on Him. No new fact detracts from God. It just shows how complex, mindful and unique God really is. This is why good scientists see more miracles than those who cling to a determination to see another miracle. God doesn’t like the, Let us see a real miracle Jesus and then we will really believe you.  After all, there are “miracles” all around you every day. One that really impresses me is a tree. Without complaining by processes science still cannot completely understand, a common fir tree is: growing wood that it will give you for heat and material for constructing a home when you sacrifice its life, shade, humus in which many other trees and plants can grow, fragrance, especially in the spring and fall, a place for birds to nest and sing to you, seeds that can make many more of its kind and most lovely to me are the symphonies it plays when each needle vibrates at a different frequency in the wind.

  1. With all due respects, I believe that God is somewhere between an ephemeral figment of human imagination and incomprehensibly beyond the most superlative descriptors that the world’s best imaginer is able to concoct with characteristics that science could never observe or measure. If He just wanted to be beyond human understanding, He would not have invited us to know Him.

I have a legitimate fear of getting it wrong. God hopes to be understood but is angry when we misunderstand Him, especially if we teach as truth that misunderstanding.

III WHO IS GOD?

  1. A) Whoever God is, there is none like Him.

There is no other creature with which to compare Him. He is almighty, all-knowing, all encompassing, eternal, creator of everything and yet all merciful, tender and gentle. He loves humans enough to die for them. We lack the vocabulary, metaphors and images needed to describe Him and yet He dearly wants to know us and us to know Him. It is an impossible expectation but He keeps trying to make it possible. He says in His direct, no words wasted fashion. “Anyone who wants to know God must believe that He is (exists for ever) and that He is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” It is an assumption worth putting into action. I attest that it works. He does reward those who diligently seek Him and it doesn’t take a great deal of diligence; more open-mindedness and truth seeking observations.

  1. B) Incomprehensible God.

God sent Jesus to give us the best chance possible of getting to know who He is, what He is like, what are His intentions for humans and how He operates. Repeatedly Jesus patiently answered stupid questions about Himself, His Father and His Spirit.  He wanted people to believe Him, get to know Him and trust Him. None of that would be true if He wanted to be a mysterious specter. God wanted us to understand Him and clearly indicated that He was like us, tempted in all points like humans.  Yet as truly God, He knew the full revelation of who He is would have to wait until such time as His children were reconstituted with a new body and mind that was capable of sensing and interpreting those sensations to begin the eternal task of really getting to know Him.

God was constantly teasing out people’s curiosity. Only one man saw Him face to face and spoke to Him directly as to another man. (Hosea 12:14). The impact of that fateful, fearful personal encounter with God on Mt. Sinai left such and impact on Moses he literally glowed all over.

  1. Will we ever know God completely?

Even though we have many eternities to try, I doubt very much if we will ever know all there is to know about God. But the effort to find and know him always pays.  I hope that this paper will help you know God. I can guarantee if you pursue some of these leads you will know God better and it will enhance you in every way.

  1. Benefits of knowing God
  2. i) helps us know ourselves much better. We will see ourselves which is one of the most important roots to wisdom. We see ourselves best as in a reflection when we look directly at Jesus.
  3. ii) Knowing God is the best way to know what we should choose.

iii)  We will discern the future better and what our future will be.

  1. iv) As we know God we can have more confidence in Him and thus feel safer and secure regardless of how hazardous is the way He leads us.
  2. v) As we know Him as a person, we can have more joy in conversations with Him.
  3. vi) We will gain in courage in pursuing more efforts to know Him and the universe He created so that we will be better scientists.

vii) Best of all when we find God thru His son Jesus as our Saviour and Lord, we will have the confidence in knowing we are part of God’s family for ever.

viii) God scared the pants off Elijah so he cowered in a corner of a cave (I Kings 19:13). Once the prophet was suitably impressed by God’s majesty, God whispered to him. God is constantly demonstrating His infinite power and His intimate concern for the most trivial human complaint. When we persist in knowing Him as He is, break thru our misperceptions and distorted constructs so dear to false Christianity, we can sense better than we can see His tender love and care for us weird humans.  He greatly  appreciates it when people finally break thru their misconceptions and see Him as He is. Then and then only will they stand in awe, expressing in stuttering psalm and simplistic song their rightful admiration, an act we term worship

 

  1. Is God a figment of our imagination?

For many centuries, Christians have been taunted about their silly desires to imagine a god in order quieten their neurotic needs to not feel alone and meaningless.  Admittedly there is some truth to this accusation. However with a bit of insightful reflection, it is obvious that if Christians did that they are only made their existence less joyful because the God described in the Bible is a very uncomfortable God. If I were to imagine a god he would be much less complicated, less demanding, always permissive and forgiving and kind to me in every way, every day. In short He would fit my immature, neurotic needs with little effort on my part. I would not have to spend my earthly existence having to worry what will happen to me when I die.

The gods and prophets of other religions are a much more accurate reflection of human feints, foibles and future aspirations. Plus the fact no “prophet” claimed to be a god. People made them into gods out of their ignorance and helplessness. It seems no human dared claim be god and none allowed that to happen in their life time, lest they be destroyed by some ill –conceived very jealous much irritated powerful force coming at some unannounced occasion, from some unanticipated direction. Thus discarded what they knew or deduced he probably was and carved themselves idols or imagined far distant gods who any rational person could see are ineffective or uncaring about human hurts and aspirations. For that reason God’s ancient prophets taunted the makers and worshippers of idols  with “shout louder so he will awaken and respond to you” as Elijah did (I Kings 18:27) and “Do you really expect something you carve out of an ordinary piece of wood or lump of clay to somehow take life and care for you. That is stupid in the extreme”. (Jer. 10:8).

  1. Fears and resistances for knowing God.

In spite of all the benefits and blessing that come from knowing God, the majority of humans avoid Him. The reasons are many but briefly:

  1. i) Some have been disappointed in God because it seems He: doesn’t answer prayers, let someone we love and prayed hard for die, won’t reveal Himself as we wish thru a personal dramatic event etc.
  2. ii) A person has been used &/or abused by some professional religious person e.g. pastor, priest.

iii)  God doesn’t conform to presumptions of how God should be.

  1. iv) God seems to be inconsistent in how He deals with people.
  2. v) God seems to be a terrible father to require His Son to die so horribly.
  3. vi) A person is afraid God will punish them, require them to give up their comfortable life style.

vii)  If we know God we will readily see His purposes for our life. We will be without any excuse for why we go our own way which is to gain fame, fortune, power, admiration. So we prefer not knowing God to narcissism.

viii)  Knowing God will disturb any illusion of grandeur and prescribed way of gaining heaven.

  1. ix) The better we see God, the more clearly we see ourselves.

vii) ……and more reasons as individual as people are.

 

IV KNOWING GOD BY KNOWING OURSELVES.

  1. A) There are many ways to know God and to know Him better. I’m suggesting that you consider knowing God better by seeing just one human like characteristic, His hope. You may think that this is being far too audacious but just accept what God says about Himself in the Bible.
  2. B) We are made in the image of God. (Gen.1:26 ) We are patterned after Him and have some components of His intrinsic nature. We are triune: body, soul and spirit as is God: father (soul) son (body) and Holy Spirit, (our undying spirit. If we are like God, then God is like us, of course millions of times bigger and better.

The Bible describes God as having the full range of human emotions each with the full range of intensity. God laughs. In fact He is a practical joker. (Jesus sent his disciples to row across a big lake when He knew full-well there was going to be a good sized storm. After praying to His Father, while up in the hills, He casually strolls over and thru the waves. “Hi guys, how are you doing?”  The terrified experienced seamen cry out, “What do you mean? We are going to drown and you think it’s funny.”

Jesus answers, “You would laugh with me if you could see how silly you look struggling to stay alive when all you need is a tiny bit of faith to calm this puny storm. Let me show you how.” “Of course it’s funny from my perspective. And it would be from yours too if you had an ounce of faith”

  1. We are made just a little lower than God. (Psalm 8:5)…Usually this verse is translated, “a little lower than the angels”. Most translators could not believe it should be “God”, but they agree that the word is Elohim which is a name of God. Man is created just a little lower than God Himself. It is one of the most astonishing parts of the Bible. Yet this makes good sense when you realize how much God wanted to chat with some creature who would engage Him intellectually and emotionally. Apostle Paul reminds his Corinthian friends (I Cor. 6:3) that in heaven, Christians will be judging disputes between the angels. If we are judges of angels we must be of a higher order. The fact that God’s intent was to have a creature He would find very interesting to chat with. That we can’t even accept His intentions for us shows how far mankind has fallen from his original, natural state. To know and serve and love God should be the most natural behaviour humans can engage in.
  2. Why are people, Christians in particular, afraid to know themselves? If we can know God, at least that part that is like humans, then the better we know ourselves the more we can know God. So why are people afraid to know themselves I keep asking myself after about working for 55 years practicing medical psychotherapy? I keep thinking that Christians should be the most able and most willing to know and benefit from knowing themselves but I find it quite the opposite.
  3. i) When they know themselves they have much greater difficulty being hypocrites and that makes them much more uncomfortable praying to and worshiping God. Their often repeated phrase during worship “I praise you I praise you, yes I really praise you God” is patently untrue. What they are doing is trying to impress other Christians with their piety.
  4. ii) When a person knows themselves they can make much wiser decisions and be held more accountable for the decisions they make. They cannot hide behind “But I didn’t know any better.”

iii)             When Christians know themselves better, they can better understand how people are being dishonest and so stop aiding and abetting them in their dishonesty e.g. “Wasn’t that a wonderful sermon?” “No it wasn’t wonderful because that topic (euthanasia) should make you feel very awkward for allowing it to happen.”

  1. iv) When people know themselves they see more of God’s real communication and that makes them more aware of how far they fall short of His expectations.
  2. v) When people are aware of why they keep re-enacting unresolved tragedies from their past, they can see more clearly how and why they mistreat their children by no seeing each child’s blueprint and meeting their individual needs. The better they know their own PISHBe the better they can see the wonder of God’s creation in each child and thus better able to give Him credit and thanks for each of their children.

 

 

 

  1. GOD’S HOPES, INTENTIONS AND PURPOSE FOR HUMANS
  2. God’s intention for humans is friendship by choice. One of the most remarkable paradoxes is that by definition a person can only be a friend by freely choosing to be so. It would seem God made a rock bigger than He can lift, so to speak. God cannot create a friend. Don’t be silly you might say, “God can do anything He chooses or He isn’t God”. With that I agree so that even though God cannot force people to be His friends, He can set up choice situation that last so long people don’t really have a choice. Then you would say that is cheating. Quite correct. God will eventually accept a person’s choice no matter how stupid and self- destructive it is.

In addition He sets up the choice situation so it has an exactly 50:50 probability of going either for or against Him. Adam and Eve had that freedom but no one has since that time. After A&E, people’s choice was greatly influenced by factors over which they had no control or choice.

  1. God desires trillions of friends. With a bit of imagination, think of a wealthy farmer who really likes flowers. So He plants thousands of His most fertile land with as many kinds of flowers that He desires. On a typical sunny morning He gets up early to chat with His trillions of flowers. “Good morning Doris Daisy. Isn’t it a lovely day?”

In reply and in her sweetest tone the flower replies. “Oh, dear master farmer! You have me mixed up with one of those flowers over there.  I’m a sunflower just like my mother and father.”

“Ho, ho, ho! I was just teasing you. Of course I knew that and your name is Susan and your mother’s name is Sally and your grandmother’s name is Sophie and your great grandmother’s name is……”

Susan interrupts, “Oh wondrous farmer you know so much about us. Do you know the names of all these trillions of flowers and their ancestry?”

“Yes, Susan and the names of all the flowers in all the fields in all the worlds that I own! Now let’s have a chat, just you and me. And don’t worry about the time. I’ve got plenty. In fact I have eternity to chat with every flower for as long as we like.”

Our problem is that we can’t conceive of an almighty God existing without time, but He does.  He really likes humans in their individuality and He really likes to chat and to have a cup of tea. You may ask, “How do you know that? “

“I know that because I like talking to flowers and having a cup of tea and I know God is a little  like me. I can even guess what brand of tea He likes”

“Now you are being arrogant”

“No I’m not. The Bible says that Jesus was tempted in every manner the same as us. So I can safely assume He is tempted to down tools right now and have a cup of  X brand of tea and chat about the morning,  just like I’m yearning  to do right now. Why don’t you join us?

“Thank you but I don’t have the time. I must go to the bible study. We are studying ……

“Too true. Too sadly true. You have no time to chat with God but that’s okay. I will tell Jesus you are too busy studying about Him to talk with Him. I suspect He won’t like that.”

  1. Earth as seed and soil. (see messengers2 articles )

I believe God continues to create: babies, stars, new forms of bacteria etc. and He does that partly thru “natural selection by design”. It is more efficient that way and there are always a few surprises for God. He designed humans to propagate and seed the universe with more humans. Instead, humans squabble over limited space and oxygen and resources and…….so much so they feel justified in terminating the lives of preborn babies. Foolish people that we are! If Adam had really put his mind to classifying creatures as he was ordered to do, he would have discovered scientific methodology and in a much shorter period of time we would have been colonizing space. If humans were spreading throughout the universe they would have taken earth’s flora and fauna to get things started for following generations.

  1. God is prochoice.
  2. i) God insists that everyone make as free a choice to be a friend as possible. That is why He allowed satan to disguise himself, seduce Eve with flattery and introduce a very tantalizing idea i.e. the possibility of knowing everything in an instance and gaining the power and pleasure that goes with it. What fools they are to go for that ridiculous idea. What fools we are that we fall for the same illusion when we could have everything our heart’s desire, gradually getting to know God when strolling about a fantastic garden and chatting about anything. How do we know we would have made the same fatal mistake? We do it all the time. We watch TV with all its glamour and inferred pleasure when we could be walking in His magnificent cathedrals made by trees and chatting with the Almighty.
  3. ii) God constantly commands people to perform very specific acts of love. Each time He commands, He creates a choice to obey or not.

iii)  God wants mature friends and constantly confronts people with difficult choices for themselves and for others. Christians complain and whine about not knowing what to do and why doesn’t God make it more plain what He wants, but God in His wisdom wants people to struggle. Then they are more likely to pray earnestly and more likely to mature.

  1. iv) God keeps saying “choose you this day” (Joshua 24:15) in increasingly difficult situations requiring wisdom beyond our ability and so we sweat trying to do what is right the first time.  The decision making doesn’t get easier as one ages.
  2. Why God hides Himself.

Humans were created to be His individually unique, mature, interesting, loyal, obedient friends that He can have an enjoyable chat with at any moment for the rest of eternity. To have friendship by choice, God insists the choice is a reasonably free choice. Observation and logic tells you that no human has a free will or a free choice. Everyone’s choice is greatly influenced by their: age, intelligence, sex, family, time in history, education, government and many other factors over which they have no influence or control. E.g. You didn’t choose your family. God did. “So how can He hold me responsible for not choosing him when everyone in my family were drunks and atheists?” Good question. The only answer that makes sense to me is that although no individual has a 50:50 probability of choosing friendship with God, humanity as a whole does have free choice. Those that have a high probability of knowing God because they were brought up in a loving Christian family have a huge responsibility of sharing that privilege. They must share their advantages with those who have a small probability of choosing God because they were brought up in a materialistic culture by parents who stayed angry at God for placing them in a dirty, crowded, crime filled city.

If God didn’t veil Himself, no one would have a choice. His magnificence, power, wisdom etc. would not leave any room for choice. That is one of the most important distinctions between angels and humans. Any creature that sees God as He is, would immediately fall on his face in reverent awe and swear obedience.

Thus being creatures that must choose is such a privilege and such a pain for human existence. Far too many people resent that situation and throw it away. Women who chant “we are prochoice” cannot see that they have walked away from any real choosing by deciding to kill their own baby by abortion.

  1. Humans choose and God chose.

 It is clear that sometimes God chooses a person (Moses) or a race (Jews) and though they may protest, (Ex. 3:1-5). “No God, please choose someone else to speak for You. Don’t you see I have a speech impediment”. Or as it was put in Fiddler on the Roof “Can’t you choose some other people sometimes, God?”  When God chooses someone, He won’t let them get away without assuming the roles and responsibilities He has lined up for them. If they try to avoid their commission, they could end up as fish food like Jonah.

On other occasions people choose God and it seems He doesn’t want them to, e.g. the Phoenician woman with a devil afflicted child. “I know you came to feed only the House of Israel, Jesus but sometimes dogs are allowed to eat scraps that fall from their master’s table.  Please let me have a scrap of your healing for my daughter” and she got what she begged for. (Mk 7:28). So it seems that at times God hammers away at people until they choose Him and sometimes people hammer away at God until He lets them into His kingdom. Of course the choice for friendship is best if it is mutual.

VI GOD IS LIKE US BECAUSE HE MADE US LIKE HIM

  1. Since we are like God, we can assume God is like us; immeasurably larger, wiser, more powerful etc. but enough like us so we can relate to Him as a person. He is enough like us that we can safely assume He feels and sometimes acts like we do.

If God is like us, then He has similar thought, emotions, desires and hopes.

  1. B. God has human like emotions: The Bible records God as experiencing and /or expressing the full range of human type emotions:
  2. i) Jesus wept when his friend Lazarus died, (Jn. 11:35) and when He looked toward Jerusalem as He approach it and His immanent crucifixion. He did not weep for Himself but for the foolish chicks that didn’t understand that God wanted to shelter them under His wings like a loving mother hen.
  3. ii) Frustration. People continued to ignore His attempts to demonstrate who He is. (Mk 5:39).

iii)             Pain, both physical and emotional when hanging from the cross. (Ps 69:26).

  1. iv) Sense of abandonment by His sleepy disciples in the garden called, Gethsemane. Why could you not have watched with me in my struggle to decide between obedience and death or a pleasure filled earthly kingdom? (Luke 22:46) Or when He hung in agony and humiliation on a crude cross. My Father, my Father, why have you abandoned me at this critical time and when I assured my disciples you would not leave me alone. (Mark 15:34).
  2. v) Anger: when his disciples wouldn’t or couldn’t (for lack of trying) understand what He was teaching. (John 11:33).
  3. vi) All the conflicted feelings of desire, anger, despair etc. when being tempted by the devil and in all manner like we are (Luke 4:2).

vii)            Fury and indignation at the disobedience of His followers and chosen people.

viii)          All the sensations of humans when He lived in a human body and the emotions that accompany those sensations, hunger, thirst, sleepless.

  1. ix) Hope and disappointment in His most trusted friends.
  2. God wants humans to love Him

It appears that He is so desperate for human love He orders them to love Him. It isn’t just any command. It is his first and most important command, (Mark 12:29). Throughout these 5 volumes, I have defined love as meeting a person’s need. Since needs are definable and measurable, it is easy to know what is loving. Since God commands us to love, love cannot be an emotion, since emotions and the authentic expression of them cannot be commanded, love is not an emotion. Since any recruit assumes his commanding officer will make it plain what he expects, love is understandable. The same recruit assumes his commander believes he has the capability to follow that command and will if necessary assist him in understanding and performing that command.

So God:

  1. i) orders His children to spend their lives loving Him and their neighbours at least as well as they love themselves,
  2. ii) makes sure his children understand His orders,

iii)             gives to each of His children the capacity to love by giving them totally and permanently His Loving Holy Spirit,

  1. iv) guides and corrects their attempts to love,
  2. v) shows His approval with amazing new insights about Himself and material rewards on a non-contingent reinforcement schedule,
  3. vi) shows His disapproval mainly by disengaging momentarily if they don’t love when the opportunity presented itself,

vii)            gives each child better health and longer life when they live in love,

viii)          gives each one greater maturity and wisdom when they love.

If loving is meeting a need, what does God need that He cannot give Himself.  God is able to give Himself everything, including loyal servants, except friendship. He wanted only friends who chose Him. He leans over backwards to make that choice as free as possible i.e., 50:50. But God  lives by His own rules and will almost never compel anyone to become His friend. So it appears that God must wait anxiously hoping an individual will choose to start loving Him. There appear to be exceptions to this rule. God chose a few people and would not accept “No” for an answer, e.g. Abraham, Moses, Joshua, David, Saul.

Humans are able to meet a person’s need only after getting to know that person. In fact getting to know a person gives that person such a comforting feeling, they will begin to trust that person and accept their proffered gift of love. Thus God wants us to get to know Him. He is fairly confident that if we do get to know Him we can love Him with our attention, conversation, our trust in Him, enjoy His gifts etc. Therefore it makes good sense that God highly recommends that we know Him.  God will reveal more and more about Himself as we get to know Him better. With each revelation we become more impressed. The more impressed we are with God the more likely we will tell others of His greatness (this is the proper way to praise God).

As we get to know God our conversation with Him is more intimate. Now we know how He feels at any moment about you and the rest of mankind, the better we can tailor our chat to make Him feel understood and appreciated. And so knowing God is a prerequisite to properly loving God just like it is necessary to know a person, so to know his need and thus more accurately love him by meeting that specific need.

When we are able to have intimate chats with God, His dearest hope comes to fruition. His smile lights up the whole sky with the loveliest rainbow.

 

VII HUMAN CHARACTERISTICS THAT ARE DEMONIC BUT ATTRIBUTED TO GOD.

  1. a) God acts on impulse to cruelly destroy people He doesn’t like.
  2. b) God isn’t concerned about human affairs but He likes to watch and laugh at their very stupid antics.
  3. c) God can’t be loving and yet sentence people to eternal punishment.
  4. d) If God wants people to choose Him, then He should make the choice fair.
  5. e) God enjoys watching people suffer.
  6. f) God rewards the arrogant with money and power while his children suffer persecution and alienation.

You know these statements cannot be true because He sent His son to die a cruel death just so people would know He knows what that feels like to pay for their sins. Now salvation and eternal life are totally unwarranted gifts. All people have to say is: I am truly a miserable, selfish, proud person. Please forgive me and make me your child for ever. If a person cannot say that and keep on thumbing their nose to the Creator of the universe, maybe they cannot quarrel with His justice. It is what they kept asking for.

 

 

 

VIII GOD’S DISAPPOINTMENTS 

  1. Instances of God’s disappointment
  2. i) Adam God wanted so much to continue chatting with Adam. But Adam then Adam and Eve disobeyed their first 2 orders so that they were easy prey to the demons seduction to know everything. God’s response when Adam was there for their usual afternoon chat rings with sorrow. Where are you Adam?” as if God didn’t know. What God wanted to know is where is my good friend that was so wonderful to chat with?
  3. ii) Noah’s generation all ignored God. They had everything going for them and all they could think of was violence and debauchery. God was so disappointed and disgusted He probably wanted to say, Aye to hell with them all. Noah preached knowing what was right and acted on it. But instead of persistently glorifying God he got drunk and exposed his private parts.

iii)  Moses was over-come with anger. The one man God had talked to face to face as a man to a man. The man who had seen so many miracles must have known God could and would do anything to help His chosen people. But the continually unsatisfied Israelites kept complaining until weary old Moses lost his cool. He disobeyed. He should have spoken to the Rock who was Christ. Instead he slashed out at him in anger.(Num. 20:10-12) And God says, just in case you don’t know how serious an offense that is to me, you won’t get into the promised land for which you have been longing. (You notice that Moses accepted God’s judgement without protest.)

  1. iv) David couldn’t wait. David, the man after God’s own heart was blessed in almost every endeavour he undertook because he understood and adhered to the principles behind God’s law (Ps 119) instead of trying to keep to the letter of the law.

God, “Why couldn’t you have waited for a single sexier looking woman to wed and add to your harem.”

David, “No, what I see I like and what I like I want, now. So my loyal general, go and get her for me. And when she got pregnant; “good general, arrange to have her unsuspecting husband murdered in a way it looks like an act of war.” Surely the adultery, the betrayal of a very loyal and obedient mercenary soldier and his dastardly murder must have greatly disappointed God. Yet God had sworn to make of David an everlasting dynasty and nothing would change that. But David did suffer the reciprocal response and had incest, rebellion and sedition in his family.

  1. v) Solomon gave in to whining women. His Egyptian princess was longing for Egyptian cooking and Egyptian gods. “Of course my darling. Anything you want, you get. You want an idol to add to your old family gods? That’s easy. I’ll get two.” He was one king who knew nothing of the rigours of war and didn’t need to but he didn’t have a clue what was going on in his family. His wives were spoiled with idols and affluent lives and his children went without discipline. So God set up for his son a critical decision. Rehoboam (spoiled oldest son) made a foolish choice and lost to David’s dynasty  5/6th of the kingdom. (I Chronicles. Ch. 10&11)
  2. vi) Zedikiah double crossed his conquering sovereign. J was badly beaten and knew he was no match for the Babylonians. So he swore by God to serve him faithfully. Nebuchadesa went happily home only to be informed that Z. had paid highly for the Egyptians to attack him. Jeremiah blasted Z. for breaking the oath he made in God’s name. Z paid a cruel price for denying God’s sovereignty and relying on idols to bail him out.

vii)  Peter was not only impetuous; he denied he knew his best friend and Lord. Jesus look of rebuke and sorrow better expressed God’s disappointed hopes in His apostles and decuples than any words of mine. They knew God like none other. They saw His power and felt the warmth of His companionship but ran away when He needed them most.

viii)  Multiple priests, pastors, bishops and popes (28 defrocked) let God down in their pursuit of power and pleasure at the expense of poor people and children instead of being ready to sacrifice all for Jesus. It is hard to believe God didn’t give up.

  1. ix) The rest of us who tremble to defend preborn babies from the most cruel kind of death possible. Unless I am badly mistaken, this time God has had it. He can no longer endure the cruelty, inhumanity and sexually twisted debauchery any longer and be true to His original intent for humans and His righteous indignation. When about 50% of everyone has directly helped murder a baby and about 45% have done little or nothing to stop this violence and neglect. God is about to say again, “It is finished”. He so badly wanted every human to become his loyal servant and friend but He will accept what relatively few who know and walk with Him.
  2. GOD’S disappointments.
  3. i) God is disappointed when His best hope for humans fail. Since the highest intentions of God toward humans is to be known by them, to have them choose Him as their best friend and to make them mature, interesting servants as kings, priests and judges in heaven.
  4. ii) God is furious with idol worship (ancient and modern, e.g. movie stars, famous preachers, etc.) for He wants to be the center of attention. This is not because He is jealous or threatened by anything or anyone but because he knows how prone humans are to narcissism. He knows from experience that His mighty angel of light, Lucifer, became so narcissistic and proud he thought he could challenge almighty God and so led a rebellion.  He and his terrified minions were defeated and given the suspended sentence of eternal banishment in a terrible place that suits them to a T. While under sentence the devil is allowed to provide the alternative to God that makes a choice available.

iii)   Narcissistic people are so “in love” with themselves they cannot tolerate a child taking away any attention from them and so they avoid pregnancies. If inadvertently they become pregnant, they quickly abort the baby.

  1. iv) God is extremely angry with people who request, pay for, arrange for and support having an abortion which kills his most lovely and most prized creation, His innocent preborn babies. That they should be used in worship of the depraved idol of the Sardinians, Moloch adds to God’s intense anger and disgust (Ex. 23:13). The multi- million dollar business of aborting babies and selling their still warm flesh for the god of science and success is even more bizarre and evilly motivated than worshipping Moloch. In some abortion “clinics” satan worship is openly conducted after hours. There is no language to describe how infuriated God is. It seems that the only thing that holds back the punishment of His enemies and indolent friends is waiting to see whether or not the feeble efforts of a dwindling number of fearful prolifers will make any difference. So far it is clear that prodeath forces are constantly pushing prolifers into a smaller and smaller corner of dejection and despair.

IX  BECOMING MORE LIKE GOD

A Why God wants us to become more like Him

Eternity is a very long time. I suspect, since God is a little like me, that He gets bored with the chatter of immature, uninformed, pedantic people who can only see my spelling mistakes and miss the salient points I am trying to make. God gets tired of “oh God have mercy, have mercy oh God” on and on as if He is deaf or stupid and needs to be reminded.

You can’t blame God for wanting wise and well -travelled friends to chat and have tea with. “Hey Philip, how was your last trip to the constellation Mores? Did you come up with a name of that unusual shaped formation of young stars?”

“Good God what a time I had. I almost got sucked into that massive black hole at its center”

“Not to worry, I would have pulled you out”

“That’s if you knew where I was”

“Wait a minute there young man. Is there anything I don’t know?”

  1. Instances of people who became more like God
  2. i) I don’t think God values people like we do. There are some like Jean Vanier, who are wonderfully interesting but have made major mistakes, (backed euthanasia) that put him out of the running for human designated sainthood. While there are others like my handicapped grand-daughter who are loyal, loving and amazingly insightful that should get some special recognition. On the other hand I am glad she doesn’t. It would ruin her sweet simplicity to be well known. Besides which the Bible states quite emphatically that all His children are saints. (Rm. 1:7)
  3. ii) Why God is happy and unhappy with the death of His saints. He hates death but on the other hand He uses it to bring people to their common sense. When their body dies He uses the occasion as the opportunity to change His children into persons who can endure the intense blast of His radiance as the warmth of His love.
  4. B. Methods and Mechanisms God uses to aid people in getting to know Him and mature.

i). Reciprocal Response

When God desired to have humans to chat with, He first inaugurated the moral network that would govern their behaviour. These principles are enduring partly because they are interwoven with the laws of physics and chemistry that are the underpinnings of the whole universe. One principle is wholiness. Nothing can exist that distorts even slightly the mathematical rules that fit everything together. If allowed to distort the math, the order that holds the universe together would fall apart.

Another principal is the reciprocal response that governs human and stellar behaviour. In its most elementary form, children understand it as ‘What goes round, comes round’ or as Jesus put it, “What you do to others is and will be done to you.” You cannot get away with murder. You cannot kill preborn babies and not expect major, universal consequences. The first recognition of this is the plummeting birth rate which will destroy the free market economy and the morality that is necessary for the efficient working of government and business.

If people will learn this, they have matured. It seems my efforts and those of a few like- minded people to explain this fall on deaf ears, stupid minds and fat flesh.

  1. ii) The fellowship of His sufferings. The Bible states that even Jesus learned obedience in suffering. The Bible also makes it plain that anyone who wants to live a Godly life in Christ will suffer persecution. (2 Tim. 3:12). We mature in suffering because it shows up our weaknesses. Then we have no alternative but to depend on God. As we trust God we grow in joy and peace.

iii) Persecution   No one should enjoy suffering or think it will get them time off in Purgatory because it purifies them and makes them “fit for the Kingdom of God” (Catechism of Catholic Church). Nor should we resent suffering with and/or for Christ. There are many benefits in this life and later to suffering for and with Jesus (Col.1:24). Besides which this life is but a blink of the eye.

iii) Natural consequences to guide and correct us. The universe is clearly constructed on laws of physics and morality which if you break; there will be quickly or later, painful consequences. If we learn from these, hopefully by example and wise instruction, we have become wiser for our battle of wits with the death dealing enemy. There are many of these natural consequences, some obvious (gravity) some subtle and delayed so unobtrusive they can be ignored, at least for a time, (smoking tobacco and marijuana). All factors being equal, those who try to understand and be wise about rewarding and aversive natural consequences live longer and happier lives.

  1. iv) We are born with an exact, unique blueprint of the person God designed us to become. If you watch a child they will tell you, not in words but in behaviour, who they are supposed to become. Parents if they observe patiently will learn who the child is to become and therefore what they need. When provided with the sustenance and experience and information that they need, children grow faster and are much more content.
  2. v) Parenting promotes maturity like nothing else. People who follow the lead of their children to learn what they need will also see what they (parents) needed growing up to develop the Person I Should Have Become (PISHBe). To empathize with their children’s developmental process, parents must go thru their own developmental stages again and again. In this way and others, children force their parents to mature.
  3. vi) People are naturally inquisitive. If people, especially when they are young, observe and think for a moment, they begin to ask questions and form hypotheses. Observing, asking questions, re-observing, forming a tentative explanation, testing their hypothesis and efficiently describing the results of their little experiment and then taking into consideration the feedback of others, they hone their hypothesis and try again. This is the scientific method and should be used daily by all who want to know God better and thus mature.

vii) To trust and obey. Christians are siblings of Christ, soldiers in His army/navy/air force, and servants in His kingdom. Christ has some difficult tasks in His plan of curtailing the efforts of satan to enslave and destroy people. Christians need to learn to obey God’s direction without questioning. As they do they learn discipline and if they are wise they learn self-discipline. Then God can use them effectively. As they become more obedient, they learn more about their General and become more like Him.

viii)  Impossibly hard decisions make people think and pray hard. It is like a wise parent saying to their teenage daughter about whether or not she should go on a camping trip with her school when there are some not so savory peers going. “My sweet child, I think you need to make this decision”.  On one hand she would like to see this lovely lake and she loves camping and she trusts her teacher but on the other hand maybe it wouldn’t be much fun trying to fend the boys off. “Mum please tell, me what I should do.” “Well my big smart 15year old, it is time for you to figure this one out for yourself.”  “But mum you were always there for me before.” “Yes and I am thankful the decisions we made were good. But this time I think it is safe for you to make the choice”  “But mum…….”.and so on. Confronting us with hard decisions is one way God gets us to talk to Him more often, more earnestly and more maturely.

  1. ix) Some brave actions which you believe are for God’s glories go really sour. You really tried to be authentic but your friends turned against you and God seemed not to care you are hurt and bewildered. Now you know a little more about how Jesus felt when He hung on the cross and felt utterly abandoned by His loving father even after Jesus told all his disciples He could always count on God. “Why God when I doing this and it is really hard and it cost me my reputation and now you leave me wondering if you really care. He always cares and your pain hurts Him but like Jesus it sure felt like you were abandoned at the very worst time. God showed you that feelings and facts don’t always go together. You can feel you are alone but the fact is God walks right beside you.
  2. x) Leadership when you feel unready or unworthy forces you to both rely on God and use all your wisdom and your common sense and your training and your experience. You think “But I could be leading trusting people down the wrong path and they don’t deserve to be hurt just because I made a wrong turn”. In my experience, when I made the best decision I could and trusted God to make it work for us all, eventually He did and I grew up some more.

X   IT IS FINISHED.

  1. God doesn’t give up easily. Many times God threatened to destroy humankind but tried again and again. He was so disgusted with the early humans that he was going to wipe them all out with a flood. ”So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them. It broke His heart. And the Lord said I will completely wipe out this human race that I have created” (Gen 6:6). However “Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless man living on earth at the time” (Gen. 6:9) and with high hopes, God started again. So He did with Abraham and Moses and David.

God was very specific about what He required and He repeatedly modified His expectations. He even designed in detail the new temple the Israelis would have and promised. “And I will never again turn my back on them for I will pour out my Spirit upon them” says the Sovereign Lord” (Ezekiel 39:29) But though the Lord returned His people to their own land with lavish gifts from the Babylonians, they became so rigid and corrupted they could not recognized the Messiah they had longed for, for so many centuries.

For at least 3 years God’s son Jesus taught and demonstrated what God wanted. Jesus made it so simple to comprehend; it could not have been simpler or easier. “Those who believe in me, even though they die like everyone one else, will live again. They are given eternal life for believing in me and will never perish.” (John 11:25, 26) But foolish, vain humans wanted to do it their way. Thinking to outsmart their Roman tyrants, they arranged for Jesus to be murdered in the cruelest way possible.

As Jesus crested the hill looking toward Jerusalem, “Jesus saw the city ahead, He began to cry. ‘I wish that even today you would find the way of peace. But now it is too late and peace is hidden from you. ….your enemies will crush you to the ground and your children with you, because you have rejected the opportunity God offered you’”. Luke 19:41-44)

Paul writes in his letter to the Romans, “So they have no excuse for not knowing God” Romans 1:26) Jesus predicted that human depravity will be so bad and consequently God’s righteous judgement and the natural consequences of human violence are so severe that …”unless that time of calamity is shortened , the entire human race will be destroyed” Matt: 24:22). It is true now. Never has the human race been so evil: killing over ½ of their children, murdering the elderly , mentally ill and handicapped, without anaesthesia removing organs of slaves and captives to sell as replacements parts, using and abusing each other for sexual pleasures only,  and condoning world- wide virtual slavery. No one can accuse God of impatience or injustice. He will soon show His righteous anger. No one can stand before the ALMIGHTY GOD.

  1. Why God is fed up.
  2. i) God really wants friends who think and act wisely and thankfully. He allows us to make mistakes that do hurt others, particularly our family, sometimes for 3-4 generations. When we sincerely ask for forgiveness He always gives it but He seldom prevents the usual painful consequences that follow our foolishness. He encourages us to start again. But He is tougher on His children than on foreigners. As a father wouldn’t you expect more of your own highly privileged sons and daughters?

Your kids and the neighbour’s kids are playing ball too close to the house. You warned them about the possibility of breaking the large front window. You carefully set out the consequences to them if they did.

SMASH. There goes a few hundred bucks and the mess and it’s now cold in the whole house. Your children are older and better ball players. Are you going to avoid punishing them because they are your kids? No. Chances are you would assess them more of the cost to replace it, not less. So it is at the end of time. God is not going to “rapture” His children out of harm’s way before the great tribulation. They are going to be punished like everyone else and maybe more severely because they knew better, had more warnings and needed to mature. God loves His children dearly but He is always just. God is very clear about this and His punishment begins with the house of God.

  1. God will never admit defeat
  2. God has never been defeated so why would He even begin to think of defeat.
  3. A. WAR OF WORDS NOT SWORDS.
  4. The paintings are wrong. In almost any painting or picture of angles, they are shown with drawn swords. That might have been necessary to inspire respect in angels at one time when military might was right. It is not scripturally correct. Most of the time humans encountered angles they were mistaken for men, or dressed like men or described as speaking not fighting with swords. The exception to this generalization was when they went to war assisting one of the Israelite armies in a just encounter.
  5. 2. God fights evil with logic, superior knowledge and much better vocabulary. Christ is described as having a sword coming from His mouth. (Rev. 19:15) Gabriel was tired of doing a battle of wits with the demon prince of Babylon (Dan. 10:13) Christians are encouraged to fight with praise, prayer and love to overcome evil not with guns.
  6. God has the advantage over evil of being able to create. Since God can create, He always has fresh information and new ideas. The devil cannot create but he is inventive and extremely devious in twisting the truth. When Christians go to war with evil, they must be very good at discerning what truth is and what is deceit that looks good. The best example of this I know is the pet phrase and argument of IPPF, a statement invented by the witch, Nazi admirer, Black person hater Margret Sanger. I have found it is a statement with which about 50% of an average church congregation agree. What about you? “The first right of every child is to be wanted”. Or “Every child a wanted child.” Sounds nice? I’ll come back to this later.
  7. D. The final choice. When God gave humans choice He recognized that sooner or later a person’s choice to not recognize and accept Him as Lord and Saviour would have to be accepted otherwise there would be no choice. Jesus and God’s Spirit keep pleading and waiting but although He is very patient, He knows that to wait indefinitely would be robbing a person of their freedom to choose. It is very foolish for anyone to keep avoiding God with the assumption that some- day they will have a chance to think it all through and make a rational choice. That opportunity may be suddenly truncated and people will suddenly get what they have been choosing all along. God is less likely to send people to hell than He is to finally let them have their way. Their choice to avoid God will come true very suddenly and the results of that choice will last for eternity.
  8. THE LAST BATTLE FOR THE INDIVIDUAL. (Euthanasia)

Most humans who are afraid to be dead, (all those who cannot count on God to take them to their eternal home in heaven), don’t want to have a lingering death. We feign courage. They feebly shout, “Bring it on Doc. I ain’t afraid to die” And yet they hesitate.  In their clouded thinking something about life after death is ringing a bell. The doctor doesn’t hear them plead, “Just a minute I want to think about this some more. What if there is some kind of life after death? Their mind might be clouded and their speech makes no sense at all but their spirit is unimpeded. Free of physical pain and mental anguish, their spirit is hastily trying to communicate with God, when without their consent the whole process that could result in eternal life comes to a bitter end.

Friends and relatives who had come to watch the old soldier have a dignified death were distressed to see that he kept fighting for breath with every fragile fiber of his frail being. “I thought euthanasia was supposed to be a peaceful way to go. Now that I have seen what really happens, I am changing my last directives.” Said the oldest son,

“Mommy, what happened to grandpa? He looks so frightened. Why didn’t the doctor try to help him? I don’t think I like doctors any- more” whispered the youngest granddaughter who had always admired grandpa pictured in his sergeant’s uniform with 2 rows of medals.

Christians are not particularly brave about dying but they don’t fear to be dead. Non- Christians may speak brave words about dying but they are very afraid to be dead.

  1. THE LAST BATTLE FOR HUMAN-KIND.

The defeated enemy, under a suspended sentence is apparently becoming stronger in his fight with God. He wants only death and enslavement. He has argued vigorously for suicide, abortion, eugenics, euthanasia, starvation, disease dehumanization and war so subtly that most humans do not recognize his true intent. “The first right of a child is to be wanted” sounds so sweet and loving, more than ½ Christians don’t recognize it as one of the most heinous statement of satan’s perverted rhetoric. Why? Because if a child is not wanted, “it” has no right to be. Living or being killed are increasingly determined by desirability rather than a God given right to exist and become all the God intended.

For large profits, preborn, perfectly formed and innocent babies are torn in pieces, ripped from the mother’s warm womb, anatomically cut up and sold for high school dissection and laboratory research. The protest for such inhumanity has grown progressively weaker with God loving people excusing their passivity.  Courts and Parliament have now decided that abortion is a woman’s right by the highest courts and accepted by everybody. We tried our best, honestly we did” That statement is wrong but accurately portrays the fact that Christians need to be disciplined.

No physician has a right to inflict pain and injury without the medical justifications of: i) necessity, ii) benefit, iii)  improvement is greater than harm, iv) at least one trial of alternative treatment that is more reversible and less invasive, v) physicians perform the procedure in good faith (convinced by the results of his own practice the his invasion of a woman’s body with a surgical instrument was necessary and beneficial), vi) fully informed consent was given and vii) sufficient time to permit a rational choice. No government has the right to endorse and fund bad medicine. Doctors and Governments can and should be sued for criminal assault. Moreover citizens have a duty to warn that supersedes any possible interference of a woman’s desire for treatment by abortion. (Expert opinion written for 2 men in Quebec who were counseling outside an abortion “clinic” (see messengers2.com).

Because apparently good living people are so passive and dishonest, they are the major contributors (Deeply Damaged). Almost everyone is dehumanized because they provide &/ or allow and pay for millions of terrible murders while their SSIRAA is destroyed and replaced with glib, foolish self-justifying rhetoric. When 80- 95% of adult humans have destroyed their ability to sense the horror of their everyday world and repent of their contribution to its evil, the only possible outcome is mutual self and species destruction.

  1. RAPID ORBITAL DECAY.

Antarctic ice core samples show there have been cyclic 15 degree C temperature and CO2 level changes for the last 800 million years of earth’s history. The cycles are regular about every 200 million years. Nullifying the current theory of increasing CO2 levels causing the global warming, this evidence show that the increase in CO2 fallows not precedes the increasing temperature. The only plausible scientific explanation is that the friction in space from various particles and radiation, retard the rate of revolutions and rotations around the sun. The earth’s orbit decays and as in becomes closer to the sun, earth’s global temperature increases to almost the point of extinguishing  plant life, thus reducing the O2 in the atmosphere and jeopardising  all life forms. At that point, something or someone with immense power and intelligence increases the speed of earth’ rotations and revolutions and thus boosts its orbit and consequently it cools to the point of another ice age.

Only God could keep correcting this orbital collapse with just the right amount of additional kinetic energy at just the right time. Only this explanation can account for all the geological evidence of repeated changes on and in earth. Only this explanation can account for the increasingly painful data that there are no other inhabitable planets in the universe. Like Mars they may have had water and O2 but came too close to their sun. The water evaporated and all life, if there was any, died, leaving a hot, shrunken planet. But this hypothesis is not even considered by the vast majority of people and scientists. Why? Because the only remedy to the present climate change is not reducing CO2 emissions but everyone getting on their knees , repenting of massive amount of sinning and begging for God’s mercy. Having been persuaded by the evil one that with the knowledge of good and evil, they believed they could save themselves. This time God is so fed up with human sin and arrogance, He is literally saying, “Okay, so you don’t need me?” Then solve this one and save yourselves.” Even when it is so obvious they cannot, humans will continue to reject God and His freely offered and mercifully given Salvation thru His son and Messiah, Jesus the one they call Christ

Therefore the immediate future is easily predictable. In terms of morality the world has never been so self-centered and uncaring for neighbours. In terms of noble humanity, people the world over have become dehumanized and cruel. In terms of species preserving instincts, they are all twisted and species destructive. Worship of God has become hollow entertainment that conditions congregations to be passive in the face of overwhelming calamities. The adulation of congregations has inadvertently reinforced vain pastor posturing and superficial sermons with almost no follow me as I follow Christ into danger. Families disintegrate because of multiple pair bondings. Child abuse and neglect escalates because children are not welcomed into stable families and parent infant bonding is greatly weakened when women have prior abortions.

Half the world’s population are abortion survivors who feel guilty about existing and dance with increasingly macabre forms of killing and dying. Although knowledge abounds, wisdom is no more. The elderly choose and have chosen for them euthanasia, “quick and easy dignified death” which results in greater angst at the point of death and ruins their last opportunity to encounter and choose life in Christ.

More people engage in degrading, non-reproductive sex frustrating God’s command to be fruitful and multiple trillions of potential friends of God. People take callous advantage of virtual slaves, patting themselves on the back for spending so little on a fine garment that was hand sown by some mother at midnight trying to ward off disease, ignorance and death for her little one moaning in hunger.

There are so few truth seekers and truth speakers. Those who are brave enough to stand out are either ignored or rejected by fellow believers let alone the hostile world of arrogant sinners. Almost everyone is ignoring the clear early warning. Most of those who sense something catastrophic assuage their fears with dope, drink, violent entertainment, medication and sermons that assure them that God is sovereign and will resolve all disasters without needing any help and/or rapture his chosen ones before it gets too bad. But that is not what scripture says. “You (people of God) must be punished” ( Hos. 10,2). In fact you will be punished more (Lk.12:42) “In spite of my repeated appeals, somber warnings, gentle pleadings, desperate truth speakers, you have chosen to go your own way. So your own way is what you will get, very soon and for a long time, (paraphrased).

Conclusion. This chapter has focused on Hope because it is the basis of life. Everything dies or is destroyed when there is no hope. Gods hope is like ours. He is wanting and expecting the best from His newly created beings called humans. He wants to be friends with us all. But we disappoint Him in by not accepting His friendship. Those who do become his friends disappoint Him is staying immature and not obeying His commands to love Him and all His humans and all His creation. That disappointment has not broken His hope or patience but because He has given humans choice, eventually He will accept the decision to ignore Him and consequently slide into hell.

In the meantime, His children must do their utmost to protect preborn babies and treat their foolish parents. If they can be helped to understand the depth of their damage and learn how to participate in God’s healing, they will come to know Him. At Mount Joy College we teach the counseling method called Hope Alive and we have taught it in about 40 countries. We accept people’s cry for help and their fading hope. With the help of carefully trained counsellors, people from all walks of life and faith gain a realistic hope and start to heal. But it is not easy. It is effective in helping them heal. They must reconcile with those who have injured them and those they have hurt and harmed. When they do they learn to reconcile with God.

Thus hope leads to healing and in healing they find hope in God which is hope that comes from God.

  1. THE CATASTROPHIC ENDING

When God decides to no longer intervene in human affairs and stops allowing relatively minor natural consequences to warn people He will let the major effects to be felt you all humanity. He will stand back and let the major consequences to fall on all mankind He doesn’t need to do anything drastic, just not boost earth’s orbit when it is due. That time is ripe, both because of exponentially increasing orbital decay and because of exponentially increasing moral decay.  Although it is about the time for God to boost earth’s orbit. It appears He is not going to.  He will let the orbit continue to decay. The predictable results are:

  1. a) Gravitational forces are thrown out of balance. As a consequence to that, more rapid tectonic shifts resulting in earth quakes, volcanoes, tsunamis and fissures.
  2. b) More dust in the air blocking sunlight reducing photosynthesis and O2 production thus interfering with all life processes.
  3. c) Decreased food production resulting in famine, internecine wars and family conflicts.
  4. d) Government and infrastructure chaos resulting in dog eat dog relationships, lack of love for neighbour, lack of trust even in families and a police state in shambles.
  5. e) Rage at God. Slowly realizing how helpless they have become, a few people will turn to God, but most will shake their puny fists at Him and curse Him.
  6. f) Not able to rectify any of this, governments will implement tighter control then give up. Small armies and bands of ex-police and ex-firefighters will war with each other for dwindling resources.
  7. g) Unable to maintain control or organization, individuals then government bodies will condone the promote scapegoating. Christians are the most likely targets.
  8. h) When it is clear to almost everyone that humans cannot save themselves, many will commit suicide. Others will literally invite the mountains to fall on them and bury them so deep, they hope even God won’t be able to find them.
  9. i) Finally Christ will return to His badly mangled world to restore moral, economic, spiritual sanity. But by then, most will have to acknowledge they have made a horrible mistake in rejecting God and His Son. There will be no other recourse but to mourn in abject sorrow and self-recrimination. “Why was I so stupid? I have no excuse. I really saw what was going on but much too proud to admit my education could add nothing to any kind of solution. “Oh God I am so sorry”. God would respond, “So am I.”
  10. j) People will be air-lifted out of earth’s stench filled atmosphere to watch as earth accelerates toward its sun. Then with an explosion to shake if it could, the very foundations of Heaven, earth with all its misery and pain will be consumed in a fireball that will be but a momentary smudge on sun’s surface.
  11. H. THE FINAL FIREBALL.

Science has known for a long time that earth would end being totally destroyed by the sun. Despite this certainty, almost everyone thought “if we try hard enough, we can halt and hopefully reverse global warming so that evolution could go on improving our species until we all become gentle, mutually approving and so efficient we don’t use any grown or growing source of energy for food or fuel.” It may sound very pleasant but surely history would show that has never come close to happening and probably never will.

Children learn from observation and experiment how to differentiate fact from fantasy. Humans must learn this skill and apply it intuitively in every corner of their lives or go insane trying to determine who is telling them the truth. If people lose this reality testing mental (at all four levels of thinking) they can’t move for fear the sidewalk will collapse and they will hurtle to a painful death and uncertain future. Without reasonably accurate reality testing devices the person is or will go insane.

A person’s reality testing is eventually the only criteria for determining truth. With it people can discern the evidence of God in His quiet whispers and His thunderous quakes. So that they are “without excuse” (Rom. 1:20) when they stand before God in judgement. Their choice was to ignore God in pride or seek him in simplicity and accept Him in humility.

No one can claim to be an agnostic. In their life they are either acting like He is real or like He is a figment of some one’s twisted imagination. By their daily choices they furtively display what they really believe. They either have “faith” in themselves which will allow them to continue disregarding the God who created them or they have “faith” in God who made them from elementary particles (dust).

As the world gathers momentum on its final plunge, people will be uplifted to either eternal life and joy or damnation to enduring death. As they experience living a life of agonizing self-recrimination, “why was I so stupid”, their retuned reality testing will confirm they were very proud and stupid. Though given many chances to befriend a most amazing God, they chose them-selves to worship and satan to obey. If you think this is crazy in the extreme, you are correct. However, now you must do something about it or live for-ever in the acute pain of knowing your existence could have been totally different.  You must choose now! Do not wait for waiting is a choice to ignore God.