Deuteronomy
6:1 ¶ Now these are the
commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD your God
commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go
to possess it: 2 That thou mightest fear
the LORD thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I
command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son, all the days of thy life;
and that thy days may be prolonged. 3
Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be
well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the LORD God of thy
fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey.
Deuteronomy 6:4 ¶ Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: 5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. 6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: 7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. 8 And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. 9 And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates. 10 And it shall be, when the LORD thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not, 11 And houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full; 12 Then beware lest thou forget the LORD, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. 13 Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name. 14 Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you; 15 (For the LORD thy God is a jealous God among you) lest the anger of the LORD thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth. 16 Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God, as ye tempted him in Massah.
Jesus referred to this
verse as the first commandment. It regards the unity of God.
Mark
12:29 And Jesus answered him, The first
of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:
John Gill, the famous
18th century preacher, noted in his commentary, which is freely
accessible online;
…the Lord our God is one Lord;
the doctrine of which is, that the Lord, who was
the covenant God and Father of his people Israel, is but one Jehovah; he is
Jehovah, the Being of beings, a self-existent Being, eternal and immutable; and
he is but one in nature and essence; this appears from the perfection of his
nature, his eternity, omnipotence, omnipresence, infinity, goodness,
self-sufficiency, and perfection; for there can be but one eternal, one
omnipotent, one omnipresent, one infinite, one that is originally and of
himself good; one self, and all sufficient, and perfect Being; and which also
may be concluded from his being the first cause of all things, which can be but
one; and from his relations to his creatures, as their King, ruler, governor,
and lawgiver.
I refer you to my
remarks on Genesis 1:1 to study more in depth who God is.
“Genesis 1:1 ¶ In the beginning God created the heaven and
the earth.
We
are first going to discuss the answers to two questions that are very important
for every Christian to resolve in their heads. There will by necessity be some
repetition in my statements to reinforce what I am saying. First, we must ask,
“Who is the God of the Bible?”
The
testimony of the Bible is abundantly clear that the universe did not come into
being by itself and there is no evidence that there are alternate universes.
The universe is also not eternally preexistent like scientists before the Big
Bang theory thought, as a time is given here, in the beginning, and an action by God as in God created.
It
is impossible to believe the Bible and, at the same time, believe in the Big
Bang theory where all matter and energy comes from the primordial explosion of
the singularity, the size of a period in a sentence. Nor is it possible to
believe in its antecedent belief, the Kabala’s mustard seed that explodes into
the universe, or the Hindu’s cosmic egg that explodes into the universe and
believe in the God of the Bible. The physical universe is a production of God
as all matter, energy, and time can be attributed directly to Him. He has no
beginning and no end and is beyond our ability to finitely reason.
Modern
man, since Isaac Newton, has come to believe in reductionism where, for
instance, in biology the whole is defined by its parts. It is a bottom-up
belief. However, the Bible teaches a top-down structure of the universe. The
parts are determined by the context. As an example, the words rite/right are
defined by their context in a sentence in phrases such as, “a religious rite or
ritual,” or, “turn right,” or, “your legal right.” So, genes and their
expression are determined by the organism they are in. I share the same genes
with a fruit fly but we are vastly different creatures because there is a
design, a mold, an idea that makes me different from them. Many different buildings
are made partly with bricks; the University of Pennsylvania’s Golkin Hall, my
house, and the local high school. However, they are all different buildings
because of their design plans.
So,
biology and all reality, to be understood properly, should be understood by the
fact that it is all based on a design formed in the mind of the Creator. Then,
the smaller parts and their place in the scheme of thing come more into focus.
God
is not the subject of science because He cannot be experimented on or called
into an equation. Science can only study what they can see or measure and all
unseen theoretical entities are simply modern myths even if a scientist defines
seeing in a different way than a non-scientist does. Saying that they have
faith that one day they will prove something they cannot prove merely moves
that scientist’s faith into the realm of religion. Faith is not science and
science is not faith. Science has limits. Faith is only limited by God’s will
for that person having the faith. One can study the mechanism by which a thing
is done but no one can study God unless He chooses to reveal Himself as He has
done in the Bible.
God’s
creation of the universe is not only confirmed by Moses, writing Genesis under
the inspiration of God, but also Isaiah.
Isaiah
42:5 Thus saith God the LORD, he that
created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth,
and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it,
and spirit to them that walk therein:
Isaiah
45:18 For thus saith the LORD that
created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath
established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am
the LORD; and there is none else.
King
David;
Psalm
33:6 By the word of the LORD were the
heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.
And
the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
Mark
13:19 For in those days shall be
affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God
created unto this time, neither shall be.
Science
requires that if you put forth a proposition, a statement of presumed fact,
that you should be able to make certain predictions from it. This verse says
that God created. So, one could logically assume that since an intelligent entity
created everything that a certain degree of design and order must be present in
it as in our experience order does not come from disorder without intelligent
guidance. This is, indeed, the case. Physicists are looking for a unifying
“theory of everything.” Well, it is right here in front of us. He is the God of
the Bible. His existence explains everything from how the universe is held
together to the moral sense of human beings as you will see in the following
study.
Who
is God? He is the uncreated person and entity who created all that is. He
simply is, as He said Himself, I AM THAT
I AM.
Exodus
3:13 And Moses said unto God, Behold,
when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of
your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name?
what shall I say unto them? 14 And God
said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the
children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.
It
is a nonsensical question to ask who created God. Such a question is a
philosophical absurdity. It is like asking; could God create a rock so heavy He
could not lift it? Such questions are the pure gibberish of the skeptic whose
mind is blinded by the god of this world, Satan.
God
is the source of all reality; seen and unseen. In Job God states that
everything from dust forming into a clod of dirt in a farmer’s field to lions
catching their prey, with the movements of distant galaxies to rain happening
in places on earth where there is no man are all direct results of His direct
actions. Read Job, chapter 38. God is not a watchmaker winding up the clock and
walking away or standing to admire His work. He makes the hands move and the
tick-tock sound is part of His second-by-second control of all events. So,
scientific thought, even with Christians since Isaac Newton, by reducing God to
the ultimate first cause without an active role in every moment of our
existence, is just simply one of the things that is in error about modern thinking.
Nothing happens by itself without direction, meaningless and pointless, a
result of blind chance. Absolutely nothing.”
Verse
5 is also reinforced by Christ in the same passage in Mark.
Mark
12:29 And Jesus answered him, The first
of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:
30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all
thy strength: this is the first commandment.
This is the goal of
faith, the end result of its perfection.
Matthew
22:34 ¶ But when the Pharisees had heard
that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. 35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked
him a question, tempting him, and saying, 36
Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great
commandment.
This was a command to
place these words, these commandments in the heart, by the will of the
individual Hebrew, the Israelite. But, there was a prediction that there would
come a time when God Himself would place these words in the heart of a
believer.
Jeremiah
31:31 Behold, the days come, saith the
LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the
house of Judah: 32 Not according to the
covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand
to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although
I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: 33
But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of
Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts,
and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my
people. 34 And they shall teach no more
every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for
they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith
the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no
more.
And what would be the
condition for that placement of God’s words in the heart of the believer?
Romans
3:22 Even the righteousness of God which
is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there
is no difference:
Salvation now is
predicated upon belief. In opposition to Calvinism man has no excuse and has
the capacity to believe if he will. In fact, it is commanded.
Mark
1:15 And saying, The time is fulfilled,
and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel
The Calvinist preaches
Total Depravity, which we understand, as man’s heart is depraved, but what they
mean is Total Inability. Total Inability means that a human being cannot believe
unless they were made to believe long before they were born, unless they are
Elect, by way of the Calvinist definition. But, the truth is no person has an
excuse not to believe, because they can, and they MUST, or they perish. No one
was created for the purpose of sending them to the Lake of Fire. Their names,
as I have shown previously, are written in the Book of Life and not removed
unless they refuse to choose Christ.
Exodus 32:30 ¶
And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses said unto the people, Ye
have sinned a great sin: and now I will go up unto the LORD; peradventure I
shall make an atonement for your sin. 31
And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Oh, this people have sinned
a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. 32 Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their
sin — ; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou
hast written. 33 And the LORD said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against
me, him will I blot out of my book.
Moses, to make his argument before
God, offers to be damned in their place. Look at this verse from Revelation;
Revelation 3:5 He that overcometh, the same shall be
clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the
book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his
angels.
Christ promises not to blot a
person’s name out of the Book of Life. Either the following verses mean the
people referred to can lose their salvation as God knows who will choose Him by
His foreknowledge as noted in 1Peter 1:2 since the foundation of the world as
per Ephesians 1:4;
1Peter 1:2
Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through
sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.
Ephesians
1:3 ¶ Blessed be the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in
heavenly places in Christ: 4 According
as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love: 5
Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6 To the praise of the glory of his grace,
wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
Now pay attention to
these;
Philippians 4:3 And I intreat thee
also, true yokefellow, help those women which laboured with me in the gospel,
with Clement also, and with other my fellowlabourers, whose names are in the
book of life.
Revelation 13:8 And all that dwell
upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of
life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Revelation 17:8 The beast that thou
sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into
perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not
written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold
the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
Revelation 20:12 And I saw the dead,
small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book
was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those
things which were written in the books, according to their works…15 And whosoever
was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
Revelation 21:27 And there shall in no
wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh
abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of
life.
Revelation 22:19 And if any man shall
take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his
part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things
which are written in this book.
…or all human beings’ names are in
the book when their soul was created, based on God’s foreknowledge and if we
reject Him our name is removed. The latter seems more likely to me as when we
are saved we are said to be sealed and the Holy Spirit is given to us as a
deposit, earnest money, so to speak.
2Corinthians 1:22 Who hath also sealed
us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.
Ephesians 1:13 In whom ye also
trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation:
in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of
promise,
Ephesians 4:30 And grieve not the holy
Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
So, it would be more consistent to
believe that God’s Book of Life contains all human beings’ names and when we
die physically the name is either left there or taken out based on what we have
done regarding Christ…
Hebrews 9:27 And as it is appointed
unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
With regard to eternal life God deals with us as individuals. We
must choose and if we reject Christ then our names are removed from His Book of
Life. That is the only logical solution to this question of do we have the
capacity to believe or are we helpless victims of our own biology and sin
nature?
Read verses 7 through 9 here in Deuteronomy 6. This turned out to
be a great failure for the Israelites as it has for many Christians in modern
America.
Judges
2:10 And also all that generation were
gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them,
which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.
God does not tolerate worshipping gods and things other than Himself.
Best that you worship not at all. But, then you would be worshipping yourself.
God warns the Hebrews about idolatry and their very precarious
existence totally dependent upon His mercy and will.
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