Sunday, January 21, 2007

God Does Not Murder, but He Can Sentence You to Death

On one of the internet forums I read a statement that described God as being a murderer. This is not true. Is not the owner of property able to do with that property as he sees fit? Is not property owned by the pleasure of the owner? As Creator of everything is not God then the owner of all creation including you and me? Therefore, doesn’t God have the right to take away life or to bring about life at His absolute discretion? This is not murder. It is absolute authority, power or control.

Actually, it is God who gives life to every living thing. God made Adam from the dust of the ground and gave him life, the breath of life. He made Adam a living being. Adam was created in the image of God, which included the free exercise of his will. He also had immortality and was innocent of doing any wrong. God told Adam, “You may freely eat of every tree in the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you may not eat, for you shall surely die in the day you eat of it.” This made Adam responsible for his own actions in either choosing to obeying or disobeying God. Adam soon eats the fruit and told God it was His fault for provide Eve as a wife. Eve said that the serpent deceived her. Thus begins man’s inclination to shirk personal responsibility for his actions.

God took charge of the situation after man’s disobedience and he told Adam that he would return to dust, and because he listened to his wife instead of God, Adam would have to earn a living by the sweat of his brow. The woman would have pain in childbirth but would be saved through having children. This is the first promise of a Redeemer. You will notice that though God told Adam the consequences of his actions He did not choose or make for Adam decisions or actions. The first couple chose death. It is because of this chose, people have been separated from God ever since. In other words, people are spiritually dead because of their choice.

God is holy; there is no evil in him whatsoever. It is not possible for evil to reside with God. In fact, the Bible declares that the wages of sin is death. What people earn by sinning is death. However, God wanted a family. The entire universe has been created for God to get Himself a family. The wicked, who are not a part of His family, are treated as rubbish and are burned.

God so loved the people He had created that He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to receive the wrath of God against everyone’s sins and thereby taste death for every person. When the process was completed Jesus said, “It is finished”, He gave up His spirit and went to paradise. God then offers to each human being eternal life, forgiveness of sin, the righteousness of God, and an escape from the God’s just wrath. This is done by repenting of our sin, and believing in Jesus. This belief includes believing that Jesus died for you personally. You can invite Him into your heart and life. A sample prayer could be something to the affect of the following words, “Lord Jesus Christ, I acknowledge that I am a sinner and am separated from You, please forgive me of my evil, my wrongdoing, my sin and come into my life.”

Whoever does not believe in Jesus chooses death, and the wrath of God abides on them.

3 comments:

  1. God told Adam, “You may freely eat of every tree in the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you may not eat, for you shall surely die in the day you eat of it.”

    And they did not die in the day they ate of it...their eyes were opened, just as the serpent said.

    So who lied?

    If you study ancient pre-christian mythology you will learn that the serpent is a symbol of healing knowlege present in many traditions. In the stories a hero seeks the goddess to find healing for his people. If he is worthy, he finds it at the Tree of Life.

    The Bible and the Quran have corrupted this story to demote the status of women.

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  2. Kelley -

    Thank you for your comments, see my reply at:

    http://agoodchoice.blogspot.com/2007/01/serpent-deceiver.html

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  3. Even the if the death penalty is imposed by man, if it is a just punishment, then it is not murder. As I said in a previous post, if the death penalty is murder, then putting someone in jail is kidknapping, and issuing fines is theft. There is no way to punish someone without doing something that would otherwise be wrong. No punishment for crime = anarchy.

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