Imagine, if you can, a world where there are no words for
love, compassion, peace, joy, happiness, contentment, giving.
These are simply a way of life without a way to express it.
But there are also no feelings or concept of or words
for hate, anger, violence, fear, sorrow, disappointment, selfishness.
Is it possible to have only good feelings, without even knowing
what "good" is? (A) Why do we have these
feelings, both good and bad? Are they simply innate human qualities,
qualities which any species of intelligent, reasoning
life form would have? Are they inherited and natural? Or are they
instilled in us by a power greater than our
own?(B) Imagine yourself as a citizen of another planet, a people who
do not know what war is. You and your friends (another word you
don't know, because you have no enemies) from other planets in
other star systems have often visited the third planet of a
medium-sized star about one-third of the way from the edge of the
galaxy. Because of lack of disease and personal, both physical
and mental, conflicts, you have attained an age which, on this
strange blue planet, would be considered EIGHT HUNDRED YEARS OLD
(and you are not quite "middle-aged" yet)! Imagine how much you
could learn with three hundred years of schooling. Your species
is so intelligent that you have developed equipment that will
decipher radio-wave transmissions from this world. But even with
this longevity and the knowledge and wisdom it brings (wisdom may
not apply if we consider that it involves understanding good and
evil), you cannot comprehend what you see of these things called
"movies" and "drama" on "television" where people are killing
(another unknown word) each other. Wouldn't you hesitate to land
in a city, step out and say, "Take me to your leader."? Reports have been made of contacts with beings who landed on
Earth in "flying saucers." These are creatures sufficiently
intelligent to be capable of interstellar travel, and yet there
have been no widely publicized overt acts of aggression from them.
Surely beings such as these could have developed weapons which could,
at the push of a button (if not mere thought), destroy entire
cities. Why don't they, in "War of the Worlds" fashion? If they
could, could their civilization have developed enough to travel
the galaxy? Wouldn't they have destroyed each other as the nations
of the earth sometimes seem wont to do? Picture the earth as a whole, on a flat plane, with time flashing
before your eyes at a vastly accelerated rate, as if it was a video
game, with every skirmish, every battle, every war of the past five
thousand years just a brief flash of light. Now, compress the entire
five thousand years into five minutes, and the scene would be
constantly dotted with flashes. We assume that, if there are other civilizations in the universe,
they are like us with regard to life-span, jealousies, desire to
colonize--aspects that our science-fiction writers propound in the
likes of "Star Wars" and "Start Trek." The gentle visitor in "E.T."
is probably much closer to reality. Consider the world if Cain had not slain Able. The two of them,
working together, could have grown more and fatter cattle, and larger
and more diversified crops. If the people of Noah's day had heeded
his words and turned to God, civilization would have continued
uninterrupted, and Noah's sons wouldn't have had to start the world
all over again. If Saul had not been so moody and could have shared
his authority with the anointed David, working together their kingdom
would have been even greater than it was. If Greece and Rome had
been allies, with their advances in democracy, medicine and art,
their achievements would have been truly phenomenal. Carrying this
idea down to today, the communist world could have allowed its people
freedom to work for themselves and in turn to work with the west. If man could love his fellow man, then in the past five thousand
years, there is NOTHING that could not have been achieved in the way
of science. Where would our technology be if men trusted each other,
helped and nurtured each other without divisiveness and squabbling?
If all nations could work together without petty, childish haggling
over who should get credit (ME), and who should do the work (YOU),
and who this property should belong to (ME), and who's going to get
hurt if I don't get it (YOU), then science, technology, individual
welfare, health, all aspects of daily activity and generations of
advancement would have increased so much that our present knowledge
would constitute only the first page of a tremendous encyclopedia!
Our friends from far away places seem to have this advantage. Can
this great difference possibly be biophysical? Certainly not!
Believing that the world's ills are genetic is surely naive. Besides
being physical entities, we are spiritual, and each of the qualities
mentioned before is mental--i.e., spiritual. Just as some physical
persons take, or are allowed, authority over others, there are
spiritual persons who have powers over other spirits.
We have named the greatest of these powers God, over the powers of
good, and the next greatest Satan, or the devil, over the powers of
evil.(C)
The primary source we have for studying how these two spirits
work in this world is the Bible. This book describes both God and
Satan in great detail. In the chronology of spiritual history,
which is boundless as we measure time, the first mention of Satan
involves a time when his pride, the first sin, prompted him to
declare that he would exalt himself over God, his
Creator. Because of this, God cast Satan and one-third of the angels,
those who chose to follow Satan, out of Heaven and down to the Earth,
where, the Bible says, Satan is "Prince of the powers of the air."
(D)
After man was created in the spiritual image of God with a will
of his own, Satan shared his sin with man, a sin that says, "I don't
owe God, my Creator, anything. He has told me that there are things
I'm supposed to do and things I'm not supposed to do, but
I'M going to do what I want to do." This has been the
cause of ALL of mankind's troubles. Self-centeredness is the reason
behind greed, anger, lust; the reason for thousands of laws when
there should be only two: love God, and love your neighbor. Because
of his disobedience, Man lost his one-on-one closeness with God.
From that time on, Man's pride, egotism, and selfishness have
prevented him from progressing by bringing calamitous wars, whether
man against man or nation against nation.
War--men fighting against men--has diverted civilization from
fighting disease, famine, and other human problems.
(E) Preparations for war create some
beneficial products, but energy is primarily directed toward
destruction which progressively lowers individual and collective
potential for good. When good people are eliminated, the overall
morality of a group is diminished, and the potential for further
destruction increases proportionately.
Is it possible that:
(A) Gal. 5:19-23 Now the works of the flesh are
manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness,
lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations,
wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness,
revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have
also told you in time past, that those who do such things shall
not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
RETURN
(B) 2 Tim. 1:7 For God has not given us the spirit
of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
RETURN
(C) Gal. 5:16-17 This I say then, walk in the
Spirit, and you shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the
flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against
the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that you
cannot do the things that you would.
RETURN
(D) Eph. 2:2 Wherein in time past you walked
according to the course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the
children of disobedience.
RETURN
(E) James 4:1-10 From where come wars and
fightings among you? do they not come from here, even from your lusts
that war in your members? You lust, and have not: you kill, and
desire to have, and cannot obtain: you fight and war, yet you have
not, because you do not ask. You ask, and do not receive, because you
ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts. You adulterers
and adulteresses, do you not know that the friendship of the world is
enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world
is the enemy of God. Do you think that the scripture says in vain,
The spirit that dwells in us lusts to envy? But he gives more
grace. Wherefore he says, God resists the proud, but gives grace
to the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the
devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw
near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your
hearts, you double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let
your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to
heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall
lift you up.
RETURN
(F) Job 1:7 And the LORD said to Satan, Where are
you coming from? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going
to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
RETURN
To try to tell these lips can only start;
He's big enough to rule His mighty universe,
Yet small enough to live within my heart.
--Stuart Hamblen, How Big Is God?
Some interesting and (somewhat) related links:
The Design Argument The age of things IN
the universe. Design? or Chance?????
or E-MAIL me at johnwebb2272 (at) yahoo.com.
My Home Page
Beit HaDerech Site Index
Allwebco Web Templates · Build your own toolbar · Financial Data · Audio, Fonts, Clipart
powered by
bravenet.com