Is Your Church Changing Commandments To Suit Theology?

Different religions and sects have divided the Commandments in different ways. Although most versions are quite similar, there are also some significant differences that have important implications for various theological positions.

	Jewish	Catholic	Protestant*
I	I am the Lord your G-d who has taken you out of the land of Egypt.	I, the Lord, am your God. You shall not have other gods besides me.	You shall have no other gods but me.
II	You shall have no other gods but me.	You shall not take the name of the Lord, your God, in vain.	You shall not make unto you any graven images.
III	You shall not take the name of the Lord your G-d in vain.	Remember to keep holy the Lord’s Day.	You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
IV	You shall remember the Sabbath and keep it Holy.	Honor your father and your mother.	You shall remember the Sabbath and keep it Holy.
V	Honor your mother and father.	You shall not kill.	Honor your mother and father.
VI	You shall not murder.	You shall not commit adultery.	You shall not murder.
VII	You shall not commit adultery.	You shall not steal.	You shall not commit adultery.
VIII	You shall not steal.	You shall not bear false witness.	You shall not steal.
IX	You shall not bear false witness.	You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.	You shall not bear false witness.
X	You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor.	You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods.	You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor.

Notice that after the first commandment, numbering starts to change. In the Catholic listing the imperative against adultery is the sixth commandment; for Jews and most Protestants it is the seventh.

Interestingly, the Catholic Church also translates the Deuteronomy verses into actual commandments. In the Butler Catechism, verses eight through ten are simply left out, glaringly omitting the prohibition against graven images. That was done - with little doubt in anyone’s mind - because the Roman Catholic Church is rife with shrines and statues.

That however presented a problem of not having enough commandments. The solution was to divide verse 21 into two commandments, thus separating the coveting of a wife from the coveting of farm animals. The Protestant versions of the commandments still retain the prohibition against graven images, but it is clearly ignored, since since statues and other images proliferate their churches as well.

Another important difference is in the commandment regarding the Sabbath. The Catholics simply call it “the Lord’s day,” because well, they changed it from Saturday (the seventh day of the week), to Sunday, (the first day of the week). God clearly says the Sabbath is the “seventh day,” so to confuse people further from the facts, the Catholic Church simply omits the word “Sabbath,” the term “holy” and words “seventh day,” placing less focus on the gravity of their blasphemous and unbiblical shift to Sunday observance.

The Protestants did not initiate this change, but in breaking away from the Catholic Church, have meekly gone along with this massive deceit, erroneously worshipping God on the wrong day. So in essence, they are breaking this commandment as well.

Further, Catholics or Protestants (as with most of Christianity today) do not even observe their own day of rest in a manner that comes anywhere close to the way God commands. In times past, many Christians abstained from recreation and things that were fun on this day. Today, however, they typically participate in all manner of work or recreational activities without a second thought; mowing their lawns, cooking food, doing homework, watching sports, etc.

None of this pleases God. The purpose of the sabbath is to set aside a specific time to remember the creative actions of God and worship Him by doing what pleases Him. Is. 58:13-14 states:

“If you keep the Sabbath with care, not doing your business on my holy day; and if the Sabbath seems to you a delight…a thing to be honoured; and if you give respect to him by not doing your business, or going after your pleasure, or saying unholy words; Then the Lord will be your delight; and I will put you on the high places of the earth….”(Bible in Basic English Version).

Going to church on Sunday may accomplish this for that limited period of time, (though still on the wrong day), but God’s command is to do this for an entire day, not for just a couple of hours in the morning. Remembering the Sabbath (Saturday) in the manner originally intended might be inconvenient in modern society, but how likely is it that Christians will admit that this is indeed what they are doing: ignoring or re-interpreting the Fourth Commandment because of culture and convenience?

You’ll hear all kinds of arguements from these denominations justifying why they changed commands, and even times. They’ll argue about verse structure, validity of Bible books, testaments and traditions to be observed, but it is plainly evident that such tinkering is an obvious and blatant attempt to satisfy theological positions, rather than obeying God. God says He changes not, and since the law is plainly kept from Genesis to the last book of Revelation, we should strive to keep it the way God intended.

Fiddling With Creation

Keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called” (1 Timothy 6:20). That was the advice given by one of the most educated men of the time in Asia Minor to a young student of metaphysics during the first century a.d.

Sound advice indeed.

That advice applies even more so today in an age when science is being misused to steer man away from basic cause and effect to false ideas as to the source of life, the reality of the human mind with its incredible true potential, and the reason why humans behave the way they do.

During the first half of this year, there has been a plethora of articles in the popular press on the subject of seeking to explain the human condition through what Jim Manzi, CEO of Applied Predictive Technologies and a frequent science contributor to National Review, describes as “this biology-explains-all ideology” (National Review, June 2).

The fusion of the Darwinian theory of evolution with the political and economic theory of Karl Marx, in tandem with outgrowths of the Freudian theory of human psychology together with the 21st-century science of genetics, is drawing humankind along a highly dangerous path. It is a path leading to the total breakdown of all that was once foundational to our understanding of basic human behavior and the fundamental moral principles that are necessary to maintain an orderly and decent society.

The result is a sea change in the approach of science to the study of human behavior, of why we are the way we are.

For generations it has been considered a given in scientific circles that human beings turn out the way they do as a result of a combination of heredity and environment. It seemed innate to our understanding of human behavior that environmental factors such as prevailing societal culture, family circumstances, nutrition, education, training and development opportunities mold a person into the type of character and personality that makes them who they are. Now we are increasingly being told that it’s genes that are the dominant influence on why we become what we are. Everything from happiness to homosexuality is being attributed to an individual’s dominant genes.

Science is increasingly at odds with millennia of human experience in this respect.

As Jim Manzi observes, life scientists’ conviction that we can explain human behavior by increasing our understanding of the human genome is producing a media-driven, even government-sanctioned, mindset that reduces mind-body interactions to scientifically explained physical phenomena.

Failure of Science

It’s an old failure of science that too often it observes correlations between various phenomena to draw a conclusion, to explain the effect, rather than seeking to isolate and prove the cause. This avoidance of studying and proving the true and ultimate cause is the foundation of shifting sand upon which the science of genetics is shakily founded.

Evolutionary science, the science of the psychologist, and the science of the biologist all draw conclusions based on observation. They cannot work beyond the observable, physical realm. They all have to start with something that is observably extant, yet they refuse to seek out the cause of how that something came into being. They are hence reduced to wild guesswork and pure fiction when attempting to explain the ultimate cause of all things. They refuse to admit to any provable cause that cannot be perceived by the senses. They therefore rule out from contention in their studies the most basic cause of all … GOD!

When the Apostle Paul gave that sage advice to the young evangelist Timothy, it was based on his deep knowledge of the chief cause of all that is observable and all that is not. The great awe which that knowledge embedded deep in his psyche inspired Paul to live one of the greatest of lives of self-sacrifice to the benefit of his fellow man. It is reflected in his words, “Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever” (1 Timothy 1:17).

Paul was very much aware that those who sought to discount the Creator from their studies had taken a conscious decision to ignore the greatest reality underpinning true science, that “the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:20). That was the basis of the science that gave depth of understanding to four young Israelite princes brought before the king of ancient Babylon in the seventh century b.c. to teach Nebuchadnezzar’s court the basics of true knowledge for which ancient Israel was world famous (Daniel 1:3-4).

The beginning point of true science is to recognize, “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible … all things were created by him, and for him” (Colossians 1:16).

The problem is that by recognizing a supreme Creator, it naturally follows that man is subject to the authority of a higher power than himself. This raises a conflict for those who wish to follow their own will rather than that of their Maker.

You see, it takes an act of faith to believe in and to believe God, the type of faith that was exercised by Moses, that historic figure of the 15th century b.c., who “by faith … forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible” (Hebrews 11:27).

It is faith in God that, since the 17th century, has motivated the most heroic of feats emanating from our Western society which today allows science the freedom to practice, unrestricted by tyrannical regimes. Conversely, absence of such faith, to the point of sheer denial of the Creator’s existence, has perpetrated the greatest of tyrannies in our time. It was under Nazi tyranny that the pseudo-science of eugenics, precursor to today’s studies of the human genome, was developed and practiced on enslaved peoples! These facts alone ought to silence the peddlers of “science” falsely so-called.

Moral Corruption

The shame of the geneticist’s attempt to explain away human behaviors by attributing every action and thought to our genetic makeup is that it removes the responsibility of the individual for his or her actions from the scene. Taken to its ultimate limit, this would do away with any concept of right and wrong, any need to penalize criminal behavior. How could any judge argue that a person was fully accountable to society and morally responsible for his or her actions if those actions were simply dictated by a unique combination of inherited genes? This insidious theory implies that we have no control whatsoever over our basic drives. Thus the concept of self-control flies out of the window and with it goes any notion of personal responsibility for one’s actions.

Already anticipating the impact of such a theory on traditional moral codes of human behavior, both Time magazine and the New York Times have run articles this year on how morality evolves in parallel with human “advancement” in knowledge. This is based on outright denial of any higher moral authority! It’s even beyond the moral relativity that generated the breakdown of social standards in the ’60s and ’70s. It ultimately does away with any foundation for moral standards. That’s the route to the total breakdown of society!

Such a crazy notion produces the present ridiculous scenario where the killing of animals is seen as “murder,” on the same level as the killing of human beings. It permits aberrant and perverse behavior to be regarded as normal to the extent that cohabitation and the social benefits that prevail in marriage—which by derivation and definition can only really exist between man and woman—can be transferred to two people of the same sex.

This “advancement” in knowledge of science, falsely so-called, teaching that morality is part of the evolutionary process, is designed to do away with the classic definitions of modes of behavior. How can violent or perverted behavior be classified as such if that behavior is considered part of an individual’s genetic makeup? That which once was classified criminal is neutered by the natural genetic makeup of man.

Perhaps nowhere is this effect more apparent than in the fields of arts and fashion, where the mood, emotions, morality and inclinations of society are expressed by a limited number of individuals who influence the taste of the masses. Extremes in the art world have been a common theme as moral standards have devolved. Yet the recent publicity given to an alleged art project by a female Yale student crossed all bounds of human decency, morality and feeling for her fellow human beings: “When an exhibition of art projects by Yale University seniors opened on Tuesday, one was missing: that of Aliza Shvarts, whose performance-art project reportedly involved artificially inseminating herself repeatedly and then self-aborting” (New York Times, April 23).

Shvarts later indicated that the project was a fiction. Then she later denied her denial. But the point is that a student has had her mind so warped through the “evolution of morality” that she did not even consider the pain that publicity given to her project, be it real or fiction, would bring to the many mothers who had suffered miscarriages in the genuine attempt to produce a human life. The concept of the very sanctity of human life is thus completely trashed.

Yet Shvarts treads the tradition of an increasingly developing descent in morality within academia. “Lee M. Silver, a professor of molecular biology and public affairs at Princeton University, recalled an undergraduate student in evolutionary biology who after hearing lectures about the closeness of the species, proposed that she inseminate herself with sperm from a chimpanzee” (ibid.). Recently, science has gone beyond perverted art projects to successfully lobby government in Britain to legislate the confusion of mixing animal and human genes in the interests of “advancing” the progress of medicine.

Spiritual Blindness

The missing dimension to which science is blinded is the invisible dimension of the spirit realm. Knowledge of the spirit realm—the third dimension beyond the physical and intellectual—is only available by revelation from the Creator of man. It cannot be deduced by scientific method, for “the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14).

Thus the knowledge of the true cause of human behavior is denied to these geneticists who seek to explain mental and social phenomena as having a genetic basis. The cause is spiritual. It involves a spirit in man (the human intellect) under influence by other spirit-based forces.

The fact is that far from the society of man evolving to a higher order of life possessing a capability to ascribe human behaviors to genetic factors, it has actually devolved! Society both intellectually and morally has tended to always descend from a state of alliance with its Maker, in general submission to His laws that govern moral behavior, to a state of degeneration and immorality.

Man was originally in tune with his Maker in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 1:27, 31) only to fall from God’s grace. He was retuned to his Maker after the Flood (Genesis 9:1) only to fall into the confusion of Babylon within less that two centuries of the waters abating (Genesis 11:6). Israel, as a nation, came under the law of God when its kings were righteous, only to fail repeatedly under bad leadership. Throughout history, every empire of man has ultimately descended into moral corruption and the collapse of the prevailing society.

That is the very mode the Anglo-Saxon nations are in right now, the most powerful nation of all being technically broke and deeply in debt to its historic enemies, its society at sea in an increasing moral vacuum, its government lacking the will to use its power, the whole nation unable to admit to its own self-induced demise.

Yet still we play God, fiddling with the basic building blocks of creation, unheeding the whirlwind that is about to engulf and enslave us.

If this article is plain foolishness to you, you simply fall into the category of those whom the Apostle Paul, one of the most learned men of his age, described as becoming “vain in their imaginations,” with their “foolish hearts” darkened. If it rings true, then you are accountable to do something about it.

A great start would be to come to an understanding of just what it is that influences men to be as they are. Request a copy of The Incredible Human Potential. It explains the cause of all human behaviors, lifts the blind on the cause of human failure, and shows the way to incredible human success!

Source: http://thetrumpet.com/index.php?q=5190.3488.0.0

Person Lee M. Silver

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The Origin Of Astrology

Slowly, the aged, white haired Chaldean priest raised the long, sharp knife above his head. He paused for a moment, reverently addressing a prayer to the sun god Shamash, then swiftly plunged the blade deeply into the belly of the young sheep tied across the temple altar. Blood spurted from the incision as the priest, assisted by junior temple officials, deftly slit the animal open. The priest expertly examined the now steaming liver, lungs and intestines of the sheep. Suddenly he gaped with fear and astonishment as he saw a long, yellowish mark on one side of the liver - a certain sign of coming destruction.

Hastily, the old priest scurried out of the temple and called for his assistants to prepare a boat for the trip uo the Euphrates to Babylon. He had to warn the king at once not to campaign against the Elamites in the east this year. The great gods had spoken through the body of the sheep - the abnormal mark on the liver meant the king and his army were certain to meet disaster.

Babylonian Divination

Ceremonies similar to the one above were carried out thousands upon thousands of times, during the history of ancient Babylonia and Assyria, located in what is now modern Iraq. As their religious documents and inscriptions clearly show, the babylonians firmly believed the powerful gods communicated with man through all kinds of natural events and conditions - the markings on the entrails of a sacrificial animal, the behaviour of animals and humans in the streets, the shape of a miscarried fetus, the pattern formed by smoke from an oil lamp or by water poured on oil, and not least, the position of planets and stars in the sky.

Such events, believed to be messages of the future, are called omens, and the rat of seeking and interpreting omens is called divination.

Ancient societies believed omens were messages from the gods, revealing future events. Many peoples of the ancient world - the babylonians, Assyrians, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans - practiced divination.

probably the most popular form of divination in ancient Babylon was the examination of the entrails of animals. Just before slaying the animal, the divination priest beseeched the gods to write his message on the entrails of the animal to be sacrificed. When the organs were examined, any unusual marks, lumps or shapes were interpreted as the god’s answer; even the normal configuration of the organs had significance. Hundreds of clay tablets have been unearthed from the lands of babylonia and Assyria bearing detailed instructions to the  priests on how to interpret these marks, events and conditions. Such practices were known far and wide; the Bible even records that Nebuchadnezzar of babylon “looked in the liver” for guidance from the gods in his campaigns against Judah (Ez. 21:21).

The stars and planets

As the babylonian creation myth, the Enuma Elish clearly shows the stars and planets were viwed as divine action and power and became the object of careful observation by the divination priests. Eventually, detailed records of the movements and positions of the lanets were kept. These records and calculations based upon them became the foundation for for not only astronomy, but astrology as well.

Because thre Baylonians and Assyrians believed the heavenly bodies were representative of the gods, their positions and movements were obviously of great significance to life and events on earth. We know thta by about 700 BC, the planets, including the sun and moon, were being carefully watched by the Assyrians for their impact on the life of the king. Numerous letters and state records tell us of warnings by the priests of the king to be careful, or to have rituals carried out to attempt to avoid the predicted disaster.

Other astronomical omens were favourable to the king, but unfavourable to foreigners. Langer’s Encyclopedia of World History shows that the earliest development of astrology was associated with Babylonian magic and divination:

“The most characteristic and influential features of Babylonianreligion, aside from its mythology, were the elaborate systems of magical practices (incarnations) and the interpretation of omens (divination), particularly the movements and positions of the heavenly bodies (astrology, the actions of animals, and the characteristics of the liver of sacrificial victims” (page 26).

The Zodiac

The Babylonians were also the inventors of the Zodiac. Their astronomers divided the ehavens into sections in order to tell the time at night as well as seasons of the year. At first, there were some 36 sections or areas, corresponding to various stars or constellations. Later, this number was reduced to 12, or one constellation for each month of the year

Some of the Babylonian constellations or “signs” bore the same names as they do today. Thus the Babylonian “bull of Anu” is the constellation or sign of Taurus; “the Great Twins” are the constellation Gemini; “the lion” Leo; “the scorpion” is naturally Scorpio.

Other signs however were given different names by Greek astrologers some centuries later; the “modern” names for the sign of the Zodiac are actually Greek or Latin.

Most, if not all, of the constellations of the Baylonian zodiac were mythological figures which we read about in the great babylonian myths and epics. For instance, the “bull of Anu” was sent by the goddess Ishtar to punish the hero Gilgamesh.

The planets and the stars as well were considered divine beings: the god Shamash was the sun, the planet Venus (Babylonian Dilbat) was the “star” of the goddess Ishtar.

By about 450 B.C., the planets, stars and zodiac were all put together into one cosmic system of the gods that supposedly controlled or influenced an individuals life here on earth.

The first horoscopes

Not coincidentally, it is just about at this time that we have the first known horoscopes. These, found inscrbed on clay tablets in babylonian cuneiform character, were cast at the moment of birth, just as modern horoscopes are cast. And like modern horoscopes, they tell the exact positions of the planets in the zodiac and how they will influence the life of the newborn individual.

The first known horoscope dates to the year 410 B.C. It is found on a clay tablet now kept at Oxford University and reads:

Month Nissan, night of the 14th…son of Shumausur, son of Shuma-iddina, descendant of Deke, was born. At that time, the moon was below the Horn of the Scorpion, Jupiter in Pisces, Venus in Taurus, Saturn in Cancer, Mars in Gemini, Mercury, which had set for the last time was still invisible…Things will be good for you 9Journal of Cuneiform Studies, 1952, page 54).

Several other horoscopes quite similar in form to this one, are known from about the same time. It is plain from these records that astrological horoscopes, applied to human individuals at birth, were a Babylonian invention.

The Greek connection

By about 400 B.C., Greek scientists and inventors were travelling throughout the Mediterranean world. Especially during and after the time of Alexander the Great, the Greeks began to learn of the beliefs and science of the Babylonians, Egyptians, and others. With the help of the babylonian priets Berossus, whose treatise on astrology reached Greece about 250 B.C., they took over and modified the Babylonian system of astrology. The priests even kept many of the names for the astrological signs; to others they gave new names. However, it was clearly recognized that the astrological predictions and interpretations were still based on pagan Babylonian mythology.

In the first century B.C., the Greek historian Diodorus wrote the following about the astrology of the Chaldeans:

“Under the course in which the planets move are situated, according to them, thirty stars, which they designate as “counselling gods”; of these, one half oversee the regions above the earth and the other half those beneath the earth, having under their purview the affairs of mankind and likewise those of the heavens…Twelve of those gods, they say, hold chief authority, and to each of these the chaldeans assign a month and one of the sign of the zodiac, as they are called. And through the midst of these signs, they say, both the sun and the moon and the five planets make their course…”(Diodorus, II, 30, 30).

The Greek astrologers greatly modified and embellished the astrological system that the chaledean divination priests had devised. They organized astrological methods into a complex scheme of houses, aspects, signs, and planets, with dozens, if not hundreds, of ules and variations. The greatest of the Greek astrologers was the alexandrain astronomer and mathematician Claudius Ptolemy. His astrological work, “The Tetrabiblos,” became the handbook upon which all subsequent astrology is based. However, even in this “scientific” work, important traces of babylonian and Greek mythology still appear. Notice Ptolemy’s comments omn the influence of the planet Mars (in Greek and roman mythology the god of war):

Mars…brings about wars, civil faction, capture, enslavement, uprising, the wrath of leaders, and sudden deaths arising from such cases…(Tetrabiblos, II, 8).

While many of Ptolemy’s interpretations of the ehavens stem from the (nistaken) astronomical beliefs of his day, it is clear that much of his astrology is ultimately based on pagan mythology, which in mnay respects goes back to the myths and beliefs of ancient Babylon. Furthermore, the elaborate astrological system worked out by Ptolemy actually forms the basis of much of modern astrology.

This then is the orogins of a practice followed by millions of twentieth-century devotees. regardless of whether one actually believes in astrology or not, it is clear that such beliefs ultimately originated in the magic and superstition of the divination priests of ancient babylon and Assyria. If you practice this art, ask yourself whether you understand this, and further, whether you still want to practice it now that you know the truth.

What Is The Unpardonable Sin?

The precise words, “unpardonable sin” are not used in the Bible. Yet there is an unpardonable sin, for Jesus said plainly: “All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit SHALL NOT BE FORGIVEN UNTO MEN” (Mat. 12:31).

What IS this sin that shall never be forgiven? Jesus had just cast out a demon. In so doing He was an INSTRUMENT being used in THE WORK OF GOD. God Almighty is working out His PURPOSE here below! The time had come for God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to carry on His work thru the HUMAN BODY of Jesus Christ, His own begotten Son. Jesus was then the human instrument — but the work was GOD’S WORK — and the real power that did the work was THE HOLY SPIRIT.

Jesus said He spoke nothing of Himself. The Father that sent Him gave Him commandments what He should say. He spoke only as the Father directed. He said that of Himself — in His human BODY — He could do nothing. “The Father that dwelleth in me, HE doeth the works” (John 14:10). The Father dwelt in Jesus by the Holy Spirit.

The work of God, at that time, was carried on BY THE HOLY SPIRIT dwelling in, and acting thru, the BODY Of Jesus — then a HUMAN BODY. But that BODY was a mere agent or instrument. Of itself it was powerless. The WORK OF GOD was actually being done BY THE HOLY SPIRIT working in that HUMAN BODY.

It was NOT the power of Jesus’ human body, but the Holy Spirit, which, working IN Jesus’ human body, performed this WORK OF GOD by casting out the demon. But the scoffing Pharisees accused Jesus of being a false prophet — THEY DENIED THAT THIS WAS ACTUALLY GOD’S WORK – they said Jesus did not cast out demons by any power except that of Beelzebub, or Satan.

Jesus then said He cast out demons by the SPIRIT OF GOD. Then it was that He showed that DENYING THE WORK OF GOD – ACCUSING THE WORK OF GOD OF BEING NOT THE WORK OF GOD, but that of the only other possible power, the DEVIL — constituted blasphemy against the HOLY SPIRIT!

“And whosoever speaketh,” continued Jesus (Mat. 12:32) — NOTICE, just SPEAKING “a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, NEITHER IN THE WORLD TO COME.”

Notice that! This can mean YOUR ETERNITY! Any person could be forgiven for speaking against the Son of MAN — that is, the human Jesus. Speaking against a human man can be forgiven. But when they spoke against THE WORK OF GOD being done thru that man, THEY WERE SPEAKING AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT! The man, Jesus, was merely the instrument. The WORK was the WORK OF GOD, DONE BY THE HOLY SPIRIT!

Christ’s Body Today

During Jesus’ earthly and human lifetime, GOD’S WORK was carried on thru His human body, but BY THE HOLY SPIRIT which dwelt in Him. After Jesus ascended to heaven, the Father sent the Holy Spirit to enter into the collective body of begotten children who formed God’s Church. Now they were many members — many individual persons — but the one body of Christ! Not the body of Jesus, the son of MAN — but the body of Christ — of the MESSIAH — the SON OF GOD!

Beginning that memorable day of Pentecost, 31 A.D., God’s work has been carried on BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, but through this one body of Christ, now consisting of the many human members who had become begotten children of God. To those He had called and trained for positions of leadership in HIS WORK, Jesus had commissioned, “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel.”

The WORK OF GOD was carried on by Peter and Paul (Jews and Gentiles) and the apostles and evangelists and pastors, other elders and teachers and helpers under them. But they were mere INSTRUMENTS in the process. The POWER that did the WORK of God was the same HOLY SPIRIT!

Apostasy was prophesied. A great falling away. The whole world was to be deceived. The human members of the Body of Christ were to become scattered! They were to be persecuted, and the world dominated by a “Great False Religion” and her daughter harlots.

BEWARE!

The very fact that you may be forgiven for speaking against God’s ministers (in God’s true Church), means that such speaking IS A SIN! — a sin for which, if you repent, God will forgive. But if and when you criticize or accuse or condemn the work, THEN YOU ARE SPEAKING AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT — and if and when you do that, you will not be forgiven! Not now, or in the world to come — the WORLD TOMORROW — during the millennium or during the Great White Throne JUDGMENT!

Your own spirituality — your closeness to GOD – your spiritual growth and development — your hope of eternal salvation in the Kingdom of God, depends, then, on keeping your heart in the very work of God! The very purpose of our lives should be, NOT the social enjoyment of local church congregations, but GETTING CHRIST’S GOSPEL TO THE WORLD! That’s the main purpose of the local churches. That’s the main purpose of your life, and mine!

Source: Good News, March 1960, Vol. IX, Number 3

Only One God Is God!

The world is full of many man-devised idols of bizarre appearance. It abounds with homespun ideas where men prostrate themselves before carved stones, wood or even photographs. But in fact, most of that to which mankind has affixed the label “God” has fallen far short of the God of the Bible! Man has indeed created many gods, and lords, but none of them is the True God.

MOSES was up on Sinai, receiving instruction from God. The children of Israel demanded of Aaron: “Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not (don’t know) what is become of him” (Ex. 32:1).

So they made a molten calf beautifully fashioned. Everyone was prepared for a feast, with dancing, singing and drinking. Pagan? Yes. But did they call it pagan? Did they name IT WHAT IT WAS? No!

It was CALLED a feast to GOD — to YHVH! “And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, Tomorrow is a feast TO THE LORD (YHVH)”! (verse 5).

But of course this golden calf WASN’T the real God! The real God condemned this, saying, “Thus they changed MY GLORY (original reading) into the similitude of an ox that eats grass” (Ps.106:20).

The real God was upon the mountain called Sinai with Moses! That historical occasion was prophetic of what mankind has done ever since. Modern man is no different from the ancient Israelites. He has built his own gods, and called them “God.” And for almost 2000 of those years, he has often made his own saviours and called them “Jesus Christ.” None of these man-made gods could begin to live up to the magnificence of the true God — or the true Jesus!

God says Israel of the Bible created her own gods. “But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, WHICH YE MADE TO YOURSELVES” (Amos 5:26). God calls them names like Moloch and Chiun. But that doesn’t mean the PEOPLE called them “Moloch” and “Chiun.” Many times, the PEOPLE called these gods “God.” And modern man nearly always calls his gods “God” as the golden calf was labeled “God.”

Which God?

Ask yourself this question: “Is the name I call an object, the object itself?” An apple for example. The word “apple” is not the apple itself. If by consensus, people take off the label “apple” and attach another name to it, it is still the same piece of fruit!

By the same token, what about God? If people worshipped Baal, he would still be Baal, whether he were called “Baal” or “God.” If people worshipped Mithras, he would still be Mithras, whether he were called “Mithras” or “Jesus Christ.”

Israel called the golden calf “God” — but it was still a golden calf! Tragically, some people have called their god “God” — and he is not God at all! The Bible shows that it is not enough to worship “God.”

You must look behind the label “God” to see if you have the true God.

Notice Moses’ example. “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?” (Ex. 3:13).

Moses knew it wasn’t sufficient just to say, “‘God is His name.” “God” had to be defined. The children of Israel were in Egypt where Ra was called “God”; Osiris was also called “God”; and so was Isis.” There were many wrong ideas. God later specified himself as “… the Lord thy God, WHICH HAVE BROUGHT
THEE OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT …” (Ex. 20:2).

So it is today. Every individual is beset with a bewildering array of ideas called “God.” Each religious denomination has called its object of devotion “God.” Yet each defines a different “God, with a different set of rules, regulation or doctrines.” You need to be sure you have the right God — your Creator!

Creating Gods

The Bible describes the process of man creating his own gods. “To whom will ye liken me, and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be like? They lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in the balance, and hire a goldsmith; and he maketh it a god: they fall down, yea, they worship” (Isa. 46:5-6).

Does that sound like ANCIENT image worshippers, thousands of years ago? It shouldn’t. Today, a man might shell out a few bucks to an artist. The artist paints a picture of flowing hair and soft features. Then the man takes it home, hangs it up on the living room wall over the couch, and declares, “That’s my Saviour!”

Don’t say you don’t do it, because most Christians have done just that. The Jesus they worship; the one with long, flowing hair and effeminate features popularized by artists, looks nothing like the real Jesus did. I can say this adamantly because the Bible tells us it is a shame for a man to have long hair.

The ideas that you associate with the term “God” were formed from childhood Bible stories, from what your parents and friends said, from what you read, and from what you wanted God to be? If so, this is what God means when He says “your god, which ye made to yourselves.”

Religious ideas are not inborn. A child absorbs his ideas of God from his environment. He sees religious observances at home. He hears statements about God, the Bible, morality. He detects the attitudes which people around him have toward religion. He forms an idea of “God” by the things he is told are “good” and
those that are “bad” — by the answers he gets to his questions.

Children are naive — as equally ready to believe in Santa Claus as in God, eager to adopt mythology of any sort. Impressions are made indiscriminately. A child’s first clear conception of God grows directly out of the feelings and thoughts toward his father and mother. There are three major factors at work: 1) The direct
influence of the actions of older persons; 2) direct teachings about God; and 3) the natural development of the child’s mind.

A child may be taught that certain doctrines or beliefs are “ideas of the devil.” Religious prejudices and loyalties grow up. The definitions of sin, heaven, hell, the devil, and God Himself are taught according to what other people in their minds have come to believe, which in turn are reinterpreted in the mind of the child. Religion is also identified with social customs and taboos, so what is religion to one is nonsense to another. Yet these different beliefs are all described as “the will of God.”

Later in life, a person will carry with him these same or similar ideas. Or he may experience a total revulsion which leads him to adopt a different set of convictions. Such changes are often based principally on the emotional knowledge that they contrast to his former ideas! These religious values and ideas about God will change with time just as the religious ideas of society periodically undergo popularization and abandonment.

So man’s “God” changes. But the real God says, “I change not” (Mal. 3:6; Heb. 13:8). Few people, when they are baptized, or when they adopt some church as their own, feel it necessary to get rid of their own preconceived religious opinions. Few approach Scripture with the attitude of “correct my misconceptions.” Rather, like ancient Israel, they simply “chose new gods” (Judges 5:8).

Anthropomorphism — What’s That?

Look at history. Long centuries of man’s conflicting ideas of “God” have demonstrated that each nation gives its god its peculiar characteristics, and every individual gives his god his personal peculiarities. One observer noted: “Each nation has created a god, and the god has always resembled his creators. He hated and loved what they hated and loved, and he was invariably found on the side of those in power. Every god was intensely patriotic, and detested all nations but his own ….”

Think! How can different people possibly avoid having totally different ideas of God — unless they use a common source? How can OUR ideas of God be anything but OUR personal human ideas — unless we all know where to go to find the real answer?

The Greek philosopher Xenophanes (540 B.C.) observed that men of different races picture their gods like themselves. The Thracians picture them as fair and red-haired. And the Ethiopians, he said, see their gods as black.

Consider — why is it that many modern critics and free thinkers have stated that God is merely an illusory projection of human self? Why did, for example, Ludwig Feuerbach state that man creates God in man’s own image? BECAUSE MAN HAS DONE JUST THAT!

These men looked at a long history of gods who were revengeful, savage, lustful, and ignorant — who were partial to the people who created them, and who showed that partiality by assisting those people to rob and destroy others. They therefore concluded that there is no God. That was an error of reasoning on their part. What they should have done was to look past these false gods that man created. They should have turned to their merciful, living Creator! Instead, they were so totally “turned off” by man’s gods that they rejected the real God altogether.

Scholars have coined a word that they apply to any religious statement that depicts God in the bodily form of a man, or that shows God as having qualities of thought, will, or feeling like those experienced by man. That word is “anthropomorphism.”

Anthropomorphism is technically defined as the attribution of a human body or human qualities to God. Philosophers and theologians coined the word because they believe man has a natural tendency — or necessity — to conceive of God by analogy with man himself.

Is God Like Man?

Let’s understand how God is, and is not, like man. IT’S THE CRUCIAL KEY FOR DETERMINING IF YOU HAVE CREATED YOUR “GOD” — TO SHOW IF INDEED YOUR “GOD” IS GOD! The Bible makes many statements about God’s personal characteristics. God WALKED in the garden (Gen. 3:8). He ATE with Abraham (Gen. 18:8). He wrote with His own HAND upon the tables of stone (Ex. 31:18). God has EARS (Isa. 59:1). He has a MOUTH
(Isa. 58:14). The Scriptures abound with similar references.

Man is created in the shape and form of the real, living Creator God. Notice it in Genesis 1:26-27: “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness …. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”

This was for a great purpose. Because man’s destiny is to be born as God — to “be like him” (I John 3:2; Ps. 17:15). God from eternity has possessed hands, ears, eyes, arms — and feelings, emotions, reason, will. Therefore God, when He began His plan of reproducing Himself, created Adam and Eve with HIS body shape and with a mind capable of creative thought like God’s!

Of course, man is now physical while God is Spirit. And man’s mind, unlike God’s, is limited in power. However, man is wrong in ascribing his wrong motivations to God! “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. FOR AS THE HEAVENS ARE HIGHER THAN THE EARTH, SO ARE MY WAYS HIGHER THAN YOUR WAYS, AND MY THOUGHTS THAN YOUR THOUGHTS” (Isa. 55:8-9).

God has feelings and emotions — man has feelings and emotions. But the characteristics of God’s mind are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance (Gal. 5:22, 23).

In contrast, the characteristics of a natural human mind — the works of the flesh — are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and similar things (Gal. 5:19-21).

In the Dark Ages, man’s gods which he called “God” — were the impetus for covering the earth with blood. Instruments of torture were invented for service to this “God.” This “God” had great churches built for Himself and dungeons for men. He had the clouds peopled with angels and the earth with slaves. The Bible
shows that this “God” was purely a creation of the evil mind of
man!

No wonder many people have been taken aback, appalled by the image of “God” as an infinite fiend! These gods were not God at all, but were purely man’s creations. God is a God of love. People used to believe the world was flat. This was declared to be true by the authority of “God.” Many similar wrong and false ideas have been propagated IN THE NAME of God. Why? Simply because MEN created such gods (they called each one “God”), and put into the mouths of their gods all THEIR mistakes in astronomy, in geography, in philosophy, in morality. The god was never wiser or better than his creators. If they believed in
slavery, so did he. If they believed in a cruel hell fire or eternal torment, so did he. If they wanted to go to war, so did he.

Religious zeal for such gods was usually utterly incompatible with peace. Those who loved the gods most were apt to love man the least. By contrast, the true God had always said, “Love your neighbor” (Lev. 19:18) and “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” (I John 4:20).

The True Christian Approach

Man’s approach has always been either to impute his evil nature to God, or to interpret God in terms of himself. But the teaching of the Bible is that a man must seek to acquire God’s nature — and give up his own nature. That is man’s purpose in living! The Apostle Peter states that we are to be “partakers of the divine nature” (II Peter 1:4). The Apostle Paul said, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus”
(Phil. 2:5).

God’s mind comes by the gift of God’s Holy Spirit! God’s Spirit comes through repentance and baptism (Acts 2:38). Because human ideas are not the same as God’s ideas — because man’s thoughts — are not God’s thoughts then our ideas of what God loves or hates, what God will do or won’t do, are utterly invalid unless backed by God’s Word, the Bible! Otherwise, we are as guilty of creating God in our image as any
pagan idol maker.

The Bible shows that Christ was the stamped, impressed character image of God, with the mind of God (II Cor. 4:4; Phil. 2:5-7; Heb. 1:3). He is our example (I Pet. 2:21). Any opinion of the nature or character of God that conflicts with this example is of our own creation!

Some people have made their god responsible for human affairs now which makes their god the god of pollution, war, crime, disease, famine. But the True God says He is not the god of this world — rather Satan is (II Cor. 4:4; Eph. 2:2; Rev. 12:9). The real God teaches concern for the environment, tells men to live at peace and to love their neighbor. He says He will heal our diseases and give us prosperity if we obey Him.
Some have created a “Christ” who is weak and sanctimonious. Others have created a “Christ” who was a notorious leader of an underground liberation movement. Both have created these “Christ’s” out of their own imaginations.

You create God in your own image when YOU SAY something is “God’s will,” and the BIBLE DOESN’T say it is God’s will. If the Bible doesn’t support it, then it is YOUR will. People do this when they group together God, the Bible, and the goals of a certain political party or when they declare a certain war is “God’s will.”
People create God in their own image when they say God has given exclusive privileges to their class, their race, their color, their ethnic group. Paul said, “For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,) but to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are
all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him” (I Cor. 8:5, 6).

Remember that ancient Israel decided that God, which brought them out of Egypt, looked like a golden calf. They sadly settled for a concept of God resembling a dumb ox. They failed to perceive the glory of the true God, “The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth” (Ex. 34:6). They settled for an inferior product.

What about your “God”? Is he the true God? Search the scriptures and see.