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— THE WORST OF THE WORST OF ALL CRIMES/SINS, FOR FROM IT FLOWS ALL OTHERS —
You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above,
or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God,
visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation
[inclusive extent of a father's direct influence] of those who hate Me, but showing
steadfast love to thousands of those who love Me and keep My commandments."
"You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain,
for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain."
Exodus 20:3-7
WHY?
God has no self-image problem!
He does not need our thanksgiving or the worship of His angels to feel good about Himself! Everything that He says and does relative to us is for our benefit. He has no need!
He does not need our thanksgiving or the worship of His angels to feel good about Himself! Everything that He says and does relative to us is for our benefit. He has no need!
God does not control everything!
He is not responsible for sin or for its existence! He designed our world and set up its systems – from weather cycles to animal instincts – as the domain within which we are to learn to represent Him, and for which we were made in His image in the beginning to be responsible.
He is not responsible for sin or for its existence! He designed our world and set up its systems – from weather cycles to animal instincts – as the domain within which we are to learn to represent Him, and for which we were made in His image in the beginning to be responsible.
Prayer exists because God does not intervene in our circumstance except on request from us as the responsible party, unless it is to terminate. Prayer is not information supplied to God, or persuasion applied to Him. Prayer is an act of responsibility concerning our circumstance which expresses confidence in His relationship to us in soliciting His help.
Therefore, our view of God is critical to how we approach Him in prayer!
To pervert this view of God therefore is to poison faith and lead into darkness. Every perversion of human life and its social situation arises ultimately from a perverse view of God.
is the reason for the radical commands of God to the people of the Patriarchs, concerning their extermination of Amorite civilization in Canaan; the people to whom He gave these first of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20, which are quoted above.
The Bible also tells us that it is because of the misrepresentation of God that God withdrew from human society, which thus resulted in all the things we call sin. The sins and crimes listed in Romans Chapter One are not the cause but the consequence of God's withdrawal. Note how the sacred Word reads:
| "For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and Divine Nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them." |
So Romans Chapter One teaches that its list of sins is the consequence of disregarding the true nature of God
and so then trying to manipulate the supernatural by inventing gods according to human design.
and so then trying to manipulate the supernatural by inventing gods according to human design.
Today, misrepresentations of God continue in more subtle forms – in every religion.
the Apostle Paul in Athens had no hesitation in using the words of a Greek pagan poet, written in honour of their god Zeus, to help the leading council of Athens to understand the true nature of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the Divine Being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man."
because He has fixed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom He has appointed;
and of this He has given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead."
the three monotheistic religions in our world, namely Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Christianity has also added its share to human confusion about the nature of God and His relationship to us.
have thought that perhaps the Jewish roots of Christianity might bring a more authentic and Biblical Christianity. But, far closer to Biblical Christianity than Judaism is Islam. Islam accepts the Lord Jesus as a prophet of God, whereas Judaism, as defined in its Talmud, considers Jesus as –
| Yebamoth 49 b: | "Jesus was a bastard born of adultery." |
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| Sanhedrin 106 a & b: | "Mary was a whore: Jesus (Balaam) was an evil man." |
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| Shabbath 104 b: | "Jesus was a magician and a fool. Mary was an adulteress". |
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| Abodah Zarah 17 a: | "Christians are allied with Hell, and Christianity is worse than incest". |
sects of Judaism would not agree with these views. Islam on the other hand declares in its Qur'ãn –
because among them are men devoted to learning and self-denial, and they are not arrogant." (Sura 5.85).
of course is as it was then. The rapid polarisation of opinion as a consequence of al Qa'eda and its affiliates' representation of Islam has twisted this and it is sadly no longer true for many Christians. But the starting point is not argument on history or the character of any religion. It is how we think of GOD!
represent God in any other way than how He has represented Himself in Holy Scripture is blasphemy – whether it be based on ignorance of not.
To repent from misrepresentation means change in the way we see God, and therefore how we respond to Him, both personally and publicly!
is essential therefore that the basis of our relationship to God be according to His character and His behaviour, and not, not ever, according our sense of self or our worthiness; for He is God, the Almighty, the Infinite, and beyond the measure of any human mind!
Blessed be His name, forever!
