SONG OF GOD. Lecture Eight: THE GENESIS OF EVIL

[Rebbe]

The Song of God

A Fresh Appraisal of the Christian Doctrine of the Ultimate Destiny of Humankind:
IMCF Lectures on God's Universal Salvation

by

Les Aron Gosling, Messianic Rebbe



Copyright © BRI, 1996
Lecture Format © 2016
All Rights Reserved Worldwide

Originally Produced as a BRI Study Manual



LECTURE EIGHT

THE GENESIS OF EVIL

The question of the origin of evil in the purposes of God is a challenging one indeed. Volumes have been written on the subject by a wide spectrum of authorities representing every church, denomination, sect, cult, religious publishing house, and theological seminary. The origin of evil is a problem that also occupies the great schools of the Hindus and the Buddhists. It has set Christian against Christian, and has split once happy homes. Even great church councils in the East and West have convened over the centuries in which the question has found expression and the forum has invited heated speculation. Any serious attempt to examine the Messianic Scriptures (including the Hebrew Tanach) for an explanation for the origination of evil needs an approach that is both faithfully apprehensive and studiously prayerful. The question opens a veritable "Pandora's box."

The normal nominative Christian believer generally avoids controversy, even though the Jewish Lord was an ardent controversialist. Perhaps believers shrink from controversy because such often breeds quarrels (2 Timothy 2.23). The tendency in human nature to defend a cherished belief even when it's known to be wrong exacts a terrible penalty of spiritual sickness (1 Timothy 6.4 where the Greek 'noson' means ailing or sick). Of course, none of us should crave argumentation for its own sake nor desire open, prayerful discussion to degenerate into personal insult or abuse. Yet it often happens. But while Yeshua was a controversialist and the apostles likewise followed in his footsteps (a simple perusal of their epistles will show this to be most certainly true) it was only in the appeal to "contend for the faith which was once and for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3). Rav Shaul wanted the Messianic Community to not only maintain the truth but to "maintain the truth in love" (Ephesians 4.15). As John Stott observed concerning controversy we should be "neither truthless in our love, nor loveless in our truth, but holding the two in balance" (J.R.W. Stott, Christ the Controversialist, 1969).

It goes without saying that the universal church is now 2000 years down the track and we have not always achieved that balance. Our history certainly leaves much to be desired. Our thousands of differing and bickering clusters of religious intolerance each claiming to possess "the Truth" while they flagrantly reject the contents of the Scriptures of the Jewish people is an indication that we have not all really been all that preoccupied with "maintaining the truth in love" or otherwise.

Perhaps this somewhat gallant but inadequate attempt to throw some light on what is admittedly a vast and immense question (certainly in its implications) may be seen to be a desire to return to the original Faith which was once and for all delivered to the primitive Messianic Yeshua Community of the Second Temple period. It is certainly in a prayerful spirit that this lecturer desires to do so. None of us has the full answer, none of us can ever hope to ascertain in any degree of completeness the deep things of the Unoriginated One. This does not mean, however, that such questions ought not be asked. For, the church by and large has laboured under a number of misconceptions about God and his perfect Salvific plan, purpose and intent for humankind. The church no longer truly recognises that "Yeshua [or, if you wish, Jesus] is Lord." Human will, the great roadblock to ultimate Christ-Consciousness, arrogantly stands and struts in The Way.

There is a very simple way of discovering if we truly believe that Yeshua is Lord. It is to ask ourselves the simple question, Do I believe there is a war going on between God and Satan? Our response to this question will very readily determine the authenticity and orthodoxy of our faith.

Rav Shaul was well grounded in Hebrew Scripture (Acts 22.2,3) and his disciples were expected to be well versed in the same Scriptures, even those of his followers with Gentile bloodlines, like Timothy (2 Timothy 3.14-16 cf Acts 16.1,2). The only Scriptures known to the early "church" of Paul's day were the Hebrew Scriptures (what Christians understand to be the "Old" Testament), the Apocryphal (Mystery) literature and the writings of the Qumran sectarians. Paul, schooled in the Sacred Scriptures (and versed also in pagan literature) well appreciated the Psalmist's recognition that HaShem's kingdom rules over all (Psalm 103.19) even over the kingdoms of the nations (2 Chronicles 20.6). He knew the wisest man who ever lived (apart from Yeshua) declared that the Lord turns the heart of the king in whatever direction he wishes (Proverbs 21.1). The Lord who rules the heavens, Paul informs us, accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his own will (Ephesians 1.11), indeed, even his own traumatic Self-renunciation on the bloodied tree of Golgoleth. This last factor is usually misunderstood even in some commentaries, yet it is the core of Scripture.

"For truly in this city [Jerusalem] there were gathered together against your holy servant Yeshua, whom you did anoint, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, to do whatever YOUR HAND and YOUR PLAN had PREDESTINED to take place" (Acts 4.27, 28).

If Paul understood anything about the working of the Infinite Intelligence "Above" that subjects all to its will it was that he was presently concerned with the outworking of an astonishing purpose, with cosmic proportions, here "Below." To the Laodecian Messianic Assembly (in what invariably is inappropriately called the "Letter of Paul to the Ephesians") he wrote that God "is working all things after the counsel and the design of his own will" (Ephesians 1.11b). He operates all things according to his will (not simply desire) -- ALL things -- not merely some things, not just good things.  

As far as the biblical record of the history of man is concerned, it all began in the garden of Eden. It is the humble assessment of this writer that if our perspective of Eden has been inadequate our entire theological framework will need to be restructured. Evidence to establish this is not difficult to appraise. Ask the ordinary Christian to recount the story of the Fall and the general appraisal will go something like the following.

IT ALL BEGAN IN EDEN -- HOW MOST VIEW THE STORY

"There was a time when God had a perfect plan for humankind. He also had a perfect universe, and a perfect little planet called Earth.

"God had made the whole universe out of nothing in six days and had been so exhausted that he rested on the seventh day in order to be refreshed. He decided to make a man and a woman and their purpose was to attend to the trimming of the hedges and the naming of the animals and to love each other. They were to do this forever in a perfect little garden called Eden. It was without doubt a perfect little lifestyle.

"Now, you and I might tend to think that this repetitiveness would start to get a bit boring over the millennia, but Adam and Eve didn't seem to mind too much. But really, perhaps boredom did occur for a snake just appeared up this tree and offered Eve an apple which she started to chew into and it tasted so good she gave what was left to Adam and he ate the rest getting high on it too.

"The only trouble was that God had told Eve a little earlier not to eat from that particular tree from which the apple came! So now Adam ate it all up, and committed sin which spoilt God's perfect plan! Nothing was perfect any more!

"All the cute little animals in the garden suddenly turned ferocious. Even spiders started eating insects and curiously discovered that they also had godlike qualities producing webs -- ex nihilo -- out of nothing. Before this time they had no need of webs. Death did not exist. Ants suddenly realised they couldn't manoeuvre out of the path of Adam's feet rapidly enough any more. Microbiological organisms began to feed on each other. They weren't hungry before Adam's sin because there was no death. The bacteria in Adam's bowel began to process the meals (and the apple) that he had eaten prior to the fruit. Fish, created on the third day, had been surviving on love and happiness until the Fall and now sharp, scissor-like teeth miraculously appeared. Teeth designed to rip and kill and tear their prey apart did not previously exist, for all fish creatures were gummy before Eve listened to that snake! Now, death had been introduced into our world.

"God was mortified that his plan had been tampered with and that his once-peaceful tranquility had been shattered. Ah! But God being a wise God decided then and there on a contingency plan. He would "clean house" by driving these humans, these two bungling clods of red clay, out of Eden and would curse them for the rest of their lives. He would cut them off from him. Not only this, he would really show them "what for" by sentencing them to the fires of hell for all eternity to writhe in everlasting violent torment. They would soon learn how naughty it was to have eaten that little apple! And when they had learned their lesson, well... it would be too late then to do anything constructive about it.  

"They were FINISHED.  

"Of course, this would be all to God's greater glory, you understand. The angels would have witnessed this and so chanted "Glory, glory, glory to Lord God Almighty" just a wee bit harder and with a little more serious intensity than previously.  

"Adam and Eve's sentence would placate God's bruised ego and he'd start to feel a little better as a result. Tranquility would return, and then all would be well again."

Now all that I have just penned has been written rather facetiously, with tongue in cheek, yet this awful scenario is what many Christians actually do believe! People, even some scholars, do believe this nonsense in one form or another. When people attend church they no longer "check their Bibles" to see whether or not the message (if there is one) is biblical. Rather, it seems the only "checking" they do is "checking" their brain at the door. Many believers negatively worship in churches that are citadels of "non-think." And it is not to the greater glory of God. Rather, he weeps over them, entering into their inward agony of ignorance, a state of which they are blissfully unaware.

But dare we continue with our line of parody?

"Thousands of years after the accident in Eden, when God began to get his act together and could think more clearly, he started to consider all of Adam and Eve's descendants. It really wouldn't be fair to have them all perish because of the sins of the world's first parents. So the message was made available to humankind through the church that if any of them wanted to get back on friendly terms with God they could do so by adopting his addendum to his Wonderful Contingency Plan -- he would kill himself and that would make it all OK. By offering himself as the Supreme Victim of sinful circumstances God could reverse the effects of this tragic cosmic accident. But then there were some second thoughts! He would offer man a remedy in accepting his Son's death instead. They could be saved by his death if they volunteered to believe in him."

At this juncture I would urge our readers to examine what Paul had to say about the act of salvation in the life of the believer in Romans 5.10 which tells us the exact opposite!

What have we gained in considering this evaluation of the traditional story of the Fall? It is this: multiple hundreds of millions of Christians have accepted the false idea that God is subject to accident. They see in all of the above misconceptions (and they are legion) that God's original Salvific purpose was thwarted by a devil. They read into the Genesis account a traditional concept (which has no warrant in Scripture) of a devil at war with God. This doctrine and others akin to it summarily reduces God's SOVEREIGNTY and sows the seeds of a pagan doctrine of dualism.

There is much the biblical account of the Fall can tell us if we have ears to hear and eyes with which to see. Let us then reconsider the story of the introduction of evil into world history for we believe a man or woman can be a Christian without the sacrifice of intelligence. There are a number of factors many Christians have failed to take into account.

ISSUES TO CONSIDER

FIRSTLY, the Scriptures make it perfectly clear that God does have a plan and purpose for a lost humankind. All Christians, no matter what their fundamental theological persuasion, agree with this assessment of the biblical record. If God is not subject to cosmic accident then what we see around us is the outworking of that same plan and purpose for God is above all things Absolute Sovereign. If he isn't he isn't God. We can't have it both ways. God is either sovereign and Lord, or he is the local village idiot who doesn't know what day it is. Nothing anyone thinks contrary to this fact will change reality. The doctrine of God's sovereignty is unpopular in some churches but it is the truth. In fact our very salvation depends on it. Yet some of us really believe that man's "free will" (and we use the term advisedly) can outwit the Lord or cause God's intentions to fail. Paul however, realising God to be the Subjector of all things in his plan for humanity, refused to compromise the intention of the Lord. Paul was very adamant about this particular assessment (Romans 9.19).

SECONDLY, the Scripture informs us that the Ground of All Being created all things (the entire universe) by Yeshua the Messiah in the form of the pre-existent Logos (Colossians 1.14-17; Hebrews 1.2; John 1.1-3,10) and that all things came forth out of God (Romans 11.36 Greek). The idea of creation ex nihilo ("out of nothing") cannot be substantiated from the pages of the Bible and was first doctrinally articulated by Augustine of Hippo. There can be nothing that exists apart from God. This is the internal testimony of the Bible and yet this knowledge has been carelessly set aside in favour of a pagan Gentile myth born of mindless magic in which God is seen as a shaman producing his creation out of a hat like the proverbial rabbit at the "snap" of his anthropomorphic fingers.  

The truth is much more awesome than this. God is eternal and it is his nature to create. He therefore creates eternally. He is ever and always creating. Yet creativity does not exhaust the very nature of his Being. Universes come and go. He regards himself as "the Alpha" and "the Omega" -- the beginning and the end, the womb and the tomb of the creative agenda. He is thus eternally the Alpha, and eternally the Omega. The core of his Being is sacrificial Love, and as he creates he is perpetually in the process of Self-sacrifice, Self-emptying.  

Yet there is something the Lord cannot do. He cannot exceed himself for he is the Totality of All that exists. He can of course exceed himself in each of us, in our development of his creative giftings by his own Spirit. He can only but always be pursuing opportunities for entering into his own creation. Jewish mysticism has always comprehended this fact about the Lord. So, God brings forth his creation out of himself and decidedly not ex nihilo -- out of nothing. This truth was recognised by all the Jewish sects of Mashiach's day and is the common understanding of Rabbinic theologians (those who have not been overtly influenced by Augustinian perspectives).

In biblical Hebrew thought there is no word for "nature." God was all there is. Paul admitted that this was the case when he wrote:

"For out of him, and through him, and for him are all things! To him be the glory for the ages" (Romans 11.36 Greek).

THIRDLY, for the dull of mind, the fruit was not an apple. Many ancient nations have their own peculiar stories of the Fall of Man. The Germanic Edda has the Land of the Aesir, the Celts the Valley of Avalon (or, Eve-lyn), the NW Europeans the Magic Forest of Oberon (or, Eve-ron/Ebe-ron), the Sumerians the Garden of the Ases. The ancient Germans had their Ida Field (the letter "i" is pronounced as "e"). While this list is not exhaustive the Greeks certainly had their legends of the Golden Apples of the Hesperides and this myth is known to have influenced Anglo-Saxon traditions of the Fall.

FOURTHLY, God does not have contingency plans. Even the Anglican Book of Common Prayer publicly recognises that Christ was "Saviour from eternity." If this is so, then evil was a part of God's plan for humankind from "eternity." God was either in total control of his own plan, and the destiny of this planet and its hapless inhabitants, or he wasn't. Again, we cannot have it both ways. God is either God or, as we have previously assessed, the fast fading smile of a cosmic Cheshire cat. Without sin there would be no Saviour. We need to change our perspectives concerning "foreknowledge." God does not peer into some future in his mind's eye and so safely predict what will eventually come to pass. This may be a clever trick but it is not sovereignty, no not by any means. He who inhabits eternity (Isaiah 57.15), where yesterday, today and tomorrow all exist in the eternal perfect present, in this sense is the Totality. A God who safely predicts because he has, like his creation, a past, present and future has no sovereignty in real terms, none at all.

FIFTH, Adam and Eve were not expelled from Eden without a secure knowledge of God's continual leading and presence. In fact, the record says in the Hebrew language that the ground was cursed, not merely because of them (their sin) but "for their sakes," their benefit (Genesis 3.17. See the Masoretic text, Jewish Publications Society; Dr. J.H. Hertz, C.H., The Pentateuch & Haftorahs, Soncino 1961).

The earth was cursed for their benefit and for the profit of their descendants. The harder one works, usually the longer one lives (all factors being equal). Certainly, God had not left them bereft and alone. After their sin we discover that God clothes them (Genesis 3.21). The Scripture emphatically insists that when Eve brought forth her first child, outside Eden, she recognised that he had been given to her by her Lord (Genesis 4.1). Eve's was a cry of faith, and it was based entirely on the prophetic word that she would bring forth her Messiah who would reverse the effects of Eden and yet grant salvation to her (Genesis 3.15). Eve was still worshiping the Lord, and not Satan the Devil. And as far as Adam is concerned, we have the testimony of Josephus, based on oral tradition, that the first Man was granted the spirit of prophecy "that the world was to be destroyed at one time by the force of fire, and at another time by the violence and quantity of water" (Josephus Flavius, Antiquities, 1, 11, 3).

Adam was a man without a past, devoid of all experience which bequeaths to each of us our creative and/or intelligent thought processes. Adam was not in the least self-reflective, as we are, and being self-reflective is what makes man a man. In other words, the ability to be self-reflective of necessity involves a past! Adam in Eden was clearly at a major disadvantage!  

Despite the insistence of our western theological traditions, it is not over for either Adam or Eve, for the judgments of God are not only righteous and sound but all factors in our decision making processes are taken into account by a holy and just God. God's justice is ever rooted in Grace, in the exercise of his Gracious Salvific Will which accords with his Nature. Not only is this the case but the pressures brought to bear on Adam and Eve were fully in the forefront of the mind of Deity. If he is the same yesterday, today and forever in regards his unchangeableness in character and we are assured that such is the case (Malachi 3.6; Hebrews 13.8; James 1.17) then what we see to be true of him at any moment surely must continue to be true at every moment, indeed eternally. Comments Cox,  

Concerning God's unchangeableness "which of us remembers that, and allows for it, when he is trying to frame his doctrine of election, or to determine the true function of the punishments that dog the steps of sin, or to conceive the scope and method of that Atonement which takes away the sin of the world? The calling of God is without repentance, cannot be revoked, not to be diverted from their purpose, not to be foiled and defeated of their end. When God calls (election) one man to himself it is for the benefit of other men; when he selects one family it is that, in and through the one, the families of the earth may be blessed; when he chooses one nation, it is for the welfare of all nations; when he elects and establishes a church, it is for the spiritual benefit of the whole world. No man, no family, no nation, no church possesses any gift, any privilege, any superior capacity or power for its own use and welfare alone, but for the common advantage, the general good. In Romans 9-11 Paul argues that since God has called and chosen Israel, all Israel must be saved, although as he frankly admits, that stiff-necked race has long rejected the salvation of God. And if all Israel is to be saved, saved by the [Gracious] discipline of a coming age, since it certainly has not been saved in this age, who then can be lost? for who has sinned more deeply or with a more settled obstinacy?" (Samuel Cox, Salvator Mundi, 1899, 158-160).

SIXTH, God is not the author of confusion (1 Corinthians 14.33). It follows that if any confusion exists as to the order of things in this universe it exists only in the heads of those who refuse to accept what they read in their own Bibles. This is not an unkind statement; it is a defence of the Faith. There is no real confusion in this universe. Even quantum theory runs according to rules and principles within rules and principles and in relation to other rules and principles which are becoming understood with further scientific advances. And this also applies to chaos theory. There may at times appear to be disorder and a lack of harmony throughout the far-flung galaxies and throughout the universe generally. But if it is there it is there according to God's knowledge, acceptance and undercurrent of direction. Everything runs according to order, system, planning, mathematically methodical principles of arrangement -- extensive complicated harmonisation. All is actually interlinked, interrelated. This applies even in relation to the Dark Lord's disobedience. There is a symphonic energy holding it all naturally together and this creative field of intelligence makes it a cohesive unit -- an extension of the personality and core of Being which we metaphorise as "God." That spirit energy can even manifest Itself in form if and when required. This mental energy is sometimes perceived by scientists as creating the impression that the universe is actually alive, an awesome "dream" image or "thought." This active field is God's energy, God's Infinite Intelligence in operation. All is created by this field, and all is subject to its dominant mathematical will. Even Satan. Again, for the religiously dull of mind all finds itself in enthralled subservience to the Subjector as he incessantly incarnates in that which he materialises out of himself. There is nowhere in this entire expanding universe, or in the vast collective of possible universes, where the LORD, through his very Spirit, cannot be located (Psalm 139 esp. vss 7-12).

SEVENTH, the apostle Paul explains that when the first Man ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that "sin entered into the world" (Romans 5.12). Sin made an entrance. The Greek indicates that sin, like an actor, was waiting his cue in the wings to enter the stage of the unfolding drama. Therefore sin already existed long before Adam ate the fruit. Did you happen to notice that evil existed also, long before the first transgression? The tree which God planted in the garden in Eden consisted of a knowledge of evil as well as good (Genesis 2.16,17). God, not the devil, planted this tree. It is solely God, not the devil, who is entirely responsible for his own plan that happens to be a plan of redemption. There was no wrong choice in Eden outside of the ultimate will of God. Man may have been accountable for his actions but God was responsible for his plan and purposes. This point cannot be overemphasised.  

Recall too, that Satan was telling the truth to our first parents. What he had to say was not a fundamental lie. He expressed to them, in unflattering terms, that Yehoveh Elohim was well aware that the humans would become like them in the comprehension of both good and evil (Genesis 3.5). "And the Lord God said, Behold now the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil" (Genesis 3.22). Now not only was this the case but earlier the Lord had warned Adam to not only "dress" the garden but to "keep" it (Genesis 2.15). The Hebrew word for "keep" (shamar) is nineteen times rendered "preserve," four times it is translated "watch," and on twelve occasions it is transcribed "take heed." God was putting Adam on his guard to be on the lookout for an evil presence which already existed. We should not fail to consider, in this light, that the Lord had strategically placed the tree in the very midst of the garden, thus creating an overwhelming curiosity in the human. This ought not surprise any of us for was it not the Holy Spirit himself that took Yeshua into the desert to be tempted of the devil (Matthew 4.1)?

Evil and sin had to have been in the forefront of the Mind of Infinite Intelligence from the very start!

EIGHTH, Adam was tempted to indulge himself when God had emphatically forbidden him to do so. But why? Why -- how -- if he was created perfect to begin with, was he tempted? Even Yeshua, declares the holy Scripture, learned obedience by the experiences of life. It did not come naturally (Hebrews 5.8). Our Saviour and Lord, according to the Word of God, "became perfected" (Hebrews 5.9 Greek. See also The Revised Berkeley Version in Modern English, 1974 ed.).

Adam was in fact no different. This is one of the reasons why Paul calls Christ the "last Adam" (1 Corinthians 15.45,47). Adam, like Mashiach, was tempted but unlike Yeshua Adam surrendered to the flesh. He was tempted. His act of eating the fruit was not simply a "wilful" act without any inward weakening and/or compulsion. Again, he was tempted.

What was in Adam and Eve that compelled, no, propelled them forward into blatant transgression? The Bible calls it "the flesh" (Galatians 5.19; Romans 7.25; 8.5). So here we have the divine record informing us that Adam and Eve were not created "perfect" in the first place. Consider Eve, prior to the sin involving the forbidden fruit, added to and thus embellished the Word of God (Genesis 2.17 cf 3.3). Every rabban (uninfluenced by Christian thought) admits it, but Christian theologians bound by their 1700 years of western theological traditions, refuse to accept what the Scripture tells them. Again, Jewish scholars know that our galaxy was declared "very good" (which the King James Revisionists also knew) -- "very good" but not quite "perfect."  

There is another method to determine that our position is the correct one, and that is according to Hebrew numerology. The number six is that which is short of spiritual perfection, denoted by number seven. Six is the number associated with man. As the creation of our planetary environs took six days to accomplish, so man (the pinnacle of God's creative handiwork) was created on the sixth day of creation week. As God is essentially triune in nature, so man was created equally triune, comprising spirit, soul and body (1 Thessalonians 5.23). So six is the triangular number and can be reduced to a triangle of dots, viz., 3 = 6 =    Each side of the triangle contains an equal number of units, the sum of which amounts to the number. But seven is God's perfect number! Six is thus one short of perfection. Being a little short of seven, six becomes man's perfect number. Being created on day six, man was the reflection, the mirrored image, of God himself. Reflections in a mirror may look like the substance, but the reality is that a mirrored image leaves a lot to be desired. Its "very good" but not the perfect substance.  

Further, the Enchanter was granted access into the garden. Was this not occasioned by God's express will? Quite apparently, Satan entered Eden with God's express foreknowledge. God wasn't asleep on the job, and any theology that infers that he was is nothing more than a travesty. Satan was there doing his job. God well knew the Enchanter's every move. The Dark Lord was in Eden with God's express knowledge and permission otherwise we are faced with a God who has a much-reduced sovereignty. But God's sovereignty cannot even be challenged, let alone placed aside (Romans 9.19). In a nutshell, God wanted Satan there. But there is more.

John the apostle tells us specifically that we humans are dominated by,

(1) the lust of the flesh. So was Eve. She saw that the fruit was "good for food" (Genesis 3.6).

(2) The lust of the eyes. Eve had this problem too for she considered that the fruit "was pleasant to the eyes" (Genesis 3.6).

(3) The pride of life. Certainly the tree is stated to have been comprised of the essentials of "evil" and "good" and as such "was desired to make one wise" (Genesis 3.6). If this is not a factor in the "pride of life" then pray tell, what is? The circle of believers gathered around the apostle John certainly knew upon what Scriptural authority he based his theology of human nature (1 John 2.16).

It is the opinion of this student of the Jewish Scriptures that Adam did not stumble and fall. He was pushed.  

Adam's transgression was very much a part of God's plan of salvation. God's plan is a plan of salvation. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end. A plan is thought out ahead of time, before it is executed, prior to its actual initiation. Sin is essential for salvation. With the human species of planet Earth God has no other plan. Without sin there would be no Saviour. Without enslavement there would be no Deliverer or Redeemer. Without transgression there could be no act of justification, or Grace imparted. Without the cross, Grace would be meaningless. Without darkness there would be no appreciation of light. Without estrangement there would be no possibility of reconciliation. Comments C.S. Lewis, "The glory of God, and, as our only means to glorifying him, the salvation of human souls, is the real business of life" (C.S. Lewis, Christian Reflections, 1967, 14).

Adam's sin initiated the program of redemption. There is a NINTH point we should consider. Many years ago I was walking past a large and elevated Church of Christ signboard. It read "All Good Things Come From God." I asked the very rotund pastor, who was standing unsteadily on his ladder admiring his handiwork, if only good things came from the Lord or could we expect bad things too. His reaction was one of astonishment. He replied that only good things came from God. All evil came from the devil. He was emphatic! "Only good, nothing bad!" This was an interesting comment for my Bible seemed to say something very different. In the Bible we find that ignorance and indifference come from God (Isaiah 29.10). The perverted spirit that caused the Egyptians to err came from God (Isaiah 19.14). The filthy lying spirit which came upon the prophets of Ahab came from God (1 Kings 22.23; see also 2 Chronicles 18.20-22). The deaf, dumb and blind are made or appointed by God (Exodus 4.11). The billions of Earthlings who are not constituted as "Firstfruits" have had their eyes purposely blinded by God so that they cannot at this time appreciate the Gospel, or the fact that Yeshua is LORD of ALL. These are absolute acts of Deity! Abraham's trial, the fiery holocaust on the "cities of the plain," the pestilence sent to punish King David, the evil spirit that dominated the mind of Saul -- even the horrendous bloody slaughter of the first born of Egypt are all expressly stated to have originated with the Lord's command! Anyone with a concordance of the Bible can look up every reference to "evil" and find out how many times it is associated with God for he is shown not only to send evil upon lands, peoples, and empires but causes it to come with horrifying affliction, wholesale pestilence and rapacious destruction with all its accompanied misery, tragedy and despair.

The Lord uses (not merely utilises) Satan the Dark Lord as his prominent tool and instrument of destruction. Not only was Satan created a Waster and Destroyer (Isaiah 54.16 Hebrew) but he was created an Adversary from the very beginning (1 John 3.8; John 8.44). It is vital for a proper understanding of the Bible to read it through the eyes of the age (yes, even the primitive age) in which it was penned, not through eyes conditioned by 2000 years of church tradition shaped by western cultural values! Satan today is pictured by and large as the enemy of God, when in fact his hostility is directed toward Christians. This approach, in our view, to the origin of evil satisfies every apparent contradiction concerning God and the purpose of evil. Please note one example which illustrates the point we wish to make, that of David sinning in numbering the nation of Israel. We read,

"The anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah" (2 Samuel 24.1).

The same identical scene is again portrayed in another section of the Bible. "Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel" (1 Chronicles 21.1).

The solution is self evident. God uses Satan as his primary agent (Angel) for evil. He is the servant of the Lord of all. Some few commentators and scholars recognise this principle as appearing throughout the entire record of Scripture, both Hebrew Scriptures as well as the Messianic Scriptures of the Yeshua School.

"In the older books of Hebrew literature... all acts of punishment, revenge... are performed by Jahveh himself, or by his angel at his direct command... The prophet Zechariah speaks of Satan as an angel whose office it is to accuse and to demand the punishment of the wicked. In the book of Job, where the most poetical and grandest picture of the Evil One is found, Satan appears as a malicious servant of God, who enjoys performing the functions of a tempter, torturer, and avenger... he is a subject of God and God's faithful servant" (Paul Carus, The History of the Devil and the Idea of Evil From the Earliest Times to the Present Day, 1969, 70,71).

Satan appears casually in the presence of his Creator in Job, and appears in the same setting in the Apocalypse before God's throne accusing Christians "night and day" (Revelation 12.10). Would Satan, created evil in the first place by God, be able to exercise some "free will" to do good to people instead of harming them? The Bible nowhere tells us that demonic negative influences can ever accomplish such a thing. But a prime teaching of the "New" Testament is that we Christians ought to be resisting the dark forces and in so doing attaining to the very character of the Cosmic Christ which the LORD then could utilise to his glory, and for our eternal benefit. By overcoming the powers of darkness we might enter into God's glory and his light. Character can only be built by resisting Satan, the impulses of his world system, and the downward pulls of our human nature. Make no mistake about it. Satan does obey God, but only in negative things. As intrinsic evil it is impossible for him to do anything that is beautiful in itself or that is inspirationally uplifting. To reiterate, Satan is not God's enemy. Rather, he is inherently hostile toward us, the people of the Lord, the Messianic Community of God, the remnant of the historic church. This is a fundamental principle overlooked or ignored by a paganistic and worldly Christendom at large. Especially is this the case when we consider that Messiah's brother James (Yaakov) pointed out that the demonic powers and elemental spirits know their place and the awesome authority of the Ground of All Being.

"You believe that God is One?" asks James, alluding to the Sh'ma. "You do well! The demons also believe and tremble, shuddering in terror and horror such as makes a man's hair stand on end and contract the surface of his skin" (James 2.19 Expanded Greek).

In the spirit of prophecy, Isaiah was given a message from the LORD God. It was a profound Self-revelation by Deity in which he declared in words so profound, so overwhelmingly illuminating, so powerful and potent in their incontrovertible theopneustia that such a disclosure from such a terrible Self-authenticating life source ought to have settled the allusive question of the genesis of evil once and for all. Oh, how we rebel, we Christians! We who interpret God's wrath as hate when it is but a severer form of divine Love. Listen, for this is God speaking!

"I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create EVIL; I the LORD do all these things" (Isaiah 45.7 Jewish Publication Society).

Christians in the main influenced by a biblically bankrupt Roman Catholic heritage, have rejected the plain Scripture and have opted for pagan Gentile fables born in antiquity. What a tragic paradox! God reveals the simple truth, but Christians prefer a feeble story of some angel by the name of Lucifer, created with immense beauty, who somehow filled up with pride and "fell." The fact is the Hebrew word for "create" in the above quoted Scripture is bara and here in this passage it means "to bring into existence" which is the same meaning as its use in the very beginning verse in the very beginning book of the Bible, Genesis. The Hebrew word for "evil" is ra. This word is rendered variously calamity, adversity, trouble, wretchedness, hurt, affliction, misery, bad, sorrow, grief. Ra is translated "evil" some 430 times. There is only one conclusion that any of us can draw from the evidence at hand yet our self-righteousness often creates a rather thick veil of haze across our spiritual eyes. Do we possess the spiritual intestinal fortitude to face the Gracious revelation of God's sovereignty and courageously appreciate, like Job, the hand God as LORD deals us in life? That is the question.

What we visualise about us, in all its beauty and its horror, IS the plan of God. It is not the plan of Satan. It is not the plan of angels, good, bad or neutral. It is not the plan of man. It is the Dream of God. Some would venture to proffer nightmare.

THE LORDSHIP OF MASHIACH

It is strange that created intelligences devoid of the holy spirit of the divine LORD can easily enough recognise the Lordship of Mashiach (James 2.19), yet those of faith in whom the Spirit of a holy God resides and demands expression, altogether fail to grasp such awesome omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence.

Yeshua is declared to be Lord. Yeshua is Lord over disease (Matthew 8.5-13). Yeshua is Lord over the elements (Matthew 14.24-27). Yeshua is Lord over death and the grave (John 11.32,25,26). Yeshua is Lord over the forces of darkness (Mark 1.21-27). In light of such knowledge we need not live in terror of the principle of evil. As we have seen, the negative elemental spirits live in constant terror of the Ground of All Being that activated their reality.

Part of the "good news," part of the Gospel, is the proclamation that this Yeshua who has power and authority over disease, the natural elements, death and the grave, and the forces of darkness is Lord over ALL things on the earth and in the vast universal ocean beyond. Spiralling galaxies, hurtling away from each other at unbelievable speeds, and their myriad star systems with their hundreds of billions of planets endlessly travelling in a cyclical motion through our universe (and who can be certain that "universe" should not be conceptualised in the plural?) -- all of this enormity has come under his perfect sovereign, efficacious Salvific will (Ephesians 1.9-11; Colossians 1.16-20). The Gospel Paul preaches, he reminds the Corinthians, was of "Yeshua the Messiah as LORD" (2 Corinthians 4.4,5 cf Romans 10.8-16). In fact, an Anglican has written:

"Paul defines everything by Christ. It is Christ who gives him his identity and who is at the centre of his life... We have been rescued into the kingdom of the Son. We are under the rule of the one who is the actual image of the invisible God... Christ is the one who has created all powers. In fact they, and everything else were created for him. They exist for his glory and benefit. He is their creator and Lord... Christ is the ruler over creation... that is the nub of it... That is what modern Christianity has missed. The supremacy belongs to Christ" (Dale Appleby, "Maranatha," in Church Record, 2/3/1987).

The supremacy belongs to Christ. We read in Matthew's Gospel that the risen Yeshua declares himself to be the LORD of both the earth and the heavens (Matthew 28.18). As the Self-authenticating WORD (Logos) Yeshua does not say that he possesses most of the power. He does not say that he has a great percentage of the power or even that he controls the vast majority of positive or negative power. He does not intimate that some devil or evil principle controls some balance of power. He affirms, rather confirms, that all power and authority are his. In effect Yeshua is saying to his original talmidim and so to each of us today, "I have unrivalled, universal, cosmic Lordship."

Whenever Yeshua spoke people had to make a decision. They either accepted him at his word or picked up rocks to cast at him. They either heard what he had to say with joy, or else they doubted. He never neutralised people. The authority which he wielded was both decisive and incisive. Most, if not the majority of Christians, mouth that Yeshua is Lord. In congregational praise we sing that great anthem of worship, "He Is Lord." We extol his awesome magnificence, and eternal Godhead, and his immense creative Self-comprehension when in unity we melodiously chant, "Majesty, Worship His Majesty."

But are we among those who recognise and adhere to his authority as Lord, especially in the light of the facts we have just faced concerning God's responsibility in the instigation of Eden, or do we share the doubts of some of his own original elect apostles (Matthew 28.17)?

Most believers fail to realise the Enchanter is bound tightly in rein by the aeonian decrees of the Lord. Satan cannot fight the power of God. He has never attempted to do so, and he never will! His final conflict in the heavens, as witnessed in vision by John the apostle, will be an action against Michael (an Archangel) and not against God as such (Revelation 12). Astonishing conflicts are already raging above our earthly atmosphere, and some of us have watched angelic (extra-terrestrial) manoeuvres on television screens, in programs aching to be debunked by military authorities! Be this as it may the fact remains that in the tragic scenario in Eden of the alliance of humankind with the principle of Evil, the Lord God (who became Our Lord Yeshua) declared unceasing warfare not between himself and the Enchanter but between man and Satan. "I will put enmity between you [Satan] and the woman" (Genesis 3.15).

None of us can imagine what it was like for Adam and his counterpart once they had sinned and brought on themselves the curse of utter ruin and futility. As the thought of the loss of immortality sank in the depression would have been exhaustive of any relief. But at this sullen, stricken hour at the beginning of human history, etched in the tears of failure and horrendous despair the authority, power and control of the Eternal blazons across the cosmos with the rich promise of Grace and salvation. As sin spreads its ugly dark stain across the immense beauty of Eden, and the first chill of winter announces its coming in icy tones through the breeze of the late Sabbath afternoon the first sermon given by God himself prevails with hope and Grace. In a word God decrees that enmity and discord shall forever separate a desire for alliance between Satan and the descendants of Eve. The Redeemer then predicts the coming incarnation of God in flesh as the final and ultimate solution to the power of sin. In Genesis 3.15 it is written,

"And I [God] will put enmity between you [Satan] and the woman [Eve], and between your seed and her seed. He [Messiah, "her seed"] shall bruise [crush] your head, and you shall bruise [scratch] his heel."

Most Christians fail to realise that the Enchanter is bound tightly in rein by God's aeonian decree. Due to the nature of the decree humankind cannot enter into a partnership (despite popular literature) with the Dark Lord and his minions. Rather, man must be constantly subject to the onslaught and harassing assaults of the Devil and the principle of evil, writhing in agony under the burden of sin. It may seem stranger than fiction but it is a fact that every time the Slanderer assails the character of one of God's people (as he did with the patriarch Job, one of the most righteous men who ever lived) he is merely showing to the entire universe his utter subjection to the heavenly edict.

Yeshua had the audacity to state, "No one can take my life! I lay it down by myself. And I shall take it up again!" (John 10.17,18).

As far as dealing a mortal blow to Christ, this was something of which the Dark Lord was incapable. Christ was more than a match for him. All the powers of hell were unleashed against the Mashiach but the Word of God has told us, and that with authority, that the promised Seed of the Woman willingly embraced it all.

Christ in trauma. This is what the Gospel is all about.

The traumatic Mashiach exalted, for the whole world.

Satan could impose nothing on Yeshua. He lived, suffered, died as a Man, the Seed of the Woman (Philippians 2.6-11).

Yeshua therefore became, in his own wonderful "Game of Salvation," the first person in salvation-history to command, to compel, to require death to take hold of him. Even death could not forcibly grasp the Saviour of humanity, even in his frailty and fragility. He is Lord.

Yeshua is truly Lord indeed.

QUESTIONS & ANALYSIS OF LECTURE EIGHT

The Messianic Rebbe wrote: "The billions of Earthlings who are not constituted as "Firstfruits" have had their eyes purposely blinded by God so that they cannot at this time appreciate the Gospel, or the fact that Yeshua is LORD of ALL."

It is gratifying that so many of our readers and students have expressed a desire to both want to know more of the sacred heart of God as well as to be assured that other human beings (perhaps family members or supportive neighbours and close friends they know, or have known in the past) -- who have either shown no interest in the Gospel of Christ, or have fallen away from a church, or have not fulfilled their lives as they should have -- will not be rejected by the same sacred heart which gave His uniquely begotten Son for the salvation of humanity and the entirety of the universe.

From my own point of view, and I know that I am not alone in this assessment, God the Father is also God the Mother -- as God is understood by the Jewish people. The biblical revelation also reveals God in this way -- as understanding people as both a Father and a Mother. I have written extensively on this subject, and have also included my thoughts on this matter in my earlier years of ministry in my popular "Teaching Exams" section of the BRI/IMCF International Internet Yeshiva Member's Board. As we human beings are created in the Image of God we know (in a Fatherly and Motherly way) what love really is when it comes to our own children. It is a very unnatural human parent who cannot satisfactorily contemplate, feel, or show, even a "smidgin" [pronounced "smidge-jin" which is Aussie Stryne for "small amount"] of parental love.

Do we suffer when our children suffer? Are we pained when they "go off the rails"? Do we experience heartache when they develop a life- threatening disease? As we watch them die? Oh yes, we certainly do suffer. We suffer with them. We enter their suffering. Well, so does God. It is written:

"God was in Yeshua reconciling the world to Himself," Paul tells us in his letter to the Corinthians. More than this, He is "not holding their trespasses against them."

That's what the sacred Scripture tells us. Why is this? Because God has blinded their eyes to His salvation in order to have mercy on them when He finally discloses His outflowing outgoing lavish and superabundant love to them by His Spirit. The principle is found in Romans 11.32. Notice it now:  

"For God has bound all men over to disobedience [the Greek can also mean "unbelief"] so that he may have mercy on all."

If we want to know what the love of God is like, look at His Son, our dear Lord Yeshua. Yeshua is called "the Suffering Servant of God." Yeshua suffered in his life, and he suffered dreadfully. If Yeshua suffers, then God suffers. God identifies with suffering MORE than we realise. And, he came not to destroy men's lives but to save them (Luke 9.56). That was his intention, and his purpose. That's why he died for each and every one of humankind's children.

I might add that since Adam walked the earth over 140 billion men, women and children have lived and died. Salvation awaits each and every one of them.

What WE understand because we grasp the meaning of the festivals which God gave to His people Israel, is that He has a purpose and an intention to SAVE humanity -- all of humanity. As I have mentioned, it has been estimated that over 140 billion people have walked the earth since the dawn of time. That's an awful lot of death, and an awful lot of sin that brought about death. And, that's an awful lot of people to save.

"God's hand is not shortened that it cannot save," we are told in Psalm 59.1. God is not a respecter of persons as we are also advised (Acts 10.34; Romans 2.11). I believe the Word of God. He wrote it after all! And God's Word speaks of "ages" (time periods of salvation) in which God will deal with human beings in time zones with which they are entirely familiar.

I am heartened, by the divine revelation of the Word of a Thrice Holy God, that those who have failed (and failed miserably) in this present life to live out their lives to the full will yet be raised into a fleshly state of existence (as in this life which we all experience) in a period or age called "The Great White Throne Judgment [Period]. This epoch of time (pictured by the Jewish festival of the "Last Great Day" spoken of in Jewish circles as "Shemini Atzereth" -- the last day of assembly -- and "Simchath Torah" or the Rejoicing of the Law), which will immediately follow on the heels of the Millennial reign of Yeshua (pictured by the Jewish festival called Sukkot) will bring salvation to billions of people who have never "lived their life to the full." But the plan of God for the salvation of the universe does not end there. It goes on and on and on and on... If I might be so bold and echo the lyrics and musical sore of "Somewhere" by Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein and as sung by Barbra Streisand:

"There's a place for us,
Somewhere a place for us
Peace and quiet and open air
Wait for us
Somewhere

"There's a time for us
Some day a time for us
Time together
With time to spare
Time to learn,
Time to care
Someday

"Some day, somewhere
We'll find a new way of living
We'll find a way of forgiving
Somewhere

"There's a place for us
A time and place for us
Hold my hand and we're halfway there
Hold my hand and I'll take you there
Somehow,
Some day,
Somewhere."

Its a message of hope and of solace. It is my personal belief that God will honour it.

THUS CONCLUDES LECTURE EIGHT