Satan's Secret

As of lately there seems to be too much emphasis on the wrath of God and not enough on the God of endless and eternal love and peace. God’s wrath breeds fear in the hearts of many. It kind of goes hand in hand with guilt, but guilt can be conquered through the remission of sins, and we should all know how to solve that problem, through prayer and repentance. Nevertheless, fear and guilt is also responsible for filling the pews and collection boxes at the same time. So, undoubtedly fear continues to grow actively in the largest of congregations. Mix in a generous portion of pomp and circumstance, or so-called “traditional rituals”, add a sprinkling of Latin to complete the spell and utterly confuse the masses and preserve their interest, and the end result is a mind ripe for the picking. To complete the enigma, carefully instill unsubstantiated biblical teachings that point out the necessity of a confession of sins through the use of a priest, who is just as sinful as you are (Romans 3:23, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”), and the “flock” can be led into believing just about anything. Then they’ll not only come to Saturday and Sunday services, they’ll come during the weekdays as well, with donations in tow.

It is the pathway of traditional religion and the responsibility of your own congregation’s spiritually inspired leaders to reminded all of us how sinful we are and take the time to meet with one another for mutual edification, but the congregation should also be reminded that they aren’t the only ones committing sin, it covers the clergy as well. More and more people are becoming confused and losing respect for their religious leaders through the arrest and conviction for sexual deviance and other offences, and I don’t know why it’s so prevalent at this time (Satan?), but it’s something that should be addressed.

Those who are responsible for relaying God’s word to the congregations in this country as well as the rest of the world, aren’t immune from sin any more than the rest of us are. In fact, Satan’s influence may be even more condensed when it comes to the leaders of these religious institutions, because Satan realizes that if he can destroy the leaders, the followers will also become troubled and possibly falter in their convictions. What happens to the sheep when the shepherd is attacked and killed by the lion? Actually it’s quite fitting that 1^st Peter 5:8, reads, “Satan wants to devour you like a roaring lion.” Just remember, we’re all in the same boat. It must be pointed out that we’re all born into sin through the actions of our first parents, as Psalms 51:5 states, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity (wickedness), and in sin did my mother conceive me.” Their actions denoted disobedience to God’s will and resulted in man’s first sin. The punishment for their sin cast a curse of eternal death on everyone who would be born to that couple from that day forward, and the result of that curse was everlasting death. Our faith promotes the belief that all mankind is the product from that first couple, so our sinful condition and nature is universal through that bloodline as 2^nd Peter 2:9 points out, that we all became “slaves of corruption”.

Still not convinced with the idea that we all come from one couple? I don’t know why it should pose such a problem unless you believe in evolution. It’s totally up to you in what you believe in. As for me, I have always accepted the stories in the Bible as being true and not just a collection of fictitious stories, not fables or parables, but factual true-to-life situations with a moral to be learned. But to my wife and her family they have never fully accepted this way of thinking. Of course they point out the fact that the nuns that were responsible for their education didn’t believe that they were true either, so why should they? As far as the story of the Garden of Eden is concerned, it would be nice to know if it really did happen because our faith is hinged so heavily on it’s being a fact of human history. So I did a little research on the subject. Follow with me in your Bible if you can.

Starting with Matthew 1: 1-17, we read about the genealogy of Christ and trace his bloodline back to David and then to Abraham, but there it abruptly stops. The first thing I thought was, “What gives with that?” Naturally I thumbed back to Genesis to find the rest of the puzzle. In the 5^th chapter it lists the generations of Adam to Noah, but abruptly ends again. In reading through the next five chapters we read of Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth in the 10^th chapter and find a listing of Shem’s descendants starting with Genesis 11:10. In the 27^th verse we read that when a descendant of Shem’s, named Terah, was 70 years old he became the father of  “Abram, Nahor, and Haran” (triplets?). Do you recognize the name Abram? Turning to Genesis 17:5, we read that Abram’s name is changed to Abraham. Voila! With that bit of knowledge the bloodline is complete. Boy, am I relieved! Of course, that’s if  you believe in the Bible!

Anyway, with that resolved it’s only logical to believe that if all bloodlines refer back to Adam then all of mankind falls under the same punishment, and no matter what you think you can do to remove that sinful nature, it won’t be enough because you’re born into that nature and there just isn’t anything that you can do to erase this mark before God, ever. Romans 3:10, sums it up very nicely, “None is righteous, no, not one!” Paul was responsible for that quote and he should understand more about that condition than anyone because he thought he was working towards righteousness when he was hunting down the radicals of a new religious cult named “the way”. Anyway, this is why all people, worldwide, continue to die, because death is our inherited punishment for sin whether we like it or not. You’re right, it doesn’t seem very fair that we should die for someone else’s mistake, but the beauty in all of this is the fact that this is where Jesus comes to the rescue, and this is why Jeremiah 31:29-30 was written, “In those days they shall no longer say, “The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge”, but every one shall die for his own sin, each man who eats sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge”. Do you see the connection between these verses and how it relates to Christ’s sacrifice and us?

Before the death and resurrection of Christ every individual that breathed the breath of life (air) continued to suffer for the mistake of our first father’s action denoting the eating of sour grapes. Didn’t God tell Adam and Eve that the punishment for their sin and disobedience would be death? That’s what Genesis 2:17, says, “...you shall die.” At this time it was a sentence of eternal death, but it was soon to be cancelled. Eve