ABSOLUTELY GOD Kay Keith Peebles 06/19/20 20.22
God is innately good, loving and abundant in generosity. He is also righteous and holy. He had a plan of creating a paradise flowing with abundance and placing man in the center so that He could have a loving family with which He could interact. “Then God said, ‘Let Us (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) make man in Our image, according to Our likeness [not physical, but a spiritual personality and moral likeness]; and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the cattle, and over the entire earth, and over everything that creeps and crawls on the earth.’” Genesis 1:26.
He filled the garden with every plant and tree imaginable. The garden provided all the tasty food man could want to enjoy and thrive. Delicious fruit and vegetable trees and plants continually supplied for their every need. The garden was as beautiful as it was functional. God also created animals, birds and fish of every kind. There were four large rivers flowing with pristine water, which were laden with gold and precious stones. It was an amazing paradise He created for Adam and Eve, giving them dominion over it all.
When the Lord placed man in the garden He blessed Adam and Eve to be fruitful and to multiply. With all God provided He gave them only one stipulation: “You may freely (unconditionally) eat from every tree of the garden; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, otherwise on the day that you eat of it, you shall most certainly die.” Genesis 2:16-17.
A love relationship isn’t really based upon true love unless there is the opportunity to choose to love in return. Therefore, God gave man everything he could have imagined and much more, but then gave man the option to obey or reject the standards He set for co-habitation in this paradise.
Adam and Eve were created in the purity and holiness of God’s nature and would have lived forever in that state had they not desired something God did not give them. Although He provided everything they could possibly want, He did not want them to obtain the knowledge and understanding of good and evil. Adam and Eve abided peacefully in the glory realm of God’s presence until they defied His one commandment; “Do not eat from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil “. Genesis 2:17.
Once they ate of the forbidden fruit, the sin of their disobedience caused their immortal bodies suddenly to became mortal. Their paradise was cursed, as well as the animals living there and they had to work to survive by the sweat of their brow. Death and destruction entered paradise violently changing everything the Lord had created for them. They no longer had dominion. Through their disobedience, Satan who deceived them was given their authority and mankind was morphed into a sin nature rather than God’s holiness. Man was ruled and enslaved by innate evil instead of by the goodness and holiness of God. Death would rule until the earth and mankind could be fully redeemed by God.
For good to exist, there must be evil as an option. For holiness to be understood there must be the possibility for immorality and perversion. For life to exist there must be the potential for death to occur. Once the knowledge of good and evil was exposed, there had to be absolutes which would guide mankind back to life with God.
Without absolutes, all society is doomed. It is impossible to live successfully, in harmony and in safety without adhering to absolutes. Every nation, city, county and state has established laws by which the people who live within them can thrive when the absolutes (laws) are followed and enforced.
Absolute – Adjective: 1. not qualified or diminished in any way; total, 2. viewed or existing independently and not in relation to other things; not relative or comparative, “Absolute moral standards”.
Absolute – Pronoun: A value or principle which is regarded as universally valid or which may be viewed without relation to other things. “Good and evil are presented as absolutes”.
Those who refuse to adhere to such moral and ethical laws by acceptance and obedience are in rebellion.
Rebellion – Noun: 1. an act of violent or open resistance to an established government or ruler, 2. the action or process of resisting authority, control, or convention.
The Kingdom of God was created and established upon certain absolutes which are unchangeable. God’s law is fixed. It is eternal. It cannot be amended or altered in any way. The Kingdom of God has only one King (Jesus) who is eternal. His dominion, power, authority and rule will never change and never end. Everything we see has been created by Him. As Creator of the heavens and the Earth, the plants, animals and mankind, He has the absolute right to His rule and authority in all the heavens and the earth. This includes everything that exists and has ever existed since the world began.
“For unto us a Child is born. Unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder, and His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end. Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.” Isaiah 9:6-7.
“And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” Luke 1:31-33.
Within the confines of His dominion, God has given mankind the ability to “choose” whether he will follow the absolutes of God’s Kingdom or rebel against them and His rule. Those who choose to serve the Lord and live in harmony with His absolutes through obedience are called His children. They will be firmly established, they will flourish within His rule, and they will live eternally in heaven with Him. Those who choose to rebel against God’s absolutes and deny His right to rule and reign in His Kingdom are doomed to destruction which ends in eternal torment.
The natural world in which we live has certain undeniable laws which the Lord God created and will continue to this day and beyond. These natural laws remain and man has absolutely no control over them or the power to change them.
“I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease.” Genesis 8:21b-22.
The Lord has also established spiritual absolutes which have the same unchangeable results. These can be found in the Ten Commandments in Exodus Chapter 20 verses 1-17 and throughout the books of Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy. These laws are explicit in regard to how we treat God, others, animals and abide by His moral absolutes. They have not changed since they were written down 4,000 years ago and they will never change as long as the earth exists and throughout all eternity. If mankind would adhere to and maintain the laws of God the world would live in complete harmony and peace but since the “fall” man’s sin nature makes it almost impossible to keep God’s law.
Our problems are not created by the absolutes, the laws of God; they are the result of the rebellious condition of man’s heart! We have a sin problem which produces the chaos we see in the world today. Mankind is selfish and self-centered. He desires lustily for things which contaminate, degrade and destroy not only ourselves but also those we use to obtain our selfish goals. We have never been able to adhere to and keep the laws of God but the One who established the absolutes also gave us a way to keep them. Only one man, Jesus, was able to obey the law of God. The purpose of the law is to cause us to see our sinful nature and to draw us to the Savior (Jesus) who came to “Redeem” us back to God by fulfilling the law for us. He then dwells within us regenerating us into righteous, holy and obedient lovers of God through our obedience of submission. His grace empowers us to live in compliance with God’s will and thrive in the atmosphere of God’s presence through the Holy Spirit. Jesus exchanged His life for ours through His death on the cross and paid our debt of sin. Through His obedience and sacrifice there is no greater love.
Even within the church today, there are those who deny God’s absolutes in order to appease mankind, thinking we can all live peacefully together. It is impossible! It has become obvious the majority in the world will rebel against the Lord and His kingdom. They not only reject His law, they demand others do so also. We are currently at a crossroads in the valley of decision. Many are choosing the “easy” way of compliance with sinful man, while others are in the crucible of dying to self in order to live in Christ. The consequences of our decision will be either horrifying or glorious.
Like Adam and Eve, we have been given the power to choose which way we will go. It will either be paradise with the Lord or paradise lost in hell. In reality, it may cost us everything we have including our life. By giving up our life here, we will truly gain it there. We must answer the same question Joshua posed to the Israelites as they crossed the Jordan into their promised land. “If it is unacceptable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD…You will not be able to serve the LORD [if you serve any other gods], for He is a holy God; He is a jealous God [demanding what is rightfully and uniquely His]. He will not forgive your transgression [of His law] or your sins. If you do abandon (reject) the LORD and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and comsume and destroy you after He has done you good.” Joshua 24:15-20.
There is no common ground with all mankind. There is no peaceful cohabitation with others apart from total self-sacrifice unto the Lord. The time to make a choice is now because He is Absolutely God!
