Click to join the conversation with over 500,000 Pentecostal believers and scholars
Click to get our FREE MOBILE APP and stay connected
| PentecostalTheology.com
“Then to Adam He said, ‘Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying “You shall not eat of it”: ‘Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return’” (Genesis 3:17-19).
Had Adam not paid attention to Eve and stuck by God’s commandment to the letter, things would be so very different. A sinless world! But there we have it – humanity is born into sin and could die in sin. With sin, there is a plethora of curses. These translate into problems, be it at micro level where the individual is concerned or at a macro level which affects society as a whole.
It is not uncommon to come across people having a rushed meal while standing up. There is sweat on their foreheads. The food is close to tasteless; the tummy just needs to be filled. Does it not fit the rebuke from God to Adam and Eve prior to their expulsion from the Garden of Eden?
Toiling is an inevitable facet of human life. There are the masses across continents who toil for the purpose of making ends meet. Then there are those who sweat it out because they are chasing an elusive dream – a seemingly better life. There will be those who claim that they are enjoying every bit of it. Really?
Sounds like a half-truth. With the need to toil comes worry. Everyone will have worries; it varies by way of form and intensity. A lot of it could have little or no basis, but it is enough to suck the joy of living out of each and every soul.
There are those who profess that their lives are devoid of whatever worries. By their outward appearance, they look convincing. Same goes for their speech and demeanor. But these folks do worry, only that they cleverly disguise it. These folks are indeed living a lie. They are not honest with themselves, and they will struggle when it comes to sincerity with others.
It is all interrelated; the stress of daily living and the never-ending torrent of worries causes deceit to flourish. Deceit can take the form of blatant trickery or, in a more subtle way, show up as an excuse. Expect nothing good to come out of broken promises. Trust is in short supply; there is cause for cynicism, which breeds contempt and ill will. When these negatives get out of hand, anger, hatred, and even violence are the end results. The case for doing good is diminished; plotting and executing evil deeds appears to be justified!
“The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).
All of humanity has the propensity to commit some form of evil. The boy or girl next door that appears decent could be in the front-page news for a violent misdemeanor. Everyone is capable of performing a diabolical deed at some point in their lives. No one is immune from this tendency.
“As it is written: ‘there is none righteous, no, not one’” (Romans 3:10).
The same goes for sickness and tragedies in life; no one is immune from these negatives. These are the thorns and thistles that plague the human race. No one has any clue when these nasties will strike, but they can truly be life-altering events. Perhaps as bad as a broken promise, if not a shattered dream turned upside down into a living nightmare. They suck the joy of living, but life with whatever pleasures that go with it will indeed come to a concluding moment. Death!
This is when flesh and bones return to the dust of the ground. Does all that pain and sorrow end there? It does not look that way for the bulk of humanity. Everyone is worried about dying; it becomes a psychological issue for some. Witnessing a fatality at point-blank range could be cause for poor appetites and sleeplessness!
“For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
It is truly not a pretty picture when anyone falls short of the glory of God. Without God, there can be no relief from the heartaches, pain, and sorrow of life on earth. It does not stop when the body goes to the ground. It only gets worse, and it will stay that way for eternity!
Humanity is therefore cursed for eternity because of the action of one forefather. It is the curse that separates the human race from the loving Heavenly Father. We know it as the fallen nature. The earth is indeed a fallen planet!
“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12).
God is truly a loving Creator. Despite the seemingly inseparable gulf between Him and humanity, He provided an avenue for reconciliation. He did so in a way that many on this fallen planet have problems coming to terms with. But this is the Truth; He sent His only Son to die for all of humanity’s wrongdoings – past, present, and future!
The Son of God in the person of Jesus Christ did die in a manner that was seen as the worst possible through human eyes. With His Blood spilled on the woodwork of torment, He took the place of every sinner on this fallen planet. The iniquity of every human being was erased by his Precious Blood!
“But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).
Because of what the Lord Jesus Christ did on Calvary, that separation from God the Father is indeed null and void, provided one believes that this is true!
Herein is an important thing for serious consideration. Are you happy living as you are in your fallen state? Does the thought of it only getting much worse in the end ever bother you?
You can only have a significant improvement in the quality of your life when there is no separation from God. The only way for this to happen is to believe in Jesus Christ. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Once He is in the driving seat, things will only get better. Challenges will be seen in a totally new light, and your joy will be complete. Make this a hundred percent commitment today!
“that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).
Blessings
Edwin
Contact me at edwinuk13@gmail.com
The post Sin Sucks… Your Joy, Your Life, Your Soul:: By Edwin Tan appeared first on Rapture Ready.
Anonymous
Kyle Williams do you care to respond to the Internal Evidence from within the document itself. In addition to the external evidence from the church fathers, the book of Revelation has many internal indications that support the late date.[73]
ARGUMENT #1: The late date explains why John, Paul, and Timothy never mention one another together in Ephesus.
If the early date is true, then John would have been leading in Ephesus at the same time as Paul and Timothy. Why would Paul leave Timothy in charge of the Ephesian church if the apostle John was there? Moreover, at the end of 2 Timothy, Paul mentions 17 coworkers by name, but he never mentions John. We are not merely making an argument from silence. This is a conspicuous silence. Why wouldn’t Paul mention such a spiritual titan like John? Likewise, why wouldn’t Jesus mention Paul or Timothy when writing to the church of Ephesus? (Rev. 2:1-7) Witherington writes, “The lack of apostolic presence and, by contrast, the presence of powerful prophets (both John and those he calls false prophets) seem to reflect a time after the apostles had died off late in the first century A.D. (cf. the Didache).”[74]
ARGUMENT #2: The late date explains why Paul and Jesus give conflicting reports about false teachers in Ephesus.
Paul’s letters to Ephesus and Jesus’ letter to Ephesus give conflicting reports regarding false teachers. On the one hand, Paul writes about men who “teach strange doctrines” (1 Tim. 1:3) and the “doctrines of demons” (1 Tim. 4:1). Paul even mentions several false teachers by name: Hymenaeus, Alexander, and Philetus (1 Tim. 1:20; 2 Tim. 2:17). Yet, Jesus’ letter to Ephesus tells a different story. Instead of being riddled with false teachers, Jesus says, “You cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false… You hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate” (Rev. 2:2, 6). This is quite unlike the church of Pergamum who “have some who… hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans” (Rev. 2:15).
ARGUMENT #3: The late date explains how the church in Smyrna had time to grow before receiving a letter from Jesus.
Polycarp wrote a letter to the Philippians in AD 110. In it, he states that the Smyrnaeans weren’t believers when Paul wrote his letter to the Philippians in AD 60-61.
[You Philippians] are praised in the beginning of his Epistle. For concerning you he boasts in all the Churches who then alone had known the Lord, for we had not yet known him.[75]
Polycarp was the bishop of Smyrna. So, his use of the plural “we” refers to “the church at Smyrna,” which would “indicate that that church was not in existence at the time in question.”[76] Put simply, Polycarp is claiming that “when Paul wrote Philippians no Smyrneans had yet been evangelized.”[77]
Craig Blomberg[78] and Gordon Fee[79] date Philippians to AD 61. Therefore, Polycarp maintains that the church in Smyrna didn’t exist before this time. This, of course, carried difficulties for the early date advocate. It requires a church entering Smyrna and springing up all within a 4-5 year span. Acts 19:10 says that “All who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord,” but this is hyperbolic language. This doesn’t mean that a church specifically existed in the city of Smyrna. Moreover, Paul never mentions a church existing in Smyrna in any of his letters.
ARGUMENT #4: The late date explains how the church in Laodicea had time to plummet spiritually by AD 65.
D.A. Carson, Douglas Moo,[80] and P.T. O’Brien[81] date Colossians to AD 60-61. Paul mentions a thriving church in Laodicea at this time (Col. 2:2; 4:13, 16). However, if Revelation was written in AD 65, then this church must have plummeted spiritually in just a few years. In fact, they had become so bad, that Christ threatened to vomit them out of his mouth! (Rev. 3:16) Of course, spiritual decline can occur quickly (Gal. 1:6), but which is more likely? A quick decline or a slower decline?
ARGUMENT #5: The late date explains Jesus’ words to the church in Laodicea in light of the great earthquake of AD 60.
The entire region around Laodicea suffered a massive earthquake in AD 60. In fact, the region suffered until at least AD 80,[82] and the “archaeological evidence at Laodicea points to a thirty-year rebuilding process.”[83]
And yet, Jesus told the Laodiceans that they are “wealthy” and “have need of nothing” (Rev. 3:16). If the early date is true, it would be quite cruel to tell a destroyed city that they are “wealthy” and “have need of nothing.” However, if the late date is true, this would make perfect sense. Tacitus mentions that the Laodiceans refused all aid from the Roman Empire after the earthquake.[84] They rebuilt their city all on their own, because they were “wealthy” and had “need of nothing.” Hemer writes, “There is good reason for seeing Rev. 3.17 against the background of the boasted afluence [sic] of Laodicea, notoriously exemplified in her refusal of Roman aid and her carrying through a great programme of reconstruction in a spirit of proud independence and ostentatious individual benefaction.”[85]