NOTE: I have heard some people, even some preachers, say; “The Bible does not say God needs us or even wants us.” Definitions are from Strong’s concordance of the KJ Bible: need, Greek word- husteresis- when it is used as a verb (describes an action, state or occurrence), it is defined as; to want, to call for: AND: need, when it is used as a noun (a word used to identify any of a class of people, places or things), is defined as; circumstances in which something is necessary, or that requires some course of action, necessity, requirement, call. Want has the same basic definition as need. YES:
Jesus did say; “For God so loved the world (the earth including its inhabitants), that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting (perpetual, eternal, for ever) life.” SO: Let us explore that in its entirety. END OF NOTE.
GOD
(Job 11:7) Zophar asked Job; “Canst thou by searching (examination) find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection (completion)?” (Isa. 40:18) Isaiah asked; “To whom then will ye liken God? and what likeness will ye compare him.” God is unlimited. David asked; (Psa. 8:4) “What is man, that thou art mindful of him?” And man is limited. (Isa. 55:8-9) “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
GOD IS:
Creator (manufacturer, to fabricate, to make) which means God made everything. (Gen. 1:1 thru 2:25, Ezek. 28:14-15 + Isa. 14:12-15, then John 1:1-3 & Col. 1:15-16) “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” and “by him were all things created, that are in heaven and in earth, visible and invisible”.
omniscient which means God knows everything and His knowledge is complete. (Psa. 147:5) God’s understanding is infinite. (1John 3:20) God knows all things. (Rom. 11:33) “Oh the depth of the riches both of wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!”
omnipotent which means God can do anything he chooses. (Gen. 18:14) God told Abraham to name something God could not do. Abraham couldn’t. (Job 42:2) God can do every thing and no thought can be withheld from God. (Jer. 32:27) There is nothing too hard for God. (Matt. 19:26) “With God all things are possible.” (Luke 1:37) “with God nothing shall be impossible.”
omnipresent which means God is present in all places at all times. (Prov. 15:3) “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.” (Jer. 23:24) “Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? Saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? Saith the Lord.” (Read this: Psa. 139:1-12) There is no place anywhere that the Lord is not!
immutable which means God is absolutely unchanging. (Mal. 3:6) “For I am the Lord, I change not.” (Ex. 32:1-35 esp. V.14 keywords: repented- defined: breathe strongly, in a favorable sense, to pity, console in an unfavorable sense to avenge oneself) God gave Israel a choice: return to worshipping God and He would have pity on them and console them OR if they refused to worship God and continued worshipping the golden calf God would avenge Himself upon them. Moses had made an intercessory prayer for Israel. God did not change His word He had given Moses to tell them. Israel had violated God’s word and God had told Moses what they deserved. God simply gave them a choice.
(Ex. 32:15-35) (V.17-25) Moses found out what God was so furious about, (V.27 keywords: Thus saith the Lord God of Israel) and carried out God’s order of vengeance (V.29) then brought the survivors to repentance (V.30-32) made atonement for them (V.33-35) but God still made their lives harder because of their sin. God had not changed. God had still executed His judgment on them for their violation of His words. God nor His words had not changed!
sovereign which means God is ruler over everything. (Psa. 24:1) and “The earth (the land) is the Lord’s, and the fullness (all that is) thereof; the world (the globe and its inhabitants), and they that dwell therein.” (Psa. 19:1) and “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament (the visible expanse of the sky) sheweth his handywork.”
self-existent which means God is life itself. (Ex. 3:14) I AM is the essence (intrinsic nature and indispensable quality) of the reality of life, the essence of life, the spirit that is life that men sometimes call the spark of life that has nothing to do with breathing. (John 5:26) God has life within himself (Gen. 2:7 & John 11:25-44) and God gives the essence of life to men. Science cannot determine where the spark, the essence, of life comes from or where it goes.
(Read this: Luke 16:19-31 esp. V.23 keywords: hell & torments and V.25 keyword: comforted) God never takes His spirit, the essence, the spark of life back. Life goes with the soul (self, heart, personality, me, psyche) wherever that soul has decided to be in eternity. You will always be you and you will always be alive in heaven or hell OR (Rev. 20:10 thru 21:6) the lake of fire or heaven.
(Rev. 20:10-15 esp. V.10 keywords: tormented day and night for ever and ever & V.15 keywords: whosoever was not found written in the book of life and the owner is John 1:29 keywords: John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith behold the Lamb of God & Rev. 21:27 keywords: the Lamb’s book of life Jesus, the Lamb of God) That’s why your religion and your personal relationship with God is so important. Where are you going?
self-sufficient which means there is nothing possible that can be added to God that will make Him more than what He already is. (Col. 1:16-17) “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him. And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.”
perfect which means God has no flaws or weaknesses. (Deut. 32:3-4) “Because I will publish the name of the Lord: ascribe ye greatness unto our God. He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.” (Psa. 18:30) “As for God, his way is perfect.”
infinite which means God is impossible to measure or calculate. (Isa. 55:8-9) “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Job 36:26) Man cannot measure God.
GOD’S PERSONALITY
I have heard and read many preachers and theologians say and write that God doesn’t need mankind. Questions: If love is inside and unexpressed is it simply a capacity to love? Does the capacity to love need to be set free, expressed and given before it is the reality of love?
(John 4:8 & 16) God is love beyond any imagining; (Rev. 4:8) God is holy (sacred, pure, consecrated) beyond man’s ability to understand; (Psa. 86:15) God is truth (stability, certainty, trustworthiness, establishment, faithful, right); (John 17:25) AND God is righteousness (just/justice, right, equitable, innocent) itself.
God is: (Psa. 145:8) gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy, (Deut. 7:9) faithful, (Psa. 138:2) lovingkindness, truth, (Isa. 63:9) love, pity, (Psa. 103:4) tender mercies (Psa. 86:15) compassion, gracious, longsuffering, mercy and truth. AND: (Ex. 4:14, 2Sam. 6:7, Matt. 21:12-13 & Heb. 10:16-31 esp. V.27 keywords: fiery indignation and V.31 keywords: fearful) God can become angry too. When love in a relationship is rejected, abused or mocked past a certain point of tolerance love can become angry.
(1John 4:8 & 16) “God is love (Greek word agapao commonly called agape is God love- defined as I love, wish well to, take pleasure in, long for, esteem).” (Rom. 2:4, 1Tim. 1:16, 1Pet. 3:20 and 2Pet. 3:9 & 15 keyword in all: longsuffering defined: suffer, patiently endure) then (Mark 9:19 keyword: suffer defined: put up with, endure) and (Eph. 4:30 keyword: grieve defined: grief, sadness, sorrow). Why does God endure the emotional pain we cause him?
(Gen. 1:26) “And God said let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” (Gen. 2:7) “And the Lord God formed (squeeze into shape, to mold into a form as a potter) man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” The Hebrew definition of formed reveals the use of fingers. (John 1:1) “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Obviously, it was Jesus’ fingers used in the forming of the first man (Adam). (1John 5:7) “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost (Spirit): and these three are one.” AND:
(1John 1:1-2) “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (For the life was manifested (appear, to show self), and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested to us;)” Obviously John is speaking about Jesus the man. God also said something else there in the beginning of man, our Genesis, concerning Adam; “And the Lord God said, (Gen. 2:18) It is not good that the man (made in God’s image) should be alone;”
If they are telling the truth that God doesn’t need/want us what is the reason God created us and has patiently endured and is patiently enduring all the grief, sadness, sorrow, suffering, trouble, pain and longsuffering mankind, the Jews and the church bring Him?
If God doesn’t need/want man why would Jesus suffer the mockery, humiliation, the unimaginable agony of cruel beatings, being flayed alive by the awful Roman scourge, the crown of thorns and finally to agonizingly writhe out His life while nailed to the bloody cross just for us, you, me? (1Cor. 6:20 & 7:23 keyword: price) Why pay such an awful price to buy our salvation?
No, we cannot add anything to the Lord God that will make Him more than what He already is because He is all of everything. BUT: (John 3:16) “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Man means something to God (John 3:3-8 esp. V.3 keywords: born again & 2Cor. 5:17 keywords: new creature- defined: creation) and those who accept Jesus (1John 4:13-19) as their Saviour (Rom. 8:14-17) will become the children of God.
(Eph. 5:29-30) “For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth (to rear up to maturity, to train) and cherisheth (I warm, comfort) it, even as the Lord the church. For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.” (1Cor. 12:27) “Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.” (Acts 1:3 keyword: passion) Everything about God’s personality describes God’s passion for mankind. AGAIN: Does God need/want us? OF COURSE HE DOES. But you draw your own conclusion!
Review of Man Before Jesus
(Gen. 3:1-24 esp. V.5) We all know how Adam and Eve chose to gain the knowledge of good and evil. That knowledge changed them. (Rom. 8:7-8) They had become carnal (human nature with its frailties and passions, of the flesh- see 1Cor. 6:9-10, Gal. 5:19-21 and Col. 3:5 for lists of the works of the flesh).
Adam and Eve now knew the lust for the crude bodily appetites and pleasures that violated everything God is, they were no longer worthy to be in Eden (to be soft and pleasant, to live voluptuously, delicate, delight, pleasure) and they were no longer worthy (Gen. 2:8 thru 3:8 key: talking to and walking with, & John 15:14-15 keyword: friends) to be in a relationship with God. That is the carnal nature every person, you and me also, inherited from the fall of man in Eden.
At the beginning of Part Nine we looked at the development of mankind into nations and kingdoms. We saw how it is an intrinsic part of man to worship something or someone. (Gen. 4:1-8) Starting with Cain we can see the propensity of man to worship God by man’s own rules (Gen. 6:5 thru 7:24) which was ultimately the reason God destroyed all of mankind, except for Noah and his family, with the flood.
After the great flood (Gen. 11:1-9) and starting at Babel (building their tower to reach to heaven) on the plain in the land of Shinar we saw how, through the passage of centuries right on to today, mankind developed their countless religions by their own self-made lists of rituals and their own self-made lists of behaviors to try to get back to the Eden relationship with God by their own devices.
#1) Mankind does not own anything valuable enough that he could buy his way back to the sovereign God who owns everything.
#2) Mankind cannot establish his own self-righteousness to live good enough to be worthy to return to the righteous and perfect God.
#3) Mankind does not have the strength to simply take his place back with an omnipotent, self-sufficient, self-existent, infinite God.
#4) Mankind cannot generate enough faith to find his own way back to the immutable God.
#5) Mankind cannot circumvent God the Creator and use reason, philosophy, self-made religions (rituals and behaviors), politics and human ingenuity to create his own Eden (utopia) on earth.
Ultimately mankind was in a mess. All each man had was his society’s religious list of rituals and its list of behaviors that made up their religion. By whatever “religion” man had he was trying his self-righteous best to find his idea of God and earn God’s approval because it is in man’s basic nature to worship someone or something and by his own method he would force God to owe him a place with God in eternity.
It is hopeless and futile that mankind could ever possibly think he could somehow find his own way to return to man’s Eden relationship with God without God’s help. God cast man out of Eden and only God, by His own methods, can return mankind to an Eden relationship with Him.
BUT: (Gen. 5:1-32) God had started a bloodline of men (First Born Sons) from Adam through his son Seth, son following son, through Noah and his son Shem, across the flood, (Gen. 10:1 thru 11:32) through the tower of Babel debacle, through Terah to his son Abram/Abraham (Gen. 12:1 thru 17:19) with whom God made an everlasting covenant.
NOTE: GOD’S COVENANT WITH ABRAHAM: (Gen. 17:7-8) “And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed in their generations for an everlasting (defined as: #1 eternal, always, perpetual and #2 concealed, to veil) covenant (covenant is defined as a compact made by passing between pieces of flesh by cutting, a confederacy), to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee.” (Gen. 15:18 & 17:1-19 esp. V.8) Part of that covenant was that God promised the land of Canaan to Abraham and his seed after him for an everlasting possession but the #2 concealed, veiled part of the everlasting covenant was not revealed. END OF NOTE.
BRIEF REVIEW OF HEBREW WRITINGS
(Isa. 14:12-14 esp. V.12 keyword: Lucifer and Ezek. 28:13-17 esp. V.14 keywords: the anointed cherub that covereth- defined: to guard and protect)) Do not ever forget (Rev. 12:9) Lucifer/Satan/the Devil (2Cor. 4:4) is the god of this world (2Cor. 11:14-15) and can transform himself into an angel of light and his ministers (to run errands, attendant, teacher) are also transformed as the ministers of righteousness (1Pet. 5:8) BUT Lucifer/Satan/the Devil is as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Satan the Devil is an illegitimate god.
(Gen. 17:19 & 21) God said (promise) He would pass His covenant with Abraham on to Abraham’s first born, legitimate (V.19-21) son Isaac. (Gen. 16:1-16 & 17:20) Abraham had a firstborn illegitimate son named Ishmael by an Egyptian slave named Hagar and God blessed Ishmael to father twelve princes. (Gen. 25:20-34) Isaac’s first born son, Esau, sold his birthright to Isaac’s second born son, Jacob. (Gen. 35:1-13 esp. V.10 keyword: Israel) God gave Abraham’s covenant to Jacob and changed his name to Israel. (Gen. 35:14-27 esp. V.23-25) and Jacob/Israel fathered twelve sons.
(Gen. 46:1-27 esp. V.3) Israel took his family into Egypt because of a famine (Gen. 49:1-33) where his twelve sons founded the twelve tribes of Israel (Ex. 1:1-22) who multiplied and grew strong because of the hard bondage (slave labor) under the Egyptians, (Gen. 15:8-16 esp. V.8 keywords: Lord God and V.13) just exactly like the Lord God had told Abraham it would happen. (Ex. 3:1 thru 18:1) God appointed a leader named Moses and God delivered Israel from bondage in Egypt (Gen. 15:8-16 esp. V14) just like God had told Abraham He would.
(Ex. 3:1 thru 18:27) God spoke to Moses as He led them out of bondage (Ex. 19:1 thru Deut. 32:52) then, through Moses (Deut. 34:10) whom the Lord knew face to face, God gave Israel His own list of rituals and His own list of behaviors (Mosaic Law). (Gen. 6:9 thru Deut. 34:12) According to these scriptures God did not give His Holy Spirit to any man. God spoke with some of these people and sometimes gave them the spirit of understanding and etc. but He did not permanently inhabit them through the Holy Spirit.
(Ex. 25:16-22) God inhabited the mercy seat in the tabernacle behind the veil where only the high priest could go. (Ex. 13:21) God’s presence was visible at various times BUT the Hebrews (Gen. 10:21 & 14:13 & Ex. 1:15-16 descendants of Shem thru Eber, Abraham and Jacob) as a people were told what God expected and demanded by their high priest, various leaders, priests and prophets who were inspired by God to write what God told them and to tell the Hebrews how to be obedient. According to scripture God did not inhabit any individual Jew and join in a personal relationship with that person through the Holy Spirit.
(Josh. 1:1-4 esp. V.2 keywords: children of Israel) Then God passed Abraham’s covenant on to the people God named the children of Israel (Hebrews) (Ex. 12:25 keyword: promised, Deut. 20:16-18 then Josh. 1:5-11 esp. V.11 keyword: possess) who would possess (Gen. 17:8) the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession just as He had promised Abraham.
(Josh. 1:1 thru Mal. 4:6) God spoke to selected individuals and sent His Holy Spirit upon selected individuals (priests, leaders, warriors, prophets) to enable them to accomplish certain tasks, to write or speak prophesy and etc. but the scripture does not say God took up permanent habitation through the Holy Spirit within any man or woman.
The Hebrews/Jews consider Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy to be their Bible and they named it The Torah. BUT THEN: Various Jewish sages, rabbis and scholars started writing opinions concerning what God meant in the Torah that eventually became The Talmud (learning, study) which is comprised of two books named the Mishnah and the Gemara.
In the Jewish religion The Talmud (Jewish concepts, traditions) takes precedence over the Torah (God’s commandments) because the Talmud explains God’s commandments given in The Torah and is the guide for Jewish traditions, civil and religious law, ceremony and traditional Jewish worship.
(Matt. 15:1-9 esp. V.3 & Mark 7:8 keyword in both: tradition) (Matt. 15:3-9) (V.3) Jesus said; “Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition.” (V.7) Jesus called them hypocrites (playactors) (V.8-9) and said; “This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines (learning, study) the commandments of men. (Mark 7:8) Jesus said; “For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men,”
Jesus was saying: (2Cor. 3:13-15) The Jewish religious hierarchy “were blinded” and had forsaken God’s list of rituals and behaviors and made their own list of rituals and their own list of behaviors! As far as the Jews were concerned their Covenant and their strict adherence to their Law made God owe them heaven. But in reality, they had turned the Law of God (John 8:39-47 esp. V.44 keywords: ye are of your father the devil) into the same types of devil inspired list of rituals and list of behaviors all the other various religions had.
The Jews did not realize (Gen. 11:31 thru 17:9) God had built Abraham’s faith over a period of time when he had visited Abraham several times. (Gen. 17.10-27 & Rom. 4:9-13 esp. V.3 keywords: believed God V.13 keywords: faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness) God had given Abraham God’s everlasting covenant while Abraham was still uncircumcised and that the Jew’s covenant would not have been possible except uncircumcised Abraham had the FAITH to follow God’s instructions! The physical circumcision that sealed Jews’ covenant came afterward!
(Heb. 10:1-6 & Rom. 3:20 keyword: knowledge) The Jews did not realize God’s Law of Moses was, in a sense, God’s introduction of Himself to mankind and was a comparison between God’s standards and man’s shortcomings caused by man’s carnal nature which brought the knowledge of sin.
(Gen. 17:7-8 esp. V.8 keywords: everlasting possession) As a result of that everlasting covenant God promised the land of Canaan to Abraham and his seed after him for an everlasting possession (Isa. 43:5-6, Jer. 30:1-17 & Isa. 66:8 keywords: one day, at once) and against all the odds that physical part of God’s everlasting covenant with Abraham has held true because Israel became a nation again in one day, May 14, 1948, and is located in the land of Canaan today. Just as God promised it would.
(Luke 19:41-44 esp. V.44 prophesy of what Rome would do) Before Israel the nation disappeared into Gentile countries for nearly two thousand years because of their sins (Matt. 27:50-51 keyword: veil) the veiled part of God’s everlasting covenant was revealed (Isa. 53:3-12 & John 19:30-34 keywords: blood and water) when the church was physically born into the spiritual world with a gush of blood and water from Jesus’ side (Acts 2:1-41) and the church was spiritually born into the physical world at Pentecost in Jerusalem (V.1-4) when, for the first time, God joined Himself with man in a permanent personal relationship through the Holy Spirit.
(John 14:15-16 esp. V.18, 20 & 23 keywords: make our abode with him, Rom. 8:9-17 keywords: have not the Spirit & Eph. 1:12-14 keyword: sealed) If a person does not have the sealing by the indwelling Holy Spirit they are not the children of God. (Acts 2:1-4 & Heb. 10:1-20 esp. V.16 keywords: saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them AND V.20 keywords: By a new and living way) Against all the odds the veiled part of God’s everlasting covenant has held true because the physical church is in the world today. Just as God promised it would. AND: (Ezek. 37:1-21) Israel is a nation again just as God promised it would.
NOTE: In PART 2 referenced in (Isa. 14:12-14, Ezek. 28:13-17, 2Cor. 4:4 & 2Cor. 11:13-15) you have seen the illegitimate god (a counterfeit god, an antigod) Satan, the devil. In this PART 10, fifteen paragraphs above, you have seen the illegitimate son (a counterfeit first born son, an anti-first born son).
(1John 2:18) “Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now there are many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last (extreme, finally) time (opportunity, coming to a head).” Antichrist is defined: either one who puts himself in the place of Messiah (Jesus) or is the enemy of the Messiah (Jesus). Obviously, an illegitimate Messiah (counterfeit Messiah, an antichrist- one of “many antichrists”) offers some different way to heaven other than what Jesus brought or is the enemy of Jesus and Jesus’ physical people (Jews) and Jesus’ spiritual people (Christians) or is both a giver of false religion and an enemy of God’s people at the same time.
(2Cor. 11:14-15 esp. V.15 keyword: righteousness) Satan, the devil, transforms himself into “an angel of light whose message is his version of righteousness that sounds like the truth (2Cor. 4:4 keywords: the god of this world blinded the minds of them that believe not the gospel of Christ) but it is a message from the god of this world, (2Cor. 11:13-15 esp. V.15 keyword: ministers) through his ministers, and it blinds people (John 8:12) to Jesus who is the true light from God and Jesus’ message (John 1:29 & Rev. 21:22-27) brings the light of eternal life.
(Eph. 6:10-18) (V.11) The devil, Satan, (V.12 keyword: darkness) brings his (John 8:44 keywords: the devil, liar, murderer, and father of liars) message of lies and murder from darkness through his ministers and it is based on wickedness which brings eternal death to those blinded people who believe it.
In this, the last time, (Rev. 13:11-18) there is a false prophet (a counterfeit prophet) coming (2Cor. 11:13-15 esp. V.11 keywords: angel of light & v.15 keywords his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness) who will (V.11 keywords: like a lamb) be like a lamb but will speak as the (Rev. 12:9 keywords: the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan) dragon (Satan the Devil the angel of light).
He will (V.12) have the power to heal, (V.13) and he will have the power to make fire come down from heaven (Job 1:12-16) just like Satan, the devil, had the God given power to send down fire from heaven on Job’s possessions.
(V.14-15) This counterfeit prophet will deceive the people who dwell on earth by his miracles and what the beast (counterfeit Messiah) speaks and cause them to worship the counterfeit Messiah who the counterfeit prophet represents with a counterfeit message. (V.16-18) And the counterfeit prophet will cause all the people who worship the counterfeit Messiah to take the mark 666 which is the number of counterfeits and those who will not worship the image of the beast will be murdered. 666 is the number of imperfections. Imperfection is fault, deficiency, and inadequacy.
See the website www.fillthevoid.org/Apologetics/number7MikeHoggard.html This website contains Biblical information about the number seven which is far too long to include here. Seven is the Biblical number of perfection and (Luke 1:26-35, Heb. 4:15 & 1Pet. 2:22) Jesus is the perfect Son of God (John 14:6-26 esp. V.6) with the perfect message of salvation (Heb. 4:14-16) who is now the perfect High Priest, three perfections= 777. Perfection is completeness, flawless and unsurpassable. Draw your own conclusions. END OF NOTE.
Judaism, Christianity And Islam Each Claim Abraham As Their father
(Gen. 12:1-16 esp. V.3) Abraham was seventy-five years old when God made the promise of a covenant and “in thee shall all the families (people) of the earth be blessed (happy, to be envied)”. (Gen. 15:13-16) God made His prophesy of Israel’s bondage in Egypt and God made His land covenant with Abraham and his seed (child, posterity).
(Gen. 16:3 keywords: ten years) 75 + 10 = 85, and Abraham was eighty-five years old (Gen. 15:7-18) when God cut the covenant sacrifice AND (Gen. 16:3-11 esp. V.3 keywords: ten years and V.11 keyword: Ishmael) when Abraham was eighty-five, at Sarah’s request, he impregnated his wife’s Egyptian slave named Hagar (Gen. 16:16) and Abraham was eighty-six when her son Ishmael was born.
(Gen. 17:1-27) (V.24-25) Thirteen years later, when Abraham was ninety-nine years old and Ishmael was thirteen years old they were both circumcised. See: lavistachurchofchrist.org/LVanswers/2005/03-17.htm for a listing (Gen. 25:16 keyword: nations) of the “nations” Ishmael’s descendants founded
(Gen. 21:21) Ishmael, Abraham’s illegitimate son, married an Egyptian. (Gen. 28:9) Ishmael, also married the daughter of Esau who was Jacob’s twin brother. Esau and Jacob were Isaac’s twin sons and Abraham’s grandsons. For effect Ishmael had married his half-great-niece. ALSO: (Gen. 25:27-34 esp. V.34 keywords: despised his birthright) Esau was Isaac’s first born of twin sons but he sold his birthright to Jacob his second born twin brother. (Rom. 5:12-19 esp. V.17 & 1Cor. 15:20-24 esp. V.22 keywords: in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive) Isaac’s twin sons are a type of pattern concerning Adam and Jesus, transgression and obedience.
(Gen. 26:34-35) Esau married two Hittite women which was a grief to his Mother and Father, Isaac and Rebeccah. (Gen. 36:1-43) Esau also married other women and became the father of the Edomites who were located south of Israel. (Isa. 34:5-6 keyword: Idumea Hebrew definition; Edom, Jer. 49:7-18 esp. V.7 keyword: Edom and V.10 keyword: Esau, Obad. 1:6-15 esp. V.6 keyword: Esau, & Mal. 1:1-4 esp. V.3 keyword: Esau) Esau, Edom, is much in prophesy and it is not complimentary.
Sarah died (Gen. 25:1-7) and Abraham married again and also took concubines. Abraham sent the children of these unions to the east. It is obvious all these people, who were the progeny of Abraham, founded tribes and nations all over the Middle East.
Holy Quran (Koran): 2:125 Ishmael is Islam’s physical blood kin connection to Abraham.
(Gen 17:1-27 again: V.18) Abraham thought Ishmael was the promised son (V.7 the seed) BUT (V. 19 & 21) then God said the promised seed who would inherit the everlasting covenant would be born the next year and his name would be Isaac. (Gen. 26:2-5) Isaac was born and Isaac inherited God’s covenant with Abraham. (V.18-20) But, because Ishmael was Abraham’s son God had made a blessing land covenant with Ishmael that he would become a great nation through the twelve princes Ishmael would father.
Holy Bible: (Torah) Gen. 35:9-13 Jacob whom God renamed Israel is the Jew’s physical blood kin connection to Abraham and God’s covenant.
(Acts 1:6) The Jews were expecting a Messiah who would lead Israel into a physical world kingdom like their King David had accomplished in the past. BUT: (John 14:6-23, Acts 2:1-41, Rom. 2:28-29 & Eph. 2:8-9 keyword: grace and Heb. 10:1-17) Jesus fulfilled the veiled part of Abraham’s covenant through a new grace covenant (Acts 9:15, 11:1 & 18) that would also accept Gentiles (non-Jews) along with the Jews into Jesus’ grace covenant church.
Holy Bible: (New Testament) (Gal. 3:26-29 esp. V.29 keywords: And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, Luke 3:23 & 34 keyword: Jesus and V.34 keyword: Abraham then Gal. 3:6-16 esp. V.8 keywords: God would justify the heathen (defined: non-Jewish, Gentile) through faith. (Rom. 8:15-17 esp. V.15 keyword: adoption & Gal. 3:29) Christians have a spiritual blood kin connection to Abraham through Jesus’ blood.
ISLAM
https://factreal.wordpress.com…/muslim-crusades-started-four-centuries-before *** www.americanthinker.com/2005/11/the_truth_about_islamic_crusad.html *** www.answering-islam.org/Authors/Arlandson/crusades.htm *** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusades *** Games Muslims Play: The Crusades – The Religion of Peace ***
Given above are five of the huge number of websites that tell how, who, what, why, where and when Islam performed crusades (jihad, holy war) against the pre-Arabic tribes and the Christian world starting more than four hundred years before Christianity mounted their crusades against the Islamic world. This starts the discussion with honesty. All three religions shed somebody else’s blood in the name of their God be He named Jehovah, God/Jesus or Allah.
MOHAMMAD’S WORLD
Mohammad was born 570AD and died 632AD. We must briefly examine Mohammad’s world in the time frame of his life.
Political World
The nations who had come to world (middle East) domination were 880-620BC Assyrians, then 612-539BC Babylonians, then 529-500BC Persians, then 490-323BC Greeks and then 254 BC to 476-787AD the Romans. BUT: The Roman Empire split into two parts in 395AD. When Rome was destroyed by the Germanic tribes in 476AD it was no longer an expanding, conquering nation.
476 AD the Western Roman Empire ends when Rome is conquered by the Germanic tribes. 395AD-787AD The Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine), with Constantinople as its capital, and their orthodox Christian church lasted 311 years longer than the western Roman Empire. These are approximate times. The overlaps in years and the missing years were while various conquering nations were fighting for domination. The religious aspect of the Roman Empire will be explained below.
Religious World: Israel/Judah: Judaism
There were Jewish enclaves in all the above nations and their vassal states. These Jewish enclaves were founded by members of the northern ten tribes named Israel when they were taken away as slaves. All the nations worshipped idols of one type or another and, generally, they did not care if the Jews wanted to worship some invisible God.
There are two main accounts concerning the disappearance of Judah (Israel, Judaea), the southern two tribes. They disappeared in 70AD or from 70 to 135AD. BUT: Jewish history (Jewish Virtual Library) states the final disappearance (diaspora) of the Jews (Judah) occurred in 73AD. The when matters very little because Israel disappeared. SO:
The Greek domination of Judah had been despicable but the Roman conquerors were a horror story and the Jews revolted. To sum it up (Josephus’ record) more than a million Jews and Christians were killed, Jerusalem was burned, the temple was burned, the temple building stones were hauled away, the temple location was plowed and salted, the remaining Jews were taken away as slaves, and the name Judaea (Latin for Judah) was replaced (Isa. 14:29-32 esp. V.29 and 31 keyword: Palestina & Joel 3:4-7 esp. V.4 keyword: Palestine) with Palestina (Latin for Palestine- also a Biblical name for the west coast of Canaan) on all Roman maps.
These Jews were eventually disbursed throughout various Middle East, Northern Africa and Southern European nations that had been conquered by the Roman Empire.
Over the hundreds of years until the time of Mohammad various Jews had been granted freedom by their masters, won their freedom through some great service to their adopted country, or had bought their freedom. Basically, through their generations the Jews had banded together in Jewish communities in various nations and had kept their Jewish religion and method of worship free from outside influence. Of course, a few Jews here and there had intermarried with Gentiles and had accepted Pagan faiths. In Mohammad’s lifetime the existence of a nation named Israel/Judah was ancient history but Judaism was a reality.
NOTE: Please take time to read this. A complete, detailed study of the early Church and its slide into and struggle out of apostasy can be found in the second article of the Introduction to the Sin in Church commentary. END OF NOTE.
Religious World: Church: Christianity
The apostle Paul founded churches in several Near Eastern Pagan nations and finally founded a church in Rome which grew rapidly. When Christianity first came to Rome it was an entirely Pagan society bent on the military conquest of all the tribes and budding nations they met. At the beginning, the Roman Government saw Christianity as a Jewish sect. BUT:
Persecution of the church started in 64AD under Caesar Nero and the apostles Paul and Peter were killed during that time. The persecution continued under various Caesars’ until 312AD when General Constantine had a vision of the cross in a dream, made it his Legions’ Symbol and won a great battle against Emperor Maxentius in which Constantine became the sole Emperor of Rome and he claimed that event as his “Christian “experience”. Emperor Constantine made Christianity the state sponsored religion.
Starting with Constantine and, over time, under different Caesars, the pagans and their temples of worship were outlawed and the pagans were persecuted unless they “converted” to Christianity. They brought their temple wealth with them and many pagans professed Christianity (John 3:3-8, 2Cor. 5:17-21 & Col. 2:8-14) but had no true change of heart and they introduced parts of their pagan worship into the Christian Church services. Constantine also inserted certain political elements into the church such as selling church positions of control to the highest bidder, selling prayers, relics, icons, praying people out of hell and etc. Everything had a price.
In the two hundred and fifty year persecution of the church by whatever Caesar was in power the strong, unbending Christians had been murdered when they refused to swear a covenant to Caesar SO: the Visible Church was spiritually weaker and was an easy mark for the apostasy that was consuming it.
Upon seeing the heresy, paganism, greed, lust and political affiliation corrupting the Church; Augustine (354-430AD), Latin theologian, Bishop of Hippo Regius, from the Africa Province (present day Algeria) of the Roman Empire wrote a paper about the need for humility by the Church based on the scripture; “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.” He also wrote about divine grace, moral responsibility and the free will of the individual.
The visible Romanized church (the forerunner of the Catholic church) refused to listen to Augustine because they had developed their own list of rituals and their own list of behaviors.
There were small, hidden groups of Dissenter Christians (the forerunners of the Protestant church) scattered throughout the Roman empire including northern Africa, southern Europe and the Middle East who had copies of at least some of the original OT And NT Biblical texts. As time went on educated Dissenters made more and more copies of whatever they had and passed them on to new Dissenter churches.
In the groups of the Dissenter Christians those educated men who could read the original Biblical texts helped the churches keep the Biblical Word in its purity (John 14:23-26, Rom. 8:9 and Eph. 1:13-14) through the power of the Holy Spirit. They met in secret and worshipped God according to the instructions given in the Holy Scriptures. When members of this hidden church were discovered by the visible, apostate Romanized church they were usually tortured then murdered by burning alive, crucifixion or hanging. They were willing to die for their belief.
Look at the internet available maps of the Roman Empire in the year 600 and you will see the extent of the Roman Empire that had conquered various societies, tribes and emerging nations. The visible, Romanized, apostate church went right along with the Roman legions and they established churches in these conquered pagan lands.
Beyond the borders of the Roman Empire various tribes and peoples worshipped their myriad pagan idols and gods and goddesses of the imagination but the visible, Romanized church continued to spread among them and went further than the Roman Legions had ever dreamed of going.
The visible, Romanized, apostate church, “arrayed in purple and scarlet colors, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand that was filled with the abominations and filthiness of her fornication,” sprawled like “the mother of harlots” across many tribes, peoples and nations.
The hidden Dissenter Church clutched its sacred readings, worshipped God in secret and remained hidden but it too was spreading throughout the Roman Empire and beyond. In Mohammad’s lifetime (570-632 AD) the existence of the burgeoning, spiritual church of Peter and Paul’s time was ancient history but Christianity of one sort or the other was a reality.
Religious World: Idolatry– mythology: Pagans
(Gen. 1:1 thru 2:7 & Col. 1:16) “all things were created by him and for him:” Man was created by God and for God so it a natural, normal and compelling thing within mankind to worship something by whatever list of rituals and list of behaviors to get to his religion’s individual idea of heaven whether it be Valhalla, Asgard, the Happy Hunting Ground, the Fields of Hotep, Pure Land, Buyan, Avalon, Olympus or whatever.
These ancient Pagan religions usually held to some view of what we know as hell. It was usually a concept of an underworld described as a mysterious, gloomy realm of the dead associated with caves or holes in the earth and sometimes even under water and usually associated with punishment because they had violated their religion’s list of rituals and list of behaviors (sins). In Mohammad’s lifetime the existence of paganism in every direction was also a reality.
www.provethebible.net/T2-Hist/Islam-10-jihad-1200.htm According to this website Mohammad started his Islamic group in Mecca which was the center of an idol worshipping pre-Arabic tribe. They persecuted Mohammad and his followers. The Islamic group fled to idol worshipping Medina where they were accepted. They accepted Mohammad’s religion, over time they grew stronger and more numerous. Then after three wars Mohammad led them back and conquered Mecca. The survivors of Mecca accepted Islam as their faith. It was Mohammad’s first crusade (jihad, holy war).
My website provider provides web space in 65,750 bytes per article. I would have preferred to finish exploring Mohammad’s world in one article but there was not enough space SO Part 11 will continue the examination of the world in Mohammad’s lifetime with the examination of “The Spiritual World”.