Broadlands Bible Church
August 24, 2022
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Introduction: In our last study we picked up on the question of why we have a Bible and what substituted for one before the Bible was produced. Our thesis was that we have a Bible because God actually loves us and gave us a "more specific revelation" than what could be found in "general revelation". But, we did that study to include the fact that Moses began to write Genesis somewhere around 1300 to 1500 years before Christ came, but there were 2500 years of human history before Moses. The question was, if God loves us and gave us a "more specific revelation", what about those who never had a written Bible? Did God not "love" them?
We saw that God did not leave Himself without a witness to those who had no organized, written, specific revelation: He gave "revelation" to men by Enoch (as our Bible testifies to us in Jude 14-15 ). Additionally, we are told by Josephus that Seth originated the organization of the stellar heavens into a set of 12 major "houses" of the stars that sit in the path of the Sun in its annual trek through the heavens. To these 12 major "houses", he gave names. He began with "Virgo" and concluded with "Leo". These were "theological names" that correspond to his understanding of the truths that God gave to him. In this compilation of "houses", he collected three additional constellations for each of the major constellations that sit upon the ecliptic of the path of the sun. Thus, there were a total of 48 constellations in Seth's organization of the stellar heavens. And, because he collected the major constellations according to the same "concepts" that are found in Ezekiel and The Book of the Revelation, we are, more or less, compelled to conclude that God had revealed to the ancients the basic theology of the Christ that we now have in a written Bible. The constellations were used by Seth to teach his generation this theology and it was his intention that each succeeding generation of men would pass that theology on to their generations.
However, as is revealed in our Bible, those generations perverted the teachings of Seth and turned them into false theologies that ended up producing the mythologies that were prominent in their days. The polytheism of the Greeks and Romans was the result because, as our Bibles testify, men persistently turn away from the truth of God and begin to worship the "creature rather than the Creator". To this Stephen testified on the day of his martyrdom as given in Acts 7:39-43 . To this also we have Moses' words when he recorded the words of Balaam who mentioned some of the "banner flags" of the tribes and identified them in accordance with Seth's "pictorial organization" of the stellar heavens (Numbers 23:22 -- "the wild Ox" -- (Taurus); Numbers 23:24 -- "As a Lion lifts itself up..." and "As a Lion" again in 24:9 - (Leo); Numbers 24:7 -- "water shall flow from his buckets -- (Aquarius); and Numbers 24:8 -- "He is for him like the horns of the wild Ox -- (Taurus, again).
Thus, we have a "word" made more sure because it is a written record and much more difficult to twist into something else.
- I. God IS, HAS SPOKEN, And LOVES.
- A. These are the basic requirements upon man to "please" God: Hebrews 11:6.
- 1. A biblical perspective requires "faith", and "faith" requires a legitimate revelation from God (which we now have in written form).
- 2. A "legitimate revelation from God" automatically posits the infinite existence of God (the "is" is the enduring present which always "is").
- 3. And the legitimate meaning of the legitimate revelation is that God "rewards" (the essential character of "Love").
- B. These are most fundamental as aspects of "a biblical perspective".
- II. Man Is A Creature of Eternity.
- A. The revelation of a biblical perspective includes a legitimate understanding of man's "eternality".
- 1. He is not "infinite", but his existence is never to cease.
- a. There are multiple biblical texts and concepts that establish man's everlasting existence.
- 1) There is a distinction in the Bible between "everlasting existence" and "everlasting Life".
- 2) The doctrine of "resurrection from the realm of physical death" is fundamental to verses like John 5:29 and Daniel 12:2 and, according to 1 Corinthians 15, is such a fundamental doctrine of "The Faith" that it is entirely inconsistent to call oneself "a believer" if the faith does not include resurrection.
- 3) The enduring existence of men, in both Heaven and The Lake of Fire, is plainly declared in verses like Revelation 20:4 and 20:10 when compared to Revelation 19:20.
- b. There is also the illogic of the sometimes popularity of the "doctrine" of annihilationism.
- 1) Annihilationism is, perhaps, the most comfortable "doctrine" of those who do not believe.
- 2) The urgency of the proclamation of "salvation" is completely undercut by such nonsense.
- 2. The "red herring" that God cannot be a "God of Love" if He is the author of unending torment.
- a. This is a total misunderstanding of "The Love of The God".
- b. The Bible also presents a "perspective" of God that includes "explosive hatred".
- B. The "Gospel", Itself, Is Completely Undermined If Man Is Not Created Unto Everlasting Endurance.
