© 2012 Church of God Faithful Flock
September 7 - September 12, 2012
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Dear Brethren,
For the Comments this time I am copying the introduction from the booklet, The Ten Commandments that is in its final stages of being completed by me.
Your friend,
Don Billingsley
Introduction
The 10 Commandments
God is Spirit! And there is a Spirit world! Though it is invisible to mankind, it is a world that is far more real than this physical world of matter; a world in which we as human beings are blessed to have the experience of human life, and with it, the potential of eternal life as members of God’s Spirit Family.
Perhaps 12 to 15 billions of years ago, the Almighty God in heaven above, through His incredible awesome creative powers, instantly brought into existence the physical Universe, the heavens and the earth.
Scripture records this awesome miraculous event:
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1).
“… All things were made through Him (that is, through Jesus Christ by the Father), and without Him nothing was made that was made” (John 1:1).
“Of old You laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of Your hands” (Psalm 102:24)
Thus says the LORD, “The Holy One of Israel, and his Maker … I have made the earth, and CREATED man on it. It was I — My hands that stretched out the heavens, and all their host I have commanded” (Isaiah 45:11-12).
Further this Great and ever-living God tells mankind:
“I am the LORD (Hebrew: YHWH) and there is NO other, there is NO God (Hebrew: Elohim) besides Me” (Isaiah 45:5).
The BIG BANG Theory
Scientists of recent years have come to believe this physical universe of matter came into existence billions of years ago with A BIG BANG!
Possibly their belief is valid due to what can be seen from the following Scriptures:
“Let everyone in all the world – men, women and children – FEAR the LORD and stand in AWE of Him. For when HE BUT SPOKE, the world began! IT APPEARED AT HIS COMMAND” (Psalm 33:8-9, The Living Bible).
“… For He commanded and they were [instantly]created” (Psalm 148:5).
The material Universe instantly appeared from ‘non-existence’ at His command.
From Where Did Matter Come?
The answer to this question is given by God through the apostle Paul who makes known that all matter came into existence from Spirit essence:
“By faith we understand that the worlds were created, beautifully coordinated, and now exist, AT GOD’S COMMAND; so the things we SEE did NOT develop out of mere matter (‘things that are visible’, Hebrews 11:3, Williams Translation)
The Greek verb– ‘exist’: means to create and coordinate in symmetry – perfect – the result, they now exist.
Note: The worlds were created from invisible, intangible, non-physical essence – out of Spirit into atoms and molecules. An atom is a tiny universe of energy.
When considering the infinite, as well as the infinitesimal of God’s creative works, they speaks volumes of the incredible greatness of the awesome power of the eternal God, who has always existed, cannot be compared, and is beyond the limitations of mankind’s comprehension:
“To whom then will your liken Me, or to whom shall I be equal?” says the Holy One. Lift UP your eyes ON HIGH and see who has CREATED those things, who brings out their host (stars) by number; He calls them (stars) all by name by the GREATNESS of His might and the strength of His power; not one is missing” (Isaiah 40:25).”
“It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in” (Isaiah 40:22).
How Is The Physical Creation Held Together?
The question arises as to how this awesome universe retains its perfect order?
The simple answer: ‘the laws of God.’ It is held together by and through the invisible and inexorable laws of the Creator God, as made known by the apostle Paul:
“… upholding all things BY THE WORD OF HIS POWER …(Hebrews 1:1-3).
“And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist (held together, Colossians 1:17).
To stress the vital importance of the laws of God upholding this physical universe, please note the following comments from a very worthwhile book to read.
WHY WE BELIEVE IN CREATION AND NOT IN EVOLUTION, by Fred John Meldau, page 56 –
… “A writer in ‘Popular Science’ writes an article on Balancing the Heavens, in which he speaks of – ‘The apparently purposeful and deliberate movements of other heavenly bodies like the planets.” ‘He explains that ‘the movements of the stars and comets and meteors, as well as of the planets and the satellites of the planets, result from the uniform workings of mechanical laws.’”
‘The billions of stars, planets and their satellites are all BALANCED between the force of ‘gravitation’ and the law of ‘inertia’ which states that matter will persist in a state of rest, but when once it is put in motion it tends to keep going at the same rate and in the same direction, unless acted upon by some external force.’ GRAVITATION pulls the stars toward their center or nucleus – and toward each other; INERTIA – after once the stars have been put in motion – keeps them in motion, and in a regular orbit determined by the pull of gravity.”
From one vast center, one tremendous nucleus, the Almighty controls the universe! While many modern scientists ignore God, they do at the expense of true logic and sound reasoning. A system as vast and as intricate and as involved and as orderly as our UNIVERSE demands not only a Supreme Architect, but also an Almighty Creator and an Omnipotent Superintendent to keep it going.
We have spoken on the law of GRAVITATION and the law of INERTIA. There are scores of other ‘laws’ in the universe that are perfect and necessary to make up this vast universe. All students of astronomy are familiar with Kepler’s three laws of perpetual motion. There are laws of motion, laws of heat, laws of light, laws of sound – and all are PERFECT, never changing, never failing.
Rear Admiral D. V. Gallery (USN); writing in the Saturday Evening Post, said, “The stars … in their orbits and velocities through the heavens faithfully follow a great code of LAW. Earth’s scientists can quote and explain this code in great detail – until you ask, “Whence came these laws?”
And scientists have FAITH in the laws of the universe. They predict the coming of comets into our solar system years before we see the comet – then they predict its return at some future date – and they do so unfailingly, because the laws of the Universe are unfailing! [Halley’s Comet – every 65 years]
Professor Einstein said in “The World As I See it”:
“The scientists religious feeling takes the form of a rapturous amazement at the ‘Harmony of Natural Law’, which reveals an Intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and setting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection” (page 29).”
The Almighty and Ever-Living God
It is the Almighty God who created this material Universe! In so doing, He gave the tremendous powerful PUSH by His spoken word:
Our Wonder World, Volume 1, The World and its People, Page 29, ‘The Open Book of the Heavens’:
“The beginning of this world: If the planets were at rest, if they were not moving at all, they would have been drawn right into the sun by the force of gravitation (the power of gravitation—that marvelous, invisible bond everywhere present, working through all space, which keeps the planets under the control of the sun, page 28). They are going at a tremendous speed. Even this earth of ours is rushing through space at a rate of nineteen miles a second . . . all the planets are moving, some three or four miles a second, and others even faster than we. Now it is one of the laws of this universe, which we cannot explain, but which we know, that any object which is moving will keep moving in a straight line unless something interferes with it.
“In the beginning God made the world, and set it off by a first impulse (created and set in motion by God’s awesome power by His spoken word) John1:1-3, The Living Bible (also Colossians 1:16-17; Psalm 33:8-9,) . . . at some remote age, this world, probably very different from what it is now, together with the other planets, was sent spinning off into space on its age-long journey. But the first force which started the worlds into space [God through the power of His Holy Spirit, His Spirit essence] followed this law of motion and gave them the impulse to go in a straight line.”
Manmade Satellites
In a similar manner by contrast the manmade satellites that are now out in space were given the push by rocket boosters to lift and send them to their pre-determined positions for their use by mankind.
With the passage of time, due to the law of the gravitational pull from the earth, they will lose altitude and fall back to earth. Not so with the Universe for God’s laws keep it functioning precisely in the manner in which He designed it. And it continues to consist (exist) by the Word of His Power, His laws.
It should be seen from both Scripture and from a scientific point of view, as the above quote made by Professor Einstein, the laws of God are at work within the Universe faithfully fulfilling the function and purpose of the giver of law, the Most High God of the Universe (James 4:12).
And it clearly reveals its Creator and Sustainer as the Almighty and Ever-living God whose never-changing laws are always in motion and in harmony with each other fulfilling His purpose within His physical creation!
In contrast, to violate just the law of gravity from a high distance can result in the death of a human being when violently meeting up with the law of inertia. As an example, numerous people have committed suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California and in many other places.
And many others die from accidents due to being caught between these two laws in an unlawful manner.
Spiritual Laws
God also has SPIRITUAL LAWS in perpetual motion that when violated will bring suffering in this life and eventual death in the Lake of Fire! Romans 7:14. However this can be avoided when there is real heartfelt repentance, meaning, a genuine and godly sorrow expressed to Him for having violated His holy and righteous laws.
However repentance has to be followed by a real and lasting concerted effort of a turnaround from going the wrong way and transgressing His holy and righteous laws to walking within those living and unyielding laws of God.
This rather lengthy introduction leads into the very important broad-based Spiritual laws that He has given to mankind to keep him in a way of life that will produce every good and worthwhile blessing.
The 10 Basic Spiritual Laws of God
The following chapters of this booklet will make known the 10 basic Spiritual laws that reflect God’s perfect and flawless Character.
They are all important for they form the basis for all of His laws that are designed to keep one in His way of life with purpose and goal. And to enable one to reach that goal, His laws point out the way that will in the future make possible the fulfilling and rewarding way of life:
“The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul; . . . moreover by them Your servant is warned, and in keeping them there is great reward” (Psalm 19:7, 11; Romans 3:20).
With this introduction of the Creator God in the foregoing, and having His physical and spiritual laws in mind, let us consider the very first and greatest of His 10 Commandments.
To be continued