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Adam all die, even so in Christ shall
all be made alive.... And so it is
written , The first man Adam was
made a living soul; the last Adam
was made a qui c keni ng s pir–
it. ... The fi rst man is of the earth,
earthy: the second man is the Lord
from heaven.... And as we have
borne the image of the earthy, we
shall also bear the image of the
heavenly" ( 1 Cor. 15:21-22,45,47,
49).
J esus carne to pay the penalty of
death in our stead: " For the wages
of sin is death" ( Rom. 6:23, first
half) . He tasted death for every
man, purging our sins ( Heb. 1:3) so
that we could become "sons" of
God (Heb. 2:9- 10).
God does care for us. He has
given those whom he calls to a
knowledge of his truth access once
again to the Holy Spirit through
Jesus Christ. You have the oppor–
tunity to choose life through this
second Adam, Christ.
God's whole motivation has been
to give us life, real life, eterna! life.
He didn't put man on this earth to
live in misery and suffering. We
were made in God's very image.
We were put on t h is earth to
choose to share in God's existence,
with God, as God. Can you grasp
it? God 's plan forman is forman to
become like God- in character, in
mind, in very nature. This tremen–
dous potential is explained in our
free booklet
Why Were You Born?
Fully understanding this knowl–
edge can change your life!
God will not, however, give his
eterna! existence and God-Power to
everyone indiscriminately. Godly
character must be built and estab–
lished first.
It
cannot be created by
divine fi at. Godly character must be
built through a process of choosing,
and will ingly, knowingly, choosing
what is r ight as opposed to what is
wrong, according to God's own stan–
dard of right and wrong.
That 's why Adam and Eve were
given a choice. That 's why Satan
was allowed to enter the garden in
Eden and pull them the other way.
God required that Adam and Eve
resis t the devi l and overcome his
wiles, and in so doing establ ish
right character. They didn't, as we
have read. Nor has mankind since.
So God allowed them to make
wrong choices, if that was what
June/ July 1982
they wanted to do. The results are
heartrending sutfering and misery.
God chose not to force man to
build godly character.
If
he forced
us to choose correctly, we wouldn't
be building character! We would be
like robots. Man therefore has had
to learn the hard way, through suf–
fering and disobedience- and we
have not learned the lesson yet. But
that time will come! Sooner for
sorne, Iater for others.
In Acts 2 we read how the apos–
tle Peter brought this fact to the
attention of t hose in J erusalem .
When sorne of them realized what
their sins had caused- the death
and sacrifice of righteous Jesus, the
Messiah- they asked , " What shall
we do?" Peter's answer remains the
same for us today: " Repent."
In other words, stop sinning, stop
breaking God's law, "and be bap–
tized every one of you in the name
of Jesus Chris t for the remission of
sins, and ye shall receive the gift of
the Holy [Spi rit]" (Acts 2:37-38).
lf you do what Peter admonishes,
you will be choosing the way of the
tree of life. You will receive God's
Spirit and attitude of mind, giving
you the desi re to walk with God the
way God wants you to, the way he
himself walks. Your mind will grad–
ually become like his. A whole new
way of life, character-building life,
will open up to you.
Once you choose correctly you
will receive a peace of mind that
"passeth all understanding" (Phil.
4:7) . No obstacle that may befall
you will separate you from God's
tremendous purpose for you. You ' ll
be able to say, like Paul : "For 1 am
persuaded, that neither death, nor
life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor
things to come, nor height, nor
depth, nor any other creature, shall
be able to separate us from the love
of God, which is in Christ Jesus
our Lord" (Rom. 8:38-39).
As for the world, the time is
coming when God will intervene in
human atfairs-but not until man
reaches that place that no human
life would survive except God does
intervene (Matt. 24:22, Moffatt
translation) . Only then wi ll human
beings be willing to listen and to
submit to God's government and
his laws that will bring us health,
happiness and peace. o
(Con tinued from page 12)
scienti fic discovery."
Later it may be disproved by
subsequent fact from actual discov–
ery, but somehow, in respect to its
god (science), newspapermen are
too often discreetly quiet as to
scienti fic blunder.
The Bible says that a day is com–
ing when God will again intervene
and save this world from destroying
itself. Then science will be put in
its proper place. This intervention
will come suddenly, at a time and
in a way that science does not
expect.
One day, all scientists shall come
face to face with their Creator and
sudd~nly
be forced to receive
knowledge that they have deliber–
ately ignored. Mouths will drop
open, knees will shake.
l f God has chosen to hide him–
self from his creation because that
creation refuses to acknowledge
and obey him, does that make him
any less the C reator and the one in
control? See Isaiah 8:17 and 45 :15
and 54:8.
God has revealed in man y
places throughout the Bible that
in an appointed time he is going
to return and forcibly take over
the control of this earth. He will
smash all opposition and utterly
d o away with a ll t hose who
des pi se him and refuse t o
acknowledge who he is and what
he is (Rev.
19:11 ~2 1).
And that means narrow-minded
sc ientists who, in the ir great
exalted vanity, declare that none
can know whether God exists–
men who like to believe they
themselves posse ss the highes t
intelligence in t his universe-men
so busy struggling to exalt them–
selves that they refuse to acknowl–
edge that these wonderful , com–
plicated, involved, but pe rfect ly
orderly, beauti fu l laws that they
are discoveri ng, had to be c reated
and set in motion by a mind infi–
nitely greater than theirs.
God l s Still Creating
As is pointed out in lsaiah 64:8,
we are the clay, and God is our
Potter. We are the works of his
ha nd , a nd , as Ephes ian s 2: 1
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