The Greatest Love Ever Shown? [Part 3]

In my last post we looked @ how the Bible defined God's Almighty power.

Remember, God being Almighty doesn't mean that He can do everything...it means He can do anything He desires to do...anything within His perfect, holy nature.

God CANNOT, lie, be tempted by any evil, and God cannot deny Himself [He cannot cease being God, nor can He make another copy of Himself].

Now, that we have this firmly in our minds, we can move on to other things.

The Jehovah's Witnesses teach that Jesus is NOT the Almighty God. That Jesus is NOT the second Person of the Trinity. That Jesus is NOT eternal.

They teach that Jesus is a created being. Sure they go on to say that Jesus is the greatest "created being", that Jesus is the "highest" of all created beings...BUT...nonetheless...

...they teach that Jesus is a created being...and NOT God!

...then they go on to tell us that Jehovah God sending Jesus to die for our sins...

...Is the Greatest Love Ever Shown!

This is the question that I want us to ask ourselves...is it the greatest love ever shown? If, so...then why?

I do not believe that the Jehovah's Witnesses false gospel is a sign of love at all. I speak in strong words because these people are deceiving many people, and are diligently fighting against the true gospel, which truly is the greatest love ever shown...let me show you what I mean...

We have already seen that the Jehovah's Witnesses teaching on God reveals that He really isn't essentially love...because He existed for all eternity past alone...with no one to love...proving that God isn't love...and He can get along fine without anyone else.

Next, we will see that this God created the first and greatest being of all creation [according to their teaching], Jehovah created Jesus.

The J.W's teach that Jesus is an angelic being!

Now here is my problem. How does Jehovah show His great love...by sending this created being to come and suffer for my sins?

What sacrifice is this to Jehovah? What cost is it to Him? Where is the love?

God creates this being out of thin air...a being that He got along without just fine for all eternity...and sends this created being to come and suffer?

This is where the J.W's will say that Jesus was special, one of a kind. But to answer them Biblically...only God is One of a kind. God CANNOT create Himself...but that is where His restrictions end!

If Jesus was only a created being...then God could create a billion beings exactly like Jesus...with the same look, the same talk, the same personality.

In the J.W's world, Jesus is special, only because they haven't worked out their biblical theology to its end conclusion.

According to the Jehovah's Witnesses teaching God isn't love and He really didn't show any love by sending Jesus to suffer and die for lost sinners.

In their teachings Jesus really is no greater a sacrifice then the millions of sheep that where offered in the Old Testament!

God existed just fine without the sheep and Jesus, for all eternity!

God created the tens of thousands of sheep that were slaughtered in the Old Testament, and God also created millions, if not billions of angelic beings...in which Jesus was just one out many!

The false teachings of the Jehovah's Witness cult actually distorts and destroys the biblical teaching of love.

Next time, we will compare the Bible's teachings on God's love to that of the J.W's...and we will see if there is truly a greater love shown...then that of the J.W's gospel.

p.s- There is a greater love...and it is infinitely greater...truly good news!

The Greatest Love Ever Shown? [Part 2]

Sometimes people will play philosophical games when they try and disprove God.

They will ask silly questions like... "If God is All Powerful, then could He build a rock so large that He couldn't lift it?"

The people who ask these questions think that they out thought the ALL Wise God...but they really haven't thought much at all!

They are defining what All powerful means...then they are asking God to jump through the hoops...let me explain.

They define "all powerful" as the ability to do anything...and therefore if God couldn't create a rock so big that He couldn't lift it...THEN...He isn't all powerful!

BUT...if God could create a rock so large that He couldn't lift it...THEN...He would still prove to be NOT all powerful...because He couldn't lift it.

The difficulty with this type of questioning...is that God doesn't define "all powerful" as the ability to do anything...period.

The Bible defines God's Almighty power as the ability to do anything He desires to do.

There are things, that God reveals to us in the Bible, that God cannot do! But when you look at these things...they do not weaken Him...or take away from His great power...but magnify it!

God cannot be tempted by evil, God cannot lie, God cannot deny Himself...these are things that God cannot do...and things that God does not want to do.

God's character is unchangingly perfect...and therefore has absolutely no evil in Him to such a pure state that evil CANNOT tempt Him...

God is TRUTH...He is the fountain of truth...the source of truth...and because this is His character...and His character is unchanging...then we conclude from this...that God CANNOT lie!

God is the sole source of life! He is self existent, totally independant, and has existed for all eternity. God CANNOT cease being who HE is.

God CANNOT...nor does HE desire to cease being God...nor could God create another Being exactly like Himself...who was also equally God [the reasons for this should be obvious, the created being would not be eternal, and it therefore would not know all things...and would not be self existent and independant...etc.]

These are some things that the Bible says God CANNOT do...and they magnify and exalt God's great power!

Other then the things that God Himself reveals...God's power is unrestricted.

It is very important for us to understand this...because it will help us understand how great the love of the Jehovah's Witnesses God really is.

Sorry for dragging this out...but I have to get ready for work...so we will have to continue at a later date...

The Greatest Love Ever Shown? [Part 1]

A few years back...right before Easter...I found a religious tract in the mailbox.

It was Titled, "The Greatest Love Ever Shown!"...or something really close to that...the one problem I had with the literature is that I knew the religious teachings of the cult that was trying to spread their beliefs.

The Jehovah's Witnesses teach that Jesus Christ was a created being. Yes, they say, he is the highest and greatest created being...but in the end...he is a creature...and NOT the Creator God!

So, what is this greatest love ever shown by God...according to the Jehovah's Witnesses?

Before we answer this question...we need to honestly and quickly look at their view of God...which effects their view of love.

The J.W's believe that before God decided to create anything...including Jesus [remember this is their view...not mine]...that He existed for all eternity past...alone!

This is very important...please don't miss it!

The Jehovah's Witnesses...and every other Christian cult...along with the other world religions...deny the Bibles teaching on the Trinity.

The biblical teaching of the Trinity is quickly brushed off by man's proud little mind...because it is a mysterious, wonderful truth that goes beyond man's capacity to fully grasp...apart from faith that is...

The Bible's teaching on the Trinity shows that there has existed for all eternity...One God...and within the Being God...there has existed Three distinct Persons...the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Each of the Persons is fully God...and not one third of God...and yet there is only one God...aaaccckkk...goes the brain...as it snaps with all the tension!

Here's the catch...the Bible also clearly teaches that God IS love. Note, that it doesn't say that God is loving...God reveals Himself TO BE...LOVE.

But...love is an action word...the Bible clearly teaches that it isn't enough to merely talk love...true love expresses itself in doing... giving and doing good to others!

So, here is the big question to the cults...if God IS LOVE...then before He created anything...including Jesus [not my belief, I believe that Jesus is the eternal God, the second Person of the Trinity]...who or what did He love?

Answer- There was nothing to love...God was all by Himself...and shows that He really isn't essentially love...because He existed for all eternity past without loving anything or anyone.

According to the cults...God could be God without anyone else...and therefore is essentially "unlove".

Yes, He might be Almighty...but all loving? Eternity past begs to differ.

I will continue the second part of this thought in a few days...

Green Eggs and Ham

No, I am not going to share about Dr. Suess...I am still talking about our sin..sorry to get your hopes up.

But we will talk about something that Dr. Suess wrote about...green eggs and ham...but we will come to a different conclusion.

At the end of Dr. Suess' book the green eggs and ham were pretty tasty...in real life...I am pretty sure that we all know that if eggs or ham are green...then this means that they have spoiled very badly...and not only would they taste bad...they would be bad for you!

What does this have to do with sin?

The last time we looked at sin, we saw how the Jews of the Old Testament, who did not live by faith in God's revealed word...and the promised Messiah to come, would have viewed their sins, and God's love as something very small because sin could be paid for by an animals life...and God's self sacrificing love would be small or none...well...because their was no self sacrifice...God just sent an animal.

But many non Jewish moderns...today...should not shake their fingers at the Israelites of old...because they actually have a worse offering to present before God...while at the same time...leaving God, a loveless Being who does nothing to set people free from sin.

Many people today, think that they can sin...and then to try to make it right, they just try to do a few good things here and there, offer a few dollars to a charity, be polite, kind, try and be fairly honest on the tax forms...

If someone offered to cook you a two egg omelet...but you noticed that the eggs were rotten...would you accept the offer?

And if you declined...and the person counter-offered by telling you that they could add a few more eggs...would that make it a more appealing offer?

Of course not! The eggs are bad! Making the offering bad!

The Bible tells that when the first man, Adam, rebelled and sinned against God, that he plunged the whole human race into sin.

He was the human races representative...and as our rep...he blew it!

When Adam fell into sin...all of us fell. This is why no one had to teach us to be selfish...no one had to teach us how to lie to cover our sins...no one had to teach us how to rebel against authority...no one had to teach us to look for number 1 [self]...all of these things come naturally because we are born sinful.

We are not sinners because we sin...we sin because we are sinners.

If I took an apple from my frigde and duct taped it to a pine tree...the pine tree doesn't all of a sudden become an apple try...but an apple tree does produce apples.

So, when we sin against God...and then think that we are going to try and offer our good works before God to undue all the bad stuff...all we are doing is adding more bad eggs to the omelete.

We view our sin as something so little...that we don't even see it mingled in our good works...and again we see God as so unloving...that He doesn't do anything to free us from our sin...He just accepts and eats green eggs and ham...

The Highest Bidder

How great is the debt that you owe God because of your sin?

If you were an Old Testament Jew...who did NOT live by faith...then you would think the debt you owed God was something...really not that great...very insignificant.

Why do I say that? Because of the payment that you would have to make to bring you back into a right standing with God would be the death of a mere animal!

You buy one sheep to cook for supper, and one sheep to pay for your sins.

Do notice, that the payment for supper and for sin is both within the power of the person...and that the payment for your sins was really no greater than the payment you would make to fill your stomach.

Do also notice that I said that this would be the case only for the Israelite who was not living by faith...an Israelite who lived by faith saw that the animal sacrifices of the Mosaic law system...pointed ahead in time to the great sacrifice of their Messiah.

So, if you were an Israelite not living by faith, you would see your sin as something very small, very insignificant...and you would see God's love as something that was also small and insignificant.

Why would I say this?

If God said that my sin could be atoned for by mere animal blood, then my sin must be something very small...because tens of thousands of animals die daily for food, clothing and other common needs also.

And if God could pay for my sin by creating an animal [remember, God spoke the universe into existence] and have "it" die for my sin...what real sacrifice or act of love is that from God?

So if you were an Old Testament Israelite you would see your sin and God's love both as things that were fairly small...

...but you would be horribly mistaken!