RESPONSIBILITY: OF GOD AND MAN

Theme: “The LORD shall establish thee an holy people unto himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, and walk in his ways.” Deut.28:9

     What GOD promised in His covenant with the children of Israel He promises to any nation or individual who comes under the protective jurisdiction of His Holy Law, the Ten Commandments. It is only under His Holy Ten Commandment Law that GOD has the legal right to intervene and overrule the authority and jurisdiction of Satan, for Satan stands outside of their boundaries and publicly detests their authority. And he uses every opportunity to get men to transgress them and thus claim them as his prey. But those who live out their lives within their boundaries, Satan has no power to claim their souls to share his destruction, as it was shown to the prophet Zechariah:

“And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. And the LORD said unto Satan, The LORD rebuke thee, O Satan; even the LORD that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel. And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.” Zech.3:1-4.

     This begs the question, “Why then do so many righteous people perish? And why doesn’t GOD save each and every one from the injustice of murder and betrayal?” The short answer: Satan, as “the prince of this world” has certain claims, and it is under these that sin must be allowed to play out its hand on the Earth, even to its full destruction (Isa.24).

     But within this framework there are some questions whose answers will only come to light in the millennial judgment, as the saints review the history of sin on the Earth (I Cor.6:2,3). Therefore, faith “in Christ” and “the mystery of godliness” calls for patience, as it is written, “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” Rev.14:12. Paul answered the above question this way: “Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” I Cor.1:25.

     The jurisdiction of GOD to overrule Satan and his minions among men goes back many centuries before:

“Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him. But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries.” Ex.23:22.

     That “Angel” is the same as "the Angel of the LORD," the "captain of the host of the LORD" (Josh.5:13-15), and is none other than “the Son of God” (Dan.3:25). Christ has always been with us and will always be with us, as He promised during His incarnation: "Before Abraham was, I AM;" "I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." This is why John’s gospel opens with the declaration, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” (Jn.1-3).

The Foundation of GOD’S Responsibility

Memory Text: “That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.” Rom.3:4

     Many declare, “If there was a GOD, how could He allow such suffering and misery?” The most profound teaching of the Holy Bible is the knowledge of GOD as Creator of heaven and Earth, and how GOD is infinite in His knowledge of time and space. He knows the motion of every atom within the slow but sure dance of galaxies. It is under this umbrella that the Omniscient Father, before He created the stars, angels and man He foreknew all that would take place in His Universe, from its inception throughout all eternity. He planned everything prior to His first step in the Creation of Life. Full well did He know the rebellion that would come from His supreme created angel Lucifer, before He created him. Likewise He foreknew the fall of Adam and Eve into Satan’s snare of sin, and the aftermath of the immense suffering and death that would befall the Earth: the world GOD created in tranquility.

     Our Omniscient Father conveyed His foreknowledge to His Omnipotent Son as they, in solemn contemplation stood together in Eternity Past. Both the Father and the Son understood the threat that was to come, and threaten to undo the pristine tranquility through “the mystery of iniquity” and its intrusion of sin. It is a mystery simply because it makes no logical or moral sense to destroy oneself except as to deny the perfection of life that GOD ordained “In the beginning.”

     And in the Father and Son’s great wisdom and love they saw that there was only one way to save their children who stood “innocent from the great transgression” (Ps.19:13): “Jesus Christ and him crucified.”

     In the great controversy between Christ and Satan, GOD did not leave His children in the dark. From the beginning, prophecy was established to not only forewarn of the danger but also of the outcome, as the LORD said: “Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.” Isa.46:10.

     From the moment Adam and Eve sinned, GOD instituted “the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” Rev.13:8. And those who give their hearts to the Creator’s way of life [the life of Jesus Christ: “the way, the truth, and the life” (Jn.14:6)], their names are then written in this most precious book. And those who maintain their allegiance to GOD’S Holy Law, thus preserving His Indwelling Presence [for faith and sin are not partners in salvation (Isa.59:2)], Jesus promises, “I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.” Rev.3:5.

     In the Great Judgment, GOD will be vindicated of every accusation from Satan and men slandering His love and perfection. He will stand justified before every angel and man, righteous and unrighteous, in His “judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him” (Ju.v.15).

     In His sovereign authority throughout the history of sin that has taken place, GOD will be found “not guilty” before the tribunal of angels and men. While He bears all responsibility, He will not bear the blame! For His greatest gift next to life is His gift of freewill. And it has always been the abuse of that most precious gift that accounts for every atrocity against the dignity of life.

Man’s Responsibility To GOD’S “Covenant of Peace” (Nu.25:12)

     An important principle of salvation “in Christ” that deserves our undivided attention is on the question of our love for our fellow man. The stark contrast between GOD’S love “agape” (benevolent, self-sacrificing), and man’s love “phileo” (limited and selfish) [as illustrated in the conversation between Jesus and Peter in John 21:15-17] cannot be measured in this sinful, finite world. It has always been man’s neglect of Christ-like love that accounts for every cruel deed throughout history.

     This issue begs the question: What are the boundaries GOD has given to define our responsibility to one another? The answer is found in the history of GOD’S dealing with sinful man.

     A classic example:

“And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel…So the LORD sent pestilence upon Israel: and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men…And David said unto God, Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered? even I it is that have sinned and done evil indeed; but as for these sheep, what have they done? let thine hand, I pray thee, O LORD my God, be on me, and on my father's house; but not on thy people, that they should be plagued.” I Chron.21:1,14,17.

     King David understood this foundation doctrine of salvation and his responsibility of contributing to the deaths of the innocent.

     The Holy Bible provides every guideline of our responsibility to each other, and lists every example of neglect of our responsibility toward life and our fellow man. What we see today in man’s clumsy presumptuous decisions: decisions that are destroying the balance of nature and thus threatening his own existence has its origin back in the garden of Eden.

     The first irresponsibility that displayed presumptuous confidence occurred when our premier mother Eve was lured away from Adam, and “tempted of Satan” entertained the thought of GOD’S Word denying her best interest (Mk.1:13). And to meet that ambition she ate the fruit that GOD had warned would cost her her life. When she came to Adam with the forbidden fruit in her hand, Adam immediately knew that his wife now faced the death-sentence pronounced by GOD to all who ate of that fruit. GOD’S Word was clear, and nothing was ambiguous or left to chance in the words He spoke. Adam now had to choose to live without Eve or eat of the fruit and die with her. Adam’s love for Eve surpassed his love for GOD so he chose to eat the fruit and die with Eve. It is on this very principle that Jesus warned: “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” Matt.10:37.

     The next display of man’s presumption against GOD’S Word is seen in the life of Cain, when he brutally murdered his little brother, Abel. “And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper? And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.” Gen.4:9,10. The arrogant belligerence of Cain’s response is as prevalent today as when first spoken by Cain. And how few take heed to fend off the spirit that provokes such cruel indifference to the needs of others. The spirit of man is so callous so as to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the most common abuses.

     The spirit of Satan continued to foment evil in the lives of men until the days of Noah. The violence that filled the earth in his day forced GOD to bring to an end the abuse. For GOD to allow the continuation of the prevailing evils would have made Him complicit in their ugly deeds. So, He washed the sin away. And the Apostle Peter brought the lesson of GOD’S limit of forbearance to our day: “the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” II Pet.3:6,7. Only fire can reduce to ashes all of man's pollution of the earth through WMDs, industry, and genetic tampering.

     The Antediluvians of Noah’s day were all sincere in what they believed—And they all drowned. As it was then, so it is today. Said Christ the LORD: “But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” Matt.24:37.

     GOD’S Word gives every parameter of man’s responsibility toward his fellow man, and how Satan, historically has always led one person with power over others to cause harm to all under his authority. At the heart of it all, Paul enlightens us to the motive behind all injustice among men: “For the love of money is the root of all evil.” I Tim.6:10. We see this spirit of self-serving greed in the story of Achan’s absconding gold and silver for himself, in defiance against GOD’S specific command. His greed caused GOD’S blessing to be removed from Israel when they were defeated in battle. Here is a profound example of battle lines being drawn between Christ and Satan. As long as the children of Israel stood under GOD’S banner they would never lose in battle. But when they denied GOD’S Word they would always lose. These battle lines established between Christ and Satan applies today, and is why GOD established dietary laws and civil laws to stand under the umbrella of the Moral Law of the Ten Commandments.

     The world’s struggles today are directly attributed to society’s moral decline. And this increasing degradation of both life’s health and moral standing is directly attributed to man’s defiance of GOD’S Word. The steps to man’s ruin are plain for all to see! But again, GOD did not leave us without instruction in both moral wisdom and foreknowledge in prophetic utterance. This is why Jesus said “the Word of God” will judge every man, woman, and child (of the age of accountability); whether they were aware of it or not (Zech.13:6); and the Bible gives allowances for every case (Eze.18:30). In this the weight of Christ’s words in His Grand Prayer cannot be overestimated: "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." Jn.17:17.

     History is littered with a long list of evil rulers over men who betrayed their trust, such as Pharaoh’s belligerence against GOD'S Love for all Egypt and His children Israel. Pharaoh alone caused Egypt’s ruin. Then came the judges of Israel disregarding GOD’S Word by supplanting their own (just as the leading churches do today). Following the judges came every king of Israel after Solomon whom the LORD declared, “did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD,” thus causing their nation’s destruction. A short time later came Babylon’s king Belshazzar, whose drunken orgy using “the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem” caused his nation’s immediate downfall. Then, at the height of spiritual wickedness we see Herod who murdered every child age two and under in Bethlehem in his vicious attempt to kill Jesus Christ. And during the LORD’S incarnation the evil high priest, Caiaphas and Rome's governor, Pontius Pilate united church and state to crucify the innocent Christ. All of these lessons are constant reminders to the danger of allowing evil men to rule. It is as Solomon said: “one sinner destroyeth much good.” Eccl.9:18.

     All throughout the history of man, we see the bitter results of how Satan leads his agents to become rulers over others and thus cause vast numbers of humanity to chase their lusts while ignoring the basic needs of others who suffer hunger, privation, and depression. “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” Hos.4:6. Because of ignorance (willful and imposed) most among men will stand condemned “before the judgment seat of Christ” (II Cor.5:10). This is simply because, "the wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted." Ps.12:8. Over and over we see how the many are continually sacrificed for the few.

     But the Bible gives us counsel to shun sharing in the sins of men: “It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in princes.” Ps.118:8,9. All are called to take responsibility for their moral obligations and their soul’s salvation: to be wise as the Bereans were when the Apostle Paul entered their city with the message of salvation through Jesus Christ: “These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” Acts 17:11.

     In our day, the final responsibility of man’s future rests with a select group of elitists. While many secret societies abound, boasting and lusting in their luciferian spirit, it is the blasphemy of “Novus Ordo Seclorum:” “the new world order” under the united banner of the blasphemous Talmudic Jews and unrepentant priests of Rome that will bring the last battle of Earth: Armageddon.

     As man continues his evil ways, sacrificing the many for the few, (under the pretense of survival), it will be seen that only those who acknowledge and obey GOD’S method of salvation, revealed in the Holy Bible will stand “blameless” before Christ when He comes to crush the regime of evil men hiding behind closed doors while publicly masquerading in virtue.

     In the midst of the betrayal that is smothering the Earth, the promise will always hold true:

“God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations.” Deut.7:9.