Published by admin on 28 May 2021 at 12:26 pm
IT’S YOUR CHOICE
When God created Adam and put him in the Garden of Eden, God gave Adam dominion over all the earth. Let’s have a look at Genesis 1:26-31,
26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Then in Genesis 2:8-17 it is written,
8 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
10 And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.
11 The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;
12 And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.
13 And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.
14 And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.
15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Now in verse 17, God gave Adam a command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Do you see anyplace there God says, “You have a choice, eat it if you want to”? No, there isn’t. It isn’t a suggestion or a choice. It’s a command, and it is for Adam’s good.
But in verse 19, God gave Adam a choice:
19 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
Here we see God gave Adam a choice, and honored what Adam chose to call everything. But what happened later? We can read in Genesis 3:1-6 a new thing developing.
1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
Verse 6 shows the woman making a choice to disobey God KNOWINGLY. Maybe I missed something here, but did God tell Eve to choose whether to obey Him, or to eat the forbidden fruit? I can’t see that He did, but Eve took it upon herself to do it anyway. And if that wasn’t bad enough, it says and she gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
I would make the assumption that he had seen that fruit before and recognized it, and also chose to disobey God and eat it, probably to please his wife. Lots of men have chosen to disobey God so they could please their wife. But again, I don’t see anywhere in the Bible where God gave Adam or ANY man the choice whether to obey Him or not. Since Eve made the choice to KNOWINGLY disobey God, all mankind has done it since. Is that God’s will? No!
But the argument persists that God gave mankind free will so that we would worship Him willingly. I’m not really so sure about that. After studying the Bible cover to cover many times, yes it says in Deuteronomy 30:19 for us to CHOOSE life, but I see how God has had to discipline mankind for disobedience all through man’s history, and I know for a fact that disobedience was not GOD’S CHOICE for them. It is and was God’s will that we live by every word that comes from God. Again, I don’t see Him saying, “It’s your choice whether to obey Me or not.”
No, I think mankind just decided to TAKE free will, deciding what he or she would choose to do. Being disobedient to God was not what He chose for mankind. Sickness and death were not what God chose for mankind. We should do what GOD chose for us, for it is for our own good. Think about this: does God need mankind for His survival? No, but we need HIM for OUR survival. In the beginning mankind was created to fellowship with God, and God’s part was to care and provide for His creation. And everybody was happy. That is, until WE started making the choices. Now the world thinks God is an obsolete, unneeded being and we can do just fine without Him. Yeah, right. Look at the mess we’ve made of it, BY OUR OWN CHOICES.
It is written in 2 Peter 3:9, The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
That verse tells us GOD’S will. He is not willing that ANY perish, that ALL should be saved. But will all come to repentance and be saved? NO. Why not? Because THEY CHOOSE TO REFUSE THE FREE GIFT OF SALVATION! What will happen to all those who refuse salvation? The Bible is clear: they will not inherit everlasting life. Is that God’s choice? No, it is the consequence of their choice. Actions have consequences, even in this corrupt society.
Will those who refuse salvation burn in hell forever, ages without end? Many think so, and others think not. There is evidence in the Bible for either scenario. Truthfully, I don’t know, and neither do you. All we know for sure is, if we don’t repent from our sins and turn from them, and obey God, we won’t inherit everlasting life.
Turning from our sins and obeying God is not a “choice”, it’s a commandment from God. Yet many see it as a “choice”, no different from deciding what clothes you will wear today, or what you will choose to have for lunch. But this is for certain, one day each of us will stand before God and give account of our life. Knowing God loves us so very much and has provided everything needed so we can be saved, it escapes me how anyone would want to refuse God’s free gift of salvation.
It is written in Acts 2:21, And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Again in Romans 10:9-13,
9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.
13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
I don’t know about you, but I would much rather hear “WELL DONE!”, than BE “well done”, if you know what I mean. You know what to do…….
J. Elohim on 03 Jul 2021 at 10:20 am #
“if you know what I mean. You know what to do…….”
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Maybe, maybe not.
If they turn to man for an answer, they may still not know what to do.
If they believe what they were taught growing up, in sunday school or some church, they may still not know what to do.
If they believe what the news says, they don’t know what to do.
For instance, if they believed a mask would prevent disease, they did not learn the truth yet.
If they believe an immunization might help them, they still do not know the truth yet.
If they trust their doctor or goernment or chruch, they still do not know the Father yet.
No, it is not lightly, not easy, to know what to do – it take utterly everything that is in them/ in us/ to know what to do, in Jesus Gracious Gift abiding in the Father Almighty.
Every bit of strength in body, soul, heart, mind and spirit – given up everything to follow Jesus, to come to Jesus, to learn from Him what to do all the time, moment by moment, abiding in Him always, continually, daily. Working whatever work is available to do earnestly and with a full whole-heartedness serving Jesus with all strength always
always a total, complete life-change ; a new creation.