THEY THOUGHT AS MEN

[skyblue888]

THEY THOUGHT AS MEN

For days the rain poured down in steady torrents. The old earth dam was thirty-five years old. The water, brown and swirling, reached almost to its crest. Still the rain continued.

In the river valley below, the residents went about their business, wishing the rain would end but paying little attention beyond that.

Then it happened.

The earth walls trembled beneath the mounting pressure of manifold tons of water, cracked, then exploded outwards, releasing a surging thirty-foot wall of roaring, foaming, savage destruction which raced at express train speed upon all that stood in its path.

When its brief fury was spent, thirty-nine people were dead and forty-five seriously injured. Buildings and vehicules were savaged into worthless junk.

Naturally, the insurance companies described the tragedy as an "ACT OF GOD."

Of course, THEY THOUGHT AS MEN.

TO BE CONTINUED

[skyblue888]

THIS IS TO THINK AS A MAN

Above the steaming jungles of a south-sea island, a great volcano raised its mighty crown. Of late, it had rumbled and smoked, causing the villagers to regard it with increasing apprehension. Then came the day when mighty explosions rent the air. Boiling lava flowed over the side and advanced inexorably on the villages below. Houses were consumed in the flames, crops were wiped out, and stock losses were heavy. The villagers themselves fled for their lives, finally taking to the steaming seas in canoes.

With sober and awed faces they told one another that God was angry with them and they must work out some method of appeasing Him.

THIS IS TO THINK AS A MAN.

TO BE CONTINUED

[skyblue888]

AS IF GOD WERE A MAN

A person who had always enjoyed wonderful health, became seriously ill. Confined to a bed of suffering and pain in the hospital, his thoughts turned to God for comfort. He took a bedside Bible and, opening it for the first time in his life, began to read at the beginning.

Passing beyond the Genesis record of creation and the fall of Adam, he came to the story of the flood where he read that God sent the waters on the earth to destroy those who would not obey Him. Then he read of the outpouring of fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, the plagues rained on Egypt, and the commands from God to the Israelites to go out and destroy the Amalekites down to the tender infant in arms.

It was too much. He closed the Book declaring that he could neither love nor serve a God who could manifest such cruelty as he saw pictured in those words.

How sad indeed that he read it all through the eyes of human understanding.

HE SAW GOD BEHAVING AS IF HE WERE A MAN!

TO BE CONTINUED

[skyblue888]

ATTRIBUTING HUMAN BEHAVIOUR TO GOD

Ever more frequently, disasters are destroying life and property around the world. Always it is regarded as being the work of God who is venting His wrath on a people who will not obey, respect, and love Him. This is to attribute human behaviour to God.

This is not to speak of God nor to think as He thinks. No one will ever love and serve God while he thinks of Him in the limited, superficial way of man. The very facts of life prove this. Humans are so settled in the idea that an angry God is sending all these troubles on the earth that they do not question the notion. They believe that He does this to correct their disobedience, but it does not produce such a result. The more they are subjected to such treatment, the less they love God and the more rebelliously they pursue their own ways.

This is the natural outcome. Look and see if any earthly potentate ever won the love and loyalty of his subjects by inflicting upon them heavy punishments for disobedience. He may have obtained a craven service, but this is not the loyalty of love. Therefore, if God uses the tactics which men believe He does, then it is a self-defeating program. Instead of gaining loving and cheerful obedience, He is rewarded at best with a servile loyalty and, at worst, with open and flagrant rebellion!

TO BE CONTINUED

[skyblue888]

ANOTHER WAY TO THINK

There is another view altogether different, inspiringly beautiful, and refreshingly pleasant way to think of God. It is the way of Christ. The time surely has come when men need to speak of God, not as a man, but as Christ did. When men learn to speak of God as Christ did, then love, joy, admiration, loyalty, and peace will spring forth naturally from the human heart. Then, God will truly be seen as a loving Father, not as a despotic monarch.

When Christ came to this earth, He had a number of missions to accomplish. One of the most important of these was to expose the lie in circulation regarding His Father's wonderful character and to show the Father as He truly is. He invites all to see, to think and to speak of God as He sees, thinks and speaks of Him, not as men do.

Christ revealed the Father so fully that all that men can know or need to know about Him has been revealed in the life and character of His Son. Yet despite the magnificent level of perfection to which Christ did this work, this aspect of His divine ministry remains little known and recognized even to this day. Not even the apostles of Christ awakened to it. It is for this reason that Philip said:

"Lord, show us the Father, and if sufficeth us."

Christ was greatly disappointed by this request. Well He might be, for it told Him that the purpose of His mission remained undiscerned by the ones nearest to Him--the ones who should have seen this the first and the most.

"Jesus said unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet have you not known Me, Philip? he that has seen Me has seen the Father; and how do you say then, Show us the Father?" John 14:8,9.

TO BE CONTINUED

[skyblue888]

THEY HAD SEEN THE FATHER

Christ affirmed that if they had seen Him and His wonderful character of love, then they had seen the Father. This is to assert, quite truthfully, that Christ had not merely come to declare the Father. He had also come to reveal or to manifest Him. To do the latter or even the former effectively, He must in Himself be a perfect and complete reproduction of the Father. This He indeed was.

Quite some time before this conversation with Philip took place, He had already informed them that His life was the perfect reflection of the Father's and that He did only what the Father did.

"Then aswered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do: for what things soever He does, these also does the Son likewise.

"For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that Himself does: and He will show Him greater works than these, that ye may marvel." John 5:19,20.

The essential point in this declaration from Him who said of Himself, "I am the truth," is that not only did Christ do only the things which the Father did, but He did them likewise, or exactly as the Father did them. The methods, the principles of operation, the procedures of the One, are precisely and completely those of the Other.

Many have read the records of the Old Testament and have seen God as a wrathful, vengeful Being who thought nothing of pouring molten fire down on the helpless heads of those who would not repent, the Sodomites being a case in point.

Then they have read the story of Christ and, seeing a being very different from the God they saw in the Old Testament, have concluded that the characters of God and Christ are different. They see Christ as being gentle, loving, kind, forgiving, humble, and patient and as One who never once retaliated against His enemies.

Irrespective of how brutally they treated Him, how unkindly they rejected Him, how mercilessly they harassed Him, and how shamelessly they lied about Him, He only responded by doing good to them in return. Though invited to destroy His rejectors, He never once lifted a finger to do so.

To say that the Father and the Son have different characters is to SPEAK AS A MAN for this is not the way Christ spoke. With absolute finality and authority, He confirmed that He and the Father were of the same character and did the same works in the same way!

TO BE CONTINUED

[skyblue888]

ANOTHER VIEW

Those who see as Christ saw and speak as He speaks, know and speak the truth. THEY NO LONGER THINK AS MEN. They discard all the views held which conflict with the testimony of Jesus.

It means that what they thought they saw God doing in the Old Testament must be exchanged for another and different view, the new one coinciding with the revelation of God as given by His Son during His earthly ministry.

In reality, it is to say that the life and teachings of Christ are the measure by which every notion about God must be tested. Any view of God the Father, no matter how logical or long-standing it may be, which in any way differs from the ways of Christ, is to be discarded as error.

This must be done even though at first it is impossible to see where it actually is in error. Those who do this will assuredly have correct views of the character and ways of God. This will, in turn, bring blessing and benefit beyond estimate.

In this brief article it is impossible to explore every erroneous idea about the character of God which has been drawn from the Old Testament, but space will be devoted to one such experience.

TO BE CONTINUED

[skyblue888]

IN EGYPT

For centuries, Israel had been in Egyptian captivity when God, from the burning bush, at last called Moses to go and lead the people to the promised land. Very explicit were the instructions given to the leader.

"And the Lord said unto Moses, See I have made you a God to Pharaoh: and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet... You shall speak all that I command you; and Aaron your brother shall speak to Pharaoh, that he send the children of Israel out of his land. And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt. But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that I may lay My hand upon Egypt, and bring forth Mine armies, and My people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch forth Mine hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them." Ex.7:1-5.

The story continues with Moses and Aaron going in before the king, demanding the release of the Israelites. Pharaoh's flat refusal followed by devastating plague after plague, until, battered and beaten, the king was glad to let them go. It is a familiar history.

Men have come to their own conclusions about how God performed in this drama. This is how men, WHO THINK LIKE MEN, have seen it:

God was the all-powerful Ruler of the universe. The time came when He decided that the Israelites should be released. Accordingly, in a tone of authority, He ordered Moses to command the king to free them with the threat of direct reprisals should he refuse.

The monarch did refuse, whereupon God struck him hard by turning the Nile and the waters throughout the land into undrinkable blood. Then God paused, to give the defiant ruler time to acquiesce. When he refused to obey, the Lord struck him again. With each repeated and rebellious refusal, God struck him until in the end he was literally battered into submission and had no choice but to release them.

This is the way in which men generally understand God to have conducted His affairs in that situation.

TO BE CONTINUED

[skyblue888]

ANOTHER PICTURE

Compare this view with another picture.

In certain cities of the world, there are powerful criminal organizations which look upon themselves as being the true governors. They decide that they want specific "payments" from a given businessman. Accordingly they go to him and announce their demands, intimating that they are the effective power in the area, and making it clear that if he refuses to comply, they will hit him hard.

The man, either because he has principles or has not yet learned the power of the "bosses," refuses. Whereupon they hit him with a vengence. They might blow up his car, smash his shop windows, or something worse. Then they give him time to reconsider. Should he persist in his refusal, they will hit him again and again, until he is finally battered into submission.

Not only does the syndicate gain what they wanted from this man, but the incident supplies an opportunity of demonstrating their power, thus providing an example in the city.

These methods, it is found, work rather effectively. But the obedience obtained does not emanate from love and appreciation of the gangland chiefs. Rather, they are hated and despised for their methods and obeyed only because there is no other choice!

TO BE CONTINUED

[skyblue888]

THE CRUTIAL QUESTION

This question now arises: What difference is there between the methods of the criminal chiefs and those which God is supposed to have used in the land of Egypt? Be careful to see exactly what the question is. It is concerned with the methods used by the one and attributed to the other. It is not asking about motives or character but about procedures.

The answer has to be that there is no difference whatsoever. If the common understanding of God's behaviour in Egypt is retained, then it follows that the ways of God, and those who live by robbery and oppression are identical.

When this proposition is put to well-educated people, they quickly reply that the methods used by God were indeed the same as the syndicate but that God's intention was different. In other words, whereas the bosses used those tactics to further their own selfish ends, the Lord did it all for others. This is to argue that the end justifies the means, that the methods used by the criminals were unjustified because they were done from selfish motivations, while God's use of the same procedures was justified because He did it from a righteous motive.

But the Scriptures do not support this reasoning. God personally denies that His ways are the same as man's ways. He assures us that they are quite different. Here are His ways:

TO BE CONTINUED

[skyblue888]

HIS WAYS

"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:8,9.

What God said in these verses is the truth but only if the view of God described in the previous post is not the truth. If God did in Egypt what He is understood to have done, then His ways are no different from those of the very worst of men, and He has made Himself a liar by saying what He said in this reference. But God is no liar. He is the truth and speaks only the truth, by which we are to know that another and different understanding of His behaviour in Egypt is called for.

Not only does this Old Testament witness call for such a revision. The life of Christ, who did only what the Father did, exactly as He did it, denies utterly the popular version of God's doings in Egypt. Nowhere in the entire lifetime of Christ do we find Him using such methods to secure the desired results. It is impossible to find a single instance for it does not exist. Yet, in the light of the testimony of our wonderful Saviour who declared that He did only what the Father did, and as He did it, it is incumbent upon those who choose to continue to believe that God acted in Egypt as an oppressor who gained His ends by the use of force, to find a situation where Christ gained His ends in the same way.

This cannot be done. About the only incident which can be construed in this fashion is the cleansing of the temple. Some will argue that Christ threatened the money changers with the whip, but it will be shown that to argue this way is to SPEAK AS A MAN and not as Christ. What Christ really did will become clear when it is seen what God actually did in Egypt!

TO BE CONTINUED

[skyblue888]

GOD IS LOVE

Since the witness of Jesus lends no support to the popular view of God's behaviour in Egypt, and since God Himself has testified that His ways are not the ways of men, another view of God's actions in Egypt must be found; a view that is strictly Scriptural and in perfect harmony with the witness of Jesus. It must speak, NOT AS A MAN, BUT AS CHRIST.

The Scriptures of truth testify that "GOD IS LOVE." 1 John 4:8.

Something of the full force of this passage can be appreciated only when it is seen that it does not merely say that God loves, even though this is true, but that He IS love. It is because He IS love that He loves. Because God is infinite, boundless, endless, and unlimited, His love is the same. It is infinite. This means that there is no point where the boundary or the limit of that love can be found. Therefore, it is written of Him that with Him there "is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." James 1:17.

Human love is finite and limited. We love so long as we are loved and then our love begins to fade away. It may and often does come to the place where the intensity of our love is changed to an equal fury or hatred. In this, the way of God is also different from man's way. No matter how much we may reject God, despise Him, war against Him, insult Him, or separate from Him, His love to us is not changed in the least degree.

One great difference between divine and human love is that God loves, not because of what we are, but because of what He is, whereas people love, not because of what they are, but because of what the person they love is. This mould is placed on humans from their earliest days when parents convey to the children the idea that if they are good, father and mother will love them, but if they are naughty, then that love will be withdrawn. The child quickly absorbs the idea and practises it in all his relationships with other children. If the behaviour of a certain child conforms to his standards and desires, then love is returned, but if the child does not do as he is required, then love is withdrawn. The only factor governing the whole procedure is the lovability of the other person, not the capacity of the first person to love regardless of what the other is.

The same attitude and practice attends entrance into adulthood and marriage. Those who can be loved because of what they are, are sought out, while the others are shut out. The sough-out become the shut-out should they change in their ways to a pattern which no longer meets the needs and desires of the lover.

Because men tend to judge God by their own experiences and make Him to be altogether such an one as themselves ( see Psalm 50:21), He likewise is seen as One who loves us only while we are lovably obedient to His every requirement. But the fact remains that no matter how disobedient and unlovely we may become, this makes no difference to His love toward us. It does, of course, make a difference to the accessibility of that love, for the very act of disobedience is an act of separation on our part. But this departure by us must not be confused as being a withdrawal of love on His part.

Inifinite Love is infinite unselfishness. It is entirely and only outgoing. Therefore when the Lord made the heavens and the earth, He did not do it for Himself. He did it for the creatures whom He made. He did it for you, for me, and for every other person who has ever lived. Consider then, the needs which were created when the Lord contemplated bringing into existence all living things.

TO BE CONTINUED

[skyblue888]

MOSES' ROD

Through the life of Joseph, the eyes of the Egyptians had been opened to behold the love and power of God working for their salvation. The mighty ruler had obeyed God's instructions given through the young man, and Egypt became the most powerful nation on earth.

But prosperity brought apostasy, and soon God was forgotten. Year after year, despite the love and care of God, the nation slipped further and further from Him. By so doing, it was moving closer and still closer to the point where God would be utterly rejected and forced to lay down His control of the mighty powers of nature surrounding it, thus leaving it to its fate.

But an infinitely loving God would not do this without firstly giving the king a clear warning of what was to happen. So He sent Moses with the rod in his hand to demonstrate what was about to develop.

Moses stood in the presence of Pharaoh as God's representative. He did what God told him to do thereby providing God with the means whereby He could tell the king what was about to occur in Egypt.

The rod in Moses' hand was a symbol of the powers which God had put into nature and into man. As Moses held and guided that staff, so God held and controlled those powers. When the rod left the prophet's hand, it changed into a serpent, the well-known symbol of Satan, the destroyer.

The whole enacted parable of the rods and the serpents was presented. Everything depended upon Pharaoh being able to read the message therein and then on his being willing to walk in harmony with it.

The lesson was as clear as it was simple. Whilever the rod remained in Moses' hand, it was never a death-dealing serpent. In order to become a serpent, it had to pass out of his hands and out of his control. During the whole time that it remained out of his hand and control, it continued to be a serpent, but the moment he grasped it again, it was once more a rod of blessing.

The truth could not have been stated more clearly. Unfortunately, the message was lost on the king but it need not be lost on you and me today. What God desired to convey to the king was this:

TO BE CONTINUED

[skyblue888]

MOSES' ROD (CONTINUES)

"Pharaoh, mighty king of Egypt," said God, "up till the present time, despite the increasing apostasy which has marked you and your subjects, the rod of power has still been in My hand and under My control. Because of this, the destroyer has not stalked through your land. You have enjoyed wonderful prosperity and blessing. You have made the most of the opportunity to become the most powerful nation on the earth. But daily you are separating farther from Me, disobeying the very laws I gave you in love to preserve you. You have forced the gap of separation to widen and deepen until I retain only the most tenuous (weakest) hold on the powers I gave you in nature and in yourselves.

"As a demonstration of your willingness now to obey Me, and abide by the laws that guarantee your existence, let the Israelites go, I do not wish to see you shattered and destroyed by the fearful suffering you are about to bring upon yourself and your people. But, if you refuse to repent, this act will cut the last faint, controlling grip I have on these powers. They will pass out of My hands and when they do they will become elements of terrible destruction in the hands of the destroyer. But know that even when they do, I can reach forth and take them again. The instant that I do, they will cease to be destroyers and will again become a rod of blessing."

With what marvelous love and yearning God appealed to the stubborn heart of the rebellious king. With what pride and disdain, the monarch rejected the outreach of such unchangeable love. His response was to call in the magicians of the realm, and have them cast down their rods. Seemingly, they turned into serpents too, but instead of being a one to one situation, it was a case of many versus one. To all appearances, the serpents of Pharaoh would easily consume the serpent coming from the rod of Moses.

What was the monarch really saying in reply? He was declaring that he had not the least need for God to hold those powers in control. He was well able to live in full independence of God. Let Him release the rod. Let it turn into a serpent of destruction. He had power at his command to more than cope with the powers which God would release from His grasp.

TO BE CONTINUED

[skyblue888]

THE MESSAGE CLEARLY CONVEYED

This is still the attitude of man. When trouble seems to engulf him, he turns to his own resources to contain it. If God is thought of at all, it is only as a last resort and, as soon as the trouble passes, He is forgotten.

But men cannot manage the powers of God out of His control and direction. When mighty hurricanes sweep in from the ocean, flooding the land, and tearing buildings apart, there is absolutely nothing man can do to stop them. They run their full course. So with earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, great fires, and the like. Man cannot resist or contain them.

Neither could the serpents of Pharaoh handle Moses' rod turned into a serpent of destruction. It busily ate up all Pharaoh's serpents, and still remained as vigorous and undiminished as ever.

God could never have conveyed the message more clearly than He did here, nor could the king have rejected it more fully.

The next day, with the rod, Moses indicated the place from where the presence of God would first be withdrawn, so that the king could not avoid knowing that what God had prophesied would happen, did happen, and that it was not a mere coincidence.

During the falling of the plagues, God yearningly, and lovingly, kept the door of mercy open. He was ever ready and willing to retake control of the forces afflicting the Egyptians. But He could do this only if they repented and gave the rod back into His hands.

Pharaoh, compelled to recognize that neither he nor his magicians had any power to control those elements of destruction, took advantage of the character of God.

When the terrible pressure was upon them, Pharaoh made great promises to God and pleaded with Him through Moses to take the plague away. In response, God reached down and took up the serpent by the tail, whereupon it immediately became a rod of blessing again. As soon as the trouble passed, Pharaoh's confidence returned and he forgot his promises to God!

TO BE CONTINUED

[skyblue888]

OPPOSITE TO THE CRIMINAL WAYS

Man is still the same. When bowed to the gates of death by forces beyond his control, he will, in the terror of the moment, call upon God for deliverance while making wonderful commitments to Him. Then, as soon as the trouble is passed, he will forget all the promises and revert to his ways of wickedness.

So it was with that powerful Egyptian potentate. When the pressure was upon him, he appeared to repent, but when it was lifted, he showed that there had been no genuine putting away of sin. Each such prevarication had an adverse effect on his mind and character, significantly hardening his heart and thus making him less and less capable of surrendering to God. This, in turn, separated God from control of the forces surrounding the nation, with the result that a fresh plague burst upon them. Finally, with the tenth scourge, when the first-born lay dead, the king was so broken, and his land so shattered, that he had no further power to hold the Israelites.

But not one of those afflictions befell them because God had control of the chastising elements. It was only when the control had passed out of His hands, that they could and did come.

This is completley opposite from the ways of the criminals. Only when the weapons of destructions are in their hands and under their control, do their victims experience pain and suffering. On the other hand, when the forces are in God's hand and under His control, they can never be destroyers.

In the light of the abundant evidence revealing what God really did in Egypt, it is surprising how badly men have misread the records of the event. God took great care through the parable of the rods and serpents, to declare just what He would do in Egypt. God is not a liar. What He said He would do is what He did.

He has also made it plain that He does not work as man works. Man uses force to achieve his ends, but God does not. To confirm beyond doubt the veracity of these Old Testatment witnesses, Christ came to give a personal declaration and demonstration of His Father's character and methods. His persecutors related to Him exactly as Pharaoh did to God, and Christ responded precisely as His Father had done.

They reviled Him, taunted Him, scourged Him, spat on Him, loaded a cruel cross on His back and hung Him upon it. Yet there is no trace of any spirit of retaliation. Christ did not reach out to grasp the weapons of power to control and direct them in withering destruction upon His foes as He easily might have done. His only response was to cry out with unutterable love and pity, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." Luke 23:34.

TO BE CONTINUED

[skyblue888]

A TERRIBLE INDICTMENT

To believe that God forcibly subdued the Egyptians in order to effect the release of His people, is to level, by implication, a terrible indictment against the Lord. It is to charge Him with deliberately and callously leaving the Jews to suffer for centuries when they could have been released long before they were.

He who in the possession of omnipotent power, uses it as the means of executing His will, can do that He wishes when He chooses. If this is God's way as so many suppose, then every day that the Israelites continued in servitude, was because He chose not to release them. For centuries, they were ground down in brutal bondage, all the misery of which would have to be accounted to God for failing to exert His mighty power at any chosen time to set them free. God could not be a God of love and at the same time behave in this fashion.

The truth is, God has committed Himself never to solve problems by the use of force. Had it been His principle to rule by force, then He would have stamped rebellion out of existence as soon as it manifested itself initially. There would have been no long period of sin in this world.

But sin must be allowed to run its course until it ultimately destroys itself and all who cling to it. "Evil shall slay the wicked." Pslam 34:11. Then the Lord will be free to make the new heavens and the new earth with no danger of their defilement.

TO BE CONTINUED

[skyblue888]

CLEANSING THE TEMPLE

Early in His ministry, Christ cleansed the temple of the buyers and sellers. The story is told in John 2:13-22. His soul was stirred to the depths by what He saw, and after "... He had made a scourge of small cords, He drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables."

This story can be as easily misinterpreted as the story of the plagues in Egypt, and mostly is. Without question, the simple explanation is accepted that Christ actually threatened to whip those men and would have done so if they had not obeyed Him.

But had He done so, then what difference would there have been between His behaviour and that of the lords of gangland? Wherein could He claim that His ways and man's ways are different?

These questions demand that another look be taken at this incident to see what really happened. This is the New Testament counterpart of the Old Testament story in Egypt. What God did to Pharaoh, Christ did to the money-changers. It is another dramatization of God's holding and controlling of power. The setting and the actions are slightly different, but the message is the same.

The most significant difference lay in the fact that while Moses allowed the rod to pass out of his hands and control, Christ did not lose either His grip on His control over the scourge.

The events which transpired in each of these times was exaclty consistent with the actions of Moses and Christ. Egypt suffered immediate calamities as Moses, by releasing the rod, indicated they would. Christ in the temple however, assured them that there was still yet time to repent, for He still retained control over the scourge. Thus, no great disasters overtook them during His earthly sojourn. Christ's action was also a warning of the danger that their unheeding apostasy would compel Him to release His grip. Should this happen, then the experience of the Egyptians would also be theirs. It is a matter of history that they refused to repent. They turned their backs utterly and defiantly upon God, and the rod did become a serpent of destruction as is evidenced by the devastation and slaughter in Jerusalem in A.D.70.

There was no possibility of Christ's striking them with the scourge. That was not His purpose in raising it up. It hung threateningly over them, but, while in Christ's hand, it never touched them. The important thing was for the Jews to keep it there where it could never hurt them nor destroy them.

Thus, when a careful comparison is made between the actions of God in Egypt and those of Christ in the temple, it is clear that Christ spoke the truth when He said that He did everything the Father did, exactly as He did it!

THE END

[Clio]

What is it you are trying to accomplish skyblue? Your posts don't seem to generate a whole lot of discussion and seem to be copies and pasting of other peoples work.

We need to be a bit careful... with outside search engines able to read this site, it wouldn't do to get Stan in trouble with copyright infringements....

[skyblue888]

Don't worry, sister, I assure you, there is no copyright infringement here!

sky

p.s. i have posted this on other forums and I thought I would post it here too. In order to have a discussion, the whole thread needs to be read first. Now it is ready for discussion.

If you read the whole thread, you will see what I am trying to accomplish. It should be obvious if you take the time to carefully read every post! :)

[Clio]

Cool....

[skyblue888]

Thanks!

When I first posted it, I did not paste it in any way, shape, or form. I took the time to type every single word!

It is very rare that I paste, only when I have already posted it before as in this case.

[skyblue888]

Clio, have you ever heard of Light On the Dark Side of God, by M. M. Campbell. (98 pgs.)

It is an excellent book!

[WayneV]

Sky,

As a product of our sound-bite world, I just haven't been able to get completely through one of your sermon-style threads. The only time I read long passages is when reading my Bible. Besides that, the threads of yours that I have started reading seemed to belong more in the "What Seventh-day Adventists Believe..." section than to this one.

Just my $0.02

[Clio]

Clio, have you ever heard of Light On the Dark Side of God, by M. M. Campbell. (98 pgs.)

It is an excellent book!

No. What is it's topic and the general thrust of Campbell's discussion?