INIQUITY is a word found in both the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek New Testament which make up the Holy Bible, also called the Word, the Law, the Truth and the Gospel.  In Hebrew the word iniquity is “awon,” meaning sin, wickedness.  In Greek the word is “antilogia,”  Anti means against; logia refers to God’s Word.  In Matthew 7:21-23 Jesus, prophesying about a future day of judgment, declared that He would say to those who claimed to be His people but refused to obey His Words, “I never knew you.  Depart from Me you who work Iniquity ….”  In Matthew 15:9 He refers to the same people, saying that they would have worshiped Him in vain, having rejected His Words and obeyed the words of man.  An in-depth study of Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 reveals with clarity that the title to this series is true.  What is written will confirm the truth of the title.

Iniquity is the source–the root cause–of all of mankind’s problems.  God repeatedly makes this clear in His Holy Scriptures, beginning in an area He calls Eden where He has created a paradise where Adam and Eve are to live forever in an idyllic world surrounded by beauty and plenty.  There was only one caveat to their being allowed to remain there and to enjoy what God had created for them–THEY MUST OBEY HIS LAW which consisted of five parts.

In order to remain in paradise and want for nothing Adam and Eve were to take charge of the earth, to subdue (“kabas”) it (Gen. 2:28).  Kabas means to overcome, subdue, control.  They were to USE THE EARTH’S NATURAL RESOURCES (oil, gas, coal, gold, silver, copper, diamonds, water, vegetation, etc.) for their benefit.  This is brought out in 2:11,12 where God mentions an area where gold could be found.  Why mention the gold and other things of nature if they were not to use them?  Adam and Eve were also to REPLENISH THE EARTH–to populate it AGAIN.  They were also to CONTROL ALL OF THE CREATURES God had created (cattle, birds, fish, etc.)–1:24,28.  They were to AVOID A CERTAIN TREE located in the midst of the Garden.  They were not to so much as “touch” it (2:16,17; 3:2,3).  Read Touching using that word as the key.  Lastly, they were to eat of the other tree in the middle of the garden.  The fruit of “every tree of the garden” was available to them (Gen. 1:29).  The other tree was the “tree of life” (2:9) they were to eat of which would have given them eternal life.

The tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil were planted in the midst of the garden (2:9).  The statement “knowledge of good and evil” relative to the forbidden tree meant that its fruit would give to man the power to DETERMINE good and evil for himself.  Only God has such power in reality.  By partaking of its fruit man would take to himself that power and thereby declare himself to be god.  On the other hand, by partaking of the tree of life Adam would have received the power to resist the urge to eat of the forbidden tree.  Just as the angels had the power to choose whom they would follow, so did Adam and Eve as well as their descendants who, with extremely rare exception, have chosen to follow, serve and worship Satan and to create their own rules of life.

As the Apostle Paul noted, “there are many gods and many lords” (1 Cor. 8:5).  These are they who have rejected God’s Word and replaced it with their word, whom God calls “antichrists” of whom, He says, there are “many” (1 Jn. 2:18).  These are they in the counterfeit (Catholic/Protestant) church who, having rejected God’s rules of life, have formulated their own version.  Jesus said that these people would be in the vast majority (Mat. 7:13,14).  As usual, He was right as man, including churchman, refuses to obey God’s Word, thereby proving that he DISPISES BOTH GOD AND HIS SON (Lk. 10:16).  Relative to loving God and obeying Him, the Lord declares that, to Him, there is no difference between the churched and the unchurched.  Either one loves and obeys God and hates Satan or one loves and obeys Satan and hates God.  As Jesus said in Matthew 7, the vast majority of people who have entered the “gate” and walked the “way” of professing Christendom have chosen to love Satan (enter his wide gate and walk his broad way) and hate God (rejected His strait gate and narrow way).  Read John 14:15,23; 15:10 and Matthew 19:17.

We will now return to the time when we find Adam and Eve standing before the tree bearing the forbidden fruit.  They are about to partake of the fruit because, upon arrival “the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that is was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise”–wiser than God so that they could decide for themselves what is good and what is evil.  Eve then took of the fruit of the tree, ate it and gave some of it to her husband who had accompanied her to the center of the Garden of Eden (3:6).

The whole of professing Christendom believes that it was at the moment they ate of the forbidden fruit that Adam and Eve sinned.  Not so.  To understand when their sin took place let us turn to the Book of James, chapter 1 verses 14 and 15.  Here we find the apostle writing to the twelve tribes of Israel (the whole House of Israel), warning them about the deadly consequences of sin (iniquity–rebellion against the Word (Law) of God).  Here James explains how and when sin actually takes place.  As he makes clear, sin is committed in the heart/mind of a human being.  What happens after that is simply more sin–adding sin to sin.  Jesus makes this clear in Matthew 5:28 where He said that to “… look upon a woman” with lust is a sin.  Lust is spiritual.  The man in this illustration has already sinned in his mind/heart.  If he gives in to his lust he is simply adding physical sin to spiritual sin.

In God’s view, both the process of sinning and the result of sinning are the same for the churched and the unchurched.  This is brought out in 1 John 3:1-10 where the Apostle John is writing to the New Testament Church, reminding them of who they are.  Turn to chapter one where John is telling the church that: they are sons of God (vs 1,2), that when Christ appears they would look like Him, that those who have this hope (of rebirth) purify themselves as Christ is pure (vs 3), that he who sins breaks God’s Law (vs 4), that Jesus came to remove sin from His people’s lives (vs 5), that he (a believer) who is in Christ does not sin and therefore “knows” Him (vs 6), that he who does righteousness is righteous just as Jesus is righteous (vs 7), that he who sins is of the devil because Jesus came “to destroy the works of the devil” in them (vs 8), that a true child of God “cannot sin” because His seed (Word/Law) remains in him (vs 9).

The word “cannot” in verse 9 gives church people problems.  Let us examine the word in the Greek language where we find that it is comprised of two words: “dynamai” (can) meaning having the power to, can, ability.  It is the word from which the English word “dynamite” is derived.  The second part of “cannot” is “not” (“ou”) meaning no, never, having the power to but refuses to.  “Cannot” (dynamai ou) in this passage means that the believer has the power to sin but absolutely refuses to do so.  In 2:1 John tells us that he is writing to church people so that they WILL NOT SIN.  However, IF a saint happens to sin, he/she has an Advocate with God–Jesus Christ–Whom one “KNOWS (intimately) IF ONE KEEPS HIS COMMANDMENTS.”  If a church member continues to sin, then he/she does not spiritually know Him, He does not spiritually know him/her for he/she is separated from God (Isa. 59:2) Who does not hear his/her prayers because they cannot penetrate the iron heaven God has placed over him/her because of his/her sins (Lev. 26:19).

Another passage that speaks to this subject is 1 Peter 4:17,18.  Here the apostle states that the church is always in the process of self-judgment in which each individual compares his “walk” (thoughts, words and deeds) to God’s Law.  Peter points out that, among those in the church, only the righteous (obedient) will be saved, and they just barely.  The few who will be saved (Mat. 7:13,14) are those who, though they are ABLE TO SIN, REFUSE TO DO SO because of God’s “seed” (Word/Law) that is written on their hearts (Jer. 31:31-33/ Heb. 8:8-10).  The Holy Spirit which wrote the Law on the believer’s heart, then empowers the saint to obey it.  This is a prime example of the importance of searching out and believing God’s “fine print.”  “Sinners Saved by Grace” doom themselves by reading and believing only His “headlines.”  Isaiah 28:9-13 tells us how to study the Scriptures according to God’s rules.

Iniquity is the failure to judge ourselves according to the Law of God.  Ignorance or unbelief of God’s Word allows Satan to take control of one’s life while making one believe that one is serving God.  Those in the church who fail to realize what has happened and correct it will reap the reward of their error–death–the wages of sin (Rom. 6:23).  God’s gift of eternal life is available to those who are led by His Holy Spirit to obey God’s Law written in their hearts (Rom. 8:14).  The Spirit leads according to the Law.  Iniquity is the act of rejecting God’s Law, which allows Satan to lead the “worker of iniquity” to obey his (Satan’s) perverted version of God’s Gospel (Gal. 1:6-9/ 2 Cor. 11:4,13-15) which the sinner believes to be the word of the Lord.  As the following posting will reveal, this is the root cause of all of mankind’s problems.  Read Bait and Switch.  Key word–Bait.  L.J.