If, as we are told repeatedly, sin is inevitable due to Adam’s fall, how do we explain Abel living until his death in a state of righteousness (Mat. 23:35)?  And how did Cain, who was older than Abel, live even longer before he sinned the first time?  If either had sinned earlier God would have had Moses write about it just as he did with Adam and Eve.  If sin was inevitable due to Adam’s sin transferal system, why did God tell Cain that he would “do well” by obeying Him thereafter.  Why did God tell him that Satan would be tempting him to sin again, but that he (Cain) could “rule over him ” (Gen. 4:6,7)?  Note it: God told Cain that he could overcome Satan’s temptations to sin, which is exactly what Jesus told us we must do in order to join Him in the Kingdom of God.  Note that He left no doubt as to His meaning when He said we must overcome (Satan) “… as I (Jesus) overcame …” (Rev. 3:21).  Jesus endured Satan’s temptations, “yet without sin.”  In order to sit with Him on His throne ruling first the earth, then the entire universe, we can do no less (Rev. 3:21)–we must “walk as He walked” (1 Jn. 2:6) “to the end” in order to be saved (Mat. 10:22).  See God’s Very Elect: Future Caretakers of the Universe.  See the instructions for finding a series on the Introduction page to this website.

Christ lived as a man, faced the wiles of Satan as a man, and overcame him as a man.  He knows what it takes to defeat Satan.  Therefore He does not command the impossible of those who seek to live with Him for eternity.  Let us admit God’s Truth: Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and all who have lived throughout history have had the power of choice.  Jesus prophesied that only a few of them would enter His church, obey His Law and be welcomed into paradise (Mat. 7:13,14).  The reasons for this are many.  The primary, underlying reason is self-inflicted ignorance of God’s Word.

The Institutional Church has never heard God’s Truth.  God commands that parishioners study the Scriptures for themselves (2 Tim. 2:15) so that they can test what they hear from their leaders (1 Jn. 4:1) and evaluate what they hear (1 Thes. 5:21/ Jn. 17:17).  Instead, they trust their leaders to do their homework for them.  As a result they only know what the leaders of their particular group know, who only know what their teachers knew.  As a result they do not know that the perverted gospel being put forth was already gaining followers in the days of the apostles.  Their writings reveal that they were in a constant war with the Lord’s enemies (Gal. 1:6-9).  The apostles fought continuously to protect the people from Satan’s false religion.  Over time fewer and fewer followed their lead.  The percentages have gotten worse with time.  Today 99% of professing Christendom believe what they hear.  Therefore they see no need to “test the spirits” of those who lead them.  Knowing only the Biblical headlines, they fail to examine the fine print.  As was the case in days of old, they are “ever learning but never coming to the knowledge of the Truth” (2 Tim. 3:7).

When a messenger from God tells the doubters His Truth the messenger is told the same thing those of Isaiah’s day told him when he shed light on their darkness: “Do not speak, do not prophesy to us right things, speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits.  Do not present to us the right ways of God.  Turn aside from His paths.  Stop holding the Holy One of Israel up before us” (Isa. 30:10,11).

Now turn to verses 1,8,9 where God declares for whom those Words were recorded and preserved: “Woe to the rebellious children … that listen to advice, but not from Me, that listen to a spirit, but not My Spirit, that add sin to sin.  Write what I tell you (Isaiah) on a table and note it in a book (the Book of Isaiah) so that it may HELP THOSE IN THE TIME TO COME (END TIME) FOR EVER AND EVER.  This (people of the future) is a rebellious people who WILL (in their day) not hear “THE LAW OF THE LORD.”  The modern church not only refuses to hear the Law of God, she accuses Him of NAILING IT TO CHRIST’S CROSS.  As the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, the Old Testament was written and preserved for those “UPON WHOM THE ENDS OF THE WORLD HAVE COME” (1 Cor. 10:11)–those in “the time to come for ever and ever.”  These are the ones whom God calls “rebellious,” who seek advice from Satan, who add sin to sin, who reject His Truth and want to hear “smooth things” that scratch their itching ears.  Their hirelings are happy to give them what they want–options that confirm their preconceived ideas about good and evil.  God does not coax, He governs.  He does not offer options from which to choose; He commands and demands that His commands be obeyed.  His Standard of government is His Law from Genesis to Revelation which He condensed into Ten Commandments which He wrote in stone and hid so that man could not change them.

But man, with help from Satan, does not need hammer and chisel to pervert God’s Law.  Man speaks smooth words, lies and deceits which appeal to the flesh.  And because they are soothing to the ears and easy on the ego, they are assumed to be “The Word of the Lord.”  Those who do not know God’s Word believe what they are told.  LET US GO TO THE SOURCE OF ALL SPIRITUAL TRUTH FOR AND “STUDY TO SHOW OURSELVES APPROVED” BY THAT SOURCE–ALMIGHTY GOD.  L.J.