Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Separated from God: Is 59:2

But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.” (Isaiah 59:2)
When God first created Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden He gave them this simple command, “The Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.’” (Genesis 2:16-17) How could Adam and Eve have understood what it meant to die? Until then, nothing had ever died. In their understanding, death was not annihilation, but rather, death was separation. Joshua told the people, “Now behold, today I am going the way of all the earth.” (Joshua 23:14) Joshua was not going to cease to exist, but he was going to Sheol, the place of departed souls. Joshua was going to be separated, or cut off, from the land of the living, but his soul was to remain very much alive. James makes this even more clear when he said, “For just as the body without the spirit is dead.” (James 2:26)

On the day that Adam and Eve took of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil they died, not physically but they died spiritually. They were separated from God because of their sin. Once they enjoyed unbroken fellowship with God and the next moment they were afraid of God and hid themselves from Him. “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings. They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” (Genesis 3:7-8)

All of us have sinned, and our sins have separated us from God. Our sins have become a wall between God and us, keeping us from God and keeping His blessings from us. We cannot be reconciled to God without first dealing with our sins. But how can we atone for our many sins? Thankfully, we don’t have to, Jesus died to pay the price for our sins. “But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity.” (Ephesians 2:13-16) The law testifies against us of our sins and condemns us to death. Jesus came and, by His life, fulfilled all the law. Jesus was perfect and sinless. Then, after living a perfect life, He died to atone for our sins. He died so that all who would put their faith and trust in Him would be forgiven of their sins and reunited with God. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

The good news of the Gospel is that we no longer need to be separated from God. We can be reunited with the Father. This reconciliation is not based on any good works that we might do but is a free gift from God to all who may choose to accept it. “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” (Romans 5:10)

David Robison

11 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:25 AM

    Truely we are separated by our own sins but God with His open hand sent his own son to bring reconciliation to himself as an atonment.

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  2. Anonymous8:57 PM

    If yahweh (the bible god) is omnipresent, how is it at all possible to be literally separated from him? I'd say that something is conceptually wrong here. send answer to
    v88z@aol.com

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  3. You are correct. God is everywhere around us and even David asked of God, "Where can I run and hide from thee." However, the truth is that many of us live our lives separated from God. Separation is not always physical. Take for example a blind man standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon. With all that glorious beauty around him, his blindness separates him from it. Or the deaf man sitting in a concert of one of the great masters, with all the exquisite music around him, his deafness separates him from it. And consider the bitter man sitting in church where each member loves each other as brothers and sisters, yet his bitterness separates him from his brothers and sisters and their love. The same way, when we choose a life of sin, though God is all around us, we are yet separated from His goodness, forgiveness, and grace. Worse of all, it is a separation of our own choosing. Oh that all men would flee their life of sin and be reconciled to their Father that is always and in every way all around them.

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  4. Anonymous1:23 PM

    You seem to confuse--in your example--a condition or an entity one would want to run and hide from with a condition of experiencing various kinds of relative beauty. I'd say that a supernatural being that planned from the beginning to cook 99.9 percent of humanity in a lake of eternal excruciating torture is a being that doesn't have a whole lot of love and beauty going for it. It would appear inevitable from prophecy that 99.9 percent of human beings are jerked into being from non-being AGAINST THEIR WILL to be doomed to burn alive forever--REGARDLESS. That seems the equivalent of being raised like chickens to serve as eternal assurance of someone's always having dinner. Having all power and all knowledge and all knowledge of any and all future reality from any scenario pretty well makes the entity in possession of such capacities absolutely responsible for ALL evil and all sin as well. If 99.9 percent of mankind is designed, created, cursed, and doomed to be sinners, they simply have no choice but to be sinners, which they are whether "forgiven" or not. How does it make sense that a victim of birth defect be forgiven for being born that way? send answer to v88z@aol.com

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  5. I'm not sure what prophesies you are talking about, but no one is damned "against their will." If you read the early christian writers they all believed in the free will of man to either submit to or reject the will and law of God. Our eternal destination is our choice, it lies within our own souls to choose.

    With man's free will, what more can God do? He already sent prophets and apostles to teach us His word and deliver us His message. He Himself took on flesh and died our death and paid the penalty for our sins. He left behind in the earth his Holy Spirit to convict us of sin, righteousness, and judgment. What more is there for Him to do. The choice is now ours. Will we receive Him and live according to His calling or will we reject Him and live as sheep, each to our own way? It is ours to choose.

    David

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  6. Anonymous10:55 PM

    So, you're saying that no human being is prophesied as going into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is NOT for human beings at all. I gather as well that human beings who, on the basis of their own entirely free will, do not choose to enter into any relationship with yahweh will, after temporary resurrection, be allowed to pass into unconscious non-existence--the same state of non-being they were in before they were born. If this is the case, then, yes, yahweh has given everyone the chance to accept or reject what yahweh offers beyond resurrection and will simply allow individuals to return to the condition of non-being from which they were created. To make that arrangement possible, yahweh/yeshua died on the cross so that human beings can choose freely to return to a blessed state of unconscious existence. If that's the way it works, I think this arrangement is fair. Thank you, David v88z@aol.com

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  7. Sorry for the delay in responding. Your close, but not exactly. Hell was never created for mankind, it was prepared for the devil and his angles (Matthew 25:41). However, those who reject God's salvation will share eternity there with the devil. The key point is that it is ours to choose. We all have free will to chose God or to reject Him and, based on that decision, it will determine our eternal state, whether in heaven with God or in hell with the devil. I hope this helps. David

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  8. Anonymous3:09 PM

    Sorry, but this doesn't "help" at all. Yahweh/Yeshua have, according to scripture, total knowledge of the future--and had such knowledge when they created everything. THEREFORE, they knew when they created the lake of fire that human beings were going into it along with satan and its kin and made absolutely no provisions otherwise. Their bible-inscribed prophesy (per their prophets) was that most human beings--virtually all of them--would be doomed to that eternal state of torture in the fire. Your "gods" are monsters! Sorry. v88z@aol.com

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  9. Happened to stumble on this sight and take a look at the comments. I'll give it a try. Revelation 12:9 tells us (KJV) "And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him." Theres another scripture that says 1/3 of the angels in heaven were cast out actually, 2/3 stayeed in Heaven and are still loyal and respectful to God. Everything God does has purpose.. he does not want this for mankind but like Mr. David Robinson stated earlier the very 1st sin of Adam and Eve has seperated everyone from that closeness and safe place to say with God we were all spiritually seperated and need to rekindle that connection with God. Another scripture Galatians 1:4 says "Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver usfrom this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father" (KJV). This explains how Jesus wants everyone saved so they will make it to the Kingdom of heaven and be saved. @Davidv88z@aol.com Once your saved and attempting to live right and accept Jesus God will make changes in your life to better and strengthen you. No one is doomed in this world unless they can't accept God's son Jesus into their hearts. email me at Abrown2325@gmail.com for replies if you want.

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  10. FORGIVENESS OF SINS? BY STEVE FINNELL

    Did God give mankind manifold options to have their sins forgiven?

    The birth of the church of Christ was on the Day of Pentecost. What occurred on that day?

    1.The apostle Peter preached Jesus, His death, His burial, and His resurrection. (Acts 2:22-35)
    2. Peter stated God had made Jesus both Lord and Christ and that they were responsible for Jesus being crucified.(Acts 2:36)
    3. The crowd asked Peter and the rest of the apostles what they should do. (Acts 2:37)

    What was Peter's answer? Keep in mind these men had already believed that Jesus was Savior, Lord, and the Christ.

    Did Peter give them this list of choices?

    1. Did Peter say, "Repent and say the sinners prayer and you will have your sins forgiven and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit?"
    2. Did Peter say, "You do not have to do anything thing to be saved, you were saved the very moment you believed, your sins are forgiven?"
    3. Did Peter say, "Repent and be baptized because your sins have been forgiven?"
    4. Did Peter say, "You were added to the body of Christ the minute you believed, however, in order to join the local church you must be baptized in water?"
    5. Did Peter say, "Repent and be baptized as an example to the community?"
    6. Did Peter say,"It is written that men are saved by faith only, water baptism is a good work?"
    7. Did Peter say, "Water baptism is just an act of obedience, and it has nothing to do with forgiveness of your sins?"
    8. Did Peter say, "The thief on cross was not baptized and he was saved; therefore you can have your sins forgiven without being baptized?"
    9. Did Peter say, "You have to be baptized in order join a denominational church, however, you can get into heaven by faith only?"
    10. WHAT DID PETER SAY? Acts 2:38 Peter said to them, "Repent and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.(NASB)

    The apostle Peter was not offering multiple ways to have sins forgiven.

    Faith: John 3:16
    Repentance: Acts 2:38
    Confession: Romans 10:9-10
    Water Baptism: Acts 2:38
    ALL ARE ESSENTIAL FOR SALVATION!

    YOU ARE INVITED TO FOLLOW MY BLOG. http//:steve-finnell.blogspot.com

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  11. Anonymous12:58 AM

    would if you are separated from God after Baptism?

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