Man's Shrinking Life-Span (MP 14)

Righteous, Adam would have lived forever,
As God’s first man created on earth.
When he sinned, God did his life-span sever—
He died nine hundred thirty years from birth!
When his quintuple-great grandson came,
God foreknew man’s life-length would have to fall,
Else earth could not long men’s huge host sustain,
So He decreed six-score years for them all!
Despite wars, famines, plagues, earth’s numbers grew,
Until Moses wrote, “three-score years and ten”
Man has to serve God, or evil pursue,
Or four-score, if added strength extend!
Adam, you brought us death, and so much more—
Fewer years life’s adventures to explore!

Scripture Quoted: (NIV) [Brackets added]
Genesis 5:5—“Altogether, Adam lived 930 years, then he died.”

Genesis 6:3—“Then the Lord [God] said, ‘My Spirit [God] will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years.’ “

Psalm 90:3—“You [God] turn men back to dust, saying, ‘Return to dust, O sons of men.’ “

Psalm 90:9-10—“All our days pass away under your wrath; we finish our years with a moan. The length of our days is seventy years—or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, but they quickly pass, and we fly away.”

Commentary
We do not know how many sons and daughters were born to Adam and Eve. The Bible reveals the names of three—Cain, Abel, and Seth; since Adam lived 930 years, and Seth was born when he was 130, while Cain and Abel were born earlier; we cam reasonably deduce that these years were not very much different in length than years today. We know that later in the Old Testament, the Jews used 30 days for every month, 360 for a year. Adam and Eve had other children (See Genesis 5:3); they could have sired as many as 100 children, and so could have each of them in those early days. Hence, in ten generations, the total population of the earth could have been in the millions. Well, God knew all of this in advance, and He planned to reduce the length of man’s life to only 120 years. Since Adam’s sin of eating forbidden fruit had brought death for him and all his descendants, it also bequeathed to us all a sinful nature. After just ten generations, wickedness pervaded all the people, except for Noah. In God’s pre-made plan, it called for Him to bring a deluge of water on the earth that drowned everyone but Noah and his family, who numbered eight people total. The newborns after the flood were limited to 120-year life-spans, after a winding-down span of ten additional generations..

Even this relatively short length didn’t curtail population totals. A number of generations later, Moses, the prophet who under God’s guidance brought the descendants of Jacob (Israel) out of slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land (Caanan), wrote that man’s life-span, because of God’s wrath, was down to seventy years. Despite millions killed by wars, famines, and plagues, that is still the number of days that people can expect to live today. The average in America now is slightly more than seventy. Population of the earth is still increasing; it is now more than six billion. God’s Master Plan will not let it grow much more, I don’t believe.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him will not die, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

When Will God Return To Redeem Man? (MP 13)

Many thousand years would pass before God
Came back to earth to redeem fallen Man;
Great spans of history emerged from fog;
Millions died, as sin did the race command!
God prepared men for His saving return;
He chose a tribe which spawned His virgin birth,
Gave them laws and prophets, that sin they’d spurn,
Called them, “the apple of His eye” on earth!
He would come back in the fullness of time;
“Jesus”, meaning “He saves”, was His human name,
For men’s lives will He save, and yours and mine;
Yes, all who believe, absolving of blame!
With God, a thousand years is like a day;
Not like men, who briefly live, then pass away!

Scripture Quoted [Brackets added] (NIV)
Ephesians 1:9-10—“And he [God] made known the mystery of his will [plan] according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ [Jesus] to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.”

Romans 5:6,8—“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless [condemned because of Adam’s first sin, with no remedy to keep ourselves from death], Christ [Jesus] died for the ungodly [the entire human race]. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ [God] died for us.”

2 Peter 3:8-9—“But do not forget this one thing, dear friends, with God a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day. The Lord [God] is not slow in keeping his promise [prophets’ predictions of the coming Messiah (Jesus)] as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance [belief in Jesus as Lord].

Commentary
Jesus (God) was born as a baby in Bethlehem, Judea, of a virgin about the year 2 B.C. and lived until 32 A.D. The entire human race had been under condemnation since the sin of Adam, and most had lived and died facing eternal life separated from God. Jesus brought the “good news” of salvation through faith in Jesus as the Messiah promised in the Old Testament. All men and women who believe in Him have their condemnation nullified and have been given eternal life with God. God’s apparent “slowness” in bringing the remedy for fallen Man is due to His foreknowledge that world conditions would converge into the opportune time for the gospel of faith to spread quickly to the whole world. The Roman Empire was in control of most of the known world—Europe, north Africa, and western Asia. The Romans had built good roads throughout the Empire; travel by foot and by sea was relatively easy and safe. Thanks to Alexander the Great, the Greek language had become the main means of communication through all these nations three centuries earlier. Paul and the other disciples were able to extend the gospel throughout the Empire and beyond. Thomas the apostle went to India; others went deep into Africa; James, the brother of John, sailed into Spain. Despite fierce persecution, there were so many millions of Christians that in 325 A.D. Emperor Constantine adopted the faith as the official religion of the Roman Empire. God chose the time to redeem Man because He knew all this before He launched the universe.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him will not die, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

All Of Us Condemned At Conception (MP 12)

Had one lesser than God designed the plan
To create a race whose wills remained free,
And the first chose sin that doomed ev’ry man,
He may have decided, “That’s all for me!”
Our God foreknew what Adam would do,
And that his progeny would do the same;
All would choose to sin; not one would live true;
So His pre-made plan the puzzle did tame!
God volunteered Himself to be a man;
His human will, with no power divine,
Did not yield, though none was tried harder than;
Sinless, He died, for your sins, and for mine!
We are dead through sin, but can live again;
Through Him, eternal life we can obtain!

Commentary
Why is every person ever conceived condemned by the imputed guilt of Adam? Because from God’s perspective, Adam, the first man created, was considered by God as the “federal head” of the human race. We are every one descended from Adam, the same as a son is descended from his father, grandfather, or great grandfather. If my great great great grandfather, Thomas Crittenden, had not migrated by land and river raft from Virginia to Louisiana, and my grandfather from Louisiana to Mississippi, I would not have been born in Mississippi. Thomas Crittenden’s actions had a great influence on me; so did Adam.

Why did God have to become a man (Jesus) in order to be “eligible” to go to the cross and die for every man’s redemption from the penalty brought by Adam’s first sin? Because Adam was a man, created by God; only the God/man could be another “federal head” of the human race He created like Adam (See Eph. 1:9-10). By living as a sinless man through a human lifetime, the Creator of man could assume the headship of the race and die in man’s place. God pre-planned to return, live, and die as a man before He started the universe. What a God is ours!


Scripture Quoted: Romans 5:12-21 (NIV) [Brackets added]
Note: In the following paragraphs, the Scriptures are enclosed by quotation marks; added explanations are enclosed in brackets.

Verse 5:12—“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man [Adam], and death [meaning physical death, spiritual death, and the ‘second death’ (See Rev. 20:14)] through sin, and in this way death came to all men [you, me, and every human], because all sinned [you, me, and every human]—“

Verse 5:13— “for before the law [Mosaic], sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account [meaning the first sin of Adam is all that was needed to impute sin to all his progeny, and they are condemned; there is no added condemnation for sins committed before Moses; and the sovereign God had given no way to have them forgiven, or to redeem the lost] when there is no law [but Hebrews 11 describes God’s ‘election’ of some whose obedience counted for faith; they were redeemed by His imputation of Christ’s righteousness to them].”

Verse 5:14—“Nevertheless, death [all three kinds—physical, spiritual, and second] reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a commandment as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one [Jesus(God)] to come.”

Verse 5:15—“But the gift [God’s grace in saving mankind] is not like the trespass [Adam’s first sin]. For if the many [every person that lived between Adam and Moses] died by the trespass of one man, how much more did God’s grace [God’s unmerited favor to mankind] and the gift that came by one man [Jesus(God) who gave His life as atonement for the sins of all men, and their redemption] Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!”

Verse 5:16—“Again, the gift [God’s grace in salvation] of God is not like the result of one man’s [Adam’s] sin. The judgment [God’s condemnation of the entire human race] followed one sin and brought condemnation [eternal separation of all mankind from God], but the gift [of Jesus’(God’s) salvation] followed many trespasses and brought justification [relief from condemnation and acceptance to eternal life with God].”

Verse 5:17—“For if, by the trespass of the one man [Adam], death [physical death, spiritual death, and ‘the second death’ (See Rev. 20:14)] reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace [unmerited favor to mankind] and of righteousness [Jesus Christ imputes His righteousness to men and women who believe, for not one person can be righteous on his or her own] reign in life [eternal life with God after physical death] through the one man, Jesus Christ.”

Verse 5:18—“Consequently, just as the result of one trespass [Adam’s first sin] was condemnation [the ‘second death’, eternal separation from God] for all men, so also of one act of righteousness [Jesus Christ’s spilling His blood, dying on the cross] was justification that brings life for all men [all mankind is eligible for justification, but only those who believe in Jesus will be].”

Verse 5:19—“For just as through the disobedience of the one man [Adam] the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man [Jesus] the many will be made righteous [sinless].”

Verse 5:20—“The law [Mosaic Law] was added [given by God to Moses and the Israelites at Mt. Sinai; the Law could not justify] so that the trespasses [sins] might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more,”

Verse 5:21—“so that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life [after physical death, to dwell with God forever] through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him will not die, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘’Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

God Confronts Adam And Eve (MP 11)

God watched them commit the sin and was sad,
Yet He foreknew it would be as it was;
For Him to remain just, Man’s free will had
To choose sin for himself, and he still does!
God straightway came and confronted the three:
The Man, the Woman, and the serpent, too,
For it had housed Satan and willingly,
Inducing the Pair God’s command eschew!
All were assigned stiff penalties to bear:
The Garden was lost to them forever;
Death must they and all their descendants share!
Adam’s sin seemed God’s great plan to sever!
Is this the end of His plan for the world,
To dwell with men, if all to Hell are hurled?

Scripture Quoted: Genesis 3:14-19 (NIV)
“So the Lord God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, 'Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.' "
“To the woman he said, ‘I will greatly increase your pain in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.’ “
“To Adam he said, ‘Because you have listened to your wife, and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, You must not eat of it, Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.' " [Brackets added]

Commentary
What drastic changes came to the lives of Adam and Eve, and to their destiny, as well as to progeny, the whole human race, as a result of their disobedience to God! Those changes apply to you and me and our descendants, too! Because of this first sin, God, to keep His word and remain just, was obliged to issue strict judgment upon all men and women, including physical death and condemnation to Hell for eternal afterlife! Hell is the place of torment prepared for Satan and the fallen angels; it is a burning lake of fire. Also, the earth was cursed by God; henceforth there was no easy living in a Garden full of fresh fruit; instead the fields had to be worked by man to produce his own food without rain and prone to produce briars and thistles. Animals became dangerous to each other and to Man. These conditions continue to this day, except rain was added by God later after a catastrophic deluge.

Why did God create the universe, angels, earth, and man? Because He desired creatures in His image, men and women, that were sinless and, of their own free wills while living here on earth, chose to live as taught by His word—the Bible—to dwell with Him, adopted into His family, in an eternal after life. Since Adam was the “federal head” of the whole human race, Adam’s sin was imputed to every one of Adam’s descendants. Therefore no one who ever lived could qualify to be adopted by God, for in His sight all were sinners, and all God’s preparatory work up to this point would be useless, a waste of His time and power. His plan was ended with the first man of the new creatures! Or was it?

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him will not die, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)

“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

The Sin That Changed The World (MP 10)

God gave Adam freedom of choice to make;
He did the same for the rest of mankind;
But God foreknew which fork each one would take,
So the First Man’s choice stained all those behind!
God gave one command to Adam and Eve;
It was, “Do not eat of a certain Tree!”
Their fitness, eternal life to receive,
Was being tested; would they remain free?
Satan, as a serpent, told them a lie;
It was that God would not do what He said;
“If you eat this, you will not surely die!”
As if God were too kind to see them dead!
So they ate, disobeying God’s command,
And they died, and the entire race of Man!

Scripture Quoted: Genesis 3:1-7 (NIV)
“Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God really say, 'You must not eat of any tree in the garden?’ The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say ’You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will surely die.‘ 'You will not surely die,’ the serpent told the woman, ‘for God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked, so they sewed fig leaves together and made covering for themselves.”

Commentary
Adam and Eve were created by God innocent as small children, who believe anything anyone tells them. He preferred that they remain that way. God knew, however, that Satan was on the earth, and that he was the father of all lies (See John 8:44). As a test for the First Pair, God put a tree in the middle of the garden and commanded Adam that he must not eat its fruit. He foreknew that Adam would disobey, for He knew that Satan would convince Adam to do it. Please note what the effect of eating the forbidden fruit was, because it was very deliberately planned by God, so that its effects would spread to the entire human race, including all of us today. It was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil—not the Knowledge of How to Tell Good from Evil; just that there are both good and evil in the world. The first result of eating in defiance of God upon Adam and Eve was that they realized they were naked; this meant that nakedness was now not only noticeable to their minds, but that lust entered their thoughts. Lust is Satan’s way of inducing erotic sin into a modern-day obsession, all of it evil, except between husband and wife, in God’s sight. pride, jealousy, envy, hatred, covetousness, contentiousness, and a million other emotions that lead to sin entered into Man when Adam and Eve disobeyed. The serpent (Satan) had a field day with the human race after the first sin in the Garden!

The Bible defines death in three ways: Physical death, meaning the end of this life in the flesh upon the earth; “second” death, meaning God’s penalty after the Final Judgment suffering condemnation to hell with Satan and the fallen angels (See Revelation 20:14); and spiritual death meaning those living human beings whose lives are being lived while rejecting God. The devil lied; Adam and Eve and all who lived between Adam and Moses died all three deaths (See Romans 5:14), except for some who God specifically “elected”, counting their obedience as faith (See Hebrews 11).

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him will not die, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

Satan Shows Up (MP 9)

Before the Garden was, Satan was there;
Unseen, watching all that the Lord God did;
He smirked to see Man made with such great care,
Noting weaknesses in him not e’en hid!
He hated Adam and the race of men,
For God made them to be higher than he;
To snatch them away by their love of sin,
Became his plan, the more Satan did see!
With their unaided wills, men must oppose
The tempts and tests the devil throws at them!
Satan could assume any form he chose,
But God knows just what’s going on with him!
He makes evil most attractive to men;
Few will resist or with success contend!

Scripture Quoted: 1 Peter 5:8-9 (NIV)
“Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same sufferings.”

Commrntary

Lucifer began as God’s chief angel in heaven, but as we have seen in an earlier blog, he rebelled against his Creator, tried to topple Him, lost, and got cast out of heaven. He and millions of supporting angels were hurled to the newly formed earth. Lucifer’s name was changed to Satan. Instead of giving up his foolish idea of fighting God for supremacy, he continued opposing God by trying to ensnare the souls of men and women, that they might be condemned as he and the other fallen angels were. Knowing that God detests sin, cannot abide it, and has decreed that the “wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), he surrounds human beings with opportunities to engage in sinful actions. He and his helpers, called “demons”, furnish the evils by which people are tested while living on the earth.
You may wonder why God did not execute all of the traitors instead of allowing them to continue doing damage against His effort to create the human race and adopt them into His family to dwell with Him for eternity. Had God executed them, the earth would be happier; there would be no evil and no temptation to do evil. But if that were so, how could God be sure that those who He adopted chose the good? If there was no evil in the world, man would not be forced to choose between evil and good. Lucifer was created for the express purpose of providing evil. I must say he does a wonderfully “good” job of providing evil to the world. Most men and women prefer his “broad road” to hell rather than God’s “narrow” path to heaven (Matthew 7:13-14). The battle between God and Satan, far from being cut short, as would have happened if God had slain him by Satan’s abrupt eradication, started in heaven before time began; resumed in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve were tempted; has continued growing with the human race; is now raging, even in visible warfare, as the Middle East conflict between Muslim nations and tiny Israel; and will continue until the end of Time; at which point Satan and his demons will be thrown into the Lake of Fire, along with all the human beings that have chosen sin over God (Revelation 20:14).

In the Scripture quoted above Peter graphically describes Satan as a roaring lion devouring people; of course, that is not literal, but a person who ignores God and fills his or her time with worldly pursuits is certainly “devoured” by condemnation to hell. Modern-day culture frowns on Christian gospel by its philosophical stance against anything which is not inclusive of all religions as “truth”. “There is no other name under heaven given to men through whom we must be saved than Jesus Christ,” Peter told the Jewish Sanhedrin (Acts 4:12); in postmodernity (the philosophy that governs today's society), this statement is a no-no, because it is dogmatic and absolute. It is true though.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him will not die, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

The FIrst Marriage (MP 8)

God saw that Adam needed a helpmate;
He caused the man to fall deeply asleep;
From Adam one of his ribs God did take,
Made a partner for his company keep!
Adam said, “We shall be husband and wife;
She’s bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh.”
Man shall leave his parents for a new life;
The two shall be one, sharing all afresh!
Man and woman only shall for life mate;
Adam and Eve were the first ones so to do;
What God joins, man’s law cannot separate;
God said, “Be fruitful,” and increase from two!
They were naked, yet did not feel ashamed;
Innocent and pure—would they had remained!

Scripture Quoted: Genesis 2:21-25 (NIV)
“So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, ‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man.’ For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.”

Commentary
This passage from Genesis 2 describes the first marriage, which is an ordinance instituted by God. All nations’ civil law includes definitions of marriage and how they are to be recorded. In America each state regulates marriage. Until recently all used the Bible’s definition of marriage as between one man and one woman. Priests and ministers are authorized to conduct Christian marriage; justices of the peace, ship captains, and certain others are also licensed to do it and sign a wedding certificate.
Recently a few states have authorized same-sex marriages. God does not approve of homosexuality; the Bible clearly calls it sin in both the Old and New Testaments. God loves the homosexual man or woman as much as He loves any man or woman, and he or she receives the gift of salvation exactly as does any person, but God hates sin in everyone. “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). A homosexual believer is commanded to admit his or her sin, confess it to God, and ask forgiveness. Also, like all sins, he or she is expected by God to work to eliminate his sexual sin; despite what modern psychology holds, a person can rid himself or herself of it. Even if the effort is not made, though, a sincere believer in Jesus Christ, homosexual or not, will be admitted to heaven by receiving the righteousness of Christ imputed to him or her. No person will ever earn the right to enter heaven by his own effort.

Divorce can be sinful for both partners, or by either, or by neither. Every married person should vividly realize that his and her wedding vow was made to God; breaking your vow to Him is a sin, one that He especially hates. God makes to the divorcee the same promise of salvation made to all—it is given to any who sincerely believe in Jesus Christ. Remarriage may also be sinful, but doing so will not take away a person’s salvation who believes in Jesus.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him will not die, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)