The bible is replete with symbols, patterns, duality and examples. We find that what is revealed to us in Genesis (the beginning), is repeated and expounded upon throughout scripture and culminates in the book of Revelation (the end). Nothing is more exciting than understanding these mysteries, having their meanings unlocked to our understanding.
Take the concept of division, for instance. It is amazing how much understanding can be gleaned from this one revelation. Throughout the scriptures we are taught that there is to be a distinction between the children of God and those of the world at large. Yehovah hates mingling or mixing truth with error and gives us ample examples in his word.
In Genesis chapter 1, we see the first references to division. Gen 1:4 tells us that God divided light from darkness, and in verses 6-7 we see that God divided the waters, those above the firmament from those beneath. Although these are actual events, they allude to a spiritual reality that parallels that of nature. Our creator is indeed in the business of dividing light from darkness in the spiritual realm as well. He also reveals that his ways are higher than our ways as the heavens are higher than the earth.
Some of the many references to dividing I see within scripture are sheep and goats, wheat and tares, clean and unclean, holy and unholy. The list goes on and on. Once you become aware of it, you see the pattern everywhere.
Believers are called to be set-apart people. We are to learn how to make a distinction between holy and unholy. God tells us that we are to come out of spiritual Babylon and follow Him.
Israel's experience was a type or shadow picture of the spiritual walk of the believer.When God brought them out of Egypt, it was a foreshadow of believers coming out of sin and the bondage of Satan, personified by Pharoah. God led the Israelites to Mount Sinai, where He entered into covenant with them and taught them how to worship Him. Although many fell in the wilderness due to unbelief and disobedience, their offspring entered the Promised Land, where God again reiterated that they were live as a holy, set-apart nation before him. They were not to mingle with the other nations, not to intermarry with them, not to take on their forms of worship, not to bow down to their idols or pray to their gods.
The same applies to us today. God is the same yesterday, today and forever. He does not change. He desires the same separateness from us as He did from them. He wants us to stand out as light in a darkened world. It is not hard to see that the world is becoming more and more ungodly with each passing day. If we say that we are His children, then we have to leave our worldly ways behind and walk in newness of life. We need to live by the word of God and follow His teachings, which includes abstaining from mixing truth with error and calling it the worship of God.
As with ancient Israel, He has forbidden us from taking on the worship of pagan nations and attempting to reinvent them into our worship of Him. This definitely includes the holidays adopted by modern Christianity today, such as Christmas, Easter, Valentine's Day and Halloween.Christianity has adopted these pagan festivities and allowed them to infiltrate the Church of God, but He does not accept them. He gave His called-out ones annual festivals in which were embedded the ministry of Christ and pictured his redemptive plan of salvation. These pagan holidays are poor substitutes and counterfeits for God's true Holy Days.
Christianity has also abandoned God's Sabbath day and exchanged it for Sunday. It, too, is a shadow picture of the coming Sabbath rest awaiting God's people at the coming of Messiah. Those who honor Him by keeping that day holy, as He has instructed, will enter that rest. They will reign with him for 1,000 years. The rest of the dead will not be resurrected until the 1,000 years are finished, at which time they will stand before the judgment seat of God.
Some denominations dishonor Him with their graven images and prayers to angels and saints. Their leaders take the title of "father" and usurp Christ's role as the only intercessor between God and man. Their denomination forbids these priests to marry, in violation of scripture.
These things ought not be. Christianity, at large, is guilty of apostasy and true believers need to wake up and come out of her before the wrath of God is poured out. Knowledge is being assimilated at alarming speeds today and there is no excuse for ignorance. With the help of computers and the internet we can research each of these topics with the aid of online Bibles as well as historical accounts and commentaries. With a click of the mouse, we can type in words like "Christmas", "Easter" or "Halloween" and a myriad of websites will appear detailing their origins and how they wormed their way into modern Christianity. Don't allow widely accepted customs and traditions to rob you of your rightful position in the family of God. The things of the world are quickly passing away, but the Kingdom of God will reign forever.
Showing posts with label Mixed Seed. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mixed Seed. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 15, 2015
Thursday, January 29, 2015
The Two Seeds
We are told in Isa 46:10 that God declares the end from (out of) the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.
In the beginning, we are told, God created the heavens and the earth, Gen 1:1. We then see in verse 11 "And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so."
Gen 1:21 "And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
Gen 1:24 "And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so."
Gen 1:26 "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."
We see from these verses that all living things produce and multiply after their own kind. This pattern is repeated throughout scripture in agricultural concepts that we can relate to; seeds, trees, gardens, vineyards, wheat, weeds, vines. Once we understand the principles hidden in these simple, natural things, we begin to recognize them throughout our Bibles and our minds are opened to truths we never before could have imagined. The scriptures come to life in new and exciting ways.
When God created Adam and Eve, He created them in His likeness, after the God kind. Gen 2:8 "And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. Gen 1:29 "And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. Gen 2:9 "And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil."
This introduction to a tree of life and a tree of knowledge of good and evil will be a recurring theme throughout scriptures and that which influences man's days on this earth. You see, we are taught in the very beginning that there are two seeds and ultimately two ideologies that man must choose between as a way of life. There is God and there is an enemy, Satan the devil. God's seed is imbedded in a tree that produces life, while Satan's produces mixed seed resulting in death.
After Adam and Eve disobey God and partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they create a separation between themselves and their Creator and the mixed seed that is now inside them will multiply through their offspring, as like kind produces like kind. Our first parents now have both good seed and bad seed within themselves, and throughout man's history on earth we see the battle lines drawn between these two seeds.
To the serpent, representative of Satan, who beguiled Adam and Eve to partake of his tree, God says in Gen 3:15 "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."
As time moves on, we see these seeds multiplying in Adam and Eve's offspring, in Abel and Cain, Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, on down throughout history.
Jesus (Yeshua) teaches the principle of the seed in his parable of the wheat and the tares. When he confronts the Pharisees regarding their rejection of God's Torah and replacing it with man-made religion, he tells them in John 8:44 "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do."
Paul clearly explains the principle of the two seeds in Romans 11. He uses the analogy of two trees; a natural olive tree and a wild olive tree. The natural olive tree is representative of the spiritual seed of Abraham, the father of faith. Gal 3:29 "And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." The wild olive tree contains the seed of the evil one and his offspring.
Most of humanity are the branches of the wild olive tree, influenced by the god of this world, Satan the devil, who has deceived the whole world (II Cor 4:4, Rev 12:9). This tree cannot produce good fruit. One must be grafted into the natural tree in order to produce good fruit. In John 15, Yeshua tells us He is the true vine, we are the branches. If we abide in Him, we will produce much fruit, but without Him we can do nothing. If we do not abide in Him, we are an unfruitful branch that is destined to be cast out and burned in the fire.
Modern Christianity today worships Jesus (Yeshua) and sincerely believe they are obedient and faithful followers of their Messiah. That said, most have no concept of the lengths Satan has gone to in corrupting the worship of God and replacing His Torah with the trappings of ancient pagan, sun god worship. Believers in Messiah have unwittingly accepted a form of worship that is diametrically opposite of what was handed down by Yeshua and the first century apostles. In 325 A.D., Emperor Constantine of Rome made Christianity the official religion of the Holy Roman Empire, but also merged it with the symbols, customs and traditions of sun-god worship, which God calls an abomination. We are the recipients of that hybrid religion, unaware of it's dangers. It contains mixed seed, which God hates, and will not accept.
Today, the two pillars of the Christian faith are Christmas and Easter. Both embody the seed of ancient paganism. Christians are misled into thinking they are worshipping God in the celebration of these two "Holy" seasons, but they are not the ways in which our Creator has revealed (out of the beginning) the way in which He wants us to worship him. Many know the origins of these two festivals, but say "That's not what they mean to me." What's important, though, is what they mean to Him.
We needn't guess. He tells us plainly in His word, if we will accept it. When God brought the children of Israel into the promised land, He knew they would be surrounded by the sun-god worshippers of the land. He therefore warned them in Deut 12:30 "Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise." In Jer 10:2, he tells us not to learn the way of the heathen. We can take these ancient customs and traditions and replace them with new meanings. We can recycle them into the worship of God and believe that He will accept them. He will not. They are an abomination to Him.
Lets revisit the lesson of the two trees and reason together. We might find that we are trying to graft Yeshua into the wild olive tree rather than allowing Him to graft us into the natural tree. Only the natural tree produces good fruit, because Yeshua is the root of that tree. If we truly want to follow Him, we need to leave the wild olive tree with it's adoption of pagan worship and move into the natural olive tree, which is the tree of life.
In the beginning, we are told, God created the heavens and the earth, Gen 1:1. We then see in verse 11 "And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so."
Gen 1:21 "And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
Gen 1:24 "And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so."
Gen 1:26 "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."
We see from these verses that all living things produce and multiply after their own kind. This pattern is repeated throughout scripture in agricultural concepts that we can relate to; seeds, trees, gardens, vineyards, wheat, weeds, vines. Once we understand the principles hidden in these simple, natural things, we begin to recognize them throughout our Bibles and our minds are opened to truths we never before could have imagined. The scriptures come to life in new and exciting ways.
When God created Adam and Eve, He created them in His likeness, after the God kind. Gen 2:8 "And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. Gen 1:29 "And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. Gen 2:9 "And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil."
This introduction to a tree of life and a tree of knowledge of good and evil will be a recurring theme throughout scriptures and that which influences man's days on this earth. You see, we are taught in the very beginning that there are two seeds and ultimately two ideologies that man must choose between as a way of life. There is God and there is an enemy, Satan the devil. God's seed is imbedded in a tree that produces life, while Satan's produces mixed seed resulting in death.
After Adam and Eve disobey God and partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they create a separation between themselves and their Creator and the mixed seed that is now inside them will multiply through their offspring, as like kind produces like kind. Our first parents now have both good seed and bad seed within themselves, and throughout man's history on earth we see the battle lines drawn between these two seeds.
To the serpent, representative of Satan, who beguiled Adam and Eve to partake of his tree, God says in Gen 3:15 "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."
As time moves on, we see these seeds multiplying in Adam and Eve's offspring, in Abel and Cain, Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, on down throughout history.
Jesus (Yeshua) teaches the principle of the seed in his parable of the wheat and the tares. When he confronts the Pharisees regarding their rejection of God's Torah and replacing it with man-made religion, he tells them in John 8:44 "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do."
Paul clearly explains the principle of the two seeds in Romans 11. He uses the analogy of two trees; a natural olive tree and a wild olive tree. The natural olive tree is representative of the spiritual seed of Abraham, the father of faith. Gal 3:29 "And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." The wild olive tree contains the seed of the evil one and his offspring.
Most of humanity are the branches of the wild olive tree, influenced by the god of this world, Satan the devil, who has deceived the whole world (II Cor 4:4, Rev 12:9). This tree cannot produce good fruit. One must be grafted into the natural tree in order to produce good fruit. In John 15, Yeshua tells us He is the true vine, we are the branches. If we abide in Him, we will produce much fruit, but without Him we can do nothing. If we do not abide in Him, we are an unfruitful branch that is destined to be cast out and burned in the fire.
Modern Christianity today worships Jesus (Yeshua) and sincerely believe they are obedient and faithful followers of their Messiah. That said, most have no concept of the lengths Satan has gone to in corrupting the worship of God and replacing His Torah with the trappings of ancient pagan, sun god worship. Believers in Messiah have unwittingly accepted a form of worship that is diametrically opposite of what was handed down by Yeshua and the first century apostles. In 325 A.D., Emperor Constantine of Rome made Christianity the official religion of the Holy Roman Empire, but also merged it with the symbols, customs and traditions of sun-god worship, which God calls an abomination. We are the recipients of that hybrid religion, unaware of it's dangers. It contains mixed seed, which God hates, and will not accept.
Today, the two pillars of the Christian faith are Christmas and Easter. Both embody the seed of ancient paganism. Christians are misled into thinking they are worshipping God in the celebration of these two "Holy" seasons, but they are not the ways in which our Creator has revealed (out of the beginning) the way in which He wants us to worship him. Many know the origins of these two festivals, but say "That's not what they mean to me." What's important, though, is what they mean to Him.
We needn't guess. He tells us plainly in His word, if we will accept it. When God brought the children of Israel into the promised land, He knew they would be surrounded by the sun-god worshippers of the land. He therefore warned them in Deut 12:30 "Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise." In Jer 10:2, he tells us not to learn the way of the heathen. We can take these ancient customs and traditions and replace them with new meanings. We can recycle them into the worship of God and believe that He will accept them. He will not. They are an abomination to Him.
Lets revisit the lesson of the two trees and reason together. We might find that we are trying to graft Yeshua into the wild olive tree rather than allowing Him to graft us into the natural tree. Only the natural tree produces good fruit, because Yeshua is the root of that tree. If we truly want to follow Him, we need to leave the wild olive tree with it's adoption of pagan worship and move into the natural olive tree, which is the tree of life.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)