Nations, Empires, Powers, Need Biblical Principles
Posted: Tuesday, April 22, 2008
by Joel Hendon
http://hebronics.org/index.html
During a written dialogue with an atheist once, I asked him why he wanted to dispel my belief in God and thereby destroy all hope that I had for an eternal reward, plus take away my incentive for an honest, moral and ethical life. He took offense at the latter phrase and said I was inferring that he was dishonest, immoral and unethical. Of course, I was not and I told him so. But I did tell him that, assuming that he was honest, moral and ethical, he was following principles from a source which he was so vehemently denouncing. Morality and decency among mankind are derived from biblical teachings. Many blare out railings that this is not true, that many moral and ethical principles came from thus and so, some are inbred, and so on. That is not true. You cannot trace any such thing back to any source other than the Holy Bible.
It is an interesting study to consider the three dispensations of man since the creation and their instructions from God. Man was created on day six of the creation week. And, from that day, for 2,513 years God's commandments for men were given to the patriarchs (heads of households) directly, either by speaking to them, or appearing to them in a vision or dream. The households as referred to were not simply a man, his wife and 3-4 children as we consider a household today but normally consisted of one man's progeny for several generations. Often more like a tribe or clan. And seemingly God did not speak to them on a daily or even on a regular basis but gave them their instructions and relied on the head of the household to pass those rules down through his children. There are only a few incidents recorded when God spoke between the time of Adam and Eve and that of Noah some 1500 years later.
We are not told very many of the instructions that were given to man under the patriarchal age, other than that to Adam and Eve in the garden. They were to dress and keep the garden and were free to eat of any of the fruits of it except the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And it became obvious that, after they were driven out of the garden, they were given certain rules or laws although they were not recorded. Cain and Abel offered sacrifices, Abel's were accepted and Cain's were not. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews tells us that the reason was Abel's were by faith and Cain's were not. Since we are told that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God, we can know that God had instructed them to offer animal sacrifices where as Cain offered a vegetable offering. It is not recorded that they were told not to kill one another, but it seems likely that He had since He dealt harshly with Cain. Much later He spoke to Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob plus several other incidents. Normally they were instructed to do special things that would ultimately result in the bondage of the Israelites in Egypt
Moses enters the picture during the time of the Egyptian bondage and is given instructions almost daily as God prepares him to lead the children of Israel out of bondage with many miracles. And leads them to Mount Sinai. Almost the entire world had abandoned the instructions of serving God prior to the time of Noah, in fact, he and his wife and three sons with their wives were the only eight souls on the face of the earth who were in God's favor, hence the flood which destroyed all others. And after the flood, once more almost all people left serving God and turned to idolatry. It was due to Abraham's faithfulness that he was chosen to furnish the lineage to the Christ.
At Mount Sinai, God gave his first written law to the Jews through Moses. It consisted of an enormous amount of instruction found in most of the Old Testament books, based on the ten commandments. He gave Moses the ten commandments engraved in stone and then also gave numerous other instructions, primarily consisting of their numerous sacrifices to God and their actions toward their fellow Jews. This law was the basis for morality, honesty and kindness. It was given to keep them in good standing with God through the coming years to bring them to the messiah, His Son.
It is worthy of note that, even though the law given through the patriarchs prior to the time of Moses law, is not spelled out in the biblical record, it most likely contained basically the same instruction as the ten commandments with the exception of keeping the Sabbath day holy. There is no indication that it was observed prior to the giving of the ten commandments. Neither is it recorded in the perfect law of liberty given through Jesus Christ. It was given to the Jews for a day of rest during their generations because of their physically rigorous lifestyle. Jesus Christ brought to the Christian age, his law which was much different to the law of Moses. The Law of Christ was to supercede all the previous laws, those given through the patriarchs as well as the Mosaical law.
The prophet Jeremiah spelled it out as God inspired him:
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. (Jeremiah 31:31-34)
As noted above, the new law of Christ covered all the same laws that were in the 10 commandments with the exception of the Sabbath day law. And, of course, since he was sacrificed for our sins, there were no further requirements for animal sacrifices. He even required more strenuous observance of His commands than did the Law of Moses, in that a desire to do sin is the same as performing the act. Since His law is written in our hearts, we need to seriously desire to do His will and do the best we can to do so. But then, and only then, if we fail, we have his assurance that he will forgive.
Nations which turn away form those commands and become filled with wickedness cannot long survive. When those morals and righteous actions prevail, man can live in peace and can usually overcome his adversities. But those empires and kingdoms in the past, which became pervaded with ungodly activities, have fallen, including the nation of IsraelHis chosen people. There is no reason to believe our nation will be any different.
This Article has been viewed 302 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
No comments yet.We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.