Issued: 5/19/24

“For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but because of Him Who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of God….For God has consigned all to disobedience, that He may have mercy on all.”

Romans 8:20-21, 11:32

   PLEASE NOTE:  Because Bible versions sometimes differ from each other in crucial ways, the version quoted here will be the one that best clarifies the point being made.  For a quick comparison between versions, please go to: http://www.biblehub.com.

   All bracketed material may be authorial comments, attempts at proper syntax, or minimal rewordings of Scripture for the sake of clarity and continuity.  These emendations will not be italicized.

   The “/” will be used to signify “and/or.”  The symbol “↔” is used to connect verses corroborating each other and so establishing doctrinal truths (Matthew 18:16↔2Corinthians 13:1).

   In differentiating between Yahweh Son [Jesus] and Yahweh Father [the Most High God], lower case letters have been used when discussing the former; upper case letters are reserved for the Only and Most High God.  Since Jesus was at pains to differentiate himself from Father, we have followed his lead here.

   The term neo-Christians will be used to differentiate between false Christians and Jesus’ true followers.

   Because it plays a vital role in human suffering, we want to dedicate an entire essay to Paul’s ‘potentiality’ argument and its ramifications; which he stated as follows: “We might even say that these Levites [the priestly class chosen to minister before Yahweh (Exodus 29:1-37; Numbers 3:12-13)—the ones who collect the tithe (Numbers 18:20-30)—paid a tithe to Melchizedek when their ancestor Abraham paid a tithe to [Melchizedek]; for although Levi [Abraham’s great-grandson, the tribal Patriarch] wasn’t born yet, the seed from which [Levi] came was in Abraham’s body [“loins”; i.e., through Isaac and Jacob] when Melchizedek collected the tithe from [Abraham]“ [↔Genesis 14:17-20].¹

   What is Paul’s point? That the righteous/sinful actions of predecessors have a bearing on subsequent generations; consequently, Adam’s sin for eating from the tree of knowledge made humankind—then potentially “in his loins”—as sinful as he was (Genesis 2:16-17, 3:7↔Isaiah 43:27; Romans 5:12). Please note that Woman, not created at this point, must have received that directive from Adam (Genesis 3:2-3); but as she was formed from one of his ribs and considered one flesh with him (Genesis 2:21-24, 5:2), Eve, the “mother of all the living” (Genesis 3:20], was the ‘carrier’ who contaminated mankind with Adam’s sinfulness. All of this prefigures the dynamic between the “second Adam,” Jesus (Romans 15:14; 1Corinthians 15:45) and his conceptual body, the Church (Ephesians 5:29-32), members of which, corrupting his teachings, contribute to the damnation of men’s souls even to this day (Matthew 23:13; 2Peter 2:1-3↔Ezekiel 34:1-10; 1John 3:19).

   The same was true of Abram, whose name change to “Abraham” after entering into a covenant with Yahweh Son² via circumcision (Genesis 17:1-21),³ was not only the progenitor of mortal Jews but of the spiritual Israel encompassing faithful Jews and Christians to be gathered into one nation at end-times (Ezekiel 37:21-22↔Galatians 3:7,28↔Ephesians 1:9-10). And this specifically through Isaac, not Ishmael, the former being the “seed” Paul understood to signify Jesus (Galatians 3:16↔Genesis 21:10-12). Naturally, since a promise had been given Abram regarding nations issuing from him prior to circumcision (Romans 4:10-12), Yahweh committed himself to raising one such nation out of the illegitimate Ishmael (Genesis 12:1-3, 15:5, 17:4, 21:18): The Arab world.⁴

    And so on and so forth: Israel and Judah described as adulterous sisters betraying the same Husband, Yahweh Son, who was their Creator and wronged consort (Isaiah 54:5↔Matthew 28:18↔Romans 9:5↔Revelation 1:18; Jeremiah 3:6-18↔Mark 2:19↔Revelation 21:9); Judaism [Samaria] betraying Jesus as did Judah [i.e., Jerusalem/Christendom↔Hebrews 7:14];⁵ yet through Jesus both Jews and Christians being offered remission of sins through his blood (Hebrews 9:13-22, 12:24↔Genesis 4:10↔Revelation 5:9, 6:9-10).

The Impartial, Disciplining Father

    Father prides Himself in not playing favorites (Deuteronomy 10:17):  Not for Him the nepotism so rampant across Satan’s powers that be worldwide; for even Jesus, only begotten and beloved Son (Matthew 3:17; John 3:16), was made to bite the bullet so that he would have the moral high ground to lead his people and demand their unconditional obedience (Isaiah 53:10; John 18:11; Acts 5:41, 9:6↔Isaiah 65:15↔Revelation 2:17; Hebrews 2:10↔Luke 14:26↔Romans 8:17).  How different from all the admired, lionized, manipulative and false leaders who sacrifice nothing to benefit those willing to submit to them! [Remember your Romans 6:16; Galatians 1:10]. No such shenanigans where Father is concerned:  If Jesus agreed to face the unthinkable for men (John 10:17-18), then men had to do the same for him, or at the very least do it to the extent of their capabilities (1Corinthians 10:13).  There is no free ride for anyone.

    Hence Paul’s implicit meanings in the verses that open this essay.  After Adam’s transgression and his eviction from Eden, Father turned creation over to Satan, for it was Satan’s suggestion which seduced Eve (Genesis 3:5↔2Corinthians 11:3) and Adam willingly went along with it (Genesis 3:6↔1Corinthians 7:32-33).  Satan’s argument was a crock, since equality with Father could never be achieved—something that Satan clearly understood [Isaiah 14:14↔“make myself like” but not equal to Him].  But then the God Satan was referring to was Son, Father‘s appointed, omnipotent ruler [↔John 14:28; 1Corinthians 15:24-28; Revelation 1:8, 3:12] and planter of Eden (Genesis 2:8↔Isaiah 5:1-7); whose power Satan could co-opt if he challenged Son‘s authority [↔Ezekiel 21:9-11].  Father‘s empowerment of Satan as world ruler is the gist of Isaiah 21:15-15; Ezekiel 21:25-27; Luke 4:5-6↔Daniel 5:21; John 14:30; 2Corinthians 4:4; 1John 5:19.  However, even in this capacity, Satan is under Son‘s thumb (Matthew 28:18; Revelation 1:18) and has always been kept on a leash (Exodus 12:13,23; 2Samuel 24:16; Job 1:12, 2:6; Revelation 6:8, 9:1, 20:7).

    Humankind having inherited a sinful nature (Genesis 6:5; Ecclesiastes 9:3) and acting according to it (Ecclesiastes 7:29), Father sent prophets appealing to behavior modification (Jeremiah 29:19), but such entreaties fell on deaf ears (Jeremiah 29:19; Ezekiel 33:11); leading to alienation from Him (Nehemiah 9:17,26-37; Isaiah 63:10; Jeremiah 11:10-11) and being remanded into Satan’s custody (Isaiah 14:4-6,12,16-17,20; Ezekiel 21:3-4,11-15,19,25-26). As far as He was concerned, loving parents who disliked disciplining their children hated them (Proverb s 13:24), which needless to say is what modern parenting is all about; and because souls were at stake, the exhortation was to endure Father‘s “scourges” in order to achieve holiness and be legitimized as spiritual offspring (Hebrews 12:5-10).  Thus Micah’s confession (Micah 6:9) and Paul’s perception that ordeals strengthened his commitment (2Corinthians 12:10); plus Paul’s important point that past sins committed in ignorance of Father‘s laws became retroactive when recognizing them as such (Romans 3:20, 5:13); so that at the moment of awareness, everyone was liable to to be disciplined by Father (Jeremiah 30:11).

    This is a crucial point, because most neo-Christians believe that ‘accepting Jesus as their personal Savior’ is some sort of abracadabra by which past sins are forgotten and ‘born-agains’ start from fresh.  No tabula rasa, folks:  Our religious leaders are selling us a bill of goods that have no basis in Scripture and constitute ‘been there, done that’ recidivism (Isaiah 30:9-10; Jeremiah 12:12; Ezekiel 13:9-14). Not only are we told that there is not “one righteous, not even one” (Romans 3:10-12↔Mark 10:18)—not even Jesus himself (Mark 10:18), who in his preexistence as Yahweh Son had made errors in judgment meriting Father‘s discipline (Hebrews 5:7-8), though in his case with an higher objective in mind (Hebrews 2:10).  And this generalization extends to the 144,000 who, irrespective of their other failings, will be spared the final plagues not because they are holier than anyone else, but because they did not consort with adulterous synagogues/churches/denominations [i.e., are “virgins”] and “no lie was found in their mouths”—meaning they preached the Gospel the way it should be (Deuteronomy 4:2; 1Samuel 3:19; Proverbs 30:6; Ecclesiastes 3:14↔Isaiah 66:2↔John 9:31; Acts 26:22↔Titus 1:9; Revelation 14:4-5).

“Contradictions” that Never Were

    For the record, let us state them:

Exodus 20:5:  “I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me.”

Jeremiah 31:29-30:  “In those days people will no longer say, ‘The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’ Instead, everyone will die for [his/her] own sin; whoever eats sour grapes—[his/her] own teeth will be set on edge.”

Ezekiel 18:20:  “The one who sins is the one who will die. The child will not share the guilt of the parent, nor will the parent share the guilt of the child. The righteousness of the righteous will be credited to them, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against them.”

    While Exodus 20:5 gives the impression of Yahweh as an arbitrary punisher, this is Scripture’s way of telling us Father assumes responsibility for all He allows Satan to deploy against mankind.  The gist of Exodus 20:5 is two-fold: 1) Satan is never free to vent his homicidal nature against men:  He must always be allowed to act [↔1Kings 22:20-22; Job 1:11-19, 2:4-8; Luke 22:31]; and 2) subsequent generations suffer the consequences of those predecessors channeling his evildoing.

    The first is possible because Father will never allow any transgression against Him to go unatoned (Jeremiah 46:28); and whereas until Armageddon [↔Deuteronomy 32:35; Revelation 20:9] He personally  will never ever punish any transgressor, Satan is always ready to vent his homicidal nature against creatures Father loves in order to get back at Him. In terms of the second, consider the repercussions that have bedeviled humanity to this day from the Crusades; European colonialism in India and the New World; the exploitation of Africa in terms of the slave trade/natural resources; the unholy alliance between religion and the state; revolutions and attempts at regime change; wars; evangelical mindsets festering with racism and xenophobia; etc.  While all of these had their geneses in past times, each subsequent generation implemented and practiced the same anti-Christian behaviors—more often than not, shamefully, in name of Father and Jesus. Yet, as Exodus 20:5 intimates, all were possible due to willing and willful human disobedience of Father‘s will; and because He permitted them, He owned up to his personal responsibility instead of passing the buck—as human leaders do when their agendas and policies fail dismally—to others (Psalms 33:9-10; Isaiah 45:5-7, 46:10; Daniel 4:35↔Numbers 23:19).

    Jeremiah 31:29-30 and Ezekiel 18:20 place the onus on individual responsibility; so that while any one parent may be rotten to the core, any offspring who is not will not be liable for parental guilt. But Satan being the propagandist he is creates the impression there is no rhyme or reason to human suffering, something Solomon attributed to the “vanity” [i.e., futility] of human existence: “There are righteous people who get what the actions of the wicked deserve, and there are wicked people who get what the actions of the righteous deserve” (Ecclesiastes 8:14)—an imponderable asked in Scripture (Malachi 3:14-15) and answered in Psalms 37:1-18.  The short answer is that suffering is essential to extinguish undesirable behaviors and to instill new ones in accordance to Father‘s standards (Psalms 39:11 51:17; Proverbs 20:30).

    Which brings us to John 9:1-3: “As [Jesus] passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”’ Jesus answered, ‘It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.”  What was Jesus’ point?  That even is Satan had afflicted the man with blindness because Father permitted it, Satan’s work could be undone if in His mercy, Father so wished—which was the objective behind the miraculous cures effected by Jesus (Matthew 4:24; Luke 13:16; John 14:10) and the Apostles (Mark 16:17-18; Acts 5:12-16, 19:11↔1Corinthians 2:4-5).  In typical fashion, Jesus’ detractors accused him of channeling Satan (Matthew 12:24), which Jesus rebutted in Matthew 12:25-28—an argument true of himself but not necessarily establishing the Christian bona fides of every self-professed evangelist [↔Matthew 7:22-23].  With respect to the latter, we need to take into consideration Scriptures like Deuteronomy 13:1-3, 18:20, Jeremiah 23:32 and others; but this discussion will have to wait for another time.

East of Eden⁶

    This is where it gets interesting:  Where was Adam evicted to?  There is no Biblical record of a second creation; so we posit that every creature from Eden went with Adam into our own corrupted order of things.  Obviously animals devolved from their original state (Genesis 1:29-30), resulting in the fauna we observe today—and not only land but sea creatures as well.  Still, why the focus on land creatures?  Because for the most part they symbolize righteous and unrighteous human beings in terms of their behaviors [↔Ecclesiastes 3:18]—i.e., whether they co-exist peacefully with other species or prey on them.  On the one side we have sheep (John 10:27) and oxen (1Corinthians 9:9-12); on the other, dogs/pigs (Matthew 7:6↔2Peter 2:22) and predators of all kinds (Deuteronomy 7:2; Daniel 7:4-6; Matthew 7:15↔Acts 20:29; 1Peter 5:8).  Hence Paul’s observation that Father subjected everything to the bondage of decay, and consigned all—humans as well as animals [↔Ecclesiastes 3:21]—to disobedience in order that He might show mercy to all.

    Yes, but why?  Because it would have been unthinkable to Father to endorse a world of haves and have-nots, which is they way our world—Satan’s realm—operates.  Father‘s plan of redemption hinges on the notion that if people share the Christian creed (Ephesians 4:3-6), they must work equally and be rewarded equally at the appointed time (Hebrews 11:39-40)—the reason why in Jesus’ parable every laborer gets his working pay at the end of the working day (Matthew 20:1-25); why all the dead righteous resurrect collectively while the living do not precede them into Heaven (1Thessalonians 4:15); why except for Enoch (Genesis 5:24), Moses and Elijah (Matthew 17:3), there are no conscious, righteous departed in Heaven interceding for loved ones on earth (Ecclesiastes 9:5-6; Revelation 6:9-11); and why all the redeemed led by Jesus will enter Heaven collectively (1Thessalonians 4:17).  Every single, dead righteous from Abel until Jesus’ second coming is asleep and unconscious; so that whatever ghosts are seen or people met in those oft-mentioned ‘light tunnels’ are not what they purport to be.

Father’s Kingdom: The New Eden/Promised Land

    First of all this will be a new order of things, conceived in timelessness, and made from scratch:  A new heavens and a new earth (Isaiah 66:22-23↔Isaiah 30:26; 2Peter 3:13) but no longer a sea (Revelation 21:1).  What happens to sea creatures?  Scripture does not say.

    What happens to land animals?  “You will have a covenant with the stones of the field, and the wild animals will be at peace with you…The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the leopard will lie down with the goat; the calf and young lion and fatling will be together, and a little child will lead them. The cow will graze with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox…and the snake his bread of dust, and they shall do no harm, nor shall they destroy in all My holy mountain” (Job 5:23; Isaiah 11:6-7, 65:25).  What are we being told?  That all land animals revert back to their Edenic, vegetarian state (Genesis 1:29-30).

    In terms of human beings, they will be made to resemble Jesus’ image (Psalms 17:15; 1John 3:2), Father‘s proxy Creator (John 1:3; Hebrews 1:2-3); resurrected in immortal flesh like he was (Colossians 1:18), and free from sexual constraints (Matthew 22:29-30).  What need will there be for procreation when the countless population of Father‘s Kingdom will be complete?  Thank Father for that, for as we can see from the constant barrage of sexual propaganda in contemporary media and the arts, the temporal delights of sex are the bait Satan keeps dangling from the hook we are more than willing to bite.

Conclusions

    When people ask why a loving God allows human suffering, we are seeing evidence of Paul’s argument in 1Corinthians 2:14: “The natural [i.e., unbeliever] person does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.”  Also it is the human norm to want the pie and eat it too; so rather than face the Dorian Gray image of our inner, spiritual corruption, men look heavenwards and try to place blame elsewhere.  This disingenuous attitude is stock and parcel of human nature and we see it at play time and again throughout the Scriptures and human history.

    We reap what we sow; and more often than not, what others sowed. Given the fact that most of humanity, no matter how dire or desperate living conditions might be, focuses on surviving another day, fear of death is the whip Satan uses to keep people cowed and in bondage (Hebrews 2:14-15). This is why false evangelism spins living as an intrinsic part of Christian doctrine, when in reality Jesus and men channeling the Holy Spirit (2Peter 1:20-21) undermined such notions (Luke 14:26-27; Romans 6:4-9,13; Colossians 3:3; Philippians 1:21, 3:8↔Ecclesiastes 4:2-3, 7:1; James 4:4; Revelation 12:11).  For the true Christian convert, no life is possible except in the company of Jesus and the family of faith to be resurrected at his return.

    Like Abram’s calling (Genesis 12:1), and unlike Lot’s wife (Genesis 19:26), we should focus on our ultimate destination (Hebrews 11:13-16, 13:14), leaving behind whoever and whatever would keep us from Father‘s bounties (Jeremiah 29:11; 1Corinthians 2:9; Hebrews 11:6; Revelation 21:4).

¹ Who Melchizedek was is one of the Bible’s true mysteries. In Hebrews 7:2-3 Paul does not give us an answer, but every attribute he ascribed to Melchizedek applies to Yahweh Son and to Jesus. Neither was the son of mortal man or woman; both were manifestations of Father‘s created, only begotten Son (Genesis 1:3↔Matthew 4:12-17; John 1:9, 8:12; Psalms 2:8↔Luke 1:31-35; Colossians 1:15; Revelation 3:14); both were exemplars of justice and peace [↔Isaiah 9:6-7]; and both were entrusted with an eternal, High Priesthood [↔Hebrews 7:14-28]. Though Yahweh Son has no genealogy, Matthew’s and Luke’s genealogies establish Jesus’ descent from either Adam [according to the flesh] or Abraham [according to faith↔Romans 4:16; Galatians 3:7] through Joseph, thought to have been Jesus’ natural father (Luke 3:23)—a misconception since Joseph had nothing to do with Mary’s pregnancy (Matthew 1:18-20).  Thus Jesus Scriptural ‘genealogies’ have nothing to do with inherited genes from any predecessor.

   So was Melchizedek one of Yahweh Son‘s appearances in the Old Testament; as, for example, the Judge of all flesh dialoguing with Abraham at Mamre (Genesis 18:25-26↔John 5:22; Acts 10:42, 17:31)? Though no definitive answer can be ascertained, the mere fact that Paul describes Melchizedek as being without “end of life” and a “priest forever” would seem to support our assumption, since there cannot be two immortal, High Priests in Father‘s Kingdom except Jesus.

² And it was Son as Father‘s proxy God, not Father Himself, because he appeared to Abraham and rose to Heaven after talking to the Patriarch face to face (Genesis 17:1-3,22↔John 1:18, 5:37; 1John 4:12)—another way Scripture tells us Father and Son are not the Same Person.

³ For Christians, circumcision is not of the penis but of the heart, spiritual rather than flesh-related (Romans 2:25-29↔Jeremiah 4:4).

⁴ Perhaps the reason why in the early days of Christian evangelism, the Holy Spirit steered the Apostles towards Europe, from where the Gospel would spread throughout the world, while Asia was reserved for the spread of Islam (Acts 16:6-10). This is not an endorsement of Islam: As Paul clearly states in Galatians 1:8-9, religious texts like the Koran [as well as the Book of Mormon] are to be anathematized.

⁵ And then some, since Jews were not anointed with the Holy Spirit like Christians have been (Luke 16:16; John 15:26, 16:13↔1John 2:27, 3:24).

⁶ A descriptor not without an implied meaning, because it will be from the east, just as the Israelites entered Canaan crossing the Jordan from the east (Joshua 3:1-17), that the redeemed will enter Father‘s Kingdom, the true Promised Land and new Eden, from the east by crossing the Euphrates River (Revelation 16:12↔Ezekiel 44:1-2↔Micah 2:12-13).