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"THOU SHALT SURELY DIE!"

 

SPIRITUAL DEATH, FREE WILL AND THE ATONING SACRIFICE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST 

 

 

The greater majority of people who profess to be Christian have been taught and, what's worse, have accepted, three of the biggest lies ever perpetrated upon the human race. These doctrines form the basis of what is commonly referred to as Arminianism. They are not what God's Word teaches, for they are contrary to His Word, and stand defiantly opposed to the Word of God, the Sovereignty of God, the Grace of God and the Blood of Christ. There are several variations to these three Arminian doctrines but basically the claims are as follows: (1) Man is not spiritually dead to God; (2) Man can choose God by his own free will; and (3) Christ Jesus the Lord died for every individual ever born. These three doctrines form the nucleus of what may be referred to as the pop culture of modern-day religion. A culture whose 'ideas, perspectives, attitudes and images' are all built around popular, yet erroneous, doctrines. On these three doctrines, which are the foundational teachings of Arminianism, does the Arminian gospel stand, or fall. The doctrines of Arminianism have given birth to other perversions of God's Truth but our purpose here is to expose the gross error of these three particular dogmas and how they have formed to become the elemental teachings of the most popularly accepted, yet corrupt, gospels of our day.

 

Thousands upon thousands of books have been written detailing the history of both Arminianism and Calvinism. Of the 'eternal' debate between the two groups and their so-called 'great' leaders. The endless debates between the two camps has seen names of revered teachers quoted liberally in an effort to impress and help defend their cause. This book, however, will not enter the debate between certain man-made organizations and traditions. For the reality of the situation has been, is and always will be that the battle is not between two man-made traditions of belief but between the man-made traditions of Arminianism and the Holy Word of Almighty God. I will not seek to impress anyone with names and quotations from the past of those who have defended their respective teachings. What I will be doing is teaching the Scriptures. The unadulterated Word of God. What I will be doing is showing the reader how plainly the God-written Scriptures speak. For those who are not familiar with the facts behind Arminianism and its origin, we must firstly provide some background in order to give the reader an idea of exactly what is being claimed and believed in today as true Christianity. I am not here to defend Calvinism for I am not a Calvinist nor do I come under any other label man may see fit to attach to me, except that of a simple Gospel believing born again Christian. I am a Christian, who by the grace of God, does not follow the cunningly devised fables of men (see 2 Pet. 1:16), but only the Lord Jesus Christ and HIS Word, and no other's. I am here to reveal and teach that Word of God and expose the treacherous and God-dishonoring lies of the Arminian way.

 

Firstly, let us take a brief look at the man after which this Arminian belief system is named, Jacob Arminius, also known as James. "Jacobus Arminius (1560–1609), the Latinized name of the Dutch theologian Jakob Hermanszoon from the Protestant Reformation period, served from 1603 as professor in theology at the University of Leiden. He wrote many books and treatises on theology, and his views became the basis of Arminianism and the Dutch Remonstrant movement." It is said that Luis De Molina (1535-1600) a Spanish Jesuit priest, after whom the term Molinist was coined was a profound influence upon Jacob Arminius. Molinism is "...a system of thought that sought to explain and reconcile the Sovereignty of God and the free will of man." There are many things that can be written and discussed about Arminius and his teachings etc., but this has already been done in fine detail by many others so I will not take up the reader's time with such matters here, but simply refer them to such works which are readily available on the Internet. Suffice it to say that what we are interested in are the core Arminian doctrines themselves, the central tenets and variations of them which became popularized, chiefly, by Messrs. John and Charles Wesley in the 18th century. We are not interested in attacking individuals, but only to provide sound, verifiable evidence that what they taught, and what billions of people have embraced, is not the Truth of God. The reality of the situation is that the majority of those who profess to be Christian have embraced a false gospel whose doctrines have not been authored by God, but by "...men of corrupt minds..." who are "...destitute of the truth..." (1 Tim. 6:5). Men who do not understand what they say, and therefore, the Scriptural ramifications of what they are teaching.

 

Arminianism "...contains the lie that it is the free will of man which ultimately decides his standing with God. This teaching proves that Arminianism teaches the Satanic lie that man would not surely die in the Garden of Eden but in defiance of God's statement that man would surely die, insists that man's free will is intact and can choose God at any time. Theologians who have tried to present a coherent system of doctrine based upon the concept of 'free will' have tended to fall into gross Pelagianism (e.g. Charles Finney). Churches in which Arminianism prevails tend to become humanistic and liberal, after having rejected the authority of the Bible. In recent years the brazenly heretical 'Open Theism' movement lead by Clark Pinnock and John Sanders is a result of Arminians following their premises to logical conclusions. In the end, Arminian premises cannot be maintained without denying cardinal truths of the Christian Faith....ARMINIANISM INVOLVES A FAILURE TO UNDERSTAND THE GRACE OF GOD, AND AN IGNORANCE OF THE GOSPEL PREACHED BY PAUL AND THE OTHER APOSTLES. Its tendencies are fundamentally heretical, because it attributes salvation to a human capacity or disposition rather than to God alone....Arminianism is an elastic, progressive, changing liberalism....Arminianism is a 'moderated semi-Pelagianism.'  Semi-Pelagianism was an ancient heresy which held that man out of his own free will takes the first step in salvation, and is then assisted by God. The Arminians merely reverse the order, saying that man must respond out of his own free will after God first prompts him with 'prevenient grace'. In both, the decisive thing is the will of man, not the will or decree of God." Arminianism strips God of His Sovereign Free Will to choose, from before the foundation of the world, those whom He wants saved according to His Free Will and good pleasure. Arminianism says that man is not dead in sin as a result of the Fall but is merely a wounded soul, alive enough with the ability and desire to seek and choose God, unsullied. This lie has opened the proverbial flood gates for a torrent of even bigger lies to be released, none of which present the true God but only promote false gods who cannot save.

 

The doctrine of 'prevenient (or preceding) grace', "...as it is explained in Arminian theology, finds no support from Scripture. It is true, of course, that the regenerating grace of God must come before faith, and so in that sense it is prevenient; however, this biblical prevenient grace goes far beyond the Arminian conception; when God grants his quickening grace to unbelievers, it does not merely give them the option to be alive – it makes them alive (Eph. 2:1-5; Ezek. 37:3-6, 11-14; John 1:11-13, 3:3-8; 5:21; Jas. 1:18; 1 Pet. 1:3; 1 John 5:1); it does not merely grant them the ability to come – it irresistibly draws them all without exception (John 6:37-40,45; Psalm 65:4; Rom. 9:15); it does not merely make them able to choose good if they improve upon it – it causes them to walk in God's statues (Deut. 30:6; Ezek. 11:19-20; 36:26-27; Jer. 31:33; 32:40; Eph. 2:10). Against the Arminian doctrine of prevenient grace, the Bible teaches that there are only two classes of people: those whom the Father has chosen and given to the Son, all of whom without exception will come to him (Jn. 6:37-40, 45); and those whom the Father has not given to the Son, who are not of His sheep, and who therefore cannot believe (Jn. 6:65; 10:26; 12:37-41). There is no room for a third class of people who have been given God's drawing grace but who do not improve upon it. Furthermore, the doctrine of prevenient grace is specifically argued against by the apostle in 1 Cor. 4:7, which asks rhetorically, “Who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive?...”. Prevenient grace says that we make ourselves to differ from our unsaved neighbors, by choosing to improve upon the grace that God gave to us all without exception; hence, it is in manifest contradiction to this passage." Arminianism teaches that "...prevenient grace is the grace of God given to individuals that releases them from their bondage to sin and enables them to come to Christ in faith but does not guarantee that the sinner will actually do so. Thus, the efficacy of the enabling grace of God is determined not by God but by man."

 

So we learn from this that Arminianism teaches that prevenient grace is given not to make a man alive unto God, to regenerate him, but merely as an enabling tool where, if the person to whom it is given is willing to receive it, they can thereby choose to come to God and accept His saving grace or reject it. Scripture, however, knows nothing of this. "The Arminian doctrine of prevenient grace should be rejected on biblical grounds. First and foremost, it turns Paul’s words “Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Phil. 1:6) on their head. The Greek term used here means to 'accomplish' or 'perfect', similar to how the writer of Hebrews says Jesus is the “...Author and Finisher (or perfector) of our faith” (Heb. 12:2).” Of great significance is the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is called, the “…Captain of their (believers) salvation” (Heb. 10:10). The word Captain here means ‘Originator, founder, leader, chief, first’. Amazingly, the word for both captain and author (in Heb. 12:2) in the original Greek is the very same word archegos! Jesus is the Initiator, or, the Source of the Faith with which a man believes the True God, and is the Completer of salvation. “The doctrine of prevenient grace affirms that a work is done in the sinner but it denies that the efficacy of the grace is guaranteed. This makes no sense if we are assured that God will perfect what He starts in a person. We find a similar idea in Romans 8:30, where we read that all whom God calls, referring to the inward calling, will be justified and later glorified." Also, the Lord Jesus assures that "All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me" (Jn. 6:37). “Lastly, 1 John 5:1 states clearly that the cause of a person’s believing in Jesus Christ is that he was born again (i.e., regenerated), which John had already said is “...were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (Jn. 1:13) and is something necessary in order to even perceive the Kingdom of God (see Jn.3:3), let alone enter into it. As long as we recognize the biblical truth of the natural man’s deadness in sin (Eph. 2:1; Col. 2:13), his need of a new heart (Ezek. 11:19; 36:26), and that man is a pile of bones needing to be breathed on by God to be brought to life (Ezek. 37:3-7), we can see that man does not need to be made 'better' or 'partially alive' but that man needs to be resurrected! Therefore, the doctrine of prevenient grace is without biblical support."

 

There is very little difference between Arminian prevenient grace and the Roman Catholic teaching on prevenient grace as seen in the documents of the Council of Trent, held between1545 and1563, Session VI, Chapter V which says: "The Synod furthermore declares, that in adults, the beginning of the said Justification is to be derived from the prevenient grace of God, through Jesus Christ, that is to say, from His vocation, whereby, without any merits existing on their parts, they are called; that so they, who by sins were alienated from God, may be disposed through His quickening and assisting grace, to convert themselves to their own justification, by freely assenting to and co-operating with that said grace: in such sort that, while God touches the heart of man by the illumination of the Holy Ghost, neither is man himself utterly without doing anything while he receives that inspiration, forasmuch as he is also able to reject it; yet is he not able, by his own free will, without the grace of God, to move himself unto justice in His sight. Whence, when it is said in the sacred writings: Turn ye to me, and I will turn to you, we are admonished of our liberty; and when we answer; Convert us, O Lord, to thee, and we shall be converted, we confess that we are prevented by the grace of God." The entire premise for a prevenient grace which only enables a man to accept or choose God, but which man can resist and be noncompliant towards is Anti-God. The subtleties of this anti-God doctrine show clearly that it originates from the mind of Satan for it desperately seeks to displace God from being Sovereign in the salvation of any and replace Him with mere man and his alleged free will prompted by prevenient grace so that it is man who ultimately has the power to give God the go ahead in saving him, or to resist the very will of God. Scripture stands eternal for God says "I will have mercy on whom I WILL have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom  I WILL have compassion. So then it not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, BUT OF GOD THAT SHEWETH MERCY" (Rom. 9:15,16). The most brilliant, totally and Scripturally correct statement ever made by carnal man was that which, no doubt, Paul the apostle often heard "...who hath resisted HIS WILL" (Rom. 9:19). To say one can resist the will of an Almighty and Sovereign God is the greatest oxymoronic statement in the history of mankind.

 

"Pelagianism is the belief that original sin did not taint human nature and that mortal will is still capable of choosing good or evil without special Divine aid." Pelagius (354-420), after whom such teachings were named, was a British-born ascetic moralist, who became well known throughout ancient Rome." Some believe that Pelagius was a British Monk and that he lived in Rome. Others believe him to be of Scottish origin or from Ireland. "He opposed the idea of predestination and asserted a strong version of the doctrine of free will". Pelagianism, along with Arminianism, also taught that Christ did not die for the elect of God but for all men. The three doctrines of:  man not being spiritually dead to God, man's free will and that of Christ dying for all, always go hand in hand and are violently opposed to God's Sovereignty and grace as well as Christ's atoning blood. These grotesquely misshapen doctrines have become so universally popular, not because they are true but, because of man's carnal and heretical understanding.  Because man in his lost state believes them to be true. Pelagius insisted, "The only grace necessary was the declaration of the law; humans were not wounded by Adam's sin and were perfectly able to fulfill the law without Divine aid. His interpretation of the doctrine of free will became known as Pelagianism...he was later accused of lying about his own teachings in order to avoid public condemnation. Most of his later life was spent defending his doctrine against Christian theologians who held that Pelagius was spreading novelties in the Faith unknown to the apostolic tradition." Even several Councils of the Roman Catholic Church condemned Pelagianism as early as 418. "Pelagius was declared a heretic by the Council of Carthage." The main tenets of Pelagianism are generally associated with the rejection of original sin, man's free will and the death of Christ for all. Basically, Pelagius, led by the spirit of Satan, rejected the Bible teaching that death entered the world through the sin of Adam. Pelagius taught that Adam was made mortal and would have died whether he sinned or not! As with Satan, Pelagius rejected God's warning that Adam would die spiritually. In contrast to Pelagius' beliefs, God's warning to Adam that death would come should he eat of the fruit, of course, strongly implied that there was no death, spiritual or physical, before original sin. Like his father, Satan, Pelagius denied the very words of God saying that man did not surely die as a result of the Fall. This is nothing but a theological supposition which has absolutely NO Scriptural basis whatsoever but which originated in the very heart of the father of lies, Satan, who is the god and deceiver of the whole world.

 

Having provided some basic information about the originators of the doctrines we shall be dealing with, as well as the claims they have made, I do not seek to take away, or distract, the reader from the issue by weighing him down with an endless list of names and theological debates over the past 500 years among people who, at least for the most part, were not even Christian but who only claimed to be. These matters have been written about ad nauseam and are readily available in libraries and on the Internet for those interested. What I want the reader to concentrate on is not the writings of men but the Scriptures of God. To learn the language of Scripture and how the Word of God interprets itself. In other words, to know clearly in one's mind what God has said and what He has not said. I encourage the reader to not allow himself to be swayed either way by what men have said, but to give assent only to what The Word of God says and listen only to those who teach rightly what the Scriptures teach. To focus not on the messengers but solely on the message they bring and compare it with the Word of God. So many today are influenced one way or the other by who said what rather than by what was said, and comparing it with the Word of God. I encourage the reader to compare Scripture with Scripture rather than allow oneself to be distracted and wrongly influenced by personalities or the size of their audience, or lack thereof, and historical debates between wrongly feted men. My main focus is to teach what the Word of God plainly states thus exposing the venomous false teachings of man's non-spiritual death, his alleged free will and, that which is the ultimate purpose for such teachings: to present a false Messiah who 'died' for all and who cannot save anyone without their assistance, their free will acceptance, of what he has done. The issue is not about Arminianism or Calvinism, but simply what do the Scriptures say. To call these two doctrinal systems Christian, is to obscure one’s view of the fact that neither one speaks the absolute Truth, and, that at least one of these groups is not Christian seeing that the two are diametrically opposed. That which is spoken in the name of God is either of the Spirit of Truth or the spirit of error, the followers of which are either Christian or they are not Christian. Both Arminianism and Calvinism are man-made organizations neither of which represent the true teachings of the Gospel of God. When the Truth of God is mixed with the lies of men, or, when the lies and traditions of men are taught as the Truth of God, it is a gross disservice to the true and only God. The purpose of all false teachings is to bring prominence to man and give glory to their author and instigator, Satan. The whole issue of God's Truth and man's lies is a matter of the Spirit of Truth and the spirit of error. The truth is not to be found in the debates of the past or present, but in the very Scriptures, the revelation of the Word of God by God. The Truth is a matter of what God has said it is and never what a man merely believes it to be.

 

Arminianism is often tied to Pelagianism and while some of its doctrines are traceable to it, and others are similar in nature, popular Arminian doctrine today is not a full and true expression of Pelagianism. Again, I will not permit myself to be bogged down in the typical dialogue when such ism's are discussed. We are not primarily interested in who said what, but in what is taught and what people believe today. How popular contemporary beliefs of false, yet hugely popular, doctrines have taken residence in the minds and hearts of most of the billions of sincere people who consider themselves Christian. One must never be swayed, one way or the other—to the truth or away from the truth—based on the names and reputations of those revered men of yesterday and today. We should not allow ourselves to focus our attention on WHO has said what, but on WHAT has been and is being said. Our focal point of attention should not be on the messenger, but upon the MESSAGE he brings to see whether it is in fact what the Word of God says. Paul the apostle cared not who did the teaching, nor their motivation, as long as what was being taught was the Truth of God (see Phil. 1:18).

 

In a predominantly humanistic society, belief in human free will is considered quite natural, normal, rational and extremely logical. Man believes his free will is part of his birthright: to have the right to choose what he wants and how he lives. But why do I concern myself with the wisdom of men who cannot discern the things of God, for the things of God are spiritual and cannot be discerned by the minds and wisdom of unregenerated men (see 1 Cor. 2:14)? Because this humanistic mindset also pervades the hearts and minds of most who name the name of Christ. Most professing Christians today are lost people who follow the ways of Arminianism believing that man has a free will to choose God and that Christ died for all. Popular thinking claims that God has done everything possible to save everyone, that salvation is an offer to everyone rather than a promise to God's elect, and that it is now up to man and his free will to choose God in order to put what God has done into effect.

 

The basic premise of Arminianism's false gospel is as follows: "Although human nature was seriously affected by the Fall, man has not been left in a state of total spiritual helplessness." That man is not without recourse. "God graciously enables every sinner to repent and believe but does not interfere with man's freedom. Each sinner possesses a free will, and his eternal destiny depends on how he uses it. Man's freedom consists in his ability to choose good over evil in spiritual matters; his will is not enslaved to his sinful nature. The sinner has the power to either cooperate with God's Spirit and be regenerated or resist God's grace and perish. The lost sinner needs the Spirit's assistance but he does not have to be regenerated by the Spirit before he can believe, for faith is man's act and precedes the new birth. Faith is the sinner's gift to God; it is man's contribution to salvation". Tragically, this is what billions of lost, professing Christians believe. Notice how salvation is something which Arminianism teaches is dependent on man's decision for God, and is not something which is solely God's decision based upon His will, love, election, eternal purpose and Sovereign grace. How it is man's predestination of God's love based on man's choice of Him, rather than God's predestination of man based on His love for His chosen that is at play here. Arminianism teaches that God visit's a person with grace and with that grace enables them to make a free will choice for Him or against Him. So, unless man makes the choice God is helpless to save him. Arminianism has upended things to the point that man is the Sovereign one and God is the One Who has no hope of seeing His will done unless man chooses to accept it. One man has described Arminianism as "a refuge, for modern blinded patrons of human self-sufficiency". The fingerprints of Satan are already transparently clear to the discerning eye.

 

The monumental lie of salvation being conditioned upon a man's free will choice of God is the fruit of the foundational lie of all Arminianism and Pelagianism and the various forms which have permeated their way into what is confidently believed to be true Christianity: The lie that the Fall of man in the Garden of Eden, whilst introducing physical death (Pelagianists deny this by saying that physical death was already part of man's existence), did not, as a consequence, cause utter spiritual death to occur. These two lies, in turn, have conceived the grandest lie of them all: the teaching that Christ died for every individual ever born thus changing the very work of Atonement and the essence of Who Christ is. These three teachings strike at the very heart of the Gospel of the grace of God. Make no mistake about it. They are a direct attack upon the God of all grace and the Truth of Who He is, as well as the Person and Work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Each of these lies seeks to dismantle and reconstruct the three main tenets of Holy Scripture: that man is spiritually dead to God (Gen. 2:16,17; Eph. 2:1,12), that no man can come to God or desire God in and of himself (Rom. 3:10-18), and that Christ has made an effectual Sacrifice through His death and established a perfect Righteousness for all those whom the Father has entrusted to Him (Jn. 17:2,3). The lie that Christ died for every individual directly impacts Who Christ Jesus is, what Jesus Christ has done and, therefore, for whom He has done it, the very things which distinguish Him from all others and bring glory to Him and the Father. In essence, Satan's three stooges of doctrine have together conspired to present to the world a false messiah. A messiah, though called jesus, is not THE Jesus whom the Holy and only God testifies to in His Word (see 1 Jn. 5:10). Satan is the author of this triumvirate of error which presents a false way to salvation, and by it deceives the whole world (see Rev. 12:9; cf. 1 Jn. 5:19). Satan's sometimes overt, but mostly subtle attacks upon the blood of Christ, is unrelenting. Religions the world over, even professing Christian organizations, all attack the blood of Christ, His atoning work upon the Tree. Led by the spirit of Satan, most people claiming to be Christian follow this master of deception and are devotedly committed to his blasphemous lies about Who Christ is and what He has done, all the while convinced they are promoting God's Truth. And yet the reality is that they are truly blind to the Truth of God for the glasses they see through present a distorted reality. Satan's primary focus is to attack the Truth and replace it with his versions of it. To kill off true Christianity by attacking the Truth, not by banning or censoring it, but by replacing it with his own ecumenical versions of it in order to present to the world a false Christ and a 'Christianity' of his own. In order to do this, Satan has saturated the platforms of television, radio, the literary world, the Internet and social media with his blinding lies. Satan deceives the whole world by that which is generally accepted as truth.

 

It is rather difficult to stick to teaching one Gospel doctrine without also referring to at least some of the others for they are all inextricably and tightly connected so as to render them as good as One doctrine and not several. But there is no rule in place that in teaching one doctrine one must not refer to another teaching. In fact to properly expose an errant teaching one must include what that teaching leads to, its sister teachings, as well as comparing it with the Word of God, the doctrines of Christ which teach the God-glorifying truth. To rightly teach the Gospel is to teach all the doctrines of the Gospel for they are all a part of each other. They are interwoven by the Master Craftsman of mercy and grace for they are all woven together by the thread of grace. Each doctrine of God's Gospel introduces and defends the others. Each doctrine of a false gospel is at best only consistent with itself and with some of  the other God-dishonoring lies, but not with the Word of God, not with His Gospel and, therefore, with Who God is, Who His Son is and what they have done to save their chosen people from their sins. Salvation is pre-eminently not about people but about God. THE TRUE GOSPEL DESCRIBES AND DEFINES WHO GOD IS BY DETAILING WHAT GOD HAS DONE. Its focus of attention is on God Almighty and not on man. Man is merely the recipient of what God has done and the Gospel of God is filled only with God's grace at work, not with what a man must do to gain or maintain salvation. Only salvation by grace brings all the glory to God alone and leaves absolutely no room for man to boast in anything he has done. If, then, there is no room for man's works and boasting in the Gospel, no works are necessary.

 

Let us look firstly then at the doctrine of the death of man in the Garden of Eden. This doctrine is of critical importance to our study for it is the fork in the road doctrine which, along with the false teaching that man's disobedience to God did not bring about the physical or spiritual death of man, is one of only two roads a man can travel: the road to God's Grace which brings glory to God alone, and the other, the road to man's works which gives man the pre-eminence and brings glory to him alone. Eve and her husband Adam, who was the federal head and representative of mankind (see 1 Cor. 15:22; Rom. 5:12,18), lived a perfect and harmonious existence in the Garden of Eden. They communed with God and enjoyed all the pleasures He bestowed upon, and provided for, them. The animals God had created were their friends, food was abundant, water flowed freely, they basked in perfect weather, death was unknown and what’s more, God loved them, He was their Benefactor, their Provider Who saw to it that they wanted for nothing. It is hard to imagine that this pristine Paradise would be the setting for the single most devastating and far reaching event that man has ever brought about: disobedience to, and rebellion against God, resulting in man’s spiritual and physical death.

 

One day, as Genesis 2 tells us, "...the Lord commanded the man, saying, 'Of every tree of the Garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof THOU SHALT SURELY DIE'" (Gen. 2:16,17; cf. Gen. 1:29). Since there is absolutely no evidence of physical death existing before the Fall, coupled with the plainly obvious fact that man was alive to God spiritually, receiving of His benefits and freely communing with Him on a daily basis, desiring Him and worshiping Him prior to the Fall, we are constrained by Scripture to acknowledge the fact that man's surely dying was primarily a reference to his spiritual death should he eat of the tree. Physical death would also take place but not immediately. Moreover, the fact that the Lord's warning entailed the punishment that would come upon man should he disobey God, demonstrates that death, be it spiritual or physical, was not at all part of man’s experience prior to sin, "For the wages of sin is death..." (Rom. 6:23; cf. Ezek. 18:4; Jas. 1:15). How could the wages of sin be death if death preceded sin? God did not make man a mortal being as the Pelagianists falsely claim. It was not God Who brought death into man's experience but man's disobedience to God which brought about the curse of death. Sin introduced death. This is evident in God's warning of what would happen if man were to eat the forbidden fruit. God made man free of spiritual and physical death. At the appointed time, God removes spiritual death from His chosen ones, and will one day remove physical death altogether for death is an enemy of man  (see Isa. 25:16; Hos. 13:14; 1 Cor. 15:26; Rev. 20:14). Despite what most people believe, death is not a natural experience of man's but an unnatural one. The comparison between the following Scriptures brings home the stark reality of the unnaturalness of death: "And God saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very good..." (Gen. 1:31). "Jesus wept" (Jn. 19.30).  Genesis 2:7 tells us that in the creation of Adam, God: "...breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living (lively, active) soul." There is nothing here which would lead any man to rightly conclude that the breathing of life into Adam included death, either spiritual or physical. God activated Adam by breathing into him both physical and spiritual life and just as God had warned, it was only through, and after, Adam's sin that death, became part of man's experience. God said to Adam, after he sinned, "...dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return" (Gen. 3:19). This provides conclusive evidence that prior to the Fall there was no physical death. Adam did not need to be told of his spiritual separation from God after the Fall for he had already experienced it, seen in his and Eve's attempting to hide themselves from God as a result of their eternal separation from Him: spiritual death. But Adam did need to be told that he would one day experience physical death also. And, so we see, that spiritual and physical death are both the consequences of Adam's sin and did not exist prior to it.

 

Since God is both the Source of physical and spiritual life: "For by Him were all things created...all things were created by Him and for Him: And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist" (Col. 1:16,17), disobedience to God would trigger a curse to come upon all mankind. It would mean instantaneous and eternal separation from God and therefore from life itself, in both its spiritual and physical forms. As a result of sin man would eventually die physically, but of greater consequence was the fact that man did immediately die spiritually meaning he was completely alienated from God. No man would, in his fallen state, ever again seek God or worship God. Worse still, no man would ever again know God, recognise Him as the True God, by nature. This is the biblical description of the spiritually dead state of man. The situation was so grave that man was rendered spiritually lifeless and hopeless by his sin, and the only solution to his dilemma would not be found within him but would require God Himself to come to earth as a man and die upon a cross in order to blot out the sins of those He would die for.

 

Upon his disobedience, which was no less than unbelief, Adam was no longer alive to God, he no longer enjoyed an active and lively relationship with God but spiritually returned to the state he was in before God breathed life into him (Gen 2:7): EXISTENCE WITHOUT LIFE! Upon having sinned Adam and Eve had, in every respect, become the walking dead. Physically dying, but spiritually dead as they walked. God had clearly expressed His will by making it clear to Adam that he could freely eat from every tree he wanted to in the Garden only not from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In the laying down of this single law God was not uncaringly, or unfairly, withholding anything from man that was necessary to his existence or contentment. God was not holding man back from increased happiness. On the contrary, God was evidencing His love toward Adam in allowing him to eat of every tree in the Garden except one, and by warning him of the dire consequences that would befall him should he eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God was making it very clear to Adam that life would not be the same if he disobeyed God. In fact there would be no life at all. The Lord was also assuring Adam of a life of continued blessedness provided he did not eat of the forbidden fruit. This was also a trial of Adam’s faithfulness and loyalty to God upon pain of eternal separation from God. The separation is testament to the Holiness of God. Adam would no doubt have accepted this rule of God's without a second thought. However, when Satan, in the guise of a serpent, presented himself to Eve with his lie that man would not surely die, things changed for the worse, forever. Cunningly, the seeds of doubt were presented to Eve as words of hope.

 

In light of the humanist creed it is believed that each individual has the right to formulate, not merely their own opinion, but literally their own truth. This is nothing new, however, for from the Fall in the Garden of Eden, man has done nothing but fulfil the satanic precept to do and believe what seems right in his own eyes (see Prov. 28:26) and become a lover of himself nihilistically consumed with self-importance. In other words to be his own god. Do what you want to do, be what you want to be and believe what you want to believe. If it looks good take it, if it feels good do it and if it sounds good believe it. Such a life view is enmeshed in the very fabric of society which is always trying to form its own version of reality, as evidenced in its music, movies and incessant and unrestrained drug taking be it acceptable drugs such as alcohol, nicotine and caffeine to what the world calls illicit drugs such as heroin, crack-cocaine and new synthetic drugs such as Ice and Flakka, or Gravel, as well as other influential elements. 'Do what you want to do', is a satanic axiom. 'Do what thou wilt shalt be the whole of the law', is the only law according to Satanist Aleister Crowley. In other words, do what is according to what you think, feel, see etc., or more succinctly do according to you. You are God and you are your own law. Do not do what is right but what you think is right. Truth is relative and so what you believe the truth to be, what you believe the right way is, is all that matters for you are all that matters. So-called white Witchcraft, along with modern society, says the same thing but with the single restriction: as long as no one is hurt by what you do.

 

 

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