Random Thoughts of a Christian Man

Random Thoughts of a Christian Man

A.P. Boline

ISBN 979-8-89345-110-8 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-89345-111-5 (digital)

Copyright © 2024 by A.P. Boline

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

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Table of Contents

Understanding Life and Death

Gone Astray

It Existed Before Time Began

Consider the Source

The Least of These

Misconceptions

The Choice

Victory

Divine Judgment

Calling in the Substitute

Attempted Murder

Identity

Which Beginning?

The Most Important Appointment

The Ultimate Gamble

For Whose Glory?

Family Matters

Renewed

The Verdict

Do You Love Me?

The Answer to Good Works

Fate with an Imaginary Lover

The Makeover Process

That's Not Who I Am!

Familiar or Unfamiliar

Denial

Beer, Cards, and a Party, or Not?

Sin's Desire

The Condition

When God Speaks

The Transformation

Hand in Hand

Understanding the Cost

How Many Good Deeds Does It Take?

Musical Chairs

Pick a God, Any God

Are You Qualified?

Communion

Dirty Job

Endurance

In Due Time

Just Another Day?

Short-Term Memory Loss

The Assignment

Portraits

Who Do You Follow?

Time to Check Your Heart Vision

About the Author

Understanding Life and Death

In order to understand death, one must first understand life.

The first thought may be that it's simple; there is a beginning and an end. You are born, and then you die. But there's more to life than that. In doing a simple search, one can discover there are hundreds of origin stories told from around the world. If life is so simple, why so many stories? Since not all of them can be true, how does one determine which is correct? The most pragmatic approach is to know the processes and steps needed in order for life to exist, then apply them to each story to see which, if any, have all of the steps and in the correct order.

Origins

When determining which of the stories is true, generally one of two approaches is made. One is by checking the available historical evidence; the second is by weighing the scientific evidence. We'll take more of a look at this later. Of all the stories, currently there are two opposing views being accepted. On one hand, there is creation, on the other, the theory of evolution.

Evolution

Evolution involves theories created by mankind, stating life occurred by accident, considering life was just an accident, there is no cause or purpose, and life has no meaning. If the universe is pointless, then so is everything else. You are merely an accident. What you do has no meaning or purpose. Everything you say and do means nothing. Nothing you have achieved means anything. When you die, you cease to exist. Your life meant nothing. (If that were the case, then there really is no point to ask, Why am I here? But since we do ask, we know life must have a reason.)

One of the other considerations that goes along with the theory of evolution is the nonexistence of God. As Dostoyevsky said, If God is dead, then everything is permitted. That means no distinction between right and wrong and thus no morality.

Creation

With creation, God the Creator tells us what he did to bring life into existence. We are told mankind was created in his image. We were assigned to fill the earth along with the task of tending over it and the animals. God tells us he has put eternity (Ecclesiastes 3:11 NLT) into our hearts. We know the truth about him because he's made it obvious (Romans 1:19 NLT). We were given a reason and purpose to live, to be in coexistence with God in an unblemished world. As he told the prophet Jeremiah from the Old Testament:

I knew you before I formed you in your mother's womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations. (Jeremiah 1:5 NLT)

And not just Jeremiah, but all of us:

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. (Psalm 139:13–16)

Determining the True Origin Story

Throughout the years, many have used the approach of looking at the historical evidence to determine if Jesus Christ existed. And therefore, if the story of the Bible is true. As a young man, Josh McDowell considered himself an agnostic and that Christianity was worthless. Determined to intellectually examine the claims of Christianity, he discovered overwhelming evidence for the reliability of the Christian faith. (Reference 1) After his vigorous searching, what he decided to publish is findings in the book Evidence That Demands a Verdict.

Newspaper columnist Lee Strobel, an avowed atheist, became determined to prove to his wife, who had accepted Jesus Christ as her Savior, that she had fallen victim to a cult. He too found the evidence pointing to and proving the evidence of a creator, which is published in his book The Case for Christ. (Reference 2)

Taking the scientific avenue was a young physics student at the University of Toronto, Hugh Ross. He decided to find out if any of the creation stories were true by approaching it scientifically by using the steps needed for life to exist and comparing them to all the stories. The Bible was the only one which had all the steps and had them in the correct order. All others failed, as did evolution. (References 3–4)

The Reality

As Michael Heiser notes in his book Supernatural (Reference 5), the Bible teaches us that God was not only the source of Israel's life—he was life. God was not to be associated with the loss of life but rather with being the giver of life.

Simply put, God is life.

You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being. (Revelation 4:11 NIV)

While in this life in our earthly bodies, we are also told we have spiritual life, which exists in us here on earth, as well as our eternal one.

And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. (Genesis 2:7 KJV)

Without God, life of any form would not exist. As he tells us in Genesis 1, he created everything out of nothing. Only a transcendent, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, immutable, creative, and sovereign being would be able to have such imagination, power, and authority. We have never seen or experienced nothing create nothing because we have never been present in an environment of nothing. Since nothing does not exist, nothing has no power to do anything, except nothing.

Death, Part 1

Death was not part of creation. Mankind was created to live a joyous life with God in the Garden of Eden forever. When being introduced to the garden, they were told they could eat the fruit from any tree there except the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The consequence they were told was death. They were warned and made fully aware of the punishment for disobedience. Eating the fruit of that tree would be an egregious act. It would be as if a marksman was instructed to shoot at a target but chose to turn and fire in the complete opposite direction instead. The marksman didn't just accidentally fail to miss the target, he disregarded all the instructions for his own choice. It was mankind who was the one that introduced death into this world by being disobedient and rejecting God as their Creator and King.

In your great pride you claim, I am a god! I sit on a divine throne in the heart of the sea.

But you are only a man and not a god, though you boast that you are a god. (Ezekiel 28:2 NLT)

When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam's sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. (Romans 5:12 NLT)

For the wages of sin is death. (Romans 6:23 NLT)

When they rebelled, Adam and Eve introduced both physical and spiritual death into God's perfect world. God never said there would be an extinction of mankind, that they would die physically, and that would be the end of them. No, death is the separation from God, not nonexistence. After the forbidden bite, their bodies and souls began to die. Their spiritual death began immediately and separated them from God.

It's your sins that have cut you off from God. (Isaiah 59:2a NLT)

With the separation, mankind was removed from the Garden of Eden, where the tree of life existed. This would have allowed them to live forever in a condemned state, which the Lord knew would be horrific. Due to the banishment, Adam and Eve began the process of dying physically. Also, because of their sin, all living beings began the process of physically dying.

As a result of physical death, our spirit would then live on in eternal punishment and separation from God. At this point, we are spiritually dead, with no means to make ourselves alive. Just as a corpse cannot give itself life, we cannot save ourselves or do anything to cleanse ourselves. We are dead because of our sin. This leaves mankind with an everlasting punishment for their sin and separation from God, suffering from his wrath.

The Resolution

Since mankind has been separated from God for eternity, is there a resolution?

Yes, there is, and the initial clue is found in Genesis 3:15 (NLT):

I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.

Note, it is not the woman who conquers but her seed. Second, it establishes the parameters by which God will redeem His people from their sin. God did not destroy them (which would have served justice, but instead revealed his covenant of grace to them by promising a Savior, one who would restore the kingdom that had latterly been destroyed. (The Significance of Genesis 3:15 by Derek Thomas. Reference: https://www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/significance-genesis-315)

Eve was not the woman whom the Lord was referring to but someone further down the line:

Then the angel told her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Now listen: You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end. (Luke 1:30–33 CSV)

The second clue provided by a messenger:

But after he had considered these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, don't be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what has been conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: See, the virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they will name him Immanuel, which is translated God is with us. When Joseph woke up, he did as the Lord's angel had commanded him. He married her but did not have sexual relations with her until she gave birth to a son. And he named him Jesus. (Matthew 1:20–25)

And just how was this Son of the Most High going to resolve the issue of the death penalty?

As noted in both passages of Scripture, the Holy Spirit conceived Mary with Jesus, thus making him both wholly divine and wholly human, which was important for several reasons.

Only humans are born under the law, and only a human being could redeem other human beings born under the same law. Born under the law of God, all humans are guilty of transgressing that law. Only a perfect human—Jesus Christ—could