Category: Jeremiah 07

Your Good Father Doesn’t Allow Evil

On By TimIn Jeremiah 07, SovereignLeave a comment

I have witnessed many people saying things like “God allows evil things to happen.” That’s simply not true. It seems to stem from the idea that because God doesn’t stop evil from happening in every moment, it is somehow God’s permissiveness.

It is not.

People make all sorts of incorrect statements about God and what He does. When bad things happen, it is not because God allows them or causes them to be. It is also not true that He stands by and lets moral evils occur. That’s just NOT Biblical.

When Adam ate the forbidden fruit, he chose for the entire human race to know calamity and how to alleviate it. Adam fell as a result of insurrection by an enemy.

That enemy and his minions have a certain fate guaranteed by the work on the cross. The Bible says the demons tremble. That’s because they have no redemption. However, humans can be redeemed by the work of Jesus on the cross. They have a respite of punishment as the wages of sin is satisfied. It is a day of salvation whereby they can be snatched from a sure fatal end.

The choice for humans amongst the evil doings in this world is to be rescued or perish.

Evil happens. The kind of evil I speak of is moral evil, those heinous things that happen. There are many things that come to pass that do not arise in the mind of God nor happen because He decrees or commands them to be.

They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command them, nor did it come into My heart.

Jeremiah 7:31

As we see there, things happened that weren’t decreed, allowed, or even controlled by God.

God is also not standing by letting things happen.

Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed swiftly, the heart of the sons of men is fully set to do evil. Since one who sins may do evil a hundred times and extend his life, I also have experienced that it will be good for those who fear God when they have reverence before Him.

Ecclesiastes 8:11–12

He’s not powerless, nor standing by at all. Punishment doesn’t happen immediately because of the stay from the cross. Many mistake that respite as impotence, reluctance, or indifference. God is not powerless, nor is He disinclined to act. He sent Jesus to die! It proves God loves us and is intentional in that. There’s a reason why it seems punishment is delayed. He puts up with it maximizing the number of people who can be saved.

Do you despise the riches of His goodness, tolerance, and patience, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?

Romans 2:4

Don’t be a person who despises His tolerance and patience. Those wrong ideas lead to making falsities about Him when the truth is supposed to lead us to repentance.

I suppose some of the fault comes because of teachers building on others’ error without taking the time to ensure a correct understanding. Sometimes these teachings are picked up by pastors and theologians because it sounds Biblical. Not because it is biblical.

Each of us has a responsibility to ensure what we are taught is really real. The blame rests squarely on the person who is not noble in understanding the things of God. It is painfully evident when one hears sad news about a person by a flippant “Hod is sovereign.” It’s like blaming the bad stuff on God.

Learn to do the noble thing like in Acts 17:11.

God is a good, good Father.

Why do Really Bad Things Happen? Could God Stop Them?

On By TimIn Forbearance, Jeremiah 07Leave a comment

They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command them, nor did it come into My heart.

Jeremiah 7:31 — Modern English Version (Thinline Edition.; Lake Mary, FL: Passio, 2014)

There is something God didn’t ordain, decree, dream up or make happen… Babies were being burned alive in sacrifice to Molech. If one takes the time to read the rest of the chapter, it is easy to discern that God did punish this sin.

The Bible tells us that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23.) But from the very beginning of the book, we read about people committing sin and they don’t receive the wages of sin.

Why?

There seems to be a respite of punishment. To some, it isn’t blatantly obvious. But to the one who studies, it becomes very plain. And it provides an insight as to the very good reasons why God doesn’t stop repugnant-moral evil.

Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed swiftly, the heart of the sons of men is fully set to do evil. Since one who sins may do evil a hundred times and extend his life, I also have experienced that it will be good for those who fear God when they have reverence before Him. But it will not be well for the wicked, and he will not prolong his days, like a shadow, because he does not fear before God.

Ecclesiastes 8:11–13 — Modern English Version (Thinline Edition.; Lake Mary, FL: Passio, 2014)

The wisest king Solomon lamented over the lack of swift punishment. He watched how evil is pervasive and rampant, and one can do countless heinous things and still live. Solomon knows the end for the wicked, and the extension of life has a purpose.

What purpose?

That is hinted at in the title of Jesus in the very last book of the Bible. He is called, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

What the title is saying is that His death covers all sins that have been committed. If one has considered the entire work between the bookends of Genesis and Revelation, as that title of Jesus is encountered, the reality should be clear. This is the patient-forbearance of God.

Do you despise the riches of His goodness, tolerance, and patience, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?

Romans 2:4 — Modern English Version (Thinline Edition.; Lake Mary, FL: Passio, 2014)

One could rail against others not getting just recompense for some heinous act. The murderer isn’t punished swiftly. But have we ever considered our own lies and thievery demand the same justice?

It’s kinda weird.

But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets. This righteousness of God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all and upon all who believe, for there is no distinction. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith, in His blood, for a demonstration of His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins previously committed, to prove His righteousness at this present time so that He might be just and be the justifier of him who has faith in Jesus.

Romans 3:21–26 — Modern English Version (Thinline Edition.; Lake Mary, FL: Passio, 2014)

The law shows the futility of trying to make up for past proclivities. It is impossible. Yet because all have sinned and fallen short, as they live after they sin, God is justifying them! That’s why they live. That’s why God doesn’t stop sin from happening. If He stopped what we considered heinous, He would need to mete out the same toward us when we tell a lie about someone. And all would drop dead the moment they conceived sin in their heart.

Who could then be saved?

Continue reading. This goes on to say that God overlooks sins previously committed. There is no distinction there. He doesn’t just overlook the really bad ones.

It’s a demonstration of His righteousness. The same righteousness of God that comes to a person by faith. Though all humans are in the midst of being justified, this provides them a day of salvation (Isaiah 49:8.) What is meant, is it is a time given to all to seek remission of sins. That only comes by faith.

Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things have passed away. Look, all things have become new. All this is from God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their sins against them, and has entrusted to us the message of reconciliation.

2 Corinthians 5:17–19 — Modern English Version (Thinline Edition.; Lake Mary, FL: Passio, 2014)

The punishment is delayed so that every person has time to repent and be saved.

Were You Really Born This Way?

On By TimIn Jeremiah 07, SinLeave a comment

How many times have you heard it said that God has already determined all things that are to be, and has ordained and decreed them to be?

What does the Bible say to this?

For the sons of Judah have done evil in My sight, says the Lord. They have set their abominations in the house which is called by My name, to pollute it. They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command them, nor did it come into My heart.

Jeremiah 7:30-31 — Modern English Version (Thinline Edition.; Lake Mary, FL: Passio, 2014)

Because they have forsaken Me and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods whom neither they, their fathers, nor the kings of Judah have known, and have filled this place with the blood of the innocent, and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into My mind—therefore, surely the days are coming, says the Lord, when this place shall no more be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.

Jeremiah 23: 4-6 — Modern English Version (Thinline Edition.; Lake Mary, FL: Passio, 2014)

They built the high places of Baal which are in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to Molek, which I had not commanded them, nor did it come into My mind that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.

Jeremiah 32:35 — Modern English Version (Thinline Edition.; Lake Mary, FL: Passio, 2014)

Recorded three times for the hardened-of-heart who would want to blame their sin on God by saying “I was born this way. He made me a sinner.” God doesn’t command, decree, or imagine all things that do come to pass. There are things that happen that do not come from His mind.

Don’t fall for the false gospel of a false god who is powerless to save all.