REFERENCES:
Genesis 2: 16-17, Deut 5:7, Revelation 20:7-9
And the Lord
God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but
you must not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat
of it you will surely die.”Gen 2:16-17
You shall
have no other gods before me. Deut 5:7
When the
thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out
to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth – Gog and Magog – to gather
them for battle. In number they are like the sand of the seashore. They marched
across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God’s people, the
city he loves. But the fire came down from heaven and devoured them. Rev 20:
7-9
PREAMBLE
Human beings
and all the living and non-living things, all belong to God who created
them. Man (human being) is unique in
that he was created in the image of God. He has unique characters and
abilities. He thinks and acts as he chooses. He has God-given right and ability
to accept or reject God himself or what he says.
The human
race is highly privileged in that they can even deny the existence of God and
attribute the origin of his creation to anything including the big bang,
animals and “millions of years”. This is totally in contradiction to what DNA
research has revealed.
NATURE OF
GOD
We mistakenly
think that God thinks and acts like one of us. We see him like an old man – a
harsh and protective dictator holding a whip ready to punish all those who do
not toe the line. Contrary to that kind of thinking, God is loving, forgiving
and understanding. From the beginning,
he planned to create a man able to make his own decision to love or hate him without
external influence. He gave us the
freedom or rights to be human. We are not puppets. He needed an independent and
moral entity with the abilities to reject him and say no to his face. His plan
is that we choose to love him and follow him and his decision is not to
interfere. He says come to me. He does not force us. The love and fellowship
expected from us must come from our hearts.
NATURE OF
MAN
Man is more
than we see with our eyes or easily detect with the five common senses. We see
the body that is flesh, bones and blood. The second part is the soul which is
not physical and therefore cannot be seen with our eyes but can be detected
easily. The soul is made up of emotion, intellect and will. The third part is
the spirit whose faculties are intuition (ability to commune with God), worship
and conscience (ability to know wrong and right).
The three
parts of man have their different functions. Animals have a soul but not the
spirit and that makes them different from human beings. A dog has emotion,
intellect and will. When a dog is happy, it raises up its tail and when sad it
does the opposite. A dog can decide to
exercise its will by remaining lying down when summoned to stand up. Through the intellect, the dog can learn many
things, even tricks.
In regard to
the spirit, the dog is unable to worship, pray or be able to know the right
from the wrong the same way man knows, unless it is taught.
WHY IS SATAN
STILL AROUND?
Is God
unable to destroy Satan? No! God is able to do everything he wishes but has
permitted Satan to exist and operate for the following reasons:-
1. So that there can be a choice. Man
must choose to obey God or Satan. An alternative must provided otherwise
fairness and justice would be lacking.
2. Satan and his kingdom exist to ensure
people reap what they sow.
3. God allows Satan to continue to operate
while He (God) gives mankind time to repent.
CONCLUSION
The master of all plans is the need for every
person in this world to find salvation in Jesus Christ. In Romans 6:23, this is
written, “for the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life
through Christ Jesus our Lord”.
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