The Heaton File

When He had entered a house away from the crowd, His disciples asked Him concerning the parable. So He said to them, “Are you thus without understanding also? Do you not perceive that whatever enters a man from outside cannot defile him, because it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and is eliminated, thus purifying all foods?” And He said, “What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man.” (Mark 7:17-23)

Where Does Evil Come?

Adam and Eve experienced the best of both worlds and the evil of the fallen world. They are the only people in the history of humanity that knew what it was like to live in a perfect world and then see firsthand what evil will do. When they disobeyed God in the garden, they felt ashamed and hid from the presence of the Lord. That feeling will pale in comparison to what would happen years later when the firstborn son killed his brother. The murder of Abel was not the first sin in the fallen world. Long before Cain was filled with wrath at his brother, sin had challenged the souls of Adam and Eve. Sin began to multiply as children were born, and the knowledge of good and evil filled their hearts. Cain did not sin for the first time in his life in killing Abel. His heart was on a downward spiral of jealousy, pride, anger, and wrath. A greater sin was crouching at the door, eager to control the spirit of Cain.

Early man understood the will of the Lord to sacrifice offerings in worship. Cain and Abel offered the best of what they had, but Abel’s heart was pure, and Cain’s was not. The Lord did not accept the offering of Cain because his works were evil. It was not the offering of the fruit of the ground God rejected. Cain had evil in his heart. God saw what men could not see. The Lord knew Cain’s path would lead to murder, and He warned Cain. One day Cain and Abel were talking. They were in a field together. Cain was seething with anger, and he attacked Abel and killed him. The scriptures do not reveal the manner Cain killed Abel. He could have picked up a rock or used a knife or a weapon of some kind. Cain killed Abel because of what was in his heart, not his hand.

Jesus describes the nature of evil as a problem of the heart. He uses a parable to define sin when the heart is filled with evil. Eating a piece of chicken does not defile a man because it is consumed and then expelled. Food does not enter the heart. Evil comes from the heart. Sexual immorality does not come from the outside but from a heart filled with the evil desires of the flesh. When a man commits fornication or adultery, punishing the flesh will not address the problem. Sin dwells in the heart. Lust is a byproduct of an evil heart. Whatever Cain used to kill Abel did not kill Abel; the evil heart of Cain killed Abel. Murder is not found in the object but in the heart that has been trained to disregard human life. Herod had no compulsion to send his army into Bethlehem to kill every child two years old and under because his heart was filled with wickedness.

The heart is where sin begins. Whatever motivates a man to commit adultery, murder, steal, lie, or any such thing is something that is first seeded in the heart. The focus is often on the object of the sin rather than the cause of the evil. Cutting off the hand because a man steals may be an object lesson for others but fails to appreciate the real problem in the thief’s heart. Until the heart is changed, the world will continue in evil. All the rhetoric condemning the object of sin will have no impact until God is put back in the heart. It should come as no surprise that every society that methodically removes God from the heart will suffer the consequences of evil hearts killing others. History bears witness to the fallacy of human wisdom trying to unravel the mystery of evil. The presence of evil is the absence of righteousness. Take God away, and man becomes an animal that will devour one another with little or no consciousness. The greatest solution to evil will come when the Lord returns. Lord Jesus, come quickly.

Now it happened, when they spoke to him daily, and he would not listen to them, that they told it to Haman to see whether Mordecai’s words would stand; for Mordecai had told them that he was a Jew. (Esther 3:4)

The Hebrews And The Jews

Esther is a book about a Jewish maiden who became queen of Persia. The story revolves around Esther being chosen to replace the first queen of Persia, Vashti, and the conflict between Haman, a prince of Persia, and Mordecai, a relative of Esther. Haman had been promoted by the king to receive honor and glory, but Haman would not bow and give reverence to him. When Haman inquired who Mordecai was, it was reported that he was a Jew. The name Jew was not always a part of the history of Israel. When Abraham came to the land of Canaan, he was called a Hebrew because he had come from the other side of the Euphrates. The Hebrew distinction could have come from an ancestor of Abraham called Eber. As the people of Abraham began to grow, they were known as the Hebrews.

Potiphar’s wife referred to Joseph as the “Hebrew servant.” The Egyptians called the family of Jacob Hebrews. Moses saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew and the next day saw two Hebrews fighting each other. The term Hebrew became the distinction of the people of Abraham and also became the derivation of their language. The children of Israel came from the lineage of the twelve sons of Jacob. After wrestling with the Man all night, Jacob’s name was changed to Israel. The Hebrew nation would be known as the nation of Israel and its citizens, Israelites. Before the law was given at Sinai, the people were known as the Hebrews. When they became a nation at Sinai, they were the people of Israel. The term Israelite was used by the Jews of themselves among themselves; the term Hebrew was the name by which they were known to foreigners.

Following the death of Solomon, Israel divided into the ten tribes who rebelled with Jeroboam, and the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin remained faithful to Rehoboam. The northern tribes were called Israel and the southern tribes Judah. In 722 B.C. Assyria took Israel captive, and the ten tribes were never heard from again. Judah and Benjamin were carried away to Babylonian captivity in 606 B.C. Before the Babylonian captivity, the remaining Hebrews were called Jews as a corruption of the name Judah. Jeremiah would call his people Jews. By the time of Esther and Mordecai, the people of God are referred to as Jews, a name that will become synonymous with the children of Abraham.

The wise men seeking Jesus called Him the King of the Jews, and the woman at the well called Jesus a Jew. John uses the term Jew extensively in his book, and Luke writing the Acts of the apostles, refers to the Hebrews as Jews. Paul shows the distinction of humanity when he refers to the Jews and the Gentiles (Greeks). There is one lineage of men that come from Adam, and there are those who by heritage comes from Adam through Abraham. While the tribal identities have been lost over time and no Jew can identify which son of Jacob they have descended, they remain Hebrews or Israelites by birth. The Hebrews came out of Egypt and became the Israelites at Sinai. After the fall of the northern tribes and Judah and Benjamin remained, then the Hebrew Israelites became known as the Jews.

Jesus came from the tribe of Judah, and He was called a Jew. God sent His Son to die for everyone called a Jew and all those called Gentiles. In the eyes of God, there is no distinction. The Jews cannot be saved without Jesus, and no Gentile (non-Jew) will be saved without Jesus. Only in Jesus are the Jew and Gentile brought together as one. There is no distinction. Thank God for His mercy and grace to all men.

Then He said to them, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.” (Luke 24:44)

Jesus And The Law Of Moses

The canon of holy scripture is contained in what men have called “The Bible.” Through many centuries spanning nearly two thousand years, God’s divine will have been inscribed in written form for men to read and understand the will of God. There are many books written that are not contained in the Bible, but those books perfected in a complete revelation give all men the knowledge of salvation found in Jesus Christ. The original language of the scriptures was Hebrew, Chaldean, and Koine Greek. Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible 1400 years before Christ. John, the apostle, wrote the final message of the divine canon around 90 A.D. called the Revelation.

When Jesus came to earth, the section of the Bible called the Old Testament (in modern-day) was a complete revelation. The Hebrew arrangement was in four parts: Torah, Former Prophets, Latter Prophets, and the Writings (Hagiographa) and preserved as twenty-two books. Thirty-nine books are taken from the original twenty-two books of the Old Testament. In 280 B.C., the Hebrew Bible was translated to Greek and referred to as the LXX or Septuagint. Ferrell Jenkins observed, “More than half of the New Testament citations from the Old Testament are from the Septuagint.” Jesus had access to all of the books of the Old Testament, and it was His custom to be in the synagogue and engage in reading the books of the Old Testament.

After Jesus rose from the dead, He spent time with His disciples discussing the kingdom and the applications of the Old Testament to Himself and the will of God. Luke tells of a time when Jesus appeared to His disciples and began to open their understanding to comprehend the scriptures concerning Himself. Jesus says the words of scripture are about Him and the work of redeeming man from sin. He reminds them of the many things He taught them when He was with them before He was killed. Jesus then reminds the disciples that He was the fulfillment of all that is written in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms. The summation of Jesus in the Old Testament was three parts. He calls the first five books the Law of Moses. The Prophets contain the second and largest part of scripture (twenty-one books) and the Psalms, the remaining seventeen books.

Jesus calls the first five books of scripture the Law of Moses. This is what the Holy Spirit calls the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. They were the books of law or the Pentateuch. Joshua called the same books the Law of Moses. When David gave a blessing to Solomon, he wanted his son to keep the charge of the Lord to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes, His commandments, His judgments, and His testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses. The books of Kings and Chronicles all refer to the Law of Moses. Ezra was known as a skilled scribe in the Law of Moses. Nehemiah tells of when the people told Ezra to bring the Book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded Israel. Daniel remembers what is written in the Law of Moses in his prayer.

Jesus recognized the first five books as the Law of Moses. The law was from God to the Hebrews given at Mount Sinai and was a law delivered to the whole of Israel. Moses delivered the law to the twelve tribes of Israel to follow and obey, but they turned away from the law, and the Lord destroyed them. Jesus would come into the world to take away the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms and establish a new covenant in His blood. The Old Testament serves as a lesson to the character of God, His law, and His mercy and wrath. Jesus said the Old Testament is about Him and the New Testament reveals the will of the Father to redeem man from sin. Thank God for the message of the Bible: Jesus Christ.

And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘Made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.” (Matthew 19:4-6)

When God Is Denied Men Become Pregnant

In a recent Fox News article, Jessica Chasmar reported Aimee Arrambide, the executive director of the abortion-rights nonprofit Avow Texas, was asked by Rep. Dan Bishop, R-N.C., to define what “a woman is,” to which she responded, “I believe that everyone can identify for themselves.” “Do you believe that men can become pregnant and have abortions?” Bishop asked. “Yes,” Arrambide replied. (https://www.foxnews.com/politics/house-committee-witness-men-get-pregnant-have-abortions)

There is little left to the intelligent mind to consider the possibility that anyone in a proper frame of common sense could consider the case of a man becoming pregnant, much less having the ability to deliver a baby. With all the scientific knowledge gleaned over the years advancing the fields of science to understand the human body better, someone would try to argue against identifying what a male and female are supposed to be. The allowance of supposed sex changes ushering in the misidentified term “transgender” is another step toward total ignorance of the basic laws of the creative order of nature. It is a misuse of terms to say someone had a sex change. Jesus said what God has created cannot be changed. When a child is conceived in the womb, the breath of life is given to a boy or a girl. That breath of life does not change by surgery. A man can have surgery to resemble a woman, but he only becomes a surgically deformed man. When women decide to become men, is there a remarkable DNA change that automatically makes them men? No, she remains the female she was from birth but is now another deformed manifestation of the failed human experiment.

Truth never changes. It can be manipulated to resemble something else, but at the end of the day (and the beginning of the day), men are men and women are women, and their bodies only function in one way. God created male and female, and that will never change. Fathers and mothers are how children are born. The incredible stupidity of two men saying they have a child or two women saying they have a child is beyond the pale of ignorance. There is no way a child can come from two men or two women. Men cannot have babies because men cannot become pregnant. It is laughable to say that a woman who becomes a man and gets pregnant is a man who has become pregnant. What happened is a woman (with the proper organs for birth) fooled herself into thinking she was a man, and the woman part of her (creative DNA) got pregnant. A man did not get pregnant – a woman dressed up like a man did.

The degradation and destruction of society come from fools who try to change the pattern of God for their own desires. Accepting the notion that men can get pregnant is nothing more than the agenda of the immoral forcing their will on those who silently refuse to object to the continued attacks on the nature of God. History has shown (repeatedly) that the efforts of the immoral will fail because nature will make it happen. Women will continue to be the only agency that children are born, and this will always require the part of the male species. Men and women make babies. There is no other way for children to be born. When a child is born, he is a boy, and she is a girl. That will never change in the mind of God. Denying God does not change the word of God. Jesus said God made male and female. What God has joined together will not change.

Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” When Jesus heard that, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” (Matthew 9:10-13)

Everyone Is A Sinner, But Some Don’t Know It

Jesus never fit the mold of what the Jewish leaders considered a rabbi, teacher, or the promised One, Messiah. People hated by the religious elite flocked around the man from Nazareth. Tax collectors were Jews who worked for the Roman government, imposing heavy taxes that made them very wealthy and powerful men. Rome turned a blind eye if the tax collector imposed larger taxes for their own greed. Jesus had one of the Roman tax collectors as His apostle. Many people lived on the fringe of society that were looked upon as sinners. These people were disreputable men and women despised by the sophisticated and well-respected members of society. Cripples, lepers, and blind men filled the ranks of the cast-aside society of God’s people. The Law of Moses warned against abusing the poor and unfortunate, but the Pharisees hated the people of a lesser degree than themselves.

It offended the Pharisees that Jesus would eat with tax collectors and sinners. They recognized Jesus as a person of importance, considering He was not viewed as a sinner but that He ate with sinners. His perceived station in life should have propelled Him to refuse to eat with the rabble of society. At least the Pharisees gave credibility to Jesus’s work, indicting Him for the company he kept. But why would Jesus eat with such people? Why would He risk the criticism of the religious elite of Israel and compromise His work?

A doctor exists for the sole reason there are sick people in the world. There will always be those who will serve as physicians because there will always be sick people. When Adam and Eve were taken out of the garden, sickness and death came upon all men. The moment a child is born, they begin to die. Disease is not a respecter of persons. It comes upon all ages, male and female, young and old, and without national distinctions. Methuselah lived to be 969 years old but he died. Sick people fill the earth because all men have the same DNA of mortality. There will always be those who help the sick and try to cure disease. If there were no diseases, there would be no need for a doctor. Jesus told the Pharisees healthy people don’t need a doctor – sick people do. Who among the Pharisees did not suffer from illness? The point Jesus made to the religious elite is that all men have disease, and the greatest sickness is sin.

Jesus came to save sinners. Who are the sinners? The Pharisees did not believe they were sinners. They justified themselves by themselves. It was ironic (and sad) that they called others sinners when they were the greatest of sinners. Jesus did not come to call the righteous or those without disease. If every disease were cured, there would be no work for the doctors. Jesus came to offer to heal those with sin, including the Pharisees. The problem with the Jewish leaders is they did not see their illness. They did not think of themselves as sinners, but they were sinners. Jesus was calling the sinners to repentance as the Great Physician.

The Pharisees were upset Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners, asking the disciples why their teacher would allow those people to eat with Him. Jesus heard them asking His disciples. He tells the Pharisees He came to save them from their pride and arrogance. They could not see themselves as sinners. Jesus pointed out their need for the healing waters of life. The prophet Hosea faced the same problem when he reminded Israel the Lord desired mercy and not the ritualistic religion of hypocrisy. Jesus tells the Pharisees they are the greatest sinners, but they could not see their own sin.

Everyone is a sinner. There is no one that does not need the mercy and grace of God – even the smug Pharisees. The first thing a sick person must do is admit they are sick. When men deny they are sinners, they will die as sinners. Jesus came to heal sinners and offer a way of escape and hope. Without admitting the need for healing, the grace of God can do nothing. Jesus did not come to call the righteous because there were none. We are all in need of Jesus.

At the evening sacrifice, I arose from my fasting; and having torn my garment and my robe, I fell on my knees and spread out my hands to the Lord my God. And I said: “O my God, I am too ashamed and humiliated to lift up my face to You, my God; for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has grown up to the heavens. Since the days of our fathers to this day we have been very guilty, and for our iniquities we, our kings, and our priests have been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plunder, and to humiliation, as it is this day. (Ezra 9:5-7)

Guilt

When a culture begins to feel more self-confident in human wisdom with self-exaltation, the feeling of guilt diminishes for slights or injuries to others and to God. A hedonistic world does not account for responsibility and accountability. The obligations of being a neighbor to others and serving the needs of the community no longer are the primary purpose of the individual. There is a cultural disappearance of guilt. Immorality is an accepted norm. Judging others because of their life decisions is unacceptable in a world of self-identity. Feelings of culpability are not based on the word of God with a view of judgment. Guilt is removed, and remorse for life decisions is replaced with the desire to find happiness in self regardless of the outcome.

The failure of guilt changes the moral compass of society. What was once viewed as an act of dishonor or guilt is accepted as the norm. There is a diminished stigma of unwed pregnancies. Premarital sex is an accepted and often expected part of life with no guilt. Parents accept their children’s sexual identity allowing them to express their carnal needs with the warnings of being safe. Homosexuality is so open the minorities of the alphabet soup society make it seem everyone follows the same persuasion. The agenda of the perverted is to force their ungodliness on others. To ridicule is to face the harsh criticism of a world gone mad. Abortions take place every day because the mother feels no guilt for killing her child and the father often is of less interest. The killing of innocent people is rampant in a world with no guilt for action. One of the primary ingredients of sin is the lack of guilt.

Lying, stealing, dishonesty, and covetousness are not viewed through the lens of guilt. Business is often conducted with dishonesty at its foundation. Pursuing stuff is done by any means and to any limit allowed by law. Stealing from the company is done without guilt. Lying on taxes is an accepted manner to stay ahead of the government. What once served as the character of honesty and integrity is frowned upon as ancient, outdated, and outmoded. There is no more guilt for the actions of the individual. The reason that crime increases, immorality flourishes, and politicians lie, steal, and cheat is because there is no guilt.

In the church of the Lord, the lack of guilt is prevalent. Even in the religious world, there was a sense of guilt, and those days are lost. Now women parade around half-dressed (or less) with no guilt. Missing church services no longer produce feelings of guilt. Hearts seek to justify their actions for not attending. They love church, and they love the Lord, but they do not think it is necessary to attend church and have no guilty feelings about missing time and again. Work is more important, recreation more enjoyable, vacations more necessary, and plain laziness and faithless hearts attribute to numbers of people feeling no guilt. They are being lulled to sleep with the tantalizing hum of Satan’s song to their eternal destruction.

Ezra realized something about the people of God. His heart was torn asunder because of the sin of the people. He tore his garment and robe, fell on his knees, and begged God’s mercy. Ezra acknowledged his iniquities and guilt. His heart was broken because he had broken God’s heart. Guilt is a healthy medicine to cure a faithless heart. Until the heart of God’s people feels guilt at forsaking the word of the Lord, there will be little hope. Losing the feeling of guilt can destroy a soul. Guilt is like pain. When the body experiences pain, it is a signal of danger. A hot stove inflicts pain to warn the body of impending destruction. If pain were not present, the body would suffer and die. Guilt is a reminder of the pain of sin. Without guilt, there is no consciousness of the relationship I have with God. I am a sinner. I am guilty. God help me know that.

And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.” (Matthew 26:26-29)

The Lord’s Supper Is Now The Lord’s Snack

On the night of His betrayal, Jesus gathered with the twelve apostles in an upper room to eat the Passover meal. The Passover feast was one of three principal feasts prescribed in the Law of Moses. When God brought the final plague upon the Egyptians, He ordained the Hebrews to kill a lamb or goat and put blood on the doorpost as a sign of faith and obedience. When God saw the blood, He would “pass over” that house and not kill the firstborn of man and beast. While the hand of the Lord stretched throughout the land of Egypt, the Hebrews ate the last meal in Egypt, consisting of unleavened bread, bitter herbs, and the roasted flesh of the sacrificed animal.

Jesus kept the feast of the Passover in preparation of His coming death. He knew He would be betrayed by Judas that night and the next day be crucified. His hour had come. It was the setting of the Passover the Lord chose to institute a memorial to be enacted in the New Testament church as a memorial of the death, burial, resurrection, and return of God’s Son. After the ascension of Jesus to the Father, the early disciples followed the pattern of divine authority as the church continued in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. The breaking of bread was the memorial feast of the Lord’s Supper.

The church at Corinth faced a mountain of problems, including a proper view of the memorial feast instituted by Christ. Paul addressed the carnality of the Corinthians as they abused the supper of Christ as a common meal instead of the sacred fellowship in the body and blood of Jesus. The apostle reminded the saints how Jesus took bread and, when He had given thanks, broke it and said it was His body. Jesus took the cup and said it was His blood. The Lord commanded the disciples to take of the bread and fruit of the vine in remembrance of His sacrifice. The Corinthians had come together for the worse and not for the better. They had made the Lord’s Supper into a common feast. In eating, each one took his own supper ahead of others while some went hungry. The Lord’s Supper had turned into a common meal.

Jesus instituted the memorial as a meal. A meal suggests some level of volume. If the Corinthians were taking of the emblems found in many churches today, it would be barely recognized as a snack. Paul would not have had to reprimand the Corinthians for turning the memorial into a carnal meal because there was not enough bread and fruit of the vine to make any significant notice. The pinch of bread or tiny wafers found in prepackaged emblems belie the meaning of taking of the body and blood of Jesus. It may be the Lord’s Supper has become the Lord’s Snack to counter misconceptions the religious world has about the communion but to do so at the cost of understanding the Lord’s Supper as a meal is worth considering. This is not to suggest the amount of bread or juice consumed makes the Supper a greater event. It is possible the memorial has lost sight of its significance to the lives of those who partake because it is barely on the level of a snack.

Truth should not suffer at the hands of error. Reacting to the false notions the world has about the Lord’s Supper should not drive the people of God to diminish the magnitude of the Lord’s Supper. Jesus said the bread was His flesh, and the fruit of the vine was His blood. The supper must reflect the knowledge of what Jesus suffered. He commanded the supper be done in remembrance of Him. It may be that many do not feel the pang of guilt because there is nothing in their mouths that make an impact on what Jesus did. For clarification, it is not about the amount or size of what is consumed but let us not go so far afield from the meal that we are satisfied with a nearly microscopic supper. What Jesus did must change my life.

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them He has set a tabernacle for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoices like a strong man to run its race. Its rising is from one end of heaven, and its circuit to the other end; and there is nothing hidden from its heat. (Psalm 19:1-6)

Precision Out Of Chaos?

Two total lunar eclipses will take place in the year 2022. The first is on May 15, and the second is on November 8. A lunar eclipse is when the moon moves into the earth’s shadow. Scientists determined the first total lunar eclipse will occur in the central part of Florida at 9:32:05 pm in what is called the penumbral eclipse. This will be followed by a partial eclipse at 10:27:52 pm and the full eclipse at 11:29:03 pm. The maximum eclipse occurs at 12:11:28 am. As the moon moves out of the earth’s shadow, the full eclipse ends on May 16 at 12:53:55 am, the partial eclipse ends at 1:55:07 am, and the penumbral eclipse ends at 2:50:49 am.

Mathematics is a pure science. When Adam and Eve taught Cain and Abel what one plus one equaled, they told them the answer was two. Abraham instructed Isaac that when he took a herd of one hundred sheep and divided it by two, he would get two herds of fifty sheep. Solomon understood the rules and formulas for differentiation and integration are necessary for understanding basic calculus operations. In the 6th century BC, the Pythagoreans coined the term “mathematics” from the ancient Greek word meaning “subject of instruction.” Mathematics is God’s means of divine instruction. Jesus learned his multiplication tables as a little boy. Galileo Galilei was an illustrious seventeenth-century mathematician. In July 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon because the science of mathematics created the ability of humanity to correctly project how to land a module on the face of the moon and return to earth. The planet Mars is 140 million miles away from earth, and on July 20, 1976, a spacecraft from earth made a successful landing in its northern hemisphere. How was any of this possible? The exacting science of mathematics.

God created mathematics in the beginning. It serves as a testimony to the wisdom and power of the Creator. The earth rotates on its axis every twenty-four hours and revolves around the sun once every 365 and quarter days. It remains in constant orbit around the sun at an average of 93 million miles. The moon orbits the earth in a nearly circular pattern every 27.3 days. When a lunar eclipse occurs, the moon moves into the earth’s shadow. The Chinese recorded a lunar eclipse on January 29, 1137 BC. Scientists know that on December 29, 2029, a total lunar eclipse will take place at 10:43:12 in the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia. How do they know this? God’s creation proves that the world did not come from chaos but a divine order.

Skeptics of the Bible use the same mathematics created by God to determine events of the heavenly bodies with such precision they include the hour, minute, and second of the event. When a man denies God created the world and then declares the mathematical affirmation of a singular event, he becomes a fool that does not know God. How can a world formed out of chaos implode itself into an organism of continual perfection that can be charted by the annals of time, whether past or present? The lunar eclipse is measured with exacting precision because the Creator ordained the events in the beginning. Adam and Eve would have seen a lunar eclipse in their lifetime (quite a few in 930 years). The moon turning dark of ancient times is the same moon seen in the eclipses of modern times. God’s handiwork declares His power, glory, and majesty. When the moon turns dark, the light of God shines brilliantly.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

The Joy Of Grace

In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve lived in peaceful harmony with God without the stain of sin, wickedness, and moral corruption. Moses describes the world of the garden as a place of pure innocence where both Adam and Eve were naked and not ashamed. The sound of God walking in the garden was a comforting feeling for the man and woman. There was nothing to fear, no threat of death, and no sorrow. And then the serpent spoke to Eve, and the wiles of the devil deceived her heart; the woman took the forbidden fruit propelling humanity into the pits of spiritual darkness.

There were only two people in the world when sin opened its chasm of eternal misery. No children were there, no nations had begun, and there was no disease. It could have been a simple solution to destroy what He so easily created and start anew. Adam and Eve failed God, and the Lord had to power to raise up a new creation from the stones of the earth. It was within the power of God to turn back the pages of time and intercede before Satan did his evil deed. Adam and Eve could have been left alone in their own misery. Instead of casting them from the garden, the Lord could have allowed them to remain and eat of the tree of life. Let the rebellious creation live forever and wallow in their misery. Did God have to be concerned about something He created for His glory and reward them for disobeying Him? Adam and Eve were trifling specks of dust that did not amount to anything worth saving.

God cast the man and woman from the garden. He watched as children were born and the world began to fill with people. Evil entered the hearts of men like Cain, who killed his brother, Abel. Murder became rampant. Hearts turned cold and dark in the putridity of wickedness. It was not long before God saw the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. As the Lord gazed upon the spread of evil in the heart of humanity, He saw one man that merited His grace. Noah was a righteous man and, along with his wife, sons, and their wives, received the greatest gift man has ever known – grace. The Lord came to Noah and told him the world would be destroyed. Evil had so filled the world that it required God’s wrath to intervene. Not knowing how to save himself, Noah was told by God of the divine plan for salvation. He could never have imagined how to find help in the face of such terrible destruction. God told Noah to build an ark, and he and his family would be saved. Grace.

Humanity continued to spiral into darkness. The people of Israel came from the loins of Abraham as a stopgap against the transgression of the human heart. Through the promise of the Seed in the Garden of Eden and a promise made to Abraham, God set forth the final solution for sin. In the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, to save sinful man. Jesus Christ died for the sins of all humanity to express the fullness of the grace of God. All men sin and deserve to die. Jesus never sinned and freely died to give life. Grace is Jesus on the cross. The love of God is how grace offers men the hope of eternal life when nothing in the heart of man deserves life. There are no righteous, innocent, justified, and holy men who stand before God without the blood of Jesus. Everyone sins and deserves the wrath of God – everyone.

Grace is knowing that salvation comes by the kindness and love of God alone. There is nothing deserving in the nature of any man or woman that can explain the death of Jesus, God’s only begotten Son. I stand before God guilty of killing Jesus Christ, and I deserve death, eternal death, and eternal darkness and separation. There is nothing I have done that should allow for my salvation. From the pits of darkness comes the beacon of light, Jesus Christ, who shines His light of grace on a condemned man. I have been saved by grace, and it is nothing I have done that deserves His mercy. Adam and Eve did not deserve it. The world does not deserve it. You and I don’t deserve it. God’s grace is without measure.

God has told us of His coming wrath, and we cannot change that. Jesus Christ died to offer a way of salvation that we cannot change. Grace is found in the measure of God’s love desiring to save men and telling them how to save themselves. The true nature of grace is not realized until one believes in the word of God (wrath is coming) and obeys the will of the Father. Salvation is not by grace alone. Noah was not saved by grace only or faith only. He obeyed the word of the Lord. Men are justified by works and not by faith only. The tragedy of grace is that it is refused by those who will not do what God says. God offers hope for hopeless hearts. Come to the grace of God, embrace His love, and obey His word. Grace.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day. (Genesis 1:1-5)

Let There Be Light

Moses must have marveled at the revelation of God about the beginning of time. The first book of Moses was called Genesis as the book of all beginnings. Everything in life and all that pertains to life begins in the book. Ironically, the end of all things is alluded to in the book of beginnings in the flood story. As Moses began to write the Genesis, his mind would have filled with wonder at the evolution of divine creation in such a perfect, declarative manner. The world was created in exact detail with a precision that could only come from a divinely creative hand. There was an order required for life to sustain itself as one day built upon another. Plantlife could not be created before light. The Sun, Moon, and stars were created after grass and trees. Adam and Eve were created last as all things were prepared for them to live. Creation was a symphony of perfection.

The beginning was a very dark and scary place. There was no form to what is called earth. A void hung over the expanse, and darkness covered the face of the deep. Water existed before light. There was no unity or life or light. The division of heavens must wait until the second day. Separation of dry land and the waters would be accomplished on day three. Everything else in creation would wait. There was darkness, and that must be addressed first. Then God spoke, and there was light. That is all that was done on day one. Light. God spoke. Light came out of His mouth. There was light. It was good. Now the darkness was divided with light. God called the light Day and the darkness He called Night. The oldest names in creation are Day and Night. Amazing. God spoke, and light came into the world.

Light is the first particle of creation. Without light, nothing would exist. Light was created three days before the Sun, Moon, and stars. Life on earth is reliant on the Sun, but light filled the earth before the Sun was created. During the first three days of creation, there was nothing in the heavens to look upon. For three days, light filled the earth as the firmament was divided, and dry land and seas were formed. It must have been an incredible thing to stand on the shores of dry land and see no Sun or Moon, yet the earth was filled with grass and trees. But there was light. On the first day, God spoke, and there was light.

The first day of creation was necessary for life to exist. Nothing could have been done in the other five days if light did not exist first. Light does not come from the Sun, but the Sun is a producer of light reflected on the Moon. All things that exist begin with light, and God’s power to allow life to continue is found in light. The world without light is a dead world. Man was not created to be a nocturnal creature but a creation dependent on light. Where light is, man thrives. When a man lives in darkness, he dies.

In the beginning, God spoke, and there was light. Many generations after Adam and Eve, God spoke again, and the world’s true Light came to earth. Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem, and while the world did not see the Light that was born that night, eternal life exploded on the earth as it did in the beginning. The world was filled with darkness, and there was a void that filled the hearts of men. Peace could not come from those who sought to be a law to themselves, and peace could not come from those who sought to be keepers of the Law. Jesus came into the world to be the Prince of Peace and the author of eternal light. He is the Light of the world. He was created as the firstborn of light because, like the light of creation, He must exist first for life to continue. All life is found in Jesus Christ, and without Him, there is no life. No light means no life.

Light was created as the foundational element of life. Jesus came into the world of darkness to be the Light that would give all men the hope of eternal life. There is no salvation outside of Jesus because He is the Light. Life is in Jesus because He is the only life. No man can come to the Father unless they come to the Light. Darkness prevails in the hearts of all who refuse to submit to the will of Jesus Christ. The tragedy of rejecting the Light now is the reality that eternal darkness awaits all who reject Jesus. Light or darkness. The choice is yours.