Concerning “Children” who pass into Eternity via death of the body – are they secure in Elohim?
Discussion,
Children who pass into Eternity before having attained an age of reason sufficient to discern right from wrong, good from evil, lacking the cognitive ability to discern our Creator’s sovereignty over their life, these are secure in Jesus as “where there is no law, there is no sin” (Romans 4:15; 5:13); in other words, if one lacks the cognitive maturity or ability to discern the consequences of the law, they are not culpable before Elohim. This same eternal security extends to the mentally deficient, handicapped, as Elohim’s compassion finds no culpability in those unable to discern His spiritual law written upon the heart.
This same truism extends to man’s criminal and civil laws as adjudicatory standards categorize “juvenile law” as wholly distinct from laws that pertain to adults. Man’s law also considers mental illness, contingent upon severity, as an affirmative “defense to prosecution.”
Jesus confirms the eternal security of children in Matthew 19:14 as Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to the child and that unless we humble ourselves and come to the Father as a little child by faith, we will not enter the Kingdom (Matthew 18:4).
Also, King David made an interesting confession subsequent the death of his infant son. David testified that the child would not return to him but that he would go to the child upon death of his body indicating David’s knowledge through the Holy Spirit that the child was in the presence of Elohim and when David exhaled his last, he would be with his son in the Kingdom (2 Samuel 12:19-23).
It is interesting to note that in Numbers 14:29, Elohim warned the unfaithful of Israel that those 20-years of age and older, according to the census, would perish in the wilderness due their unfaithfulness. We do NOT know what the “age of accountability” is for our youth today but the Father knows the cognitive ability of each, He alone discerns this and judges accordingly.
Elohim warned,
28 So tell them: As surely as I live, declares the LORD, I will do to you exactly as I heard you say. 29 Your bodies will fall in this wilderness— all who were numbered in the census, everyone twenty years of age or older— because you have grumbled against Me. 30 Surely none of you will enter the land in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.… (Numbers 14).
Why did Elohim create the Heavens and the Earth? A brief explanation…
Why did Elohim create the Heavens and the Earth?
When students of Scripture and history reflect upon the wars and death and suffering and calamity that manifests throughout the Torah and subsequently to this very day, they wonder why a loving and compassionate Creator would permit such chaos. What most do NOT understand is the causation and purposes under girding our creation and this temporary Realm of Time constrained by physics.
You and I are in this cosmic vacuum due to an unfathomable war that was initiated in the Kingdom of Elohim before Time was created and all that we perceive with our senses and beyond is the resultant of that war and Elohim’s endeavor to restore order and peace to His Kingdom while simultaneously maintaining volitional love with His angelic creation; an angelic creation that Elohim loves and cherishes beyond human comprehension.
It is critical to understanding causation for the creation narrative that the previous 6000-years of horror are a bulwark against future rebellion in the Kingdom where free will exists by necessity; this, as Elohim is allowing the evil introduced by a rebellious anointed cherub angel to play-out within the constraints of Time and physics for all to see and the conclusion of the matter will be that obedience and loyalty to Elohim and His sovereignty is the only sustainable path to a life (both spiritual and physical) worth living and that rebellion, selfishness, covetousness, self-righteousness, are unsustainable pathways to horror, sorrow, death, nihilism.
All that we confront with our senses in this temporary life within a temporary World and Heaven is an eschatological bulwark against future rebellion in the Kingdom where free will remains extant by necessity concerning intimacy with Elohim. The primary reason Messiah Jesus entered the Realm of Time was to defeat, destroy, the works of that rebellious anointed cherub and the one-third of the angelic creation that followed him in the Great Kingdom War (1 John 3:8b); this, with the precarious strategy of maintaining volitional love with His cherished angelic creation.
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Elohim explains causation, reasoning, for the creation narrative from the Genesis to the Revelation; in fact, we see the introduction of the major players, the war, the battle strategy, introduced within the first-three chapters of the Genesis narrative.
— In Genesis 1:1, “Elohim” introduces Himself via a plural noun with a singular verb.
— In Genesis 1:2, The Holy Spirit introduces Himself as the Logistical Overseer of all things created.
— In Genesis 1:26-28, we see the collaboration of Elohim as “Us” and “Our” – Father-Son-Spirit creating the complex human genome in the spiritual image of Elohim thereby imparting certain divine communicable attributes into the human genome specifically for Elohim’s eschatological purposes going forward.
— In Genesis 3, we’re introduced to the rebellious cherub angel that initiated the Kingdom War and that angel has been extricated from the Kingdom and placed partially within the constraints of Time and physics and allowed access to human kind (Ezekiel 28:11+); this, as Jesus tells us that He watched Satan fall from Heaven like lightening (Luke 10:18).
— In Genesis 3:15, we see the declaration of war between Satan and Jesus (Jesus, born of the virgin seed of the woman to circumvent the Adamic sin-nature) and the prophecy that Messiah would be victorious over Satan as crushing the head of Satan but that Jesus would not be unscathed but receive a “bruised heal”…a death suffered on the Cross.
— In Genesis 3:21, we see the divine battle strategy, the Gospel, that Elohim would employ to defeat the works of the Devil (death-Hell-the grave) through the imputation of righteousness, a gifting of righteousness that Elohim, Himself, would provide via the shedding of innocent blood to clothe sinful humanity in an imputed “robe of righteousness” that mankind could not earn, did not deserve; this, as Elohim rejected the works of mankind to cover his own sin and shame by the works of his hands exemplified by the “fig leaves” Adam used to cover his own shame and nakedness. This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ which was ordained “before Time began” (2 Timothy 1:8-10).
Conclusion,
From the Genesis forward, we see Elohim’s eschatological plan working through and around human kind’s free will choices; this, through the Adamic and Noahic generations, through Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, Messiah…this eschatological plan can be followed through the Scriptures as the Holy Spirit methodically explains the who, what, where, when, why, how, concerning the Realm of Time, our purpose within it, and the closure of Time and physics, the New Heaven and the New Earth, the New Jerusalem. All one must do is possess a heart that is willing to receive and believe and seek and study via our Divine Teacher, the precious indwelling Holy Spirit given to all who “believe” Jesus is Messiah (Ephesians 1:13-14; 1 John 2:27).
In response to the evidence of dramatic, eternal, differences between the Old Covenant v. New Covenant priorities, someone said “God does not change” suggesting the Old remains valid irrespective of the New. What is the truth?
Christian response,
Elohim’s attributes are immutable (Malachi 3:6) but His eschatological will and His plan for humanity is directly subject to free will infused within the Human Genome on Day-6 as human kind is created in the spiritual image of Elohim possessing certain divine communicable attributes of Elohim, free will being one such communicable attribute (Genesis 1:26-28).
The codified law, a central theme of the Old Covenant (Sinai – Moses), was NEVER intended to be a path to righteousness (a right standing) with Elohim but was given Israel for sanctification-eschatological purposes; ultimately, the codified law, concerning Sinai and Moses, has become a tutor to point Israel to their need for Messiah (Galatians 3:24); this, while the Gospel of Messiah (The New Covenant) that provides eternal life through Messiah’s blood atonement via faith was ordained “before Time began” (2 Timothy 1:8-10; Genesis 3:21) and that Gospel is the battle strategy foreordained “to destroy the works of the devil” via Messiah (1 John 3:8b; Genesis 3:15).
Elohim’s immutable divine attributes have not changed but Elohim has adapted His immutable eschatological plan in accordance with free will given humanity and where the Adamic/Noahic generations failed (Romans 1:18-32); where Israel failed (Matthew 27:25), the Gentile was ordained to carry-on concerning the New Covenant (Romans 11:25). Elohim, in His divine omnipotence, is perfectly capable of working through and around sinful humanity’s free will choices to accomplish His divine eschatological will.
Elohim’s eschatological plan and His immutable will concerning the Tribulation – the Millennial Kingdom – the Judgment of Satan and the rebellious angels – the Judgment of rebellious humanity – the purification of this Earth by fire – the creation of a New Heaven and New Earth – the divine placement of the New Jerusalem and the servitude of the redeemed resurrected in Jesus…these are foreordained and they will come to pass irrespective of mankind’s free will and human kind’s decisions made in accordance with the Adamic sin-nature.
Can New Covenant relationship with Elohim be motivated through a fear of Hell and a perception of Elohim as a God of anger and retribution?
Discussion,
Those who seek to love our Creator and desire intimacy with Him, knowledge of Him, are not motivated by a fear of Hell but a desire to know and honor the One who gave them life and they seek knowledge of the who, what, where, when, why, how, concerning this temporary life constrained by a temporary Realm of Time and physics.
Personally, I was not motivated to honor Elohim in response to fear but in response to Truth that was absorbed during my first thorough reading of the New Testament approximately 33-years ago; in fact, approximately one-half way through the New Testament I looked up from the pages of Scriptures and asked “Where has this (Scriptural Truth) been all my life?” Hell was NOT on the radar or in the thought process…but an all-encompassing love and assurance resonated from the pages of Scripture and I could do NOTHING but respond in the affirmative to the Holy Spirit’s call upon my life…I BELIEVED what I had read and a change of heart immediately manifest!
In my humble opinion,
I don’t think a true intimate relationship with Elohim can manifest with purity and authenticity if FEAR is the motive for that relationship; this truism exists within human nature as well as true love and intimacy cannot exist in an atmosphere of fear or coercion; therefore, the one who sincerely enters into New Covenant relationship with the Father through faith in the Son is one motivated by love and awe and joy in knowing the One who is Causation for life, the Elohim who possesses the knowledge of why we exist, how we exist, our purpose in this life and in the life to come; therefore, it is “divine relationship” initiated through knowledge and love that inspires “New Covenant relationship” and not fear. It is through the mysteries of nature (Romans 1:20) and internalizing the Word of Elohim with a heart willing to receive that initiates New Covenant relationship with the Father; this, by believing what the Father has said concerning the Son, a testimony provided by the Holy Spirit that is responded to in the affirmative out of love, trust, assurance through faith (Romans 10:17).
Concerning the current conflict between Israel’s IDF and Palestine’s “HAMAS” – Iran’s-Yemen’s Houthis – Lebanon’s “Hezbollah” // A response to the Palestinian sympathizers…
Israel was not “founded” in 1948…it’s been Israel’s land since Abraham…they just came “home” in response to the “Never Again” movement.
Israel is not the resultant of terrorism but of Elohim’s sovereign choice concerning His eschatological plan for Time and Eternity. Elohim’s covenant with Abraham concerning the Land of Israel was unconditional, meaning that the Land’s presence and its purposes are not contingent upon Israel’s faithfulness but upon Elohim’s sovereignty and His foreordained decision to save a “remnant” of Israel’s children through the Great Tribulation and initiate His Millennial Kingdom there where Messiah Yeshua will reign for 1000-years prior to the Judgement of Satan and the rebellious of humanity in Hell – an all consuming fire that will purify this Earth in preparation for the New Earth and a New Heaven as foundational to the New Jerusalem (Revelation 20-22).
That Jewish remnant that endures through the Tribulation era, those proselytized by the 144,000 sanctified Jewish witnesses from the 12-Tribes (Rev 7), will serve Yeshua in the Millennial Kingdom and they will believe in Yeshua and they will be the “redeemed” remnant spoken of by Isaiah, reiterated by Paul (Isaiah 10:22; Romans 9:27).
The current war between Israel’s IDF and HAMAS, Iran’s Islamic proxies, Yemen’s Houthis, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, is nothing more than a physical manifestation of the Kingdom War between Elohim v. Satan having manifest within the Realm of Time. Israel remains Elohim’s representatives in the Land given Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and Islam is Satan’s representative through Allah via Muhammad via Ishmael via Hagar.
Careful that you not be found on the wrong side of History.
Concerning the Trinity revealed within the first-three chapters of Genesis…
The Holy Spirit chose the Name “Elohim” (Genesis 1:1) to introduce our Creator…a plural noun with a singular verb.
The Holy Spirit proceeds to introduce Himself in Genesis 1:2; the Father, Son and Spirit are seen collaborating on the creation of the complex human genome (in their spiritual image) on Day-6 as “Us” and “Our;” while the Son is first introduced in Genesis 3:15 entering Time via the seed of the woman to do battle with the Devil (1 John 3:8b) via the Gospel of Grace, a divine battle strategy, which is first introduced in Genesis 3:21 with Elohim shedding innocent blood, Himself, to clothe Adam and Eve in an imputed-gifted robe of righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21) while simultaneously denying Adam’s attempts to cover his own sin and shame by the work of his hands (Ephesians 2:8-9; Galatians 2:16).
In the first three-chapters of the Genesis, the Trinity, the Gospel, the eschatological purpose for the creation narrative, the victory of Jesus over the Devil at Golgotha (1 John 3:8b) via the Gospel, a battle strategy ordained “before Time began” (2 Timothy 1:8-10), are clearly articulated for those with eyes to see, ears to hear and a heart that is willing to believe by faith.
"RickeyD" Holtsclaw 