Too Smart — Too Sophisticated to Believe in God?

 

Graphic:  Slide Share . net

The following post over at American Thinker starts off discussing the suicide of Anthony Bourdain, and shares a pertinent Bible verse.

“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36) Bourdain was famous, and worth $16 million.

Kate Spade’s suicide happened shortly afterwards.  What would bring millionaires like this to such despair that they would take their own lives?

We found out that Robin Williams killed himself because of a disease he had and he didn’t want to be a burden to his family.

I’m no expert on why people commit suicide, but apparently there could be many reasons why people, unfortunately, follow through on it.

But this post isn’t only about that tragic state of affairs.  The next paragraph in Mr. Marcus’ post is the main reason I wanted to share it here.

Folks, we live is such an evil time that merely suggesting that people are better off with God in their lives is venomously attacked and branded fanatical religious hate speech. But I am going to go there anyway.

Have you noticed that oftentimes, evangelical Christians are being blamed on news programs for the election of Donald J. Trump?  Never mind those 30% (a diverse crowd, by the way) who had voted for Obama in the two previous presidential elections, but decided to vote for Trump over Clinton in 2016!

Below is the rest of Mr. Marcus’ essay.   His brilliant essay included many of the thoughts and conclusions that I have come to believe regarding the hatred being spewed here in America ever since the election of 2016.

 

Mr. Bourdain, and I suspect Ms. Spade, were leftists. Typically, leftists think themselves too smart -– too sophisticated to believe in God. Remember the closed-door fundraising event at which Obama demeaned fly-over-country voters for clinging to their guns and religion?

On the Christian-hating “View” TV show, Joy Behar called Vice President Pence “mentally ill” for saying he talks to Jesus. Historian David Barton documents how America was founded upon our Founders praying and receiving guidance from God.

In 1798, founding father John Adams said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.” Today, Christian politicians are branded “dangerous” by leftist-dominated mainstream media.

The Democrat party hijacked by leftists removed God from their platform. When Democrats voted God back into their platform the convention floor erupted with angry boos. Can you imagine a political party so wicked that they boo God?

Leftists laugh at Christians. Leftists erroneously believe man is the ultimate power, capable of regulating equal outcomes. They foolishly believe man can save or destroy the planet. Michael Crichton brilliantly articulates leftist folly in his novel Jurassic Park. Believing themselves to be wiser than God, leftists always fight to change God’s original intent regarding biology, marriage, and gender.

This scripture nails the leftist mindset. “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.” (Romans 1:22) Folks, we witness their foolishness every day. They say that if a man awakes feeling like a woman that day, he should be legally permitted to use public women restrooms. They say that teachers addressing students as boys and girls is hateful and exclusive and must not be tolerated. They say four-year-olds must be introduced to homosexuality and taught “gay love is beautiful”.

For eight years Obama forced anti-God extreme liberal foolishness down the throats of mainstream commonsense thinking Americans. Thank God Trump is rolling back Obama’s war on Christianity, restoring our constitutional religious liberty.

Obama was the left’s dream president. He aggressively stripped the God of Christianity from our government. Obama chastised Christians at the National Prayer Breakfast. He relentlessly tried to bully the one-hundred-year-old Little Sisters of the Poor into funding abortion services, an anathema against their religious convictions. Obama enthusiastically honored homosexuals, Black Lives Matter, and Muslims with celebrations at the White House while turning away the National Day of Prayer. Obama was the most biblically-hostile president in U.S. history.

Disney’s movie, A Wrinkle in Time, starring Oprah Winfrey struggled at the box office. Perhaps the reason is leftist producers stripped Bible quotes, a reference to Jesus and historical Christian figures from the movie adaptation of the beloved children’s book.

While threatening to jail anyone disrespectful of Islam, leftists boldly display disdain for Christianity. They hate Jesus for saying, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

How dare Jesus declare himself the only way to heaven. Liberal media goddess Oprah has decreed that Jesus is not the only way to God. Oprah foolishly professes herself to be wise, too enlightened to believe Jesus Christ is the only path to God.

The gangster movie Scarface has a strong biblical message. Drug lord Tony Montana had everything he thought would bring him happiness; power, a mountain of cocaine, extreme wealth, and beautiful women at his command. And yet, Tony was miserable. All Tony’s stuff could not fill that spiritual void inside which produces peace, happiness, and a fulfilled life.

Sadly, Mr. Bourdain’s and Ms. Spade’s extreme wealth, power, and fame failed to produce inner peace and happiness. Both are unfortunate casualties of leftist mindsets, too smart and too sophisticated to humbly trust in the God of Christianity.

Lloyd Marcus, The Unhyphenated American

Hat tip: The American Thinker: Bourdain: Casualty of Leftist Mindset

Hat tip also to: Truth 2 Freedom’s blog where I first found the link to the article.

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Personal story.

A few days ago, I got into a conversation with someone with whom I have known for a long time.  She appeared to be conservative, and has claimed that she is a Christian.  Some tough situations within her family life had caused great pain and sorrow.  During our subsequent discussions, she rarely mentioned anything about her faith anymore.

I have been trying to avoid getting into left vs. right arguments with people who dislike President Trump.  However, in this case I realized that this particular woman did not know basic facts about the last election or the vitriol that followed and has been ratcheted up over the last 20 months.

She objected to Trump winning, despite the popular vote that Hillary ended up with on election day.  I explained to her why the Founders decided to utilize the Electoral College method when electing the president.  She truly did not understand it until I had explained it.

During our conversation, she indicated that she personally dislikes Trump.  I agreed that he isn’t the typical, smooth politician and that he has said some regrettable things.  However, despite his personal failings,  I shared several of the many accomplishments of his administration and she agreed that he is doing a good job of turning this nation around.

I mention this because of the above article written by Lloyd Marcus.  People, Mr. Marcus completely NAILED IT in regards to the void of proper discussions going on today.  Instead, it’s only hatred, meanness, derision, mocking, threatening, and dangerous vitriol that is constantly being spewed by radical leftists.  Many, apparently, cannot even fathom having a decent conversation with those on the right or those who support President Trump.

Obama was their “prized” president.  He espoused most of everything on the leftist side of the political spectrum that they believe in.  But, even when he didn’t like some of the policies that came about, they forgave him (or ignored the issue) because of their love and agreement of this man’s political ideology.  They had the mentality that Obama “could do nothing wrong” and the media of mass deception kept that image alive by oftentimes not reporting the truth.

Now, because President Trump is mostly the complete opposite of Obama, the leftists have, and continue to be, losing their collective minds.  The media and celebrity negative rancor dominates 95% of the news broadcasts; oftentimes completely ignoring all of the great accomplishments that President Trump has done for our nation, economy, and people.

It’s truly sad that so many people do not allow those with opposing views a voice on news programs.  They ignore the other side in their conversations.  More distressing, is that when they report, they can’t seem to do it without being hostile, nasty or even downright hate-filled and dangerous!

Why Does God Require Faith to Please Him?

Have you ever contemplated why God requires faith to please Him?  We know from Hebrews 11:6 that it is not only a requirement, but that not having faith in Him makes it impossible to please Him!

Heb 11:6

But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

That verse explains that God is also “a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”

In Dr. David Jeremiah’s current series, “Ten Questions Christians Are Asking,” this past Sunday’s broadcast on faith was one of the best!

Readers can view it at this link:

David Jeremiah.org: What Is Faith?

When I come across skeptics, (seekers and/or outright deniers of Jesus Christ included) they often cite humanistic reasons for not being able to believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. They use the same humanistic “wisdom” (minus the Wisdom of God in the Scriptures) to claim that any and all of their “reasons” for unbelief are valid. For them, the following verse either offers confusion or an excuse for their unbelief:

Heb 11:1

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Matthew Henry’s commentary explains:

1. It is the substance of things hoped for. Faith and hope go together; and the same things that are the object of our hope are the object of our faith. It is a firm persuasion and expectation that God will perform all that he has promised to us in Christ; and this persuasion is so strong that it gives the soul a kind of possession and present fruition of those things, gives them a subsistence in the soul, by the first-fruits and foretastes of them: so that believers in the exercise of faith are filled with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Christ dwells in the soul by faith, and the soul is filled with the fullness of God, as far as his present measure will admit; he experiences a substantial reality in the objects of faith.

• 2. It is the evidence of things not seen. Faith demonstrates to the eye of the mind the reality of those things that cannot be discerned by the eye of the body. Faith is the firm assent of the soul to the divine revelation and every part of it, and sets to its seal that God is true. It is a full approbation of all that God has revealed as holy, just, and good; it helps the soul to make application of all to itself with suitable affections and endeavours; and so it is designed to serve the believer instead of sight, and to be to the soul all that the senses are to the body. That faith is but opinion or fancy which does not realize invisible things to the soul, and excite the soul to act agreeably to the nature and importance of them.

 

Christians would inevitably nod their heads in agreement with what Henry wrote in his commentary.  On the other hand, it is likely that nonbelievers might have the tendency to deem what he has written as “opinion or fancy.”

Why? 

Because he or she cannot (or refuses to learn) “the invisible things to the soul, and excite the soul to act agreeably to the nature and importance of them.”

Rejection of the Gospel truth in the Bible is often likely because of ignorance about the Scriptures and the Person in whom the Scriptures point to as Savior and Lord – Jesus Christ.  But what about those who claim to have studied Scripture and yet do not believe?  Henry explained quite well why they might reach such a conclusion.

Another way of putting it is the fact that no Christian can MAKE someone believe in Jesus Christ.  All we are to do is to point the way towards the truth of the Gospel.  The knocking on the door of the heart of the hearer of the gospel message is done by the Holy Spirit, who was sent by Jesus Christ to indwell believers.

Heb 11:2

For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.

Henry writes:

II. An account of the honour it reflects upon all those who have lived in the exercise of it (v. 2): By it the elders obtained a good report-the ancient believers, who lived in the first ages of the world. Observe,

• 1. True faith is an old grace, and has the best plea to antiquity: it is not a new invention, a modern fancy; it is a grace that has been planted in the soul of man ever since the covenant of grace was published in the world; and it has been practiced from the beginning of the revelation; the eldest and best men that ever were in the world were believers.

• 2. Their faith was their honour; it reflected honour upon them. They were an honour to their faith, and their faith was an honour to them. It put them upon doing the things that were of good report, and God has taken care that a record shall be kept and report made of the excellent things they did in the strength of this grace. The genuine actings of faith will bear to be reported, deserve to be reported, and will, when reported, redound to the honour of true believers.

Notice how Henry includes the word “true” when he describes believers.  This brings to mind the need to avoid those who have fallen into, ( and in today’s era, unfortunately preach),  the heretic and apostate beliefs as described in this Syncretism Stew post.

The book of Jude provides the warnings and signs about those who have “crept in unnoticed” and, “who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God[fn] and our Lord Jesus Christ.”

[fn] (1:4)

NU-Text omits God.

 

Heb 11:3

By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.

Henry writes:

III. We have here one of the first acts and articles of faith, which has a great influence on all the rest, and which is common to all believers in every age and part of the world, namely, the creation of the worlds by the word of God, not out of pre-existent matter, but out of nothing, v. 3. The grace of faith has a retrospect as well as prospect; it looks not only forward to the end of the world, but back to the beginning of the world. By faith we understand much more of the formation of the world than ever could be understood by the naked eye of natural reason. Faith is not a force upon the understanding, but a friend and a help to it. Now what does faith give us to understand concerning the worlds, that is, the upper, middle, and lower regions of the universe?

• 1. That these worlds were not eternal, nor did they produce themselves, but they were made by another.

• 2. That the maker of the worlds is God; he is the maker of all things; and whoever is so must be God.

• 3. That he made the world with great exactness; it was a framed work, in every thing duly adapted and disposed to answer its end, and to express the perfections of the Creator.

• 4. That God made the world by his word, that is, by his essential wisdom and eternal Son, and by his active will, saying, Let it be done, and it was done, Ps. 33:9.

• 5. That the world was thus framed out of nothing, out of no pre-existent matter, contrary to the received maxim, that “out of nothing,  nothing can be made,’ which, though true of created power, can have no place with God, who can call things that are not as if they were, and command them into being. These things we understand by faith. The Bible gives us the truest and most exact account of the origin of all things, and we are to believe it, and not to wrest or run down the scripture-account of the creation, because it does not suit with some fantastic hypotheses of our own, which has been in some learned but conceited men the first remarkable step towards infidelity, and has led them into many more.

  Hat tips to all links and graphics sites posted here.

The Beauty of Holiness

Question: Is “elegance the only beauty that never fades?” My question comes from a quote once given by Audrey Hepburn.

In Psalms 29:2, the Bible says otherwise, but before we explore this question I wanted to preface this post with how the use of commentaries can help us understand the Scriptures more thoroughly.

I have found commentaries from several learned scholars helpful when sharing and further explaining portions of Scripture in my posts.

This blog has utilized commentaries from various Bible scholars, but one of the most detailed writers that I enjoy reading and sharing is Matthew Henry (1662-1714).

Today, I decided to find out more information about Henry. To my surprise and delight, I discovered that he had great influence over other great men like George Whitefield (1714-1770) and Charles Wesley (1707-1788).

In response to Psalm 49:6-14 Henry wrote:

‘The beauty of holiness is that which the grave, that consumes all other beauty, cannot touch, or do any damage to’ (on Psalm 49:6-14).

 

Recently, I read a quote from Audrey Hepburn:

Elegance is the only beauty that never fades. – Audrey Hepburn

 

That’s a nice thought.  Elegance is nice to have and display to the world.   But is such a statement entirely true?

Matthew Henry stated above, “the beauty of holiness consumes all other beauty…”

Psalms says:

Psa 49:15

But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave,
For He shall receive me. Selah

There are more examples of Henry’s poignant writings HERE.  Two more great examples:

‘The pleasures of sense are puddle-water; spiritual delights are rock water, so pure, so clear, so refreshing — rivers of pleasure’ (on Exodus 17:1-7).

‘God’s grace can save souls without preaching, but our preaching cannot save them without God’s grace, and that grace must be sought by prayer’ (on Ezekiel 37:1-14).

Beautiful!

My next post will share what Henry wrote about Matthew 7:16.

Mat 7:16

“You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?

Here is just a brief taste of Henry’s detailed commentary:

(1.) If you know what the tree is, you may know what fruit to expect. Never look to gather grapes from thorns, nor figs from thistles; it is not in their nature to produce such fruits. An apple may be stuck, or a bunch of grapes may hang, upon a thorn; so may a good truth, a good word or action, be found in a bad man, but you may be sure it never grew there. Note,

• [1.] Corrupt, vicious, unsanctified hearts are like thorns and thistles, which came in with sin, are worthless, vexing, and for the fire at last.

• [2.] Good works are good fruit, like grapes and figs, pleasing to God and profitable to men.

Hat tips to all links.

A Rendezvous With Destiny

Well, with the results of last night it is time for me to put Trump on my prayer list.

I don’t wish to “pick on” Kingsjester’s Blog again, so today I will write about something very positive that I read there.

In his new post: Kingsjester’s Blog: Trump to Outline Foreign Policy Platform Today, there are several awesome paragraphs of quotes from Ronald Reagan.

Before we get to that, here are some points from KJ’s Blog post to consider.

1.  Donald Trump will set aside his bad-boy antics on Wednesday and, with the help of a teleprompter to keep him on message, outline what his foreign policies would be if he is elected U.S. president in November, campaign aides say.

It’s about time! If his loony-tunes comments are seen by the general election voters, then they might presume that he’s “unfit” for the presidency.  Even though he isn’t my candidate of choice, perhaps he will be light-years better than either Commie Bernie or Crooked Hillary.

2.  The speech at noon (1600 GMT) in a Washington hotel will address issues including global trade, economic and national security policies as well as building up the U.S. military, his campaign said.

Those are all good topics that he needs to present, explain, and share with the public; provided he doesn’t take the left-wing bent positions on any of them.

3.  A strong American President is essential to retaining the sovereignty of our country.

I agree wholeheartedly! That point will be strong on my prayer list!

The author at the link goes on to describe several of the accomplishments of Reagan during his presidency; including the tearing down of the Berlin wall.

But what caught my eye most was what Reagan said way back…

[when] he was “out on the stump” for Republican Presidential Candidate Barry Goldwater, in October of 1964, delivered a powerful speech titled, “A Time for Choosing”. At one point in that now-classic speech, he spoke about America’s role in the world, stating that:

We cannot buy our security, our freedom from the threat of the bomb by committing an immorality so great as saying to a billion human beings now enslaved behind the Iron Curtain, “Give up your dreams of freedom because to save our own skins, we’re willing to make a deal with your slave masters.” Alexander Hamilton said, “A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master, and deserves one.” Now let’s set the record straight. There’s no argument over the choice between peace and war, but there’s only one guaranteed way you can have peace — and you can have it in the next second — surrender.

…You and I know and do not believe that life is so dear and peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery. If nothing in life is worth dying for, when did this begin — just in the face of this enemy? Or should Moses have told the children of Israel to live in slavery under the pharaohs? Should Christ have refused the cross? Should the patriots at Concord Bridge have thrown down their guns and refused to fire the shot heard ’round the world? The martyrs of history were not fools, and our honored dead who gave their lives to stop the advance of the Nazis didn’t die in vain. Where, then, is the road to peace? Well it’s a simple answer after all.

You and I have the courage to say to our enemies, “There is a price we will not pay.” “There is a point beyond which they must not advance.” And this — this is the meaning in the phrase of Barry Goldwater’s “peace through strength.” Winston Churchill said, “The destiny of man is not measured by material computations. When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we’re spirits — not animals.” And he said, “There’s something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty.”

You and I have a rendezvous with destiny.

We’ll preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we’ll sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness.

Wow!  Classic, upbeat, to the point, descriptive, enemy recognizing, duty recognizing, hopeful, strong, disgrace countering, freedom-loving, America-loving, and most of all non-surrendering…all of which has been missing over the last 7 1/2 years with the current BADministration.

Ahhh….reading that was like a breath of fresh air!

It is my most fervent prayer that our next leader and his cabinet will follow such a directive as was laid out by Reagan in that timeless, unforgettable, and now-classic speech!

Hat tip: Kingsjester’s Blog

Speaking of destiny…

Phl 3:14

I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Phl 3:15

All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you.

Phl 3:16

Only let us live up to what we have already attained.

Phl 3:17

Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do.

Phl 3:18

For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.

Phl 3:19

Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things.

Phl 3:20

But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,

Phl 3:21

who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

Phl 4:1

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends!

Four Blood Moons Documentary

During my visit in Virginia, my brother, mom, niece and I went to see the one night encore movie presentation of Four Blood Moons. It was well done and interesting to see how history, science, and Scripture all came together when the phenomenon of blood moons occurred in the past.  All of us were very impressed!

Excerpts from site:

FOUR BLOOD MOONS combines scripture, science, history and big-screen live action spanning centuries, including previous similar lunar occurrences and the earth-shaking changes around them. It also examines our current four blood moon cycle—and its possible meaning for Israel, the Middle East and the world.

An array of historians, religious scholars and commentators appear in FOUR BLOOD MOONS and offer their insight—filmmaker, speaker and author Dinesh D’Souza; radio host and author Dennis Prager; and noted author and historian David Barton to name just a few.

Only three times in the past 500 years have four of these blood moons (or tetrads) occurred back to back and on major Jewish holy days. The fourth tetrad began April 15, 2014, on Passover. In October last year, the second blood moon appeared on the Feast of Tabernacles (also known as Sukkot). Blood moons in 2015 land on the same holy days.

FOUR BLOOD MOONS examines the biblical passages seemingly connected to these events—in Joel and Acts—where it says the “sun will be darkened” and the moon will appear as blood in advance of God’s world-changing action on earth.

Hagee points out that during this four blood moon cycle, all of which touch on Jewish holy days, a solar eclipse also will occur–a combination of events that will never repeat.

Whatever the results, audiences at FOUR BLOOD MOONS will see a compelling and entertaining exploration of these spiritual, celestial and historical events. And they will leave the theater convinced that something is about to change that could impact us all.

There was a panel discussion after the credits of the movie ended which was quite enlightening! Not all panelists (especially the scientist) thought the same way about the blood moons. The scientist stated that blood moons are common – so there is no reason to think that they affect history and/or Scripture. Pastor Hagee pointed out:

Only three times in the past 500 years have four of these blood moons (or tetrads) occurred back to back and on major Jewish holy days. The fourth tetrad began April 15, 2014, on Passover. In October last year, the second blood moon appeared on the Feast of Tabernacles (also known as Sukkot). Blood moons in 2015 land on the same holy days.

Coincidence?

Maybe.

Skeptics like the scientist said so.

The significance of the past occurrences in history lining up with this scientific phenomenon; and the fact that Scripture (in Joel 2 and Acts 2) tells us of blood moons helps believers think that it is our Creator’s way of communicating big events to us.

No one can deny that the radical Islamic jihad occurring all over the Middle East and North Africa over the past 2 years aren’t life changing events in and of itself!  Unfortunately, such events are terrible!

What is it all leading up to?

We shall see…

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Another blogger has written about Four Blood Moons and shared another video about it!

Jesus4Evers: Pastor Mark Biltz discovered the correlation between the four blood moons and the feasts of the Lord

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For more writings on Bible Prophecy, please see the following links to posts from my former blog.

For more on Bible prophecy, please see:

Understanding Bible Prophecy

Prophecy Continually Being Fulfilled

Jerusalem Countdown

David’s Incredible Prophecy of Israel’s Enemies Today

Zechariah’s Warning to Bush and Condi

Discerning Signs of the Times

 

For It Is Written…

H/T for graphic:  Biblepic.com

Sunday evening I had the chance to watch The Bible:  In The Beginning which was made way back in 1966.   It had been decades since I last saw this film so it was enjoyable to see it again. I really appreciated the fact that the movie held to what is written in Scripture!   Rather than taking the usual “license” that today’s filmmakers (i.e. the movies “Noah” and “Exodus: Gods and Kings”) often do while making false advertising claims that they are “biblically sound” versions of events in the Bible, director John Huston made the good decision to stick to what is written in God’s Word.

One of the 46 reviews of the epic classic states that, “The Film Deserves Better Recognition.”

The movie started with Adam and Eve, and ended after Abraham took Isaac up the mountain to be sacrificed, but the ram caught in the thicket was the substitute; so that the promise of Abraham’s descendants through Isaac would be fulfilled.  Abraham’s obedience, despite the anguish he went through, was rewarded because of his willingness to carry out God’s command.  This was a foreshadowing of the sacrificial death that the coming Messiah would fulfill.

In my previous post, a comment made by GMPilot stated:

“Of course we all fail the so-called The Good Test. The questions are rigged, and we are set up to fail. Jesus himself probably couldn’t have passed it.”

There are excellent comments made in that thread by Steve of Cry and Howl and Ciria which both counter GMPilot’s assertions.

Here, I’d like to share how Jesus did pass the test.  First, we need to briefly review how sin entered into the world.

When we go back to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, we see that they failed to obey God when they both chose to eat of fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

In Tuesday’s Daily Light on the Daily Path Devotional, we read:

When the woman saw that the tree [was] good for food (the lust of the flesh), and that it [was] pleasant to the eyes (the lust of the eyes), and a tree to be desired to make [one] wise (the pride of life), she took of the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

Despite the fact that Adam and Eve could eat of all the other trees in the garden, they chose to disobey God’s command to not eat of that certain tree.

Why?

Well, Eve blamed it on the serpent who “beguiled” her, Adam blamed it on Eve who brought to fruit to him, and the serpent stated, “you surely shall not die;” which was a twisted lie against God’s original admonition to Adam and Eve.

So, how can we get right with God?  Fast forward to the New Testament.

The devotional goes on, describing Jesus’ encounter with the devil in the desert during his forty days and nights fasting:

When the tempter came to him, he said, if thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread (the lust of the flesh). But he answered,…it is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.–the devil sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them (the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life). Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan.

Here are the verses in Matthew that describe the three times that Jesus was tempted:

Mat 4:5

Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple,

Mat 4:6

and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written:

‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’
and,

‘In their hands they shall bear you up,
Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ ” [fn]

Mat 4:7

Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the LORD your God.’ ” [fn]

Mat 4:8

Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.

Mat 4:9

And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.”

Mat 4:10

Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, [fn] Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ” [fn]

Notice that Jesus used Scripture from the book of Deuteronomy to counter the devil’s temptations!  Even the devil’s attempt to use the exact terms “it is written” were countered by Jesus when he stated, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the LORD your God.’ “

NKJV Footnotes

(4:4)

Deuteronomy 8:3

(4:6)

Psalm 91:11, 12

(4:7)

Deuteronomy 6:16

(4:10)

M-Text reads Get behind Me.

(4:10)

Deuteronomy 6:13

What’s more, when Jesus used the Scriptures and stated, “For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve,” the devil left Him!

Mat 4:11

Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.

The point is that Jesus was tempted like us [we are, yet] without sin.

Devotional:

We were not redeemed with corruptible things, [as] silver and gold, from vain conversation [received] by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. –Who his own self bare* our sins in his own body on the tree.

Therefore, we are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy acceptable unto God, [which is] your reasonable service.

It is interesting to note what the term “bare” means here:

*Word Origin and History for bare [From Dictionary.com]
adj.
Old English bær “naked, uncovered, unclothed,” from Proto-Germanic *bazaz (cf. German bar, Old Norse berr, Dutch baar), from PIE *bhosos (cf. Armenian bok “naked;” Old Church Slavonic bosu, Lithuanian basas “barefoot”). Meaning “sheer, absolute” (c.1200) is from the notion of “complete in itself.”

Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.”

Jhn 14:15

“If you love Me, keepfn My commandments.

Keeping the commandments doesn’t save us – Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins does.   But the effort we make to keep the commandments  shows that we believe and trust in Him and His promises given to us at the moment of our salvation!

The devotional concludes:

Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present [you] faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, [be] glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever.

[Le 1:4; 1Pe 1:18,19, 2:24; Eph 1:6; 1 Pe 2:5; Ro 12:1; Jude 1:24,25]

We can absolutely trust Jesus!

Jhn 8:42

Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me.

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Hat tips to all links.

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How To Know God Personally [Click on link to discover the principles!]

What does it take to begin a relationship with God? Devote yourself to unselfish religious deeds? Become a better person so that God will accept you?

You may be surprised that none of those things will work. But God has made it very clear in the Bible how we can know Him.

The following principles will explain how you can personally begin a relationship with God, right now, through Jesus Christ…