DOES GOD PLAY GAMES? (part two)

                                                                           CHECKERS

Having seen Jesus, God was ready for HIS incarnation, and joining forces with Adam, the last Adam, wielding the power resident in Christ, He was able to catch the evil one. The devil is actually the gamer, who played himself into the gallows of hell. The second part of the duel reached its crescendo on the cross where Jesus pointed out, “It is finished!” Satan touched HIS anointed and did HIS Prophet harm (1Chronicles 16:22). He was guilty as charged; he entered the trap! Inside the first Adam in the Garden was the image of God i.e. Christ. Inside the last Adam was Christ (God, the Saviour). Amen.

Satan still plays games. How do I know this is found in 2Corinthians 2:11, “Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices”. The word ‘ignorant’ {agnoeo (ag-no-eh’-o) ‘1. not to know (through lack of information or intelligence) 2. (by implication) to ignore (through dislike, disinterest, or unwillingness)}’ tells us that we are not without information, and what information? It has to do with the word ‘devices’ which the Greek calls noema (no’-ay-mah) ‘1. a perception, i.e. purpose 2. (by implication) the intellect, disposition, itself’. Noema is an evil purpose, a devilish deception, which enables Lucifer, the dark angel, to enter into our minds (man’s thinking faculty). Satan comes to the only place where he can manipulate man – his mind. Satan enters minds to play his devious games. The word ‘advantage’ is, pleonekteo (pleh-on-ek-teh’-o) ‘1. to be covetous 2. (by implication) to over-reach 3. get an advantage, defraud, make a gain’. This word (pleonekteo) comes from pleonektes (pleh-on-ek’-tace) ‘1. holding (desiring) more, i.e. eager for gain (avaricious, hence a defrauder)’. This is what Satan does all the time: his modus operandi, with a sole intention to have man spiritually derailed.

1Corinthians 2:8 reads, “Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory”. Animals are always trapped for lack of knowledge. The Lord God of Genesis chapter three is the express image of the unseen God (Hebrews 1:3), who made His dwelling inside a man called Jesus. His Jewish people called Him Yhowshuwa` (yeh-ho-shoo’-ah) i.e. Joshua but hidden in Jesus (for God always hides Himself from man’s sinful gaze) is the Messiah, the very God of very God. Maybe Lucifer decided to engage God in a game to prove the stupidity that had eaten deepest into the fabric of his being.

Genesis 4:7, “If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.” This scripture is an attestation that God does not play games or else HE would not tell Cain that, “sin lieth” because ‘sin’, in Hebrew is chaṭṭa’ah (khat-taw-aw’) ‘1. sin, sinful 2. sin, sin offering’. God wanted him to bring an animal (because it has blood – of atonement) as a sin offering, for he will receive forgiveness from God even for a heinous crime as murder. The word ‘lieth’ is rabats (raw-bats’): ‘to crouch (on all four legs folded, like a recumbent animal)’. God wanted to save Cain through a solemn sacrifice. It is a serious matter; no game, (this is) at all. Even after the futuristic deriding laughter at and wrong doers in Psalm 2:4, HE will speak in anger to them in verse five, as a proof of the fact that HE is not engaged in antics.

Does God play games? Does HE hide Himself to perfect His intention to cheat at any game? Does HE even play games by proxy? The Holy Spirit or Jesus Christ could play it for HIM, which gainsaying philosophers will insist on, following the course of dialectics. In what verse of the scripture is Christ or the Holy Spirit found guilty of an underhand play?

Every interaction God brings between Himself and mankind has always been to apprise us of the danger that dwells in any information that tends to make mankind to disobey Him, the Creator. A game is not expected to take away life. A life threatening game can no longer be called a game but what Yoruba people call ‘erekere’ (dangerous play); and this, dear reader, is what Satan is recruiting people to venture into anytime one hears in his mind that which is against the will of God: ‘erekere’!

To read part one click here

DOES GOD PLAY GAMES? (part one)

CHESS

“And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it”, are the first recorded words of God to Adam in Genesis 2:15; and the words, ‘dress’ and ‘keep’ are words of functionalism. The next verses read, “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” 16-17. To keep man on top of the environmental situation, in keeping, dressing and staying undying, he was given dominion in Genesis 1:28, to evoke a sense of an impending threat of precariousness.

‘Dress’ in verse fifteen, in the Hebrew tongue is ‛abad (aw-bad’): ‘to work, serve’, while ‘keep’ is shamar (shaw-mar’): ‘to hedge about (as with thorns), that is, guard; generally to protect, attend to’; and for this reason God needed to equip Adam with dominion {radah (raw-daw’): ‘to tread down, that is, subjugate; specifically to crumble off’}. The obvious reason why we work is for amelioration, which will boost an advanced enrichment. Protection is needed to ward off predators, oppositions and to nip, the antics of deceivers, jealous entities and evil, in the bud. God, no doubt, created man to deal with an egregious situation. Grave situations hardly serve as games. Games are fun filled. Losses are recorded at games. If God will play any game will HE ever lose? No way! Satan, I know, is a game player. A fiendish player. Will God play games with a created and cruel person?

Of what manner of games was God involved in when HE created man, put him in a garden and allowed a pestilential tree right there in their home even God’s Eden? Eden means ‘pleasure’ so, why would God give man a damaging pleasure? Our pristine parents were not pawns on a game of chess. Man is so precious to God that HE had to demonstrate HIS anthropomorphic dimension in the creation of Adam, Genesis 1:26. Even when man fell and got lost, in his alienation to a deranged Lucifer, God became a Merchant (Matthew 13:44-46)! The salvational enterprise was too gory to be a product of any game, especially by an omniscient God. The plain truth is that it will amount to being cozened by God in His attempt to play any games with anyone on account of the very fact that a trillion years before any player came into being, God had seen and known every move of every game. So, how can God, in His Omniscience, be involved in any game and not be viewed as a cheat? Only a lunatic will deign to see himself playing games with the Most High.

A grand bait: that is what the Adamic creature is. A trap set in a known terrain, which Lucifer sees as his demesne. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is not only an attractive bait it gives him the legality to be there, only if allowed by the new tenant. Satan (meaning ‘adversary’) must be judged for he had turned himself into God’s adversary. Adam was made to say, ‘No!’ to God’s adversary. Adam failed, not envisaging the grave nature of his existence and responsibility.

Does it still look like a hilarious game of a sack race, of the competitiveness of Olympics or of a deft calculation of two chess players? Not at all. It was a war against satanic indiscipline. God knew HE would always have a follower from Adam. Satan busied himself with the recruitment, and he found a truly willing disciple in Cain. A true disciple of the wandering Devil, he moved to a place called Nod, (node) which means ‘wandering’, where he built a city where the dirty enterprise of prostitution, the reticence known of hoteldom, war hatching stance of armament and illicitness of music commenced. (to be continued)

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MY SALVATION (What Can Happen To It?) 2nd Part

Jesus The Warrior King

Jesus The Warrior King

True Israelites understand what Jesus meant when He said that He is the good shepherd. They have studied the scriptures, originally scripted in their mother tongue. His disciples knew this was the Messiah come to save them, ‘The everlasting Father’ of Isaiah 9:6, the pantokratōr (Almighty) of Revelation 1:8 and pantokratōr (pan-tok-rat’-ore) by Thayer Definition: ‘1. he who holds sway over all things 2. the ruler of all 3. almighty: God’; Strong’s Definition: ‘the all ruling, that is, God (as absolute and universal sovereign)’. Rev. Chris Okotie explains pantokrator thus: “It means, you should target any distance, in your wildest imagination and Jesus will go far, far and beyond; think of the projection of an intercontinental ballistic bomb and pantokrator surpasses it”. The disciples knew, by this revelation of John 10:11, this was their Adonai, worthy of worship. Who are the sheep?

They are basically the believing Israelites for the Bible says, “First to the Jews then to the Gentiles”, Romans 1:16. Christians are the sheep of Jesus to whom He gave eternal life. He did not just give us life unending, He continues to be the Maintainer and the Sustainer of this precious life, why? It is God’s kind of life. God is known to implement the designs of His dreams by the utterance of words, so, we know what Jesus had wrought in His completion of our salvation when He declared, “and they shall never perish”. This is what Jesus is doing about my salvation. ‘Shall’, apollumi (ap-ol’-loo-mee) is a verb which comes from {apo (apo’): ‘of separation’ & olethros (ol’-eth-ros): ‘ruin, destroy, death’} it means ‘to destroy fully (reflexively to perish, or lose), literally or figuratively’. ‘Never’ is made of three words (A) ou mē (oo may) ‘never, certainly not, not at all, by no means (a double negation strengthening the denial)’. (B) eis (ice) ‘into, unto, to, towards, for, among’. (C) aiōn (ahee-ohn’) ‘for ever, an unbroken age, perpetuity of time, eternity. ‘Perish’ is the same apollumi as ‘shall’ above. Jesus is ensuring that what is likely ‘to fully destroy His sheep will not and never come towards them in the perpetuity of eternity’.

“Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand” is what He continues to busy Himself with. ‘Neither’ is a combination of: {kai (kahee) – and, also, even, indeed, but- & ou (oo) the absolutely negative adverb; ‘no or not’}. ‘Neither’ evokes the impossibility of having any Christian removed from Christ. This is what He personally sees to. The next word, ‘shall’ is harpazo (har-pad’-zo): ‘to seize, carry off by force’. The word ‘man’ does not appear in the Greek text, it was only used to stress ‘any’ tis (tis): (an enclitic indefinite pronoun) which means: ‘1. a certain, a certain one 2. some, some time, a while’. ‘Pluck’ is the same as harpazo above. ‘Tis’ as an enclitic indefinite pronoun places a stress on the impossibility of the removal of any born again Christian (actually the clause ‘born again Christian’ is tautologous, in the sense that only born again people are the Christians) from the divine hand of Christ.

Hebrews 13:20, “Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant”. What is the nature of this covenant? Mark 14:24, “And he said unto them, This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many”. What is the need for a new testament? Hebrews 8:7, “For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second”. In the new covenant the Testator did come back to life. The word ‘again’ in Hebrews 13:20 is anago (an-ag’-o), meaning 1. to lead up 2. (by extension) to bring out 3. (specially) to sail away. Jesus went to heaven, the place of eternity, to preserve my salvation. This covenant is forever, even God will not break it for HIS Word has sealed it. All I have to do is just receive Him as my Lord and savior. The Holy Spirit saw the sincerity of my heart and sealed me. HE took over from there because the scripture says HE will be my Comforter forever; knowing fully well that I am too human and weak to secure my salvation. And if you still are not convinced that what Jesus did on the cross give one an eternal security of salvation, please read my post on the subject titled, “Why Go Arminianistic Soteriology” which has well over a hundred treated verses, from the scriptural point of view.

Jesus is taking good care of my Christian life. I owe Him everything. I must do everything to prove my spiritual rejuvenation. I must make sure I live the life of God’s child to gain crowns in heaven. John 10:28 clearly proves that I can never lose my salvation; SOMEONE, in heaven, has paid in full for my justification. Hallelujah!

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MY SALVATION (What Can Happen To It?) 1st Part.

Jesus on the cross

Salvation, in the Hebrew tongue, is found, among numerous verses, in the Mosaic victory song in praise of Jehovah, in Exodus 15:2, “The LORD is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation…” The Greek interpretation is found in two of many verses e.g. Luke 1:69, 2:30 & Romans 10:10, “…and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation”. In Hebrew it is yeshu‛ah (yesh-oo’-aw) meaning: ‘salvation, deliverance a. welfare, prosperity b. deliverance c. salvation (by God) d. victory’. The Greek calls it, sōtēria (so-tay-ree’-ah) Thayer Definition: ‘deliverance, preservation, safety, salvation’.
Sōtēria, according to Collins Dictionary, comes from soter (so-tare) which is {From sōzō (sode’-zo) ‘to save, keep safe and sound, to rescue from danger or destruction’} means: ‘a deliverer, that is, God or Christ’. From this definition, soter is a sole preserve of God, spiritually speaking. It is from soter we have the word soteriology [sɒˌtɪərɪˈɒlədʒɪ]: theology the doctrine of salvation from Greek sōtēria deliverance (from sōtēr a saviour) + -logy.
Moses says the LORD, who is his strength has also become (who was not, hitherto) his song and salvation. The name LORD is the Hebrew yahh (yaw), with the meaning: ‘1. Jah (Jehovah in the shortened form); 2. The self-existing God’. The next, ‘strength’ ‛oz (oze): ‘strength in various applications (force, security, majesty, praise)’. ‘Song’ is zimrath (zim-rawth’) having the definition: ‘1. song of praise, song, music, melody’. ‘Salvation’ is yeshu‛ah (yesh-oo’-aw): ‘something saved, that is, (abstractly) deliverance; hence aid, victory, prosperity’. How long can I keep my salvation is not in any way an issue at all, according to this scripture. The strength that got me saved is God’s property, not in any way mine but Jehovah’s. Right?
Moses, like any other saved soul, has a new song and the song is that of praise. Praise of the eternal Jehovah, implying an eternal nature of the praise and worship song. Yeshu’ah tells me that Jehovah is not just my aid to spiritual victory, HE is actually my prosperous deliverance! When Moses reveals the strength behind his salvation I know immediately who my security is! If Jehovah Himself secures my salvation, how, tell me, can I lose this salvation? Jehovah is eternal. He is the strength and salvation of my soul, wrought on the gory cross to remain eternal!
Jesus says in John 10:28, “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand”. With this Messianic utterance, I definitely, know what Jesus is doing with my soteria. Who is Jesus giving what He giveth? The exploration of the preceding verses is what we need to do to know who. John 10:2 “But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.” John 10:7 “Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep”. John 10:9 “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture”. John 10:11 “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep”.
In verse 2 He is the known shepherd. Verse 7 points Him out as the door as well. How can one be both the door, through which an entrance is gained, and at the same time be the shepherd that leads through the same point of entrance? Ponder! In the ninth verse, the said entrance is salvific! Jesus is the very path to salvation and also the only One who leads all to the eternal salvation. The only personage who can achieve this feat is God, Himself. Verse ten, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly”. This is where Jesus reveals Himself, proving the fact that there are only two forces: good and evil i.e. God and the Devil! Psalm 80, “Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth”. Who led Israel out of Egypt? Whose seat is between the cherubs of the ark of covenant? Who is the LORD in Psalm 23? ‘LORD’ in Psalm 23 is yehovah (yeh-ho-vaw’): ‘(the) self Existent or eternal; Jehovah, Jewish national name of God’. HE is also the ONE who sits between the cherubs on the ark, placed inside the holy of holies, the third compartment of the Jerusalem Temple. (to be continued…)