estatisticas
Translated
from the Portuguese language by Waldemar Janzen
1.0.0
- One Mediator Only
Who
has not yet passed trough constraint of being considered arrogant or, in the
minimum, daring stupid or intellectually ill, for affirming that there is
salvation only in Jesus Christ? By chance will God stop considering his/hers
sincere search for other roads, religions or prophets? Will it be that an
eternal God and of love was not revealed through different personalities? Could
it be that the exclusionist statements of 1. Tim. 2,5: " For there is one
God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus". And Acts
4,12: " Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is no name under
heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved, have only a value for
Christianity or even represent an excess on the part of the biblical writers?
Statements
as: "...(not) written IN THE BOOK OF THE LIFE OF THE LAMB SLAIN FROM THE (before
the. EN.) FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD! " (Rev.13, 8; Hebrew 1,2; Ephesians 1,4)
seem, to say the least, to the first view, an exaggeration of expression.
Could
it be that man's fall was a calculation mistake on behalf of God and that He had
to invent the Savior to correct the course of the history of His creation?
Do
you have satisfactory answers for these quests?
2.0.0
- Summary
Perfection
is itself an intrinsic part of the eternal existence of God. His purity/holiness
and justice are part of that perfection. Impurity, for minor that it may be, is
incompatible with the state of holiness of God and it demands to be removed from
His communion. One depends on the mercy of God, for somebody that has deficiency
of purity, to stay in communion with Him. God, in His act of mercy, due to His
absolute justice, cannot stop using just and coherent means to pull somebody out
of the just destiny of that condemnation. The procedure to pull out somebody of
that condemnation cannot be determined by the defendant but only by the author
of the mercy Himself, God. In other words: God only can establish the road that
takes to Himself.
2.1.0
– Axioms
Axiom,
according to the Brazilian Dictionary of the Portuguese Language, is evident
beginning that doesn't need to be demonstrated (and it cannot be demonstrated).
Example: 1-infinite in math. 2 - the self-existence of God, etc.
My
son Edgard at a certain occasion had a discussion with his mathematics teacher
on the infinite. For the fact that we need, for the consequent reasons, a
clearer concept on the radicalism of the absolute, it is important that we
contemplate a similar one, the infinite, because it is more familiar. My son's
consideration was the following: If the limit of any number divided by infinite
is equal zero, then the limit of infinite divided by infinite would be one. The
teacher didn't agree, arguing that it depends on the size of the infinite that
you imagine. The largest infinite,
to say so, can be either the number as it can be the denominator and for this
reason the limit of the quotient of infinities is indefinite. My son rebutted
with the argument that it is not coherent to imagine the infinite as being an
exceptionally large number. The truth is that, without considering the central
subject of this apologetic, one doesn't express the infinite with the concept of
greatness but, more correctly, as something absolutely endless and intangible.
I
believe that this is also the problem of misunderstanding of the protagonists'
of the theory reasoning on numbers larger than infinite. This theory starts with
the definition: infinite is the group of all whole numbers. The theory on
numbers bigger than infinite reasons that every whole number has infinite
fractional numbers and, therefore, the group of all the fractional numbers of
the group of all whole numbers is larger than the group of all the whole numbers,
consequently, larger than infinite. Something as infinite elevated to infinite.
The
absolute pure/holy, later on referred, is intangible, even by successive
incrementation or improvement. It is not the result of a purification process /
cleansing during an infinitely long time, but the state of that, or of the one,
that never was part of a state that could ever be improved.
2.1.1
- 1st Axiom: The perfect only is eternal
Europe’s
nuclear physicists' elite is concentrated in the complex of one of the largest
particle accelerators of the world, located under the Jurassic mountains north
of the lake of Geneva, in Switzerland. The friend's Volcker Mierecke uncle, is
member of this elite. For that cientist’s information, most of its
colleague’s cientists fear God. Reason? Recognition of a reality that
surpasses the limits of the fields of scientific research. Matter, was verified,
ceases at the atomic level. Sub-atomic particles can't be considered as
substance anymore, or as something tangible even though minuscule. The
sub-atomic particles are understood as nodules of electric or electromagnetic
load, exempted of substance/matter. The neutron is a nodule without electric
load, but when disintegrated it
also results in particles with electric load. Matter is formed by the ordered
groupings of these non-material particles. The sub-atomic particles can be put
in movement, accelerated, and disintegrated on screens, resulting in smaller
particles. The more energy/speed is applied to a sub-atomic particle, to a
non-material nodule, so much smaller and more numerous are the sub-atomic
fragments when disintegrated. More than 300 different sub-atomic particles where
already classified this way. There is no limit for this process. The cientists
recognize the absolute limit of the human knowledge. A bottomless well that
knowledge never can unmask. This knowledge is intangible, in absolute terms, to
the human brain. A reserved knowledge to another plan. The existence of the
sub-atomic particles, these nuclear physicists from Geneva conclude, can only
have origin in a Supreme Being. Due to this verification, they lowly recognize
their knowledge limit. This confirms the apostle Paul's placement in Romans 1,
19-20: " Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for
God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible thinks of him from the
creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that
are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are
without excuse;"
With
this knowledge it is easier to understand the creative word of God: Let there be
light, ... let there be (this and that), etc., (Genesis) and also the biblical
passage that: " But the heavens and the earth that exist now, by the
same word are kept in store, ... "
(2. Peter 3,7). Everything is sustained by the Word of God: " Who being the
brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding
all thinks by the word of His power, ... " He called all things into
existence. The material thinks are literally made out of something non-material.
When God revokes his upholding Word on the non-material reality, foundation of
all matter, the material world enters into collapse, and it disappears into
nothing. It is enough for Him to say: "There be no more electric load, and
what does remain?" Nothing, from the material world! Creation should also
be understood this way, only in inverse sense.
The
scientists postulated that time, space and matter are interdependent and none of
them exist separately. The magnificence of the statement of the first verse of
the Bible is, in this context, evident: " In the beginning (time =0) God
created the heaven (the whole cosmic space) and the earth (matter) ". As
Dr. Henry Morris, founder of ICR, Institute for Creation Research, stated:
"The word used in the original language can be translated as earth or as
matter, the whole matter of the universe". This gives more sense also to
the next verse: " And the earth (matter) was without form, and void ".
The matter had not yet been grouped together for formation of stars and other
heavenly bodies. These, time, space and matter, had, according to the deduction
of cientists, a beginning and consequently will have an end.
That
is why God perhaps didn't attribute "perfect " or " excellent
" adjectives to His creation,
but simply " very good " (Genesis. 1). Paul identifies love as the
largest between faith and hope. I believe that the reason of that is that, among
those three, love only is eternal, perfect.
The
first law of thermodynamics, " nothing is created, nothing is destroyed,
everything is only transformed ", has its validity only between the
beginning and the end of the trilogy time/space/matter. These three didn't
appear through the laws of thermodynamics, it is these laws of thermodynamics
that appeared out of this trilogy, something that frequently is forgotten when
pondering on the subjects that concern the origin of the universe.
The
second law of thermodynamics transmits a little of the perennial characteristic
of this material world: " Everything tends to disorder/deterioration.
Increase of entropy is the natural tendency.
Fact that we observe universally in everything that is matter around us.
Obviously, the better the quality/consistence, the smaller the degradation speed.
That's why we frequently dispose us to pay higher prices for more durable goods.
But even so they don't stop of having an existence period and later on they no
longer fulfill, partially or fully its functions.
Quality
has a wider meaning today than only durability. Even so, usually, durability is
a quality factor. The "more perfect" the more durable. The tolerance
margin of production is a factor that affects durability.
In
other words: what is more precise, manufactured with smaller tolerance margins,
is, inside of its kind, the most durable. More durable but not eternal, because
it is not perfect. Even the applied material, as we saw above, has an end in
view. The zero margin of tolerance is not tangible at the level of the
productive process nor at the level of the applied material (matter).
If,
therefore, he exists as first cause, the creator of all things, he is eternal
and, for consequence, absolutely perfect.
2.1.2 - 2nd Axiom: An eternal being has to possess forcedly absolute attributions and absolutely all of them.
It
is a relatively obvious conclusion of the first axiom. If the attributions are
not absolute, they won't be integral, full, and, consequently, they won't be
perfect, conducting, to say, to a handicap that, sooner or later, would produce
the extinction.
The
same is applied, also for the second axiom. Not to possess the fullness of the
attributions, means to be incomplete and, therefore, weakened, tending to have
qualifications to not persist eternally.
Omniscience,
omnipotence, love, holiness, justice, mercy,
are some of these attributions.
2.1.3 - 3rd Axiom: It cannot have two distinct beings (antagonistic) with the fullness of the absolute attributions.
The
absolutism is exclusionist. One of them only will possess the supremacy. At
least, just one of them can be omnipotent. Perhaps this helps to understand a
little more the mystery of the trinity of God. It seems that there is certain
hierarchy even in the trinity. The Father sends the Son. The Son sends the Holy
Ghost. The day of the revelation of the power of God, with the glorious return
of our Lord Jesus Christ was of exclusive knowledge to the Father. There are
several examples more, told in the Bible, but all the attributes are common to
the three persons of the trinity.
2.2.0 - The perfection must also be revealed in the adoration.
Perfect adoration (honest/pure/impartial/spontaneous/authentic) can only
be rendered by an entity that possesses free will (a moral being): “I delight
in doing your will, oh! my God;" (Psalms
40,8), and "That we should be to the praise of his glory,..." Ef. 1:12
It
was, probably, Dr. Francis Schäffer who suggested the following illustration
scenery: "You couple a tape recorder to a micro-switch installed on the
entrance door of your house. Every time that you open the door, the switch
triggers a recording: " You are the nicest, the most intelligent of
everybody. You have performed many great facts, you are the most beautiful, pure
and powerful, etc.." After all, what value would that have for anybody?
Perhaps some of the positive statement, positive
thought or the self-esteem pupil might extract some profit from it, but not the
realists and objectives.
I
remember of an incident of own experience. I used to perform violin duets with a
friend of me. Not always we did so well. Certain occasion our presentation
turned out somewhat disastrous. Still burning in the faces due to the shame that
we passed, appeared us another violinist, already behind the stage, and with
pomp of words, flooded us with wide praises. Always slower in the detection of
malice, I was advanced by my friend, who almost destroyed his beautiful
instrument on that " hypocritical admirer's " head.
Admiration
doesn't have any value if it is not honest and authentic. God in His majesty,
wanted to receive spontaneous appreciation of His creation and His power. The
angels don't have anymore, or never had, this capability, in spite of that they
give adoration, in the daytime and at night, to our great God.
The man, with its self-determination ability, is the only creature
capable to express spontaneously.
2.3.0 - A moral entity implies in risk.
It
is of our knowledge and practice, in subjects of verifications or certifications,
which we appeal for qualified and neutral agencies. Even the justice, through
its judges, refuses witnesses that are related to the defendant or that have
preference for the acquittal of one of the parts.
The
sentence should be exempted of desires of any nature. We know, through daily
experience, how difficult this is in practice. The principle even so persists,
despite the fact of deficiencies in practice, but the risk of a partial or
unjust judgement for the defendant is real.
In
the case of God and His creature, for being intrinsically only worthy of honor
and praise, the risk, for his creature to deny Him wrongly the conceivable
adoration, exists: "Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped
and served the creature more than the Creator,..." (Romans 1,25). More
serious still is the adoration installment to somebody other for that which God
has been doing. It is idolatry. The idol is a corrupt entity for allowing to be
adored for that he himself didn't accomplish or cannot accomplish.
What do you think of a person's integrity that doesn't refuse the praises erroneously and undeservedly to her directed? Do you think God faces this differently?
2.4.0 - The absolute holiness of God demands the author's condemnation/elimination obligatorily.
Almost all of us are familiarized with margins of tolerance in the
productive processes of any nature. As larger the responsibility or quality, the
tighter the tolerance margins. The
consequence is generally the increase of durability of the good. We discussed
that before.
We
will consider, for our case, that the margin of tolerance is the only factor of
durability. When the margin of tolerance tends to zero the durability tends for
infinite. Is it possible to manufacture a good with tolerance margin equal zero?
No, that’s clear. Consequently, for our case, there won't be a good lasting
eternally.
If
we transpose this reality to the spiritual field, the margin of tolerance could
very well represent the degree of holiness, justification/eternal life. But, it
can only be reached by absolute holiness, margins of tolerance equal zero,
because it is the only quality that can be accepted/tolerated by an absolutely
holy being. Any deviation, even though only infinitesimal, is contamination of
His perfection/sanctity, impossible situation for an eternal being.
His
holiness demands the condemnation/elimination of that which is not absolutely
pure.
The
quality control of God doesn't admit tolerance margin.
2.5.0 -
In His perfection, God is also absolutely merciful. " For God so loved
the world that He gave his only begotten Son,..." (John
3,16a).
Mercy
is also an absolute attribute of God. His mercy can only be absolute if the
subject to which this mercy is shown is in a state of absolute insolvency,
otherwise Jesus would have been sacrificed unnecessarily. In order that the
mercy is authentic it is necessary that the receiver be in authentic need of
this mercy. Only through it would
be the exit of condemnation.
Mercy
is love in action. Divine love. Something that doesn't request anything in
compensation. Jesus mentions the limit, the maximum that the human love is
capable to do: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay his life
down for friends." ( John 15,13). But Paul teaches us that the love of God
is much more: "... in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely
for a righteous man will one die:... But
God commandeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us." (Roman 5,6b7-8).
The
authentic, divine love, is only revealed, is put into practice/action, in the
mercy. Love, an absolute attribute of God, is embedded in the attribute mercy.
Without divine love there is no divine mercy, without divine mercy, there is no
divine love.
2.6.0
- THE DILEMMA OF GOD WITHOUT A MEDIATOR
2.6.1 - If God makes justice he is not merciful - If He is merciful, He cannot make justice.
If
God closes an eye in mercy to the state of His creature's imperfection/sinfulness,
He stops being holy.
If
He applies His justice, demanded in view of His holiness, He stops of being
merciful: " O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of
this death? (Romans 7,24).
It
seems there is no exit for these two attributions, because they exclude mutually.
2.6.2 - In order to enact mercy without hurting justice, the offense must be repaired by just/valid/consistent means.
Let
us suppose that God, after creating Adam and Eva, told them that in the day that
they ate of the forbidden fruit they would die, presupposing that they would
obey, refraining from this food. After God saw that He had made a “mistake”
regarding the loyalty of the two, He would have, in an act of mercy, revoked His
death sentence. After all, somebody could erroneously argue, He is God,
sovereign and omnipotent, He can act as it pleases Him! Who would accuse Him?
But
it is not like this. God, in first place didn't make a cold menace to Adam and
Eva. He so only informed them what His absolute holiness could not tolerate:
disobedience, which is equal to rebellion. Death is the direct consequence of
the verdict of God but the death verdict is the obligatory consequence
to eliminate impurity/transgression/disobedience of the holy presence of
God. God is not unjust and consequently, even His act of mercy needs to follow a
fit/correct/consistent procedure.
2.6.3 - The human being doesn't have conditions of self-rehabilitation.
Returning
to the axioms. One doesn't arrive to the infinite by increasing, successively,
plus one, to the previous number. The limit of this process in fact is infinite,
but one doesn't arrive at it through this procedure. There will always remain a
number more, plus one. The infinite is intangible. Nor in the infinite the curve
will coincide with the limit line of it.
The
holiness of God is similar. The absolute holiness of God is not an infinite
succession of sanctification acts, but the limit line of the sanctification
process. The holiness of the sanctification process is separate from the
intrinsic holiness of God, as is a curve of a mathematical function separated
from its limit line, that,
according to definition, touch in the infinite. As the infinite is intangible,
the curve of the function approaches more and more the limit line, but it still
will be separate from this by one infinitesimal, and never coincide with it. The
word sanctification itself reveals that there was a process and that the
starting point was the lack of holiness.
With
the divine tolerance margin for holiness equal zero, the salvation by works is
impossible and fruit of lack of recognition of the absolute holiness of God. It
is neither for lack of good will on God’s part nor for lack of effort on the
human beings’ part that it is impossible to transpose from the line of the
curve to the limit line of it. It is by force of His eternal existence, that
requests absolute holiness, that He cannot make the injustice of acquitting His
creature transgressor through good works or good will. God would be immoral if,
on one side He allowed Jesus Christ to be slain for the sinners and on the other
hand it was possible to obtain that same salvation through good works.
Many
of the non-Christian religions frequently have noble precepts and praiseworthy
rules of conduct. The crucial subject, however, is justification. The how I can
reach the holiness to subsist before my Creator.
2.6.4 - An external cause is needed for that
salvation. A cause that never had part in the transgression.
Psalms
49, 7-9: " None of them can by any means
redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him( for the redemption
of their soul is precious, and it ceased forever ), that he should forever live,
and not see corruption ".
Trade
Notes can only roll the debt.
HOT
" money " is needed to pay a debt:
"
And you, being dead in your sins, and the
uncircuncision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having
forgiving you all transpasses; blotting out the handwriting of ordinances
that was against, which was to us contrary, and took it out of the way,
nailing it to the cross ". (Col. 2,13-14).
The just death, of the unjust entity, can only be justified/paid /remdeemed
by the death of a just one (a not involved in the process of the debt). The
price of the remission must be equivalent to the value of the condemnation, that
is to say, the death. That the one that didn't make injustice, took the
condemnation of the unjust on Himself in the place of those that deserved it for
just cause: "For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who new no sin; That we
might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” (2. Cor. 5, 21).
This
gives God the legitimacy to remove for free the deserved condemnation of the
unjust and to declare, without consideration of the own effort, absolutely just,
those that, by force of the law (that which relates to the holiness that has
validity before God) were eternal slaves of the sin. (Rom.2,2). And this again
through the voluntary decision/free will of the transgressors, if spontaneously
they admit their blame before the Creator, asking for forgiveness for their
transgressions and recognize in Jesus Christ's substitutive death their deserved
own condemnation.
To
transform into sin for the sinners Him that is absolutely holy equals infinite
love/mercy.
It
is already a shame if somebody is found guilty of an earthly transgression, but
the indignation and the revolt are many times larger if somebody receives, by
mistake, the condemnation for somebody else’s crime. We, even so, are not
perfect and if we received an undeserved punishment, a lot of times we didn't
also receive the deserved punishment. Now imagine the horror of somebody that
was absolutely holy, to be made sin and to be condemned unjustly to death in
substitution of those that deserved it for just cause. The horror was so great
that that God himself hid His face before His blessed Son and made Jesus scream
in solitude agony: "My God! my
God! why hast thou forsaken me?" (Mat.27,46).
If,
as some try to infer, Maria had not conceived trough the Holy Ghost but by a
man's will, then Jesus could, at the best, be a lunatic prophet, but never the
only begotten Son of God, the lamb without stains. In this case we still would
be in darkness and without hope.
As His holiness is absolute, His death is also worth for everybody.
Considering, n all the human beings of all times/sinners, m everybody's sins
that Christ took on Himself and x, that equals zero in this case, Jesus
Christ’s' own sins, we have: Y=n.m/x.
Y gives the number of justifiable sinners by His death, which equals infinite:
"... whosoever believed in Him should not perish, but have
everlasting life. (John 3,16b).
For
this reason, Jesus Christ is not a medicine to correct a calculation mistake of
God, but part of the original project of the creation of the universe itself, as
Paul writes accurately to the Colossians : " Who is the image of the
invisible God, the firstborn of every creature... ...and, having made peace by the blood of His cross, to
reconcile all things unto Himself by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth,
or things in heaven". (Col. 1,15 ...20).
So
it does make much sense too for the Bible to affirm: "...(not) written
IN THE BOOK OF THE LIFE OF THE LAMB SLAIN FROM THE (before the)
FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD! "
It
is not also arrogant to affirm that there is no salvation in any other one. It
is obviously useless and idolater to appeal to any other being.
2.6.5
– CONCLUDING
Therefore
we outh to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have had heard,
lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was
steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence
of reward; How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation...?
(Hebrew
2,1-3)
3.0.0 - How can I qualify for this salvation?
3.0.1
- I need to recognize my state of spiritual insolvency that I don't have the
capacity to become self-rehabilitated to acquire the justice and the holiness of
God.
3.0.2
- I need to believe in the one that has this holiness, Jesus Christ, and to ask
pardon to God for the "imperfection (=sin) " acts done by me. Acts
10,43b ...that trough His name whosoever believed in Him shall receive remission
of sins.. 1.John 1,9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
3.0.3
- I need to compatibilicise my
lifestyle with His will, expressed in His Word, the Bible. 1.John 1,6 If we say
that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the
truth.
3.1.0 - How do I do that?
3.1.1
- Speaking to God, with my own words and expressions, as if I where speaking to
a friend in front of me, confessing my sins, asking for pardon and inviting/declaring
him as my Saviour and Lord.
3.2.0 - How do I know that I was heard and forgiven, assisted?
You
notice the pardon immediately. That distressing disturbance over the future, the
uncertainty of the beyond, the blame feeling, they disappear once and for all.
Rom. 8,16: The Spirit itself beareth witness with our Spirit, that we are
children of God. 1.John 5, 10 - 12a He that believed on the Son of God hath the
witness in himself ;... and this is the record, that God hath given us eternal
life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that
hath not the Son of God hath not life.
Seek
communion with people that already experienced the pardon of God and share your
experience with them.
Waldemar
Janzen: Rua Henrique M. Torres 1217 Curitiba PR Brazil 81750-080 Phone: 55 41
276 6354
e-mail: waldemar@waetech.com.br