Religion has always played an important part in civilization in the world. It was a powerful force. Therefore, faith in true and living God divorced from deeds is as lifeless as a corpse. In other words, religion can be or is equivalent to faith in living God, and faith in living God can be or is equivalent to religion.
The pagan civilizations of Scriptural/Biblical times worshiped many gods. They had male and female deities, high and low gods, assemblies of gods, priests and priestesses, and temples and sacrifices. All the forces of nature that could not be controlled or understood were considered supernatural powers to be worshiped and feared.
Thus, most of the people of the ancient world and on this present day or today world, were polytheistic; they worshiped many gods or more than one god. These people worshiped these gods in the form of representative idols. This practice is called idolatry. In other words, they pray and worshiped things or practice "Myth".
Most of these idols were in the form of animals or men/women. But sometimes these idols represented celestial powers like the sun, moon, and stars; forces of nature, like the sea and the rain; or life forces, like death. In time, an elaborate system of beliefs in such natural forces was developed into mythology. Belief in these false gods was characterized by superstition, myth and magic.
Therefore, they pray and worship or worshiping "Myth" that is, 'A widely held but false belief: (1) a misrepresentation of the truth. (2) a fictitious or imaginary person or thing. (3) an exaggerated or idealized conception of a person or thing. For example: misconception, fallacy, false notion, old wives' tale, fairy tale, story fiction, tall tale, cock-and-bull story.'
The nation of Israel/Jacob, (God chosen nation and people) however, was forbidden to make graven images of the one true and living God whom they worshiped. According to the Old Testament, the living God permitted no rivals: "You shall have no other gods before Me."
Then God spoke all these words. He said, "I am Yahweh your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
"You shall have no gods except Me."
"You shall not make yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything in heaven or on earth beneath or in the waters under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them."
"You shall not utter the name of Yahweh your God to misuse it, for Yahweh your God will not leave unpunished the man/woman who utters His name to misuse/abuse it."
"Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. For six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath for Yahweh your God. You shall do no work that day, neither you nor your son nor your daughter nor your servants, men or women, nor your animals nor the stranger who lives with you.
For in six days Yahweh your God made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that these hold, but on the seventh day He rested; that is why Yahweh your God has blessed the Sabbath day and made it sacred."
"Honour your father and your mother so that you may have a long life in the land Yahweh your God has given to you."
"You shall not kill."
"You shall not commit adultery."
"You shall not steal."
"You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour."
"You shall not covet [desire or yearn for] your neighbour's house. You shall not covet your neighbour's wife/husband, or his/her servant, man or woman, or anything that is his/her." - Ex. 20:1-17 -
All the people shook with fear at the peals of thunder and the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the smoking mountain; and they kept their distance. - Ex. 20:18 -
Yahweh your God said to Moses, 'Tell the sons of Israel/Jacob this, "You have seen for yourselves that I have spoken to you from heaven. You shall not make gods of silver or gods of gold to stand beside Me; you shall not make things like this for yourselves."' - Ex. 20:22-23 -
At this, seven claps of thunder made themselves heard and when the seven thunderclaps had spoken, I (John) was preparing to write, when I heard a voice from heaven say to me, "Keep the words of the seven thunderclaps secret and do not write them down."
Then the angel that I had seen, standing on the sea and the land, raised his right hand to heaven, and swore by the One who lives for ever and ever, and made heaven and all that is in it, and earth and all it bears, and the sea and all it holds, "The time of waiting is over, at the time when the seventh angel is heard sounding his trumpet, God's secret intention will be fulfilled, as He announced in the Good News told to His servants the prophets." - Rev. 10:4-7 -
Faith refers to a belief in true and living God with confident, involving commitment to God's will for one's life. Faith was already present in the experience of many people in the Old Testament as a key element of their lives. Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob[Israel] Joseph, and Moses are described as living by faith and deeds. Faith is part of the Christian life from the beginning to end.
Take the case my brothers and sisters, of someone who has never done a single good act or good deed but claims that he/she has faith. Will the faith save him/her? If one of the brothers or one of the sisters is in need of clothes and has not enough food to live on, and one of you says to them, 'I wish you well; keep yourself warm and eat plenty' without giving them these bare necessities of life, then what good is that? - James 2:14-16 -
Faith is like that: if good works/good deeds do not go with it, it is quite dead. - James 2:17 -
Do realize, you senseless man/woman, that faith without good deeds is useless. You surely know that Abraham our father was justified by his deed, because he offered his son Isaac on the altar? There you see it: faith and deeds were working together; his faith became perfect by what he did.
This is what Sacred Scripture really means when it says: Abraham put his faith in God, and this was counted as making him justified; and that is why he was called 'the friend of God.' - James 2:20-23 -
You see now that it is by doing something good, and not only by believing, that a man/woman is justified. - James 2:24 -
Thus, God is the "creator and sustainer" of the universe Who has provided humankind with a revelation of Himself through the natural world and through His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
Although the full revelation of God was in Jesus Christ, the human mind cannot fully comprehend God. One reason for this that Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible does not record all the actions and works and teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Another reason is the limitation of the human mind. How can human being's finite mind comprehend/understand the infinity of God? IT IS NOT POSSIBLE.
This disciple is the one who vouches for these things and has written them down, and we know that his testimony is true. There were many other things that the Lord Jesus Christ did; if all were written down, the world itself, I suppose, would not hold the books that would have to be written. - John 21:24-25 -
Page 1
Faith . Hope . Love - Welcome donation. Thank You. God bless.
By bank transfer/cheque deposit:
Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah
Bank: Public Bank Berhad account no: 4076577113
Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!
I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.
HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -
No comments:
Post a Comment