In one of the many groups to which I belong, I posted this in response to a question from a member. Perhaps it may explain something to a few. So what should we do.....
Excellent question. Perhaps I can add something here. The first thing we should do is to start at the beginning... Perhaps that would make things easier. In an earlier post, I mentioned that the first thing that I found and latched onto in the Bible was the Perfection of God, and this is important, but what that did was lead me next to the beginning; God is Eternal. And I think, at least I hope, that this is something that everyone in this group can agree upon, that God is Eternal.
But what does it mean? OK, God is Eternal, which simply means that He is Forever, right? Ummm, probably not that simple.
Why is He Eternal? He is Eternal because of His ABSOLUTE Perfection.
Without absolute Perfection, He could not be Eternal. ABSOLUTE Perfection, beyond anything that we can imagine or conceive of: Impossible of self-destruction. With ABSOLUTELY no defects. When you begin to see this, and when we achieve some small measure of understanding of what this means, we begin, for the first time in our lives, to see God as He truly Is. And yes, I understand, we begin to see Him only imperfectly, but that is all that we have, so we work with what we have.
Please consider the following. No deadly sins; no anger, no ego, no wrath, no vengeance.... ABSOLUTELY nothing that is self-damaging. What is the other side of this? What God has in abundance; ABSOLUTE Perfection in all of His Attributes. For example, Perfect Love. Think about that, and think about this; you have heard of the tough Love of the Bible? Then how hard do you think that Perfect Love is, and MUST be?
He has Perfect Compassion. Unleavened with mercy...... because His Compassion is Perfect.
He has Perfect Mercy. Unleavened with compassion....... because His Mercy is Perfect.
Every attribute of God is Perfect; there can be no exception to this, OR, He would not be Eternal.
Another part of this is that everything that comes from God is Perfect, and, yes, that includes us, for He Created us and we exist to fulfill His Perfect Purpose, and therefore we are Perfect in that regard.
Another thing that He Ordained is His Perfect Law. Perhaps we should take just a moment to discuss this, and look at it in the light of Perfection. (I really object to people who insist that we are no longer under His Law!)
Perfect Law. That means that there are no defects in His Law. ABSOLUTELY none. OK, how so? Well, to begin with, there is nothing neutral in His Law, AND, because His Law is Perfect, it is not a law of self-service, i.e., His Law does not serve Him, that is to say, His Law does not serve God. This is a point of great confusion among people, who see only mans laws, always written to serve the man responsible for the writing. But Gods Law is Perfect, and therefore Universal, and serves no one, including Him. But that also means that it binds everyone, including God, and including you and I, whatever you may believe about being under His Law notwithstanding.
And this is the point about it being Perfect Law; it binds God as well as us. He can not operate outside of His Law, for to do so would be a defect, and self-destructive; therefore, He could not be Eternal. And if He can not operate outside of His Law, just how much sense does it make for someone to claim that we are no longer bound by His Perfect Law!? And to even consider that they can operate outside of His Perfect Law with impunity?
Cancer is a perfect example of how His Perfect Law operates. Is there anyone here, in this group, who believes that God decides who is to have cancer, and uses it as a punishment against transgressors? This would imply that God intervenes in our lives, and deliberately infects someone with cancer as a punishment for evil. Does anyone here believe that? Because if you do, you are greatly mistaken about a very natural process. Thats right, cancer is a natural defense of our body when our bodies are short of enzymes, and our bodies use the cancer to stop a part of our bodies from dying. When a man/woman returns to obedience (in eating/nutrition), the cancer disappears as the natural processes are once again allowed to go forward. Note this; the cancer does not die, it simply goes away as the natural processes of the body take over once again, and the cells in the affected body return to their natural state. (For those of you who do not understand what I am talking about, please refer to the post Understanding Cancer.)
It is in understanding things such as this that we begin to see that His Perfect Law is all about us, and helping us, to find the path to Him. And yes, this path is difficult to find, and even more difficult to take and continue to follow even after you have found it, but this is simply a manifestation of His Perfect Love...... We are being honed to a very hard Perfection ourselves, as we strive to join with Him in Eternity.
One more point about His Perfect Law. As a Perfect Law, His Law operates without guidance, and without interference. That means that there are no strings, no pulleys, no buttons to push, there is nothing that can be used to manipulate His Law, because it is Perfect. It can not be manipulated by man, nor can it be manipulated by God. You want to think about that when you consider things like a church telling you that they will lead you to God, or, will sell you a medal ´for protection.´ Or, when a church encourages you to pray to a saint, that the saint may intercede for you with God
. To what purpose? Or when you are told that a prayer said over your food will change its nature so that it does not harm you.
In all, as you move forward, and I sincerely hope, as you more forward towards Him, you use your eyes and your ears as you look for the facts which will reveal more and more about Him, that we may, in the fullness of time, become more and more like Him, as we are commanded to be. And in that regard, it really makes little sense to argue about the meanings of words that none of will EVER translate or understand exactly the same. Nor, I may add, will ever use in exactly the same sense the original writer or speaker used. There are, quite frankly, more important things to work on and towards. And the first of those is in learning what it means to be a good servant. God Bless, Richard