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Jesus Christ is the only name under heaven by which men must be saved. Brother Peter testifies of this Christ in Acts 4:11-12:
11 This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.
12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
This glorious King of Glory gives us power to become sons and daughters of God. John 1:11-12:
11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
There is no event in this history and experience of man that can compare with what Jesus calls BORN AGAIN. This life-transforming experience is a greater miracle than even the creation of the earth and its universe! One blood-bought soul is worth more than the aggregate wealth of the entire universe—and that is a very large understatement!
God created the heaven and the earth just over 6,000 years ago, and soon, He will dissolve it with a great noise and fervent heat. II Peter 3:10:
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
So, this reality will soon end. Does that concern you? Consider the Biblical promise that the BORN AGAIN will be one with the Father through Jesus Christ (John 17:21-26) for all eternity. Man, that is a big—really big, immeasurably big—deal!! I am reminded of Hebrews 2:1-3:
1 Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.
2 For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward;
3 How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;
The world’s short history will soon end, but a blood-bought soul will be one with the Father for all eternity.
Dear visitor, have you yet to be BORN AGAIN as Jesus instructs in John 3:3?
Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
This is that very big deal. In just a few moments, I will invite you to follow me in a simple prompt, and if you do, everything changes for you today. Today, all your sin and its shame will be washed away by Christ’s cleansing blood. You will be a new creature, shiny and clean. Today, all of Satan’s bondages in your life will be broken, the bigger the better. You will be released and free. Will you choose Jesus Christ and live? Here is the simple prompt I promised: Click onto Further with Jesus for childlike instructions and immediate entry into the Kingdom of God. NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.
GOD SAID, Genesis 3:22-24:
22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
23 Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
GOD SAID, Zechariah 4:11-14:
11 Then answered I, and said unto him, What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof?
12 And I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves?
13 And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord.
14 Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth.
GOD SAID, Deuteronomy 8:7-9:
7 For the LORD thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills;
8 A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey;
9 A land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.
MAN SAID: I want a god of love—or better said, I want a god of unconditional love! I want a god of tolerance! I want to do my own thing: a little booze, a little dope, a little fornication, a little adultery, a little homosexuality, a little lying and cheating. Just a little, you see. I’ll believe in Jesus, but not when He restricts me. I want to do my own thing, and that includes breaking God’s laws, ignoring His commandments, living in sin, and whining about the consequences. God knows I am weak, so His unconditional love means He’ll forgive me anyway. Look, it makes sense to me and that’s all that matters.
Now THE RECORD: Welcome to GodSaidManSaid feature 1188 that will once again certify the supremely supernatural and inerrant Holy Bible, the Word of the Living God. All of these faith-building features are archived here in text and streaming audio for your edification and to be used as ammunition in the battle for the lost sons and daughters of Adam. Every Thursday eve, God willing, they grow by one.
Thank you for visiting. May God’s face shine upon you with Light and Truth.
When God endorses anything, when God condemns anything, when He gives insight or direction into anything at all, the truly wise bow their ear and obey.
Galatians 6:7 outlines a foundational and cardinal principle of God’s Word:
Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
All of God’s commandments, His insights and directives, have inherent within them a blessing or a curse. Because God’s Word is true and righteous altogether, obeying yields the fruit of the blessing—the result of doing the right thing. Because God’s Word is true and righteous altogether, disobeying yields the deadly fruit of the curse—the terrible result of doing the wrong thing. We will reap what we sow every time. This is a cardinal law.
God’s Word spends a considerable amount of time addressing diet. It will come as no shock to the blood-bought that when God says YES, ten thousand of carnal academia’s ilk will leap to their feet to scream NO. GodSaidManSaid has published a host of features regarding the Bible’s dietary directives, showcasing the latest discoveries that unintentionally confirm God’s Word. Over the decades, the glaring light of science’s latest discoveries have forced the naysayers out of their darkness to vacate their positions and update their unbelief. Several basic examples include:
🍓 God created and then highly endorsed the concept of breast-feeding infants. However, man’s vaunted science declared breast-feeding to be primitive and for the uneducated, only to have to walk that conclusion back when breast milk was proven to be a human health elixir. Children and their mothers enjoy overall health benefits from breast-feeding, with increased IQ and mental stability among the benefits for breast-fed children.
🍓 In the 1950s and 1960s, the US government promoted the “food pyramid” according to that day’s “latest science.” Today, the “food pyramid” has been inverted and distorted until it no longer resembles a “pyramid” at all.
🍓 One nutrition analysist equated the decision to reject God’s butter and replace it with man’s margarine to nutritional Armageddon. Who should get the blame for the millions of lives that were abbreviated by following this particular "science?"
🍓 Dread the thought that raw honey should even be considered! Raw honey is so high on God’s list of dietary directives that He described the Promised Land as “the land of milk and honey” (Exodus 3:8). Man said no to honey, preferring to replace it with refined sugars and artificial sugar alternatives. It went as well as you think: the results have been truly deadly.
🍓 The dietary industry has also put a hex on God’s wholesome whole milk, telling the world that milk has “no value” for adults. People were advised to drink skim milk if they bothered to drink milk as an adult. Major bone density issues, along with other related maladies, have circled the earth thanks to following this advice. Today, whole milk is regaining its place at the table.
🍓 God’s incredible eggs were pushed off of the nutritionally-tuned plate and replaced with various egg substitutes—Egg Beaters and other egg-whites-and-coloring concoctions. Wouldn’t you know, eggs went back on the menu again when it was discovered that eggs increase good cholesterol and decrease cardiovascular death risk.
🍓 God commanded that the land should be given its Sabbath (Exodus 23:10-11), leaving the land untilled in the 7th year. At least two major benefits of such an action include:
1. Replenishing the land’s mineral and nutritional base during the Sabbath of the land; and
2. Removing the food source (the crops) of various pests, creating the ultimate environmentally-friendly pest control.
Men who “knew better” disregarded the Creator’s Sabbath of the land commandment, and now the earth is loaded with artificial fertilizers to force crops to grow and toxic chemicals to control pests. One very damaging ecological result is called “dead zones.” The chemical run-off from farms go into the rivers, which then flow into the ocean. When these contaminants meet the ocean, they kill the life there, creating vast areas where basically nothing can live—thus the name “dead zones.” God said to give the land its Sabbath—a rest—but the so-called “wisest” sure knew better.
🍓 A very recent example that really strikes home is the instruction in Leviticus 11:13-25 where God commands man to leave the bat alone—don’t eat it, don’t even touch its carcass, God says. Man disregarded God’s Word, and went and did both. COVID and the coronavirus along with it, researchers claim, is the prize of a wet market or a lab in China, where bats are routinely consumed and handled.
In all of these examples—and in all of the examples not examined here today—the cardinal law of Galatians 6:7 stands tall:
Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
Today’s subject will add more illumination to a dietary directive near and dear to GodSaidManSaid, spotlighting new research on a subject that has been addressed in sermons and feature articles hailing back to the 1970s. Today, we will once again marvel at the olive tree—its fruit, its leaves, its bark and its wood. The headline by National Geographic ballyhoos: “No Food or Medicine Can Do What Olive Oil Can Do. Here’s Why.” More from this National Geographic article later. First, we will set the scene.
Genesis 3:23-24:
23 Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
After the fall of Adam and Eve, it is curious to note that God did not remove the Tree of Life from the midst of the Garden of Eden. Instead, He stationed cherubims to guard the way. 1656 years later, God destroyed the earth with a global flood. All that had the breath of life in its nostrils was destroyed during the flood. The only exception, of course, was Noah and those aboard his ark. The trees and foliage were destroyed; the entire topography of the earth was changed. The earth’s climates and seasons were drastically altered, and man’s lifespan plummeted from an average of 912 years to just threescore and ten (70). Psalm 90:10:
The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
Things are very different now, yet this feature will make a strong argument that remnants of the tree of life in the Garden of Eden exist today, and the Scriptures point to the olive tree. Let’s examine several verses that lend support to this hypothesis:
🌳 In the Holy Word of God, there is no tree like the olive. After the great flood, Noah knew that the waters were drying up from the earth when the dove he released returned to the ark with an olive leaf in its mouth. The olive leaf or branch today is the symbol of hope. Ancient law forbids the destruction of any olive tree, even if it belongs to an enemy. A parable is laid out regarding the anointing of a king and trees in Judges 9:8-9:
8 The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them; and they said unto the olive tree, Reign thou over us.
9 But the olive tree said unto them, Should I leave my fatness, wherewith by me they honour God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?
🌳 It was olive oil that fueled the holy flame that burned continually before the veil of God’s most holy place. Exodus 27:20-21:
20 And thou shalt command the children of Israel, that they bring thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamp to burn always.
21 In the tabernacle of the congregation without the veil, which is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall order it from evening to morning before the LORD: it shall be a statute for ever unto their generations on the behalf of the children of Israel.
🌳 The ark of the covenant is found in Israel’s Holy of Holies, and hovering over it and its mercy seat were two cherubims. I Kings 6:23:
And within the oracle he made two cherubims of olive tree, each ten cubits high.
🌳 I Kings 6:31-32 continues the description of the Holy of Holies:
31 And for the entering of the oracle he made doors of olive tree: the lintel and side posts were a fifth part of the wall.
32 The two doors also were of olive tree; and he carved upon them carvings of cherubims and palm trees and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold, and spread gold upon the cherubims, and upon the palm trees.
🌳 Psalm 52:8:
But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God: I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever.
🌳 Zechariah 4:2-3:
2 And said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof:
3 And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.
🌳 Zechariah 4:11-14:
11 Then answered I, and said unto him, What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof?
12 And I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves?
13 And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord.
14 Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth.
🌳 In the end times, Revelation speaks of God’s two witnesses. Revelation 11:3-4:
3 And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.
4 These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.
🌳 One of the most profound passages regarding the olive tree is found in the book of Romans, which speaks of Israel’s fall from grace and of the gentiles being grafted into the tree of life. Romans 11:17-24:
17 And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;
18 Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.
19 Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in.
20 Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear:
21 For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.
22 Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.
23 And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again.
24 For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?
🌳 Finally, here’s God’s prescription for the healing of the sick. His oil is in the midst of it. James 5:14-15:
14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:
15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
Archaeologists discovered the body of a man who had been crucified. Amazingly, the nail was still in his ankle, attached to a piece of wood from the cross used to crucify him. The wood was the wood of an olive tree. Some have theorized that the cross used to crucify Jesus Christ was made from the wood of the olive tree. If so, that makes the olive tree the ultimate, literal tree of life for the church. What can be said for certain, however, is that God places very high favor on the olive tree.
Until recently, man offered a plethora of olive oil alternatives—Lard, Crisco, vegetable oils, saturated fats—in place of God’s endorsed olive oil. The results of man’s disregard have been monumentally deadly.
On November 6, 2023, National Geographic headlined “No Food or Medicine Can Do What Olive Oil Can Do. Here’s Why.” Excerpts follow:
Most people know that the Mediterranean diet is one of the healthiest eating plans because it’s chock full of fruits and vegetables. But many experts say the underappreciated secret sauce in the diet is its liberal use of extra virgin olive oil as the primary added fat.
While every fruit and vegetable has health-promoting compounds, the ones unique to olive oil, called phenols, are especially powerful, says Mary Flynn, a nutrition researcher and founder of the nonprofit Olive Oil Health Initiative at Brown University. The nutrients in extra virgin olive oil have been found to benefit numerous health conditions, including heart disease and diabetes.
“I call the Mediterranean diet a plant-based olive oil diet,” says Flynn, who recently published a review of the science behind olive oil and found dozens of high-quality studies supporting its healthful effects. “We have no food or medicine that can do what olive oil can do,” she says.
The phenols in extra virgin olive oil are antioxidants, capable of protecting the body’s cells from dangerous molecules, and they also have antimicrobial properties, says Selina Wang, a food science researcher at the University of California Davis and former research director of the school’s Olive Center, which has received funding from the state’s olive oil growers and processors.
Like orange juice, extra virgin olive oil is simply the juice of the olive fruit, albeit juice that is tested to meet quality standards such as not having a musty or rancid smell or taste—an indication that compounds delivering the health benefits have degraded.
“Olive oil is one of the very few foods that has a sensory component in its quality standards,” Wang says.
In locations where the Mediterranean diet has long been a staple, rates of many diseases were lower, and many experts think that the extra virgin olive oil is a big reason why.
Heart disease: During a ten-year study of more than 12,000 people in Spain, researchers discovered that the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease was half as high in people consuming one-and-a-half teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil daily. The researchers noted this was not the case for “refined” olive oil that was not extra virgin.
The high blood pressure that contributes to heart disease specifically benefits from extra virgin olive oil, with one study finding systolic BP [blood pressure] dropped after three week of two daily tablespoons.
“So many people could lower or get off their blood pressure meds” by increasing consumption, Flynn says.
Breast cancer: When 4,000 women in Spain were randomly assigned to one of three forms of a Mediterranean diet—a fat-restricted plan or one supplemented with extra nuts (another healthy fat) or one with extra virgin olive oil—the women who consumed the extra virgin olive oil reported the lowest rates of breast cancer during the five-year study period.
A separate study compared the eating habits of more than a thousand Spanish women who had invasive breast cancer with a similar group without the disease and concluded that consuming more than two tablespoons of virgin olive oil daily during meals offers the most protection.
Diabetes: More than a dozen randomized trials have documented the oil’s ability to decrease blood glucose, Flynn’s review found. Some researchers believe it does this by reducing damage to the pancreas’ insulin-producing cells.
Cognitive impairment: Studies in mice and one small randomized clinical trial in people with mild cognitive impairment have linked consumption of extra virgin olive oil to the clearing of some amyloid plaques and improved cognitive functioning, although experts emphasize larger studies are still needed.
Weight loss: It seems counterintuitive because oils are calorie dense, but several dozen women randomized to either a low-fat plant based diet or one adding more than three daily tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil found the latter were significantly more likely to lose more than five percent of their body weight after eight weeks. When asked if they would continue their given plan, many more in the oil group said yes. “Compliance is the biggest issue with diet, so this is significant,” says Flynn, the study’s lead author.
Current federal dietary guidelines in the U.S. (as well as many other countries) fail to make a distinction between cooking oils aside from recommending eaters limit the saturated fats prevalent in red meat and palm oil that have been linked to ill health, Flynn laments.
The polyunsaturated seed oils many cooks have turned to, however, including safflower, sunflower, corn, and soy, have problems of their own, she says. Most notably, they are subject to higher rates of chemical reactions—known as oxidation—that degrade their quality compared with extra virgin olive oil.
And, as other monounsaturated cooking fats like canola oil do not pack the same health punch, attributing all the health benefits of extra virgin olive oil to its monounsaturated fats rather than its phenol content is wrong, Flynn says.
Another misconception is that you can’t cook well with extra virgin olive oil because the oil smokes at a low temperature, but it actually produces fewer unhealthy byproducts when heated compared with other oils, researchers have found. [End of quotes]
In nearly 200 instances in the Bible, God speaks of oil. When He identifies the oil, we find its olive oil. When God endorses something so heavily, the wise embrace it. Olive oil is now considered “cool,” but that wasn’t the case when GodSaidManSaid began publishing research back in the 1970s when man’s alternatives were all the rage.
GodSaidManSaid has published numerous features that add substantially to the dramatic benefits of consuming God’s olive oil.
Those who approach the Word of God with their ear bowed down and who apply God’s instructions to their lives always reap the benefit of doing the right thing. It is a cardinal law.
GOD SAID, Genesis 3:22-24:
22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
23 Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
GOD SAID, Zechariah 4:11-14:
11 Then answered I, and said unto him, What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof?
12 And I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves?
13 And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord.
14 Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth.
GOD SAID, Deuteronomy 8:7-9:
7 For the LORD thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills;
8 A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey;
9 A land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.
MAN SAID: I want a god of love—I want a god of unconditional love! I want a god of tolerance! I want to do my own thing: a little booze, a little dope, a little fornication, a little adultery, a little homosexuality, a little lying and cheating. Just a little, you see. I’ll believe in Jesus, but not when He restricts me. I want to do my own thing, and that includes breaking God’s laws, ignoring His commandments, living in sin, and whining about the consequences. God knows I am weak, so His unconditional love means He’ll forgive me anyway. Look, it makes sense to me and that’s all that matters.
Now you have THE RECORD.
References:
Authorized King James Version
Davids-Landau, M., “No Food or Medicine Can Do What Olive Oil Can Do. Here’s Why,” National Geographic, November 6, 2023
GodSaidManSaid, “God’s Imprimatur and the Olive Tree”
