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Dealing with fear is serious business. Fear is a spirit, and spirits have lips, hands, teeth, and feet. If not conquered, it will eat you. Fear is a major evil spirit and it rarely travels alone, bringing companions like anxiety, depression, stress, and a myriad of other maladies, all deadly. But, it sure doesn’t have to be that way.
If you are BORN AGAIN and have surrendered unto Jesus Christ, then you are a sinless child of God and you have all power and authority over that deadly, all-consuming spirit of fear. Unfortunately, many Christians are not aware of this God-given power. They are not aware that all they need to do is SAY SO. Psalm 107:2:
Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy;
The confession of the believer’s mouth is pivotal to participating in the glorious promises of God.
I have to say so—and this is what I say when the spirit of fear attempts to enter my vessel:
I am a sinless son of God, and God has not given me the spirit of fear but power and love and a sound mind. Get thee hence, Satan. II Timothy 1:7:
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
I say: My steps are ordered by the LORD. Psalm 37:23:
The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way.
I say: Everything is commanded by God to work together for my good, especially the dark and foreboding. Romans 8:28:
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
I say: This is the day that the Lord hath made; I will rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24:
This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.
That is what I say.
Take four 3x5 index cards and write one verse from your Bible on each:
🕇 II Timothy 1:7: For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
🕇 Psalm 37:23: The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way.
🕇 Romans 8:28: And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
🕇 Psalm 118:24: This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.
Read these cards daily and especially when fear tries to enter your vessel. You have to say so.
Dear visitor, have you yet to be BORN AGAIN as Jesus declares 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.
In just a few moments, I will invite you to follow me in a simple prompt and if you follow from your heart, everything will change for you in just mere minutes. You will participate in the greatest miracle man can know. Today, all of your sin and shame will be washed away by Christ’s cleansing blood. You will stand before God without spot or wrinkle. Today, all of the devil’s bondages in your life will be broken. They will be broken, and the bigger the better. You will be free of every shackle. Here is the moment 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 9:6:
Whoso sheddeth man''s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.
GOD SAID, I Timothy 1:8-11:
8 But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully;
9 Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,
10 For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;
11 According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust.
GOD SAID, Romans 13:1-5:
1 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.
2 Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.
3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:
4 For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.
5 Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.
MAN SAID: The Bible is hate speech. Shocked? Don’t be! It promotes capital punishment, and not just against murders! The Bible condemns some of the things I love to do, that we all love to do, and in the Bible they carry the death penalty! We need to eradicate this ugly book from society entirely, don’t you think?
Now THE RECORD: Welcome to GodSaidManSaid feature 1254 that will once again certify the bonafides of the beautiful Book, God’s majority-text Holy Bible. All of these faith-building features are archived here in text and streaming audio for your edification and to be used as battering rams to knock down the gates of hell and set the captive souls free. Every Thursday eve, God willing, they grow by one.
Thank you for visiting. May God’s face shine upon you and may His angels encamp about you and keep you in a blessable place.
You have arrived at the GodSaidManSaid “Genesis Series;” this is Part 34. Each of these features begins with the following information from the first feature:
According to a 2006 issue of Discover magazine concerning the deceased Carl Sagan: “Sagan approaches religion like any phenomenon. He isn’t on a quest for life’s meaning, for a comforting philosophy, or even a guide to how we should treat the neighbors. Sagan seeks truth of a demonstrable kind. As a puckish example, he wonders why the book of Genesis didn’t include God-inspired truths…” [End of quote]
I recently reviewed an advertisement from a magazine called Free Inquiry that also has a problem with the God of Creation and the first book of the Bible, called Genesis. Under the heading “Is God Big Enough for the Universe,” Free Inquiry writes:
The authors of Genesis proclaim that God made the heavens and earth in less than a week. This feat must have amazed these Bronze Age authors, even though they thought the heavens extended only so far as the sky above them. Of course, they did not know what stars, planets, or galaxies were. We now know that the universe is so much bigger and so much more complex. [End of quote]
The BORN AGAIN scratch their heads in bewilderment. Did these folks actually read the book of Genesis? I suppose they did, but God’s revelation is only revealed to the humbled hearts of the children of faith. This GodSaidManSaid series will be called “The Genesis Series.” It is our intention to travel through the entire book of Genesis and publish one major God-inspired truth after another. We will be pulling from previous GodSaidManSaid features and adding the latest information as we go.
God’s instructions in His commandments and precepts cannot be disobeyed without suffering the consequences. Galatians 6:7:
Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
This is a cardinal law of the Holy Book. Inherent within every commandment and precept of God is a blessing or a curse. Because God’s Word is true and righteous altogether, obeying it yields the blessing of doing the right thing. Because God’s Word is true and righteous altogether, disobeying it yields the curse of doing the wrong thing. It really is just that simple and God-inspired truths in Genesis demonstrate this principle.
Genesis 9:6:
Whoso sheddeth man''s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.
During the 1970s, debate was raging across the USA on capital punishment. In that decade, the argument reached the United States Supreme Court, and capital punishment was banned only to be reinstated four years later. The Bible establishes the death penalty directly after the global flood in the days of Noah.
The following excerpts are from the GodSaidManSaid feature, “Death Commandments:”
The law of God laid down in the scriptures was the ruling structure of Israel. God''s Word established the entire governing system with all things revolving around the scriptures and the house of faith. In God''s laws is a list of death commandments, which would be known in today''s legal parlance as capital crimes, crimes punishable by death. Capital, as we are speaking of it, is derived from Latin, and it means the head, as in the highest part of man. Noah Webster''s 1828 dictionary defines capital as "punishable by the loss of head or of life; punishable with death." Death commandments, or the capital crimes of the scriptures, are crimes against society at large. These laws were and are perfect. These directives were written by God so that mortal men seeking God might have a modicum of peace and justice in a fallen world infected by Satan.
As a whole, it is embarrassing to the faith to see confessing Christians running from the Bible’s capital punishment directives, attempting to create a God of the smiley-face bumper sticker order. The Words of God are true and righteous altogether and should not be revised by those attempting to look genteel, sophisticated, and intelligent. [End of quote]
Many Old Testament laws are fulfilled in Christ, such as the laws of atonement (for example, the blood sacrifice), Holy Days (like the Sabbath), and the Passover. Other societal laws of the Old Testament are carried over into the New Testament intact, and those include laws and commandments like “thou shalt not kill.”
The Bible spends a considerable amount of time addressing dietary laws. The dietary laws of the Old Testament—with the exception of things strangled and the consumption of blood (Acts 15:20)—are fulfilled in Christ because foods can be sanctified through prayer. However, please keep in mind that this power is unavailable to the vast, vast majority of the world. They would be wise to obey such restrictions. If a country were to fully adopt Mosaic societal laws, it would be very well served.
Again from the feature, “Death Commandments:”
Some debate exists around the issue of Old Testament law and New Testament fulfillment. A good rule of thumb concerning the law would be:
1. The law is either fulfilled in Christ (such as the blood sacrifice) or carried over into the New Testament (such as "Thou shalt not kill.").
2. The vast, vast majority of the world cannot enjoy the benefits of fulfillment because they are not born-again.
3. Any country that would observe Mosaic law, such as the commandments governing moral conduct and dietary laws, would be greatly benefitted.
Students of the scriptures need not be ashamed, but rather should be proud of the law laid down by God to rule fallen man.
A short list of death commandments, or capital crimes, punishable by death would include:● Murder
● Rape
● Man stealing
● Adultery
● Homosexuality
● Bestiality
● Witchcraft
● Idolatry
● BlasphemyThis short list of crimes includes crimes against society at large that yield far-ranging, deadly consequences, therefore severe death commandments were put in place by God. [End of quote]
God’s Word establishes the death penalty. Was He right? The following excerpts are from the GodSaidManSaid feature, “God Said Capital Punishment:”
When God says “Yes,” you can be certain that the champions of disobedience will say “No,” and so it is also concerning the matter of capital punishment. In 1972, capital punishment was banned in the United States but reinstated by the Supreme Court in 1976. During the abolishment of the death penalty in the U.S., the murder rate increased 100%. Human Events published the following statement by J.L. Jones: “The idea that capital punishment ‘deters no one’ does not explain the rapid rise of homicides in America while the death penalty was virtually outlawed. Deterrent or not, it effectively eliminates the possibility of a repeat crime.” [End of quote]
Concerning repeat crimes, this following excerpt is from the 1988 Standard Law Review: “Of the roughly 52,000 state prison inmates serving time for murder in 1984, an estimated 810 had previously been convicted of murder and had killed 821 persons following their previous murder convictions. Executing each of these inmates would have saved 821 lives.” [End of quote] God’s commandment of capital punishment is correct.
The uninformed and those who simply contend that capital punishment is valueless (because God commanded it) continue to claim it is not a deterrent, and that’s in the face of considerable information to the contrary.
In Human Events, M.S. Evans said: “Nearly all the evidence we have shows capital punishment is a general deterrent to deadly crime.”
The State of Delaware executes more people per capita than any other state in the union and has a murder rate one sixteenth that of Washington D.C.—which has the highest violent crime rate in America.
This following paragraph was found in the book Capital Punishment: “In 1976, the U.S. Supreme Court argued for both sides of the issue. In Gregg v. Georgia, the high court took the position that we may ‘assume safely that...the threat of death has little or no deterrent effect (on murderers) who act in passion.’” But for murders that were well thought out, “the death penalty is...a significant deterrent.” [End of quote] One particular study shows that convicted criminals, at a ratio of five to one, believe that the death penalty would deter them from murdering their victims.
The following passage is from a paper prepared by Dudley Sharp titled, “Death Penalty and Sentencing Information In the United States:” “The most conclusive evidence that criminals fear the death penalty more than life without parole is provided by convicted capital murderers and their attorneys. 99.9% of all convicted capital murderers and their attorneys argue for life, not death, in the punishment phase of their trial. When the death penalty becomes real, murderers fear it the most.”
Defeated on the “non-deterrent” front, the anti-death penalty proponents drop back to their second line of defense: wrongful death. It must first be noted that to be sentenced to death and to actually be put to death is an arduous process filled with precautions against wrongful death. Again, Mr. Sharp: “To punish with death, each one of the 12 jurors must agree with the prosecution in each of five specific areas. A death sentence requires that the prosecution must prevail in 60 out of those 60 considerations, or 100%. To avoid death, the defendant must prevail in only 1 out of those 60 considerations, or 1.67%. If convicted and sentenced to death, the inmate may then begin an appeals process that could extend through 23 years, 60 appeals and over 200 individual judicial and executive reviews of the inmate’s claims.”
According to the ACLU death penalty campaign statement, as reported by The New American, “A review of death penalty judgments over a 23-year period found a national error rate of 68%,” [End of quote] The New American responded to this study as follows:Correction: The major media reported this highly publicized Columbia University study uncritically when it was first released in 2000. But Reg Brown from the Florida governor’s office exploded it: “The ‘study’ defines ‘error’ to include any issue requiring further review by a lower court.... Using the authors’ misleading definition, the ‘study’ does, however, conclude that 64 Florida post-conviction cases were rife with ‘error’—even though none of these Florida cases was ultimately resolved by a ‘not guilty’ verdict, a pardon, or a dismissal of murder charges.” Brown noted that even political overturning of death penalty cases added to the figure. “The nearly 40 death penalty convictions that were reversed by the California Supreme Court during the tenure of liberal activist Rose Bird are treated as ‘error cases’ when in fact ideological bias was arguably at work.” Paul G. Cassell of the Wall Street Journal explained how the 68 percent figure is deceptive: “After reviewing 23 years of capital sentences, the study’s authors (like other researchers) were unable to find a single case in which an innocent person was executed. Thus, the most important error rate—the rate of mistaken executions—is zero.”
Again, The New American article engaged the claims that the death penalty is racist. It reads:
The claim that the death penalty unfairly impacts blacks and minorities is a deliberate fraud. The majority of those executed since 1976 have been white, even though black criminals commit a slim majority of murders. If the death penalty is racist, it is biased against white murderers and not blacks. According to the U.S. Bureau of Statistics, blacks committed 51.5% of murders between 1976 and 1999, while whites committed 46.5%. Yet even though blacks committed a majority of murders, the Bureau of Justice Statistics reports: “Since the death penalty was reinstated by the Supreme Court in 1976, white inmates have made up the majority of those under sentence of death.” Whites continued to comprise the majority on death row in the year 2000 (1,990 whites to 1,535 blacks and 68 others). In the year 2000, 49 of the 85 people actually put to death were whites.[End of quote]
God’s perfect commandment in this imperfect world does at least the following:
1. It deters murder.
2. The families whose loved ones have been slain see the final chapter of their terrible ordeal written, and the book closed.
3. Innocent blood is accounted before God.
The God of the Bible is perfect and His judgments are true. The commandment of capital punishment is just another proof that God is. [End of quote]
Related information regarding deterrents is addressed in the GodSaidManSaid feature, “Hell and Crime Rates Shock Researchers.” Excerpts follow, and as you read the following information, keep the following verse in mind. Romans 11:22:
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.
Remember: ‘Goodness’ and ‘severity.’ They are the two legs of the doctrine of deliverance.
A year or two ago, a brother in Christ called with a question. He was teaching Bible study at the church he attended, and his pastor said that in the future, he should no longer reference the devil, hell, sin, or judgment, but should focus on God’s love.
Two common doctrines parade around in the Christian ranks. The are dressed up in Jesus clothes, but are one legged. One doctrine says that God is the God of tolerance, the “big tent” God, when in fact, God has zero tolerance. John 14:6:
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Does that sound like tolerance? God is truth. Two plus two equals four, and 3.99 won’t do, no matter how cleverly it is presented. Truth knows no opinion. God is truth and zero tolerance is the very nature of truth. Not everyone gets a trophy.
A second dominant doctrine is the doctrine of unconditional love, of which there is none. God’s love will forgive sin, but His love has conditions: we must depart from sin. II Timothy 2:19:
Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.
I John 2:4-5:
4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
Matthew 24:13:
But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
The doctrines of tolerance and unconditional love need the two-legged balance of goodness and severity.
Romans 16:17-18:
17 Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.
18 For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.
My friend’s pastor was caught up in today’s doctrine of tolerance and unconditional love, and the devil, sin, judgment, and hell were no longer part of the formula.
Heaven and hell are central to salvation. You can’t have one in this earthly experience without the other. Keep in mind that in the Garden of Eden, in the midst of the garden were two trees: one eternal life, one eternal damnation. Hebrews 10:31:
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
The Word of God is abundantly clear and aggressively teaches the terrors of an eternal hell, as well as contrasting the glories of an eternal heaven. In Deuteronomy, chapter 28’s 68 verses, Moses speaks of blessings and cursings. The first 14 verses address the blessings of the righteous; the remaining 54 verses speak of the cursings of the disobedient. Hell and judgment are central to the plan of salvation. Those who reject the teaching of the devil, hell, and damnation are only walking on one Gospel leg.
Isn’t it beautiful to see today’s science confirming the inerrancy of the Word of God with such an ever-increasing frequency? New research says yes, absolutely yes, to the teaching of hell. The June 20, 2012 headline in The Daily Mail Reporter reads, “Hell beats heaven as divine law enforcer as fear of eternal damnation keeps crime rates down.” A bullet point in the report reads:
Welcome to Hell: The University of Oregon study suggests a real link between populations who believe this is real, and the crime rate.
Religions are thought to serve as protection against unethical behavior, but when it comes to committing crimes, specific religious beliefs are a deciding factor.
Researchers from the University of Oregon based their findings on 26 years of data involving 143,197 people in 67 countries.
The researchers point out there is a growing body of evidence suggesting supernatural punishment emerged as an effective cultural innovation to get people to act more ethically toward each other.
In 2003, Harvard University researchers found gross domestic product is higher in developed countries when people believe more in hell than heaven. [End of quote]
In the research article The Daily Mail is referring to, titled “Divergent Effects of Beliefs in Heaven and Hell on National Crime Rates, the researchers themselves published the following:
This pattern of results is consistent with theories highlighting the effectiveness of supernatural punishment—specifically—at regulating moral behavior and, as a result, group cooperation. These theories argue that human punishment is a highly effective deterrent to anti-social behavior within groups, but one that faces inevitable limitations of scale. Human monitors cannot see all transgressions, human judges cannot adjudicate with perfect precision, and human punishers are neither able to apprehend every transgressor, nor escape the potential dangers of retribution. Divine punishment, on the other hand, has emerged as a cultural tool to overcome a number of those limitations. Unlike humans, divine punishers can be omniscient, omnipotent, infallible, and untouchable—and therefore able to effectively deter transgressors who may, for whatever reason, be undeterred by earthly policing systems.
Supernatural benevolence, however, is not theorized to be similarly effective at stabilizing cooperation within groups. Moreover, the evidence thus far suggests that though the more “positive” religious attributes may provide their own benefits, such as better self-esteem or health coping, their role in encouraging moral behavior may be, at best, minimal and, at worst, negative.
The strength of these effects is made clear by examining crime rates as a function of the degree to which a greater percentage of people in a nation believe in heaven than in hell. Rates of belief in heaven are virtually always higher than rates of belief in hell; however, as the degree of that discrepancy increases (from roughly equal proportions of the population believing in the two concepts, to up to 40% more believing in heaven than in hell), so too do crime rates.
The present findings tie rates of belief at the societal level to national crime rates; the direct causal explanation for this effect is that individuals who believe in heaven and not hell take punishment less seriously and are thus more likely to commit crimes.
Though little research in economic and social policy concentrates on religion, economists have observed that hell beliefs may positively impact the economic growth of developing nations. It is quite possible that the present findings, which tie belief in hell to lower levels of anti-social behavior, may serve as one of the key explanatory mechanisms underlying this economic trend. [End of quotes]
The Words of God are inerrant, and inherent within them is a blessing or a curse. We choose which we will receive. Capital punishment is necessary in this fallen world and the preaching of the full Cross of Christ with its goodness and severity is the true gospel of deliverance. Walking in the Light requires two legs.
GOD SAID, Genesis 9:6:
Whoso sheddeth man''s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.
GOD SAID, I Timothy 1:8-11:
8 But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully;
9 Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,
10 For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;
11 According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust.
GOD SAID, Romans 13:1-5:
1 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.
2 Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.
3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:
4 For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.
5 Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.
MAN SAID: The Bible is hate speech. Shocked? Don’t be! It promotes capital punishment, and not just against murders! The Bible condemns some of the things I love to do, that we all love to do, and in the Bible they carry the death penalty! We need to eradicate this ugly book from society entirely, don’t you think?
Now you have THE RECORD.
References:
Authorized King James Version
Blumner, R., Free Inquiry
GodSaidManSaid, “Death Commandments”
GodSaidManSaid, “God Said Capital Punishment”
GodSaidManSaid, “Hell & Crime Rates Shock Researchers”
